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(Xinhua/Sunil Sharma) KATHMANDU, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The reconstruction of Nepal's oldest modern school -- Bhanu Secondary School, which was severely damaged by the massive 2015 earthquake, has begun with Chinese assistance. Nepali Minister for Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokhrel and Chinese Ambassador Yu Hong jointly launched reconstruction of the historic building at Ranipokhari in the capital Kathmandu on Friday. The building of the school, widely known as Durbar High School, is one of the 25 quake-damaged projects that China has agreed to help reconstruct. The school, established in 1853, was shifted to the current location in 1891. After a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Himalayan country in 2015, the Nepali government had made an arrangement to teach the students at make-shift shelters within the school premises. The students have been taking their classes at a nearby public college over the past month after the school building was demolished for reconstruction. Before the devastating quake, the building was housing two schools -- Durbar High School and Sanskrit Secondary School with around 500 students, according to the school administrations. Bhisma Raj Khatri, who came to study at Durbar High School this year from the eastern hilly district of Panchthar, had to study at the make-shift shelter before being shifted to the college building. "I am thrilled that I would be able to study at the modern building to be constructed soon," Khatri told Xinhua. Since the quake damaged the Durbar High School building, the students have difficulties in finding adequate space for accommodation. Shankar K.C, a tenth-grader at Sanskrit Secondary School, recalled the days when they used to squabble for space at the make-shift buildings. China's Shanghai Construction Group has been contracted to reconstruct the building within the next 20 months. Chinese Ambassador Yu said China would build a safe and attractive building blended with traditional features, and expressed the hope that it would remain as a symbol of friendly relations between the two countries. 2 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] Long before she got fed up and moved out, Whitney Harchanko said, weird things began to happen in the halls of the Hollywood building she had lived in for years. People rang her doorbell at odd hours, confused about which apartment they were seeking. Drunk strangers sprawled next to the pool. Housekeepers flitted around during the day. Harchanko snapped photos and tracked down online ads for short-term rentals in the building, urging the manager to stop it from happening. Nothing ever changed, Harchanko said, except they put up a sign in the elevator. Advertisement Those signs, posted in the elevators by Redwood Urban property management, declared that subleasing apartments for short stays was not allowed. Whitney Harchanko moved out of her apartment after repeatedly complaining about nuisances caused by a revolving door of visitors. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Yet the building near the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue is still advertised online to travelers by an international company called Ginosi, which rents out furnished apartments to nightly guests. Weve never been illicit or covert about what Ginosi is, said Eric Ginosian, its chief executive. Everything is clearly laid out on our website. Los Angeles officials say that zoning rules generally prohibit renting out dwellings for short stays in much of the city, but the restrictions can be complicated, legally contested and difficult to enforce. They could not immediately determine whether such rentals were allowed in the Highland building, they said, because of the intricacies of city codes. In the absence of clearer rules, Ginosi has built its business in a regulatory vacuum that persists more than three years after local lawmakers pledged to stop apartments from being run like hotels. It touts its apartels as a fusion between the concept of a hotel and the conveniences of a fully furnished apartment. The company is perhaps the most obvious example of how the burgeoning business of vacation rentals has popped up in L.A. apartment buildings, spurring complaints from residents and housing activists. It is part of a flock of companies that have been leasing apartments and subletting them by the night, pitching themselves as a way for building owners to fill empty units, often in newly built complexes. Beyond Ginosi, theres Doing Right Rentals, which advertises units in downtown, Hollywood and San Diego. Pelican Residences is another, catering to travelers from across the globe at seven apartment buildings, mostly in Hollywood, according to a manager. That manager, Chris Rivers, said building owners are happy to get rid of apartments that are sitting empty and that renting out units for short stays creates jobs for housekeepers and others who cater to vacationers, who then spend money wandering neighborhoods. It generates money for the city, he said. But housing advocates lament that the practice pulls apartments off the market for Angelenos in the throes of an affordability crisis. Tenants, in turn, complain that they got no warning from their landlords that they would be living with a revolving door of travelers. When a Times reporter booked a room at Ginosis Downtown Apartel, he was handed keys and an entry device at a Ginosi office across the street, allowing him to stroll into a studio apartment without ever speaking to the management of the Sofia, a blocky, modern complex on the edge of Westlake that opened last year. At the pool, a Swiss tourist said it was a little different from a hotel. You have to clean your own room, Mike Kaesermann said with a slight chuckle, lounging as his wife and kids played in the water. A Ginosi office is located across the street from the Sofia, a luxury apartment building on the edge of Westlake. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) A few chairs over from Kaesermann sat a Sofia resident, who complained that the pool and weekend brunches at the complex are regularly packed with vacationers, and that visitors often party late into the night. No one warned him that rooms there were being rented out for short stays, he said. They should have told us, Stefan Keslacy said. Holland Partner Group, which owns and manages the Sofia, did not respond to requests for comment. Ginosian said it was up to building managers to inform tenants, but expressed sympathy with their concerns. That, he said, is part of the reason he is shifting his business toward running hotels. The company plans to exit residential buildings that are not permitted for short-term rentals by the end of next year, and in some cases much sooner, Ginosian said, citing business pressures, practical issues and a proposed ordinance working its way through Los Angeles City Hall. That law would bar Angelenos from renting out a home for short stays unless it is their primary residence, a rule meant to protect housing. Los Angeles planning officials have estimated anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 units that would otherwise be available to tenants are now being used chiefly for short-term rentals citywide. Mike Kaesermann, 38, relaxes as he watches his family play in the pool at an apartment building on Sixth Street, where they are renting a unit during their vacation. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) When new apartments are built, the hope among government officials is that wealthier renters will move there and free up their old homes for people who earn less. If enough housing is built, landlords in turn would eventually be forced to lower rents to entice people into empty apartments. But if vacant units can instead go to vacationers, landlords have less incentive, in theory, to do that. Brent Gaisford, director of advocacy group Abundant Housing L.A., expressed particular concern that Ginosi and other companies were operating in new buildings located in areas like downtown and Hollywood that are experiencing a building boom. If things like this start to take off, he said, that would really reduce the pressure to woo tenants. Doing Right Rentals promises to do just that on its website, where it offers building owners immediate occupancy and guaranteed monthly income from leases that extend multiple years. The site advertises chic and colorful units named for Audrey Hepburn and James Dean for short stays. When a Times reporter called the number on the website and identified himself, a woman initially said he had reached a Staples store. When he called back, the same woman confirmed it was Doing Right Rentals and declined to comment. Ginosian said he shares concerns about short-term rentals exacerbating the housing crisis, but said when his company first started snapping up vacant units after the recession, huge complexes had lots of empty units. The company has also offered, in at least one case, to pay a premium rent to a building owner who knew it would be subleasing the apartments, according to court filings. Ginosian said that was not typical and that its arrangements with owners can vary dramatically including cases in which it does not pay rent at all and provides services. The company declined to comment on the details of specific contracts. The Sunset and Gordon residential tower in Hollywood on Sept. 12, 2015. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Ginosi , which also advertises rentals in Chicago, Seattle and some European hot spots, has repeatedly run into controversy over its rentals. In Washington, D.C., it was sued by the office of the attorney general, which accused Ginosi of partnering with building owners to illegally operate apartments like hotels. It decided to end its operations there last year. In Los Angeles, the city ordered a halt to short-term rentals at a Sunset Boulevard tower where Ginosi was renting dozens of apartments. Residents alleged that drug dealing and prostitution had come along with the illegal hotel. The building was ultimately emptied for a totally different reason, but Ginosi still claimed victory when a court commissioner said L.A. had relied on a strained interpretation of zoning law to target its rentals. Although officials have long insisted that renting out dwellings for short stays is not allowed in much of the city and requires government approval in some areas there has been a tug of war over its legality in court. Earlier this year, a Superior Court judge ruled there was nothing in city codes to bar short-term rentals at a Venice Beach apartment building. Vacation rental operators said it backed their longtime assertion that L.A. had no law against such rentals. Visitors sun themselves poolside at the Sunset and Gordon building in Hollywood on April 11, 2015. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) In Hollywood, a glassy tower on Sunset Boulevard is now branded with silvery letters that announce Ginosi Metropolitan Apartel, after city officials decided to allow units to be rented as either apartments or for shorter stays. Other L.A. buildings used by Ginosi do not appear to have sought city permission for short-term rentals, according to city officials, though they were still determining if that meant such rentals were barred. Last year, however, the housing department ordered the Highland Avenue building to halt the practice. The building, which occupies the bulk of a Hollywood block, is a beige-on-beige structure easily overlooked behind vast, illuminated billboards. In the cavernous garage below, a family visiting from Mexico wheeled their luggage up to the elevator on a Saturday night, balancing a watermelon destined for breakfast. They had found the space through Airbnb, they said. The housing department has been peppered with complaints about such rentals there. Redwood Urban told frustrated tenants that it was trying to vacate units that had been leased by the previous owner to residents who intended to sublease their apartments as nightly rentals. We have made several requests for various websites to remove any ads for our building, building manager Catherine Parker told The Times when asked about the Ginosi listings. The pool and courtyard at an apartment building on Highland Avenue in Hollywood that includes short-term rentals is shown in mid-July. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) But many residents have grown suspicious of their landlord as short-term rentals continue. The company is plainly aware that Ginosi is there: When one renter complained that travelers were damaging her car, Parker referred her to a Ginosi representative, emails show. I dont know why Redwood cant straight up evict them, former resident Mark Belanger said. Parker declined to answer questions about their leases. Ginosian said his company had always been clear with all our partners about what we do. In some cases, he said, its leases spell it out. That was what Adolfo Suaya said he discovered when he wanted to remove Ginosi from his pink stucco building on Hollywood Boulevard, which is nearly a century old and falls under rent stabilization rules. Suaya said the leases, signed with Ginosi by the previous owner, expressly allow short-term rentals. What prevents them from doing it? Suaya said. Theres no law. Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report. A family visiting from Mexico gets on the elevator with their luggage at an apartment building in Hollywood. They say they found the spot on Airbnb. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @AlpertReyes andrew.khouri@latimes.com Twitter: @khouriandrew A federal judge here expressed frustration Friday as he ordered the Trump administration to come up with a plan quickly for reuniting the remaining migrant parents and children who were separated at the border, saying the government is 100% responsible for the fact that some 500 families remain separated. For every parent not found will be a permanently orphaned child, said U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who ordered in June that 2,500 children be reunited with their parents. That will be 100% of the governments responsibility. There has to be a plan so that does not happen. Sabraw said only about a dozen of the parents have been identified for possible reunification. That is not acceptable, he said in a hearing by telephone with a government lawyer and the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing parents who claim they did not understand their legal options when their children were being taken from them. Advertisement Sabraw said he was disappointed that attorneys on both sides had not brought him specific plans for speeding up reunification as he had ordered last week. He said the government has the greater duty, but wants both parties to collaborate. The family separations were ordered as part of a now-abandoned government policy of zero tolerance for bordercrossers, many of whom journeyed from Guatemala and Honduras. Still living apart from their children are some 400 parents who were deported or otherwise left the country, and about 80 parents who were allowed to remain in the U.S., Department of Justice attorney Scott Stewart said. Sabraw ordered attorneys to return Aug. 10 with plans. The government has the sole obligation and responsibility to make this happen, he said. But, he added, the ACLU is to cooperate by establishing a lead counsel or steering committee to decide how to best track down their deported or missing clients and advise them of their legal options. Attorneys for both parties said they would comply. Sabraw said it was absolutely essential for the government to select one person or team to guide reunification across the various federal agencies and report back to court in a week. Government officials have said they have documents showing that hundreds of parents willingly left the U.S. without their children. The ACLU and other civil rights attorneys strongly disagree, saying many parents for whom English is not their native language did not understand the documents they were signing. On Thursday, government attorneys filed papers asking the ACLU to take the lead in finding the missing parents, saying the organization is in touch with a network of lawyers and nongovernment organizations capable of tracking their clients. The ACLU, in its court filings, asked Sabraw to order the government to dig into its own records on the separated families and turn over information such as phone numbers and addresses that would help attorneys to find their clients. On Friday, the ACLUs Lee Gelernt told Sabraw that the government has provided essentially useless information on 120 parents, such as the address of a detention center or the name of a large city without a specific street address. We see no reason why each case manager cant go through their files, Gelernt said of government workers assigned to process the migrant families. Gelernt said there is also concern for volunteers with nonprofits who might venture into dangerous countrysides in strife-ridden Guatemala or Honduras, looking for parents, when they might instead be able to pick up a telephone. The ACLU has said in court papers that the government had not followed Sabraws orders to provide full information about parents deemed not eligible for reunification, primarily on the basis that they had a criminal past. Gelernt raised the issue again Friday, saying lawyers want more details on about 30 parents declared ineligible. The files on 18 parents, he said, refer vaguely to a criminal history while one case mentioned a theft 12 years earlier in the parents home country. We dont have enough information to contest or not contest the criminal ineligibility, Gelernt said. Stewart responded that it should be up to attorneys who have doubts to bring notice of those cases to the government. The judge said he would address the issue in a future court order. Repard writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. A massive pair of fires burning on either side of Clear Lake, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, exploded to nearly 230,000 acres Saturday night, making the conflagration among the largest on record in California and the most pressing of 17 large wildfires across the state. The Mendocino Complex fire, now the sixth-largest in recorded state history, has forced thousands of people to evacuate and has burned dozens of homes. Last years Thomas fire, which burned 281,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, was Californias largest. Farther north near Redding, residents began returning Saturday to neighborhoods ravaged by the Carr fire, which has killed six people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. Dan Kissick was among those returning. He said the fire had overwhelmed his neighborhood faster than anyone expected on July 26. After more than a week away, Kissick came back to the site of his home on Kellinger Street to find it gone, except for some portions of walls. Advertisement (Ellis Simani / @latimesgraphics) The night of the fire, Kissick and his family fled when the air filled with smoke and the sky turned an orange-red. They grabbed a suitcase and some shirts, but hadnt packed a proper go-bag filled with important belongings or supplies, Kissick said. I basically only took clothes for two or three days, thinking Ill be back. That was obviously a misjudgment, said Kissick, 60. I knew it was bad, but I didnt think it was that bad. Nearly every home on the block was destroyed except for a two-story one with scorched palm trees in the backyard. Kissick said he considered himself lucky in the grand scheme of things. He and his family had a relative to stay with the night they fled. The next day, they snagged a rental property nearby before those were all snapped up by the thousands of other evacuees. Nobody got hurt, so youve got to look at the good, he said. I know not everybody was as lucky. More than 4,500 firefighters stationed in two Shasta County base camps have battled the 145,000-acre blaze for nearly two weeks, facing triple-digit temperatures, winds up to 30 mph and desert-dry air. Numerous media reports have blamed the start of the massive blaze on a vehicle towing a trailer with a flat tire, its metal rim creating sparks as it rolled along. In an interview Saturday evening, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials said the cause of the fire remained under investigation. Gov. Jerry Brown visited the fire command center at the county fairgrounds on Saturday. Increased year-round fire activity was the new normal for the state, he said. The governor said he had asked President Trump to issue a major disaster declaration to aid the firefighting and recovery effort. He has done it in the past; I am confident he will do it again, Brown said. The Carr fire which has affected communities around Whiskeytown Lake and the Sacramento River was moving into areas where it will be more difficult to control, fire behavior analyst Don Boursier said. Years of drought have left Californias forests more vulnerable, and so far this year the area around the fire has seen 33 days of 100-degree temperatures, the National Weather Service said. 1 / 62 Cattle graze on the grassland near the Ranch fire outside of Lodoga. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 62 A man fishes in Clear Lake as the smoky haze shrouds visibility in Clearlake Oaks. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 62 A plume of smoke rises from the Mendocino Complex fire near Lodoga. The Mendocino Complex Fire, which is made up of the River Fire and Ranch Fire, has surpassed the Thomas Fire to become the largest wildfire in California state history with over 300,000 acres charred. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) 4 / 62 Firefighters battling the Mendocino Complex blaze monitor a burn operation on top of a ridge near the town of Ladoga on Aug. 7. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 62 Crews battling the Mendocino Complex fire supervise a burn operation near the town of Ladoga on Aug. 7. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 62 Firefighters keep an eye on a burn operation as part of the battle against the Mendocino Complex blaze on Aug. 7. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 62 Arnold Lasker looks over the remains of his girlfriends house in Spring Valley, near Clearlake Oaks, on Aug. 7. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images) 8 / 62 Evacuated during the Ranch fire, Jay Michael and Gretchen Fritsch rest in their car in the parking lot of the Moose Lodge in Clearlake Oaks on Aug. 7. This is the eighth time they have been evacuated since living in the area, and the third time this year. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images) 9 / 62 Burned out cars sit in the remains of a home that was destroyed by the Medocino Complex fire in Clearlake Oaks, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 62 A sign warns people to stay out of a burned area in Clearlake Oaks, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 62 Helicopters enroute to pick up water at the Mendocino Complex fire in Clearlake Oaks, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 62 A Buddha statue is seen at a burned home in Spring Valley, near Clearlake Oaks, Calif. (JOSH EDELSON / AFP/Getty Images) 13 / 62 Image taken from the International Space Station shows the wildfires burning in Calif. In the upper left portion of the image is the Carr and Mendocino Complex fires and to the right is the Ferguson fire. (ALEXANDER GERST / AFP/Getty Images) 14 / 62 Crystal Easter comforts her dogs in Spring Valley as they flee a wildfire. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 15 / 62 Crystal Easter uses a pot of water to put out spot fires around her home, as her neighbors home burns in the background in Spring Valley. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 16 / 62 Jim Bolander hoses down the roof of his home for the sixth time in eight years as the Ranch fire spreads in Spring Valley. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 17 / 62 The Ranch fire spots out ahead of the main fire in Spring Valley, burning two homes. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 18 / 62 Evacuees from Lucerne, from left, Ken Bennett with Ember Reynolds, 8, and Lisa Reynolds watch the sunset as smoke from the Ranch fire rises at Austin Park Beach in Californias Clearlake with Mt. Konocti in the background. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 19 / 62 Resident Lane Lawder carries a water bucket while fighting to save his home from the Ranch fire burning along New Long Valley Road near Clearlake Oaks. (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images) 20 / 62 A tree burns from the inside during the Ranch fire in Clearlake Oaks. (Josh Edelson / Associated Press) 21 / 62 An air tanker drops retardant on the Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex Fire, burning along High Valley Rd near Clearlake Oaks. (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images) 22 / 62 A fire truck passes a vineyard while battling the Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex Fire, near Clearlake Oaks. (NOAH BERGER / AFP/Getty Images) 23 / 62 Flames erupt from the River fire near Scotts Valley Road in Lake County. (Mark McKenna / TNS) 24 / 62 A hillside smolders after flames passed through during the Ranch fire in Clearlake Oaks. (Josh Edelson / Associated Press) 25 / 62 The Ranch fire burns a home on New Long Valley Road near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday. (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images) 26 / 62 A firefighter gathers water from a pool while battling the Ranch Fire near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday. (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images) 27 / 62 A deer flees as the Ranch fire tears down New Long Valley Road near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday. (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images) 28 / 62 Dan Kissick, 60, left, shown with his son Jeff Kissick, searches the remains of his home on Kellinger Street on Saturday after the Carr fire hit Redding. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 62 Maureen Kissick examines china from her wedding 36 years ago as she sits in what was once the dining room of her home on Kellinger Street in Redding. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 62 A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. crew repairs power lines Saturday near the damaged home of Jose Briones along Baker Road in Redding. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 62 Smoke clouds rise from the Ranch Fire portion of the Mendocino Complex Fire in Lakeport on Aug. 1. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 62 Buzz Craddock carries a pack tied with antlers covered in fire retardant as firefighters work to stop the progression of the River fire in Lakeport, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 62 The charred remains of a truck sit in the ash in Lakeport, Calif., on Aug. 1. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 62 Firefighters watch as air tankers drop fire retardant ahead of the River fire in Lakeport, Calif., on Aug. 1. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 62 Helicopters make water drops as flames from the River fire advance towards Lakeport, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 62 A West Covina firefighter works as a barn in the background is destroyed by the Mendocino complex fires near Lakeport, Calif., on July 31. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 62 A barn is engulfed in flames as the Mendocino complex fires spread with the wind near Hendricks Road in Lakeport, Calif., on July 31. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 62 Chickens near a home being destroyed by the Mendocino complex fires in a neighborhood near Lakeport, Calif., on July 31. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 62 Firefighters work to keep flames from the Mendocino complex fires from destroying a home as evening winds kick in near Lakeport, Calif., on July 31. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 62 A helicopter makes a water drop near the raging Mendocino complex fires west of Lakeport, Calif., on July 31. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 62 Firefighters work to keep flames from the Mendocino complex fires from destroying a home as evening winds kick in near Lakeport, Calif., on July 31. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 62 A firefighter monitors a controlled burn along California 20 in Upper Lake on July 31. The Ranch and River fires are burning together as the Mendocino complex fires. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 62 Firefighters from S&R Contracting in Oregon dig into the ground as they make sure all residual flames are put out near Redding, Calif., on July 30. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 62 The Carr fire destroyed and sunk boats docked at the marina in Whiskeytown, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 62 The Carr fire swept through and destroyed property and structures in Shasta, Calif. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 62 A Cal Fire firefighter waters down a back burn on Cloverdale Road near the town of Igo on Saturday, July 28, 2018. The back burn kept the fire from jumping toward the town. Scorching heat, winds and dry conditions complicated firefighting efforts. (Hector Amezcua / Associated Press) 47 / 62 A deer stands in the middle of a road covered in fire retardant as the Carr fire continues to threaten structures near Redding on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 62 Mark Peterson, who lost his home in the Carr fire, gives water to goats that survived the blaze on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Redding. (Noah Berger / AP) 49 / 62 Wildfire destroyed homes overnight in Lake Keswick Estates near Redding on July 27. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 62 A woman covers her face while viewing her grandmothers home, burned in the Carr fire in Redding, on July 27. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images) 51 / 62 A firefighter sprays water on whats left of a Redding home damaged by the Carr fire on July 27. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) 52 / 62 A firefighter lights backfires during the Carr fire near Redding on July 27. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images) 53 / 62 A burning home is reflected in a pool during the Carr fire in Redding on July 27. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images) 54 / 62 A home burns along Sunflower Road in Redding during the Carr fire on July 27. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) 55 / 62 A structure burns as the Carr fire races along State Route 299 near Redding on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 56 / 62 Firefighters transport a Carr fire evacuee to the Mercy Medical Center emergency room on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 57 / 62 Firefighters discuss plans while battling the Carr fire in Shasta County on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 58 / 62 Firefighters regroup while battling the Carr cire in Shasta County on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 59 / 62 A structure is engulfed in flames as the Carr fire burns along State Route 299 near Redding on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 60 / 62 A water tender operator helping to battle the Carr fire drinks a beverage after trying to save a burning structure in Shasta on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 61 / 62 The Carr fire burns near Shasta on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) 62 / 62 A historic schoolhouse burns as the Carr fire tears through Shasta on July 26. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) It hasnt rained in the Redding or Anderson areas in 71 days. The calendar is saying its August, the fuel is telling us its September, Boursier told firefighters during a morning briefing Saturday. The fire was 41% contained and expected to burn north, deeper into Trinity County forest land around Blue Mountain, officials said. Two firefighters have been killed battling the blaze, along with four civilians including a 70-year-old woman who died trying to shield her great-grandchildren, ages 4 and 5, with a wet blanket as her house burned around them. The forecast for the days ahead includes more intense, dry heat and wind awful firefighting weather. The large wildfires burning in the state have scorched over 450,000 acres, displaced around 40,000 residents and are being fought by more than 14,000 firefighters from around the state and country. Among them is the Ferguson fire near Yosemite National Park, which has burned more than 81,000 acres. Yosemite Valley has been closed since July 25. Back in Redding, Marilyn and Nick Peters treaded lightly on top of their homes burnt remains Saturday, occasionally hunching over to sift through a pile of rubble. Nick, 49, tried to find the silver lining in the situation. They had lost their home, one of at least 1,600 destroyed in a span of a few days last week, but they survived, were insured and managed to save a few mementos. I found my ring; it still has all the diamonds, Marilyn said with a half-smile. Nick reached into a pile of stuff on the driveway and pulled out a round, flat piece of cement with Marilyns handprint from when she was 5 years old. I knew this wouldnt burn, he joked. Nick, who works for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said hed returned to the neighborhood with crews a week ago to begin restoring power. Then, I was numb, he said. Today it hit me. Serna reported from Redding and Dolan from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Javier Panzar in Los Angeles contributed to this report. joseph.serna@latimes.com jack.dolan@latimes.com UPDATES: 8:55 p.m.: This article was updated with details about the Redding and Yosemite fires. 7:30 p.m.: This article was updated with details on the size of the Mendocino Complex fire. 5:05 p.m.: This article was updated with information on the Mendocino Complex fire. 1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Gov. Jerry Brown. 11:50 a.m.: This article has been updated with details on the cause of the Carr fire and the size of the Mendocino County fires. This article was originally published at 11:10 a.m. A federal judge Friday set a Sept. 7 deadline for Orange County officials to release housing plans to help a majority of the 2,584 people in the county without shelter. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter threatened to consider a temporary restraining order preventing cities from enforcing anti-camping ordinances and citing the homeless for sleeping or setting up in public if theres no resolution for these men and women. Carter said his breaking point was the closure of two National Guard armories in Fullerton and Santa Ana on July 15, pushing an additional 200 people onto the streets. Folks are coming out of the armories and they need a place to stay, he said. Advertisement Youve been wondering a while what the court will do while youve been complacent, he told a room filled with city and county officials, along with the homeless and homeless advocates. He called the group to the courthouse, pressuring them to provide emergency and transitional housing for 1,550 people equaling 60% of the population lacking shelter. Were going to get down to actual numbers today, he said. You can accept them or reject them. Otherwise, litigate it. Carter is overseeing a lawsuit filed against Orange County and the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange on behalf of homeless people cleared from a Santa Ana River encampment in January. While allowing for their removal followed by the eventual clean-up of an illegal tent city at the Santa Ana Civic Center he has constantly pushed for humane evictions and forced officials to do the hard math to find places to house the homeless. Carol Sobel and Brooke Weitzman, attorneys for the homeless, amended their lawsuit last week, writing: Hundreds of people are, once again, without a place to sleep at night other than on the streets, in the parks and in other public places, where they are experiencing harassment and arrest by law enforcement. Carter scheduled Fridays hearing in response to that update. He told the courtroom: The good news is certain pockets, communities have really come forward, tapping on representatives from Anaheim to share their example. Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Jose Moreno said his city expects to have an additional 200 beds by years end 60 for emergency intake, with 140 for transitional use working with a private partner at an undisclosed site. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We try to interrupt the usual because we can no longer tolerate the usual, Moreno said, alluding to the homelessness crisis. Others with proposals include Buena Park and Santa Ana the latter being the O.C. city most affected by transient populations where officials are talking about opening a facility with 600 to 700 beds, though they hesitate to reveal locations while negotiating with private property owners. Carter, aided by Susan Price, the countys homeless czar, divided O.C. into three service planning areas north, central and south directing that shelters with 450 beds be built in the north, and 300 beds assigned to each of the other two areas. Twice, the judge showed a video of his visit to a park where a worker interviewed homeless people who, with nowhere to go, said they resorted to sleeping there but would welcome assistance. Most of the homeless he has met come from diverse backgrounds, Carter said. They range from Disney workers, UC Irvine students, those who juggle service jobs for the Anaheim Ducks or Los Angeles Angels teams, along with veterans and battered women. Street populations are open to help, he said, adding that thinking that people are not seeking shelter is nonsense. Carter said he may support releasing local governments from the lawsuit via settlements, should officials be willing to provide enough shelter. Observers in the courtroom said that the judge probably extended the deadline because each time he pushes, cities make a little more progress, and that he should shame them to get to results. Im optimistic, yes, that progress is being made, and we stay true to the belief that we dont want people shoved off in isolation. We want them to be sheltered where they can access services, Sobel said. Still, she sees one missing component: To try to get everyone into permanent supportive housing. Thats our ultimate goal. anh.do@latimes.com Twitter: @newsterrier Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Friday night in a car on a residential street in West Covina, according to law enforcement officials. Deputies from the departments Walnut station responded to a call for a fire rescue on the 300 block of South Frankfurt Avenue around 8:04 p.m., according to a sheriffs news release. They found an unresponsive man who had experienced an unknown medical emergency. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives later learned the man identified Saturday by the L.A. County coroners office as Timothy Cortinas, 51 was intellectually disabled and may have been accidentally left inside the vehicle for an unknown length of time, according to the Sheriffs Department. Advertisement The driver of the vehicle, according to law enforcement, has cooperated with detectives and is being detained pending interviews. The investigation is ongoing. javier.panzar@latimes.com Twitter: @jpanzar UPDATES: 4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with the identity of the victim. This article originally published at 2:55 p.m. The Costa Mesa City Council and Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed in separate special meetings Friday to move ahead with a lawsuit to block a mobile needle-exchange service that recently received state approval to operate in Costa Mesa and three other Orange County cities. Costa Mesa council members directed city staff to return next week with an urgency ordinance declaring that the Orange County Needle Exchange Program would be a nuisance because of its proximity to local schools and senior-living facilities, the number of needles that would be handed out and what city officials characterized as a poor track record for managing and disposing of distributed syringes. Its not a time for talking its time for action, said Councilman John Stephens. Lets get it on. Since learning of the proposal this year, Costa Mesa city staff, police officials and council members have been unified in opposition. They contend the program could attract drug users to the community; undermine the recovery of residents in local sober-living homes; pose safety threats to the public or law enforcement; and force families, children and senior citizens to dodge discarded syringes. Advertisement A board member for the needle exchange did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. On Monday, the California Department of Public Health approved a proposal to allow the program to distribute needles and other supplies for two years in Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana. Supporters say such programs provide clean needles and help prevent the spread of diseases among intravenous drug users. Though the states authorization is effective next week, Costa Mesa Mayor Sandy Genis said Friday that her understanding is the program wouldnt launch until September. In Costa Mesa, the program would operate on West 17th Street between Whittier Avenue and the city boundary from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays. In a letter to the affected cities this week, Department of Public Health Director Karen Smith wrote there is a public health need for these services due to the significant risk for transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C among people who inject drugs in Orange County. She said the department had identified Orange County as among the California counties most vulnerable to rapid spread of injection drug-use-related infections. Critics, however, say the envisioned Costa Mesa location is inappropriate given its close proximity to homes, businesses and schools, including Whittier Elementary School. The states decision set off an uproar in affected communities and sent elected officials scrambling for a way to stop the program. We have taken significant steps in the last year to clean up our streets, not the least is our efforts with the homeless, county Supervisor Andrew Do said Friday. We have succeeded in doing so in significant parts of the county. Our progress is threatened and undermined by this needle-exchange program. Now we can send a loud and clear message to the state that Orange County will not allow our sidewalks, our parks, our libraries, to be a hazardous site. Previously, the needle exchange operated out of the Santa Ana Civic Center and was the only one of its kind in Orange County. However, Santa Ana scuttled it in January, citing an increase in the number of discarded syringes in the area. We need to stop this because its clear that the people who are operating this have no interest in having any consideration for our community, so we need to keep them out of our community, Genis said. Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley characterized the needle exchange as another slap in the face for the city, citing the states continued approval of sober-living homes and other addiction recovery facilities despite local opposition. We must not tolerate this anymore, she said. Our city is not the dumping ground for every drug addict and rehab center in the state of California, and we need to fight back. This lawsuit is the first step, I think. Money writes for Times Community News. The lawman said he was taken to a local tattoo parlor as a reward for his integrity. Other officers watched as his left ankle was etched with a symbol of a skull wearing a cowboy hat. The group drank and celebrated the inking of a fresh recruit. He was now part of the club. Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputy Oleg Polissky said he acquired the skull tattoo a few years ago as part of an exclusive crew of deputies at the Palmdale station, according to a copy of his July 19 deposition obtained by The Times. Advertisement His statement is the latest account of the existence of secret societies of deputies, whose memberships may have increased in recent years. The revelations have ignited concerns among watchdog groups and county officials that a toxic subculture has once again taken hold in the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department or was never rooted out. A deputy at the Compton station recently admitted under oath that he was inked in 2016 with a logo of a skeleton holding a rifle about two months before he was involved in a fatal shooting. He said as many as 20 other officers at his station had the tattoo, The Times reported. Polissky was deposed in connection with a lawsuit over a police shooting because he was the first to arrive on scene, but he is not named in the lawsuit or accused of wrongdoing in that case. But the new disclosures about matching deputy tattoos raise fresh questions about the reforms initiated by Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who was elected in 2014 in the wake of several departmental scandals involving abuse of jail inmates and corruption. McDonnell served on a blue-ribbon commission that sharply criticized the department in 2012 for tolerating deputy cliques and allowing the groups to promote excessive force in the county jails and on patrol. He confronted the topic of deputy tattoos during his first campaign, and the issue resurfaced for him during a recent debate against a challenger who has pushed him into a historic runoff in his reelection bid. McDonnell said last week that he had launched a comprehensive inquiry into deputy cliques that will probe whether gangs that promote illegal behavior are operating in his ranks. The study will be conducted with the Sheriffs Department inspector general and county counsel, McDonnell said, and he invited the deputy unions to join the effort. A leader of a union representing rank-and-file deputies, however, said that his group was not participating in the inquiry and that he opposed the intrusion into officers private lives. Det. Ron Hernandez, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said that he has a tattoo associated with the now-shuttered Firestone station and that it signified a fellowship of hard workers, not a rogue clique. I think the department should focus more on the value of a deputys work product, he said. Hernandez declined to talk about his tattoos design or any name associated with it. Some L.A. County supervisors and members of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission praised McDonnell for examining the deputy groups. We have to get to the bottom of it, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. Its putting the reputation of the Sheriffs Department at risk, and worse than that, it is causing the people of this county to have less public safety and law enforcement than they are entitled to. For decades watchdogs have criticized the subculture of deputy cliques, saying the crews with names like the Vikings, Grim Reapers and Jump Out Boys promote a hard-charging style of policing and an us versus them mentality within the department and toward the residents they serve. Some deputies have defended the tattoos as a way to honor fellow officers who abide by the rules governing a tough and dangerous job. Polissky said his skull tattoo signified having good morals, following the law and avoiding heavy-handed tactics. He said fellow officers would invite new members based on how fair they were in their jobs. It means that no one person has any less rights than any other person. You treat the public equally and without bias, Polissky said in the deposition, which was taken nine days after the revelations about the Compton tattoos surfaced. Polissky said he was accompanied by other deputies when he got the tattoo at a parlor in Lancaster three or four years ago, but he could not recall the exact date. Afterward, he and his colleagues celebrated at a deputys house with about 20 other people, some of whom had the same Palmdale station ink. He named four other deputies at the high desert station who he said also had the tattoo of a skull in a cowboy hat. The description calls to mind tattoos belonging to other officer groups. Los Angeles police officers in the Rampart Divisions notorious CRASH unit of the 80s and 90s wore ink depicting a skull in a cowboy hat framed by a dead mans hand of aces and eights. Efforts to reach Polissky, who now works at the Santa Clarita station, were unsuccessful. A lawyer representing him in the deposition, Ronald Housman, did not reply to requests for comment. Polissky was the first deputy to respond to a call about a late-night collision at a Palmdale Taco Bell on Dec. 20, 2015. He encountered Leroy Browning slumped over the wheel of a Ford Focus, reeking of alcohol, according to a district attorneys review of the incident. While other deputies tried to put Browning in the back of a patrol car, Polissky went inside the Taco Bell to retrieve surveillance footage. During a struggle next to the vehicle, a deputy shot and killed Browning after another officer yelled that the man was grabbing his service weapon, the report said. Polissky was still inside the establishment at the time of the shooting and did not fire any rounds, according to the report. His deposition was taken as part of a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Brownings family members, who claim the deputies were poorly trained and could have avoided the shooting. Prosecutors found that Browning was gripping a deputys firearm despite the officers efforts to yank him away. They ruled that the deputy who shot him had acted lawfully. Polissky said he didnt know whether any of the deputies involved in the shooting had the skull tattoo. Carl Douglas, the lawyer representing Brownings family, said the deputys statements raised questions about how deeply entrenched matching tattoos are within the department. It was chilling to listen as the deputy spoke with such pride about wearing what he thought was the stamp of approval from his fellow deputies, he said. Cliques that form within organizations can be a sign of poor morale and mixed messages coming from supervisors, said Jaclyn Jensen, an organizational psychologist and associate professor of management at DePaul University. Changing long-standing aspects of an institutions culture can be difficult and requires a strong leader, she said. Cliques form when people dont feel support from their leadership, Jensen said. Absent a clear statement from leadership about what it stands for, groups are left to their own devices to figure out what they stand for. Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the Sheriffs Department, said she could not comment on ongoing litigation. She referred to McDonnells statements last week that the department would not tolerate renegade cliques and was working to better understand and resolve the issue. maya.lau@latimes.com Twitter: @mayalau UPDATES: 4:35 p.m. This article was updated with a statement from an attorney representing the family of Leroy Browning. This article was originally published at 8:30 a.m. President Trump has again exchanged friendly letters with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, even as his top diplomat attempted this weekend in Asia to fortify international pressure on the nuclear-armed country to give up its weaponry. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on Saturday smiled and shook hands with his North Korean counterpart at a regional conference in Singapore, just before the letter was handed over. Minutes later, with Pompeo gone, the North Korean foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, unleashed a stinging critique of Washington and the sort of demands that Pompeo came to deliver. The back-and-forth illustrated the tricky and slow diplomacy the administration is tackling since Trumps summit with Kim nearly two months ago, as it seeks to force North Korea to get rid of its nuclear arsenal. Kim agreed to denuclearize, the Trump administration has said, in what it portrays as a major diplomatic triumph. But North Korea has yet to take any significant steps to that end. Advertisement The State Department said the letter from Trump to Kim was in response to what Trump said was a nice missive from the North Korean leader earlier this week. After Pompeo exchanged greetings with Ri at the conference of foreign ministers from Southeast Asia, Trumps letter was handed over by Sung Kim, U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, who has been a key figure in the Washington-Pyongyang negotiations this year. We should meet again soon, Pompeo told Ri, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. I agree, Ri responded. There are many productive conversations to be had. Yet minutes later, and after Pompeo had left the conference for meetings in nearby Indonesia, Ri took the Trump administration to task for its insistent demands. What is alarming, Ri said, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old far from its leaders intention. The North Korean leadership prefers to focus on Trumps vaguely worded and easily fungible requirements, rather than the detailed and specific criteria set out by U.S. diplomats and experienced negotiators now trying to put the Trump-Kim commitment into concrete, verifiable terms. Trumps one-on-one meeting with Kim, also held in Singapore, in June, was the first sit-down of an incumbent U.S. president and a North Korean leader, affording the young Kim a long-desired global recognition. The United States, in exchange, has received little. North Korea did agree to revive a repatriation program and last week, as a good-faith gesture, returned the possible remains of some U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950s-era Korean War. Many more soldiers remain unaccounted for. Yet North Koreas nuclear disarmament is the primary goal, and still elusive. For decades, Pyongyang has found ways to wiggle out of requirements that the United States and the international community have imposed on North Korea as part of earlier, failed agreements on nuclear disarmament. Trump thinks he has found a new formula through his personal diplomacy with Kim, yet his lack of specificity has allowed Pyongyang even more leeway. Pompeo acknowledged to journalists traveling with him to Singapore, as well as to Indonesias capital of Jakarta and to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, that there was a ways to go in pushing North Korea toward denuclearization. Trump, by contrast, has continued to claim significant progress, even success, in his public statements and tweets. U.S. officials say that, far from content with North Koreas behavior, they are concerned about recent intelligence reports that seem to show new construction at the countrys nuclear facilities. If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation, Pompeo said. A fundamental problem, say experts and former negotiators, is that the two governments dont even agree on the meaning of the word denuclearization. The U.S. insists on a complete, final and verifiable removal of North Koreas nuclear weapons and production facilities. But North Korea defines denuclearization as the removal of nuclear power through the Korean peninsula including the longstanding U.S. military presence in South Korea, Japan and other parts of the region. The conference in Singapore was hosted by the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes more than two dozen countries from the region as well as partner countries including the U.S., Russia, Iran and several European states. Many of those have been involved in the U.S.-led efforts to force North Korea to rein in its nuclear ambitions. For Pompeo, the conference presented an opportunity to rally Asian support in reinforcing the international sanctions against North Korea that had succeeded in crippling its economy and coaxing it toward negotiations. But many nations including, critically, China were already relaxing the sanctions after Trumps Singapore meeting with Kim, and the presidents premature pronouncement there that it was no longer necessary to speak of maximum pressure. Pompeo insisted to reporters that the sanctions regime continues to have a significant impact and remains largely in place. Yet the secretary of State, at the forum, criticized the commitment of other countries. He warned Russia not to cheat and help North Korea circumvent the sanctions. We expect the Russians, and all countries, to abide to the [United Nations] resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea, Pompeo said. Any violation that detracts from the worlds goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously. Pompeo took a softer approach, at least publicly, with China, North Koreas most important trade and political ally. He and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi were all smiles when they met on the margins of the ASEAN conference. Our cooperation, Pompeo tweeted in reference to himself and Wang, " . . . sends a strong signal to the region that, despite differences, #China and the US can work together to get important work done. Pompeo has not addressed how Washington hopes to continue to enlist Beijings essential support in pressuring North Korea when Trump is also escalating a trade war with China, the worlds second-largest economy. China, according to U.S. intelligence reports, has had the greatest impact in relaxing sanctions on North Korea. The sanctions, agreed to unanimously by the United Nations Security Council, cut into approximately 90% of Pyongyangs trade income. Yet China, as North Koreas chief trading partner, accounted for much of that reduction. tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson The Broward school district mishandled the case of student Nikolas Cruz when he asked for special help, long before he killed 17 staff and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to a long-awaited report released Friday. For the first time, the report revealed that Cruz had asked to return to the districts special education program, which would have provided him more support than he received as a general student, the report says. The report, by the Collaborative Educational Network of Tallahassee, found that the school district largely followed the policies and laws in place when educating Cruz, but failed on two occasions. Exactly how is not clear. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled Friday that the 46-page report could be released to the public, but much of the content was blacked out, apparently including any details that would explain the districts mistakes. The Broward school district recommended the report be altered to comply with the shooters educational and medical privacy rights. Advertisement Of the reports 1,707 lines, 1,078 of them or about 64% are concealed. After rejecting special education, Cruz quickly failed. Three days after he was forced by the district to withdraw from the Parkland school, he purchased an AR-15. A year after his ejection, he returned and gunned down 14 students and three adults. Cruzs attorneys argued unsuccessfully in court that the report would hinder his right to a fair trial. Scherer agreed with attorneys for the South Florida Sun Sentinel and other media outlets, who argued the taxpayer-funded report should not be hidden from view. In a written statement, Broward Schools Supt. Robert Runcie said he looked forward to releasing the full report as soon as it is legally appropriate. He said the review shows that the districts systems are appropriate and that the district worked consistently to provide an education and ongoing, changing behavioral care for Cruz throughout his time in the Broward school system. The report, however, suggests the district did not follow laws or policies in place when school employees tried to transfer Cruz, then a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, to a special education campus. Cruz, then 18, refused and removed himself from the special education program. Runcie has said that when Cruz made that decision, the district was unable to help him with special education services. But the consultants report reveals for the first time that Cruz later requested reinstatement of special education services, and the district mishandled his request. The revelation bolsters criticism from some special education experts, who said the district should have done more for Cruz, who had emotional and behavioral problems. Cruzs attorneys said the $60,000 report is a whitewash commissioned by the school district to clear it of responsibility for how it handled Cruzs complex psychological problems. I think that the report is an attempt by the school board to absolve itself of any liability or responsibility for all the missed opportunities that they had in this matter, said Gordon Weekes, the chief assistant public defender. The consultant, however, found that the district largely handled Cruz properly, over 16 years of education. With isolated exceptions, the district adhered to procedural and substantive requirements, the report says. Without directly criticizing the school district, the consultant recommended the district reconsider how to handle cases like Cruzs, where a high-needs special education student decides against participating in special education and then reverses the decision. The report suggests that when Cruz was a general education student, he wasnt offered access to counseling and mental health services that are available to all students. McMahon and Wallman write for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. UPDATES: 7:05 p.m.: This article was updated to say a long-awaited report found Broward County Public Schools mishandled the case of Nikolas Cruz. This article was originally published at 4:50 p.m. During a bilateral meeting with DPRK Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-ho on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM-51) and related meetings in Singapore on August 3, Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh applauded the positive progress on the Korean peninsula, especially the outcomes reached at recent summits between the DPRK, and the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the United States (US). Minh expressed his hope that concerned parties would continue to maintain dialogues to ensure peace, stability and cooperation on the Korean peninsula as well as in the region and the world. Ri, for his part, spoke highly of the bilateral friendship and cooperation with Vietnam. He thanked the Party, State and people of Vietnam for the valuable assistance they had given to the DPRK in the past, especially the provision of dozens of thousands of tonnes of rice to help the country address its food shortage in the 1990s. Ri emphasized the desire to elevate the relationship between the DPRK and Vietnam to a new height in the time to come. He also affirmed the DPRKs commitment to the denuclearisation process on the Korean peninsula. Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Aug. 4, Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend: TOP STORIES The Santa Ana riverbed was the largest homeless encampment in Orange County. It swelled with hundreds of residents with men and women whose teeth were decayed from drug use, their skin bronzed by the blistering sun. They napped during the day and tried to stay awake at night to guard their few belongings. The acrid, skunky smell of pot filled the air, riding the scent of grilled burgers and human waste. Then it was cleared by the county earlier this year, and for one couple who were forced from the riverbed into temporary motel living the road ahead looms empty, filled with hunger, loneliness and drugs. Los Angeles Times Plus: After moving from the riverbed to a motel, a homeless couple find themselves in a new kind of prison. Los Angeles Times Advertisement ICYMI: Living in a beat-up Jeep after mounting hardship, a homeless veteran and his wife cling to hope, waiting for a place to call home. Los Angeles Times Fires across the state Officials said more than 13,000 firefighters are on duty, fighting nearly 20 large fires that have burned more than 410,000 acres and displaced more than 40,000 residents across the state. Seventeen states have offered assistance to California over the last week, sending help from as far away as Maine and Florida. And in a conservative Northern California county, a team of Mexican immigrants is helping battle the Carr fire. Los Angeles Times Red flag danger: Gusty weekend winds are expected to fan the fires. Los Angeles Times And: For nearly three weeks, Yosemite has been besieged by fire. Its a summer without any crowds the park is closed but a lot of smoke and worry. Los Angeles Times Congress is sending seven firefighting planes to California, but they wont help this year. McClatchy As California wildfires rage, politicians, timber companies and environmentalists are debating whether to thin overly dense forest lands that fuel the states deadly infernos. CNBC AROUND CALIFORNIA More about those skull tattoos: L.A County Sheriffs Deputy Oleg Polissky said last month he acquired a skull tattoo a few years ago as part of an exclusive crew of deputies at the Palmdale Station. His testimony is the latest account of deputy cliques that have been active in recent years, despite department reform efforts. Los Angeles Times Pushing back: Harvey Weinsteins lawyer on Friday filed an extensive motion to dismiss Weinsteins indictment on multiple sex charges, arguing that grand jurors never saw exculpatory evidence, including emails in which a woman he is accused of raping allegedly professed her love for him years afterward. Los Angeles Times Scary stuff: When a woman needed an emergency caesarean section at an Oceanside hospital last year, the anesthesiologist could not be quickly found so the surgery was done without anesthesia, according to the woman, her fiance and their lawsuit. San Diego Union-Tribune Hollywood drama: In a surprise move that could have major implications for Hollywood, the U.S. Department of Justice is scrutinizing antitrust rules that for decades have governed the way movie studios do business with theaters. Los Angeles Times Click! L.A.s Awesome History of Weird, Food-Shaped Restaurants. LAist Financial woes: L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson said in a statement that he and his wife have resolved an outstanding credit card bill that prompted a lawsuit by Discover Bank two years after he narrowly avoided a foreclosure auction on a house he owns in Ladera Heights. Los Angeles Times Drama in Silicon Valley: Google bosses were scrambling to contain leaks and internal anger on Wednesday after the companys confidential plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China was revealed by The Intercept. The Intercept Staying on the books: A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the constitutionality of two California laws restricting the ability of people to buy and carry firearms, rejecting appeals by gun rights advocates. Reuters Plus: A federal appeals court has for a second time upheld a $4.1-million award against Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies for shooting a homeless couple who were staying in a friends backyard shed. Los Angeles Times Immigration talk: The Trump administration said family separation was the result of a zero tolerance prosecution strategy. But a new analysis shows that parents with children were the ones sent to court, while adults without kids werent. BuzzFeed Green thumbs, beware! When watering a plant is the biggest mistake you can make. Los Angeles Times Get the Essential California newsletter Frederico Rocha Sr., center, leads his firefighters as they mop up hot spots near homes in Redding on July 30, 2018. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) THIS WEEKS MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA 1. Architects were asked to design appealing homeless shelters on a $1-million budget. Heres what they came up with. Los Angeles Times 2. Meet the Sexual Candy Man of Hollywoods Closeted Elite, from Cary Grant to Katharine Hepburn. Vanity Fair 3. Drivers are fed up with the DMV. So are California lawmakers. Sacramento Bee 4. In the California desert, a farm baron is building a water and energy empire. Desert Sun 5. An Aryan Brotherhood leader dies in prison, leaving behind a bloody legacy in the Bay Area. Mercury News ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEKS GREAT READS Amazing tale: About halfway through the three-hour siege at Trader Joes in Silver Lake, the wounded gunman, Gene Atkins, looked at one of his hostages, MaryLinda Moss, and told her it was all over for him. I just shot at a cop, he said. Moss, a 55-year-old artist who exudes calm, feared a suicidal gunman could spark a bloodbath. Through a series of disastrous decisions by Atkins, dozens of strangers had ended up at the grocery store on a hot Saturday afternoon, drenched in fear and surrounded by SWAT teams, helicopters, squad cars and ambulances. She put her hand on his heart. Los Angeles Times Dire warning: Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change. New York Times Magazine Book excerpt: Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan were 23 when their daughter was born. Lisa Brennan-Jobs remembers the pride and pain of a childhood spent navigating the vastness between her struggling single mom and Apples mercurial founder. Vanity Fair Where do I get one? The inside story behind the sold-out Tesla surfboards, made by a San Clemente shaper and now on eBay for $4,500. Orange County Register Border tales: How Trumps family separation policy deterred at least one mother from seeking asylum. Desert Sun Great shots! Check out this awesome spread about female big wave surfers. California Sunday Magazine 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. A new report by the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York School of Law suggests that there has been an alarming spike in the number of registered voters who are being purged from the election rolls, often in error. Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote comes after a Supreme Court decision in June making it easier for election officials to remove voters who have skipped one or more elections. But the report details troubling developments that emerged long before that ruling. The reports most arresting finding is that almost 4 million more names were purged from voter rolls between 2014 and 2016 than between 2006 and 2008 a 33% increase that far outstripped growth in both total registered voters (18%) and total population (6%). Those numbers in themselves dont demonstrate that the purges were based on inaccurate information. But the report also offers persuasive evidence that too many purges are made in error or without an opportunity for voters to contest their exclusion. And it raises the possibility that the push to purge voters is especially a problem in states with a history of discriminating against minority voters. Advertisement An obsession with accurate records is disenfranchising some Americans. The report found that four states have conducted voter purges since 2013 that violate the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act and four others have adopted purge policies that violate the federal law. The report is particularly critical of the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, a database developed in 2005 by officials in bizarrely voter-fraud-obsessed Kansas in a bid to identify duplicate registrations across multiple states voter-registration records. It says the system creates the possibility that parents and children with the same name will be confused with one another and that voters with common surnames will be wrongly matched a phenomenon that has a disproportionate effect on minority voters. Finally, the report raises the disturbing possibility that the Supreme Courts decision in 2013 to gut a key provision of the Voting Rights Act propelled some of the increase in voter purges in states with a history of blocking minority voters. In that decision, Shelby County vs. Holder, the court struck down a formula for determining which states and localities had to pre-clear changes in election procedures with the Justice Department or a federal court. The Brennan Center researchers found that after the decision the rate of voter purges jumped by more than a third in jurisdictions that previously had to pre-clear election changes, while remaining steady elsewhere. The change led to an estimated 2 million more voters being excluded. The report doesnt prove a causal connection, but the correlation is concerning. Its one more reason why Congress should amend the Voting Rights Act so that the states with a history of racial discrimination in voting are again subject to federal oversight. Thats not all Congress should do. It needs to reverse the courts decision in June allowing states to purge voters because they missed one or more elections and hadnt responded to an inquiry about whether they had moved. Recognizing that not every voter will want to participate in every election, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits states from removing anyone from the federal rolls by reason of the persons failure to vote. A 5-4 majority said that Ohio didnt violate that provision because under its rules, failure to vote wasnt the sole reason for a purge. Instead, officials used non-voting as a reason to send a notice to a voter seeking to determine if he or she had moved. Only if a voter failed to return a postcard and failed to vote for another four years would he or she be removed. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion That decision violated the spirit, if not the letter, of federal law. Congress should make it clear that failure to vote cant be used to trigger a process in which a voter can be removed simply for not acknowledging (or perhaps even not receiving) a notice. There are more accurate ways to keep track of voters who move or die. States also must ensure that purges arent carried out on the basis of erroneous information. The Brennan Center report urges that states notify voters who may be removed from the rolls so that errors can be averted. It also urges more states to join the 12 that, along with Washington, D.C., provide for automatic voter registration when a citizen interacts with a state agency (in California, the Department of Motor Vehicles). Automatic registration, it says, better tracks changes of address, reducing the need for purges. Obviously its desirable to keep rolls up to date, a goal enshrined in the National Voter Registration Act alongside the objective of increasing turnout. Even if inaccurate records dont result in fraudulent voting (and they rarely do), they can undermine public confidence. But even more disillusioning is the reality that an obsession with accurate records is disenfranchising some Americans. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook The Burning Man of Treason continues apace. Its been three weeks of rowdy summer fun, every night, with Trump protesters whooping it up outside the White House. The madcap demonstration calls itself #KremlinAnnex, and its beef is with what else? Trumps apparent Russian commitments. #KremlinAnnex protesters, some dressed as T-Rexes, decry what they see as Trumps willingness to subvert American interests to Russian ones. On their marquee sign, the protesters call this tendency of Trumps TREASON. In big brazen letters. Next to people in shark suits. Crazy kids. Organized mostly by Adam Parkhomenko, the boisterous Ukrainian American advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the #KremlinAnnex protest translates a controversial and mouthy strain of online resistance into living color. Advertisement Crying obstruction or collusion before Mueller sings is considered, in our both sides'-besotted times, a misstep. When they charge the American president with treason, what they mean is that hes been as the Constitution has it erratically capitalized levying War against the United States, or adhering to its Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. Does the treason charge go too far? Most Americans are only now coming around to the possibility that the President of the United States may have committed the more genteel crime of obstruction of justice. Possibly he further took part in a criminal conspiracy, perhaps even involving a foreign adversary. As the scope of that conspiracy comes to light in the 35 indictments and pleas generated by special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation, it seems at least fathomable that the president was involved. Even so, crying obstruction or collusion before Mueller sings is considered, in our both sides-besotted times, a misstep. If you do that in the media, its necessary to make an elaborate display of prudence, evenhandedness and reservations. Lets not rush to judgment, you must say over and over again. Of course the crowd outside the Kremlin Annex excuse me, White House has decided to forgo polite society. Now, technically, according to UC Davis legal scholar Carlton F.W. Larson, treason entails adhering to a declared Enemy a power with which we are officially at war. But, rhetorically, the T-word nicely suits Trumps bowing-and-scraping routine with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, which set off the #KremlinAnnex protest. And the protesters are not the only ones who read the Helsinki event that way. John Brennan, the former CIA director, called Trumps performance in Helsinki nothing short of treasonous. Moreover, as citizens rather than prosecutors the protesters are well within their rights to reason that because Russia and the U.S. are fighting a proxy war in Syria, Russia should count as an Enemy to which Trump has given ample succor. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion The merry band in front of the White House is also, of course, throwing caution to the wind because they see civil disobedience as eminently necessary now. They also understand that protesters who take unruly online treason speech into so-called meatspace risk physical confrontation with team Make America Great Again, and theyre OK with that; theyre putting more on the line to make their point than anyone jabbering on Twitter. Their protest borrows from the theatricality of the ACT UP AIDS-advocacy protests in the 1980s and 90s and the fearlessness of the Vietnam-era demonstrations, when dissidents didnt hesitate to lay blame for the murders of soldiers and civilians squarely at President Lyndon B. Johnsons feet. One major difference, though: The FBI tried to crush those protests. Today some in the FBI seem actually to share the concerns of #KremlinAnnex. So it looks like good weather to join #KremlinAnnex this evening, if youre around the nations capital. For next weeks planning purposes: On Aug. 7, the gang is going to celebrate Robert Muellers birthday. With bagpipes. Twitter: @page88 Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook It has been said that the difference between American and, say, Irish attitudes on conspicuous wealth can be summed up with this observation: The American looks at the mansion on the hill and says, One day, Ill be that man, while the Irish person looks at the same mansion and says, One day, Ill get that man. The notion that Americans exalt personal wealth might not apply to Los Angeles Times readers, most of whom live in a city of sprinkled with ultra-rich enclaves that exist only miles from the largest concentrations of homeless people in the United States. This contrast between Southern Californias elite and its much more abundant impoverished class had prominent placement together in the Sunday California section, and readers were quick to point out the juxtaposition. Although the articles one on a Marine Corps veteran living in his Jeep and the other on a $1-billion property listing near Beverly Hills each drew their own responses, most of the letters we received addressed both pieces and what the contrast between the two says about Los Angeles. Mary J. Shepphird of Fountain Valley expresses dismay: Advertisement What is wrong with this picture? On the front page of Sundays California section, there is the sad story of a Marine Corps veteran and his wife living in their old, battered Jeep. On Page B6 of the same section is the story of a property listing for $1 billion on a summit above Beverly Hills. Need I say more about the disparity between the haves and have-nots? Who could possibly be responsible for this? Howard S. Blume of Thousand Oaks suggests a nice place for the Marine to park his Jeep: Your story about Lawrence and Carla McCue living in their Jeep Grand Cherokee ended on Page B5. Turn to the very next page, and you can read about the 157-acre property listed for $1 billion. How many Jeep Grand Cherokees could be parked there? Gary Stewart of Laguna Beach points out other juxtapositions: On one page, we read about the $1-billion property and a legal dispute in Orange County over criminalizing homelessness. Meanwhile, another article reports that a recent study puts the rate of poverty or near-poverty among California children at 46%. This shows a tragic, society-wide failure, one brought about by the class war waged by the wealthy and their think tank myth-crafters since the 1980s. Suffering? Leave it be; it is due to individual failures to take advantage of opportunity; any assistance encourages dependency. The American patriot proudly claims this to be the best humanity has to offer the world: the land of the 1% and the home of the criminal homeless. Los Angeles resident David Hiovich felt the contrast physically: Thanks to The Times for the roller-coaster ride Sunday morning. My spirit sank reading about the McCues living out of their Jeep, then it soared reading about the property offered for $1 billion and all without leaving my kitchen. Only in America. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Republican candidate for governor John Cox earned more than $2.1 million in 2016 and 2017, mostly from investments in apartment buildings in the Midwest, according to abbreviated portions of his tax returns released by his campaign Friday. Coxs disclosure came more than a year after his rival in the governors race, Democrat Gavin Newsom, released six years of his federal and state tax returns. The Rancho Santa Fe businessman released only the summary pages of his returns, along with forms outlining his tax deductions and interest and dividend income. He withheld tax information for the string of business partnerships that generate most of his income. Cox campaign strategist Tim Rosales said the selective release of Coxs tax returns was done to protect the financial privacy of other investors in those partnerships. The Republican decided to release just two years of returns because, unlike Newsom, Cox is a private citizen who does not hold elected office, and was not a candidate until 2017, Rosales said. This is a full look at what he makes and what he pays, Rosales said. Advertisement The three major Democratic gubernatorial candidates who did not advance to the general election former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, state Treasurer John Chiang and former state schools chief Delaine Eastin also made their tax returns available to reporters before the June 5 primary. Newsom provided largely unabridged copies of his tax returns for review, including financial details of his partnerships in wineries, restaurants, hotels and other hospitality businesses. Still, Cox provided more information than did Gov. Jerry Brown, who declined to release his tax returns during his last two gubernatorial campaigns in 2010 and 2014. His Republican opponents in those races, former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman in 2010 and former U.S. Treasury Department official Neel Kashkari in 2014, also declined. Former Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gray Davis and Pete Wilson all permitted reporters to inspect their tax filings. Meet John Cox and Gavin Newsom, the candidates for California governor Cox allowed the Times to review, but not photocopy, the tax returns in Rosales Sacramento office. The Times made multiple requests to review Coxs filings, starting in September 2017. According to his tax returns, Cox reported an adjusted gross income of $1.86 million in 2017, with $1.5 million coming from investments in real estate and business partnerships. The remainder came largely from dividends and interest earnings on investments. According to his state financial disclosure report filed in March, Cox held stocks and bonds valued between $9 million and $93 million. (Candidates are required to disclose the fair market value of their investments, but only within broad ranges). Cox filed jointly with his wife, Sarah Cox. The couple live in northern San Diego County with their 13-year-old daughter. Cox also has three adult daughters from a previous marriage. In 2017, the couple paid $407,113 in federal taxes and $117,500 in state taxes. They donated more than $52,000 to charity and also claimed a deduction for $237,900 in charitable contributions they made prior to 2017. In his 2016 returns, Coxs financial picture was less rosy. He reported a loss of $106,216 on his real estate investments and partnerships, and an adjusted gross income of $252,549. Cox and his wife paid $50,532 in federal taxes. His state tax return for 2016 was not made available to The Times. The Coxes donated more than $164,000 to charity that year. Cox finished second behind Newsom in the June 5 primary and cites his business expertise as a key credential in his campaign for governor. Businesspeople have been elected to office as governor all across this nation to clean up the messes that the politicians have made, he said to his supporters during an election night party in San Diego. An attorney and certified public accountant, Cox built a successful business enterprise outside Chicago, where he spent most of his life before moving to California full time in 2011. He bought his house in San Diego County years before. His law firm, Cox, Oakes & Associates, remains based in Schaumburg, Ill. On his tax returns, Cox reported a $50,000 annual salary, which Rosales said comes from the firm. The Republican candidate also has investments in more than a dozen limited partnerships that either own or manage apartment complexes in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Coverage of California politics Times staff writer Mini Racker contributed to this report. phil.willon@latimes.com Twitter: @philwillon Updates on California politics Burbank Mayor Emily Gabel-Luddy and Councilman Tim Murphy will be sending a letter to the mayor of Incheon, South Korea, regarding the recent controversial issue involving the killing of dogs for meat consumption. Burbank City Council members discussed on Tuesday whether they, as a whole, should send a letter to Incheon Mayor Park Nam-Chun commending him for not supporting illegal dog farms and the consumption of dog meat in his city. Incheon is one of Burbanks four sister cities, said Erika De Leon, an administrative analyst for the city. While Gabel-Luddy and Murphy thought it would be good for the city to support its sister city during this time, the rest of the council members said they thought the city should not be taking a stance on an international issue. On June 21, the city court of Bucheon, South Korea, ruled the killing of dogs for consumption is illegal, and it has subsequently been a hot topic in the country. The City Council received an email from a representative of KoreanDogs.org asking that city officials tell Park to shut down the dog farms, slaughterhouses, markets, truckers and restaurants that serve dog meat in Incheon. I certainly dont want to tell them what to do, what to eat [or] say anything is wrong with their culture, but letting them know how we feel, I dont see anything wrong with that, Murphy said. Vice Mayor Sharon Springer and Councilmen Bob Frutos and Jess Talamantes said that although they too support animal rights, they think the city should not take a formal stance on the issue. Gabel-Luddy and Murphy agreed they would be the only council members sending the letter to Park, but Frutos and Talamantes told their colleagues not to use an official city letterhead and instead use a personal one. When you sign your name on official letterhead, youre acting in your official scope, Frutos said. anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com Twitter: @acocarpio A dozen Huntington Beach students seeking to make animals lives a little more comfortable at local shelters made blankets for them Friday. The 9- and 10-year-olds tied together the edges of blue and purple pawprint-adorned fabrics to craft the blankets for dogs and cats. The creations will be sent to the Orange County Humane Society in Huntington Beach and later to other area shelters. The YMCA-sponsored event at Huntingtons Agnes L. Smith Elementary School is part of a 100 Acts of Kindness challenge that students are tackling over the summer throughout Orange County as a way to spread joy in their communities. Each student is given a kindness card to check off actions such as showing appreciation to police and firefighters, visiting with senior citizens and helping the homeless. An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday denied a Huntington Beach residents request for more than $14,000 in legal fees incurred after the city filed a lawsuit intended to stop him from circulating a petition seeking to ban semiautomatic and automatic guns in the city. Attorney Jerry Friedman had filed a request for $14,385 on behalf of Daniel Horgan for 46 hours of work in July. Horgans proposed law would have made possession and sale of semiautomatic and automatic firearms in Huntington Beach a felony by April 1. He dropped his effort when the petition fell well short of the number of signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot. In a tentative ruling published Thursday and made final Friday, Judge Robert Moss wrote that a defendant to be awarded attorneys fees must establish protected petitioning activity and that the plaintiff is unable to establish a reasonable probability of success. Moss wrote that Horgan, a real estate agent and mortgage broker, failed to show that the citys filing for an injunction in April was clearly frivolous, vexatious or brought primarily for purposes of harassment. The city, Moss added, showed that Horgans initiative was both constitutionally and statutorily invalid. Horgan said he is considering crafting another petition. The true purpose was to allow citizens to vote on the availability of these guns, Horgan said. [Guns] keep killing innocent people, and this issue isnt going anywhere. We need to come together to find a solution to this problem. City Attorney Michael Gates called the ruling a win for Huntington Beach, adding that the fees, which he called exorbitant, would have been paid with taxpayer money. Mr. Friedmans clients proposed gun ban was illegal and unconstitutional from the very beginning, which required court intervention, Gates said. The citys legal battle against allowing the gun ban to be placed on the November ballot was always about protecting the U.S. Constitution, the rights of the citizens of Huntington Beach and the city itself. But Friedman said the legal battle could have been avoided had the city been proactive when Horgan filed his notice of intent to circulate his petition last November. Its wrong to give a citizen a green light to circulate a petition, wait five months until the citizen invests time and money in that position and then file a lawsuit to make them stop circulating the petition, Friedman said. As a result, Mr. Horgan spent several thousand dollars, both with the petition and trying to protect his rights. After the city sought the injunction, Friedman hit back in May by filing a motion accusing the city of violating his clients free-speech rights. At the end of May, Gates asked the court to drop the citys lawsuit after learning that Horgan wouldnt submit signatures from his petition, making the case moot. This week, the city told Friedman, who was running for city attorney against Gates in Novembers election, that he was disqualified as a candidate because he didnt graduate from a law school accredited by the American Bar Assn., one of the citys requirements to run for the office. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella A doctor in the UC Irvine School of Medicine is charged with disorderly conduct on allegations of secretly filming people in the bathroom of his home, the Orange County district attorneys office said Friday. Dr. Duc Minh Vu, 33, is identified on the UCI medical school website as a clinical instructor in the neurology department. For the record: This article originally stated incorrectly that Dr. Vu was arrested. He was not taken into custody. The university did not respond to a request for comment about the doctors current employment status. Vu is accused of placing two concealed cameras in the restroom of his Orange home one that appeared to be a black USB charger and another disguised as a digital clock, according to prosecutors. More than a dozen guests and roommates were secretly filmed by the cameras, prosecutors said. One of the people discovered the cameras on Aug. 5, 2017, and called the Orange Police Department, prosecutors said. If convicted, Vu could face a maximum sentence of 6 years in county jail, the DAs office said. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10. Susan Wolbarst, a spokeswoman for the California Medical Board, said Vus medical license is unaffected so far because he has not been convicted. A charge is an allegation its nothing thats been proven, Wolbarst said. If Vu is convicted, she said, he would be required to report the crime to the state board. Daily Pilot staff contributed to this report. Details of the agenda were released by the National Assembly Office on August 3. The first group of queries concerns ethnic minorities access to basic social services, production and vocational training support, job creation and sustainable poverty reduction in ethnic regions. The questions are to be primarily taken by the chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Affairs, who will be supported by Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh and leaders of a number of relevant ministries. The second group of issues to be questioned includes social order in major cities and industrial parks, the crackdown on crimes against individuals, and economic, drug and hi-tech crimes, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security. During the six-day meeting, the NASC will also discuss amendments to the laws on education, the peoples public security force, corruption prevention and amnesty. Supervision on the implementation of the policies and laws on the management and use of foreign loans during the 2011-2016 period will also be part of the NASCs agenda in the 26th session. Glendale police are searching for additional victims of a man they suspect of scamming multiple people through a fraudulent apartment listing. Wail Balkhi, 22, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of grand theft by false pretenses for allegedly bilking approximately $14,000 from eight people. His arrest was related to a scam he reportedly ran from June 8 to 15, advertising for rent the apartment he lived in on the 100 block of West Avenue, according to the Glendale Police Department. Tahnee Lightfoot, a department spokeswoman, said the victims all met with Balkhi under the auspices of finishing paperwork for renting the apartment and touring the space. He would collect a security deposit or the first months rent from them and then cut off all communication. Lightfoot said Balkhi himself was evicted from the apartment days after scamming the victims. She added detectives believe there may have been other victims who fell for the scam. Just based on the investigation he could be using other apartments and doing the same type of scam elsewhere in Los Angeles County, she said. Balkhi is currently being held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Anyone with additional information can called Glendale police at (818) 548-3101. andy.nguyen@latimes.com Twitter: @Andy_Truc George Murray almost died on a couch in his self-made shelter late last year. Some city officials and residents wanted Murray evicted from his makeshift house on Garfield Avenue in Glendale. The homeless 63-year-old wanted shelter while he attended barber school, which he started this past February. Murray befriended some construction workers who offered to move the shelter for him. The day they brought a forklift to take it, Murray was inside asleep on his couch. The machines forks crashed through the cardboard wall, pushing the couch against a fence. Im throwing rocks at the thing to get him to stop, he said. The workers were like youre lucky youre alive. If he kept going, I wouldnt be here, Murray said. And I got the couch out. One of the two shelters George Murray made himself on Garfield Avenue. (George Murray) In April, Murray moved into a small apartment in the Tropico neighborhood of Glendale after being homeless for two and a half years. Murray is expected to graduate in October from Abram Friedman Occupational Centers barber school. For most of the time while hes been studying, Murray was homeless and recovering from a heroin addiction. His housing was provided through the Continuum of Care rental assistance program, funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It places homeless people into subsidized housing and covers 70% of the clients rent. Murray is no longer one of the 260 people living on Glendales streets a 55% increase in the citys homeless population compared to last year, according to an annual homeless report by the city. Last year, more than two-thirds of Los Angeles County voters approved Measure H, which funds programs to combat homelessness. This year, Glendale will generate about $10 million in sales-tax revenue, said city spokesman Tom Lorenz. The city receives $395,000 a year for its homeless initiatives $280,000 of direct funding from Measure H, $100,000 from L.A. County Workforce Development and $15,000 from another L.A. County program to buy furniture for people transitioning from homeless to housing. Glendale Police homeless liaison officer Steve Koszis was initially sent to evict Murray from his shelter, but became a key ally in getting Murray his apartment. Not a lot of the clients I run into are willing to participate in the program as George has been, Koszis said. He made it up in his own mind and heart to bring himself out of homelessness. He viewed it as a temporary situation, not a permanent lifestyle. Before Murray could find housing, he decided to build his own but first he had to save himself. Inside a self-made shelter Murray slept in while he was homeless. (George Murray) On May 9, 2010, Murray relapsed with his addiction. He had succumbed to the pressure of juggling his personal life with being a house manager for Sober College, a drug and alcohol treatment center for young adults. He succeeded at managing the facilitys Maple Street house but the demands of his profession while getting his personal life together overwhelmed him. I figured that because I was in my 50s, I could make adult decisions. I had no experience with that, Murray said. My sponsor told me I was running my own program, and he was right. He added, Addicts have a hard time living life on lifes terms. When I feel bad, I know how to change my feelings. Murray left behind his job and the 14 young adults he supervised for a weekend binge. When I came back Sunday afternoon, I was dopesick like the old days, Murray said. For six years, Murrays addiction made him burn through his money and relationships. When his entire life was minimized to a backpack and duffel bag, Murray decided to turn his life around. Its hard to get on your feet [even] without the addiction, Murray said. To come out of homelessness is a really difficult process. Really hard. Murray didnt know anything about construction, so he studied YouTube videos. With little money, Murray couldnt afford tools or materials, so he got creative. You know how underneath mattresses they have, instead of boxsprings, they have those frames? I realized those can be walls, Murray said. Murray grabbed all of the bed frames, cardboard and wood he could carry back to Garfield Avenue and began building. The couch was given to him by an acquaintance. By December, he had made his cardboard-minimum and built his shelter in front of a fence with tape, paint and desperation. It took about a week. It was a slap-up job, Murray said. Koszis went to the makeshift shelter to evict Murray, but realized he could instead help him. All I had to do was be an accessory to help him. I just connected him to additional resources, Koszis said. [Murray] told me, Im not going to be out here forever. He was going to barber school. He had a goal to be a licensed barber. That makes it easy for a guy like me, Koszis said. Murray enrolled in Abram Friedman, with his barbering tools and tuition paid for by the Department of Rehabilitation. Koszis introduced Murray to Ivet Samvelyan, Glendales community services manager. Samvelyan oversees the Continuum of Care housing program that got Murray an apartment. It really takes true partnership to end homelessness, she said. If theyre ready, I dont give up on them. I have to tell you it takes an entire village to coordinate services. Murray regularly sends notes of appreciation to Samvelyan. Hes the highlight of my day, honestly, she said. With his life back on track, Murray anxiously awaits going back to barber school after its summer break. He spends his two months off from school by learning new hobbies and helping a friend who is a quadriplegic Murray has known since 1965. He has a hard time feeding and bathing himself, so Murray helps him. Murray cooks for him. He buys him new clothes when his are worn out. Murray said he cant leave his friend behind because there is a sense of guilt inside him. The weirdest thing about getting a place is I feel guilty around my friends who are homeless, Murray said. I feel like I left people behind. Now, Im afraid of what they are going to think. If I tell them I got a place, [its] like Im rubbing their nose in it. Garfield Avenue and the darkness of homelessness and addiction continue to cast a shadow over Murray. Even with his new home, Murrays old life still haunts him around the corner from his new one. michael.livingston@latimes.com @MLivingston06 On Thursdays and Sundays, a van arrives near an old prison to take the Jehovahs Witnesses to worship in a Kingdom Hall about six miles away. The irony is palpable: The Finnish prison and its surrounding workers cottages are serving as a temporary home for people fleeing persecution and possible prison terms at home in Russia. The van winds its way along a scenic road toward the little town of Joutseno, past farmhouses and vacation cottages that draw tourists to this part of Finlands southern lake country each summer. Last year, the church in Joutseno started conducting services in Russian to accommodate the growing population of asylum-seekers. Jehovahs Witnesses, a Christian denomination started in the United States in the 19th century, are now banned in Russia. When we arrived at the hall for the first time, we cried because we could freely sing our songs and pray, said Alina, 35, who fled with her husband in May from Orenburg, a Russian city about 900 miles southeast of Moscow, near the border with Kazakhstan. They asked that their last name not be used out of fear for relatives left behind in Russia. Advertisement Daniel, 34, and Alina, 35, both from Orenburg, Russia, sit in their room at a refugee center in Konnunsuo, Finland. The couple are Jehovahas Witnesses seeking asylum in Finland because of religious persecution in their homeland. (Vasiliy Kolotilov / For the Los Angeles Times) Right now, to be a Jehovahs Witness is a crime in Russia, she said. Youre considered like a terrorist. In the 16 months since Russias Supreme Court banned Jehovahs Witnesses as an extremist group on par with Islamic State, raids and arrests of the religions estimated 175,000 members in the country have increased rapidly. The ruling criminalized practicing the religion and ordered its 395 branches closed. Members face prosecution for doing missionary work, a fundamental part of the faith. There are now an estimated 250 Russian Jehovahs Witnesses seeking asylum in Finland. They wait out their asylum applications in several refugee centers across the country, including the Joutseno refugee center outside Lappeenranta in southeastern Finland. The center has about 80 Jehovahs Witness families from Russia. Alina and husband Daniel have a room in a brightly painted wooden cottage that once housed workers at the former Konnunsuo prison down the road. They share it with another family of Russian Jehovahs Witnesses, Alin and Yulia Tovmasian and their son, David. During Finlands long summer days, the children ride bikes around the property while the adults stroll the nearly empty streets in this remote but scenic part of the country. Sometimes theres a bus to take refugees to swim in one of the nearby lakes. Theres one cafe within walking distance of the cottages. At night, the families prepare meals together, or conduct Bible studies. Others volunteer in the refugee centers kitchens or recreational room. The prisons main brick building, built in the 1920s, houses several hundred refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Single Russian Jehovahs Witnesses are housed in the former prisons dormitory rooms. Finnish authorities offer language classes for those waiting for their asylum applications to make their way through the system, a process that can take more than a year. Its impossible to get used to being a refugee, said Alin Tovmasian, 35, who arrived a year ago with his wife and son from a small city in Russias mostly Muslim region of the North Caucasus. The main thing is that we are safe here. In Russia, more than 20 Jehovahs Witnesses, many of them elderly, are currently in detention centers. At least 40 court cases are pending against Jehovahs Witnesses charged with organizing or participating in an extremist organization. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. Russia has seized the churchs property, including its headquarters in St. Petersburg, where members had turned the dilapidated buildings at a former Soviet summer camp into a functional campus. Roskomnadzor, Russias internet watchdog, has blocked the religions website, JW.org. Whats happening to the Jehovahs Witnesses in Russia is easily the worst attack on religious freedom in post-Soviet Russia, said Geraldine Fagan, who spent more than a decade in Russia documenting religious affairs. She is the author of Believing in Russia: Religious Policy after Communism. Alina and Daniel, 34, left Russia on May 18, two days after a team of heavily armed and masked police raided their family home in Orenburg. On that day, the couple hid on the second floor as the police ransacked the house, taking computers, cellphones, passports, credit cards and other items. They didnt come to investigate; it was a real manhunt, Alina said. Anya Kotelnikova, left, Alin Tovmasian, 35, center, and Sergei Kotelnikov, 31, with his daughter, Emily, gather in the kitchen of a cottage at a refugee center in Konnunsuo, Finland. (Vasiliy Kolotilov / For the Los Angeles Times) Alin and Yulia Tovmasian say they were harassed and threatened by a neighbor. One day, they said, the man attacked Alin Tovmasian with a knife. The couple called the police, who said there was no evidence of a criminal offense, Yulia Tovmasian said. Based on whats going on now, even if legally they would allow us to live free again, the atmosphere will stay the same, Yulia said. People will continue to hate Jehovahs Witnesses because this attitude is coming from the top. Jehovahs Witnesses have been in Russia for more than 100 years. During Soviet times, they were persecuted by the Communist state and thrown in prison camps as spies or for refusing to enter the military. Jehovahs Witnesses are opposed to military service, and discourage voting, participation in patriotic activities and flags. The crackdown now does coincide with this revitalization of traditional values in other ways weve seen in Russian politics, and with the reemergence and reestablishment of the Russian [Orthodox] Churchs influence in Russian society and Russian politics, said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. The Russian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but emphasizes four traditional faiths Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. About 70% of Russians adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church, which is recognized by law as having a special status. During his 19 years of rule as president or prime minister, Vladimir Putin has publicly courted a closer relationship with the Orthodox Church as a defining aspect of Russian identity. Experts have suggested that the Orthodox Church sees Jehovahs Witnesses door-to-door preaching as competition. Other faiths have come under pressure in recent years, including Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Hare Krishnas, and others. Despite their constitutional status, Muslims have been subjected to discrimination, according to the U.S. State Departments latest survey of international religious freedom. In 2016, Russia passed a vaguely worded anti-extremist law known as the Yarovaya law. The law established the premise for the ban of Jehovahs Witnesses. The legal reasoning in the court ruling was that the Jehovahs Witnesses organization asserts this supremacy of their interpretation of the Bible and the superiority of their religion over others, Denber said. But find me a religion that doesnt do that. The Jehovahs Witnesses have appealed Russias ruling to the European Court of Human Rights. Sergei Kotelnikov, 31, fled northern Russia with his wife, Anya, 18 months ago. In the Tovmasians kitchen, Kotelnikov explains how neighbors in Russia called the police and the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, while his local congregation was holding a gathering. Anya, 28, was pregnant at the time. They decided to go to neighboring Finland. We realized that we would end up staying in a refugee camp, but we had no other options, he said. Their daughter, Emily, was born five months after they arrived. International pressure is mounting on Russia to reverse its ban. President Trump did not raise the issue with Putin during their summit in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, last month, but Vice President Mike Pence mentioned it at a White-House-organized gathering to advance religious freedom in June. The Kremlin has distanced itself from the courts ruling, saying it cannot interfere in an independent courts decision. We would like Russia to have freedom in the full sense of the term, Yulia Tovmasian said. We have a constitution in Russia, but it turns out its not taken into consideration. sabra.ayres@latimes.com Twitter: @sabraayres Ayres is a special correspondent. BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's new countermeasures to impose additional tariffs on about 60 billion U.S. dollars worth of products from the United States are "rational and restrained," a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday. The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Friday unveiled lists of 5,207 items of U.S. products to be subject to additional tariffs of four different rates -- 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent, and 5 percent. The decision was made in response to a U.S. plan to raise tariffs to be imposed on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent. "China's countermeasures with differentiated tariff rates are rational and restrained, and were proposed after extensively soliciting opinions and careful evaluation," the spokesperson said in a statement. The measures have taken into full consideration factors including the people's well-being, the bearing capacity of companies, and maintaining the functioning of the global industrial chain, according to the spokesperson. "China always believes that consultation based on the principles of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit is the effective way of resolving trade differences, and any unilateral threat or blackmail will only aggravate contradictions and hurt the interests of all sides," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson pointed out that, because the United States had repeatedly escalated the situation in disregard of the interests of enterprises and consumers of both countries, China was forced to take the countermeasures to protect national dignity and its people's interests, defend free trade and multilateral mechanisms, and safeguard the common interests of all countries in the world. Commenting on the latest U.S. move to add some Chinese companies into its list of entities subject to U.S. export controls, the MOC said that China stands firmly against U.S. unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities. China urges the United States to relax its controls over exports to China, and protect and promote the high-tech trade and cooperation between companies from both countries, the ministry said. A woeful sight was captured by many Army Corps of Engineer meeting-goers at the Cape Coral Yacht Club when a deceased adult female manatee was pulled from the Caloosahatchee Tuesday. At press time Thursday Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was still working to determine the cause of death of this manatee, along with two others pulled from waters in Englewood on the same day. The manatee was called in by the public and was transported by FWC law enforcement to the Cape Coral Yacht Club, where FWC biologists met with our officers to transport the manatee to the Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab for necropsy, said Melody Kilborn, FWC spokesperson. The female manatee was surrounded by several small males not her babies, as some feared attempting to mate. It is not uncommon for them to mate in herds. These manatees were found in areas where there are high concentrations of red tide, however a cause of death has not been determined yet, Kilborn added. A time table for the necropsy report has not been determined. FWC biologists are working diligently to conduct the necropsy and process samples as quickly as possible, she said. FWC monitors the health of the Florida manatee population through our manatee necropsy program, as part of our ongoing efforts to identify any emerging threats to manatee health, she continued. Consistent and concise necropsies are performed by trained staff and diagnostic samples are tested when needed, to aid in cause of death determination and understanding of health threats. According to FWCs manatee mortality table, 67 manatees died in the month of June across the state, with Lee County having the highest number at 12. Six died of natural causes, five of undetermined causes and one was unrecovered. Many residents across Southwest Florida communities are pointing the finger at red ride and the harmful, toxic algal blooms as to why marine life have been washing up on shore or floating dead in area waters. Kilborn said that as of July 27, high concentrations of red tide were found across many Lee County bodies of water-19 to be exact. As of Aug. 1, red tide was observed at background to high concentrations in 17 samples collected in Lee County. In total, 109 manatees in Lee County have died from Jan. 1 to July 27. In 2017, 19 manatees in Lee County died all year due to red tide poisoning. This year, 53 manatees have died in Lee County due to red tide-and those numbers only cover up to July 19. To report a sick, injured or dead manatee, call FWCs Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-3922. Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj Cape Coral Mayor Joe Coviello says the city needs help getting businesses affected by the historic algal bloom sliming city canals back on track. To that end, Coviello met with a representative from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubios office on Thursday to discuss the toxic blue-green algae blooming shore-to-shore in the Caloosahatchee and Cape waterways, killing fish and leaving a lingering stench. Coviello brought the representative to some of the areas targeted by the city and Lee County as the worst affected. Not only was the algae thick, but smelly. We are looking forward to the senators support. He is looking for some things to do from a funding standpoint that could get us some reimbursement for some of the businesses in the area, Coviello said. I wanted to spend time with them so they understood our plight. Coviello also spoke Thursday with Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman regarding potential areas of cleanup. The mayor said that while Hamman mentioned cleanup would start on Wednesday, it could also start as early as today. Coviello also spoke earlier this week with the Southwest Coalition of Mayors, made up of all the countys mayors, which will seek an extension to state of emergency declared by Gov. Rick Scott July 9 in response to the algal blooms. The request is expected to be made Tuesday morning at the Lee County Board of County Commissioners meeting. Scott issued the executive order for Glades, Hendry, Lee, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties to combat the blooms with $3 million in DEP funding. Lee County has secured $700,000 from the Florida Harmful Algal Bloom Management Grant Program through the Department of Environmental Protection for the removal, processing and disposal of algae from select sites in unincorporated Lee County and affected municipalities, most notably Cape Coral. There are no city funds dedicated to the blue-green algae situation in the proposed fiscal year 2019 budget, according to Connie Barron, city spokesperson. County Manager Roger Desjarlais warned that the cleanup is a test project, a fact reiterated by Barron, who added the grant money wont go very far and that the method to collect the algae isnt exactly proven. Once they collect the algae from the water there are issues regarding the disposal of it. That issue has not been resolved. Until there is concrete evidence there are treatment methods that are effective and cost-efficient, we wouldnt know what to budget for it, Barron said. Idukki : The Kerala police team probing the death of four family members in Idukki has detained three more persons in connection with the case. The investigation team nabbed Pangode native Shibu, Muslim league local leader Irshad and Retired Assistant Commandant Rajasekharan from Thriuvananthapuram on Saturday morning. However, the Kerala police is suspecting witchcraft angle behind the gruesome murder of four members of a family, whose bodies were found buried in a pit in high range Idukki, about 240 km from here. The bodies of Krishnan (52), his wife Susheela (50), their daughter Arsha (21) and son Arjun (19) were found stacked on top of each other and buried in a pit in the backyard of their house yesterday. A complaint was lodged in the local police station recently by some people who were allegedly cheated by Krishnan in the name of witchcraft, police sources said. The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Friday said it is looking into reports that the Abu Sayyaf group has deployed a second van with explosives similar to those used in Lamitan, Basilan. The military refused to give further details but said operations are now ongoing against persons of interest to quell another possible attack. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman said while there are some Abu Sayyaf members who have surrendered, the terrorist group still maintains some bomb experts. They still have people. Those who surrendered said that those who have been trained are still there, Hataman said in Filipino. The Palace urged the public Friday not to speculate or jump to any conclusions following the latest terrorist attack in Lamitan, Basilan. For now, I ask the public to cease and desist from making any speculation and let us wait for the final investigation report from law enforcement agencies, said Roque in a press briefing in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon. Roque made the remark upon the claim that suicide bombers from the Islamic State infiltrated the country and executed the bombing in Lamitan killing 10 people and severely injuring several others. I would not jump to any conclusion. So far, we know that there has been a local cleric who has been ordered arrested. We know that it was exploded in a vehicle and that it killed both passengers and those manning the checkpoint. I still have to get a final investigation report from law enforcement agencies, Roque said. He added that they are still verifying that the ISIS was behind the attack as it was very easy to claim credit for a foreign attack. On Thursday, Malacanang vowed to bring the perpetrators behind the latest terrorist attack. The Philippine National Police on Friday also advised the public to ignore scare rumors. There is no specific threat on any particular target. Therefore, the text scare being spread around is untrue and is obviously designed only to create panic. Scare messages of this nature deserve to be discarded and not shared, the PNP said in a statement. Break the scare chain. Delete that message as soon as it is received, it added. The PNP said it was laying out a preventive plan that would deter terrorists from infiltrating the community.It asked the public to remain vigilant, but reminded them that panic will only make matters worse. Zamboanga City Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said the city has doubled security measures especially with information of another possible bombing. He said measures have also been taken to protect checkpoints. Department of the Interior and Local Government Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Ano said another terrorist attempt may be prevented if the community will be more vigilant of movements in their territories. The AFP said there was no sign that Tuesdays attack in Lamitan was carried out by a suicide bomber. I would like to make it clear for now that there is no indication that the Basilan blast was a suicide bombing, said AFP spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo. He said many factors could have contributed to the explosion, including the possibility that the still unidentified driver could have panicked after seeing the soldiers at the checkpoint. The AFP spokesperson added that the military also believes that the van driver, who was among the 10 persons killed in the blast, was not the bomber but only a courier of the IEDs. Intelligence reports said the Abu Sayyaf Group was planning to deploy the explosives in populated areas in Lamitan City. Arevalo said it is also possible that a companion of the courier, who acted as a sweeper, could have detonated the IEDs upon seeing the courier being intercepted by soldiers at the checkpoint. In the wake of the Lamitan attack, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority is on heightened alert. MCIAA general manager, Steve Dicdican, announced Thursday night that they have intensified security measures at the airport and its premises on orders of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade. Our facilities must be kept protected from any incident caused by inadequate security measures and lapses in our security procedures, he said, stressing the need for inter-agency cooperation against any threat to public order and safety. State auditors on Friday questioned the Commission on Elections for failing to properly document P2.58 billion worth of transactions; the Department of Transportation for an unfinished P295-million toilet project; and the Philippine Health Insurance Company for issuing P163.85 million in unauthorized bonuses and allowances. In a 2017 audit, the Commission on Audit questioned the Comelec for lack of certificates of availability of funds in connection with its 60 contracts worth P2.58 billion in the procurement of goods and services. The contracts were considered null and void, and thus resulting [in] illegal disbursements, it said. Verification of the submitted contracts entered into by the Comelec disclosed that a total of P2,580,157,478.24 composed of 60 contracts for the supply and delivery of various goods and services were affected even with the absence of certificates of availability of funds, state auditors said. CoA said the finance services department only released a certification of availability of allotment and directed it and the bids and awards committee to explain their failure to secure a certification of availability of funds and explain why CoA should not issue notices of disallowances on the 60 contracts. On April 18, Comelecs financial services department, in a letter, apologized to CoA for its shortcomings, saying these were purely and simply an oversight because of the 2016 elections. CoA also flagged Comelec for the release of P121 million for the hauling of the 2016 election paraphernalia, of which P119.28 million went to the joint venture of 2GO Express Inc. and 2GO Logistics Inc. Comelecs accounting department said disbursement vouchers had already been transmitted to CoA in November last year. CoAs other observation was the delivery of P2 million worth of 300,250 pieces of spiral notebooks by the Consolidated Paper Products Inc. for the technical working committees in 2016. CoA also called the attention of the Department of Transportation for the P295-million unfinished toilet project in 2016. In a 2017 audit report, state auditors mentioned again the departments unfinished Kayo ang Boss Ko (KBK) toilet facilities improvement project at the stations of the Philippine National Railways. CoA cited the lack of an inventory report on used and unused construction materials, saying the project management unit was only able to turn over four of the 45 memoranda of agreement as of Feb. 22, 2018. On the other hand, the other 41 agreements remained unacted by the recipients. CoA said it had been reporting the same findings in 2014 and 2015. The government may be left with unfinished/uncompleted toilet projects as a result of terminated contracts, which could not be used by the intended beneficiaries and ultimately cause wastage of government funds, CoAs January 2016 report read.In the 2016 audit report, CoA said only 53.17 percent of the project was delivered three years after its implementation due to poor project management, project termination and abandonment by contractors. The Transportation Department awarded 17 different contracts to three suppliers for P182 million for civil works and P113.7 million for toilet fixtures. No clear guidelines were issued for the proper internal control over the custody, accountability and reporting requirements for the aforementioned construction materials, the audit agency said. It told the department to conduct a probe into the failure to fully implement the toilet project, and file appropriate charges against those responsible. CoA also upheld its order for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to return P163.85 million in unauthorized bonuses and allowances for its officials and employees in 2009, 2010 and 2014. In its two decisions, the state auditors denied the plea of PhilHealth to lift the five notices of disallowance on its grant of unauthorized benefits. It affirmed the disallowance of P80.79 million in Christmas, performance and anniversary bonuses in 2009 and 2010, and P83.06 million in educational assistance and birthday gift benefits in 2014. The release of such bonuses violated the Department of Budget and Management Circular No. 11, CoA said. Auditors said ordinary PhilHealth employees who got the bonuses in 2009 and 2010 were spared from the refund since they were just passive recipients who relied on the honest belief that the amounts were due them. But these employees cannot be deemed in good faith for receiving the benefits in 2014. PhilHealth filed a previous plea, challenged CoAs findings and maintained its corporation fiscal autonomy for personnel compensation under its charter. But CoA ruled that PhilHealths autonomy was not absolute. It chided PhilHealth for the misuse of its members fund, saying like any other social insurance, the members contributions are treated as a trust fund, and thus, should be managed and protected with the utmost integrity. Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao is helping push for the Senate approval to reimpose the death penalty, suspended since 2006, before the end of 2018. We will rush its approval in the chamber this year, the born-again Pacquiao said in Tagalog in an interview with dwIZ. Pacquiao made the remarks after the Catholic Churchs update on its catechism declaring the death penalty as inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. Pacquiao, who leads discussions on the death penalty at the Senate justice committee, maintained that capital punishment was acceptable, being in the Bible, according to him. Capital punishment in this largely Catholic nation of 106 million people has a varied history and was legal after independence and increased in use under President Ferdinand Marcos from 1965 to 1986. After the fall of Marcos, there was a moratorium on capital punishment from 1987 to 1999, followed by a resumption in executions from 1999 to 2006, and followedin turnby a law ending the practice. Asked what heinous crimes should be meted with the death penalty, Pacquiao said drug trafficking, rape with murder, kidnap-for-ransom, and robbery with murder. But he clarified he was open to limiting capital punishment to drug-related offenses to get the support of other senators. Filipinos have mixed opinions about the death penalty, with many opposing it on religious and humanitarian grounds, while advocates see it as a way of deterring crimes.President Fidel Ramos promised during his campaign for the presidency in 1992 that he would support the re-introduction of the death penalty in response to increasing crime rates. The new law, which restored capital punishment, provided the use of the electric chair until the gas chamber (chosen by the government to replace electrocution) could be used. Executions resumed in 1999, starting with Leo Echegaray, who was put to death by lethal injection under Ramos successor Joseph Estrada, marking the first execution after the reinstatement of the death penalty. The next execution saw an embarrassing mishap when President Joseph Estrada decided to grant a last-minute reprieve, but failed to get through to the prison authorities in time to stop the execution. Following on a personal appeal by his spiritual advisor, Bishop Teodoro Bacani, Estrada called a moratorium in 2000 to honor the bimillennial anniversary of Christs birth. Executions were resumed a year later. Estradas successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was a vocal opponent of the death penalty and also approved a moratorium, but later permitted executions and denied pardons. On April 15, 2006, the sentences of 1,230 death row inmates were commuted to life imprisonment in what the London-based Amnesty International described as the largest ever commutation of death sentence. America Where to Live, Most Desirable Best US Cities There was an update to the rankings of the most desirable cities to live in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report. Colorado Springs sprung into first place for the first time. Ive been there, and can understand why they picked the place. Its beautiful, at the foot of dramatic mountains (Pikes Peak), close to the glorious Broadmoor Resort, and only one hour from one of the most attractive larger cities, Denver, which comes in at number 10 on the list. Ive broken these into two tables so you can read the key stats. And I rank them in the order that U.S. News & World Report did, not according to affordability. Do I advise buying in any of these places near the top of the second great real estate bubble since 2000? No. Though there are a few possible attractive deals. But if youre moving and must buy, there are places that are more affordable and have lower risk than others More importantly, the best and most overvalued cities like San Francisco will tend to be the better buys when this inevitable second (and final) bubble crash sets in. Thats very likely to begin within the next year. The original ranking was for the top 25. But I found the top 20 to be inclusive enough of the best places. There are great things about all of these places, and they all deserve to be on this list. At a point, it becomes a matter of personal preference. The most affordable in order of median price to median income valuations are Myrtle Beach (visit there every year with my family) at 4.0 times, New Orleans at 4.2, Port St. Lucie at 4.4, Phoenix at 5.0, and Nashville, Fort Myers, and Colorado Springs at 5.2. Austin comes in at 5.5. Phoenix is a standout for a large city (fifth largest in the country). While Austin does this for medium-size city, and Myrtle Beach for a small city. For big city people, New York is the place at 6.1 times, just not in Manhattan. San Francisco is the worst at a whopping 11.4 times, followed by L.A. at 9.9. They have the highest state income taxes in the country. Boston and Seattle are also more reasonable large cities at 6.2 and 6.6, respectively. Chicago is the third largest city, and the most affordable by far, but it doesnt make this list due to quality of life. Outside of brutal cold, high winds, and heavy crime on the south side, its downtown and best suburbs are very attractive. My choices given my clear propensity for warmer climates would be Austin, Charleston, Asheville, and Phoenix. Sarasota, Florida, which is a high-end retirement community one hour from the Tampa airport, is another place of appeal to me. Its median house price is $234,000 versus the median income of $42,000, or 6.3 times. They have a Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and a great gourmet food store. Thats quite good for a city with only 265,000 people. Something you wont find in Myrtle Beach. Again, I stress that these are the places you want to buy in the long-term when the crash finally sets in. It could take several years to hit a bottom like the last crash, and prices are likely to crash more like 40% to 50% nationally compared to the 37% last time. But some great deals could come in the first few years of it. The more expensive cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu will still be the most expensive. Its just that they will drop more, and are likely to be better bargains in the long term But dont expect price appreciation in the coming decades to be anything like it was from 2000-2018. Thats not likely to ever happen again. At least, not in our lifetimes The continual increase of dyers is offsetting buyers, and will for decades to come. So, buy real estate because you love the house and want to live in that place. Buy to rent only if you can do so for sustainable and positive cash flow. Otherwise, dont buy real estate at all The time of buying any real estate to get rich is over! Harry http://economyandmarkets.com Follow me on Twitter @HarryDentjr Harry studied economics in college in the 70s, but found it vague and inconclusive. He became so disillusioned by the state of the profession that he turned his back on it. Instead, he threw himself into the burgeoning New Science of Finance, which married economic research and market research and encompassed identifying and studying demographic trends, business cycles, consumers purchasing power and many, many other trends that empowered him to forecast economic and market changes. Copyright 2018 Harry Dent- All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. Harry Dent Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Cracking Down on Immigration Impact on US Economy There was a great article in Bloomberg Opinion by Noah Smith. It starts off reminding us that were doing similar things now as we were in the late 1920s, before the 1929 crash and Great Depression. During a major bubble, the Fed started tightening in 1928. In 1930, Smoot-Hawley was passed. It raised import duties, which set off a trade war. That trade war actually started indirectly with World War I and didnt end until after World War II. Though it saw its worst during the Great Depression with the direct tariffs.I look at that peak and deceleration in my new book, Zero Hour, as well as what I see as a second major peak.Trump is only the beginningLike Smoot-Hawley, a trade war will naturally be accelerated by a coming global depression when countries naturally get more defensive and protectionist.So, major alarms should already be going off.And Smith suggests that the biggest blow was from curbing immigration.Back in the last major bubble cycle, immigrants saw an all-time peak as a percent of population in 1907 at 1.29 million.By the second peak in 1914 (World War I), there were 1.2 million. Immigration was up massively from 1898 into 1907, mostly from Europe.Then legal immigration plunged to 110,000 into 1918, during World War I.After a bounce back to 825,000 in 1921, immigration plunged after a second peak in 1924 at 700,000.Why?There was a bomb on Wall Street, and numerous other incidents of immigrant unrest.The Italians and Irish were blamed, and resented, back then.The Johnson-Reed Act (or the Immigration Act of 1924) was passed to curb immigration and it did. Housing prices, permits, and starts peaked a year after that legislation in 1925, and started heading down sharply helping to precipitate the inevitable great crash.Once the economy finally broke, immigration continued straight down into the bottom of the Great Depression, when it hit a mere 23,000 near zero in 1933!In the current cycle, illegals already peaked in 2007.That population is down 4% since, with more leaving than entering.Immigration overall peaked back in 1991 at 2.2 million. Then again in 2002 at 1.7 million before crashing again.Immigration hit a low in 2013 at 1.2 million, and has bounced only slightly since.The strong anti-immigration push illegal and legal is likely to start another steep wave down that could help ignite a recession. That, inevitably, will turn into a depression, given the unprecedented bubbles and stimulus of this era.This, to me, has a more imminent, fundamental, and lasting impact as its demographics.I agree with Smith on this being the most critical factor today, as it was back in the late 1920s.Immigrants need housing. Mostly rentals, at first, leading to more purchases later down the road.They produce and buy goods and services.They mostly move into larger cities that are magnets for growth and innovation.Noah Smith uses a 2016 study from economists Philipp Ager and Casper Hansen that showed a negative impact on manufacturing, and the rise of lower wage jobs (to replace immigrants) in cities most impacted by falling immigration rates.The most likely prediction I have for the next depression currently is between 2020 and 2023.Right on that 45-year cycle that repeats every two cycles, or 90 years in great resets like the massive economic lows of 1843 and 1933. After those two long term peaks, the largest two bubbles in U.S. history crashed into depressions as always occurs.And stocks will repeat 90 years after the 1929-1932 stock crash, likely in late 2019 through late 2022.The present rally is looking less likely to peak later this year (although the jury is still out on that, and more evidence is building for a peak later this year).Currently, our nation has again decided to fight immigration more seriously at the wrong timeAnd started trade wars while raising rates rapidly, thinking the economy is strong enough to handle it!This is adding to the Baby Boomer Spending Wave crash from 2008 to 2023, which only unprecedented QE and stimulus has offset so far.Thats the only reason for any apparent economic strength, not underlying fundamental trends.Theres a limit to such stimulus now tax cuts due to the law of diminishing returns, as any drug addict well knows.Once the economy does finally break, immigration will drop like a rock making the whole downturn even worse.And the trade wars will grow exponentially.Just like in the early 1930sWill you be ready? Harry http://economyandmarkets.com Follow me on Twitter @HarryDentjr Harry studied economics in college in the 70s, but found it vague and inconclusive. He became so disillusioned by the state of the profession that he turned his back on it. Instead, he threw himself into the burgeoning New Science of Finance, which married economic research and market research and encompassed identifying and studying demographic trends, business cycles, consumers purchasing power and many, many other trends that empowered him to forecast economic and market changes. Copyright 2018 Harry Dent- All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. Harry Dent Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Missoula upstart biotech company DermaXon http://dermaxon.com/ received a grant from the Montana Department of Commerce last month to help fund more studies and generate data needed to attract investors for a new compound to treat chronic neuropathic pain. The $99,326 grant from the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology http://marketmt.com/MBRCT , or MBRCT, will help finance further research and development of the topical treatment. Data generated by the research will help attract investors and grants from the government. DermaXon founders Fanny Astruc-Diaz and Philippe Diaz can then begin clinical trials for the medication to gain approval by the FDA, allowing sales nationwide. By Mari Hall Yankton Area Progressive Growth (YAPG) is inviting Yankton business owners, both new and experienced, to be a part of the Power Hour webinars that are hosted by Advantage South Dakota. Based out of Aberdeen, Advantage South Dakota is a group composed of business members with the goal to enhance the economy of the region through collaboration with other businesses. The organization is made up of a consortium of communities in the Northwestern Energy service territory, including Mitchell, Chamberlain, Wagner and Yankton. The next webinar is slated for Tuesday, Aug. 7 from noon-1 p.m. on the topic of customer service. By Reilly Biel [email protected] https://www.yankton.net/community/article_47e24ff0-96ce-11e8-845b-6b1709a40715.html My Favorite Quotes Recent Quotes Portfolio Summary Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the Get Quotes box on the top of the page. Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte said Thursday hell personally meet with people across Montana including conservationists who want a say in the controversial issue about unlocking federal Wilderness Study Areas for multiple uses such as motorized recreation, mining or logging. "Well be meeting more broadly with all the concerned parties," Gianforte told the Chronicles editorial board. "Because we got to hear everybody." Gianforte has been criticized by some environmental groups for not taking their input on the issue. The congressman said thats what hell be doing throughout August. By Freddy Monares Chronicle Staff Writer https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/gianforte-says-he-ll-seek-broad-input-on-unlocking-wsas/article_cda3ad09-6657-55f8-a1d5-e115a486fe97.html *** Rep. Greg Gianforte Field Hearing "Wildlife Management And Response: Challenges And Opportunities" 8/7- Hamilton, MT There will not be an opportunity for public comment. http://www.matr.net/article-84101.html KLM and Air Mauritius will suspend their joint venture operations between Mauritius and Amsterdam at the start of the 2019 IATA Winter season effective from 27 October 2019. The current joint operations on the 2 weekly Air Mauritius operated flights will continue throughout IATA Summer 2019 season ending on 26 October 2019. Passengers holding tickets beyond this date will be either rebooked to other flights or are eligible for a refund. The long established joint venture between Air France and Air Mauritius will not be affected by the suspension of the Amsterdam Mauritius route, thus providing guests the option to travel via Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to Mauritius where both carriers will continue their operations with up to twice daily flights between Paris and Mauritius. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. August 04, 2018 Washington Post Blames Iran For Trump's Unilateral Sanctions Against It Who is to blame for the Trump administration's revocation of the nuclear deal with Iran? Who is to blame for the sanctions the Trump administration is unilaterally imposing on Iran, parts of which go into effect today? According to Jason Rezaian, it is the Iranian government. Jason Rezaian was the Washington Post bureau chief in Tehran. In July 2014 he was arrested in Tehran for espionage and sentenced to prison. In a side deal to the nuclear agreement he was released in 2016 in exchange for Iranians held in the United States. Rezaian now writes a Global Opinion column for the Post. His latest is headlined: I lived in an Iran under sanctions. Heres what its like. I lived in Tehran then and reported extensively on the impact the sanctions had. If that experience is a predictor of what is about to hit the people of Iran, heres a preview of what ordinary Iranians can expect in the weeks and months ahead. He lists a number of issues that sanctions will cause: the rial will fall further, some medicines will be difficult to get, there will be other shortages, black markets will reappear, a few will profit from them: That small but not inconsequential segment of the population will see its wealth balloon as it did in 2012 and 2013. There will be a disproportionate number of the most expensive luxury cars on Earth sitting in Tehran's perpetual traffic. Sounds like London or New York to me. Indeed, as one commentator to that op-ed remarks: A lot in this article sounds like daily life for large numbers of Americans, as if there were sanctions on a large portion of the US population. Iran may see the lifting of those sanctions one day but those Americans most likely will not, partly because so many keep voting for their oppressors. Rezaian continues: Soon enough, well-connected officials and their families with access to the black markets will begin importing and selling goods at exorbitant prices, callously taking advantage of the misfortune that their cronies in government helped create. How, please, have the "cronies" in Iran's government "helped create" the new sanctions? Iran was fulfilling all is duties under the JCPOA agreement. It was solely Donald Trump who abrogated the UN endorsed deal despite the protests of all other signatories. While Rezaian pretends to be concerned about the Iranian people, he continues to put the blame on the wrong party: Maybe the regime in Tehran will quietly crumble tomorrow wouldnt that be nice? but more likely it will press forward, doing little to address the very legitimate concerns of its people just to defy Washington. ... Just as Fidel Castros Cuba, Nicolas Maduros Venezuela and many other anti-U.S. regimes manage to limp along for years, Irans ruling class is similarly stubborn. ... The general malaise of a society living under the perpetual darkness caused by being marked a pariah nation will only worsen. It is hard to discern on what planet Jason Rezaian lives. It must be the one where all nations and people bow to the unreasonable whims of some loudmouth in Washington DC. That is not planet Earth. Iran is not "stubborn". It demands its rights under the JCPOA. Iran is not a "pariah nation", the United States are. It was the U.S. that unilaterally abrogated the nuclear deal. Russia, Turkey, India, China and many others will not abide to unilateral U.S. sanctions on Iran. They will not bow to secondary sanctions if the U.S. tries to impose those. Trump "cronies" visited Asia and demanded that China and India, two of Iran's biggest oil customers, stop buying Iranian oil. Both countries said no. The Trump cronies then begged China and India to not increase their imports when, in November, those sanctions bite, when some of Iran's customers stop buying and when more Iranian oil comes to the market. Those talks happened some months ago and both countries asked for more time to think about the problem. China has now in principle agreed to the Trump request - but only after it made the necessary preparations: The U.S. has been unable to persuade China to cut Iranian oil imports, according to two officials familiar with the negotiations ... Beijing has, however, agreed not to ramp up purchases of Iranian crude, according to the officials, ... ... China -- the worlds top crude buyer and Irans No. 1 customer -- has said previously that it opposed unilateral sanctions and lifted monthly oil imports from the country by 26 percent in July. It accounted for 35 percent the Iranian exports last month, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. India seems to have had the same idea: Indias monthly oil imports from Iran surged by about 30 percent to a record 768,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, as state refiners intake surged ahead of U.S. sanctions in November, preliminary tanker arrival data obtained by Reuters showed. ... July volumes were about 85 percent higher than year ago shipments of about 415,000 bpd, the data showed. When in November the hard oil sanction against buyers of Iranian oil go into effect India and China will insist to keep their current volume flowing. Both have already increased their buys from Iran. They can now promise to Trump that they will not increase their imports from Iran because they already upped those by a very large amount. Iran exports between 2.2 to 2.8 million barrels per day. At least half of that will continue to flow to its two biggest customers. By that measure the sanctions already failed. Trump can not even use the jurisdiction over the U.S. dollar to stop these trades. The deals with India and China are made under bilateral contracts in local currencies and futures contracts than can now be bought and sold in Shanghai where they are denominated in yuan. In addition to the sanctions the Trump regime has launched a number of shady to outright brutal initiatives against Iran. It sent people to Europe to claim that Iran is behind some terror plots in Europe, and that this is enough reason to end the deal. But: "European officials, some skeptical that Iran is behind the plots, say the nuclear deal benefits the region." Still, some European leaders have no backbone and submit to U.S. pressure. A U.S.-Israeli joint operation was set up to increase internal pressure in Iran. It will try to influence protesters in Iran and to incite terrorism. This is likely an early sign of that initiative: A large shipment of weapons incl anti-aircraft guns, 7000 cannon projectiles, 73mm antitank cannons, other ammo found in east of #Iran. Kerman prosecutor gen. says they belonged to anti-government groups. Iran will not fold under pressure, it never folded. It was the Obama administration that wanted and needed the nuclear deal. It used Oman's good office to negotiated with Tehran. Trump may try to do the same (or may indeed already talk with Iran). But his administration made unreasonable demands that Iran can not and will not fulfill. Trump's offer of unconditional talks are not welcome: Every Iranian official I spoke to said there is no trust in this US establishment and that Iran needs practical proof before initiating any dialogue. The U.S. tried to isolate Iran from Russia and China when signing the JCPOA, in the hope that Tehran would accept to stand by the U.S. This was a wrong approach because Russia and China are well established and reliable partners and we certainly cant say the same for the U.S. Trump wants to sit down with us without conditions. We dont want to sit down with him unless he backs off. His style of pressure is not the way to attract Iran; on the contrary, it is the best way to push us far away. One thing is clear: we shall not negotiate away our missile production and capabilities and the support we offer our allies in the Middle East. If this is what he wants, he can stay where he is. It is Trump who will have to climb down and reinstate the JCPOA deal. Unless he does so Iran will not be willing to deal with him. The problem now is that the Zionists behind Trump will not allow him to do that. They will insist on pushing the issue towards a military conflict. It will be another one of those that the U.S. continues to lose. Posted by b on August 4, 2018 at 18:40 UTC | Permalink Comments It can be seenand heardacross campus and beyond. The Bernard Family Clock Tower is up and running. Dedication ceremonies were held Aug. 2 for the Bernard Family Clock Tower, located between the Memorial Union and R.L. Smith ME-EM buildings on the Michigan Technological University Campus. Michigan Tech Alumni Board President Daniel Batten presided over the event alongside University President Richard Koubek and William 69 and Ilene Bernard Jr. In addition to the clock tower, a generous gift from the Bernard family established the William J. Bernard Jr. Family Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide support to Michigan Tech students. Matthew Thomas, from Jackson, Michigan will be the first recipient of the scholarship award. The scholarship will generate a $4,000 award annually. Thomas, along with his parents, was at the dedication and was acknowledged. Yooper Pride Saying he was, "proud to be a Yooper," Bernard stated, "I never thought I'd be in this positionto give this kind of gift." He acknowledged the support of his family, in particular his brother, in building his business. Along with his wife, Bernard said his siblings, children and grandchildren were present at the dedication. Bernard explained the importance of the design of the clock tower, reminiscent of railroad trestles from the copper mining history of the region, with a nod to the Portage Lift Bridge. "We wanted to tie in the history of the Copper Country with Michigan Tech. Hopefully it stands well." The clock tower stands nearly 37 feet tall and sits on a three-and-a-half-foot base constructed of concrete and salvaged Jacobsville sandstone from the original central heating plant that was dismantled two years ago. Each face of the eight-foot square tower boasts a four-foot diameter clock which can be seen throughout campus and from the highway. The tower houses a 37-inch diameter cast bronze bell that will ring for special occasions. Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. SEE THE FULL LIST REQUEST FOR THE FULL LIST READ LATEST NEWS GO HOME FIRST STAGE OF 2015 COWBELL NATIONAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS MATHEMATICS C... Anuradha Shukla By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The government today announced to come up with pilot project to incentivise digital payment, however GST council members claim that the move may not be happen anytime sooner as the technology is not ready yet to support the system. A ministerial panel headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi today approved the proposal for incentivising digital payments through Rupay card and BHIM app by way of cash back. Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card or BHIM UPI will get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 100. We will first launch it on the pilot basis in states which are willing to take up the project, Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters after the meeting, without specifying any time-line. However other members claim that the technology is not yet ready to support the move. The technology is not ready yet. It will take lot of time to prepare technology to calculate tax slabs and do the refund process, so it was decided that once technology is ready, then it will be up to the states, if they wish to take up this pilot project. It is not mandatory. All this will take some time, Amit Mitra, Finance Minister of West Bengal told TNIE after the meeting. Bihar Deputy chief minister Sushil Modi said Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat have all agreed to join this pilot project, he said. Compliance will increase. In the longer run, it will encourage formalization of the economy, said Modi. The GoM had last month decided to defer by a year the proposal to incentivise digital payments under GST citing revenue implications of doling out concessional tax rate, however in its latest meeting on July 21, Piyush Goyal asked the GoM to have a re-look at the possibility of early introduction of concessions for digital payments. Meanwhile, the meeting which was called to discuss the problems specific to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the country did not take any major decision on the sector today and has decided to form a six member sub-committee headed by minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla to look into the taxation and other issues related to smaller businesses. The issues related to law will be taken up by the law committee and those related to rates will go to the fitment committee, Goyal said. A group of ministers will prepare a report after hearing all the problems of MSMEs including tax refunds. By Online MI IT has been ruling over other industries in major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. This has led to more employments and the social status of people has increased tremendously. But the last few years have witnessed an interesting trend of awakening the two and three tier cities as preferred IT regions. Transforming two tier cities into IT destinations was a gradual decision by premier IT industry body, Nasscom. As a result, cities like Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Trivandrum, Coimbatore, and Kozhikode have made a notable presence on Indias IT map. The web development and Digital Marketing verticals of the IT industry has mainly helped companies in these cities to grow at a decent pace. With the top cities in India witnessing the saturated economic growth, a number of tier-2 and tier-3 are emerging as the next IT destinations. The emerging new opportunities in tier-2 and 3 cities is due to the heavy pressure for daily life in urban cities like high cost of living, hectic traffic issues, pollution, neglected hygiene and sanitation, increased crimes and spreads of garbage in the every nook and corner. Compelling reasons to invest in tier II and III cities for IT companies Less urbanized cities have plenty of great perks to offer, and all those are affordable than an exhausted urban city. Right from getting homes to cheaper groceries, tier-2 and 3 cities offer a low cost of living which makes the daily life easier. Not to be mentioned that these cities tend to exhibit very low property taxes too. Also, with fewer inhabitants, it hardly takes 10 minutes to reach any destination within the city, commuting is a cinch. It is easy to save money and enjoy not having to jostle available space in the crowded area unlike bigger cities. Challenges that not to be neglected Along with the opportunities, there comes many challenges too for these cities, like, to run an IT organization that works 24*7 require uninterrupted electricity, high-speed connectivity etc which would be a daunting task. The security of the premises is also another important aspect and if the organizations are in good terms with state and central government, they can get CISF security (if its a special economic zone) or state police security, but there should be a few big organizations who are willing to setup office in SEZ for this to happen. And, above all, this will only happen if the central and state government gives the nod for the SEZ. Government promoting new cities Recently, H.D Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister of Karnataka announced that tier-2 and 3 cities like Hubballi, Mangaluru and Belgaum to come up as the new IT destinations. This decision would leave some burden off Bangalore. The civic infrastructure has been affected in these years with the fast pace development and promoting IT in the rural areas near Bangalore will be a relief to the City. Other cities to promote IT departments next are Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) and Tripura and there are already many good website design, web development and mobile application development companies hailing from these cities by now. In Kerala, the government is lending a huge support to the IT industry where the Kerala Information Technology department is already promoting IT parks in rural areas which are not utilized much. The concept of the government definitely helped in proliferating IT to other districts of Kerala along with upgrading Technopark in Trivandrum and Infopark in Cochin. The seven locations in this plan include Ambalappuzha and Cherthala in Alappuzha district, Koratty in Ernakulam, Kundara in Kollam district, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargod. With the expertise achieved in launching the Technopark (launched in 1990, which is Indias first IT park and one of the largest IT park in Asia in terms of the developed area) and the successful execution of the Infopark, (which is spread across 101 acres with its phase 2 over 160 acres) Kerala State ITs other successful ventures are the 2 Cyberparks at Kozhikode. The strong support rendered by the Kerala IT department paved way to many organizations to play their role in the IT industry. This is quite an exciting opportunity to showcase the real talents and quality of the organization. We could see many companies leveraging this opportunity and one good example is Acodez, a company that functions from UL Cyberpark IT SEZ in Kozhikode, Kerala that emerged as the service provider for some of the leading corporate companies in India like Panasonic, Axis Bank, Anchor Electricals etc and made their mark in the web development India arena, who also won many international awards for their web development and digital marketing works. They also serve clients in more than 70 counties across the globe, all from their 2 development centers in Kozhikode. In general, the advantage of these organizations that operates from tier-2 and 3 cities is that they offer good working environment to the employees with perks and benefits to lead a successful career and family life simultaneously. All these tier-3 & 4 cities has a decent availability of quality workforce too and the main reason for this is the relatively low cost of living which makes it attractive for the people from other cities to relocate. Also, people who basically hails from these cities, but working in other tier-1 cities tend to come back to their native place, which in turn makes the availability of the workforce at par with the tier-2 cities. Even though India can be opted as one of the less urbanized countries in the world, a serious crisis of urban growth has been faced by her population at the present time. Whereas urbanization has been a precursor for social, economic and political growth with only one-fourth of the population in urban cities, it has led to major socio-economic problems and definitely the interest of IT companies and investors backed by the right moves from government to promote these cities will help in both reducing the pressure off the metro cities as well as pave the way to development of these new cities and their nearby areas. By Express News Service MUMBAI: In a breather, the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday allowed Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) to proceed with sale of the latters telecom assets to the former as planned. However, uncertainty prevails over RComs payments to Ercisson India, which moved the apex court on Thursday. According to sources, RCom tried settling its dues with Ericsson India, its operational creditor, with bank guarantees, but the telecom gear-maker rejected the offer, instead preferring repayment of its dues in cash. The SC instructed that RCom pay Ericsson India a settlement amount before October 1, when it hears the matter again. RCom owes the lenders consortium, led by SBI, over Rs 42,000 crore and offered that the sale process will help them recover about Rs 18,000 crore. Lenders may have to fork out Rs 550 crore as settlement offer to Ericsson India from the proceeds they receive through the Jio deal, which the consortium is reportedly uncomfortable with. It remains to be seen how the trio banks, RCom and Ericsson will resolve the issue, which stalled the sale process. In May 30, the NCLAT stayed Ericsson Indias insolvency proceedings against RCom till September 30 on condition that its dues will be repaid. It allowed bankers to continue with the asset monetisation programme, which has been initiated before the insolvency process began. Subsequently, in December 2017, RCom announced the deal with Jio to sell all of its telecom assets, including spectrum, telecom towers business and its land parcel. All could have gone well, but for Ericsson India and Tech Mahindra Ltd, both of which halted the insolvency proceedings against RCom. Though Tech Mahindra withdrew its plea later, Ericsson India pursued the matter, which forced the NCLT to appoint an interim resolution professional. RCom moved the NCLAT to get the insolvency proceedings quashed, saying it could impact recovery. Unsettled dues RCom tried settling its dues with Ericsson India, its operational creditor, with bank guarantees Ericsson rejected the offer, preferring repayment of its dues in cash The Supreme Court instructed that RCom pay Ericsson India a settlement amount before October 1 By Express News Service BENGALURU: Furious over a mob assaulting officials and workers of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engaged in removing unauthorised flexes/banners/buntings following courts directions to put the city back on track, the Karnataka High Court on Friday swung into action at lightning speed. The division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R Devdas said while thumping the table: They (BBMP) could have informed and taken the support of police, and the police should have put up a task force. Such a situation (incident) sounds obnoxious and eats at the root of our system. Any single officer touched by anybody is like challenge to this court or law... Any hooliganism has no place in Bengaluru. The police should be vigilant and only thing that should prevail is the law. This clear message was given to the City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar who was present in the court by the division bench, after taking note of the Thursday incident of assault extensively reported in the media. Nobody should take government officials for granted and misuse the system. The police should investigate this case thoroughly and book the conspirators/instigators, the court said. The incident is an insult to the institution. The police commissioner will be held responsible if any such incident is repeated or a single flex erected after the removal of existing flex/banners/bunting. The Commissioner himself should monitor the case and submit the affidavit explaining the steps taken or to be taken to give proper protection to the officials and workers involving in the removal process, the court said. We would definitely expect the result of the investigation to be presented to the Magistrate concerned at the earliest and in any case, on or before August 7, 2018, as assured by Advocate General, the court said. Before this, Advocate General Uday Holla submitted that the matter has been taken up with all seriousness by the administration and all steps are being taken to carry out appropriate investigation into the matter and to submit the result of the investigation at the earliest. He also submitted that the FIR was registered and four persons have been arrested. Four held for assault on BBMP workers Ramamurthynagar police on Friday arrested four men who assaulted BBBMP officials while removing flex boards near Tin Factory on Thursday. The arrested have been identified as Rajendran (32), Kamalnath (37), Surya(26) and Shimshan (23), residents of Udayanagar. Two others are still at large. A police officer said the accused are contractors and they have been fixing illegal flex boards in the locality for several years. The accused belonged to a gang in the area and had also threatened the locals over tying hoardings on a flyover near Tin Factory two weeks ago. The locals had asked them not to tie hoardings on the flyover as it could also fall on bikers below under heavy winds. But the accused allegedly ignored these warnings. "The accused will be handed over to judicial custody once interrogation is done," the officer said. More than 18,000 kg of flex material seized on Friday On day three of its war against flexboards, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities cracked down on shops that manufacture flex boards or take printing order for the same. A total of 18,820 kilos of flex material was seized from all eight zones. In the first two days, BBMP authorities had removed close to 20,000 kilos of flex, banners and boards across the city. There were few more which they cleared on Friday. The new flex material which was seized on Friday includes some carrying birthday wishes. By Express News Service CHENNAI : The Madras High Court on Friday questioned the approval given by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to construct Chennai Silks building on the T Nagar site where the earlier building was gutted.A division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice A D Audikesavalu told the state housing secretary, who was present in the court, During the recent fire that gutted the entire building, the fire and rescue department submitted that there was no sufficient place for the fire vehicles to reach the spot or even take a ladder near the building. While the fact being so, how did the authorities once again approve the building plan for construction in the same place? The bench made the observation on a plea moved by Kannan Balachandran, a resident of T Nagar, who alleged that 40% of construction of Chennai Silks building was completed within 20 days of approval of building plan. When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, the authorities submitted all relevant documents with regard to the plan approval were issued to the building.When one wing (fire and rescue) of the government submitted that proper road width is not maintained around the building, how has the other wing (CMDA) approved the building plan?, the bench said.. The court then directed the department to measure the width of the road and the flyover nearby the Chennai Silks in the presence of all parties concerned and submit a report. To this the CMDA submitted that it had been clearly mentioned in the plan approval that construction should not be carried out till approval was obtained from the Chennai Corporation. Opposing the contention, the petitioner submitted that the multi-storeyed building committee, in its report, stated that T Nagar is a congested area, particularly in Ranganathan Street and Usman Road there are 142 deviated buildings. But no action has been taken till date.Parking area to park 2500 cars has to be provided in all these 142 buildings. But they do not exist. Re-classification of this area is bad in law and already the area is full of rampant illegal constructions, he added. Recording the submissions, the bench posted the plea to August 7. HC objects transfer of idol theft cases Chennai:THE Madras High Court on Friday took a strong objection to the order of the State government transferring all cases pertaining to idol theft, to the CBI. Is it necessary to order the transfer of temple idol theft cases to the CBI, when the court-appointed idol wing is already probing the cases, the HC asked. Justice R Mahadevan, who raised the question, also wondered whether it was proper for the state to pass a GO for the CBI probe when the court had asked for the documents pertaining to the policy decision taken by the State in this regard. The court adjourned the hearing to August 8. DK hails govt decision on CBI probe into idol Chennai:The AIADMK government, led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Friday received kudos from unexpected quarters - Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani - for shifting cases relating to idol theft to the CBI. The DK has been critical of State governments move on many issues. By Express News Service CHENNAI : Twenty-one fishermen, who were stranded in Iran after being cheated by their employer in Bushehr in Iran and denied their passports, will be arriving in Chennai early on Saturday morning by a Qatar Airways flight, according to the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM), which is coordinating with the state, the Ministry of External Affairs and the fishermens families.The fishermen will be arriving at 2.20 am on Saturday by Qatar Airlines flight, an official of the NDWM said. This comes in the wake of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announcing on Tuesday that the 21 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded at Nakhitaghi (Iran), had been released, thanks to the efforts of the Indian Embassy in Iran and Indian Consulate at Bandar Abbas. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to direct the Indian Embassy in Iran to take necessary steps for bringing back the 21 fishermen. The NDWM and Migrant Forum, a regional network of non-government organisations, have requested the Chief Minister to consider the fishermens sufferings in Iran and grant monetary aid and compensation to them. The fishermen were cheated allegedly by Indian agents Mangala Travels and one Antony, an unregistered agent, of Rajakamangalam in Kanniyakumari district and taken to Dubai on a visit visa. Antony had recruited the fishermen with the help of Mangalam Travels by getting huge money for air ticket and visas. They were initially provided tourist visa to Dubai where they stayed from December 7 to 12, 2017. On December 12, Antony provided them tickets to travel to Bushehr. Once they arrived in Bushehr, their passports were withheld and they were given residence card to be in Iran. The sponsor, Mohamad Sala, denied them their due salary for the last six months and when the fishermen demanded it, they were evicted from their residences and left to fend for themselves. Menial jobs The Indian Embassy in Iran paid money to the fishermen for their food, which was exhausted in the middle of July. The fishermen managed by doing menial jobs outside to earn money for their food Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By Express News Service CHENNAI: In what could be another scandal in the Anna University, the vigilance officers are probing whether the university officials caused Rs 60 crore loss to the exchequer by printing mark sheets in huge quantum at an inflated price earlier this year. The convenor committee of the University (which was dissolved with the appointment of MK Surappa as Vice-Chancellor), had formally lodged a complaint with the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption. The university needed only 2 lakh mark sheets. However, over 20 lakh mark sheets were printed. We alerted DVAC in March, said a source privy to the matter. These are empty mark sheets which would be later filled with the marks and distributed to the students. Also read | Malpractice known in May: Anna University The DVAC officials said they are investigating the allegations now along with the cash-for-marks scam. But an FIR is yet to be filed in the allegations over the mark sheet irregularities. Sources said that this many mark sheets should not be printed in one stretch as university grading system changes with regulations and these changes will alter the format of the mark sheet. Thus these mark sheets would go waste sooner. The cost of mark sheets ranged from Rs 25 to Rs 60, as opposed to single-digit cost usually incurred by other universities, the source said. The printing company is said to have charged such exorbitant price claiming that reasons of improved security such as logos, hidden foils and other features that will prevent duplication. There are further alleged malpractices in tendering, according to another source in the University. The tendering process was not transparent and the printing was done in a hushed fashion. Other authorised printed were kept in dark about the tendering process, the source said. Egyptian Armed Forces spokesperson Tamer El-Refai announced on Saturday that joint naval training activities between Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and United States have concluded. The Eagle Response 2018 joint military exercise was conducted in Egypt's territorial waters in the Red Sea. The drills lasted for several days and were carried out by naval, air and special forces of the participating countries. The Egyptian navy participated in the training with a number of frigates, rocket launchers, special naval forces in addition to multi-mission aircraft and helicopters. The US participated with army destroyer USS Jason Dunham as well as a team of explosive ordnance disposal experts. The UAE participated with a surface ship as well as special naval forces. Saudi Arabia participated with a team of specialised experts in locating and removing underwater explosives, as well as special naval forces. "The training included the planning and management of joint combat actions for all elements of modern naval warfare, displaying understanding and coordination between the maritime forces of the participating countries, as well as implementing total control of large areas of the sea and the ability to resist possible terrorist acts," El-Refais statement said. The forces also carried out a number of exercises including firing from various positions, explosive ordnance disposal, which involves the safe detonation of explosives, and joint diving and combat operations to secure maritime zones against different threats. The forces also carried out an exercise on search and rescue operations, and the right to visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) training, which prepares forces to move alongside and board another vessel. Search Keywords: Short link: By PTI NEW DELHI: Delhi University on Saturday released its seventh cut-off list for admission to undergraduate (UG) courses with many off-campus colleges declaring the availability of seats in science and commerce streams. Students in the general category can apply for BA(Hons) Economics in Kamla Nehru College, Aryabhatta College, Daulat Ram College and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce. Seats are also available for general category candidates in BA(Hons) English at Aryabhatta College along with other courses like BA programme, BA(Hons) Political Science. Similarly, the general aspirants can apply for BA(Hons) in Sanskrit and Sociology in Bharati College. Delhi College of Arts and Commerce has seats available for BA(Hons) English, BA(Hons) History and BA(Hons) Journalism. Science students in the general category can apply for Bsc (Hons) in Computer Science at Dyal Singh College while Daulat Ram College has seats available under its Bsc(Hons) Mathematics course. Acharya Narendra Dev College has seats available for general category candidates under BA(Hons) Botany and Chemistry. The new academic session had started last month. The varsity threw open its admission portal for aspirants of various undergraduate courses on May 15. The registration for these courses ended on June 7. The first cut-offs were announced on June 19. The total number of male applicants are 1,44,248, women 1,34,297 and other applicants 29. According to an official from the university, 2,78,544 aspirants have made payments. Last year, around 2.20 lakh candidates had made payments. By Express News Service Kochi: A private bank employee has been arrested by Elamakkara police for spying on his lovers husband for five months. Ajith, who hails from Ambalapuzha, had been spying on a man after he fought with his wife over money matters. Ajith, who was in a relationship with the estranged wife, allegedly installed an Android application in her husbands mobile phone, capturing all his movements and day-to-day activities. He captured the husbands private conversations and all other private moments. The wife would then blackmail her husband using all the data collected from his phone. This led to the husband growing suspicious as to whether someone was following him. Soon after he realised that his phone was bugged with a spy software application, he filed a complaint with the police, who tracked Ajith with the help of the same application. The accused is being questioned for more details. Dhinesh Kallungal By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Munnar Homestay Association secretary Johnson Joseph said, Though the Neelakurinji season draws nearly eight lakh tourists to Munnar in a short span of time, its not an ideal business model for the hill station as it leaves a big impact on the region. For instance, the district administration has been dumping the waste near Lakshmi Estate all these years. We want a permanent solution to the issue. We also need to address traffic and parking woes if Munnar needs to be developed as sustainable eco-friendly tourism destination, he said. A couple of weeks ago, the district administration had convened a meeting of various stakeholders to arrange facilities for tourists. They shouldve begun the work at least six months, if not one year, in advance. If only the facilities can be ensured in a neat way, Munnar can make the most of it, said Joseph. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA:Alleging that the Centre betrayed the State without implementing the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said his government will fight against the Centre until achieving the rights of the State. Participating in Grama Darshini in Krishna district on Friday, he found fault with opposition parties for targeting the TDP government instead of the NDA regime at the Centre for the gross injustice done to AP. Addressing a public meeting after participating in the Grama Darshini - Grama Vikasam programme at Tatakuntla village in Vissannapet mandal, Naidu accused the Centre of conspiring to obstruct the development of the State with collusion politics. Even as the Centre was stalling the funds, AP ought to get genuinely, the YSRC and Jana Sena parties were cooperating with the Centre doing injustice to the State, he said. Both YSRC president YS Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan are confined to blame the State government instead of the Centre. While the YSRC is mortgaging the interests of the State to get rid of the cases against Jagan, Pawan Kalyan, who used speak well earlier, now, has changed his voice and direction, he said. Stating that all the welfare and development schemes will go uninterrupted in the State, he asserted that his government will collect all the dues from the Centre along with interest by continuing the fight. Apart from extending unemployment dole to youth, the government has also decided to issue notification for filling up 10,000 posts in the State, he said. During a teleconference with TDP MPs, the Chief Minister said that the State is in crucial stage and the responsibility of developing it lies on all. Stating that people were satisfied with the MPs fight against the Centre both in and outside Parliament, he wanted them to act in more dignified manner while raising issues in the House and confronting the BJP government. We will have to consider all options like moving Privilege Motions against the Union Ministers in case of misleading the House, filing of affidavits in Supreme Court and going ahead using all the options to achieve the rights of the State, he said. Alleging that the YSRC chief was acting in an irresponsible manner by making personal remarks against Pawan Kalyan and changing his stand on issues like Kapu reservation time-to-time, he observed that the Opposition party is in distress with intolerance, immature and inefficient leadership. Despite appointing a consultant (Prashant Kishor) after paying hundreds of crores, the YSRC is still lacking efficient leadership as the party chief Jaganmohan Reddy is acting in an irresponsible manner on several key issues, he said. It is evident that Jagan is in a state of frustration going by his statements on Kapu reservation issue. His father and former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy failed to come forward to spend `10 lakh on Dalwai Subramanyam Committee for surveying the living conditions of Kapus. Who will believe the YSRC chiefs promise of spending `10,000 crore on welfare of Kapus every year, the Chief Minister questioned. Naidu to visit Karunanidhi today Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will visit Chennai on Saturday to console the ailing former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi. According to official sources, Naidu, scheduled to participate in several programmes in Tirupati, will first visit Chennai. After visiting DMK president Karunanidhi in Kauvery Hospital and enquiring about his health condition with family members, he will go to Tirupati. Mrinal Rajaram By Express News Service Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Director: Ol Parker Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Andy Garcia, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars The second instalment of Mamma Mia! could not have come at a better time, so to speak. Amidst countless rumours of a reunion, ABBA recently confirmed that they will bring out new music and play live for the first time in over three decades. Though Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again misses the natural charm of Meryl Streep, it is a better film than its much-hyped predecessor. The upbeat tone that the musical attempted to encapsulate with ABBAs timeless classics twenty years ago seemed more forced in part one than it does in the follow-up. The plot of Part 2 is not as overly sentimental and implausible as the original, with certain aspects being filled with half-decent humour. The real standout of this film is Lily James. Playing a young Donna Sheridan, she fits seamlessly into the role of a girl on the cusp of a life filled with adventure. Most musicals, if not all of them, rely heavily on the fantastical. But once we take the singing and dancing away, how engaging is the story the film attempts to recount? It is through James portrayal of a young Donna that we see all that is possible. Unlike Amanda Seyfried in the first film, Lily James does a far superior job of convincing us about the wonder that is life. The film may still be a bit simplistic on the whole but the plot (along with the music and dance, of course) is interesting enough. A case can be made as to why there was an adaptation of the musical, in the first place. When there is a sequel involved, all of ABBAs iconic numbers are played on repeat. For those who arent admirers of the band, this may feel tedious. But die-hard fans are bound to forgive a sentimental story that rides on oodles of hope and possibility, and just say Thank You For The Music. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again presents two parallel stories: one follows Sophie Sheridan as she prepares to re-open Hotel Bella Donna in memory of her late mother, and the other digs into the past to explore a young Donnas life, and how she ended up on the Greek island of Kalokairi. Sophie laments the fact that her two dads (Harry and Bill) and her partner, Sky, will not be able to make it to the grand opening of the hotel. But the spirit of her mother (whom all this is dedicated to) and the constant motivation from her third father, Sam, inspire her to prod on, regardless. Tanya and Rosie arrive shortly thereafter, and cheer up a morose Sophie. In 1979, a class is about to graduate when Donna and her two Dynamos in Tanya and Rosie break into a spontaneous singing and dancing session set to When I Kissed the Teacher. Donna then sets off on a journey of a lifetime, leaving her teary-eyed friends behind. In Paris, she meets a shy banker by the name of Harry. Donna and Harry hit it off, with the latter professing his love for her instantly. Donna has other plans, though, and heads to Greece. When she misses the ferry to Kalokairi, she befriends Bill, a charismatic, blonde, and blue-eyed Swede. Already smitten, Bill agrees to take her to the island on his boat. After dropping her off, Bill promises to return. Once on the island, Donna makes friends with the locals, and is drawn to a dilapidated house. While exploring the abandoned structure on a stormy night, she sees a trapped horse agitated by the lightning. She manages to free the horse with the help of Sam. The two soon begin an impetuous romance, little realising that trouble is at the doorstep. Between the two parallel storylines, it is painfully clear that the plot involving Donnas younger self is the more engaging and exciting one. This is thanks almost entirely to Lily James, who, in my opinion (and despite the large star cast) carries the film on her shoulders. She embodies ABBAs largely positive and hopeful outlook throughout, making the audience believe as much in her dreams and aspirations as she does herself. Mrinal Rajaram By Express News Service Mulk Director: Anubhav Sinha Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Manoj Pahwa, Rajat Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana Rating: 3/5 stars One good thing about mainstream Hindi cinema over the last few years is that it is open to new and more realistic material. Subjects that were once taboo or controversial or thought of as commercially unviable are now seeing the light of day. Mulk is a perfect example of such cinema. Not just is it relevant to the times, it makes a strong case for breaking down the barriers of bigotry and prejudice that are sweeping the country. The film narrates the tale of a respectable Muslim family living in Varanasi. They are deemed respectable because the patriarch, Murad Ali Mohammed, is a successful lawyer (and is often fondly called Vakeel Sahib by his peers). The Mohammed family is often seen fraternising with its predominantly Hindu neighbours, inviting them to functions at the house and such. Other members of the joint family include Alis wife, Tabassum, his brother Bilaal, and Bilaals family (his wife and two children Aayat and Shahid). Ali is on good terms with all the Hindu members of his neighbourhood, having shared a special long-standing bond with three people in particular. When Shahid is indicted in a terrorist attack in Allahabad, the family is in shock. His gradual radicalisation at the hands of terror mastermind, Mehfooz Aalam, is shown to the audience in snippets, but the family is unable to see the fire being stoked. Investigating Officer Danish Javed, sends a team to the Mohammed household in the hope that they can somehow talk Shahid into surrendering. But Shahid refuses to give up despite pleas from his stricken family, and with Aalam constantly egging him on, he is killed trying to escape. His father, Bilaal, is immediately taken in for questioning. Alis daughter-in-law, Aarti, who happens to be a lawyer, accompanies Bilaal to the police station. An unfair court case ensues. Mulk does a fine job with the treatment of its subject. Subtle hints are thrown at the audience long before the case begins. The first scene showcases Shahid speaking to Mehfooz Aalam. The latter tells an eager Shahid, Just because you wear a ten-rupee topi, cover your legs below your knees, and say namaaz every day, you dont become a Muslim. The indoctrination is never really seen beyond a smattering of stray dialogue. And religious fundamentalism is witnessed across the board. When Chaubey (Alis dear friend) chastises his son to pay more attention to the business instead of politics, his son tells him in no uncertain terms: These people (meaning Muslims) are destroying our country, and youre still socialising with them. Prejudice plays the role of a main character in Mulk. This shift in attitude among the Hindus is witnessed as soon as the news of Shahid breaks. Old friends and acquaintances begin viewing the Mohammed family with a jaundiced eye; Go Back to Pakistan gets painted on the wall, stones get pelted into their compound, Alis garage is no longer his. The public prosecutor attempts to paint all Muslims with one brush, making arguments that arent based on fact. And even though the judge reprimands him for making the case communal, the formers bias shows when he allows other baseless claims to stand. Ali, however, remains steadfast in the face of any fundamentalism, religious or otherwise; he treats his bigoted Hindu friends/neighbours in the same manner in which he treats his radicalised Muslim brethren. While the acting is rather impressive, some of the court scenes are too dramatic to be taken at face value. Taapsee Pannu is the acting standout. The identity of her character is handled skilfully early on. It is clear she isnt Muslim from the very beginning, but her name isnt revealed until she is asked by the investigating officer. Mulk is the sort of film that sheds light on all that is wrong with India. It can only be hoped that a dramatisation of real events makes people sit up and think about altering attitudes and doing away with prejudices that are governed by fear and a lack of basic understanding. Amit Agnihotri By Express News Service NEW DELHI: A strategic understanding to defeat the Modi government in 2019 national polls has been reached among the Opposition and all parties will coordinate towards this goal, top Congress sources said on Friday in a first of its kind affirmation. ALSO READ: Ballot papers for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, demand 17 parties "A strategic understanding has been reached among the Opposition to defeat the Modi government in 2019. All the opposition parties will coordinate for the purpose," top Congress sources said. According to the sources, the opposition strategy rested on two main objectives. First, to defeat the Modi government together and second, to decide on the PM face post-poll based on the seats each party wins in the next Lok Sabha elections. The Congress' plan is to emerge as the single largest party and then be a natural claimant to the top post. The Congress could win just 44 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 poll and hopes to significantly increase its tally in 2019 from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana. Fighting amongst each other on the PM's post would be divisive for the Opposition and must be avoided at present, the sources said. ALSO READ: Opposition is united, BJP will be finished in 2019: TMC chief Mamata Banerjee Congress insiders said that the alliance in UP (80) and Bihar (40) and Maharashtra (48) alone will ensure that Modi won't return as PM as it would be impossible if BJP did not win 230 seats. "The NDA allies may then press for someone other than Modi from BJP as PM nominee," said the Congress sources. In a clear hint that NDA ally Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and JD-U in Bihar will not be part of the opposition grouping as was being speculated, the Congress sources clarified that an alliance was being negotiated only with like-minded parties. While the grand old party has had pacts with NCP in Maharashtra and with RJD in Bihar, sewing up the BSP-SP-Congress-RLD alliance was a new task, they acknowledged. Inputs from state units would certainly be factored in while finalising the alliances the sources said in reference to West Bengal where the Congress fights the ruling TMC. The BJP and its ideological mentor RSS needed to be defeated as they were trying to capture key institutions like the Supreme Court, Election Commission and CBI. The Congress theme for 2019 against the Modi government would centre wound lack of jobs, farmers' plight, crumbling banking sector and a range of corruption issues, the sources said, adding that the party would fight the BJP's attempts to polarize the voters with a pro-development agenda. Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: Five Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, including a commander, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kiloora village of South Kashmirs Shopian district on Saturday, while a civilian died in Army firing on protestors during clashes at the native village of one of the slain militants. The police, CRPF and Army men had laid siege around Kiloora village on Friday evening after a tip-off that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were hiding there. As the security men challenged, the militants fired at them. The troops returned the fire, the official said. The exchange of fire continued till Saturday morning. Five LeT men - Umar Nazir Malik, Arshad Ahmad Khan, Aijaz Ahmad Pul, Waqar Ahmed Sheikh and Arif Ahmad Mir - were killed. Umar, according to police, was a commander. Thousands of people visited the native place of the slain militants and attended their funeral prayers amidst chanting of pro-freedom, pro-Islamic and anti-India slogans. During the funeral of Arshad at Ganowpora village of Shopian, clashes erupted between Army and locals. Youths pelted stones on soldiers, who retaliated with bullets. READ | Over a dozen injured in clashes with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian Three sustained injuries in Army firing. One of them, Bilal Ahmad Khan, 20, was critically injured and succumbed to his injuries. Meanwhile, the Lashkar commander Naveed Jhat, who escaped from police custody in a Srinagar hospital in February this year, appeared in funeral of Waqar Ahmad Sheikh at Malikgund village of Shopian. He fired some rounds in air to pay tributes to his fallen comrades. Naveed, a Pakistani, is one of the most wanted militants and is also one of the accused in the murder of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Gisele Isaac, chairman of the United Progressive Party in A&B, pointed to a resolution passed this week in Parliament allowing the CIU to operate offshore bank accounts and to accept payment in cryptocurrencies. Antigua and Barbuda has become a haven for fraudsters, money launderers and the like, and the message being sent to the international business community is, As soon as you get into problems just buy an Antigua and Barbuda passport, fumed another Opposition lawmaker. According to the CIU, Choksis application was subjected to background checks, which included open source Internet checks, Thompson Reuters World-Check, queries of various sanctions lists, engagement with regional and international intelligence agencies to include INTERPOL as well as contracted 3rd Party due diligence providers. It was only after the results of all of these checks had been received and assessed that a final decision was taken on the application. In no instance was any derogatory information disclosed on the applicant. Other cross-checks included the US Federal Bureau of Investigations Most Wanted List and other such lists, and queries to the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security. In the conduct of its due diligence, the CIU received documentation of two instances in which the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in 2014 and 2017, opened investigations on a corporate entity owned by Mr. Choksi." "We requested updates on the status of the investigations and received documentary confirmation, issued by the SEBI stating that in one case, the matter had been satisfactorily closed, and indicating in the other that there is not sufficient evidence to pursue the matter further. None of these matters is the subject of the current warrants issued by Central Bureau of Investigations in connection with the Punjab National Bank. It was also observed that 2016 Non-bailable Warrant was discontinued in October 2016. Sana Shakil By Express News Service NEW DELHI: At least 150 files have gone missing from the High Courts of the country in the last 10 years, according to information from the law ministry. Worse, sources suspect the actual number may be much higher as the government data does not include statistics of the Madras, Kerala, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh High Courts. The Madras High Court alone has some 100 missing case files, the sources said. READ STORY HERE | Kerala High Court has a history of crucial files going missing The good news is that the Supreme Court and 17 other High Courts have no such cases. The Calcutta High Court is at the top of the list with 106 missing files, as per the data shared by Union Minister of State for Law and Justice PP Chaudhary in the Upper House of Parliament on Friday. The Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh High Courts have 31 and 12 missing files, respectively. The law ministry came out with the information on missing case documents after assessing records of 20 of the total 24 high courts in the country. READ | Putting back credibility in judiciary The Calcutta High Court is taking steps to digitalise case records so that no case files are lost in the future. Similar steps are being taken by the Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh High Courts, Chaudhary said, adding that the Rajasthan High Court has even passed standing orders to prevent such losses. The minister also informed Parliament that the ministry has initiated digitising all case filesfor their proper and safe preservation to avoid losses of case files and important documents. Digitisation of case records of High Courts across the country has been initiated and is at varying levels of implementation in different High Courts, Chaudhary said. The process of digitisation of case records in the Supreme Court is in progress, where 5,65,522 case files of disposed matters and 41,397 case files of live matters have been scanned till date. Egypt and China have signed an agreement worth EGP 179 billion for mega projects in the newly constructed Egyptian administrative capital in cooperation with the private sector, Al-Ahram daily newspaper reported. Prime Minister Mosatafa Madbouly said that the projects will be at the citys Central Business District. Madbouly's made the comments during his meeting with members of the Chinese ruling party and secretary of the State Assets Control and Management Committee, which manages 96 national companies, as well as the Chinese ambassador to Cairo. Madbouly pointed out that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced days ago that the year 2020 will witness the opening of the new administrative capital and a number of other projects and cities. The Central Business District project is one of the projects expected to be completed by this date. "I have discussed with the company officials the implementation of a second phase of the project to be signed in the presence of President El-Sisi during his visit to China in September, and asked the company to work to complete the project in the shortest possible time to meet the aspirations and hopes of the Egyptian people," says Madbouly. Madbouly added that the central business district of the new administrative capital includes 20 towers for residential, administrative, commercial and other services. One of the towers is expected to be the tallest in Africa at 385 metres. The Chinese delegation promised to implement the project according to the latest technologies and to employ all the resources of the company to ensure speedy implementation. On the other hand, the Board of Directors of the new Urban Communities Authority, at a meeting headed by Madbouly, approved the issuance of orders for support and contracting for six projects in the second phase of partnership projects with the private sector. Search Keywords: Short link: By PTI NEW DELHI: The Congress today alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP were protecting Brijesh Thakur, the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes case, and questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the incident. Referring to Modi and Kumar, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that 'jumla babu' and 'sushasan babu' should tell the country what were they doing when such heinous crimes and rapes were being committed on minor girls at the shelter home. "It is clear that the BJP- and Nitish Kumar-led governments are jointly protecting accused Brijesh Thakur. Has anyone ever heard that 42 minor girls are raped and atrocities committed to them and still the Prime minister, who talks of 'beti bachao' all the time, does not utter a single word on the incident. The nation has now come to know that Modiji has given the slogan of 'beti bachao' as a threat," he told reporters. The Congress leader said even 20 days after the matter came to light, the prime minister is yet to speak on the "kind of atrocities" and crimes committed against minor girls. "The truth is that the nation is ashamed at the way the governments of 'jumla babu' and 'sushasan babu' gave protection to the kind of crimes being committed on minor girls." "Was all this not happening under the very nose of the government. What was the government doing? What were the Sushasan babu and jumla babu doing? They should answer the nation," he said. Ritwika Mitra By Express News Service PALWAL: A man in his mid-twenties was tied up and beaten to death at Behrola village in Haryanas Palwal district after an alleged attempt of cattle theft on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. The victim, who remains unidentified, is said to have arrived with two accomplices who managed to flee. Fourteen injuries were found on the mans body. There were internal injuries as well. The main cause of death is intestinal rupture as per the postmortem report. Visceral samples were dispatched to a forensic lab, said Suresh Kumar, Additional SHO, Palwal. Though the family, which claimed was the target of the cattle thief, said villagers turned out to lynch the man for teaching a lesson, the police refuted that it was a case of mob violence. Police arrived at least one and a half hours after the first call was made between 4 am and 5 am about the cattle thief, the family said. The police, however, maintained that they received the call after 6 am. We called up the police at 4 am to inform them that we caught a man cutting a net and trying to steal our cattle. The police arrived after 6.30 am. Meanwhile, we tied him up with a rope and laid him on the ground. We called up villagers who thrashed the man. Initially, we refused to give him water, but relented after a villager insisted, said Beer Singhs wife Santra. Beer Singh and his brother Prakash are named as accused while Ram Kishan arrested, said Waseem Akram, SP, Palwal. The families of four brothers, who live about a kilometre away from the main village, own over two dozen cows and buffaloes. Ram Kisans wife Balyesh claimed the family never wanted to beat the man to death. So, we had called up the police so that they could come and take the man away. Even though the police tried to portray the killing as an isolated incident, villagers said locals reached the spot after the news spread. A few of them claimed they did not go to the spot despite getting calls from the family. I got a call late in the night that a man was tied up and was beaten up. I did not go because of politics. The matter would have flared up if I reached there, said Satya, who claimed to be the village sarpanch. On paper, his daughter-in-law is the Behrola sarpanch. Meanwhile, the family showed little remorse saying the killing was justified as there were regular cases of cattle theft. "Why should we be punished? A theft would have occurred in our house," said Santosh, the fourth brother's wife. Most villagers were on the same page that thieves should be thrashed. Amit Agnihotri By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Corruption under the Modi government, especially related to the Rafale jet deal and mega bank frauds, will be the main poll planks of the Congress ahead of the 2019 national elections. The Congress Working Committee, which debated the twin issues at great length, decided to launch mass movements over the coming days to take corruption of the Modi government to the people. "After the CWC decision, the AICC general secretaries will chalk out the details of the protest with the state unit chiefs and district unit chiefs," Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala said. The Congress has been slamming the centre over the two issues but the Rafale deal led to major face- off between Rahul Gandhi and PM Modi during the no-confidence motion in Parliament. "One of the highlights of CWC meeting, was Mr Antony's brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 Cr. stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt," Rahul tweeted referring to former defence minister AK Antony and private player Reliance which will get offset benefits worth Rs 30,000 cr under a joint venture with manufacturer Dassault Aviation. When asked if the Rafale jet deal had resonance among the voters, the Congress made it clear that it was in no mood to give up the issue as it involved misappropriating Rs 41,000 crore of tax payer's money. AICC Press briefing by Former Chief Minister @ashokgehlot51 & @rssurjewala, Incharge Communications AICC on the Congress Working Committee meet. https://t.co/6McCjv0NYf Congress (@INCIndia) August 4, 2018 The Congress is concerned that while the UPA was purchasing Rafale aircraft for Rs.526 crore per piece, Modi government proceeded to buy the same at three times the price of Rs.1,670 crore (36 aircrafts for Euro 7.5 Billion). "This is a clear-cut case of an extra amount of Rs.41,205 crore being paid from the state exchequer, for which there is no justification," said Surjewala. Besides Rafale, the mega PNB fraud and the escape of two main accused Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, allegedly with some help from the Centre, will be flagged by the Congress to corner the Modi government in the run up to the 2019 national polls. "How did the central government and the Gujarat government allow Mehul Choksi to leave the country in 2018 when he was under police investigation since 2016," former finance minister P Chidambaram tweeted after the CWC meeting. Among the other issues that will form the opposition party's ammunition against the Modi government would include joblessness, widespread farm distress and a sliding economy. By PTI NEW DELHI: A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Milan had to return to the airport in Italy within 30 minutes of take-off after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, the airline said today. According to an airline spokesperson, the incident happened on August 2 when the passenger, and Indian citizen whose seat no.was 32C, tried to enter the cockpit in clear violation of aviation rule. On landing back, he was handed over to the local police who are probing the incident. The aircraft had over 250 passengers onboard. "AI 138 Milan-Delhi flight delayed by 2.37 hours as one unruly passenger Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after take-off from Milan on schedule. The aircraft landed back and the passenger was handed over to the local police," an airline statement said. Gurpreet's action could land him in the 'no-fly-list' pending the completion of enquiry, the airline hinted. The 'no-fly' list was introduced following several reports of unruly incidents involving passengers, including Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who allegedly assaulted an Air India staffer at the Delhi airport for not being allowed to fly business class. In May, Mumbai-based jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, who had created a hijack scare onboard a Jet Airways flight on October 2017, was put in the 'no-fly' category, the first person in the list. Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRINAGAR: Five militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba were killed in an ongoing gunfight with security forces in south Kashmirs Shopian district. A police official said a joint party of police, CRPF and army men laid siege around Kiloora village of Shopian on Friday evening after receiving inputs about the presence of militants there. He said as security personnel were laying siege of the village, they came under the volume of fire from the hiding militants. The fire was returned by the troops and the gunfight continued throughout the night. In the heavy exchange of fire, five Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed, the official said. He said the operation in the area is going on and they suspect that more militants are hiding there. The official said security forces did not suffer any casualties in the gunfight. There was also no collateral damage. Additional troops have been rushed to the area to maintain law and order and prevent people from taking to roads and marching towards the encounter site. One of the slain militants has been identified as Umar Nazir Malik alias Umar Malik of Shopian. He had joined militancy in August last year. By PTI SRINAGAR: Wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Naveed Jatt, who fled from police custody early this year, today made an appearance at the funeral of a militant killed in a gun battle with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district. Photographs of Jatt offering a gun salute to Waqar Ahmad Sheikh at his funeral in Shopian's Malikgund village have surfaced on social media. Jatt escaped from police custody on February 6 while he was being taken to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital here for a medical examination. Naveed Jatt appears at the funeral of killed LeT commander to offer gun salute.#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/pIRCQE95aw Anil Tiwari (@Interceptors) August 4, 2018 Two policemen were killed in a shootout at the hospital. He is also an accused in the murder case of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead outside his office at Press Enclave here on June 14. By PTI RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today said that the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam should not be hyped up as India was not a "dharamshala" (guest house) where foreigners would keep on infiltrating. He told reporters in Durg district that those who could not prove their nationality should leave the country. "There is no need to hype up the issue. Is our country a dharmashala that foreigners will keep on infiltrating," he said, when asked to comment on the issue. "Anybody comes here and start living. They must be dragged out, and for this purpose only such persons have been identified (in Assam)," he said. He said the exercise was the result of an eight-year-long protest by the Assamese youth. "The Supreme Court had formed a committee which was constituted during the Congress' rule. Today, the matter is being twisted," he claimed. "Either these 40 lakh people (who were excluded from the NRC) who have come from outside should prove their nationality or go back from where they have come," the chief minister said. By ANI KOLKATA: All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from West Bengal's Karimpur, Mahua Moitra on Friday filed a police complaint against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, in connection with the incident where the party leaders were detained at Silchar Airport on August 2. Other TMC leaders Mamata Thakur and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have also filed a complaint against Assam Chief Minister in this regard. A delegation of TMC party was arrested under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and was made to halt the night at a guest house near the airport. The delegation claimed that they were allegedly manhandled and physically assaulted by the authorities at the airport. The delegation-- comprising MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra-- was scheduled to visit Silchar on the issue of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft. Earlier on Thursday, Moitra allegedly assaulted a lady constable, who restrained her at the Silchar airport. In a video accessed by ANI, Moitra was seen physically assaulting a female constable, even as the latter pleaded the lawmaker with folded hands to calm down. The video also showed some of the other party workers sitting on the conveyor belt in the airport as a mark of protest against the NRC draft. The draft list left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crores of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971. By UNI SRINAGAR: Over a dozen people were injured when security forces fired pellets, burst teargas shells and also resorted to lathi-charge to disperse demonstrators who were trying to disrupt the Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) in Shopian, where five militants were killed in an encounter since Friday night. However, a police spokesman clarified this afternoon that a civilian youth, who was declared dead, is alive. An injured civilian arrives for treatment at SMHS hospital in Srinagar on 4 August 2018. (PTI) Earlier, he had said that a civilian was killed in the exchange of fire between militants and security forces. Official sources said immediately after security forces resumed operation on Saturday morning with the first light against the militants, holed up in a house at village Kiloora in Shopian, people, mostly youth, hit the streets and tried to move towards the area where encounter was going on. A large number of security forces deployed to prevent any protests immediately swung into action and chased away the demonstrators. However, when it had no impact, security forces burst teargas shells and later opened fire and also fired pellets to disperse the demonstrators, who were pelting stones and bricks. Over a dozen people were injured who were rushed to the hospital. However, five of the injured have been referred to Srinagar, official sources said adding one the injured had received bullet injury in his shoulder. The authorities have already suspended mobile internet service in Shopian, where a shut down was observed today. The Egyptian parliament's leftist bloc known as the 25-30 group said in a statement that one of its members, Alexandria's high-profile MP Haitham El-Hariri, will face questioning by the House's ethics committee on Sunday. The bloc said it will hold a press conference following the questioning to expose facts and show solidarity with El-Hariri. The bloc's statement said that two other leftist MPs Ahmed Tantawi and Mohamed Abdel-Ghani have been already questioned by the ethics committee and are expected to face disciplinary action. Salah Hassaballah, parliament's spokesperson, confirmed in a press conference on 31 July that El-Hariri and other leftist MPs could face serious disciplinary action. Hassaballah told reporters that parliament's speaker Ali Abdel-Aal is keen to see the opposition with a strong voice in the House, "but he stressed many times that at this crucial stage Egypt needs an objective, rather than provocative or confrontational, opposition." A verbal clash erupted between speaker Abdel-Aal and leftist MPs on 17 July or just one week before parliament adjourned for summer recess over a law regulating the salaries of top state officials like the prime minister, parliament speaker, cabinet ministers and provincial governors. While Abdel-Aal insisted that the law aims to cut pensions of top state officials by a large margin to save money for the treasury, leftist MPs rejected the argument. "The pension of any of such top officials will be cut down to 25 percent rather than 80 percent of the last salary he receives on the job," said Abdel-Aal, adding that "the reduction in the value of the pensions of these senior officials by 55 percent aims to help the state treasury save millions in Egyptian pounds." The law faced stiff opposition from leftist MPs, who accused Abdel-Aal of always exercising a heavy-handed approach to parliamentary business and manipulating debates to defend the government and compel MPs to approve its laws. Abdel-Aal responded by accusing leftist MPs of "trying their best to export misguided information about laws to the public and to block the passage of reformist legislations by the House." Abdel-Aal also said on 17 July that he gave orders that parliament's internal bylaws be implemented and that there would be a vote on whether some MPs, convicted by the ethics committee, should be stripped of membership. He added that "I once intervened to save parliament from some MPs who had attempted to hijack it, and now I intervene again to save it from others who aim to hijack it for the second time." In its statement on 29 July, the 25-30 group said "the accusations levelled against MPs El-Hariri, Tantawi, and Abdel-Ghani are politically motivated." "These accusations are old, entirely unfounded, and go back to the time when the group attacked the agreement that led to Egypt ceding two of its Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia," said the statement, "but each time one of our MPs expresses opposition, he faces threats from the speaker that he would be stripped of membership." Spokesperson Hassaballah accused the leftist opposition of exercising a form of dictatorship. "They are trying their best to impose their viewpoints on parliament and public opinion in a provocative way," said Hassaballah. Salah Montasser, a high-profile Ahram columnist, warned in an article last week that stripping leftist MPs of membership would be a bad development for Egypt's political life. "I think that parliament and its speaker should be as keen as possible to see that the House includes all kinds of opposition," said Montasser. Search Keywords: Short link: By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said that around three lakh deaths due to diarrheal deaths could be prevented if the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was implemented fully. The revelation came as part of initial results of the modelling study on the health impact of the SBM conducted by the UN body. Indias accelerated coverage of safe sanitation services, and its determination to end open defecation, will have a substantial effect on the burden of diarrheal disease and PEM by reducing mortality and accumulative Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)the sum of the years of life lost due to premature mortality and years lost due to disability or ill-health, the study stated. According to calculations of the study, if all sanitation services are used, the initiative could result in over 14 million more years of healthy life in the period measured, with the benefits accruing yearly thereafter. Speaking at a workshop, Secretary of Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry, Parameshwaran Iyer, said: I congratulate my team in their efforts to make swachhta everybodys business, he said. The estimations apply to the health impacts from improvements in sanitation coverage only, meaning it is possible that the broader mission has produced additional health gains through changes in personal hygiene and the consumption of safe drinking water, the report said. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes reached the national capital with several opposition leaders taking out a protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday and lashed out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the rape and torture of 40 girls. Key opposition leaders led by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress president Rahul Gandhi among others lent their voice to the protest. Gathered together in the national capital at Jantar Mantar scores of supporters reached the venue, Kejriwal comparing the two said that the way December 2016 Nirbhaya rape and murder case resulted in decimation of the then UPA government, Muzaffarpur incident would root out the Modi regime. Kejriwal was accompanied by Aam Aadmi Party's Rajaya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, senior leader Somnath Bharti and Commando Surendra Singh. ALSO READ | Bihar shelter home rape: Minister Manju Verma defends husband, says she will hang him at public square if he is found guilty "People shielding the culprits should be punished. This is a serious issue and every responsible authority should come forward together. This is the case of 40 Nirbhayas in Bihar, the December 2016 incident shook the UPA government" said Kejriwal addressing the crowd. He said that the issue was flagged several times by various groups and NGO's but the Bihar government dozed on. Kejriwal said that this delay in action showed that the accused had ties with the people in power. Congress President Rahul Gandhi TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav Former JNU students union JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav light candles during a protest over the issue of alleged sexual abuse at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district in New Delhi on Saturday Aug 4 2018. | PTI Former Chief Minister of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi, former RJD member Sharad Yadav, RJD leader Misa Bharti, CPI leader D.Raja, CPM's Sitaram Yechury among others joined the protest showing sympathy towards the 40 girls who were raped and murder. Speaking at the candlelight protest march, Rahul Gandhi said the atmosphere of the entire nation is getting vitiated under the rule of the BJP, which is attacking the weak and marginalized. "India stands united while BJP and RSS stands on the other side as one. You can see how the opposition stands united. I am not here just protesting against the specific case but to represent all women. But when India makes up its mind, no one stands a chance against them" said Gandhi. ALSO READ | Bihar shelter home rape case: Arvind Kejriwal seeks quick justice for victims, 'hanging' of accused in three months Tejashwi Yadav said that even after the Child Commission report on the horrifying acts were revealed no action was taken. The shelter home has shaken the conscience of the nation adding that the people accused of the crime kept harassing the little girls who were staying at the home because they had nowhere else to go. "Brajesh Thakur's name who is a close aid of Nitish Kumar was removed from the FIR. We have come to Delhi because my chacha's (Nitish Kumar) soul has not woken up yet to these crimes," said the RJD leader. L-R CPI leader D Raja RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a protest over the issue of alleged sexual abuse at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district in New Delhi on Saturday Aug 4 2018. | PTI Former Bihar CM Manjhi and CPI leader D Raja demanding the resignation of Nitish Kumar said that the present JDU government has failed on many accounts on the systematic pattern of harassment and abuse. RJD leaders managing the protest kept on requesting the crowd and supporters not to raise slogans in the name of their respective leaders but in support of the 40 girls of Muzaffarpur. "We took the decision that there would not be any party's flag, poster on the stage. I request all to raise today to just raise their voices in support of the 40 Nirbhayas. This incident should not be politicized, people gathered here should not take selfies and pictures of the leaders" said RJD MP Manoj Jha. Tejashwi's sister and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti said, "The central investigation agency could not be trusted with the investigation as it was under the BJP government at the Centre. Nitish Kumar is hand in glove with the key accused in the case and is protecting him." The leaders in the end were seen posing while holding hands together on the stage and lighting candles, the members also observed one minute of silence for the girls. Nitish shielding accused: Congress The Congress on Saturday alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP were protecting Brijesh Thakur, the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, and questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the incident Missing girl found in Lucknow One of the four girls who reportedly escaped the Muzaffarpur shelter home has been found in Uttar Pradesh, police said. The girl was reportedly staying at a shelter home in Lucknow. As per records of the Muzaffarpur shelter home, she was among the four who had managed to flee while the other three had died Ejaz Kaiser By Express News Service RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, amid the political uproar over the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), has come out in support of it and asserted that "India is not a Dharamshala (guest house)". He felt that the Assam NRC issue has been needlessly hyped. "Those who are outsiders should get their nationality proved or else leave the country to the place from where they have arrived", Singh said. As the vociferous protest by the opposition continues, the CM questioned the ground of objections raised against the NRC when it was initiated by the Congress-led Centre. In a hard-hitting statement, the longest-serving BJP chief minister said, "Should we consider our nation as dharamshala where the foreigners keep infiltrating and encroaching. The liberty to any outsider who is coming here and start living should not be allowed. They should be turned away. In Assam the efforts were aimed to identify such persons only. Those (40 lakhs) excluded from the NRC have the option to either prove their nationality or else leave the county". Singh stated that the exercise on NRC began during the Congress regime when a committee was constituted at the behest of the Supreme Court. "Why should the outsiders be entitled to have access and utilise the resources of the country", Singh said and further added that the NRC is the consequence of the eight long years of demonstration by Assamese youths. On Friday the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Rajya Sabha reiterated that the NRC published on July 30 was a draft and not final, and adequate opportunity would be provided to all to file objections and claims under the legal norms. Aishik Chanda By Express News Service KOLKATA: Jharkhand and West Bengal administration came eyeball-to-eyeball on Saturday over the colouring of Massanjore Dam that lies on the border of the two eastern states. Though located in Dumka district of Jharkhand, the dam is under the jurisdiction of West Bengal irrigation department. Besides providing irrigation to Birbhum, Burdwan and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, the dam also attracts tourists from across the state. Recently, the West Bengal government allocated Rs 1.82 crore for renovation, building of staff quarters and painting the dam and buildings. As per West Bengal government norms, government buildings are painted in blue and white. Accordingly, the buildings and the dam were also being painted in the de facto 'official colours'. Though the TMC administration paints government buildings in blue and white, there is no official notification making blue and white as 'official colours'. Accordingly, BJP leaders from Jharkhand came to the site on Saturday and stopped all painting works claiming that the West Bengal government was attempting to propagate its political agenda by painting 'Trinamool Congress colours' on a dam that was in Jharkhand territory. All works on the dam has been halted and workers asked to return back to Birbhum district headquarters Siuri. Also, Jharkhand government's name and government emblem was pasted on that of West Bengal government name and logo at a gate at the entrance of the dam. Sources revealed that Jharkhand BJP leaders organised a meeting three days ago and decided not to allow blue and white colouring of the dam calling it 'official colours' of the TMC government in West Bengal. Their opposition to the colours was also expressed to the West Bengal irrigation department. "Though Massanjore is administered by West Bengal, but it is situated in Jharkhand. West Bengal government is colouring this dam for their political purpose. This is not a place for politics. We'll not allow blue-white colour of the Trinamool Congress on the dam," Dumka district BJP President Nibash Mondal said. However, TMC Birbhum district TMC President Anubrata Mondal said that blue and white is West Bengal government colours and not 'TMC colours'. "Not only West Bengal BJP, but Jharkhand BJP is also afraid of Mamata Banerjee. I think they are fools. They should know that blue and white is not Trinamool Congress colour. If West Bengal government maintains this barrage, officials have right to paint it in official blue and white colours." While work has been halted, a breakthrough is being negotiated. "We are keeping a close watch on the situation. If needed, administrative talks will be arranged between Jharkhand and our state to solve this problem," a senior government official said. "This is sad and shocking. How can a group of people led by BJP stop work at the dam? This has never happened before. BJP is trying to instigate tensions like they are doing in Assam," state irrigation minister Soumen Mahapatra said. By Express News Service KOLKATA: Red alert has been issued along the Indo-Bangladesh border at the riverine stretch along Malda and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal after 17 suspected Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants were nabbed from a hideout in Monakosha in Chapai Nawabganj district of Bangladesh, just a few kilometers away from the international border on Friday night. The hideout was busted after interrogating three suspected JMB militants who were arrested in a joint operation by the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in the same area on July 29, sources revealed. The BGB asked their Border Security Force (BSF) counterparts to be on alert fearing the terrorists hiding in the area might seek a safe haven across the border in Malda district of West Bengal. The red alert along the border was sounded soon after the BGB input, BSF sources revealed. Chapai Nawabganj district of Bangladesh has been a hub of JMB activities like printing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and smuggling country-made weapons. By PTI LONDON: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has proposed an Ireland-style solution of an open border between the UK-governed Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic's adjacent territory as the best option to resolve the Kashmir issue. The National Conference (NC) leader, who is here on a visit, said India and Pakistan must realise that there is no military solution to the problem. "Like Ireland, the only roadmap forward is two Kashmirs with an easy border and autonomy," he said, during a discussion organised by South Asia Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London yesterday. "Kashmir can be solved if both these nations, now nuclear powers, realise that whatever solution has to emerge, everybody will not accept it. But at least 70-80 per cent of people of India, Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh should accept it," he said. The Ireland-style solution refers to the Common Travel Area shared between the UK and neighbouring Ireland, dating back to the 1920s. Under the arrangement, citizens of either country require minimal identity documents to travel through each other's territories. At the UK launch of 'The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace', co-authored by former RAW chief A S Dulat and former ISI chief Lt Gen (retd.) Asad Durrani, the Kashmiri leader reiterated that "hard methods" will not win over the hearts of the people in the region. "Let's stop fooling each other" neither side is going to give up any ground. The only way forward is talks," he said, adding that leaders on both sides must work to counter the "vested interests" for whom the region is a "money-spinner" through the sale of guns and ammunition. Describing Abdullah as "the best foreign minister India never had", Dulat reflected on the book's key tenets, which include working towards a Kashmir which is a "bridge between India and Pakistan". "Let's hope Kashmir becomes an area of cooperation, rather than conflict," he said. The former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing and former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau, also put forward the prospect of greater intelligence cooperation between the two countries as a way forward. Rajesh Abraham By Express News Service KOCHI: People misusing the governments education loan repayment support scheme by deliberately defaulting? The State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), Kerala, seems to think so.When the Education Loan Repayment Support (ELRS) scheme was announced in April 2017, the non-performing assets (NPA) under the education loan in the state was 10 per cent. More than a year later, it has shot up to 17 per cent. What is worse for the banking sector, there is a 35 per cent growth in education NPA in the current financial year itself. Kerala launched a Rs 900-crore ELRS scheme to help students from families with annual income below Rs 6 lakh repay their education loans.The SLBC meeting minutes, a copy of which is with Express, said the forum raised concern on the sharp rise in NPAs in education loans after the ELRS scheme was notified in the state. The states education loan, which stood at Rs 9,821 crore in December 2015, rose to Rs 10,220 crore in December 2016 and touched Rs 10,179 crore in December 2017. The NPAs in the education loan segment rose from Rs 1,021 crore in December 2015 to Rs 1,315 in December 2016 and further to Rs 1,777 crore in December 2017, which is 17 per cent of the total loan amount. Message loud and clear: Bankers committee The message is loud and clear, the SLBC minutes said, suggesting that students may be deliberately defaulting to take advantage of the governments loan waiver scheme.SLBC Kerala convenor G K Maya, who is also the general manager of Canara Bank, said Rs 33.48 crore of claims have been forwarded by the nodal officer pertaining to all the banks, of which Rs 24.09 crore have been forwarded by the SLBC. The Finance Department, after scrutinising the claim application on a test basis, has approved Rs 31 lakh and its expected to be passed on to SLBC/banks, she said.A Federal Bank officer attributed the rise in NPAs to the misconception among the public that the government or banks will come with one scheme or the other in the future to write off their loans. Though the Kerala government introduced the scheme with good intentions, the public has not taken it in the right way. This has put bankers under pressure and we will be extra cautious while sanctioning student loans, he said. By Express News Service KURNOOL: At least eleven people were killed in an explosion at a stone crushing quarry in Aluru Mandal of Kurnool district on Friday night. Three tractors, a lorry and the shed under which the workers were taking rest were gutted, police said. According to eye-witnesses, the tremors were felt up to 10 km away and nearby houses developed cracks. All the deceased are suspected to be migrant labourers from Odisha. There were nearly 30 workers at the quarry when the blast took place. Though most sustained burns, a few escaped safely. So intense was the blast, that dismembered limbs of the deceased were found strewn around the quarry. The blast took place around 8.15 pm. When we rushed to the spot, we saw three tractors and a lorry going up in flames and seven bodies, some of them dismembered, a local said. Passers-by recalled that they initially saw a flame, followed by a huge explosion. Fire tenders rushed to the accident site were trying to douse the flames that engulfed the vehicles and the shed when reports last came in. Police have cordoned off the area and are not allowing anyone near the blast site, fearing more explosions. It is learned that the quarry was operating illegally and residents of nearby villages had been asking officials to take action against unauthorised blasts to crush stone and the movement of heavy vehicles in the area. Meanwhile, it has come to light that a Bengaluru-based firm has been carrying out stone crushing activity on 200 acres of land at in Agraharam, Hattibelagal and nearby villages despite securing permission for just 5 acres in Aluru and Agraharam. Villagers alleged the huge number of explosives stocked up by the quarry management exacerbated the impact of the blast. As the quarry is in a hilly area, the extent of damage caused can be ascertained only on Saturday morning, officials said. Villagers protest Hattibelagal villagers staged a sit-in demonstration at the local police station against authorities for failing to take action against illegal activities at the blast site despite being informed. CM reacts to accident AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the loss of human life in the blast and asked Kurnool district officials to rush to the blast site immediately Ethiopia's prime minister has appointed a team to advise his government on the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, his chief of staff said, as part of reforms the new leader has instituted since taking office four months ago. Since becoming prime minister in April, 41-year-old Abiy Ahmed has turned Africa's most populous after Nigeria on its head with his plans to reshape politics and the economy. "PM Abiy Ahmed has set up an Advisory Council on the privatisation of large state-owned enterprises," Fitsum Arega, Abiy's chief of staff said on Twitter late on Friday. "The Council will ensure the process is managed with utmost transparency and accountability." Abiy's government has said that it is open to selling off a host of state-owned firms, either partially or entirely, as part of economic reforms designed to unleash the potential of the private sector. The government was tendering for advice from global business consultancies including McKinsey and PwC, the country's information minister told Reuters in July. Ethiopia has achieved one of Africas fastest growth rates over the past decade, averaging up to 10 percent a year. But investors complain about its stifling and antiquated socialist bureaucracy, where the default answer from fearful civil servants is no and importing something as mundane as cotton can take six or 12 months. Besides his stated desire to attract foreign capital into one of Africas most closed states, Abiy has brokered peace with Eritrea, with whom Ethiopia fought a border war two decades ago. Search Keywords: Short link: By Express News Service BENGALURU: Even as the Centre is said to be thinking of moving the prestigious Aero India aerospace exposition from Bengaluru to Bakshi Ka Talab near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, the Karnataka government is confident of retaining the biennial event in the city. Reacting to reports about the Centre contemplating to move the show out of Bengaluru, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday said the next edition of the show, Aero India 2019, will be held in Bengaluru. I have no information about the event being moved to Lucknow. Such reports were in the air in the past too. The show will remain with Bengaluru this time as well, he added. On Saturday, the CM is meeting Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the city and will be addressing a joint press conference on Saturday on acquiring defence land for infrastructure projects. The issue is likely to come up during the meeting. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara accused the Centre of attempting to end Bengalurus dominance in the defence sector. Plan to snatch Aero India Show away from Bengaluru in favour of Lucknow is very unfortunate. We have been conducting it successfully since 1996, the DyCM stated. He alleged that the move comes after the Bengaluru-headquartered defence PSU HAL was snubbed for the Rafale deal. Defence experts also feel that any move to shift the air show will not bode well for the Aero India brand as it might prove to be a deal-breaker for many, including participants. Bengaluru is the best place to host Aero India: George Making a case for the air show to remain in Bengaluru, Industries Minister K J George said the city has been hosting the event since 1996 and there is no reason to move it out. Bengaluru is the best place to host the event and even the defence minister is from our state (Nirmala Sitaraman is a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka) ... there is no reason why they will shift it, George said confidently. The biennial air show, which Bengaluru has been hosting since 1996, has grown over the years and it is now considered as one of the most prestigious events of its kind in Asia. A number of foreign and domestic defence sector firms display their products, including fighter jets and helicopters at the event held at Air Force Station Yelahanka in Bengaluru.Bengaluru plays a dominant role with the maximum concentration of aerospace companies and Aero India belongs to Bengaluru. It wont be possible to take it out of Bengaluru, said aviation expert Devesh Agarwal. By Express News Service BENGALURU: As Appaji Canteen, which has been serving mudde-bassaru oota for just Rs 5, turns one, North Karnataka flavour in the form of jowar roti-ennegaayi palya oota for just Rs 5 will be introduced from Saturday. JD(S) MLC T A Sharavana, who owns the canteen, said this was an attempt to show united Karnataka through food; but one cant miss the timing of introducing North Karnataka cuisine when the people of the region are fuming at the CM over neglecting them and are demanding a separate state. Though the previous CM Siddaramiah had announced introducing meals and breakfast for Rs 10 and Rs 5 at Indira canteens, even before it was officially inaugurated, the JD(S) started Appaji Canteen in the name of former PM H D Deve Gowda in August 2017. For Rs 10, one can get to eat single mudde-bassaaru, along with single jowar rotti with ennegaayi palya. We are making an attempt to provide meals for Rs 10 that will have combination of South and North Karnataka food, Sharavana told TNIE. Sharavana said a united Karnataka was formed due to the sacrifice of people from all the regions of the state. But some people with vested interest in the name of politics are trying to break the state. Through Appaji Canteen, we want to serve South and North Karnataka food at one place, he said. All Appaji Canteens were making around 650 raagi muddes everyday. It was made by a chef from Mandya. But now, the canteen has a chef from North Karnataka, to prepare jowar roti. On Saturday, they are organising a competition. We will give ten minutes to the participants. People from North Karnataka will be given raagi mudde to eat, while South Karnataka people will be given jowar rotti. We will see how many one can eat in 10 minutes. Whoever wins, they will get free food for the entire month,Sharavana said. Presently there are two Appaji Canteens one in Hanumanthanagar and the other at JD(S) party office. By PTI BENGALURU: Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa today alleged that former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was levelling accusations against him instead of asking his son and chief minister H D Kumaraswamy to 'rectify' his statements on North Karnataka Holding the chief minister responsible for resurfacing of the demand for statehood for north Karnataka, Yeddyurappa posed some questions to the JD(S) supremo. "I want to ask former prime minister H D Deve Gowda- who questioned about the contribution of Lingayat chief ministers for north Karnataka. Who accused people of voting on the basis of caste. wasn't it Kumaraswamy? Who raised questions about contribution of north Karnataka for the state's revenue, wasn't it Kumaraswamy?" Yeddyurappa asked. Speaking to reporters here, he said Gowda should respond to all these questions. Yeddyurappa's comments come a day after the former prime minister accused him of trying to create unrest through "malicious propaganda.'' "In an interview to PTI, he had alleged that the BJP state president was "provoking" people of north Karnataka, as his "anger has not cooled down" after failing to form the government despite winning substantial seats. Yeddyurappa said Kumaraswamy's "irresponsible" comments were the main reason for the confusion in north Karnataka and demanded that Gowda ask his son to 'rectify' his statements. "I want to ask Deve Gowda how fair is it to accuse us, when as a responsible opposition we have done our duty by convincing seers and protesters (against separate statehood demand), which actually chief minister had to do," he added. A bandh call given by several outfits in 13 districts of north Karnataka yesterday, demanding statehood for the region, had failed to elicit any response. The bandh was called by the outfits which alleged discrimination by successive governments towards the region and also in the budget presented by Kumaraswamy on July 5, and inadequate representation in the present cabinet. By IANS NEW DELHI: A Kerala Police team -- probing the case relating to a Catholic Bishop accused of sexually abusing a nun -- arrived here on Saturday to record the statement of the Vatican representative, but they failed to as they had not taken prior permission for it. The team is now expected to travel to Punjab in the coming days where they will meet the accused, Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar. According to the probe team, they will return on Monday to the Vatican Embassy as they have now applied for permission. The six-member team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police A.T. Subhash, in their first stop in Delhi, was to take the statement on Saturday from a city-based couple who raised a complaint against the nun. The team met them, but they told the police that their complaint against the nun was based on a misunderstanding and now they have no complaints against her. According to the police team, they will now meet the Ujjain Bishop of the Catholic dioceses, as the nun had informed this Bishop about the way she was subjected to abuse. The nun alleged in June that Mulakkal sexually abused her several times at a convent in Kuruvalangadu near Kottayam between 2014 and 2016. An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent. Mulakkal, however, denies any wrongdoing. Statements were also taken from the head of the Syro-Malabar Church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and a few other former nuns who were residents at the convent. P Ramdas By Express News Service KOCHI: The Kerala legal fraternity is jubilant over the elevation of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph to the Supreme Court, months after the apex court collegiums recommendation. The Centre had to make a U-turn after initially rejecting the recommendation of the collegium. When the Centre had dragged its feet on the decision to elevate Justice Joseph, the Kerala High Court Advocates Association had passed a resolution expressing concern. Senior advocate N Nandakumara Menon said he was very happy to know that the Centre has cleared the name of Justice Joseph, a former member of the Kerala Bar. Justice Joseph is someone with unquestionable integrity, honesty, sincerity and devotion to his duty and very much deserves to occupy the august office, he said, adding that the delay in clearing his name should have been avoided. Senior advocate N Sukumaran, who was the first one to sign the advocates associations resolution, appreciated the decision and said though there was some delay in clearing the name, the end result has to be welcomed. Senior advocate Kaleeswaram Raj said, The Centres decision to accept the collegium recommendation is a welcome move. Although I dont support the collegium system, it happens to be the law of the land. The Centre has a constitutional obligation to accept the recommendation. Justice Joseph is an erudite and upright judge whose integrity is well-known. The delay on part of the Centre is inexcusable, he said. Indian Lawyers Congress (ILC) also welcomed the move. ILC state president T Asaf Ali said by delaying the appointment, the Centre has virtually diluted the spirit of the SC verdict in the second and third judges case.In the case, the SC had made it clear that no other branch of the state, including the legislature and the executive, would have any say in the appointment of judges. The primacy of the opinion of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) alone must be taken into consideration and any deviation from the established procedure prescribed by the SC will have far-reaching consequences, said Ali. After the case, it is the law of the land that the executive only has the role of making appointments and transfers in accordance with the CJIs opinion. Judicial independence is vital for the establishment of participatory democracy, maintenance of rule of law as a dynamic concept and delivery of social justice to vulnerable sections, he said. Ali urged the Centre to clear all the names of judges recommended by the collegium that are pending with the Union law ministry.Any delay will add to the mounting pendency of cases, he said, which will in effect curtail the fundamental right of a citizen to get speedy justice. The Centre had to make a U-turn after initially rejecting the recommendation of the collegium. When the Centre had dragged its feet on the decision to elevate Justice Joseph, the Kerala High Court Advocates Association had passed a resolution expressing concern By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An Alappuzha native, Vimalraj, wielding a knife in hand managed to sneak into the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the Kerala House in New Delhi. He was immediately restrained and handed over to the police. CMO sources said it's suspected that the attacker is of unsound mind. "The incident happened at around 9.45 am. The person with a knife in hand came near the chief minister's room in the Kerala House. It seems he is of unsound mind. We managed to rein in him before he reached the chief minister. He has been handed over to the police for further probe," sources with the CMO said. According to reports, the suspect had tried to commit suicide in front of CM Vijayan. There have been death threats to the CM's life earlier. Last year a Sangh Parivar leader had declared a bounty of Rs 1 crore on Pinarayi's head. More details awaited. By Express News Service JHARSUGUDA: Days after the tragedy of Chaturbhuja Banka of Boudh district, who had to tie the body of his dead sister-in-law to take it to the graveyard stirred the State, an MLA turned pallbearer for a destitute woman in Sambalpur district demonstrating that humanity has not lost hope. Ramesh Patua, the BJD legislator from Rengali, on Friday set an example by carrying the dead body of a beggar woman at Amnapali under Kolabira block to the cremation ground and conducted the funeral with dignity. He was accompanied by his son, nephew and friend, all of whom lent their shoulders to carry the deceased. Also Read | Government under fire for Boudh shame The 80-year-old woman, called Ghudken by locals, was staying in a thatched house in the village under Sodamal gram panchayat with his 50-year-old brother-in-law who is known as Ghudka. The duo eked their living by begging. Even though their actual names were not known, they got the names as they were begging by using a Ghudka, a popular musical instrument of western Odisha. Also Read | Womans last ride with outcast kin When Ghudken died on Thursday owing to old-age related problems, Ghudka was at a loss to conduct her last rites as no villager came forward to carry the body. The legislator, who was in the area at the time, came to know about the incident. He immediately called his son Ankit and nephew Badal and asked them to go to the village and make arrangements for the last rites. He and his friend Bharat Karali also rushed to the village and together, they carried the body to the cremation ground and conducted the last rites as per Vedic rituals. Patua said, he had known Ghudken since long as she was begging in Laida area in Sambalpur district which is his native village. He learnt about her death from personnel of Laida police outpost under Katarbaga police station in Sambalpur. He was also informed that no villager was coming forward to lift the body for her last rites. I requested the villagers to carry the body to the graveyard but nobody came forward fearing they would be ostracised by their respective Jaati Samaj (body of a caste) if they touched the beggars body. I then decided to conduct the funeral myself. I feel this is an act of humanity and serving people is above all for me, he said. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to send samples of groundnut seeds that failed to qualify the minimum quality parameters of physical purity for retesting to National Seed Research and Training Centre (NSRTC), Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The decision for retesting the failed seeds outside the State was taken following complaints of foul play during laboratory test of seeds collected from Khurda and Puri districts during rabi season. The Odisha State Seed and Organic Products Certification Agency (OSSOPCA) has requested Odisha State Seeds Corporation (OSSC) to draw samples randomly from the failed groundnut seed stock for retesting purpose. It has been decided that 28 samples of the failed seeds will be sent to Varanasi for testing. The re-sampling of seeds will be done jointly by OSSOCPCA and OSSC, said sources in Agriculture Department. Groundnut seed growers of Khurda and Puri districts registered their protest before Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Pradip Maharathy last week as the State Seeds Corporation rejected more than 60 per cent of seeds terming them as dead seeds following laboratory test. A delegation of farmers registered with OSSC met the Minister and urged him to direct for retesting of groundnut seeds.Over 60 per cent of the seed samples sent to testing laboratory were declared dead as those failed to germinate. We have serious doubt on the laboratory report as we have supplied quality seeds, said Madhu Sudan Pradhan, one of the registered seeds growers of Puri district. The farmers issue was highlighted by this paper following which the matter was discussed at a high-level meeting here on July 30. The meeting decided to send fresh samples to NSRTC Varanasi for retesting. The farmers will sustain around Rs 3 crore loss if the seeds they had supplied to OSSC are rejected, Pradhan said. Retest 28 samples of the failed seeds will be sent to Varanasi for testingd Re-sampling of seeds will be done jointly by OSSOCPCA and OSSC State Seeds Corporation had rejected more than 60 per cent seeds supplied by farmers of Khurda and Puri districts By Express News Service CHENNAI : Leaders from across the country continued to visit DMK president M Karunanidhi who is being treated for the seventh day at a private hospital here and in the coming days too, leaders including President Ramnath Kovind and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu and Union Minister Suresh Prabhu are scheduled to meet the nonagenarian leader on Sunday. Significantly, the number of DMK cadre was lesser on Friday, compared to the other days as the health of Karunanidhi has been improving day by day. Also Read | M Karunanidhis health condition improves On Friday, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda visited the hospital and enquired about the health of Karunanidhi with DMK working president MK Stalin and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi. Later, talking to reporters, Gowda wished Karunanidhi a speed recovery and said his beloved friend should hit a century. Answering queries of reporters outside the hospital, Gowda recalled his long association with Karunanidhi and said the latter had played a vital role in forming various coalition governments led by AB Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and others. Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Hassan, South Indian Film Artistes Association president actor Vishal and actor Vineeth were among those who visited the hospital.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to call on Karunanidhi on Saturday at around 11.30 a.m. Union Minister Suresh Prabhu is also likely to enquire about the health of the DMK president. In city for 70 minutes On Sunday, President Ram Nath Kovind will pay a brief visit to Chennai just for visiting Karunanidhi. He will be in the city for 70 minutes between 2.30 pm and 3.40 pm Donita Jose By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court may have questioned the validity of the adultery law under Section 497 of IPC when petitioner Joseph Shine has pointed out that an adulterous woman has an undue advantage, for she is not prosecuted under the law. But lawyers in Hyderabad, who deal with such cases, are of the opinion that the law is more abused than used and it is women who are most often the shamed victims in the bargain. Take for instance a recent case in the Secunderabad family court where a couple applied for mutual consent divorce after the man suspected that his wife was having an illicit relationship. During the course of hearing, it was observed that the woman moved out with a new partner. The husband, citing adultery, moved the court and obtained a new MOU giving no visitation rights for his wife who was the biological mother of their two children aged 6 and 10 years. The woman refrained from challenging the decision. Lawyers observe that such cases highlight how the law is used to coerce women in forfeiting their rights with the threat that a case would be filed against their new partner. Senior advocate Vani Suri maintains, Men are increasingly leveraging this law to obtain divorce by scandalising the wives and rob them of their social standing. A case in point was the sensational case that rocked the city in March this year when a senior police officers male colleague was charged with adultery under Section 497 of IPC by the formers husband who also publicly shamed and ridiculed her. Not only was the law used to shame and defame her but her relationship with a colleague was also painted in an immoral and criminal picture. She said that legal fraternity is prone to view an adulterous wife in more discriminatory manner than an adulterous husband. Which is why in a case after case we see that if a wife is accused of adultery, the judges would deem her unfit as a parent and would tag her as a bad influence on the children. She would, in most cases, lose visitation rights and would not challenge her husbands demands in fear of a criminal case. But courts tend to be more lenient with men who engage in extra-marital affairs, she added. But how common is it for men to go ahead and file adultery cases against wifes partner? Do accusations translate into solid cases? Additional commissioner of police (crimes & SIT) Shikha Goel, who is the head of She Teams and Bharosa centre in Hyderabad, maintains that adultery cases in general are rare and very few but surely become a reason for domestic violence against women. The Bharosa centre receives complaints of domestic violence, which is often the result of adultery or extra-marital relationship or a second family but the instances of men filing cases against women for adultery are very few, she adds. Advocates say that this is because men may not engage in an ego fight over the woman but rather just threaten her with the prospect of a criminal case. We have seen many cases where the man asks the woman to back off and seek less alimony and let go of her child custody by threatening her with an adultery case, says Anita Shalabh, an advocate. While some want abrogation, others counsel caution As the debate on the adultery law rages, the counsel and judges at the Supreme Court have also debated whether the draconian law should be done away with altogether. The Victorian-era law was tagged discriminatory by the apex court for seeing women as a chattel of men who have a say in allowing a woman to have sex with another man or not. Womens groups and feminists have hailed SCs observations on various issues and demand that the law be done away with. We need to decriminalise adultery while ensuring that it remains as a ground for divorce, says noted advocate Vasudha Nagaraj. Explaining why it is necessary to decriminalise adultery, she says, We see so many cases where men have extra-marital affairs and abuse their wives but the moment a woman seeks friendship or even talks with another man in order to get out of an abusive marriage, the shame of adultery and the threat of a case against friendship with a male looms large. Asserting that adultery should be ground in family law to give matrimonial remedy to the estranged couple, she suggests that two consenting adults within or outside marriage of any gender must not be jailed for sex. But some lawyers in the city caution that doing away with the law altogether would lead to erosion of basic Indian values governing marriages. It is okay to have a revision of the law where both husband and wife can have an equal right to file cases against the other for adultery, but to completely abrogate the law would be encouraging promiscuity, senior advocate Vani Suri, says. About Section 497 and adultery Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery and shall be punished. The punishment for adultery is imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or fine or both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable Apex Court had upheld constitutional validity of Section 497 thrice - in 1954, 1985 and 1988 Adultery is not illegal in Bhutan, Sri Lanka, China, South Korea and all European countries. It is illegal in 22 states of USA, Afghanistan and Pakistan The personal laws of all major religions like Hinduism, Christianity and Islam are against adultery A United Nations group of independent experts said in 2012 that adultery must not be classified as a criminal offence at all The Israeli navy intercepted a Swedish-flagged activist boat bent on breaching its more than decade-long blockade of Gaza, the second in less than a week, the occupation military said on Saturday. "The ship was monitored and was intercepted in accordance with international law," the occupation army said in a statement, before the vessel, named Freedom for Gaza and carrying 12 people, was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. "The (military) clarified to the ship's passengers that they are violating the legal naval blockade and that any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod," the statement said. The people on board were taken for "further inquiry". Freedom was the second boat of the "Freedom Flotilla" to be intercepted en route to "break the blockade" on Gaza, organisers said. The boat was carrying medical equipment. Four boats left from Scandinavia in mid-May and stopped in some 28 ports along the way, with two remaining behind after a recent stop in the Italian port of Palermo. On Sunday, the Israeli navy intercepted a Norwegian-flagged activist boat that was part of the flotilla. Israel has waged three wars on Palestinians living in Gaza since 2008 and says the blockade is necessary to keep them from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas where 80 percent of the two million population are dependent on aid. Palestinians in Gaza have for months been demonstrating against Israel's decade-long blockade of the territory and in support of their right to return to lands they fled or were driven from during the war surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948. In the wake of the Great March of Return demonstrations, which started on 30 March, Gazas already overstretched health sector has been struggling to cope with the mass influx of casualties. At least 160 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli occupation forces during the recent protests near the border with Israel. Israel has maintained a crippling blockade on Gaza which it argues is necessary to isolate Hamas. The blockade is worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which human rights advocates have described as collective punishment of the Palestinians living in the strip. The Gaza Strip faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, caused by over 10 years of Israeli blockade, alongside an internal Palestinian divide, which worsened in 2017, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). *This story has been edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Saturday afternoon. Apart from the new zonal system bill , Rao will take up several other issues related to the state with the Prime Minister. The CM left Hyderabad for Delhi on Friday. On the first day of his tour, Rao called on Union Minister of Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. TRS Lok Sabha member B Vinod Kumar too was present. During the discussion, Rao told Prasad about the urgency of implementing the new zonal system in Telangana. Besides the new zonal system, Rao, according to sources, also took up issues like bifurcation of High Court and other issues with the Union Law Minister. The chief minister on Thursday decided to camp in Delhi for two to three days to see that the process for getting assent of the President for new zones was expedited. Accordingly on the first day, he discussed the matter with the Union Law Minister. The state government which prepared the draft zonal bill sent the same to the Union Home Ministry. The Home Ministry sent it to the Law Ministry, which vetted the Bill and sent the same for the approval of the Prime Minister. With the Bill pending at Prime Ministers Office, the CM will be meeting the Prime Minister on Saturday. The chief minister will request Modi to send the Bill for the assent of the President, sources said. The CM will also request the Prime Minister to expedite the process for the bifurcation of High Court. Rao will also reiterate demands like allocating Central funds for the construction of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), allotment of Bison Polo Ground for the construction of new Secretariat building, amendment of the Constitution for increasing the reservations in the state beyond 50 per cent, release of grants for the backward districts, setting up of IIT in Karimnagar and sanctioning of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in the newly created districts. STATES CHARTER OF DEMANDS New Zonal system Funds for KLIS Bifurcation of HC IIIT in Karimangar More Jawahar Navodayas to new districts Defence land for new Secretariat building Increase pay of midday meal workers, Kavitha tells Javadekar Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha urged Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar to increase the allowances to midday meal workers, who were providing meals to the students. Kavitha met Javadekar in Delhi on Friday and informed that the worker who were cooking food for the midday meal programme were facing lot of financial problems due to less allowances being paid to them. She requested the Union Minister to increase the allowances to midday meal workers so that they would live comfortably. Kavitha later said that the Union Minister responded very positively. TRS Trade union state president Rambabu Yadav and State government Midday Meal Workers Union state president V Hanmandlu and general secretary B Babayi called on the Union Minister along with Kavitha. By PTI BEJING: Relatives of Chinese passengers who were aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said today they refuse to accept the latest report on the plane's disappearance four years ago and demand the search be restarted. About 100 relatives gathered in Beijing to hear chief investigator Kok Soo Chon discuss the report prepared by a 19-member international team. It reiterated Malaysia's assertion that the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications. But it said the cause of the disappearance cannot be determined until the wreckage and the plane's black boxes are found. Some relatives held up banners and chanted that they would "never give up before seeing our next of kin." Jiang Hui whose mother was on board the missing Malaysia airplane MH370 holds up pictures showing plane parts suspected to belong to the missing plane after attending the presentation of a report written by a 19-member international team in Beijing, China. (Photo | AP) Chinese citizens made up 152 of the 227 passengers on board the March 8, 2014, flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. Twelve crew members were also on the plane. Jiang Hui, whose mother was aboard the flight, said she was unhappy with the report's methods. "As we see it, this is not a sufficient report in respects to the conclusions, the details of the information, and the measures and technical tools that Malaysia applied, as well as the way Malaysia implemented their obligations," Jiang said. Wen Wancheng, whose son and grandson were on the plane, said Malaysia should appoint a new investigative team, while Li Eryou, whose son was aboard the flight, said the Chinese government also owed the relatives an explanation as to what happened. ALSO READ | Malaysian investigation team points MH370 Airlines was changed manually They echoed the complaints of some Malaysian relatives, who argued that the scope of the safety investigation was too limited, depended too much on information supplied to the investigators by other parties rather than on their own probe, and didn't discuss the scope of the searches. The report said there was no evidence of abnormal behaviour or stress in the two pilots that could lead them to hijack the plane but all passengers were also cleared by police and had no pilot training. However, it also did not rule out unlawful interference by a third party, such as someone holding the pilots hostage, although no evidence has been found to support such a possibility. The investigation showed lapses by air traffic control, including a failure to swiftly initiate an emergency response and monitor radar continuously, relying too much on information from Malaysia Airlines and not getting in touch with the military for help. Malaysia's government has said it is open to resume searching if credible evidence of the plane's location emerges. By ANI WASHINGTON: The United States Congress has slashed the security-oriented financial aid to Pakistan by approving a $716.3-billion defence authorisation bill. The move comes after the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2019 increased the military expenditure and opted to not bring any changes in policy, reported Geo News. As per the recent NDAA, the security aid to Pakistan has been cut down to $150 million---having once begun from almost $750 million per year to $1 billion. The NDAA 2019, which was earlier passed by the US House of Representatives in the Senate, has now been sent to US president Donald Trump for approval. Meanwhile, this cut down in the aid hints at the United States' failure to pressurise Pakistan to take actions against the several terrorist outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Haqqani network. In January this year, the United States made its stand clear that the aid to Pakistan has only been suspended and not cut-off, as it wanted the country to take an aggressive approach in eliminating terrorism. Earlier this year, the US had announced that they were stopping the military aid to Pakistan, as it was not taking "necessary steps" to curb terrorism. US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert had said the embargo would remain in place until Pakistan takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. By UNI HARARE: Twenty-seven members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appeared in a Zimbabwe court facing public violence charges on Saturday after six people were killed in post-election protests that were met by a military crackdown. Soldiers and tanks rolled into the capital Harare on Wednesday after protests erupted against President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ruling ZANU-PF party's landslide win in the House of Assembly vote. The army's clampdown on civilians and the opposition's allegations that the vote was rigged revealed the deep fissures in Zimbabwean society that developed during the four-decade rule of Robert Mugabe, when the security forces became a byword for heavy-handedness. The 27 MDC members were arrested on Thursday at the party's headquarters. Their lawyers said the MDC members were innocent and were delivering election results from provinces when arrested. Prosecutors said the accused were positively identified by police and that witnesses would testify against them. The MDC members were not formally charged by Harare Magistrate Francis Vhitorini and will be held in custody in prison until they return to court on Monday. If found guilty, they face up to 10 years in jail. ALSO READ | Zimbabwe cops stop opposition meeting after Emmerson Mnangagwa's win Water cannon and more than a dozen anti-riot police were stationed outside the perimeter of the court house while others remained camped outside the MDC headquarters. Three of the victims from Wednesday's clashes were buried on Saturday, the MDC said. Mnangagwa on Friday urged Zimbabweans to unite after he was declared the first elected head of state since Mugabe's removal from power. MDC leader Nelson Chamisa insisted he had won and pledged to challenge the result. On Saturday, Chamisa said he was aware of his supporters' anxieties and that he carried their hopes and aspirations. "You voted but they cheated. Over 2.5 million votes can't be ignored. We're doing all to secure your vote (and) defend your WILL. Change is coming," he wrote on Twitter. Im aware of your anxieties, concerns and worries.Your hopes & aspirations I so dearly carry. We won but they declared the opposite. You voted but they cheated.Over 2.5 ml votes cant be ignored.Were doing all to secure your vote & defend your WILL. Change is coming!#Godisinit Nelson Chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) August 4, 2018 The first post-Mugabe election had been cast as a watershed moment that would rid the former British colony of its global pariah status and begin a recovery in its failed economy. But Mnangagwa's bid to repair the image of a nation known for repression and economic collapse was further hurt by a police raid on the MDC headquarters and the dispersal of journalists before Chamisa's news conference on Friday. ALSO READ | Zimbabwe Election: Man shot dead as post-election clashes erupt International election observers have cited several problems, including media bias and mistrust in the electoral commission. On Saturday, the British government said it was deeply concerned by the post-election violence and the "disproportionate response from the security forces." KHOST: Hundreds of mourners Saturday buried the victims of a twin suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, as the death toll rose to 35, officials said. Two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shiite mosque in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, Friday as it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers. The burqa-clad attackers shot at the mosque's security guards before opening fire on worshippers then detonating their explosives. "The death toll from Friday's mosque attack in Gardez has jumped to 35 with 94 wounded," Paktia governor Shamim Khan Katawazi told AFP. Provincial police chief Raz Mohammad Mandozai confirmed the toll. Officials had earlier said 29 people were killed and more than 80 wounded. "Today, we held funeral ceremony and buried all the martyred of Friday's attack," a weeping Sayed Moharram, who lost his 16-year old son, told AFP from a graveyard on the outskirts of Gardez where hundreds of people attended the ceremony. "It is very difficult for me to accept my son is no more with me," he said. Haji Sultan, 70, who also attended, accused the government of "negligence" in providing security for the Shiite minority. A wounded young man lies on a bed in a hospital after a deadly attack on a Shiite mosque in Gardez, the capital of Paktia. (Photo | AP) "The enemies of Afghanistan want to create division by carrying out attacks on Shiite people, but they cannot win, it will further increase hatred towards the enemies," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban denied involvement but in recent years the Islamic State group has carried out attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan. The attack comes as urban areas across Afghanistan have been rocked by a surge in violence in recent months, with both Islamic State and Taliban insurgents targeting security forces and government installations. The Taliban have not claimed a major attack in a city for weeks as they come under increased pressure to agree to peace talks with the Afghan government. But IS has carried out multiple attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad and the capital Kabul in recent months, targeting everything from government ministries to a midwife training centre. Last month an IS suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar. The uptick in violence comes as US and Afghan forces intensify ground and air offensives against IS, and the Taliban step up their turf war with the group. Earlier this week more than 150 IS fighters surrendered in northern Afghanistan -- in a move that Afghan security forces and the Taliban hailed as the end of the extremist group in the north of the country. By PTI DHAKA: Parts of the Bangladeshi capital ground to a halt for the seventh day running today, as thousands of students staged protests calling for improvements to road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Authorities have pleaded with demonstrators to call off protests that have nearly paralysed Dhaka and prompted foreign embassies to issue travel alerts. Thousands of students wearing school uniforms defied rain to block major intersections in the capital from today morning. A Bangladeshi child holds a placard, as she participates with protesting students in Dhaka. (Photo | AP) Teens as young as 13 were seen on Dhaka's notoriously clogged roadways checking whether cars and buses had valid licenses and were in a roadworthy condition. "We want justice," the students chanted as they gathered in some of Dhaka's main public squares. ALSO READ | Nationwide student protests enter fifth day in Bangladesh "We won't leave the roads until our demands are met. We want safe roads and safe drivers," said protester Al Miran. Anger has simmered since a speeding bus killed a boy and girl last weekend. A Bangladeshi student enact as a dead while others shout slogans a during a protest in Dhaka. (Photo | AP) Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths became a catalyst for public anger after spreading rapidly on social media. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, poured oil onto the fire. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology. The education ministry shut down high schools on Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered. Bangladeshi students block an intersection during a protest in Dhaka. (Photo | AP) Several powerful ministers pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. Dhaka suffers from daily gridlock but congestion has been exacerbated by blockades set up across the city since last Sunday. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. PUNTA DE TRALCA: Chilean Catholic bishops apologized on Friday for having "failed" victims of sexual abuse and promised to work with prosecutors to prevent a repeat of the crimes dating back five decades. "We failed in our duty as pastors by not listening to, believing, caring for or accompanying the victims of terrible sins and injustices committed by priests and religious lay people," the Church said in a statement at the end of five days of meetings by Chile's Episcopal Conference. "For this we apologize first and foremost to the victims and survivors." Last week, Chilean prosecutors said they were investigating 158 members of the church, both priests and lay people. The cases related back as far as the 1960s and involved 266 victims, including 178 children and adolescents. Pope Francis has already apologized repeatedly to Chileans over the scandal, admitting the Church failed "to listen and react" to the allegations, but vowed to "restore justice." Episcopal Conference president Santiago Silva announced on Friday a series of measures to "at least begin to resolve the serious problem we have in the Church." In an attempt to douse the fires of the crisis engulfing the Catholic Church in the South American country over the deluge of accusations against clergy, bishops have decided to publically disclose the previous investigations on alleged sexual abuse of minors. Previously, bishops had insisted that canonical law prevail over criminal law. Juan Carlos Claret, the leader of a campaign group that opposed the Catholic Church's policy of transferring priests accused of abuse rather than sacking or turning them over to judicial authorities, told AFP last week that the Episcopal Conference already knew about 120 priests involved in sexual abuse in 2007. "Today is a before and after, a turning point," said the general secretary of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Fernando Ramos. Bishops have decided to create a prevention of abuse department and appointed a lawyer to head their abuse prevention and victim support council. They also committed to meet "personally" with abuse victims and adopt a "self-critical" view of the structures that "allowed the occurrence and perpetuation of abuse in the church so that these things are never repeated." However they admitted that these measures do not by themselves "solve the dramatic scourge of abuse in our church and their complex causes and roots." In May, the entire Chilean hierarchy of bishops tendered their resignations over the pedophile priests scandal. Since 2000, about 80 Catholic priests have been reported to authorities in Chile for alleged sexual abuse. By PTI TASHKENT: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today called on Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov and held discussion on bilateral relations. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to Uzbekistan, was personally received by her Uzbek counterpart Kamilov at the airport. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted: "EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the Prime Minister of #Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov in Tashkent. Possible outcomes in connection with the visit of President of Uzbekistan later this year figured prominently in the discussion." Swaraj met the prime minister after she held "productive discussion" on trade and economy, defence and security, and exchanged views on regional and global issues during delegation-level talks with Kamilov. She and Kamilov also exchanged views on regional and global issues. Swaraj also addressed the Indian community here. "Connecting with our own! EAM @SushmaSwaraj addressing the Indian community in Tashkent," Kumar tweeted. Connecting with our own! EAM @SushmaSwaraj addressing the Indian community in Tashkent : pic.twitter.com/e8m7wPoJb4 Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 4, 2018 Swaraj will later offer tribute at the Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial. India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages. Swaraj reached here on the final leg of her three-nation tour after concluding her "result-oriented" visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the country's top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, on the last leg of her three-nation Central Asian tour. She was received at the airport by Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov on her first visit to the country. ALSO READ: Sushma Swaraj holds talks with Kyrgyz Republic counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev Apart from meeting the political leadership, she is expected to interact with the local Indian community and offer a tribute at the memorial of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Indian Prime Minister who died in mysterious circumstances there on January 11, 1966, a day after signing the Tashkent Declaration with Pakistan's President Mohammed Ayub Khan. In Kyrgyzstan, Swaraj had meetings with President Sooronboi Jeenbekov, and held restricted and extended formal talks with foreign minister Erlan Abdyldaev at Cholpon Ata, a resort town in Issyk Kul. ALSO READ: Sushma Swaraj in talks with Turkmenistan counterpart Rashid Meredov A host of issues covering as of bilateral cooperation, including political and parliamentary exchanges, defence and security, science and technology, economic, health and tourism, as well as important regional issues were discussed. She also met senior officials from IT, health, tourism, energy and natural resources of the Kyrgyz government to discuss possible areas of collaboration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the country in July 2015. Before her departure, she took a walk along the shore of the picturesque lake Issyk Kul, the second largest mountain lake in the world surrounded by snow-capped peaks of Tian Shan mountain, with foreign minister Abdyldaev. ALSO READ: Sushma Swaraj lands in Kazakhstan for talks on strategic partnership Swaraj began her trip on August 2 at Astana, Kazakhstan, where she met Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Bakytzhan Sagintayev, and exchanged views on strengthening cooperation in trade and investment, ICT, joint film production, agriculture, space, tourism and people-to-people contacts. Kazakhstan is India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia. "I discussed with the Foreign Minister about our interest to partner with Kazakhstan to explore markets for new products, diversifying from trade in traditional products to inject fresh impetus to trade between the two countries," she said after delegation-level talks with her counterpart Kairat Abdrakhnanov at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Astana. Later, addressing a small gathering of the Indian community there, she said: "I have been told that Astana is the second coldest capital of the world but the warmth of Kazakh people do not let you feel this chill!" By AFP STOCKHOLM: A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab on Friday became the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency. "During the fight her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again," Borchersen said. Police took a photograph of the woman wearing the niqab, and obtained security camera footage from the shopping centre of the incident. The woman was informed she would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 euros) in the post, and was told to either remove her veil or leave the public space. "She chose the latter," Borchersen said. As of August 1, wearing a burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, in public carries a fine of 1,000 kroner. Repeated violations are fined up to 10,000 kroner. The ban also targets other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas, masks and false beards. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. The full-face veil is a hot-button issue across Europe. Belgium, France, Germany and Austria have already imposed bans or partial bans. Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed on Saturday that it had proposed cooperating with the United States on Syrian refugees and de-mining in a letter sent to the top U.S. general in July. The proposals on refugees concerned a refugee camp in Rukban, the ministry said in a statement. In the letter, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said Moscow was ready to discuss with Damascus safety guarantees for refugees stranded at Rukban, as well as creating conditions for their return home. Rukban lies within a 55 km so-called de-confliction zone set up by the United States to ensure the safety of its garrison close to the Iraqi-Syrian border. "A proposal was also made to coordinate humanitarian de-mining, including in Raqqa, and other priority humanitarian issues," the Russian ministry said. Reuters reported the letter on Friday, citing a U.S. government memo. Search Keywords: Short link: By AFP TEHRAN: Iranian protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported Saturday, as sporadic protests simmered ahead of the reimposition of US sanctions. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the major cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system. During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing the protests. "At 9 pm (1530 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying. It gave only his clerical rank -- Hojatoleslam -- not his given name. "They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said. "These people came with rocks and broke the sign and all the windows of the prayer house and they were chanting against the system." Videos on social media in recent days have shown people marching in the streets of several cities, chanting "Death to the dictator" and other radical slogans. But these have been impossible to verify and the authorities have charged that they are promoted by foreign-based opposition groups funded by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Foreign media are barred from observing or filming "unauthorised" protests. The videos on social media suggest the protests in recent days are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities. - Sanctions return - But Iranians are deeply concerned about the implications of the reimposition of US sanctions for the already troubled economy. The US walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and is reimposing "maximum pressure" sanctions in two phases -- the first on Tuesday and then a second on November 5. The first phase includes blocks on financial transactions and imports of raw materials, as well as sanctions on Iran's automotive sector and commercial aircraft purchases. Iran Air announced that it would take delivery of five ATR aircraft from the French-Italian firm on Sunday, sneaking under the wire before the sanctions on aircraft purchases return. Iran says the sanctions are endangering lives by blocking the sale of new planes and spare parts for its ageing fleets. Iran's Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes in February after one of them crashed in the Zagros mountains, killing all 66 people onboard. Remaining sanctions -- including on Iran's oil and gas sector and central bank -- will resume on November 5. Iranian Economy. (Photo | AFP) Although smaller foreign firms have vowed to work around the US sanctions, multinationals such as France's Total and Peugeot, and Germany's Siemens have already said they will have to pull out. Increased US hostility has also driven a run on Iran's currency, which has lost around two-thirds of its value in six months. It is not yet clear how all this will affect ordinary Iranians, but a Western diplomat in Tehran who monitors the economy said prices of basic foods were already creeping up. "We are already seeing car prices going through the roof over fears about raw material imports," she said. "In November, when oil sales are affected, we will have a clearer view of the impact on daily lives." She said the collapse in the value of the rial was not driven by purely economic factors but instead by people rushing to buy gold or hard currency as a safe haven for their savings because they do not trust the government to improve the situation. "There is a massive loss of confidence in the financial system and the government's ability to control things and withstand sanctions," she told AFP. By AFP LOS ANGELES: Police released their final report on Friday into last year's massacre of 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas and said they had been unable to determine why an "unremarkable" wealthy accountant carried out the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Stephen Paddock, 64, acted alone and there was no evidence he had been "radicalized" or was part of any wider conspiracy. "What we have been able to answer are the questions of who, what, when, where and how," Lombardo said as he released the 187-page police report into the October 1, 2017 shooting. "What we have not been able to definitively answer is the why Stephen Paddock committed this act," the sheriff said. Paddock, of Mesquite, Nevada, and Reno, Nevada, fired more than 1,000 rounds down on the crowd at the open-air Route 91 Harvest concert while perched in a 32nd floor room of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino. He killed 58 people and the police report said 869 were injured, including 413 who suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds. Paddock shot himself in the head as police moved in. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the claim was dismissed as unfounded. "There is no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organization," the police report said. "Single shooter, no conspiracy," Lombardo said. "As far as motive, it is unknown." 'An unremarkable man' "By all accounts Stephen Paddock was an unremarkable man whose movements leading up until October 1 didn't raise any suspicion," the sheriff said. "An interview with his doctor indicated signs of a troubled mind but no troubling behavior that would trigger a call to law enforcement," he said. "Without a manifesto or even a note to answer questions the totality of the information that has been gathered leaves us to only make an educated guess as to the motives of Stephen Paddock," he said. According to the police report, Paddock's doctor told the authorities he did not have any major ailments but "may have had bipolar disorder" for which he refused any treatment. Lombardo said child pornography had been found on Paddock's laptop recovered from his hotel room, but the hard drive on the machine could not be located. The sheriff said the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit would release a psychological profile of Paddock later this year. Paddock was one of four brothers who were raised by their mother after their father went to prison for bank robbery, according to the police report. Paddock worked for the Internal Revenue Service after college and as an accountant for several major corporations. He made a "substantial amount of money" investing in real estate, the report said, and at one point owned his own airplane. But there was evidence that Paddock, a heavy gambler known to wager tens of thousands of dollars at a time, had lost a great deal of money in the years leading up to the attack. A narcissist The report said that in September 2015 his 14 bank accounts totaled just under $2.1 million. By September 2017, the total had dropped to $530,000. During 2017, he paid over $600,000 to casinos and made nearly $95,000 in firearms and gun-related purchases. Twenty-four guns were found in Paddock's hotel room including 10 AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, most of which were equipped with 100-round magazines. Eighteen more guns were recovered from Paddock's Mesquite residence and another seven from his home in Reno. Paddock, the report said, "was described by many as a narcissist and only cared about himself." "Paddock needed to feel important and only cared how relationships would benefit him," it said. Eric Paddock, one of Paddock's three brothers, told investigators he believed his brother may have carried out the attack "because he had done everything in the world he wanted to do and was bored with everything." His brother "would have planned the attack to kill a large amount of people because he would want to be known as having the largest casualty count," the report quoted Eric Paddock as saying. The police report said investigators had also uncovered evidence that Paddock may have been planning to attack the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago in August or the Life Is Beautiful event in Las Vegas in September before deciding on his eventual target, the Route 91 Harvest festival on the evening of October 1. By AFP TEHRAN: North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho is due to visit Iran on Tuesday, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Ri is set to jet in as the United States reimposes sanctions on Iran following Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 deal to curb Tehran's nuclear programme. The US is currently also pushing Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear capabilities after President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un agreed a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" at their landmark summit in June. North Korea's top diplomat will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to the conservative-aligned Fars news agency. The report did not give any details of what will be discussed. Ri is thought to have met with a high-level Iranian delegation at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Azerbaijan in April, according to the Korean Central News Agency. A North Korean delegation also attended President Hassan Rouhani's inauguration in August 2017. A United Nations Panel of Experts has expressed concern over collaboration between the two countries in the past, according to NK News. In a 2017 report, it noted the presence of designated North Korean weapons traffickers living in Tehran and the similarity between missile designs in the two countries. By AFP UNITED NATIONS: North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, a UN report said Friday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Un's regime. Pyongyang "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. ALSO READ | US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls for pressure to be maintained on North Korea The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump however has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. - Arms sales via Syria - North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea. With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment." The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly $14 million from October to March. ALSO READ | US slaps sanctions on Russian bank over North Korea dealings "Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reports that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China, however, put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018 By AFP NORTH KOREA: North Korea on Saturday said the US was acting with "alarming" impatience on the issue of denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang. The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers. At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and Washington has become concerned that some UN member states are easing sanctions. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho criticised US impatience on denuclearisation. ALSO READ | North Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile programs: UN report "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he said, according to a statement. Since the June agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", he said. "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the North's official name. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Earlier at the same forum, Pompeo said he was emphasizing "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea" but also said that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation. At Saturday's meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, said the State Department. On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached sanctions by granting work permits to North Korean workers. During meetings with other foreign ministers in Singapore, Pompeo said he had called specifically for sanctions to be enforced through halting ship-to-ship oil transfers. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. "Impatience is not helpful at all for building confidence. Especially, advancing unilateral demands will further deepen mistrust, instead of reviving trust," said the statement. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Earlier Pompeo urged major powers attending the same forum, including China and Russia, to keep up sanctions pressure against the North. At landmark talks in June with US President Donald Trump, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement but progress appears to have been slow. By ANI GILGIT BALTISTAN: Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai on Friday condemned the attack on 12 schools in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) which took place late on Thursday night. She tweeted, "The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book. We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the world that every girl and boy has the right to learn." According to Dawn, Diamer Superintendent Police (SP) Roy Ajmal said 12 schools, including only-girls schools were set on fire. He also said that in a few cases, books were also thrown out and torched. Dawn quoted local police officer Mohammad Bashir as saying that the attack on schools took place near Chilas before dawn on Friday, however, no casualties were reported as the schools were closed when the attack took place. Police added that no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book. We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the world that every girl and boy has the right to learn. https://t.co/99J7ZivafC Malala (@Malala) August 3, 2018 Local residents and journalists said explosions were heard in GPS Ronay and Girls School Takya, however, police said that they did not receive reports about blasts. A protest has been called by The Diamer Youth Movement in the district headquarters of Chilas, against the targeting of educational institutions in the area. Later, locals took out a protest rally in Chilas against the burning down of schools and demanded that the police arrest the culprits. They raised the slogans of "Dehshatgard murdabad!" [death to terrorists!] Commissioner of Diamer, Syed Abdul Waheed Shah, told Dawn that no arrests have been made so far in the matter. He added that the police were investigating the incident and a first information report (FIR) would be registered. The commissioner also revealed that attempts were made to blow up two schools using explosives, while the rest of the 11 schools were set on fire. MOSCOW: Russia's army on Saturday confirmed it sent a letter to the United States last month with a proposal to cooperate on rebuilding Syria and repatriating refugees after it was reported in the media. The Russian army's chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov sent a letter to the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford saying Moscow is willing to cooperate with Washington in demining the war-torn country and helping refugees return to their homes. The letter had been reported in the media a day earlier, which angered Russian authorities. "It is disappointing that the American side is unable to comply with the agreement on publicising the content of contact only after both sides agree," Russia's defence ministry said in a statement. It added that Gerasimov's letter was in part "about the readiness of the Russian side to work with the Syrian authorities to provide security guarantees to refugees in the Rukban camp in the US-controlled Al-Tanf area and to create conditions for their return to their homes." ALSO READ | No major assault planned on Syria's Idlib: Russia Moscow also suggested the two countries "coordinate" in demining the country, including the city of Raqqa, and "address other priority humanitarian issues for the urgent establishment of peaceful life in Syria." Addressing the UN Security Council last week, Russia urged world powers to help Syria's economic recovery and the return of refugees as its Damascus ally pressed on with a campaign to re-take territory in the seven-year war. ALSO READ | Druze women, children kidnapped by Islamic State group in Syria's Sweida In July, Moscow also presented the US with proposals for the return of refugees from Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt that would involve international financial support. Russia has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict, which has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions. Moscow's 2015 military intervention in support of Assad was widely seen as a turning point in the war. By ANI BISHKEK: External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Saturday met Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic E. Abdyldaev and discussed ways to boost bilateral cooperation between the two nations. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar posted a picture of the meeting on Twitter and said: Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM @SushmaSwaraj & Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade & investment, defence & security, IT, health, HRD, tourism & joint film production. pic.twitter.com/FBIDf8lz8G Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 4, 2018 Walking together to take our relationship to new heights! EAM @SushmaSwaraj and Foreign Minister of #Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev proceed to the restricted format meeting in Issyk Kul. @MFA_Kyrgyzstan @IndiaInKyrgyz pic.twitter.com/ydqNar8aVO Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 4, 2018 Swaraj, who is on a three-nation official visit to Central Asia region, will also be visiting Uzbekistan later in the day. She received a grand welcome: A special gesture! On her first visit to the country, EAM @SushmaSwaraj warmly received by the Foreign Minister of #Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev on arrival at Issyk Kul, in eastern Kyrgyzstan. India has had close relations with Kyrgyzstan, which was part of ancient Silk Route. pic.twitter.com/cjjdr68dYg Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 3, 2018 The Union Minister will hold in-depth discussions with Uzbekistan's Foreign Affairs minister Abdulaziz Kamilov to enhance engagement with the region. Swaraj will also interact with ideologists and members of the Indian community residing in the region. She will also offer floral tributes at the memorial of former Prime Minister of India late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. "India and Uzbekistan enjoy a close strategic partnership. Bilateral relations between India and Uzbekistan have been strengthened by regular high-level interactions. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visited Uzbekistan in July 2015 and for SCO Summit in June 2016. Recently, EAM had received Foreign Minister Kamilov for bilateral visits in 2017 and 2018 and also met him on the margins of SCO in April 2018,' the press statement issued by the MEA reads. Notably, this is Sushma Swaraj's first visit to the Central Asian countries after coming to power in 2014. The visit is expected to enhance India's diplomatic relations with this region in the coming days. By PTI DUSHANBE: Authoritarian Tajikistan has called for the first time an incident that left four foreign cyclists dead in the Central Asian country a "terror attack" while appearing to refute the Islamic State group's claim of responsibility. In a statement published late yesterday the ex-Soviet country's state prosecutor said the attack initially reported as a hit-and-run road accident was aimed at "creating an atmosphere of fear and panic in society and undermining the international authority of the Republic of Tajikistan". "The attack on the foreign tourists was a terrorist act," the statement said of the assault by an armed gang on a group of seven foreign cyclists Sunday which left two Americans, one Swiss and one Dutch national dead. On Tuesday IS released a video showing what it said was a pledge of allegiance by the five men accused of murdering the tourists visiting the impoverished ex-Soviet nation. In a first official mention of the video Friday, however, the country's state prosecutor said the clip had been released "with the aim of deflecting suspicions from another terrorist organisation, the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is the main commissioner of this terrorist act". A prior police report pinning responsibility for the attack on the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT) -- which styled itself as a moderate, faith-based opposition party until it was outlawed by Tajikistan in 2015 -- has generated scepticism outside the republic. The government began a long crackdown on the opposition in 2015 just before the IRPT failed to make parliament in a vote widely viewed as strewn with violations. Tajik police also alleged that a detained suspect viewed as one of the leaders of the attack on the tourists "underwent training" in Iran, a country with whom Tajikistan currently has poor relations. Both Iran and IRPT have denied any links to the attack. The video released by IS Tuesday shows five men, who resemble pictures of the suspects put out by Tajik police, sitting by a tree in front of a jihadist flag. The clip shows them swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's leader. Four of the men were killed resisting arrest, according to Tajik police while a fifth is in police custody. The victims were killed by being struck by a car and attacked with knives and guns as they cycled along a road off the Pamir Highway -- a popular tourist route with spectacular views. They have been named as Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin of the United States, Dutch citizen Rene Wokke and Swiss citizen Markus Hummel. One Dutch and one Swiss citizen survived the attack while a French cyclist escaped unscathed. By PTI SINGAPORE: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today called for pressure to be maintained on North Korea as a UN report warned Pyongyang is circumventing tough sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programme. In Singapore ahead of a major security forum, Pompeo said he had urged other countries to strictly enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea, which reports suggest has made slow progress towards disarmament following a landmark June summit. The US's top diplomat said he had "emphasized the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation that DPRK has agreed to," using the initials of the North's official name. "I must say from my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," Pompeo told a press conference. "We're determined to do it, Chairman Kim is committed to doing it. I'm optimistic that we will get this done. " His comments came as a UN report said yesterday that North Korea has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions. The 62-page report sent to the Security Council also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports including coal, iron and seafood that generate millions of dollars in revenue for the reclusive regime. Pompeo has met with the foreign ministers of China and South Korea in Singapore, as well as with his Southeast Asian counterparts. His North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, is also in the city-state for the ASEAN Regional Forum, which takes place later in the day. But Pompeo said he was yet to meet with him on the sidelines of the gathering. At the summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While there have been small signs of progress since the summit, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of sanctions on the North. Pompeo said the US was "heartened" by Pyongyang's recent return of the remains of dozens of American soldiers killed during the Korean War, but warned that Washington would take the infringement of sanctions by other countries "very seriously". "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said. "If these reports are proven accurate and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he added. Today's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. The foreign ministers from all nations involved in stalled "six-party" negotiations with North Korea aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear programme will be at the gathering: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Pompeo said during his meetings in Singapore, he called for countries to "strictly enforce all sanctions including the complete shutdown of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum". He added in a tweet that his discussions on North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sent "a strong signal to the region that, despite differences, #China & the US can work together to get important work done. " Wang also met with the North's Ri in Singapore and praised Pyongyang's "efforts in promoting the denuclearisation process", China's official Xinhua news agency said. After attending the Singapore meeting, North Korea's Ri will head to Iran for an official visit, according to North Korea's official news agency KCNA. Iran, whose nuclear drive has also sparked international alarm, and North Korea are reported to have a history of cooperation in military and missile technology. Ethiopian soldiers traded fire with members of local government security forces on Saturday in the country's eastern Somali region after central authorities sought to arrest regional officials, witnesses said. Residents told Reuters soldiers were deployed in the province's capital Jijiga on Friday evening, bringing them into conflict with the region's paramilitary forces. "We can still hear shots being fired. They have been taking place since the morning," one resident said. Another resident told Reuters an Ethiopian Orthodox church had been burned down by a mob, while shops, hotels and banks remained closed. A third witness said government soldiers had been deployed in the region's administration offices with the intention of arresting officials. It was not immediately clear why the government in Addis Ababa sought to apprehend them. Officials in the capital and Jijiga were not immediately available for comment. Ethiopia's Somali region has been plagued by violence for the last two decades. The government has fought the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) since 1984 after the group launched its bid for secession of the region, also known as Ogaden. Since 2017, clashes along the province's border with the Oromiya region have displaced tens of thousands of people. The region's officials have recently been accused by the government in Addis Ababa of perpetrating rights abuses. Last month, Ethiopia fired senior prison officials there after details emerged of torture and other abuses in one notorious prison. Search Keywords: Short link: By PTI SINGAPORE: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said today he was hopeful there would be progress towards freeing an American pastor whose detention in Turkey has sparked a diplomatic crisis. His upbeat tone came despite talks on Friday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu having failed to end the standoff surrounding Pastor Andrew Brunson, with Ankara warning that sanctions imposed by Washington would not work. Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most serious crises in relations between the NATO allies in years. The pastor was moved to house arrest last week after nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges, but the change only increased tensions. The US responded to the failure to fully free Brunson by hitting two top Turkish ministers with sanctions, prompting Ankara to threaten reciprocal measures. At a press conference today, Pompeo insisted he had a "constructive conversation" with Cavusoglu on Friday on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Singapore. "I made it clear that it is well past time that Pastor Brunson should be freed and be permitted to return to the United States, and the others being held by Turkey also similarly must be freed as well," he said. "I'm very hopeful that we will make progress on that in the days and weeks ahead," he added. However Cavusoglu struck a less positive tone after his meeting with Pompeo, also calling the talks constructive but warning that threats and sanctions would not work. Apart from Brunson, two Turkish employees of US consulates in Turkey are also currently in jail on terror charges and another is under house arrest, while several Americans have been caught up in the crackdown that followed a failed 2016 coup. The standoff appears to be one of the most serious fallouts between the two NATO allies in modern history, along with the rows over the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Pompeo insisted Saturday Washington would continue to work with Ankara despite the row. Turkey "is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively", he said. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Rain likely. High 53F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low near 50F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Sheriff: There May Have Been More Live Rounds on Rust Set (Newser) Two paramedics are facing charges for allegedly refusing to believe a Good Samaritan was injured as he lay dying on the street, the BBC reports. Steven Snively, 53, and Christopher Marchant, 29, arrived on the scene in Hamiltona town about 40 miles southwest of Toronto, Canadaafter local resident Yosif Al-Hasnawi was shot while intervening in an attack on an older man in December 2017. Snively and Marchant apparently thought Al-Hasnawi, 19, was faking his gunshot wound and let him lie on the sidewalk for 40 minutes before taking him away, the Globe & Mail reports. story continues below "His dad lay down beside him, and [Al-Hasnawi] tells him in Arabic, 'I have difficulty breathing,'" says the director of an Islamic center where the young man had been celebrating with family that night. "We start to scream at the paramedics, 'Please take him to the hospital.' But we saw they didn't take him seriously." When Al-Hasnawi was taken away by ambulance, it was without sirens, to an academic research hospital rather than Hamilton's trauma center. He was pronounced dead there after 20 minutes. Following a seven-month investigation, authorities have charged Snively and Marchant with failure to provide the necessities of life. Two men are facing murder charges in Al-Hasnawi's death. (Read more paramedics stories.) (Newser) A frantic hunt for a possibly abducted 12-year-old girl from China who vanished from Reagan National Airport on Thursday has ended with a sigh of relief. Local, state, and federal authorities, including the FBI, were all involved in the search for JinJing Ma, who officials said Friday had been found safe and with her parents in the New York City borough of Queens, the Washington Post reports. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Chief David Huchler says the tour group JinJing had been in the US with since July 26 was at the Virginia airport, on their way to California, when she disappeared, per CNN. Airport surveillance footage showed a woman helping JinJing change clothes, then leaving the airport with her "without force," per Huchler. The two then climbed into a white car driven by an unidentified man. story continues below That woman and man were actually JinJing's parents, who've been living in the US for two years, Anna Demidchik, an attorney for the family, tells the Post. When the couple saw the Amber Alert for JinJing, they called Demidchik's law firm, which then called authorities. "This is a great example of the work that can be accomplished when the community and law enforcement come together to achieve a common goal," Huchler says in a statement, per USA Today. "We are grateful that JinJing is safe and with family." Although Demidchik characterizes what happened as an apparent misunderstanding, an investigation is still ongoing, the Post notes. (Read more missing child stories.) (Newser) His death Wednesday was widely reported to be a suicide, including by Lady Gaga, whose music video "Born This Way" helped make his tattooed face famous. But the family and manager of model Rick Genest, aka "Zombie Boy," are telling everyone to pull back on the conclusion that he took his own life, instead suggesting he accidentally fell to his death. Karim Leduc, Genest's manager, confirms to People that the 32-year-old plunged to his death from a third-floor balcony in Montreal while visiting his girlfriend, but Leduc insists Genest simply leaned too far back on the "dangerous" balcony while smoking a cigarette and fell to the ground below. The management company that represented Genest also said in a statement to People that the cause of Genest's death "is yet to be determined." story continues below It was Genest's girlfriend who discovered his body when she went to look for him after he never came back from having a smoke, Leduc says. "He's not someone who, we feel, would commit suicide. He's not someone who would do something like that because he's very thoughtful of others," Leduc says, though he concedes that what really happened is "between [Genest] and God." Meanwhile, tributes are filtering out for Genest, with one person who knew him calling him a "kind and gentle soul who had some deep concerns about anybody who is on the fringes or being dismissed for how they looked," per the Canadian Press. (Read more Lady Gaga stories.) (Newser) Turns out Raymond Reinke wasn't just taunting bison this week. The 55-year-old Oregon man, who drew attention for provoking a bison at Yellowstone National Park, is under arrest after what USA Today calls a "national park crime spree." Seems it began July 28, when Reinke was arrested at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and charged with drunk and disorderly behavior. After a night in jail, he was let out on bond and cited July 31 at Yellowstone for not wearing a passenger seatbelt. Rangers say he "appeared to be intoxicated and argumentative," per People, and had his run-in with the bison later that day (see a bystander video here). Park rangers found Reinke and cited him with wildlife harassment. story continues below That's when law enforcement got even more concerned, revoked his bond, and had a warrant issued for his arrest. Luckily Reinke had told rangers he was going to Glacier National Park, where he was found Thursday when Rangers responded to a disturbance call at the Many Glacier Hotel dining room. To no one's surprise, Reinke was involved. Now he's been sent back to Yellowstone and booked into jail. Seems the whole thing hinged on Yellowstone visitors reporting Reinke's wildlife harassment to park rangers: "We're thankful to those who reached out," says a Yellowstone public affairs officer. "When law enforcement saw the video it certainly elevated the situation." (Read more Yellowstone National Park stories.) (Newser) Back in April, US District Judge John Bates gave the Trump administration 90 days to provide some kind of rationale for why the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, aka DACA, was unlawful, which is what the Department of Homeland Security claimed when the program was officially rescinded in March. DHS apparently didn't offer such proof, and on Friday Bates ordered DACA to be restarted in full, Politico reports. Reuters notes that Bates' decision applies not only to DACA renewals, but also to new applications. The DACA restart will be delayed until Aug. 23 to give the government the chance to appeal. Bates is the third judge so far to slap back the Trump administration's attempts to get rid of the program. story continues below In his 25-page opinion cited by NPR, Bates also nixed a previous DHS motion to void his previous decision that the administration's reasoning for pulling back the programwhich allows immigrants who came to the US as children (known as "Dreamers") to legally remain and work here with permitswas "arbitrary and capricious." On Friday, Bates noted in his ruling that the government's arguments for why DACA should end were still "inadequately explained." "A conclusory assertion that a prior policy is illegal, accompanied by a hodgepodge of illogical or post hoc policy assertions, simply will not do," Bates wrote. (Read more DACA stories.) (Newser) On one side of the US, beachgoers have been contending with shark attacks; on the other side, at least one tourist has had a confrontation with what appears to have been an eel. Maryland resident Kristen Porter was vacationing in Waikiki, and on Sunday she was kicking back in a float in about 5 feet of water at Kuhio Beach. Suddenly, however, she knew "something bad" had happened, she tells KHON-TV. She felt something latch onto her foot, and "it hurt like hell," she tells the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. When Porter pulled her foot out of the water, there was "blood everywhere," per KHON-TV, and her son and two other people had to help her back to shore. A lifeguard's assessment of what attacked her, based on the type of bites she drew: likely a moray eel, which experts say only attacks humans in rare situations, such as when it feels threatened. story continues below In fact, an eel attack in the area is such an uncommon event that locals told her they were "flabbergasted" to hear about it, she tells the Star-Advertiser. Andrew Rossiter, the director of the Waikiki Aquarium, tells KHON-TV moray eels can grow to be 10 feet long, launch fast attacks, and can swallow their prey whole. "How fast are they? Just like that," he says. A marine biologist who saw pictures of Porter's wounds backs up the lifeguard's analysis and thinks it's more likely Porter was bitten by an eel than a shark. Porter received treatment at a nearby urgent-care site but declined to get stitches at the hospital. Her experience won't keep her away from Hawaii, she tells KHON-TV. "Statistically, there's no way I can be bitten twice, I think," she says. "The odds are in my favor." (Read more eel stories.) (Newser) Evidence of warming isn't hard to find: California is battling 18 wildfires, including one so hot it created its own weather. Fires killed 91 in Athens last week and Japan is enduring a heatwave that saw 125 die and Tokyo push 104F for the first time. Yet the international response has been to boost coal demand and increase oil and gas investments, while renewable-energy subsidies diminish, reports the Economist. Why the contradiction? A big contributor is Asia, where emerging economies consumed 40% more energy from 2006 to 2016; even coal, the worst offender, inched up by 3.1% annually. Despite warnings from scientists, state-owned firms in Russia and the Middle East see good reason to invest. story continues below Then there's political inertia: Fossil-fuel lobbies are well-entrenched, the Economist says, and some countries can hardly imagine a turnaround. Yes, Britain is now coal-free, but India's electricity is 80% coal-generated; turning that around would mean damaging its poorest states and hurting its banking system, which lent big money to coal, per another Economist article. Finally, there are non-energy industries like farming, cement, and steel, which generate more than half of global carbon and are protected politically. On the plus side, solar and wind energy are on the rise, as is public concern, but many politicians haven't yet rung the alarm bell. "Perhaps global warming will help them fire up the collective will," says the Economist. "Sadly, the world looks poised to get a lot hotter first." (Read more climate change stories.) (Newser) The now-disbanded voting integrity commission launched by the Trump administration to investigate the 2016 presidential election uncovered no evidence to support the president's claims of widespread voter fraud, according to an analysis of administration documents released, the AP reports. In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who are both Republicans and led the commission, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap says the documents show there was a "pre-ordained outcome" and that drafts of a commission report included a section on evidence of voter fraud that was "glaringly empty." "It's calling into the darkness, looking for voter fraud," says Dunlap, a Democrat. "There's no real evidence of it anywhere." story continues below President Trump convened the commission to investigate the 2016 presidential election after making unsubstantiated claims that between 3 million and 5 million ballots were illegally cast. Critics, including Dunlap, reject his claims of widespread voter fraud. The Trump administration last month complied with a court order to turn over documents from the voting integrity commission to Dunlap. The commission met just twice and has not issued a report. Dunlap's findings received immediate pushback Friday from Kobach, who says there have been more than 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since 2000, and that the commission presented 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election in 20 states. In response, Dunlap says those figures were never brought before the commission, and Kobach hasn't presented any evidence for his claims of double voting. (Read more Election 2016 stories.) New Delhi: A total of five FIRS have been lodged against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and eight TMC members, which went to Silchar, for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion in Assam, a senior police official said on Saturday. With two more FIRS registered against Mamata and her party members on Saturday, five total FIRs have been filed against them in Assam since the publication of the NRC final draft on July 30. The two FIRs were registered at Guwahati and Silchar for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Ranjan Bhuyan said.Mamata and her party members are strongly opposed to the Assam Government's National Registration of Citizens (NRC) final draft. Effigies of Mamata were burnt and protests held against her across the state during the day. Also Read | NRC: Mamata caught on wrong foot as BJP finds goose with golden eggs One FIR was lodged at the Geetanagar police station in Guwahati on the basis of a complaint by the Assam Public Works' Dhrubajyoti Talukdar on Friday night. The FIR was registered under the IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person). The second FIR was registered at the Udharband police station at Cachar on Saturday by a policewoman, who was injured during an alleged scuffle with the visiting TMC members at the Silchar airport, the police official said. The FIR was registered for violating Section 144, which was in place then and attacking a public servant on duty, he said. Read More | Congress claims NRC is its baby, BJP 'be-fooling' people by politicising issue Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also faces two police complaints in West Bengal, which were filed on Friday. The complaints were filed by TMC MLA Mohua Moitra and MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, both members of the TMC team, for alleged manhandling and illegal detention at the airport after their return from Silchar. The TMC team, comprising six MPs, one MLA and a West Bengal minister was kept under preventive detention by the Assam Police at the Silchar airport after they reached there on August 2 to take stock of the situation following the publication of the NRC final draft and were sent back on August 3. (With inputs from agencies) New Delhi: Security forces on Saturday gunned down at least five militants in an encounter that broke out on Friday night in Kiloora village of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian. While the body of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, Umar Malik, was recovered on Friday night, four more bodies of militants were recovered from the encounter site on Saturday morning. "Four more bodies of terrorists visible at encounter site kiloora Shopian taking the total to 5 terrorists killed,"A Jammu and Kashmir DGP SP Vaid tweeted. 4 more bodies of terrorists visible at encounter site kiloora Shopian taking the total to 5 terrorists killed. Good Job boys , good for peace. a Shesh Paul Vaid (@spvaid) August 4, 2018 Following a tip-off by local sources about the presence of militants in the area, security forces on Friday had launched a cordon and search operation to nab the militants. As the security forces were closing in, the militants opened fire, prompting them to retaliate. So far, five militants have been killed in the encounter that was still underway when the last reports came in. Earlier, two militants were killed and an Army Jawan, Sawar Vijay Kumar, lost his life an a separate encounter in Baramulla on Friday. The militants gunned down were identified as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) members - Riyaz Ahmed Dar, a resident of Sopore and Khursheed Ahmed Malik, a resident of Pulwama. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Former Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav will take on Chief Minister achachaa Nitish Kumar from Delhias historic Jantar Mantar as he stages a protest against the rape of 34 girls in a government-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur. The RJD leader, who has been publicly criticising the Bihar CM for his silence over the horrifying incident, will also be joined by Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his sit-in at Jantar Mantar. Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti will also join the RJD leader in his aattempt to seek justicea for minor girls of Muzaffarpur shelter home. The RJD leader has been accusing the BJP-JD(U) government in Bihar of shielding the accused shelterA home ownerA Brajesh Thakur. One of the Bihar Cabinet Ministeras husband is also accused of frequently visiting the shelter home, where 34 girls were raped and tortured over a period of four years. Highlights: We have gathered here for the women of our country and we stand with them. If Nitish ji is really feeling ashamed then he should take immediate action: Congress President Rahul Gandhi at protest led by RJD against Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/9gwtMXg1W7 a ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 #A Nitish Kumar said he is ashamed of what happened in Muzaffarpur: Rahul Gandhi #A "We are here to stand with the women of the country. There is a rise in attacks on the weaker sections of the society," says Congress president Rahul Gandhi #A There is no news of the girls who were shifted to Madhubhani shelter home:A Tejashwi Yadav #A As a Bihari, I feel ashamed that there is complete lawlessness in Bihar. The govt is a failure:A Tejashwi Yadav # 'RakshasA Raj' is back in Bihar:A Tejashwi Yadav #A I have questions for Nitish Kumar. He had to speak up on the issue but he is still not doing anything and Brajesh Thakur's name is missing from the FIR: Tejashwi Yadav #A IA have seven sisters and I feel sad because of this horrific incident.A Let me tell you this that this is not a political stunt:A TejashwiA Yadav #A What we have seen is horrific and we should ensure the culprits are punished:A TejashwiA Yadav # 07:30 PM:A Congress President Rahul Gandhi at protest led by RJD against Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi at protest led by RJD against Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. pic.twitter.com/jZ7VTnP5bD a ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 # 06:35 PM:A Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Jantar Mantar to join the protest against Bihar government led by RJD on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Jantar Mantar to join the protest against Bihar government led by RJD on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. pic.twitter.com/u7s1CFmYbo a ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 # 06:05 PM:A The girl who had all the information has been shifted to a shelter home in Madhubani. After being shifted there is no information about her. We don't know if she is dead or has been killed or is missing, says RJD leader Tejashwi YadavA The girl who had all the information has been shifted to a shelter home in Madhubani. After being shifted there is no information about her. We don't know if she is dead or has been killed or is missing: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Muzaffarpur shelter home case pic.twitter.com/VnPO7LpmEJ a ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 # 05:50 PM:A RJD holds protest against Bihar government at Jantar Mantar over Muzaffarpur shelter home case Delhi: RJD holds protest against Bihar government at Jantar Mantar over #Muzaffarpur shelter home case pic.twitter.com/5zwWAFvYkc a ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 #12:10 PM: Muzaffarpur shelter home, aA house of horror:A As many as 34 girls, aged seven to 14 years, were drugged, scalded with boiling water, raped and forced to sleep naked in a government-run shelter home in Biharas Muzaffarpur. One of the minors was mercilessly beaten to death after she resisted the sexual assault by the owner of the stay home, Brajesh Thakur. Thakur, a well-known name in the power corridors of Patna was among the 10 people arrested by the police in connection with the police. #12:00 PM: Hello and welcome to the News Nation live updates:A RJD leader and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav has upped the ante against CM Nitish Kumar over the mass rape in a government-run shelter home inA Muzaffarpur. Yadav will stage a protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to seek justice for the 34 girls, mostly orphans, raped in the "house in horror" inA Muzaffarpur. Stay with us as we bring you all the live updates of RJD leader's protest from Jantar Mantar. RAGE AGAINST RAPE Let us shine a light on the epidemic that is corroding our national pride Join us at Jantar Maniar for a candlelight march in support of the Muzaffarpur rape victims. Place - Jantar-Mantar Date - 4th August 2018 Time - 5:30 PM#MuzaffarpurMassRape pic.twitter.com/FGrivKC73S a Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 3, 2018 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A man trying to forcibly enter National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah's home in Jammu was shot dead by security forces on Friday. When the incident happened, Abdullah was not present at his home. Jammu SSP Vivek Gupta said that the intruder crashed his car into Abdullahs home in Bhatindi area. He had a scuffle with the duty officers and entered the residence. The man was unarmed but started vandalising property there. The intruder breached the main gate & went inside. He had a scuffle with the duty officers there. Duty officer was also injured. After that he entered the residence, there has been some sort of damage to the articles over there. Subsequently, he was shot dead, ANI quoted Vivek Gupta, SSP Jammu as saying. Also Read | Shopian Encounter: Five militants gunned down; operation still on Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Farooq Abdullah's son Omar Abdullah said that he was aware of the incident that took place at the residence of his father. "I am aware of the incident that took place at the residence my father & I share in Bhatindi, Jammu. Details are sketchy at the moment. Initial reports suggest an intruder was able to gain entry through the front door & in to the upper lobby of the house," Farooq Abdullah's son Omar tweeted. Opinion | Imran Khan Simple oath-taking ceremony of sense and sensibility For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Google marked what would have been the 121st birthday of late Lebanese feminist, translator and author Anbara Salam Khalidi with a Google Doodle featuring this remarkable woman who contributed to the emancipation of Arab women. Born on 4 August 1897 to a large Lebanese family, Khalidi was one of 12 children in a family of "a hardworking mother and a prominent and well-connected father," Google explains. Khalidi's father was Salim Ali Salam, a deputy in the Ottoman parliament and a merchant, while three of her siblings were active in Lebanon's political scene, her sister Saeb Salam was a former Lebanese prime minister and two of her brothers served as cabinet ministers in the country. In an era when the idea of educating girls at all was controversial, encouraged by her father, Khalidi attended one of the best foreign schools in Beirut, Google clarifies. "Her education also included a visit to Cairo in 1912 where she enjoyed museums, exhibitions, boat-rides on the Nile and experiencing the Egyptian culture and heritage. She returned to Egypt in 1920 where she attended a gathering in memory of Qasim Amin, author of The Liberation of Women and The New Woman, which was also attended by pioneering feminist Huda Shaarawi. "In 1915, Khalidi formed a society called The Awakening of the Young Arabic Woman, which helped girls finance their education." "She also was one of the founding members of the Society for Womens Renaissance despite a brief hiatus when she visited England." Khalidi translated Homer's works including Odyssey and Virgils Aeneid into Arabic, being the first person to take those tasks on her shoulders. In 1978, she published her memoir Jawalah fil Dhikrayat Baynah Lubnan Wa Filastin (A Tour of Memories of Lebanon and Palestine). The memoir was published in English under the title Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist (2013). Shortly after the memoirs were published in English, Sarah Irving wrote for The Electronic Intifada the following: "Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist tell a life story which spans Ottoman, British and Israeli colonialism. Translated by Anbaras son Tarif, this slender autobiography challenges many stereotypes about the place of women in Arab society, as well as being a reminder of the artificial and cruel ways in which the modern Levant is fragmented." Khalidi married Ahmad Samih Al-Khalidi, a Palestinian educator, writer and translator, with whom she lived in Jerusalem briefly before moving back to Beirut. She died in May 1986 at the age of 89. "Todays Doodle highlights how Khalidi used the written word to spread her message of equality," Google writes. The Doodle can be viewed across the Middle East and North Africa. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Bishkek: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday concluded her result-oriented visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the countrys top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. Swaraj called on Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov on Friday and met her counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev on Saturday and discussed ways to deepen cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. She left for Uzbekistan on the final leg of her three-nation tour. Concluding a focused and result-oriented visit, EAM takes off for Tashkent for the final leg of her 3-nation visit, Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. Also Read | Sushma Swaraj meets Kyrgyzstan counterpart, discusses ways to boost ties Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev, a perfect host, came to the airport to see off EAM Sushma Swaraj and accepted EAMs invitation to visit India, Kumar said. After their bilateral meeting, Abdyldaev invited Swaraj for a stroll along the picturesque Lake Issyk Kul - the 2nd largest mountain lake in the world. Issyk Kul means warm lake! The warmth that helped consolidate the traditional friendly ties between India and Kyrgyzstan during EAM Sushma Swaraj visit, Kumar tweeted. Swaraj arrived yesterday at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production, Kumar tweeted. UN chief's spokesperson declines to comment on UN Human Rights chief's report on Kashmir Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of Indias efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayevs trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Tashkent: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov on Saturday held productive discussion in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security, and exchanged views on regional and global issues during delegation-level talks here. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to Uzbekistan, was personally received by Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov at the airport. She reached here on the final leg of her three-nation tour after concluding her result-oriented visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the countrys top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. Swaraj and Kamilov led the delegation-level talks and had productive discussion in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security, pharma, healthcare, IT, agriculture and animal husbandry, tourism and culture, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Also Read | Sushma Swaraj meets Kyrgyzstan counterpart, discusses ways to boost ties The two ministers also exchanged views on regional and global issues, he said. Swaraj will also interact with the Indian community and offer tribute at Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial. In Tashkent, Uzbekistan - EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives to a personal welcome by Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov on her first visit to the country. Apart from meeting political leadership, EAM will interact with Indian community & offer tribute at Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial, Kumar said in a tweet. The meeting between Swaraj and Kamilov is the third one between them this year. Read More | Sushma Swaraj concludes Kyrgyzstan visit, leaves for Uzbekistan Kumar said in another tweet, 3rd meeting with the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan this year! EAM @SushmaSwaraj welcomed by Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov ahead of the delegation-level talks. India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of Indias efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday held talks with her Kyrgyzstan counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev on deepening cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. Swaraj arrived on Friday at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production, Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. Also Read | Trump insulting Modi will only hurt long-standing India-US ties Walking together to take our relationship to new heights! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev proceed to the restricted format meeting in Issyk Kul, he had said in a tweet before the meeting. Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of Indias efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. Read More | No Chinese mining operations in Arunachal: Centre The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayevs trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. In the last segment of her three-nation Central Asian tour, Swaraj would arrive in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on Saturday. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Yet another moment of dignity encompasses the Indian soil. Sunita Williams, the Indian origin US astronaut, will be among the nine astronauts who would fly the first missions into space on commercially provided rockets and capsules, beginning 2019. The vehicle development took years of building appreciation for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to finally put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft. The Space Agency further made an official announcement on Friday that the first launch will be carried out by nine astronauts. The Boeing Company and SpaceX have developed the test flights and the missions of latest commercial spacecraft will be operated by them. Future Commercial Crew astronauts will be riding to space on partner vehicle built by SpaceX & BoeingSpace, NASA stated in a tweet. According to a statement released by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during the announcement of Launch America, they are on the verge of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragoncapsules will carry eight active NASA astronauts and one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member to the International Space Station starting next year. The missions have an eminent role to play as they will become the first crewed launches from the U.S. land since the space shuttle programme concluded in 2011. Bridenstine further added to his statement that the countrys dreams of greater achievements in space are within their grasp. A new era will be marked with the launch of this proficient group of American astronauts who will be flying on new spacecraft designed and developed by the commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX. According to him, this announcement advances the great American Vision and strengthens Americas leadership in space. NASA has endeavoured that systems meet their specific safety and performance requirements by complementing with the companies during design, development and testing. Also Read | Life on Mars? NASA, Elon Musk quarrel over colonising red planet Mark Geyer, director of NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in his statement that the men and women they have assigned to these first flights will be at the forefront of this thrilling new time for human spaceflight. It will be fun and adventurous to see the astronauts take off from American soil and worth a wait to see them aboard the International Space Station. 52-year-old Williams will be accompanied by Josh Cassada, 45, on NASAs first contracted Starliner mission. Cassada will be entering the spaceflight for the first time, whereas Indian pride Sunita Willians has already logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012. Other astronauts that will join are Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, as SpaceXs first Dragon crew. Behnken and Hurley, veterans of two spaceflights each, will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centers Pad 39A. This was the same Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Hurley as a pilot. 53-year-old Eric Boe and 41-year-old Nicole Mann will also join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, along with former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ferguson, who has been a part of the Starliners development, holds an experience of flying three shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. Boe too piloted two shuttle flight. Mann was affiliated with astronaut corps in 2013 while this will be her inaugural flight. While Behnken, Hurley, Boe and Mann will be NASAs first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new U.S. spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttles first orbital flight test crew, Ferguson will be flagging as the first former NASA astronaut to make a comeback to orbit as a companys crew member when he flies. Boeing and SpaceX are planning uncrewed test flights later this year of early 2019, prior to their inaugural crewed missions. The companies will also ensure astronauts safe escape in case their rockets go awry by conducting abort system test flights. Also Read | What if Moon comes closer to Earth Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will launch on the premier operational mission of SpaceXs crewed Dragon. While it will be Glovers first time in space, Hopkins has previously logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014. The two pairs of NASA crewmates will be accompanied to the station by Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts, to be announced at a later date. Amid the closure of the space shuttle program and beginning of commercial crew operations, NASAs crew members have and are continuing to launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The missions initiated by Boeings and SpaceXs commercial spacecraft may be a gateway to the space station - and more broadly, Earth orbit to welcome privately-funded visitors and spaceflight participants from nations that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Dhaka: Parts of the Bangladeshi capital ground to a halt for the seventh day on Saturday, as thousands of students staged protests calling for improvements to road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Authorities have pleaded with demonstrators to call off protests that have nearly paralyzed Dhaka and prompted foreign embassies to issue travel alerts. Thousands of students wearing school uniforms defied rain to block major intersections in the capital from Saturday morning. Teens as young as 13 were seen on Dhakas notoriously clogged roadways checking whether cars and buses had valid licenses and were in a roadworthy condition. ALSO READ | Pakistans first Sikh cop sacked for being absent from work We want justice, the students chanted as they gathered in some of Dhakas main public squares. We wont leave the roads until our demands are met. We want safe roads and safe drivers, said protester Al Miran. Anger has simmered since a speeding bus killed a boy and girl last weekend. Bangladeshs transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers deaths became a catalyst for public anger after spreading rapidly on social media. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, poured oil onto the fire. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the ministers resignation despite his subsequent apology. ALSO READ | Suicide attack hits inside Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan; leaves dozens dead The education ministry shut down high schools on Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered. Several powerful ministers pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. Dhaka suffers from daily gridlock but congestion has been exacerbated by blockades set up across the city since last Sunday. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Stockholm: A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab has become the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle on Friday with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency. "During the fight her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again," Borchersen said. Police took a photograph of the woman wearing the niqab, and obtained security camera footage from the shopping centre of the incident. The woman was informed she would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 euros) in the post, and was told to either remove her veil or leave the public space. "She chose the latter," Borchersen said. As of , wearing a burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, in public carries a fine of 1,000 kroner. Repeated violations are fined up to 10,000 kroner. Also Read | Israel Arab sentenced to jail for incitement with poems The ban also targets other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas, masks and false beards. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. The full-face veil is a hot-button issue across Europe. Belgium, France, Germany and Austria have already imposed bans or partial bans. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. United Nations: North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, according to a UN report on Saturday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Uns regime. Pyongyang has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018,said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains a primary method of sanctions evasion involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. ALSO READ | Trump thanks Kim, hopes to meet North Korean leader soon The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions ineffective by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump however has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. North Korea also attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya that were produced in North Korea. With Ali acting as a go-between, a protocol of cooperation between Yemens Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a vast array of military equipment. The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly USD 14 million from October to March. ALSO READ | Trump thanks North Koreas Kim for handing over war remains Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime, said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Koreas sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China however put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Dushanbe: Authoritarian Tajikistan has for the first time called the incident that left four foreign cyclists dead in the Central Asian country a terror attack while appearing to refute the Islamic State groups claim of responsibility. In a statement published late on Friday, the ex-Soviet countrys state prosecutor said that the attack initially reported as a hit-and-run road accident was aimed at creating an atmosphere of fear and panic in society and undermining the international authority of the Republic of Tajikistan. The attack on the foreign tourists was a terrorist act, the statement said. The assault by an armed gang on a group of seven foreign cyclists on Sunday had left two Americans, one Swiss and one Dutch national dead. In a first official mention of the video on Friday, the countrys state prosecutor said the clip had been released with an aim of deflecting suspicions from another terrorist organization, the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is the main commissioner of this terrorist act. A prior police report pinned responsibility for the attack on the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT) - which styled itself as a moderate, faith-based opposition party until it was outlawed by Tajikistan in 2015 -- has generated skepticism outside the republic. ALSO READ | First woman fined in Denmark for wearing full-face veil The government began a long crackdown on the opposition in 2015 just before the IRPT failed to make parliament in a vote widely viewed as strewn with violations. Tajik police also alleged that a detained suspect viewed as one of the leaders of the attack on the tourists underwent training in Iran, a country with whom Tajikistan currently has poor relations. Both Iran and IRPT have denied any links to the attack. The video released by IS on Tuesday shows five men, who resemble pictures of the suspects put out by Tajik police, sitting by a tree in front of a jihadist flag. The clip shows them swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the groups leader. Four of the men were killed resisting arrest, according to Tajik police while the fifth is in police custody. ALSO READ | India becomes third Asian country to get STA-1 status from US The victims were killed while being struck by a car and attacked with knives and guns as they cycled along a road off the Pamir Highwaya popular tourist route with spectacular views. They have been named as Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin of the United States, Dutch citizen Rene Wokke and Swiss citizen Markus Hummel. One Dutch and one Swiss citizen survived the attack while French cyclist escaped unscathed. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. London: Britains youngest known Islamic State female terrorist plotter who had been convicted of planning a terror attack in the UK earlier this year has been jailed for life. Moroccan-origin Safaa Boular, 18, was convicted of preparing terrorism acts on British landmarks after failing to travel to Syria to join ISIS militants. She will serve a minimum of 13 years behind bars before being considered for parole. Boular appeared in court on Friday wearing a short skirt and western clothing, claiming that she had rejected Islam and her extremist views. But the judge ignored her claims to have turned over a new leaf during the sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey court in London. Also Read | London teen becomes UKs youngest female Islamic State terrorist In my view theres insufficient evidence to say at this stage this defendant is a truly transformed individual. Her views were deeply entrenched, Judge Dennis said. However much she may have been influenced and drawn into extremism, it appeared she knew what she was doing and acted with open eyes. She was old enough to make her own decisions and her own choices, he said. The teenager was preparing for her school exams when she was seduced by ISIS fighter Naweed Hussain, originally from Coventry in England and more than 15 years her senior. She hid her ISIS-inspired plans to attack crowds at the British Museum in coded conversations about preparations for an innocent Mad Hatters tea party. She had been trying to reach Syria to marry Hussain in an online ceremony, but her attempt was foiled by police. Hussain was later killed in a drone strike. Boular turned to plotting a suicide bomb and gun attack on the British Museum with her older sister and mother instead. All three women have now been convicted for their part in the UKs first all-female terrorist attack plot. Read More | Twin suicide blasts kill at least 20 inside Afghan Shiite mosque Boulars sister, 22-year-old Rizlaine Boular, has been jailed for life and their mother Mina Dich was handed six years and nine months for assisting her daughters in the plot in June. Their plans were uncovered by online undercover MI5 intelligence officers after the Boular family home in Vauxhall, south London, was bugged. Boular handed the charge of plotting a terror attack to her older sister when she was in custody for trying to travel to Syria in 2016. In coded telephone calls, they discussed a traditional English tea party with an Alice In Wonderland theme. At the sentencing hearing for Boular this week, the judge warned she posed an ongoing threat to the public. He said, Based on the nature and circumstances of this offending, including the extent of her radicalisation and the depth of commitment to the Islamic State cause... I am satisfied there remains a significant risk to members of the public. The defendant has yet to undertake deradicalisation measures which might undo completely her previous mindset. Boulars defence team urged the judge to take into account what they described as her deeply troubling background, including the influence of her very radicalised sister and neglectful mother. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Manama : The High Administrative Court has ordered a private university to pay BD47,000 to four GCC national students for registering them in an unlicensed academic programme. The university is said to have enrolled the GCC national students in a PhD programme, which wasnt authorised by the Supreme Council for Education and Training. The students are said to have completed the programme, but werent given their certificates owing to the licensing issue. They filed a complaint against the university, demanding compensation. We came to Bahrain to obtain a PhD certificate and we enrolled for a programme with a private university. We paid all the fees as per the contracts we signed with the university. However, the university failed to graduate us despite our successful completion of the programme. And this has harmed our future, the plaintiffs wrote in their complaint against the university. The university is committed to giving us our certificates since we have completed the programmes. But they have failed to live up to this commitment. We request this honourable court to order the university to compensate us for the damages the issue has caused to us, they added. The High Administrative Court ordered the university to compensate the students as follows: BD3,500 each towards their travelling expenses, BD5,780 each towards their accommodation and BD10,800 each for the tuition fees they paid to the university. The court, in its verdict, blamed the university for registering the students without having obtained the necessary licence from the Supreme Council for Education and Training. The Arab coalition was on the verge of taking from the Houthis in Yemen the port city of Hodeida, but stopped. Why, asks Khaled Okasha In the Arab coalitions operation to gain control over the port of Hodeida, elite forces from the UAE assumed the brunt of the offensive on the ground, alongside some Yemeni army forces that Abu Dhabi had trained and equipped for such missions in the coalitions war to reinstate the internationally recognised Yemeni government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. As strategically important as the port of Hodeida is to the Houthi militias, the significance of this battle is about more than the ports function as the Houthis portal to the outside world. It is a cornerstone in a large and complex project being carried out by rebel forces. This is what gives that port, situated so near to the southern entrance to the Red Sea, a broader, regional threat dimension that the Houthis have flaunted from time to time. It is also a major reason why pro-government forces began to accelerate their campaign to wrest the Hodeida card from the Houthis, shift the military balance of powers definitively in favour of the Arab coalition and capitalise on this to exact concessions from the Houthis in UN-sponsored settlement talks, even if the negotiating tracks and the degree to which the parties are prepared to compromise are far from clear yet. Saudi Arabias recent decision to temporarily suspend oil shipments through the Red Sea needs to be viewed against this backdrop. The halt was in response to missiles fired from the Yemeni mainland targeting two Saudi tankers. This development adds to the mystery surrounding the progress of the coalitions military operation against Hodeida, which has also ground to a halt for no apparent reason. All evidence had suggested that the UAE forces were a stones throw from capturing both the port and the city of Hodeida. Not only did those forces have full Saudi air coverage in that battle, their march was coordinated with coalition campaigns in the interior. In particular, the coalition intensified the campaign in the vicinity of Saada, the Houthi homeland, in order to diffuse Houthi attention and facilitate the seizure of the port. So, who ordered the halt to the Battle of Hodeida at this curious time? Why or in whose interests was that decision taken with respect to that location which is of such strategic significance for the freedom and security of international navigation? There has been talk of international, and specifically British, pressure on the Saudi-led Arab coalition to call its operation to a halt at this stage in which everything is up in the air. It has been suggested that the reason was to maintain a more equal balance of powers between the warring parties. Since the beginning of the military hostilities in Yemen, world powers have been reluctant to intervene in a definitive way. There is a confusing tangle of overlapping and divergent interests among many foreign stakeholders in the Yemeni crisis, but on the whole, they seem to favour a perpetuation of the no winner/no loser scenario. This has generated diverse and visible forms of attrition on all parties involved in the conflict. If, indeed, there were such pressures, there remains the question as to what end? Is the purpose solely to ensure that the UN envoy for Yemen a British citizen keeps a grip on the steering wheel of the settlement process and the results? Or do the British have other hidden ends or ambitions? Apparently, Britain has been given leave, or an international mandate, to assume the helm and carry out certain designs for a comprehensive arrangement covering key issues in the region. These questions will remain pending, at least momentarily, as will questions concerning the recent Saudi halt to oil shipments through the Bab Al-Mandeb. This said, that move seemed calculated to deliver a surprise. This was hardly the first time that navigation in the Red Sea has faced such a threat. US, Saudi, Emirati and Chinese ships, both military and commercial, have been targeted by missiles and booby-trapped speedboats. Reactions to such attacks have always been restrained, if only in order to keep this tactic from having visible or major repercussions, thereby voiding its efficacy as a pressure card. The Saudi decision, therefore, seemed a deliberate overreaction, which leads one to suspect that it was linked to the pressures on the Saudi-led coalition to halt its advance into Hodeida. Was Riyadhs intent to deliver a more severely worded message to the powers behind those pressures to the effect that Riyadh and its partners may begin to push back, albeit in other directions? One was struck by UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Qarqashs tweet following the Saudi decision. After noting that the patience of the UAE and its allies was wearing thin because of the threats to their ships, he underscored two points. The first was how troubled the UAE and other countries in its axis were by the differences between Europe and the US over Iran. The second was that the UAE was prepared to undertake more security responsibilities in the Middle East. If Saudi Arabia is reordering its trump cards, perhaps its recent decision was meant to cause waves of a calculated degree, so far in the security equations of the Bab Al-Mandeb and Red Sea. Iran, naturally, has been perpetually present in these equations since the outset of the Yemeni crisis. It too uses the maritime threat, but so far in very measured doses so as not to let it spiral out of control. The strategy has come into play again in relation to the Arab coalitions march on Hodeida, on the one hand, and the escalating set-to between Tehran and the US over sanctions, on the other. But it may be that Iran is bent on transferring the strategy from the Straits of Hormuz to the Bab Al-Mandeb, a strait of considerably more strategic importance where the threat of escalation could, therefore, offer a greater payoff. Unfortunately, this gives rise to the spectre that the Bab Al-Mandeb and southern Red Sea could shift from a limited threat zone, largely restricted to the bounds of the civil war/proxy war in Yemen, to the level of a more general regional security threat should navigation through the Bab Al-Mandeb and Red Sea become a major factor in the tug-of-war between Washington and Tehran. At that point, some action will be needed to keep the situation under control and to regulate the balances between the countries most immediately concerned with a situation that is tantamount to striking matches next to a haystack. Egypt, for example, has maintained a carefully calibrated distance from the conflict in Yemen for many years. Today, it finds itself compelled to study more thoroughly the ramifications of threats of this magnitude. The national security calculations related to the Suez Canal have always begun not with Suez, but with the Bab Al-Mandeb. This is why Cairo must make its own assessments in this regard, independently of others who may not appreciate the scope of the potential national security threat, not just with respect to maritime security, but also with respect to Egypts entire western shoreline inclusive of its Red Sea islands. Egypt does not have the luxury to expose such locations to any vulnerability which, in itself, should give Egypt incentive to act. It seems more urgent than ever for Egypt to formulate an Egyptian vision for resolving the Yemeni crisis. Whatever the specifics, this will inherently be a multi-pronged drive that demands quick resolve and coordinated political moves on several fronts, much like a military operation. It is time that Cairo heeds the call from its southern maritime gateway. It may be more important than the call of any party involved in the prelude to the fire that is about to break out. *A version of this article appears in print in the 2 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Equations of Bab Al-Mandeb Search Keywords: Short link: Manama : Corruption exists in all spheres of life and even students arent spared. Many rackets are thriving in the region by forging masters thesis and doctoral dissertations, which are bought by students after paying hefty amounts. Sources say these rackets have a strong network across the region including Egypt and Morocco, which they use to market their products before finding suitable customers. These theses and doctoral dissertations are sold for amounts varying between BD1,400 and BD3,000 each. A former library employee in Muharraq, who got a deep knowledge on how these network function, spoke to Tribune, on grounds of anonymity. There is a plenty of demand for these products among the students as most of them dont want hard work. The rackets have all resources at their avail. Be it biochemistry or information science, dissertations are manufactured and kept ready and delivered promptly upon receiving payment. How does these networks operate? Its very simple. They operate in different layers. First thing is to collect copies of old theses and dissertations from universities across the world, which is followed by finding right customers. Subsequently, well-paid subject experts are deployed to tailor these papers according to the customers requirements. It takes less than three months to forge a thesis. Everything can be cooked up, be it statistics, public opinion or scientific hypothesis. Once the thesis or dissertation is ready, students are provided with dossiers, shedding light on the basic aspects of the topic on which the research has been done. This is for the students to convince their supervisors or doctoral guides that the research had been done in good faith. He said students are lured by the marketing team of these rackets, which operates successful businesses in the Kingdom. Apart from Bahrain, the network is very well established in Kuwait and Egypt. There are no real resources, but a huge collection of PDF files for all disciplines. There are special websites in Arabic, which give information on the presentation of these theses. Things are copied without making any references to original sources. The Ministry of Education is aware of these fraudulent activities. It has warned both students and manipulators of strict legal actions including being referred to Public Prosecutions Office. The ministry has stressed that it is exerting great efforts to ensure that all students strictly go through standard and established practices before obtaining qualifications. This is important in preserving the reputation and quality of educational institutions in the kingdom and the degrees offered by them. The ministry has alerted the General Secretariat of Higher Education Council to probe into the matter. All grades, documents and transcripts at all higher educational institutions in the Kingdom are being reviewed. Suspected cases of frauds will be investigated and people behind these illegal activities will face legal action. With regard to Bahraini students obtaining qualifications from abroad, the ministry has appointed a national committee to evaluate qualifications and projects submitted by these students. The ministrys cultural attaches in other countries work along with the national committee to ensure the validity of qualifications. The council, in 2013, referred many cases of fraud to the competent legal authorities. The University of Delmon was also accused of committing fraudulent activities. The Supreme Criminal Court has as well jailed a few university officials for their involvement in forgery. As of now, there are allegations of serious wrongdoings at the Arab Open University. Jakarta : The first meeting of political consultation between the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Republic of Indonesia was held in Jakarta. The consultation was led by the Undersecretary for International Affairs, Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, and the Director General for Asia-Pacific and African Affairs of Indonesias Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Desra Percaya. Dr Shaikh Abdulla expressed his honour to visit Indonesia, and implement the Memorandum of Understanding on Political Consultation between the two Foreign Ministries, signed in September 2015. He also affirmed that Bahrain is keen to strengthen cooperation relations with the great Islamic country in various fields, in a manner that benefits the two friendly countries and peoples. The meeting explored mutually beneficial opportunities, assessed pending matters, and exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest. Dr Shaikh Abdulla also showcased the common elements between Bahrain and Indonesia, which pave the way for a strong and extended partnership, especially that the archipelago site in both countries reflect the characteristics of openness, culture, trade movement and diversity. He also noted that two countries have important contributions through their membership in regional and international organisations, as the cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) creates an economic platform for interaction and growth with the world, as well as an additional cooperation within the framework of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue, that seeks to promote understanding and friendship between Asian countries. The Undersecretary reviewed the principles of the foreign policy of the Kingdom, which His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, implemented through international and humanitarian principles, and based on the values of pride, wisdom, brotherhood and interaction, with the aim to spread peace, security and stability. He also noted that this reflects the success of the Kingdoms leadership in achieving comprehensive reform, sustainable development and qualitative initiatives. Cotabato : Ten people, including troops and civilians, were killed when a bomb in a van blew up at an army checkpoint in the southern Philippines Tuesday. The powerful explosion, claimed by the Islamic State group, occurred after soldiers and pro-government militiamen stopped the vehicle just after dawn to search it. One soldier, five militiamen and four civilians were killed on the outskirts of the mainly Christian city of Lamitan, which is on the predominantly Muslim island of Basilan. The van driver, a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, also died, Philippine military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo told reporters in Manila. He said government forces had been on heightened alert after receiving reports that extremists planned to plant improvised explosives around the island. We can just imagine the tragedy that this would bring to the people of Basilan had we not stopped them at the checkpoint, he said. Authorities earlier said at least five people died in the blast. Basilan is a stronghold of the notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group. Kuwait : Residents of Kuwaits most populous city now have more reason to rejoice with the arrival of the worlds favourite jeweller. Joyalukkas Farwaniya is the newest showroom in Kuwait that offers the brands signature world-class jewellery and award-winning service. The showroom was inaugurated by Mohammad Ismaeil Safar Bahzad, Director, Joyalukkas Kuwait led by no other than the visionary entrepreneur and Joyalukkas Group CMD Joy Alukkas along with top Joyalukkas Group executives, local dignitaries and VIPs. A bright new addition to the brands ever-growing network of jewellery showrooms around the world, Joyalukkas Farwaniya features new collections set in spacious, brightly lit interiors offering the pure joy of jewellery shopping with every visit. It is a delight to continue to grow in Kuwait, said Joy Alukkas, Joyalukkas Group CMD. And it is all because of the loyal support of its residents. I will be personally welcoming everyone as we open our doors in Farwaniya and look forward to offering our best here, from products to services, every day for years to come. Joyalukkas Farwaniya, Kuwait will feature over a million jewellery designs showcasing a mix of traditional, ethno contemporary and international influences. The new outlet will carry an exclusive line of Joyalukkas brands, such as Veda Temple Jewellery, Pride Diamonds, Eleganza Polki Diamonds, Masaaki Pearls, Zenina Turkish Jewellery, Lil Joy Kids Jewellery, the Apurva Antique collection and Ratna Precious Stone Jewellery, as well as brand-new diamond collections 7 Wonders Daily Wear and Iris Colorful Diamond Jewellery. Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko started their three-day tour of Hokkaido on Friday, which will probably be their last visit to the northernmost Japan prefecture before the Emperor's abdication in late April next year. After flying from Tokyo to New Chitose Airport in the Hokkaido city of Chitose, the couple moved on to the city of Kitahiroshima, where they visited Takeuchi Farm, a vegetable farm whose workforce includes people with disabilities. Since its establishment in 2014, Takumi Takeuchi, 38, and his wife, Ai, 35, who manage the farm, have been collaborating with a welfare office under a government program for developing the linkage between agriculture and welfare, an initiative aimed at promoting the employment of people with disabilities. After looking around green pepper fields under the scorching sun, the Emperor and the Empress watched workers packing tomatoes and other vegetables in bags inside a greenhouse. "Well done on your work in this heat," they told the workers. When Takeuchi explained that his farm ships 15 different crops for about 200 days a year, the Emperor was impressed and said, "You are very creative in your work." 3 33 Strong sunshine pushed up temperatures across most of Japan on Friday. Nagoya City in central Japan saw the mercury hit 40.3 degrees Celsius -- the highest since record-keeping began, 128 years ago in 1890. Mino City in Gifu Prefecture also recorded a daytime high of 40.3 degrees. Elsewhere, the highs reached 38.9 degrees in Kyoto City and 38 degrees in Fuchu City in suburban Tokyo. The forecasters say the "dangerous heat wave" is showing little sign of letting up. On Saturday, the mercury is expected to hit 39 in Kyoto, 38 in Gifu and Kofu cities, and 35 in central Tokyo. A university hospital in southwestern Japan says that over the past 2 years, 15 patients appear to have been infected with drug-resistant bacteria. Officials at Kagoshima University Hospital held a news conference on Friday. They said 8 of the patients died, and in the case of 3, the bacterial infection may have worsened their conditions. A committee made up of at least one external expert examined the correlation between the bacteria and the deaths. Officials said that between September 2016 and April 2018, a strain of Acinetobacter that is resistant to most antibacterial drugs was detected in 5 patients, and a strain of Acinetobacter resistant to several drugs was detected in 10 others. According to the hospital, 14 of the patients were confirmed to have been infected while in the intensive care unit, or soon after. They said the bacteria were also detected on sinks and bed mattresses in the ICU. The hospital suspects the bacteria spread through hospital workers. Hospital director Shoji Natsugoe said he is praying for the souls of the patients who died. He offered his deep apologies to their families. A 7-month-old Japanese baby has become an Internet sensation for her full head of thick black hair. The child, known online as Baby Chanco, was born in December last year in western Japan. Baby Chanco had a full head of thick hair at birth. Photos at 5 months show her hair was already longer than her face. The baby quickly gained fans worldwide after her mother, Mami Kano, began to post photos of her daughter on Instagram in May. The images of her thick hair and cute expressions pushed the number of her Instagram followers to more than 200,000. Most of the comments are from people overseas. They say they have never seen a baby with such thick hair. The Straits Times of Singapore carried an article about the baby with the headline "7-month-old Japanese girl with full head of thick hair becomes latest Instagram sensation." The mother says her daughter has already had 3 haircuts. She also says she uses a mobile fan and other tools to keep her child from sweating too much. Shigeki Inui, a dermatologist and director of the Japan Soceity of Clinical Hair Restoration, says amounts of hair vary from baby to baby, but Baby Chanco seems to have around twice as much as the average child her age. He says he has never seen a baby with such thick hair. Hotel Okura Tokyo, the flagship hotel of one of Japan's top hotel chain operators, has been fully booked during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics thanks to stays by officials connected with the International Olympic Committee. All 508 guest rooms of the Tokyo hotel will be fully occupied during the Summer Games, Chizu Nakashiro, an official of Okura Nikko Hotel Management, a hotel-operating subsidiary of Hotel Okura Co., said at a promotional event in Kuala Lumpur last week. About half of guest rooms at Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba, located in one of the most popular destinations for foreign tourists in Tokyo, have also been booked by IOC officials, said Nakashiro, who is in charge of international sales for the hotel operator. A new main building of the Hotel Okura Tokyo, now under construction to replace the old one, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019, with its name changed to The Okura Tokyo. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the recent wave of defections into the party may sow seeds of discord within its ranks, nothing that the PDP has further been strengthen with the return of some highly profile defectors last week.The party further claimed that talks have continued not only with prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but also with serving cabinet members of the President Muhammadu Buhari government who are only waiting for the right time to do the needful.In an exclusive chat with Sunday Vanguard yesterday, the largest opposition party also allayed possible fears of friction within its ranks following last week defection of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Governor Aminu Tambuwal, the latter believed to be nursing a Presidential ambition.Clarifying the partys position yesterday, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan told our correspondent that partys delegate to the Presidential primary election, would determine the emergence of the candidate, insisting that the PDP has no preferred candidate among those that have declared their interest and those yet to do so.We told Nigerians sometimes ago that members of the APC were on their way to joining us in the PDP and that is now happening. This will only make us stronger because politics is a game of numbers.Let me also add that some of them are talking with our Contact and Integration Committee and these are not just members of the ruling party but lawmakers in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Our rebranded platform is now attractive to leaders across board including some serving cabinet members of the APC-led government.On the issue of possible rift over the President ticket, the party has always stated that it has no preferred candidate either among those who have declared their intents or those likely to join the race.Unlike the APC, the PDP is a democratic party in name and actions. We have charged them (aspirants) to talk to Nigerians and avail them of their plans for the people. At the end, the delegates will decide who emerges as our flag bearer in the 2019 Presidential election, he stated.Last week, Governors Samuel Ortom and Aminu Tambuwal of Benue and Sokoto states respectively rejoined the PDP alongside a good number of their respective States House of Assembly members but Ologbondiyan stressed that more states are about to do same.It is not only the states you mentioned (Benue and Sokoto) that are the issue here. Members of assemblies of other states would soon come on board in the rescue Nigeria Project. Everywhere you turn, the story is the same. Nigerians are crying; they are dying of frustration and hunger. So, what is happening today (defections) is not about the PDP, it is about Nigeria, he added.The return of Governor Tambuwal to PDP has continued to generate diverse reactions with many suggesting that the partys Presidential ticket is his to pick. Although, yet to make a public statement on his post 2019 future, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives is believed to be the anointed choice of top power brokers in the country, including prominent traditional and religious leaders.However, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP led by Prince Uche Secondus insists the power to pick the Presidential candidate is beyond it or any other organ of the party. Imposition and Impunity, Secondus has warned virtually every week, would no longer be associated with the PDP. The Nigerian Air Force has said its Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole,on Friday, bombed a Boko Haram terrorists hideout in Borno State, destroying the terrorists camp in the process.The Air Force, in a statement by its spokesman, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, Saturday, terrorists hideout in Daban Masara area of the state was destroyed in the days Operation in the area.The surgical air strikes were conducted on the strength of credible intelligence which indicated that remnants of Boko Haram terrorists on the Lake Chad Islands were hiding out in settlements at the Southern part of the lake, including Daban Masara, and were amassing in some buildings for a meeting, it explained.It said an air interdiction mission was therefore planned and executed to destroy two out of the green roofed buildings within Daban Masara that were identified as Boko Haram terrorists rendezvous points.Upon receiving the intelligence, the ATF dispatched a NAF Alpha Jet aircraft, along with an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform, to attack the two buildings where the Boko Haram terrorists were gathered with bombs.Overhead the area of interest, the Alpha Jet successfully released its bombs on the targets in successive strikes leading to massive destruction of the target buildings as well as the neutralization of several Boko Haram terrorists, it further explained. Nollywood actor, Kenneth Okonkwo has stated that the worst of President Muhammadu Buharis eight year in office, if he gets a second term,... Nollywood actor, Kenneth Okonkwo has stated that the worst of President Muhammadu Buharis eight year in office, if he gets a second term, would be better than the past 16 years the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had control of power. Okonkwo also said he owed no one any apology for supporting President Buhari. The actor turned politician recently came under fire after he stated that people of the South Eastern part of Nigeria will be in the wilderness if they fail to vote for Buhari in 2019. Reacting to the heavy backlash he got, Kenneth Okonkwo, via an Instagram post on Friday, stated that he owed no one any apology for his statement. His words: My attention has been drawn to some negative comments and curses poured out against my person by some ignorant and satanically motivated persons because of my preference of President Muhammadu Buhari as President of this country for his incorruptible and firm character against enemies of Nigeria. I have been laughing at their ignorance and wickedness. First, these men have not offered any alternative party or Presidential aspirants to challenge Buhari or be compared with him. Second, they claim they are Igbos but forgot that in Igboland, it is a cardinal principle and custom that you must respect someones personal opinion and must not curse the person, if what the person simply did was to express his opinion and nothing more, uche onye adighi ya njo. Even if a person says anything you dont like, provided he did not curse you, you are permitted to throw away his words but restrained by custom and tradition not to do anything to him. Third, God himself created man a free moral agent to hold his thoughts and express his opinions as he wishes. He did not even compel man to worship Him. So these army of ignorant and wicked men are simply trying to rudely and crudely interfere with my traditional, constitutional and religious rights to freely express myself and hold an opinion, belief and thought as I so wish. Let me reiterate that I am a follower of President Buhari and believe in his integrity and good intentions to better the lots of Nigerians and that of Ndigbo and I have no apologies for this. Whoever disagrees with me should produce his own strong reasons and better alternatives. Just to remind you but a few. Before Buhari came in, terrorists bombed to pieces, 88 persons at Nyanya in Abuja, bombed the United Nations Building in Abuja, bombed Banex Plaza and even the police headquarters in Abuja killing uncountable number of persons. I dont need to mention the entire North East that was overun by terrorists with thousands of people beheaded and the video images sent on internet for everybody to see. The terrorists were everywhere and have started forming cells in Lagos and Enugu. This Government came and destroyed them across the country. Only their remnants now are going about carrying out criminal activities and you are telling me security is not better now. Our soldiers and officers were sent to fight these terrorists without weapons. They were dying like chicken and when they complained about lack of weapons, they were sentenced to death for mutiny. No apologies for supporting Buhari. I respect your views. I not only support him, I pray for him. You know the truth, the worst of Buhari in 8 years will be better than the best of PDP in 16 years. PDP had 16 years with oil prices very high in-between yet they left us without light (power), without water, without roads, without security, without paying even salaries, indeed without anything. The Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade has denied reports that he was set to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for th... The Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade has denied reports that he was set to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the All Progressives Congress, APC. The governor described the report as false and a fertile imagination of the author. Ayade in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Christian Ita maintained that his relationship with the President was based on governance. Ayade was in the delegation of President Muhammadu Buhari to two high-level meetings in Lome, Republic of Togo. This also fuelled speculations that he is being wooed by the APC in the south-east and south-south regions ahead of the 2019 election. But Ita dismissed the reports. There is absolutely no truth to the report that Governor Ayade is defecting to the APC. It is fake news; it is the fertile imagination of the author of the report, he said. The governor has a relationship with the president based on governance. So there is a need for us as a people to understand that governance is different from politics. Ayade is a committed PDP member. Ayade was elected governor on the platform of the PDP in the 2015 governorship election. On July 25, some APC youths in the state stormed the national secretariat of the party in Abuja to protest against the alleged plan of his defection. They reportedly said the governor wanted to join the ruling party because he is a man whose party has roundly and unprecedentedly rejected him for his very poor and abysmal performance. Professor Kingsley Moghalu has said he will continue to hold townhall meetings to engage directly with the Nigerian people, including at the grassroots, even after he becomes President in 2019. He said he will not only be sending a representative.He made this known during a seminar he conducted on The Nexus between Youth Civic Participation and National Development on August 2, 2018 at the Julius Berger Hall, University of Lagos, to engage students and volunteers for his To Build A Nation (TBAN) movement.Moghalu made a case for inclusive participation in the political affairs of the country, as he said, Politics matters! It decides who decides your destiny. The government of the day decides the state of healthcare, provision of jobs, and security of the lives of citizens and property.The presidential aspirant on the platform of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), stated that it is the collective task of all citizens to rescue Nigeria from political tyrants in 2019. Furthermore, he added that 2019 is not just an election but an historic choice a choice between recycled politicians and inclusive government of newbreed, visionary leaders and young people.Earlier in the day, the former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria gave a remarkable charge that saw the audience respond in uproarious applause at the National Young Leaders Summit 2018 in honour of Comrade Ahmed Ojikutus 40th birthday celebrations.Speaking on the current on-going mass defections, Moghalu said politicians are going into a political grazing reserve and we will lock the door behind them. Their movements are not done with the interest of the common man but for selfish reasons.The former United Nations (UN) official said the youths will decide the destiny of Nigeria come 2019. He said the instruments to effect that change is the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and voting carefully. Femi Falana, lawyer and rights activist, says the defection of some lawmakers from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Demo... Femi Falana, lawyer and rights activist, says the defection of some lawmakers from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is illegal. Fifty-three members of the national assembly recently dumped the ruling party and moved to the opposition, with most of them citing division as their reasons for leaving. Among the lawmakers were 37 members of the house of representatives and 16 senators, including Senate President Bukola Saraki. Falana, however, faulted the reasons given by the lawmakers, saying what exists in the ruling party is only artificial division. Speaking during a Channels TV programme on Friday, the senior advocate of Nigeria said the lawmakers defection is contrary to both the provisions of the 1999 constitution as well as previous court judgements regarding the issue. The section 68 (1) of the 1999 constitution which talks about defections states: A member of the senate or of the house of representatives shall vacate his seat in the house of which he is a member if (g) being a person whose election to the house was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored. Falana said the division in question must be total and must not be artificial factionalisation. The division the constitution was talking about was recently witnessed in the PDP whereby you had the Ali Modu Sheriff faction and the Makarfi faction, he added. Two conventions were held almost simultaneously two sets of officers emerged down the line. So you cannot just simply This (the APCs) was a division that was announced in a press conference; it goes beyond that. You cannot leave the party that sponsored your election for another party without refining so that you can ask for a fresh mandate form the electorate. And that has not happened in this case. The Federal Government has threatened to shut down 106 radio and television stations in the country. The National Broadcasting Commiss... The Federal Government has threatened to shut down 106 radio and television stations in the country.The National Broadcasting Commission, which issued the threat on behalf of the Federal Government, accused the stations of owing the commission the sum of N4,517,535,961.The Head of Public Affairs at the commission, Mrs. Maimuna Jimada, who said this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Friday, said that the affected radio and television stations had been notified.She, however, refused to release the names of the indebted stations.Jimada said that the affected stations were given three weeks to pay their debts, adding that the three-week notice was issued on February 23, 2017.She said, At a press conference held on Thursday, February 23, 2017 in the commissions headquarters in Abuja, The DG gave debtor stations three weeks to pay up or face sanctions.The only action the NBC has taken regarding outstanding licence fees was to give all stations owing the commission a deadline to pay or be shut down, the deadline has since passed but the commission has not gone ahead to shut down any station yet.Asked if the commission would go ahead to shut down the affected stations, she said yes, adding that you will agree with me that the three weeks deadline had expired since February 23, 2017.Jimada also commented on the allegations by the management of Daar Communications, owners of Africa Independent Television and Raypower FM, that the commission was witch-hunting it for not showing loyalty to the incumbent administration.Besides faulting the claim by the commission that Raypower exceeded its transmitting band of 100.5MHz, the company alleged that the broadcast regulatory body had unleashed a fresh onslaught against it in the manner it did in 2015, shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari was elected.The Group Managing Director of the company, Mr. Tony Akiotu, who briefed journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, had said the company was invited several times by the commission to either drop some presenters or decimate/tone down the vibrancy of the programme.He alleged that the media organisation was intimidated, adding that every attempt had been made to muzzle and stifle its constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression.The NBC had accused the media organisation of exceeding the allowed band occupancy limit, from 100.3MHz to 100.6MHz.The NBC, in its letter dated July 9, 2018, and signed by the Acting Secretary of the commission, Alheri Saidu, had imposed a fine of N1m on the station for the breach of the terna of the FM Radio Licence granted to your company.Saidu also directed the company to correct over modulation frequency and limit the band occupy of its transmission to the maximum frequency.The NBC had recently slammed the media house over its programme on politics, Political Platform, for persistent and flagrant infringement on the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code on your programme.The commission later fined the company N500,000 and N1m for the two offences, which it paid. The former caretaker Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmed Makarfi, has warned the party to be careful about the type of person... The former caretaker Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmed Makarfi, has warned the party to be careful about the type of persons it accepts back into the party.The former Kaduna State governor spoke on Friday in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, during a visit to the partys secretariat in continuation of his nationwide tour to solicit support for his presidential ambition.Makarfi said that those who left the party when things were rough and now returning because they could not realise their ambitions elsewhere, should not be trusted with too much responsibility.He said, We must be careful whom we admit back into the party so as not to repeat the mistake of the past.He warned against a repeat of the past where crisis engulfed the party immediately it lost the last presidential election.Makarfi also warned those clamouring for restructuring to be careful so as not to hand over the responsibility of restructuring to those who should not be trusted with power.While wishing him well in his presidential bid, the state party Chairman, Sam Uhuotu, said that Makarfi had proved his worth as a good leader with the way he handled the crisis in the PDP when he was the caretaker chairman. Alia Ghanem, the mother of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 deadly attack on the United States, has spoken about... Alia Ghanem, the mother of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 deadly attack on the United States, has spoken about her son, saying he was a shy boy who was radicalised in the university.Over 3,000 people died in the terror attack which has been described as the deadliest in human history.Osama was later killed by the US military in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, approximately 10 years after the attack.Ghanen said she always told her son, who was the founder of the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation, to stay away from bad gangs but that he never admitted his activities to her because he (Osama) loved her so much.The woman, who is in her mid-70s, told Guardian UK that she was extremely upset when she found out, because it never crossed her mind he could become a jihadist.She said the family saw him last, two years before the 9/11 attack took place.We were extremely upset. I did not want any of this to happen. Why would he throw it all away like that? She said.In the historic 9/11 attack, 19 militants associated with the al-Qaeda terrorist group hijacked four passenger airplanes and flew two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, another plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC, while the fourth plane crashed on a field in Pennsylvania.Ghanem said, He was academically capable. He became a strong, driven, pious figure in his early 20s while studying Economics at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where he was also radicalised.The people at (the) university changed him. He became a different man. One of the men he met there was Abdullah Azzam, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was later exiled from Saudi Arabia and became Osamas spiritual adviser. He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s.You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause. I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing, because he loved me so much.One of his younger brothers, Hassan, said the family was initially proud of him when he travelled to Afghanistan to fight the Russian occupation, but that things later changed.He said, Im very proud of him being my oldest brother. But I dont think Im very proud of him as a man. He reached superstardom on a global stage, and it was all for nothing.Another brother of the late terrorist, Ahmad, also said their mother remained in denial about him (Osama) even after 17 years because she loved him so much.She only knows the good boy side, the side we all saw. She never got to know the jihadist side, he added.He said the family knew within 48 hours after the attack that he was the one responsible for the attack. From the youngest to the eldest, we all felt ashamed of him; we knew all of us were going to face horrible consequences, he added. Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says he has no apology for using labour tactics as his style o... Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says he has no apology for using labour tactics as his style of leadership. The former Edo governor said the ruling party will use the tactics to humble them in Kwara, Sokoto and Benue. The governors of the three states recently defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Oshiomhole said the traditional style of ruling class tactics is not working, and as such, he is using a different approach. The APC chairman said he would rather be called an attack dog than be a mushroom eater. Oshiomhole made the comments on Friday in Benin, Edo state. He said: For those questioning my choice of style, if the traditional style was working, we wont be where we are. I will not adopt the ruling class tactics to deal with cankerworms of diseases. I offer a different style in order to get a different outcome. In Edo, they made this argument, that politics is different from labour, we used labour tactics to humble them and they became converted. Exactly the same way we used it in Edo, we will use it to humble them whether in Kwara, Benue or Sokoto or anywhere. I am very proud of my working-class background. For a party that is committed to the people which I have agreed to lead, we must engage and engage even if they call me attack dog. I asked you to understand that what is at stake is beyond APC and PDP. Nigeria is much more than the sum total of all the political parties. When you see all the arguments here and there, sponsored debates here and there, I am at home with them. I think by February next year, we will see who is who. Isa Misau and Rafiu Ibrahim, senators representing Bauchi central and Kwara south respectively, have warned against any move to impeach Se... Isa Misau and Rafiu Ibrahim, senators representing Bauchi central and Kwara south respectively, have warned against any move to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki. They said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers in the senate outnumber those of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Saraki left the APC for PDP after the ruling party lost 15 of its members in the upper legislative chamber. The leadership of the ruling party subsequently asked him to resign, having joined a minority party. Abu Ibrahim, senator representing Katsina south, had said: Let him be gentleman enough and resign as senate president. If he does not, we will never have peace in that senate because it is absolutely clear that APC has majority to produce the leadership. Reacting via a joint statement on Saturday, Misau and Ibrahim said the Katsina senators threat has given us an insight into what they are planning and we will be ready for them. His statements showed why one of them led thugs to disrupt the proceeding of the senate, steal the mace, the symbol of authority of the legislature, and yet there is no consequence, they said. APC should note that they are now the minority party. PDP has more members. When we resume, if they push us, we will move for a head count of members and change some of our principal officers to reflect party strength. Today, by the list paraded by APC themselves, they have only 48 Senators and PDP has 54, APGA has 2 and ADC has 2. There are two vacancies. That is the distribution in the senate. Let them continue to deceive themselves. Those clamoring for the resignation of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, because he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party should know that it is unconstitutional to even say he should resign, Ahmed Makarfi, one of the PDP Presidential aspirants has said.Makarfi advised all crucifiers of Saraki, to leave him alone as Senate President irrespective of the party he belongs to, adding that it is lawful, constitutional and democratic.He made this known on Saturday during his visit to the PDP Secretariat in Minna as he continued his presidential campaign for the forthcoming PDP primaries.He maintained that Saraki, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and Yakubu Dogara were elected based on the provisions of the constitution and not based on party.Makarfi told those calling for the resignation of Saraki and Dogora to vacate their seats to read the constitution and leave them alone to carry out their duties in a well-dignified manner.The position of the presiding officers of the National Assembly, based on the constitution of Nigeria is an election of one among equals based on voting irrespective of party affiliation. The constitution said that the Senators are to elect among themselves, it did not say that it must be from a majority party.Positions tied to party affiliation are the positions like the majourity and minority leaders and Chief Whips along with their deputies. Therefore Senator Bukola Saraki, Ike Ekweremadu, and Dogara should be left alone because they are elected based on the provision of the constitution and their continued stay irrespective of the party they belong to is constitutional, it is lawful and it is democratic. Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has made a shocking revelation on t... Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has made a shocking revelation on the ongoing crisis rocking the national assembly. Frank alleged that the President Muhammdu Buhari-led presidency and the leadership of the APC offered lawmakers N150m each to impeach Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the green chamber, Yakubu Dogara and some governors, who recently dumped the ruling party. . Frank, in a statement on Saturday, also listed governors Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and Samuel Ortom of Benue as having been marked for removal in the said plot. He said while Saraki and the governors have been slated for removal for daring to defect from the APC to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dogara is to be impeached for fear he may soon dump the APC as well. He described the ongoing plot to illegally dispense state funds to carry out the unconstitutional removal of duly elected public officials as the height of impunity and corruption that has been prevalent in the present administration since inception in May 2015. Frank said: From available information, the Presidency in collaboration with the leadership of the APC is about to dole out the sum of $400,000 (about N150million) each to APC Senators and House of Representatives members to impeach Saraki who has defected to the PDP and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara who they fear may soon dump the party as well. They are also offering legislators in some State Houses of Assembly the sum of $150,000 (about N50million) each, to impeach their Governors that recently defected to the PDP. He said that the President has allegedly directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to foot the bills to achieve the objective of removing the defectors from their present political positions. I have been reliably informed that after separate meetings with APC Senators and House of Representatives members, shortly before his U.K. trip, the President summoned the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and after informing him that APC lawmakers have a proposal, he directed the GMD to attend to their needs. I want Nigerians and members of the international community to note that this presidential order is coming at a period when State Governors have incessantly complained, during their monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings in Abuja, about unexplained shortfalls in remittances of crude oil sales to the Federation Account by the NNPC. From this curious directive, it is now clear to Nigerians and the world at large, that the amount accruing to the Federation Account from monthly crude oil sales is being deliberately and illegally deducted at source and set aside by the NNPC on the orders of the presidency to fund illegal operations like their present desperate bid to remove Saraki, Dogara and Governors that recently dumped the APC. I am not surprised about this unholy cash inducements to lawmakers to do a dirty job because the Presidency and the APC recently conducted a dressed rehearsal of an inducement heist in Ekiti State during the see and buy votes saga with which they allegedly rigged the Ekiti Governorship election in favour of the APC, he said. He however warned the presidency and the APC to desist from their present plot to illegally remove Saraki, Dogara and affected Governors, it may lead to chaos and anarchy capable of truncating democracy in the country. He said: Let me warn the Presidency and the leadership of the APC to desist from their present desperate plot to bribe some Federal and State legislators so as to force the illegal removal of Saraki, Dogara and Governors that recently dumped the APC. Let me also urge APC lawmakers to be circumspect about this unholy transaction as they will be risking the wrath of Nigerians should they yield to the inducements and attempt the illegality for which they are now being primed with loads of cash. Is it not curious that this illegal cash bazaar is being clandestinely orchestrated by a government that has visited untold hardship on Nigerians in the last three years? he queried. He pleaded with the international community to call the President and the leadership of the APC to order and also to prevail on them to stop their plan to illegally use state funds to truncate the nations democracy. I also want Nigerians and members of the international community to jointly hold the presidency and the leadership of the APC responsible for any unintended consequences of their present action aimed at removing the leadership of the National Assembly and governors who recently switched allegiances from the APC to the opposition PDP, Frank said. The PDP, senator representing Bayelsa East constituency, Ben-Murray Bruce, on Saturday condemned President Muhammadu Buharis repeated vacation to Britain, saying that such vacation would only damage Nigerias economy rather increasing it.Submitting his opinion via his Facebook handle, the senator asked a very important question.Read below:President Muhammadu Buhari keeps going to Britain for vacation. But Has he ever asked himself how many times the British Prime Minister has come to Nigeria for a vacation?Nigeria wants to grow her economy but how can we grow if we give to others what they do not give to us?How can we tell foreign tourists to visit Nigeria when our own leaders wont even vacation in Nigeria? How can we tell the world that Nigeria is safe for business when we as leaders move about with little armies to protect us from the people who elected us?Recall that Buhari had travelled to Britain for four days in May to see his doctor.However, Buhari, yesterday, travelled again to Britain in an interval of two months. This presidency said was for a routine vacation.But reacting on Saturday, Ben-Bruce faulted his vacation, noting that Nigeria economy cannot grow if Nigeria leaders should continue with their affluence lifestyles.Recall again that, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had alleged that Buharis 10-days leave was for Sarakis impeachment.A statement that was immediately countered by Presidency who on Thursday night denied the allegation by the opposition party, as they described President Buhari as a Democrat that does not indulge in any unconstitutional and illegal act.The Presidency also alleged that the PDP has been crying wolf because members of the party were afraid of their past, thinking that the Buharis administration would reopen the alleged inglorious past 16 years rule of the party. It was like the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem when the people came out in their thousands on Saturday to welcome the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at the Benin airport to the city centre.National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at the Benin airport to the city centre.Although it was not an official welcoming rally after his election as the national chairman of the party as he was on transit to Delta State for a function, party faithful thronged the airport to catch a glimpse of their Comrade who has not lost his popularity among the people of the state.It was first rumoured that he would be in the ancient City on Friday, but he was later to appear in Bauchi for an APC rally.Doubting Thomas, who did not want to be told the story were at the airport for the whole Friday waiting for their Comrade.Thousands of supporters, mostly youths were at the Benin Airport for hours awaiting the arrival of Oshiomhole.The large crowd, made up of supporters of the APC and other well wishers, started arriving the airport as early as 11am on Friday when the news of arrival of the chairman filtered into town.Every available space at the airport was taken over by the crowd, even as the car parks were filled vehicles.A former Youth leader of the party, Mr Osakpamwan Eriyo said the crowd at the airport showed the depth of love they have for the immediate past Governor of the state.Eriyo said when the news of his impending arrival got to him in the Morning, he drove down to the airport thousands of his supportersHe said he was pleasantly surprised with the crowd he meant at the airport when he arrived.As one that is used to cashing on available opportunity, the former youth leader used the opportunity to denied the rumour of his planned exit from the APC.I heard about it and I can tell you without mincing words that I have not such plan; I am with APC body and soul, PDP is not a party for me or any right thinking person, he said.On Saturday, party faithful and media practitioners had started arriving the airport as early as 7. Am as Oshiomholes Chief Press Secretary, Simon Ebegbulem had sent a message that they would touch down by 8.30 am, it was however not to be until few minutes after nine when Oshiomhole accompanied by his aides, including the lawmaker representing Egor/Ikpobha-Okha federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma arrived.Oshiomhole was received by some members of the APC in the state, including the state chairman, Anselm Ojezua, Edo North Senatorial leader Chief Sunny Okomayin, state youth leader, Valentine Asuen and other party leaders from Delta who had arrived Benin to escort him to their state.It was hectic controlling the surging crowd that welcomed him as he was mobbed by the thousands of market women and young people who continuously chanted Na you we know, Na you we, Oshiomhole Na you we know.His address to the crowd was intermittently interrupted by this chants as he used the opportunity to calm members who have become agitated recently accusing the administration of Godwin Obaseki of not being interested in their welfare and also accused him abandoning them and bringing strangers to become beneficiaries of a government they did not work to enthrone.They had also accused him of importing contractors to carry out jobs they could easily do thereby encouraging capital flight from the state which they said is impoverishing the economy of the state.The National chairman of the party promised to ensure that the tradition of carrying everybody along is sustained in the state.And to our people here I want to assure you that I will work together with our governor and ensure that any error, any concern that you have that they are addressed satisfactorily. And I want to assure you that the tradition of carry our people along will be sustained; you represent what I call our infantry division, you are the ones on election day who ensure that our voters come out, you are the ones who ensure that the PDP rigging machine was defeated.We must keep you as a standing force; together we will match on and we will ensure that everyone who works is looked after. I know there are people with all kinds of stories but let me assure you that after the storm the weather will settle. Trust me, as you have not abandoned me, I will never abandon you and to our youths, I want to particularly appeal to you; dont lose faith.He added that, There will be work, there will be participation; there will be involvement, there will be inclusivity we will not throw away anybody. Nobody will be used and dumped.If yesterday has come beautiful, tomorrow will be better, I am back home as they say; then to our market women, you know you are my wives and I am your child; together we must sustain that oneness. To our APC women, you know my position; together we will work to sustain this tempo, he said.The former labour leader did not also spare those who have been critical about his leadership style as national chairman of the party said there must be a new style in the party and the country to get desired results.He said he was aware of the challenges facing the party and the country and believed that he would provide the needed leadership to change the situation. I will represent the feelings, the aspirations and I will meet your expectations as far as the running of the Al Progressives Congress (APC) is concerned and at this point I am very clear, we will have to fight on the basis of our conviction and we will adopt our style, we will not borrow other peoples style and we will bring those values into the leadership and management of the APC.Working together with President Buhari that government will focus on the people, that government will not focus on the welfare of the few at the expense of the majority, that government must do everything possible to ensure that those who work have something to show for their labour.We must support the president and the APC to remove all those thieves, all those looters who believe it is their birthright to continue to loot. Those who say that their purpose in government is for juicy positions and not for the welfare of the people.Oshiomhole later rode in an open vehicle in long convoy through airport road to the City center otherwise known as Kings Square as people and admirers cheered him up amid fanfare. A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, has described the recently filed petition of the Peoples Democratic Partys Governorship candidate, in the July 14 election, Kolapo Olusola, at the Tribunal, as an exercise in futility.Olusola had a filed his petition on Friday against the winner, Dr Kayode Fayemi, calling for the nullification of the exercise,The Deputy Director General of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Council, said the election reflected the will of Ekiti people and that not even the petition filed by Olusola or any other party can upturn the verdict.The former House of Representatives member added that the party will assemble highly experienced legal team that would confront the PDP and its candidate and prevent them from getting victory through the backdoor.Fayemi, the candidate of the APC polled a total of 197, 459 to trounce Olusola, who got 178, 121 votes in the keenly contested election.In the petition filed by the head of his legal team, Mallam Yusuf Ali, Olusola prayed the Tribunal to declare him the winner of the July 14 election, predicating this on the fact that he polled the highest number of lawful votes in the poll.Responding to the action, Faparusi, in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Saturday appealed to APC members across the State to be peaceful and see the present legal challenge as one that wont yield any fruitful result.The APC chieftain described the election as the best in Ekiti since the advent of democracy in 1999, saying the allegations of ballot stuffing and snatching, falsification of results and brazen abuse of powers by APC to win the election only existed in the dementedimagination of the PDP as a political party.He said: Prof Olusola asking that he be declared winner of an election he lost was a tall dream that wont be realized. The whole world could attest to the credibility of the election.Several credible observer groups with the exception of those sponsored by Governor Ayodele Fayose had given the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) a thumb up over its transparency in the conduct of the election. The European Union and other global bodies that monitored the governorship election praised the electoral commission for doing a great job.Since the advent of democracy in 1999, this election stood out to be the most keenly contested with the winner defeating the loser with a marginal edge of 19, 338 votes. This confirmed and substantiated how transparent INEC had been in the conduct of this election.No election can be deemed to have been perfect, but substantially, the exercise could be adjudged to have been conducted in line with the 1999 constitution and the dictate of the Electoral Act.If one dissects the trends of the winning across the 16 local governments, the two parties were having marginal edge ahead of others, but eventually APC won in 12 local governments and PDP won four.If the PDP could be bold to tag an election where the winner won 12 councils and loser four, what would the people call the June 21, 2014 governorship election, where Governor Fayose defeated the incumbent governor, Dr. Fayemi in all the 16 local governments?No one can abridge Prof Olusolas rights to seek redress in court, this steps remains the most civilized and recognized resort in electioneering process, but we in the APC are confident that it is going to be a futile effort because Dr. Fayemi got the mandatethrough credible means, he concluded. Illinois Commemorates Barack Obamas 57th Birthday with Statewide Holiday zo Zo is a staff writer at Okayplayer where he covers Our lunches together were a highlight of every week at the White House. Last week's trip to @DogTagBakery was no different. Happy birthday to my brother, my friend, @BarackObama. pic.twitter.com/0faYjvnPW6 Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 4, 2018 Illinois is celebrating its first annual Barack Obama Day Today, Barack Obama, aka The Last President, is celebrating his 57th birthday. For many, its a sobering reminder of why the last year and a half has felt like a fucking century. But for others, its a moment to join in toasting to a rare legacy. READ: Barack and Michelle Obama Sign A Multi-Year Production Deal with Netflix His home state of Illinois, where hed ascended from Chicago organizer to state senator and eventually US Senator, is holding its first annual celebration of Barack Obama Day after governor Bruce Rauner signed the measure into law two days following his 56th birthday last year. According to The Hill, an early version of the bill called for the occasion to be commemorated as a state holiday, to which Rauner responded, I dont think it should be a formal holiday with paid, forced time off, but I think it should be a day of acknowledgment and celebration. WATCH: Barack Obama and Rep. John Lewis Discuss Martin Luther King Jr.s Legacy As for the presidents own born day docket, hes already off to a good start, sharing an early celebratory lunch with right-hand-man, Joe Biden last week, (pictured above) and according to a spokeswoman, will have dinner with his family this evening in Washington, DC. Children are the future, and fashion is no exception. From North and Saint West's recent cover for Harper's Bazaar or Blue Ivy's recent vacation looks, the next generation of fashion icons are already getting a head start before they have even finished preschool. So it should come as no surprise that Prince George of Cambridge, third in line for the British throne, was named one of Tatler's Best Dressed this past week. At five years old, he is one of the youngest entries in the list that also includes his mother Kate Middleton, aunt Meghan Markle, and great-grandma Queen Elizabeth II all sharing a trademark posh style with their own individual flairs. Related | The New Royals Classically British, George has made the aristocratic school-boy look all his own bringing a modern take on the royal look. Cynics may retort that George is likely dressed by his mother or royal servants since he is five, but what is undeniable is that George fully works every outfit he's given charming photographers with either a toothy grin or a pouty lip or a playful hand on his cheek. To mark this milestone, let's take a look back at some of Prince George's most memorable looks: Christopher Robin Chic EPA George's wardrobe is often referred to as "Christopher Robin-chic" drawing a comparison to the quintessential English school-boy from A. A. Milne's books. Knee-high socks, tailored shorts, a collared sweater, and buckled shoes are all hallmarks of the look that we often see George running around in a versatile outfit for the future monarch that communicates his youthfulness, but is also in touch with royal tradition. For any other five-year-old, a buttoned-up shirt would be reserved for special occasions but when your day-to-day involves jubilees, weddings, and parades one must always be prepared to go from the sandbox to the skybox. Vintage George Matt Porteous/PA Wire George loves to find inspiration in the family history. This look references an outfit his father once wore when he was George's age. A polo with a Peter Pan-collar and mid-thigh shorts, it's a tender tribute to his late grandmother, Princess Diana. Weekend Casual EPA Everyone has to dress down and let loose at some point, whether it's a pretend tea party or a vacation in the countryside. George knows how to adapt his trademarks with a striped pocket tee and jean shorts making for a much more comfortable and casual look. Welcome to the Black Parade Brian Lawless/Getty Five years old is awfully young to go through your emo/pop-punk phase, but it's nice to see George living his truth. The gothic military look made a splash at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, showing us something new with a full pant. This look was the first to show us that George wasn't afraid to take risks with his personal style and try something a little more avant-garde. The jacket is exquisite with lace applique details, you can almost hear it sing ("When I was a young boy/ My father took me to the city/ To see a marching band..."). Holiday Elegance Getty Prince George can serve looks! No stranger to mugging for the camera, we see George with a sassy and bemused expression as he emerges from a Christmas service looking like he is about to head straight to the Plaza Hotel for a playdate with Richie Rich. The double-breasted wool coat radiating luxury in a refined winter look perfect for the carriage ride back to Buckingham Palace. Photo Courtesy of the Royal Family It was officially reported in Taiwan this morning that a computer virus halted several Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. factories Friday night, dealing the company one of its most severe disruptions as it ramps up chip making for Apple Inc.'s next iPhones and other key products. The sole maker of the iPhone's main processor said a number of its fabrication tools had been infected, and while it had contained the problem and resumed some production, several of its factories won't restart till at least Sunday. The virus wasn't introduced by a hacker, the company added in a statement. It's unclear who targeted TSMC, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of chips for companies including Apple and Qualcomm Inc. It's the first time a virus had ever brought down a TSMC facility, recalling the WannaCry cyberattacks of 2017 that forced corporations around the world to suspend operations as they rooted out the ransomware. TSMC is working on solutions now but said the degree of infection varied from factory to factory, and that it will provide more information Monday after it's assessed the situation. "TSMC has been attacked by viruses before, but this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines," Chief Financial Officer Lora Ho told Bloomberg News by phone. She wouldn't talk about how much revenue it would lose as a result of the disruption, or whether the facilities affected were involved in making iPhone chips. "Certain factories returned to normal in a short period of time, and we expect the others will return to normal in one day," the company said in its Saturday statement. Source: Bloomberg A second report from Taiwan noted today that "TSMC said the losses resulting from the virus attack are limited, so it is not necessary for the company to hold a news conference to detail investors based on the current law. The company only needed to post a written statement about the incident on the TWSE website." A third report, this time from the Nikkei Asian Review, added that "TSMC said the degree of infection varies from site to site and that "certain factories returned to normal in a short period of time." The chip giant, based in the Taiwanese city of Hsinchu, expects other plants to return to normal in a day. All production sites in Taiwan, TSMC's primary production base, have been disrupted by the virus, according to the company. "It's extremely sensitive," an industry source familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. "The news has spread across the industry since late Friday night. The computer virus was first detected in TSMC's 12B facility." The source said this facility is TSMC's most essential research and development base and is near the company's headquarters. The R&D plant "holds crucial production data and leading nanotechnology blueprints," the source said. The virus attack on TSMC's computer systems also comes as trade tensions and a technology cold war escalate, mostly between Washington and Beijing. Nation-states increasingly consider their private sectors' chip technologies to have deep national security implications." Update August 6, 2018, 3:40 a.m.: Digitimes has posted a report this morning titled "Apple reportedly among affected 7nm clients in TSMC virus incident. It seems to be a report to catch up with the weekend news and perhaps hype it up for clicks with Digitimes using Apple in the byline. Nothing of any consequence was actually proven to advance our original Saturday story or shed light on Apple specifically. Patently Apple has decided not to post a separate report to hype up clicks. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. In blow to Trump, China rejects US request to cut Iran oil imports 08/03/18 Source: Press TV China has rejected a US demand to cut Iranian oil imports despite Washington's attempts to bring down the Islamic Republic's oil sales to zero, Bloomberg reports. The financial news provider quoted informed officials on Friday as saying that the US had been unable to persuade China to cut Iranian oil imports and that Beijing's purchases from Tehran last month remained unchanged. China rejects U.S. request to cut Iran oil imports https://t.co/VIUOK81CHD pic.twitter.com/5OVckaUR1i Bloomberg (@business) August 3, 2018 This is a blow to US President Donald Trump's efforts to isolate Iran after his withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal with the country, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), they said. Beijing, however, agreed not to increase purchases of Iranian crude, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the multilateral deal with Iran in May and announced plans to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic, that would eliminate Tehran's oil revenues. China - the world's top crude buyer and Iran's No. 1 customer - has said previously that it opposed unilateral sanctions and lifted monthly oil imports from the country by 26 percent in July. It accounted for 35 percent the Iranian exports last month, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Tehran has said if it cannot sell its oil, other regional countries would not be able to do so neither, triggering speculation that Tehran may block the Strait of Hormuz, through which many international oil cargoes pass. India's Iranian oil imports up India, the second purchaser of Iranian crude, also increased its imports from Iran last month. Preliminary tanker arrival data cited by Reuters on Thursday showed that the Asian country increased purchases of Iranian crude by about 30 percent to a record 768,000 barrels per day (bpd) as state refiners' intake surged ahead of US sanctions in November. India's July purchases of Iran's oil were about 85 percent higher in comparison to the shipments of about 415,000 bpd a year earlier, the news agency said. State refiners accounted for about four-fifth of Iranian crude sales in July with Indian Oil Corp along with its unit Chennai Petroleum Corp getting about 300,000 bpd oil from Tehran, the preliminary data showed. US officials have softened their stance after initially saying they would press allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to adhere to the sanctions and reduce their imports to zero. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month his country was open to consider waivers for certain buyers of Iranian oil. "IRGC Should Obey The Establishment's Decision" Says Iranian MP Motahari On Negotiations with U.S. 08/04/18 Source: Radio Farda Tehran's outspoken MP, Ali Motahari, has lambasted the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for recent comments on the possibility of Tehran-Washington rapprochement. "On issues like negotiating with the United States, the IRGC should obey the establishment's decision," Motahari said on August 2. On July 31, IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari had dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's tentative offer of talks with Tehran, saying Iran was not like North Korea. Trump had announced on July 30 that he would be willing to meet Iran's leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "Mr. Trump! Iran is not North Korea to accept your offer for a meeting," Jafari was quoted as saying by the Fars News agency. "Even U.S. presidents after you will not see that day." In his open letter to Trump, Jafari went further, saying, "The Iranian nation has many differences with those nations that submit to domination, and will never allow its authorities to hold talks and meetings with the Great Satan," referring to the United States. Speaking at a White House news conference on July 30, Trump had said, "I would certainly meet with Iran if they wanted to meet." Asked if he had any preconditions for such a meeting, Trump replied, "No preconditions. If they want to meet, I'll meet." Trump's offer of talks came only days after he cautioned Iran in a tweet responding to President Hassan Rouhani's earlier vitriolic comment effectively threatening Washington and said, "You will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before." Responding to the tentative offer, IRGC-run Fars cited Jafari as saying, "Former U.S. presidents learned better than Trump that Iran and its people could not be threatened, and that they would instead close their ranks and strengthen their unity against any foreign threat and pressure." "You will take to the grave the dream of Iranian officials asking you for a meeting or getting the permission to meet you from their nation. You will never live to see that day," Jafari said. Motahari, renowned for not mincing his words, has dismissed Jafari's remarks as unwarranted, reiterating, "You [Gen.] and our other good 'mujahid' brothers in IRGC are aware of the fact that in issues concerning talks with the United States, or refrain from any negotiations with it, IRGC should obey the decision made by top authorities of the regime and avoid making personal comments." Moreover, Motahari added, "Making comments on behalf of the nation is the responsibility of the person elected by the people, i.e. the president, and nobody in other positions is entitled to do that." Read related coverage by Iranian daily Shargh Referring to guidelines issued by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the deputy speaker also said, "Military personnel are banned from engagement in political affairs." Motahari's open letter to Jafari was published before Iran's supreme leader and President Hassan Rouhani had responded to Trump's offer. In the meantime, several pro-reform political figures, including the spokesman of former President Mohammad Khatami, have joined voices with Motahari in rebuking Jafari for his comments. "Based on the constitution, military forces are subservient to the orders of the Supreme National Security Council [headed by the president], and they do not have the right to set the political agenda for the country," said Abdollah Ramazanzadeh. However, several political heavyweights close to Rouhani, including a member of the influential Expediency Discerning Council, former speaker, and mid-ranking cleric Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, have insisted that Tehran should not talk to Washington. Nonetheless, on July 31, the U.S. president told a rally in Tampa, Florida, "I have a feeling they [Iranians] will be talking to us pretty soon -- And maybe not, and that's OK, too." Iran Imams Shun Negotiations With U.S.; Diplomats Disagree 08/04/18 Source: Radio Farda Friday Prayer leaders in Tehran and other cities have expressed their opposition to negotiating with the United States, a topic that has stirred controversy in Iran since U.S.President Donald Trump said last week that he was prepared to talk with his Iranian counterpart, President Hassan Rouhani, "without any preconditions" to solve problems in their relations. Iran--Kazem Sadighi, Imam of Prayer in Tehran This comes while some Iranian diplomats have hinted that talks could start up between Tehran and Washington "at a lower level." The contents of Friday Prayer sermons are coordinated at the Friday Prayer Headquarters, a body affiliated with the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran's Friday Prayer leader, Ayatollah Kazem Sediqi, said in his sermon on August 3, "If one day we decide to negotiate, it is not going to be with the current U.S. administration and the current president," reported Mehr news agency. Sediqi said, "The U.S. president is a wolf dressed as a man," adding, "We have seen that Americans did not respect their commitments about the nuclear deal with Iran." Meanwhile, Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Miremadi, the Friday Prayer leader of Khorramabad and Khamenei's representative in Lorestan Province, said in his sermon, "Trump's offer of negotiations with Iran was a populist act." He said the solution for Iran's problems lies in reliance on domestic capabilities rather than on negotiating with America, adding, "Trump exerts pressure on Iran and wants to tell the world that he is open to negotiations, but Iran is not," Mehrquoted him as saying. "Trump's suggestion aims at dividing Iranian officials," he said. In Tabriz, Ahmad Motahari, who led prayers on Friday, said he was not optimistic about possible negotiations with the United States and said Trump wants to "frustrate" Iranians so that they would blame their own leaders for sanctions. The Friday Prayer leader of Ghazvin, Ali Qabel, said,"Trump's offer of talks with Iran is deceitful, although it has tempted some Iranian officials," and added that "Iranian officials should not be deceived by America once again." Qabel said elsewhere in his sermon, "The U.S. president is a liar and tells seven lies every day." He said he borrowed the figure about Trump's "lies" from Western media. Similar remarks were also made by the Friday Prayer leader in the town of Quds, 20 kilometers west of Tehran, where Seyed Abolqasem Mirahmadi used almost the same words as his counterparts in Ghazvin and Khorramabad. The similarity between sermons across the country highlightsthe concerted move to disparage Trump's offer of talks with Iran by a body linked to Khamenei's office. Previously, IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari had ruled out talks between Iran and the United States, saying, "The Iranian nation will not allow their leaders to hold talks with Americans." Regardless of the negative response among hard-liners close to Khamenei, analysts argue that Khamenei might be willing to give the go-ahead to state officials to sit at the negotiating table with U.S. officials. That was when Khamenei coined the term "heroic flexibility" prior to the 2015 nuclear agreement with the United States and other world powers. Remarks by Iranian diplomats indicate that Iran may be ready to hold talks, but they are not certain they would want to trust a negotiating party that has left a previous agreement with Tehran. Iran's UN envoy, Gholamali Khoshru, told Etemad newspaper on July 31 that "talks can start at a lower level" before the two countries presidents can sit down together. Iran's former diplomat in London, Nosratollah Tajik, echoed the same stance in an interview with the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) on August 3. The Bank of Ghana has hinted that persons whose actions led to the circumstances under which five indigenous banks collapsed would likely face prosecution. Head of Banking Supervision, Osei Gyasi, has disclosed that the criminal aspect of breaches perpetrated by the insolvent banks are likely to be dealt with in a court of law. On the Citi Breakfast Show yesterday reiterated that We have categorically stated that there have been breaches of the law the banking act and theres been a breach of Bank of Ghana regulations and rules. The criminal aspect of these breaches will be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction. The Bank of Ghana on Wednesday announced that it has revoked the licences of five struggling banks and merged them into one it called Consolidated bank Ghana limited. They include uniBank, Sovereign Bank, Construction Bank, Royal Bank, and Beige Bank. BoG said some of the insolvent banks obtained their licenses using suspicious and non-existent capital. It added that some breached cash reserve requirement, others had negative capital adequacy ratio, and shareholders of some of the banks too engaged in supposed dubious transactions. Prior to that, the BoG had earlier taken over uniBank with an excuse of saving the bank from collapsing. It handed over the administration of uniBank to independent audit firm, KPMG Ghana after which it presented its report to the BoG. With regards to the uniBank, Mr. Gyasi said: If you look at the KPMG report that we have, the report has categorized the breaches some were in connection with the law, some in connection with governance and others in connection with rules and regulations. As to whether these are criminal issues or not, I think its for law enforcement agencies and the courts to determine. So going forward I think the appropriate decision will be taken and if there is a need for the law enforcement agencies to come in, they will come in at the appropriate time, Osei Gyasi added. Issues of criminality must be addressed Economist An economist and the Policy Director at the Trades Unions Congress (TUC), Dr. Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, had earlier called for issues of criminality to be dealt with over the issue. There are criminal [issues] to be answered; those that reported the false information and those who ought to have checked that there is correct information; criminal negligence, Dr. Otoo stated on Point of View. Source: New Crusading Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video AMERI Energy has rejected the controversial novation amendment agreement aimed at handing over the $510million power contract it signed with the government in 2015 to a new entity. The novation and amendment agreement, seeking to buy out the deal Ameri Energy has with the government and handed over to a third party Mytilineos for 15 years received approval from President Akufo-Addo by way of an Executive Order on July 31 after parliament refused to ratify it. The joint committee on Finance and Energy of Parliament rejected the new deal because it had no signatures from the Attorney General and Finance minister. Under the new agreement, a new company, Mytilineos International Trading Company, will take over the management of the AMERI power plant for 15 years. The new company has offered to pay AMERI an amount of $52,160,560, with the government paying the remaining $39 million to the Dubai-based AMERI Energy to wash its hands off the deal entirely. It has however emerged that President Akufo-Addo was misled by his Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko into approving the new agreement, which has been described by the Minority in Parliament and other energy think tanks including African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) as stinky and rip-off. Commenting on the development in a letter dated July 31 to the Energy Minister, Ameri Energy stated unequivocally that it will not abdicate the deal it signed with the Mahama administration and it is fully committed to seeing it through. As you are fully aware we have never been involved with your ministry in any kind of negotiations or discussions related to this novation and amendment agreement. Moreover, also never had an insight of any commercial discussion between you and the new party, therefore could not have verified that the above permissions were not obtained at the time of presentation before parliament, the letter sighted by Starrfmonline.com read in parts. In view of the ongoing circumstances, the management of Ameri energy has taken notice of this and would like to inform you that we shall not be deemed associated with the novation and amendment agreement and will only remain committed to our original BOOT agreement signed on 20th of February 2015, it further clarified advising that; Upon the completion of our five years term, your ministry can freely decide to handover the project to any third party at a commercial arrangement you may deem right. Threats of Legal action Through this letter, we would like to serve you this as a final notice of default of our outstanding payment of eighty-two million, six hundred and sixty thousand, five hundred and sixty United States dollars duly acknowledged by you thorough your memo presented to the parliament dated 25th of July 2018. In this respect, several notices have been duly served and received by your ministry but no remedial action has been taken. We would like to draw your attention that in the event that your ministry does not settle our outstanding payments immediately we will be left with no option but to draw on the standby letter of credit (SBLC) to recover part of our outstanding payment like and adopt the legal remedy available to us, the letter signed by Ameri Energy CEO Maher Al Alili warned Source: kasapafmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Some Ghanaians abroad led by Frank Boateng in Atlanta, USA through the gofundme platform have contributed to the well being of Ms Patience Osafo, the woman beaten by Lance Corporal Godzi Frederick Amanor at the Shiashie branch of Midland Savings and Loans Company some weeks ago. Frank Boateng after the news broke resorted to the internationally acclaimed donoring platform to solicit for funds for the woman, in which he was able to get some friends to support his campaign. In total $478 was realized after a 1 week campaign. Despite Group of Companies have in all donated an amount of a little over Ghc 25,000.00 to the victim to support her. Meanwhile an account has been opened at Best Point Savings And Loans for her. Ms Patience Osafo got a presidential mention when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo condemned the assault meted out to her. The President, while on a tour of the Northern Region, said: I want to say it here that policemen are meant to protect citizens and not assault them. He said the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had his support to sanction the erring officer, as well as ensure that the incident did not happen again. I support 100 per cent the measures that he has taken, so that we can stop these incidents from proliferating, the President said in response to a statement from the Police Service that steps had been taken to bring L/Cpl Amanor to book. The woman, Patience Osafo, was said to have refused leaving the banking hall after the company failed to allow her withdraw GHc250 from her savings account. System breakdown appears to have been used as an alibi by the bank in the case in which a policeman, Lance Corporal Godzi Frederick Amanor, popularly called Skalla, attached to the Greater Accra Regional Police Operations Unit on guard duties at the bank, mercilessly beat up the woman identified as Patience Osafo, who was carrying a two-month old baby at the banking hall. The banks management alleged that they were not able to serve customers due to network breakdown as a result of K-Nets poor internet service, a claim which compelled the internet service provider to set the records straight. K-NET, the company in charge of providing backup internet service for Midland Savings and Loans, also refuted claims by the financial institution that poor service led to system breakdown. Five members of staff of the Midland Savings and Loans Company who witnessed the assault have since been suspended pending investigations into the matter. Their suspension follows what the management of the company described as their failure to handle the situation in the manner they were trained to do. Lance Corporal Godzi Frederick Amanor has since been arrested by the Police on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), David Asante-Apeatu, for investigations and prosecution. He has also been interdicted pending disciplinary action against him Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, 3rd August, 2018, inaugurated the rural telephony project, in Abenaso, in the Eastern Region, which will connect the town and surrounding communities with ICT facilities and telecommunication services. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, President Akufo-Addo noted that despite the significant spread of telecommunications services across the country, the distribution of basic telephony infrastructure is still very much concentrated in the major economic centres of the country. That is why, he explained that, Government continues to attach great importance to ensuring that telecommunication and ICT facilities, which can now be described as basic necessities of life, are available in all parts of the country. Whilst Government is providing the requisite communications infrastructure throughout the country, we are also creating an enabling environment, through the policies implemented over the last 19 months, to encourage private sector investment in the communications sector, he said. Through the National Communications Authority, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), in partnership with MTN (Gh) Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Ltd, the President stated that his government has begun rolling out the rural telephony project, which will provide data and voice connectivity to some one thousand, and twenty (1,020), hitherto, unserved communities across the country. Indeed, the Abenaso rural telephony site, which I am inaugurating today, is part of one hundred and sixty one (161) rural telephony sites and eighty five (85) repeater sites which have been completed within 18 months of my government, and which will be providing voice and data connectivity to approximately five hundred (500) communities across the country. By the end of this year, a total of two hundred (200) telephony sites, serving some one thousand (1,000) communities will have been completed. This is to be compared to only seventy eight (78) such telephony sites during the entire eight years of the Mills/Mahama era, the President revealed. He continued, Such is the commitment of Government to ensuring the realization of todays ceremony that taxes, such as VAT, customs duties and other import levies, were waived for the equipment brought into the country for the project. I express my deep appreciation to our traditional authorities, across the country, for generously donating parcels of land for the project to take off. The inauguration of the Abenaso Project, the President said, will mean that Abenaso, together with four hundred and ninety-nine (499) other rural communities across the country will enjoy 3G coverage. President Akufo-Addo noted that expanding telephony connectivity services to rural communities in the country will help open up Abenaso and other rural communities to opportunities for the development of skills and knowledge, as well the growth of businesses and the local economy. He elicited the help of the traditional authorities in Abenaso and other beneficiary communities to utilize fully the opportunities that this project will bring to them. We would want to see this project bring about a positive impact on the lives of residents of this community and other beneficiary communities. President Akufo-Addo also urged the youth gathered to take advantage of the opportunities that will be afforded to you by this facility. You are living in perhaps the most exciting time in our history, so please make the best of it. Some say this is our time. I say this is your time, and tomorrow will be the time of your children. He reiterated his commitment to building a new Ghanaian civilization, where fair opportunities are given to all to live dignified, productive lives by dint of their hard work, creativity and sense of enterprise. It is a promising phase in the Ghanaian journey. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Vice President of the Republic, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has challenged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to implement targeted, deliberate policies to make Ghana self-sufficient in chicken production and save the nation from the huge poultry import bill. This follows an announcement by the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, that there was no maize imports this year after the implementation of policies such as the Planting for Food and Jobs which resulted in a bumper harvest. The Vice President has therefore challenged the Ministry to replicate this success in the poultry sub sector to ensure a drastic reduction, if not an outright cessation, of poultry imports in the next few years. Vice President Bawumia issued the challenge when he launched the 34th National Farmers Day on Friday 3rd August, 2018 in Accra. This years weeklong celebration, which would take place at Tamale in the Northern Region, is under the theme Agriculture: Moving Ghana Beyond Aid. While commending the Agriculture Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and his team for the successes chalked under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, including, according to the Minister, the ending of maize imports because local production had met national demand, Vice President Dr Bawumia urged the Ministry to replicate their success in the poultry sector. I want to challenge the Ministry for Food and Agriculture, and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, that yes, you have announced that weve stopped importing maize this year, so very soon, in the next couple of years, I want you to announce that weve also stopped importing chicken. That is the challenge that I want to give you in the next couple of years. We have to pursue a very deliberate policy intervention to make sure that we can grow and eat our own chicken. Vice President Bawumia underscored the key role agriculture would play in achieving President Nana Akufo-Addos vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid, emphasising that it was time to engineer a sustainable agricultural development path that would assure both national and household food security, improved rural livelihoods and make Ghana agriculture competitive in the world market. In this light, government would continue and expand the implementation of ongoing agricultural programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, which would see the number of direct beneficiaries rise from 200,000 in 2017 to 500,000 in 2018, Dr Bawumia disclosed. Governments approach and strategy for the development of Ghanas agriculture, is holistic and transcends the PFJ initiative. Equally important interventions are being rolled out in the irrigation sub-sector in pursuit of the One Village One Dam programme. Under this One Village One dam programme, which is being implemented in the three northern regions, we expect about 570 dams to be constructed by next year. The increase in agricultural productivity means we have to focus on processing and that is why we have the One District One Factory flagship programme and this is also on course. We also know that the road sector is a major area in terms of the challenges that the agricultural sector generally faces. In the 2017 budget we outlined what we call the Akufo- Addo plan for Economic Transformation which was largely focused on improving agricultural productivity. At the heart of this programme was to make sure that critical roads across the whole country were fixed so that agricultural produce could move to market. We have so many parts of the country where poor roads are a major inhibiting factor to agriculture. Thankfully, following the initiation of this programme we have seen, recently announced, that we are going to invest close to a billion dollars in road infrastructure starting this year, under the Sinohydro barter facility that we have arranged, Vice President Bawumia indicated. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Patience Osafo, the woman who was assaulted by Federick Amanor, a policeman, at the banking hall of Midland Savings and Loans is now a house owner. The lawyer for the assaulted woman, Samson Lardy Anyenini made it known that the company have agreed to a compensation package which involves a house to the victim. Photos of a 3-bedroom apartment circulating on social media indicate that the financial company as part of the agreement have honoured their part of the bargain. The compensation is a kind gesture to prevent further legal action against the company according to reports. If photos of the 3-bedroom house circulating on the internet happen to be the apartment from Midland Savings and Loans Limited to Patience Osafo, then the woman who once slept with her family in a kiosk is now a house owner. Check the photos below. Source: ghanacelebrities.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Sylvester A. Mensah, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has become the first stalwart of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to officially announce his intention to lead the opposition party as presidential candidate in the 2020 election. The NDC flagged off the race on Thursday and announced that presidential hopefuls can start campaigning. Interestingly, the party has not elected national officers to preside over the process and set guidelines for the conduct of the candidates. Sources said the main opposition party was stampeded into lifting the ban on campaigning following declarations by Minority MPs to back John Mahama. However, the party gave a caveat in lifting the ban, saying aspirants should notify the party before hitting the ground running. So far, five people have declared their plans to take part in the election, which has been slated for December 7, 2018, exactly two years to the next general elections. The presidential hopefuls are John Mahama, Joshua Alabi, Sylvester Mensah, Alban Bagbin and Ekwow Spio-Garbrah. Bizarre essay contest Interestingly, although all the other aspirants, including former president John Mahama, have hit the ground running, former Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, bizarrely prefers to organize Essay competition to test his popularity before making up his mind. Mr Spio-Garbrah, whose leading campaign team member dumped him recently, published an advertisement in a newspaper on Wednesday and asked NDC communicators to declare him fit to lead the party in 2020. The advert reads: Flagbearership contest for the NDC National Essay Contest open to elected NDC Communication Officers and the essay topic is: Why do you think Ekwow Spio-Garbrah will be a good leader for the NDC and a very good president of Ghana. Spios advert said the essay competition is open to all NDC elected communicators at the branch and constituency and aspiring regional and national communicators. It said that the closing date is August 15, 2018. The winner would take home GH3,000, GH2,000 for second prize winner, GH1,000 for third prize and GH500 for 4th to 6th positions, and GH200 for 8th to 10 positions respectively. Serious aspirant Barely 24 hours after the leadership of the party released a timetable for the partys upcoming elections from regional to national level, Sylvester Mensah, wrote a letter to the General Secretary of the party to notify him of his intention to enter the race to become flagbearer of the NDC. I am pleased to thank you and the entire National Executive Committee of the party for officially declaring campaign activities towards the partys presidential primaries open, Mr. Mensah said in the letter. He stated: Having engaged in a nationwide consultation on the future leadership of our dear party, I am able to confirm that I would be contesting the vacant position of flagbearer for our dear party, the NDC, adding its my conviction that this communication satisfies the initial requirement of notification of intent to the party. It is an open secret that even though campaign activities towards the partys presidential primaries official began on Thursday, some of the aspirants started campaigning about a year ago. Mahamas bid Former President John Mahama, who wants to lead Ghana again, has been campaigning under the guise of Unity Walk which other aspirants said has been skewed in his favour by the leadership of the party. Already, some elders of the party, especially those from the Volta Region, which is the NDCs stronghold, have dumped Mr. Mahama for Joshua Alabi, the immediatepast Rector of the University of Professional Studies (UPSA). Former Foreign Minister under the Rawlings-led NDC administration, James Victor Gbeho, recently called Mr. Mahama a failure for leading the party to lose the 2016 election miserably. The experienced diplomat, who was once MP for Anlo, said the time has come for the party to rebrand and build on its shortfalls in 2016 by electing a flagbearer, who has a better chance of leading the party to win the 2020 election. The reality now is that we are rebranding everything. In all democracies around the world, when you go to an election and you lose as badly as we did, the leadership steps aside not because you want to sack people, but it gives the party an opportunity to rebrand itself to look at its faults and change its ways and that is what we are doing now, Mr. Gbeho told NDC faithful at a meeting at Ashaiman. He said the NDC would make a big mistake if it relies solely on appearance and votes for Mr. Mahama again for the next election, saying it would be wrong to just follow somebody because of his good looks. My brother (Hon Ken Dzirasah) and I sat down one afternoon by the riverside in Sogakope. We thought a lot about our party. We thought a lot about the younger generation. And we asked ourselves who can lead us now? After consultations, we agreed that our best hope was in no other person than Professor Joshua Alabi, he asserted. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former President Jerry John Rawlings has subtly hit back at brother of late President John Evans Atta Mills over comments he made to suggest that Ghana is not a country worth dying for considering how the memories and legacies of fallen heroes are hardly preserved. Samuel Atta Mills who spoke to Ghanaweb at a brief memorial ceremony held in honour of his departed twin bemoaned the poor maintenance of his brothers graveyard years after his demise. He was clearly unhappy about the abandoned state of his graveyard, insisting that it was an evident indication that Ghana is not worth dying for. Describing the remarks as unfortunate however, former President Rawlings, speaking at the burial service of Highlife legend and NDC Member, Jewel Ackah said Ghana has always been and will always be a country worth dying for. I heard Mills brother said the country wasnt worth dying for just because of the omission of some little grass-cutting duty around his brothers grave, thats most unfortunate. Ghanaians are great people, Ive always said so and its a question of self-application, we just apply ourselves properly and lets hope we will continue, he stated. Touting the feats of the late musician who was also a devoted member of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Rawlings described him as an extremely principled person who wouldnt have joined us and been such a great inspirer as he turned out to be based on principles, he stated. Lets take a look at what he represented, what he was, money didnt come before his values, his values came before money, he further added. The late Jewel Ackah was buried today after his demise in April this year. Being a highlife legend and an active National Democratic Congress member, the ceremony was largely attended by members of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) and Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), and also graced by former President Jerry John Rawlings and some members of the National Democratic Congress. Source: Ghanaweb.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Doing electrical work on your own could be dangerous. If you shop around it could also be inexpensive. Read more DIY is an option for most home improvement and repair projects. But most of us pull the plug on DIY electrical work, and for good reason. It's a dangerous task and not only because of the shock hazards you can create while doing the job. If you do it poorly, you can also create fire or health hazards. Unfortunately, you'll face the same dangers if you hire the wrong electrician, so you'll want to choose carefully. Fortunately, there's good news from Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook and Checkbook.org: You don't have to pay premium prices for premium electrical service. In its evaluation of local electricians, Checkbook surveyed customers and its undercover shoppers collected price quotes on an array of carefully specified jobs. Many of the companies rated highly by their customers for service were also among the lowest priced. In fact, companies that received Checkbook's top rating for quality were actually more likely to charge low prices than companies with lower ratings. Until Sept. 1, Checkbook is offering free access to its ratings of area electricians to Inquirer readers through this link: http://Checkbook.org/Inquirer/Electricians. Keep in mind that, in some cases, companies with high prices on some jobs have low prices on others. Bottom line: You can save a bundle by getting at least two bids on electrical work. Better yet is to get three, especially for larger jobs. Even for small jobs, it's worth your time to shop around. For example, among the jobs Checkbook's shoppers checked, they found that among local electrical contractors: To replace a ceiling light fixture with a customer-supplied new ceiling fan with light attachment, prices ranged from $125 to $250. Prices for replacing six wall outlet receptacles and one light switch with new outlets and wall plates ranged from $90 to $350. To install a customer-supplied outdoor floodlight, prices ranged from $75 to $300. Whenever possible, Checkbook recommends that you get a fixed-price bid for home-improvement jobs. For large jobs, companies will come out to your home to prepare proposals. For smaller jobs, you can get phone bids but only if you know exactly what needs to be done. For small installation and many repair jobs, you might have to pay on a time-and-materials basis. If so, to avoid price surprises, ask these questions up front: Is there a minimum charge for a service call? What does it cover? After the minimum charge, how much will I pay per hour of work? What time units are used quarter hours, half hours? How much is charged per time unit and are fractions of units rounded to the nearest unit or to the next higher unit? Of course, price isn't the only factor when it comes to electrical work. You want work done carefully and safely. Be careful when selecting a firm customer ratings Checkbook collected varied widely on overall quality and completing work on time. Even for large jobs, avoid paying a down payment. The more money you can withhold until the end of the job, the more leverage you'll have to make sure the job is done well and according to your agreement. If possible, pay by credit card. If you are dissatisfied, you can dispute the charge with your credit card company. Finally, whatever firm you choose, be sure to ask for proof that it is licensed and carries both liability and workers' compensation insurance. Delaware Valley Consumers' Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices. We are supported by consumers and take no money from the service providers we evaluate. You can access Checkbook's ratings of electricians for free until Sept. 1, 2018 at Checkbook.org/Inquirer/Electricians. David Casarez, of Mountain View, is the first in line to buy the new iPhone X at the Apple store in Palo Alto, California, on Nov. 3, 2017. Read more David Casarez came west to Silicon Valley with his life in a van and start-up dreams in his eyes. Within months, the web developer and would-be entrepreneur was hugging Apple CEO Tim Cook and interviewing at the legendary tech firm. But no job offer came, from Apple or any other company, and Casarez found himself sleeping in stairwells and on park benches, surviving on pouches of tuna and ramen-noodle cups, twitching at every nighttime noise and weeping over his plight, he says. Now, after a random photo of Casarez standing with a job-search sign beside a Mountain View intersection went viral, he's fielding expressions of interest from about 200 companies, more than 70 in the Bay Area. "I was just out there at the intersection hoping that somebody at least would take my resume and give me a job offer in the Bay Area," said Casarez, 26. From Austin, Texas, to rock bottom in California, and back up to his current perch sifting through the many missives from potential employers, Casarez embodies the classic Silicon Valley reinvention tale of dreams pursued, dashed, and dreamed again. He has, in tech-talk, failed upward. When Casarez arrived in California from Austin in September, he was already working to develop a food-service start-up. He figured he'd get a job at another start-up while he continued to build his own. He had three years' experience in tech jobs at General Motors, a bachelor's degree in information-systems management from Texas A&M, an old iPhone, a strong faith in the "lean start-up" method, and $20,000 from cashing out his 401(k), he said in an interview last week. "I felt very confident," he said. At a networking event, he met an investor interested in his start-up idea, but a budding deal fell through over differences in vision, he said. The hoped-for job interviews weren't happening. He lacked connections, and concluded that outsiders have a tough time getting tech work in Silicon Valley. Then an idea arrived, a way to make valuable industry connections by making a splash at a high-profile event. For three days in November, Casarez camped out in front of an Apple store in Palo Alto to be first in line to buy the just-unveiled $1,000 iPhone X. He succeeded, and made a very powerful connection when CEO Tim Cook wrapped his arms around Casarez in a congratulatory hug. Soon, Casarez was invited for an interview at Apple's campus. But the job, he said, went to someone already working for the company. The downward slide began. Casarez was sleeping in his van in Mountain View to save money, and had calculated the "burn rate" at which his cash reserves were dwindling. He'd figured his nest egg would last six months, maybe seven. "I was barely scraping by in March," he said. He started to miss payments on his van. In early June, the vehicle was repossessed, and he was on the streets, sleeping in a park, he said. "It was very hard, because when I was living in the van I had the safety of knowing I was enclosed," he said. "I was literally at the very bottom." He'd never imagined his own choices could bring him so low. Depression took hold. "I was crying a lot 'How did I let it get to this point?'" he said. "It really got to me." He held on to a gym membership so he could shower, but as his savings vanished, he had to sell the iPhone X. Deep inside, he held onto hope. And he decided to fight back against his self-created disaster. "I told myself, 'I'm not going to let this break me,'" he said. That's when he decided he needed to do something new to stand out. So he stood out, on the sidewalk where El Camino Real and San Antonio Road come together in Mountain View, and held up a sign saying, "Homeless Hungry 4 Success Take a Resume." He was not taking money, he said. That was July 27, when passerby Jasmine Scofield asked permission to take his photo, and posted it, along with a photo of his resume, on Twitter. The social media platform went mad. As of Thursday afternoon, Scofield's tweet had been shared more than 139,000 times. "I didn't think people were going to think anything of it there's people who stand at corners all the time, asking for money, asking for beer, asking for whatever," said Casarez, whose Twitter profile now features his "Hungry 4 Success" mantra and includes an email for media inquiries. Casarez's life was instantly transformed. Television and newspaper reporters were calling, and he had to limit his media availability after Monday so he could devote himself to responding to prospective employers who contacted him, he said. "I really want to make the right decision, and take the time to do that," Casarez said. "For it to have turned out the way it has, it's just been a blessing. It's just given me hope to move forward." One of those who saw Scofield's tweet was Austen Allred, CEO of Lambda School, a Pleasanton, Calif., company that trains software engineers at no up-front cost, and operates a fund for homeless students in its program. Casarez's story struck a chord with Allred, who in 2016 spent months living out of his car in Palo Alto after arriving from Utah in pursuit of a tech job. "I view it as my responsibility to help the people who are in the same position that I was," Allred said, adding that he admires anyone like Casarez who "searches for a job and just hustles." Lambda is providing Casarez with up to three months in an Airbnb and mentoring for his interview process. Casarez's story appears headed for a happier ending than he imagined when he was sleeping in stairwells, but his struggle is not unique, said Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents businesses in the region. "People desperately want to come here, work here, innovate here, and succeed here, yet we're pricing out the folks who already live here and making it much more difficult for folks who want to come here, because for 20 years we've underinvested in the fact that workers and their families actually need a place to live," Guardino said. Erie Catholic Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman, left, and Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence T. Persico celebrate Communion during Mass at St. Peter Cathedral in Erie on Feb. 11, 2018. Read more The former leader of the Catholic Church in Erie was identified Friday as one of the previously unnamed clergy who asked the state Supreme Court to limit or block the release of a scathing report on clergy sex abuse that identifies or implicates them, according to a new court filing. Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman ended his challenge to the report after the office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro agreed to stipulate that several blistering criticisms of the church hierarchy in the document didn't apply to Trautman specifically. In a joint stipulation with prosecutors that was made public, Trautman said he withdrew the petition even though he continues to dispute many of the report's findings. Trautman, now retired, headed the Erie diocese from 1990 to 2012. He is the first publicly identified petitioner among the nearly two dozen who have appealed to the state Supreme Court on the issue. He said he decided to drop his appeal after the Supreme Court recently ordered the release of a redacted grand jury report, blacking out all the sections referring to the petitioners while their case was being heard. The result was that much of the section on the Diocese of Erie would have been blacked out indefinitely, given his overarching role as bishop. "Because doing so could further injure victims of abuse and because his goal was never to halt publication of the entirety of the Diocese of Erie section of the Report," the bishop dropped his challenge, the stipulation said. "In doing so, Bishop Trautman is not conceding to the accuracy or the completeness of the Report," but will be making his case in a written rebuttal to the report. State law allows for unindicted persons to respond formally to criticism in grand jury reports. Shapiro said in a statement: "Bishop Donald Trautman withdrew his appeal, paving the way for the voices of victims from the Erie Diocese to be heard and not subject to redaction. This was the right decision and should serve as a model for others who continue to fight the release of the report." The stipulation, by withdrawing several implied criticisms of Trautman, also revealed some of the main findings of the two-year grand jury investigation. Among the statements that Shapiro's office said do not specifically refer to Trautman: "All of [the victims] were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all." "The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid 'scandal.' " "Priests were raping little boys and girls and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing: they hid it all." "Priests were regularly placed in ministry after the Diocese was on notice that a complaint of child sexual abuse had been made. This conduct enabled offenders and endangered the welfare of children." "Several Diocesan administrators, including the Bishops, often dissuaded victims from reporting abuse to police, pressured law enforcement to terminate or avoid an investigation, or conducted their own deficient, biased investigation without reporting crimes against children to the proper authorities." A footnote in the stipulation said none of the other petitioners was seeking to block the statements quoted above. The report still contains numerous criticisms. In a phone interview, Trautman said he shared the report's outrage at sexual abuse by priests and hoped it would help "bring peace to all survivors." He said he had challenged portions he saw as being inaccurate. In one case, he said the report criticizes him for praising a confirmed predator. That, he said, came in a letter to a priest being removed from the priesthood but Trautman said it was quoted out of context. Trautman said he was writing a final letter to a man being removed from the priesthood for committing sexual abuse. "He was despondent," Trautman said. "I would never condone what he did. That's why I threw him out." But in a 20-year priesthood, "the man did some good in his life." He added: "I am a pastor of souls, I shepherd the good and the bad." The petitioners have been challenging the report, which remains sealed, contending that the allegations were false and that it violates the Pennsylvania Constitution's guarantee of the right to a good reputation. The Supreme Court has authorized the release of a redacted report later this month, with references to the petitioners removed pending hearings into their claims. Current Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico issued a statement saying he was pleased with his predecessor's decision. "His action will provide a clear voice for the victims, and allow the people of the diocese to have a greater understanding of our history." A statement from Trautman's attorney further defended his record, saying that he removed at least 16 priests due to sexual abuse or other conduct involving children, and that he had law enforcement review diocesan files and notified authorities of known abusers' whereabouts. Postwar ranch home (right) in Haddonfield's Fargo section near Grove Street is dwarfed by a much larger new house. Tear-downs across the neighborhood and elsewhere in the borough are seen by some as a sign of vitality. But others fear the community's cozy character could be lost. Read more Grand new residences are replacing 1950s ranch houses on seemingly every street in Haddonfield's Fargo section, but that doesn't bother Jerry Macnamara. "It's the times we live in," said the retired salesman, 77, who bought a three-bedroom Farwood Road rancher half a century ago and now has a 2-story new house next door. Although Macnamara says he's "flabbergasted" by the prices such homes are commanding in his neighborhood and elsewhere in the borough, others describe the latest wave of Haddonfield teardowns and build-ups somewhat differently. "Parts of town really are under assault," said longtime resident Brian Kelly, who runs the popular Haddonfield United page on Facebook. "I grew up here, and I wouldn't say it's being enhanced by teardowns and subdivisions." Elizabeth "Betty" Creidler, a Haddonfield resident for most of her 91 years, said: "I've seen perfectly good houses torn down, and McMansions built in their place. I think it's ruining the character of the town and making it difficult for anyone other than wealthy people to live here." The densely populated borough 11,500 people in less than three square miles has little vacant land available. Property values are rising and property taxes are high, even by Camden County standards. But a charming downtown, well-regarded public schools, and handy PATCO station continue to make Haddonfield aspirational for buyers and builders alike. "Many people coming here don't want the old houses. They say renovating an old house takes too much work and that it's easier to tear it down and build a new one," said Mayor Neal Rochford, who grew up in Haddonfield and said some new homes have blended "seamlessly" with older ones. One might say the borough has a problem other communities would love to have: a roaring residential real estate market where supply can't keep up with demand for open floor plans, expansive kitchens, lofty ceilings, and other design features many buyers, including young families, seek. "It's a reflection of how people live today," said Salvatore Siciliano, a lawyer who lives in Haddonfield and represented residents opposed to a Warwick Road subdivision. "It's a cyclical thing," he said. "Haddonfield is evolving. It's a testament to the community that people want to live here, and are willing to buy a rancher and invest their dollars" to build a replacement home. Since 2014, borough records show, 57 single-family houses have been demolished. Typically, much larger and taller new homes have taken their place and more of the allowable space on the lot. "Homes characteristic of Haddonfield have been replaced by extremely large homes that kind of dwarf others in the neighborhood," longtime borough planning board member John Stokes said. A Fargo resident, he's also a member of a planning board subcommittee that has been studying issues related to teardowns and subdivisions for at least two years. The board has adopted its recommendations and is prepared to formally present them to the borough commission, perhaps as early as Tuesday. Modifying the maximum allowable height of single-family homes in certain zones, reducing the prominence of garages, and clarifying definitions of "elevated" basements and "half" stories are among the key recommendations. The planning board also will ask the commission to consider whether subdivisions of large, single-home properties for multiple new dwellings should be limited, particularly on "gateway" streets such as Warwick Road and Kings Highway. "Most people in town are pretty supportive of preserving the large lots" in key locations, said commissioner Jeff Kasko, noting that teardowns are difficult to prohibit outright. "Our intention is to be respectful of homeowners' rights and to balance them with [requirements] to in some way eliminate McMansions," said planning board member Jon Simonson. "I do think there's been overdevelopment," he said. "Teardowns are to be expected, and are going to continue to happen. So let's at least find ways to have some modicum of control, so we can have some impact on making new construction more compatible with existing neighborhoods." Said Stokes: "It's not about [legislating] taste. It's about preserving character. Haddonfield has a distinctive character: Traditional, tree-lined neighborhoods with compatible streetscapes." Perceptions of Haddonfield used to be such that discussion of preserving the borough's character would summon up images of bluebloods fussing over what constitutes an authentic Colonial-era shutter hinge. Many in town vividly and some, fondly recall the fierce preservationist Joan Aiken (may she rest in peace), whose epic 1990s battle against a violet-hued Kings Highway house is the stuff of local legend. Deservedly so. But as Siciliano and others pointed out, Haddonfield has changed in recent decades. Not only its past but also its present is worth preserving and protecting. And what better way to do that than to ensure that the borough remains attractive to young families and others who want to be able to have their kids walk to school? "I don't mind [the new houses] at all," said Elaine Zafiriadis, who moved to Longwood Road in the Fargo section 18 years ago. "We were the youngest on the street when we got here," she said. "Now almost everybody is younger than us." Macnamara, who remembers when Fargo was nothing but orchards with a spring in the center, said: "We moved here as a young couple, and there were a lot of older people. "Now we're the old people. Younger people are moving in. And after them, someone else is going to come in, and they'll make changes, too." In what organizers said was both an educational exercise and an effort to keep up momentum, protesters marched through Center City Philadelphia on Saturday, calling for the elimination of ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and practices considered unfair to immigrants in a place that has declared itself a "sanctuary city." The demonstration began at the Liberty Bell and included a circuitous trek to City Hall with brief stops at police headquarters and ICE offices. Leaders said the march was intended as a celebration of Mayor Kenney's decision to allow a controversial city contract with ICE to expire. The contract gave ICE access to a key law enforcement database known as PARS the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System which critics said had been used to harass undocumented but otherwise law-abiding immigrants in Philadelphia. The contract terminates on Aug. 31. Saturday's protest, which attracted about 200 participants, had been scheduled before Kenney's PARS decision and remains important "because of the political education aspect," said Timour Kamaran, 25, of West Philadelphia, one of the organizers. "People on the periphery of the movement might not know the specifics of what we're asking so we're providing ideological clarity," he said. Said another organizer, Sarah Giskin, 24, of Brewerytown: "If this is a sanctuary city, ICE shouldn't be welcome here at all." A planned counterdemonstration in support of ICE failed to materialize on Independence Mall. Walter Smolarek, a radio producer originally from Pittsburgh, said the anti-ICE demonstration would show activists "are committed to keeping the struggle going." "The PARS victory was energizing because it showed that public pressure is able to make the politicians do the right thing," Smolarek said. "We think the purpose of ICE is to sow terror in communities." Around noon, the protesters' route took them by the ICE offices at Eighth and Cherry Streets, where demonstrators stopped briefly and chanted: "When immigrant families are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back." Police patiently looked on. No ICE employees appeared to be on the premises. Marchers including veterans of 1960s peace demonstrations and mothers holding young children then resumed their hike, turning west onto Market Street in a peaceful walk to cadences of rhythmic slogans. A phalanx of bicycle police, dismounted and pushing their bikes, formed a southern edge of the march. At City Hall, speakers from a number of social-justice groups demanded that the feds dissolve ICE, that Gov. Wolf order the closing of the Berks family detention facility, and that Philadelphia's stop-and-frisk policing policy come to an end. Rabbi Linda Holtzman, addressing the crowd near the memorial to civil rights activist Octavius Catto, praised Mayor Kenney for "separating the Philadelphia police from ICE," but said that any institution that separates parents from their children must be dissolved "in the name of justice." "ICE must go," Holtzman said. What is formally known as the Berks County Residential Center is the oldest and smallest of the three detention facilities in the U.S. A low-security lockup in Leesport, about 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia, the 96-bed facility holds parents and their children who came into the country seeking asylum without papers. On Tuesday, four protesters were arrested during a contentious Occupy ICE demonstration at Broad and Arch Streets in Center City, where an encampment had been set up after the group was evicted last weekend from the east side of City Hall. City officials said that area was about to become a construction zone for a long-planned project. Earlier in July, Philadelphia police raided and destroyed the Occupy ICE encampment that set up outside the ICE office at Eighth and Cherry. Carol Mickey, 76, of Gulph Mills, walked the entire length of the march. A restaurateur and attorney, who participated in protests nearly 50 years ago ("I had younger knees then," she said), Mickey said she supported the cause, even if she disagreed with the organizers' specific demands. "If they close down Berks, they'll just move those people elsewhere," Mickey said. "And you can't abolish ICE. It serves a purpose. But it's like anything good that's turned evil. It just needs to be reformed." At the Atlantic City Rail Terminal, passengers get on a Atlantic City to Phila. train on April 29, 2018. ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer Read more NJ Transit plans to shut down the Atlantic City Rail Line in September through the end of the year, and possibly longer. The news, first reported by the Bergen Record after it obtained an internal email, was confirmed Friday in a news release from the transit agency. Service will be suspended on Sept. 4, according to NJ Transit. The train should start running again in early 2019. Train service will be replaced by buses throughout the suspension period. The route, which runs 12 times a day on most days between Philadelphia's 30th Street Station and Atlantic City, carries about 1,850 riders a day, according to NJ Transit's annual report. It's been a long, slow decline for a rail route that once was the cornerstone of Atlantic City's prosperity. When the Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company received a charter to build a railroad in 1852, it created an easy connection between Philadelphians and the Shore. It has become one of NJ Transit's least-used lines, and has been bleeding ridership for years. So far this year, the number of daily riders is down by 550 from the year before. Casino workers living in western Atlantic County and Camden County, however, still rely on it, said Bob McDevitt, president of Unite Here Local 54, which represents 10,000 casino and hotel workers in Atlantic City. "I don't know how they can have a bus service as fast as a train," he said. "There's no way a local bus can get you from Lindenwold to Atlantic City in the same time a train can." A bus trip from Lindenwold to Atlantic City is nearly two hours long, according to NJ Transit schedules. A train trip between the two stops takes about an hour. NJ Transit is canceling the service to bolster its efforts to install positive train control, a federally mandated train-safety system, in time for a fast-approaching deadline. The Atlantic City Line's four locomotives and four cabs have to be retrofitted for PTC, said NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder, which requires taking them out of service. The engineers of those trains will also have to be retrained to use the system and equipment will need to be installed on the tracks. The internal email from NJ Transit's senior director of systems operations, Richard Green, was also obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News. In it, Green wrote that equipment from the South Jersey route would be diverted to bolster NJ Transit service elsewhere. The shutdown is being done to speed PTC installation, Snyder said, and was not a case of South Jersey being poached to support busier routes in the northern part of the state. "We have to do what we have to do to ramp up the installation and train our employees," Snyder said. Crews from the Atlantic City Rail Line would be reassigned to other routes during the shutdown, she said. NJ Transit said also that its off-peak, one-seat rides on the Raritan Valley Line to Penn Station will also be suspended. Pulling vehicles and personnel out of service to install PTC wreaks havoc on scheduling, as SEPTA discovered during its now complete PTC installation process. NJ Transit attributed a high number of canceled trains Friday morning in part to PTC installation. Congress required passenger and freight railroads nationwide to install by the end of this year the safety system, which can automatically control a train's speed if an engineer doesn't. It's the system that experts said would have prevented an Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia in 2015 that killed eight. NJ Transit won't meet the end-of-the-year deadline, but a loophole would allow the agency to obtain an extension if it meets certain benchmarks. If NJ Transit doesn't reach those benchmarks by the end of the year, it could face thousands of dollars in fines from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The rail agency has already been given some breaks to help it qualify for an extension to 2020. It will only have to install PTC on half of its 440 train cars. Federal officials say that would meet requirements, but would create a shortage of equipment. The FRA also allowed NJ Transit to limit PTC testing to less than 17 miles of the Morristown Line by the end of the year, instead of its entire system. >>READ MORE: After Philly crash, railroads got more time to install a key safety system. Three years later, some still lag behind NJ Transit, which provides 62 million rail trips a year on 326 route miles, has PTC 52 percent complete, Kevin Corbett, the agency's chief executive, said in a statement. That's an improvement from 13 percent three months ago, but still puts enormous pressure on the rail agency with just five months left in the year. PTC installation has been a fraught process nationwide, with members of Congress and the FRA promising consequences for railroads that don't at least qualify for an extension. Only a handful of railroads will have PTC fully active by the end of the year, though SEPTA expects to be one of them. PTC is installed on all of its vehicles, and there is only about 40 miles on its network where PTC isn't fully able to recognize and control all the trains using that track, which can include Amtrak and freight trains. Those gaps should be closed by the end of the year, SEPTA said. >>READ MORE: How SEPTA got it right on a critical railroad safety system Amtrak has PTC installed on all the track it owns on the Northeast Corridor, but it is reviewing whether it will adjust or even cancel service on tracks it uses but doesn't own that may not have PTC in place by the end of the year. Getting to Atlantic City from Philadelphia won't be as convenient as hopping on a bus at 30th Street instead of a train during the service suspension. NJ Transit's only bus service to Atlantic City departs from 10th and Filbert Streets. A rider could also take PATCO to Lindenwold and catch a bus there. The train terminal in Atlantic City won't be used during the shutdown. Passengers will board at the bus terminal. NJ Transit will sell tickets to the Atlantic City Rail Line's nine destinations at a 25 percent discount from the usual price of a train ticket. Those will be accepted by NJ Transit bus Route 554; a shuttle bus that will operate between Cherry Hill, Pennsauken, and the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden; PATCO stops at Lindenwold, Walter Rand, and Eighth Street; and the River LINE. The 554 bus will offer service to all stops between Atlantic City and Lindenwold with a schedule that will mirror the standard train schedule, but will not be an express bus. Mayor Jim Kenney, seen here on July 4 during the Celebration of Freedom ceremony at Independence Hall. Read more Mayor Kenney owes President Trump an apology for linking the hanging of a black doll Thursday which turned out to be a prank by two boys to Trump's divisive rhetoric, the Pennsylvania GOP said Friday. "Kenney blamed the president for a racially insensitive teenage prank without regard for the truth," Val DiGiorgio, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "It is this kind of pre-judgement that causes such divisiveness in our political discourse today. "I'm deeply disappointed that he would rush to judgement," DiGiorgio added, "and stoop this low to try to score cheap political points at the expense of the president and his supporters, be they Republicans, Democrats, or Independents." Before the doll hanging at Weccacoe Playground in Queen Village was revealed to be a prank, Kenney said he was "sickened" by it. "Although the investigation is still underway, I want to immediately condemn this despicable act," Kenney said Thursday. "It demonstrates how far this country has fallen when people are inspired by the hateful rhetoric of our president." The two boys responsible, one black and one white, said later in the day they thought the doll was creepy and that they had put it up to scare people, not to stoke racial tensions. A mother with her 3-year-old child discovered the doll hanging from a wire with a noose around its neck at the playground, part of which sits on top of an African American burial ground. Kenney's office on Friday stood by his earlier statement. "The mayor does not regret his comments, nor will he apologize for them," city spokesman Mike Dunn said. "That statement yesterday was clear that the matter was still under investigation and it remains so. But the need for all public officials to quickly condemn apparent hate crimes is a direct result of the unfortunate climate in which this entire nation now exists a climate fueled by our president. It is his failure to condemn acts like the march in Charlottesville one year ago in fact, his comments that praised those racists that make it important to speak out quickly and forcefully." Dunn was referring to when white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Va., last summer, which led to violent clashes and the death of Heather Heyer, who was run over by a car driven by an alleged neo-Nazi, authorities said. Trump blamed "many sides" for the violence and then said there were "very fine people on both sides." Philadelphia officials say they have seen more hate crimes and bias incidents reported since the 2016 presidential election. Among them, according to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations: South Philly residents finding racist and pro-Trump graffiti spray painted on their storefronts, cars, and homes the day after the election. Profanity about Jews written on the South Street Bridge. A Latino father who was beat up by neighborhood white men and found graffiti on his house and car. A gay man who found profanity on his apartment door. A Jewish woman who discovered a swastika painted on her front steps. A biracial couple who found a KKK advertisement on their car windshield. A black resident who discovered the N-word on an electric meter and pipe on the front of their home While not all hate crimes can be directly linked to Trump, his divisive rhetoric has emboldened people to share messages of hate, city officials and others say. >> READ MORE: The 'psychological torment' behind the slurs and symbols you pass every day Trump told lawmakers and aides earlier this year he didn't want a flood of immigrants from "shithole countries" like Africa and Haiti and that he prefers people from Norway, which is predominately white. Across the country, incidents have been reported in which people used Trump's name while spewing racial slurs or vilifying people of color and immigrants. On Thursday, at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Trump called the news media "fake, fake disgusting news" and cast journalists as his true political opponent. In July, the publisher of the New York Times warned Trump that his repeated inflammatory language was "contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence." The Mifflin Square neighborhood in South Philadelphia have seen waves of immigrant groups over the last century. Religious buildings that used to serve Jews and Christians are now house the Preah Buddah Rangsey Temple and its former funarium at Sixth and Ritner. Adath Shalom occupied the synagogue until 20087. The Buddhist temple was originally St. Andrews Lutheran Church, built in 1904. Read more The only thing you can say with certainty about Philadelphia neighborhoods is that there will be churn. Sometimes it comes from depopulation and disinvestment, other times from growth and gentrification. The markers of these shifts are best seen in religious buildings as they are passed from one group to another. The intersection of Sixth and Ritner in South Philadelphia offers a vivid snapshot of the ever-changing Mifflin Square neighborhood. The land south of Moyamensing Avenue was only lightly settled at the turn of the 20th century but quickly started filling up with Germans and Italians. Jews pushed south from Queen Village after World War I. Beginning in the mid-'70s, with the end of the Vietnam War, Southeast Asians Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian began arriving. Joined by African Americans and Latinos, they have thoroughly regenerated the neighborhood. It's the Cambodians who really make their presence known at this intersection. Cambodian Buddhists acquired the somber St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in 2004 exactly a century after it opened and converted it into a golden, Technicolor compound. The Preah Buddah Rangsey Temple underwent such exponential growth that, three years later, it acquired the Adath Shalom synagogue across the street, where the aging congregation could no longer sustain the building. In a neighborhood that had once been dotted with dozens of rowhouse "shuls," Adath Shalom was one of the last holdouts. The fusion of Jewish and Cambodian imagery is what makes this otherwise modest, tawny brick building so compelling. Rather than completely redesign the interior, the Cambodian Buddhists simply burrowed into the existing shell. Two tablets representing the Ten Commandments still preside over the main entrance, but they are capped with a plaster mokut, the ceremonial headdress worn throughout Southeast Asia. Inside, you can still see the unusual zodiac mural on the sanctuary ceiling, inscribed with Hebrew characters. But images of Buddha now share the space. Because the Cambodians had no need for the Orthodox Jewish women's gallery on the second floor, it was transformed into a gallery for Buddhist funeral urns. It is not clear when Adath Shalom opened, or even whether it was a purpose-built synagogue. The brick on the Ritner Street facade differs significantly from the side walls. Rakhmiel Peltz, director of Drexel University's Judaic studies program, believes the synagogue may have been created by combining two rowhouses. Founded by Lithuanian Jews, who represent just a small subgroup of all Philadelphia Jews, the synagogue was incorporated in 1922, as Beth Samuel Nusach Ashkenazi. After merging with another congregation in 1961, it was renamed Adath Shalom and adopted the practices of Conservative Judaism. As the small shuls disappeared, it became the largest synagogue in the neighborhood. During the three years that Adath Shalom and Preah Buddah Rangsey Temple shared the intersection, the Cambodian Buddhists dramatically altered the Lutheran church. The original dark granite blocks remain on Sixth Street, but the Ritner Street side is now layered in shades of saffron. An elaborate ornamental fence, featuring traditional mandala wheels, forms a generous courtyard. Griffins, lions, and warriors stand sentry at the gates. The procession through the courtyard leads to a small covered porch, where worshippers remove their shoes before entering the temple proper. The large building contains several worship areas, as well as rooms for monks, who are sometimes seen walking around the neighborhood. How long they will remain a presence is unclear. The Khmer Buddhist Humanitarian Association, which runs the temple, is building a large compound in South Jersey to serve the region. In February, it sold Adath Shalom to a development company whose name combines Cambodian and Philadelphia references: Penh Investment Penn LLC. We can only hope this deeply resonant building will be allowed to evolve along with the continually changing neighborhood. In 2011, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first warned of a link between breast implants and a mysterious new cancer, it said the risk was vanishingly rare, far less than one in 500,000. Allergan, an implant maker, declared, "A woman is more likely to be struck by lightning than get this condition." Now, seven years later, the scientific consensus is that implants with textured surfaces not ones with smooth surfaces cause the disease, called breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma. And although it certainly isn't common, it is far less rare than originally believed. For women who choose certain types of highly textured implants, the risk after a decade of wearing the devices could be as great as 1 in 2,200, estimates Mark Clemens, a plastic surgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, which has become a leader in treatment and research of implant lymphoma. "We're still trying to understand if there is a differential risk with the type of texturing and length of exposure," he said. Given the debatable advantages of roughened surfaces and its undeniable link to the lymphoma, a small but vocal group of plastic surgeons says such devices should be abandoned, if not yanked from the market. >> READ MORE: Breast implant maker's warranty: $7,500 if device causes rare cancer "No one can prove any benefits to texturing," declared David A. Hidalgo, a prominent New York City plastic surgeon and professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. "If you remove the products, the risk goes to zero. To me, it's a no-brainer. Personally, I think they shouldn't be on the market." Eric Swanson, a plastic surgeon in suburban Kansas City, Kan., agrees. "Even a remote risk is ethically indefensible if that risk is entirely unnecessary," he wrote recently in JAMA Oncology. Asked to respond, the FDA and the three companies with FDA-approved implants Allergan, Mentor, and Sientra said in statements that they are supporting implant lymphoma research, education, and initiatives to better understand the disease and increase awareness. "But for now," Sientra added, "we are concerned that suggesting only smooth implants should be used is not based on good science and creates unnecessary alarm for a rare and usually treatable disease." Since the first report of implant lymphoma in 1997, there have been 570 cases and 16 deaths reported worldwide, including 230 cases and five deaths in the United States, according to a July 30 update from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The first symptom of the lymphoma an immune cell malignancy that is distinct from breast cancer is usually swelling around the implant. It typically appears after about nine years of wearing textured devices, no matter whether they are filled with saline or silicone gel. If promptly and properly treated by removing the implants and the surrounding capsule of scar tissue, the cancer can usually be cured. However, because health insurance doesn't cover cosmetic implants or complications, some women have delayed seeing a doctor or had trouble getting coverage of treatment. And the disease still isn't on the radar of many physicians. "Women are desperate for increased clinician awareness in radiology, pathology, emergency medicine, ob-gyn, and general practice," said Terri McGregor, 53, of North Bay, Ontario. McGregor co-founded a Facebook page devoted to helping affected women after she almost died of metastatic implant lymphoma. It caused no symptoms before it was accidentally discovered following her first screening mammogram in 2015. Many mysteries still surround the illness, including how and why it develops. Experts believe chronic inflammation is a culprit. But genetic factors must play a role because some Asian and South American countries where textured implants are used almost exclusively have reported few or no cases. In the U.S., textured products which cost more than smooth versions make up only 12 percent of the market. Last year, there were 300,000 breast enlargements and 87,000 reconstructions after mastectomy, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Clemens' estimate that the lymphoma risk could be as high as one in 2,200 after a decade is extrapolated from two studies of Allergan's Natrelle 410 textured implants. Out of 17,656 women, eight have developed the cancer to date a rate of about one in 2,200. Swanson, in Kansas, and Donald R. Mackay, a plastic surgeon at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, have argued in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal that ethics, not statistics, are paramount: The statistics "do not consider the pain, suffering, and the emotional and financial impact to affected patients and their families." Introduced in the early 1990s, texturing involves using chemicals to etch the surface of the silicone pouch. The roughness helps anchor the device in place as tissue grows into the tiny crevices but it may also trigger chronic inflammation. Texturing was touted as a way to reduce breast hardening, called capsular contracture, a major reason for reoperation. Texturing was also supposed to prevent the rotation of teardrop-shaped "anatomical" implants, which some surgeons and women consider cosmetically superior to round implants. Many plastic surgeons who have stopped using textured products are unwilling to dictate what their colleagues should do. Clemens, for example, helped write an American Society of Plastic Surgeons' document that says, "The plastic surgeon must provide a frank and transparent discussion of the benefits and risks of implants, both smooth and textured." But Clemens no longer offers textured because, he said, "In my practice, there are no benefits." Hidalgo said that when implants are placed under the chest muscle wall, as is standard, "there is no good evidence that textured implants prevent capsular contracture." Studies also show some teardrop implants rotate into wrong positions despite texturing. As for the cosmetic superiority of anatomical shapes, Hidalgo believes it's a matter of opinion, and "a lot of surgeons are influenced by their (financial) connections to the industry." Hidalgo even tested the superiority premise with a controlled study: 75 women agreed to get mismatched implants one round, one teardrop during surgery so photos could be taken. Then the teardrop implants were replaced by round ones and the surgeries were completed. Plastic surgeons and lay people who evaluated the photos either saw no difference between the teardrop and round implants, or else they preferred the round implant just as often as the teardrop shape. In the last few years, law firms in Philadelphia and across the country have filed suits on behalf of women who developed implant lymphoma. No cases have been decided yet, but Hidalgo says he believes "the handwriting is on the wall." "Although industry, our specialty, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are slow to proactively condemn textured devices, the legal system is not," he wrote in the journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. President Trump, in a speech in Wilkes-Barre Thursday, said he had never met U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa. The two men spoke during a White House meeting on trade in February, with U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, sitting between them. Read more Fact-checking a speech by President Trump that spans more than an hour can be a tough task. Sometimes the president helps out by raising doubts about his own claims and posting proof that they are false on the White House website, as with one of the first things Trump said about U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., a Pennsylvania Democrat, during a speech Thursday night in Wilkes-Barre. Sometimes the media has to do it all for him: The Washington Post, for instance, has documented 4,229 false or misleading Trump claims from the inauguration through July 31. (The pace of the untruths has been increasing.) Theyve met "So I've been in Washington now for more than a year and a half," Trump said while campaigning for U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, who is challenging Casey's bid for a third term. "I'm not sure I ever met Bob Casey. I never met him. And I'm sure I did. I shouldn't be saying that. But I'm not sure." There, in 40 words, Trump suggested something, then asserted it as fact, then admitted it was probably not true, and finally said he didn't know what was true. Trump and Casey have met at least once, according to a transcript of a White House meeting on Feb. 13, when the president, Vice President Pence, members of the cabinet, and members of the U.S. Congress gathered to discuss trade. Casey spoke directly to Trump about issues in steel manufacturing in Pennsylvania. "Thank you very much," Trump responded to Casey in that meeting. "I appreciate it." Supreme Court Trump then moved on to his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. "And you know what?" Trump asked the Wilkes-Barre crowd. "I think Casey doesn't even want to meet with him." Casey has announced his opposition to the nomination for Kavanaugh, a federal appeals judge in Washington, D.C., citing concerns he has about the conservative groups that drew up a list of potential Supreme Court picks for Trump and the impact that could have on unions and workers. But a spokesperson for his Senate office said Friday that White House representatives have not contacted Casey to set up a meeting. And Casey has said he would meet with Kavanaugh. Abolish ICE? Trump knocked Casey on a couple of issues around immigration. "Bob Casey wants to fire the incredible men and women of ICE," Trump claimed. "He wants to abolish ICE." Casey is on record opposing the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He attended a press conference last week where Senate Democrats shot down the idea. A spokeswoman said Casey reiterated his view Friday that all federal agencies need oversight but did not want to disband the agency. Open borders? Trump also claimed Bob Casey wants an "open borders" immigration policy. "Bob Casey wants open borders, which means crime," Trump said. "He wants people to pour in." Trump went on to claim "Bob Casey doesn't mind MS-13 coming in," a reference to a notorious Central American gang. Casey as recently as February lamented that Senate Republicans could not muster the votes needed to pass what he called comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would have paid for more border security, including funding toward the wall. Trump, who had previously said he would support a bipartisan effort, tweeted just before the vote that the legislation was a "total catastrophe." Debate fear Trump claimed Casey was ducking debates with Barletta. "I hear Bob Casey is afraid to debate Lou Barletta," Trump claimed. "He doesn't want to. I hear he's afraid to debate. Is that true?" No, it's not true. Casey's campaign said it is in the process of scheduling debates but has no details to release as of Friday. A spokesman for Casey's Senate office said he said publicly on Friday that he plans to debate Barletta closer to the Nov. 6 general election. Cody Wilson shows the first completely 3D-printed handgun, The Liberator, at his home in Austin on Friday May 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Austin American Statesman, Jay Janner) Read more On Tuesday, a federal court forced Cody Wilson's web page to go dark. But still, the 30-year-old inventor of what he says is the first working 3D-printed gun feels as if he scored a victory: The blueprints for his AR-15 are out there. After a judge signed the order that forced Wilson to take down the designs he'd posted that enabled users to make guns with a 3D printer, one Twitter user trumpeted that the files were being spread. "This is what I'm going for," Wilson wrote in a retweet. Only one of the files is used to create a 3D-printed AR-15 that Wilson named the Liberator. The rest were digital models, he said, schematics for enthusiasts to study or use. Still, his release of the files set off a national outcry, with gun-control groups, lawmakers, and state prosecutors moving to stop him and raising alarm about 3D-printed guns. Over a whirlwind three days, Wilson was sued, agreed in court to make his blueprints unavailable in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and blocked nationwide, at least temporarily, by a judge in Seattle. But Wilson's plan also worked. In just a few days, the files were downloaded thousands of times, he says, and quickly popped up on other websites. Wilson wants to fight the lawsuits against him and publish more files for 3D-printed guns. "I started this because I thought no matter what, there would be an outcome where I could post this stuff on the internet again," he said in an interview Thursday with the Inquirer and Daily News. His case raises a broader issue that courts have yet to fully address: how, or whether, the spread of information on the internet can be regulated. And he's taken a less-traveled path for gun enthusiasts, hinging his argument not on the Second Amendment but on the First. With the plans already out there, "it's going to become very difficult to figure out where the documents are coming from," said Thomas Kadri, a resident fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project. "This could be something that just undermines the practical impact of any court ruling in this area but it's also possible it could really have an effect on the legal analysis." For Wilson, who operates in Austin, Texas, under the nonprofit Defense Distributed, last week's spotlight capped an endeavor that had been years in the offing. He began developing the printable gun while in law school, inspired by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his study of libertarian texts. "I have always had an active contempt for these types of people and these types of attempted controls of the information, the internet," Wilson said. "I saw WikiLeaks as one of the most inspirational things possible, one of the most inspiring things to a young man who dreams of life after democracy. I saw that there was a way to do WikiLeaks for guns, and that's how I began." He dropped out of the University of Texas law school to work on the project and Defense Distributed. On the side, he has founded other companies, according to the New York Times, including Dark Wallet, an online currency site, and Hatreon, a crowdfunding site that has been used by white supremacists. Wilson first published his 3D-printed gun designs in 2013, and President Barack Obama's State Department blocked him, citing export law. He fought the government's defense of the ban for five years, a battle that continued after President Trump took office. But this spring, the State and Justice Departments abruptly reversed course and agreed to a settlement that would modify the relevant statute and allow Wilson to publish his gun files July 27. They were already available on various websites and had been downloaded more than 100,000 times in 2013. But last week was the first time many Americans had heard of a working 3D-printed gun and now they live in an America that has seen five of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history occur since Wilson's first attempt at publication, including the massacres in Las Vegas and Parkland, Fla. Many were alarmed about the possibilities for criminals or terrorists who accessed the files. 3D-printed guns do not have serial numbers, cannot be traced by law enforcement, do not require a background check to obtain, can in some cases get through metal detectors, and could be made or obtained by people who are not legally allowed to have firearms. By Thursday, 19 states and the District of Columbia had signed onto a lawsuit led by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. A hearing is set for Aug. 21. The case brought by the attorney general in Pennsylvania last week is on hold until then. Prosecutors are also considering what legal action might be taken against sites that have uploaded Wilson's blueprints, said Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign, a gun-control group. "It is pretty shocking and terrifying that this is happening," Gardiner said Friday. "It's why, frankly, the Trump administration has failed here, [because] they allowed this material to go up for a period of time and be shared with others." The morning after headlines about the lawsuit Ferguson and other states' attorneys general filed in Washington state,Trump tweeted that the concept of plastic 3D-printed guns "doesn't seem to make much sense!" The next day, his press secretary said Trump was glad the judge had ruled against his own Justice Department, saying the settlement was made "without the president's approval." Even after calls early in the week for Trump to intervene, the Justice Department had defended its settlement with Wilson and fought the attorneys general in court. Though Wilson had tried to prepare for a fight over the issue, "I couldn't predict the president tweeting about it, so that was fun," he said. "I think I know what it is sometimes to get press, but I've never experienced anything like that. That was crazy." Wilson's argument is that data are speech, and that he has a right to share the data under the First Amendment. His lawyer Josh Blackman, who has since withdrawn from the case, argued that the restraining order was "a prior restraint of constitutionally protected speech that is already in the public domain." Wilson rejects the idea of putting limits on rights. "People want to make any argument and cut through any speech protection in this country to get the outcome they want," he said, "and I'm happy to make them hypocrites on this." Eugene Volokh, a professor of First Amendment law at University of California Los Angeles, laid out the two opposing arguments: On Defense Distributed's side is the idea that people publish books about how to make guns or explosives, for example, and cannot be censored by the government. On the other side is the argument that the government could ban a piece of hardware that plugged into a 3D printer, and led to the printing of a gun, without a First Amendment problem. So is code or software the same as a book or the same as hardware? "Those are the two rival analogies, and the problem is that the law hasn't really told us which of these analogies is the sound one," Volokh said. He said the current court cases will likely be decided on procedural or federalism not constitutional questions. "What would require a square First Amendment analysis is if Congress were to pass a statute or if the federal government re-institutes the regulations [banning publication]." Depending on how quickly the case moves and whether a court rules on something unprecedented, this case could become significant, experts said. "I can see why these First Amendment arguments they're making have some intuitive appeal to people, but at the same time it's also understandable that people would be very worried about something like this where there could be a very clear harm that could flow from the speech," said Kadri of Yale. Lawmakers and activists who opposed the publication of the files, calling 3D-printed guns a national security concern, argued that not all speech is protected. They called Wilson's tactic a publicity stunt. "At least what has been ordered by the judge in Washington protects us from Mr. Wilson uploading anything else that could also get copied and distributed on other websites before he could be ordered to take it down," said Gardiner of the Brady Campaign. "There is still real value in what happened even if there still are some 3D-printed plans floating around on other third-party sites." Wilson said he would not feel responsible if someone who was not legally allowed to have a gun used his download to print a gun and kill someone: "This information was committed to the public domain. It's now part of the commons, part of the body of public knowledge. Anyone can use public-domain information. We don't have background checks for public libraries." While the state prosecutors and others vow to win a permanent restraining order, Wilson says he doesn't see a way he can lose. He pledged to spend all his time fighting every lawsuit that comes his way, saying he liked this "second phase" of the debate. "This is what I do," he said. "This is what I have become." Just days before the launch of the final space shuttle mission, Philadelphia native Chris Ferguson, the commander, was asked what it felt like to be a part of the historic flight. "It's good to be last. It would have been wonderful to be first," he said in a 2011 NASA video. Ferguson, a 56-year-old graduate of Archbishop Ryan High School and Drexel University, may get his shot to be first next year. On Friday, NASA announced that Ferguson will command what could be the first launch of astronauts from U.S. soil since the shuttle program's swan song seven years ago. What makes the mission stand out even more is the fact that Ferguson is retired from NASA and now works for Boeing. He is the director of Crew and Mission Systems for Boeing's Commercial Crew Program. The aerospace company calls him the first "corporate astronaut." Boeing and SpaceX, under contract with NASA, are competing in their own space race to launch capsules next year. Boeing said it would be ready sometime in the middle of 2019. SpaceX has committed to April. Both companies have been hit by delays, so nothing is certain. Ferguson grew up in a rowhouse on Amity Road in Northeast Philadelphia, playing wire ball and stickball and delivering the Inquirer for pocket money, he said in a 2005 Inquirer article. He was 7 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon in 1969. "My father woke me and he said, 'You want to get up and watch this because you're going to appreciate it someday,' " Ferguson recalled. His father, Ian Ferguson, a computer salesman who died of cancer in 1981, prominently displayed in their house a framed autograph of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Ferguson graduated from Archbishop Ryan in 1979 and then earned a bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering from Drexel in 1984. John Fry, president of Drexel, said in a statement Friday night: "Chris Ferguson has long represented the pioneering spirit of Drexel. We're honored by NASA's selection, and certain that Chris will continue to set the bar high for future Drexel graduates as he reaches for the stars." In the 2011 NASA interview, Ferguson said there was not a particular moment when he decided he wanted to become an astronaut. When he was in high school, Ferguson became "intrigued" with joining the Navy and flying jets, he said. Ferguson trained at the Navy Fighter Weapon School, also known as TOPGUN, and eventually accumulated 5,700 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types. Astronauts come from the ranks of test pilots, so Ferguson said it became a natural step for him to aim for NASA, which he joined in 1998. Ferguson was the pilot for the Atlantis mission in September 2006. He became commander for the Endeavor mission in November 2008. He flew Atlantis again as commander in 2011. When Atlantis returned to Earth on July 21, 2011, Ferguson was the last person to step off the shuttle. He logged more than 40 days in space. Ferguson is married to the former Sandra A. Cabot, who is from Plymouth Valley in Montgomery County, and they have three adult children. In the 2011 NASA video, Ferguson was asked what he would tell someone who wants to be an astronaut. "Don't sell yourself short," he said. " I made it. You can make it. I was just an average dude growing up." KAMPALA After more than seven years of construction, Church House has on Friday, August 3, 2018, been officially unveiled. Church House is a 16-floor commercial office building situated in the heart of Kampala, directly opposite the Bank of Uganda. Equity Bank Uganda, the biggest contributor to the magnificent building has also marked its 10 years of operation in Uganda and as part of the celebrations, the Bank has moved its Head Office to the ultra-modern Church House Building on 34 Kampala Road. The new facility will now house the Banks Head Office as well as the newly opened Equity Bank Church House Branch. Speaking at the event, Mr Samuel Kirubi, the Equity Bank Managing Director, said that their bank has been on a growth trajectory and currently stands at position 8 in the market by Total Assets. The move symbolizes our determination to continuously improve our offering, by ensuring our products and services are accessible and convenient to our customers, he said. Kirubi said digital banking technology that the bank acquired last year has continued to give freedom to their customers to bank without any constraints of time or distance.\ The move symbolizes our determination to continuously improve our offering, by ensuring our products and services are accessible and convenient to our customers, Kirubi said. The bank introduced an array of alternate banking channels to enhance its products and service delivery whilst offering its customers greater convenience in banking. According to Bank of Uganda report 2018, Equity is one of the fastest growing banks in Uganda, with a network of 33 branches, and a Total Asset base of UGX 103 Trillion, making it the 8th largest Bank in the country by asset size. Prominent guests at the event include Archbishop Stanly Ntagali, Deputy Governor Bank of Uganda Dr Louis Kasekende, Equity Group CEO Dr James Mwangi, Owekitibwa Apollo Makubuya and Equity Group CEO Dr James Mwangi. About Church House The idea to construct a building of this nature was conceived in 1965, with the aim of enabling the Church of Uganda to financially sustain itself. However, earlier attempts to fundraise did not meet the set targets. The Church took those funds and bought land in different parts of the city. By selling those real estate holdings in the 2000s, the provincial office was able to raise the required 30% of the construction costs. They also secured a 70% mortgage from Equity Bank Uganda to complete the construction. Construction of the premises finally started in January 2011 with an initial timeline of 18 to 24 months. However, due to unforeseen delays, completion of the project is now slated for the second half of 2014. Construction was finally concluded and the completed building was handed over to the owners in June 2018. The Church of Uganda contributed 30 percent in cash and Equity Bank provided a 70 percent construction mortgage. Related KAMWENGE -The National Water and Sewerage Corporation has completed Kibale East water supply project in Kibale East constituency, Kamwenge district. The new water supply project was commissioned by the area MP and Minister for ICT and National Guidance Hon Frank Tumwebaze on Saturday 4th July 2018 Speaking at the event, Hon Frank Tumwebaze commended NWSC for implementing government programmes. I thank NWSC for putting government resources into good use. More people are getting water and better sanitation services across the country. Hon Tumwebaze added that in some places, the people of Kibale East constituency have been buying a jerrycan of dirty water at 1000shs. The new NWSC public water points selling water at 50shs per jerrycan will greatly contribute to the economic growth, hygiene and Sanitation in the area. NWSC MD Eng Silver Mugisha assured the people of Kamwenge district that the corporation is working on a number of infrastructure service delivery plans across the country under the Service Coverage Acceleration Programme (SCAP100) that was launched by the Government of Uganda through NWSC to extend water to over 12,000 villages in Uganda. According to Dr Silver, NWSC used to lay 80kms of water mains extension per year across the country. In the F/Y 2017/2018, NWSC extended over 2200kms of water mains under the #SCAP100 programme. We plan to extend between 2500kms to 3000kms of water mains network across the country to serve more people across the country and connect over 60,000 customers up from the 50,000 customers last F/Y. he said. Kibale-Bisozi village LC.1 Chairman Mr Richard Kandole appreciated the area leadership, the Government of Uganda and NWSC for improving the lives of citizens in areas with clean safe water. NWSC service coverage has moved up from 74% to 84% in urban centres and 54% in peri-urban areas. The corporation is working towards 100% service coverage in all its areas of operation in 2020. Related KAMPALA Telecom regulator Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has diverged details on the recent agreement between Airtel Uganda and K2 Telecom, denying that it is neither a merger nor an acquisition. Mr Ibrahim Bbosa, the consumer affairs manager at UCC, on Thursday, August 2, said that the development that many had termed as a takeover is just a partnership that seeks to mutually benefit both parties as they expand their businesses. He explained that it is just a brand endorsement arrangement where K2 Telecom entered into the agreement, allowing Airtel Uganda to use her trademark and brand name. Under the Brand Endorsement Agreement, K2 customers will continue enjoying the same or similar services with a different code prefix (0708), he said, adding that the customer migration will be voluntary. Customers will exercise their contractual right to either move to Airtel or not, he said adding that K2 Telecom remains the sole and exclusive owner of the K2 trademark and brand but Airtel Uganda will be free to state that the K2 Trademark and Brand is powered by Airtel, according to Bbosa. Bbosa explained that K2 Telecom customers will have access to telecom services provided by Airtel including voice and data bundles, Airtel Money and value-added services. K2 Customers will access support & customer care services at all Airtels Points of Sale, he said. The Buganda Kingdom on Friday went into a partnership with Airtel Uganda to revamp K2 Telecom. According to Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga the partnership with Airtel Uganda aimed at re-launching K2 brand. Speaking at the event, Mayiga, said: I am pleased to announce to Buganda and Uganda that the Kingdom of Buganda has partnered with Airtel Uganda to re-launch K2 brand under the new code 0708 now offering. I urge all people in Buganda and Uganda to join K2 Eyaffe. On his part, the Airtel Managing Director, Mr VG Somasekhar, said that Airtel aimed at giving back to the people of Buganda through the provision of quality services and reviving the K2 brand so that Baganda continue to celebrate the pride within the Kingdom. K2 was previously hosted by Africell, before shifting to Smart Telecom after the two telecoms disagreed overpricing of services. K2 Telecom is owned by the Buganda Kingdom as major shareholders, alongside other managing partners, including former finance minister Maria Kiwanuka and Mr Kiwalabye Male, the chief executive officer of Buganda Land Board (BLB). The K2 Company which was established in 2013, Located at Ring Road in Muganzirwazza building in Katwe, Kampala, It offers both SMS and data services. It has however faced a number of wide-ranging issues since its launch including being switched off in 2017 by UCC on orders of Uganda Revenue Authority. The K2 offices were closed for defaulting over Shs 94.8M in taxes. Related If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Will the next generation possess a more internationalist outlook, and lose their Indian identities entirely? Or will they continue to believe in a larger role for business in society and go beyond the boardroom to truly understand the Indian consumer, ask Geoffrey Jones and Vinay Sridhar of Harvard Business School. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com Flipkarts sale to Walmart in April this year has caused widespread cheering amidst intriguing questions of business and patriotism. Reputed commentators have bemoaned the loss of Indias premier start-up to owners from abroad. This transaction, and the associated fallout, occurred in an environment of increasing deregulation on foreign ownership in sectors ranging from defence to single-brand retail. We believe that this openness to sell to foreign owners develops from value systems that evolved based on the political and social context of a particular time, resulting in distinct generational mindsets of leadership. The Creating Emerging Markets project at Harvard Business School has spent a decade looking at the evolution of business leadership in South Asia and other emerging regions across the globe through interviews of top leaders active over the last 40 years. The nearly 30 Indian business leaders featured belong to a diverse set of industries, regions and cultural backgrounds and are the founders of some of the largest corporations in India today. They are, on an average, 75 years old and constitute the proud, first generation of entrepreneurs of independent India. We believe that this first generation of Indian business leaders has unique characteristics shaped by the India they lived in. These beliefs influenced their decisions as they led their organisations through pivotal events including key partnerships, negotiations and strategic decisions. We discuss three themes that emerged from the study. One, this first generations leaders and their businesses were heavily shaped by their patriotism and national identity. They are proud of the Indian origins of their institutions and built companies that drew on their Indian experience. For example, Anu Agas drive to make Thermax an inclusive, diverse organisation drew from her belief in the criticality of secularism in modern Indian history. Prathap Reddy discusses his view that there are deep insights in ancient Indian medicine that modern health care must draw from; a belief that drives Apollo Hospitals focus on preventive healthcare. Zia Mody talks about her pride in the Indian Supreme Court and its role in shaping Indian society. This trait is especially interesting as it is nearly absent in the same projects interviews of equivalent leaders from Latin America and elsewhere. We believe these leaders share this belief as they were nearly all born around Independence and grew up in a young, passionate country in a region that is home to one of the worlds oldest civilisations. Many of their families were also involved in the Independence movement (the Bajaj family being a prominent example). Two, these leaders are nuanced observers of India and have a deep understanding of the average Indian citizens experience. We believe their keen analysis of India created a more thoughtful business strategy, sensitive to the market it operated in. Many of these organisations sold products to Indian citizens well before liberalisation in 1991, a period when Indian consumers were just being acquainted with privately produced goods. It was imperative for leaders to truly understand how their fellow citizens think. For example, Ratan Tata talks about how the Indian middle class dislikes handouts and prefers perceptions of luxury to economy. Devi Shetty discusses how his passion for providing accessible cardiac care derives from meeting Indian women who were being widowed as their husbands died from heart-related conditions. These entrepreneurs created the first set of truly Indian companies: Indian employees based in India made products for the Indian consumer. Three, these leaders almost universally possess a deep focus on social upliftment and a belief that business has the potential and the responsibility to change society. It is curious that this is a prevailing belief in an era where the rest of global business largely believes that business only has a responsibility towards equity holders. For instance, MV Subbiah discusses his familys belief that Indian society is an integral member of their partnership and hence must receive a share of their profits. Suresh Krishna mentions how he derives great personal satisfaction from seeing Sundaram Fasteners employees advance in society -- he ensures his employees families have access to education. We believe that this belief is driven by the fact that these leaders ran organisations that employed Indians from across social strata, thus giving them a vivid understanding of societal issues their employees and other Indians face. What does this study imply for Indian business today? As India continues to change rapidly, there are lessons Indian managers can learn from their predecessors. To groom business leaders thoughtful about their role in society, they must be forced to interact with a larger swath of society. We believe that this has to be part of business-as-usual and more ingrained than a once-a-year CSR activity. Rahul Bajajs decision to send his children to the same school where his workers children went is a striking example. Shared experiences foster empathy, empathy fosters action and action fosters change. As India risks becoming more stratified, businesses have a powerful role in promoting such interactions. Most importantly, what will the next generation of Indian leaders look like? The fact that Flipkart was willing to sell to a foreign corporation is a sign of changing times; the previous generation might well have been more sceptical. We believe this is overall a positive change as Indian companies compete in a world with better access to global markets. However, the trade-offs are worth considering. Will the next generation possess an even more internationalist outlook, and lose their Indian identities entirely? Does this matter? Will they continue to believe in a larger role for business in society and go beyond the boardroom to truly understand the Indian consumer? These are important questions. The DNA of the next Flipkart and the next period of Indias development depend on it. Geoffrey Jones is a professor of business history at Harvard Business School; Vinay Sridhar is an MBA from HBS. The next meeting of the GST Council will be held on September 28-29 in Goa. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com States will roll out on pilot basis incentives for digital transactions through Rupay card and BHIM app under the GST, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. The GST Council, chaired by Goyal, in its meeting in New Delhi on Friday also decided to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) under Minister of State of Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla to look into the issues of the MSME sector. Simultaneously, the law and procedure related issues for the sector would be looked into by the law committee of Centre and state tax officers, while tax rate related issues would be looked after by the Fitment Committee of tax officers. With regard to incentives for digital transactions, Goyal said that these would be rolled out on trial basis by states who volunteer to do so. Based on the pilot, we can asses the revenue gain or loss, he told reporters after the GST Council meeting. A ministerial panel headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi on Friday approved the proposal for incentivising digital payments through Rupay card and BHIM app by way of a cashback. Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card and BHIM UPI, would get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum limit of Rs 100. The next meeting of the GST Council will be held on September 28-29 in Goa. In a show of unity, leaders of a number of opposition parties including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal in a massive protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur and demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar take immediate action against the accused. IMAGE: CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav during a protest over the issue of alleged sexual abuse at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo Prominent leaders who joined the protest included Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, RJDs Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, Communist Party of India-Marxists Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of Indias D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and Trinamool Congresss Dinesh Trivedi. Addressing the protesters, opposition leaders attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal-United1 and demanded stringent punishment against those involved in such heinous crimes. Congress president Rahul Gandhi said if Nitish Kumar is ashamed of the rape incident, he should immediately act against the culprits. IMAGE: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said if Nitish Kumar is ashamed of the rape incident, he should immediately act against the culprits. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo We stand with the women of India, we stand with the girls and their families who suffered in this shelter home, he said. The Congress chief said on one side is the ideology of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and on the other is the entire country and this will be seen in the coming days. India is saying that what has happened in the last four years, we do not like. When India makes up its mind, then no one can stand before it, he said. Tejashwi Yadav, who targeted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzaffarpur, demanded a probe monitored by the Supreme Court. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Demanding justice for the girls of the shelter home, who were allegedly sexually exploited, Yadav said the accused should be given exemplary punishment and steps be taken to ensure this does not happen again. IMAGE: Recalling the gang rape incident in Delhi, Kejriwal said fast track courts should be set to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crime. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo Recalling the gang rape incident in Delhi, Kejriwal said fast track courts should be set to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crime. I demand that this case be probe in three months and the accused be hanged, he said. The Delhi chief minister alleged that the accused have connections with influential people. Yechury alleged anarchy is being sheltered by governments in BJP-ruled states. We need to change this government.... the slogan of beti bachao is now save beti from BJP, he said. Sharad Yadav said that these crime have taken place under the nose of the JD-U-BJP government and demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe conducted by the CBI. He also said that a national commission should be set up to probe such crimes across the country, including Bihar. The BJP is not saving the daughters of the country. It is instead busy saving cows, he said. Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah flagged off Chief Minister Vasundhara Rajes pre-poll tour Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra on Saturday and tore into the opposition Congress over alleged lack of development in the state under its rule. IMAGE: BJP President Amit Shah with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje during a public meeting to start the Suraj Gaurav Yatra at Rajasamand. Photograph: PTI Photo Flagging off the 58-day yatra, aimed at seeking peoples mandate in the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, from the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district, Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Raje and Shah offered prayers at the temple before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president. They left for a helipad nearby to head to Kankroli city in the district to address the first meeting of the tour. The rath will reach Kankroli by road and will be used by Raje for her onward journey. The Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra will cover 165 of the total 200 assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. IMAGE: The yatra will cover 165 of the total 200 assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. Photograph: PTI Photo Speaking at the first public meeting, Shah said Rahul Baba should go and see the villages where no development had taken place in the 50 years of the Congress rule. But the situation has changed under the BJP rule and now development works are happening there. Congress leaders here have said that they will ask 40 questions during the yatra. Rahul Baba also asks questions and seeks the account of works done by the BJP, but public is asking from you the account of works done by your four generations, he said. Shah said that the Narendra Modi government released two-and-a-half-times more funds to the state government as compared to the previous United Progressive Alliance government. Targeting the Congress over the National Register of Citizens issue in Assam, Shah said that the Congress was seeing illegal Bangladeshi residing in India as its vote bank and asked people to pose a question to Rahul Gandhi whether the illegal Bangladeshi people should live in India or not. Congress president should tell the people whether illegal Bangladeshi should be in India or not. Congress is actually looking at vote bank in this issue but the Modi government does not run on the basis of vote bank, he said. IMAGE: The BJP chief asked people to vote for the party to make Vasundhra Raje the chief minister of Rajasthan again in the assembly elections and Narendra Modi as prime minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Photograph: PTI Photo Shah also said that BJP did not dilute the SC/ST Act and instead the BJP government has strengthened it. He said that the Modi government wants to give statutory status to the OBC Commission. When Rahul Baba comes to Rajasthan, ask him whether the Congress will support the bill in Rajya Sabha or not, he said. The bill to give the statutory status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday. Talking about the schemes and programmes of the government, Shah said that the Modi government brought 116 schemes for people and the Raje government has touched upon all sections of the society in the state and carried out developmental works. Congress did nothing for development. Rajasthan which has been a glorious state became a bimaru state because of Congress but now under the leadership of Raje, the state is progressing and going to become a developed state. We have committed to form the government again, he said. He asked people to vote for the party to make Vasundhra Raje the chief minister of Rajasthan again in the assembly elections and Narendra Modi as prime minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. IMAGE: Raje said that it was her third yatra and exuded confidence that the party will secure victory again. Photograph: PTI Photo Raje said that it was her third yatra and exuded confidence that the party will secure victory again. Five years back, I had begun Suraj Sankalp Yatra and Parivartan Yatra in 2003 from here and people gave us their mandate. We worked hard, I conducted visits and tours of the state to know peoples problems and provided them with what they wanted, Raje said. She said that the government launched programmes and worked to enhance the dignity of women by launching schemes such as Bhamashah scheme and others. Congress always tried to create rift among castes but we want to take every section along with us. It is our aim to launch public welfare schemes and transfer the benefit to people. Development works have taken place in last four years in every panchayat and district, she said. She said that the state is no more a bimaru state. In the coming years, she said, industries will be set up, development will pick up pace for a progressive Rajasthan. There is a need to end One time Congress, one time BJP trend to push Rajasthan among fastest developing states. Development took place at fast pace in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat where the BJP is in power, the chief minister said in the public meeting. She also asked the Congress to give a list of works done by them in the past 50 years. People should analyse who served the nation best, she said. Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who is the convener of the yatra, hailed the prime minister saying he has worked for the nation, brought honour for the country globally. He has worked for poor, women, youths and those in need, Kataria said in the meeting attended by a large number of people. Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari said that the party chief gave a message of Ajay (invincible) Rajasthan-Ajay BJP, saying the Gaurav Yatra will turn into the Vijay (victory) Yatra of the BJP in Rajasthan. The Trinamool Congress on Saturday observed a black day in various parts of West Bengal in protest against the alleged detention and manhandling of its leaders in Assams Silchar airport. IMAGE: TMC party activists participate in a rally to observe Black Day protesting against the alleged manhandling and harrassment of their party delegation at Silchar airport. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra/PTI Photo The protest will continue on Sunday too, party sources said. TMC ministers, leaders and activists hit the streets in the districts and blocks across the state to protest against the alleged assault on the eight-member TMC team at the Silchar airport on Thursday when they tried to enter Assams Cachar district to assess the situation in the wake of the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens. Carrying placards and sporting black masks and badges, TMC activists shouted slogans against the BJP governments at the Centre and Assam and the final draft of the NRC, published on July 30. IMAGE: The protest will continue on Sunday too. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra/PTI Photo The eight-member TMC delegation had comprised of six MPs, an MLA and West Bengal minister Firhad Hikim. They were stopped at the Silchar airport and put under preventive detention. They returned to the city on Friday. TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the members of the delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport and accused the BJP of imposing a super emergency in the country. TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee had on Friday said, What happened to our party delegation is not only shameful but also undemocratic. Our slogan will be we dont need this monstrous government anymore. Five terrorists were gunned down in an overnight encounter with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, while a civilian was killed and 12 others injured during clashes with law enforcement personnel after the gun battle, officials said. IMAGE: An injured civilian arrives for treatment at SMHS hospital,in Srinagar. Photograph: PTI Photo Fresh exchange of firing between terrorists and security forces took place on Saturday morning at Kiloora in Shopian, where a terrorist was killed on Friday night, they said. Four more terrorists have been killed in the operation at Kiloora in Shopian. One terrorist was killed last night, an army official said. All the five terrorists are locals and have been identified as Umer Nazir Malik, Waqar Ahmad Sheikh, Aijaz Ahmad Paul, Arshad Ahmad Khan and Arif Ahmad Mir, a police official said. IMAGE: Villagers raise slogans during the funeral of one of the five militant who were killed in an encounter with security forces, in Malikgund village, at Ganowpora in Shopian district. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI Photo Soon after the encounter ended, clashes broke out between protesters and security forces at several places in the district. A civilian was killed in a firing incident at Ganowpora, while two others sustained injuries, a police official said. He said Bilal Ahmad Khan was hit by a bullet after the funeral prayers of one of the terrorists, who was among the five ultras killed in the gun battle with security forces at Kiloora. Khan was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries. Local residents alleged that he was hit by bullets fired by the army personnel in response to stone-pelting by protestors. IMAGE: Villagers inspect a tin shed riddled with bullets, where four of the five militants were killed. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI Photo Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said the army troops came under fire from terrorists near Ganowpora orchards. Army troops immediately retaliated. In the cross fire, one civilian unfortunately got injured, who later succumbed to the injury, he said. Wanted Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Naveed Jatt made a dramatic appearance at the funeral of Sheikh at Malikgund in Shopian. Jatt, who escaped from police custody on February 6 while being taken to a hospital, is the accused in the murder of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead outside his office at Press Enclave here on June 14. Photograph: Umar Ganie/ Rediff.com IMAGE: Lashkar-e-Tayiba's Naveed Jatt made a dramatic appearance at the funeral of Sheikh at Malikgund in Shopian. In another incident, at least 10 persons were injured in clashes between security forces and protestors in Shopian. Hundreds of protestors assembled near the encounter site in Kiloora and started pelting stones at the security forces, the police official said. The security forces fired pellets and live rounds in air to disperse the mob in the face of relentless stone pelting, he added. Four among the injured persons have been referred to a hospital here for specialised treatment, the official said. Indian-origin United States astronaut Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by National Aeronautics and Space Administration who will fly the first missions into space on commercially provided rockets and capsules, starting next year. IMAGE: Sunita Williams, 52, previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images After years of vehicle development and building anticipation, NASA has now put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft. The space agency announced on Friday that the nine astronauts will launch on the first crewed test flights and missions of new commercial spacecraft built and operated by The Boeing Company and SpaceX. Future Commercial Crew astronauts will be riding to space on partner vehicles built by SpaceX & BoeingSpace, NASA said in a tweet. We are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during the Launch America announcement. The eight active NASA astronauts and one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member will launch on Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragoncapsules to the International Space Station beginning in 2019. The missions will mark the first crewed launches from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011. Today, our countrys dreams of greater achievements in space are within our grasp. This accomplished group of American astronauts, flying on new spacecraft developed by our commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX, will launch a new era of human spaceflight, Bridenstine said. He said the announcement advances our great American vision and strengthens Americas leadership in space. NASA has worked closely with the companies throughout design, development and testing to ensure the systems meet its safety and performance requirements. The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight, said Mark Geyer, director of NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we cant wait to see them aboard the International Space Station, Geyer said. In addition to naming the crews of the test flights, NASA also announced the four astronauts who will fly aboard the first operational Starliner and Dragon missions to the space station. Both vehicles were developed in cooperation with NASA to deliver crew members to and from the orbiting laboratory. IMAGE: The nine astronauts (from left to right) are: Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Chris Ferguson, Eric Boe, Josh Cassada, and Suni Williams. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images Josh Cassada, 45, will fly with Sunita (Suni) Williams, 52, aboard NASAs first contracted Starliner mission. It will be Cassadas first spaceflight. Williams previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012. The commercial crew members took to the stage during an event led by Bridenstine at the agencys Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, will fly together as SpaceXs first Dragon crew. Veterans of two spaceflights each, Behnken and Hurley will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centers Pad 39A -- the same Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Hurley as pilot. NASA astronauts Eric Boe, 53, and Nicole Mann, 41, will join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ferguson, who has been involved from the start in the Starliners development, flew three shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. Boe piloted two shuttle flights. This will be Manns first launch, having joined the astronaut corps in 2013. Behnken, Hurley, Boe and Mann are NASAs first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new US spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttles first orbital flight test crews. Ferguson will become the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit as a companys crew member when he flies. Prior to their maiden crewed missions, both Boeing and SpaceX plan uncrewed test flights in late 2018 or early 2019. Both companies will also conduct abort system test flights to ensure the astronauts can safely escape should their rockets go awry. Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will fly on the first operational mission of SpaceXs crewed Dragon. It will be Glovers first time in space. Hopkins logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014. The two pairs of NASA crewmates will fly to the station with Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts to be announced at a later date. Between the end of the space shuttle program and the start of commercial crew operations, NASAs crew members have and are continuing to launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Behnken, Boe, Hurley and Williams were named in 2015 as NASAs commercial crew cadre and have been working with Boeing and SpaceX on the development of the spacecraft and the simulators that will be used to train astronauts to fly. Boeings and SpaceXs commercial spacecraft may also open the space station -- and more broadly, Earth orbit -- to more privately-funded visitors and spaceflight participants from countries that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets. Pravin Gaikwad, the state coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha, has two rare qualities: he has an unparalleled connect with people from his community and, at the same time, underpins his ideology on a strong analytical base, reports Abhishek Waghmare. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com Periods of heightened political polarisation and caste-based social movements in India have two outcomes, say political analysts: regime change and/or the emergence of new political leaders. The simmering Maratha agitation in Maharashtra has not resulted in the first, but Pravin Gaikwad is undoubtedly a leader to watch as the country heads towards general elections. Gaikwad, 48, has risen from being a member of the Maratha Mahasangh, an organisation that champions the cause of the disaffected Maratha community, to running not one, but multiple community organisations in the state. So it is no surprise that he is at the centre of the socio-political storm brewing in Maharashtra. Earlier, he led the agitation -- Maratha Kranti Thok Morcha (Maratha Revolution Aggressive Rally) -- in the financial capital of Mumbai. If he was seeking public attention to his cause, he certainly got it as thousands of supporters of the movement blocked traffic and burned buses in the metropolis. Ever sensitive to religious sentiments, however, he demanded an apology from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for alleging earlier that the agitation could derail the annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Threatened by Gaikwads supporters, Fadnavis decided to skip his trip to the resting place of Lord Vitthal -- who is held in wide regard by the Marathi populace, especially the farming community -- on the final day of the pilgrimage. The last two decades have spawned myriad community organisations in the state to represent the interests of the Marathas, who account for about a third of the population in the state. Some of them are decidedly action-oriented in extreme ways. Gaikwad joined the Maratha Mahasangh a couple of years after the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune was ransacked by the Sambhaji Brigade -- offspring of yet another parent organisation, the Maratha Seva Sangh -- in 2005. Thereafter, his colleagues say, he has taken on the responsibility for channelling the energies of all the Maratha representative organisations, offering a modicum of coherence and focus and bringing the bahujan -- the scheduled castes, tribes and the other backward classes -- under the fold of the progressive movement. IMAGE: Maratha supporters come out in large numbers during the protest in Mumbai. Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters Caste-based movements have been in vogue for the past couple of years: the Marathas in Maharashtra, Jats in Haryana and Patels in Gujarat have used the caste card to lobby for high quality and dignified jobs for youngsters of these former dominant-caste farming communities. But Maratha Mahasangh members aver that their agitation differs from the other two because it is: (a) non-violent (though this was scarcely the case); and (b) rural in its roots. The reason for this, they say, is Gaikwad. Indeed, Gaikwad consciously positions himself as the face of the progressive brand of Maratha politics in line with social observers such as writer A H Salunkhe, as against the Hindutva brand professed by the likes of B M Purandare, and Manohar Bhide. Brahminism and capitalism are the forces that exploit the masses, and the progressive force of farmers and workers (dominated by the Maratha community) is the only way to counter the exploitation, he says. A young activist who did not wish to be named said Gaikwad has two rare qualities; he has an unparalleled connect with people from his community and, at the same time, underpins his ideology on a strong analytical base. His case for Maratha reservation is based on hard numbers, not emotion, his supporters say. On the political front, his views reflect those of the Maratha supremo and founder-president of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar. But the community lost confidence in the Congress-NCP alliance because, despite having a majority of Maratha leaders, the combine didnt do much in terms of job reservations for Marathas. Gaikwad, therefore, offers Marathas a renewed voice. Gaikwads organisation regards the current regime led by the Bharatiya Janata Party as ideologically incompatible with its cause. This is significant. A slew of Maratha leaders from the combine joined the BJP, riding the Modi wave. Among them was Sambhaji Chhatrapati, NCP leader and a descendant of Shivaji, who worked shoulder to shoulder with Gaikwad in organising rallies and exhibitions not just in Maharashtra but in major state capitals too. In 2016, Chhatrapati accepted a Rajya Sabha nomination with BJP support. Gaikwad, however, has remained apolitical and grounded in community work, say his followers, and has amply filled the gap left by other Maratha political leaders. In other words, dont be surprised if we see new faces in Maharashtras legislative assembly in 2019. IMAGE: Police said effigies of Banerjee, who is opposing the NRC in Assam, were burnt and protests held against her across Assam during the day. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo Two more FIRs have been registered in Assam against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and members of her Trinamool Congress delegation, which went to Silchar, for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion, a senior police official said. A total of five FIRs have been registered against Banerjee in Assam since the publication of the NRC final draft on July 30. Two police complaints were also filed against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in West Bengal on Friday. Police said effigies of Banerjee, who is opposing the NRC in Assam, were burnt and protests held against her across Assam during the day. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Ranjan Bhuyan said the two FIRs were registered at Guwahati and Silchar for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion. One FIR was registered at the Geetanagar police station on the basis of a complaint by the Assam Public Works Dhrubajyoti Talukdar on Friday night and the other at the Udharband police station at Cachar on Saturday by a policewoman, who was injured during an alleged scuffle with the visiting TMC members at the Silchar airport, he said. A police officer the first FIR has been registered against Banerjee and the eight-member TMC team under the Indian Penal Code sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person). The FIR at Cachar was registered for violating Section 144, which was in place then and attacking a public servant on duty, he said. On August 2, one FIR each was registered against Banerjee at Panbazar and Basistha and at North Lakhimpur police station for her alleged instigating remarks that threatened the unity of the country and her attempt to create unrest in Assam. Following it, Banerjee had said in Kolkata, We know we are living in a super emergency. There is no democracy in the country. I am not scared. I speak for the people. They (BJP) can lodge millions of FIRs against me, I do not care. The two complaints against Sonowal were filed by TMC MLA Mohua Moitra and MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, both members of the TMC team, for alleged manhandling and illegal detention at the airport after their return from Silchar. The TMC team, comprising six MPs, one MLA and a West Bengal minister was kept under preventive detention by the Assam Police at the Silchar airport after they reached there on August 2 to take stock of the situation following the publication of the NRC final draft and were sent back on August 3. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A) reported that its second-quarter net earnings attributable to shareholders increased to $12.01 billion from $4.26 billion, prior year. Net earnings per average equivalent class A share was $7,301 compared to $2,592. Net earnings per average equivalent class B share was $4.87 compared to $1.73. The company noted that its second-quarter net earnings include investment and derivative gains of $5.12 billion. Operating earnings increased to $6.89 billion from $4.12 billion. Second-quarter total revenues increased to $62.20 billion from $57.26 billion, prior year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenue of $61.57 billion for the quarter. For the second-quarter, insurance and other revenues were $48.94 billion compared to $45.42 billion, previous year. Railroad, Utilities and Energy operating and other revenues increased year-over-year to $10.90 billion from $9.82 billion. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ashok Gehlot, A K Antony and others at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at AICC in New Delhi on Au The Congress on Saturday stepped up its attack on the Modi government on the issue of corruption and took ownership of the National Register of Citizens while accusing BJP of using it as "divisive tool" as it decided to launch a "decisive battle" along with opposition parties against the BJP. A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which was held here under chairmanship of party chief President Rahul Gandhi, spent considerable time discussing National Register of Citizens in Assam, which has electoral implications beyond the state. The CWC also discussed the "scams of the Modi Government including bank frauds, failing economy, rampant unemployment and agrarian distres" during its four-hour long meeting. It decided to launch a "decisive battle" in the coming days with other opposition parties on the issue of corruption. The party accused the Modi government of causing Rs 41,000 crore loss to exchequer in the Rafale fighter jet deal, "complicity" in the escape of Mehul Choksi, charged in the PNB bank fraud case, and causing tax terrorism. The party sought to deflate BJ''s nationalist plank on National Register of Citizens (NRC), saying that Congress-led UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners between 2005-2013 against a mere 1,822 done by the Modi government. Briefing reporters, party general secretary Ashok Gehlot said the party has begun its preparations for assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram this year and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and CWC will meet almost every month. Congress Communications Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala said the CWC noted with grave concern the "deliberate and diabolic agenda of BJP to play politics to use NRC as a divisive and emotional tool for misleading the people". "This is being done to deflect count'y's attention from the colossal failures, mega scams like Rafale, bank frauds and others as also betrayal of people by Modi Government on various promise," he said. The CWC called upon Congress leaders and workers to expose the acts of omission and commission of Modi Government and not allow it escape accountability. Surjewala said that opposition leaders have discussed the "corruption-related" issues of Modi government with Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders and they will together fight a decisive battle in the coming days to take the matter to people. He said the CWC decided that it will call upon its party members in parliament and leaders and workers outside to create an intense people's movement which would force the government that "evades" issues to answer them. Surjewala said the Congress was committed to the 1985 Assam Accord, supports the NRC process but there were "multiple anomalies" in the final draft released last month which leaves out 40 lakh persons. He said the left out persons include the indigenous Assamese people, Hindu Bengalis, Nepalis, Gorkhas, tea tribes, religious minorities, citizens from other states domiciled in Assam and serving and retired defence personnel. "Every Indian Citizen must be given full opportunity to establish their credentials and prove their citizenship," Surjewala said. He said the Manmohan Singh government had in 2009 sanctioned Rs.489 crore and proceeded to appoint 25,000 enumerators for the NRC process and 80 per cent of it was completed by the Tarun Gogoi government. Surjewala said the Citizenship bill being proposed by Modi government seeks to undo the process of NRC. "Instead of fooling people, Modi, Amit Shah and the Assam Chief Minister must answer if they support the NRC process or the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 20"6," he said. Surjewala alleged that there had been bank scams to the tune of Rs 72,000 crore and CWC had expressed its shock and dismay "over the complicity and connivance" of the Modi government in the escape of fraudster Mehul Choksi in Rs 23,484 crore PNB scam. He said the statement made by Citizenship Investment Unit of Antigua makes it clear that External Affairs Ministry had given "clean chit" to Mehul Choksi in May, 2017. The SEBI had also given a similar 'clean chit' and CBI and ED failed to provide adequate evidence to Interpol. He said the Modi government had adequate knowledge of bank frauds by jeweller Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. " "PMO, SFIO, SEBI, CBI, ED, Gujarat Government, Maharashtra Government were aware, yet no action was taken. On May 7, 2015 complaint was filed with Corporate Affairs Ministry and all other authorities. The PMO had acknowledged the complaint on May 26, 2015," he said. The party released a list of 42 such complaints filed with PMO and all other authorities." "The welfare of fugitives has become the slogan of Modi government," he alleged. On Rafale deal for the puchase of 36 fighter jets from France, Surjewala alleged that the Modi government was indulging in a "cover up" and had refused to disclose the price of the aircraft. He accused the Modi of violating the Defence Procurement Procedure and sacrificing the country's interests on transfer of technology. He said HAL had entered into offset contract of Rs 36,000 crore. "Once PM Modi decided to buy 36 Rafale aircraft at a 300 per cent higher price than that negotiated during UPA government, the interests of HAL were sacrifced," he said. I am not writing this in a way to ruin reputations of schools and teachers nor to anger parents or the government. This is simply my opinion on the matter. What is reasonable force? According to the legal dictionary definition it reads: The amount of force necessary to protect oneself or ones property. Reasonable force is a term associated with defending ones person or property from a violent attack, theft, or other type of unlawful aggression. Reasonable force is also known as legal force. Firstly, the government, enforcing a law which could lead to bigger problems than just disagreeing with it. It could possibly lead to some teachers using this opportunity as a power to dominate children in fear of them by using reasonable force or in the students eye and in some cases in the parent/parents eye is abuse. When the teacher is questioned they could possibly answer He/She deserved it because he/she didnt do his/her homework or Its her/his fault for coming late to class and Im only teaching him/her not to be. But did she/he deserve it? A simple late to class or hasnt done his/her work? No I think not and this is where the rest comes in. It is not just the teachers fault, the school systems fault, the students fault, the parents fault nor the government. All play a part in this battle. The school system should improve disciplinary actions and the government should encourage this by finding ways to solve this problem such as maybe 10 detentions you get suspended and three suspensions you are expelled however it may work just without the abuse. There is no need for any physical abuse; in no way is physical abuse the right road to take because it could also lead to mental and emotional abuse. No one should have any right to lay a hand on a child in any abusive manner. You may see the smiling mask that covers it all but then you start to hear it Suicide and Died in the hospital after he/she got that beating because he/she didnt cut/braid his/her hair. Whispers will begin to spread as some people may begin to think that reasonable force is a silent way of saying abuse is okay as long as you have your reasons? What if your reasons are not acceptable in court if the abused childs parents files charges. What then? Ruin another reputation, one more adding to the list of jobless people in the world because the government decided to bring back reasonable force. What makes what back then was any different from now? Nothing. Just possibly ruining a few lives. Kids are still skipping class, not doing their homework , smoking and getting drunk in school. Is there any difference? The only difference I see is that teachers will have the satisfaction of using reasonable force on a child all because they wouldnt listen to them without sending them to the right disciplinary road. Parents should be informed of their misbehavior so they can deal with it as well because parents dont want to send their kids to school worrying theyll come back abused. They dont pay for the school to abuse their child/children. And yes, some may agree to this technique of discipline and allow the teachers to abuse their children but some may not too. No one has a place to say in how a parent may raise their child but the major discipline should be coming from the students parents because that is their job. To raise their children the way they want to. Not a teacher, not a law, not anything. No child should live in fear of being abused. They should be able to speak up if so happened but some may fear to, because they may think it wouldnt matter, that their voice although it is small doesnt matter but it does. At home, at school or in public they shouldnt be living in that kind of fear. With this Reasonable force law could possibly lead to physical abuse, mental and emotional abuse without question. Some cases will have no proof as no one had witnessed it happen and speaking up was all for nothing but it was for something because I and many others, heard you. Help to prevent a problem, dont wait till it becomes one & fix it now. Dont let this law be real, to let it be someones silent way to abuse because you have your reasons and please, oh please dont let it be anothers downfall. This is my post on social media that I do not agree with the law-endorsing teachers using reasonable force against students. Thank you and I would very much appreciate that nothing negative will come out of me posting this because my opinion matters somewhere, to someone and so does yours. Alexandra Lui Dear Editor Re: Leave God alone, start being honest Really Mataafa!? Please dont tell us -your local audience that you are in support of our friend Johns notion to Leave God alone, where I see it got Vai Autus support. And talking of honesty! Arent you supposed to be the first one to honestly share onto our friend John and whomever this Vai Autu, the Samoan way of Love and Respect now enshrine in the body of our Nations Constitution. Article 1; sub clause 3 -stating Samoa is a Christian nation founded of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Replacing the limited position used to be with the statement Samoa is founded on God where was only on the Constitution cover. Will let alone his CHEEKY reference to the 4-Ms of my name as stupidity, same cheeky reference goes to Maua Faleauto, by the way is Maua a Matai title or is he an un titled man enjoying the air of Aotearoa? Anyhow, Mr. John! You sure sounded very much like Wendy Wonder and Orlando Huaman whom freely share their unbelieving view in our local media form but I must say I rather honor them -even though they are kind of reluctant residents for they are having the courtesy of habituating our land instead of you. You does sound like a Run-away FAIAVA, ahy, Orlando, lol?. I see Vai Autu wish for Mr. John to return and I would not mind doing so for I believe Samoa can have his Agricultural expertise -based on your description of your shed fill with equipment and tools assume they are of agriculture tools, in good use. Wonder whether he had set foot in Samoa to learn of tones of uncultivated fertile lands, we have? For certainly if they were cultivated instead of growing bush out of it, then this LTRA 2008 saga would never be an issue with the new Samoa First (Halfback) Party. And come on, Mr. John/Vai Autu, please say your gobbledygook reference of my writing language is just a joke. For I have couple of prominent Parliamentarian and C.E.O friends locally commanded me for my article as they had got the message at first glance for even my son at National University of Samoa and a daughter at Samoa College having no problem understanding it. I will forgive you with the other Nonsense you make mention. Well unless you prove us of which Authority that gives you the right to doing so, you know, like Oxford Prof. John Lennox. For if not then will just have to stand with Lennox famous saying Nonsense does remains Nonsense, dont you agree Mr. Keni? Anyhow relooking back at your editorial where this conversation starts I see your wondering mind and I quote, what is going on in Samoa today? What has become of this country that is supposedly founded on God? There is no doubt that something is terribly amiss somewhere. And I wish to pose a follow up question herewith on to the Samoa-National Council of Churches executive whether they are able to lend a helping hand or are they rather stay silence and leave us lay people in the mercy of the Evil one once again? Most definitely this is the ultimate message by Jesus Christ before he ascend back to heaven is for us His entire Human race, to be at Peace. Warning us that, that is our only witness to the world that He is from God the Father, dont you agree Reverend Vavatau and your Toeaina Council? Dont you be worried too much with Tax Act, for tax Avoidance is legal instead of tax Evasion, NUS former Mathematician Master should know it well. One of a recent query by Honorable Olo Fiti comparing collected income to the blooming situation we are currently entertaining now a days is a well worth investigation, dont you agree Honorable Tialavea? Until next time, stay tune! Atalii fanau le au o le Talalelei. Leoo Matafeo Muaimalae Molioo Mulitalo Pius Atalii fanau le au o le Talalelei. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi says the Government has nothing to hide when it comes to its total debt, which stands at $1.01 billion today. We dont hide anything, everything is out in the open, you can get the figure from our Central Bank, Tuilaepa said. Even if it reaches many billions, well still publicise it. Why? Weve got nothing to hide. Tuilaepa said the debt is the result of the Government working hard to develop the country and as long as that is the case, there will be nothing secretive about it. His comments were in response to an article published in the Samoa Observer over the Samoa Governments debt to China, which has increased from $315.16 million in 2013 to $410.01 million in 2017. The debt to China is a major part of the Governments total debt. The Ministry of Finances Statement of Borrowing issued under the Public Accounts for the years 2013 to 2017 confirmed this. Prime Minister Tuilaepa explained that Samoa needs to borrow money. Developments are being funded by taxes, duties, aid and loans from overseas. Developments dont wait until we collect enough revenues and then we do it. No if we were to do that, then well have absolutely nothing, he said. A lot of this stuff that were not doing is not different from what happens in the villages. You know sometimes when they build a church and they cannot complete it, they go and take out a loan. The Government, he said, is no exception. He reassured members of the public there is nothing to worry about. We have a plan. A lot of the loans are from the worlds biggest banks where we are given between thirty to fourty years to pay them off. On top of that, there are also long grace periods, about five to ten years and the loans come with very small interest. Tuilaepa said the common misconception by some people is that they think we have to pay them all off by next year. This is not the case. The most important thing when it comes to loans is how much are we paying on an annual basis. Thats how you measure the Governments economic strength. The second thing is that we have enough foreign reserves and we do. According to Tuilaepa, it is not the amount of the loan that matters. Rather it is the Governments ability to meet its repayments. So I dont why they keep bringing this up, he said about the media coverage of the debt. The only good reason I can think of is so that people can appreciate and understand why the Government sometimes do things like ask the Head of State to pay his tax. See we ask the Head of State that since hes got the highest salary (in Samoa), we will cut something from it so he can contribute to the development (of the country). The Prime Minister added that this is why it is critical that everybody pays their taxes. So the current Head of State, he just smiles and says thank you Tuilaepa for allowing me to contribute to the development (of Samoa). The Prime Minister also commended the Minister of Revenue Tialavea Tionisio Hunt and his team. Their job is the most hated role as tax collectors. During the consultation period, Tialavea and his team met Church Ministers and after their meetings, they were asked to conduct a prayer of blessings for the tax collectors and the church ministers did as they were requested. Despite being hated, Tuilaepa said tax collectors must do their job. Without the taxes, we will not be able to cater to our health needs, pay the salary of teachers and fix the roads. Even I pay taxes, and it is something that should be done to help with our developments. Nine of eleven men from Luatuanuu accused over blocking the road, in an incident where the Police were attacked earlier this year, have been jailed by the District Court. The sentencing was handed down by District Court Judge Fepuleai Ameperosa Roma yesterday. The accused were Lilo Asiasi Faaitiiti, Perenise leauta, Joe Junior Peseta, Sonny Motu Elia, Jason Kioa, Sefo Vaoifi, Leueni Iakopo Tua, Ameperosa Manaia Lama, Lafaele Vito Sakaria, Fomai Perenise and Vito Sakaria. While eight were jailed for six months; one was jailed for six weeks while the other two were convicted, discharged and ordered to pay Police cost. The men faced charges of disorderly conduct, obstruction of a public road, being armed with dangerous weapons, throwing stones, threatening words and rioting. Lawyer Vaisala Afoa of the Attorney Generals Office was the prosecutor. According to the Police summary of facts, the incident occurred on March 19 this year at Luatuanuu. The men blocked the government road after the Anoamaa District Rugby Tournament on March 17, 2018, which resulted in a dispute between the young members of Luatuanuu and Falefa. The accused were all involved together with other men of their village where they blocked the government road and obstruction of traffic, the Court was told. They were also involved in the incidents where they threw rocks at the police cars as well as members of the public who were using this road to travel to Apia on the morning of the incident. This same day the accused, Lilo Asiasi Faaitiiti, uttered threatening words to the Police officers who came to calm the situation down. The matter was first called on 24 March where the accused men pleaded guilty to the charges against them. A different incident led to the charges against Joe Junior Peseta, 28, of Lutuanuu, Sonny Motu Elia, 25, and Jason Kioa, 24, who faced charges of disorderly conduct and rioting. The victim of this matter is a male of the village of Taelefaga, Fagaloa, the Court heard. On April 19, 2018 around one oclock in the morning, the victim was travelling with his wife and a family member heading to Motootua Hospital. When they arrived at Luatuanuu they found packs of sands and a toilet bowl blocking the main road. The victim slowed down his vehicle however, someone started throwing stones towards their vehicle and by this time, the victim started speeding so that he could get away from the Luatuanuu men. The victim laid a complaint to the Police and they conducted their investigation and found that the three accused were the ones who were involved in this incident. During Judge Fepuleais sentencing, he the charge of rioting is a serious charge. The maximum penalty for this charge is two years imprisonment term, he said. There are eight of you who are being charged with taking part in riot and the summary of the Courts decision in this charge, I adopted 16 months imprisonment as a starting point for this charge. I deducted six months for your guilty pleas, I deducted two months for your previous good character and given that you are first offenders and lastly, I deducted two months for your remorseful and that leaves six months. This is the Courts decision for the accused charged with taking part in riot you are convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Judge Fepuleai had sentenced each accused according to the charges laid against them. For Jason Kioas charge of taking part in a riot he was sentenced to six months imprisonment, and for other charges such as intentional damage, throwing stones, disorderly conduct and obstruction of road, he was convicted and discharged. For Sefo Vaoifi, the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as throwing stones, disorderly conduct and obstruction of public road, he was convicted and discharged. For Leueni Iakopo Tua on the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as being armed with a dangerous weapon namely rocks and throwing stones he was convicted and discharge. For Lafaele Vito Sakaria the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as being armed with rocks, throwing stones and disorderly conduct he was convicted and discharged. For Fomai Perenise, on the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as armed with rocks and throwing stones he was convicted and discharged. For Vito Sakaria, on the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as disorderly conduct and obstruction in a public place he was convicted and discharged. For Sonny Motu Elia, on the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as two counts of disorderly conduct and obstruction of public road he was convicted and discharged. For Joe junior Peseta, on the charge of taking part in a riot he was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment, other charges such as two counts of disorderly conduct he was convicted and discharged. For Perenise Leauta , on the charge of one count of obstruction of public road he was convicted and was order to come up with a sentence within 12 months if called upon and lastly he was ordered to pay police cost of $300 before 4pm. For Ameperosa Manaia Lama, on the charged of disorderly conduct he was convicted and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment, other charges such as obstruction of public roads he was convicted and discharged. For Lilo Asiasi Faaitiiti, on the charge of uttering threatening words, he was convicted and ordered to come up with a sentence within 12 months and pay police cost of $500 before 4pm. Identifying and bridging the gap between the lack of business support and networks available to Pacific businesses, especially Samoans is why Samoa Business Network (S.B.N.) exists. A Samoan herself, S.B.N. New Zealand Chairwoman, Laura Keil-Hall said she teamed up with Rasmus Pereira to run the very first ethnic Pacific business networking event in September 2012, and because they were both Samoans, it was natural for them set up the event as a Samoan initiative. Business networking wasnt a new concept but it was something new to have a business networking specifically for the Samoans. I had the knowledge and the resource, Rasmus the people so from here S.B.N. was born, Ms. Keil-Hall told the Business team. Part of S.B.Ns success story is celebrating Samoan entrepreneurial success and on September 28, 2018, the S.B.N. Business Awards will be held in Auckland, New Zealand to showcase Samoan business owners and operators and their achievements. Not only that, it is also acknowledging the contribution that the Samoan business community makes to the New Zealand economy through economic development and prosperity, Ms. Keil-Hall said. We know that Samoans and Pacific peoples have been contributing to New Zealands economy for many years. I guess you can say since they arrived on N.Z. shores those many years ago in the 1940s, but there is a lack of data or information to recognise what that contribution is or has been. However there is a project currently in progress by N.Z. Treasury and the Pacific Business Trust to identify the Pacific economy and the contribution it makes to the N.Z. economy as a whole, she added. Ms. Keil-Hall said S.B.N. is about connecting Samoan businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals globally. So we hope that these business awards will bring successful Samoans together celebrate achievements, and be another step forward to connecting our Samoan business people who are working hard to build businesses all over the world. She said they have had a good response from businesses since the announcement of the awards, which will be a biennial event. We encourage members of our Samoan business community to out their business forward for the Samoa Based Business Award and the international categories. We also open the invitation for Samoan based businesses to attend this event in Auckland. Tickets will be going on sale in August, Ms. Keil-Hall said. For more details, you can follow the Samoa Business Network Facebook page or email them on [email protected] S.B.N. was formally established as an Incorporated Society on April 23, 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand. Samoa Business Network (S.B.N.) will be hosting a Digital Marketing Workshop to address the needs of its members and Small Medium Enterprises (S.M.E.) in Samoa. To be held at the Samoa Stationery and Books (S.S.A.B.) conference room on August 8 from 9am-2pm, the workshop will provide a clear overview of the power of digital and online marketing and how social media and other platforms can be used to market products and services. Due to the global switch from online search engines and website marketing, to social media marketing, it has never been easier or more cost effective to market a small business online, S.B.N. New Zealand Chairwoman, Laura Keil-Hall said to the Business team. Even large corporate companies overseas have switched most of their advertising spend to social media and other digital platforms. This is an exciting opportunity for Samoan businesses to be on an even playing field with overseas competitors, and even create new digital online businesses. We have seen examples of this in Samoa already with the likes of Makeki Online & Samoa Market delivering new services, using online platforms. There are many online platforms businesses Samoa can utilise, which are either free or at minimal monthly cost. Ms. Keil-Hall said because there are also a number of small businesses and freelancers in Samoa, offering services which can support small business marketing campaigns, the workshop will be followed by a business networking event. We encourage all marketing support businesses such as social media bloggers/marketers, website developers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, event coordinators, makeup-artists, modelling agencies, and others to join us for this event, and use this as an opportunity to connect with business owners who may want to engage your services. We also encourage businesses using online technology and platforms to come and promote your services, she said. The business networking event will be held at the TanoaTusitala Hotel from 6-8pm. We would like to acknowledge our sponsors - Samoa Commercial Bank, S.S.A.B., TanoaTusitala Hotel and E.M.D. for coming on board to S.B.N. events in 2018. To register,you can visit their Facebook page Samoa Business Network or their website www.samoabusinessnetwork.org The Deputy Vice Chancellor of Auckland University, Jenny Dixon, hosted a luncheon to bring together female student alumni at the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel yesterday. As one of the final events for the Auckland University delegation in Samoa this week, Ms. Dixon said this was an important step in strengthening their university alumni group in Samoa and also to get an idea of how the university can continue to support their female alumni in their professional careers. The purpose of the luncheon was to engage their women alumni in Samoa in conversations to ascertain what sort of challenges they face in their respective roles as leaders in their work and communities. We are interested to hear from our women alumni in particular about the sort of things that might be at the top of your minds in terms of women in leadership in Samoa, said Ms. Dixon. Were interested because we are thinking of ways we can work with our alumni. It may be well things that we are already working on in the university and could be helpful. Alumni engagement is very important. In my international role, I lead a group in our big network, which is called Association of Pacific Women in Universities. Over 50 leading research universities across the Pacific rim. The focus is how to help women get over barriers in terms of promotion and equipment and all those things within their respective institutions so it could be for a university purpose for academic and professional women. Currently the Auckland University is conducting a major survey among 70 universities around the world to find out if the gender ratios are from academic women, academics and professionals right up to the position of Vice Chancellor have improved. We understand that in a huge international level, there are different cultural attitudes towards women and promotion and its particularly tough in countries such as China and Japan especially women at my level and they are very keen to progress and they have some good advocates. Ms. Dixon praised Samoa for the high number of C.E.Os who are females saying that there is still a need for New Zealand to improve the number of women in executive roles. One of things that have impressed all of us on this visit to Samoa is the number of C.E.Os who are females in Samoa. It really does stand out and theres a lot of room for improvement in New Zealand I have to say in relation to the number of C.E.Os who are female and particularly improving the number of women on Boards, both state and private sector boards. Alumni member and General Manager of Pacific Line Forum, Teuila Eteuati said to the Samoa Observer that she was very pleased that a major effort has been made to formally connect all the Auckland University alumni on the island. This is the first Auckland alumni function Ive been to and I would love to see more of these happen in the future, said Eteuati. Ive lived here for 20 years and Ive watched Waikato, Victoria and Otago University have their get-togethers here in Samoa for their alumni and Im thinking, when is Auckland going to have something? So its just great to be able to come together like this and formalise it. Ive seen some good progress here in Samoa in regards to women in leadership and networking plays a big part in that success. Some of the women here I didnt even know they went to Auckland University but having that in common creates that connection that can spark things off. Some of the themes that were discussed were the challenges dealing with existing intergenerational attitudes around traditional professions that young Samoans are expected to pursue, also challenges around the treatment of women Matai and their lack of inclusion in decision making at village fono as well as why women do not pursue careers in Parliament. Auckland University is looking to establish an official alumni body in Samoa in the coming months. The Filipo Family gathered at the Orator Hotel last week to celebrate Umu Nia Faasee Filipos 80th birthday. It was a day for the family to give thanks to God for the life of their mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Umu was born on July 29, 1938. She hails from the village of Levi, Saleimoa. She married the late Faasee Filipo. Together they have 10 children. Pastor Levao Iopu of the Mt. Roskil New Hope Church in Auckland New Zealand, conducted the church service. He told the gathering that the secret behind Umus long life was happiness and living healthy. Umus grandson, Josh Moana from New Zealand describes their grandmother as a humble lady and someone who loves music. This lady is very special to me because she gave me the gift of music, he told the Samoa Observer. She taught me the guitar at the age of 11, she taught me three chords, and thats what started my love and passion for music especially the guitar. This surprise party was organised by me and my sister, and our first cousins on my moms side. Mr. Moana added his grandmother is the youngest of three children. Her brother and sister both got married and left the family but my nana stayed behind to look after her parents, their land, and raise her 10 children in Levi, Saleimoa. She is still looking after our family right up until this very day. She is a woman of great faith, who fears nobody but God, and she is someone who would always put other people first before herself. What we are doing today is nothing compared to all the things that she had done for all of us. We owe her so much and for as long as she lives we will forever be grateful to God for giving her to us. The International Labour Organization (I.L.O.) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.) have joined forces to promote a just transition towards a greener economy through decent work. While the effects of climate change in the Pacific Islands have been discussed in many fora, and particularly during the C.O.P.23 under the Fiji Presidency, the potential for job creation is often less known. Jobs that help restore the environment. Jobs that help fight, mitigate and prevent climate change. They are defined as decent jobs that are also good for the environment. The I.L.O.-S.P.R.E.P. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed during the Climate Action Pacific Partnership (C.A.P.P.) Conference II in Fiji. In her remarks during the signing ceremony , I.L.O. Regional Director for Asia Pacific, Tomoko Nishimoto underlined the spirit and principles enshrined in both the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Agenda. It is the commitment of the two institutions to bringing in our respective strengths and together making optimal contribution towards the achievement of the sustainable global goals. With this MoU both I.L.O. and S.P.R.E.P. would hope to intensify the already strong partnership with BOSs (Big Ocean States), she said. S.P.R.E.P. Director General, Leota Kosi Latu outlined that the I.L.O. mandate and areas of expertise are highly complementary to the mandate of S.P.R.E.P. The two organisations have already demonstrated cooperation already in the context of occupational safety and health training, Leota said. He guaranteed further commitment from S.P.R.E.P. to the MoU and new partnership with I.L.O., including exploration of an application for a Green Climate Fund proposal. We look forward to working together under this new partnership to add value to our collective work with our Pacific island countries, said Leota. There are a range of opportunities for us to explore that will help progress our vision of a resilient Pacific environment. These could include looking at our pipeline of projects, or for opportunities for working with I.L.O. experts on national or regional guidelines for example on gender inclusiveness, workplace safety, green jobs and just transition. There are many opportunities. The I.L.O.-S.R.E.P. MoU provides a framework to foster joint initiatives promoting the interlinkages between decent work and climate resilience. It includes: Collaborating on the promotion of jobs that Improve energy efficiency, Limit greenhouse gas emissions and Minimize waste and pollution. Conducting environmental and social impact assessments and safeguards of projects as required; Developing joint initiatives to be submitted to the Adaptation Fund and/or Green Climate Fund; Promoting Occupational Health and Safety of workers involved in waste management industries; Knowledge sharing and peer-learning between Pacific countries and other countries, particularly from the South. Samoa couldnt have been a better choice for a first time traveler overseas. Rachael Wake from Brisbane, Australia spoke highly of Samoas warm and welcoming atmosphere that attracted her when she set foot on Samoas shores. It feels like I am living my life for the first time ever, it has been fantastic. It is as much of a culture shock like probably for everyone, it is just mind-blowing, she said to the Dear Tourist team. Rachael flew into Samoa with her two other friends and so far, theyve explored most parts of Upolu. I am so glad that I came here and not to Fiji or Vanuatu, which are more known. It is just something about Samoa. I guess because it is not super build-up, it is not so touristy so you get that kind of authentic experience. The resort of course is different, but you still get the opportunity to get into a fale or the fresh coconut at the Toasua Ocean Trench and around the waterfalls. These certain things to do, which you probably cant in the more buildup countries, make a difference, Rachael said. She said the Samoans have been amazing and she loves her stay so far. The people are amazing never had so many people smiling at me it is just so friendly here and welcoming. I cant imagine anywhere else being like this. When you look out the oceans you cant see land anywhere, you got this wonderful feeling being away. It is great, totally disconnected where you can forget about your daily stuff. Rachael said her first glimpse of village setting when she drove from the airport tells her that the locals are happy and content with the little they have. You see the condition the people are living in but it doesnt confront you and the people are still smiling and waving at you and it still gets that feeling of safety, she shared. If the resort wouldnt be here, not having the option of going somewhere more to what we are used to, that would maybe not be for everybody. I really enjoyed sleeping the first few days at the beach and just having cold showers. I think it is good to have the opportunities to do both. I think it would kind of ruin it if there were more places like the resort. I dont think there are more needed then now. Rachael said theres a good balance of traditional and modern cuisine available in Samoa. In town you got the normal cafe kind of things you are used to. I think it is great to go out and try something new, but then as well to have the things you know already. I feel there are enough restaurants out there. She said that her choice has not disappointed her and she highly recommends Samoa to any traveler wishing to get an authentic getaway. MOSCOW (AP) Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States. The Foreign Ministry announced the move Saturday on its Facebook page, saying Seagal's portfolio in the unpaid position would be to "facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges." Seagal is an accomplished martial artist like Russian President Vladimir Putin. The actor, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2016, has vocally defended the Russian leader's policies, including Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and has criticized the U.S. government. Last year, Ukraine banned Seagal from entering the country for five years, citing national security reasons. Members of the public have given their full support to ban the use of plastics in Samoa. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.), their public consultations last month was a success with the response from the public. The M.N.R.E. is now finalising its policy on the ban of plastics before referring it to the Attorney Generals Office. The regulation is proposed to take effect next month; however there will be phase out periods which will be from six to 12 months to allow all plastics to phase out and alternatives to be brought in. In June, the Samoa Government announced its commitment to ban single use plastics or shopping bags, straws and other range of plastics by 2019 in a bid to protect the environment and our oceans. The M.N.R.E. moved to conduct national consultations with village representatives in both Upolu and Savaii from July 23-27, 2018 to consult on the initiative and obtain any feedback of views from the community. The M.N.R.E. Assistant Chief Executive Officer for Division of Environment and Conservation, Seumaloisalafai Afele Faiilagi, said the public are supportive of the initiative. The villages have been very supportive of the plastic ban initiative based on their own take and understanding of the impacts of plastic to our own environment including ocean. In fact, strong submissions were made to also ban styrofoam plates and cups and this has been taken into consideration by the Ministry. The feedback from the private sector was also very positive, with a few areas for the Ministry to look into to make sure we do not adversely impact the businesses, said the A.C.E.O. Seumaloisalafai led the consultations on behalf of the Ministry and with assistance by J.I.C.A. and S.P.R.E.P. The sentiments of the community is also evident from the several local businesses and N.G.O.s that have started using environmental friendly products such as reusable stainless steel straws (Nourish Cafe), coconut leaf plates (organic market organised by W.I.B.D.I.), reusable cloth bag (Coin Save), shopping vouchers for reusable cloth bags and no free shopping bags for shopping less than five items (Mynas Supermarket) and the use of woven coconut leaf basket on Sunday market by Samoa Womens Association of Growers. From the consultations, the Ministry has confirmed the ban will include plastic shopping bags or single use plastic bags, packing bags, plastic straws and food packing containers such as styrofoams and plastics. The only exceptions would be plastics used to cover meat for food safety. Currently plastic products such as the plastic shopping bags are imported in Samoa and there are only four licensed companies who can import. Once the ban is in effect, companies will no longer be permitted to import such plastics. Paper bags, paper boxes and paper cups will replace these and the relevant businesses have been informed, so they are able to identify new suppliers for the alternatives. There are local businesses who have expressed their capability of manufacturing these in Samoa and this would provide good business opportunities for our people. Seumaloisalafai said this would also encourage Samoas sustainable cultural practices such as using woven baskets. The Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet is investigating how Tui Vaai Jr was issued a new passport to leave the country despite a court order banning him from travel. The businessman currently has a Departure Prohibition Order (D.P.O.) in place, which bans him from leaving the country due to criminal proceedings that are currently on foot. This was confirmed in a statement issued to the media by Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet C.E.O., Agafili Tomaimano Shem Leo, who is also the Chief Immigration Officer. Both a police criminal investigation and an internal ministry investigation have commenced into the case of Mr. Tui Vaai Junior on how he left the country whilst previously on D.P.O. and his known valid passports were confiscated by the court. Initial inquiries confirmed that a new passport was issued and the same was used by Tui Vaai Junior to leave the country, Agafili said. On Friday, the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration, C.E.O. Papalii John Afele Taimalelagi, confirmed that Tui Vaai Jr. surrendered his travel documents as part of a Court matter pending against him. To date, we still have the two passports that were surrendered to the Court as part of his bail conditions. How he left it has nothing to do with us because we still have the passports in the Courts possession, he said. The passports were of New Zealand Government and Samoa Government and it is within the Courts possession I can assure you that. In the statement issued yesterday, Agafili said the police investigation is looking into how Tui Vaai Junior managed to get a new passport and leave Samoa. Further, the Ministrys internal investigation will determine possible breaches of the code of ethics prescribed under the Public Service 2004. An arrest warrant was issued against Mr. Tui Vaai Junior by the Court on July 20, 2018. Momentarily, any further comments will compromise the outcome(s) of the ongoing investigations and actions already in place, he said. The warrant states the accused sold Lot 35 in Plan 11388 to Laufau Saleimoa Amosa, which was already sold to a Victori Lui, thereby obtained $10,000 and causing losses to Saleimoa, a female of Vaitele and Auala Savaii. Upon his arrest, he will remain in custody until his court appearance. The Community Resiliency Model (C.R.M.) can create space for discussion and enable individuals and families to talk about their struggles. Talolo Tua Lepale, the director for field education in the Department of Social Work and Social Ecology at the Loma Linda University in California, U.S.A., said this recently in an interview with the Samoa Observer following the graduation of local trainers in trauma counselling. One of the beautiful things about this particular model is that it is biology based which allows in a community to learn these skills. They can work them into their own lives and from there teach each other in their own ways adapting to their culture, he said. The process of doing that strengthen the families, which here in Samoa is one of the most important things and the Coeur of the culture. Then the community is strengthened and so our country is. He said challenges like financial woes, alcohol, diabetes, cancer, heart problems and natural disasters like tsunami can make life difficult for Samoan families, but using the C.R.M. families can know how to handle such situations. I have seen so many individuals and families who become fractured because of the breakdown in communication. C.R.M. allows creating a space where it is safe to talk about the struggles. These are skills that anybody can learn. A key feature of the model, according to Talolo, is its focus on understanding the nervous system and its connection to traumatized physiological experiences, ones own body and brain and the ability of the individual to regulate and manage their emotions to enable problem solving. The recent four-day workshop was run by the American university and supported by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (A.D.R.A.) targeted local trainers and and was held in the villages of Saleapaga and Sapoe. Talolo is hopeful a new research project with in partnership with local agencies will lead to the development of assessment tools and treatment approaches for mental health in Samoa and over the long-term expand to other parts of the Pacific region. The C.R.M. is widely used in the U.S. and is taught to teachers, medical professionals, emergency workers and counsellors and is practiced in 50 countries around the world. SAVAII EMERGENCY: The Fire and Emergency Services Authority in Savai'i was called to put out this fire at Saleaula Savaii yesterday. This van caught fire in front of a familys home. What started the fire could not be ascertained at press time. It was not possible to get a comment from the Police and the Fire Service yesterday. Photo: Ugavau Faasoo Facebook. A federal judge has denied Human Longevity Inc.s request for a temporary restraining order against the J. Craig Venter Institute, which HLI claims has stolen its trade secrets. The denial says Human Longevity hasnt shown that the lawsuit was served. It was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Southern California. Human Longevity had asked for the restraining order to prevent what it says would be further spread of its trade secrets for assessing health and preventing and treating disease. The civil lawsuit, filed July 20, says the secrets were wrongfully taken by J. Craig Venter, a cofounder of both Human Longevity and the J. Craig Venter Institute. Advertisement The lawsuit named JCVI as a defendant, but not Venter himself. The institute has said the lawsuit is without merit. JCVI opposed the restraining order on the grounds that Human Longevity hadnt shown the need for it, and also failed to show that any property or trade secrets had been illegally taken. The disputed property includes a Lenovo laptop computer that Venter had used for both companies. Human Longevity asked the court to order the laptops return, along with measures to determine what trade secrets information the institute has. This included inspection of all email accounts used by JCVI since Jan 1, 2014. Judge William Q. Hayes said Human Longevity can refile the restraining order once it proves it has served JCVI with the lawsuit, or that service has been waived. JCVI says it has offered to waive service, but Human Longevity hasnt responded. Other matters remain pending, including Human Longevitys motion to disqualify JCVIs attorneys at Cooley LLP, on conflict of interest grounds. Human Longevity said Cooley had recently represented Human Longevity in a trade secrets case against a former HLI employee. Here, Cooley has represented HLI and is now adverse to HLI in substantially related successive matters whereby confidential information can be used against HLI, Human Longevity said in a filing dated July 27. Apart from the lawsuit, Human Longevity has struggled for some time with management turnover. Dr. David Karow was named interim chief executive officer in July, replacing Venter, who left in May. Venter had taken over the CEO position in December, following the departure of Cynthia Collins, who had led the company for less than a year. And this spring, former chief operations officer, Saturnino Nino Fanlo, left the company without explanation. Fanlo had been accused of sexual harassment in a previous job, according to stories in the New York Times and other publications. Fanlo denied harassing women and said he respects them. Haynes is the third judge assigned to the case, originally assigned to Judge Roger T. Benitez. He was recused from the case the day it was filed, and it was reassigned to Judge John A. Houston. Haynes was assigned on July 25. Related reading Human Longevity sues J. Craig Venter Institute, alleging theft of trade secrets Human Longevity names interim CEO Genome pioneer Craig Venter retiring from Human Longevity; returning to JCVI 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 Comic-Con Museum took one small step toward reality this week. The planned Balboa Park attraction hired San Diego-based KCM Group to oversee transformation of the former Hall of Champions. No construction date has been set for the project yet, with a fundraising campaign still in full swing. KCM Group will be responsible for the build-out of the three-story, 68,000-square foot space, but, for now, it is just in the conceptual design. Advertisement We are honored to help build a museum and experience center in San Diego that will capture the magic of Comic-Con 365-days-a-year, said Gordon Kovtun, president of KCM. The museum was first announced in March 2017 to replace the sports-themed Hall of Champions. Organizers have spent the time since gathering feedback from Comic-Con fans and fundraising. Adam Smith, museum executive director, said in a press release that KCM was hired for its experience in Balboa Park. The museum is still in its early stages but we wanted to recruit a specialist project manager as soon as possible, he said. Smith declined to comment Friday on how far along the fundraising process was going or how much was needed for the museum, saying he preferred the news to be focused on the hiring of KCM. Comic fans can donate on the museums website, Comic-ConMuseum.org, through PayPal. It also has set up a campaign to raise money on Omaze.com where participants can buy raffle tickets for special passes to next years Comic-Con International. The building was constructed for the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935 and rebuilt for the Hall of Champions in 1999. Comic-Cons agreement with the city does not require it to pay rent, a common deal for arts institutions housed in the park. KCM has a history in Balboa Park. It produced the feasibility study to help reopen the California Tower to the public and has been working for several years on the project to remodel Plaza de Panama, which would remove cars from the area. The Plaza de Panama project has been wrapped up in lawsuits for years with challenges from Save Our Heritage Organisation and San Diegans for Open Government. Outside of the park, KCM served as project manager for the new Urban Discovery Academy charter school in East Village. Opening in 2015, it was the citys first downtown kindergarten to 8th grade charter school. Comic-Con was founded in San Diego in 1970 and has grown into a pop-culture phenomenon with more than 130,000 attendees each year. Business phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar ALSO San Diegos new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018 Last years housing market broke records Records of life in old San Diego lay forgotten for decades in the house of photographer Randy Dible. But when the Point Loma native cleaned out his home after it was sold, family members rediscovered those mementos of his grandfathers work. On Saturday morning, Dible brought his trove to the San Diego History Center. The center is scanning photos for a pictorial book on San Diego up to the year 1939. Its a project of the history center and The San Diego Union-Tribune, to be published by Pediment Group, based in Washington state. History center staff admired the photos, dating back to the 1920s. They depicted relatives at the beach posed in front of a classic car, a visit to San Diego by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the late comedian and family friend Jack Benny, and more. Staff placed blue sticky notes on the pages with photos to scan, quickly decorating the black pages with a forest of blue. Advertisement Its ironic, said Dible (pronounced DYE-bul). Im a photographer, and I didnt even realize what a photographer my grandfather was. His grandfather, Robert G. Thompson, owned Thompson Photo Service, a developing store in downtown San Diego on 6th Avenue. He was a world traveler, but he was also a big San Diego businessman, said Dible, who said the photos were found Monday. After seeing a Union-Tribune article about the project, he brought them in. 1 / 8 A photo of a biplane taken in the late 1920s that was brought in by Randy Dible. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 8 Ashley Ainley, vice president of sales for Pediment Publishing, and her brother Chris Fenison, president of Pediment Publishing, look through an album of old photos of San Diego that was brought in by Randy Dible, left, at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 8 Ashley Ainley, vice president of sales for Pediment Publishing, and her brother Chris Fenison, president of Pediment Publishing, look through an album of old photos of San Diego that was brought in by Randy Dible. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 8 Ashley Ainley, vice president of sales for Pediment Publishing, helps Randy Dible in captioning the selected photos that he brought in. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 8 President of Pediment Publishing Chris Fenison uses a flatbed scanner to make a copy of an old photo taken in San Diego County. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 8 Former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Roger Showley, right, who is helping with the captioning of photos, looks through a photo album brought in by Randy Dible, center, as Matthew Schiff, marketing director for the San Diego History Museum, watches. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 8 A picture Randy Dibles relatives standing next to their car at Ocean Beach. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 8 A picture of young girl posing on a car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) Thompson also left behind a case of slides from his world travels; those were discovered about three months ago. I was showing those to my cousin on Monday, and he said, Check out these other photos we just found, Dible said. Bill Lawrence, the history centers executive director, said he was especially interested in a New Years Eve photo taken in the back country area of Descanso, with people playing in the snow. Thats a rare event now, he said. These photographs are perfect, Lawrence said. They come from a professional photographer of the time. There are also some great shots of Mexico at the height of Prohibition, which you dont often see, back in the heyday of Tijuana and Ensenada. In that era, from 1920 to 1933, San Diegans with an urge to tipple could legally do so by traveling south of the border. Even if the Mexico photos dont strictly meet the books theme, theyre still welcomed by the history center, which views the San Diego/Tijuana region as one. But what the history center wants most of all is photos of San Diego in the 19th century, especially photos of Native Americans and other ethnic minorities who are underrepresented. Wed like to see everyday life in the 19th century, and people who dont show up in the history books, Lawrence said. Two more scanning sessions are planned at the history center, located at 1649 El Prado in Balboa Park. One is Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The last takes place on Tuesday, also from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Details of the project are available at sandiego.pictorialbook.com. The website allows allows scanned photos to be sent directly. They should be uploaded at a resolution of 4,200 pixels or 14 inches at 300 dpi, with JPG the preferred format. The deadline for online submissions is Wednesday. The book, San Diego Memories: A Photographic History of the 1800s Through the 1930s, is available at the pre-publication price of $29.95. It can be ordered at the San Diego pictorial book website. The book is expected to be ready by early December. Related reading Scanning history: Pre-1940 San Diego photos sought for new book Struggles, triumphs, and a major exhibition: San Diego History Center celebration Old photos sought as U-T, History Center team up on book about San Diegos past Related bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1020 Oceanside is getting ready to dive back into the turbulent waters of short-term vacation rentals, an issue that has troubled popular tourist destinations across the United States. The city recently appointed an ad hoc committee that will host a series of three community meetings beginning Aug. 21 to discuss an ordinance proposed to regulate the increasingly popular short-term rentals. Vacation destinations across the United States are grappling with ways to regulate the home-sharing arrangements. They have always existed, once thriving in classified ads and bulletin boards, but they have increased greatly since the advent of online reservation services such as Airbnb and VRBO. Their new popularity has boosted the economy in many ways, both for owners and the communities that host them. But some residents and community leaders want to set limits, saying the new guests bring noise, trash and possibly crime to formerly quiet residential neighborhoods. Advertisement Carlsbad approved an ordinance in 2015 that allows the rentals only in its coastal zone, which is generally the area of the city west of El Camino Real. Del Mar and San Diego are working on ordinances. Oceanside has allowed short-term rentals for years and required them to pay transient occupancy taxes to the city. However, other than that, there were no regulations. The city unveiled a proposed short-term rental ordinance in 2015 that would require owners to get a permit and a business license, limit the number of people who can stay, and follow a good neighbor policy. However, city officials decided to table the matter for further study. There were strong opinions on both sides, said Oceanside Development Services Director Jonathan Borrego. Oceanside has 812 short-term rental operators, and they brought the city more than $2.6 million in tax revenue in the four months that ended March 31, according to a June 25 staff report. Most of the rentals are west of Interstate 5 and about 75 percent are in the coastal zone, the report states. The city gets few complaints about the short-term rentals, staffers say. What seems to be happening, and this probably is not unique to Oceanside, is that a small handful of properties seem to generate the bulk of the complaints, Borrego said. Two of the most significant issues for Oceanside are how many people can stay in one place at the same time, and how many parking spaces should be required, he said. Another factor in some cities is whether the increase in short-term rentals removes housing from the long-term rental market, increasing the regions housing shortage. Those issues and others will be addressed by Oceansides ad hoc committee, which will return with its recommendations to the citys Planning Commission in about a year. The proposed ordinance will be forwarded to the City Council and then the California Coastal Commission for final approval. Its good that the city is addressing this, said Leslee Gaul, president and CEO of Visit Oceanside, the citys tourism marking agency. I dont envy them in taking this on, she said. But its important to have balance. We need to keep people compliant. The Coastal Commission has shown strong support for vacation rentals as a way to increase public access to the beach and to provide people an affordable alternative to traditional hotels and motels. Every city takes a different approach to regulating the rentals. The state agency recently rejected Del Mars proposed ordinance, which as written would limit short-term rentals to minimum stays of seven days and would allow owners to rent no more than 28 days a year. Instead, the commission suggested the city allow a minimum stay of three days and rentals for as many as 100 days a year, an idea the city rejected. Last month, the city filed a writ of mandate to have a Superior Court judge determine whether the state has the authority to rule on short-term rentals. The San Diego City Council approved new regulations last week that allow the rentals only in the owners primary residence and not in secondary homes or investment properties. An attorney representing the home-sharing platforms Airbnb and HomeAway sent San Diego a letter last month claiming the citys new limits on short-term rentals run afoul of the law, which could lead to legal action. If approved by the Coastal Commission, San Diegos new regulations would take effect next summer. philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @phildiehl Pop the Champagne and cut the cake, SummerFest is here! With its informal atmosphere and roster of musical stars, the La Jolla Music Societys August festival has always had the flavor of a party, but its 32nd edition is a special celebration indeed. This years SummerFest will be the last one curated by violinist Cho-Liang Jimmy Lin. Friday nights opening concert at UC San Diegos Conrad Prebys Concert Hall was a fine display of Lins programming skill, combining dissimilar composers in a highly gratifying way. Bela Bartok is not the first composer to come to mind to begin a concert titled Carnival! His uncompromising harmonic language can still drive dissonance-averse listeners out of halls. However, his work Contrasts was composed in his late years, an autumnal period where his harmonies became less abrasive. Advertisement Written for clarinet, violin and piano a rare instrumental combination in 1938 Contrasts was inspired by Bartoks beloved Hungarian folk music in its two outer movements, with its center being an evocative example of his eerie night music. Contrasts requires a first-rate clarinetist, which SummerFest had in Anthony McGill, whose nimble playing dazzled listeners. Paul Huang was the enthusiastic violinist. Shai Wosner was a sensitive pianist who gave his partners lots of room. When it was time for Wosner to come forward, his part was precisely and tastefully executed. If listeners were at first puzzled by how Contrasts fit into a Carnival! program, the last movements giddy whirlwind momentum, performed by the trio with quicksilver virtuosity, was an exhilaratingly convincing argument for inclusion. Eight cellists, led by Lynn Harrell, then took the stage for the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 and 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. A contemporary of Bartok, Villa-Lobos was also inspired by the folk music of his native land in his case, Brazil. While Bartok came up with a musical language that reconceived the forms of Beethoven for the 20th century, Villa-Lobos found inspiration in Johann Sebastian Bachs gorgeous, long melodies and in Bachs counterpoint. The warm acoustics of Conrad Prebys Hall made this performance a sonic treat. Sharing the stage with Harrell were Ben Hong, Hai-Ye Ni, Alex Greenbaum, Yao Zhao, Max Geissler, Chia-Ling Chien and Jonathan Lo. Their playing was full of warmth and beauty. Soprano Lyubov Petrova joined the cello octet for Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5. She had a focused tone with a fast vibrato, supported by exquisite breath control and phrasing. The second movement requires an agile technique Villa-Lobos musically depicted bird song. Petrova handled the melodic leaps effortlessly, and I wont forget her sweet and quiet high note that concluded the work. The second half was devoted to Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals, in its original scoring for string quintet, flute, clarinet, percussion and two pianos. The introductory poems before each brief movement were written by Peter Schickele (better known as P.D.Q. Bach). They combined light wit with groan-inducing puns and were humorously read by actor Mark Pinter. This is the last SummerFest curated by Cho-Liang Jimmy Lin, who is leaving his post as music director after 18 years. (Courtesy photo by Sophie Zha) Lin, who played second violin, had as much fun laughing at Saint-Saens musical jokes as anyone in the audience, whether it was Huangs cackling hen of a violin part, Peter Lloyds elephantine bass, or McGills offstage cuckoo calls. Pianists Wosner and Joyce Yang played in sync as if telepaths. Every performer made the most of their moments in the spotlight, including Huang and Lin musically imitating the brays of an ass. Saint-Saens intended this as a tribute to music critics, to which I can only quote Curly Howard of The Three Stooges. Hey! I resemble that remark! La Jolla Music Society SummerFest 2018 When: Aug. 3-24 (performance times vary) Where: All but two of the concerts are at Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla Tickets: $45-$89 Phone: (858) 459-3728 Online: ljms.org La Jolla Music Society 50th anniversary season (2018-19) Tickets: Single tickets go on sale Aug. 13. More at ljms.org Hertzog is a freelance writer. The beat goes on for Vanilla Fudge, Mitch Ryder, Rick Derringer and Badfinger. All rose to prominence in the 1960s, when Derringer led The McCoys, Badfinger was mentored by Paul McCartney and Ryder led The Detroit Wheels (and inspired the young Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger). Not to be outdone, Vanilla Fudge released five albums in two years and scored a Top 10 single with its heavily amped-up version of The Supremes You Keep Me Hangin On. In its heyday, in 1969, Vanilla Fudge headlined multiple U.S. shows over Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. Three of Vanilla Fudges four original members Mark Stein, Carmine Appice and Vince Martell are celebrating their 51st anniversary by headlining the 2018 edition of HippieFest. Advertisement The lineup also includes Badfinger, whose sole surviving member is Joey Molland; guitar ace Derringer, whose credits include albums with Steely Dan and Todd Rundgren; and Ryder, a who last year was inducted into Detroits Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. Ryder is now 73, while Martell is 72, Molland, Appice and Stein are 71, and Derringer is 70. How many of them were ever actual hippies is unclear, but their devotion to rocking out continues. Fun fact: During his tenure as the drummer in Rod Stewarts band, Vanilla Fudge drummer Appice co-wrote Stewarts chart-topping disco hit, Do Ya Think Im Sexy? The song resulted in musical plagiarism charges from Brazilian music star Jorge Ben Jor, who contended with considerable justification that Sexy bore unmistakable musical similarities to his 1972 song Taj Mahal. An out of court settlement with Stewart was later reached. Sad fact: Even by the worst standards of rock debauchery, Appices 2016 memoir, Stick It! My Life in Sex, Drums, and Rock n Roll, is a repugnant book that sets a numbing new low for misogyny and vile behavior. A powerhouse drummer in his prime with the bands Cactus, and Beck, Bogart & Appice, he may have been aiming for titillating sensationalism with Stick It! But the boorish, often odious results are so revolting, witless and reprehensible that Appice and the publisher should hang their heads in shame. They should also issue a public apology, even if very few people read this sorry excuse of a memoir. Or, as I wrote in 2016 to a representative of the publisher, Chicago Press Review: I was unable to read past the halfway mark (and I have slogged through more poorly written rock autobiographies than I care to recall). This was, by far, the worst I have ever read. It was remarkably tasteless and offensive... HippieFest 2018, featuring Vanilla Fudge, Mitch Ryder, Rick Derringer and Badfinger 7 p.m. Wednesday. Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island. $50. (800) 745-3000. ticketmaster.com george.varga@sduniontribune.com Twitter @georgevarga Newport Beachs American Legion post is supporting the national American Legion in a U.S. Supreme Court fight over the constitutionality of a publicly maintained cross-shaped World War I memorial in Maryland. At issue is the Bladensburg World War I Memorial, which a local American Legion post erected in 1925 to honor 49 men from Prince Georges County, Md., who died in the Great War. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission maintains the 40-foot monument. The American Humanist Assn. says the towering cross is a symbol of Christianity that violates the Constitutions Establishment Clause, which is generally held to provide for separation of church and state. The group and three local residents sued the commission in 2014, asking that the court order the cross removed or altered so it is no longer shaped like a cross. The American Legions Newport Harbor Post 291 signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief July 27 with several other veterans organizations and retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, a Medal of Honor recipient, to support leaving the cross as it is. Advertisement The Newport post operates a Defense of Memorials Project and previously supported preservation of the cross-shaped Mojave Desert and Mount Soledad veterans memorials. According to the brief, the Newport post got involved in the Maryland case to address its fears that potential memorials on city land and the planned Orange County veterans cemetery could lead to lawsuits if crosses or other imagery with both religious and military connotations are included. Post 291 seeks clarity in the law to avoid the need to expend precious time and resources defending memorials that should not be considered controversial, the brief states. The Maryland commission appealed the case to the Supreme Court after a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled in October that the memorial excessively entangles government and religion. The 4th Circuit declined to rehear the case in March. hillary.davis@latimes.com Davis writes for Times Community News. The Los Angeles teachers union announced Friday that it has scheduled a strike-authorization vote for later this month. A strike would not be automatic, even if a majority of members vote yes. But such a result would give union leaders the authority to call a strike without returning to members for another vote. Having members authorize a strike is a well-established pressure tactic, and once in a while, a strike does occur. United Teachers Los Angeles scheduled the vote after the states Public Employment Relations Board agreed with the union that talks were deadlocked. Other district employee unions have reached deals that provide for about a 6% raise over three years. L.A. Unified has yet to offer that much to teachers, but thats clearly where officials want to end up. Advertisement The teachers union wants a 6.5% raise retroactive to July 1, 2016, and possible raises over the following three years. The union also is calling for reduced class sizes, for ending overtesting of students and placing reasonable accountability measures on independently operated charter schools, most of which are nonunion. Charters compete with the district for students and the funding that follows them to the schools where they enroll. District officials contend that the unions proposal would increase an annual spending deficit from about $500 million to about $1.3 billion, rapidly consuming reserves. Union leaders counter that the district refuses to take necessary steps to invest in student success and lead the fight to increase funding for education. howard.blume@latimes.com @howardblume A 19-year-old U.S. citizen living in Tijuana was arrested Wednesday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry with nearly 11,500 fentanyl pills in what is believed to be the largest batch of fentanyl pills ever seized at the U.S.-Mexico border, federal authorities said. Cristian Araujo Aguirre is accused of trying to drive across the border with the fentanyl, as well as 61 pounds of methamphetamine and 14 pounds of heroin. He was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on a drug importation charge. According to Asst. U.S. Atty. Sherri Walker Hobson, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers noticed anomalies in Aguirres vehicle when he drove up to the San Ysidro crossing. The officers zeroed in on the front drivers side door, the rear passengers side door and the spare tire. CBP officers found eight packages of heroin hidden in the vehicles firewall and 29 packages of methamphetamine in the doors, a quarter panel and the spare tire, Walker Hobson said. Advertisement In the left rear quarter panel, officers discovered two bags and a box, each filled with fentanyl pills designed to resemble oxycodone, Walker Hobson said. The three packages totaled 11,490 pills. It was believed to be [the] largest port seizure of fentanyl pills across the Southwest border of the U.S, according to a statement from U.S. Atty. Adam Bravermans office. At an arraignment in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major, federal prosecutors requested that Aguirre be held because he is a flight risk, Walker Hobson said. A detention hearing is set for early next week. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 16. alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com Riggins writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. The arraignment of a Lancaster mother and her boyfriend facing felony charges in connection with the death of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos was delayed Friday after a judge approved new attorneys for the two. Superior Court Judge Richard E. Naranjo granted a continuance after permitting new counsel to defend Heather Barron and Kareem Leiva, accused of torturing and murdering the boy, whose small body was bruised and wounded from head to toe. Barron, 28, who faces an additional count of child abuse and Leiva, 32, who also faces a count of assault on a child causing death, stared at the floor during the Friday hearing in a Lancaster courtroom. Prosecutors say Anthony was whipped, beaten and body-slammed into a dresser in the days before he died. His case bears haunting similarities to the 2013 torture killing of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez and, as in that case, sparked fierce criticism of Los Angeles Countys child welfare system. Advertisement In both cases, L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services received tips about abuse, but left each boy in his home. In Anthonys case, county documents show that since 2013, the agency investigated 88 claims of abuse at the home, according to an attorney representing Anthonys relatives. The lawyer said 15 of the claims were substantiated, including two involving sexual abuse. On the afternoon of June 20, sheriffs deputies responding to a medical rescue call found Anthony unresponsive inside his familys Lancaster apartment. Family members told officials that the boy had suffered injuries from a fall, the Sheriffs Department said in a statement. He died at the hospital a day later. But prosecutors say theres evidence the defendants brutalized Anthony for at least five days before his hospitalization. They poured hot sauce on Anthonys face, forced him to kneel on rice for long periods of time, whipped him with a belt, slammed him into a dresser, gave him rug burns and dangled him by his feet and repeatedly dropped him on his head, according to a motion filed last month by Deputy Dist. Atty. Jon Hatami. Hatami also prosecuted the mother of Gabriel Fernandez and her boyfriend. Both were convicted and sentenced, respectively, to life in prison and death. At times, the prosecutor wrote, Anthony was locked in his bedroom for hours and not allowed to leave even to use the bathroom. At one point, the prosecutor wrote, Anthony could not walk, was unconscious lying on his bedroom floor for hours, was not provided medical attention. The defendants often abused Anthony in front of his siblings, Hatami said, adding that all of them obviously suffered enormously from witnessing their brother being abused, tortured, and eventually murdered. Prosecutors say that records from the Sheriffs Department and the DCFS indicate that the abuse stretched back to early 2013. In addition to Anthony, at least three of his siblings were abused, Hatami wrote, adding that Leiva once struck one of Anthonys brothers with enough force that the boy had to be hospitalized and have his head injury stapled. Leivas attorney Dan Chambers said his client will plead not guilty to all charges. Outside the courtroom Friday, Anthonys aunt, Maria Barron, wiped tears from her eyes as she stared down at her T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of her nephew. I feel miserable knowing everything he went through, she said. Im dying on the inside. Barron faces 22 years to life in prison and Leiva faces 32 years to life in convicted. They were scheduled for arraignment on Oct. 3. marisa.gerber@latimes.com For more news from the Los Angeles County courts, follow me on Twitter: @marisagerber A gang member was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a 19-year-old Huntington Beach woman whose body was found stuffed in a cooler in an abandoned car, authorities said. A Los Angeles County jury on July 12 convicted Anthony Robert Moreno, 40, of Hacienda Heights of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon in the 2015 slaying of Dawn Molly McEveety. Jurors also affirmed a special allegation that the killing was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang with the intent to promote its criminal conduct. Prosecutors said Moreno shot McEveety on Nov. 24, 2015, at a home in Artesia that was known as a gang hangout. Advertisement Moreno placed the body in a cooler and took it to the Whittier area, where it was left in a stolen 1991 Toyota Celica hatchback, prosecutors said. Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies found McEveetys body five days later. Moreno was identified as a suspect in 2016 when he was in state prison in an unrelated case. Moreno, whom authorities described as a documented gang member, previously was convicted of various firearms charges and driving a stolen vehicle. A jury on Friday found a man guilty of punching a San Diego police officer in the face and resisting two other officers in February, rejecting the mans claim he reacted in self-defense. Jurors convicted Frederick Jefferson, 38, of assault on a peace officer and two counts of felony resisting arrest with force or violence in a confrontation that erupted near dueling rallies at Chicano Park earlier this year. Jefferson had also faced a third felony charge of resisting arrest with force against a third officer. The jury, however, rejected the felony in that particular count, and instead convicted him of misdemeanor resisting arrest. Jefferson faces nine years, eight months in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 31 by San Diego Superior Court Judge Leo Valentine Jr., who presided over the trial. Advertisement The confrontation between Jefferson and the officers occurred against a backdrop of conflicting rallies at nearby Chicano Park, where an estimated 700 people had gathered. On the morning of Feb. 3, a group of critics who question the parks murals and oppose flying the Aztlan flag on the main flagpole had marched toward the park for what they called a Patriot Picnic. They were met by larger crowds concerned that historic murals of Aztec and Chicano culture might be defaced. Jefferson took the stand during the roughly two-week trial, testifying that he had not taken part in the rallies and just happened to be walking through the area. That stroll in the middle of Logan Avenue is what caught the eye of officers Justin Tannebaum and Matthew Ruggiero. The officers advised Jefferson to get out of the road. He did not respond, and instead kept walking. Officer Matthew Ruggiero grabbed Jeffersons arm from behind and struck him at least three times with his police-issued baton. Jefferson punched the officer in the face two or three times, breaking his nose and jaw. Within minutes, hes beaten, maced, Tasered, then thrown into the back of a patrol car, Jeffersons attorney told the jury Thursday, during his closing argument. Jeffersons punches left Ruggiero with a cut over his eye that required eight stitches. He had to have reconstructive surgery on his jaw, the prosecutor has said. During the trial, jurors heard testimony from officers involved in the struggle, witnesses who shot cellphone video of parts of the confrontation, and experts on police use of force. The jury saw body-worn camera video of Jefferson pulling away from Ruggiero and the two exchanging blows, and then the officer using his baton to hit Jeffersons hip and ribs. Jefferson can be heard cursing while telling the officers not to touch him. Motorcycle Officer James Graves stepped in, putting Jefferson in a restraint hold but then letting up. Graves and other officers brought Jefferson to the ground and Officer Krista Vories used a Taser on him, according to testimony. Jefferson testified that he was scared of the officers because he didnt know what was going to happen to him. He said he didnt throw any punches until he was hit with the baton. Defense lawyer Jimmy Rodriguez said officers used unreasonable and excessive force in arresting Jefferson for jaywalking. He said his client reacted in self-defense to being grabbed and beaten. But Deputy District Attorney Michael Reilly told jurors the officers had every right to lawfully perform their duties by stopping to enforce traffic laws against jaywalking and use escalating force when Jefferson didnt comply and then resisted violently. The prosecutor said civilians have a duty to submit to peace officers. Mr. Jefferson wanted to play by his own rules, Reilly told jurors. On Thursday, before the lawyers began their closing arguments, Jefferson told the judge he wanted to stay in his bright green jail clothes, with his feet and wrists in chains. Im in these 1880s slave chains and deputies touch me over and over, Jefferson said. I really dont like being touched. He said he didnt believe the jury had heard the whole story about the fight. Valentine expressed concern that the jury might view Jefferson differently in jail clothes, but allowed him to stay in the green garb. Staff writer Teri Figueroa contributed to this report. pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard A judge has ruled in favor of the San Diego County Water Authority, dismissing a lawsuit by an open government group that wanted the agency to hold certain gatherings of its board members in public. The water authority sends delegates to the Metropolitan Water District, a large regional organization based in Los Angeles. The San Diego water authority delegates meet regularly with no public notice or access a situation challenged by attorney Cory Briggs in a lawsuit in June 2017. He cited the states open meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act. Briggs, representing a group called San Diegans for Open Government, argued that such meetings deprive the public of the benefits of the intent of the Brown Act that public officials actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The water authority argued that the private meetings were necessary and proper for its delegates to MWD, saying that open-meeting requirements would interfere with the ability for local delegations to caucus to represent their interests on the regional board. Advertisement Member agency delegates could never on-the-spot converse with one another or their agencies staff as to how their local interests might be affected by a proposed MWD vote, without first holding a separate public meeting, the water authority said in a court filing. This would create an endless spiral of publicly noticed meetings before meetings, and breaking MWD meetings in order to provide 24-hours notice for additional delegate meetings, and so on. No MWD business could ever be conducted effectively. The authority went on to write that opening delegate meetings to the public would disrupt all other public agencies whose governing boards appoint multiple representatives to serve on another public agencys board of directors. Many agencies are obligated by law to send representatives to sit on other public agencies boards. A key issue was whether the delegates constituted a legislative body when they meet, and Judge John S. Meyer sided with the water authority in saying they did not. On July 20, he granted the agencys request to dismiss the case. Briggs said a technical change made recently to the water authoritys administrative code satisfied his clients concerns about the meetings, but he will continue to monitor the agencys meeting practices. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 Follow me at @RickyWhy ricky.young@sduniontribune.com A San Diego whistleblower will receive $17.2 million with the settlement of a seven-year-old false claims lawsuit against Prime Health Care regarding overbilling for Medicare services at 14 California hospitals. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it has reached a $65 million settlement with the Ontario-based health system, resolving allegations that Prime engaged in a deliberate corporate-driven scheme to increase inpatient admissions of Medicare beneficiaries and that the company engaged in up-coding by falsifying information concerning patient diagnoses, making illnesses seem worse than they really were in order to increase Medicare reimbursement. The government is careful to note that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and that claims of up-coding and improper admissions remain allegations only with no determination of liability. Prime, which operates a network of 45 hospitals in 14 different states plus an additional 15 through its not-for-profit Prime Healthcare Foundation, stressed that point in its own statement on the settlement, saying that the company determined that it was in the best interest of its patients, independent physicians and employees to resolve this matter despite not agreeing that there was any truth to the allegations related to coding. Advertisement The case started in San Diego with whistleblower Karin Berntsen, Alvarados former director of performance improvement. The registered nurse contacted the government in 2011, offering the information that eventually turned into a formal complaint unsealed in 2013. In a statement released by her legal team, Berntsen said she fell ill and underwent several surgeries and hospitalizations during the drawn-out investigation. At one point, the nurse, according to her attorneys, wore a wire to secure evidence of Prime founder and CEO Dr. Prem Reddy and supplied detailed documents to support her case eventually testifying for more than 12 hours at deposition. Bernsten and her attorneys are the recipients of millions due to the False Claims Act, a federal statute which allows private citizens to receive up to 30 percent of any money recovered by the government as a result of their complaints. Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1850 Twitter: @paulsisson Lots of people remember the menacing Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and for good reason. The movie captured some of the serious problems of patient abuse and neglect at mental hospitals that led to widespread closures of large, state-run facilities, starting in the 1960s. Those images influenced how communities would try to care for the mentally ill for decades afterwards with an emphasis on outpatient treatment centers. But today, with underfunding and staffing shortages seriously challenging the nations remaining psychiatric bed capacity, the idea of consolidating behavioral health units into a larger, more efficient mental hospital is starting to gain traction. Such is the case in San Diego County: Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside recently announced it intends to close its inpatient psychiatric units next month. That has added urgency to an ongoing debate over how best to replace and enhance the regions supply of beds for those with mental health emergencies. Advertisement At present, inpatient behavioral health hospitalizations, which most often range from 72 hours to two weeks, are available at 18 different locations across the region. But there has been an increasing call in recent weeks for greater collaboration. While it might seem like county government could simply build a few more stand-alone psychiatric hospitals in the community, the current state of the countys 109-bed mental health hospital on Rosecrans Street in San Diegos Midway district shows why that solution is a nonstarter. Last week, just 70 of the facilitys total bed capacity was in use, and an entire 30-bed unit has been empty for many years. With other hospital-based psychiatric units across the region generally operating at or close to capacity, some have wondered how the county can have so many idling beds? Money is the simple answer. Due to a law that forbids using federal Medicaid dollars for stand-alone psychiatric hospitals larger than 16 beds, the county has long minimized the use of its own bed capacity, preferring to contract at units attached to local hospitals that face no such billing restrictions. Because its a stand-alone hospital of more than 16 beds, we dont get a penny of federal dollars for anyone we admit, said Alfredo Aguirre, director of the countys Behavioral Health Services department. While plans are underway to use the empty beds down on Rosecrans to help absorb any shortages that might occur if Tri-City goes through with its closure plans, Aguirre makes it clear that long-standing federal law makes doing so a short-term solution. The county already spends $30 million per year out of its own coffers for the beds it does use at the facility. Increasing that amount significantly, he said, is tough to justify in a post-Affordable Care Act world where most qualify for Medi-Cal reimbursement. Thats just unsustainable in the long haul, Aguirre said. We want to look at whether there are strategies regionally where we can maximize federal reimbursement. The county Board of Supervisors recently took steps to do just that, ordering their staff to return in October with a report that will guide deliberations on the best way forward for the regions emergency psychiatric system. Existing federal law makes it unlikely the supervisors will decide to simply build and operate additional stand-alone psychiatric hospitals across the region, but experts say hospitals can collaborate in ways the county cant. Legal limitations Thats because of the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Diseases exclusion, a part of the law that created the nations health insurance system of last resort for low-income and disabled Americans in 1965. Often simply called the IMD Exclusion this section of law forbids Medicaid funding of stand-alone psychiatric hospitals greater than 16 beds unless theyre attached to a full-service hospital. If they are, they can grow much larger so long as they reach no more than 50 percent of a parent facilitys total bed count. When the exclusion first came into being, it was broadly applied, but Congress waived its restrictions for anyone over age 65, those suffering from developmental disabilities and, most recently, for drug treatment. Stand-alone facilities larger than 16 beds are also allowed to bill Medicaid if they serve only clients younger than 21. Why were these rules created in the first place? Dr. Joe Parks, medical director of the National Council for Behavioral Health, noted that when Medicaid was created, all psychiatric hospitals in the nation were state-funded and state-run. Many were half-full of older Americans suffering from dementia. When Medicaid was created, they didnt want to pick up all of the states costs for running state hospitals, Parks said. They ended up picking up most of it anyway. A backlash against institutionalization, added Angela Kimball, national director of advocacy and public policy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, also had to do with the movement away from stand-alone psychiatric hospitals. Though the advocacy community remains opposed to the idea of warehousing people with mental illnesses in long-term institutions, Kimball said there is support for erasing the IMD exclusion. Even though a psychiatric hospital can become an institution that is violating peoples rights, it doesnt have to, she said. We think the IMD exclusion ought to be removed, and doing so ought to be accompanied by standards that require effective clinical treatment that supports people in recovery. In a 2015 analysis, the Congressional Budget Office found that eliminating the exclusion would cost between $40 billion and $60 billion over 10 years, a price that quickly killed a bill that sought to eliminate the exclusion. Parks said the CBOs cost estimates on this topic have been widely criticized for being overbroad, calculating the entire cost of removing exclusion, even for those such as the elderly, young and developmentally disabled, who have already been exempted. They just give one number that is astronomical which stops the policy discussion, Parks said. Possible alternative At the moment, everyone, with the exception of Sharp Health Cares Mesa Vista psychiatric hospital, pretty much runs a small unit on the campus of a medical center. But it doesnt have to be that way. Parks, the National Council for Behavioral Health director, said federal law doesnt require all of a hospitals facilities to be on the same campus. In fact, buildings can be up to 30 miles away and still operate under the same license. That means, he said, that a hospital with, say, 300 beds could build a psychiatric hospital with up to 150 beds anywhere within a 30-mile radius of their main facility. While one provider would have to own and operate such a facility, there is nothing, Parks said, to prevent it from working with other hospitals to run a joint program. If they wanted to jointly-operate a facility, they would just have to decide that it was part of one of them and have some cost-sharing mechanism that they agreed to separately, he said. A similar initiative occurred under a temporary IMD exclusion waiver about 10 years ago in Missouri, where Parks served as Medicaid director. Several hospitals, he said, shared a stand-alone psychiatric hospital. When the waiver went away, he added, the hospital was simply subsumed. One of the four hospitals that is involved just absorbed it, Parks said. A collaborative effort is building in North County where Tri-Citys decision has combined with the fact that most of Palomar Healths behavioral health beds are on its downtown Escondido campus, which has been sold. Diane Hansen, Palomars interim chief executive, said last week that her organization is open to the idea of creating a shared stand-alone psychiatric hospital, or possibly incorporating mental health beds within two stories of shelled space at Palomar Medical Center in west Escondido. But any such move, she said, would demand broad participation from other hospitals and the county. If we had the ability to create a behavioral health hospital and spread that cost over a number of providers, if the county could be part of the solution, now youre talking about an opportunity to do something that could be successful and sustainable, Hansen said. What about the money? As is often the case, money is likely to be the biggest sticking point. Local hospitals all say that the countys reimbursement for the Medi-Cal beds it rents is significantly less than the cost of treating psychiatric patients in locked units. Tri-City said it lost $5 million on psychiatric services last year, and many others in the region have also reported losing millions. While the county does pay hospitals slightly more than the base Medi-Cal rate for Southern California, the fact remains that the Golden State ranks 48th in the nation in Medicaid reimbursement, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. While a funding break-through would be necessary for nascent collaboration plans to coalesce into bricks and mortar, and the current mental health services shortage goes far beyond hospital capacity, Parks noted that bigger does tend to be better, where stand-alone facilities are concerned, up to a point. Larger psychiatric hospitals, those with between 75 and 185 beds, are more efficiently staffed. In terms of unit size, you can care for about 24 people with almost the same number of staff and you can do 16 people, Parks said. You dont need to add 80 percent more people to add 80 percent more beds. Building stand-alone psychiatric hospitals are considered to be half as expensive as general-purpose hospitals because they dont need all of the life support systems and other equipment necessary for caring for and monitoring surgeries and other inpatient therapies. Newer psychiatric hospitals purpose-built for their intended use also have staffing and livability advantages, Parks added. Better sight lines can mean fewer trained staff are necessary to keep an eye on all clients. Building new also tends to lead to better results, the executive added. It improves the quality of care. It improves the behavior of both the staff and the patients, Parks said. Everybody treats each other nicer in a better surrounding. Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1850 Twitter: @paulsisson One of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments first centers designed to help low-income people become self-sufficient is expected to open in eight weeks in San Diego, a HUD official said during a visit touting the potential benefits of the center. Jimmy Stracner, regional administrator in HUDs San Francisco office, met July 25 with about 15 San Diego residents who receive rental assistance through housing vouchers to hear their ideas about what the center should offer. Later that day, Stracner met with representatives from various San Diego agencies to hear what they could contribute. Stracner said HUDs new EnVision Center will focus on four pillars jobs, education, health and character -- that will help low-income people overcome obstacles that may be holding them back and keeping them in poverty. Advertisement The local EnVision Center will be in office space provided by the San Diego Workforce Partnerships South Metro Career Center, 4389 Imperial Ave. It will be one of only 18 planned across the nation and the only one in HUD Region 9, which covers California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona. Our hope is to put one of these in every community thats been underserved by the federal government for decades, Stracner said. HUD is partnering locally with San Diego Workforce Partnership and the San Diego Housing Commission to create the center. No federal funding is attached to the centers, which Stracner said will keep it under local control and ensure that it isnt cut by future administrations. Federal agencies will assist in other ways, however. Stracner said about 12,000 surplus computers will be available to clients at the centers from the General Services Administration while NASA and other agencies may provide job training in a variety of fields. In his meeting with community members, Stracner said he heard from a wide variety of people, including seniors, single parents, young families and people recently out of prison. He said one of the most-requested needs he heard was for more mentorship programs for young people. Stracner said the concept for the EnVision Centers came after HUD Secretary Ben Carson saw a need to improve a section of HUDs Fair Housing Act of 1968 that required contractors of public housing projects to offer jobs to people who live in their projects. With no teeth to enforce the requirement, however, Stracner said contractors found ways around hiring the residents. Looking at HUDs past limited success at finding employment for its clients, Stracner said Carson wanted to expand on ways to help people on government assistance become self-sufficient. When he came to HUD, he was less focused on housing than they people they serve, he said about Carson. Carsons vision has not been universally embraced, however. The secretary and the Trump Administration have been criticized for pushing reforms that would ostensibly help more people out of poverty by cutting housing subsidies and adding work requirements for benefits. Criticis of efforts such as Carsons proposed Making Affordable Housing Work Act of 2018 have said the actions could dramatically increase rent paid by people on the edge of homelessness and shrink subsidies that helped people pay for food, medical bills and education, exasperating rather than helping problems faced by low-income Americans. Potential partners invited to meet with Stracner this week included Rise Up Industries, a gang-prevention service, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, United Way, San Diego Continuing Education and Foundation, the City of San Diegos Economic Development Department, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Presbyterian Urban Ministries, AmeriCorp, San Diego Metro Career Center and the San Diego Public Library. Other EnVision centers will be in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. 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 Twitter: @GaryWarthUT 760-529-4939 A U.S. District court judge ruled late Friday that the Trump administration must fully reinstate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Children Arrivals program because President Trumps decision to end it was was arbitrary and capricious and the governments legal justification was inadequately explained. Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia affirmed his earlier finding that the Department of Homeland Security failed to offer a reasonable argument for ending DACA, and that a more recent DHS memo rationalizing the decision to end deportation protections for the Dreamers fails to elaborate meaningfully on the agencys primary rationale for its decision: the judgment that the policy was unlawful and unconstitutional. And while the memo offers several additional policy grounds for DACAs rescission, Bates continued, most of these simply repackage legal arguments previously made. Bates stayed his order for 20 days to give the government a chance to decide whether to appeal. Advertisement DACA offers protection from deportation to about 700,000 people living in the country illegally after having been brought here as children (some were smuggled in; some overstayed visas). Those eligible for protections must have arrived in the U.S. before age 16, been here continuously since June 15, 2007 and been physically within the U.S. on June 15, 2012. Further, as the U.S. Citizenship and and Immigration Services lays out, they must be in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; and have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. Bates also rebuked the administration for what has been the administrations practice (though he stuck to this one instance) of simply deciding it wants to do something and then going full steam ahead without following well established laws and procedures for how regulations and programs must be created or dismantled. In short, the government cant just say, we dont like this one anymore so shut it down, as it has tried to do to environmental, energy, federal land use, education and other policies. The Administrative Procedure Act, among other governance rules, says the government must present a reason for doing something, and if it wants to undo something, it must also have a reason. The Court did not hold in its prior opinion, and it does not hold today, that DHS lacks the statutory or constitutional authority to rescind the DACA program, Bates wrote. Rather, the Court simply holds that if DHS wishes to rescind the program or to take any other action, for that matter it must give a rational explanation for its decision. A San Diego federal judge on Friday expressed frustration as he ordered the Trump administration to come up with a plan quickly for reuniting the remaining migrant parents and children who were separated at the border, saying the government is 100 percent responsible for the fact that some 500 families remain separated. For every parent not found will be a permanently orphaned child, said U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who ordered in June that 2,500 children be reunited with their parents. That will be 100 percent of the governments responsibility. There has to be a plan so that does not happen. Sabraw said only about a dozen of the parents have been identified for possible reunification. That is not acceptable, he said in a telephonic hearing with a government lawyer and the American Civil Liberties Union, representing parents who claim they did not understand their legal options when their children were being taken from them. Advertisement Sabraw said he was disappointed that attorneys on both sides had not brought him specific plans for speeding up reunification as he had ordered last week. He said the government has the greater duty, but wants both parties to collaborate. The family separations were ordered as part of a now-abandoned government policy of zero tolerance for border-crossers, many of whom journeyed from Guatemala and Honduras. Still living apart from their children are some 400 parents who were deported or otherwise left the country and another roughly 80 parents who were allowed to remain in the United States, DOJ attorney Scott Stewart said at the hearing. Sabraw said the stakes are now high for those families as he ordered attorneys to return next Friday with plans. The government has the sole obligation and responsibility to make this happen, Sabraw said. But, he added, the ACLU is to cooperate by establishing a lead counsel or steering committee to decide how to best track down their deported or missing clients and advise them of their legal options for reuniting with their children. Attorneys for both parties told the judge they would comply with his orders. Sabraw said it was absolutely essential for the government to select one person or a team to guide reunification across the various federal agencies involved in the effort, and report back to court in a week. Sabraw cited Jonathan White with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for his leadership role in creating reunification plans that brought about 1,800 families back together. White and other federal officials testified about migrant family reunification before Congress on Tuesday. They defended their record-keeping on what became of the parents and where the children were taken to be housed until they can be cared for by other means. Government officials said they have documents showing that hundreds of parents willingly left the U.S. without their children. The ACLU and other civil rights attorneys strongly disagree, saying many parents for whom English is not their native language did not understand what documents they were signing. On Thursday, government attorneys filed papers asking the ACLU to take the lead in finding the missing parents, saying the organization is in touch with a network of other lawyers and non-government organizations capable of tracking their clients.They asked that the ACLU report their findings each Monday and consult with the parents to find out whether they wanted their children back. They reasoned that the ACLU was in a better position to provide legal advice to the parents, which civil rights attorneys said had not been addressed before. The ACLU, in its own court filings, asked Sabraw to order the government to dig into its own records on the separated families and turn over information such as phone numbers and addresses that would help attorneys to find their clients. On Friday, the ACLUs Lee Gelernt told Sabraw that the government has provided essentially useless information on 120 parents, such as the address of a detention center or the name of a large city without a specific street address. We see no reason why each case manager cant go through their files, Gelernt said of government workers assigned to process the migrant families. He suggested the judge give the agents 48 hours to cull through files for phone numbers of the parents. Gelernt said there is also concern for non-profit volunteers who might venture into dangerous countrysides in strife-ridden Guatemala or Honduras, looking for parents, when they might instead be able to pick up a telephone. The ACLU said in court papers that the government had not followed the judges orders to provide full information about parents deemed not eligible for reunification, primarily on the basis that they had a criminal past. Gelert raised the issue Friday, saying lawyers want more details on about 30 parents declared ineligible. The files on 18 parents, he said, refer vaguely to a criminal history while one case mentioned a theft 12 years earlier in the parents home country. We dont have enough information to contest or not contest the criminal ineligibility, Gelert said. Stewart responded that it should be up to attorneys who have doubts to bring notice of those cases to the government. The judge said he would address the issue in a future court order. Sabraw has not yet ruled on a request from the ACLU to keep the government from deporting recently reunited families. The ACLU has asked that parents, once reunited with their children, have a week to decide whether they want to seek asylum. A separate lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C. last week over the issue. Sabraw said Friday that he would hold off on a decision until the Washington, D.C. federal judge issues his own ruling on a temporary deportation ban. Staff writer Kate Morrissey contributed to this report pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard The National Rifle Assn. is suffering grave financial harm that threatens its ability to pursue its advocacy mission because of a blacklisting campaign by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York regulators, the gun rights group says in a federal lawsuit. In an amended version of a lawsuit filed in May, the Virginia-based NRA said it lost insurance coverage after the states enforcement actions against companies underwriting an NRA-branded insurance program called Carry Guard. It said the Cuomo administration was persuading other insurers to avoid doing business with the NRA. Without liability coverage, the NRA says, it cant maintain its offices, operate educational programs or hold rallies and other political events. The amended complaint was filed in late July in federal court in northern New York. It names the Democratic governor along with the state Department of Financial Services and its superintendent, Maria Vullo, as defendants. Advertisement Cuomo said late Friday the state was filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. New York will not be intimidated by the NRAs frivolous lawsuit to advance its dangerous gun-peddling agenda, he said. The lawsuit said back-channel communications by the Cuomo administration made it clear to banks and insurers that it is bad business in New York to do business with the NRA. As a result, the suit said, multiple financial institutions have entered into consent orders that compel them to end longstanding business relationships with the NRA in New York and elsewhere. Absent injunctive relief, defendants blacklisting campaign will continue to damage the NRA and its members, as well as endanger the free speech and association rights guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and the State of New York, the lawsuit says. The actions of defendants are a blatant attack on the First Amendment rights of our organization, William A. Brewer III, an attorney representing the NRA, said in a statement on Friday. The lawsuit asks the court to have the Cuomo administration stop its practices against the NRA. In addition to various communications between Vullo and financial institutions at Cuomos direction, the lawsuit referenced an April 20 tweet by Cuomo: The NRA is an extremist organization. I urge companies in New York state to revisit any ties they have to the NRA and consider their reputations, and responsibility to the public. According to the lawsuit, Defendants abuses will imminently deprive the NRA of basic bank-depository services, corporate insurance coverage, and other financial services essential to the NRAs corporate existence and its advocacy mission. The motion to dismiss argues that the actions by the governor and Department of Financial Services were designed to protect New Yorkers and that they dont harm the NRAs 1st Amendment rights or other constitutional protections, Cuomo said. San Diego voters may be asked in November whether the citys junior lifeguard program can take over land in Mission Bay Park to build a new aquatic safety center. Voter approval would be needed because attorneys for the city have concluded that the new aquatic center would be a non-recreational use of dedicated city parkland. The City Council is scheduled on Monday to debate whether the measure should be placed on the November ballot. Last month, the councils Rules Committee unanimously voted to do so. The Prevent Drowning Foundation, a local nonprofit that would pay for the new aquatic facility, has hoped to build it on the ocean side of Mission Beach near Belmont Park. Advertisement But the group, which was formerly known as the Junior Lifeguard Foundation, agreed this week that it wont be on the ocean, instead deciding it will be built somewhere on Mission Bay west of Ingraham Street. Community leaders in Mission Beach and the union representing city lifeguards expressed objections to the Belmont Park location, primarily because of concerns about the junior lifeguards worsening already bad congestion there. Corey McClelland, the foundations chief executive, said on Friday that his group is exploring alternate locations. Were looking at the west part of Bonita Cove, across from the roller coaster, said McClelland, noting that no firm decisions have been made about a site. McClelland said the aquatic facility will allow a much-need expansion of the program, which trains 1,200 junior lifeguards per year but typically has a long waiting list. Its a world-class program and they need a world-class facility, he said. The program now operates out of the Santa Clara Recreation Center on Santa Clara Point in Mission Beach, another congested area. The foundation plans to pay for the facility and then hand it over to the city, with some of the space available for community use when junior lifeguard training is not in session. McClelland said the project is part of the foundations mission of aquatic safety. Our mission is to teach every child in San Diego how to swim, which could save their lives from drowning sometime in the future, he said. When the idea of a new aquatic center first emerged a few years ago, initial plans called for a 9,300-square-foot building with classrooms, a training tower, a first-aid room, lockers, restrooms and storage areas. Shortly after the idea emerged, lawyers working for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith wrote an opinion stipulating that a public vote would be necessary for the project to be built in Mission Bay Park or on Mission Beach. Thats because the City Charter says dedicated park land cant be used for any other purpose without a public vote. A reviewing court would likely find a program headquarters in the park to be inconsistent with Charter Section 55 because the proposed uses are a diversion from recreational activities and would not promote the publics enjoyment of the park, wrote Deputy City Attorney Heather Ferbert. Even if the program headquarters is not used primarily for educational and municipal-type activities, a reviewing court would likely conclude that the program headquarters would interfere with the publics use of the park by removing limited available lawn space from public use, Ferbert continued. During the Rules Committee meeting last month, members of the council expressed strong support for the proposal. Councilman Chris Ward of University Heights said a program focused on public safety seems an appropriate use of city parkland. Councilman Mark Kersey of Black Mountain Ranch said the city needs to help its Junior Lifeguard program. I feel strongly the program is in need of a facility thats going to allow it to continue to thrive, he said. Mondays council meeting begins at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 202 C. St. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick ALGIERS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Algerian defense ministry said on Friday that significant quantities of military weapons were found near the border with Mali. In the southernmost area of Bordj Badji Mokhtar, the army found a Kalashnikov-type submachine gun, three semi-automatic Semionov pistols, seven repeating rifles, an automatic rifle and a large amount of ammunition in a bunker. In another weaponry bunker in the same area, two Kalashnikov-type machine guns, an automatic rifle, a repeating rifle, 11 mortar rockets and loads of explosives and ammunition were discovered. Meanwhile, two militants laid down their weapons and surrendered to the military in the southernmost province of Tamanrasset on the border with Mali and Niger. These operations reflect the high vigilance and determination of army forces to thwart any attempt to harm the security and stability of the country, the defense ministry said in a statement. Algeria has deployed tens of thousands of troops on the southern and eastern borderline, in a bid to thwart the intrusion of terrorists and arms, amid instability reigning in Mali and civil war hitting Libya. Two men and a woman were injured by gunfire at a Carlsbad apartment complex Saturday morning, police said. Two of the wounded, a man and a woman, apparently were victims. The other man is a suspect. All three were taken to a local hospital. The victims each had what appeared to be a serious gunshot wound, Carlsbad police said. The suspect had a non-life-threatening injury. Detectives are on scene and are investigating to understand what occurred, police said in a statement. Investigators believe that the three knew each other and that this is not a random act. Investigators also do not believe there are any outstanding suspects. Advertisement Police responded about 5:50 a.m. to multiple reports of shots fired in the apartment complex on Whitman Way, east of Agua Hedionda lagoon. Officers found the victims in a courtyard and nearby parking lot. In the courtyard, officers also located the suspect, who was detained, then taken to a hospital. We dont have any information on what led up to it at all, police Capt. Mickey Williams said late Saturday morning. He said he didnt know the ages of the victims or suspect, or the nature of their relationship. He declined to say what evidence, if any, detectives had collected. Police had not recovered a weapon. As of late Saturday afternoon, investigators had obtained search warrant for an apartment linked to the victims and suspect. Williams said he didnt know if the trio lived at the Pacific View Apartment Homes complex. A portion of the complex was closed off due to the investigation, which was expected to go on into the evening, police said. Officers were escorting residents in and out of the complex without disturbing any evidence, Williams said. Reporter David Hernandez contributed to this report. First Lady Melania Trumps top policy aide has left the White House less than a year into the job, according to a report. Sources say that 28-year-old Reagan Hedlund, who helped launch the First Ladys Be Best campaign, left her role as policy director last week. She is no longer with our office and we wish her the best, the First Ladys spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told the Daily News in a statement. Hedlund, who got married in April, said she plans to work on foreign-policy issues, according to the report. Advertisement I am very grateful to the First Lady for the opportunity to help launch her policy initiative, Hedlund told Politico. It was a rare opportunity to contribute at such a high level. It was a difficult decision to leave, however, I have decided to return to my roots in the foreign-policy world, she said. Hedlund previously worked for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when he was a Republican lawmaker in Congress. She was also an executive assistant at the National Security Council. Multiple West Wing aides said they were unaware of Hedlunds departure. Someone familiar with the matter said Hedlund was asked to leave. A Smith College employee was suspended this week for calling campus security on a black student lounging in a common area, the administrators said this week. Oumou Kanoute, who works as a summer teaching assistant at the Northhampton, Mass. college, had eaten lunch on July 31 and was reading on a sofa when a campus police officer approached her to ask what she was doing. Why are you here, the officer can be heard on a cell phone recording that Kanoute took. Im in a summer program. Im eating lunch, she said. Advertisement The officer explains that someone called security on her and apologized for disturbing her. The exchange left Kanoute shaken and angry. So Im sitting down minding my damn business and someone calls the cops on me while Im just chilling, she wrote on Facebook. This is why being black in America is scary. Smith College administration scrambled to cap the embarrassment of perpetuating the national trend of people calling the police on black people doing everyday things. In addition to suspending the employee and launching an internal investigation, the college released a transcript of the call to campus police. I was just walking through here in the front foyer of [REDACTED] and we have a person sitting there laying down in the living room area over here. I didnt approach her or anything but um he seems to be out of place, the caller said. I didnt see anybody in the building at this point and uh I dont know what hes doing in there just laying on the couch. The officer reported back after checking it out. All clear. That was a student relaxing in the living room. They had lunch here. I guess and they decided to stay for a while, the officer said. Smith College president Kathleen McCartney apologized to Kanoute, and ordered anti-bias training for all employees. I begin by offering the student involved my deepest apology that this incident occurred and to assure her that she belongs in all Smith spaces, McCartney said. This painful incident reminds us of the ongoing legacy of racism and bias in which people of color are targeted while simply going about the business of their daily lives. She refused to release the name of the employee, citing unspecified privacy laws. The college also hired the Sanghavi Law Office to conduct an investigation into the incident. More than half of the youth in the juvenile justice system struggle with substance use disorders, a sad result of policies that incarcerate rather than support young people in trouble with drugs. When my older son was arrested at age 20 for marijuana possession, he was pushed into a criminal pipeline that only made things worse. It was behind bars that he learned to inject heroin. Breaking the cycle of criminalization with real drug education and quality treatment was the reason my organization of mothers and fathers supported Proposition 64 to regulate adult use of marijuana and put up stronger barriers to underage use. Now we are following through on this promise with SB 275, authored by Sen. Anthony Portantino. This legislation will ensure that all funds spent on youth treatment programs, including funding from from Medi-Cal, federal grants and Proposition 64, meet quality standards set by experts and that families have a voice in the process. Californias criminalization approach has clearly taken its harshest toll on the very young people our laws are supposed to protect. The suffering for families like mine compounds the pain. We are stigmatized, told our childs drug use is a matter of parenting. Quality, affordable treatment options for young people have been virtually non-existent, so reaching out for help has meant subjecting your child to further harm in the justice system. My older son cycled in and out of prison for 11 years before he got out and found recovery. My younger son went to 19 treatment programs before he finally got sober. They are survivors of a broken system. Our family is just one example of the thousands crying out for better treatment options for young people. Advertisement New money for youth treatment represents a long-overdue opportunity to create the compassionate continuum of treatment our young people deserve. Its time to recognize the range of drug use calls for a range of prevention and intervention from school kids smoking pot who may not have addictive illness, but who need counseling and care, to the intensive treatments needed for young people caught in the quagmire of the opiate crisis. With standards established in SB 275, Californias parents can be sure that the system reflects the needs of young people whose brains are still developing, and the language, cultural and sexual identity, and experiences with trauma that factor into their healing. When my son was in prison, I prayed alongside other parents in AL-Anon meetings, God grant me the courage to change the things I can. That moment of clarity set me on a path to reform Californias backward drug policy for youth. I founded A New PATH in 1999 with two other parents frustrated that once our children had been labeled as addicts, we effectively lost our voices as parents. We were determined never to give up on our childrens needs to be treated as humans, not criminals. New state and federal dollars from Proposition 64 and other funding sources, have created an opportunity to shift to a health-based approach to drug policy to save lives and keep families whole. I urge legislators and Governor Brown to ensure this opportunity doesnt go to waste; make SB 275 law. Burns Bergman is executive director and co-founder of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) and lead organizer of PATHs international Moms United to End the War on Drugs Campaign. There are several tasks California Highway Patrol Officers perform on a daily basis that are sensitive and difficult to conduct. One such task is the investigation of a fatal collision, especially when a child is involved. Although officers receive several hours of training to conduct comprehensive collision investigations, there is no training that can prepare them for the emotional impact a tragedy such as this can have on them and other first responders involved. Thats why Im voting No on 6. Related: Why Californians should repeal gas tax Proposition 6 eliminates more than $5 billion annually in existing transportation funds and jeopardizes more than 6,500 bridge and road safety, transportation and public transit improvement projects currently underway throughout California. Advertisement I spent 30 years on the CHP working next to some of the most dedicated and hard-working members of emergency first responders and transportation professionals. I can no longer sit by and watch the safety of the public and the states infrastructure fall prey to the whims of politicians who have no plan other than to divide and conquer strictly for political gain. Californias poor road conditions play a contributing factor in vehicle collisions. CHP officers and other first responders hear it all the time: I hit a pothole and blew out a tire. I ran into uneven pavement and lost control. According to the latest study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 3,600 fatalities on California roads in 2016. Eighty-nine percent of California counties including San Diego have roads that are in poor or at-risk condition, and 1,600 of our bridges and overpasses are structurally deficient and unsafe. The last thing in the world we should be doing is eliminating road safety and infrastructure projects. But thats exactly what Proposition 6 will do. And for the San Diego region, it will have a hugely negative and local impact making our roads and bridges less safe, more deteriorated and more congested. In fact, in the San Diego region alone, Proposition 6 will cut more than $1.6 billion in funding over the next 10 years. And that means the loss of funding for local projects we need, including projects currently underway in our region. In fact, Proposition 6 will cut critical funding that is currently supporting: 314 ongoing pavement improvement projects on San Diego city and county streets 14 traffic congestion relief projects 103 bridge safety retrofits Proposition 6 will force many of these projects to be eliminated, wasting money and making roads less safe. Projects making safety improvements like striping for improved visibility, safety guardrails, more flashing signs and rumble strips could all be eliminated under Proposition 6. It just doesnt make sense. In addition to worse roads, unless we say No on 6, emergency response times for all first responders will increase, which in turn could mean life or death. And thats one of the reasons why the California Professional Firefighters, the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, and other leading public safety groups all agree No on 6. In fact, more than 250 public safety organizations, engineers, local transportation agencies, cities, counties, business and labor organizations and environmental groups throughout California, have joined together to say No on 6. And when you get some of those opposing groups to agree on something, that should tell you just how dangerous Proposition 6s attack on bridge and road safety is. We all want to make sure that funding is actually going where its supposed to go. Last June, 81 percent of California voters made sure that would happen when we passed Proposition 69, which prevents Sacramento politicians from diverting transportation funds and dedicates these funds only for transportation improvements. That makes it even easier for me to say No on 6. I had the privilege of working beside some of the finest men and women in law enforcement and emergency services, and without a doubt they proved to be the most dedicated and passionate group of people to assemble for the good of the communities they serve. We cant allow Proposition 6 to put more preventable accidents and avoidable tragedy into their paths making our roads less safe for everyone. Carter is a former Deputy Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol. Russia is allowing thousands of fresh North Korean laborers into the country and granting new work permits in potential violation of UN sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. More than 10,000 new North Korean workers have registered in Russia since September, the paper said, citing records from the Russian Interior Ministry. Russia's action potentially violates UN sanctions to reduce cash flows to North Korea and put pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, WSJ reported, citing U.S. officials. Labor Ministry records obtained by WSJ showed that a minimum of 700 new work permits have been issued to North Koreans in Russia this year, the paper said. UN officials are probing potential violations of the sanctions, which contain narrow exceptions, WSJ reported citing sources. Russia's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. This is how Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti nominated a new member to the Los Angeles Police Department civilian oversight panel on Wednesday: He said his appointee understands the critical importance of transparency and accountability, and shares his commitment to strengthening trust between officers and the Angelenos they serve. This is how San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer appointed 12 new members to the citys Community Review Board on Police Practices and reappointed 11 others to round out the 23-member commission way back on June 26: He quietly sent Council President Myrtle Cole a memo with brief biographies on each and waited for more than a month until she finally got around to docketing the nominations for council approval this coming Tuesday. So much for Faulconer or Cole showing any urgency in a city where activists already complain the commission has no real authority because it cant investigate cases of in-custody deaths or police shootings independently and it lacks subpoena power. So much for Faulconer or Cole showing any urgency in a city where a 2016 San Diego State University study found racial disparities in how the police handle traffic stops and vehicle searches, and where officers are now collecting more rigorous data about their interactions with the public to study such racial profiling trends and to stop the practice. In July 2016, Cole, an African-American former police officer, issued a public apology amid calls for her to resign after she said at a council meeting that racial profiling happens because blacks are shooting blacks. In an apology that week, Cole said, Tackling inequality has been a priority of mine and urged her community to join her in a continued pursuit of equity for San Diegans. Advertisement She urged residents, Please work with me to create solutions and improve relations between the police force and the community they serve. Then in December 2016, the Community Review Board member from Coles Council District 4, resigned and moved to Texas. District 4, which is populated primarily by people of color, hasnt had a representative since then. It wont even if the City Council approves all of Faulconers 23 appointees. In a major understatement on Friday, Cole said her office had been seeking applicants, it just has not been aggressive about it. Hours after an editorial writer asked her chief of staff about the lack of a District 4 panelist early Friday morning, Cole said her staff had identified two qualified applicants on Friday and that she planned to send the names to the mayor on Monday. She said she didnt know their names and had no idea who they are. According to the mayors office, Faulconer sent a memo to council members in March seeking nominations, but no names from Council District 4 or the heavily Latino Council District 8 were received so none were included among those he nominated. City leaders have dragged their feet making procedural changes since voters approved new powers for the panel in November 2016. A third of its seats have been vacant for months. And council members used Coles decision to delay until earlier this week a hearing on a proposed ballot measure that could have given the panel extra authority as an excuse to reject it, saying theyd run out of time. Tuesday the vacancies should finally be filled. But despite Coles promise to work to improve relations between the police and her constituents, she didnt even try. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion There are always threats of legal action floating around San Diego City Hall. Some are taken seriously. Others are dismissed out of hand because theyll never go anywhere. At the moment, one doesnt seem to be getting the attention it deserves. Bret Caslavka, president of a San Diego school reform group called Community Voices for Education, is threatening to sue the city of San Diego for failing to place district-only elections for the San Diego Unified School Districts board of directors on the November ballot. Approval of such a measure would eliminate at-large elections for school board members and cure what CVE sees as a violation of the California Voting Rights Act that leads to racially polarized voting and minority vote dilution. School officials have refused to embrace the idea for months. No surprise. They have a good thing going. There are two races on the Nov. 6 ballot that pit labor-friendly incumbents against lesser-known challengers in an election that is likely to keep the status quo on a board that rarely has turnover, in part because of the influence of teachers unions. The system is so stacked against challengers that the only way these two made the ballot is after running as write-in candidates in the June 5 primary election, thereby needing just a single vote their own to ensure a November runoff election. Since its inception, the San Diego Unified School District has had just three Latino board members and a single Asian-American trustee. Thats according to a letter CVE sent the City Council last month before it voted to put school board term limits but not district-only elections on the November 2018 ballot. The council has no authority over city schools, but changes to school district elections require voters to amend the City Charter. The council agreed to put this measure on the ballot following school board approval after a series of community meetings, surveys and supposedly honest debate. Advertisement Clare Crawford, who co-chaired the districts advisory committee on school board member elections, told The San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Lauryn Schroeder that a shift to district-only elections had not been adequately researched. Please. Her committee could have taken the time. Or it could have delayed as it did because three of the five school board members are up for re-election in 2020. Crawford raises one fair point: More than 40 percent of the districts 126,000 students attend schools outside of their election district. Still, the district has twice as many Hispanic or Latino students as white students, and sizable Asian and black populations, state data show. They deserve representation. As The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board wrote in June when calling the school boards rejection of so-called subdistrict elections ridiculous, its past time to make that change in the San Diego Unified School District. Sixty percent of 1,243 people school officials surveyed by the districts elections committee agreed that there should be subdistrict elections in all school board elections, almost twice the percentage of those who said no. Will it take a lawsuit for San Diego city schools to do the right thing? Maybe, we wrote in June. Even further back, the San Diego County Grand Jury advocated for district-only elections in May 2017, noting that San Diego is alone among the four largest unified school districts in California not to elect school board members by regions or subdistricts. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Fresno all do. The grand jury also reported that, in San Diego County, the San Marcos Unified School District was switching to such elections after a lawsuit that alleged violations of the California Voting Rights Act. There, the lawsuit argued, the system was working at a disadvantage to Latino voters and candidates. In a required response to that 2017 grand jury report, the San Diego City Council wrote that it agreed with the jurors finding that by instituting subdistrict elections and term limits, a large part of the elections process will be returned to the people. For the peoples sake, the school board and council should revisit district-only school board elections voluntarily before being forced to do so in court. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Re Balboa Parks Plaza de Panama plan under fire again (July 30): Sorry but it is your post which is obsolete. The citys so-called Climate Action Plan is an oxymoron, totally fake. Personal cars are not going away. They will be here for decades, powered by either electricity or hydrogen. So, no, the parking garage is not a liability. People cannot use public transit for everything, cars will be a major source for transportation. voyager2k Joined July 6, 2017 You neednt worry about the Old Globes biggest donors parking issues. The Old Globe runs a special valet service for its most-favored donors, and they will walk you to the special room so that you dont have to wait around with people who arent big donors or other VIPs. Advertisement Erik.Hanson Joined April 16, 2016 We won tickets to two shows (which we gave away, because we subscribe) and two passes to the Lipinsky Family Suite in a drawing at our condo building when Old Globe folks visited with residents in a marketing effort. Waiting in that facility before the performance and during intermission sure beats the heat, and the wine, soda and snacks were pleasurable. hillcrester Joined April 16, 2016 Re State Supreme Court rules San Diego pension cuts were illegally placed on ballot (Aug. 2): Municipalities ought to start massively outsourcing government programs. Doing so would eliminate some of the massive employment/pension costs in the public sector, not to mention the corruptive influence of labor on those elected officials who are responsible for negotiating with the corrupt unions. Privatization would save us money and save us from the dysfunctional relationship between labor and elected officials. e_cccc Joined March 9, 2017 Yes. Lets take a huge chunk of the money that goes towards benefits and pensions for the workers and line the pockets of a bunch of middlemen. No thank you. Privatization just means we shift money from middle class to the rich. john.poe95 Joined April 19, 2016 The Supreme Courts rationale is utter nonsense. This measure was passed overwhelmingly by voters and the mayors influence was negligible. This was the same mayor who supported the Proposition D tax increase with union support and saw it crushed at the ballot box. The idea that his role as mayor had any bearing on the outcome of Proposition B is laughable. JAD555 Joined April 29, 2016 Re San Diegos Scripps Pier records highest ocean temperature in its 102-year history (Aug. 2): Im guessing that the sun has a lot more to do with the oceans warming than the 0.038 percent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. satyr0 Joined June 14, 2016 He thinks he knows more than Fourier, Pouillet, Tyndall, Arrhenius, Revelle, Charney and thousands of other scientists. Theres a term for that: Dunning-Kruger. Wyman E. Hack Joined April 22, 2016 Ignore the long-term global consequences (over which you have no control anyways), set aside your digital computing device, and go to the beach. Wade out past the tiny breakers that are contributing incrementally to the current water temp, float on your back in the bathtub sea, stare at the sky and thank the maker of your choice that youre alive. richardgleaves1 Joined April 29, 2016 Re A new threat to Californias Proposition 13 rears its head (Aug. 2): More Democrat tax-and-spend. The nut case libs are at it again! mabrummett Joined July 26, 2018 The only relevant issue is whether or not the proposed legislation would raise taxes, on anyone. If it does, oppose it. Our various levels of government never have enough money, whatever that amount might be. The only solution is to oppose all tax increases, all bond issues, until government, someday, somehow, realizes they cannot continue to tax and spend without control. That is up to the electorate to send that message. Canyon63 Joined Jan. 23, 2017 Cities dont need any help from Sacramento to bypass Proposition 13. Look at Lemon Grove, their bogus sanitation district steals more than $1 million a year taxing residents through sewer fees and then transferring them to the city general fund. DelMarSurfBum Joined Nov. 13, 2017 Re Body and soul: Why the Rock Church bought a former strip club (Aug. 1): Another property that will now be exempt from property and businesses taxes. Sure must be profitable being in the religion industry. deadredsmith Joined Dec. 30, 2017 Way to go Pastor McPherson, et al. The thing is/was an eyesore and kinda made going to the airport, Shelter Island or Harbor Island, Rock Church and school look like you were going through a seedy part of town. Look forward to a face lift for the building. Gale Anderson Joined April 16, 2016 I was at that light when my son was about five and in the back seat. He asked me Dad, whats nude? I told him its when people have no clothes on. A moment passed as he thought about it and then he said in a surprised tone, You have to be naked to go in there??? tom_rice Joined Sep. 12, 2016 Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. The readers representative heard from several readers who objected to a photo on A1 last Sunday. The picture showed two sisters crying outside next to a street in Shasta County, where the Carr Fire was out of control and had turned deadly. The caption under the photo said the women were reacting to news that one of the sisters children had been killed during the fire in Redding. Sharon Penney from Julian called last week to say it was a poor choice to run the photo. The women were heartbroken, she said. Their grief should have been kept off the front page. The Associated Press photo ran two columns wide under a four-column wide picture of a forest road covered in flame retardant under a yellow sky. Advertisement The picture of the women appeared widely in news accounts of the fire. John McCutchen, director of photography and video at the U-T, acknowledged the sensitivity of the photo. He said it shows, though, the human tragedy in the fires toll, not just the loss of trees and buildings. I dont believe all photos showing grief over death should be avoided. The news medias job is to capture a moment, reflect its significance. Sometimes the significance is deep sorrow. Editors must weigh photos of this nature individually. Some will be chosen, but I believe most readers would say more often than not to select another photo. Changing reference to the Lemon Grove Incident Last week, I wrote about the historic Lemon Grove Incident, the involvement of the principal of the Lemon Grove Grammar School and a reference to the event that appeared in the U-Ts 2018 Almanac of county communities. Heres the background: The incident began in January 1931, when 75 Mexican children back from winter break were told they could not go to the grammar school. They were ordered to attend an Americanization school. The Mexican parents refused to separate their kids from the other students and sued. A San Diego Superior Court judge ruled in March 1931 that the children were not to be segregated. The case has been called the first successful desegregation court decision in U.S. history. A small item in the Almanac listing interesting facts about each community noted the Lemon Grove Incident. It read in part, In 1931, the principal of the Lemon Grove Grammar School barred 75 Hispanic children from attending and was taken to court. That sentence is misleading and unfair to the principal, Jerome Green, his granddaughter told the readers rep. Joyce Earickson of Oceanside said the school board decided to segregate the Mexican children. Her grandfather disagreed with the decision and even alerted the parents to what was going to happen. He was carrying out the boards orders, and was eventually fired because of his warning, she said. Earickson asked that the sentence amended online to indicate the boards action. The request opened several issues for discussion. Should the U-T change a reference that is technically correct? Where does one draw the line with these kinds of requests? Do you go back and re-report and update online stories that are years old? I asked for readers thoughts. Their feedback mirrored opinions in the newsroom. John Baptiste of Temecula wrote: Although Jerome Green ... may have been a crusader behind the scenes and a well respected educator in this particular region, he still was part of the systemic problem that arose here despite these professional and social dilemmas. Im sure in his heart, he may have wanted no part of the controversy, but he elected to remain the face of a problem that was a rampant one during the 30s from segregation to outright district housing market redlining. ... I say let all written historical facts remain as is, regardless of his undercover good intentions. He was not an outright abolitionist, therefore let the record stand. Sandy Carson of Hillcrest: Its not only acceptable to amend but necessary to amend historical data if it is wrong. The people have been misled by erroneous historical facts for long enough. Kathleen Derby Sturdivant of Rancho Bernardo: I think this article (last weeks readers rep column) sufficiently clarifies the Green/Earickson familys position. I agree that to correct the Almanac references would, as you say, be a slippery slope. Lets stop trying to re-write history everywhere. Let it stand. Gerald DSpain of University City: Absolutely amend. The objective, as with all journalism, should be to report incidents as honestly as possible. And to correct history when history has it wrong. Even when its only partly wrong. Editors feel information that is clearly inaccurate should be corrected. But this reference is debatable in the newsroom, just as it is with readers. I feel this is a special case given the events historical significance, and it should be clarified, despite sliding down the slippery slope of amending stories. Some editors disagree. The sentence is not wrong, and theres the danger of sliding down that slope, they told me. Helen Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, confirmed that the school board was behind it, and the trustees fired Green. The 1985 documentary The Lemon Grove Incident features interviews with several former students. The film depicts the school board making the decision, shows a former student recalling Green tipping off parents, and later it re-enacts the board firing him. The resolution decided upon in the newsroom will be to add that the school board directed the principal to carry out the order that day. adrian.vore@sduniontribune.com Hunter Renfroe is getting a chance to be an everyday player again as he tries to finish out a growing year strong. It afford him, in his estimation, a chance to hit the ground running in the offseason and return next year with an edge as he tries yet again to prove he belongs on a Padres team that expects to be better in the future. Obviously we have a lot of pieces still here, Renfroe said. We have all these other guys. I just have to keep healthy, keep growing as a player and go into spring next year and be better than them. Theyll have their chances, and Ill have my chances. When I get my chance, Ive got to go prove I can do it. Wil Myers return from the disabled list along with Manuel Margots excellence over the past two months and Travis Jankowski providing a spark at the top of the order cut into Renfroes playing time of late. Advertisement But even before Myers left Thursdays game with what turned out to be a bone bruise on his left foot that landed him on the disabled list Saturday, the plan was for Renfroe to play all four games here against the Cubs. In large part, that was because Renfroe has started every game against left-handed starters since he he returned from the disabled list at the end of May and the Cubs were running out three left-handed starters in this four-game series. It is also because it is time to see Renfroe perform. Confidence hasnt wavered in Hunter, manager Andy Green said. Hell get back out there and get some consistent opportunities on this road trip. Thursdays start was just Renfroes seventh in the past 16 games after starting 29 of 42 games when he first came off the disabled list at the end of May. He is 1-for-4 in each of the first two games here. After going 2-for-5 with a double and a home run on July 1, Renfroe hit .164 with a .203 on-base percentage in his final 18 games in July. The fluctuation is the latest twist in his second major league season, one that saw him miss more than a month with a strained UCL in his right (throwing) elbow and then hit .267 with a .330 OBP in his first 27 games back. From the outset, Renfroe was charged with learning how to pinch-hit. He has responded by going 6-for-13 in that role, the .462 average ranking third in the National League and on pace to be the highest by a Padres player since 2002. Obviously, its a lot more fun to start and get four at-bats, Renfroe said. Im a team player. Im out there doing my thing. When I get my chance to play, Im going to give it my all. For the improvement he has shown at various times this season, Renfroe sits in pretty much the same place he did in spring training. Hes one of several outfielders attempting to earn some job security. Its a growing year for me, especially, he said. Ive learned what it takes to be an everyday player and Ive learned what it takes to come off the bench. Ive learned to go out there take some pitches. Ive got to keep going, keep learning. Renfroe has upped his walk rate to one every 11.5 plate appearances, from one in 17.7 and his on-base percentage from a paltry .284 to a respectable .304. He also has provided balance his left-right splits. He batted .202/.244 against righties and .316/.392 against lefties in 2017. Those numbers this year are .219/.270 against righties and .253/.355 against lefties. But his power numbers are down. After setting a Padres rookie record with 26 homers in 2017, he has eight this season. Thats a homer every 17.1 at-bats last year to one every 25.9 at-bats this season. Melding power and selectivity, he said, is one of his prime focuses. I know I can go into the offseason and focus on some things I did well things like walks and what can I do to improve that even more and when I come back next spring be a different player, he said. Im going to work on a lot of things this offseason and keep growing these two months figure out what I can grow even more these two months and go into spring next year and focusing on keeping going. kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/03/2018 -- A greater number of refinery projects across the world should create an immense opportunity for sulphur recovery technology manufacturers to install their units in the plants. Upcoming refineries in the APEJ and MEA region are anticipated to be major contributors to the global sulphur recovery technology market. Future Market Insights has comprehensively assessed the sulphur recovery technology market in its report titled 'Sulphur Recovery Technology Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012 - 2016 and Opportunity Assessment 2017 - 2027'. The sulphur recovery technology market is expected to have a value of over US$ 2.7 billion by end 2027. Request to Sample of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1431 Technology Claus Process Slightly Ahead of Tail Gas Treatment Technology There is a close battle between the claus process and tail gas treatment technology in the sulphur recovery technology market with the former edging ahead. The claus process is predicted to record a CAGR of 12.8% for the decade. However, it would be unwise to ignore the tail gas treatment technology segment entirely in the sulphur recovery technology market as companies are focusing on it as well. For e.g. BASF has introduced tail gas treatment technology to increase plant efficiency and reduce sulphur technology. This helps decrease sulphur emissions and lowers operational expenditure because of lesser amine circulation rates and reboiler duties. Source of Recovery Gas Recovery has Significant Traction in Sulphur Recovery Technology Market The gas type segment has a market share of approx. two thirds of the global sulphur recovery technology market by source of recovery and is poised to lose 210 BPS going forward. However, gas recovery is unlikely to cede its pole position in the sulphur recovery technology market. An incremental dollar opportunity of US$ 1.1 billion can be tapped in the gas recovery segment of the sulphur recovery technology market. Increasing production and exploration activity, particularly in respect of shale gas, is fuelling demand for sulphur recovery units in refineries. Gas refining has great potential in the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Asia. Capacity < 100 t/D Dominates the Sulphur Recovery Technology Market The < 100 t/D capacity segment has a share of more than half the global sulphur recovery technology market by capacity at the end of 2017. The < 100 t/D segment is popular on account of having a lower emission footprint, being easy to upgrade, and relatively cost-effective as compared to other units. Several companies have invested in < 100 t/ D units such as Siirtec Nigi that has agreed to supply two Claus sulphur recovery units in Kuwait with a capacity of < 100 t/D each. Region Europe and MEA Key in Sulphur Recovery Technology Market Europe and MEA are the regions to look out for in the sulphur recovery technology market. Refinery projects in diverse nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and Russia should boost the demand for sulphur recovery technology. These countries have ample oil reserves and are major global suppliers, making them lucrative for sulphur recovery technology unit manufacturers. The Europe sulphur recovery technology market is projected to push past US$ 720 million by end 2027. Competition Dashboard in Sulphur Recovery Technology Market The companies profiled in the sulphur recovery technology market report are Jacobs Engineering Group, John Wood Group, TechnipFMC, WorleyParsons, Prosernat, Black and Veath Holding Company, Bechtel Corporation, KNM Group Berhad, CB&I, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corporation, KT Kinetics Technology SPA, Fluor Corporation, Linde AG, Chiyoda Corporation, and GTC Technology. Request Report for TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1431 Takeaways Sulphur recovery technology unit manufacturers must take advantage of the refineries being set up across the globe. APEJ, MEA, and Europe could contribute a sizeable chunk of revenue in the sales of sulphur recovery technology units and companies are advised to target these regions with all guns blazing. China warned Friday it would impose new tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods if the Trump administration follows through with its latest trade threats. The Commerce Ministry said the proposed tariffs of 5 percent to 25 percent on more than 5,200 U.S. goods are restrained and maintained it has the right to take retaliatory action in the escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies. China's warning came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Friday with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore. The two men did not speak to the press after the meeting, and reporters were ushered out of the room before the talks began. On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Minister told reporters the U.S. needed to calm down and consider its own consumers, responding to threats by the Trump administration to raise its proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from the initially planned 10 percent to 25 percent. Wang Yi said raising tariffs would hurt U.S. consumers and businesses located in China. "Instead of achieving one's own goal by doing this, we believe it will only hurt one's own interests," said Wang. The U.S. says it wants China to stop stealing U.S. corporate secrets and stop subsidizing Chinese companies with cheap loans that give them an unfair advantage. Louis Group, headquartered in Cyprus, reported an accounting profit from the sale of around 700,000. The 1,460 passenger vessel, to be called Princess Iris, has had various owners and regal names over the past 25 years sailing for Majesty Cruise Line as Royal Majesty, followed by Norwegian Majesty for Norwegian Cruise Line and then Louis Majesty. A charter to Thomson Cruises (now Marella) as Thomson Majesty followed. The ship went back to Louis in 2012. Mano doubles fleet to two ships Mano is currently operating 17,015gt Golden Iris in the Eastern Med on a series of round trip Haifa cruises ranging from 2 to 12 nights duration visiting Cyprus and Greece. Mano Holdings Group operates the shipping, leisure and holiday markets, as well as, commercial interests in real estate, technology and communications. The Mano Holdings Group was founded by ceo Moshe Mano, but its roots date back to Mano's father, the late Mordechai Mano, a shipping and financial pioneer who founded and ran Israeli shipping and finance companies back in the mid-1940s Louis launched Celesytal Cruises brand in late 2014. It is currently operating two ships Celesytal Crystal and Celestyal Olympia. More young Koreans are putting off marriage but freezing sperm or eggs in case they change their minds later in life. The trend is spreading from women in their 30s to both men and women in their 20s. One 28-year-old office worker who gave his surname as Sohn went to a sperm bank south of Seoul in June to have his sperm frozen. The cost was W450,000 plus another W300,000 a year to keep the samples on ice (US$1=W1,129). Sohn has saved up around W10 million over the last three years and plans to get married in another three. Selected under "Israel-India Bridge to Innovation" program, the six Israeli companies representing various innovative practices in the sector of healthcare, agriculture and water management have been picked to interact with various business houses from India. These startups had represented their country during an innovation week held on 23-27 July. Mumbai: Relationship between India-Israel has taken a few more positive steps with 6 new Israeli startups about to gain fresh insights into the Indian ecosystem. The program was started a year ago, during PM Modi's visit to Israel. The visit and the bonhomie between Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu has blossomed into a program that further looks at enhancing trade and exchange of ideas. In fact, the Indian PM's visit led to signing of an agreement that looked at starting an innovation fund under which the two countries will contribute $ 4 million each annually for a period of five years. The 'Israel-India Bridge to innovation' program is managed by the India-Israel Innovation Bridge, which in turn is further managed by the Israel Innovation Authority, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Indian Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India and Invest India. This bridge is expected to help Israeli companies gain a first hand knowledge of the Indian business ecosystem. These 6 startups are working in the areas of compelling use-cases. Uses that are quite apt for Indian conditions. Here are the 6 companies, and their unique products, ideas: Amaizz: Developed a portable drying device enabling dry storage of agricultural produce. Developed a portable drying device enabling dry storage of agricultural produce. Biofeed: Developed a device to combat fruit flies Developed a device to combat fruit flies Zebra Medical: Developed Medical imaging technologies Developed Medical imaging technologies MobileODT: Developing devices to diagnose cervical cancer Developing devices to diagnose cervical cancer Aquallence: Brain behind a device device to treat water with Ozone Brain behind a device device to treat water with Ozone AMS Technologies: Developed a system to filter industrial water Speaking about the Indo-Israel Innovation bridge, Anat Bernstein-Reich, Co-founder and Managing Partner of the Israeli office of A&G Partners, said "India and Israel are quickly becoming important partners to each other." Anat, who is also the Chairperson of the Israel-India Chamber of Commerce, explains that "there are many similarities that make both the countries compatible rather than competitors." "India is working with Israel in many areas from setting up of dozens of centres of excellence across India in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing defence equipment, to cleaning of the Yamuna and Ganga with the help of Israeli technologies; Israel is fast becoming Indias technological partner," she adds. In a note she explains that the two countries share an important partnership and have mutual necessity which has in turn made Israel an important partner for India's technological needs. Anat Bernstein Reich (ext left) and the 6 companies selected as part of the innovation challenge. The Innovators: Here is a list of the top innovators, and their unique use-cases. ZEBRA MEDICAL: Zebra Medical promises to transform patient care with the help of software, especially Artificial Intelligence. A profiling document, suggests this company wants to help millions of people receive high quality, fast, affordable imaging care - by teaching software to automatically diagnose medical imaging scans, such as CTs, X-Rays, MRIs etc. Zebra's automated analytics engine is capable of receiving imaging scans and analyzing them to indicate key findings. The product identifies coronary, liver, lung and bone disease, as well as lung and breast cancer and numerous other findings. By Medical imaging diagnosis requires a skilled radiologist to interpret findings. In India there are only 5 radiologists per 100 thousand people, compared to lesser than 60 in the US. Radiologists are extremely overworked in India, and Zebra Medical's technology can help improve detection speeds. MOBILE ODT MobileODT piloted an EVA System for detecting Cervical Cancer in India with Apollo Hospitals, Hiranandani Hospitals, Batra Hospital, and Fortis Hospitals. Their next product, the EVA System for Oral Cancer, is a portable, easy-to-use, point-of-care visualization and assessment tools to rapidly improve screening efforts for oral disease. The EVA System integrates secure software for remote consultation, record keeping, patient tracking, and ongoing quality assurance and training purposes to ensure Oral Cancer screenings are effective, sustainable, and leads to ongoing cost-savings. It also details the cells infected by Cancer. MobileODT's smart EVA (Enhanced Visualisation and Assessment) system combines biomedical optics with the power and connectivity of cellular technology. The EVA System can be used everywhere, under nearly any condition from advanced hospitals to even low-resource settings. AMAIZZ Amaizz is an agritech company, with innovative products that minimizes losses caused by spoilage and degradation throughout the handling, storage, and processing stages. Amaizzs solution for post-harvest handling and storage saves up to 50% of the losses caused by mishandling and depreciation. Their website suggests that the company offers Drying, Refrigeration and storage. Amaizz products and solutions are focused on a broad range of clients, mainly small and medium-scale farmers but also include commercial farmers, factories, and logistic centers. The most urgent need for farmers is comprehensive solutions in drying machines, cooling units, and storage facilities. Amaizz provides portable, durable, cost-effective and clean energy solutions that address the farmers needs. In 2016, Amaizz won an Israeli Challenge and has gained the support of Israeli Chief Scientist for its innovative drying technology. BIOFEED LTD Biofeed is focused on spray-free solutions for fruit fly control. It has won a challenge to develop a solution to India's challenge of pest control when it comes to Agriculture, that of controlling the Oriental Fruit fly that currently causes a damage of $3 billion to India's $9.2 billion mango business. Founded by Dr. Nimrod Israely in 2004. Biofeed used in Karnataka has already managed to control fruit infestation by 90%. According to their bio, it is expected that the fruit industry could regain over 5 million tons of quality produce. AQUALLENCE Aquallence's product "NanoBlue", is the world's first Point of Entry Plug & Play grid power-free water purification and disinfection solution for household, residential and Rural water systems. Their product guarantees removal of viruses, bacteria, cysts, arsenic 3 and 5, lead, mercury, iron, odor and chlorine by using grid power-free ozone-based technology. Aquallence addresses the poor and deteriorating quality of water in both municipal and rural sectors. Rural water is contaminated by micro-biological and chemical contaminants, exposing many rural residents to disease. To which country do you go back when you have never been anywhere else? What happens when a country that is the only home you know, the country into which you were born, the country in which generations of your forefathers have died and been cremated or buried, says you do not and never did belong here? Four million people who have been left out of Assams National Register of Citizens (NRC) are set to find out. The idea of the NRC was mooted in 1951, and was meant to document the residents of every village, noting their names, ages, parents and spouses names, and details of their landholdings. The reason Assam began maintaining this register was paranoia about immigration into a country which had not existed half a decade earlier. The demand for the updation of Assams NRC has been made consistently for over 45 years. The Illegal Migrants Act has been in force in the state for 35 years. The protests and demand for legislation have become such a part of the fabric of the state and the workings of the country that they would have been easiest to ignore, as so much else is ignored. Yet, with the price of fuel skyrocketing, the value of the rupee falling, scams being uncovered everyday, and little to recommend it to the people for its next term, the central government appears to have decided it is time to distract, yet again. And so, now, after decades of protests, the register is being updated. For one to find ones name in the register, one will have to provide proof of residence in other parts of the country prior to 1971, for those who have been resident in Assam on or after March 25 that year. Those who cannot provide such proof and those who migrated from foreign soil after that date will be, in all likelihood, deported, despite the Supreme Courts delicate suggestion that no harsh measures should be resorted to. When the July 30 version of the NRC list was found to have rendered 40 lakh residents stateless, politicians have rushed to state that it is only a draft list, and that people whose names are missing can file their claims from August 30 to September 28. It is not clear what will happen once they do. Will they be allowed to stay on in the country until the decision regarding their claim is made? Can they be deported? And if they dont know where they came from, to where will they be deported? What about those who have Aadhaar cards, touted as the ID that will end the need for all other IDs? And under such circumstances, what relevance does the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, which makes certain illegal migrants from minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship, have? The first draft of the NRC list was released on December 31, 2017, and missed more than 1.39 crore applicants names. At the time, ministers and Members of Parliament said their own names were not on the list and it would all be sorted out in due course. But no deadline was set then, and none has been now. The deadline specified for eligibility to the NRC, 1971, is arbitrary. The war for the liberation of Bangladesh did see an enormous wave of immigrants who were essentially refugees fleeing persecution and death but the border has always been porous. Why are those who ran for their lives after 1971 less deserving of shelter than those who did before? And why are Bangladeshi Hindus more deserving of shelter than Bangladeshi Muslims, in a country whose constitution marks it as a socialist, secular, democratic republic? With the general elections coming up next year, every political party is anxious to appease the majority of voters. The number of people who have been left out of the NRC of a single state in this country is larger than the population of several other countries. Are we going to deport an entire population? Do they not matter, for as long as they cannot swing the results of the elections? How ironical it is that we continue to nurse a paranoia against refugees on the one hand, while raging against the tightening of visa rules for Indian immigrants to the West on the other hand. Even as we scream ourselves hoarse about European countries that will not give refuge to Syrians fleeing the war, about children being separated from their mothers by American border control authorities, we are doing exactly the same thing to Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi Hindus. In the fervour of jingoism that passes for patriotism in a country that is not even a century old, we have just caused four million people to cease to exist, made them ghosts in their own land. Nandini is a journalist and humour writer based in Madras. She is the author of Hitched: The Modern Woman and Arranged Marriage. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd424fae0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd424bac8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd424fae0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd424bac8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd424fb10)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd424bac8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd424bac8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3c2a5a0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd41ffb18)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd41ffb18)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd4476128)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcc90bda0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd4476128)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcc90bda0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd441f740)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcc90bda0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fcc90bda0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd37b0c80)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd446c9e0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd446c9e0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd40cf630)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd40c6f40)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd40cf630)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd40c6f40)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd407fda0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd40c6f40)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd40c6f40)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd37afb78)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3f90e80)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3f90e80)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3fa9e80)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd4269330)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3fa9e80)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd4269330)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3f7b350)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd4269330)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd4269330)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd37affb0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7f8f0e0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7f8f0e0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3c82df8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3ba0df8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3c82df8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3ba0df8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3c926d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3ba0df8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3ba0df8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd37b05f8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd37aff80)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd37aff80)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Blend of novices, veterans to fly on first private US spaceships Tampa, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 NASA on Friday named the first nine astronauts who will fly to space on Boeing and SpaceX vehicles in 2019 -- a mix of novices and veterans who are tasked with restoring America's ability to send humans into orbit. These pioneering flights to the International Space Station aboard commercially built crew capsules will be the first leaving US soil to put people into orbit since the iconic space shuttle program ended in 2011. For the past seven years, NASA astronauts have hitched rides to the orbiting outpost on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft -- at a cost of some $80 million a seat. "This is a big deal for our country and we want America to know that we are back, that we are flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said as he unveiled the crew members in Houston, Texas. An unmanned Boeing flight test is scheduled for later this year, with the first crew on board in mid-2019, NASA said. For SpaceX, a demonstration flight with no passengers is set for November 2018, and the first manned flight set for April 2019. Those named for the crew test flights for Boeing's Starliner include NASA shuttle veterans Eric Boe and Christopher Ferguson, along with Nicole Aunapu Mann, a naval aviator who was named a NASA astronaut in 2013 and will be making her first flight to space. "It is going to be a proud moment for America," Mann said. US President Donald Trump also praised the news while giving himself a pat on the back: "NASA, which is making a BIG comeback under the Trump Administration, has just named 9 astronauts for Boeing and Spacex space flights," he tweeted. "We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them," Trump said. "Exciting things happening." "Space Force!" he added, referencing a sixth branch of the military he has called for that would focus on defending US interests. - More astronauts to come - SpaceX's first crew tests will be manned by shuttle veterans Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. After that, the companies move on to actual missions. NASA "has contracted six missions, with as many as four astronauts per mission, for each company," the agency said. On board Starliner's first mission will be NASA veteran Sunita Williams, a retired Navy captain and experienced space shuttle astronaut, and Josh Cassada, a Navy pilot making his first flight to space. SpaceX's first crew will include naval aviator Victor Glover, also a novice to spaceflight, and shuttle veteran Michael Hopkins. More astronauts will be announced to join the crews at a later date, NASA said. NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 as part of its commercial crew program, aimed at helping private industry build spaceships to reach low-Earth orbit. "The goal is to have safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and foster commercial access to other potential low-Earth orbit destinations," NASA said. The US space agency, meanwhile, is working on building rockets and spacecraft that could allow humans to return to the Moon in the coming decade. Both Boeing and SpaceX are slightly behind schedule when it comes to their crew vehicles. The first manned flights were initially supposed to take place in 2018. Colombian army accuses ELN rebels as six people kidnapped Bogota, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 ELN Marxist guerrillas on Friday claimed the kidnapping of six people including three police officers and a soldier in the lawless jungle area of northern Colombia. The six people were traveling in a boat on the river Arquia when they were "illegally detained by armed men wearing military uniforms," Colombia's army said. The kidnapping took place just two days after outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos admitted defeat in his bid to sign a ceasefire with the National Liberation Army rebels ahead of his handing over power to hardline right-wing successor Ivan Duque on Tuesday. ELN Western War Front commander Omar Gomez confirmed his group was responsible in an audio recording sent to journalists. "We will do everything possible to keep these gentlemen safe, giving them the best treatment we can," he said in the clip. The two sides released a joint statement following the Cuban-hosted talks saying that "significant progress has been made." On Wednesday, Santos had said there was "very little missing" from an agreement. President-elect Duque however has called for a tougher stance on negotiations with the ELN, the last militant group fighting authorities in Colombia following the historic 2016 peace agreement signed with larger FARC guerrillas. The army said the kidnapped soldier was on the boat suffering from a tropical disease, and was in was need of "urgent treatment." Pompeo calls for 'maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure' on N. Korea Singapore, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Saturday for pressure to be maintained on North Korea as concerns mount that Pyongyang is making slow progress towards denuclearisation. In Singapore ahead of a major security forum, Pompeo called for "maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure" against Pyongyang. His North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, is also in the city-state for the ASEAN Regional Forum, which takes place later in the day. But Pompeo said he was yet to meet with him on the sidelines of the gathering. At a landmark summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While there have been small signs of progress since the summit, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of United Nations sanctions on the North. North Korea gets illegal oil, enlists Syria arms broker: UN report United Nations, United States, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 North Korea has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade UN sanctions and enlisted a Syrian arms broker to sell weapons to Yemen and Libya, a UN report said Friday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue to Kim Jong Un's regime. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, said the report seen by AFP. North Korea "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report sent to the council. The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. - Arms peddling through Syria - North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea. With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment." The panel continues to investigate the military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly $14 million from October to March. "Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap on fuel supplies through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China however put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018, meaning that it would now be in violation of sanctions resolutions. Pompeo calls for pressure to be maintained on N. Korea Singapore, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Saturday for pressure to be maintained on North Korea as a UN report warned Pyongyang is circumventing tough sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programme. In Singapore ahead of a major security forum, Pompeo said he had urged other countries to strictly enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea, which reports suggest has made slow progress to disarmament following a landmark June summit. The US's top diplomat said he had "emphasized the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation that DPRK has agreed to," using the initials of the North's official name. "I must say from my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," Pompeo told a press conference. "We're determined to do it, Chairman Kim is committed to doing it. I'm optimistic that we will get this done." His comments came as a UN report said Friday that North Korea has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions. The 62-page report sent to the Security Council also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports including coal, iron and seafood that generate millions of dollars in revenue for the reclusive regime. Pompeo has met with the foreign ministers of China and South Korea in Singapore, as well as with his Southeast Asian counterparts. His North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, is also in the city-state for the ASEAN Regional Forum, which takes place later in the day. But Pompeo said he was yet to meet with him on the sidelines of the gathering. - 'Joint ventures' - At the summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While there have been small signs of progress since the summit, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of sanctions on the North. "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said. "If these reports are proven accurate and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he added. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. The foreign ministers from all nations involved in stalled "six-party" negotiations with North Korea aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear programme will be at the gathering: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Pompeo said that during his meetings in Singapore, he called for countries to "strictly enforce all sanctions including the complete shut down of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum". Pompeo calls for pressure to be maintained on N. Korea Singapore, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Saturday for pressure to be maintained on North Korea as a UN report warned Pyongyang is circumventing tough sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programme. In Singapore ahead of a major security forum, Pompeo said he had urged other countries to strictly enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea, which appears to have made slow progress towards denuclearisation following a pledge at a landmark June summit. He singled out Russia after reports suggested they were breaching sanctions and said China -- one of Pyongyang's few allies -- had vowed to enforce the measures. The US top diplomat said he had "emphasised the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation that DPRK has agreed to", using the initials of the North's official name. "I must say from my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," Pompeo told a press conference. "We're determined to do it, Chairman Kim is committed to doing it. I'm optimistic that we will get this done." As ministers gathered for a photo at the meeting in the city-state, Pompeo went over to greet his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho, with the pair shaking hands, exchanging smiles and a few words. Pompeo has travelled to the North several times in recent months, including in July as he sought to flesh out Pyongyang's denuclearisation commitment. - Evading sanctions - His comments came as a UN report said Friday that North Korea has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions. The 62-page report sent to the Security Council also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports including coal, iron and seafood that generate millions of dollars in revenue for the reclusive regime. At the summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While there have been small signs of progress, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of sanctions. There has been no clear indication how long it will take the North to disarm or how exactly it will do so, and Pompeo said in Singapore the timing would be up to Kim. "The ultimate timeline for denuclearisation will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he told local broadcaster Channel NewsAsia in an interview. "The decision is his." At Saturday's press conference, Pompeo said the US was "heartened" by Pyongyang's recent return of the remains of dozens of American soldiers killed during the Korean War. But he also warned that Washington would take the infringement of sanctions by other countries "very seriously". "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said. "If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he added. - Oil transfers - Pompeo said that during his meetings in Singapore, he called specifically for countries to enforce sanctions by stopping ship-to-ship transfers of petrol. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. The US top diplomat said that in talks Friday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was clear on China's "continued commitment" to enforce sanctions. Pompeo also held talks with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. Wang also met with the North's Ri in Singapore and praised Pyongyang's "efforts in promoting the denuclearisation process", China's official Xinhua news agency said. After attending the Singapore meeting, Ri will head to Iran for an official visit, according to North Korea's official news agency KCNA. Iran, whose nuclear drive has also sparked international alarm, and North Korea are reported to have a history of cooperation in military and missile technology. N. Korea criticises US for urging enforcement of sanctions Singapore, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 North Korea's foreign minister Saturday criticised the US for urging that sanctions be maintained against Pyongyang, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked the international community to keep up pressure against the reclusive regime. Despite "goodwill measures" taken by the North, Washington was "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," the North's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told a security forum in Singapore, according to a statement. DPRK are the initials of the North's official name. He criticised "insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention". "Impatience is not helpful at all for building confidence. Especially, advancing unilateral demands will further deepen mistrust, instead of reviving trust," said the statement. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Earlier Pompeo urged major powers attending the same forum, including China and Russia, to keep up sanctions pressure against the North. At landmark talks in June with US President Donald Trump, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement but progress appears to have been slow. Colombia's ELN says they are willing to release hostages Bogota, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 Colombian ELN guerrillas said Saturday they were willing to release the six people kidnapped one day earlier in a lawless jungle area of northern Colombia. The hostages -- including three police officers and a soldier -- were kidnapped as they were traveling in a boat on the Arquia river in the Choco department. The kidnapping took place just two days after outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos admitted defeat in his bid to sign a ceasefire with the National Liberation Army rebels ahead of his handing over power to hardline right-wing successor Ivan Duque on Tuesday. The ELN, which confirmed it was responsible for the kidnapping, said Saturday that it informed the Colombian government peace negotiator that they were willing to free their hostages. In a statement, the guerrillas urged the High Commissioner for Peace to get the Colombian military to create the "optimum security conditions" to facilitate the release. The ELN "war front" that claimed the kidnapping said that in the Choco region there are intense military and paramilitary operations "that put at risk" the guerrillas and their hostages. The statement added that the hostages were receiving proper protection and treatment. The army earlier said the soldier who was kidnapped was on the boat suffering from a tropical disease, and was in was need of "urgent treatment." President-elect Duque has called for a tougher stance on negotiations with the ELN, the last militant group fighting authorities in Colombia following the historic 2016 peace agreement signed with larger FARC guerrillas. Boumerdes (Algeria), August 4, 2018 (SPS) - The 9th edition of the Summer University of the executives of the Polisario Front and Saharawi state has kiched off, on Saturday, in Algerian province of Boumerdes. The Summer University held under the theme commitment and persistence for independence and freedom, in the period of August 4-14, 2018, is organized by the Algerian National Committee of Solidarity with the Saharawi People in cooperation with the Sahrawi Republic Embassy to Algeria. The 9th edition of the Summer University bears the name of Martyr Boukhari Ahmed and attended by more than 400 participants from various institutions of the Saharawi government and the Polisario Front, in addition to a delegation of human rights from the occupied territories of Western Sahara and southern Morocco. During the Summer University activities, lectures will be presented by Sahrawi and Algerian lecturers on topics related to the Sahrawi issue such as human development, political developments at the national and regional levels, the rights of peoples and the role of the international community in protecting them, the rights of peoples and the role of the international community in protecting them, the security challenges and ways to tackle the phenomenon of drug trafficking, organized crime and others. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA Boumerdes (Algeria), August 4, 2018 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, on Saturday attended the opening of the 9th edition of the Polisario Front and Sahrawi state executives in the University of Mohamed Bougherra in Boumerdes, Algeria, with the participation of 400 delegates alongside representatives of Algerian civil society and international figures active in defending the right of peoples to self-determination. The opening ceremony of the Summer University, which will last until 15 August, under the theme "The 45th anniversary of the foundation of the Polisario Front and outbreak of the armed struggle, commitment and persistence for independence and freedom," attended also by Algerian political parties and human rights organizations as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to Algeria. President of the Summer University, Khatri Addouh, stressed in his opening speech that the event was "an opportunity to consolidate fraternal ties and solidarity between the Sahrawi and Algerian peoples and benefit from the Algerian experience in various fields." For his part, Saeed Ayachi, head of the Algerian National Committee of Solidarity with the Sahrawi people, reiterated Algeria's firm position on the Sahrawi just issue, stressing that this position stems from the principles of the glorious November Revolution. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA English03/08/2018 KUZET: GENOCIDE, ETHNIC CLEANSING COMMITTED AGAINST SERBS BANJALUKA, August 3 /SRNA/ - Banjaluka Coordinator of the Documents and Information Centre Veritas Radomir Kuzet says genocide and ethnic cleansing against Serbs was committed in the Croatian 1995 Operation Storm as more than 1,860 Serbs from the Republic of Serbian Krajina were killed and a quarter of a million expelled. "The Hague Tribunal said it wasnt that. But the objective and plan were executed and the operation was carried out in detail. From the first day they wanted to materialise the idea of killing one third of the local Serbs, converting one third into Roman Catholics, and expelling one third from the country. In my opinion, the operation succeeded in all that, Kuzet told a press conference in Banjaluka on Friday marking the 23rd anniversary of the Serb exodus from Croatia. The Hague Tribunal did not fulfil its role regarding the prosecution of crimes against Serbs in Croatia, he said. "The court administered selective justice mainly to the detriment of Serbs even though it is indisputable that Croatian forces with the support of NATO, the so-called Army of BIH and Croatian Defence Council /HVO/ expelled nearly a quarter of a million Serbs and killed more than 1,860 in Operation Storm in August 1995, said Kuzet. Of the total number of Serb casualties, light has been shed on the fate of 1,084, while 777 others are still listed missing. Krajina was devastated, burnt, looted, and destroyed, even though it was a UN-protected zone, noted Kuzet. He added that in 2015 Operation Storm was qualified by the International Court of Justice as an ethnic cleansing operation and added that the lives of Serbs in Croatia were now very hard and that certain Serb areas were inhabited by Croats. A Veritas member Slobodan Peric stated that the 23rd anniversary of the exodus from Krajina will be marked in Backa Palanka, Serbia on Saturday, in an event organised by the governments of Serbia and Republika Srpska and the Serbian Orthodox Church. The same day in Banjaluka flowers will be laid at the Perduovo cemetery at 9.30 a.m. in honour of the fallen people from Krajina and a commemoration held in the Christ the Saviour Church at 11 a.m. A public debate Days of Sorrow and Remembrance will take place at the National Theatre at noon where there will be talk about the legal issues of the Krajinas displaced and ailing population. The anniversary will also be marked in Novi Grad on Monday, August 6. "On that occasion, a liturgy will be conducted in the Church of Sts Peter and Paul the Apostles at 9 a.m., a commemoration is scheduled for 10 a.m., and a candle-lighting custom for 10.45 a.m. Wreaths will be laid into the Una from the bridge of salvation at the border crossing, said Peric. In August 1995, a total of 100,000 Serbs expelled from the Republic of Serbian Krajina crossed the bridge. Numerous delegations will lay wreaths to a memorial to civilian casualties in the settlement of Tunjica outside Novi Grad on Monday at 11.15 a.m., the point where the Croatian forces entered Srpska in September 1995, killing 37 civilians, 18 soldiers and two police officers. "A memorial service will be held in the St Sava Church in Svodna near Novi Grad at 11.30 a.m. and at noon wreaths laid to the memorial cross which was erected in 2012 by Veritas in honour of six civilians killed in a refugee convoy shelled by the Croatian army, said Peric. Veritas reported that a memorial service and wreath-laying ceremony will be held near a memorial on the Petrovac road on Tuesday at 11 a.m. "A visit to a memorial room in Drinic will be organised on Tuesday at noon, said Veritas. Free transport will be available from Banjaluka to Janjile outside Petrovac and more information is available at the telephone number 066 364 022. According to the data provided by the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees, 250,000 Krajina Serbs were expelled, 1,856 were killed and 836 are listed missing. The operation began on August 4, 1995 with an offensive on Banija, Lika, Kordun and northern Dalmatia. /end/ds English03/08/2018 THE IC KEEPING QUIET JUST LIKE 23 YEARS AGO BELGRADE, August 3 /SRNA/ - The International Court of Justice has qualified the Croatian criminal operation Storm as ethnic cleansing, but this did not influence Croatia to give up celebrating, without an ICJ order, August 4 as a double state holiday, about which the IC is keeping quiet now as it was keeping quiet in 1995, the Veritas Documentation Center said today. Veritas says that the ethnic cleansing operation and mass crimes have been celebrated year by year, turning the celebration into the glorification of the Ustashe movement and outbursts of hatred against Serbs, and that promises on protection of national minority rights which Croatian officials gave at the Ban Jelacic Square in Zagreb five years ago when Croatia joined the EU turned into their opposite. The Serbian community has become even smaller, more disenfranchised, more attacked, and the IC, including the NATO and EU, whose member Croatia became in the meantime, is keeping quiet just like it kept quiet 23 years ago, says a press release from Veritas. The Veritas Documentation Center says that on August 4, 1995, the Croatian Armed Forces, approved and supported by NATO, acting in concert with forces of the Croatian Defense Council /HVO/ and the so-called Army of BiH, committed aggression against northern Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun and Banija, that is, the Serbian Autonomous Province of Krajina which was a part of the then Republic of the Serbian Krajina. The aggression was committed despite the fact that the area was under UN protection as sectors South and North, and that representatives of the Republic of the Serbian Krajina one day before the aggression in Geneva and Belgrade accepted an IC proposal on a peaceful resolution of the conflict. 200,000 soldiers were engaged against 230,000 residents and 30,000 soldiers of the Republic of the Serbian Krajina, of which number 138,500 members of the Croatian Army, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the HVO directly took part in the operation, and if one adds to this forces of the so-called Army of BiH and NATO, there were more aggressors than residents of the Krajina, and there were at least seven aggressor soldiers against one soldier of the Republic of the Serbian Krajina. In a few days, the resistance of the Army of the Serbian Krajina was broken, and the people of the Western Krajina, more than 220,000 of them, having learned from historical experience, started by that time the greatest Serbian migration to the East, to their brothers in faith and nation. Even after the Army of the Serbian Krajina ceased to resist, the aggressor was killing people who did not want to or simply could not leave their ancestral homes, but also killing those in refugee convoys, deep in the territory of Republika Srpska. The Veritas keeps records of 1,861 Serbs killed and went missing during and after this military operation, of whom 1,211 are civilians /65%/, of whom some 75% were more than 60 years of age. There are 548 women among the victims /29%/, of whom around 80% were older than 60 years of age, which is one of black records o the civil war of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Of the total number of victims, the fate of 1,084 persons has been resolved, and 777 persons are still listed as missing, of whom 588 are civilians, including 295 women. Croatia is avoiding, without a proper reason, to exhume mortal remains of around 152 Serbs, buried as John Doe, which is a unique case in the former Yugoslavia, and is procrastinating, also without a proper reason, to identify 362 mortal remains. The aggression code-named Storm was conducted just like those that preceded it the Miljevac Plateau, Maslenica, Medacki Dzep and Flash, in keeping with the scorched earth tactics, which in mid-November 1995 reached the scope of complete destruction of the Serbian community in the Krajina. Even though it was obvious that the Croatian authorities have conducted the aggression in order to get the territory without the Serbian majority that lived there, the UN Security Council, except for strong condemnation of the large-scale Croatian military operation, did not bring any punitive measures against the aggressor. The Storm is the only event in which Serbs were victims, for which people were tried before the ICTY. The ICTY Trial Chamber unanimously concluded that two out of three accused Generals were participants in a joint criminal enterprise the purpose of which was to permanently remove Serbian civilians from the Krajina by force and threats, and sentenced them Ante Gotovina to 24 and Mladen Markac to 18 years in prison. By a narrow majority three to two the Appeals Chamber overturned the ruling of the Trial Chamber and exonerated the accused generals of all counts of the indictment. Even though the Appeals Chamber did not deny crimes from the ruling, it did not find it appropriate to sentence Generals. Out of a few members of the Croatian armed forces who have been prosecuted for war crimes against Serbs during the operation Storm, Croatian courts sentenced only one person /in the Prkuljan and Mandici case/, and several families of Serbs killed in this criminal operation managed to get compensation for their killed relatives after long and exhausting court proceedings. Veritas says that the BiH Court also sentenced one member of the 5th Corps of the so-called Army of BiH for war crime against four members of the Army of the Serbian Krajina, who, with his consent, were killed in Suva Medja in the territory of Croatia by a mujahedin from the same unit. A litigation is in progress before a federal court in Chicago involving a class action lawsuit filed in August, 2010 by Krajina Serbs against the MPRI consulting firm, that is, its legal successor, alleging complicity in genocide, which, after long negotiations ended in settlement in the fall of 2016. More valuable than a symbolic amount of money is the knowledge that at least a part of the world public has been informed of the tragedy of Serbs from the Republic of the Serbian Krajina, to which American organizations, such as MPRI, contributed greatly, says the Veritas. It says that the operation Storm is also before the European Court of Human Rights where courts proceedings are in progress involving lawsuits filed against Croatia by Serbs who lost their cases before Croatian courts or think that Croatias state bodies failed to conduct efficient investigation into the deaths of their relatives, civilians, who were killed during or immediately after this military operation. /end/sg In July 2018 Taiwan declared its 29 AH-64E helicopter gunships, and the units they belonged to, combat ready. This comes seven years after the United States finally agreed to make the sale (despite pressure from China not to do it) and a decade after Taiwan realized it would have to retire or extensively and expensively refurbish its 61 elderly AH-1W gunships. It took so long to get the AH-64 force combat ready because Taiwan had never used the AH-64 before and the AH-64E was a far more complex and capable gunship than the decades-old AG-1W. Taiwan established a 19-month training course for AH-64E pilots plus even more training for combat operations. Early on Taiwan learned that the unique atmospheric conditions found in Taiwan required attention as well. This lesson was learned early on when Taiwan lost one of its AH-64Es seven months after the first ones arrived in late 2013. At that point, Taiwan had some AH-64 pilots who had been trained in the U.S. and were able to report what happened. The AH-64E was lost (the crew survived) because the helicopter encountered one of the unique (and disorienting) weather conditions found in Taiwan. The accident report described the accident as the result of unexpected weather and human error. The crash was the result of the AH-64E encountering a rapid change in the weather that resulted in the helicopter, moving along at an altitude of about 40 meters, suddenly enveloped in a rapidly falling cloud ceiling. The pilot should have immediately switched to flying via instruments, but he did not, became disoriented and flew into a nearby building. As a result of this Taiwanese AH-64E crews received more training for situations like, especially since rapid changes in cloud cover are not rare events in some parts of Taiwan. The new AH-64E pilots now receive through training on all the unique (and potentially dangerous) flying conditions that can be encountered (and often taken advantage of in combat) on the island. In late 2013 Taiwan received the first six (of thirty) AH-64Es. Taiwan had first asked to buy AH-64s in 2001 and was turned down, so as not to annoy China. The 2011 agreement came after three years of further negotiations and delays created by Chinese interference. All thirty AH-64s arrived by the end of 2014. The 10 ton AH-64E carries a pilot and a weapons officer as well as about a ton of weapons. The AH-64 can operate at night and has a cruising speed of 260 kilometers an hour. Many more of the existing 1,100 AH-64s (American and foreign) were upgraded to the E standard. In 2012, the U.S. Army began receiving the first production models of the AH-64E (originally the AH-64D Block III). This was the latest version of the AH-64, which had its first flight in 1975 and numerous upgrades since. It was decided that the Block III improvements were so numerous and dramatic that it made more sense to go to a simpler and more descriptive AH-64E designation. AH-64Es have more powerful and fuel-efficient engines, as well as the much-improved electronics. AH-64Es also have Internet-like capabilities, enabling these gunships to quickly exchange images, video, and so on with other aircraft and ground troops. AH-64Es can control several UAVs and launch missiles at targets spotted by these UAVs. The AH-64E radar has longer range and onboard computers are much more powerful. The electronics are easier to upgrade and maintain. The combination of improved fire control and Internet capabilities greatly increased the capabilities of the AH-64. By the end of the decade, 634 U.S. Army AH-64s will be upgraded to the E standard. The AH-64A was the initial model, entering service in 1986. The last AH-64A was taken out of service in 2012, so it could be upgraded to the AH-64D standard. The AH-64B was an upgrade proposed for the early 1990s but was canceled, as was a similar C model upgrade. Some of these canceled improvements were in great demand but were delayed because of budget cuts after the Cold War ended in 1991. Thus the B and C model upgrades were incorporated in the AH-64D Block I (1997). The AH-64D Longbow (because of the radar mast, making it possible to see ground targets and flying obstacles in all weather) models began appearing in 2002. By 2006, over 500 American AH-64As had been upgraded to AH-64Ds. The U.S. Army has over 700 Apache (AH-64) helicopter gunships in service, out of about 1,200 built. This helicopter basically provides the close air support, and so far all those built have spent more than three million hours in the air. Unlike jet fighters, the Apache only has a max speed of 290 kilometers an hour. The average sortie for an AH-64 lasts about 90 minutes when just using internal fuel (that can be tripled with the maximum of four external tanks). Typically, AH-64s in combat will fly up to half a dozen sorties a day, often taking on additional ammo when they land to refuel. The Apache is a Cold War-era weapon, designed in the 1970s for seeking out and killing armored vehicles on the battlefield. It has been good at that and carries up to 16 Hellfire missiles and a 30mm automatic (ten rounds a second) cannon with 1200 rounds of armor piercing ammo. Over the last decade, the AH-64 has evolved into a powerful weapon against irregular forces (in Iraq and Afghanistan). While global defense spending has been basically static since 2011, stuck between $1.7 trillion and $1.8 trillion a year. Spending has been changing dramatically because what is being spent by nations in some regions. You can see this by the fact that arms exports rose sharply going from nearly $70 billion a year in 2010 to about $100 billion a year now. There have also been changes in who is exporting what. For the last five years (2013-17) the top exporters were the United States (34 percent of total arms exports), Russia (22 percent), France (6.7 percent), Germany (5.8 percent), China (5.7 percent), Britain (4.8 percent), Spain (2.9 percent), Israel (2.9 percent), Italy, (2.5 percent) and Netherlands (2.1 percent). Not surprisingly a small number of nations dominate the arms trade. The U.S. and Russia account for 56 percent of exports, the same share as the previous period (2008-12). One difference in that in the most current five years the U.S. share rose from 30 to 34 percent and Russia declined from 26 to 20 percent. The U.S. has long been dominant in arms exports because American stuff was considered the best (most effective and reliable), usually combat proven and backed by decades of excellent maintenance, upgrade and training support. The main competitor for the Americans was not Russia but other Western nations. Consider that taken together West European nations accounted for 27 percent of exports. Western gear is the most expensive and if you are facing a formidable opponent it is worth it. Russian and Chinese gear is often adequate for potential opponents many nations face, as well as those countries that mainly face internal opposition. Defense exports are best expressed as five-year averages because while national defense budgets dont vary a lot from year to year, export sales do. For example, French arms exports fell by 50 percent from 2016 to 2017. Annual increases are often of the same magnitude. These sharp ups and downs have much to do with the size of orders for aircraft and ships or, these days, smart bombs. The five-year averages smooth that out and give a better idea of who is doing what. What it comes down to is the United States, Russia and Western Europe account for nearly 84 percent of all arms exports. While China is increasing its share of arms exports (from 4.6 percent in 2008-12 to 5.7 percent in 2013-17) that growth tends to be at the expense of Russia for nations that do not, or cannot afford best or are outlaw buyers who are under arms import embargoes or are not nations at all (black marker dealers). China and Russia are also not bothered by the need for bribes and other shady terms of sale. Another factor to consider is that most of the arms exports go to Persian Gulf oil states, India and other Western nations with large defense budgets. Much of these sales are aircraft and associated equipment (weapons, like smart bombs and missiles as well as electron accessories and upgrades) and anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. West Europe is the main exporter of non-nuclear submarines, small to medium size warships and patrol boats as well as a lot of warplanes (fighters, helicopters and transports). Western nations sell a disproportionate amount of military services (training, maintenance, upgrades) even to nations using Russian and Chinese weapons. Outside of the U.S., Europe and China, the only new major supplier is South Korea (which went from .8 percent to 1.2 percent of exports in the last decade). Japan could be a major player (as they are planning to do) once they change their post-World War II constitution to allow for arms exports. Japan is already a major producer of modern weapons, but only for its own use. The growing arms exports are driven by increased defense spending in some regions. Until the last few years there continued to be cuts in the West (especially the Americas and Europe). That began to change after 2014 as Russia and China became more aggressive. Actually, if you exclude the United States, defense spending went up every year since 2011. Thats because theres an arms race going on in the Persian Gulf and East Asia even as the Americans scaled back their spending for a few years. One side effect of this is the emergence of Saudi Arabia as the third highest spender (after the U.S. and Chia) in 2016, displacing Russia. Ironically both Russia and Saudi Arabia depend heavily on oil exports to maintain defense spending. Despite the sharp (more than 50 percent at one point) drop in oil prices since 2013, the Saudis were better able to continue their high spending while Russia was forced to cut back. The Saudis are feeling the fiscal pressure from lower oil prices and will soon have to make cuts. Russia has other problems, like international sanctions because of threats to neighbors. This has crippled the Russian economy, which was already in trouble because of corruption and foreigners reluctant to do business with them. A lot of that spending in the wealthier developing nations like Saudi Arabia is for modern weapons they cannot produce themselves. Since 2008 deliveries of such weapons to these nations have averaged about $48 billion a year and most of this has gone to the oil-rich Arab states buying the latest and most expensive military tech in an effort to deal with increasing aggressiveness by Iran. While the United States and China produce nearly all their own weapons Saudi Arabia imports nearly all of its weapons, mostly from the U.S. and Europe. Thus Saudi Arabia accounts for about two-thirds of the annual foreign weapons imports for developing nations. In the last decade, the United States had cut spending about four percent (to the $595 billion) before reversing that recently Chinas spending more than doubled (to the current $220 billion). Russian spending nearly doubled (to $66 billion) after dropping sharply in the 1990s and rebounding slowly and then declining again after 2014 (because of sanctions and low oil prices). In the meantime, Saudi Arabia moved past Russia and is now spending $87 billion a year. India is spending more each year and at its current $54 billion has passed France ($51 billion) and is about to surpass Britain ($55 billion.) After more than a decade of cuts, European spending went up over one percent in 2015, mainly because East European nations are spending a lot more to deal with a growing threat from Russia. Even Germany is now increasing spending to deal with the Russian threat. A major factor in the relatively static global spending was that by 2010 a decade of heavy defense spending, to replace a lot of the elderly Cold War era equipment was largely completed. Also ending, especially for the United States, was an expensive war on terror operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military, especially the army and marines, used the demand for new weapons and equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan as an opportunity to replace a lot of aging Cold War gear. The air force and navy did not do as well and now, with American defense spending largely static, there will be fewer American warplanes and warships because the money and popular support for replacing a lot of the Cold War era warships and aircraft is not there. That trend may be reversed because of the growing Chinese threat. Most Western nations deliberately shrank their armed forces after the Cold War ended in 1991. This included China and Russia, although both of these nations are still buying a lot of modern gear. Russia does it now because it was too broke in the 1990s to buy much and the Chinese because they didnt have a modern force at the end of the Cold War and are determined to take the lead in this area. Since 2014 a growing number of European have started increasing defense spending to deal with the Russian threats while Russia maintained defense spending for a few years to complete the program to replace the aging Cold War era weapons and equipment. This is all about basic economics. The Russian economy is in decline while China continues to grow. Since September 11, 2001, global defense spending increased nearly 50 percent and is now about 2.5 percent of global GDP. After the Cold War ended in 1991, defense spending declined for a few years to under a trillion dollars a year. But by the end of the 1990s, it was on the rise again. The region with the greatest growth has been the Middle East, where spending has increased over 60 percent in the last decade. The region with the lowest growth (six percent) was Western Europe. Five years of worldwide recession and the decline in spending by most Western nations has helped stall global defense spending at $1.7-1.8 trillion a year. Western defense firms are feeling this the most, as their sales have been flat from 2011 to 2014 but are now picking up. Colombo high rises a major fire risk, says UK expert By Alvin Sallay View(s): View(s): The fire risk in high rise buildings in Colombo is very high according to Dr. David Kirkham. Why? Because many developers are using combustible cladding. Cladding is a covering or coating on a building. It was made infamous by the Grenfell Tower fire in the salubrious area of North Kensington in West London which left 72 people dead last year. Dr. Kirkham, an internationally recognised expert in fixed fire-fighting systems, has examined in minute detail the causes behind the Grenfell Tower fire, labelled The Shame by a public enquiry in the UK. Why shame? Simply because it needed a major disaster for legislation to be changed in the UK. I hope Sri Lanka is clever enough not to have to kill its people to put in place legislation that can prevent or contain a major fire, says Dr. Kirkham at a public lecture at the Institute of Engineers in Colombo last week. Earlier that day, he had given a lecture to the Colombo Fire Brigade. Lets hope his thoughts and views are taken seriously with the mushrooming of high-rise apartments in this town. He is worried about the latter, not so much the new hotels which he believes stick to all fire-safety requirements for high rise buildings. There is a lot of combustible cladding all over Colombo. I have seen it, Dr Kirkham observed. Architects like making things look pretty and the cheapest way of doing that involves plastic. There is a lot of fire-risk in this town. Dr. Kirkham adds: At the end of the day it is all about compartmentation. To keep the fire contained, how good things like the fire doors are. Fires will start, but can they be contained? This question failed to be answered in the fire-ravaged 24-storey residential tower block in London last June. Parents threw their children out of the top floors and jumped themselves to escape the fire which had started due to a malfunctioning fridge-freezer on the fourth floor. The fire spread rapidly due to the buildings exterior cladding. It burned for about 60 hours before being extinguished, this despite 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines being involved. Everything which could go wrong went wrong at Grenfell Tower, according to Dr. Kirkham, a leading authority on risk and crisis management. The requirements were to have two staircases through which people could be evacuated in case of fire. It had only one. An extra staircase would cost money to put in. As such there was only one. It was all down to money. The exterior cladding had been done to beautify the building which was in a posh part of town so that it wasnt an eyesore to people living in multi-million pounds houses. The stay-put advice given by emergency services was a total disaster. There were no sprinklers, Dr. Kirkham revealed. Are high-rise apartments in Colombo geared for a similar disaster? Experts in the local industry fear not and are afraid of a Grenfell Tower equivalent happening one day, this despite fire safety legislations being looked at again. Lets look at the facts. The Colombo Fire Brigade has only one aerial ladder platform that can reach a maximum height of 54 metres (18 floors) for evacuation from the outside of the building. And it can only pump water to a maximum height of seven floors. Many high rises dont have fire detection and sprinkler systems. Owners of apartments in high rises which dont have smoke detection and sprinkler systems should bring this to the attention of the Condominium Management Authority. In many instances, unscrupulous developers have taken short cuts and even paid off officials to get their licences and buildings approved, said a local expert who wished to remain anonymous. Apparently in Malaysia, when a building needed approval that it had met all safety regulations from the Fire Department, the Fire Chief sent 30 officials to inspect so that no money could pass hands easily. We need built-in fire fighting systems for our super high rises. Some developers have stuck to regulations which are now outdated. This is another major problem in Sri Lanka: there is no time limit on building regulations. Sometimes regulations are obtained but the building is not built. There should be a permitted period, and if this expires, new approval must be obtained. At the moment Colombo is not geared to fight high rise fires, says the local expert. Yet, Dr. Kirkham believes Sri Lanka is in a much better place than the UK where it needed a major tragedy for the authorities to start getting their act together. It is perhaps a case of history repeating itself. It was only after the Great Fire of London in 1666 that legislation was brought in to contain the external spread of fire. Yet that didnt help for the residents of Grenfell Tower. Im not here as an expert nor am I here to tell you what to do. But you have got to look carefully at the design and construction of high rise buildings and also have ongoing safety control measures, Dr. Kirkham suggested. We must learn from Grenfell Tower. There were no tests done on the cladding used, the fire doors inside the building were inferior (due to cost cutting), the ventilation system was poor (again probably due to cost) and failed, there were no sprinkler systems (costs). It was a very small fire and should have been contained. But it wasnt and it got out and because of the combustible cladding, it spread rapidly. There was failure in the design and construction of the building, the fire control measures were a failure, the fire brigade response was quick but it failed to put out the fire, the stay-put policy was reversed too late, Dr. Kirkham said, spelling out the issues which went wrong. He added: Please dont let this happen in Sri Lanka. Dhammika Fernando, elected President IPM Sri Lanka 2018/19 View(s): Dhammika Fernando, a versatile, dynamic and experienced human resource management professional, was unanimously elected as the President of the IPM Sri Lanka Executive Council at the Annual General Meeting held on Saturday July 28. He will lead the highly acclaimed professional body to the next level of growth and expansion in the year 2018/19. Dhammika currently functions as the Executive General Manager of Tropical Findings (Pvt) Ltd, a Japanese multinational company operating in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone. Mr. Fernando is a past Chairman of the FTZMA (Free Trade Zones Manufacturers Association) having held the position for five consecutive years until 2015 and a member of the National Labour Advisory Council of the Ministry of Labour and also a member of the National Wages Board for the Apparel Trade. I am delighted that Dhammika was elected unanimously by the discerning membership of the nations leader in human resource management to lead the professional body in an exciting era of socio-digital change. As a versatile and dynamic professional with a wealth of experience on many fronts, he is ideally positioned to share his knowledge and insights to take IPM Sri Lanka to the next level, said Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri-Immediate Past President, IPM Sri Lanka. A Corporate Member of IPM since 2002, Mr. Fernando was first elected to the Governing Council of IPM Sri Lanka in 2007 and has since served in many capacities throughout his career in the Council. India, China object over digital ad issue View(s): Sri Lankas long-awaited digital advertising campaign has run into objections from two key bidders from India and China. The digital advertising campaign is set to get stalled by two more weeks as bidders from India and China have objected to the selection of the bid. Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga told the Business Times that the government had received objections from an Indian and a Chinese bidder. This would delay the campaign by two weeks but the minister was confident it would get on the air by mid August. He noted that other markets UK, France and Germany had not raised objections adding that the bids of these three would be sent to Cabinet next week. In the meantime, a CNN campaign was spearheaded with the government spending US$650, 000 for the advertising. This was introduced as an interim measure until such time that the digital marketing campaign would get underway. NDB making strides in Bangladesh By Jayampathy Jayasinghe View(s): View(s): National Development Bank (NDB) is the only foreign investment bank that operates in Bangladesh in a growing economy. We have also launched a strategic plan last year to be among the five commercial banks in Sri Lanka and have a short and long term strategy to improve the banks performance, said NDBs Director /Group CEO Dimantha Seneviratne at the NDB Investor Forum media briefing held at The Galadari Hotel Colombo last week. He said the NDB that commenced operations 40 years ago as a development bank now functions as a fully-fledged commercial bank from 2005 with 107 branches and added 50 per cent of its branch network in the last five years. Referring to digital banking, he said the bank launched a new digital financial solution unit which had recorded growth and is progressing rapidly. In the capital market cluster we are in a unique situation with subsidiaries of the NDB Investment Banking, NDB Work Management, stock-broking and with NDB Capital Bangladesh operation. We have employed the second largest number of Chartered Financial Analysts in the country. He said the banks staff strength had been increased to 2300 to support the growth in the branch network. NDB has been recognised as the best bank in Sri Lanka by the Global Finance Publication of the US. Referring to the banks credit cards, he said it has recorded a growth during the past one and a half years period. Asked why foreign funds are not flowing into the bank at the present juncture, the CEO replied that due to trade wars being waged in big economies such as the US, China and in Europe foreign investment has slowed down a bit but could gain momentum in the future. Others present at the media briefing were the NDB Chairman Ananda Atukorala, Group Chief Financial Officer Lalith Fernando, Vice President Corporate Banking Buwaneka Perera, Vice President Personal Banking Sanjaya Perera and CEO of NDB Capital Holding Ltd, Vajira Kulatilaka. Meanwhile in a media statement, NDB said it has secured impressive results for the six months ended 30 June 2018, continuing the strong growth it recorded last year. Commenting on this performance, NDB Group CEO Dimantha Seneviratne said that continuous improvement in financial performance recorded by the bank demonstrates the intrinsic capabilities of NDB, which are now being utilised through a meticulous strategy execution. Furthermore,he pointed out that the potential to reach greater heights is immense and with the support of the team, the Board and shareholders, the bank is on a mission to reap greater benefits as we forge ahead. The bank recorded an operating profit before tax on financial services of Rs. 4.81 billion, a 26 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth. Operating profits from core banking activities excluding equity income increased significantly by 53 per cent YoY to Rs. 4.25 billion compared to Rs. 2.79 billion in the comparative period. This operating profit growth was supported by enhanced performance of all key business segments. Post-tax profit at the bank level crossed the Rs. 2 billion mark to reach Rs. 2.77 billion. Profit attributable to shareholders improved remarkably, to Rs. 2.42 billion, a 63 per cent growth over the comparative period. An impressive 43 per cent YoY growth was recorded in Net Interest Income (NII) to Rs. 6.8 billion. Impairment charges saw a notable increase to Rs. 1.31 billion compared with Rs. 581 million of the prior period due to a combination of factors including slight increase in the NPL ratio and the predictive based collective impairment. The impairment charge for the period under review included individual impairment of Rs. 749 million and collective impairment of Rs. 544 million, the statement added. Total assets of the bank crossed Rs. 400 billion to reach Rs. 417 billion in H1 2018 while customer deposits grew exceptionally well during the six months by 9 per cent to Rs. 297 billion. This translates to a quantum growth of Rs. 24 billion. CASA deposits within overall deposits also increased by Rs. 6.5 billion. The continuous growth in the deposits has improved the loans to deposits ratio, benefitted the NIM and the net interest income, the bank said. Sri Lanka lacks skilled workers, need for improvements By Quintus Perera View(s): View(s): While the lack of skilled personnel is well known, the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) is now assessing the skills of Sri Lankans and moving to recognise the existing skills of employees. Kanishka Weerasinghe, Director General/CEO, EFC mentioned the above while answering queries by the media at a panel discussion on the Education Budget Proposals 2019 for Human Capital Development held last week at the National Human Resources Development Council of Sri Lanka (NHRDC). Dinesh Weerakkody, Chairman, NHRDC said that the country is faced with two issues, one is that the employers complain of not having sufficient people in such sectors like tourism, construction, technology, etc. which is the supply side problem and on the demand side employers complain that those coming out of the universities and schools do not have required skills. What they are attempting to do essentially, he said is to improve the quality of vocational education and make it more market oriented. He pointed out that 50 or 60 per cent of graduates coming out of the universities are from the social sciences like arts, commerce instead they should have people who do mathematics and technology and things like that. Make the courses relevant so that the students can be employed immediately, he said. Some of the proposals discussed at the panel discussion were: Introduction of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education for women to increase their participation in the labour force and to improve that experience for political and community leadership. Allocate Rs. 300 million to strengthen technology education to develop a work-ready workforce. Make a future-ready workforce through redefining the outcome based learning. Provide greater access to students in tertiary, vocational and professional education. Utilize Rs. 200 million for university education staff development, productivity and internationalising. He said they should create education and training institutions single window service centre for privation institutions and partnerships with government and foreign institutions on education and training; promote innovations and entrepreneurship development; have market orientation of curricular and branding of institutions and productivity and livelihoods enhancement of youth engaged in three-wheel driving. Mr. Weerasinghe, continuing the response to the media, said that their companies employ 10 per cent of the workforce and endorsed the holistic approach by the NHRDC to the skills development from the school, tertiary, and vocational and university education systems to acquire skills in relation to where the demand lies in the labour market. He said that while there are no takers for more than 10,000 opportunities for internship and training in their companies, the sad part is that the state sector students are unaware of the opportunities. He drew attention to the fact that students of the universities, tertiary and vocational training have to look at the world of work. Chandra Embuldeniya, academic and business leader famed for running a university and a Board Member, NHRDC focused on job orientation also responded to the media queries. He said that those who intend starting institutions face enormous setbacks of going pillar to post and suggested that there should be a single-window unit to efficiently break barriers like having to register the new institution with the Tertiary Vocational Education Commission and then having to request approvals from the Ministry of Higher Education apart from going to the Registrar of Companies and the Board of Investment. He said that the present university intake is 30,000 and pointed out that this number should be doubled. Some Sri Lankan students go overseas to follow professional studies at an enormous cost or otherwise the government has to establish universities at a cost of around Rs. 14 to 15 billion. Avoiding all this hassle, he suggested that a voucher system could be introduced where the student would be issued with a voucher to cover the cost of the course that could be paid back in three years. The panellists included: Dinesh Weerakkody, Chairman, NHRDC; Kanishka Weerasinghe, DG/CEO, EFC; Chandra Embuldeniya, Board Member, NHRDC; Jagath Perera, President, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and Dr. K. A. Lalithadheera, Director, NHRDC. The query by the media whether there should be private medical colleges in the country and whether they are budgeted in the proposals was anathema to some of the panelists who declined to respond to the queries. Samaraweera says no money to cope with periodic strike threats for salary hikes; refuses to endorse unsolicited proposals Ruling parties preparing for presidential election; Maithripala and Ranil launch campaigns; Rajitha Senaratne also making moves Dispute over PC polls, top officials resign from Speakers committee; JO says Govt. trying to delay elections Meka kondey pana nethi duruwala aanduwak or this is a weak, backboneless government, or so the Sri Lankans would think. Those words were not from a fiery opposition politician waxing eloquent at a public rally. It came from a senior member of the ruling coalition Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera. He made the criticism at last Tuesdays weekly Cabinet meeting. These remarks underscored the reality that more than three and half years into office, ministers were functioning as governments within a government with little or no regard for collective responsibility and uniformity. Just days earlier, Special Assignments Minister Sarath Amunugama and Health Minister cum official government spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne, became the governments trouble shooters. This was after railway engine drivers, guards, station masters and controllers threatened to go on a two-day strike. Their main demand was to redress promised salary anomalies which were three months overdue. The strike was to begin at midnight on Monday (July 30). That would have paralysed train services, the mode of transport particularly for a vast number of those employed in the state sector. The two ministers held a meeting with trade union representatives of the four groups in the railway. Their anxiety to avert a strike prompted them to assure that their demands would be placed before the Cabinet the next day. The planned 48-hour strike was called off. Minister Amunugama had sent in a cabinet memorandum which sought to address the anomalies. In essence, that meant additional financial commitments to the government. An angry Samaraweera reacted. For him, such requests were endemic. Was the government going to yield every time a trade union threatens strike action? Are the financial resources of the country adequate to cope with periodic strike threats for pay increases from many other unions? He was emphatic that it was not possible. That was why he believed on complaints that the Government was weak and had no backbone. There is plenty of wisdom in what he said. He is unequivocally voicing a concern expressed by opposition parties and even a larger section of the public. That there is hesitation even to do the right thing is well known. An official decision has been made to enforce the death penalty on those who are reportedly directing drug smuggling operations from their prison cells. No thought has been given to how this is possible. Is it not the humongous corruption at the prisons? It is no secret that money can buy anything inside a prison, except the release of a convict. Drugs are circulated and mobile phones are freely used. Special food for convicts is smuggled in. So is liquor. Similarly, corruption in the Police and other law enforcement agencies (including prisons) is why the drug trade has proliferated to such high levels. Elsewhere in this newspaper, an investigation into the flourishing drug trade reveals startling details. Hanging a prisoner convicted to death will make little or no difference. The government appears allergic to deal with corrupt activity if it feels there are no political connotations involving its perceived enemies. Most resources have been diverted there. More so with the elections around. This indecisiveness is also reflected by trade union and student protests in Colombo almost every week. The message the government wants to deliver by remaining silent is that protests are an essential component of democracy. In the process, the Government has lost sight of another important aspect. Like Abraham Lincoln declared in his Gettysburg address Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people. However, a large number people are put into immense inconvenience. Roads are blocked and traffic is held up. Bus services cannot operate. The government, private establishments and banks cannot do business. Then Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake proudly boasted that he would seclude an area for such protests saving the public from difficulties, but such a simple matter was not attended to. Thus, the greater good of the larger number of people has been completely ignored purportedly to demonstrate democracy in motion. Is this because no one is in control of the issues that affect the day-to-day lives of the public? Contrary to lofty claims by government leaders, who paint a rosy picture about a burgeoning economy, frequently advertising coming attractions, things look gloomy. This is why Samaraweera had to turn down ad hoc financial commitments. Nevertheless, he had to ask his Treasury officials to formulate a virtual sunshine budget. This is notwithstanding their concerns of dwindling revenue, rising debts and a serious balance of payments situation. Here again, it is with the upcoming elections in mind. Samaraweera found himself in an unenviable position at Tuesdays cabinet meeting. Minister Senaratne also complained that from 2015 to 2016 he had placed 48 proposals for approval. They were being stalled by those at the External Resources Division (ERD) and those at the Treasury, he alleged. Three years have lapsed and no action has been forthcoming, he claimed. He was strongly critical of Treasury officials. The Finance Minister dropped a bombshell. He said all these were based on unsolicited proposals. It was his position that such proposals should not be entertained. It seems strange that Minister Senaratne chose to pursue unsolicited proposals, which are in reality ones not sought or thought by the government but promoted by outside parties with vested interests. That there are vast financial gains in the form of commissions on such proposals is no secret. He was a strong critic of the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration for going ahead with a string of unsolicited proposals. They included the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port development project. Samaraweera put his foot down saying it was his view that none of the unsolicited proposals should be accepted. When Minister Senaratne wanted to know how many such proposals have been approved by the Treasury so far, the Finance Minister replied there was none. Angry at the accusations made against Finance Ministry officials, Samaraweera declared they are the best set of officials I have been working with in my thirty year political career. At this point, the attention of ministers turned to a five-member Committee, tasked at a previous cabinet meeting, to examine unsolicited proposals. It was headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. It transpired that a report had been forwarded by this committee. However, it had been signed only by Premier Wickremesinghe and Minister Malik Samarawickrema, who are just two members. This saw an angry Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka declaring that he had not been informed of occasions when the Committee met. It is on record that when the now non-existent Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM), chaired by Premier Wickremesinghe functioned, Minister Samarawickrema had obtained approval for many projects that were unsolicited. There were also other ministers who differed from Minister Samaraweera on his Ministry not accepting any such proposal. I can cite two instances from many I know. One is a proposal to convert the ten acre plot of land where the Bambalapitiya Flats are situated into a massive condominium complex on a proposal by a developer two years ago. Another is the allocation of a large extent of land for a project by a Thai company at Milleniya in the Bandaragama area, said a source speaking on grounds of anonymity. There were also other rumblings at the Cabinet last Tuesday. Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa spoke of how he sought to obtain details of Enterprise Sri Lanka (a United National Party project) and was told to go and ask the Prime Minister. Under the theme of the Enterprise Sri Lanka, the government says it is driving its forces to the production economy in order to achieve the medium-term targets such as per capita income of USD 5,000, one million new jobs, doubling exports and more than five percent continuous GDP growth. Megapolis and Western Development Minister Ranawaka again complained of government housing loans laying down conditions which were beyond the means of would-be applicants. He pointed out that they were made eligible for those between the ages of 25 and 40 and who drew salaries between Rs 100,000 and Rs 150,000. He sought a review of the matter since none had drawn loans under the scheme so far. With provincial and presidential polls ahead, the enforcement of these measures, needless to say, are vote catching. A clamour for Provincial Council elections has not obscured any activity over a presidential poll that is to follow. In an obvious move that suggests his candidature, President Maithripala Sirisena has embarked on a programme to declare open a string of development projects under Pibidenu Polonnaruwa, (Blooming Polonnaruwa), his home district under a six billion rupee programme. He has said similar projects would be extended to other districts too. The remarks come amidst wild speculation that he may call a presidential election in January next year or just thereafter. Constitutional provisions enable him to do so after January 8, when the Presidents current term reaches four years. He has already asked SLFP seniors to organise their propaganda machinery. There were other sections who also speculated that a parliamentary poll first cannot be ruled out. However, these are not firm and the official position is yet to emerge. The UNP is following suit with a Gamperaliya (transition of villages) for development. Finance Minister Samaraweera, the man who is spearheading it, told a news conference recently that the Treasury would be able to save Rs. 55.89 billion from the recent fuel price hikes and the government has decided to use it for rapid development projects, such as the Gamperaliya which is to begin this month. Reaching out to the villages or the grassroots level to gain voter support through fast tracked development projects is salutary. However, whether the exercise is too little too late remains a question given the time period before presidential election. There are also some UNP groups which argue that this programme should be in the hands of Sajith Premadasa, since the concept under a different name Gam Udawa was the brainchild of his late father, President Ranasinghe Premadasa. In fact, Premadasa was a notable absentee when Minister Samaraweera held a session for UNF (albeit UNP) parliamentarians at the Colombo Hilton to explain details of this new programme. At present, Premadasa spearheads housing development programmes at the village level. Also absent were ministers Ranawaka and Senaratne. It is now certain that the UNPs candidate for the presidential election would be Premier Wickremesinghe. He attended religious ceremonies in Kataragama last week and flew this week to offer prayers at the shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirupathi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Almost immediately on his return he went to Kilinochchi for some meetings. A small, select UNP group is informally working out the blueprints for a political and media campaign. The other formidable candidate will be from the Joint Opposition. Its de facto leader former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is holding his cards close to his chest as to who the official nominee would be. A confidant said he would first wait until the UNP and pro-Sirisena SLFP candidates are known. This is to avoid criticism that may cause divisions in the party. This week, he told a meeting of JO leaders that they should only raise issues related to the opposition at their meetings and not make public announcements to cause embarrassment. The fact that there are other would-be aspirants, who are slowly making a pitch, was not lost both on President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe. One such case is Health Minister Senaratne. This week, there were full page advertisements in newspapers and wide television coverage to what was dubbed as Crowning of Suwapathi or chief of the health sector. It was a salutation ceremony held at the Nelum Pokuna arts theatre on Tuesday. The advertisement said Senaratne was recently appointed as Vice President of the World Health Organisation According to the advertisements, the event was organised by the Ministry of Health, Health Services Trade Union Federation and the World Health Organisation. Both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe were present. Even Razia Pendsey, the WHO representative for Sri Lanka was in attendance. Firstly, there are no Presidents or Vice Presidents in the WHO. Its administrative head is a Secretary General. Currently the position is held by Teros Adhanon, an Ethiopian politician. He has held this office since 2017. The WHO website ( http://www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf) says the work of the organisation shall be carried out by: (1) the Health Assembly and (2) a board of 34 persons designated by as many members in the assembly taking into account an equitable geographical distribution. It says that they shall be elected for three years and may be re-elected and should meet at least twice a year. The website adds The functions of the Board shall be: (a) to give effect to the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly; (b) to act as the executive organ of the Health Assembly; (c) to perform any other functions entrusted to it by the Health Assembly; (d) to advise the Health Assembly on questions referred to it by that body and on matters assigned to the Organisation by conventions, agreements and regulations; (e) to submit advice or proposals to the Health Assembly on its own initiative; (f) to prepare the agenda of meetings of the Health Assembly; (g) to submit to the Health Assembly for consideration and approval a general programme of work covering a specific period; (h) to study all questions within its competence; (i) to take emergency measures within the functions and financial resources of the Organization to deal with events requiring immediate action.., The WHO Executive Boards current Chairman is Brazils Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo. There are five Vice chairpersons. The order is Glenys Beauchamp (Australia), Dr Simon Mfanzile Zwane (eSwatini, the former Swaziland), Dr Paivi Sillanukee (Finland), Dr Rajitha Senaratne (Sri Lanka) and Dr Mohamed Jaber Hwoai al-Taae (Iraq). Speakers at the crowning ceremony did not hide their feelings about Senaratne becoming the President of Sri Lanka. Said Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Since independence we have had 26 Health Ministers. The first of them was the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. The 25th was President Maithripala Sirisena and the 26th is Dr Rajitha Senaratne. The 25th Health Minister, unexpectedly went on to become the Head of State. We have such a history. Therefore I think there is a message to Dr Senaratne. It is first the Health Minister and then the Presidency. That is the trend. I request Dr Senaratne to consider the concept of first to be Suwapathi (chief of health sector) and then Janapathi (President). Professor Sarath Wijesuriya of the National Movement for Justice and Equality, described Senaratne as a creative, people-friendly leader. He said that three cabinet positions were most important health, nutrition and education. Those holding such portfolios should be sensitive to the needs of the people. That was necessary if Sri Lanka were to become a Singapore. It is those people-friendly Cabinet Ministers who become national leaders. President Sirisena who followed the two professors said, I was happy about the new posting you received in the WHO as the world had accepted you. Unfortunately, when the WHO accepted me for a position I did not receive the same reception. When there was a function to felicitate me at the BMICH in 2013, the former President kept away, though he was invited to speak at the event. Leaders should remain in the hearts of the people and serve the people.. The two professors who spoke before made hints. Prof Carlo Fonseka said that late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was the first Health Minister came out from his position and went on to become the Head of State. He also mentioned that I was the Health Minister and came out from the position and went on to become the President. I wish him (Senaratne) well. There is reality in what has been hinted. But my question is would that be achieved by leaving the current position or whilst being in that position as Minister. I leave it to Dr Senaratne to think about.. Crowning himself with a glorious title and coupling the event together with a nominal office conferred by the WHO that too in geographic rotation, is not something exclusive to Minister Senaratne. In Sri Lanka, such gain and glory have been hallmarks of politicians. Nimal Siripala de Silva, once Health Minister also received a similar position and celebrated it on a wide scale in his home base of Badulla. Many years ago, the United States Embassy in Colombo invited the then Deputy Foreign Minister, the late Tyronne Fernando for a visit to the United States under the International Visitor Programme. His itinerary included a brief call on the then Vice President George H.W. Bush. Upon his return, the US Embassy delivered him a photograph, taken on that occasion by an official cameraman, with Bushs autograph. Later, during election time, there were full page newspaper advertisements both in English and Sinhala calling upon voters to cast their votes to George Bushs personal friend. Fortunately, not all ministers want themselves crowned. Otherwise, there would be the crowning of a chief of the agricultural sector annoying the countrys farmers or an education chief laughed at by students and teachers. Other than these developments, this week also saw some activity on the conduct of Provincial Council elections. A somewhat shocking development has been two resignations from a six-member committee appointed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to examine issues pertaining to the conduct of Provincial Council elections. They were K. Thavalingam (who chaired the Delimitation Commission) and Mahinda Deshapriya (Chairman of the Election Commission). No details of why they quit are known though the two members had said that they were quitting since there was a conflict of interest. Speaker Jayasuriya on July 30 appointed Premier Wickremesinghe to chair this committee. Other members were Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Rajavarothaym Sampanthan, Sri Lanka Muslin Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Senior Vice President Nimal Siripala de Silva. An all-party meeting held at Temple Trees and chaired by Premier Wickremesinghe on Wednesday ended inconclusively. It was to discuss the electoral system under which the PC elections should be conducted. Both the Joint Opposition and the JVP did not take part in the meeting. Another discussion has now been scheduled for Thursday (August 9). Ministers Rauff Hakeem (SLMC), Rishad Bathiuddin (All Ceylon Makkal Katchi) and Mano Ganeshan (Tamil Peoples Alliance) objected to an electoral system where 50 percent of those elected would contest on the first past the post basis and the other fifty on the proportional representation system. They were also not in favour of the 60:40 ratio adopted at the February local elections. They argued they favoured the move only on the basis of an appeal by President Sirisena. Dinesh Gunawardena, Joint Opposition parliamentary leader told the Sunday Times, we learnt that parties backing the Government are abusing each other over which electoral system we should have. It appears that this is a delaying tactic to keep postponing the PC polls. They already know the outcome. As the Government dillydallies over which electoral system to be adopted to the PC polls, the clock is ticking by. It would soon be time for presidential election or parliamentary elections by then. Impulsive, irrational, unscientific decision-making retards economic development View(s): A serious defect of the Government has been its impulsive, irrational and unscientific decision-making. Impulsive and irrational decision-making affects the economy adversely. Ill-considered and unscientific decision-making has been a serious flaw impacting the economy adversely. It is an obstacle to economic development. The most recent instance is the sudden decision to re-impose the death sentence a move that could have serious consequences for the countrys exports. Earlier, the Government made a costly mistake in banning the import and use of glyphosate that reduced the tea harvest and denied the country significant foreign exchange earnings. Other mistakes Several other Government decisions have been changed owing to a lack of foresight and careful consideration of the consequences of policy decisions. When decisions taken by one arm of the Government are reversed by another, it creates considerable uncertainty about economic policies and in turn erodes investor confidence. The decision to re-impose the death sentence in a bid to eliminate the narcotics drug menace was taken suddenly and announced with much fanfare at a rally in Kandy. President Maithripala Sirisena, perhaps, considered it a popular move. However, it is not an effective deterrent for trafficking in drugs or even for murder as experiences of other countries show. Civilised countries have done away with the death sentence as it has not proven to be a deterrent to serious crimes. Furthermore, Sri Lanka has signed a UN resolution to not carry out the death sentence. Therefore the decision to re-impose the death penalty goes against the UN resolution to abolish the death penalty. This decision flouting the countrys international commitment demonstrates the ill-considered manner of decision making. Although the Cabinet is said to have agreed unanimously to implement this decision, several ministers, including the Finance Minister, has publically stated that they were opposed to the re-imposition of the death penalty. Perhaps it was a majority decision rather than cabinet consensus. International opposition No sooner Sri Lanka made this decision than several nations such as Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Norway and the European Union asked President Sirisena to maintain the moratorium and to uphold Sri Lankas tradition of opposing capital punishment. They said that they opposed capital punishment in all circumstances and in all cases and that the death penalty is incompatible with human dignity, does not have any proven deterrent effect, and allows judicial errors to become fatal and irreversible. Withdrawal of GSP Plus The decision also saw the European Union threatening to withdraw the GSP Plus concession that the unity government had managed to regain. The withdrawal of the GSP plus concession would be a serious threat to the economy. Nonetheless, the President has gone on record as saying that he will implement the death sentence even if the EU withdraws the GSP Plus facility. The withdrawal of the GSP Plus concession will be a serious setback to export growth. The country cannot afford a massive loss of exports. It will increase the already large trade deficit, affect the balance of payments adversely and weaken the countrys debt repayment capacity. The broader repercussions would be the retardation of economic growth, reduce employment and decrease incomes of people. The countrys exports fared badly after GSP Plus concessions were withdrawn. Fortunately, restoring the rule of law and good governance practices and friendly relations with western countries enabled the Government to regain the GSP Plus status from the EU. Consequently, there was an upsurge of exports from March 2017. In the first five months of this year, industrial exports of US$ 3.6 billion were nearly 10 percent higher than that of the first five months of last year and there is every prospect of the growth in exports accelerating. Export earnings from textiles and garments increased significantly due to the higher demand from the EU and the US. The removal of the ban on fisheries exports to the EU and the restoration of GSP Plus facility, increased earnings from seafood exports significantly during the past 12 months. Severe blow If the President carries out the death sentence, then the EU withdrawal of the GSP Plus concession would be a severe blow to the countrys exports. It is estimated that this facility confers a benefit of about US$ 350 million each year. The withdrawal of the EU concession would be a disincentive to exporters and would sabotage the Governments effort to increase exports substantially. On the one hand, the Government proposes an export development strategy that envisages the increase in exports to US$ 28 billion in 2022, and, on the other, the Government makes a decision that would jeopardise exports substantially. Such is the contradiction in policies that would impact on the economy by such ill-considered impulsive decisions. Glyphosate blunder Not so long ago, the Government took a decision to ban glyphosate without consulting the scientific community. The Director of Agriculture, Chairman and Director of the Tea Research Institute and other eminent agronomists were not consulted before the decision was announced. Their unanimous advice was that the use of glyphosate should be allowed. The irrational decision-making process is evident in the fact that the National Economic Council had studied the issue and recommended the import of glyphosate. But this decision, too, was over turned. The consequence of this decision was a drop in tea production and an estimated loss of US12 billion. Furthermore, by the use of an alternate method of weed control the country lost the important Japanese market. Tea is the largest agricultural export and, in terms of domestic value addition, is the countrys largest export. This ill-considered decision was a serious blow both to tea plantations and smallholders. It was akin to attempting to kill the goose that was laying the golden eggs. Reversal Fortunately after much prevarication, the decision was reversed and the tea crop is recovering to its earlier levels. Although much of this confusion is due to the Government being a coalition, the two issues discussed were due to the absence of a proper decision-making process. Those knowledgeable on particular issues are often not consulted. Way forward The country cannot go forward without the Governments decision-making process being based on in-depth scientific and rational study. Impulsive decision making has no place in a knowledge-based competitive modern society. People in search of justice View(s): When the UNP joined hands with some other parties and civil society organisations to propel Maithripala Sirisena as the common candidate to eject the incumbent president from his powerful perch, it was at a price. Sirisena had to make a promise though he seems to be rather forgetful of promises made to appoint UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister though he had less than 50 seats in the 225-member parliament. They also made numerous vital promises to the people of Sri Lanka. Among them was a return to the rule of law and independence of the judiciary. All these and other promises were laudable. A people eager for political and societal change naturally grabbed at this offer to radically change the style of governance, though Sri Lankan voters have over the years learnt bitter lessons of political chicanery and failed promises. After three years of yahapalana governance unfulfilled promises litter the political path while policies never expected by a now jaded and disgruntled public have crept into the governments agenda. President Sirisenas decision to hang selected drug dealers, roundly applauded by a cabinet of ministers, still unsatiated by farce or comic opera, so reviving capital punishment that has been in abeyance for several decades, is a case in point. Whether it was the lack of progress in bringing law and order to the northern areas and failure to resurrect a war-torn land that provoked UNP State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran to make provocative remarks at an official meeting in Jaffna about how peaceful it was under LTTE rule, an expression of deep sorrow at the murder of a child some days earlier or some other longing, one can only guess. Whatever caused that outburst which attracted loud applause from a gathering of state officials, it did rouse anger and condemnation in other parts of the country and in parliament which had to be adjourned as a result of the riotous behavior of some MPs. More than one month after that Jaffna speech and a referral from the Speaker to the Attorney-General for advice on whether MP Maheswaran had breached the law, a deafening silence has descended. An anxious public tired of suffering from a secessionist war and disturbed at what seems like a call for a revival of an organisation that resorted to terrorism as a political weapon, is naturally concerned at the silence of the AGs department. Is the AG and his juniors poring over piles of statute books in search of a law that could indict UNP parliamentarian Maheswaran or dragging their feet hoping that all the ho ha (or is it ha ho?) that flared up in parliament and elsewhere following her remarks would fade away. Surely not, as the battle for power begins. After all it would not be the first time that the AGs department has been accused of legal inactivity. In recent years the AGs department has come under severe criticism especially over its seeming inaction over cases of bribery, corruption and money laundering allegedly committed by some leading members and high ranking officials of the previous government. Besides government politicians, investigative agencies that have scrutinised activities pertaining to bribery and corruption have claimed that some 70-odd files with their reports have been handed over to the AGs department. They were said to be lying (lying?) there at the time the allegations were made. It was the 3rd century Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus who is credited with having first said The mills of the gods grind slowly but they grind exceeding fine. Several centuries later poet Henry Longfellow was also said to have made a similar observation. While the mills of the gods might have taken time to produce results, in Sri Lanka wheels of justice seem to grind ever so lazily, if they have not come to a grinding halt. Some claim that Vijayakala Maheswaran has violated article 157A of the constitution. That provision states: No person shall, in or outside Sri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance, encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate State within the territory of Sri Lanka. As a layman it appears to me that the question the AG must determine is whether Ms Maheswaran has violated that article of the Constitution or any other law that makes her utterance a criminal offence. The more such a determination is delayed the longer justice is denied to those who wish to see her found guilty or to Ms. Maheswaran herself who believes she had done no wrong. Even those who do not claim to be knowledgeable in the law are aware of the oft quoted saying that justice delayed is justice denied. It might be claimed that the AG has not had sufficient time to study the translations of her comments. But too much delay leaves room for the Court of Appeal to be moved against the AGs alleged nonchalance. One argument raised against the accusations of tardiness in the department is that it lacks sufficient qualified personnel. We hear from Colombo that the department is now recruiting some 100 junior lawyers to fill gaps in the department. It is said how far this is correct I do not know that even individuals who have not completed their internships are being rounded up. This is where influence peddling begins because those mediocrities with political influence but little talent creep into the service and remain beholden to the political creeps who pushed them in and expect payment in return. Mediocrities with insufficient knowledge of the law to sit on the bench from the lowest levels such as magistrates are also adorning the judiciary. One of the allegations made against both the AGs department and police investigative bodies is that those who weighed in to help the Rajapaksa administration are still in positions that could delay decision-making in the AGs department and in law and order institutions. The charge of disappearing files and evidence from state institutions, including court registries where officials work in collusion with lawyers, is certainly not uncommon. Those who have practiced law in our courts are quite aware of the shenanigans that go on. That is why the woman lawyer who spoke openly on these matters has been debarred from the Chilaw Bar Association and attempts are being made to have her dragged before judges on contempt charges, according to information in circulation. This raises a vital question with regard to contempt of court. Lawyers tell me that there is no clear definition of what constitutes contempt of court. Some judges consider merely raising ones voice in court, even by a litigant feeling discriminated against, or criticising a judicial decision, amounts to contempt. Today Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake is to be hauled up for contempt for remarks he made. The problem here is that contempt is defined at the discretion of the judge. It is because of this serious anomaly that the Bar Association of the time, then a respected institution unlike today, appointed a committee chaired by Desmond Fernando PC and several well- qualified lawyers to draft a contempt law. That draft law was presented to the then government sometime around 2006. Nothing ever happened. It went into the hamus pettiya as some call it. Then at the tail end of December 2011 the then Justice Minister told parliament that the contempt law was being drafted and it would be presented to parliament very shortly. Seven years later, most citizens of this country are scared to say anything critical of the judiciary in case they end up in court facing contempt charges because they do not have a clear definition of the charge of contempt. I suppose that is the way judges, who have just been given another salary increase some drawing Rs 800,000 a month besides perks, would like to have it. While in many countries in the world there is a code of conduct for judges, Sri Lankas dispensers of justice find that they do not need it. Last April at a conference in Vienna, where chief justices and senior judges from several countries launched the Global Judicial Integrity Network, Sri Lankas current chief justice had, in an intervention, said that his country does not have a code of conduct for judges. Whether other global participants took this remark as a compliment to the integrity of Sri Lankas judiciary where such a code is not considered necessary or as a mere statement of fact to be recorded remains obscure. But to Sri Lankan citizens, who have to come before the judiciary on various issues, it would seem a serious lapse that when other professionals have to abide by codes of ethics, the judiciary has exempted itself. Some in defence of the judiciary have told me that nobody has asked for such a code of conduct. Understandably the judiciary will not, when it has an upright collection of judges. Still the argument seems a strange piece of logic that is not worthy even of intern lawyers now being recruited to provide us with justice. If a money launderer sees no need for laws that inhibit his modus operandi or his practice of turning his illegal earnings into legitimate gains, do law makers abandon their intentions because the corrupt and the violators of the law have not asked for it? One other connected matter is why judges are permitted to recuse themselves from hearing cases they are listed to hear without any explanation in open court and to the public? What are they fighting shy of? How many times have judges withdrawn from the cases involving Gotabaya Rajapaksa because he has filed a fundamental rights application against his arrest. At least five judges have done so. Can the Judicial Service Commission or whatever high-faluting commission entrusted with the task of explaining the conduct of judges, tell the public of Sri Lanka why judges of the judiciary do not want to hear cases against Gotabaya Rajapaksa and what is meant by personal reasons. What we do not know is whether these personal reasons are the same or different. That is all the more reason why the public have a right to know. Could the public be told what is so special about this Rajapaksa that this seems to be the only case in the last three years from which at least five judges have recused themselves without a word to the public that pays their salaries including the recent increase. Yahapalanaya promised the people independence of the judiciary. Now they have got it. Boyzone final tour- Live in Colombo View(s): Boyzone 25th Anniversary and Farewell Tour Concert will come alive at the CR and FC Grounds in Colombo on Thursday, 12th August 2018. Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch, more popularly known as Boyzone is celebrating their Silver jubilee this year. Irish boy band, Boyzone have sent fans into overdrive after announcing their plans to release new music and tour as part of their 25th anniversary celebration. The pop group confirmed widespread speculation that something exciting was in the works by sharing their big news on social media, saying the whole band is incredibly proud of what theyve been secretly planning. However, they have now confirmed that their next album, dedicated to the memory of late member Stephen Gately, will be their last and their 25th anniversary tour will be their farewell tour. Despite the fact theyve all been pursuing solo projects from car dealerships to soap roles to singing for many years, Boyzone have never permanently split up. The band will be in action in Singapore on August 21st and at and Prambanan in Jogjakarta in Indonesia on August 19th. The Asian Leg of the Boyzone 25th Anniversary Tour starts on the 16th of August in Colombo. The group, which has racked up five No. 1 albums and sold more than 25 million records worldwide, was hugely popular in the 1990s and is behind smash hits such as Picture Of You and Baby, Can I Hold You, Working My Way Back to You, Love Me for a Reason, Key to My Life, So Good, Coming Home Now, A Different Beat, No Matter What etc. They have plans to release a new album this year. The tickets for Colombo Concert are priced at Rs 4,000/-, 7,000/-, 15,000/- and 25,000/-. Colombo to host AsPac ISGF for the third time View(s): The Sri Lanka Scout and Guide Fellowship (SLSGF) will host the 15th Asia Pacific (AsPac) Gathering of International Scouts and Guides Fellowship (ISGF) in Colombo from September 5 8. With the membership mainly made up of former Girl Guides and Scouts, ISGF was founded in 1953 for adults in support of Scouting and Guiding and aims to strengthen the dialogue between communities through community-oriented projects worldwide. The Asia Pacific (AsPac) Region of ISGF consists of 10 Full Members (known as National Scout and Guide Fellowships) and eight Central Branch countries. The Sri Lanka Fellowship of Former Scouts and Guides has a history of over 60 years and is currently known as Sri Lanka Scout and Guide Fellowship (SLSGF). SLSGF is a Full Member of ISGF. This is the third time that Sri Lanka will host the AsPac Gathering, having held the first gathering in Colombo in 1974 and fifth gathering in 1983 in Bentota. The theme of this years gathering is Together with Friendship, Fellowship and Fun. About 100 participants are expected to attend the four-day event to be held at Global Towers, Colombo 6, including a delegation from Sri Lanka. The host committee, which consists of members from Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association and Sri Lanka Scouts Association, are putting the final touches on a programme that will showcase local culture and traditions and give the participants a nostalgic feeling of their guiding and scouting days. The proceeds of the gathering will be utilized to help Scout troops and Guide companies in remote areas in Sri Lanka. Give your skin a treat with Body Shop View(s): The heat is on in the city and the Body Shop in Sri Lanka is ensuring that you dont neglect your skin with the introduction of free skincare consultations at all three of its stores in Sri Lanka. Trained beauty specialists will be on hand to offer their expertise on how best to take care of skin during the dry and hot months with their new product that not just effectively deep cleanses but also moisturises and vitalises dull skin. Through The Body Shops one-on-one consultations, customers will receive personalised advice on how to implement cleansing into their daily morning skincare routine, or even when removing make-up at the end of the day. The Intensely Revitalising Cleansing Oil-in-Gel from The Body Shop is a new addition to the nourishing Oils of Life skincare range; an essential upgrade to an everyday skincare routine during the hot season. The entire Oils of Life skincare range is available at The Body Shop flagship store at the Fairline Building near Bagatale Road, and outlets at Odel Alexandra Place and at the Kandy City Centre. For free consultations customers are advised to contact the store on 011 5765656 (Bagatale Road Outlet) 081 2233008 (KCC Outlet) 0772102777 (Odel outlet)to schedule an appointment in advance. Lessons on Lanka in a Southern Atmosphere By P.H. Imbalanced View(s): View(s): Its never easy teaching about Sri Lanka in a World Literature class full of Southern Americans who assume that I am Indian or from the Middle East. And, it is impossible to find any literature written by a Sri Lankan in the three grand volumes in Nortons Anthology of World Literature. Nevertheless, in my absolute determination to speak of Sri Lanka and our wonderful history I found some gems in the travel literature section. Both Ibn Batuta and Marco Polo are featured in the Norton Anthology, and lo and behold! they speak of Ceylon in a brief description of their journey of discovering the treasures in India. Now you can just imagine my utter delight upon discovering this literature. However, I needed to find a way to show the importance of Polos writings on Ceylon and its connection to Ibn Batuta. Since I know Americans love their Cinnabons (a roll that is far too sweet for Lankan taste buds), cinnamon sticks and cinnamon churros I found the perfect segue for the lesson on travel literature. First offer them the groundbreaking news that Sri Lanka is a number one producer of cinnamon in the globe. The class oooos and aaaaahhhhs when I tell them this information. Next I tell them how Ibn Batuta and Marco Polo were travelers who were also interested in the spices available in East Asia and the Oriental splendors offered in the forms of yoga, acupuncture, kung fu, etc. that were fascinating to them on their adventures in the oriental landscapes. Not much has changed since Polo travelled to Asia. I know my students in 2018 still find all of the oriental culture fascinating and mystic. Now bear with them! We are equally fascinated by the likes of Western culture. After all, Ive seen the faces of Lankans at Times Square. New Yorkers cringe at the thought of the number of tourists who take a fancy to possibly one of the most polluted squares on earth. But our Lankans are enthralled by the lights and the wonders of the concrete jungle. Before I digress, let me explain the lesson on Sri Lanka that I composed for my students. Armed with a cheap royal blue white board marker and an animated power point presentation I showed them videos and pictures of my glorious country. My opening slide though was a picture of Ibn Batuta (do a Google search, the man is quite the looker!). In Batutas writing he refers to Sri Lanka as Serandib and goes on to relate his time climbing Sri Pada. He says Adams Peak is one of the highest peaks in the world. Now Batuta didnt have Google and a decent fact checker to dispute his findings. In fact, Adams Peak is roughly 7,300 feet high and a relatively short expedition in comparison to those across the globe. Either way, Batuta gives a beautiful description of the mountain. He says his journey was 9 days long and he followed in the Mama Track instead of the Baba Track. His pilgrimage was in veneration of the Muslim prophet Khidr who is believed to have visited the mountain. In another section he explains his visits to other parts of Sri Lanka where he discovered rubies and swarms of monkeys. On a side note, Batutas colorful account of the Ceylonese monkeys and their behavior is certainly worthy of further study. Subsequently, Polo featured in my lesson. In his chapter on The Island of Seilan (the abridged version in the Norton Anthology) he too visits Adams Peak and admits that both followers of Christ and followers of Buddha worship what he calls a tomb placed on the apex of the mountain. The travel writing of Batuta and Polo then reveal a wonderful aspect of Sri Lankan culture. One place of worship that is common to the Buddhists, the followers of Christ and Muslims. Three different ethnicities and religions congregate at the top of this mountain and it amuses my students. To them it is remarkable that an island as big as West Virginia is so diverse and culturally vibrant. Moral of the story: Lessons taught and lessons learned. Connections established. When my students hear about Lanka and see its beauty I know at least one of them will visit. Plus, its always good to have a student be my fact checker so I dont end up providing fake news as was the case with poor Batuta! (The writer is a Sri Lankan who resides in the deep South of America. Living in a quaint college town teaching English and World Literature to university undergraduates at an American University. Currently pursuing the final year of her PhD in English, she hopes to continue her journey of teaching, writing and exploring cultures.) Soul Sounds totally ready to hit the stage with Totally Pop By Oshani Alwis View(s): View(s): With their next big concert fast approaching, rehearsals are becoming intense, stressful, but getting there, Soundarie David Rodrigo, founder of the Soul Sounds says. Sri Lankas premier female choral ensemble, Soul Sounds is all ready to showcase innovative choral arrangements in Totally Pop featuring the most loved cover hits from the 60s, 70s to the modern day. Their last two pop shows Totally 80s and Totally 90s were a runaway success, and this inspired the choir to think about a concert that would appeal to a wider cross-section of music lovers. This years show will bring a collection of pop songs with a unique Soul Sounds twist covering different eras including favourites from Bruno Mars, the Beatles, Lady Gaga, Prince, some RnB, Cold Play and even Ed Sheeran. Performing pop in choral renditions is a challenging task indeed. Most of the modern numbers are not easy to be put into choral form as they just have four basic codes, a solo voice and rap in-between, Soundarie says. The choir has also taken much effort with creative designing, performance and the total look for the show. The costumes are designed by Dinesh Chandrasena drawing inspiration from the styles of the 60s, 70s and modern. Marisa De Silva, the most senior member of Soul Sounds choir who has been a part of the journey since its inception, is looking forward to the show with much excitement. Having seen the progression of the choir, witnessing new talents coming in, the whole effort was to try out new things. This time, despite juggling between singing, movements and learning the words, Im enjoying the rehearsals as much as ever, Marisa laughs. The selection of songs had been a group effort as everyone was free to suggest choral renditions and covers of their preference. The group promises a wide-ranging selection which will appeal to all types of audiences from old to young. Some hits would be in medleys. The choir is also going to be performing rap on stage after a long hiatus. Soul Sounds work best under stressful conditions, Soundarie says, music is a stress reliever, building companionship and fellowship among each other. Totally Pop will feature young choristers along with the senior members, united regardless of age. Choir leaders for this years show, Nimaya Harris and Roshie Wickramaratne are busy with setting up the rehearsals and co-ordinating other arrangements for the concert. As we attend the rehearsals late in the evening after work or school, we are all just juggling with time. I sometimes fear that we will not make it but somehow we have ended up doing a great performance always, Nimaya says. For Roshie, Soul Sounds has been a great opportunity to develop her skills. I could expand my knowledge on singing and choral techniques, my voice got trained in a better way, says Roshie. The musicians for the show are Shane John on drums, Andrew Obeysekera on lead guitar, Pradeep Rodrigo on bass and Dhanuksha Seneviratne on keyboards. DIMO and Fairway Holdings are exclusive sponsors of Soul Sounds and all their ventures. Soul Sounds will take the stage on August 8 at 7.30 p.m. with Totally Pop. Tickets are available at the Lionel Wendt Theatre priced at Rs. 2000, Rs. 1500, Rs. 1000, Rs. 750 (balcony). Automation causing loss of billions in taxes, IRD union leaders say View(s): Inland Revenue Department union officials have written to Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera alleging that the Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) introduced two years ago to streamline tax collection is causing a loss of tax revenue running into billions of rupees. The system introduced in 2016 is not yielding the expected results due to shortcomings, say the officials who represent three IRD unions. The Inland Revenue Staff Officers Union Joint Secretary H.A.L. Udayasiri said that in the financial year 2015-2016, an estimated Rs 50 billion had not been collected because the system delays prevented a complete audit. In the past, a specific officer had been assigned to cover a particular type of tax but now with the automated system there is confusion with no clarity as to who is handling a particular tax. This leads to confusion especially when legal action has to be taken against tax evaders or when cases have to be referred to the Bribery Commission or other authorities, he said. The official said tax officers were not against the computer system but wanted it streamlined so that tax collection could be maximised. The 5-billion-rupee RAMIS project was to be connected to 23 state agencies but that too had not happened as yet, he complained. We have written to the Finance Minister so that he can look into the shortcomings and take corrective action, he said, adding that the union leaders had sought an appointment with the minister to discuss the issues. The Inland Revenue Department and Finance Ministry officials declined to comment. Explosives from India Lanka bound View(s): The detection of a cache of explosives destined for Sri Lanka from the southern Indian coastal town of Ramshwaran was declared yesterday not to be a threat to the countrys national security, a top security official said. These non-electric detonators are exploded with dynamite in illegal fishing activities, the official said, adding that there have been such detections on previous occasions too. The official spoke to the SundayTimes on condition of anonymity. Indian media reports said that the Rameshwaram Police arrested seven suspects and found 5,000 explosives-filled detonators, reportedly to be smuggled into Sri Lanka.Our reports, the Sri Lankan official placed the quantity at 5,000 non-electric detonators which could be packed in a small parcel since they are small. Police had acted on prior information and made the detection. A Sri Lankan named Vasanth had secured the procurement through a person from Devipattinam in Rameswaram at a cost of Indian Rs 110,000, the reports said. The official said efforts were under way to track down Vasant who is believed to be a resident of the north of Sri Lanka. GMOA warns of wave of similar strikes while ending token strike yesterday View(s): The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has warned that while their 24-hour islandwide token strike came to an end at 8 a.m. yesterday, the Government should expect a wave of similar strikes if it failed to provide solutions to the issues they raised. Health services throughout the country were impacted on Friday due to the GMOAs token strike, which started at 8 a.m.The strike crippled the Out Patient Department (OPD) treatment in most government hospitals, severely inconveniencing thousands of patients. The GMOA meanwhile, also instructed its members to refrain from engaging in private practice during the period of the strike. The organisation claimed that doctors who were not part of the government service also supported the strike by refraining from engaging in private practice. The strike did not affect paediatric hospitals, maternity hospitals, the Maharagama Cancer hospital and the renal units of state hospitals, the GMOA stressed. The strike was launched over 10 demands made by the GMOA. They were: Approve the Disturbance Availability and Transport allowance revision; calling for the government to gazette the minimum standard of medical education as recommended by the Sri Lanka Medical Council; remove the taxation policy on professionals including doctors; rectify gross violation of national wage policy; formulate a national trade policy to ensure the safety of service sectors of the country before signing the Singapore Free Trade Agreement; hold SLMC elections as planned; formulate a National Allowance Policy for government sector and increase allowances according to a policy; rectify the anomalies in the grade promotion scheme of medical officers; provide schools for doctors children, and adhere to Medical Service Minute provision. Mystery over Sigiriya cable car project By Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa Minister says he knows nothing and won't allow it, but CCF officials say it is to help disabled people View(s): View(s): Cultural Affairs Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe says he is in the dark about a feasibility study by a Chinese company to launch a cable car service to the Sigiriya rock fortress. The minister said he had ordered an inquiry into who authorised the company to conduct the feasibility study. He told the Sunday Times he had spoken to Central Cultural Fund (CCF) Director General Prishantha Gunawardana who also claimed he was unaware of who authorised this move, following media reports that some Chinese officials were conducting the study along with officials during the past few days. The minister vowed he would not allow such a project under any circumstances. On Friday, the CCFs Sigiriya project manager told the Sunday Times that he permitted a Chinese company to survey the area to conduct the projects study after he obtained approval from senior CCF officials. He said this was only a study and nothing had been finalised. Several CCF officials were later seen with Chinese officials who were said to be from the company conducting the study. The CCF officials, however, refused to divulge what they were doing with the Chinese officials and tried to avoid the media, even going to the extent of trying to hide inside a vehicle. Earlier, CCF Director General Gunawardana told the Sunday Times that there had been extensive discussions in the past to introduce some form of mechanical access, especially for differently-abled people to go to the top of the Sigiriya rock. He pointed out that in many world heritage sites situated at higher altitudes, such facilities had been provided for differently-abled and elderly people.Even UNESCO had advised that such sites should be made accessible to all people and it was in this context that the CCF had held talks with a Chinese company, the DG said. He said no agreement had, however, been reached as archaeological and environmental impact assessment reports had to be taken into consideration. If such a mechanism was to be introduced, it must be first discussed at length by the Archaeological Council and bythe wider society, he said. The Chinese company officials who turned up at Sigiriya to survey the site for a cable car project Not even by five cents, President slams proposal to raise MPs salaries View(s): President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday vowed that he would not allow salaries of MPs to be raised even by five cents. Speaking at a function at the Polonnaruwa new market complex last evening, he said he had read and watched the media coverage on the issue of raising salaries of parliamentarians. The President said that the decision to raise the salaries of ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentarians had been endorsed by all parties represented in Parliament, but in the wake of criticism in the media, there was none to take the responsibility for making the proposal. Pointing out that any such proposal would have to be submitted to the Cabinet, the President said he would not approve it. The controversy arose after a proposal was submitted to the Speaker, recommending a salary hike for ministers, deputy ministers and MPs in terms of a parliamentary resolution passed in 2006. The resolution recommends that ministers and MPs salaries should be given a salary increase whenever the salaries of higher judicial officers are increased. The proposal was made following a salary increase given to High Court Judges. The Speaker has referred the proposal to the Parliament Secretary General for observations. Minister Lakshman Kiriella addressing a function in Matale said that salaries of parliamentarians were increased according to a law passed in 2006 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president. All party leaders were present when the matter was discussed in parliament on July 17. No one objected at the time. This has not been implemented yet. We understand the issues faced by the people. But, all the party leaders accepted in principle that a salary hike was in order, he said. SLAF suspends civilian flights; incentives for other domestic operators View(s): The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has suspended civilian flights after the aviation regulator recalled the certificate of airworthiness (CofA) issued to its Xian MA60 aircraft, pending technical compliance. The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) and the Air Force also contradicted each other on the latters future plans for civilian passenger transport. In a notice on its website, the regulator says the SLAF recently informed the CAASL that it would not engage in the transport of civilian passengers. The SLAF denied this. The declaration in the CAASL notice is incorrect and has been mentioned without consultation with the SLAF, Air Force media spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told the Sunday Times. The SLAF has not made any policy decision to refrain from transport of civilian passengers in duly approved and certified civilian transport aircraft and will continue working with the CAASL to improve its civilian passenger transport safety and standards,Group Captain Seneviratne said. But the SLAF admitted it had stopped scheduled civilian passenger transport for the time being, including its Jaffna and Trincomalee flights. One of its MA60sacquired from China in 2011is grounded for maintenance. The other is only operating military flights until a unit in its Pratt & Whitney engine is removed as required by the regulator. Under our regulations, we can still use it for military flights but to transport civilian passengers, we have to remove that small unit, confirmed a senior SLAF officer. He said the MA60 will be compliant by the end of this month. The SLAF has had prolonged discussions with the CAASL over shortcomings in its passenger transport operation. In 2015, the Sunday Times first reported that Helitours, SLAFs domestic passenger carrier, was handing out indemnity forms to paying customers and flying them on Harbin Y-12 aircraft not cleared to transport civilians. These flights were run under military call signs against civil aviation regulations. Despite undertakings to stop, this writer in October 2017 flew on the Harbin Y-12 to Jaffna after signing an indemnity form. The SLAF said at the time that it only did this when the MA60s were not available. The Y-12 is not listed in the civil aircraft register. The SLAF no longer was engaged in that practice and would also not do so in future, Grp Cpt Seneviratne said. The CAASL also confirmed that the SLAF was now cooperating with the regulator whenever it needed to do inspections, in a clear departure from past attitudes. The Y-12 is still available for civilian charter flights. There are separate concerns that the SLAFs involvement in civilian passenger transport is choking the domestic aviation sector by discouraging private operators who cannot compete on a level playing field. Helitours sustains lower flight operation costs as it is part of an established military structure. Private sector operators have repeatedly been edged out despite intermittent attempts to sustain scheduled operations. The Government recently took policy decisions with a view to promoting domestic air services. These are published on the CAASLs website and include a proposal to set up a dedicated passenger terminal at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to handle domestic air services; make available a common maintenance hangar at BIA for domestic operators; demarcate part of apron D for domestic flights and introduce a separate charging mechanism; and to instruct all domestic operators to night-park their commercial aircraft at Ratmalana owing to space issues at BIA. It was also decided to develop Sigiriya, Palaly, Hingurakgoda, Koggala and Trincomallee airports for domestic operators using funds from donor agencies and the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd. Operations of all civil flights will be subjected to civil aviation requirements and self-handling will be permitted at all domestic airports except BIA. Ground-handling charges at BIA will be reduced for domestic air operators and aviation fuel supplied at all internal airports. Slot allocation will be done by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and some helicopter landing sites will be set up in Colombo city. Legislation will be amended to release domestic aviation from value added tax while there will be a one-year (from the date of commencement of operations) exemption of landing and parking charges. A request will also be made to the Finance Ministry to exempt domestic aircraft leases from withholding tax. The same statement on CAASLs website said the SLAF has undertaken to stop civilian passenger transport but the Air Force has requested the regulator to remove that sentence. The CAASL has invited applications and business proposals from the private sector for domestic air services. Limitations in space and facilities means the DGCA will take a first-come, first-served position with particular emphasis on type of aircraft (Western-build, modern planes with not less than 20 seats). Operators are encouraged to start services at the earliest. Tamil youth gangs sow fear in northern region By Sandaran Rubatheesan View(s): View(s): On Monday, the Grama Niladhari of Vannarpannai east division J/100 was in his office for the usual weekly meeting with residents of the area when eight men armed with sharp weapons barged into his office. The official was threatened at sword point, while his laptop, mobile and other office resources were smashed by the gang that came on motorbikes bearing false licence plates. As they left they also damaged vehicles parked outside his office. A day before this incident, the same eight-member gang attacked a house a few hundred metres away from the Grama Niladharis office, damaging a van parked inside the house. The front windows of the house were damaged. In another instance, a group that came in a car attacked two persons with swords in Mirusuvil, Jaffna on Thursday. Two people were hospitalised. These are some of the recent violent incidents involving gangs carrying swords, reported across the North. This week alone, more than five such violent incidents involving armed gangs were reported in various parts of the North. Locals in Jaffna question the efficiency of the police in controlling the violence. They ask how a group of masked youths riding motorbikes with false licence plates can ride on a main road carrying sharp weapons in daylight to carry out attacks on targeted persons or places without being caught by police. As of Friday, police arrested 11 suspects. The Grama Niladharis union in Jaffna observed a token strike on Thursday boycotting field visits to area offices after handing over a report to regional Divisional Secretariat offices. A union member told the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity that the attack on the office of the J/100 division Grama Niladhari was not a random attack as the police had claimed but a well planned one to intimidate the outspoken official. This official said the violent gangs might have targeted the official since he was concerned about the security situation in his area and he had informed the police whenever gangs carrying sharp weapons were noticed in the area. However, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police of the Northern range, Roshan Fernando, does not agree that there is an increase in such violence. The civilian security situation in the North is not as bad as alleged by some. It is under control. We have taken many steps such as introducing motorbike patrols in selected areas and deploying more civilian police for community policing. Moreover, I would say these are not major criminal incidents but minor ones, DIG Fernando said. Following these incidents leave of all officers serving in Manipay, Kopay, Chunnakam and Jaffna police stations were cancelled this week. The police motorbike unit consisting of 10 was deployed for patrols. DIG Fernando said the public should assist the police. They have to support us, we have carried out many awareness campaigns and introduced hotlines in each police station, he said. According to senior police officers involved in investigating criminal gangs in the region, most of the gangs are youths aged between 19 and 26. The violence could be related to clashes between gangs, personal disputes, silencing of informants, and attacks for money. Meanwhile, a senior police official said three active violent gangs have been identified Aava, Thanu Rock and Victor. More than 30 youths are believed to be members of these groups. Many involved in criminal activities are those who are out on bail, police said. We are also very cautious when it comes to interrogating suspects arrested for alleged involvement with criminal gangs since we dont want to be accused of torture in police custody. With top legal assistance, after brief detention, they are out on the streets again under strict bail conditions as revenge takers, and the violence continues, a senior police official said. The lack of Tamil-speaking police is also hampering policing. There is a severe shortage of Tamil-speaking constables and sub-inspectors. Only 650 Tamil-speaking police personnel serve in the North. Tamil-speaking women are not willing to join the police fearing social consequences. The Northen Provinces Senior Superintendent of Police, T Ganesanathan told the Sunday Times that as a province with a high number of unemployed graduates, many are not willing to join the police for reasons such as social status, prestige etc. This type of mindset should be changed, and the urgent shortage of Tamil-speaking staff in the police has to be addressed immediately. I hope the relevant authorities will look into this matter, he said. A journey of self-discovery and understanding about love By Purnima Pilapitiya The One Who Loves You So hits the Punchi Theatre stage from August 15-17 View(s): View(s): Its a Friday night and a wealthy Colombo trust fund baby and a British expat connect over a dating app for a casual encounter and not much else. Over the course of two acts they will unfold and explore love, relationships, sexuality and the universal struggle for connection in Arun Welandawe-Prematillekes new play, The One Who Loves You So. The love story marks a departure for the dramatist from his more familiar territory- immersive/devised theatre experiences. When The One Who Loves You So hits the boards in two weeks, audiences will find themselves playing the audience, with the two leads onstage acting out a script against the backdrop of a bare apartment. For Arun and the cast the departure to conventional theatre was a necessity for the raw, vulnerable dialogue. Its why Brandon Ingram and Benjamin Aluwihare were excited to take on the parts in the first place. We were meant to work on it together, Brandon admits, the idea for the play was one they had toyed with several times. He later took on the role of supportive friend while Arun brought the concept to paper. This is scary, was Benjamins first thought when he read it he admits openly. The challenging role and the timely themes of gender, class, courtship and the innate desire for love combined was a heady enticement for the young actor who now acts professionally in the United Kingdom. They first tested the script at a session of Open Brain; an informal session for sharing art and expression held at the British Council. The touching feedback they received only fuelled their excitement for the work which they later showcased to a group of literati down South. Some people saw it just as a love story, remembers Brandon who like the others was initially uncertain of the reception they would receive, but their end goal is to take audiences on a journey of self-discovery and understanding about love- at the end, thats what its about. The plays integral love story revolves around Nick; a 26-year-old British expat and Vidhura; a privileged, Colombo-raised 28-year-old. While love and connection is at the heart of the story, Arun also explores the invisible layers that complicate love- such as class, ideals and gender. Coming to Sri Lanka for the first time from the UK, Nick is a bi-racial accountant from a working class background with an addictive personality. His 9-5 is very different from his 5-9, Benjamin adds helpfully. For the young actor, bringing the dialogue to life in all its honesty and authenticity is the biggest challenge he faces, together with balancing the opposing energy of Vidhura. What heightens the pressure for authenticity is ironically the simplicity of the production. Its just the script, so theres no escape. The yin to Nicks yang is 28-year-old Vidhura. Unlike the outgoing Nick there are some things Vidhura would like to keep hidden. A self-described younger version of himself, Brandon sees a neurotic overthinker in the young man- so anxious that he wont use a word without meaning it. Through the characters, the trio wants to discuss the facelessness of people and their vulnerability in courtship today. With English theatre in Sri Lanka taking on a political and social responsibility they see the play as another opportunity to foster queer art and give people a space to talk about themes that arent always given a sphere of their own. With months of rehearsals behind them, theyve even learnt a little about love themselves- its taught me that a relationship doesnt have to be something- in capitals, Arun describes, as they agree that the play celebrates the liberation of relinquished expectation and is a celebration of a journey. The One Who Loves You So goes on the boards from August 15-17 at the Punchi Theatre at 7.30 pm. Tickets for reserved seating will be available at the Punchi Theatre. For online ticket details check out The One Who Loves You So on Facebook and Instagram. A mind flowing free in thread and colour By Shamalee de Silva Parizeau The story of Joan Leth Pedersen, nee Roelofszthe Lankan multi-skilled artiste living in Denmark View(s): View(s): Hidden amidst the foliage of the outskirts of Wennappuwa, is a coconut estate that is a breathtaking composition of human and nature. Coming in, you will be pleasantly warmed by the sunlight pouring through the cane palms standing guard along its impressive driveway. It nestles a charming planters bungalow with arched windows opening into sun-spangled verandahs and further in, a beautifully dimmed living space and cool sleeping chambers. Between the fun play of the vintage furniture, rare heirloom treasures and a twist of Scandi-inspired postmodernism, there is an obvious air of creativity floating through the bungalow. When you meet its hostessyou instantly know her as the source of that creativity. Joan Leth Pedersen is in the autumn of her years, and radiantly beautiful with a sense of style that could only speak for an intensely creative being. Shes the kind of hostess who excites you with her meticulous devotion to fine hospitalityyou just know its going to be a good day. Joan was born in Sri Lanka to Burgher parents who moved to the UK to educate their children. They also travelled between their island home and Malaysia for work in the plantations business. She met her husband, Jens Leth Pedersen in Malaysia 58 years ago, at a New Years Eve dance, ten minutes to midnighthe has remained smitten since. An accomplished hand embroidery artist with truly remarkable artistry, Joan practises in Denmark where she lives with Jens. But, for eight sunlit weeks a year, the family estate in Sri Lanka remains her home in paradise. This year, Joan has brought down a large portion of her exquisite archive of handmade embroidery based wearable art. This is for a rare media exposure of her works. Its impossible for me to put a price on my work, Joan declares, because they are my babies, she laughs. But, seriously, its because my art has never equated to money. Its not about that for me, its never been, she explains. Joan believes that artistry does not always have to have a commercial element to itin a sense, an artist does not have to cater to the incessant needs of a society. Art can simply existmuch like beauty or nature, without having to fulfil the human desire to own, to consume. Her work has an ethereal charm about it and draws inspiration from flora and fauna, abstract shapes and colour-play. Stylistically, she finds kinship with Chinese, Danish and Venetian embroidery techniques. But, the most impressive is her own stylean embroidery technique that Joan invented fusing patchwork and threadwork to bring about an unusual effect. Here, cut out fabric pieces are ironed on to glue paper and pieced together with embroidered thread work to finally reveal one mosaic-like image held together with perfect thread work. I dont know how long it takes to do one pieceit takes hours and hours and hours. But, I love it, and I can immerse in it completely. Something striking about Joans work is its unapologetic femininity. Her work bears unrestrained female charm with soft colour palettes, dainty motifs and intricate filigrees. But, its anything but ordinary. The embroidery itself is unusual in its exotic mix of styles and technique while Joans decisive direction in their placement on the garment and how they work with the female body also add to the unicity. I always think of where this embroidery will go on a body, and I tend to embellish the unusual corners or the unnoticed curvesit does not always have to be on your upper chest tucked away to a side. Her process is fluid and natural, much like her work. When I get an idea, I just have to do it, she says echoing all impassioned artists. Her inspirations flood in through nature. In Denmark, the contained cool of Scandinavian landscapes influence her abstract oil painting and designed knitwear. While in Sri Lanka, the islands paradisiacal abundance seems to translate to Joans vivid watercolours, often florals, and finallyto her intricate embroidery. Embroidery was always in our family, she recalls the beginnings into her most accomplished form of artistry. Joan remembers being captivated by her mothers hand drawn book documenting the baby clothes that she embroidered. As a child, Joan leafed through its painstakingly detailed drawings. She also remembers how she first fell in love with that incredible feeling of being enveloped in an exquisitely made outfit, through the finely embroidered dresses handmade by her mother. Later, she went to complete an embroidery and knitting course at the Denmark College of Handicrafts where she scored full marks, before plunging into the arts in full vigour. She went on to exhibit in unusual locations around Europe, such as the abandoned church in Aalborg commune and the court house turned museum Tinghuset in Nibe. Beyond embroidery and knitting, Joan also began to see her art within the context of fashion. It came naturally to her, because style was simply in her. I always think that clothing should be a complete expression. Personally, I like to make underwear to match my work in order to avoid store-bought pieces that peek outside an otherwise perfect outfit! she exclaims echoing a practice that still forces her to custom make intimatewear for every wearable item that displays her embroidery or knitting. In her heyday in Colombo, Joan was featured in the fashion and lifestyle pages of the local dailies for her bold sense of style and fashion. Her wedding gown with a spectacular floor-gracing train with hundreds of hand made flowers pressed out in silk in three layers, made fashion headlines and was borrowed by news pages. Style was definitely her thing. With Joan seated on the verandah of her family bungalow, it is almost visibly evident in the background, how her mind has flown free through the space, touching it with her devotion to beauty; the fiery heliconias set off against the earthly terracotta of the vase, the perfect geometry in the arrangement of hand-painted porcelainthey all vouch for her. As her life approaches a tranquil sunset, Joan has developed a yearning to share her arts as a teacher and a mentor. I have taught several times in my life, and it has always been rewarding. I still keep in touch with some of my students. She hopes to share her expertise and extraordinary techniques with young fashion designers, textile artists, embroiderers and entities in textile related arts, crafts and designthose who would appreciate it and hopefully, reinvent it in their own way. But, theres more to it than that too. Joan sees that mastering your creativity as a way to live a wonderful life. Creativity has helped me to live life on an even keelbeing immersed in creativity means that troubles cant trouble you. So, Id like to share that. And with that, Joan offers the greatest gift a creator could leave behind in this world. To contact Joan for private lessons and workshops for groups or institutes during January-February 2019 in Sri Lanka, reach her on gogotojojo@gmail.com Clearout sale of your favourite Aussie brands View(s): All those looking to grab a genuine bargain on the best of Australian branded fashion, should keep the dates August 11 and 12 free. A mammoth clearout sale of brand new favourite Australian brands such as Katies, Suzanne Grae, Sussan, Target, Liz Jordan and Rockmans in a variety of lovely workwear, elegant evening wear and casual pants, blouses and dresses will be on. For working girls a wide range of gorgeous blouses, skirts, shirts, pants and dresses are especially suitable and for those casual outings, there are plenty of elegant fashions. The chic evening wear is also special. The items are all brand new and are priced between Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,800 although the actual Australian price could exceed A$50. Also on sale will be a range of homewares, shoes, handbags and accessories. The sale will be held on Saturday, August 11 and Sunday, August 12 from 9 a.m. onwards at No. 16, Kinross Avenue, Colombo 4. Thank you for the music, students tell SOSL Enthusiastic response to the orchestras outreach concert held in Kurunegala View(s): View(s): Continuing their annual free outreach concerts, the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) performed in Kurunegala on July 8 at the Maliyadeva Girls High School hall giving students of the Central Zone of Sri Lanka the rare opportunity of hearing a live orchestral performance. 50 musicians of the SOSL led by Sulara Nanayakkara under the baton of Dushyanthi Perera, performed a selection of dances and waltzes by well known composers such as Strauss, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. The programme was chosen for its melodious, easy-to-appreciate music. The response from the students was overwhelming. I felt I was in heaven. For my future western music exams, I learned so many things about the orchestra and also learned about the instruments, said a 14-year-old from Maliyadeva College, who has been playing the piano, melodica and piano accordion and trumpet for the past four years. I am doing western music as a subject and I hope to do western music for my A/Ls. My problems vanish when I listen to that music. I want to hear music from your great orchestra again and again and again and again, was the enthusiastic feedback from a 14-year-old violinist from Holy Family Balika M.V College, Kurunegala. Honestly it was the best music that I have heard. I havent seen some instruments like the bassoon and double bass earlier. By participating at this concert I saw and heard all of them. Its useful for our education, said a student from St. Thomas College, Matale. The response from a teacher from the Govt Science College, Matale was equally heartening for the SOSL members. This is a rare opportunity. I came with my son and daughter. They are doing western music. I think they gained a lot from you. Members of the audience spoke too of how much they had enjoyed the concert: I felt like I was dreaming. It was a really good performance, but can you expand the time duration? We want to feel the music for more than 2 hours, an 18-year-old from Wayamba Royal College, who plays the euphonium, said. A 13-year-old from S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike College, Kurunegala who was hearing a live orchestra for the first time said she felt happy and sometimes surprised. The Conductor did best and I love her. I love the orchestra. A 17-year-old from Maliyadeva Balika Vidyalaya spoke of how inspirational the concert was. From the first note the violinist played I was amazed. Felt like I am in heaven. It was great, amazing. Actually no words to explain. Since 2013, with the support of the HSBC, the SOSL has entertained and educated around 700 students each year at the Ladies College Hall. This year, with the generous support of an anonymous donor who requested that the outreach be extended to students beyond Colombo, the SOSL decided to offer this free concert to the students in the Kurunegala, Matale and Kandy Districts. Over 500 students, parents and teachers from 19 schools from the three districts attended the concert. The request for an encore and the standing ovation from the entire audience summed up the appreciation of the students, teachers and parents and inspires and energizes the SOSL to continue to reach out. The killing committee and the death warrant By Tirantha Walaliyadde View(s): View(s): I will show how to die!,said Madduma Bandara and marched forward before anyone else and placed his head on the jolly old block where the executioner promptly separated it from his body with one mighty stroke.( History both the story and Madduma Bandara.) I sometimes wonder why on earth Madduma Bandara rushed forward and kept his head on the block quite out of the pecking order. Was it really because of his fearlessness or was it because he was too frightened to see his brothers being executed and thought hed better go first before he fainted? Of course this is not intended as a reflection on what is legend, but the thought crosses my mind occasionally in my contemplative moments. That being said let us now turn to more fruitful areas of thought regarding judicial executions. The great majority of people are afraid to die: a few are afraid to live. The first category would prefer an entire lifetime in jail to being executed. This fear may be twofold: the fear of dying or the dying process. These are two quite distinct areas in the business of dying. The first is the mental trauma of leaving behind the worldly things that the condemned man must leave behind and fear of what lies in store. The second is the manner of dying, and the unimaginable physical pain of it. Mode of execution It seems from recent local TV news broadcasts, that the mode of executing a convict has not yet been finalised. There were several recognised methods of which two are now obsolete: the firing squad, the gallows, the electric chair (now obsolete), guillotine (now obsolete), the gas chamber, and by lethal injection, and the Middle Eastern methods which may not claim to have universal recognition but still function. In the United States, several states have adopted the lethal injection on the basis that it is more humane. The electric chair is where the convict was strapped to a chair and thousands of volts of electricity were sent into the convict via electrodes fastened to his body must be quite a shocking experience and was supposed to be more humane but it is said that the convict had to be given about three doses before he finally succumbed. There are also stories that he often bites his tongue, his eyes pop out and smoke issues from his body. In the gas chamber, the convict is strapped to a chair and cyanide capsules are dropped into a receptacle containing sulphuric acid, the combination of which releases the lethal gas, and the convict is advised to breathe in as quickly as possible to make it quick. Maybe the advisers would not be so advisory, had they themselves inhaled a whiff or two. The lethal injection method comprises three injections. The convict is strapped down and given the first injection to make him unconscious. The second relaxes his heart muscles and the third stops it. Supposed to be more humane. But of course, no one has been able to interview such a person on the way like Dodampe Mudalali who is supposed to have said So far so good as he shot past the second floor. Maybe the most humane method subject to medical opinion was by chopping off heads on the block, as was done here and in England during the monarchies, or what Saudi Arabia did to Rizana Nafeek, the young housemaid, recently, by beheading her in the town square. Another was the guillotine which was used to get rid of the aristocracy of France during the French Revolution. The victim was strapped to a board that was fixed on a pivot and the moment the strapping down was complete the board pivoted on it axis and the blade came crashing down separating the head from the body. In Sri Lanka, from the olden days, executions were done by beheading, impaling on a stake, torture, ripping apart, burning at the stake, and such like. The comparatively modern method is by hanging. Of course the end result of all these exercises is the same. And, in Sri Lanka, the most popular method of execution now is the extrajudicial execution by Uzi, AK 47 or its successors, and the 9mm. There seems to be an added flavour in the bomb attack and the suicide bomber who doesnt care who gets it so long as somebody gets it. So much for the extrajudicial executions. Dead men do not look noble Legend and fact have it that most of the nobility and many a national hero of course at the time they were all called traitors went to their respective executions in regal or heroic fashion with heads held high. As a matter of comment, many are the occasions where the traitors of the past were hailed as heroes by the present and vice versa. Be that as it may, some of the best examples of the regal way to die are chronicled with reference to King Charles, who was beheaded during the Cromwell revolutions, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Madame Roland, Charlotte de Corday, Georges Danton, and a host of others guillotined during the Reign of Terror in France in the time of the Napoleonic Revolution. Nicholas, the Czar of Russia and his entire family faced the firing squad. It is said that they all went to their deaths without protest and with heads held high and of course ended without them. I often wonder why people, especially public figures, go to their executions in this manner merely because the sovereign orders their execution, the home truth being that however nobly one goes to his death on the scaffold or elsewhere, dead men do not look noble. Abdication of presidential power Now, after having briefly explored the methods of execution, let us consider the Killing Committee. The above brief survey of the modes of executions was to provide food for thought for the reader to contemplate on the implications of what follows: Recent media reports said that a committee is to be appointed by the President to select three prisoners under death sentence from a list of 19 names submitted, for execution. This, to my mind, is akin to what Pontius Pilate did when he got down a bowl of water and washed his hands off the crucifixion of Jesus. It seems, that if such a committee is appointed then if would amount to a breach of the Constitution, and an illegal abdication of presidential power. The normal procedure is for the President to decide whether a sentence of death pronounced on a prisoner by the High Court should be carried out or commuted to life. This decision is based on the observations made by the High Court which pronounced the sentence, the Attorney General, and the recommendation of the Minister of Justice. It is done on a case by case basis as they come in and not by lumping together a number of names and letting a committee select three of them to be hanged. This procedure stuns the mind. It may be that the President, as a man, is squeamish to sign a death warrant: this, I suppose is natural, because no one in his right mind would wish to order the death of another human being. But as a President, the situation is different (no pun intended). He is constitutionally required to sanction the death sentence or to commute it. This unholy function cannot be delegated to a committee. The appointment of such a committee would amount to a direct slap in the face of the administration of justice, would it not? Today, the catchword is corruption. People, politicians, the Diasporas, international bodies, howl and screech about corruption in Sri Lanka forgetting, of course, dishes of corruption rotting in their own backyards. Would not the appointment of a committee to pick those who should be hanged out of a large roster of candidates be an invitation to the largest scale corruption ever known to man? Oh! My beloved country! This committee brings to mind the Committee of Public Safety appointed during the Reign of Terror in the times of the French Revolution. Maximillian de Robespierre, who was a member of the committee which decided on who was to die and who was to live, had the last word on it. He himself went to the guillotine later. Do not confuse this with the constitutional powers of the President who will sign a death warrant after it is pronounced by a court of competent jurisdiction after a fair trial. Now, with the appointment of a committee, there will be an unconstitutional intervenient body between the court and the President. This unconstitutional body will select a given number of prisoners out of a full complement and forward those names to the President for sanction of the death sentence. As it appears now, on receipt of the selection, the President will merely lend his signature to the respective warrants and those in the selection will be executed. So, we have another Reign of Terror compounded with the possibility of intellectual, moral, and material corruption at an unimaginable scale. Of Asses and Men There was once a little country which had two tribes of asses. One tribe had only blue coats and the other tribe had coats of all colours except blue. The blue coated asses were always well fed, plump, and galloped around in luxurious comfort and lived in air conditioned stables whilst the other asses were always hungry, poor, and went about their business by public transport which was more on strike than at work. They had no medicines, no doctors because the doctor asses spent more time galloping around the streets than sitting on their Hippocratic seats in the hospitals and lived in dilapidated barns and sheds. Complaints made by the ragged asses to the blue coated asses resulted in their getting themselves assaulted and beaten and threatened with incarceration if they continued to complain. One day, as things were going from bad to worse, the blue coated asses appointed a Weeding Committee to weed out the good ragged asses from the whole basket of ragged asses in the course of which the members of the committee got fatter and fatter until they could barely sit in the Parliament chairs. Into this miserable state of affairs loped in a young lawyer ass who set up his Chamber in the town square and sat under a board with the legend Complaints. One by one the ragged asses plucked up their courage and brayed their complaints with special reference to the Weeding Committee. The young lawyer ass wrote down the complaints meticulously and placed them in the box which was his table. As the Weeding Committee began weeding, a small breeze whispered across the town square and picked up a few of the complaints and scattered them round the town. The weeding accelerated and the breeze grew into a wind which took the pieces of paper and scattered them around the nearby villages and the inhabitants began to read and add their complaints to those that were circulating. The Weeding Committee stepped up activities and the wind grew into a gale and scattered the papers all over the country. And then.the story teller stopped. The listener asked him what happened next. The story teller replied, How can I say, since we are not asses but men? When men run out of words, they reach for their swords Oliver Cromwell (The writer is a Presidents Counsel) At home on the range With hunting season now in full swing throughout the State of Iowa, a new business in the Tama-Toledo area looks to ... Cultivated areas halve in Iraq as drought tightens grip Baghdad, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2018 Areas under cultivation in Iraq have halved this summer compared to last year due to a drought that has led to a ban on water intensive crops, the government said. "If we take the cultivated area for 2018, it is down 50 percent compared to 2017", Deputy Agriculture Minister Mahdi al-Qaisi told AFP. In an unprecedented move, the government in June suspended farming of rice, corn and other cereals that require major irrigation. Losses for families long dependent on rice production will reach 34 million euros ($39 million) this year, according to the authorities. The staple usually yields 100,000 tonnes per year. The drought has also hit livestock, with herds in southern Iraq dwindling by 30 percent, as cattle die of thirst or are sold for meat in greater volumes than usual. In the southern province of Zi Qar, more than 400 farming families have left their villages to settle or roam in better irrigated areas, according to local officials. While Iraq is often known as the "land of two rivers" -- the Euphrates and Tigris cross its territory -- the country's water resources have diminished in recent years. Reservoirs are at around 10 percent of their capacity. Beyond this year's dramatic lack of rain, experts say a central reason for Iraq's drought is the regional sharing of water resources. Neighbouring Turkey and Iran have in recent years both rerouted cross-border water sources they share with Iraq. Back in January the American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson announced that it would produce an electric motorcycle for release in less than 18 months. The announcement came out amid news about job losses and its Kansas City plant closure. However, the company has prepared new strategies to expand its business to a new generation of riders. One of the strategies is by debuting the companys first electronic motorcycle, the LiveWire, in 2019. Read also: Harley-Davidson is making an electric motorcycle The LiveWire prototype was introduced back in 2014. The no-clutch twist and go vehicle will be followed by other models by 2022. In a statement, the Milwaukee-based manufacturer also revealed its list of other strategies, among which are launching its first Adventure Touring motorcycle, the Pan America 1250, in early 2020 and teaming up with manufacturers in Asia to better reach customers in India as well as other Asia markets, especially for small-displacement motorcycles. (wir/kes) An excavator shattered the windows of Ai Weiwei's largest studio while workers hustled away his art on Friday, preparing to demolish the old Beijing factory three years after the artist and government critic left China. As dusk descended on the old car parts factory on the outskirts of the capital, shirtless, sweating labourers packed large wooden crates filled with artworks onto a truck bed. Hours earlier, Ai, who now lives in Berlin, had posted videos on Instagram showing several men looking on from inside the hollowed-out brick and concrete building as a backhoe went to work. "Farewell," Ai wrote in English, saying the demolition had begun without notice. Ai helped to design the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Games, but fell out of favour following his criticism of Chinese leadership. The artist was detained for 81 days in 2011 amid a crackdown on government critics. His passport was confiscated and he moved to Berlin after it was returned to him in 2015. Ai wasn't overly angry about the demolition, as the rental contract for the space had expired last autumn, said Ga Rang, an assistant who has worked for 10 years alongside the artist. But it "simply wasn't possible" to move out at the time due to the vast quantity of things stored in the space, Ga said. Ga managed the hangar-sized space in the Left Right Art District, where Ai had worked since 2006. "They came and started knocking down the windows today without telling us beforehand. There's still so much stuff inside," said Ga, wiping his brow in the extreme summer humidity as he directed a crew of movers. They had been warned that the move needed to happen within days, but had not been told when the wrecking machines would appear. "The authorities say they want to develop things here, build malls and commercial buildings. But it's a shame -- you won't ever find a place in Beijing like this again," he said. - Ghostly retrospective - Around the back of the building lay a cemetery-like collection of different parts from Ai's various works, a ghostly outdoor retrospective. Tall ceramic pillars in green, yellow and blue, like those from his 2006 "Pillar" series, stood next to twisted metal rebar reclaimed from schools destroyed in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, all encircled by a silent chorus of enormous, gnarled tree roots resembling those from his 2009 work "Rooted Upon" -- an abstract meditation on encroaching modernity and displacement. Read also: China still won't tell truth about Sichuan quake: Ai Weiwei It was going to be impossible to find another space to house such large-scale works in Beijing, Ga lamented, and they were considering simply storing the works outside somewhere. "Mr. Ai made countless works in this space -- a lot of his iconic works were all made here." Work from Ai's first solo show in his home country -- a reconstructed Ming dynasty temple, rebuilt with all its 1,500 parts in a Beijing gallery in 2015 -- stood packed up in boxes in the middle of the window-lined studio amid broken glass and timber. - Changing district - Far beyond Beijing's city centre, the Left Right Art District is an old factory converted into artist studios and office spaces. It lies next to the "Big Wealthy Regal Industrial Park" -- an area full of tractors, dirty low-lying buildings and roadside watermelon vendors selling their wares for 20 cents a kilo. Ai's studio dominates the complex, where many of the other buildings dating back to the 1960s and 70s have already been reduced to rubble. Demolitions began three months ago, said De Aihua, a longtime resident who moved into the factory in her early teens. Ai's studio used to be the state-owned factory's meeting hall, she explained. At its peak, the complex was home to 1,000 residents, but numbers began to drop after China's reform in the 1980s shifted the economy away from rigid state-controlled planning. In recent years, only 20 or so residents remained. She expected the government to allot her an apartment in a high-rise complex somewhere to compensate her for having to move, but deeply mourned the change. "It was a wonderful life here. It was the way a life should be -- with neighbours, trees, closer to nature," she said, pulling her puppy Miaomiao through a leafy boulevard now overgrown with weeds and hedged on either side by debris. She would speak with artists when they crossed her path, but didn't know much of Ai Weiwei's international renown, referring to him as "Ai Qing's son". His father was a famous Chinese poet. As he prepared a jackhammer for the next morning, the young construction worker who would drive the demolition vehicle said he had no particular feelings about tearing down the historic building, but still preferred low houses to towering commercial malls. "But even if I don't like it, I'm just an ant, what say do I have? he said. "And anyway, I don't really know what you mean by art." Chile made history on Friday when it became the first country in South America to ban the commercial use of plastic bags. "I want to share with you the joy that as of today we're enacting the law," said President Sebastian Pinera at a public ceremony in the centre of Santiago, after which he handed out cloth bags to passers-by. Large businesses have six months to phase out the use of plastic bags, while smaller ones will be given two years to adopt the new rules. It means that any form of plastic bag other than those constituting primary packaging "necessary for hygiene or to prevent food wastage" are prohibited, the government gazette Diario Oficial said on Friday. Those flouting the ban will be subject to a $370 fine, in a country where the minimum wage is just $800. "Without a doubt we're taking a giant step towards a cleaner Chile," added Pinera. In the meantime, companies will be limited to handing out a maximum of two plastic bags per transaction. The law was passed on June 1 but appealed by the Association of Industrial Plastics, whose objections were rejected by the constitutional court. - Chile leading the way - Chile has been one of the countries leading the way in Latin America against the use of plastic bags. In 2014 the government of Michelle Bachelet banned them in Chilean Patagonia and last year extended that to coastal areas. Chile's problem has reached epic proportions with 3.2 billion plastic bags used every year -- some 200 per person, according to the government. "A plastic bag takes seconds to make, is used for less than half an hour between the supermarket and the home, and then takes 400 years to biodegrade," said Pinera. Read also: Environment agency tackles mountain of waste on Tidung Island Some 90 percent of them end up in landfill sites or the sea, where they can be swallowed by birds or fish. The toxic impact of these polyethylene bags on oceans was highlighted recently in Thailand by the death of a whale that had swallowed more than 80 plastic bags. "We cannot continue like this," said Pinera, adding that "nature is suffering the effect of plastic bags." On top of that, only four percent of Chile's 17.5 million people recycle. "What we want to do is very simple: we want to change Chileans' way of life," said Pinera. - Environmental disaster - Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly vulnerable to this environmental disaster as the region enjoys one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. According to the UN, it has 16 million square kilometers (6.1 million square miles) of sea comprising almost a quarter of the world's fish population. The Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda were the first country in the region to ban plastic bags in 2016. That same year Colombia prohibited the use of small bags before also placing a tax on the use of bigger ones a year later. Ecuador has moved to restrict the use of plastic bags, straws and bottles around the biosphere reserve of the Galapagos Islands, which are a World Heritage Site. Panama was the first country in Central America to announce a complete ban on plastic bags in January, but it has given businesses up to two years to comply to the new directives. The three biggest cities in Latin America have also taken action, with Mexico City banning the distribution of free bags in 2009. Sao Paulo followed suit in 2015 while Buenos Aires went a step further in January 2017, putting a stop to supermarkets either using or selling such bags. Public and government awareness about the environmental impact of plastics has been increasing. Last year the United Nations passed a resolution, albeit non-binding, to prevent plastics from entering the oceans. For many years now, scientists have been altering genomes of plants and animals to achieve various benefits. Recently, new research has found that genetically modified strains of rice can produce HIV-neutralizing proteins, paving the way to end the HIV epidemic. According to Newsweek, researchers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Spain have teamed up to develop a strain of rice that produces HIV-neutralizing proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the post-lab report where the group described the techniques they used and how the results could be used to prevent the spread of HIV. Our paper provides an approach for the durable deployment of anti-HIV agents in the developing world, the team writes. Infection takes place when the virus interacts with human cells. The transgenic rice produces one antibody and two sugar-biding proteins the monoclonal antibody 2G12; and the lectins griffithsin and cyanovirin-N that bind with the HIV virus to prevent further interaction with the human cells. Once the crop has fully grown, the seeds can be ground and processed into a paste that can then be applied to the skin as a topical cream. This will allow the active compounds to enter the body. Read also: Prince Harry joins Elton John to launch HIV campaign targeting men Additionally, the rice seeds can offer an easier platform to produce HIV-preventing medications, as it is cheaper and allows virtually anybody anywhere to have access to the treatment when needed. Plant-produced pharmaceutical proteins can be scaled up very easily and inexpensively without the need for expensive fermenter facilities simply by planting as many plants as needed to achieve a certain production target, team leader Paul Christou told Labiotech.eu (https://labiotech.eu/medical/hiv-prevention-transgenic-rice/). Costs are minimal after the creation of the first plant producing the microbicide. And in our case, the three molecules can be produced in one plant, thus reducing the costs even further. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that a lot of progress has been made in treating HIV. For instance, US citizens have come a long way: in 1985, about 135,000 were infected but the number dropped to 50,000 in 2010. Unfortunately, an effective vaccine has not yet been developed for HIV. Therefore, for now, only oral medications and educating people about the virus have been the best line of defense. In underdeveloped countries however, oral medications are not always available. (saz/kes) Word that Google is crafting a search engine to meet China's draconian censorship rules has sparked widespread employee anger at the company which has responded by limiting workers' access to documents about the project, a report said Friday. Google was scurrying to stop leaks and quell outrage inside the company over what had been a stealth project prior to a report this week by news website The Intercept. "Everyone's access to documents got turned off, and is being turned on [on a] document-by-document basis," a source told the news site. "There's been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared. Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y." Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking but it is now working on a project for the country codenamed "Dragonfly," an employee told AFP on condition of anonymity. The search project -- which works like a filter that sorts out certain topics -- can be tested within the company's internal networks, according to the worker. "There's a lot of angst internally. Some people are very mad we're doing it," the source told AFP. The tech giant had already come under fire this year from thousands of employees who signed a petition against a $10-million contract with the US military, which was not renewed. Read also: Google is planning China search app, ending long boycott A Google spokesman declined to confirm or deny the existence of the project. "We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com," spokesman Taj Meadows told AFP when news of Dragonfly broke. "But we don't comment on speculation about future plans." A Bloomberg report on Friday said that Google's effort to get back into China includes seeking local partners, perhaps Tencent Holdings, to provide datacenter and computing capacity for services hosted in the internet cloud. Google did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. US internet titans have long struggled with doing business in China, home of a "Great Firewall" that blocks politically sensitive content, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and The New York Times website are blocked in China, but Microsoft's Bing search engine continues to operate. In early 2010, Google shut down its search engine in mainland China after rows over censorship and hacking. Google had cried foul over what it said were cyber attacks aimed at its source code and the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. But the company still employs 700 people in three offices in China working on other projects. The effort to regain footing in China comes amid a US-China trade war, with both sides imposing tit-for-tat tariffs and President Donald Trump accusing Beijing of stealing US technological know-how. Harvey Weinstein's defense lawyer on Friday demanded that a New York court dismiss the sex crimes charges against him, explosively disclosing dozens of intimate emails between the disgraced Hollywood tycoon and his alleged rape victim, in which she said "I love you." Ben Brafman, one of America's most celebrated defense attorneys who helped former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn escape criminal prosecution for alleged sexual assault in 2011, called for the entire indictment against Weinstein to be dismissed, based on the emails and a series of technicalities. The 66-year-old former Tinseltown titan is out on bail and has pleaded not guilty to six counts allegedly committed against three women in 2004, 2006 and 2013. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 20. His arrest and arraignments have led #MeToo campaigners to hope that the twice-married father of five -- whom nearly 100 women have publicly accused of sexual misconduct -- will be put on trial, convicted and sent to prison. But Brafman's explosive filing demanded that the indictment "be dismissed at the pre-trial stage because it is legally infirm," saying that the district attorney's failure to present the emails had tainted the process. Messages sent in the weeks, months and even years after the alleged 2013 rape showed that Weinstein and the woman were in a "long-term, consensual, intimate relationship" that never once referred to an assault, Brafman claimed. "Hope you are well and call me anytime, always good to hear your voice," she allegedly wrote to him in August 2013, five months after the claimed assault. "I was so happy you saw me today!" the woman apparently said that October. In January 2014, the defense quoted her as writing: "Your [sic] the one who makes it look good with your smile and beautiful eyes!!" Some of the messages appeared even more intimate. "There is no one else I would enjoy catching up with that understands me quite like you," she purportedly wrote to Weinstein in July 2014. In another exchange, she wrote to say: "Just had u cross my mind and thought u would send a hello." When Weinstein apparently replied: "Love to cross your mind it's my favorite exercise," she answered: "Lol that made me laugh so hard." - 'Booty call' - "I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call. :)," she apparently emailed Weinstein in February 2017. Messages appeared to show her arranging to meet up with Weinstein, looking forward to introducing him to her mother, making contact when she needed help securing a job and seeking comfort when her father was ill, Brafman said. The defense lawyer accused Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance of acting in haste, caving under "unprecedented" pressure to indict Weinstein, having been investigated for failing to prosecute him for an alleged groping incident in 2015. Read also: Kidman, Theron to star in film on harassment at Fox News Brafman also sought to undermine the allegation of forced oral sex 14 years ago, saying that the alleged victim in that instance does not remember when it happened, only "sometime" between June and September of that year. "Mr Weinstein categorically denies that he had non-consensual sex with any person, and specifically the three accusers in the pending indictment," he wrote in the 159-page filing, that included 30 exhibits of emails. Brafman said the dozens of emails should not have been kept from the grand jury that returned the indictments against the former producer. "The district attorney's failure to fairly present an accurate and complete presentation of the evidence infected the entire grand jury proceeding and subsequent indictment," Brafman argued. Vance's office did not immediately respond to an AFP request to comment. Weinstein is facing two counts of predatory sexual assault and two counts of criminal sexual act, as well as rape in the first and third degree. He risks being jailed for life if put on trial and convicted of the most serious charge against him, predatory sexual assault. His career imploded in October in a blaze of accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse from dozens of women that triggered a major reckoning about harassment in the workplace and the #MeToo movement. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4, 2018 08:03 1181 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5141b14 1 Business haj-pilgrimage,lion-air-group,Asia,Africa,cities Free Indonesias biggest private airline, Lion Air, has prepared eight aircraft to fly haj pilgrims to Jeddah, Riyadh and Medina in Saudi Arabia from 25 airports in Asia and Africa. Lion Air spokesman Danang Mandalah Prihantoro said in a statement received by The Jakarta Post on Friday that the company had prepared three Airbus A330-300, two Boeing 737-900ER and three 737 MAX 8 planes for haj transportation. The planes can carry a total of 835 passengers to the holy land, he added. Danang explained that the airline would serve haj pilgrims from several countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan, through a charter partnership scheme with an international company. He declined to mention the name of the company. He explained that Lion Air would use King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Prince Mohammad bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Medina as bases for its haj operations. This year, the haj runs from Aug 19 to 24. (ris/bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4 2018 The Jakarta Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM Jakarta) is inspecting hotels, malls and other venues, which will be frequented by international athletes and officials, to ensure food safety during the Asian Games. According to data obtained by The Jakarta Post this week, 26 locations, including 20 hotels that the guests will be staying at, were reviewed. Those that pass the inspection will be given stickers or certificates stating that they are fit to serve guests during the Games, which will be held from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2 in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa and Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Bandung/Jakarta Sat, August 4 2018 The government has stepped up efforts to repatriate 11 Indonesian women who were contracted to marry Chinese men but allegedly ended up being victims of human trafficking. A joint team comprising Foreign Ministry personnel and National Police officers is working with Interpol to bring the women home. The team has held talks on possible ways to repatriate the women, West Java Police general crimes director Sr. Comr. Umar Surya Fana said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4 2018 The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) has issued a letter to the Gerindra Partys Jakarta executive board asking it to replace councillor Mohamad Taufik on its list of legislative candidates because of Taufiks background as a former corruption convict. Based on KPU Regulation No. 20/2018, political parties are required to exclude from their candidate lists individuals who have been convicted of corruption, sex crimes against children and drug dealing. If such candidates run in the 2019 election, the KPU will disqualify them immediately and ask the relevant political parties to submit replacements. KPU Jakarta head Betty Epsilon Idroos said the KPU Jakarta had received confirmation about Taufiks background from the court, the head of the correctional facility and the media. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4, 2018 16:44 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df514822b 1 World embassy,Indonesian-Embassy,London,Foreign-Affairs-Ministry Free The online-based consular service called E-Consular provided by the Indonesian Embassy in London has received ISO 9001: 2015 certification from the British Assessment Bureau for providing quality services to applicants. The bureaus Mark Nutburn officially handed over the certificate to Indonesian Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland Rizal Sukma at the embassy in London on Friday. The ISO certificate will encourage the embassy to improve and build a management system that is of international quality, Rizal said. "[The system] will give protection to Indonesians and increase tourist numbers through effective, quick, safe and transparent visa services," Rizal said in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Saturday. Nutburn said the ISO certification process for the embassys consular service was completed faster than usual. He explained it was because the service provided by the embassy was in line with the ISO's standards, thus certification was concluded in two months. The E-Consular service has received a warm welcome from Indonesians and locals after it was officially launched by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on July 13, 2017. The paperless consular service provides 18 online application services. As of Aug. 1, there have been 19,747 applications made through the system since it was launched, such as passport applications for Indonesians and visa applications for foreigners. The service allows applicants to monitor the progress of their documents. Rizal added that ISO certification was evidence of the embassy's strong commitment to give the best service to Indonesians living abroad as well as to foreigners. This shows our commitment to keep making better changes that can fulfil public demand, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hafid Abbas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4 2018 A quarter of a century ago on June 7, 1993, president Soeharto established the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). The decree was issued shortly after a United Nations Commission on Human Rights resolution raised grave concerns over allegations of serious human rights violations by the Indonesian government. The decree was likely an attempt to improve Indonesias human rights commitment in the eyes of the world, adopted 18 days prior to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. In its 25-year journey, Komnas HAM has faced various challenges and achievements. Out of 121 national human rights institutions across the globe, the UN-Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions gave Komnas HAM an A accreditation status for its consistency to meet international principles and competencies of such institutions. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4, 2018 16:02 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5147ec3 1 City Poco-poco-dance,jakarta,Asian-Games-2018,Car-Free-Day Free No fewer than 65,000 people are expected to dance the poco-poco in Jakartas Car Free Day area on Sunday in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record and to welcome the Asian Games. The dance will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. and be centered on Silang Monas Square. It will also cover the area of the weekly Car Free Day events from the yard of the State Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. The popular collective dance originates from Manado in North Sulawesi. The event is organized by the Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC) and the Association of Cabinet Members Wives (OASE Kabinet Kerja). The dance will be joined by staff members of various ministries, agencies, local governments, the military, police and other institutions. Jakarta Transportation Agency head Sigit Widjarmoko said that, as most of the dancers were OASE members, parking space would be available at governmental buildings, as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com. Siti Fauziah, head of public relation of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), said 50 MPR staff members from various bureaus had trained intensively to perform the poco-poco since a month ago. She would be the MPR team leader on the day of the performance, Siti said, according to kompas.com. (ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jim Slater (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Sat, August 4, 2018 06:37 1181 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df513e4e3 2 World #tennis,ATP,Murray Free Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray withdrew from the ATP Washington Open on Friday, citing fatigue after a 3 a.m. finish that left him crying into a towel. The 31-year-old British star, who returned in June from an 11-month layoff with a right hip injury, also withdrew from next week's ATP Toronto Masters, also citing the drain from three grueling three-set victories over more than eight hours on the US capital hardcourts. "I'm exhausted after playing so much over the last four days, having not competed on the hard courts for 18 months," Murray said. "I also need to be careful and to listen to my body as I come back from a long-term injury." Murray, whose last prior hardcourt appearance was in March 2017 at Indian Wells, played only two June grasscourt events in his comeback prior to coming to Washington, where he played three of the week's four longest matches. "I've played quite a few matches this week in Washington and I need to be smart with my rest and recovery as I come back from injury," Murray said. The Scotsman, whose next US Open hardcourt tuneup event will be the Cincinnati Masters starting August 13, was upset following his 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Romanian Marius Copil at having been forced to play from midnight to 3 a.m. -- the latest finish in the Washington event's 50-year history. "I don't think I should be put in a position like that," Murray said after the victory. "(My body) doesn't feel great right now. "Finishing matches at three in the morning isn't good for anyone involved in the event, players, TV, fans, anyone. When you're expected to come back and perform the next day, I think that's unreasonable." Murray said in the pre-dawn hours he might withdraw, adding, "I don't know how players are expected to recover. It's a very difficult position to be coming back from a long injury to be finishing matches at 3 o'clock in the morning." - Andy 'gutted' to withdraw - In a statement released by the event, Murray expressed more disappointment at being unable to continue. "I'm gutted not to be playing and I'd like to thank the tournament and all the fans," he said. "There are lots of positives to take from this week, so I'll take some time to rest and recover and then head to Cincinnati early to prepare and get ready." After the match, a shattered-looking Murray wept into a towel for several minutes, calling it, "just the emotions coming at the end of an extremely long day and a long match," Murray said. Murray's pullout handed a walkover into the semi-finals to 19-year-old Australian Alex De Minaur, who ousted 11th seed Steve Johnson and eighth seed Chung Hyeon, both on Thursday. - Role model Murray leaves - Tournament director Keely O'Brien had told the Washington Post she wanted Murray to play, citing his role model status. "Certainly if he can't play because of his injury, that's one thing. But he's a fighter, and he doesn't give up, and he needs to have everyone see that," she said. After Murray's announcement, O'Brien said she expected Murray would return next year. "I am so grateful that Andy, an incredible champion, came back to DC to begin what we all know will be a great comeback," she said. "I sincerely respect his decision and know that his health and recovery process is his top priority, as it should be." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dyaning Pangestika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4, 2018 15:23 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5146f88 1 National Australia,bali,Ngurah-Rai-International-Airport,Indonesia,immigration Free An Australian graduate student studying Indonesia and planning to visit Papua said she was devastated after being barred from entering the Southeast Asian country. Belinda Lopez, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Australia, wrote on her Twitter account that she had flown to Indonesia for a holiday but had been told by officials at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali that she was blacklisted by Indonesian immigration authorities. I've been refused entry to Bali and have been held in a room at Denpasar airport on a couch since midnight. I am told I can only board a flight at 10 p.m. tonight, so that means Ill be detained for nearly 24 hours before Im deported, she posted on Twitter on Saturday morning. Belinda, who has worked as a subeditor for The Jakarta Post and The Jakarta Globe and made podcasts for the ABC, said she did not know why she was denied entry. Immigration asked me if I was a journalist. Two staff members kept asking me if I had done something wrong to Indonesia. Other than visiting her friends, Belinda said she was also planning to attend the Baliem tourism festival in Papua. This is not a joke: Im blacklisted by the Indonesian government. Saya termasuk dalam daftar tangkal Indonesia (terjemahan dibawah). pic.twitter.com/diMWQhPC6h Belinda Lopez (@belle_lopez) August 3, 2018 Immigration spokesman Agung Sampurno said Belinda had been denied entry due to immigration matters. Every country has the right to deny an individual entry to for various reasons. In Belinda's case, it was only due to immigration matters," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Saturday. He dismissed the notion that she had been denied entry because of her past profession as a journalist. Situations like this are quite common. For example, the Australian government denies entry to our people every day without revealing the reasons. Belinda said she had visited Papua two years ago and that the immigration office refused to renew her visa over suspicion she was also doing journalism. She had been told at the time that she could return to Indonesia six months later. "So why am I now on the Indonesian government blacklist? For how long? For what reason? For going to Papua? This is devastating for me," she said. (ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Sat, August 4, 2018 13:14 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5146457 1 World US,ASEAN,Southeast-Asia,security,MikePompeo Free The United States has pledged to disburse US$300 million to Southeast Asian countries to enhance security in the ASEAN region. The United States is excited to announce 300 million dollars of new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a press briefing on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Singapore. This new security assistance will advance our priorities, especially strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, he said. The US and China are competing for influence in Indo-Pacific, a term that gained ground when US President Donald Trump used it on his tour of Asia last year. During the ASEAN-US meeting on Friday, Pompeo underlined Trump's commitment to the Indo-Pacific strategy as a major engine for economic growth. Indonesia is expected to table a detailed proposal on the Indo Pacific regional architecture at the East Asia Summit Ministerial Meeting, emphasizing ASEAN centrality and inclusiveness. Indonesia had been circulating a detailed document on Indonesian the perspective, which derived from the basic ideas Indonesia had introduced, an open, transparent and inclusive Indo-Pacific regional architecture based on international law". With the region being home to some of the worlds largest economies, the US, China, Japan, India and Indonesia, Indo-Pacific cooperation could combine a total gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$43 trillion. (ahw) #KFTC Antitrust agency to probe travel sector facing spike in pent-up demand South Korea's antitrust chief has vowed to intensify a probe into unfair business practices in the travel sector amid a looming recovery in travel demand as the country prepares to... Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Asina Pornwasin (The Nation/ANN) Bangkok Sat, August 4, 2018 07:37 1181 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5140d3c 2 SE Asia #Thailand,#cyberattack,#CyberSecurity,#data-leak Free hailand is facing a shortage of cybersecurity experts amid the countrys drive for the digital transformation of the economy and society, according to Kitti Kosavisutte, chairman of the Thailand Banking Sector-Computer Emergency Response Team (TB-CERT). His remarks followed the data leaks reported by Kasikornbank and Krung Thai Bank, where personal and corporate data of more than 120,000 bank customers were compromised. Krung Thai Bank reported to the Bank of Thailand that the personal data of 117,000 customers applying for personal, housing and other loans online, were hacked. Kasikorn Bank reported that corporate data of about 3,000 customers using the banks online letter of guarantee service, was compromised. Cybersecurity experts said the incidents serve as a wake-up call for regulators and other authorities as Thailand accelerates the pace of its digital economy. While bank executives said the data leaks have caused no damage so far, experts said. Data, especially personal data, is very sensitive and potential damage cannot be ruled out. Experts have urged the government to quickly strengthen legal safeguards against data leaks with special measures added to the data protection bill which will be enacted later this year. At present, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commissions rules require telecom operators to report any data leaks to authorities within 72 hours. However, there are no regulations for the banking sector yet. Experts have also suggested that the countrys data protection bill should meet the international standard set by the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which went into effect in May this year, since the law covers both data protection and data leak issues with punitive measures. Regarding Thailand, Kitti said, a national cybersecurity committee has highlighted the issue of an insufficient number of cybersecurity experts and it is seeking state funds to develop more human resources. At present, there is a widespread shortage of experts in virtually all sectors of the economy. Thailand's fast-growing digital economy has led to a huge increase in Big Data, especially personal data stored on the computer systems of telecom companies, banks and other financial institutions, which have become a major target for cyberattacks. As a result, authorities have to step up both prevention and detection measures as well as prepare how best to respond to these attacks. For example, the time it takes to respond to these attacks is no less important than prevention and detection measures, so we need to develop more experts in this field to cope with the rising number of incidents. In addition, consumers need to have greater awareness on protecting their personal data, Kitti said. Since the digital economy is driven by the massive amount of personal and other data, it is not possible to completely prevent all data leaks which could be facilitated by malware, ransomware and other methods. In this context, personal data is the most sensitive and could be widely abused, especially in the world of digital banking and customer IDs. Kitti said public awareness campaigns are necessary to facilitate the fast-growing digital and mobile banking sector as commercial banks move more customers to mobile and other digital platforms which are seen as a new competitive advantage due to increased convenience for customers and increased efficiency for banks. Member banks of the TB-CERT are working together to strengthen our safeguards on cybersecurity by sharing information and experience in various cases so that the sector can more effectively plug their loopholes to prevent new attacks. However, each bank has its own monitoring and alert mechanisms. At this stage, TB-CERT focuses on how best to respond to cyberattacks, he said. Due to the migration of banking services from branches to online and mobile platforms, it is necessary to increase investment in additional security and other precautionary measures since there are greater probabilities of incidents. In his opinion, prevention and detection as well as best responses are key to ensuring that banking services are not disrupted by attacks. Previously, most banks focused on prevention and later detection, Now, timely responses are also very important. Topics : This article appeared on The Nation newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 4, 2018 15:16 1180 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5146f27 4 News Universitas-Gajah-Mada,UGM,Universitas-Indonesia,UI,university,ranking Free A university's ranking is usually among the points to consider when choosing an institute of higher learning. The list compiled by 4 International Colleges and Universities (4ICU), called uniRank, is based on the popularity of university websites worldwide. The 4ICU website lists as many as 11,307 sites for recognized and licensed and/or accredited higher education institutions spread across the globe. The ranking is based on algorithms from five web metrics and four independent search engines, namely Moz Domain Authority, Alexa Global Rank, SimilarWeb Global Rank, Majestic Referring Domains and Majestic Trust Flow. Read also: UI, ITB and UGM among top 400 universities in the world In Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta topped the list, followed by the University of Indonesia (UI) in Depok, West Java, and Sebelas Maret University (UNS) in Surakarta, Central Java. (liz/kes) As compiled by kompas.com, the 10 best universities according to 4ICU are as follows: Gadjah Mada University University of Indonesia Sebelas Maret University Diponegoro University Bogor Institute of Agriculture Brawijaya University Airlangga University Yogyakarta State University Bandung Institute of Technology Indonesia University of Education If it wasn't already clear, Trump's failure to make good on his promise to reunite immigrant children with their parents has highlighted how untrustworthy the current president is. On the 26th July, the deadline set by a federal judge in California for the reunification of families with their children was failed to be met by President Trump. Many immigrants were prompted to sign documents on their arrival to America agreeing to return to their home country, promising that they would be reunited with their children if they did so. However, a staggering 711 known children still remain separated from their parents. Now the deadline has passed the reasons for the government's failure became apparent; they have simply and horrifyingly lost track of many of the childrens parents. Such a failure of organisation and policy has finally revealed how clueless and rash Donald Trump, and his decisions, really are. Speaking at a rally in Indiana in May, Donald Trump claimed that for all the worlds criticism of his country, the US is respected again and that this was something that he had achieved. I would argue that his recent actions have achieved the complete opposite. What Donald Trump is failing to cover in all his campaigns and policies are the reasons that these migrants are making this dangerous and traumatising journey in the first place. Speaking to DemocracyNow!, author and political dissident Noam Chomsky drew on these buried causes of mass immigration. Chomsky claimed that it was hard to think of a more brutal and sadistic policy than the one adopted by Trumps government. Most importantly, Chomsky highlighted the facts that Trump is choosing to ignore; That these people are fleeing from the wreckage and horrors of US policy, drawing on the events of 1954 in Guatemala where the US intervened, supporting a military coup, leading to the political unrest and oppression that would continue well into the 21st century. So essentially what President Trump is saying is well destroy your countries, slaughter you, and impose brutal regimes, but if you try to get out youre not going to come here because America is full. Even when Donald Trump first began his campaign for the Presidency back in 2016, he made his opinions on immigrants very clear. Speaking at many rallies, he claimed "theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists". What Donald Trump is desperately trying to skim over is that the vast majority of these people arriving in the US are not only immigrants innocent of all the above, but refugees seeking asylum. For months members of Trumps administration even tried to deny that it was separating children from their parents. When journalists found and published evidence proving the contrary, they then moved onto blaming the Democrats for this policy, a policy they did not even create. After this argument was found to be flawed they then began to blame Congress, claiming it was Congress job to create the law. However, as the New York Times rightly pointed out, Congress has had nothing to do with the implementation of these laws, so again Trump was outed for his seemingly desperate lies. Trump then labeled the policy as "a necessary evil". He and his administration seemed to believe that these scare tactics would prevent any more immigrants from entering the United States, for fear that they would be separated from their children. However, for many of these refugees, there is no other choice but to try, the danger at home posing too great a risk not to. Eventually, Trump had no choice to reverse the policy, although this did nothing for the estimated 2,500 children that had already been separated from their parents. Speaking to CNN after the reversal, Democrat House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer rightly claimed, "[Trump] created a crisis, he said he solved the crisis. He has not".Mere weeks later and he failed to meet the deadlines to reunite the parents with their children. As a result, a second new deadline was set by Judge Dana Sabraw. The administration was given until 2nd August to produce a solution which would reunite the children who are still separated from their parents. It is as yet unclear what their solution will be, and whether they will be successful in implementing it. What we can hope for is that this will discourage Trump from passing further hardline policies as well as discouraging the public from believing him. Ultimately, Trump has created an even bigger issue than the one he started with and as yet seems to have no idea how he is going to tackle the immigration crisis. We have no idea what solution he might come up with next and, given his track record, that's a worrying situation to be in. Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: Home Page Revolts by shareholders over company pay and board appointments seem to have become more prevalent this year. Last month Royal Mail experienced the second biggest shareholder uprising in modern times, when 70 per cent rejected the pay package of new boss Rico Back. It was an embarrassing revolt that sent the postal-service firm back to the drawing board. In April more than 48 per cent of shareholders at housebuilder Persimmon shouted down a 110million pay package for chief executive Jeff Fairburn, which ended up being substantially reduced. More than a third of Cineworld shareholders voted against the pay of boss Moshe Greidinger in May. Last month 34.2 per cent of BT investors shook their heads at the 2.3million golden goodbye given to outgoing chief executive Gavin Patterson. In most major rebellions, it is the weighty institutional investors who make a difference despite millions of ordinary shareholders having a right to vote. And in smaller companies, where individual investors combined sometimes own more than half of the company, there is still a sad lack of engagement. The reality is that the modern way shares are held is through investment platforms, where it can be baffling, or sometimes impossible, to lodge a vote. Cliff Weight, a director of Sharesoc which helps individual investors negotiate the stock market, said: Only 6 per cent of retail shareholders vote. Why? Because it is not easy. This week, trade body the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) published information on how normal shareholders who invest though a platform can weigh in on company decisions. Because the platform is technically named as the shareholder, the actual investor may receive little information from the company that they are ploughing their money into and hear even less on how to actually engage with that company. People power: In April more than 48 per cent of shareholders at housebuilder Persimmon shouted down a 110m pay package for chief executive Jeff Fairburn Of the ten platforms surveyed, the AIC found that only seven allow shareholders to vote on a routine basis. Two did not, and one was in the process of building the technology to support voting. There is huge variation in how far each platform goes to connect the end-investor and the firm theyre invested in. AJ Bell, which runs the Investcentre platform, will always notify investors about issues that could potentially have a significant change on a customers shareholding. At Bestinvest, the platform run by Tilney Group, there is no option for online voting shareholders can only vote if they specifically ask to. Bestinvest will only actively communicate with shareholders where there is a notable corporate action. Many of the platforms have said there is simply no desire on investors part to vote in the boring normal AGMs. Hygiene-products business Tristel is taking matters into its own hands, creating presentations for normal shareholders alongside its institutional investor roadshows. Sharesoc is proposing that all platforms create a designated account for their customers, and their shares are voted in line with Sharesoc policy as the default. Investors can opt-out of this on specific issues if they do not agree. But by acting as a collective, Sharesoc thinks individual investors will together be able to make their voices heard. Cobham is making parts for Nasas Orion mission which plans to help humans boldly go where they have never gone before. The Dorset-based space and satellite manufacturer has been hired by Lockheed Martin for its deep space project which even hopes to put humans on Mars. Cobham will supply parts such as oxygen service valves to help astronauts breathe and pyrotechnic valves to help with pressure inside the spacecraft. Blast off: Cobham has been hired by Lockheed Martin for its deep space project which even hopes to put humans on Mars Boss David Lockwood said he could not disclose the value of the contracts but said: Every Nasa astronaut who has ever flown has breathed through Cobham equipment. If as we expect there is growth in manned space flight, it secures our position for the whole next generation, he said. Its an unsung part of Cobham all the stuff we do in breathing and life support systems and from space down to fast jets and so on. We are going to make more of it later in the year. 'Rollercoaster' prices: Petrol and diesel rose by an average of around 1p a litre in July PETROL PAIN Drivers were stung with the return of rising fuel prices in July, figures show. Analysis by the RAC found that both petrol and diesel rose by an average of around 1p a litre last month. The motoring group said this reflects a continuation of 'rollercoaster' fuel prices as a rise in May was followed by a decline of around 2p a litre in June. Supermarkets increased their prices the most in July. ECO BOOST Packaging firm Mondi revealed a 6 per cent in profits to 436million after demand increased for its eco-friendly packaging. Sales also rose 4 per cent to 3.3billion. CORE VALUES Tim Cook said Apple's $1trillion valuation is not the most important measure of the iPhone maker's success. In an email, the chief executive paid tribute to the US tech giant's staff. APP APPEALS Taxi hailing app companies Uber and Lyft have launched campaigns against proposed rules where city officials in New York would be able to set minimum wages for drivers and cap the number of cabs allowed to work for the tech firms. BEER BID Dutch brewer Heineken has signed a deal with conglomerate China Resources in a bid to tap into the world's biggest beer market. Heineken will take a 40 per cent stake in China Resources' holding company in exchange for a licensing agreement. FAST PAY The boss of fast fashion retailer Quiz saw his pay double last year. Tarak Ramzan, 65, who founded the chain, was paid 163,000, up from 81,000 a year earlier. ROOMS WOE Combined revenue per room at hotel group Millennium & Copthorne fell 4.3 per cent to 75.29million in the six months to June 30 as it carried out refurbishment at its Mayfair hotel. Profits increased 3.2 per cent to 65million during the period. Britains university system, once the envy of the world, has become a monster. Bloated, self-serving and impossibly expensive to run, it is causing untold misery to millions of students who sign up for a lifetime of debt, only to be sold a sub-standard and frequently useless education. To say so out loud invites condemnation all round from the establishment that preaches there can never be too much education, from the hundreds of thousands employed on the university gravy train and from the millions of students who have got themselves deep into debt for the sake of a degree. But it must be said. And something has to be done to address this self- perpetuating insanity. The figures are eye-watering. Over the past 30 years, our higher education (H.E.) network has tripled in size. In the late Eighties, around 770,000 people just 15 per cent of school leavers attended a university or polytechnic. Now there are more than 2.3 million H.E. students. Thats almost half of all school leavers. Many of them arrived with a distinct lack of accurate information on the long-term benefits and drawbacks of a degree. Theyve been told that the graduate premium the extra money a degree student can expect to earn over a lifetime is 100,000. But thats vague to the point of being downright dishonest. The New Labour mantra of education, education, education promised that the more people who gain a degree, the better off well all be. And, yes, of course its hugely beneficial for many to have greater opportunities. But is Blairs claim really true? Common sense and a mountain of evidence emphatically say otherwise. The higher education system in Britain has swelled to a monstrous size and is no longer giving every student a bright future, it is claimed Whats the point of having a degree if every other person has one, too? When the cost of a degree can be up to 60,000, can it ever make financial sense especially when the great majority of students (nine out of ten, on some courses) will be unable to find a job that requires a university education? Changes have to be made, and now. Unless university places are restricted, our great institutions will be reduced to nurseries for over-qualified baristas, gym trainers and call centre workers. We cant wait for the academics to come to their senses and start turning away undergraduates their jobs depend on filling those places. Thankfully, the new Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, seems determined to do something about it. This week, he gave a speech in which he argued that more pupils should think about shunning university for alternatives, such as high-quality apprenticeships. He argued that youngsters, both working-class and middle-class, could benefit more from the Governments new technical qualifications known as T-levels which are being set up as an alternative to A-levels. Mr Hinds said: We need to consider whether in all cases a traditional degree at university is the right option, including those from more affluent backgrounds. What is remarkable is that it even needs to be said. The fact is that many graduates now see minimal or even negative returns from their degrees. Figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed recently that a third of graduates from some of the most popular degree courses in the country including agriculture, psychology, English and creative design are likely to be earning substantially less than the national average salary. And thats true not just immediately after leaving university, but five years later. While the average UK salary is 27,600 a year, an ex-student with a degree in education, for example, is likely to be earning 23,700 nearly 4,000 less. Yet every parent wants their child to go to university. Thats not an exaggeration: an Institute of Education study in 2010 found that 97 per cent of British mothers with children aged ten and under wished to see them go on to further education. Universities are making thousands of unconditional offers - but this has been criticised as the higher education system swells No one is willing to recognise the blatant disadvantages of the failing system . . . and its hardly surprising. Too many people have too much at stake. There are more than 160 different universities and H.E. colleges in the UK today many with multiple campuses serving 2.32 million students, equivalent to the combined populations of Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Derby. They employ 400,000 people. Add those figures together, and they represent around 5 per cent of the UKs entire population. Tony Blairs New Labour government pledged to send half of all school leavers to university. But this bloat has its beginnings much earlier, in the Sixties. The post-war population boom and the success of the grammar schools were producing far more highly able candidates than universities could accommodate. A government report in 1963 recommended: Courses should be available to all those who are qualified by ability and attainment to pursue them and who wish to do so. The author, Lord Robbins, could not have imagined what his well-meaning proposal would set in motion. Today, more than 600,000 people apply for degrees every year. They surely cannot all be qualified by ability and attainment. The figures certainly suggest that they are not. In 2010, 51 per cent of university applicants had three grade Ds at A-level or worse. And there are places for them. Some establishments, mainly the newer ones, have been so desperate to fill up their courses that they have made huge numbers of unconditional offers to sixth-formers, which give prospective students guaranteed university places regardless of the outcome of their A-levels. Figures released last week by the Universities And Colleges Admissions Service show that universities made 67,915 unconditional offers this year a staggering rise since the 2,985 given out in 2014. Schoolteachers have voiced concern that these unconditional offers are being dished out like candy. This removes the motivation to work, they say: It affects performance, said one, who didnt want to be named. I would say that pupils with unconditional offers drop at least a grade. Others regard it as a form of corruption: That looks very much like bribery . . . Come here, because you dont need any grades. The inevitable result is that, rather than attracting the finest young minds in the country, our universities are becoming breeding grounds for third-rate thought. Once, they produced young people with inquisitive, independent, open, questioning intellects. Now, the opposite is happening. The past decade has seen a worrying rise in the scale and intensity of self-censorship at universities, and an increasing demand for safe spaces where students will be protected from any views that might disturb their intellectual, political and moral comfort zones. Students are imposing gender segregation, banning national newspapers, demanding the removal of statues they find offensive and, as occurred last month at Manchester University, defacing and painting out the text of the poem If by Nobel prize-winner Rudyard Kipling because the author was perceived as a racist.The famous verse was replaced with some lines by black American feminist Maya Angelou. Anything that could be construed as cultural appropriation is stamped out, even down to the naming of foreign dishes in university canteens, and speakers as diverse as Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchell and Nigel Farage have been denied a platform as a consequence of holding views deemed beyond the pale. In 2016, the magazine Spiked, which monitors censorship on campus, found that 90 per cent of British universities now place restrictions on freedom of expression. If that sounds unlike the heady, free-thinking days of yore, so is every other aspect of undergraduate life. With accommodation scarce and expensive, and the prospect of future unemployment ever more real, the student existence is no longer a three-year party. Instead, it can be expensive, difficult and isolating causing a steep rise in mental illness, even suicide in the most tragic cases. Those who arrive with hopes of intense intellectual debate are quickly disillusioned: other students often lack interest and ability, and academics have no time to engage. In many departments, courses are so crowded that it is now the norm for each student to have just one face-to-face meeting with a tutor per term. There are also a large number of international students. Its no surprise: many universities are so eager to take students from abroad, and to charge them up to 100,000 in tuition fees over three years, that proficiency in English is no longer seen as necessary. One mature student told a House Of Commons Select Committee, as long ago as 2009: The varying ability of the students and their poor English meant things had to be pitched to the lowest common denominator. One of my lecturers was being asked to slow his lectures down so that the significant number of Chinese students could follow what he was saying. His speed was fine for native speakers, so I would assume that any slowing down will have an impact on the material covered. It all has an impact, of course. The inevitable result is that many graduates emerge with third-rate degrees in less than useful subjects from often third-rate institutions and realise to their horror that what might be the most expensive purchase of their lives, apart from property (if they can ever buy a house), is worthless. Graduates with useless degrees are so numerous that one in ten childminders has a university education. So does one in six call centre staff, and one in four air cabin crew and theme park attendants. This can create bigger problems than mere frustration and bitterness. A former intensive care nurse, Rona Johnson, told the Mail in 2009: Many graduate nurses feel they are too superior to clean floors and change beds. Tony Blairs New Labour government pledged to send half of all school leavers to university Many less glamorous but vital elements of nursing have dropped off the syllabus, to be replaced with empty jargon about holistic care and cultural sensitivities. As a result, the incidence of lethal hospital infections is going through the roof. The cost of all these useless degrees is almost beyond calculating. Each year students borrow over 12 billion. The total debt owed by UK graduates and undergrads is thought to be 100 billion. As a result, an entire generation will spend the first 30 years of their lives struggling with debts they cannot repay. The average debt of a British graduate is 50,000, the highest in the developed world. An income tax surcharge of up to nine per cent will be imposed on those who do manage to find well-paying jobs. This will prevent many from buying their own homes, getting married and starting families. Then, after 30 years, the remaining debt will be written off, at the cost of untold tens of billions to the taxpayer. All this financial grief is quite pointless. It is the mathematics of the madhouse. How do we end it? The most obvious first step is to gradually reduce the number of students say, by five per cent per year for five years. This would reduce overcrowding on courses and increase the amount of contact between tutors and students. How can this be achieved? Well, for one thing, a minimum grade tariff should be set for access to student loans. Currently, a school leaver with just one grade E at A-level can claim a place at a new university though they are likely to struggle academically, and quite probably drop out. Why should they automatically qualify for student finance when its so likely that the bill will eventually fall to the taxpayer? If an applicant cannot demonstrate a minimum level of attainment and ability, why should there be an automatic expectation of funding? Its worse than ludicrous that a student capable of nothing better than one E-grade should be burdened with 50,000 its cruel. (It also emerged this week that middle-class parents of students are being hit with a stealth tax of up to 4,000 a year to pay for their childs rent because rooms at some of the most popular universities cost far more than the maintenance loans available.) Of COURSE, low achievers with a genuine desire to better their education should not be denied the chance of tertiary education. Pupils can fail at school for all sorts of reasons, not all their own fault. University graduates are not necessarily earning more than those who did not take degree courses, it has been found Those with weak grades could be offered part-time education, initially with one credit for a module at the Open University. By passing that module, they could earn access to more funding, and so on. Student headcount could also be reduced by withdrawing or restricting funding for courses and universities with high drop-out rates and low levels of post-grad employment or earnings. At the very least, those courses should have to face a few pertinent questions. Do they offer the country some sort of benefit, perhaps improving our cultural life, that justifies the burden on taxpayers ordinary working people whose hard-earned cash goes to pay for abandoned studies? Does the university make extra efforts to support mature students, who perhaps dropped out years or decades ago but who now want to tackle education in earnest? Does it have an especially good record with people from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with disabilities or from communities in the UKs remoter areas? If the answer to all those is No, theres an even more important question: why should we keep wasting public money? And theres a simple answer: withdraw funding. Above all, Britain has to shake off the delusion that half our school leavers are better off going to university. Its a monstrous con. ADAPTED from THE GREAT UNIVERSITY CON, by David Craig and Hugh Openshaw, (The Original Book Company, 7.99). David Craig and Hugh Openshaw. LOZITHA Is the land forming part of Mpumalanga Province, among others, in South Africa and alleged to be belonging to the Kingdom of Eswatini, finally going to be brought back to the country? This is one question that is likely to cross ones mind after learning that a delegation of six Afrikaners, including the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) was in the country on Thursday night to meet the King together with members of the Border Restoration Committee (BRC). The meeting was held at Lozitha Palace. FF+ is a national South African political party formed in 1994 and it recently came into the spotlight after its Mpumalanga Provincial Leader, Werner Weber, told the South African Joint Constitutional Review Committee that the land in Mpumalanga belongs to Eswatini. This took place last month during the ongoing hearings on changing the South African Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. After the meeting with the King on Thursday night, the BRC and a six-member delegation, through their spokespersons; Bheka Mabuza and Werner Weber, issued a joint statement with four major agreements over the land issue and the South African partys relationship with the Kingdom of Eswatini and its people. In the joint statement, the parties agreed that the good long existing relations between the people of Eswatini and Afrikaners were revitalised and reaffirmed. The Afrikaners also acknowledged the Kingdom and the people of Eswatini as the original owners of the land around Mpumalanga Province, among other areas in the neighbouring country. According to the statement, the parties agreed the Eswatini Monarch granted the Voortrekkers (Afrikaners who went ahead of the Dutch settlers) land to use through kukhonta (a customary method for accessing Eswatini Nation Land) by virtue of agreements concluded in the 1800s. Due to differences in cultures, when this land transaction was made, the Voortrekkers were of the mind that they were acquiring permanent land use rights. Therefore, the parties agree that the land was not stolen, reads part of the statement. Again, the two parties said they were in strong agreement that any efforts to change the land ownership pattern held by the current owners in and around the Mpumalanga Province should be preceded by settlement talks. They said this should include an agreement with the Kingdom of Eswatini as per its long-standing request to successive South African governments. Nonetheless, the parties also agreed to continue with discussion regarding the land issue and further pledged their commitment to working towards an amicable solution. It is worth noting that this historic meeting comes after the bold statement which was made by the FF+ Spokesperson and Mpumalanga Provincial Leader, Werner Weber, that the land in the province among other land in South Africa allegedly belongs to Eswatini. LOBAMBA For the first time in history, a member of the royal family has been nominated to contest for an MP position. Inkhosikati LaMavimbela, the wife of Prince Guduza, will be contesting with over 50 candidates with the likes of former MP Michael Masilela, Pastor Buddy Msibi and Dumisani Mnisi among others. The 59-year-old is the first royal family member to stand for elections, changing the narrative that people of her social standing have lived with for years. Before the constitution came into, the cultural practice was against the participation of royalty and chiefs in such national activities because of the influence they have in society. However, when the constitution was promulgated, it allowed everyone to participate as long as they qualified according to the stipulated requirements which include; having reached the age of 18 years, being of sound mental health and being a liSwati. Although he did not base it on any legislation, Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Chairman Chief Gija said they considered the participation of royalty and chiefs as undesirable. He said this was for obvious reasons which are the powers that these people had as far as traditional authority was concerned. The Attorney General, Sifiso Khumalo, said there was no legislation that prohibited such. He said they appreciated the fact that there was mention of the possibility of an unfair advantage. This is evident with numerous calls that have been coming into the newsroom, with members of this constituency feeling this was entirely unfair. Trend: Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has extended condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin. I was deeply saddened by the news of casualties caused by crash of a Mi-8 helicopter in Krasnoyarsk region. On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died, said President Aliyev. The Cypriot, Italian, Jewish, Islamic, African and Indian communities met in Adelaide on Monday to assist victims of the Greek wildfires disaster More than 100 people from the Greek community as well as business and political leaders from the Cypriot, Italian, Jewish, Islamic, African and Indian communities met in Adelaide on Monday to assist victims of the Greek wildfires disaster. Premier Steven Marshall and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas addressed the meeting held by the Greek Orthodox Community of SA. Marshall noted he was impressed by the range of ethnic groups represented at the meeting, which aimed to form a co-ordinating committee to ensure any money raised went where it was needed most. Community president Bill Gonis stressed the Greek Orthodox Community of SA had banded together with local Greek associations to form a partnership with the Bank of Sydney and Delphi Bank, to establish a community relief fund. Mr Gonis added that by establishing a co-ordinating committee, the public could have confidence their money would go to the people and groups most in need of help. He said he was buoyed by the breadth of groups offering support to the Greek community, promising the committee would ensure that money raised in South Australia would go where it was most needed. Read more at greekreporter.com RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Doug Barber License: CC-BY-SA Business Insiders International Correspondent Harrison Jacobs has shared a piece of advice he was given by a local Greek, which he notes has allowed him to have the best holiday in Greece over summer. An Athenian named Michael, told Harrison, to avoid islands like Mykonos and Santorini during the summer season, Mykonos is not really Greece. Its nothing, he said, as he took me to what was the cheapest accommodation available on the island, a 110 Euro a night pension (guesthouse) in Ornos. Look at a map, find the islands that dont have airports, and go there. Any one will do. Theyre all beautiful. Read Harrisons article that was published in Business Insider RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Yanni Haviaras License: CC-BY-SA Panagia Soumela which is the holy symbol of the Pontos is embraced by history, tradition, and legend The original Soumela monastery in Trabzon on the Black Sea was an Orthodox symbol for 16 centuries. After its destruction, the sacred icon of Panagia (Virgin Mary) was transported to the new Panagia Soumela on the forested slopes of Mount Vermion, located near the village of Kastania. Panagia Soumela which is the holy symbol of the Pontos is embraced by history, tradition, and legend. Evangelist Luke was the one who carved the wood into Pangias (Virgin Mary) figure. The wooden icon was discovered after Evangelist Lukes death in Athens and for this reason, is given the name Panagia The Athenian. At the end of the 4th century (380-386) the monastery of Panagia Soumela was constructed by the monks Varnava and Sofronios. The two monks, with their faith, persistence and dedicated work, managed to build the church of Soumeliotisa which is carved into the mountain. In 1951-1952 the icon was handed to the union Panagia Soumela of Thessaloniki, which began the construction of the monastery in a flat place at Vermio, above the village of Kastania that had granted 500 acres of land for the construction of the Pilgrimage. Panagia Soumela name origin The name of the icon and the monastery derives from the name of the mountain, where it is built on, which is called Mela. In Greek, stou mela means at Mela, and in the Pontic dialect it is pronounced sou Mela. Thus, Panagia at Mountain Mela. At different times, thieves and men of different religions raided the Monastery and there are many references on the miraculous intervention of Panagia for the Monasterys salvation. In 1922, when Greeks of Asia Minor and Pontus were driven from the lands of their fathers, the monks hid the icon of Panagia Soumela painted by Evangelist Luke, the handwritten Gospel copied on parchment by St. Christopher, and the Holy Cross with the honorable wood donated by Emperor Manuel Comnenos, in the chapel of Saint Barbara. At the time, the holy icon was buried for nearly thirty years in the sacred soils. In 1931, Metropolitan Polycarp of Xanthe and the Minister Polycarp Psomiadis asked for the intervention of the then Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, in order to liberate the icon. The sacred icon of Panagia Soumela The request was approved by the then Turkish Prime Minister Ismet Inonu, after Venizelos asked for his permission to send monks to Mount Mela monastery to retrieve the sacred icon along with the other holy items. Soon the hidden icon was unearthed along with the other sacred objects. They were all returned to Athens and remained at the Byzantine Museum of the Greek capital, until 1951, when the Panagia Soumela Foundation was founded. In 1952, the holy icon was officially returned to the monastery, which was built in Mount Vermia. About forty years later, in August 1993, the Cross and the Gospel of Agios Christophoros were also given to the church. The icon of Panagia Soumela is cherished among Greeks of Pontus, who pray to her for miracles and in their time of need. Every year on the 15th of August, Tis Panagias, thousands of pilgrims from around Greece and the world travel to this sacred Monastery at Mount Vermion to venerate the holy icon. Read more at panagiasoumela.gr RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Bee Gee Lover Yayay License: CC-BY-SA The Monastery of Prousos in Evritania (Central Greece) was constructed at the exact place which Panagia chose in a miraculous way A lot of people call it The House of Virgin Mary because, according to some traditions, the Monastery of Prousos in Evritania (Central Greece) was constructed at the exact place which Panagia chose in a miraculous way. This holy site, that goes back to 829AD, is located 35kms away from Karpenisis. On the path that leads to the Monastery, there are the footsteps of Theotokos (Patimata tis Panagias). They are seven shapes of different colours each, which, according to some traditions, are the traces Virgin Mary left on her way to Proussos, on the rock that stands there. According to some traditions the icon of Virgin Mary that was founded by the Evangelist Lukas was taken away from Proussa of Asia Minor in 829AD, during the period of Iconomachy, so as to be saved from the burning of the Byzantine icons that the Emperor Theophilus had ordered. The icon was transferred to Greece by a young man whose name was Dionysios, but for an unknown reason, the icon was missing when he arrived to Thrace. After Thrace, the icon appeared in Evritania, where it was revealed to a shepherd as a bright pillar that reached the sky. This happened on 23rdof August and this is the date when the icon is celebrated, as it was set by the Monastery where it was transferred as it was considered that this was the place where Virgin Mary elected in order to reside. According to records of the Monastery, several parts of the icon were destroyed during Turkish occupation. More recently, the German invasion on the 16thof August 1944, let to complete destruction of its buildings. Based on some testimonies, an officer wanted to burn the church however he was prevented by the invisible hand of Panagia, as he felt a strong power pushing him down to the floor, as he was giving his orders. Monastery of Prousos The icon of Panagia Proutiotissa is miraculous and for this reason a lot of believers from Greece and abroad flock here all year round. The main church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, is in the cave. The ancient and incense-darkened Icon remains in the inner cave, surrounded by numerous precious offerings. The offerings are truthful witnesses to innumerable miracles of times past and present. The village of Proussos has been built near the Monastery. The Icon awaits the crowds of pilgrims who gather there from the 15th to the 22nd of August, which are the days of the feast. Nowadays the monastery is accessible by car. The car inches patiently along the winding dirt road, which is carved on the steep mountain slope. The road from the south comes to an elevated area called Stavros, from there the monastery can be seen perched on a recess of a precipice at the northwest corner of a narrow valley surrounded by mountain peaks. The pilgrims patience is rewarded with a great blessing, the veneration of the Icon of the All-Holy Mother of God of Prousa. The Sacristy of the monastery contains a wealth of valuable handwritten codes, images, holy vessels, reliquaries, and books. Many treasures are also showcased in the monasterys museum such as images from the 15th and 16th century, sacred vestments, silver and gold chalices, handwritten codes, typography books and the sword of Karaiskakis. Outside the monastery, there are two castles, one to the left and one to the right, which are called Towers of Karaiskakis. There is also a church of Agioi Pantes, built in 1754. Finally, there is the building that -during the Turkish occupation- housed the School of the Greek letters, fully restored and preserved. Read more at greekcitytimes.com RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Pitichinaccio License: CC-BY-SA After a decades-long strife by female rights campaigners for full suffrage, Kuwait has granted women their full political and constitutional rights, making way for them to vote, run for elections and assume leadership positions, said a report. Women in Kuwait have proven their worth through their leading role in driving the countrys overall development march, across all domains, including public works, social services, economy and politics, reported Emirati news agency Wam. Kuwaiti women would not have achieved this success without a number of factors, including the countrys legislative and social systems that provided them with many opportunities to occupy the highest local and regional positions, not to mention the role of men in supporting them to obtain their rights, especially their political ones. Despite facing difficulties and challenges, the successes of Kuwaiti women have enabled them to assume a leading role across the Gulf where they have managed to as occupy many key positions, said the report. Kuwaiti women were not only interested in gaining their political rights, but they have also been keen to obtain their economic, cultural and social rights, as granted by the 1962 constitution and the "Rights of Motherhood and Childhood" in Article 9, as well as their protection from violence by the "Personal Status Law," and their right to run for elections and vote in civil societies and cooperative organisations. Kuwaiti women have played a key role during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990, as they supported men in the occupation resistance, and some of them died or were captured. A total of 82 women died during the war, and Sanaa Al Fudry was the countrys first martyr, followed by Asrar Al Qabandy. Women in Kuwait have occupied many leading positions, including ministers, deputy ministers, university directors and ambassadresses, and were elected as members to the National Assembly. Dr Rasha Al Sabah held the position of the First Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education in 1993 while Nabila Al Mulla was appointed as the first Kuwaiti Ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa in 1993, and was appointed in 2003 as the Permanent Representative at the United Nations, UN, the first Arab Muslim ambassadress to the UN, and she was also appointed as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Cultural Centre in New York. Dr Fayza Al Kharafy was likewise appointed as the Director of Kuwait University, said the report. One cannot forget the role of Sarah Akbar, who was recognised by the entire world when she put on her protective helmet and stormed a fire ignited by the Iraqi occupiers, to save Kuwaiti and foreign engineers, stated the Wam report. On the international level, Lulwa Al Qatami was appointed as an ambassador of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 1990 and occupied the position of Director of the Girls College for Administrative Affairs until 1994, one of the institutions of the Arab Council for Childhood. In the Ministry of Information, Amal Majran Al Hamad became Assistant Undersecretary for External Information and Iqbal Al Ahmad became editor-in-chief of the Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) in December 1998. Regarding their political rights, the National Assembly approved, on May 16, 2005, a draft law that was presented by the government to amend the first article of the elections law, which allowed women to vote and run for elections. In June 2005, the Kuwaiti Cabinet declared the selection of Fatma Saud Al Sabbah and Fawziya Mohamed Al Bahr for membership of the Municipality Council. In the same month, Kuwaiti women were appointed as ministers for the first time in the country. Dr. Ma'souma Al Mubarak took over as the Minister of Planning and Minister of State for Administrative Development. In April 2006, Kuwaiti women practiced their political rights by voting and running for elections for the first time. Jenan Bushahry ran for elections for the Municipality Council of the Salwa Electoral Department. In 2008, 27 women submitted official requests to run for elections, and though they were not successful, their participation gave them the experience to win in 2009. During that year, four female candidates won their seats in the National Assembly: Dr Ma'souma Al Mubarak, Dr Salwa Al Jassar, Asseel Al Awadhi, and Dr Rola Dashti. Kuwaiti women continued their struggle to participate in the countrys political process until their presence in the ministerial formation became vital, said the Wam report. In July 2006, Dr. Al Mubarak was appointed as the Minister of Transport, and the next year, she became Minister of Health while Nouriya Barrak was appointed as Minister of Education and Higher Education. After these two governments, women continued to be part of the Cabinet of Ministers. Dr Moudhi Abdulaziz Al Hamoud was named Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Minister of State for Development Affairs in May 2008. She was also appointed as Minister of Education and Higher Education. The two ministers were also part of January 2009 government, and in May of the same year, Dr Al Hamoud was appointed as Minister of Education and Higher Education. In the May 2011, Dr Amani Khalid Bursali was appointed as Minister of Commerce and Industry, and in November of the same year, she was appointed as Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Planning and Development Affairs. In July 2012, Dr Rola Dashti became the Minister of State for Planning and Development Affairs and Minister of State for the National Assembly Affairs while Zekra Al Rashidi was the Minister for Social and Labour Affairs. In August 2013, Hind Barak Al Subaih was appointed as Minister of Social and Labour Affairs and Minister of State for Planning and Development. She continued to be a minister in December 2016 and was joined by Dr Jenan Bushahri as Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Minister of State for Services in December 2017. Kuwaiti women are continuing to achieve successes in many fields, proving that they represent half of the community and cannot be marginalised, said the report. At the Ministry of Information, Amal Magran Al Hamad was appointed as Assisting Under-Secretary for External Media Affairs, and Iqbal Al Ahmed was appointed as Editor-in-Chief of the Kuwaiti News Agency (Kuna), in December 1998, it added. SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka and proud member of the Oneworld Alliance, welcomed the newest and final addition to their new generation Airbus A321 Neo fleet. The aircraft arrived at the airline's home base in Bandaranaike International Airport from Hamburg via Abu Dhabi, said a statement from the airline. SriLankan now has six Airbus Neo aircraft and 27 aircraft in total in its fleet with the newest acquisition, it stated. The flag carrier had acquired the A321 Neo new generation aircraft as part of its strategic expansion plan, in a bid to further boost capacity on it short to medium haul routes to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and China. SriLankan Airlines, which is already quite popular with Middle East travellers, for its in-flight service, hospitality and connections to Colombo and onward to Asia and Australia, is expected to put the new A321s into good use on the busier routes in the Middle East to Colombo sector, said the statement. It is looking to attract even more tourists and business travellers from the GCC, by leveraging the enormous pulling power of the Indian Ocean island paradise combined with seamless onward connections to India, Southeast, East and North Asia as well as to Australia, it added. Responding to growing demand from the region, SriLankan Airlines recently boosted its services with daily flights to Colombo from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Riyadh, Muscat, Bahrain and Kuwait. The airline is also looking at increasing connectivity to other parts of the Gulf depending on demand, it added. SriLankan Airlines today flies an all Airbus fleet, which includes the A330-300 and A320/A321 Neo aircraft connecting to 100 destinations in 47 countries (including codeshare operations).-TradeArabia News Service United Nations, Aug 4 (UNI) From protecting civilians, disarming ex-combatants and helping countries transition from conflict to peace, Indian men and women in uniform have served the cause of peace from the earliest years of United Nations peacekeeping and continue to do so in some of the most challenging missions. UN peacekeeping operates in increasingly complex environments and we are grateful for steadfast partners like India, who have risen to new challenges and continue to participate meaningfully in our efforts to protect vulnerable civilians, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in a recent interview with UN News. Mr Lacroix visited India in June as part of a wider trip to the sub-region during which he thanked the Government and people of India, as well as Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, for their service and sacrifice in the name of peace. Together, troops and police from the four countries currently make up close to one-third of some 91,000 uniformed personnel across 14 UN peacekeeping operations. Commencing with its participation in the UN operation in Korea in 1950, India has a long and distinguished history of service in UN peacekeeping, having contributed more personnel than any other country, as well as the first-ever all-female force that helped to bring peace to Liberia in the wake of that countrys brutal civil war. From 2007-2016, there were nine rotations of all-female police units from India, whose primary responsibilities were to provide 24-hour guard duty, public order management and conduct night patrols in and around the capital, Monrovia, while assisting to build the capacity of local security institutions. Hailed as role models, these female officers not only played a vital role in restoring security in the West African nation but also contributed to an increase in the number of women in the countrys security sector. The contribution you have made to inspiring Liberian women, to imparting in them the spirit of professionalism, to encourage them to join those entities, those operations that protect the nation, for that we will always be grateful, then President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated when the last all-female unit departed Liberia in February 2016. In addition to their security role, the members of the women Indian Formed Police Unit also distinguished themselves through humanitarian service, including organising medical camps for Liberians, many of whom have limited access to health care services. Medical care is among the many services Indian peacekeepers provide to the communities in which they serve on behalf of the Organization. They also perform specialized tasks such as veterinary support and engineering services. Indian veterinarians serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), for example, stepped up to help cattle herders who were losing much of their stock to malnutrition and disease in the war-torn nation. In South Sudan, cattle are not only a valuable source of food but also a commodity for bartering. The Indian veterinarians ran a mobile clinic earlier this year, travelling across the Upper Nile region, including to remote and dangerous locations, to treat sick cattle and educate their owners about disease prevention. Wherever I went I was being welcomed by people. They were very happy because there was no one, no one to look after them and whatever little we could contribute as a veterinarian and part of UNMISS, it is beneficial for them and for the animals, said Indian peacekeeper and veterinarian Prashant Tripathi. The Indian contingent in the Upper Nile region includes the Indian Battalion, the Horizontal Mechanical Engineering Company, the Level II hospital, the Petroleum Platoon and the Force Signal Unit. They have all received UN medals of honour for their dedication and service in peacekeeping. The Indian contingent in South Sudan has gone the extra mile by providing vocational training and life-saving medical assistance, as well as carrying out significant road repair work. Colonel Gaurav Bhatra, who commands the 850-strong Indian battalion, considers such efforts a normal part of Indian culture. Even in our country, we are sometimes called upon to assist in areas where it is extremely difficult to alleviate the suffering of the people. It is the nature of the Indian Army to step in any time when there is a need when we are on peacekeeping missions. More than 200,000 Indians have served in 49 of the 71 peacekeeping missions established around the world since 1948. Currently, there are around 6,700 uniformed peacekeepers from India, the vast majority of them in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in South Sudan. India has also provided 15 Force Commanders to various missions, and was the first country to contribute to the Trust Fund on sexual exploitation and abuse, which was set up in 2016. Indias longstanding service has not come without cost; as of 30 June 2018, over 160 Indian peacekeepers have paid the ultimate price while serving with the United Nations. India has lost more peacekeepers than any other Member State. We grieve with the families and the people and Government of India for these losses, noted Under-Secretary-General Lacroix. Indias continued commitment to UN peace operations and to global peace and security even through these difficult periods is invaluable. UNI XC SW 1246 Barcelona sack coach Koeman after loss to Rayo Vallecano 28 Oct 2021 | 11:21 AM Madrid, Oct 28 (UNI/Xinhua) FC Barcelona sacked coach Ronald Koeman on Thursday just hours after they suffered a 1-0 defeat away to Rayo Vallecano. see more.. China's missile launch very concerning, says top US General Mark Milley 28 Oct 2021 | 11:01 AM Washington, Oct 28 (UNI) Top US general Mark Milley has said that China's suspected hypersonic missile test is close to a Sputnik moment, and termed it very concerning in the first official US confirmation of a Chinese hypersonic weapons test. see more.. US: Criminal charges may be filed in the Alec Baldwin shooting case, prosecutor says 28 Oct 2021 | 10:34 AM Washington, Oct 28 (UNI)Criminal charges may be filed in last week's accidental fatal shooting on a film set in New Mexico, US police said on Wednesday, BBC reported on Thursday. see more.. 4 policemen killed in clash between TLP protesters, police 28 Oct 2021 | 10:25 AM Lahore, Oct 28 (UNI) Four policemen among eight were killed and 263 injured in a clash between the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistans (TLP) activists and police personnel Inspector-General Punjab Police Rao Sardar Ali Khan said on Wednesday, the TLP protesters had opened straight firing at policemen, leaving at least four dead and 263 injured. see more.. One killed, dozen injured in clashes with security forces in Shopian Srinagar, Aug (UNI) A youth was killed and more than a dozen others were injured when security forces opened pellets, burst teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge to disperse demonstrators who were trying to disrupt the Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) in Shopian, where five militants has been killed in an encounter since Friday night. However, a police spokesman said a youth was killed in an exchange of fire between militants and security forces. Immediately after security forces resumed operation on Saturday morning against the militants, holed up in a house at village Kiloora in Shopian, people hit the streets and tried to move towards the area where encounter was going on. A large number of security forces deployed to prevent any protests, immediately swung into action and chased away the demonstrators. However, when it had no impact, security forces burst teargas shells and later opened fire and also fired pellets to disperse the demonstrators, who were pelting stones and bricks. Over a dozen injured in clashes with security forces in Shopian Srinagar, Aug 4 (UNI) Over a dozen people were injured when security forces opened pellet fire, burst teargas shells and also resorted to lathicharge to disperse demonstrators who were trying to disrupt the Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) in Shopian, where five militants were killed in an encounter on Friday night. Immediately after security forces resumed operation on Saturday morning against the militants, holed up in a house at village Kiloora in Shopian, people, mostly youth, hit the streets and tried to move towards the area where the encounter was going on. Large number of security forces deployed to prevent any protests, immediately swung into action and chased away the demonstrators. However, when it had no impact, security forces burst teargas shells and later opened fire and also fired pellets to disperse the demonstrators, who were pelting stones and bricks. Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Aug 4 (UNI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the Central Asian nations. On the final leg of her visit, Ms Swaraj will reach Tashkent, the Uzbek capital. The Minister called on Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov in Bishkek on Friday. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet on Saturday morning that Ms Swaraj will meet Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev. "Walking together to take our relationship to new heights! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev proceed to the restricted format meeting in Issyk Kul," he tweeted. The two sides are keen to take measures to expand and reinvigorate India's ties with the Central Asian country across all sectors. Both the leaders are also expected to strengthen bilateral ties in areas like defence, science and technology and health. UNI DEVN JW1110 World Bank sees India as fastest growing major economy : Banwarilal Purohit Chennai, Aug 4 (UNI) Observing that Indias share in world trade was growing with United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, China and the United Kingdom being top export destinations, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday said it was no surprise that World Bank sees India as the fastest growing major emerging economy for the next three years. Releasing a book on Bhagavad Gita authored by R.Sriramkumar at a function organised by the United Writers Association and Frank Moraes Foundation here, he said the top import origins for India were China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. ''It should therefore come as no surprise to us that the World Bank sees India as the fastest growing major emerging economy for the next three years'', he said. A number of hospitals around the country were reported to have abused the health insurance fund. - Photo anninhthudo According to data from the health insurance information system, there were as many as 83.8 million check-ups of health insurance card holders with total payment of VND46.9 trillion (US$2.23 billion). Some provinces were reported to have overspent from the fund. Quang Ninh, Khanh Hoa, Tien Giang, Dong Thap and Bac Lieu provinces reportedly used over 56 per cent of the years allocation, Thanh tra (Inspectorate) online newspaper reported. In the first half of 2018, the health insurance fund has paid for thousands of patients with high costs. Nearly 4,700 patients were paid between VND200 to VND300 million. In particular, some patients with blood diseases treated at the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, National Paediatrics Hospital had been paid VND2.8 billion by the health insurance fund, of which drugs for special treatment costs VND2.7 billion. Apart from some special cases, the data showed abnormal trends in health insurance participation in many hospitals, mostly in appendicitis treatment, said Dam Hieu Trung, deputy director of VSIs centre of health insurance assessment and multi-level payment in the northern region. Over the last six months, the General Hospital in Vinh Phuc Province recorded 371 cases of peritoneal appendicitis, while 147 cases were recorded at Bac Giang Provinces Luc Ngan General Hospital and 86 cases at the general hospital in Krong Pac District of Dak Lak Province. "These are abnormal numbers in the treatment of this disease," he said. VSI checked medical records of these facilities and found all examined patients in general hospitals in Dak Lak, Binh Duong, and Bac Giang provinces did not suffer peritoneal appendicitis and several cases were also discovered in other hospitals. Trung said peritoneal appendicitis is a complication when the patient suffers from appendicitis but is hospitalised late. The cost of surgery for appendicitis is only VND1.4 million, while peritoneal appendicitis costs double. Thus, for each case of peritoneal appendicitis, the facility will seek benefits of about VND1.4 million from the health insurance fund. After inspection, VSI refused to pay for such cases, he said. Health insurance abuse was becoming more widespread, increasing the cost of medical service and having a negative impact on the health insurance fund, said Trung. He said some healthcare facilities advised patients to conduct unnecessary medical tests. Others have increased hospital fees by adding more beds to allow unnecessary hospitalisations. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini assured her Southeast Asian counterparts that they could count on Europe as a free trade partner. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman) The United States is embroiled in trade spats with China and close allies including the European Union, imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods and heightening fears of economic pain that could spread worldwide. At a meeting in Singapore, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini assured her Southeast Asian counterparts that they could count on Europe as a free trade partner. "We stand on the side of a free and fair trade that benefits all, instead of damaging trade wars," she told reporters at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum. Mogherini voiced hope that bilateral trade accords the EU is negotiating with several ASEAN states "will be the stepping stone towards a future region-to-region deal". Washington escalated the trade row this week by saying it was considering more than doubling threatened tariffs on a range of Chinese imports worth US$200 billion. The US has already imposed 25 per cent tariffs on US$34 billion in Chinese goods, with another US$16 billion to be targeted in coming weeks. "There's been unanimity of concern over looming trade wars because as we know in a war there's no winners," Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters on Friday. "And worse, sometimes you're not in the war but you're gravely affected. And when we talk about trade war, we're talking about actual jobs of real people." ASEAN, a 10-nation region of 650 million people with some of the world's fastest growing emerging economies, has been keenly forging free-trade pacts among its members and regional trading partners. The EU and ASEAN launched talks towards a trade pact in 2007, but the EU opted out of the process two years later - partly due to problems with then-military ruled Myanmar. Both both sides agreed to reboot trade ties last year with the possibility of an accord between the two regions. Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also warned that Southeast Asia would suffer from a devastating trade war. "All of ASEAN member states are trading states ... Our concern is if the trade war were to continue, we will be affected in one way or the other," he said. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said he hopes to complete by the end of the year a massive China-backed regional trade pact that has taken centre stage as US President Donald Trump embarks on a unilateral, protectionist agenda. The 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) notably excludes the US, which had been leading another regional trade pact - the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - until Trump abruptly abandoned it last year. A fully-automated production line using robots at a Vinamilk factory. - VNA/VNS Photo A report on readiness for the fourth industrial revolution by the World Economic Forum (WEF) revealed that Vietnam ranked 48th in structure of production and 53rd in drivers of production. Vietnam has made strong technological developments, laying the foundations for the successful application of the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. Over the last 10 years, Vietnams digital economy has grown in terms of digital connection infrastructure and business market. The number of internet users in Vietnam was 17.7 million in 2007 and grew to 64 million, equal to 67 per cent of the population, last year. The country ranked 13th among the top 20 countries with the highest number of internet users. Vietnam is considered to have favourable conditions to fully utilise the achievements of Industry 4.0. The Vietnam News Agency quoted the head of the Party Central Committees Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh as saying that for a developing country like Vietnam, exploiting the fourth industrial revolution opens up opportunities for Vietnam to raise its technology level, production capacity and competitive capacity in the global value chain; create major changes in the sustainable business model and chances for innovative start-ups and offers the potential for developing countries to shorten industrialisation processes. Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh stressed that the fourth industrial revolution had had a clear impact on the socio-economic development of Vietnam. Therefore, the development and promotion of research and development activities and transferring key technologies played an important role in bringing Vietnam closer to the fourth industrial revolution. The country needed to study the development of the fourth industrial revolution and build appropriate policies for socio-economic development in line with international trends, Anh said. Binh also emphasised that even with proper and timely exploitation of the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution, the revolution still posed challenges for the country, businesses and individuals. This required the government and businesses of Vietnam to develop strong innovations, he said. Also at a high-level forum on Industry 4.0, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasised that businesses and people needed to have clear awareness about the fourth industrial revolution, from which they can research, deploy and further apply the achievements of science and technology. The PM also proposed a response to the negative effects of the fourth industrial revolution, such as setting up scenarios to adapt to the changing circumstances of the revolution; strengthening risk management, and especially dealing with problems of employment and State and corporate governance. To actively grasp, exploit and respond to challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, Binh affirmed that "the digital industry is the foundation for development". "Building a strong legal corridor for the digital industry, preparing for the digital transition, developing information infrastructure, training high-quality human resources, reforming administration and enhancing national competitiveness are urgent and necessary," Binh noted. The Party and State of Vietnam appreciate the development of information technology in the context of the industrial revolution 4.0. The country is studying and developing legal policies to create favourable conditions for enterprises and people to study and apply technology products. In the context of the fourth industrial revolution around the world, countries and governments are interested in and actively developing their own strategies such as Germany with Industrie 4.0, South Korea with iKorea 4.0 and China with Made in China 2025. From the reality and experiences of other countries, Vietnam is also developing its own national strategy. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to soon complete the development of the National Strategy on Industrial Revolution 4.0, the Ministry of Science and Technology to develop the science and technology and innovation report 2035 and each ministry and locality to develop an action plan in line with the industrial revolution 4.0. Spanish NGO Proativa Open Arms has been rescuing migrants stranded at sea on makeshift boats despite Italy's closing its ports to them AFP/PAU BARRENA The migrants, nearly all from Sudan including from Darfur, had spent 50 hours at sea on board an inflatable boat, without drinking water and many suffering burns from a mixture of fuel and salt water. Many of them jumped into the sea when the rescuers arrived on Wednesday for fear of being taken back to Libya where migrants often suffer abuse, arbitrary detentions, extortion and violence. "We are beginning to see the first smiles, even though fear and uncertainty still show in their faces," the NGO said on Twitter on Friday. It added that it was glad to bring them "a bit of humanity after persecution in their country, torture in Libya and the long trek at sea". But since the rescue the NGO ship has been patrolling the waters off Libya looking for a port. "Anywhere but not Italy," Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has already warned via Twitter, repeating the new government's hardline policy closing the country's ports to migrant rescue ships. In two other rescue operations, the Open Arms was forced to take the rescued migrants to Spain. But migrants have been making their way to Italy via Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey. Some 135 Tunisians on board 13 boats landed on the island of Lampedusa, Salvini announced Friday, but added that according to an agreement with Tunis, all of them will be sent back "in the next few days". Italian police also intercepted a boat with 14 Algerians off the coast of southern Sardinia, and saw a sailboat with 25 people arrive in Sicily from Turkey a week ago. This influx is much less than the migrant arrivals from Libya, representing over a third of the 18,800 migrants who have arrived by sea since January, according to Italy's interior ministry. The New York Stock Exchange's parent company's new partnership with Starbucks - the exchange is dubbed Bakkt - aims to bring a measure of confidence to bitcoin transactions. (AFP/SCOTT OLSON) The new exchange, dubbed Bakkt, aims to bring a measure of confidence to bitcoin transactions, according to the statement by Intercontinental Exchange. ICE chief Jeffrey Sprecher said "we aim to build confidence in the asset class on a global scale, consistent with our track record of bringing transparency and trust to previously unregulated markets." Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler described the venture as an "on-ramp" for investors that provides "greater efficiency, security and utility." The exchange is partnering with coffee shop giant Starbucks which already has 15 million rewards members using digital payments The coffee retailer plans to create "practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks," said Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments at Starbucks. If approved by regulators, Bakkt would launch a one-day "physically delivered" bitcoin futures contract in November. If it receives the green light from US market regulators, Bakkt would join the Chicago-based CBOE, which was the first to launch bitcoin futures trading at the end of 2017. Washington and Beijing are locked in battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies AFP/Frederic J. BROWN The commerce ministry issued a statement saying the new duties would be applied if Washington pulled the trigger on President Donald Trump's threat to raise tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The US trade deficit swelled in June by the largest amount in 19 months, reversing much of May's trade-war driven export bonanza. (AFP/Gal ROMA) The Chinese reaction is sure to ratchet up tensions with the Trump administration at the end of a week that saw stock markets rattled by the intensifying trade battle. "China always believes that consultation on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit is an effective way to resolve trade differences," the commerce ministry said. "Any unilateral threat or blackmail will only lead to intensification of conflicts and damage to the interests of all parties." The statement said the date of implementation of the taxes will depend on the "actions of the US side" and China reserves the right to apply "other countermeasures". The tariffs would range between five per cent and 25 per cent and would hit 5,027 products, according to the finance ministry. The list of products includes a variety of agricultural goods such as beef, as well as small planes, chemical components, textiles and liquefied natural gas. The threat came a day after Chinese officials appealed for dialogue based on "mutual respect", with Foreign Minister Wang Yi urging the United States on Thursday to remain "cool-headed". The commerce ministry threat came after Wang met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore on Friday. Washington and Beijing are locked in a battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies, as well as theft of American technological know-how. Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on virtually all of China's exports to the United States in the tit-for-tat trade conflict. DEFEND CHINA'S 'DIGNITY' The US already imposed 25 per cent tariffs on US$34 billion of Chinese goods in early July, with another US$16 billion to be targeted in coming weeks, drawing an in-kind retaliation from China. Days later, Washington unveiled a list of another US$200 billion in Chinese goods, from areas as varied as electrical machinery, leather goods and seafood, that would be hit with 10 per cent import duties. But Trump raised the stakes this week by asking the US Trade Representative to consider increasing the proposed tariffs on the US$200 billion worth of goods to 25 per cent. The latest Chinese response shows the limits of Beijing's ability to hit back at Washington dollar for dollar, given that China's exports to the United States far exceed its US imports. But analysts say that China can also absorb the hits by expanding stimulus programmes, fiscal spending and bank lending. The yuan has also declined recently, threatening to take some of the bite out of tariffs by making imports cheaper, though the central bank took measures on Friday to stop it from further falling. "The US and China have backup plans in areas like technology and agriculture, where they can look towards importing from third-party nations," Ye Tan, an independent Chinese economic analyst, told AFP. "The Chinese are also coping by lowering the rate of the yuan, while the US can look towards countries in Southeast Asia as replacements for its imports, so it's not a big issue," Ye said. The Chinese commerce ministry blamed the United States for escalating the situation. "China has to take necessary countermeasures to defend the country's dignity and the interests of the people, defend free trade and the multilateral system, and defend the common interests of all countries in the world," the statement said. Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams, pictured in July 2018, is the highest seed left in the WTA hardcourt tournament in San Jose, California AFP/Ben STANSALL Third-seeded Williams is the highest seed left in a tournament that saw second-seed Madison Keys follow top-seeded Garbine Muguruza in pulling out because of injury on Thursday. Keys, the defending champion, pulled out with a right wrist injury before taking the court for her second-round opener against Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic. "I have been feeling pain in my wrist over the last couple of days and felt worse today," said Keys, who was replaced in the draw by lucky loser Magdalena Frech. Tomljanovic beat Poland's Frech 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to book a quarter-final clash with fifth-seeded Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu, a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 winner over American teenager Amanda Anisimova. Williams will take on Greece's Maria Sakkari, who dominated eighth-seeded Hungarian Timea Babos 6-0, 6-1. Williams, who won the title in this event in 2000 and 2002, came back with a vengeance after dropping the second set to Watson. She broke the Briton three times in the final set, dropping just four points on her serve. "It was a tough match and she played incredible. There were times where I had no answers," said Williams, who said her goal was to "control the points and enjoy the battle, just get out there and try to do what I know that I can. "It worked out, thankfully." Williams, now the highest-ranked player in the draw, will kick off Thursday's night session against Great Britain's Heather Watson. Buzarnescu said she felt the pressure against qualifier Anisimova. "She's from the new generation, and I'm from the old one, and I knew the pressure would be on me because she has nothing to lose," the Romanian said. The other two quarter-final match-ups were decided on Wednesday, when Britain's Johanna Konta followed up her stunning defeat of Serena Williams with a straight-sets victory over US teenager Sofia Kenin to book a meeting with fourth-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium. American Daniell Collins will take on former world number one Victoria Azarenka for a place in the semi-finals. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images Theres no telling what the political effectiveness will be, but in terms of driving President Trump completely up the wall, there are few protest ideas more powerful than Rosie ODonnell singing show tunes outside the White House. According to the Associated Press, the SMILF star and one of Donald Trumps many, many arch-nemeses is helping recruit Broadway performers for a musical protest this coming Monday, August 6. The demonstration is being organized by host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley of, appropriately enough, Sirius XMs On Broadway. The protesters will reportedly include current and former Broadway cast members from Wicked, Beautiful, Hamilton, Phantom of the Opera, The King and I, Les Miserables, Cinderella, Xanadu, The Producers and Head Over Heels, among other shows. Their set list includes Les Miserables The Peoples Song, The Wizs A Brand New Day, The Sound of Musics Climb Evry Mountain and Burt Bacharachs What the World Needs Now Is Love. But dont worry if you have your own Broadway musical to star in on Monday night. Youll be able to stream the whole thing on MoveOns Facebook page. The Great British Baking Show Biscuits Season 5 Episode 8 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * * Previous Next Photo: PBS Welcome to Biscuit Week, the quarterfinals! This episode gets off to an intimidating start: Our five remaining contestants are asked to bake a staggering 48 crackers or crisp breads. Thats a lot of crackers. Thats an unreasonable number of crackers. Thats a theres-no-way-an-enterprising-producer-isnt-quietly-reselling-the-excess-to-Bake Off-superfans-in-a-car-park-somewhere-nearby number of crackers. This signature challenge is, as Sue puts it, a grueling test of consistency, requiring excellent time management skills and attention to detail. The crackers must be wafer-thin but evenly baked (no burnt edges, please), and most importantly, when split in two, they must snap to Pauls satisfaction. To keep themselves on task, the bakers have each preassembled pages and pages of notes, their serial-cracker manifestos. James is using yeasted polenta dough as the base for his smoky cayenne, cumin, and chili crackers. The judges take this golden opportunity to pronounce chipotle as chipot-lee, a great nickname for a guy you know named Lee who happens to work at Chipotle. Dannys spiced-almond drinks crackers are a mix of biscuit dough, yogurt, the North African spice blend ras el hanout, and controversially dehydrated Parmesan (fresh cheese, she says, makes the crackers too moist). Before putting his Asian spice crackers in the oven, John stabs them all over with a fork, which he says is to prevent them from puffing up as they bake, but which I choose to interpret as a badly needed outlet for stress-induced cracker aggression. As if getting these four dozen crackers evenly baked and satisfyingly snappable wasnt crazy-making enough, they must also be precisely the same shape. Brendan, of course, has a ruler, tape measure, and pizza cutter at the ready for his sesame, pumpkin, flaxseed, and aniseed crackers, like hes the baking edition of Inspector Gadget. By the way, theyre producing all four dozen of these crackers with a single oven, and most bakers choose to rotate them out on a single shelf, for maximum consistency. Cathryn, busy chatting with Mel, totally forgets about her ploughmans lunchinspired cheese and pickle crackers lingering in the oven. They come out much too dark, and worse, two fall off the baking sheet to their untimely deaths. Honestly, Ive completely lost it, she laments. This is car-crash crackers. With the exception of Cathryns botched bake (at least the flavor was good!), everyones elses crackers stand up to the judges scrutiny successfully, even when Paul digs through Jamess pile by hand in search of irregular specimens to ship off to the Island of Misfit Crackers. Brendans really scrummy crackers are jeweler-cut diamonds with a good snap and seeds so evenly dusted Im surprised he didnt tweezer them on individually. The technical is itself a doozy: Six marshmallow chocolate tea cakes form Pauls own recipe. The tea cakes consist of a homemade digestive biscuit topped with a fluffy marshmallow, all encased in a chocolate dome. Its a blisteringly hot day in the tent, making working with melt-happy chocolate even more difficult than it would be normally. Mary gently suggests that her fellow-judge be really, really kind. Paul laughs. Suffice to say that it is not the laugh of a man who is feeling really, really kind. Warm chocolate isnt supposed to go right into the fridge; its supposed to cool to room temperature first. But as James explains, We dont have a room temperature here. We have hot. Cathryn nobly resists giving up and refrigerating her tea cakes-in-progress longer than her competitors do. This proves to be a fatal mistake. Oh my giddy aunt, she keeps saying, like this is an extremely gentle version of The Good Place (which I guess it kind of is?), as she tries to free the un-set chocolate from the mold. Chunks of the dome get torn off, revealing the white underbelly of marshmallow beneath. James comes in first; Cathryn, who is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, comes in last. The showstopper is a non-house gingerbread structure. Please note the all-important descriptor non-house in the previous sentence. If you make me a house, I will smash it down and blow your doors in, Paul says. Fair enough. With only four hours allotted, bakers must plan out which of their variably sized gingerbread components theyll need to use first, making sure those are the earliest into the oven. Johns partner, a graphic designer, has printed out elaborate architectural schematics to aid in the assembly of his 100-plus-piece Roman Colosseum, which towers over some peanut praline gravel. Cathryn pipes chocolate window after chocolate window to stick onto her chocolate and orange gingerbread Buckingham Palace. James gingerbread barn will be constructed with gingerbread biscuit roof planks and gingerbread cake cladding. (If Fixer Upper were still on TV, Id petition for gingerbread shiplap.) Also, its Jamess 21st birthday happy birthday, James! Brendan is hard at work on a fantasy gingerbread birdhouse. You know your life has taken a strange twist and turn when you find yourself asking questions about, Whats a good edible material that would make a good thatched roof on a gingerbread house? Brendan observes. His solution: whatever the breakfast eaters of the U.K. call mini-wheats! Almost every baker panics at least some point mid-bake, rethinking their initially ambitious plans. Cathryn hopes the queen wont mind a quick renovation to the palace. Jamess barn is looking a lot more derelict than anticipated. Meanwhile, Brendan puts the finishing touches on a pair of fondant bluebirds, delicately painting mascara on the female bird and a coxcomb on her mate. Its a bit much for me, to be honest, Paul says of Brendans Disney-fied creation, to which I respond, How dare you? (That said, I am prepared to admit the bluebirds are a little creepy, facially.) Paul prefers Johns spectacular Colosseum, even if the gravel surrounding it is less than exciting. Dannys pomegranate molasses-based, two-foot-tall Big Ben is both imposing and tasty, but the overall appearance is on the messy side. Cathryns Buckingham Palace is unmistakably Buckingham Palace, albeit a disorientingly crooked Buckingham Palace. James semi-finished barn looks haunted by the ghost of a cow or of a bale of hay, Im not sure. Nevertheless, its incredible in both its underlying complex structure and in its flavor. Mary suggests that his is probably the only one of these gingerbread non-houses theyd actually enjoy eating in its entirety. Alas, the wryly hilarious and talented Cathryn is going home. James is named Star Baker, which is how Ive decided Id like to spend my next birthday, too, please. See you in the semifinals! Huntsville police officer William Darby has been charged for the murder of Jeffrey Parker after he responded to a suicide call in April. Officer Darby shot and killed Parker after a brief verbal exchange in which Darby and other officers told him several times to put his gun down. WAAY 31 requested the body camera video but we were denied access. According to Alabama law, the police have the right to keep the video from being released to the public. Following the shooting death of Jeffrey Parker all of the officers present at the incident were placed on administrative leave, which is standard policy. The incident review board will review the body camera footage to determine whether or not the officers followed training and policy standards. WAAY 31's Brittany Collins spoke with criminal defense attorney Russell Crumbley. He said that prosecutors and internal affairs have reviewed the body camera videos. Crumbly claims that the district attorney probably had concerns about Officer Darby's shooting of Parker being justified. Ultimately, it is the grand jury's job to determine if there was transparency. Crumbley has not seen the footage himself, so he is not sure if Officer Darby's reaction to shoot Parker was proper police protocol. Officer Darby is currently out on a $20,000 bond. By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 03, 2018 | 06:21 PM | PADUCAH Believe it or not, West Kentucky Star will turn 10 in a matter of months.Thats a really long time in internet years. Tens of thousands of stories posted, clicked on more than a few millions of times by readers.Then there are the thousands of comments added by you, and other people nearly as well-spoken as you. At their best, your comments provide a thoughtful perspective to both sides of an issue, and a barometer to which way Star readers lean on that topic. At their, ahem, less than best, they devolve into the typical name calling, flame wars and incivility for which anonymous forums have become infamous.Sadly, its the latter that is becoming all too common on the Star.To be sure, in our small-town setting were really only talking about a handful of people that post the bulk of all comments. Barely one-third of internet users have ever clicked on a comment section; of those, just 14 per cent did it on a news site. Therefore, comments dont make a blip in our advertising or our bottom line. That being said, the Star staff of five full-time and a handful of part-time contributors have much more to do each day than to review every comment under every story every few hours, to watch for off-topic, off-color, or even slanderous statements by anonymous readers.Websites much bigger than ours have declared that it is the anonymous part of the equation that causes most of the headaches. Its just human nature that people will type things they wouldnt normally type if their name was next to it. People get bolder, more opinionated, and just plain meaner when no one can see who is calling them an idiot.Some anonymous commenters even try to compromise the anonymity of other commenters by making veiled (or not so veiled) references to who that commenter might be.For these and other reasons, a large portion of major news sites have banned anonymous posts, or have dropped comments altogether. Other sites delegate comments to a separate social media page like Facebook, which requires a named account for logging in.What should we do at West Kentucky Star? From the beginning, we have loved the idea of giving people the privilege of having a voice on a community-wide platform, but the current system cannot continue as is. We have a few thoughts, and wed also like to hear from you.We could go to a completely moderated forum, where your comment is submitted but does not appear on the page until it has been read, approved and posted by an editor. But that would be even more time- and labor-intensive than the current system.We could direct commenters to our Facebook page and its community of nearly 50,000 people.We could limit comments to strictly local stories. After all, we are West Kentucky Star. We usually post a national story more for its purpose as a time-sensitive bulletin, and rarely more than one or two of those per day. However, the vast majority of comments on the Star are generated by those national items, and they can linger on the comment list for days. If such a limit took place, the Stars most prolific political commenters could still make their thoughts known on any number of national news sites, and our staff could focus better on generating local content.We could require commenters to register their name, email and phone number with us. This is in line with the spirit of editorial policies of virtually all newspapers over the past 50 years, who would refuse to publish any letter to the editor that was unsigned. Why not consider each of your comments to be miniature versions of letters to the editor? We would not make your identity known on the website, but it would give us the ability to reply to you if necessary.We could do a combination of the ideas above, or something different might come to mind. Or, we could keep it the way it is, and tell our news guys theyll just have to stay late.Better yet, you might have an idea for us. You certainly have had plenty of thoughts about many other items posted here! Email us at info@westkentuckystar.com .Thanks for your input, and thanks for reading West Kentucky Star for almost ten years! Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 25, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 25, 2018 | 09:36 PM | PADUCAH The second of two men who fled from Paducah police and other law enforcement officers last week, leaving behind 29 stolen firearms, has been arrested. Willie Ray Wiseman was taken into custody Tuesday evening after a standoff with authorities in Carmi, IL. He was booked into the White County Jail pending extradition to Kentucky. The other man, Eric W. Brantley, had turned himself earlier in at the Pope County Sheriffs Department in Golconda, apparently after he saw himself on television. He was booked into the Saline County Jail. Paducah Police Department officers had received a tip July 25 from another law enforcement agency that two men and a woman were bringing a shipment of stolen guns to Paducah to sell. Officers located the vehicle on Cairo Road and pursued it into a corn field where the three occupants fled on foot. The female passenger was apprehended and arrested by McCracken County Sheriffs deputies. ORIGINAL STORY: One of the men being sought by police since Wednesday on weapons and other charges is in custody. The Paducah Police Department says officers pulled over a vehicle in the 3900 block of Cairo Road, and 34-year-old Willie Ray Wiseman, of Galatia, IL, and 45-year-old Eric W. Brantley, of Madisonville both fled on foot. Officers said they found 29 firearms in the vehicle that had been reported stolen from Hamilton County, IL, along with methamphetamine, marijuana, and 49 Lortab pills. The Paducah Police Department was joined in the manhunt Wednesday night for Wiseman and Brantley by the McCracken County Sheriffs Department and its SWAT team, U.S. Marshals, and the Marshall County Sheriffs Department, which provided a drone for an aerial search. Brantley reportedly turned himself in Thursday night at the Pope County Sheriff's Department after seeing himself on television. He was booked into the Saline County Jail on charges of first-degree fleeing or evading police (on foot), possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, 28 counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, receiving stolen property and first-degree possession of meth. Police are still searching for Wiseman, and have charged him with two counts of first-degree fleeing or evading police (on foot and in a motor vehicle), possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, 28 counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, receiving stolen property and first-degree possession of meth. Anyone with information about Wiseman's whereabouts is asked to call the Paducah Police Department at 270-444-8550 or Crime Stoppers at 270-443-TELL. Tipsters also may access the online tip form through the City of Paducah website at http://paducahky.gov/west-ky-crime-stoppers. Information leading to an arrest or indictment may result in a reward of up to $1,000.00. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. By Mike Cooper Aug. 04, 2018 | 02:03 AM | MURRAY The rally was held at Murray State University's Lovett Auditorium and was attended by a large crowd. Also present, outside the auditorium, was a group of protesters. The protesters basic theme was to let the NRA know that they are tired of children dying, and they let their message be known with loud shouts and chants. One protester, Jim Walgamuth of Nashville, told West Kentucky Star, "there's no way to reason with those folks in there, and we aren't going to stand here and put up with this." He added that it amounted to the NRA and the GOP poking a stick in the eye of this community that just lost children recently at a local school. Walgamuth is a Vietnam Veteran with Veterans for Peace, Chapter 89. The address by Lt. Colonel North dealt with the proud history of the United States, patriotism, freedom, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, importance of family, religious liberty, and protecting children at school. He spoke about an organization, the National School Shield, which the NRA supports that helps to make schools safe, and is available free to any American school. He went on to explain how many places are much more secure than schools, and he called that "unacceptable". On the subject of the United States Constitution, he pointed out that it is the only founding document in the world that pays homage to God Almighty and closes with a prayer. He said he believes in free enterprise, not socialism. Lt. Colonel North also said the definition of a hero is one that "puts themselves at risk for the benefit of others", and that great leaders have great responsibility. He said a great leader will never ask someone to do something that they would not do. He stressed that freedom is not free, and that the United States is the land of the free, because of the brave, as he paid tribute to the veterans and their families in attendance. Marshall County GOP Chairman Danny Holt announced that this was the largest fundraiser ever held in the history of the Marshall County GOP . Kentucky State Senator Danny Carroll commented to West Kentucky Star that he took away from the speech "the history lesson and it's important that we not forget where we came from, and the price our founding fathers paid for our freedom." He went on to say, "it's unfortunate that we are divided the way we are. We all have the same goals, just different paths to get there. We've forgotten how to compromise, we've forgotten how to disagree, and we've forgotten how to be respectful to each other." Carroll felt that Lt. Colonel North's message was not confrontational, but uplifting. Lt. Colonel Oliver North was the keynote speaker for the Marshall County Republican Party's 16th annual Night Before Fancy Farm rally. By The Associated Press Aug. 03, 2018 | 09:11 PM | FANCY FARM Thousands of people traveling to Kentucky's Fancy Farm picnic this weekend hope to win prizes in bingo and other games. But the biggest winner could be the Kentucky state government, which is poised to collect $13,000 from the church that hosts the picnic because of changes to the state's tax code. Kentucky no longer exempts religious and nonprofit organizations from state sales taxes, meaning every bingo card, ice cream cone, Sun Drop bottle and pulled pork plate requires a 6 percent tax. Leaders of the St. Jerome Catholic Church balked at collecting the tax from attendees, foreseeing headaches from merchants trying to make change on a 50-cent bingo card. Instead, the church will keep all prices the same and write a check to the state once the picnic is over. Father Darrell Venters estimates it will be about $13,000. "Some of these little kids' games are 25 cents apiece. That's taxable. They would end up charging them 27 cents," Venters said. "It's just not feasible." While impacting the church, the changes will also likely impact the politics of the picnic that dates back to 1880 and has become the launching pad for the fall campaign season. The picnic's "political speaking" event is famous for pitting politicians from both parties on the same stage before a crowd of rowdy hecklers while all of it is broadcast live on statewide television. This year's speakers include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Democrats are already pouncing on the tax issue ahead of the midterm elections by blaming the Republican-controlled state legislature. Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a potential candidate for governor in 2019 and a scheduled speaker at the event, said the taxes mean the church will make less money for its charitable causes including paying for mission trips and helping poor people in the community pay their utility bills. "As I have said before, this is wrong. Raising new revenue should not come at the expense of our Kentucky churches, nonprofits, and small businesses," Grimes said. "It is abundantly clear, from taxes to tariffs, the Republican majorities in Frankfort and Washington are not working for Kentucky families." But Republican leaders say they are not to blame for the taxes on St. Jerome Church or other nonprofits. The legislature enacted a new law this year that extends Kentucky's sales tax to a variety of new services, including "admissions" such as tickets for events. But the new law also coincided with a recent Supreme Court decision that ruled the state Constitution's tax exemption for nonprofits applies only to property taxes, not sales taxes. Both the Supreme Court ruling and the new tax law went into effect July 1. "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court decision coincided with tax reform and has created a tax burden for non-profits," acting state House Speaker David Osborne said. "The Secretary of State either knows this and is only worried about politicizing the issue and ignoring the facts, or she is ill-informed, which should cause concern for Kentucky voters since she clearly is campaigning for higher office." Pamela Trautner, spokeswoman for the Finance and Administration Cabinet, said the tax impact on churches and nonprofits in general is a combination of the new law and the Supreme Court ruling. Osborne has already filed legislation that would exempt nonprofits, including churches, from sales taxes. But the legislature won't vote on that proposal until early next year. In the meantime, it's likely to become an issue in the midterm elections and a key line of attack for Democrats this weekend as they seek to gain an advantage over their Republican counterparts. Those scheduled include Grimes and Andy Beshear, the attorney general who has already declared his candidacy for governor in 2019. But the attack likely won't stick to Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. The first-term governor vetoed the tax bill, but Republican lawmakers voted to override him. Bevin confirmed Friday afternoon he would not attend the picnic on Saturday. Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and GOP state Treasurer Allison Ball also will not attend. Maria Butina, the Russian national charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia within the US, interacted with a former Trump campaign aide in the run-up to the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported Friday. According to documents and testimony provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and described to the newspaper, Butina "sought out interactions" with the aide, J.D. Gordon, who had served as the director of national security to the Trump campaign before departing in August 2016 and being offered a position in the early Trump transition team effort. 2016 Presidential election Companies Continents and regions Donald Trump Eastern Europe Elections (by type) Elections and campaigns Europe Government and public administration Investigations Maria Butina Misc people Political candidates Political Figures - US Politics Russia Russia meddling investigation US Federal elections US Presidential elections Washington Post Government organizations - US US Congress US Senate Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Media industry Newspapers Publishing industry Espionage International relations and national security National security Government bodies and offices US federal government White House The newspaper reported that Gordon "anticipated joining the presidential transition team" and the revelation of his interactions with Butina shows she was "in closer contact with President Trump's orbit than was previously known." Butina and Gordon were in contact over email in September and October 2016, the newspaper reported. According to the Post, Gordon extended invitations to Butina to attend a concert in Washington and to his birthday party in October 2016. Gordon told CNN on Saturday that he had limited social contact with Butina after he left the campaign. He and an attorney for Butina downplayed the interactions in statements to the Post. "From everything I've read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years," Gordon said, asking, "I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn't come across?" Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said, "A military guy who had been involved would have been a prime target, if that's what she was about." He added, "But the evidence is clear that there wasn't any significant contact." Driscoll has previously denied the allegation that Butina acted as a Russian agent. A spokesperson for the Senate Intelligence Committee and Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, declined to comment to the newspaper. First things first: The MLB on Fox theme song by Scott Schreer. Poll of the week: A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz holds a 49% to 43% lead over Democrat Beto O'Rourke in the Texas US Senate race. Beto O'Rourke Continents and regions Elections (by type) Elections and campaigns Government and public administration Government organizations - US North America Political candidates Political Figures - US Politics Southwestern United States Ted Cruz Texas The Americas United States US Congress US Federal elections US Senate US Senate elections Cruz has led in every poll of the race taken in the last year. The average poll over the last two months has him ahead by 6 percentage points. What's the point: Many liberals have made it a cause celebre to try to defeat Cruz. Indeed, the attention paid to the Texas Senate race has been greater than for other more competitive races such as Tennessee, where Democrat Phil Bredesen has consistently led in polls against Republican Marsha Blackburn. Yet the polling has continued to suggest that Cruz is ahead. Just how much of a favorite is Cruz? We can get at this problem in two different ways. Both suggest that Democrats should keep their expectations in check. I went back and looked at how predictive the June to July polling average was in 225 Senate races since 1998. All these races had one Democrat and one Republican on the general election ballot without a major third-party or independent bid. Candidates in Cruz's position at this point in the race went on to win about 75% of the time. We can also look at how experts are rating the race. CNN rates it as "likely Republican," while The Cook Political Report puts the race as "lean Republican." The Cook Political Report has been offering ratings on Senate ratings since the 1984 cycle. Interestingly, there has been very little difference in how races rated as lean or likely at this point have turned out. About 87% of the races that lean toward one party at this point have been won by that party, while about 92% of the races that are likely to be won by a party have been won by that party. That is, these ratings aren't perfect forecasts, though they are strong indicators. Republican Richard Mourdock, who lost the 2012 Indiana US Senate race, was the last person to lose an election that had been leaning his way at this time. He did so after making comments about rape. The last likely race to go the other way was the 2010 Delaware US Senate race. It was rated as likely Republican at this point because analysts thought Mike Castle was going to be the Republican nominee. Instead, he was upset in the primary by Christine O'Donnell, who was a far weaker general election candidate. An average of the polling and race ratings gives Cruz about an 82% chance of retaining his seat. Interestingly, that's nearly equal to the chance implied by Dean Strachan's fundamentals-based model, which looks at factors such as the political history of Texas. The good news for Democrats is that Texas may be moving a little bit to the left. President Donald Trump's 9-point victory in the Lone Star State was the weakest performance for a Republican presidential candidate since the 1990s. This year there are a number of competitive US House races in areas that have historically been Republican. The problem for O'Rourke is that there is just no history of Texans pulling the lever for Democrats statewide. The last Democrat elected senator was in 1988. The last Democrat elected governor was in 1990. The last Democrat elected to any statewide office was in 1994. Indeed, the Democratic drought in Texas is longer than it is in any other state in the entire country. Even states like Idaho and Utah, which are redder than Clifford the dog, have elected Democrats to offices like attorney general and superintendent of public instruction more recently than Texas has. The lack of Democratic victories for these lower statewide offices is bad news for O'Rourke. We know from past elections this decade that although presidential voting patterns are most important in predicting how voters will cast ballots for Congress, they aren't the only thing that matters. Voting patterns in statewide non-congressional elections also matter. Now, sometimes low-probability events do happen. The NFL's Buffalo Bills hadn't reached the playoffs since the 1990s. Heading into last year's regular season finale, they had a 17% chance of making the playoffs. (That's similar to the probability O'Rourke has of winning.) The Bills ended up making the playoffs on a fluke play. Of course, most teams in the position the Bills were in don't make the playoffs. Most candidates in O'Rourke's position end up losing. A letter from US President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was given Saturday to North Korea's foreign minister at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted. Trump's letter comes in response to a letter he received this week from Kim, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. The letter from the President was delivered to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho after Pompeo shook hands and spoke with Ri at the ASEAN meeting in Singapore, Nauert said. Asia Continents and regions Donald Trump East Asia Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government departments and authorities International relations International relations and national security Kim Jong Un North Korea Political Figures - Intl Political Figures - US State departments and diplomatic services ASEAN Government organizations - Intl US federal government White House Mike Pompeo Embargoes and sanctions North America The Americas United States US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim handed the Trump letter to Ri, and Ri thanked him, Nauert said. Sung Kim was previously an ambassador to South Korea and a special representative for North Korea policy. While attending the ASEAN meeting Saturday, Pompeo and Ri approached each other and Pompeo told Ri they should talk again soon, according to an account from Nauert. She said Ri replied, "There are many productive conversations to be had." Asked what the handshake between the two diplomats might represent, Nauert said, "Anytime you have conversations or interactions like that, especially given where our two countries were one year ago, is a step in the right direction." Trump revealed Thursday he had received a letter from Kim Jong Un when the US President tweeted his thanks to Kim after the possible remains of American war dead from the Korean War arrived back on US soil. The White House confirmed that Trump had received the letter Wednesday from North Korea's leader. New flare-up over sanctions Despite the friendly exchange between Pompeo and Ri, there were signs of ongoing tensions between the United States and North Korea over economic sanctions to spur the country to denuclearize. Ri said Saturday that denuclearization by North Korea should happen "phase by phase," and a Ri statement posted in the media room at the ASEAN forum criticized the US for "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK." The US announced new sanctions Friday against a Russian bank for helping the North Korean regime facilitate illicit financial activity and, as a result, develop its nuclear weapons program. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea," Pompeo told journalists in Singapore. "Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously." Fire crews from Australia and New Zealand are heading to California to aid in the massive battle against wildfires, according to Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott. Pimlott told reporters in Anderson that 40,000 people have been displaced due to the state's wildfires. A total of 450,000 acres have burned, most of them being consumed by the Carr Fire and the Ranch and River Fires in Northern California. Accidents, disasters and safety Australia California California wildfires Continents and regions Fires Natural disasters North America Oceania Southwestern United States The Americas United States Wildfires There are 14,000 firefighters from California and other states fighting the blazes. The international fire teams from Australia and New Zealand will arrive in Redding on Monday, Pimlott said. Fire and Rescue New South Wales tweeted Thursday that 13 of its firefighters and specialists would deploy from Australia to the United States. "The FRNSW contingent are among the 100 personnel from across Australia deployed to the region," the tweet said. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state education officials say they inadvertently shortchanged most school districts when distributing federal funding for teacher training last year, and gave charter schools more than their share. To fix the $12 million error, the state Education Department will reduce Title IIA funding for overpaid districts for the next few years. All but a handful of underfunded districts will get all of what they are owed this school year - their 2018-19 allotment plus up to $130,000 from last year. The state will make up the shortfall for Buffalo, Rochester, East Ramapo and Syracuse over two years, and for New York City over four years. New York City schools were shorted about $7 million. The state blames a calculation error when implementing the funding formula. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) - A 37-year-old Vermont man has been charged after authorities say he led New York police on a 30-mile (48-kilometer) high-speed chase on an upstate highway. State police tell The Post-Star that authorities were looking for Austin Blodgett of Mount Holly after receiving a report Thursday that he had displayed a gun during an encounter with someone in Westport in Essex County. Troopers later spotted him traveling south on Interstate 87, the Adirondack Northway. Police say he refused to stop and accelerated to more than 100 mph. The pursuit also involved sheriff's deputies in neighboring Warren County, where Blodgett stopped near Exit 23 in the town of Lake George. He's charged with numerous traffic violations. Troopers also say Blodgett was charged with illegally possessing a 9mm handgun in New York. It wasn't clear if he has a lawyer. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page British Prime Minister Theresa May interrupted her vacation to meet French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday at his vacation spot at the Bregancon fort on Frances Mediterranean coast. They reportedly started a two-hour working meeting at 5:30 p.m. and concluded without either side making any statement or announcement to the press. It was widely reported, however, that Mays visit was an attempt to convince Macron to back the soft Brexit plan she presented last month at her country residence at Chequers. The plan prompted a revolt inside Mays Conservative party that nearly brought down her government. In the lead-up to the Bregancon meeting, there were several reports that the Macron administration is the main obstacle on the European Union (EU) side to the adoption of the Chequers plan. A senior Whitehall source told the Guardian: The Germans are actually quite clear that they want to do a deal. Mays discussions with Merkel have been constructive. The Dutch have also been helpful. Its the French that regularly pour cold water on everything that the British want. Theres no other nation anywhere near as disobliging. So this meeting is very important. Another British cabinet member said, The French just say no to everything and, by a mile, are the most difficult ones, so if May can make progress with him that would have a disproportionately positive effect on negotiations. One can surmise that the decision of Macron and May not to issue any statement on their meeting was taken to avoid undermining EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who is negotiating Brexit terms directly with London in the name of all 27 remaining EU countries, including France. Indeed, several reports in the British press hailed Macrons decision to agree to a meeting with May as a rebuff to Barnier that effectively sidelined him. With Brexit looming in March 2019, however, there are growing signs that business circles on both sides of the English Channel are increasingly concerned at the risk of a no-deal or hard Brexit in which the EU and Britain fail to reach an agreement on their terms of trade before Brexit suspends the existing free-trade deals. This would threaten to effectively suspend trade between Britain and the EU, affecting hundreds of billions of euros of exports of goods and services between Europes largest economies. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told the BBC that the danger of a no-deal Brexit was uncomfortably high and highly undesirable. Amid growing speculation of post-Brexit food import shortages in Britain and a fear-mongering campaign in the press over the need for military deployments amid a post-Brexit national emergency, Carney told the BBCs Today show that the Bank of England was handing out more cash to the banks: We have made sure that banks have the capital, the liquidity that they need and we have the contingency plans in place. There is a very broad range of potential outcomes to these Brexit negotiations and we are entering a crucial phase. In France, a wave of press reports pointed to the growing dangers to French and European exports. In an article titled Brexit will cost French businesses 4 billion euros per year, Le Figaro cited a study by consultants Oliver Wyman and Clifford Chance that a hard Brexit would hit Germany, the Netherlands and France the hardest within the EU. France stands to lose 4 billion of its 38 billion in exports to Britain, it reported, and EU small businesses risk being particularly hard-hit by any sudden reimposition of complex import duties after a hard Brexit. There are also fears in ruling circles that amid growing strikes and social anger at the Macron administration in France, French farmers could lose up to 5 percent of their revenues due to Britains exit from the funding for the EUs Common Agricultural Policy. The French Agriculture Ministry has issued a statement declaring, Such a drastic, massive and blind reduction simply cannot be considered France cannot accept any reduction in direct revenues for farmers. Commenting on Carneys warnings, French financial magazine La Tribune cited sources at the Elysee presidential palace saying that Macron intended to reach a deal with May at the Bregancon meeting: Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May will discuss Friday the obstacles that must be overcome to finalize The United Kingdoms withdrawal from the European Union and the future relations between the two entities, without formally negotiating. The official silence on the Macron-May meeting is of a piece with the entire Brexit campaign, a political maneuver launched by more right-wing sections of the British ruling elite in an attempt to reorganize their relations with the EU amid growing political and geostrategic tensions between the major powers. The supporters of a soft Brexit or of an attempt to violate the Brexit referendum result and keep Britain in the EU are not, however, any more progressive. They are carrying out reckless negotiations, with millions of jobs on the line, behind the backs of the workers in Britain and across Europe. While the pro-Brexit wing allies more closely with the reactionary Trump administration in Washington, the pro-soft Brexit position is advanced by factions of the British and European bourgeoisie seeking to build up the EU as an independent militarist power, amid growing tensions between Washington and Berlin. This vindicates the position of the Socialist Equality Party (Britain), which called for the mobilization of the working class in struggle for an active boycott of the Brexit referendum. The only way forward in the escalating crisis of the EU is the fight to unify struggles across Europe, on both sides of the English Channel, in struggle against both the British ruling class and the EU. The calculations of the EU ruling elite were laid out in a column on Thursday in Le Figaro by Barnier. He wrote, In the current geopolitical context, we are interested not only in strengthening the EUs role in the world but also in cooperating with the UK as a close partner. How will we develop a close partnership? Above all, we need an ordered British exit. We are already in agreement with 80 percent of the exit accord. Brexit is not intended to undermine the operations of British or European intelligence agencies, which are to continue their mass spying on the population, Barnier insisted. He wrote that there would continue to be fruitful exchange of intelligence and information so that our police forces continue to work together. He said that DNA profiles, fingerprints and comprehensive flight passenger lists would continue to be exchanged between European and British police agencies after Brexit. Barnier pointed to multiple remaining disagreements, however, including EU farm programs and British military bases in Cyprus and Gibraltar. The most important issue remaining to be resolved, however, was Ireland, according to Barnier. He wrote, We must ensure that Brexit does not create a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and that the Good Friday agreement that brought peace and stability in Northern Ireland is maintained. The EU is, moreover, still determined to discourage further departures from the EU by imposing some type of trade cutoff on Britain after Brexit. The last obstacle to what Barnier called an EU-British partnership of unprecedented scope and ambition was Britains opposition to free movement of people and services. He wrote, Lets be honest: the UK has decided to leave the common market, it can no longer be as close to the rest of the EU from an economic standpoint. Other forces within the French political establishment clearly differ with Barnier and call for a more conciliatory line towards Britain. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the head of the far-right Arise France party who is a political ally of neofascist leader Marine Le Pen, penned a column in the Huffington Post to attack Macrons Brexit policy. France has a trade surplus with Britain, many jobs depend on this trade, he wrote. On 29 March 2019 at 11p.m. on the nose, Brexit will go into effect and Britain will leave the European Union, whatever deal has been reached or even if a deal has not been reached. French media are not paying attention to the situation in recent days in Britain. Pointing to UK-French military ties, joint Franco-British repression of immigrants crossing the English Channel, and French participation in the Hinckley Point nuclear reactor, he added, The Franco-British relation is one of the most important ties we have with another country. Our mutual interests are enormous, both in military and commercial terms. He mocked May, whose policy towards Macron is limited to adopting a budget policy aimed at attracting bankers from the City of London to Paris and praying very hard that this will take place. None of the reactionary factions in this debate speak for the interests of workers. Amid growing strike action from rail workers, teachers, airline workers and energy workers on both sides of the Channel, the key task is to build a socialist and internationalist political movement of the working class in struggle against European capitalism, in both its pro- and anti-Brexit wings. Days after completing a trip to Africa and the Middle East, Chinese President Xi Jinping convened a meeting of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) 25-member Politburo on Tuesday to determine policy on a range of economic issues. Xi held the meeting amid the mounting threat of a US-China trade war and signs he is coming under pressure from critics and factional opponents within China. The statement released after the Politburo referred to new problems and new changes facing the Chinese economy, including obvious changes in the external environmentthat is, US trade measures and threats against China in particular. The following day, the Trump administration confirmed it was actively considering raising proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent. Beijing responded on Friday by threatening another $60 billion in tariffs on US products. The Politburo meeting followed an executive meeting on July 23 of the State Council, often referred to as Chinas cabinet, that oversees economic matters. In May, China reported its first current account deficit in years, and the latest purchasing managers index fell to a five-month low of 51.2 in July (above 50 indicates growth). In response to these signs of a slowing economy, the Politburo indicated that measures would be taken to boost infrastructure spending and encourage corporate research and development. The Trump administrations trade war measures are not simply aimed at forcing Beijing to cave in to Washingtons economic demands, but are more broadly aimed at ensuring US dominance in Asia and internationally by undermining the CCP regime. Given this agenda, the prognostications on the Xi leadership by analysts in the US and its allies need to be treated with caution. Nevertheless, while not suggesting that he is about to be ousted, several recent articles point to internal criticism of Xi, just months after he cemented his hold on power. In March, Chinas National Peoples Congress rubberstamped constitutional changes that ended the two-term limit for the post of president, potentially allowing Xi to stay in office indefinitely. A comment published on July 27 in the Australian Financial Review by Lowy Institute analyst Richard McGregor asked the question: Has Chinas leader Xi Jinping now passed his peak? Suggesting that there were signs of a nascent pushback against Xis absolute power, it said whisperings emanate from a variety of sourcesretired leaders, rival factions within the CCP, the intelligentsia and the economic policy making apparatus. McGregor noted that Xi was under pressure as a result of Trumps aggressive trade measures. Xi can scarcely be blamed for Trump, he commented. His rivals, nonetheless, have latched onto deteriorating relations as a stick to beat Xi over the head with. Trump often talks about his good friend Xi. But the US president is in fact behaving anything like a friend to his peer in Beijing. In a similar vein, the New York Times this week cited the remarks of Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations at Beijing University. China should adopt a lower profile in dealing with international issues. Dont create this atmosphere that were about to supplant the American model, he told a recent forum. In an article on August 1, entitled Xis Grip Loosens Amid Trade War Policy Paralysis, Jamestown Foundation analyst Willy Wo-Lap Lam suggested that while Xis position was not under challenge, his authority seems somewhat diminished. He continued: Xi is widely seen as failing to thwart what the Chinese Foreign Ministry calls Trumps hegemonic and lingba (bullying) tactics. Despite Xis robust rhetoric and announcement of retaliatory tariffs, Lam noted a series of steps indicating moves by the Chinese regime to adopt a more cautious approach since June. He pointed out that Beijing had ordered a halt to media references to the Made in China 2025 strategy to develop cutting-edge technologies to compete globally, to which Washington has objected. He also noted that in mid-July, the CCP Propaganda Department banned media use of the phrase trade war, in a bid to tone down tensions with the US. The CCP leadership is clearly concerned about the economic impact of escalating tit-for-tat trade penalties with the US. The Chinese economy has already slowed significantly, with an official growth target for 2018 of just 6.5 percent. Even though the figures for the second quarter recorded 6.7 percent annualised growth, the pattern is uneven across the country. More depressed regions, such as Jilin in the northern rust belt, reported growth of just 2.5 percent for the first half year. Low growth and rising unemployment will exacerbate social tensions and undermine the political authority of the CCP regime. Having all but abandoned any socialist pretensions, it has relied on high growth figures and whipping up Chinese nationalism to appeal to sections of the middle classes in particular. The consolidation of Xi as bureaucratic strongman, constantly referred to as the core of the party and the state, is not a sign of strength but of the regimes brittleness. He is being built up to contain factional infighting within the CCP and also to try to suppress mounting class tensions through the use of police-state methods. While capitalist restoration in China since 1978 has led to rapid economic growth, it has also led to a widening social gulf between rich and poor. The 2018 World Inequality Report pointed out that in 1978, the share of national income of the top 10 percent of the population and the bottom 50 percent was roughly equal. By 2015, however, the top 10 percent took 42 percent of national income, compared to just 15 percent for the bottom half of the population. The CCP regime is acutely aware of the potential for a social explosion, despite Chinas extensive repressive apparatus, as the living standards of the working class deteriorate. The US threats of trade war and a further economic slowdown are fuelling factional differences within the CCP bureaucracy over how to counter that danger, and this is undermining Xis position as political strongman. The author also recommends: Xi Jinpings power grab: Bonapartism with Chinese characteristics [1 March 2018] The campaign by an alliance of the Labour Partys right-wing, Zionist groups and the Conservative Party to portray party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters as anti-Semites has reached new levels of ferocity. The immediate focus of the latest assault has been to damage the otherwise certain victory of the Corbyn-supporting Momentum slate of nine candidates for Labours ruling National Executive Committee, to be announced August 30. A tape leaked to the Jewish Chronicle recorded Peter Willsman, a pro-Corbyn NEC member and Momentum candidate, denouncing the anti-Semitism smear. Stating that those behind it can falsify social media very easily, he said that some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump. Theyre Trump fanatics. He asked of the 70 rabbis who had supported the campaign: Where is your evidence of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in this party? Amid demands by the Labour right, amplified throughout the media, for Willsman to be removed from the Momentum slate, and even expelled from the party, Murdochs Times newspaper opened a second front. It discovered that while a backbencher, Corbyn hosted a 2010 event at the House of Commons on Holocaust Memorial Day, under the title, Never again for anyoneAuschwitz to Gaza. The Times' attack is politically depraved. The headline speaker at the 2010 event was Auschwitz survivor and anti-Zionist Hajo Meyer, who died in 2014 aged 90. Born in 1924 in Bielefeld, Germany, Meyer fled to the Netherlands after Hitler came to power and in 1944 was caught by the Gestapo. He was interned in Auschwitz-Gleiwitz-1 concentration camp, Poland, for 10 months until it was liberated by the Soviet army when he was 20 years old. Meyer was conducting a tour speaking on The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes in which he explained movingly: I am pained by the parallels I observe between my experiences in Germany prior to 1939 and those suffered by Palestinians today... The various forms of collective punishment visited upon the Palestinian peoplecoerced ghettoization behind a security wall; the bulldozing of homes and destruction of fields; the bombing of schools, mosques, and government buildings; an economic blockade that deprives people of the water, food, medicine, education and the basic necessities for dignified survivalforce me to recall the deprivations and humiliations that I experienced in my youth. This century-long process of oppression means unimaginable suffering for Palestinians. It is not too late to learn a different lesson from Auschwitz. The anti-communist underpinnings of this campaign were spelled out by Murdochs Sun. Under the heading, Party of hate, it contemptuously baited Corbyns supporters as progressive millennials, asking, how do you like this racist party youve joined? Or is Jew-hatred cool, like bringing back Communism and its inevitable horrors? Far from expressing anti-Semitism, Willsmans comments are factually correct. There have been numerous instances of fake postings to malign pro-Corbyn supporters. Moreover, some of those leading the accusations of left-wing anti-Semitism are indeed Trump supporters. The president of the British Board of Deputies, Jonathan Arkush, caused outrage when he congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory. Arkush was only repeating the stance of the American Jewish Committee. Numerous complaints did not prevent the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA) turning over the platform of its annual gala in November 2017 to then-Trump aide and Breitbart chair Steve Bannon. The fascistic strategist called on the ZOA to join the insurgency movement against the Republican establishment, which he blamed for concluding a bad nuclear deal with Iran that Trump subsequently ripped up. Likewise, criticism of the Holocaust memorial event is made up of whole cloth. Labour MP Louise Ellman professed to be absolutely appalled to hear about Corbyns involvement. But, as revealed by the SKWAWKBOX website, Ellman was not only among a number of MPs present at the same event, she stayed far longer than Corbyn... [and] had witnessed an interruption by a rowdy pro-Israel protest... None of this has stopped a host of Labour right-wingers queuing up to denounce Corbyn and Momentum, including Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson, who tweeted that Willsman is and always has been a loud-mouthed bully. He disgusts me. The barely concealed aim of this stream of manufactured outrage is not only to silence criticism of Israels murderous apartheid-style actions and US/British strategic objectives in the Middle East. The right-wing cabal of Blairites is working directly with the Tories to prevent any possibility of a Corbyn-led Labour government, while shifting official politics sharply to the right. So emboldened are the Blairites that they make barely any attempt to conceal their broader political agenda. Andrew Grice, writing in the Independent, noted that preparations for a split by the Blairite majority in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) were well advanced. Antisemitism is not their only concern, he wrote. Some pro-EU MPs are furious that Corbyn has not opposed Theresa May on Brexit more vigorously. Others believe his instincts on foreign and defence policy make him unfit to lead the country... Of the various scenarios being discussed by Corbyns critics, he adds, the most likely is a declaration of independence from Corbyn Labour by much of the PLP, who could stake a claim to be the official oppositionperhaps as Real Labour. Outrage over these attacks is widespread in the Labour Party and among Corbyns many young supporters. But the advantage enjoyed by the right wing is that Corbyn and the left have no intention of mobilising against them. Corbyn instead issued an apology for the concerns and anxiety caused by his involvement in the Holocaust memorial event and for sharing platforms in the past with people whose views I completely reject. Some of his allies went further still, openly lining up behind the Blairites and Tories, including former Corbyn aide Matt Zarb-Cousin, Ash Sarkar and Guardian journalist Owen Jones, who tweeted, theres no way Ill vote for Pete Willsman for Labours NEC... I wont vote for someone who undermines the struggle against the disgusting disease of anti-Semitism. Willsman himself apologised and announced he would undertake a course of equality training, so I can better understand how to approach discussions of such issues in a respectful way. Nonetheless, Momentum then announced that it had dropped Willsman from its NEC re-election list, meaning the vacant spot will almost certainly be taken by a Corbyn critic. This confirms a pattern in which anyone specifically targeted by the right--Jewish-Black activist Jackie Walker, former London mayor Ken Livingstone, Labour Party black sections founder Marc Wadsworth--is unceremoniously thrown to the wolves. Corbyns appeasement of the right wing represents a grave danger for the working class. It serves to demobilise opposition to the escalating attacks on jobs, wages and social conditions by the Tories and the employers, while facilitating the creation of a quasi-legal mechanism for censoring and criminalising the left and whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment by portraying anti-Zionist opposition to the state of Israel as anti-Semitism. These constant retreats are rooted in Corbyns central declared aim of securing a Labour government that would supposedly bring an end to decades of austerity and rampant militarism. This has proved to be a political disaster. Instead, in the name of maintaining the unity needed to get the party elected, the right wing continues to dictate a policy of austerity, militarism and war, while working openly to keep the Tories in office. This demonstrates the futility and falseness of a perspective based on pushing the Labour Party to the left and somehow transforming this party of British imperialism into an instrument for progressive change. Everything now depends on workers and young people decisively rejecting Corbyns saccharine appeals for compromise and mounting a determined political struggle against all these forces and for socialism. Just weeks after taking power, Ontarios Progressive Conservative government, led by the right-wing populist Doug Ford, has launched a major assault on welfare recipients, societys most vulnerable and impoverished. Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod announced Tuesday that the 3 percent increase in welfare benefits adopted by the previous Liberal government will be slashed to just 1.5 percent. The cut affects both those deemed employable, who are enrolled in the Ontario Works program, and those receiving disability payments. The government is also canceling a three-year, $150 million pilot project to test replacing the current welfare system with a basic income payment. Under the pilot project, which began last year and involved 4,000 low-income people, a single person was to receive up to $16,989 in provincial assistance annuallystill far below the poverty line. Under conditions where rents, food and other costs are rising rapidly, the planned 3 percent increase would have at best meant that welfare recipients in Canadas most populous province were treading water. But, taking a page from the playbook of Mike Harris, who on becoming Ontario premier in 1995 cut welfare benefits by more than 21 percent, MacLeod and Ford are planning to eviscerate the current social assistance program. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, MacLeod declared the current welfare system irretrievably broken and announced that the government has set a 100-day deadline for coming up with a plan to transform it, from one that gives handouts that do little if anything to break the cycle of poverty, into one that is sustainable. Indicating that the government intends to dramatically expand workfare schemes under which benefits are tied to enrollment in cheap-labor, job-training programs, Macleod pontificated that, The best welfare measure is a job. She also said that she has asked the provinces auditor-general to investigate what she called hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent social assistance payments. Ford ran a hard-right, Trump-style campaign in which he railed against the waste of tax-payer dollars, public sector workers and the traditional political establishment. He also vowed that his government would find $6 billion in annual savings, of which the latest attack on welfare is only a small fraction. The next volley of social spending cuts is likely to be launched at the end of August, when a commission appointed by Ford in mid-July to review Ontarios finances is scheduled to present its report. To head the commission, Ford chose former British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, whose Liberal government provoked widespread strikes and popular protests with savage attacks on public spending and workers rights during the 2000s. The Ford government is already preparing the groundwork to use the reports results to justify a massive assault on public services. Finance Minister Vic Fedeli declared that the government is prepared for the likelihood that we might not like what we see. But unless we accurately diagnose the sickness we will not be able to prescribe the right cure. The claim that there is no money for vitally-needed public and social services is a flat-out lie. Under more than 15 years of Liberal Party rule, the trade union-backed governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne waged war on the wages and working conditions of workers, privatized public assets such as Hydro One, and slashed public spending, including for health and education, to the bone. These policies were aimed at redistributing wealth upwards to the rich and super-rich, including by cutting tax rates for big business and those in the highest-income brackets to record lows. Justin Trudeaus federal Liberal government is pursuing the same agenda. It has maintained the ultra-low corporate tax rates introduced by the Harper Conservative government; established, with its new Canada Infrastructure bank, a mechanism for privatizing public infrastructure; announced a 70 percent hike in military spending over the next decade; and further expanded Canadas involvement in the major US military-strategic offensives, in the oil-rich Middle East and against Russia and China. Earlier this week, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-liberal think tank, published a report that showed the countrys wealthiest 87 families now own more wealth than the poorest third of Canadians12 million people. Fords bluster about speaking on behalf of the little guy against the political elite notwithstanding, he is a ruthless representative of this super-rich oligarchy. His rise to the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives by means of a bogus sex scandal and his subsequent populist election campaign were promoted by a pliant corporate media and powerful sections of big business which see him as a useful instrument for shifting politics, in Ontario and across Canada, sharply right. In line with this, Ford has already outlawed a four-month strike by teaching and research assistants at Torontos York University. Ford and his Conservatives are seeking to divert attention from their pro-corporate agenda, incite reaction, and split the working class by whipping up hostility to refugees fleeing Trumps anti-immigrant witch hunt. This has included blaming refugee claimants for a housing shortage that is the result of decades of cuts to social housing carried out by all three levels of government and all three parties, the Liberals, New Democrats (NDP) and Conservatives. In anticipation of mounting social opposition, the Ford government is also mounting a right-wing law and order campaign and courting the police, with promises of increased spending, tougher laws and by suspending application of a law providing for greater civilian oversight of the police. The Ford governments initial weeks in power have provided a devastating exposure of the impotence, cowardice, and complicity of the trade union bureaucracy, which for over a decade helped prop up successive Liberal governments as they enforced austerity measures and criminalized strikes. As Ford took office, Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) head Chris Buckley and other top union bureaucrats appealed for a meeting with the new premier, holding out the hope that the unions could collaborate with the new government. At the same time, the unions are doing all that they can to restrain the groundswell of popular anger that is building. The only protest sanctioned thus far by the OFL came on June 16, where Buckley shared the platform with newly-elected NDP MPPs. He and other speakers asserted that workers could resist the Ford governments attacks by working in tandem with the rightwing social democrats of the NDPa party which between 2012 and 2014 propped up a Liberal minority government as it imposed austerity and broke strikes; and which, the one and only time it ever held office in Ontario (199095), implemented a job and wage-cutting social contract. After weeks of virtual silence in the face of non-stop provocations by the Ford government, the OFL finally bestirred itself this week, not to protest the vicious attacks on welfare recipients, but to denounce Fords decision to cut the number of Toronto City Council seats from 47 to 25, less than 90 days before the Oct. 22 municipal election. In a statement, the OFL provided a model letter for its members to sign and send to Ford, asking him politely to reverse course. Fords move is an attack on democratic rights, deliberately aimed at weakening his bourgeois political rivalsthe Liberals and NDPwho enjoy more support in Toronto than do his Tories. However, workers cannot beat back such attacks if they appeal, as the unions propose, to the alleged democratic sensibilities of the Toronto City Council, which is staffed by bourgeois politicians subservient to the interests of the corporate elite and aligned with the establishment parties. Rather the working class must meet big business class-war assault by mobilizing its industrial strength and transforming itself into a political force. To defend their social rights, workers and youth in Ontario must spearhead a cross-Canada counteroffensive of the working class, directed against the Ford and Trudeau governments and the ruling-class agenda of austerity and war, and at developing a mass movement for a workers government committed to the socialist reorganization of socio-economic life. UK-based outsourcing multinational Serco has initiated plans to evict and change the locks at the residences of 330 asylum seekers in Glasgow, as part of its callously named Move On programme. The firm is contracted by the UK Home Office to run asylum dispersal in Scotland alongside other areas of the country. It addressed a letter to Glasgow City Council and local charities last Friday detailing plans to terminate housing services for former Asylum Seekers who do not wish to engage in voluntary return, and who the Home Office have determined have no legal right to remain in the UK. Serco claims that it has incurred unsustainable losses on the asylum dispersal contract tendered by the Conservative government in 2012worth hundreds of millions of pounds each yearbecause of a surge in applications and growing numbers of what it terms overstayers who remain in the UK after being rejected for residency status. This is primarily a result of the expedited application procedure, which was brought in as part of the governments hostile environment immigration strategy, personally overseen by Prime Minister Theresa May in her previous role as home secretary. Serco, which has a long record of holding refugees in dilapidated, vermin-infested housing as well as abusive, prison-like detention facilities, is now threatening hundreds of refugees with homelessness. This is in a bid to encourage the May government to escalate its policy of deport first, appeal later and to extract higher fees as asylum contracts come up for renewal next year. Company officials say that they receive no Home Office funding for those who receive a negative asylum decision and that Serco is now consistently accommodating approximately 250300 former asylum seekers at our own expense. For such cases, they complain, There is effectively no next step in terms of their move on from Serco accommodation aside from engaging with UKVI [UK Visas and Immigration] under the voluntary returns programme. In the Orwellian language of UK immigration policy, voluntary returns is a category of enforced removal or deportation. According to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, the number of people deported or pressured to leave the UK annually under various voluntary return programs has ballooned from approximately 3,500 in 2004 to nearly 30,000 in 2016. Serco has already issued six initial lock change notices, giving asylum seekers just seven days to vacate its property. It plans to evict roughly 10 households per week for the foreseeable future. Those threatened with eviction include lone individuals as well as families with young children. The majority have fled social collapse and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, caused by ongoing imperialist wars and intrigues in which the British ruling elite plays a central role. According to the Glasgow Herald, approximately 100 of those issued lock change notices have already been granted leave to remain in the UK but will be turned out onto the street regardless. The remainder are navigating the notoriously complex and difficult process of gathering evidence to appeal Home Office judgements on their residency status. Charities have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in the city, as the resources of refugee and homelessness charities are already dangerously low and ill-equipped to deal with hundreds of asylum seekers being forced onto the streets at once. Zoe Halliday, coordinator of the Refugee Survival Trust, told STV News: We have seen applications to our emergency destitution grants programme reach an all-time high over the past year, with no signs of abating there is a very real possibility that funds will run out in the near future. It does not bear thinking about what compromising situations these individuals and families may be forced into, without this important safety net, Halliday said. Robina Qureshi, the director of Positive Action in Housing, issued a searing rebuke to Serco and its multimillionaire aristocrat CEO, Rupert Soames, in a statement condemning the firm for turning war refugees and their children out on to the streets because they no longer turn a tidy profit." Qureshi continued: Todays refused asylum seeker could be granted leave to remain tomorrow. Only three weeks ago, a Glasgow hunger strike family from Iraq who had waited 18 years for a decision were handed status within hours of the Home Office getting wind of the potential public embarrassment. Serco has no right to pass comment on the legal status of its residents. It is a landlord not an immigration officer. Many residents have developed severe mental health problems, are self-harming or are close to the brink of suicide. In a separate comment, Qureshi told the press: It is a chilling reminder of the triple suicide of an asylum-seeking couple and their son at Glasgows Red Road flats in 2010, on the day they were told they had to get out of their Home Office flat. Sercos plans have met with broad public opposition. A rally organised at short notice on Tuesday at the steps of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Buchanan Street attracted around 300 protestors. Many carried homemade banners and placards with messages of solidarity, such as Hospitality Not Hostility, Change The System Not The Locks, and Refugees Welcome. Two Afghan refugees, Mirwais Ahmadzai, 27, and Rahman Shah, 32, began a hunger strike outside the Brand Street headquarters of the Home Office on Wednesday to protest the length of time it has taken to process their paperwork. A further protest is planned for Brand Street on Saturday, August 4 at 11 a.m. While feigning solidarity with refugees, the devolved Scottish National Party (SNP) government, together with the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish Greens, are leading efforts to contain and channel opposition behind bankrupt appeals for Conservative Home Secretary Sajid Javid to intervene to halt Sercos eviction plans. None of the major parties, whether at the local, regional or national level, have any principled differences over the persecution of asylum seekers. They each share responsibility with the May government for the imperialist wars and pro-big business policies that have ravaged one country after another in Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asiacausing the most severe global refugee crisis since the Second World War. A letter of protest addressed to Javid by Susan Aitken, the SNP leader of Glasgow City Council, signed by several SNP, Labour and Green councillors and members of Parliament, merely warns that the eviction is far less likely to lead to their [the asylum seekers] voluntarily leaving the UK than it is to their joining the citys homeless and rough sleeper populations. While Glasgow City Council claims it was blindsided by Serco and calls instead for a fair, appropriate and measured way to deal with asylum seekers, officials at the company have insisted that the lock change policy emerged out of a protracted consultation with Glasgow City Council. According to Serco, the consultation was dedicated to the development of a new pathway/protocol to eliminate or drastically reduce the rates of over staying of former asylum households who should no longer be residing within the asylum system. The author also recommends: Destitute asylum seekers face eviction in Glasgow, Scotland 29 June 2012 Asia Bangladesh: GlaxoSmithKline workers protest factory closure About 500 employees of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, formed a human chain protest against the closure of its Fouzderhat manufacturing plant in Chittagong on July 26. The GlaxoSmithKline factory has been operating in Bangladesh for over fifty years. It employed 1,500 workers, including around a 500-strong permanent workforce. GSK will maintain its profitable consumer healthcare unit in Bangladesh, which produces Horlicks, Sensodyne and Glaxose-D. Pakistan: Punjab school and college teachers oppose pay cut Over 100 teachers from schools and colleges run by the Fauji Foundation demonstrated in Rawalpindi against a planned drastic pay cut. According to teachers, their monthly 50,000-rupee ($US403.03) wage would be reduced to just 15,000 rupees. Fauji Foundations web site claims that it is amongst the largest business conglomerates in Pakistan, which Earns To Serve the interests of ex-servicemen. The teachers demonstrated outside the Foundations headquarters carrying placards with slogans demanding withdrawal of the pay cut. Teachers from 90 schools and colleges run by the foundation would be directly affected, they told the media. India: Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation workers end two-day strike Thousands of Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) workers began strike action on July 25 for a salary increase in line with the seventh pay commissions rulings. They also demanded RSRTC management purchase 1,000 new buses, fill 9,000 vacant posts and pay outstanding wages to 4,000 pensioners. Almost 4,700 buses were grounded by the strike. Unions connected with the All India Trade Union Congress, Centre for Indian Trade Unions and Indian National Trade Union Congress ended the strike on July 27 after assuring their members that their wage rise demand and the purchase of new buses would be granted. The union federations, which are affiliated with the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India [Marxist] and the Congress party respectively, systematically defend Indian capitalism. In August 2017, RSRTC held a two-hour strike to demand pensions for retired workers and outstanding wages for the workers. Jawaharlal Nehru University teachers hold one-day strike Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) members held a one-day strike on July 31 to protest against the tertiary institutions current administration. JNUTA members also decided to hold a two-question referendum on August 7 on removal of the JNU Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar and to reject the Higher Education Funding Authority (HEFA) loan. A statement endorsed at a general meeting by union members prior to the walkout said the university is being steadily pushed towards a path of destruction by the current vice-chancellor. Both teachers and students participated in the strike with teachers holding placards and wearing black protest badges in a march around the campus. Mass arrests of protesting Chinese workers An ongoing dispute over sackings at the Jasic Technology Factory in Shenzhen has escalated with the arrests of 29 workers and a student on July 27. Protests were held in support of the decision by workers to form their own union, deemed illegal by the company and state-run labor unions, and in solidarity against the fired workers. According to police from the Pingshan district, the workers were apprehended on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. Taiwanese Airline workers call for protections during typhoons About 20 union members and activists protested outside the Ministry of Labor in Taipei on Tuesday, demanding government regulations mandate leave for airline workers during typhoons. The action follows a similar protest in July led by sales clerks. Workers shouted, We want typhoon day law and held placards reading Safety is more important than profit and Workers have the right to choose not to die for a job. Currently, employees have their bonuses docked and are required to do compensatory work if they miss a shift during potentially deadly typhoons. Police arrest 19, injure dozens at Philippines picket line Nineteen protesting NutriAsia plant workers and their supporters were arrested last Monday in the Bulacan province of the Philippines. Over a hundred police and security guards violently dispersed a protest of around 300 blocking access to the factory. Guards used rattan sticks and threw stones to disperse the crowd. They allegedly confiscated laptops, cellphones and other paraphernalia, along with motorcycles and bikes. Among those arrested were Anakbayan Secretary General Einstein Recedes and the League of Filipino Students (LFS) Secretary General Mark Quinto. The altercation occurred in the midst of government mediation of a dispute over the sacking 50 NutriAsia workers over two months ago. Workers are demanding the reinstatement of the employees and an increase in full-time positions. Australia and the Pacific Australian steel workers seek pay increase at BlueScope Workers at BlueScopes Port Kembla steelworks on the New South Wales south coast are threatening industrial action in a dispute over a new workplace agreement. The Australian Workers Union (AWU), which covers the workers, claims to be seeking a 10 percent pay increase over three years. The company has offered only 7.5 percent. Bluescope has also ruled out reinstating a range of conditions that were axed in 2015 in a deal that was forced through by the company and the AWU under threat of closure of the plant. The 2015 agreement also included a four year pay freeze. The AWUs stated pay claim barely covers the rise in the cost of living and in no way makes up for wages lost during the four year pay freeze. In an attempt to get workers to accept the current deal the company said it was offering employees a chance to be included in a profit sharing scheme. Under the scheme, however, workers will only receive a bonus if financial targets, to be met through cost-cutting, are achieved. Australia: Logan council workers strike over pay offer More than 100 workers at the Logan City Council south of Brisbane went on strike for 24 hours last Monday. The stoppage included transport workers, plumbers along with administration, technical and advisory staff. In negotiations for new workplace agreements, the employees are seeking an across the board 2.5 percent pay rise per annum and a three year contract. The council is offering annual pay increases of just 2.25 percent for four years and an even lower increase for administrative workers. Some workers will receive a yearly increase of just 1 percent. The workers, members of the Services Union, Transport Workers Union and Plumbers Union, went on strike briefly and protested outside the council building in June over the same issue. Negotiations between the three unions and the council have dragged on for twelve months. Australian university staff hold stop-work meetings On Thursday, staff at the University of Newcastle (UON) in New South Wales stopped work and attended meetings on negotiations for a new enterprise work agreement (EA). As part of the dispute, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has called limited work bans, such as refusing to respond to management inquiries outside usual work hours. Thursdays stoppage lasted just several hours. There have been over 25 meetings between the NTEU and management this year. Staff are calling for improved pay and working conditions and greater job security. The unions claims are vague and it has not even specified the pay increase it is seeking. New Zealand primary school teachers vote for full day strike Primary school teachers throughout New Zealand have voted in favour of extending a planned August 15 strike to a full day. The New Zealand Educators Institute (NZEI) held meetings throughout June as their members voted to strike. During the meetings, several teachers questioned the unions decision to limit the strike to three hours, arguing that a full day strike would send a stronger message. This pressured the union to cast another ballot to extend the strike. The strike will be the first by primary teachers in 24 years. Earlier in the year, teachers rejected a pay offer from the government that would see most salaries rise only 6.1 percent over the three years. They are demanding a 16 percent increase over two years and greatly improved working conditions to help alleviate the teacher shortage. New Zealand: Third strike by Inland Revenue workers Around 3,000 workers at the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) held a half-day strike throughout the country on Wednesday. This follows strikes on July 9 and July 23, which were joined by workers at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Both IRD and MBIE workers are represented by the Public Services Association (PSA), which has not included MBIE in the most recent strike even though their dispute has not been resolved. The strikes have been limited to between two and four hours. IRD are in the process of cutting thousands of jobs which the PSA have not opposed IRD staff are demanding better pay, with a quarter of workers paid less than $48,000. They are also protesting against frustrating changes in their computer systems, adding to their workload. New Zealand: Workers at Maori TV to strike Twenty-seven workers at Maori TV will strike for 24 hours on August 8. The state-owned television station primarily broadcasts programmes in the Maori language. The E tu union has been in negotiations with Maori TV for months. E tus Joe Gallagher told the media the bargaining process has been undermined because non-union members have since received bonuses and wage adjustments. New Zealand: Mine workers at Taharoa Ironsand to strike Around 70 mine workers at Taharoa Ironsand Ltd, south of Kawhia Harbour, will strike on August 24. The workers have cited unfair wage talks as their reason for taking industrial action, which will involve a ban on loading iron slurry onto ships. The company annually exports sand worth more than $150 million. The E tu union says 100 percent of its membership at the mine voted in favour of a strike. BRAZIL, Ind. (WTHI)- Veterans do so much for our country. Showing our support for all they do for us is one way to thank them for their service. That's why hundreds from around the state came out to welcome home a local hero. The journey began early Friday afternoon in Brazil. That's as locals prepared to welcome home World War II veteran Ray Kerr. One of those in support was Steve Grinley of the Indiana Blue Knights. Grinley was one of many who came to show support. "Well, Its important that us as Americans I believe to support our veterans. Those that have served in the past, currently serving and those that will be serving in the future," said Grinley. Kerr served in the Navy as a Hellcat pilot. He took part in many vital missions. After the war, he moved away from the town of Brazil. However, Kerr still considers Brazil a home away from home. "I went to high school here in Brazil and I immediately left high school and went into the Navy. But I love Brazil," said Kerr. Groups all over the state helped welcome Kerr back home. Over two hundred motorcycles followed behind as they passed through towns like Cloverdale. To Kerr it's a show of support he will never forget. "I appreciate people appreciating veterans. We have so many good veterans around and they all need to be appreciated," said Ker. Finally, his journey ended at Forest Park with friends, family, and even more support. A turnout of support that shows the patriotic spirit of this Wabash Valley community. "I just think its outstanding. It shows the Midwest values that this country has to support our veterans and on a day like this rain or shine. We'll support our brothers and sisters in uniform, said Grinley. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A family fight has landed three people behind bars. Terre Haute Police say that fight left one man in the hospital. It started when police responded to a home on South 11th Street on reports of a stabbing. They say it started as a family gathering. A man told police he was taking a nap when he woke up to someone going through his pockets. He identified that man as Harley Lamb, a family friend. The victim said Lamb began hitting him and the two began fighting. Police believe the victim's brother, Brandon Frye joined in on the fight and began beating the victim. As the fight continued, documents say the victim's father, Brian Frye joined in n the fight and began hitting the victim. The fight ended with someone stabbing the victim in the back. Police arrested Brandon Frye, Brian Frye, and Harley Lamb on battery charges. Court documents say Brandon Frye admitted the fight was over pills the victim had in his pocket while he was napping. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new internal document obtained by CNN shows the Transportation Security Administration's proposal to eliminate screening at more than 150 small to medium sized airports is just one of several cost-saving measures the agency is discussing. The document, which an agency source says TSA Administrator David Pekoske was briefed on last month, shows how the TSA could save more than $300 million in 2020. Among the proposed cuts listed in the document are a reduction in full-time air marshals, a reduction in the workforce at TSA headquarters, fewer reimbursements to airports for janitorial services at TSA checkpoints, cuts for benefits for new part-time employees and a 50% cut in reimbursements to state and local law enforcement agencies for use of their K-9 units. The TSA did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Spending cuts would have to be approved by Congress, which sets the TSA's budget. By far the biggest and most controversial proposed cut is the $115 million the agency would save by eliminating screening at airports where the flights have 60 passengers or less. Under that proposal, first reported by CNN, passengers with connecting flights would be screened at the larger airports, which have more sophisticated security measures, before boarding the next flight. It has already been widely panned by lawmakers, unions, airports and national security experts. It's unclear how seriously TSA is considering any of these cuts, but a working group was established and a risk assessment conducted in connection with the proposal to eliminate screening at certain airports. The new document says reductions in the federal air marshal program would save the agency nearly $39 million per year, and the reduction at TSA headquarters would slash more than $26 million. Both cuts would come through attrition, the document says. The air marshal program and TSA have come under scrutiny for concerns they are ineffective or intruding on civil liberties, most recently for tracking of non-criminal and non-terrorist travelers under a program dubbed Quiet Skies. A series of reports from the Homeland Security Department's Inspector General's Office and the Government Accountability Office have raised questions about the air marshal program's effectiveness. The cut in K-9 reimbursement would save the agency more than $20 million. The cut in janitorial services reimbursements is more than $21 million. And a change in part-time benefits is $18.5 million. Another nearly $39 million would come through a reduction in unspecified contracts. Recently, contractors working for TSA included IT services and companies that repair the screening devices, but the document gives no details about what the potential contract cuts would look like. New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee's transportation panel, said the proposed cuts "could put at risk the safety of passengers and the security of our transportation systems." "The intelligence is very clear that the threat to our transportation systems remains real, so I am baffled by this administration's endless efforts to cut funding in this area," Watson Coleman said in a statement. CNN's Greg Wallace and Ross Levitt contributed to this report. TM & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Vigo County's Assessor is speaking out to set the record straight after several home and business owners expressed concern over shockingly high property tax assessments. Some assessments saw an increase of millions of dollars. "My understanding is that property tax assessments really don't change all that much so I was in for a big surprise when this happened." Kris Aninger, a residential property owner said. Her assessment went up more than $8,000. They fear it will lead to higher property taxes. News 10 sat down with assessor Deborah Lewis. She says much of the shock is due to assessments that were too low in the past. The last time any land in Indiana was assessed was 2012. She told us several things go into how her office assesses property. One of them being sales in your area. If no houses sold last assessment season then you wouldn't see an increase in your assessment. There is also a problem of people not always telling the correct amount. That can change your assessment price as well. "We didn't have enough sales in 2006 to do anything to Honey Creek area. We had more sales in that area from 2014 on." Deborah Lewis, Vigo County assessor said. "So, if you don't have sales we can't make any changes we've gotta have the data to back it up." There are three things that look at when they are assessing your property, cost, income and sales. "There are some properties that if we had the income information it may be less then the cost of the sales and we have to use the lower of the three," said Lewis. She encourages property owners to review all of their information and make sure it's correct...and to reach out to their office if they have concerns "If you see there's an error that is a description error that we have incorrect or we have sized incorrect and we can go out there and measure it. We can correct that," Lewis said. "Which means you won't have to go through a full appeal process." Lewis said she plans to see more than 900 appeals this year. Kevin Gardner, the county assessor candidate will be at the assessor office to answer any and all of your questions. Those dates are August 7th from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. August 8th from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. August 14th from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. August 15th from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. You can find the break down of how your property was assessed here. At the end of January this year, a giant Ilyushin-76 cargo aircraft touched down at the airport in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic. It was the first of nine flights that brought tons of Russian weapons to bolster CAR's fragile government. The flights were permitted by the United Nations Security Council, which waived an arms embargo on the conflict-ridden country to allow its armed forces to better equip themselves. Africa Armed forces Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Continents and regions Eastern Europe Embargoes and sanctions Europe Government organizations - Intl International relations International relations and national security Investigations Journalism and news media Media industry Middle East Middle East and North Africa Military Misc people North America Northern Africa Omar al-Bashir Political Figures - Intl Russia Sudan Syria The Americas United Nations United States Vladimir Putin Weapons and arms Yevgeny Prigozhin Concord New Hampshire Northeastern United States St. Petersburg At the same time, 175 military trainers -- all but a handful of them private contractors -- arrived from Russia. In turn, those trainers were followed by Russian companies eager to exploit the Republic's reputed mineral wealth. The activities of those firms, which have ties to the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin, were the target of three independent Russian journalists who were killed in CAR on Sunday: Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal. Their trip was backed by a foundation -- the Center for Investigation -- run by Russian exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky. A long-time foe of Putin who spent years in prison in Russia, Khodorkovsky wrote on Facebook Wednesday that the journalists were working on a project about "Russian mercenaries." The deaths of the journalists have focused attention on Russia's growing interest in central Africa, and the relationship between the Kremlin and private Russian companies that combine security work with mining and other activities. An ill-fated journey The three men had traveled via Morocco on tourist visas, informing neither the Russian embassy nor CAR authorities of their presence because they wanted to investigate the activities of a Russian military contractor called PMC Wagner, the Center for Investigation said. Perhaps not surprisingly, the journalists were refused permission to visit a site south of Bangui, where Russian trainers are based at a crumbling palace that belonged to the former ruler of CAR, Jean Bedel Bokassa. Adjacent to the palace is a long runway. Instead, the three journalists headed north towards a gold mine at Ndassima, operated by a Russian firm and guarded by Russian contractors. But the Center for Investigation says they strayed from their planned route. According to CAR officials, the journalists had ignored advice not to travel after dark and were ambushed some twenty miles (32 kilometres) north of the town of Sibut. They were shot dead by men wearing turbans and speaking Arabic after refusing to surrender their vehicle and equipment, the officials said. Their driver survived and raised the alarm. Alain Nzilo, a journalist in CAR who has covered the growing Russian presence, told CNN he was surprised by the location of the ambush. The rebel presence in the area had declined in recent months, there are UN peacekeeping patrols in the area, and the military operates in Sibut. Nzilo also found it strange that the rebels appeared to have let the driver go free. "Often, the drivers are the first to be killed and not the foreigners," he told CNN. The Wagner effect PMC Wagner is a secretive company -- with no known address, phone number or official records -- that recruits hundreds of former Russian soldiers, many of them special forces or "spetsnaz." In the last few years, its contractors have appeared in a growing number of conflict zones. Wagner was sanctioned by the United States last year for its involvement with separatists in eastern Ukraine. It has also played a major role in Syria, where dozens of its contractors were killed or injured by US air strikes in February when they undertook an ill-fated attack on a US-supported group. Their target was one of Syria's richest oil fields in Deir Ezzor province. The company has not commented on either of the cases, or any allegations levelled against it. More recently, Wagner appears to have developed a presence in Sudan, which shares a border with CAR. In fact, Russian instructors trained some CAR soldiers in Sudan, according to a UN report. In November last year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir met Vladimir Putin in Sochi and asked him for "protection from aggressive US actions" and for Russian military experts to be sent to Sudan "to reequip [Sudan's] armed forces." In CAR, Nzilo says the Russians combine basic humanitarian works with military training and mining. He says they are visible at three major mines and appear to be most interested in extracting diamonds and gold. Another source in CAR told CNN that the Russians sometime deploy mobile clinics for the local population at the same time as contractors and military hardware. Establishing the ownership of Russian companies involved in Syria, CAR and Sudan is difficult, but CNN has established that several lead back to Yevgeny Prigozhin, often dubbed "Putin's chef" for his Kremlin connections. In February, Prigozhin was indicted by a grand jury in the United States for his role in backing the "troll factory" in St. Petersburg known as the Internet Research Agency, which created fake social media accounts in the US in the run-up to the 2016 election. Prigozhin controls a network of Russian companies, including Concord Management and Consulting. The US Treasury says Wagner is run by a man called Dmitry Utkin, who has been sanctioned. Someone of the same name used to be a director at Concord. However, both Prigozhin and Concord have in the past denied being linked to Wagner. Concord said last year: "We do not have any information about this organization." Concord Management is challenging the designation through the US courts, while Prigozhin was quoted by state news agency RIA Novosti at the time as saying that he "couldn't care less" about the latest US sanctions placed on him and that he would "stop going to McDonald's." Another Russian company with interests in central Africa is M-Finans, run by 54-year old Evgueny Khodotov. Company documents describe its main activity as the "extraction of precious stones." CNN has found that M-Finans' registration data lists an email address with the same domain as a company called Concord Catering, another part of the Prighozin empire. Khodotov used to work as a police officer in St. Petersburg's organized crime investigation unit. Many of the unit's former employees have gone on to work in security roles for Prigozhin, according to Denis Korotkov, a reporter for St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka.ru who has been investigating Wagner activities since 2013. And in Sudan, a Russian company by the name of M-Invest was granted concessions to mine for gold, just as President Bashir was calling for closer military cooperation. The Russian companies register shows that M-Invest, like M-Finans, is based in St. Petersburg and specializes in "extraction of ores and sands of precious metals," including gold. The concession on behalf of M-Invest was signed by "a regional director" named as Mikhail Potepkin. A man of the same name also co-owned a company called IT-Debugger with Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva, one of those named in US special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians who worked for the Prighozin-run Internet Research Agency. CNN was unable to contact Potepkin. These intricate and often opaque relationships also appeared in Syria. Wagner supplied hundreds of military contractors, while another company, Evro Polis, signed a deal with the Syrian government under which it gets 25% of oil revenues from fields that are recovered from rebel control. The US Treasury Department has designated Evro Polis "for being owned or controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin." Awash with weapons As Russia looks for opportunities to project its influence in the Middle East and Africa, countries with weak governments and rampant insecurity are obvious targets. The scale of CAR's problems -- coupled with diminishing French interest in the country -- has provided an opening for both the Kremlin and private Russian interests. According to a UN report released on July 23, Russian contractors have distributed weapons to and trained some 900 members of CAR's security forces this year, as permitted under the arrangement reached last December. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in March that "this assistance is provided in strict accordance with the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on the country." A Russian national, Valery Zakharov, was appointed the security adviser to CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera, and has been in discussions with some of the militias opposing the government. But it's far from clear just what weapons the Russians have airlifted to CAR or shipped to the country through Cameroon. The UN report last month noted that "all parties concerned repeatedly committed to facilitating a detailed inspection of the stockpile stored at Camp de Roux in Bangui, but that has not yet taken place." A diplomatic source told CNN that the shipments were "shrouded in mystery." The UN panel also concluded that the shipments of Russian weapons to the government had "led to waves of rearmament" among rebel groups, which have acquired assault rifles and machine guns from neighboring Sudan. A group of Russian instructors and their trainees were ambushed by a rebel group in June; one instructor was wounded. CAR's bloody, multi-layered conflict shows little sign of ebbing. But a country traditionally close to France suddenly has a new suitor. President Touadera met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the resort of Sochi last October, just as Russian companies were being set up to do business in CAR. Touadera visited Moscow to meet Putin in May. Moscow's ultimate intentions in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest and most volatile countries on earth, are unclear: whether to exploit the country's mineral wealth, which may also include uranium, or to plant the Russian flag in the heart of Africa, in a country that has borders with six other states. As in Syria, there may well be a neat intersection of political ambition and profit. CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) - Chickasaw County Sheriff Jim Meyers confirms Fred Stevens, 68, was found dead in the county jail around 3 a.m. Friday morning. Stevens was charged with 2nd degree murder following the death of his wife, Childa Stevens in April. See our original article here. Sheriff Meyers says Stevens appeared to die of natural causes, but his body has been sent to Jackson for Autopsy. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has taken over the case. Holland Funeral Directors confirm their Okolona Chapel is handling Stevens' funeral arrangements. There will be a graveside service Monday at 6 p.m. at New Hope United Methodist Church Cemetery. SINGAPORE, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Both the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) agree to strengthen their cooperation so as to benefit their people, according to the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting held here on Friday. Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, co-chaired the meeting. Don said the ASEAN-EU partnership has been advanced from dialogue relationship to global partnership that shares strategic goals. Their widened cooperation will be even more important as the two regions seek to promote regionalism and multilateralism. "We hope the upcoming EU-ASEAN meeting in Brussels this October will maintain the momentum and reinforce our cooperation for benefit of our peoples," he added. Mogherini, for her part, said EU and ASEAN are very distant geographically, but they couldn't be closer when it comes to their approach to international affairs, as they stand on the same side of cooperative solutions based on international rules and internationalism, free and fair trade, and peace and security. She said the EU and ASEAN will have stronger cooperation in international trade. "If our two regions join forces, we could set a new standard for global trade with more growth and more protection for our citizens, our goods and our environment, because this is what our relationship is all about -- making a positive difference to our people's daily lives," she added. Meanwhile, Mogherini said the air transport agreement that EU and ASEAN are negotiating will create jobs, lower prices, and raise security standards, and she hopes this agreement will be initiated by the end of this year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 02:40:27|Editor: yan Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania on Friday allayed fears of Ebola as fresh outbreak of the viral disease was reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where four people have been tested positive. Ummy Mwalimu, the east African nation's Minister for Health, urged the public to remain calm as the government took control measures. Four people have tested positive for Ebola in eastern DRC just a few days after another outbreak that killed 33 people in the northwest of the central African country was declared over, the DRC health ministry said on Wednesday. Mwalimu said the government will continue educating the public on Ebola preventive and control measures. "More efforts will focus on ensuring health authorities at border posts are supplied with medical equipment to check the disease," said Mwalimu. She said emergency response teams have been trained and were ready to respond to any possible emergencies. Mwalimu said protective gears and testing facilities have been distributed in eight regions, including Dar es Salaam, Songwe, Rukwa, Katavi, Kigoma and Kagera. "We have instructed the Medical Stores Department to distribute medical equipment at border posts, " she said. The World Health Organization on Wednesday started moving staff and supplies to the DRC, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 02:50:29|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- German carmaker Opel has been forced to throttle the pace of production on its assembly lines due to weaker than expected sales, the newspaper Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Friday. Responding to the report, the Ruesselsheim-based company merely confirmed that vehicle manufacturing output was regularly adjusted in response to market conditions without providing further details. Since its acquisition by the French PSA group in 2017, Opel has come under heavy pressure from its new owners to agree to corporate reforms aimed at improving its weak profitability. According to Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung, the number of vehicles assembled per hour at the Ruesselsheim and Eisenach plants was scheduled to fall by more than 25 percent when workers returned from their summer holidays. The report cited weaker customer demand as the reason for the decision by management. A slower pace of reduction at automotive industry companies usually does not imply job losses but results in higher fixed and personnel costs per vehicle. As a consequence, a need to slow Opel assembly lines could deal a blow to recent hopes that the carmaker was on the verge of a turn-around. During the first half year of 2018, cost reductions at Opel allowed it to achieve the first operative profit again after a long series of loss-making business quarters. In spite of reaching an earlier agreement between PSA and Opel not to close any factories in Germany and refrain from further involuntary lay-offs of staff until 2023, the Opel workers' council has recently urged the management board of the company to clarify reports that it plans to sell parts of the Ruesselsheim-based development center. "A sell-off of the Opel development branch would rob Opel of its future", the workers' council warned. Following its acquisition by the PSA, Opel's management board became locked in a heated and protracted dispute with workers sparked by the announcement of far-reaching corporate restructuring plans and related job cuts. The trade union IG Metall hereby repeatedly sought to convince PSA to commit to a binding and concrete production plans for Opel plants in Ruesselsheim, Eisenach and Kaiserslautern. Having reached a compromise between back in May, chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Lohscheller at the time vowed to "keep all Opel plants in Germany and Europe and make all plants competitive." "Opel will stay German", he added. Amongst others, the basic "PACE" framework for restructuring measures jointly-agreed by employer- and employee representatives includes plans to reduce staffing levels by 3,700 in Germany and temporarily postpone wage increases. In exchange, the remaining staff have been offered employment guarantees until 2023. Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug, the president of the Opel workers' council, has described the compromise as acceptable to staff and "irrevocably binding." He highlighted that 3,600 out of the planned 3,700 job loses had already been achieved on a voluntary basis through part-time arrangements and severance payments. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 03:35:44|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Julia Amour, Director of Festivals Edinburgh, speaks at the launch ceremony for China Focus at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain, on Aug. 3, 2018. China Focus, a collective project of excellent Chinese theatre productions, kicked off its second year edition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Friday. (Xinhua/Han Yan) LONDON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China Focus, a collective project of excellent Chinese theatre productions, kicked off its second year edition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Friday. It brings five Chinese shows this year, including A life on the Silk Road, Tutu, A Chinese Bestiary, The Creation Myths of China and Painted Skin Return. Inspired by the story of Zhang Qian being sent to the western regions and connotated in the inclusive and open Dunhuang culture, A life on the Silk Road absorbs the magical illusions of The Classic of Mountains and Seas and leads audience to discover this well-known historical figure of China through a unique, sharp and exquisite way by combining multisensual and surreal multimedia image styles and musical styles. Painted Skin Return is an experimental cross-cultural physical theatre based on Pu Songling's Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio. Chinese opera, classical dance, modern dance, mime and other performance elements are used to present folk culture and Chinese philosophy. The Creation Myths of China contains several classic myths that most Chinese are familiar with since very young age, such as Nvwa Patches up the Sky, Jingwei Fills up the Sea, Yu the Great Tames the Floods. China Focus is Edinburgh Festival Fringe's celebration of excellence in Chinese theatre and dramatic production through high-quality art performances. Officials from the Chinese embassy, Shanghai municipal government, Scottish and Edinburgh government, along with key artists from the China Focus program gathered together at the launch ceremony held in Edinburgh Friday for the celebration of leading contemporary talents from East to West. Pan Xinchun, consul general of Chinese consulate general in Edinburgh, told the event that China Focus, which has triggered the pursuit of Chinese original works in the British cultural market, is one of the outstanding achievements of the golden era between China and Britain. "It proves to be a dynamic strategy and platform to encourage innovation in the UK-China art industries," he said, expressing hope that the annual program will continue to grow as a mainstay of Edinburgh Fringe's Chinese cultural showcase. Palestinian medics carry a wounded man during clashes with Israeli troops on the Gaza-Israel border, east of Gaza City, on Aug. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Khaled Omar) GAZA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian was killed and 220 others injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel on Friday afternoon. Ahmad Yaghi, 25, was shot dead by Israeli gunfire in eastern Gaza, Gaza Health Ministry Spokesmen Ashraf al-Qedra told reporters. Organizers of the protests called on the Palestinians to rally in solidarity with a Palestinian, who was killed after stabbing three Israelis in the West Bank. It is the 19th consecutive anti-Israel Friday protests since March 30, the first day of the ongoing Palestinian "Great March of Return" rally against Israel's 11-year crippling blockade and the U.S. embassy move to the disputed holy city of Jerusalem. The health ministry said the Israeli army has killed 155 Palestinians and wounded more than 17,000 others in the eastern Gaza Strip since the start of rallies and protests on March 30. Eyewitnesses said Gaza protesters on Friday flew the largest ever arson kite with a burning tire into Israel, while Israeli soldiers stationed at the border area fired dozens of tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. During the protests, an Israeli army tank fired a shell at a Hamas military lookout post east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in response to the fire and the bomb targeting Israeli soldiers from Gaza. The protests on Friday occurred a day after a senior Hamas delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip from Egypt to discuss a possible cease-fire with Israel and resume internal reconciliation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. Abdul-Latif Qanou, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a statement that the marches have become very close to achieving its goals. "We are so close to picking up the fruits of the Great March of Return following the large sacrifices of our people. These marches will go on up to the end until it achieves all its national goals," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 04:10:50|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's power system will take up to approximately 30 days to recover from the effects of an ongoing industrial action, authorities said on Friday. During the 30-day recovery period, the risk of load shedding remains high, state-run electricity utility Eskom warned. The generation and distribution of electricity in the country has been constrained since June when Eskom employees downed tools after cash-strapped Eskom rejected their demand for wage increases. The industrial action has interrupted processes at a number of power stations, leading to sporadic blackouts over the past two months. Electricity supply network has been affected by acts of sabotage and intimidation that characterize the current industrial action by members of trade unions, according to Eskom. The South African Police Service (SAPS) has been mobilized to maintain order and to enable safe access to power stations. The improvement in generation and operational performance can only increase and be achieved with the return of employees, Eskom said. "The load shedding risk will increase over the weekend as we restore power plants and build up reserves for the coming week," said Eskom, which provides more than 95 percent of the electricity consumed in the country. Eskom implements several stages of load shedding as a measure of last resort to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout. Stage 1 requires 1,000MW to be rotationally loadshed nation-wide, stage 2 requires 2,000MW, stage 3 requires 3,000MW and stage 4 calls for up to 4,000MW to be rotationally loadshed nationally at a given period. The utility has sought the services of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to facilitate the engagement between Eskom and union leaders to resolve the impasse. Trade unions will formally sign an agreement to end the strike on August 8, after engaging their members, as discussed during the mediation process at the CCMA, according to Eskom. The trade unions have committed to assist with normalizing the operations and dispatched a team to various sites, and most sites are returning to normality, said Eskom. "Employees are encouraged to report back to work," the utility said. South Africa has suffered from power insufficiency since 2008. Between 2014 and 2015, frequent blackouts gripped the country, seriously affecting economic activities and people's lives, and causing billions of dollars in economic losses. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 07:28:33|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Women visit a mango stall during mango festival in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on August 3, 2018. A three-day mango festival kicked off in Islamabad on Friday, displaying over ten different breeds of high quality mangos. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 09:26:36|Editor: mym Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The film "Shoplifter," the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 71st Cannes Film Festival in May, has been screening in China since Friday. The award-winning film is directed by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who has two films released in China this year -- "The Third Murder" screened in March. Adapted from a real news event in Japan, the film tells the story of an impoverished family who steals to survive. Hirokazu Kore-eda, born in 1962, is a master of family-themed films, using a plain and simple style to convey deep and meaningful messages. He gained popularity with Chinese audiences with his two films -- "Our Little Sister" and "After the Storm." Since he started making films in the early 1990s, Hirokazu Kore-eda has directed many well-known films such as "I Wish" and "After Life." CANBERRA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thrown his support behind new laws that would require banks to only sell products in their customers' best interests. Under the proposal put forward by the Productivity Commission in a review of the banking sector published on Friday, an independent "integrity officer" would be installed at all major banks whose duty would be to report any breaches of the laws to the corporate watchdog. The Productivity Commission's comprehensive review criticised Australia's big banks for pushing "a blizzard of barely differentiated" products onto customers for their own profit. It urged the government to curb the power of the four major banks, highlighting their "conflicted advice" and "persistently opaque pricing" for loans. Turnbull, who worked as a merchant banker and venture capitalist before entering politics, on Saturday said he was in favour of the integrity officer idea but said the government would await the final report from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. He said that the "many failings and wrongs" of the industry had stemmed from "a failure to put the customer first." "We are committed to ensure that those who have done the wrong thing will be held to account, and that the wrongdoing will not be repeated," Turnbull told News Corp Australia on Saturday. Launching the report on Friday, Treasurer Scott Morrison said that the government was giving "very serious consideration" to the integrity officer proposal. Both Turnbull and Morrison opposed a royal commission into the banking sector for months before being pressured into establishing the inquiry but both admitted they were wrong to do so after shocking evidence of misconduct was uncovered. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 10:36:47|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that nearly 680,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Libya in May. "In May 2018, IOM Libya identified 679,897 migrants in Libya from 42 nationalities, 8% of them are minors," the IOM said Friday. "The top 5 nationalities were Nigerian, Egyptian, Chadian, Sudanese and Ghanaian. Together these nationalities account for up to 65% of Libya's migrant population," it added. Libya has become a preferred departure point for illegal immigrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe due to insecurity and chaos in the North African country following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Migrant shelters in Libya are crowded with thousands of migrants who have been rescued at sea or arrested by the Libyan security services. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 10:41:48|Editor: mmm Video Player Close SAO PAULO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- With a stand dedicated to the Chinese literature and culture, Sao Paulo kicked off its 25th biannual international book fair on Friday. The fair, which runs until Aug. 12, showcases foreign and Brazilian authors, and offers 1,500 hours of cultural activities, debates, seminars and book launches. The stand that drew most attention on the opening day was "China Book," where Chinese books were on display. "The fair can be an opportunity for exchanges between the two countries, to better understand Latin America and Brazil, and for them to understand China's editorial production in general," Yu Yang, head of the Chinese delegation to the fair and editor of the People's Publishing House, told Xinhua. "Brazilians have shown an interest in China's culture and economy," noted Yu. Books on Chinese culture are in demand, since the country's evolution as a global power is feeding a demand for books on its political and economic development, he said. China is Brazil's leading trade partner, and both belong to the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, along with Russia, India and South Africa, which helps to promote literary exchanges, Yu said. "Being part of BRICS helps Brazil and China, and literature, history and reading in general can help countries develop closer ties," Yu added. A total of eight Chinese publishing houses are exhibiting 200 kinds of books, 50 of them written in Portuguese and English. Luis Torelli, president of the Brazilian Book Chamber, said the fair is taking place at a tough time for the publishing industry due to economic uncertainty. And this year's fair features 197 exhibitors, 83 less than those in 2016. Among the special guests at the event are British author A.J. Finn, whose best-selling "The Woman in the Window" is being adapted into a feature film, and Victoria Aveyard, the U.S. author of the series "Red Queen." MEXICO CITY, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Mexican police on Thursday arrested a former officer believed to be a regional leader of the criminal group Gulf Cartel, the National Security Commission said Friday. Victor Manuel Perez, alias "Pantera 16" (Panther 16) or "Comandante Viento" (Commander Wind), was arrested without incident in the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta in western Mexico. Police followed Perez's trail for six months through various states after he was identified as a key figure behind violence in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, home to Gulf Cartel, national security commissioner Renato Sales said in a statement. During the manhunt for Perez, police discovered he had established his headquarters in central Leon, Guanajuato and directed his criminal operations from there, including drug trafficking across the U.S. border, Sales said. "He is suspected of crimes ranging from organized crime to drug trafficking, homicide, kidnapping, extortion, oil theft and cattle rustling," Sales said. Federal and Tamaulipas state authorities have identified "Pantera 16" as the head of Gulf Cartel in the cities of Aldama, Soto la Marina and Abasolo in northeastern and central Mexico. The Tamaulipas attorney general offered a reward of 107,700 U.S. dollars for information leading to Perez's capture. Sales said "Pantera 16" got involved in the drug trade after deserting a municipal police department, but did not specify which. Police handed Perez over to judicial authorities in Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, where three arrest warrants had been issued for him. Gulf Cartel, one of the oldest criminal organizations in Mexico, has an ongoing rivalry with Los Zetas, a drug cartel, for the control of trafficking routes and other illegal interests in Tamaulipas. NEW DELHI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 labourers were killed and four others wounded in a dynamite blast inside a stone quarry in southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials said Saturday. The blast occurred Friday night inside a granite stone quarry at village Aluru mandal in Kurnool district, about 412 km southwest of Amaravathi, the main city in Andhra Pradesh. "Last night a blast took place inside the quarry here during which 11 labourers were killed and four others were wounded critically," a local government official said. "The blast took place after the gelatine sticks, which are used in blasting, exploded." The blast triggered fire resulting in gutting of tractors, lorry and a makeshift shed. Locals said the explosion was heard in the neighbouring villages and caused cracks in the residential houses. According to officials, the bodies of labourers scattered near the blast site were removed to a hospital by the police for post-mortem. Officials quoting eyewitnesses said 15 labourers were present at the spot when the blast went off. Following the blast, local authorities immediately rushed police teams and firefighters to the spot to douse the flames and carry out rescue work. Policemen have restricted the movement of people into the quarry fearing there might be more explosives that can go off anytime. Police officials have registered a case to ascertain the cause of the blast. Preliminary investigations suggest mishandling of the explosives which are highly inflammable. Meanwhile, the identities of slain victims, who are said to be migrant labourers, were being ascertained. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu expressed his condolences to the bereaved family members. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 11:16:55|Editor: mym Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former world No. 1 Andy Murray of Britain announced to withdraw from his Washington Open quartersfinal against Alex de Minaur of Australia citing fatigue on Friday. He also announced his withdrawal from next week's Rogers Cup in order to recover. "I won't be able to play my match tonight. I'm exhausted after playing so much over the past four days, having not competed on the hard courts for 18 months. I also need to be careful and to listen to my body as I come back from a long-term injury," Murray said in a statement. "I'm gutted not to be playing and I'd like to thank the tournament and all the fans. There are lots of positives to take from this week, so I'll take some time to rest and recover, and then head to Cincinnati early to prepare and get ready." In his third tournament back from hip surgery in January, the Scot showed signs of improvement, reaching his first quarterfinals in more than a year. "I am so grateful that Andy, an incredible champion, came back to Washington to begin what we all know will be a great comeback," tournament director Keely O'Brien said in a statement. "I sincerely respect his decision and know that his health and recovery process is his top priority, as it should be. We all wish him great success for the rest of the summer and look forward to him coming back to Washington next year." SANTIAGO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The price of copper fell this week to 2.80 U.S. dollars a pound amid U.S. protectionist tariff moves, the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) said on Friday. Such moves "undercut expectations of a quick recovery in the price of the metal," Cochilco said. As Chile's main export product, copper was selling for 2.84 U.S. dollars a pound on the international market last week. Workers at Chile's Escondida copper mine went on strike on Thursday to demand a better contract. "The agents of the copper market are looking more at the risks associated with demand rather than with supply," the commission said. According to Cochilco, metal exchange inventories "are rapidly shrinking" while the strikes threaten to create "a copper shortage." Metal exchange inventories currently stand at 628,622 metric tons of copper, or 1.8 percent less than last week. The dip affected all three existing metal exchanges, with the biggest decrease registered in Asian warehouses. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 11:31:58|Editor: mmm Video Player Close LA PAZ, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- "We have the opportunity to be ambassadors of Bolivian culture, which is so rich and diverse. We're going to show our knowledge and take full advantage of what China has to offer us." David Castaneta, 20, a resident of La Paz, made the remarks when receiving a scholarship from Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia Liang Yu on Friday. He will study civil engineering in China. Fourteen other Bolivian students also won the scholarships, which are part of a cultural cooperation agreement between the two countries. These students will study at various universities in China to pursue their bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. It took several months for Castaneta to make sure that he had won the scholarship. "I'll be studying for five years. In one year I will learn the language and in four I will have my degree," he expressed his happiness on Friday. Sergio Choque, 18, who received a scholarship to study medicine, said he thought that the hope of being selected was small due to his lack of social resources. "My family is offering their unconditional support. I'm determined to make the most of this opportunity," Choque said, who will study in China for six years. Wendy Melean, another awarded student who will study international business, said she "is traveling to a powerful country and will be taking full advantage of the opportunity." She said she is eager to begin her studies and will return to Bolivia to share everything she is about to learn. Dunia Marino Zuleta, who is 28 years old, will pursue a doctorate in business administration. She said she has a bit of an advantage because she speaks the language. "I had the opportunity to travel and get to know China. I fell in love with the culture. I want to deepen my understanding of a country with such incredible potential in international commerce," Zuleta said. "We will continue working with Bolivia to give more scholarships to students so they may have the opportunity to have a career," said Liang, the Chinese ambassador. "Bolivian youth have the opportunity to get ahead because of these scholarships and they should take full advantage to achieve a career," said Ivan Iporre, general director of the Plurinational State Public Management School. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 12:27:06|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close People shout as they participate in the funeral of a militant in Malikgund village, some 65km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 4, 2018. Five militants and a civilian were killed Saturday in a fierce gunfight and subsequent clashes in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar) SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Five militants were killed on Saturday in an ongoing fierce gunfight with contingents of government forces in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. The gunfight broke out Friday night in village Kiloora of Shopian district, about 57 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "In a fierce gunfight in Shopian, five militants have been killed," Indian army spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia told Xinhua. "One militant was killed during night and four others were killed in the morning during the fresh exchange of fire." According to police, the militants holed up in a house inside an orchard fired upon the contingents of police and army. The area was cordoned off on specific intelligence inputs suggesting presence of militants, police said. Officials said Indian army and police have not suffered any casualties in the stand-off. The identity of slain militants was being ascertained. However, police said they were affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba. "The search operation is still underway in the area," a police official said. Two militants and an Indian army trooper were killed on Friday in a similar gunfight in Sopore of Baramulla district. Militant groups opposing New Delhi's rule have been engaged in a guerrilla war with Indian troops in the region since 1989. Gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 12:32:07|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's top securities regulator has approved new IPO applications for two companies, which will raise no more than 1.7 billion yuan (about 248.9 million U.S. dollars) in the A-share market. Beijing Konruns Pharmaceutical Co. will be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Beijing Emerging Eastern Aviation Equipment Co. will be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The two companies and their underwriters will confirm IPO dates and publish prospectuses following discussions with the exchanges. Under the current IPO system, new shares are subject to approval from the commission. China is gradually switching from an approval-based to registration-based IPO system. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 13:07:11|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's state oil company Petrobras reported on Friday a surge in quarterly net income amid international oil price increase and the depreciation of the Brazilian currency. The state-controlled oil and gas giant posted a thirty-fold yearly jump in net income from 316 million reals (85.3 million U.S. dollars) in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017 to 10 billion reals (2.7 billion dollars) in Q2 of 2018, which is the highest since 2011. Adjusted EBITDA, which is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was 30 billion reals (8.1 billion dollars) in Q2 of 2018, up 16.7 percent from Q1 of 2018 and 57.9 percent from Q2 of 2017. With lower general and administrative expenses and equipment idleness expenses, the operating income increased by 18 percent compared with that in the first half of 2017, totaling 34.5 billion reals (9.3 billion dollars). "The performance of the company's operations maintained a positive trend," Petrobras said. The operating income, in addition to 5 billion dollars of inflows from disinvestments, helped the world's most indebted oil company reduce its net debt, which fell 13 percent compared with December 2017 and totaled 73.6 billion reals (19.9 billion dollars) by the end of June. Petrobras also said that it will anticipate payment to shareholders in the form of interest on capital in the amount of 0.05 real per share for both classes of shares. The payment, in the total amount of 652.2 million (176.2 million dollars), is scheduled to occur on Aug. 23. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 13:07:11|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Friday condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks that took place in Afghanistan over the past week. Describing the attacks as "heinous and cowardly," the members of the Security Council condemned the attacks targeting a medical center for midwives and a government building in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangarhar province, as well as the Khawaja Hassan mosque in Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province, leaving at least 48 people killed and numerous wounded. "The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Afghanistan and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured," according to a Security Council statement. The Security Council underlined the need in the statement to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all states to combat threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts. "The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the statement said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 13:37:15|Editor: mmm Video Player Close KUNMING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province seized two drug traffickers and confiscated about 60 kilograms of methamphetamine, the local public security department announced Saturday. Police in Lincang City intercepted a car on a highway early Wednesday morning and found three bags of methamphetamine in the trunk. A further suspect was caught in another car soon after. Both the suspects tested positive for drugs and are currently in police custody. The case is under further investigation. Yunnan is the main focal point of the national anti-drug campaign as it borders the Golden Triangle, known for drug production and trafficking. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 13:37:16|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close MOSCOW, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter crash in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region has killed all 18 people on board, the regional emergency services said in a statement on Saturday. "At 10:20 a.m. (0320 GMT) on August 4, 2018, an Mi-8 helicopter performed a hard landing in Turukhansk district 2 kilometers from the village of Igarka," the statement read. The crash was possibly caused by technical failure and a pilot's error. The helicopter fell apart and caught fire, according to the statement. The helicopter flew 2 km before it crashed. There were 15 passengers and three crew members on board. No one survived, said the statement. YANGON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar Vice President U Henry Van Thio has called for cooperation among tourism organizations to promote the tourism industry, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday. At Friday's meeting of the Central Committee for the Development of National Tourism Industry, the vice president stressed the need to accommodate tourists with good services and arrangements for their safety during their stay as well as to promote traditional customs and cuisines of ethnic minorities in the country. Meanwhile, Myanmar has granted visa exemption to Japanese and South Korean visitors as well as visa-on-arrival to visitors from China from Oct. 1. In accordance with the figures of the Hotel and Tourism Ministry, the country attracted over 1.72 million foreign visitors in the first half of this year. The authorities are targeting over 7 million tourists by 2020. The country is also striving to promote eco-tourism cultural tourism and community-based tourism in resource-rich areas such as historical landscapes, rivers, lakes, beaches, islands and forests. According to the statistics, tourist arrivals in the country reached 2.9 million in 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 14:07:21|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Juan Limachi and Carlos Acat LIMA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Peru is working to strengthen the Pacific Alliance by setting up an infrastructure fund and developing a strong capital market, Peruvian Minister of Economy and Finance Carlos Oliva said Friday. The South American country assumed the rotating presidency of the Latin American trade bloc, which also includes Mexico, Chile and Colombia, during the group's summit in the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta in July. "The world is moving at a certain speed and we have to catch up with that speed," Oliva told Xinhua. In the field of finance, the alliance aims to promote an Integrated Latin American Market (MILA) that comprises the stock exchanges of all four members. "It has to do with the development of the capital market. We have made some progress with the MILA and the funds passport, but we are aware that we need to keep moving forward," said Oliva. The funds passport would make it easier for market managed funds to cross borders as part of the push to consolidate the capital market of the Pacific Alliance, which accounts for 38 percent of the regional gross domestic product (GDP). The bloc is also working to set up a common fund to finance infrastructure projects. "Between the four countries of the alliance, we have a portfolio of approximately 86 billion U.S. dollars in projects," he said. The bloc's council of economic and financial chiefs is determined to ensure financial resources to develop projects through public-private partnerships. "That is already making headway. The Inter-American Development Bank, right now, is helping us to decide who the manager of the fund will be," said Oliva. There is a third goal of special interest for private enterprises in the four member countries -- to enhance competitiveness, especially in the financial sector, he said. "We have to bring in legislation, which isn't going to be identical in each country, but will provide certain guidelines in common, to help us integrate and make the most of these tools," said Oliva. FREE TRADE Carlos Gonzalez, of Peru's Association of Exporters, said the alliance should bolster free trade among its members. Exporters, Gonzalez said, would like to see alliance members standardize laws that regulate trade flow in certain areas, such as processed foods. "It requires some type of legal modification that governments have to carry out" to ensure that there is one common regulation for all four countries, he said. Gonzalez said that the transition of power in Colombia and Mexico, where new presidents are set to take office, will in no way alter the alliance's development plans. Peru and Chile, meanwhile, are committed to the goal of strengthening the bloc. Maria Osterloh, an international trade consultant, spotlighted the plan of alliance members at the last summit to strengthen the bloc's ties with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Together, the two blocs account for 81 percent of Latin America's total population and 86 percent of regional GDP. Osterloh, a researcher at the Institute of Andean Political Studies, agrees with Oliva that the alliance needs to consolidate the capital market between its members, as well as to promote the fluid movement of people, goods and services across their borders. "The idea is to establish value chains between them, where some countries produce parts and components that are assembled in other countries," said Osterloh. Private-sector players within the alliance support multilateralism and open trade, and "value negotiating at the World Trade Organization to avoid trade wars and protectionism," said Osterloh. The Pacific Alliance, which represents a market of some 223 million consumers, has also attracted associate members and observer states, some of which have applied for full membership. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 14:57:30|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Photo taken on Aug. 4, 2018 shows the Imam-i-Zaman Mosque after an attack in Gardez city, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern Pakia province. The deadly attack on the mosque which killed over dozens people and injured scores others on Friday, has drawn wide condemnation. (Xinhua/Mohammad Anwar Danishyar) KABUL, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The deadly attack on a mosque in Gardez city, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern Pakia province, which killed over dozens people and injured scores others on Friday, has drawn wide condemnation. Afghans from all walks of life have described the attack as a cowardly act of terror and strongly condemned it. The war-weary Afghans have also called upon government to identify and bring to justice all those behind the killing of innocent civilians. "Attack on the worshippers inside a mosque is a crime and an attack against humanity which goes against Islamic teaching and Islamic values," Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said in a statement released by his office hours after the bombing. The attackers, reportedly two, targeted a Shiite mosque to create religious divisions among Afghans. President Ghani said, "Such acts of terrorists among our people cannot create religious divisions, because Afghanistan is exemplary in Islamic unity." In the attack, according to latest reports from provincial government sources, 39 people had lost their lives and 81 others injured. All the victims are civilians including women and children, said provincial government spokesman Abdullah Hasrat. Although no group and individual has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, the locals and officials have not ruled out the involvement of the hardliner Islamic State (IS) outfit in the massacre. The Taliban group has already rejected its involvement in the bombing. Paktia police chief Raz Mohammad Mandozai said the attackers entered the mosque during Friday prayers and attacked the worshippers with gunshots and blasts. "This attack targeting civilians has no possible justification," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). "Those who are responsible for launching this attack must be brought to justice and held accountable," the UNAMA chief in Kabul said in a statement. "Attack on civilians especially on worshipers inside a mosque in no way is justifiable. It is the responsibility of THE government to protect its citizens and bring to justice all those behind such heinous crimes," Kabul resident Assadullah told Xinhua. "This attack is not the first and won't be the last one and the Afghans would continue to suffer unless the government adopt bold stance and publicly execute the terrorists," Assadullah said. Families of the victims in Gardez city have called upon the government to severely punish all those involved in terrorist activities. PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Saturday called on more foreign tourists and investors to visit the Southeast Asian country. "Cambodia ensures safety and welcomes tourists and traders who want to visit and invest in the country without disappointing them," he wrote on his official Facebook page. Tourism and foreign direct investment significantly contributed to economic development in the nation. According to government figures, the country received nearly 2.6 million international visitors in the first five months of 2018, up 13.5 percent year-on-year, while it attracted the fixed asset investment of 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of this year, up 14 percent year-on-year. The 66-year-old prime minister also thanked the Cambodian people for voting for the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in Sunday's general election, saying that the CPP's victory gave him an opportunity to continue to lead and further develop the country. Twenty political parties contested in the sixth general election on July 29. The National Election Committee's preliminary results indicated that the CPP won the election, receiving 4.87 million votes, or 76.78 percent, of the total valid votes. According to the calculation table by the CPP based on the NEC's preliminary results, the CPP won all 125 seats in the parliament. With the landslide victory, Hun Sen, who has been in power for 33 years, will continue to lead the government for another five years. The prime minister said on Thursday that the new government will be formed on Sept. 20. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 15:37:37|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday called for the building of East Asia economic community and an open world economy. Wang made the call here at the foreign ministers' meeting of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3). Currently, with twists and turns in economic globalization and surge of unilateralism and protectionism, the international order and multilateral trade system have been adversely affected, Wang said. He called on the 10+3 countries to demonstrate strong will to promote free trade and firm resolution to uphold multilateralism, firmly push forward regional economic integration and build an East Asia economic community as well as an open world economy. Such efforts will provide more stability and certainty to the world economy, the top Chinese diplomat stressed. Wang also called for substantive progress to be made in the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by the year-end and an East Asian pattern of development to be forged, which is free, balanced, inclusive and beneficial to all. The 10+3 countries should also deepen financial cooperation, continue to improve regional financial security network, make good use of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Asian Development Bank so as to lend more cost-effective financial support to countries in the region, he said. The 10+3 countries should expand sectors of cooperation, including boosting cooperation on innovation and pressing for new cooperation in the fields of digital economy, smart city, artificial intelligence and e-commerce among others, Wang said. Noting that the 10+3 should also build new platforms for people-to-people exchanges, Wang said China proposes to set up a "10+3 cultural cities network," enhance the capability building of the think-tanks network in East Asia, and promote cultural ties and people's friendship among East Asian countries. Foreign ministers from Japan, South Korea and ASEAN member states all spoke highly of the fruitful achievements of cooperation scored within the framework of the"10+3" and affirmed the positive role the "10+3" has played in promoting regional peace, stability and prosperity. They all shared the view that faced with the shock and threat to the multilateral trade system brought by unilateral protectionism, it is more important than ever to enhance the cooperation of the "10+3". They agreed that the "10+3" should consolidate unity, firmly support free trade, oppose protectionism, speed up the negotiations on RCEP and push forward the building of East Asia economic community and maintain peace and prosperity in East Asia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 16:02:43|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Security officers keep vigil outside the residence of Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister and prominent politician of Indian-controlled Kashmir, on the outskirts of Jammu, winter capital of India-controlled Kashmir, on Aug. 4, 2018. A young man was shot dead by security force personnel Saturday inside residential house of Farooq Abdullah, police said. (Xinhua/Stringer) NEW DELHI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A young man was shot dead by security force personnel Saturday inside residential house of Farooq Abdullah, the former chief minister and prominent politician of Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. The man according to police managed to enter the highly guarded residence of Abdullah in Jammu city, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "An intruder broke through the barricades in his car and gained entry inside the residence of Farooq Abdullah, where he was ultimately shot dead," a police official said. Identity of the person and his motive was not immediately clear. "I am aware of the incident that took place at the residence my father and I share in Bhatindi, Jammu. Details are sketchy at the moment. Initial reports suggest an intruder was able to gain entry through the front door and into the upper lobby of the house," Abdullah's son Omar wrote on Twitter. "Further details are awaited as the security personnel carry out the anti-sabotage checks and ascertain the background of the person who was able to force his way in to the house." Omar too has served as chief minister of the region. Abdullah is presently a lawmaker in the Indian parliament. According to police, neither Abdullah nor his son or any other family member were present inside the house at the time of incident. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 16:22:46|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The first phase of the middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project has delivered more than 865 million cubic meters of water to 30 rivers in the north, according to the Ministry of Water Resources. The project channeled water from Danjiangkou Reservoir to the 30 rivers in Tianjin Municipality as well as Hebei and Henan provinces, between April 13 and the end of June. Chen Mingzhong, head of water resources department at the ministry said that wetlands and lakes along the route saw greater volume and better quality, and that underground water pressure had been eased. The Baohe Reservoir, for example, in the upstream of Baiyangdian Lake in Hebei, dried up for 36 years but now has abundant water thanks to the project. The south-to-north water diversion project, the world's largest, takes water from the Yangtze to feed dry areas in the north through eastern, middle and western routes. The first phase of the middle route begins at Danjiangkou in Hubei and runs through Henan and Hebei before reaching Beijing and Tianjin. Since December 2014, the route has transferred more than 15 billion cubic meters of water to China's northern regions. NEW DELHI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least five people have been killed and one injured after their car collided with a truck in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said Saturday. The accident occurred in Seraikela, barely 30 km from the city of Jamshedpur. "A speeding truck hit the car carrying six power department officials late Friday night, who were coming back from an inspection in a nearby district," a police official said. While four people died on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries in a government hospital, where another one injured is undergoing treatment, he added. A probe has been ordered into the incident, the official said. "We have seized the truck and efforts are on to nab its driver who managed to flee the spot leaving the vehicle behind. He has been booked for rash and negligent driving," he added. Road accidents occur in India mostly due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 17:02:55|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Police released a final investigative report Friday on the Las Vegas mass shooting in last October with no clear conclusion of the motive of the massacre. The 187-page report said that investigators were unable to uncover or discover what the shooter's motive may have been. A total of 58 people were killed and approximately 887 people sustained documented injuries in the attack on Oct. 1, 2017. It was considered the deadest incident in the modern history of the United States. The shooter Stephen Paddock, 64, rained down about 1,057 rounds of ammunition from the 32th floor suite of Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of 22,000 concert goers in about 11 minutes. According to the report, Paddock acted alone in the incident and left no suicide note or manifesto. No evidence exists to indicate Paddock conspired with or acted in collusion with anyone else. Also, there was no evidence that Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organization. Investigators found Paddock purchased over 55 firearms, which were mostly rifles in various calibers, from October 2016 to September 2017. He bought over 100 firearm-related items through various retailers during that period. The report said that all the weapons and ammunition Paddock purchased were through legal means. Paddock had not committed a crime until he fired the first round into the crowd at the Las Vegas Village. The report concluded that in reference to 2,000 investigated leads, 22,000 hours of video, 252,000 images obtained and approximately 1,000 served legal processes, nothing was found to indicate motive on the part of Paddock or that he acted with anyone else. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 17:33:01|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army said Saturday it intercepted a ship that was trying to break the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip Friday overnight. The Israeli army "completed a naval operation and intercepted a ship that departed from Europe in order to violate the legal naval blockade that is imposed on the Gaza Strip," said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a statement. The ship was monitored and intercepted in accordance with the international law, added the IDF. The Israeli army clarified to the ship's passengers that "they are violating the legal naval blockade and that any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod." The ship was transported to the Port of Ashdod and the individuals on board were transferred for further inquiry, said the IDF, adding that the activity ended "without exceptional events." The IDF said it will "continue to enforce and defend the maritime borders of Israel and its civilians." The "Freedom Flotilla" group said on its Twitter account that the Swedish-flagged "Freedom" was "under attack" after contact was lost on Friday evening. The ship is one of the two vessels making up the flotilla, alongside "the Return," which was seized by Israeli army on July 29 and sailed under Norwegian flag in an attempt by international activists to break the blockade imposed since 2007. Under Israel's restrictive policy, Palestinians are not allowed to leave or enter the Gaza Strip. Israel allows only a small amount of goods to enter the Strip and bans most exports. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 17:43:02|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TAIPEI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A cooking competition for fathers of children suffering from rare disorders was held in Taiwan Saturday. The Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders organized the event to celebrate Father's Day, which falls on Aug. 8 in Taiwan. It was also an attempt to win public attention and support for the fathers. A rare disorder refers to any disease that affects a small percentage of the population. According to Taiwan authorities, there are 220 identified rare disorders on the island, and 14,930 individuals reportedly suffer from such disorders. Ten fathers from Taiwan participated in the competition this year, many of whom started learning cooking skills a month in advance. "I came here this year to share my cooking skills with other fathers, while also supporting each other emotionally to relieve our pressure," said Wu Chin-hui, the champion of last year's competition and one of the judges this year. Huang Wei-ting, who won second place last year, said he was looking to claim the crown this year. Huang said such events could help fathers exchange their experiences bringing up children suffering from the disorders. "My daughter has no eyesight, so it is very difficult for her to learn basic skills in daily life," Huang said. "But she is a very strong girl and has very good learning ability. I am super proud." Huang said his daughter often says "I love you" to him and his wife, melting their hearts. The foundation staff said they hoped the competition would encourage the parents and be a special Father's Day event for the families. Taiwan celebrates Father's Day on Aug. 8 each year, as the two "eight" numbers bear a similar pronunciation to "dad" in Chinese. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 17:43:02|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NAIROBI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The heavy rains that pounded Kenya two months ago have paid dividend as the cost of farm produce has dropped drastically across the East African nation. The price of tomatoes, onions, a variety of vegetables, green maize and potatoes are all down, bringing relief to families as food budgets go down. For instance, a kilo of tomatoes is currently being sold at between 0.50 dollars and 0.70 dollars in retail outlets across the country, down from a dollar while a kilo of onions in the supermarkets is currently going at an average of 0.60 dollars. The drop has come as a relief to both traders and consumers. At Wakulima market in Nairobi's central business district, traders said they are a happy as supply of farm produce has improved boosting demand. "Demand for green vegetables, tomatoes and onions from traders who buy from us is high because the produce is affordable and people in estates are buying in bulk," Miriam Wanjiku, a trader at the market, told Xinhua recently. "Things have never been this better. I can now afford to use tomatoes and even choose from a variety of vegetables in the market to buy," said Peter Nyakundi, a public service transport vehicle driver in Nairobi. Dry maize prices have also declined from a high of 1.1 dollars for a 2kg tin to 0.60 dollars. However, as families enjoy, the low prices have put farmers in a squeeze. A majority of them who had expected to reap from their bumper harvests are currently counting losses. "I grew tomatoes and have harvested well but the prices currently are too low. We are selling a crate of 50kg at 20 dollars, which is too low. From this price I cannot even recoup my investment," said John Ngunjiri, who farms in Juja on the outskirts of Nairobi. During the rainy season, farmers like Njunjiri had to spend lots of money on pesticides to curb diseases like blight and pests. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 18:03:06|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi wished a "happy life" to a Singaporean taxi driver he encountered when climbing a mountain. Wang is in Singapore to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meetings and related meetings. Despite a tight schedule, the Chinese top diplomat climbed the 163-meter Bukit Timah mountain, the highest mountain in the country on Thursday when he did a morning exercise. "On the way uphill I met a Singaporean with whom I had a pleasant and aspiring conversation," Wang told reporters after a bilateral meeting on Friday, adding that the Singaporean, who had no idea about Wang's identity at first, acted as a guide for him and introduced him Singapore's history. "Old buddy, wish you have time to climb the mountain every day and enjoy a healthy and happy life," Wang told the reporters with a smile on his face. The man, whom Wang later knew from his colleagues was a taxi driver, demonstrated qualities of "resilience, open-mindedness and optimism about the future," which have contributed to Singapore's continuous development, the Chinese top diplomat said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 18:03:06|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TOKYO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Japanese officials have recently urged men to break local gender stereotypes and carry umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun as the heat wave continues to scorch the country. Provincial officials of Saitama prefecture launched a campaign Wednesday encouraging men to carry parasols -- light umbrellas often used as a fashion accessory by Japanese women to shield themselves from the sun -- in the midst of the deadly national heat wave. "I used to think a parasol was strictly for women. I didn't think of using it because no men did," Saitama prefecture official Ryoji Kurihara told AFP. "I realized using a parasol is like carrying the shade with me. I feel much cooler under it," he said. However, not all men were willing to join the campaign, as some of them concerned more about being characterized as a "higasa danshi" (parasol man), than surviving the stifling heat. "I wouldn't use it. It's feminine ... I wear a hat or use sunblock," 23-year-old student Shige Kato told AFP. The campaign came after the temperature in Kumagaya, a city in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, hit a record high of 41.1 degrees Celsius last week, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). High temperatures across the country have killed 125 people and sent 57,534 to hospitals over the three months through July 29, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday. According to the JMA, the extreme heat is expected to continue through early August. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 18:03:06|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) has said that its outstanding loans for the Belt and Road Initiative rose 37 percent from a year ago by the end of June this year. Special loans, totaling 130 billion yuan (about 19 billion U.S. dollars), for projects discussed in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation last year, have all been clinched in agreements, according to the bank. The policy bank said it had also increased financial support for manufacturing improvements, energy conservation and green finance. Hu Xiaolian, chairman of the bank, said the bank would continue to maintain reasonable and moderate growth in business in the second half of the year, while deepening reform and defusing financial risks. From 2014 to 2017, the bank issued loans of more than 930 billion yuan. By the end of March this year, outstanding loans lent by the bank to countries along the Belt and Road was more than 810 billion yuan, up 29.7 percent year on year. The Belt and Road Initiative aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond ancient Silk Road trade routes, with industrial cooperation a crucial part. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 18:18:08|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (3rd L) poses for a group photo during the foreign ministers' meeting of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) held in Singapore, Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday spoke highly of the foreign ministers' meeting of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3). Wang told a press briefing that important consensus has been reached at the 10+3 foreign ministers' meeting, which was held here earlier in the day, and the meeting went smoothly and successfully. The foreign ministers agreed to jointly uphold free trade, oppose protectionism and stick to the process of multilateralism, he said. And they also agreed that with the establishment of the ASEAN Community and restoration and growth of the China-Japan-South Korea cooperation, it's high time to positively push for the building of an East Asia economic community, and the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) should also be speeded up, according to Wang. On the foreign ministers' meeting of East Asia Summit, Wang said two major positive developments have been witnessed in the region, noting that the first one is that the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue has returned to the track of settlement through dialogue and consultation. The second one is that the situation in the South China Sea has further stabilized thanks to the concerted efforts of China and the 10 ASEAN member states, Wang said. What is more important is that China and ASEAN have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, Wang noted. Meanwhile, there have been two negative trends in the region. The free trade system has been seriously hit by rising unilateralism and protectionism, which threatens the future development of all countries and the well-being of their peoples, he noted. Another negative trend is that some non-regional countries have become a push for the militarization in the region, which threatens and puts pressure on the security of the countries in the region, including China, Wang said. The countries in the region have the final say on the current situation and the further cooperation in the region, he said, hoping that the non-regional countries should change their mindsets, and understand and support the positive efforts China and ASEAN have made. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 19:23:18|Editor: ZX Video Player Close CHANGCHUN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- After leaving his hometown more than 20 years ago, Liu Min returned to Changchun in northeast China to attend the World Jilin Entrepreneurs Convention in late July. Liu, president of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) company based in Nanning in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was amazed at the hospitality of the local government in his hometown in Jilin Province. "The organizing committee had everything arranged and sorted out for us," Liu said. The 3rd World Jilin Entrepreneurs Convention gathered hundreds of business people, who were either born or studied in Jilin, from across the world. During the event, the organizers presented the Jilin's development achievements and introduced them to business projects and opportunities, hoping to woo potential investments. The three provinces of Jilin and neighboring Liaoning and Heilongjiang are simply called Northeast in Chinese, and often dubbed "China's Rustbelt." With a stagnant economy and less favorable business environment, the region is shunned by many investors who complained about high administrative costs and the business ethics of local people. Liu has mixed feelings about his hometown. Years ago, he tried to set up a company in the city of Tonghua but had difficulties getting his application approved. "It was not until I pulled some strings that I got the approval," said Liu. "But not long after, I closed the company and swore that I would never invest in the Northeast." However, he started to change his perspective. "I heard that the provincial government launched reforms to delegate power and strengthen services, and local officials also went to the coastal province of Zhejiang to learn from their experiences," said Liu. "I think things may be changing." In recent years, Jilin has prioritized the work of improving the business environment. A campaign was launched in 2012 to "delegate power, improve regulation and optimize services," with more than 140 guidelines issued to transform government functions. Efforts were made to streamline bureaucracy, such as shortening the business-related application process. Online applications have been given priority since they help simplify the process. Under the instruction of the National Development and Reform Commission, Jilin has also partnered with more economically-advanced Zhejiang to draw lessons on doing business. In this year's government work report, the province vowed to improve the business environment with "iron-strong determination and measures," as the task is "an important prerequisite for revitalizing Jilin." Jilin's determination to embrace investment was reflected in the preparation of the World Jilin Entrepreneurs Convention. More than 700 volunteers were selected across the province to act as guides and escorts during the event, providing entrepreneurs with one-on-one services including arranging schedules, accommodation, and transportation. Six conference halls were lined with hundreds of local officials who were ready to talk with potential investors. Every entrepreneur was given a brochure, with contact numbers of all the local officials at the event. Liu Min's target for the event was ginseng. The plant roots are commonly used ingredients for TCM products and Jilin grows some of the country's finest ginseng. During the event, Liu's company and the Tonghua government agreed to cooperate on growing and processing ginseng. "I think Jilin entrepreneurs should take the lead in investing in the province. Then we can really tell others that the Northeast is changing," he said. A total of 39 investment projects worth more than 20 billion yuan (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars) were signed at the event, according to the Jilin authorities. Song Liwei, president of a Hong Kong-based finance company, said Jilin showed the utmost sincerity in welcoming investors to the event, but she was looking forward to more "follow-up measures." "For the business environment of the Northeast to improve, I think local people need to change their mindset," said Song. "People in south China are generally more pragmatic when it comes to doing business." "When people in the Northeast learn to talk about business over a cup of tea instead of a cup of liquor, it's a sign that things are really changing," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 19:28:18|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) poses for a group photo during the 8th foreign ministers' meeting of the East Asia Summit held in Singapore, Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday proposed here three principles for the future development of the East Asia Summit (EAS). Wang made the proposal in a speech at the 8th foreign ministers' meeting of the East Asia Summit during which he praised the EAS's positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development. The first principle proposed by Wang is centering on East Asia. Wang said East Asia has already established a regional cooperation framework with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the center and EAS an important component. In the future, EAS countries should uphold the spirit of mutual respect, consensus-building, openness and inclusiveness, continue to focus on the Asia-Pacific, East Asia and safeguard the central role of ASEAN in regional cooperation, he said. The second principle is striking a balance between socio-economic development and politico-security cooperation. Wang said that development stands out to be the most important and prevailing concern for the countries in the region as well as the strongest driving force in the regional cooperation. Politico-security cooperation should aim at providing a peaceful and stable environment for the development and forging a regional security framework which accords with the actual circumstances of the region and meets the needs of all parties, he added. The third principle is coordinating strategic communication and pragmatic cooperation. While engaging in strategic communication on global and regional issues of common concern, all parties should make concerted efforts to push forward regional cooperation in vital areas, so as to provide solid support for EAS development, Wang added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 19:28:19|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LUANDA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Angola's fauna is now without black rhinoceros, African penguins, and brown hyenas, Angolan Ministry of Environment announced Friday. The Red List of Threatened Species of Angola was elaborated on the criteria of natural occurrence history or the absence in its habitat which determined the extinction of the above species. At least 160 species of the fauna and flora of the country are part of the list which groups them into four categories: extinction, threatened of extinction, vulnerable and invasive. From the group of threatened of extinction are 29 animals, of which stand out the giant black sable, the spotted hyena, the lion, cheetah (jaguar), mountain zebra, gorilla, red buffalo, and the chimpanzee. In addition, human activities are major cause of the vulnerability of at least 100 species that appear on the list. The elaboration of the red list of species of Angola was made through consultation and contributions of national and international institutions including the National Geographic Society. In the red list of 2007 and 2012, Angola had only critically endangered mammals. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 19:28:19|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RIYADH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday the resumption of oil shipments through Bab el- Mandeb Strait, Saudi Press Agency reported. The Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Khalid A. Al-Falih, said the oil shipments through the strait were resumed earlier Saturday, noting the decision was made after the Saudi-led coalition involved in the war in Yemen confirmed the necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the coalition states' ships have been taken. Saudi Arabia announced on July 25 the suspension of all crude oil shipments through the strait of Bab el-Mandeb after a Houthi attack on two giant Saudi oil tankers passing through the strait in the Red Sea. The minister expressed his confidence that the coalition has made all necessary measures, in coordination with the international community, to minimize the risks which may threaten ships that are navigating through the strait and the southern part of the Red Sea. The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to roll back Iran-allied Houthi rebels and reinstate exiled government of President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. HANOI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two young men from Vietnam's northern Dien Bien province have been detained and prosecuted for transporting over 14 kg of heroin, according to police of Hanoi capital on Saturday. Lau A Chu, 23, and Lau A Chia, 19, were caught in the capital city when they were transporting 40 cakes of heroin. Chu confessed that he had been hired to transport the drug from Dien Bien to Hanoi then to the three northern province of Thai Nguyen, Cao Bang and Bac Kan at a wage of 200 million Vietnamese dong (8,700 U.S. dollars). Chu asked Chia to accompany him to jointly transport the drug. According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty. GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 28 Taliban militants were killed during the security forces' operation against militants in Ghazni province, east of Afghanistan on Friday night, a local official said Saturday. "Security and defense forces targeted a gathering of Taliban militants by artillery firings in Khogiani district of Ghazni province last night, as a result 28 militants were killed," Farid Ahmad Mashal, Ghazni police chief told Xinhua. Several more insurgents were injured, the official said. At the same time security forces repelled Taliban's multi-pronged attacks on provincial capital the Ghazni city on Friday night and security forces returned fire during which one police constable was injured, Mashal said. Taliban militants have made no comment on the report. . . - , " " . , . , , , ... Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:03:23|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close By George Georgakopoulos ATHENS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Greece is preparing for the end of its third bailout program this month, it has officially returned to growth and the economic sentiment is improving. However, consumers and experts agree its economy is nowhere near the rebound, it requires to return to prosperity and convince the markets and the investors it is worth investing in. Rather than hitting the ground running, the Greek economy is seen limping out of the euro zone-funded program. The bailout's purpose was to prepare Greece's return to the capital markets, but as yields stand at prohibitively high levels, the country is instead planning to meet its debt servicing needs by its own means. Markets are not yet convinced Greece offers a credible investment option. "The Greek bond yields remain high in comparison to other countries, although they have gone down compared to previous years. They highlight that there is no confidence in Greece, and this has been aggravated by the government's handling of the recent deadly fires in Attica, as this rendered evident the incapacity of the administration," Nikolina Kosteletou, lecturer of economics at the University of Athens, told Xinhua. "I don't know how Greece will pay for it in market terms, but it will also depend on how the exit from the bailout program takes place in general," she added. Greek central banker Yannis Stournaras has warned that the markets will punish Greece if it backtracks on its reforms. Athens has already hinted it may renege on its pledge to cut pensions from January 2019, and that it may offer more handouts, ahead of the elections looming. "By offering handouts, all we will do is to burden the economy further. We need to give a chance to the economy to grow, especially exports that should have grown far more than they have actually done. In Greece it is only tourism that is doing well, nothing else," pointed out Kosteletou, also a governing board member at the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR). Official projections point to a 2 percent economic expansion this year, and the Economic Sentiment Index of Greece's Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) showed in July its highest reading in the last four years. However consumer confidence showed no improvement last month, according to IOBE, as the main tax-paying season has started, and the property tax is expected to be heavier for many property owners later in the year. Also the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) compiled by IHS Markit recorded a slowdown in the growth of new orders and output in manufacturing in July, although figures continued their advance for a 14th month in a row. The election cycle of 2019, with general, local and European elections to come in the next 12 to 14 months, the further cuts to pensions planned for 2019 and other austerity measures applying from next year, put a healthy recovery into further doubt. Kosteletou is not so sure whether Greek politicians have learned from past mistakes and will not repeat them. "Recent experience has shown we are not learning from our mistakes, as has also been the case with the forest fires, with the deadly account of 2007 getting even worse this summer," she said referring to the wildfire that claimed the lives of more than 90 people in Attica last month. "In the economy avoiding past mistakes is even more difficult, as it is likely the politicians will choose the easy path of handouts, hirings, and swelling of the public sector again. I am not even sure the opposition is able to change that," added Kosteletou. Another concern relates to the projected state revenues; last year's outperformance through the unexpectedly high social security contributions to the main pension fund (EFKA) will not only fail to be repeated this year according to existing figures, but have also contributed in the shrinking of the income tax expected in 2018. "It is certain that the decline in income tax revenues expected is related to EFKA contributions, but it is largely coincidental: Many self-employed professionals decided to close their books and either form companies that have lower tax - which has been the good scenario - or unfortunately continue operating in the illegal economy, due to the high taxation and social security contributions," Kosteletou told Xinhua. The IAPR board member particularly points out that "revenues from value-added tax are not doing well. Tax revenues will perform well only if the economy marches on." The lack of foreign direct investment is another major concern for the economy, as besides some major projects such as privatizations, investment has been lagging in Greece. Bureaucracy, taxation and the slow justice are typically cited as some of the main reasons for that: "A key dimension is the efficiency of the local justice system. The delays in the operation of Greek justice are a major obstacle to Greece's recovery," commented Kosteletou. "I am not optimistic for the future, as Greece needs a change in mentality above all, and I do not see that in the horizon," she concluded. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:18:26|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close The giant panda baby "Yuan Meng" approaches his birthday cake during his birthday celebration ceremony at the ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, France on Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/ZooParc de Beauval) PARIS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Yuan Meng, France's first ever giant panda cub, celebrates on Saturday its first anniversary at Beauval zoo in central France, where large crowds joined the super star panda's birthday bash despite very hot weather. Cake, posters, mascots and even books and CDs on the one-year-old male cub are offered to hundreds of fans who have been queuing for long minutes in hope to catch a glimpse of the chubby bear. The ceremony started at around 9:15 local time (0715 GMT) when Yuan Meng, accompanied by two caretakers, entered the outdoor enclosure to discover "special baby panda", a glace birthday cake made of honey, fruits and bamboo which did not immediatly arouse its appetite. At first, the panda cub preferred to play with his mother before tasting the cake while visitors used their phones to record every move of the ceremony's star. "I know there are live footage on TV, but I prefered coming and see Yuan Meng with my own eyes. I have already visited the giant pandas several times before. Yuan Meng has grown well and it is very beautiful and cute, I took a lot of photos," a visitor who gave her name as Bourreau told Xinhua while enjoying the cake with her husband. On Aug. 4, 2017, giant panda Huan Huan gave birth to twin cubs, the first panda babies born in France. The first cub died shortly after its birth and the second one was named in last December as Yuan Meng, meaning "the realization of a dream" in Chinese. Yuan Meng has grown from only 143 grams at birth to 30 kilograms currently, and is doing very well physically, according to Rodolphe Delord, the zoo's general director. "It continues to suckle its mother and eats bamboo regularly. it suckles a lot and plays a lot, it is adorable," he said. The parents of Yuan Meng, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, arrived in France in January 2012 on a 10-year loan from China. Since the couple's arrival, the number of visitors to the Beauval Zoo has doubled, and reached 1.5 million in 2017. "In 2018, we are expecting more than 1.5 million visitors, who come to see the evolution of Yuan Meng, which allows us to increase our public awareness of major biodiversity programs," Delord said. There are about 2,000 giant pandas in the world. They are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:28:28|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close CAIRO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli discussed the construction of a mega project with a delegation from the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), state-run Ahram newspaper reported Saturday. The two sides discussed the latest developments concerning the construction of a mega project in New Administrative Capital on Friday, the report said. The CSCEC, China's largest construction and real estate conglomerate and biggest building work contractor, has participated in the construction of the Central Business District (CBD). It is taking the long lead of China's international contracting business. "The CBD came at top of the projects of mutual cooperation with the Chinese side," Madbouli said, highlighting the CSCEC's capabilities. "The construction has started and I expected to see the Chinese miracle on the ground," he said. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said that "the project would be completed in two years," Madbouli told the delegation. Sisi would sign with CSCEC's officials legal documents for launching the second phase of the project, the report said. Sisi has also called for optimizing reliance on up-to-date technology in the development of the country's new capital, highlighting the importance that all the installations in the new city should reflect the modern standards of smart and environmentally-friendly buildings. The CBD will include 20 residential, administrative, commercial and service towers scattered on the 1.7 million square meters ground. Among them, a 385-meter skyscraper attracts the most attention, as it will be the tallest building in Africa once completed. Madbouli said Sisi has called on "the Chinese company to finish the project on time to put it in Guinness World Records." Hao Peng, an official with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said that "China-Egypt relations are very friendly." The two sides are actively implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state and pushing China-Africa pragmatic cooperation into a new stage, he added. The project has started construction in March this year and is currently under construction, he said. Upon completion, the CBD would help China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership to reach a higher level, Peng added. Chang Weicai, CEO of the CSCEC Egypt company, told Xinhua last month that the construction work is scheduled to be finished within 3.5 years "at maximum." The project is intended to offer thousands of jobs and stimulate the economy, while Egypt's government institutions are scheduled to move to the new capital within the second half of 2019. "The project reflects the depth of the Egyptian-Chinese relations," said Mostafa Ibrahim, a member of the Cairo-based Egyptian Businessmen Association. "China's participation in the Egyptian national projects, especially the new capital, signaled strong political support from Egypt," Ibrahim said, adding that more Chinese contribution to Egypt's mega projects attracts positive attention from the Egyptian people. Ibrahim predicted that the economic relations will expand in light of the two sides' unique historical cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:33:30|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed on Saturday morning as Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Hamis Kigwangalla, was injured after their vehicle overturned in the northern region of Manyara. Augustine Senga, the Manyara Regional Police Commander, identified the deceased as Hamza Temba, an information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. Senga said the minister was travelling from Arusha city where he had a meeting with tourism stakeholders on Friday to the capital Dodoma, adding that the minister was airlifted to Mount Meru government hospital in Arusha city. Reports said Kigwangalla had fractures in his left arm and in the neck but doctors described his condition as stable. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:33:31|Editor: zh Video Player Close A damaged vehicle is seen at the explosion site in southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Aug. 4, 2018. At least two people were killed and five others injured seriously in a cylinder blast in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Saturday, local media reported. (Xinhua/Stringer) ISLAMABAD, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and five others injured seriously in a cylinder blast in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Saturday, local media reported. According to the reports, the cylinder exploded in a building at Jinnah road in Sher Shah area of the city. While two died on the spot in the impact of the explosion, those injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital, where at least two of them were said to be in critical condition. A probe has been ordered into the incident to ascertain the cause of the explosion, said police. Several vehicles parked in the vicinity of the building were also damaged in the incident, said the rescue teams working in the effected area. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:43:32|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LJUBLNANA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Heavy traffic jam is reported this weekend at Slovenia's border crossings with Croatia, the Slovenian Press Agency STA reported on Saturday. The busiest crossing is Gruskovje at Slovenia's southern border with Croatia where drivers have to wait two and a half hours to enter the country and two hours to exit, the report said. The National Traffic Information Centre advises drivers to use alternative border crossings with Croatia, which is the most attractive holiday destination for holiday makers from Slovenia and its neighbouring countries of Austria, Hungry and Italy. On the coastal region, waiting time over an hour is reported from border crossing points of Secovlje, Dragonja and Brezovica pri Gradinu, where Italian holiday makers are used to take. The border crossings of Jelsane and Starod in the southwest and Metlika further east are also busy, with waiting time standing at between 50 and 45 minutes. Meanwhile a long queue of vehicles has formed on the A2 motorway heading to the Karavanke tunnel in the direction of Austria. With a three-kilometer queue on the Slovenian side, and an eight-kilometer queue on the Austrian side, the tunnel is subject to temporary closures. There is also heavy traffic jam on the A1 motorway to the coast in sections between Postojna and Brezovica heading to Ljubljana and the Ljubljana ring road. The traffic situation has become worse as several traffic accidents happened, said the STA report. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:48:33|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MANILA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Navy (RN) has vowed to help the Philippine Navy (PN) in submarine training and maintenance as the two countries seek to strengthen their military-to-military ties, a spokesman for the PN said on Saturday. PN Commander Jonathan Zata said that the commitment was made at the meeting on July 29 in the Russian port city of St. Petersburg between the PN Flag Officer in Command Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad and RN Chief Admiral Vladimir Ivanovich Korolev. The meeting between Emperad and Korolev took place amid plans of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to acquire a submarine to beef up its defense capability. The Philippines is looking at Russia as "possible sources" of submarine. "It was during this historic meeting that a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) for deepening security cooperation between the two navies was discussed," Zata said in a statement without elaborating on the details of the MOU. At the meeting, he said Korolev "assured his commitment to supporting the upgrade program of the PN in terms of training, maintenance and sustainment of future acquisition particularly the submarine acquisition project of the PN." Moreover, Zata said Korolev also "mentioned" about the conduct of joint humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) training and regular visits of Russian military ships to the Philippines. Zata also said that Korolev "expressed his appreciation" for the upcoming visit of a PN ship in Vladivostok, Russia. Russian warships have made four port visits to the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:58:34|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CAIRO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's military Saturday said that it has concluded joint naval exercises in the Red Sea with the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia. "Eagle Response 2018" began on July 24 and involved special forces from participating countries, said spokesperson of the armed forces Tamer al-Refai in a statement. The USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy, took part in the exercise, the statement said. The drill included training on joint combat activities for all elements of a naval battle, conducting maritime security and encountering probable terrorist attacks, it said. It added the joint exercises aimed at promoting skills of the participating units, improving military cooperation with the participating countries, and getting acquainted with the latest naval combat techniques. Egypt, which has the strongest Arab and African army, annually holds military exercises with Arab, African and western countries to boost military cooperation and exchange military expertise. In June, a joint naval and air exercise involving Egypt, Greece and Cyprus took place along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Last September, Egypt held "Bright Star" war games with U.S. troops for the first time in eight years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 20:58:34|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SHENZHEN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Police in south China's Guangdong Province handed over three suspects in connection with the robbery of a jewelry store to Hong Kong police Saturday afternoon. The three suspects, from Hong Kong, allegedly participated in the robbery of a jewelry and watch store in Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong on July 1. Thirty-three luxury watches and six bracelets worth a total of 23 million Hong Kong dollars (2.9 million U.S. dollars) were stolen. They later fled across the border before being captured by the police in the city of Shenzhen, together with two other suspects from the Chinese mainland. Police seized 12 watches and 1.74 million Hong Kong dollars in cash. Hong Kong police have further captured eight suspects involved. Police on the mainland have transfered eight Hong Kong suspects this year, including four in connection with an intentional injury case that resulted in a death, as well as a drug suspect. Polices from Guangdong and Hong Kong said the successful case was the result of close cooperation and joint efforts on both sides, which they will continue in the future. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 21:03:37|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting and related meetings in Singapore, Aug. 4, 2018.(Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Saturday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting and related meetings. While meeting with Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Don Pramudwinai, Wang said China and Thailand have enjoyed good momentum in the development of bilateral ties this year with fast growth in bilateral trade and investment, Wang said. China is willing to join hands with Thailand to push forward the construction of big projects including the China-Thailand high-speed railway and the Eastern Economic Corridor in Thailand within the framework of China's Belt and Road Initiative. For his part, Do said Thailand hopes to maintain high-level exchanges with China, take part in the China International Import Expo, further enhance economic and trade cooperation with China and continue to press forward the construction of the China-Thailand high-speed railway as well as the cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. When meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Wang stressed that China always follows the path of peaceful development and a win-win strategy of opening-up. China has never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries and never carried out the so-called infiltration in other countries. He hoped that the Australian side will meet China halfway, see China's development as an opportunity rather than a threat, and work to enhance mutual trust and cooperation so as to create more favorable conditions for the development of bilateral ties. For her part, Bishop said Australia attaches importance to ties with China and hopes to strengthen communication and enhance mutual understanding and trust with China so as to promote all-round bilateral cooperation. Australia wishes to join hands with China in pushing forward negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the process of regional economic integration. While meeting with Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Dato Paduka Haji Erywan bin Pehin Yusof, Wang said China and Brunei are friendly neighbors and close partners. China and Brunei have been working together to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, and they serve as an example of properly managing disputes and jointly conducting cooperation in the region, Wang said. China stands ready to maintain high-level exchanges and develop greater synergy between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Brunei's "Vision 2035," expand sectors of cooperation, advance maritime cooperation and help Brunei with economic diversification, he noted. The Brunei's second minister said Brunei and China enjoy sound relations and Brunei hopes to enhance high-level exchange of visits, cement practical cooperation in various fields and maintain close communication on international and regional issues. Brunei is also willing to join hands with China to move forward ASEAN-China relations, the second minister said. MANILA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines Navy (PN) said on Saturday that it is ready to deploy an "appropriate force package" to help in the rescue of three Filipino engineers kidnapped in Libya. Jonathan Zata, director for the PN's Naval Public Affairs Office, said in a statement that the navy is preparing for the deployment of a naval team to assist the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Philippines in dealing with the kidnapped Filipinos. "Pursuant to the directive of the Commander in Chief President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine Navy composed of Fleet-Marine component, is planning for the appropriate force package as a response to the kidnapping of three Filipinos in Libya," Zata said in the statement. The PN said Libyan authorities have been exerting all efforts to identify the abductors and rescue the hostages. For now, the PN said, it is completing the facts on the ground before it decides. President Duterte said on Friday that he was considering to send the PN's frigate to waters off Libya if the abductors start hurting the Filipino kidnap victims. "I am not joking. I will also send a frigate there (In Libya) If they begin to hurt the three Filipinos," Duterte said in a speech in Malaybalay City in southern Bukidnon province. Three Filipinos and a South Korean who worked in a water project site in western Libya were abducted on July 6 by unknown armed men. The kidnappers released a video footage of the four men confirming their names and nationalities, and appealing to their presidents for help. The DFA has refused to identify the Filipino victims and other details surrounding the case, saying "The case we are dealing with is very sensitive." South Korea said earlier this week that it had deployed a warship to Libya to provide military support for rescuing the hostages. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 21:53:46|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday urged countries outside the region to respect the efforts and achievements made by regional countries in safeguarding peace and stability. Wang made the call at the 25th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) foreign ministers' meeting. He noted that in doing so, countries outside the region could play a constructive role in helping maintain regional peace and stability. With the concerted efforts from China and ASEAN countries, the situation in the South China Sea has been further stabilizing, and the negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea have achieved new important progress, Wang said. The most positive development in East Asia is that the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue has returned to the track of resolution through dialogue and consultation, he said, adding that China is pleased with and firmly supports it. Cold War mentality and coercion by force go against the trend of the times, and unilateralism and protectionism cannot settle any problem, Wang said. While pointing out that unilateralism and protectionism is eroding the prospect of development and prosperity in the region, and the global free trade system has been impacted severely, Wang called for solidarity and cooperation among regional countries to champion free trade and multilateralism, and oppose protectionism. The meeting passed a statement of cooperation on disaster management initiated by China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 21:58:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Danielle Collins of the United States moved into the semifinals of the WTA San Jose Open on Friday after her opponent, former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, was forced to retire due to injury. Azarenka won the first set 7-6(4), but was trailing 3-0 in the second set when she retired due to a back problem. "I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it's never fun winning a match like that," Collins said after the match. "Hopefully Azarenka can get back pretty soon." Azarenka, who won the title in 2009, pulled through a closely-contested first set after 72 minutes of play, but became hampered by her back injury in the first game of the second set. "I really wanted to make the match as physical as possible because that's one of my weapons, and that's something I felt I could really expose on her," said Collins. "I just had to keep my foot on the gas. I just kind of had to keep that mentality of getting in every extra ball that I could, and just keep running after everything and making it as physical as possible," Collins added. Collins will play against Greece's Maria Sakkari in the semifinals. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 22:03:49|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- South African MPs on Saturday voiced "serious concern" over the safety strategy of the South African Police Service (SAPS) following an attack on a police station. "It is concerning that criminals have become so brazen that police stations, institutions at the center of the fight against crime, are being targeted as playgrounds for the commitment of crimes," Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police said. This came after four armed men attacked the Kareedouw police station in the Eastern Cape province early Saturday. In the attack, the gunmen held an officer on duty at gunpoint, before making off with a number of firearms from the safe. A massive manhunt has been launched for the attackers and no arrest has been made. It's concerning that police firearms stolen at the station will add to the pool of firearms to be used in criminal activities, Francois Beukman, Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee. The retrieval of the firearms stolen "is of foremost importance," he said. This robbery happened despite the assurance given by the SAPS management earlier this year that safety at police stations will be upgraded, Beukman said. "There is clearly shortcomings in the implementation in the plan and police management will have to account for this failure," said Beukman. He said his committee has repeatedly called for the rethinking of police station safety and the integration of technology to effectively combat crime. "While the committee is cognizant of the long term nature of incorporating IT into the security strategy, it had called for urgent steps in dealing with this seemingly growing trend," Beukman said. Parliament will request the SAPS management to give an update on all attacks at police stations and progress in preventing this worrying trend, according to Beukman. In South Africa which has one of the highest crime rates in the world, police stations have become targets of criminals recently. In February, gunmen attacked a police station in Nqcobo, Eastern Cape Province, killing five police officers and an off-duty soldier. The gunmen also stole quantities of weapons and a vehicle. Police stations in the Free State and Western Cape provinces also came under attack in 2017. A total of 57 police officers were killed in 2016/17, according to official statistics. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 22:03:49|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Saturday stressed the need to establish comprehensive and well-coordinated response strategy to eradicate the new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Africa CDC - a special organ of the African Union (AU) established to support African countries to improve surveillance, emergency response, and prevention of infectious diseases - made the call as the Central African nation revealed a new Ebola virus outbreak this week. The DRC on Wednesday declared a new outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in two of its provinces - 32 cases in North Kivu province and one additional case in Ituri province. On July 28, the North Kivu Provincial Health Division notified the Ministry of Health of DRC regarding suspected Ebola cases which were subsequently confirmed by laboratory testing. According to the Africa CDC, the latest outbreak - the tenth outbreak of Ebola in the DRC - came shortly after the ninth outbreak was declared over on July 24 in DRC's Equateur province. A total of 33 cases, including 26 deaths, were reported with a cases fatality ratio of about 79 percent as of August 1, according to the Africa CDC. North Kivu, the most affected province, is located about 2,500 kilometers from the Equateur province where the just ended outbreak was located. The fact that North Kivu is one of the most densely populated provinces in DRC, with a population of about 8 million inhabitants, is also said to be another concern in effectively controlling the new Ebola outbreak. Another concern is also said to be North Kivu's proximity to neighboring countries, as Uganda and Rwanda bordered the province. Beni and surrounding areas, with a population of about 2 million inhabitants, is also said to be the epicentre of the outbreak, according to the Africa CDC's latest statement. Noting the need to build capabilities to effectively respond and control the new Ebola outbreak, the Africa CDC urged the "need to support the leadership role of the Government of DRC to establish a comprehensive and well-coordinated response strategy." It also stressed the need to operate in partnership and synergy to "control this outbreak and mitigate the impact on the health and economic security of the African Continent." The AU - through the Africa CDC - also revealed that it "will continue to support the efforts of the DRC Government during this outbreak as well as neighboring countries." The AU further indicated that it is presently responding to the outbreak with appropriate measures to support the government-led response, which include monitoring of the situation through its Emergency Operation Centres, and coordinating with the Ministry of Health of the DRC and the World Health Organization (WHO). The pan African bloc, AU, further revealed that it is currently mobilizing and preparing to relocate its Emergency Response Team to the current affected areas as well as supporting laboratory diagnostic capacity through the provision of laboratory supplies for testing of the Ebola virus. According to the AU, activating the AU emergency support mechanism through different units of the commission including the Peace Support Operation Division is also another area of intervention. The Africa CDC also stressed that it is sensitizing member states through its information sharing platforms to heighten their surveillance and preparedness efforts through its Regional Collaborating Centres in the Eastern and Central Africa. DRC's Health Minister, Oly Ilunga, on Wednesday said that since Ebola is endemic in many parts of the country due to the equatorial forest ecosystem, the Ministry of Health has already strengthened its epidemiological surveillance system in all risk areas, including North-Kivu. WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while announcing the end of the ninth Ebola outbreak in DRC last week, also urged the DRC government and the international community to build on the positive momentum generated by the quick containment of the outbreak. "This effective response to Ebola should make the government and partners confident that other major outbreaks affecting the country, such as cholera and polio, can also be tackled," he said. "We must continue to work together, investing in strengthened preparedness and access to healthcare for the most vulnerable," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 22:18:52|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close LANZHOU, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Billed as "the highest altitude bike race in the world", Tour of Qinghai Lake offered riders some daunting challenge and unique experience. As expected, Colombia's Hernan Aguirre of Manzana Postbon won the 17th Tour of Qinghai Lake on Saturday, safely finishing the 13th and final stage. The 22-year-old essentially sealed the title after he won the fourth and sxith stage in the mountains to build up a one minute five seconds lead, which turned out to be unassailable as the remaining seven stages were flat road races. For some riders, the mountain-climbing was just too much, especially at the sixth stage whose finish line was 4,120 meters above sea level. "It was definitely a challenge and I haven't done any proper preparation for the race," said Dumphy Conn of Holdsworth Pro Racing. "So when the road went over three thousand meters I really suffered and I wasn't climbing well," said Dumphy Conn of Holdsworth Pro Racing. The Irish rider said if he comes to compete here next year, he has to make special preparation. Dutch rider Van Lui Jk Sven said it is a huge physical challenge for the European riders to scale that height. "Before that stage I had some breathing problems because my body wasn't acclimatised, for us it was impossible to win, it is 4,000 meters high," he said. Both Conn and Sven enjoyed themselves in the desert stage -- the tenth stage involving a 124-km ride in the Tengger Desert. "I have never been to a desert, it is a good experience. I thought I was going to melt at some time," said Conn. The scorching heat of the desert left Sven uneasy, but he enjoyed it. "it was hotter than I thought, but it was a nice race to do, because it was not easy," he said. "It was also very hot, I have never been to a desert like that, and because of the heat, wind and everything, it was a pretty hard stage. I thought it was a nice stage because it was new," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 22:33:56|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close People look at Chinese rockets models at the Space Exploration Gallery in Penang, Malaysia, Aug. 4, 2018. Malaysian people in the northern state of Penang were able to have a close look at the models of the rockets and spacecraft used in China's space missions such as the Yutu moon rover with the opening of the Space Exploration Gallery on Saturday. (Xinhua) KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian people in the northern state of Penang were able to have a close look at the models of the rockets and spacecraft used in China's space missions such as the Yutu moon rover with the opening of the Space Exploration Gallery on Saturday. The six models, including four in the Long March rocket family, the Chang'e 3 lunar lander and Yutu lunar rover, were donated by the China Science and Technology Museum with an estimated value of half a million ringgit (123,000 U.S. dollars). Chang'e 3 lunar lander, which landed on the Moon and deployed the Yutu rover in 2013, made China the third country to have soft-landed on the Moon, following the United States and the former Soviet Union. The Long March rockets are the most widely-used rockets in Chinese space missions. Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who personally pushed for the donation when he was the chief minister of Penang two years ago, thanked the Chinese side in his speech on Saturday. He said the Malaysian government values its relations with China and will continue to support China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese Consul-General in Penang Lu Shiwei said the six models symbolize the good relations between the two countries and will further strengthen the bond. While rapidly developing its space aerospace industry, China is willing to share related experience with other countries in the region, he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 22:33:56|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The head of the Libyan Islamic endowments authority was kidnapped on Saturday in the capital Tripoli, a local official told Xinhua. Abbas al-Qadi, head of the General Authority of Islamic Endowments and Affairs of the Libyan Government of National Accord, was kidnapped in the morning and taken to an unknown location by unidentified gunmen, the official said on condition of anonymity. The kidnapping took place at Tripoli airport, the official added. Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's government, Libya has been suffering escalating violence and insecurity, as well as political division. Kidnapping is common in Libya, where gunmen abduct foreign workers, local officials and ordinary citizens, usually for ransom. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:04:05|Editor: yan Video Player Close TIRANA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Only 80.1 percent of young Albanians graduated in secondary education (high school) during 2017, marking the first fall of this norm in the last three years, Albanian National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) reported. Meanwhile, participation in secondary education amounts to 93.9 percent for the 2017-2018 school year, increasing by 0.8 percent compared to the previous year. According to INSTAT, the number of young people attending vocational education in the academic year 2013-2014 has increased from 18 percent to 20.6 percent over 2017-2018, compared to 79.4 percent who select for general gymnasium. Albanian government policies are supporting with special initiatives the development of vocational education, seeing it as a good opportunity for employment. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:09:06|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The unemployment rate in Morocco only slightly dropped to 9.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, down from 9.3 percent a year ago, the official planning commission said Saturday. The unemployment rate in urban areas was down from 14 percent to 13.7 percent, while it decreased from 3.2 percent to 3 percent in rural areas, according to a note by the High Commission for Planning. The decrease in unemployment came in disproportion with the active job creation between the second quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of this year, during which some 117,000 new jobs were created, compared to only 74,000 jobs a year earlier. Unemployment remains high among women and urban youth, particularly college graduates, HCP said. The Moroccan government has vowed to reduce the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent by 2021. On Wednesday, King Mohammed VI of Morocco sacked Mohamed Boussaid as minister for the economy and finance, three days after he urged a national action to tackle social and economic problems including meager investments. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:19:08|Editor: zh Video Player Close A damaged passenger bus is seen on the site of an accident in Pakistan's northwestern district of Kohat, on Aug. 4, 2018. At least 14 people were killed and over 30 others injured in a deadly road crash in Kohat on Saturday evening, local media and police said. (Xinhua) ISLAMABAD, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 people were killed and over 30 others injured in a deadly road crash in Pakistan's northwestern district of Kohat on Saturday evening, local media and police said. According to the reports, the accident occurred when a passenger bus collided with an oil tanker at the Indus Highway near Samari area of Kohat, a district in the countrys northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Rescue teams and police rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital in the district. The deceased included two women and two children, police said, adding that the accident happened due to over-speeding. The ill-fated bus was on its way to the countrys southern port city of Karachi from northwestern Buner city. Road accidents frequently happen in Pakistan mainly due to poorly maintained roads, violation of road safety rules and reckless driving. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:39:11|Editor: yan Video Player Close BELGRADE, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic called for a meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the political-security situation in the southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, after the temporary authorities there missed the deadline proposed by European Union (EU) to adopt the statute of the Serb Community. Serbia's southern province unilaterally seceded in 2008 with the support of the United States and most EU countries. And in 2013, by signing the Brussels Agreement, the two sides agreed to work on normalizing relations under the patronage of the EU, and eventually achieve a legally binding agreement. However, in a media address Saturday, Vucic accused the temporary authorities in Pristina of failing to fulfill their sole obligation - to form the Community of Serb Municipalities 1,930 days after the deal was signed. He said that the Council also discussed the work of certain "agents, both in Pristina and Belgrade" assigned together with media, political circles and foreign intelligence services, to overshadow Pristina's missed deadline by misinforming and provoking the public. Vucic specified that a rumor was created by political and media circles both in Belgrade and Pristina together with foreign intelligence that Serbia together with Pristina authorities plan to "engineer a violent mutual conflict, with an aim to achieve their political ambitions", and refuted this as "nonsense" aimed to create panic and distrust. He repeated that Serbia fulfilled all obligations of the Brussels Agreement, pointing out that the Agreement on Energy will be implemented only after the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities, as this body is in charge of founding energy supply companies. He reminded that Friday he directed an open letter to Kosovo Serbs asking them to remain calm, "not to fall under provocations and provide any excuse to Kosovo Albanians or international community to commit violence over them". In the letter, he also said that the country "will not allow organized violence over Serbs and their sacraments, nor their persecution" and urged Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and KFOR (Kosovo Force) to prevent any attempt of potential takeover of the Gazivode hydro-power plant from the hands of local Serbs in North Kosovo, or any other key infrastructure object. Friday, Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS), Serbia's public broadcaster, reported that all Kosovo Police officers had to urgently return from their vacations due to "operative engagements", while at the same time NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) started a "planned exercise" across the territory of the province. Since Friday night media reported several dozens of KFOR armored vehicles approaching North Kosovo, while Saturday morning helicopters and soldiers in full combat gear secured the perimeter around the Gazivode hydro power plant and the accumulation lake. However, KFOR denied reports that they took control over the lake, and assured that the presence of troops is part of an earlier planned two-day exercise to test readiness and capacity of soldiers. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci also reacted to the tensions with a press release, urging citizens to restrain from any sort of provocation, and assured that Pristina authorities are dedicated to finalizing work on the draft statute of the Community of Serb Municipalities, and normalizing relations with Serbia by adopting a legally binding agreement as envisaged by the Brussels Agreement signed on April 19, 2013. Kosovo is a southern province of Serbia, which unilaterally declared independence in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:49:13|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb hit a convoy of the newly-recruited Yemeni troops in the southern province of Abyan on Saturday, injuring six security personnel, a government official told Xinhua. The convoy, which consisted of three cars, was targeted by a parked car bomb in the Mudiyah area of Abyan, the official said on condition of anonymity. A military vehicle was badly damaged in the explosion, which allegedly aimed to assassinate a high-ranking commander, the official added. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Yemeni sources blamed militants of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for being behind the attack. The AQAP, which mostly operates in Yemen's eastern and southern provinces, has been responsible for many high-profile attacks against security forces in the country. Washington has carried out several airstrikes against AQAP fighters in different provinces of the war-torn Arab country since U.S President Donald Trump approved expanded military operations against the group. The U.S. expanded operations in Yemen included intensified overnight airstrikes and ground military raids against the al-Qaida hideouts in the mountainous areas of al-Bayda and southeastern province of Shabwa. The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of a deadly conflict between the government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in southeastern provinces. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:54:15|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Aug.4 (Xinhua) -- Eritrea's flag carrier Eritrean Airlines (EA) made its maiden flight to Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa on Saturday as diplomatic thaw between the two former bitter rivals deepens. This development follows Ethiopia's flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines (ET) resumption of flights to Eritrea's capital, Asmara on July 18, the first flights to the city in 20 years. The EA flight to Ethiopia headed by a delegation comprising of Tesfaselassie Berhane, Eritrean Minister of Transport and Communications, and Paul Khasai, Director General of Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority, was welcomed by Hirut Zemene, Deputy Ethiopian Foreign Minister, and other high-level Ethiopian government officials. Speaking at the flight ceremony, Zemene said the two countries have already established a flight commission, re-established diplomatic relations and had their leaders visit their respective countries over the last one month. She further said the commencement of flights between the two countries will further boost business, tourism and people to people ties. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-year border war from 1998-2000, that killed an estimated 70,000 people from both sides. The war was ended by a December 2000 Algiers peace agreement, but it left the two countries in a state of bitter armed standoff. The mutual hostility between Ethiopia and Eritrea came to an end last June after Ethiopia's ruling coalition Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), said it unconditionally accepts the results of the Algiers peace agreement. The decision sent off a chain of fast-paced diplomatic moves between the two countries, which saw the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia visit their respective countries after two decades of diplomatic freeze. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-04 23:59:17|Editor: yan Video Player Close KIGALI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has started Ebola screening of travellers entering the country, an official said on Saturday, following a fresh outbreak of the deadly virus disease in its neighbor the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The purpose of the screening is to ensure that any Ebola cases can be detected and isolated, said Malick Kayumba, the head of Rwanda health communication center, to Xinhua. "Everyone coming in is requested to go through the screening processes for Ebola prevention as per measures set up at borders with DRC and Uganda, Kigali International Airport and ports. No one will proceed for entrance unless she or he is screened," Kayumba said. He said any person with fever of 37.5 degree and above is requested to go for isolation in the nearest health facility for further checks and follow-up. Health workers take temperatures of travellers, ask their recent travel history and look out for immediate signs of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever such as high temperatures, a traveller who entered Rwanda from Goma town in eastern DRC told Xinhua. The DRC government announced Wednesday that preliminary laboratory results indicate a cluster of cases of Ebola virus in North Kivu province, which came little more than a week after the Ministry of Health declared the end of an outbreak in Equateur Province in the far western part of the country, some 2,500 km from North Kivu. Following the announcement, Rwanda's ministry of health on Thursday called on Rwandan residents and visitors to be calm, saying it is well prepared and has taken measures to prevent any possible outbreak of the deadly virus. It also called on the public to take preventive measures such as avoiding unnecessary movement to areas where the disease has been reported, washing hands with soap and clean water, seeking medical attention after seeing any signs of Ebola, and seeking timely medication. Five out of six East African Community member states share borders with the DRC, maintaining close trade relations with high border traffic. The giant panda baby "Yuan Meng" approaches his birthday cake during his birthday celebration ceremony at the ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, France on Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/ZooParc de Beauval) PARIS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Yuan Meng, France's first ever giant panda cub, celebrates on Saturday its first anniversary at Beauval zoo in central France, where large crowds joined the super star panda's birthday bash despite very hot weather. Cake, posters, mascots and even books and CDs on the one-year-old male cub are offered to hundreds of fans who have been queuing for long minutes in hope to catch a glimpse of the chubby bear. The ceremony started at around 9:15 local time (0715 GMT) when Yuan Meng, accompanied by two caretakers, entered the outdoor enclosure to discover "special baby panda", a glace birthday cake made of honey, fruits and bamboo which did not immediatly arouse its appetite. At first, the panda cub preferred to play with his mother before tasting the cake while visitors used their phones to record every move of the ceremony's star. The giant panda baby "Yuan Meng" (R) approaches his birthday cake during his birthday celebration ceremony at the ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, France on Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/ZooParc de Beauval) "I know there are live footage on TV, but I prefered coming and see Yuan Meng with my own eyes. I have already visited the giant pandas several times before. Yuan Meng has grown well and it is very beautiful and cute, I took a lot of photos," a visitor who gave her name as Bourreau told Xinhua while enjoying the cake with her husband. On Aug. 4, 2017, giant panda Huan Huan gave birth to twin cubs, the first panda babies born in France. The first cub died shortly after its birth and the second one was named in last December as Yuan Meng, meaning "the realization of a dream" in Chinese. Yuan Meng has grown from only 143 grams at birth to 30 kilograms currently, and is doing very well physically, according to Rodolphe Delord, the zoo's general director. The giant panda baby "Yuan Meng" approaches his birthday cake during his birthday celebration ceremony at the ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, France on Aug. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/ZooParc de Beauval) "It continues to suckle its mother and eats bamboo regularly. it suckles a lot and plays a lot, it is adorable," he said. The parents of Yuan Meng, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, arrived in France in January 2012 on a 10-year loan from China. Since the couple's arrival, the number of visitors to the Beauval Zoo has doubled, and reached 1.5 million in 2017. "In 2018, we are expecting more than 1.5 million visitors, who come to see the evolution of Yuan Meng, which allows us to increase our public awareness of major biodiversity programs," Delord said. There are about 2,000 giant pandas in the world. They are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 02:29:44|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Ministry of Defense (MoD) warned on Saturday it will take measures to restore law and order to Ethiopia Somali regional state located in the eastern part of the country. In a press statement, the MoD, said it will take necessary constitutional measures to restore law and order as well as peace and security of residents in Somali regional state. "MoD will not sit by and watch unrest particularly in Jijiga city, capital of Somali regional state. It will take the necessary measures to ensure that peace and security of residents of the regional state are secured," said the statement. The statement didn't mention who is threatening peace and order in the region, but it comes after the Ethiopian army seized the regional parliament and television station of Somali regional state government. Unconfirmed reports also indicated the Ethiopian army has laid siege to the Somali regional state palace where Somalia regional state President Abdi Omar Mohammed is allegedly holed up. The seizure of local government offices and allegations the army wants to arrest Mohammed sparked riots in the city with unknown number of casualties and property damage. Ethiopia started test crude oil production in June, the first ever for the East African country, raising hopes of economic transformation for its estimated 100 million population. The oil fields are in Ethiopia Somali regional state and the region is also thought to have large reservoir of natural gas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 02:34:45|Editor: yan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran will not sit down for negotiations under pressures, in particular with U.S. President Donald Trump who "has breached obligations," Iran's Foreign Ministry Bahram Qasemi said Saturday. If the U.S. wants negotiations, it should stop pressures and sanctions, Qasemi was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency. Under such circumstances negotiations cannot be held, he said, adding that the Iranian people will resist the pressures and will conquer finally. In the meantime, Qasemi rejected the possibility of war between Tehran and Washington, saying no country is able to carry out such actions in the current world. He also said Tehran expects the European countries to bring forward a practical package of proposals to salvage Iranian nuclear deal, also known as JCPOA, after the U.S. pull-out in May. Iran wants guarantees from Europe to maintain banking cooperation and investments in Iran's oil fields as well as continuation of cooperation between Iranian and European small and medium-sized enterprises, Qasemi noted. Following Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the United States vowed to reimpose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments like secondary sanctions on nations that have business links with Iran. Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal was criticized across the world. Some of its major European allies have been working to prevent the 2015 deal from falling apart. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 03:09:50|Editor: yan Video Player Close by Fatima Aruri RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen-year-old Ahed Tamimi who has become a national symbol for Palestinian resistance for thousands of youth said that she will pursue her education studying international law in order to bring Israeli officials to justice. "When I was 11 years old, they arrested my father and I wasn't able to get into the court or visit him. Since then, I have decided to become a lawyer," she said. "Then when my uncle was slain and the soldier who shot him was found not guilty, my urge went higher up and I really became determined to hold Israel accountable in international tribunals," she added. During her eight-month sentence, Tamimi sat for her final high school diploma examination, and celebrated her success along with other imprisoned minors in a small "party in jail with the girls." She also said that what made her more determined to study law is a course in international law that she took with some of the other inmates. "After the law course we took, I liked it even more and became more convinced." Tamimi has been detained since Dec. 19, 2017, in a night raid four days after a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier and pushing them away from her house went viral on the internet. Her mother, Nariman Tamimi, who took the video of her daughter and her cousins slapping the soldier, was also arrested on Dec. 20, 2017, and accused of incitement. Upon her release last Sunday, Ahed Tamimi said that resistance will continue and that her real happiness would be fulfilled once the remaining female inmates in Israeli jails are freed. She visited the grave of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and then met with President Mahmoud Abbas. Tamimi's case drew wide public attention and highlighted Israeli military court system procedures, often described by right groups as discriminatory. Amnesty International has called for Tamimi's release and accused Israel of "discriminatory treatment of Palestinian children." Speaking about her slapping the soldier, the young Tamimi said that she was aggravated at the fact that the soldier would not leave their home driveway and stop opening fire against other Palestinian protestors from their home, which lead to injuring her cousin with a bullet in the face. She said that she had expected to be arrested since that moment "because every Palestinian is subject to arrest." She was arrested in a violent night raid from her home four days after the slapping footage went viral. Ahed Tamimi became a national symbol for popular resistance, as she has been involved with activists and residents of her hometown village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah in weekly protests against Israeli land confiscation in their village and against settlement expansion. Several activists from the area were detained and interrogated by Israeli forces as a form of pressure against the families to stop their protests, according to the village head Naji Tamimi. "The interrogation was very difficult," she said, recalling that "they used psychological pressure against me, they threatened to arrest all my family members if I don't confess, and I didn't have a lawyer or a family member because I'm a minor." Tamimi said that her reaction to that was to maintain her right to remain silent. In video footage revealed by her lawyer, Ahed Tamimi was seen silent throughout around one hour of interrogation in December, where the interrogator used verbal harassment and threats against her, without the presence of a lawyer, female officer or either one of her parents, which is a breach of Israeli law. Palestinians in the West Bank live under the Israeli military law since 1967, and are prosecuted in military courts, including children. Israel employs two legal systems in the West Bank: Palestinians are held accountable under military rules while Israeli settlers living in the same territory are tried on basis of civilian and criminal legal system. Overall, Defense for Children International office in Palestinian territory says that 500 to 700 children are annually detained, arrested and prosecuted by Israeli military courts. Over 90 percent of the arrest cases are reported of violating law in terms of violent arrest in late night hours, and transferring, interrogating and imprisoning circumstances. Nariman Tamimi, 42, who was imprisoned with her daughter and received the same sentence after being charged with incitement, due to her documentation of the footage of her daughter slapping an Israeli soldier. With a tired voice, she explained that the most difficult moment during the eight months is the moment she learnt of the arrest of her eldest son Wa'ad. "They had come to get him more than once before Ahed's arrest, and I know when they arrest youth from their home, they beat them, so I was very worried of what could happen to him," said the mother. She was then invited to take a family picture with her husband and children, but insisted to leave one extra seat empty to mark the absence of her son Wa'ad behind Israeli bars. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a ceremony in a military academy in Tehran on June 30, 2018. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader) TEHRAN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran will not sit down for negotiations under pressures, in particular with U.S. President Donald Trump who "has breached obligations," Iran's Foreign Ministry Bahram Qasemi said Saturday. If the U.S. wants negotiations, it should stop pressures and sanctions, Qasemi was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency. Under such circumstances negotiations cannot be held, he said, adding that the Iranian people will resist the pressures and will conquer finally. In the meantime, Qasemi rejected the possibility of war between Tehran and Washington, saying no country is able to carry out such actions in the current world. He also said Tehran expects the European countries to bring forward a practical package of proposals to salvage Iranian nuclear deal, also known as JCPOA, after the U.S. pull-out in May. Iran wants guarantees from Europe to maintain banking cooperation and investments in Iran's oil fields as well as continuation of cooperation between Iranian and European small and medium-sized enterprises, Qasemi noted. Following Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the United States vowed to reimpose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments like secondary sanctions on nations that have business links with Iran. Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal was criticized across the world. Some of its major European allies have been working to prevent the 2015 deal from falling apart. Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman Tamimi visit the tombstone of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his mausoleum in the West Bank City of Ramallah on July 29, 2018, after she and her mother were released from prison earlier in the day. (Xinhua/Fadi Arouri) RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen-year-old Ahed Tamimi who has become a national symbol for Palestinian resistance for thousands of youth said that she will pursue her education studying international law in order to bring Israeli officials to justice. "When I was 11 years old, they arrested my father and I wasn't able to get into the court or visit him. Since then, I have decided to become a lawyer," she said. "Then when my uncle was slain and the soldier who shot him was found not guilty, my urge went higher up and I really became determined to hold Israel accountable in international tribunals," she added. During her eight-month sentence, Tamimi sat for her final high school diploma examination, and celebrated her success along with other imprisoned minors in a small "party in jail with the girls." She also said that what made her more determined to study law is a course in international law that she took with some of the other inmates. "After the law course we took, I liked it even more and became more convinced." Tamimi has been detained since Dec. 19, 2017, in a night raid four days after a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier and pushing them away from her house went viral on the internet. Her mother, Nariman Tamimi, who took the video of her daughter and her cousins slapping the soldier, was also arrested on Dec. 20, 2017, and accused of incitement. Upon her release last Sunday, Ahed Tamimi said that resistance will continue and that her real happiness would be fulfilled once the remaining female inmates in Israeli jails are freed. She visited the grave of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and then met with President Mahmoud Abbas. Tamimi's case drew wide public attention and highlighted Israeli military court system procedures, often described by right groups as discriminatory. Amnesty International has called for Tamimi's release and accused Israel of "discriminatory treatment of Palestinian children." Speaking about her slapping the soldier, the young Tamimi said that she was aggravated at the fact that the soldier would not leave their home driveway and stop opening fire against other Palestinian protestors from their home, which lead to injuring her cousin with a bullet in the face. She said that she had expected to be arrested since that moment "because every Palestinian is subject to arrest." She was arrested in a violent night raid from her home four days after the slapping footage went viral. Ahed Tamimi became a national symbol for popular resistance, as she has been involved with activists and residents of her hometown village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah in weekly protests against Israeli land confiscation in their village and against settlement expansion. Several activists from the area were detained and interrogated by Israeli forces as a form of pressure against the families to stop their protests, according to the village head Naji Tamimi. "The interrogation was very difficult," she said, recalling that "they used psychological pressure against me, they threatened to arrest all my family members if I don't confess, and I didn't have a lawyer or a family member because I'm a minor." Tamimi said that her reaction to that was to maintain her right to remain silent. In video footage revealed by her lawyer, Ahed Tamimi was seen silent throughout around one hour of interrogation in December, where the interrogator used verbal harassment and threats against her, without the presence of a lawyer, female officer or either one of her parents, which is a breach of Israeli law. Palestinians in the West Bank live under the Israeli military law since 1967, and are prosecuted in military courts, including children. Israel employs two legal systems in the West Bank: Palestinians are held accountable under military rules while Israeli settlers living in the same territory are tried on basis of civilian and criminal legal system. Overall, Defense for Children International office in Palestinian territory says that 500 to 700 children are annually detained, arrested and prosecuted by Israeli military courts. Over 90 percent of the arrest cases are reported of violating law in terms of violent arrest in late night hours, and transferring, interrogating and imprisoning circumstances. Nariman Tamimi, 42, who was imprisoned with her daughter and received the same sentence after being charged with incitement, due to her documentation of the footage of her daughter slapping an Israeli soldier. With a tired voice, she explained that the most difficult moment during the eight months is the moment she learnt of the arrest of her eldest son Wa'ad. "They had come to get him more than once before Ahed's arrest, and I know when they arrest youth from their home, they beat them, so I was very worried of what could happen to him," said the mother. She was then invited to take a family picture with her husband and children, but insisted to leave one extra seat empty to mark the absence of her son Wa'ad behind Israeli bars. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 04:40:03|Editor: zh Video Player Close CHICAGO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures closed higher in the past trading week which ended Aug. 3, as deepening drought and trade tensions dramatically impacted wheat and soybean prices. The most active contract for December corn rose 8 cents weekly, or 2.13 percent, to 3.8425 dollars per bushel. September wheat delivery went up 25.75 cents, or 4.85 percent weekly, to 5.5625 dollars per bushel. November soybeans were up 17 cents, or 1.92 percent, to 9.0225 dollars per bushel. Soybean futures saw significant ups and downs this week. Hopes that Washington and Beijing could go back to the negotiating table pushed up prices during the first two sessions. However, escalating tensions with more tariffs being announced against each other dragged down the oil seeds. Short-covering on Friday managed to drive up the soybean futures, which ended this week in the positive territory. CBOT wheat futures soared almost five percent weekly amid declining world supply due to extreme weather conditions. Drought has hit France, Germany, Black Sea area and Australia, all are key wheat exporters. Talks that Ukraine will cap its wheat export sales once triggered panic in the market, but an official denial gave some relief to traders. Russian wheat prices have also moved higher over the last few weeks, driving world prices and U.S. futures prices up as well. CBOT wheat only retreated on Friday as a result of profit-taking. Still, the prices have reached three-year highs, and the bullish trend will probably stay. Corn futures followed wheat's rally to two-month highs. Like wheat, major exporter stocks will be tight this year. Market observers expect record large demand for U.S. corn export, which will pull corn upwards through harvest. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its weekly crop progress report, showing that corn and soybean good/excellent ratings remained unchanged from a week ago. Next Friday, the USDA will release its monthly supply and demand report, which will give an updated picture of agricultural commodity markets. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 05:20:08|Editor: yan Video Player Close SAO PAULO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Workers' Party announced on Saturday that for the sixth time in its history, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be its candidate in the Oct. 7 presidential election. Lula is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, but he is the favorite in the polls. This is the first time in Brazil's history that a person who is prisoned has been named as a presidential candidate. The decision was made by the party's 600 delegates during its national meeting in Sao Paulo. "This is a historic moment, Lula is officially our candidate," party president and senator Gleisi Hoffmann said. Lula sent a message from his prison cell which was read during the gathering. In the message, Lula accused judge Sergio Moro, who presided over the Lava Jato case, of trying to "silence" him in order to stop his presidential run. The Workers' Party must formally submit Lula's name to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court on Aug. 15. The court will decide whether to allow Lula as a candidate. The party has not yet named a vice-presidential candidate. Jair Bolsonaro, candidate of the Social Liberal Party, is in second place in the polls. If the court rules in Lula's favor, it would be his sixth time as a presidential candidate. He served as Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 05:25:09|Editor: yan Video Player Close DUBAI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) condemned the terrorist attack that took place inside a mosque in Afghanistan on Friday and extended the condolences to the families of the victims, state news agency WAM reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation expressed in a statement that the Gulf state's "vehement condemnation of these acts of terror, affirming that the blast flies in the face of all human and religious principles and values." The explosion ripped through a mosque during Friday prayers in Gardez, the capital of Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan, killing 39 people and 81 others injured. The ministry reaffirmed the UAE's categorical rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism, without distinction between religions or ethnicities. The ministry reiterated the UAE's solidarity and support to the Afghanistan in countering violence and extremism, calling upon the international community to "uproot the evil of terrorism." Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 05:50:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian presidency slammed the U.S. attempt to liquidate the Palestinian issue as a "conspiracy," saying it comes at the expense of the issue of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Official Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported on Saturday that the Palestinian position comes in response to a U.S. report saying U.S. President Donald Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner would work to dismantle the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and push the issue of the Palestinian refugees off the table of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. "The determination of the Palestinian leadership and the steadfastness of our people will foil all conspiracies to liquidate the Palestinian cause," said a statement published on WAFA. "The issue of refugees is a final status issue, which will only be resolved through negotiations," the statement added. The Palestinian presidency urged the international community and "particularly the UN Security Council to work out a just solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with the resolutions of international community, and to foil any attempt to end the refugees issue." The U.S. report said Kushner "has been quietly trying to do away with the U.S. relief agency that has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades." Kushner's initiate is part of a broader push by the Trump administration and its allies in the congress to strip these Palestinians of their refugee status in the region and take their issues off the table in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the statement said. At least two bills are making their way through congress regarding the issue. One of the bills would limit the U.S. aid to original refugees from 1948. The other one would redirect U.S. funding away from UNRWA and to other local and international agencies. The United States has cut off fund to UNRWA since the beginning of the year by half, narrowing it down to 60 million U.S. dollars, amidst heightened financial crisis the agency suffers from. This came after the U.S. administration threatened to reduce financial support to the Palestinians until they agree to return to the table for peace negotiations with Israel, which has been stalled for four years. UNRWA has been suffering from severe financial difficulties for several years and complained at the end of last year of a budget deficit of 49 million dollars that affects the level of its services. Palestinian officials have said that the U.S. move to reduce UNRWA funds comes in line with the new policy of President Trump to ignore the final issues of the peace process, by removing the issues of Jerusalem and the refugees "off the table," as he tweeted after recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, 2017. The UNRWA has over 700 schools serving almost 525,000 children and offer healthcare for some 3.5 million refugees through a network of 150 clinics. In addition, the agency's food and cash assistance program offers some 1.7 million dollars to extremely vulnerable refugees. Throughout the region, UNRWA serves 5.3 million Palestinian refugees. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 06:10:18|Editor: zh Video Player Close Engy Tarek (L), co-founder and deputy chief of Cairo Animal Rescue Team (CART), and her colleague work at a dog shelter in Giza, Egypt, on July 5, 2018. With "the Voice of the Voiceless" as its slogan, Cairo Animal Rescue Team (CART), a vast dog shelter now home to about 800 dogs in Giza province near the Egyptian capital Cairo, sends its volunteers to reported cases of stray dogs in distress, like mangy dogs or those paralyzed, shot in the legs, hit by cars, beaten, burnt or strangled by people. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) by Mahmoud Fouly CAIRO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- "We take care of sick and wounded stray dogs, for they cannot ask for help like humans. We welcome them to their new home and we never return them to the streets after recovery," said Engy Tarek, co-founder and deputy chief of Cairo Animal Rescue Team (CART), a vast dog shelter in Giza province near the Egyptian capital Cairo. With "the Voice of the Voiceless" as its slogan, CART sends its volunteers to reported cases of stray dogs in distress, like mangy dogs or those paralyzed, shot in the legs, hit by cars, beaten, burnt or strangled by people. "We started with 30 dogs five years ago, and now the shelter is home to about 800 dogs," the young lady told Xinhua at the shelter while taking care of a dog wounded by a collar embedded in the neck. The main shelter is located in Awsim district of Giza on an area of less than one feddan (some 4,000 square meters) in addition to a nearby apartment and a villa, all rent by CART to host the animals. Once the main gate opens, hundreds of local street dogs, known in Egypt as baladi dogs, are seen in the spacious main yard with wooden partitions and large bowls of water and food in the middle. They continue barking so loudly when strangers come in. On the left side of the shelter, there are a clinic and a couple of rooms for confined dogs under treatment as well as a couple of rooms for the staff members who have to stay in the shelter and go home only on holidays or vacations. Tarek first met with Abdo Joe, now CART CEO, when they were both individual animal rescuers and they decided to open a licensed dog shelter together. Sharing the same interests, they have become a couple too. Donations cover 20 to 40 percent of the shelter expenses that amount to about 4,000 U.S. dollars per month, and the rest is mostly paid from their own pockets. "Sometimes the donations are insufficient because many Egyptians lack the culture of animal rescue and they'd rather donate for humans," Tarek told Xinhua, urging for promoting the culture of donation for saving animals that cannot ask for help. "Actually, the dogs scream for help and beg for mercy, but most humans don't understand or listen," she lamented. The shelter hosts all kinds of dogs without discrimination, whether they are baladi or breeds such as golden retrievers, huskies, labrador retrievers, German shepherds, pit-bulls, boxers and many others. "Most of the breeds have either been forsaken by their owners or got lost and couldn't adapt with the surroundings to survive. So, we try to provide them with an atmosphere similar to that at home," she explained. The shelter is distinguished with the treatment of most difficult injuries or illnesses and its reception of any case at any time 24/7. CART has a well-known Facebook with tens of thousands of followers where people can report any case nationwide, post the case with a picture and give the address so that the shelter volunteers can go for the dog's rescue. The shelter founders call on the government for support of such rescuing efforts and the parliament for a bill that preserves the lives of such helpless animals. CART has six regular workers excluding the vet. All the workers have gone through a training course on ABC medication, like how to insert a cannula, how to give a shot, what to do when the dog's temperature is too high or too low, etc., but stitching is only done by the vet or his assistant. Sayyid Abdel-Naby, a man in his 30s who has been working for CART since its establishment, said that the shelter managers treat him very well that he doesn't consider himself a worker but an owner of the shelter, which makes him love the place and spare no effort to help the animals. "I initially love animals, particularly dogs, for they are so loyal and they never betray their friends," Abdel-Naby told Xinhua, adding that "while working on some injuries I feel they are in my own body, but when the dog completely recovers I feel I am the happiest person on earth." The veteran rescuer stressed that the decreasing capacity and the limited source of finance are the biggest challenges facing CART due to the growing number of dogs coming to the shelter. Some of the recovered dogs get chances for adoption outside Egypt, such as the United States, Canada, Germany and other Western states. The shelter used to send from 10 to 15 dogs together abroad for adoption, but now the authorities restricted the number to two. Capito, a little recovered baladi dog, is scheduled to travel soon to Germany to be adopted by a family there. Once approved by the authorities and before it travels abroad, the shelter will provide the dog with a certificate including details about its health condition, vaccination and everything, as well as a microchip if available. Although the shelter is meant for dogs, it does not decline any other animal that needs rescue. The shelter also has two donkeys and more than 80 cats that are receiving treatment and rehabilitation. Karima Samir, a female history student in Cairo's Ain Shams University, said it's easy to deal with dogs for their loyalty and kindness, unlike what many people may think, noting that she constantly educates herself about rescuing dogs by reading, surfing the Internet and watching relevant videos. "I feel their pains and needs and I can tell whether they are sick, hungry or thirsty just by a look into their eyes," the young woman told Xinhua, noting that a paralyzed dog and another shot in the legs are the most difficult cases she's currently working on at the shelter. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-05 06:15:18|Editor: zh Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Lawlessness is on the rise in the main rebel stronghold in the northwestern province of Idlib amid explosions and assassinations, a war monitor reported on Saturday. The rebels of the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), also known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, are on alert in Idlib as prisoners with the Islamic State (IS) militants escaped the central prison of Idlib run by the LLC, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some of the fugitives were IS commanders, said the observatory, adding that several explosions have rocked Idlib and increased the state of lawlessness and tension among various rebel groups. Two roadside bombs exploded in the countryside of Idlib on Saturday, leaving property losses, said the Britain-based watchdog group. It added that an explosion rocked a big checkpoint manned by the LLC militants in the town of Sarmin in the countryside of Idlib, causing injuries and damages. Sarmin has witnessed one of the major security operations by the LLC, whose fighters went on house-to-house raids in search of IS sleeper cells, rounding up tens of people, which raised the ire of the locals there, according to the observatory. The observatory said the 265 rebels and others have been killed since April in the countryside of Idlib, and the countryside of the nearby Hama and Aleppo provinces. Some 52 civilians, including eight children and five women, were among those killed in the explosions of roadside bombs and shootings. Idlib has become the main destination for all militant groups, which evacuated areas around Damascus and other key Syrian areas after reaching deals with the army when they got fully besieged. After the army almost dislodged the rebels from the southern region and the countryside of the capital Damascus, Idlib has become the main stronghold of various rebel groups. The striking force in that province is Nusra Front, which is the backbone of the LLC. The population in Idlib is estimated at over 1.5 million, with tens of thousands of rebels and their families resettling there after relocating from the provinces of Hama, Homs, and the countryside of Damascus in recent months. Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs 07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0) Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na... Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant complex in Middletown, PA, September 5, 2017. TMI reactor 1 (right), with its two cooling towers, is still operational, while TMI reactor 2 and its cooling towers is still shut down after the partial nuclear meltdown accident in 1979. The owner of the plant, Exelon Corp., has annouced plans to close the site in 2019 unless the state provides some sort of subsidy. CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer Read more Pennsylvania today ranks second in the nation for nuclear power generating capacity, owed to a long tradition of nuclear energy leadership and technological innovation. But that great history and with it, thousands of good-paying jobs is now at stake. Currently, two of Pennsylvania's five nuclear plants are scheduled to close prematurely. Last year, Exelon announced that Three Mile Island near Harrisburg will close in 2019. And just recently, FirstEnergy announced plans to close its Beaver Valley Power Station located near Pittsburgh within the next three years. This can be avoided. The owners of these power plants believe there is a need for public policy changes that will allow these critically important assets to continue operating by fairly valuing the many benefits provided by nuclear energy. And we agree. >> READ MORE: Don't nuke consumers' wallets by bailing out uncompetitive power plants | Opinion Combined, Three Mile Island and Beaver Valley directly employ nearly 1,500 Pennsylvanians as well as thousands of building and construction trades workers during refueling outages, like those recently employed at Exelon's Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County and Talen Energy's Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Luzerne County. Together, Pennsylvania's five nuclear plants contribute approximately $2 billion to the state economy, are responsible for 16,000 jobs, and contribute $69 million in net state tax revenues annually, which helps fund important community services like schools, roads, and law enforcement. In addition to powering our economy, nuclear energy also keeps our air cleaner. Pennsylvania's five nuclear power plants produce 93 percent of the commonwealth's carbon-free electricity and help avoid 37 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. Nuclear power is the only clean energy source that can reliably produce large amounts of electricity around the clock. These statistics reinforce the message our members and supporters of nuclear energy have been consistently communicating: Nuclear power is vital to our state's economic and environmental health. However, the potential loss of two of our state's five nuclear power plants is something Pennsylvania cannot sustain. >> READ MORE: Three Mile Island fights once again for its nuclear survival We believe this outcome is avoidable as long as policymakers are committed to solving the problem. That's why the members of Boilermakers Local 13 are proud to be part of Nuclear Powers Pennsylvania, a statewide coalition that is working to educate all Pennsylvanians about the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear energy and the industry's positive impact on local communities throughout the Keystone State. These nuclear plants are tremendous assets in many ways assets we can ill afford to lose. The challenges facing nuclear power are very real and must be addressed immediately for the sake of Pennsylvania's economy and the thousands of hard-working Pennsylvanians who depend on the nuclear industry for employment. We are very pleased with the recent announcement from the Pennsylvania Nuclear Energy Caucus expressing great concern about the announcement of the premature retirement of Beaver Valley and look forward to working with all members of the General Assembly to advance policies promoting the long-term economic, environmental, and consumer benefits of nuclear power. Martin Williams Jr. is business manager of Boilermakers Local 13 in Philadelphia and a member of Nuclear Powers Pennsylvania. A woman who prefers to be identified by her nickname "Tank", cleans blood off of the sidewalk on the 2100 block of North 4th Street, Tuesday, July 17, 2018. Multiple people were shot on this block late last night. Read more In Philadelphia, we find out about gun violence from news reports that often sound the same. We are told when and where the incident took place, the age and gender of the victims, what wounds were suffered, how they got to the hospital, their medical conditions, and the state of the police investigation. The conclusion often goes something like this: "There's no word on a motive. No arrests have been made." We feel hopeless. As a Temple trauma surgeon who cares for people injured by guns every day, and as a journalist with decades of experience reporting on gun violence, we know these stories are far more complex than the cursory reports they often receive. We are saddened to see such tragedy in our community discussed this way, seemingly without empathy for those affected or desire for deeper understanding. We believe each of these stories represents a missed opportunity for media to contextualize gun violence, explore its root causes, and offer well-researched solutions. In recent years we have come to recognize that gun violence is a public health problem, which means that it can be prevented. While the public health community has had major success preventing death from vehicle crashes over the past 30 years, mortality rates from gun violence remain unchanged. We need a different approach to save lives, and journalists are a key part of this solution. Instead of six lines of sterile facts about the latest victim, we need to be told why gun violence happens in our city and how shootings can be prevented. What can neighbors, schools, hospitals, advocates, businesses, government, and faith communities do? And what are they doing already? According to a new study from the nonprofit Berkeley Media Studies Group, "Not enough people recognize that violence is preventable, in large part because of the public discourse around gun violence, which portrays it as extreme and inevitable." The authors found that in California, news reports rarely highlighted the connections between gun violence and social inequities, instead favoring "episodic" accounts of individual shooting incidents. To shift the narrative around gun violence to explore causes and solutions, the study recommends that journalists ask questions about the context of gun violence, cultivate sources beyond police and prosecutors, and expand coverage to include other sectors, such as policy, education, health care, and business. In Philadelphia, we know that redlining, an example of historic racism, is geographically linked to modern-day gun violence. We need to hear about this and other structural causes of gun violence in our city regularly in the news. These best practices are really just standard practices. The Code of Ethics set forth by the Society of Professional Journalists directs reporters to provide context, avoid stereotyping, and show compassion. In the case of gun violence, shallow reporting can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and a sense of fear and futility. Comprehensive narratives could prove to be the most effective channel for public health intervention, allowing journalists to set the public agenda and open our minds to solutions. And there are resources and promising examples for journalists to consider. Here in Philadelphia, WURD Radio's Violence Collaborative has been exploring the impact of violence while soliciting solutions from those most directly affected. Even more newsrooms have been collaborating to report thoroughly on adjacent topics including prisoner reentry and poverty, guided in part by the practices of the Solutions Journalism Network. Gun-violence reporting also demands a rigorous approach, with journalists working "to get people to open up to new ideas, rather than closing down in judgment and indignation," according to a recent SJN article, which reminds us that "there are ways to disrupt an intractable conflict." The article cites a study observing that people who read more simplistic stories tend to "get stuck in negativity." However, more complex articles led readers to ask more questions and propose higher-quality ideas, indicating that "when people encounter complexity, they become more curious." Meanwhile, the number of shooting victims in our city is on the rise, and several hundred people have been wounded or killed during the past few months alone. One recent incident left us with a particularly horrific image: a woman washing blood from the sidewalk where four young teens had been gunned down in a mass shooting. This senseless suffering and loss of life must stop. Journalists covering gun violence have exceptional opportunities and responsibilities in beginning to offer solutions to one of the most important problems of our time. Jessica Beard, MD, MPH, is a trauma surgeon, public health researcher, and assistant professor of surgery at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Jim MacMillan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who covered hundreds of gun homicides during 17 years with the Philadelphia Daily News. He serves as the assistant director for external affairs at Temple University's Klein College of Media and Communication. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 09:11:47|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close QUITO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Given the complexity of the diplomatic deadlock surrounding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, it is impossible to "set a timeline or determine when a solution" might be found, Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Valencia said Thursday. Assange has been holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. Ecuador granted the anti-secrecy activist political asylum and citizenship, but Britain has refused to give him safe passage to leave the country, threatening to arrest him should he step foot outside of the building. "The United Kingdom has not changed its position ... we are trying to do what we can so the matter moves along and we can reach an understanding," Valencia said in an interview with Radio Publica. "It's not a simple issue, it's very complicated ... and the complexity springs from the politics involved," he added. While earlier allegations of sexual misconduct, brought against Assange by Swedish prosecutors, have been dropped, Britain has an outstanding arrest warrant stemming from his violating bail terms by taking refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy. An eventual solution must take into account the concerns of all three parties involved: Ecuador, Britain and Assange, said Valencia. "We don't believe any side can individually make a decision and then say this is the solution to the problem. It's an extremely complicated issue with various players," Valencia said. Ecuador, as the country that granted Assange international protection, has to protect his rights, said the top diplomat. His comments come a day after the 47-year-old whistleblower, reportedly in ailing health, called on his native Australia to intervene on his behalf, fearing he may be ejected from the embassy. In February, a British court ruled that the arrest warrant against Assange was still valid, despite that the Swedish authorities no longer want to question him. Assange applied for asylum rather than travel to Sweden to face questioning because he believes the Swedish case was a ploy to have him extradited to the United States, where he stands to be indicted for releasing confidential U.S. government documents. "Those who demand Ecuador find a quick solution forget we have been dealing with this problem for six years," Valencia said. Speaking about Assange's health condition, Valencia said: "He is in an office that doesn't provide day-to-day living space and six years is a long time, and we are worried about that." Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 22:19:25|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore, Aug. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China and Singapore agreed here on Friday to promote multilateralism. The agreement came as Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting and related meetings. China is willing to further enhance high-level contacts and deepen cooperation with Singapore in important projects and fields within the framework of the China- proposed Belt and Road Initiative so as to speed up the construction of the Southern Transport Corridor and implement the third-party market cooperation, Wang said. While Singapore has adopted a successful path of development with Singaporean characteristics, China has also embarked on a successful path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, he noted. "China, based on our own history and cultural traditions, will continue to stick to the path of peaceful development and uphold the mutually beneficial and win-win strategy of opening-up." As responsible countries, Wang said, China and Singapore should join hands with other countries to shoulder due responsibilities, firmly promote multilateralism, maintain international rules and multilateral trade system, push for the building of an open world economy and maintain world peace and development. For his part, Lee said Singapore upholds multilateralism, supports the Belt and Road Initiative and stands ready to work with China to push forward major projects including the Southern Transport Corridor and the third-party market cooperation. He said Singapore understands the positions and measures taken by China to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, and the international rules under the current circumstances. Singapore will continue to support China in expanding its reform and opening-up drive, he added. Lee also said the world today is facing major threats and challenges. He called for enhancing global cooperation with an open mind and inclusive attitude to address uncertainty and instability arising from the evolving situation. Such efforts are of great significance in maintaining enduring peace and development in the region and the world at large, he said. : , , : - , ? : , , , . , , . .- . , , - . . , . . , . . : ? : . . , . , , , . : ? : . , -. - -- -- . , , . . : - , ? : , . , , , , , . - -. Reality check: does social assistance disincentivize people from working?When Ontario Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod announced the government will renege on a campaign promise to preserve the basic income pilot project, she repeated a familiar refrain.It really is a disincentive to get people back on track, MacLeod said.Its an argument Evelyn Forget has heard many people across the country make over the last four decades.Its an idea thats been around forever, says Forget, a professor at the University of Manitoba. It keeps re-emerging and it seems obvious to people. It seems obvious to economists that if you give people money for nothing nobody will work.The problem? That argument doesnt hold up if you look at previous pilot projects, like the one Forget spearheaded in Manitoba in the 1970s.What her work revealed then is being born out now, she says, in the interviews with people across the province who are speaking out about what the loss of the program will mean for their lives.Jody Dean said the money had made it possible for her to go back to school on a part-time basis and to buy parking passes to the Hamilton hospital where one of her three children receives care.Nobody she knows stopped contributing to the economy, as MacLeod alluded to, because of the supplement.I know several girls that are working poor who have walked to work because they couldnt afford the bus. Did they quit their jobs because they got basic income? Hell no, she said.Thats what Forget found in 1970s Manitoba, as well.In that experiment, called Mincome, there was no real change to the job status of primary earners. The only groups for whom there was a change were married women and young, unattached men. The former, predominantly used the funds to buy more maternity leave to spend with their newborns. If you dig into the data for the latter group, Forget said, you realize many of them were young men whose low-income families pressured them into getting jobs at young ages to ease the familys financial burdens.When Mincome came along, some of the families decided they could support their sons in school a little bit longer, she said. There was a nice little increase in high school completion rates. VIEW TO A THRILL Extraordinary moment police chase jetskis in James Bond pursuit on the River Thames Astonishing footage shows scenes reminiscent of 007's getaway in The World Is Not Enough By Phoebe Cooke4th August 2018The SunTHIS is the extraordinary moment police chase jetskis in a James Bond-style pursuit on the River Thames.Astonishing footage shows cops speeding behind the four vehicles as they raced past the Greenwich Pensinsula towards Central London on Friday evening.They then hurtle at high speeds past the 02 Arena where Pierce Brosnan's 007 concluded one of the most memorable Bond boat chases in The World Is Not Enough.Another clip showed the jetskis speeding west of Canary Wharf after evading police boats around the Isle of Dogs.Police responded to reports that vessels were "being driven at speed" through the capital but were forced to let the jetskiiers escape.A Met Police spokesman said: "Police were called at approximately 18:29 on Friday, 03 August to reports of four jet skis driving at speed down the River Thames.Police were forced to abort their mission due to safety reasons "Officers from the Mets Marine Policing Unit (MPU) pursued all four jet skis."The jet skis were approaching central London and the MPU were able to make them change their course."Following this the decision was taken to no longer pursue the jet skis for safety reasons."Personal Water Craft (PWC) such as jetskis are legal anywhere on the Thames, but a strict code of conduct operates where crafts are not supposed to exceed speeds of 10mph within 200m of a shoreline. NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until August 20, 2018 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE: NWL), if they purchased the Companys shares between February 6, 2017 and January 24, 2018, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. What You May Do If you purchased shares of Newell and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-nwl/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 20, 2018. About the Lawsuit Newell and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On January 25, 2018, Newell revealed expected 2017 core sales significantly below previous guidance partly due to ongoing retailer inventory problems and that it was considering significantly restructuring business by divesting industrial and commercial assets, which it anticipated would result in a 50% reduction in its customer base and global factory and warehouse footprint. Further, the Company disclosed the resignations of three members of its Board. On this news, the price of Newells shares plummeted 21% to close at $24.81 per share. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. Contact: PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Gendel Girls, the family behind Breezies, QVCs largest intimate apparel brand, have announced the newest addition to their popular T-Shirt bra line, the Breezies Shine Contour T-Shirt Bra. Based on the immense success of previous, comparable silhouettes - including the Everyday Essential T-Shirt Bra released last summer and the Perfect Shape Side Smoothing T-Shirt Bra released last Spring - the family-run company decided to release an updated bra for women to buy now and wear now as they head into the Fall Fashion season. Featuring the companys brand-new perfect shape contour cups, this bra is engineered with thin soft foam to enhance natural curves with a rounded shape, without adding a cup size; a first for this line. The Breezies Shine Contour T-Shirt Bra is scheduled to debut on QVC during AM Style with Leah Williams on Saturday, August 4, 2018 starting at 7am (ET). When we released our Everyday Essential T-Shirt Bra last summer, we were calling it our standard t-shirt bra on steroids, said Kathy Gendel, Founder and CEO of The Gendel Girls. This silhouette takes it a step further, elevating the basic T-Shirt style and offering women not only the comfort and physical support they need, but also the confidence that comes from wearing the right bra that looks and feels invisible under their clothes. We are working diligently to make Breezies a go-to intimates brand. And Im committed to diversification - launching new products to meet changing market needs and stay ahead of trends. Just this year, Breezies introduced three new styles and continues to beat its own sales records. For instance, in June, the company had their most successful product launch to date - the debut of The Breezies Smooth Radiance Bra on June 8 - selling more than 160,000 units in the first 24 hours. Only a month later, on July 4, the company introduced the Breezies Soft Support Lace Bras, an expansion of their popular bralette line, and outdid themselves once again by selling more than 160,000 units by that afternoon. This launch aims to continue that momentum. Featuring The Gendel Girls signature design technologies that help lift, smooth and shape in all the places women desire most, the Breezies Shine Contour T-Shirt Bra is the perfect, all-in-one solution. In addition to the new contour cups, the inside cups of this bra were designed with The Gendel Girls performance fabric, UltimAir. The special inside sling is also designed to secure a prosthetic enhancer, if needed, to help guide breasts to the center. Keeping comfort as a top priority, the Breezies Shine Contour T-Shirt Bra also features: Two-ply, smoothing back wings which are wider than previous silhouettes helping to keep the back band from riding up and straps in place. A shimmer micro outer layer and a breathable power mesh liner; the back wings also provide a lot of support as they wrap comfortably around body. Fully adjustable, supportive straps to accommodate a wider range of customer heights while maintaining uplift through larger sizes. A foam underwire cover to provide additional padding between body and underwire. Hook and eye center back closure, dyed to match nylon coated hardware for a continuous look. The Breezies Shine Contour T-Shirt Bra is available in two styles: Underwire (QVC Item #A309015) and Wirefree (QVC Item #A309018), and in a variety of colors including two new colors: indigo and orchid, in addition to black, white and sunbeige. This item is scheduled to be available beginning August 4, while supplies last, through QVC.com, the QVC apps or by calling 800.345.1515. About The Gendel Girls Kathy Gendel and her husband Craig left corporate jobs to start a lingerie business in 1994. After a lot of perseverance and a lucky encounter on Madison Avenue, they found a home at QVC, where The Gendel Girls patented performance fabric, UltimAir, has made Breezies the largest intimate apparel brand on the network. Based outside Philadelphia and operating on a family farm, The Gendel Girls are first and foremost a family business with Kathy, the CEO, at the helm and her three daughters: Kalina Gendel, Chief Operating Officer, and Laurissa Gendel, President, in tandem leadership, and Catherine Gendel, VP of Creative Marketing. One of only a handful of on-air family personalities in the entire home-shopping genre, The Gendel Girls have been a mainstay on QVC for 23 years with an average annual growth increase of 22.5%. During that time, they have sold millions of bras and panties worldwide. For more information, please visit Gendel-Girls.com QVC, Inc., QVC, the Q and Q Ribbon Logo are registered service marks of ER Marks, Inc. and QVC, Inc. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/58db8bc1-0ac9-4e5f-b407-e3de06254730 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8da8e909-0eee-49ac-90e9-506124c56c61 Press Contact Christine Perez-ORourke DiGennaro Communications christine@digennaro-usa.com 212.966.9525 NEW YORK, Aug. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Bank or the Company) (NYSE: DB) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 18-cv-05104, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Deutsche Bank securities between March 20, 2017 through May 30, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Deutsche Bank securities between March 20, 2017, and May 30, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until August 6,, 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] Deutsche Bank is a global financial service provider delivering commercial, investment, private, and retail banking. The Bank offers debt, foreign exchange, derivatives, commodities, money markets, repo and securitization, cash equities, research, equity prime services, loans, convertibles, advice on M&A and IPO's, trade finance, retail banking, asset management, and corporate investments. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Deutsche Banks internal control environment and infrastructure were materially weak and deficient; and (ii) as a result, Deutsche Banks statements about the Companys business and operations were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On May 31, 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Federal Reserve has designated Deutsche Banks U.S. business to be in troubled condition, citing concerns about its controls around measuring financial exposure to clients and valuing collateral that backed loans. The article further reported that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has added Deutsche Banks subsidiary Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas to its problem banks list of at-risk institutions. On this news, Deutsche Banks share price fell $0.49, or 4.24%, to close at $11.08 on May 31, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 Ext. 9980 NEW YORK, Aug. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Glencore plc (Glencore or the Company) (OTC MKT: GLNCY) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under index 18-cv-06286, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded Glencore securities from September 30, 2016, and July 2, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Glencore securities from September 30, 2016, to July 2, 2018, you have until September 7, 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] Glencore engages in the production, refinement, processing, storage, transport and marketing of metals and minerals, energy products, and agricultural products worldwide. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Glencores conduct would foreseeably subject it to heightened scrutiny by U.S. and foreign government bodies with respect to the Companys compliance with money laundering and bribery laws and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA); and (ii) as a result, Defendants statements about Glencores business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. On May 18, 2018, Bloomberg reported that the U.K.s Serious Fraud Office was preparing to open a formal bribery investigation into Glencore. On this news, shares of GLNCY fell $0.55 per share, or over 5%, to close at $10.13 per share on May 18, 2018, while shares of GLCNF fell $0.32 per share, or nearly 6%, to close at $5.06 per share on May 18, 2018. Then, on July 3, 2018, pre-market, Glencore disclosed that the U.S. Department of Justice had issued its subsidiary Glencore Ltd a subpoena to produce documents and other records in connection with its compliance with U.S. money laundering statutes and the FCPA. On this news, shares of GLNCY fell $0.86 per share, or over 9%, to close at $8.31 per share on July 3, 2018, while shares of GLCNF fell $0.41 per share, or nearly 9%, to close at $4.20 per share on July 3, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 Ext. 9980 GUWAHATI: Another FIR has been registered in Assam against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her speech warning of 'civil war and bloodbath' in the state over the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) issue. This is the fourth FIR that has been registered against her in the ongoing row. The FIR accuses Banerjee of making an inflammatory speech that was aimed at disrupting communal harmony and order in Assam. Three previous FIR, which level similar charges against the mercurial Trinamool chief since Tuesday, when she made the contentious remarks. "The NRC is being done with a political motive. We will not let this happen. They (BJP) are trying to divide the people. The situation cannot be tolerated. There will be a civil war, bloodbath in the country," Banerjee had said at a conclave of Catholic Bishops in New Delhi on July 31. The response to the remark was quick. A number of political leaders hit out at her, and two members of her own party had quit saying Banerjee had made such a statement without much knowledge of the ground realities in Assam. Mamata Banerjee has been among the loudest voices against the NRC after it was released on July 30. The first draft of the NRC contained the names of 2.89 crore people out of the 3.29 crore who had applied for the inclusion of their names on the rolls. The omission of about 40 lakh names from the first draft had led to immediate accusations from opposition parties that the BJP was using the exercise to target particular communities. However, after its initial attacks, the Congress tempered its stance saying it supports the NRC, but had problems with its implementation. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) had been updated in Assam on the 2014 order of the Supreme Court. The top court said only those who had been living in Assam in 1971 could be considered citizens of India. The demand for the updating the NRC in Assam is an old one. It was a key demand of the Assam Agitation of the early 1980s, which culminated in the Assam Accord of 1985. The agitation had been focused on securing the rights of the people of the state of Assam. The threat, the agitators said, came from the immigrants who had flooded into Assam during and after the events of late-1971 and early-1972, which led to the birth of the nation of Bangladesh. (With inputs from ANI) New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted a healthier future for India if the country remains committed to 100 per cent coverage of safe sanitation services by October of 2019 under PM Narendra Modi's Swacch Bharat Mission. In a report released on Friday, WHO notes that efforts to speed up safe sanitation and bring an end to open defecation have the significant potential of having a detrimental impact on diarrheal disease and PEM. Its calculations show that 3 lakh deaths can be averted in the country each year and that a cumulative 14 million more years of healthy life could be added in the period measured. In simple terms, what the report attempts to highlight is that if Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) - started in 2014 - achieves its outlined objectives, public health and longevity could be enormously boosted. The numbers and the study itself is significant especially because unsafe sanitation before 2014 reportedly caused 199 million cases of diarrhoea each year. The study also takes note that a fair distance has been travelled by India since 2014 with household sanitation coverage jumping by over 13 per cent annually between the years 2016 and 2018. PM Modi himself has been at the helm of the Swacch Bharat Mission and has time and again urged people to adopt safe sanitation practices. In rural areas, people are even provided monetary incentives to help them build toilets. The Swacch Bharat Mission was launched on October 2 of 2014 and aims to bring an end to open defecation in the entire country by 2019. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday continued attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government over Rafale fighter jet deal, alleging that Rs 1,30,000 crore was stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt. Attributing the remark to former defence minister and senior Congress leader AK Antony, Rahul Gandhi tweeted, One of the highlights of todays CWC meeting, was Mr Antonys brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 Cr. stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt. One of the highlights of todays CWC meeting, was Mr Antonys brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 Cr. stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt. #RafaleScam Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 4, 2018 This came even as the Congress Working Committee on Saturday decided that the fight over Rafale deal would be taken to the streets. Rahul Gandhi had last week alleged that Indian taxpayers would pay Rs 1 lakh crore to friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the maintenance of Rafale fighter jets. Targeting Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the issue, the Gandhi scion added that Raksha Mantri will address a Press CON to deny this. The Congress president alleged that the said amount would be paid by Indian taxpayers over the next 50 years. Sharing part of an investor Presentation of Anil Ambanis Reliance Infrastructure Limited, the Gandhi scion tweeted, Over the next 50 years, Indian Tax Payers will pay Mr 56s friends JV, 100,000 Cr to maintain 36 #RafaleScam jets, India is buying. Raksha Mantri will address a Press CON to deny this, as usual. But the truth is in the presentation Im attaching. Rahul Gandhi has been attacking Prime Minister Modi-led NDA government at the Centre over the Rafale deal relentlessly since the no-confidence motion debate in Parliament wherein he had alleged that the Defence Minister had lied to the nation under pressure from the Prime Minister. On July 24, the Congress president had alleged that the country had seen 4 revolving Raksha Mantris to give Prime Minister Modi space to personally re-negotiate Rafale deal with France. NEW YORK, Aug. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against TAL Education Group (TAL or the Company) (NYSE: TAL) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 18-cv-06440, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired TAL securities between April 26, 2018 and June 13, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased TAL securities between April 26, 2018, and June 13, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until August 17, 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] TAL provides educational services and offers comprehensive tutoring services to students covering core academic subjects such as mathematics, English, Chinese, physics, and chemistry. TAL primarily provides services in China. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) TAL overstated its net income; (ii) TALs net income was in fact deteriorating; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, TALs public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On June 13, 2018, Carson Block issued a report accusing TAL of issuing fraudulent profit figures by overstating net income, net income margin and other essential accounting metrics. On this news, TALs ADR price fell $4.54, or over 9.95%, to close at $41.11 on June 13, 2018, on unusually heavy trading volume. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 In a fresh case concerning shelter homes in Bihar, as many as 20 women have reportedly gone missing from one being run by an NGO called Prayas Bharti. According to sources, the officials of the shelter home, located in Sadisopur in Bihta area of Bihar, have also gone missing. As per the latest information, the women and the NGO officials went missing shortly after the case concerning sexual abuse and rape of 34 girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home came to light. Earlier, a case was filed about 10 women who allegedly went missing from the Bihta shelter home. This comes on a day when the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is slated to stage a protest against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JDU-BJP government in Bihar over the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on Saturday. Urging people to come out in large numbers for the protest, RJD leader and former Bihar chief minister Tejashwi Yadav took to microblogging site Twitter, saying, Come Delhi, join us today at Jantar-Mantar in evening for dignity and safety of Bharat Matas daughters. #MuzaffarpurMassRape. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are also expected to join the protest. On Saturday, Kejriwal also took to Twitter asking people to join the RJD protest at Jantar Mantar. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also taken suo motu cognizance in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, with a division bench comprising Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta issuing a notice to Bihar Government and the Centre seeking a detailed reply over the issue. Brijesh Thakur is the prime accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home case. At least 34 girls were sexually assaulted at the shelter home. He has also been named in a case pertaining to another shelter home run by him. Eleven women have reportedly gone missing from the shelter home. PATNA: Three prominent women leaders of Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United on Saturday wrote a scathing open letter to state's former chief minister Rabri Devi urging her to expel those involved in anti-social and immoral acts from her party RJD. The JDU leaders' letter was in response to Tejashwi Yadav's open letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in which he had questioned the latter's ''criminal silence'' over the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal. The open letter, which was written by three JD(U) women spokespersons Anjum Ara, Shweta Vishwas and Bharti Mehta, urged Rabri Devi not to give entry into her house several RJD figures who have been chargesheeted for their alleged involvement in immoral trafficking case. The letter urged Rabri Devi mother of Tejashwi Yadav and wife of veteran Bihar politician Lalu Yadav to expel Mani Prakash Yadav who has been jailed and chargesheeted in an immoral trafficking case. Mani Prakash Yadav had served as PA of Tejashwi Yadav when he was Deputy CM in the Grand Alliance government. The JD(U) spokespersons letter to Rabri Devi preceded a sit-in being staged by her son and leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi in connection with sexual abuse of minor girls in a state-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur. In their letter, the JDU leaders also referred to a case registered against Mani Prakash Yadav with the Gandhi Maidan police station for allegedly indulging in immoral trafficking. "Mani Yadav has not only been chargesheeted in the case but had been in jail too in the case," the letter said. "You are a woman and has served as CM also. You can not only feel the pain and agony of a girl/woman but can also understand the duty of a mother," they said. The three JD(U) spokespersons also alleged that Rabri Devi has failed in her duty to instill good qualities (sanskar) in her sons- Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav. "The reality is that you could neither give good qualities of a politician (rajnaitik sanskar) to your sons nor could educate them on character building," the trio said in the letter. Apart from the environment of the house, the environment of one's surroundings too has its impact on the upbringing of the children, the open letter said. The letter also pointed to the fact that "some unidentified persons had attacked Tejashwi and Tej Pratap on January 1, 2008, for passing lewd remarks against girls on three different places - Ashoka hotel, Connaught Place and Mahrauli farmhouse - on the occasion of New Year bash." But you did not control your sons, it added. It has also been alleged in the letter that the "two brothers saw RJD legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav, who served jail term in a case of rape of a minor girl, visiting party chief Lalu Prasad's residence which had its deep and adverse impact on them." Tejashwi Yadav had on Friday written an open letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his "criminal silence" on one of the world's most horrifying institutional mass rape case. The RJD, backed by several parties is leading a demonstration at the Jantar Mantar over the Muzaffarpur scandal and demanding Nitish Kumar's resignation for the JDU government's alleged cover-up on the issue. (With Agency inputs) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Saturday took a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the latters mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis Italian origin. Addressing a public meet in Rajasthans Rajsamand, the BJP chief said that he doesnt know Italian, else he would have answered Rahul Gandhi in that language. Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had launched more than 100 schemes for the people of Rajasthan, Shah targeted the Congress over asking about what the BJP had done. Rahul baba if you know counting then count, I don't know Italian else I would have told you in Italian how much we have given to public. Modi government has brought 116 schemes for Rajasthan populace and still Congress asks what BJP has done, said the BJP national president. The BJP president made the remark as he flagged off Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Rajes Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra from Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand. The 58-day yatra has been launched by the Rajasthan BJP to make people aware of the work done by the state and the central government ahead of Assembly elections, scheduled later this year. Raje and Shah offered prayers at the temple before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president. After the flagging off of the yatra, they left for a helipad nearby to head to Kankroli city in the district to address the first meeting of the tour. The 'rath' will reach Kankroli by road and will be used by Raje for her onward journey. During the yatra, Raje will spend 40 days touring and addressing public meetings and the remaining 18 will be off. The 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' will cover 165 of the total 200 assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. At least 11 workers were killed in a powerful explosion that took place on Friday night at a stone quarry of Hathi Belgal in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, police said. Five more people, who were labourers working at the site, got injured and were rushed to the Aluru Government Hospital for treatment. However, one among them succumbed to injuries. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the bereaved. He ordered Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishnamurthy and Mining Minister ao and monitor the operations at the spot. Earlier he had expressed shock over the incident and extended condolences to the families. He spoke to the district authorities and directed them to ensure proper treatment of the injured. Naidu also ordered the district collector to intensify the operations. According to SP, Kurnool, other four are declared out of danger and still undergoing treatment. Reportedly, the fire that broke out in the quarry, spread to the nearby area and burnt three tractors, one lorry and two sheds to ashes. All the victims are said to be hailing from Odisha and came here for work. The explosion occurred when regular quarrying work was being carried out in the quarry in Hathi Belgal under Aluru mandal, an investigating officer said over the phone. "At least 20 workers were said to be at the spot when the gelatine sticks used for blasting the quarry exploded. The sudden explosion trapped the workers, triggering the fatalities," the officer said. Search is on to trace if there are any survivors, he added. Firefighters were rushed to the spot. "A case has been registered U/s 304 part-2 IPC, section 3 & 5 of Explosive substances act. We are verifying the incident. The accused responsible for the incident will be arrested soon," said the SP. The leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and JanaSena Party chief Pawan Kalyan also expressed grief and extended sympathies to the bereaved families. (with inputs from ANI and PTI) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday took over probe of Finnish-national Felix Dahl's death case. Bombay High Court at Goa transferred the probe to CBI which was earlier being carried out by the Goa Police. The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court had earlier on July 6th directed the CBI to take over the murder probe. The Court issued an orders stating that the police probe into Dahl's death was "not indicative of fair and impartial." 22-year-old man Felix Dahl was found dead outside a local's house in Goa's Canacona on January 28th, 2015. The Panaji bench had asked the state government to wake up to the alarming issue of foreigners' deaths in the coastal state. "We are not commenting on the correctness of the cause in every case, but such occurrences themselves and the resultant situations are not conducive for the perception about the existence of the Rule of Law," Justices Prithviraj K. Chavan and N.M. Jamdar had said in the order. "We are of the opinion that the state of Goa should take a review of this situation on a priority basis. The state could consider setting up a Special Cell headed by a senior officer to deal with such investigations. The state may consider not to let such investigations remain in the hands of the local police alone. We trust that the state will take appropriate positive steps in this regard," the order said. According to official statistics, 245 foreigners have died in Goa over the last 21 years. The High Court order was followed by a petition of the deceased`s mother Minna Pirhonen, who had petitioned the Court to seek a CBI probe into her son`s death in 2015. Police had dismissed the death as an unnatural death, while his mother believes that Felix was murdered. "A Constitutional court cannot remain a mute spectator when an apparent faulty and prejudiced investigation is meandering towards a predetermined end. It is, therefore, necessary to transfer the investigation of this case to an outside and competent investigatory agency. "CBI has been chosen by the High Courts in several cases. Considering the case from all angles, we are satisfied that it is necessary to transfer the investigation of this case to the CBI," the order said. The order also said it was important to transfer the case to the CBI because of the backdrop of the series of deaths of foreign tourists as well as to ensure that the murder probe does not become a casualty at the hands of "myopic officers" of the local police station. (With Agency inputs) (With inputs from Shadab Siddiqui) NEW DELHI: The newly-constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) - the party's highest decision-making body met on Saturday during which the current political situation and key issues, including the Rafale fighter jet deal, the Assam National Register of Citizen (NRC) and the PNB scam involving fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi were thoroughly discussed. During the meeting, the CWC members agreed to chalk out an effective strategy to corner the Narendra Modi-led NDA government on various counts. The CWC members also agreed to escalate attack on the BJP dispensation over its alleged inaction against Nirav Modi and his relative Mehul Choksi the key accused in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam and its dilly-dallying on the cost of the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) survey in Assam. While maintaining that the concept of NRC was introduced by the Congress party, the CWC members alleged that the Narendra Modi government was trying to take political mileage by polarising the issue. The CWC maintained that the party is not against the Assam NRC but stressed that it should be done according to the Assam Accord signed during former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's tenure. Slamming the Narendra Modi government over the Assam NRC, the CWC said the highly sensitive exercise has been "tardy" and has led to massive insecurity in Assam. The final NRC draft, which was published on July 30, has excluded 40 lakh people and made them vulnerable, it said. Among key decisions, the CWC decided to launch a mass movement under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi against the Narendra Modi government on the issue of corruption and urged all its party leaders, office-bearers and its cadres to mobilise people's support for the same. The CWC said that a detailed roadmap for the party's upcoming agitation against the BJP government would be unveiled soon. During the CWC meet, the members mocked the Narendra Modi government's slogan of 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas' and said that it was actually Bhagoron ka Sath, Bhagoron Ka Vikas' claiming that the government was absolutely clueless about PNB scam fraudster Mehul Choksi managed to take the citizenship of Antigua and Nirav Modi, who was absconding ever since the scam was unearthed. The CWC members also discussed the preparations for the Assembly polls in four states this year and the issue of alliances for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The CWC also sought an explanation from the Modi government on the clean chit given by the Foreign Ministry to Mehul Choksi which helped him in getting the citizenship of Antigua. Expressing concerns over various bank-related scams to the tune of 74,000 crore, the CWC alleged that the big loan defaulters were raoming freely due to the aleged patronage of the Modi governemnt to them. Addressing a press briefing after the CWC meet, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, ''We discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended todays meeting.'' The CWC met today. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country & the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended todays meeting. pic.twitter.com/QTPM8ltO51 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 4, 2018 Senior CWC member and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said, ''The issues of Assam NRC Draft Bill, corruption, bank fraud cases and Rafale deal were discussed in the CWC meet. Discussions were also held on the issue of unemployment. We have also started preparations for upcoming elections in four states.'' Issues of NRC Draft Bill, corruption, bank fraud cases and Rafale deal were discussed in CWC. Discussions were held on the issue of unemployment. We have also started preparations for upcoming elections in four states: Congress leader Ashok Gehlot pic.twitter.com/CklIaQwj79 ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 The CWC meeting, which was presided by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, was attended by former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Ashok Gehlot, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik and many others. Former Congress chief and UPA Sonia Gandhi could not attend the CWC meeting, the sources said. This was the second meeting of the newly-constituted CWC, the party's highest decision-making body, under the chairmanship of Rahul Gandhi. NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Saturday busted a car-stealing racket involving three criminals who reportedly targeted high-end vehicles. As many as ten cars were recovered from the group. The police also confiscated keys to 64 luxury cars from the gang's possession. Earlier on April 11, Delhi Police arrested a gang of four people for a similar crime. The gang also targeted high-end vehicles and sold the cars outside NCR. As many as 16 high-end cars - including Audi, Fortuner and Creta were recovered from the gang's possession. It was suspected that while over a dozen of these cars were recovered, the gang members could have in fact stolen as many as 55 vehicles since beginning their nefarious operation. Delhi surpasses every other city in India in terms of number of cars on its roads. It is also a key market for luxury car makers with more and more high-end vehicles being sold. With the rise in sales of these vehicles, instances of them being stolen have also been on the rise. Police officials in the past have said that regular patrolling and barricading colony and many main roads at night has deterred thieves from getting away. New Delhi: The Central Government has cleared the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium to elevate Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, K M Joseph, for the appointment of a judge of the apex court. In addition to this, the government has also appointed Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Indira Banerjee and Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court Vineet Sharan to the apex court. The three judges can take oath in the Supreme Court on Monday. Actually, the government had accepted the recommendation of the Collegium sent for the second time to appoint Justice Joseph. After the appointment of these three new judges, the number of judges will be 25 in the Supreme Court. The judiciary and the government were struggling for the past seven months to promote Justice Joseph to the Supreme Court. Joseph's promotion became a question of prestige between the two. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended Joseph's name for the first time on January 10 but after the government had kept pending the recommendation for four months, the name of Joseph was sent back to the collegium for reconsideration. The government had questioned the seniority of Justice Joseph after sending back the recommendation. It also said that Justice Joseph originally comes from the Kerala High Court and Kerala already has adequate representation in the Supreme Court. It added that there are many other states from where there is no representation in the apex court. After this, there was a sharp reaction from the judiciary. Retd. Justice J Chelameswar had written a letter to the Chief Justice and had asked that the recommendation is sent again. Apart from this, the other member of the Collegium, Justice Kurien Joseph, had also asked about the recommendation. After this, the Collegium had again recommended the name of Justice Joseph, bypassing the Government's objections on July 20. The Collegium had said it had sent the recommendation after deeply mulling over the objections raised in the letters of the Government on April 26 and April 30. A fortnight after the Alwar lynching incident, another person was allegedly lynched by villagers on suspicion of cattle theft this time in a Haryana village, as reported by news agency ANI on Saturday. In the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, the man was beaten to death in Behrola village of Haryana's Palwal district. Two other persons accompanying him fled from the spot. A case has been filed against three bothers who are accused of beating the man to death and one of them has been arrested. The body has been sent for post-mortem. The incident comes just after over two weeks of the Alwar lynching incident. In Rajasthan's Alwar a 28-year-old Muslim man, named Akbar Khan, was beaten to death by an angry mob on the suspicion of being a cow smuggler. The police have arrested two suspects in connection with the case even as the Rajasthan government has assured proper investigation and stringent action. Reacting to several provocative statements made by right-wing outfits and politicians in the aftermath of the Alwar lynching incident, SP leader Azam Khan urged the Muslims to stay away from dairy business and cow trading for ''the safety of their upcoming generations.'' "My request to Muslims who are in dairy business and cow trading is to stop it for the safety of their upcoming generations. At a time when some politicians are saying that one must face dire consequences of just touching a cow, Muslims should stay away from such trade," Khan said. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had also condemned the incident and assured stern action against the culprits. Several cases of lynching and mob violence have been reported from across the country in the recent past. In an attempt to keep a check on increasing incidents of mob lynching, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is exploring the possibility of making amendments in the Indian Penal Code. Earlier, according to a senior official, the government intends to define mob lynching as a penal offence. Besides, the government is considering another option of drafting a model law, which can be adopted by states to prevent incidents of mob lynching. The official said that the discussions for the same are in preliminary state, in the wake of the Supreme Courts order directing Centre to formulate a new law. An Air India flight from Milan to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi got delayed by over two hours on Friday as an unruly passenger tried to enter the cockpit of the aircraft. The passenger was identified as Gurpreet Singh and the flight, AI 138, got delayed by two hours and 37 minutes due to his act. After the flight landed in the national capital, the man was handed over to police by Air India staff members. There were 250 people on board the flight when the man made attempts to enter the cockpit, causing a security scare. Amid commotion on the flight, the pilot decided to take the aircraft back to Milan. According to news agency ANI, he dumped fuel and be light enough to return to land in Milan almost an hour after taking off. Before its departure from Milan, the flight had been refuelled for the eight-hour flight to New Delhi. NEW YORK, Aug. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against National Beverage Corp. (National Beverage or the Company) (NYSE: FIZZ) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, and docketed under 18-cv-61631, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired National Beverage securities between July 17, 2014 and July 3, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased National Beverage securities between July 17, 2014, and July 3, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until September 17, 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] National Beverage, through its subsidiaries, develops, produces, markets, and sells a portfolio of flavored beverage products in North America and internationally. The Company offers beverages to the active and health-conscious consumers, including sparkling waters under the LaCroix, LaCroix Curate, LaCroix NiCola, and Shasta Sparkling Water brand names. It serves retailers, as well as various up-and-down-the-street accounts through the take-home, convenience, and food-service distribution channels. The Company sells and markets its products through an internal sales force, as well as specialized broker networks. On May 4, 2017, National Beverage issued a press release stating that it employs methods that no other company does in this areaVPO (velocity per outlet) and VPC (velocity per capita). National Beverage asserted that it utilize[s] two proprietary techniques to magnify these measures and this creates growth never before thought possible. On May 5, 2017, National Beverage issued a second press release, stating that [o]ur impressive VPO calculator . . . is flashing solid green numbers as we bring FY2017 to a close. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) National Beverages sales claims and the supposed underlying proprietary techniques lacked a verifiable basis; (ii) National Beverages Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Defendant Nick A. Caporella (Caporella), engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct between 2014 and 2016; and (iii) as a result, National Beverages public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On December 8, 2017, National Beverage issued a press release announcing its financial and operating results for the period ended October 28, 2017. Notwithstanding the Companys representations in its May 2017 press releases with respect to creat[ing] growth never before thought possible, analyst Laurent Grandet of Credit Suisse assigned an underperform rating to the Companys stock. Grandet noted that National Beverages business was driven almost entirely by the success of its LaCroix sparkling water brand, the growth trajectory of which was in fact slowing. That same day, Maxim analyst Anthony Vendetti reiterated a sell recommendation for National Beverage stock, noting that its numerous weak brands and opaque financial reporting made its sale highly unlikely. On this news, National Beverages share price fell $11.91, or 10.56%, to close at $100.84 on December 8, 2017. On June 26, 2018, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled The SEC Has Had Its Own Questions About LaCroix, reporting that National Beverage had declined to provide the SEC with requested sales figures to clarify [National Beverages] sales claims, following a letter request from the SEC in January 2018. On this news, National Beverages share price fell $9.75, or 8.87%, to close at $100.19 on June 27, 2018. Then, on July 3, 2018, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled Billionaire Behind LaCroix Accused of Improper Touching by Two Pilots. The article reported, in part, that [t]wo pilots have filed lawsuits alleging sexual harassment . . . claiming 82-year-old Nick A. Caporella inappropriately touched them on multiple trips while they were flying with him in the cockpit of his business jet and that [t]he suits claim the unwanted touching occurred on more than 30 trips from 2014 to 2016. On this news, National Beverages share price fell $2.90, or 2.64%, over the following two trading days, closing at $107.04 on July 6, 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 NEW DELHI: In a massive show of strength, several opposition parties on Saturday joined Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD's protest at the Jantar Mantar in the national capital against the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. In a big boost to Tejashwi Yadav, Congress president Rahul Gandhi also joined the RJD protest against the Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex case. Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi at protest led by RJD against Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. pic.twitter.com/jZ7VTnP5bD ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 Speaking at the occasion, Rahul Gandhi said, ''What happened in Muzaffarpur is highly unfortunate. If Nitish Kumar Ji is really ashamed of what happened in Muzaffarpur, then he should take strict action against the culprits to ensure justice to the minor girls who were sexually abused and tortured at the shelter home there.'' ''Today, we have gathered here for the women of our country and we stand with them,'' Rahul said. We have gathered here for the women of our country and we stand with them. If Nitish ji is really feeling ashamed then he should take immediate action: Congress President Rahul Gandhi at protest led by RJD against Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/9gwtMXg1W7 ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 The Gandhi scion also urged the gathering to observe a minute of silence to express solidarity to the victim of the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal. CPI's D Raja, Atul Kumar Anjan, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal were among the prominent Opposition leaders who joined the RJD protest against the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, at the Jantar Mantar. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Jantar Mantar to join the protest against Bihar government led by RJD on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. pic.twitter.com/u7s1CFmYbo ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 The leaders voiced their anguish over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and questioned the JDU government's stoic silence on the issue. Various speakers at the protest venue demanded stringent punishment against those involved in the heinous crime. Ahead of the protest, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had urged people to come out in large numbers to participate in the protest. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the former Bihar deputy chief minister said, Come Delhi, join us today at Jantar-Mantar in evening for dignity and safety of Bharat Matas daughters. #MuzaffarpurMassRape. According to political observers, the RJD sponsored protest has also provided another platform to Opposition parties to showcase their unity against the NDA ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha battle. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had also urged Delhiites to join the candlelight protest at Jantar Mantar at 5 pm on Saturday, and Congress president Rahul Gandhi have already extended their support to the RJD's protest against the Bihar government. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has taken a Suo Motu cognizance in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, with a division bench comprising Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta issuing a notice to Bihar Government and the Centre seeking a detailed reply over the issue. The chorus for Janata Dal-United (JDU) leader Nitish Kumar's resignation gained momentum after a photograph of the owner of the shelter home, Brijesh Thakur, being felicitated by the Chief Minister, emerged. Thakur is the prime accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home case. At least 34 girls were sexually assaulted at the shelter home. He has also been named in a case pertaining to another shelter home run by him. Eleven women have reportedly gone missing from the shelter home. Tejashwi and his party RJD has been targeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzzafarpur. Under attack from several quarters, the Bihar government has handed over the case, which has come as a major blot to the clean image of Nitish Kumar, to the CBI. (With Agency inputs) A court in Jodhpur in Rajasthan has ruled that Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, who is convicted in the blackbuck poaching case, will need its permission every time he travels abroad. The actor had moved an application seeking exemption from order that made it mandatory for him to seek courts permission for foreign travel. The prosecution had argued that the actor must not be given permanent exemption as the arguments in the case, concerning an appeal filed by Salman Khan, would close soon. The Dabangg actor had appealed against the five-year sentence in the blackbuck poaching case. Salman Khans lawyer had argued before the court that being an actor, his profession demanded him to often travel abroad. Lawyer Mahesh Bora had cited an earlier exemption by a High Court, even as he recalled the grounds on the basis of which Khan was earlier acquitted by the High Court in two other poaching cases, and by the trial court in a case against him under the Arms Act. Salman Khan was convicted for the black buck shooting in Kankani village near Jodhpur on the night of October 1, 1998, during the shooting of Sooraj Barjatyas Hum Saath Saath Hain. The actor was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. After spending two nights in jail, the 53-year-old actor was granted a bail by the court. The court, however, had said that the actor would need its permission if he wanted to travel abroad while out on bail. In a shocking incident, a 32-year-old Dalit man was allegedly set on fire by two men in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district on Friday after he refused to share a packet of 'gutkha'. Pardesi, the victim, had a verbal spat with the two accused Rahul and Raju Thakur over sharing 'gutkha'. The two accused allegedly assaulted the victim first. They then poured kerosene and set him on fire in Satoha village on Friday night, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Vinay Singh Chauhan. People rushed towards him and doused the fire. According to reports, Pardesi received 20 percent burns and has been hospitalised. He is out of danger, Chauhan said. Search is on for the two accused, who are absconding, he added. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: In what could be a first, a teacher at a prominent theatre training institute in the capital has been accused of molestation by a girl student, the police said on Saturday. A molestation case has been registered against the guest teacher after the National School of Drama (NSD) student alleged that he touched her inappropriately. On August 1, the woman had filed a complaint alleging that she was inappropriately touched by the guest teacher, who had come to conduct an examination, the police said. As part of the examination, she was asked by the guest teacher to enact a scene and during the process, he touched her inappropriately, a senior officer said. The guest teacher is a 62-year-old retired professor. with PTI inputs Nainital: The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday banned the commercial use of elephants in Corbett Tiger Reserve beside restricting the number of vehicles entering its ranges in a day to 100. The order came after the court was apprised that elephants were chained and ill-treated and some of them were used commercially by the owners of the resorts in Corbett Tiger Reserve area despite being blind, causing immense cruelty to the pachyderms. The division bench of Justice Rajeev Sharma and Lokpal Singh held that their captivity was in violation of sections 40 and 42 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1975. "The chief wildlife warden through the concerned DFOs is also directed to issue notices to the owners of the elephants to explain under what law they are using the elephants commercially, including joyrides, in breach of the Wildlife Protection Act," the court said. It further directed the chief wildlife warden through the DFOs to take over the possession of elephants from the owners by issuing proper documents for their treatment, medical examination and upkeep within 24 hours. The elephants shall be temporarily kept at Rajaji National Park, Chilla. The injured/maimed elephants shall be attended to by the veterinary doctors within 12 hours from today, the order said. The high court also directed the state government that not more than 100 vehicles, including private and commercial gypsies, be permitted to enter Sitabani, Bijrani and Dhela zones of Corbett Tiger Reserve, including Kalagarh and Rajaji National Park, in a day. Only vehicles with valid licenses issued by the RTO and concerned DFOs? would be allowed, it said. The Wildlife Institute, Dehradun, was directed to carry out a survey within three months to assess the carrying capacity of these zones for the number of vehicles which could be permitted to ply to avoid disturbance to wildlife. No private vehicle shall be permitted to ply in Sitabani, Bijrani, Dhela zones including Kalagarh and Rajaji National Park. The order came after the court was apprised that there was no restriction on the number of vehicles plying in Ramnagar forest. On Thursday, hearing the same PIL, the court had taken a strict view of deaths of tigers in quick succession in the state, and had warned the government that "if no categorical assurance for the deployment of Special Tiger Protection Force in Corbett Tiger Reserve is given, we may be constrained to request the Ministry of Defence to deploy the Eco-Task Force to protect tigers". The court had said, "It is unfortunate that though the Special Tiger Protection Force has been constituted in the state on May 13, 2014, but till date, it has not been made functional." This year alone, more than nine tigers died in the state and a number of elephants also died due to railway accidents and electrocution, it said.? "The state cannot be a spectator. It is an alarming situation. Remedial measures are required to be taken at the earliest to save the wildlife from poachers and also to relocate/shift van gujjars from the forest areas. "It is also the need of the hour that criminal tribes are kept at bay from the vicinity of national parks to protect wildlife," the court said. ? The court had also directed the chief secretary to submit an affidavit on various queries regarding the matter by today which could not be filed due to paucity of time. The affidavit would now be filed by August 6. JAMMU: The BJP on Saturday said that it is ready for a debate over Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir even as protests continued across the state over the sensitive issue. Meanwhile, the remark from the saffron party came two days ahead of the Supreme Court ruling on a bunch of petitions challenging the provision scheduled to come on August 6. The apex court is expected to take up a batch of petitions, including the one filed by an RSS-linked NGO 'We the Citizens', seeking quashing of the article. "The BJP is open to a debate with anyone or any political party on whether or not Article 35A is in the interest of the people of the state. We are extending an open invitation," J&K BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi told reporters. Sethi said over the last few days, the political climate in the state has heated up over Article 35A and some political parties, especially those active in Kashmir, have taken an "anti-national and anti-people" stand on the issue. The J&K BJP chief also targeted the National Conference (NC) and the Congress for misleading the people in the Kashmir Valley over Article 35A that it is for their betterment and in the interest of the state. "The continuation of Article 35A will not have any benefit for the state. The central government has pumped crores of rupees into the state over the last 70 years but the development has not been as it should have been," he said. Sethgi said that the special constitutional provision has acted as an obstacle in the state's development because it did not allow outside investment. "Investors do not come here to set up Infrastructure. The youth are not getting the jobs," he added. The BJP spokesperson alleged some politicians want to maintain the position for vote bank politics. Responding to a statement by the NC's provincial president Devender Singh Rana that the special provision was introduced by Maharaja Hari Singh to safeguard the interests of the state, Sethi said the situation was different from what it was now when the law was enacted. "It was a princely state and not a part of India at that time. After accession, Jammu and Kashmir became part of India," he said. Accusing Rana of playing politics over the name of Maharaja Hari Singh, Sethi said it was the NC and the Congress who conspired to send the king out of the state and did not allow him to return till death. As a result of Article 35A, West Pakistan refugees, who came to the state in 1947, have been denied the right of being state subjects, which was promised to them, and local girls who marry outside the state lose their right over property, he said. Sethi also made an appeal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir urging them to ''understand the real purpose of Article 35A.'' It is like an iron chain which is keeping us from moving forward. If the state subject laws change, it will benefit the state," Sethi said. He said if the article is repealed, new laws could be made to pave way for industrial growth and to prevent outsiders from settling in residential areas. Meanwhile, the National Conference (NC) and its arch rival PDP on Saturday took out separate protest rallies in Srinagar. The separatists and mainstream leaders called for dismissing the PIL before the Supreme Court. MLA Khanyar Mohammad Sagar led hundred of party workers, carrying banners and placards, from the NC headquarters Nawai-e-Subah to Sher-e-Kashmir park. One of the banners read, If there are no Articles 35A and 370, then there is no accession (of Jammu and Kashmir to India). The PDP also took out a rally from its office near the Sher-e-Kashmir park. Led by NC general secretary Nizamuddin Bhat and MLA Khursheed Alam, the protesters marched towards Lal Chowk but were stopped by the police. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), called for a two-day shutdown on Sunday and Monday across the state. Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. (With Agency inputs) A day after a fierce gunbattle between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian, fresh round of firings were reportedly heard on Saturday morning here. Four terrorists have been gunned down, apart from one killed on Friday. Internet services have been suspended in the area. The firing was heard in Killora village where security forces had exchanged fire with terrorists on Friday as well. One of the terrorists shot dead on Friday night has been identified as a Lashkar-eTaiba terrorist called Umar Malik. He was found carrying an AK-47. Security forces eventually recovered bodies of all five slain terrorists and have concluded operations. It is reported that one civilian also lost his life in the incident. We had info that a group of terrorists are there in the area (Shopian's Killora village). J&K police, Army, CRPF cordoned the area. A terrorist was killed in encounter last night. Firing was resumed today & bodies of 4 more terrorists were recovered. Operation called off: J&K DGP pic.twitter.com/x7hnHFaDfl ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 This week has seen a number of gunbattles between security personnel and terrorists. On Thursday, two Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists were killed in an encounter after they fired upon security forces in the Kupwara district, police said. An INSAS rifle, snatched earlier this week from a policeman in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir, was recovered from the terrorists, they said. "They were affiliated to the proscribed terror outfit HM. Both the terrorists were involved in several attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities in the area," the spokesman said. He said besides an INSAS rifle, and an AK-47, was snatched from a policeman in Kandhar area of Kupwara on Tuesday, was recovered from the slain terrorists. (With agency inputs) SRINAGAR: Wanted Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist Naveed Jatt was on Saturday spotted at the funeral of a terrorist who was among five killed by the security forces in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district. Naveed Jatt, who fled from the police custody earlier this year, is wanted in connection with several cases of attack on the security forces and civilians in Kashmir. The matter came to light after pictures of Jatt offering a gun salute to slain terrorist Waqar Ahmad Sheikh during his funeral in Shopian made way to the social media and became viral. Waqar Ahmad Sheikh, who was laid to rest in Malikgund village, was among five LeT terrorists who were gunned down in an overnight encounter with security forces in Shopian district of J&K in which a civilian was also killed and 12 others injured. All the five terrorists were local residents and identified as Umer Nazir Malik, Waqar Ahmad Sheikh, Aijaz Ahmad Paul, Arshad Ahmad Khan and Arif Ahmad Mir, a police official said. However, soon after the encounter ended, clashes broke out between protesters and security forces at several places in the district. A civilian was killed in a firing incident at Ganowpora, while two others sustained injuries, a police official said. Civilian Bilal Ahmad Khan was hit by a bullet after the funeral prayers of one of the terrorists, who was among the five ultras killed in the gun battle with security forces at Kiloora. Khan was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries. Local residents alleged that he was hit by bullets fired by the Army personnel in response to stone-pelting by protestors. Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said the Army troops came under fire from terrorists near Ganowpora orchards. "Army troops immediately retaliated. In the crossfire, one civilian unfortunately got injured, who later succumbed to the injury," he said. Naveed Jatt escaped from police custody on February 6 while he was being taken to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital here for a medical examination. Two policemen were killed in a shootout at the hospital. Jatt is also believed to be involved in 'The Rising Kashmir' editor Shujaat Bukhari's sensational assassination outside his office at Press Enclave on June 14. Shujaat Bukhari's sensational killing coincided with the kidnapping and brutal killing of Army rifleman Aurangzeb by a group of terrorists, which triggered a massive national outrage. (With Agency inputs) A large-scale ATM fraud has been busted wherein as much as Rs 20 lakh have been siphoned off in the past few days in Kolkata. A special investigation team of Kolkata police has arrested two Roman nationals from south Delhi in connection with the alleged fraud. The police have recovered at least 18 fake ATM cards from their possession, reported Prabhat Khabar. A face mask and two passports have also been seized by the police. The arrested accused are slated to be brought to Kolkata for further investigation. Those who have been hit by the fraud include 10 bank employees and one assistant general manager of a private sector bank. Meanwhile, banks have assured the affected customers that if they submit a copy of FIR, the money would be credited to their account in the next seven to 10 days. Around five days back, some customers of Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank reportedly got a message about money being debited from their accounts. Following this, they approached their respective banks and the fraud was unearthed. The report in Prabhat Khabar quoted Kolkata joint police commissioner (crime) Pravin Tripathi as saying that as they began the investigation, they found that most of the money had been withdrawn from an ATM in south Delhi. A team of Kolkata police was rushed to south Delhi and the personnel were stationed outside the ATM in plain clothes. Two foreign nationals were spotted repeatedly going inside the ATM. The police later detained them and recovered 18 ATM cards from their possession. The ATM cards seized by the cops were black, with no names or numbers. Two unidentified masked men shot at a scrap dealer businessman late on Friday night in Mumbai's Marol area. After firing two shots the men ran away. The shooters were waiting for him outside his residential building. When the scrap dealer, Aslam Wali Khan, reached his building and alighted from his Mercedes car the shooters fired two rounds. One bullet hit him in the stomach but the other bullet got misfired. The shooters after that ran away towards the bike of their companion, who was waiting at a distance and left the crime scene. After hearing gunshots, people nearby took Aslam to Mumbai's Holy Spirit Hospital. He was admitted and the bullet was taken out. Currently, he is said to be in a stable condition. Reaching the spot, police collected evidence and also seized the car of Aslam. The police then went to MIDC police station where the forensic team is collecting the evidence. The police is trying to hunt down the two masked men with the help of the witnesses present at the crime scene and CCTV cameras in the area. Police have not been able to ascertain the reason behind the crime. State Senator Simcha Felder is a Democrat from Brooklyn who gives Senate Republicans their one-seat majority. Felder, who has stymied New York Citys plastic bag fee, the New York Dream Act, and most recently the citys school zone speed cameras, is now trying to block his opponent in the Democratic primary, attorney Blake Morris. On Thursday, Felder filed a legal challenge against Morris's campaign, claiming that his opponent shouldnt be on the Democratic ballot at all, because Blakes legal first name is Lawrence. Blakes my middle name, Morris told Gothamist/WNYC. Ive been going with Blake my whole life. Morris said that the suit showed [Felder] was desperate because he knows hes going to lose the Democratic primary. Not so, said Felders Attorney Aaron Maslow. The law is clear. The name of the candidate has got to be there. Not the nickname, Maslow said. He argued Morris had used Lawrence on official documents in the past, like when he ran for a seat on the Democratic county committee. Just because you're known informally by close friends in a small part of the district, that does not justify using that name on a petition in a district wide office. Maslow admitted that there are exceptions to the rule, but they dont apply in this case. The case law says an alternate name is acceptable if its a variance on the persons first name, Maslow said, pointing to former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Another area where it is acceptable is when a candidate drops Junior or Senior, Maslow added. In court on Thursday, Morris said he brought thirty witnesses to convince Judge Edgar Walker that Blake was his real name, not just a nickname. First, he dumped out the entire contents of his wallet pulling out my credit cards and social membership cards, showing how I hold myself out to the community as Blake Morris. Then Blake said his wife took the stand, Testifying how when she met me she only knew me as Blake, and she only knew Blake wasnt my first name when she met my parents. After five witnesses, the judge was basically like, 'I get it,'" he added. Morriss appearance on the ballot will be decided on Tuesday morning at the Kings County Supreme Court, one day before local primary ballots are finalized. The State Board of Elections did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Morris is Felders first primary challenger since he was elected to serve the 17th district in 2012, and City & State has called the race a wild card. Houston: Indian-origin US astronaut Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by NASA on Friday for its first human spaceflight programme since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. After years of vehicle development and building anticipation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has now put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft. The space agency announced that the nine astronauts will launch on the first crewed test flights and missions of new commercial spacecraft built and operated by The Boeing Company and SpaceX. The eight active NASA astronauts and one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member will launch on Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragoncapsules to the International Space Station beginning in 2019. The missions will mark the first crewed launches from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme seven years ago. In addition to naming the crews of the test flights, NASA also announced today the four astronauts who will fly aboard the first operational Starliner and Dragon missions to the space station. Both vehicles were developed in cooperation with NASA to deliver crew members to and from the orbiting laboratory. Josh Cassada, 45, will fly with Sunita ("Suni") Williams, 52, aboard NASA's first contracted Starliner mission. It will be Cassada's first spaceflight. Williams previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012. The commercial crew members took to the stage during an event led by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, will fly together as SpaceX's first Dragon crew. Veterans of two spaceflights each, Behnken and Hurley will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A ? the same Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Hurley as pilot. NASA astronauts Eric Boe, 53, and Nicole Mann, 41, will join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ferguson, who has been involved from the start in the Starliner's development, flew three shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. Boe piloted two shuttle flights. This will be Mann's first launch, having joined the astronaut corps in 2013. Behnken, Hurley, Boe and Mann are NASA's first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new US spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttle's first orbital flight test crews. Ferguson will become the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit as a company's crew member when he flies. Prior to their maiden crewed missions, both Boeing and SpaceX plan uncrewed test flights in late 2018 or early 2019. Both companies will also conduct abort system test flights to ensure the astronauts can safely escape should their rockets go awry. Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will fly on the first operational mission of SpaceX's crewed Dragon. It will be Glover's first time in space. Hopkins logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014. The two pairs of NASA crewmates will fly to the station with Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts to be announced at a later date. Between the end of the space shuttle program and the start of commercial crew operations, NASA's crew members have and are continuing to launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Behnken, Boe, Hurley and Williams were named in 2015 as NASA's "commercial crew cadre" and have been working with Boeing and SpaceX on the development of the spacecraft and the simulators that will be used to train astronauts to fly. The two companies have also developed new spacesuits, modified their launch pads and established mission control teams to support the upcoming flights. With the start of four-person commercial missions, the International Space Station crew is slated to grow by one to a seven-person residency in order to maximize the science that can be conducted on board. Boeing's and SpaceX's commercial spacecraft may also open the space station and more broadly, Earth orbit, to more privately-funded visitors and spaceflight participants from countries that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets. Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president for West Bengal Dilip Ghosh on Saturday said that they do not support party leader Nirmal Chandra Mondal's statement against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. BJP leader from West Bengal Mondal sparked a row on Friday after he threatened Mamata's nephew and said, "What if didi (Mamata Banerjee) your nephew ( Abhisekh Banerjee) is murdered?" Reacting on the same, Ghosh told ANI, "The BJP does not support anything that induces tension, we will talk to Mondal." Ghosh, however, said that Mondal had not given any threat but just asked a question over the killings of BJP workers. BJP leader Kailash Vijayavargiya also raised objection over Mondal's remark and said that the party does not influence violence. "We never influence violence. You all have seen in Birbhum our 'karyakarta' (worker) was bitten for filing nomination. Is this the democracy?" said Vijayavargiva. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress filed a complaint against Mondal over his statement. ALEXANDRIA: An accountant for US President Donald Trump`s one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort admitted in trial testimony on Friday that she helped backdate documents and falsify financial records at Manafort and his business partner`s request to reduce his tax burden and help him qualify for loans. Cynthia Laporta, who prepared Manafort`s tax returns starting in 2014, told a jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that she was testifying under an immunity agreement with the government to avoid being prosecuted as Manafort was charged with bank fraud and tax fraud. One member of the jury nodded in apparent agreement when US District Judge TS Ellis cut off the prosecution`s questioning to ask her if she was afraid of being prosecuted herself. "Correct," answered Laporta, explaining that she went along with accounting manoeuvres suggested by Manafort and his longtime business associate Rick Gates because she did not want to create problems for her firm or lose a top client. "I very much regret it," Laporta said on the trial`s fourth day as prosecutors build their case that Manafort hid tens of millions of dollars he earned working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine to evade taxes. Laporta, the 14th witness to testify for the prosecution, was the most damaging yet for Manafort in the first trial arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller`s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, charges that largely pre-date the five months Manafort worked for Trump, some of them as campaign chairman. Once the jury had been dismissed for the day, Ellis gave defence lawyers a green light for detailed cross-examination of Laporta on Monday. "You are not limited in your cross-examination of her," Ellis said. Both Laporta and fellow accountant Philip Ayliff, her predecessor who handled Manafort`s tax filings at the firm KWC, testified that they had no knowledge that Manafort controlled foreign bank accounts. The government has provided trial evidence of Manafort controlling a web of overseas accounts in Cyprus and elsewhere. Such accounts must be reported to tax authorities if they contain $10,000 or more. Laporta also detailed multiple examples in which Manafort and Gates sought to doctor financial records. One instance involved classifying revenue from a Cyprus-based company as a loan to lower his taxable income, Laporta testified. "Its hard-hitting testimony that creates an uphill battle for the defence, but thats what cross-examination is for," said Andrew Boutros, a former federal prosecutor who is now a white-collar defence lawyer. "I dont know if there is enough to convict him right now, but theyre laying the groundwork for it." A conviction would give momentum to Mueller`s probe, in which 32 people and three companies have been indicted or pleaded guilty. Trump, angered by any questions about the legitimacy of his election win, has called Mueller`s investigation a witch hunt and wants it to be shut down. TARGETING GATES After spending the first two days of the trial laying out Manafort`s lavish spending, the prosecution is now digging into how he accounted for the more than $60 million he made in Ukraine and his efforts to allegedly mislead banks to get loans once the income from Ukraine dropped off precipitously in 2014. Manafort`s attorneys have signalled they will seek to blame Gates, who was Trump`s deputy campaign chairman in 2016. Gates pleaded guilty in February and is expected to testify against Manafort, possibly next week. Prosecutor Uzo Asonye focused some of his questioning on money transfers from a Cyprus-based company called Telmar Investments Ltd, which records showed had paid Manafort`s firm more than $5 million for consulting work. That income posed a problem for Manafort when it came time to prepare his business tax returns in September 2015, Laporta testified. She said Gates told her in a conference call the income level "was too high" and proposed reclassifying a portion of it as a loan. Laporta said she knew it was "inappropriate" but agreed to alter the records to show that Manaforts firm received a $900,000 loan from Telmar in 2014, a change that would save Manafort nearly a half million dollars in taxes, Laporta said. Manafort signed an agreement to account for that loan that was backdated, according to Laporta and an exhibit shown to the jury. Trial consultant Roy Futterman, who is following the trial but not involved in it, said, "The prosecution is doing a very good job of keeping a brisk pace, putting witnesses on for short direct examinations, keeping it lively and keeping very tight messages for each witness." Manafort`s attorneys do not seem to have scored a lot of points on cross-examination, Futterman said, but added that the witnesses who have testified so far are not "the main targets." Earlier on Friday prosecutors asked Ayliff about Manafort`s accounting of a $1.5 million transfer in 2012 from Peranova Holdings Ltd as a loan, even as records showed that no interest or principal was paid on it in subsequent years. Peranova is one of the numerous Cypriot entities that prosecutors have said Manafort controlled. Ayliff testified that KWC did not know Manafort controlled Peranova, and that if the transfer was a payment related to his consulting work in Ukraine it would have been treated as income - not as a loan - on his tax returns. The United States Treasury Department added the Russian bank Agrosoyuz, registered in Moscow, to the sanctions list. This is reported by the US department of OFAC, which deals with sanctions. Bank Agrosoyuz consciously promoted a significant transaction in favor of An Yang Su, the chief representative of the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank. An Yang Su resides in Moscow. Both the Foreign Trade Bank and its representative are under the sanctions of the United States and the UN Security Council, the report said. The US Finance Ministry added to the list another representative of the Bank of Foreign Trade Ri Yong Wong , who also lives in Moscow. As Radio Liberty reports, according to the UN Security Council resolution of 2016, UN member states should expel from their territory persons on the sanctions list against North Korea. "So, An Yang Su and Ri Yong Wong should be deported from Russia, but in 2018, Agrosoyuz continues to provide services to An Yang Su, thus violating Russia's obligations to the UN. Agrosoyuz also consciously opened numerous banking accounts for at least three companies related to the Foreign Trade Bank. Ri Yong Wong also had accounts in the Russian bank, at least in 2016, "the statement said. The introduction of the Agrosoyuz to the US sanctions list blocks all property of a bank located in the United States or under the control of US citizens. Open source 1500 refugees and migrants died in the Mediterranean Sea for the first seven months of 2018 trying to reach Europe. Reads the message of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. In order to save lives in the sea, we suppose to take all possible measures to bring to justice those who benefit from the exploitation of vulnerable people, Vincent Cochetel, Special Envoy of UNHCR in the Mediterranean Sea claimed. Related: Trump and Putin discuss crisis in Syria and refugee return According to him, the illegal transporters increasingly use inappropriate boats for sea transportation. This is why they are drifting in the sea hoping they will be pick up by rescue vessels. 60 thousand migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea for this period, which is half of the last years record. The main refugee reception port for 2018 is Spain. It has received 23.5 thousand people, Italy - 18.5 thousand and Greece 16 thousand migrants. Related: Belarus grants refugee status to ex-defense minister of Ukraine As it was reported earlier, Italy is willing to prohibit the International Missions to deliver vessels with the saved migrants to the Italian ports. According to mass media, the Italian Government refused to accept a French Aquarius rescue vessel with 629 refugees on the board. At the same time, Italy and Malta refused to open their ports for Lifeline rescue vessel from German charitable organization Mission Lifeline, which picked up 224 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Related: Three EU countries deny Merkel's statement on Refugee Agreement North Korean missile launched, September 2017 The Guardian The Democratic People's Republic of Korea did not stop developing a nuclear program. This is reported by Reuters, referring to the UN report. It is noted that independent experts within six months assessed the situation with the nuclear and missile programs of North Korea and came to the conclusion that Pyongyang continues to develop both programs. Experts who prepared a special report for the UN Security Council stated that the DPRK continues the actions for which the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Pyongyang in 2006. Since then, these sanctions have been repeatedly extended and tightened up. In particular, in September 2017, the UN Security Council imposed a total ban on the export of textile products from North Korea and limited Pyongyang's sale of oil products to 2 million barrels per year. We recall, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the leader of the DPRK Kim Jong-un should determine the date for the final nuclear disarmament. Earlier it became known that the US special services had received information that the DPRK was producing new intercontinental ballistic missiles. On June 12, US President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong-un met in Singapore and signed a joint document. Related: Weight-in-Motion: Ukraine to introduce automatic weighing system for cars The Federal Penitentiary Service claims that Sentsov told the pries that he feels good and he has no complaints on the detention conditions Bogdan Vasiliuk, priest of the St.George Russian Orthodox Church in Labytnangi visited the penal colony where the Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov is kept. The press office of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the district reports. The Federal Penitentiary Service claim that the priest was in the room with Sentsov. Allegedly he asked about Sentsovs condition, and he said he is feeling good and supervised by the medical staff. Also, he didnt express any complaints about the detention conditions. Related: Russia refuses Amnesty International representatives to visit Sentsov Priest Bogdan Vasiliuk offered Oleg to have a conversation in private. Sentsov waived but thanked him by saying that he doesnt need the help of a priest, reads the message. Reportedly, Oleg Sentsov was detained by Russian intelligence agencies in Crimea on May 2018. Later he was sentenced to 20 years of the colony under the accusation of terrorist activity on the territory of Crimea. Oleg does not admit his guilt. Related: Penal colony administration refuses to let priest see Sentsov, - Denisova Sentsov declared a hunger strike with a requirement to release all Ukrainian political prisoners in the Russian Federation. At the end of June, Ludmyla Denisova claimed that a priest wasnt allowed to visit Sentsov. Related: Paris mayor's office stands for release of political prisoner Sentsov 112 Agency Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held a meeting of the National Security Council of Serbia due to the threat of aggravation of the situation in relations with Kosovo. This is reported by Novosti.rs. It is about the north of Kosovo, where mostly Serbs live. The day before, information was voiced about the possible attack of Kosovo's security forces to the north. At the same time, yesterday, on August 3, a meeting of the Kosovo Security Council was held, at which they discussed information about the alleged intentions of the Serbs in the north to unilaterally declare autonomy. At the moment, it is known that the international forces led by NATO, responsible for ensuring stability in Kosovo (KFOR), are brought into a state of increased combat readiness. The possible declaration of autonomy by the Serbs in the north of Kosovo is associated with the refusal of the Kosovo authorities to fulfill the obligations to create a Community of Serbian municipalities. Earlier Serbians from Kosovo appealed to President of Russia Vladimir Putin in the open letter. The full text of the letter signed by the representatives of the movement of Serbians in Kosovo and Metohija "Homeland" was published on June 28 by Eadaily. In the letter, the Serbians ask Putin to not let the recognition of Kosovo at the international level. Particularly, they call the Serbian authorities "too pliable" because the bodies of the state power were closed at the territory of Kosovo and "the system of the justice, police and defense of the civilians were passed to the separatists." Moreover, the representatives of the movement are sure that president of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic prepares the signing of the peace agreement "with the separatists from Pristina" and it will reinforce "the real separation of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia." Due to this, the Serbians from Kosovo ask Putin "to not agree", if the agreement is signed and Belgrade will ask the place for Kosovo in the UN. "Until there is the Resolution 1244 that says that Kosovo and Metohija are Serbia, they are Serbia," the representatives claim. "We hope that some next authority in Serbia will cancel all anti-constitutional and anti-state agreements signed by the current regime. Until this time, you are our only hope that the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo will never be recognized at the international level," the message said. The details of the negotiations are unknown since the meeting was taking place without the presence of reporters EPA / UPG French President Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May, Prime Minister of Great Britain met at the President's summer residence. The details of the negotiations are unknown since the meeting was taking place without the presence of reporters, as franceinfo reports. Mainly, they were talking about the Brexit, since the negotiations on the issue are protracted, so the British view the French position as too uncompromising, reporters claimed. Related: EU reacts with restraint in response to Theresa Mays new plan on Brexit Photo and video shooting ceremony was held at the beginning of the meeting. After the negotiations, a dinner of Macrons and May was held. Planned that Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron will be at their summer residence for two weeks during the vacation of the President. As it was reported earlier, Theresa May, Prime Minister of Great Britain would take the negotiations on the Brexit under her own control. All cases will be filed and analyzed by the UN Monitoring Mission for Human Rights in Ukraine Open source The UN in Ukraine condemned the attack on the public activist Kateryna Handziuk, according to the claim published on the website of the UN to Ukraine. The United Nations organization in Ukraine is also attentively watching the situation around the recent attacks on the public activists in Ukraine. All cases were and will be filed and analyzed by the UN Monitoring Mission for Human Rights in Ukraine, reads the claim. Related: North Korea did not stop nuclear program development, - UN The UN also calls the Ukrainian Government and law enforcement agencies to hold a transparent and effective investigation of the attack on Kateryna and other activists. Reportedly, the US Embassy to Ukraine condemned the attack on the Adviser of Kherson's Mayor Kateryna Handziuk. As we reported earlier, Kateryna Handziuk, Adviser of Kherson's Mayor was attacked near her place. The attacker soaked her with acid. the woman was hospitalized. 30 percent of her body was burned: head, arms, legs, chest and left eye. Related: The US supports Russia in WTO case in blocking Ukranian transit It was stated that the doctors of the burn department of the Kyiv hospital where Kateryna was delivered to, claimed that she is in a stable serious condition. The attack on the employee of the City Council of Kherson was reclassified from "Hooliganism" to "Serious physical injuries committed with the aim of intimidation", and after a while - on "Attempted murder with a special cruelty." Yuriy Lutsenko took the case under his own control. Related: More than 7 thousand children killed or injured in Syrian conflict, - UN News United States issues its 1st passport with 'X' gender marker The State Department said it had issued the first passport with an "X" in the gender field, an option it plans to make widely available in 2022 on passports and birth certificates for foreign-born Americans. 13:28 | Lima, Aug. 3. "I must inform that, even at this moment, an Odebrecht delegation has come to sign agreements at a meeting including conversations and negotiations with Attorney Jorge Ramirez," he pointed out. 19:33 | Lima, Aug. 3. "I reaffirm the institution's commitment to maintaining a zero-tolerance policy against acts of corruption , abuse of power or any other behavior undermining our values or contravening internal rules," he remarked. YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of the Special Investigation Service of Armenia Sasun Khachatryan has partially declassified the highly confidential order N0038 signed by former Defense Minister of Armenia Mikayel Harutyunyan on February 23, 2008. Before speaking about the confidential order, Sasun Khachatryan hoped that the Court of Appeal of Armenia will deny the motion of Kocharyans attorneys to change the preventive detention as precautionary measure. This is my personal opinion, and I think that the preventive detention is the only measure that can ensure the proper behavior of the defendant during the investigation, ARMENPRESS reports Khachatryan as saying during Agenda program on Public TV. He noted that the second president has denied to give testimony as a defendant and has not participated in any other investigative actions. He just did not participate and left the room without any explanations, he said. Referring to N0038 order, the Chairman of the Special Investigation Service said that the mentioned document was included in the materials of the criminal case only in July of this year. The first references to the 0038 command were published on the press. There was a leak of information some time after the incidents that it was a highly confidential order. The order in fact proves that the Armed Forces of Armenia participated in the incidents of March 1, Sasun Khachatryan said, adding that he can largely declassify the document. Khachatryan emphasized that Kocharyans attorneys have also been provided with the document. The order was headlined On fulfilling the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. After recognizing the presidential elections of Armenia as open and transparent by the international community some political forces do not accept it and try to destabilize the situation by illegal actions. The Armed Forces of Armenia, being the security guarantee of the state, are ready to ensure stability in the country based on the Constitution and laws and not to allow a group of people to hinder the natural deve3lopment of the country. For the fulfillment of the Constitutional obligations by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia I order to confine to barracks the entire personnel of the Armed Forces starting from 18:00 February 23 until receiving a special command, to set officer groups in the departments of the central apparatus of the Defense Ministry and separate divisions and arm them with government-issue weapon, the Chairman of the Special Investigation Service quoted from the order, adding that the then Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov was responsible for the fulfillment of this task. Sasun Khachatryan referred some other articles of the order. The heads of departments of the Defense Ministry and Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, the Commanders of Army Corpses and separate regiments have been ordered to set united mobile units able to act effectively in difficult situations,Khachatryan said, adding that each Army Corps should provide 100 servicemen armed with gunfire weapons. And now the most striking moment. The 10th point of the same order says that these units should be comprised of the best trained, psychologically stable officers, non-commissioned officers, contractual servicemen and conscripts. I dont know what impression you got from this, but I have the impression that special groups were set that were tasked to conduct some diversionist acts against the enemy, the Chairman of the Special Investigation Service said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani troops violated the ceasefire regime nearly 250 times on Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line in the period of July 29-August 4, during which over 2000 bullets were fired in the direction of Armenian border guards from different caliber weapons. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Artsakh, the front line units of the Defense Army of Artsakh keep full control of the situation and continue to confidently carry out their military duty. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan Hundreds of mourners Saturday buried the victims of a twin suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, as the death toll rose to 35, officials said. Two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shiite mosque in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, Friday as it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers. The burqa-clad attackers shot at the mosque's security guards before opening fire on worshippers then detonating their explosives. "The death toll from Friday's mosque attack in Gardez has jumped to 35 with 94 wounded," Paktia governor Shamim Khan Katawazi told AFP. Provincial police chief Raz Mohammad Mandozai confirmed the toll. Officials had earlier said 29 people were killed and more than 80 wounded. "Today, we held funeral ceremony and buried all the martyred of Friday's attack," a weeping Sayed Moharram, who lost his 16-year old son, told AFP from a graveyard on the outskirts of Gardez where hundreds of people attended the ceremony. "It is very difficult for me to accept my son is no more with me," he said. Haji Sultan, 70, who also attended, accused the government of "negligence" in providing security for the Shiite minority. "The enemies of Afghanistan want to create division by carrying out attacks on Shiite people, but they cannot win, it will further increase hatred towards the enemies," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban denied involvement but in recent years the Islamic State group has carried out attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan. The attack comes as urban areas across Afghanistan have been rocked by a surge in violence in recent months, with both Islamic State and Taliban insurgents targeting security forces and government installations. The Taliban have not claimed a major attack in a city for weeks as they come under increased pressure to agree to peace talks with the Afghan government. But IS has carried out multiple attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad and the capital Kabul in recent months, targeting everything from government ministries to a midwife training centre. Last month an IS suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar. The uptick in violence comes as US and Afghan forces intensify ground and air offensives against IS, and the Taliban step up their turf war with the group. Earlier this week more than 150 IS fighters surrendered in northern Afghanistan -- in a move that Afghan security forces and the Taliban hailed as the end of the extremist group in the north of the country. The Taliban denied involvement but in recent years the Islamic State group has carried out attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan Hundreds of people attended the funeral ceremony at a graveyard on the outskirts of Gardez Indonesian authorities have denied entry and will deport an Australian graduate student who was travelling via Bali to Indonesias easternmost province of Papua on vacation. Belinda Lopez, a PhD candidate for Indonesian studies at Macquarie University in Australia, wrote on social media that she had been detained at Balis Denpasar airport since midnight on Saturday and was told she was on a government blacklist. Papua has suffered a simmering separatist conflict since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised UN-backed referendum in 1969 and remains one of its poorest regions. Access to international media remains restricted. Ms Lopez, who was formerly a reporter in Jakarta, said on Facebook that she was on her honeymoon and had plans to visit the Baliem tourism festival in Papua. But upon arriving at Bali airport, she was denied entry by immigration and asked if she was a journalist and whether she had done something wrong to Indonesia. Macquarie University student Belinda Lopez has been detained in Bali. Source: Twitter Ms Lopez wrote she had previously been deported from Papua in 2016, after being suspected of being a reporter. Immigration office spokesman Agung Sampurno denied Ms Lopez was being deported on suspicions she was heading to Papua as a journalist. Belinda was barred from entering Indonesia on an immigration issue, he told Reuters, confirming, though, that she was on an immigration blacklist. Ms Sampurno declined to provide an explanation for the immigration issue, noting it was Indonesias sovereign right to deny entry to travellers. Belinda Lopez says she was told she was on a government blacklist. Source: Twitter Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said Lopezs case shows once again that the Indonesian authorities are still restricting foreign journalists, or anyone suspected (of doing) journalism, to enter Papua. President Joko Widodo after coming to power in 2014 pledged to ease media restrictions for Papua, but activists say journalists continue to be blocked when trying to report from there. In February 2018, a BBC reporter was ordered to leave the province after Indonesias military said tweets she sent on her trip had hurt soldiers feelings. Parts of the Bangladeshi capital ground to a halt for the seventh day running Saturday, as thousands of students staged protests calling for improvements to road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Authorities have pleaded with demonstrators to call off protests that have nearly paralysed Dhaka and prompted foreign embassies to issue travel alerts. Thousands of students wearing school uniforms defied rain to block major intersections in the capital from Saturday morning. Teens as young as 13 were seen on Dhaka's notoriously clogged roadways checking whether cars and buses had valid licenses and were in a roadworthy condition. "We want justice," the students chanted as they gathered in some of Dhaka's main public squares. "We won't leave the roads until our demands are met. We want safe roads and safe drivers," said protester Al Miran. Anger has simmered since a speeding bus killed a boy and girl last weekend. Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths became a catalyst for public anger after spreading rapidly on social media. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, poured oil onto the fire. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology. The education ministry shut down high schools on Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered. Several powerful ministers pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. Dhaka suffers from daily gridlock but congestion has been exacerbated by blockades set up across the city since Sunday. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. Authorities have pleaded with demonstrators to call off protests that have nearly paralysed Dhaka An Italian sailing champion turned MP -- who justified frequent parliamentary absences by saying he could do politics from his boat -- announced his resignation Saturday, blaming a "media lynching". In a letter to the president of the lower house, Andrea Mura said he had always taken his parliamentary mandate "with the greatest seriousness" but that he had been unfairly rounded on by the media with "ignominious and groundless accusations" which his Five Star Movement (M5S) had not given him the opportunity to explain. Since his election in March, Mura had turned up for only eight of the assembly's 220 votes, monitoring website OpenPolis revealed earlier. The 2010 "Italian Sailor of the Year", however, breezily rejected the criticism last week, telling Sardinia's La Nuova Sardegna newspaper: "Political activity is not only conducted in parliament. You can also do it on a boat." Besides, he said, with "the overwhelming majority of the Five Star MPs (and its coalition partner, the far-right League party) in the Chamber of Deputies, it makes no difference whether I am present or not." The staunch environmentalist said at the time he had always told his party that he saw himself as an "advocate of saving the ocean from plastic more than as a member of parliament." Since his election in March, Mura had turned up for only eight of the assembly's 220 votes, according to monitoring website OpenPolis Brazil's leftist Workers' Party nominated its charismatic founder Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the upcoming presidential contest Saturday despite him being imprisoned for corruption. In a message read aloud to the party convention in Sao Paulo, Lula urged "a ceaseless battle for democracy." Although serving a 12-year sentence for corruption, Lula, 72, remains by far the frontrunner in opinion polls. Three big party conventions were held Saturday, two months before the first round of voting on October 7 in Latin America's dominant economy. In Brasilia, center-left environmental campaigner Marina Silva was crowned by her Rede party. Also in the capital, former Sao Paulo governor and establishment heavyweight Geraldo Alckmin secured the nod from the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party, or PSDB. Alckmin, 65, accepted his nomination with a speech blaming the Workers' Party for having laid the roots of today's economic disarray, with some 13 million people unemployed, and corruption rife, during more than a decade in power. "I am the candidate whose campaign can be summed up in one sentence: 'We will change Brazil and give back to Brazilians the dignity which has been taken from them,'" he said. But while both Silva and Alckmin are serious contenders in a likely match-up against controversial right-winger Jair Bolsonaro, it was Lula's highly unusual convention in Sao Paulo that overshadowed proceedings. Lula is in prison in the southern city of Curitiba, serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and likely to be barred from the ballot. But his Workers' Party issued a call to arms, casting Lula as a victim of a rigged case and vowing to get him back into office, following his largely popular two terms from 2003-2010. In the Sao Paulo convention center, some 2,000 attendees donned Lula masks and chanted his name. Then, after fiery speeches from Lula's senior allies, the party faithful heard the leader's words read out by an actor. "They want to scrap the people's right to choose the president," the message said. "They want to create a democracy without the people. We have an enormous responsibility ahead." One supporter, Paulo Henrique Barbosa Mateus, 27, said the Workers' Party is confident it can somehow get Lula in. "We've got even stronger. Our role is to reinforce his candidacy and make sure he gets his right to be in the campaign, because he is innocent," he told AFP. Supporters have one remarkable factor on their side: despite his imprisonment and the corruption scandal, Lula remains far ahead in the polls. Surveys show him with near double the support of all other main candidates in a first round, crushing any runner-up in the second decisive round two weeks later. - Passing the torch? - Lula is waiting for final court judgment on whether he can run and it doesn't look good: under current law anyone losing an appeal of a criminal conviction is not allowed on the ballot. So despite the leftist leader's almost cult-like backing, there was close attention being paid to the Workers' Party choice for vice president -- a figure who could end up standing in for the imprisoned leader. One high-profile possibility is former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad. A powerful politician, he has signed on to Lula's legal team, giving him easy access to the prison, and he would be well placed to inherit Lula's electorate. But the party appears to be torn, with some fearful of any move that might suggest giving up on the main goal of somehow getting Lula back into the presidential palace. Despite expectations that the issue might be resolved at the convention, no announcement was made. Alckmin has already named Senator Ana Amelia, who is expected to help him in the south of the country and eat into conservative support for Bolsonaro. And if Alckmin has gone for a female VP, Silva, 60, has struck a pact with a man, Eduardo Jorge, from Brazil's Green Party. At her nomination, Silva recalled her desperately poor childhood and called for a Brazil embracing "unity" instead of hatred. Bolsonaro, who has positioned himself as a radical right-winger appealing to Brazilians' fury over crime and corruption, has yet to find his running mate. Names thrown around in Brazilian media reports have included a former astronaut, a member of the royal family and a general. The problem facing all candidates is the level of voter disgust and apathy. Two polls show that 33 or 41 percent of voters are undecided or not participating in an election that doesn't include Lula. If Lula was on the ballot, that number would drop but still account for about a quarter of voters. Brazilian senator and president of the Workers' Party (PT), Gleisi Hoffmann (2-R), speaks during the national convention of the Workers Party (PT), where the imprisoned but popular Lula was nominated to run for president Environmentalist Marina Silva launches her candidacy for the presidency of Brazil, ahead of October's national election, during the national convention of the REDE Party, in Brasilia Former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin launches his bid for the presidency of Brazil, vowing to bring change to Latin America's dominant economy Supporters of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demonstrate demanding his release in Sao Bernardo do Campo, in metropolitan Sao Paulo The national convention of the Workers Party (PT), in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the charismatic Lula was nominated to run even though he's behind bars for corruption Colombian ELN guerrillas said Saturday they were willing to release the six people kidnapped one day earlier in a lawless jungle area of northern Colombia. The hostages -- including three police officers and a soldier -- were kidnapped as they were traveling in a boat on the Arquia river in the Choco department. The kidnapping took place just two days after outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos admitted defeat in his bid to sign a ceasefire with the National Liberation Army rebels ahead of his handing over power to hardline right-wing successor Ivan Duque on Tuesday. The ELN, which confirmed it was responsible for the kidnapping, said Saturday that it informed the Colombian government peace negotiator that they were willing to free their hostages. In a statement, the guerrillas urged the High Commissioner for Peace to get the Colombian military to create the "optimum security conditions" to facilitate the release. The ELN "war front" that claimed the kidnapping said that in the Choco region there are intense military and paramilitary operations "that put at risk" the guerrillas and their hostages. The statement added that the hostages were receiving proper protection and treatment. The army earlier said the soldier who was kidnapped was on the boat suffering from a tropical disease, and was in was need of "urgent treatment." President-elect Duque has called for a tougher stance on negotiations with the ELN, the last militant group fighting authorities in Colombia following the historic 2016 peace agreement signed with larger FARC guerrillas. Outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos was unable to reach a peace agreement with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, Colombia's last guerrilla group Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to ensure he faces a fair trial in his homeland, where he's been charged with bribery and fraud, his lawyers said on Thursday. Now a senator, the 66-year-old Uribe has been placed under formal investigation by the Supreme Court. But his lawyers have sought guarantees from the IACHR that Uribe's case will be held under the "strictest compliance with legality and the rule of law" by "competent, independent and impartial" authorities. Added to that, Uribe's lawyers want to ensure they are given "equal opportunity" to "question witnesses," be given "prompt access to evidence," and guarantee the former head of state's "right to defend himself." Uribe was a popular president from 2002 to 2010 and is political mentor to Ivan Duque, who will be sworn in on Tuesday to succeed Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos. In 2012 Uribe filed a formal complaint in the Supreme Court against opposition politician Ivan Cepeda, accusing Cepeda of a plot to incriminate him in criminal involvement with right-wing paramilitary groups, and of witness tampering. In March however the complaint rejected, and instead prosecutors started probing Uribe for witness tampering. Uribe resigned from the senate last week after the Supreme Court opened formal proceedings against him, only to change his mind and announce on Wednesday that he was rescinding his request to allow the Supreme Court to conduct its investigation. Had Uribe continued with his resignation, a lower court would have taken over his case. Uribe insists he's the victim of political persecution, but the accusations have nonetheless come as a blow to Duque, a member of his mentor's right-wing Democratic Center party. Colombia's ex-president Alvaro Uribe claims he's the victim of political persecution over his bribery case A web of graft allegations stemming from the period former presidents Cristina Kirchner and her husband ruled Argentina became even stickier this week when "corruption notebooks" detailing secretive cash deliveries came to light. Sixteen former government officials and business people have been arrested on criminal association charges in what prosecutors said was a suspected bribery operation totaling $160 million. More arrests have not been ruled out. The notebooks were kept by Oscar Centeno, a driver who worked for a public works official. In them, he meticulously recorded the amounts of cash paid, where briefcases of money were picked up and delivered to in Buenos Aires, how much the briefcases weighed, and information suggesting the pay-offs were to secure public works contracts. The Kirchners' residence in Buenos Aires and the presidential palace and residence they inhabited figured among the addresses listed. The contents of eight notebooks were divulged to the public this week by the newspaper La Nacion, which received them from an unidentified source months ago and which eventually turned copies of the pages over to prosecutors. On Friday, a special financial investigations unit said it was examining $65 million in Miami investments in the United States made by Nestor Kirchner's late private secretary to see if there were links with the payments detailed in the notebooks. - Driver cooperating - The entries by Centeno date from 2003 to 2015, covering the leftwing presidencies of Nestor Kirchner, who died of a heart attack in 2010, and his wife and successor Cristina Kirchner, who was in office from 2007. Cristina Kirchner, now a senator and a critic of current conservative President Mauricio Macri, is already fighting a slew of corruption accusations. The "corruption notebooks" will add to the judicial scrutiny she is facing. On August 13, Kirchner is due to appear before the judge running the inquiry into the notebooks case. As a senator, she is immune from arrest. But she can still be put on trial if sufficient evidence exists for prosecution, and sentenced if found guilty. The judge has asked the senate to lift her immunity so her home and office can be searched. So far, Kirchner has issued no public comment on the scandal. Her supporters claim she is being persecuted for political reasons. Centeno, meanwhile, was brought before the judge on Thursday. According to reports, he has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, and has authenticated the notebooks. The notebooks, said Leandro Despouy, a former government auditor general, "implicate a large number of businessmen, not just government officials." The case could end up being as big in Argentina as the ground-shaking "Car Wash" corruption investigation in neighboring Brazil, which has ensnared and sullied many prominent members of the Brazilian political and business elite, he said. He also said that the Argentine business figures arrested in the "corruption notebooks" scandal might declare themselves victims of extortion by the Kirchners' governments. - Latest scandal - One of the ex-officials arrested was Robert Baratta, who used to be number two in the planning ministry responsible for doling out public works contracts. Centeno worked as his driver. One of the businessmen detained is Javier Sanchez Caballero, former managing director of IECSA, a construction firm owned by Macri's cousin and which is part of the Macri Group, Macri's family-run conglomerate. The revelations and arrests have deepened the cynicism the Argentine public holds for its government and for many of its high-profile business leaders. They have read reports of several other corruption scandals exposed in their Latin American country, and this latest one adds to an already long list. One of the more memorable recent cases was that of an ex-minister, Jose Lopez, who was caught red-handed flinging 160 suitcases and bags stuffed with cash and jewels -- more than $9 million worth -- over the wall of an old monastery outside the capital. His trial, and that of an elderly nun suspected to be his accomplice, began in June and is expected to go to the end of the year. Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, seen her unveiling a bust of her her late husband and ex president Nestor Kirchner in 2015, is at the center of a new scandal involving "corruption notebooks" detailing alleged bribes DR Congo Opposition leader Moise Katumbi is determined to try again to return home so he can run in presidential elections after being turned back at the border on Friday, his supporters said. They said on Saturday they would go to the town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border, to meet Katumbi and bring him back so he can submit his election candidacy by the deadline on Wednesday. Katumbi, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said. Katumbi, 53, has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled DRC for 17 years. He had planned to fly by private jet from Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, to lodge his application to stand in long-delayed elections in December -- a move that would heap pressure on Kabila. But the city's mayor refused him entry, while the public prosecutor's office said Katumbi had been charged with "harming the state's domestic and external security" and would be arrested if he returned. A journalist with the French radio network RFI said Katumbi instead arrived at the Zambian border post of Kasumbalesa. Videos posted online by his aides and others showed him on the Zambian side of the border, greeting hundreds of supporters from his car. "The regime forbids me from landing and barricades the border... My crime? Wanting to enter my country and file my candidacy," Katumbi wrote on Twitter. "By trying to block me, they want to remove from Congolese their right to real elections. I will fight," he added. On the Congolese side of the border, security forces responded to protesters who were throwing stones in the air, Congolese police said, adding that a Tanzanian truck driver was slightly injured. Another rival of Kabila, former warlord and ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, returned home this week. He officially launched his bid for the presidency on Thursday. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. DRC opposition leader Moise Katumbi who is trying to return home so that he can submit his candidacy before the August 8 deadline for presidential elections in December The head of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, has shut down his Facebook page, saying it was a "waste of time", after the church ordered monks off social media. State-run Al-Ahram newspaper said on Saturday that Tawadros's decision was in line with a dozen measures announced Thursday by the church relating to the activities of monks. One of the measures gave monks a month "to deactivate and close any social media pages or accounts and voluntarily renounce these behaviours that are not true to monastic life". On Thursday the church also said it will stop accepting any new monks for a year after the mysterious death of a bishop at a monastery northwest of Cairo. In his last posting on Facebook before shutting the page, Tawadros said that using social media is a "waste of time, age and life". "That is why I am shutting down my personal Facebook page and I salute all my brothers and sons who have followed the instructions of my sacred church". According to Al-Ahram, several senior Coptic Church officials have followed Tawadros's example and shut down their Facebook pages. Tawadros became pope in 2012, and according to Egyptian media has not been active on Facebook since he opened his page in 2009. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population of 100 million. Meanwhile Egyptian police continue their investigation into the death of Bishop Epiphanius, the 68-year-old abbot of Saint Macarius monastery in Wadi el-Natrun, who was found with head injuries on Sunday. A security official has said his death was being investigated as a possible murder. The head of Egypt?s Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, at the Nativity of Christ Cathedral east of Cairo on January 6, 2018 At least five people were killed and a village razed in an attack by Boko Haram jihadists in the northern Nigerian Borno state, militia fighting the Islamists told AFP Saturday. Arriving in 10 trucks, the Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Gasarwa near the garrison town of Monguno late Friday, setting homes on fire. "Five people were killed in the arson, they included two elderly men and three children," Babakura Kolo, a militia leader in the Borno state capital Maiduguri said. Militia defending the village said they were outnumbered and outgunned. Militia member Ibrahim Liman said the Boko Haram attackers watched food supplies and livestock burn in the fire but made no attempt to loot. It was not clear which Boko Haram faction was behind the attacks, but jihadists loyal to IS-affiliated Abu Mus'ab Al-Barnawi are known to operate in the area. Boko Haram has intensified its armed campaign in recent weeks, especially against military targets in which dozens of troops were believed to have been killed or gone missing. At the end of July, a group of jihadists in five trucks sacked a military post in nearby Bunari village, with a military source claiming 11 troops were killed. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. Claims by the military that Boko Haram has been defeated may be somewhat optimistic Iran Air said Saturday it was set to take delivery of five new planes from Franco-Italian firm ATR just before renewed US sanctions go into effect. "Based on existing agreements, five new ATR aircraft will land at Mehrabad Airport at 9 am (0430 GMT) tomorrow (Sunday)," the national carrier said on its Telegram channel. The new ATR-72600 planes are part of a deal for 20 new aircraft that Iran Air agreed to buy in April 2017, of which eight have been delivered so far. The deal was thrown into doubt by the US decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers and reimpose sanctions, part of which are due to resume from Tuesday. Monday will mark the final day of a "wind-down period" after which sanctions will be reimposed by the US Treasury from just after midnight. The first phase of renewed sanctions includes blocks on financial transactions and imports of raw materials, as well as sanctions on Iran's automotive sector and commercial aircraft purchases. Remaining sanctions -- including on Iran's oil and gas sector and central bank -- will resume on November 5. Iran says the sanctions are endangering lives by blocking the sale of new planes and spare parts for its ageing fleets. Iran's Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes in February after one of them crashed in the Zagros mountains, killing all 66 people onboard. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters last week that he hoped eight ATRs would be delivered before the sanctions deadline. The twinprop planes are jointly manufactured by France's Airbus and Italy's Leonardo, but because just over 10 percent of their parts are made in the US, they are subject to the renewed sanctions. The new ATR-72600 planes are part of a deal for 20 new aircraft that Iran Air agreed to buy in April 2017 Iran protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported on Saturday. "At 9 pm (1530 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying. It gave only his clerical rank -- Hojatoleslam -- not his given name. "They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system. During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing the protests. Videos on social media in recent days have shown people chanting "Death to the dictator", but these have been impossible to verify and the authorities have charged that they are promoted by emigre opposition groups funded by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Describing the attack on Friday evening, Hindiani said: "These people came with rocks and broke the sign and all the windows of the prayer house and they were chanting against the system." Foreign media are barred from observing or filming "unauthorised" protests. The videos on social media suggest protests in recent days are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system The Israeli navy intercepted a Swedish-flagged activist boat bent on breaching its more than decade-long blockade of Gaza, the second in less than a week, the military said on Saturday. "The ship was monitored and was intercepted in accordance with international law," the military said in a statement, before the vessel, named Freedom for Gaza and carrying 12 people, was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. "The (military) clarified to the ship's passengers that they are violating the legal naval blockade and that any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod," the statement said. The people on board were taken for "further inquiry". The organisers of the flotilla said the boat, which was carrying medical supplies, was intercepted in international waters. "The demands of Ship to Gaza are that the ship with its crew and cargo will be returned to the site of the boarding, and that they will be allowed to go in peace through international and Palestinian waters in accordance to international law," they said in a statement. "This is a demand that the eleven years-long illegal and destructive blockade on Gaza will be lifted at last." Freedom was the second boat of the "Freedom Flotilla" to be intercepted en route to "break the blockade" on Gaza, organisers said. Four boats left from Scandinavia in mid-May and stopped in some 28 ports along the way, with two remaining behind after a recent stop in the Italian port of Palermo. On Sunday, the Israeli navy intercepted a Norwegian-flagged activist boat that was part of the flotilla. Israel has fought three wars with Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008 and says the blockade is necessary to keep them from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas where 80 percent of the two million population are dependent on aid. Israeli warships manoeuvre at Ashdod naval base on the Mediterraean coast on July 29, 2018, as the military intercepts a first vessel in the "Freedom Flotilla" attempting to breach the more than decade-long blockade of Gaza US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Saturday called on his Myanmar counterpart to release two Reuters journalists accused of breaking a draconian secrecy law during their reporting of a Rohingya massacre. Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been detained since December and face up to 14 years in prison for possessing classified documents linked to security operations in crisis-hit Rakhine state. Pompeo said in a tweet that he had raised the issue with the Southeast Asian country's foreign minister at a regional security meeting in Singapore. "I spoke with #Burma's Minister Kyaw Tin and raised US concerns about 2 @Reuters reporters detained in Burma for doing their job. They should be released immediately," he said, using the former name for Myanmar. The journalists were arrested while reporting on a military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine which the United Nations and Washington have described as ethnic cleansing. They had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din -- a massacre in which the military eventually admitted involvement. During the pair's ongoing trial, Kyaw Soe Oo said last week he had been entrapped by police while reporting on the massacre with his colleague and had been abused in custody. Northern Rakhine state has been in virtual lockdown since the military campaign began last August and forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the bloody crackdown alone. Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo face up to 14 years in prison for possessing classified documents North Korea on Saturday said the US was acting with "alarming" impatience on the issue of denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang. The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers. At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and concerns have been growing that some UN member states have been easing sanctions. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho insisted North Korea stood "firm in its determination and commitment" to implement the June agreement signed in Singapore. But he criticised the US for undermining confidence in the process: "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention." Since the June agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", he said, according to a statement. - Sanctions worries - "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the North's official name. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Ri also accused the US of "extremely inappropriate" behaviour by putting pressure on other countries not to send high-level delegations to celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of North Korea in September. It was not the first time the North has appeared unhappy at what it sees at US impatience to push them quickly along the path of denuclearisation. When Pompeo met with North Korean officials in Pyongyang last month to flesh out the regime's commitment, they condemned his "gangster-like" insistence that the North move towards unilateral disarmament. Earlier at the same forum, Pompeo said he was emphasising to countries "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea" but also said that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. As well as the US and North Korea, it includes foreign ministers from China, Russia, South Korea and Japan, all countries traditionally involved in efforts to curtail the North's nuclear ambition. At the meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, Pompeo said in a tweet. It was Trump's reply to a letter he received from Kim earlier this week, he said. - All smiles - Pompeo also briefly met the North's foreign minister Saturday. The US top diplomat went over to greet him at a joint photo of ministers ahead of the day's main forum, with the pair shaking hands, smiling and exchanging some words. While the encounter was brief, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert described it as a "step in the right direction" given where US-North Korea relations were a year ago, as tensions soared due to the North's weapons tests. Pompeo had already left the forum to fly to the next stop on his trip, Indonesia, when Ri delivered his fiery statement, she said. On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached the measures by granting work permits to North Korean workers. During meetings with other foreign ministers in Singapore, Pompeo said he had called specifically for sanctions to be enforced through halting ship-to-ship oil transfers. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefly met North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at the summit Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomatsfrom 26 countries and the European Union On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached the measures by granting work permits to North Korean workers It is not the first time the North has appeared unhappy at what it sees at US impatience to push them quickly along the path of denuclearisation North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, a UN report said Friday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Un's regime. Pyongyang "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump however has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. - Arms sales via Syria - North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea. With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment." The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly $14 million from October to March. "Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China however put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018 At a June 2018 summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" A petrol pump attendant is seen filling up a taxi with gasoline at a fuel station in Pyongyang in 2017; a UN report has found the transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" North Korea on Saturday said the US was acting with "alarming" impatience on the issue of denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang. The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers. At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and Washington has become concerned that some UN member states are easing sanctions. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho criticised US impatience on denuclearisation. "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he said, according to a statement. Since the June agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", he said. "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the North's official name. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Earlier at the same forum, Pompeo said he was emphasizing "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea" but also said that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation. At Saturday's meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, said the State Department. On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached sanctions by granting work permits to North Korean workers. During meetings with other foreign ministers in Singapore, Pompeo said he had called specifically for sanctions to be enforced through halting ship-to-ship oil transfers. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. As ministers gathered for a photo at the meeting in the city-state, Pompeo went over to greet his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday he was hopeful there would be progress towards freeing an American pastor whose detention in Turkey has sparked a diplomatic crisis. His upbeat tone came despite talks on Friday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu having failed to end the standoff surrounding Pastor Andrew Brunson, with Ankara warning that sanctions imposed by Washington would not work. Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most serious crises in relations between the NATO allies in years. The pastor was moved to house arrest last week after nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges, but the change only increased tensions. The US responded to the failure to fully free Brunson by hitting two top Turkish ministers with sanctions, prompting Ankara to threaten reciprocal measures. At a press conference Saturday, Pompeo insisted he had a "constructive conversation" with Cavusoglu on Friday on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Singapore. "I made it clear that it is well past time that Pastor Brunson should be freed and be permitted to return to the United States, and the others being held by Turkey also similarly must be freed as well," he said. "I'm very hopeful that we will make progress on that in the days and weeks ahead," he added. However Cavusoglu struck a less positive tone after his meeting with Pompeo, also calling the talks constructive but warning that threats and sanctions would not work. Apart from Brunson, two Turkish employees of US consulates in Turkey are also currently in jail on terror charges and another is under house arrest, while several Americans have been caught up in the crackdown that followed a failed 2016 coup. The standoff appears to be one of the most serious fallouts between the two NATO allies in modern history, along with the rows over the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Pompeo insisted Saturday Washington would continue to work with Ankara despite the row. Turkey "is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively", he said. US pastor Andrew Brunson was moved to house arrest in Turkey last week following nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges A series of explosions Thursday on Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida killed 55 civilians and wounded dozens of others, the Red Cross said, denouncing the "reprehensible" disregard for human life. The attacks, which were also denounced by a senior UN official, come as the United Nations has said it will invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6 in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations. UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a military campaign to restore the internationally recognised government to power and push back the Huthi rebels, who still hold the capital Sanaa. The war has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday said 55 civilians were killed and 170 others wounded "when a series of explosions rocked densely populated districts of the coastal city, including a fish market and the area around Al-Thawra Hospital". It was the first independent toll since the attack took place. An earlier toll Thursday by medics and witnesses had said at least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded in an air strike at the Al-Thawra hospital and the bombardment of the fish market in Hodeida. Al-Thawra hospital -- Yemen's largest -- is supported by the ICRC, which also said that two ambulances were destroyed in Thursday's attacks. But the ICRC said the details of the attacks were still unknown. "While the exact circumstances around the ground explosions are still unknown, this lack of respect for civilian life and civilian property is reprehensible," Johannes Bruwer, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said in a statement on Friday. - Rebels, coalition trade accusations - "The scenes coming from Hodeida are horrific. The disregard of international humanitarian law in Yemen cannot be tolerated," said Bruwer, condemning the attacks. Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, earlier said hundreds of thousands of people depend on Al-Thawra. "This is shocking," she said of the attacks. "Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Nothing can justify this loss of life," she added. Yemeni government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition have been conducting an offensive to capture Hodeida from the Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Last month they said they were pausing the assault to give UN mediation efforts a chance. But strikes have picked up again around Hodeida since the Saudis last week said that two oil tankers operated by one of the kingdom's companies were attacked in the waters of the Red Sea. Rebel-run media outlets have accused the coalition of carrying out Thursday's attacks in Hodeida. But the coalition's spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, on Friday denied the charges, accusing the Huthis of having bombed the hospital and the fish market. The nearest target hit by the coalition on Wednesday or Thursday was more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the two sites, Maliki told a news conference in Riyadh. - 'Everything at risk' - The fighting around Hodeida has raised UN fears of a new humanitarian catastrophe in a country already standing at the brink of famine and gripped by a deadly cholera epidemic. "Every day this week we have seen new cholera cases in Hodeida, and now this," Grande said. "The impact of the strikes is appalling. Everything we are trying to do to stem the world's worst cholera epidemic is at risk." In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Yemen is likely to be struck by another "major wave" of cholera cases, calling for a three-day truce to allow vaccinations. UN envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Thursday "a political solution" to end the war in Yemen was "available" and urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotiations. Resolving the crisis over Hodeida would have to be part of a "comprehensive political settlement" between the rebels and the government, he said. Griffith also expressed concern that Hodeida -- a key entry point for humanitarian aid -- "could be a flashpoint" that may derail the push for talks in September. A Yemeni official told AFP the internationally recognised government would attend the Geneval talks although it was "not optimistic" over the outcome, while there has been no response from the rebels. People walk past damaged cars at the entrance of Al-Thawra hospital after an air strike in the Red Sea town of Hodeida on August 2, 2018 A Yemeni man lies in a hospital bed on August 3, 2018, after being wounded in a reported air strike on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida Martin Griffiths, the United Nation's special envoy for Yemen, arrives at Sanaa international airport on July 25, 2018 for talks with rebels Tajikistan on Wednesday pledged to create a "tourist police" force to protect visitors after four tourists were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon ordered the creation of the force tasked with "protection of public order and security (and) escort of tourists" as well as the "prevention of crime," state media reported. The move is a response to the attack by an armed gang on a group of seven foreign cyclists on Sunday which left two Americans, one Swiss and one Dutch national dead along a popular biking route. The incident was at first reported as a hit-and-run road accident but later claimed by the Islamic State jihadists. Tajik authorities have declared 2018 to be a "year of tourism" and claim massive increases in visitor numbers. On Tuesday IS released a video showing what it said was a pledge of allegiance by the five men accused of murdering the European and American tourists visiting the impoverished ex-Soviet nation. Police in the authoritarian country have so far ignored the IS claim of responsibility for the attack, instead blaming a banned Islamist opposition party with the backing of rival Iran. The police account has generated scepticism outside the republic due to an ongoing government crackdown on members of the party, which was legal as recently as 2015, Tajikistan's icy relations with Tehran and the IS video footage. The video released by IS Tuesday shows five men, who resemble pictures of the suspects put out by Tajik police, sitting by a tree in front of a jihadist flag. The clip shows them swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's leader. Tajikistan released pictures of four of the suspects after they were killed by police while resisting arrest. A 33-year-old man resembling the fifth participant in the video has been detained. The victims were killed by being struck by a car and attacked with knives and guns as they cycled along a road off the Pamir Highway -- a popular tourist route with spectacular views. They have been named as Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin of the United States, Dutch citizen Rene Wokke and Swiss citizen Markus Hummel. One Dutch and one Swiss citizen also survived the attack while a French cyclist escaped unscathed. A man signs a book of condolences at the US Embassy in Dushanbe in tribute to the attack victims, two of whom were Americans A image taken from the video released by The Islamic State's Amaq News Agency which allegedly shows the five attackers Authoritarian Tajikistan has called for the first time an incident that left four foreign cyclists dead in the Central Asian country a "terror attack" while appearing to refute the Islamic State group's claim of responsibility. In a statement published late on Friday the ex-Soviet country's state prosecutor said the attack initially reported as a hit-and-run road accident was aimed at "creating an atmosphere of fear and panic in society and undermining the international authority of the Republic of Tajikistan". "The attack on the foreign tourists was a terrorist act," the statement said of the assault by an armed gang on a group of seven foreign cyclists Sunday which left two Americans, one Swiss and one Dutch national dead. On Tuesday IS released a video showing what it said was a pledge of allegiance by the five men accused of murdering the tourists visiting the impoverished ex-Soviet nation. In a first official mention of the video Friday, however, the country's state prosecutor said the clip had been released "with the aim of deflecting suspicions from another terrorist organisation, the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is the main commissioner of this terrorist act". A prior police report pinning responsibility for the attack on the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT) -- which styled itself as a moderate, faith-based opposition party until it was outlawed by Tajikistan in 2015 -- has generated scepticism outside the republic. The government began a long crackdown on the opposition in 2015 just before the IRPT failed to make parliament in a vote widely viewed as strewn with violations. Tajik police also alleged that a detained suspect viewed as one of the leaders of the attack on the tourists "underwent training" in Iran, a country with whom Tajikistan currently has poor relations. Both Iran and IRPT have denied any links to the attack. The video released by IS Tuesday shows five men, who resemble pictures of the suspects put out by Tajik police, sitting by a tree in front of a jihadist flag. The clip shows them swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's leader. Four of the men were killed resisting arrest, according to Tajik police while a fifth is in police custody. The victims were killed by being struck by a car and attacked with knives and guns as they cycled along a road off the Pamir Highway -- a popular tourist route with spectacular views. They have been named as Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin of the United States, Dutch citizen Rene Wokke and Swiss citizen Markus Hummel. One Dutch and one Swiss citizen survived the attack while a French cyclist escaped unscathed. A man signs a book of condolences at the US Embassy in Dushanbe after an attack that left four foreign cyclists dead in Tajikistan Russian police arrested 30 LGBT activists in Saint Petersburg on Saturday during a co-ordinated demonstration defending the rights of sexual minorities, a co-organiser told AFP after being taken into custody. Around 60 people with placards calling for LGBT rights to be respected and waving rainbow-coloured flags had gathered in the city centre, said activist and co-organiser Aleksei Nazarov. Each participant demonstrated alone, a ruse to avoid the protest being classified as a gathering, which would have made it subject to the city's prior approval. "In total, 30 people were arrested," said Nazarov, adding that he himself was being held in a police van together with one other demonstrator. "Everyone else has been taken to a police station," he said. Police targeted demonstrators who had the "most colourful flags and clothes" in the arrests, he added. Homosexuality was considered a crime in Russia until 1993, and to be akin to mental illness until 1999. A law passed in 2013 threatens anyone engaging in homosexual "propaganda" towards minors with fines and prison terms. Gay pride marches are usually banned in Russia, or become the target of violence. Russia has a law against homosexual "propaganda" US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Friday said reports that Russia had violated UN sanctions resolutions by issuing new work permits to thousands of North Korean laborers were "credible" and "deeply troubling." "Talk is cheap - Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," Haley said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Russia was letting thousands of North Korea laborers enter the country to earn wages that are a source of hard currency revenue for Pyongyang. The UN Security Council has barred governments from issuing new work permits for North Korean workers, and decided in December that current contracts would be terminated by 2019. "Credible reports of Russia violating UN Security Council resolutions on North Korean laborers working abroad are deeply troubling," said Haley. Last month, Russia and China put a six-month hold on a US request to halt all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after accusing Pyongyang of having illegally imported fuel beyond a cap set in UN resolutions. "Until we see the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea there can be no easing of sanctions," said Haley. The Wall Street Journal reviewed Russian interior ministry records showing that more than 10,000 new North Korean workers had registered in Russia since the ban last year, and at least 700 new work permits issued this year. Russian government records also show that some Russian companies hiring North Koreans are joint ventures, which are banned under UN sanctions resolutions. According to the US State Department, about 100,000 North Koreans have been working abroad in recent years, earning as much as $2 billion a year for the regime of Kim Jong Un. About 24,000 North Koreans were officially working in Russia at the end of 2017, while China also has hosted several thousand laborers from North Korea. The flags of Russia (L), China (C) and North Korea (R) are depicted on a viewing tower on the border between the three countries in Hunchun, China's northeast Jilin province A member of the political wing of Yemen's Huthi rebels said Saturday the insurgents were willing to attend UN-brokered talks, although they had low expectations of a positive outcome. Salim Meghles said the Ansarullah (Supporters of God) political wing is "not opposed to such consultations" which are aimed at "reaching a general framework for negotiations". "We are not opposed to travelling to any neutral country to take part in such consultations," he told AFP. The UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, on Thursday told the Security Council that the United Nations will invite Yemen's warring sides for talks in Geneva on September 6 to discuss a framework for peace negotiations. Meghles cast doubt over the expected meeting saying he did not sense "any serious or real stance by the aggressors towards reaching a political solution". He was referring to the Saudi-led coalition that has intervened in Yemen since 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government to power, which has been driven out of the capital Sanaa by the rebels. A government official on Friday said the Saudi-backed government was ready to attend the Geneva talks. The war in the impoverished country has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Yemeni men inspect a factory allegedly targeted in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, in the Red Sea city of Hodeida on July 27, 2018 A giant shark mouth made by an Auburn artist as part of a water park entrance is ready to swim its way down to a permanent home in Georgia. Tony Pierce, of Wayward Studios in Auburn, built the gigantic display along with his wife, Lois Brazak, and team member Carl Phillips to serve as the entrance to Sharktooth Cove, a section of the Summer Waves water park in Jekyll Island, Georgia. After nearly two months of work, the sign is finished and ready for Pierce and the team to pack it into a U-Haul and drive it to Georgia on Monday. Once there, Pierce and the team will assemble it and gussy up the currently visible seams before unveiling it in the park. Made from a combination of wood, chainsaw-carved insulation foam, fiberglass, drywall mud and automotive putty, having the piece come together made the hard work all worth it, Pierce said in July. "It beats making parking signs," Pierce said. With the money made from the sign, Pierce said he plans to fund his dream project of filming a monster movie. Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 The state Department of Environmental Conservation is asking for help from residents, especially pool owners, in identifying an invasive beetle responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of trees across the country. DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos announced Friday the beginning of the department's annual Asian Longhorned Beetle Pool Survey, which seeks to identify the invasive species before it damages forests and other trees. The program asks pool owners to routinely check their pool filters for any insects that resemble the beetle and send photographs to foresthealth@dec.ny.gov or mail the actual insects to the DEC's Forest Health Lab. Letters should be addressed Attn: Jessica Cancelliere, 108 Game Farm Road, Delmar, NY 12054. Anyone who doesn't own a pool can still help with photos or samples should they find the beetle. The beetles are approximately 1.5 inches long, are black with white spots and have long, black and white antennae that can grow up to twice as long as their body. The bugs also hold a set of wings beneath their carapaces. They also leave several distinctive signs, namely perfectly round holes about the size of a dime they make in branches and tree trunks as well as sawdust-like material they leave on branches and around trees. The majority of invasive forest pest infestations are found and reported by members of the public, making citizen science a vital component for protecting our urban and rural forests, Seggos said in a release. Pool monitoring offers a simple, economical approach to surveying for Asian Longhorned Beetles and gives the public a chance to take an active role in protecting the trees in their yards and communities. The beetles bore their way through hardwoods, especially its preferred host of maple trees, to lay their eggs. Once hatched, the larva feed on the living tissue inside the tree before further damaging it when they exit. Continued attacks by the insects can eventually kill the trees. To help stop the spread of the Asian Longhorned beetle, as well as other invasives like the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, the state recommends citizens adhere to the regulation limiting the transportation of untreated firewood more than 50 miles. Native to China and Korea, the beetles were first found in New York in 1996 after likely hitching a ride from China on wooden packing material that came to the New York Harbor. If you think you have spotted one of the beetles, take pictures of infestation signs like the holes in trees or sawdust, note the location with specifics like intersecting roads, landmarks or even GPS coordinates easily obtained with most smartphones. In addition to contacting the DEC Forest Health bureau, the agency also recommends contacting your local Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Managemnt (PRISM), which in the case of Cayuga County and the Finger Lakes is the FL-PRISM hosted at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and found online at Fingerlakesinvasives.org. More information is also available online at www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7255.html. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 AUBURN For the past seven years, local law enforcement officers have gathered at Dunkin' Donuts shops in Auburn to collect donations for the Special Olympics. But this year, it turned into a friendly competition to see which agency could raise the most money and come out as the cops on top. Early Friday morning, the Auburn Police Department patrolled the Dunkin' Donuts on Grant Avenue while the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office and Auburn Correctional Facility were stationed at the shop on Genesee Street. Armed with buckets and coupons for a free doughnut, the officers asked customers to consider making a donation to support the Special Olympics, a nonprofit organization that provides year-round athletic training and competitions for children and adults with special needs. Michael Murray, a retired sergeant from Auburn Correctional Facility, has participated in the so-called Cops on Top event for years. But this year, he said, it was something special. "With this town, it's tough sometimes because different agencies get caught up with things going on and they can't show up," he said. "This is the first time we've had a couple of good groups to be able to do a friendly competition." Auburn Deputy Police Chief Roger Anthony said this was the Auburn Police Department's first year with the fundraiser, and in addition to competing with the sheriff's deputies and corrections officers at the Genesee Street shop, he said he was personally competing with some of the younger APD officers at his own locale. "It's not only to raise money for a great cause, it's to be more involved in the community," Anthony said. "We've had countless conversations already just standing at the drive-thru, so we're definitely trying to be more involved." Between 6 and 11 a.m., the APD said it collected nearly $2,000 at the Grant Avenue location. As of Friday evening, there was no word on how much the Genesee Street officers had raised. "We're just happy to be participating," APD officer William Morrissey said. "It's another opportunity to help out." Officer Brian Schmitt added, "We hope to keep it going year after year now." Staff writer Megan Blarr can be reached at (315) 282-2282 or megan.blarr@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @CitizenBlarr. Love 7 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SENNETT The development of the first new rules and regulations for the Owasco Lake Watershed in decades is moving forward, as a draft of the rules will soon be finalized before going through the approval process. A working group of the Owasco Lake Watershed Rules and Regulations Revision Project will be meeting Monday to finalize a draft of the first update to enforceable rules for protecting the lake's water quality since 1984, Cayuga County Water Quality Management Agency Chair Stephen Lynch said Thursday at the agency's monthly meeting. The document will look at factors like solid waste, wastewater and septic systems, sediment generation and control, nutrient management and more to develop enforceable rules for the Cayuga County Board of Health to protect water quality. And it tries to do that in a way that's equitable, practical and fair and still protects water quality, Lynch said in a phone interview, later adding As you can imagine there's a lot of constituencies concerned about water quality but also about a regulatory environment that constrains what you can do on the land. The extended staff working group developing the draft is made up over members from the Cayuga County Planning and Health Departments, the county Soil & Water Conservation District, the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Finger Lakes Water Hub, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the City of Auburn Municipal Utilities. When the draft is prepared, the working group will meet with initial the project's steering committee, itself made up of representatives from the Cayuga County Legislature, the City of Auburn, the Town of Owasco, the county Department of Health, as well as members from the agricultural sector and water quality-involved lake groups, as the first phase of a roll-out lan. According to Lynch, the goal is for the members of the steering committee to report back to their constituents and members to garner input and feedback for the working group to make possible revisions. Following any changes made on the recommendations of the steering committee, the next phase is to present the plan to stakeholder groups, including the agricultural and farming community, lake-shore propertyowners and lake advocacy groups like the Owasco Watershed Lake Association; municipal, state and federal officials, the business community and commercial contractors. The final phase of the public participation process involves holding several public meetings. Several public and steering committees were also held last year as the project formally began. The plan must then seek approval from the City of Auburn and Town of Owasco, which the state requires as it considers the rules and regulations to be placed on their behalf as the purveyors of municipal water. We're making sure we go through a public and stakeholder process so what we present to the water purveyors are the result of a very thoughtful and transparent process that all the stakeholders have gotten a chance to view and respond to, Lynch said. Lynch said he did not have an exact date yet for the public meetings, as they are awaiting further guidance from the state on the process and the working group is currently focused on drafting the plan. However, if approved by the city and town, the plan would then need to go through the county Health Department which will act as the liaison between the municipalities before transmitting the plan to the state Department of Health's Drinking Water Protection Program. Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 City Randell S. L. Agee, 21, 76 Greenview Circle, Auburn, was charged July 30 with petit larceny. Earl T. Curcie, 53, 122 Dickerson St., Syracuse, was picked up July 31 on an arrest warrant and charged with forcible touching and second-degree sexual abuse. Steven M. Bell, 50, 103 Steel St., Auburn, was picked up July 31 on an arrest warrant and charged with third-degree menacing. Krste Biljanoski, 61, 9 Swift St., Auburn, was charged July 31 with third-degree assault. Mitchell J. Nevidomsky, 32, 191 Hamilton Ave., Auburn, was charged July 31 with driving while intoxicated first offense and aggravated driving while intoxicated. Marissa B. Weaver, 22, 4249 Dildine Road, Springport, was charged July 31 with petit larceny. Damon D. Lamb, 22, 204 Genesee St. Apt. 2, Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with forcible touching. Gerard M. Cowan, 57, 103 N. Fulton St., Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with third-degree criminal mischief and fourth-degree criminal mischief. Brandon C. Millhoff, 41, 1 Chedell Place, Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Alyssa R. Borth, 24, 206 Genesee St. Apt. 1, Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with driving while intoxicated, operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of at least .08 of 1 percent and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. William C. Kindrew, 33, 62 Nelson St., Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with endangering the welfare of a child and obstruction of breath. Franklin S. O'Shea, 31, 60 Bridge St., Seneca Falls, was picked up Aug. 2 on a bench warrant. Joseph C. Wynn, 21, 36 Greenview Circle, Auburn, was charged Aug. 2 with second-degree criminal contempt. Brenda A. Galloway, 54, 22 Miller St., Auburn, was charged Aug. 2 with aggravated driving while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated with a previous conviction and first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. State Bertram E. Farrell, 40, Liverpool, was charged July 30 with fifth-degree possession of marijuana. Michelle A. Andujar, 33, Auburn, was charged July 31 with first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, driving while intoxicated and operation of a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of at least .08 of 1 percent. Lawrence A. Atikins, 41, Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with petit larceny and criminal possession of an anti-security item. Ann. M Schlegel, 40, Auburn, was charged July 28 with petit larceny. Joshua L. Patterson, 34, Auburn, was charged Aug. 1 with petit larceny. Jordan E. Hanmore, 21, Fleming, was charged Aug. 2 with driving while intoxicated first offense and third-degree unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Love 1 Funny 6 Wow 2 Sad 0 Angry 5 LOS ANGELESSex toy producers Cousins Group and the Pornstar Signature Series will be bringing some of their hottest representatives to SEXPO Australia from Friday, August 10, through Sunday, August 12, in conjunction with Australasian Adult Product Distributors (AAPD), their exclusive Australian distributor, along with Club X. Alexis Texas, Zoey Monroe and Kleio Valentien will be headlining the expo, and giving their international fans the opportunity to meet them in person, get autographs, and purchase their special toys. SEXPO Australia will be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, and tickets can be purchased here. This event will mark the first time in four years that SEXPO is being held in Adelaide, and they are expecting a record-breaking turnout for the show. Alexis, who will be representing Cousins Group, worked closely with the company to develop her special line of toys, including a pleasure wand, strap-on set, pussy pump, and rabbit vibe. Alexis, who is also an Elegant Angel contract star, has enjoyed a successful career, and is one of Australia's most well-loved performers. After the expo, Alexis will be dancing at Adelaide's #1 Gentlemen's Club, The Palace. Zoey and Kleio are two of the vixens chosen by the Pornstar Signature Series to represent the hottest new personal pleasure products in the sexual wellness market. Each toy is personally molded from the model's private parts, and has unique features and/or themes. Zoey, who has well over 300 scenes to her credit and is a top notch squirter, is excited to share her personal squirting toy with fans. Kleio, who's recently played the award-winning role of Batman villain Harley Quinn, can't wait for fans to try out her stroker as part of an exciting bondage set. Linda, CEO of AAPD expressed the excitement surrounding this exclusive launch, as well as the opportunity to work with Dennis and the Cousins Group. "We are excited about the Pornstar Signature Series range and have had a great response from our retail customers on pre-orders," she said. "I think the Australian consumers will love the range too, and I am excited to see how the public will receive the brands at SEXPO." Those interested may visit PornstarStroker.com or follow it on Twitter at @pornstarstroker or on Instagram at @pssignatureseries for more information. To contact the Cousins Group, email Dennis D. at [email protected]. MEDELLIN, ColombiaLALExpo recently held a contest in Colombia, sponsored by popular live cam site Chaturbate, to choose a cover model for the next edition of CamGirl magazine. Since the giant live cam site is the sponsor of the cover page, Shirley Lara, COO of Chaturbate, chose the winners. The competition was so close that she selected two out of over 400 stunning models who participated. Both models will receive an all-expense paid trip to Medellin, Colombia and one million pesos in cash. They will also be interviewed for the Chaturbate blog with exclusive photos. Congratulations to the two Chaturbate broadcasters, Estefenia_Riveras and ValeryHouse, for being selected as the CamGirl magazine cover models," stated Chaturbate's Shirley Lara. "We are so happy for both winners who were chosen from the hundreds of models that participated. These two Columbian glamour girls will pose together for a special edition celebrating the diversity and social impact cammers are making in Latin America and all over the world with their fresh, enticing take on sensual interaction. Visit them on Chaturbate.com for an introduction in pure intimacy. CamGirl magazine is the very first Latin American magazine dedicated to webcam modeling. Its one of the worlds best sources of information in the adult webcam industry, featuring professional photographers who capture stunning images of some of the hottest cam girls in the industry. This fourth edition of CamGirl magazine featuring the two contest winners will be launched during the LALExpo workshop in September, in Medellin, Colombia. "We've also been one of the lead sponsors for the TerraVita Food & Drink Festival ... which is committed to spreading the gospel of sustainable food and drink. "We also go to a lot of nonprofit fundraisers and make cocktails for their events. Most events are worth around $2,000, if you take into account the spirits at retail, mixers, and bar service." Scott Smith, one of the partners who own and run Outer Banks Distilling in Manteo, loves his job.That's no surprise, after all. He makes rum, and lots of people are buying it.But he and his partners do other things, too. Things that mean a lot to a lot of people. He does things for people who don't drink rum, or even drink at all.Smith builds playgrounds.The Manteo distillers created a new rum - Angels' Share - and, in partnership with celebrity chef Vivian Howard, put all proceeds from the sale of their new concoction toward the reconstruction of a dilapidated playground in Dare County. They made a party of it, and it worked. Howard signed her new book. Sam Jones donated a whole hog. Lost Colony Brewery poured beer, and Greentails Seafood of Nags Head did its thing.Smith says.Restaurants along the Outer Banks serve his Kill Devil Rum, and ABC stores, as well as ABC administrator Bob Hamilton, have supported Smith's and his partners' efforts.Smith estimates 1,000 people showed up for the picnic, and sales of the rum - 372 bottles - raised $15,000, which all went to the county's parks and rec department and the playground.Smith says.Smith and his partners aren't outliers. Not by any stretch.Certain lawmakers bash drinking, telling stories of how it has destroyed families and ripped communities from their roots. Some of that is true. Liquor in North Carolina has a long and beleaguered history. We all know that, as certain lawmakers are quick to remind us, should we start to forget.What gets lost in talk of liquor is brotherhood and community, ideas that distillers create and nurture.The idea of a civil society.Take Southern Grace Distilleries in Mt. Pleasant, which uses proceeds from its products to help fund animal shelters, breast cancer research, Habitat for Humanity, the work of local firefighters, among many other recipients.says Leanne Powell, Southern Grace president.At TOPO Distillery in Chapel Hill, giving is part of the culture.says spirit guide Esteban McMahan.But here are a few: Foundation Fighting Blindness, Urban Ministries of Wake County, Triangle Day School, Triangle Raptor Center, Meals on Wheels Wake County, and Ronald McDonald House.Admittedly, this is an embarrassingly brief and incomplete list of examples of generosity from a community that includes hundreds of distillers, brewers, and winemakers.As McMahan told:In reality it's an exhaustive list, which, maybe, those who rail against the industry can spend a minute or two taking in.Sadly, in North Carolina, beset by arcane rules and, in certain corners, inflexible opposition to alcohol, many still won't. Zephyr Teachout (previously) isn't just an expert on antitrust law and corruption, and isn't merely a netroots pioneer who has been on the right side of every technology policy fight since the Gore years she's also running to be the Attorney General of the State of New York, from which position she plans on gutting Trump on his corrupt business practices, targeting him using the dread emoluments clause. I have endorsed and financially supported every one of Teachouts campaigns, including this one. This one is extra special, though: Teachout just welcomed 120 of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's most skilled and dedicated volunteers into her campaign. From the moment that Mr. Trump became president, Ms. Teachout has been talking about the possibility in her mind, the absolute certainty that his financial involvements with foreign state-controlled companies are in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits public servants from accepting anything of significant value from a foreign power without the clear consent of Congress. Seventy-two hours after Mr. Trump became president, she and other lawyers filed a federal lawsuit against him on these grounds. Before Mr. Schneiderman's fall, Ms. Teachout had twice pushed him to go after the president on emoluments, she told me in her campaign headquarters in East Harlem one afternoon. He didn't do it. Of all the candidates running for attorney general in the Democratic field they include New York City public advocate Letitia James, who has the governor's endorsement and the backing of the state party apparatus; Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney; and Leecia Eve, an upstate lawyer and former adviser to Hillary Clinton Ms. Teachout is running the loudest, most aggressive campaign. She also has 120 active volunteers absorbed from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's blockbuster primary campaign. Zephyr Teachout Is Running for Attorney General. But Her Real Target Is Trump. [Ginia Bellafante/NY Times] (via Naked Capitalism) If you want to be a good host during the next get-together at your place, you need enough space to seat all your guests. Sure, a snazzy 10-foot table would do the trick, but that would be downright excessive when guests aren't around. Not to mention, it would take up way too much space. That's READ THE REST Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema, has advised the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe to accepted the contested results of the national election. PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Malema said that the people had their say and the result must be respected. He called on Nelson Chamisa, the opposition leader, to work with the elected government. He also warned that refusing to accept the result may escalate tensions in the country. He said that without any real evidence of wrongdoing the election results must be accepted. READ ALSO: Sjava gives Emtee some love, says he's proud of him Briefly.co.za learned that although the EFF congratulated Emmerson Mnangagwa, Malema urged the newly elected president to serve one term only and allow new leadership to come forward in Zimbabwe according to ewn.co.za. READ ALSO: Self-confessed blesser's interview on live TV raises eyebrows Malema was in Limpopo on Friday to address the Circle of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces after which he issued his statements regarding the situation in Zimbabwe. For more amazing, funny and informative videos, please visit Briefly South Africa's YouTube Channel. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook page and we could feature your story. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play or iTunes today. Source: Briefly.co.za News / National by AFP I repeat what I said in 2002: WHERE THE ARMY IS DEPLOYED, DON'T EXPECT A PICNIC. When the Army was deployed in 2008, it was not a picnic, it was a reversal of a poll result; and when it was deployed last Nov, it wasn't a picnic, it was a COUP!#HandeyiKwekwe #KwekweHimJuly30 https://t.co/7ihMu6clrF Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) June 16, 2018 A Zimbabwean soldier beats a man in a street of Harare as protests erupts over alleged fraud in the country's election.One man was shot dead, AFP witnessed, after the Zimbabwean army opened fire in central Harare.President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called for peace.Professor Jonathan Moyo once said, "I repeat what I said in 2002: WHERE THE ARMY IS DEPLOYED, DON'T EXPECT A PICNIC. When the Army was deployed in 2008, it was not a picnic, it was a reversal of a poll result; and when it was deployed last Nov, it wasn't a picnic, it was a COUP!" News / National by Simbarashe Sithole Thokozani Khupe's ally Linda Masarira was attacked on micro blogging Twitter for saying she does not subscribe to cheap political expediency manipulating supporters emotions."1/3 l am willing to work with every progressive &futuristic Zimbabwe. I just don't subscribe to cheap political bantering for political expediency manipulating supporters emotions.We have a nation to rebuild ,unite &transform for the betterment of suffering masses in the country," reads the tweet."Political prostitute," tweeted Alice Tsungu.Sherphard hembe said, "Its time to your pent up residual emotions and grudge with alliance, you seem to allow that to always cloud and crowd your opinion,let go sista!!""Linda what's the we way foward you lot thought you will ride on MDC T name.You can take the name isu tiri Wero naNero.Chamisa is the president of Zimbabwe, reads Zim Genocide 1Aug's tweet. News / National by Stephen Jakes Mthwakai activist Hloniphani Ncube has said what happened recent when the soldiers shot at civilian in Harare exposed how weak the Zimbabwe National Armyu is."Zimbabwe National Army is weak. So far they are know for training to kill civilians. They did it during Gukurahundi, they have been doing it to force people to support ZANU PF. They did it to Mthwakazi protestors," he said."These young boys are not even trained to be professional. A number of them murder women and some of them rap people. The tax payers money is wasted is pushing the devilish agenda of the military and Constantino Chiwengwa also uses the money to buy light skin cream. They say it's illegal to use light cream whilst the military boss is using it what a shame." News / National by Kudzai Kuwaza AFTER the coup that catapulted President Emmerson Mnangagwa to power last year, his Holy Grail in the election held on Monday this week was the quest for legitimacy: but it did not go according to plan. It ended in a fierce dispute and bloodbath, compounding his legitimacy crisis.The deployment of the army to violently quash a protest by MDC Alliance activists on Wednesday which resulted in the death of six people, as well as the dispute around the outcome of the poll, has tarnished Mnangagwa's bid to secure legitimacy while tainting his already besmirched political credentials.The deployment and the army's heavy-handed approach were condemned by international observer missions yesterday including Sadc, Sadc Parliamentary Forum and African Union which had endorsed the polls.The Commonwealth Observer Group, European Union (EU) Election Observer Mission, the Carter Centre and Comesa condemned the heavy-handed approach by the military while also denouncing vandalism and destruction of property by the protestors."We denounce the excessive use of force to quell protests and urge the police and army to exercise restraint," the joint statement read.Mnangagwa, who took the presidency on the back of military intervention which resulted in the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe in November last year, has been on a major charm offensive re-engaging the international community.In a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Mnangagwa described himself as "soft as wool". This was in response to a question over his reputation as a ruthless politician tainted mainly by his perceived role in the Gukurahundi massacres where an estimated 20 000 civilians lost their lives at the hands of a government-sponsored military operation.In a bid to win the legitimacy he desperately needed, Mnangagwa invited the international community to observe the elections, promising he would deliver a free, fair, credible and non-violent poll.He has also come up with the slogan "Zimbabwe is open for business" to emphasise his message that the country is ready to welcome investors after years of isolation due to toxic policies and gross economic mismanagement.The voting process by and large went on smoothly but the pre-election period was marred by allegations of manipulation while the aftermath has been plunged into controversy and strife.Videos of soldiers opening fire on unarmed protestors have been circulated globally, resulting in many people dismissing the argument that Zimbabwe had moved on from the repression and terror associated with Mugabe's rule.Despite positive reports by regional bodies such as Sadc and the AU, the EU and observers from the United States have joined the opposition and many Zimbabweans in condemning the polls."The elections were competitive, the campaign was largely peaceful and, overall, political freedoms during the campaign, including freedom of movement, assembly and speech, were respected," the EU mission said on Wednesday."However, the misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behaviour by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media, all in favour of the ruling party, meant that a truly level playing field was not achieved, which negatively impacted on the democratic character of the electoral environment."The founding director of the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, Godfrey Kanyenze, said the shooting of innocent civilians by soldiers marked a slide back into repression."The deployment of the army to attack civilians is a throwback to the dark age. It betrays all the sloganeering about being open for business," Kanyenze said. "It throws us back to a chapter we thought had been closed."He said the shooting incident is a major blow to efforts to resuscitate the economy and restore democracy."We do not need this is in a new dispensation. It belies all the rhetoric and it unmasks the dark past that still lurks in the background," Kanyenze said."It is very easy to destroy, but a lot more effort is needed to rebuild the trust and confidence of internal and external interlocutors."The killing of civilians mostly shot from the back by soldiers on Wednesday poses a serious risk to Mnangagwa's reputation and legacy, according to analyst Eddie Cross."Emmerson should call for a judiciary inquiry into the shootings," Cross said. "If he does, it will strengthen his bid for legitimacy, but if he fails it will damage his efforts to gain legitimacy." News / National by Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM's Secretary for Information and Publicity The 1893 MHRRM is stepping up and kick-starting its preparations for its UK International Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide Conference that is now rescheduled for early October 2018. The actual date is yet to be announced.The Movement cancelled its 12th May 2018 Conference that was scheduled to take place in Luton before the Zimbabwean elections due delays in the issuing of the UK visas for our Conference guests. The guests, Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and Mr Moses Mzila Ndlovu, have since been issued with the UK visas. The Movement has scheduled the Conference for early October 2018. The visas obtained by our guests remain valid for a number of months.Therefore the delay in issuing of the visas for our guests meant that funds for Air tickets provided by our co-sponsors for the conference were lost and the Movement had a setback in that regard. The Movement, however is kick-starting its preparations for the October Conference by engaging in fundraising activities to be able to get air tickets and accommodation for the guests and for the overall running of the conference.The fundraising activities and individual sponsorships will kick-start this coming week culminating in a big fundraising event scheduled for the 25th August 2018 from 10:00 am till late at The Denton Village Hall, Denton Orchard Lane, Northampton, NN7 1DQ, United Kingdom. This will be a day for all Human Rights Defenders to come together and support the 1893 MHRRM's Fundraiser for its preparations for the 1st International Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide Conference scheduled in October 2018.The people of Matebeleland must know that Our Collective Efforts as a wounded People are our Collective Power as a Nation.The Movement is strictly and purely a Human Rights Restoration Movement that is making a strong case for demanding Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland people for the genocide they have suffered from the repressive and genocidal state of Zimbabwe.A few days ago we witnessed the brutality of the genocidal state of Zimbabwe in broad daylight with the eyes of the world watching. We watched this criminal state committing crimes against humanity in the middle of an election, deploying an army to carry out public executions of innocent civilians in Harare.The ghastly image of that dead woman with her handbag having been shot at the back a few days ago by the Zimbabwean army is a gruesome reminder of the worse things the people of Matebeleland have suffered during the 1980s genocide and continue to suffer at the hands of the criminal, mafia and genocidal state of Zimbabwe.Therefore in light of the above, our International Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide Conference remains on and the 1893 MHRRM is keen to hold it successfully.Therefore Play Your Part and We Make a Difference Together for the People of Matebeleland.Kindly contact the following regarding the 1893 MHRRM's fundraising preparations for the conference:Thembani Dube: 07889 422 695Charity Ndebele: 07423 205 393Caroline Madongo: 07465 863 886Moris Bunu: 07947 080 758Rori Masiane: 07763 305 905Vusumuzi Ndlovu: 07404 883 229Released by The 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement Information Dept Opinion / Columnist Efforts to nurse Zimbabwe back to international respectability depended on free and fair elections, but the plan appears to be unravelling.Ever since the then Africa minister Rory Stewart took the strategic bet to rush to Harare in November 2017 in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Robert Mugabe, the United Kingdom has invested heavily in nursing its former colony back to international respectability.The Foreign Office analysis was that a short window of opportunity had opened to encourage the ruling Zanu-PF party to turn away from the violent chaos and economic disaster of the previous 30 years.As soon as Stewart reached Harare, he stressed the rewards available to Zimbabwe if it took the path of reform.Stewart in private was not naive about Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe's successor, or the democratic instincts of the army. Any student of Mnangagwa's record knew he had been Mugabe's enforcer, deeply involved in money laundering and massacres.But Stewart could hardly do anything but hold his nose, and point to the opportunities that democratic reform might bring.Zanu-PF 2.0 might seem an implausible concept, but the possibility existed that the ruling party post-Mugabe realised the status quo was not an option. Mugabe had presided over the fastest shrinking economy in peacetime history. Zimbabwe's GDP per capita is approximately US$1 000, compared with US$6 000 in Botswana. Nearly a fifth of the country had left.Although there was a limit to what the UK could offerBritish sanctions were minimalBritain did have influence with private investors and multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the only body that could help lift Zimbabwe's US$13 billion debt burden.Britain also offered a return to the Commonwealth and other international seals of approval, but all depends on the delivery of free and fair elections. These were always going to be the acid test, the then British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said. The Zimbabwean government seemed to understand the bargain describing the elections as "an instrument of foreign policy", the route to ending the country's isolation.As a result, these elections were probably the most monitored in African democratic historya marked contrast to the previous rigged elections in 2013. In total, 43 different sets of external observers were officially invited by the governmentincluding individual countries, blocs, such as the European Union (EU), liberation movements and two eminent individuals: Andrew Young, a former United States diplomat, and Jeff Flake, the Republican Arizona senator. More than 6 000 Zimbabweans acted as civil society observers.The most important observers were the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), the EU monitoring team led by the German Member of the European Parliament Elmar Brok, the Commonwealth Observers group including the Conservative poll expert Lord Hayward, the 64-strong African Union observers headed by a former prime minister of Ethiopia, and the joint US-based International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute.The UK was aware that such an array of observers might lead to a range of judgments about the fairness of the elections and did something to try to share and coordinate observations. Election monitoring is not a science and requires a lot more than an American senator staring at people peacefully voting.The Sadc was noticeably more sanguine about the credibility of the result than the EU and US delegations. But the EU did not describe the result as illegal as the opposition MDC Alliance urged it to do.The delay in announcing the election result and the overall performance of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission hardly inspire confidence, but short of more egregious ballot stuffing the betting must be that the UK has gone too far with the reform process to pull back now.Faced with the sight of teargas, protesters shot in the street and the rapid deployment of the army, the new Africa minister Harriett Baldwin has expressed deep concern and called for restraint from all sides.But British MPs in Zimbabwe such as Kate Hoey are demanding that the UK embassy specifically condemn the army and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for delaying the announcement of the presidential results.That political pressure is likely to build. Further deaths, and more evidence of ballot rigging, and the Foreign Office may have to admit that its considered gamble on post-coup Zimbabwe has not paid off.Wintour is diplomatic editor of The Guardian. With 466 fires now burning across the province, the B.C. Wildfire Service has reached a Provincial Preparedness Level of 4 for the first time in 2018 meaning the province is experiencing a "high level of fire activity." According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, "intense" lightning storms across the province have led to multiple fire starts and will require assistance from outside the province. "To ensure we can maintain our capacity, the B.C. Wildfire Service is currently requesting resources from elsewhere in Canada and internationally to assist with the wildfire situation," a statement reads. There are already 2,200 people involved in the wildfire response. An additional 20 Alberta firefighters and 15 from the Northwest Territories arrived on Thursday. Another 20 crew members from Saskatchewan, plus 10 support staff, are expected Sunday. International help will begin pouring in next week, including 62 firefighters from Mexico, 65 firefighters and support staff from New Zealand, and another 25 support staff from Australia. Threat to ranching Friday morning, the government closed two swaths of back-country in the Similkameen region of the southern Interior because of the Snowy Mountain wildfire, which is spreading both north and south. Lower Similkameen Indian Band Chief Keith Crow said the wildfire has surrounded and trapped some cattle. "There wasn't an opportunity to get those cattle out. Some came down on their own but there are a fair bit of cattle that are stuck up in there. We are a little scared," Crow said. - The B.C. Wildfire Service is responding to a new wildfire within the city of Merritt that is estimated to be three hectares. There are ground crews, helicopters and air tankers on site that are assisting members of the local fire department. - On Friday night the Snowy Mountain fire jumped to the eastside of the Similkamen river. Five evacuation orders were issued, and 500 people remain on alert. Story continues - The B.C. Wildfire Service is working to put two area restrictions in the Vernon fire zone by Friday at noon to protect public safety. One restriction will be around the Sugar Mountain wildfire and will include the Sugar Creek recreational site. The second area restriction will be around the Mabel Creek wildfire, along the east edge of Mabel Lake as well as east along the Tsuius Creek. - The B.C. Wildfire Service has identified 15 wildfires in the Chilcotin fire zone since Monday. Five of those fires are highly visible from Highway 20 and communities. - The Placer Mountain wildfire that forced the evacuation of Cathedral Lakes Lodge for a second straight year had grown to more than 2,300 hectares as of Thursday. - In advance of the B.C. Day long weekend, the province is asking people to be extra vigilant in preventing new fires from igniting. "Be careful when you're out in the back country," said Forests Minister Doug Donaldson. "Follow the rules and avoid any activities that could start a wildfire." - The B.C. Wildfire Service estimates 27 per cent of the 1,260 wildfires in the province since April 1 have been human caused. For the latest wildfire information, visit: B.C. Wildfire Service Emergency Info B.C. Listen to the full interview with Chief Keith Crow on Daybreak South: With files from Daybreak South Read more from CBC British Columbia Canada's top gamers face off in Montreal for $15K in prizes Canada's top video game players are facing off tonight in Montreal, at the Olympia Theatre on Ste-Catherine Street. Davide Bucci, a 19-year-old professional gamer from Beaconsfield in Montreal's West Island, and his four teammates are after the top prize of $10,000. "It's my life, so I do everything I can to be the best," said Bucci, who is known in the gaming world as Fox A. The gamers will all be playing Rainbow Six Siege, a first-person shooter game Bucci has been playing since it was released in 2015. Developing pro gaming in Canada Rainbow Six Siege is created by Ubisoft's Montreal studio, and it's generated a worldwide following. The tournament is organized by Northern Arena, a company that specializes in gamer events in Canada. The Rainbow Six Siege competition has been going on since June. Carl-Edwin Michel, the founder of Northern Arena, said he hopes tournaments like this will help develop a professional gaming industry in Canada, so talented gamers don't have to move to the United States or Europe. "What we're doing as much as possible is to create that platform where they can stay here and have a salary," said Michel. Most of the players are from Montreal, but there are also gamers from Ontario and British Columbia in town for the tournament. Michel, who grew up in Montreal but now lives in Toronto, started the company in 2015. He said audiences flock to the tournaments in 2016, 4,000 attended a tournament at the Bell Centre, and another 22 million watched online. "That's the beauty of e-sports: because you're connected to that online platform you can reach a lot of people," Michel said. The Rainbow Six Canadian National Finals get underway at 7 p.m. at the Olympia Theatre, at 1004 Ste-Catherine Street East. The event is free. BEIJING (Reuters) - China's market regulator said on Friday that after a meeting with online discounter Pinduoduo Inc the company agreed to step up vetting of the products listed on its platform amid reports of counterfeiting. In a statement on its website, the State Administration for Market Regulation said Pinduoduo should "strengthen platform management, regulate business activities of third-party vendors, stick to law and maintain a healthy, fast and sustainable development." Huang Zheng, Pinduoduo's chief executive officer, vowed to "thoroughly rectify and reform," and cooperate with regulators' investigation, according to the statement. The company is backed by Chinese video and internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd and was valued at $23.8 billion last week in an initial public offering (IPO) in New York. Authorities said earlier this week they were investigating the company after reports that the platform was selling counterfeit and shoddy goods to its over 300 million users. Shanghai-based Pinduoduo described reports as "attacks" on the company. Pinduoduo's share price has slumped below its IPO price this week following the investigation. Its shares had jumped 44 percent on its trading debut. The firm is also being taken to a federal court in the United States by a diaper maker, which claimed that Pinduoduo knowingly allowed the sale of counterfeit products bearing the company's name on its site. After the IPO, Pinduoduo became the subject of media reports and online jokes centered on goods on its marketplace resembling products from firms such as Coca-Cola Co, Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Many jokes described the goods using the phrase "shanzai", a term often used to refer to look-alike products featuring purposely misspelled names of big brands. (Reporting by Pei Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) A Winnipeg man is behind bars after RCMP say a wild ride down the Trans-Canada Highway ended with a crash into the back of a police car just outside Portage la Prairie Thursday. Police in Headingley started receiving complaints about a northbound vehicle being driven dangerously on Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway near Highway 3 shortly before 11 p.m. By 11:15 p.m. the same vehicle was reported to be driving erratically in the wrong lanes on the Trans-Canada near Elie, Man., about 45 kilometres west of Winnipeg. RCMP in Portage la Prairie began patrolling the highway looking for the vehicle and say the driver nearly hit a patrol car while speeding west in the eastbound lane around 11:40 p.m. Police lost sight of the vehicle. They were checking to see if a vehicle stopped at a train crossing just east of Portage la Prairie was the one they were looking for when the suspect vehicle rammed them from behind at high speed. The officers were able to get out of their cruiser and arrest the driver. Both the officers and the driver were taken to hospital as a precaution and later released. Police say the vehicle had been stolen in Winnipeg. A 41-year-old man from Winnipeg is facing a slew of charges including theft of a vehicle and two counts of assaulting a police officer. More from CBC Manitoba: Just like the cat, Fred Penner came back to St. John's for Folk Fest Fred Penner may be remembered from his popular children's show Fred Penner's Place, which aired on the CBC in the 1980s and '90s, but his reach extends far beyond television into the hearts of the many Canadians who grew up with his music. Those songs will reach another group of kids now that the man himself is in town to play at the 42nd annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, held at Bannerman Park in downtown St. John's, at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. It's something the entertainer has been doing for more than forty years now. "When I began I did it for very sound reasons. I worked a lot with special needs kids, I had a sister who was a down syndrome child," Penner told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show Friday. "The value of music was always clear to me. So I came into it gently, and now that people recognize me and that I am part of their lives it does catch me off guard sometimes." But Penner's career didn't start out with guitars and climbing through fallen trees. He was the first in his family to attend university and earned a degree in economics and psychology from the University of Winnipeg in the 1970s. Shortly after graduation he lost his father, which led him to consider his own mortality and his plan for his life. "The only thing that made sense was following a music career," Penner said. "I was not a good economist, I'm afraid." New album out soon Penner, who hasn't yet run out of material for original songs, has a new record on the way featuring guest appearances by musical partners from throughout his career. "We talked about doing a duets kind of album and I had all these musical pals that I've connected with over the years. I thought let's make some calls and see who's available," he said. Guest performers on the album include Alex Cuba, Ron Sexsmith, The Good Lovelies and Terra Lightfoot. "It just kept growing, and before long we had this base of Canadian talent that blew me away for sure." Story continues Family friendly forever On his CBC show, the upbeat and positive Penner climbed through a downed, hollowed-out log and into a magical forest where he would play games, teach lessons and of course, play his guitar. He is among some of the most influential TV personalities from the era, along with Mr. Dressup's Ernie Coombs and Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. "It's all a growth process," said Penner, whose show ran from 1985 to 1997. "Learning to deal with the challenges of life is so vital for me, so I try and take that in." It's an approach that has earned Penner fans from all walks of life. Even Dwight Ball, Newfoundland and Labrador's premier, couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet the legendary folk singer when they were both at the CBC studio in St. John's on Friday. "We've started many mornings with Fred Penner, of course, with our nieces and our own children," Ball told the St. John's Morning Show. "We had great meeting. A very positive man ... big influence on many of our lives." Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador By Michelle Nichols and Lesley Wroughton UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday accused Russia of violating U.N. sanctions on North Korea, citing "credible reports" that Moscow was granting new work permits to North Korean laborers despite Russia's denial of any such actions. The Trump administration also imposed targeted U.S sanctions on a Russian bank it said had facilitated a transaction with a person blacklisted by Washington for involvement with North Korea's nuclear weapons program. This came on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, less than two months after a landmark U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore, flew back to the city-state and suggested that continued work on weapons programs by North Korea was inconsistent with its leader's commitment to denuclearization. Russia denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean laborers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions. Over 10,000 new North Korean workers have registered in Russia since September, the newspaper said, citing records from Russia's interior ministry. Russia's action potentially violates U.N. sanctions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, the Journal reported, citing U.S. officials. It also raises further questions about the extent to which North Korea's larger neighbors, including its biggest trading partner, China, are willing to keep up enforcement of U.S.-led international sanctions on Pyongyang. In the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on June 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed in broad terms to work towards denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. But Pyongyang has offered no details on how it might go about this, and many experts doubt it will ever give up its nuclear arsenal. "Credible reports of Russia violating U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korean laborers working abroad are deeply troubling," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said later on Friday. "Talk is cheap - Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," Haley said in a statement. RUSSIAN DENIAL Alexander Matsegora, Russia's ambassador to North Korea, denied Moscow had allowed any new workers to enter Russia, saying fresh documents had been issued to laborers already based in Russia who were working on old contracts, Interfax news agency reported. He said the laborers were allowed to work in Russia until Nov. 29, 2019 as their work contracts had been signed before sanctions came into force, Interfax reported. He said 3,500 new work permits had been issued to workers who had signed contracts in Russia before Nov. 29, 2017, Interfax reported. Labour Ministry records obtained by the Journal showed that a minimum of 700 new work permits had been issued to North Koreans in Russia this year, the paper said. "It is estimated that North Korean laborers in Russia send between $150-$300 million annually to Pyongyang," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. "Moscow should immediately and fully implement all the U.N. sanctions." The labor prohibition is a part of a broader array of sanctions aimed at eliminating an important revenue stream for North Korea. Most of the money North Koreans earn abroad ends up in government coffers as workers toil in grueling conditions, the Journal reported. A separate report released on Thursday by the non-profit research organization C4ADS said initial restrictions in China and Russia - where around 80 percent of North Korean laborers are believed to work - appear to have loosened. In Friday's sanctions announcement, the U.S. Treasury Department said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank had conducted "a significant transaction" for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank. The Treasury also added Ri Jong Won, the Moscow-based deputy representative of FTB, to its sanctions list and said both Ri and Han should be expelled from Russia. A separate report released this week by the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies said between 2015 and 2017 the Moscow-based Independent Petroleum Company (IPC) sold far more oil to North Korea than what was officially reported. Russia's ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting U.N. restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea. In September last year, Reuters found that at least eight North Korean ships that left Russia with a cargo of fuel had headed for their homeland despite declaring other destinations, a ploy that U.S. officials say is often used to undermine sanctions. (Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru, David Brunnstrom in Singapore, Susan Heavey in Washington, Josh Smith in Seoul, and Polina Ivanova and Tom Balmforth in Moscow; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Richard Balmforth and James Dalgleish) Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images From Harper's BAZAAR Remember when Queen Elizabeth II was left waiting for President Trump last month? Let me spark your memory: The 92-year-old matriarch was photographed checking her watch as she not-so-happily awaited for the Trumps to arrive at Windsor Castle. Welp, during a rally in Philadelphia last night, Trump claimed it was he who arrived early-and "fake news" is to blame for the false reports. "I was about 15 minutes early and I'm waiting with my wife and that's fine. Hey, it's the Queen, right? We can wait. But I'm a little early, he told the crowd. "And I didn't know this-it was supposed to last 15 minutes but it lasted like an hour because we got along. And she liked our first lady and our first lady liked her." Photo credit: Getty Images "But we got along fantastically well. But the time went by you know, sometimes you get along and the time goes by," he said. Of reports that said the President was late and overstayed his welcome, Trump added, "They said I was late when I was actually early, number one. Number two, I guess the meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes and it lasted for almost an hour." "And honestly folks, it was such a beautiful, beautiful visit an afternoon but they can make anything bad because they are the fake, fake disgusting news," the President concluded. TBD if "fake news" also fabricated the fact that Trump turned his back on Her Majesty during the visit. This is disgraceful, @realDonaldTrump. SHES THE QUEEN and shes 92 years old! Youre incapable of acting like a human being. Youre incapable of being a leader. pic.twitter.com/A1vKTJgv21 - Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 14, 2018 ('You Might Also Like',) American Caribbean Cigars is a company has operated a factory in Esteli, Nicaragua for quite some time. They have produced cigars for companies such as Gurkha, Torano, and Leccia Tobacco. In 2015, American Caribbean released its very own brand called La Rosa de Sandiego. Since then this has been a brand on the rise while continuing to attract clients to make cigars at the factory. This year, two of American Caribbean Cigars key clients, The Traveler Cigars and Kevin Schweitzers Vintage Rock-A-Feller Cigar Group, shared the booth real estate with American Caribbean Cigars. While American Caribbean Cigars was showcasing the five blends of La Rosa de Sandiego, the company also introduced two new brands. First up was American Caribbeans The Bouncer. Its a blend that features a San Andres wrapper over a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan fillers from Esteli, Jalapa, and Ometepe. Its available in three box-pressed sizes: Robusto (4 1/2 x 52), Toro (5 1/2 x 56), and Gordo (6 x 60). American Caribbean also introduced another brand, Bella Mundo. Alex Menendez of American Caribbean was quite proud of this cigar. It consists of a Brazilian Cubra wrapper, Sumatra binder, and Nicaraguan Criollo in the filler. Its available in three sizes: Petit Robusto (4 1/2 x 48), Magnum (6 1/2 x 56), and Exquisito Figurado (5 3/4 x 44). For Vintage Rock-A-Feller Cigar Group, its the second IPCPR since Schweitzer took over the company in 2017. The company was showcasing cigars made at the American Caribbean Cigars factory. The company was highlighting the Rock-A-Feller Vintage Red Label Maduro Lancero. Its a classic 7 x 38 vitola in the Red Label Maduro line. The blend features a San Andres Mexican wrapper, an Ecuadorian binder, and all Nicaraguan filler. In addition, the company highlighted its popular Vintage Rock-A-Feller Gold Series. Its a limited edition 6 x 52 box press line that uses a San Andres Mexican wrapper, an Ecuadorian binder, and all Nicaraguan filler. The company also was showcasing gold bouillon ashtrays. These products pay homage to the fact that Schweitzer has been a Wall Street Trader for many years. The Traveler is a brand owned by Emiliano Lagos. After doing cigar events for many years, Lagos decided to launch his own brand in 2017. He is teaming up with American Caribbean Cigars to make his brand. The Traveler originally launched in Europe, but now has started to make his way through the states. Because he traveled to do his events, Lagos decided to call his brand The Traveler. Each of his vitolas is named for an international airport. There is a natural line with SKUs including: Narita (5 x 50), JFK (6 x 52), Charles De Gaulle (5 x 56), Barajas (6 x 58). There is a maduro blend consisting of London Heathrow (6 x 54, box press) and Dubai (6 x 52). 2018 Product Reports Photo Credits: Cigar Coop Iran Human Rights (Aug 2, 2018): According to confirmed reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), the death sentences of at least 36 people were implemented in different Iranian cities in the month of July. So far in 2018, at least 133 people have been executed, among them four juvenile offenders. An assessment of the charges of the prisoners who were executed in July shows that 11 prisoners were sentenced to death on Moharebeh (waging war against God) charges, 24 on murder charges, and one on drug-related charges. Among the prisoners who were executed last month, there was also a woman, says the report. Eight of the prisoners who were executed on Moharebeh charges were sentenced to death over the alleged 2017 ISIS attacks on Tehran's parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Several reports indicated that some of the executed prisoners were not directly involved in the attacks and were sentenced to death on the charge of having information about the operation and, in some cases, providing the attackers with logistic support. One of the executions of the last month was based on drug-related charges. It was the second drug-related execution that was reported by IHR after the enforcement of the new drug law on November 14, 2017. The new drug law includes a mechanism to decrease death penalty verdicts and reduce the sentence of those prisoners who are sentenced to death or life imprisonment. Only half of the executions (18) were announced by the official Iranian news sources. The other 18 cases were confirmed by IHRs sources. The actual number of executions might be higher. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde The guest teacher is a 62-year-old retired professor. A case of molestation has been registered against the guest teacher of the institute, police said. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: A student of the National School of Drama has alleged that she was molested by a guest teacher of the institute, police said on Saturday. On August 1, the woman had filed a complaint alleging that she was inappropriately touched by the guest teacher, who had come to conduct an examination, they said. As part of the examination, she was asked by the guest teacher to enact a scene and during the process, he touched her inappropriately, a senior officer said. The guest teacher is a 62-year-old retired professor, he said. A case of molestation has been registered against the guest teacher of the institute, police said. Q: Are there any emerging concern about the shortage of condotels in Phu Quoc Island? Senior Director of CBRE Vietnam Duong Thuy Dung: Tourists are flocking to Phu Quoc Island, there are not any concern about supply and demand in terms of market absorption. Q: What is your idea about the government's market regulations on seaside tourism real estate sector in the coming time? Deputy Head of Real Estate Market and Housing Management Agency under the Ministry of Construction Nguyen Manh Khoi: There are ups and downs about the seaside real estate market. It is not mainly blamed for unclear policies. It is the fact that some localities are temporarily halting condotel projects to await the government's clear policies. In the soonest time, we will submit the clear legal basis in this matter to the government to support investors. Q: Are there any concern about condotel investors' commitments on high profit? Deputy Chairman of Vietnam Real Estate Association Nguyen Manh Ha: Actually, it is very worried about a high profit rendered to buyers at 12-15 per cent per annum on condotels and seaside villas. It needs intensive analysis about this matter. Q: Where will be a very promising destination for condotels and seaside tourism real estate projects in Vietnam? General Director of Nha Trang Green Hill Company Ltd. Le Thi Tu Anh: According to me, Quang Binh will be a very good destination for condotel projects and seaside tourism real estate projects. President of First Real Group Nguyen Hao Hiep: We totally agree that Quang Binh province where resort projects are targeting. That's the reason why our First Real Group is developing a large sized prominent project namely Bao Ninh Sunrise Villas project. Q: As an enterprise has many projects in Phu Quoc Island, what is your thoughtfulness about a right model for development and competition? Deputy General Director of CEO Group Tran Dao Duc: We have not only used our own internal strength but also our partners like Accor Group effectively and efficiently. So, we may reach conclusion that the partnership is a good model for development. Q: What is the appropriate economic growth rate that will drive the investment in seaside tourism real estate projects? Chief Operating Officer of the property developer Indochina Capital Michael Piro: Personally, I think 6% is okayed to gear up the investment engine, in the meanwhile the economic growth rate of Vietnam is very impressive at 6.8 per cent. It is a right time now for investment to make the projects happen. However, it remains to be careful for the market booming. Editor-in-Chief TheLEADER Nguyen Cao Cuong: The seaside tourism real estate sector is the overheated matter that draws not only investors but also the entire society in recent years. However, due to the tight time of the forum, our TheLEADER will continue playing role as bridge to connect investors' concerns to the competent authorities in a series of articles to be published. We would like to sincerely thank all the Speakers and our valued readers! 800 plus people have demanded extradition from the US of a man involved in an alleged $36 million cryptocurrency scam. The online petition on Change.org wants Le Minh Tam, CEO of the HCMC-based cryptocurrency mining firm Sky Mining, to be deported from the U.S., where he is said to have fled with $36 million from thousands of investors. The petiton, created on Thursday, had garnered 821 signatures on Saturday at the time of posting. Tams company collected the millions from around 5,000 investors who were sold cryptocurrency mining rigs, each costing $500 to $5,000. The firm promised high returns on investment. The petition stresses that the companys victims were not only in Vietnam, but also Japan and Africa. It says that many investors lost everything they had after selling gold or land to invest in this venture. Some have even committed suicide, the petition claims. This is just the latest step taken by investors trying to expose Tam and get their money back. Hundreds of complaints have also been filed with the police in HCMCs Phu Nhuan District, where the company was located. Active since March this year, Sky Mining claimed to specialize in purchasing computers to solve algorithms, a process known as cryptocurrency mining. It had acquired 7,000 mining rigs, computer systems that perform necessary computations for cryptocurrency mining, investors said. Investors were asked to pay $100 to $5,000 for each of these rigs, which were to be kept at Sky Minings 26 storage spots scattered all over the country. Sky Mining promised that after 12 months, investors would earn back all their initial investment and make profits of up to 300 percent. However, since last week, investors and company board members have been unable to reach Tam. They found the companys main office in Phu Nhuan District to have been closed, with its nameplate removed. They also found that all 600 mining machines in the company's factory in the neighboring Dong Nai Province's Bien Hoa Town had been taken away by a group of people claiming to be maintenance workers. This has led to suspicions that Tam might have run away with their money. According to the HCMC Police Department, Tam left the citys Tan Son Nhat airport and flew to Doha, Qatar on July 22. His final destination is still unknown. But on Change.org, it is claimed that Tam has bought a house in San Jose, California and is living in Georgia. No information is available on his familys whereabouts. The Sky Mining alleged fraud case is similar to that of another tech company in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 1 whose office was stormed by investors demanding refunds in April. The investors said that the IT firm, Modern Tech, had cheated them of VND15 trillion ($650 million) with a cryptocurrency ponzi scheme. The alleged $650 million loss is 150 times larger than Modern Techs initial equity of $4.4 million invested by a group of only eight people who founded the company in October 2017. Modern Tech representatives until now have not responded to the accusations, and its founders have remained incommunicado. Vietnam imported a total of 6,400 cryptocurrency mining systems in the first four months of the year, according to official data. The country has constantly been in the top five countries with the highest traffic to the Bitcoin trading platform and Bitcoin news site, CryptoCompare data shows. Despite proposals to legalize Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, authorities have asserted that they are not legitimate in Vietnam. Vietnam also does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Ships from a China fleet take part in a drill in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Photo by AFP China and Southeast Asian states held simulated naval exercises this week for the first time, Singapore says. The "table-top" exercises at a Singapore naval base, held as the participants seek to lower long-running tensions in disputed waters, came ahead of the first naval drills between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Beijing, scheduled for October, Singapore said Friday. China claims nearly all the strategically vital South China Sea, including waters approaching the coasts of ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Vietnam calls the waters the East Sea and has repeatedly declared its sovereignty rights over the area, based on legal and historical evidence. China has been constructing artificial islands capable of hosting military bases in the waters, ratcheting up tensions with rival claimants and the U.S., the traditionally dominant naval power in the area. The simulated drill was held Thursday and Friday, Singapore's defense ministry said in a statement. It was timed to coincide with a series of ASEAN-led meetings in the city-state this week, including a security forum on Saturday at which U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be seeking to reassure Asian allies of continued American commitment to the region. Washington has traditionally backed Beijing's rival claimants in South China Sea disputes and has stepped up naval patrols in the waters, angering China. Chinese and ASEAN navies developed plans for the October field drills, including how to deal with maritime incidents like search and rescue and medical evacuation, Singapore's defense ministry said in a statement. It also involved plans on approaching a distressed vessel, the statement said. "This table-top exercise has been a good first step for navies from ASEAN countries and China to work together to deal with maritime incidents at sea," said Colonel Lim Yu Chuan, a senior Singapore naval officer and exercise co-director. Captain Liang Zhijia of the Chinese navy said the simulated and field drills are good platforms to build trust and confidence. China and ASEAN this week announced they had agreed on a draft negotiating text as part of efforts to forge a code of conduct to govern behavior in the South China Sea. The draft however showed that Beijing wanted to stage military drills with ASEAN in the seas that excluded outside countries, a move analysts said was aimed at diminishing U.S. influence. A Vietnamese manicurist living in Singapore has been sentenced to four weeks in jail for bludgeoning a parrot to death. District Judge Adam Nakhoda said Wednesday that 38-year-old Tran Thi Thuy Hangs actions were cruel and calculated, The Straits Times reported. According to the report, Hang, a permanent resident of Singapore, was incensed when Lucky, the parrot, pecked her cheek last October as she returned home from work. She told her husband, 60-year-old Yu Ching Meng, that she would kill the bird if it was not removed from the house immediately. Lucky was the pet of Hangs stepdaughter Yu Mei Ling, 26, a member of the national net ball team. The next morning, after her husband and stepdaughter left the house, Hang opened the cage and hit the bird repeatedly till it died. After her husband got home, Hang showed him the corpse and dumped it and the cage down the chute of their flat in Sengkang. Yu lodged a complaint with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, which decided to prosecute Hang. CEO absconds as another cryptocurrency firm implodes in Vietnam Over a dozen investors of a cryptocurrency mining company have claimed to be victims of a fraud case after the company's director went missing, allegedly with their money. On a central Vietnam island that is still not prominent on the tourism map, it is fun to watch locals do their thing. Phu Quy, 120 kilometers (74 miles) from the famous resport town of Phan Thiet in the south-central province of Binh Thuan, is yet to become a big tourism draw. So fishing continues to be the main vocation of the islands residents, and these boats are their lifeline. People are up early to receive the catch that is brought in at dawn. There are many seafood selling points scattered along the coast of Phu Quy Island. Bai Phu is one of the busy fish distribution points on the island, especially during the windy season. The coracles on the beach are yet to go into action. Traders still wearing their motorbike helmets hasten to pick out freshest baskets of fish as a boat docks at a wharf in Bai Phu, around three kilometers from the Phu Quy Port. Traders and the occasional tourists check out the fresh catch right at the beach. The fish have been caught on overnight trips by fishermen who head out to sea at around 3-4 p.m. and return just as the sun is coming out. During the monsoon season, fresh tuna costs VND70,000 ($3) to VND100,000 ($4.4) per kilo. The nets catch other sea creatures too. You can get to Phu Quy Island from Phan Thiet on a high-speed boat, paying VND250,000 for a one-way ticket. They are not available daily, and availability also depends on weather conditions, so it is best to book tickets in advance. From HCMC, it is a good idea to take a sleeper bus to Phan Thiet, a journey that takes three to four hours and costs VND190,000-250,000 (($8.24-10.73). Photos by Tinh Phu Quy Still a way to go on N Korea: Pompeo At the forum and in meetings on the sidelines, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to push key powers to keep up sanctions pressure. Photo by AFP Pompeo is expected to push key powers involved in efforts to curtail the North's nuclear ambitions to keep up sanctions pressure. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted Friday there was still "a way to go" on North Korea as Washington seeks to push Pyongyang to move faster along the path towards denuclearisation. At his landmark summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing U.S. demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. And when Pompeo met with North Korean officials in Pyongyang last month to flesh out the regime's commitment, they condemned his "gangster-like" insistence that the North move towards unilateral disarmament. Arriving in Singapore ahead of a security forum, Pompeo said that "we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we're looking" for regarding North Korea. His North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, is also attending Saturday's ASEAN Regional Forum, although it is not yet clear whether the pair will meet on the sidelines. While there have been small signs of progress since the summit, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of United Nations sanctions on the North. At the forum and in meetings on the sidelines, Pompeo is expected to push key powers involved in efforts to curtail the North's nuclear ambitions to keep up sanctions pressure. Maritime tensions The annual forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. The foreign ministers from all nations involved in stalled "six-party" negotiations with North Korea aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear programme will be at the gathering: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. During talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Pompeo "emphasised our shared commitment to the final, fully verified denuclearisation of (North Korea), as agreed upon by Chairman Kim," according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. Wang also met with the North's Ri in Singapore, China's official Xinhua news agency said. Wang praised the North's "efforts in promoting the denuclearisation process" and said China "hopes that the United States will take the DPRK's legitimate concerns seriously and meet the DPRK halfway," the report said, using the North's official acronym. After attending the Singapore meeting, North Korea's Ri will head to Iran for an official visit, North Korea's official news agency KCNA reported. Iran, whose nuclear drive has also sparked international alarm, and North Korea are reported to have a history of cooperation in military and missile technology. Pompeo is also focusing on another major regional flashpoint at the forum -- rival claims in the South China Sea and China's growing presence there. China claims nearly all the strategically vital sea, including waters approaching the coasts of ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Tensions have mounted in recent years as China has built up artificial islands in the waters capable of hosting military bases, and the US has thrown its support behind Southeast Asian states whose maritime claims overlap Beijing's. At a meeting with Southeast Asian foreign ministers Friday, Pompeo said the U.S. appreciated ASEAN's efforts to "support the rule of law in the South China Sea." China and ASEAN announced Thursday they had agreed on a draft negotiating text as part of efforts to forge a code of conduct to govern behaviour in the sea, which analysts said represented some progress after years of negotiations. Washington and Beijing are locked in battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies. Photo by AFP The two countries have been embroiled for months in a trade conflict that has threatened to hurt consumers in both countries. Top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow on Friday ridiculed China's threat of $60 billion of retaliatory tariffs as "weak" and said the world's second-largest economy was in significant "trouble." After China threatened to impose new retaliatory tariffs on a variety of American goods -- everything from beef to condoms -- the war of words between Washington and Beijing escalated yet further. Warning that China had "better take President (Donald) Trump seriously," Kudlow insisted the Asian giant "is in trouble right now -- their economy is lousy, investors are walking out, the currency is falling." "Foreign investors don't want to be in China. I noticed today that Japan's stock market is now worth more than China's -- I love that," he told journalists at the White House. Beijing's latest salvo came after the Trump administration upped the ante in its plans for additional tariffs on Chinese goods worth $200 billion, suggesting the rate could be increased to 25 percent. "I might think the $60 billion is a weak response to our $200 (billion)," Kudlow said dismissively, while admitting that "there is a lot they can do to damage our companies in China." 'Mutual respect' The two countries have been embroiled for months in a trade conflict that has threatened to hurt consumers in both countries. The US imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in early July, with another $16 billion to be targeted in coming weeks, drawing an in-kind retaliation from China. Days later, Washington unveiled a list of another $200 billion in Chinese goods, from areas as varied as electrical machinery, leather goods and seafood, that would be hit with 10 percent import duties. But Trump raised the stakes this week with his threat to raise the tariff rate. The Republican president has been keen to show he is tough on trade ahead of tricky congressional elections in November, joking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday: "China is not happy with me." "The politicians just watched as other countries stole our jobs, plundered our wealth and got the crown jewels of the American economy," he told supporters. "I am not another politician. I keep my promises." But there are increasing signs of White House concern about the impact of the spat on Trump's political base. An all-out trade war could overshadow Trump's otherwise solid economic record of low unemployment and stimulus-fueled growth. China has said new duties will be applied only if Washington pulls the trigger on its new tariffs. "China always believes that consultation on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit is an effective way to resolve trade differences," the Chinese commerce ministry said. "Any unilateral threat or blackmail will only lead to intensification of conflicts and damage to the interests of all parties." "Cooperation is the only right choice for China and the United States," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said after meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Singapore, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. What's at stake Washington and Beijing are locked in a battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies, as well as theft of American technological know-how. Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on virtually all of China's exports to the United States. The latest round of US tariffs would range between five percent and 25 percent and would hit 5,027 products -- a variety of agricultural goods such as beef, as well as small planes, chemical components, textiles, liquefied natural gas and condoms. Beijing cannot match those measures dollar for dollar, as its exports far exceed imports. But analysts say that China can absorb the blow by expanding stimulus programs, fiscal spending and bank lending. The yuan has also declined recently, threatening to take some of the bite out of tariffs by making imports cheaper, though the central bank took measures on Friday to stop it from falling any farther. "The US and China have backup plans in areas like technology and agriculture, where they can look towards importing from third-party nations," Ye Tan, an independent Chinese economic analyst, told AFP. "The Chinese are also coping by lowering the rate of the yuan, while the US can look towards countries in Southeast Asia as replacements for its imports, so it's not a big issue." PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) after a radical modernization by 2025 will become a modern European enterprise, Director General Paramjit Kahlon told the employees of the plant on occasion of the 84th anniversary of its establishment. "I am sure that by 2025 we will have a modern European plant in accordance with all European standards, with minimal emissions of pollutants, with a very high level of productivity, with very low production costs and with the generations, who will then link their lives with metallurgy and this enterprise," the top manager said. At the same time, he stressed that the company is not standing still, is developing, and this gives hope for its future. "Once this modernization is completed, we will work in a new way," the head of the enterprise is convinced, urging everyone to be participants in these changes and become architects of the success story that the administration is trying to create. According to Kahlon, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has three main goals: the first one is the modernization of the enterprise, still with an emphasis on ecology and environmental protection. The second one is the development of personnel and training new generations, the third one is partnership with the public. The head of the company in December 2017 reported that ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih intended to invest $250 million annually in the renewal of production until 2025. Over two months after the detention of Ukrainian citizen, the driver of the Vinnytsia-Moscow international bus, Oleh Chaban, in Bryansk region (Russia) the Russian side has not responded to any request of Ukraine to visit him by a Ukrainian consul. "To date, we have not had a single response from the Russian side about granting permission to visit the Ukrainian citizen by the Consul," the official representative of the Department of the Consular Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vasyl Kyrylych said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday. He said that the Embassy of Ukraine in the Russian Federation received an email on June 27 about the detention of Chaban in Bryansk region, while, according to his lawyer Yuriy Belous, his client was detained on May 19. "This is a violation of the requirements and principles of international law. This is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, as well as the consular convention between Ukraine and the Russian Federation," Kyrylych said, adding that according to the conventions, notification of detention should be made within three days after detention. He also spoke about the numerous appeals of the Ukrainian side to the law enforcement agencies of Bryansk region of the Russian Federation and to the Russian Foreign Ministry on this matter. "On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Ukraine], the Embassy applied for a third time to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of the Russian Federation], but this is no longer an appeal, but a note of protest demanding to explain the reasons for refusing the consul to hold a meeting with a Ukrainian citizen in the pre-trial detention center of the Russian Federation," Kyrylych said. According to the lawyer of Chaban, his client is accused "of smuggling and illegal transportation and storage of weapons, which was found among passenger baggage, to which the driver Chaban himself had nothing to do. He did not receive it and he did not issue any documents and not received money for it, and did not contact anyone - neither with the sender, nor with the recipient." Tehrans outspoken MP, Ali Motahari, has lambasted the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for recent comments on the possibility of Tehran-Washington rapprochement. On issues like negotiating with the United States, the IRGC should obey the establishments decision, Motahari said on August 2. On July 31, IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari had dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's tentative offer of talks with Tehran, saying Iran was not like North Korea. Trump had announced on July 30 that he would be willing to meet Iran's leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "Mr. Trump! Iran is not North Korea to accept your offer for a meeting," Jafari was quoted as saying by the Fars News agency. "Even U.S. presidents after you will not see that day." In his open letter to Trump, Jafari went further, saying, The Iranian nation has many differences with those nations that submit to domination, and will never allow its authorities to hold talks and meetings with the Great Satan, referring to the United States. Speaking at a White House news conference on July 30, Trump had said, I would certainly meet with Iran if they wanted to meet. Asked if he had any preconditions for such a meeting, Trump replied, No preconditions. If they want to meet, Ill meet. Trumps offer of talks came only days after he cautioned Iran in a tweet responding to President Hassan Rouhanis earlier vitriolic comment effectively threatening Washington and said, You will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. Responding to the tentative offer, IRGC-run Fars cited Jafari as saying, Former U.S. presidents learned better than Trump that Iran and its people could not be threatened, and that they would instead close their ranks and strengthen their unity against any foreign threat and pressure." You will take to the grave the dream of Iranian officials asking you for a meeting or getting the permission to meet you from their nation. You will never live to see that day, Jafari said. Motahari, renowned for not mincing his words, has dismissed Jafaris remarks as unwarranted, reiterating, You [Gen.] and our other good mujahid brothers in IRGC are aware of the fact that in issues concerning talks with the United States, or refrain from any negotiations with it, IRGC should obey the decision made by top authorities of the regime and avoid making personal comments. Moreover, Motahari added, Making comments on behalf of the nation is the responsibility of the person elected by the people, i.e. the president, and nobody in other positions is entitled to do that. Referring to guidelines issued by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the deputy speaker also said, Military personnel are banned from engagement in political affairs. Motaharis open letter to Jafari was published before Iran's supreme leader and President Hassan Rouhani had responded to Trumps offer. In the meantime, several pro-reform political figures, including the spokesman of former President Mohammad Khatami, have joined voices with Motahari in rebuking Jafari for his comments. Based on the constitution, military forces are subservient to the orders of the Supreme National Security Council [headed by the president], and they do not have the right to set the political agenda for the country, said Abdollah Ramazanzadeh. However, several political heavyweights close to Rouhani, including a member of the influential Expediency Discerning Council, former speaker, and mid-ranking cleric Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, have insisted that Tehran should not talk to Washington. Nonetheless, on July 31, the U.S. president told a rally in Tampa, Florida, I have a feeling they [Iranians] will be talking to us pretty soon -- And maybe not, and thats OK, too. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 68 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said August 4. Armenian 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, Aug.4 Trend: Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has extended condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin. I was deeply saddened by the news of casualties caused by crash of a Mi-8 helicopter in Krasnoyarsk region. On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died, said President Aliyev. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order regarding measures to construct Yenikend-Kobar-Garaagajli road in Samukh region. Under the presidential Order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 4 million manats for the construction of the road connecting three residential areas with a total population of 4,000 people. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 Trend: Azerbaijan plans to produce 200,000 tons of persimmons by the end of this year, which will slightly exceed last year's figure, Chairman of the Association of Persimmon Producers and Exporters Gadir Yusifov told Trend. According to him, persimmon export brought the state treasury a significant income of $100 million in 2017. "This is a fairly good result, and this amount is expected to be stable in monetary terms this year, partly due to the fact that about 90 percent of this output is shipped abroad, including Russia, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic states, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, while 10 percent of this product is sold in the domestic market, which fully meets the needs of Azerbaijani consumers. In general, the export of persimmons to the mentioned countries did not exceed 180,000 tons in 2017, " head of the association said. "Persimmon is mainly grown in Goychay, Balakan, Agjabadi and Ganja regions of Azerbaijan." "New enterprises for the production of semi-dried and dried persimmons are created in these regions, and production of frozen persimmons is soon to start," he added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: France abolished restrictions on supply of Uzbek melons and pomegranates, Foreign Trade Ministry of Uzbekistan stated after talks in Paris between the Agriculture Ministry of France and a delegation of Uzbekistan headed by Foreign Trade Minister Jamshid Khojayev. Following the talks held in France in the Agriculture Ministry, phytosanitary restrictions on Uzbek melons and pomegranates have been removed. On top of that, quarantine requirements for import of quinces, persimmons, plums, currants and other agricultural products from Uzbekistan were submitted for consideration, the Foreign Trade Ministry said. The statement reads that republic's non-oil export to France is currently presented in insignificant amounts due to the difficulty of getting Uzbek products to the European market, which has high requirements. We are negotiating with the European Union and, in particular, with France in order to maximally facilitate entry of Uzbek products to European markets by bringing our standards in line with EU requirements. So, we will be able to realize all the existing potential for export of horticultural and textile products, Khojayev said. Khojayev also visited Rungis Market, the world's largest wholesale market of fresh products. Following the talks, the parties agreed to conduct training seminars and cooperate in accreditation aimed at promoting fruit and vegetable products in the French market. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 Trend: US and Europe's support for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), above all, shows their trust in Azerbaijan as a reliable partner in transportation of energy resources, expert on energy issues Igor Tsaranich told Trend commenting on the recent statements of US President Donald Trump about the TAP. Trump expressed his support for the TAP project during a joint press conference with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte in Washington. According to Tsaranich, European countries prefer cooperation with Azerbaijan, especially in the energy sector. "In this sense, TAP is of immense importance for Europe, especially for Italy and Bulgaria, where Azerbaijani gas will flow. Azerbaijan plays a significant role in ensuring the energy security of Europe: not only because it is an oil country, but also because important energy transit routes go through Azerbaijan. This is the result of a well-considered and well-thought-out economic policy aimed at diversifying routes for the delivery of energy resources," said Tsaranich. According to him, the natural gas supplies from the Shah Deniz field to Europe will positively affect Azerbaijan's national economy and significantly expand the country's capabilities in foreign energy markets. TAP, worth 4.5 billion euros, is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor. The pipeline will be connected to the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of doubling it. The construction of TAP is expected to complete in 2020 for the first Azerbaijani gas to be supplied to Europe that year. TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers). Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend: Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR will begin delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Pakistan in the coming months, Pakistan LNG Limited, an LNG terminal operator, told Trend. SOCAR has become one of the winners of a tender to supply the company with LNG. The LNG will be delivered in two cargoes, 140,000 cubic meters each. The first cargo will be shipped on October 10-11; the second on October 20-21. Other winners of the tender, held on July 26, along with SOCAR, are Gunvor International, BB Energy and Trafigura Pte Ltd. Pakistan's energy needs are 79.58 million tons of oil equivalent. Some 38 percent of these needs are met with natural gas, 34 percent with oil, and 6 percent with LNG and other resources. Pakistan is increasing LNG intake amid increasing demand for gas and decline in production. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyev Earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office of Tajikistan initiated a criminal case on the fact of an attack on foreign tourists on the articles "terrorism" and "murder?, Sputnik reported. "Murder of foreign tourists in the south of Tajikistan is a terrorist act committed to destabilize the situation in the country, to intimidate society, to undermine Tajikistan's image in the international arena," the statement said. According to the prosecutor general's office, the attack was committed by the residents of the Panj district Hussein Abdusamadov, Asomidin Majidov, Zafar Safarov and residents of Nurek city, brothers Asliddin and Jafar Yusupovs members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, banned in the country. The group planned the attack outside the country, under a cover of the Daesh terrorist group, which earlier claimed responsibility for the attack, the prosecutors said, adding that Abdusamadov had been earlier trained by terrorists in Iran. On Sunday, a group of foreign cyclists traveling around the country were hit by a car. The attackers then stabbed to death four of the tourists (two US citizens, one Dutch and one Swiss national) and injured three others. Meanwhile, US State Department said in a Travel Alert on Wednesday that US citizens and residents who travel to Tajikistan are being warned to exercise increased caution following a terrorist attack. "Tourists should avoid activities that develop predictable patterns of movement," the alert said. "If documenting your travel on social media, please ensure your privacy settings are appropriately set." The alert said terrorists could strike places, such as residential areas, clubs and restaurants, places of worship, hotels, schools, outdoor recreation events, and other venues, especially facilities catering to westerners. Two of the travelers with severe stab wounds were still undergoing treatment in a Dushanbe hospital, a source in the Tajik Health Ministry told Sputnik earlier on Friday. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 Trend: Deputy head of the Iran-Russia Chamber of Commerce said Iran is on the verge of joining the Eurasian Customs Union (EACU). The Islamic Republic of Iran is seeking to join the Eurasian Customs Union following the returning US sanctions, Kaveh Zargaran told Tasnim news agency on August 4. He added that preparatory talks to pave the way for Irans membership in the customs union have been held. Noting that Tehran plans to enhance its all-out ties with Moscow, the official said Irans membership in the EACU would increase the countrys exports to all the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, Russia in particular. The customs union is a principal task of the Eurasian Economic Community, established in 2000, and now succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union. No customs are levied on goods travelling within the customs union and - unlike a free trade area - members of the customs union impose a common external tariff on all goods entering the union. One of the consequences of the customs union is that the Eurasian Economic Union negotiates as a single entity in international trade deals, instead of individual member states negotiating for themselves. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 4 Trend: Iran's flag carrier, Iran Air, announced that Tehran would take delivery of ATR planes on August 5, one day before the first round of new US sanctions kicks in. Five ATR planes will be delivered to the country on August 5, Iran Air said in a statement on August 4, IRNA news agency reported. It added that the planes would land at Tehran's Mehrabad airport at 9:00 (local time). On August 1, the French minister of economy and finance expressed hope that the ATR aircraft manufacturer will be able to get permission from the US to deliver eight planes to Iran before August 6. I am confident that the United States will give us authorization to deliver these planes, said Bruno Le Maire. Under the shadow of the new US sanctions imposed on Tehran, international plane manufacturers that use at least 10 percent US made parts in their products have decided to avoid the Iranian market. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington now plans to reimpose sanctions on Tehran. The first round of US sanctions on Iran goes into effect on August 6, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports on November 4. Tehran, Iran, August 4 By A. Shirazi- Trend: Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi and his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hamid Tahmasebi explored ways to streamline the transport of goods between the two neighboring countries. During a meeting in Tehran, Akhoundi and Tahmasebi held an extensive meeting in the Iranian capital and exchanged views about ways to boost cooperation between the two nations in the sector of transit of goods. We had an effective and good meeting and achieved good results, Akhoundi said following the meeting, according to IRNA news agency. Referring to the volume of trade exchange between the two nations, he said: Every year, nearly 180,000 transit trucks commute between Iran and Afghanistan and this shows the high volume of trade between the two sides. According to the report, both sides have agreed to reduce transportation costs in a bid to increase the volume. Tahmasebi, for his part, restated Kabuls resolve to enhance transit cooperation with Tehran and said: We agreed to boost export and import between the two countries. He added that Afghanistan plans to export fresh fruits, dried fruits and decorative stones to other countries using the strategic port of Chabahar in southern Iran. Chabahar is the closest and best access point of Iran to the Indian Ocean and Iran has devised serious plans to turn it into a transit hub for immediate access to markets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. It aims to create a reliable transport corridor for the smooth transport and transit of goods and services through Chabahar Port between Afghanistan, India, and Iran. Baku, Azerbaijan, August 4 Trend: A delegation from the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC) has traveled to Iran to explore ways for the further expansion of ties with Tehran as new US sanctions loom. The ITC mission is in the Iranian capital to hold various meetings with senior Iranian officials and representatives from key firms only two days before the first round of new US sanctions kicks in. On Saturday, members of the multilateral agency sat down with Iran's Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Head Mojtaba Khosrotaj and exchanged views about ways to boost trade and support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The delegation will leave Tehran on Sunday, IRIB news agency reported on August 4. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington now plans to re-impose sanctions on Tehran. The first round of US sanctions on Iran goes into effect on August 6, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports on November 4. The International Trade Centre (ITC) is a multilateral agency which has a joint mandate with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Baku, Azerbaijan, August 4 Trend: Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Tehran will not negotiate with the US under threats and pressures. Today, we (Iranians) should preserve our unity in order to be able to safeguard the countrys sovereignty, Qassemi said on August 4 during his weekly press briefing. He added that the Islamic Republic, despite pressures, would come out victorious. Iran will not negotiate under duress particularly with a country which has failed to honor its previous commitments. US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was willing to meet with Iran's leadership, without preconditions, whenever they want. Saudi Arabia resumed oil exports via Bab al-Mandab Strait, which were briefly halted after an attack on a Saudi tanker, the country's minister of energy, Khalid Falih, said on Saturday, Sputnik reported. "The decision to resume oil shipment through the strait of Bab-El-Mandab was made after the leadership of the Coalition has taken necessary measures to protect the Coalition States' ships," the minister said, as quoted by the Saudi Press Agency. According to the minister, the decision came into effect earlier on Saturday. European countries, in particular Bulgaria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, look set to join consultations between Russia and the European Union, if such ever take place, and to join efforts with Russia in providing humanitarian aid to Syria, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said, TASS reports. "Talks on refugees have been held in Bulgarian profile agencies. Sofia appears interested in the Syrian refugees return to Syria on an exclusively voluntary basis," Nikolai Burtsev said. "They made it clear that they would like to join potential consultations on the issue between Russia and the European Union." At a meeting of the Joint Coordination Center for refugees return to Syria the diplomat said that Bulgaria might have accommodated up to 180 Syrian nationals up to now. Besides, Syrian refugees were on the table of talks with Slovenia. "Ljubljana suggests increased funding to refugees home countries, including Syria, to create the conditions for the civilian populations normal living and life activity," Burtsev said. "Slovenia would be ready to join relevant multilateral consultations within the framework of the EU common policy." Slovenia does not view the sojourn of Syrian refugees, totaling about 460 people, in the country as a problematic issue that should be negotiated with the aim of their return to the home country. Burtsev pointed out that the Czech Republic hailed international cooperation in delivering humanitarian aid to Syria. "Prague has long taken on an active position at the EU. The Czechs announced principled readiness to cooperate in a broad international format in order to provide Syria with humanitarian aid," the Russian Foreign Ministry official added. Italys Foreign and Interior Ministries in response to Russias request to give official data on the number of Syrian refugees cited the need to "update the figures," he said. "According to a local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, since the beginning of the Syria crisis the Italian authorities have received 3,836 asylum seeker applications from Syrian citizens," Burtsev added. "Italy has not provided any information on positive replies to those applications.". Only 80.1 percent of young Albanians graduated in secondary education (high school) during 2017, marking the first fall of this norm in the last three years, Xinhua reported citing Albanian National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT). Meanwhile, participation in secondary education amounts to 93.9 percent for the 2017-2018 school year, increasing by 0.8 percent compared to the previous year. According to INSTAT, the number of young people attending vocational education in the academic year 2013-2014 has increased from 18 percent to 20.6 percent over 2017-2018, compared to 79.4 percent who select for general gymnasium. Albanian government policies are supporting with special initiatives the development of vocational education, seeing it as a good opportunity for employment. The congress of the Brazilian left-wing Workers' Party (PT) on Saturday announced that it would nominate former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, currently serving a jail term on corruption charges, its candidate for the October presidential vote, Sputnik reported. "Lula can and will be a candidate," the party wrote on Twitter. Under the Latin American nations law, a person serving a prison term cannot be nominated for the presidency. However, Lula has repeatedly voiced his plans to run in the election. Lula has to register as a candidate until August 15. Raimundo Bonfim, the representative of the Popular Movement Association, has promised that thousands of Brazilians would take to streets on August 15 to support Lulas candidacy. Media reported on Friday that the PT would nominate ex-mayor of Sao Paulo, Fernando Haddad, as its candidate if the authorities would bar Lula from participating in the vote. The presidential election will be held in Brazil alongside the parliamentary vote. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 7. The second round is set to be held on October 28 if the 50-percent threshold would not be met by any candidate. Lula, who served as the countrys president from 2003 through 2010, was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison last summer for allegedly accepting a luxury apartment from a construction firm in return for political favors. Lula has denied the accusations. An appeals court upheld the ruling in January and increased Lula's jail term to 12 years and a month. More than 100 people, mainly students, have been wounded in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka after police fired rubber bullets at thousands of student demonstrators protesting against the death of two fellow students mowed down by a speeding bus in the city, Press TV reported. In a major stand-off between the government and infuriated protesters, at least 115 people sustained injuries in clashes with riot police in Dhaka on Saturday, witnesses and medical sources said, adding that protests particularly took a violent turn in Jigatala neighborhood. We have treated more than 115 injured students so far since the afternoon, emergency ward doctor Abdus Shabbir said, adding that a number of sported injuries consistent with rubber bullets. A few of them were in very bad condition, he further said. For the last week, tens of thousands of uniformed students have brought parts of the capital to a standstill with protests against poor road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. The fury was provoked on Sunday, when a privately-run bus hit a pair of teenage students. Bangladesh's transport sector is purportedly seen as corrupt, unregulated and unsafe, and as news of the students deaths spread swiftly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of rage against the government. We all are feeling threatened here. We wanted a peaceful protest. We don't want any trouble occurring around here. Yet rubber bullets were shot at our brothers, a student said. A number of influential ministers have already called on students to go back to their classes, amid concerns that the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government demonstrations ahead of general elections due to be held later this year. The American and Australian embassies have warned of significant delays and disruptions as a consequence of the rallies across the capital and elsewhere in the country. A Mi-8 helicopter crashed in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region, killing 18 people on board, Sputnik reports on Saturday. "There were 18 people aboard the aircraft, including three crew members. All of them died," the source in the regional emergency services said. A helicopter performed a hard landing in Siberia on Saturday morning, Russian Emergency Ministry's department in the Krasnoyarsk region said. "At 10:20 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2018, a Mi-8 helicopter performed a hard landing in Turukhansk district 2 kilometers from the village of Igarka," the statement read. According to the regional emergency services, Mi-8 crash was possibly caused by technical failure. The helicpoter fell apart and caught fire. Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the information that Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov had submitted a letter to Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, regarding the situation in Syria in July, TASS reported. Earlier several news outlets reported that Gerasimov had informed the US top command authorities in a letter about Moscows proposal to cooperate on Syrian restoration. "Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, replied to Joseph Dunfords request following the Helsinki meeting on June 8 this year informing his colleague about measures being assumed by the Russian Federation together with the Syrian government to stabilize the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic," the ministry said on Saturday. Meanwhile, it expressed disappointment that the American side has failed to "observe agreements on making the contacts content public only upon consultation of both sides." "The existing communication channel between the Russian Armed Forces General Staff and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff makes it possible to prevent incidents between our armed forces and find mutually acceptable solutions taking into account the interests of both states. We expect the American side to assume necessary measures to prevent violations of mutual agreements in the future," the ministry noted. The letter focused on Russias readiness to negotiate the issue of safely returning refugees from the Rukban camp located in the US-controlled Al-Tanf zone to their homes, with the Syrian authorities. According to the Defense Ministry, Moscow also proposed to negotiate the issues of humanitarian demining in Syria, including in Raqqa, dealing with other top-priority humanitarian problems for returning to peaceful life across Syria as soon as possible and neutralizing attempts by terrorists to recruit refugees. KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2018 - 20:05 | Feature, All Postpartum support for mothers to cope with depression and other mental health symptoms is still hard to come by despite the Japanese government's efforts in recent years to promote it, a survey showed Saturday. Funding and staff shortages are the major obstacles to making such support more widely available, according to the nationwide survey conducted in January and February by the Mizuho Information & Research Institute on behalf of the health ministry. Only 26.2 percent of 1,384 municipalities that responded to the survey operate postpartum support services even though the central government has been offering subsidies since fiscal 2015 to finance half of the running cost, the survey showed. Among municipalities without such services, those planning to start them in the future were also low at 34.4 percent, with 28.6 percent saying they have no plans to introduce them due largely to funding and staff shortages. In postpartum support, midwives, nurses and other experts offer advice and help ease mothers' anxieties by listening to their problems at home, hospitals or other facilities. Postpartum depression is often associated with loneliness with no people around to talk to about their feelings and problems. It could develop into more serious health problems or cause parents to harm their child or themselves. The government has compiled a guideline in 2017 outlining postpartum service methods and key issues to consider, but the municipalities polled in the survey said they wanted more financial and other support from the state. Some municipalities said such services are not fully known by people raising a child. "There are municipalities which are reluctant to set up a budget (for postpartum support) due to uncertainties about cost effectiveness, but enhancing the child-rearing environment is helpful in addressing the issue of declining population. A long-term perspective is needed," said Naomi Shiki, chief consultant at the Mizuho Information & Research Institute. Ways to tackle child abuse have been attracting attention in Japan after the shocking death of a 5-year-old girl in March who had begged her parents to stop mistreating her. Her mother and stepfather were arrested and indicted in June over neglect that led to the girl's death from sepsis caused by pneumonia. As emergency measures, the government decided in July on a 1.6-fold increase in the number of child welfare personnel by fiscal 2022 from 3,253 nationwide as of April last year. Such staffers offer consultation and support to children and parents. By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2018 - 17:05 | World, All Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea agreed Saturday to bolster economic cooperation, voicing opposition to trade protectionism by the United States. The ministers confirmed that they will speed up negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, by which ASEAN is trying to forge trade partnerships with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. It is important to "cement our economic ties" and "conclude key initiatives such as RCEP," Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said at the opening of a so-called ASEAN-plus-three meeting in the city-state. The 16 RCEP participating countries are seeking a broad agreement on their free trade talks by the end of the year. Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono also said, "I am certain that RCEP will contribute greatly to economic integration in East Asia, given the current global situation where protectionism is on the rise." South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha expressed fears about the negative impact of recent U.S. trade restrictions, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi indicated that Beijing will continue to fight the trade war initiated by Washington. "Rising anti-globalization and trade protectionism among major countries is fueling tensions and threatening our aspiration for sustained economic growth," Kang said during the meeting. Wang told reporters on Saturday that China should launch a "counterattack" to the United States. Remarks by the foreign ministers came amid mounting concern that the U.S.-China tit-for-tat tariff fight is likely to shrink trade volume worldwide, which would weigh on the global economy that has been on a recovery track. Sales of Chinese products in the United States, one of the world's major markets, are also expected to become sluggish, possibly dragging down the economies of ASEAN nations that have supplied components to manufacturers in China. As well as higher tariffs on steel and aluminum, Washington has slapped additional 25 percent duties on $34 billion of Chinese imports -- the first round of the tariffs worth $50 billion -- for Beijing's alleged intellectual property and technology theft. Later Friday, China announced that it will impose additional 25 percent tariffs on 5,207 U.S. imports, worth $60 billion annually, if the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump goes ahead with the $200 billion new tariffs. On the North Korean nuclear issue, many of the ASEAN-plus-three foreign ministers agreed to fully implement U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang in an attempt to compel the country to abandon nuclear weapons, a Japanese government official said. At a historic summit in June in Singapore, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised U.S. President Donald Trump to achieve "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in return for security guarantees from the United States. Talks between Washington and Pyongyang on the specifics of denuclearization, however, appear to be at a standstill, while North Korea has been improving ties with China, Russia and some ASEAN countries. Skepticism is growing that nations friendly to North Korea, like China, have deepened economic cooperation with it, eroding the impact of the U.N. sanctions designed to stop the country's development of nuclear weapons and missiles. At the ASEAN-plus-three gathering on Saturday, there was no discussion on whether to relax the U.N. sanctions against North Korea, the Japanese government official told reporters. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. All the members have diplomatic relations with North Korea, although Japan does not. In Singapore, an East Asia Summit foreign ministers' meeting, including ASEAN members and eight non-ASEAN partners, was held later Saturday. By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Aug 4, 2018 - 18:34 | World, All Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono has conveyed to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Tokyo's desire for talks with North Korea to resolve a long-standing abduction issue, a government official said Saturday. Kono's remarks indicate Japan's frustrations. Pyongyang, which earlier this year started to pursue diplomacy toward neighbors China and South Korea as well as the United States, has shown no interest in communicating with Tokyo. "Japan has been determined to hold direct talks with North Korea and to take every step toward an early resolution of the abduction issue," Kono was quoted by the official as telling Pompeo during a meeting on Saturday in Singapore, where both men are attending meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called tackling the matter his "life's work." But Abe, who over recent years repeatedly said bolstering pressure on Pyongyang is vital to halting the country's nuclear and ballistic missile development programs, has in turn faced strong criticism from North Korea. On Friday night, Kono chatted with North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, and later told reporters that he informed Ri of Japan's views and basic stances. But Kono declined to disclose further details, suggesting the conversation may not have been held in an amicable atmosphere as ties between Japan and North Korea have been worsening. Tokyo and Pyongyang remain at odds over the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan officially lists 17 citizens as having been abducted, and suspects North Korean involvement in many more disappearances. North Korea insists the issue has already been resolved. On Saturday, the ASEAN Regional Forum -- an annual security gathering involving foreign ministers from nearly 30 nations including China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and the ASEAN members -- took place in Singapore. It is one of the very few multilateral events attended by North Korea's foreign minister almost every year. During their meeting, Kono and Pompeo confirmed the importance of maintaining U.N. Security Council resolutions against North Korea until Pyongyang achieves complete denuclearization as pledged, the Japanese official said. Amid skepticism over whether North Korea will take concrete measures toward denuclearization, Kono and Pompeo agreed to continue working together to pressure Pyongyang to give up all its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the official said. At a historic summit in June in the city-state, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised U.S. President Donald Trump to achieve "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in return for security guarantees from the United States. But negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang on the specifics of denuclearization appear to be at a standstill, while North Korea has been improving ties with China, Russia and some ASEAN countries. On Friday, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri sought the easing of international sanctions on Pyongyang, according to an ASEAN diplomatic source. Ri was quoted by the source as asking during a bilateral meeting with another country why U.N. sanctions have not yet been removed despite "much progress" being made on the nuclear issue. The source added China and Russia have become willing to relax some sanctions, raising concern that the effects of the pressure campaign on North Korea will wane. Kono and Pompeo also held trilateral talks involving Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Saturday. The three ministers exchanged views on a plan to jointly set up a fund to invest in infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region, the Japanese official said. The trilateral partnership is apparently aimed at countering China's growing influence. Washington and Tokyo are cautious about China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative of connecting countries along the ancient Silk Road more closely, saying Beijing is trying to expand its security and economic influence in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. At least 1,700 persons from the Peerumade Taluk have been rehabilitated to eight camps, said Idukki RDO MK Shaji. Yann LeCun facebook ai Facebook Facebook's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, says that letting AI experts split their time between academia and industry is helping drive innovation. Writing for Business Insider, the executive and NYU professor argues that the dual-affiliation model Facebook uses boosts individual researchers and the industry at large. A similar model has historically been practiced in other industries, from law to medicine. To make real progress in Artificial Intelligence we need the best, brightest and most diverse minds to exchange ideas and build on each other's work. Research in isolation, or in secret, falls behind the leading edge. According to Nature Index Science Inc. 2017, publications resulting from collaborations not just among academics, which comes most naturally, but between academia and industry more than doubled from 12,672 in 2012 to 25,962 in 2016. The burgeoning dual-affiliation model where academics actually work inside industry for a time, while maintaining their academic position makes possible not only technological advances like better speech recognition, image recognition, text understanding, and language translation systems, but also fundamental scientific advances in our understanding of intelligence. Dual affiliation is a boon. It benefits not just the AI economy but individual academics both researchers and students as well as industry. We need to champion it. The Economics of Industry-Academia Collaboration Worldwide spending on AI systems is predicted to reach $19.1 billion in 2018, says International Data Corporation. The number of active AI startups is fifteen times larger than in 2000, per Stanford University. And according to Adobe, the share of jobs requiring AI is 5.5 times higher than in 2013. Things are going pretty well and I'm arguing it's largely thanks to industry-academia collaborations. For decades, many professors of business, finance, law, and medicine have practiced their profession in the private sector while teaching and doing research at university. A growing number of leading AI researchers, from colleagues here at Facebook AI Research (FAIR) to several of my friends at other technology companies, are embracing a version of dual affiliation. Other academics, such as my old friend Yoshua Bengio at the University of Montreal, have not joined corporate research labs but have played important roles in many companies and startups as advisers or co-founders. Story continues Mark Zuckerberg AP The dual affiliation model allows researchers to maximize their impact. Different research environments lead to different types of ideas. Certain ideas only flourish in academic environments, while others can only be developed in industry where larger engineering teams and larger computing resources are available. In the past, true collaborations between industry and academia were complicated by overly possessive policies regarding intellectual property on both sides. But in today's world of fast-paced internet services deployment, owning IP has become considerably less important than turning research results into innovative products as quickly as possible, and deploying them at scale. AI researchers establish priority by publishing their results quickly on open-access repositories such as ArXiv.org. Many papers are accompanied by open-source releases of the corresponding code. This practice has increased the rate of progress of AI-related science and technology and thawed a once icy relationship. Sharing helps everyone now. Academia and AI So investment in basic research in industry, and the practice of open research, open-source software, together with a more relaxed attitude towards IP, have made industry-academia collaborations considerably easier and more fruitful than in the past. But we must keep pushing. What drives new technologies like AI is the speed of adoption by the general population, and what often controls that speed is the number and diversity of talented people who can apply themselves to the problem. There are only so many, highly-coveted spots at universities. Meanwhile there's an ever-growing need for top-talent in the industry we've made a great start with great leaders in key positions, but we need to support and drive exponential growth. We need a deeper bench. Industry partnerships with academic institutions can help. They increase the net number of students who can be expertly trained in AI giving them the benefit of access to significant computing power and training data with the expectation only that they contribute to the field in the future. The FAIR lab in Paris currently hosts 15 PhD students in residence, co-advised by a FAIR researcher and a professor. Ground-breaking research has come out of this program, and I believe our resident PhD students get a superior research environment and mentoring than in most purely academic environments. The program is so successful that we plan to expand it to 40 students over the next few years. Some students may choose to join FAIR after graduation, but many will choose to join other labs, found a startup, or become professors. This is one way we contribute to the R&D ecosystem. Facebook office Berlin Stefanie Loos/Reuters The goal for this ecosystem is to improve everyone's opportunity not only students, but seasoned academics too. Just because renowned researchers welcome new opportunities to participate in research outside of academia, they shouldn't have to jeopardize their own careers which often happened in the past. Many academics were forced to choose one or the other. I spent the first 15 years of my professional career in industry research at AT&T Bell Labs, AT&T Labs-Research, and the NEC Research Institute, before becoming a professor at NYU in 2003. When I joined Facebook in 2013, I was fortunate enough to be able to keep my professor position and share my time between FAIR and NYU. My dual affiliation allows me, among other things, to keep educating the next generation of scientists. The same holds for a number of academics working at FAIR today some 20% of the time, some 50%, and some 80% like me. It's also true for the five key research hires we just announced, who will help build our new Pittsburgh lab and FAIR teams in London, Seattle, Paris, and Menlo Park. The dual affiliation model hedges our personal risk while making our research, and knowledge, more powerful. Dual Affiliation, Exponential Progress For us academics, industry affiliation offers any number of benefits: resources in the form of compute power and funding, more collaboration with others, and the opportunity for immediate real-world application of research, at a scale that proves out hypotheses much faster than in a lab. People think such benefits must come with an asterisk that they'll be expected to be sucked into the shipping product machine. In the right industry environments, this simply isn't the case. In fact, fundamental research really benefits when it is untethered from the resource hunt. The dual affiliation model lets academics control their own agenda and timeline. Freed from time crunch, they identify research trends in both academia and in industry, and can act upon whichever's most promising. They are not pressured by product groups to bring their research to application, to achieve "real world impact" the way many companies with AI-powered products pressure their AI engineers. At FAIR, for instance, we want researchers to focus on long-term challenges. And in the process of working towards fundamental scientific advances, we often invent new techniques, develop new tools, or discover new phenomena that turn out to be useful. More often than not, ambitious long-term projects end up having product impact much quicker than we thought. Although FAIR is set up as a basic research lab focused on long-term horizons, our work has had a large impact on products for such applications as language translation, image, video and text understanding, search and indexing, content recommendation, and many other areas. Yann Lecun Getty Some of us in AI are working to solve real-world problems that impact billions of people by applying image, text, speech, audio and video understanding, reasoning, and action planning. At FAIR, we openly share our advances as much as we can, as fast as we can in the form of technical papers, open source code and teaching material. We produce new knowledge and tools to educate people on the latest developments and make science progress faster. Others in industry, academia and government can innovate on top of our work, creating new products, building new startups, and making new scientific discoveries. Our goals are shared, and these advances are for everyone's benefit. The AI software tools we are producing are used by hundreds of groups for research in high-energy physics, astrophysics, biology, medical imaging, environmental protection and many other domains. I started my professional career at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the late 1980s, and saw a culture of ambitious, open research that produced many of the innovations that power the modern world. These innovations, including the transistor, the solar cell, the laser, digital communication technology, the Unix system, and the C/C++ language, had a big impact on AT&T. But these and many more discoveries and innovations, a dozen of which won Nobel Prizes and Turing Awards, have had an even bigger impact on the world at large. That's what we are after, with AI. Understanding intelligence in machines, animals and humans, is one of the great scientific challenges of our times and building intelligent machines is one of the greatest technological challenges of our times. No single entity in industry, academia or public research has a monopoly on the good ideas that will achieve these goals. It's going to take the combined effort of the entire research community to make progress in the science and technology of intelligence. Yann LeCun is Vice President and Chief AI Scientist at Facebook and Silver Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute and the Center for Data Science. He was the founding Director of Facebook AI Research and of the NYU Center for Data Science. He received a PhD in Computer Science from Universite P&M Curie (Paris). After a postdoc at the University of Toronto, he joined AT&T Bell Labs, and became head of Image Processing Research at AT&T Labs in 1996. He joined NYU in 2003 and Facebook in 2013. See also: NOW WATCH: This conveyor belt can move in any direction See Also: Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Prosecutors on Friday dismissed murder charges against two men arrested in the fatal stabbing of a Colorado Springs homeless man. Kenneth Dreds Palmer, 25, and Earnest Bird Marcel Mims, 41, are eligible for release from the El Paso County jail eight months after they were booked on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of Eugene Henrey Wildeman. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Sunny skies with gusty winds developing later in the day. High 79F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight A mostly clear sky. Low 49F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. English French GLOBAL BIOENERGIES: France grants to two renewable isobutene derivatives the benefit of public support for sustainable biofuels. Evry (France), 01 August 2018 - Bio-isobutene incorporated in the form of ETBE and isooctane is on the list of biofuels in the order related to the General Tax on Polluting Activities (TGAP) published in the Journal Officiel dated 18 July 2018 (text #8). Thanks to public support, the road fuels consumed in France - gasoline and diesel - now contain on average nearly 7% of renewable and sustainable energy, in accordance with the environmental and social criteria adopted by the European Parliament. With this new joint order by the Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, the Minister of Food and Agriculture and the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, French road fuel distributors, especially oil companies and major retailers, are now being enticed to include these two renewable isobutene derivatives in the formulation of gasoline in addition to traditional sustainable biofuels like ethanol. The plants to be built in the future to operate the bio-isobutene process will benefit from this order, which materializes as a favorable tax system. Bio-isobutene will be converted on-site into renewable, sustainable compounds, which will be directly usable by distributors to formulate quality gasoline, in accordance with the needs of all drivers, with no restrictions or changes to vehicles or to the distribution network. According to Bernard Chaud, Director of Industrial Strategy at Global Bioenergies, "This decision further supports the Global Bioenergies project. With this order, we can already look forward to the large scale deployment of our renewable gasoline production process, thus fulfilling a dual promise of an improved carbon footprint by road transportation along with a reduction in particulate emissions, with a positive impact on health". About GLOBAL BIOENERGIES Global Bioenergies is one of the few companies worldwide, and the only one in Europe, that is developing a process to convert renewable resources into hydrocarbons through fermentation. The Company initially focused its efforts on the production of isobutene, one of the most important petrochemical building blocks that can be converted into fuels, plastics, organic glass and elastomers. Global Bioenergies continues to improve the performance of its process, to operate its demo plant in Germany, and to prepare the first full-scale plant through a joint venture with Cristal Union, named IBN-One. Global Bioenergies is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (FR0011052257 - ALGBE) Stay informed! Subscribe to our newsfeed on www.global-bioenergies.com Follow us on Twitter: @GlobalBioenergi Contact Is this a picture of a woman in Iran getting a spoonful of water before being stoned to death, and is this part of sharia law? No, the picture is from a 2003 protest in Colombia where activists had themselves burried up to the neck in protest against the government not relocating some displaced persons. The photo has nothing to do with Islam, Iran or sharia law. Despite this it has been circulated with a false caption on various social networks. An example of the picture was posted to /r/the_donald on Reddit on August 3, 2018 (archived here) with following caption: A woman just before being stoned to death in Iran under Shariah laws. At some places on this Earth, women's rights are limited to getting a spoonful of water before stoning. Still want to tell me that Islam is worthy of being part of our civilisation? An older post on a Facebook page named "Stop the Mosques Australia" claimed the image was taken from a Youtube video and added following comment: THE "RELIGION OF PEACE" AT WORK in Iran defending it's moral standards under sharia law...defending them from such clearly dangerous reprobates as this woman, about to be stoned to death, and allowed the generous luxury of a spoonful of water before her agonising death. The image was also being spread on Twitter with a false description: A******s of Thornton Reuters here is a lady who is 'allowed' 3 sips of water before being stoned to death. How safe is she, according to you ? pic.twitter.com/Kaiuu8xM4c -- Gita S. Kapoor (@GitaSKapoor) June 28, 2018 However the photo comes from a series of stock photos from a 2003 protest. The woman's name is Maria Gabriela Ruiz and in this photo she can be seen being comforted by her grandchild: ELDERLY COLOMBIAN WOMAN BURIED UP TO HER NECK DURING PROTEST. - Buy this stock photo and explore similar images at Adobe Stock ELDERLY COLOMBIAN WOMAN BURIED UP TO HER NECK DURING PROTEST. - Buy this stock photo and explore similar images at Adobe Stock In the further description given by the stock photo site we can learn what really happened: Colombian Maria Gabriela Ruiz, 66, (C) is aided by a woman while shelies buried in the ground up to her neck along with Olmedo Gomez, 42,(bottom) and Nicolas Salazar, 32, during a protest in a popular sector of Cali, July 4, 2003. Three people, two men and a woman, buried themselves three days ago in protest against the government because 150 displaced persons have not been relocated to a safe sector of Cali. Note that this does not mean stoning doesn't happen in Iran or that the Iranian authorities don't condone the practice as this story from Amnesty International illustrates: Iran: Writer facing imminent imprisonment for story about stoning Iranian authorities must immediately repeal the conviction and sentence of Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, a writer and human rights activist who is due to begin serving six years in prison on charges including "insulting Islamic sanctities" through the writing of an unpublished story about the horrific practice of stoning, Amnesty International said today. It just means the picture being circulated is false and it probably shouldn't be used by people trying to do something about the whole situation because it weakens their argument. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ The protests, across cities like Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Shahin Shahr and Najafabad, featured protesters chanting anti-regime slogans, like Mullahs must go! and [President Hassan] Rouhani be ashamed, let go of our country!, while setting the motorbikes of the Regimes thug forces on fire. There are thousands of protesters in the streets on a daily basis, but their numbers are growing and they are getting hard for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to control. These people are protesting the failing economy and a currency that dropped to record lows in value over the weekend, but these problems will only come more sharply into focus once US sanctions roll back into place on Monday. The mullahs dangerously destabilised the economy in order to fund foreign wars and line their own pockets, so the people want to make sure that they pay for it. The mullahs try to paint the protests as foreign meddling something that they know a lot about but these protests come from the Iranian people. They are real and they are going to take the mullahs down. Shahin Gobadi, the spokesman of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the largest resistance group in Iran, said: The continuation and the frequency of the protests throughout 2018, despite the imposition of pervasive suppression and daily arrests and executions designed to intimidate the public, vividly reflects the growing sentiment among the Iranians that the only solution is a regime change by the people. It also proves once again that the correct policy by the international community regarding the ruling theocracy is the policy of firmness. The clerical regime is fast moving towards the precipice, and the world should stand on the side of the Iranian people on their quest for freedom. The international community should be approaching Iran with a firm policy, rather than concerning themselves with appeasement. However, they should also support the calls for regime change. L. Todd Wood, a former special operations helicopter pilot, wrote: What these brave Iranians do need is our moral support and continued financial pressure on the regime. If President Drumpf and his administration can take away the ability of the mullahs to enrich themselves and steal from the Iranian people, he will have done the Iranian people a great service. Shutting down Iranian oil exports and removing Irans ability to use the global banking system will create the conditions for regime change from within Iran. In the U.S. this month, Americans are discussing whether 3D [three-dimensional] guns are legal. Cody Wilson says yes. He first used a website to publish designs for a printable handgun in 2013. But the U.S. State Department soon ordered him to stop, saying the designs violated laws related to exports. This summer, the two parties reached a settlement that would permit Wilson to publish the designs. But when public officials warned that 3D guns threatened public safety, a judge blocked Wilson until the issue could be discussed again. A First Amendment issue? Wilson calls his argument a First Amendment case. The First Amendment, part of the U.S. Constitutions Bill of Rights, permits Americans the right to most kinds of speech. Wilson believes it permits him to share the plans to make a gun with a 3D printer. His lawyer, Josh Blackman, said, "This is a very, very, very easy First Amendment question that I think people might be hesitant to accept because it involves guns and people don't like guns. A public safety issue? The federal judge who has temporarily blocked Wilson noted the case presented serious First Amendment issues. But Judge Robert Lasnik also said that guns made on 3D printers could create serious harm. Critics of 3D guns say criminals or terrorists could easily create the guns and hide them. The New York Times newspaper notes they can be printed without serial numbers or government regulations. In addition, all-plastic guns would violate a 1988 law called the Undetectable Firearms Act. That act outlaws guns that cannot be identified by a metal detector. Congress has renewed the act several times, and it remains in effect. Even though Wilsons designs call for some metal, critics say a user could easily remove those pieces. Its an absurdity. You can take the piece of metal out and put it back in at your own whims and you can take it out and walk through a metal detector undetected, said Jonas Oransky, legal director for the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Wilson answers that he is not making an all-plastic gun. He is simply providing the information on how someone could make one. The judge will meet with lawyers about the case next week. U.S. President Donald Trump has also said he is thinking about the issue. Im Kelly Jean Kelly. Lisa Marie Pane reported this story for the Associated Press. Kelly Jean Kelly adapted it for Learning English, with additional information from the New York Times and Time. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story three-dimensional - adj. having or seeming to have length, width, and depth hesitant - adj. slow to act or speak especially because you are nervous or unsure about what to do serial number - n. a number that is put on a product and that is used to identify it undetectable - adj. impossible to discover or notice firearm - n. a small gun metal detector - n. a device that can tell if metal is present absurdity - n. extremely silly, foolish, or unreasonable idea whim - n. a sudden wish, desire or decision Former U.S. Secretary of State lost his job after he ruined plans by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to militarily invade Qatar amid the ongoing diplomatic showdown opposing the peninsula and its neighbors, The Intercept reports citing U.S. sources. Saudi Arabia and the UAE achieved Rex Tillersons removal in March after he moved to oppose a military plan by Saudi Arabia and its ally UAE to invade their neighbor Qatar, the news organizations portal said in a report on Wednesday. The two Gulf allies plus Bahrain and Egypt in June 2017 severed ties with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the tiny country over its alleged ties with Iran and support for terrorism. President Donald Trump, though siding with the Saudi camp, offered to mediate the crisis and tasked the former CEO of Exxon Mobil to diffuse the crisis. In summer 2017, Rex Tillerson got wind of a secret military plot aiming at conquering Qatar, The intercept reports citing anonymous current members of the U.S. intelligence community and two former State Department officials. The former top diplomat intervened through several phone calls to Saudi Arabia, namely then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MbS) and foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir not to attack Qatar or otherwise escalate hostilities, the sources told The Intercept. MbS, according to the media, backtracked after becoming aware that the move could damage relations between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Qatar is host to the US largest military base in the region. The Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatars capital city, is the U.S. counterterrorism central command in the region and is home to over 10,000 American troops. Tillerson was informed about the secret military endeavor by Qatari officials who also updated the US embassy in Doha. Qatari undercover agents in Riyadh had earlier unveiled the invasion plan in which Saudi forces, backed by the UAE, should enter Qatar through the only land border and take position some 70 miles toward Doha, Circumventing the U.S. air base, Saudi forces would then seize the capital. The abortion of the plan enraged Mohammed bin Zayed, the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, The Intercept said. The UAE ambassador to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba, who is very influential at the White House, was reportedly aware of Trillersons removal three months before he was fired. Hunt County, TX - A local couple, already facing a trial for allegedly running an illegal puppy mill, have been arrested on charges of human trafficking, now accused of using their five adopted children as slave labor in running the puppy operation. This case is one of the first, if not the first, child labor investigations in the state, said Deputy Criminal Chief Kirsta Leeburg Melton, who heads a unit within the Texas Attorney Generals Office dedicated to combating human trafficking. Jeffery Leon Barrett and Barbara Jean Barrett of Greenville were being held at the Hunt County Detention Center Friday, each in lieu of $650,000 bond and each charged with trafficking of persons-continuous. The pair were arrested overnight by the Texas Department of Public Safety and made their initial appearance Friday morning during a hearing in the 196th District Court. Judge Andrew Bench then reset the hearings for Aug. 15. When contacted by the Herald-Banner about the case, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Marissa Gonzales said the couples five children have been placed in state custody. The children, three boys and two girls, range in age from 12 to 17 years, Gonzales said. The couple are still awaiting an October 15 trial on charges of cruelty to non-livestock animals in connection with the seizure last year of over 100 animals from the puppy mill on their property east of Greenville. The Barretts agreed to sign over rights to the animals to the SPCA of Texas, who along with Precinct 1 Constable Terry Jones and the Hunt County Sheriffs Office seized the 117 animals from a home on County Road 3103, off of Interstate 30, last September. The agency reported that the majority of the dogs and puppies were housed in a metal addition to the brick home and were found living in cages and kennels, up to three dogs in each. Another 15 dogs and puppies and two cats were found inside the residence. The Barretts told investigators they were selling the dogs, authorities said. According to affidavits filed in the case by the Department of Family and Protective Services, the investigation into the welfare of the children began shortly before the Barretts were arrested in the puppy mill operation. Four of the five children were found to have had marks, bruises, scars and open wounds in different stages of healing. The children described physical abuse by both Barbara and Jeffery, telling authorities that the parents had hit them with plywood, bamboo sticks and brushes. The children, all of whom were adopted from California CPS, alleged they had suffered years of physical abuse and had been pulled from public school to care for the animals in the kennel and complete chores. Melton said the Human Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime section of the Texas Attorney Generals office will be in charge of the remainder of the investigation and the prosecution. The Attorney Generals Office will be working with District Attorney Noble Walkers office, Melton said. Walker explained that the state officials assigned to the case will be appointed as special assistant district attorneys going forward. Melton explained that her office specializes in cases of human trafficking, both sexual and labor-related. She noted that it is a misconception to believe such trafficking only involves victims from other countries, when in fact it is often a case of American citizens exploiting other citizens. It is modern-day slavery, Melton said. Texas is prolific in the numbers of human trafficking. The statute used as the basis of the charges against the Barretts carries serious consequences for a conviction and is actually more severe than federal law. The punishment range is 25 years up to life in prison, she said. There is no option for probation in this case. Melton said the next step will be to present the case to the Hunt County grand jury within the next 90 days for consideration of indictments. She has been in charge of the trafficking unit since January 2016, and this is the first such case to be reported in Hunt County. I currently have multiple cases in the Northeast Texas area, Melton said. She hopes the investigation of the case will make it clear human trafficking is not just an issue that occurs in the big cities. People will begin to understand this could happen anywhere, she said. Manitowoc, WI - A couple arrested after the death of a three-year old child in Manitowoc had been smoking meth while caring for the boy, according to a probable cause statement obtained by Action 2 News. On Friday, Jamie Lynn Schrank, 38, and Eduardo Gamez, 46, went before a Manitowoc County judge for bail hearings. Schrank is facing possible charges of Neglecting a Child, Possession of Meth, and Possession of THC. Gamez is facing possible charges of Neglecting a Child and Possession of Meth. Official charges have not yet been filed. The judge ordered Schrank be held on a $25,000 cash bond and maintain absolute sobriety. She can have no contact with Gamez. Gamez was also held on a $25,000 cash bond. He must also maintain absolute sobriety and have no contact with Schrank. "This is a very serious incident. As the court can see from the probable cause statement, it involves repeated acts of child neglect, which is a class H felony-- not just a misdemeanor-- as well as the use that was done in front of the child," said Jacalyn Labre, Manitowoc County District Attorney. On July 28, Manitowoc Police were called to a hospital where a 3-year old boy was being treated for "severe external and internal injuries," police say. The boy was transported to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Milwaukee where he underwent further surgery. The boy died that day. Investigators say they learned Schrank and her boyfriend, Gamez, were babysitting the child at their home on Waldo Blvd in Manitowoc. The couple was watching the boy while the child's parent was at work. The couple's 5-year-old boy was also at the home. Police interviewed the couple. They say Gamez admitted that both he and Schrank smoke meth. Schrank told investigators that they both smoked meth on July 26 and July 27. They were watching the victim and their child during this time. Schrank admitted to smoking meth about three times per day. "Jamie stated the methamphetamine was smoked in a separate room from where the boys were," reads the probable cause statement. On July 31, a search warrant was executed at the couple's Waldo Blvd home. Police say they found a meth pipe and 0.3 grams of meth. On Aug. 1, police located Schrank to take her into custody. She was on her way to court for a hearing involving her child. Police say she was carrying a bag with a meth pipe and meth in it. Police took her to jail where staff found marijuana in her possession. Police say this was not the first time the couple used drugs in front of a child. "There was also another incident previously, a little over a year ago, involving drug possession with one of the children being around, so I think this has shown a pattern of activity and non-compliance," Labre said. The investigation into the death of the child is ongoing. An autopsy has been completed. Results could take several weeks. Police and prosecutors will then determine if additional charges are warranted. The Department of Human Services has placed Schrank and Gamez's child outside the home. Police say the suspects had been babysitting the child who died for several months. They are not related to the victim. Police ask anyone with information to call them at (920) 686-6551. Anonymous tips are welcome through the Crime Stoppers hotline at (920) 683-4466. Schrank and Gamez are scheduled to return to court on Aug. 13. Bangladesh need not lose sleep over the row following the publication of the final draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, says State Minister for Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh, Shahriar Alam. A report appearing in India Today stated that Alam told reporters at a programme organised at the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) auditorium in Dhaka on Thursday that some people are trying to politicise Assams citizen list. The report further quoted Alam as saying, The Assam Government gave a clear explanation on the citizen list. There will be no impact on Bangladesh-India bilateral relations with this list. There is nothing to be worried about it. The Assam Government released the final draft NRC on July 30 last following which a huge political battle has ensued over 40 lakh people being left out of the final draft. There has been discussion and criticism in the political circles. Bangladesh considers the matter as Indias internal affair. Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, said, Bangladesh should not worry about the list published by the Assam Government. There is nothing to be afraid of those whose names have been dropped off from the list. This citizen list has been made according to the directions of the Supreme Court of India. This is not a political decision. This list will not affect the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India, Shringla said. We have a friendly relationship with Bangladesh and we would like to move forward in the coming days, Shringla concluded. Newspaper: Every day Azerbaijanis set new order on section of Armenias Goris-Kapan motorway Newspaper: Coronavirus vaccinations to be paid for in Armenia? Deputy PM: Unblocking of communications does not mean expansion of Turkish capital to Armenia Armenia's Pashinyan admits that he personally gave the order to pull out troops from Syunik Province Satanovsky: Moscow was setting forth much more favorable ideas for Armenia than what had to be accepted Armenia PM: Talks with logic of 'corridor' are escalating tension in the region Armenia PM: 72% of Karabakh's territories occupied by Baku were subject for bargain during former administration Ararat Mirzoyan: Team representing Armenia's interests submitted a serious claim to International Court of Justice Satanovsky on 'Zangezur corridor', new war in region and use of Bayraktar in Donbas Pashinyan not ruling out determination of Armenia-Azerbaijan borders based on maps that Putin indicated US Ambassador: American companies in Armenia see that students lack knowledge and skills Armenia Parliament Speaker on demonstration held against him in Cyprus Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia's borders remain unchanged Armenia Deputy PM reports results of negotiations over unblocking of roads in the region Armenia PM invites two opposition parliamentary factions to hold a meeting Armenian FM: No meeting of leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan scheduled yet Azerbaijani army general sentenced to ten years in jail Armenia opposition MP to MOD: Why aren't names of soldiers killed in 44-day war and buried made public? Dollar gains value in Armenia Armenia PM: No positional changes on Mount Pela Premier pays tribute to victims of October 27, 1999 tragedy in Armenia legislature St. Giragos Armenian church in Turkeys Diyarbakir expected to reopen next Easter Two US Senators urge Biden to waive sanctions against India for purchase of S-400s Armenia National Assembly elects Central Bank board new member We hope Iran will act smart in relations with Azerbaijan, says Erdogan US, Indonesia call for new forum to combat future pandemics Erdogan announces what Aliyev said about Israel Lavrov: Russia is checking news about Ukraine using Turkish Bayraktar in Donbas Armenia society knows answers left open to questions on 27 October 1999 parliament tragedy, says speaker Armenia justice minister receives invitation from his Lithuanian counterpart to visit Lithuania for cooperation Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra: Vatican Apostolic Nunciature office opening in Armenia will be symbol of regional peace FM: Vatican has always stood with Armenia Aliyev, Erdogan want to unite Turkic world via Armenia Provincial governor of Armenias Aragatsotn submits resignation Situation at Armenia legislature gets tense Azerbaijanis steal 32 cows, 13 calves of Artsakh town resident, investigation underway Armenia FM meets with visiting Holy See official Vatican Apostolic Nunciature office to open in Armenia Art of Armenian writing is put on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list (PHOTOS) Azerbaijan to allocate $4.5 billion for defense spending in 2022 Armenia legislature forms committee to investigate how Hayastan All Armenian Fund donations were used Forced deportee from Artsakh occupied territory: We prepared humanitarian asylum requesting letter to France President 2,074 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenia President in Saudi Arabia, speaks with Crown Prince Armenia parliament ratifies CIS agreement on collaboration in fight against IT crimes Brazil Senate panel votes in favor of bringing criminal charges against President Bolsonaro Armenia legislature starts Wednesdays session by honoring 27 October 1999 parliament tragedy victims Only December 31, January 1 and 6 to be non-working days for New Year, Christmas holidays in Armenia Armenia parliament continues regular sessions Sikh men use their turbans to rescue hikers in Canada Newspaper: What do we have on Armenia parliament fatal shooting case 3 years after change of power? Newspaper: All accused to remain in custody in Armenia ex-defense minister criminal case Newspaper: Armenian ambassador is spreader of US Influence? Istanbul changes name of street named after famous Armenian engineer again US supports Taiwan's participation in the United Nations' system Armenia's economic activity indicator continues to decline Armenia President Armen Sarkissian pays historic visit to Saudi Arabia Turkey's Erdogan: If Armenia "solves problems with Baku", there will be no other obstacle for normalization of relations Honorary Citizen of Yerevan title bestowed upon cultural figures on occasion of city's 2,803rd birthday Yerevan Council of Elders decides to place memorial plaques for four famous people Mayor: There are three times more vaccinated citizens in Yerevan than in the whole country Yerevan mayor: There is no alternative to conservation of trash chutes in apartment buildings Latvia President recovers from COVID-19 Armenia Health Ministry: Foreigners and stateless persons can receive AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines Tert.am: Resident of Armenia's Goris: Azerbaijanis stopped my car, hit it and used swear words Australian MP talks about Azerbaijan's aggression, calls for maintenance of ceasefire Yerevan mayor says he has never made exception for anyone since first day of office Armenia Deputy PM presents Government's Action Plan to ambassadors and representatives of international organizations Trade turnover between Eurasian Economic Union countries grows by 31.3% in eight months of 2021 armtimes.com: Armenia ruling party's candidate in Vedi is ex-governor of Ararat Province Garik Sargsyan MP says only 7% of Armenia's population is vaccinated Turkish FM threatens to resign due to scandal over ambassadors Armenia opposition MP: 11% increase of military budget is rather low indicator in post-war period Armenia removed from list of countries whose citizens are permitted to enter Italy Armenia emergency situations minister receives Poland Ambassador New generation business is founded in Armenia Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees Armenian legislature speaker meets with Cyprus-Armenia parliamentary cooperation committee chair Aliyev, Erdogan attend groundbreaking of Zangezur corridor in occupied territories of Artsakh Driver of Armenia MOD truck runs over female pedestrian in Yerevan who dies at hospital The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries on any violations of international sanctions against North Korea, AP reported. According to him, the US has new, credible reports that Russia violates UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean migrant workers. He noted that Washington "takes seriously" any violations. "If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation," Pompeo said, noting that the U.N. Security Council had voted unanimously in favor of the sanctions. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. According to Pompeo, he is still optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will fulfill his promise to the US President Donald Trump on denuclearization. Irans Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced plans for the opening of the countrys interests section in Saudi Arabia, which severed diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic in 2016, Tasnim News Agency reported. In an interview with PANA news agency, Bahram Qassemi voiced Irans readiness to hold negotiations with Saudi Arabia, saying Tehran has not rejected calls for mediation by third countries. Saudi Arabia appears to be reluctant to mend ties with Iran, he said, adding, We believe that the problems originate mostly from inside Saudi Arabia. Because of some internal problems that Saudi Arabia is facing and certain foreign issues, Mr. Trumps election (as the US president) and the relations he has established with Saudi Arabia, and Trumps analyses of Iran, they (Saudis) are somehow under the illusion that they may win more concessions from Iran through patience. Asked about the future of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh, Qassemi said Switzerland has been representing Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia under an agreement reached with Bern eight months ago. There have been advances made in the past two weeks, and I believe there are signs that (Irans) Interests Section office would open and become active. The spokesperson then pointed to the international anger at the US and Washingtons policies towards its age-old allies, saying, There is indication even in the Persian Gulf littoral states that there are concerns about Trumps policies, because they have the feeling that Trump is only seeking to empty their pockets. Tensions ran high between Tehran and Riyadh after Saudi Arabias execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in January 2016, and a subsequent attack by outraged Iranian protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which resulted in the Arab countrys decision to sever its ties with the Islamic Republic. Turkey does not intend to take part in the international music contest "Eurovision". The head of Turkeys public broadcaster has cited someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt as one of the main reasons of Ankaras ongoing boycott against Eurovision, apparently referring to Conchita Wurst, who won the international song contest in 2014, Hyurriet Daily News reported. We dont consider to rejoin the contest. We have reasons like the voting system. As a public broadcaster, we also cannot broadcast live at 9 p.m. --when children are still awake-- someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt, do not believe in genders and says that he is both a man and a woman, the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporations general manager Ibrahim Eren said during panel at a Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul on Aug. 4. Turkey has not participated in Eurovision since 2012 in protest at changes in the contests voting system. I have told the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on the Eurovision issue that they deviated from their values. As a result, other countries also left Eurovision. There is a mental chaos at the EBU because of its executives. If they can fix it, we can join Eurovision again, Eren added. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Saturday oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb would resume on Saturday, Al Arabiya reported. Falih said the decision was made after the Arab coalition had completed all necessary security procedures. Falih said the move would be in coordination with the international community and in accord with international law and related United Nations Security Council resolutions. Saudi Arabia had announced on July 25 that oil shipments through Bab-El-Mandeb would be temporarily halted after the unsuccessful terrorist attacks carried by Iran-supported Houthi militia on two Saudi crude carriers. Falih said: "The decision to resume oil shipment through the strait of Bab-El-Mandeb was made after the leadership of the Coalition has taken necessary measures to protect the Coalition States' ships." He also expressed his confidence that the Kingdom-led Coalition has made all necessary security measures, in coordination with the international community, to minimize the risks which may threaten the Coalition States' ships that are navigating through the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and the southern portion of the Red Sea, thus ensuring a continuous supply of energy to the world in accordance with the highest security standards and precautions. He also emphasized that the security of the strait of Bab-El-Mandeb and the southern parts of the Red Sea is a joint international interest, towards which the whole international community should uphold its responsibilities. The statement of the Minister came after a statement issued recently by the spokesperson of the Coalition Forces in which he confirmed that the Coalition Forces carried out an overall evaluation of the Houthi Militia attacks, which targeted the freedom of navigation through Bab-El-Mandeb, and that all necessary measures were taken to secure maritime navigation and international trade through the strait. Brigadier General Amir Hatami, Iranian Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, criticized US destabilizing role in the Middle East region, Mehr News reported. The Americans and some other countries have spent more than $500 billion to create insecurity in the region, said Brigadier General Amir Hatami, Iranian Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. The Iranian official made the remarks on Saturday while meeting with a number of families who have lost a member in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war or the fight against terrorism in Syria. The defense minister thanked the attending families and asserted that today's established peace and stability in Iran is owed to the selflessness of the martyrs. The sworn enemies of our country have always, in the lifespan of the Islamic Revolution, opposed the formation, stabilization and continuation of the Islamic Revolutions life, he said. They considered the ascent and realization of the causes of the Islamic Revolution as harmful to their own ominous policies. [In this light], the economic war and the enforcement of US and its allies unjust sanctions against our country in the past 40 years can be analyzed. North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, a new UN report has warned. The report by experts, which was sent to the Security Council on Friday night, said North Korea is violating sanctions by a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions. The panel of experts said the regime tried to sell small arms and light weapons and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries, including Syrian arms traffickers in Yemen as well as Libya and Sudan. The report also said North Korea has continued military co-operation with Syria, in breach of sanctions. Sanctions North Korea isnt stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, a UN report has warned (Picture: Getty) It said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programmes and continues to defy the sanctions. Experts said ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, oil and coal involve increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques including turning off Automatic Identification Systems, physically disguising North Korean tankers, using small unregistered vessels, illegally changing names, carrying out night transfers and using additional vessels to trans-ship cargo. MORE: Woman wakes up in bed to find huge snake on top of her MORE: Youngest woman to be convicted of plotting terror attack on UK soil jailed for life The report also said UN financial sanctions are among the most poorly implemented and evaded measures. The Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006 and has made them progressively tougher in response to further nuclear tests and its increasingly sophisticated ballistic missile programme. North Korea pledged to denuclearize following Donald Trumps summit with Kim Jong Un (Picture: Getty) Progress appeared to have been made thanks to the sanctions, which sharply cut North Koreas exports and imports, as well as the June summit between US President and Kim Jong Un in which North Korea pledged to completely denuclearise. But in June, research suggested that North Korea was carrying out improvements at its nuclear testing facility. North Korea analysis organisation 38 North said satellite images of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre showed that upgrades were being carried out at a rapid pace. binged the last few eps last night and im so glad at how uplifting the finale was. i was so worried someone would die or something, but nope! it ended perfectly and im glad it is renewed. mj rodriguez radiates such warmth as blanca. there better be less van der beek/peters next season. kate can stay if it shows her divorcing him,thriving and continually putting him in his place. oh and i find it so funny how much pray tell and candy hate eachother. Reply Thread Link IA. Blanca is such a good person and that is such an underrated trait these days. I needed to see a good person win for once. Reply Parent Thread Link "oh and i find it so funny how much pray tell and candy hate eachother." Lol right?? I was going to say i loved to hate Candy but honestly I just loved her and her confidence at the balls Reply Parent Thread Link Candy is one of my faves! I love how Pray Tell would say her name lol. Miss Caaandy Reply Parent Thread Link It wasn't really confidence though. It was more egotistical courage or something since she kept trying to enter categories that she did not have the skill set (or look temporary) to perform in. Reply Parent Thread Link I agree Reply Parent Thread Link van der beek was so so so useless. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link so happy this show happened i really love it. though i can't help but want some representation for trans men that isn't fetishized or completely misunderstood (i mean that's pretty much all the rep there is). idk i feel like when talking about trans representation trans men are left out a lot Reply Thread Link I wonder what they're gonna do with Elektra and I guess, stan's ass is gonna try and crawl his way back to Angel. Reply Thread Link They already dealt with that in the finale and I feel like it's going to stick, based on... everything. Reply Parent Thread Link This show was honestly one of my favorite shows this year. Im even still listening to the Pose playlist on Spotify bc the music was so good on the show. My friend put an episode on a couple of weeks ago, and i went from not really paying attention for the first 20 min to almost tearin up and clapping by the end. I loved every episode, most of the characters and understood more about trans issues. I have been telling everyone about this show and could not be happier that it was renewed for a second season. I heard the second season is gonna start after a one year time jump, which makes me nervous for Blanca ngl. Also, Angel is drop dead gorgeous. At all times. And her outfits are always amazing. I do wish they still did balls tho. I really wanna go to one. Reply Thread Link ball culture still exists in many cities with a thriving gay nightlife scene Reply Parent Thread Link Ah thanks. I was just googling now and saw something about Kiki's ballroom but can't find the address. I'll do some more searching about other places also. Thanks for the heads up Reply Parent Thread Link Can netflix please provide. Reply Thread Link I love this show so so much, but i just want the white people gone cause they're not interesting, maybe Kate can stay if her character goes on a self discovery path with her education, being single again and all that. Reply Thread Link No she can go too Lmao Reply Parent Thread Link idc about some white woman's eat, pray, love on a show about poc. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Lmao yaaaas Reply Parent Thread Link Daaaaaaaaaaaamn, sis. This is prob the only time ive found interest in kate as an actor lol Reply Parent Thread Link Why do I have a feeling they're setting up that dancing kid to actually end up as one of the Madonna dancers (first in Vogue video and then on Blond Ambition Tour) Reply Thread Link Pose had me more scared than anything RM's put out in the last few years. I was so afraid the story would go down a dark path somewhere. Yet it only surprised me on how wholesome, cute, funny, and good it actually was. Just a great drama with incredible characters that I just wanna be friends with. Reply Thread Link ia Reply Parent Thread Link Thank you Janet Mock and Our Lady J Reply Parent Thread Link This show is EVERYTHING. I've rewatched the finale so many times, just because of how sweet and uplifting it was and the character development over the season has been sensational. Reply Thread Link I love this show so much and can't wait for a second season. Loved Elecktra working at Indochine- that is the perfect place for her! And I loved the ending to Season 1. Reply Thread Link I loved this show so much!! give billy porter his emmy Reply Thread Link this show made me damn near cry every episode and im pretty much soulless. Reply Thread Link bitch I was on the floor crying and like I said I dont cry much. maybe twice a year. Reply Parent Thread Link Love this show. So much heart. There better be emmy winnings all. Uh. Round. Reply Thread Link Angel & Lil Papi are my faves. Reply Thread Link Data from the 2018 BP Statistical Review of World Energy show that last year the U.S. maintained a healthy lead as the global natural gas powerhouse. In 2017, the U.S. produced an average of 71.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas. Thats a 1.0 percent increase from 2016 production, but not quite good enough to beat the 2015 record of 71.6 Bcf/d. That was still good enough for a 20.0 percent share of the worlds total natural gas production. Shale Gas Puts U.S. Back on Top To put the U.S. production numbers in perspective, natural gas production for the entire Middle East was 63.8 Bcf/d. Russia, in second place among countries, saw its natural gas production surge by 8.2 percent, but at 61.5 Bcf/d that was still well behind the U.S. (Click to enlarge) Natural gas production 1970-2017 The U.S. had dominated global natural gas production until the 1980s, at which time it ceded the lead to Russia. The Middle East has grown its natural gas production at a much faster rate over the past 50 years, though, and is on pace to take the lead during the next decade. Related: Bypassing The Worlds Key Oil Chokepoints U.S. natural gas production had been in decline until the fracking boom that began in the middle of the previous decade. Production grew in the U.S. by an astounding 51 percent from 2005 to 2015, which pushed the U.S. back into the global lead. U.S. consumption has also grown rapidly as power plants have turned increasingly to natural gas as both a replacement for coal-fired power, and a backup for new renewable capacity. U.S. Gas Exports are Surging Another important outlet for U.S. natural gas production has been exports, both via pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG exports from the U.S. reached 1.7 Bcf/d in 2017, equivalent to about 2.4 percent of U.S. natural gas production. Mexico received nearly 22 percent of these exports, while the Asia Pacific region received 41 percent. Pipeline exports amounted to 6.3 Bcf/d, or 8.9 percent of U.S. daily production. Despite trade war rhetoric, Mexico remains the most important destination for U.S. natural gas exports, receiving 64 percent of the total. Related: Are Oil Markets Underestimating Irans Threats? Further, exports to Mexico continue to grow rapidly. Last week RBN Energy reported that in early July, pipeline exports to Mexico breached 5.0 Bcf/d for the first time ever. (Click to enlarge) U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico. Reserves Signal a Warning The U.S. may continue to lead the world in natural gas production for a few more years, but the level of proved natural gas reserves implies that our lead could be short-lived. The Middle Easts proved natural gas reserves at the end of 2017 were 2.8 quadrillion cubic feet, nearly ten times U.S. proved reserves of 309 trillion cubic feet. For perspective, U.S. proved reserves are only 4.5 percent of the global total. Russia has more proved natural gas reserves than any other country with 1.23 quadrillion cubic feet, followed by Iran with 1.17 quadrillion cubic feet. Total proved natural gas reserves at the end of 2017 were enough to satisfy 2017 global production rates for 52.6 years. By Robert Rapier More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz poses for photographers during a press event at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university's roughly century-long history.(AP Photo / Marco Ugarte) The youngest student ever admitted to Mexico's National Autonomous University wouldn't call himself a "genius." Carlos Santamaria Diaz, a 12-year-old who will begin classes for an undergraduate degree in biomedical physics Monday, was dwarfed by the upholstered blue chair he sat in to answer reporters' questions Friday. With his feet barely brushing the floor, he laughed out loud and shook his head when a reporter asked if he considered himself a genius. "I don't like to use that word," he said. Carlos passed the university's entrance exam and has already done preparatory work at the university's school of chemistry in its genetics sciences center. The boy from western Guadalajara grew bored with public school at an early age and turned to the web where he taught himself calculus and physics. By the age of nine, he participated in university programs in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and biology. Nervously running his hands through his hair and speaking passionately of finding cures for rare diseases, his behavior seemed typical of a confident albeit young college student until the university's photographer asked him to pose with a stuffed mascot and the boy emerged. 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz smiles as he stands with his parents during a press conference at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university's roughly century-long history. (AP Photo / Marco Ugarte) When asked if he ever felt isolated because of his intelligence, Carlos shrugged off the question: "The truth is, no, I feel like the university has been very good to me, especially the chemistry faculty." His mother Arcelia Diaz said that like any mom she was proud of her son. Carlos offered advice to Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: "First off, I would tell him not to make the same mistakes as the previous presidents." Politicians should "take care of the country like they take care of themselves," he said. "This a country filled with people who have dreams and at the same don't have any dreams because they don't have any opportunities." The university said Carlos would be treated like any other student, with no special privileges or benefits. 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz shares a moment with his father Fabian Santamaria during during a press conference at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university's roughly century-long history.(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz is seen on a television camera monitor during a press conference at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university's roughly century-long history. (AP Photo / Marco Ugarte) 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz poses for photographers during a press event at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university's roughly century-long history.(AP Photo / Marco Ugarte) 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz smiles during a press conference at Mexico's National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university's roughly century-long history. (AP Photo / Marco Ugarte) In this undated photo provided by the Sala de Prensa UNAM, Carlos Santamaria Diaz sits with his parents, Arcelia Diaz and Fabian Santamaria, during an interview in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Mexico's National Autonomous University, better known by its initials UNAM, says it has admitted the 12-year-old student to its undergraduate degree program in biomedical physics. (Sala de Prensa UNAM photo via AP) 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. In this July 30, 2018, file photo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis attends a swearing in ceremony for Robert Wilkie as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. President Donald Trump wants a Space Force, a new military service he says is needed to ensure American dominance in space. But the idea is falling flat at the Pentagon, where Mattis has said it would add burdensome bureaucracy and costs. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) President Donald Trump wants a Space Force, a new military service he says is needed to ensure American dominance in space. But the idea is gaining little traction at the Pentagon, where the president's defense chief, Jim Mattis, says it would add burdensome bureaucracy and unwanted costs. The Pentagon acknowledges a need to revamp its much-criticized approach to defending U.S. economic and security interests in space, and it is moving in that direction. But it's unclear whether this will satisfy Trump, who wants to go even further by creating a separate military space service. The administration intends to announce next week the results of a Pentagon study that is expected to call for creating a new military commandU.S. Space Commandto consolidate space warfighting forces and making other organizational changes short of establishing a separate service, which only Congress can do. Any legislative proposal to create a separate service would likely not be put on the table until next year. Mattis, who said prior to Trump's "Space Force" announcement in June that he opposes creating a new branch of the military for space, said afterward that this would require "a lot of detailed planning." Mattis is allied on this with key Republicans on Capitol Hill including Sen. James Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who opposes a separate Space Force but is open to creating a Space Command. The command would coordinate the use of space forces of existing services, such as those that operate military satellites, but would not be a separate service. Mattis's chief spokeswoman, Dana W. White, said Friday he believes that consolidating space functions will "ensure we move at the speed of relevancy. Space is a joint warfighting domain that the U.S. must dominate." Trump mentioned as recently as Tuesday that he had ordered the Pentagon to begin the process of creating a Space Force as a new branch of the military, but he did not repeat the phrase he used in Junea "separate but equal" service. That may open the possibility of the Pentagon proposing to establish a cadre of space experts that would be part of a space "corps" attached to the Air Force rather than as a separate service. On Friday, Trump hailed the news that NASA has named the astronauts who will ride the first commercial capsules into orbit next year. "We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them," he tweeted. "Exciting things happening. Space Force!" Trump's focus has generated an unusual level of talk about space, but with little clarity. "At the moment, there is no concrete proposal on the table for what a Space Force will look like or what it will do," said Brian Weeden, an Air Force veteran who is director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, which promotes peaceful uses of outer space. "It's just sort of a notional concept." Weeden points out that creating a new service would not address what is generally seen as a need for a more coherent force to defend U.S. interests in space, since by law a service recruits, trains and equips troops but does not do combat. That is why a Space Command is being considered, since it would be the combat arm for space much as Central Command is the organization responsible for combat operations in the Middle East. Aside from the organizational issues, the Pentagon's role in space is under scrutiny because of a recognition that the United States is increasingly reliant on satellites that are difficult to protect in space. Satellites provide communications, navigation, intelligence and other services vital to the military and the economy. Whereas space has long been America's technological edge, it is increasingly seen as its Achilles' heel. War in space is not just Hollywood fiction. The U.S. intelligence agencies reported earlier this year that Russia and China are pursuing "nondestructive and destructive" anti-satellite weapons for use during a future war. A related problem that the Pentagon has struggled to address is the sluggish pace of developing and acquiring satellites through the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, which could be replaced by a new space development agency. In an interim report to Congress in March on ways to reorganize its space organizations, the Pentagon said it is making changes to "ensure that we are prepared for" potential conflicts in space. This includes making satellites more resilient to potential attack by Russia or China. Deborah James, who was the civilian leader of the Air Force for the final three years of the Obama administration, said at a think tank forum Monday that creating a separate Space Force does not address the legitimate concerns about U.S. space defenses. One of the criticisms of the Air Force, which is the primary service responsible for military satellites, is that it devotes too little money and attention to space. "If money is your issue, Space Force is not your answer," she said. If the logic of creating a separate space service were applied broadly, she said, it would imply other radical changes such as creating a single nuclear service by combining management of the strategic nuclear weapons of the Air Force and Navy, which no one is considering. 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. While treating nonverbal children with complex medical conditions, hospital nurses often face the challenging task of assessing whether or not a young patient is in pain, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Nursing. While most kids can be in and out of the primary care providers office in under an hour for an ear infection, children with complex needs stay in the hospital for a week just to find the ear infection, said lead author Brenna L. Quinn, Ph.D., R.N., N.C.S.N., C.N.E., of the Solomont School of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Identifying pain early so teams may get to work finding and addressing the source is essential in avoiding long hospital stays, family stress, poking and prodding, or even surgery and death. For the study, researchers analyzed the symptoms, diagnostic testing, and nursing assessment of pain in 46 children with profound intellectual and developmental disability who are completely dependent on caregivers or medical devices (such as feeding tubes) for their care. The patients ranged in age from infants to young adults (average age was 13 years). Most had several chronic conditions, most commonly seizure disorders and cerebral palsy; all were unable to communicate their pain verbally: where they were hurting, how much pain they were experiencing, or whether they were in pain at all. The most common symptoms leading parents or caregivers to seek medical help for their child were abdominal pain or bloating, irritability, or other signs of pain. In some cases, the parents said that their child was just not acting like herself [or himself]. While in the hospital, the children underwent an average of five diagnostic tests, most commonly X-rays, and were evaluated by an average of four specialty services. The children received more than 3,300 pain assessments; an average of seven assessments per patient per day. Since the children couldnt communicate their pain, the nurses used a number of assessment tools based on observable pain behaviors (facial expressions, crying, etc). The most common diagnoses were infections, including urinary tract infections (30 percent of children); constipation (20 percent); and increased seizure activity related to low levels of antiepileptic medications (13 percent). After other conditions were ruled out, a diagnosis of chronic pain was made in 22 percent of patients. Although they represent a small percentage of hospitalizations, medically complex children use a high proportion of health care services. Like all patients, nonverbal children with medical complexity require a balance of standardized and individualized care, Quinn and coauthors write. Based on their findings, they offer the following recommendations for pain evaluation in this group of patients: Asking for and using the parents or caregivers knowledge of the child. As shown in previous research, the findings suggest that parents are often able to identify behavior changes indicating their children are in pain. Assessing the presence of pain, even when the child appears to be sleeping or when there are indications of a change in mental status. Using pain assessment tools matched to the patients cognitive abilities, incorporating behavior assessments and input from parents. Being alert for potentially life-threatening sources of pain while also not overlooking more common problems like infections or constipation. The researchers say more studies are needed in children with complex medical conditions, particularly those who cannot express their pain with words. Currently, the researchers are working to develop a tool to aid in comprehensive, efficient assessment of common causes of pain in this vulnerable group of patients. When pain assessment is inadequate or lacking, these children suffer unnecessarily, Quinn and coauthors conclude. Source: Wolters Kluwer Health Soybean farmer Illinois Jim Young/Reuters President Donald Trump has continued his threats to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports to the US. China's government put out a video featuring a soybean, seemingly pushing against Trump's trade policies. Follow soybean prices in real time here. As American farmers start to wonder how much President Donald Trumps trade war with Beijing could cost them, Chinas government has a cartoon soybean ready to answer their questions. State-owned China Global Television Network in July posted a video, first spotted by Reuters, seemingly designed to undermine support for Trump's trade policies. It points out the potential consequences trade escalations could have on American soybean exports, underscoring that China is the world's largest soy importer. "Hi, everybody. I am a soybean," the cartoon says in the video. "I may not look like much, but I am very important." Ahead of the upcoming US midterm elections, the English-narrated video seems to have a certain audience in mind. Nine of the top 10 soybean-growing states in the US voted for Trump, it highlights. "Trump wants to win over more voters by starting a trade war," the cartoon says. "The funny thing is that those voters who think Trump rally behind his trade actions will be hurt by this conflict." China on Friday said it would impose retaliatory tariffs on about $60 billion worth of US goods if the Trump administration continued to escalate a trade war between the two countries. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on nearly all Chinese imports to the US. Administration officials said last month it could raise the proposed tariff rate on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25% from 10%. The administration imposed punitive duties on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports to the US in early July and said another $16 billion worth of electronics and plastics would be targeted after a public comment period. The move prompted Beijing to hit back with in-kind tariffs on American imports to China, including soybeans. Story continues Soybean prices have fallen nearly 20% since March, when the Trump administration first announced plans to penalize China for alleged intellectual property theft and what the president sees as unfair trade practices. Soybeans Markets Insider NOW WATCH: I tried the newest BlackBerry phone for a week See Also: SEE ALSO: FED: Manufacturers in every corner of America are worried about Trump's tariffs Well-travelled former Cameroon international striker Samuel Eto'o is leaving Turkish top flight side Konyaspor after only half a season at the Anatolian team, the club said Friday. Konyaspor said in a statement that Eto'o, 37, was leaving the club by mutual consent after talks over his future. "We thank Samuel Eto'o for the contributions to our club and the services he has made for the club community," it said, praising Eto'o for the "maximum efforts" he made while in Konyaspor colours. Images published by the club showed him bidding farewell to his teammates who will be hoping for a better season after narrowly avoiding relegation from the Super Lig in 2017/2018. Eto'o only joined Konyaspor in January this year after leaving its Turkish rivals Antalyaspor, who he had signed up for in 2015 after a short spell in Italy with Sampdoria. The player enjoyed five hugely successful seasons with Barcelona from 2004 to 2009, winning a pair of Champions League titles and three La Liga crowns before departing for Inter Milan. Eto'o helped Jose Mourinho's team win the treble of Champions League, Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in his first season in Italy before moving to Russia's Anzhi Makhachkala. He also had brief stints at Chelsea and Everton in the Premier League. By Mayela Armas CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Friday began a census of car owners, a move the socialist government says will help determine a "rational" use of fuel but critics warn could lead to rationing in the crisis-stricken OPEC nation. Fuel shortages are already frequent in Venezuela, where a fifth straight year of a brutal recession has led to refinery outages and steep falls in oil production. President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend said Venezuela needed "rational" gas use and that a census was "the answer to that." One top party official also proposed increasing the price of highly subsidized fuel, the world's cheapest. Details of the government's plans are scarce and the Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment, but Venezuelans have fretted that the census could be setting the stage for more restrictive gasoline sales. "I am registering myself because I am scared that if I am not in the census, they will not sell gasoline to me," said taxi driver Juan Suarez, 45, who had spent six hours in line in downtown Caracas on Friday. He and others in the line said they also hoped that being registered could grant them access to cheaper gas. But dozens of truck drivers blocked streets in Caracas to reject the census they say will not solve chronic shortages that have decimated the number of functioning buses, forcing many poor Venezuelans to rely on precarious flatbed trucks to get around. "We have not received the tires and lubricants we need to be able to work. The problems of transport workers will not be solved with this census," said Jose Luis Trocel, the head of the main transport workers union, as he drove toward the Transport Ministry to stage the protest. Under the census, car owners had to use a government-issued "fatherland card" to register details of their vehicle and gasoline consumption online. They then had to line up at government offices to scan the card. Story continues Venezuelans who do not have the card cannot participate. Anti-Maduro politicians say that marginalizes government opponents who have refused to get the card the government now uses in distribution of everything from food to bonuses. "They ruined Venezuela. They destroyed (state oil company) PDVSA and now they are trying to ration fuel sales through the fatherland card in the country with the biggest oil reserves of the Western Hemisphere. Say no to this blackmail," tweeted opposition lawmaker and economist Jose Guerra. (Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Jonathan Oatis) DUBROVNIK, Croatia (Reuters) - The Croatian town of Dubrovnik, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and picturesque coastal resort on the Adriatic, is at risk of being overwhelmed by visitors from the cruise ships that arrive daily. Between January and June, almost 280,000 tourists from 188 cruise tours visited the 800 year-old city. Last year, a whopping 749,000 people disembarked from 539 cruise ships that moored in Dubrovnik's harbour. Shopkeepers, restaurateurs and the 1,500 locals that live in the Old city - an area inside the coastal fort that featured in the TV series Game of Thrones - struggled to serve the crowds of guests. Last year, UNESCO warned that Dubrovnik's world heritage status was at risk due to the huge number of tourists "in regard to the sustainable carrying capacity of the city and the management of the cruise ships pulling in. To counter the problem, the city in 2017 introduced its "Respect The City" plan aimed at limiting the number of tourists from cruises visiting the Old Town to 4,000 at any given moment. "The project started yielding results this tourist season and we can see improvements in the quality of reception of guests from cruise ships and fewer crowds," said Sandra Milovcic, an official with Dubrovnik's Tourism Association. She said the number of so-called stationary guests is also on the rise in 2018. According to official data, more than 4.2 million people have spent at least one night in Dubrovnik so far in 2018, 14 percent more than last year. According to Cruise Critic, a specialised Web portal, Dubrovnik was declared the best Eastern Mediterranean destination for such trips in 2017 and 2018, with Montenegro's Kotor, Italy's Venice and the Greek islands of Santorini and Rhodes trailing behind. (Reporting by Antonio Bronic; Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Cuba plans to let its 1.4 million expatriate citizens contribute to its new constitution, the first time emigrants will have a say in the island's affairs since the 1959 revolution. The Caribbean nation's parliament in July approved a new draft constitution that will be submitted for citizens to debate from August 13 to November 15. The current version was passed in 1976. Residents abroad will be able to participate in the debate online from September. "This constitutes an unprecedented development in the history of the revolution," said Ernesto Soberon, who heads a directorate in the foreign ministry dedicated to Cuban expatriates. The results of the consultation, which will solicit the views of more than eight million Cubans aged 16 and above on the island, will then be submitted to a referendum before returning to parliament for final approval. It will recognize for the first time the role of the market and private sector in the island's heavily controlled socialist economy, though under the watchful eye of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Soberon said the debate would be open to all Cuban nationals living abroad, but did not specify whether they would also be able to take place in the referendum. The government estimates there are 1.4 million Cubans living abroad across 120 countries, with most concentrated in the United States, Spain, Mexico, and Colombia. The island itself is home to 11.2 million people. Soberon dismissed the notion that anti-Castro expatriates could disrupt the process. "At present, those that advocate the overthrow of the revolution make-up only a small minority," he said. From 1959 to 1975, the government of the late Fidel Castro considered Cubans who left the island "deserters" and "traitors." But the process of rapprochement with those that did not maintain a hostile position against their government began in 1978, leading to several meetings with representatives from the 1990s onward and the sending of remittances. According to the official newspaper Granma, Cuba will hold some 135,000 consultation assemblies during the debate period in workplaces, student centers and neighborhoods. The head of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, has shut down his Facebook page, saying it was a "waste of time", after the church ordered monks off social media. State-run Al-Ahram newspaper said on Saturday that Tawadros's decision was in line with a dozen measures announced Thursday by the church relating to the activities of monks. One of the measures gave monks a month "to deactivate and close any social media pages or accounts and voluntarily renounce these behaviours that are not true to monastic life". On Thursday the church also said it will stop accepting any new monks for a year after the mysterious death of a bishop at a monastery northwest of Cairo. In his last posting on Facebook before shutting the page, Tawadros said that using social media is a "waste of time, age and life". "That is why I am shutting down my personal Facebook page and I salute all my brothers and sons who have followed the instructions of my sacred church". According to Al-Ahram, several senior Coptic Church officials have followed Tawadros's example and shut down their Facebook pages. Tawadros became pope in 2012, and according to Egyptian media has not been active on Facebook since he opened his page in 2009. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population of 100 million. Meanwhile Egyptian police continue their investigation into the death of Bishop Epiphanius, the 68-year-old abbot of Saint Macarius monastery in Wadi el-Natrun, who was found with head injuries on Sunday. A security official has said his death was being investigated as a possible murder. By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian soldiers traded fire with members of local government security forces on Saturday in the country's eastern Somali region after central authorities sought to arrest regional officials, witnesses said. Residents told Reuters soldiers were deployed in the province's capital Jijiga on Friday evening, bringing them into conflict with the region's paramilitary forces. "We can still hear shots being fired. They have been taking place since the morning," one resident said. Another resident told Reuters an Ethiopian Orthodox church had been burned down by a mob, while shops, hotels and banks remained closed. A third witness said government soldiers had been deployed in the region's administration offices with the intention of arresting officials. It was not immediately clear why the government in Addis Ababa sought to apprehend them. Officials in the capital and Jijiga were not immediately available for comment. Ethiopia's Somali region has been plagued by violence for the last two decades. The government has fought the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) since 1984 after the group launched its bid for secession of the region, also known as Ogaden. Since 2017, clashes along the province's border with the Oromiya region have displaced tens of thousands of people. The region's officials have recently been accused by the government in Addis Ababa of perpetrating rights abuses. Last month, Ethiopia fired senior prison officials there after details emerged of torture and other abuses in one notorious prison. (Editing by Stephen Powell) Manafort arrives for arraignment on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives for arraignment on a third superseding indictment against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S. June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files By Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - An accountant for U.S. President Donald Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort admitted in trial testimony on Friday that she helped backdate documents and falsify financial records at Manafort and his business partner's request to reduce his tax burden and help him qualify for loans. Cynthia Laporta, who prepared Manafort's tax returns starting in 2014, told a jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that she was testifying under an immunity agreement with the government to avoid being prosecuted as Manafort was charged with bank fraud and tax fraud. One member of the jury nodded in apparent agreement when U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis cut off the prosecution's questioning to ask her if she was afraid of being prosecuted herself. "Correct," answered Laporta, explaining that she went along with accounting manoeuvres suggested by Manafort and his longtime business associate Rick Gates because she did not want to create problems for her firm or lose a top client. "I very much regret it," Laporta said on the trial's fourth day as prosecutors build their case that Manafort hid tens of millions of dollars he earned working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine to evade taxes. Laporta, the 14th witness to testify for the prosecution, was the most damaging yet for Manafort in the first trial arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, charges that largely pre-date the five months Manafort worked for Trump, some of them as campaign chairman. Both Laporta and fellow accountant Philip Ayliff, her predecessor who handled Manafort's tax filings at the firm KWC, testified that they had no knowledge that Manafort controlled foreign bank accounts. The government has provided trial evidence of Manafort controlling a web of overseas accounts in Cyprus and elsewhere. Such accounts must be reported to tax authorities if they contain $10,000 or more. Story continues Laporta also detailed multiple examples in which Manafort and Gates sought to doctor financial records. One instance involved classifying revenue from a Cyprus-based company as a loan to lower his taxable income, Laporta testified. Manafort's lawyers will cross examine Laporta on Monday. "Its hard-hitting testimony that creates an uphill battle for the defence, but thats what cross examination is for," said Andrew Boutros, a former federal prosecutor who is now a white collar defence lawyer. "I dont know if there is enough to convict him right now, but theyre laying the groundwork for it." A conviction would give momentum to Mueller's probe, in which 32 people and three companies have been indicted or pleaded guilty. Trump, angered by any questions about the legitimacy of his election win, has called Mueller's investigation a witch hunt and wants it to be shut down. TARGETING GATES After spending the first two days of the trial laying out Manafort's lavish spending, the prosecution is now digging into how he accounted for the more than $60 million he made in Ukraine and his efforts to allegedly mislead banks to get loans once the income from Ukraine dropped off precipitously in 2014. Manafort's attorneys have signalled they will seek to blame Gates, who was Trump's deputy campaign chairman in 2016. Gates pleaded guilty in February and is expected to testify against Manafort, possibly next week. Prosecutor Uzo Asonye focused some of his questioning on money transfers from a Cyprus-based company called Telmar Investments Ltd, which records showed had paid Manafort's firm more than $5 million for consulting work. That income posed a problem for Manafort when it came time to prepare his business tax returns in September 2015, Laporta testified. She said Gates told her in a conference call the income level "was too high" and proposed reclassifying a portion of it as a loan. Laporta said she knew it was "inappropriate" but agreed to alter the records to show that Manaforts firm received a $900,000 loan from Telmar in 2014, a change that would save Manafort nearly a half million dollars in taxes, Laporta said. Manafort signed an agreement to account for that loan that was backdated, according to Laporta and an exhibit shown to the jury. Trial consultant Roy Futterman, who is following the trial but not involved in it, said, "The prosecution is doing a very good job of keeping a brisk pace, putting witnesses on for short direct examinations, keeping it lively and keeping very tight messages for each witness." Manafort's attorneys do not seem to have scored a lot of points on cross-examination, Futterman said, but added that the witnesses who have testified so far are not "the main targets." Earlier on Friday prosecutors asked Ayliff about Manafort's accounting of a $1.5 million transfer in 2012 from Peranova Holdings Ltd as a loan, even as records showed that no interest or principal was paid on it in subsequent years. Peranova is one of numerous Cypriot entities that prosecutors have said Manafort controlled. Ayliff testified that KWC did not know Manafort controlled Peranova, and that if the transfer was a payment related to his consulting work in Ukraine it would have been treated as income - not as a loan - on his tax returns. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Nathan Layne in Alexandria, Virginia; additional reporting by Karen Freifeld and Susan Heavey; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Will Dunham and Grant McCool) Greece's minister responsible for the police, Nikos Toskas, quit Friday after scores died in wildfires near Athens last month, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' office said. "The prime minister has accepted Mr Toskas' resignation," the PM's office said in a statement after a meeting with the minister. Tsipras was under pressure to sack members of his administration after the fires at the coastal resort of Mati on July 23, the deadliest in Greek history. The death toll has climbed to 88 people, many of them children, with another 40 in hospital and one still listed as missing. Nine of the injured are in a critical condition. Earlier Friday, the wife of a fireman who had already lost her six-month-old baby in the disaster died in hospital from burn injuries, the health ministry said. "The loss of so many of our fellow human beings at Mati has overcome my desire to continue," said Toskas, a former tank general who had held the job since 2015. Opposition parties have accused the government of failing to provide adequate warning and evacuate an area frequently hit by wildfires, in addition to subsequently trying to hide the scale of the loss of human life as the disaster unfolded. In the days that followed, the firefighters and police -- both departments under Toskas' responsibility -- issued conflicting announcements over what went wrong. One police union this week said officers had not been promptly notified by the fire department of the fire's exact location in order to set up proper roadblocks in the area. As a result, many drivers were mistakenly diverted into the fire zone and died after becoming trapped in the area's narrow streets. Officials were criticised for holding an emergency response meeting hours after the fire broke out, when Mati had already been overwhelmed. There was also confusion for days over the exact number of dead and missing. Toskas said he had offered to resign in the immediate aftermath of the fires, but had been told by Tsipras to stay until the end of the emergency. The relatives of two people who perished in the fires have sued the authorities for negligence and exposure to danger. The fires struck the coastal community popular with holidaymakers, burning with such ferocity that most people fled to the sea with just the clothes on their backs. Toskas and other officials had insisted that with winds blowing at speeds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, there was little time to mount an effective evacuation. Greece's minister responsible for the police, Nikos Toskas, quit Friday after the deadliest wildfires in Greek history, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' office said. The premier has been under pressure to sack members of his administration after the fires at the coastal resort of Mati on July 23, the deadliest in Greek history. Eighty-eight people, many of them children, died in the fires with another 40 in hospital and one still listed as missing. Nine of the injured are in a critical condition. "The prime minister has accepted Mr Toskas' resignation," the PM's office said in a statement after a meeting with the minister. The main opposition conservative New Democracy party said Toskas' resignation was "too little, too late", arguing that Tsipras -- who has accepted political responsibility for the tragedy -- should also step down. The fires struck the coastal community popular with holidaymakers, burning with such ferocity that most people fled to the sea with just the clothes on their backs. Earlier Friday, the wife of a fireman who had already lost her six-month-old baby to smoke inhalation in the disaster died in hospital from burn injuries, the health ministry said. "The loss of so many of our fellow human beings at Mati has overcome my desire to continue," said Toskas, a former tank general who had held the job since 2015. Opposition parties have accused the government of failing to provide adequate warning and evacuate an area frequently hit by wildfires, in addition to subsequently trying to hide the scale of the loss of human life as the disaster unfolded. In the days that followed, the firefighters and police -- both departments under Toskas' responsibility -- issued conflicting announcements over what went wrong. One police union this week said officers had not been promptly notified by the fire department of the fire's exact location in order to set up proper roadblocks in the area. As a result, many drivers were mistakenly diverted into the fire zone and died after becoming trapped in the Mati's narrow streets. Local administration officials were criticised for holding an emergency response meeting hours after the fire broke out, when Mati had already been overwhelmed. There was also confusion for days over the exact number of dead and missing. Toskas said he had offered to resign in the immediate aftermath of the fires, but had been told by Tsipras to stay until the end of the emergency. The relatives of two people who perished in the fires have sued the authorities for negligence and exposure to danger. Toskas and other officials had insisted that with winds blowing at speeds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, there was little time to mount an effective evacuation. The government has also said that decades of illegal construction in the area had blocked escape roads to the coast. The environment ministry has now pledged to tear down illegal buildings -- permitted by successive administrations to remain standing in return for fines and possible votes -- in Mati and other fire-endangered areas. HARI Foundation, Inc. (HFI), the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI), congratulates the Philippine team of young math aces for once again bagging top honors at the 59th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the worlds largest and most prestigious mathematics competition for high school students. The competition was held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from July 3 to 14, 2018. HFI is on its second year of supporting the Philippine teams participation in the IMO. During the teams courtesy call at the HARI headquarters in Bonifacio Global City, HFI President and HARI President and CEO Maria Fe Perez-Agudo said, It is an honor for Hyundai and for HARI Foundation to support your training and preparation for the IMO. As our corporate mantra goes, Gusto Ko, Kaya Ko, Sama Tayo. Through our shared efforts and expertise, we can achieve grand things for the Philippines. Ms. Agudo is a staunch advocate of youth empowerment through education. This years team was composed of Emmanuel Osbert Cajayon of Emilio Aguinaldo College, Kyle Patrick Dulay of Philippine Science High School-Main Campus, Andres Rico Gonzales III of Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Albert John Patupat of De La Salle University Integrated School, Shaquille Wyan Que of Grace Christian College, and Sean Anderson Ty of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School. Training and guiding the team of students were Team Leader Dr. Richard Eden and Deputy Team Leader Dr. Christian Paul Chan Shio from the Ateneo de Manila University and Carlo Francisco Adajar from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Patupat bagged a gold medal; Dulay won silver, while Cajayon and Que picked up bronze medals. Gonzales and Ty both received honorable mentions for garnering a perfect score in one of the written examinations problems. These achievements now bring the countrys total medal count to 5723 honorable mentions, 23 bronzes, eight silvers, and three golds. Story continues The yearly Philippine delegation to the IMO is organized by the Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP), the countrys premier mathematical professional organization. Team members are chosen at the end of a grueling selection program handled by MSP trainers and participated in by the national finalists of the latest Philippine Mathematical Olympiad. 59th International Mathematical Olympiad The post HARI Foundation Fetes Philippine Team for 59th International Mathematical Olympiad Success appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. FILE PHOTO: A man covers his mouth as he walks past a 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) billboard at the funds flagship Tun Razak Exchange development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 27, 2015. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Indonesia has agreed to hand over to Malaysia a $250 million luxury yacht it impounded in Bali earlier this year in connection with a corruption scandal at a Malaysian state fund, Indonesian authorities said on Saturday. The Cayman Islands-flagged Equanimity was seized in February at the request of U.S. authorities as part of a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation launched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) related to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). An Indonesian court ruling in April declared that the yacht was wrongfully impounded and should be released to its owners, but Indonesian police seized the boat again in July following a formal request for legal assistance from the United States. Indonesian police said they would hand the yacht over to Malaysia but did not specify when. "The yacht will be handed over at the border between Indonesia and Malaysia's waters," Daniel Silitonga, deputy director for economic and special crimes at the Indonesian national police force's Criminal Investigation Agency, told Reuters by text message. "We have to maintain the good relations between the two countries," he said, adding that the yacht is currently in waters close to the border of Singapore and the Indonesian island of Batam. A spokesman for Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's office said "some arrangements" were being made with Indonesian authorities regarding the yacht and that an announcement would be made when the details were finalised. A source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters on Friday that Indonesia had agreed to hand the yacht to Malaysia following a personal request by Mahathir. Mahathir, who previously served as prime minister from 1981-2003 and is now 93, visited Indonesia in June on his first official visit in the region since returning to power in May in a surprise election win over Najib Razak. 1MDB, founded by Najib, is at the centre of money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. A total of $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by high-level officials of the fund and their associates, according to U.S. civil lawsuits filed by the DOJ. Najib has denied wrongdoing. Story continues Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho is described in the lawsuits as a central figure in the scandal. The DOJ says Low used proceeds diverted from 1MDB to procure Equanimity, a 300-ft (91-m) yacht registered in the Cayman Islands. The $250 million vessel is said to have an interior clad in marble and gold leaf, a spa and sauna, a 20-metre swimming pool on deck, a movie theatre, a lift and a helipad. In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Low's legal team said the handing over of Equanimity to Malaysia was illegal and that it was politically motivated. Malaysian authorities are seeking to arrest Low, whose whereabouts are unknown. His Malaysian passport was revoked and an arrest warrant has been issued against him. Low has previously denied any wrongdoing. (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in KUALA LUMPUR; Agustinus Beo Da Costa in JAKARTA; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Nick Macfie and Peter Graff) Iranian protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported Saturday, as sporadic protests simmered ahead of the reimposition of US sanctions. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the major cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over water, the economy and wider anger at the political system. During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing protesters. "At 9:00 pm (1630 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying, giving only his clerical rank and no first name. "They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said. Fars acknowledged protests have taken place in "five or six cities" since Tuesday over water shortages, rising prices and joblessness, with "about 1,000 or 2,000 people" taking part. But it said these peaceful protests were taken over by people "who come into the crowd with political slogans such as 'Death to the dictator'". It said this was part of a pre-planned plot by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia to exploit economic tensions inside Iran. Because foreign media are barred from observing "unauthorised" protests, it has been impossible to verify any of these claims or the videos of protests spreading on social media. - Clerical opposition - With tensions high ahead of the return of US sanctions on Tuesday, the government of President Hassan Rouhani also faces opposition from conservatives and religious leaders, who have long disliked his outreach to the West and accuse him of governing only for the rich. The conservative Qom News published a video of a protest in the holy city of Mashhad after Friday prayers, in which a cleric tells the crowd: "Most of your representatives don't care about people's problems. "Most have two passports and their families are abroad. The judiciary should find these people and arrest them," the cleric says, to chants of "Allahu akbar" ("God is greater") from the crowd. Former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has fallen out with the conservative establishment since leaving office in 2013, has tried to ride this wave of anger. In a Wednesday Twitter post, he called on US President Donald Trump to release a list of "relatives of Iranian government officials that have green cards and bank accounts in the United States", if such a record exists. - Sanctions return - So far, social media reports suggest the current protests are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities. There were allegations at the time that they had been sparked by conservative opponents of Rouhani in Mashhad before quickly spiralling out of hand. But all Iranians are concerned about the struggling economy, especially since the United States walked out of the nuclear deal in May and announced it would reimpose full sanctions in two stages. The first phase hits on Tuesday with blocks on financial transactions and imports of raw materials, as well as sanctions on Iran's automotive sector and commercial aircraft purchases. Iran Air announced it would take delivery of five ATR aircraft from the French-Italian firm on Sunday, sneaking under the wire before the sanctions return. Iran says the sanctions are endangering lives by blocking the sale of new planes and spare parts for its ageing fleets. Iran's Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes in February after one of them crashed in the Zagros mountains, killing all 66 people onboard. Remaining sanctions -- including on Iran's oil and gas sector and central bank -- will resume on November 5. Although smaller foreign firms have vowed to work around the US measures, multinationals such as France's Total and Peugeot, and Germany's Siemens have already said they will have to pull out. It is not yet clear how all this will affect ordinary Iranians, but a European diplomat in Tehran who monitors the economy said prices of basic foods were already creeping up. She said the collapse in the rial, which has lost more than half its value since April, was driven by people rushing to secure their savings in dollars because they lack faith in the government. "There is a massive loss of confidence in the financial system and the government's ability to control things and withstand sanctions," she told AFP. Iran protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported on Saturday. "At 9 pm (1530 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying. It gave only his clerical rank -- Hojatoleslam -- not his given name. "They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system. During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing the protests. Videos on social media in recent days have shown people chanting "Death to the dictator", but these have been impossible to verify and the authorities have charged that they are promoted by emigre opposition groups funded by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Describing the attack on Friday evening, Hindiani said: "These people came with rocks and broke the sign and all the windows of the prayer house and they were chanting against the system." Foreign media are barred from observing or filming "unauthorised" protests. The videos on social media suggest protests in recent days are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities. North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho is due to visit Iran on Tuesday, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Ri is set to jet in as the United States reimposes sanctions on Iran following Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 deal to curb Tehran's nuclear programme. The US is currently also pushing Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear capabilities after President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un agreed a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" at their landmark summit in June. North Korea's top diplomat will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to the conservative-aligned Fars news agency. The report did not give any details of what will be discussed. Ri is thought to have met with a high-level Iranian delegation at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Azerbaijan in April, according to the Korean Central News Agency. A North Korean delegation also attended President Hassan Rouhani's inauguration in August 2017. A United Nations Panel of Experts has expressed concern over collaboration between the two countries in the past, according to NK News. In a 2017 report, it noted the presence of designated North Korean weapons traffickers living in Tehran and the similarity between missile designs in the two countries. North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is handed U.S. President Donald Trump's reply to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's letter, by a member of the U.S. delegation at the ASEAN meeting in Singapore North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is handed U.S. President Donald Trump's reply to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's letter, by a member of the U.S. delegation at the ASEAN meeting in Singapore August 4, 2018. U.S. Department of State Handout via REUTERS By Jack Kim and David Brunnstrom SINGAPORE (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States on Saturday sparred over an agreement reached at a landmark summit in June for the Asian country to end its nuclear program, as Washington called for maintaining sanctions pressure against Pyongyang, which in turn said it was alarmed by U.S. intentions. The discord at a regional forum in Singapore was the latest reminder of the difficulties that have long impaired efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, despite commitments made at an unprecedented summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the city state less than two months ago. "The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-U.S. Joint Statement in a responsible and good-faith manner," North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the ASEAN Regional Forum, using his country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "What is alarming however is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he said. Ri made the statement after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had left the Singapore conference centre for Indonesia having pressed Southeast Asian nations to maintain sanctions on North Korea until it gives up a nuclear weapons programme that now threatens the United States. At the June 12 summit, Kim, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed to work towards denuclearisation, but North Korea has offered no details on how it might go about this. Pompeo suggested on Friday that continued work on weapons programmes by North Korea was inconsistent with Kim's commitment to denuclearise. On Saturday, he nevertheless said he was optimistic a North Korean denuclearisation could be achieved although it "would take some time." Ri said North Korea had made goodwill gestures, including a moratorium on nuclear tests and rocket launches and the dismantling of a nuclear test ground. Story continues "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean peninsula," he said. On Saturday, Pompeo said Washington took very seriously any relaxation of U.N. sanctions, calling out Russia for possibly violating a U.N. resolution by issuing work visas to North Korean workers. WARNING TO MOSCOW "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow," he said. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea." Russia has denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean labourers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions. Russia's ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting U.N. restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea. According to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Friday, North Korea has not stopped nuclear and missile programs in violation of United Nations sanctions. Although Pompeo has been leading U.S. negotiating efforts with North Korea, he had no formal meeting with Ri in Singapore. However, at a group photo session on Saturday, he walked up to the North Korean and shook hands and exchanged words and smiles. He told Ri: "We should talk again soon," the State Department said. "I agree, there are many productive conversations to be had," Ri replied, according to the State Department. Pompeo later tweeted that it had been "a quick, polite exchange" and there had been the opportunity to deliver a letter for Kim Jong Un from Trump. U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim handed Ri the letter, which the State Department said was in return for one from Kim to Trump that the White House said was received on Wednesday. The State Department has not said what is in Trump's letter to Kim. Trump posted a note on Twitter on Thursday thanking Kim for returning the remains of U.S. soldiers from the Korean War and saying he looked forward to seeing Kim again "soon", although the White House said no second meeting was currently planned. It is not the first time since the summit that North Korea has appeared to offer a more negative impression of the progress of talks with the United States that Washington. Following a trip to Pyongyang in July, Pompeo spoke of progress, but as soon as he had left the country North Korea accused him of "gangster-like" diplomacy, casting doubts about the future of the discussions. Even so, Trump has continued to hail progress, emphasizing the halt in bomb and missile tests and North Korea's return of purported American war remains. A senior State Department official sought to play down Ri's statement, saying it was to be expected. "Much of the intervention was positive and thats an improvement from the past," the official said. "Were building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations. Since U.S. talks with North Korea resumed this year, Pompeo has primarily engaged with Kim Yong Chol, a top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief, not Ri. Pompeo told a Senate committee hearing on July 25 that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs in spite of its denuclearisation pledge. On Monday, a senior U.S. official said U.S. spy satellites had detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the countrys first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. (Additional reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Nick Macfie and James Dalgleish) U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks at a press briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid By Michelle Nichols and Lesley Wroughton UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday accused Russia of violating U.N. sanctions on North Korea, citing "credible reports" that Moscow was granting new work permits to North Korean labourers despite Russia's denial of any such actions. The Trump administration also imposed targeted U.S sanctions on a Russian bank it said had facilitated a transaction with a person blacklisted by Washington for involvement with North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. This came on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, less than two months after a landmark U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore, flew back to the city-state and suggested that continued work on weapons programs by North Korea was inconsistent with its leader's commitment to denuclearisation. Russia denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean labourers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions. Over 10,000 new North Korean workers have registered in Russia since September, the newspaper said, citing records from Russia's interior ministry. Russia's action potentially violates U.N. sanctions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, the Journal reported, citing U.S. officials. It also raises further questions about the extent to which North Korea's larger neighbours, including its biggest trading partner, China, are willing to keep up enforcement of U.S.-led international sanctions on Pyongyang. In the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on June 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed in broad terms to work towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. But Pyongyang has offered no details on how it might go about this, and many experts doubt it will ever give up its nuclear arsenal. "Credible reports of Russia violating U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korean labourers working abroad are deeply troubling," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said later on Friday. Story continues "Talk is cheap - Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," Haley said in a statement. RUSSIAN DENIAL Alexander Matsegora, Russia's ambassador to North Korea, denied Moscow had allowed any new workers to enter Russia, saying fresh documents had been issued to labourers already based in Russia who were working on old contracts, Interfax news agency reported. He said the labourers were allowed to work in Russia until Nov. 29, 2019 as their work contracts had been signed before sanctions came into force, Interfax reported. He said 3,500 new work permits had been issued to workers who had signed contracts in Russia before Nov. 29, 2017, Interfax reported. Labour Ministry records obtained by the Journal showed that a minimum of 700 new work permits had been issued to North Koreans in Russia this year, the paper said. "It is estimated that North Korean labourers in Russia send between $150-$300 million annually to Pyongyang," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. "Moscow should immediately and fully implement all the U.N. sanctions." The labour prohibition is a part of a broader array of sanctions aimed at eliminating an important revenue stream for North Korea. Most of the money North Koreans earn abroad ends up in government coffers as workers toil in gruelling conditions, the Journal reported. A separate report released on Thursday by the non-profit research organisation C4ADS said initial restrictions in China and Russia - where around 80 percent of North Korean labourers are believed to work - appear to have loosened. In Friday's sanctions announcement, the U.S. Treasury Department said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank had conducted "a significant transaction" for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank. The Treasury also added Ri Jong Won, the Moscow-based deputy representative of FTB, to its sanctions list and said both Ri and Han should be expelled from Russia. A separate report released this week by the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies said between 2015 and 2017 the Moscow-based Independent Petroleum Company (IPC) sold far more oil to North Korea than what was officially reported. Russia's ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting U.N. restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea. In September last year, Reuters found that at least eight North Korean ships that left Russia with a cargo of fuel had headed for their homeland despite declaring other destinations, a ploy that U.S. officials say is often used to undermine sanctions. (Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru, David Brunnstrom in Singapore, Susan Heavey in Washington, Josh Smith in Seoul, and Polina Ivanova and Tom Balmforth in Moscow; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Richard Balmforth and James Dalgleish) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives to meet with South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore August 4, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho shook hands and exchanged words and smiles at a Southeast Asian security forum on Saturday in Singapore. Pompeo said before the brief encounter during a group photo session at the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) regional forum that he had not held talks with Ri during his visit to Singapore. Pompeo, who has been leading the U.S. negotiating in efforts to get North Korea to denuclearise, said earlier the process of ending the North's nuclear programme would take time but that he was optimistic that it would happen. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jack Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie) Like many movies about gay people but not really for them, The Miseducation of Cameron Post veers quickly into misery. The first of a pair of high-profile films this year about gay conversion therapy, which remains legal in 36 U.S. states, the movie opens in 1993 in Montana. Cameron (Chloe Grace Moretz), a dolled-up small-town teenager, finds herself ignoring her boyfriend in favor of secret trysts with a girl from her Bible study, whom, in a charming but absurd touch, she falls for during a late-night viewing of Desert Hearts. On prom night, the girls consummate their love in the back of a car in the parking lot (hey, who among us?) and, as required by the plot, are quickly discovered by Camerons boyfriend. In the very next scene, Camerons aunt is hauling her off to Gods Promise. It is what it sounds like. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If youve read the more horrific accounts of conversion therapy, you will not find them in this movie, which opts for the far more timid story of a wayward psychologist (Jennifer Ehle) and her ex-gay brother (John Gallagher Jr.) running what is essentially a creepy religious school focused on traditional gender roles. There is no doubt the camp practices dangerous psychological abuse, but no ones, you know, beating us, as Cameron clarifies when an investigator turns up late in the movie. Instead, we get a vaguely topical but unfailingly safe narrative that befits the films berth at Sundance, where it won the top dramatic prize earlier this year: Cameron falls in with two fellow miscreants (Sasha Lane and Forrest Goodluck), questions herself fleetingly, and contends with the strange but mostly manageable behavior of both captors and captives at the camp. There are eerie late-night flashlight checks to make sure same-sex roommates arent up to old habits, insidious therapy sessions that pit the kids against each other, and enough manufactured quirk from the movies many supporting players to tick off all boxes in the character development chapter of a screenplay manual. Advertisement If youve read the more horrific accounts of conversion therapy, you will not find them in this movie. Based on the novel by Emily M. Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is easy to admire for its sensitive and relatively unsentimental approach to tricky subject matter, but then: Shouldnt this movie be devastating? That it isnt at all seems like the first of many problems. Director and co-writer Desiree Akhavan can never quite shake the films issue-movie sheen as she guides us through one stagey and unconvincing therapy sequence after another, and even when her vision comes to lifeas in a disturbing sequence that cross-cuts between an inevitable suicide attempt and the therapy session that catalyzed itshe cant keep it from falling back into a handsomely retrofitted after-school movie. Its puzzling at best, and vulgar at worst, to turn such a raw, urgent, and ongoing abuse into a movie that works so hard to coddle its audience with tired coming-of-age tropes and moments of easy emotional release. Why bother? If the movie reveals the horrors of conversion therapy to an uninitiated audience, its hard to see that as a bad thing, but to treat it so delicately feels like a grave disservice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even if we consider The Miseducation of Cameron Post absent from our moment, and Im not sure we should, the movie still squanders its last whiffs of potential. Every supporting characterevery single onehas moments that suggest they would make a far more compelling star than Cameron Post. Its hard to know if we should fault Moretz or the thin writing for Camerons vagueness: Moretz never locates her interiority, but perhaps she never had any. Moretz has done fine work as, for example, a protoLindsay Lohan in Clouds of Sils Maria, but her sullen affect here kills what was clearly meant to be a breakout role. Were left to long for more time with Ehle and Gallagher Jr.the latter with a very actorly, meaning-filled mustachewho gnaw through a few scenes but dont find much to bite off. Or even more time with Lane (American Honey) and Goodluck (The Revenant), who are mostly left to mope. The low-key best performance in the movie comes from Owen Campbell, who sneaks up on us as a peripheral Gods Promise resident, but his quiet and then fierce turn is stifled by the movies perfunctory mechanics. No one can quite rise above them. Advertisement Advertisement It will not surprise you to learn the movie ends on a hopeful note, unearned but not unpleasant. Akhavan stages The Miseducation of Cameron Posts most memorable image in the bed of a truck emblazoned with a Clinton-Gore sticker, a reminder this takes place 25 years ago, where its hard to imagine the circumstances at a conversion camp like this wouldnt have been more dire. That final shot, held for pleasingly longer than we expect, feels like the emotional catharsis for a movie we never got to seeand that an unimaginable practice like this ultimately demands. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that prevents deportation of some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children. In a 25-page decision, Judge John D. Bates of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia harshly criticized the administration for failing to justify the need to end the Obama-era program. By ordering a full restoration within 20 days, Bates also says the United States must also start accepting new applications to enter into the program. But his decision could run head-on with one that a federal judge in Texas is expected to issue shortly. In that case, the judge is expected to rule on the side of states that are trying to end DACA as a whole. Fridays decision marks the second time Bates has ordered the restoration of the DACA program. He had ruled the same way in April but gave the Department of Homeland Security 90 days to explain why it needed to end it. Bates, however, said that ending the program was arbitrary and capricious and said that the explanation for the decision didnt really justify the need for such drastic action. On Friday evening, the Department of Justice made it clear that it will appeal the ruling. The facts are these: An 18-year-old black woman named Nia Wilson was stabbed at Oaklands MacArthur BART station. Her sister, also wounded, stayed with her as she bled on the platform. She died at 9:38 p.m. on July 22. The next day, BART police arrested a 27-year-old white man named John Cowell at the Pleasant Hill station. According to her family, Wilson was going to graduate with honors from Dewey Academy and was considering working in the military and maybe becoming a paramedic in the future. According to his family, Cowell was mentally ill. According to a spokesperson for the Contra Costa County District Attorneys Office, Cowell was evaluated in 2016 and found mentally competent to stand trial for an earlier robbery. Cowell was homeless and had been for months. Wilson was reportedly planning to attend an event commemorating the birthday of Josiah Pratt-Rose, once her boyfriend, now dead. At his vigil two years ago, Wilson was standing next to Reggina Jefferiesa fellow mourner whod danced to Never Wouldve Made It in the boys honorwhen Jefferies was shot in the neck. Nia Wilson stayed with Jefferies as she bled on the street. Jefferies died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres another fact: No one knows why Nia Wilson and her older sister Lahtifa, who survived, were stabbed. Traditionincluding our justice system and much of the news coverage of the killing, which is framed as a breathless hunt for a motiveargues that our judgment of this tragedy must depend on this final, fragile, missing piece: Without knowing the reason a homeless white man (who may or may not be mentally ill) stabbed an innocent black woman with whom hed apparently never interacted, we cannot respond. Many assumed that a white mans reason for an unprovoked attack on two black womenon the eve of a planned Proud Boys gathering in Oaklandwas race-based. The counterargument is that the attack might have been random. Wilsons death must be treated as an isolated incident, a datum that must be taken on its own merits and cordoned off from the city where it happened and from the rest of this young womans life. What matters, by this logic, is what specific variety of hatred her killer held in his heart. Advertisement Waiting and seeing isnt how people grieve a life thats lost. Its certainly not how Oakland is responding to Nia Wilsons death. In some ways this makes sense. Our legal system requires these fine discriminations in order to administer whatever passes for justice these days, and Wilsons own godfather, Daryle Hallums, asked the black community to stand down while the crime is investigated. We dont know if this was racist. We dont know if this was random. We dont know what it was, Hallums said. And while its true and unconscionable that white male criminals receive special dispensation for mental illness in ways other demographics dont, it may also be true that the schizophrenia Cowells family described factored into the attack somehoweven though the mentally ill are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence. Were marinating in uncertainty here, awash in maybes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But waiting and seeing isnt how people grieve a life thats lost. Its certainly not how Oakland is responding to Nia Wilsons death. Nia Wilson was taken. A person who was loved felt unsafe, and was right to feel unsafe. She bled out while being reassured it was all going to be OK. She may have realized, in those terrible moments, that she was part of a pattern: The young people in her life somehow kept dying. This matters more than the finer points of her killers reasoning, and if the communal response has at times seemed hasty or compensatory or desperate, its worth considering what its compensating for. Mourning is not reasonable. Murder produces collateral wounds. And if you politely and correctly wait for the legal system to produce the truth, youll hemorrhage out, because thats not its job. Advertisement Every killing has its own idiosyncratic story. But when a society fails to respond in any systematic way to a pattern of black death, compensatory mechanisms will emerge. There are trends at work that black communities can see and that white America refuses to recognizepainful, documented contexts whose awful contours are too familiar and well substantiated to dismiss as simple paranoia. Maybe Wilsons death was randoman unstable man happened to choose a victim using unknowable criteria. But there are reasons Wilsons community is receiving it differently. Another black woman was murdered in a city not known for valuing black life or for punishing its extinguishing. Advertisement What Im saying is that the communal response to an event like this might teach us more than a legalistic framework that encourages us to parse the specific turns of a killers mind. Approximately 1,000 people came to a spontaneous vigil for Nia Wilson the day after her death. The gathering eventually became a protestreporter Darwin BondGraham described it as a mourning procession combined with a militant anti-racist rally. It converged with a planned pro-Oakland demonstration that had been organized to counter a white-supremacist group rumored to be convening at an Oakland bar. On Thursday, a group of young people gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza for an open-mic event called Youth Speak, Adults Listen, where they talked about how Nia Wilsons death crystallized the ambient fear they live with. Wilsons public memorial is being held Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Other responses have been more invested in inscribing her into the landscape of the city where she lived. Oscar Grant was killed at Fruitvale BART in 2009, and around town some makeshift alterations to a BART map add his and Nias names to those stations to diagram a record of senseless black death. In a community, things stack up and accrue. Advertisement If you visit the MacArthur BART Station where Nia Wilson died, these layers of wounded mourning spring into evidence. The stations old parking lot is now a construction site for high-rises, meaning its cordoned off and inaccessible to the public (just as it will be once theyre built). Round the corner, though, and the place explodes into deeply felt, messy expression. On Thursday, a man who knows Nias brother parked in a no-parking zone and was playing music in her honor. There are not one but two giant altars to Nia, and ads around the station have become mixed-media testimonials to her and to the way Oakland fits her story into the citys sense of its own turmoil. A Bird scooterperhaps the ultimate symbol of gentrification in a city gentrifying at warp speedstands before a PSA against wildlife trafficking featuring Black Panthers Danai Gurira and a rhinoceros. The sign is overwritten with Nia-related messages, some of which play with the advertisements own. Nia we love you!! one person wrote over Guriras head so it looks like shes saying it. Someone else has written No Justice, No peace over the ads actual text. On the ground nearby, someone has chalked a version of the Lords prayer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you walk toward the interior of the station, youll see the corporate cacophony typical of a Silicon Valley satellite overwritten by signs of an embattled community fighting for the citys attention. Take this dizzying ad for a Buddy Challenge that names everything from Hearst Castle to Pepsi to Chevron. A flier depicting Nia covers part of it, and over the invitation to Register Today! is a note to her written in small neat script: Love you so much man. Im gone miss you baby. Leading up to this altar is an enormous chalked statement: I see you black girl. Youre never invisible. Ill burn cities in your name. NIA WILSON is written below it in gigantic letters. Advertisement Advertisement Nias name and image are everywhereon fliers and candles and notes, in pen and paint and chalkpartly as an expression of #SayHerName, a movement dedicated to highlighting violence against black women that gets routinely overlooked. Its also a reaction to provisional thinking: Considering her killing random robs a terrible loss of even a little bit of meaning. Black death does not signify in this culture, and the massive, sprawling, citywide demonstration thats developed in response to this particular black death accords it meaning and honors the ambient fear and grief with which so many black residents live. As Zeba Blay writes, The problem is the constant specter of white supremacy, the reality of it, the fact that Im made to feel like Im crazy because it makes me feel crazy. The fear is real, even if it seems unfoundeduntil, tragically, it isnt. Advertisement Advertisement Wilsons death might have just been bad luck. Its possible. But its hard to keep invoking probability when you add up all the other bad lucklike Wilsons boyfriends death and his mourners. In a city like Oakland, where housing prices have skyrocketed, homelessness is on the rise, and sites like Nextdoor document white newcomers tendency to consider their black neighbors Schrodingers criminals, its hardly surprising that others might regard killers like Cowell as Schrodingers racists. This is a city with a history of redlining and otherwise engineering white prosperity and black poverty. Its a city where a local news station, a day after her death, chose a photo of Wilson in which she appeared to be holding a gun. (It was a cellphone case.) Its a city whose police officers violently arrested an unarmed and innocent black man who vaguely fit a description for a possible robbery but managed to peacefully arrest Cowell, a white man suspected of a crime BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas called one of the most vicious attacks that Ive seen. Advertisement Advertisement This is the crucial difference between the legalistic framework that obsesses over the minutiae of Cowells thinking and the way Nia Wilsons community is processing her death. She is everywhere here. The fact of her stacks up in these messy, makeshift memorials that take up public space they shouldnt and wouldnt normally be granted. There are candles and flowers and stuffed animals; the cement pillars of the BART station bear her name and so do the trash cans and ads and windows and walls. Off in one isolated corner, a sculpture bears wanted posters of John Cowell with his face crossed out. Nothing else is written there. Football second division side Cologne is briefly before returning to the elite class of German football. But what comes then? Who will be coach? What players come? The rise in the first Bundesliga is always the aim for the big clubs in the second division. So also at the Club from the Cathedral City. For the Cologne it looks-very bright with only five remaining games and second place in the table. Nevertheless, the mood in the environment is tarnished. The situation is too unclear. What will become of the trainer? What made the team? May the team in the first be League? So many questions now zip the FC fans through the head and everyone has his own ideas and solutions at hand. But when one are all sure rises FC and coach Christoph Daum leaving the Club. For more specific information, check out busy bodies. When it comes to the will of the fans they would prefer the ZDF national coach"Jurgen Klopp to Cologne to get. It might work if the goat bucks against Mainz win their last home game and the troop of Klopp thus the rise of spoil. The young trainer brings everything with what they need in the Cathedral City. New ideas, it can be attractive play and can handle very well with young players. He could build a powerful team to make the class receipt. Filed under: dayton kingery. But to someone like Jurgen Klopp to Cologne? A coach with format, such as: they can't afford to pay Jose Mourinho at FC. It will remain only a dream of the fans. But fortunately, there are indeed many coaches without work. Mirko Slomka was released recently on Schalke and the sacking of Dortmund's Thomas doll is only a matter of time. Also a Hans Meyer would be an idea. Falko Gotz is a name which is not called. He is a young coach and has shown at the Hertha Berlin, what's in it. He would be, if Klopp won't, probably the cheapest and best solution for the goat bucks. No matter who will be the coach. It will certainly not be easy to form a team that can keep the class. The departure of top scorer Patrick seems too difficult to weigh helmet and also his strike partner Milivoje Novakovi seems to leave the Club to want to. Mathias Scherz is 36 years long over its zenith with its. It at least a striker of format is used, better two. In the midfield, the demand is also high. In addition to Roda Antar and Thomas Broich, two experienced players missing in order to compete in the elite class. The situation in defence is more relaxed. In addition to the experienced players Kevin McKenna, Youssef Mohammad, umit ozat and Aleksandar Mitreski, the young talents of Kevin Schoneberg and Tobias Nickenig have to develop time. The goalkeeper position is top notch with Faryd Mondragon and with Thomas Kessler is also a more ambitious successor behind him. However, the biggest problem is not in the team, but in the media. 1.FC Cologne must find a coach that comes clear with the very high desires of the Cologne media landscape and can also set up a team that creates the class receipt. Everything else would be just wishful thinking. But are yet to complete 5 gravity games. Probably we know only after the final day where the road leads the 1.FC Cologne and who they serves as a trainer. Who knows, maybe yes but remains Christoph Daum and the adventure turns Bundesliga". Russia is seeking the help of an action star known for fighting off bad guys with his bare hands to improve relations with the United States. Russias Foreign Ministry announced Saturday on Facebook that it had named American actor Steven Seagal as special representative for Russian-U.S. humanitarian ties. As part of his unpaid role, the martial artist will have to facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public, and youth exchanges. The job marks a case of peoples diplomacy meeting with traditional diplomacy, the ministry said, comparing his role to that of a U.N. goodwill ambassador. Advertisement Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also fancies himself quite the martial artist, presented Seagal with Russian citizenship in 2016. The actor has frequently stood up for Russia and its policies. He not only defended Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea, he has also pushed back against claims that Moscow meddled in the U.S. presidential election. For anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the elections, or even that the Russians have that kind of technology, is stupid, Seagal said in an interview with Britains ITV network last year. He has also vociferously praised Putin, calling him one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader, alive today during a 2013 interview with RT. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 66-year-old actor said he was sincerely grateful for the appointment. Ive always tried to do everything possible to help Russian-American relations to improve, Seagal said. I was working towards without having an official status and now it is a great honor for me to do the same officially. Advertisement As strange as it is, this isnt the first time the idea of Seagal as a diplomatic envoy has been put forward. A 2015 BuzzFeed story revealed that Putin had suggested to then-President Barack Obama that Seagal could be an honorary consul of Russia in California and Arizona. Our reaction was, Youve got to be kidding, a U.S. official told BuzzFeed. Notches are a fixture on todays smartphones. Rather than a thick black bar across the top and bottom of a device, phone-makers have opted to extend the screen as high as possible to maximize real estate. But since we still have cameras and other sensors on the front of the device, a cutouta notchtypically needs to jut downward into the display. Apples iPhone X, while not the first to feature the design, was the one that mainstreamed it. There are now 16 notched Android devices available from 11 manufacturers. This week, Google finally published its guidelines on the controversial smartphone element, and it included a curious direction. Advertisement In a post on the Android Developers Blog, the company set a few guidelines for how phone-makers should implement notches on Android handsets. While weve only seen single cutout phones thus far, Android is putting the kibosh on devices that plan to have more than two notchesthree is one notch too many, apparently. Google also set stipulations that these notches can only be positioned on the top and bottom of the devices screen and that there can only be one cutout per short edge of the device. Google also said the cutouts must not negatively affect apps. That is, devices should letterbox a notch when the phone is used in landscape or full-screen mode, and in portrait mode, the phones status bar should extend to the top of the notch. This lets app developers choose whether to ignore if a device has a notch or expand their screen coverage slightly into the non-notched areas at the top or bottom of a screen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Google is taking this notch thing seriously, and while it might sound arbitrary or unnecessary, its in the best interest of smartphone users. It guarantees a consistent user experience going forward. Take the one-notch-per-short-edge rule: If you have more than one notch at the top of the device, the extra screen space afforded by a notched design ends up being minimal. It could also present challenges to developers trying to accommodate notched designson top of looking a bit silly, like the top of your screen has a scalloped edge. The no notches-on-the-sides rule is interesting as well. It could have been a point of differentiation for smartphone-makers, giving consumers more variety in the look and operation of their handset. But while customization and openness are core tenets of the Android philosophy, Google is instead prioritizing design and UX consistency in this instance. Advertisement Given the range of Android sizes and form factors and its historical problems with fragmentation, Googles notch guidelines are a smart measure to ensure apps display optimally no matter the device. Still, theres no guarantee that hardware-makers will follow these rules: As the Verge notes, Google doesnt have complete control over Android in the same way Apple does with iOS. Still, most handsets that have Google Play and other Google services built-in will likely abide by the guidelinesand that should include most phones sold in the U.S. Whether including a notch on a handset adds more to the user experience is unclear. Their inclusion certainly is not deterring consumers from buying such phones, if the iPhone X is any indication. The notch is a workaround as hardware-makers like Samsung try to figure out how to completely embed sensors and camera lenses underneath a display for a true full-screen phone. But its a stepping stone likely to be present for a few more years, so its good for Google to set stipulations before things got out of hand. #Breaking - About 100 goats are on the loose right now in a #Boise neighborhood. They are going house to house eating everything in sight. Nobody has a clue where they came from...updates to follow pic.twitter.com/K0ghUwQEfk Joe Parris (@KTVBJoe) August 3, 2018 When news broke Friday morning, via a local television reporter on Twitter, that about 100 goats were roaming around a residential neighborhood outside of Boise, Idaho, suffice it to say we had questions. Then the Washington Post reported that these were professional goats, owned by a company called We Rent Goats, and we had even more questions. Are there such a thing as amateur goats? So Slate called up Mike Canaday, the director of operations at a company called Rent a Goat (which once appeared on TVs Shark Tank), to talk about the funny, but also lucrative and environmentally friendly, business of goat rental. Advertisement Slate: What is the purpose of goat rental? Why would anyone want to rent goats? Mike Canaday: In our business, we just use them strictly for the removal of brush and weed. Its a more sustainable way than weed-eaters and bulldozers, noisy and smelly machines. Its usually a pretty popular endeavor. When we bring goats into a neighborhood, kids love to watch the goats. Grandparents have a reason to invite the kids over to their homes, if its a homeowners association. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What are the types of organizations that tend to rent goats? We only do large areas. We use about 450 to 500 goats at a time. We usually will work for government agencies, parks, water departments, drainage areas. We do some environmental work, where [certain places do] not allow any mechanical means of clearing an area. The fire dangers are in the news every day. We do a lot of work with fire departments and cities and counties. Advertisement How much does it cost to rent goats? Again, we dont do anything small, so its all priced by the job. It could be anywhere from $400 an acre to $1,000 an acre. Where are your goats based? Im in California. We have about 7,000 animals. Theyre in groups of 400 from Southern California all the way up to Northern California. When they get done with one job, they go to another job. The ones that are in Southern California stay in Southern California, the ones that are in the San Francisco area, they stay in that area, and the ones that are up by Santa Rosa stay in that area. They usually go in their own semitrailers. About 450 to 500 [can fit in one trailer]. Advertisement Advertisement Have you ever had the experience of goats getting loose or wandering away from the job site? Thats a pretty scary thing for anybody to have happen. Those goats unsupervised can cause quite a bit of damage, on landscaping and stuff. So have I had it happen? We use people that are on the site that are with them 24/7, so Im not going to say it never happened, but it was never any kind of huge incident. When that happens, thats a huge failure and you need to get to the bottom of it to find out what happened. Usually its a lack of supervision. Again, our people are with them 24/7. Theyre kept in an electric fence always. So unless a deer knocked down a fence or the fence was vandalized, theyre not going to get out. Advertisement Advertisement What would you do if it did happen? In our case, theres somebody there with them 24/7, and the person thats there has a herding dog, a border collie. How do you count the goats and make sure you havent lost any? You never get a 100 percent accurate count. When you have 450 goats, its hard. We have one of those little clicker things that counts when they go on the truck, so we count them on and we count them off. Advertisement You said the goats could cause damage, but are they safe to be around people? Oh yeah. Theyre not going to hurt people. The worst thing I ever heard of was some getting out on the I-5 freeway years ago. I think that company went out of business after that happened. Advertisement Where do you get the goats from? We started renting goats for hire in 2003. We started with about maybe 150 goats. Then weve been breeding those same goats. Now were up to about 4,000 goats and 3,000 sheep. Same thing with sheep: We started with 33 of them. We just run a closed herd. All our goats are born inside those electric fences. They dont know anything else. Thats really good because theyre constantly moving, theyre not just on one farm or one yard all the time. They get to go places all over and have different kinds of vegetation to eat and different scenery. Pretty good deal for the goats. Advertisement How do professional goats differ from other goats? Theyre trained to do things like load the trailer. When they see one of those trailers and the ramp that gets them into the trailer, they run in there because they know that the next place theyre going to go to there is going to be fresh food. Theyre trained to stay in the fences. They are not pets. They do interact with people and kids try to feed them, but the problem is that some flowers are highly poisonous, so you have to be careful what people are feeding them. Advertisement Advertisement Do people ever try to rent the goats for other purposes, like just for fun? Yeah, constantly, but we dont do that. We only rent them in bunches of 450. They come with a herder that stays with them. We dont do any other kind of rentals. We dont do parties, we dont do people that want to ask a member of the opposite sex to a prom or that kind of stuff, which is the kind of things we get. You know, I want to ask my girlfriend to the prom, and I want to use a goat. We dont do that. For more about renting goats, check out an episode of Slates Working podcast about a similar Seattle-area business. On Wednesday morning, 559 days into his presidency, Donald Trumps administration announced his nominee for director of the Office of Science and Technology Policya post better known as the presidents science adviser. Science leaders expressed relief at the decision, if not delight: Kelvin Droegemeier, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, appears to be a well-respected mainstream member of the research community; one who supports greater science funding and reportedly adheres to standard views on climate change. But may be premature to call this a huge win for science and the earth, as one scientist described it to the New York Times this week. The novelist Rivka Galchen once pegged Droegemeiers name as just the sort that would seem fancifully inventeda weather guy called Kelvin, really? Perhaps its just as fanciful to think that hell be able to coax our chief executive toward better, more enlightened science policies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After all, it was only 469 days ago that Slates Brian Palmer warned us that this whole process was a sham. Trump would have the same problem with a science adviser that I would have with a butler, he said. What are you supposed to do with him? Our conspiratorial, White House quackwho has suggested that vaccines cause autism, GMOs create issues in the brain and climate change is a total, and very expensive, hoaxwould be unadvisable, in Palmers view. Interviews with a dozen scientists and science policy experts kept bringing Palmer to the same conclusion: There isnt any way for Trump to fill the role because no sane, credible scientist worth having in the position would take it. Advertisement Why, then, did Trump select an allegedly sane, credible scientist like Droegemeier for this joband why did Droegemeier accept? First things first: Lets clear up some important facts about the nominee. Droegemeier was neither named for the Victorian physicist Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, nor for the eponymous Kelvin scale of absolute temperature. Rather, according to a 1999 profile in the Oklahoman, Droegemeiers first name was chosen randomly by his parents. That same profile also offers up some charming details on our nations next science advisers personality, hinting that hes a prime specimen of Nerdosaurus Rex. He grew up by his own admission as a fat and allergic kid who couldnt play sports; in college he was ridiculed as a neat freak who liked to catalogue the schools radar tapes for fun; and later on, he made a hobby of collecting vintage Hewlett-Packard calculators. Advertisement Lets not overthink the matter: Droegemeier must have seemed the most useful choice because he understands the weather. His political views are less clear, but they may be reasonably inferred. Droegemeier seems to be a very religious Christian with deep ties to his evangelical church. His Twitter feed displays a mix of science updates, news about the Sooners, and invocations of the glory of Christ. Faith is not about a bad person becoming good; its about a dead person becoming alive. He is risen!! reads one characteristic message. Many tweets refer to the Rev. Craig Groeschel, the pastor of a vast, technologically oriented megachurch based in Edmond, Oklahoma, who has gained some fame for delivering services to avatars in Second Life and pioneering the use of web-enabled confessions of ones sins. Notably, Groeschel is a signatory of the Evangelical Climate Initiative, which affirmed the need for government action to address the dangers of human-induced climate change. Advertisement Advertisement Given Droegemeiers ties to evangelicals, his appointment to a role in science leadership could be a(nother) sop to Trumps base. One can find a more direct explanation, though, in the appointees expertise in tracking storms. Coverage this week has noted that Droegemeier, if confirmed, would be the first nonphysicist handed this task in many decades. Indeed, going back to the 1940s more than three-fourths of the nations leading science advisers have been physicists or engineers. That might have made sense throughout the Cold War, when atomic weapons and the space program were the dominant concerns. But our presidents preoccupation with those fields has continued ever since. Advertisement Why might Trump have broken with this trend? Lets not overthink the matter: Droegemeier must have seemed the most useful choice because he understands the weather. In Trumps first year in office, he was asked to oversee responses to three hurricanesHarvey, Irma, and Maria that resulted in many, many deaths and several hundred billion dollars worth in damages. These also led to unrelenting criticism of his empathy and leadership. Now imagine that youre someone with little interest in the long view, and a tendency to fixate on your reputation. This years hurricane season has just begun: Wouldnt it be great for you to have a White House meteorologist on call in the months to come? And wouldnt it be even better if that guy had helped to found something called the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms? Advertisement It could also be that Trump means to put a sane, credible scientist in charge of OSTP because when it comes to science policy, he simply doesnt have much appetite for controversy. I know that sounds absurd: Weve been told a thousand times that Trump is anti-science, even the most anti-science president ever. In 2017, about 100,000 people made an unprecedented march on Washington for science, demanding more evidence-based policy and (perversely) greater use of peer review. Advertisement Its also true that Trumps administration has taken certain War on Sciencetype positions. His former EPA administrator, in particular, took multiple, decisive steps to hinder scientific input into regulations. At the same time, Trump hasnt yet installed chief scientists for the State and Agriculture departments. And of course hes made some suspect choices of his own, like the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, or to throw his weight behind patients right to try experimental medicines. Advertisement If Trump has any virtue whatsoever when it comes to science policy, it may be that hes too disjointed to adhere to dogma. Yet the horrifying, anti-science quack we feared last yearthe author of those vaccine-truther tweets, for examplehasnt really made his presence felt. Even just the first few weeks of his term suggested that Trump didnt really want to pick a fight with mainstream science institutions. In those early days in office, his administration fell into a pattern of floating batshit-crazy notionslike asking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to chair a commission on vaccine safetyand then rejecting them after scientists and others made a stink. This tendency has not abated since. The Department of Justice dissolved an important Obama-era effort to review methods in forensic science, then brought it back to life (in a somewhat lesser form) a few months later. Trump appointed a climate-change skeptic, Jim Bridenstine, to be the head of NASA, but his appointee later said hed had a change of heart: I have no reason to doubt the science, he told senators in May. (Bridenstine has also shown more tempered views on LGBT issues.) Rick Perry got the nod from Trump to run the Department of Energy, despite Perrys prior claims that the agency should be eliminated. Hes gone on to treat the role with some degree of dignity and gravitas, according to most accounts. (That said, like others in the Trump administration, Perry has also cozied up to industry.) And Trumps director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forceful and emotional on the importance of vaccines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even Trumps approach to naming a science adviser has fallen into this routine. In 2017, he was said to be considering three candidateseach one a figure from the fringe who has staked out a radical, contrarian position on climate change. Mainstream scientists were outraged by this set of options. and the president held off. (With this weeks nomination of Droegemeier, that volte-face has been reaffirmed.) As Roger Pielke pointed out for the Guardian in March, Trump seems not so much opposed to science as indifferent to it. His administration proposed some hefty cuts to R&D; congressional Republicans went in the opposite direction and put in place a large increase. In the end, says Pielke, weve seen a fairly standard re-alignment of the nations research spending, given the party thats in power: less money for environmental research, for example, and more for fossil fuel extraction. Trump has taken regrettable steps when it comes to climate change, but otherwise, he either doesnt care that much about science policy or hes decided that perverting it systematically for political ends isnt worth the trouble. Advertisement If thats the context that Kelvin Droegemeier would be stepping into, whats the argument for turning down the job? At worst, he could be used as expert cover for a shameful set of science policies, as happened to George W. Bushs adviser in the early 2000s. But that assumes that this administration would ever feel a need for cover, or a sense of shame. More likely, in the many scientific areas where the president doesnt have an interest, Droegemeier would have the chance to operate on his own, and complete the vital yeomans work of coordinating research efforts and priorities across the government. (Trump does seem somewhat more invested in technology, at least insofar as it projects American strength and domination of our Chinese rivals.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More importantly, Droegemeier may succeed not through what he does but what he helps prevent. Science policy scholar David Hart lists trying to kill bad ideas as one of the roles few core responsibilities. One of Richard Nixons science advisers, Edward David, recalled this as being very difficult, when he tried to urge the boss away from declaring war on cancer: Im reminded of Lord Keynes statement to the effect that its not difficult to bamboozle a president, he said, but its very difficult to de-bamboozle him. If Trump has any virtue whatsoever when it comes to science policy, it may be that hes too disjointed to adhere to dogma. Trump has already shown a tendency to bend in all directions on scientific matters. To choose just on example: The same president who has so often tweeted out his fear of vaccination spent 40 minutes on the phone with Bill Gates, and thenin Gates tellinggrew so fired up about the notion of a universal flu vaccine that he put the head of the Food and Drug Administration on speakerphone to ask about it. (Gates also says that Trump offered him the job of science adviser during the course of that conversation.) Advertisement Advertisement In other words, our president may be like a buoy tossed by each and every current of bamboozlement that drifts in his direction. Thats consistent with his alleged habit, often cited in the media, of repeating whatever point of view has most recently been whispered in his ear. This could be the strongest argument of all for Droegemeier to accept the job. He may not end up getting any access to the president at all; but if he does, he could have better odds of de-bamboozling the president than any White House scientist ever has before. If its true that Trumps as flimsy with his feelings as he is with facts, then we should be glad to have a well-respected meteorologist somewhere near the Oval Office. At some point, if were lucky, he might get the chance to puff his cheeks and blow the country in the right direction. We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies , click here. To Whom This May Concern Hundreds of handwritten letters are being sent to coffee roasters across the United States. Large and small, new and old, indie and internationalthese letters all want the same thing: a replacement bag of coffee and an explanation why this happened. Were looking for an explanation, too. To Whom This May Concern is a show about the mystery surrounding Daniel G, the prolific letter writer who has contacted over one hundred coffee roasters across the country to complain about stale coffee. Who is Daniel G? How long have they been writing these letters? How many coffee roasters have been contacted? Well attempt to answer these questions on TWTMC, a new podcast series from Sprudge Media Network. Today were excited to present the pilot episode of the series, inspired by shows like S-Town and Serial. Download the pilot episode via iTunes or on the iTunes app. Damn, Daniel, get in touch. Were dying to know whats up. Vice Im awaiting the dramatic conclusion to this story as I brew another pour-over. The Takeout American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation London: Britains youngest female to be convicted for planning acts of terror was sentenced to life imprisonment. The BBC reported on Friday night (3rd August), that Safaa Boular will serve 13 years in prison. Her sister, Rizlaine Boular, and her mother also received jail sentences for plotting a terror attack. Safaa Boular's mother was born in Morocco. Gulf News reported that the three women formed an "all-female cell linked to Daesh." The IS group plotted to bomb the British Museum and the Palace of Westminster. Safaa Boular found guilty of plotting two acts of terror The BBC reported that Boular was convicted on two charges of planning to carry out terror attacks. The first incident related to a suicide attack in Syria and the second one was for the museum plot. Although she appeared in court for her sentencing wearing everyday western clothing, the judge didn't believe she had suddenly become de-radicalised. Boular first came to the attention of the police in 2016, when she was stopped at the airport after she returned from a visit to Morrocco. She openly admitted she wanted to travel to Syria to marry British Isil recruiter, Naweed Hussain. However, there was no proof of crime at the time and she was allowed to go back to her home in Vauxhall, south London, but without her passport, according to the Telegraph. The Isil, Naweed Hussain links to her terror plot The seizure also included her phone, which revealed videos of females wearing suicide belts. The Gulf noted that her links to Naweed Hussain came to the fore in 2016 and that they discussed carrying out a suicide bombing after marriage. Frustrated because she could not join him in Syria, the three women decided to carry out an attack on British soil instead. The plot was taken a step further and involved a new phone arriving in a chocolate box, secret messages and even an elaborate code involving the "Mad Hatters Tea Party." The trio discussed grenades, calling them "pineapples." Unfortunately for the radicalized teen and her family, she discussed the plot online with her "contacts" who turned out to be undercover agents. Terror plot continued from inside the jail Even though Safaa Boular's arrest in early April last year came ahead of that of her sibling and parent, the code continued and her sister and mother carried on with the plan without her. They went off an bought some knives and made other preparations. But they were raided and arrested as police believed the attack was about to happen. Safaa's sister 22-year-old Rizlaine, was shot and injured during the arrest. She received a nine-year prison sentence. Her mother was sentenced to six years in prison. Her 'boyfriend,' Naweed Hussain, died in a drone attack. For Safaa Boular, her young life is over. By the time she gets out of prison, she will be 31-years, old. She has lost the man she wanted to 'marry,' her family life, and the freedom that the western world offers young women. But it's not likely there will much sympathy for her, as she planned to take the lives of people indiscriminately, and randomly. In sentencing the youngest female terrorist in Britain, the judge said of Safaa Boular, "however much she may have been influenced and drawn into her extremism, it appeared she knew what she was doing and acted with open eyes." New York: Harvey Weinstein emails tied up in the Weinstein Company's bankruptcy case may force the rape indictment against the movie mogul to be dropped. The New York Times reported that his attorneys filed for the dismissal of the charges against him. The email evidence could show that one of the accusers, who is not named, may have had a long-standing and consensual relationship with him. They argued that the emails should have been made known to the Grand Jury, which would possibly not have indicted him if they had known the circumstances. Emails indicate complainant in rape case expressed love after the alleged rape date NBC News explained that lawyers argued "the failure of the district attorney to provide this evidence to the grand jury warrants a dismissal of the indictment." However, the news outlet got no reply to their questions to the Manhattan District Attorney's office on the issue. New York Times reported that the attorneys want a fast decision as pre-trial hearings begin soon. Attorney Benjamin Brafman argued that after the alleged rape at the Doubletree Inn on Lexington Avenue, the accuser's emails showed an intimacy that strongly suggested a consensual relationship. The emails may not be enough to stop the trial of Weinstein NYT cited Fordham University professor of law, James A. Cohen, as saying that the emails may not be enough to stop the trial going ahead, as people say things in the moment that they dont particularly mean. They also noted that legally, rape is possible even between couples in "an abusive marriage." While the emails may not get the charges dropped, the Weinstein attorneys will be able to use them to discredit the complainant. The defence case will not likely be a doddle in the park when the contents are used in the hands of a skilled legal defence team. Among other arguments, they say the grand jury that indicted Weinstein should have been told about emails from one of his three accusers: a woman who said he raped her in 2013. https://t.co/JB0PH5l7vx KAMR Local 4 News (@KAMRLocal4News) August 3, 2018 The known contents of the emails to Weinstein While NBC did not carry any of the contents of the emails related to the rape charges against Harvey Weinstein, NYT did reproduce some of the claims the attorneys say are in them. The alleged rape took place on 18th March 2013. But the defence case says there were "hundreds of emails" after that date. One example was dated 11th April, three weeks after the alleged act. It said that she hoped to see him "sooner rather than later." The very next day another one followed where the accuser said, "It would be great to see you later and catch up." Five months down the road, she was still contacting Harvey, seemingly voluntarily, with a mail that said, "Miss you Big Guy. One particular mail that caught the eye of the legal team was dated February, and they construed that she was not satisfied with their relationship and wanted it to be a lot "deeper" than it was. The mail read, "I love you, always do. But hate feeling like a booty call. :). There were many such references, with one even suggesting her mother wanted to meet him, dinner arrangements, sponsorship, housing issues and vehicle problems. #MeToo, accusers and Weinstein Weinstein was brought down by multiple women alleging forced sexual acts. It spawned the #MeToo movement, which garnered the Time of The Year Award. The movie producer denied he ever had any sex with anyone who never wanted it. He noted via his lawyers that he did "not invent the casting couch." However, three charges were eventually brought against him. One was for an alleged sexual assault on an unnamed person, and two were allegations of forced oral sex. If the emails do help Harvey to get off the legal hook, their existence may very well hurt the #MeToo movement. Some people argue it has become a place where people are judged without trial and are found guilty by social kangaroo courts. When I discovered a #metoo name and shame predator database website I was appalled. All you had to do was submit a name and location basically. Life over. I support fighting sexual predators. I do not support ruining lives via vigilante justice & an internet kangaroo court. Lexie Carpson (@SpangleLime) July 13, 2018 The existence of the emails was known ahead of the Grand Jury according to court papers. In May, according to Brafman, a request to obtain copies of the emails which were used as evidence in the Weinstein company case, was turned down. putin phone REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin Russia has reportedly used a communications channel with Americas top general to propose a plan to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees. According to a US memo, the proposal was sent on July 19 by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian militarys General Staff, to US Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The memo received an icy reception in Washington. The proposal illustrates how Russia, having helped turn the tide of the war in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is now pressing Washington and others to aid the reconstruction of areas under his control. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with Americas top general to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a US government memo. The proposal was sent in a July 19 letter by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian militarys General Staff, to US Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the memo which was seen by Reuters. Syria REUTERS/Hosam Katan The Russian plan, which has not been previously reported, has received an icy reception in Washington. The memo said the US policy was only to support such efforts if there were a political solution to end Syrias seven-year-old civil war, including steps like UN-supervised elections. The proposal illustrates how Russia, having helped turn the tide of the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, is now pressing Washington and others to aid the reconstruction of areas under his control. Such an effort would likely further cement Assads hold on power. The proposal argues that the Syrian regime lacks the equipment, fuel, other material, and funding needed to rebuild the country in order to accept refugee returns, according to the memo, which specified that the proposal related to Syrian government-held areas of the country. Story continues The United States in 2011 adopted a policy that Assad must leave power but then watched as his forces, backed by Iran and then Russia, clawed back territory and secure Assads position. The United States has drawn a line on reconstruction assistance, saying it should be tied to a process that includes UN-supervised elections and a political transition in Syria. It blames Assad for Syrias devastation. Dunfords office declined comment on communications with Gerasimov. Joseph Dunford AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta In accordance with past practice, both Generals have agreed to keep the details of their conversations private, said spokeswoman Captain Paula Dunn. The Kremlin and Russias defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Syria conflict has killed an estimated half a million people, driven some 5.6 million people out of the country and displaced around 6.6 million within it. Most of those who have fled are from the Sunni Muslim majority, and it is unclear whether Assads Alawite-dominated government will allow all to return freely or whether they would want to. Sunnis made up the bulk of the armed opposition to Assad. The United States will only support refugee returns when they are safe, voluntary and dignified, said the memo, which is specifically about the Russian plan for Syria. Rebuilding Syria will also be a massive effort, costing at least $250 billion, according one UN estimate. Some US officials believe Syrias dependence on the international community for reconstruction, along with the presence of US and US-backed forces in part of Syria, gives Washington leverage as diplomats push for a negotiated end to the war. Syrian war conflict Russia Putin Bashar al-Assad US Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Reuters Military channel The exchange offered a rare glimpse into the military communications channel between Moscow and Washington, one that Dunford himself has fiercely sought to keep private. Dunford, who speaks periodically with Gerasimov, has stressed that the two militaries need to be able to have candid, private communications to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to armed confrontation. But it was unclear how reconstruction and refugees fit into military-to-military communications. Gerasimovs letter suggests that channel is also being used by Moscow to broach non-military matters. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria, and the issue of refugees, at their July 16 summit in Helsinki. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the talks focused on how we might get the refugees back. syrian airstrike REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail But US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week no policy changes came out of the summit. The US government memo explicitly said the Russian proposal was not an outcome of the Trump-Putin talks, but cautioned that Russian officials were trying to present it differently. Russian diplomats and other officials have also been engaging in an aggressive campaign to describe the initiative in other capitals and to insinuate that it is an outcome of the US-Russia meeting in Helsinki, which it is not, repeat not, the memo read. The Russian cover letter for the proposal sent to Dunford recommended the United States, Russia and Jordan repurpose a hub designed to monitor a 2017 ceasefire agreement to form a joint committee to implement the reconstruction and refugee return plan, the memo said. Jordan is hosting more than 650,000 Syrian refugees. The Russian letter also suggests that the United States and Russia form a joint group to finance infrastructure renovation in Syria, the US memo says. Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow; Editing by Warren Strobel; Mary Milliken and Alistair Bell NOW WATCH: We tried Burger King in Japan where you can order hot dogs and beer See Also: * Ryanair faces walkouts in up to five countries on Aug. 10 * Angry at threatened job cuts, Irish pilots to strike again * Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the Irish airline slump to 21-month low (Adds Ryanair response) By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Ryanair's directly-employed pilots in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) will join colleagues in Sweden and Belgium on strike in an escalating day of action on Aug. 10, the fifth one-day walkout in the airline's home market. Ryanair has suffered strikes in some of its other main markets such as Spain and Portugal as it struggles to reach collective labour agreements across Europe, and expects to face action in Germany and the Netherlands as well on Aug. 10. The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, has responded by threatening to move jobs away from any bases affected by the stoppages, beginning with Dublin where it cut its winter fleet by 20 percent and put over 300 employees on preliminary notice. "The airline's escalation of the dispute last Wednesday when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff," Ireland's Forsa/IALPA trade union said in a statement. The union said it was willing to explore the option of a third-party facilitating talks but Ryanair said its offer to meet the union one-on-one on Tuesday to try and solve their differences was pointless after another strike was called. "This fifth strike notice by FORSA is irresponsible, unwarranted and is disrupting customers and is a way of damaging Ryanair's business," Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said in a statement. Around a quarter of Ryanair's 350 pilots based in Ireland have taken part in the series of strikes so far, with the fourth scheduled for Friday. Ryanair cancelled around 20 of Friday's 300 Irish flights as a result, mainly on busy routes to and from Ireland and Britain, and has said impacted passengers have either been put on another flight or refunded. Story continues It said on Thursday that it would contact another 3,500 passengers to inform them of 20 further cancellations on Aug. 10. Ryanair, which operates from 86 bases in 37 countries and carried 130 million passengers last year, decided to recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history last December to avert widespread strikes before Christmas. Its shares fell further on Thursday and were down 3.6 percent at 13.02 euros by 1525 GMT, their lowest level since November 2016 and 8 percent below the level hit in December when Ryanair shocked the markets by recognising unions. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Kevin Liffey, David Evans and Kirsten Donovan) ICHIHARA, Japan (AP) Alison Aguilar and Delaney Spaulding drove in three runs each as the United States beat Taiwan 7-0 Saturday to improve to 2-0 in Group A at the women's softball world championship, a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Aguilar hit a bases-loaded double in a five-run second inning when Spaulding doubled in a pair of runs. Spaulding completed the scoring with a two-run homer in the fourth and the game was called after five innings on the tournament's mercy rule. Keilani Ricketts picked up the win after striking out four and giving up only three hits over five innings. The winner of the tournament will be awarded an Olympic berth. If Japan wins, the second-place finisher will be granted the Olympic spot as Japan has an automatic berth as host. Also in Group A, Puerto Rico beat South Africa 9-0. In Group B games on Saturday, Australia edged Italy 3-2 and China shut out Britain 1-0. Japan, which beat the United States to win the gold medal in Beijing, thrashed Botswana 20-0 in three innings on Friday to improve to 2-0 in Group B. Softball and baseball were dropped after the 2008 Beijing Olympics but have been added to the program for 2020. See Also: Amazon's UK tax bill last year was 2.8m less than 2016 despite nearly doubling its profits, its accounts have revealed. Amazon UK Services Limited, which runs the fulfilment centres to process, package and post deliveries, incurred 4.6m in UK corporation tax in 2017 while the year before had a figure of 7.4m. And the online retail superpower only paid 1.7m in tax after deferring 2.9m. It made an operating profit of nearly 80m in the UK, a major increase from 48m in 2016. During 2017 Amazon UK Services had an average of 19,749 employees - more than two-thirds of Amazon's 27,000-strong UK workforce. The company defended paying less tax while making millions more, with a spokesman telling Sky News it paid all the tax it was required to "in the UK and every country where we operate". He said the numbers were so stark due to establishing a "local country branch" in 2015 "to ensure we had the best business structure to serve our customers going forward". "Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment," he added. "We've invested over 9.3bn in the UK since 2010 including last year opening a new head office in London alongside development centres in Cambridge and London. "This year we plan to create 2,500 permanent jobs across the country in research and development, our head office, customer service and fulfilment centres, to bring our total workforce in the UK to over 27,500." The company has reduced its tax liability by providing shares as awards to all permanent Amazon employees - which are deducted under standard UK tax rules, a spokesman said. Entry level permanent associates received an average of more than 3,000 from their shares last year, with Amazon's share price increasing by 84% over the past two years. This has meant staff share-based payments rose from 37m in 2016 to nearly 55m last year. Earlier this week Amazon reported record international quarterly profits of 1.98bn - about 12 times more for the three months to 30 June compared to the same period the year before. SINGAPORE (AP) Asia's top diplomats pressed North Korea on Saturday to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that it's proceeding with its programs. North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, however, hit the United States in an Asian security forum in Singapore for certain "alarming" moves, including "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" the North. Those moves, Ri told fellow ministers, could make an agreement with the Trump administration, including the North's commitment to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, "face difficulties." China and Southeast Asian nations also faced calls in the Singapore meetings to rapidly conclude an effective nonaggression pact that can help fend off possible clashes in the disputed South China Sea. Both sides have announced an agreement on an initial draft of a regional "code of conduct" that they regarded as a milestone after 16 years of sporadic talks. Alarm over rising trade protectionism, which Asian governments warn could stymie economic growth, dominated the meetings too, with Japan calling for the swift conclusion of a 16-nation Asian free trade agreement that does not include the United States. Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs. But he added that "like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing." "Now the hard work is really on the details," Cayetano told reporters before walking into daylong meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their partners the United States, China, Japan and South Korea. ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the U.S. and North Korea "as well as concerned parties to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," according to a draft communique they were to issue after their meetings Saturday, which was seen by The Associated Press. Story continues In the communique, they would "note" often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder the "stated commitment" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name, "to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period." A summary of a new report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council Friday night and obtained by the AP at the United Nations, said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programs and continues to defy the sanctions resolutions. The North was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions, the report said. Ri said that while North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" including a "moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground," the U.S. has gone "back to the old, far from its leader's intention." Ri made the remarks in a speech that came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the same ASEAN conference, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions that North Korea continues to face. After agreeing on the text of the code of conduct in the disputed waters, senior Chinese and ASEAN diplomats will meet in Cambodia this month or in September, to be followed by another meeting in the Philippines, to start actual negotiations, a senior Southeast Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly. Western officials called for an early conclusion of such a pact, which they said should be legally binding and could effectively check aggressive behavior in the disputed region. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that "without disturbances from the outside" the negotiations on the code would shift to a "fast track." China has accused the U.S., which has deployed aircraft carriers, ships and fighter jets to patrol the disputed waters, of intervening in an Asian dispute. Amid the trade tensions between the United States and China and other nations, Asian ministers called for an early conclusion, possibly this year, of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade accord that would include the ASEAN countries, along with key trading partners China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Korea. Singapore, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations are concerned that protectionism, which could boost major Western economies, would work against free and open trade that their economies are anchored on. Tensions between the U.S. and China the world's two biggest economies over tariffs on each other's products have rattled investors in Asia. "Given the current global situation where protectionism is on the rise, Japan would like to achieve the swift conclusion of the RCEP," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha warned that "rising anti-globalization and trade protectionism among major countries is fueling tension and threatening our aspiration for sustained economic growth." In a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of the Singapore events, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he told Pompeo that Asian countries like Malaysia "are quite nervous on the possible negative repercussion of the ongoing trade war." Pompeo responded articulately "but my objective was quite straightforward," Saifuddin told a news conference. "I need to inform him that we are very concerned." ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report. RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Brazil will meet El Salvador in a friendly in Washington D.C. next month. The game will be held on Sept. 11, four days after coach Tite's team take on the U.S. in another friendly in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Brazilian football confederation said on Friday. The two matches will be Brazil's first since its World Cup quarterfinal elimination against Belgium in July. They will also be the first games since Tite extended his contract until the end of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Tite will announce his squad next Friday. The matches are part of Brazil's preparation for Copa America, which it will host in June 2019. The U.S. may not have a fulltime coach in place for the Sept. 7 friendly. Bruce Arena quit last October after the Americans failed to qualify for the World Cup. Dave Sarachan, his assistant, is now interim coach and has led the team to two wins, a loss and two draws. Former U.S. midfielder Earnie Stewart was hired as general manager this month and will lead the search for a fulltime coach. See Also: ATHENS, Greece (AP) Authorities in Greece will start demolishing dozens of illegal fences and other structures in the wider Athens region next week in a crackdown on building without permits that follows the country's deadliest forest fire in decades. Environment Minister Giorgos Stathakis told Greek radio channel 24/7 on Friday that authorities would tear down 61 structures, mainly fencing, at sites on beaches, streams and areas earmarked for reforestation in several regions of Attica. Government officials have blamed illegal construction for contributing to the July 23 disaster, when a fast-moving wildfire swept through a seaside resort near Athens, killing at least 87 people. But criticism has also mounted over how authorities responded to the blaze. There have been allegations that police diverted drivers from a main road into the area where the wildfire later swept through. Many survivors have also complained of the lack of an official evacuation order, saying they were left on their own to figure out how to get to safety. Hundreds of people fled to beaches, but even there the flames and choking smoke from the wildfire forced many to swim out to sea despite gale-force winds. Many survivors spent hours in the water until they were rescued by the coast guard, fishing boats and other boats. Several drowned. Coroner Ilias Bogiokas said the temperatures of the wildfire were such that "there was almost nothing left" of many of the bodies. "For the bodies to be in this state, with full carbonization and with parts often turned to ashes ... the temperatures must have been very high in a very short period of time," he told The Associated Press. "Whatever happened, happened in minutes." Eleven days after the fire, the exact death toll was still unclear, with figures diverging between coroners and the fire department. On July 27, coroners announced they had performed autopsies on the remains of 86 people, while one more person died that day in a hospital. Three days later on July 30, coast guard divers recovered the body of a man from the sea off the coast of the decimated resort area, which would bring the number of dead to 88. Story continues The fire service, however, which has been issuing the official death toll, put the number of dead on Thursday night at 87, including two unidentified, unclaimed bodies and four people who died in hospitals. Neither the coroners' office nor the fire department could explain the discrepancy. ____ Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece. See Also: Princess Madeleine of Sweden is officially relocating to the U.S.A.! Madeleine and her husband Chris ONeill revealed Thursday that they are heading to Florida this fall with their three children: Princess Leonore, 4, and Prince Nicolas, 3, and Princess Adrienne, 4 months. The time and opportunity for the United States is good for the family when the children are still in pre-school age, the Swedish Royal Court announced in a press release. Madeleine will continue her work with the World Childhood Foundation after the move. Princess Madeleine has a great commitment to childrens rights and will continue working with the World Childhood Foundation and, through the move, be able to focus more on the activities in the United States, the Swedish Royal Court announced. They added that ONeill has previously been working in the United States but will continue his business in Europe. RELATED VIDEO: See the First Photo of the New Swedish Royal Baby Princess! The royal family is no stranger to settling down around the world. Although the family has been living in London during recent years, the 36-year-old royal announced she would return to Sweden to give birth to their third child earlier this year. Madeleine and her family are also familiar with the United States. On top of having a summer home in Florida, they previously lived in New York City. Madeleine moved to the Big Apple in 2010, where she began working for her mothers, Queen Silvia, World Childhood Foundation as a projects manager. The couple lived in New York during the early years of their marriage, even welcoming their first child, Princess Leonore, at a private hospital stateside. Cant get enough of PEOPLEs Royals coverage? Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Princess Madeline and family In addition to their big moving announcement, they also released a new official portrait of their newly expanded family of five. In the shot by photographer Lena Ahlstrom, ONeill cradles baby Adrienne while Madeleine sweetly holds hands with Nicolas. Its Princess Leonore, however, who steals the show: wearing a pink dress with a matching bow in her hair, the little princess puts on a big grin while standing on a rock and holding flowers. Despite her royal status, Madeleine insists shes just a normal mom. They wake me up and we fix breakfast together and the breakfast flies all over the place! she exclusively told PEOPLE at the 2016 World Childhood Foundation USA ThankYou Gala in New York City. And then we go out to the park and we swing, we try to do a lot of activities because my little Leonore, she has lots of energy, so we have to keep her stimulated and busy. Martin Sinkovic, right, and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia react after winning the Men's Pair race final at the European Rowing Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic) MOTHERWELL, Scotland (AP) Two years after earning Croatia's first Olympic gold medal in rowing, the Sinkovic brothers have won a major title again in a different discipline. Valent and Martin Sinkovic won the men's pair final of the European Championships at Strathclyde Country Park on Saturday, having switched from the double sculls after their Rio de Janeiro triumph to give themselves a new challenge. "We had a goal after the Olympic Games to try to win everything in pair," Valent Sinkovic told The Associated Press. "Now is the first championship medal in pair, and we are really happy about that. But I think we can still get much better." Clocking the fastest time in qualifying, the Croatian brothers started the final as favorites but had to overcome fierce resistance from another pair of brothers, Valentin and Theophile Onfroy. The Frenchmen led the race from scratch and were still ahead by 1.25 seconds at the 1,000-meter mark. In one of their trademark strong finishes, however, the Sinkovic brothers overtook their rivals on the final 250 meters and beat them by less than a second. They pumped their fist, and briefly shook hands to celebrate their victory. "It was a hard race, especially with the cross wind. Our boat went all over to the left and the right," Valent Sinkovic said. "We expected to lead after 1,000 meters but we were behind quite a lot. It was a hard battle but we managed to do it and we are proud about that." Valent, who turned 30 on Thursday, has been competing with his younger brother for 10 years on an international level. Their first major successes came in the quadruple sculls, most notably in 2012 when they won the European title in Varese and Olympic silver in London, teaming up with David Sain and Damir Martin. The brothers continued in the double sculls. They became the first pair to break the six-minute mark, and they racked up back-to-back world titles in 2014-15, the European Championships in 2016 and, three months later, ultimately, the Olympic gold medal. Story continues Having dominated the discipline, they decided they needed a new challenge approaching the Tokyo Games in 2020. How about making a rare move and winning Olympic gold in another discipline? They found it far from easy to start with and even considered switching back to double skulls. "It is tough for us to find the balance," Valent Sinkovic said. "We need to be 100 percent at the same level with our oars. For us it is tough to loosen up, to be relaxed, like we were in double." But slowly they found their rhythm taking home a surprise silver medal from the worlds in Sarasota, Florida, in September and started winning races this year. They landed their first victory in pair at a World Cup in Belgrade in June, and broke a 23-year-old course record from British rowing greats Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent at the Henley Royal Regatta in July. "We are still not 100 percent used to the pairs. We have our ups-and-downs. But it is going better and better so we are confident for the final preparations for the worlds," said Martin Sinkovic, referring to the world championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, next month. "We hope we will go faster than here," he added. "We must take our speed from the heat race and the semifinal with us because we rowed much better there. We have a few weeks of training camp coming up and then, I think, we can do everything." Despite approaching the top in a new discipline, the Sinkovic brothers are still reluctant to dream aloud about Tokyo 2020. "That's the real goal, but we don't think about that now too much," Valent Sinkovic said. "This European Championship is the first step and we only think about the next step, and that is the worlds." By Angel Krasimirov and Stoyan Nenov STARO ZHELEZARE, Bulgaria (Reuters) - With fewer than 500 inhabitants, Staro Zhelezare in southern Bulgaria is a world away from the mean streets of Manhattan, but its houses and barns have now been painted with some of the most famous images from New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Andy Warhol's banana, Salvador Dali's clocks and Edvard Munch's "The Scream" are among the murals that have turned the village into a spectacular open-air gallery in what is becoming an annual event. It is the fourth year that students from Poland have painted the walls of Staro Zhelezare, a project launched by Polish woman Katarzyna Piriankov and her Bulgarian-born husband Ventzislav who decided the theme this time should be the New York gallery. "We always want to make our projects on the basis of contrast and absurdity, connecting them with special places," said Piriankov, from the Polish city of Poznan. "So, we decided to invite New York to Staro Zhelezare and its people. They also deserve to see the beauty of MoMA's art works." As well as the locals, foreign visitors have come to see the street art. "It is just amazing," said Englishman Nigel Thompson. "I've never imagined something like that, you can even see Marcel Duchamp's bicycle wheel." (Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) The concept of detournement in art hints at the possibility of hijacking something well-known to most ordinary people. Originally developed in the '50s by the Letterist International, the concept was later on adopted and adapted by the Situationist International and often employed for political pranks in later years. One of the key points for a successful detournement is to employ something really familiar with your audience, so that people can easily read into the messages you're trying to spread. In a way detournement can also be used as a parody in which original works are employed to create new and more subversive pieces. Italian artist Fabio Viale mainly employs this technique for his sculptures: his work "Star Gate" may look like a futuristic architectural structure, maybe recreating a section of a spaceship, but it is actually the result of two recombined stacklable plastic boxes of the type used to carry fruit and vegetable, reproduced in gigantic size and in marble. Viale often combines classical sculptures with modern tattoos: the statue "Laocoon and His Sons" is for example radically reinterpreted by the artist. The snakes and Laocoon's sons are removed from the scene and Laocoon's body is covered in intricate tattoos replicating Giovanni di Modena's paintings inspired by Dante's Inferno, that seem to highlight his muscular and toned body; the same fate awaits Canova's "Italic Venus", whose back is also covered in intricate floral tattoos. Quite often simple and ordinary objects are elevated to the realm of the extraordinary and vice versa, so that a simple drywall anchor becomes a 2-metre-tall vertical sculpture, a sort of phallic rocket, while the giant finger of the Colossus of Constantine (as seen at the Capitoline Museums in Rome) becomes a joke since it is resized and reproduced in polystyrene. Most of Viale's works feed off visual illusions, misperceptions, juxtapositions and contrasts, "La Suprema" represents for example traditional cheap wooden fruit crates but made of marble. Viale is currently having his moment since he has a solo exhibition comprising eleven large scale works at the Glyptothek Museum in Munich that extends into the Konigslpatz, where his "Laocoon" welcomes visitors. Detached from the Vatican Museums where the original statue is preserved, Viale's piece is employed here to reclaim a more urban and modern space. At the same time his "Infinito", a black marble sculpture representing two intertwined tyres is on display at the Battistero del Duomo in Pietrasanta, Italy (6th August to 30th September 2018). Though the urban sculpture does not look very religious, it actually hints at wedding rings and therefore at the union of two people, at procreation and at christening, so that the baptistery ends up being the perfect place for this artwork. Viale has also got an exhibition divided in two spaces of the Galleria Poggiali in Pietrasanta (until 17th August): in the main gallery spaces (via Garibaldi 8) it is possible to admire "Kouros", a white marble bust covered in tattoos inspired by Russian criminal gangs (very apt for the times we're living in...), while at the Ex-Fonderia d'arte Luigi Tommasi (Via Marconi, 48) there is an exhibition comprising other assorted works by Viale. Critics may deem Viale's works as not extremely original maybe, but the artist's passion for combining modern objects and trends such as tires and tattoos with classical pieces, may help revamping the interest of a younger generation of people (and of Instagram fans in particular...) for classical art (you wonder why Viale still hasn't collaborated with Gucci's Alessandro Michele on the sets of a catwalk show, maybe in future?). Josiah and Lauren Duggar picked Vienna, Austria as their honeymoon location due to Laurens love of the movie The Sound of Music, according to the Vienna Informer and People. Lauren, a fan of the movie featuring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, told People that she has always wanted to visit Austria. She was not disappointed with the destination of their honeymoon, based on statements she relayed to People. Lauren said: Im loving all the scenery. Traditional Austrian clothing, the culture, and the people have also impressed her. Josiah is enjoying the destination as well, telling People: Its a beautiful place, with a beautiful wife. Additionally, he said that they are loving every minute of their time together in Vienna. He described knowing that he and Lauren intend to spend the rest of their lives married as mind-blowing. For Lauren, her trip with Josiah to Austria has also solidified her belief that people of various cultures have a lot in common. She cited that all people, regardless of geographic location, want the same things, such as joy and happiness. Lauren added: This trip makes me love people more and desire to deliver Gods love and care to people more than ever before." Josiah teased fans with photos of honeymoon location on social media Josiah and Lauren exchanged wedding vows on June 30 in a cathedral at John Brown University located in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. From the time of their wedding, the couple has not been active on social media. On their one-month anniversary, however, Josiah posted a teaser on his social media accounts. He shared two photos on Twitter and on Instagram with the same caption. He asked Duggar Family fans and followers: Can anyone guess where we were here in these photos? Before Josiah & Lauren Duggar's honeymoon destination was revealed by "People," Josiah posted on his Instagram account,"Can anyone guess where we were here in these photos? 2nd photo may help you figure it out." He shared the photos on Instagram: https://t.co/XpmThQEQdr pic.twitter.com/8mgEvF72O9 Hot Hollywood (@HotHollywood5) August 3, 2018 While some Instagram and Twitter followers guessed Yellowstone, Yosemite, Iceland, and Australia, an Instagram follower using the moniker @katiekate021 stated: Well, its not in Iowa. Newlyweds Josiah Duggar & Lauren Swanson Honeymoon in Vienna: The Sweet Reason They Chose Austria https://t.co/XdckCtx9Dt People (@people) August 3, 2018 As many fans of the now-defunct TLC show 19 Kids and Counting may recall, Josiah has quite a sense of humor. Discuss this news on Eunomia It is not entirely unexpected that he would want his social media followers to guess where he and Lauren chose to travel after their wedding. When his older brother Joseph and Kendra Caldwell exchanged their wedding vows in 2017, for instance, Joseph acted as if he lost the wedding rings. When a guest handed over the rings, people realized he pulled a prank. Laurens character attracted Josiah Though fans of the Duggars attempted to guess the honeymoon location, everyone now knows that the newlyweds traveled to a destination based on one of Laurens favorite movies. It is apparent as well that Josiah saw Lauren's depth in addition to her beauty, as he put it. In the past, he told People that her focus on people other than herself, her outgoing and encouraging disposition, and her character are traits that he found attractive. Be sure to check out the next episode of TLCs Counting On, which airs at 9 PM EST on Mondays. Also, follow Blasting News for the latest Duggar updates. Julie Byerley, the first of three candidates selected as finalists to serve as dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM), will hold an open forum presentation on The Changing Healthcare Landscape and Implications for Education of Physicians from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 8 in auditorium M203 at 2 Riverside in Roanoke. As part of the interview and selection process, Cyril Clarke, interim executive vice president and provost at Virginia Tech, and Patrice Weiss, chief medical officer for Carilion Clinic, invite all members of the Virginia Tech Carilion community to meet each of the candidates selected for campus interviews. Byerley currently serves as vice dean for education and chief education officer at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She also holds an appointment as professor of pediatrics and has held progressive leadership roles in the UNC School of Medicine for more than a decade. Byerley has been recognized with awards for her service, teaching, and mentorship, and has been honored as a fellow with both the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine and Association of American Medical Colleges. She holds a master of public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate of medicine from Duke University. Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic, and community members are invited to attend each candidates open forum presentation. The presentations will be broadcast live online (a link will be available at https://www.provost.vt.edu/) and recorded for participants who cannot join in person. Candidate CVs and survey links for providing feedback will be posted on the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provosts website, in advance of each visit date. The search committee encourages all who attend or observe these meetings to submit feedback via the online surveys. Remaining finalists will visit Roanoke and Blacksburg the weeks of Aug. 13 and 20, and will be announced prior to their visits. The second finalists open forum presentation will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 16. The third finalists forum will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 22. All three open forum presentation sessions will be held in auditorium M203 at 2 Riverside in Roanoke with a brief reception following each session. Written by Amy Hogan Anthony Domestico at Commonweal: On almost every page, The Five Quintets praises conversations endless interplaythose evenings when times rigid arrow bends, as we dance from one topic to another. So its appropriate that, when I came into New York to discuss the book with OSiadhail (pronounced Osheel), I first spotted him on a street corner, leaning into a conversation. The seventy-one-year-old OSiadhail is hard to miss. He has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry, including his eight-hundred-page Collected Poems in 2014, and he looks every inch the poet: tall and handsome, with a craggy face, deep-set eyes, and a hawk-like nose. And there he was, a few blocks from Commonweals offices, where wed agreed to meet, asking a woman where he might grab a bite to eat. He was feeling a bit peckish, he later told me, and was thinking about getting a snack. He wasnt sure if I wanted to talk first and then eat or have lunch and then talk. more here. LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryan in The New York Times: April 13, 1947, holds little significance in the American historical memory, and yet that day was one in a long series that led to the legal desegregation of American schools. On that morning, Marguerite Daisy Carr, a 14-year-old black girl from Washington, D.C., attempted to enroll at Eliot Junior High School, the all-white middle school closest to her home. Carrs efforts to integrate the school, which were supported by her family and local black community, preceded the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education by seven years. Recognizing the young black girls and women who were at the forefront of the civil rights movement is the central achievement of Rachel Devlins meticulously researched history, A Girl Stands at the Door. Devlins interest in the role such women played in the struggle for desegregation leads her briefly back to 1850, to Sarah Roberts, a 5-year-old African-American who lived closer to several white schools than to the one designated for black students, and who became a plaintiff in the countrys first school desegregation case: Roberts v. City of Boston. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of Boston, which resisted the desegregation effort on the grounds that adequate provisions had been made for black students in the form of separate schools. Robertss case was later cited to support the separate but equal ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, but it also shed public light on the underfunding and inadequate conditions prevalent in black schools conditions that endured, virtually unchanged, for another 120 years. Devlins account is necessarily situated largely in the 20th century and includes the stories of Ruby Bridges and Melba Pattillo Beals (one of the Little Rock Nine), among many others; she reveals the creative tactics these young people used sometimes successfully, sometimes not to integrate public schools, a battle in which black girls outnumbered black boys as plaintiffs two to one. More here. For many women, menopause comes as a relief: an end to pregnancy worries and monthly cramps, a farewell to bloodstained panties and premenstrual mood swings. Though menopause signals the opening of a historically uncelebrated chapter in a womans journey, lots of women are thrilled to cross its threshold. Others loathe the passage. For them its a journey often punctuated by hot flashes, insomnia and, in numerous cases, sexual dysfunction symptoms that for some can continue for 15 years or longer. These episodes can make women in their 50s and 60s feel uncomfortable, demoralized and sometimes seriously ill. But regardless of ones attitude toward it, the onset of menopause means a marked increase in certain health risks. For example, hormonal changes result in an accelerated rise in LDL cholesterol in the 12 months following menopause, boosting the possibility of heart disease. And though both men and women suffer a loss of bone density with age, the sudden reduction in estrogen associated with menopause has been shown to trigger an inflammatory reaction in some women that leads to a dramatic decrease in bone mass. These issues lurk beneath a host of distracting and sometimes debilitating physical conditions, large and small, from night sweats to weight gain to concentration problems. And though menopause medications that can help alleviate discomfort and perhaps prevent or delay the onset of chronic disease have been around for decades in various forms, research indicates that just a small minority of menopausal women are receiving the medical care they deserve. A Yale University review of insurance claims from more than 500,000 women in various stages of menopause states that while 60 percent of women with significant menopausal symptoms seek medical attention, nearly three-quarters of them are left untreated. Doctors are not helpful, says Philip M. Sarrel, professor emeritus of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services, and of psychiatry, at the Yale School of Medicine. They havent had training, and theyre not up to date. Nearly one-third of this countrys women are postmenopausal, says gynecologist Wen Shen, an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Many of them are needlessly suffering. "Doctor, what's happening?" Carrie Haine is in tears. She is petite, attractive, the type of woman whom you easily envision as a popular it girl when she was in high school or college. Now the former third-grade teacher is 57, and while she has had some relief lately, her body has been betraying her. Sleep has grown elusive. Hot flashes have stolen her focus. Sex has hurt. Its a hard thing to face, says the mother of two grown sons. Your intimate understanding of your body changes. Haine had been trying to figure out her problem since she went off the pill four years ago. Because birth control pills contain estrogen, they can mask the onset of menopause. Within three weeks of discontinuing them, hot flashes hit Haine like huge waves rolling into shore, then crashing on the beach, punctuating her days with an intensity that only someone who has experienced them can understand. In time, she grew inexplicably anxious and soon started losing track of thoughts, often finding herself without words. She knew she was going through the change, yet hadnt been prepared for how all encompassing it was that it wasnt just about my body but everything about me, and I felt it not only physically but emotionally. Haine consulted with the male gynecologist who delivered the second of her two sons. I didnt feel he understood the emotional aspects of what I was going through, she says. And I felt he wasnt attuned to the nuances of my body. Later she consulted with a lovely female gynecologist who attempted to solve her sex-pain issue with gels and sex toys. Then, last year, Haine had a horrifying experience. One day while at work, she got so dizzy she had to sit down. But what really concerned the school nurse was Haines sudden inability to speak. I had the words, but I couldnt say them, she remembers. Worried that Haine was having a stroke, the nurse called an ambulance. But at the hospital, all her scans and blood work checked out. Said the doctor when he signed her discharge papers, Maybe you need a hobby. Turns out, Haine needed neither a sex toy nor a hobby; she needed a physician who understood how to treat menopause. Haine tells her story from Shens meeting room in the Lutherville, Maryland, offices of Johns Hopkins. A few months before, Haine heard Shen speaking on the radio, on NPR. She was talking about menopause, and her voice was really calm and soothing, and it resonated with me, says Haine, who, like many women, and even many doctors, didnt generally associate a shift in hormone levels with anxiety. She also didnt realize she could find a solution for painful sex, which has since been eased with vaginal estrogen. During this latest visit, Shen is referring Haine to a psychologist to help her with some of the emotional changes that can accompany menopause for some women. Shes looking at all the bits of me, Haine notes. Not just my body and how its changing but also how I am changing as a woman. Menopause is very personal. I cant tell you the number of women who walk out of my consultation and say, Thank you so much. Youve validated me for the first time in years, says Shen, the renowned medical schools sole dedicated practitioner for menopause consultations. Im always happy to hear that, but it also makes me really sad. Thats because properly treating menopause symptoms can do more than afford women extra sleep, less anxiety and a better sex life. When their menopause is properly managed, particularly from the beginning, women may lower their risk for many of the common, life-threatening diseases that can mark their next quarter-century and beyond. For example, a 2017 study found that the more severe and longer lasting a womans hot flashes and night sweats are, the greater her risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Other studies have shown that treatment at the onset of menopause can slow the progression of osteoporosis. When we talk about menopause, were not just talking about hot flashes and night sweats and dry vaginas, Shen points out. Were talking about what happens after the ovarian hormones go away and women become at increased risk for osteoporosis, heart disease, cognitive decline. In other words, menopause accelerates aging. A 2013 study stated that menopause is an independent risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease. And menopause means the loss of a key neuroprotective element in the female brain and a higher vulnerability to brain aging and Alzheimers disease, asserts Lisa Mosconi, a professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City and lead author of a study on menopause and dementia in the journal PLOS One. It wasnt until 1908 that a womans life expectancy topped 51, the average age of menopause onset. Today, American women can spend a third or more of their lives in this state, many of them without recourse for symptoms and conditions they were never warned about and thus not prepared for. TV's Dr. McDreamy, actor Patrick Dempsey, is the latest celebrity to warn his fans away from scammers using his name to solicit funds on social media. The former Greys Anatomy star used his official Twitter account (@PatrickDempsey) to announce that people have been impersonating him on social media, asking for money and support for his charitable organization, the Dempsey Centers, in Maine. Dempsey tweeted: Please do not ever talk to, or give money to anyone saying it is me. My official profile has a blue circle with a check mark. Please report any fake pages to FB, instagram, twitter. Our boys are coming home. Speaking at the ceremony in Hawaii, Vice President Mike Pence reminded Americans, Some have called the Korean War the Forgotten War. Today we prove these heroes were never forgotten. Today our boys are coming home. SANTA FE The Office of the Medical Investigator has determined that Jeremiah Valencia died of blunt force trauma and had injuries to many parts of his body, but decomposition hampered the autopsy. Investigators believe Jeremiah, 13, was killed by 42-year-old Thomas Ferguson, his mothers boyfriend, in the family groups home in Nambe in November. Ferguson then allegedly forced his son, 20-year-old Jordan Nunez, and Jeremiahs mother, 36-year-old Tracy Ann Pena, to help with burying the body. Jeremiah was found in a plastic storage bin and wrapped in plastic in late January. Nunez and Jeremiahs younger sister told Santa Fe County sheriffs deputies that Ferguson had tortured Jeremiah, starved him and forced him to stay in a dog kennel while wearing a diaper. They also said Ferguson beat Jeremiah severely in late November and then put him in the kennel, where he is believed to have died. The autopsy report, released Friday, says Jeremiah had multiple jaw fractures that are associated with the tearing of his lips. Nunez had previously told investigators that Ferguson was punching Jeremiah so hard the day of his death that some of the boys teeth may have fallen out. There was also bleeding around Jeremiahs left eye, which was displaced from its socket, and there was prominent bruising on the left side of his face, the report says. There also were tears in his scalp, left cheek and behind his left ear. Jeremiah had multiple fractures in the left ribs, which showed signs of healing, and there was a recent fracture in his left hand. Nunez told detectives that Ferguson would drop a five-pound hammer on Jeremiahs hand. Jeremiahs brain couldnt be evaluated due to decomposition, the OMI report says. A sheriffs office spokesman said in January that the body had to be identified using dental records. There was no evidence of burns or of injuries from sexual assault, but the report says that doesnt rule out the possibility that Jeremiah was sexually assaulted. A detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit that there was evidence that Jeremiah was raped and burned. The OMI report says Jeremiah was found wearing a diaper and had diapers wrapped around his neck and hand. A bandage was also wrapped around his head. Nunez told detectives that Ferguson had turned Jeremiah upside down and slammed his head into the floor two or three times before putting him in the dog kennel. Ferguson hanged himself at the Santa Fe County jail in April. Child abuse and tampering with evidence charges are still pending against Pena and Nunez. Detectives started investigating Jeremiahs death in January after Pena spoke about it while being held at the Santa Fe County jail for failing to appear in a traffic case. He apparently was killed in late November during a previous jail stay by Pena. The boys body was found buried in a rural area not far from the Nambe home. SANTA FE El Rancho de las Golondrinas the living history museum south of Santa Fe is still recovering from the July 23 storm that caused significant flooding. But the New Mexico Food and Beer Festival scheduled for this weekend will still go on. Daniel Goodman, the museums director, said Friday crews are still cleaning up debris from the thunderstorm that dropped as much as 3.5 inches of rain to some parts of Santa Fe. While las Golondrinas didnt get nearly as much rain that night, its located downstream from the city and the neighboring community of La Cienega seemed to be hit hardest by the flooding. A wall of water came flying through La Cienega, Goodman said, adding that homeowners got hit a lot worse than the museum, a collection of historic buildings, did. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency were performing damage assessments in the Santa Fe area this week. As for El Rancho de las Golondrinas, no buildings were significantly damaged but its performance, wedding and burro fields were left covered with mud and silt by the flood. The rushing waters also took out much of its acequia infrastructure used to irrigate crop fields on the ranch and a pedestrian bridge that crossed La Cienega Creek that connected two halves of the property, forcing the closure of the back half of the 200-acre property for about a week, Goodman said. Theres still a logjam further down creek that needs to be cleaned up. If theres another big flood, it will back the water back up to our property and flood everything again, Goodman said. The ranch on Friday issued an email appeal for emergency donations to help with the cleanup. But crews have done enough work on the mess that the museum will again be hosting the annual Panza Leena, Corazon Contento: New Mexico Food and Beer Festival, from noon to 6 p.m. today and Sunday. Food vendors, local breweries and cideries and live music will be a part of the event. We have people out here walking around; weve got to make it safe for everyone, Goodman said. Weather-related issues continue to impact the Santa Fe area. A rainstorm Thursday night caused a power outage at the Santa Fe airport delayed some outbound flights. The power went out shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, leaving about 2,700 customers without power for several hours and prompting the early closure of City Hall, the recreation center at Fort Marcy Park, the citys main library and the convention center. The citys latest figures from Wednesday indicate that the citys Constituent Services hotline received more than 300 requests for damage assessments, 166 of which had been completed. Preliminary assessments determined that 11 structures have been destroyed, 51 has sustained major damage, 52 sustained minor damage, and four structures were inaccessible. More than 2,000 books at a Santa Fe library were destroyed by water from the July 23 deluge and carpet and shelves were soaked. La Farge Branch Library Director Kathryn Spangle said the flood caused about $37,000 worth of damage. The Associated Press contributed to this story. A town full of horses YarthungManangs horse-riding festivalwas celebrated on the fourth week of July this year. The festival, which has its roots in Tibetan horse festivals, is celebrated annually wherein members of the communitythe men, mostlycelebrate by riding their horses, eating, drinking and relaxing. SANTA FE As expected, the U.S. Senate has passed a defense funding bill this week that includes money and language that supports ramping up production of the plutonium cores of nuclear weapons at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The bill tasks the lab with implementing surge efforts to make more than 30 of the so-called plutonium pits a year to meet national defense and nuclear weapons policy. The bill passed the House last week, so its now headed to President Donald Trump for signing. In May, the Nuclear Weapons Council certified the National Nuclear Security Administrations plan to repurpose the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to make 50 pits a year coupled with an enduring mission to produce at least 30 pits per year at Los Alamos, currently the only place in the country set up to make the weapon cores. Since then, New Mexicos congressional delegation has been fighting to keep all the pit work in Los Alamos, which has faced scrutiny over safety issues involving the handling of radioactive materials in recent years. The defense bill calls for a new, independent review of an NNSA study that supported moving most of the pit production to South Carolina. The bill also mandates that NNSA produce plans for LANL to make 30 pits annually by 2026 or to eventually make all of the mandated 80 pits per year, possibly through use of multiple work shifts, in case the South Carolina facility is not operational and producing pits by 2030. There is a legal fight going on in South Carolina over whether the Savannah River Site should be switched to pit production. The new pits would be used as part of a massive plan for modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile. According to the offices of New Mexico U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, the defense bill also includes: $361 million for plutonium research and pit production at LANL, up $140 million from the previous year. $191.6 million for ongoing cleanup of radioactive and other waste at LANL. $31.2 million to fund the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which provides independent safety oversight of the nations weapons labs. A recent proposal to get rid of the board was rejected but a plan to limit the boards access to lab information is under consideration. $125 million for military construction projects at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range and $7 million for upgrades to the Wyoming Gate at Kirtland Air Force Base. $48 million to continue construction of a new NNSA complex in Albuquerque. Carrying signs reading Protect our Babies, The Children Count on You and CYFD Do Your Job, about 40 people gathered outside the Albuquerque offices of the state Children, Youth and Families Department on Friday to protest what they said seems like never-ending incidents involving children who get abused or killed. Were here today because too many kids have been abused or passed away, even kids who had been reported to CYFD two, three or four times, said Josh Perez, 27, who organized the protest through his newly formed group, Let Our Voices Be Heard. We just feel CYFD hasnt done their job and were here to let them know, because if we dont stand up now, nothing is ever going to get done in this city, he said. Were asking CYFD to make changes. Protester Damion Cruzz, 36, wants something beyond change. I think CYFD Secretary Monique Jacobson should resign, he said. I dont think CYFD has the proper leadership. Somebody with experience in child welfare needs to take over. Cruzz also had harsh words for New Mexico legislators, who he said have also failed to do their jobs: They have the power to change laws to make it easier to get kids who are in danger removed by CYFD. As a parent with a teenage son, Barbara Gallegos, 37, said, CYFD should be paying more attention and see whats really going on. Children, she said, represent the future and we need to create a society that is safe and offers something for them to look forward to. When children are stuck in a situation with abusive parents and an agency that does not protect them, Gallegos said, they feel like they cant turn to anybody who will listen to them and then were stuck burying our kids. In response to the protest, Jacobson said in an email to the Journal: We are all outraged by the acts of violence against children and Im encouraged to see the communitys passion to fight against child abuse. I hope everyone who came out today will volunteer and help us in our work to improve the lives of children across New Mexico. I urge all New Mexicans to be vigilant and to report child abuse and neglect. HOUSTON A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit filed by thousands of women and minors against current and former Houston officials over delays in testing of rape kits. The lawsuit alleged the officials allowed the delays, meaning suspects remained free and justice was denied to the victims. In a 22-page opinion filed Wednesday, however, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ruled the lawsuit, filed last September, was filed too late. She ruled that a two-year statute of limitations had lapsed in 2013. She also ruled that those who filed the case failed to cite any civil rights violations or other legal grounds for holding the city and its officials liable. Mayor Sylvester Turner expressed pleasure with the dismissal. We recognize the importance of timely and appropriate processing of evidence and the critical role that it plays in solving crimes and prosecuting perpetrators before they can victimize others, he said in a Friday statement. An attorney for those who brought the suit, Randall Kallinen of Houston, declined immediate comment Friday. The class action suit had represented about 6,000 women and several hundred minors who said they were harmed when the Houston Police Department failed to submit their rape kits to a crime lab. Kits submitted in 2011 languished in storage for years. Rape kits are a series of DNA samplings and other evidence secured via medical procedures conducted immediately after an attack. Experts say testing them promptly and comparing them to federal DNA databases for hits is crucial because as many as half of all sex offenders are serial rapists who sometimes travel. Houston police discovered a large cache of about 6,600 untested rape kits some dating to the 1980s in 2009, as it prepared to transfer materials to a newly built storage facility. The backlog was cleared with help from a grant from the National Institute of Justice. The project, which cost about $6 million, turned up 850 matches in a national DNA database. Also, Turners predecessor as mayor, Annise Parker, and her administration removed the city crime lab from the police department and established an independent Houston Forensic Science Center in 2014. The center works to maintain a 30-day turnaround time for sex assault and all other evidence, chief executive Dr. Peter Stout has said. News of the vandalism rocked, quite literally, the North Fourth neighborhood. Up and down the street, at least four businesses most of them restaurants, all of them owned by or catering to the Hispanic or immigrant communities had glass windows or doors that were shattered by rocks. The rock-throwing reprobate had also left photocopied, hand-scrawled notes referring to the Mexican mafia and the writers wish for God to kill its members so everyone will know he is the lord. Some of the rocks had messages, too. God rules, some read. Go Lobos, read others. Across town, at least eight other mostly Hispanic or immigrant-owned businesses were attacked similarly in three days in early July, each one accompanied by the same strange Mexican mafia note, each one smacking of a racially motivated crime. The damage to the businesses was especially troubling in these days of rancorous debates over immigration reform and racial inequality. Thats true no matter what the vandals motive was, if he or she had one at all. It just grabbed me, these hate-filled letters, this violence shattering not only glass but the peace of mind of these folks who own these businesses, said Carla Lanting Shibuya, an Albuquerque woman who describes herself as kind of an activist, a chaplain in training and a member of Albuquerque Interfaith, an association of religious congregations, schools, unions and nonprofit organizations working to promote citizen participation in the democratic process. In considering how to respond to the rock-throwing, Shibuya thought of rocks. But good rocks. Smooth rocks she and her 16-year-old daughter gathered in their backyard, cleaned and painted with hearts. She thought about the biblical verse from Ezekiel: And I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. It was a small gesture, perhaps, but one that came with a lot of goodwill. And a lot of heart. Other members of Albuquerque Interfaith got behind Shibuyas idea. A letter was written from the group to each business owner, saying that its members stood in solidarity with them and pledged not only their patronage but their support for their right to thrive in the community. The letters were signed grateful neighbors and satisfied neighbors of your place. In addition, the letters invited the business folks to attend a meeting Sunday sponsored by Albuquerque Interfaith and the New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice to come together to support one another and to discuss immigration and refugee issues. The action has three purposes, Joaquin Sanchez, lead organizer of Albuquerque Interfaith, said in a news release. First, to meet the affected business owners and our community leaders who will not stand for this kind of environment. Second, to learn how to connect to city and county efforts to be an immigrant-friendly community. And third, how to act by becoming part of organizations and institutions whose aim is to create a common good. Shibuya and others began distributing the painted stones, letters and invitations Thursday and hoped to finish their rounds Friday. Besides the 11 or 12 businesses hit July 7-9, similar acts of vandalism have been reported as far back as January 2017, when the Central Tire Shop, 6419 Central NE, was hit twice in a week. Across the street, El Zarandeado at 6500 Central SE and two other businesses were also hit that week. News accounts at the time said hand-scrawled notes were left at each of the vandalized businesses that read, in part: The Mexican Mafia has come across our border to disrespect are (sic) president of USA. No arrests were ever made in the attacks, but the tire shop owner told a KRQE reporter that a woman whose phone number was inexplicably listed on the note told him that her father had committed similar acts of vandalism in the past and that he is mentally ill. Meanwhile, an arrest has been made in connection with two of the more recent incidents. Edelidio Wallace, 59, is charged with two counts of criminal damage to property for the vandalism at Chuchulucos El Charro at 8009 Central NE,and Forasteros Mexican Food at 8801 Central NE. Owners of both establishments told police that they have had ongoing problems with a person who has been repeatedly leaving threatening letters, according to the criminal complaints. Wallace, who police say travels by bicycle and lists a homeless shelter as his address, is also charged with aggravated assault against a peace officer after police say he hurled a silver hatchet at an officer investigating another act of vandalism at La Cabanitas, 200 Wyoming SE. The hatchet hit the drivers-side door, according to the criminal complaint. On July 11, state District Judge Cindy Leos denied prosecutors request to keep Wallace in jail while he awaited trial, saying she had not seen clear and convincing evidence that he posed a threat to public safety. On July 27 and again on Thursday, he failed to show for hearings on the vandalism charges. Arrest warrants have been issued. For now, he is in the wind. Let us hope Shibuya wont need to paint more hearts on stones but that hearts come together Sunday and beyond for the greater good. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor. Coming together Meeting on immigrant justice in light of recent vandalism at local businesses 4-5:30 p.m. Sunday, St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Catholic Church, 3424 Fourth NW. The Rev. Vincent Chavez of St. Therese and Lilia Valenzuela of South Valley Academy will conduct the event in English and Spanish.Meeting sponsored by Albuquerque Interfaith and New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice. WASHINGTON President Trumps outrageous tweets are testing, once again, our capacity for outrage. They are not harmless venting. Rather, they pose a threat to the rule of law. Consider: Trump unhinged, Wednesday edition. He launched another unfounded attack against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as being totally conflicted. He slandered the prosecutors 17 Angry Democrats doing Muellers dirty work as a disgrace to USA. And, most alarmingly, Trump called on his attorney general to stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. A measure of how alarming was the scrambling by Trumps team of enablers to explain that the president was not, in fact, ordering Attorney General Jeff Sessions to kill the investigation. Rather, in this soft-core retelling, Trump was merely expressing his opinion about what should happen as if that is much better, when the opinionizer is the president. Note to the president: Our country is doing just fine with the Mueller probe. Actually, the United States is benefiting from it. The country being stained by the investigation is the one that tried to interfere with our election on Trumps behalf. One of the indictments that Mueller has produced alleged that Russian individuals and companies engaged in a sophisticated social-media campaign to help swing the election to Trump. Another accused Russian military intelligence agents of hacking into the emails of Democratic campaigns and operatives. Someone needs to ask or would ask, if the president ever took more than a few shouted questions from a few favored reporters how bringing such cases is a stain on the United States. Rather, it is a defense of the country and its electoral system, which is more than we have seen from the Trump administration. Leave aside the matter of whether Trumps attacks on the Russia hoax represent potential evidence in an obstruction case against him. That is worth considering, but the focus on his tweets as obstruction in plain sight has obscured the even more concerning fact that the tweets offer incontrovertible evidence of a president who cares nothing about the well-being of his country and the integrity of its elections. A president who cared about this would be insisting that Mueller get to the bottom of what happened, not doing his best to undermine the special counsels legitimacy. He would not be ordering, or even suggesting, that his attorney general his properly recused attorney general shut it all down. The same is true of the just-begun trial of Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who is accused of bank and tax fraud charges involving laundering more than $30 million in income. A responsible president would allow the Manafort case to proceed without comment, for fear of tainting it, but would privately seethe over the alleged misconduct of a man who once sat at the helm of his campaign. Not Trump. He managed, simultaneously, to vouch for Manaforts political bona fides worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders; distance himself from Manafort he worked for me for a very short time; and portray himself as the victim of government malfeasance Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation. Then came even worse a tweet suggesting that, far from wanting to see Manafort brought to justice, we should somehow feel pity for him. Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One, or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement although convicted of nothing? Trump wrote, misspelling the first name (Alphonse) of the notorious Chicago mobster. How nice that Trump, channeling his previously hidden civil libertarian, cares so much about due process for those not convicted of crimes. Maybe there are some detained families and separated children he could worry about instead of Manafort? Recall, Manafort was jailed before trial only after prosecutors accused him of trying to tamper with the witnesses in the case against him. A federal judge agreed, telling Manafort, Youve abused the trust placed in you six months ago. In fact, the Capone-Manafort comparison doesnt exactly benefit Manafort. Capone was convicted of failing to pay taxes on his illicit income, a case federal prosecutors made by showing evidence of Capones copious spending. Manafort is similarly accused of filing false tax returns, and as the indictment put it, used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. Future generations looking back on history, to use Trumps phrase, are not likely to feel pity for either Capone or Manafort. Or anything but contempt for Trump and the way he besmirched his office daily. Every president since George Washington has suffered from a critical press. John F. Kennedy canceled all White House subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune because of coverage he regarded as unfavorable. President Obama, who was almost universally adored by mainstream media, sometimes complained he wasnt getting all the credit he thought he deserved for his policies; never mind that in many cases Obamacare is just one example liberal media rarely criticized him when those policies faltered. New York Times columnist David Brooks once remarked that he believed Obama would be a great president simply because he observed during an interview with the then-senator that he had a fine crease in his pants. No bias there. President Trump has taken media criticism to new heights or depths, depending on your perspective calling any questioning or opposition to his policies fake news and labeling the press an enemy of the people. The publisher of The New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, recently met with the president and told him his comments were encouraging dictators to persecute and suppress independent media coverage of their regimes and worse, putting American journalists at risk of physical harm. Sulzberger said the Times was forced to hire armed guards to protect employees. Media bias has long been a complaint, especially among conservatives. Reporters and others in the media usually associate with like-minded members of their tribe and so either deliberately separate themselves from the majority of the nation in flyover country, or oppose the values, faith and politics practiced by many. Generally they only read or watch each others work. How do I know? A columnist for the Times once asked me if I am still writing this column. I read his but clearly he doesnt read mine or probably most other conservatives. Examples of bias, whether in the way stories are covered, or ignored, are legion. One doesnt have to visit only conservative websites, such as the Media Research Center and its sister publication Newsbusters, to find examples. While columnists enjoy greater freedom than reporters to express their opinions, some have crossed a line of decency that has apparently been erased for the Trump administration. Last Sunday, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni published a hateful piece on Vice President Mike Pence. Bruni called Pence self-infatuated. Also a bigot. Also a liar. Also cruel. To that brimming potpourri he adds two ingredients that Trump doesnt genuinely possess: the conviction that hes on a mission from God and a determination to mold the entire nation in the shape of his own faith, a regressive, repressive version of Christianity. Trade Trump for Pence and you go from kleptocracy to theocracy. I have known Pence for 30 years, and he is none of these things. Besides, even if he could impose his sincere and consistently practiced faith on the nation which he cant and probably doesnt want to what have secular progressives imposed on the nation since the 1960s? In the meeting between the president and Sulzberger, there was no indication the publisher of Americas most influential newspaper feels the need to examine the charges of bias made against his reporters, editors and columnists, or why virtually all appear to favor liberal Democrats. Journalism is unlike any other profession, because it is the only one that doesnt seem to care what its readers and viewers think. It is like a parent forcing a child to take bad-tasting medicine because it is good for you. This attitude has fueled declining TV ratings and, sadly, a drop in newspaper subscriptions, but apparently too many in the profession would rather criticize customers, or more accurately former customers, than change. That is bad for the profession and for the country, which needs strong journalism. Journalism that mostly promotes a single worldview and disparages all others is not journalism. It is propaganda. Email: tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Copyright, Tribune Content Agency LLC. Americans are so gullible. Even after all we know about Russian trolls attempts to influence our 2016 presidential election with phony social media posts we still fall for their shenanigans. Even after Special Counsel Robert Muellers team indicted the Russian Internet Research Agency, nicknamed the Troll Farm, and 13 Russian nationals on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States via these fraudulent posts, we still join their deceptive Facebook pages and share their divisive Twitter messages. In a PR move designed to make it look like they are ever vigilant, Facebook released startling information this week that it had discovered and eradicated a new secret campaign to spread divisive political messages across the United States. Company executives explained that they had removed dozens of accounts from both Facebook and Instagram, because they were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior. It makes me wonder how many of these covert misinformation accounts they havent found yet. Facebook couldnt say the Russians were definitely behind the latest wave of propaganda or that it was aimed at trying to influence the upcoming mid-term elections, but this drive has a focus and design eerily similar to what the Troll Farm dished out for American consumption ahead of the 2016 vote. And a Facebook blog revealed the company found proof that some of the just-deleted accounts were connected to the Troll Farm accounts they disabled last year. Whatever group launched this latest effort, it was careful to disguise their whereabouts by using hard-to-trace private internet networks and phone services. And they also used third parties to buy their tainted online ads, which aimed to stoke the fires of political dissent. This is ever-morphing information warfare in the year 2018. Facebook was not completely transparent about the content of all the sophisticated pages it purged, but NBC News geeks got to work and discovered details still stored in web-based archives. They found these latest disinformation posts specifically targeted Americans who are feminists or politically liberal, as well as those of Hispanic, Native American and African heritage. It leads me to think the creators of the misinformation believe those groups are most easily influenced. One now-deleted page discovered by NBC apparently sought to re-ignite racial tensions by posting a photo of child labor during the Great Depression with text that read, Mexican and Mexican American children were often not allowed in white schools. A post from a straw group calling itself Aztlan Warriors boasted a collage of historical figures like Crazy Horse and Geronimo and the caption, Giving thanks to our vets in the 500-year war against colonialism. A page titled Resisters shared a post with the headline Women dont have to and then listed various traits like be thin, cook for you or listen to your bull**t. The same Resisters posting urged those who are unhappy with the Trump administration to occupy the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The demonstration was called the Stop Ripping Families Apart Take over ICE HQ event. In all, Facebook says, these deceptive accounts urged attendance at some 30 protest demonstrations around the country, including an upcoming Aug. 12 event designed to confront white supremacists commemorating the anniversary of last years deadly White Lives Matter rally in Charlottesville, Va. Among the most shocking revelation was the fact more than 290,000 Facebook accounts followed at least one of these disinformation pages. I understand its human nature to gravitate toward like-minded individuals, and if you want to communicate with others online about your politics, your heritage or anything else you have the absolute right to do so. But its clear our enemies be they Russians or anyone else are deliberately trying to manipulate us into frenzies of overreaction. Their odious goal in posting these incendiary messages is to undermine our democracy by sowing political discontent, to create violent confrontations at what should be peaceful demonstrations of honest protest. That hundreds of thousands of us are falling for these propaganda posts and following, friending or sharing their words should give us all pause. Lets face it, in doing so we are helping our enemies divide us. Thats a chilling thought. Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent says, The Kremlin seeks to infiltrate audiences along any and all divisive social issues, then once the audience is won, push them politically. And what does he see as Russias end game? The goal is to create fear in the audience that things are unstable, and that democracy and its institutions are failing. The Russians have been trying to divide us and create political chaos in American since the 40s long before social media existed. Im going to go out on a limb and say they are continuing to do it. I dont care what Vladimir Putin says. www.DianeDimond.com; e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.com. A five-year veteran of the State Police arrested and charged with stealing drugs to encourage sexual favors from women chose to resign rather than be fired, authorities said Friday. Police say NMSP officer Daniel Capehart, 33, was arrested on June 29 and charged in U.S. District Court with distribution of marijuana and methamphetamine. The charges stem from an investigation involving undercover officers posing as a meth dealer and a teenage girl looking for marijuana that revealed Capehart was willing to subvert the law for sexual favors with women in the Farmington area. NMSP Chief Pete Kassetas launched an internal affairs investigation following Capeharts arrest and served the officer with a formal notice that his employment would be terminated after which he resigned. Police officers take an oath to uphold the law, and actions and behavior in violation of that oath and the public trust are intolerable, NMSP Chief Pete Kassetas said in a statement. The New Mexico State Police will continue to comply with all aspects of this investigation by the FBI and we will continue to hold our officers accountable to serve the public with integrity and honor. Court documents show it began when Capehart sent text messages that were flirtatious in nature to a 16-year-old after the two traded information during a traffic stop. From there, records show a San Juan County Sheriffs deputy used the 16-year-olds phone to text Capehart and implore the officer to get her marijuana which he did twice. The investigation didnt end there, as records show a woman who works as an undercover informant with San Juan County authorities gave FBI agents her cell phone to set up a meth bust after which Capehart would give the woman the seized drugs. According to court documents, Capehart arrested an undercover officer posing as a meth dealer, took the drugs, delivered them to the FBI agent and was arrested. JAKARTA, Indonesia Diplomats from the United States and North Korea alternately shook hands and lobbed critiques at one another Saturday, in what appeared to be another roadblock in the path to negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs. In a day of head-snapping twists of tone at the annual conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia not to help North Korea cheat on U.N. sanctions that Moscow had voted for. Then, just a few short hours later, Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho approached each other for a public handshake and exchanged promising pleasantries with big smiles. According to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, Pompeo suggested they would talk soon, and Ri agreed, adding, There are many productive conversations to be had. Nauert said that beyond the brief exchange at the group photo, Pompeo and Ri did not have a more formal meeting. Given where the United States and North Korea were a year ago, Nauert said, This is a step in the right direction. As the two top diplomats returned to their seats, Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, approached Ri and handed him a white envelope bearing a letter from President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. While the full contents were unknown, Pompeo tweeted later Saturday that the letter was Trumps reply to a missive the president received from Kim last week, which White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Saunders characterized as a follow-up to their June summit in Singapore. In his own tweet, Trump described Kims letter as nice, breezily adding, I look forward to seeing you soon! But things at the Singapore conference went downhill after Pompeo departed for Indonesia: Ri waited until then to deliver a sharp attack on the United States in remarks at the forum. Though he said the North Korean government remains committed to a joint statement that followed a summit between Trump and Kim in June, Ri criticized the White House for insisting on maintaining sanctions until disarmament is complete and demanded confidence-building measures along the way. What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old; far from its leaders intention, Ri said. The divergent rhetoric underscored the difficulties that have hampered previous attempts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. It also was reminiscent of Pompeos last visit to North Korea in July, when he declared the meetings productive, but North Korea hours later would say the U.S. approach was gangster-like. Previous negotiators have seen similar rapid-fire mood swings from Pyongyang. This is just North Koreas style of negotiating and indicates any talks would probably take many months if not years. Pompeo has acknowledged talks will be difficult and strung-out, but he said Saturday that he remains optimistic that eventually the two sides can reach a deal to end the Norths nuclear weapons program. Pyongyangs willingness to truly denuclearize has come into question lately. A confidential report by the United Nations, shown to reporters on Friday, says North Korea has violated numerous U.N. Security Council sanctions by continuing to develop its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Also last week came news reports that intelligence agencies believe the North is developing new missiles. Much of the discord stems from differences in how Washington and Pyongyang view the pace of rewards to North Korea if it proceeds dismantling its weapons programs. Pompeo has insisted that the United States expects total denuclearization and that sanctions will remain in place until the process is complete. North Korea, officially named the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), has demanded a phased approach, with sanctions eased in several steps as a show of goodwill. Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight, Ri said in his remarks after Pompeos departure. In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another. Ri added: Only when the U.S. ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the U.S. and show it in action. An administration official brushed off the remarks as growing pains in a still-developing relationship that has been wobbly at times. This is to be expected, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the criticism frankly. Were building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations. Pompeo used the ASEAN meeting to hold meetings with diplomats from more than two dozen countries to urge their governments to keep up the economic pressure on Pyongyang until its nuclear weapons program is irreversibly dismantled. At a news conference, Pompeo noted reports that Russia was entering into joint ventures with companies in the North and granted new work permits to North Korean guest workers. He said the United States believes the reports, first published in the Wall Street Journal, are accurate and would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution restricting trade with North Korea. I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow, he said. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. Any violation that detracts from the worlds goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously. Despite the carping, the tone was considered a major improvement over last year, when the buzz of the ASEAN meeting was whether Pompeos predecessor, Rex Tillerson, would even be in the same room with North Koreas foreign minister. This year, in his first visit as secretary of state, Pompeo has been at the forefront of talks with North Korea aimed at its eventual denuclearization. From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved, Pompeo told reporters. There has not been single country that hasnt thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world toward the possibility of achieving this. . . . Im optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded. That view seemed to be supported by a communique expected from the ASEAN diplomats, who, along with representatives of Japan and South Korea, urged Washington and Pyongyang to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, according to a draft seen by the Associated Press. Earlier Saturday, Pompeo suggested the timeline for denuclearization will be determined in large part by North Koreas mercurial leader. The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part, he said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia. The decision is his. He made a commitment, and were very hopeful that over the coming weeks and months we can make substantial progress towards that and put the North Korean people on a trajectory towards a brighter future very quickly. Pompeo started the morning with a rosy tweet, saying he had had productive discussions on North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. China is responsible for the lions share of trade across North Koreas border. Our cooperation, he tweeted, . . . sends a strong signal to the region that, despite differences, #China and the US can work together to get important work done. Despite the United States growing trade war with China, there was a palpable sense of relief that the tensions of last year appeared to have eased considerably. The Southeast Asian region is quite happy to see how the events on the Korean Peninsula are turning out, especially compared to last year, which was a really worrying time, said Dino Patti Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States who led a delegation to Pyongyang for informal talks. There was a real threat of clashes and talk of preemptive strikes. Things are exceptionally much better now, he added, and the region welcomes this development and thinks the momentum should be kept. Apart from urging continued support for being tough on Pyongyang, Pompeos three-day trip to Asia is part of a U.S. effort to boost trade ties with the region, despite the Trump administrations withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia. He said it would be used to strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and counter transnational threats. On Monday, Pompeo said the United States would invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in the region as part of what he characterized as a down payment on a new era of U.S. economic commitment to the region. NEWPORT, R.I. MJM Yachts has already felt the sting of tariffs. CEO Bob Johnstone was negotiating the sale of a 53-foot (16-meter), $2.2 million yacht to a buyer in Monaco when the European Union announced a 25 percent tariff on American-made boats as retaliation for the Trump administrations tariffs on imported aluminum and steel. The deal is now dead. So is the Rhode Island-based companys plan to expand sales into Europe. American boat makers are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit in an escalating trade war. President Donald Trumps decision to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has driven up the price of those essential materials for many boat makers. Europe, Canada and Mexico retaliated with tariffs on American-made boats. Meanwhile, new tariffs imposed on parts such as engines and navigation equipment imported from China are also pushing up costs. As a result, they are selling fewer boats, considering raising prices and bracing for layoffs across an industry that employs 650,000 people in the United States at manufacturers, marinas and dealers. We have the unfortunate situation of being caught up in every part of this trade war, said Nicole Vasilaros, of the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Industry leaders have met with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and trade representatives and tried to make the case that this is a truly American industry being used as a pawn in a trade war. Ninety-five percent of the boats sold in the U.S. are made in America. Theyve also appealed to congressional delegations, especially in states heavy in boat manufacturing, while watching the trade fight escalate this week as China and the U.S. proposed new tariffs that include some hitting their industry. Among those who have considered reducing their workforce is Regal Marine Industries, which builds everything from sport boats to 53-foot (16-meter) yachts with price tags ranging from $35,000 to $1.2 million. It employs 750 people at its headquarters in Orlando, Florida, and in Valdosta, Georgia, from factory technicians to engineers to office staff. Before the tariffs were imposed, around 15 to 20 percent of Regals sales went to Europe or Canada. CEO Duane Kuck said orders from the EU are down 90 percent. Theyve seen millions of dollars in of cancelations and delays. We were expanding prior to the tariffs. The expansion has been put on hold, he said. Asked whether that means layoffs, he said he would have to see whether the company can grow enough business in the U.S. to offset the loss of exports, a strategy several other boat builders are trying. The timetable for many manufacturers thinking about layoffs is in the next two to three months, Vasilaros said. She also noted that any benefits the industry saw from a Republican-led tax overhaul have been almost completely negated as the industry deals with higher prices for materials and components while losing customers to global competitors. The presidents trying to help U.S. manufacturing, but we are the key case to show that hes doing the exact opposite, she said. The industry, Vasilaros said, is being specifically targeted for retaliatory tariffs by countries wishing to make a point to Trump. For example, Mercury Marine employs most of its 4,800 workers at its headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin a county that Trump won by a nearly 2-1 margin in his 2016 presidential victory. Other states with a large boat-making presence are GOP strongholds like Florida, Indiana and Arkansas. Mercury Marine is the last American-based producer of four-stroke outboard engines. It assembles the smaller, 40- to 60-horsepower engines it makes at a facility it owns in Suzhou, China. Mercury estimates that a 25 percent tariff the Trump administration imposed on the Chinese-made engines would raise the average cost of a small, recreational boat by nearly $2,000. Mercury CEO John Pfeifer wrote in a letter in May to the U.S. trade representative that similar price shocks in the past caused a more than 50 percent drop in demand for its products. He also said engine manufacturers from Japan and Canada could end up with an advantage in the U.S. market, causing the company to shift highly skilled jobs from the U.S. to Japan. Tennessee-based Brunswick Boat Group which is owned by the same parent company as Mercury warned in its own letter to the trade representative that tariffs could cause a drop in sales, and in turn, layoffs in the industry. Adding to the frustration for the industry is the fact that American boat manufacturers primarily buy domestic steel and aluminum and were already seeing shortages. Now, they also face rising prices as a result of the tariffs. Bill Yeargin, CEO of Orlando-based boat builder Correct Craft, said he expects the companys aluminum costs could rise 20 to 30 percent when its contracts are renegotiated this fall. Overseas sales, which make up about 30 percent of the companys revenue, are already at a near standstill. Were getting hit on both ends, he said. The tariffs dont make sense to Johnstone, whose luxury-boat maker is based in the yachting hub of Newport. He points to the incredible amount of labor that goes into just one boat. He said the yacht that the Monaco buyer canceled after the tariffs has 8,000 man hours in it. That one boat is four families supported for a year. This really dampens our future. MJM Yachts makes high-end, fuel efficient boats at a shipyard in Boston, where it employs about 180 people, Johnstone said. The yachts are priced between $800,000 and $2.2 million. It now faces retaliatory tariffs of 10 percent in Canada, 15 percent in Mexico and 25 percent in the European Union. That means a yacht which once cost $2 million for a European buyer now goes for $2.5 million. Those three markets represent 69 percent of the U.S. export market, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. The industry is hoping that negotiations between the White House and European Union will at least result in the end of the 25 percent retaliatory tariff. Talks have yielded no news of a change so far. The message that were getting is, Were in this war. We have to be to protect U.S. steel and aluminum,' Vasilaros said. ___ Associated Press write Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report from Washington. Centre raises Ayurvedic drugs norms The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has made it mandatory for ayurvedic drug manufacturing companies to follow both World Health Organization (WHO) Herbal Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Certificates of Pharmaceutical Product (CPP). Iraqi Kurdistan, facing an acute financial crisis, has a newfound opportunity to attract desperately needed foreign investment from Saudi Arabia, but regional tensions between Tehran and Riyadh could hamper its efforts. A large Saudi trade delegation led by Sami Bin Abdullah al-Obeidi, chairperson of the Council of Saudi Chambers, and accompanied by the Saudi ambassador to Iraq and the consul general to Erbil, visited the Iraqi Kurdistan Region July 23-25, meeting with business leaders and government officials, including Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, to explore economic opportunities in the energy, agricultural, industry and tourism sectors. Although no agreements were signed, the parties agreed to work toward expanding economic relations, as Saudi Arabia plans to establish a direct trade link from its Arar border crossing into Anbar province and on to the Kurdistan region. Some of [the Saudi businessmen] have expressed the desire to build an entire industrial city in the Kurdistan region and build factories that would export to the rest of Iraq, Abdulaziz al-Shammari, Saudi ambassador to Iraq, told Rudaw on July 25. In a positive sign for bilateral trading opportunities, Shammari remarked, The [Arar] border crossing will open in the next 10 months and it will see large-scale trade exchange. He also said to expect direct flights between Erbil and Riyadh in the coming months and raised the possibility of Saudi banks opening branches in the region. This is a good beginning for our commercial relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Erbil Gov. Nawzad Hadi told Al-Monitor. The delegation discussed various investment opportunities, with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also presenting 1,500 projects that have not been finished because of the region's financial crisis. The invitation to the Saudis was extended by Kurdish officials who took part in an Iraqi delegation to a February conference in Kuwait on Iraq's reconstruction. The Saudis pledged to provide $1 billion through its Saudi Fund for Development and $500 million in export credits. As for possible Saudi contributions to the Kurdistan region, They can bring in their companies and invest in any sector they want, Nouri Osman, head of the KRGs Board of Investment, told Rudaw on July 24. The arrival of the Saudi trade delegation is a testament to the Kurdistan region adopting an investor-friendly environment and possessing huge untapped oil and gas resources. Despite such assets, however, the KRG is choking on debt and desperately needs to find a solution to the current crisis. Perhaps the most intractable, and least discussed [problem] is how to address the insolvency of the semi-autonomous [KRG]. Its a simmering crisis that threatens Iraqs economic future and political unity, and one that the central government [in Baghdad] needs to step up and help defuse, wrote Andrew Snow of United States Institute of Peace on May 9. Following the Islamic State (IS) attack on northern Iraq in summer 2014, and with the KRG confronting an acute economic crisis mainly due to low oil prices almost all the KRG's revenue depends on oil sales many investors, including those in the oil and gas sectors, left Kurdistan, plunging the region deeper into crisis. Now, with the IS security threat under control and oil prices rising, the KRG is trying to present itself as a destination for regional and international investors. In early May, the KRG held its fourth economic conference with Iran and signed a memorandum of understanding to expand economic relations and highlight investment opportunities to its eastern neighbor at a time when relations between the two parties had sunk as a result of the KRG proceeding with a Kurdish referendum for independence last fall, which Iran vehemently opposed. Iran has an 1,118-mile border with Iraq, including the Kurdistan region, and 18 border crossings. On a positive note, Hasan Danaeifar, former ambassador to Iraq who now leads the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture in Iraq (which is an Iranian governmental body), said on Aug. 1 that in the first four months of the Iranian calendar, from March 21 until July 21, Iranian exports to Iraq grew by 25%. While KRG officials have been relatively successful in attracting foreign investment to their landlocked region despite widespread corruption, tensions between Iran and the United States and Washington's regional allies, in particular Saudi Arabia have posed a challenge to Saudis entering the Kurdistan market. Iran, one of the main investors in Iraqi Kurdistan, sees the Kurdistan region as its strategic backyard and looks with suspicion on Saudi activities there. Tehran has in the past accused Riyadh of trying to foment unrest in Iran by supporting Kurdish armed opposition groups. [Saudi Arabia] gives money to any anti-revolutionary who comes near the border and says, Go carry out operations, Mohsen Rezai, former head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in 2016. When they ask, Where should we carry out operations? they say, Its not important. We want Iran to become insecure. On July 29, Nazim Dabagh, the KRG's representative in Tehran, told al-Alam TV, the Arabic-language arm of the Iranian government, that Saudi Arabias increased interest in trade with Iraqi Kurdistan is curious. Dabagh said he hopes the importance Saudi Arabia seems to be attaching to the Kurdish region is related to protecting the unity of Iraq. Dabagh is a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a strategic ally of Iran in Iraqi Kurdistan. On the second day of the Saudi delegation's visit, the KRG posted a statement on its website that read in part, Prime Minister [Nechirvan] Barzani expressed the KRGs readiness to provide assistance and facilities for Saudi companies to invest in the Kurdistan Region and to promote and develop economic and trade relations between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region with Saudi Arabia. The KRG, beginning to recover from three years of a bloody and costly war with IS, is in dire need of foreign investment to revive and complete a multitude of projects abandoned due to the financial crisis and battles with IS. Saudi largesse would indeed be welcomed as part of the solution from the perspective of the Barzani government, which hopes to strike a balance between Iran and its adversaries to attract maximum investments. This seems, however, to be a case of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Only time will tell whether the Kurds can strike that delicate balance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is counting on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to prevent a Syrian military attack on Idlib, which, Erdogan said, could destroy the Astana accord. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said July 26, Idlib is our goal, but not just Idlib. The military and it is at their discretion will decide priorities and Idlib is one of these priorities." I asked for the necessary intervention by him [Putin] on this subject. My hope is, God willing, he will do what is necessary, Erdogan said after meeting with Putin that same day on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. While Russia continues to work its shuttle diplomacy to broker an understanding regarding red lines between Iran and Israel in Syria, as we reported here last week, Putin is also carrying much of the diplomatic water to prevent an escalation in the north between Turkey and Syria. Ankara is also worried that an attack on Idlib will provoke a new influx of refugees, at a time when it is hoping to stabilize the region to start repatriating some of the 3.5 million Syrian refugees Turkey already hosts, writes Semih Idiz. Within the Astana framework a de-escalation agreement reached last year among Ankara, Moscow and Tehran Turkey has set up 12 observation posts to keep apart Syrian military forces and the armed groups that presently control Idlib. Many believe that this deployment is also part of an effort by Ankara to gain another military foothold in the region, to clear northern Syria from the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization, adds Idiz. Turkeys problem is that the Astana accords exempt groups that are listed by the UN as terrorist organizations from being attacked. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is one of these groups, and Russia, which considers it a legitimate target, has actively aided Syrian regime strikes against the group in Idlib. Multiple evacuations of various opposition groups from around the rest of Syria to Idlib long ago turned the city into a virtual dumping ground of all elements that Assad, as well as Iran and Russia, have been fighting against, writes Maxim Suchkov. The evacuations were deemed a temporary fix that would ultimately demand a more feasible solution; Idlib was left to the future because of the higher operational urgency that other fronts demanded. But Idlib's moment appears to have come now that the balance on those other fronts has been tipped in favor of the government forces. In addition to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda affiliate that governs most of Idlib with horrific brutality, this dumping ground includes a militia coalition headed by Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafi group that also advocates radical implementation of Islamist law, remnants of the Free Syrian Army and what probably can best be termed a collection of armed gangs backed by Turkey. For Moscow, Suchkov explains, Idlib is vital primarily because the majority of all the anti-Russia Northern Caucasus fighters in Syria have assembled there. This is also becoming a zone from where combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fly toward Russias Khmeimim air base, posing a danger to Russian military personnel. The security demand to settle accounts with these homegrown enemies away from home territory has been one of President Vladimir Putins initial drivers for the Syria campaign, and he is determined to bring that goal to a close. Yet the way through which it can be done is negotiable, and this is where Moscow would want to see Ankaras collaboration. A nuclear option vis-a-vis the city is not Russias priority at this point, Suchkov continues. Such an attack would be fraught with far too many complications in relations with Turkey itself and would trigger a new humanitarian crisis and stem into a massive refugee outflow. This, in turn, would undermine Russias brainchild initiative on the return of refugees, where Turkey is also seen as a critical partner. A separate task for Russia will be to restrain Assads fever to take advantage of the momentum his army is having and storm Idlib with force. This isnt easy from a political and diplomatic perspective, but Damascus simply cannot go on the offensive of such a populated settlement with dozens of heavily armed opposition militants without Moscows military support. This, however, neither excludes occasional skirmishes nor means the Syrian army wont seek to chip off certain neighborhoods from the opposition while trying to avoid unintended clashes with the Turkish military, adds Suchkov. It is no surprise that Idlib took center stage at the latest International Meeting on Syria, chaired by Russia, Iran and Turkey on July 30-31 in Sochi. Sochi has been the location for talks between Syrian government and opposition groups on a new Syrian constitution. Anton Mardasov explains that the blending of the Astana and Sochi forums was no accident. From the beginning the Astana agenda has contained such issues as constitution drafts, the liberation of hostages and access to humanitarian aid, Mardasov writes. Astana is obviously exhausting itself as a military issues format. As the operations that the pro-regime forces conducted in three out of four de-escalation zones demonstrated, the trust-building measures have a distinctly aggressive, capitulation-oriented nature. Therefore, the guarantor nations Russia, Iran and Turkey attempt to pre-emptively navigate the negotiation process into the realm of politics and associate it with the results of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi. The only issue that prevents the Astana format from an ultimate meltdown is the fate of Idlib, the fourth de-escalation zone. While the summits final statement did not reference an agreement on Idlib, Alexander Lavrentiev, Russias special envoy for Syria, said that a large-scale operation in Idlib is out of the question," and that we encouraged the moderate opposition to actively cooperate with Turkish partners and with Russia to prevent any danger both for Russian soldiers of the Khmeimim air base and for Syrian government forces staying on the line of contact. In this case, we will not have to engage in full-blown fighting against militants, as Mardasov reports. However, Mardasov writes the Russian position contains some deliberate ambiguity. Lavrentiev later points out that Idlib is infested by numerous radical elements that have a negative impact on the situation as a whole and on the moderate opposition in particular, and that Russias own patience may eventually too have run thin. The Sochi discussions have become intertwined with the Geneva process, as well as with Astana. The Astana 10 also hosted the fourth meeting of the action group on prisoner and hostage liberation in which experts from guarantor countries, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross took part. Staffan de Mistura, the UNs special envoy for Syria, provided the representatives of the guarantor countries with a preliminary list of candidates for the Constitutional Commission of Syria and an instruction on the legal methods by which they should be appointed, adds Mardasov. The 10th round of Syrian talks that recently took place in the southern Russian city of Sochi has officially become a continuation of earlier Astana-format meetings. Moscow argued the temporary relocation was an effort to embed discussions on humanitarian and political issues into an established format that initially had been designed only to enforce cease-fire and trust measures between Damascus and armed opposition groups. However, this is a mere diplomatic maneuver, since from the beginning the Astana agenda has contained such issues as constitution drafts, the liberation of hostages and access to humanitarian aid. Astana is obviously exhausting itself as a military issues format. As the operations that the pro-regime forces conducted in three out of four de-escalation zones demonstrated, the trust-building measures have a distinctly aggressive, capitulation-oriented nature. Therefore, the guarantor nations Russia, Iran and Turkey attempt to pre-emptively navigate the negotiation process into the realm of politics and associate it with the results of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi. The only issue that prevents the Astana format from an ultimate meltdown is the fate of Idlib, the fourth de-escalation zone. One of the main issues on the agenda" was whether the "military operation in Idlib takes place before the end of the summer campaign, a source speaking to Russian state news agency TASS pointed out. By the end of the talks, this question still was not answered precisely, and the final statement of guarantor nations did not contain any arrangements on Idlib. Representatives of all delegations also avoided making any substantive comments on the issue. On one hand, Bashar Jaafari, the head of the Syrian governments delegation and Syrias ambassador to the United Nations, said that the de-escalation zones are supposed to function for a limited period of time, indirectly proving Free Syrian Army Brig. Gen. Ahmed Berris claims that the Idlib agreement expires on Sept. 19. Jaafari pointed out that Turkey violated the agreement by deploying its armed forces, tanks and armored vehicles in the area instead of police officers with light weapons that Ankara was supposed to have sent. Syrian people have a legitimate right to reclaim all the territories Turkey has occupied, Jaafari added. On the other hand, Alexander Lavrentiev, Russias special envoy for Syria, said that a large-scale operation in Idlib is unlikely. That is why we encouraged the moderate opposition to actively cooperate with Turkish partners and with Russia to prevent any danger both for Russian soldiers of the Khmeimim air base and for Syrian government forces staying on the line of contact. In this case, we will not have to engage in full-blown fighting against militants, Lavrentiev said. Lavrentiev added that Russian soldiers had played a role in the creation of a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave Idlib. According to Lavrentiev, this was motivated not by an intent for a future assault but rather by the refugees striving to return to their hometowns. Ahmed Tomeh, the leader of the Syrian oppositions delegation, said that the Russian diplomats words about the Idlib situation were inspiring. However, at the same time, Lavrentievs statement does not deny the possibility of a smaller-scale operation in the de-escalation zone. Later, in his interview with TASS, Vladimir Putins special envoy pointed out that Idlib is infested by numerous radical elements that have a negative impact on the situation as a whole and on the moderate opposition in particular. He stressed that Russias own patience may eventually too have run thin. As Alexander Kinschak, Russian ambassador to Damascus, said earlier, the Idlib problem should be resolved the way the hostilities in the southern de-escalation zone had been settled, noting all the complications should be approached carefully, tactfully and discreetly. The diplomat probably meant that in the southwest, several factions of the opposition stayed in their previous locations after having given up their heavy and medium-range weapons, while other groups even joined the 5th Assault Corps traditionally led by Russian commanders. Moreover, Adham al-Akrad, the ex-leader of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction in Daraa province, issued the list of conditions for the project of re-integration of former rebels into the official system under Russian guidance. It is not clear though whether the regimes security services are willing to follow those agreements earnestly since the southwest has long been the territory of the FSAs influence, and the opposition there is much less diverse than that in Idlib. At the same time, the pro-government forces carefully, tactfully and discreetly continue to concentrate around Iranian observation posts in the Idlib area while moderate opposition leaders have merged into a unified structure with Turkeys support. Sources in the opposition claim the militants may surrender Jisr al-Shughur and several districts of northern Hama without resistance, but Ankara is unlikely prepared for large-scale losses. Beyond Idlib, the Sochi discussions focused on other issues as well. The Astana 10 also hosted the fourth meeting of the action group on prisoner and hostage liberation in which experts from guarantor countries, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross took part. Staffan de Mistura, the UNs special envoy for Syria, provided the representatives of the guarantor countries with a preliminary list of candidates for the Constitutional Commission of Syria and an instruction on the legal methods by which they should be appointed. Now we discuss the third critically important group of candidates the delegation of the civil society, Lavrentiev specified. The consultations regarding the creation of the UN-supported Constitutional Commission in Geneva are supposed to take place in early September. Also in September, Russia, Turkey, France and Germany are going to participate in a summit following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans suggestion. The meeting will also be dedicated to the Syrian conflict resolution with a focus on the return of refugees and hopes that France and Germany may play a constructive role in the process. The reasons behind Russias own motivation to support the meeting are easy to understand. The Syrian regime supported by Russia will impose its own conditions of reconstruction on the countries bearing the expenses to host Syrian refugees in exchange for accepting them back. Alexander Shumilin, senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said Assads success on the battlefield provided Moscow with a space for political and humanitarian maneuvers, considering that every victory the regime achieves brings new humanitarian problems to the stage. As a result, although the West did not change its principled position on Assads regime, Western politicians are currently more willing to cooperate with Russia in humanitarian aspects, Shumilin added. It is far from certain, however, that the West is ready to invest in the reconstruction of Syria as long as political reforms in the country remain superficial. American representatives were not the only ones who have refused to discuss political resolution anywhere but in Geneva and thus avoided the summit in Sochi. Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, also didnt attend the Sochi meeting. Russian Kommersant newspaper reports that the Russian delegation had eagerly expected him to attend. Instead, Grainne OHara, senior protection officer of the UNHCR, visited. The next round of the Astana negotiations is supposed to take place in November. If the sides of the conflict are really willing to establish the long-term functioning of the Idlib de-escalation zone the reconstruction of which is likely to attract the investments of Western nations three and a half months are a sufficient period of time to succeed. However, it is highly uncertain whether Damascus manages to coexist peacefully with an alternative power center, seeing that the time gap before the next round of the Astana process is enough to prepare and even launch a new military operation. It will complicate the situation even further, but the Syrian regime will be able to demonstrate its independence, which it painfully lacks. A 23-year-old woman and a male teen are charged with first-degree robbery after, according to police, negotiations failed in a prostitution encounter inside a Tuscaloosa hotel. Carolyn Arenea Wells and 18-year-old James Lee Hill Jr. were booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail on the felony charges this week, according to court records made public Friday. Depositions in the charges against them chronicle the events leading up to the thwarted business transaction. The male victim told police the incident happened July 26 at the Rodeway Inn on Skyland Boulevard when he went to the hotel to meet a woman for sex. When the woman came into the room, the report states, the victim told the woman - later identified as Wells - that he "needed relief" and asked how much that would be. At this time, he told investigators, the woman had taken all her clothes off. He said she quoted a price of $500, which he refused and then, in turn, made a reduced offer of $200. The woman's answer to the victim's offer was to begin getting dressed, he told police. He said she then texted someone, and moments later went to the door and opened it. A black male then entered the room. James Lee Hill The man - later identified as Hill - pulled out a silver handgun and put it to the victim's head. The victim pulled everything from his pockets and let them take what they wanted. The woman began to move clothes on the hotel room desk room where she found the victim's cell phone. The male suspect told the victim, "Don't leave the room for 10 minutes or I'll blast your ass." The pair also stole the victim's vehicle, according to a police report. Investigators were able to identify the suspects through the hotel's surveillance video, according to the report. On Aug. 1, investigators located Wells and tried to stop her vehicle. She refused, and a chase ensued. Wells threw a handgun out the window. She was taken into custody, and told investigators she never had any intention of having sex with the victim but only met with him to steal his money, She said he gave her $150 and she tried to get more money from the victim by talking with him, but he began making sexual advances toward her. Wells told investigators that angered her, so she told him, "I've got something for you." She said she called Hill and let him in the room at which point Hill robbed the man at gunpoint. She admitted to having the stolen gun in her possession when she met with the victim in the room. Both remain in the Tuscaloosa County Jail. Hill's bond on the first-degree robbery charge is $60,000. The victim was robbed of $650, a wallet, cell phone and 2014 Ford F150. Wells' is charged with first-degree robbery, receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance, third-degree theft and attempting to elude. Her bonds total $77,000. A man was rushed to UAB Hospital Friday night after he was shot in the Fountain Heights community, Birmingham police said. Another person got the victim in a car and drove him from the crime scene, Sgt. Shaun Deane said. The driver stopped at 18th Street North and Third Avenue North to ask for help, he said. People nearby called 911 and the victim was taken to UAB Hospital by ambulance. Witnesses said the car was driving the wrong way down 18th Street North. Deane said the shooting happened somewhere near the 1600 block of 13th Avenue North. The car the victim was riding in was struck by gunfire. However, it is unclear if the victim was inside or outside the car when he was shot, he said. The victim is currently in surgery at UAB Hospital. His condition is unknown at this time. Police do not have a suspect in custody. Further details about the shooting were not immediately available. Anyone with information pertaining to this case should call the Birmingham police Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. One out of four K-12 public schools in Alabama don't have a school resource officer or a security officer, according to a recent survey conducted by the Alabama State Department of Education. That means approximately 375 schools, out of a statewide total of around 1,500, could choose to participate in the Alabama Sentry Program, which allows administrators to keep a firearm in a secured safe on campus for use during an active shooter incident. Only schools without an SRO are allowed to participate in the program, created by Gov. Kay Ivey in the wake of the tragic shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and staff were killed on Valentine's Day, and the May 18 shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, where 10 students and staff were killed. Ivey said having an SRO in every school is preferable, but until that can happen, the Sentry Program will provide a way for administrators to keep schools safe. The survey of schools, conducted in early summer, had a 92 percent response rate, so not all schools responded to Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey's request for that information, according to officials with Ivey's office. The names and locations of schools without SROs were not provided to AL.com, but Press Secretary Daniel Sparkman said it is likely that most of those schools are in rural areas or are in schools with large numbers of students in poverty. An AL.com analysis of federal data collected in the 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 school years showing which schools have SROs found Alabama's county school districts to be more likely not to have an SRO than city school districts. That is likely due to the higher tax proceeds city school districts can use to pay for SROs. State tax proceeds do not currently fund the cost to pay SROs. Local tax proceeds are most often used to pay SROs, but the way SROs are funded varies widely. In some districts, local government and police or sheriff departments provide the SROs at no cost to the district, where others share the cost with the district. At the June 14 state board of education meeting, Mackey told state board members that there is a chance that state lawmakers could fund some portion of the cost of an SRO, but those details haven't yet been worked out. He said he does not anticipate the state to fund the full cost to pay for SROs. On the survey, school officials were also asked how much time their District Safety Coordinator spent on safety-related activities. Six percent of respondents said their safety coordinator had very little time to spend on safety-related activities, while 71 percent said 25 percent of the safety coordinator's time is spent on safety-related activities. The remaining 23 percent said their safety coordinator spent 50 percent or more of their time on safety-related activities. In April, prior to the creation of the Sentry Program, Ivey created the Securing Alabama's Facilities of Education, or SAFE, Council. That Council, composed of heads of the departments of education, mental health, community colleges, information technology and law enforcement, made 10 recommendations to improve safety in Alabama's schools. Sparkman said five of those recommendations have been fully implemented. Those five, recommendations six through 10 in the SAFE Council's May 7 report, did not require legislative approval, Sparkman said. Sparkman said Ivey used "several hundred thousand dollars" from a discretionary fund available to the Governor for use during natural disasters to support implementation of those five recommendations. "We considered this a social emergency of equal magnitude of a natural disaster that we wanted to head off," Sparkman said. Those recommendations included enhancing the ability of the Alabama Fusion Center, a command post for law enforcement statewide, to follow threats to school safety, improving the timeliness of reporting serious discipline problems to the Fusion Center, ensuring schools follow through with required training and drills for students in the event of a school shooting, and creating seven regional school safety and compliance teams to support schools statewide. Members of those seven teams were trained during the summer on the Colorado Threat Assessment model, Sparkman said, which was recommendation number five. Recommendations one through four, which include funding for SROs, mental health supports for students, and improved building security measures, require legislative approval and cannot be fully implemented unless funding can be obtained. State lawmakers are expected to take up that issue when the 2019 legislative session convenes on March 5. A single-vehicle crash killed a Vinemont man in Cullman County this morning, according to police. Alabama State Troopers say David Andrew Hays, 32, was killed when the 2010 Honda Odyssey he was driving left the roadway on Cullman County Road 1435, struck a tree and overturned. The crash occurred at approximately 3:15 a.m. Saturday. Troopers said the driver was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash and was ejected from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Troopers said the crash occurred about five miles north of Cullman, and that an investigation into the crash was still ongoing and no additional information was available at this time. High Court issues letter to arrest Thaman murder accused state minister, mayor The Janakpur High Court has issued a letter to the District Police Office, Mahottari, to arrest Province 2 State Minister and Jaleshwor Municipality Mayor Ram Shankar Mishra, the accused in the murder of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Thaman BK. Democratic nominee Bob Vance raised $91,000 in the campaign for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice in July, while Republican Tom Parker raised only $2,000. Vance, a Jefferson County circuit judge, reported 233 contributions for the month. Parker, an associate justice on the Supreme Court, reported only 11 contributions. Parker, who defeated Chief Justice Lyn Stuart in June for the Republican nomination, said today he has not started actively fundraising for the general election, which is Nov. 5. Vance's big edge in July pulled him roughly even in funds raised with Parker for the entire campaign. Vance, who did not have an opponent in the primary, has spent far less than Parker and had far more money on hand at the end of July. Total amount raised: Parker $425,000; Vance $423,000. Total amount spent: Parker $444,000; Vance $184,000. Month-ending balance: Parker $14,000; Vance $239,000. Vance is making his second run for chief justice after losing to Roy Moore in 2012. Vance said he's working hard to raise money for the campaign and is gratified with the response. "I think what's pleased me most is that our numbers come from a large number of individual contributors," Vance said. "I think we're over 1,600 different contributors now. And the overwhelming majority of that is individual contributions. So that's very heartening to me and it shows we're getting a lot of support in the campaign." Parker said he has a track record of being able to defeat opponents who had more campaign cash. For example, Stuart's campaign raised and spent more than $900,000. "I have had a continual experience of being able to use my money conservatively in my campaigns to win against candidates who have outraised me or outspent me multiple times over," Parker said. During the primary campaign, Parker received most of his money from the Progress for Justice Political Action Committee, which is the PAC for the Alabama Association for Justice, formerly called the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association. Progress for Justice gave Parker's campaign $400,000. Mobile police have released new information they hope will help identify a man who shot three people during a July 31 gas station robbery. Video previously showed the robbery, which took place around 11:30 p.m. at the Chevron station at 139 S. Sage Ave. The crime has drawn heavy attention for the disregard for life shown in the video, in which the robbery can be seen shooting two people, one of them twice. Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste previously described it as "one of the most cold crimes in this community in the last 5-10 years." The suspect was masked, and police already had offered $5,000 for any information leading to his arrest. Newly released images show that the suspect has a tattoo on his right forearm. He is about 5 feet 6 inches tall and of slender build. During the robbery he wore black pants and shirt, black shoes, a red Alabama hat and a black bandana, and used a black .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol. He is considered "armed and extremely dangerous." Anyone with information on the case is asked to call police at 251-208-7211. Two people have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for their involvement in the 2016 armed robbery of a Mobile Walmart. According to information released Friday by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Alabama, brother and sister John Spinner and Valeria Brown, using Brown's infant child, posed as a couple and served as lookouts for two accomplices who carried out the robbery. The crime took place Oct. 10, 2016 at the Walmart at 2500 Dawes Road. The accomplices allegedly held victims at gunpoint at the store's self-checkout register while stealing the day's deposit bags. Spinner and Brown followed the other two after the robbery and Spinner shot at bystanders to assist the escape. The two entered guilty pleas in April and were sentenced Friday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Kristi K. DuBose. Each was ordered to pay $13,154 in restitution, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and will serve three years supervised release afterward. Ah, the rites of summer. Picnics in the park, crowds at the beaches and public swimming pools, raging wildfires out west. Why is the Western U.S. so prone to wildfires? For once, we can't entirely blame people. Despite what Smokey the Bear might say, wildfires have never required human carelessness. In fact, we know from the evidence of fossilized charcoal that wildfires were a normal part of nature for hundreds of millions of years before humans existed. The master fire starter has always been lightning. There are about 100 lightning strikes per second - that's right, per second -- somewhere on earth, so wildfires start all the time. What happens after lightning ignites them - the scope and scale of the resulting fire - will depend on the weather and the amount and type of combustible fuel. The West is not so prone to wildfires because of the amount of rain it gets, so much as because of the timing of the rain it gets. Unlike most of the east, almost all parts of the west have a pronounced dry season during the summer months. Even nominally wet places like Portland and Seattle get little summer rain, less than 10 percent of the year's total. In the east on the other hand, summer months typically get as much rain as any other months. These prolonged, dry western summers parch the vegetation making it particularly combustible when isolated lightning storms appear. Interestingly, the worst wildfire seasons will often follow particularly rainy ones, because more rain means more abundant vegetation, but that vegetation turns into wildfire fuel once it dries out. Also, the west has deserts, sources of hot, dry winds. In fact, the most ferocious winds out west are those that blow in off the desert. Hot dry winds are ideal for fanning small wildfires into massive, fast-moving infernos. Southern California's Santa Ana winds, howling in from the Mojave, routinely reach hurricane force. In the east, our big winds and thunderstorms usually accompany heavy rain. Soggy vegetation burns poorly. Humans do come into the picture when we think about our habit of working heroically to suppress wildfires. This, of course, allows the accumulation of unprecedented amounts of dry underbrush wherever it hadn't burned recently. We started seriously suppressing forest fires after what was known as the Great Fire of 1910, which burned an area of Idaho and Montana the size of Maryland and killed 86 people. The Forest service subsequently built thousands of fire lookout towers in remote areas and hired "smokejumpers" to parachute into these areas to combat fires. At one point, Forest Service policy even declared - without irony -- that all wildfires, no matter how remote, were to be suppressed by 10 a.m. the morning after they were spotted. During World War II, protecting our forests was deemed a matter of national security. Smokey the Bear was concocted to publicize the fight against wildfires. By the 1960's the Forest Service realized that this manic fire suppression policy was a mistake. It was even admitted that setting controlled burns at appropriate times and places could actually help prevent catastrophic fires. How important are previous burns in helping control wildfires? Remember that enormous Southern California wildfire last year -- the biggest one in modern California history, scorching more than 280,000 acres? It was only finally controlled when it contacted areas where previous fires had burned off most of the ground fuel. Finally - you knew it was coming - climate change has increased temperatures and prolonged droughts and dry seasons in a number of parts of the world and will continue to do so. California with its current 16 large wildfires isn't the only place burning right now. There are more than 90 large fires in the Western states. Forest fires are also raging out of control in Sweden and Greece. These days wildfires are notorious for the destruction they cause. Ironically, for most of human history, wildfire was our friend. After all, before we lived in permanent settlements and became farmers, we had no structures that they could destroy. Before we knew how to start fires ourselves, we could capture and preserve flames from wildfires in campfires, torches, and as embers. Fire was invaluable to ancient humans, who could use it to scare off predators, keep warm, and cook food. With cooking, many foods become softer, tastier, and easier to digest. Previously inedible roots and shoots were made edible even tasty with cooking. Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham thinks that our early discovery of cooking is a big reason for our evolutionary success. For millennia humans also managed their landscapes with fire. Early European settlers to the Americas noticed how park-like the landscape was. Widely-spaced trees were spread throughout grasslands - grasslands that were maintained by fires purposely started by native Americans. These grasslands attracted deer, elk, and bison to hunt. Australian aborigines carried "fire sticks" wherever they went to start small scale fires to clear underbrush for similar purposes. So did a number of the indigenous people of Africa and South America. Wildfires have occurred regularly enough in areas with the right climate that it has profoundly shaped some ecosystems. Grassland ecosystems like the prairies of North America were largely maintained by fire before they were plowed into farmland. Southern California chaparral is another one of those fire-dependent ecosystems as are many western forests. So is the longleaf pine ecosystem, formerly covering 90 million acres along the coastal plains of the southeastern U.S. from Virginia down to Florida and around to eastern Texas. Native Americans played a large role the regular burning this ecosystem requires. Now reduced to less than 5 percent of its former area thanks to excessive logging and fire suppression, longleaf pine barrens are distinguished by their open park-like look as well as some of the highest biological diversity outside the tropics. The beauty and worth of this ecosystem is finally being appreciated and efforts to restore it, including the use of controlled burns, is ongoing. So historically sometimes wildfires have been our friend, sometimes our enemy. Put another way, the fire giveth, and it taketh away. Indias north-eastern Assam state was thrown into turmoil on July 30, after approximately four million people living there were not included in a draft list of citizens published by authorities. The Registrar General of India (RGI), which published the draft list called the National Register of Citizens (NRC), said out of the 32.9 million people living in the border state, only 28.9 million managed to submit the necessary documents proving their citizenship. Some human rights activists deemed the list the biggest exercise for disenfranchisement in human history while others said those not included into the list are in legal limbo and may eventually be left stateless. Now the fate of millions most of them among the most vulnerable in India is uncertain. But why did Indian authorities feel the need to compose such a list? Who is being targeted? And most importantly, whats next? A colonial legacy The NRC is being composed as part of a decades old campaign to identify undocumented immigrants in the state. The roots of this issue, however, goes even further back to colonial times, when tracts of forest land in Assam were designated to be cleared in an attempt to expand food production and establish tea plantations. These projects attracted a steady flow of land-hungry and industrious migrants from neighbouring East Bengal, which at that time was part of the same vast country. These migrants helped convert forest land into paddy fields and eventually settled in the state. But the influx of Bengali migrants into Assam did not stop with the completion of these projects. In 1947, when British India was partitioned into two independent dominions amid a cataclysm of religious violence, Assam remained a part of India while large tracts of Bengal, that have a majority Muslim population, became East Pakistan. In 1971, the people of Bengal found themselves in an even more brutal liberation struggle, this time against Pakistan. At the end of this bloody liberation war, which claimed millions of lives, Bangladesh was born. Throughout these struggles immigration from East Bengal into Assam continued steadily. Calls for detention, disenfranchisement and deportation of all foreigners Over the years, Bengali migrants made significant contributions to the economy and culture of Assam, with their toil and sweat as well as their lyrical music and poetry. However, their mounting numbers stirred anxieties among the indigenous Assamese people about the preservation of their distinct culture and ownership of land. As a result, between 1979 to 1985, an anti-foreigner agitation targeting the Bengali immigrants erupted in the state. The agitation known as the Assam Movement was mostly led by student groups, who were demanding immediate detention, disenfranchisement and deportation of all foreigners. The agitation reached its bloody climax on February 18, 1983, when more than 2000 Bengali Muslim men, women and children were massacred in villages across Assams central Nellie district. This was one of the most gruesome atrocities committed in the history of modern India, known widely as the Nellie Massacre. To this day, not a single person has been tried, let alone punished, for these killings. Two years later, in August 1985, representatives of the government of India and the Assam Movement signed the Assam Accord in New Delhi, bringing an end to this most violent chapter in the states history. The accord also paved the way for the leaders of the agitation to form a political party and form a government in the state of Assam soon after. The Assam accord contained a commitment by the government to systematically identify, disfranchise and deport those persons who entered Assam from Bangladesh after 1971, the year of its tempestuous liberation. After the signing of the accord, successive governments continued the process of identifying foreigners but the numbers were always limited to thousands. In 2005, the Supreme Court of India hastened the controversial process of identification of foreigners in the state by officially shifting the burden to prove the legality of a citizenship claim from the state to the individual. It also set strict timelines for the completion of the NRC. This was the start of a problematic and painful era for the Bengali community in Assam. The rise of majoritarian discourse and anti-Muslim sentiments Last weeks NRC draft that excluded nearly four million Assam residents did not come as a shock to people who have been observing the political climate in India, and in Assam, closely for the last four years. Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took control of the central government and the government of Assam, the anti-foreigner discourse in the state became more prominent and eventually evolved into an anti-Muslim one. Even at the height of the agitation, the leaders of the Assam Movement had refrained from making a clear distinction between Hindu and Muslim Bengali immigrants. The BJP, however, has made it amply clear that it is opposed to only Muslim Bengali immigrants, and would welcome Hindu Bengalis into Assam. It even proposed a law that would fundamentally alter Indias citizenship laws and allow Hindus from any neighbouring country including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to acquire Indian citizenship. The draft law also proposed to extend this privilege to persons of other religions that were founded in India Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and even Christianity. It is unambiguous that the only unwelcome religious identity in BJP controlled India, and Assam, is of the Muslims. Prior to becoming Indias prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi used his campaign speeches to demonstrate his commitment to kicking Muslim Bengalis out of Assam. He even alleged that the threatened Assamese rhinoceros were being killed to make way for the Bangladeshis. Other BJP leaders, including party President Amit Shah, have long been using the emotive and pejorative term infiltrator to describe undocumented Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, dubbing them a threat to Indias security. In contrast, the very same leaders describe Hindu immigrants as legitimate refugees escaping persecution in countries where they are minorities. In other words, the majoritarian and anti-Muslim discourse the BJP used to get elected and consolidate its power contributed to the decades-old anti-foreigner sentiments in Assam and paved the way for the creation of the NRC draft that devastated millions. An impossible route to legal citizenship To be included in the NRC, Assam residents are required to produce official documents such as land ownership records, birth certificates, high school records or voter lists that would demonstrate that they or one of their blood ancestors had been a citizen of India on or before 1971. On the face of it, this may seem like a reasonable and fair request. However, it is impossible for many Assam residents to meet this demand. In a country which has a long history of widespread illiteracy, poorly maintained land records and corrupt local administrations, obtaining these documents is not easy. Furthermore, many families do not register their childrens births or send them to school. As the Chief Minister of the neighbouring state of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, pointed out, in a country in which the majority of people dont even know the date of their parents birth, how can people be expected to produce these documents? Banerjee said even she would not be able to obtain documents that categorically prove that she or her parents were Indian citizens in 1971. This process is even more skewed against women. Women from the Bengali community in Assam typically dont have birth certificates (like many men), and rarely stay in school long enough to get an official certificate. They are typically married off before they are 18 years old, and therefore their names dont appear alongside their fathers on the voting lists. They may obtain voter lists in which their names appear next to their husbands, but that is not accepted as proof of their citizenship. What next? Faced with criticism from the opposition, Indian government recently announced that it will give those excluded from the NRC extra time to file their documents. While it is highly unlikely that these people will miraculously find the necessary documents, even if they did, government does not seem to be serious about giving them a second chance. The time that the government has set aside for extra document submission is less than one month. As there are approximately four million people left out of the register, the government can hypothetically receive over 100,000 applications a day during this period. Moreover, according to the schedule, the government has set aside three months to process all the new documentation and publish the final register. This means that it plans to process tens of thousands of claims every single day until the end of this year! The government is also silent about what will happen to the Assam residents who would eventually fail to establish their citizenship. So far, authorities only said that those excluded from the final NRC would have the opportunity to present their case before the Foreigners Tribunal. There are 100 Foreigners Tribunals in Assam and two-thirds of these courts were established by the BJP government. These tribunals are run not by independent judicial officers but by lawyers appointed on short contracts by the state government. Moreover, most of these lawyers belong to indigenous Assamese communities. As a result, it seems highly unlikely that these tribunals will do much to help those who are excluded from the NCR. The Assam government has established six detention centres over the past nine years for people deemed to be foreigners. As a representative of Indias statutory National Human Rights Commission, I was one of the few non-officials who was allowed to enter these detention centres earlier this year. What I witnessed there was in comprehensive defiance of international law, Indias constitutional guarantees and elementary humanism. International law lays down that people of contested citizenship should not be placed in prisons, families should not be separated, and their detention should not be indefinite. All these norms are being flouted in Assam. Women are housed in one jail, their husbands in another, and children older than six years are left outside the prison. When the Trump administration started separating children from their undocumented migrant parents at the US-Mexico border, he immediately -and rightfully- faced global outrage. In Assam, this has been the routine fate of held immigrants for the last nine years, and there is no outrage within India or outside about their desperate plight. They are not given a single days parole, are not allowed to speak with or meet their families in other detention centres, have no work or recreation all day, and have no legal aid to appeal against their indefinite detention. And the July 30 NRC draft proved that millions more may find themselves in the same hellish situation in the coming days. The protracted process to deem who are foreigners in Assam, although conducted under the watchful eye of Indias Supreme Court, could lead to more suffering and polarisation. If compassion is not placed at the centre of all efforts, the final NRC may set the stage for another round of blood-letting, akin to the one we witnessed in the 1980s and yet another harvest of electoral victories built ultimately on the further suffering of these impoverished communities. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Brazils ex-president Lula widely popular despite imprisonment The former president, jailed for corruption, has been part of Brazils political scene for 40 years and many of his supporters believe he is responsible for raising millions out of poverty. Ceasefire called for days after aid organisation issues warning over potential for a wildfire cholera spread. More video clips from the story A 28-year-old fined $156 by Danish police after another woman tried to tear off her face veil at a mall. Police in Denmark fined a 28-year-old woman for wearing a full face veil, the first time a punishment was meted out since it became illegal on Wednesday. According to local media, police issued the fine in the city of Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, after being called to a shopping centre on Friday. The woman in the veil encountered another female who tried to tear it off, resulting in a minor scuffle. During the fight her niqab [veil] came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again, police officer David Borchersen said, according to Danish news agency Ritzau. The woman was fined $156 for wearing a full face veil in public and asked to either take the garment off or leave the shopping centre. She chose to leave. Burqa ban The fine was the result of a new law banning all face-covering clothing that went into effect on August 1. Danish legislators passed the law presented by Denmarks centre-right governing coalition last May. The law was also backed by the Social Democrats and the far-right Danish Peoples Party, leading to a 75 to 30 vote in favour. {articleGUID} Violating the regulation results in a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156). Repeated violators will be fined up to 10,000 kroner ($1,560). When the ban went into effect, dozens of women came out in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to protest it. The Danish government said the regulation is not aimed at any religion. But the law popularly known as the burqa ban is seen by some as directed at Muslim women who choose to wear the face veil in public. Following the Danish vote in May, Amnesty Internationals Gauri van Gulik said in a statement: All women should be free to dress as they please and to wear clothing that expresses their identity or beliefs. This ban will have a particularly negative impact on Muslim women who choose to wear the niqab or burqa. If the intention of this law was to protect womens rights, it fails abjectly. Polarisation The Danish ban follows similar ones in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and parts of Switzerland. The European Court of Human Rights last year upheld a Belgian ban on wearing the face veil in public. France was the first European country to ban the veil in public places with a law that took effect in 2011. Lena Larsen, project director of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the University of Oslo, said illegalising clothing is polarising and not productive. I dont think that this [law] will obtain any productive aim of integration or peaceful coexistence, she told Al Jazeera in an interview from Oslo, Norways capital. What we are witnessing is an expression of Danish identity politics, legalising an ethical concern and we are seeing polarisation, Larsen added. Women who are considered to be oppressed and in need to be saved from unwanted social control they are actually strong voices for wearing the face veil with arguments of personal freedom to choose whatever they want to wear. Thousands of Druze protest against Israels Jewish nation law An estimated 150,000 expected to take part in demonstrations calling for equal rights for all Israeli citizens. HUMLA, Dharma Raj Shahi of Humla hopped across the border to Taklakot in Tibet last year and earned Rs350,000 working as a labourer for three months, and this year too he is taking off for the Chinese market town hoping to make an equal amount of money. Federal justice says US government is responsible to locate parents deported without their children. A US judge called the Trump administrations efforts to reunite migrant parents and their detained children unacceptable, adding the government not non-governmental organisations is responsible for bringing them back together. In an attempt to increase the number of parents and children that are reunited, the judge on Friday ordered the government to appoint a person to take charge of its efforts. This is going to be a significant undertaking and its clear there has to be one person in charge, Judge Dana Sabraw said at a hearing in San Diego. The reality is that for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanent orphaned child. Sabraw is the judge who ordered the government to reunite about 2,500 separated children with their parents by July 26. About 1,900 of those children have been reconnected with family members so far, but hundreds remain incarcerated. Global outrage Trump administration attorneys filed an unusual request in a district court in southern California, arguing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other non-profits and charities should carry the burden of finding the 410 deported migrant parents. Sabraw, however, struck down that idea saying it was 100 percent the responsibility of the administration. Many of these parents were removed from the country without their child; all of this is the result of the governments separation and then, inability and failure to track and reunite, the judge said. The parents and children were separated as part of President Donald Trumps zero tolerance policy towards undocumented immigration, sparking global outrage as images and recordings of weeping children emerged. The judge is refusing to let the government off the hook for the mess it made, said lawyer Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, which sued the government over the separations. Gelernt also accused Washington of holding back information that could help locate the deported parents. Every day the government has sat on this information has been another day of suffering for these families, he said. DACA decision In a different case, a court ordered the Trumps administration on Friday to fully reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programme. Passed by the Obama administration in 2012, DACA shields from deportation about 800,000 undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers who were brought to the US as children. US District Judge John Bates in Washington, DC, first issued a ruling in April ordering the government to continue the programme, adding he would stay the decision for 90 days so it could make its case for why it should be ended. {articleGUID} Following the governments arguments, Bates decided not to change his ruling. He gave the administration until August 23 to appeal. Trump has railed time and again against the DACA programme, calling on Congress to pass legislation to address the fate of the Dreamers. Trump promised to end DACA during his 2016 election campaign and the protections were set to begin to be phased out in early March. There are fears of a demographic change in the Muslim-majority state if Article 35-A is repealed or amended. Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir Tension is growing in Indian-administered Kashmir amid fears Indias top court will revoke a law on Monday protecting exclusive citizenship rights. Article 35-A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir states legislature to define permanent residents and provide them with special rights and privileges. It also bars non-state subjects from purchasing property and having government jobs in the disputed state. In the event Indias supreme court repeals the law, there are concerns about a demographic change in the Muslim-majority state. Politicians, traders, civil society members and residents in the restive region have threatened a massive protest to defend the law, which grants them special status and prevents non-residents from permanent settlement. This is the matter of our identity, Yasin Khan, who heads Kashmir Economic Alliance, a union of traders and businessmen, told Al Jazeera. We have been protesting for a week now. No attempt will be tolerated to change the disputed nature and demographic character [of Kashmir] and making it like a state of Palestine. We The Citizens, an NGO widely seen in Kashmir as being linked to right-wing Hindu groups, filed the petition. The group argues that Article 35-A is highly discriminatory and therefore, liable to be declared as unconstitutional. The article is, it says, against the very spirit of oneness of India as it creates a special class of citizen within a class of Indian citizens. Two-day strike threatened Kashmiri separatists, who support merging the region with Pakistan or an independent state, called for a two-day strike from August 5 against what they called a serious challenge, warning of mass agitation if the law is changed. Joint Resistance Leadership, an alliance of three separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammd Yasin Malik said in a statement: We want to make it clear to the government of India that Kashmiris will not take this attack on them lying low. Any and every attempt made at changing the demographic nature of the state will be stiffly resisted. They can kill us or detain us, but we wont succumb to pressure tactics. We are ready to sacrifice our lives and face detentions to safeguard peoples interests and the disputed nature of the state. There are fears that a significant protest movement could result in violence, shutdowns and curfews. Zafar Shah will defend Article 35-A on behalf of a group of Kashmiri lawyers at court. The existence of this law is important for the disputed region to keep its political issue alive, the lawyer told Al Jazeera. This law is the identity of Kashmir and this constitutional provision protects four things: state subject, right to property in the state, employment and scholarships. If any change is made to the law, people will lose these rights. If the law is abrogated, it will affect the rights of people and the constitutional history of Kashmir dispute that is recognised by United Nations. The law was initially enacted by the last monarch of Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, and has been in place since 1927. It was later included in the Indian constitution drafted after independence and was accepted in 1954. This matter is related to the life and death of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and we are ready to spill our blood to safeguard this law. Alliance of 27 Kashmiri groups defending Article 35-A Indias ruling right-wing Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) dismissed peoples fears. Those who are crying over it are fooling people. No one will lose jobs here. The matter is in court and whatever is decided, we will stand by that, Ashok Koul, general secretary of BJP in the region, told Al Jazeera. There is no need to protest, nothing will change even if the law is scrapped. Kashmir is not different than any other state of India. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir and rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Over the past 20 years, violence has killed thousands of people, mostly civilians. The region is currently under direct federal rule after a fragile coalition between the BJP and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a local pro-India party, collapsed in June this year. Nasir Aslam Wani, a leader of the pro-Indian National Conference party, which has governed the state for much of the last seven decades, told Al Jazeera that it will defend the law in court. We oppose its repeal. This is about the rights of the citizens of Kashmir, he said. Senior Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq speaks during a demonstration against attempts to revoke Article 35-A [Tauseef Mustafa/AFP] The issue has united Kashmiris from across political and ideological divides. Earlier this week, representatives of 27 organisations including traders, industrialists, transporters and fruit-growers in the region vowed to defend the law. If the law is removed or tinkered with, then the rights of original citizens of Jammu and Kashmir on their immovable property and other such rights would be taken away, and all Indians would be afforded a right to establish their settlements in the length and breadth of the state, pushing away the original citizens, they said in a statement to reporters. This matter is related to the life and death of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and we are ready to spill our blood to safeguard this law. Residents worry that any change in the law will divert attention from the political dispute. The main reason why some right wing-groups want the law to be repealed is they want to make settlements here, said Danish Ahmad, a 28-year-old local. They want to erase the nature of Kashmirs political dispute. It is worrying for all Kashmiris. North Korea continues to develop its nuclear programme and is violating international sanctions by clandestinely transferring weapons and fuel, a confidential United Nations report said. By turning off tracking systems on ships, the North Asian nation was able to carry out illicit ship-to-ship petroleum transfers, an activity that has increased in scope, scale and sophistication, media quoted the leaked report as saying on Friday. It also said prohibited military cooperation with the Syrian Arab Republic has continued unabated. [North Korea] has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018, it said. {articleGUID} The isolated country attempted to sell weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to the report. UN experts were shown a July 13, 2016 letter from a Houthi leader inviting the North Koreans to meet in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to discuss the issue of the transfer of technology and other matters of mutual interest. North Korea also attempted to supply small arms and light weapons and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries to Libya and Sudan, said the report. Optimistic US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday the process of ending North Koreas nuclear programme would take time, but he was optimistic it would be done. It was important to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on the North, he said, and the United States takes seriously any detraction from enforcing UN sanctions. Im optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded, Pompeo said on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore.. The work has begun. The process of achieving denuclearisation of the [Korean] peninsula is one that I think we have all known would take some time. {articleGUID} North Korea has been under sanctions since 2006, when the country carried out its first nuclear test. In November 2017, the country said it had successfully developed a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States mainland. Following that announcement, more sanctions were imposed by the UN in December. Pompeo told reporters the US has new, credible reports that Russia is violating UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea, he said. Any violation that detracts from the worlds goal of finally, fully denuclearising North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously. Russia and China recently suggested the UN Security Council discuss easing sanctions after US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met for the first time in June, and Kim pledged to work towards denuclearisation. During their meeting in Singapore, the two leaders signed an agreement pledging to support a peaceful resolution to seven decades of hostilities. Under the agreement, the US committed to provide security guarantees while North Korea commits to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Following their meeting, North Korea destroyed several tunnels used as underground nuclear testing facilities. Insistent moves Despite the agreement, US intelligence agencies reported North Korea continues working on new ICBM missiles. North Koreas foreign minister on Saturday reaffirmed his countrys resolve to implement the deal but said he is increasingly concerned by US attitudes. The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-US joint statement in a responsible and good-faith manner, said Ri Yong-ho, referring to his country by its official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leaders intention. A foreign ministry statement quoted Ri as saying impatience is not helpful at all for building confidence. Especially advancing unilateral demands will further deepen mistrust instead of reviving trust, said Ri. As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally. Meanwhile, the US State Department said Trumps reply to Kims latest letter was hand-delivered to the Norths top diplomat by Pompeo. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert would not address the content of Trumps letter to Kim. The White House said earlier in the week that Kim had sent a new correspondence to Trump, but did not specify what was communicated. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri says Pyongyang unwilling to move unilaterally if US will not remove its concerns. North Korea has accused the United States of undermining the process of denuclearisation and for showing alarming impatience on the issue, after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang. At the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said on Saturday that his country stood firm in its determination and commitment to implement the June deal between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But he also criticised the US for undermining confidence in the process: What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leaders intention. As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally, Ri added. His comments came after Pompeo said at the same forum that he was emphasising to countries the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea, while adding that he was optimistic about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation. At the June 12 historic talks in Singapore, Kim signed up to a vague commitment to denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. Since the agreement, Pyongyang had taken goodwill measures, including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and dismantling a nuclear test ground, Ri said, according to a statement. He said the US is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK, referring to the initials of North Koreas official name. Pompeo still optimistic Saturdays forum in Singapore, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. As well as the US and North Korea, it includes foreign ministers from China, Russia, South Korea and Japan, all countries traditionally involved in efforts to curtail North Koreas nuclear ambition. {articleGUID} At the meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, Pompeo said in a tweet. It was Trumps reply to a letter he received from Kim earlier this week, he said. While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and concerns have been growing that some UN member states have been easing sanctions. A new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programme, and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers. On Saturday, Pompeo briefly met North Koreas foreign minister, greeting him at a joint photo of ministers, with the pair shaking hands, smiling and exchanging some words. While the encounter was brief, Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert described it as a step in the right direction given where US-North Korea relations were a year ago, as tensions soared due to North Koreas weapons tests. Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih says necessary procedures have been taken by coalitions leadership to protect ships. Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, will resume all oil shipments through a strategic Red Sea shipping lane that was recently the target of missile attacks, the state news agency SPA reported. Saudi officials temporarily suspended oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on July 26 after attacks on two crude-carrying vessels by Houthi rebels in Yemen, causing minimal damage to one of them. The decision to resume shipping of oil through Bab al-Mandeb comes after all necessary procedures were taken by the coalition leadership to protect ships of the coalition countries, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Saturday. The Saudi and Emirati-led coalition, which has been at war with the Houthi rebels since March 2015, took the necessary measures to ensure the security of the shipments, he said without elaborating. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea, is only 20km wide, making hundreds of ships potentially an easy target. Yemen lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers. The vessels pass near Yemens shores while heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe. Fight over release of US pastor held 21-months intensifies as Turkish president orders sanctions on American officials. Turkeys president ordered the asset freeze of two US officials in retaliation for sanctions imposed on its justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey had been patient since the US sanctions were slapped on Abdulhamit Gul, the minister of justice, and Suleyman Soylu, the minister of interior, this week. I am instructing my friends today, we will freeze assets, if there are any, of the US justice and interior secretaries in Turkey, Erdogan, speaking at a ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party meeting in Ankara, was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency. It was unclear who would be affected by Erdogans announcement because of differing cabinet roles in the United States, or if they have any holdings in Turkey. Well past time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, meanwhile, said on Saturday he hopes the American held in Turkey will be released in the coming days. Pompeo and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, met in Singapore on Friday to discuss the release of Evangelical Christian pastor Andrew Brunson. He was arrested in December 2016 following a failed coup in Turkey on charges of espionage and committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member allegations Brunson denies. He faces 35 in prison if convicted. I had a constructive conversation with my counterpart yesterday, Pompeo told reporters. I made clear that it is well past time that pastor Brunson be free and permitted to return to the United States, and that the others being held by Turkey also similarly be freed as well. I am hopeful that in the coming days that we will see that occur. The United States has also been seeking the release of three locally employed embassy staff held in Turkey. Asked if the issue threatened Turkeys membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Pompeo said: Turkey is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention to continue to work with cooperatively. Economic fallout The White House blocked assets and properties belonging to the Turks after accusing them of playing leading roles in Brunsons detention. Steps taken by the United States over Brunson were not suitable for a strategic partner and were disrespectful to Turkey, Erdogan said. We dont want to be a party to lose-lose games. Moving political and judicial disputes into an economic dimension will be harmful for both sides, Erdogan said in a televised speech. The dispute between the NATO allies has had a growing economic effect on Turkey. Investors deepening concerns have sent the lira to record lows and hammered local stocks, as well as Turkeys debt-risk profile. Turkeys foreign minister said discussions will continue with American officials. Of course you cant expect all issues to be resolved in a single meeting. But we have agreed to work together, closely cooperate, and keep the dialogue in the coming period, Cavusoglu said after the talks with Pompeo. Andrew Brunson faces a prison sentence of up to 35 years if convicted [Evren Atalay/Anadolu] The US pastor has lived in Turkey for 23 years and led the Izmir Resurrection Church. He was held in a Turkish prison for 21 months until he was transferred to house arrest last week. On Tuesday, a court rejected his appeal to be released during his trial. Brunson stands accused of helping supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim Leader who Turkish authorities say masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt in which 250 people were killed. Gulen denies the allegations. Turkey has been trying to have Gulen extradited from the US for two years. The American pastor was also charged with supporting outlawed Kurdish PKK fighters. The leftist Workers Party in Brazil has nominated its founder Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as its candidate for the countrys top seat, despite him being imprisoned for corruption. Brazil is holding a presidential election on October 7. Lula, who is serving a 12-year sentence, is by far the frontrunner in opinion polls but it is still unclear whether he will be able to contest the polls. The former president, who served two largely popular terms between 2003 and 2010, has been jailed on a corruption conviction. The 72-year-old denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted. In the Sao Paulo convention centre, some 2,000 attendees donned Lula masks and chanted his name. Following fiery speeches from Lulas senior allies, the party faithful heard the leaders words, which were read out by an actor. {articleGUID} Brazil needs to restore its democracy, the message said. They want to scrap the peoples right to choose the president, it added. They want to create a democracy without the people. We have an enormous responsibility ahead. One supporter, Paulo Henrique Barbosa Mateus, 27, said the Workers Party is confident it can somehow get Lula, who is behind bars in Curitiba, in the race. Weve got even stronger. Our role is to reinforce his candidacy and make sure he gets his right to be in the campaign, because he is innocent, he told the AFP news agency. Surveys show him with nearly double the support of all other main candidates in a first round, crushing any runner-up in the second decisive round two weeks later. Passing the torch Lula is waiting for final court judgment on whether he can run. But things do not look good: under current laws, anyone losing an appeal of a criminal conviction is not permitted on the ballot. His legal team is fighting against the legal team of those who put him in prison in the first place, said Al Jazeeras Daniel Schweimler, reporting from the convention in Sao Paulo. {articleGUID} But even if he gets out and thats a remote possibility its still not clear whether he is, in fact, eligible to stand in those October elections. That still has to be decided by an electoral court so theres still a long process to go but the people who selected him as their candidate at the convention here in Sao Paolo are absolutely convinced he is the man for the job. Despite the leftist leaders almost cult-like support, there was close attention being paid to the Workers Party choice for vice president a figure who could end up standing in for the imprisoned leader. One high-profile possibility is former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad. A powerful politician, he has signed on to Lulas legal team, giving him easy access to the prison, and he would be well placed to inherit Lulas electorate. But the party appears to be torn, with some fearful of any move that might suggest giving up on the main goal of somehow getting Lula back into the presidential palace. Despite expectations that the issue might be resolved at the convention, no announcement was made. Other nominees named Two other big party conventions were held on Saturday. In Brasilia, centre-left environmental campaigner Marina Silva was named as the nominee of her Rede party. {articleGUID} Also in the capital, former Sao Paulo governor and establishment heavyweight Geraldo Alckmin secured the nod from the centre-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party, or PSDB. Go Brazil, Geraldo for president! about 1,000 supporters chanted before Alckmin, 65, was nominated in an almost unanimous vote. The problem facing all candidates is the level of voter disgust and apathy. Two polls show that 33 or 41 percent of voters are undecided or not participating in an election that does not include Lula. If Lula were on the ballot, that number would drop but still account for about a quarter of voters. UNRWA says it needs to raise $70m by the end of the month or it will not be able to pay salaries of thousands of people. Calling BS on the Victimhood Narrative We Have Overcome: An Immigrant's Letter to the American People by Jason Hill, Bombardier Books, New York, July 10, 2018 (192 pages, $19.07, hardcover) One can scarcely imagine the ideological venom generated among leftists by a well-spoken black professor with a doctorate in philosophy who has the temerity to make public statements like these: "Americans as a group of people are good people. But hatred of the good for being good ... has become a fashionable emotion among certain elitist groups who resent America and her people for such virtues." "America in the 21st century is one essentially free of racial, ethnical, and religious clashes and violence among all her varied peoples." "America is a place of universal belonging. It is the prototype of what a benevolent universe looks like[.] ... It celebrates civic nationalism as the political principle that would forge a common identity among strangers and foreigners from disparate parts of the globe." "[A]n insidious cottage-industry of victimology [is] often predicated on black suffering and white guilt, guilt for past transgressions that whites have long atoned for as a group." If even a third of America's black citizens shared the views of Jason Hill, a 1985 Jamaican immigrant to this country, the Democratic Party as currently constituted would not exist. Consequently, Hill and black Americans with similar views are despised and vilified by "compassionate" Dems and by blacks who've embraced the victim status assigned to them by Alt-Left politicians and academicians like Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is how Professor Hill puts it: Hell ... hath no greater fury like a far-left-winger rejected for his or her redemptive gestures[.] ... Because if the moral meaning and purpose of your existence as a far-left liberal rests on my suffering and victimization as a black person, then you will need me to suffer indefinitely in order to continue to cull some meaning and purpose from your life. Beyond being labeled a traitor to his race, Hill suffered professionally in the corrupt halls of academia for his non-racial, self-reliant, capitalist beliefs. In that setting, Hill struggled mightily for admission to numerous graduate schools (despite having excellent qualifications) and was ultimately denied tenure by his "far-left, postmodern, Marxist-infected" colleagues (despite possessing a sterling teaching and publication record). Fortunately, this essentially "racist" decision for the "uppity" black professor was overturned by the university's president, who was, uncharacteristically, "a huge fan" of Hill's work. Adding fuel to the fire of leftist hatred is this hard-to-refute argument: "I adduce my own life as evidence of the utter nonsense of this [minorities-as-victims] narrative." That life included interactions with countless whites in and around Stone Mountain, Georgia an area once considered (and by leftists still considered) Klan country. Here, in the late '80s, Caribbean families bought homes and conversed with neighbors "in utter fearlessness." "None of us ever missed a night's sleep," Hill notes. Indeed, his grandmother went to an all white church, "and soon she was its most beloved parishioner." In addition to his own experience, Hill relates with sympathy the stories of many non-white immigrant friends. Dinesh, for example, was an "untouchable" in his native India but was "embraced as an equal" by Hill's friends, a group that included "foreigners from all over the world" as well as white Southerners. Hill provides the most detail when discussing the success story of Thai, a young Vietnamese man who couldn't speak English but who, with the help of his friends, was able to learn enough of the language to gain admission to Georgia State University and later to open his own restaurant. Thai, who ultimately graduated magna cum laude, accomplished all this with no help from his family in Vietnam "illiterate peasants too poor even to visit." Countless stories like Thai's refute the assertion by black academicians like Ta-Nehisi Coates that the American Dream is an illusion that it is not only unattainable for blacks and immigrants, but also a denial of their true cultural selves. In a touching episode near the book's end, Hill contacts Thai by phone twenty years later and is "shocked to hear the American twang in his accent." Thai, who made additional money in the stock market and real estate, had sold his "three restaurants" and moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his grandchildren. All this success occurred after his first restaurant failed. When asked by Hill what he now thought about America, Thai replied, "America has brought me where I am. I can't imagine a world without, you know, this place." So much for Ta-Nehisi Coates and his America-hating cohorts. Hill's love for America has as its logical corollary a passionate hatred for America's corrupt universities. "The biggest breach in this country," Hill declares, "is not between blacks and whites. It is between the intellectuals and the people." Put more succinctly, "[t]he American professoriate hates America!" Consequently, the author boldly declares a remedy that would do wonders were it actually implemented: "The solution is not just to defund the American humanities and social science departments in current universities, but to also shut them down entirely and rebuild them from scratch." Beyond seeking the unlikely defunding of these institutions by the government and alumni, Hill's "rebuild from scratch" prescription appears to be, for all its rhetorical merit, a dream too far. Overall, Hill's book is marvelous for its use of personal details to bolster profound psycho-political insights. On occasion, however, the author's academic language detracts from his mostly engrossing narrative. This "scholarly" tilt often produces needlessly complex and extended formulations. (The term "metaphysical," for example, appears as a qualifier dozens of times.) This problem unfortunately characterizes much of Hill's introduction. I would advise readers to skip all but the first few pages of that section and to read the intro in full after finishing the book. One other problem I had was the insertion of material where Hill describes, with poetic sensitivity, to be sure, his own battle with suicide a struggle that was not linked clearly to any professional or political issues and had a familial precedent. That said, Hill's book is well worth reading for its glowing tribute to America, its penetrating insight into the essentially racist mentality of the left, and its concrete examples of these two conclusions. Richard Kirk is a freelance writer living in Southern California whose book Moral Illiteracy: "Who's to Say?" is also available on Kindle. Florida's Mr. Nowhere Man Faces a Challenge This is the year when non-politicians will oust the professionals. Among the longest serving of these career politicians is Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida. Nelson, who began practicing law in 1970, was elected as a state representative in 1972 and, except for a stint following his unsuccessful 1990 gubernatorial campaign, has been in public office ever since. This time Nelson's likely Republican opponent will be Gov. Rick Scott. Scott just turned in a required financial disclosure to the U.S. Senate showing that his family wealth exceeded $255 million. I'm sure that will be a point of attack against him. In the liberal mind, it is, after all, a crime to have been successful, even though some of the richest members of Congress are Democrats. What Scott's critics overlook is that he earned every penny of his wealth: he grew up in a working-class family and made his way through college on the G.I. bill after serving in the Navy. Unlike Nelson, who entered public service in his twenties, Scott first ran for office in his fifties, only after a long and highly successful career in business. Sen. Nelson seems to think of government service as a tenured appointment. According to the congress.gov website, only one of the bills Nelson sponsored in the current session of Congress actually became law. (That would be "A bill to designate the health care center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tallahassee, Florida, as the Sergeant Ernest I. 'Boots' Thomas VA Clinic, and for other purposes.") Having sponsored no successful major bills, so far as I can tell, during his entire 18 years in the Senate, his biggest accomplishment seems to have been flying a NASA space mission 32 years ago. That's why many Floridians like to say he's "Lost in Space." Sen. Nelson has been called a "ghostly presence" on Capitol Hill, and the charge is resonating with Florida voters. Even though he's into his fifth decade in office, a significant number, when polled, don't know what to make of him. There's a feeling that Nelson has avoided taking on hard issues. The problem is that hiding out for 40 years doesn't address the big issues America faces, especially when you have a senator who, when he does take a stand, stands with the left. A member of the U.S. Senate should be a leader, especially a senator with Nelson's kind of seniority, but Nelson is often nowhere to be found. There's one place where Nelson is very much present on Capitol Hill. That would be in voting against President Trump. I can't find a single important vote where Nelson has voted with the president. Despite Florida's voting for President Trump in 2016, Nelson keeps voting with Schumer and Pelosi. In fact, Nelson has voted with Schumer 84% of the time. Nelson voted against the 2018 Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act. He refused to vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. He voted against confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch and will presumably vote against confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice. He voted against the Trump tax reform of 2017, even voting not to allow it to come to the Senate floor. He voted more than once against measures that would have abolished Obamacare. He voted against funding for a border wall. He voted against confirmation of 11 members of Trump's Cabinet. The list goes on. As I see it, the only thing Bill Nelson has done is cater to the special interests who are ripping off the citizens of Florida. I would like to know how many working people and retirees he has ever entertained in his home. (Does he even have a home in Florida? I can find no record of it.) And how many lobbyists and representatives of special interests have entertained him? Though he seems to have been missing in action on the Hill, one area where Sen. Nelson excels is in fundraising. He has raised over $41 million for his three previous campaigns and has already raised over $13.4 million (as of March) for his current campaign. The question is what exactly those large donors got in return for their generous donations. By far the largest donors to his previous campaigns were lawyers and law firms, otherwise known as "trial lawyers." Has Sen. Nelson ever advocated a cap on class action lawsuits? I don't believe so. What is clear is that Sen. Nelson's net worth has increased dramatically during his time in "public service." Despite his modest congressional salaries and the high cost of living in Washington, according to opensecrets.org, Nelson's net worth as of 2016 was $3.67 million. By contrast, Rick Scott's wealth was earned in the private sector. Scott has been a fearless and effective leader, not a stooge of special interests. He has contributed to Florida's record of economic growth and clean government. When crises arise, as with the Pulse nightclub shooting and Hurricane Irma, Scott was on the spot, providing leadership and relief. Gov. Scott is a man of action, in large part because he is not a career politician. For Scott, government service is just that: a service that he has performed with no thought of personal reward. Rick Scott is certainly one of the most effective governors in Florida history. He has maintained a balanced state budget and a sound credit rating, steered Florida's emergency response through several powerful hurricanes, improved educational standards, lowered crime rates, and maintained Florida as a no-income tax state. Above all, he has restrained the growth of government. He also leaves office without a hint of scandal or impropriety. Were it not for the two-term limit, Gov. Scott would easily be re-elected to a third term as governor. I'm sure that Bill Nelson, as a private citizen, is a well meaning and thoroughly decent individual. He may even be sincere in what he says about avoiding "extreme" positions, although his partisan voting record contradicts this statement. He is certainly a likeable person one I would enjoy meeting should he ever visit my conservative district. (For some reason, he seems to avoid us.) But it is time for him to return to being a private citizen. The era of career politicians is over. Fortunately, RealClearPolitics polling puts Gov. Scott ahead of Bill Nelson, if ever so slightly. Unlike Mr. Nowhere Man, Scott has a strong presence in the state, a highly favorable approval rating, and strong support from the state's millions of retirees. I'm sure that Democrats, with the help of funding from special interests, will attack Gov. Scott fiercely, but at the moment, Scott holds a lead over his zombie opponent. Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011). 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The story of cult leader (AKA the "sex-guru") Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's takeover of a small town in Wasco County, Oregon in the early 1980s provides a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the cult, and, in particular, the quest of Rajneesh's number one, Ma Anand Sheela, to retain power. Rajneesh's ability to hypnotize his lost followers coupled with Sheela's evil doings in order to retain and expand her growing empire resonate with those of us who believe that Barack Obama and the Democrats utilized similar tactics in order to attain and maintain their control. One cannot help but watch the documentary and consider that Rajneesh and Sheela were the king and queen of community organizers of their time. Today's liberals, like Rajneesh's followers, are desperately seeking someone to take care of them. Obama's ridiculous "The Life of Julia" video epitomized the way in which liberals believe that the government should take care of its citizenry from cradle to grave. They lack the ability to think on their own and turn to cult-like figures (Obama had his own gurus in Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan before taking on that role for half of the country) and mainstream and social media to feed their voracious appetites for endorphins. For Rajneeshees, wild and crazy orgies and sex with anyone and everyone filled their emotional and physical needs. Intellectual endeavors were nonexistent. One of the reasons David Koresh's Branch Davidians (the subject of a well done Paramount documentary, Waco, available on Amazon Prime video) grew to barely 150 members, while the Rajneeshees attracted nearly 10,000 to Oregon, reflected the difference between cults promoting abstinence versus orgies. Many liberals today lack the ability to think on their own. They ingest hours upon hours of CNN and MSNBC hosts spewing out lie after lie, and the brainwashing draws them farther and farther in. It feels good to be a part of the Trump Derangement cult. You belong to a group in which you are accepted, and the initiation fee is only to leave your common sense and morality at the door. While the Rajneeshees were part of a cult of love, the Trump Derangement cult, and the Democrats more broadly, provide a home for resisters (to a duly elected government) and haters. What struck me in the first episode of Wild Wild Country was that Rajneesh appears to be the father of many of liberals' current obsessions. For instance, he and Sheela were seemingly the original multiculturalists as well as the founders of the concept of becoming "woke." "The Awaken Man will be the New Man. He will not be Christian. He will not be Hindu. He will not be Indian. He will not be German. He will not be English. He will be simply an awakened being," states Rajneesh. Sheela elaborates, "A new man that lives in harmony with one another, lives in harmony with nature; where all nationalities, all colors, all religions sit together." I was waiting for kumbaya or a session of the United Nations General Assembly to break out. In a sense, it did as the documentary shares film clips of Rajneesh surrounded by his "stoned" apostles swaying and shaking and singing and dancing in between their orgies. Screen grab from Wild, Wild Country. Similarly, Rajneeshees were the first to need safe spaces to protect themselves from reality. Rajneesh specifically states, "You have to be given a safe place from where you can work; a place where ordinary things, taboos, inhibitions are put aside." He never mentions what that "work" is and why reality has to be escaped in order to function in his world. But it is clear that he and his disciples are living in a dream world. Unfortunately, the safe spaces being provided to snowflakes on college campuses, in their workplaces, and elsewhere for their delicate psyches to survive the traumas of daily life are now a reality in America, thanks to liberals seeking control of every aspect of the citizenry's lives. Rajneesh continues, "And this is only the beginning. Many, many more are going to come. They are on the way. The others who will come, the coming of millions more. Hence your responsibility is great because you will be preparing the way." It seems that the Democrats took the sex guru literally as they take to the streets to demand the abolishment of ICE, open borders, sanctuary cities, and unlimited immigration. The Rajneeshees imported homeless people from all over the country, bussing them in in order to register them to vote and further their political ambitions by winning county elections. The Democrats took a page from Rajneesh's playbook and import illegals from Latin America and Muslim refugees, opening our borders in order, eventually (after the inevitable amnesty), to register them all to vote and so to further their political ambitions. "San Francisco, always a leader in the 'woke' politics of the progressive left," is not even interested in waiting for Congress to grant amnesty as it begins registering non-citizens for voting in local elections. Sheela also arguably represents the Deep State today. In some ways, she utilized the U.S. Constitution and our laws in order to expand her power, just as Obama discovered that he too could use his phone and his pen to sidestep constitutional limitations. Both Sheela and Obama went beyond legal limits in order to ensure their control over their subjects. Sheela used wiretapping, amassed an arsenal, and had a staff of individuals with whom she used paranoia and control as motivators. Obama used the entire Executive Branch to achieve his goals of minimizing dissent and gaining control of the populace. His arsenal, including the FBI, CIA, DOJ, IRS, NSA, CFPB, and FCC, and a host of other administrative agencies, was utilized to invade the privacy of Americans and shut down conservative speech. Both Sheela and Obama embedded supporters throughout their networks in order to ensure continued domination. Similarly, both Sheela and the Democrats use physical and psychological threats to intimidate their enemies. The tactics used by the Rajneeshees to take over the small Oregon town are redolent of Maxine Waters, who advised her followers, "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." Perhaps Waters took a page from Obama, who ordered his subjects to "get in [their opponents'] face," but she could easily have learned from the Rajneeshees, who intimidated the residents of Antelope, Oregon into leaving their homes. It is clear that these disdainful Democrats prefer that Republicans leave the country as well. Sheela and Democrats also believe they are above the law. In the end, Sheela did not exhibit empathy for the victims of her actions or remorse for her sins. She still believes she should have been able to use our laws in order to attain her "virtuous" goals. Her monstrous actions were only diminished by her complete and total arrogance. Similarly, Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer, Brennan, Rhodes, Power, Jarrett, Rice, Reid, and the rest of the Democrats who believed they were above the law continue to this day to arrogantly undermine the current administration as they are unwilling to accept that their days of power are over for now, and they insist that a restoration of rightful authority (to the left) has to occur soon. The Deep State still lives. And while the Trump administration is attempting to disassemble the infrastructure built by his predecessor, the unending condescension, arrogance, and greed that pervaded the Obama administration continue today, just as Sheela's self-righteousness pervaded Wild Wild Country. As with most cults, there is no clarity for non-members to understand the appeal. It is unclear what Rajneesh's real gift was that attracted his followers, nor is it clear what Obama-supporters really saw in him. Rajneesh attracted many followers in other countries as well; there are lost people everywhere. Obama also was loved abroad, maybe even more than by his followers in the United States. Hope and change, peace and love both are dreams, not practical political and cultural realities. Cult leaders prey on the weak, and while those interviewed for the documentary continue to praise Rajneesh to this day, they are pathetic losers to the rest of us. If multiculturalism and safe spaces were his legacy, it is clear that he was a failure just as Obama will be viewed as such when history looks back on his years in office and sees a disappearing legacy. Obama, too, had no real message to impart. His gift was his way with words and his ability to prey on the weak those who dream big but who know little about the real world; those who desperately want to belong and do not understand who they are joining or the quixotic nature of their cult leaders' compelling promises turned empty lies. A special thanks to AT chief political correspondent and friend Richard Baehr for his input on this article. Trump and the Bannister Effect When I was in 5th grade, in about 1970, there was a girl named Laura who sat across the aisle from me in class. She came to school one day just beaming. My brother broke the four-minute mile! We were impressed, to say the least. He was a student at the high school, perhaps a sophomore. Only 16 years prior, Roger Bannister (1929-2018) broke the four-minute mile for the first time in recorded history, while in his mid-twenties. It was considered impossible in the minds of most, until he did it. That opened the floodgates for hundreds of others to repeat his feat, including Lauras brother, then just a high school kid. And I read today that a 10-year old boy named Clark Kent Apuada has broken Michael Phelps 100-meter butterfly swimming record, set in 1995. Wed have to ask this young man what he thinks of Phelps example, but certainly Phelps performance has inspired the achievement of many swimmers, as is the case in track. It just takes a little inspiration for a youngster to start dreaming and striving. The Bannister Effect is the notion that once a person sees someone else perform an exceptional feat, all doubt as to the possibility of that feat is erased, encouraging that person to strive for the goal, with hard work and training. This happened with the four-minute mile, and certainly has played into the success of Apuada. This happens in many areas of life. Im a guitar player, and I remember in the 70s and early 80s the batch of virtuoso guitarists who were playing licks no one thought possible. Is that only one guy playing? we would ask. Excellent guitarists I knew would shake their heads in disbelief, unable to deny the evidence hitting their ears. But today, since we know its possible, you can find sub-10-year-old kids playing those same licks, about twice as fast. Just search for young guitar virtuoso on YouTube and you will see what I mean. All this leads me to the Trump phenomenon. No one would have believed in 2015 that one guy could have done all this in less than two years: Cut taxes Appoint a decent conservative to the Supreme Court Gut Obamacare Destroy ISIS Scrap TPP Dig into NAFTA Slash federal regulations Ban travel from terror-sponsoring nations Move our embassy to Jerusalem Freeze federal hiring Use tariffs to prod our trading partners to negotiate Dump net neutrality Sucker the media into betraying their papier mache objectivity Who would have suspected that any man could survive scorching allegation after allegation, with the result being a 50% approval rating? Who would have thought that we could have a president packing rallies with tens of thousands of people overflowing into the parking lot, just to be part of the experience of making America great again? Who would have thought that one man, one solitary man, could take on the corrupt news media, and make them look like fools? But now we know it is possible. Now we know that there are actually some thinking people in this country. The economic producers in flyover country now see that it is possible to push back and reverse huge chunks of liberal regress, and in only a couple of years. Large masses of the population, including liberals, are seeing that our news media, the Democrats, and the Republicans are part of the same flock of slugs that inhabit Washington, D.C. August 1 was the 30th anniversary of the Rush Limbaugh program. (Rush achieved another Bannister-level accomplishment that launched conservative media.) President Trump called in to congratulate him. And Trump shocked me by saying this: You have a lot of bad people in Washington. You knew that a long time ago. Frankly, before I knew it. I had no idea how evil some of them are, but you have a lot of great people too. I have recognized for years that the problem with Washington is not politics. The problem is that many, many of the people running government are just plain evil. They are working for their own benefit to the detriment of everyone else, and they dont care who gets hurt. These people are not just thieves, they are very clever thieves and have figured out how to steal from generations yet unborn. Every child born today inherits over $60,000 in debt, right out of the womb. Well, if the child is lucky enough to be born at all. This is not politics, this is evil. And Donald Trump called evil, evil. Never in my life had I expected to hear this plain-speaking honesty from a president. I now know its possible, and due to the Bannister Effect Im going to work even harder to put more people in charge who will call good, good, and evil, evil at every level. There have been some politicians working the Trump angle, talking like Trump, of course. I dont know whether its because they think for the first time they can do positive things like Trump has done, or they are just mimicking Trump to get their hands on the money and power. Time will tell. But the major benefit of this phenomenon is that now many of the American people, at least the ones who are paying the bills, know that all is not lost. We may well have to go through some kind of social civil war to get us back on track, but the notion that its possible is now lighting hope in the hearts of working men and women. I dont want to be too optimistic because we still have millions of people in this country that the government is paying to support huge government, and those people are not going to wake up tomorrow, slap their foreheads, and proclaim, I need to get a job! Sixty million aborted babies are not going to be resurrected because of Trump or the Bannister Effect. But it is encouraging to see so many MAGA hats in public. The Bannister Effect is also obviously having a terrifying effect on liberals. The corrosive anger on the left is not just due to their socialist agenda being derailed. They realize that conservatives are newly conscious and energized, and have a hope that is strong, rooted in values liberals fear but cannot understand. Hope is a dangerous thing, especially when wielded by an underdog, founded on truth. To compensate, the left thinks that they can squash this hope by squashing Trump. Sorry, but the hope is out of the bag. This is not about Trump any more. Certainly, there is a huge battle ahead, but we are armed with principles, not the infatuation of personality. We now know the positive possibilities for America are unlimited. Every good thing is possible, with enough hard work and time, even the destruction of liberal evil. See you on the front lines. The professionally printed sign reads, "From Palestine to Mexico all the walls have got to go." Senator Cory Booker, who is one of the Democrats contending for his party's 2020 nomination for president, is pleading political negligence, claiming that he didn't bother to read a sign that he allowed himself to be photographed holding. Booker, who has raised considerable money from pro-Israel Jewish groups, apparently got carried away with intersectional enthusiasm at the Netroots Nation confab and was unable to get a clue from the t-shirt on the woman standing next to him that proclaimed Palestine's virtue in the realm of "feminist/queer refugee racial justice" that he might be endorsing a radical point of view. Senator Booker has a long record of phoniness, going back to the start of his political career, when he pretended to live in public housing. Now he is trying to cultivate the far left of the Democratic Party, which hates Israel, while maintaining his ability to raise money from Jewish donors to the party, some of whom still are attached to the notion of the survival of Israel. Even morons realize that without walls to protect it, Israel would suffer wave upon wave of terror from its neighbors Hamas and Hezb'allah, not to mention the ISIS troops operating in Syria. . @CoryBooker @SenBooker it's not funny when you hang out with a group dedicated to Israel's destruction and carry a sign that is part of the "intersectional" attempt to delegitimize Israel pic.twitter.com/9dv7pU9tlv The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, according to a Tablet expose , is the "American umbrella group of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement" and has funneled its money toward Islamic terror groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). As Aaron Bandler points out at Jewish Journal , that slogan was crafted by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and "standing next to Booker on his left is Leah Muskin-Pirret, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights' government associate." Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people. #NN18 pic.twitter.com/ljswLmv32w Senator Cory Booker, who is one of the Democrats contending for his party's 2020 nomination for president, is pleading political negligence, claiming that he didn't bother to read a sign that he allowed himself to be photographed holding. Booker, who has raised considerable money from pro-Israel Jewish groups, apparently got carried away with intersectional enthusiasm at the Netroots Nation confab and was unable to get a clue from the t-shirt on the woman standing next to him that proclaimed Palestine's virtue in the realm of "feminist/queer refugee racial justice" that he might be endorsing a radical point of view. The professionally printed sign reads, "From Palestine to Mexico all the walls have got to go." Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people. #NN18 pic.twitter.com/ljswLmv32w Palestinian Rights (@US_Campaign) August 3, 2018 As Aaron Bandler points out at Jewish Journal, that slogan was crafted by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and "standing next to Booker on his left is Leah Muskin-Pirret, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights' government associate." The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, according to a Tablet expose, is the "American umbrella group of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement" and has funneled its money toward Islamic terror groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has also celebrated convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh[.] Legal Insurrection noticed, too: .@CoryBooker @SenBooker it's not funny when you hang out with a group dedicated to Israel's destruction and carry a sign that is part of the "intersectional" attempt to delegitimize Israel pic.twitter.com/9dv7pU9tlv Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) August 3, 2018 Senator Booker has a long record of phoniness, going back to the start of his political career, when he pretended to live in public housing. Now he is trying to cultivate the far left of the Democratic Party, which hates Israel, while maintaining his ability to raise money from Jewish donors to the party, some of whom still are attached to the notion of the survival of Israel. Even morons realize that without walls to protect it, Israel would suffer wave upon wave of terror from its neighbors Hamas and Hezb'allah, not to mention the ISIS troops operating in Syria. Dinesh D'Souza's Death of a Nation Dinesh D'Souza has released the latest edition of his cinematic view of America, Death of a Nation. His essential points are reasonable, but he oversimplifies, sometimes distorts, and excludes inconvenient facts. He contends that America as founded is at risk. The left argues that this is due to Donald Trump's illegitimate election, but D'Souza correctly blames the radical left. The agent of this damage in D'Souza's vision is the Democratic Party. The general theory of Death of a Nation is that the Democrats and progressives are really fascists and not liberals. He shows the domination of thought and behavior of Italy between the World Wars via Mussolini; he compares the blackshirt thugs to today's Antifa movement and the Occupy movement. Further, he tries to show the affinity of the American progressives of the time with Hitler and the Nazis. Then he argues that the modern Democratic Party founded by Andrew Jackson, who encouraged black slavery, contained racist strands during the 1960s. This racism was continued after the Civil War by supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws. He gives credit to Woodrow Wilson for encouraging second-class status for blacks throughout the South. In D'Souza's 2016 movie, Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, he claimed that the Jacksonian Democrats also supported the American Indian decimation through the Trail of Tears. The plain fact is that while some Democrats today are egalitarian, the policies of statism and socialism have created greater dependency and a form of enslavement. Today, he states, the plantation can be found in cities managed by Democrat mayors. This is the view of a person who came to this country as a teenager from Bombay. As a minority in the West and a minority in his country of origin (being a Christian), he has an unusual perspective. His personal conviction for election laws violations may have embittered him. President Trump's pardon undoubtedly has given him a new respect for the man. His personal foibles with a woman other than his first wife cost him his position as president of King's College. But redemption is possible. For my part, the takeaway from this movie is D'Souza's warning to the liberal American Jews who support Democrats that this is mistaken. The ending with a black gospel group singing ("Glory, Glory") implied that he thinks the savior of our nation is the church and religious participation. Sadly, the pews are empty. As an optimist, I trust that Trump will be re-elected. I expect that the Congress will remain Republican and might gain several seats in the Senate. Draining the swamp is difficult, since the number of dwellers within Washington is enormous. The American people elected Donald Trump because too many feared the damage Hillary and her minions would inflict. There are still enough Americans who wish to keep our Enlightenment freedoms (though imperfectly articulated in the Constitution) and refuse to accept the Marxist view of communalism and classism. The future of our nation depends upon teaching civics, capitalism (instead of crony capitalism), and ethics or morality. This is the job of our parents. Conservatives, libertarians, and fair minded people must create schools that teach these values. Liberty does not come cheaply. In the history of mankind, it is a rare event. Some of us are not ready to give up our freedom. Federalism runs counter to statism, but it is not taught. We cannot expect that educators will do the job of families. The education system will take away our rights as surrogate parents, for they are the progressives who indoctrinate our youth. In the Bible, Exodus teaches that the Jews wandered for forty years in the desert. This allowed the elimination of the generation that lived in slavery. Today's leaders were the rebels of the 1960s. We must remember that they have distorted traditional American values through their pampered, self-indulgent youth. If we as parents inculcate our young with our values, then we can save this nation. We cannot delegate this critical job. Future looking incredible for US oil production HSBC predicted in a recent report that Texas is set to outpace Iran and Iraq in oil production. Furthermore, HSBC stated that the Permian Basin in West Texas and the Eagle Ford are likely to produce 5.6 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2019. Iraq is expected to produce 4.8 million bpd and Iran 3 million bpd. If HSBC's analysis comes true, then Texas will become the world's number-three oil-producer. This news means that the United States should surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2019 as the number-one oil producer in the world based on Texas's output. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects U.S. production to reach 12 million bpd by late 2019. A stunning accomplishment when you consider during the Saudi-led war on U.S. shale that crashed oil prices in 2014, bankruptcies overtook the Permian Basin, and production in the U.S. fell from 9.6 million bpd to 8.5 million bpd. There are three reasons why U.S. oil production is skyrocketing. Number one is that demand is rising. OPEC has recently forecast that global oil demand should "surpass 100 million barrels per day next year." The group sees demand increasing by "1.45 million bpd next year"; however, trade tensions between the U.S., China, Canada, the E.U., and other longstanding trade agreements in question could temper growth. OPEC qualified its report about demand rising over trade worries by saying, "If trade tensions rise further and given other uncertainties, it could weigh on business and consumer sentiment." With the U.S. and the E.U. working toward resolving a looming trade dispute over increased tariffs in late July, this is a positive first step toward global oil demand staying strong. Second, U.S. federal tax policies are favorable toward exploration and production (E&P), which will assist with production increases. President Trump's America First Energy Plan states: That we [the U.S.] have vast untapped domestic energy reserves. We must take advantage of the estimated $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil and natural gas reserves, especially those on federal lands. According to Karen Alderman Harbert, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, record-breaking oil production will lead to "an explosion in exports." Growth in exports will allow additional supply to be sold that otherwise wouldn't come to market. Expanding energy development particularly, expanding fossil fuel exports will be a top priority for the Trump administration, as it will also use energy as a geopolitical tool. Texas is the example for the U.S. moving forward of government and private business working toward expanding oil and natural gas production. U.S. government policies will continue moving in this direction. The third and biggest reason is use of technology, where the U.S. is making its greatest gains toward increased production. Since the 2014 crash, shale companies have slashed costs but also employed automation and cutting-edge technologies like robotics, sensors, and smartphones to keep drilling. The oil and gas industry is undergoing a modernization push. This was on display in June at the Unify Conference, "an industry forum on digital technology put on by Baker Hughes," in Houston, Texas. At this conference, technology companies like Google and Microsoft pitched energy executives to purchase cloud and artificial intelligence deals. Darryl Willis of Google, who presented at Unify, said, "Energy companies have reams of data but only use 5% of it, a serious problem in the digital economy." Silicon Valley believes that it can manage data better than E&P firms. Chevron signed a seven-year deal with Microsoft to "capture and store the terabytes of data Chevron generates around the globe," said Bill Braun, Chevron's chief information officer. Other firms use the cloud to "find more oil and predict[] needed maintenance on equipment before it breaks down." Inefficient and antiquated ways that kept U.S. oil production lower are now being replaced by complex and diversified approaches to new technologies to stay competitive in an ever changing global environment. Shale growth is increasing on a monthly basis, but geopolitical tensions could dramatically lower this growth. Trade disputes with China where Trump has threatened over $500 billion in tariffs or a war with Iran could send oil prices into the $100 and above range. This would also lower oil demand and send countries and consumers into lower-cost energy options like renewable energy and electric vehicles. In other words, only extreme geopolitical situations can lower U.S. oil production otherwise, the future is positive based on growing demand, favorable governmental policies, and emerging technology. No? Not possible? Tell that to District Judge John Bates who ruled yesterday that he, not the president, decides how to enforce the immigration laws of the United States. A federal judge has decided he doesn't like his job very much. So he has taken off his robes and assumed the office of president of the United States. CNN: DC District Judge John Bates said the Trump administration still has failed to justify its proposal to end DACA, the Obama-era program that has protected from deportation nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants [sic] brought to the US as children. But Bates agreed to delay his ruling for 20 days to give the administration time to respond and appeal, if it chooses. The ruling sets up potentially conflicting DACA orders from federal judges by the end of the month. The decision comes less than a week before a hearing in a related case in Texas. In that case, Texas and other states are suing to have DACA ended entirely, and the judge is expected to side with them based on his prior rulings. Previous court rulings in California and New York have already prevented the administration from ending DACA, but they only ordered the government to continue renewing existing applications. Bates' ruling would go further and order the program reopened in its entirety. The earlier decisions are pending before appeals courts. Bates on Friday upheld a ruling he had issued in April that ordered the administration to begin accepting DACA applications again. He had postponed that order for 90 days to give the government time to offer a better legal justification for its decision last September to end the program. The argument used by the Obama administration to justify DACA in the first place was that the executive has complete authority to choose how to enforce U.S. immigration law. In the Obama administration's case, the executive chose not to prosecute two million or so children of illegal aliens and some of their families. Now the chief executive has decided to change how illegal aliens are prosecuted to include the children of those in the country illegally. But Judge Bates is denying the executive this power. The Department of Homeland Security followed up by largely reiterating its previous argument: that DACA was likely to be found unconstitutional in the Texas case if it were challenged there and thus it had to end. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also said in the DHS response that the agency had the discretion to end the program, as much as its predecessors had the discretion to create it. Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, found that explanation unsatisfactory, and said the DHS could not invent a new justification for his court, either. He said most of the arguments "simply repackage legal arguments previously made" and fail to pass muster. "Although the Nielsen Memo purports to offer further explanation for DHS's decision to rescind DACA, it fails to elaborate meaningfully on the agency's primary rationale for its decision," Bates wrote. "The memo does offer what appears to be one bona fide (albeit logically dubious) policy reason for DACA's rescission, but this reason was articulated nowhere in DHS's prior explanation for its decision, and therefore cannot support that decision now." Bates is denying the executive discretionary powers to prosecute simply by saying he doesn't understand the argument and thinks the DHS is using "logically dubious" justification for ending the program. This seems radically subjective and consciously biased to me. Obviously, this argument is going all the way to the Supreme Court. But it sets up an interesting problem: does the court take the Texas case or Bates's? Or both? SCOTUS could rule more broadly if it took the Texas case, but if the justices were of a mind to dissect the issue, they may take on Bates's ruling. Either way, it will be at least a year before the fate of DACA recipients is decided. Some Mexican officials are optimistic that a breakthrough in renegotiation talks for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may be achieved next week and that Canada, who left the talks when the U.S. slapped tariffs on some imports, could rejoin the trilateral discussions and conclude a deal. Mexico and the United States resumed talks last week, after a U.S. move to slap tariffs on Mexican and Canadian metal exports and Mexico's July elections stalled negotiations that began last year when President Donald Trump demanded a better deal for U.S. workers. "Technically, we are ready to move into finishing the issues, Mexico-U.S. issues, the most next week. There are very good probabilities that we'll be landing solutions," Guajardo said in English. "We are optimistic that we can try to land a deal before the end of August," adding there were "three critical, specific points" to resolve that he declined to specify. Another senior Mexican negotiator was a little less bullish about the chances of a deal this month. "I am cautiously optimistic. I think it can be done, but there can also be problems. We have to see," Jesus Seade, who joined the Mexican negotiating team last week representing President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador[, said]. Canada has not been at the table in rounds of talks over the past weeks. Some experts say this is a sign of tensions between Canada and the United States, while officials insist trilateral talks will soon resume. Mexico's new socialist government appears to be more open to boosting auto workers' wages a key U.S. demand that Mexico had been unwilling to address. There is also the issue of requiring a renegotiation of the deal every five years. That seems a little excessive, and the U.S. may be willing to lengthen that time period in exchange for other concessions. Canada and Mexico are two of our largest trading partners, and it would be a significant accomplishment if the Trump administration could improve on the deal negotiated two decades ago by the Clinton administration. How big a change in our trading relationship can we expect? With Mexico, especially, requiring the Mexicans to enforce provisions already in the deal would be a significant change. Canada is a different story. There won't be major changes in the key provisions of the deal but Trump will be able to claim victory if Prime Minister Trudeau signs anything. If something can be done before midterms, it could affect the outlook for GOP maintaining control of the House. I havent been able to find any indication of what Sarah Jeongs middle name is, or even if she has one. But it is clear that as far as the New York Times is concerned, it ought to be Pandora. As Clarice Feldman pointed out, the best thing about her is that the New York Times now is stuck with her after so vigorously defending its hiring of her. Here are six factors that are going to cause a lot of pain and embarrassment for the Times and its allies. 1. Jeong has a history of trashing the New York Times: After a bad day, some people come home and kick the furniture. I get on the internet and make fun of the New York Times. sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) November 25, 2013 Attention: Legal Department You know what IS good? That someone is FINALLY suing the New York Times for libel sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) May 12, 2017 2. Collegiality with her white colleagues will be awkward, and their critics now have great ammunition: I feel really bad for the 95% of the New York Times that already seethes with resentment over their horrible columnists sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) April 30, 2017 Guys, what drugs do you think Paul Krugman does sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) January 3, 2014 David Brooks wrote a very bad column and the world is again in balance sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) May 23, 2017 @LJElkins @j_zimms Yeah and I don't think people should publish Thomas Friedman or Nick Kristof or David Brooks. Columns: meh. sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) October 24, 2013 3. The excuse that she was responding to trolls excuse has created a need to find evangelical Christians, cops, (and New York Times reporters) trolling her. Robert Stacy McCain collects examples of viciousness directed at people that it might be very difficult to find trolling from: 4. Democrat politicians can be asked if they agree with her. CBD at Ace of Spades HQ How about we start asking some Democrat politicians if they agree with the Washington Post and New York Times that there cannot be such a thing as anti-white racism nor anti-white hate crimes? Would love to get them on the record. 5. The Times has just created evidence of a hostile work environment. One more thing for the Legal Department to consider. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit: I dunno, the next white guy laid off will have a pretty good hostile environment claim. Given the emphasis at the New York Times to diversify its workforce (which means decreasing the number of white males employed there), there will likely be a disproportionate impact on white males of any downsizing. Their attorneys now have great ammo. 6. Best of all: The Times has just handed a new, certain-to-elicit-gales-of-laughter bludgeon to the POTUS it loves to hate: Trump reading her tweets at his next rally. Tom Maguire writes: Unlike, say, Rick Gates or George Papadopoulos, he certainly wasn't charged with "lying to the FBI" or anything, but double standards abound. All he got was "terminated." Because he wasn't straight with them about his leaks to the press, FBI asset Christopher Steele, a British ex-spy and the author of the phony "Steele dossier" with its gross hooker-urination fabrications about Donald Trump, got fired. Now it turns out that, George Smiley-style, he repeatedly got "brought out of retirement" by the FBI. Seems the FBI couldn't get enough of this guy. Agents went back and bought more garbage from him, again and again, and Judicial Watch caught up with them. According Byron York: Congressional investigators know that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the Trump dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign, kept supplying allegations to the FBI after the 2016 election and even after he was terminated as a source by the bureau for giving confidential information to the media. Because he had broken his agreement with the FBI, bureau procedure did not allow agents to keep using Steele as a source. But they did so anyway by devising a system in which Steele spoke regularly with Bruce Ohr, a top Obama Justice Department official whose wife worked for Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to search for dirt on Donald Trump in Russia. Ohr then passed on Steele's information to the FBI. York reports that they did it twelve times, which suggests quite an addiction to Steele's "Get Trump" information, which was repeatedly bad. They "laundered" it through Bruce and Nelly Ohr, one of the famous sets of Trump-hating lovebirds who have been involved in this de facto Deep State coup attempt. York notes that the bureau seemed to want to keep trying to find out whether the Steele dossier was true or not, even though the agents had already persuaded a FISA judge to issue surveillance warrants for it which is rather backwards. Remember: the FBI had already presented some of the dossier's allegations as evidence to the FISA court. After going out on a limb like that, the bureau wanted to know if the allegations were true or not, writing: In a larger sense, the Ohr-Steele 302s could shed some light on how an effort it certainly included Steele, but also others to keep Trump from being elected morphed into an effort to keep Trump from being inaugurated and then morphed into an effort to remove Trump from office. A version of that effort is still going on, of course, even as some in Congress try to find out how it started. What stands out to me is that they said they got rid of Steele for lying to them and then went right back to him, which must be some sort of perjury problem right there, given their congressional testimony. It's also suggests that the dossier was false as heck, because instead of at least trying to develop other sources to verify what they wanted to verify from the Steele dossier, they just kept going back to the same well because no one else out there had any confirming information. This makes sense, given that the dossier was fabricated. What a sorry picture this paints of the persistence of Deep State in its Ahab-like quest to Get Trump. These Deep Staters aren't even embarrassed about it. Maybe some legal consequences will get their attention. Under socialized medicine, it doesn't take long to go from suicide as a "choice" to suicide as a pushed "product" to suicide as a murder for bureaucratic "convenience." Roger Foley is a 42-year-old man with a terminal neural disease that makes it nearly impossible for him to move his arms or legs or even speak. Under Canada's zero-choice socialized medicine, he's gotten absolutely crappy care from a Canadian home care service, one of whose many violations has put him in the hospital for food poisoning, which is where he's at now. He states that when he complained about the bad service, he was told to go kill himself politely, of course, since it's the Canadian way. He's saying "no," and now there's a lawsuit to force the Canadian socialized medical system to allow him some choice as to how he's going to manage his own care, given the failures of the bureaucrats who chose for him. Obviously inspired by the Charlie Gard dilemma in the U.K., the bureaucrats are fighting back, determined to ensure he gets the substandard quality of medical care he's already gotten, with the only "out" in suicide. A great deal for them, you see. Here is how one expert described the problem, according to CTV a few months ago: According to Trudo Lemmens, a professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, Foley's allegations if true are "very troubling." "If true, we would have here an instance of a patient receiving an offer for MAID (medical assistance in dying) while the patient precisely complains about receiving substandard levels of care," Lemmens said in an email to CTV News. "MAID should not be introduced as an option to someone who complains about sub-standard care and clearly not to someone who is suicidal." And as that lawsuit proceeds, well, guess what! Turns out Foley had tapes of the state's pressure to take the suicide option, which certainly would be beneficial to the Canadian health care system, given the costs of his care that they don't want to pick up, despite being socialist and all, and their already impressive record of failure. Imagine being told to return to the care of people who have already demonstrated they don't want you to live. Here's what National Review, citing CTV, reported: Foley expresses shock at the figure [for continuing hospitalization] and tells the man that he'd just read an article that quoted the Ontario health minister saying it's "not legal" for hospitals to coerce patients like that. The man is heard saying that the hospital does not use "this conversation in every situation." ... Foley then says that he hasn't been informed of a plan for his care and that his rights as a patient are being violated. "You have already violated my preferences ... So what is the plan that you know of?" Foley asks the man. "Roger, this is not my show," the man replies. "I told you my piece of this was to talk to you about if you had interest in assisted dying." It sounds like one of those scenes in C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. And that wasn't the only instance of pressuring a patient toward suicide: Foley tells the man that he's "always thinking I want to end my life" because of the way he's being treated at the hospital and because his requests for self-directed care have been denied. The man is then heard telling Foley that he can "just apply to get an assisted, if you want to end your life, like you know what I mean?" When Foley says that he is being forced to end his life, the man protests and says that's not the case. "Oh, no, no, no," the man is heard saying. "I'm saying if you feel that wayYou know what I mean? Don't get me wrong. I'm saying I don't want you to be in here and wanting to take your life." Notice that Foley's despair had to do with his treatment by the hospital not his disease and that rather than remedy that problem or offer suicide-prevention interventions, the fellow very casually suggested euthanasia. Once euthanasia becomes accepted generally, it could easily become the "remedy" of choice for hospitals and care facilities in dealing with troublesome or expensive patients. (There is anecdotal evidence of that in Netherlands and Belgium, for example.) In other words, if you are "wanting to take your life" over the bad quality of your care, well, then, socialism has a solution for you, a final solution, so buck up, buttercup. What a revolting picture. And how true it is that just allowing euthanasia in what is supposed to be a "first do no harm" life-giving and life-preserving profession has got to be the most corrosive, corrupting thing, particularly under socialism. For this poor man, there's no way out of it; he has no choices if that lawsuit does not work. Apparently, it's too much to ask the bureaucrats to get him some competent health care, because they don't do competent health care; they just do "socialism or death." That's what is on offer from the Canadian system, which finds itself drawn to pushing for suicide, given the costs of socialized medicine as well as the lack of patient choices or staff accountability. Sound like something that makes you want to embrace Democratic Socialist "it girl" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's dreamscape of "Medicare for All" here in the States? It's what's on offer for us if the left has its way and medical care gets socialized. Man shot dead, gunman at large Dhanusha police are after a gunman who shot dead Rajesh Yadav at Janaknandini Rural Municipality on Friday. Where's the press after a century of bad climate predictions? For more than 120 years of modern weather chronicles, the "experts" have given dire predictions about climate, going back and forth from cooling to warming and then back again. The warnings today are not at all different from the past. It would be nice if the Wall Street Journal or some other news outlet that up until now has been enthralled with the global warming predictions would instead print up the dire warnings from the past and explain why they were wrong and explain why the ones today are any better. Basically, the warnings today look like a means by which the government can confiscate huge amounts of money from the public to take more control of our lives because their previous dire predictions have not been true, and the "experts" keep manipulating the computer models and numbers due to the actual weather not corresponding with their predictions. I believe that it is absolutely nuts for anyone to believe that governments throughout the world can predict and control temperatures, sea levels, and storm activity forever if we just hand them trillions of dollars. I would ask what in the history of government and bureaucrats suggests they have the ability to do that. Here are just a small number of dire predictions of the past that have not come to pass, published a few years ago, but well worth looking at again, from the excellent website Watts Up With That?: 1895 Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again New York Times, February 1895 1902 "Disappearing Glaciersdeteriorating slowly, with a persistency that means their final annihilationscientific factsurely disappearing." Los Angeles Times 1912 Prof. Schmidt Warns Us of an Encroaching Ice Age New York Times, October 1912 1923 "Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada" Professor Gregory of Yale University, American representative to the Pan-Pacific Science Congress, Chicago Tribune 1933 "wide-spread and persistent tendency toward warmer weatherIs our climate changing?" Federal Weather Bureau "Monthly Weather Review." 1954 Climate the Heat May Be Off Fortune Magazine 1970 "get a good grip on your long johns, cold weather haters the worst may be yet to comethere's no relief in sight" Washington Post 1974 Global cooling for the past forty years Time Magazine 1974 "the facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failuremass deaths by starvation, and probably anarchy and violence" New York Times 1975 "The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind" Nigel Calder, editor, New Scientist magazine, in an article in International Wildlife Magazine 1976 "Even U.S. farms may be hit by cooling trend" U.S. News and World Report 1981 Global Warming "of an almost unprecedented magnitude" New York Times 1993 "Global climate change may alter temperature and rainfall patterns, many scientists fear, with uncertain consequences for agriculture." U.S. News and World Report 2006 "It is not a debate over whether the earth has been warming over the past century. The earth is always warming or cooling, at least a few tenths of a degree" Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology at MIT 2006 "What we have fundamentally forgotten is simple primary school science. Climate always changes. It is alwayswarming or cooling, it's never stable. And if it were stable, it would actually be interesting scientifically because it would be the first time for four and a half billion years." Philip Stott, emeritus professor of bio-geography at the University of London 2007 "I gave a talk recently (on fallacies of global warming) and three members of the Canadian government, the environmental cabinet, came up afterwards and said, 'We agree with you, but it's not worth our jobs to say anything.' So what's being created is a huge industry with billions of dollars of government money and people's jobs dependent on it." Dr. Tim Ball, Coast-to-Coast, Feb 6, 2007 2011 Where Did Global Warming Go? "In Washington, 'climate change' has become a lightning rod, it's a four-letter word," said Andrew J. Hoffman, director of the University of Michigan's Erb Institute for Sustainable Development. New York Times, Oct 15, 2011. 2013 Global-warming 'proof' is evaporating. The 2013 hurricane season just ended as one of the five quietest years since 1960. But don't expect anyone who pointed to last year's hurricanes as "proof" of the need to act against global warming to apologize; the warmists don't work that way. New York Post, Dec 5, 2013 2014 Climate change: It's even worse than we thought. Five years ago, the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change painted a gloomy picture of our planet's future. As climate scientists gather evidence for the next report, due in 2014, Michael Le Page gives seven reasons why things are looking even grimmer. New Scientist (undated in 2014) The news media are supposed to inform the public instead of indoctrinate, so I would hope some of them would start doing their job. B&H Photo has the Microsoft Surface Pro the 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage model on sale for just $699. That is $300 off of its regular price of $999, and it would make a great laptop/tablet hybrid to take back-to-school this school year, seeing as it can do everything that a laptop can do, but in a smaller and lighter form factor. The Microsoft Surface Pro may not be getting all of the attention that the Surface Go is getting right now, but it is still a more than capable tablet from Microsoft. Inside the Surface Pro, youll find a dual-core Intel Core i7-7300U which is clocked at 2.6GHz, as well as 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, there is also a 12.3-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 27361824. Youre also looking at Intel HD Graphics 620, which isnt the highest-end graphics card, but it is going to be great for playing some games. Now this particular model does not come with the TouchType keyboard and the Surface Pen, even though it is pictured. Those will cost a bit more. The keyboard is usually around $129, though it is going to be on sale here pretty soon with back-to-school deals heating up. The Microsoft Surface Pro is a great tablet to pick up, and it comes with Microsoft Office 365 as well, so you can still type up all of your papers and such on this tablet. At B&H Photo, you do get free expedited shipping, and if you purchase before 4PM EST today, it will ship from its New York City warehouse today. Those that live closer to the State of New York will get it sooner, but it should arrive within two business days. Theres no taxes being collected unless you reside in the state of New York or New Jersey. COP26 may be a cop-out in the making COP26 is just about a month away. Delayed for a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference has built up even more expectations and momentum during the intervening months As youre well aware, this doesnt sit well with Buick. Being built in China , the Envision could be eliminated from the U.S. lineup of the American automaker unless the nameplate is exempt from 25-percent import tariff. President of General Motors, Dan Ammann, sees the exemption as the only way to continue offering the Envision in the United States.As reported by Automotive News , the premium brand from the General Motors stable isnt the only one affected by the trade war. And if you look deeper into the U.S. lineup, youll notice that the plug-in hybrid version of the Cadillac CT6 is also manufactured in the Middle Kingdom.If push comes to shove, General Motors will take measures. The profitability that we generate on that vehicle, selling it in the U.S. market, we obviously reinvest in the business here so we think its in everybodys interest for that to continue, said Ammann. On the other hand, dont forget that the United States accounts for 15 percent of the automakers 1.4 million sales in 2017, with the Peoples Republic making up 83 percent.Over in China, the Envision sold 210,000 examples last year compared to 42,000 in the U.S. of A. And whichever way you look at it, 42,000 sales in the automakers domestic market arent enough to support a manufacturing plant in America.An entity that would be happy to see the Envision go is the UAW. Union president Dennis Williams calls it Invasion whenever the opportunity to take a jab at General Motors arises, pointing the finger at how more and more nameplates from GM are being sourced from outside the United States. The notion of a ground effect vehicle has been around in the Russian army ever since the height of the Cold War. Severely outmatched from a technological standpoint by the Americans, the Russians needed a machine capable of sneaking low enough not to be detected by radar and at the same time high enough not to be detected by sonar, should a trip from Europe to North America needed doing in haste.A ground effect vehicle, also know as the ekranoplan because of the Soviets, is a machine capable of hovering above a level surface. The machine uses the aerodynamics principle that states increased lift and decreased aerodynamic drag can be generated by wings when traveling close to a fixed surface.Ground effect is created when wingtip vortices and downwash are disrupted due to the proximity to the ground. This, in turn, leads to lower induced drag which increases the plane's speed and lift, making the craft capable of hovering at very high speeds. The lower the aircraft is, the greater the effect becomes.Airplanes experience ground effect near the runway while taking off and landing. As soon as some distance is attained, they enter free flight.The ekranoplan is incapable of free flight, maintaining a set distance from the surface, usually water. Because they dont achieve free flight, they are not officially listed as aircraft, but as ships.Back in 1967, as the arms race heated up between the worlds two superpowers, the CIA discovered a strange metal construction near Kaspiysk, a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia.The discovery made CIA officials scramble for years to find out what the construction is and what is its purpose. So intrigued were Americas finest with the plane they found that they began pushing for the of the worlds first use of a drone, to be sent to Russia and take a closer look at the monster.Internally, the Caspian Sea Monster ekranoplan was named Korabi Maket, which in Russian roughly translates as ship prototype. It was conceived between 1964 and 1966 by Rostislav Alexeyev from the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau, an organization specialized in the creation of hydrofoils, air cushion craft, and air cavity vessels.At the time of its creation, the KM was the largest aircraft in the world. It had a length of 92.00 m (301 ft 10 in) and a wingspan of 37.60 m (123 ft 4 in).It was not necessarily the size of the craft that spooked the West, but the fact that such a machine could take to the sky and threaten the Western way of life. It took CIA nearly two decades to realize that the KM is incapable of flying, and that scared them even worse.KM, powered by ten Dobrynin RD-7 axial-flow turbojet engines, was capable of reaching speeds of 500 km/h (311 mph), whooshing by at 414 m (13 ft 1 in45 ft 11 in) above water level. The engines used on the KM are the same fitted on the Tupolev Tu-22, Myasishchev M-50 and Myasishchev VM-T.Unfortunately for the Soviets, the KM did not make it into active military use. The development of the project went extremely slow. It flew for the first time in 1966, piloted by Rostislav Alexeyev himself. Fifteen years later, it was still in testing stages and was undergoing almost continuous changes,In 1980, due to a pilot deciding to take off without giving the plane full throttle, the KM crashed in the Caspian Sea and sank. It was never recovered.The successor of the KM, the Lun-class MD-160, was designed by the same team and began testing in 1975. It was powered by eight Kuznetsov NK-87 turbofan engines, each developing 28,600 lbf of thrust and mounted on forward canards.The MD-160, 73.8 m (242 ft 2 in) in length and with a wingspan of 44 m (144 ft 4 in), was operated by a crew of 15 soldiers. It was intended for anti-surface warfare and was equipped with six missile launchers on the dorsal surface of the fuselage.This version was used by the Soviet navy for three years in the Black Sea, from 1987 to 1990. It currently lies at a naval station in Kaspiysk. Its field hospital sibling, Spasatel, was never completed.At about the same time they were developing the MD, the Russians started operating the A-90 Orlyonok, a class B ekranopla. Unlike its siblings, it was capable of flying at altitudes of 3,000 m (9,800 ft), but also hover al low altitude. It was created as a military transport aircraft and flew between 1979 and 1993.The Orlyonok was powered by two Kuznetsov NK-8-4K turbofan engines that worked in conjunction with one Kuznetsov NK-12MK turboprop unit.THe aircraft was capable of reaching speeds of 400 km/h (248.5 mph) and ranges of 1,500 km (932 miles).It's not yet clear what exactly the Russian are working on as a revival of these ground-effect vehicles. In 2015, the Russian Army presented two concepts of an ekranoplan called A-050, powered by R-195 booster engines that gave them a cruise speed of 400 to 480 km/h (250 to 300 mph) and a range of 4,800 km (3,000 miles). ABS Even though the Land Cruiser Prado and Land Cruiser V8 have been slowly but steadily getting more luxurious with the passing of time, Toyota didnt forget that both models are also fit for work. Addressing a relatively small share of the commercial vehicle market, the Prado-based Land Cruiser Commercial Utility is now available to order in the United Kingdom.Available in short- (three-) and long-wheelbase (five-door) configurations, the LCCU is priced from 27,546 and 28,509, respectively. Sitting alongside the 2018 lineup, the utilitarian workhorses benefit from refreshed styling inside and out plus all the technological trickery you would expect from a utility vehicle at this price point.Dont be fooled by the 17-inch steel wheels because once you hop in the cabin, youll be greeted by a plethora of airbags, tire pressure warning system, aux-in and USB ports, and up to 2,216 liters of cargo capacity. The short-wheelbase model is rated at 1,574 liters. As for maximum payload, Toyota quotes 593 and 756 kilograms, respectively.Customers who would rather use the Land Cruiser Commercial Utility for towing can rest assured if the trailer weighs no more than three tonnes. The long-wheelbase model can be furthered by the Trailer Sway Control system, which keeps things nice and steady regardless of what you're towing.Automatic headlights, fog lights, roof rails, smart entry, vehicle stability control, active traction control, and multi-terrainare also standard, proving that the surface on which its driven isnt a problem for the Land Cruiser Commercial Utility.Just like the passenger-oriented version (33,955 for the entry-level model), the LCCU features four-wheel drive, an automatic transmission, and a 2.8-liter turbo diesel under the hood. The engine is rated at 177 horsepower and 450 Nm (332 pound-feet) of torque, translating to a top speed of 108 miles per hour. Officials from the U.S. spoke with members of the North Korean delegation on Saturday at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Indonesia, and delivered a letter from President Trump to Kim Jong-un, the Washington Post reports. The big picture: It's unclear what the letter said, or what progress has been made towards denuclearization since President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's summit earlier this year. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday there's still "a ways to go" before complete denuclearization, but North Korean officials criticized the U.S. the next day for continuing sanctions despite their commitment to denuclearize. What's happening Pompeo warned the international community on Saturday against violating the sanctions against North Korea: "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue...Any violation that detracts from the worlds goal of finally fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously." on Saturday against violating the sanctions against North Korea: "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue...Any violation that detracts from the worlds goal of finally fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously." In response, North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said the regime remains committed to the commitment it made with the U.S. at the June summit, BBC reports. Ri added, but "[w]hat is alarming...is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention." A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. What's happened since the U.S.-North Korea summit Trump praised Kim this week for delivering on his promise to return remains of U.S. soldiers from the Korean War, saying he was "not at all surprised" by the "kind action." Yes, but: At the end of July, there were reports that the regime was developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles. At the end of July, there were reports that the regime was developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles. A U.N. Security Council report said that North Korea hasn't stopped its nuclear and missile development programs. Trump has maintained that he is pleased with the way things are going with the regime, tweeting in July: "A Rocket has not been launched by North Korea in 9 months. Likewise, no Nuclear Tests. Japan is happy, all of Asia is happy. But the Fake News is saying, without ever asking me (always anonymous sources), that I am angry because it is not going fast enough. Wrong, very happy!" Go deeper: North Korea's two paths back to "fire and fury" When I arrived at the campus of Brandeis University (located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, United States) in August 1984 to start my undergraduate education, I knew only one thing about liberal arts education. Google is in talks with major Chinese companies Tencent and Inspur to bring its cloud business to China, Bloomberg reports. The big picture: Google is eager to tap into the Chinese market. Partnering with China's domestic champions would lock in powerful allies if Google has to lobby the Chinese government to let it operate in the country. The details: China requires data to be stored within the country, and Google does not have data centers there, so it needs local partners to bring Drive and other cloud services to Chinese consumers. Bloomberg reports that talks with Chinese companies have been ongoing since early 2018. What's happening: Google is "building a cloud data center region in Hong Kong this year and opened an artificial intelligence research center in Beijing in January," per Bloomberg. The Intercept reported on Wednesday that Google has been working on a censored search engine for the Chinese market, which grabbed the attention of Google employees and lawmakers alike. Google is also working on a news-aggregation app with censorship capabilities for China, reports The Information, citing sources familiar with the project. Yes, but: The U.S. and China are engaged in a quickly-escalating trade war that could have consequences for any potential Google deals. Go deeper: The Atlantic reports on why Google left China and why it's heading back. The World Health Organization is responding to another outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just a week after a previous outbreak was officially declared over. Why it matters: The new outbreak poses a "high" local and regional threat, the WHO stated Friday, and doctors are facing a challenging setting for responding to this illness due to armed conflict in the area. The big picture: The outbreak is occurring in the eastern part of the DRC, about 30 miles from the Ugandan border. Peter Salama, deputy director-general for emergency preparedness and response at the WHO, said doctors may need to be escorted by armed guards while going out to villages to trace people who have come into contact with Ebola patients. Were at the top of the difficulty scale, he said. Here were responding to an outbreak from a high threat pathogen with one of the highest mortality rates of any known diseases but in the context of a war zone" Peter Salama, WHO So far, Salama said, about 20 deaths have been reported, and this number is expected to rise. "It's extremely likely that it's the Ebola Zaire strain," Salama said. This strain is the deadliest of the Ebola strains that have been identified so far. The virus can cause severe headaches, high fever, diarrhea and bleeding. "We expect overall that the overall case count will rise in the coming days," Salama said. Ebola outbreaks typically begin when humans come into contact with an animal that carries the virus, such as a bat, Salama said. "It usually starts with contact between humans and the animal kingdom." The North Kivu Provence, where the outbreak is located, borders both Uganda and Rwanda, and has been in a state of conflict for most of the past 14 years, with thousands of people killed and more than a million displaced. It is home to the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, with about 20,000 troops. The new outbreak is about 1,500 miles from the location of the previous outbreak that was declared over in late July. Salama said authorities were not aware of the new cases at that time, and that it's unlikely this is an extension of the earlier outbreak. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday there is "a ways to go" before North Korea is denuclearized, explaining that "to the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the U.N. Security Council resolutions," Reuters reports. Why it matters: President Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this week for "keeping your word" after remains of U.S. soldiers from the Korean War arrived. But per Pompeo, the reclusive nation is still far from completing its commitment to denuclearize. "Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize. The world demanded that they do so in the U.N. Security Council resolutions... we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we're looking for." Turkey slapped retaliatory sanctions on two U.S. officials Saturday which "appeared more symbolic than practical," the Associated Press reports. The big picture: The U.S. hit Turkey's justice and interior ministers with sanctions earlier this week over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that the sanctions showed "serious disrespect toward Turkey," and ordered officials to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any." The sanctions imposed by the U.S. sent Turkey's currency "tumbling," per the AP. Erdogan explained on Saturday: "We think there is no problem we cannot solve with the American administration," and told the Trump administration to "return to its good senses." It is not evident who the sanctions would impact as the U.S. has a different cabinet structure than Turkey and it is unclear whether the officials have any holdings in the country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday, before Turkey's sanctions were announced, that "Turkey is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively," the AP also reported. He also said that he made clear to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, that it's "well past time that Pastor Brunson be freed." Adding, "I am hopeful that in the coming days we will see that occur." Brunson is currently on house arrest after spending more than a year and a half in Turkish prison on terrorism charges. The United Nations Human Rights Office has announced its condemnation of President Trump's ongoing derogatory remarks toward the press with experts saying the attacks "run counter to the countrys obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law." Timing: The announcement came the same day Ivanka Trump broke with her father at an Axios event explaining she does not believe the media is the "enemy of the people," and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders refused to stand up for the press at Thursday's briefing. Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly gone after the "fake news media," calling the press "the enemy of the people," "very dishonest" or "fake news," and accusing them of "distorting democracy," "conspiracy theories and blind hatred," as the UN points out. "His attacks are strategic, designed to undermine confidence in reporting and raise doubts about verifiable facts." David Kaye and Edison Lanza, the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression for the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Trump sought to explain away his daughter's remark, tweeting, "They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!" At a Q&A hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond, Senator Elizabeth Warren said the U.S. criminal justice system is "racist...front to back," the Associated Press reports. Why it matters: Warren, a potential Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election, is hoping to pick up more support from the African American community, something Bernie Sanders failed to do in the 2016 election, per the AP. Richmond told the AP ahead of the event that the "biggest political frustration in the African-American community is that we have a bunch of Democrats" who "don't get it the black experience, the black struggle." Warren's home state of Massachusetts is largely white, with only 10% of the electorate being African American, the AP reports. Trend: The Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, will connect seven countries with several 12 different investors, Vice President of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR for Investment and Marketing Elshad Nasirov said during the John Batchelor Radio Show. Now we are very close to construction of one of the biggest and one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive energy projects in the world, which is called Southern Gas Corridor that will connect seven countries with several 12 different investors and 12 different buyers along the way, he said. Nasirov pointed out that this will be first pipeline connecting the Caspian region with its huge energy resources to consumers in the European Union. That is of course very important for the EU to find an alternative source and it is as important as for those who are producing oil and gas in the landlocked countries to find a way to transport their products to consumers, he said. Further, Nasirov said it is very important that the US President Donald Trump supported the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the final leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, during the meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Washington. A ceremony to launch Phase 0 of TANAP took place June 12 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. TANAP, together with Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which provides for the transportation of gas from the Azerbaijani field Shah Deniz to Europe. The initial capacity of TANAP is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. About six billion cubic meters will be supplied to Turkey, and the rest to Europe. After completion of the TAP, the gas will reach Europe in early 2020. The share distribution in TANAP is as follows: Southern Gas Corridor CJSC - 51 percent, SOCAR Turkey Enerji - 7 percent, Botas - 30 percent, and BP - 12 percent. The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor project was held in Baku on May 29. The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline. The Southern Gas Corridor, which costs more than $40 billion, is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. Trend: The governments of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are currently negotiating on restoring the parallel operation of power systems in the framework of restoration of the united Central Asian Power System (CAPS), Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev told Trend. According to him, the unified energy system of Kazakhstan is currently operating in a parallel mode with the energy systems of Russia and the CAPS (Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan). The minister reminded that the CAPS was formed in the period of the USSR as a single energy complex of a large economic region. A closed 500-kilowatt power grid (the so-called 500-kilowatt ring) was built as a connecting link of the CAPS, passing through the territories of four republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. However, Turkmenistan withdrew from the parallel work of the CAPS in 2003, Bozumbaev said. The energy minister, referring to the data of the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC), noted that the unbalanced production and consumption of electricity in the CAPS in 2009 repeatedly led to overloads and emergency shutdowns of 500-kilowatt communication lines linking the north and the south of Kazakhstan. Such overloads were accompanied by deep restrictions of consumers in electricity in all parallel operating power systems and by violations of the economy and social sphere of the Central Asian states. In this regard, Uzbekistan decided to cut off 500-kilowatt communication lines with the Tajik energy system in late October 2009, allocating it to an isolated operation mode, Bozumbayev concluded. Uzbekistan is currently working on joining Afghanistan to the unified energy ring of Central Asia. To this end, a new power line, Surkhan-Puli-Khumri, will be constructed. The preliminary cost of the project is $150 million, $32 million of which will be spent on work in Uzbekistan. The remaining $118 million will be spent in Afghanistan. The payback period of the project is 12 years. Trend: Turkmen officials met with the delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress headed by policy adviser Everett Price in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message. During the meeting, the participants discussed the prospects for the development of relations between the countries in the political, trade, economic, social and cultural spheres. Moreover, joint steps were taken to strengthen bilateral and regional cooperation, as well as issues of mutual interest, the message said. "The issues of cooperation within the multilateral regional cooperation in "C5 + 1" format were stressed on the agenda of the talks," the message said. C5 + 1 is a dialogue format and a platform for joint actions to solve common problems of the US and five Central Asian countries. Earlier it was reported that long-term cooperation has been established between Turkmenistan and the US in such areas as the supply of agricultural machinery, the modernization of the technical fleet of Turkmenistan's civil aviation and the supply of electric power equipment. The White House supports regional gas pipeline projects, such as TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) and Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project through Azerbaijan and Turkey to Europe. New Military Hospital building starts services Chief of the Army Staff General Rajendra Chhetri inaugurated the newly-constructed building of the Tribhuvan-Chandra Military Hospital here on Friday.The Tribhuvan-Chandra Military Hospital is an extension of the Birendra Army Hospital located at Chhauni. PM expands Cabinet Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli expanded his Cabinet for the fourth time on Friday, inducting two ministers from the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Richard Bacon has revealed he came incredibly close to death as he battled a mystery illness over the summer (Yui Mok/PA) Richard Bacon has revealed he came incredibly close to death as he battled a mystery illness over the summer. The TV presenter, 42, fell ill during a flight from Los Angeles to London last month and was put in an induced coma as doctors fought to save his life. Bacon pulled through after two weeks of treatment and was pictured leaving University Hospital Lewisham with his wife Rebecca. But in an interview with The Times, Bacon revealed doctors told him he could have died from the illness, which has still not been diagnosed. Expand Close Richard Bacon left hospital with wife Rebecca after battling a mystery illness (Dominic Lipinski/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Richard Bacon left hospital with wife Rebecca after battling a mystery illness (Dominic Lipinski/PA) The former Blue Peter host said he keeps thinking about the worldwide Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, adding: Of course, you think, in 1918 you can die from the flu. You can understand why they died but in 2018, I can go into a hospital, aged 42, be that fit, and have all that modern equipment around me and still nearly die? F*****g hell. I came that close. The first two nights, it was incredibly close. Bacon, who has two children, Arthur, six, and Ivy, four, said he wants to thank the NHS for saving his life. He also revealed he has given up alcohol due to the health scare. Expand Close Richard Bacon said he is now embracing a healthier lifestyle (Dominic Lipinski/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Richard Bacon said he is now embracing a healthier lifestyle (Dominic Lipinski/PA) In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: Ive decided to really, really embrace health from here on in. Ive always drunk too much, Ive always drunk too quickly, so Im giving up drinking altogether forever as a result of what happened to me. Because if I dont effect some sort of really, really positive change out of this, then its a giant waste of everyones time So Im using it to effect positive change. Its something Ive been thinking about anyway. I want to do something different, I want to look back in 10, 20 years and think this was the moment I changed my life. Dad's Army, the BBC's classic sitcom about hapless recruits to the Home Guard braced to defend our fair isles from Nazi invasion, has just celebrated its half-century. The women and children of Walmington-on-Sea could rest easy in their beds knowing the south coast town was under the protection of Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his band of rigorously drilled veterans, armed to the (false) teeth and ready to see off the Teutonic hordes at a moment's notice. Couldn't they? The adventures of Sergeant Wilson (John Le Mesurier), Lance Corporal Jones (Clive Dunn) and privates Frazer (John Laurie), Walker (James Beck), Godfrey (Arnold Ridley) and Pike (Ian Lavender) brought joy to millions over the course of the show's nine-year run, during which 80 episodes were produced, followed by a feature film in 1971 and a touring show in 1976. Dad's Army was created by writing duo Jimmy Perry and David Croft under the shrewd guidance of producer Michael Mills and remains instantly recognisable from its theme, Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler?, sung by period music-hall favourite Bud Flanagan. The show dwelt on Mainwaring, a fastidious bank manager, whose attempts to instil strict discipline into his platoon of 'Fighting Tigers' (the programme's provisional title), despite their advanced years, dithering and confusion, frequently ended in disaster. Mainwaring's bristling frustration with this well-intentioned mob was brilliantly set against his rivalry with Wilson, a deliciously wry, bored presence throughout. Class tensions abound, Mainwaring dismissing Wilson's education at a "tuppenny ha'penny public school" and quietly seething at the latter's having served with genuine heroism at Mons, Passchendale and Gallipoli. Lowe gave us one of British comedy's great characters - haughty and self-important to the last, a study in footling English officialdom - but he was greatly aided by the coolly experienced character playing of Le Mesurier, also put to good use in his role as reluctant stepfather to Pike, whose mother Wilson is dating. Many of the cast had real war experience of their own - their familiarity with military life as younger men no doubt helping to inform their performances. Lowe had served with the British Army in the Middle East during the Second World War, after being rejected from the Merchant Navy as a result of his poor eyesight, while Le Mesurier had fought in India with the Royal Tank Regiment. Dunn had been captured while fighting with the 4th Queen's Own Hussars to prevent the German invasion of Greece and was subsequently held as a prisoner of war in Austria. Perhaps most extraordinary of all was Ridley (Godfrey), a veteran of the Somme badly injured in combat who nevertheless shelved his career as a popular playwright to enlist again for the Second World War, serving with the British Expeditionary Forces in France and guiding journalists to the front line. Discharged on health grounds, Ridley, of course, returned to patrol with the Home Guard in Caterham, Surrey. The idea of men aged between 17 and 65 otherwise unfit to join the Army being put to use defending the home front was conceived of by secretary of state for war Anthony Eden, who invited applicants to apply to their local police station in a radio address of May 14, 1940. Originally known as Local Defence Volunteers, the name was subsequently changed to the Home Guard by Sir Winston Churchill to convey a grander sense of importance. More than 250,000 men attempted to sign up in the plan's first week. By July there were 1.5m Home Guards in place. Perhaps the first to realise the rich comic potential of the situation was Liverpudlian comedian Robb Wilton, famous for his inspired radio monologues: "The day war broke out, my missus said to me, 'It's up to you... You've got to stop it'. I said, 'Stop what?' She said, 'The war.'" Other key comic influences on Croft and Perry include British film comedian Will Hay, a specialist in schoolmasters and other exasperated authority figures, particularly his feature Oh, Mr Porter! (1937), itself partly inspired by Ridley's drama The Ghost Train (1927). A young Clive Dunn had appeared in Hay's earlier Boys Will Be Boys (1935). Another was the plucky spirit essayed in Ealing's wartime caper Went the Day Well? (1942) in which sleepy villagers are forced to rise up and defend the duck pond from Fifth Columnists after the Home Guard has been gunned down on a country lane. Adapted from a story by Graham Greene, Alberto Cavalcanti's film boasts the extraordinary sight of future theatrical dame Thora Hird manning a machine gun. Arguably what made Dad's Army so special was not the comic mechanisms at work, although these are deftly tuned and the authors and actors deserve every credit, but its conjuring of a very particular mood. The war had finished 23 years before the show first aired in black and white at 8.20pm on July 31, 1968, and yet the atmosphere of unease that lingers in the background at all times, for which Captain Mainwaring is something of a lightning rod, is ever-present and absolutely right for its historical moment. The residents of Walmington-on-Sea attempt to go about their life as normal, the absence of the town's menfolk uncommented upon, nor the church bells fallen silent. The Home Guard likewise must be vigilant and ready, perennially poised for a fight that might never come. As The Daily Telegraph's Charles Moore put it so brilliantly recently, Mainwaring's recruits are "a bit like Shakespeare's soldiers before Agincourt". Like Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1953), Dad's Army's is a comedy of stasis. These old boys are braced for the chance to prove themselves heroes and make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary, but know all the while the opportunity may never come. With hindsight, we know that Adolf Hitler's Operation Sea Lion never came to pass and their visions of a final stand staged in the streets of our quaintest market towns would never be realised. When they do finally encounter a U-Boat crew in 'The Deadly Attachment', the situation is every bit as petty and childish as you might expect; Pike branding Hitler "a twerp" and their captain duly entering his name in a notebook for future reference. Though history denied Mainwaring's Fighting Tigers a real shot at daring-do or the sort of grand finale Blackadder Goes Forth(1989) executed so devastatingly, their dedication is very moving on the few occasions it is allowed to surface above the farce. Take this simple exchange from 'The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage', in which they genuinely believe they are under attack: Mainwaring: "It'll probably be the end of us, but we're ready for that, aren't we men?" Frazer: "Of course." Dad's Army was rebooted with great sensitivity in 2016 - and an all-star cast including Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a ravishing femme fatale. Toby Jones wisely elected not to imitate Lowe as Mainwaring in a part that was always a thankless task. The project largely suffered by being unable to satisfactorily answer the question: who is this for? An unfamiliar irrelevance to younger viewers that left older fans pining for the uniquely beetle-browed presence of John Laurie. The mark the show has left on British culture is vast, Jonesy's catchphrases alone becoming part of the language. "Don't panic!" shouted in a state of enormous panic, sums up the national character more astutely in two words than others have achieved with a thousand. At the heart of Peter Robinson's article in the Belfast Telegraph is his concern about a complacency within and across unionism about the future of the Union. It is a concern I share: indeed, it is a concern I have expressed many times since the mid-1980s, including the period when Robinson was First Minister and DUP leader. Irrespective of how strong an argument or position, maybe it is always wrong to assume that circumstances cannot or will not change. My view remains that the Union will survive. But it will not survive because Robinson, Sammy Wilson and I say so. It will only survive if unionism, collectively and individually, makes a strong case, sells the message, expands the support base and prepares for all eventualities. That is all Robinson is saying. When I suggested in an article a couple of weeks before the 2017 Assembly election that there was a possibility - albeit a slim one - unionists could lose their overall majority, a leading DUP MLA told me, "Don't be silly, Alex, that's not going to happen. "Why would you even write something like that?" Well, they lost that majority. Unionists don't have a majority of either Council or Assembly seats across Belfast (24/60 BCC and 6/20 NIA). The overall vote for candidates who declared themselves as pro-Union/unionist at the last few elections has hovered uncomfortably close to or slightly lower than the 50% barrier. While recent opinion polls haven't given a consistent trend on support for Irish unity, they do suggest that what happens regarding the final Brexit deal could have a significant impact on two or three key demographics. Given that sort of background, it would be a very sanguine or very stupid unionist who would argue that unionists shouldn't give serious consideration to a number of possibilities. The primary one, as Robinson says, is that a border poll is possible, particularly under a Labour government. It is the Secretary of State who makes the call - not unionists, not the DUP, not even Sammy Wilson. I would prefer that the leaders of unionism had given some thought to the possibility and made some sort of preparation for the campaign rather, than as Robinson says, burying their heads in the sand until "only the soles of their feet are visible above the surface". Robinson, Wilson and the rest of us from that generation will remember the body blow dealt to unionism by the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. They will remember the despair. They will remember how close we came to a tipping point. They will remember that something dismissed as an impossibility by the leadership of unionism at the time happened: happened over their heads and without any consultation. Only a fool, a blinkered, irresponsible, thoroughly delusional fool would believe that a British government would not, again, spring another monumental shock upon unionism. And only a unionist of monumental stupidity would refuse to discuss, let alone prepare for that eventuality. "Contingency planning is a judicious safety-net. Better by far to plan for adverse possibilities, no matter how remote, than be left clueless and unprepared if our hopes and evaluations are wrong". Robinson is right. He wrote something similar in the joint UUP/DUP response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement published in June 1987 (The Task Force Report: An End To Drift): "The temptation in such circumstances might be to do nothing. However we would consider this the ultimate abdication of responsibility." To be honest, not much was done. Unionism paid the price of that ongoing abdication of responsibility by the leadership of both parties. Robinson, perhaps mindful of how the report he co-authored was never given the consideration it deserved, is right to remind unionists, all of us, of the continuing perils of not being prepared. The Equality Commission has said a lot more work is needed on LGBT rights in Northern Ireland. It said today's Pride parade was a reminder of the difficulties created by prejudice. The colourful march through Belfast city centre marks the culmination of a high-profile week of talks and events. Michael Wardlow, the Equality Commission's chief commissioner, said: "Progress on LGB and T rights has been hard to achieve and long in coming. "We can't take the gains we've made for granted and we still have a lot of work to do. "For example, Northern Ireland is now unique in the British Isles as a place where LGB people do not have the right to marry." Mr Wardlow said the parade was a reminder of how important it was to continue to promote and protect what have been very hard-won rights for LGBT people. "Of course the Pride parade is always full of exuberance and 'over the top' costumes but, underneath the bling and colour, many people at the event will have their own stories of prejudice or denial of rights." The DUP has come under fire at various Pride events in Belfast this week over the use of a petition of concern to block legalisation of same-sex marriage when the Assembly was sitting. Separately yesterday, campaigners criticised British Airways for sponsoring the UK's biggest Pride celebration in Brighton while co-operating with deportations, claiming the removals include people facing persecution for their sexuality. Activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants called on the airline to "stop being complicit" in working with the Government to deport people, as the festivities at Brighton Pride began yesterday. The open letter, published in The Guardian and signed by scores of MPs and public figures, claims the presence of companies at the event which "profit off deportations is an affront to the vision of freedom Pride represents". A BA spokeswoman said: "It is a legal requirement (under the Immigration Act 1971) for all airlines to deport people when asked to do so by the Home Office. "Not fulfilling this obligation amounts to breaking the law. Airlines only have the right to refuse deportees on the basis that they feel there is a threat to the safety or security of the aircraft/its passengers or the individual." She said the company was proud to support this weekend's Brighton Pride event. The chief of Northern Ireland's health watchdog has launched an investigation into the catalogue of horrors uncovered at a care home on the outskirts of west Belfast. The Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland (COPNI) published a damning report in June into conditions at Dunmurry Manor, in which he outlined inhumane and degrading treatment of residents. Eddie Lynch also criticised the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), the body which regulates care homes here, in his report. However, RQIA chief executive Olive Macleod has said she does not accept all of the findings in the report and now she has revealed she is looking into the matter herself. In a letter written to Julieann McNally, a relative of a former resident, Ms Macleod said: "I have the names of a small number of families and will be meeting in the near future. "I have requested the remaining names from the commissioner to allow me to investigate." Ms Macleod wrote to Ms McNally on July 26 following comments the west Belfast woman made about the RQIA response to the COPNI report. In the letter Ms Macleod clarified the fact that she met with Ms McNally in February, ahead of the publication of the COPNI report. However, she did not take issue with other comments made by Ms McNally that she has not apologised for any failings by the RQIA. Responding to the letter, Ms McNally said: "Sinn Fein requested a meeting with the RQIA on my behalf on June 19 and we still haven't had confirmation that a meeting will happen. "Yes, I met with Olive Macleod on a number of occasions prior to the COPNI report being published, but I'm obviously very keen to meet with the RQIA now all the findings have been published. "I don't understand what is so difficult about that." Ms McNally said that after the report was published, she believed that Ms McLeod was the best person to lead the improvements required, but she has now changed her mind. "The commissioner has carried out a 16-month investigation, the Department of Health has announced an independent review into the response of the likes of the RQIA and the trusts into what was happening at Dunmurry. "Why is Olive Macleod carrying out her own investigation now instead of getting on with implementing the recommended changes?" SDLP councillor Brian Heading said it appeared that the RQIA was involved in a damage limitation exercise. He compared the RQIA response to that of the Belfast Trust in relation to the deaths of five children from hyponatraemia. An independent review published earlier this year found that the trust was more concerned with protecting its own reputation than ensuring no other deaths from hyponatraemia would occur. Mr Heading said: "It's time that the RQIA stops circling the wagons and gets on with making the changes needed to safeguard some of the most vulnerable people in society. "I know the RQIA has taken issue with the comments made by the commissioner in relation to resident-on-resident sex abuse. "However, no one was suggesting these people were acting in a criminal way, instead the commissioner was criticising the handling of the issue." Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan contacted the RQIA on June 19 requesting a meeting between the organisation and affected families. He said the purpose of the meeting was to "discuss the report's findings, implications and next steps". RQIA acknowledged the response and said they would be in touch shortly regarding the request. However, a meeting has yet to be scheduled. The RQIA was asked whether Ms Macleod will meet with Ms McNally again and whether she plans to make an apology. A spokesman said Ms Macleod met with Ms McNally in February 2018 to discuss her concerns relating to her grandmother's care while she was a resident at Dunmurry Manor. He continued: "RQIA's chief executive has also met with those families we have been able to identify from COPNI's report. "There are a number of individuals we have been unable to identify from the report, and we have written to COPNI, requesting their details to allow us hear directly of their experiences. "RQIA is currently preparing a full response to COPNI's report and recommendations, in line with his timescales." Ian Paisley's party affiliation has been changed on the UK's Parliamentary website to 'Independent'. (PA) A DUP councillor has called a meeting to "show support" for Ian Paisley following his suspension from the House of Commons. Last month the North Antrim MP was suspended for 30 sitting days for failing to declare family holidays in Sri Lanka, breaching rules on paid advocacy and breaching rules on registration of interests. Mr Paisley was also suspending from the DUP in the wake of the scandal, with the party saying it would conduct an investigation. Now DUP councillor John Finlay, who represents Ballymoney on Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council, has written to supporters of Mr Paisley to organise a meeting with the MP on Monday August 13 at 8pm in Ballymena. In the letter, seen by the Belfast Telegraph, Cllr Finlay said he had been following the "media frenzy" around the House of Commons Standards Committee judgement against Mr Paisley "with great sadness". He said: "I trust also that you will have been saddened by the subsequent torrent of condemnation and abuse our friend has suffered since the issue became public. Sinn Fein of course have led the charge, proudly proclaiming in the Irish News: 'Sinn Fein Vows to unseat Paisley'. "Many see this as their opportunity to oust Northern Ireland's most gifted voice in Parliament on Brexit. They also see it as an opportunity to rid themselves finally of Paisley's voice in defence of the union and on the Biblical moral issues such as same sex marriage and abortion." Cllr Finlay said that this is why a few of Mr Paisley's friends had decided to call a meeting with him "to show our support and hear from him first-hand how we tackle the future." He added: "Let us show the world that the friends of Ian Paisley still stand behind the man they believe in, good times and bad." Mr Paisley could face a by-election if he is recalled under the terms of the Petition of Recall Act 2015. The law gives constituents the power to recall their MPs, with an election triggered by at least 10% of the electorate in the constituency signing a petition. With 75,478 constituents in Mr Paisley's North Antrim constituency, 7,547 signatures would be required to trigger a by-election. A pensioner arrested in Northern Ireland in connection with the killing of an exiled Seychelles politician has been released under investigation. Gerard Hoarau was gunned down on his doorstep in Edgware, north London, in 1985. He was shot with a Sterling sub-machine gun. Scotland Yard announced on Thursday that a 77-year-old man had been arrested in Antrim on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The suspect, who had not previously been arrested as part of the investigation, was released yesterday. Several individuals were previously detained in connection with the assassination, but no charges followed. Three people were convicted of perverting the course of justice by meddling with the investigation in 1986. The trail then went cold for decades, prompting a review in 2016 from which fresh lines of inquiry were established, according to the force. Yesterday neighbours of the man arrested in Antrim spoke of their shock. One said: "I didn't know what was going on but I knew it was serious. "I left the house at 9.30am to drop my daughter off at summer scheme and when I returned at 10.15am the place was swarming with police." They added: "This is a really quiet area and nothing like this ever happens here, but it's even more shocking because this is not a man you would expect to be accused of involvement in a political assassination." Mr Hoarau was the leader of the Mouvement Pour La Resistance (MPR) which sought the peaceful overthrow of the France-Albert Rene regime which had come to power in a coup d'etat. Police have never solved his murder, but the Rene government were highly implicated. As well as the hired hit-man, British police also believed that there was another individual-believed to be a Seychellois-who knew Hoarau and was able to identify him to the foreign assassin. Neither Hoarau's assassin nor his accomplice has been caught. Snow and ice could cause problems The road has been closed. Follow the latest updates from our travel feed below The Dobbin Road in Armagh has been reopend folowing an earlier crash. Diversions are in place and traffic is being diverted onto the Vicarage Road, delays are expected. Our live updates from across Northern Ireland are compiled by @TrafficwatchNI, @BBCNITravel and @PSNITraffic. Revelations that five vulnerable patients were assaulted by staff at Muckamore Abbey Hospital over a three-year period have been described as "horrendous". Janice Smyth, the Northern Ireland director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), was reacting to news that between 2014 and 2017, 53 incidents of assaults on patients by staff were reported. Five of these were investigated and substantiated. Some 4,546 incidents of physical abuse, assault or violence by patients on staff were reported during the same period and 193 instances of stress-related staff sickness. Since November 2017, 13 members of staff working at the Co Antrim hospital have been suspended after allegations of ill-treatment were made. A total of 39 patients have resided in the hospital for over a year, with some having delayed discharge of periods ranging from two to 10 years. The figures were obtained by the BBC via a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Belfast Trust. In its FoI response, the Belfast Trust said "all incidents of assaults on patients by staff are reported and fully investigated under the adult safeguarding policy". Last week the health body issued an unreserved apology for the treatment of some patients at the hospital. Muckamore Abbey is located just outside Antrim and provides inpatient facilities for vulnerable adults with learning difficulties and mental health issues. A hospital whistleblower previously warned "someone is going to get killed" if issues at the facility were not addressed and made claims of "rampant" violent assaults on staff and a "dangerous work environment". Speaking yesterday, the RCN Northern Ireland director voiced shock that nurses employed to provide care for vulnerable patients had been investigated and allegations substantiated that patients had been assaulted. Ms Smyth added: "It is horrendous. One assault on a patient is one too many and the majority of nurses you would speak to would tell you that, or anybody working in healthcare. I think it is very sad that that has happened and each one of those warranted absolute investigation to see the circumstances that led to that." She added: "It is also a matter of grave concern that there have been 4,546 incidents of physical abuse, assault or violence by patients on staff reported during the same period. "It is therefore unsurprising that staff are absent from work due to stress. The 80 patients accommodated in Muckamore Abbey Hospital have complex needs and are amongst the most vulnerable in our society." Billy Moore, from the Society of the Parents and Friends of Muckamore Abbey, has urged management to take control of the situation and turn things around. An expert panel has since been set up to independently review the standard of care in Muckamore Abbey. A February 2018 report by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) identified concerns over staffing at the hospital. A spokesman for the RQIA said yesterday that it is "aware of the allegations of abuse of patients in Muckamore" and being kept "informed of current and ongoing investigations". The Belfast Trust added: "Due to the ongoing investigations into the allegations at Muckamore, we are unable to comment further." Reconstruction of Durbar High School begins Reconstruction of the historic Durbar High School, which was heavily damaged by the 2015 earthquake, formally began on Friday. Fed-up passengers have slammed Belfast International as "the worst airport in the UK" amid growing anger over long security queues. This week delayed holidaymakers posted photos of their travel nightmare at the terminal, with huge crowds at a standstill at security. The airport said it had experienced difficulties in recent months due to "unprecedented passenger numbers". It apologised to those affected and said it was taking steps to address the issue. Thursday morning had been "particularly challenging", it added, with security provider ICTS experiencing staffing issues. This meant not all security lanes could be opened. Michelle Devlin (46) from Strabane said she came close to missing her 7.10am flight to Manchester on Thursday. "When we arrived there were queues right outside the front door," she said. "I got to skip ahead because I was with easyJet but it still took us 50-60 minutes to get from the door to the scanner. We were there just over two hours and it was very tight getting our flight. "While we were waiting, there were constant announcements for passengers flying to London and people were running through the airport to get to the gates. It was mental. "For anyone who had young children with them, it would have been a nightmare. I'm definitely considering going to Dublin Airport instead next time." Belfast man Neale Owen (42) said Aldergrove was "embarrassing" and branded it the worst airport in the UK. "I've been in every airport in the UK, and Belfast International is by far the worst," he said. Mr Owen said on June 20 he queued for 85 minutes in security with his six-year-old son before flying out to Cyprus. "The only way this will be fixed is by building a new security hall. It needs 15 lanes, not five," he added. "When they're missing staff they can be down to just three security lanes and that creates a bottleneck. "The problem (with expanding the security hall) means they would need to knock down retail space where the restaurant is. "I think the only way things will change is if people vote with their feet by flying out of Belfast City Airport or going to Dublin." David O'Reilly (30) from Antrim said he was also considering switching to Dublin. He and his partner Chris narrowly missed the 8.45am flight to Bristol, with a number of other passengers left behind. "The pilot told us he waited as long as he could but some passengers had to have their luggage taken off the plane," he said. Michael Collins (65) from Killyleagh complained of long security delays earlier this year. "The queues were so slow and I asked to speak to a supervisor," he explained. "She said she had asked for more staff to be put on but they were refused." The airport added that it had drafted in extra qualified staff to minimise delays and was addressing individual complaints and claims for compensation. It said: "We would continue to appeal to passengers to arrive at the airport at least two hours before their scheduled departure times, and to pay particular attention to well-publicised advice on the items they can and cannot bring through central search." An award-winning poet has composed a new work in which she imagines the last moments of a teenage German backpacker who was the victim of a notorious unsolved murder in Co Antrim 30 years ago. Inga-Maria Hauser was 18 when she went missing after taking a ferry from Scotland to Larne in April 1988. Her body was discovered two weeks later in Ballypatrick Forest. A memorial stone was erected earlier this year at the spot where her body was found. Clare McCotter has followed the campaign to catch her killer or killers for several years, and attended the unveiling of the memorial stone. At the ceremony, she recited a trilogy of poems she wrote to mark the 30th anniversary of Inga-Maria's murder. Ms McCotter's work has won numerous awards and has been published worldwide. The new poem - Memorial Deer - puts into verse her interpretation of the last moments of the Munich student's life as she struggled, and questioned why she had to die. Police launched an extensive appeal for information in April on the 30th anniversary of Inga-Maria's killing. Two men, aged 58 and 61, were arrested for questioning in the Loughguile area of Co Antrim. Both were later released on bail. Last month Inga-Maria's nephew Viktor Leibl (25) visited Northern Ireland for the first time, paying his respects at the memorial. He said his family took comfort from the fact that so many people here have kept her memory alive. He added that his mother Friederike, Inga-Maria's sister, also planned to make a visit in the future. Queens Universitys new vice chancellor has revealed he receives a salary of 300,000. Professor Ian Greer said he was happy to disclose his pay, however, he would not be drawn on if students should pay more for third level education in Northern Ireland. It was also reported he is paid 35,000 more than his predecessor, a figure the university did not dispute. Professor Greer was appointed in January. From Scotland he was previously vice chancellor at University of Manchester. He is the 13th person to take the reins of the 172-year-old institution and replaces Professor Patrick Johnson who passed away suddenly in June last year at the age of 58. In his first interview since taking up the post Professor Greer said he was happy to disclose his salary. He receives a 295,000 basic pay, with 6,000 employer costs or pension contributions. Benchmarked against the rest of the Russell Group thats actually at the lower end of the range, he told the BBC. To put it into context Queens is a global institution. Its a university competing on a global scale and as vice chancellor of Queens the job is diverse, its complex and goes well beyond the reaches of the university. The Russell Group is a 24-member organisation of research-intensive universities. Other members of the group include Cambridge, Oxford and the London School of Economics. Asked if Professor Greer received any other benefits on top of his salary, the university did not respond. Professor Patrick Johnson, in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, described as a myth that he had a car provided for him and said he paid rent for his Queens residence. Professor Greer would not be drawn on the subject of tuition fees and if Northern Ireland students should pay more than the current 4,000 rate. What should happen is we need to have a sustainable funding model for higher education and that requires a well-informed debate at the Executive level, he added, So its important we have Executive up and running as soon as possible to address policy issues like that. He continued: Overall I am excited by the opportunity, thats an opportunity to make a real difference to Northern Ireland, a real difference to the economy, a real difference to the people. I want to transform peoples lives here in Northern Ireland and see the economy flourish. The university said the salary was in line with the complexity and demands of the role. Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the Universitys Renumeration Committee, Dr Stephen Kingon added: The Vice-Chancellors salary is determined, in line with the guidance issued by the Committee of University Chairs, by the Universitys Remuneration Committee, a sub-committee of its governing body, Senate. Stephen Prenter, Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Senate added: "Queens University is delighted to welcome Professor Ian Greer as the new President and Vice-Chancellor. "Professor Greer has an international reputation of academic excellence and has held major strategic and leadership roles in higher education for some 25 years, most recently at The University of Manchester and The University of Liverpool. "He has been at the forefront of transformational change to the NHS in the North of England and was a key player in the Manchester City Deal. "As Vice-Chancellor, Professor Greer will bring his experience and expertise to his leadership role within the University, within Northern Ireland and on the national and international stage, making a leading contribution to cultural, social and economic development in Northern Ireland. The funeral of Dominic Murray took place yesterday at St Agnes Church in west Belfast Hundreds of people yesterday attended the funeral of a "top class businessman" from Belfast who died when a vehicle he was repairing collapsed on top of him. Dominic Murray (67) was a father of five who built up a multi-million pound computer software company in England. Originally from Owenvarragh Park in west Belfast, the much-loved grandfather was known for his passion for repairing vehicles. He died after the vehicle fell on him at his Cadogan Park home on Monday. SDLP MLA Pat Catney is a family friend and attended the Requiem Mass at St Agnes' Church in Andersonstown, before a service at Roselawn Crematorium. "It was a dignified service with a strong turnout," he said. "The family are all taking comfort in each other and they will rally around each other. "That's what families are for, and there is no doubt that Dominic was much loved by everyone. "He was a top class businessman and a hard worker, but the most important thing to him was family." Mr Murray sold his business in 2009 to move back home to Northern Ireland to spend more time with his extended family, including 10 grandchildren. "He always wanted to come back to Northern Ireland to spend more time with family," Mr Catney said. "After the service there was a lot of stories shared about his love of his family and his cars. "I remember him as a fun guy, he liked to play music as well. "I knew his sister and brother-in-law, so when I went over to England with his sister for a visit he just loved seeing people from home, regardless of class, creed or colour. "To me he was just a Northern Ireland boy." Mr Murray's surviving sisters, Babs and Annie, flew in from Canada and England just to attend yesterday's service. Speaking earlier this week, Annie described Mr Murray as "a gentleman with a huge personality". On Thursday, one of Mr Murray's daughters said her mother Brenda had been inconsolable since the "freak accident" claimed her husband's life. "We as a family are completely devastated and utterly heartbroken - we are all struggling to come to terms with our loss," she said. "We are all in bits, but especially mum. It is just horrific. "This was just a freak accident. Dad loved buying old cars and tinkering with them, it was his passion." A prosecuting lawyer said police were called to Moy Park after security staff were asked to remove the defendant who had spat in the face of a colleague (stock picture) A man who spat in the face of a female work colleague after being spoken to about his "work ethic" at the Moy Park poultry factory in Ballymena a week before Christmas, lost his job for the "nasty" offence, Ballymena Magistrates Court has heard. Stewart Hillis (35), of Sandmount Road, Galgorm, had previously pleaded guilty and was back in court for sentencing on charges of assault; assault on police and attempted criminal damage of a police vehicle on December 18 last year. A prosecuting lawyer said police were called to Moy Park after security staff were asked to remove the defendant who had spat in the face of a colleague. Hillis then assaulted a police officer and head butted and kicked a police car window. Ordering him to do 120 hours of unpaid work and pay 100 compensation to his former work colleague, District Judge Nigel Broderick said such incidents were unacceptable. He told Hillis: "It obviously cost you your job, quite properly as well." Peter Robinson waves goodbye to the party faithful watched by Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster after his final leaders speech during the DUP annual conference at La Mon Hotel on November 21, 2015 Peter Robinson has ruled out a return to front line politics in the wake of his intervention on the border issue. Some had floated the idea of a possible comeback from the former DUP leader following a series of recent high-profile statements. Read More Writing in this newspaper yesterday, Mr Robinson accused unionists who cautioned against talking about a border poll of engaging in "claptrap" and "crass folly". Speaking on the BBC's Talkback programme yesterday, former Ulster Unionist leader Lord Empey said: "I think the latest intervention (from Mr Robinson) clearly demonstrates that - some might argue - that he is even on a comeback operation here." Lord Empey referred to recent difficulties, including the failure of talks to resolve the Stormont impasse, which he said "might mean that the future is not too bright" for current DUP leader Arlene Foster. He added: "And maybe he sees the sun coming out again for him and maybe he sees himself on a comeback. Who knows?" But Mr Robinson moved quickly to scotch the speculation, telling the BBC programme: "You must be joking. Not the remotest notion of doing so." Mr Robinson (69) announced his retirement in November 2015, and stepped down the following January. He was succeeded as First Minister by Mrs Foster, a Fermanagh-South Tyrone MLA and former Enterprise and Finance Minister. Lord Empey told Talkback being a former leader could be a "difficult role". "You have to have regard to the fact that someone else is in the driving seat, not you, and you have to adjust to that, and recent events in the last few months with Peter Robinson's interventions clearly indicate his hasn't managed to achieve that," he claimed. "The one cardinal sin in my view is for former leaders to be critical publicly of their successors." Earlier this year Mr Robinson was made an honorary professor in peace studies at Queen's University, Belfast. In his inaugural lecture he offered advice on how the political stalemate in Northern Ireland could be broken. He also described talks held to try to restore devolution as a "train crash". Yesterday Lord Empey referred to that speech, adding: "We saw in Queen's University earlier this summer when Peter made his border poll speech, Arlene was sitting in front of him and he referred to the train crash of the talks that she led in February, and it was fairly obvious who he was getting at." DUP leader Arlene Foster last night threw her weight behind Peter Robinson's border poll comments and strongly denied they were an attack on her leadership. Her intervention came as a spat erupted between Mr Robinson and Sammy Wilson, the party's East Antrim MP, over comments the former leader made in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph. Read More Mr Robinson had accused unionists who caution against talking about a border poll of engaging in "claptrap" and "crass folly", but Mr Wilson hit back, saying he was "plain wrong". The Belfast Telegraph understands that Mr Wilson was speaking for himself, and not the party, in his robust criticism of Mr Robinson. A DUP spokesman said: "Arlene Foster does not view Peter Robinson's Belfast Telegraph article as an attack on the DUP leadership. Indeed, Peter Robinson has praised the party leader in the article. "This article highlights and exposes the rank hypocrisy of the Ulster Unionist Party on the matter of a border poll." That appears to be a reference to the provision for a border poll in the Good Friday Agreement, which the UUP negotiated in 1998. The DUP spokesman added: "Peter is a private citizen and is at liberty to express his views. We consider it important that those with experience feel able to contribute to the important debates of the day." Mr Robinson had "worked with the party before placing the article in the Belfast Telegraph", the DUP revealed. Its spokesman added: "Mrs Foster and a number of others had advance sight of the final draft. "It is important that focus on a border poll does not detract from the need for delivery on the here and now matters such as our schools, roads and hospitals." Writing in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday, Mr Robinson responded to those who criticised his comments at the MacGill Summer School in Co Donegal last Friday, where had said unionism should develop a contingency plan to deal with the possibility of a united Ireland. Mr Wilson had accused him of giving encouragement to the republican cause by even countenancing the possibility of a vote. But Mr Robinson used his article in this newspaper to respond in robust terms. While not mentioning Mr Wilson by name, he said unionists who said the issue should not be discussed were talking "claptrap" and were guilty of "crass folly". "These people have not just buried their heads in the sand, only the soles of their feet are visible above the surface," he said. Mr Robinson insisted the "battle for the union" was on, whether fellow unionists liked it or not. Responding to Mr Robinson's latest comments, Mr Wilson described him as a "formidable advocate" for the union, but said on the issue of a poll he was "just plain wrong". The MP denied he was burying his head in the sand or "digging a defensive foxhole". "It is not enough to say that a referendum is coming so prepare the terms in case we lose," Mr Wilson said. "Churchill know that the Nazis were coming after Britain when they defeated France in 1940 but he didn't prepare terms for the event of a successful invasion he rallied the people by telling them to prepare to fight on the beaches and in the laneways and in the streets and to never surrender. "That's a far better strategy and that is what I am hearing from unionists who I speak to and who are alarmed at the talk of an inevitable referendum and the possibility of losing it. "The Peter Robinson who I remember and admired, even in the dark days leading up to the Anglo-Irish agreement when we had a Secretary of State who declared that the Conservative government had no economic strategic or selfish interest in Northern Ireland, led the fight against what seemed impossible odds. "He was a formidable advocate for the union, still is, but his current analysis of what unionists should be doing is just plain wrong." Mr Wilson had previously described Mr Robinson's intervention on the border poll issue as "dangerous and demoralising". Last night Mr Robinson also came under attack from DUP MLA Jim Wells, who said he felt the former leader's intervention was a "huge distraction" for the party at an already complex time. Mr Wells, who has had the DUP whip withdrawn following his criticism of the party leadership, Mr Robinson's intervention was a distraction in already complex political times, including issues around Brexit. "What's facing the party leadership at the moment is so complex and so time-consuming that, really, we shouldn't have to worry about what former leading lights in the party have said," the South Down MLA added. There was also criticism of Mr Robinson from Ulster Unionist leaders past and present. The current leader, Robin Swann, also referred to the uncertainty around Brexit. He said: "Instead of setting out plans for a border poll, Peter's time would be better spent extolling the virtues of the Union and encouraging his colleagues to veer away from actions which have brought Parliament, the Assembly and unfortunately unionism into disrepute." He added: "It would however be interesting to understand and have sight of the DUP's risk register and contingency planning they had for the hard Brexit which some of their MPs have advocated, as I am sure many businesses and organisations would appreciate sight of that." Lord Empey, meanwhile, questioned whether Mr Robinson was contemplating some kind of political comeback - a suggestion he quickly shot down, saying he had "not the remotest notion of doing so". Lord Empey remarked that being a former leader could be a "difficult role". Serco plans to evict more than 300 former asylum seekers in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA) Around 100 people protested outside a Home Office building on Saturday amid ongoing opposition to plans to evict more than 300 asylum seekers. The latest demonstration at the Brand Street offices in Glasgow was backed by charity Positive Action in Housing, the Church of Scotland and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. Campaigners burned eviction notices in protest over plans by Home Office contractors Serco to evict up to 330 asylum seekers in Glasgow who have been refused refugee status. A Police Scotland spokeswoman said the force estimated that around 100 people took part in the peaceful demo. All our efforts this past week have been to avert a humanitarian disaster taking place on our streets Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing It followed protests in the city centre and outside the Brand Street office last week, as well as a hunger strike by two Afghan men facing eviction. Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, described the evictions as immoral, irresponsible and frankly dangerous. She appealed to the charitys 150 member organisations, many of which are Glasgow-based housing associations, to use their powers to stop the evictions with actions such as the prevention of lock changes. She said several associations with lease agreements with Serco had already stepped forward to outline their opposition to the evictions. All our efforts this past week have been to avert a humanitarian disaster taking place on our streets as Serco slowly dumps 330 refugees and asylum seekers on to the streets of Glasgow with seven-day notices, she said. Serco revealed plans last weekend to begin changing the locks on accommodation. The public services group said it had provided housing for months in some cases for those without the right to remain in the UK, without recompense from the Home Office and at a cost of more than 1 million a year, which it claimed should be borne by the local authority. Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said these costs should be taken on by the Home Office, and has made repeated calls to Home Secretary Sajid Javid to step in and halt the evictions. The council is also examining whether it can extend its general power of welfare to help those who face having their locks changed, many of whom are young, single men. Meanwhile housing charity Shelter Scotlands housing law service is to represent two of the asylum seekers facing eviction. Director Graeme Brown said: Our legal team will be presenting papers to Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday morning along with the legal services agency who act for a third individual to try and get interim orders that will prevent the lock changes threatened to our clients. Our clients are actively working with immigration lawyers to resolve their asylum claims. Interim orders temporarily stopping the lock changes will allow this work to continue with our clients having a home to live in. Serco chief executive Rupert Soames has said lock-change notices would be given to no more than 10 people a week for the next four weeks. He said none of these would be families with children and all will be people who the Home Office considers to have exhausted their appeal process and no longer have the right to remain. The UK appears set to crash out of the European Union without a Brexit deal due to the intransigence of the Brussels machine, Liam Fox has claimed. The International Trade Secretary put the chances of a no-deal Brexit at 60-40 despite both sides saying they want to reach an agreement on the terms of the UKs departure from the bloc in March 2019. The prominent Brexiteer said he believed the risk of a no-deal scenario had increased, pinning the blame on the European Commission and Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier. It's up to the EU27 to determine whether they want the EU Commission's ideological purity to be maintained at the expense of their real economiesLiam Fox I think the intransigence of the commission is pushing us towards no deal, he told the Sunday Times. We have set out the basis in which a deal can happen but if the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic wellbeing of the people of Europe then its a bureaucrats Brexit not a peoples Brexit then there is only going to be one outcome. He said Mr Barnier had dismissed the UKs proposals in the Chequers plan thrashed out by Theresa May and the Cabinet simply because we have never done it before. The Government has admitted its proposals are unprecedented, but Dr Fox said Mr Barniers response makes the chance of no deal greater. Expand Close Theresa May held Brexit talks with Emmanuel Macron at his summer retreat on Friday (Sebastien Nogier/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May held Brexit talks with Emmanuel Macron at his summer retreat on Friday (Sebastien Nogier/AP) The Prime Minister held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, cutting short her holiday to visit his summer retreat. LIVE | Avec Theresa May au Fort de Bregancon. https://t.co/EoQd9SVpVe pic.twitter.com/L1tsQrxUST Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 3, 2018 And ministers including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab have also engaged in diplomatic activity in Europe in recent days as the Government seeks to deal directly with individual governments in an effort to keep the Chequers plan alive. In a sign that member states are being warned of the consequences of the failure to find a deal, Dr Fox said: Its up to the EU27 to determine whether they want the EU Commissions ideological purity to be maintained at the expense of their real economies. Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Priti Patel said Mrs May must ditch the Chequers plan, which would see a common rulebook for goods with the EU effectively tying the UK to terms set by Brussels. Writing for the Telegraph website she said it did not meet the result of the referendum and will leave us half-in and half-out, still bound to EU regulations and constraints. My piece in @Telegraph on leaving the EU We are in a strong position to negotiate a positive agreement if we have the backbone and confidence to follow it through. Its time to be brave and choose the open sea once again. https://t.co/L1c2CoSexQ Priti Patel (@pritipatel) August 4, 2018 Calling for a looser free trade deal with the EU she said the change would take political courage, the kind of courage that appears to have been lacking over the past two years. Labour former cabinet minister Lord Blunkett used a Sunday Telegraph article to reject claims that people who voted to Leave over immigration concerns were racist and said the result would be the same if there was another referendum. He argued that people believed our democracy and political system did not reflect their concerns and their cry for help following the impact of the financial crash and austerity, in many places hitting communities still coping with the aftermath of deindustrialisation. To understand this, and why, if there were to be a second referendum now, I believe that the majority would still vote to leave, is critical if we are to get our democratic system back on track, he said. Second pair of rhinos off to China on Aug 16 The officials of Chitwan National Park (CNP) are preparing to send the second pair of rhinos to be gifted to the Government of Peoples Republic of China on August 16. The mercury is set to rocket past 30C (85F) in parts of the UK, as Britons are being warned to stay safe amid a Europe-wide heatwave. Sun-lovers hitting the beaches on Englands south coast will see temperatures peaking at 31C (87.8F) over Saturday and Sunday, the Met Office predicted. Areas along the Hampshire and Dorset coast, such as Gosport, are most likely to feel the heat on Saturday, while the hottest areas on Sunday are expected to be around London stretching north to the Midlands. Plenty of sunshine means that #UV levels will be high across the bulk of England and Wales, and moderate for Scotland and Northern Ireland pic.twitter.com/3yO3k7weM1 Met Office (@metoffice) August 4, 2018 Temperatures could soar even higher early next week, with highs of 32C (89.6F) possible around London on Monday and Tuesday. Britons making the most of the balmy weekend were urged to stay sun sensible amid the high UV levels. However, not all of the UK will be gazing into clear blue skies in Scotland and Northern Ireland clouds are likely with some thick enough to bring patchy rain to the north and west of Scotland. The north-west, south-east split will continue early next week, with further showers expected across Scotland and Northern Ireland, while England and Wales stay generally dry and warmer. We dont know if youve heard but its VERY VERY hot! Be sun sensible this summer EEAST Ambulance Service (@EastEnglandAmb) August 4, 2018 Temperatures will need to climb significantly if they are to come close to Englands current August record 38.5C (101.3F) reached in Faversham, Kent, in 2003. However, the intense heat is likely to lessen come Wednesday, as conditions turn fresher and more changeable, the Met Office said. It comes amid an intense European heatwave, with holidaymakers in Portugal and Spain feeling the sun most intensely. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) The mercury is being driven higher by a hot air mass moving north from Africa, bringing dust from the Sahara Desert. Earlier this week local records were smashed in eight areas of Portugal, with temperatures peaking at 45.2C (113.4F) near Abrantes, a town in the centre of the country. Emergency services have issued a red alert until Sunday, with medical staff and firefighters on standby. Expand Close A boy jumps from a platform over the water at La Concha beach in northern Spain (Alvaro Barrientos/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A boy jumps from a platform over the water at La Concha beach in northern Spain (Alvaro Barrientos/AP) Meanwhile, 400 firefighters and five water-dropping aircraft are battling a wildfire in southern Portugals Algarve region. In Spain, heat warnings have been issued for 41 of the countrys 50 provinces as temperatures are expected to reach up to 44C (111.2F). In northern Europe, Sweden is still under threat from wildfires, which in recent weeks have extended into the Arctic Circle. The Met Office said it was unlikely that the overall European highest temperature recorded 48C (118.4F) in Athens, Greece in 1977 would be beaten. British holiday-makers abroad are being warned to avoid spending time in the sun during the hottest part of the day and to keep hydrated. Jeremy Corbyns efforts to build bridges with the Jewish community have been rebuffed by critics as Labours anti-Semitism row drags on. The Labour leader insisted he will root out anti-Semites from Labour and acknowledged mistakes in the way the party had handled the crisis. But the Jewish Labour Movement said trust had broken down with the party leadership, while the Campaign Against Antisemitism lashed out at Mr Corbyns failure to apologise for his own conduct. Mr Corbyn said the party had been too slow in dealing with complaints and should have consulted the Jewish community before drawing up a code of conduct that failed to fully reproduce an internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism and its examples. But he insisted that it was his priority to drive anti-Semitism out of the party for good and rebuild trust between Labour and Jewish voters. People who dish out anti-Semitic poison need to understand: You do not do it in my nameJeremy Corbyn At the end of a bruising week which has seen complaints about his behaviour and a request for the human rights watchdog to investigate the Labour Party, Mr Corbyn said: No one can, or should, try to dismiss or belittle the concerns expressed by so many Jewish people and organisations about what has been happening in the party I am proud to lead. But after three leading Jewish newspapers jointly published a scathing leader column about Mr Corbyns party, the Labour leader rejected their overheated rhetoric. However, he acknowledged there was a real problem that Labour is working to overcome and stressed that if he became prime minister he would take whatever measures necessary to guarantee the security of the Jewish community. Mr Corbyn acknowledged Labour had been too slow in processing disciplinary cases of anti-Semitic abuse but insisted that was changing. Writing in the Guardian, he said: Labour staff have seen examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood. People holding those views have no place in the Labour Party. While the number of cases was few, Mr Corbyn said one is too many and stressed that it was not done in his name. Our party must never be a home for such people, and never will be. People who dish out anti-Semitic poison need to understand: You do not do it in my name. You are not my supporters and have no place in our movement. Expand Close Protests have been staged about the Labour Partys response to anti-Semitism (Yui Mok/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protests have been staged about the Labour Partys response to anti-Semitism (Yui Mok/PA) The latest flare-up in the long-running difficulties over anti-Semitism was sparked by the partys new code of conduct. Mr Corbyn defended the code, although he accepted that the Jewish community should have been involved at an earlier stage. In the document, Labour failed to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and all its examples. Seven examples were incorporated entirely along with the essence of the other four, he said. But I acknowledge that most of the Jewish community, including many Labour supporters, take a different view. The community should have been consulted more extensively at an earlier stage which is why our executive decided last month to reopen the development of the code in consultation with Jewish community organisations and others to address their concerns. The differences were very small and amount to half of one example out of 11 in relation to criticism of Israel. Mr Corbyn said: It is unfortunately the case that this particular example, dealing with Israel and racism, has sometimes been used by those wanting to restrict criticism of Israel that is not anti-Semitic. Mr Corbyns article met with a furious response from the Campaign Against Antisemitism. The groups chairman Gideon Falter said: There is no acknowledgement of his own role in this crisis. There is no apology for his anti-Semitic activity in the past, but he has hypocritically condemned as anti-Semitic behaviour that he himself has been guilty of. He has again preached to Jews that he is right to have rewritten the international definition of anti-Semitism. By his action over the years as well as by failing even now to take on board the full concerns of the Jewish community, we remain convinced that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and under his leadership the once anti-racist Labour Party has become institutionally anti-Semitic and an existential threat to British Jewry. "Today, other than another article bemoaning a situation of the Partys own making, nothing has changed. There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words" pic.twitter.com/jmNDX9Xvqa Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) August 3, 2018 The Jewish Labour Movement also rejected Mr Corbyns article. A spokesman said: There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words. Political opponents seized upon similarities between Mr Corbyns article and an earlier response to allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour which was published in April. This is literally a cut a paste job, it makes no firm commitments, says that Jewish concerns about Labour are overblown, criticises Israel (because Corbyn cant write about Jews without having a go at Israel?), accepts no culpability. Yes its exceptional, but not in a good way. https://t.co/A0GBsIjqOx James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) August 3, 2018 Tory deputy chairman James Cleverly said it was a cut and paste job. BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE Undated handout issued by Staffordshire Police of midwife Samantha Eastwood, 28, who works at the Royal Stoke Hospital which is appealing for information after she failed to show up for a night shift. A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a body was found during the search for missing midwife Samantha Eastwood. Staffordshire Police said the man, who had previously been released on bail, had been re-arrested after a body was discovered near Caverswall on Saturday. Police searching for missing midwife Samantha Eastwood near this rural area of Caverswall in #Staffordshire have found a body. A 32-year-old man has been re-arrested on suspicion of murder -@PA pic.twitter.com/EYWYdqyRGC Josh Payne (@JoshPaynePA) August 4, 2018 Two other men, aged 28 and 60, have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, the force said. Ms Eastwood, 28, was last seen in uniform leaving work at Royal Stoke Hospital at 7.45am eight days earlier on Friday July 27. Expand Close Samantha Eastwood was last seen leaving work at Royal Stoke Hospital on Friday July 27 (Staffordshire Police/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Samantha Eastwood was last seen leaving work at Royal Stoke Hospital on Friday July 27 (Staffordshire Police/PA) Forensic teams are at the scene and will remain there for some time, while specialists officers support the midwifes family. Police said the body has yet to be formally identified and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course. Expand Close Police outside the home in Stoke of Samantha Eastwood PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police outside the home in Stoke of Samantha Eastwood Dozens of officers and police dogs had been scouring an area near Tickhill Lane, using large sticks to search bushes. Nigel Potts, who owns neighbouring Newhill Farm, said he had witnessed a large police presence at a nearby disused quarry on Saturday morning. It seems that thats where the main focus of the search is. Theyve been down here for three days, the 53-year-old said. He added that officers asked to view footage from his CCTV camera on the night the midwife disappeared, but his recordings did not go back that far. Detectives searching Stoke-On-Trent for missing Samantha Eastwood have discovered a body earlier today. Three men are currently in custody in connection with Samantha's disappearance. https://t.co/ZZ3YM0EYpW pic.twitter.com/bJzfqZyWZx Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) August 4, 2018 Ms Eastwoods colleagues raised concerns at 7.20pm on the same day she was last seen after she failed to show up for her next shift. The force said neighbours reported hearing a scream in the vicinity of Ms Eastwoods house at about 2pm on the day she went missing. Detective Superintendent Simon Duffy, from the forces Major and Organised Crime Department, said: The discovery today is not what anyone wanted, and this is now a homicide investigation. A 32-year-old man who was previously released on conditional bail has now been re-arrested for murder, and remains in custody. Expand Close Gemma Eastwood, sister of missing Samantha Eastwood, makes an appeal at Staffordshire Police headquarters in Stoke PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gemma Eastwood, sister of missing Samantha Eastwood, makes an appeal at Staffordshire Police headquarters in Stoke Two other men, aged 28 and 60, have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. He added: I would like to thank the public for their support, and anyone with any further information is asked to contact us on 101. Ms Eastwoods sister, Gemma Eastwood, had made a tearful appeal for help in tracing Samantha on Friday, saying: We miss you very much, we need you home where you belong. If shes out there, or anyone knows where she is, please get in touch. Get her home. Liz Rix, Chief Nurse, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, said: It is with deep sadness that we announce that Staffordshire Police have discovered a body, yet to be formally identified, in the search for our friend and colleague Samantha Eastwood. Our thoughts are with her family and friends during this time. We would like to thank Staffordshire Police for their dedication and support this week. Serco plans to evict more than 300 former asylum seekers in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA) Serco has announced it will pause plans to issue lock-change orders to tenants whose application for asylum has been refused ahead of a court challenge. A legal team at Shelter Scotland, representing two of the asylum seekers facing eviction, is expected to present papers to Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday to try to suspend the action. It follows the latest of several demonstrations outside the Home Office building in Brand Street on Saturday, where around 100 people gathered for a peaceful protest backed by charity Positive Action in Housing, the Church of Scotland and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. Our clients are actively working with immigration lawyers to resolve their asylum claimsGraeme Brown, Shelter Scotland Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, described the evictions as immoral, irresponsible and frankly dangerous. Serco said it welcomed the clarity that anticipated legal challenge would bring. In the meantime, the Home Office contractor announced it will extend the notice period by 21 days for six people currently subject to lock-change notices, allowing them time to prepare their representations or move out of their properties. All further lock-change notices to other asylum seekers whose applications have been refused will be paused whilst the law is being tested and clarified. A Serco statement said of the legal challenge: This should mean that all parties will get clarity as to how the law will apply to people who refuse to move on from the free accommodation provided to them whilst their claims for asylum are being adjudicated. We have strong legal advice that our approach is fully within the law, but we think it would be helpful for all interested parties to have the Courts confirm the position. In Scotland we have, up until now, chosen not to evict people when the Home Office funding stopsSerco Serco, which provides accommodation and welfare for around 5,000 asylum seekers in Scotland, almost all of them in Glasgow, said it had been subjected to pretty vile abuse over recent days. The company said that in Scotland, until now, it had chosen not to evict failed asylum seekers when their Home Office funding stopped, continuing to provide free accommodation for months and sometimes years. But the number of people over-staying has almost doubled in a year from 167 in August 2017 to around 330 currently, it said, and at this level, we simply cannot afford to continue. And with around 180 new asylum seekers arriving in Glasgow every month, the supply of suitable housing is desperately tight, Serco said. It added: We commit that we will work energetically with Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, charities and the Home Office to ease the path of people as they move on at the end of their adjudication process. Graeme Brown, director of housing charity Shelter Scotland, said: Our legal team will be presenting papers to Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday morning along with the legal services agency who act for a third individual to try and get interim orders that will prevent the lock changes threatened to our clients. Our clients are actively working with immigration lawyers to resolve their asylum claims. Interim orders temporarily stopping the lock changes will allow this work to continue with our clients having a home to live in. Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken has made repeated calls to Home Secretary Sajid Javid to step in and halt the evictions. The council is also examining whether it can extend its general power of welfare to help those who face having their locks changed, many of whom are young, single men. A right-wing group and counter-protesters are staging opposing rallies in Portland, Oregon, as police try to prevent the gatherings from turning violent. A rally organised by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson is the third to take place in the city in Oregon state this summer. Two previous events ended in fighting and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to hospital with a skull fracture. Expand Close There was a heavy police presence (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp There was a heavy police presence (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) This time, Mr Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside the US district court to a waterfront park, so that some of his Oregon supporters can carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate. Chartered buses have brought participants from Vancouver, Washington where Mr Gibson lives to Portland with armed security on board. Protesters saw a significant police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons-screening checkpoints. Mr Gibsons insistence on bringing his right-wing supporters repeatedly to this Democrat-supporting city has crystallised a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer has held rallies in many other cities around the western US, including Berkeley, California, which have drawn violent reactions. The Portland events have taken on a larger significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathiser was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defence of two young black women one in a hijab whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017. A coalition of community organisations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carry guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys and protect the city. Portland police said weapons may be seized if there is a violation of law, and added that it is illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person has a valid Oregon concealed handgun licence. Many protesters are expected to come from out of state. Mr Gibson, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic US senator Maria Cantwell in Washington state, said earlier this week that he will not stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their right-wing views without interference. He said: I refuse to do what Portland wants me to do because what Portland wants me to do is to shut up and never show up again. So yeah, I refuse to do that, but I will not stop going in, and I will not stop pushing, and I will not stop marching until the people of Portland realise that and realise that their methods do not work, he said. Self-described anti-fascists or antifa have been organising anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, in the streets. Expand Close Counter protesters tear up a Nazi flag (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Counter protesters tear up a Nazi flag (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) A broader counter-protest organised by a coalition of unions, immigrant rights groups and artists will gather at City Hall before the Patriot Prayer rally. Organisers said that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs. Speakers conduct irks Nepali Congress The opposition, Nepali Congress, has questioned the role of Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara who on Thursday continued the House proceedings even after the NC lawmakers had boycotted the session. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) greets North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho as they prepare for a group photo at the 25th ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore, Aug. 4, 2018. Southeast Asian foreign ministers concluded their annual meetings in Singapore this week, with China agreeing to a draft of a code of conduct to govern disputes in the South China Sea topping the talks and North Korea on Saturday expressing alarm over Washingtons impatience on the issue of denuclearization. In their traditional statement at the end of Thursdays meeting held in Singapore, the diplomats welcomed North Koreas pledge to completely denuclearize as well as affirmed a commitment to boost the fight against terrorism. But, two days later, the United States and North Koreas top diplomats traded barbs after exchanging pleasantries, with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho delivering a scathing remark warning that Pyongyang would not be bullied into concessions. The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reaffirmed freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea, where China has raised regional concerns by expanding the islands it control in the region and militarizing them despite agreements not to rock the boat. Singapores foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, said that talks on the code of conduct began in March and first draft was completed in June during talks held in Changsha, China. While he declined to reveal details of the documents, Balakrishnan said the development should be considered a milestone. Now just to clarify, this doesnt mean that negotiations are over, but weve been able to put everything down onto a single draft and this draft will form the basis for subsequent negotiations, he told reporters Friday. Citing sensitivity of the talks, Balakrishnan said ASEAN and China were now in a position to accelerate the process. I think everyone is glad that weve reached this stage, everyone also hopes that well be able to accelerate the process, but were not yet in a position to put a specific deadline, he said. And in the nature of these negotiations, sometimes its better to maintain sufficient flexibility, so that nobody feels locked in, or that their interest will be overridden in a roughshod manner, he said. His Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, called the development a breakthrough as he let off a veiled dig at the United States, which has been conducting freedom of navigation passages in the disputed waters in a show of strength and raised alarm over what it perceives as alarming actions at sea, including Chinas installation of surface-to-air missiles in islands it claims. We believe that without any disturbances from the outside, COC consultations will accelerate, Wang said, referring to the code of conduct. The ministers also hailed practical measures that could help reduce tensions and avoid the risk of accidents, including a hotline between foreign ministries of China and ASEAN claimants. China and ASEAN are to hold their first joint maritime exercises two months from now, as both sides raised their security cooperation a notch higher. As a lead up to that, dozens of sailors from both sides took part in a two-day, table-top exercises in Singapore that concluded Friday. They worked on cooperation scenarios involving search and rescue during a mock ship collision. A huge Philippine flag is displayed beside an American flag at the USS Theodore Roosevelt when the aircraft carrier visited the Philippines in April after a "freedom of navigation" voyage that passed through the South China Sea, April 2018. [Felipe Villamor/BenarNews] Washington as an ASEAN ally The United States has long been an ASEAN ally, and has in the past repeatedly rallied behind smaller countries at the receiving end of what it has called Chinas bullying tactics. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Washington would continue to help the region which he considered a vital part of the world that continues to grow in importance. He said Washington was offering a new funding of up to $300 million for security cooperation in the region, including in efforts at boosting maritime strength and developing humanitarian and peace-keeping capabilities. Pompeo said he met individually with his counterparts in the region, and found a deep commitment in support of an open Indo-Pacific, which he described as region where every country can have true opportunity to compete, to transit their goods, in a way that is not dominated, not threatened by any one member of ASEAN or any country in the region. Shared efforts at stopping terrorism Pompeo said he had also received an update on terrorism and security in the region, where some of ASEAN members have been grappling with attacks linked to the Islamic State. He made the statement after the Philippines suffered a car-bomb attack that killed 10 people on Tuesday, just as the Singapore meetings got underway. The ASEAN ministers, in a communique, affirmed their commitment to combat the scourge of violent extremism, radicalization and terrorism through national and regional levels. The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia has an ongoing cooperative arrangement to combat terrorism, including shared efforts at stopping terrorist fighters from crossing borders, the ministers noted. Diplomatic, economic pressure on Pyongyang While Pompeo welcomed the role that Singapore played in hosting the historic summit between the United States and North Korean leaders in June, he said diplomatic and economic pressure must be maintained on Pyongyang to ensure that it lives up to its promise of dismantling its nuclear weapons. It is clear our partners and allies within ASEAN know how important the denuclearization of North Korea is for their own security, he said. But Ri, the foreign minister of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), criticized Washington for undermining confidence in North Koreas determination and commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another," the Associated Press quoted Ri as saying during a closed-door session at the regional forum. Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight. Pompeo had already left the meeting when Ri delivered his fiery remarks. He is in Jakarta, where he is scheduled to meet on Sunday with Indonesian leader Joko Jokowi Widodo. At the regional meeting, the American delegation handed a letter from President Donald Trump to Ri. The letter, intended for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was Trump's reply to a letter he received from Kim earlier this week, Pompeo said. Pompeo briefly met Ri Saturday during a joint photo session with ministers ahead of the day's main forum. The pair shook hands, smiled and exchanged some words, according to Agence France-Presse. While the encounter was brief, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert described it as a step in the right direction given where US-North Korea relations were a year ago. As he arrived in Jakarta, Pompeo posted comments on his Twitter page describing his meeting with the North Korean diplomat. We had a quick, polite exchange, Pompeo tweeted. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver (Trump's) reply to Chairman Kim's letter. For Immediate Release, August 3, 2018 Contact: Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746, nick@cascwild.org Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495, ngreenwald@biologicaldiversity.org Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission Grants Humboldt Marten Trapping Ban State Will Protect Two Remaining Populations SALEM, Ore. In response to a petition by five conservation groups earlier this year, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission today instructed the Department of Fish and Wildlife to draft rules to protect the approximately 200 Humboldt martens left in Oregon. The move by the commission follows a new study that found trapping could easily wipe out the species in the state. Humboldt martens are currently under review for Endangered Species Act protection at the federal and state level, but Oregon law still permitted commercial fur trapping of the species. California banned the trapping of these secretive, mid-sized forest carnivores in 1946. The martens currently inhabit two distinct areas within the Siuslaw and Rogue-Siskiyou national forests. Banning commercial trapping for Humboldt martens to protect these two isolated populations is a needed first step by the commission, said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. Our goal is to have narrowly tailored, enforceable provisions in place by this winter before the trapping season begins to avoid a potential extinction level event. A newly published scientific study concluded that Humboldt martens are so rare in Oregon that trapping just two to three individuals could result in wiping out the population on the central coast. Beyond trapping, Humboldt martens are threatened by vehicle collisions on Highway 101 and ongoing logging of mature forest habitat. Were so glad that the extremely small and fragile populations of Humboldt martens in Oregon will be protected from trapping, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Trapping of martens has been banned in California for more than 70 years and its long past time for Oregon to do the same. Relatives of minks and otters, Humboldt martens are found only in old-growth forest and dense coastal shrub in southern and central coastal Oregon and northern California. The cat-like animals were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered on the Six Rivers National Forest in 1996. Today they survive only in three small isolated populations of fewer than 100 individuals each one in northern California, one straddling the border and one in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. There are two subspecies of Pacific martens in Oregon. Humboldt martens on the coast are critically imperiled, but interior martens from the Cascades and eastern mountain ranges are not imperiled. The petition seeks a ban on trapping west of Interstate 5. The granted petition was filed by Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Protection Information Center, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Oregon Wild. Martens are typically 2 feet long and have large, triangular ears and a long tail. They eat small mammals, berries and birds and are eaten by larger mammals and raptors. The Northern Wind Let us congratulate our Social Welfare Council wallahs for signing an agreement with a Chinese NGO network to allow more than twenty of their NGOs to come to this country and do their thing. It seems that somebody really wants to make the Chinese happy in any way possible in hopes of getting Dashain Kharcha this year. 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Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION Woman sacked by school for being Dalit seeks justice A Boarding school office assistant claims the principal and assistant principal dismissed her from job for being a member of the Dalit community. The terminated employee Binda Bishwokarma worked for Saraswati Boarding School in Diktel, the district headquarters of Khotang. Workers urge Health Minister not to cut quota A team of health workers has met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population (MoHP) Upendra Yadav and urged them not to cut down the vaccination staff quota. MoHP Vaccination Supervision Officer Om Upadhyay said the ministry has reduced quotas for vaccination health staff in the wake of implementation of federalism in the country. An animal rights group in Manitoba claims a group of pigs were mistreated while en route to the Maple Leaf Foods facility in Brandon last month. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us An animal rights group in Manitoba claims a group of pigs were mistreated while en route to the Maple Leaf Foods facility in Brandon last month. Footage captured by the organization Manitoba Animal Save, a local branch of the larger Save Movement, shows several people in safety vests stopping a pair of semi-trailers on a dirt road. Inside the trailers are pigs, which the group claims were overcrowded and dehydrated. Some people in the video are seen spraying water on the pigs and taking temperature readings inside the trailer. One thermometer gave a reading of nearly 40 C. The video, which was taken on July 13 and posted to YouTube on July 28, was shared in a news release on Friday by the organization Animal Justice, a group made up of animal rights lawyers from around the country. "Obviously, its heartbreaking its devastating to see animals suffering so much," said Cheryl Sobie, co-organizer for Manitoba Animal Save, adding it was important for them to be there to offer the pigs love and compassion. "If that was me on that truck, I would want someone to be there for me at my final moments." In a statement, a spokesperson for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said they were contacted by Manitoba Animal Save, but the professional assessment of a CFIA veterinarian was that the load was "in compliance with the Health of Animals Regulations and that the animals were not overcrowded for the weather conditions at the time." However, Sobie stressed the need for better enforcement on the part of the CFIA. "Ultimately, what we witnessed is that pigs were extremely crowded, it was extremely hot, (and) they were frothing at the mouth and dehydrated." In a statement, Dr. Greg Douglas, vice-president of animal care at Maple Leaf Foods, described the events as "completely unacceptable and unfortunate." "These animals were being transported by a third-party carrier and were in transit to the Maple Leaf Foods Brandon facility," he said. "Maple Leaf is working in complete cooperation with the CFIA and we are in support of their investigation and conclusions. These events are unacceptable and Maple Leaf Foods is on record supporting long overdue changes to the federal animal transport regulations." Andrew Dixon, general manager for Manitoba Pork, which represents pork producers, said he has not spoken to any of the parties involved, but noted the pigs in the trucks are owned by the farmer until they are unloaded at their destined facility. "I cant tell anything from that video as to the condition of the animals inside. I cannot react to any claims this group is making about the number of animals on board, (and) I dont think they can either," he said. Dixon said regulations exist around lowering pig densities in the summer and when they do arrive at a plant, they are supposed to be unloaded quickly into a cool building and hosed down. The pigs are then inspected by the CFIA to make sure they arrive in good condition and Dixon said it is in the best interests of producers to ensure their pigs are healthy. He did take issue with Manitoba Animal Save spraying water on the animals, saying: "How would you feel if someone came up and sprayed water in your face?" He also cautioned against placing hands inside of a trailer, whether it is moving or not. "Somebodys going to get killed here and I just dont understand what these people think theyre doing," he said. "This is a moving trailer on the public highway, what theyre doing is very, very dangerous to themselves." Sobie denied the group had sprayed water directly into the pigs faces, but were rather cooling them down because pigs dont have sweat glands. As for safety, she did not think their acts were dangerous and said the group has tried to create an agreement with Maple Leaf Foods where activists can safely stop and inspect a truck before it moves on to a facility Sobie said they have yet to receive a response. "I mean, this footage is not nearly as bad as things could be and this happens every day on Manitoba highways, so our goal is to keep exposing animal cruelty at these places." mlee@brandonsun.com Twitter: @mtaylorlee A man who sexually assaulted his employers on-site nurse was sentenced to nine months of house arrest on Thursday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us A man who sexually assaulted his employers on-site nurse was sentenced to nine months of house arrest on Thursday. "This was outrageous behaviour toward a caregiver," Judge Donovan Dvorak told the Brandon provincial court. "It was demeaning, it was insulting, it was violent and it was harmful." Ronald Urquia Sanchez pleaded guilty to sexual assault right before his trial was supposed to go ahead on April 30. The incident happened on July 18, 2017, Crown attorney Yaso Mathu said, when Sanchez visited the on-site paramedic for an injury while he was working at Maple Leaf Foods. When in the nurses office, Sanchez forcibly grabbed her buttocks hard enough to cause pain, Mathu said, and continued to kiss her, grab her breasts and pull on her hard enough to rip scrubs. The victim reported feeling upset, scared, panicked and alone during the attack, which went on for approximately 10 minutes, Mathu said. Sanchez attributed his behaviour to trying to get back into a relationship with the woman, Mathu said, but acknowledged he never actually spoke to her about resuming the relationship prior to the assault. "This is a huge red flag. To us, it indicates he has a very troubling attitude toward sexually appropriate behaviour and consent," Mathu said. "This type of behaviour is all too common and is displayed by too many individuals in our community. As we have seen in movements across the world, society will no longer tolerate this behaviour." Mathu argued it was in the public interest for Sanchez to serve time in custody, recommending a four-month jail sentence. Defence lawyer Ryan Fawcett disagreed with the recommendation, arguing that due to Sanchez being a first-time offender and being ranked a low risk to reoffend, he could be given leniency. "This was an ill-conceived and spontaneous attempt at rekindling a relationship," Fawcett said. "Clearly, it was highly inappropriate and criminal, and thats why you have a guilty plea." Sanchez lost his job with Maple Leaf Foods, Fawcett added, and has struggled to find work since. He also has expressed a high level of remorse for the incident, Fawcett said, recommending that a suspended sentence would be appropriate in the circumstances. Given the sexual violence against the victim, a jail sentence was mandated, Dvorak said, but provided the mitigating factors present he was prepared to allow Sanchez to serve it in the community. Sanchez was sentenced to nine months of house arrest to be followed by one year of supervised probation. He must also register as a sex offender for a period of 10 years. edebooy@brandonsun.com Twitter: @erindebooy Walking through the Mexico pavilion yesterday, we stumbled across this new hands-on activity thats part of the Remember Me La Celebracion del Dia de Muertos exhibit in the pavilions gallery. If youve seen the movie Coco, youll recall that The Day of the Dead, as its more commonly known in the US, is a two-day holiday with Mexican roots. Its observed November 1 2, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Families set up altars that honor those who who have passed away, decorating the altars with candles, sugar skulls, marigolds, food, beverages and clothes. Skeleton imagery is very prevalent in Day of the Dead festivities and associated artwork. Thats why this new Mirror de los Muertos is so cool. You can turn yourself into a Day of the Dead skeleton-like creature, just like those featured in Disney-Pixars film, Coco. To begin, you tap your MagicBand or RFID card on the screen where indicated.The Mirror takes your photo to create your basic skeleton face, then you are given different customizing options. You can add accessories, hair styles, facial paint and more. Once youre done, your finished skeleton portraits will be available to download via PhotoPass. The Dia de los Muertos exhibit debuted in the Mexico pavilion last fall, shortly before Coco opened in theaters, but this mirror didnt appear until recently. Theres no word on how long this exhibit will be here, so be sure to head over to the Mexico pavilion soon to check it out! Post a Comment The country's biggest private landlord has announced a doubling of its profits in the first six months of this year. I-RES, a real estate investment trust which owns 2,600 properties, mainly across Dublin, confirmed profits of 69.5m. By Eamon Quinn Ulster Bank has denied considering making approaches to buy out rival banks in the Republic, as the lender returns to financial health with the improving economy. Long-standing speculation that Ulster would buy out rivals such as Permanent TSB had resurfaced on reports that regulators had discussed such an outcome earlier this year as a potential solution for Irish banks to clean up their loan books of soured home and buy-to-let mortgages. But although a purchase of a rival by Ulster is not inconceivable the bank has signalled it is not on its agenda anytime soon. Chief financial officer Paul Stanley said that the speculation of Ulster acquiring a rival bank surfaced at regular intervals and there had been no conversations in recent times. Are we talking to anyone at this point of time? No, said Mr Stanley. We have quite enough on our plate to be doing at the moment, he said. Mr Stanley has helped run the bank since the surprise announcement this year of the departure of chief executive Gerry Mallon to head up Tesco Bank in Britain. He was speaking after Ulster Bank in the Republic posted earnings showing operating profit had climbed to 100m in the six months to the end of June, boosted by a rise of over 4% in total income to 355m, and by a 16.7% drop in operating expenses to 285m. Like other banks, Ulster wrote back previous impairment charges. Its net impairment release rose to 30m in the period from 13m a year earlier, driven by the continued improvement of the economy and the rising quality of the loan books. Mr Stanley said its plan, which it first announced in May, to sell around 6,500 residential and buy-to-let non-performing mortgage loans (NPLs) may be pared back slightly to 1.5bn. A shortlist of bidders has been drawn up and the sale to an equity fund will be completed before the end of the year. Following the sale, the value of the banks non-performing loans will fall to around 2.5bn, and the bank will be well placed by the end of the year to assess whether to launch a further sale of some but not all of the remaining NPLs, possibly some time next year. But Mr Stanley said for the remaining mortgage customers in deep arrears, the bank would again assess the loans in terms of solutions and whether there is more we can do in particular instances of keeping people in their homes. At that point, we will then consider whether it is appropriate or not to have another sale, after a large part of the political uncertainty at the start of the year about the sale of NPLs by banks had been clarified, he said. Mr Stanley said its deep cuts last month in its fixed-rate mortgage rates were consistent with preserving its market share of new home lending, after seeing some slippage in the share earlier this year. RBS said it had left unchanged in the latest quarter the amount of 297m set aside for Ulsters part in the industry-wide tracker mortgage scandal. Ulster is investing in its 88 branches and its online banking and has no immediate plans for the branch network, said Mr Stanley. Owen Callan at Investec said the results showed genuine progress by Ulster Bank, although its cuts to its fixed-rate mortgages reflected increasing competitive pressures. Puzzles hub Visit our brain gym where you will find simple and cryptic crosswords, sudoku puzzles and much more. Updated at midnight every day. PS ... We would love to hear your feedback on the section right HERE. Play Dublin Airport is expecting another extremely busy day after record numbers passed through its terminals yesterday. Passengers numbers are up 4% on the same weekend last year. People are being warned to allow extra time to pass through security checks. Siobhan O'Donnell from Dublin Airport Authority says there will be extra staff on hand to help. "This is our busiest weekend ever in the history of the airport," she said. "Over 422,000 passengers are arriving and departing over the entire weekend. "Friday was the busiest day at 110,000 passengers arriving and departing. "So it's busy, we've got extra staff on duty, we've got our customer care teams - they've got pink hi-vis vests on - so they'll be there to help passengers get through as smoothly as possible." Digital Desk Farmers are welcoming a Government scheme to encourage the planting of fast-growing fodder as a catch crop, following the damage caused by this year's drought. The weather extremes of snow followed by heat have led to serious problems for growing crops and feed for livestock. A search is continuing for a number of people who fled after being discovered in the back of a lorry in Portlaoise on Thursday. The group of five men, who are thought to be refugees, are believed to have travelled from Spain to France before arriving in Rosslare by ferry. Industrial action threatened by Eircell and Eircom workers will leave the 087 network without technicians to fix coverage blackouts. The action could then affect Eircoms fixed line business. Gardai will this morning question escaped convict Adrian Duke, who was arrested in Waterford city centre last night. The 29-year-old from Cork city escaped on Thursday after an armed gang intercepted the minibus in which he was travelling from Waterford to Cork and demanded his release. Donnacha O'Brien admitted to "an oversight" which came at a cost of a seven-day suspension at Galway on Friday evening. O'Brien received the ban after he "attempted to weigh out without the harness attachment on his back protector" prior to riding Queen Iseult in a mile-and-a-half fillies' maiden. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Japanese Prime Minister praises the Alt Right LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 454499 08-04-2018 01:19 PM Post: #1 Japanese Prime Minister praises the Alt Right Advertisement Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump are two nationalists who get along quite well. Jared Taylor, a leading alt-right intellectual who was born in Japan and is fluent in the language. Spencer speaks of identitarianism, referring to people identifying with their own race and culture, and its a fairly accurate description of the Japanese mindset. This I can best illustrate with a personal anecdote. A Japanese friend of mine once traveled to Germany, and upon returning home he remarked about there being so many gaijin there. Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner, meaning that he saw these people as foreigners even when they were in their own nation. White separatist Taylor sees a mongrel America and feels Japan has a better future because of its racial and cultural homogeneity. While American conservatives do little to oppose the multiculturalism and lax immigration policies that have led to a breakdown of civil society, Japanese nationalist politicians like Abe can pursue identitarian policies while receiving faint pushback from the public. The Japanese corporatist-style economy and political structure suits the alt-right too. Theres a government-corporate ruling elite that shares a common background and ethos, and a single dominant partythe Liberal Democratic Party (which is in no way liberal)that rejects globalism in favor of economic protectionism. Thats Trumps vision of America. https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...-alt-right Japan Accepts less than 30 refugees per year making the nation an outlier among developed nations.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump are two nationalists who get along quite well.Jared Taylor, a leading alt-right intellectual who was born in Japan and is fluent in the language. Spencer speaks of identitarianism, referring to people identifying with their own race and culture, and its a fairly accurate description of the Japanese mindset. This I can best illustrate with a personal anecdote. A Japanese friend of mine once traveled to Germany, and upon returning home he remarked about there being so many gaijin there. Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner, meaning that he saw these people as foreigners even when they were in their own nation.White separatist Taylor sees a mongrel America and feels Japan has a better future because of its racial and cultural homogeneity. While American conservatives do little to oppose the multiculturalism and lax immigration policies that have led to a breakdown of civil society, Japanese nationalist politicians like Abe can pursue identitarian policies while receiving faint pushback from the public.The Japanese corporatist-style economy and political structure suits the alt-right too. Theres a government-corporate ruling elite that shares a common background and ethos, and a single dominant partythe Liberal Democratic Party (which is in no way liberal)that rejects globalism in favor of economic protectionism. Thats Trumps vision of America. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 454651 08-04-2018 01:25 PM Post: #2 RE: Japanese Prime Minister praises the Alt Right LoP Guest Wrote: (08-04-2018 01:19 PM) Japan Accepts less than 30 refugees per year making the nation an outlier among developed nations. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump are two nationalists who get along quite well. Jared Taylor, a leading alt-right intellectual who was born in Japan and is fluent in the language. Spencer speaks of identitarianism, referring to people identifying with their own race and culture, and its a fairly accurate description of the Japanese mindset. This I can best illustrate with a personal anecdote. A Japanese friend of mine once traveled to Germany, and upon returning home he remarked about there being so many gaijin there. Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner, meaning that he saw these people as foreigners even when they were in their own nation. White separatist Taylor sees a mongrel America and feels Japan has a better future because of its racial and cultural homogeneity. While American conservatives do little to oppose the multiculturalism and lax immigration policies that have led to a breakdown of civil society, Japanese nationalist politicians like Abe can pursue identitarian policies while receiving faint pushback from the public. The Japanese corporatist-style economy and political structure suits the alt-right too. Theres a government-corporate ruling elite that shares a common background and ethos, and a single dominant partythe Liberal Democratic Party (which is in no way liberal)that rejects globalism in favor of economic protectionism. Thats Trumps vision of America. https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and...-alt-right I can't disagree with that- if the country is mostly self-sufficient. The problem with multiculturalism is that each culture wants to be dominant and they all have different ideas based on what is best for their culture. This causes a lot of conflict for countries like the United States. If you don't have somebody in charge with the rest of the population in agreement, then you end up with chaos where nothing works right because of constant sabotage. I can't disagree with that- if the country is mostly self-sufficient. The problem with multiculturalism is that each culture wants to be dominant and they all have different ideas based on what is best for their culture. This causes a lot of conflict for countries like the United States. If you don't have somebody in charge with the rest of the population in agreement, then you end up with chaos where nothing works right because of constant sabotage. Read says the debate really needs to move on. "It just doesn't make sense any more in 2018 and, in the middle of this summer, it just isn't good enough any more to just frame the debate 'is climate change real?' " he said. "There are other debates we need to be having, like what are we going to do about it. Not this one any more. And there are many, many people out there who feel the same way." The heatwave grips the UK - will it budge the thinking of climate change deniers? Dwelling on the old debate causes great damage, Read says. "It gives people the impression that the scientific debate is still alive. It's like the 'merchants of doubt' idea." A tobacco executive said "doubt is our product" on the link between cigarettes and cancer. "As long as the BBC and other media give the impression that there is any significant doubt about this then people won't take action." Read worries it's part of a bigger trend: extremists have weaponised free speech, insisting on platforms to publicly debate the absurd, to spread conspiracy theories and clog up sane debate. Any move to ignore them is branded censorship. More extreme fires, more often. The Carr Fire burns near Redding, California. Credit:AP "The free speech argument is completely bogus. We're not stopping anyone's free speech from going on Twitter. Plenty of fools have gone on Twitter to attack what I'm saying. But what does the BBC do, what do responsible media organisations do? That's a separate question." Anyway, no one needs to listen to the radio to find out whether it's hot outside. Author Michael McCarthy, one of Britain's leading writers on the environment, wrote in The Guardian last week that we are witnessing "a historic shift in the way that the threat of climate change is perceived by the world, from prediction to observation". The science so far has been prophecy, hedged by uncertainty and variability, enough for deniers to sow doubt. The heat takes its toll on sunflowers in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany. Credit:AP "Observation is different," wrote McCarthy. "Seeing things happening around you cannot be gainsaid." And there's plenty to observe. Nine of Britain's 10 warmest years on record have been since 2002 and the other was 1990. Seven of its 10 wettest years have come since 1998. Britain has always been a place of crazy weather, perched between ocean and continent, but the climate change signal can now be seen and felt, not just calculated. Science is also getting better at separating the climate change signal from the weather noise. A massive bushfire burns near Redding, California. Credit:AP A new area known as "detection and attribution" is able to almost in real time analyse an extreme weather-related event and sometimes tell you whether and by how much climate change is to blame. It is cutting-edge science that requires a heap of computer power, but it's starting to show results. For example, climate change made the heatwave in northern Europe in June and July more than twice as likely to happen, according to preliminary calculations by the World Weather Attribution Project, led by Oxford University's Dr Friederike Otto. A heatwave and lack of rainfall is pummeling crops across Europe as far as the Black Sea. Credit:Bloomberg "In Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark there are clear trends towards more heat waves," the study, which was non-peer reviewed, found. The close to record-high temperatures in these areas were likely to recur within four to seven years. "They have simply become more likely due to anthropogenic [man-made] climate change." The same group looked at Cape Town in South Africa, and found climate change had made this year's drought three times more likely and there would be more like it, more often. They also had a look at extreme rainfall and flash floods in south-western Japan in early July, but found they were compatible with natural variability, without a clear signal of climate change influence. A view from Primrose Hill shows burnt grass from the lack of rain during what has been the driest summer for many years in London. Credit:AP The technique allows scientists to home in regionally and assess the effects of climate change in a very particular landscape, says Professor Corrinne Le Quere, director of the centre of climate change research at the University of East Anglia. For example, floods can be caused by the heavier rain predicted by climate change, but also by land management. "If you are able to say the climate change contribution is so much, land management is so much and natural variability is so much, then you can really put your efforts in the right place and plan for the long term," she says. Rupert Read, tired of debating climate change,. Le Quere says techniques such as these can help move the conversation on. She is constantly asked about the link between weather and climate change, and now she has the tools and the research to answer. "It makes what I say about climate change much more powerful. I'm able to say, 'Look, in the very same summer, we have a heatwave here, in Japan and in America and it's indicative of a very strong signal in the background of climate change.' "We can talk about it with more confidence. Attribution is so obvious in the heat-related events." But what is even more helpful than that is people can tell for themselves now, she says. "If you ask an adult of 30 years or older how was it like when you were young, they can tell the difference themselves. It's the same story all around the world." Of course, climate change deniers are not surrendering; they are changing tactics. The Global Warming Policy Forum in Britain has striven greatly to sow doubt on climate science and counted high-profile politicians in its ranks. It has hosted former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard. The former said climate change, if it existed, was "probably doing good" and the latter dismissed global warming as a "religion" and the "latest progressive cause". But the forum's recent newsletters have concentrated on reports that wildfires were causing less damage as a proportion of GDP than they used to, and that fewer people are dying from heat-related deaths, because there are more airconditioners. "Warmer weather is a lifesaver," the forum's head Benny Peiser wrote for The Conservative Woman blog last week. Nevertheless, Le Quere has some hope this wave of heat could lead to clearer thinking. "It is one possible positive outcome of what's happening now," she says. "It's slowly starting to sink in that what was done in the past is done; the only thing we can do is what we will do in the future. It seems that the Legislative Assembly had made a lot of noise about an inquiry into the change in methodology for calculating rates for unit owners; change which resulted in astronomical increases in rates last year. However, having received my rates notice, I see that the noise has come to nothing, apart from a further 10 per cent increase in rates, without commensurate increase in services. The circumstances indicate that the Legislative Assembly inquiry amounts to nothing more than window dressing and that the Labor government seems hell-bent on screwing pensioners and units owners via this iniquitous change. For a government which repeatedly says that it "listens" to the people, it has certainly done no listening at all when it comes to this issue. It is indicative of a government which has been too long in power, and clearly has become too entrenched in its own views and somewhat arrogant when pushing them on to the public. I am disgusted. PJ Bewley, Barton The gen on flies Australian Conservatives founder Cory Bernardi at a press conference with new recruit Rachel Carling-Jenkins in 2017. Credit:Eddie Jim It was never going to be the most perfect political marriage. Now, with less than four months until the state election, Cory Bernardis only Victorian MP has officially deserted him, accusing the federal senator of undermining her campaign and gossiping to journalists about her. One year after she defected from the Democratic Labour Party to join Senator Bernardis Australian Conservatives, state crossbencher Rachel Carling-Jenkins has announced she will quit and potentially stand as an independent at the November 24 poll. In a scathing resignation letter obtained by The Sunday Age, Dr Carling-Jenkins hit out at Senator Bernardi, saying he had failed to advance the party in Victoria, had denied her requests for a campaign budget, and refused to give her a say in the partys decision-making. A Brisbane circus company has produced "one of their biggest shows yet" and promised their new work is "taking circus to a different level" ahead of its world premiere in September. Circa's En Masse will be seen for the first time in the company's hometown as part of Brisbane Festival with performers promising to put their "bodies on the line". Circa's new show 'En Masse'. Circa artistic director Yaron Lifschitz said En Masse was a powerful show focusing on civilisation in times of change. "It's powerful, dramatic, physical and taking circus to a different level," he said. Sea World Gold Coasts top conservationist, who is best-known for leading the worlds first rescue of a humpback whale at Coolum Beach, has been recognised for his lifelong dedication to protecting marine life. Self-professed animal lover Trevor Long, 66, who founded the not-for-profit Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation in 1988, said he was extremely humbled to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Queensland. Honorary doctorate Trevor Long says a humpback whale has amazing "fine motor skills" for a 40-tonne animal. Credit:File photo Its a wonderful thing and lovely recognition, but I havent done the things that I do for accolades or awards. The day before the doctorate is exactly the same as the day after the doctorate, he joked. I love working with animals, and I love being able to assist animals. I think we live in a world with a lot of hate and anger, and working with animals is a wonderful thing, he said. What began as a social media campaign to fight negative reporting and political commentary on Victoria's so-called "African gangs crisis" has culminated in a community festival this weekend. And it couldn't have taken place in a more quintessentially Melbourne setting a suburban footy oval. Ayak Alier with Yier Andrew , and Agostina Nyibol at the Ujamaa Community Festival at Whitten Oval. Credit:Daniel Pockett Footscray's Whitten Oval hosted the inaugural Ujamaa Community Festival this Saturday in what was billed as a celebration of African communities in Victoria. Festival organiser and litigation lawyer Maker Mayek said the event was "a sequel" to the #AfricanGangs social media campaign he co-created earlier this year. Washington: The National Rifle Association claims it's facing deep financial problems and it might go broke in a lawsuit that blames its problems on the state of New York. The gun-rights organisation said it may soon have to stop producing its magazines and its video streaming service, NRAtv, because of actions by the state of New York, which the NRA accused of running a "blacklisting campaign." Demonstrators hold a large banner that reads "Come And Take It," during a pro-gun rally on the sidelines of the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. Credit:Bloomber The campaign appears to be part of a national campaign calling for companies to cut ties with the group in the aftermath of several high profile shootings, most notably with the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The gun lobbying group claims in its lawsuit, which targets Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Department of Financial Services and Maria Vullo, which heads the department, that the state has caused "irrecoverable loss and irreparable harm" to the organisation. But, of course, the organisation is making these claims in a lawsuit, which it hopes to win. "From everything I've read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalised click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years," he said in a statement to The Post, noting that she networked extensively. Gordon provided the same statement and some details of his interactions to the Washington Times, which published his account Friday afternoon after The Washington Post contacted Gordon for comment. "I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn't come across?" Gordon asked. Maria Butina, leader of a pro-gun organisation in Russia, speaks to a crowd during a rally in support of legalising the possession of handguns in Moscow, Russia. Credit:AP Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said the email exchanges show that Butina was a student eager to network with Americans who shared her interests and no more. Gordon and Driscoll both said the interactions were not romantic and the two had no additional contact after the birthday party in October 2016. "A military guy who had been involved would have been a prime target, if that's what she was about," Driscoll said. "But the evidence is clear that there wasn't any significant contact." Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Senate Intelligence Committee. Prosecutors say an American identified in court documents as "person 1" helped introduce Butina to people who had "influence in American politics." The Post has identified that person as Paul Erickson, a GOP operative from South Dakota with whom Butina was in a romantic relationship. This courtroom sketch depicts Maria Butina, a 29-year-old gun-rights activist suspected of being a covert Russian agent, listening to Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson as he speaks to Judge Deborah Robinson, left, during a hearing in federal court. Credit:AP The emails described to The Post show that Butina met Gordon at a party at the Swiss ambassador's residence on September 29, 2016. Gordon told The Post that he had been invited to the party by Faith Whittlesey, the prominent Republican and former US ambassador to Switzerland who died earlier this year. Later that night, Erickson wrote an email to Gordon and Butina, offering to "add an electronic bridge" to the pair's meeting earlier that evening. Erickson wrote to Butina that Gordon was "playing a crucial role in the Trump transition effort and would be an excellent addition to any of the US/Russia friendship dinners to occasionally hold." He continued that Gordon's view on international security was listened to by all the "right" people in the "immediate future of American politics." Erickson did not respond to a request for comment. Erickson explained to Gordon in the email that Butina was living in Washington while she completed a master's degree at American University. Erickson described Butina as a "special friend" of the NRA and said she was the special assistant to the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, according to the correspondence described to The Post. Prosecutors have said the central banker, Alexander Torshin, helped direct Butina's activities in the United States, including an effort to make contacts in the leadership of the NRA. NRA officials have not responded to requests for comment. Carter Page, a former?foreign policy adviser of Donald Trump Credit:AP The emails show Gordon quickly responded to Erickson, sending Butina and Erickson a clip of a recent appearance he had made on RT, the Russian state-run English language television network. In the RT interview, Gordon said Trump took a "real common-sense approach to Russia." "We want to reduce hostility with Russia because, look, we have common interests," he said. Butina responded with praise, writing in an email to Gordon that he "looked very good" and had appeared smart and comfortable in the television appearance. She invited Gordon to attend a group dinner at the Army and Navy Club, hosted by George O'Neill Jr., the conservative writer and heir to the Rockefeller fortune, to discuss the relationship between the United States and Russia. Prosecutors cited the dinners organised by O'Neill, described in court documents as "person 2" as part of Butina's efforts to influence thought leaders. O'Neill did not respond to requests for comment. Gordon responded that he could not attend the dinner, but he asked Butina over emails to get together for drinks and the concert. In one email described to The Post, Gordon included a link to a September 2016 Politico story reporting that he was a part of Trump's growing transition effort. Gordon included a smattering of Russian phrases in his emails, beginning several notes "Privyet Maria," with a Russian word for "hello." In one email, he wrote "Kak di la?" The phrase is Russian for "How are you?" In an emailed statement to The Post, Gordon said that Butina presented herself to "likely thousands of people" as a graduate student and founder of a Russian gun-rights group. "It appears she sought out countless influential Americans in her steadfast efforts to strengthen relations with Russia. Recognising that every single president since the Cold War tried to improve relations with Russia, including Pres. Obama, her Russian-American friendship efforts seemed in sync with a decades-old US foreign policy goal," he said. The contact was not Erickson's first attempt to connect Butina and Torshin to the Trump campaign. In May 2016, he emailed Trump adviser Rick Dearborn and urged Dearborn to set up a meeting between Trump and Torshin at an upcoming NRA convention. Erickson described Torshin in the email as "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's emissary" for building warmer ties with the United States. The campaign declined Erickson's invitation but Torshin and Butina ultimately encountered the candidate's son at a private dinner at the NRA convention, and they chatted briefly, Trump Jr. has said. Gordon, who said he was never paid for his work on the Trump campaign and never performed any duties on the transition team, was assigned in March 2016 to serve as the point person for a newly named advisory group on foreign policy and national security. That committee also included Page, who has drawn interest from investigators for delivering a foreign policy speech in Moscow in July 2016, and Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. Gordon attended a March 2016 meeting of the group presided over Trump while he was a presidential candidate, where Papadopoulos introduced himself by announcing he could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Page told the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017 that he had informed Gordon before visiting Moscow in July 2016, where he delivered a speech at a Russian university and exchanged brief greetings with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. While in Moscow, Page wrote Gordon and another Trump aide that he had received "incredibly insights and outreach" from a "few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here." Page testified that he exchanged only brief greetings with one Russian official, Dvorkovich, who had attended his speech. Gordon has described Page and Papadopoulos as "peripheral members of a relatively peripheral advisory committee." Gordon has also said he briefly met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention, in an exchange he has said was innocuous. And he was the Trump campaign's point person for a Republican platform committee discussion in which he argued against language that would have endorsed having the United States send lethal weapons to Ukraine. The proposed provision, which was not adopted, was perceived as hostile to Russia. Gordon has said he pushed the platform committee to reject the language, proposed by a Republican delegate, because he had heard Trump talk about his desire to forge better relations with Russia and considered the language to be damaging for that goal. Because of those contacts, Gordon has said he was asked to testify before all three congressional committees that have investigated Russian interference in the election, as well as investigators working for Mueller. Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. 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Digital Editor Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it has resumed all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb. Saudi Arabia halted temporarily oil shipments through the lane on July 25 after attacks on two oil tankers by Yemens Iran-aligned Houthi movement. A statement by the Energy Ministry said shipments had resumed on Saturday. The decision to resume oil shipment through the strait of Bab al-Mandeb was made after the leadership of the coalition has taken necessary measures to protect the coalition states ships, Energy Minister ... A Delhi-bound flight from Milan had to return to the airport in Italy within 30 minutes of take-off after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, the airline said on Saturday. According to an airline spokesperson, the incident happened on August 2 when the passenger, and Indian citizen whose seat no. was 32C, tried to enter the cockpit in clear violation of rule. On landing back, he was handed over to the local police who are probing the incident. The aircraft had over 250 passengers onboard. "AI 138 Milan-Delhi flight delayed by 2.37 hours as one unruly passenger Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after take-off from Milan on schedule. The aircraft landed back and the passenger was handed over to the local police," an airline statement said. ALSO READ: Air India set to rejig crew management system after rostering scam Gurpreet's action could land him in the 'no-fly-list' pending the completion of enquiry, the airline hinted. The 'no-fly' list was introduced following several reports of unruly incidents involving passengers, including Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who allegedly assaulted an staffer at the Delhi airport for not being allowed to fly business class. In May, Mumbai-based jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, who had created a hijack scare onboard a Jet Airways flight on October 2017, was put in the 'no-fly' category, the first person in the list. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Saturday asked budding and not to get swayed away by infighting and distractions that come their way and suggested them to deal with such situations courageously. He was addressing law students at the sixth convocation of the Law University here. "You are required to develop an attitude not to get swayed away by the infighting and distractions that come your way. Remain firm and courageous," CJI Misra told the students. He said it was important for budding to familiarise themselves with the undercurrents of various social diversities and disparities that divide society. ALSO READ: Congress withdraws CJI Dipak Misra impeachment plea from Supreme Court "Unless you do it, you will find it difficult to mature in your role either as a lawyer or as an administrator... Without having a comprehensive and pragmatic understanding of social realities, you may not be able to correlate law and social impulses," he said. The CJI said the "welfare of people is the supreme law" and hoped that the newcomers would move up the scale of their profession by taking deprived sections of society along. "You are the crusaders for change in the drive towards equal rights, liberty and justice. You are going to be contributors to the process of imparting justice to the people at large. Always devote some time in your capacity as for the wellbeing of the underprivilege...Welfare of the people is the supreme law. "Scaling up in your profession by taking deprived sections of society along with you will give a sense of satisfaction... which will be a far more greater achievement," the CJI said. He asked the students to foster high ambitions to enter the legal hall of fame and have lots of courage to translate their dreams into reality. "You should cultivate the quality of clarity of thought and intellectual vigour. These are primary qualities that budding lawyers must strive to attain," he said. The CJI also said that while witnessing the conferment of awards during the convocation, he was "slightly perplexed by how the young minds have worked". "We cannot these young minds can grow, aspire and get it... If you look at history, John Keats died at the age of 26 and who can forget his poems. Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment at 26, Mahavir Jain approximately at 25 plus, Shankaracharya, who had written so much, died at 32. The great poet Lord Byron died at 36. "So, age does not matter. The young can teach the old. I am prepared to be taught by the degree holders today," he said. Indian-origin US astronaut is among the nine astronauts named by NASA who will fly the first missions into space on commercially provided rockets and capsules, starting next year. After years of vehicle development and building anticipation, the Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has now put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft. The space agency announced that the nine astronauts will launch on the first crewed test flights and missions of new commercial spacecraft built and operated by The Company and SpaceX. "Future Commercial Crew astronauts will be riding to space on partner vehicles built by SpaceX & BoeingSpace," NASA said in a tweet. "We are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during the 'Launch America' announcement. The eight active NASA astronauts and one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member will launch on CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragon capsules to the International Space Station beginning in 2019. The missions will mark the first crewed launches from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011. "Today, our country's dreams of greater achievements in space are within our grasp. This accomplished group of American astronauts, flying on new spacecraft developed by our commercial partners and SpaceX, will launch a new era of human spaceflight," Bridenstine said. He said the announcement advances "our great American vision" and strengthens America's leadership in space. NASA has worked closely with the companies throughout design, development and testing to ensure the systems meet its safety and performance requirements. "The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight," said Mark Geyer, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we can't wait to see them aboard the International Space Station," Geyer said. In addition to naming the crews of the test flights, NASA also announced the four astronauts who will fly aboard the first operational Starliner and Dragon missions to the space station. Both vehicles were developed in cooperation with NASA to deliver crew members to and from the orbiting laboratory. ALSO READ: NASA rover falls silent after battling giant dust storm in Mars Josh Cassada, 45, will fly with Sunita ("Suni") Williams, 52, aboard NASA's first contracted Starliner mission. It will be Cassada's first spaceflight. Williams previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012. The commercial crew members took to the stage during an event led by Bridenstine at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, will fly together as SpaceX's first Dragon crew. Veterans of two spaceflights each, Behnken and Hurley will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A the same Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Hurley as a pilot. NASA astronauts Eric Boe, 53, and Nicole Mann, 41, will join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ferguson, who has been involved from the start in the Starliner's development, flew three shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. Boe piloted two shuttle flights. This will be Mann's first launch, having joined the astronaut corps in 2013. Behnken, Hurley, Boe and Mann are NASA's first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new US spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttle's first orbital flight test crews. Ferguson will become the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit as a company's crew member when he flies. Prior to their maiden crewed missions, both Boeing and SpaceX plan uncrewed test flights in late 2018 or early 2019. Both companies will also conduct abort system test flights to ensure the astronauts can safely escape should their rockets go awry. Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will fly on the first operational mission of SpaceX's crewed Dragon. It will be Glover's first time in space. Hopkins logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014. The two pairs of NASA crewmates will fly to the station with Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts to be announced at a later date. Between the end of the space shuttle program and the start of commercial crew operations, NASA's crew members have and are continuing to launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Behnken, Boe, Hurley and Williams were named in 2015 as NASA's "commercial crew cadre" and have been working with Boeing and SpaceX on the development of the spacecraft and the simulators that will be used to train astronauts to fly. Boeing's and SpaceX's commercial spacecraft may also open the space station and more broadly, Earth orbit to more privately-funded visitors and spaceflight participants from countries that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets. External Affairs Minister on Saturday called on Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov and held discussion on bilateral relations. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to Uzbekistan, was personally received by her Uzbek counterpart Kamilov at the airport. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted: "EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on the Prime Minister of #Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov in Tashkent. Possible outcomes in connection with the visit of President of Uzbekistan later this year figured prominently in the discussion." Swaraj met the prime minister after she held "productive discussion" on trade and economy, defence and security, and exchanged views on regional and global issues during delegation-level talks with Kamilov. She and Kamilov also exchanged views on regional and global issues. Swaraj also addressed the Indian community here. "Connecting with our own! EAM @SushmaSwaraj addressing the Indian community in Tashkent," Kumar tweeted. Swaraj will later offer tribute at the Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial. India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages. Swaraj reached here on the final leg of her three-nation tour after concluding her "result-oriented" visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the country's top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Does the highest bidder maximise value? This is the objective. It is not the question that you get the maximum money. What is not intended as the main objective is the recovery. What is intended is to maximise the value of an entity. All these things have been driven to the background and we think only in minute monetary terms. That is not the purpose. I happened to be the Corporate Affairs Minister when we drafted the Companies Law. This was the objective. Otherwise, there are recovery agents or recovery mechanisms. We tried so many mechanisms and some failed while others ... The government on Saturday said strict legal action would be taken against those found guilty in the 'cash-for-marks' racket at the Anna University in Chennai. The Police had on August 2 booked 10 professors, including former controller of examinations G V Uma, for allegedly "receiving money" from some engineering students and giving them extra marks during re-evaluation. Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said that a committee has been constituted to look into the issue. "Whoever is (involved) in this matter, strict legal action will be initiated against them based on the findings of the committee," he said. The action by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) against Uma and nine others showed the government was "transparent" and that it was acting quickly on such issues, Jayakumar said. The DVAC, the anti-corruption wing of the state police, had earlier conducted searches at the premises related to the 10 professors and seized some documents. The action was taken based on information received from "reliable sources" that the accused had received money from engineering students, who had appeared for exams last year, and had granted them "excess marks" during re-evaluation. The DVAC had filed a case against Uma, Tindivanam zonal officers and assistant professors P Vijayakumar and Sivakumar, and seven others on charges of "conspiracy, cheating and forgery". Subsequently, searches were carried out at the Chennai residence of Uma, those of Vijayakumar and Sivakumar at Tindivanam and the office of controller of examinations at the Anna University by the DVAC. The documents relating to the alleged irregularities in re-evaluation and those pertaining to properties of the accused were seized. Anna University Vice Chancellor M K Surappa had yesterday said Uma has been placed under suspension and that a committee has been formed to look into the issue. To a query on the state government facing opposition flak over its transferring the probe into the theft of temple idols in the state to the CBI, Jayakumar said it was done since there was a possible "international" angle to the matter. "It is an inter-state and international issue. How can a state police intervene in an international issue. Since there is an international angle, the is the correct agency to handle it," he said, adding, that those found guilty in this matter will face the law. The government had on August 1 issued an order transferring all idol theft cases in the state from the idol wing police to the CBI, a decision flayed by the opposition DMK. The G.O had said factors like some cases having both domestic and international 'ramifications,' requirement of extradition in some cases and the involvement of central agencies as part of the investigation were considered for the transfer of the probe. DMK Working M K had questioned the motive behind the government transferring the probe to the "When a fair probe is on under IG Pon Manickavel, the AIADMK government's decision to suddenly hand over the cases to the has some hidden political motives," he had said. He also questioned the government's move on the matter, saying the investigation was being monitored by the high court. The US on Friday issued federal notification designating India as a Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) country, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi. With this, India has become the 37th country to join the list of STA-1 category, the only South Asian nation. The notification relaxes America's export control norms with regard to India, befitting India's status as a 'Major Defence Partner'. The Bureau of Industry and Security issued the notification to amend Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to formally recognise and implement India's membership in the Wassenaar Arrangement (Wassenaar or WA). Further, the BIS removed India from Country Group A:6 and places it in Country Group A:5. "This action befits India's status as a Major Defence Partner and recognises" the country's membership in three of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), WA and Australia Group (AG), the federal notification said. This rule is another in the series of rules that implement reforms to which the US and India mutually agreed to promote global non-proliferation, expand high technology cooperation and trade, and ultimately facilitate India's full membership in the four multilateral export control regimes (Nuclear Suppliers Group, MTCR, WA, and AG). This rule also makes conforming amendments, the federal notification said. According to the notification, the US and India continue their commitment to work together to strengthen the global non-proliferation and export control framework and further transform bilateral export control cooperation to recognise the full potential of the global strategic partnership between the two countries. This commitment has been realised in the two countries' mutually agreed upon steps to expand cooperation in civil space, defence, and other high-technology sectors and the complementary steps of the US to realign India in US export control regulations, and support India's membership in the four multilateral export control regimes (Nuclear Suppliers Group, Missile Technology Control Regime, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group), it said. To date, with the effective support of the US, India has been admitted to three of the four multilateral export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) on June 27, 2016, the Wassenaar Arrangement (Wassenaar or WA) on December 7, 2017 and the Australia Group (AG) on January 19, 2018. These memberships, important to the two countries' global strategic partnership, are enhanced by the US' recognition of India as a Major Defence Partner in the India-US Joint Statement of June 7, 2016. "This recognition facilitates and supports India's military modernisation efforts with the US as a reliable provider of advanced defence articles, the notification said," the notification said. As a result, the federal notification said, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), formally recognises under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) India's membership in the WA multilateral export control regimes and revises the EAR accordingly. Further, in this rule, BIS added India to Country Group A:1. "In addition, to export control-related benefits for India as a result of prior amendments to the EAR in furtherance of the US-India global strategic partnership, BIS places India in Country Group A:5, which provides the benefit of greater availability of License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) for exports and reexports to, and transfers within India under the EAR," it said. Countries listed in Country Group A:5 are countries included in STA-1, which authorises exports, reexports and in-country transfers that are subject to multiple reasons for control. "With this rule, India becomes the 37th country to join Country Group A:5," the federal notification added. In the cramped former home of Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, about thirty young engineers sit elbow-to-elbow, working to attract the next million users for DingTalk, Alibabas workplace communication software. Their installation in the hallowed flat where Ma got his start in the eastern city of Hangzhou reflects DingTalks place in the pecking order of the companys sprawling collection of start-up projects. Since December 2014, DingTalk has grown exponentially to become the worlds largest chat service designed for ... How much is your DNA worth? As millions of people pay for home tests to check on ancestry or health risks, genetic data is becoming an increasingly valuable resource for drugmakers, triggering a race to create a DNA marketplace. GlaxoSmithKline's decision to invest $300 million in 23andMe and forge an exclusive drug development deal with the Silicon Valley consumer genetics company crystallises the value locked up in genetic code. The tie-up is the biggest yet involving home DNA testing, a market dominated by 23andMe and Ancestry.com, which charge under $100 for a ... US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced a new $300 million fund for security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region where Washington and Beijing are competing for influence. "As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the US is excited to announce $300 million of new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region," Pompeo told a press briefing on the sidelines of a meeting of Foreign Ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore. The new security assistance is designed for maritime security, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and countering transnational threats, Efe news reported. "This new security assistance will advance our priorities, especially strengthening maritime security, developing humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities," Pompeo said. Earlier this week, the US said it will invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives. The top US official said that he discussed Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea and the importance of a rules-based order in the region with the Asean nations. He also highlighted US President Donald Trump's commitment to the Indo-Pacific strategy as a major engine for economic growth. Regarding North Korea, Pompeo said pressure on Pyongyang should be maintained as concerns mount about the Kim Jong-un regime's willingness to denuclearise. He said he discussed with Chinese officials the US decision to maintain sanctions on North Korea. "We also talked about the importance of enforcing UN Security Council resolutions and they made clear their commitment to do that." However, Pompeo said the US was confident North Korean denuclearisation would be implemented according to the accepted timeline. The Asean meeting coincided with a bitter trade dispute between Washington and Beijing. Talking about the ongoing row, Pompeo said: "President Trump inherited an unfair trade regime where American workers in American companies are not treated reciprocally or fairly by the Chinese. Efforts of the Trump administration are to right that, to correct that, to adjust that." Trump threatened to double tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, while China said it would impose tariffs ranging from 5 to 25 per cent on $60 billion worth of American products. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds LukeRaynott Registered User User ID: 442513 08-05-2018 12:38 AM Posts: 761 Post: #1 Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds Advertisement Possible drone bomb attack against him. Explosion interrupts live televised event in Venezuela while president Maduro is speaking before the National Guard troops. I'm told Maduro was taken to safety. LukeRaynott Registered User User ID: 442513 08-05-2018 12:42 AM Posts: 761 Post: #2 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds Reports of incident of detonation of explosive device near where Pres. Maduro was speaking. State TV cut live signal of event. Maduro, protected by security, removed from area as a precaution. (Source: Twitter reports from journalists there). LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 430723 08-05-2018 12:42 AM Post: #3 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds More like a firework. Bit of a delayed reaction there. His hand gesturing sucks. LukeRaynott Registered User User ID: 442513 08-05-2018 12:45 AM Posts: 761 Post: #4 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 430723 08-05-2018 12:59 AM Post: #5 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds That lady just knew she was a gone-er. The way she jumped away from the President speaks volumes. A body guard would have moved in, not out. LukeRaynott Registered User User ID: 442513 08-05-2018 01:04 AM Posts: 761 Post: #6 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds Fire in a building in Caracas, possibly after the drone that aimed to kill Maduro crashed LukeRaynott Registered User User ID: 442513 08-05-2018 01:12 AM Posts: 761 Post: #7 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds 0:14s in the video, look at the right-side to see one of the generals falling flat to the floor. Rumors of a possible Military Coup going on right now in Caracas. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450243 08-05-2018 01:21 AM Post: #8 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds Time to install another new government that will be the same as the last government. As long as people think socialism/communism works, they'll keep putting in the same old same old failed systems. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453397 08-05-2018 01:32 AM Post: #9 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds CIA torture lady Haspel at work here. dan7 Registered User User ID: 447200 08-05-2018 01:33 AM Posts: 1,681 Post: #10 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds LoP Guest Wrote: (08-05-2018 01:21 AM) Time to install another new government that will be the same as the last government. As long as people think socialism/communism works, they'll keep putting in the same old same old failed systems. But and China?? Seems to work there? Not supporting, just stating a fact. But and China?? Seems to work there? Not supporting, just stating a fact. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450566 08-05-2018 01:35 AM Post: #11 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds LukeRaynott Wrote: (08-05-2018 01:12 AM) 0:14s in the video, look at the right-side to see one of the generals falling flat to the floor. Rumors of a possible Military Coup going on right now in Caracas. Sounds like the CIA is on the ground Sounds like the CIA is on the ground dan7 Registered User User ID: 447200 08-05-2018 01:38 AM Posts: 1,681 Post: #12 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds LOL their troop formation disciplined as f*#k LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 441719 08-05-2018 01:39 AM Post: #13 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds Hmm, socialism strikes again. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443576 08-05-2018 01:46 AM Post: #14 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds Sure.... Just in time to lock down the county, just how the playbook of ALL failed socialist states happen to do. so let's get this straight, Venezuelan president admins socialism dosen't work and then there is a assasination attempt?Sure....Just in time to lock down the county, just how the playbook of ALL failed socialist states happen to do. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450566 08-05-2018 01:48 AM Post: #15 RE: Explosion in Venezuela whilst president was addressing crowds It was an explosive drone apparently ... Advertisement China's state media said on Saturday the government's retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of US goods showed rational restraint and they accused the United States of blackmail. Late on Friday, China's finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra levies ranging from five to 25 per cent on a total value of goods less than half of that proposed by US President Donald Trump's administration. The response follows the Trump administration's proposal of a 25 per cent tariff on $200 billion ... North Korea and the United States traded blows over implementing a disarmament deal adopted at a landmark summit in June, as Washington called for maintaining sanctions pressure against the North which in turn said it was alarmed at US intentions. The discord was the latest reminder of the difficulties that have long impaired efforts to negotiate an end to North Koreas nuclear and missile programmes, despite the June commitment made in Singapore by the leaders of the North and the United States. The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the ... has approached for issuing Red Corner Notices against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's sons Hasan and Hussain, the media reported on Saturday. The jailed leader's sons were declared proclaimed offenders by an accountability court after they failed to appear despite repeated orders to face the all three graft references --filed against them and their father -- in line with the Supreme Court's July 2017 verdict in the Hasan and Hussain Nawaz already have permanent arrest warrants issued against them in The decision to issue Red Corner Notices was taken after anti-corruption body -- National Accountability Bureau (NAB) -- Chairman Javed Iqbal had asked the Interior Ministry to initiate the process of bringing back the two, currently living in to take care of their ailing mother Kulsoom Nawaz, the Express Tribune reported. The daily cited sources as saying that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted an application to the headquarters in with the request to issue red warrant of Hasan and Hussain Nawaz. The application submitted through the FIA headquarters stated that both men were wanted in in corruption references. Previously, the court had issued directions for separate trials of Hasan and Hussain after they failed to appear before the court. Last month, Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in jail, his daughter got seven-year term while his son-in-law Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar Awan received one year in the Avenfield corruption case. It was one of the three references filed on the orders of the last year. Sharif and his sons were accused in all the three graft references -- the Avenfield, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, and offshore companies, including Flagship Investment Limited -- whereas and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday said that the aim of his government is to create more jobs in the state in order to solve to issue of unemployment. "The main objective of my government is to create more employment opportunities for the people of Madhya Pradesh," Singh told ANI. Highlighting how his government has helped the farmers in the state, Singh said, "Apart from schemes like Mukhya Mantri Swarojgar Yojana, Mukhya Mantri Aarthik Kalyan Yojana, we have come up with Mukhya Mantri Yuva Udyamiya Yojana, which has strongly benefited the farmers in the state." He also said that various government schemes have benefitted women in the state through self-help groups. Earlier on Friday, Singh said that his government is trying hard to build a state where "women can walk freely even at midnight". Elections for the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly is scheduled to be held this year to elect 230 constituencies in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Conference (NC) leaders staged a protest against interference with Article 35A of the Constitution on Saturday that provides special status to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The hearing on Article 35A is likely to come up in the Supreme Court on August 6. On July 29, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah while addressing a public gathering asserted that any attempts made to assault Article 35A would be opposed by the NC. In response to Farooq Abdullah, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had stated that Articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution are temporary laws which can be removed without a vote in Parliament. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president for West Bengal Dilip Ghosh on Saturday said that they do not support party leader Nirmal Chandra Mondal's statement against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. BJP leader from West Bengal Mondal sparked a row on Friday after he threatened Mamata's nephew and said, "What if didi (Mamata Banerjee) your nephew ( Abhisekh Banerjee) is murdered?" Reacting on the same, Ghosh told ANI, "The BJP does not support anything that induces tension, we will talk to Mondal." Ghosh, however, said that Mondal had not given any threat but just asked a question over the killings of BJP workers. BJP leader Kailash Vijayavargiya also raised objection over Mondal's remark and said that the party does not influence violence. "We never influence violence. You all have seen in Birbhum our 'karyakarta' (worker) was bitten for filing nomination. Is this the democracy?" said Vijayavargiva. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress filed a complaint against Mondal over his statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Jodhpur sessions court on Saturday ruled that will need to seek its permission every time he has to travel abroad. The ruling came as a development in the poaching case against the actor. The order came following an application by the 52-year-old's lawyers asking for an exemption from seeking permission for foreign travel. Another plea by the actor, seeking permission for travel to and from August 10 to 26 for a shoot, is still pending before the court. was on April 5, 2018, convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment after being found guilty of killing two Blackbucks in Jodhpur during the shooting of his 1998 movie 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'. The 'Bharat' star was later granted bail after spending two nights at the Jodhpur Central jail. Salman's 'Hum Saath Saath Hain' co-stars- Saif Ali Khan, Neelam, Tabu and Sonali Bendre, and Jodhpur resident Dushyant Singh - were all acquitted due to lack of evidence. Disney's live-action feature film 'Christopher Robin' will not see a China release. The movie was blocked from being released as the Chinese government cracked down on the images of Winnie the Pooh (a character from the movie), reports The Hollywood Reporter. After citizens from the Asian country pointed out a resemblance between the character and their President Xi Jinping, the country started censoring photos of the bear from social media. This comes at a time when China in June blocked the HBO website after American comedian John Oliver poked fun at President Xi Jinping primarily over suppression of free speech in the country. The movie which stars Ewan McGregor is inspired by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's book Winnie-the-Pooh and is a live-action of the Disney franchise of the same name. Directed by Marc Foster and written by Alex Ross Perry, the film will also star Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael, and Mark Gatiss in supporting roles. The flick which released on August 3 in the United States is all set to hit Indian cinema halls on August 10. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man, carrying a knife, was pinned down by officers on duty outside Kerala House after he attempted to barge into the premises on Saturday. The man was detained for creating a ruckus outside Kerala House, at a time when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was present inside. However, the man, who was filmed screaming outside the building, said he did not want to say or take anything from Vijayan. He was also carrying a bunch of papers and claimed that his issues were not addressed in spite of him approaching the highest authorities. When asked about the details, security personnel said the man was 80 per cent mentally unstable and has been sent to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences. This is the second such incident of the day, where an individual was caught breaching VIP security blanket. Earlier in the day, a man named Murfas Shah drove his car into the residence of former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah in Jammu and was subsequently shot dead by officers on duty. Shah also vandalised some articles at Abdullah's residence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) European and Filipino chefs will gather and share their expertise in the celebration of the first European Culinary Week The European Culinary Week is organized by the EU-Philippines Business Network and co-funded by the European Union with the aim of sparking the interest of Filipinos in European cuisine and beverage in representing the authentic European gastronomy. Award-winning European and Filipino chefs will gather and share their expertise in the celebration of the first European Culinary Week at Grand Hyatt Manila in Taguig City and at Crimson Hotel & Resort in Lapu Lapu City in Mactan, Cebu on Sept. 10 to 16.Its going to be tasty. Its going to be fun. Its going to be interesting, said EU Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen, as he described the upcoming culinary week. The European Culinary Week is organized by the EU-Philippines Business Network and co-funded by the European Union with the aim of sparking the interest of Filipinos in European cuisine and beverage in representing the authentic European gastronomy. It will also serve as an opportunity for culinary students to work and learn from European chefs and encourage European and Philippine companies to import European food and beverage products. We have a unique way of trying to protect well-known products, said Jessen. Jessen highlights the importance of European Geographical Indication or GI products through the celebration of the culinary week.Here in the Philippines, weve been trying to identify products that are well-known in the Philippines and to allocate what we call Geographical Indication to them, so that the value of the production increases, Jessen said. The EU ambassador said the European Culinary Week aimed to bolster the relationship between Europe and the Philippines. I feel it will strengthen because its a very human way of bringing Europe to the Philippines. We all eat food every day. We want to get good food. We want to have healthy food and we want to have tasty food. And this is something where you are clearly adding something to contribute, something to bring to the Philippines. So, for me, its very much people-to-people contact, Jessen said. The European Culinary week will feature 14 Filipino and European chefs including some Michelin star chefs with different authentic European food and beverage. It is five series of events prepared for the ambassadors, food aficionados, chefs and culinary students and personalities and businessmen who are interested to join the celebration.It is through the European Culinary Week that we seek to provide the perfect mix of business and pleasure, to promote European food culture in the Philippines while showcasing opportunities for Philippine food and produce around the world, said Grand Hyatt Manila general manager Gottfried Bogensperger. The Bombay High Court on Saturday transferred the probe into the Finnish Felix Dahl death case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the court was not satisfied with the investigation being carried out by the Goa Police. Felix's mother Minna Pirhonen, had earlier filed a writ petition demanding a CBI probe. Initially, the probe stated that it was a case of unnatural death. Later, a judicial magistrate directed the police to file a case of murder. However, investigating officers closed the probe claiming multiple skull fracture because of an accidental fall. 22-year-old Felix Dahl was found dead by a local outside her house in Goa's Canacona on January 28, 2015. In a Facebook page that was set up by the family demanding justice, a post from December 2017 reads as "two days prior to Felix's death, he had an argument with a local person in Patnem. The following day he was found dead in Patnem with head injuries". "Local police claim that he fell on the street and hurt himself, but the results of a second autopsy performed in Finland suggest that his head injuries are most likely not results of an accident but in fact, he was killed," the post added. The family had even offered a reward of Rs one lakh to anyone providing more information in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Baloch Republican Party spokesperson Sher Mohammed Bugti expressed concern over growing incidents of human rights violations in Balochistan, the largest in terms of land and natural resource rich province of Pakistan. In an estimate, over 14,000 people are missing from Balochistan who have been allegedly picked up by security agencies. Focusing on the Pakistan Army's ongoing genocide, Bugti said that enforced disappearances and killings of indigenous Baloch have remained unstoppable in the province. "Earlier, they (Pakistan Army and ISI) used to abduct people and put them in torture cells. Nowadays, they abduct them and throw their dead bodies on streets. The situation is worsening as Army operation has been intensified in Balochistan. Not a single day is passed when incidents of enforced disappearance and killing are not reported from the province. The situation is worsening. The security forces are carrying out the genocide", pointed out Bugti. The people in Balochistan are living in poverty, and they have no access to the basic needs like drinking water and food. The region has no facilities for good education and healthcare also. He said, "Balochistan is a resource rich nation but the indigenous people are living a miserable life. For example, gas reserves were discovered in Sui area in 1952, but the locals are still using wood as fuel. They don't have any facilities like education and health". Balochistan is the hub of China's multi-billion dollar project called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China has developed Gwadar Port in Balochistan to supply its goods to European market. Bugti accused China and Pakistan of jointly looting resources of Balochistan whereas the locals are living in poverty. "It has been published that people in Balochistan are living a happy life, but in reality they are still living in the Stone Age. People don't even have drinking water. They are misleading people and exploiting resources with the help of China". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari on Friday invited Indian investors to come forward to fund the structural construction projects in the country. Gadkari said this while talking at an event where the State Bank of India (SBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to grant them a term loan facility of Rs 25,000 Crore for the development of road infrastructure. "Ring Road in Delhi was built within 500 days, a road overbridge (ROB) was built within 100 days. So I think the work culture has changed. We are improving the quality of construction and reducing the cost of construction," the Union Minister said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid on Saturday said identification of the four terrorists killed earlier in the day is underway. Speaking to ANI, Vaid said operations were initiated after information of terrorist holed up in Shopian's Killora village was received. "We had information that a group of terrorists is there in the area (Shopian's Killora village). Jammu and Kashmir police, Army, Central Reserve Police Force cordoned the area. A terrorist was killed in the encounter last night. The firing was resumed today and bodies of four more terrorists were recovered. The operation has been called off," he said. On Friday, an encounter broke out between security personnel and terrorists, after which the body of one terrorist, identified as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Umar Malik, was recovered, along with an AK-47. The bodies of four more terrorists were recovered here on Saturday, after which the operation was called off. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Biel are currently working towards bringing back the American TV series 'The Facts of Life'. Both stars, are in early talks with Sony Pictures, as it owns the distribution rights of the TV series, reports The Hollywood Reporter. It is one of the longest-running series in America with more than 200 episodes engulfed in nine seasons. The 1980s TV series revolved around how a woman, played by Charlotte Rae, becomes a housemother at a boarding school in New York to a group of girls. This announcement comes at a time when ABC's Roseanne is also being rebooted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai on Friday condemned the attack on 12 schools in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) which took place late on Thursday night. She tweeted, "The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book. We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the that every girl and boy has the right to learn." According to Dawn, Diamer Superintendent Police (SP) Roy Ajmal said 12 schools, including only-girls schools were set on fire. He also said that in a few cases, books were also thrown out and torched. Dawn quoted local police officer Mohammad Bashir as saying that the attack on schools took place near Chilas before dawn on Friday, however, no casualties were reported as the schools were closed when the attack took place. Police added that no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Local residents and journalists said explosions were heard in GPS Ronay and Girls School Takya, however, police said that they did not receive reports about blasts. A protest has been called by The Diamer Youth Movement in the district headquarters of Chilas, against the targeting of educational institutions in the area. Later, locals took out a protest rally in Chilas against the burning down of schools and demanded that the police arrest the culprits. They raised the slogans of "Dehshatgard murdabad!" [death to terrorists!] Commissioner of Diamer, Syed Abdul Waheed Shah, told Dawn that no arrests have been made so far in the matter. He added that the police were investigating the incident and a first information report (FIR) would be registered. The commissioner also revealed that attempts were made to blow up two schools using explosives, while the rest of the 11 schools were set on fire. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 11 more people were arrested on Saturday in connection with a violence that broke out in Pune's Chakan industrial area over the Maratha reservation issue on Saturday. The number of arrests has now gone up to 29 in the Chakan incident which took place on July 30. Investigation officer in the case Giri Gosawi said, "FIR has been registered against several people. Further investigation is underway." Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that his government would provide reservation to Marathas in accordance with law. After holding a meeting with state leaders from diverse sections, Fadnavis said: "A joint statement has been signed to give reservation to Marathas lawfully. The state government stands in absolute support for Maratha reservation, and we are following a requisite process to do it at the earliest." The Maratha Kranti Morcha has been agitating across the state demanding reservation in government jobs and education. The major demands of the morcha are - decision on the Maratha quota at the earliest, all cases against Maratha protesters be taken back, action against the officers responsible for firing and lathi charge during state-wide protest on July 25, resignation or sacking of ministers and MLAs who gave irresponsible statements against the Maratha community. Besides reservation, they have also been demanding loan waiver, justice in Kopardi rape case and a solution to unemployment in their community. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Miami based SLS South Beach hotel lost USD 2.5 million discrimination suit lawsuit, filed by seventeen Haitian people, who worked as dishwashers there. The lawsuit was filed by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of the seventeen former employees of the hotel, reported the Fox News. The suit was filed in April 2017; however, the incident was of April 2014. As per a report, the dishwashers, who worked in the kitchens of a restaurant located inside the hotel, were barred from speaking Creole by the supervising chefs. However, the Hispanic employees were allowed to speak Spanish. The Haitian workers also claimed they were asked to carry heavy items up 13 flights of stairs, while no other employee was asked to do the same. Following the incident, when the dishwashers requested the hotel managers to fix the elevator, one supervisor stated that "Let those slaves do the work", as per the report. Later, on approaching the human resource department, the dishwashers were fired and immediately replaced with a new staff. The Hotel, however, denied the allegations and chose to settle. "We felt if we could resolve this amicably and help take care of these former employees, that was the right thing to do," said a legal representative of the hotel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Jaihind on Saturday in a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked about steps taken by the state government for the rehabilitation of the victims in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. On July 24, 11 employees of the girls shelter home in Muzaffarpur were arrested for allegedly sexually harassing the girls. On receiving information, the police raided the vicinity and rescued 44 girls. In a two-page letter, the DCW chief demanded immediate action on the accused in the case which surfaced in an audit report of the Mumbai based Tata Institute of Social Sciences in April. "The late reaction of the government and laxity showed in the case has worsened the situation. The prime accused and owner of the shelter home, Brajesh Thakur's reaction on being arrested has become a proof that he had political connections and would be spared easily," said Jaihind in the letter. Hitting out at the state government, Jaihind questioned about the lackadaisical approach of the government. She wondered why no action had been taken even after knowing about the case during the past three-four months. The DCW chief said, "Sir, you have no daughter but had one among these 34 girls been yours, would you have been quiet all this while? You have lost respect of scores of women and girls by not taking action in the case. Even after knowing that 34 girls were continuously raped again and again and many buried in the shelter home, you have been quiet on the issue," the letter further read. The District Magistrate (DM) of Muzaffarpur on Friday suspended the weapon license of the prime accused in the case Brajesh Thakur and also ordered him to surrender his weapons within 48 hours. On August 1, the state police raided another shelter home run by Thakur after a case was registered against him over the disappearance of 11 girls from there. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In another turn of events, the wife of Muzaffarpur district Child Protection Officer (CPO) Ravi Kumar Raushan has filed a case on Bihar's social welfare department minister Manju Verma's husband, in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. Raushan was earlier arrested on the charges of sexual assault of some inmates. Speaking to ANI, Shiva Kumari, wife of the Muzaffarpur District Child Protection Officer, said that her husband is innocent and that efforts are being made to protect NGO promoter Rajesh Roushan. "My husband is innocent. Efforts are being made to protect NGO promoter Rajesh Roushan. My husband told me that Manju Verma's husband had visited the shelter home," said Kumari. Chandrasekhar Verma, husband of Manju Verma, is accused of frequently visiting the shelter home and spending "long hours in the girls' room". On July 26, Manju had dubbed the allegations levelled against her husband as 'baseless' and said, "Wife of one of the accused, who was arrested, is making baseless allegations after a month. My husband accompanied me to the shelter home in 2016. We never visited the shelter home afterward." On a related note, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Jaihind wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asking about steps taken by the state government for the rehabilitation of the victims in the case. The Chief Minister, earlier on Friday, assured that strict action would be taken against the accused in connection with the case. "This incident has ashamed us. The Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case. The High Court should monitor this case," said Nitish Kumar, while addressing a gathering at "Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana" programme. As many as 11 employees of the child shelter home in Muzaffarpur were arrested on July 24 for allegedly sexually harassing the inmates. The issue of alleged sexual exploitation of more than 40 girls at a Muzaffarpur shelter home was uncovered more than a month ago by a Mumbai-based social science institute. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Foreign placement agencies recruiting Filipino domestic workers for Kuwait are now required to deposit US$10,000 or equivalent to P530,000 in a reputable bank as a guarantee for money claims of household workers who would breach a contract. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said it has issued POEA Memo Circular 10-A requiring foreign placement agencies hiring domestic workers for Kuwait to deposit a minimum $10,000 as escrow deposit in a bank authorized by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in the country. Under the memorandum circular, all FPA hiring domestic workers to Kuwait requesting for accreditation with the Philippine Recruitment Agency (PRA) including those renewing their accreditation shall comply with the escrow requirement, the POEA said. If the FPA is accredited or to be accredited to more than one PRA, it needs to put up only one escrow deposit. The escrow deposit shall answer for all valid and legal claims arising from the violation of the employment contracts with the workers, the agency said.The escrow deposit of FPA and the escrow of the PRA shall be equally applied to answer for the awards to the workers, the POEA said. However, if the FPA has a pending disciplinary action during the renewal of its accreditation, the FPA shall be required to put up an additional escrow deposit which shall not exceed US$50,000. The POEA issued the new order after a three-month suspension of the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait on the instruction of President Rodrigo Duterte due to abuses committed against OFWs. Months after the summit between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was held, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Pyongyang was violating international sanctions by continuing to develop nuclear and missile programs. This statement from the US Secretary of State came while reviewing the United Nations' (UN) report at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Singapore. According to CNN, the confidential dossier was prepared by a batch of independent experts working for the UN, who have been directed to submit their latest findings pertaining to Pyongyang 's nuclear programme in every six months to the UN North Korea Sanctions Committee of the Security Council. Pompeo, during his visit to Singapore, said his duty was to push North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program, adding that the Kim Jong-un administration is yet to take any palpable steps in order to dismantle its decade-old nuclear program. "I have also emphasised the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea, to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation of the DPRK as agreed to by Chairman Kim," CNN quoted Pompeo, as saying, while referring to the isolated north Asian nation by its official title (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea). Talking further about the denuclearisation issue, Pompeo added that he had urged all South Asian countries to terminate illegal export of petroleum to North Korea, in order to facilitate a "complete shutdown of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum destined for North Korea." Pompeo also accused the Russian government headed by Vladimir Putin of helping North Korea evade UNSC resolutions. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The three-judge special court will resume a high treason trial against Pakistan's former president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf on August 20. The bench, which will be headed by Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Justice (CJI) Yawar Ali, will also comprise of Balochistan High Court (BHC) Justice Tahira Safdar and Sindh High Court (SHC) Justice Nazar Akbar. The case was filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in 2013, alleging that Musharraf had unlawfully suspended the constitution with the help of the military and instituted an emergency rule in the year 2007. The trial against General Musharraf has been pending before the judicature since March 2016 after he fled to Dubai citing health issues following the removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL). Due to Musharraf's absence during the case proceedings in past few years, the special court had reportedly declared him as a proclaimed offender and directed the authorities to confiscate all his properties which could not be attached due to the litigation in the courts of law. Just a few days after resuming the proceedings in the treason case, the judicature ordered the authorities to block General Musharraf's computerized national identity card and passport after he didn't return to Pakistan despite giving the last chance. Also, the public prosecutor in the treason case named Mohammad Akram Sheikh has put down his resignation on July 30, stating that it is the responsibility of the Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan to appoint a new lawyer in order to proceed this case. On a related note, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) headed by Imran Khan emerged as the single largest party with 115 seats after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in July released the complete preliminary results for 270 of 272 National Assembly (NA) constituencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A passenger of an Air India flight flying from Milan to New Delhi was arrested after he forcefully tried to enter the cockpit of the aircraft. The passenger, who was on board AI 138 from Milan to New Delhi was detained for unruly behaviour, after which the fight was forced to return to Milan. Upon arriving at Milan, the passenger, Gurpreet Singh, was handed over to police at Milan airport. Post security clearance, the flight departed for New Delhi after a delay of nearly three hours. "AI 138 Milan Delhi flight delayed by 2hrs 37 minutes as one unruly pax Mr. Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after takeoff from Milan on schedule. The A/C landed back and pax was handed over to local police," a statement from Air India read. The captain of flight AI 138, which had about 250 people on board, decided to dump fuel (as it had been refueled for the eight-hour flight to Delhi) and be light enough to return to land in Milan almost an hour after taking off from there. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One of the most successful plays in India 'Mughal-e-Azam With successful shows across India and in Dubai, it will be staged in the Malaysian capital from August 10 to 11. Datuk Nabhesh Khanna who played an important role in getting the play to Kuala Lumpur said that for now, it is an inter-government project. "We have worked very hard to bring the prestigious play to Malaysia. We approached the Indian High Commission which in turn got the Malaysian Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry to be part of the cultural exchange project. As such, it is now a government-to-government project," said the event's cultural director, Datuk Nabhesh Khanna. The director of the play, Feroz Abbas Khan, said that the play transcends boundaries. "'Mughal-e-Azam' has a universal appeal which transcends barriers of language and culture. It is a story of love that seems to connect with audiences everywhere. We are delighted that the play is traveling to Malaysia as part of a cultural exchange between the two govternments. It encourages artistes to work harder when governments support such work," Khan added. 'Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical' is a visual extravaganza with songs, dance and costumes designed by Manish Malhotra. The play will be staged at the Istana Budaya theatre in Kuala Lumpur. The two hour and twenty minute long play will be staged in Hindi with Malaysian and English subtitles on two LED screens. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan on Friday urged the Centre to honour Olympic wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav with Padma Bhushan posthumously. Chavan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh requesting them to consider the same. Jadhav bagged India's first individual Olympic Bronze Medal in bantamweight freestyle wrestling at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. In the letter, Chavan wrote, in spite of winning India its first ever Olympics medal, Jadhav's "achievement was unsurpassed for 44 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two weeks after self-proclaimed spiritual leader Swami Agnivesh was attacked in Jharkhand's Pakur district, the activist demanded a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the matter. "It has been 15 days and no arrest has been made. There has been no investigation. It indicates that matter is being brushed under the carpet. I have no option but to go to the Supreme Court and request for a SIT," Swami Agnivesh told ANI. The spiritual leader, who was in Jharkhand's Pakur to attend an event on July 18, was in his hotel when a group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) (the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party) workers thrashed him. Swami Agnivesh subsequently lodged a complaint with the Ranchi police stating that a group of people allegedly belonging to the RSS, and BJYM entered the premises and assaulted him. However, no arrests have been made so far. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) While congratulating his 123,000 employees over the achievement of Apple becoming the first American company to be valued over 1 trillion USD, CEO Tim Cook, through a letter, asked his employees to stay focused on their mission. "While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it's not the most important measure of our success," a spokesperson confirmed Cook to have written in the letter, with the latter asserting that the innovation and principles made Apple what it is today, reported CNN. "It's you, our team, that makes Apple great and our success is due to your hard work, dedication, and passion. I am deeply humbled by what you do, and it's the privilege of a lifetime to work alongside you," Cook added. He also expressed his gratitude to the staff for working late hours and every time they "refuse to settle for anything less than excellence." He further gave credited Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for the company's fortunes today. "Steve founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges - and that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the are the ones who do," Cook wrote, adding, "Just as Steve always did in moments like this, we should all look forward to Apple's bright future and the great work we'll do together. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from West Bengal's Karimpur, Mahua Moitra on Friday filed a police complaint against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, in connection with the incident where the party leaders were detained at Silchar Airport on August 2. Other TMC leaders Mamata Thakur and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have also filed complaint against Assam Chief Minister in this regard. A delegation of TMC party was arrested under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and was made to halt the night at a guest house near the airport. The delegation claimed that they were allegedly manhandled and physically assaulted by the authorities at the airport. The delegation-- comprising MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra-- was scheduled to visit Silchar on the issue of Assam's Register of Citizens (NRC) draft. Earlier on Thursday, Moitra allegedly assaulted a lady constable, who restrained her at the Silchar airport. In a video accessed by ANI, Moitra was seen physically assaulting a female constable, even as the latter pleaded the lawmaker with folded hands to calm down. The video also showed some of the other party workers sitting on the conveyor belt in the airport as a mark of protest against the NRC draft. The draft list left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crores of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has backed the proposal of a separate Purvanchal state, saying that illiteracy, poverty and unemployment could only be eliminated if the division takes place. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Rajbhar said, "People in Purvanchal are demanding a separate state. Uttar Pradesh is so huge that development of Purvanchal is not possible without a division". "Illiteracy, poverty and unemployment are at the peak here (Purvanchal). These will be eliminated only when Purvanchal will be a separate state," he added. Since few months, the people of Uttar Pradesh have been proposing the idea to divide the state into four new states- Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. Earlier, Union minister of State for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale had also said that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss the idea of making Purvanchal and Vidarbha two separate states. Meanwhile, Rajbhar also hit out at China for doing business in India, pointing out that the former country uses that money to buy weapons. "China has taken over our consumer market. Their products are sold throughout the country. China does business here and uses that money to buy weapons and threaten India. I believe if China's business license is revoked, crores of youth will get a job here," Rajbhar noted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Newseum, an unusual museum which aims to increase the visitors' understanding of the significance of a free press and the First Amendment, is now selling merchandise products with United States President Donald Trump's libellous slogans like "Fake News" on t-shirts and "Make America Great Again" on hats. According to CNN, the Newseum's online portal has also displayed long-sleeved shirts having President Trump's much-loved description about the media, that is, "You Are Very Fake News" for $24.99. The organisation is also selling clothes printed with images of an American flag and the locution "great again" underneath. This move by America's first press museum, which features scores of journalists from across the globe who have been killed while reporting, is facing immense criticism from country's renowned personalities for echoing with Trump's contention of media. Taking to his Twitter handle, the host of The Daily podcast at The New York Times, Michael Barbaro, criticised the organization and wrote, "[Y]ou exist to honour, examine and protect the news media, not embrace the bywords by which others seek to undermine it." Responding to the criticism, the museum's spokesperson, Sonya Gavanka said, "Fake news is a word that is in our popular culture now and this is intended to be a 'satirical rebuke' and appears in our store with T-shirts that include a variety of other 'tongue-in-cheek' sayings." "The mission of the Newseum is to champion freedom of the press along with all the freedoms of the First Amendment, so being a place where people of different viewpoints feel welcome is very important. All the merchandise in our store goes through a vetting process. Of course, we're well aware of the political temperature in the country, but we will continue to be a nonpartisan organization that champions the rights of all to free speech," Gavanka added. The 643,000-square-foot Newseum has as many as fifteen theaters and fifteen galleries. In one of its galleries, the organisation displays daily front pages of eighty printed publication of foreign countries. Other remaining galleries give thorough information about the topics such as First Amendment, press freedom, news history, the September 11 attacks, and the history of the Internet, TV, and radio. The Newseum was first opened in Rosslyn, Virginia, on April 18, 1997, before being later shifted to the current location on April 11, 2008. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Metro Manila, where nearly 13 million of the countrys 106 million population live, remains under high alerteven in the absence of imminent security threat, police officials said. National Capital Region Police director Guillermo Eleazar said the metropolis could not be complacent, only days after the explosion in Lamitan, Basilan last Tuesday that killed at least 10 people. Its better to be prepared even though we havent received any imminent threat here [in Metro Manila] but [with] what happened in Basilan, we cant ignore that, said Eleazar over radio station dzBB. Eleazar ordered all police units be on their toes 24/7 while reiterating to district commanders his directive on stepping up police operations and double security measures to ensure the safety of the region against criminality, bombing and other terrorist activities. He also directed his men to continuously conduct an inspection in air and seaports, bus terminals, commercial establishments, shopping malls, vital installations, and other places of convergence. Eleazar also wanted to ensure that all police and augmented security personnel were in their assigned posts. This is to guarantee the public of immediate response to any incident that may occur. The NCRPO chief assured the public that the police were on top of the situation but he asked the people that any information, any observation must be reported immediately to the nearest police station so they could respond correctly and appropriately.Eleazar is not ruling out speculation coming from the military that the blast in Basilan might be a case of suicide bombing. Manila International Airport Authority general manager Eddie Monreal said he also already instructed airport personnel to enhance security measures at four terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. We appeal to public to cooperate as their safety is paramount at all times, Monreal said. The MIAA is adopting 100 percent deployment of organic airport police and contracted security forces. Monreal ordered for a full manning complement of all shifts. He said there would be an increased frequency of vehicle checks with random inspections to be conducted using MIAAs recently procured hybrid explosive detection equipment. Airline officials also urged passengers to arrive early at the airport to give them lead time to go through the heightened security being enforced by MIAA. At meeting held on 03 August 2018 The Board of Hinduja Ventures at its Meeting held on 03 August 2018 accorded its approval to subscribe (a) 4,48,00,602 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each of IndusInd Media & Communication ('IMCL'), subsidiary of the Company, offered to the Company on rights basis in the proportion of 5 new equity share for every 11 equity shares held (5:11) at a price of Rs. 100/- per share (including premium of Rs. 90/- per share) and (b) such number of equity shares of IMCL which may be renounced in favour of the Company by the existing members of IMCL and such number of Equity shares not taken up or specifically renounced by the Shareholders of IMCL and may be made available to the Company under the relevant provisions of the Issue. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mexican officials on Friday discovered the bodies of 11 people who had been tied up, tortured and shot dead inside a residence in the border town of Ciudad Juarez, in northern Chihuahua state, the prosecutor's office told Xinhua. Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada told the local press that the victims were three women and eight men. He said the shooters placed paraphernalia used in the consumption of the synthetic drug "crystal" on the victims' bodies, Xinhua reported. Police officers were at the site searching for clues, according to officials. Although initial reports said the victims had been shot, police were still working to corroborate that information. According to Cabada, neighbors told authorities the house was uninhabited but was regularly used for parties. Local daily El Diario de Chihuahua published images of the grisly scene on its website, showing bodies lying face down on the floor in different rooms. All were bound at the feet and had their hands tied behind their backs, and seemed to have been shot execution style. Juarez has seen a wave of violence this year, which officials in Chihuahua have attributed to fights between the criminal groups La Linea and Los Aztecas, both of which have ties to drug cartels. To date there have been 700 homicides in the city. The house is located a few blocks from State Prison 3, the daily said, adding initial reports "indicate that at least two women are among the victims." Juarez, which lies directly across the border from El Paso, Texas, was for years ravaged by drug-related crime, leading the government to send the military to pacify the city. The strategy appeared to have been effective, with reports of crime falling. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eighteen people were killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region, authorities said. "At 10.20 a.m., an Mi-8 helicopter performed a hard landing in Turukhansk district, 2 km from the village of Igarka," Xinhua news agency quoted a statement from the region's emergency services. The crash was possibly due to technical failure or an error by the pilot. The helicopter fell apart and caught fire, according to the statement. The victims were 15 passengers and three crew members. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Another batch of 528 pilgrims on Saturday left Jammu for the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley, police said. "The Yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here for the Valley today morning in an escorted convoy of 18 vehicles," police sources said. This batch include pilgrims going both to the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps. Since it began on June 28, over 2.70 lakh pilgrims have already performed the annual Yatra. More pilgrims have performed this year's Yatra than the last three years. Coinciding with Shravan Purnima festival, the 60-day Yatra will end on August 26. --IANS sq/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) June 19, 2019, Wednesday All private universities in Uttar Pradesh will now have to give an undertaking to the government, saying that their campuses will ... PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Saturday said the marks-for-money scam in Anna University should be probed by a team of experts drawn from different fields rather than being investigated by the anti-corruption wing of the government. In a statement issued here S. Ramadoss said it is said that officials at various levels in the Anna University were involved in the re-evalutiaon of answer sheets scam. According to Ramadoss, the scam cannot be probed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) wing alone. Using the holes in the procedure for re-evalution of answer sheets the intricate marks-for-money scam was perpertrated. He said only experts and those involved in administration alone can understand the issues involved in this scam. The PMK leader said the state government should constitute a team comprising of senior DVAC officials, experts and those involved in education administration to probe the scam. The varsity has suspended its former Controller of Examination G.V. Uma, a Professor in the Department of Information Science and Technology, for the irregularities reported in the re-evaluation of engineering examination answersheets, officials said. Tamil Nadu Minister for Higher Eduction K.P. Anbalagan told reporters that evidence was being collected against the suspects. On Friday Ramadoss had demanded a probe into the role of private engineering colleges as well as former Vice Chancellors and Education Department officials in the scam. Investigating a complaint regarding irregularities in the re-evaluation of answersheets, the DVAC had registered a case against 10 officials including Uma, Controller of Examinations between 2015 and 2018. DVAC teams had also searched Uma's house here, apart from those of P. Vijayakumar and R. Shivakumar in Dindivanam and the office of Controller of Examinations on August 1. According to DVAC, students who had applied for re-evalution of answersheets paid Rs 10,000 per subject to get higher marks. In 2017, 302,380 students had applied for re-evaluation, of which 73,733 passed exams and 16,636 others improved their scores. Officials were accused of destroying original answersheets of students who had paid bribes.--IANS vj/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Call it coincidence or mysterious design, there are moments in world affairs when disparate societies have the same experience. I had barely registered that the sword of Damocles hung on the heads of over four million people, mostly Muslims, in Assam by a very Orwellian sounding National Register of Citizens, when a friend from New York drew my attention to similar happenings in Israel. In Assam, the terrified Muslims have apparently failed to provide documentary proof of citizenship. The BJP governments at the Centre and in the state have been at pains to reassure Muslims staring at the abyss that they will have a chance to appeal what is for the time being only a provisional finding of the NRC. In any case whatever is happening is at the Supreme Court's prodding. Meanwhile, far removed from Assam, on July 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's kindred spirit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushed a boulder into the pond: He called it "a pivotal moment in the history of Zionism and the Jewish state". The Knesset (Parliament) had passed a law which says: "The right of national self-determination is unique to the Jewish people." Israel's non-Jewish population have been left out. Assam's Muslims, you are not alone. I wish someone in the opposition galaxy would lambast the NRC half as effectively as Hanan Ashrawi of the PLO did the Israeli "perfidy". The Jewish Nation State law, she said, is "apartheid, discrimination, ethnic cleansing and sectarianism at the expense of the Palestinian people". The way Donald Trump is distributing largesse to both Netanyahu and Modi (shifting the embassy to Jerusalem and promising NATO status to India), he qualifies as their "big daddy" for more reasons than one. He set very high standards on how to treat the "others" when they try to violate national borders. He separated children from their parents. Children were sent to foster homes and parents to jail. Netanyahu's dilemma is as old as Israel: Is it a democracy or a Jewish state? The new law would tend to tilt the balance one way. Of all the American Presidents, Jimmy Carter was the only one to place his finger on the pulse: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." In the past, New Delhi always had two distinct approaches to Israel. There was a tweed-wearing, liberal, socialist disdain for Zionism opposed to a much more powerful "Hindu" empathy for the Jewish state which, like India, was surrounded by hostile Muslim neighbours. Trump, the great guru of anti-foreigner xenophobia virtually tousled Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte's hair, like a school master showering affection on a promising pupil. At a White House Joint Press Conference, Trump said: "I like your policies against illegal and legal immigrants." Matteo Salvini, of the xenophobic League Party, a self-confessed admirer of Mussolini, Deputy Prime Minister but in effect the driving force behind the coalition in Rome, must be swooning in ecstasy. He must feel reassured that he has kindred spirits in very high places. His ties to Le Pen once raised the hackles of Jewish leaders like Riccardo Pacifici for anti-Semitic potential of the two. After all, Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen was a holocaust denier. Salvini clarifies that he hates Muslims, not Jews. That is salutary. I doubt if friends in Israel would be overtly impressed by a Mussolini admirer denying his anti-Semitic instincts. Indeed, there is growing anxiety that wherever across the globe the raging anti-establishment wave has taken a turn to the far right, anti-Semitism has followed. The People's Party in Austria, a very fascist outfit, under 31-year-old Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, has, as expected, revealed itself as virulently anti-Semitic. There are moves afoot to have Jews buying kosher meat to be placed on a separate registry. The most shrill voice supporting the move had been of Gottfried Waldhausl, former animal welfare minister. "Soon you will ask us to wear the Star of David on our chests" said a spokesman for the Jews. In Austria has surfaced the perfect example of enemies joining hands in the face of common danger: Jewish and Muslim organisations have made common cause because "halal" meat too has come under fire. Spokesman of the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office has denounced attacks on "halal" meat for Muslims. "These are attacks on Jewish and Muslim ways of life." Global media, like the ostrich, has buried its head in the sand in the hope that a gust of anti-Semitism will pass even from a country like Poland where Auschwitz was supposed to be a constant reminder -- "never again". But what is happening is quite the contrary and scary. A law has been passed prohibiting Jews from reclaiming properties they lost during the holocaust. Trump has rushed in with an act called "Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today". In brief it is called the Just Act. It requires the State Department to monitor the activities of a dozen or so countries where anti-Semitism stands in the way of Jewish access to property lost during World War II. US President as a realtor is a brand new concept. The potential of explosive nationalism (say, in Poland) being stoked by this kind of foreign intervention has apparently been lost on the authors. The image of Trump as a backyard bully will only grow, as will anti Semitism. There is a profound lesson for a society like Israel in all of this. There is a potential for fascism, anti-Semitism, when anti-status quo movements take a sharp right turn. No such fear lurks when the Podemos rises in Spain, Syriza in Greece or when a 28-year-old Leftist bartender in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, beats a 10-term Democratic Law maker, or when Lopez Obrador knocks the stuffing out of the Right in Mexico. There are examples galore. Neither Jews nor Gentiles are invoked when movements talk of distributive justice and inequality. (A senior commentator on diplomatic and political affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com . The views expressed are personal.) --IANS naqvi/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dubbing CWC as "corruption wali committee" (committee of corruption) instead of Congress Working Committee (CWC), the BJP on Saturday said that every act of corruption in the country is linked with the Congress and 10, Janpath is its permanent address. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Congress of misleading people against the government and said: "10, Janpath is the permanent address of corruption." "Every act of the corruption in this country ultimately leads to Gandhi family and those close to Gandhi family. But 'corruption wali committee' accuses others," Patra said. "The Congress has a clear connection with corruption. Wherever corruption happens in India, it goes to 10, Janpath." The BJP leader also targeted Congress President Rahul Gandhi and said the party is spreading untruth on the issue of the Rafale fighter jets deal. "He (Rahul Gandhi) told Parliament that the French president said something in his ears. Within hours, the French government issued a statement exposing his lies. Can there be anything more humiliating than this?" the leader asked. In another attack, Patra accused the Congress of playing vote bank on the controversy surrounding Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC). Patra said that the Congress did not allow BJP President and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah to speak on the NRC issue in the upper House but now they are seeking to have a detailed discussion on NRC in the CWC meeting. "Is the CWC more important than Parliament?" he asked. --IANS akk/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Saturday wondered how diamond merchant Mehul Choksi fled the country even though he was under police investigation since 2016, and posed questions to the Centre and Gujarat government. In a series of tweets, the former Union Minister also said that an affidavit was filed before the Gujarat High Court mentioning that Choksi may flee the country. "On July 20, 2016, an affidavit was filed before the Gujarat High Court alleging Mehul Choksi was in debt of Rs 9,872 crore and he may flee the country. How did the Gujarat government (BJP) allow him to leave the country in January 2018?" Chidambaram said. "How did the central government and the Gujarat government allow Mehul Choksi to leave the country in 2018 when he was under police investigation since 2016?" On Friday, the extradition request for Choksi, who has secured an Atiguan passport and is living there, will soon be sent to the Caribbean country, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI, which is probing the Rs 13,500-crore banking fraud allegedly committed by the jeweller and his nephew Nirav Modi, said its letter to get Choksi deported has been forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Confirming the move, an MEA official said the Ministry has received the extradition request from the CBI and is currently in the process of conveying it to the authorities in Antigua and Barbuda. Choksi is said to have fled India on an Indian passport in the first week of January 2018. --IANS nks/pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reported departure from the Philippines and physical on the same day the departure was being talked aboutwhich apparently got some officials in panic mode on Friday. But Jeane Catherine Napoles, daughter of alleged pork barrel scam brain Janet Lim-Napoles, who has been indicted in the United States on charges of money laundering, returned to the Philippines on the same day her departure was being played up in some media outlets. Even Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, citing Immigration records, said the younger Napoles left the country, five days before her US indictment was announced. Ian Encarnacion, the lawyer for Napoles, confirmed the younger Napoles indeed left the country but returned Friday to face the pending criminal case she was facing in the country. Encarnacion said Napoles arrived back at 3:35 am Friday. I personally fetched her at the [Ninoy Aquino International Airport], the lawyer said, without saying where she came from and nobody had asked such follow-through question. Encarnacion gave assurances his client was ready to face the cases lodged not only in the Philippines but also those in the US for money laundering by supposedly funneling some $20 million in Philippine public funds in and out of the US through a multi-year bribery and fraud scheme. She is here in the Philippines and she will face all the cases against her, both here and abroad. We maintain our clients innocence and we look forward to having these cases dismissed, Encarnacion said.The younger Napoles is facing a case for graft in connection with the Priority Development Assistance Fund (in the Aquino administration) racket. She earlier faced a P17.5-million tax evasion case filed against her by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the pieces of real property in the United States and the Philippines under her name. Due to her non-payment, her liability has ballooned to P32 million, inclusive of interest. The case was dismissed last year. On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said Jeane, her sister Jo Christine, their mother, Jo Christines husband James Christopher; Janets brother Reynald Luy Lim, and his wife Ana Marie have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, domestic money laundering, and international money laundering. Reports from overseas said the American jury found that the indicted individuals, as well as around 20 Philippine lawmakers and other government officials, converted to their own benefit millions of dollars in PDAF and transmitting approximately $20 million of the amount into the US to purchase assets, including real property and luxury vehicles, the Justice department noted in a statement. Some $20 million of those funds, the statement said, were diverted to Philippine money remitters and then wired to Southern California bank accounts, where the money was used to purchase real estate, shares in two businesses, two Porsche Boxsters, and finance the living expenses of three family members residing in the United States: Jeane Napoles, Reynald Lim, and Ana Lim. The Congress on Saturday stepped up its attack on the Modi government on the issue of corruption and took ownership of the National Register of Citizens while accusing BJP of using it as "divisive tool" as it decided to launch a "decisive battle" along with opposition parties against the BJP. A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which was held here under chairmanship of party chief President Rahul Gandhi, spent considerable time discussing National Register of Citizens in Assam, which has electoral implications beyond the state. The CWC also discussed the "scams of the Modi Government including bank frauds, failing economy, rampant unemployment and agrarian distres" during its four-hour long meeting. It decided to launch a "decisive battle" in the coming days with other opposition parties on the issue of corruption. The party accused the Modi government of causing Rs 41,000 crore loss to exchequer in the Rafale fighter jet deal, "complicity" in the escape of Mehul Choksi, charged in the PNB bank fraud case, and causing tax terrorism. The party sought to deflate BJ''s nationalist plank on National Register of Citizens (NRC), saying that Congress-led UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners between 2005-2013 against a mere 1,822 done by the Modi government. Briefing reporters, party general secretary Ashok Gehlot said the party has begun its preparations for assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram this year and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and CWC will meet almost every month. Congress Communications Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala said the CWC noted with grave concern the "deliberate and diabolic agenda of BJP to play to use NRC as a divisive and emotional tool for misleading the people". "This is being done to deflect count'y's attention from the colossal failures, mega scams like Rafale, bank frauds and others as also betrayal of people by Modi Government on various promise," he said. The CWC called upon Congress leaders and workers to expose the acts of omission and commission of Modi Government and not allow it escape accountability. Surjewala said that opposition leaders have discussed the "corruption-related" issues of Modi government with Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders and they will together fight a decisive battle in the coming days to take the matter to people. He said the CWC decided that it will call upon its party members in parliament and leaders and workers outside to create an intense people's movement which would force the government that "evades" issues to answer them. Surjewala said the Congress was committed to the 1985 Assam Accord, supports the NRC process but there were "multiple anomalies" in the final draft released last month which leaves out 40 lakh persons. He said the left out persons include the indigenous Assamese people, Hindu Bengalis, Nepalis, Gorkhas, tea tribes, religious minorities, citizens from other states domiciled in Assam and serving and retired defence personnel. "Every Indian Citizen must be given full opportunity to establish their credentials and prove their citizenship," Surjewala said. He said the Manmohan Singh government had in 2009 sanctioned Rs.489 crore and proceeded to appoint 25,000 enumerators for the NRC process and 80 per cent of it was completed by the Tarun Gogoi government. Surjewala said the Citizenship bill being proposed by Modi government seeks to undo the process of NRC. "Instead of fooling people, Modi, Amit Shah and the Assam Chief Minister must answer if they support the NRC process or the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 20"6," he said. Surjewala alleged that there had been bank scams to the tune of Rs 72,000 crore and CWC had expressed its shock and dismay "over the complicity and connivance" of the Modi government in the escape of fraudster Mehul Choksi in Rs 23,484 crore PNB scam. He said the statement made by Citizenship Investment Unit of Antigua makes it clear that External Affairs Ministry had given "clean chit" to Mehul Choksi in May, 2017. The SEBI had also given a similar 'clean chit' and CBI and ED failed to provide adequate evidence to Interpol. He said the Modi government had adequate knowledge of bank frauds by jeweller Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. " "PMO, SFIO, SEBI, CBI, ED, Gujarat Government, Maharashtra Government were aware, yet no action was taken. On May 7, 2015 complaint was filed with Corporate Affairs Ministry and all other authorities. The PMO had acknowledged the complaint on May 26, 2015," he said. The party released a list of 42 such complaints filed with PMO and all other authorities." "The welfare of fugitives has become the slogan of Modi government," he alleged. On Rafale deal for the puchase of 36 fighter jets from France, Surjewala alleged that the Modi government was indulging in a "cover up" and had refused to disclose the price of the aircraft. He accused the Modi of violating the Defence Procurement Procedure and sacrificing the country's interests on transfer of technology. He said HAL had entered into offset contract of Rs 36,000 crore. "Once PM Modi decided to buy 36 Rafale aircraft at a 300 per cent higher price than that negotiated during UPA government, the interests of HAL were sacrifced," he said. -IANS ps-sid/vsc/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala unit of CPI-M on Saturday blamed Delhi Police for the security lapse at Kerala House in the national capital where a mentally ill person tried to forcefully enter the building. The incident created a flutter after the man wielding a knife tried to enter Kerala House when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was present inside. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) demanded a probe by the Central government into the occurrence. "The security arrangements at the Kerala House is taken care by the Delhi Police and it was shocking to see a person with a knife trying to enter the building," said Kerala CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in a statement issued in Thiruvananthapuram. "Delhi Police officials did not do anything and it was the commandos attached to the Kerala Police ... who overpowered the person who intruded. This was a serious security lapse when the Chief Minister was present there," the statement said. "The Centre should launch a probe to find out what went wrong," demanded Balakrishnan. Vijayan has been in the national capital since Friday to attend party meetings. "The incident occurred at around 10 a.m after which the security staff informed the police about it. The man was later identified as a 46-year-old Vimal Raj, a native of Kerala's Karippuzha," Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said in Delhi. "The medical documents he was carrying suggested that he is 80 per cent mentally unsound. He is now being sent to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS), Shahdara, as per the law," he added. Before his attempt to force his way inside the building, Raj, who had breakfast at the Kerala House canteen, told the staff that "today, his issues would be addressed". At the Kerala House, Raj also got to see another top Kerala leader, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Seeing Chandy, he said he had met him five times when he was the Chief Minister and sought his help to solve his various issues but nothing happened. Chandy told him that he does not remember the meeting. The Kerela Police, however, pointed out that three years ago, Raj had created a flutter by climbing a tree at the state's Secretariat complex in the heart of Kerala capital, demanding solutions to his problems. It was after much coaxing and cajoling that the police had managed to make him come down the tree. --IANS sg/pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday said it would decide on alliances and seat adjustment for the upcoming elections in states in two months. It recognised as its 'number one target' in the elections and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal as its key adversary. "The party would hold a Politburo meeting on September 26 to decide who to ally with the forthcoming state elections. The party will decide the possible tie-ups in the states in accordance with the party congress' decision. The Central Committee on October 5, 6 and 7 will finalise the tie-ups and seat adjustment," said General Secretary at a press conference. The politburo met in Delhi for two days beginning August 3. The CPI-M leader said his party's electoral tactics would be determined by "maximisation of the anti- vote" because the "imperative is to defeat the in the coming elections." "Our slogan in West Bengal is to defeat Modi to save India and defeat to save Bengal," he said. Asked about the possibility of his party's alliance with Congress, Yechury said it will be decided after the meetings of the two top bodies of the party. Yechury hit out at BJP chief Amit Shah for terming over 40 lakh people, whose names have not figured in the draft Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, as illegal migrants. "The BJP is out to polarise the society for electoral gains. Amit Shah's statement is misleading....On the other hand, the TMC's plitics is all about sub-nationalism in West Bengal," Yechury said. He said the politburo meeting also discussed electoral reforms. The party wants that the electoral bonds should be done away with as these "legalise corruption". Replying to a question over the authenticity of EVMs, he said his party has serious concerns over the fairness of these machines. "The proposed that every electronic voting machine must have a paper trail. The Election Commission should call all political parties and discuss if paper ballets should be continued," Yechury said. The Marxist leader said crony capitalism has increased under the present regime. "The government is yet to tell us how absconding diamond businessman Mehul Choksi's application for Antigua citizenship was processed. The government has to answer how clean chit was given to him despite cases pending against him," he said. He also said that the party will lend its support to the August 9 and September 5 Bharat bandh calls given by dailt organisations, trade unions and farmers. The politburo also demanded that the proposed higher education body aimed at replacing the Universit Grants Commission should be dropped. The party also sought withdrawal of Medical Commission Bill, presented in Lok Sabha this week. Pointing out that innocent citizens were being targeted by lynch mobs, Yechury said a law to curb the evil should be brought in immediately. He said incidents of attacks on media and attempts to intimidate journalists reflected that the situation is even worse than what it was during the Emergency. Yechury also demanded an inquiry into intrusion in Kerala House in the national capital on Saturday where party's politburo members and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan were present. --IANS rak/vsc/prs The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday expressed concern over the poor state of economy, 'tax terrorism' and unemployment, noting that agrarian distress has become a hallmark of the Modi government. "CWC noted with anguish over the poor state of economy and tax terrorism that prevails today in the country. Government has discovered the virtues of pre-liberalised regime moving towards a system of tax terrorism control and 'licence raj'. "Gross Fixed Capital Formation, the biggest indicator of fresh investment, has fallen from 31 per cent to 28.5 per cent. Index of industrial production continues to hover around 3.2 per cent," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. "Credit growth is dismal with MSMEs experiencing negative credit flow. NPAs of banks have risen to an alarming high figure of 11.6 per cent in 2018 and have been assessed at Rs. 10.30 lakh crore. "FDI and new projects are declining. In industrial hubs across the country, MSMEs are shutting down leading to loss of jobs. Rupee is on a downward spiral getting devalued from Rs.64 to Rs.69.50 in less than six months. A myopic Modi government has no control or vision to kick start the economy," he added. Surjewala said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and CWC expressed deep concern on the state of joblessness. He said CWC also noted that Modi-made disaster of demonitisation and ill-implemented GST has led to severe job losses. "The government is shying away from releasing the Labour Bureau Survey figures for December, 2017. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of creating 2 crore jobs a year fails, it is regrettable that he exhorts the youth to sell 'pakoras' and 'pans' instead of creating real jobs," said Surjewala. CWC also noted that agrarian distress has become a hallmark of Modi government. "PM Modi promised 'Cost+50 per cent profit' on MSP, but it has proved to be a 'jumla'. The latest increase in MSP of crops doesn't confirm it as per the report of CACP 2018. The declared MSP being given to farmers in mandis, where crop is selling at rates ranging from 27 per cent to 42 per cent, is below the declared MSP," said Surjewala. "PM Fasal Beema Yojna has profiteered the insurance companies with Rs.14,800 crore leaving the farmers to a pittance of compensation claim of Rs.5,600 crore. --IANS sid/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Working Committee (CWC) began its meeting on Saturday to discuss the political situation in the country, but United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was not present as she was unwell. The meeting, chaired by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, was attended by senior party leaders including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sheila Dikshit. They are likely to discuss, among other things, the political situation in the country and the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. This meeting is the second under Rahul Gandhi's chairmanship. The Congress has slammed the Narendra Modi government over the NRC, saying the highly sensitive exercise has been "tardy" and has led to massive insecurity in Assam. The NRC draft, published on July 30, has excluded 40 lakh people. The meeting of the CWC, the Congress' highest decision-making body, is also expected to discuss the preparations for the Assembly polls in four states this year and the issue of alliances for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. --IANS sid-gt/ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Saturday filed a criminal defamation case in a district court against two BJP MLAs and a rebel AAP legislator accusing them of defaming him in the tree-felling episode. The case is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday. Hussain alleged that on June 27, the three MLAs had said that he had indulged in corruption and had given permission to cut trees in Delhi on monetary consideration. Hussain's petition says the BJP MLAs, Vijender Gupta and Manjinder Singh Sirsa, and rebel AAP MLA, Kapil Mishra, have caused damage to his reputation, which is likely to adversely affect his prospects in the future elections. The minister has requested the court to initiate action against the three under charges dealing with defamation. --IANS nks-akk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Egypt's military on Saturday said that it has concluded joint naval exercises in the Red Sea with the US, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. "Eagle Response 2018" began on July 24 and involved special forces from participating countries, said spokesperson of the armed forces Tamer al-Refai in a statement. The USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the US Navy, took part in the exercise, Xinhua news agency reported. The drill included training on joint combat activities for all elements of a naval battle, conducting maritime security and encountering probable terrorist attacks, the statement said. It added that the joint exercises were aimed at promoting skills of the participating units, improving military cooperation with the participating countries and getting acquainted with the latest naval combat techniques. Egypt annually holds military exercises with Arab, African and western countries to boost military cooperation and exchange military expertise. In June, a joint naval and air exercise involving Egypt, Greece and Cyprus took place along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Last September, Egypt held "Bright Star" war games with US troops for the first time in eight years. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An international two-day media forum here has deliberated several significant issues facing the media industry at present. The opening day of The Media Rumble, organised by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts, saw sessions on a wide range of subjects and journalists like Maria Ressa, Christopher Lydon, Raju Narisetti and Francesca Panetta participating in thought-provoking sessions that were held across multiple venues at the India Habitat Centre here. In the inaugural session, Newslaundry founder Madhu Trehan spoke about viewing technology in news through the ruthless lens of responsibility, to which Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, said that journalism is at the forefront of war and that journalists hold the strength of democracy in the palm of their hands. They ended on a sombre note mentioning the magnitude of the task ahead for responsible and fearless journalism. The key highlight of the first day of the media forum was a session titled "Journalism Resisting and Surviving" that had the intrepid Maria Ressa, former lead investigative reporter for CNN and CEO of Rappler, an online news platform which exposes fake news, questions government statistics and propaganda, and exposes a systematic attack on free speech via social media in conversation with Hartosh Bal, Political Editor at The Caravan. Ressa candidly spoke about her work and how she has been hounded by a state-backed online hate machine, slapped with six different criminal investigations, accused of tax evasion, and receives 90 hate messages per hour to this day. "And all this, for calling out the government," she said. The use of social media by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's government in the Phillipines in changing the public's perception of reality is its most powerful tool, said Ressa citing the establishment's modus operandi -- "using free speech to silence free speech". On social media, where algorithms celebrate popularity over veracity and where the loudest voice wins, the worry "that the biggest megaphone lies with the state" was pointed out. "Take the fracture lines of society and hit it with a hammer," Ressa said, "is the motto of all populist governments today", who distort public perception and dilute focus on real issues like increasing corruption, state-sponsored violence and rampant inequality. Ressa further added that democracy was in danger and reminded the gathering of journalists of the need to continue fighting "the good fight". --IANS ss/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three more militants were killed in an ongoing gunfight between security forces and terrorists on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district, taking the number of rebels slain to five. Police sources said two militants were killed on Thursday in the clash that was still on in Sumlar area. "Two bodies of the terrorists have been recovered with their weapons," a police officer said. "Three terrorists were killed on Friday although we are yet to recover their bodies. But we can see the bodies." According to the officer, the five belonged to a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group that had probably infiltrated recently into the Kashmir Valley. The Rashtriya Rifles, the special operations group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) started a cordon and search operation in the area on Thursday. The hiding militants fired at the security forces, triggering the encounter. "The firing stopped on Thursday evening but there was fresh firing from surviving terrorists in the morning on Friday," a police source said. --IANS sq/mr (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Google has allowed advertisements with addiction-related keywords and phrases to run on its platform US after nearly a year-long ban. The ban was put in place to crack down on shady providers cashing in on vulnerable patients. "A small group of providers vetted by a third party have been approved by the company to appear in results for searches like 'help quitting pills' or 'meth addiction'," TechCrunch reported late on Friday. The ban on these advertisement was rolled out in phases in September 2017 and gradually went global in January this year. The search engine giant had pledged to keep the ban in place until it could find a way to reintroduce the ads safely and ethically. "It was provoked by a series of reports showing that people looking for help were being essentially traded like commodities and sent to incredibly expensive 'addiction centres' that often provided little recovery help at all," the report added. The tech giant partnered with a Portland-based company named LegitScript that specialises in verifying medicine-related businesses online. It also decided to run rehab centre ads that were verified by LegitScript against addiction-related queries. --IANS ksc/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The European Union has completed this week the biggest photovoltaic solar field in Gaza that will provide 0.5 Megawatts of electricity per day to fuel the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant. The EU-funded Southern Gaza Desalination Plant currently provides drinking water to 75,000 inhabitants in the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates. With the new energy field and new investments foreseen it will eventually reach 250,000 people in Southern Gaza by 2020, a European Commission press release said. Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, commented: Limited energy supplies in Gaza are one of the main challenges when improving access to safe and drinkable water to the local population. The photovoltaic solar field is essential to respond to the urgent water needs in Gaza and create dignified living conditions for its people, thus mitigating tensions in a highly conflict sensitive area. The EU is investing in long-term water infrastructure across Palestine with an emphasis on the Gaza Strip. In Gaza 97% of the water is unfit for human consumption. The very high population density in Gaza is putting huge strain on the ailing infrastructure, which is crumbling as a result of repeated conflicts, over ten years of Israeli closure, and the intra-Palestinian split. This infrastructure strain has led to critical water insecurity in the Strip. The EU budget mobilized between 2006 and 2017 alone was 128 million. 21 million has been allocated in 2018. The goal is to secure self-sufficient, equitable, affordable and sustainable access to energy, safe drinking water and sanitation services for all. In the coming months, more EU-funded projects in this area will be kicked-off. In particular the EU will be supporting Oxfam in its efforts to complete the rehabilitation of brackish desalination plants (approximately 16 public and 30 private), which will serve 58,000 people living in Gaza. Activities to increase public hygiene awareness and the establishment of comprehensive Water Safety plans will be part of the project. The EU contribution will be of 1.5 million. The EU, which is also contributing to improving the efficiency of the water sector, has allocated 8.5 million to decrease water network losses in Gaza from 40% to 20%. By improving the networks and implementing widespread leak detection campaigns, revenue collection is expected to increase from 38% to 80%. Likewise, the EU is supporting the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) in reforming the Palestinian water sector. To this end, the EU is assisting the PWA to operationalize the New Water Law and to create a Palestinian National Water Company. On 20 March 2018, the EU held a pledging conference in Brussels on the Gaza Central Desalination Plant & Associated Works Project. The conference, co-chaired by the EU and the Palestinian Authority, mobilized financial support of 456 million to this biggest ever infrastructure project in the Gaza strip, which will provide a minimum of 55 million m3 of safe and clean drinking water per year. The EU pledged 70 million for the desalination plant plus 7.1 million for management costs. The government on Saturday upgraded the status of the Institute of Medical Sciences - Banaras Hindu University (IMS-BHU) to the level of AIIMS, entitling it to get funding and other facilities from the Central government. The upgrading was formalised in the form of an agreement between the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. "It is a historic moment and a dream that has become reality today. The hard work was put for the last two years and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the biggest gift to the great university," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said, according to a statement. "I am sure that the institute will come up as world-class medical institute, getting inspiration from none other than Bharat Ratna Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya," he added. The Minister also said that the institution will get 700 additional beds and super-speciality health facilities. He emphsised that "the institute will not face any financial problems" in its becoming AIIMS-like or even better. Health Minister J.P. Nadda said the institute has the "potential" to emerge as world-class institute, which will cater to one-sixth of the Indian population from the eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. --IANS vn/pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Kyrgyzstan reviewed the entire gamut of their bilateral ties during a meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev here on Saturday. "During the meeting, the entire template of bilateral relations were discussed covering all areas of cooperation, including political and parliamentary exchanges, military and security, science and technology, economic, health and tourism," the Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement following the meeting. "The two Ministers expressed satisfaction at the progress of bilateral relations by taking forward the decisions taken during high level visits in 2015 and 2016 and discussions held on sidelines of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) Summit in Qingdao (in China this year)," it stated. While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited this Central Asian nation in July 2015, then Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev visited India in December 2016. According to the statement, Sushma Swaraj also congratulated the Kyrgyz Republic for taking over as Chair of SCO in 2018-19 and assured full cooperation in the successful conduct of meetings and the SCO Summit in 2019 to be held in Kyrgyzstan. The SCO is a Eurasian inter-governmental organisation, the creation of which was announced in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism. India, along with Pakistan, was granted full membership of the bloc in June last year. "The two Ministers also took the opportunity to discuss other issues of regional and international interest," the ministry statement said. Sushma Swaraj arrived here on Friday from Kazakhstan on the second leg of her three-nation tour of Central Asia that will also take her to Uzbekistan. Soon after her arrival, she called on Kyrgyz President Sooronboi Jeenbekov. "Discussed steps to expand and reinvigorate our bilateral relationship across all sectors," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted after the meeting. --IANS ab/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Israeli military on Friday struck a Hamas military post in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a statement issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The strike was carried out by an IDF tank after several Palestinians infiltrated into Israel from southern Gaza, and hurled firebombs and an explosive device in the border fence area, said the Israeli army, Xinhua reported. According to the army, about 8,000 Palestinians on Friday gathered in five locations along the Gaza Strip border, attempting to sabotage security infrastructure. A 25-year-old Palestinian was killed and 220 others wounded during the clashes on the Gaza Strip border, the Israeli media quoted the Gaza Health Ministry as saying. "The troops are responding with riot dispersal means and operating according to standard operating procedures," said the IDF. The Islamic Hamas movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, was considering accepting the terms of a long-term cease-fire with Israel, which was brokered by the United Nations envoy for Middle East peace and Egyptian officials in recent months, Israeli media reported. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a show of opposition unity against the ruling NDA, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday led a protest demonstration against the rape of 34 minors in a government-funded shelter home in Bihar, alleging that weaker sections were under attack by the Narendra Modi government and now it would be the BJP-RSS ideology versus the rest of India. "On one side it is the RSS-BJP ideology and on the other the rest of India," Gandhi thundered in his brief address to the gathering of hundreds of people at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the capital that brought leaders of various parties including RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D. Raja and rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav on one platform. "You see how the opposition stands united here. India stands united while the BJP and RSS stand on the other side. It will be more visible very soon. India is saying that whatever happened in the last four years was not good... There were attacks on the Indian culture. But when Indians make up their mind, no one stands a chance against them." Gandhi said oppressed and weaker sections of the society were being assaulted openly in the country. "Be it women, labourers, tribals, farmers, Dalits or minorities. Everyone is under the attack. But we are standing united here to tell them that we are with you, we are with the women of India." The joint demonstration to protest against the rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district was organized by Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, who said "as a Bihari, I feel ashamed that there is complete lawlessness in Bihar" as minors, who needed shelter, were being raped "right under the nose of the government". The RJD jailed leader Lalu Prasad's son and former Deputy Chief Minister noted that the "heinous crime" was a sign of government's "failure" to protect women and oppressed. "In 2013, Brajesh Thakur (the main accused) joined the JD-U. Nitish Kumar should clarify on this. The Chief Minister has even visited Thakur's residence. The public is watching. I want to ask the people, will they choose the leader who has maintained silence on this issue? The 'rakshas raj' (demon's rule) is back in Bihar." He said there was no news of the victims who had now been shifted to another shelter home in Madhubani being run by an aide of one Sanjay Jha "who is a close aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar". Kejriwal alleged that "no action was taken" even when the Bihar government was alerted by some NGOs that all was not right. "Children were being raped and government funds kept pouring in. Those who provide sanctuary to the accused are even bigger culprits... I want to warn them. Nirbhaya was raped and the UPA government was rocked. This time there are 40 such Nirbhayas (in Bihar)," the Aam Aadmi Party chief said. Trinamool Congress' Dinesh Trivedi said it was shameful that "India's introduction is given in terms of incidents of rapes". Yechury said there was no other remedy to this than capital punishment for the culprits. "The slogan has now changed to 'BJP se beti bachao'. I haven't seen such inhumanity ever before... All this anarchy which we are seeing today, cannot have happened without the shelter of the BJP... We have to remove these parties from power from Centre and state." Raja said Nitish Kumar should not continue as the Bihar Chief Minister after the "horrific and barbaric" rape of minors in Muzaffarpur. "He has no moral right to continue. I also wish to question Prime Minister Narendra Modi about what is happening to our daughters. The Prime Minister should ask Nitish Kumar to act. It's a shame. The fight is for justice. The CPI is with Bihar and Tejashwi." --IANS akk-vn/sar/vsc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Kerala Police team -- probing the case relating to a Catholic Bishop accused of sexually abusing a nun -- arrived here on Saturday to record the statement of the Vatican representative, but they failed to as they had not taken prior permission for it. The team is now expected to travel to Punjab in the coming days where they will meet the accused, Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar. According to the probe team, they will return on Monday to the Vatican Embassy as they have now applied for permission. The six-member team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police A.T. Subhash, in their first stop in Delhi, was to take statement on Saturday from a city-based couple who raised a complaint against the nun. The team met them, but they told the police that their complaint against the nun was based on a misunderstanding and now they have no complaints against her. According to the police team, they will now meet the Ujjain Bishop of the Catholic dioceses, as the nun had informed this Bishop about the way she was subjected to abuse. The nun alleged in June that Mulakkal sexually abused her several times at a convent in Kuruvalangadu near Kottayam between 2014 and 2016. An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent. Mulakkal, however, denies any wrongdoing. Statements were also taken from the head of the Syro-Malabar Church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and a few other former nuns who were residents at the convent. --IANS sg/pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Issues such as licensing, policy, credibility and censorship in the context of the media industry were extensively discussed and debated at the opening day of a two-day international media conference at India Habitat Centre here. "Minding the Media", one of the key sessions of The Media Rumble, organised by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts, threw up quite a lot for the discerning audience as it touched upon a wide range of issues facing the Indian media industry in contemporary times. Moderated by Apar Gupta, the panel included Nikhil Pahwa, Founder and Editor of MediaNama; Manish Tewari,former Minister of Information and Broadcasting; S.M. Khan, retired senior civil servant and former Press Secretary to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and distinguished public policy professional, Subi Chaturvedi. Pahwa brought up patterns of content consumerism and highlighted how increasingly lower percentages -- as low as 20 per cent of advertising budgets -- are going to traditional media like print and TV. The traditional media therefore, Pahwa pointed out, tries to generate "sensational" news which could border on fake news. The panel further discussed that while licensing was no longer a control mechanism for the government, the hardware of the digital media is still used discreetly by governments to control news about political unrest. Tewari pointed out "the vast abyss of grey", which still dominates India's laws on cybersecurity and the internet. In another session "Sleeping with the Adversary", the panelists sought to answer whether or not journalists should take up public offices and if doing so tarnishes their credibility. Pankaj Pachauri, founder of GoNews, said that the news media has become "self-serving" and "subservient" to the government of the day. Ashish Khetan, an investigative journalist turned politician (with the Aam Aadmi Party) and now a practising lawyer, asserted that "as a journalist, you cannot express your allegiance". In an attempt to find a more nuanced view, veteran print journalist and digital commentator R. Jagannathan said that one should not be of the opinion that journalists are absolutely neutral or absolutely aligned. In another session during the day "Is There A Post Advertising Revenue Media Business Model?" the discussion veered around how innovation is the key to disruption in media revenue possibilities. The new avenues of revenue, felt the panelists, place power in the hands of the consumers who are in a frenzy of demanding content which is forcing the industry to pay attention to what the consumer wants and make connections between content and people. The last session of the day, 'Patriotism vs Journalism', started off with the moderator, Shiv Aroor mentioning the problems faced by journalists on social media who have a discerning point of view and how often the patriotism of a journalist is brought to question. Commenting on the theme of the session, Maria Ressa said: "I think journalists are patriots. We have to talk when people are being manipulated, when thousands die in a drug war. This is precisely why we do journalism." Diplomatic editor of The Hindu, Suhasini Haidar stated: "Each time someone tries to stand up to a government policy, they are pushed aside as anti-national." The Media Rumble also featured interactive masterclasses and presentations on covering parliament, the state of healthcare reportage in India, freelance journalism, among others. The long day of deliberations ended with a special performance of "Aisi Taisi Democracy" -- part stand-up comedy, part-musical and part-biting diatribe on socio-political issues -- by Indian Ocean's bassist and vocalist Rahul Ram, Delhi satirist Sanjay Rajoura and lyricist/comedian Varun Grover. --IANS ss/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shedding light on the poor condition of the country's art schools, Lalit Kala Akademi Chairman Uttam Pacharne said the institution will soon propose to the government to implement a uniform curriculum to bring smaller schools at par with the established ones. "Provision for government resources and staff needs some uniformity. Many art schools are heavily understaffed and many of them don't have enough infrastructural facilities," Pacharne told IANS over telephone. A sculptor himself, he said that students cannot refine their art if they are not taught basics at the initial level. Explaining that the syllabi of art schools have unnecessary variety, Pacharne said: "A unique curriculum nationwide must be implemented, with some scope of localization of the syllabus." He was speaking ahead of the 64th Foundation Day of the Lalit Kala Akademi, established on August 5, 1954 to promote visual arts and build a national cultural identity in tandem with the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi. Upholding past traditions, Pacharne said the genius of Indian art lies in the form, colours and originality of tribal art, and in our "obsession with modernity, we are unable to separate our values with those of the western artists". To give greater space to artists for exhibiting tribal art, the premier art institute will host an event -- Triennale -- showcasing the current trends and happenings in contemporary art movement across the world, in December. With the multi-disciplinary Triennale also featuring sculptures, installations, photographic material and new media, among others, Pacharne hopes to familiarize non-Indian artists with the totality of Indian art and culture. "Lalit Kala Akademi has always promoted young artists through studio facilities, scholarships, grants, and giving them national and international platforms. The Triennale is our next big step in continuing to do so," he said. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) --IANS sj/mag/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has changed her stand on illegal immigrants, saying she was trying to make an issue out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam to divide people. The BJP leader said Banerjee's protest against the draft NRC was aimed at fulfilling her dream of becoming the Prime Minister. "It is shameful that someone in the position of a chief minister is trying to divide the people only to pursue her dream of becoming the prime minister," Vijayvargiya, BJP general secretary in-charge of West Bengal, told reporters. Referring to a 2005 incident in Parliament when Banerjee was a Trinamool Congress MP, Vijayvargiya claimed Banerjee had threatened to resign from Parliament if steps were not taken to curb infiltration from Bangladesh. "She had shed tears during her speech, but she is now supporting the illegal immigrants because she gets their votes," said Vijayvargiya. "On August 4, 2005, Banerjee had thrown a bunch of papers at the speaker's podium in Parliament and shed tears while speaking against the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. She even threatened to resign. We wonder what has happened in the last 13 years that has made her to completely change her views," he said. "In 2004, the CPI-M used to get the votes of these immigrants. But after coming to power, Banerjee has managed to gain their vote bank. Trinamool Congress is busy doing vote bank even at the cost of national security," Vijayvargiya alleged. The saffron party leader also claimed that Banerjee had gone to Delhi to seek support against the NRC, but "none of the political parties supported her stand on it." "The Union Home Minister has clearly said it is a draft NRC. The people who have been left out would get a chance to fight their case and submit their documents. But the Bengal Chief Minister is trying to misguide the people," the BJP leader said. The complete draft NRC was released in Assam on July 30 that has left out over 40 lakh people from the list. Banerjee strongly criticised it, claiming it was Centre's attempt to drive out a section of Indian citizens. She also warned that NRC implementation or any attempt to deport people would lead to "civil war and bloodshed". --IANS mgr/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In compliance with the Union Home Minister's directive, the Manipur government has stepped up vigilance against persons who will be displaced in Assam following the NRC's publication, officials said on Saturday. Director General of Police L.M. Khaute, has instructed police stations in the border districts to screen all suspicious persons entering Manipur. "All police stations in this district are alerted. We have formed five teams to be on the lookout of suspicious persons entering or leaving Manipur," S. Ibomcha, Superintendent of Police or border district Tengoupal, said. The police are handicapped by non-availability of modern gadgets with the result that the Aadhaar cards and other documents cannot be examined to see if they are genuine. "Day and night, police are patrolling the routes the migrants may use. Some boats are used to patrol along the Jiri river," Moirangthem Mobi, Superintendent of Police of Jiribam district bordering Silchar district in Assam, said. Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, who also holds home portfolio, said most of the persons whose names cannot be included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam will try to come to Manipur. He had already instructed the Jiribam Police to be on alert and additional forces had been rushed. Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System have also started checking persons who are entering Manipur. Recently, police dismantled over ten bamboo bridges across the Jiri river used by the illegal migrants while sneaking into Manipur. --IANS il/pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical", the hit stage show based on K. Asif's 1960 directorial, will premiere in Kuala Lumpur next week. It will be staged at the Istana Budaya also known as the Palace of Culture in the Malaysian capital on August 10 and August 11, marking the second international tour of the musical extravaganza after Dubai. The musical will run for about two hours and twenty minutes each night at Istana Budaya. It is in Hindi but there will be two LED screens carrying Bahasa Malaysia and English subtitles. MI Cultural Event Sdn Bhd (MICE) Director Datuk Nabhesh Khanna, who has been instrumental in taking the musical to Kuala Lumpur, said in a statement: "We have worked very hard to bring the prestigious play to Malaysia. We approached the Indian High Commission which in turn got the Malaysian Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry to be part of the cultural exchange project. "As such, it is now a government-to-government project." The musical's director Feroz Abbas Khan said the show's story has an universal appeal which transcends barriers of language and culture. "It is a story of love that seems to connect with audiences everywhere. We are delighted that the play is travelling to Malaysia as part of a cultural exchange between the two governments. It encourages artistes to work harder when governments support such work, Khan said. "Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical" has live singing, intricately designed choreography, noteworthy performances, world-class production design and elaborate and elegant costumes by Manish Malhotra. --IANS rb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The arms licences of Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, will be suspended soon, a top official said. Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Mohammad Sohail said that a notification to suspend the arms licences of Thakur has been issued. "The district administration will cancel his arms licences soon," he said. According to an official of the district administration, Brajesh Thakur was issued arms licences years ago. There was a rifle and a pistol in his name. Thakur along with nine others were arrested and jailed after an FIR was registered against them in the Bihar shelter home rapes case. Police in Muzaffarpur have also filed a charge sheet against him and others in the case. Bihar Health Department has issued directions to the State Aids Control Society (BSACS) to terminate the services of Thakur's NGO, Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti that was managing the shelter home where the rapes allegedly occurred. The social welfare department blacklisted the NGO after Thakur was named the prime accused in the case, a health department official said. The Muzaffarpur horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. --IANS ik/in/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the run-up to the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018, the state government has decided to organise an investment roadshow in Mumbai on August 7-9. It has also planned to depute a delegation to China, Japan and South Korea to attract investors in the coming days. The state government has partnered with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the second Make in Odisha conclave scheduled in Bhubaneswar from November 11-15. The focus of the Mumbai roadshow will be on showcasing investment potential and business opportunities in Odisha to investors. A delegation of state government will meet investors on August 7-9. The Chief Minister will hold one-to-one meetings with many industry captains during the visit. During the meetings with investors, the strategic advantages of Odisha will be highlighted such as the low cost of doing business, incentives for investors, dedicated sector-specific clusters and over 1,25,000 acres of land bank available for industrial development. The investment roadshow is expected to witness encouraging response with over 300 leading companies confirming their participation to explore attractive growth opportunities across Odisha's focus sectors, said an official. "We have seen a significant rise in attracting manufacturing projects with more than 118 large projects approved with employment potential of 1,28,572 in the past 4 years alone in the state," he added. Holding a review meeting on the preparation of Make in Odisha conclave, the Chief Minister on Saturday advised the Team Odisha to highlight the competitive advantages of the state to the global investor community to increase the growth of manufacturing sector. IANS cd/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) National carrier Air India on Saturday said that its Milan-Delhi flight earlier this week had to return to the Italian city after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit. The incident occurred on Thursday morning. According to the airline, the flight was ferrying over 250 passengers and crew members. "A passenger tried to enter the cockpit after take-off from Milan during the early morning hours on Thursday," an Air India official told IANS in New Delhi on Saturday. "The reasons for him to do so are unknown. He was handed over to the police." Later, the airline in a statement said: "AI 138 Milan-Delhi flight delayed by 2 hours 37 minutes as one unruly pax Gurpreet Singh seat no 32C tried to enter the cockpit after take off from Milan on schedule." "The aircraft landed back and pax was handed over to local police." As per the statement, the captain of the flight decided to dump fuel to make the aircraft "light enough for its return to land in Milan almost an hour after taking off from there". --IANS rv/ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced an investment of nearly $300 million to boost cooperation and security in the Asia-Pacific region. The investment would "strengthen maritime security, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and enhance programs to counter transnational threats", Pompeo said at a press conference in Singapore on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit. He also met with his counterparts from other countries taking part in the Asean-US meet, Efe news reported. North Korea and the need to maintain sanctions on the Kim Jong-un regime is expected to dominate his agenda. --IANS mag/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sleuths of the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have busted a major international narcotics racket and seized 265 kg of banned drugs ketamine and methamphetamine worth Rs 37 crore from Raigad and Navi Mumbai, official sources said on Saturday. Seven persons, said to be working for an international drug syndicate based in East Asia, have been nabbed. The seizures on Friday followed raids on a chemical factory and its warehouses in Rasayani and Taloja in Raigad from where 253 kg of ketamine was recoverd. A haul of 12-kg methamphetamine was made from Navi Mumbai's Kopar Khairane, DRI sources said. The seizures are the third such hauls in the past three months. Commonly known as 'date rape drugs', the drugs are popular among rave party organisers in India and abroad. DRI sources said the racket is being operated by an international drug syndicate based in Malaysia. The syndicate allegedly floated several bogus companies with fictitious documents and hired warehouses in remote areas adjacent to Mumbai for stocking and later exporting the drugs to different destinations, sources said. DRI sources said the seized ketamine was manufactured at a plant in Rasayani town and the final product was smuggled out for export by declaring it as cargo of a 'laundry detergent power'. Following a tip-off, the DRI sleuths swooped on multiple locations and detected the drug consignment packed in 4-kg packets wrapped in multi-layered plastic rolls inside 50-kg high-density polyethylene bags. The DRI is probing the smuggling links of the seven accused with the Malaysian drug mafia, said the officials. --IANS qn/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eighteen people were killed in a Russian helicopter crash on Saturday in East Siberia region, authorities said. Russia's Emergencies Ministry said the MI-8 went down at 10.20 a.m., about 180 kilometre from the town of Igarka, in Krasnoyarsk region. "There were three crew members and 15 passengers abroad the Mi-8 that belonged to Utair airline," an emergency services official told TASS news agency. The helicopter flew 2 kilometre before it crashed. No one survived. According to preliminary data, the helicopter collided with the external cargo suspension of another helicopter that took off earlier, before it fell, collapsed and burnt, a statement published by Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said. The helicopter with cargo landed safely after the crew dropped the external suspension, it added. Law enforcers said that all possible versions were under consideration, including a crew error and equipment failure. A task force was set up to establish the causes and conditions of the catastrophe. The criminal investigators of the Main Directorate of Criminalistics of Russia's Investigative Committee were sent to the scene, the committee said in a statement. Both black boxes of the helicopter were found, a source in regional emergency services was quoted by Sputnik news agency as saying, adding that the recorders were in a satisfactory condition. The Emergencies Ministry was sending over a group of An-74 and Be-200 aircraft and 25 people from regional search and rescue centres to the site of the crash, according to the Krasnoyarsk region branch of the ministry. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor-producer Seth Rogen has apologised after reports emerged that a stand-in performer had skin-darkening make-up applied on the set of "Good Boys", a children's adventure film he is backing. "This shouldn't have happened, and I'm terribly sorry it did," Rogen said in a statement, reported The Guardian. His comment came after celebrity gossip website TMZ reported that the stand-in - reportedly a "light-skinned African American kid" - was given dark brown make-up in an effort to match the skin tone of 11-year-old actor Keith L Williams, one of the film's stars. Rogen added: "I won't give excuses for why it happened. I'll just say that as soon I was made aware of it, I ensured we put an end to it - and I give my word that on any project my team and I are involved in, we will take every precaution to make sure something similar does not take place again. "I'm engaging in conversations to make sure I find the best way to do that. It's on me to be proactive. Reacting isn't enough." "Good Boys", directed by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, features Room's Jacob Tremblay as one of a group of children who skip school in a comedy described as "Stand By Me meets Superbad". --IANS rb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and sought the President's assent for a bill, enhancing quantum of reservation for BCs, SCs and STs. In his second meeting with Modi in less than two months, Rao discussed various pending issues relating to the state. He sought the President's assent to the bill for increasing quantum of reservation in educational institutions and government jobs for backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The bill passed by the state legislature last year was sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs for President's assent. According to a statement from the Chief Minister's office here, during the hour-long meeting Rao discussed 11 issues and submitted letters pertaining to them. KCR, as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief is popularly known, told the prime minister that the need to increase the percentage of reservations for SCs, STs and BCs arose as the proportion of the population of these sections increased consequent to the formation of Telangana State. Under the bill passed by the state legislature, quota for STs was increased to 10 per cent from the existing 6 per cent, while that for BC-E category (the backward sections among the Muslim community) increased to 12 per cent from the existing 4 per cent. The total reservations in the state, consequently, will go up to 62 per cent from the existing 50 per cent. KCR brought to Modi's notice that while capping the total quantum of reservations at 50 per cent, the Supreme Court had also clarified that, if it should exceed 50 per cent, the State shall make out a case showing compelling circumstances for exceeding the limit. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu is providing 69% reservation in the State. The TRS chief also sought the Centre's approval for new zonal system in Telangana pertaining to the government employment in the state. He called for immediate steps to amend the Presidential Order of 1975 to facilitate implementation of the new zonal system created keeping in view the requirements of the new state. As the issue of separate High Court is pending since creation of Telangana in 2014, KCR urged the prime minister to expedite the process. He sought immediate steps for establishing a high court in residuary state of Andhra Pradesh so that the High Court at Hyderabad exclusively caters to the needs of Telangana. KCR reiterated the demand for central grant of Rs 20,000 crores for Kaleshwaram Project being built on Godavari river. He said on completion, it would be the life line of Telangana as it is designed to irrigate 18 lakh acres. The total cost of the project if Rs 80,000 crore. Early completion of pending railway projects, transfer of defence land in Secunderabad for construction of new Secretariat building, funds for development of backward areas, establishment of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), sanctioning Indian Institute of Information Technology at Karimnagar, and funds to develop the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in Hyderabad as per the already approved scheme were the other key issues taken up by KCR. --IANS ms/pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US ambassador has given North Koreas top diplomat a letter from President Donald Trump to Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-un at a conference of Southeast Asia nations in Singapore, the State Department said on Saturday. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that US Ambassador Sung Kim, travelling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, gave the letter from the President to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho immediately after they shook hands during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit here, the Washington Post reported. According to Nauert, Pompeo told Ri that they "should talk again soon" and Ri replied in the affirmative. "There are many productive conversations to be had," the North Korean official said. Beyond the brief exchange at the group photo, Pompeo and Ri did not have a more formal meeting. Nauert called it a "step in the right direction" from where the US and North Korea were a year ago. "We had a quick, polite exchange," Pompeo wrote on Twitter. "Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver (Trump's) reply to Chairman Kim's letter." This was a reference to Kim's recent letter to Trump, which the latter described as "nice" in a Twitter post. During the event, Pompeo described himself as "optimistic" that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains an achievable goal, but one that will take time. "From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," he said. "There has not been single country that hasn't thanked the US for its efforts in moving the world towards the possibility of achieving this. I'm optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded." Earlier Saturday, Pompeo suggested the timeline will be determined in large part by the North Korean leader. "The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia. "The decision is his. He made a commitment and we're very hopeful that over the coming weeks and months we can make substantial progress towards that and put the North Korean people on a trajectory towards a brighter future very quickly." --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lelectricite est devenue, de nos jours, un besoin dune importance majeure, et cela, dans tous les domaines dactivite. Que ce soit dans les maisons ou [] The two Romanian nationals arrested for the large-scale ATM fraud in Kolkata were brought to the city on Saturday and have been remanded in 14 days of police custody till August 18, police said. They were arrested by the Kolkata Police from Vasant Vihar in Delhi on Friday with 20 cloned ATM cards and magnetic strips used on the cards. "The two accused Romanians were brought to Kolkata today from Delhi on transit remand and produced to court today. They have been remanded to 14 days of police custody. We are looking for other members of the gang,"said a senior Kolkata Police officer. Police said the fraudsters operated in Delhi and Karnataka also and managed to fraudulently withdraw money from more than 300 accounts across the country. Police said they are also investigating whether the gang has any international connections. Preliminary investigation revealed that the two accused arrived in Kolkata in March and stayed at a city hotel for about two months, police said. The fraud was committed by the use of skimming machines on ATMs in the unmanned outlets to clone users' card details. The accused then fraudulently withdrew around Rs 18-20 lakh from different bank accounts in the city. A Special Investigation Team was set up on Thursday to probe the fraud after 77 victims approached the city police earlier this week with complaints that money ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 40,000 were withdrawn from their bank accounts fraudulently. --IANS mgr/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Saturday alleged that BJP President Amit Shah lied on the deportation of foreigners, claiming that the UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners between 2005-2013, while the count was only 1,822 in the last four years of the Modi government. On deportation, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recalled three replies given by the Home Ministry in Rajya Sabha on three different occasions in 2008, 2016 and 2018. These replies given in Parliament state that 88,792 Bangladeshi nationals were deported between 2005 and 2013 (during UPA rule). The reply also stated that from 2014 to 2017, 1,822 Bangladeshi nationals were deported during the NDA rule. The first reply was in October 2008 by then Minister of State for Home Affairs V. Radhika Selvi (from DMK, UPA-I). She had said the number of deported Bangladeshis in 2005 was 14,916. In 2006, it was 13,692 and in 2007, the number was 12,135. The second reply was given by Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on March 9, 2016 in Rajya Sabha (from 2008 to 2014) and the third reply was given again by Rijiju on March 14, 2018 for the period 2013 to 2017. Surjewala also accused Amit Shah and Modi government of duplicity, deception and double-speak. Daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, Surjewala said: "On one side, they are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners, and on the other, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC." "Instead of fooling the people, Modi, Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must answer whether they support the NRC process or whether they support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 as both are directly in conflict with each other. "NRC process will fail once citizenship is given to everyone as per the Citizenship Amendment Bill," he added. --IANS sid/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday called for the immediate release of two Reuters reporters detained in Myanmar for probing the persecution of the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. Pompeo said on Twitter that he spoke to Myanmar's Foreign Minister Kyaw Tin during a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and its partners in Singapore, reports Efe news. "Today at @ASEAN ministerials, I spoke with #Burma's Minister Kyaw Tin and raised US concerns about 2 @Reuters reporters detained in Burma for doing their job. They should be released immediately," Pompeo tweeted. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been charged with securing state secrets illegally, for which they could face up to 14 years in prison. The reporters were detained in December and a Myanmar court officially charged them on July 9 for breaching the archaic Official Secrets Act of 1923. The reporters were investigating systematic attacks by the Myanmar army on Rohingya villages since August last year. The offensive - that began after a series of attacks on government posts in the region by Rohingya rebels - had led to the exodus of 700,000 members of the community to Bangladesh, where they currently live in overcrowded refugee camps. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amidst the countdown for Durga Puja in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid tribute to Birendra Krishna Bhadra -- the legendary voice behind the Mahalaya musical -- on his birth anniversary on Saturday. Setting the drums rolling for the Durga Puja festivities, the Chief Minister tweeted: "Homage to Birendra Krishna Bhadra on his birth anniversary. He is synonymous with #DurgaPujo for Bengalis, all thanks to the iconic radio programme Mahishasura Mardini that airs on Mahalaya." Mahishasura Mardini, a 90-minute musical piece, was first composed in 1931 and is immensely popular even today. Bhadra was the narrator whose soulful rendition of slokas caught the imagination of the listeners. Born on August 4, 1905, the legendary presenter passed away on November 3, 1991, at the age of 86. But his sonorous voice has been immortalized through this composition. Even now the recorded version of this musical drama, that celebrates Goddess Durga's arrival on Earth, is aired on the day of the Mahalaya, which is observed a week before the start of the Durga Puja. Bhadra was also a playwright and director. His works include 'Mess No. 49', a theatre production and 'Saheb Bibi Golam', authored by Bimal Mitra. --IANS bnd/ssp/mag/hs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Google's admission that it had in 2014 inadvertently coded the 112 distress number and the UIDAI helpline number into its setup wizard for Android devices triggered another controversy on Saturday as India's telecom regulator had only recommended the use of 112 as an emergency number in April 2015. After a large section of smartphone users in India saw a toll-free helpline number of UIDAI saved in their phonebooks by default, Google issued a statement, saying its "internal review revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since". However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended only in April 2015 that the number 112 be adopted as the single emergency number for the country. According to Google, "since the numbers get listed on a user's contact list, these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device". Google was yet to comment on the new development. Meanwhile, a French security expert that goes by the name of Elliot Alderson and has been at the core of the entire Aadhaar controversy, tweeted on Saturday: "I just found something interesting. I will probably do a full disclosure tomorrow". "I'm digging into the code of the @Google SetupWizard app and I found that". "As far as I can see this object is not used in the current code, so there is no implications. This is just a poor coding practice in term of security," he further tweeted. On Friday, both the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as well as the telecom operators washed their hand of the issue. While the telecom industry denied any role in the strange incident, the UIDAI said that some vested interests were trying to create "unwarranted confusion" in the public and clarified that it had not asked any manufacturer or telecom service provider to provide any such facility. Twitter was abuzz with the new development after a huge uproar due to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R.S. Sharma's open Aadhaar challenge to critics and hackers. Ethical hackers exposed at least 14 personal details of the TRAI Chairman, including mobile numbers, home address, date of birth, PAN number and voter ID among others. --IANS na/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladeshi-American human rights activist and writer Rafida Bonya Ahmed, whose husband Avijit Roy was hacked to death by Islamic extremists in February 2015 while they were visiting Dhaka, has called for citizens right to critique the religion. She was participating at an international forum here on Saturday. "Religion is a problem. It propagates hate and divisions. We should have the right to criticize religion. You don't pick up machetes, you pick up the pen. I see the hunger for change," Ahmed said at a session titled "Fighting Machetes with a Pen" during the closing day of The Rumble. Unnerved by the personal tragedy and attack that she and her late husband faced, she spoke in concern of issues related to free speech and highlighted the rise of religious extremism and censorship in Bangladesh. She said that religious fractiousness is injected very strategically in the country by those in power for purely self-driven ends. She also mentioned that extra-judicial killings have become common, and stated that religion, politics and class issues are all related. She said such issues have to be talked about in public space. Rafida Bonya Ahmed and her late husband, Avijit Roy, a writer, blogger and online activist, was attacked with machetes by Islamic extremists in Dhaka. Roy died and Ahmed was critically injured. She had received deep wounds in her head. The Rumble, organised by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts, touched upon a wide range of issues facing the media industry and journalists in contemporary times. The two-day event was held across several venues at India Habitat Centre. --IANS ss/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Working Committee (CWC) met on Saturday to discuss political situation in the country and decided to target the Narendra Modi government on the issues of corruption and its "failure" to provide jobs to the youth. The meeting was presided over by President Sources said that the Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and were among the issues that featured prominently at the meeting. Gandhi later indicated that the party will launch a campaign against the Modi government ahead of the assembly polls later this year and the Lok Sabha polls next year. "The CWC met today (Saturday). As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended today's meeting," Gandhi said in a tweet. It was second meeting of the CWC since Gandhi became party chief in December last year. Two more FIRs have been registered in Assam against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and members of a TMC delegation, which went to Silchar, for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion, a senior police official said today. A total of five FIRs have been registered against Banerjee in Assam since the publication of the NRC final draft on July 30. Two police complaints were also filed against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in West Bengal yesterday. Police said effigies of Banerjee, who is opposing the NRC in Assam, were burnt and protests held against her across Assam during the day. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Ranjan Bhuyan said the two FIRs were registered at Guwahati and Silchar for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion. One FIR was registered at the Geetanagar police station here on the basis of a complaint by the Assam Public Works' Dhrubajyoti Talukdar last night and the other at the Udharband police station at Cachar today by a policewoman, who was injured during an alleged scuffle with the visiting TMC members at the Silchar airport, he said. A police officer the first FIR has been registered against Banerjee and the eight-member TMC team under the Indian Penal Code sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person). The FIR at Cachar was registered for violating Section 144, which was in place then and attacking a public servant on duty, he said. On August 2, one FIR each was registered against Banerjee at Panbazar and Basistha here and at North Lakhimpur police station for her alleged "instigating remarks" that threatened the unity of the country and her "attempt to create unrest" in Assam. Following it, Banerjee had said in Kolkata, "We know we are living in a super emergency. There is no democracy in the country. I am not scared. I speak for the people. They (BJP) can lodge millions of FIRs against me, I do not care." The two complaints against Sonowal were filed by TMC MLA Mohua Moitra and MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, both members of the TMC team, for alleged manhandling and illegal detention at the airport after their return from Silchar. The TMC team, comprising six MPs, one MLA and a West Bengal minister was kept under preventive detention by the Assam Police at the Silchar airport after they reached there on August 2 to take stock of the situation following the publication of the NRC final draft and were sent back on August 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 21 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded in Iran for months without salary, food and accommodation, arrived here today. Upon their arrival at the airport by an early morning flight, they were taken to their native districts, including Kanyakumari, by the Fisheries department, which arranged for vans to send them home. One of the fishermen told reporters here that he and 20 others were thrown out on the street by their employer in Iran and had to endure untold hardship. Thanking the government for bringing them back home, he appealed to the state to extend help to start their occupation in their home towns. The fishermen had gone to Iran a year ago to take up fishing activity on a "share-in-income" arrangement with a firm, International Fishermen Development Trust president P Justin Antony had said. He had also said the victims had decided to go abroad as fishing was not so remunerative back home. However, they were not paid for about six months and their passports and other travel documents were taken away by the firm, Antony had alleged. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had on June 21 urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Indian embassy in Iran to take the necessary steps for bringing back the stranded fishermen. On July 31, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had tweeted, saying, "I am happy to inform that 21 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were stranded at Nakhitaghi (Iran) have been released with the efforts of Indian Embassy in Iran and our Consulate at Bandar Abbas. We are repatriating them to Chennai in batches starting from 3rd August 2018 (sic)." Last month, DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi had visited Swaraj and requested for steps for the release of the fishermen. Antony said of the 21 fishermen, eight were from Kanyakumari, seven from Tirunelveli and six from Tuticorin districts. He thanked the Indian embassy in Iran, the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre for safely bringing home the stranded fishermen. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three persons died after they inhaled a poisonous gas in a well here, police said. Additional Superintendent of Police (west) Shivji Shukla said the incident took place in Barchhaliya village under the Nawabganj police station, when Sachin (18) had entered the well to repair the fan of a tubewell. "He fell unconscious after inhaling a poisonous gas. To save Sachin, Dilip (28) and Chhotelal (52) also rushed into the well, but they too fell unconscious. The locals managed to pull out the three and rushed them to a hospital. Dilip and Chhotelal were declared brought dead, while Sachin died when he was being taken to Allahabad for treatment," Shukla said. The police have sent the bodies for post-mortem. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three high court judges were today appointed to the Supreme Court, taking the total number of judges in the apex court to 25. Notifications announcing the appointments of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph, Madras HC Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa HC Chief Justice Vineet Saran to the Supreme Court were issued today. Their warrants of appointment were signed by the President last night. Justice Joseph's elevation to the apex court ended a protracted stand-off between the government and the judiciary. The number of judges in the top court after the fresh appointments has gone up to 25. There would still be six vacancies. Justice Joseph's name was recommended for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court by the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on January 10. On April 30, the government had returned the recommendation for reconsideration on the grounds that he lacked seniority. The executive had also pointed out that several high courts remain unrepresented and Justice Joseph's elevation would be against the principle of regional representation. His parent high court is the Kerala HC. Justice Joseph had struck down the imposition of President's rule in Uttarakhand in 2016 after the dismissal of a Congress government led by Harish Rawat. An earlier recommendation of the collegium to transfer Justice Joseph to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court on health grounds was kept pending by the government for a long time The collegium on May 16 in-principle reiterated the decision to recommend Justice Joseph's name. But the recommendation was sent to the government in July. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A four-foot-long Indian Rock Python was today rescued by the Wildlife SOS after it got entangled in a fishing net in Kumargadh village here. "The python is under immense stress and is under mandated medical observation to ensure it recuperates safely from the ordeal," Deputy Director, Wildlife SOS (Veterinary Services), Dr Ilayaraja said. He said a three-member team from the Wildlife SOS, a non-profit organisation rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in distress, rushed to the village in the Barauli Gujar area when informed about the reptile getting trapped in the fishing net. It took them nearly 30 minutes to extricate the python, he Ilayaraja. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four teenagers today drowned while taking bath in a pond in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district, an official said. The boys, in the age group of 14-16 years, had gone for swimming in the pond at Sohal village in the Paddar area but got drowned, District Development Commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana told PTI. Quoting preliminary information, he said one of the boys drowned and three others jumped to rescue him. However, all the four lost their lives, he added. Their bodies were later fished out by the locals along with police, Rana said. He said the identity of the deceased was being ascertained. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The body of a five-year-old girl, who was missing since Monday, was found today in a gunny bag on the terrace of a house adjoining her residence in Adarsh nagar colony of Khoda municipality. Superintendent of Police (City) Akash Tomar said the girl was studying in a private school and her father works in a private company of Noida. On 2nd August, she went missing. Since then the police and her family members had been searching for her. This morning her body was found in a gunny bag on the roof of neighbour's house. The body has been sent for autopsy. Police are probing various angles in the case. Tomar said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the crisis-ridden AAP's Punjab unit tries to keep its flock together, a party meeting today rejected the resignations which the state president and a co-president had submitted in March. The state unit also announced two events in the coming days, which may help it counter a recent show of strength by the rebel faction led by Sukhbir Singh Cheema. Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann and Sunam MLA Aman Arora had resigned as the state unit's president and co-president, respectively, to protest against party chief Arvind Kejriwal's decision to apologise to an Akali leader. State unit co-president Balbir Singh told reporters here that the office bearers have now requested Mann and Arora to continue to lead the AAP in Punjab. "Bhagwant Mann was the state president of the party and he will remain so. We have sent our recommendations to the national leadership and we are sure that they will agree with what we have decided today," he said. The two leaders had submitted their resignations from the posts after Kejriwal apologised to SAD leader Bikram Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the drug trade. Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia, who is the party's state affairs in-charge, will address an event in Jalandhar on August 13. On August 15, another party conference will be held at Issru, in which MP Bhagwant Mann and party MLAs will take part. The current crisis in the Punjab unit erupted after the national leadership replaced Bolath MLA Sukhbir Khaira as Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, naming Harpal Singh Cheema in his place. Seven other MLAs, out of the 20 the party has in Punjab, then openly come out in Khaira's support, holding a convention in Bathinda on Thursday. After today's meeting, Cheema dismissed the ultimatum served by rebel group MLAs who have asked the party to review its decision to replace Khaira. But he said the party was in touch with Khaira and trying to persuade him to fall in line. "We are persuading the MLAs to desist from indulging in anti-party activity," he said. When asked if such anti-party activity will weaken the AAP, Cheema replied, "After this crisis, the party will emerge stronger, you will see". "The party is united," he told reporters. He said the recent developments had not shaken the faith of people in AAP's Punjab unit. The AAP's state leadership has also decided to invite Arvind Kejriwal to hold a rally in Punjab in October, Balbir Singh said. At that rally, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Mann will announce the AAP's plans for the 2019 general election, he said. Meanwhile, the state's unit women's wing demanded that Khaira should apologise for the manner in which two women MLAs, Rupinder Kaur Ruby and Sarabjit Kaur Manuke, were "targeted" by his supporters on social media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Governor Jagadish Mukhi today said that every state must have an NRC which should be updated regularly as it would be effective in dealing with issues related to the country's internal security. The NRC should not be just for Assam as it is now, but for every state in the country, Mukhi told PTI in an interview here. His remarks come amid a raging debate on Assam's National Register of Citizens after the final draft list of the exercise left out over 40 lakh people. The publication of the final draft of the NRC on July 30 was an "historic event", he said and assured all Assamese people that not a single Indian's name would be excluded in the final register. "I feel that every state in the country must have an NRC of its own. Once it is prepared by all the states, it should be updated every ten years after the census report is published. "If this can be done, then the internal security of the country will be perfect," he said. Elaborating, he said, "The central government and all the state governments have the right to know who are the foreigners living illegally in their area." The final draft of the NRC had been compiled through a transparent process without bringing any caste or religion into it. "It is an Indians versus foreigners issue and the NRC in Assam is as per the Assam Accord," the Governor categorically stated. He stressed that "not a single Indian in Assam will be missed" in the final NRC. "They will be certainly in the list". "Those who have been left out need not worry. They shall be given full opportunity to prove their citizenship," Mukhi said. The process is already in place where people will be told why their names have not been included in the draft NRC, he said. People whose names did not figure in the final draft will be issued a specific proforma to claim their citizenship, and about a month's time from August 30 to September 28 has been given to them to reclaim their names with presentation of proper documents. "Ample chances are being provided for claims and objections and people whose names are not there in the list should avail it," he added. The governor congratulated the officials of Registrar General of India and employees of the state government who are involved in this "gigantic task" of updating the NRC. He also thanked the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the updation, for making the final draft of the NRC possible. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army today paid tributes to Sowar Vijay Kumar who was killed in an encounter with militants in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir. "Army paid befitting tribute to late Sowar Vijay Kumar, who made the supreme sacrifice during a counter terrorist operation on August 3, 2018, in Sopore, wherein two terrorists were eliminated," a defence spokesman said. Chinar Corps Commander Lt Gen A K Bhatt and all ranks paid homage to the martyr on behalf of a proud nation, he said. The spokesman said in a show of solidarity, representatives from other security agencies also joined in to pay their last respects to the slain soldier. Kumar had sustained a bullet injury during the fierce gun battle between militants and security forces in Dursoo village yesterday. He was provided immediate first aid and evacuated to the 92 Base Hospital here, but succumbed to his injuries, the spokesman said. Kumar, 31, who had joined the Army in 2004, belonged to Uttaper Village of Naina Devi tehsil in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh. He is survived by his wife and two sons. "The mortal remains of the martyr were flown for last rites to his native place, where he would be laid to rest with full military honours," the spokesman said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asia's top diplomats pressed North Korea today to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns it's proceeding with its programs. China and Southeast Asian nations also faced calls in an annual meeting in Singapore to rapidly conclude an effective nonaggression pact that can help fend off possible clashes in the disputed South China Sea. Both sides have announced an agreement on an initial draft of a regional "code of conduct" that they regarded as a milestone after 16 years of sporadic talks. Alarm over rising trade protectionism, which Asian governments warn could stymie economic growth, dominated the meetings too, with Japan calling for the swift conclusion of a 16-nation Asian free trade agreement that does not include the United States. Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs. But he added that "like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing." "Now the hard work is really on the details," Cayetano told reporters before walking into daylong meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their partners the United States, China, Japan and South Korea. North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong-Ho, is attending the ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia's largest political and security conference. ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the US and North Korea "as well as concerned parties to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," according to a draft communique they were to issue after their meetings today, which was seen by The Associated Press. In the communique, they would "note" often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder the "stated commitment" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name, "to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period." A summary of a new report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council yesterday night and obtained by the AP at the United Nations, said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programs and continues to defy the sanctions resolutions. The North was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions, the report said. After agreeing on the text of the code of conduct in the disputed waters, senior Chinese and ASEAN diplomats will meet in Cambodia this month or in September, to be followed by another meeting in the Philippines, to start actual negotiations, a senior Southeast Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly. Non-contentious provisions, including the preamble, would be tackled first before the touchy issues, including whether the pact should be legally binding and its geographic scope, to prevent the talks from stalling early, another diplomat said. Both sides have agreed to keep the negotiations confidential, he said, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media. Amid the trade tensions between the United States and China and other nations, Asian ministers called for an early conclusion, possibly this year, of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade accord that would include the ASEAN states, along with key trading partners China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Korea. "Given the current global situation where protectionism is on the rise, Japan would like to achieve the swift conclusion of the RCEP," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha warned that "rising anti-globalization and trade protectionism among major countries is fuelling tension and threatening our aspiration for sustained economic growth." In a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of the Singapore events, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Asian countries like Malaysia "are quite nervous on the possible negative repercussion of the ongoing trade war." Pompeo responded articulately, "but my objective was quite straightforward. I need to inform him that we are very concerned,"Saifuddin told a conference. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Infants who are exposed to more 'baby talk' words are quicker at grasping language, a study has found. Assessments of nine-month-old children suggest that those who hear words such as bunny or choo-choo more frequently are faster at picking up new words between nine and 21 months. The findings suggest some types of baby talk words - more than other words - can help infants develop their vocabulary more quickly. The team says words that end in 'y' - such as tummy, mummy and doggy - or words that repeat sounds - such as choo-choo and night-night - could help infants identify words in speech. Linguists at the University of Edinburgh in the UK recorded samples of speech addressed to 47 infants learning English. They checked the speech addressed to each infant for features that characterise baby talk words. As well as analysing so-called diminutives ending in 'y' and reduplication - which contains repeated syllables - they checked for onomatopoeic words that sound like their meaning, such as woof and splash. They examined the rate of the infants' language development by measuring the size of the children's vocabulary at nine, 15 and 21 months. They found that infants who heard a higher proportion of diminutive words and words with repeated syllables developed their language more quickly between nine and 21 months. They did not find this effect on vocabulary growth for onomatopoeic baby talk words. "Our findings suggest that diminutives and reduplication, which are frequently found in baby talk words - across many different languages - can facilitate the early stage of vocabulary development," said Mitsuhiko Ota, of the University of Edinburgh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Education minister Vinod Tawde today asked Ramon Magsaysay award winners Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk to become the brand ambassadors of the state to enhance the emotional quotient of its people. Tawde was speaking at a function here to felicitate Vatwani and Wangchuk and asked both winners to collaborate and work for society. Vatwani was recognised for "his tremendous courage and healing compassion in embracing Indias mentally-afflicted destitute, and his steadfast and magnanimous dedication to the work of restoring and affirming the human dignity of even the most ostracised," the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation had said in its citation for the winner. Wangchuk was recognised for "his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving life opportunities of Ladakhi youth." The citation further praised him for "his constructive engagement of all sectors in local society to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress". "It has been proved that students take interest in education which is linked to native soil. Hence, Sonam Wangchuk could work in remote areas of Ladakh. Bharat Watwani offered shelter to patients with psychological disorders as a means to repay his dues to society," Tawde said. He added that the emotional quotient in Indians can create a strong human resource which could make the country a leader in various fields in the coming years. "Enhancing the intelligence quotient alone will not suffice. Enhancement of the emotional quotient is equally important. Hence it is imperative to link emotional quotient with intelligence quotient," Tawde said. Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is awarded to individuals or organisations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service and transformative influence that ruled the life of the former Philippines president after whom it is named. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today sought quick justice and "hanging" of the guilty within three months in connection with the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter-home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. He was addressing a gathering at Jantar Mantar here during a protest, in which leaders of a number of opposition parties joined to show solidarity with the victims. Recalling the Nirbhaya gangrape incident of 2012 in Delhi, Kejriwal said a probe should be hastened to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crimes. "I demand that this case be probed in three months and the accused be hanged, irrespective of which party they belong to," he said. The Delhi chief minister alleged that the accused have connections with influential people. "The case had been flagged and civil society had warned about it, but still the torture of the girls continued. It shows the accused involved in it have connections with influential people," he alleged. The Muzaffarpur shelter home incident had come to light in a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). An FIR was lodged by the state social welfare department in June, which led to the arrest of 10 people. Medical reports have confirmed sexual abuse of more than 30 girls formerly lodged at the shelter home, which has since been sealed. The case was handed over to the CBI last week. "People who are trying to protect the accused are bigger culprits," Kejriwal said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP activist Jagdip Singh Rinkal (22), who was killed on July 19 at his residence here, was cremated today amid tight security, over a fortnight after the incident. Rinkal's family members did not allow the cremation to take place as they were demanding the arrest of Congress councillor Gurdip Singh Nittu in the case. Today, the police got the arrest warrants for eight people, including Nittu, from the court. Nittu's son, Sunny, was arrested on July 20. The post mortem of Rinkal's body was performed here at the CMC Hospital on July 28 and it revealed that he had suffered 22 fractures. Police had obtained the permission of the court four days ago to cremate the body on its own if his family members did not cooperate and conduct the last rites. Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana, Sukhchain Singh Gill said they approached Rinkal's family members and convinced them that all the culprits will be arrested soon and the investigations were going in the right earnest. Later, the family softened its stand and agreed to the cremation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir unit of BJP today demanded an impartial probe into the killing of a youth at the residence of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah here. It also demanded release of the CCTV footage of the incident and said the "cold-blooded" murder at the residence of a VIP raises many questions. "BJP demands an impartial and prompt enquiry into the matter of the fake encounter. To set at rest the apprehensions of the members of the family of deceased, the CCTV footage should be released to the media by police immediately," BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta said in a statement here. He said the family of the deceased youth called the incident a "fake encounter" and insisted that their son was called by somebody to come to the residence of the former chief minister. "The family is demanding that they will not accept the police version till they are shown the CCTV footage," Gupta said. He said as per the friends of the deceased he was not a drug addict, as being alleged, but a regular visitor to gym. In a security breach earlier today, the youth forcibly drove into the residence of Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah here and vandalised the house before being shot dead by CRPF personnel guarding the premises. He was identified by the police as Syeed Murfad Shah, who would have turned 26 next month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today accused the BJP government of working hand in glove with global tech giants and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool. The senior Congress leader also alleged that in 2016 the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) had asked global tech companies to embed Aadhaar encryption into their technology. "BJP Government working in cahoots with global tech giants and turning AADHAR into a surveillance tool. Government must come clean," Chavan said in a tweet. "Under what authority UIDAI directed tech companies to embed AADHAR encryption. If not, what penal action Govt/TRAI will take against Google," he asked. Late last evening, the Cyber Security Cell of Maharashtra police issued an advisory saying that if any number in the name of UIDAI was automatically added to the mobile phone contacts, it should be deleted. Amid public outrage over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Google apologised last night for "inadvertently" loading the old UIDAI helpline number and 112 helpline number into the 'setup wizard' of Android phones. The clarification came following reports that many Android-run mobile phones listed by default the Aadhaar helpline number 1800-300-1947. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing the BJP of misleading people in the name of religion, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot today asked if the saffron party shows concern and talks about temples only to seek political advantage in elections. Hitting out at the BJP and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Pilot said the BJP has emotionally exploited people and misled them. "BJP has been doing politics with temples at the centre of it. The party has always worked to force its divisive thought and mislead people in the name of religion," Pilot said in a statement here. He said over 300 temples were demolished in the state capital for the construction of the metro corridor. Pilot alleged that while some of the idols sustained damages in the process of shifting of temples, a number of them were stolen. He said Chief Minister Raje, who began her "Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra" after offering prayers at the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district today, should reply to the questions raised by the Congress. Pilot said his party would raise 40 questions for Raje during 40 days of her 58-day "yatra". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A suspected bootlegger was arrested and 453 cartons of illicit liquor was seized from a vehicle here, police said today. The cartons contained more than 20,000 bottles. The arrested person was identified as Ali Ajgar, they added. On August 8, police received a tip off that Ajgar would be delivering illegal liquor from Haryana at various parts of north Delhi, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) A K Singla said. Subsequently, a trap was laid in on the Palla-Bakhtawarpur Road and the vehicle, loaded with illicit liquor, was intercepted, the officer said. He said Ajgar was arrested and the illicit liquor along with the vehicle was seized. During interrogation, the accused revealed that he worked for person called Vikas. Singla said. He also told said that Vikas was arrested in two cases earlier, the officer said. Police said the accused has been in the illegal trade for the last two years and was arrested twice this year for bootlegging. Ajgar used to procure illicit liquor "only for sale in Haryana" from different godowns in Sonipat. He used to then supply these consignments to people in various parts of Delhi after taking a hefty commission, Singla said. Police said Ajgar used to supply the liquor to bootleggers in the Saroop Nagar and Jahangir Puri areas in Delhi. One cartoon containing 12 liquor bottles costs them Rs 500 from Haryana and they sold it for Rs 1,000 to 1,500 per carton, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brazil's leftist Workers' Party nominated its charismatic founder Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the upcoming presidential contest today despite him being imprisoned for corruption. In a message from Lula read to the party convention in Sao Paulo, he said, "Brazil needs to restore its democracy." Although serving a 12-year sentence for corruption, Lula remains by far the frontrunner in opinion polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three persons assaulted a businessman and his two employees and looted about Rs 1.50 lakh from them in Odisha's Jajpur district, police said today. The incident occurred near Singhpur bazaar under Binjharpur police station limits last night after the three attackers waylaid the mini truck of the businessman who was returning after selling grocery items from a weekly market. Police said the three, posing as policemen, forced businessman Sachidananda Rout to come out of the vehicle with papers for verification. When Rout enquired why they were not in uniform, he was beaten up and when his employees tried to save him, they were also assaulted. The three the took away a bag containing around Rs 1.50 lakh in cash from the mini truck and sped away in their vehicle, police said. The three were hospitalised. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI has taken over investigation into the mysterious death of a 22-year-old Finnish tourist, Felix Dahl, in Goa nearly three years ago, officials said here. Dahl was found dead with multiple skull fractures and brain haemorrhage on an interior road in Canacona, South Goa, on January 28, 2015. The case was handed over to the CBI by the Bombay High Court which noted that the quality and manner of probe by the Goa Police was "not indicative of a fair and impartial investigation". The police had claimed that Felix was fond of acrobatics such as static jumping and cartwheels, and fell after he lost balance resulting in accidental death. Felix's mother Minna Pirhonen approached the Bombay High Court seeking a probe into the death by the CBI. Dissatisfied with the police investigation, she had got a second autopsy done in Finland and also sought opinion of American pathologist Dr Edward N Willey sending him all the reports. Willey suggested that the nature of injuries does not suggest that Felix died of a fall, but a victim of violent assault. Speaking to PTI from Finland, Minna, a biologist herself at the University of Helsinki, said she is hopeful of a fair investigation from the CBI which will bring culprits to the book. She had also raised suspicion on the conduct of one local, Lenslood Fernandes, with whom Felix was last seen on January 27. "My son is one of the many tourists who have been found dead in Goa. I hope the CBI will be able to solve the killing of my son," she said. In scathing comments on the Goa Police, the bench of Justices Prithviraj K Chavan and N M Jamdar had said the nature of injuries and the circumstances indicated a strong possibility of homicide. "In the entire investigation papers, there is no indication at all that angle of homicide is considered. Why not is the moot question," it said. He said Felix was not found dead at the bottom of a cliff to demonstrate death from a fall. His body was found on a tarred road, with border stones. "The skull is one of the hardest bone in the human body. For the skull to have five life-threatening fractures with haemorrhage, it was likely to be a result of a violent force. What we find surprising is that this theory was not even considered as possible," the bench said. It had said it was possible that Felix was assaulted elsewhere and his body was quietly put on the ground, or that Felix was assaulted with a blunt object on the spot, or that he could have been assaulted with any of the stone lying on the spot, or that it could be that he was made unconscious and killed. "The local police have chosen to steer the investigation clear of the angle of homicide, even though it was one of the strong hypothesis," the bench said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Suresh Prabhu today underlined the Centre's commitment to the leather industry and cited the Rs 2600 crore package approved for the sector earlier. The Union Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Minister also assured state governments of help in setting up new leather clusters or providing additional facilities. "We are committed to develop this industry. And you should thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We approved a massive package of Rs 2600 crore," he said in an interactive session organised by the Council of Leather Exports (CLE) here. This was a 'transparent' package, he said and urged the industry to make the most if it. The government had earlier approved the package for employment generation in the leather and footwear sectors, which has the potential to generate 3.24 lakh new jobs in three years and assist in the formalisation of two lakh jobs. The package involves implementation of central scheme, 'Indian Footwear, Leather & Accessories Development Programme' over three financial years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The minister said the Centre was "willing" to sanction a new mega leather cluster in Tamil Nadu and said the matter has already been taken up with the state government. He said assurances have been made to Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal to help boost the sector in these states. "Any government wants to do this, we will be very happy to support," he added. The minister said while the Centre has already sanctioned five common effluent treatment plants, nine were awaiting approval, he said. Earlier, the minister presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to M Mohammed Hashim, founder chairman, CLE. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was today arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting his three-and-a-half-year old daughter in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district, police said. The alleged incident took place in Chatidih area here two weeks ago, they said. The 33-year-old accused lived at his in-laws' house with his wife and daughter, said a police official. The alleged crime came to light when the girl complained of pain, and when asked by mother, revealed that her father had inserted finger in her private parts, the official said. When the woman confronted her husband, he fought with her and fled to his parent's house in Mungeli district. After the woman filed a case at Women Police Station yesterday, he was arrested from Mungeli and brought to Bilaspur. The accused was booked under IPC section 376 (rape) and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Further probe is on. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Mumbai Police today said they gave a "clear report" to jeweller Mehul Choksi last year as no criminal antecedents were found against him. Police also said they have ordered an inquiry "into the matter of issuance of police verification report (PVR)" to Choksi when he obtained the passport here in 2015. Choksi, now a prime accused in the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, obtained passport under the 'Tatkal' category after the Regional Passport Office (RPO) here granted him "No Police Verification Required" status in 2015, a Mumbai Police release said. Because of this status, no PVR was generated from the Mumbai Police, it said, adding that an inquiry into the matter has now been ordered. Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is the uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. Clarifying about the issuance of police clearance last year, the release said Choksi had applied for a police clearance certificate (PCC) to RPO, Mumbai, on February 23, 2017. Officials at the Malabar Hill Police Station, under whose limits he lived, submitted "a clear report" on March 10, 2017, stating that no criminal antecedents were found. It was forwarded to RPO, Mumbai, according to the release. The 'Clear Report' was given after checking the online Criminal Antecedents and Information System (CAIS), it said. If a person has been arrested in the past, it is reflected in the CAIS, the release said. Choksi left the country on January 1 this year, and an offence was registered against him by the CBI on January 31 (in the PNB scam), it noted. Now, the city police are also examining their "internal processes involved in the criminal antecedents verification process to improve the existing system", the release added. A newspaper report from Antigua has said that Indian authorities did not give any adverse report to stall Choksi's citizenship application in that country last year. Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported. As the report created a furore, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs had said yesterday that PCC was issued by the passport office of Mumbai for Antigua and Barbuda on the basis of a clear PVR available on his passport. "As the PVR of Mehul Choksi was clear in the system at the time of issuance of PCC, the process followed by Passport Office, Mumbai, was as per extant instructions," he had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor-comedian Chris Rock will feature in the fourth season of popular FX series "Fargo". FX Networks chief executive John Landgraf made the announcement during the Television Critics Association press tour event, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The four season will be set in the 1950s Kansas City, Missouri, and follows two criminal syndicates one Italian and other African-American who have struck an uneasy peace. To cement their peace, the heads of both families have traded their eldest sons. The 53-year-old actor will play the head of an African-American family who surrenders his oldest boy to his enemy to keep an uneasy peace. "I'm a fan of 'Fargo' and I can't wait to work with Noah," said Rock. Series creator Noah Hawley will once again serve as the showrunner, writer and director for the new season. Production on "Fargo" season four will begin in 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A civilian was killed in a "firing incident" in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir today, police said. Bilal Ahmad Khan was hit by a bullet at Ganovpora in Shopian district after the funeral prayers of a local militant, who was among the four ultras killed in a gun battle with security forces at Kiloora during an overnight operation, a police official said. Khan later succumbed to injuries. he added. Locals alleged that Khan was hit by bullets fired by army personnel in response to stone-pelting by protestors. A defence spokesman said the details of the incident are being ascertained and an official statement will be released soon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and sought the Centre's nod for transfer of defence land to the state government for construction of new secretariat among other things. After several rounds of consultations with all the stake-holders in the Defence Ministry and keeping in view the need for expanding road network on account of increase in population and traffic, the ministry has conveyed it's "in principle approval" for transfer of the defence lands, Rao said in a letter submitted to the Prime Minister. "However, they have imposed an unreasonable condition of payment of Rs 31.20 crore every year by the state government to the Cantonment Board," according to a release from the chief minister's office on his meeting with Modi. When the state government is willing to exchange lands and pay differential cost of the land as a one-time measure, the question of annual payment should not arise, Rao said. The state government has requested the Ministry of Defence to revise the condition and the matter has been pending with them since August, 2017, he said. The chief minister also raised various other issues including the new zonal system in the state andincreasing the percentage of reservations. "In the backdrop of formation of new state with 31 districts, there is a need to issue a fresh Presidential Order adjusting zones, multi-zones and state cadre etc., under section 371-D of the Constitution," Rao said. The new zonal system has been announced in the state with an aim to provide more opportunities to local candidates in government employment. Recalling the Bill passed by the state Legislature last year which increases the percentage of reservation to STs and backward sections among Muslims, Rao requested Modi to accord President's assent early to the Bill which has been pending with the Union Home Ministry since April, 2017, the release said. Rao also urged Modi to expedite the process of setting up a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh (post bifurcation), it said. "The process may be expedited, and the Law Ministry may be directed to take immediate steps for establishment of separate High Court for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh without any further delay," it said. The Chief Minister also sought a grant of Rs 20,000 crore from the centre for the early completion of Kaleshwaram irrigation project on Godavari river. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congo's health ministry said the number of confirmed cases in a new outbreak of the Ebola virus has risen to 13, including three deaths. The World Health Organization has warned that this new outbreak of the deadly virus in North Kivu province poses a particular challenge as the region is a "war zone" with several active armed groups. The nearby city of Beni and heavily travelled borders with Uganda and Rwanda also complicate efforts to contain the disease, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead. Congo announced the latest outbreak on Wednesday with four confirmed cases, a week after declaring the end to a previous outbreak in the northwest with 33 deaths. It is not clear whether the new outbreak is related. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today staked ownership of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise while accusing the BJP of "befooling" the people by politicising it, and asserted that it would stand with every Indian citizen who has been left out in the draft list. "The NRC is a baby of the Congress party," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said after the issue was discussed at length today in the meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body. At the meeting, it was said that the NRC was a consequence of the Assam Accord signed by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, to which the party is committed. The Congress also accused the BJP of politicising the issue for electoral gains and to deflect public attention from government's "failures" including bank scams. The party cited figures provided by the government in Parliament claiming that while Modi government in last four years deported only 1,822 foreign nations, the Congress-led UPA government had deported 82,728 foreigners (Bangladeshis) between 2005 and 2013. Surjewala said the NRC process was initiated by the party and after preparing elaborate framework, it put in place modalities, identifying and affixing processes and building a consensus among the stakeholders. He said the previous Congress governments in Assam and at the Centre had initiated the NRC process in 2005 to identify the foreigners, who had illegally entered India. Surjewala said that the Congress government in 2009 headed by Manmohan Singh sanctioned Rs 489 crore and proceeded to appoint 25,000 enumerators for the NRC process. It was the Congress Government of Assam, headed by Tarun Gogoi, he said, which completed 80 per cent of NRC process by May 2016, and the exercise is being monitored by the Supreme Court since August 2014. "The Congress party will ensure that no Indian citizens is deprived of his legitimate right. The Congress stands committed to help and assist every Indian Citizen in this endeavour," he said. Surjewala said the Congress reiterates and reaffirms its commitment to the 'Assam Accord' as a principal framework and supports the NRC process. Every Indian citizen must be given full opportunity to establish their credentials and prove their citizenship in "a just, equitable and humane manner, without any fear or favour", the party said. "The CWC noted with grave concern the deliberate and diabolic agenda of the BJP to play to use NRC as a divisive and emotional tool for misleading the people. This is being done to deflect nation's attention from the colossal failures, mega scams like Rafale, bank frauds and others as also betrayal of people by the Modi Government on various promises," he said. Surjewala said the CWC called upon Congress leaders and workers, both in Assam and in the rest of the country, to "expose the acts of omission and commission being committed by Modi Government and not allow the Government to escape accountability". The meeting, chaired by party president Rahul Gandhi, was attended by top party leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Aza, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot. However, former party president Sonia Gandhi was unable to attend it. "We are also aware that there are multiple anomalies in the final draft NRC, leaving out 40 lakh people comprising of indigenous Assamese people, Hindu Bengalis, Nepalis, gorkhas, tea tribes, religious minorities, Indian citizens from other states domiciled in Assam," he told reporters. To a question on BJP Amit Shah making it a poll issue in Rajasthan, he said "fake jumlas (rhetoric), empty steam and a divisive mindset' is the DNA of Shah" and asked him to stop "lying" on deportation of foreigners "Amit Shah should now apologise to the nation for manufacturing lies and misleading the country purely for political vote garnering in a sinister fashion," he said. Responding to another question, he accused the BJP and the Modi Government of "duplicity, deception and double speak" and dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016. "On one side, PM and BJP President are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners but on the other side, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC," he said. Surjewala said instead of befooling people, Modi, Shah and Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal must answer whether they support the NRC process or whether they support Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, saying both are directly in conflict with each other and NRC Process will fail once citizenship is given to everyone as per the Citizenship Amendment Bill. "PM Modi, Amit Shah and Sonowal cannot fool all the people all the time. Time has come for them to answer to people," he said. The Congress had invited Assam PCC chief Ripun Bora, CLP leader Debabrata Saikia and other Congress MPs from Assam to speak on NRC issue. Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi also spoke on the issue. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stepping up its offensive against the BJP-led government, the Congress today said it will launch a public campaign to "expose" the Centre on corruption issue by highlighting the Rafale deal and bank scams, and accused the BJP of "befooling" the people by politicising the NRC process. The principal opposition party at a meeting of its working committee decided to stake ownership of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, saying it was Congress' "baby", and vowed to stand with every Indian citizen who has been left out in the draft list. The CWC, which was chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi, also decided to highlight the issue of "bad" state of the economy in the country as part of its public campaign (Jan Andolan), details of which would be worked out soon. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not present in the meeting. "The CWC met today. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended today's meeting," Rahul Gandhi said. Taking to Twitter, he said, "One of the highlights of today's CWC meeting, was Mr Antony's brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 crore stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was Rs 45,000 crore in debt." Giving details of the meeting, AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said issues relating to NRC in Assam, "corruption by Modi government and its failure on economy" were discussed. "In a way the party launched its preparations for the upcoming assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha polls," he told reporters, adding that the CWC discussed the challenges before the party and the nation in the run-up to these elections. "The NRC is a baby of the Congress party...The Congress party will ensure that no Indian citizens is deprived of his legitimate right. The Congress stands committed to help and assist every Indian Citizen in this endeavour," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said after the meeting. He said the issue was discussed at length at the CWC meet which asserted that the NRC is a consequence of Assam Accord signed by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, to which the party was committed. Surjewala said that CWC deliberated on five major issues - NRC process in Assam, corruption including Rafale and bank frauds, "failing economy, rampant unemployment and agrarian distress". "CWC noted with anguish the failing state of economy and tax terrorism that prevails today in the country. Government has discovered the virtues of pre-liberalized regime moving towards a system of tax terrorism control and 'licence raj'," he said. He said the Congress chief and CWC expressed deep concern on the state of joblessness and the severe agrarian distress. Surjewala said the party would "expose the complicity and connivance" of the Modi government in the escape of the fugitive billionaire and will highlight the issue along with the Rafale deal. Surjewala said neither the Prime Minister nor the Defence Minister are disclosing the price of the jets purchased by this government and claimed that the price fixed during UPA was Rs 526 crore against Rs 1,676 crore for the jets purchased under NDA, that has caused a loss of Rs 48,000 crore to the exchequer. He alleged that the BJP was politicising NRC issue for electoral gains and to deflect public attention from "failures" of the government including on bank scams and Rafale deal and demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. Surjewala cited figures provided by the government in Parliament to claim that while Modi government in last four years deported only 1,822 foreign nations, the Congress-led UPA government had deported 82,728 foreigners (Bangladeshis) between 2005 and 2013. The Congress leader said the Congress government headed by Manmohan Singh sanctioned Rs 489 crore in 2009 for appointing 25,000 enumerators for the NRC process. "The CWC noted with grave concern the deliberate and diabolic agenda of the BJP to play to use NRC as a divisive and emotional tool for misleading the people. Every Indian citizen must be given full opportunity to establish their credentials and prove their citizenship in "a just, equitable and humane manner, without any fear or favour", the party said. On BJP Amit Shah making it a poll issue in Rajasthan, he said "fake jumlas (rhetoric), empty steam and a divisive mindset' is the DNA of Shah" and asked him to stop "lying" on deportation of foreigners "Amit Shah should now apologise to the nation for manufacturing lies and misleading the country purely for political vote garnering in a sinister fashion," he said. Surjewala also dared Modi and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, accusing them of "duplicity". He said the Bill seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC. "PM Modi, Amit Shah and (Assam chief minister) Sonowal cannot fool all the people all the time. Time has come for them to answer to people," he said. The meeting was attended by top party leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Aza, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot. Leaders from Assam were also invited for the discussion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CPI (M) on Saturday demanded enactment of a comprehensive law to tackle crimes like mob lynching in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions. After the two-day meeting of the politburo which concluded on Saturday, the Left party said that the government and the law enforcement agencies "cannot turn a blind eye to such crimes". "The politburo reiterates its demand for the enactment of a comprehensive law in the current session of Parliament to meet the apex court directions," CPI (M) general secretary told reporters. "Many leaders have come out openly in support of such criminals and the very fact that the culprits, even when identified, go unpunished speaks volumes of how they are patronized by RSS and BJP," he alleged. Yechury asserted that the law by itself is never enough until it is implemented. In the backdrop of Imran Khan, who is likely to be soon sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan, expressing his desire of holding talks with India, the party demanded that the Centre respond to the offer. The politburo also took stock of the situation consequent to the publication of the draft NRC rolls in Assam and condemned the statements made by President It alleged that Shah made misleading statement with regard to the exclusion of 40 lakh people declaring them as "illegal migrants". Such irresponsible statements only add to the fear and anxiety of an already harassed people, the party said. The BJP today described the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as "corruption wali committee" (committee of corruption) hours after it resolved to take on the government on the issue of graft. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said every act of corruption in India is linked to the party and it was paddling lies and misleading people against the government. "The Congress has hard connection with corruption. Wherever corruption happens in India, it goes to 10 Janpath. 10 Janpath is the permanent address of corruption in India and every act of corruption leads to the Gandhi family," he said. 10 Janpath is the official residence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The ruling party also dismissed allegation about irregularities committed by the Modi government in fixing prices of the Rafale fighter jets, saying the Congress is spreading untruth on the issue as it is "frustrated" over the absence of any middlemen in the deal. "He (Rahul Gandhi) told Parliament that French president said something in his ears. Within hours the French government issued a statement exposing his lies. Can there be anything more humiliating than this. He was criticised the world over and it happened for the first time that another country had to intervene...and issue a letter. But Rahul is carrying on with his lies," Patra said. He said the government took a decision on Rafale jets at a time when the squadron strength was vastly depleted and the Congress did nothing between 2002 and 2012 to address this issue. Patra also accused the Congress of playing vote bank on the controversy surrounding Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said that the party was only interested in having a "national register of illegal immigrants". Seeking to expose the party's hypocrisy on the issue, he said that while the party did not allow BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah from speaking on the issue in the Upper House, they were deliberating upon it in the CWC meeting. "Is CWC more important than Parliament," he wondered. Taking a dig at the CWC members over allegations of corruption they face, he said it is "corruption wali committee". Countering the Congress claim of the Modi government's complicity and connivance in allowing bank scan accused Mehul Choksi to flee from the country and getting him citizenship of Antigua, Patra pointed to an interview given by Mehul Choksi's Antiguan lawyer David Dorsett where he had reportedly said that Choksi was being targeted as he had a "loose" connection with the Congress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The officer-in-charge of Ramgarh Town police station was today suspended for delay in registering an FIR in connection with the killing of a 22-year-old dalit man last month, police said. Mukesh Ram was beaten up by three persons on July 23 and he died on July 30. The accused allegedly also forced his family members to bury the body, instead of following the Hindu ritual. Though the victim's sister had gone to the police station immediately after his death, an FIR was registered only on August 2 after local people demonstrated before the police station. Superintendent of Police, A Vijayalakshmi, said Ramgarh police station officer-in-charge Rajesh Kumar was suspended on the directive of North Chhotanagpur Division DIG for delay in registering an FIR in connection with the killing of Ram. A resident of Sirka in Ramgarh Town police station area, Mukesh Ram received primary treatment after being beaten up and he succumbed to his injuries a week later. His sister Champa Kumari approached the police station soon after his death but no FIR was registered then, the SP said adding that it was done only on August 2. Police yesterday exhumed his body following directives of Deputy Commissioner Rajeshwari B, and sent it for postmortem examination. The family members performed his last rites with Hindu rituals after the body was handed over to them in the evening yesterday, police said. Two of the accused, Samir Ansari and his brother Ashique Ansari, were arrested early today, police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Defence Ministry has agreed to part with some of its land here for the Karnataka government's infrastructure projects to deal with traffic congestion and other issues in the state capital. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave the go-ahead to the state government for using the defence land but with the condition that the city civic body, BBMP, will speed up the process of providing alternative land to her ministry. The land provided to the ministry should be equivalent to the cost of defence land given for the infrastructure projects. The land spread over ten places was very crucial for Bengaluru and negotiations in the past had not yielded result. As Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, the defence minister took the initiative to exchange the land. "We have agreed that the state government will give us equal value land. They will discuss in the cabinet meeting and give us a resolution that they will indeed give us the equal value land, which is by rule the defence requirement. "However, I have very clearly instructed my ministry to immediately allow construction and permission for work to happen," Sitharaman said. Located at 10 places, these parcels of defence land totally measure 55,819 sq metres. For eight projects, the government agreed to exchange the defence land measuring 45,165. 84 sq metres whose value is Rs 282.09 crore. Te rest of the land would be taken on the 'basis of licence'. Te Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will provide 8,53,137.95 sq metres of land worth Rs 488.42 crore. The land to be given to the defence establishment comprises approximately 200 acres of its land at Anekal near Bengaluru city, Kensington Park and Kensington Road. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy expressed his gratitude to the Centre for giving permission to the BBMP to carry out the work. Bengaluru Mayor R Sampath Raj, chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar and additional chief secretaryMahendra Jain were also present on the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi government has asked all principal secretaries and secretaries to furnish details of contractual employees hired by their respective departments directly and also outsourced staff engaged through contractors. The Labour department has written to the head of departments providing performa for furnishing information. Last month, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had directed officials to expedite several proposals, including regularisation of contractual employees. "The Labour department has asked HODs to provide details of contractual employees, including their name, designation and monthly wages. "Apart from this, they have been asked to also furnish details of outsourced employees engaged through contractors," an official of the department said. "You (HODs) are requested to ensure that the required information in the prescribed format is sent to Labour department on email labjlc2.delhi@nic.inand also through hard copy latest by August 6," the department said in its written communication to principal secretaries and secretaries. On April 5 this year, Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain had directed the department's principal secretary and the director of local bodies to issue instructions to the three municipal commissioners to regularise the services of contractual sanitation workers of the BJP-ruled civic bodies. It had come a day after the Delhi Assembly passed a resolution asking the North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporation or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC to make the sanitation workers permanent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a move that will benefit around two lakh students of colleges and academic centres here, the Delhi government has decided to empower institution heads for issuing learner's driving licence, officials said. The Delhi transport department has formulated a policy that will be notified soon to implement the decision, said a government official. "Young and studying in Delhi? You can soon get your Learner's Driving License from your college itself. Delhi govt empowers Directors and Principals of Colleges , Polytechnics and ITIs to issue Learner's License. Over 2 lakh students will benefit each year," Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot tweeted. The principals and directors of all state universities and institutions, Delhi University colleges as well as polytechnic and ITIs of the Delhi government will be covered under the policy, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a blow to the AAP government, its much-touted March 2017 order revising the minimum wages for all classes of workmen in scheduled employment was on Saturday quashed by the Delhi High Court which said the "hurried" decision was taken without hearing the employers or employees who would be affected and was violative of the Constitution. In its 218-page verdict, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also set aside a September 2016 notification by which a Minimum Wages Advisory Committee for all scheduled employments was set up, saying that its constitution was "completely flawed". The court noted that though the revision of wages "is sorely needed", the "hurried attempt" and "contravening principles of natural justice has unfortunately disrupted this course, yet again" and referred to a line from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol -- 'The hurrier I go, the behinder I get'. The bench, however, also said that the fixation of minimum wages in Delhi cannot be faulted simply because they are higher than the rates of minimum wages fixed in surrounding states and towns. The "flawed" Committee "gave a report which was not based on relevant material, denied fair representation to the employers as well as the employees, in fact without any effort even to gather relevant material and information. The government (of Delhi) decision based on such advice in violation of express statutory provision and principles of natural justice as well as to the prejudice of employers as well as employees is unsustainable. "Given the detailed factual narrative, the law and the failure of the Committee as well as the respondents to comport to the same, we have no manner of doubt that the exercise of power by the respondents (Delhi government) was not reasonable and was manifestly arbitrary. The same has to be struck down as violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India," the court said. ALSO READ: Stagnant farm wages a drag on minimum support prices The bench said an attempt to constitute the committee in April 2016 had already "disrupted the course of wage revision once"."Alas, even though the revision is sorely needed, the hurried attempt again, inter alia failing to comport with binding the statutory requirements, without relevant material and contravening principles of natural justice has unfortunately disrupted this course, yet again," the court said. It said the line from Alice in Wonderland "appropriately manifests the manner in which the hurried actions of the respondents (Delhi government) would set back the entire work force of the city". The court verdict came on the pleas by employers -- associations of traders, petrol dealers and restaurants -- who had sought setting aside of the March 3, 2017 notification revising the minimum wages, saying they were not represented or heard by the advisory committee. According to the March 3, 2017 notification, for an unskilled worker the minimum wages were fixed at Rs 13,350 per month against the then existing Rs 9,724 per month. For semi-skilled and skilled persons, it had increased from Rs 10,764 to Rs 14,698 and from Rs 11,830 to Rs 16,182 per month, respectively. The employers had in their pleas sought setting aside of the September 15, 2016 notification constituting the advisory committee, claiming the persons representing the employers in the panel did not have expertise with regard to nature of employment in the capital. Agreeing with the contentions of the employers, the bench said, "The representatives of the employers, had a legitimate expectation of being heard as the advice of the committee was to inevitably affect them" and added that "the improper constitution of the committee especially the lack of representation of employers has substantially resulted in prejudice to their interest". The court said any change in the prescribed rates of minimum wages was bound to adversely impact either the industry or the workmen and, therefore, "these stakeholders were necessarily required to be afforded a proper opportunity of hearing...". "We have, in the present case found that in issuing the omnibus notification, employees who, keeping in view their skills/location etc., would have been entitled to higher wages, stand unfairly deprived of the same," it said and added "clearly the Government of Capital Territory of Delhi was aware of the requirement of law and consciously failed to comport to the same". On the challenge to appointment of officers of the Labour Department or the Director of Economics and Statistics as members of the committee, the bench said that while their eligibility cannot be faulted, they "failed to conduct themselves dispassionately and did not apply their independent minds". The court said that the Delhi government appointed the very same officials as independent persons on the committee, who had already taken a view in the matter and made recommendations in the year 2016. "...therefore, when appointed for the second time, they were clearly close-minded and proceeded in the matter in a predetermined manner," it said. "The notification dated September 15, 2016 .. is ultra vires of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and is hereby declared invalid and quashed. "The Notification dated March 3, 2017 ... is ultra vires Article 14 of the Constitution of India, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Minimum Wages (Central) Rules, appears from non-application of mind, is based on no material and is in contravention of principles of natural justice and is hereby declared invalid and quashed," the bench said. Thousands of angry school students continued their protest for the seventh consecutive day demanding a crackdown on reckless driving and justice for the two teenage students killed by a speeding bus last week. The protest brought the capital city to a standstill , blocking major intersections compelling the bus operators to suspend their services citing security reasons and exposing commuters in Dhaka to extreme difficulties. The protests demanding safer roads largely cut off Dhaka, the city of 18 million, from the rest of Bangladesh as bus owners said they stayed off the road fearing vandalism. Two teenage students -- boy and a girl - were killed when two buses racing to collect passengers, a common occurrence in the city, struck them and wounding several others. One of the bus drivers fled the scene, although both were later arrested. More than 4,200 pedestrians were killed in road accidents in Bangladesh in 2017, a 25 per cent increase from 2016, according to private research group the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways. Bus services will resume once the situation returns to normal, said Bangladesh Bus Owners Association President Enayet Ullah Khan. The protest also affected Dhaka's supply chain particularly in the kitchen market, spiralling prices. Ever since the protest erupted, the school students have been seen on Dhaka's streets checking whether cars and buses had valid licenses and were in a roadworthy condition. So far they stopped flag cars carrying senior cabinet ministers, Supreme Court judges alongside police and military vehicles to verify their drivers' valid papers and uploaded the pictures of the scenes on the social media when they were found to have lacked the licenses. They also made making lanes for different mode of transports and keeping paths open for emergency vehicles in a demonstration how the traffic could be disciplined. One minister had to abandon his vehicle in the street after protesters found that the driver's paperwork was not in order. The students became outrageous further as a minister who has links to transport unions - called the protests hypocrisy asking why the high school students had not reacted the same when 33 people died in a bus crash in India recently. However, he apologized later. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government urged an end to the protests announcing a series of steps to discipline the transport sector as the demonstration visibly appeared politically alarming ahead of general elections due at the end of the current year. Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, meanwhile, said all demands will be fulfilled and a law will be proposed in the next session of parliament but we fear the movement may turn violent as there is a conspiracy to make the government inoperative. We'll take stern action against those conspiring to exploit this by inciting the minors, Kamal said. Kamal's comments came while over a dozen students today were injured as ruling party student activists and police launched an attack on the student protesters. Several other senior ministers feared main opposition outside parliament BNP of now imprisoned ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia and its crucial ally fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami were meddling to the demonstrations as the students outrage continued. Ruling Awami League's general secretary and road transport minister Obaidul Quader urged the students not to step into any instigation trap saying after an abortive demonstration for quota reforms for government jobs in recent months they are now depending on school students. They (opposition) want to instigate their movement . . . We seek cooperation from the heads and governing bodies of institutions, and the guardians to bring back the students to their homes and educational institutions , he told newsmen after a joint meeting of the party's Dhaka city units last night. Dhaka's police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, however, thanked the students for their initiative to maintain and regulating traffic rules and urged them to go back to their studies. Police across Bangladesh will observe a traffic week throughout the country from tomorrow, he said in a media briefing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court today held that investigating agencies can record multiple statements of a child victim of sexual abuse and a contradictory initial account of the incident would not be a reason to disbelieve subsequent versions by the minor. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra said that the multiple statements should be carefully scrutinized by the trial courts to ensure that complete justice is done. The bench said that children "do not disclose in one go but do so in piece meal". The court also said that under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which was enacted to effectively address sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, a statement about the incident of sexual abuse can be made only to a police officer or a magistrate. "Provisions of the POCSO Act or the Juvenile Justice Act do not contemplate any report to be made by a counsellor," the bench said. It added that both laws make it "explicitly clear" that a report or notes of a counsellor or any person or expert recognized under the two Acts "are confidential in nature and the same cannot be made a part of the charge sheet or otherwise (be included) on the trial court record". The findings by the court came in response to a query by a Principal Magistrate of a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in 2016, regarding the legality of multiple statements by a child victim as well as the validity of the statements recorded by NGOs or counsellors. Answering the queries raised by the JJB magistrate, the high court said, "The law allows the investigating agencies to record multiple statements of the victims. There is no prohibition on recording multiple statements by the police. A seemingly contradictory initial account is not a reason in itself to disbelieve the subsequent accounts by the victims. "The multiple statements placed by the investigating agency should be carefully scrutinized by the trial courts in order to ensure that complete justice is done." Giving reasons for its finding, the bench said that children "do not disclose in one go but do so in piece meal". "To accord the same treatment to a child as one would to an adult would result in grave injustice.It needs no elaboration that the children would be reluctant and unlikely to disclose an entire adverse experience in proper detail in their first statement to the police, let alone the necessary details. "The fear for themselves or their family; an apprehension that they would be disbelieved; inability to identify themselves as victims; pressure or threats from the perpetrator; relationship to the perpetrator; fear of embarrassment, shame or self-blame; fear of stigmatization; lack of trust with the investigating agency amongst other would be some of the reasons which would act as barriers to a child making a disclosure of a complete incident in a single meeting," the court said. Regarding the legality of recording of the minor victim's statement by an NGO or counsellor, the court said that the POCSO Act clearly establishes that the child's account of the incident be recorded only by a police officer and/or a magistrate and not by any third party. "The law has also clearly delineated specifically even the gender, attire, manner and the place at which such statement would be recorded," it said. Aclose scrutiny of the legislation would show that the law does not anywhere envisage recording of a statement of child victim by a counsellor or a report of any kind from a counsellor about his/her interactions with the child, the bench added. "It is trite that where law prescribes, the manner in which an act has to be performed, it has to be performed in that manner or not at all," the bench said and added that the role of a counsellor or an NGO representative was only to be present at the time of recording of statement, to assist the child and "not assist in the investigation," the court said. The court also said that reports of an NGO or a counsellor relating to a child in need of care and protection or in conflict with law "are required to be treated as confidential". "The confidentiality thus attached to the report by any person or expert is absolute. So far as the victim is concerned, other than the police or the magistrate, no person or authority is authorized to take any forensic interviews. "For this reason as well, it would be the grossest illegality for any of the person, experts and authorities under the POCSO Act or the JJ Act to make reports which could have any bearing on the case," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least five people were killed and a village razed in an attack by Boko Haram jihadists in the northern Nigerian Borno state, militia fighting the Islamists said today. Arriving in 10 trucks, the Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Gasarwa near the garrison town of Monguno late Friday, setting homes on fire. "Five people were killed in the arson, they included two elderly men and three children," Babakura Kolo, a militia leader in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, told AFP. Militia defending the village said they were outnumbered and outgunned. Militia member Ibrahim Liman said the Boko Haram attackers watched food supplies and livestock burn in the fire but made no attempt to loot. It was not clear which Boko Haram faction was behind the attacks, but jihadists loyal to IS-affiliated Abu Mus'ab Al-Barnawi are known to operate in the area. Boko Haram has intensified its armed campaign in recent weeks, especially against military targets in which dozens of troops were believed to have been killed or gone missing. At the end of July, a group of jihadists in five trucks sacked a military post in nearby Bunari village, with a military source claiming 11 troops were killed. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of rights activists came down hard on the Tamil Nadu government today alleging that people's freedom of expression was being "compromised" in the state and false cases were being slapped against protesters to "oppress" them. Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, author Arundhati Roy and a few activists from Tamil Nadu spoke at a protest meet organised at the Press Club of India here by a Delhi-based civil society. "Chhattisgarh has become a black hole...virtually no freedom of speech and democratic rights of people (is being) taken away. Similar thing (is) now happening in Tamil Nadu," Bhushan alleged. "...protest meetings are not allowed, hall and press conference venue bookings being cancelled, mala fide cases being slapped against protesters as happened in (anti-sterlite) protests in Tuticorin," he said. Bhushan, Roy and other activists also alleged that there was a "fascist-situation" in the country. "Tactics of repression have changed -- from jungles of Chhattisgarh, it has now moved to Tamil Nadu, in semi-urban or semi-rural areas," Roy said. She said earlier only Muslims were "branded as terrorists" but now even intellectuals, Maoists and poor people are being targeted. "The kind of language being used, people being criminalised... After demonetisation, if you protested you were called 'corrupt', if you speak again on the NRC issue, you are called anti-national and pro-Bangladeshi," she alleged. In the name of development, "harmful and devastating infrastructure projects" are being imposed upon the people of the state (TN)," activist Uday Kumar alleged. "Most of these are being done without following right procedures," he said. Activist Kavita Krishnan alleged that while Chhattisgarh was being made out as a "state of exception" but what was happening in Tamil Nadu was to tell the message that this is the "new normal". Bhushan said people must raise voices despite oppression and defeat these "fascist forces". "We have to gird up our loins and build teams and solidarity and use spaces online and social media to speak out," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A fresh batch of 528 pilgrims left today for the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said. The pilgrims, including 128 women and 47 sadhus, left in a convoy of 18 vehicles from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here under tight security arrangements, they said. While 340 pilgrims, including 109 women, headed for Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district to undertake the yatra through the shortest 12-km route, the rest of the 188 pilgrims, including 47 sadhus, opted for the traditional 36-km Pahalgam route. They would reach the twin base camps of Baltal and Nunwan-Pahalgam later in the day and are likely to undertake the yatra tomorrow, the officials said. The 60-day annual yatra commenced from the twin tracks on June 28 and will coincide with 'Raksha Bandhan' festival. Till yesterday, a total of 2,69,759 pilgrims had paid obeisance at the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A local court today rejected the anticipatory bail application of a temple priest accused of molesting two women. The two women, hailing from Mumbai, had filed a police complaint alleging that they were molested by Dhananjay Bhave, a priest of the famous Mangueshi Temple in Ponda, about 20 kilometres from here, during a visit in June. Additional District and Sessions Court in Ponda rejected Bhave's application after it was informed by the police that the priest was absconding since the case was registered against him. The women had first approached the Temple Committee to complain against Bhave but were told that there was no "dependable evidence" on the basis of which action could be taken against him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Goa government has lifted the ban on the import of fish from other states, and is keeping a strict vigil on border check posts to ensure consignments entering its territory are free of toxic chemicals. The fish import ban was imposed in Goa last month in the wake of formalin scare and it was lifted last night. Food and Drugs Administration Minister Vishwajit Rane told PTI today that teams of experts from his department thoroughly checked fish-laden trucks that arrived on the Goa border since last night. The teams were stationed at Pollem is South Goa, which borders Karnataka, and Patradevi in North Goa along the Maharashtra border. They took fish samples from these trucks and did on-the-spot analysis for presence of any harmful chemical. No chemical was found in the fish samples, he said. The government had banned import of fish on July 18 after the Food and Drugs Administration's (FDA) initial report confirmed presence of formalin, a toxic chemical, in them. Formalin was applied on fish imported from outside the state as a preservative, according to the FDA. The chemical, harmful for human health, is used to preserve bodies and prevent their decay in mortuaries. The department had later withdrawn its report. "Testing of imported fish samples started at Pollem and Patradevi check posts from midnight onwards. Fourteen trucks carrying fish from Karnataka had arrived at the Pollem check post till 7.30 am today," Rane said. At Patradevi, three vehicles entered the state and fish samples collected from them tested negative for chemicals, the minister said. The FDA will keep a vigil at the border even during the day time, he said. The Congress had stalled the Assembly during the recently-concluded Monsoon Session for three days over the issue of formalin-laced fish, demanding a thorough probe into the entire episode. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has stated that the Goa government's "incorrect working" of stamp duty on 13 mining leases had led to a loss of over Rs 108 crore to the state Exchequer. The CAG report, for the fiscal 2016-17, said that the stamp duty of these 13 leases from January 5, 2015 to February 16, 2016 should have been Rs 169.72 crore, as per proper calculations, instead of Rs 66.45 crore that the state's Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) collected. This, the report said, was a short recovery of stamp duty of Rs 103.27 crore and another Rs 5.16 crore as registration fee on this amount. "Thus, failure on the part of the DMG in assessing the correct stamp duty resulted in a short recovery of stamp duty and registration fee amounting to Rs 108.43 crore," the CAG report stated. "Audit scrutiny of 76 mining lease deeds executed by the DMG with the lease-holders, and registered by civil registrars cum sub registrars, has revealed that the stamp duty was incorrectly worked out," the CAG report pointed out. Mining leases in the state were renewed in 2014 after the Supreme Court lifted a ban it had imposed in 2012 over allegations of illegal mining. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gujarat government has decided to auction the confiscated properties of firms or individuals who have defrauded investors, so that the victims get their money back. Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja today told reporters that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID-Crime) would be the nodal agency for conducting auctions. "We have decided to auction properties seized from certain companies, those running Ponzi schemes, and credit societies which have cheated people by promising huge returns, so that victims get their money back," the minister said. "Such companies operate without proper permissions from the Reserve Bank and promise to double investors' money in a short period. They then disappear with the money," Jadeja said. In the last two years, the Economic Offences Wing of Gujarat CID investigated 28 such cases in which 4.62 lakh small investors were cheated to the tune of Rs 713 crore, he said. The agency seized 114 properties in these cases under the Gujarat Protection of Interest of Depositors Act, 2003, the minister said. "Several credit societies also do not return money to investors. They will also be brought under the GPID Act and their properties will be seized (and auctioned) to return money to the investors," Jadeja said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today urged Railway minister Piyush Goyal to hand over the 11.95 acres of land of Patna Ghat-Patna Saheb rail line to the state government for better connectivity to Patna city through construction of elevated four lane Ganga path. Modi thanked Goyal after meeting him at Delhi for handing over the 71.25 acres of land of R-Block Digha rail line to the state govenrment and requested the minister to similarly give 11.95 acres of land of Patna Ghat-Patna Saheb rail line. The state government would construct four lane road on 71.25 acres of land of R-Block Digha rail line. The stretch would bring connectivity between Digha, the city's north western side, and "R-Block" which is a stone's throw from a number of important buildings including the state assembly in Patna. Modi said that similarly handing over 11.95 acres of land of Patna Ghat-Patna Saheb rail line would help the state government in facilitating connectivity to the people of Patna city with elevated four lane Ganga path, a 20.5 km driveway along the Ganga in Patna from Digha to Didarganj here. The length of rail track between Patna Ghat to Patna Saheb is 1250 meters with its width being seven to 60 meters, the Dy CM said adding that the total area comes to around 11.95 acres. Now the track is of no use for railway, he added. On Modi's request, railway minister assured him that he would sympathetically take a decision on the matter after consulting with the railway officials in this regard, a statement issued by Modi said. It may be noted that Railway minister is expected to arrive on a day-long Bihar visit on August 12 during which he would lay foundation stones and dedicate various projects of railways to the people of the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Observing that if the birth date is altered, qualifications secured would become invalid, the Madras High Court has rejected a plea to change it in the 10th and 12th school certificates on the ground that parents had given the wrong date of birth during admission to Class 1. "If the date of birth is altered, the entire qualifications possessed by the petitioner would become invalid as she would not have had the required age eligibility to join Class 1 with the altered date of birth. "The court cannot even decide the issue based on sympathy as it will give a premium for everyone to knock at the doors of the court to alter date of birth," Justice S Vaidyanathan said. The issue pertains to a plea moved by S Indhumathi, who submitted that she was born on July 17, 1997 in Madurai. She claimed that the date of birth in her 10th and 12th standard certificates was mentioned as May 17, 1997, instead of July 17. Though the records with the Madurai Corporation had the original date of birth, it was incorrectly mentioned in her school records, it was submitted. On April 20, she had made a representation to the School department to modify her birth date in her school certificates. As the authorities failed to respond, she moved the court. When the plea came up for hearing, the counsel for the School department submitted that such correction could not be made according to the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Secondary Certificate Rules. The counsel further submitted that the rules prescribed completion of five years of age for admission to Class 1 and therefore, the petitioner's parents might have given an incorrect date of birth to secure admission for their daughter. Concurring with the submissions, the judge said, "If the actual date of birth, as claimed by the petitioner, is taken into account, then the entire qualification obtained by the petitioner will have to go as she could not have been admitted in Class 1 during that point of time based on the original date of birth." The plea that for the fault of the parents, the child should not be affected, could not be accepted, the judge said. "If such a contention is going to be accepted, it will give a premium for everyone to knock at the doors of the court to alter the date of birth," the court said and dismissed the plea. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dismayed over pending execution of about 21,129 non-bailable warrants issued by criminal courts in 13 districts in the state, the Madras High Court has termed the situation "alarming" and directed the DGP to take immediate steps to execute the warrants at the earliest. NBWs were pending for nearly 4 to 6 years, which has resulted in increasing number of pendency of criminal cases before the courts concerned, the court said. "Be that as it may, the situation is quite alarming, since it ultimately affects the disposal of cases by the criminal courts and adding to the pending case numbers. If this situation is allowed to continue, the very object of rendering justice at the earliest possible time, would be defeated," Justice D Krishnakumar said. When the matter came up recently, authorities produced a copy of a circular issued by the DGP deputing additional superintendent of each district to monitor and ensure execution of such pending NBWs at the earliest. The officers have been instructed to submit reports on weekly basis which would be forwarded to the DGP, the additional advocate general said. Recording the submissions, the judge directed the DGP to submit a consolidated report on or before second week of September with details of number of NBWs executed, number of NBWs pending execution and the reason therefor along with the steps taken for execution. Earlier, when the court sought details of NBWs pending execution from principal districts concerned and superintendents concerned, both filed two separate reports with conflicting figures. In districts like Dindigul the difference was 2000. As per the judges report there are 2738 pending NBWs, while the report filed by the SP claimed that only 732 are pending. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a society like India, no parents would falsely implicate any person claiming that their minor daughter was sexually assaulted, the Bombay High Court has said while upholding the conviction of a man in a case of sexual assault on a girl. Justice A M Badar on July 31 dismissed an appeal filed by Rajendra Bhima Asudeo, challenging a special court's order of February 2014 sentencing him to 10 years in jail for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Pune. Asudeo was convicted under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In his appeal, the convict claimed innocence and said he was implicated in the case by the family of the girl at the behest of a local politician who had an enmity with him. The high court, however, refused to accept the contention. "In the Indian setting, it does not stand to reason that the victim's parents, who have no enmity against the appellant (Asudeo), would falsely implicate him in an offence of aggravated penetrative sexual assault on their minor daughter at the instance of someone else," Justice Badar said. "The said incident reflects on the chastity of their teenage daughter, which may harm the prospects of marriage, apart from damage to the honour of the family," the court said. Hence, it was not possible to accept the appellant's claim that he was falsely implicated in the case, the court said. According to the prosecution, in March 2013, the convict, who used to reside in the same building in Pune as the victim, accosted the girl near his house and molested her. In her statement, the victim told the police and the court that the convict had sexually assaulted her on more than one occasion and threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone about it. A few days after the March 2013 incident, the girl told her mother about it, following which an FIR was lodged and the convict was arrested. The prosecution examined five witnesses, including the victim, to prove its case against the convict. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A homeless man who broke into Buckingham Palace last month before falling asleep on a glass cabinet in Queen Elizabeth II's London residence has been jailed for trespass. Steven Lawlor scaled metal railings to enter the grounds of the palace on July 16 and tore down poster boards and a display cabinet to use as bedding, Westminster Magistrates' Court in London was told yesterday. Security staff spotted the 44-year-old sleeping near the south-east corner of the palace on CCTV in the early hours of the day before he was arrested. The queen was not in residence at the time. Lawlor, who appeared in court via video link and pleaded guilty to criminal damage and trespassing on a protected site, was jailed for 28 days for trespassing and 21 days for criminal damage, to be served concurrently. Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram told him, "You knew where you were entering, you would know the impact in terms of security, the costs and consequences in relation to your actions. You have 70 previous convictions and this adds to your appalling catalogue of offending." Lawlor's previous convictions are mostly for criminal damage and one attempted robbery last year. Most recently he was handed a 16-month sentence for throwing a toxic substance at a prison guard at Maidstone Crown Court in May. Lawlor told the court he had picked his palace sleeping spot to "protect me from the road". His lawyer, Stephanie Dale, said her client had drug abuse issues and was "sorry for causing anyone concern" but "his only intention was to sleep". There have been a series of minor intrusions into the iconic London palace grounds in recent times, including in August last year when a 22-year-old man was arrested trying to climb a security fence and in December 2017 when a man aged 24 was caught attempting to scale a wall within the perimeter fence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov today held "productive discussion" in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security, and exchanged views on regional and global issues during delegation-level talks here. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to Uzbekistan, was personally received by Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov at the airport. She reached here on the final leg of her three-nation tour after concluding her "result-oriented" visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the country's top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. Swaraj and Kamilov led the delegation-level talks and "had productive discussion in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security, pharma, healthcare, IT, agriculture and animal husbandry, tourism and culture," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. The two ministers also exchanged views on regional and global issues, he said. Swaraj will also interact with the Indian community and offer tribute at Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial. "In Tashkent, Uzbekistan - EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives to a personal welcome by Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov on her first visit to the country. Apart from meeting political leadership, EAM will interact with Indian community & offer tribute at Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial," Kumar said in a tweet. The meeting between Swaraj and Kamilov is the third one between them this year. Kumar said in another tweet, "3rd meeting with the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan this year! EAM @SushmaSwaraj welcomed by Uzbek Foreign Minister Kamilov ahead of the delegation-level talks. India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages." The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the on Saturday said the party was open to a debate over Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of the state, as protests continued against the August 6 hearing on petitions challenging the provision. The apex court is hearing a batch of petitions in the matter, including the one filed by an RSS-linked NGO 'We the Citizens', seeking quashing of the article. "The is open to a debate with anyone or any political party on whether or not Article 35A is in the interest of the people of the state. We are extending an open invitation," the state chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi told reporters here. He said over the last few days, the political climate in the state has heated up over Article 35A and some political parties, especially those active in Kashmir, have taken an "anti- and anti-people" stand on the issue. Targeting the Conference (NC) and the Congress, Sethi said people in the Valley are being misled over Article 35A by being told that it is for their betterment and in the interest of the state. "The continuation of Article 35A will not have any benefit for the state. The central government has pumped crores of rupees into the state over the last 70 years but the development has not been as it should have been," he said. He said Article 35A has acted as an obstacle in the state's development because it did not allow outside investment. "Investors do not come here to set up Infrastructure. The youth are not getting the jobs," he added. The BJP spokesperson alleged some politicians want to maintain the position for vote bank Responding to a statement by the NC's provincial president Devender Singh Rana that the special provision was introduced by Maharaja Hari Singh to safeguard the interests of the state, Sethi said the situation was different from what it was now when the law was enacted. "It was a princely state and not a part of India at that time. After accession, Jammu and Kashmir became part of India," he said. "When we are a part of India then what is the need for separate provisions and that too when it has created hurdles in the development and is also discriminatory in nature," he added. Accusing Rana of playing over the name of Maharaja Hari Singh, Sethi said it was the NC and the who conspired to send the king out of the state and did not allow him to return till death. As a result of Article 35A, West Paksitan refugees, who came to the state in 1947, have been denied the right of being state subjects, which was promised to them, and local girls who marry outside the state lose their right over property, he said. "Jammu and Kashmir is not for foreigners but West Pakistan refugees are Indians and can live anywhere in the country, but not Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals," he said. "My appeal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir is to understand the real purpose of Article 35A. It is like an iron chain which is keeping us from moving forward. If the state subject laws change, it will benefit the state," Sethi said. He said if the article is repealed, new laws could be made to pave way for industrial growth and to prevent outsiders from settling in residential areas. Article 35A, which was incorporated in the by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. The women's wing of Bihar-based JAP-Loktantrik party today demanded a court-monitored CBI probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal and demanded the resignation the Bihar social welfare minister. The Jan Adhikar Mahila Parishad in a memorandum to Governor Satya Pal Malik demanded that the CBI probe be either monitored by Supreme Court or Bihar High Court. The Parishad members took out a march to the Raj Bhavan to protest against the scandal and handed over a memorandum to the governor's ADC Himanshu Tiwari containing their demands. The police stopped the march at a distance from the Rajbhavan and JAP members alleged that the force personnel misbehaved with them. Following this the protesters, specially women shouted anti-government slogans. Lok Sabha MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who heads the JAP-Loktantrik party, said that no one is safe in the state and demanded a probe into the functioning of all shelter homes of the state in order to expose flesh trade and those involved behind the "racket" being run from them. The shelter homes in the state have turned into centres of sexual exploitation and rape for its inmates, he said adding that wrongdoers got government's patronage as girls from the homes were being "supplied" to politicians and officials. Yadav said the party would launch a state-wide movement on the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal till all its all victims get justice. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today called for coordinated efforts to put the hilly Doda district back on the development track. The officers need to lead from the front in reaching out to the people to mitigate their problems and infuse new life in the institutions at the cutting edge level to address the developmental concerns of the public, said Vohra, addressing an officers' meeting. Continuing his public outreach programme, Vohra today visited Doda for a first-hand appraisal of the pace of various developmental works in the hilly district. Given the mountainous topography of the district and difficulty in reaching some its remote areas, the Governor sought specific details about the progress of various road building projects in the district, particularly those financed by the Central Road Fund, NABARD's Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and the PMGSY. The pace of development works should be expedited and the officers should regularly conduct field visits to keep track of the progress in works, he said. The governor also emphasised upon the officers to put in coordinated efforts to address various bottlenecks in executing the works within their deadlines. He laid special emphasis on the construction of Government Medical College, Doda, and directed the concerned agencies to accelerate the pace of work to ensure its completion within the stipulated deadline. Vohra ordered release of Rs four crore for putting at the disposal of the district development commissioner for execution of the unfinished works, besides releasing another Rs one crore fund of 'untied grant for developmental purposes'. After reaching the district, the Governor had discussions with the legislators from the area and sought detailed feedback from them regarding the developmental issues of the district. The legislators apprised the governors of several problems faced by their respective constituencies and called for speedy execution of the long-pending works in the district, an official spokesman said. He said the Governor called upon all the legislators to spread awareness about the vital importance of the forthcoming elections to municipalities and panchayats for the establishment of grass root democracy in the state. The legislators unanimously welcomed the Governor's decision to hold the long- pending elections and stated that Doda shall register over 80 per cent turnout at both the polls, the spokesman said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three high court chief justices were appointed to the Supreme Court today, taking the total number of judges in the apex court to 25. Notifications announcing the appointments of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph, Madras HC Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa HC Chief Justice Vineet Saran to the Supreme Court were issued today. Their warrants of appointment were signed by President Ram Nath Kovind last night. Justice Joseph's elevation to the apex court ended a protracted stand-off between the government and the judiciary. The number of judges in the top court after the fresh appointments has gone up to 25. There would still be six vacancies though. Justice Banerjee would become an eight woman judge in the history of the Supreme Court. Justice Banerjee was appointed as a judge of the Calcutta High Court on February 5, 2002 and was transferred to Delhi HC on August 8, 2016. She was elevated as Chief Justice of Madras HC on April 5, 2017 and has been functioning there since then. She stands at serial number 4 in the combined seniority of high court Judges on all-India basis. Justice Saran was appointed as a judge in the Allahabad High Court on February 14, 2002 and was transferred to the Karnataka High Court on February 16, 2015. He was elevated as the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court on February 26, 2016 and has been functioning there since then. He stands at serial number 5 in the combined seniority of high court judges on all-India basis. Justice Joseph's name was recommended for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court by the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on January 10. On April 30, the government had returned the recommendation for reconsideration on the grounds that he lacked seniority. The executive had also pointed out that several high courts remain unrepresented and Justice Joseph's elevation would be against the principle of regional representation. His parent high court is the Kerala HC. Justice Joseph had struck down the imposition of President's rule in Uttarakhand in 2016 after the dismissal of a Congress government led by Harish Rawat. An earlier recommendation of the collegium to transfer Justice Joseph to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court on health grounds was kept pending by the government for a long time The collegium on May 16 in-principle reiterated the decision to recommend Justice Joseph's name. But the recommendation was sent to the government in July. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hospitality and food service company is planning to expand its Copper Chimney and Bombay Brasserie brands under Charcoal Concepts verticals to 50 outlets in India and 20 restaurants overseas in the next three years. "We are looking to aggressively expand our overseas presence under Charcoal Concepts that is working on bringing various new Indian food formats to the market, both in India and abroad, over the next three years. Currently, we have presence in Kuwait and Dubai with five outlets," Director Karan Kapur told PTI here. Copper Chimney is a contemporary Indian restaurant brand, while Bombay Brasserie is the eclectic all-day Indian eatery catering to younger audiences. This expansion will all be with company-owned outlets as K Hospitality has bought out the franchise rights of Copper Chimney from Everstone Capital-owned Pan India Food Solutions. Pan India Food Solutions was operating three Copper Chimney, Kapur added. is also looking at opening a new fast casual format overseas and the brand will be decided by the end of this year, he added. Going forward, he said, the company is looking at presence in the Middle East and UK, with total 20 outlets. In the domestic market, K Hospitality is eyeing 60 outlets mostly in Copper Chimney and Bombay Brasserie brands, he said. "We are looking forward for aggressive expansion of Copper Chimney. We currently have 20 outlets under this brand. Overall, including all our brands we are looking at 60 out in pan India," he added. K Hospitality Corp will invest Rs 1.20 billion to fund this expansion. "We have outlined a capex of Rs 1.20 billion for this domestic as well as overseas expansion. These funds will be raised with a mix of equity, internal accrual and debt," Kapur added. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde today flagged off a bus, christened "Kaushal Rath" or "Skill on Wheels", aimed at generating employment in the state. The Kaushal Rath would cover schools, colleges and other educational institutions in all 51 districts of Madhya Pradesh and register candidates for jobs as per their interest, said Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Hegde. He called it a unique initiative of his ministry and said that the aim was to reach out to every village in the country to help the youth realise their potential. Hegde added that the initiative was not about polls or votes but about the government supporting people to achieve their dreams. Speaking at the function in his Assembly constituency Budhni, the MP CM hit back at the opposition which recently labelled him a "madari" (juggler). "I am a juggler who has vowed to turn MP into a prosperous state," Chouhan said. In an apparent reference to the state government's decision to waive off power bills of the poor, Chouhan said that he was a "madari" who, with his skill, could turn electricity bills of the people to "zero". The Madhya Pradesh Skill Development and Employment Generation Board chairman Hemant Deshmukh said that the Kaushal Rath bus would be accompanied by other vehicles that would move around with counsellors to guide and help people, especially school dropouts and the unemployed, get jobs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A bike-borne kawad pilgrim was killed after being run over by a vehicle near Mansurpur on the Delhi-Haridwar highway in the district, police said today. Nitish Sharma (26) was on his way to Haridwar yesterday when he was run over by the vehicle, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala Khadi and Village Industries Board has issued legal notices to a textile group and leading actor Mohanlal over an advertisement showing him spinning a charkha and demanded that it be withdrawn. "Legal notices have been issued to both the textile group and Mohanlal. There is no connection between the charkha,which is a symbol of the freedom struggle, with the textiles sold by the group,"Board Vice-President Shobhana George told PTI here. Charkha is for producing khadi and the advertisement with Mohanlal on a charkha is misleading, she said and demanded that it be withdrawn. Mohanlal is not only an actor, but also a Padmasree recipient and has a responsibility towards society, she added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NCP national general secretary and MP Tariq Anwar today demanded that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sack his social welfare minister for the failure to prevent sexual exploitation at the state-funded shelter home at Muzaffarpur. He also demanded the arrest of the minister's husband and tried for his involvement in the scandal. The NCP leader said that both the state government and the chief minister are responsible for the shameful incident that had been going on for years. "Nitish Kumar should immediately sack social welfare minister Manju Verma for her department's failure to prevent sexual exploitation at the government funded shelter home for girls at Muzaffarpur,"Anwar told newsmen here. "The minister's husband Chadrashekhar Verma should be be arrested and tried for his involvement in the case," Anwar told reporters here. It has been alleged that the minister's husband used to visit the shelter home. Chandrashekahr Verma had, however, claimed that he had accompanied his wife to the shelter home only once. Anwar, a Lok Sabha member from Katihar, said the incident has brought disrepute to the Bihar government which has failed to protect the girls at the shelter home. "It was instead much more interested in patronising misdeeds of the culprits," he alleged. The incident of sexual exploitation of minor inmates at the Muzaffarpur shelter home was first highlighted in a social audit report submitted by Tata Institute of Social Science of Mumbai to the state's social welfare department in April, Anwar said. It was "quite surprising" that no officials did their job honestly and such an incident continued unabated for many years with "the connivance of officials and other important persons sitting in the government," he remarked. NCP, he said, would observe "Samvidhan Bachao, Desh Bachao" programme on August 9 to protest against the Centre's functioning. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today asked newly elected members "to leave outside" and focus on people's welfare inside the House. Naidu inaugurated a two-day orientation programme for the new members of the Rajya Sabha here and spoke with them on different aspects of the functioning of Parliament for about an hour. He made a passionate appeal to all MPs to ensure smooth functioning of the Rajya Sabha and Parliament by making good use of opportunities and improving the quality of debates. "I firmly believe in discipline and upholding rules. I do get emotional if rules are violated and the House is disrupted," he said. "Mobocracy should not be allowed to derail deliberative parliamentary democracy. A group of MPs rushing into the well of the House and disrupting the proceedings subverts democracy. We need to respect each other irrespective of being in majority or minority. We need to respect the people's mandate," he told the members. Naidu complimented Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri for attending the 'Orientation Programme' despite having piloted quite a few bills and answering several questions in both the Houses of Parliament over the last one year. "Puri has been one of our leading diplomats for a long time and minister for over a year, but he is attending this programme to know more from seniors about the functioning of Parliament like a fresher. This shows learning never stops," statement quoted Naidu as saying. Puri sat through the day-long interaction today. Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien, one of the country's most famous quiz masters, explained the role and functioning of the committees of Parliament and their strengths to the delight of all. Leaving the podium, he took a cordless mike and conducted a quiz from amidst the MPs. He gave the first word of the acronym STRENGTHS' and asked the newly elected MPs to indicate which function of the Standing Committees that letter suggested. He offered chocolates to those who gave correct answers and his quiz show enlivened the interaction and got a huge applause. Rajya Sabha secretary general Desh Deepak Verma gave an overview of the Secretariat, including the support services being extended to members of the House. Over 40 MPs attended the first day of the 'Orientation Programme'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Punjab, conducted raids at the LPG distributors in Ludhiana and issued 43 challans to the violators, an official statement said. In the two day exercise that concluded today, the teams of the Legal Metrology Wing of the department conducted as many as 47 inspections and issued 43 challans under various provisions of Legal Metrology Act and Rules, including 5 for short weight, 12 for non verified weighing scale, 5 for non display of verification certificate, 13 for non declaration of Packaged Commodity Rules and 8 for not keeping Electronic weighing Scale of specified capacity (50 kg). Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Punjab said here today that similar inspections would continue throughout the year and would now be made a regular phenomenon. Earlier, the Legal Metrology wing in similar exercises had conducted surprise inspections at the eating joints on Railway Stations, Bus Stands and the roadside Dhabas followed by raids on sweets shops statewide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after a panel recommended formation of a Legislative Council in Odisha, one of its members today said the state government was planning to move a resolution in the assembly in this regard. The resolution could be moved in the coming monsoon session of the assembly, said Manohar Randhari, ruling BJD leader and one of the five members of the committee. The dates of the monsoon session are yet to be announced. The committee was set up in 2015 to study functioning of Legislative Councils in other states. Its members visited several states and recommended formation of a Legislative Council in Odisha on line of Telangana, he said. It has recommended that there should be a maximum of 49 members in the council, of which the governor would nominate nine eminent personalities from different fields. The panel, led by Transport Minister Nrushingha Charan Sahu, yesterday submitted its 7-page report to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The committee has recommended that the salary and perks of the Legislative Council members should be at par with the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Like the MLAs, the Legislative Council members too should be entitled to Local Area Development (LAD) funds and they should be given the opportunity to become ministers, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Naveed Jatt, who fled from police custody early this year, today made an appearance at the funeral of a militant killed in a gun battle with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district. Photographs of Jatt offering a gun salute to Waqar Ahmad Sheikh at his funeral in Shopian's Malikgund village have surfaced on social media. Jatt escaped from police custody on February 6 while he was being taken to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital here for a medical examination. Two policemen were killed in a shootout at the hospital. He is also an accused in the murder case of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead outside his office at Press Enclave here on June 14. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A farmer tried to commit suicide inside the premises of a bank today after he was allegedly denied a crop loan, police said. Farmer Madhukar Sudham Aher (48) consumed poison and was rushed first to the Pachod rural health centre and then to the Government Medical College and Hospital where doctors termed his condition as critical, an official said. The incident happened in a Central Bank of India branch in Paithan tehsil in Aurangabad in the afternoon today, a Pachod police official informed. The bank's branch manager, R P Mishra, later told reporters that the farmer had been given a loan earlier but he had defaulted on the repayment. Mishra said that Aher had been called to the bank today to arrive at a settlement on the unpaid loan by way of a part payment. "But he comsumed poison soon after arriving at the bank," Mishra said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao today cancelled the Independence Day "At Home" reception against the backdrop of the July 28 road accident in the state's Raigad district in which 30 employees of an agricultural university were killed. Thirty out of 31 passengers in a bus, all staff of the Dr Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapith in Dapoli, were killed after the vehicle plunged into a 500-foot deep gorge near Ambenali Ghat on the Poladpur-Mahabaleshwar road. The traditional Independence Day reception hosted by the Governor, known as "At Home", was scheduled to be held at 5.30 pm on August 15 at the Raj Bhavan at Ganeshkind in Pune, an official release said. The statement said that the Governor took the decision to cancel the reception against the tragic backdrop of the death of several employees and officials in the accident. The Raj Bhavan statement, however, clarified that the Governor will attend the flag-hoisting ceremony, at the Council Hall in Pune at 9 am on August 15, as scheduled. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Major Leetul Gogoi, who was detained by police in a Srinagar hotel after he was seen with a local woman in May, may face punitive action as a Court of Inquiry ordered by the Army into the incident is likely to indict him in the case, official sources said here. They said the CoI has found that he violated the Army's rule against developing relationship with a local woman in a conflict zone and breaching the standard operating procedure of staying away from place of duty. The sources said the findings of the CoI are being placed before the top brass of the Srinagar-based XV corps for approval following which charges against Gogoi may be slapped under relevant sections of the Army Act. On May 23, Gogoi was detained by police following an altercation at the hotel in Srinagar where he was allegedly trying to enter with an 18-year-old woman. Days later, the Army had ordered the CoI into the incident after Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said in Pahalgam that exemplary punishment would be given to Gogoi if he was found guilty of "any offence". "If any officer of the Indian Army is found guilty of any offence, we will take strictest possible action," Gen. Rawat had said. The sources said the Army authorities are likely to examine the legal aspects of the case before taking a final call on future course of action. Major Gogoi had hit the headlines last year after he tied a man to a jeep in Kashmir purportedly as a shield against stone pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election on April 9. Gen Rawat had supported the young officer's action and honoured him with the Army chief's 'Commendation Card' for his 'sustained efforts' in counter-insurgency operations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Youngest ever Nobel Laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai has strongly condemned the burning down of 12 schools, half of them all-girls', in Pakistan, saying the "extremists" have shown that a "girl with a book" frightens them the most. The schools were burnt down late Friday by unidentified assailants in coordinated attacks in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan, triggering protest by local residents who sought safety for educational institutions. Police are yet to arrest anyone linked to the attacks claimed by no group so far. "The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book," Malala, 21, said in a tweet. She also called for the rebuilding of the damaged schools in Chilas town, about 130-kilometre from Gilgit. "We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the world that every girl and boy has the right to learn," Malala tweeted. Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister, also condemned the attack, terming it an "unacceptable" act. "Shocking & condemnable torching of schools in GB, more than half of them girls' schools. This is unacceptable and we will ensure security for schools as we are committed to focusing on education, especially girls' which is integral to Naya Pakistan," Khan said in a tweet. Malala, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for promoting girls' in the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Girls' schools are often attacked in the northern areas of Pakistan. In December 2011, at least two girls' schools were partially damaged in low-intensity explosions in Chilas. Earlier that year, unidentified assailants had also blown up two girls' schools. In 2004, girls' schools in Chilas came under a string of attacks. Nine schools of which eight were girls' schools were attacked and destroyed in five days in the area in February. Terrorists have also blown up educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). According to a report, about 1,500 schools have been destroyed in the tribal belt during the last 10 years. In 2017, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report stated that attacks by the Taliban and other militant groups disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of children, particularly girls, in Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya today claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had changed her stand on the issue of illegal immigrants and that she was trying to use the NRC to divide the people so that she could pursue her "dream of becoming the prime minister". He also accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo of doing vote-bank over the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam on July 30. "It is shameful that a chief minister is trying to divide the people only to pursue her dream of becoming the prime minister," Vijayvargiya, who is the BJP general secretary in-charge of West Bengal, told reporters here. Referring to a 2005 incident in Parliament, when Banerjee was a TMC MP, Vijayvargiya claimed that she had changed her stand on the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. On August 4, 2005, Banerjee had thrown a bunch of papers at the speaker's podium, creating a commotion in the Lok Sabha, after she was not allowed to speak on the issue of illegal migration of Bangladeshis into West Bengal, he said. "We wonder what happened all of a sudden that the TMC changed its stand within 13 years. The TMC should answer it. It was done for the sake of vote-bank politics," Vijayvargiya said, claiming that the ruling party in West Bengal understood nothing except its vote bank, even at the cost of national security and integrity. "She (Banerjee) had gone to Delhi to seek support on opposing the NRC, but none of the political parties supported her stand on it. The Union home minister has clearly said it is a draft NRC, but she is trying to misguide the people of the country," the BJP leader said. The complete draft of the NRC has left out over 40 lakh applicants in Assam, triggering a slugfest between the BJP and the TMC. Banerjee had sent a delegation of six party MPs, an MLA and a state minister to Assam to assess the post-NRC situation there. However, after the TMC leaders landed at the Silchar airport on August 2, the authorities stopped them and took them under preventive detention, saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC leaders returned to Kolkata yesterday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man wanted for allegedly killing his brother-in-law in Uttar Pradesh and a jeweller in Mumbai was arrested today as he was about to fly out of the country, a Crime Branch official said. Noushad Khan (30), had allegedly killed Bharat Rohanlal Singh, a Ghatkopar-based jeweller, in 2010 and fled to Uttar Pradesh and from there to Saudi Arabia, an official said. Khan worked in the Gulf country as a driver and would frequently visit his native village in UP's Azamgarh district where he is accused of shooting dead his brother-in-law, the official informed. A case in this connection was lodged against him in Jiyanpur police station in Uttar Pradesh, he said. The official said that Khan, while working in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai, had also attacked a man, identified as Mohammad Yusuf Maniyar, with a sword. Acting on a tip off, Unit 5 of the Crime Branch today arrested Khan while he was in the process of fleeing the country, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was arrested today for allegedly stabbing to death a 21-year-old woman near the Regional Transport Office (RTO) here this morning, police said. The incident took place around 10.30 am, they said. A Naupada police official said that Akash Pawar (23) was arrested from Bhiwandi town in the district in the afternoon today and was charged for murder and sections of the Arms Act were also invoked against him. The victim, Prachi Zade, was going on her two-wheeler when the accused stopped her near the RTO on the highway and stabbed her several times before fleeing from the spot. After being alerted about the incident, a police team rushed to the spot and the victim's body was taken to the Government Civil Hospital for post-mortem. The victim's father, speaking to the media later, said that the accused had followed Zade, and another friend of hers, in June and the two women had filed a police complaint in this connection at the time. The victim's father added that Pawar had spotted her travelling with another person on a two-wheeler and this could have led the accused to stab her. Police said that Pawar, after stabbing Zade, tried to kill himself by jumping in front of a moving bus but was saved by his friends. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was allegedly beaten to death on suspicion of cattle theft in Palwal district of Haryana, police said today. The unidentified victim was caught by three brothers on the intervening night of August 2 and 3 while he was allegedly trying to steal cattle from the yard belonging to their father, Shradharam in Bahrola village, Palwal Sadar Police Station SHO Devender told PTI over phone. While his two accomplices managed to escape, the victim, in his 20s, was beaten to death by-- Beer Singh, Prakash and Ram Kishan, he added. Police have registered a murder case against the trio and arrested Ram Kishan, Palwal SP Waseem Akram told PTI over phone. He said that the family was residing in houses built in their fields away from the village. The victim was allegedly cutting the nets put over the cattle when he was caught, he said, adding that injury marks were found on the victim's hands and neck. The incident comes close on the heels of the lynching of a 28-year-old Rakbar Khan in Alwar district on suspicion of cattle smuggling. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 25-year-old man allegedly committed suicide in neighbouring Navi Mumbai today, with his purported suicide note mentioning his anguish over the Maratha community not getting reservation, police said. It would be the eighth such suicide in the state in the last two weeks, where the deceased linked their decision to end life to the Maratha quota demand. Arun Jagannath Bhadale, a resident of the Turbhe area, ended his life by hanging himself from the ceiling of the balcony of his house, Deputy Commissioner of Police Sudhakar Pathare told PTI. "We recovered a suicide note in which he mentions failure to get loan and the Maratha reservation issue. We are verifying if the note was written by him," he added. Bhadale, hailing from Bhor in Pune district, worked at the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), Pathare said. According to another police official, his purported suicide note said he had applied to a private finance company for personal loan and deposited Rs 27,000 as demanded, but he was cheated by the company. "On one hand we are not getting loan and on the other hand government is not giving us Marathas the reservation, there is no option left other than committing suicide," the note said. The government should feel shame for failing to understand the community's sentiments, it added, according to the police official. Senior police inspector Sanjay Nikam of the APMC police station said the police recovered the suicide note from Bhadale's bag which he had left at his brother's house in the Kopar Khairane area last night. The revived agitation of the Maratha community for reservation in jobs and education has roiled Maharashtra in the last two weeks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 22-year-old man belonging to the Dhangar community allegedly committed suicide in Paithan tehsil of the district last night, with his family claiming that he ended his life for the cause of reservation. The deceased was identified as Parmeshwar Baban Ghongde, resident of Balanagar. While the Marathas in Maharashtra are agitating for reservation in jobs and education, the demand of Scheduled Tribe status for the Dhangar (shepherd) community in the state is also being made. An officer of MIDC Paithan police station said that Parmeshwar had asked his parents for money for attending a Dhangar reservation rally in Pune. But the parents could not give him any money. He allegedly hanged himself at his house last night. His purported suicide note said that "Dhangar community should get reservation". His parents and relatives demanded that police should record that he committed suicide for the reservation cause, the officer said, adding that further probe was on. Since Maratha organisations started the agitation last month, at least seven suicides by members of the Maratha community, allegedly for the cause of reservation, have been reported in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 32-year old man has been arrested for helping his neighbour instal an application in her husband's mobile phone to allegedly spy on him, police said. S Ajith was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by the woman's husband, a resident of Elamakkara here, police said. The woman will also be made an accused in the case, police said adding suspicion arose when she narrated her husband's daily private activities when they quarrelled once. Realising that his phone was being bugged by his wife with an app, the husband filed a complaint with the police. The police tracked down Ajith with the help of the same application and arrested him. Ajith has been booked under Section 66-E of the IT Act, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, on Thursday reaffirmed cooperation between Tokyo and Seoul, as well as among them and Washington, toward denuclearizing North Korea. Meeting in Singapore, Kono and Kang agreed that Japan and South Korea will work further to build a future-oriented bilateral relationship while appropriately managing difficult problems between the two countries. Kono said Tokyo wants South Korean President Moon Jae-in to visit Japan. He called on South Korea to steadily implement the 2015 bilateral agreement to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the issue of Korean women allegedly forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese troops before and during World War II. Based on the agreement, the Japanese government contributed one billion yen to a South Korean foundation set up to support such comfort women. But the South Korean government recently decided to replace the one billion yen with its reserve funds, annoying the Japanese side. A man was arrested in this district after he and his family allegedly prevented a medical team from doing their duty as his daughter-in-law delivered a baby at home, police said today. Dhanushkodi, his wife Alagammal and son Kannan (27) along with other family members had refused to allow a medical team and police personnel, who were waiting outside the house at Kottangipatti, to extend any assistance and also threatened them during an argument, they said. After learning that the family had opted for a domiciliary delivery, the medical team and police personnel went to the place on Thursday night and pleaded with Dhanushkodi and others to let them do their duty, they said. Despite arguing with the family for a few hours, the medical team was not allowed entry. The family was also warned about the dangers of performing delivery at home. Police said Dhanushkodi and other members of the family insisted that only practitioners of Siddha medicine would be allowed to give treatment. Later, a Siddha doctor removed the umbilical cord, police said. "My wife agreed to deliver the baby at home. With her consent only the baby was delivered. In fact most of the members in our family were born at home," Kannan said after Mahalakshmi delivered a boy. "Nobody died at home while delivering children. Mistakes can even occur in hospital... My wife, after the delivery, is working in the house without any tiredness," he added. While Dhanushkodi was arrested, a case has been registered against his wife and Kannan for putting Mahalakshmi's life at risk. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam told reporters at Theni that government would take steps to prevent such incidents in future. Earlier last month, a couple's planned delivery at home with the aid of social media videos went horribly wrong, leaving a 28-year-old woman dead after giving birth to a girl in Tirupur district. The woman died due to excessive bleeding after delivery during which she was assisted by her husband and two of their friends. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 28-year-old woman was stabbed to death allegedly by her husband in Harola village here today, police said. Ruby was stabbed five times in the gut by her 30-year-old husband, Raju alias Aslam, they said. Both of them belonged to Gaya in Bihar. Eight years ago, Ruby had got married to Rafique in Gopalganj, Bihar. But the two later split, and she had a love marriage with Raju after which both of them relocated to Noida and were living in a rented accommodation in Harola village in Sector 5, police said. Ruby's brother has alleged that Raju was under the suspicion that she still used to meet her first husband. Raju would often assault her because of this, the brother has alleged, according to the FIR. The police said that the couple was having a troubled relationship for some time now and Raju was not living at their home since last 12 days. He returned home this afternoon and told his wife and mother-in-law that he was leaving for Mumbai along with their three-year-old son. Later in the afternoon, Raju confronted Ruby on a road in Sector 5 and stabbed her in front of his mother-in-law and child. The mother-in-law alerted the police and Ruby was rushed to the district hospital, where she succumbed to the wounds, the FIR stated. Sector 20 Police Station House Officer (SHO) Manish Saxena said a case under Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder) has been registered and efforts are on to nab the absconding husband. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After being worsted by the BJP in Sangli civic polls, the Congress in Maharashtra today claimed that more than a third of BJP candidates had been poached from other parties. The BJP yesterday won control of the Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad Municipal Corporation in western Maharashtra for the first time, winning 41 seats in the 78-member House and ousting the Congress from power. The Congress won 20 and its ally NCP got 15 seats. Commenting on the result, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that out of 78 candidates fielded by the BJP, 29 were poached from other parties. "Congress and NCP need to learn a lesson," he said, adding that rather than fighting over how many seats each party should contest, it is more important to see which party can more win more seats. Considering the poaching of candidates and use of "money and power" (allegedly by the BJP), the result in Sangli was not bad, he quipped. The BJP also won the control of Jalgaon Municipal Corporation in north Maharashtra in the election. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army jawan Sowar Vijay Kumar martyred while fighting terrorists in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir was today cremated with full state honours at his native village in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district. Posted with 22 Rashtriya Rifles of Army, Kumar (31) made his supreme sacrifice during an encounter with militants at Drusoo Behrampora village in north Kashmir's Sopore yesterday. Two terrorists were eliminated in the encounter. A guard of honour was given to the martyr's body by army jawans led by Major Rakesh Upadhyay. A large number of persons from the village and surrounding areas gathered at the crematorium to bid final adieu to the brave soldier. Himachal minister Bikram Singh Thakur, MLA Ram Lal Thakur, Bilaspur deputy commissioner Vivek Bhatia, superintendent of police Ashok Kumar, BJP state president Satpal Satti and others laid wreath at the body to pay their homage. The martyr's body reached at his house at Uttapur village in Naina Devi sub division of Bilaspur district at 3:30 pm. He is survived by his wife and two sons. Earlier in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur paid tribute to the martyr Vijay Kumar, a press note stated. In his message, the governor prayed the almighty to give peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family members to bear this irreparable loss. The chief minister in his message said that the gallant soldiers of the state always fought with bravery for the security of the nation. The country and the state will always remember the ultimate sacrifice of Sepoy Vijay Kumar, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A mentally unstable man in his 40s allegedly entered the Kerala house in Delhi today with a knife, the police said. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was present inside the house when the incident took place, a police official said. Police said the man was mentally unstable and has been sent to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences' in Shahdara. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey today visited the Patna Medical College and Hospital and inquired about the 3-year-old girl who was rescued from a 165 ft deep borewell shaft in Munger on Wednesday night. The girl, Sanno, has been admitted at the ICU of the hospital since she was brought here from Munger yesterday. Pandey expressed satisfaction on her treatment and directed the authorities to ensure that the girl gets all facilities required. "There has been significant improvement in Sanno's health condition," Pandey said adding that a team of doctors are keeping a close tab on her health condition. He also comforted the relatives of Sanno during his hour long visit at the hospital. The little girl fell into a borewell shaft near her maternal grandfather's house in Munger on July 31 and was rescued in a 30-hour-long operation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) will be formally renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Uphadyay when BJP president Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrive at the iconic railway station tomorrow. The three leaders will flag off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-woman crew, and also launch a smart yard project at the century-old station on the busy Delhi-Howrah route. The building is being touched up with saffron paint at places and signboards with the new name being put up. Upadhyay was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the Mughalsarai station in February 1968. Mughalsarai is also the birth place of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. The leaders will launch a project to upgrade the yard at the station, officials said. Ekatmata Express, now set to follow a new route from Lucknow to Mughalsarai, will get the green signal. Railway officials said it will be the first time in the country that an all-woman crew runs a goods train. Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders will also be present. On paper, Mughalsarai station got a new name after Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June. The Centre gave its in-principle approval last year to the state government's proposal to rename the station, which is among the busiest in the country. The move drew flak from the opposition which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history. UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey today said the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre had imbibed Deen Dayal Upadhyay's philosophy of 'antyodaya', or caring for the last person in society. The Congress today alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP were protecting Brijesh Thakur, the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes case, and questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the incident. Referring to Modi and Kumar, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that 'jumla babu' and 'sushasan babu' should tell the country what were they doing when such heinous crimes and rapes were being committed on minor girls at the shelter home. "It is clear that the BJP- and Nitish Kumar-led governments are jointly protecting accused Brijesh Thakur. Has anyone ever heard that 42 minor girls are raped and atrocities committed to them and still the Prime minister, who talks of 'beti bachao' all the time, does not utter a single word on the incident. The nation has now come to know that Modiji has given the slogan of 'beti bachao' as a threat," he told reporters. The Congress leader said even 20 days after the matter came to light, the prime minister is yet to speak on the "kind of atrocities" and crimes committed against minor girls. "The truth is that the nation is ashamed at the way the governments of 'jumla babu' and 'sushasan babu' gave protection to the kind of crimes being committed on minor girls. "Was all this not happening under the very nose of the government. What was the government doing? What were the Sushasan babu and jumla babu doing? They should answer the nation," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Conference (NC) and its arch rival PDP today took out separate protest rallies here ahead of the August 6 Supreme Court hearing on petitions challenging Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The apex court is hearing a batch of petitions in the matter, including the one filed by an RSS-linked NGO 'We the Citizens', seeking quashing of the article. MLA Khanyar Mohammad Sagar led hundred of party workers, carrying banners and placards, from the NC headquarters Nawai-e-Subah to Sher-e-Kashmir park. One of the banners read, "If there are no Articles 35A and 370, then there is no accession (of Jammu and Kashmir to India)". The protestors tried to march towards the city centre Lal Chowk but had to turn back due to a posse of policemen that stood guard at the park. The PDP also took out a rally from its office near the Sher-e-Kashmir park. Led by NC general secretary Nizamuddin Bhat and MLA Khursheed Alam, the protesters marched towards Lal Chowk but were stopped by the police. A traders body also held a demonstration here. The separatists and mainstream leaders have called for dismissing the PIL before the Supreme Court. The Jammu and Kashmir government yesterday approached the apex court seeking adjournment of the hearing, citing local body elections in the state. Article 35-A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today expressed profound grief over death of six labourers belonging to the state, who were killed yesterday in an accident at a cement factory in Kalaburagi city of Karnataka. The CM has directed Labour Resources Department officials to get the details of the incident and ensure payment of ex-gratia at the earliest to the next of the kins of the deceased as per the provisions of the department, an official release said here. Kumar also prayed for speedy recovery of those injured in the incident, it said. It may be noted that six labourers had died yesterday at Kalaburagi in Karnataka when a crane at an under construction site of a cement factory collapsed on them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today asserted that there was no vacancy for the Prime Minister's post in 2019 and the Opposition should work hard and aim for it in 2024. The ruling NDA partner Lok Janshakti Party chief Pawan made the assertion claiming that the achievements of the Narendra Modi government in last four years were more than those of any other regime since Independence. Paswan also spoke at length on Dalit issues, acknowledging that the government earlier had a problem of perception on the Dalit issue, but the same had been set right. The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution was addressing a conference here, during which he also described the NDA government as "pro-poor, pro-Dalits and pro-farmers". Paswan made the remarks in reply to queries on his experience as the NDA partner and if he would be the part of the BJP-led alliance in the 2019 polls. "The Modi government has been in power for over four years now and if you count the achievements of this government during this tenure, it has been better than any other government since Indpendence. "There is no charge which the Prime Minister faces, he comes from a humble background. Out of 24 hours, he works for 20 hours... This government brought so many schemes for common man and the poor like Jandhan Yojana, insurance cover for common people. Besides, India is emerging as an economic superpower," he said. He said the LJP supported the NDA when it had only two other allies -- the Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena. "For the last two years, we (LJP) have been saying that in 2019, there is no vacancy, the Congress and the opposition can work hard, but they should realise there is no vacancy in 2019. They can work hard for 2024 and not 2019," he said. Asked if the LJP would be part of the NDA in 2019, Paswan categorically said, "Not being so is unthinkable." Referring to the Supreme Court March 2018 order which had laid down some safeguards against the misuse of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan said after this verdict some people started a campaign to portray the Modi regime as "anti-Dalit". He said the entire country knew that the Supreme Court had diluted the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and that it was not a government's decision, but a countrywide protest was started as if the government had done it. "We filed a review petition in the court. As we felt it may take time, a decision was taken in the Cabinet and a bill (to undo the Supreme Court order) was introduced in the Lok Sabha yesterday," he said. With the Opposition targeting the BJP over dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan said various Dalit organisations would hold rallies across the country from August 11-14, and thank the Prime Minister for bringing the bill to undo the apex court verdict on the matter. The Dalit Sena, affiliated to the LJP, has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the government's "historic" decision to bring the Bill to undo the Apex court order on the law on atrocities against the Dalits. Paswan said four-five months back he had stated that despite so many works and achievements of the Narendra Modi government, there was "a perception that this regime is anti-Dalit." And he had also said he would set this perception right, he added. Paswan said while speaking in the ongoing session of the Parliament recently, he had pointed out that that the Opposition brought the no confidence motion against the government, "but not even one from the Opposition, be it the Congress or the SP, uttered a word pertaining to Dalits or the atrocities." Asked if the government's stand would change in case the Supreme Court stands by its verdict in response to the petition for review of the March verdict on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan asserted that "it is the government's job to make law." "Parliament is supreme, the court's work is to see whether the laws which have been made, are constitutionally right... it is the government's job to make law," he said. Countering arguments that the apex court's judgment had only laid down some safeguards to prevent the misuse of the SC/ST Act, Paswan said any act can be misused, but the misuse of any law is not a valid ground for repeal of its provisions. "Did it not happen in dowry cases when entire family often landed behind bars?" he asked. He said "many Dalits feared lodging an FIR after dilution of the Act." "Now, they have said a DSP will probe, but which DSP favours the poor? The result will be that the atrocities will once again rise," he said referring to the apex court's March 20 verdict, which stipulated that before registering the FIRs under the SC/ST Act, a DSP-level officer would hold a preliminary inquiry and the prior permission of an SP-rank officer would be needed to arrest the accused. Asked about Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) protest rally with other opposition parties at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over sexual abuse of the girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home, Paswan said taking out protest march was the job of the Opposition and they would do that. What was important in this case, he said, was to see the intent of the Bihar Chief Minister, who has described the incident as "shameful" and assured that the culprits would not be spared. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Odisha has the potential to turn into a centre of electronic manufacturing, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today. "Odisha has enough talent to become a centre of electronic manufacturing and the government wants the state to be the hub in this sector," said Prasad, the Union Electronics and IT Minister. Prasad, along with Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, inaugurated the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) - 'STPI ELITE' and Secondary Data Centre of National Data Repository here. The Cenral government is focusing on the development of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Eastern Uttar Pradesh to make eastern India more developed, and to bring it on par with other developed regions of the country, he said. Describing the STPI, Bhubaneswar as the biggest technology park in eastern India, Prasad said it will empower Odisha and reduce the digital divide between "digital haves" and "digital have-nots". STPI will bring digital inclusion by way of a start-up revolution and large scale e-transaction through JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile), he said. Noting that India has around 130 crore population and 120 crore mobile phones, he said of them, 45 crore are smart phone users, while 55 crore Internet connections have been provided so far and one lakh villages connected with broadband. The minister said through JAM and DBT, the government has disbursed Rs 4 lakh crore subsidy benefit. Referring to Aadhaar, Prasad said divulging its details does not mean one's iris and finger print data will get leaked. "It has been indigenously encrypted so that no one can have access to the personal data of a citizen," he said. Prasad said data authentication of 3 crore people is being done every day and 15 crore farmers have been given soil health cards. "About 2.74 lakh hospitals have become digital hospitals through which tele-medicine facilities are being provided in Medical College Hospitals and many district headquarter hospitals." He said 13 companies were given in-principle approvals to start BPOs in Bhubaneswar, Jaleswar, Cuttack and Balasore. The minister said more BPO centres will come up in Angul, Jajpur, Sambalpur and Jeypore (Koraput). Pradhan, during an address, said data mining and repository are highly needed for oil and hydrocarbon exploration, and production. He said Rs 3.5 crore incentives were being provided to start-ups in the fields of innovation and incubation. Officials said there was stupendous growth in exports by STP units, from Rs 52 crore in 1992-93 to more than Rs 3,50,680 crore in 2016-17. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The death toll in the explosion at a stone quarry in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district rose to 11 with one more body being recovered at the blast site today, police said. The massive explosion at the quarry unit in Hathi Belgal under Aluru Mandal last night claimed 10 lives and left four seriously injured. A detailed investigation has been launched into the incident, Kurnool District Collector S Satyanarayana said. The exact cause of the blast would be ascertained after the probe, he said. Meanwhile, the state government has announced Rs 5 lakh ex gratia for the kin of each of the deceased. The victims are said to be from Odisha. The explosion occurred when regular work was being carried out at the quarry unit, an investigating officer had said yesterday. "At least 20 workers were said to be at the spot when the gelatin sticks used for blasting the quarry exploded. The sudden explosion trapped the workers, causing the fatalities," the officer said. The injured have been shifted to a hospital in Kurnool. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the incident and has directed the district administration to ensure proper treatment to the injured. Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan have also expressed grief over thei incident and extended sympathies to the bereaved families. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh said more than 1.25 lakh job offer letters were issued at 'Rozgar Panchayat 2018' held across the state today, a claim dismissed by opposition Congress. Over 1.25 lakh persons got job offers in the private sector during these 'employment meets', said state Skill Development and Employment Generation Board chairman Hemant Deshmukh. The government also handed over cheques of amounts ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 crore to around 60,000 persons for starting their own businesses during the meets, he said. "Employment and self-employment meets were organised in all 51 districts under Rozgar Panchayat," he told PTI. But the Congress said the government was fooling the youth. "Rozgar Panchayat 2018 was a sham, another move of the state government to fool unemployed youths," Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta said. Over one lakh persons who have cleared online tests of various government departments for posts such as computer operators, survey assistants and accountants in the last three years have not been taken in service yet, he alleged. In today's employment meets, jobs such as sanitation worker were on offer which many of the participants declined, the Congress leader alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to meet captains of industries on August 8, when he leads a business delegation to Mumbai, officials said today. "The CM will hold one-to-one meetings with many industry captains during his visit to Mumbai on August 8," a senior official at the Odisha Industries Department said. Patnaik and the delegation have been visiting the country's financial capital to conduct a roadshow in the run up to the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018. The state government will organise the conclave here from November 11 to 14. The event in Mumbai will be organised in association with its industry partner Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the official said. Stating that the focus of the roadshow will be on showcasing the investment potential and business opportunities in the state, he said the meetings with investors will highlight the strategic advantages of Odisha such as "low cost of doing business, incentives for investors, dedicated sector-specific clusters and over 1,25,000 acres of land bank". The Odisha government has also developed industrial infrastructure at National Investment Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ), Kalingnagar, food processing park at Khurda and Chhatabar, textile and apparel parks at Ramdaspur and Dhamnagar, an aluminium park at Angul and a plastics park at Paradip, the official said. The roadshow is expected to witness encouraging response with over 300 leading companies confirming their participation so far. "We are pleased to receive an encouraging response from the business community of Mumbai. Odisha's investor- friendly policies and the development of world-class infrastructure have received very positive feedback from investors across the country," Industries Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said. Chopra said the state has registered a significant rise in attracting manufacturing projects, with more than 118 large projects approved, having an employment potential of 1,28,572, in the past 4 years. "The average time taken for approval of the projects is also reduced to 20 days from the date of receipt of completed application. We are positive about attracting significant investments from Mumbai-based companies in the near future," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Lahore High Court today admitted a plea which challenges the jail sentence of ousted Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam, and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar in the Avenfield properties corruption case. LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali formed a full bench to hear the petition of Advocate A K Dogar, who remains counsel for both Sharif and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Dogar has sought revocation of the punishment handed down to the Sharif family by an accountability court last month in the Avenfield case. Justice Ali constituted a three-member bench comprising Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza, Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Mujahid Mustaqeem to hear Dogar's petition on August 8. The accountability court in Islamabad on July 6 had sentenced Sharif to 10 years in prison with a USD 10.5 million fine over corruption charges related to his family's purchase of overseas properties. Maryam, widely seen as Sharif's anointed political heir, was also found guilty and handed down seven years in prison with a USD 2.6 million fine. Her husband Safdar also received a one-year jail sentence. All three are serving their terms at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Dogar in his petition said that the accountability court handed down sentences to the Sharif family members under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 which is illegal. "This ordinance was promulgated by military dictator former president Gen Pervez Musharraf under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). The Sharif family members and others' conviction under this ordinance is illegal. After the 18th amendment, this law does not exist any more. Punishment was handed down to the Sharif family members under the dead law," he said and pleaded that the high court suspend the accountability court's verdict against the Sharifs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special CBI court here today granted bail to Vipul Ambani, senior executive of a firm owned by diamantaire Nirav Modi, in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam. Ambani, president (finance) of Modi's firm Fire Star Diamond, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in February this year. According to the CBI, Ambani was aware of the fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) issued by PNBs former deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty in favour of Modi's firms. Special CBI Judge J C Jagdale today allowed Ambani's bail plea and directed him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh. Ambani had sought bail on the ground that his custody was not required as the CBI had already filed its charge sheet in the case. "The court, while granting Ambani bail, has asked him not to leave the country without prior permission from the court and not to tamper with evidence in the case," Ambani's counsel Amit Desai said. On January 31 this year, the CBI had registered a case against Modi, his uncle and owner of Gitanjali Gems Mehul Choksi, and several others, including PNB officials. In its FIR, the CBI had listed eight fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 280 crore. But, based on further complaints from the bank, the agency said the quantum of money in the first FIR was over Rs 6,498 crore, involving 150 LoUs allegedly issued fraudulently. The remaining 150 fraudulent LoUs worth over Rs 4,886 crore issued for the Gitanjali group of companies were part of the second FIR registered later by the agency against Choksi and his companies Gitanjali Gems, Nakshatra Brands and Gili. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former president Pranab Mukherjee who had served in the Manmohah Singh government in various capacities, today lauded the former prime minister for ushering in political stability in the country and successfully presiding over the country's finances during "turbulent time". He said that Singh assumed his political role as the finance minister at a time when the country had lost its international credibility in money and finance. "But Dr Singh through his skill and deftness" steered the country's economy to a growth trajectory. Singh, a former Reserve Bank governor, was appointed as the country's finance minister in 1991 by the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao when the country's economy was passing through a crisis. Mukherjee listed a host of legislations including the landmark Right to Information Act and the Food Security Act which were enacted during Singh's tenure as prime minister. He said Singh displayed "skill and deftness" in handling the country's economy and decisively managed the coalition government, ending a period of political instability in the country. "We will remain grateful to you for providing political stability in the most uncertain time," he said. The former president was speaking at an award function here where Singh was given the lifetime achievement award. He recalled how the then US President George W Bush had called upon Singh to show light out of the tunnel and restore the world economy when it was passing through a recessionary phase. He said there was widespread fear during those days that the world economy would slide the way as it happened during the 1930s. Indian economic credential was also at stake and the country had to pledge 25 tons of gold to the Bank of England just to borrow a few hundred million dollars when nobody was prepared to give loan to India. But on assuming the role as the finance minister, Singh "staked his own personal prestige...the skill and deftness with which doctor saheb led the economy in that turbulent period is simply marvellous," Mukherjee said. The V C Padmanabhan Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award, given to Singh, has been instituted by Manappuram Finance Ltd. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 70 students of Presidency University here have been holding a sit-in within the campus for 31 hours demanding that they be alloted rooms in an old hostel building under renovation. Ujan, a spokesman of the agitating students and member of Independent Consolidation (IC) students' union, said two blocks of the Hindu Hostel have already been renovated and should be handed over to the outstation boarders immediately. "We will carry on the sit-in unless the university authorities open a channel of communication with us in this regard,," he told PTI. Ujan said 70 students have been on a dharna before the office of registrar since 2 pm yesterday. Vice-chancellor Anuradha Lohia yesterday said in a statement it will take another four to five months to make the Hindu Hostel "habitable and safe for students". The university authorities went back on their promise to renovate the hostel by July 15 and throw it open to students on August 1, Ujan claimed. The hostel adjoining the College Street institution was shut down for repairs on July 29, 2015, and 150 boarders were shifted to a rented accommodation in New Town, which is quite far from the campus. The boarders cite communication problem for attending classes from the New Town accommodation. A university spokesman said the registrar and other officials had left. "The university officials left by another gate without communicating with us. They have left but we will continue to sit-in till they listen to our demands," Ujan said. He said apart from members of SFI and IC, boarders not affiliated to any union were also participating in the agitation. The vice-chancellor was not available for comment. The university spokesman said the six blocks of the hostel were in a dilapidated state with plaster peeling off the walls and ceilings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind would arrive here tomorrow on a three-day visit to the state. On August 6, the President will inaugurate the 'Festival of Democracy' to mark the conclusion of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. Governor P Sathasivan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan and Opposition leader in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala would also attend the function to be held at the Legislature complex here. he inaugural function would be followed by a two-day National Legislators Conference on 'Challenges in the Empowerment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Independent India.' On August 7, the President will inaugurate the centenary celebrations of St Thomas College, Thrissur, before returning to Delhi. The president's itinerary also includes offering prayers at the Sree Krishna temple in Guruvayoor on Wednesday, official sources said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a show of unity, leaders of a number of opposition parties including Congress chief joined the in a massive protest at here over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and demanded that Chief Minister take immediate action against the accused. Prominent leaders who joined the protest included Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and TMC's Dinesh Trivedi. Addressing the protesters, opposition leaders attacked the and the and demanded stringent punishment against those involved in such heinous crimes. Congress president said if is ashamed of the rape incident, he should immediately act against the culprits. "We stand with the women of India, we stand with the girls and their families who suffered in this shelter home," he said. The Congress chief said on one side is the ideology of the and the RSS and on the other is the entire country and "this will be seen in the coming days". "India is saying that what has happened in the last four years, we do not like. When India makes up its mind, then no one can stand before it," he said. Tejashwi Yadav, who targeted Bihar Chief Minister over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzaffarpur, demanded a probe monitored by the Supreme Court. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the CBI. Demanding justice for the girls of the shelter home, who were allegedly sexually exploited, Yadav said the accused should be given exemplary punishment and steps be taken to ensure this does not happen again. Recalling the Nirbhaya incident in Delhi, Kejriwal said fast track courts should be set to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crime. "I demand that this case be probe in three months and the accused be hanged," he said. The Delhi chief minister alleged that the accused have connections with influential people. Yechury alleged anarchy is being sheltered by governments in BJP-ruled states. "We need to change this government....the slogan of 'beti bachao is now 'save beti from BJP'," he said. Sharad Yadav said that these crime have taken place under the nose of the JDU- government and demanded "a Supreme Court monitored probe conducted by the CBI". He also said that a commission should be set up to probe such crimes across the country, including Bihar. "The BJP is not saving the daughters of the country. It is instead busy saving cows," he said. In a show of solidarity, leaders of a number of opposition parties including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi joined the RJD at a protest at Jantar Mantar here over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter-home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar take immediate action against the accused. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in his address, sought quick justice and "hanging" of the guilty within three months while RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav demanded that the probe be monitored by the Supreme Court. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the CBI. Among other prominent leaders who joined the protest included CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, RJD's Manoj Jha and Misa Bharti, TMC's Dinesh Trivedi and DMK's T K S Elangovan. Addressing the protesters, the leaders attacked the BJP and the JD(U) and demanded stringent punishment against those involved in such heinous crimes. Gandhi said if Kumar is ashamed of the rape incident, he should immediately act against the culprits. "If he is really feeling ashamed then take action, put the guilty in jail, punish them," he said. The Congress chief, training his guns at the BJP, also said that there is an "unusual atmosphere" in the country. "Rape, assault cases... And, whoever is weak in the country today, they are being openly attacked, whether they are women, labourers, small traders, Dalits, adivasis, minorities, whoever is weak, is being attacked," he alleged. "We are here to tell people that we stand with countrymen and the women, those girls (who suffered in that shelter-home) and their families and won't move an inch back," he said. The Congress chief said on the one side is the ideology of the BJP and the RSS and on the other is the entire country and "this truth will be seen in the coming days and prime minister will see it, his party members will see it". "India is saying that what has happened in the last four years, people did not like. The kind of attack on its history and culture, the whole country is standing up against it. And, when India makes up its mind, then no one can stand before it," he said. Gandhi, in his brief address, also asked the media to "not be afraid" of anyone while discharging their duties and tell the truth openly, saying, "don't be afraid, we stand with you". He alleged that majority journalists were "not BJP-minded", but were "worried as they are being suppressed, threatened. And, when they try to do their job they were kicked out of their jobs". Tejashwi Yadav, who targeted Kumar, demanded a probe monitored by the Supreme Court. "Nitishji talks about girls education and protection but such heinous crimes happen right under the nose of the government. One can see difference in words and deeds. Also, the one of the girls, who had maximum information on this crime, was shifted to another shelter-home in Madhubani. And, reportedly, she has also gone missing," he alleged. "There is not 'jungle raj' (misrule) but 'rakchhas raj' (devil's rule) in Bihar today," he alleged. Tejashwi also demanded that the victim girls be taken to Delhi and provided safety. Demanding justice for the girls of the shelter home, who were allegedly sexually exploited, he said the accused should be given exemplary punishment and steps be taken to ensure this does not happen again. Recalling the Nirbhaya incident in Delhi, Kejriwal said fast track courts should be set to to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crime. "I demand that this case be probe in three months and the accused be hanged," he said. The Delhi chief minister alleged that the accused have connections with influential people. Yechury alleged anarchy is being sheltered by governments in BJP-ruled states. "We need to change this government in Patna (Bihar) and Delhi (Centre).... the slogan of 'beti bachao' is now 'beti bachao from BJP'," he said, adding, Sharad Yadav said that these crime have taken place under the nose of the JDU-BJP government and demanded "a Supreme Court monitored probe conducted by the CBI". He also said that a national commission should be set up to probe such crimes across the country, including Bihar. "The BJP is not saving the daughters of the country. It is instead busy saving cows," he said. A moment of silence was observed at the venue after the end of the protest and then various leaders held out a candlelight vigil on the dais and urged people to carry on the flame of hope and justice. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dozens of relatives of the youth, who was shot dead by security forces after he forcibly drove into the residence of former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar today, staged protests demanding an inquiry into the incident, officials said. Syeed Murfad Shah (25), a resident of Chinore locality in the outskirts of Jammu, was killed when he drove his XUV into the heavily fortified residence of the former chief minister at Bhatindi this morning before being shot dead by security forces, according to witnesses. On hearing about the incident, Shah's father and other family members reached the spot and demanded a probe into the incident, officials added. After the body was taken to the Government Medical College hospital for postmortem, about 200 acquaintances of the deceased, originally hailing from Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district, assembled there. They prevented doctors from performing an autopsy for several hours and asked why an "innocent unarmed person" was killed, officials said. While the postmortem of the deceased was underway at the hospital, another large group of protesters blocked the main road at Chinore, they said. Senior police and civil officials were at the spot and efforts were on to persuade the protesters to lift the blockade on the Jammu-Bantalab road. The agitated protesters burnt tyres and raised slogans against security forces and the national media for "misleading reporting", the officials said. "An intruder gate-crashed into the house of Abdullah, had a scuffle with security personnel and attempted to snatch a rifle from an officer (before he was killed)," Inspector General of Police (Jammu) S D Singh Jamwal told reporters. He said the youth was alone in the vehicle and an investigation was on to ascertain how he managed to reach the house without being challenged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The two Romanians arrested from New Delhi for their alleged involvement in the recently reported ATM fraud cases in Kolkata might have links to their fellow countrymen held from other cities in similar cases, police said today. Kolkata Police arrested two Romania nationals Opera Obidu Simon (31) and Dumidru Caling (32), from New Delhi's Munirka area yesterday, when they were about to enter an ATM kiosk. It is apparently the same kiosk from where fraudulent withdrawals had been made using fake ATM cards in the past couple of weeks, a Kolkata Police officer said. The two were brought from New Delhi on transit remand and when produced before a city court, they were remanded to 14 days' police custody. "So far we had arrested Nigerians in connection with such fraud cases reported from the city. This is for the first time that Romanians have been arrested for such cases. "We are questioning them to find out whether they have any link to the other Romanians arrested from other cities in the country. These two seemed to be part of a gang involved in such ATM frauds taken place in other parts of the country recently," the IPS officer said. Preliminary investigations showed that several cards were cloned using skimmers installed in three ATMs in the city. Later money was withdrawn using cloned cards from ATMs in New Delhi. Several documents, cloned debit and credit cards, fake passports were seized from the place where the two were staying in New Delhi, he said. An initial probe revealed that two had put up at at a rented apartment in the city between March and May. Kolkata Police, so far, has received 76 complaints from customers of two nationalised banks in the city in this connection, the officer said. ATM frauds using cloned cards are on the rise across the country, he said referring to the arrests of Romanians in such cases in cities such as New Delhi, Kerala, Mumbai and Bangalore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal has an estimated Rs 43,000-crore shortfall in GST revenues in the April-June quarter and giving incentives for digital transactions would put only more pressure on the exchequer, state finance minister Amit Mitra said today. "It is estimated that in the first quarter of this fiscal there has been a Rs 43,000 crore shortfall in GST revenue collection. In the middle of this loss, if you give away revenue on incentives in this and that, then that's a problem," Mitra told reporters after the 29th meeting of the GST Council here. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council today decided to roll out on pilot basis digital payments incentives through cash back to consumers and the GSTN and NPCI will soon develop the system for the same. A group of ministers (GoM), headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, yesterday worked out a mode for incentivising digital payments under the GST by way of giving cash backs to Rupay card and BHIM app users. Mitra, who is a member of the GoM, had earlier this week written to Modi stating that he is not in favour of giving such incentives. "If we now give incentive for digital payments and reduce revenues, then the shortfall will increase. If we give one incentive today, then tomorrow we will have to give 10 other incentives," Mitra said. According to the incentive plan, a cash back of 20 per cent of the total tax amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 100, would be given to users of Rupay cards and BHIM app. Mitra said after the technology for digital incentive is developed it would be brought back to the GST Council. After that if any state wants to give this incentive they can volunteer and a pilot will happen which will give an assessment of the revenue impact. This will involve refund of a very complex nature. The Council today decided to roll it out on public basis. So if our state do not want to lose taxes from GST, then we can choose not to join this, Mitra said. In the current fiscal, the month-wise revenue mopped up from GST stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June and Rs 96,483 crore in July. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Deficient rainfall has poured cold water on civil society efforts to solve the perennial water crisis in Beed district of Maharashtra, leaving farmers staring at crop losses. Braving heat, hundreds of people from 15 villages in the district took part in a 45-day-long "Shramdaan Abhiyan" (voluntary labour campaign) in April-May to build infrastructure for rainwater harvesting. However, lack of adequate rainfall in the district, which is part of the parched Marathwada region in Central Maharashtra, has rendered villagers' efforts to overcome water crisis ineffective, at least for now. The campaign was launched on April 8 by an NGO run by social activist and former AAP leader Mayank Gandhi, who has adopted these villages, having a total population of 30,590, for water conservation and preservation. As part of the campaign by the NGO, Global Vikas Trust, locals dug trenches, farm ponds, watershed structures and check dams to preserve rainwater. "Villagers, including women and young children, worked hard with machines and created over 80 crore litres of surface water storage capacity and 1,600 crore litres of underground storage capacity during the Abhiyan. "But unfortunately, there has been very little rainfall in the district which is a matter of serious concern," Gandhi told PTI. "Villagers are feeling helpless before nature. No water conservation method can work without rains. Crops have already failed. Cotton plants have not grown beyond 9 inches (as against normal height of 4 feet). Hope, things will change soon," he added. Gandhi, camping in Parli taluka since the last two years, said, "In June, as against 136.7 mm average rainfall, this year it has rained just 71.6mm (52 per cent). In July, as against 183.7 mm average rainfall, this year it has rained only 60 mm (32.7 per cent). So, in total, it has rained just 41 per cent of average rainfall." Parli has only 1.72 per cent irrigated area as against the national average of 40 per cent and the Maharashtra average of 18 per cent. Anant Rupnar, a farmer from Parchundi village, said people are hoping the rain gods will smile and their efforts will bear fruit. "After working very hard during the entire month of May, we pinned our hope on the rain gods, but it seems, they are evading us. "It seems all our efforts are going waste in absence of rains. Soybean crops are drying in farms and cotton crops are getting destroyed as worms are eating away the cotton fibre, causing financial loss to us," he said. Water conservation will take place when there is enough water, Rupnar said. Mukteshwar Kadbhane, a farmer from Bhilegaon village, said if it does not rain heavily in the next three to four days, cotton crops will get almost destroyed. "After first monsoon rains in early June, farmers planted cotton and soyabean crops. But because of the large gap (in rainfall) from first week of June to now, the crops have failed. If it rains in the 3 to 4 days, then it is okay, otherwise our crops will fail completely," he said. "Our crops of moong (split Green gram), urad (split black gram), corn and jowar (sorghum) are almost 60 per cent lost. There is a very little chance for the revival of these crops," Kadbhane added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A scrap dealer was seriously injured after two unidentified men shot at him in Marol area in Mumbai's Andheri suburb, police said today. The incident happened in the early hours of today when scrap dealer Islam Vali Khan (58) was parking his car at his residential building on Marol Church Road, said Nitin Alaknure, senior inspector, MIDC police station. The two motorcycle-borne shooters fled the scene of crime soon after firing at Khan, the official said. "The security guard of the building alerted Khan's family who rushed him to a nearby hospital. A surgery was performed on Khan and he is now stable," another official said. He added that case of attempt to murder had been registered and CCTV footage of the area was being scoured to get clues about the shooting. A probe was underway to ascertain the motive behind the crime, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A disaster was averted when a security patrol moving in Belagrha village detected and defused a powerful bomb planted by the Maoists in Kalahandi district, CRPF sources said. The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was spotted in the village in Tirmunhi forest area during a patrolling carried out by a team of CRPF personnel and police yesterday, the sources said. A sniffer dog which accompanied the patrolling team detected the powerful bomb which was defused by the bomb disposal personnel of the 4th battalion of CRPF on the spot, they said. The device contained about 10 kg of explosive materials. The explosives were kept in a 10-litre steel container fixed with electric detonator and wire, they said. The IED was found during intensified patrolling following information regarding movement of the Maoists in the area, the sources said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah flagged off Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's pre-poll tour 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' today and tore into the opposition Congress over alleged lack of development in the state under its rule. Flagging off the 58-day yatra, aimed at seeking people's mandate in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, from the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district, Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Raje and Shah offered prayers at the temple before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president. They left for a helipad nearby to head to Kankroli city in the district to address the first meeting of the tour. The 'rath' will reach Kankroli by road and will be used by Raje for her onward journey. The 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' will cover 165 of the total 200 assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. Speaking at the first public meeting, Shah said 'Rahul Baba' should go and see the villages where no development had taken place in the 50 years of the Congress rule. But the situation has changed under the BJP rule and now development works are happening there. "Congress leaders here have said that they will ask 40 questions during the yatra. Rahul Baba also asks questions and seeks the account of works done by the BJP, but public is asking from you the account of works done by your four generations," he said. Shah said that the Narendra Modi government released two-and-a-half-times more funds to the state government as compared to the previous UPA government. Targeting the Congress over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue in Assam, Shah said that the Congress was seeing illegal Bangladeshi residing in India as its vote bank and asked people to pose a question to Rahul Gandhi whether the illegal Bangladeshi people should live in India or not. "Congress president should tell the people whether illegal Bangladeshi should be in India or not. Congress is actually looking at vote bank in this issue but the Modi government does not run on the basis of vote bank," he said. Shah also said that BJP did not dilute the SC/ST Act and instead the BJP government has strengthened it. He said that the Modi government wants to give statutory status to the OBC Commission. "When Rahul Baba comes to Rajasthan, ask him whether the Congress will support the bill in Rajya Sabha or not," he said. The bill to give the statutory status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday. Talking about the schemes and programmes of the government, Shah said that the Modi government brought 116 schemes for people and the Raje government has touched upon all sections of the society in the state and carried out developmental works. "Congress did nothing for development. Rajasthan which has been a glorious state became a 'Bimaru' state because of Congress but now under the leadership of Raje, the state is progressing and going to become a developed state. We have committed to form the government again," he said. He asked people to vote for the party to make Vasundhra Raje the chief minister of Rajasthan again in the Assembly elections and Narendra Modi as prime minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Raje said that it was her third yatra and exuded confidence that the party will secure victory again. "Five years back, I had begun Suraj Sankalp Yatra and Parivartan Yatra in 2003 from here and people gave us their mandate. We worked hard, I conducted visits and tours of the state to know people's problems and provided them with what they wanted," Raje said. She said that the government launched programmes and worked to enhance the dignity of women by launching schemes such as Bhamashah scheme and others. "Congress always tried to create rift among castes but we want to take every section along with us. It is our aim to launch public welfare schemes and transfer the benefit to people. Development works have taken place in last four years in every panchayat and district,", she said. She said that the state is no more a Bimaru state. In the coming years, she said, industries will be set up, development will pick up pace for a progressive Rajasthan. "There is a need to end 'One time Congress, one time BJP' trend to push Rajasthan among fastest developing states. Development took place at fast pace in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat where the BJP is in power," the chief minister said in the public meeting. She also asked the Congress to give a list of works done by them in the past 50 years. "People should analyse who served the nation best," she said. Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who is the convener of the yatra, hailed the prime minister saying he has worked for the nation, brought honour for the country globally. "He has worked for poor, women, youths and those in need," Kataria said in the meeting attended by a large number of people. Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari said that the party chief gave a message of 'Ajay (invincible) Rajasthan-Ajay BJP', saying the 'Gaurav Yatra' will turn into the 'Vijay (victory) Yatra' of the BJP in Rajasthan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday flagged off Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's pre-poll tour 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' from the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district. The 58-day tour is aimed at seeking people's mandate in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year. Raje and Shah offered prayers at the temple before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president. They left for a helipad nearby to head to Kankroli city in the district to address the first meeting of the tour. The 'rath' will reach Kankroli by road and will be used by Raje for her onward journey. During the yatra, Raje will spend 40 days touring and addressing public meetings and the remaining 18 will be off. The 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' will cover 165 of the total 200 assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. States will roll out on pilot basis incentives for digital transactions through Rupay card and BHIM app under the GST, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said today. The GST Council, chaired by Goyal, in its meeting here today also decided to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) under Minister of State of Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla to look into the issues of the MSME sector. Simultaneously, the law and procedure related issues for the sector would be looked into by the law committee of Centre and state tax officers, while tax rate related issues would be looked after by the Fitment Committee of tax officers. With regard to incentives for digital transactions, Goyal said that these would be rolled out on trial basis by states who volunteer to do so. Based on the pilot, we can asses the revenue gain or loss, he told reporters after the GST Council meeting. A ministerial panel headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi today approved the proposal for incentivising digital payments through Rupay card and BHIM app by way of a cash back. Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card and BHIM UPI, would get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum limit of Rs 100. The next meeting of the GST Council will be held on September 28-29 in Goa. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today concluded her "result-oriented" visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the country's top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. Swaraj called on Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov yesterday and met her counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev today and discussed ways to deepen cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. She left for Uzbekistan on the final leg of her three-nation tour. "Concluding a focused and result-oriented visit, EAM takes off for Tashkent for the final leg of her 3-nation visit," Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. "Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev, a perfect host, came to the airport to see off EAM Sushma Swaraj and accepted EAM's invitation to visit India," Kumar said. After their bilateral meeting, Abdyldaev invited Swaraj for a stroll along the picturesque Lake Issyk Kul - the 2nd largest mountain lake in the world. "Issyk Kul means warm lake! The warmth that helped consolidate the traditional friendly ties between India and Kyrgyzstan during EAM Sushma Swaraj visit," Kumar tweeted. Swaraj arrived yesterday at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. "Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production," Kumar tweeted. Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev's trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today held talks with her Kyrgyzstan counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev on deepening cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. Swaraj arrived yesterday at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. "Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production," Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. "Walking together to take our relationship to new heights! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev proceed to the restricted format meeting in Issyk Kul," he had said in a tweet before the meeting. Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev's trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. In the last segment of her three-nation Central Asian tour, Swaraj would arrive in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Authoritarian Tajikistan has called for the first time an incident that left four foreign cyclists dead in the Central Asian country a "terror attack" while appearing to refute the Islamic State group's claim of responsibility. In a statement published late yesterday the ex-Soviet country's state prosecutor said the attack initially reported as a hit-and-run road accident was aimed at "creating an atmosphere of fear and panic in society and undermining the international authority of the Republic of Tajikistan". "The attack on the foreign tourists was a terrorist act," the statement said of the assault by an armed gang on a group of seven foreign cyclists Sunday which left two Americans, one Swiss and one Dutch national dead. On Tuesday IS released a video showing what it said was a pledge of allegiance by the five men accused of murdering the tourists visiting the impoverished ex-Soviet nation. In a first official mention of the video Friday, however, the country's state prosecutor said the clip had been released "with the aim of deflecting suspicions from another terrorist organisation, the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is the main commissioner of this terrorist act". A prior police report pinning responsibility for the attack on the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT) -- which styled itself as a moderate, faith-based opposition party until it was outlawed by Tajikistan in 2015 -- has generated scepticism outside the republic. The government began a long crackdown on the opposition in 2015 just before the IRPT failed to make parliament in a vote widely viewed as strewn with violations. Tajik police also alleged that a detained suspect viewed as one of the leaders of the attack on the tourists "underwent training" in Iran, a country with whom Tajikistan currently has poor relations. Both Iran and IRPT have denied any links to the attack. The video released by IS Tuesday shows five men, who resemble pictures of the suspects put out by Tajik police, sitting by a tree in front of a jihadist flag. The clip shows them swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's leader. Four of the men were killed resisting arrest, according to Tajik police while a fifth is in police custody. The victims were killed by being struck by a car and attacked with knives and guns as they cycled along a road off the Pamir Highway -- a popular tourist route with spectacular views. They have been named as Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin of the United States, Dutch citizen Rene Wokke and Swiss citizen Markus Hummel. One Dutch and one Swiss citizen survived the attack while a French cyclist escaped unscathed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Under attack from opposition RJD on Muzaffarpur sex scandal case, three women spokespersons of ruling JD(U) here today wrote an open letter to former Chief Minister Rabri Devi asking her to expel from the party those involved in anti-social and immoral acts. The JD(U) spokespersons letter to Rabri Devi preceded a sit-in to be staged by her son and leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in the evening on sex abuse case of minor girls in a state-run shelter home. Tejashwi Yadav had yesterday written an open letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his "criminal silence" on one of the world's most horrifying instititional mass rape case (In Muzaffarpur shelter home). The three JD(U) women spokespersons--Anjum Ara, Shweta Vishwas and Bharti Mehta- also asked Rabri Devi not to give entry into her house Mani Prakash Yadav, who served as PA of Tejashwi Yadav when he was Deputy CM in the Grand Alliance government, and who has been jailed and charge sheeted in an immoral trafficking case. They referred to a case registered against Mani Prakash Yadav with the Gandhi Maidan police station for allegedly indulging in immoral trafficking. "Mani Yadav has not only been charge sheeted in the case but had been in jail too in the case," the letter said. "You are a women and has served as CM also. You can not only feel the pain and agony of a girl/woman but can also understand the duty of a mother," the letter said. The JD(U) spokespersons also alleged that Rabri Devi has failed in her duty to instill good qualities (sanskar) in her sons- Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav. "The reality is that you could neither give good qualities of a politician (rajnaitik sanskar) to your sons nor could educate them on character building," it said. Apart from the environment of the house, the environment of one's surroundings too has its impact on the upbringing of the children, the open letter said. It added that "some unidentified persons had attacked Tejashwi and Tej Pratap on January 1, 2008 for passing comments against girls on three different places- Ashoka hotel, Connaught Place and Mahrauli farm house- on the occasion of new year bash." But you did not control your sons, it added. It has also been alleged in the letter that the "two brothers saw RJD legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav, who server jail term in a case of rape of a minor girl, visiting party chief Lalu Prasad's residence which had its deep and adverse impact on them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trinamool Congress today observed a 'black day' in various parts of West Bengal in protest against the alleged "detention and manhandling" of its leaders in Assam's Silchar airport. The protest will continue tomorrow too, party sources said. TMC ministers, leaders and activists hit the streets in the districts and blocks across the state to protest against the alleged assault on the eight-member TMC team at the Silchar airport on Thursday when they tried to enter Assam's Cachar district to assess the situation in the wake of the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Carrying placards and sporting black masks and badges, TMC activists shouted slogans against the BJP governments at the Centre and Assam and the final draft of the NRC, published on July 30 and touted to be The eight-member TMC delegation had comprised of six MPs, an MLA and West Bengal minister Firhad Hikim. They were stopped at the Silchar airport and put under preventive detention. They returned to the city yesterday. TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the members of the delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport and accused the BJP of imposing a "super emergency" in the country. TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee had yesterday said, "What happened to our party delegation is not only shameful but also undemocratic. Our slogan will be 'we don't need this monstrous government anymore'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Days after Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dhinakaran said his party would consider aligning with the Congress if it walked out of the DMK-led alliance, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee today ruled out any such possibility. "Dhinakaran has expressed his view. We are already in an alliance with the DMK," Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President Su Thirunavukkarasar told PTI when asked about Dhinakaran's views. On August 2, Dhinakaran to a query if his party would go for an electoral pact with the Congress, had said AMMK would consider it if the national party came out of the alliance with the DMK. "Let them first come out of the alliance," he had said adding "then we would consider it." Three-time Congress MLA and former Rajya Sabha member S Peter Alphonse concurred with party State unit chief and said such matters were, however, in the domain of the party high command. "My view is, I don't think there is any space for any other alliance at present." He said the alliance with the DMK is "active, strong, "time-tested and proven."Through thick and thick both the parties had sailed together, he said. "We know each other's indispensability. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tripura government today said it will fill up 9,424 vacant posts in different departments soon by strictly adhering to the new employment policy it introduced after coming to power in March this year. Minister for Education and Law, Ratan Lal Nath said Tripura's Council of Ministers introduced a fair recruitment policy replacing the old flawed one to provide jobs to the deserving candidates alone. We would strictly adhere to the new employment policy of the state. All new appointments would be made through examinations conducted by the Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC), he told reporters here yesterday. The BJP-IPFT government headed by Chief Minister Biplab Deb imposed embargo on all ongoing recruitment processes on March 10, the very next day after it assumed office, citing grounds for review. Restriction on recruitments has been revoked recently. We sent a letter to TPSC to conduct recruitment procedure for 182 Assistant Professors. Recruitment would also be done in over 9,000 other posts in different government departments, Nath said. The minister also said the previous Left Front government withheld recruitment in over 8,000 posts though many of them were notified by TPSC. Many of them were sanctioned by the finance department as well, he added. He also said that recruitment processes initiated by the previous Left Front government now stand cancelled and the process will be started shortly. Any candidate who has exceeded upper age limit for government service would be able to avail a one-time relaxation of age bar, the minister said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To boost online sales of handloom products, the Telangana government is improving the website of the Telangana State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (TSCO), a senior official said here today. The website is being improved by having better categorisation, indicating discounts, showcasing all handloom categories so that it generates people's interest to buy handloom products over the e-commerce website, Shailaja Ramaiyer, Director of Handloom and Textiles, said. "We found that if you get into the e-commerce business, there is a much better market for the handloom sector. So we are looking to improve our own website," she said. The modified website would be showcased on August 7 on the occasion of National Handloom Day, she said. The director said TSCO had opened its own website about eight months back after bifurcation of APCO (Andhra Pradesh) and TSCO. But sales started to pick up this year. "So the minister (for handlooms and textiles K T Rama Rao) wanted us to look at and improve the e-commerce website and also ensure that we have more online sales. At present, there are few websites selling handlooms directly, she said. TSCO's franchise business model would be launched on August 7 and MoUs would be signed with the franchisees that day, she said. There are about 46 TSCO showrooms at present. The government's intention was also to take care of weavers' welfare, she said and explained some measures taken in this direction. She was speaking on the sidelines of a press meet where some of the state's textiles products were showcased by models. The state government said it would celebrate the national handloom day in a big way. The objective of the celebrations was to highlight the contribution of handlooms,promote them and increase the income of handloom weavers in the state, an official release said. The government had already allocated Rs 400 crore to the handloom sector and was implementing schemes like 'Chenetha Mithra' (40 per cent yarn subsidy), it said. On August 7, the minister would inaugurate a handloom exhibition.He would felicitate eminent handloom personalities, awardees and present 'Konda Laxman Bapuji' state awards to handloom weavers who exhibited special skills, it said. In the evening, the Department of Handlooms and Textiles would present a unique fashion show of traditional and contemporary handlooms. Bibi Russel, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Handlooms, designers Sravan Kumar and Sunaina Sood and skilled designers from Telangana would showcase the traditional handlooms of the state, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Uttarakhand High Court has come to the rescue of a government servant who was denied maternity leave for her third child, terming a state government rule to this effect "unconstitutional". Hearing a writ petition by Haldwani resident Urmila Manish, the single judge bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma said denial of maternity leave to women for their third child under the Second Proviso of Fundamental Rule 153 of Financial Handbook of the Uttar Pradesh Fundamental Rules, adopted by Uttarakhand, went against the letter and spirit of the Constitution. The court in its July 30 order said the rule should be struck down as it went against Article 42 of the Constitution, which provides for "just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief", and Section 27 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. Taking a humanitarian view, it ordered that the petitioner be granted leave. Manish was denied maternity leave on the ground that she already has two children and could not be granted the same for her third child in consonance with the the Second Proviso of Fundamental Rule 153. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's youngest known Islamic State female terrorist plotter who had been convicted of planning a terror attack in the UK earlier this year has been jailed for life. Moroccan-origin Safaa Boular, 18, was convicted of preparing terrorism acts on British landmarks after failing to travel to Syria to join ISIS militants. She will serve a minimum of 13 years behind bars before being considered for parole. Boular appeared in court yesterday wearing a short skirt and western clothing, claiming that she had rejected Islam and her extremist views. But the judge ignored her claims to have turned over a new leaf during the sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey court in London. "In my view there's insufficient evidence to say at this stage this defendant is a truly transformed individual. Her views were deeply entrenched," Judge Dennis said. However much she may have been influenced and drawn into extremism, it appeared she knew what she was doing and acted with open eyes. She was old enough to make her own decisions and her own choices," he said. The teenager was preparing for her school exams when she was seduced by ISIS fighter Naweed Hussain, originally from Coventry in England and more than 15 years her senior. She hid her ISIS-inspired plans to attack crowds at the British Museum in coded conversations about preparations for an innocent Mad Hatter's tea party. She had been trying to reach Syria to marry Hussain in an online ceremony, but her attempt was foiled by police. Hussain was later killed in a drone strike. Boular turned to plotting a suicide bomb and gun attack on the British Museum with her older sister and mother instead. All three women have now been convicted for their part in the UK's first all-female terrorist attack plot. Boular's sister, 22-year-old Rizlaine Boular, has been jailed for life and their mother Mina Dich was handed six years and nine months for assisting her daughters in the plot in June. Their plans were uncovered by online undercover MI5 intelligence officers after the Boular family home in Vauxhall, south London, was bugged. Boular handed the charge of plotting a terror attack to her older sister when she was in custody for trying to travel to Syria in 2016. In coded telephone calls, they discussed a traditional English tea party with an Alice In Wonderland theme. At the sentencing hearing for Boular this week, the judge warned she posed an ongoing threat to the public. He said, "Based on the nature and circumstances of this offending, including the extent of her radicalisation and the depth of commitment to the Islamic State cause... I am satisfied there remains a significant risk to members of the public. The defendant has yet to undertake deradicalisation measures which might undo completely her previous mindset." Boular's defence team urged the judge to take into account what they described as her deeply troubling background, including the influence of her "very radicalised sister" and "neglectful mother". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres has declined to comment on the UN Human Rights High Commissioner's report on Kashmir, saying it is for the human rights chief to speak for himself and up to the Member States of the Human Rights Council to evaluate its content. India had rejected High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein's report in June in which he had called for a commission of inquiry by the Human Rights Council to conduct an independent, international investigation into the human rights situation in Kashmir. When asked to comment by a Pakistani journalist on a recent New York Times report on Kashmir that appeared to affirm the UN Human Rights High Commissioner's report on Kashmir, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said, "Well, I'll let the High Commissioner speak for himself. I know he spoke to the press here yesterday. Beyond that, you're aware that his office has come out with a report on Kashmir, and it's up to the members of the Human Rights Council to evaluate the contents of that report," Haq told reporters at the daily press briefing here yesterday. Al Hussein's report had found no support from other members of the Human Rights Council and no action was taken, nor was it followed up by anyone during the last session of the Council in Geneva in June. India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Tanmaya Lal had said that the "so-called" report reflected the "clear bias of an official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified sources of information". Al Hussein's four-year term ends August 31 and he is not seeking a re-election to the post. At a farewell conference at the UN on Thursday, Al Hussein said he still stood by his report. He said he had asked for "unconditional access" to both sides of the Line of Control from Pakistan and India and is "still waiting" for such an access. He said "any discrepancies" will be sorted out if his office was given access to the region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 45-year-old mad ended his life as he was upset over frequent altercations with his wife, police said today. Anil Kumar, a shop owner shot himself at his home in Datiyana village under Chapar police station here, Circle Officer Rizwan Ahmad said. According to relatives, the couple had a heated argument last night as well which might be the reason behind Kumar taking the extreme step. The body of the deceased has been sent for postmortem and further investigation is on, Ahmad added. In another incident, the body of a 35-year-old woman was found near a railway track in the district's Khatoli town. According to Circle Officer Rajiv Kumar Singh, it was suspected that the woman died after falling from a moving train. The deceased women, who is yet to be identified, had the name Murti Devi inked on her arm, Singh said. The body was sent for postmortem and investigation is on, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US' export to India in both goods and services has increased this year, resulting in a substantial drop in trade deficit as compared with the last year, according to the latest official figures. As per the figures available with the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Census, in the first six months of this year, America's export to India in merchandise increased by 28.42 per cent from $12.1 billion to $15.5 billion. During the same period, India's export to the US in goods increased by 13.11 per cent from $23.6 billion in 2017 to $26.8 billion. The total bilateral trade in the first six months of the year increased by 18.4 per cent from $35.7 billion in 2017 to $42.36 billion in 2018. The trade deficit in goods registered a decline of 2.54 per cent, according to the figures. The bilateral trade figures in the services sector for the first six months are yet to be revealed. However, in the first quarter of 2018, the deficit in bilateral trade in services declined by a whopping 42.9 per cent from $ 11.89 billion to $678 million. India's export to the US in the services sector in the first quarter of the year increased by 1.83 per cent from $6.8 billion to $7 billion. During the same period, America's export to India in the services sector increased by 11.19 per cent from $5.69 billion to $6.3 billion, the figures stated. Total bilateral trade in the services sector in the first quarter increased by 6.7 per cent from $12.57 billion to $13.3 billion. If these trends continue, the bilateral trade in goods and services is expected to maintain the upward trajectory and register a decline in trade deficit, which is one of the main issues of concern of the Trump administration. India and the US' total bilateral trade in goods and services has increased from a mere $20 billion in the year 2000 to over $126.1 billion in the year 2017. The two countries have set a target of taking the total bilateral trade to $500 billion. During their White House meeting in June 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump committed that the US and India - leading engines of growth in the global economy - should intensify their economic cooperation to make their nations stronger and their citizens more prosperous. Noting that extensive economic and tax reforms in their respective countries will unlock immense economic opportunities for both countries, the leaders committed to further expanding and balancing the trade relationship and removing obstacles to growth and jobs creation, a joint statement after the meeting had said. Modi and Trump also resolved to pursue increased commercial engagement in a manner that advances the principles of free and fair trade. "To this end, the United States and India plan to undertake a comprehensive review of trade relations with the goal of expediting regulatory processes; ensuring that technology and innovation are appropriately fostered, valued, and protected; and increasing market access in areas such as agriculture, information technology, and manufactured goods and services," it had said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today warned Russia, China and other countries against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Pompeo's comments came on the heels of a new United Nations report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating UN sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil. Speaking on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore, Pompeo told reporters that the US has new, credible reports that Russia is violating UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He said Washington would take "very seriously" any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed. "If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation," Pompeo said, noting that the UN Security Council had voted unanimously in favour of the sanctions. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea," he said. "Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally, fully denuclearising North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously." At the United Nations, meanwhile, a summary of a report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against North Korea was sent to the Security Council yesterday that said North Korea is continuing with both its nuclear and missile programmes. And, in addition to the oil transfers, it said the North was violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions. Late yesterday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley raised the alarm, saying that "talk is cheap." ''Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," she said in a statement. She made the remarks as the US asked the Security Council to add a North Korean bank executive, a North Korean company, a Chinese company and a Russian bank to the UN sanctions blacklist. In his discussions with Southeast Asian officials in Singapore, Pompeo said he had implored them all to "strictly enforce all sanctions," including an end to ship-to-ship transfers of oil for North Korea, and had been encouraged by the response. Despite the warning to Russia, Pompeo said he remained optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledge to President Donald Trump to denuclearise. But he said the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress. Earlier, in an interview with a Singapore's Channel Asia, Pompeo had said the pace for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons programme would rest with Kim. "The ultimate timeline for denuclearisation will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he said. "The decision is his." At the conference, however, Pompeo appeared to step back from that comment, noting that the timeline is subject to negotiation between Washington and Pyongyang. He recalled that Kim had committed to denuclearisation at the historic summit with Trump on June 12 in Singapore and that both sides "have been working since then to develop the process through which that will be achieved." "The process of achieving denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is one that I think we have all known will take some time," Pompeo said, adding later: "I am optimistic that we will get this done in a timeline and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded." Pompeo said yesterday that while there's "still a ways to go," the United States remains "confident" in North Korea's commitment to denuclearise. On Thursday, the White House announced that Trump had received a new letter from Kim and had responded quickly with a letter of his own. The correspondence came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearisation despite a rosy picture of progress painted by Trump. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today decided to take on the Narendra Modi Government on the issue of corruption by launching a public campaign that will highlight the bank scams, Rafale deal and the "bad" state of the economy. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi where the leaders also chalked out a strategy on the crucial issue of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC). The meeting of the working committee, the party's highest decision making body, was attended by top party leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Aza, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot. However, former party president Sonia Gandhi was unable to attend the meeting. This is the second meeting of the newly constituted CWC under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. The opposition party decided to go all out in highlighting the issue of corruption both inside and outside Parliament. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said after the meeting that the party will launch a public campaign or 'Jan Andolan, details of which will be chalked out in the coming days in consultation with state units and leaders. "The CWC met today. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended today's meeting," Gandhi said on Twitter. The party intends to corner the government on media reports which quoted Antiguan authorities as saying that Indian agencies had no adverse information against Mehul Choksi when the Caribbean country conducted a background check on the PNB scam accused before granting him citizenship in 2017. The Congress has alleged that it had "exposed the complicity and connivance" of the Modi government in the escape of the fugitive billionaire. On the Rafale deal, Surjewala said neither the Prime Minister nor the Defence Minister are disclosing the price of the jets purchased by this government and claimed that the price fixed during UPA was Rs 526 crore against Rs 1,676 crore for the jets purchased under NDA, that has caused a loss of Rs 48,000 crore to the exchequer. Taking a cautious stand on the National Registar of Citizens exercise in Assam, Surjewala said after the meeting that the NRC was "Congress' baby" and was initiated as a consequence of the Assam accord signed by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 and the party will ensure that no Indian citizen is left out of it. "The NRC is a baby of the Congress party and it will ensure that no Indian citizens is deprived of his legitimate right," he said. Surjewala also pointed out figures claiming that while the Congress-led UPA government from 2005 to 2013 had deported 82,728 foreigners (Bangladeshis), the NDA government has only deported only 1,822 foreign nationals in the last four years. He was citing figures shared by the Modi government in Parliament. "Every Indian citizen should get justice and foreigners should be identified," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 21-year-old woman was allegedly stabbed to death by an unidentified man near the Regional Transport Office (RTO) here this morning, police said. The incident took place around 10.30 am, they said. The victim, Prachi Zade, was going on her two-wheeler when the accused stopped her near the RTO on the highway and stabbed her several times before fleeing from the spot. She died on the spot, police said. After being alerted about the incident, a police team rushed to the spot and the victim's body was taken to the Government Civil Hospital for a post-mortem. Although the police are yet to know the motive behind the killing, they suspect it could be an outcome of a love affair. Police have registered a case of murder and a search has been launched to nab the accused. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China's state media said on Saturday the government's retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods showed rational restraint and accused the United States of blackmail. Late on Friday, China's finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra levies ranging from 5 to 25 percent on a total value of goods less than half of that proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. The response follows the Trump administration's proposal of a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of ... DUBAI (Reuters) - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would resume all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb, the state news agency SPA reported. Saudi Arabia halted temporarily oil shipments through the lane on July 26 after attacks on two big oil tankers by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement.SPA quoted Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih as saying: "The decision to resume shipping of oil through Bab al-Mandeb comes after all necessary procedures were taken by the coalition leadership to protect ships of the coalition countries."Yemen, where a ... A passenger aboard an Air India flight from Milan to New Delhi was arrested after he forcibly tried to enter the cockpit. The flight AI 138 had to return to Milan where the passenger was taken into custody for unruly behaviour, said an ANI report. The plane had taken off from Milan with 250 passengers on schedule and was flying for an hour when Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit of the aircraft. The pilot decided to dump fuel and return to Milan where Singh was handed over to the police at the airport, the report said. The pilot of Air India flight AI 138 decided to dump fuel as the plane had been refuelled at the Milan airport for its eight-hour-long journey to New Delhi and was still too heavy for landing back only after an hour's flight. The flight departed for New Delhi after a delay of two and a half hours post security clearances. "AI 138 Milan Delhi flight delayed by 2hrs 37 minutes as one unruly pax Mr. Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after takeoff from Milan on schedule. The A/C landed back and pax was handed over to local police," Air India said in a statement. Chinese companies currently rely heavily on chip imports due to a lack of advanced chip production technology in the country combined with high demand from increasingly telecommunications-dependent industries. Some of Chinas chip companies and policymakers believe establishing a Chinese-led hardware and software ecosystem is the only way to guarantee that domestic companies will be self-sufficient and able to withstand threats from foreign interests and governments. When Chinas top leadership met this week to discuss economic policy for the rest of the year, the official record didnt mention the trade war with the U.S.; instead, it referred to obvious changes in the external environment. Neither did it mention the swift fall in infrastructure investment growth in the first half of 2018. But such new problems and new challenges, as the report alludes to, do seem to be weighing on the leaderships minds and the policy priorities that emerged for the second half of 2018 have been accordingly adjusted slightly, analysts say. A Chinese buyers acquisition of an advanced German machinery manufacturer has become the first deal Berlin has effectively blocked due to concerns about surrendering key technology. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is preparing to revise rules to crack down on a practice known as reverse takeover or backdoor listing, as part of efforts to clean up the market, improve the quality of listed companies, and offer better protection to investors. In 2000, the southern stretch of Mong Koks Sai Yeung Choi Street was designated a pedestrian zone for part of each week to relieve congestion on the popular shopping areas sidewalks during peak hours. But as the crowds grew, so did the noise and light pollution suffered by the streets residents. In 2014, after attempting to reduce noise and congestion by shortening the hours of the pedestrian zone, councilors in Hong Kongs Yau Tsim Mong district voted in May to close the Sai Yeung Choi Street pedestrian area. These are the five stories that I dont want you to miss from last week. Please share your comments on the In Focus section and on our other coverage at news@caixin.com. And when youre done perusing these must-read stories, check out Caixins weekly digital magazine. Kind regards, Doug Young Managing Editor The Wake-Up Call for Chinas Chip Industry After ZTE scare, domestic firms confront obstacles in quest to become global leaders A smart chip package assembly line at an electronics company in Nantong, Jiangsu province, in February. Photo: VCG Reading the Tea Leaves of Economic Policy After Politburo meeting, analysts see emphasis on stability, active fiscal policy, infrastructure investment Construction is seen on the Huaixiao railway station in Huaibei, Anhui province, in July 2016. Photo: VCG Chinese Tech Takeover Abandoned in Face of Berlin Veto Germanys move follows growing concern in European capitals about Chinese investment Hong Kong Cracks Down on Backdoor Listings Tighter controls on reverse takeovers, shell companies could hit mainland Chinese firms seeking faster way to market The flag of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEx) (left) flies alongside the flags of China (center) and Hong Kong outside the HKEx building in the citys Central district in August 2016. Photo: VCG Last Bow for Hong Kongs Musical Free-for-All End of era for raucous, contentious Sai Yeung Choi Street news, latest-news Each year at Christmas the Faheys gather around the kitchen table in their Murrumbateman home surrounded by bushland. As her six adult children, three grandchildren and extended family tuck into the enormous feast, Eileen Fahey constantly glances out the front window hoping to see her son Anthony walking up the driveway. Anthony Fahey has been missing since 2013, when he boarded a bus at the Jolimont Centre bound for Sydney and was never heard from again. Christmas was Anthony's favourite time of year, Mrs Fahey said, he loved being with his siblings eating prawns and pizzas on Christmas Eve, sitting around the fire playing cards, darts and having a good laugh. "I thought he'd be gone for a few months, would get his head right and I was dead set he would come walking down that driveway for Christmas," Mrs Fahey said. "I was so shocked when he didn't. "But I'll always remain hopeful until I have a reason not to be." Sunday marks the start of Missing Persons Week. The Australian Federal Police has launched a video that explores the theme of hope and the impact on a family left behind when a person goes missing. In the short clip a father and daughter are left stranded by the side of the road because their old car has broken down, when the child complains about the car the girl's father explains they are holding onto it in case her missing sister ever spots it and knows it's them. AFP deputy commissioner Neil Gaughan said the video was inspired by the real impacts on families holding onto the hope of their loved one returning. Mrs Fahey said the video struck a chord with her as she had purposefully left aspects of the family home untouched in case Anthony returned. However Mrs Fahey and her husband Neil are now faced with the difficult decision of wanting to downsize from their large home and perhaps move to a warmer climate in their retirement but are worried what would happen if their son ever returned to the home he knew. "It's a balance and it's all wrapped up in emotion," Mrs Fahey said. "It's hard to make a clear decision with your head when you're so used to making these decisions with your heart." She also has concerns she may lose her memories of Anthony that are so deeply connected to the family home. "I can picture Anthony sitting on the end of the kitchen bench and he'd come up with some harebrained scheme," she said. "Will I lose those when we're away from here?" But Mrs Fahey said she also understands the importance of moving forward with life and taking care of herself and her family. "I still have six kids and three grandkids, I still have to be there for them as the best person I can be," she said. Support groups such as Families and Friends of Missing Persons Unit have helped, Mrs Fahey said, and she encouraged anyone in a similar situation to reach out. She also credited the work of the not-for-profit Australian Missing Persons Register. For the 30th year of National Missing Persons Week the AFP is profiling 30 long time missing persons, deputy commissioner Gaughan said. If you recognise any of the missing people profiled this week, or indeed any of the 2600 long-term missing persons on the public register, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, he said. You might just have a piece of information that could help bring them home. With Anthony's case now suspended from an active search by the police Mrs Fahey said the family needed the "community to be our eyes and ears". She said if Anthony didn't want to be with the family or wanted to live a different life she was ok with that, but if she could get one message to her son it would be a simple one. "We love you. We miss you. We just want to know that you're ok. Please contact us." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c507d494-1469-4ba3-9fbc-58229a1b0436/r0_213_4184_2577_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, crime A majority of teenagers who commit sexual offences have a history of contact with the youth justice system for non-sexual offences, a new study has found. The report from the Australian Institute of Criminology on preventing the onset of child sexual abuse in adolescence and adulthood found 75 per cent of teenagers who committed sexual offences had previous run ins with the law for other charges. Both adolescents and adults surveyed tended to first sexually abuse someone well known to them where a relationship already existed. Just 5 per cent of teenagers surveyed and 8 per cent of adults said their victim was a stranger. The institute surveyed 215 adolescents who committed sexual offences before they turned 18 and 144 adults charged with child sex offences. While three-quarters of teenagers had been charged with previous offences, only 41 per cent of adults surveyed had history with the youth justice system. "This fits with theorising that sexually abusive behaviour at this stage of development may coincide with the onset of puberty and curiosity at this peak risk period, particularly for those males who already have a broader involvement in antisocial and illegal activities," the report said. "Such activities are characterised by coercion, deception, rule-breaking and exploitation of others, all of which are also characteristics of sexual abuse." The report also found 72 per cent of teenagers and 71 per cent of adults surveyed were maltreated as a child. More than 30 per cent of both demographics were mistreated both sexually and non-sexually, according to the study. "A larger proportion of the adolescent-onset group reported experiences of non-sexual abuse, while a larger proportion of the adult-onset group reported sexual abuse," the report said. "These findings reiterate previous propositions that adverse developmental experiences are common in the background of offenders." The institute's report comes as recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show there has been a 35 per cent increase in sexual offences committed by adolescents since 2008. "A higher proportion of incidents by adolescent offenders occurred when others were close by and most times this was an adult," the report said. "They are more likely to be around children under circumstances of adult supervision compared to adults, who may have sole care-giving roles. "More adult witnesses intervened with adolescents than with adults." The report recommended investing in the prevention and early intervention for both demographics. "The fact that most offenders knew their victim...indicates possible opportunities for both offenders or concerned others to seek help before or during the early stages of sexual abuse," the report said. "For adolescents, school-based programs that addresses issues of consent, sexual ethics, coercion and misperceptions of sexual behaviour should be considered as a primary prevention initiative." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/189abc76-20fd-49c3-bfd2-50d3ee936f2d/r0_101_2000_1231_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news A Canberra woman who alleged the 2017 death of her 85-year-old mother was a result of systemic bullying at Calvary Hospital has referred the matter to the ACT Coroners Court. Robyn's mother Gwen was admitted to the Bruce hospital in April last year suffering from an infected leg ulcer, but deteriorated during one weekend in May after contracting sepsis from one of the wards. Despite the pleas of family members, regular doctors and specialists were not able to be called in on the weekend to treat Gwen. Robyn, who did not want her surname published, said staff told her at the time that specialists weren't able to treat her due to a fear of intimidation and backlash from senior staff. Following the incident, Gwen was transferred to an intensive care unit at Calvary and then discharged into a high-care nursing facility before she died on July 6, 2017. Almost a year on, the matter was referred to the Coroners Court in a letter dated July 1, seen by the Sunday Canberra Times. In a statement to the family, a court spokesman said Coroner Beth Campbell would consider the request when she returns from leave in August. "Unfortunately due to a conflict of interest, the chief Coroner cannot consider [the] request, which is why it will have to wait for Coroner Campbell's return to duty." Robyn said she referred the case to the coroner to prevent the situation from happening to other patients. "In order to prevent other patients suffering the cruel fate of my mother, and in order to prevent other families suffering the trauma of an earlier than necessary death of a loved one, I now respectfully request that the coroner conduct a hearing into this matter," she said in a letter to the coroner. An earlier investigation conducted by the ACT Health Services Commission found Calvary staff failed to call emergency medical teams to treat Gwen, despite her condition being serious enough to warrant an emergency response. The investigation was told by Calvary staff that nurses were hesitant to contact emergency medical staff due to intimidation that took place during previous incidents. "The nurse did not feel confident to call the [emergency team] as she had been made to feel foolish by the team in similar circumstances when she did," one nurse said. A Calvary patient safety and quality manager said "there was a culture in some areas of Calvary Public Hospital of not making after-hours calls to medical staff due to retribution", according to transcripts of a meeting between Robyn's family and Calvary representatives. It was due to these factors, Robyn alleges that contributed to her mother's death. "I have requested on several occasions that Calvary Public Hospital Bruce take direct action in relation to staff bullying," Robyn said in the letter. "I have requested, in writing and verbally, that they conduct a compulsory program for all clinical and emergency medical staff in respectful staff communications, particularly in stressful situations." Conciliation attempts between Calvary and Gwen's family in February were unsuccessful, with no agreement reached between the two parties In a letter from Calvary chief executive Barbara Reid to Robyn on June 26 this year, seen by the Sunday Canberra Times, Ms Reid said process are in place to ensure respectful communication between staff. "Calvary has staff induction, orientation and performance processes to support staff compliance with the organisation's values, including respectful communication," Ms Reid said. "There is an expectation that Calvary staff provide respectful and appropriate care and communication with each and every person." In a statement, a Calvary Hospital spomesman said the hospital is aware of the coronial referral. "Calvary has no further information at this time but will fully cooperate with any inquiry that may be forthcoming," the spokesman said. "In line with patient confidentiality and privacy legislation, Calvary cannot provide any further comment." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c2143f07-8abb-4bba-a445-fdccc8073241/r0_294_5568_3440_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg comment, editorial The government needs to take responsibility to address bullying within ACT Health rather than dismissing calls for an inquiry as a political stunt. Victims who have previously spoken to the Sunday Canberra Times about alleged systemic bullying at Calvary Hospital have said the comments, made by ACT health minister Meegan Fitzharris earlier this week, add insult to injury. Rather than accepting the status quo, the government should be overseeing significant cultural change in the health directorate. These problems cannot be allowed to continue. "A large inquiry needs to happen and it needs to be done by an independent body," an alleged victim going by the pseudonym Charlie told the Sunday Canberra Times. "The public need to be informed." Other hospital workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a larger inquiry is needed as current investigations have not worked. But in spite of what would appear to be a reasonable assumption that an inquiry be held, the health minister has gone so far as to say its not warranted. Earlier this year the Sunday Canberra Times revealed seven cases of bullying and harassment were reported to ACT Health during 2016-17, resulting in two staff members being sacked and a further three resigning. In March the Sunday paper reported on the suicide of a nurse who was allegedly bullied at work. The Canberra Times reported in April on maternity staff at the Canberra Hospital at breaking point over poor conditions and bullying. An audit into the allegations tabled on Thursday pointed the finger at senior management for not properly dealing with bullying allegations. The audit stated that ACT Health needed to confirm and articulate the desired culture and values to be fostered across the organisation. "There should be an emphasis on how allegations of misconduct are to be managed, including the processes to be used for making and responding to complaints of inappropriate workplace behaviour," the audit read. The responsible minister needs to step up and take swift action to ensure this culture of workplace bullying doesn't continue. It is not enough for the government to voice its opposition to a board of inquiry. It needs to spell out what action it intends to take to deal with the identified bullying issues within the health system. To do so effectively, an inquiry should be undertaken to shine a light on the exact nature of what has taken place and the people who have allowed it to fester. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c7a736c5-2917-4308-bbb3-995ed2404e7e/r0_46_900_554_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news The government needs to take responsibility to address bullying within ACT Health rather than dismissing calls for an inquiry as a "political stunt". Victims who have previously spoken to the Sunday Canberra Times about alleged systemic bullying at Calvary Hospital have said the comments, made by ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris, add insult to injury. Rather than accept the status quo, the government should be overseeing significant cultural change in the health directorate. These problems cannot be allowed to continue. "A large inquiry needs to happen and it needs to be done by an independent body," an alleged victim told the Sunday Canberra Times. "The public need to be informed." Other hospital workers said a larger inquiry is needed as current investigations have not worked. But in spite of what would appear to be a reasonable assumption that an inquiry be held, the Health Minister has gone so far as to say its not warranted. Earlier this year the Sunday Canberra Times revealed seven cases of bullying and harassment were reported to ACT Health during 2016-17, resulting in two staff members being sacked and three resigning. In March the Sunday paper reported on the suicide of a nurse who was allegedly bullied at work. In April, maternity staff at the Canberra Hospital said they were at breaking point over poor conditions and bullying. An audit into the allegations tabled on Thursday pointed the finger at senior management for not properly dealing with bullying allegations. The audit stated ACT Health needed to "confirm and articulate the desired culture and values to be fostered across the organisation". The responsible minister needs to step up and take swift action to ensure this culture of workplace bullying doesnt continue. It is not enough for the government to voice its opposition to a board of inquiry. It needs to spell out what action it intends to take to deal with the identified bullying issues within the health system. To do so effectively, an inquiry should be undertaken to shine a light on the exact nature of what has taken place and the people who have allowed it to fester. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/d4b5d57f-1dc5-4689-bea2-751029206ed2/r0_46_900_554_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news ACT hospital workers have slammed the territory government's decision not to hold a board of inquiry into allegations of widespread bullying and harassment in Canberra's health system. The ACT Opposition earlier this week called for a Royal Commission-style investigation into systemic bullying in both Calvary and Canberra Hospital. The motion was voted down in the Legislative Assembly by the government and the Greens, with Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris dismissing the inquiry as a political stunt. However, multiple health workers have told the Sunday Canberra Times an inquiry is overdue, with calls for one falling on deaf ears. A senior ACT Health worker, going under the pseudonym Charlie, said he was devastated at the news the inquiry would not get off the ground. "I was totally gutted, I'm absolutely astounded. This is seriously well overdue and this stuff is so systemic and it's been ongoing for so long," Charlie said. "When you think about the consequences of not doing an investigation, there'll be more years of injuries or mental health issues or physical damages and breakdowns and even possible suicides as a result." Charlie's circumstances were told to the Legislative Assembly this week by opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne, who has been behind the push for an inquiry. Ms Dunne said Charlie's situation was the "most disturbing" she had heard from the ACT Health system, with experiences of bullying leading him to the brink of suicide. "A large inquiry needs to happen and it needs to be done by an independent body," Charlie said. "The public need to be informed." Other hospital workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a larger inquiry is needed as current investigations have not worked. "People are still very scared to do their jobs. If an investigation is done properly it will expose it all," one employee said. "Anyone who speaks up about bullying and harassment in the workplace is considered a troublemaker. "Health authorities have said they've looked into it and made changes, but we have not see any changes to workplace culture at all. People are still hurting and no one takes responsibility." Another hospital employee said bullying is still rampant within Canberra's hospitals. "Nothing has changed, people are still being bullied all the time," the employee said. "The government has talked about saving money [by not undertaking the investigation], but how much money do you put on the price of a life, whether they are staff members or patients." "At the moment it's an absolute joke and I'm sure there are many more people who are disheartened." Calls for an inquiry into bullying in the ACT health system comes after the Sunday Canberra Times revealed earlier this year multiple allegations of harassment at Calvary Hospital in several departments, with an investigation under way into the suicide of an employee who was allegedly bullied at work. Documents obtained under freedom of information revealed two ACT Health workers were sacked in 2016-17 for bullying and harassment, with a further three resigning before the investigation concluded. Centenary Hospital staff have also told the Canberra Times of bullying in wards and poor working conditions. The Health Minister said she would rather see money that would go towards an inquiry be spent on other health services. "It is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars and as the minister for health I would rather be spending tens of millions of dollars on hospital services, on employing more doctors and nurses than on lawyers on a board of inquiry," Ms Fitzharris said earlier this week. "What [the Canberra Liberals] are calling for is serious and significant and they have not thought through what that would involve." ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury also voted down the move to set up an inquiry, but did seek a formal commitment from the government to report by the end of the year on bullying complaints. Charlie said an inquiry is urgently needed so other employees won't have to suffer bullying at work like himself. "I'm almost in awe that something this systemic and long running and this evident wouldn't be investigated," he said. Lifeline 13 11 14 Do you know more? Email andrewbrown@fairfaxmedia.com.au /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/b7fd1fda-7818-41fb-bb26-552d73762139/r0_114_2000_1244_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg 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. Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the posts of medical professionals. 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 49000 per month. The last date to apply for the government job is Aug 18, 2018. BPSC Preliminary Exam 2018 Application Process Open TPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Cardiac Operation Theatre Scrub Nurse, Cardiac Operation Theatre Anesthesia Technician Group-B, Cardiac Operation Theatre Physician Assistant Group-B, Cath-Lab Technician Group-B, Critical Care Assistant, Cardiology Technician, Central Sterilization Supply Department Technician, Intensive Therapy Unit Co-Ordinator and Cath-Lab Nurse Organisation Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC) Educational Qualification Diploma in relevant field from a recognised university Experience One to two years Skills Required Technical skills Job Location Tripura Salary Scale INR 10230 to INR 49000 per month Industry Civil services Application Start Date August 1, 2018 Application End Date August 18, 2018 Age Limit: 18 to 40 years Also Read: Get Selected In HPSC And Earn Up To INR 191000! How To Apply For TPSC Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for TPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the TPSC official website. Step 2: The application form will be displayed on the screen. Step 3: Save it to your computer and take a printout of it. Step 4: Send the applications to TPSC. TPSC Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of *name of the post*" and send it to: Tripura Public Service Commission Akhaura Road, Agartala - 799001. Click here to read the detailed official notification. Friendship Day is around the corner. The day is celebrated across the world on different dates. However, some countries such as India celebrate Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August. On this special day, what do you want to gift your buddies? Think technologically and share something new which can help your friends advance in their career. One of the best things is installing a time-management app on their phones. Time management, which is an important skill required at every stage of one's career, plays a significant role, specifically while pursuing higher education. With a lot of responsibilities at the early stage of a career, a student has to organise may things besides managing time for personal goals along with their university life. Time-management apps will assist one in prioritising tasks and staying focused during exams. Here are some of the best time-management apps you can insist your friend to have which is more than a gift on Friendship Day. Top 10 Part-time Jobs Where College Students Can Work From Home myHomework Student Planner This stands tall in the first position when it comes to the best time-management app for students. The app's name gives the best answer to what it does. This is the best app for all students attending high school or university. It also provides a calendar which helps students track their upcoming assignments, projects, exams and other important things. This app is available on all software that include iOS, Android and Windows. Students can download this app for free with ads and sync between devices. One can also track the classes and receive due date reminders. Evernote This great app always puts students on track regarding their assignments. It helps the students work smarter by making notes richer with links, checklists, tables, attachments and audio recordings. The Evernote app also helps users share ideas, plan events and set reminders. Remember The Milk This is basically a task-list manager but helps students complete their assignments and prepare for the exam. This even helps in prioritising the activities and breaking up big tasks into smaller subtasks. Students can sync their content with many other platforms such as Microsoft Outlook. This is available on all software that include iOS, Windows and Android. It is even compatible with Apple Watch, Android phones & tablets, BlackBerry 10 and Fire. Google Keep This is one of the best apps for students which is available on both iOS and Android. One can use Google Keep as a note-keeping app. The pinboard format of this app will make students pin important stuff such as lists, photos and voice memos. Students can easily search for the previous pins and can also receive location-based reminders through this app. Trello Trello is also an app that helps students organise their assignments through boards. Along with students, this app is even helpful for working professionals as it helps them organise their projects and daily tasks. No matter where you are, this app can sync across all of your devices. It is available on iOS and Android. Top 6 Reasons Why Students Prefer Distance Education Globally popular car manufacturers have been spotted testing their new range of upcoming cars all over the world. Back in July, we had revealed seven new India-bound cars which were spied testing. Here's a roundup - Volkswagen T-Cross The Volkswagen T-Cross is based on the Polo hatchback and has been spied testing at the Nurburgring. Some of the design elements have been borrowed from its older sibling, the T-Roc. The India-spec T-Cross will adopt the MQB-A0-IN platform which was developed specially for the domestic market and will be offered in the sub-four metre segment. At the time of launch, the vehicle might be offered with dual-tone colour options. The vehicle will be showcased in production form at the Paris Motor Show in October. Hyundai QXI Hyundai has been testing its first sub-four metre SUV, the QXI which is due for its India launch in 2019. The compact SUV is based on the Carlino concept which was last showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo event. The test mule has been spotted in the US as it is being tested alongside the Kia Soul. The cabin is expected to borrow features and interior detailing from the Grand i10 and the Creta . BMW 7 Series facelift BMW s flagship model, the 7 Series sedan, has been due for an upgrade for quite some time now. The test mule was spotted in Germany near the companys headquarters in Munich. The new model is expected to get a daunting grille with a sleeker headlight design and revised LED styling. The revised LED tail lamps complement the newly redesigned bumper. The 7 Series facelift is expected to arrive in India only late next year, which is after Audi launches the A8 in the first quarter of 2019. Audi Q3 Audi Q3 , a popular name in the premium SUV space had been spotted with minimal camouflage last month. The new model is expected to be based on Volkswagens ubiquitous MQB platform. It is believed that the new model will offer improved length and width. Interestingly, the new model is also expected to be offered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain option. Mercedes-Benz CLA The new-gen Mercedes-Benz CLA is expected to borrow design cues from the recently revealed A-Class sedan and CLS-Class. Based on the new MFA platform, the new model will get the wedge-shaped styling. The interior is expected to be borrowed from the A-Class as well along with the latest MBUX infotainment system. Besides the regular oil burner, the production version is expected to be offered with a four-cylinder petrol engine that generates anything between 150-250bhp. Mercedes-Benz S-Class Another one from Mercedes, the new S-Class has been spotted on test in the City of Stuttgart in Germany. Based on reports, it is believed that the new model will get Level-two autonomy. In addition to improved performance and about 50kms of pure electric driving range, the new model will also offer new features and improved safety. Mercedes-Benz GLE Back in July, we also spotted the interior of the Mercedes-Benz GLE. As seen in spy images, it borrows styling elements from the S-Class. The new MRA platform is expected to offer more space inside the cabin. Exterior styling might undergo significant changes with a more crossing design rather than the body shape of the current car. The new GLE is expected to break cover later this year and slated for a market launch in 2019. Photo: ExploreNorth.com In time for this year's BC Day long weekend, wireless cell service has been improved on the Hope-Princeton Highway. Telus has installed micro-cells along the highway corridor in Eastgate, Manning Park and Sunshine Valley, providing cellphone reception in areas that previously were "dead zones." The coverage reaches an estimated 500 metres from the highway on either side, meaning backcountry users in the area still won't be able access cell service. Property owners in Eastgate petitioned more than a year ago for Telus to improve service along the highway particularly to improve access to emergency services. The big issue, is in the summertime with motor vehicle accidents and fires and things like that, they cant phone out... In todays world, people expect to have basic cell service," area director Bob Coyne said in February 2017. Manning Park Resort general manager Vern Schram welcomed the cell service improvement, citing the need to address safety concerns as well. "We are hoping that this will alleviate apprehensions about driving (the Hope-Princeton), because it really is a beautiful, scenic route to take to get to Manning Park Resort," Schram said. The improved cell service complements more than $18 million the province has spent in the past three years to improve the Hope-Princeton Highway. Most recently, a paving project on a 25-km stretch near Allison Pass was completed in July, worth close to $3 million. Photo: File photo UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. The BC Wildfire Service says some structures, likely outbuildings, have been impacted by the Snowy Mountain wildfire. An update late Saturday evening says "details are forthcoming" on impacted structures. Fire information officer Bob Cunneyworth says at this point, it's believed no homes have been impacted by the fire, and adds further details should be known on Sunday. Crews had more favourable weather at the fire today, with cooler temperatures and some rain. Cunneyworth says, however, crews are wary of night winds, which he says have caused problems the past couple nights. There are now 80 firefighters battling the blaze, as well as three helicopters and four pieces of heavy equipment. "Crews continued to work on the southeast flank to protect adjacent properties, and are also positioned on the northwest flank to tie the fire perimeter into rocky slopes to keep it wrapping around the mountain towards the Keremeos area," an update from the BCWS says. The fire is still mapped at 10,911 hectares in size, making it the largest fire currently burning in B.C. ORIGINAL: 10:20 a.m. It was a rough night on the Snowy Mountain fire line. Not only did persistent winds drive the flames, but two new fires in the area forced officials to divert resources to put those fires out before they became too large. BC Wildfire Service Fire Information Officer Claire Allen said the growing fire resulted in an evacuation order for 21 homes. It was really busy and aggressive fire activity for our crews that were out there last night, said Allen, adding the fire is active during the day and just as active at night. Allen said the Lower Similkameen Indian Band issued an evacuation order for 21 properties in the Chopaka Road area. There is still wide-spread evacuation alerts as well, she said. BCWS crews were working with the Keremeos Fire Department in the evacuation area to prioritize life and safety first. Additional resources were sent, so we had some initial attack crews and officers out of Penticton as well as some staff from the BC Wildfire Service incident management team, she said. As of Friday, the fire was estimated to be 10,911 ha, but Allen expects that number will grow today after last night's fire activity. Terrain is always a challenge on this fire, there are very steep slopes, but the winds really were the factors that caused so many issues for crews last night, said Allen. The winds have been unpredictable both when they are going to start as well as the speed at which they are going to come, so we did have winds coming down slope and from the north at at least 30 km/h last night sustained. We saw very aggressive fire behaviour. It is burning in a southward direction toward the U.S. border. To add to the existing challenges, two more fires were reported near the Snowy Mountain Fire. Allen said the fires are not related to the Snowy Mountain Fire, but were two new fires. Our crews that were working the night shift were reassigned to provide that initial attack suppression to extinguish those fires while they are still small, she said. It was certainly a challenging night. Allen said the cause of the two new fires in under investigation. Crews will continue to battle the Snowy Mountain fire around the clock. Impeachment is one of those scenarios that gets talked about a lot but rarely plays out in reality. In fact, impeachment has only rarely happened in the history of the United States. After all, its a serious matter to try to remove a president chosen by the American people. How many presidents have been impeached? Just two. Discover what happened. And learn how the process would work in the future. Article 2 of the Constitution lays out the impeachment process History reports that George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and other attendees at the 1787 Constitutional Convention approved the concept of impeaching government officials. The framers of the Constitution laid out the process in Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution. That section states that the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. In other words: It takes a pretty serious crime to put impeachment on the table. Impeachment involves both houses of Congress The process of impeaching the president requires both houses of Congress, History reports. Impeachment itself doesnt remove the president from office. Instead, it serves as the first step toward removing him. The U.S. House of Representatives can initiate impeachment by filing formal charges. The House would introduce articles of impeachment like any other bill or resolution. Then, if a committee and then the full House approves the articles of impeachment, the U.S. Senate conducts the resulting trial. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court acts as the judge in the trial. To convict the president, the Senate would need a two-thirds majority, Mic reports. And the penalty? Usually (or at least theoretically) removal from office. 8 presidents have faced impeachment A total of eight presidents have faced impeachment. But the House only successfully impeached two. (That means that the House of Representatives charged only those two presidents with committing high crimes and misdemeanors, as Thought Co. points out.) However, the Senate didnt convict either of those two presidents. So it didnt remove either of them from office. Several presidents faced threats of impeachment that never amounted to a trial. That list includes Grover Cleveland, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, according to History. Each of them had articles of impeachment filed against them in the House of Representatives. However, the House didnt actually impeach any of these presidents. That means that the articles of impeachment failed to get the necessary votes to move to the Senate for a trial. The House impeached Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson became the target of impeachment proceedings in 1868 over his choice to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Congress argued that Stantons dismissal violated the Tenure of Office Act. The 1867 law required the president to get the Senates approval before removing any member of the cabinet whom the Senate had confirmed. The House successfully voted to impeach Johnson. So the Senate conducted a trial. However, that trial ended with Johnsons opponents failing to get enough votes to remove him from office. The House also impeached Bill Clinton Many people, when asked how many presidents have been impeached, can probably think of just one: Bill Clinton. The House of Representatives filed impeachment articles against Clinton in 1998. Representatives alleged that the president misled a grand jury about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The House charged Clinton with perjury and obstruction of justice. However, the Senate trial ended with Clinton acquitted of both charges. Clinton apologized for the affair. And despite the scandal, he went on to complete his term in office. Two other presidents came close to impeachment Thought Co. reports that two other presidents came close to impeachment. The first president to come very close to impeachment? John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. Representative John M. Botts of Virginia proposed a resolution in 1843 to investigate Tyler for possible impeachment. However, the House of Representatives voted down the resolution. That saved Tyler and his presidency. The second president who came close? Richard Nixon. Nixon faced near-certain impeachment and conviction in 1974 over the Watergate scandal. However, he resigned before facing prosecution over the 1972 break-in at the Democratic Partys headquarters. If he hadnt resigned, though, the Senate would likely have convicted him. Impeachment has never removed a president from office Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents who have been impeached. Again, that means that just two were charged with crimes by the House of Representatives. However, the Senate didnt convict either of them. That means that no president has ever been removed from office by the impeachment process. Theres one other way to remove a president: invoking the 25th amendment to remove a president who is physically unable to serve. But like impeachment, that method has never been used to remove a president from office. Fortunately, the situations in which either option would come into play remain rare despite a highly partisan environment that might make you think otherwise. Read more: Brutally Honest Reasons Why Trump Will Probably Never Be Impeached Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! The royal family has many stunning homes across the United Kingdom. Youre probably familiar with at least a few, such as Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth IIs official residence in London. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been in the headlines for their living arrangements after their wedding. But where does Prince William live with his wife, Kate Middleton, and their children? Prince William and Kate Middleton have several homes Prince William and Kate Middleton have lived in several homes together. Architectural Digest reports that currently, the couple and their family split their time between a country home in Norfolk, called Anmer Hall, and Kensington Palace in London. People reports that the homes are about 150 miles apart, and the royals spend a lot of time traveling between them. But William and Kate along with children George, Charlotte, and Louis arent the only ones to split their time between two homes. Its a lifestyle that s shared by most members of the royal family, People notes. Prince Charles splits his time between his London base at Clarence house and his country home in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. And Queen Elizabeth II regularly travels to and from Windsor Castle and Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. But where does Prince William live most of the time? The couple considers Anmer Hall their family home The Week reports that Anmer Hall is located on the queens Sandringham Estate and was once Prince William and Kate Middletons primary residence. It was Prince George and Princess Charlottes first home, where the family spent most of their time before they moved to Kensington Palace. (Queen Elizabeth II gave it to Prince William and Kate Middleton as a country home. But after Princess Charlottes birth in 2015, the family lived in Norfolk full-time.) Later, Prince William left his role with the East Anglian Air Ambulance and took on more royal commitments. Plus, Prince George began attending school in London. So the family has been spending much less time in Norfolk. Yet the couple still see Anmer Hall has their family home, The Week reports. They spent several million pounds renovating the ten-bedroom Georgian mansion, mostly with the intent of improving privacy. But they spend more time at their apartment at Kensington Palace Anmer Hall isnt where Prince William and his family spend most of their time. Instead, their primary residence is now Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace. But dont let the name of the residence trick you. Apartment 1A isnt a small apartment at all. This section of the Jacobean-era palace is effectively a four-story home, according to The Week. It has 20 rooms. And it once served as the residence of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. The palace was refurbished in 2011. At that point, the royal family knocked down a few walls and brought the room count in Apartment 1A from 30 to 20. The apartment currently has two Peter Rabbit-themed nurseries, three kitchens, rooms dedicated to charities started by Princess Diana, and luxurious furnishings throughout. According to The Week, the apartment is Prince William and Kate Middletons one and only official residence, which they intend to occupy for many, many years to come. Prince William wants his children to have a normal life Prince William and Kate Middleton sound happy with their residence at Kensington Palace. (It probably helps that other members of the royal family, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, live at the palace, too.) But Prince William doesnt want his childrens upbringing to distance them too much from regular life. That sounds like a tough balance to strike when you literally live in a palace. Even though Prince George will one day become king, Prince William doesnt want George or his other children, Charlotte and Louis to have a childhood too far removed from normal life. In an interview with GQ, Prince William said, I want George to grow up in a real, living environment, I dont want him growing up behind palace walls, he has to be out there. The media make it harder but I will fight for them to have a normal life. The family may not be alone in their homes Wherever Prince William lives with his family Kensington Palace or Sandringham Estate it seems that they have to put up with ghosts. The Week reports that Apartment 1A is said to be the most haunted residence at Kensington Palace. People reported several ghost sightings in the 1970s, when Princess Margaret lived there. Throughout the centuries, ghost sightings have been reported elsewhere in the palace, too. The Express reports that Anmer Hall reportedly has a few ghosts of its own, too. Saint Henry Walpole supposedly haunts the home, which belonged to the Walpole family in Elizabethan times. Walpole was martyred for converting to Catholicism, and a royal insider told The Express that Prince William and Kate Middleton heard stories about sightings of his ghost. They were warned about it before they moved in and had a joke about it, but their attitude was: No old home would be complete without its ghost. Read more: Youll Never Believe the Affordable Store Where Kate Middleton Bought Furniture for Kensington Palace Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! It was no surprise Meghan Markle is snagging headlines ahead of her 37th birthday on August 4. But the news wasnt about hubby Prince Harry throwing her an over-the-top bash. Instead, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are heading off to have a private vacation away from the spotlight. On the surface, it may appear the couple is trying to get away from the media circus created by Meghans family. (More on that in just a second.) But in reality, the royal family is quite fond of vacationing away from prying eyes. And they have a select few favorite spots they regularly escape to. A few favorite getaways When it comes to summer vacation, members of the royal family often escape to Mustique, a private island in the Caribbean. The exclusive paradise used to be a favorite destination for Princess Margaret to hold parties for her abundantly wealthy friends while staying away from the public eye. (Visitors can reportedly rent her 10-acre plot for upwards of $35,000 a week.) Prince William and Kate Middleton are reportedly spending their summer there while off from their royal duties. Of course, the royal family also has a long history of retreating to the Scottish countryside. Queen Elizabeth visits her favorite holiday home Balmoral every summer, and the rest of the royals typically meet her and Prince Philip there. There are tours of the palace on select dates, but tourists are not allowed when the royal family is there. When the royals really want to get away, they may also venture down to Africa. In fact, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in Kenya when Prince William asked Kate to marry him! And of course, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spent their first trip together as a couple in Botswana. Although, Harry and Meghan wont be traveling quite that far to get peace and quiet this time around So where are Harry and Meghan vacationing this time? Vanity Fair reports the Sussexes will be spending their private vacation at the royal family property in the Cotswolds. They are reportedly renting a farmhouse cottage on the Great Tew Estate, which is secluded but also heavily guarded. The property is in the middle of woodland and you wouldnt know it was there, a local tells Vanity Fair. It is very remote which is why they like it. Its like a fortress. Is this just a vacation? Or is it an escape? While this is the perfect time for Harry and Meghan to take a summer vacation, there is heavy speculation theyre also trying to escape the media frenzy that has followed them around since before their wedding last May. There are also reports Harry is becoming increasingly concerned with how much of a spotlight is being put on his new wife and wishes for the two to have some privacy. Of course, its not hard to see why Prince Harry may be feeling this way. Meghans estranged family has taken to bashing her in the media, and her fathers embarrassing interview in July caused royal aids to hold meetings on how to keep Meghan safe. With so much negative attention focused on them, how could the Duke and Duchess of Sussex not want to get away from the limelight for a while? Besides, if you were a royal who could take a trip to one of these exclusive places, you probably would too. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! How much do you know about former President Barack Obama? Here are a few presidential facts you might not know. 1. Hes a Grammy winner Obama won two Grammy Awards. He won his first Grammy in 2006 for his spoken word album, Dreams from My Father. In 2008, he won his second Grammy Award for his spoken word album The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Obama beat out former President Bill Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter, who were also nominated for a Grammy. 2. He has his own holiday In 2017, August 4th was declared Barack Obama Day in the state of Illinois. Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law a measure to make this day a holiday. The holiday will be celebrated each year on Obamas birthday (August 4th) starting in 2018. 3. His name has a unique meaning The name Barack means blessing in Arabic. When it comes to popular baby names, Barack ranked 4,184 in 2018 according to Baby Center. This is up by 13,694 from 2017. 4. He and Michelle have a deal with Netflix In May 2018, Netflix announced Barack and Michelle Obama signed a production deal. The Obamas are slated to work behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera. 5. He made history at Harvard University In 1990, Obama became the first African-American to become president of the Harvard Law Review. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who dont get a chance, said Obama in a 1990 interview with The New York Times. In 2017, ImeIme Umana became the first female African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. 6. Time magazine gave him a big honor In December 2008, Time magazine named Barack Obama person of the year. He won the honor for the second time in December 2012. The magazine has had more than 11 U.S. presidents on its cover. 7. Hes a Nobel Peace Prize winner In October 2009, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. On the Nobel Prize website, the organization says Obama won the award for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obamas vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons. 8. Hes a published author So far, he has written three books. His published works include The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006), Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (2007), and Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (2010). Obamas father was also an author. He wrote books for an adult literacy program in Africa. Original copies of the books went up for auction in 2017. 9. He was the first sitting U.S. president to make this trip Obama has had a lot of firsts in his lifetime. In May 2016, he became the first sitting U.S president to visit Hiroshima, Japan. During his speech at the citys Peace Memorial, he said he hoped for a world without nuclear weapons. 10. His parents met in college Barack Obamas father, Barack Obama Jr., was a former goat herder who later became an economist. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was an anthropologist. The couple met while students at the University of Hawaii. D70 board candidate runs decades after sexual assault accusations Pueblo D70 board candidate Bob Boyd, a retired teacher in the district, is seeking to reenter education decades after facing sexual assault accusations. At a meeting with Southeast Asian foreign ministers Friday, Pompeo said the USA appreciated ASEAN's efforts to "support the rule of law in the South China Sea". Beijing's suggestions are part of efforts to expand its influence in the South China Sea, which it claims nearly entirely, and push back at Washington, which has backed nations with overlapping claims to the waters. Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also noted the fact that Asean and China agreed to the single text is an "important step forward". "I am pleased to announce yet another milestone in the COC (code of conduct) process", said Vivian Balakrishnan, the foreign minister of Singapore who is hosting the meeting of regional leaders and lawmakers from around the world in the city-state. "The past progress has shown that China and ASEAN countries have the ability to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea and have the wisdom to arrive at a set of regional rules of conduct that we all will observe", Wang told reporters. In addition to China and Taiwan, ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have had claims in the South China Sea, a pathway for much of the commerce and oil that help bolster Asia's bustling economies. The negotiating text is to remain confidential. The United States military has deployed ships and jets to patrol the waters in a security presence it says is aimed at promoting freedom of navigation and overflight, but which China says Washington is meddling in an Asian dispute. However, the drills should not involve countries outside the region, "unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection", it says. Lee mentioned ongoing trade tensions between the United States and other ASEAN dialogue partners, including China, the European Union and Canada. Nevertheless, experts believe that Asian countries are likely to brush off United States sanctions and maintain business ties with Iran despite Washington's pressure to harm all trade ties with the Islamic Republic. The suggestion to exclude outside countries "is obviously targeted at the U.S. which has been dominating the waters of the Western Pacific and the South China Sea in particular", Hoang Thi Ha, from the Asean Studies Centre, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said. China has previously used allies within Asean, principally Cambodia and Laos, to block consensus and joint resolutions on the South China Sea dispute. China has recently come under fire for continued activities in the disputed waters, including the construction of military bases and the deployment of military assets on man-made islands. Many Southeast Asian countries have been unsure of US economic policy toward the region since President Donald Trump won a 2016 election promising to put "America First". Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Throughout this year, I've been engaging with four very large biographies. In Light of Eternity: Leonard Ravenhill, Just As I Am: Billy Graham's autobiography, DL Moody: A Life, and Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story. Along with some other reading, including anything I can get my hands on by Francis Schaeffer, and Jerry Bridges, this has made up the bulk of my reading time. The four biographies together comprise over two thousand pages, rich with stories of faith and God at work in our world through individuals. THE WAY GOD CAN USE ONE PERSON FOR HIS GLORY IN SUCH SIGNIFICANT WAYS SURPRISES AND OVERWHELMS MY SOUL. I've begun to see so clearly that God is not looking for people of great talent, wealth or notoriety, but simply for ordinary people full of faith and the Holy Spirit. He loves to use ordinary people like you and me, so He gets all the glory. (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-29) With ordinary people who simply believe what God can do through them, He can establish His Kingdom in the the world and in the lives of people who are far from Him. God has always chosen to use people. We see this in the words of God to Moses, "I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt." (Acts 7:34, NLT) God essentially says, I have come to rescue them, now go for I am sending you as My rescue. When God is looking to move in new ways, He always looks for people who are committed to Him, to use in powerful ways. I'VE BEEN FASCINATED FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW BY THE STORY AND LEGACY OF HENRIETTA MEARS. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF HER? I believe many Christians have not, and yet her influence has likely affected nearly every single one of you reading this. Let me tell you some of her story. Henrietta's roots actually go back to Minnesota (where we are from), where for many years she taught in the Minneapolis public school system, while also serving at First Baptist Church downtown in Sunday School. In the middle of her life, she took a year off, and during some time down in Southern California was tapped to be the Christian Education Director at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. This proves to be a significant turning point for her, as God began to use her in the lives of young people in the region. The group, consisting of young people and college students at that time was several hundred students, but quickly grew into the thousands of young people who gathered to hear her teach the Word of God. She had an extraordinary gift of teaching the Bible and guiding people in practical ways to follow Jesus. A significant part of her influence in ministry was through the lives of those young people she mentored and discipled: Bill and Vonette Bright Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, which has ministered to millions of people through 25,000 missionaries in 191 countries, including ministries at 1,700 college and university campuses. Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, which has ministered to millions of people through 25,000 missionaries in 191 countries, including ministries at 1,700 college and university campuses. Dawson Trotman Founder of the Navigators, which now has 4,600 staff in 103 nations. Founder of the Navigators, which now has 4,600 staff in 103 nations. Jim Rayburn Founder of YoungLife, which now represents more than 700 ministries in 324 cities around the world. Founder of YoungLife, which now represents more than 700 ministries in 324 cities around the world. Richard Halvorson who went on to serve as the US Senate Chaplain for 15 years, as well as the chairman of World Vision for 20 years. who went on to serve as the US Senate Chaplain for 15 years, as well as the chairman of World Vision for 20 years. Ronald Reagan who became the 40th President of the United States. who became the 40th President of the United States. Billy Graham who went on to communicate the gospel of Jesus to more people than anyone in human history. She played a key role in Billy's life right before the famous 1949 crusade which led to the conversion of Louis Zamperini and other famous people in the area, and catapulted Billy's ministry into the national spotlight. I shared a short video earlier this year about this significant moment when Henrietta impacted Billy's faith. HAVE YOU BEEN IMPACTED IN SOME WAY BY ANY OF THESE MINISTRIES? It's not inconceivable to say that Henrietta's faithful Bible teaching, mentoring, discipling and passion for God and His Word has deeply affected you too, nearly one hundred years later. Her influence lives on through the lives of those she discipled, and the ripple affect of who they discipled. Amazing, isn't it? I have definitely been impacted by some of these leaders and people. Years ago, Michelle and I had the privilege to meet Vonnette Bright briefly at an event in Minnesota. Vonnette and her husband Bill had lived with Henrietta for many years, and founded Campus Crusade for Christ out of her home. I've had the privilege of meeting Franklin Graham, Billy's son, and have spent a little more time with Will Graham, Billy's grandson. In fact, I have some wonderful short videos to share with you in coming weeks talking with Will about his grandfather and specifically about the 1949 crusade and all God did in that singular moment in history, which is still somehow impacting all of our stories today. Will plays his grandfather in the upcoming movie Unbroken: Path to Redemption, and we had the opportunity to visit the movie set last fall and see the replica of the 1949 crusade tent, where God moved so mightily. Angelina Jolie directed the first Unbroken film, and I'm thrilled that Universal is telling the second part of Louis' story, in which his faith in Jesus Christ plays the major role, transforming his life. When we were visiting the movie set, we also got to spend time with Luke Zamperini and his sister who told of the the incredible power of the gospel in their dad's life, and how it changed their family forever. If you want to read more, I wrote more about Henrietta's life and impact in my book Truth Plus Love: The Jesus Way to Influence (Zondervan, 2019) and you can pre-order this now, and be the first to read it. GOD'S POWER IN YOUR LIFE CAN CHANGE YOUR STORY, AND IT CAN CHANGE THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU. God still loves to use people to turn the tide. He still is looking for people whose hearts are committed to Him, and He wants to send rescue to the lost and broken in our world today. If you feel ordinary, you are exactly the type of person God is looking for. Will you allow Him to fill you with faith and the Holy Spirit, and His heart of love for the people around you who need Him? Originally posted at thinke.org Ron Dellums, a Marine turned antiwar activist and feisty Democratic politician, was never one to walk away from a fight, no matter who started it. Dellums, who died Monday at age 82, made that clear during his first run for Congress in 1970, when Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew, speaking for President Richard Nixons White House, pointedly branded the young Berkeley councilman as an out and out radical who needed to be purged from the body politic for his stance against the war in Vietnam and up-front fight against social ills. The attack, like many others to come during his decades on the political battlefield, never fazed him. If its radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if its radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if its radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then Im proud to be called a radical, he told a scrum of reporters at his campaign headquarters. The unbridled passion behind that fiery rebuttal was characteristic of Dellums long political career, which included 27 years in Congress and a term as Oaklands mayor. Dellums died at his home in Washington, D.C., after a battle with cancer. Known for his trenchant speeches and unbending liberal views, Dellums started his adult life as a social worker and political organizer in Berkeley, and brought those sensibilities to Washington. He later used his connections on Capitol Hill to benefit Oakland, when he served four years as mayor. Born Ronald Vernie Dellums on Nov. 24, 1935, he was raised in 1940s-era West Oakland, at that time a predominantly black district that teemed with barbershops, nightclubs, restaurants and stores. Dellums was a fighter from his early childhood. He learned early not to take guff from anyone, including the well-off, sharply dressed white kids at Westlake Junior High School in the Westlake neighborhood near Lake Merritt, where Dellums was among only 14 black students. Once during a study-hall period in eighth grade, Dellums came to blows with a boy who called him a dirty black African. Recounting the incident in his autobiography, Lying Down with the Lions, Dellums said the boy was trying to cut me down verbally, but all my neighborhood practice (of trading insults) was getting the best of him. When the boy hurled a racial slur, Dellums recalled feeling a sharp spasm of rage. He leaped up and pummeled his adversary, stopping only when other kids shouted that a teacher was coming. Later on he bragged about the fight to his mother, who chastened him for regarding the words black and African as insults. I think you should have fought only because he called you dirty, if that made you angry enough, she chided. In the days that followed, Dellums wrote, she began bringing home books and magazines from the library to teach her children about their African heritage. After graduating from Oakland Technical High School, Dellums joined the Marine Corps, served two years, attended San Francisco State University, where he earned a bachelors degree in psychology, then went to UC Berkeley and got a masters degree in social work. In 1967, he won election to the Berkeley City Council, where he served three years before challenging incumbent Rep. Jeffery Cohelan in the 1970 Democratic primary. Cohelan, a former union leader and Berkeley councilman, was a traditionally liberal labor Democrat, but that wasnt enough for an East Bay district moving quickly to the left and becoming noisily antiwar. Dellums easily won the primary and the general election in November, becoming the first African American elected to Congress from Northern California. Ron was adamant about serving the community and making sure people received a response from their government, said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who entered politics as a graduate student intern for Dellums. He would say that the only question we should ask when we made decisions about anything is: Is this the right thing to do? Dont ask about political expedience. Thats how he got his staff to think. Lee and others saw Dellums as a staunch supporter of three social movements that converged in the Bay Area during the 1960s: the free-speech movement, the Black Panther Party movement and the antiwar movement. It was a period of rowdy protests on college campuses and bloody standoffs between demonstrators and police. That was a tumultuous era, said Lee Halterman, a longtime congressional staffer who was Dellums deputy campaign manager in 1970. What drew me? His idealism. He was a champion for issues that we as student activists were fighting for. As a congressman, Dellums is best remembered for his uncompromising opposition to the Vietnam War and compelling speeches on the House floor. He really came to Congress as an activist, Halterman said. He would go to the floor and challenge his colleagues, and they would challenge him back. And thats how he learned to work with them rather than just name-calling. In his autobiography, Dellums recounted many tense confrontations with other elected officials, some of whom saw the fiery, Oakland-raised peacenik as a political outlier and even as an agitator. Such perceptions sometimes led to insults. When Dellums went to the House Armed Services Committee in 1973, the committees chairman, Rep. F. Edward Hebert, left only one seat on the dais for Dellums to share with another antiwar Democrat, Rep. Pat Schroeder of Denver. Recalling the incident in his autobiography, Dellums said he responded with poise. Lets not give these guys the luxury of knowing they can get under our skin, he told Schroeder. Hebert didnt want this radical bomb-thrower from Berkeley on his committee, Halterman said. The irony is that 20 years later, Ron became chair, and people were saying, If only people ran the committee as fairly as Ron does. Dellums, Halterman recalled, said Hey, I remember being locked out, Im not going to shut others out. Over the years, Dellums earned the respect of his peers. He embraced his radical left-wing status and used it strategically, presenting liberal policy ideas that would shift the debate further left, even when he knew they were too extreme to win a majority vote. From Day One, he understood that he was the left-wing, pinko guy from Berkeley, and whatever he said demarcated the left end of the debate, said longtime congressional staffer Dan Lindheim, who later served as Dellums city administrator in Oakland. Dellums was also a consummate wheeler-dealer, willing to compromise at key moments. He had an uncanny talent for pulling people over to his side. When you think of the great speakers, the top four or five orators of the House of Representatives, Ron was on that list, Halterman said. People would come to the floor to listen to him. They would leave the back chambers. They would leave the caucus room. Dellums served 13 consecutive terms in Congress, chairing the House Committee on the District of Columbia on which he successfully pushed for funding to combat infant mortality and develop affordable housing and the Armed Services Committee, on which he led the fight to severely curtail production of B-2 bomber planes. In 1986, he sponsored comprehensive economic sanctions to protest the apartheid regime in South Africa. In 1997, Dellums announced his resignation from Congress, setting up a special election to fill out the remainder of his term. He endorsed Lee, a former member of his staff, who had served time in the state Assembly and was a state senator at the time. When Lee formally announced her candidacy at a party at Oaklands Lake Merritt Boathouse, Dellums was there to support her. She won easily. For the next eight years, Dellums ran his own lobbying firm, representing such clients as AT&T, AC Transit and the military contractor Rolls-Royce. In 2006, at age 70, Dellums returned to politics, winning a race to succeed Jerry Brown as mayor of Oakland. He took office in January 2007, just as the city was trying to build more housing and encourage commercial development downtown, amid a bitter economic downturn. Dellums term as mayor started off strong but ultimately led to complaints that he wasnt managing the city. Initially, he brought the citys police force up to 837 officers, a record high for the struggling department. He also steered several important projects, including massive port development at the Oakland Army Base, and the automated connector train that shuttles passengers from the Coliseum BART Station to the Oakland airport. And he used his connections with the administration of President Barack Obama to haul in more federal stimulus money than any other city, said Lindheim, the former city administrator. But Dellums ran into problems midway through his term. He drew criticism for being frequently absent from City Hall, and his boost to the police force turned out to be unsustainable in 2010, Oakland laid off 80 officers. Supporters who cheered him on in the beginning began to peel off toward the end, and in August 2010, he sent a written announcement saying he would not seek re-election. Even so, some members of Dellums inner circle describe him as a calming force during a turbulent era for Oakland. Margaretta Lin, who served as deputy city administrator under Dellums, recalled how the mayor stayed composed when riots broke out on Jan. 7, 2009 days after white BART police officer Johannes Mehserle fatally shot a 22-year-old black passenger, Oscar Grant. People were so angry, and so wounded, and because he was the Man they took it out on him, said Lin, who walked with Dellums through the streets of downtown Oakland the night they erupted in violence. But he would stop and talk to people even as they were screaming at him, she said. That old social worker came out. On Dellums 80th birthday in 2015, Lee delivered a rousing speech in the House, characterizing her former boss as a man who stuck to his principles, even when they were politically unpopular. He exemplified the finest in public service and set a new standard for elected officials, Lee said. For that, we are deeply grateful. Noel Gallo, an Oakland city councilman, was in grammar school when he first met Dellums, and the encounter served as an inspiration. He was definitely one person I looked up to and motivated me to get into the political arena, Gallo said. Yes, he played a role in national politics, but at the same time he was very active at the neighborhood level. I still remember him walking down Fruitvale and talking with the local businesses. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf called Dellums a true American hero on Monday. Ron Dellums governed from a place of morality and compassion, and his political activism shed light on injustices within our country and all over the world, she said. His progressive values set the bedrock for Oakland values, and his life of public service will continue to inspire all of us to fight for a more just and equitable society. Dellums is survived by his wife, Cynthia, his children Rachel Chapman, R. Brandon Dellums, Erik Todd Dellums, Piper Monique Dellums and stepson Kai Lewis, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter, Pamela Holmes. Services in Washington and Oakland are pending. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan In the latest route news, Delta drops an Oakland route, adds one at San Jose and puts its new cabin layout on more transpacific routes; United will launch Tel Aviv service from a third U.S. gateway, and beef up Washington D.C.-Florida flights; Canada's WestJet announces U.S. markets for its new low-cost subsidiary; Mexico's Volaris adds a Sacramento flight; Austrian drops a U.S. route while KLM adds one; and Qatar Airways scheduled the first U.S. service for the newest model of Airbus' A350 widebody. Delta is making some changes in its Bay Area operations this fall. Effective October 1, the carrier will discontinue its four daily roundtrips between Oakland and Los Angeles International, and on the same date, it will boost frequencies between Oakland and its Salt Lake City hub from three flights a day to five, using a mix of A320s and E175s. And on November 15, Delta will inaugurate a new daily 737-800 flight linking San Jose with its Detroit hub a route that currently has no non-stop service. The eastbound segment will leave SJC at 11:45 a.m. and the return departs Detroit at 8:20 a.m. On the international side, Delta revealed plans to deploy more transpacific widebodies next year equipped with the new Delta One suites and international premium economy sections (called Delta Premium Select) that it first introduced on its Airbus A350-900s. The airline said that on March 1 it will put an A350-900 onto its Seattle-Tokyo Narita route and a reconfigured 777-200ER on its Atlanta-Tokyo Narita run. On March 31, Los Angeles-Tokyo Haneda will get an A350-900, and on November 16 Delta will put a 777-200ER onto its Minneapolis-Tokyo Haneda route. A 777-200LR will be deployed on the airline's LAX-Sydney route sometime next year but the date hasn't yet been set. In addition to the new front cabins, all of those aircraft types will provide nine-across seating in the main cabin. United already flies non-stop to Tel Aviv from San Francisco once a day and from Newark twice a day, and on May 22 of next year it will add a third U.S. gateway to Israel: Washington Dulles. The carrier plans to operate three flights a week on the new route with a 777-200ER. Speaking of Washington Dulles, United said it will add a new domestic spoke from that hub this winter, offering daily A319 flights to Miami from December 19 through March 30 (twice-daily from December 24 through January 6). United will also boost Dulles-Orlando frequencies to five a day between November 28-January 6 and will increase IAD-Tampa service to four flights a day from December 26-January 26. (Footnote: United's new IAD-MIA flights will begin the day after American Airlines discontinues its two daily flights in that market.) Have you heard of Swoop? It's another new ultra-low-cost airline, and it's owned by Canada's WestJet. Swoop started flying within Canada in June, and it just announced its first U.S. routes. It will make up for its ultra-low fares with hefty fees for things like checked bags and even carry-ons. The new airline will use 737s to fly from Abbotsford (outside Vancouver) to Las Vegas two to three times a week and from Edmonton to Las Vegas 11 times a week starting October 11. On October 17, Swoop starts flying from Hamilton, Ontario to Orlando two to three times a week, followed by twice-weekly Hamilton-Tampa flights on October 20; twice-weekly Hamilton-Ft. Lauderdale and four weekly Hamilton-Las Vegas flights beginning October 26; and twice-weekly Edmonton-Phoenix Mesa roundtrips beginning October 27. Swoop will replace regular WestJet service on the Edmonton-Las Vegas, Hamilton-Las Vegas, Hamilton-Orlando and Edmonton-Phoenix Mesa routes. Swoop Another low-cost carrier Mexico's Volaris plans to add new service beginning November 20 from Sacramento to Leon/Guanajuato. The carrier will use an A320 to operate two flights a week on the route. Across the Atlantic, KLM plans to resume service next year between Amsterdam and Boston, using an A330-300 to fly the route three times a week beginning March 31 and increasing to four a week on July 1. The route is already served by KLM's joint venture partner Delta, but the Dutch airline hasn't operated its own aircraft between AMS and BOS since 1994. Elsewhere, Lufthansa Group's Austrian Airlines subsidiary has canceled plans to extend its Miami-Vienna service through the winter with four weekly flights. Instead, it will suspend the route October 28 and start it up again on March 31. Cathay Pacific has started flying a new Airbus A350-1000 between Hong Kong and Taipei, and Qatar Airways is using one to fly from Doha to London Heathrow. Now the Qatari carrier says it will deploy an A350-1000 for one of its two daily Doha-New York JFK flights on October 28, which will be the first U.S. route for the new plane. Qatar's A350-1000s have two classes of service, with 46 "Qsuite" seats in business class and 281 in the main cabin. 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 MacArthur BART Station in Oakland was shut down for more than an hour Friday night while police investigated the stabbings of two passengers, authorities said. The victims, both males aboard a Richmond-bound train, told BART police there had been an altercation on the train, BART spokesman Chris Filippi said. They were being treated at Highland Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. For about an hour, the station was closed and trains were not stopping there while police investigated. Southbound trains resumed stopping at the station shortly before 9 p.m., but northbound trains continued to pass through without stopping while police investigated, Filippi said. About 20 minutes later, service to the station was fully restored, although one entrance to the station remained blocked off for the investigation. The stabbings were the latest in a pattern of increasing crime on BART. Statistics for the first six months of 2018 show a 2 percent increase in violent crime over last year. If that rate continues for the rest of the year, it will show a 66 percent increase over the past five years. In late July, three people died after violence on BART. Nia Wilson, 18, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack at the MacArthur Station platform. Don Stevens, 47, was punched by an unidentified man at Bay Fair Station, fell, struck his head and died. Gerald Bisbee, 51, died from an infected cut after being attacked at Pleasant Hill Station. Suspects have been arrested in all three cases. During the investigation of the stabbings Friday night, passengers walked through MacArthur Station past two prominent altars for Wilson. Lauren Hernandez and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor, @SteveRubeSF In the spring of 1963, seven artists with an interest in fine art met at a Conroe home with a mission in mind. We were kind of a protest group against what we were seeing as the abuse of art at the time, said Conroe Art League charter member Eulice Vial. We felt like art was going down the tube as far as civilization was concerned. It was of concern to the seven that people were putting out junk and calling it art, Vial, of Conroe, said. In an effort to uphold the integrity of fine art, the group of seven came together at Mary Alice Hunts house on March 7, 1963 and the Conroe Art League was formed. Formation of the league Hunt, who moved to Conroe in 1904 at the age of four, taught art at Sam Houston Elementary School for more than 20 years. Vail taught music in the classroom right next to Hunts. At this initial meeting, Hunt was elected president of the Conroe Art League and Edna Hanneh was the first exhibit chairman. Many of the original members of CAL were associated with the Big Thicket Art League. After the Brenham Art League, which was established in the 1950s, the Conroe Art League was the next art league in the Greater Houston area to organize. Then CAL joined the Lone Star Art Guild. According to Vial, the members goal was to promote fine art and to make it meaningful in the lives of others. The first exhibit was held June 1, 1963 at the City Hall with 150 paintings on exhibit according to a passage on the Conroe Art League in the 1981 Montgomery County Geneaology Society History Book. The passage was written by then-president Lois Maddox. Vial recalled that member Charlotte Channeys husband made big frames to display the works of art. The frames could be folded up and taken from place to place for the leagues exhibits. Early meetings were held at the Carpenters Union building and were later moved to second street and the old Conroe Bank Building. Exhibits were held at the First Methodist Church and on the courthouse lawn as well. Vial also recalls exhibits at the post office building where the art was displayed on folding chairs. In the early stages of the group, three summer workshops were held as well as monthly meetings during the rest of the year. Growth and success The membership of the Conroe Art League grew to about 28 in 1966 and surpassed 100 by 1975. Some of the early members were Hunt, Vial, Hannah and Mattie Nutter, Dovie Hughes, Wilma Ogletree, Charlotte Channey, Susan Grogan, Edna Downey, Mrs. George Madeley, Annie Wood, Alaine Triplett, John Klein and Meda Cadenhead. Participation in the art league was special to Vial because it was something to share with her grandmother - Theat B. Nan Madeley. They were both charter members of CAL. Madeley, whose father was a sculptor, grew up in Conroe. When Madeley was in her 40s she began to paint. Shed sell eggs to a man who was an artist in trade for art lessons, Vial said. Madeley noticed Vials ability to draw when Vial was a young girl. Later Vial told her grandmother she wanted to learn to paint from her when Vials daughter went to college. Then it dawned on me that she might not be here when that time came, Vial said. Her grandmother loved art Vial said, especially realistic art. Today Vial still has her grandmothers paintings and some of her paints which are more than 75 years old. And its not lost on Vial that the Conroe Art League is now in the Madeley Building - her grandmothers last name. One of the first major successes of the group came in the form of recognition from The White House. Mrs. M.L. Downey received accolades from The White House for a drawing she did of President Lyndon B. Johnsons childhood home. It all began when she won a blue ribbon at the local show. She had the drawing mounted and sent to President Johnson. In return she received the following letter: Dear Mrs. Downey, Thank you very much for sending me your drawing of my birthplace. I am delighted to have this prize-winning example of your artwork. With appreciation and every good wish. Sincerely, Lyndon B. Johnson. Downey was pictured in The Courier with the letter and a drawing similar to the one she had given to the president. Expanded meeting locations and moving forward In the 1970s, meetings were held on the fourth Sunday afternoon of the month at Morans Bowlerama and judged exhibits were held at the Wahrenberger Building in downtown Conroe. Other various meeting and exhibit locations included the YMCA, First National Bank, the Montgomery County Library, the Rustic Farm, the Crighton Theatre, Nevas Art Gallery, the River Plantation Country Club, Montgomery Plaza, the Methodist Church, the old Post Office, the University Savings Building, the Rivershire MUD building and Crossroads Shopping Center. The first sidewalk show and sale took place on Oct. 12, 1974. A fall and spring sale format developed and the sale moved to a variety of locations around Conroe. CAL became a nonprofit organization on March 11, 1977. Local artist Lois Blackburne joined CAL in 1978. I was a young inexperienced artist and was hungry to pursue my art education, she said. Within a few months of moving to Conroe, I joined this organization and started attending meetings, shows and every activity it had to offer. We were a small-but-active group. We never had a definite meeting place and we gathered wherever there was a place that would have us. Taking CAL to the next level In 1983, Martha Barr, who had worked in commercial art was president of the club. During her term, she made strides to take the group to the next level and attended to many business matters of the club. First, because the club did not have a permanent meeting location, she established a permanent PO Box number for the group. She also designed a logo and brochure for CAL. One of her fondest memories from her year of presidency was when the club had a 20th anniversary dinner to celebrate the clubs founding. Charter members attended. Barr designed framed certificates for them to receive during the celebration. The groups first president, Mary Alice Hunt, did a painting demonstration at the 20th anniversary event that was well received. Barr said shes been a CAL member on and off for about 40 years and socializing and feeding off of other artists enthusiasm is an aspect of the club shes always enjoyed. And the members remained flexible and always managed to schedule some outstanding artists that would come and demonstrate. Weve had some outstanding artists over the years and we never had any problem filling the room, Blackburne said. One memory that stands out to her of is Master Painter Lajos Markos. Markos, a Hungarian-born artist completed more than 2,000 portraits. His interest in Western art brought him to the Houston area in the 1960s. He demonstrated portraiture with a beautiful model as his subject, Blackburne said. We were all impressed that he managed to produce a beautiful portrait in approximately one hour. The genius of Mr. Markos left a lasting impression on us all. She also has fond memories of the late Dick Turner who dazzled the group with an oil demonstration while the group was meeting at the Montgomery County Library. His paintings were so poetically beautiful and his brush told the story like no other artist could do, Blackburne said. Another regular invited guest in the early 1980s was watercolorist Karen Vernon. We all loved her beautiful florals that were executed in her own unique style, Blackburne said. She inspired so many artists and I am proud to say she inspired my never-ending love of painting irises in particular. Blackburne said she always felt supported by the community when the league had its shows and sales. After all these years, I still run into locals who remind me of a piece of my art they purchased at an outdoor show many years ago, she said. Its a good feeling to know that our paintings are still appreciated and cherished after all these years. Another important aspect of the 1980s era was the support of students. CAL began a scholarship program for a deserving senior art student at Conroe High School. Of interesting note, artist Bill McGlaun caught the attention of the art league with his work in one of their shows at when he was a senior at Conroe High School. McGlaun, who since passed away, went on to create the Grady Spikes Memorial Tiger sculpture that still welcomes visitors to Conroe High School. The sculpture was dedicated in October 2002. The annual scholarship evolved into an annual Student Show competition open to all high school seniors from any Montgomery County school. The 1990s were marked by an acceptance of all art forms into the league. A place to call home By 2007, CAL members came together to submit the groups first proposal to the City of Conroe for a permanent gallery space. The proposal was backed from a feasibility study, insights from galleries and museums in Texas, California and Virginia. By 2010, renovations were under way at the Madeley Building on Simonton Street in downtown Conroe with the Conroe Art League selected as the primary tenant. A grand opening was held on Nov. 17, 2011 at the Gallery at the Madeley Building. The Conroe Art League now boasts over 300 members and we are very proud of our downtown Gallery known as the Madeley Building, Blackburne said. Its a beautiful two-story remodeled more than 100-year-old building on Simonton Street in the heart of downtown Conroe. Having such a beautiful location in which to meet as a club and to display our art is such a blessing that we never take for granted. To all the people who make this possible we say thank you. The CAL hosts a variety of exhibits, workshops and classes at the Madeley Building located at 127 Simonton Street. The gallery location can also serve as an event space. CAL also participates in a variety of community outreach efforts. Visit www.conroeartleague.com for more information about the Conroe Art League and a schedule of activities. Some information collected with the assistance of Conroe Art League member Maggie Gutierrez. Some historical information in a timeline put together by Maggie Gutierrez. Alan Nguyen and Desiree Gonzalez are headed to the University of Texas. After what they saw at the Downtown Revitalization Plan public meeting, the two recent Dayton High School graduates see hope in returning to their hometown to find work and live out a productive life. This is exciting, Nguyen said. I want to see this happen, Gonzalez added. More than 100 people attended the combined meeting, which also featured the rollout of the Parks Master Plan. Concept panels were placed around the ball room of the Dayton Community Center and participants were invited to make comments on what they saw. The people came out in a large number and they came with quality comments as well, said Dayton City Manager Theo Melancon. Im very pleased with what people had to say. The thoughtful feedback, he said, related to the both the downtown revitalization and future amenities they would like to see in the parks. I think one of the best parts of these open meetings is getting a perspective outside of the staff and the council, he said. He said he felt it was key to get feedback from the people who will actually use the amenities or potential additions. That gives us a chance to go back and find ways to add those amenities to our community and thats a value add for everybody, he said. Walkability, walking trails, and bike paths are all under consideration. It raises the quality of life when youre able to walk safely from your home to a local park or to the downtown area, he said. For the naysayers, this is only a concept and not the final planyet. We dont have a final plan, in the amenities that are seen in the different concepts, those are all opportunities to get feedback. We pitch something and if its received well, theres a good chance it will make the plan. If we see that no one isnt interested, its a lot slimmer of a chance it will make the plan. The community meetings have been the impetus for many of the ideas. We took all of the comments from the meetings and put them to paper and fleshed out these concepts, Melancon said. Catalyst areas are landmark spots that would show changes in the character of downtown and that revitalization is afoot, he said. The thought was to light the fire of revitalization in several different areas and make them the catalysts that would spur the change. This tidal wave of humanity and commerce washing in from the west is going to happen. We can either watch it or engage it, but you have to start way ahead of it, said City Councilman Wendell Null. Null also leads the Dayton Community Development Corporation. I didnt have the instinct to be that far thinking until I was around people in city government that know what theyre doing, he said. Its not six months, its years, he said. Along with the implementation of the projects, most will be done with either grants (with some match from the city) or with a proposed Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) that will help fund the projects. We want to make sure that we leverage as much grant funding thats available whether its for sidewalks and walkability in the downtown or a multi-modal transportation along our state highways, the city manager said. He reminded everyone that the downtown area is straddled by multiple state and federal highwaysUS 90, TX 321, FM 1008, FM 1960 and TX 146. Being able to connect all of those areas into one cohesive plan is essential in this revitalization as well, he said. The city is nearing the completion of the traffic study and hopes that cooperation with TxDOT will help bring some relief for traffic issues. At the end of the day, those are the purview of TxDOT. We can do all we can to facilitate change, but those are still not our roads, he said. Finding grants and getting TxDOT to agree to do the work would help to work in the interest of traffic issues for Dayton. Working with TxDOT, we can work on the plans together and get something thats good for us, the state of Texas, and the metro area, he said. For 32-year-old businessman Jordan Thibodeaux, its exciting. Thibodeaux owns the State Farm Insurance Agency in Dayton. I wasnt born in Dayton, but I got here as fast as I could, he smiled. Hes planted his roots here and sees the potential. Ive already seen some of the changes that have come to the area. We have to have this plan in place to keep a balance of the new and the historic side intact, he said. Luis Nunez, who has been working with the city and the development corporation to design the project, was optimistic about the future. He said he will take the comments from the meeting, make some additional refinement to the concepts and get ready for public hearings and adoption sometime in the late August, early September timeframe. Well also put together some cost estimates for some of these improvements, but keep in mind that the TIRZ will help finance some of these public improvements, he said. Nunez said he could guarantee that the fiscal impact report will be a positive return on the public investments but needs more private investors as well. The city has already done some of that work through the DCDC by recruiting potential businesses to downtown and by hiring The Goodman Corporation to help with the acquisition of transportation and mobility grants. Theres still time to send comments and participate by sending your comments to the city and filling out the survey on the city website. Nguyen and Gonzalez say they cant wait to see all the changes in their hometown. The News Advocate has posted all of the panels online for citizens to view. dtaylor@hcnonline.com A high school principal in suburban Atlanta says he is concerned about accusation that that Katy ISDs outgoing superintendent plagiarized his doctoral dissertation claims that some critics say should lead to the revocation of his degree and to his termination. Keith Rowland, principal of South Paulding High School in Douglasville, Ga., said he did a side-by-side comparison of his 2008 dissertation, The Relationship of Principal Leadership and Teacher Morale, for Liberty University with a paper Lance Hindt completed four years later, titled The Effects of Principal Leadership on Teacher Morale and Student Achievement, for his education doctorate at UH. PAYDAY: Superintendent gets $750,000 payout on last day There were a lot of similarities, he said. A lot of the sections were just flipped and copied. Rowland said the University of Houston declined to talk to him, citing privacy concerns. University officials wouldnt comment on the accusations against the embattled educator but said they investigate any allegations of academic misconduct. The University has policies and procedures in place to ensure research integrity and address allegations of academic misconduct and investigates any allegations of this sort, the university said in a statement. Hindt announced his resignation from Katy ISDs top job in a May 10 board meeting, about two months after he was accused by a former classmate of having been a bully in junior high school. Since the bullying claims were made, Hindt has said a smear campaign waged against him prompted his decision to leave the position effective Jan. 1, 2019. As a result of a contract amended at the last minute, Hindt will receive about $750,000, an amount equal to two years of base pay, on his last day on the job. Sean Dolan, a Katy resident and frequent critic of the school board and administration, first raised the questions about Hindts doctoral dissertation. He said the investigation by the National Association of Scholars, which came at the request of Katy residents, vindicates their concerns. Weve been so frustrated just knowing what this is. At every turn, the board not only denied it but refused to answer the question, he said. It would really be nice if the University of Houston could find a way to let us know if our superintendent should be fired for good cause. We cant afford buses, we cant afford cameras in special ed rooms, but we can afford this? It would save us a lot of money. Peter Wood, president of the New York City-based National Association of Scholars, said he has no connection to Katy ISD or the University of Houston. After examining both dissertations, Wood wrote UH President Renu Khator a letter dated July 27 noting the strong similarities between the works and stating that Hindt took steps to cover up his wrongdoing. His plagiarism is extensive but Hindt appears to have proceeded systematically by adding words and phrases and occasionally varying word order, Wood wrote. But given the brevity of both dissertations, which are little more than long-term papers, there is no great obstacle to comparing the two. Wood claims Hindt attempted to avoid plagiarism by stuffing superfluous words into Rowlands text. First of all, present and in general, do not alter the structure or the meaning of Rowlands sentence. They simply camouflage the theft, he wrote. Katy ISD officials declined to comment on Rowlands allegations and instead referred to their statement from May when a spokesperson said there was zero truth to this allegations of plagiarism. Wood made his letter public on Wednesday after not receiving a response from UH. If Dr. Hindt is indeed guilty of plagiarism at the order of magnitude Ive pointed to, the University of Houston ought to revoke his degree. This is a matter of integrity of the university as much as it is an obligation to the public, Wood wrote. Rowland doesnt know Hindt and said he only learned about the plagiarism allegations from the news accounts of the incident. He said Liberty University put his dissertation online after they awarded him the doctorate in education. Hindt could have just Googled it and it would have come out, Rowland said. It is a black eye for the University of Houston. mike.glenn@chron.com Harris County will have 25 balloting locations during the first weekend of early voting including four across the Lake Houston area for the $2.5 billion flood control bond election, and almost twice that during the rest of early voting, the Harris County Clerk's office said Tuesday. Roughly 700 voting locations will be open on the Aug. 25 election day, a date chosen to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, Chief Deputy County Clerk George Hammerlein told Commissioners Court. The Texas Department of Transportations proposed $50 million construction project to modify a 4.5-mile stretch of FM 2100 in Huffman remains unfunded. In order to receive funding, the proposed project has to be submitted as part of a four-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the local metropolitan planning organization. Getting a project on the TIP allows it to qualify for federal funding. The TIP is a rolling four-year transportation plan that serves the Greater Houston area. The 2019-2022 TIP is a multimodal program of transportation infrastructure and service improvements planned for implementation in the Houston Region over the next four years, according to the H-GAC website. It includes projects of regional significance for which federal, state and local funding is available or committed. TxDOT engineer Wahida Wakil said the project is not part of the current TIP. TxDOT laid out the details of project to dozens of people who gathered at a public feedback meeting at Hargrave High School on Aug. 2. The proposed project would change the stretch of FM 2100 from Huffman-Cleveland Road in the north to FM 1960 in the south from a two lane road to a four lane road with a median in between. Each lane currently has a 12-foot road with a 6-foot shoulder. The proposed project would have a 12-foot inner lane and a 15-foot shared use outer lane in each direction. The proposed project improvements would accommodate expected traffic demand and growth in the region, while enhancing safety by providing a divided highway with raised medians and dedicated left turn lanes at select intersections and cross streets, read a handout given to attendees of the meeting. The project would also include detention ponds and a sewer system. Work on the project, which has a projected three-year timeline, will not begin until the project receives funding. elliott.lapin@hearst.com County officials reported the dam's "imminent failure" at around 9:30 p.m. More than 150 people had been removed from the possible path of dam waters, Luann Hunt, a spokesperson for the city of Lynchburg, told ABC News. Overnight, city officials monitored the dam for structural weaknesses. Officials said severe rains have pushed water levels over the College Lake Dam near Lynchburg, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 50 miles east of Roanoke. "Flood waters entering Blackwater Creek from College Lake will continue into Ivy Creek before entering the James River". The city knew the dam couldn't handle 2 feet of rain, the maximum it was supposed to be able to cope with, Perrow says. "12 to eight inches of water are flowing over Lakeside Drive into Blackwater Creek". The NWS said a flash flood watch would remain in effect through Friday evening because of the possibility of additional showers and thunderstorms. The CNN Weather Center said there a forecast of 1-3 inches of rain through Friday evening and that rain hasn't been above average, but the runoff is a contributor to the area flooding. They have been advised not to go home for at least 24 hours. The lake behind it is filled with silt, which complicates potential solutions - if they removed the dam, for instance, they would need to ensure that the silt didn't cause other problems downstream. Water damage restoration and cleaning services have reported being inundated with calls for help from Lynchburg and surrounding area residents who have already returned to their homes. Local fire and police sent boats to rescue people to area shelters late Thursday as some creeks were already feeling the overflow from the dam. Hours after her husband's suspected killer shot himself in front of police, the widow of Dr. Mark Hausknecht on Friday thanked investigators for bringing about a "rapid resolution" to the bold slaying last month. "I echo the sentiments of Houston Police Department Chief Acevedo this morning in thanking the numerous departments, communities, and individuals involved whose teamwork and cooperation lead to the rapid resolution of this case," wrote Dr. Georgia Hsieh. She also acknowledged the media's role in keeping the public informed and spreading the surveillance images that helped identify the killer. "The family can never adequately thank our friends and neighbors who have loved and supported us," she continued. "I am most grateful, however, for the many wonderful years our family shared together." Early Friday, police confronted suspected gunman Joseph James Pappas near Brays Bayou, but the 62-year-old shot himself in the head rather than be taken into custody, authorities said. His apparent suicide came one day after the real estate agent and expert marksman was charged with Hausknecht's July 20 killing. That morning, the 65-year-old physician was riding his bike to work when an unknown man started riding behind him along Main Street. The other rider followed the doctor for miles before passing him just before 9 a.m. and turning around to open fire. The Houston Methodist physician, still wearing his hospital scrubs, went down immediately. The entire shooting was caught on camera by a passing METRO bus. But the biker rode away, sparking a two-week investigation and manhunt. A tip earlier in the week led authorities to Pappas' house, where authorities found three boxes of ammunition, a barricaded door and a "Last Will and Testament." But Pappas had already left, and despite a late-night false alarm on Thursday, it wasn't until Friday morning that police finally found the man they wanted, after a Houston Parks Board employee spotted him near Brays Bayou. The board member repeatedly called police as he followed the suspect, finally positively identifying him when Pappas dropped his wallet and left behind his ID. The first officer on scene approached the wanted man, and saw that he was wearing body armor, mentioning suicide, and refusing to comply with orders. When another officer pulled up, Pappas took out a .22-caliber snub-nosed revolver and shot himself in the head, police said. "Why he was going to do or did this, we'll never know 100 percent," Chief Art Acevedo told reporters. "The only connection we can find despite all the speculation is that Dr. Hausknecht operated on his mom over 20 years ago." A suspected carjacker is in critical condition after crashing Friday night during a short pursuit in the Third Ward. The suspect was one of two men believed to have stolen a black Ford pickup truck at gunpoint near Elgin and Ennis streets around 9:50 p.m., according to Houston Police Department Lt. Ronnie Wilkens. AMBULANCE FLIPS: 1 hospitalized after ambulance flips in north Houston Minutes later, officers spotted the truck driving down Tuam without its headlights on, Wilkens said. The officers tailed the truck for a while before it allegedly sped through a stop sign, Wilkens said, at which point the officers initiated a pursuit. Less than a minute after the pursuit started, the driver of the truck lost control, crashing into a light pole and landing in a ditch on Live Oak Street just south of Tuam. Officers rushed to help the driver, who was bleeding from his neck. Houston paramedics took the driver to Ben Taub Hospital, where he is expected to survive, Wilkens said. The driver is expected to face a felony evading charge and could also face a charge in the alleged carjacking, Wilkens said. The second carjacking suspect was not immediately caught. Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com Even if you have gone fully digital and don't use physical books anymore, your local library is worth a visit to get your face out of your smartphone. This week the Houston Public Library announced that it was expanding its hours of service at some of its regional and neighborhood locations. PREVIOUS: Houston Public Library downtown campus is about to look much different In addition, its Central Library location in downtown Houston will now be open on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. According to HPL officials, there had been a demand for it to be open seven days a week and they have now delivered, albeit the window of availability is small. It's a minor change to a library system that is still smarting from Hurricane Harvey like many others in Houston are. Nearly a year after Harvey hit the Houston area some HPL locations are still not open to the public and last month the Houston Chronicle reported that six branches are currently closed due to damages from the hurricane. LONG ROAD BACK: Some Houston libraries still closed 11 months after Harvey Explaining to library patrons that these days the library does much more than just check out books is full-time job, according to library officials. For instance, all library locations offer up free WiFi access and no library card is needed to connect to the network. The Houston library system also has a partnership with the Hoopla and Overdrive services to offer e-books, audiobooks, music, and video to those with library cards. Think of it as the modern version of checking out books, tapes, and other media all on an app platform. All that's needed is a library card number. (So much for keeping your face out of your phone.) Most people don't know that certain Houston Public Library locations can also act as a notary service for a small fee. Notary services are available on a first come, first served basis. Five HPL locations, including the Central Library, offer up passport application services, although though don't process passport renewals. Check library listings to see what hours the service is available. HISTORY YOU CAN VISIT: The Julia Ideson Building is a jewel in downtown Houston Under a pilot program at three HPL locations, cardholders can check out laptops, tablets, and wireless hotspots to take off-site with them. At all HPL locations, cardholders can check out laptops and tablets for use inside the building. Wireless hotspots can be checked out from all locations for up to three weeks at a time. The Scenic Woods Regional Library offers a variety of free resources as a part of HPL's TechLink program, which even allows cardholders to use a number of tech resources like 3-D printers, video editing, and music recording software. Also the Central Library offers up Skype services for those doing online testing, job interviews, or contacted friends and family in the armed services away from home. It's asked that those wanting to use Skype call ahead and make a reservation for a room. Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com WASHINGTON - A 12-year-old girl visiting from China who was reported missing Thursday was found safe in New York City, officials said Friday. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement that JinJing Ma was located Friday in New York City's Queens borough, "safe and in the custody of her parents." The investigation is being led by the FBI, officials said. A number of local, state and federal agencies assisted in locating JinJing. "This is a great example of the work that can be accomplished when the community and law enforcement come together to achieve a common goal," Airports Authority Police Chief David Huchler said in the statement. "We are grateful that JinJing is safe and with family." Anna Demidchik, founding attorney of the Demidchik Law Firm - the firm representing JinJing Ma's family in this investigation - said JinJing's parents were the ones who picked her up from the airport and are the same people depicted in the photos and videos released yesterday. Her biological parents have been living in the United States for two years, during which time they had not seen their daughter, she said. JinJing's parents noticed the Amber Alert and contacted the firm earlier today. The firm immediately contacted authorities including Virginia State Police and the FBI. The family is now together and JinJing Ma and her parents are all here lawfully, Demidchik said. "The case is not being treated as an abduction anymore," Demidchik said. She said a large part of what happened seems to be a misunderstanding, but an investigation is still underway into what exactly happened. Tens of thousands of people have left traditional careers or pivoted to join the cannabis space within the last five years. The one thing all these people will all tell you is that with legalization comes new layers of business responsibilities. Taxes, and how they are levied and collected, are causing major growing pains. Getting everything right is crucial in developing positive relationships with government regulators, vendors, end consumers, and ultimately protecting the bottom line. Heres how the most successful entrepreneurs are managing it. Related: What East Coast Cannabis Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Colorado 1. Understand Local Tax Laws The importance of taxation is quite apparent in California, the largest and most diverse legal cannabis market in the world. The state is divided into 58 counties, and 482 incorporated cities and towns. By law, each of these territories is permitted to determine its own cannabis policies and taxes in addition to the state regulations. It makes things incredibly confusing for businesses and consumers alike. Here's a breakdown of taxes charged for a $35 eighth of cannabis in eight US cities. You'll notice the total cost is widely different, even when comparing cities in California. Its never been more important for cannabis industry hopefuls to understand how state and local taxation affects them. Before setting up automated tax calculations at your dispensary, its wise to consult an accountant or attorney to ensure compliance and accuracy. 2. Keep Detailed Records Though the task may seem daunting at first, even the largest cannabis retailers can easily handle its compliance responsibilities by keeping detailed records of every transaction. Using a point-of-sale system specifically built for the cannabis industry makes it seamless, and creates a beneficial paper trail for the business, should any issues arise with finances or regulations. Related: 5 Routes the Cannabis Industry Could Take to Get Around Federal Banking Restrictions 3. Set An Order of Operations for Taxes Setting an order of operations for your calculations is also important, as there are several different compounding types of taxes. Standard surcharges could include a state-mandated excise tax on cannabis products, and local or municipal taxes, on top of the regular statewide sales tax. By creating a specific procedure for applying these taxes and fees, you will ensure accuracy in your tax reports and payments 4. Be Transparent with Customers Because of tax differences, the price of a jar of cannabis can vary up to 15 percent based on geography and the policies in that area. Thats a huge shock for cannabis consumers, who end up paying between 20 and 45 percent over the sticker price in tax surcharges. Though vendors and distributors have to pay taxes too, this particular burden is largely passed on to the retailers. Theyre the ones that have to face the customer at the cash register. Get ahead of the confusion by helping your customers understand exactly what taxes are being charged. Retailers can do this by clearly printing tax details on their receipts. Doing so will alleviate price complaints and visually explain how their total cost was calculated. Staff should also be trained on various tax types so they can intelligently answer questions and provide education about how tax revenue is being used to improve the community. 5. Fight for Fairness The illicit market for cannabis is shrinking but still exists. If the total cost of cannabis is unaffordable, consumers will continue turning to the black market to save a buck. Additionally, if the business taxes keep climbing as the price of flower falls, the industry will continue to push out smaller players who cant afford to stay in business. Fairly-priced cannabis benefits the entire industry. Stay in close communication with your vendors, distributors, and other retailers in your area in order to stress the importance of responsible pricing. Death and taxes are inevitable, even in the prosperous world of cannabis. Entrepreneurs have an inherent responsibility to advocate for fairness when it comes to taxes the taxes they pay. By taking a stand against excessive taxation and implementing customer-focused best practices, businesses can stand the test of time. Related: 5 Things You Need to Know Before Opening a Dispensary Related: 5 Things You Absolutely Need to Know About Cannabis Taxes Changing Your Business to C Corp Status Could Save You Money, But Is It Right for You? What Does This Year's Income Tax Month Have in Store For Entrepreneurs? Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved ALEXANDRIA, Va. - One of Paul Manafort's accountants testified Friday that she went along with falsifying his tax records because she was afraid to confront a longtime client. Cindy Laporta said that in 2015, Manafort's right-hand man, Rick Gates, told her his boss couldn't afford to pay his taxes. To ease that burden, she said, Gates instructed her to misrepresent $900,000 in income as a business loan. "I had a couple of choices at that point," Laporta said. "I could have refused to file the tax return," which she said could lead to litigation with Manafort's firm. "I could have called Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates liars," she said. "But Mr. Manafort was a longtime client of the firm, and I did not want to do that, either." Laporta, who testified after she was granted immunity, said "I very much regret" the decision to go along with a plan that she estimated saved Manafort at least $400,000 in taxes. It was the fourth day of trial in a packed federal courtroom in Alexandria in which Manafort, President Donald Trump's onetime campaign chairman, is fighting bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay taxes on millions of dollars he made from his work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party, then lied about his income to get loans when the cash stopped coming in. Manafort, wearing a blue suit, blue shirt and purple tie, looked engaged during Friday's proceedings - sometimes taking notes, sometimes looking at the attorneys or witnesses and sometimes staring straight ahead. Laporta, the accountant, described a conference call with Gates in which he said Manafort could not afford to pay his taxes and discussed the possibility of reducing them by reporting a loan from an entity in Cyprus called Telmar Investments that prosecutors contend Manafort controlled. Laporta testified she did not believe such a loan actually existed. Laporta said she asked Gates for a record of the loan and he provided a two-page document that bore what she said was Manafort's signature. She testified that she also helped Manafort obtain millions of dolllars in loans fraudulently, including by representing rental property as a second home, sending a bank a loan-forgiveness letter she believed to be forged, and telling another bank that Manafort expected a $2.4 million payment when she had "no idea" if it was true. Defense attorneys have sought to cast Manafort as a dupe of his business partner, Gates, who was accused in the same indictment as Manafort and has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI. Prosecutors hoped to convince jurors that Manafort, not his business partner, his bookkeeper or anyone else, was primarily responsible for alleged tax dodges and bank fraud. Earlier Friday, another of Manafort's accountants took the stand, and a prosecutor asked him who among Manafort's circle was in charge of financial decisions. The tax preparer, Philip Ayliff, replied decisively: "Mr. Manafort." Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye drilled into what Ayliff knew about the relationship between Manafort and Gates. Ayliff said Gates was "working closely with Mr. Manafort," and was Manafort's "right hand" adviser. Asonye guided jurors through the details of the alleged tax fraud, showing them Manafort's personal and business tax returns. Even as testimony turned complicated, the jurors appeared to pay careful attention. Several took notes in black notebooks, and virtually all looked at the monitors in front of them as attorneys zoomed in on portions of documents they sought to highlight. During recent years, Manafort reported making healthy incomes - $504,744 in 2010; $3,071,409 in 2011; $5,361,007 in 2012; $1,910,928 in 2013; $2,984,210 in 2014. But prosecutors say he was making millions more from his work in Ukraine, stashing it in foreign bank accounts and using it to buy luxuries such as a now-infamous $15,000 ostrich-leather bomber jacket. Asonye flashed the tax returns, one by one, in front of the jurors, asking Ayliff in relation to each: How many foreign bank accounts did Manafort report having? "None," Ayliff said, as the exercise was repeated five times. The prosecution turned to emails to show Manafort's failure to report the bank accounts was no mere mistake. One 2011 email showed Ayliff asking Manafort whether he had any interest in a foreign bank account. Manafort responded that he did not. Ayliff testified that his firm relied on the representations of Gates and Manafort, and that the men never told him of the foreign accounts. Under defense cross-examination, Ayliff acknowledged that reporting requirements for foreign bank accounts can be complicated. Lead defense attorney Kevin Downing pointed to emails about a foreign telecommunications firm in which Manafort invested but over which he had no decision-making authority. His accountants determined that his investment was not large enough to trigger reporting requirements for foreign bank accounts. "Did you have difficulty getting information?" Downing asked. "Yes," Ayliff said. "Primarily, that information was provided by Mr. Gates; is that correct?" Downing asked. "Yes," Ayliff said. Downing displayed a financial document that featured large block letters at the top: "This is a loan . . . per Rick Gates call." The trial is expected to resume Monday afternoon. - - - The Washington Post's Justin Jouvenal contributed to this report. For six years, Alexandria, Virginia officials referred to the planned waterfront park as Fitzgerald Square - a tribute to Col. John Fitzgerald, an Irish immigrant who was aide-de-camp to Gen. George Washington in the Revolutionary War and an early mayor of the Colonial city. But by the time the City Council broke ground for the park at the foot of King Street on March 17 - St. Patrick's Day - the moniker had disappeared. The new name, King Street Park at the Waterfront, is also temporary, said city officials, who plan to solicit public opinion under a relatively new park-naming process before deciding what to call the site in perpetuity. Spokesperson Craig Fifer said the city stopped referring to the project as Fitzgerald Square after receiving "complaints about the connection between Fitzgerald and slavery." He said all sides "will have their say during the naming process." Records show that Fitzgerald was a slave owner, said Joel Horowitz, local history and special collections librarian at Alexandria's Barrett Library. Around the time he was mayor, his household included nine black people older than the age of 16 and five younger than 16. Fitzgerald's name was dropped from the park project without public explanation, infuriating leaders of a national Irish Catholic cultural group, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which issued a proclamation last month calling for the name's restoration. "The most important thing we want to bring home was not just to recognize the contributions of Colonel Fitzgerald, but all the Irish who worked on the docks here," said Terry Riley, the president of the national organization's local chapter, which has collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition to restore the name and has demanded to know who made the decision to drop it. Fitzgerald, who arrived in 1769 from Wicklow, Ireland, was a prominent figure in early Alexandria. A biographical sketch inspired by research by T. Michael Miller, a former Alexandria city historian, describes him as "dashing" and "an agreeable, broad-shouldered Irishman." He was with Washington at the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton, survived winter at Valley Forge and was wounded at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey, according to multiple histories. Back in Alexandria on leave in 1781, Fitzgerald marshaled local forces to repel a surprise attack by the British, organizing citizens at Market Square and leading a smaller band to Jones Point. The British shelled the town and then left. After the war, he and Washington became directors of the Potomac Company, which sought to improve navigation and commerce on the river. In 1788, Fitzgerald bought land on what is now the 200 block of King Street. He extended the river's bank 400 feet to create Fitzgerald's Wharf, where he built three warehouses and a tavern. "Some in the community feel strongly in favor of Fitzgerald for historical or other reasons, and some feel strongly against for historical or other reasons," said Fifer, the city spokesperson. "That's an issue that can be discussed in the course of the naming process yet to come." Alexandria was a major slave trade port for more than a century, from the mid-1700s through the Civil War. The importance of the slave trade was one of the reasons that the city in 1846 sought to secede from the District of Columbia, which was considering outlawing the practice. Several slave "pens" operated in Alexandria, including one that was considered the largest in the nation. Throughout the city, if you know where to look, there are remnants of how slavery was part and parcel of everyday life before the Civil War. The park at the foot of King Street is supposed to anchor the redevelopment of Alexandria's waterfront. It is located where a parking lot, a sliver of green space and the Old Dominion Boat Club once stood. The park is slated to open this fall, barring weather and construction delays. By that time, the city hopes to have a permanent name for the park, Fifer said. In the Brexit referendum campaign two years ago, Britain paid little attention to how exiting the European Union might affect the Irish border. Now, it's the single biggest issue in negotiations, as the two sides have failed to find a way to keep the EU's land frontier with the U.K. open. As the debate rages on-and the chances of a messy divorce increase the risk that some kind of border posts will eventually have to go up-many in the area are anxious about what lies ahead for business, daily life and even peace on the divided island. For others, Brexit has already changed their lives. - - - Damian McGenity runs the post office in Jonesborough, a small village in Armagh, less than one mile from the Irish border. The part-time farmer now finds himself a part-time lobbyist for campaign group Border Communities Against Brexit. His life changed the moment the U.K. voted to leave the EU. "I was out calving on the farm and I remember watching the result on the news late that night. I knew it was going to be close-then when it was declared I knew we were in serious trouble." Fellow farmers, neighbors and business owners from both sides of the border began to meet. "We knew it was going to be a disaster for us, so we talked among ourselves about what we could do and that's when the group was set up," he said. The 45-year-old father of four has attended hundreds of meetings across Ireland and Europe. He's met Guy Verhofstadt and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier's team. "Our objective is to educate Europe because we do not want a hard border. There are things we can agree on but the clock is ticking and I am really worried," he said. - - - Father Joseph McVeigh, 72, is finding that Brexit is getting in the way of his priestly duties since he became a figurehead for the anti-Brexit movement in the Fermanagh-Cavan border region. The priest-who lives in the U.K.'s most westerly constituency and the furthest from Westminster lawmakers-has been providing tours of the area's invisible border to press and tourists for the past two years. "I have lived in Fermanagh for most of my life, I have seen bad times and experienced the great change that occurred with the Good Friday Agreement and the breaking down of the border following the so-called Troubles when people began to travel freely." "When the decision to leave the EU was made, I along with many others got a shock. I realized that I had to get out and share my views with all traditions." "Mass is a priority every day but this whole Brexit thing does take you away from other duties," says McVeigh, who has been a priest for 50 years. "I want people outside Ireland to understand how we feel and how we think. I have spent many days and hours showing people from Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland what the border is like-it's usually a river or a bridge-and how absurd it is to have a border here at all." - - - Fergal Quinn organizes bachelor and bachelorette parties in Sligo in northwest Ireland, about 40 miles from the border. A year ago, speaking to Bloomberg, he was relaxed about Brexit, as the referendum result wasn't deterring the roughly 60 percent of his customers who came from Northern Ireland, spending the day painting nudes or jumping off cliffs before heading to the nightclub he runs with his brother. Now, the Quinns are noticing a difference at the five venues they run, as numbers from Northern Ireland drop by about 20 percent, a move he mostly links to sterling's tumble. Just before the referendum, a pound bought more than 1.30 euros. Now, it's about 1.12 euros. Against that backdrop, Quinn is targeting the Irish Republic market. His biggest worry is the possibility of a hard border, with checkpoints and delays. "That would be a game changer," he said. "It would really hurt us." - - - Ian Marshall, 50, is a Protestant and unionist who "strongly" believes Northern Ireland should remain within the United Kingdom. Now, thanks to Brexit, he finds himself catapulted into the upper house of the Irish parliament in Dublin. Anti-Brexit and a former leader of the Ulster Farmers' Union, the father of three was nominated to become a member of Ireland's Senate by Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who wanted a Northern Irish unionist perspective. "I was completely taken aback," Marshall said. "I had to make sure I wasn't a pawn in a political game, that there was no ulterior motive." "Everyday, I ask myself how did I get here? But this is so important-the Brexit collateral damage could be horrendous. The politicians who want this will be long gone, but our kids will be living with the consequences for 30 or 40 years." - - - Kevin Woods has run the Shalom guest house for over 30 years with his wife Jackie. The 74-year-old lives on Carlingford Lough-where the border runs through the vast sea inlet. "For 30 years of the Troubles, a British gunship sat out there on the lough in front of our house. They will never return, it will never happen. If a customs border ended up here I think in the last few years of my life I'd be tempted to blow it up myself." Woods also has another interest: leprechauns. He calls himself the last leprechaun whisperer in Ireland, and runs the Last Leprechauns of Ireland websites, running one-hour tours including a visit to a cavern, where he regales children and adults with stories. They way he tells it, the leprechauns sprint down a tunnel under the Lough on the south and meet with northern spirits. For Woods, Brexit is leading to reunification, and not just among the leprechauns. "There will be a united Ireland, it will come. I won't make it, but others will." The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen said it was "sending surgical material enough to treat 50 severely wounded people to the (ICRC) supported Al-Thawra Hospital in Hodeida after vicinity targeted". Rebel-run media outlets have accused the coalition of carrying out Thursday's attacks in Hodeida. On Thursday medics and witnesses said at least 20 people were killed in an air strike at the entrance to a hospital and the bombardment of a fish market in the Red Sea city of Hodeida. Bodies of people killed by an airstrike on a fish market are laid out in plastic bags at a hospital in Hodeidah, Yemen August 2, 2018. "The toll was not final as scores of injured were in critical conditions", it said, citing the office's director Abdulrahman al-Jarallah. Medical officials and the U.S. blame the Saudi-led coalition, which in turn pins responsibility on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. "Houthi militias continue to violate global laws in Yemen", he said. The provinces are under the control of the elected government that the Houthis are fighting, as a result of the intervention of the Saudi and Emirati forces. Meanwhile, the United Nations said it will invite the parties involved in Yemen's conflict for talks on 6 September. "These consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties, among other things, to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward", said Griffiths. Two ambulances were also destroyed, it said. "This is shocking", said Ms. Lise Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen. The conflict in Yemen began when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government to flee to Aden. This came a few days after Saudi Arabia suspended oil exports through a strategic Red Sea channel, amid Houthi attacks on crude tankers on 25 July. "Everything we are trying to do to stem the world's worst cholera epidemic is at risk". Yemen's war has killed almost 10,000 people and triggered what the United Nations calls the world's largest single humanitarian crisis, with more than eight million Yemenis at risk of starvation. "We're calling on all parties to the conflict. for three full days of tranquility and to lay down arms to allow us to vaccinate the civilian population for cholera", World Health Organization emergency response chief Peter Salama said. Few things say local like the Chesapeake blue crab. It has scuttled its way into Maryland's tourism slogan and is part of the region's signature dish, proudly touted on menus and in markets as a taste of the Bay in an era when "eat local" has become the mantra of foodies. But a few years ago, a tipster reached out to authorities with an unsavory allegation: A major Virginia seafood supplier was selling packages of premium Chesapeake blue crab meat cut with cheaper foreign crab. It wasn't even the same species. In an unusual probe, federal agents fanned out to markets across Virginia, Delaware and North Carolina, scooping up crab meat from Casey's Seafood and sending it out for the type of DNA analysis more common in rape and murder cases. The results would reveal the tip of what authorities say is a massive fraud worth millions of dollars, one so large it has shaken the food industry and raised questions about just how much of the iconic food labeled as local comes from the Chesapeake Bay. Federal prosecutors allege in a case unsealed this year that the Newport News, Virginia, company sold a whopping 398,000 pounds of Chesapeake blue crab mixed with cut-rate crab from as far away as Indonesia and Brazil, and labeled it as an American product. The retail value of the crab is roughly $14 million at current prices. It is difficult to ascertain how widespread such problems are, but watermen, seafood suppliers, lawmakers and environmental groups have all expressed concerns about crab fraud in recent years and whether enough is being done to stop it. A 2015 report by Oceana, an international nonprofit group focused on ocean conservation and advocacy, found that nearly 40 percent of crab cakes it tested that were labeled as local in area restaurants contained imported meat. "It's a species that's well loved around the area," said Kimberly Warner, the senior scientist at Oceana who authored the report. "The thought that we've all been subject to this fraud when we are enjoying what we think is a local product really hits home with diners in this region and undercuts the watermen." But it's not just consumers and industry insiders who suffer. Oceana says the foreign crab that ends up in local products is sometimes illegally fished in an unsustainable fashion, such as via bottom trawling, that can kill fish and other species and deplete crab stocks. Then, there's the taste. Some chefs and crab aficionados say Chesapeake blue crabs are a cut above blue crabs found in warmer waters such as those in the Carolinas and Louisiana, as well as other similar species. Crab cakes made with other meats - or crab fakes as some have derisively taken to calling them - just don't hold up. "We are one of the farthest northern points they harvest the blue crab from," said Steve Vilnit, vice president of marketing for Capital Seaboard, based in Jessup, Maryland. "Our crabs have to hibernate in the winter and to do that they have to put on fat. Just like with a piece of beef, fat gives it flavor." The cache of Chesapeake blues and the limited supply allows stores and restaurants to charge a premium. Investigators said that higher price point may have provided incentive for Casey's to cheat in the current case. It may motivate others, too. A federal agent from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a search warrant that an informant told him Casey's Seafood was trying to undercut the market, because prices for Chesapeake blue crabs had climbed with their scarcity. The fraud allegedly occurred between 2012 and 2015. James R. Casey, the company's president, directed employees to remove foreign crab meat from packing containers and blend it with meat from another processor before placing the meat in containers containing the label "Product of the USA," according to court documents. The employees also brazenly slapped "Product of the USA" stickers over the labels of the discarded cans that read "Product of Brazil" or "Product of China," presumably to cover their tracks, according to court documents. In 2015, federal agents scoured the Casey's Seafood processing plant in Newport News, removing 17 bags and cans of crab meat labeled "Product of Vietnam," invoices, computers and dozens of other items, according to court documents. After the action, Harris Teeter and Farm Fresh supermarkets announced that they were dropping Casey's Seafood products. Casey, 74, has been charged with violating the Lacey Act, a federal law on the labeling of fish and wildlife. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Casey's attorney did not return requests for comment and Casey's listed phone number has been disconnected. The way federal prosecutors filed the charge - as a "criminal information," or a written accusation - indicates that they may be moving toward a plea deal with Casey. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment on the case. No hearing dates have been set. In 2015, Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., before her retirement, wrote to President Barack Obama urging greater regulation of crab processing to stamp out fraud. "The fraudulent labeling of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean blue crab meat has a detrimental impact on an industry that plays an important role in the Virginia and Maryland economies," they wrote. At the time, the Obama administration was studying ways to monitor seafood imports and cut down on fraud - which, in addition to crabs, affects other sectors of the seafood industry. New rules went into effect at the start of 2018, requiring importers to document that the catch is legally and sustainably caught. The rules apply to blue crab, but not other species commonly mixed with it. And the regulations do not do much to combat fraud that occurs within the United States, such as a domestic processor mixing foreign crab with Chesapeake blue crab - the allegation against Casey. Fraud has frustrated some crabbers. Richard Young, who has been a commercial waterman since the early 1990s, and his wife, Lee Carrion, own Coveside Crabs in Dundalk, Maryland, where they have built a business selling only the premium crabs Young has caught. Both said they consider crab fraud to be rampant. Carrion said she has seen retailers purportedly selling local crabs at the end of the year, even though crabbing is banned during the winter months, while Young says some suppliers and retailers supplement the catch. They say it undermines the integrity of the local product and leads to lower prices for their specialized offering. "The demand is for Maryland crabs and the Chesapeake just doesn't produce enough to meet the demand, so they bring in the crabs and mix them with Maryland crabs," Young said. They said they want to see Maryland do a better job of enforcing a law that requires restaurants and markets to list the state where the crabs were caught when they have been labeled as local. Maryland does have a program called True Blue, which certifies 150 restaurants and retailers as selling mostly local crabmeat. Jeff Gaetjen, fishmonger at BlackSalt Fish Market & Restaurant in Northwest Washington, said he continually works with the same suppliers to ensure he gets an authentic local product. He said customers can also take a few steps to do the same. "Always insist on fresh crab meat that's not pasteurized," Gaetjen said. "Go to a reputable fish store. Create a relationship with that person." TOKYO - Japan has asked the United States to prevent a possible adverse impact on Japanese companies' activities in connection with the U.S. request to Japan and other countries to stop crude oil imports from Iran, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. Japan called on the United States to give consideration to Japanese companies during the second round of a bilateral meeting between Japanese and U.S. officials on U.S. sanctions against Iran. The ministry released on Friday the outline of the meeting, which was held in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday. 3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Stew Leonard's Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of Stew Leonard's Show More Show Less 3 of 3 FARMINGDALE, N.Y. Jon Bon Jovi made a surprise visit to a Long Island Stew Leonards supermarket to support a business venture by his son, Jesse, who recently launched a rose wine company, according to a press release. Stew Leonards Wine and Spirits, owned by Stew Leonard Jr., will be selling Jesse and Jon Bon Jovis exclusive Diving Into Hampton Water rose, a name Jesse and Jon invented. The wine will be available throughout the East Coast, the release said. JaboTV This video is part of a series brought to you by Entrepreneurs book division, Entrepreneur Press, the publisher of Jessica Abos book Unfiltered: How to Be as Happy as You Look On Social Media. If you have been writing and rewriting the same section of your book and feel like you still don't have things the way you want them, then this episode is for you. No matter how hard I tried to work with some of the chapters I finished, I still felt like something was off. Entrepreneur's editorial director, Jennifer Dorsey, suggested I take out all of the sections that were giving me a hard time and paste them in a new document. I printed the chapters to see where the material might work better and that exercise helped me deconstruct major parts of the book. DETROIT -- Sabrina Jackson spent her Sunday night at a nightclub packed with fellow black Detroiters who want to send Brenda Jones to Congress. For 12 years, she had watched Jones "do amazing things on the city council" as Detroit emerged from bankruptcy and began reversing decades of decline. But she still missed former Rep. John Conyers Jr. She hadn't gotten over the way the #MeToo movement brought him down. "It was a tragedy that he was railroaded out of there," said Jackson, 52. "I am, personally, a sexual abuse survivor. I've written a book about it. I've been on TV about it. Knowing what I know, I didn't agree with what happened." The downfall of Conyers, an icon of black politics who resigned last year under a flurry of accusations that he had mistreated and made advances toward female aides, was seen in Washington as a sad end for a politician who had stayed long past his prime. In Detroit, it's seen as something else -- yet another insult to a city that is used to them. Conyers was the longest-serving member of Congress, and the longest-serving African-American member. He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus and was one of 20 names on Richard Nixon's first "enemies list." He was the only member of Congress endorsed by Martin Luther King Jr. -- and the only one to give a job to Rosa Parks. The candidates vying to replace Conyers share his left-wing politics and remain frustrated that a legendary figure was forced to leave office last December without a full investigation of what he'd done. The race to succeed him has pivoted mostly around how closely the candidates would hew to Conyers's legislative desires. The candidates and voters also wonder why the seat has remained open, and will until the winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary wins a special election in November. No Republican has filed to run for the seat; whoever Democrats nominate probably will take office during the lame-duck session at year's end. The long delay has made Democrats furious at Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, whom they accuse of disenfranchising the state's largest city. An Arizona Republican, Rep. Trent Franks, had resigned the same week as Conyers; the election to replace him was held April 24, and his successor has been voting in Congress. A federal court lawsuit to push the election to an earlier date was tossed when a judge turned aside claims that Snyder's decision to delay the election to coincide with the regularly scheduled primary was racially based. (Snyder said the timing was meant to save money.) Some compare the treatment of Michigan's largest city to the neglect by state officials of the contaminated water supply in the majority-black city of Flint. "I suspect that's part of the governor's continued marginalization of the poor and communities of color in Michigan," Greg Mathis, a retired judge and the host of TV's "Judge Mathis," said at the Jones event. "He made a bad call with Flint, and he made a bad call here." The result of the long vacancy has been one of the country's most competitive primaries for one of its poorest and most Democratic-leaning seats. One candidate has the Conyers family name; one is the son of Coleman Young, Detroit's first black mayor. Both are young and could conceivably represent the city for generations, just as the elder Conyers did. But both, local Democrats say, are underdogs in a race where most party leaders have swung behind Jones, and most national money has gone to former state legislator Rashida Tlaib. In a poll released this week, both were tied with Bill Wild, mayor of suburban Westland. The election is not the handoff that Conyers, who was first elected in 1964, seemed to prefer. He announced his resignation with a call to a radio show whose hosts asked why other members of Congress were not being subjected to the same rough treatment. Conyers focused on the future, endorsing his son, John Conyers III, who was just 27 and had never run for office. "This, too, shall pass," the elder Conyers said. "My legacy will continue through my children." Voters, even as they bemoaned Conyers' resignation, had other ideas. JCIII, as he's known, had no political experience and a slapdash campaign operation. He failed to make the ballot and circulated petitions to run as an independent, but has otherwise vanished from the conversation. The Conyers brand has moved on to a grandnephew, Ian Conyers, a state senator and former congressional aide who will turn 30 this fall. Green and white signs emblazoned with his name have sprung up on lawns next to similar blue and white signs left over from the elder Conyers' campaigns. In an interview before he attended a church service near his home, Ian Conyers said that he would continue his uncle's legacy in Congress, bill by bill, from the Medicare for All bill that is co-sponsored by most Democrats to the slavery reparations bill that isn't. "I don't think anyone is racing to throw stones at his legacy," said Conyers. "The work that's been done must continue." Coleman Young II, 35, who has spent 11 years in the legislature, has also pledged to pick up Conyers' legislation. Last weekend, as he greeted voters at an art fair in the Highland Park neighborhood where the elder Conyers was born, Young said he would pair that with the record he built in Lansing. "I am humbled and honored to carry on the legacy that my father left behind," Young said. "But there will never be another John Conyers. The man is a civil rights icon. The reason why I, as an African-American man, never have to see a 'Whites Only' water fountain, never have to walk in the back of a restaurant, is because of John Conyers. It's just unfortunate what happened." Other candidates, however, are pledging to continue Conyers' work while representing change. Jones, the city council president, has been endorsed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, by many of the city's labor unions, and by black leaders who have known her much longer than they've known the young Conyers. "The 13th Congressional District is the most challenged -- should I say, the poorest -- in the state of Michigan," Jones, 59, said in an interview at her campaign office. "I have the experience, from the different boards I've been sitting on, that has allowed me to get more information and meet more people from these municipalities." Westland Mayor Wild, who is white, is also running largely on his experience. Although Detroit has not sent a white man to Congress since John F. Kennedy was in the White House, it has twice elected Duggan, who is white. In 2017, Duggan won a second term in a landslide over Coleman Young II. In an interview at a distillery in the Detroit neighborhood of Corktown, Wild said that Conyers had "chosen retirement so he could walk out with his head held high," but that he was in the best position to enter Congress and start bringing resources home. He cited Tlaib, the former state legislator, as the sort of candidate who couldn't. "It's going to take more than name recognition," Wild said. "People are looking at things like skill set, achievement, ability. Everywhere we go, we hear that Rashida is raising an incredible amount of money from out of state -- pro-Palestinian groups and others who have a historical interest in this race." Tlaib, whose potential to become the first female Muslim in Congress has attracted national attention, scoffed at the criticism. She has made enemies, she said, because in the legislature she voted against business development that relied on taxpayers priming the pump for private businesses. "We're not approaching poverty the same way. We're not approaching the issue of immigration the same way," she said. "People say I'm combative, but what I appreciated about Congressman Conyers was that he would do things like that. He was listed as a plaintiff on a number of lawsuits around economic justice issues." That was the legacy that Conyers was leaving in Detroit, she said. Asked about the scandals that brought him down, Tlaib said that she would have preferred to see an investigation that vetted the claims and let accusers speak. Instead, she saw a liberal legend leave too soon, and Detroit and Dearborn and Westland iced out of Congress for nearly a year. "I was disappointed," she said. "I was devastated." JAKARTA, Indonesia - Diplomats from the United States and North Korea alternately shook hands and lobbed critiques at one another Saturday, in what appeared to be another roadblock in the path to negotiations aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. In a day of head-snapping twists of tone at the annual conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia not to help North Korea cheat on U.N. sanctions that Moscow had voted for. Then, just a few short hours later, Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho approached each other for a public handshake and exchanged promising pleasantries with big smiles. According to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, Pompeo suggested they would talk soon, and Ri agreed, adding, "There are many productive conversations to be had." Nauert said that beyond the brief exchange at the group photo, Pompeo and Ri did not have a more formal meeting. Given where the United States and North Korea were a year ago, Nauert said, "This is a step in the right direction." As the two top diplomats returned to their seats, Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, approached Ri and handed him a white envelope bearing a letter from President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. While the full contents were unknown, Pompeo tweeted later Saturday that the letter was Trump's reply to a missive the president received from Kim last week, which White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Saunders characterized as a "follow-up" to their June summit in Singapore. In his own tweet, Trump described Kim's letter as "nice," breezily adding, "I look forward to seeing you soon!" But things at the Singapore conference went downhill after Pompeo departed for Indonesia: Ri waited until then to deliver a sharp attack on the United States in remarks at the forum. Though he said the North Korean government remains committed to a joint statement that followed a summit between Trump and Kim in June, Ri criticized the White House for insisting on maintaining sanctions until disarmament is complete and demanded "confidence-building" measures along the way. "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old; far from its leader's intention," Ri said. The divergent rhetoric underscored the difficulties that have hampered previous attempts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. It also was reminiscent of Pompeo's last visit to North Korea in July, when he declared the meetings "productive," but North Korea hours later would say the U.S. approach was "gangster-like." Previous negotiators have seen similar rapid-fire mood swings from Pyongyang. This is just North Korea's style of negotiating and indicates any talks would probably take many months if not years. Pompeo has acknowledged talks will be difficult and strung-out, but he said Saturday that he remains optimistic that eventually the two sides can reach a deal to end the North's nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang's willingness to truly denuclearize has come into question lately. A confidential report by the United Nations, shown to reporters on Friday, says North Korea has violated numerous U.N. Security Council sanctions by continuing to develop its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Also last week came news reports that intelligence agencies believe the North is developing new missiles. Much of the discord stems from differences in how Washington and Pyongyang view the pace of rewards to North Korea if it proceeds dismantling its weapons programs. Pompeo has insisted that the United States expects total denuclearization and that sanctions will remain in place until the process is complete. North Korea, officially named the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has demanded a phased approach, with sanctions eased in several steps as a show of goodwill. "Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight," Ri said in his remarks after Pompeo's departure. "In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another." Ri added: "Only when the U.S. ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the U.S. and show it in action." An administration official brushed off the remarks as growing pains in a still-developing relationship that has been wobbly at times. "This is to be expected," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the criticism frankly. "We're building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations." Pompeo used the ASEAN meeting to hold meetings with diplomats from more than two dozen countries to urge their governments to keep up the economic pressure on Pyongyang until its nuclear weapons program is irreversibly dismantled. At a news conference, Pompeo noted reports that Russia was entering into joint ventures with companies in the North and granted new work permits to North Korean guest workers. He said the United States believes the reports, first published in the Wall Street Journal, are accurate and would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution restricting trade with North Korea. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow," he said. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously." Despite the carping, the tone was considered a major improvement over last year, when the buzz of the ASEAN meeting was whether Pompeo's predecessor, Rex Tillerson, would even be in the same room with North Korea's foreign minister. This year, in his first visit as secretary of state, Pompeo has been at the forefront of talks with North Korea aimed at its eventual denuclearization. "From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," Pompeo told reporters. "There has not been single country that hasn't thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world toward the possibility of achieving this. . . . I'm optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded." That view seemed to be supported by a communique expected from the ASEAN diplomats, who, along with representatives of Japan and South Korea, urged Washington and Pyongyang to "continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," according to a draft seen by the Associated Press. Earlier Saturday, Pompeo suggested the timeline for denuclearization will be determined in large part by North Korea's mercurial leader. "The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia. "The decision is his. He made a commitment, and we're very hopeful that over the coming weeks and months we can make substantial progress towards that and put the North Korean people on a trajectory towards a brighter future very quickly." Pompeo started the morning with a rosy tweet, saying he had had productive discussions on North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. China is responsible for the lion's share of trade across North Korea's border. "Our cooperation," he tweeted, ". . . sends a strong signal to the region that, despite differences, #China and the US can work together to get important work done." Despite the United States' growing trade war with China, there was a palpable sense of relief that the tensions of last year appeared to have eased considerably. The Southeast Asian region is "quite happy to see how the events on the Korean Peninsula are turning out, especially compared to last year, which was a really worrying time," said Dino Patti Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States who led a delegation to Pyongyang for informal talks. "There was a real threat of clashes and talk of preemptive strikes." Things are "exceptionally much better" now, he added, and the region "welcomes this development and thinks the momentum should be kept." Apart from urging continued support for being tough on Pyongyang, Pompeo's three-day trip to Asia is part of a U.S. effort to boost trade ties with the region, despite the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia. He said it would be used to strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and counter "transnational threats." On Monday, Pompeo said the United States would invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in the region as part of what he characterized as "a down payment on a new era of U.S. economic commitment to the region." Duties ranging from 5% to 25% will be levied on 5 207 kinds of American imports if the United States delivers its proposed taxes on another $200 billion of Chinese goods, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website late Friday. "China is forced to take countermeasures", said a ministry statement. The US imposed 25 per cent tariffs on US$34 billion of Chinese goods in early July, with another US$16 billion to be targeted in coming weeks, drawing an in-kind retaliation from China. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) shake hands during their bilateral meeting at the 51st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore on Aug 3, 2018. China received 103.4 million cubic feet of LNG from the US last year, the Energy Information Administration says. China's finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra levies ranging from 5 to 25 percent. Washington had already imposed import tariffs on $34bn of Chinese goods last month, with Beijing immediately retaliating. They will apply to 5,207 American-made goods, including a range of agricultural products such as vegetable oils, smoked and salted beef, wheat flour and wine. The yuan has also declined recently, threatening to take some of the bite out of tariffs by making imports cheaper, though the central bank took measures on Friday to stop it from falling any farther. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media that "the Chinese side calls on the U.S. to return to rationality, and eradicate its mistakes to create the right conditions for resolving the problem". China's imports from the United States a year ago totaled $153.9 billion. "Some of the currency fall though I think is just money leaving China because it's a lousy investment, and if that continues that will really damage the Chinese economy", Kudlow said in a Bloomberg Television interview Friday with Jonathan Ferro. Washington and Beijing are locked in battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies, as well as theft of American technological know-how. The amount could be even larger if the United States resolves a logistics bottleneck. It comes at a time when the United States has several large-scale LNG export facilities under construction, and after Trump's late 2017 trip to China that included executives from U.S. LNG companies. "As the total value of goods under tariffs shoots up, China has little choice but to use LNG and others to top up the value", said Lin Boqiang, professor on energy studies at China's Xiamen University. "The U.S. gas industry will be much harder hit by this as China imports only a small volume whereas U.S. suppliers see China as a major future market", said Lin Boqiang, professor on energy studies at Xiamen University in China. Congo's Ministry of Health was notified Saturday of 26 cases of fever "with hemorrhagic signs" that included 20 deaths in Beni, a city in the northeast province of North Kivu. Officials have said they now feel better prepared for Ebola outbreaks, in sharp contrast to the 2014 epidemic of the virus, which killed more than 11,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Oly Ilunga, MD, of the DRC's health minister, took to Twitter today to announce the cases, which are centered around Beni in the Magina health district. The North Kivu is Congo's third Ebola outbreak in 2018, but officials this time have large supplies of vaccines and the means to educate the country's population about symptoms. In addition, 12 Ministry of Health experts including epidemiologists and doctors will travel to Beni with a mobile laboratory and protective equipment from the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa. The type of Ebola in the latest outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is the Zaire strain which has been successfully vaccinated against in past flare-ups, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The World Health Organization (WHO) said its response to the earlier outbreak had decidedly helped curtail any spread. Tedros said: "Ebola is a constant threat in the DRC; what adds to our confidence in the country's ability to respond is the transparency they have displayed once again". Of the six samples analyzed for Ebola, four came back positive. The resurgence of the disease in North Kivu, an active conflict area that houses more than 1 million displaced people, will present fresh challenges to the authorities. "This new cluster is occurring in an environment which is very different from where we were operating in the northwest", said Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General, Emergency Preparedness and Response. The area also has strong trade with neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda, raising the risk of the virus moving internationally. Ebola is endemic in the DRC, which now has had 10 outbreaks since the virus first was discovered there in 1976. A San Diego federal judge overseeing the reunification of more than 2,500 immigrant children separated from their parents at the southern border said Friday that the governments plan to reunite the remaining 572 children in its custody is unacceptable. More than 70 percent of those have parents outside the United States, most after having been deported alone under the Trump administrations zero- tolerance policy to prosecute parents and remove their children. The family separations provoked widespread bipartisan furor and international condemnation, leading the president to suddenly end the practice in June. REUNION: Girl, 6, heard on Border Patrol recording, joins mom in Houston The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit forcing the government to reunify families, said in a federal filing that it has located only about a dozen deported parents and asked the government for more help to find them. Late Thursday, federal officials asked the ACLU to take the lead in tracking down those parents, saying the organization and its network of volunteers had considerable resources. U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw said Friday that it was clearly the governments burden, adding that he was disappointed by its lack of progress this week. All of this is the result of the governments separation and inability and failure to track and reunite families, Sabraw said. The reality is that for every parent who is not located there will be a permanently orphaned child and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration. The governments latest report illustrates the tremendous difficulty in finding immigrant parents once they have been deported, particularly if they came here fleeing danger, which makes them less likely to return to the same place. The ACLU said that about 120 parents have no potentially viable addresses on file and others have incomplete addresses, including no street names. Addresses connected to one Honduran child simply refer to San Luis Potosi, a city in Mexico. Sabraw ordered the government to name a point person, potentially from the State Department or Department of Homeland Security, to coordinate the reunification of parents outside of the U.S. Weve come to a point in the reunification process where the stakes are perhaps the highest, the judge said. For every parent who is not located there is a real consequence here. The government has failed to meet two of the judges deadlines to reunite families and has struggled to reconnect parents and children after not properly tracking them within the three federal agencies overseeing their care. Government officials have testified that there was no plan to reunify families until the judges order in late June, shortly after the president rescinded the policy. Under the previous practice, widely seen as one of the administrations greatest debacles, parents were prosecuted for the federal misdemeanor of illegal entry and spent a few days in prison before being transferred to immigrant detention centers and in some cases quickly deported alone. Their children were placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the care of unaccompanied immigrant children. Under the judges orders, hundreds of families have been reunited in recent weeks. The government reported late Thursday that 1,535 of those between the ages of 5 and 17, have been reunified with their parents in immigration custody. Some are being held with their parents in family detention centers near San Antonio, though most have been released with their parents who are outfitted with GPS-enabled ankle monitors to track their whereabouts. More than 440 children in that age group were discharged by the government under alternate circumstances, including being released to other relatives. Just more than half of 103 children under the age of 5 had been reunited with their parents, while the remainder were deemed not immediately eligible for a host of reasons, including because their parents have been deported or have criminal histories that the government argued could endanger their safety. The government in its filing late Thursday argued that volunteers and non-profit groups should take the lead in finding deported parents after it provided them with the information the administration had on file. Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the ACLU, said the group was working with organizations in Central America as well as immigrant advocates and lawyers in the United States to find parents, but that it needed more help from the government. "Not only was it the governments unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States Government has far more resources than any group of NGOs," the ACLU said in its response. Sabraw agreed. This responsibility is 100 percent on the government, he said. The difference is that its in everyones interest to use all available resources to locate these parents. He declined to immediately rule on a motion to halt the deportations of immigrant parents so that they can consult with lawyers and their children on whether to leave them here to pursue asylum. Sabraw has temporarily stalled such removals, but said he wanted to wait on another judge, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington D.C., to consider a related request before making a final decision. lomi.kriel@chron.com @lomikriel AUSTIN Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday made public his latest federal income return, immediately touching off a war of words with his Democratic challenger who quickly accused him of using the release to avoid a debate with her. Abbotts 19-page return shows he and his wife Cecilia paid $8,668 in 2016 on income of $116,400, after paying no taxes the year before when he still had a deduction for $42,544 in property taxes on the West Austin home that he sold after moving into the Governors Mansion. The 2016 filing released on Friday shows the Abbotts claimed more than $16,500 in deductions, including $14,000 in gifts to charity, up slightly from the year before. The latest return also reveals that Abbott spent more than $12,500 during 2016 on medical expenses, a majority of which aides confirmed was for skin grafts and other medical treatment after he was badly scalded by hot water in July 2016 in a hotel shower during a vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyo. With standard deductions and exemptions, the Abbotts reduced their taxable income for 2016 to $86,988 and received a refund of $17,353, according to the filing. The states top Republican, who is running for re-election, has released copies of his personal tax returns dating back to 2011, in a practice he started when he ran for governor in 2013. Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Friday that Abbott will make public his 2017 tax returns in coming months. He is fulfilling his pledge to Texans to release his returns every year that he serves as governor, Hirsch said. Abbotts Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez, the former Dallas County sheriff, has said she will release three years of her federal tax returns. Her campaign spokesman Juan Bautista Dominguez said that will occur soon. Calling Abbotts Friday release of his returns funny timing, Dominguez said the governor is doing so now to sidestep from talking about our debate and why he doesnt want to answer to his terrible record to Texans. Abbott and Valdez have been sparring over whether they will debate for days. Valdez accused the governor on Thursday of refusing a public faceoff on her terms, after Abbott offered a televised debate on Sept. 28. Valdez instead proposed Oct. 10. Hes got a history of publicizing his taxes as a sideshow when the news cycle turns against him, Bautista Dominguez said. (In) April 2015, he released his taxes when the Jade Helm fiasco erupted after he was duped by Russian bots. (In) November 2016, he released his taxes amid anger over his buddy, President Trumps, lack of transparency. Abbott aides would not respond to those assertions. Mike Ward covers Texas politics, the governor and executive branch, criminal justice and ethics issues, and investigations for the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and other Hearst Texas news organizations. He also co-hosts the leading Texas Take politics podcast. Reach him at Mike.Ward@Chron.com and follow him @ChronicleMike on Twitter. Gov. Greg Abbott raised the alarm over socialism during a conservative conference in Austin this weekend. During an interview with blogger Erick Erickson, the governor said capitalism and socialism were going head to head in America with Texas and California each respectively leading the charge. "Texas is the leader of the national movement for capitalism, California appears to embrace the leadership in the United States for socialism," Abbot said at The Resurgent Gathering, a three-day event where conservatives discuss public policy. The governor also commented on the rise of far-left candidates in the Democratic Party. "What is it with all these new candidates who are socialist coming out of nowhere?" Abbot asked. "You know, we used to thought [sic] that Bernie Sanders was the crazy uncle in the attic." "Now we have these people like this candidate who won this seat, this congressional seat in New York, and others who are coming out with very socialistic policies," Abbot said referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democratic Socialist who ousted a powerful, 10-term incumbent in a June primary. ICYMI: Sheila Jackson Lee wants Trump administration prosecuted over separated families Later in the talk, Abbot dismissed the idea of a "blue wave" in the upcoming midterm elections, pointing to his last gubernatorial race as proof. "When the final score was posted, I beat Wendy Davis by more than 20 percentage points," Abbott said. "Texas is going to stay red." Elsewhere at the gathering, right-wing thinkers and political activists discussed ways conservatism would move forward or change in the age of Trump. "Like Trump or not, he's not going anywhere," one Republican attendee told the Houston Chronicle. "For many conservatives, we need to find a way to peacefully coexist. The Reagan days are over." Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93 Health Canada is warning Canadians the adult dose of the EpiPen is expected to be in limited supply at pharmacies until August 31. "This means that while some pharmacies may now have some inventory on-hand, it will likely be depleted in the coming days or weeks". EpiPens are used to inject emergency doses of adrenaline, or epinephrine, to patients with life-threatening allergies. The shortage will include EpiPen (0.3 mg) and EpiPen Jr (0.15 mg) auto-injectors. The federal opposition parties are calling on the Trudeau Liberals to address the shortage of life-saving epinephrine auto-injectors. Pfizer Canada says it can supply the EpiPen Junior, but that medication is also limited and is being carefully managed right now in Canada. Health Canada reminds Canadians that EpiPen products expire on the last day of the month indicated on the package. As a result, some people may be forced to use the drug, even if it is expired; however, if you experience an anaphylactic reaction and use an expired auto-injector, immediately contact 911. EpiPens are available in Canada at pharmacies and can be purchased without a prescription. Pfizer Canada has come forward in asking health care professionals to help manage the supply, the statement continued. Pfizer said inventory management can be challenging in part because of the EpiPen's short shelf life, and it's not unusual for stock to be on backorder with the manufacturer. "We are exploring every option available to the Department with the goal of resolving the situation as soon as possible", said Health Canada in a news release. Cookie Preferences Cookie List Do Not Sell My Personal Information When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. 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They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools. If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Three days after being linked to the death of a noted Houston cardiologist, Joseph Pappas gave his $270,000 Texas home to a Painesville woman. Authorities are investigating the transaction as part of a larger examination of Pappas's suspected role in the murder. Joseph Pappas The 62-year-old committed suicide Friday when police officers approached him a few miles from his home to question him about the slaying of Dr. Mark Hausknecht on July 20, according to published reports. The doctor was shot while riding his bicycle to work at Houston Methodist Hospital. The Associated Press reported that police said Pappas also was riding a bicycle when he allegedly fired at Hausknecht, 65. The death ended a large-scale manhunt across Houston neighborhoods. Police told the Associated Press that Pappas may have acted out of revenge, as Hausknecht had treated Pappas' mother in the 1990s. She died in 1997. In 2000, Hausknecht had treated former President George H.W. Bush for an irregular heartbeat. Records filed with the Harris County, Texas, Clerk's Office show Pappas deeded his brick home to Jeanette Spencer on July 23. It appears that Pappas originally sought to make the transaction Feb. 9, 2017, but that paperwork was not filed until last Monday. Several attempts to reach the Harris County Clerk's Office were unsuccessful. Neither Spencer nor members of her family could be reached for comment. However, Spencer told The News-Herald of Willoughby that she knew Pappas for years and considered him a good friend of her family. He was close to one of Spencer's daughters. A day after Pappas gave the home to Spencer, she called him. "He said he had a terminal illness, and that's why he deeded [me] the house,'' Spencer told the newspaper. On Monday, Pappas texted Spencer that he was going to commit suicide, The News-Herald reported. "Sorry for handling things this way,'' the text said. "House and property is [sic] now yours. Please make best use of it for you and [your daughter].'' A published report said Spencer contacted police and requested they check on Pappas, a former police officer. Officers searched his home and found evidence that tied him to the slaying, according to the Associated Press. But they could not locate Pappas for days. Art Acevedo, the Houston police chief, told reporters that a resident appeared to recognize Pappas on Friday morning. Acevedo said the resident chased Pappas. He got away, but he dropped his wallet, allowing police to make a positive identification. Officers later spotted Pappas, and approached him. Pappas shot himself in the head, according to the Associated Press. The wire service reported that Pappas was wearing body armor when he took his life. Plain Dealer reporter Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story. NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio -- Drunken driving, Clague Road: Police responded about 2:20 a.m. July 21 to Clague Road near Maple Ridge Road on a report of a car possibly crashing into a tree. Officers arrived to find a car with heavy front-end damage and its hazard lights on. The driver's eyes were glassy and bloodshot, according to police, and officers smelled alcohol on her. Police discovered that a fire hydrant had been struck and thrown about 50 feet from its original location. The woman said she had swerved to avoid striking a deer. After the woman performed field sobriety tests, officers arrested her for operating a vehicle while impaired. She was released to a sober individual on a signature bond. Petty theft, Brookpark Road: A Walmart security officer called police about 6 p.m. July 23 to report that a suspected shoplifter had just left the store on foot. Police found the suspect, who initially denied taking anything, but was carrying a shopping bag from a different store that was full of merchandise. Police searched the suspect and found wire cutters in a pocket that were still attached to packaging with zip ties. Police emptied the bag and found a Bluetooth speaker, underwear, shirts and pants that appeared to come from Walmart. The total value of the items was more than $192. Police arrested the man on charges of petty theft and possessing criminal tools. Possession of marijuana, Brookpark Road: Police stopped a car at about 11:15 p.m. July 26 for driving down the middle of two lanes. The woman driver told the officer that she had trouble seeing at night. Police smelled marijuana inside the car. The woman produced a small glass pipe with marijuana inside. Officers also found a small bag and a pill bottle containing marijuana. Police charged the woman with possession of marijuana and failing to drive within marked lanes. Impaired driving, Lorain Road: An officer stopped a car shortly after midnight July 28 because it was traveling left of center. Police said the driver's speech was slurred and that his eyes were bloodshot. He told officers that he was driving home from work, but had had one beer. The driver had difficulty completing a field sobriety test and refused an alcohol breath test. Police charged the man with operating a vehicle while impaired, refusing an alcohol test and having an open container in a moving vehicle. Theft, Clague Road: A resident called police about 4 p.m. July 28 to report that someone had stolen his leaf blower and a lawn mower from in front of his garage. The owner had left the items sitting outside while he went into the house. A neighbor told the man that a stranger had hopped out of a van and run off with his equipment while the van drove away. The owner found the items behind a nearby garage and recovered them. However, police aren't sure how the items got there. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. Muslims and their allies protested against a new law in Denmark banning religious clothing used by the religious minority. Demonstrators, many with children in tow, chanted "no racists in our streets" and "my life, my choice" during the three-hour rally. No incidents were reported, and a spokesman for the Copenhagen police said they did not plan to fine protesters who had violated the ban. For violation of this prohibition, the law provides a fine of one thousand Danish kroner (134 Euro), and the penalty for breaking the law four times in a row will amount to 10 thousand CZK. However, the inclusion of the burqa and niqab has prompted accusations of infringing on a woman's right to wear what she wants, and has been met with strong objections from both Muslim and non-Muslim residents of the Nordic country. On the adoption of the law has not affected protests of the opponents of the ban who think it's discrimination, noted by the Danish media. Sabina, a 21-year-old student who did not wish to disclose her full name, was wearing a niqab at the march and explained to Reuters why she was speaking out against the law. Human rights campaigners slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters say it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. It is estimated that Muslims account for about 7 percent of Denmark's population of 5.6 million. Under the new law, police will be allowed to order people to remove face veils in public areas. Still, protesters believe the ban targets conservative Muslim women who wear niqabs and burqas. Born and raised in Denmark by parents who emigrated from Turkey, she has worn the niqab since she was 18. "I have come to the realisation that Muslims don't have the same rights as others". "I feel this law legitimises acts of hatred but, on the other hand, I feel people have become more aware of what is going on". "It is incompatible with the values of the Danish society or the respect for the community to keep the face hidden when meeting each other in the public space", Justice Minister Soren Pape Poulsen said at the time. "I'm for the right of the people to wear whatever they want whether they be a Muslim or a punk". MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN via Getty Images Women carry signs defending their right to wear Islamic face veils during a protest in Copenhagen on August 1, 2018. "If the intention of this law was to protect women's rights, it fails abjectly", said Fotis Filippou, deputy Europe director of human rights group Amnesty International. Veiled people take part in a demonstration against the veil ban on August 1, 2018, the first day of the implementation of the Danish face veil ban, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The country had approved the ban on May 31, following the footsteps of several European countries. The Danish ban follows similar recent bans on full face veils in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria and parts of Switzerland. Tuesday's special congressional election in the Columbus region's 12th District may or may not amount to a referendum on Donald Trump. Still, if the Democratic candidate wins Tuesday, that'll amount to an earthquake in what, for much of Ohio's history, has been unshakable Republican bedrock. The 12th District is composed of Delaware, Licking (Newark) and Morrow (Mount Gilead) counties, plus parts of Franklin, Marion, Muskingum (Zanesville) and Richland (Mansfield) counties. The major-party candidates on Tuesday's 12th District congressional ballot are state Sen. Troy Balderson, a Zanesville Republican, and Franklin County Recorder Danny O'Connor, a Columbus Democrat. The Green Party's candidate is Joe Manchik, of Reynoldsburg. The 12th District's 17-year Republican incumbent, Pat Tiberi, of Delaware County's Genoa Township, resigned Jan. 15 to become president of the Ohio Business Roundtable. Before Tiberi was elected to the House, GOP Gov. John Kasich represented the 12th District from 1983 through 2000. Given how many votes were cast districtwide in 2016's general election for the 12th District House seat, it appears Tuesday's contest may be decided in Delaware County (27.1 percent of 2016's vote); plus the portion of northern Franklin County in the 12th (32.4 percent of 2016's vote); and in Licking County (21.2 percent). The district's other counties with their respective shares of 2016's congressional vote: Morrow (4.1 percent); and parts of Marion (1.2 percent), Muskingum (6.1 percent) and Richland (7.9 percent) counties. Franklin County has voted for Democrats for president since 1992 (Bill Clinton), although some neighborhoods, including some northern neighborhoods, vote Republican. As for Licking, it last voted for a Democrat for president in 1964 (when Lyndon Johnson swamped the GOP's Barry Goldwater). Delaware County, though, last voted for a Democrat for president 102 years ago (in 1916, for Woodrow Wilson - another Democrat "who kept us out of war," then promptly got us into one). And Delaware was one of just five Ohio counties (of 88) that the GOP's Goldwater carried in 1964. Ohio's other Goldwater counties: Allen (Lima); Fulton (Wauseon) ; Hancock (Findlay); and Union (Marysville). In 1958, 16 Ohio counties supported that year's Right to Work (for Less) ballot issue; Delaware County was one. And in 1983, when the late Thomas A. Van Meter, the conservative Ashland Republican, promoted a ballot issue to roll back Democratic Gov. Richard F. Celeste's steep tax increases, voters in Delaware and nine other counties rallied to Van Meter's banner. Based on per-capita personal income ($64,634), Delaware ranks No. 1 among Ohio's counties, the Development Services Agency reports. (Runner-up: Geauga, at $61,323). Given Delaware County's relative affluence, the Trump-Ryan-McConnell tax cut (aka, their deficit-booster) may be a GOP plus Tuesday. Still, the president's self-damaging rhetoric, especially his offensive comments about women, can't be a plus for the GOP. Turnout is the key to special elections. They draw fewer voters than general elections. But voters who do make the effort to vote in special elections tend to be highly motivated voters. And President Trump is scheduled to speak today in Lewis Center, between Delaware and Columbus. His appearance could stoke turnout Tuesday. Delaware County, like the rest of the Columbus region, is growing because of newcomers and business relocations. But amid the changes, there are traditions. Delaware has historic ties to Methodism, such as Ohio Wesleyan University and the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. That cultural fact, plus Donald Trump's rhetoric, and congressional Republicans' survival-of-the-fittest policy toward the poor, call to mind John Wesley's "The Use of Money" sermon: "Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give" - not grab - "all you can." ******************** As of Aug. 4, there were 137 people, including one woman, on Ohio's death row. Since 1999, when executions resumed in Ohio under then-Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, Ohio has executed 56 people. The Vatican announced last week that Pope Francis has decided the Catechism of the Catholic Church will now say this: "The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,' and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide." Ohio, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, is among 31 states that has a death penalty; nineteen, including Michigan and West Virginia, don't. Francis' decision underlines this: The death penalty is as much a right-to-life issue as abortion. It'll be interesting to see which right-to-life General Assembly members and candidates (some Catholic, some not) will heed Francis. If the General Assembly's majority, as it dreams up ways to limit women's access to abortion, really sees the right to life as a matter of principle, not politics, legislators would abolish Ohio's death penalty. Don't hold your breath. Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens. To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-999-4689 Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, and look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com. Rachel Carnell is a professor of English at Cleveland State University. CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte of Maryland ruled last week to allow a lawsuit to move forward against President Donald Trump, that alleges he is violating the Constitution's emoluments clauses in profiting from foreign-government spending at his Washington hotel. As this lawsuit proceeds, it is worth considering the history behind the emoluments clauses. According to Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz in their recent book, "How to End a Presidency," the very reason we have these clauses in our own Constitution is that "the Framers knew that King Louis XIV of France had used lavish pensions to corrupt King Charles II of England." This piece of history, involving the Secret Treaty of Dover in 1670, offers a parallel to another aspect of Donald Trump's presidency -- his odd behavior in the presence of Vladimir Putin, suggesting that Putin may already have exerted corrupting influence over Trump. Charles II, like Donald Trump, frequently experienced cash-flow problems. Rather than turning to foreign investors to make cash purchases of luxury properties, Charles, as king of England, could simply convene Parliament to request funds. The only difficulty was that Parliament might not vote to grant him the money. By convening Parliament (which could be convened by the monarch as infrequently as every three years), Charles might also have to subject himself to the awkward checks and balances of a parliamentary monarchy. An easier way for Charles to ensure funding for his lavish household expenses and his foreign wars was to become a secret accomplice to France. Unlike Trump -- whom Soviet and then Russian intelligence agents may have been cultivating as early as 1987, according to Jonathan Chait, writing in New York Magazine -- there would have been little effort needed for the French king to cultivate contact with the English monarch. Charles II's mother was a member of the French royal family. His sister, Henrietta, was married to Louis XIV's brother. Although baptized in the Church of England and raised as a Protestant, Charles was cynical about religion and pragmatic about his political survival. Like Vladimir Putin today, the autocratic French monarch Louis XIV was always seeking to expand the extent of his power and influence. His hope for England, considerably less wealthy than France in this era, was that it would convert to Catholicism and become a military ally against the Protestant Dutch, his fiercest trading and military rivals. Through a sequence of back-channel conversations involving Charles II's sister, the French monarch proposed to pay Charles II two million crowns in exchange for his making a public profession of the Catholic faith and agreeing to join France in waging war against the Dutch United Provinces. England had been Protestant since Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534. When Henry's Protestant eldest daughter, Mary I, tried to return England to Catholicism in the 1550s, she burned Protestants at the stake, forever etching in England's collective memory the fear of a Catholic monarch. To return England to Catholicism was political suicide, something that Charles II -- whose own father had been executed by Parliament in 1649 for less extreme policies -- was too savvy to consider. Charles would never make a public profession of Catholicism (although he would take final Catholic rites on his deathbed). He did have every intention of taking Louis XIV's money. He was also happy to declare war against the Dutch, long-standing maritime rivals. It would never have occurred to Charles, however, to meet openly with the French king about this matter. Instead, his sister traveled from the French court to Dover in June 1670 to finalize this secret treaty. Charles meanwhile dispatched several courtiers to negotiate a public cover treaty with France, which mentioned all the points of the actual treaty, except the profession of Catholicism. The camouflage treaty was signed in December. Charles II understood the importance of the rule of law enough to attempt to cover up his secret treaty of Dover with a fake second treaty. Donald Trump, as evidenced by his recent news conference in Helsinki, seems unconcerned about giving the impression that he is being influenced by a foreign power. Nor does he appear to be concerned about the appearance of inappropriate influence by the many other foreign governments who pay for their representatives to stay in his pricey Washington hotel. Rachel Carnell, professor of English at Cleveland State University, is author of "Partisan Politics, Narrative Realism, and the Rise of the British Novel," and co-editor of "The Secret History in Literature, 1660-1820," published by Cambridge University Press. *************** Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, and look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com. WESTLAKE, Ohio -- Car break-in, Detroit Road: Westlake police responded about 10 a.m. July 28 to a report that someone had broken into a locked vehicle parked in the garage of an apartment building. A suspect apparently had pried or punched the door lock out of the car and gained entry, according to police. Several items, including a computer and a credit card, were missing. A second vehicle had similar damage, but nothing was missing from that vehicle. Underage possession of alcohol, Detroit Road: Westlake police responded at about 11:30 p.m. July 30 to a call from a man at the McDonald's drive-through. He told officers that a male in another car threatened to shoot him if he cut him off in line. Officers found the suspect still in the drive-through line, calmly awaiting his food. The complainant, meanwhile, had left the parking lot. The suspect and staff at McDonald's reported that they had not seen any altercation nor heard any threats. Other patrons said that the original complainant was the real problem in the line, as he was causing a disturbance. Officers found the original caller in a nearby parking lot. Officers discovered that the 20-year-old Westlake man was in possession of alcohol while under age. Officers arrested the man and took him to jail. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. Indeed, Markel donned a pair of pantyhose for her first royal engagement since she wed Prince Harry on May 19. The Duchess of Sussex wore a white dress, wide-brimmed hat and tights on May 22 at the celebration of the Prince of Wales' upcoming 70th birthday. "When I say wearing tights, I'm not talking about bright colors. It's very natural skin tones," he adds. "It was kind of mentioned at the time, royal ladies should wear tights," Harrold tells CNBC Make It. "That's absolutely spot-on. And you'll notice, in recent appearances of the duchess, she wears tights." At the announcement of Prince Harry and Markle's royal engagement in November, the future duchess was not wearing tights or pantyhose, as the press were quick to note . Grant Harrold, nicknamed "The Royal Butler," has 20 years of etiquette experience. He's the former royal butler to Prince Charles, William and Harry, and his company Nicholas Veitch founded The Royal School of Etiquette and Butlers. Harrold shared with CNBC Make It the etiquette that Markle will likely have to abide by, now that she's officially part of the monarchy. Of course, Markle has been known to buck tradition (whether it's with her signature messy bun or hugging fans) so she'll also likely find ways to keep her identity her own. And birthday celebrations aren't the only area of Markle's life that are affected by protocol. What does her life and work as a royal look like? Her royal duties range from attending official engagements to tackling philanthropic projects, all while remaining selfie- and social media-free. Plus, no dark manicures. Boy did she get her wish. Now, married to Prince Harry , the Duchess of Sussex will celebrate her first birthday as a royal when she turns 37 on Saturday. She'll reportedly spend the day at the wedding of one of Harry's closest friends. The rest of her birthday celebrations will likely be low key , as expected according to royal protocol . On her 35th birthday, on Aug. 4, 2016, Meghan Markle wrote on her now defunct website The Tig , "I am feeling so incredibly joyful right now, so grateful and content that all I could wish for is more of the same. More surprises, more adventure, more opportunities to grow...." Chris Jackson | Getty Images Harrold notes that more neutral colors are also required for nail polish and makeup, and calls dark nail polish an "absolute no-no." "It is the more natural look, it's not anything too bright," he says. "Same with nail varnish and makeup. It's always very natural, neutral, skin tone colors you don't wear dark or black or gothic." "They tend to opt to wear more sort of neutral colors, just not to draw attention to themselves, really," he adds. Black is also fairly off-limits when it comes to clothing too. Black is the color of royal mourning, according to Harrold, so you typically won't see members of the royal family wearing it. "Diana, Princess of Wales, on a couple of occasions, famously wore black," Harrold says. "So it's not written in stone that they can't, but it tends to be something they wear only when a member of the royal family or someone close to them has passed." Staying social media-free As an American actress, Markle's Instagram account boasted bikini shots and was filled with photos of meals, dogs and friends. And the The Tig shared her thoughts on everything from fashion to her favorite vacation reads to birthday wishes. But as a royal, you won't see her posting to social media anymore. Markle shut down her social media accounts in January and folded her blog before the royal nuptials. Instead, updates on her life are now shared via official royal social media accounts. "She doesn't need her blogs or Twitters or any social media, because what she says and does can be presented through the organization that she's a part of," he explains. "The simple reason is, they don't want them to put something that they shouldn't, and members of the royal familythey don't get involved in politics or gossip or anything," Harrold says. "It's safer to have it all run by the palace." Steering clear of selfies If you happen to see Markle out and about and hope to snap a selfie with the Duchess of Sussex, don't hold your breath. Selfies are typically out of the question. Harrold says the reason they don't do selfies is because the royal family doesn't position themselves as celebrities. "They're not celebrities, same with autographs. Royals don't sign autographs," Harrold says. "That's the difficult part for Meghan. She is, or was, a celebrity who's now a member of the royal family, so it very much changes for her," he adds. But she will have her own voice Royal etiquette, Harrold says, dates all the way back to the 14th century, but the Brits have also taken traditions from around the world and made them their own. The reason for such rules is rooted in setting expectations when it comes to behavior between the royals and the public. "The reason that they're there, especially when it comes to royal etiquette, is so that people know how to behave around members of the royal family so they don't feel uncomfortable, and also so the royal family knows how to behave," Harrold explains. "For example, now when Meghan meets a member of the public, she knows that she has to offer her hand first." Markle will also be lauded as a role model for women; it's already been said that she will be a "beacon" and "someone that people look towards." She was even named one of the top 25 most influential women in Britain, according to UK Vogue. That means Markle must hold certain standards. And while the monarchy might put an emphasis on etiquette, Markle will likely keep her individuality. "It doesn't mean to say that she won't maybe, perhaps come up with one or two of her own ways of doing things," Harrold says. He points to the example of hugging the public. Members of the royal family traditionally do not hug, but Princess Diana would hug, and would get down to the level of children to give them a squeeze. Now younger members of the royal family tend to hug too. Life insurance is all about risk the insurer assesses a policy based on likelihood of mortality, and the consumer is charged a premium rate based on complex actuarial tables. But the boom in direct-to-consumer DNA testing kits such as those offered by Google-backed 23andMe, can now give consumers a peek into a future that life insurers can't see. Direct-to-consumer DNA kits, commonly used to track ancestry roots, increasingly allow individuals to assess their potential health risks by predicting genetic illnesses. DNA kit assessments like the "Genetic Health Report" that 23andMe has been providing are on the rise since the Food and Drug Administration approved the Google-backed company to assess risk for 10 genetic diseases. The report can recognize genetic variants associated with an increased risk of developing certain health conditions, including Late-Onset Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. It also provides a "Carrier Status" report, which determines if a customer carries a genetic variant for a health condition. The variant typically means the customer does not have the genetic disease, but shows they are prone to passing it down to their children. More than 80 percent of 23andMe customers agree to let the company share their DNA with research partners. Getty Images For life insurers, a sector that banks on its ability to manage risk-taking when it comes to health, this new DNA era could mean an information disadvantage versus the consumer. The risk is theoretical at this point, but enough of a concern that it led bond rating agency Moody's Investor Service to warn in a recent report that DNA testing could become a credit negative rating for life insurers. Many consumers and privacy watchdogs have expressed concerns about the use of DNA test results to deny health insurance, but there has been less attention paid to the potential influence this new consumer health technology will have over the life insurance policy market. Here are four key concepts that consumers should understand. 1. State laws protecting genetic information vary Most life insurers are restricted by state laws from using genetic information in the underwriting process, which protect genetic results as a form of private property. That legal precedent is the foundation for Moody's argument that consumers have an advantage by being valued less risky than reality. But it is trickier than that. In fact, life insurers say that taking a direct-to-consumer genetic test may give them the upper hand. Life insurers insist they can still request genetic information and retract an individual's contract if they hide test results, leading to debate over related state laws. Currently, 17 states have laws that restrict life insurers from using genetic information in the underwriting process, according to Moody's. Even in states not protected by such laws, life insurers do not explicitly ask for genetic information right now, Moody's said. These laws go beyond the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) which prevents genetic discrimination in the health insurance sector. The laws act similarly to GINA, which prohibits health insurers from requesting, requiring, or using genetic information to make decisions about eligibility for health insurance, premium rates, coverage terms. Life insurers rely on the honesty of applicants. The validity of a policy depends upon the full disclosure of all material information. The American Council of Life Insurers Life insurers say such laws can be interpreted in different ways. The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) said there are no state laws barring an insurer from using existing results, and only two states prohibit requiring an applicant to take a genetic test for life insurance. If an individual does not give up their genetic information, the life insurer has "the right to void a policy," the ACLI said. "Both the applicant and the insurer must 'put their cards on the table,'" the ACLI said in a statement to CNBC. Hiding genetic information would be contributing to what it deems adverse selection, according to the ACLI, and could affect the stability of a customer's contract later on. "Life insurers rely on the honesty of applicants. The validity of a policy depends upon the full disclosure of all material information," ACLI said. In addition, if a disease is serious, patients should be talking to medical experts. This means their conditions will be available on medical records and can be used by life insurers, according to the ACLI. For policymakers, the purpose of the anti-genetic discrimination laws is clear: Genetic information is private, and using it to determine how much an individual should pay for insurance is a breach of privacy, and will lead to vast inequity in the insurance policy market. 'We all have pre-existing conditions,'' Brian McCall, a Republican insurance executive who wrote the law in Texas barring genetic discrimination, told The New York Times. ''We've just never been able to test for them with any accuracy. The purpose of insurance is to spread risk. But with genetic tests, insurance companies can virtually eliminate the guesswork in underwriting. They can seek out people who are genetically pure, creating a ghetto of the uninsured, because they will know who is likely to get a particular disease at a particular age.'' The ACLI says McCall's view is inaccurate and any insurer seeking only to cover the "genetically pure" would quickly be out of business. "A genetic test is only a marker of a future risk, and is certainly more insurable (e.g. less risk) than known disease," the ACLI said. Even so, insurers routinely offer policies to people with histories of cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. 2. Even favorable life insurance can come with a catch Customers will most likely receive the better end of a deal if they are aware of genetic risks, according to experts. But certain packages can be more worth the deal than others. With life insurance usually split into anywhere from 10 to 20 pricing tiers, customers are grouped in a particular class based on their level of risk. If a consumer buys a policy without disclosing genetic predispositions, consumers will most likely be valued as less risky than they should be, granting them slightly better premiums, said actuary and fee-only insurance advisor Scott Witt. Customers should choose "term insurance" for the most prominent advantage, Witt said. Term insurance covers a fixed rate of payments for a limited period of time, potentially fitting for patients who are dealing with a deadline. But term insurance is also not a "sure thing," Witt said. "Just because somebody has a predisposition toward something, there's no certainty they would die during the term insurance period," Witt said. 3. There may be more important life decisions to make Witt said that merely learning about a genetic risk is "not necessarily going to be the deal breaker" in the type of insurance package a consumer chooses. And there may be other major life and financial decisions that offer more long-term security than trying to time the life insurance market. If someone suddenly realizes they have no chance of making it past age 90, they might focus on other decisions, like investing their money or spending time with family, Witt said. They should also consider medical advances, which are occurring at an accelerating rate. If they splurge on insurance, but a medical breakthrough is made, they may regret their choice, Witt said. "It's absolutely something in the short-term the consumer has some advantage," said Mark Cortazzo, senior partner of MACRO Consulting Group. But he added that it is unclear to him that a majority of consumers would take advantage of it. "If you have a breast cancer marker, I think my reaction to that is to have a radical mastectomy to save my life before it is to get life insurance. Utility is going to drive that how valuable is your time, your money, your privacy?" 4. Life insurers may retaliate Before Apple's record run to $1 trillion on Thursday, the tech sector was almost in trouble. The so-called FANG groupmade up of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google's parent Alphabet was in correction mode by Monday, and market watchers were talking about a move out of the high-growth companies. "We see kind of a rotation away from those leadership areas in tech in particular FAANG and similar names moving toward financials, moving toward energy," Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citi, said Monday on "Squawk on the Street." "Kind of a growth-to-value rotation." But Apple is back to being the tech sector's standard bearer after posting strong fiscal third-quarter earnings, which sent the stock surging past the $1 trillion milestone. Here's what 11 experts had to say about the tech sector's wild past two weeks. China's state media said on Saturday the government's retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods showed rational restraint and they accused the United States of blackmail. Late on Friday, China's finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra levies ranging from five to 25 percent on a total value of goods less than half of that proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. The response follows the Trump administration's proposal of a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. "China's countermeasures are rational," the Global Times, a tabloid run by the official People's Daily, said in a commentary. "China will not rush to compete with U.S. numbers," it said, echoing comments made by state television. The United States and China implemented tariffs on $34 billion worth of each others' goods in July. Washington is expected to soon implement tariffs on an additional $16 billion of Chinese goods, which China has already said it will match immediately. "The White House's extreme pressure and blackmail are already clear to the international community," said a state television commentary. "Such methods of extreme blackmail will not bear fruit against China." China has now either imposed or proposed tariffs on $110 billion in U.S. goods, representing the vast majority of China's annual imports of American products. Last year, China imported about $130 billion in goods from the United States. "The U.S. has repeatedly resorted to threatening and deceitful routines, trying to force China to compromise, both overestimating its own bargaining power and underestimating China's determination and ability to defend its national dignity and the interests of its people," said a commentary in the official Xinhua news agency. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, remained staunch on Washington's push for fairer trading conditions with China. "President Trump inherited an unfair trade regime where American workers and American companies were not treated reciprocally or fairly by the Chinese, and the efforts of the Trump administration are to right that, to correct that," Pompeo said to reporters on the sidelines of a regional forum in Singapore. Pompeo added that he had discussed trade issues with Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi on Friday. Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he met Pompeo in Singapore and that his message was clear. "My objective was quite straightforward: I think I need to inform him that we are very concerned," said Saifuddin. Countries like Malaysia form an integral part of Chinese exporters' supply chains, and analysts have warned a trade war could knock billions of dollars off their economic growth in coming years. "China has taken a necessary and legitimate response, based on the interests of the Chinese people and to protect the rules-based international trade system under the WTO," said Wang on the sidelines of the Singapore forum on Saturday. In response to a question about a comment by White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow that China's latest measures are "weak", Wang said: "Does he want China to take an even stronger response?" Kathleen McKinnon always planned to start a family, but it proved to be harder than she imagined. But her company, like many others in the Bay Area tech community, subsidizes costly assisted-reproduction techniques, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), for families like McKinnon's. In 2017, after two failed attempts, she was thrilled to learn that the procedure was successful, and she had six healthy embryos. After the procedure, McKinnon's doctors performed an extra screening step that has become increasingly popular in recent years to look for health issues and other factors. During that process, she learned the sex of the embryos based on their chromosomal makeup XX for female, XY for male. The doctors asked her if she wanted to select a baby with a particular gender. After some consideration, she and her husband asked their doctors to transfer the one that had the best chance of creating a successful pregnancy. It turned out to be a girl, and their daughter was born in June. McKinnon knows she has five healthy embryos left: Three males and two females. Next time, she is planning for a boy. While McKinnon underwent IVF only after failing to get pregnant in other ways, some people are using the technique specifically to try for a baby of one gender. Fertility clinics are popping up across the country that advertise gender selection, and are charging up to $20,000. CNBC visited one of these clinics, the Fertility Institutes in Encino, California, to meet with well-known IVF specialist Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg. About 85 percent of Steinberg's patients come to him so they can choose the sex of their baby, he said. It is among the better-known clinics in the world for a gender selection technique, known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), the additional screening that is offered with IVF. Some families are coming to him because they already have multiple children of the same gender. That's known in some circles as "family balancing." But that's not always the case. Some families want only one child with a specific gender, or have an order in mind. Others have medical reasons for wanting a boy or a girl, like a genetic disease that only affects one sex and not the other. "The bulk of the patients that we see are doing in vitro fertilization only to choose the gender," he said. "We do not require people to have a first baby in order to request the gender on the second baby." For those who can't afford Steinberg's prices, some clinics offer a cheaper option known as as "sperm sorting", where female and male sperm are separated before insemination. This process sorts the dense X-sperm from the lighter Y-sperm. Steinberg says in his experience, the accuracy for sperm sorting is about 78 to 80 percent for females and 55 percent to 60 percent for males. His approach might be more expensive, but it is also a lot more accurate. Donald Trump Getty Images Robert Mueller may be just one of President Donald Trump's worries if the Democrats seize control of the House of Representatives this fall. For a year-and-a-half, Democrats have been hounding Republicans to launch investigations into every Trump scandal-du-jour, pushing for more information on everything from Housing Secretary Ben Carson's $31,000 furniture purchase to Jared Kushner's alleged conflicts of interest. Lacking the subpoena power that comes with control of the chamber, Democrats have been forced to sit on the sidelines as the clamoring from their base has ratcheted to a fever pitch. But that will change if they manage to flip the 23 seats they need to secure the House in November, as they are narrowly favored to do. "All of these incidents that have been a blur for us in terms of the news cycle are going to turn into inquiries," said Michael Volkov, an expert in government investigations who has served as an attorney in the Justice Department and for the Senate and House judiciary committees. Volkov, who has represented individuals and businesses before Congress, said things were about to get "wild." Experts expect Democrats to pursue controversial items like Trump's tax returns, and to delve into his business dealings from decades ago. They may also seek public hearings with Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr., who is a key figure in the Russia investigation. Democrats could also go after top officials like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who has faced scrutiny over his financial dealings. "There is no question that there will be an exponential increase in requests from Congress going to the administration if Democrats take one of the chambers," said Justin Rood, who directs the Congressional Oversight initiative at the nonpartisan Project On Government Oversight. Susan Del Percio, a political strategist who analyzes the Republican Party, called it the White House's "worst nightmare." Trump's White House has already struggled with a number of high-profile controversies even with the relatively lax oversight they have faced from a Republican Congress. Key officials, including EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and communications director Anthony Scaramucci have already left the administration under the cloud of scandal. Democrats promise strong oversight Democratic leadership has largely remained quiet on specific targets and has played down the prospects for impeachment although they have vowed to be aggressive. Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, told CNBC that the party "will not shy away from standing up to President Trump and conducting oversight." It's a prospect that House Speaker Paul Ryan has said could lead to "chaos." If the Democrats take control, their staff on the powerful oversight committee will double, and virtually all of the new positions will be filled by investigators, according to Kurt Bardella, a former spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who was the top Republican on the oversight committee when the Republicans took control of the House in 2010. "I am certain that the Democrats on the committee are getting flooded with resumes," Bardella said. The first thing Democrats are likely to do is issue all the subpoenas the Republicans refused to issue while they were in the majority, Bardella said. That process could be extensive. Republicans on the oversight committee have blocked 52 subpoena motions, according to Democrats' latest tally. "The oversight committee uniquely has the ability to completely overrun any agenda or message that the administration is trying to focus on that day," Bardella said. "For a president who is more obsessed with public relations than any president in history, that will be untenable." Issa, who has been called Obama's toughest critic, led the Republican charge against the 44th president in the House, overseeing the investigations into the "Fast and Furious" controversy over alleged gun-running to Mexico and the administration's handling of the 2012 Benghazi attack. Rood, who previously served as a congressional investigator for Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said no one really knows what will get investigated. But, he added, one-sided oversight would not be sufficient to deal with the most important issues Congress is charged with scrutinizing. "When you're talking about doing some sort of serious examination of serious issues that affect our ability to govern ourselves fairly and freely, it needs to be done by both sides," he said. White House 'prepared to handle whatever' A former senior Trump administration official, who declined to be named, told CNBC that the White House is prepared for what may come and hasn't given up on the fight for Congress. "One, I think the White House is bullish on winning the congressional election," the former official said. "Two, in the event that they don't win, in the event that Democrats take over Congress, oversight is something that the opposing party has used against administrations for years." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The former official said that it was "telling" that the White House hired Emmet Flood in May. Flood, who was tapped to lead the White House's legal response to Mueller's Russia probe, is a veteran of the Washington legal establishment who has largely avoided the limelight since joining the Trump team. Flood advised Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings. His firm, Williams & Connolly, represented Hillary Clinton. "Flood has experience and respect in Washington, and handled very high-profile oversight matters and congressional inquiries," the former official said. The former official said Flood "is certainly prepared to handle whatever" Democrats throw his way. The former official suggested that executive privilege claims would be "front and center when dealing with oversight." Executive privilege could be a tricky defense against inquiries into matters that do not directly pertain to the White House, said Daniel Jacobson, a former lawyer in Obama's office of White House Counsel. "They can bring in the best lawyers they want, but at the end of the day they won't be able to stop Congress from doing its job," he said. Presidents have often claimed executive privilege or the right to withhold information to protect the public interest to keep information from Congress, though the claim can be challenged in court. In 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied Obama's claim of executive privilege during the "Fast and Furious" controversy. Jacobson noted that the extent of the damage that Democrats may be able to do has not been fully realized, because "the public only sees what it sees." "The current Congress shielding the administration from public hearings has had a huge impact that you just haven't seen," he said. The current Congress shielding the administration from public hearings has had a huge impact that you just haven't seen. Daniel Jacobson former Obama administration lawyer For instance, he said, had the Democrats been in control of the House in June when Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy was dominating political coverage with stories of children being separated from their parents, a public hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions might have been devastating. It's not clear what the White House strategy will be to respond to the public relations issues raised by the investigations, but Republican strategists are taking their cues from how the president has responded in the past. The White House "will do what they always do, which is to double down and attack," said Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist and a former longtime spokesman for Mitt Romney. "The president likes a foil." Williams said it was possible that the Democrats could overplay their hand, particularly if they draw up articles of impeachment. But, he said, much still depended on the outcome of Mueller's investigation, and whether the special counsel provides new, potentially damaging details to the public. Slowing down the bureaucracy Concerns are rising about the potential for a nationwide housing market crash, especially on the West Coast. At least for the moment, a new report suggests that market is as hot as ever. The booming technology sector that attracts scores of well-paid workers has driven up home prices resulting in stiff competition for people trying to put bids on houses in key areas, according to a recent report by Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate brokerage. In fact, most homeowners are getting multiple offers, and those units move within a week or less of going on sale, Redfin spokeswoman Rachel Musiker told CNBC. "For buyers, competition is challenging," Musiker said. "To win, they will likely have to raise their offer price and waive contingencies and it might take several months and several bidding wars before they find success." Buyers are often compelled to yield to bidding wars offering prices considerably higher than the asking rate in order to outdo each other, Musiker said. This results in a overall surge in home prices. Cities like Aurora, Colorado, and Sacramento, California, are not tech hubs, but are within air commuting distance from the Bay Area. For that reason, even places outside Silicon Valley's immediate vicinity are seeing a surge in competition from workers in search of affordable homes, Musiker said. Below are Redfin's top six cities with a population of at least 200,000, ranked according to their competitiveness. A score of 90-100 indicates cities where houses on the market are "most competitive," and often receive multiple offers per unit. More than 10 months after the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history, police have released their report into the October 1 mass shooting that left 58 dead and 851 injured. "Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Friday that police determined there was no evidence of a second gunman, though they were not able to determine why Stephen Paddock opened fire on a Las Vegas concert crowd, killing 58 and injuring hundreds more, The Associated Press reported". Paddock left no manifesto or "even a note to answer questions" about his motive for a rampage that killed 58 people and injured more than 800 others, Lombardo said. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo says Friday that the investigation revealed that Stephen Paddock acted alone in the October 1 shooting. Lombardo also described Paddock as "an unremarkable man" with a troubled mind. Earlier this year, federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against a man who they say Paddock sold armor-piercing bullets. Douglas Haig has pleaded not guilty and maintains he sold tracer ammunition, which illuminate a bullet's path. By September 2017, the total had dropped to $530,000. Marilou Danley told investigators that Stephen Paddock's doctors told him he had a "chemical imbalance". A doctor told investigators that Paddock may have been bipolar, while his brother said he had "mental illness and was paranoid and delusional". His brother "would have planned the attack to kill a large amount of people because he would want to be known as having the largest casualty count", the report quoted Eric Paddock as saying. The FBI's behavioral analysis unit is expected to release a report on Paddock's psychopathology by the end of the year. Bruce Paddock, who was charged past year with possessing more than 600 images of child pornography, as well as 19 counts sexual exploitation of a child, also told detectives he did not believe his brother was a "violent person" or abused drugs or alcohol. The sheriff has previously noted that a large loss of money by Paddock just before the shooting could have been a factor. Other than that, the news conference revealed very little new information. High-rollers like Paddock are often given credit lines at casinos. Paddock was one of four brothers who were raised by their mother after their father went to prison for bank robbery, according to the police report. Since then, the police have released 13 separate batches of documents related to the investigation, as well as eye witness statements, video, police reports, and audio of 911 calls. They have illustrated the chaos, heartbreak and heroism from police, first-responders, concert-goers and more. The FBI said in October that this attack was not related to worldwide terrorism. Lombardo said the department is still conducting internal reviews into individual officers' actions on October 1, including one veteran officer who froze in a hallway of the Mandalay Bay a floor below where Paddock was firing on the crowd, according to a police report and body camera footage. These materials have included body camera footage from officers who entered the gunman's hotel suite to find him dead, shocked accounts from police responding to the shooting and horrified stories from people who survived the carnage of the attack. Assault-style weapons fitted with rapid-fire "bump stock" devices were strewn about the room. The company sued hundreds of survivors or families of slain victims, asking federal courts to qualify the shooting as an act of terrorism and declare the company has no liability. Eric was anxious he might be implicated for tax evasion if evidence was collected from his brother's hard drives, the report said. An Aramco employee walks near an oil tank at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would resume all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb, the state news agency SPA reported. Saudi Arabia halted temporarily oil shipments through the lane on July 26 after attacks on two big oil tankers by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement. SPA quoted Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih as saying: "The decision to resume shipping of oil through Bab al-Mandeb comes after all necessary procedures were taken by the coalition leadership to protect ships of the coalition countries." Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis in a three-year war, lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers. The tankers pass near Yemen's shores while heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe. The Bab al-Mandeb strait, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea, is only 20 km (12 miles) wide, making hundreds of ships potentially an easy target. The Saudi coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government of exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Saudi Arabia accuses regional foe Iran of supplying missiles to the Houthis, which both Tehran and the Houthis deny. Uranium mill tailings from the former Atlas mining site sits in a restricted area 3 miles outside the town of Moab, Utah. Joanne Ciccarello | Christian Science Monitor | Getty Images At the dawn of the atomic age, U.S. government incentives and trade barriers sparked a gold rush for uranium, the chemical element that was fueling the nuclear arms race at the time. Now, 60 years later, American uranium miners want the government to use similar tools to prevent the collapse of the industry and the few remaining U.S. companies still producing uranium for the nation's fleet of nuclear power plants. The numbers tell the tale. At the height of activity in 1980, U.S. companies produced nearly 44 million pounds of uranium concentrate and provided most of the supplies purchased by nuclear power plants. Last year, American miners produced 2.4 million pounds and supplied just 7 percent of the uranium bought by domestic plants. The industry, which once supported nearly 22,000 jobs, now employs just a few hundred people each year. The story of uranium mining in the United States is little known, but it's intertwined with some of the defining events of the 20th century: the Cold War, the dawn of nuclear energy, the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of globalization. The latest chapter dovetails with the re-emergence of Russia as America's primary political adversary and a revolution in the U.S. energy industry. Last month, the U.S. Commerce Department opened an investigation to determine whether the nation's growing dependence on foreign uranium supplies poses a risk to national security. The outcome of the review could result in the government restoring trade barriers torn down more than 30 years ago to ensure U.S. miners remain involved in servicing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, submarines, aircraft carriers and power plants. The two miners that petitioned Commerce to conduct the review, Energy Fuels and UR-Energy, want the United States to take steps to ensure U.S. producers control 25 percent of the market. They say they can't compete with subsidized supplies from places like Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. To be sure, nearly half of the uranium used in the United States comes from allies like Canada and Australia. From the moment they lost trade protections, U.S. miners had trouble competing with these foreign supplies. It's been government-sponsored, government-subsidized just since the beginning. Trying to sort that out and find where there's a free market in uranium I find that very questionable. Luke Danielson Sustainable Development Strategies Group president "One of the main problems beyond the U.S. industry's control is that the richest and most accessible uranium deposits are not found in the United States. The resources of Canada and Australia have higher uranium content and a lower production cost per unit," the Commerce Department said in 1989 after concluding a so-called 232 investigation, the same type of review the Trump administration just opened. That report found imports had indeed hurt domestic miners, but the incoming President George H.W. Bush didn't take action. Since then, U.S. uranium output has bumped around historic lows, and the question of whether to lend a hand now rests with a president fond of tariffs, angered by trade deficits and eager to bail out the mining industry. Boom and bust The U.S. uranium mining industry is relatively young. It went through a brief golden age between about 1955 and 1980, beginning when the United States offered generous incentives to shore up its stockpiles of the nuclear weapons fuel during the Cold War. "It's been government-sponsored, government-subsidized just since the beginning. Trying to sort that out and find where there's a free market in uranium I find that very questionable," said Luke Danielson, an attorney and minerals consultant who closely follows the uranium industry In the early days, the government offered a 10-year price guarantee for certain kinds of uranium ore. It also paid out a $10,000 discovery and production bonus for each new source of supplies, which pencils out to roughly $95,000 in today's dollars. That set off a gold rush in the nation's vast Western region. "It was crazy around this part of the country. Everyone with a jeep and a Geiger counter was out trying to get rich," said Danielson. By the 1960s, the program had packed U.S. storehouses so full of uranium stockpiles that the government stopped paying the incentives. However, it left in place rules barring the use of foreign uranium until 1975, when it began to allow a growing percentage of overseas supplies into the market. That opened the door to high-quality, low-cost supplies from Canada and Australia. By 1987, the United States was importing nearly 15 million pounds of uranium, and domestic output fell by about a third to roughly 13 million pounds. While competition weighed on U.S. uranium production, the excitement around nuclear energy in the 1970s kept mines busy. However, the American love affair with atomic power proved short-lived. The 1979 meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania sparked fierce backlash against nuclear energy. Seven years later, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster turned a Ukrainian city into a ghost town. Utilities were also growing wary of the cost and time required to build and permit nuclear power plants. Fewer reactors were built than originally envisioned in the 80s, depressing demand for uranium. By the time the last wave of facilities came online in 1990, U.S. uranium production was at a 35-year low. Uranium mining falls with Iron Curtain Miners got some good news in 1992, when the Commerce Department determined the Soviet Union had been dumping cheap uranium onto the U.S. market prior to the dissolution of the bloc. The department put restrictions on the supplies, but the relief didn't last long. One year later, the United States struck a deal with Russia to buy 500 tons of weapons-grade uranium that would be converted into low-enriched uranium to fuel U.S. nuclear power stations. Over the course of the 20-year Megatons to Megawatts program, the Russian uranium provided about a third of the fuel for U.S. power plants. "That did have a big impact on our market from production levels," said Paul Goranson, chief operating officer at Energy Fuels, who characterizes the 90s as a period when "uranium was victim of government policy." A wave of deregulation also set in motion the creation of competitive power markets in many parts of the country that would eventually push nuclear power out of power markets. The decade also saw the government privatize the Department of Energy's uranium enrichment operations, in the process transferring 45,000 metric tons of uranium to the new company. That flooded the market, according to Goranson. By the early 2000s, U.S. uranium production was at its lowest in a half century. Around that time, the former Soviet state Kazakhstan was ramping up uranium mining. In just a few short years, it would become the world's top uranium producer and the second biggest supplier to the United States. The Central Asian nation accomplished that feat in large part by exploiting a process called "in situ leaching" increasingly being used to extract uranium. Along with countries like Niger, Mali and Mongolia, Kazakhstan has an advantage: lax regulations that allow it to process uranium cheaply from in situ leaching, which involves pumping chemicals into uranium reserves and carries serious risks to the environment if it's not carried out responsibly, said Danielson, who consults developing nations on mining through his company Sustainable Development Strategies Group. "Those are countries where their environmental institutions are very weak, their legislation is non-existent, so if you're competing with in situ leaching in essentially low-governance areas of the world it's going to be really, really hard," he said. Nuclear renaissance turns out to be oasis In the first years of the 21st century, something strange was happening: Uranium prices were soaring. Falling stockpiles and renewed interest in nuclear energy both in the United States and in growing economies like China and India was creating a second gold rush for uranium. Both Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy, the companies that petitioned for the Commerce Department investigation, got their start during this period. They were formed in Canada, but their mines were located in the United States. "I would say at that time it was pretty frothy and in Canada particularly, there was just a lot of venture capital entering the uranium space for investment," Goranson said. But again, the dream was short lived. Financial crisis gripped the globe in 2008, and the drop in economic activity weighed on electricity demand. At the same time, U.S. drillers figured out how to unlock natural gas from shale rock, unleashing a torrent of cheap fuel that made U.S. nuclear power less competitive. Nuclear energy faced added pressure as prices for wind and solar power projects fell, especially in the unregulated markets established in the late 90s and early 2000s. The industry took another hit from government policy in 2009, when the Department of Energy started bartering excess uranium to pay for cleanup at a government enrichment plant. And then in 2011, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan created a backlash unlike anything seen since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. In the aftermath, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors, and Germany decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2022. Watch a mining executive discuss the uranium market in 2012 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster Rocket Lab's Electron sits on on the company's launch pad in New Zealand before its first commercial launch. Kieran Fanning | Rocket Lab A host of U.S. companies signed partnerships with the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) in July, with several more waiting in the wings, as the British government doled out funding for launching commercial rockets from the island for the first time ever. The U.K. manufactures more small satellites than anywhere else in the world, owning 6.5 percent of the $384 billion space economy. The U.K. currently produces about 44 percent of the world's small satellites, and has extensive facilities to operate those satellites once active. The UKSA intends to grow its stake in the market to 10 percent by 2030, which will likely be worth more than $109 billion at the time, according to Bank of America estimates. To achieve that growth, UKSA is working to attract rocket companies that specialize in launching small satellites. "Money is actually being allocated to specific places for the first time," Bleddyn Bowen, a space policy expert at the University of Leicester, told CNBC. The government and the various parts of the space sector have been talking about this for 10 years. Lockheed Martin won the bulk of the UKSA funding, getting more than $30 million to develop an orbital launch site for small rockets in Melness, Scotland, in partnership with the economic development agency Highlands & Islands Enterprise. A senior UKSA official with knowledge of the agreement told CNBC that Lockheed Martin offered to both develop a spaceport and "bring a kind of tried and tested system that was flight ready. Britain "doesn't have a really deep supply chain for launch vehicles," the official said, explaining how the U.K's upcoming investment would put the entire supply chain for launching satellites on home soil. Patrick Wood, Lockheed Martin's UK space executive, said in a statement to CNBC that the company "is continuing detailed discussions with our commercial launch provider and will have an update soon. The launcher will be a flight-proven, dedicated small sat vehicle." While Lockheed Martin did not specify which rocket company it would bring in, the criteria fits very few in the growing sub-industry of rockets tailored to launch for small satellites. Rocket Lab, which counts Lockheed Martin among its investors, reached orbit with its Electron rocket for the first time in January, making the company a strong possibility. "While we do not have additional details to share at this time, we recognize that Rocket Labs Electron is a capable commercial launch platform," Wood said. Rocket Lab confirmed that it is evaluating the opportunity to launch from the Melness spaceport, noting the previous investment it received from Lockheed Martin. "Electron is well-positioned to be the first orbital rocket launched from U.K. soil," Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. "Were excited to review the opportunity to develop a launch service to support the U.K.s space industrys growth. The young rocket-builder also noted that it will select a U.S. launch site next month. Rocket Lab has chosen four spaceports in the U.S. as final candidates Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Wallops in Virginia, the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A U.S. location would be Rocket Lab's second launch site, with a first mission scheduled for the second quarter of next year, while a U.K. location would likely be the third. Lockheed Martin's grant will also go toward the development of a new system for deploying small satellites, with U.K.-based Orbital Micro Systems developing the testing hardware, and U.S.-based Moog building the vehicle that will place the small satellites in orbit. As the contract includes establishing a vertical launch facility at Melness, Lockheed Martin says it will bring experience to the process that's necessary to build a rocket range. The contractor has worked on the infrastructure for several U.S. facilities in the past, including the support of launch operations for California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, and Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Virgin returns to home soil Among three space companies owned by British billionaire Richard Branson is Virgin Orbit, based in Long Beach, California. The company aims to use a modified Boeing 747 airplane named "Cosmic Girl" to launch satellites on small rockets, and expects to attempt an orbital launch later this year. Virgin Orbits modified Boeing 747 airplane named Cosmic Girl at Long Beach Airport. Michael Sheetz | CNBC Virgin Orbit sealed a deal with the UKSA to launch its LauncherOne rocket from Cosmic Girl, taking off from a spaceport at Newquay Airport in Cornwall, southwest England. The partnership with Spaceport Cornwall expects to launch its first rocket by 2021, which would be the first to ever conduct commercial flights to space from British soil. Cornwall can deliver new launch capabilities for the UK quickly and efficiently by upgrading Cornwall Airport Newquay to support our horizontal air-launch platform," Virgin Orbit Chairman Patrick McCall said in a statement. The Boeing 747 system allows it to skip the costly and time-intensive process of building a dedicated launch pad. Instead, Cosmic Girl can fly out of airports like Newquay, which "are already equipped to support the system," the company said. Virgin Orbit fits well within the British government's strategy of providing a small amount of seed funding, hoping to create a strong commercial launch industry rather than one subsidized by government or military contracts. If it doesnt pay its own way then were not going to fund it," the senior UKSA official said. Rounding out the UK's space industry Master Patan Patola craftsman Kanubhai Salvi to bring traditional art to Singapores shores Patan Patola, the traditional weaving and dyeing art, is heading out onto the global stage. A dyeing workshop showcasing the handicraft will be held in Singapore on August 24. The knowledge of the process has been handed down for over 750 years in a few families, curiously all surnamed Salvi. Photo courtesy: Patan Patola Heritage The workshop is being held at Vmall Entertainment's Pre Festive Bazaar at the Grand Ballroom, Chinese Swimming Club, S 439870. To register for the workshop, send an email to vmallentertainment@gmail.com. The art, which is highlighted by Patola sarees, the preferred garments of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, is held in great esteem that is reflected in the folklore of Gujarat. The knowledge of the process has been handed down for over 750 years in a few families, curiously all surnamed Salvi. We are exhibiting the beauty and timelessness of rich heritage of this ancient art form. The exhibition hopes to capture the imagination of the younger generation and encourage them to be part of the success story. We also hope to fuse the grace of patola with modern lifestyle and kickstart new fashion trends, said Kanubhai Salvi, the founder of Patan Patola Heritage, a multiple awards-winning company located in Patan, Gujarat, The craft specialises in creating exceptional outfits from the centuries-old textile Patola, an exquisite handmade silk fabric. Kanubhais industry one of the prime manufacturers and suppliers of Patola sarees, stoles and scarves in the country. The company is a proud recipient of the UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Handcrafted products in Patolas, and has received the National Award recognition from former President Shankar Dayal Sharma, as well as the Heritage Award from the 11th Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam. Kanubhai Salvi being presented the Heritage Award from the 11th Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam. Photo courtesy: Patan Patola Heritage There are about eight procedures and with the involvement of 6-8 people, a Patola takes 2-4 months to complete, depending on the intricacies involved in its making. The main processes include the conversion of raw silk in to pure silk, making warp and weft, tying the knots on warp and weft, dyeing, weaving, adjusting each thread of warp and weft, followed by the finishing of the fabrics. This is the second visit by Salvi to the Lion City to market his products. Kanubhai Salvi has been conducting exhibitions and workshops around the globe for the past for decades. The next workshop being planned is to be held in London. The craft had been going through a rough patch, but greater penetration of the internet and social media has had a rejuvenating effect on the industry. Kanubhai Salvi has been conducting exhibitions and workshops around the globe for the past for decades. Photo courtesy: Patan Patola Heritage The art of Patola is being chronicled in various blogs and social media websites. Many of the conventional and rare designs are available on online outlets. A dedicated online museum is being planned to archive and catalogue the rich heritage. Even though this event in Singapore is not aided and partnered by the Indian government, the weavers have been proudly associated with the Government of India Craft Museum to showcase and conduct workshops in the past, Kanubhai said, adding they would love to be part of such collaborations in the future. In keeping with the Indian governments initiative to promote traditional crafts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Indian Heritage Centre (IHC) during his recent trip to Singapore and launched a long-term platform for the demonstration and enjoyment of traditional Indian crafts at the IHC, titled Kala Sangam. It is a collaboration between the IHC and the High Commission of India to invite traditional craftspeople from India to the centre, to demonstrate their crafts, promote this important aspect of the Indian communitys intangible cultural heritage, and share this with Singaporeans. Photo courtesy: Patan Patola Heritage This is the second visit by Salvi to the Lion City to market his products. Photo courtesy: Patan Patola Heritage It follows the success of the craft demonstrations which are a part of IHCs ongoing special exhibition Symbols and Scripts The Language of Craft, which features traditional craftspeople and calligraphers who showcase traditional Indian crafts that come from the hometowns back in India of Singapores Indian communities. To learn more about the craft, visit their Facebook page. Tim Gocher runs a private equity firm, and teaches Sustainable Business at the University of Nottingham and London Business School. He is a Conservative activist. At the press conference with Donald Trump, Theresa May proclaimed our proud immigration history for those who want to contribute to our economy and society. Fine words. But our recent history is far from proud. Having lived and worked in many non-EU countries, with a non-EU wife, Ive seen the UK immigration system from the other side. Its ideal for those prepared to defraud it. The only flaw is that it doesnt work for job-creating entrepreneurs, high-skilled workers, high-paying students, doctors, nurses and many more. Having proactively terrified one valuable immigrant population, the Windrush celebrations were tokenistic and insulting. We must now enact wholesale immigration reform in order to stop alienating the most talented visa applicants. Here, I explain how the hostile environment is implemented, how easy it is to fiddle, and how to fix it. Loss of control In 2005, the Home Office outsourced the frontline of visa applications to a private company, VFS. They now manage UK visa applications in 77 countries. Few applicants meet a UK government employee. This threatens our security and ability to understand an applications context. Instead, we rely on a bewildering array of paperwork, filtered by low-paid VFS clerks, with decisions made in the UK. Many submissions run to over 100 pages with supporting documents. The unfortunate truth is that many applicants come from countries suffering corruption, rendering local documents unreliable. These are often the same countries with the highest growth in technology skills, entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses and wealth. Decisions feel arbitrary. Ive met the CFO of a high-growth tech firm whose visa was rejected three times as he tried to establish a UK head-office for his company, which employs thousands. Student applicants, already accepted by leading UK universities and paying far more that EU students, spend months gathering largely irrelevant paperwork. These higher fees fund our research and facilities. All this causes pain and uncertainty to applicants, UK businesses and our public services, and unnecessary damage to our reputation abroad. India and other allies are furious. In 2011, the Home Office put further restrictions on student visas, resulting in a 50 per cent drop in Indian applicants to our universities. Theyve gone elsewhere. Researchers at UCL say Australia has pushed the UK into third place for overseas students students that add 20 billion to our economy. Canada is fast catching up. This year, Narendra Modi refused to sign an Memorandum of Understanding to return illegal immigrants, with the Indian High Commission stating that the UK hadnt eased visa policies as promised and are still cancelling visas on small pretexts. Good luck getting that post-Brexit Indian trade deal. Yet Ive also heard those with less of a reputation to lose bragging about their UK visa acquired on the back of fraudulently acquired documents. A Deputy Ambassador at a German Embassy outside the EU told me that well-trained German government employees meet every applicant, even for tourist visas, and can tell within five minutes whether an applicant is fraudulent, regardless of the documentation. Loss of income The second problem is visa costs not how much they cost, but how little goes to the Treasury. VFS effectively holds a natural monopoly and, with the Home Office, has steadily increased complexity and paperwork to justify eye-watering visa fee increases. They have at least done us a favour by proving the high value which people attach to UK visas. A technology expert (tier 2) on the shortage occupations list pays a visa fee of 1,200 plus a healthcare surcharge of 200 per year. But thats just the beginning. Due to paperwork complexity, an entire visa consulting industry has sprung up, clustering around VFS offices in non-EU countries. They tell you exactly how to write your application and which documents will trigger acceptance or rejection. They exist to game the system. With their costs and other charges, and a UK immigration lawyer, the total can easily top 4,000. If the application is rejected for any reason, they (or the UK company/NHS paying the bill) get nothing back. Shortage occupation visas have a monthly cap, leading to thousands being rejected recently. The only money received by the Treasury is the health surcharge and a fraction of the visa fee. We dont know that fraction. VFS doesnt report its UK visa accounts separately and isnt a UK company its Swiss. Were not alone. VFS is now operating for many other countries. But we dont need to follow the herd over the cliff. The hostile environment laid bare Talking to these visa consultants is revealing. They are the first to say that the Home Office uses its distance from applicants to treat them as numbers, and that the most irrelevant missing paper will justify rejection (not questions full rejections). This mess is not an intended policy outcome it has metastasised as a consequence of an arbitrary net migration target, outsourcing our interface with applicants, restricting student visas and capping visas for those we need the most. But it seems to have become a tool to reduce immigration numbers through painful attrition out of site of the UK electorate. This is the hostile environment at work. Sajid Javid has made a good start, relaxing caps for doctors and nurses that saw 2,360 visas for NHS doctors rejected in five months, while almost 10,000 doctors posts remained unfilled. But thousands of other high-skilled workers are still rejected due to caps. How to fix it? First, we need to take back control of the application interface and ditch VFS. Second, we must treat applicants as potential customers, rather than pesky threats to the immigration target. The private sector is just as adept as defining unwanted customers as wanted ones. Often this is done through pricing. Thanks to high visa application costs, we know we can set the bar high rather than relying on potentially fraudulent documents to prove wealth. If a certain visa is valued at 4,000, why dont we streamline the paperwork, negate the middlemen, charge that much and use it to fund public services? One stressed graduate student applicant gave me a solution. My grandfather is paying my university and living costs. Its taken four months to gather, translate and notarise paperwork proving our relationship and the income of three generations. Cant they just ask us to pay upfront? Good point. For some visas, Malaysia proves wealth by requiring a level of savings to be transferred to a fixed deposit which can be used by the government should visa conditions be broken (e.g. in the case of unpaid health bills or crime). With EU net migration plummeting since the Brexit referendum, we need a non-EU immigration system that works for our economy and people. But regardless, Windrush should be enough of a lesson to build a fair and functional system. Carlos Beatty Jr. enrolled at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SD Mines) in Rapid City, S.D., as a mechanical engineering major. It wasnt long before he migrated to industrial engineering because he was drawn by the majors versatility. It has more of a focus on business and psychology, he said. Its the best to prepare you for the business world, hands down. Industrial engineers are sometimes called the engineers engineer. Most people, however, dont even know what an industrial engineer does. This despite the fact that industrial engineering was the 7th most popular engineering degree in 2018, and the profession is expected to grow by 10% from 2016 to 2026, faster than the average for all other occupations. Industrial engineers are trained to manage the system, said Paula Jensen, a lecturer in the IE department at SD Mines. They apply science, math, and engineering methods to operations to help ensure the companys success by solving problems and eliminating waste. Industrial engineers often oversee efficiency and output. By using engineering processes, industrial engineers solve the complex problems that industries face, Jensen said. Industrial engineering is not as focused as the other engineering degrees, said Beatty Jr., a 2013 industrial engineering and engineering management graduate of SD Mines. You touch on a little of everything in IE. Youre a jack of all trades. Jensen said industrial engineers have a broader scope of education, with less laser focus on a specific engineering specialty. They need to have good interpersonal skills and the ability to understand and apply whats found in the data to increase efficiencies. Its an inch deep and a mile wide, Jensen said. Its very broad. Youre going to do so many cool things in IE. For Beatty, 27, getting an IEEM degree led to a master of business administration degree from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD, and currently a job in a post-MBA corporate leadership development program with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in Michigan. Prior to his current position, he worked as an operations associate engineer for Peabody Energy in Wyoming, and as a corporate planning engineer for Denso Manufacturing in Michigan. He knows fellow industrial engineer graduates who are investment bankers, brokers, business owners, and in research development with chemical companies. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, for example, has a degree in industrial engineering. Were all over the place and at the end of the day, its what you want it to be, Beatty said. You can go anywhere you want. South Dakota School of Mines & Technology www.sdsmt.edu Edited by Chris Vavra, production editor, Control Engineering, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com. We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. A meeting will be held on August 8 at the behest of 52 of its 120 members. President Reuven Rivlin has reportedly said he will sign the law in Arabic, in an apparent protest against the language's loss of official status alongside Hebrew under the legislation. The U.S. administration has asked the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "clarification" of a controversial "Jewish Nation-State" law, Israel's Channel 10 reported on Thursday. "Measures that threaten the status of law-abiding minorities, or laws that favor some categories of Jews over others - whether on grounds of religion or of sexual orientation - can have no place in a country whose founding ideal is equality before the law". "On the other hand, we have never enshrined the national rights of the Jewish people in our land in a basic law until now that we've enacted the nation-state law". But Arabs have strongly criticised it, particularly those from Israel's 130,000-strong Druze community, who, unlike other Arabs who may volunteer, are subject to compulsory service in the military or police alongside Jewish Israelis. IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot urged all officers to leave politics "outside the confines of the army..." "As a national people's army, whose objective is to protect the security of the people Israel and victory in war, we are committed to preserving human respect, regardless of ethnic background, religion or gender", Eiznekot said. "Our shared mission and camaraderie with our Druze and Bedouin brothers, among other minorities serving in the (Israeli military) will continue to guide our path". "I don't see any reason to change the basic law to take into account the Druze community", Dichter told army radio, adding that he could support separate legislation related to the Druze. That clause was eventually modified. All of which are basic national values that don't for a moment detract from the identity, value or rights of any other citizen of Israel. Though the law doesn't mention "equality" or "minority rights", the courts have consistently interpreted it as barring discrimination on the eminently reasonable grounds that discrimination fundamentally violates a person's dignity (the one exception, which all legal systems make, is if discrimination has pertinent cause, like barring pedophiles from teaching). The Communist Party of Israel considers the Basic Law "Israel-the Nation State of the Jewish People" to be a serious fascist step aimed at undermining the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people, and at the elimination of the rights of the refugees. Most are Muslim and live in the north of the country. "It is the longstanding position of the Orthodox Union that salient issues of law and policy for the State of Israel are best determined by the government and citizens of Israel through the state's democratic process and institutions", it explained. The latter provision actually preserves Arabic's status as an official language de facto. "After many thoughts ran through my head, I made a decision to let go and to discontinue serving the country, a country that has a government that takes and does not give back", he reportedly wrote. The poll included a sample of 600 people with a margin of error of 4.1 percent. ONTARIO Environment Canada issued a weather alert at 11:42 a.m. for the following areas: Cornwall Lancaster Maxville Alexandria Environment Canada meteorologists are tacking a severe thunderstorm capable of producing strong wind gusts, heavy rain and dime size hail. An area of thunderstorms has developed and is slowly moving eastwards. Some localities could receive up to 75 mm in rain before the thunderstorms move eastward into Quebec. Communities in the path include: Alexandria, Laggan, Fassifern, Lochinvar, Lorne, Glen Roberston, Ste-Anne-de-Prescott and St. Davids. New agent at Howard Hanna Real Estate Richard Roberts has joined the Howard Hanna Saratoga office on Division Street as an associate broker. Prior to joining Howard Hanna, Roberts worked for CMK & Associates Real Estate and has more than 30 years of banking experience in the Capital Region. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and business and this year received a career sales achievement award for real estate sales at CMK. And speaking of CMK... Howard Hanna announced this week CMK & Associates is now a part of the Hanna family of companies. CMK & Associates has more than 60 sales associates and staff in six offices in Saratoga, Fulton and Montgomery counties. The team's sales volume was more than $104 million in sold volume. "The focus of CMK over the years has been on growth and improvement so we can provide the best resources to our agents and great service to our clients. Joining Howard Hanna, the third -argest brokerage in the United States, puts our agents and clients in the best possible position for continued success," said Christian C. Klueg, broker at CMK & Associates. "With advanced resources and market exposure, this is the ideal next step in our journey to consistently provide the best in real estate services. I am excited about the opportunity this provides." "We are thrilled that Christian and the rest of his team will be joining Howard Hanna and contributing to our growth in New York," said Howard W. "Hoby" Hanna, IV, president of Real Estate Brokerage. "This is a great time for us to partner with CMK & Associates to provide unmatched, innovative and comprehensive real estate services to more buyers and sellers throughout the state." The Howard Hanna brand will begin appearing on signs, advertising and marketing throughout the areas now served by CMK & Associates. Visitors to the website will soon be redirected to HowardHanna.com, which receives an average of more than 1.6 million visitors per month. New agent at Roohan Realty Diana Gise has joined Roohan Realty as a real estate salesperson. Gise is a member of the Greater Capital Region Association of Realtors (GCAR) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Diana lives in Malta with her husband, Charles, and four teenage children. Golf outing for charity Sunmark Federal Credit Union will host its annual golf event Aug. 27 at Shaker Ridge Golf Course in Albany. Proceeds go to the Sunmark Foundation, which gives money to local charities throughout the year. Last year the tournament raised more than $35,000. Start time is 12 p.m., dinner and drinks afterward. Register at sunmarkgolf.com. lhornbeck@timesunion.com 518-454-5352 @leighhornbeck ORANGE The nearly vacant Firelite Shopping Center at the corner of Racebrook and Old Tavern roads one of the most prominent commercial spots in town recently was sold for $3.8 million and First Selectman James Zeoli couldnt be happier. The approximately 6-acre property that houses Patriot Bank, a nail shop, China Wok restaurant and a few other businesses had fallen into disrepair over the last several years, even though its a prominent spot that is a sort of gateway to Orange. The parcel can be seen from the Boston Post Road. NORWALK The Norwalk Zoning Commission approved an application for a medical marijuana dispensary at 495 Connecticut Ave. Thursday evening. The decision, less than two months after the Westport Planning and Zoning Commission approved a plan for a medical marijuana dispensary at 1460 Post Road E., only eight miles away, has left people wondering whether the state would really award two out of the 10 possible licenses for new medical marijuana dispensaries so close together. I would assume that the state would not approve two facilities back to back, said Zoning Commissioner Louis Schulman at Thursdays public hearing. Lora Rae Anderson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Protection, which awards the licenses, confirmed on Friday afternoon that geographic distribution is a consideration, although it does not trump larger concerns such as quality security plans. In fact, one of the reasons we issued a new RFA, or request for applications, was because there are growing numbers of patients, and that means more patients without a facility near them, she said. We hope to make dispensary facilities more accessible to patients once we have new facilities open. Medical marijuana dispensaries have been placed closely together in the past in the last round of applications, two dispensaries were awarded licenses to operate out of Milford. But Anderson explained that only 17 complete applications had been filled out that year, and nine of those were for dispensaries in Milford. In contrast, there are 73 applications this year. So we certainly have a diverse array of applications in a number of cities, Anderson said. Hopefully we will be able to award licenses in a way that dispensary facilities are distributed equally throughout the state. While the fate of Norwalks possible 3,000-square-foot medical marijuana facility, run by Healthport LLC, now lies with the state, it met little resistance at the city level. The public hearing was sparsely attended, with only three people voicing concerns, all staff or owners of other businesses in the building where Healthport would be located. All three said they were not opposed to medical marijuana, but had fears about whether the parking lot would be able to handle the traffic. Jeffrey Pivor, a dentist who works on the second floor of the building, also had concerns about security and the odors wafting up to his office. Joshua Storms, one of the owners of Healthport, addressed security protocols. Until a patient has a marijuana card, they cannot even enter the facility, deliveries will be randomized and the medical marijuana cannot be opened in the building or parking lot, he said. Eighteen indoor and six outdoor security cameras will monitor the premises. As for the smell, Storms said, Our processes for controlling the odor are thorough. Its not just a regular HVAC system. Its a multi-layer system thats basically very analogous to the flow a compounding hood would use. So it really does control the odor. Lauren Leo, the facilities manager, gave a testimonial about the medical marijuana results she has seen in the past. Seeing cancer patients able to eat, able to sleep, she said. It just became very, very rewarding. Healthport LLC has also been approved to open a medical marijuana dispensary at 61 Commercial Boulevard in Torrington. The companys Norwalk application was approved with conditions, including filtering any odors and receiving the final sign-off from all appropriate departments. rschuetz@hearstmediact.com; @raschuetz The disconnect between President Donald Trump and his administration has never been starker than it was on Thursday. Early that afternoon, a phalanx of top national security officials marched to the White House briefing room to warn about what Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, described as "a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States." Though they didn't announce any fresh initiatives, the officeholders reported on a number of existing ones, from the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to bolster local election infrastructure and an FBI task force designed "to root out and respond to foreign influence operations" - in the words of FBI Director Christopher Wray - to the National Security Agency's more secretive cyberwarfare operations. "We acknowledge the threat," Coats said. "It is real. It is continuing. We are doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that everyone can have trust in." A few hours later, Trump took to the stage at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He spent much of his time reprising his election victories and railing against "fake news." Here is what he had to say about Russia: "In Helsinki, I had a great meeting with Putin. We discussed everything. We got along really well. By the way, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. That's a really good thing. Now, we are being hindered by the Russian hoax. It's a hoax, OK?" The fact that Trump views the documented Russian attack on our democracy in 2016 as a "hoax" - and that he evidently refuses to acknowledge that Russia is still targeting the United States - renders hollow the assurances of his intelligence and security chieftains that they are protecting the country. National security adviser John Bolton made an unintentionally revealing statement when he said "the president has made it very clear, I think, what his priority is." Yes, he has, and it's not defending America. It's defending himself from charges - buttressed by a growing body of evidence - that his campaign was guilty of colluding with Russia to win the election, and that he then obstructed the lawful investigation of Russian subversion. Trump is worried not about the Russian attacks on the United States but about the public relations damage he may suffer from ignoring them. That's why, after more than 18 months in office and fewer than 100 days before the midterm election, he finally convened a short, pro-forma National Security Council meeting to address the topic on July 27 and then asked his intelligence chiefs to brief the White House press corps. But while all of the individual agencies are doing their level-best, they are lacking what they most need: high-level direction and support. The very fact that there were so many officials on that stage - representing the FBI, the NSA, the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security - shows how important it is to have central coordination. And it's not just a question of smashing bureaucratic barriers to get individual government agencies to work more smoothly together. It's also imperative to create a more effective private-public partnership. The information warfare from Russia, China, Islamic State and other malign actors primarily targets private platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The social media companies are showing greater awareness of the threat and are doing more to combat it - witness Twitter removing millions of fake accounts and Facebook closing down pages and fake accounts that are believed to be Russia's handiwork. But private companies will likely lack the capability to defeat sophisticated, state-sponsored attacks. Government agencies have those capabilities, but they lack a clear mandate to protect private websites from foreign intrusions. To enable a more effective defense against a growing threat, we need a president who will bang heads together and force the three-letter agencies in Washington to cooperate with the social media monoliths in Silicon Valley. The government could even set up a "fusion center" in Silicon Valley to bring together the best experts from the public and private sectors to work together. Beyond that, the government needs to raise public awareness of the threat to mobilize individuals to call out and combat information attacks online. The Department of Homeland Security has raised awareness of terrorism with its "If you see something, say something" campaign. We all know to call 911 if you see a suspicious package that might contain a bomb. But who do you call if you see a suspicious Twitter account that may be a Russian bot? How do you even identify a Russian bot? Little is likely to happen without presidential leadership, which for mysterious - and suspect - reasons is absent. There isn't even a coordinator for cyberthreats at the National Security Council since Bolton pushed out the well-regarded NSA veteran who used to hold that portfolio. Tom Bossert, who stepped down in April as the domestic security adviser, complained to Yahoo News: "On cyber, there is no clear person and or clear driver, and there is no clear muscle memory. . . . The concern would be who's minding the store in the coordination and development . . . of new and creative cyber policies and strategies." It's hard to avoid the suspicion that Trump is perfectly happy that no one is minding the store. Much as he may claim, preposterously, that the Kremlin favors the Democrats, he knows that the Russian intervention helped him to win in 2016. He may well be hoping for similar help in the future. HARTFORD Before a crowd of more than 100 supporters, Martin Luther King III endorsed Democrat Shawn Wooden for state treasurer at a rally Saturday outside Woodens campaign headquarters in Hartford. He truly is the best and brightest not the best and brightest African American, but the best that any community has to offer, King said. King and Wooden share a mutual friend, Wooden said. A human rights advocate, King is the oldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. He lives in Georgia, and is active on labor issues around the country. Wooden received Kings backing while standing among other candidates endorsed by the Democratic party for state office: gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, lieutenant governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz and attorney general candidate William Tong. U.S. Rep. John Larson, who represents Connecticuts 1st Congressional District, including Hartford, and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin both shared their hearty support for Wooden in speeches. When was the last time you saw a turnout like this for a treasurer candidate? Bronin asked the crowd. Hartfords former city council president, Wooden received the support with emotion. Today is extremely special to me, he said, with his sons at his side. In his speech, King criticized Woodens primary opponent, Democrat Dita Bhargava, a former investment manager who worked at Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse and Citigroup, among other firms. Wooden is the only candidate who has put Main Street ahead of Wall Street, King said. I imagine his opponent was very good at helping rich folk get richer. Thats not what public service is about. He also accused Bhargava of questioning Woodens character and making false claims about Woodens experience. Bhargava responded by defending her words. It just boggles my mind why when a woman speaks the truth the truth you could easily find in the Hartford Courant or in the Wall Street Journal it is seen on negative campaigning, she said. I am simply pointing out the facts. She highlighted an instance in which Wooden, a pension investment attorney for Day Pitney, was involved in advising the New Jersey pension fund to invest in one of the worlds largest hedge funds, BlackRock, an investment that underperformed and was criticized by New Jersey officials and union leaders. That was a bad investment, and he collected millions of dollars in fees on it from Wall Street, Bhargava said. I did my job and I did the best I could. Wooden said it was utterly false that his firm made millions from the investment. Ive spent years fighting to protect the retirement security of working families and serving the public, he wrote in a statement. In stark contrast, my opponent has bounced from one Wall Street trading firm to another, including some that contributed to the Great Recession of 2008 that devastated the retirement savings of millions of people. I am disappointed that my opponent has decided to run a campaign of desperation instead of telling voters how she will make their lives better. King spent Saturday meeting with Connecticut National Association for the Advancement of Colored People leaders in Hartford and with clergy in Bloomfield. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination. King worked on a tobacco field in Simsbury for a summer in the 1940s and returned to Connecticut several times throughout his life as a civil rights leader. emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson China is growing every day into a more powerful state. This is at least what we are told by the world media. To paraphrase Napoleon, the world is trembling as China has awakened (the French Emperor would have said China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.). Is it really so? Two sides China is discovering that every coin has two sides and while the powerful, often land-grabbing side is ever-present in the media; the side-effects of quick growth and the pervading dominance of the Party is sometimes forgotten. But not always! A few days ago, The South China Morning Post argued: Chinas ruling Communist Partys tightened control over think tanks and a crackdown on extravagance could be having an impact on how the leadership handles foreign affairs. Taking the example of Beijings understanding of President Donald Trump, the Hong Kong paper explained: Beijing appears to have been caught off guard by Trumps protectionist trade blitz, and that it underestimated rising anti-China sentiment among the US elite. Radio France International (Chinese language) observed that Beijings tightened control over ideology at all levels, including on the college campuses, which requires students and researchers to closely follow the Party line, has hampered the working of the think tanks. As a result, nobody was able to predict the new US policies: Any discussion of government policy without permission could be regarded as acting wantonly and issuing groundless criticism of the Partys decisions and policies. It could result in punishment, observed the Hong Kong newspaper, further remarking that since the top priority of Beijings policy is to maintain the partys power, some policy advisers have avoided in-depth discussions with US think tank researchers and have thus missed the opportunity to understand Washington. The South China Morning Post made another point: Chinas crackdown on extravagance could be having an impact on how the leadership handles foreign affairs. The Partys new policies have discouraged policy advisers from having indepth discussions with their US counterparts that would help them to understand the latest thinking in Washington, or from speaking their minds. The Nikkei in Tokyo noted another consequence of the present crisis: President Xi Jinping had been conspicuously silent on the trade row with the US, sparking speculation that he is shielding himself from criticism in case it spirals out of control. The Japanese publication commented: Chinese leader avoids the spotlight and the blame. It is a fact that Xi has often been missing from the front page of The Peoples Daily in July, while his exposure on TV has considerably decreased: Xi likely wants to stay out of the line of fire lest the trade war lead to significant repercussions such as job losses, which he could be blamed for, believed The Nikkei. Rival factions Already in March, the Hong Kong newspaper had warned: If anything goes wrong one person will have to accept responsibility for everything. At that time the Party planned to remove the two-term cap on Chinas presidency from Chinas Constitution. Last week, Richard McGregor in The Financial Review even asked: Has Chinas leader Xi Jinping now passed his peak? He remarked: China seems set on an inexorable rise to superpower status to rival the US But that begs another question which has been sweeping Beijing over the northern summer whether we are now witnessing peak Xi Jinping. The author quoted a variety of sources: retired leaders, rival factions within the CCP and some intelligentsia. According to McGregor: Xi has acquired many enemies along the way in the countrys traditional power centres. Does it mean that we are witnessing the end of an era? Certainly not, but the post-Trump trade war will certainly bring instability in China, which may result in more collective leadership running the affairs of the Middle Kingdom. One sign is the recent visit of the Li Keqiang to Tibet. It was the first ever visit of a Premier on the Roof of the World. Impending changes Like everything under the Communist regime, these visits are scripted and Tibet has never been the Premiers responsibility; it is usually the Chairman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, also a Member of the all-powerful Standing Committee of the Politburo (currently Wang Yang) who inspects Tibet; the head of the United Front Work Department also can occasionally visit the Roof of the World. One reason for this unexpected change might be that President Xi (who was then travelling in Africa) finally tries to delegate some of his responsibilities to Li Keqiang; rumours to this effect have recently been circulating in China. The coverage of Lis visit is another sign of some impeding changes. Usually such an important visit would be announced after the VVIP is back in Beijing; only then reports would appear in Chinese and later the English version would come out, tailored for the foreign public. This time, it was rather chaotic. Some English websites broke the news on the first day of the visit, while Xinhua kept mum till Li was back in Beijing, despite the fact that in March, China decided to unify its Voice. It was then announced that Beijing had formed the worlds largest media group called Voice of China under the responsibility of the Publicity (ex-Propaganda) Department; it combined under one unified umbrella, the existing China Central Television, China National Radio, and China Radio International. As Li Keqiang arrived in Tibet, Chinas media started covering Xis trip to Africa, obliterating Lis inspection in Tibet. All these unusual happenings seem to demonstrate that the awakened dragon does not master everything and the drastic follow the Party line policies have serious collaterals which ultimately harm China. (Courtesy of Mail Today) Also read: 6 reasons why death penalty will not deter child rapes While this is a major setback in President Trump's quest of cutting Iranian oil exports to zero by November 4, Beijing, according to the sources, agreed to not increase its imports of Iranian crude. A State Department official confirmed Francis Fannon, assistant secretary of state at the US Bureau of Energy Resources, was recently in China to discuss Iranian sanctions. President Donald Trump's administration has threatened anyone with sanctions - including U.S. allies in Western Europe - that use Iranian oil. In May, Trump controversially pulled America out of the nuclear deal Obama agreed with Iran in 2015. Also in early July, the remaining signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, often called the Iran nuclear deal, declared their support for Iran in the face of the USA pull-out. But Trump, a long-time critic of the deal who succeeded Barack Obama as president past year, pulled out of the pact despite repeated assurances by United Nations inspectors that Iran is in compliance with its obligations. The US is due to impose a series of new sanctions on Iran in the next few months. Washington chose to reimpose sanctions on Iran upon its withdrawal, accusing it of posing a security threat, and has told countries they must halt all imports of Iranian oil from November 4 or face US financial measures. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the USA against any attempt to stop Tehran's oil trade, threatening to block the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. However, they said the country would agree to not increase them. Also last month, China, which is Iran's biggest customer, said it did not accept unilateral sanctions against Iran. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: "China and Iran unwaveringly maintain normal trade and economic ties". China is defending its relationship with Iran, calling their cooperation "justified, reasonable and lawful". In July, Beijing lifted monthly oil imports from Iran by 26 percent. At the same time, however, Washington has softened its tone, saying that waivers may in fact be granted for some oil-dependent allies that are unable to quickly find a replacement for Iranian crude. For some of us growing up in mofussil Assam, the writing on the wall wasn't always clear. In hazy blue or red ink, plastered across the walls of small towns, there were messages mostly in Assamese and the occassional English. "Assam for the Assamese" or "Bengalis go back". For a newly formed All Assam Students Union, the point was often made. With violence. The Ahomiya culture of the tropical state in the valley of the Brahmaputra was quickly being eroded by the foreigner. Including the Bengali, the Marwari and the all-pervasive Bangladeshi. The awe and the fear of the formidable AASU was palpable. If AASU was violent, a decade later another force emerged. Bloody, ruthless and armed, the ULFA emerged as one of the most powerful insurgent groups of South Asia. The message coming from both: Clear Out. As the foreigner was hounded out often at gunpoint, as enterprising businessmen, mostly Marwaris from Calcutta, fled, as tea estates witnessed flash strikes and day light murders of tea planters, the politician read the message, plastered in blood. A solution was found. The Congress decided to dig its heels in. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act was enacted in 1983. The legislation thumbed its nose at all attempt at deportation. The onus was on the complainant to prove a person a foreigner. If a foreigner was detected, the police had no power to search and seize. The migrant managed to flee to another district. The figures are telling. Over 300,000 migrants were deported from Assam alone between 1962-84. In the decade post-1983, Wikileaks quotes media sources as saying, that a mere 1500 were deported. But brute force was met with more blood. Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Assam Accord with the AASU. In a classic volte-face, the spirit of the Accord was diametrically opposed to the IMDT Act. Detection, deletion, deportation was the guiding light of the Accord. Predictably the Accord remained on paper. The flip-flop of the ruling party of the day over Assam and its nativity continued. During the 2006 election, Wikileaks quotes then Congress President, Sonia Gandhi as saying "her party is committed to minority rights and has introduced the Foreigners' (Tribunals for Assam) Order 2006 under the Foreigners Act. This order will protect illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, making the process for identification of an illegal migrant and possible deportation, too difficult and time-consuming to implement". If Wikileaks shows up the Congress party as a party that doesn't miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, then it's not entirely wrong. Cut to the monsoon session, 2018. The party speaks with a forked tongue. If Tarun Gogoi proudly owned up to the mess aka the NRC, calling it his brainchild, top leaders distanced themselves. APCC chief and RS MP Ripun Bora said the NRC exercise was suspicious. Party leader Anand Sharma called for an all-party meeting to build a national consensus. The only honest admission of what politicians were doing to Assam came from ex-Congress MP Kripa Chaliha. Wikileaks quotes Chaliha as saying, "Although Congress must publicly oppose the repeal, Chaliha agreed privately that the act was a detriment to security and that the government "can not be blind on infiltration." On its part, the BJP finally woke up to smell the coffee in 2015. A marginal player in an exercise largely monitored by Justice Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court, it did its bit to muddy the churn further. It sought to draw a wedge between the foreigner fleeing religious persecution, essentially minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. "There are reports that a number of Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to minority communities in those countries, such as Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists, were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution, " said a government released based on a 2015 MHA notification. In other words, the BJP was fulfilling its election promise to the Hindu Bengalis of the Muslim majority districts of the Barak Valley. The 2015 notification was quickly followed up with an Amendment to the Citizenship Act, 2016. It matters little that a Sarabanand Sonowal, then of the AGP, successfully challenged the IMDT Act in the SC in his bid to throw out all foreigners. The 2016 amendment has ironically not worked. The balance has tilted against the BJP. Sonowal is fast losing ground as people view the Citizenship Act as being diametrically opposed to the Assam Accord. The Congress finds itself between a rock and a hard place. It has always stood with the migrant but stands to lose the native Assamese vote if it publicly supports the NRC. The AUDF is meanwhile eating away at its traditional Bangladeshi migrant vote bank. Significantly, it is an Assamese Muslim who is at the forefront of the NRC petition in the Supreme Court. The Assamese, whether Ahomiya or Muslim or Hindu wants Assam for the Assamese. Now, as the Lok Sabha polls near and a 40 lakh population awaits its fate, it's clear that both the Congress and the BJP are riding an NRC tiger they can't dismount. The question is can both read the writing on the wall finally. Also read: Why National Register of Citizens is likely to turn Assam into a tinderbox Beijing warned the threats will only be counter-productive for ongoing trade negotiations. Earlier Friday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman called on Washington to "come to its senses" and settle the dispute. "The increase in the possible rate of the additional duty is meant to provide the Administration with additional options to encourage China to change its harmful policies and behavior and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of our citizens", he said. "Firstly, we urge the U.S.to correct its attitude, and not to try to blackmail China because it will never work", stated China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang. So far, the trade war appears to have hit China's economy and financial markets harder than the United States, which has given the administration confidence that it is escalating from a position of strength. - Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Beijing has pledged equal retaliation, although it only imports about $130 billion of USA goods. In early July, the United States imposed 25 per cent tariffs on an initial $34 billion of Chinese goods. Factory growth stuttered across the world in July, heightening concerns about the global economic outlook as an intensifying trade conflict between the United States and China sent shudders through trading partners. China has announced a plan to impose new tariffs on $60 billion of American goods, in retaliation for the latest tariff threats from the Trump administration. "And if the US side takes further steps to escalate the tension, China will definitely take countermeasures". Officials, however, downplayed suggestions the move was meant to compensate for the recent decline in the value of the Chinese currency, which has threatened to take much of the sting out of Trump's tariffs by making imports cheaper. "The escalating trade tensions have everyone in the industry concerned", said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero in a news release, although she also attributed high volumes to strong global economies. The Chinese government did not specify what types of American products would be affected or when those tariffs would take effect. And Bergsten warned that the U.S. economy is likely to slow and a trade war only makes that expected decline worse. The US trade deficit recorded its biggest increase in more than 1-1/2 years in June as the boost to exports from soybean shipments faded and higher oil prices lifted the import bill. After the earlier tariffs $34 billion of USA goods, about $120 billion is available for retaliation. China's appetite for imported copper has yet to falter, however, with first-half imports of unwrought copper up 16.3 percent from a year ago, according to Chinese customs data. China's reaction remains uncertain, however, which introduces a unsafe element into the escalation strategy and means it could backfire. Thus, keeping an eye on China's imports of major commodities in coming months will be key to working out just how quickly the trade dispute is filtering through to the real economy, and determining if the phoney trade war has become a real one. The following companies are subsidiares of AMETEK: AMETEK CTS GmbH, AMETEK Germany GmbH, AMETEK Hong Kong Private Limited, AMETEK Instruments Group UK Limited, AMETEK Italia S.r.l., Amekai Singapore Private Ltd., Amekai Taiwan Co. Ltd., Haydon Linear Motors (Changzhou) Co. 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Ltd., Universal Analyzers Inc., VTI Instruments Corporation, VTI Instruments Private Limited, VTI Integrated Systems Private Limited, Vision Research Europe B.V., Vision Research Inc., Vision Research srl, Zemetrics Inc., Zygo Corporation, Zygo Pte Ltd., Zygo Richmond Corporation, and ZygoLamda Metrology Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.. Eagle Materials, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of heavy construction materials, light building materials, and materials used for oil and natural gas extraction. It operates through the following segments: Cement, Concrete and Aggregates, Gypsum Wallboard, Recycled Paperboard, and Oil and Gas Proppants. The Cement segment deals with the manufacture, production, distribution, and sale of portland cement. The Concrete and Aggregates segment involves mixing cement, sand, gravel, or crushed stone and water to form concrete, which is then sold and distributed to construction contractors. The Gypsum Wallboard segment mines and extracts natural gypsum rock, which is used in the manufacture of gypsum wallboard. The Recycled Paperboard segment processes paper fiber, water, and paper chemicals to form recycled paperboards, then sell them to gypsum wallboard manufacturers. The Oil and Gas Proppants segment produces frac sand used in oil and natural gas exploration, and provides transloading and storage for well servicing companies. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Barclays: Adler Toy Holding Sarl, Aequor Investments Limited, Alymere Investments Limited, Alynore Investments Limited Partnership, Analog Analytics, Analog Analytics Inc, Analytical Trade Holdings LLC, Analytical Trade Investments LLC, Analytical Trade UK Limited, Archstone Equity Holdings Inc, Ardencroft Investments Limited, B D & B Investments Limited, B.P.B. (Holdings) Limited, BB Client Nominees Limited, BBAIL SAS, BCAP LLC, BIFML PTC Limited, BMBF (No.24) Limited, BMI (No.9) Limited, BNC Brazil Consultoria Empresarial Ltda, BNRI ENG 2013 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG 2014 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG GP LLP, BNRI England 2010 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2011 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2012 Limited Partnership, BNRI Limehouse No.1 Sarl, BNRI PIA Scot GP Limited, BNRI Scots GP LLP, BPB Holdings SA, BVP Galvani Global S.A.U., Barafor Limited, Barclay Leasing Limited, Barclaycard Funding PLC, Barclaycard International Payments Limited, Barclays (Barley) Limited, Barclays Aldersgate Investments Limited, Barclays Alzin Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Asia Limited, Barclays Asset Management Limited, Barclays BR Investments S.a r.l., Barclays BWA Inc., Barclays Bank (Suisse) S.A., Barclays Bank Delaware, Barclays Bank Ireland PLC, Barclays Bank Ireland Public Limited Company, Barclays Bank Mexico S.A., Barclays Bank PLC, Barclays Bank UK PLC, Barclays Bayard Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bedivere Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bordang Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Brasil Assessoria Financeira Ltda., Barclays CCP Funding LLC, Barclays Cantal Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Capital (Cayman) Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Limited, Barclays Capital Canada Inc., Barclays Capital Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V., Barclays Capital Derivatives Funding LLC, Barclays Capital Effekten GmbH, Barclays Capital Energy Inc., Barclays Capital Equities Trading GP, Barclays Capital Finance Limited, Barclays Capital Futures (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., Barclays Capital Japan Securities Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Capital Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.2) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.3) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees Limited, Barclays Capital Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Capital Real Estate Finance Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc., Barclays Capital Securities Client Nominee Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Trading Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Claudas Investments Partnership, Barclays Claudas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Commercial Mortgage Securities LLC, Barclays Converted Investments (No.2) Limited, Barclays Corporation Limited, Barclays Direct Investing Nominees Limited, Barclays Directors Limited, Barclays Dryrock Funding LLC, Barclays Electronic Commerce Holdings Inc., Barclays Equity Holdings Limited, Barclays Equity Index Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Europe Client Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Firm Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Executive Schemes Trustees Limited, Barclays Financial LLC, Barclays Financial Planning Nominee Company Limited, Barclays Funds Investments Limited, Barclays Funds and Advisory Japan Limited, Barclays Global Service Centre Private Limited, Barclays Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Group Holdings Limited, Barclays Group Operations Limited, Barclays Group US Inc., Barclays Index Finance Trust, Barclays Industrial Development Limited, Barclays Industrial Investments Limited, Barclays Insurance Guernsey PCC Limited, Barclays Insurance Services Company Limited, Barclays Insurance U.S. Inc., Barclays International Luxembourg Dollar Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Investment Management Limited, Barclays Investment Solutions Limited, Barclays Investments & Loans (India) Limited, Barclays Korea GP Limited, Barclays Lamorak Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Leasing (No.9) Limited, Barclays Leto Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Long Island Limited, Barclays Luxembourg EUR Holdings S.a r.l, Barclays Luxembourg Finance S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg GBP Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Global Funding S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings SSC B, Barclays Marlist Limited, Barclays Mauritius Overseas Holdings Limited, Barclays Mercantile Business Finance Limited, Barclays Merchant Bank (Singapore) Ltd., Barclays Nominees (George Yard) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Manx) Limited, Barclays Oversight Management Inc., Barclays Payment Solutions Inc., Barclays Pelleas Investments Limited Partnership, Barclays Pelleas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Pension Funds Trustees Limited, Barclays Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Private Asset Management (Monaco) S.A.M, Barclays Private Bank, Barclays Private Clients International Limited, Barclays Receivables LLC, Barclays SAMS Limited, Barclays Securities (India) Private Limited, Barclays Securities Japan Limited, Barclays Security Trustee Limited, Barclays Services (Japan) Limited, Barclays Services Corporation, Barclays Services Jersey Limited, Barclays Services LLC, Barclays Services Limited, Barclays Shea Limited, Barclays Singapore Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Switzerland Services SA, Barclays Tenedora De Immuebles SL., Barclays Term Funding Limited Liability Partnership, Barclays UK Investments Limited, Barclays US CCP Funding LLC, Barclays US Funding LLC, Barclays US GPF Inc., Barclays US Investments Inc., Barclays US LLC, Barclays Unquoted Investments Limited, Barclays Unquoted Property Investments Limited, Barclays Wealth Management Jersey Limited, Barclays Wealth Nominees Limited, Barclays Wealth Services Limited, Barclays Wealth Trustees (India) Private Limited, Barclayshare Nominees Limited, Barclaytrust Channel Islands Limited, Barcosec Limited, Barsec Nominees Limited, Blossom Finance General Partnership, Branchcall Computers (Pvt) Limited, Braven Investments No.1 Limited, CP Flower Guaranteeco (UK) Limited, CP Newco 1 Limited, CP Newco2 Limited, CP Newco3 Limited, CP Propco 1 Limited, CP Propco 2 Limited, CP Topco Limited, CPIA Canada Holdings, CPIA England 2008 Limited Partnership, CPIA England 2009 Limited Partnership, CPIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, CPIA Investments No.1 Limited, CPIA Investments No.2 Limited, CRE Diversified Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe LLC, Calthorpe Investments Limited, Capton Investments Limited, Carnegie Holdings Limited, Central Platte Valley Management LLC, Chapelcrest Investments Limited, Charles Schwab Europe, Claudas Investments Limited, Claudas Investments Two Limited, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Cobalt Investments Limited, Compania Regional del Sur S.A., Compania Sudamerica S.A., Condor No.1 Limited Partnership, Cornwall Homes Loans Limited, Crescent Crown Land Holding SPV LLC, Crescent Legacy LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential L.P., Crescent Plaza Residential LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential LP LLC, Crescent Real Estate Member LLC, Crescent Resort Development LLC, Crescent TRS Holdings LLC, Crescent Tower Residences GP LLC, Crescent Tower Residences L.P., Curve Investments GP, DBL Texas Holdings LLC, DMW Realty Limited, Desert Mountain Development LLC, Desert Mountain Properties Limited Partnership, Develop Training Group Limited, Dorset Home Loans Limited, Durlacher Nominees Limited, EWRD Summit LLC, Eagle Financial and Leasing Services (UK) Limited, East West Resort Development V L.P. L.L.L.P., East West Resort Development VII LLC, Equity Limited Partnership, Equity Value Investments No.1 Limited, Equity Value Investments No.2 Limited, Erimon Home Loans Ireland Limited, Expobank, FIRSTPLUS Financial Group Limited, Finpart Nominees Limited, First Assurance, Foltus Investments Limited, Full House Holdings Limited, Gallen Investments Limited, Global Dynasty Natural Resource Private, Globe Nominees Limited, Gracechurch Services Corporation, Grays Station LLC, Grupo Financiero Barclays Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hawkins Funding Limited, Heraldglen Limited, Holding Stuttgarter Strae GmbH, Hurley Investments No.1 Limited, Imalivest Mineral Resources LP, Investors In Infrastructure Limited, J.V. Estates Limited, JV Assets Limited, Kirsche Investments Limited, LTDL Holdings LLC, La Torretta Beverages LLC, La Torretta Hospitality LLC, La Torretta Operations LLC, Lagalla Investments LLC, Leonis Investments LLP, Liability Partnership, Long Island Assets Limited, Long Island Holding A LLC, Long Island Holding B Limited, MK Opportunities GP Ltd, MK Opportunities LP, MVWP Investors LLC, Maloney Investments Limited, Marbury Holdings LLC, Menlo Investments Limited, Mercantile Credit Company Limited, Mercantile Leasing Company (No.132) Limited, Meridian (SPV-AMC) Corporation, Mintaka Investments No. 4 Limited, Mira Vista Development LLC, Mira Vista Golf Club L.C., Mountainside Partners LLC, Murray House Investment Management Limited, Naxos Investments Limited, Nile Bank, North Colonnade Investments Limited, Northstar Mountain Properties LLC, Northstar Trailside Townhomes LLC, Northstar Village Townhomes LLC, Northwharf Investments Limited, Northwharf Nominees Limited, OGP Leasing Limited, Oakes Millers Ltd, Ownership Trustee Limited, PIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, Palomino Limited, Pecan Aggregator LP, Pelleas Investments Limited, Pelleas Investments Two Limited, Pippin Island Investments Limited, Preferred Liquidity LLC, Preferred Liquidity Limited Partnership, Procella Investments LLC, Procella Investments No.1 LLC, Procella Investments No.2 LLC, Procella Investments No.3 LLC, Protium Finance I LLC, Protium Master Grantor Trust, Protium Master Mortgage LP, Protium REO I LP, R.C. Grieg Nominees Limited, RVH Limited, RVT CLO Investments LLP, Razzoli Investments Limited, Real Estate Participation Management Limited, Real Estate Participation Services Limited, Relative Value Holdings LLC, Relative Value Investments UK Limited, Relative Value Trading Limited, Roder Investments No. 1 Limited, Roder Investments No. 2 Limited, Ruthenium Investments Limited, SPM GP Limited, Securitized Asset Backed Receivables LLC, Servicios Barclays S.A. de C.V., Societe Civile Immobiliere 31 Avenue de la Costa, Solution Personal Finance Limited, Southern Peaks Mining LP, Standard Life Aberdeen, Surety Trust Limited, Surrey Funding Corporation, Sussex Purchasing Corporation, Sutton Funding LLC, Swan Lane Investments Limited, TPLL LLC, TPProperty LLC, Tahoe Club Company LLC, Tahoe Club Employee Company, The Logic Group Enterprises Limited, The Logic Group Holdings Limited, Third Energy Holdings Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No. 2 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.1 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.3 Limited, US Secured Investments LLC, Union Center LLC, United Counties Bank, Verain Investments LLC, Walbrook Group Ltd, Wedd Jefferson (Nominees) Limited, Wessex Investments Limited, Westferry Investments Limited, Wilmington Riverfront Receivables LLC, Woolwich Homes Limited, Woolwich Plan Managers Limited, Woolwich Qualifying Employee Share, Woolwich Surveying Services Limited, Woori BC Pegasus Securitization Specialty Co. Limited, and Zeban Nominees Limited. Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, national, and international news to professionals through desktop terminals, media organizations, and industry events, as well as directly to consumers. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation is a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited. Read More The presidential son-in-law may be on the brink of a White House accomplishment. Photo: Carlos Tischler/Getty Images Anyone who has watched the long, tortuous progress of criminal justice reform legislation in Congress (its done a lot better at the state level) will be reluctant to predict victory at this politically polarized moment. But according to The Hill, one yuuuuge obstacle may be moving out of its path: President Trump has told Republican senators that hes open to a new proposal on prison and sentencing reform, giving new life to an issue that seemed hopelessly stalled on Capitol Hill. The compromise presented to Trump by Republican senators at a White House meeting on Wednesday would combine the prison reform bill passed by the House in May the First Step Act with four sentencing reform provisions that have bipartisan Senate backing, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The First Step Act, to a considerable extent the brainchild of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, is a very limited piece of legislation focused on prison operations and prisoner reentry policies rather than the sentencing reforms that have been at the center of criminal justice reform in Washington and around the country. It lost some progressive support in the House precisely because it was half-a-loaf (or maybe a quarter-of-a-loaf), and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley was also reported as being cool to anything that narrow. At the same time, the Kushner bill was rumored to be unacceptable to conservative crime demagogues like Sen. Tom Cotton (famous for saying that America had an under-incarceration problem). But now Kushner is working with Grassley and others (including most Senate Democrats) interested in merging First Step with some of the sentencing reform provisions that at one point looked very promising in 2016 before the Trump campaign cast a long law-and-order shadow over the Senate and Mitch McConnell pulled the plug. And now, finally, we are seeing positive if not very specific signs of support from the president himself: A senior White House official described the president as positively inclined toward the compromise proposal. The source said Trump told GOP senators to do some work with your colleagues and lets see where the Senate is and then come back to me with it. The sentencing reform provisions in the new compromise are relatively modest in scope: The proposed compromise would lower lifetime mandatory minimum sentences for people with prior nonviolent drug felony convictions to 25 years and reduce 20-year mandatory minimum sentences for similar offenders to 15 years. But in an effort to reach common ground, that reform would only apply to new sentences and not to people already in jail. A third reform would apply the Fair Sentencing Act, which Congress passed in 2010 and reduced the disparity between cocaine- and crack-related offenses, retroactively. The final reform would expand exceptions to the application of mandatory-minimum sentences to more people with criminal histories. You have to figure that Cotton will again lead the opposition to this effort, and its possible Jon Cornyn, who has sponsored the Senate version of the First Step Act, will oppose its marriage to the sentencing reform provisions. And then theres that inveterate criminal justice foe, the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions. Clearly Sessions doesnt have the kind of clout he once had in the White House; at this point hed probably have to talk Kushner into inviting him to meetings on this or any other subject. But just to be sure, Grassley fired this brushback pitch at his former colleague from Alabama: Grassley said Sessions should steer clear of the debate altogether. With all that I have done to help Sessions to keep the president from firing him, I think Sessions ought to stay out of it, he said. That would be a very good thing. The following companies are subsidiares of Continental Aktiengesellschaft: A-Z Formen- und Maschinenbau GmbH, ADC Automotive Distance Control Systems GmbH, ALPHALOR 3 EURL, AZ-CZECH s.r.o., Adam Touring GmbH, Advance Tyre Company Ltd., Advanced Imaging Technologies, Advanced Imaging Technologies (Pty) Ltd, Advanced Scientific Concepts, AlMutlak Continental Company Limited Liability Company, Application Solutions (Electronics and Vision) Ltd., Argus Cyber Security Ltd, BENECKE-KALIKO S.A., BENECKE-KALIKO S.A., BEST DRIVE CTM S.A. de C.V., BV Environmental Limited, BV F1rst Limited, Bandvulc Tyres Limited, Belt Concepts of America Inc., BeltTrade Inc., Benecke Changshun Auto Trim (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., Benecke Changshun Eco Trim (Changzhou) Co. Ltd., Benecke-Kaliko AG, BestDrive LLC, BestDrive Sverige AB, Bestdrive Benelux B.V.B.A., CAC Philippines Inc., CAS Munchen GmbH, CAS UK Holding Ltd., CAS-One Holdinggesellschaft mbH, CGH Holding B.V., CGT Referral Resources Inc., CONTINENTAL CPM S. DE R.L. DE C.V., CONTINENTAL ENGINEERING SERVICES PORTUGAL UNIPESSOAL LDA, CONTINENTAL IBERIA SALES AND SERVICES S.A.U., CONTINENTAL INDUSTRIAL SERVICES S A (Pty.) Ltd., CONTINENTAL SURFACE SOLUTIONS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, CONTITECH Chile S.A., CPT Automotive Changchun Co. Ltd., CPT GUADALAJARA S. de. R. L. de C.V., CPT MANUFACTURING MEXICO S. de R. L. de C.V., CPT MAQUILA MEXICO S. de R. L. de C.V., Carrel Grundstucksverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH Co. Vermietungs KG, Changshu ContiTech Trading Ltd., Conseo GmbH, Conti Automotive Servicios S.A. de C.V., Conti Temic microelectronic GmbH, Conti Trade Australia Pty. Ltd., Conti Trade Italia S.r.l., Conti Versicherungsdienst Versicherungsvermittlungsges. mbH, Conti-Gummi Finance B.V., ContiTech (Shandong) Engineered Rubber Products Co. Ltd., ContiTech AG, ContiTech AVS France, ContiTech Africa (Pty.) Ltd., ContiTech Anoflex SAS, ContiTech Antriebssysteme GmbH, ContiTech Australia Pty Ltd, ContiTech Belgium BVBA, ContiTech Canada Inc., ContiTech China Rubber & Plastics Technology Ltd., ContiTech Consulting Mexicana S.A. de C.V., ContiTech Dae Won Airspring Systems Ltd., ContiTech Elastomer-Beschichtungen GmbH, ContiTech Finland Oy, ContiTech Fluid Automotive CZ s.r.o., ContiTech Fluid Automotive Hungaria Kft., ContiTech Fluid Automotive Maroc SARL, ContiTech Fluid Distribuidora S.A. de C.V., ContiTech Fluid Korea Ltd., ContiTech Fluid Mexicana S.A. de C.V., ContiTech Fluid Mexicana Servicios S.A. de C.V., ContiTech Fluid Monterrey Servicios S.A. de C.V., ContiTech Fluid Oil & Marine Middle East FZE, ContiTech Fluid Serbia D.O.O., ContiTech Fluid Shanghai Co. Ltd., ContiTech Fluid Technology (Changchun) Co. Ltd., ContiTech France SNC, ContiTech Global Holding Netherlands B.V., ContiTech Holding (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ContiTech Holding Netherlands B.V., ContiTech IMAS A.E., ContiTech India Pvt. Ltd., ContiTech Japan Co. Ltd., ContiTech Kautschuk- und Kunststoffvertriebsges. mbH, ContiTech Kuhner Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, ContiTech Kuhner GmbH & Cie. KG, ContiTech Lastik Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, ContiTech Luftfedersysteme GmbH, ContiTech MGW GmbH, ContiTech Magyarorszag Kft., ContiTech Maroc SARL, ContiTech Mexicana S.A. de C.V., ContiTech North America Inc., ContiTech Oil & Marine Corp., ContiTech Power Transmission (Ninghai) Ltd., ContiTech Power Transmission (Sanmen) Ltd., ContiTech Power Transmission Korea Co. Ltd., ContiTech Print Service (S) Pte. Ltd., ContiTech Printing Blanket Shanghai Ltd., ContiTech Roulunds Rubber A/S, ContiTech Rubber Industrial Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, ContiTech Scandinavia AB, ContiTech Schlauch GmbH, ContiTech Services (Pty.) Ltd., ContiTech Shanghai Rubber & Plastics Technology Ltd., ContiTech Singapore Pte. Ltd., ContiTech Slovenija druzba za proizvodnjo gumenih tehnicnih izdelkov d.o.o., ContiTech South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., ContiTech Techno-Chemie GmbH, ContiTech Thermopol LLC, ContiTech Thermopol Romania S.R.L., ContiTech Tianjin Conveyor Belt Ltd., ContiTech Transportbandsysteme GmbH, ContiTech USA Inc., ContiTech United Kingdom Ltd., ContiTech Vibration Control France SAS, ContiTech Vibration Control GmbH, ContiTech Vibration Control Slovakia s.r.o., ContiTech Vibration Control s.r.o., ContiTech-Universe Verwaltungs-GmbH, ContiTrade (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ContiTrade Africa (Pty) Ltd, ContiTrade France Rechapage, ContiTrade Services s.r.o., ContiTrade Slovakia s.r.o., Conticlub SAS, Continental - Industria Textil do Ave S.A., Continental Adria pnevmatike d.o.o., Continental Advanced Antenna Automotiva LTDA, Continental Advanced Antenna GmbH, Continental Advanced Lidar Solutions US LLC, Continental Aftermarket & Services GmbH, Continental Aftermarket GmbH, Continental Automotive AB, Continental Automotive Aguascalientes S.A. de C.V., Continental Automotive Austria GmbH, Continental Automotive Bajio S.A. de C.V., Continental Automotive Bangkok Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Benelux BVBA, Continental Automotive Brake Systems (I) Private Limited, Continental Automotive Changchun Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Components (India) Private Ltd., Continental Automotive Components Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Automotive Corporation, Continental Automotive Corporation (Lianyungang) Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Czech Republic s.r.o., Continental Automotive Electronics LLC, Continental Automotive Engineering (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive France SAS, Continental Automotive Funding Corp., Continental Automotive GmbH, Continental Automotive Grundstucksges. mbH, Continental Automotive Guadalajara Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Continental Automotive Holding Netherlands B.V., Continental Automotive Holding Spain S.L., Continental Automotive Holdings UK Ltd., Continental Automotive Hungary Kft., Continental Automotive Inc., Continental Automotive Instruments Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Automotive Interior Wuhu Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Italy S.p.A., Continental Automotive Japan K.K., Continental Automotive Jinan Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Korea Ltd., Continental Automotive Lithuania UAB, Continental Automotive Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Automotive Maquila Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Continental Automotive Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Continental Automotive Occidente S.A. de C.V., Continental Automotive Parts (Suzhou) Co. Ltd, Continental Automotive Rambouillet France SAS, Continental Automotive Romania SRL, Continental Automotive SLP S.A. de C.V., Continental Automotive Singapore Pte. Ltd., Continental Automotive Spain S.A., Continental Automotive Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Systems (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Systems Changsha Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Systems Changshu Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive Systems Costa Rica S.A., Continental Automotive Systems Inc., Continental Automotive Systems SRL, Continental Automotive Systems Slovakia s.r.o., Continental Automotive Trading France SAS, Continental Automotive Trading Italia S.r.l., Continental Automotive Trading Nederland B.V., Continental Automotive Trading UK Ltd., Continental Automotive Trading Osterreich GmbH, Continental Automotive UK Ltd., Continental Automotive Wuhu Co. Ltd., Continental Automotive d.o.o. Novi Sad, Continental Automotive do Brasil Ltda., Continental Barum s.r.o., Continental Benelux SPRL, Continental Bicycle Systems GmbH & Co. KG, Continental Bicycle Systems Verwaltungs GmbH, Continental Brake Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Continental Brakes Italy S.p.A., Continental Brasil Industria Automotiva Ltda., Continental Caoutchouc-Export-GmbH, Continental ContiTech de Chihuahua S. de R.L. de C.V., Continental ContiTech de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Continental Daek Danmark A/S, Continental Dekk Norge A/S, Continental Digital Services France SAS, Continental Dack Sverige AB, Continental Engineering Services & Products GmbH, Continental Engineering Services GmbH, Continental Engineering Services Ltd., Continental Finance GmbH, Continental France SNC, Continental Global Business Services Manila Inc., Continental Global Holding Netherlands B.V., Continental HT Tyres s.r.o., Continental Holding China Co. Ltd., Continental Holding France SAS, Continental Hungaria Kft., Continental India Private Limited, Continental Industrias del Caucho S.A., Continental Industria e Comercio Automotivos Ltda., Continental Industria e Comercio de Pecas de Reposicao Automotivas Ltda., Continental Intelligent Transportation Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Continental Intelligent Transportation Systems LLC, Continental Investment Ltd., Continental Italia S.p.A., Continental Lemmerz (Portugal)-Componentes para Automoveis Lda., Continental Llantera Potosina S.A. de C.V., Continental Mabor Industria de Pneus S.A., Continental Matador Rubber s.r.o., Continental Matador Truck Tires s.r.o., Continental Middle East DMCC, Continental Opony Polska Sp. z o.o., Continental Pneus (Portugal) S.A., Continental Pty Ltd, Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH, Continental Rengas Oy, Continental Rubber of America Corp., Continental Safety Engineering International GmbH, Continental Secure Data Germany GmbH, Continental Secure Data Headquarter B.V., Continental Secure Data USA LLC, Continental Servicos de Vulcanizacao do Brasil Ltda., Continental Suisse S.A., Continental Temic Electronics (Phils.) Inc., Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG, Continental Teves Portugal - Sistemas de Travagem Lda., Continental Teves UK Ltd., Continental Tire Andina S.A., Continental Tire Canada Inc., Continental Tire Chile SpA, Continental Tire Colombia S.A.S., Continental Tire Corporativo S.A. de C.V., Continental Tire Holding US LLC, Continental Tire Japan Co. Ltd., Continental Tire Korea Co. Ltd., Continental Tire Sumter LLC, Continental Tire West Africa Limited, Continental Tire de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Continental Tire the Americas LLC, Continental Tires (China) Co. Ltd., Continental Tires (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Continental Tires Espana S.L., Continental Tires Holding Singapore Pte. Ltd., Continental Trebbin GmbH & Co. KG Sondermaschinenbau, Continental Trebbin Verwaltungs- und Beteiligungs-GmbH, Continental Tyre AS Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyre Group Ltd., Continental Tyre Investment UK Ltd., Continental Tyre Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyre Management Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyre Marketing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyre North Africa SARL, Continental Tyre PJ Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyre Services Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyre South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Continental Tyre Technology Centre Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Continental Tyres (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Continental Tyres Ltd., Continental Tyres of Australia Pty Ltd, Continental UK Group Holdings Ltd., Continental VUK s.r.o., Continental do Brasil Produtos Automotivos Ltda., Continental of Taiwan Co. Ltd., Continental vyroba pneumatik s.r.o., Contitech Argentina S.R.L., Contitech Botswana (Pty) Ltd, Contitech do Brasil Produtos Automotivos e Industriais Ltda., Contitrade Espana S.A.U., Contitrade Holding, Contitread Renovado Morelia S.A. de C.V., Correx Handelsgesellschaft fur Kautschukprodukte mbH, Custom Machining Services Inc., DRUST, Dekkmann A/S, Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd., DynaGen Inc., EPD Holdings Inc., Eddelbuttel + Schneider GmbH, Elektrobit, Elektrobit Austria GmbH, Elektrobit Automotive Americas Inc., Elektrobit Automotive Finland Oy, Elektrobit Automotive GmbH, Elektrobit Automotive Korea Limited, Elektrobit Automotive Romania SRL, Elektrobit Automotive Software (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Elektrobit France SAS, Elektrobit India Private Ltd., Elektrobit Nippon K.K., Emitec Denmark A/S, Emitec France SAS, Eu-Retec (Private) Ltd., FSC Franchising Service Company S.p.A., Formpolster GmbH, General Tire International Company, Granite Investments Limited, Holding ContiTech SAS, Hoosier Racing Tire Corp., Hornschuch (Shanghai) Surface Technology Co. Ltd., Hornschuch Consulting GmbH, Hornschuch Group GmbH, Hornschuch Italia S.r.l., Hornschuch Stolzenau GmbH, Hornschuch UK Ltd., Hornschuch-Markt GmbH, INTECH Thuringen GmbH, Kathrein Automotive, Kathrein Automotive Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Kathrein Automotive North America Inc., Kathrein Automotive Portugal Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kim Holdings Scotland Limited, Kolubara-Univerzal D.O.O., Konrad Hornschuch AG, Konrad Hornschuch International GmbH, Legg Company Inc., Libra Associates (Properties) Limited, MISA GmbH & Co. KG, MISA-Beteiligungs GmbH, Merlett Belgie B.V.B.A, Merlett Benelux B.V., Merlett Deutschland GmbH, Merlett France SAS, Merlett Group, Merlett Iberica 2016 S.L., Merlett Norway As, Merlett Plastics UK Ltd., Merlett Polska Sp. Z o.o., Merlett RUS LLC, Merlett Tecnoplastic S.p.a., Noviteck SA, O'Sullivan Films Inc., OOO "ContiTech Rus", OOO "Continental Automotive RUS", OOO "Continental Automotive Systems RUS", OOO "Continental Kaluga", OOO "Continental Tires RUS", OOO Hornschuch RUS, OTA Grundstucks- und Beteiligungsverwaltung GmbH, OTA keys, OTA keys S.A., Omitec Group, Otomotiv Lastikleri Tevzi AS (OLTAS), POWERTRAIN MAQUILA MEXICO S. DE R.L. DE C.V., PT Continental Tyre Indonesia, PT Quantum Inventions Indonesia, Parkpocket, Phoenix Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Phoenix Compounding Technology GmbH, Phoenix Conveyor Belt India Private Ltd., Phoenix Conveyor Belt Solutions Inc., Phoenix Conveyor Belt Systems GmbH, Phoenix Fluid Handling Industry GmbH, Phoenix Oil & Marine Ltd., Phoenix Service GmbH & Co. KG, Phoenix Shanxi Conveyor Belt Co. Ltd., Phoenix Vermogensverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Pneu Egger AG, Profi Reifen- und Autoservice Gesellschaft mbH, Prazisionstechnik Geithain GmbH, QUANTUM INVENTIONS SDN. BHD., Quantum Inventions, Quantum Inventions Private Limited, R & J Strang Tyre Services Limited, REG Reifen-Entsorgungsgesellschaft mbH, REPARATION PNEUMATIQUES DU SUD EST (REPNEU) SAS, ROSEA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Hannover-Stocken KG, Reifen Apel GmbH, Reifen Kauffmann GmbH, Reifen-John GmbH & Co KG, Reifen-Service Clemens & Hegel GmbH, Rengasmaailma Oy, Road-Broad Automotive Electronics (Qufu) Co. Ltd., Rundpneu Beteiligungsges. mbH, S.C. ContiTech Fluid Automotive Romania S.R.L., S.C. ContiTech Romania S.R.L., S.C. Continental Automotive Products SRL, SAS CONTITRADE FRANCE, STEINEBRONN BETEILIGUNGS-GMBH, Semperit (Ireland) Ltd., Semperit (UK) Ltd., Semperit Reifen Gesellschaft mbH, Senior Experts Services GmbH, Siemens VDO Automotive S.p.A., Specialised Belting Supplies Ltd., Specialty Fabrics & Converting Inc., Specialty Yarn & Converting Inc., Stable One Insurance Company LLC, Synerject Taiwan Co. Ltd., Syrma A.E., TON Tyres Over Night Trading GmbH, TOO "Continental Matador KZ", Temic Automotive (Phils.) Inc., Tikka Spikes Oy, Tyre Maintenance Limited, Tyre Reinsurance (Ireland) DAC, Tyre and Auto Pty Ltd, UMG Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Union-Mittelland-Gummi-GmbH & Co. Grundbesitz KG, Unterstutzungskasse mbH der Goppinger Kaliko- und Kunstleder-Werke GmbH, VIVAX Trading GmbH, Vanvulc Tyres Limited, Vaysse SAS, Vergolst GmbH, Veyance Distribuidora de Produtos de Engenharia Ltda., Veyance Hong Kong Co. Ltd., Veyance Industrial Services Inc., Veyance Qingdao Engineered Elastomers Company Ltd., Veyance Technologies, Veyance Technologies Australia Pty. Ltd., Veyance Technologies Canada (NS) ULC, Veyance Technologies Hong Kong Co. Ltd., Veyance Technologies Zambia Ltd., Viking Tyres (UK) Ltd., Vitesco Technologies (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Vitesco Technologies 1. Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Vitesco Technologies 1. Verwaltungs GmbH, Vitesco Technologies 2. Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Vitesco Technologies 2. Verwaltungs GmbH, Vitesco Technologies Automotive Cuautla S.A. de C.V., Vitesco Technologies Canada ULC, Vitesco Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Vitesco Technologies Delavan LLC, Vitesco Technologies Eisenach Verwaltungs GmbH, Vitesco Technologies Emitec GmbH, Vitesco Technologies Engineering Romania SRL, Vitesco Technologies France S.A.S., Vitesco Technologies GDL S. de R.L. de C.V., Vitesco Technologies Germany GmbH, Vitesco Technologies GmbH, Vitesco Technologies Group Aktiengesellschaft, Vitesco Technologies Holding 1 Canada Inc., Vitesco Technologies Holding 2 Canada Inc., Vitesco Technologies Holding China Co. Ltd., Vitesco Technologies Holding Netherlands B.V., Vitesco Technologies Hungary Kft., Vitesco Technologies India Private Limited, Vitesco Technologies Italy S.R.L., Vitesco Technologies Japan K.K., Vitesco Technologies Korea, Vitesco Technologies Lohmar Verwaltungs GmbH, Vitesco Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Vitesco Technologies Roding GmbH, Vitesco Technologies Romania SRL, Vitesco Technologies Singapore Pte. Ltd., Vitesco Technologies UK Ltd., Vitesco Technologies USA LLC, Vitesco Tecnologia Brasil Automotiva Ltda., Vogtlandische Reifenwerke Sitz Bad Nauheim GmbH, Vulcanite Holdings Pty Ltd, Vulcanite Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Vulcanite Pty Ltd, Wohlfahrtseinrichtung fur die Arbeiter und Angestellten der Semperit Reifen AG GmbH, Zonar, Zonar Systems Inc., Zytek Automotive, Zytek Automotive Ltd., Zytek Group Ltd., balance GmbH Handel und Beratungsservice im Gesundheitswesen, co-pace GmbH, inotec Innovative Technologie GmbH, and kek-Kaschierungen GmbH. BNP Paribas SA provides a range of banking and financial services in France and internationally. It operates through two divisions, Retail Banking and Services, and Corporate and Institutional Banking. The company offers long-term corporate vehicle leasing, and rental and other financing solutions; and digital banking and investment services, cash management, and factoring services to corporate clients, as well as wealth management services. It also provides credit solutions for individuals under the Cetelem, Cofinoga, Findomestic, AlphaCredit, and Opel Vauxhall brands; savings and protection solutions, including insuring individuals, and their personal projects and assets; and asset management, private banking, and real estate services. In addition, the company offers global market services, including investment, hedging, financing, research, and market intellingence across asset classes; security services comprising clearing, custody, and asset and fund services, as well as corporate trust, and market and financing services; and corporate trade and treasury, debt financing, specialized financing, strategic advisory, mergers and acquisition, and equity capital market services for institutional and corporate clients. The company was formerly known as Banque Nationale de Paris and changed its name to BNP Paribas SA in May 2000. BNP Paribas SA was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Read More TCF Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for TCF National Bank that provides various financial products and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Enterprise Services segments. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; individual retirement accounts; debit and credit cards; and check cashing and remittance services. It also provides investment management and custodial services, trust services, financial and estate planning, and retirement planning and employee benefit programs; residential, consumer, and small business lending products; and consumer real estate secured lending, consumer loans, loans secured by personal property, and unsecured personal loans. In addition, the company offers loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services. Further, it provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate banking, and lease financing; and treasury services comprising investment and borrowing portfolios, as well as manages capital, debt, and market risks. As of December 31, 2020, the company operated 478 branches, including 373 traditional branches, 102 supermarket branches, and three campus branches located in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, and South Dakota; and 1,062 ATMs. TCF Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Read More DIC Asset AG is one of Germany's leading listed property companies, and specialises in commercial real estate. With around 20 years of experience on the German real estate market, the company maintains a regional footprint on all major German markets through six branch offices, and has 169 assets with a combined market value of c. EUR 5.6 billion under management. DIC uses a hybrid business model to manage its business divisions Commercial Portfolio, Funds and Other Investments. Taking an active asset management approach, DIC employs its proprietary, integrated real estate management platform to raise capital appreciation potential in its business divisions and to boost its revenues. In its Commercial Portfolio division (EUR 1.7 billion in assets under management), DIC acts as proprietor and property asset holder, and thus generates revenues both from the management of the assets and through the value optimisation of its own real estate portfolio. The Funds division (EUR 1.6 billion in assets under management) generates its revenues by acting as issuer and manager of special real estate funds for institutional investors. Gathered in the business unit Other Investments (EUR 2.3 billion in assets under management) are strategic financial investments, the management of properties in which the company holds no equity stakes, equity investments in property developments and joint venture investments. DIC Asset AG has been included in the SDAX(R) segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since June 2006. The Company's shares are also included in the EPRA index, which tracks the performance of the most important European real estate companies. Read More A DACA protester at a demonstration in New York City in January. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to fully restart the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the fourth district court ruling against the White Houses efforts to eliminate the program. On Friday, Washington-based district judge John Bates who was appointed by President George W. Bush dismissed the Trump administrations rationale for shutting down DACA as inadequate. The order doesnt take effect immediately. Bates gave the administration until August 23 to appeal the ruling or restart the Obama-era program, which protects from deportation more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children. The judge had given the administration 90 days to restart the program back in April, but stayed his own ruling in order to give the administration another chance at presenting a legally sound reason for why DACA is unlawful. It couldnt. Bates said on Friday that the Department of Homeland Security was unable to provide a coherent explanation of its legal opinion and also failed to alternatively reissue its decision to end DACA for bona fide policy reasons that would preclude judicial review. The Trump administration is expected to appeal, though it doesnt seem to have come up with any new arguments, and the president has additionally and repeatedly failed to demonstrate that he understands much of anything about the program himself. If the administration does not appeal the ruling before the deadline near the end of this month, its move to end DACA will be vacated and it will have to begin reaccepting new applications for the program immediately. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September that the administration would stop processing applications and renewals for DACA and wind down the program over the course of six months, making the legally thin argument that the federal government was forced to kill the program because (conservative) state attorneys general were planning to sue it. The plan and its shaky rationale has faced significant pushback from U.S. courts, however. The administration was forced to resume processing renewals for existing DACA applicants in January by a federal judge in California, but not new applications for the program. A judge in Brooklyn echoed that ruling a month later. Batess newly reiterated order comes a week before a separate court case the anti-DACA lawsuit filed by several conservative state attorneys general will receive a hearing by a judge in Texas who is expected to be sympathetic to their arguments. Its not clear how that case will ultimately impact DACA, but it seems the Trump administrations haphazard attempt to end the program on its own is nearing the end of the line. Domtar Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes communication papers, specialty and packaging papers, and absorbent hygiene products in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Pulp and Paper, and Personal Care. The company provides business papers, including copy and electronic imaging papers used in inkjet and laser printers, photocopiers, and plain-paper fax machines, as well as computer papers, preprinted forms, and digital papers for office and home use. It also offers commercial printing and publishing papers, such as offset papers and opaques used in sheet and roll fed offset presses; publishing papers, which include tradebook and lightweight uncoated papers for publishing textbooks, dictionaries, catalogs, magazines, hard cover novels, and financial documents; and converting papers for envelopes, tablets, business forms, and data processing/computer forms. In addition, the company provides papers for thermal printing, flexible packaging, food packaging, medical packaging, medical gowns and drapes, sandpaper backing, carbonless printing, labels and other coating, and laminating applications; and papers for industrial and specialty applications, such as carrier papers, treated papers, security papers, and specialized printing and converting applications. Further, it offers absorbent hygiene products, including absorbent briefs, protective underwear, underpads, pads, washcloths, and body patches under the Attends, Indasec, IndasSlip, and Reassure brands; and baby diapers, training and youth pants, and bed mats under the Comfees, Chelino, Nene, and Bambino brand names. The company serves merchants, retail outlets, stationers, printers, publishers, converters, and end-users. Domtar Corporation was founded in 1848 and is based in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Zimmer Biomet: Abbott Spine, Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., BioMet, Biomet 3i Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet 3i Belgium N.V., Biomet 3i Benelux Holdings N.V., Biomet 3i Dental Iberica SL, Biomet 3i LLC, Biomet 3i Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet 3i Netherlands B.V., Biomet 3i Nordic AB, Biomet 3i Portugal Lda, Biomet 3i Switzerland GmbH, Biomet 3i Turkey, Biomet 3i UK Ltd., Biomet 3i do Brasil Comercio de Aparelhos Medicos Ltda., Biomet Acquisitions (Unlimited), Biomet Argentina SA, Biomet Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet Biologics LLC, Biomet Brazil Medical Device Ltda., Biomet C.V., Biomet CV Holdings LLC, Biomet Cementing Technologies AB, Biomet Chile SA, Biomet China Co. Ltd., Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Biomet Deutschland Holding GmbH, Biomet Fair Lawn LLC, Biomet Finance US LLC, Biomet France Sarl, Biomet Global Supply Chain Center B.V., Biomet Healthcare Management GmbH, Biomet Holdings B.V., Biomet Hong Kong CBT Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong Holding Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong No. 1 Ltd., Biomet Inc., Biomet Insurance Ltd., Biomet International Inc., Biomet International Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Leasing Inc., Biomet Manufacturing LLC, Biomet Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet Microfixation B.V., Biomet Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Orthopedics Puerto Rico Inc., Biomet Spain Orthopaedics S.L., Biomet Sports Medicine LLC, Biomet Trauma LLC, Biomet U.S. Reconstruction LLC, Biomet UK Healthcare Ltd., Biomet UK Ltd., CD Diagnostics, CD Diagnostics Inc., CD Laboratories Inc., Cayenne Medical, Cayenne Medical Inc., CelgenTek Innovations Corporation, Centerpulse Ltd, Changzhou Biomet Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Citra Labs LLC, Clinical Graphics, Compression Therapy Concepts Inc., Compression Therapy Products, D.S. Comp Ltd., Dornoch Medical Systems, Dornoch Medical Systems Inc., EBI Holdings LLC, EBI LLC, EBI Medical Systems LLC, EBI Patient Care Inc., ETEX Corporation, ETEX Holdings Inc., Electro-Biology LLC, Endius, Espanormed S.L., Etex, ExtraOrtho, Hakuho Company Ltd., IC Guided Surgery SRL, Implant Concierge LLC, Implant Innovations Holdings LLC, Implex, InnoVision Inc., Interpore Cross International LLC, JERDS Luxembourg Holding Sarl, Kirschner Medical Corporation, Knee Creations, LDR Brasil Comercio Importacao e Exportacao Ltda., LDR Holding, LDR Medical Hong Kong (branch), LDR Medical S.A.S., LVB Acquisition Inc., Lanx Puerto Rico LLC , Lanx Srl, Medical Compression Systems Inc., Medtech SA, Medtech SAS, Medtech Surgical GmbH, Medtech Surgical Inc., NORMED Medizin-Technik GmbH, ORTHOsoft ULC, Ortho Transmission, Orthopaedic Advantage LLC, Ospol Participacoes Ltda., Representaciones Zimmer Inc. S. de R.L. de C.V., Respondwell, SM Re Ltd., Scandimed Holding AB, Shanghai Biomet Business Consulting Co. Ltd., Synvasive Technology, Synvasive Technology Inc., ZB COOP C.V., ZB COOP LLC, ZB Cayman (Asia) Holding Ltd., ZB Cayman Island CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Dental India Private Limited, ZB EMEA 1 LP, ZB EMEA Finance UK 1 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 2 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 3 Ltd., ZB EMEA US UK LLC, ZB Hong Kong CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Holding Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Ltd., ZB Manufacturing LLC, ZB UK Group Holdings Limited, ZH2LX Barbados Branch (branch), Zfx, Zfx GmbH, Zfx Innovation GmbH, Zhejiang Biomet Medical Products Co. Ltd., Zimmer (Shanghai) Medical International Trading Co. Ltd., Zimmer Asia (HK) Ltd., Zimmer Australia Holding Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Asel Alarabiya Limited Company, Zimmer Biomet Asia Holding B.V., Zimmer Biomet Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Austria GmbH, Zimmer Biomet BVBA, Zimmer Biomet CBT, Zimmer Biomet CBT 2, Zimmer Biomet CMF and Thoracic LLC, Zimmer Biomet Canada Inc., Zimmer Biomet Centroamerica SA, Zimmer Biomet Comp Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Denmark ApS, Zimmer Biomet Dental Canada Inc., Zimmer Biomet Dental K.K., Zimmer Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Zimmer Biomet Distribution LLC, Zimmer Biomet Finance Srl, Zimmer Biomet Finance US Holding Inc., Zimmer Biomet Finland Oy, Zimmer Biomet France Holdings SAS, Zimmer Biomet France SAS, Zimmer Biomet GK, Zimmer Biomet Global Holdings Switzerland GmbH, Zimmer Biomet Hellas SA, Zimmer Biomet Ireland Limited, Zimmer Biomet Italia Srl, Zimmer Biomet Korea Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Nederland B.V., Zimmer Biomet New Zealand Company, Zimmer Biomet Norway AS, Zimmer Biomet OUS Holdings AG, Zimmer Biomet Polska Sp. z.o.o, Zimmer Biomet Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Zimmer Biomet Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Romania S.R.L., Zimmer Biomet South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Spain S.L., Zimmer Biomet Spine Inc., Zimmer Biomet Sweden AB, Zimmer Biomet Taiwan Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet UK Ltd., Zimmer Biomet US 2 Holding Inc., Zimmer CBT I Holding Inc., Zimmer CBT II Holding Inc., Zimmer CEP USA Holding Co., Zimmer CEP USA Inc., Zimmer CIS Ltd., Zimmer CV Inc., Zimmer Caribe LLC, Zimmer Cayman Islands Holding Co. Ltd., Zimmer Co-op Holdings LLC, Zimmer Colombia SAS, Zimmer Czech sro, Zimmer Dental (Shanghai) Medical Device Co. Ltd., Zimmer Dental Chile Spa, Zimmer Dental GmbH, Zimmer Dental Inc., Zimmer Dental Italy Srl, Zimmer Dental Ltd., Zimmer Dental SAS, Zimmer Finance Ireland, Zimmer France Manufacturing Sarl, Zimmer Germany Holdings GmbH, Zimmer GmbH, Zimmer GmbH Euro IP Branch (branch), Zimmer GmbH Winterthur Branch (branch), Zimmer Gulf FZ LLC, Zimmer Inc., Zimmer India Private Ltd., Zimmer International Logistics GmbH, Zimmer Investments LLC, Zimmer Knee Creations Inc., Zimmer Luxembourg II Sarl, Zimmer Luxembourg Sarl, Zimmer Manufacturing B.V., Zimmer Manufacturing B.V. (branch), Zimmer Medical Malaysia SDN BHD, Zimmer Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., Zimmer Orthobiologics Inc., Zimmer Orthopedics Manufacturing Limited, Zimmer Production Inc., Zimmer Pte. Ltd., Zimmer Slovakia sro, Zimmer Southeast Florida LLC, Zimmer Spine Next Inc., Zimmer Spine SAS, Zimmer Surgical, Zimmer Surgical Inc., Zimmer Surgical SA, Zimmer Switzerland Holdings LLC, Zimmer Switzerland Manufacturing GmbH, Zimmer Tibbi Cihazlar Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, Zimmer Trabecular Metal Technology Inc., Zimmer Trustee Ltd., Zimmer UK Limited, Zimmer US Inc., and Zimmer do Brasil Comercio Ltda.. Wall Street analysts have given iShares Yield Optimized Bond ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Yield Optimized Bond ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates through three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance and Wealth. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, credit cards, and other financial services to personal and small business customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt capital market services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and financial institutions. The Insurance and Wealth segment offers life, home, and car insurance products; and pension, investment, and wealth management products and services. It also provides digital and mobile banking, and telephone services, as well as advisory services for savings, investments, and planning for retirement. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, IWeb, and Agricultural Mortgage Corporation brands. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More A vigil for the victims of last Octobers mass shooting in Las Vegas. Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Ten months after Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers in Las Vegas, killing 58 and injuring hundreds more, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has closed its investigation without finding a motive. Investigators spent thousands of hours combing through Paddocks financial records and interviewing those close to him, Clark County sheriff Joe Lombardo said. They dug through 22,000 hours of video, 252,000 images, and pursued 2,000 leads. Through it all, they were never able to come up with a plausible reason why he opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. What we have been able to answer are the questions of who, what, when, where, and how, Lombardo said. What we have not been able to definitively answer is the why Stephen Paddock committed this act. An 187-page report lays out some final details about how Paddock pulled off the massacre. He began collecting weapons in October of 2016 and spent $95,000 on guns and ammo. When police discovered him in his hotel room, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he was surrounded by two dozen guns and 5,000 unused rounds of ammo. Hed already fired 1,000 rounds into the Route 91 Harvest country music festival across the street from the hotel. The report offers insight into the last months of Paddocks life, during which he blew through $1.5 million and became obsessed with guns. Hed begun acting out of character in the lead-up to the shooting, it says. A doctor told investigators that Paddock may have been bipolar, while his brother said he had mental illness and was paranoid and delusional. Paddocks girlfriend, Marilou Danley, said he told her he had chemical imbalance. Along with Paddock, the only other person to face charges in the shooting is Douglas Haig, an Arizona man who sold Paddock ammunition a month before the shooting. Haig faces charges of conspiracy to illegally manufacture and sell the ammunition, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan. Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC is a publicly owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm provides investment advisory services for its clients. It primarily caters to institutional investors which include pension funds, fund-of-funds, foundations and endowments, corporations and other institutions, private banks and family offices. The firm invests in equity and alternative markets across the world. It employs quantitative and qualitative analysis to make its investments. For its multi-strategy portfolios, the firm employs strategies like convertible and derivative arbitrage, corporate credit, long/short equity special situations, buyout investments, merger arbitrage, private investments, and structured credit. It also invests in real estate and traditional real estate assets including multifamily, office, hotel and retail, loans, portfolio acquisitions, loan pools, operating companies, structured debt products, public securities, and non-traditional real estate assets including gaming, distressed land and residential, cell towers, parking, golf, debt and senior housing. For private equity investments, it considers investments in a variety of special situations that seek to realize value through strategic sales or initial public offerings. The firm typically invests in the energy investments. It prefers to invest in United States. It also manages a buyout fund, Och-Ziff Energy Fund. Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC was founded in 1994 and is based New York City with additional offices in Houston, Texas, London, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Japan, Bangalore, India, Singapore, and Beijing, China. Read More PTI-MQM-P signed MoU ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for formation of new government in the Centre. The agreement, signed by MQM-Ps Faisal Sabzwari and PTI leader Arif Alvi, was reached following a meeting between the leaders of two parties at Bani Gala. In exchange for MQM-Ps support for the upcoming federal government, PTI promised that a special federal package will be announced for Karachi, with an emphasis on the provision of water for its residents. The PTI also agreed that Sindh police reforms will be implemented, a university will be established in Hyderabad, and constituencies identified by MQM-P will be audited, according to the contents of the MoU. As per agreement, recommendations of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) on Karachi population census would be implemented. The PTI will favour a petition filed in the Supreme Court with regard to local government system in Sindh, the MoU read. The agreement also urged for review of Karachi operation; consultation with all the stakeholders; and meritorious appointments on all posts. Speaking to media, PTI leader Jehangir Tareen confirmed that they had reached an agreement with the MQM-P. We welcome MQM-P in PTIs government, he said. The people of Karachi have rejected two parties because they neglected Karachi, he added. Taking his turn, MQM-Ps Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said they came to Bani Gala on Imran Khans invitation. Whatever is agreed between us is a constitutional requirement and a democratic necessity, he said, referring to the MoU signed between the two parties. We have agreed to take the cause of democracy further. The urban centres of Sindh contribute over 80 per cent of the countrys revenue. We have also approached the SC to review the citys census results. We will also take up the issue of security operation in Karachi to address any injustices, he said. The MQM-P leader said the PTI had assured them of its cooperation on the census issue, whereas they also held talks on delimitation of constituencies. Today, both MQM and PTI have a mandate in Karachi, Siddiqui said, calling for review of Karachi operation and taking it to a logical end. He further said that a few things needed to be finalised between the two parties, and expressed hope that those would be finalised amicably. The MQM-P convener said senior party leader Farooq Sattar was taken into confidence before the announcement. He added that protests against rigging will, however, continue. The announcement came shortly after an MQM-P delegation met PTI Chairman Imran Khan at Bani Gala, where top leaders Aamir Khan and Faisal Subzwari were also present. Smurfit Kappa Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells paper-based packaging products. It operates in two segments, Europe and the Americas. The company offers consumer, retail, industrial, ecommerce, heavy-duty corrugated, and hexacomb packaging products, as well as composite cardboard tubes, and bags and sacks; and bag-in-box, a single-use packaging system that comprises films, accessories, bags, taps, and boxes. It also provides point of sale displays; automated packing lines; various types of containerboards, such as Kraftliners, testliners, and containerboard flutings; and corrugated sheet boards, solid board sheets, folding carton sheet boards, sack Kraft papers, MG Kraft papers, preprints, printing and writing papers, pine and eucalyptus seedlings, and bleached eucalyptus Kraft pulp, as well as agro paper. In addition, the company offers recycling solutions to cardboard and paper products, as well as operates as a finance company. It primarily serves food and drink, consumer goods, and industrial goods sectors. The company was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. 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Pinellas LLC, Green Oaks Hospital Subsidiary L.P., Greenview Hospital Inc., Greenview PrimeCare LLC, Greenview Specialty Associates LLC, Gulf Coast Division Inc., Gulf Coast Electrophysiology Associates PLLC, Gulf Coast Inpatient Specialists LLC, Gulf Coast Medical Center Primary Care LLC, Gulf Coast Medical Ventures Inc., Gulf Coast Multispecialty Services LLC, Gulf Coast Physician Administrators Inc., Gulf Coast Provider Network Inc., Gwinnett Community Hospital Inc., Gynecology Specialists of Utah LLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Del Sol Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Las Palmas Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Medical City Dallas PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - St. Davids Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers LLC, H2U Wellness Centers Clear Lake Regional Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers Conroe ISD PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers Conroe Regional Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers Corpus Christi PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers El Paso PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers PISD PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers San Benito CISD PLLC, HBP Lone Star Inc., HCA - IT&S Field Operations Inc., HCA - IT&S Inventory Management Inc., HCA - IT&S PBS Field Operations Inc., HCA - IT&S TN Field Operations Inc., HCA - Information Technology & Services Inc., HCA - Raleigh Community Hospital Inc., HCA - Viera ALF LLC, HCA - WHS Progressive LLC, HCA - WHS Services LLC, HCA ASD Financial Operations LLC, HCA ASD Sales Services LLC, HCA American Finance LLC, HCA Carenow Limited, HCA Central Group Inc., HCA Central/West Texas Physicians Management LLC, HCA Chattanooga Market Inc., HCA Development Company Inc., HCA Eastern Group Inc., HCA Global Capital LLP, HCA Gulf Coast GME PLLC, HCA Health Services of California Inc., HCA Health Services of Florida Inc., HCA Health Services of Georgia Inc., HCA Health Services of Louisiana Inc., HCA Health Services of Miami Inc., HCA Health Services of Midwest Inc., HCA Health Services of New Hampshire Inc., HCA Health Services of Tennessee Inc., HCA Health Services of Texas Inc., HCA Health Services of Virginia Inc., HCA Health Services of West Virginia Inc., HCA Healthcare Mission Fund LLC, HCA Healthcare UK Limited, HCA Holdco LLC, HCA Human Resources LLC, HCA Imaging Services of North Florida Inc., HCA Inc., HCA International Holdings Limited, HCA International Limited, HCA LewisGale Regional Cancer Centers Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA Long Term Health Services of Miami Inc., HCA Luxembourg 1 Sarl, HCA Luxembourg 2 Sarl, HCA Luxembourg Equities Sarl, HCA Luxembourg Finance Limited, HCA Luxembourg Investments Sarl, HCA Management Services L.P., HCA Medical City Limited, HCA Medical Services Inc., HCA Midwest Comprehensive Care Inc., HCA Outpatient Clinic Services of Miami Inc., HCA Outpatient Imaging Services Group Inc., HCA Patient Safety Organization LLC, HCA Pearland GP Inc., HCA Physician Services Inc., HCA Plano Imaging Inc., HCA Property GP LLC, HCA Psychiatric Company, HCA Purchasing Limited, HCA Realty Inc., HCA Richmond Cardiac Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA SF LLC, HCA SFB 1 LLC, HCA Sarasota Orthopedic and Spine Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA Squared LLC, HCA Staffing Limited, HCA Swiss Capital 1 LLP, HCA Swiss Capital 2 LLP, HCA Switzerland Finance GmbH, HCA Switzerland Holding GmbH, HCA Switzerland Limited, HCA UK Capital Limited, HCA UK Holdings Limited, HCA UK Investments Limited, HCA UK Limited, HCA UK Services Limited, HCA Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital Inc., HCA Western Group Inc., HCA-Access Healthcare Holdings LLC, HCA-Access Healthcare Partner Inc., HCA-California Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCA-EMS Holdings LLC, HCA-EmCare Holdings LLC, HCA-Georgia Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCA-HBPS Holdings LLC, HCA-HealthONE LLC, HCA-Solis Holdings Inc., HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of Continental LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of Gulf Coast LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of North Texas LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of TriStar LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Services LLC, HCA-Solis Master LLC, HCA-Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCAPS Anesthesia Manager LLC, HCAPS Conroe Affiliation Inc., HCOL Inc., HD&S Corp. Successor Inc., HDH Thoracic Surgeons LLC, HHBY Holdings LLC, HHNC LLC, HICCH-SCL LLC, HM Acquisition LLC, HM OMCOS LLC, HMMG 1226 LLC, HPG Energy L.P., HPG Enterprises LLC, HPG GP LLC, HPG Solutions LLC, HSS Holdco LLC, HSS Systems LLC, HSS Virginia L.P., HTI Gulf Coast Inc., HTI Health Services of North Carolina Inc., HTI Hospital Holdings Inc., HTI MOB LLC, HTI MSO LLC, HTI Memorial Hospital Corporation, HTI Physician Services of Utah Inc., HWCA PLLC, Hamilton Memorial Hospital Inc., Hamsard 3160 Limited, Harley Street Clinic @ The Groves LLP, Hathor Chelsea Ltd., Healdsburg General Hospital Inc., Health Care Indemnity Inc., Health Insight Capital LLC, Health International Billing Partners Limited, Health Midwest Medical Group Inc., Health Midwest Office Facilities Corporation, Health Midwest Ventures Group Inc., Health Partners of Kansas Inc., Health Service Partners Inc., Health Services (Delaware) Inc., Health Services Merger Inc., Health to You LLC, HealthCoast Physician Group LLC, HealthONE Aurora Investment LLC, HealthONE Care Partners LLC, HealthONE CareNow Urgent Care LLC, HealthONE Clear Creek LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Bariatric Medicine LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Behavioral Health LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cancer Care LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cancer Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cardiovascular LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Medical Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Neurosciences LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Occupational Medicine LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Oncology Hematology LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Orthopedic Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Otolaryngology Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Pediatric Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Primary Care LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Spine Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Spine Surgeons LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Surgery Neurological LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Surgical Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Transplant Services LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Womens Services LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Youth Rehabilitation LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services LLC, HealthONE High Street Primary Care Center LLC, HealthONE IRL Pathology Services LLC, HealthONE Institutes for Clinical Research LLC, HealthONE Lowry LLC, HealthONE Radiation Therapy at Red Rocks LLC, HealthONE Radiation Therapy at Thornton LLC, HealthONE Ridge View Endoscopy Center LLC, HealthONE Surgicare of Ridge View LLC, HealthONE Urologic LLC, HealthONE at Breckenridge LLC, HealthONE of Denver Inc., HealthOne Heart Care LLC, HealthOne Lincoln Investment LLC, HealthOne Westside Investment LLC, HealthTrust Europe Company Limited, HealthTrust Europe LLP, HealthTrust Locums Inc., HealthTrust Workforce Solutions LLC, Healthcare Oklahoma Inc., Healthcare Purchasing Alliance LLC, Healthcare Sales National Management Services Group LLC, Healthcare Technology Assessment Corporation, Healthco LLC, Healthnet of Kentucky LLC, Healthserv Acquisition LLC, Healthtrust Inc. - The Hospital Company, Healthtrust MOB Tennessee LLC, Healthtrust Purchasing Group L.P., Healthtrust Utah Management Services Inc., Healthy State Inc., Heart Specialist of North Texas PLLC, Heart of America ASC LLC, Heart of America Surgicenter LLC, Heartcare of Texas Ltd., Hearthstone Home Health Inc., Heartland Womens Group at Wesley LLC, Heathrow Imaging LLC, Heathrow Internal Medicine LLC, Hendersonville Hospital Corporation, Hendersonville Hospitalist Services Inc., Hendersonville OB/GYN LLC, Hendersonville ODC LLC, Hendersonville Primary Care LLC, Henrico Doctors Hospital - Forest Campus Property LLC, Henrico Doctors Neurology Associates LLC, Henrico Doctors OB GYN Specialists LLC, Henrico Surgical Specialists LLC, Heritage Family Care LLC, Heritage Hospital Inc., Heritage Medical Care LLC, Hermitage Primary Care LLC, Hidalgo County Family Practitioners PLLC, Hidden Lakes Health Center PLLC, Highlands Regional Medical Center, Hip & Joint Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Homecare North Inc., Hometrust Management Services Inc., Horizon Orthopedics LLC, Horizon Surgical LLC, Hospital Corp. LLC, Hospital Corporation of America, Hospital Corporation of Lake Worth, Hospital Corporation of Tennessee, Hospital Corporation of Utah, Hospital Development Properties Inc., Hospital Partners Merger LLC, Hospital Realty Corporation, Hospital-Based CRNA Services Inc., Hospitalists at Centennial Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists at Fairview Park LLC, Hospitalists at Greenview Regional Hospital LLC, Hospitalists at Horizon Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists at Parkridge LLC, Hospitalists at StoneCrest LLC, Hospitalists at Wesley Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists of the Wabash Valley LLC, Houston - PPH LLC, Houston CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Houston Healthcare Holdings Inc., Houston NW Manager LLC, Houston Northwest Concessions L.L.C., Houston Northwest Operating Company L.L.C., Houston Northwest Surgical Partners Inc., Houston Obstetrics and Gynecology for Women PLLC, Houston Pediatric Specialty Group PLLC, Houston Urologic Surgicenter LLC, Houston Womans Hospital Partner LLC, ICU Associates of West Houston PLLC, IMX Holdings LLC, IRL Pathology Services MidAmerica LLC, Idaho Behavioral Health Services LLC, Idaho Physician Services Inc., Illinois Psychiatric Hospital Company Inc., Imaging Realty LLC, Imaging Services of Appomattox LLC, Imaging Services of Jacksonville LLC, Imaging Services of Louisiana LLC, Imaging Services of Louisiana Manager LLC, Imaging Services of Orlando LLC, Imaging Services of Richmond LLC, Imaging Services of Roanoke LLC, Imaging Services of West Boynton LLC, InVivoLink Inc., Independence Neurosurgery Services LLC, Independence Regional Medical Group LLC, Independence Surgicare Inc., Indian Path Hospital Inc., Indianapolis Hospital Partner LLC, Institute for Womens Health and Body LLC, Institute of Advanced ENT Surgery LLC, Integrated Regional Lab LLC, Integrated Regional Laboratories LLP, Integrated Regional Laboratories Pathology Services LLC, Intensive Care Consortium Inc., Internal Medicine Associates of Huntsville PLLC, Internal Medicine Associates of Southern Hills LLC, Internal Medicine of Blacksburg LLC, Internal Medicine of Pasadena PLLC, Internist Associates of Houston PLLC, Isleworth Partners Inc., J. M. Garcia M.D. PLLC, JCSH LLC, JDGC Management LLC, JFK Internal Medicine Faculty Practice LLC, JFK Medical Center Limited Partnership, JPM AA Housing LLC, Jackson County Medical Group LLC, Jackson County Pulmonary Medical Group LLC, Jacksonville CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Jacksonville Multispecialty Services LLC, Jacksonville Surgery Center Ltd., James River Internists LLC, John Randolph Family Practice LLC, John Randolph OB/GYN LLC, John Randolph Surgeons LLC, Johnson County Neurology LLC, Johnson County Surgery Center L.P., Johnson County Surgicenter L.L.C., Jordan Family Health L.L.C., Jupiter EFL Imaging Center LLC, KC Pain ASC LLC, KC Surgicare LLC, KPH-Consolidation Inc., Kansas CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Kansas City Cardiac Arrhythmia Research LLC, Kansas City Gastroenterology & Hepatology Physicians Group LLC, Kansas City Neurology Associates LLC, Kansas City Pulmonology Practice LLC, Kansas City Surgery Center Properties LLC, Kansas City Vascular & General Surgery Group LLC, Kansas City Womens Clinic Group LLC, Kansas Healthserv LLC, Kansas Pulmonary and Sleep Specialists LLC, Kansas Trauma and Critical Care Specialists LLC, Kathy L. Summers M.D. PLLC, Kendall Healthcare Group Ltd., Kendall Regional Medical Center LLC, Kendall Regional Urgent Care LLC, Kennedale Primary Care PLLC, Kingwood Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Kingwood Surgery Center LLC, Kingwood Surgicenter LLC, Kissimmee Surgicare Ltd., Kyle Primary Care PLLC, L E Corporation, LAD Imaging LLC, LGMC Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, LOC @ The Christie LLP, LOC @ The London Bridge Hospital LLP, LOC Partnership LLP, LPN TeleBehavioral Health PLLC, Lafayette OB Hospitalists LLC, Lafayette Urogynecology & Urology Center LLC, Lake City Imaging LLC, Lake City Regional Medical Group LLC, Lake Forest Family Health PLLC, Lakeside Radiology LLC, Lakeside Womens Services LLC, Lakeview Cardiology Specialists LLC, Lakeview Hospital Physician Services LLC, Lakeview Internal Medicine LLC, Lakeview Medical Center LLC, Lakeview Regional Medical Center Inpatient Services LLC, Lakeview Regional Physician Group LLC, Lakeview Urology & General Surgery LLC, Lakewood Surgicare Inc., Laredo Medco LLC, Largo Medical Center Inc., Largo Physician Group LLC, Las Colinas Primary Care PLLC, Las Colinas Surgery Center Ltd., Las Encinas Hospital, Las Palmas Del Sol Cardiology PLLC, Las Palmas Del Sol Internal Medicine PLLC, Las Palmas Del Sol Urgent Care PLLC, Las Vegas ASC LLC, Las Vegas Surgicare Inc., Las Vegas Surgicare Ltd. a Nevada Limited Partnership, Lawnwood Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, Lawnwood Healthcare Specialists LLC, Lawnwood Medical Center Inc., Layton Family Practice LLC, Leaders in Oncology Care Limited, Leadership Healthcare Holdings II L.P. L.L.P., Leadership Healthcare Holdings L.P. L.L.P., Lees Summit Family Care LLC, Leslie Cohan M.D. PLLC, Lewis-Gale Hospital Incorporated, Lewis-Gale Medical Center LLC, Lewis-Gale Physicians LLC, Lewisville Primary Care PLLC, Lewisville Surgicare LLC, Lincoln Surgery Center LLC, Live Oak Immediate Care Center LLC, London Oncology Clinic LLP, London Pathology Limited, London Radiography & Radiotherapy Services Limited, Lone Peak Hospital Inc., Lone Star Intensivists at Gulf Coast PLLC, Lonestar Provider Network, Longview Regional Physician Hospital Organization Inc., Lorain County Surgery Center Ltd., Los Gatos Surgical Center a California Limited Partnership, Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Los Robles Regional Medical Center MOB LLC, Los Robles SurgiCenter LLC, Loudoun Surgery Center LLC, Louisiana Psychiatric Company Inc., Loveland Surgicenter LLC, Low Country Health Services Inc. of the Southeast, Lowry Surgicenter LLC, M. Jamshidi D.O. PLLC, MCA Investment Company, MCA-CTMC Holdings LLC, MEC Endoscopy LLC, MFA G.P. LLC, MFM Fact PLLC, MGH Medical Inc., MH Anesthesiology Physicians LLC, MH Angel Medical Center LLLP, MH Asheville Specialty Hospital LLC, MH Blue Ridge Medical Center LLLP, MH Eckerd Living Center LLLP, MH Highlands-Cashiers Medical Center LLLP, MH Hospital Holdings Inc., MH Hospital Manager LLC, MH Master Holdings LLLP, MH Master LLC, MH McDowell Imaging LLLP, MH Mission Hospital LLLP, MH Mission Hospital McDowell LLLP, MH Mission Imaging LLLP, MH Physician Services LLC, MH Transylvania Imaging LLLP, MH Transylvania Regional Hospital LLLP, MHS Partnership Holdings JSC Inc., MHS Partnership Holdings SDS Inc., MHS SC Partner L.L.C., MHS Surgery Centers L.P., MMC Sleep Lab Management LLC, MOSC Sports Medicine Inc., MOVCO Inc., MP Management LLC, MRT&C Inc., MSL Acquisition LLC, MVH Professional Services LLC, Macon Healthcare LLC, Macon Northside Health Group LLC, Macon Northside Hospital LLC, Macon Psychiatric Hospitalists LLC, Madison Behavioral Health LLC, Mainland Family Medicine PLLC, Mainland Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Mainland Primary Care Physicians PLLC, Management Services Holdings Inc., Manatee Surgicare Ltd., Marietta Outpatient Medical Building Inc., Marietta Outpatient Surgery Ltd., Marietta Surgical Center Inc., Marion Community Hospital Inc., Mark Gottesman M.D. PLLC, Martin Fletcher & Associates L.P., Martin Fletcher Associates Holdings Inc., Mary Alice Cowan M.D. PLLC, Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists of Corpus Christi PLLC, Maternal Fetal Services of Utah LLC, Maury County Behavioral Health LLC, Mayhill Cancer Center LLC, McAllen Comprehensive Upper Extremity Center PLLC, McKinney Surgeons PLLC, Mechanicsville Imaging LLC, Mecklenburg Surgical Land Development Ltd., Med City Dallas Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Med Corp. Inc., Med Group - Southern Hills Hospitalists LLC, Med-Center Hosp./Houston Inc., Med-Point of New Hampshire Inc., Medi Flight of Oklahoma LLC, MediCredit Inc., MediPurchase Inc., MediStone Healthcare Ventures Inc., MediVision Inc., MediVision of Mecklenburg County Inc., MediVision of Tampa Inc., Medical Arts Hospital of Texarkana Inc., Medical Associates of Ocala LLC, Medical Care America Colorado LLC, Medical Care America LLC, Medical Care Financial Services Corp., Medical Care Real Estate Finance Inc., Medical Care Surgery Center Inc., Medical Center - West Inc., Medical Center Imaging Inc., Medical Center Surgery Associates L.P., Medical Center of Baton Rouge Inc., Medical Center of Plano Partner LLC, Medical Center of Port St. Lucie Inc., Medical Center of Santa Rosa Inc., Medical Center of Southwest Florida LLC, Medical Centers of Oklahoma LLC, Medical City Dallas Hospital Inc., Medical City Dallas Partner LLC, Medical City Dallas Primary Care PLLC, Medical City Frisco, Medical City OB-GYN PLLC, Medical City Pediatrics PLLC, Medical City Specialty Surgicenter of Dallas LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Alliance LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Frisco LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Lewisville LLC, Medical City Transplant PLLC, Medical Corporation of America, Medical Group - Dickson Inc., Medical Group - Southern Hills of Brentwood LLC, Medical Group - Southern Hills of Nolensville LLC, Medical Group - StoneCrest FP Inc., Medical Group - StoneCrest Inc., Medical Group - Stonecrest Pulmonology LLC, Medical Group - Summit Inc., Medical Imaging Inc., Medical Imaging of Colorado LLC, Medical Office Buildings of Kansas LLC, Medical Oncology Associates LLC, Medical Partners of North Florida LLC, Medical Plaza Ambulatory Surgery Center Associates L.P., Medical Specialties Inc., Memorial Family Practice Associates LLC, Memorial Health Primary Care at St. Johns Bluff LLC, Memorial Healthcare Group Inc., Memorial Neurosurgery Group LLC, Memorial Satilla Specialists LLC, Memorial University Medical Center, Menorah Medical Group LLC, Menorah Urgent Care LLC, Mercy ASC LLC, Metairie Primary Care Associates LLC, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center of Boerne LLC, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center of Landmark LLC, Methodist Cardiology Physicians, Methodist CareNow Physician Associates, Methodist CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Methodist Healthcare System of San Antonio Ltd. L.L.P., Methodist Inpatient Management Group, Methodist Medical Center ASC L.P., Methodist Physician Alliance, Methodist Physician Practice Services LLC, Methodist Physician Practices PLLC, Metroplex Surgicenters Inc., Metropolitan Multispecialty Physicians Group Inc., Miami Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Miami Beach Healthcare Group Ltd., Miami Dade Surgical Specialists LLC, Miami Lakes Surgery Center Ltd., Miami-Dade Cardiology Consultants LLC, Michael Mann M.D. PLLC, Mid-America Surgery Center LLC, Mid-America Surgery Institute LLC, Mid-Cities Surgi-Center Inc., Mid-Continent Health Services Inc., MidAmerica Division Inc., MidAmerica Oncology LLC, Middle Georgia Hospital LLC, Middle Georgia Urgent Care Services LLC, Middle Tennessee Neurology LLC, Midtown Diagnostics LLC, Midwest Cardiology Specialists LLC, Midwest Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery LLC, Midwest Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Kansas LLC, Midwest Division - ACH LLC, Midwest Division - CMC LLC, Midwest Division - LRHC LLC, Midwest Division - LSH LLC, Midwest Division - MCI LLC, Midwest Division - MMC LLC, Midwest Division - OPRMC LLC, Midwest Division - RBH LLC, Midwest Division - RMC LLC, Midwest Division Spine Care LLC, Midwest Doctors Group LLC, Midwest Heart & Vascular Specialists LLC, Midwest Holdings Inc., Midwest Infectious Disease Specialists LLC, Midwest Medicine Associates LLC, Midwest Metropolitan Physicians Group LLC, Midwest Oncology Associates LLC, Midwest Trauma Services LLC, Midwest Womens Healthcare Specialists LLC, Mikrod Services Inc., Mill Creek Outpatient Services LLC, Millenium Health Care of Oklahoma Inc., Mission Bay Memorial Hospital Inc., Mission Community Anesthesiology Specialists LLC, Mission Employer Solutions LLC, Mission Health, Mission Health Partners Inc., Missouri Healthcare System L.P., Mobile Corps. Inc., Mobile Heartbeat, Mobile Heartbeat LLC, Montgomery Cancer Center LLC, Montgomery Hospitalists LLC, Montgomery Regional Hospital Inc., Montgomery Surgery Associates LLC, Mountain Division - CVH LLC, Mountain Division Inc., Mountain View Hospital Inc., Mountain View MRI Associates Ltd., Mountain West Surgery Center LLC, MountainStar Behavioral Health LLC, MountainStar Brigham General Surgery LLC, MountainStar Canyon Surgical Clinic LLC, MountainStar Cardiology Ogden Regional LLC, MountainStar Cardiology St. Marks LLC, MountainStar Intensivist Services LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - Cache Valley LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - Ogden Regional Medical Center LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - St. Marks Hospital LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Neurosurgery-St. Marks LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Timpanogos Primary Care LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Timpanogos Specialty Care LLC, MountainStar Specialty Services LLC, MountainStar Urgent Care LLC, MountainView GME Primary Care LLC, Mountainstar Brigham OBGYN LLC, Mountainstar Cardiovascular Services LLC, Mountainstar Ogden Pediatrics LLC, Movement Disorders of North Texas PLLC, Mt. Ogden Utah Surgical Center LLC, NPAS Inc., NPAS Solutions LLC, NT Urgent Care PLLC, NTGP LLC, NTMC Management Company, NTMC Venture Inc., NTX Pathology Program PLLC, Nashville Psychiatric Company Inc., Nashville Shared Services General Partnership, Nashville Surgicenter LLC, Natchez Medical Associates LLC, Natchez Surgery Center LLC, National Association of Senior Friends, National Contact Center Management Group LLC, National Patient Account Services Inc., National Transfer Center Management Services LLC, Navarro Memorial Hospital Inc., NeighborMD Management LLC, Network MS of Florida Inc., Network Management Services Inc., Neuro Affiliates Company, Neuro-Hospitalist of Clear Lake PLLC, NeuroHospitalist of McAllen PLLC, Neurological Eye Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Neurological Specialists PLLC, Neurological Specialists of McKinney PLLC, Neurology Associates of Hendersonville LLC, Neurology Associates of Kansas LLC, Neurosurgery Atlanta LLC, Neurosurgery of Kingwood PLLC, Neurosurgical Associates of North Texas PLLC, Neurosurgical Specialists of El Paso PLLC, Neurosurgical Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Nevada Surgery Center of Southern Hills L.P., Nevada Surgicare of Southern Hills LLC, Nevada Urgent Care Holdings Inc., New Iberia Healthcare LLC, New Iberia Holdings Inc., New Port Richey Hospital Inc., New Port Richey Surgery Center Ltd., New Rose Holding Company Inc., Niceville Family Practice LLC, North Augusta Imaging Management LLC, North Augusta Imaging Services LLC, North Augusta Rehab Health Center LLC, North Austin Plastic Surgery Associates PLLC, North Austin Surgery Center L.P., North Brandon Imaging LLC, North Central Florida Health System Inc., North Central Methodist ASC L.P., North Charleston Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Lake City LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Live Oak LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Tallahassee LLC, North Florida Division I Inc., North Florida Division Practice Inc., North Florida GI Center GP Inc., North Florida GI Center Ltd., North Florida Immediate Care Center Inc., North Florida Neurosurgery LLC, North Florida Outpatient Imaging Center Ltd., North Florida Physician Services Inc., North Florida Physicians LLC, North Florida Radiation Oncology LLC, North Florida Regional Company Care LLC, North Florida Regional Freestanding Surgery Center L.P., North Florida Regional Investments Inc., North Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., North Florida Regional Psychiatry LLC, North Florida Regional Trauma LLC, North Florida Rehab Investments LLC, North Florida Surgical Associates LLC, North Georgia Primary Care Group LLC, North Hills Cardiac Catheterization Center L.P., North Hills Catheterization Lab LLC, North Hills Orthopaedic Surgeons PLLC, North Hills Surgicare L.P., North Houston - TRMC LLC, North Miami Beach Surgery Center Limited Partnership, North Miami Beach Surgical Center LLC, North Palm Beach County Surgery Center LLC, North River Physician Network LLC, North Shore Specialists of Texas PLLC, North Suburban Spine Center L.P., North Tampa Imaging LLC, North Texas - MCA LLC, North Texas Cardiology PLLC, North Texas Craniofacial Fellowship Program PLLC, North Texas Division Inc., North Texas General L.P., North Texas Geriatrics PLLC, North Texas Heart Surgery Center PLLC, North Texas Internal Medicine Specialists PLLC, North Texas Medical Center Inc., North Texas Neuro Stroke OP PLLC, North Texas Pulmonary Critical Care PLLC, North Texas Sports and Orthopedics Center PLLC, North Texas Stroke Center PLLC, North Texas of Hope PLLC, North Transfer Center LLC, Northeast Florida Cancer Services LLC, Northeast Methodist Surgicare Ltd., Northeast PHO Inc., Northern Utah Healthcare Corporation, Northern Utah Healthcare Imaging Holdco LLC, Northern Utah Imaging LLC, Northern Virginia CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Northern Virginia Community Hospital LLC, Northern Virginia Hospital Corporation, Northern Virginia Surgicenter LLC, Northlake Medical Center LLC, Northlake Physician Practice Network Inc., Northlake Surgical Center L.P., Northlake Surgicare Inc., Northside MRI Inc., Northwest Fla. Home Health Agency Inc., Northwest Florida Healthcare Systems Inc., Northwest Florida Multispecialty Physicians LLC, Northwest Florida Primary Care LLC, Northwest Medical Center Inc., Notami (Opelousas) Inc., Notami Hospitals LLC, Notami Hospitals of Florida Inc., Notami Hospitals of Louisiana Inc., Notami Hospitals of Missouri Inc., Notami LLC, Notco LLC, Nuclear Diagnosis Inc., OB Hospitalists of Womans Hospital PLLC, OB/GYN of Brownsville PLLC, OB/Gyn Associates of Denton PLLC, OBS Diagnostic and Treatment Centre LLP, ODP Holdings LLC, ODP Manager LLC, ODP Properties LLC, OHH Imaging Services LLC, OPRMC-HBP LLC, Oak Hill Acquisition Inc., Oak Hill Family Care LLC, Oak Hill Hospitalists LLC, Oakwood Surgery Center Ltd. LLP, Ocala Health Company Care LLC, Ocala Health Imaging Services LLC, Ocala Health Primary Care LLC, Ocala Health Surgical Group LLC, Ocala Health Trauma LLC, Ocala Regional Outpatient Services Inc., Ocala Stereotactic Radiosurgery LLC, Ocala Stereotactic Radiosurgery Partner LLC, Occupational Health Services of PRH LLC, Occupational and Family Medicine of South Texas, Ogden Imaging LLC, Ogden Internal Medicine & Urology LLC, Ogden Regional Health Plan Inc., Ogden Regional Medical Center Professional Billing LLC, Ogden Senior Center LLC, Ogden Tomotherapy LLC, Ogden Tomotherapy Manager LLC, Okaloosa Hospital Inc., Okeechobee Hospital Inc., Oklahoma Holding Company LLC, Oklahoma Outpatient Surgery Limited Partnership, Oklahoma Physicians - Medical Specialties LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Primary Care LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Surgical Specialties LLC, Oklahoma Surgicare Inc., Old Fort Village LLC, On-Site Primary Care PLLC, Oncology Services of Corpus Christi LLC, Oncology Services of Corpus Christi Manager LLC, OneSourceMed Inc., Online Pathology Services Limited, Orange County Healthcare LLC, Orange Park Hospitalists LLC, Orange Park Medical Center Inc., Orlando CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Orlando Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Orlando Outpatient Surgical Center Ltd., Orlando Surgicare Ltd., Orthopaedic Specialty Associates L.P., Orthopaedic Sports Specialty Associates Inc., Orthopedic Hospital Ltd., Orthopedics Specialists LLC, Osceola Neurological Associates LLC, Osceola Physician Network LLC, Osceola Regional Hospital Inc., Osceola Regional Hospitalists LLC, Osceola Surgical Associates LLC, Outpatient Cardiovascular Center of Central Florida LLC, Outpatient GP LLC, Outpatient Services - LAD LLC, Outpatient Services Holdings Inc., Outpatient Surgical Services Ltd., Outpatient Womens and Childrens Surgery Center Ltd., Overland Park Cardiovascular Inc., Overland Park Medical Specialists LLC, Overland Park Orthopedics LLC, Overland Park Surgical Specialties LLC, Oviedo Medical Center LLC, Ozarks Medical Services Inc., P&L Associates, P/SL Hyperbaric Partnership, PET CT LLP, PMM Inc., POH Holdings LLC, PSG Delegated Services LLC, PTS Solutions LLC, Pacific Partners Management Services Inc., Palm Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Palm Beach General Surgery LLC, Palm Beach Healthcare System Inc., Palm Beach Hospitalists Program LLC, Palmer Medical Center LLC, Palms West Gastroenterology LLC, Palms West Hospital Limited Partnership, Palms West Surgery Center Ltd., Paragon Physicians Hospital Organization of South Texas Inc., Paragon SDS Inc., Paragon Surgery Centers of Texas Inc., Paragon WSC Inc., Paragon of Texas Health Properties Inc., Parallon Business Solutions LLC, Parallon Enterprises LLC, Parallon Health Information Solutions LLC, Parallon Holdings LLC, Parallon Payroll Solutions LLC, Parallon Physician Services LLC, Parallon Revenue Cycle Services Inc., Park Central Surgical Center Ltd., Park Ridge Surgery Center LLC, Park South Imaging Center Ltd., Park View Insurance Company, Parkersburg SJ Holdings Inc., Parkland Hospitalists Program LLC, Parkland Oncology LLC, Parkland Physician Services Inc., Parkridge East Specialty Associates LLC, Parkridge Hospitalists Inc., Parkridge Medical Associates LLC, Parkridge Medical Center Inc., Parkridge Professionals Inc., Parkside Surgery Center Inc., Parkway Cardiac Center Ltd., Parkway Hospital Inc., Parkway Surgery Services Ltd., Parthenon Insurance Company Limited, Pasadena Bayshore Hospital Inc., PatientKeeper, PatientKeeper Inc., Patients First Neurology LLC, Pavilion 2 Condominium Property LLC, Pavilion 2 Medical Office Building Condominium Association Inc., Pavilion Surgicenter LLC, Peach State Anesthesia Partners LLC, Pearland Institute for Womens Health PLLC, Pearland Partner LLC, Pediatric Anesthesia Consultants of San Antonio PLLC, Pediatric Cardiac Intensivists of North Texas PLLC, Pediatric Critical Care of Clear Lake PLLC, Pediatric Hospitalists of Conroe PLLC, Pediatric Intensivist Group LLC, Pediatric Intensivists of El Paso PLLC, Pediatric Intensivists of North Texas PLLC, Pediatric Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Pediatric Specialty Clinic LLC, Pediatric Surgicare Inc., Pediatrics of Greater Houston PLLC, Pensacola Primary Care Inc., Physician Associates of Corporate Woods LLC, Physicians Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Physicians West Surgicenter LLC, Pinellas Medical LLC, Pinnacle Physician Network LLC, Pioneer Medical LLC, Plains Healthcare System Inc., Plano Ambulatory Surgery Associates L.P., Plano Heart Institute L.P., Plano Heart Management LLC, Plano Surgery Center - GP LLC, Plano Surgery Center Real Estate LLC, Plano Surgicenter Real Estate Manager LLC, Plano Urology PLLC, Plantation General Hospital L.P., Plaza Medical Specialists PLLC, Plaza Primary Care PLLC, Plaza Transplant Center PLLC, Podiatry of Clear Lake PLLC, Poinciana Medical Center Inc., Port St. Lucie Surgery Center Ltd., Portland Primary Care LLC, Portsmouth Regional Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Portsmouth Surgicenter LLC, Preferred Hospitals Inc., Preferred Works WC LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Medical Management Ltd., Primary Care Medical Associates Inc., Primary Care Plano PLLC, Primary Care Services of Orlando LLC, Primary Care South PLLC, Primary Care West PLLC, Primary Care of West End LLC, Primary Health Asset Holdings Ltd., Primary Health Group Inc., Primary Health Inc., Primary Health Network of South Texas, Primary Health Physicians PLLC, Primary Medical Management Inc., Proaxis Therapy HealthOne LLC, Provident Professional Building Condominium Association Inc., Psychiatry Services of Osceola LLC, Pulaski Community Hospital Inc., Pulaski Urology LLC, Pulmonary Renal Intensivist Group LLC, Putnam Community Medical Center of North Florida LLC, Putnam Hospital Inc., Putnam Radiation Oncology LLC, Putnam Radiation Oncology Manager LLC, Putnam Surgical Group LLC, Quantum/Bellaire Imaging Ltd., Quick Care Centers LLC, Quivira Internal Medicine Inc., RCH LLC, RMC - Pulmonary LLC, RMC Transplant Physicians LLC, RMCA Professionals Mgmt LLC, ROi CPS LLC, Radford Family Medicine LLC, Radiation Oncology Center of Thornton LLC, Radiation Oncology Manager LLC, Raleigh Community Medical Office Building Ltd., Rapides After Hours Clinic L.L.C., Rapides Healthcare System L.L.C., Rapides Regional Physician Group LLC, Rapides Regional Physician Group Primary Care LLC, Rapides Regional Physician Group Specialty Care LLC, Rapides Surgery Center LLC, Raulerson GYN LLC, Raulerson Gastroenterology LLC, Raulerson Primary Care LLC, Raymore Medical Group LLC, Red Rock Holdco LLC, Red Rock at Smoke Ranch LLC, Red Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Anesthesia Services LLC, Redmond Hospital Services LLC, Redmond Neurosurgery LLC, Redmond Park Health Services Inc., Redmond Park Hospital LLC, Redmond Physician Practice Company, Redmond Specialty Services LLC, Regional Hospital Healthcare Partners LLC, Research Cardiology Associates LLC, Research Family Physicians LLC, Research Internal Medicine LLC, Research Neurology Associates LLC, Research Neuroscience Institute LLC, Resource Optimization & Innovation L.L.C., Reston Hospital Center LLC, Reston Hospitalists LLC, Reston Surgery Center L.P., Retreat Cardiology LLC, Retreat Hospital LLC, Retreat Internal Medicine LLC, Retreat Surgical Associates LLC, Rhodes Limited-Liability Company, Richmond Imaging Employer Corp., Richmond Multi-Specialty LLC, Richmond Pediatric Surgeons LLC, Ridgeline Surgicenter LLC, Rim Building Partners L.P., Rio Grande Healthcare MSO Inc., Rio Grande NP Inc., Rio Grande Regional Hospital Inc., Rio Grande Valley Cardiology PLLC, Rio Grande Valley CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Rio Grande Valley Urology PLLC, Riverside CyberKnife Manager LLC, Riverside Healthcare System L.P., Riverside Holdings Inc., Riverside Hospital Inc., Riverside Imaging LLC, Riverwalk ASC LLC, Roanoke Imaging LLC, Roanoke Neurosurgery LLC, Roanoke Surgery Center L.P., Roanoke Valley Gynecology LLC, Robotic Radiosurgery LLP, Rocky Mountain Pediatric Hematology Oncology LLC, Rocky Mountain Surgery Center LLC, Rome Imaging Center Limited Partnership, Roodlane Medical Limited, Rose Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Rose Health Partners LLC, Rose Medical Plaza Ltd., Rose POB Inc., Rosewood Medical Center Inc., Rosewood Professional Building Ltd., Round Rock Hospital Inc., Round Rock Trauma Surgeons PLLC, Royal Oaks Surgery Center L.P., S.A. Medical Center Inc., SAPN LLC, SCRI Global Services Limited, SCRI Holdings LLC, SCRI Scientifics LLC, SJMC LLC, SSHR Holdco LLC, SSJ St. Petersburg Holdings Inc., STPN Manager LLC, SWMC Inc., Sahara Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Salem Hospitalists LLC, Salem Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Salt Lake City Surgicare Inc., Samaritan LLC, San Antonio Division Inc., San Antonio Regional Hospital Inc., San Antonio Surgicenter LLC, San Bernardino Imaging LLC, San Joaquin Surgical Center Inc., San Jose Healthcare System LP, San Jose Hospital L.P., San Jose LLC, San Jose Medical Center LLC, San Jose Pathology Outreach LLC, San Marcos ASC LLC, San Marcos Surgicenter LLC, Sante Fe Family Practitioners PLLC, Sarah Cannon Development Innovations LLC, Sarah Cannon Research Institute LLC, Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK Limited, Sarasota Doctors Hospital Inc., Savannah Behavioral Health Associates LLC, Savannah Health Network LLC, Savannah Health Services LLC, Savannah Inpatient Services LLC, Savannah Multispecialty Associates LLC, Savannah Pediatric Care LLC, Savannah Primary Care Associates LLC, Sebring Health Services LLC, Selma Medical Center Hospital Inc., Senior Health Associates LLC, Short Pump Imaging LLC, Silicon Valley Health Holdings LLC, Silicon Valley Surgery Center L.P., Silicon Valley Surgicenter LLC, Sky Ridge Spine Manager LLC, Sky Ridge Surgery Center L.P., Skyline Medical Group LLC, Skyline Neuroscience Associates LLC, Skyline Rehab Associates LLC, Skyline Specialty Associates LLC, Smith Laboratories Inc., Solis Mammography at Bayshore Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Conroe Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Denton Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at HCA Houston Tomball LLC, Solis Mammography at Kingwood Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Las Colinas Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center Alliance LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center Arlington LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of Lewisville LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of McKinney LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of Plano LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical City Dallas LLC, Solis Mammography at Pearland Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Rose Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Skyline Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at StoneCrest Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at West Houston Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Womans Hospital of Texas LLC, Solis Mammography of Cedar Hill LLC, Solis Mammography of CyFair LLC, Solis Mammography of Dallas LLC, Solis Mammography of Flower Mound LLC, Solis Mammography of Frisco LLC, Solis Mammography of Garland LLC, Solis Mammography of Grand Prairie LLC, Solis Mammography of Houston NW LLC, Solis Mammography of Katy LLC, Solis Mammography of Louetta/249 LLC, Solis Mammography of Mainland LLC, Solis Mammography of Mansfield LLC, Solis Mammography of Mesquite LLC, Solis Mammography of Montgomery LLC, Solis Mammography of North Cypress LLC, Solis Mammography of North Loop LLC, Solis Mammography of Sugar Land LLC, Solis Mammography of West Plano LLC, Solis Mammography of Womans Place LLC, South Atlantic Division Inc., South Austin Surgery Center Ltd., South Austin Surgical Management LLC, South Austin Surgicenter LLC, South Brandon Imaging LLC, South Florida Division Practice Inc., South Texas Surgicare Inc., South Transfer Center LLC, South Valley Hospital L.P., Southeast Georgia Health Services LLC, Southern Hills Medical Center LLC, Southern Hills Neurology Consultants LLC, Southern Kentucky Medicine Associates LLC, Southern Kentucky Surgicenter LLC, Southern Texas Physicians Network, Southpoint LLC, Southtown Womens Clinic LLC, Southwest Florida Health System Inc., Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., Southwest Medical Center Family Practice LLC, Southwest Medical Center Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Southwest Medical Center Surgical Group LLC, Southwest Medpro Ltd., Southwest Surgical Clinic Inc., Southwest Virginia Orthopedics and Spine LLC, Spalding Rehabilitation L.L.C., Specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology PLLC, Specialty Associates of West Houston PLLC, Specialty Physicians of Northern Virginia LLC, Specialty Surgicare of Las Vegas LP, Spotsylvania Condominium Property LLC, Spotsylvania Medical Center Inc., Spotsylvania Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Spotsylvania Regional Surgery Center LLC, Spring Branch Family Practitioners PLLC, Spring Branch Medical Center Inc., Spring Hill Hospital Inc., Spring Hill Imaging LLC, Spring Hill Physicians LLC, Springview KY LLC, Spruce Pine Healthcare LLC, St. Davids Austin Area ASC LLC, St. Davids Cardiology PLLC, St. Davids CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, St. Davids Healthcare Partnership L.P. LLP, St. Davids Heart & Vascular PLLC, St. Davids Neurology PLLC, St. Davids OB Hospitalist PLLC, St. Davids Ortho Neuro and Rehab PLLC, St. Davids Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation PLLC, St. Davids Quality Alliance LLC, St. Davids Specialized Womens Services PLLC, St. Davids Trauma Surgeons PLLC, St. Lucie Hospitalists LLC, St. Lucie Medical Center Hyperbarics LLC, St. Lucie Medical Center Walk-In Clinic LLC, St. Lucie Medical Specialists LLC, St. Lucie West Primary Care LLC, St. Marks Ambulatory Surgery Associates L.P., St. Marks Gynecology Oncology Care LLC, St. Marks Investments Inc., St. Marks Physician Billing LLC, St. Marks Professional Services LLC, St. Marks South Jordan Family Practice LLC, St. Martins Healthcare Limited, St. Martins Ltd., St. Martins Medical Services Limited, St. Petersburg General Surgery LLC, Stafford Imaging LLC, Statland Medical Group LLC, Steamboat Springs Surgicenter LLC, Sterling Primary Care Associates LLC, Stiles Road Imaging LLC, StoneCrest Surgery Center LLC, StoneSprings Medical Office Building Property LLC, StoneSprings Surgicenter LLC, Stonecrest Medical Group - Family Practice of Murfreesboro LLC, Stonecrest Medical Group - SC Murfreesboro Family Practice LLC, Stones River Hospital LLC, Suburban Medical Center at Hoffman Estates Inc., Sugar Land Surgery Center Anesthesia LLC, Sugar Land Surgery Center Ltd., Sullins Surgical Center Inc., Summit Convenient Care at Lebanon LLC, Summit General Partner Inc., Summit Heart LLC, Summit Outpatient Diagnostic Center LLC, Summit Research Solutions LLC, Summit Surgery Center L.P., Summit Surgical Associates LLC, Summit Walk-in Clinic LLC, Sun Bay Medical Office Building Inc., Sun City Hospital Inc., Sun City Imaging LLC, Sun Towers/Vista Hills Holding Co., Sun-Med LLC, Sunrise Flamingo Holdings LLC, Sunrise Flamingo Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center LLC, Sunrise Mountainview Hospital Inc., Sunrise Mountainview Multi-Specialty Clinics LLC, Sunrise Outpatient Services Inc., Sunrise Physician Services LLC, Sunrise Trauma Services LLC, Surgery Associates of NTX PLLC, Surgery Center of Atlantis LLC, Surgery Center of Aventura Ltd., Surgery Center of Bay Area Houston LLC, Surgery Center of Greenview L.P., Surgery Center of Independence L.P., Surgery Center of Overland Park L.P., Surgery Center of Port Charlotte Ltd., Surgery Center of Rome L.P., Surgery Center of the Rockies LLC, Surgical Associates of Southwest Virginia LLC, Surgical Care Medical Group LLC, Surgical Center of Irving Inc., Surgical Facility of West Houston L.P., Surgical Park Center Ltd., Surgical Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Surgical Specialists of Conroe PLLC, Surgical Specialists of Corpus Christi PLLC, Surgicare America - Winter Park Inc., Surgicare Merger Company of Louisiana, Surgicare Outpatient Center of Baton Rouge Inc., Surgicare Outpatient Center of Jackson Inc., Surgicare of ADC LLC, Surgicare of AGI LLC, Surgicare of Alpine LLC, Surgicare of Altamonte Springs Inc., Surgicare of Anchorage LLC, Surgicare of Arapahoe LLC, Surgicare of Arlington LLC, Surgicare of Ashburn LLC, Surgicare of Augusta Inc., Surgicare of Aurora Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Aventura LLC, Surgicare of Bay Area Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Bay Area LLC, Surgicare of Bayonet Point Inc., Surgicare of Bayside LLC, Surgicare of Bountiful LLC, Surgicare of Brandon Inc., Surgicare of Brentwood LLC, Surgicare of Brighton LLC, Surgicare of Brooksville LLC, Surgicare of Brownsville LLC, Surgicare of Buckhead LLC, Surgicare of CAREOS LLC, Surgicare of Central Florida Inc., Surgicare of Central Park Surgery Center LLC, Surgicare of Central San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Chattanooga LLC, Surgicare of Chippenham LLC, Surgicare of Citrus LLC, Surgicare of Clarksville LLC, Surgicare of Corpus Christi LLC, Surgicare of Countryside Inc., Surgicare of Dallas Specialty LLC, Surgicare of Denton Inc., Surgicare of Denver Clinic LLC, Surgicare of Denver LLC, Surgicare of Denver Mid-Town Inc., Surgicare of Dickson LLC, Surgicare of Eastside LLC, Surgicare of Evans Inc., Surgicare of Fairfax Inc., Surgicare of Florida Inc., Surgicare of Flower Mound Inc., Surgicare of Focus Hand LLC, Surgicare of Fort Worth Co-GP LLC, Surgicare of Fort Worth Inc., Surgicare of Ft. Pierce Inc., Surgicare of Good Samaritan LLC, Surgicare of Gramercy Inc., Surgicare of Greenview Inc., Surgicare of Hanover Inc., Surgicare of Houston Kingwood LLC, Surgicare of Houston LLC, Surgicare of Houston Womens Inc., Surgicare of Indianapolis Inc., Surgicare of Kansas City LLC, Surgicare of Kingwood LLC, Surgicare of Kissimmee Inc., Surgicare of Lakeview Inc., Surgicare of Las Vegas Inc., Surgicare of Laurel Grove LLC, Surgicare of Lorain County Inc., Surgicare of Los Gatos Inc., Surgicare of Los Robles LLC, Surgicare of Loveland LLC, Surgicare of Madison Inc., Surgicare of Manatee Inc., Surgicare of McKinney Inc., Surgicare of Medical City Dallas LLC, Surgicare of Memorial Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Merritt Island Inc., Surgicare of Miami Lakes LLC, Surgicare of Mountain West LLC, Surgicare of Mt. Ogden LLC, Surgicare of Nashville LLC, Surgicare of Natchez LLC, Surgicare of Newport Richey Inc., Surgicare of North Austin LLC, Surgicare of North San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Northeast San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Orange Park II LLC, Surgicare of Orange Park Inc., Surgicare of Orange Park Ltd., Surgicare of Orlando Inc., Surgicare of Overland Park LLC, Surgicare of Palms West LLC, Surgicare of Park Ridge LLC, Surgicare of Pasadena Inc., Surgicare of Pavilion LLC, Surgicare of Physicians West El Paso LLC, Surgicare of Pinellas Inc., Surgicare of Plano Inc., Surgicare of Plantation Inc., Surgicare of Port Charlotte LLC, Surgicare of Port St. Lucie Inc., Surgicare of Portsmouth LLC, Surgicare of Premier Orthopaedic LLC, Surgicare of Reston Inc., Surgicare of Ridgeline LLC, Surgicare of Riverside LLC, Surgicare of Riverwalk LLC, Surgicare of Roanoke LLC, Surgicare of Rome Inc., Surgicare of Rose LLC, Surgicare of Round Rock Inc., Surgicare of Royal Oaks LLC, Surgicare of Silicon Valley LLC, Surgicare of Sky Ridge LLC, Surgicare of Sky Ridge Womens Center LLC, Surgicare of South Austin Inc., Surgicare of Southeast Denver Inc., Surgicare of Southern Hills Inc., Surgicare of Southern Kentucky LLC, Surgicare of Southwest Houston LLC, Surgicare of Spotsylvania LLC, Surgicare of St. Andrews Inc., Surgicare of St. Andrews Ltd., Surgicare of St. Davids Austin LLC, Surgicare of Steamboat Springs LLC, Surgicare of StoneCrest LLC, Surgicare of StoneSprings LLC, Surgicare of Stuart Inc., Surgicare of Sugar Land Inc., Surgicare of Swedish LLC, Surgicare of Tallahassee Inc., Surgicare of Terre Haute LLC, Surgicare of Thornton LLC, Surgicare of Travis Center Inc., Surgicare of Tulsa Inc., Surgicare of Utah LLC, Surgicare of Wasatch Front LLC, Surgicare of West Hills Inc., Surgicare of Westlake Inc., Surgicare of Wichita Inc., Surgicare of Wichita LLC, Surgicare of Willis LLC, Surgicare of Wilson County LLC, Surgicare of Winchester LLC, Surgicenter of East Jefferson Inc., Surgicenter of Johnson County Ltd. a Kansas limited partnership, Surgicenter of Kansas City L.L.C., Surgico LLC, Swedish MOB Acquisition Inc., Swedish MOB I Ltd., Swedish MOB II Inc., Swedish MOB III Inc., Swedish MOB IV Inc., Swedish MOB LLC, Swedish Medpro Inc., TBHI Outpatient Services LLC, TCMC Madison-Portland Inc., THN Physicians Association Inc., TUHC Anesthesiology Group LLC, TUHC Hospitalist Group LLC, TUHC Physician Group LLC, TUHC Primary Care and Pediatrics Group LLC, TUHC Radiology Group LLC, Tallahassee Community Network Inc., Tallahassee Medical Center Inc., Tallahassee Orthopaedic Surgery Partners Ltd., Tampa Bay Health System Inc., Tampa Surgi-Centre Inc., Tarrant County Surgery Center L.P., Tchefuncte Cardiology Associates - Lakeview LLC, Teays Valley Health Services LLC, Telehealth Physician Services LLC, Tennessee Healthcare Management Inc., Tennessee Valley Outpatient Diagnostic Center LLC, Terre Haute Hospital GP Inc., Terre Haute Hospital Holdings Inc., Terre Haute MOB L.P., Terre Haute Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Terre Haute Regional Hospital L.P., Texas CareNow Physician Associates, Texas HSS LLC, Texas Institute of Medicine and Surgery, Texas Psychiatric Company Inc., The Austin Diagnostic Clinic PLLC, The Cancer Care Center of North Florida LLC, The Cardiovascular Partnership for Quality LLC, The Charter Cypress Behavioral Health System L.L.C., The Christie Clinic LLP, The Glynne Medical Practice Limited, The Harley Street Cancer Clinic Limited, The London Breast Institute UK Ltd, The Medical Group of Kansas City LLC, The Neurohealth Sciences Center LLC, The Physicians Clinic Limited, The Prostate Centre Limited, The Rankin Foundation, The Regional Health System of Acadiana LLC, The Wasatch Endoscopy Center Ltd., The West Texas Division of Columbia Inc., Timpanogos Pain Specialists LLC, Timpanogos Regional Medical Services Inc., Total Imaging - Hudson LLC, Total Imaging - North St. Petersburg LLC, Total Imaging - Parsons LLC, Town Plaza Family Practice LLC, Travel Medicine and Infections LLC, Travis Surgery Center L.P., Tri Cities Health Services Corp., Tri-City Multi-Specialty LLC, Tri-County Community Hospital Inc., Tri-County Surgical Specialists LLC, TriStar Bone Marrow Transplant LLC, TriStar Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, TriStar Family Care LLC, TriStar Gynecology Oncology LLC, TriStar Health System Inc., TriStar Joint Replacement Institute LLC, TriStar Maury Behavioral Healthcare LLC, TriStar Medical Group - Centennial Primary Care LLC, TriStar Medical Group - Legacy Health LLC, TriStar Medical Network LLC, TriStar OB/GYN LLC, TriStar Orthopedics LLC, TriStar Physicians LLC, TriStar Radiation Oncology LLC, Trident Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Trident Behavioral Health Services LLC, Trident Eye Surgery Center L.P., Trident Medical Center LLC, Trident Medical Services Inc., Trident Neonatology Services LLC, Tulane Clinic LLC, Tulane Professionals Management L.L.C., Tuscan Imaging Center at Las Colinas LLC, U.S. Collections Inc., Ultra Imaging Management Services LLC, Ultra Imaging of Tampa LLC, University Healthcare Specialists LLC, University Healthcare System L.C., University Hospital Ltd., Uptown Primary Care Associates LLC, Urgent Care Enterprise LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Ann & Simmons LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Cactus & Southern Highlands LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Charleston & Decatur LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Charleston/Sloan LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Craig & Clayton LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Craig & Decatur LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Durango & Cheyenne LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Durango & Flamingo LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Eastern & Horizon Ridge LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Rainbow/Mardon LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Warm Springs & Green Valley LLC, Urgent Care Extra Silverado & Maryland LLC, Urgent Care Extra-Tropicana & Jones LLC, Urgent Care Nevada LLC, Urological Specialists of Arlington PLLC, Urology Associates (London) Limited, Urology Center of North Georgia LLC, Urology Services of El Paso PLLC, Urology Specialists Devonshire LLP, Urology Specialists London LLP, Urology Specialists of Kingwood PLLC, Urology Specialists of Richmond LLC, Urology Surgery Center of Colorado LLC, Utah CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Utah Imaging GP LLC, Utah Medco LLC, Utah Surgery Center L.P., VH Holdco Inc., VH Holdings Inc., VHSC Plantation LLC, VIP Inc., Valify, Valify Inc., Value Health Holdings Inc., Value Health Management Inc., Vascular and Endovascular Specialists LLC, Venture Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Venture Medical Management LLC, Village Oaks Medical Center Inc., Virginia Care Partners ACO LLC, Virginia Gynecologic Oncology LLC, Virginia Hematology & Oncology Associates Inc., Virginia Hospitalists Inc., Virginia Psychiatric Company Inc., Virginia Quality Care Partners LLC, Vision Consulting Group LLC, Vision Holdings LLC, W & C Hospital Inc., WCP Properties LLC, WHG Medical LLC, WHMC Inc., WJHC LLC, Walterboro Community Hospital Inc., Warren County Ambulance Service LLC, Wasatch Front Surgery Center LLC, Washington Holdco LLC, Waterway Primary Care LLC, Weatherford Health Services LLC, Weatherford Mammography JV LLC, Weatherford Regional Medical Center, Welbeck Street Diagnostic Centre LLP, Wellington Diagnostic Services LLP, Wesley Cath Lab LLC, Wesley Manager LLC, Wesley Medical Center LLC, Wesley Physician Services LLC, Wesley Physicians - Anesthesiologist LLC, Wesley Physicians - Cardiovascular LLC, Wesley Physicians - Medical Specialties LLC, Wesley Physicians - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Wesley Physicians - Primary Care LLC, Wesley Select Network LLC, Wesley Urgent Care LLC, West Boynton Beach Open Imaging Center LLC, West Creek Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, West Creek Medical Center Inc., West Florida - MHT LLC, West Florida - PPH LLC, West Florida Behavioral Health Inc., West Florida Cardiology Network LLC, West Florida Cardiology Physicians LLC, West Florida CareNow Urgent Care LLC, West Florida Division Inc., West Florida Gulf Coast Primary Care LLC, West Florida HealthWorks LLC, West Florida Imaging Services LLC, West Florida Internal Medicine LLC, West Florida PET Services LLC, West Florida Physician Network LLC, West Florida Professional Billing LLC, West Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., West Florida Specialty Physicians LLC, West Florida Trauma Network LLC, West Florida Urgent Care Network LLC, West Hills Hospital, West Hills Surgical Center Ltd., West Houston ASC Inc., West Houston Healthcare Group Ltd., West Houston Internal Specialists PLLC, West Houston LLC, West Houston Medical PLLC, West Houston Outpatient Medical Facility Inc., West Houston Surgicare Inc., West Jacksonville Medical Center Inc., West Jordan Hospital Corporation, West LPN Fort Worth Oncology PLLC, West LPN Inc., West Los Angeles Physicians Hospital Inc., West McKinney Imaging Services LLC, West Paces Services Inc., West Park Surgery Center L.P., West Valley Imaging LLC, West Valley Medical Center Inc., West Valley Medical Group LLC, West Valley Medical Group Specialty Services LLC, West Valley Therapy Services LLC, Westbury Hospital Inc., Western Plains Capital Inc., Westlake Surgicare L.P., Westminster Community Hospital, Westside Surgery Center Ltd., Wichita CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Wildwood Medical Center Inc., Willis Surgicenter LLC, Wilson County Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Womans Health Group PLLC, Womans Hospital Merger LLC, Womans Hospital of Texas Incorporated, Women Practitioners of Houston PLLC, Women Specialists of Bayshore PLLC, Women Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Women Specialists of Mainland PLLC, Womens & Childrens Center LLC, Womens & Childrens Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Center LLC, Womens & Childrens Pulmonology Clinic LLC, Womens Center at Brookside LLC, Womens Health Center of Central Florida LLC, Womens Health Center of SWVA LLC, Womens Hospital Indianapolis GP Inc., Womens Hospital Indianapolis L.P., Womens Link Specialty Obstetrical Referral Clinic PLLC, Womens Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Womens Surgical Specialists of Texas PLLC, Womens and Childrens Professional Management L.L.C., Womens and Childrens Specialists LLC, hInsight-Airstrip Holdings LLC, hInsight-BMA Holdings LLC, hInsight-Customer Care Holdings LLC, hInsight-Digital Reasoning Holdings LLC, hInsight-Healthbox Holdings LLC, hInsight-I2 Holdings LLC, hInsight-InVivoLink Holdings LLC, hInsight-LS Holdings LLC, hInsight-Loyale Healthcare Holdings LLC, hInsight-Mobile Heartbeat Holdings LLC, hInsight-NX LLC, hInsight-PWS I Holdings LLC, hInsight-Procured Holdings LLC, and hInsight-VAI Holdings LLC. SociAtA GAnArale SociAtA anonyme provides financial services in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and France. The company offers retail banking services, including deposits and loans, vehicles and asset management, corporate finance, insurance, payments, investment, and online brokerage and financial information services; Internet, mobile, telephone, and service platforms; and online banking to individual and professional customers, businesses, non-profit associations and local authorities under the Societe Generale, CrAdit du Nord, and Boursorama Banque brands. It also provides international retail banking and financial services, comprising of deposit and loan products; consumer finance and car finance; mortgage facilities; corporate and investment banking; infrastructure, renewable energies, and agribusiness financing; life, retirement savings, and personal protection insurance products; vehicle leasing and fleet management services; and vendor and equipment finance services to corporate and individual customers. In addition, the company offers capital market services, such as fixed income and currencies, equities, and securities services; mergers and acquisitions, advisory and other corporate finance advisory services, and corporate banking and investment banking, as well as capital raising solutions for debt or equity, financial engineering, and hedging for issuers; transaction and payment services, comprising of cash management, trade finance, cash clearing and correspondent banking, supply chain finance, and foreign exchange services; and export finance, aircraft finance, shipping finance, real estate finance, and structured solutions and leasing. Further, it provides financial engineering and wealth management solutions; structured products, hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity funds and real estate investment solutions; and asset management solutions. SociAtA GAnArale SociAtA anonyme was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Carnival Co. &: 1972 Productions Inc., 6348 Equipment LLC, A.C.N. 098 290 834 Pty. Ltd., A.J. Juneau Dock LLC, AIDA Kundencenter GmbH, Adventure Island Ltd., Air-Sea Holiday GmbH, Alaska Hotel Properties LLC, Barcelona Cruise Terminal SLU, Bay Island Cruise Port S.A., Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, CC U.S. Ventures Inc., CCL Gifts LLC, CSSC Carnival Italy Cruise Investment S.r.L, Carnival (UK) Limited, Carnival Bahamas FC Limited, Carnival Bahamas Holdings Limited, Carnival Corporation & plc Asia Pte. Ltd., Carnival Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Carnival Corporation Korea Ltd., Carnival Corporation Ports Group Japan KK, Carnival Finance LLC, Carnival Grand Bahama Investment Limited, Carnival Investments Limited, Carnival Japan Inc., Carnival License Holdings Limited, Carnival Maritime GmbH, Carnival North America LLC, Carnival Port Holdings Limited, Carnival Ports Inc., Carnival Support Services India Private Limited, Carnival Technical Services (UK) Limited, Carnival Technical Services Finland Limited, Carnival Technical Services GmbH, Carnival Technical Services Inc., Carnival Vanuatu Limited, Costa Crociere PTE Ltd., Costa Crociere S.p.A., Costa Cruceros S.A., Costa Cruise Lines Inc., Costa Cruise Lines UK Limited, Costa Cruises Shipping Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Costa Cruises Travel Agency (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Costa Cruzeiros Agencia Maritima e Turismo Ltda., Costa Group Digital & Strategic Services GmbH, Costa International B.V., Costa Kreuzfahrten GmbH, Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Creative Travel Lab Ltd., Cruise Ships Catering & Services International N.V., Cruise Terminal Services S.A. de C.V., Cruiseport Curacao C.V., D.R. Cruise Port Ltd., Ecospray Technologies S.r.L., F.P.M. SAS, F.P.P. SAS, Fleet Maritime Services (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services Holdings (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services International Limited, GXI LLC, Gibs Inc., Global Experience Innovators Inc., Global Fine Arts Inc., Global Shipping Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Grand Cruise Shipping Unipessoal LdA, Grand Turk Cruise Center Ltd., HAL Antillen N.V., HAL Beheer B.V., HAL Cruises Limited, HAL Maritime Ltd., HAL Nederland N.V., HAL Properties Limited, HAL Services B.V., HSE Hamburg School of Entertainment GmbH, Holding Division Iberocruceros SLU, Holland America Line Inc., Holland America Line N.V., Holland America Line Paymaster of Washington LLC, Holland America Line U.S.A. Inc., Ibero Cruzeiros Ltda., Iberocruceros SLU, Information Assistance Corporation, International Cruise Services S.A. de C.V., International Leisure Travel Inc., International Maritime Recruitment Agency S.A. de C.V., Milestone N.V., Navitrans S.R.L., Ocean Bahamas Innovation Ltd., Ocean Medallion Fulfillment Ltd., Operadora Catalina S.r.L., P&O Princess American Holdings, P&O Princess Cruises International Limited, P&O Princess Cruises Pension Trustee Limited, P&O Properties (California) Inc., P&O Travel Limited, Prestige Cruises Management S.A.M., Prestige Cruises N.V., Princess Bermuda Holdings Ltd., Princess Cays Ltd., Princess Cruise Corporation Inc., Princess Cruise Lines Ltd., Princess Cruises and Tours Inc., Princess U.S. Holdings Inc., RCT Maintenance & Related Services S.A., RCT Pilots & Related Services S.A., RCT Security & Related Services S.A., Roatan Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Royal Hyway Tours Inc., Santa Cruz Terminal S.L., SeaVacations Limited, SeaVacations UK Limited, Seabourn Cruise Line Limited, Shanghai Coast Cruise Consulting Co. Lda, Ship Care (Bahamas) Limited, Sitmar Cruises Inc., Spanish Cruise Services N.V., Sunshine Shipping Corporation Ltd., T&T International Inc., Tour Alaska LLC, Transnational Services Corporation, Trident Insurance Company Ltd., Westmark Hotels Inc., Westmark Hotels of Canada Ltd., Westours Motor Coaches LLC, Wind Surf Limited, and World Leading Cruise Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.. The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Advisors S.r.l., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe (Services) Limited, AIG Europe Holdings S.a.rl., AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Insurance Company (Switzerland) Ltd, AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG Shared Services Corporation, AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE EOLA LLC, AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American Home Assurance Company Escritorio de Representacao no Brasil Ltda., American International Group Inc., American International Group UK Limited, American International Overseas Association, American International Overseas Limited, American International Realty Corp., American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A., American Security Life Insurance Company Limited, Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Avondhu Limited, Blackboard Customer Care Insurance Services LLC, Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Services LLC, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., Chartis Takaful Enaya B.S.C. (c), Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Life & Annuity Solutions Inc., Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd., Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Group Risk Services Limited, Group Risk Technologies Limited, Illinois National Insurance Co., Jefferson Eola Venture LLC, Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, MG Reinsurance Limited, Mt. Mansfield Company Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Private Joint-Stock Company AIG Ukraine Insurance Company, Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SA Affordable Housing LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners Inc., SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Thai CIT Holding Company Limited, The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., Western World Insurance Company, and Western World Insurance Group Inc.. The Boeing Co. is an aerospace company, which engages in the manufacture of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space and Security; Global Services; and Boeing Capital. The Commercial Airplanes segment includes the development, production, and market of commercial jet aircraft and provides fleet support services, principally to the commercial airline industry worldwide. The Defense, Space and Security segment refers to the research, development, production and modification of manned and unmanned military aircraft and weapons systems for global strike, including fighter and combat rotorcraft aircraft and missile systems; global mobility, including tanker, rotorcraft and tilt-rotor aircraft; and airborne surveillance and reconnaissance, including command and control, battle management and airborne anti-submarine aircraft. The Global Services segment provides services to commercial and defense customers. The Boeing Capital segment seeks to ensure that Boeing customers have the financing they need to buy and take delivery of their Boeing product and manages overall financing exposure. T Read More Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. engages in global investment banking, securities, and investment management, which provides financial services. It operates through the following business segments: Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer & Wealth Management. The Investment Banking segment serves public and private sector clients around the world and provides financial advisory services, help companies raise capital to strengthen and grow their businesses and provide financing to corporate clients. The Global Markets segment serves its clients who buy and sell financial products, funding and manage risk. The Asset Management segment provides investment services to help clients preserve and grow their financial assets. The Consumer & Wealth Management segment helps clients to achieve their individual financial goals by providing a wealth advisory and banking services. The company was founded by Marcus Goldman in 1869 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Xerox: A B S Digital Limited, Acorn Business Machines (Holmfirth) Limited, Alloy Acquisitions Corp. LLC, Altodigital Networks, Altodigital Networks Limited, American Photocopy Equipment Company of Pittsburgh LLC, Amici, Arena Group, Arena Group Holdings Limited, Arena Group Limited, Arizona Office Technologies Inc., B 2 Business Systems Limited, Back2Business Limited, Bessemer Insurance Limited, Bessemer Trust Limited, Boise Office Equipment Inc., Bright Ceramic Technologies Inc., Bunch CareSolutions, Business Systems (North Wales) Limited, CPAS Systems, CREDITEX - Aluguer de Equipamentos S.A., CTX Business Solutions Inc., Capitol Office Solutions LLC, CareAR Holdings LLC, CareAR Inc., Carolina Office Systems Inc., Carr Business Systems Inc., Chicago Office Technology Group Inc., ComDoc Inc., Concept Group, Concept Group Limited, Connecticut Business Systems LLC, Consilience Software, Continua Limited, Continua Sanctum Limited, Conway Technology Group LLC, Copyrite Business Solutions (Holdings) Limited, Copyrite Business Solutions Limited, Copytrend Limited, Criterion IT Limited, Customer Value Group, Dahill Office Technology Corporation, Digitex, Digitex Canada Inc., Docucentric Holdings Limited, Document Systems, Eastern Managed Print Network LLC, Elan Marketing Inc., Electronic Systems Inc., Fovia (Innovation) Limited, G-Five Inc., GDP Technologies Inc., Global Imaging Systems, Global PR Corporation, Gyricon LLC, Healthy Communities Institute, Heritage Business Systems Inc., ITEC Group, Image Technology Specialists Inc., ImageQuest Inc., Imagetek Office Systems, Impika, Impika SAS, Inland Business Machines Inc., Institute for Research on Learning, Integrity One Technologies Inc., Intrepid Learning, Invoco Group, Irish Business Systems, LRI LLC, LaserNetworks, LaserNetworks Inc., Lateral Data, Learn Something, Lewan & Associates Inc., Limited Liability Company Xerox (C.I.S.), M & S Reprographics Limited, MRC Smart Technology Solutions Inc., MT Business Holdings Inc., MT Business Technologies Inc., MWB Copy Products Inc., Mail A Doc Limited, Merizon Group Incorporated, Michigan Office Solutions Inc., Minnesota Office Technology Group Inc., Mitral Systems Limited, Mr. Copy Inc., Nemo (AKS) Limited, NewField IT, NewField Information Technology LLC, NewField Information Technology Limited, Northeast Office Systems LLC, Osprey Business Systems Limited, PARC China Holdings Inc., Pacific Services and Development Corporation, Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Platinum Digital Print Solutions Limited, Precision Copier Service Inc., Quality Business Systems Inc., Quilver Business Services Limited, R. K. Dixon Company, RRXH Limited, RRXIL Limited, RRXO Limited, RSA Medical, Rabbit Copiers Inc., Reflex Digital Solutions (UK) Limited, Reprographics Egypt Limited, Saxon Business Systems Inc., Smart Data Consulting, SoCal Office Technologies Inc., Stem Networks Limited, Stewart Business Systems LLC, Stewart of Alabama Inc., StrataCare, Talegen Holdings Inc., Tektronix - color printing, Text Comm Limited (in receivership), The Xerox (UK) Trust, The Xerox Foundation, Time Business Systems Limited, Triton Business Finance Limited, Una-Stem Limited, Veenman B.V., Veenman Financial Services B.V., WDS, WaterWare Internet Services, XC Asia LLC, XC Global Trading B.V., XC Trading Hong Kong Limited, XC Trading Japan G.K., XC Trading Korea YH, XC Trading Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., XC Trading Shenzhen Co. Ltd., XC Trading Singapore Pte Ltd., XEROX CZECH REPUBLIC s r.o., XESystems Foreign Sales Corporation, XFS Secured Borrowing 2020-1 LLC, XHC Acquisition Corp., XMPie, XMPie Inc., XMPie Ltd., XRI Limited, XRO Limited, Xerox (Europe) Limited, Xerox (Ireland) Limited, Xerox (Nederland) BV, Xerox (Romania) Echipmante Si Servici S.A., Xerox (UK) Limited, Xerox (Ukraine) Ltd LLC, Xerox A/S, Xerox AG, Xerox AS, Xerox Argentina Industrial y Comercial S.A., Xerox Austria GmbH, Xerox Bulgaria EOOD, Xerox Business Equipment Limited, Xerox Business Services Bulgaria EOOD, Xerox Business Solutions Inc., Xerox Business Solutions Southeast LLC, Xerox Buro Araclari Servis ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti, Xerox Canada Inc., Xerox Canada Ltd., Xerox Canada N.S. ULC, Xerox Capital (Europe) Limited, Xerox Capital LLC, Xerox Computer Services Limited, Xerox Comercio e Industria Ltda, Xerox Corporation, Xerox DNHC LLC, Xerox Dienstleistungsgesellschaft GmbH, Xerox Distributor Operations Limited, Xerox Egypt S.A.E., Xerox Equipment Limited, Xerox Equipment UK Limited, Xerox Espana S.A.U., Xerox Exports Limited, Xerox Finance AG, Xerox Finance Leasing S.A.E., Xerox Finance Limited, Xerox Financial Services B.V., Xerox Financial Services Belux NV, Xerox Financial Services Canada Ltd., Xerox Financial Services Danmark A/S, Xerox Financial Services Finland Oy, Xerox Financial Services LLC, Xerox Financial Services Norway AS, Xerox Financial Services SAS, Xerox Financial Services Sverige AB, Xerox Foreign Holdings LLC, Xerox Foreign Sales Corporation, Xerox GmbH, Xerox Health Care LLC, Xerox Hellas AEE, Xerox Holding Deutschland GmbH, Xerox Holdings (Ireland) Limited, Xerox Holdings Inc., Xerox Hungary Trading Limited, Xerox IBS Limited, Xerox IBS NI Limited, Xerox India Limited, Xerox International Joint Marketing Inc., Xerox Investments Europe B.V., Xerox Israel Ltd., Xerox Italia Rental Services Srl, Xerox Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Xerox Latinamerican Holdings Inc., Xerox Leasing Deutschland GmbH, Xerox Leasing GmbH, Xerox Limited, Xerox Luxembourg SA, Xerox Mailing Systems Limited, Xerox Manufacturing (Nederland) B.V., Xerox Maroc S.A., Xerox Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Xerox Middle East Investments (Bermuda) Limited, Xerox N.V., Xerox Overseas Holdings Limited, Xerox Overseas Inc., Xerox Oy, Xerox Pensions Limited, Xerox Polska Sp. z o. o, Xerox Portugal Equipamentos de Escritorio Limitada, Xerox Products Limited, Xerox Products UK Limited, Xerox Professional Services Limited, Xerox Realty Corporation, Xerox Renting S.A.U., Xerox Reprographische Services GmbH, Xerox S.A.S., Xerox S.p.A., Xerox Secured Borrowing 2020-1 LLC, Xerox Servicios Compartidos Guatemala y Compani Limitada, Xerox Servicos e Participacoes Ltda, Xerox Shared Services Romania SRL, Xerox Sverige AB, Xerox Technology Services India LLP, Xerox Technology Services SAS, Xerox Telebusiness GmbH, Xerox Trading Enterprises Limited, Xerox Trinidad Limited, Xerox UK Holdings Limited, Xerox XHB Limited, Xerox XIB Limited, Xerox Xf Holdings (Ireland) DAC, Xerox de Chile S.A., Xerox del Ecuador S.A., Xerox del Peru S.A., Zeno Office Solutions, Zeno Office Solutions Inc., Zoom Imaging Solutions Inc., and inVentiv Patient Access Solutions. Wall Street analysts have given iShares JPX-Nikkei 400 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 JPX-Nikkei 400 ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Wall Street analysts have given Botswana Diamonds 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 Botswana Diamonds wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Bunge Ltd. operates as a holding company, which engages in the supply and transportation of agricultural commodities. It operates through the following segments: Agribusiness, Edible Oil Products, Milling Products, Sugar and Bioenergy, and Fertilizer. The Agribusiness segment involves in the purchase, storage, transportation, processing, and sale of agricultural commodities and commodity products. The Edible Oil Products segment includes production and sale of vegetable oils, shortenings, margarines, and mayonnaise. The Milling Products segment consists of production and sale of wheat flours, bakery mixes, corn-based products, and rice. The Sugar and Bioenergy segment comprises manufacture and marketing of sugar and ethanol derived from sugarcane, as well as energy derived from the sugar and ethanol production process. The Fertilizer segment focuses on producing, blending, and distributing fertilizer products for the agricultural industry. The company was founded by Johann Peter Gottlieb Bunge in 1818 and is headquartered in Chesterfield, MO. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Centene: APS Parent Inc., AWC of Syracuse Inc., Absolute Total Care Inc., AcariaHealth Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #11 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #12 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #13 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #14 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy Inc., AcariaHealth Solutions Inc., Access Medical Acquisition LLC, Access Medical Group of Florida City LLC, Access Medical Group of Hialeah LLC, Access Medical Group of Lakeland LLC, Access Medical Group of Miami LLC, Access Medical Group of North Miami Beach LLC, Access Medical Group of Opa-Locka LLC, Access Medical Group of Perrine LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa II LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa III LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa LLC, Access Medical Group of Westchester LLC, Accountable Care Coalition Direct Contracting LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Chesapeake LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers IV LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers V LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VI LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VII LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Florida Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland Primary Care LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Mississippi LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of New Jersey Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of North Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northwest Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Prime Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Physician Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Texas Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Tennessee LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Texas Inc., Agate Resources Inc., AirLogix, Ambetter of Magnolia Inc., Ambetter of North Carolina Inc., Ambetter of Peach State Inc., America's 1st Choice California Holdings LLC, American Progressive Life and Health Insurance Company of New York, Apixio, Apixio Inc, Arch Personalized Medicine Initiative LLC, Arkansas Health & Wellness Health Plan Inc., Arkansas Total Care Holding Company LLC, Arkansas Total Care Inc., B2B Gestion Integra S.L.U., B2B Salud S.L.U., Bankers Reserve Life Insurance Company of Wisconsin, Blackcrow Asistencia Medica S.L, Bridgeway Health Solutions LLC, Bridgeway Health Solutions of Arizona Inc., Buckeye Community Health Plan Inc., Buckeye Health Plan Community Solutions Inc., CCTX Holdings LLC, CMC Real Estate Company LLC, CT Poprad s.r.o., CT Presov s.r.o., Calibrate Acquisition Company, California Health and Wellness Plan, Cantina Laredo Clayton LP, Cardium Health Services, Care 1st Health Plan of Arizona Inc., Care1st Health Plan Administrative Services Inc., Carolina Complete Health Holding Company Partnership, Carolina Complete Health Inc., Casenet LLC, Casenet S.R.O., CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings LLC, CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts Inc., Celtic Group Inc., Celtic Insurance Company, Cenpatico Behavioral Health LLC, Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona LLC, Cenpatico of Arizona Inc., Centene Center I LLC, Centene Center II LLC, Centene Center LLC, Centene Company of Texas LP, Centene Europe Finance Company Limited, Centene Health Plan Holdings Inc., Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education LLC, Centene International Ventures LLC, Centene Investments LLC, Centene Management Company LLC, Centene Venture Company Alabama Health Plan Inc., Centene Venture Company Florida Inc., Centene Venture Company Illinois Inc., Centene Venture Company Indiana Inc., Centene Venture Company Kansas Inc., Centene Venture Company Michigan Inc., Centene Venture Company Tennessee Inc., Centro Inmunologocia De La Comunidad Valenciana S.L., Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, Centurion Detention Health Services LLC, Centurion LLC, Centurion of Arizona LLC, Centurion of Delaware LLC, Centurion of Florida LLC, Centurion of Kansas LLC, Centurion of Minnesota LLC, Centurion of Mississippi LLC, Centurion of New Hampshire LLC, Centurion of Pennsylvania LLC, Centurion of Tennessee LLC, Centurion of Vermont LLC, Centurion of West Virginia LLC, Centurion of Wyoming LLC, Chrysalis Medical Services LLC, Clinica Santo Domingo De Lugo S.L., Collaborative Health Systems IPA LLC, Collaborative Health Systems LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Maryland LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Virginia LLC, Comfort Hospice of Missouri LLC, Comfort Hospice of Texas LLC, ComfortBrook Hospice LLC, Community Medical Group, Community Medical Holdings Corporation, Comprehensive Health Management Inc., Comprehensive Reinsurance Ltd., Coordinated Care Corporation, Coordinated Care of Washington Inc., Country Style Health Care LLC, Discare CZ a.s., District Community Care Inc., Dr Magnet s.r.o., Elche-Crevillente Salud, Envolve Benefits Options Inc., Envolve Captive Insurance Company Inc., Envolve Dental IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Dental Inc., Envolve Dental of Florida Inc., Envolve Dental of Texas Inc., Envolve Health, Envolve Holdings Inc., Envolve Inc., Envolve Optical Inc., Envolve PeopleCare Inc., Envolve Pharmacy IPA LLC, Envolve Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Envolve Total Vision Inc., Envolve Vision Benefits Inc., Envolve Vision IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Vision Inc., Envolve Vision of Florida Inc., Envolve Vision of Texas Inc., Essential Care Partners LLC, Exactus Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Family Nurse Care II LLC, Family Nurse Care LLC, Family Nurse Care of Ohio LLC, Fidelis Care, Forensic Health Services LLC, Foundation Care LLC, Godgrace Asistencia Medica S.L., Golden Triangle Physician Alliance, Grace Hospice of Austin LLC, Grace Hospice of Grand Rapids LLC, Grace Hospice of Illinois LLC, Grace Hospice of Indiana LLC, Grace Hospice of San Antonio LLC, Grace Hospice of Virginia LLC, Grace Hospice of Wisconsin LLC, Granite State Health Plan Inc., Growly Asistencia Sanitaria S.L., HHS Texas Management Inc., HHS Texas Management LP, Hallmark Life Insurance Company, Harmony Behavioral Health IPA Inc., Harmony Behavioral Health Inc., Harmony Health Management Inc., Harmony Health Plan Inc., Harmony Health Systems Inc., Health Care Enterprises LLC, Health Net Access Inc., Health Net Community Solutions Inc., Health Net Community Solutions of Arizona Inc., Health Net Federal Services LLC, Health Net Health Plan of Oregon Inc., Health Net LLC, Health Net Life Insurance Company, Health Net Life Reinsurance Company, Health Net Pharmaceutical Services, Health Net of Arizona Inc., Health Net of California Inc., Health Plan Real Estate Holdings Inc., HealthSmart Benefit Solutions Inc., HealthSmart Benefits Management LLC, HealthSmart Care Management Solutions LP, HealthSmart Information Systems Inc., HealthSmart Preferred Care II LP, HealthSmart Preferred Network II Inc., HealthSmart Primary Care Clinics LP, HealthSmart Rx Solutions Inc., Healthy Louisiana Holdings LLC, Healthy Missouri Holdings Inc., Healthy Washington Holdings Inc., Heritage Health Systems Inc., Heritage Health Systems of Texas Inc., Heritage Home Hospice LLC, Heritage Physician Networks, Home State Health Plan Inc., HomeScripts.com LLC, Hospice DME Company LLC, Hospinet S.L., Hospital Polusa S.A., Hospital Povisa S.A., Hudson Accountable Care LLC, IAH of Florida LLC, Illinois Health Practice Alliance LLC, Infraestructuras y Servicios de Alzira S. L., Integrated Care Network of Florida LLC, Integrated Mental Health Management LLC, Integrated Mental Health Services, Interpreta Holdings Inc., Interpreta Inc., Iowa Total Care Inc., Kentucky Spirit Health Plan Inc., LBB Industries Inc., LifeShare Management Group LLC, LiveHealthier Inc., Louisiana Healthcare Connections Inc., MH Services International Holdings (UK) Limited, MHM, MHM Correctional Services LLC, MHM Health Professionals LLC, MHM Services Inc., MHM Services of California LLC, MHM Solutions LLC, MHN Government Services LLC, MHN Services LLC, MHS Consulting International Inc., MHS Travel & Charter Inc., MR Centrum Melnick s.r.o., MR Poprad s.r.o., MR Zilina s.r.o., Magnolia Health Plan Inc., Managed Health Network, Managed Health Network LLC, Managed Health Services Insurance Corporation, Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Maryland Collaborative Care Transformation Organization Inc., Mauli Ola Health and Wellness Inc., Medicina NZ spol s.r.o., Meridian Health Plan of Illinois Inc., Meridian Health Plan of Michigan Inc., Meridian Management Company LLC, Meridian Network Services LLC, MeridianRx IPA LLC, MeridianRx LLC, MeridianRx of Indiana LLC, Michigan Complete Health, Mid-Atlantic Collaborative Care LLC, Nebraska Total Care Inc., Network Providers LLC, New York Quality Healthcare Corporation, Next Door Neighbors Inc., Next Door Neighbors LLC., North Florida Health Services Inc., Northern Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Novasys Health Inc., OB Care, OB Klinika, Ohana Health Plan Inc., Oklahoma Complete Health Inc., One Care by Care 1st Health Plans of Arizona Inc, Operose Health (Group) Ltd., Operose Health (Group) UK Ltd., Operose Health Ltd., OptiCare Health Systems - Managed Vision Business, PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy, Panther Pass Co LLC, Panther Specialty Holding Co LLC, Pantherx Access Services LLC, Pantherx Specialty LLC, Parker LP LLC, Peach State Health Plan Inc., Penn Marketing America LLC, Pennsylvania Health and Wellness Inc., Phoenix Home Health Care LLC, Pinnacle Home Care LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Illinois LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Indiana LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Kalamazoo LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Missouri LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Wisconsin LLC, Premier Marketing Group LLC, PrimeroSalud S.L., Pro Diagnostic Group A.S., Pro Magnet CZ s.r.o., Pro Magnet s.r.o, Pro RTG s.r.o, Progress Medical A.S., Prowl Holdings LLC, QCA Healthplan Inc., Qualchoice Life and Health Insurance Company, Quincy Coverage Corporation, R&C Healthcare LLC, RMED LLC, RX Direct Inc., Rapid Respiratory Services LLC, Ribera Lab S.L.U., Ribera Salud II, Ribera Salud Proyectos S.L., Ribera Salud S.A., Ribera Salud Tecnologias S.L.U., Ribera Slaud Infraestructuras S.L.U., Ribera-Quilpro UTE, Salus Administrative Services Inc., Salus IPA LLC, Secure Capital Solutions 2000 S.L.U., SelectCare Health Plans Inc., SelectCare of Texas Inc., Seniorcorps Peninsula LLC, Servicios De Mantenimiento Prevencor S.L.U., SilverSummit Healthplan Inc., Social Health Bridge LLC, Social Health Bridge Trust, Specialty Therapeutic Care GP LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care LP, Sunflower State Health Plan Inc., Sunshine Health Community Solutions Inc., Sunshine Health Holding LLC, Sunshine State Health Plan Inc., Superior HealthPlan Community Solutions Inc., Superior HealthPlan Inc., The Practice Properties Limited, The WellCare Management Group Inc., Torrejon Salud S.A., Torrevieja Salud S.L.U., Torrevieja Salud UTE, Traditional Home Health Services LLC, Trillium Community Health Plan Inc., U.S. Medical Management Holdings Inc., U.S. Medical Management LLC, UAM Agent Services Corp., US Script, USMM Accountable Care Partners LLC, Universal American Corp., Universal American Financial Services Inc., Universal American Holdings LLC, WCG Health Management Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of America, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Louisiana Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Nevada Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Washington Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Connecticut Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Hawaii Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of New York Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of North Carolina Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Southwest Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans, WellCare Health Plans of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Plans of California Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Massachusetts Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Missouri Inc., WellCare Health Plans of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Rhode Island Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Vermont Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare National Health Insurance Company, WellCare Pharmacy Benefits Management Inc., WellCare Prescription Insurance Inc., WellCare of Alabama Inc., WellCare of Arkansas Inc., WellCare of California Inc., WellCare of Connecticut Inc., WellCare of Florida Inc., WellCare of Georgia Inc., WellCare of Illinois Inc., WellCare of Indiana Inc., WellCare of Kansas Inc., WellCare of Maine Inc., WellCare of Michigan Holding Company, WellCare of Mississippi Inc., WellCare of Missouri Health Insurance Company Inc., WellCare of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare of New York Inc., WellCare of North Carolina Inc., WellCare of Ohio Inc., WellCare of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare of Pennsylvania Inc., WellCare of Puerto Rico Inc., WellCare of South Carolina Inc., WellCare of Texas Inc., WellCare of Virginia Inc., WellCare of Washington Inc., Wellcare Health Plans Inc., Western Sky Community Care Inc., Windsor Health Group Inc., Winning Security S.L., Worlco Management Services, and nirvanaHealth LLC. Cision Ltd. provides public relations (PR) software, media distribution, media intelligence, and related professional services to businesses worldwide. The company enables public relations and communications professionals to manage, execute, and measure their strategic PR and communications programs. It offers Cision Communications Cloud, a cloud-based platform that enables companies and brands to build relationships with influencers and buyers in order to amplify their marketplace influence; and provides media database that offers access to influencers when planning a campaign, as well as to schedule and record various interactions with contacts. The company also provides PR Newswire that offers wire distribution services, as well as a suite of products and services for investor relations professionals, including distribution of earnings and other material news, Webcasts and conference calls, IR Website hosting, and virtual investor conferences. In addition, it offers media monitoring software that tracks and monitors content on digital, print, social, and broadcast sources. Further, the company enables its customers to assess media coverage by collecting and analyzing data and metrics on audience engagement, campaign reach and effectiveness, sentiment, and competitive benchmarking to quantify campaign results of earned media strategies, as well as provides data-driven insights that inform the creation of future campaigns and marketing investment. Cision Ltd. was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Read More 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 American Electric Power Co., Inc. engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco and Generation & Marketing. The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The Transmission & Distribution Utilities segment engages in the business of transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in its wholly-owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Generation & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The company was founded on December 20, 1906 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH. Read More SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares Russell 2000 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 Russell 2000 ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO Energy Canada, XTO Energy Inc., and XTO Holdings LLC. The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, 2nd Road Pty Ltd., ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Ltd, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Innovation Singapore Holdings Pte, ?What If! Limited, ?What If! Shanghai Co. Ltd, ?What If! USA LLC, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD Dialeto Agencia de Publicidade SA, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Beijing) Mobile Technology Co Ltd, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co Ltd, Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (South Africa) Pty Limited, Accenture (UK) Ltd, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Azerbaijan Ltd, Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BV, Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A, Accenture CAS GmbH, Accenture Canada Holdings Inc., Accenture Capital DAC, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd., Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SAS, Accenture Customer Services Limited, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Delivery Poland sp. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital France Holdings SA, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance (Gibraltar) III Ltd, Accenture Finance GmbH, Accenture Finance GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II GmbH, Accenture Finance II GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II Ltd, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services Srl, Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Ghana Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Ltd., Accenture Global Services Ltd, Accenture Global Solutions Ltd, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services Ltd, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc., Accenture Holding GmbH, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holding GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SAS, Accenture Holdings plc, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazylym Cozumleri Limited irketi), Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazlm Cozumleri Limited Sirketi), Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture Insurance Services SAS, Accenture Insurance Services SpA, Accenture International BV, Accenture International Capital SCA, Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture International Sarl, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea BV, Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Managed Services SpA, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Middle East B.V, Accenture Middle East BV, Accenture Minority I BV, Accenture Minority III Ltd, Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi (Pty) Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Newco LLC, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations Sp. z o.o., Accenture Outsourcing SRL, Accenture Outsourcing Services, Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations BV, Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru S.R.L, Accenture Peru S.R.L., Accenture Post Trade Processing SAS, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process Ltd, Accenture Product Lifecycle Services, Accenture Properties, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture S.A., Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture SAS, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sendirian Berhad, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Ltd, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.r.l., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services Sp. z o.o., Accenture Services Sp. z.o.o., Accenture Services and Technology Srl, Accenture Services fur Kreditinstitute GmbH, Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Servicos Administrativos Ltda, Accenture Servicos de Suporte de Negocios Ltda, Accenture Solutions Co Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Sp. z o.o., Accenture Sp. z.o.o., Accenture SpA, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc., Accenture Sub Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag KFT, Accenture Technologia, Accenture Technologia Consultoria e Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Technology Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions SAS, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn. Bhd., Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures BV, Accenture Technology Ventures S.P.R.L., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co., Accenture Vietnam Co. LTD, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Limitada, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Customer Insight Limited, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Agave Consultants Limited, Agilex Technologies Inc., Allen International, Allen International Consulting Group Ltd, Alnova Technologies Corporation S.L., AlphaBeta Advisors, Altima, Altima Asia Ltd., Altima SAS, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Appaloosa Technology SAS, Arca, Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Avanade, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade (Thailand) Co Ltd, Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Denmark ApS, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Ltd, Avanade Europe Services Ltd, Avanade Federal Services LLC, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SAS, Avanade GZ Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd. (SH), Avanade Guangzhou, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy SRL, Avanade KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Netherlands BV, Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland Sp. z o.o., Avanade Poland Sp. z.o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain SL, Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Ltd, Avanade do Brasil Limitada, Avanade Osterreich GmbH, AvantBiz Consulting Limited, Avenai, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Benext, Bionic, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Boomerang Pharmaceuticals Communications Ireland Limited, Bow & Arrow, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brand Learning LLC, Brand Learning Ltd, Brand Learning Partners Limited, Brand Learning Pte Limited, Bridge Energy Group LLC, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CadenceQuest Inc., Capable Marketer Limited, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc., Certus Solutions Consulting Services Ltd, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cimation UK Limited, Cirruseo, Cirruseo SAS, Clarity Insights, Clearhead, Clearhead Group, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas (SN) (PTE.) Limited, Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Ltd., Cloud Talent Limited, Cloudsherpas, Cloudsherpas Inc., Cloudworks, Codagenic Pty. Ltd., Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda., Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda., Context Information Security, Coritel S.A., Corliant Inc., CreativeDrive, CustomerWorks Europe SL, Cutting Edge Solutions Ltd, D5 Global Holdings LLC, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., DMA Solutions Limited, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (Australia) PTY LTD, DayNine Consulting (Deutschland) GmbH, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting France SAS, DayNine Consulting Japan K.K., DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings, Declarative Holdings LLC, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digiplug SAS, Digital Consulting & Software Services LLC, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Ltd., Duck Creek Technologies, Duck Creek Technologies LLC, Deja Vu Security LLC, ESR Labs, Elcurator SAS, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting L.P., End-to-End Analytics, Energuia Web, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Ltd., Energy Quote Private Ltd., EnergyQuote JHA, EnergyQuote JHA Ltd., EnergyQuote Trading Ltd., Enimbos, Enkitec, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V. , Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enterprise System Partners PR LLC, Enterprise System Partners S.A.S., Entropia, Epylon, Ethica Consulting Group, Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Exton Consulting, Fairway Technologies Inc, Fairway Technologies LLC, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, First Annapolis International, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Focus Group Europe Limited, Formicary, Formicary Holdings Limited, Formicary Limited, FusionX, FutureMove Automotive, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, Genfour Limited, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gestion Altima Canada Inc., Gevity, Global Public Firm S.L., GlobalView SAS, GoodFilm GmbH Filmproduktion Stuttgart, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Hytracc Consulting UK Limited, Hytracc Holding AS, I-Faber S.p.A., IBB Consulting, IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INCAD, INSITUM, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Imagine Broadband (USA) Ltd, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Industrie&Co, Infoman AG, Infoman Schweiz AG, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Infusion Development Inc., Infusion Development UK Limited, InfusionDev LLC, Innoveer Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria Brasil LTDA, Insitum Consultoria Colombia SAS, Insitum Consultoria Europa SL, Insitum Consultoria Peru SAC, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., Intrepid, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Advertisement (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inventor Technology Limited, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, Javelin Group (Bulgaria) EOOD, Javelin Group Limited (UK), Javelin Group SASU, K Comms Group Limited, KCS.net AG, KCS.net AG West, KCS.net Deutschland GmbH, KCS.net Holding AG, KCS.net Osterreich GmbH, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Ltd, Kogentix Singapore Pte. Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kunstmaan NV, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon UKI, Kurt Salmon UKI Ltd., Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LabAnswer, LabAnswer Government, LemonXL Limited, Logistics Market Place Limited (UK), Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Corporation, Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte. Ltd., Mackevision UK Ltd, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd., Maihiro, Matter, Matter Llc, Maud Corp Pty Limited, Maxamine International, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing Corporation, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mindtribe Product Engineering LLC, MobGen, MobGen Technology S.L, Moonrise NV, Mortgage Cadence, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, N3 LLC, NBS Marketing Inc., NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile, Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Chile SpA, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda., New Energy Aborda, New Energy Associates Ltd, New Energy Group, New Energy S.r.l., NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage China Ltd., NewsPage Pte Ltd, Nice Agency Limited, Northstream, Northstream AB, Northstream Holding AB, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology LTDA, Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Octo Technology SPRL, Octoman SAS, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Openmind, Openminded, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium Consulting Ltd, Orbium GmbH, Orbium Holding AG, Orbium Inc., Orbium International AG, Orbium International sp. z o.o., Orbium Licences AG, Orbium Limited, Orbium Pte. Ltd., Orbium Pty Ltd, Orbium Services sp. z o.o., Orbium Sarl, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PCO Innovation Canada Inc., PCO Innovation EURL, PIXO PUNCH Limited, PLM Systems S.r.l, POC Holdings, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, Pach Invest SARL, Pach Invest SAS, PacificLink Group, PacificLink iMedia Ltd., Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald Inc., Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Partners Technology Mexico Holdings BV, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production K/S, Perseroan Terbatas. Accenture, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Ltd, Pragsis Technologies S.L, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Ltd, Procurian Germany GmbH, Procurian Inc., Procurian International I LLC, Procurian International II LLC, Procurian LLC, Procurian Singapore Pte. Ltd., Procurian Switzerland GmbH, Procurian USA LLC, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co Ltd, Radiant Services, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Limited, Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (Asia) Pte Ltd, Redcore (India) Private Limited (India), Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Renacentis IT Services, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Rothco, Rothco Holdings Designated Activity Company, Rothco Unlimited Company, S.C. EnergyQuote S.r.l., S3 TV Technology Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SEC Servizi, SEC Servizi S.p.A., SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Sagacious Consultants LLC, Salt Solutions, Sanchez Capital Services Pvt Ltd, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Airline Planning Group, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, Seabury Aviation Consulting LLC, Seabury Cargo Advisory B.V., Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Human Capital LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seabury Structured Finance LLC, Search Technologies BPO, Search Technologies BPO Inc., Search Technologies GmbH, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LATAM, Search Technologies LATAM S.A., Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Sente Partners LLC, Sentelis, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Shackleton, Shackleton Barcelona S.L., Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton Madrid S.L., Shackleton S.A., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., Silveo, Simian Pty Limited, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Commerce GmbH, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., SinnerSchrader Swipe GmbH, Sinnerschrader, Sistemes Consulting S.L., Solutions IQ, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Storm Digital, Storm Digital B.V., Structure Consulting Group, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Systor AG, TQuila Limited (UK), Tadata Creative Unlimited Company, Tara Insurance DAC, Tara Risk DAC, TargetST8, TargetST8 Consulting LLC, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica Ltd., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Limited, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Total Logistics Supply Chain Consultants Limited, Tquila, Trivadis AG, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Verax Solutions, Verax Solutions Corporation, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong, Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd., Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, Weblinc Pty Ltd, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wire Stone Sarl, Wolox, Workforce Insight Inc, Yesler, Zag, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines, Zenta Global Philippines Inc., Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc., Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, and solid-serVision.com GmbH. The following companies are subsidiares of Barnes Group: AS Monterrey S. de R.L. de C.V., Adval Tech - Foboha Mold Making Business, Associated Spring (Tianjin) Company Ltd., Associated Spring (UK) Ltd., Associated Spring Asia Pte. Ltd., Associated Spring Corporation, Associated Spring Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Associated Spring Raymond (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Associated Spring Raymond GmbH, Associated Spring do Brasil Ltda., Barnes Airmotive Malaysia SND. BHD., Barnes Financing Delaware LLC, Barnes Group (Bermuda) Limited, Barnes Group (Delaware) LLC, Barnes Group (Germany) GmbH, Barnes Group (Scotland) Limited, Barnes Group (Thailand) Ltd., Barnes Group (U.K.) 2 Limited, Barnes Group (U.K.) Limited, Barnes Group Acquisition GmbH, Barnes Group Canada Corp., Barnes Group Finance Company (Bermuda) Limited, Barnes Group Finance Company (Delaware), Barnes Group Holding LLC, Barnes Group Luxembourg (No. 1) S.a r.l., Barnes Group Luxembourg (No. 2) S.a r.l., Barnes Group Spain S.R.L., Barnes Group Suisse Industries GmbH, Barnes Group Switzerland GmbH, Barnes Industrial Group India Private Limited, Barnes Korea Ltd., Barnes Molding Solutions (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., Blitz F16-34 GmbH, Curtis Industries, Curtiss Industries (U.K.) Limited, Di-Dro Manifold System Product Line, Euro Stock Springs & Components, Foboha (Germany) GmbH, Foboha Holding GmbH, Forward Industries LLC, GF Controls GmbH, Gammaflux, Gammaflux Controls Inc., Gimatic, Gimatic Automation Engineering (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Gimatic Automation India Pvt Ltd. , Gimatic Automation Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gimatic Balkan d.o.o. Beograd Savski Venac, Gimatic Czech Republic s.r.o., Gimatic France S.a.r.l., Gimatic Japan Limited, Gimatic Korea Limited, Gimatic Nordic A.B., Gimatic Otomasyon Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Gimatic Polska sp. z o.o, Gimatic S.r.l., Gimatic Sisteme RO SRL, Gimatic Sistemi industrijska avtomatizacija d.o.o., Gimatic Spain S.L., Gimatic Vertrieb GmbH, Gimatrade S.r.l., Heinz Haenggi Gmbh Stanztechnik, Industrial Gas Springs, Industrial Gas Springs Group Holdings Limited, Industrial Gas Springs Inc., Industrial Gas Springs Limited, Kar Products, Kratz-Wilde Machine Co, MTM S.r.l., Manner Hong Kong Limited, Manner USA Inc., Orflam - Nitropush Product Line, Otto Manner, Otto Manner GmbH, Otto Manner Immobilien GmbH, Otto Manner Innovation GmbH, Premier Farnell - KENT Division, Priamus System Technologies, Priamus System Technologies GmbH, Priamus System Technologies LLC, Raymond Distribution-Mexico S.A. de C.V., Resortes Argentina S.A., Ressorts SPEC SAS, Seeger-Orbis GmbH & Co. OHG, Service Plus Distributors, Sign Holdings Limited, Spectrum Plastics Molding Resources, Stromsholmen AB, Synventive Acquisition B.V., Synventive Acquisition GmbH, Synventive Acquisition Inc., Synventive Acquisition UK Ltd., Synventive Acquisition Unlimited, Synventive B.V., Synventive Fertigungstechnik GmbH, Synventive Holding B.V., Synventive Holding Limited, Synventive Holding SAS, Synventive Molding Solutions, Synventive Molding Solutions (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Synventive Molding Solutions B.V., Synventive Molding Solutions Canada Inc., Synventive Molding Solutions Co. Ltd., Synventive Molding Solutions GmbH, Synventive Molding Solutions Inc., Synventive Molding Solutions JBJ Private Limited, Synventive Molding Solutions K.K., Synventive Molding Solutions LDA, Synventive Molding Solutions LLC, Synventive Molding Solutions LTDA., Synventive Molding Solutions Limited, Synventive Molding Solutions Pte Ltd., Synventive Molding Solutions SAS, Synventive Molding Solutions SL, Synventive Molding Solutions s.r.o., Synventive Parent Inc., Teledyne Fluid Systems, The Wallace Barnes Company, Thermoplay, Thermoplay Brasil Sistemas de Injecao Ltda, Thermoplay Deutschland GmbH, Thermoplay France S.a.r.l., Thermoplay Hot Runner Systems (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Thermoplay India Private Limited, Thermoplay Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Thermoplay S.p.A., Thermoplay U.K. Ltd., Toolcom Supplie, Windsor Airmotive Asia Pte. Ltd., and manner Japan Co. Ltd.. The following companies are subsidiares of Teledyne Technologies: Alia Corporation Inc, Bolt Technology Corp, Bowtech Products, CARIS, CDL do Brasil Equipamentos e Servicos Submarinos Sociedade Empresaria Ltda., CETAC Technologies, DALSA, Demo Systems, Detcon Holdco Inc., Ensambles de Precision S.A. de C.V., Falcon Analytical, Frontline Test Equipment, GMI Group Holdings Limited, Hafmynd ehf, Hanson Research Corp, IST Oldham Instruments India Private Limited, Industrial Control Machines, Intelek, Intelek Limited, Intelek Pension Trustees Limited, Intelek Properties Limited, LeCroy (Beijing) Trading Co. Ltd., LeCroy Corporation, Lidar Aviation Services Inc., Maple Imaging LLC, Micralyne Inc, Ocean Design Ltda., Oldham Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Oldham Simtronics SAS, Oldham-Winter GmbH, PDM Neptec, Reynolds Industries Limited, Rhombi Canada LP, Rhombi Holdings Limited, Rhombi Netherlands B.V., Rockwell Scientific Company, Simtronics AS, TDY Jersey Limited, Teledyne Advanced Pollution Instrumentation, Teledyne Australia Pty Ltd, Teledyne BlueView, Teledyne Bogatin Enterprises LLC, Teledyne Bowtech Limited, Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Teledyne C.M.L. Group Limited, Teledyne CARIS B.V., Teledyne CARIS Inc., Teledyne CARIS UK Ltd., Teledyne CARIS USA Inc., Teledyne CDL Inc., Teledyne CDL Limited, Teledyne Catalyst Enterprises Inc., Teledyne Computer Access Technology Corporation, Teledyne Controls LLC, Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne Czech s.r.o., Teledyne DALSA (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Teledyne DALSA Asia-Pacific Ltd., Teledyne DALSA B.V., Teledyne DALSA GmbH, Teledyne DALSA Inc., Teledyne DALSA Industrial Products Inc., Teledyne DALSA K.K., Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor Inc., Teledyne Dalsa, Teledyne Defense Electronics LLC, Teledyne Denmark A/S, Teledyne Detcon Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging US Inc., Teledyne Energy Systems Inc., Teledyne Europe Holdings C.V., Teledyne France, Teledyne France SAS, Teledyne Gas Measurement Instruments Limited, Teledyne Gavia ehf., Teledyne Germany GmbH, Teledyne Hanson Research Inc., Teledyne ICM SA, Teledyne ICM SPRL, Teledyne Innovaciones Microelectronics S.L.U., Teledyne Instruments Inc., Teledyne Instruments Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Teledyne Japan Corporation, Teledyne Korea Ltd., Teledyne Labtech Limited, Teledyne LeCroy AB, Teledyne LeCroy Delaware LLC, Teledyne LeCroy GmbH, Teledyne LeCroy Inc., Teledyne LeCroy India Trading Private Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy Japan Corporation, Teledyne LeCroy Korea Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy OakGate Inc., Teledyne LeCroy S.A.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy S.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy SA, Teledyne LeCroy Singapore Pte. Ltd., Teledyne Limited, Teledyne Micralyne Inc., Teledyne Monitor Labs, Teledyne Monitor Labs P.R. Inc., Teledyne Netherlands B.V., Teledyne ODI, Teledyne Optech Inc., Teledyne Paradise Datacom Limited, Teledyne RD Instruments, Teledyne RD Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne RESON, Teledyne RESON A/S, Teledyne RESON B.V., Teledyne RESON GmbH, Teledyne RESON Holding B.V., Teledyne RESON Inc., Teledyne RESON Pte. Ltd., Teledyne RESON UK Limited, Teledyne RISI Inc., Teledyne Rad-icon Imaging Corp., Teledyne Redlake MASD LLC, Teledyne Reynolds Inc., Teledyne SG Brown Limited, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC, Teledyne Scientific Imaging GmbH, Teledyne Scientific Imaging Limited, Teledyne Signal Processing Devices Sweden AB, Teledyne Singapore Private Limited, Teledyne TSS Limited, Teledyne Taiwan Company, Teledyne Technologies (Bermuda) Limited, Teledyne Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne Technologies International Corp., Teledyne Technologies Israel Ltd., Teledyne Tekmar Company, Teledyne UK Limited, Teledyne VariSystems, Teledyne VariSystems Inc., Teledyne Wireless LLC, Teledyne e2v, Teledyne e2v (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Teledyne e2v (Overseas) Holdings Limited, Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited, Teledyne e2v Limited, Teledyne e2v Semiconductors SAS, and The Oceanscience Group Ltd.. Wall Street analysts have given iShares S&P 400 MidCap 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 S&P 400 MidCap ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Wall Street analysts have given SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Convertible Securities 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 SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Convertible Securities ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management segments. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small businesses and commercial customers, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides Internet, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 952 branches and approximately 3,540 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,400 branches, 5,200 ATMs, and 22 contact centers internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares Russell 1000 Value 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 Russell 1000 Value ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. The following companies are subsidiares of The Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., EPS B.V., Geocel Holdings, Geocel Limited, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Piton Paints Limited, Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Ronseal (Ireland) Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade Intelectual Ltda, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Belize) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Caribbean) N.V., Sherwin-Williams (Ireland) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Coatings Technology Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams (S) Pte. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Shanghai) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Vietnam) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Mexico S.de R.L.de C.V., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel Unitary Enterprise, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands Limited, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams UK Coatings Limited, Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar (Asia) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Australia) Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar (Finland) Corporation Oy, The Valspar (France) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (France) Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar (Nantes) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar (South Africa) Corporation (Pty) Ltd, The Valspar (Spain) Corporation S.R.L., The Valspar (Switzerland) Corporation AG, The Valspar (Thailand) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Vietnam) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar (India) Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Valspar (Uruguay) Corporation S.A., Valspar (WPC) Pty Ltd, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive (UK) Corporation Limited, Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar Industries (Ireland) Ltd., Valspar Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Paint (Australia) Pty Ltd, Valspar Paint (NZ) Limited, Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited (Japan), Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams. The following companies are subsidiares of Quest Diagnostics: AmeriPath, AmeriPath Cincinnati Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Cleveland Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Consolidated Labs Inc. (FL), AmeriPath Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Hospital Services Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Indianapolis PC (IN), AmeriPath Kentucky Inc. (KY), AmeriPath Lubbock 5.01(A) Corporation (TX), AmeriPath New York LLC (DE), AmeriPath Texas Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Tucson Inc. (AZ), American Medical Laboratories, American Medical Laboratories Incorporated (DE), Associated Clinical Laboratories L.P. (PA), Associated Clinical Laboratories of Pennsylvania L.L.C. (PA), Athena Diagnostics, Athena Diagnostics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics, Blueprint Genetics FZ-LLC (UAE), Blueprint Genetics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics Oy (Finland), California Laboratory Associates, Cape Cod Healthcare - Business, Celera, ClearPoint Diagnostic, Clearpoint Diagnostic Laboratories LLC (TX), Cleveland HeartLab, Cleveland HeartLab Inc. (DE), Clinical Laboratory Partners, Colorado Pathology Consultants P.C. (CO), ConVerge Diagnostic Services, Consolidated DermPath Inc. (DE), DFW 5.01(a) Corporation (TX), DGXWMT JV LLC (DE), Dermatopathology of Wisconsin S.C. (WI), Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma LLC (OK), Diagnostic Pathology Services Inc. (OK), Diagnostic Reference Services Inc. (MD), ExamOne Canada Inc. (New Brunswick), ExamOne LLC (DE), ExamOne World Wide Inc. (PA), ExamOne World Wide of NJ Inc. (NJ), Focus Diagnostics, HemoCue, Hoffman M.D. Associated Pathologists Chartered (NV), Institute for Dermatopathology Inc. (PA), Isabella Street Urban Renewal LLC (NJ), Kailash B. Sharma M.D. Inc. (GA), Kilpatrick Pathology P.A. (NC), LabOne, LabOne LLC (MO), LabOne of Ohio Inc. (DE), Laboratorio de Analisis Biomedicos S.A. (Mexico), Lancet Labs, MACL, Med Fusion LLC (TX), Med fusion, MedPlus, Mid America Clinical Laboratories LLC (IN), Nomad Massachusetts Inc. (MA), Nuclear Medicine and Pathology Associates (GA), Ocmulgee Medical Pathology Association Inc. (GA), Pathology Building Partnership (MD) (gen. ptnrshp.), PeaceHealth Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories PLLC (WA), Q Squared Solutions Holdings LLC (DE), Q Squared Solutions Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (China), Quest Diagnostics Brasil Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Domestic Holder LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics HTAS India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Health & Wellness LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Incorporated (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (MD), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NV), Quest Diagnostics India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Infectious Disease Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics International Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics International LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Investments LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Ireland Limited (Ireland), Quest Diagnostics LLC (CT), Quest Diagnostics LLC (IL), Quest Diagnostics LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Massachusetts LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Mexico Holding Company Trust (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Mexico S de RL de CV (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute (CA), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute Inc. (VA), Quest Diagnostics Receivables Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Subsidiary Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics TB LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Terracotta LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Venture LLC (PA), Quest Diagnostics Ventures LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil), Quest Diagnostics of Pennsylvania Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics of Puerto Rico Inc. (PR), Quest HealthConnect LLC (CA), ReproSource, Reprosource Fertility Diagnostics Inc. (MA), Solstas Lab Partners, Sonora Quest Laboratories LLC (AZ), Specialty Laboratories Inc. (CA), Summit Health, UMass Memorial Medical Center - Anatomic Pathology Outreach Laboratory Business, Unilab Corporation, and Unilab Corporation (DE). Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the production and sale of cellulose products, which is a natural polymer commonly used in the production of cell phone and computer screens, filters, and pharmaceuticals. It operates through the following segments: High Purity Cellulose, Forest Products, Paperboard, Pulp and Newsprint, and Corporate. The High Purity Cellulose segment manufacture and market high purity cellulose, which is sold as either cellulose specialties or commodity products in U.S., Canda, and France. The Forest Products segment manufacture and market construction-grade lumber in North America through seven sawmills located in Canada. The Paperboard segment comprises paperboard products. The Pulp and Newsprint segment involves in the production of pulp and newsprint in Canada. The Corporate segment consists senior management, accounting, information systems, human resources, treasury, tax, and legal administrative functions that provide support services to the operating business units. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL. Read More The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected]rketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Embraer SA engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of aircraft and its parts for commercial, defense, and executive aviation sectors. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Aviation, Defense and Security, Executive Jet Business, Service & Support and Others. The Commercial Aviation segment is involved in the development, production, and sale of commercial jets; and the provision of support services to regional aviation and aircraft leasing. The Defense and Security segment engages in research, development, production, modification, and support for defense and security aircrafts, as well as other integrated products and solutions including satellites and information and communication systems. The Executive Jet Business segment deals with the development, manufacture, and sale of executive jets. The Service & Support segment provides after-service solutions and support to its customers through a comprehensive portfolio of innovative and competitive solutions to ensure operational efficiency of products manufactured by Embraer and by other aircraft manufacturers, extending the useful life of commercial, executive and defense aircraft. The Others segment refers to Read More Genworth Financial, Inc. is a financial services company, which engages in the provision of insurance, wealth management, investment and financial solutions. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Mortgage Insurance, Australia Mortgage Insurance, U.S. Life Insurance, and Runoff. The U.S. Mortgage Insurance segment offers mortgage insurance products predominantly insuring prime-based, individually underwritten residential mortgage loans. The Australia Mortgage Insurance segment offers flow mortgage insurance and selectively provides bulk mortgage insurance that aids in the sale of mortgages to the capital markets and helps lenders manage capital and risk. The U.S. Life Insurance segment offers long-term care insurance products as well as service traditional life insurance and fixed annuity products in the United States. The Runoff segment includes the results of non-strategic products which are no longer actively sold but continue to service its existing blocks of business. Its non-strategic products primarily include variable annuity, variable life insurance, institutional, corporate-owned life insurance and other accident and health insurance products. The company was fo Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact@marketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. The union, which has more than 1,100 members, also said that the induction of Boeing 737 MAX planes would also play a large part in achieving cost efficiencies and enhancing service standards. New Delhi: Jet Airways' pilots union NAG has said that it is endeavouring to assist the airline in facing the current challenges and help in achieving cost efficiencies, according to a communication. However, a source in the union told PTI that pilots have not agreed to pay cuts proposed by the airline, which is battling financial woes amid rising fuel costs and low fares. As part of cost reduction efforts, the full service carrier has asked its employees, including pilots, to take steep pay cuts, sources had said. Against the backdrop of concerns over salary reductions and possible job losses, the airline, on Friday, said it was working to have a competitive cost structure. "We are endeavouring to assist our company in facing these challenges by meeting with the management and being a part of the solution in achieving cost efficiencies and enhancing our service standards," the National Aviator's Guild (NAG) said in a communication to its members. The union, which has more than 1,100 members, also said that the induction of Boeing 737 MAX planes would also play a large part in achieving cost efficiencies and enhancing service standards. "Fuel costs are on the rise, the rupee is at an all-time low and low fares are among the factors contributing to the challenges faced by all airlines today," it added. While emphasising that the NAG is confident of the airline's sustainability in short as well as the long term, it asked members not to fall prey to rumours and baseless speculations. Earlier this week, the top management had told staff that the airline might be left with revenues only to operate for not more than 60 days unless cost cutting measures are implemented. However, Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube, on Friday, described reports that the airline cannot fly beyond 60 days as "incorrect and malicious". New Delhi: States will roll out on pilot basis incentives for digital transactions through Rupay card and BHIM app under the GST, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. The GST Council, chaired by Goyal, in its meeting here on Saturday also decided to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) under Minister of State of Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla to look into the issues of the MSME sector. Simultaneously, the law and procedure related issues for the sector would be looked into by the law committee of Centre and state tax officers, while tax rate related issues would be looked after by the Fitment Committee of tax officers. With regard to incentives for digital transactions, Goyal said that these would be rolled out on trial basis by states who volunteer to do so. Based on the pilot, we can asses the revenue gain or loss, he told reporters after the GST Council meeting. A ministerial panel headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi today approved the proposal for incentivising digital payments through Rupay card and BHIM app by way of a cash back. Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card and BHIM UPI, would get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum limit of Rs 100. The next meeting of the GST Council will be held on September 28-29 in Goa. When Ulaga Nayagan Kamal Hassan flew down to Kochi for the promotion of Vishwaroopam 2, he received a grand welcome that would have done any celebrity proud. There was a performance by a band followed by his entry in the midst of a bevy of performers who danced him to his seat and then went on to give an electric dance performance. He said coming to Kerala was like returning home. The actor has always taken pride in repeating that he is a half-Malayali so close is his relationship with Kerala. He lets on a titbit, Our distribution company Raj Kamal films had its office in Kerala initially for several years but later we had to move it to Chennai. I have also lived in Kerala. Accompanying the actor on stage were actor Pooja Kumar and editor Mahesh Narayanan. The actor-producer-directors bilingual thriller Vishwaroopam 2 has emerged as one of the most anticipated sequels in the history of TamiI cinema. The action-spy thriller has been written, directed and co-produced by Kamal Haasan himself. The high-octane action sequences have whetted the appetite of an expectant audience waiting with bated breath for the heroics of Wisam Ahmad Kashmiri. This time around, Vishwaroopam 2 promises to be steeper, faster and more thrilling. The film will also explore the back stories and the relationship between the lead characters in detail. Kamal says, The film is special for us because we have worked really hard on it. Actually, the shooting for the film was supposed to be completed four years ago when 98 per cent of the film was over. But it did not happen as planned. The reasons are known to all silly political reasons but the film has surmounted all that and come out triumphant! Even at that point, I was always confident about my film. The only point of worry as a filmmaker when I revived the film was about the technology used, going on to explain, In four years, technology would have changed and I was worried if I could stand up to the scrutiny of the audience. But we saw it again and after reviewing it, we felt that fortunately and kindly for us, our industry is going slow technology wise and we decided that we were on time! Kamal adds that he is very confident the film will stand the test of time. You would have to be living under a rock to be unaware of the controversy that the first part generated on account of its depiction of the Muslim community and the subsequent Tamil Nadu ban on the film by the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Much water has flowed under the bridge now and Jayalalithaa is no more and Kamal has launched his own political party. Vishwaroopam 2 has retained most of the key cast. Pooja Kumar, Andrea, Rahul Bose, Anand Mahadevan and Shekhar Kapur will be continuing with their roles. Kamal reveals that though tagged a sequel, he made it as one single film but in two segments and calls it unique that way. For us, it is one single effort! He also heaps praise on his technicians especially the Malayali editor Mahesh Narayanan and his cast. I am sure that you all will like the film. We have done our best and the rest of it is up to the audience, he says. The actor-director also mentions he has and will always look forward to comments from his Kerala audience because the state has emerged as an important filmmaking hub of the country. He also has a confession to make and says, Twenty five years back, I was angry at the kind of films being made here but you people took the criticism well. Now, I keep bragging about Malayalam films and ask people to go see the film laboratory in Kerala! He urged all the filmmakers in Kerala to keep the flag flying high because the whole country was watching the kind of films that Kerala was making. Though the media was asked to desist from asking political and personal questions, it was like asking a bee sitting on a flower not to sip nectar. Faced with the question of as a politician and actor what his opinion was of uniting against intolerant voices, Kamal in his frank, no-holds-barred manner replied, This is our 71 st year of Independence and a time for self-examination. We are being very complacent about our freedom but not responsible! If you sitting in Kerala ask me if we are becoming intolerant, the answer is yes! The whole nation is becoming intolerant and I am shocked that Kerala too is toeing that line! he sadly says about a state that prides itself on being called a highly literate one. Asked if Viswaroopam 2 reflected his political ideology, Kamal states the film was not made with the express wish to do that but agrees that it does have shades of his political reflections. He goes on to opine, If you want to see my direct political ideology then that film would be Hey Ram, which is a very strong political film. Elaborating on his goals, he comments, I am looking at achievable goals. The primary reason why I joined politics is topical but not limited to colloquial. If you improve a state, you improve a country. There is nothing to be proud of about Tamil Nadu, which is steeped in corruption and stagnant in progress. Whatever is good for Tamil Nadu, we will go in that direction and that is the right way of doing politics. He says that ideologies need to carefully chosen and strongly says, We are not opportunists but we are using our opportunities. Before ending he says he has no doubts about his film and concludes, As a film fan, what I want to see is what I have presented and I have high hopes pinned on Vishwaroopam 2. Some of my best films are in Telugu Actor Kamal Haasan won hearts in Hydearbad too as he went there to promote his upcoming film Vishwaroopam 2. The actor declared, I am proud to say that I am a Telugu, proud to say that I am Malayali and proud to say that I am an Indian. People gave respect across the generations and showed me love and it still rings in my ears, your applause. The actor has great gratitude for Telugu cinema and this is evident when he says, Some of my lifes best films are from Telugu cinema. Its not talent, its big luck. Though Vishwaroopam 2 has been made as one film, it is releasing in two parts. I am confident youll appreciate this film. Many peoples sweat and troubles have gone into making this film and the second part, but the wait will be worth it, he says. This film will be Maro Charitra (another history), says the actor, whose movie will hit the big screen on August 10. Expressing his political aspirations, the actor also sought peoples blessings. I feel fresh, happy and with your permission, I am going into another dimension. I want to repay the debt for the last 50 years. I understand all the money, fame, what I wear and what I eat come from your applause. You have all invested in my life. I am your product and that product is now going to become a tool and a weapon. You must use it, says the star. Kamal believes honesty will hold him in good stead. I am going to believe in honesty and not luck for my new dimension. After 71 years of independence, India will head towards another Satyagraha. You must be part of it. I am not talking about one State where I am starting it, Im talking about the whole nation, says the actor. Giving an indication of what the future holds, he says, Complacency with freedom is the most dangerous thing and we have been complacent for 71 years. Lets start our freedom struggle all over again! The superstar is the host for the Tamil Bigg Boss reality show. Nani is the host for the Telugu show. Interestingly, the actor also entered the Telugu Bigg Boss to promote his film. Sharma, in his laced-with-sarcasm- way says that TISOAA is a literary criticism laced with satire and sarcasm. Have you ever thought you might come across a book so genius that it almost leaves you blank? Well, it turns out that you are in luck. Author Gaurav Sharmas newest offing The Indian Story of an Author (TISOAA) manages to do just that! The right amount of humour and satire combined together TISOAA, published by the Delhi based Think Tank Books, makes for some intriguing read. Picture this, 13-pages of wit and humour later (and the author is adept at both), you reach the climax, poetic, in the sense that Sharmas climax is nothing but pages and pages of nothing. The Indian Story of an Author manages to shock and amaze you for all the possible reasons. Gaurav Sharma, in his book, perfectly captures the vagaries of the publishing world. In conversation with this correspondent, the young author says that the reason behind writing The Indian Story of an Author was a result of his frustration after getting his manuscript of the soon-to-be publsihed God of the Sullied rejected by almost every Indian publisher. I created this book to symbolically protest against publishing houses for they essentially preach to cater each manuscript with equal amount of diligence but are inclined more towards celebrity authors and their work even if that work is of low quality, Gaurav opines. The author says that The Indian Story of an Author shows the plight of budding and self-published writers in India and his inspiration behind it has been the numerous authors whose low quality work got published by bigger brands because they wrote, something utterly colloquial-romantic or chick lit. Sharma, in his laced-with-sarcasm- way says that TISOAA is a literary criticism laced with satire and sarcasm. There is not much to read in the book but this one shall stand out in anybodys library collection. The book is unconventional, something different and blunt. A book, by any literary standards garners a life of its own on being published, open to interpretations and re-interpretations. Being a seminal work, far removed from the usual conundrums inundating the market, one wonders how will the book be perceived by readers, Sharma says, The book states on its last printed page, Pages have been intentionally left blank. Utilise them at your convenience. I have got messages from the buyers, telling (showing) me what they did with the blank pages. Some kept it as is, while others made my book their diary. Sharma knows that the book is no best seller, it has no gripping plot, no true climax, or a love story to entwine ones beating heart around, however, what it does is give readers a canvas to turn it into something more than just pages. It only takes a few written words to change a blank page into the beginning of an adventure. Lydia stripped naked and told locals that she had been eating her husband but had decided to take the body outside because it had started to smell. (Photo: Pixabay) In a shocking incident, a woman is under investigation by Russian police after pulling the partly mummified and eaten body of her husband into a park where young children were playing. According to a MailOnline report, the woman, known only as Lydia, dumped her husbands remains near swings and a playground in Yekaterinburh, eastern Russia. Reports added, Lydia then stripped naked and told locals that she had been eating her husband but had decided to take the body outside because it had started to smell. The MailOnline report says that while children screamed in terror, she told horrified onlookers to look away. Talking to MailOnline, Lyudmila Troshkova, who was in the park, said, 'She pulled the corpse into the yard on a blanket. There were people around and was trying to dump the body. But it did not work out, since the hand caught on a car, and she left the corpse where it fell. The face of the partly mummified body - identified as her common law husband Vladimir, 68, a former prison officer - had been 'gnawed'. A police officer at the scene said there were signs that she had 'eaten' the human flesh of the man, last seen alive around three weeks ago. Detectives said there was no evidence the man had been murdered. There was an altercation where the dead man's son challenged her over what had happened to his father - and where his missing legs were, but she refused to answer him, and the police and the Russian Investigative Committee are now probing the case. Shockingly enough, Kukanova was inspired to auction off the young girl by Irina Gladkikh - the girl's mother. (Photo: Pixabay) Thanks to an undercover cop, a Russian woman was nabbed while trying to sell her friends underage daughters virginity to the highest bidder. Alina Kukanova was found guilty and jailed for 3.5 years for trying to sell the 13 year-old girl to a wealthy Emirati for the night. Shockingly enough, Kukanova was inspired to auction off the young girl by Irina Gladkikh - the girl's mother. Gladkikh, from the city of Chelyabinsk in western Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast region, encouraged her friend to search for buyers online. According to a news report in MailOnline, a major deal was almost reached with a man from UAE who offered 18,000 for a night with the teen, but the deal fell through. Kukanova then told her friend that she had found another buyer in Moscow. The buyer in Moscow was actually an undercover cop. It turns out that the police had spotted the attempts to sell her virginity online and had decided to intervene. The undercover police officer met the women at a Moscow restaurant and handed over fake money before arresting them shortly thereafter. The teenage girl was taken to hospital to be checked over before being handed over to relatives. Both women, believed to be sex workers, were unemployed and believed to be trying to finance a lavish lifestyle. The headmaster whisked the girl away under the pretext of joining her in a degree college and married her, said the police. (Representational Image) Hyderabad: The Shamshabad police on Saturday arrested a school headmaster Syed Akbar, 55, who was absconding after allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl around three months ago. One more person Mohammed Imran Khan, who abetted him in the crime was also arrested. According to the police, the victim, aged 17, is a former student of the school where Akbar was the head master. The headmaster whisked the girl away under the pretext of joining her in a degree college and married her, said the police. The man, a native of Chevella mandal, acquainted himself with the girl when she sought his help in intermediate education and graduation. Akbar helped the girl get admission in higher educational institutions. He gained her confidence and took her to Shamshabad before sexually assaulting her. When the girl questioned his act in the month of March, Akbar took the girl to Ramdas Bandikana in Golconda Fort precincts and married her. However the girl returned to her place immediately after marriage and continued living as if nothing happened. One day, the teenagers mother noticed a wedding ring in her bag and questioned her, after which the girl narrated the incident, said the police. Based on a complaint lodged by the girls parents, the police registered a case in May and launched efforts to nab him. Akbar absconded and was hiding at the house of his relative, Imran in Gulbarga of Karnataka. who too was nabbed for aiding and abetting Akbar. Traffic cops said that though the elderly too are culprits of triple riding, it is mostly youngsters who indulge in this. (Representational Image) Hyderabad: The triple riding menace continues in the city with most youngsters risking theirs and others lives. Recently, two students died on the spot and their friend had a narrow escape after their bike slipped at Tank Bund road. Nearly 300 accidents involving two-wheelers were reported in the city this year until April and 50 per cent of the victims were bikers. Traffic cops said that though the elderly too are culprits of triple riding, it is mostly youngsters who indulge in this. They added that youngsters should understand that they may escape most of the times, but a single unfortunate incident could cost them their lives. On Sunday night, three teenagers from Hyderabad, Vijay, 19, a resident of Chintal, Manoj, 19, from Kukatpally and Raisab Yadav, were triple riding on a bike and met with an accident, while avoiding a pedestrian crossing the road. Vijay and Manoj succumbed to their injuries while Raisab was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition. According to Gandhinagar sub-inspector M. Prasad, the boys had told their parents that they were going for a friend's birthday party. The accident took place while they were heading towards Secunderabad. We have initiated various traffic awareness programmes in the city, mainly focusing on school and college-going children, said deputy commissioner of Hyderabad traffic police, K. Babu Rao. We have deputed officers to visit schools and colleges to speak to students. The idea is that even if they do not pay attention, at least the message will reach out and be implemented by a few, said the official. This year, the Hyderabad city police has recorded 90 road accident-related deaths, with 823 persons reported injured. There were 311 road-related deaths in 2017 with 2,387 injured. In 2016, the death toll stood at 405. Hyderabad:Two men from Nepal were arrested by the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport police for trying to fly to Dubai with a tourist visa from Hyderabad on a fake NOC (No-objection Certificate) supposedly issued by the Embassy of Nepal.On August 1, two Nepal nationals, Mahato Khem Kumar and Chaudhary Mukeshwar Prasad approached the departure of immigration to obtain a clearance to fly to Dubai on tourist visas by an Air India flight. According to immigration rules, Nepal nationals visiting the United Arab Emirates have to invariably get a no objection letter from the Embassy of Nepal at New Delhi, if they fly from India.When the immigration officials checked the NOCs, they were found to be fake. The officials called the third secretary (consular) of Embassy of Nepal, Sumesh Chandra Dwivedi, who confirmed that NOCs were not issued. The police found that the Nepalese men arrived at Hyderabad from Kathmandu in Nepal. They approached an agent, identified as Tahir, who arranged them visit visas and fake NOCs. Based on the complaint lodged by the immigration officials, the police registered a case against the duo. Salman Khan who had been sentenced to five years in jail for killing two blackbucks in Kankani village during the shoot of Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998 walked out of the Jodhpur Central Jail on April 7, two days after his sentencing. (Photo: File) Jodhpur: Bollywood actor Salman Khan, released on bail in the decade old blackbuck poaching case had been ordered to seek permission form the Jodhpur court to travel outside the country. The actor had requested that he be exempted from the order but his request has been rejected by the court on Saturday. Salman Khan who had been sentenced to five years in jail for killing two blackbucks in Kankani village during the shoot of Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998 walked out of the Jodhpur Central Jail on April 7, two days after his sentencing. His bail was agreed on a condition by Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi that the actor can't leave the country without the court's permission. Also Read: After 2 nights in Jodhpur jail, Salman Khan, out on bail, reaches Mumbai After that, every time the 52-year-old actor had travelled abroad, he had to inform the court. The actors counsel Mahesh Bora applied for relief saying that Salman Khan's work demands him to travel abroad frequently. The case against Salman Khan was brought by and fought for two decades by members of the Bishnoi community, who worship antelopes and the blackbuck is considered to be especially sacred. Salman Khans co-stars from the movie including Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam Kothari and Sonali Bendre, were, however, acquitted by the Jodhpur court, even though they were present at the time of the shooting. TMC party activists participate in a rally to observe 'Black Day' protesting against the alleged 'manhandling and harassment' of their party delegation at Silchar airport. (Photo: PTI) Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Saturday observed a 'black day' in various parts of West Bengal in protest against the alleged "detention and manhandling" of its leaders in Assam's Silchar airport. The protest will continue on Sunday too, party sources said. TMC ministers, leaders and activists hit the streets in the districts and blocks across the state to protest against the alleged assault on the eight-member TMC team at the Silchar airport on Thursday when they tried to enter Assam's Cachar district to assess the situation in the wake of the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Carrying placards and sporting black masks and badges, TMC activists shouted slogans against the BJP governments at the Centre and Assam and the final draft of the NRC, published on July 30. The eight-member TMC delegation had comprised of six MPs, an MLA and West Bengal minister Firhad Hikim. They were stopped at the Silchar airport and put under preventive detention. They returned to the city on Friday. TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the members of the delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport and accused the BJP of imposing a "super emergency" in the country. TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee had on Friday said, "What happened to our party delegation is not only shameful but also undemocratic. Our slogan will be 'we don't need this monstrous government anymore'." Jaipur: Sounding the poll bugle for the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday raised the issue of illegal migrants in Assam. He challenged it to clear its stand on National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam besides making a blistering attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The BJP president was addressing a rally in Rajsamand after flagging off Chief Minister Vasundhara Rajes Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra Charbhuja temple on Saturday. Using the NRC issue as a pitch to corner the Congress, Shah called on people to question the Congress president Rahul Gandhi as to why he wants Bangladeshi intruders in the country. Rahul Baba will come here later this month, you must ask him why he wants to keep Bangladesh intruders in the country. The Congress wants them to stay here because they are its vote bank, he said. Almost 40 lakh people , mostly Muslims, have been excluded from the NRC list in Assam. According to Shah, the Congress wants to save them for sake of their votes. The BJP president dispalyed a hostile mood against the Congress president who has been constantly slamming the prime minister over his promise of achche din and sabka saath, sabka vikas. Shah rapped the Congress chief for asking what the Modi government had done in four years. Instead, Shah said that the people of India have been demanding answers for four decades. Rahul baba humse chaar saal ka kya hisaab maangte ho? Desh ki janta aapse se chaar peedhi ka hisaab maang rahi hai, Shah said. Taking a dig at Rahul's Italian roots, he said, Rahul Baba, I do not know Italian otherwise I would have told you how much we have done for the people. The BJP president said that Modi government started 116 schemes for poor people and the Raje government has executed these schemes on the ground. He added that only a BJP chief minister can have the courage to go on a yatra to give people a report card of the governments performance. He said Congress did nothing when it was in power for five decades. It was Vasundhara Raje who brought the state out of BIMARU category. Earlier, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje asked people to stop voting out the party in power if they want development to continue. If you want development, then change the trend of changing government every five years, she said. The chief minister said that the Congress has only looted the country and divided people to rule. She said that the BJP has left nothing to spare for the development of the state and wanted to keep the momentum going. As a prelude to polls in December, Raje on Saturday set off on more than a 6,000 km road trip that will cover 195 assembly constituencies the next 40 days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the concluding rally in Pushkar. Rahul Gandhi said, "If Nitish Kumar is ashamed of Muzaffarpur rape incident, he should immediately take action against those involved." (Photo: ANI/Twitter) New Delhi: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several other opposition parties staged a protest on Saturday, voicing their anguish over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. In a show of opposition unity, almost all major political parties joined the protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital, organised by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. Voicing his discontent at the handling of the case, Rahul Gandhi said, "If Nitish Kumar is ashamed of Muzaffarpur rape incident, he should immediately take action against those involved. We stand with the women of India, girls and their families who suffered in Muzaffarpur." The event was attended by several prominent leaders including, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav. Tejashwi Yadav emphasised that despite the presence of top Opposition leaders, it would be a non-political event. Tejashwi has been targeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzzafarpur. He had said that condemnation issued by the chief minister on Muzaffarpur shelter case wasnt enough, questioning why Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case, was running shelter homes and getting funds from the government. Yadav had stated that the scandal has exposed social reforms agenda of Nitish Kumar government. We want Brajesh Thakur to be hanged till death. If you see the number of crimes in Bihar has increased in the past one year. Cases of gangrape are being reported back to back from various districts of the state, Tejashwi Yadav told news agency ANI on Saturday. Even after the report of Child Commission was out no action was taken. FIR was lodged two months after Tata Insititute report came and in that too name of prime accused Brajesh Thakur was missing. Somehow Thakur has been a close aide of Nitish Ji, he added. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the CBI. Various speakers at the protest demanded stringent punishment against those involved in the heinous crime. Speaking on the protest, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi said, We know what happens in Rahul Gandhi's protests, even Priyanka Gandhi can't be assured of safety. And now Tejashwi Yadav is too a part of it. No woman will be safe. Earlier, on Thursday, Left parties and groups in Bihar had called for a state-wide bandh in Patna to protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal. This was also supported by RJD members. (With inputs from agencies) Chennai: Even as the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) started to grill the engineering graduates in connection with the revaluation scam, the Anna University on Friday suspended three faculty members including professor G.V. Uma, former Controller of Examinations (CoE), after finding evidence against them. While speaking to reporters, Anna University Vice-Chancellor M.K. Surappa said, There is overwhelming evidence against professor Uma, proving her involvement at different levels in the scam. Our internal inquiry committee also found evidence against other two faculty members P.Vijayakumar and R.Sivakumar from University College of Engineering Tindivanam as well. The other seven members named in FIR are not our faculty members. The university has formed a four-member committee to investigate scandals in an evaluation of answer scripts at the controller of examinations office. After assuming office in April, I received several complaints regarding the malpractices in revaluation. To verify the allegations we formed the committee in May, he said. As soon as the committee started the investigation, they found that the extent of malpractices is much deeper than what it was thought of and the web of the whole network of people involved in the scam, Mr.Surappa told this paper. The committee has looked at all the malpractices that happened in examinations during 2015 to 2018 the period in which Uma was holding the post of controller of examinations. "It is almost finished its inquiry and very soon it will submit its report. We will place it before our syndicate committee for further action," he added. After conducting searches, the DVAC registered a case against former Controller of Examinations G.V. Uma and nine others on Tuesday for allegedly taking the bribe to boost the students' marks in revaluation. As many as 3,02,380 students have applied for revaluation in April/May 2017 out of which 73,733 students have passed and 16,636 students improved their marks in the process. The FIR alleged that G.V. Uma, who was the controller of examinations (CoE) post from 2015 to 2018 had conspired with assistant professor P.Vijayakumar (former zone co-ordinator) and R.Sivakumar (former zonal officer) and others to boost the marks after getting a bribe of Rs.10,000. While conducting the raids, the DVAC allegedly seized several answer scripts from residents of the accused. Sources said it was revealed that a student who got only 7 out of 100 was given 74 marks out of 100 after revaluation. Sources in the Anna University said, "In many cases, the students who paid the bribe can hire a scribe or write the answers himself in new answer scripts. These new scripts were evaluated during the revaluation and higher marks were awarded. They would obviously get higher marks even in the second revaluation which is mandated after a 15% increase." Many of the affiliated college faculty members who were earning very low salary were lured into the scam. "The wards of politicians, IAS and IPS officers have got their degrees through the influence and revaluation. Particularly, the old students with many arrears cleared their papers by paying the bribe," sources alleged. When enquired whether Anna University would dig up the malpractices in revaluation happened in the last 10 years, Mr Surappa said, "It's impossible to enquire all the students who have left the university. Now, it is my duty to stem this rot. So I am taking all the steps to ensure that these things are not repeated." The statement said Google will work towards fixing this in an 'upcoming release of SetUp wizard which will be made available to OEMs over the next few weeks.' (Photo: File) Mumbai: Tech giant and Android parent Google on Friday took responsibility for a coding flaw that caused a defunct Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) helpline number to appear in the contact lists of some mobile phone users. Google stated that it was at their end that the then helpline number - 1800-300-1947 - was coded into device back in 2014 and remained there since. The clarification came hours after social media angst against UIDAI, with users blaming the agency that oversees Aadhaar identification system for pushing the information to their devices without consent. Our internal review has revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since. Since the numbers get listed on a users contact list these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device, a statement from Google said. Apologising for any concern that this might have caused, the statement from a Google spokesperson said it would like to assure everyone that this is not a situation of an unauthorised access of their Android devices. Users can manually delete the number from their devices. The statement said Google will work towards fixing this in an upcoming release of SetUp wizard which will be made available to OEMs over the next few weeks. It all started when a large number of mobile phone users on social media reported the sudden placement of a contact featuring the old toll-free helpline number of UIDAI. UIDAI refuted media reports in a series of tweets earlier on Friday and highlighted that the helpline number spotted by the users was no longer a valid number, and it was changed to 1947 two years ago. "UIDAI has reiterated that it has not asked or advised anyone including any telecom service providers or mobile manufacturers or Android to include 1800-300-1947 or 1947 in the default list of public service numbers," the authority behind Aadhaar had said. Also Read: Nothing to do with it, says UIDAI after Aadhaar helpline creeps into phones It was initially speculated that the number was pushed from the telecom service provider. However, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) denied any role in the matter by its associated telcos while responding to an emailed query. "The inclusion of a certain unknown number in the phonebooks of various mobile handsets is not from any telecom service provider," COAI had said. His half-brother, too, is aware of the fact that the family knew about Osama's terrorist activities early on as well as his role in the 9/11 attacks. (Photo: File) Mumbai/Jeddah: In a first, the mother of Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, recently opened up about various aspects of the global terrorist leader's life. In an interview with The Guardian, Alia Ghanem, Laden's mother, described him as a "good son" who was "brainwashed" by fundamentalists. Ghanem, who is in her mid-70s, lives with her family in a palatial mansion in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah. The family still remains one of the most influential families in the region. They were allowed to speak to the British daily newspaper only after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to the request. The move was seen as "allowing the Bin Laden's to tell their story" and also to help "demonstrate that an outcast not an agent was responsible for 9/11". Speaking about Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, Ghanem recalls that when she learned about her son's business, she was "extremely upset." He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult. I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing because he loved me so much, Ghanem told The Guardian. She also mentioned the people who were behind this and said Bin Laden was radicalised at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. His half-brother, too, is aware of the fact that the family knew about Osama's terrorist activities early on as well as his role in the 9/11 attacks. On Laden's rise to terrorism, his brother Ahmad said, "I am very proud of him in the sense that he was my oldest brother. But I dont think Im very proud of him as a man. He reached superstardom on a global stage, and it was all for nothing. The family also revealed that Osamas s youngest son Hamza, 29, has been designated as a global terrorist and is believed to be in Afghanistan. He has sworn to avenge his father's death who was killed by a US special operations team in 2011. However, his uncle Hassan said that he would urge Hamza to not follow in his father's footsteps. Hassan said his advice to Hamza would be to "think twice about what he was doing and to not retake the steps of his father. Adding that, "he will enter horrible parts of his soul. Read the full text of the interview here. The man was immediately overpowered by security personnel and handed over to the police. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: Kerala Bhawan in New Delhi stood witness to a high-octane drama on Saturday when a knife-wielding man barged into its premises threatening to harm Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The man, an Alappuzha native, Vimal Raj (46), sneaked into the premises with a knife and some papers and threatened to 'finish' the Kerala CM, reports The Times of India (TOI). The man was immediately overpowered by security personnel and handed over to the police. Police and intelligence officials found the man to be of unsound mind and sent him to Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences. An FIR has been registered against the Vimal Raj. The incident occurred at around 10 in the morning when the chief minister was leaving the Kerala House in Delhi for a meeting. The man stood with journalists who were waiting near the Chief Minister's room. When the security officers, on sensing something wrong, questioned the accused, he took a knife from his bag and rushed near the room where the CM was. Some reports said that the man was jobless and wanted to commit suicide before CM Pinarayi Vijayan as there no way for him to sustain himself and his family. Reports said that the man was heard shouting that he is going to die and that although he wants to work, the chief minister is not allowing him to do so and therefore he has no means to live. #WATCH: Man tries to barge inside Kerala House in Delhi with a knife. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was present inside. Police says, 'the man is 80% mentally unstable & has been sent to Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences'. pic.twitter.com/j2frHaYBUY ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 There have been death threats to the Kerala Chief Minister's life earlier. Last year a Sangh Parivar leader had declared a bounty of Rs 1 crore on CM Pinarayi Vijayan's head. 'The intruder breached the main gate and went inside. He had a scuffle with the duty officers there. Duty officer was also injured,' police said. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) Jammu: A man was shot dead by security personnel on Saturday while he was trying to forcibly enter Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister Farooq Abdullah's home in Jammu. The intruder was shot when he drove his SUV through the gate of Farooq Abdullah's residence in Bhatindi around 9:30 am. Farooq Abdullah was not present when the man barged into his home. "The intruder breached the main gate and went inside. He had a scuffle with the duty officers there. Duty officer was also injured. After that he entered the residence, there has been some sort of damage to the articles over there. Subsequently, he was shot dead," SSP Jammu Vivek Gupta told the reporters. "There was an attempt of forceful entry into the house (Farooq Abdullah's) by an individual named Murfas Shah, resident of Poonch. He forced his way through the VIP gate in an SUV. He was unarmed. Investigation is underway," Inspector General of Police (Jammu) SD Singh Jamwal told the reporters. "I am aware of the incident that took place at the residence my father & I share in Bhatindi, Jammu. Details are sketchy at the moment. Initial reports suggest an intruder was able to gain entry through the front door & in to the upper lobby of the house," Farooq Abdullah's son Omar tweeted. The incident took place on the intervening night of August 2 and 3. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) Behrola (Haryana): In another incident of lynching and mob violence, a man's hands and legs were tied and he was beaten to death by villagers over suspicion of cattle theft in Behrola village of Haryana. The incident took place on the intervening night of August 2 and 3. Two people accompanying the victim fled away from the spot. The body of the victim has been sent for post-mortem. According to news agency ANI, case has been filed against three brothers who were involved in the beating. One among the three have been arrested. New Delhi: An Air India flight en route New Delhi from Milan had to return back to the Italian city after a passenger forcibly tried to enter the cockpit. The incident occurred when the flight was mid air and was already flying for over an hour after taking off from Milan with 250 people on board. The man was arrested soon after the plane landed back in Milan. The captain of the flight AI 138, which had about 250 people on board, decided to dump fuel (as it had been refuelled for the eight-hour flight to Delhi) and be light enough to return to land in Milan almost an hour after taking off from there. AI 138/ Milan-Delhi flight (arrival in Delhi on 3 Aug) was delayed by 2 hours 37 minutes as one unruly passenger Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after take off from Milan on schedule. The aircraft landed back and pax was handed over to local police. Aircraft departed after security clearance to Delhi, Air India said in a statement. New Delhi: The political battle is all set to intensify as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) gears up for protest rally with other opposition parties at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday over sexual abuse of girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home. Apart from the rally, a candle march will also be taken out. RJD leader Tejaswi Prasad Yadav who left on Friday for New Delhi said, The protest would be a non-political event despite the presence of top Opposition leaders. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have confirmed their participation in the demonstration because the incident has shaken them as well. Dinesh Trivedi from the Trinamool Congress, Dharmendra Yadav from the Samajwadi Party and Satish Chandra Mishra from the Bahujan Samaj Party will also be there, along with civil society workers, human rights activists and representatives of all major political parties, he said. Tejaswi, raising serious concerns over the safety of girls wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Having seven sisters, it pains me to even imagine what the little girls at the shelter home were forced to undergo. It is a most shameful incident. When we raised it in the assembly, the government tried to mislead the house. Were they not Bihars daughters? Has our conscience died? Whatever happened to the girls amounted to a betrayal of their trust, given that they were promised protection there. What they got in return was physical, mental and sexual torture. The culprits should be hanged once their guilt is established in court, he wrote. Tejaswi said condemnation issued by the chief minister on Muzaffarpur shelter case wasnt enough. He questioned that why Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case running all kind of shelter homes and getting funds from the governments. Yadav added that the scandal has exposed social reforms agenda of Nitish Kumar government. Questioning the role of the police, RJD leader wondered as to how a girl can disappear mysteriously from a government-funded shelter home. The police and the government should have ensured care and protection in such sensitive cases. He also alleged that there are reports the shelter home is also run by a wife of a person close to senior JD(U) member. The situation cant get any worse than this and the manner in which everyone tried to keep the matter under wraps is the beginning of the deep-rooted conspiracy. The blame game between the two major political rival parties was triggered by a statement put out by Antiguas Citizenship by Investment Unit that is facing criticism for allowing Choksi to buy the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda. (Photo: File | MEA Twitter) New Delhi: A fresh row sparked off between BJP and Congress when the latter pointed to Antiguas assertion that Indian agencies had given him a clean chit during BJP-led government. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has often criticised and accused the Modi-led BJP government at the Centre of letting diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehlu Choksi flee the country also waded in later, with a short video where PM Modi calls Mehul Choksi as Mehul bhai at the launch of Gold Monetisation Scheme in 2015. In todays big news: India gave Mehul Bhai Chowksi, Mr 56s suit-boot BFF, a clean chit in Nov 2017, enabling him to obtain Antiguan citizenship. This Bhai looted PNB of 13,000 Cr., before scooting from India. Heres a little video of Mr 56 with Mehul Bhai pic.twitter.com/tt8K5XzBH4 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 3, 2018 In retaliation to the allegations, BJP asked the Congress to explain the statement by Mehul Choksis lawyer in which he mentioned that Choksi had links with big leader of the opposition parties. Anil Baluni, BJP spokesperson said, The fact is that Mehul Choksis assets were raised during 2012-2014 when Congress-led UPA was in power. The blame game between the two major political rival parties was triggered by a statement put out by Antiguas Citizenship by Investment Unit that is facing criticism for allowing Choksi to buy the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda. Antiguas Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) in its explanation said that it had sought and received clearance from Mumbai passport office which certified that there was no adverse information against Choksi. Also Read: India cops okayed our background check of Mehul Choksi: Antigua Choksi had applied for Antiguas citizenship in May 2017. The background check was done before he became a wanted man in India. According to reports, Choksi had bought Antiguas citizenship as a part of Citizenship by Investment policy by paying Rs 1.3 crore. He left India in first week of January and took oath of allegiance on January 15 as Antiguas citizen. The CBI had filed a case on January 29, 2018 and started investigating Nirav Modi and Choksi. Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi are accused of Rs 13,500 crore fraud involving fake guarantees in the name of Punjab National Bank to facilitate overseas loans. The Congress, however, said the statement by the Antigua government had uncovered new facts that demonstrate the "the active connivance and complicity of every agency of Modi Govt." Congress spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala said, "Loot and make them scoot is the prime policy of the Modi government. The shocking details reveal how the Modi government enacted this mega scam." Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not raise the issue when he met his Antiguan counterpart Gaston Browne in April 2018, questioned Surjewala. A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression. Vasundhara Raje's pre-poll tour is aimed at seeking people's mandate in the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly elections. (Photo: File | PTI) Jaipur: Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot on Friday said Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's pre-poll tour was an attempt to mislead people and will turn out to be her government's 'Vidai Yatra' (departure yatra). BJP President Amit Shah will flag off Vasundhara Raje's 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' (Rajasthan pride yatra) from from Charbhuja Nath temple in Rajsamand district on Saturday. It is aimed at seeking the people's mandate in the upcoming assembly elections. "Raje is trying to hide her failures in the name of the yatra. This will not be a 'Gaurav Yatra' but a 'Vidai Yatra' of her government," he said. "She has no remarkable achievement in any area, what pride is being talked about?" Gehlot asked. Also Read: Eye on polls, Vasundhara Raje to set off today on 58-day Rajasthan yatra He said Raje took out the 'Suraj Yatra' (Good Governance Yatra) ahead of the last assembly elections but her government has delivered 'kuraj' or bad governance. The Congress general secretary alleged the yatra was funded by the state exchequer and orders to make arrangements for the yatra had been issued at the government level. He asked Raje to clarify whether the yatra was a BJP initiative or that of the state government. "There will be no impact of any BJP exercise. People will vote out the party in the assembly elections because all sections of the society, be it farmers, workers, tribal people, minorities, youths or women, resented the BJP rule," Gehlot said. Raje's yatra will cover all divisions in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. Jaipur: Sounding the poll bugle for Rajasthan Assembly elections, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday questioned the Congress stand on the issue of illegal migrants in Assam and targeted Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for demanding a report card from the Modi government on its performance. Flagging off the 58-day Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra of chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Mr Shah used the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam to attack the Congress. He challenged it to clear its stand on National Register of Citizens in Assam besides making a blistering attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The BJP president was addressing a rally in Rajsamand after flagging off chief minister Vasundhara Rajes Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra Charbhuja temple on Saturday. Rahul Baba will come here later this month, you must ask him why he wants to keep Bangladesh intruders in the country. The Congress wants them to stay here for its vote bank, he said. The BJP president was in a belligerent mood against the Congress president who has been constantly nibbling the Prime Minister over his promise of achche din and sabka saath sabka vikas. He said that the state Congress president has said that he would 40 questions to chef minister Vasundhara Raje and Rahul Gandhi also ask everyday what the BJP has done in four years. However, he said that peple want to ask the Congress about what it did in 50 years. Taking a dig at the Congress presidents Italian roots on his mothers side, he said, Rahul Baba, I do not know Italian otherwise I would have told you how much we have done for the people. The Congress has taken exception to BJP president Amit Shahs comments against Rahul. State Congress president Sachin Pilot said that to Shahs undignified comments prove that the BJP government in the Center as well as in the State have no care for the people. Hyderabad: After 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda from Karnataka may emerge as strong contenders for the Prime Ministers post from South if the BJP and the Congress fail to get good number of seats. All this time, Congress party has said that the AICC president Rahul Gandhi was its prime ministerial candidate. But in the latest political situation, the Congress has decided to sacrifice claiming the PM post to defeat the BJP at the Centre. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is playing a key role in the formation of the Federal Front with all regional parties in an aim to defeat the BJP, also said that she is not interested in the PMs post. Sources in the TD and the TRS said that after the ensuing Assembly elections, both Mr Naidu and Mr Rao under pressure from their parties want to make their sons as Chief Ministers of the respective states. According to grapevine in political circles, both BJP and Congress may not get majority seats and regional parties will play key roles in all the states. In TS, there are 17 Lok Sabha seats and in AP, there are 25 Lok Sabha seats. In the previous elections TRS won 11 seats and TD won 16 seats (15 in AP and 1 in TS). In the previous elections TRS won 11 seats and TD won 16 seats (15 in AP and 1 in TS). Both parties are hoping that they can retain the same number and perhaps also get more. In the past the CM, Mr Naidu did not show interest in the PMs post as it would be difficult to continue for five years as PM, specially if one had to depend on other parties support. He also expressed the opinion that if he took the PMs post but lost his position after one year, he would be known as former PM and then he would not be able to hold the CMs post again thereby marking the end to his political career. But now the situation was different and this time if the situation allows, Mr Naidu may not refuse to take the PM post, said a senior TD leader. In the southern States, regional parties are dominating national parties like BJP and Congress. At present there are speculations that Mr Rao is soft towards BJP, but after 2019 elections he may change his stance, depending on the outcome of Lok Sabha results. If the PM post is offered to the south, the Telangana CM Mr. KCR will also become a strong contender, said a senior TRS leader. Chennai: Stormwater drain work undertaken by Greater Chennai Corporation in many places remains incomplete instilling fear of floods in the city and suburbs. Officials claim they will complete pending work before the start of northeast monsoon. Residents, who faced major brunt of 2015 flood, have urged officials to accelerate works. Sources said there are 15 corporation zones under the control of GCC and even after the floods in 2015, the corporation officials miserably failed to take effective stormwater drainage system. Even as officials took up such works in many areas, they have not completed and in some places there are only trenches posing threats to the public and motorists. An official of Ambattur zone said, Works are being done in a phased manner and since such works are taken up along the arterial roads, there will be some delay owing to heavy traffic jam. So, workers are pressed into services during night time. The official exuded confidence that all the works relating to storm water will come to end soon. However, residents still fume over pending works. The officials do not seem to have learned a lesson or two from the past instances in terms of storm water drainage and sewage system management. Both city and suburbs, which were marooned during 2015-floods lack proper drainage system, said P Viswanathan, coordinator of Chitlapakkam Residents Welfare Association. If there is a heavy rain for at least half an hour, all main roads become water-logged in a quick succession, indicating ineffective stormwater drainage system, Viswanathan noted. When contacted, a senior corporation official, on conditions of anonymity, said, We have continuously been undertaking storm water drainage works and will complete them before the onset of north-east monsoon. We have also instructed zonal officials to monitor such works and submit the reports soon. When asked about left out trenches, the official quipped, those trenches are dug for carrying out works and are not left out half. We will continue works. Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the defence ministry has been imposing unreasonable conditions for handing over Bison Polo Grounds and Gymkhana Grounds to the Telangana state government for building a new Secretariat. In a representation submitted to Mr Modi, the CM noted, The government of Telangana has requested the ministry of defence for transfer of defence lands (Bison Polo Grounds and Gymkhana Grounds) in Secunderabad/ Hyderabad to the state government for the construction of a new Secretariat building, Strategic Road Development Projects (NH 44 and SH 1) and also transfer of 7.58 acre defence land (net area) for the construction of a six lane alternative road proposed in lieu of Gough Road. Mr Rao also sought establishment of an Indian Institute of Management in the city. In a representation submitted to Mr. Modi, the CM said, The government of Telangana has requested the Ministry of Defence for the transfer of defence lands (Bison Polo grounds and Gymkhana grounds) to the state government for construction of new a Secretariat building, Strategic Road Development Projects and also transfer of 7.58 acre defence land for construction of a six lane alternative road proposed in lieu of Gough Road. The defence ministry has conveyed its in principle approval for transfer of the lands, but imposed an unreasonable condition of payment of Rs 31.20 crore every year by the state government to the Cantonment Board. He added, When we are willing to exchange the lands and pay the differential cost of the land as a one time measure, the question of annual payment should not arise. We have accordingly requested the Ministry of Defence to revise the above condition, and the matter is still pending with them since August 2017. I would like to request you to kindly instruct the Ministry of Defence to expedite the proposal of transfer of defence lands to the Telangana state to enable the Government of Telangana to take up construction of new a Secretariat building and also widen and improve roads passing through the Cantonment Areas. Mr. Rao also sought establishment of an IIM in the city. As the state has already identified required land, it is requested that the UMHRD may be directed to initiate steps for sanctioning of the IIM, Mr Rao told the PM. Hyderabad: The letter of Justice AP Shah, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and former Chairman of the Law Commission of India, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the latter on de-criminalising economic offences in India that has become a hot topic in legal circles. Justice Shah in his letter to the Prime Minister stated instead of increasing transparency and accountability and making deterrents for wrong doers, an attempt is being made to dilute various legislations which could result in a spurt in corporate offences especially. Former judges and several advocates of the Hyderabad High Court while supporting the views of Justice Shah felt that it was the primary responsibility of the Legislature to make deterrent laws that would protect the civil society from wrong doers and also ensure the strict enforcement of the existing statutes. Justice Gopalakrishna Tamada, former judge of the Hyderabad High Court, felt it would not be good for the civil society if elected governments changed or diluted the spirit of laws as per their convenience. Referring to the demand of Justice Shah for filing an appeal in the Satyam Computers fraud case, the former judge felt that It is always good for governments, either at the Centre or at the state, to appeal whenever an adverse judgement is given and not filing an appeal would certainly create doubts in the minds of the public that the government had not appealed only to protect somebody. Justice Shah demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) file an appeal against the orders of the Sessions Court granting bail to the accused in the Satyam scam to restore public confidence in the rule of law. Citing the demand of Justice Shah for the appointment the Lokpal, Justice Gopalakrishna said that he was unable to understand why the NDA government, which came to power on an anti-corruption plank, was delaying the appointment. Referring to the intervention of the Supreme Court in 498 A of the IPC, which deals with dowry harassment cases, after many allegations of misuse of the provision, the former judge felt that the Union government had the power to amend laws whenever there were allegations of misuse, but in a democratic country the rulers had to make the statutes for public good not to protect wrong doers. Justice P. Lakshman Reddy, former judge of the AP High Court, while appreciating the move of Justice Shah said, No political party in the country is sincere enough to do public good. They are dependent on corporate funding. He asked why corporates were not bro-ught under the purview of the Right to Information Act which would enable citizens to know the source of funding of political parties. He said that on this issue all the political parties are together to protect the interests of the corporates. Referring to the alleged attempts to dilute the RTI Act, the former judge said The existing RTI Act is a strong weapon in the hands of the public and diluting it is unfortunate, though there is an increase in cases of killing and threatening of whistle blowers. He said that the rulers had no guts to attempt the Anti-Defection Law which was aiding unethical politics, but they always made efforts to make laws to protect big wigs. He said It is unfortunate that the government is crushing the voices raised; we are seeing the government question even the right of the people to approach courts. Mr C. Damodar Reddy, president of the Telangana High Court Advocates Association, referring to the proposed amendments to the RTI Act that the proceedings pending before the Commission shall abate on the death of the appellant, said that Justice Shah rightly pointed out that such provision provides a perverse incentive to vested interests to silence the information seeker. Citing the remarks of Justice Shah on political appointments to PSUs, Mr Damodar Reddy said PSUs were the spine of the countrys economy and making them political rehabilitation centres and filling them with persons who did not possess the required skills would weaken the economy of the country. SRINAGAR: Five militants were killed in a fierce gun fight with security forces at Kiloora, a remote village of Jammu and Kashmirs southern Shopian district, overnight, the official said on Saturday. Soon after the funeral of one of the slain militants Arshad Ahmed held in his native village Ganowpora Balpora, at least, one civilian identified as 24-year-old Bilal Ahmed was killed and several others were wounded when the Army opened fire on a violent mob. Confirming the incident, J&Ks Director General of Police, Shesh Paul Vaid, said, The youth among the mourners hurled stones at the Army which reportedly retaliated by opening fire resulting in the death of one civilian and injuries to one or two others. The local, however, alleged that the Army opened fire without any provocation. Militants carrying AK 47 rifles were seen also at the funeral of another slain militant Waqar Ahmed Sheikh in Shopian to offer him a gun salute. Among them was Muhammad Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla, a Pakistani national from Sahiwal and a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. Chennai: Formerly a Madras High Court judge, Justice A. Selvam has now renounced city life for a life at the farm. As videos of him plowing a field on a tractor are going viral, the judge said that he has only done what he has always wanted to do. Two videos of the retired judge have been forwarded on all Whatsapp groups in the city, and this time, it is one of inspiration praising him for going back to his roots. In times when retired judges take up jobs as a one-member commission or as a judicial member of a tribunal, Judge A Selvam, who served as a high court judge for 13 years is now doing agriculture in his land, reads the message. Now in his native Pulankurichi in Tiruppattur taluk of Sivaganga district, Justice Selvam says this life isn't a major shift for him. My family has always been completely agricultural. We have been growing crops for over a century. I studied well, so I was sent off to Madurai to pursue it, fortunately, or unfortunately, he says. Starting his legal career in 1981, he gradually rose from being an additional judge in Tiruvannamalai District court to being one of the permanent judges of the Madras High Court. However, retiring this year, at the age of 62, the Judge says he has completely forgotten his judicial life. Now my life is my farm and my village. I did not like city life at all. There is no fresh air, the water is polluted and so are the people. Life is much simpler here, he says. Speaking about the kind of crops he grows, the Judge says that paddy is their major crop, and because they have two borewells, water is not a problem for the water-heavy crop. During the summers we switch to vegetables like lady finger, brinjal, and groundnuts but we mostly grow rice, he says. SRINAGAR: A 25-year-old man was shot dead by security personnel on Saturday as he allegedly tried to forcibly enter former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullahs home at Bhatindi in winter capital Jammu. Identified as Syed Murfad Shah, a resident of Chinore locality in the outskirts of Jammu, drove his black XUV into the heavily fortified residence of Abdullah before being shot dead by a sentry of the Central Reserve Police Force, the officials said. DGP Shesh Paul Vaid said that preliminary investigations have revealed that Shah was suffering from mental illness. Im told some medical prescription have been found in the car he was driving which indicates towards his facing some psychological issues. But this is a matter of investigation, he told this newspaper. However, Shahs dozens of relatives, friends, neighbours and other acquaintances staged protests demanding an inquiry into the incident. On hearing about the incident, his father and other family members reached the spot and demanded a probe into the incident, witnesses said. Later when the body was taken to government hospital for post-mortem, about 200 acquaintances of the deceased assembled there. They tried to prevent doctors from performing an autopsy for several hours and asked why an innocent unarmed person was killed. IGP (Jammu range) SD Singh Jamwal said Shah gatecrashed into the house, had a scuffle with CRPF personnel and attempted to snatch a rifle from an officer before he was killed. HYDERABAD: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the formation of Telangana state was incomplete unless the High Court was bifurcated between the two states and the new zonal system was approved to ensure 95 per cent jobs for Telangana locals. Mr Rao pointed out that out of the existing 29 judges in the High Court, only 6 were from TS. The CM pointed out that out of the existing 29 judges in the High Court, only six were from Telangana. He had an hour-long meeting with the PM in New Delhi. The CM brought 11 pending issues to the notice of the Prime Minister, which included bifurcation-related matters and sought their resolution immediately. In a representation submitted to Modi, the CM said, The long-cherished dream of Telangana remains unfulfilled as the state does not have its own separate High Court. The High Court at Hyderabad is contemplated to be a common High Court for a short period in view of the lack of time to establish a separate High Court for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh at the time of Reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh. At present, out of 29 judges in the High Court only 6 are from the Telangana region. Indeed there is a feeling among the people of Telangana that formation of the state is still incomplete without its own High Court. He added, The union law minister had given an assurance in Parliament to expedite the process to have a separate High Court as per the provisions of Article 2014 of the Constitution of India read with section 31 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. However, except for the fixation of the strength of the judges of the common High Court at Hyderabad in the ratio of 60: 40 between AP and TS as communicated by the union law ministry, there is no further development in this matter. The process may be expedited, and the law Ministry may be directed to take immediate steps for establishment of a separate High Court for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh without any further delay. The CM also sought amendment to the Presidential Order on the zonal system. KCR said As per section 97 of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, the provisions made under Article 371-D have been continued in the State of Telangana to provide equitable opportunities to the people belonging to different parts of the state. The Andhra Pradesh Public Employment Organisation of Local Cadres and Regulation of Direct Recruitment Order, 1975 (commonly known as Presidential Order) which was operational in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh provided for 6 zones. After bifurcation, the zones V and VI are within the state of Telangana, while other zones are in the successor state of Andhra Pradesh. Chennai: Madras high court has dismissed a plea from a petitioner to alter date of birth mentioned in class 10 and plus-2 school certificates. The petitioner approached the court stating that her parents gave wrong date of birth during admission into first standard. In the writ petition, S. Indhumathi submitted that she was born on July 17, 1997 in Madurai. However, she claimed that date of birth in certificates in X and XII standards had mentioned as May 17, 1997, instead of July 17. The record with the Corporation of Madurai has the original date of birth. She made a representation to the school education department to modify her date of birth in her school certificates on April 20. As there was no response, she filed the petition before the court. The counsel for the department said that such correction cannot be done as per the provisions of Tamil Nadu Secondary Education Certificate Rules. The petitioner might have given an incorrect date of birth to secure admission in first standard. Justice S Vaidyanathan said If the date of birth is altered then the entire qualifications possessed by the petitioner would become invalid as she would not have had the required age eligibility to join class I with the altered date of birth. The court cannot even decide the issue based on sympathy, as it will give a premium for everyone to knock at the doors of the court to alter date of birth. He said, If the actual date of birth as claimed by the petitioner is taken into account, then the entire qualification obtained by the petitioner will have to go, as she could not have been admitted in Class I during that point of time based on the original date of birth. Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is making 'strategic moves' to block Congress President Rahul Gandhi from entering the Osmania University campus on August 14. While the Telangana Congress leaders are busy making arrangements to hold Rahul's meeting with students at OU Arts College grounds, the government has initiated steps to block it. Following directions from the CMO, the Higher Education Department is learnt to have instructed the university authorities not to give permission to hold any political programme on the campus as it might lead to violent incidents. The university is expected to issue an order within a week banning all kinds of political meetings on the campus on the grounds that they would disrupt the academic atmosphere and might also lead to violent incidents. Since universities are autonomous bodies, the government or the police cannot directly deny permission to hold meetings on the campus. Therefore, the government has opted for an 'indirect route', asking the university authorities not to give permission for meetings and also seek police security to prevent the entry of 'outsiders' into the campus on August 14. The government asked the university to also cite disruption of arrangements for the Independence Day celebrations on the campus next day on August 15, if public meetings are held just a day before on August 14. The government wants the university's ban order framed in such a way that it would pass legal scrutiny as it expects the Congress leaders or student organisations to approach the High Court against the ban. If the government or the police department directly bans the meeting on the campus, it will not stand legal scrutiny as universities are autonomous bodies. If university itself bans it, no one can question, official sources said. The OU campus was the hotbed of the Telangana agitation from 2009 to 2014, with OUJAC, with the support of the TJAC and the TRS, spearheading the statehood agitation successfully. However, after formation of TS in 2014, the OU student organisations have been having a tiff with TRS over the failure of the state government to fill lakhs of government jobs promised during agitation. The Congress is now trying to get close to students by hosting a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and target the TRS government for its failure to provide jobs for the unemployed. The booking of an Army officer in a case of suspected extra-judicial killing in Manipur by the CBI is a painful reminder of what could happen at times even in the most disciplined of forces. This tells us that however tardy the system may be in acting on charges against Army personnel, action must be taken regardless of how rare it is that the armed forces are questioned when they are forced to be in operation in civilian areas due to militancy. There is none too exalted to be above the law. And in this particular case it does appear the circumstances surrounding the death of a schoolboy were too suspicious for the Armys account to be taken at face value. When a teenager and his friend are pulled out of a house and brutally treated in a nearby field in the full view of relatives it would appear that the particular set of forces under the officers command had abandoned all tenets of training and service in the Army. The Armys role in containing terrorism and defusing militant plots against the nation is unenviable. While certain use of force in such situations is a given, such brutal behaviour against young people without any criminal antecedents amounts to a clear transgression of all rules of conduct even in extremely trying circumstances. The fact that this case comes up nine years after the event is a pointer to how our system works. Voice of the void in a seashell A whisper loud as a storm All our tomorrows the deep well Infinite space without form Shrieks of the flock at sunset As it hovers around the trees The chill of a passing and yet The comforting twilight breeze From Ma ki Haveli (My Mothers Mansion) by Bachchoo The Labour Party of Britain, Her Majestys loyal Opposition and possible government-in-waiting, is in deep trouble. Heres not what happened: A member, lets say, of Labours ethics committee and once even a shadow minister appeared on TV saying that all Muslims living in Britain supported the murderous cult of ISIS. Several Muslim leaders objected and complained to Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, to take action. Mr Corbyn declined to comment. A member of Labours National Executive Committee (NEC) went a step further and said that in his opinion the majority of Muslims in Britain owed more loyalty to ISIS than to Britain. Two Muslim Labour MPs, call them Miriam Haji and Yusuf Ahmed, representing constituencies in the north with large Muslim populations, reacted, calling this abject anti-Muslim nonsense. They asked Mr Corbyn to take action. Mr Corbyn issued a statement of Labours opposition to all racism. Brandishing that assurance. Ms Haji and Mr Ahmed asked Mr Corbyn to suspend or expel the NEC member who held and voiced this opinion. Mr Corbyn didnt. Ms Haji then, very publicly in the House of Commons, called Mr Corbyn an Islamophobe and a racist. Her remarks were noted and calls for her expulsion from the party followed. Joining Ms Haji and Mr Ahmed in their protests, 68 imams of mosques in Britain signed an open letter in the press pointing to several remarks that Labour officials had made over time. They said there was a current of Islamophobia in the Labour Party, which ought to be checked and dealt with. Another Labour luminary and known ideological associate of Mr Corbyn then pronounced these imams to be Putins puppets who supported Bashar al-Assad and his murderous Russian-backed regime in Syria.Again, the national press, surveying opinion within the UKs Muslim communities and questioning a large sample of Muslim Labour Party members, concluded that there was a widespread fear that Labour, hitherto seen as a champion of Muslims and anti-racism, was being infiltrated by a current of Islamophobia. Analysts put this down to the Labour spokespersons perceived as Islamophobic confounded the actions and ideology of Islamism with Islam and attributed these to all Muslims. The prevalence of this conflation could certainly be labelled Islamophobia and had to be addressed head-on. Several Muslim MPs of the Labour Party muttered about resigning if action was not taken. Investigative journalists unearthed another fact: In 2010, Mr Corbyn appeared on a platform with a rabid rabbi who advocated the genocide of Palestinians. It is time, gentle reader, to repeat as I said at the start, that none of these things happened. And yet I didnt exactly make them up! Within the contexts of several statements, events, speeches, protests and accusations that have indeed taken place over the last few weeks in Britain. I substituted Muslim for Jewish, ISIS for Israel, Islamophobia for anti-Semitism, imams for rabbis, two Muslim MPs for two Jewish Labour ones and Putins puppets for Trumpeteers. The Labour Party, its NEC and Mr Corbyn appear in the above allegory as themselves. If the above scenario, the statements substituting Muslims for Jews had actually come to pass or be pronounced, the Labour Party would be in deeper trouble than it is. That cant happen. Any overt Islamophobia would be dealt with through severe condemnation and expulsions. And yet the Labour Party has got its knickers in a right twist over anti-Semitism. The party has adopted a code against anti-Semitism and annexed to itself a definition of what that is. The code comes from the world Jewish organisations themselves, but in its adoption of the definition it has left out some serious clauses. Without going into the semantics of each, it can be generally said that these are the clauses, which allow the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. For instance, a Labour Party official who condemns the domestic or foreign policy of Benjamin Netanyahu would not be considered anti-Semitic by either the Jewish community, very many of whom are critics of Israeli policy, or by the Labour Party. On the other hand, if, as the Labour ex-mayor of London Ken Livingstone did, one was to say that Hitler was a Zionist because he favoured the repatriation of Jews from Germany to Israel, he would be condemned by the Jewish community as anti-Semitic and suspended from the Labour Party for at the least not choosing his words carefully enough. It may be true that Hitler wanted initially to expel Jews before he set in motion the Holocaust, but that doesnt make him a Zionist. It is true that some of the actions of the Israeli state against Arabs are comparable to the actions of German National Socialists, but that doesnt excuse calling all Jews or Israeli Jews Nazis. Mr Corbyn needs to save the party from this destructive dilemma. He did appear on a platform in 2010 with terrorists who advocated the annihilation of Israel. In the wake of this coming to light he apologised for it saying he disagreed with what was said. A respected Jewish MP, Margaret Hodge, did object to Labours mealy-mouthed definition of anti-Semitism and she did call Mr Corbyn an anti-Semite and a bigot. Now the Labour deputy leader, several MPs and Labour constituencies are calling for no disciplinary charges to be levelled against her. Mr Corbyns supporters say this is all a conspiracy by Jews who own the press and control the establishment to discredit him and the party. This is errant nonsense. Rupert Murdoch, Lord Rothermere and the Barclay Brothers, who together own all British newspapers, have not converted to Judaism and as for the establishment I think Prince Charles and the Queen are still Anglicans. H11 Over the decades I have travelled to many countries, perhaps 30 or 40 or so. In no other country I have seen the tradition of offering a guest or a stranger who has come uninvited to your house, a glass of water. My mother did not specifically teach me to do it, but because she did it every time someone came home, I developed the habit. In these days, most of us have more strangers knock on our doors than in the time of four decades ago. Courier delivery people and cable television repairers and such other people drop in almost every day. They do not expect to be treated as guests at each house to go to, but because it is my habit I still ask them if they want to sit down have a glass of water. When some years ago I read the Valmiki Ramayana (the version I read is an excellent translation by my friend Arshia Sattar and published by Penguin), I was surprised to see that this same tradition existed in the time of Shri Ram. Every time he would go to a new place, whether some rishis hut in the jungle or some poor persons place in a village, he would be offered a glass of water as part of a ceremony. This is our Indian tradition and we should be proud of it, especially because, as I have said, I do not think anyone else around the world seems to have it. We are all familiar with the line Atithi Devo Bhava, which comes from one of the Upanishads. The exact line is Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava, Acharya Devo Bhava, Atithi Devo Bhava and we were taught this sentence in our school in Surat. It means that the mother, father, teacher and guest must be respected like God. Those of us who think of ourselves as Hindus, must consider what the true meaning of being Hindu is in light of such instruction from our texts. Have we seen any such respect or even sympathy, in this business of the disenfranchisement that is going on of people in Assam? The allegation is that many of the 40 lakh people who have not been able to identify themselves as being Indian citizens from 1971 are actually Bangladeshis. There has been some sympathy for those, like former President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmeds relatives, who have not been able to do this. But the assumption has been that these are genuine and deserving Indians who are being left out. My concern is for all of them. Even if someone is the child or grandchild of a Bangladeshi or even a Bangladeshi migrant themselves, then so what? My culture, my religion and my upbringing tells me that I must treat them, and especially those of them who are poor and weak, with humanity. I do not think that we are showing this Hindu humanity and humaneness in the process of the National Register of Citizens, which to me seems inherently cruel. What do we imagine that those who are born in Bangladesh or those whose parents were born there are doing in our country? The knee-jerk reaction will be casual allegations like they are doing terrorism and they are infiltrating our society and taking advantage of the things that we have. Such a similar allegation is also happening under American President Donald Trump. He has said he does not want immigrants from shit-hole countries but only from places like Norway. Meaning he does not want people from Africa and India (even though many Indian immigrants apply for the highly valued H1B visa which adds to the America economy) but from white countries. The main anger is directed towards the Mexicans who are thought to come because they want to mooch. This is an American expression, which means someone who lives off the benefits of the state, such as free housing and cheap public transport, and unemployment benefits but is generally lazy. I know America well, and in my experience the Mexican immigrant is, along with the illegal Gujarati Patel immigrant, among the hardest working people in that country. We know of Patel motels but we should also know that most of these people migrated without proper visas and began their careers cleaning motel rooms, which requires hard physical labour. Something similar is happening with Bangladeshis, or those people who may be Indian but are thought to be Bangladeshis. If one looks around at the service staff at restaurants and watchmen and other such people across all parts of India, many of them are from Bengal, whether east or west. In Italy, there are many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants across the country, but they are without question enterprising and hardworking and have come there because they think it is a good and decent place to live in. Why should we spit on such people who come to us because they actually like our nation more than theirs? I need hardly tell the reader what you already know, that unlike America and Europe we do not have free or subsidised public housing, we do not get unemployment benefits and we do not have good public healthcare. India is a hard place to live in for someone who is poor. We should keep this in mind when we debate what the next stage is in this journey towards declaring these people foreigners and figuring out what to do with them. And we should, especially those of us in positions of power who take pride in our culture, tradition and religion, ask ourselves how we are to interpret Atithi Devo Bhava for such individuals. An exercise meant to determine illegal migrants in Assam, has turned into a political controversy with both the Opposition parties and the ruling BJP accusing each other of playing politics over the issue. In an interview to YOJNA GUSAI, Rajya Sabhas nominated member and RSS thinker RAKESH SINHA calls Mamata Banerjee a Naxalite and says the Opposition is trying to give a communal colour to the Supreme Court-monitored exercise. The NRC seems to be the latest bone of contention between the government and the Opposition parties. The Opposition parties have accused the government and the ruling party of indulging in divide and rule policy through it and also threatened that it could lead to a civil war. The Opposition has been blatantly indulging in distortion of facts and propagating misinformation systematically for the sake of vote-bank politics. By doing this, they are protecting and patronising infiltrators. In fact, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is betraying her own commitment, which she had so vehemently demonstrated in Parliament in 2005. Ms Banerjee also crossed a line by threatening a civil war. By this threat, she has identified infiltrators with Indian Muslims when the entire issue of NRC is Indians vs foreigners and these foreigners can be of any religion. Everyone knows that a civil war is a direct attack on the Constitution of India and it is for the first time in the history of independent and modern India that a person holding a constitutional post spoke like a Naxalite. Why do you call her a Naxalite? She is a power-hungry politician who is also ultra ambitious. Ms Banerjee is trying to grab the Opposition space which is witnessing a vacuum. Her intention is to emerge as the Leader of the Opposition bloc as Congress president Rahul Gandhi has failed to take that position. However, she is in delusion of her aggressiveness and even other Opposition parties have realised that she is unfit for governance and the evidence is the state of West Bengal. She came to New Delhi to project herself as the leader of Indian Muslim and misused an issue whose only aim is to find out who are the real citizens of this country. She openly threatened of a civil war, and surprisingly, no Opposition party objected to it; not even the Left parties who miss no opportunity to say Constitution is under threat for small incidents. Both the Opposition and the BJP have accused each other of playing politics over the issue. Everyone saw in Parliament who was playing politics. The Rajya Sabha was disrupted and the Trinamul Congress-led Opposition played a destructive role for three days. Almost 10 members from the Opposition parties spoke without interruption from the ruling benches even when they levelled all kinds of allegations and accusations, including against Hindutva and the RSS. They alleged that 2014 was the year when divisive politics began but even then no one from the treasury benches objected, as the issue being discussed was sensitive and very important. But when BJP president Amit Shah began his speech on behalf of the ruling party and placed before the House the legitimate fact that it was the Assam Accord signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi which is the soul of the NRC and that the Congress lacked courage to implement it, they started shouting and did not allow Mr Shah to speak. Did he speak anything which was unparliamentary or was threatening or challenging? Not only did they not allow Mr Shah to finish, they did not even allow home minister Rajnath Singh to speak. Instead, they demanded that the Prime Minister should make a statement. But when finally the home minister replied, nobody could question the governments stand. Mr Singh assured the Parliament that no Indian citizen will be left out of the NRC. So all that happened in the House earlier was part of the Trinamul Congress-led Oppositions strategy to disrupt. But what it proved was that Ms Banerjee has taken the form of an anarchist. There was a strategy behind Mr Shah not being allowed to keep his partys view during the debate in the Rajya Sabha? Absolutely. Mr Shah was placing his partys stand on the issue for which the Chair had given him the permission. But Opposition members were afraid of his speech as he was very assertive on the ideological dimension and also his clarity on the NRC had exposed the Oppositions hollow criticism. No one (Opposition members) mentioned what was the reason behind the NRC and about the agitation, which Assam witnessed in the early 1980s against illegal migrants. No one mentioned about the Assam Accord. But some BJP members want the NRC to be implemented in other states as well, including West Bengal. Well, the NRC in Assam is imperative, but its more imperative in West Bengal. Due to the Assam agitation of 1980, there has been a growing index of consciousness against the infiltrators and their impact on the states demography, culture society and economy. At least, the Assamese have been able to resist their impact, but in West Bengal, due to protracted patronage by the Congress, the CPI(M) and the Trinamul Congress, the civil society is facing problems with regard to infiltrators and (their) criminal activities. Therefore, the NRC must reach West Bengal, which has become the mother of counter-federalism. Presenting the same news in a different manner misrepresents the facts. (Photo: ANI) With rumours on various social media platforms triggering lynching incidents in several parts of India, the local authorities on Friday conducted a workshop titled 'How to Avoid Fake News' for journalists residing in the region. The workshop was conducted by the District Information Office, District Office and Police Administration, just a few days after two men were killed by a violent mob following their fake video were circulated on social media. While addressing the batch of journalists, Charansingh Kayet, the chief of Government Institute of Forensic Science, explained to the participants that presenting the same news in a different manner misrepresents the facts and leaves a negative impact on the society. He also reflected on a few other subjects such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and neural network, which aggravate the production of fake news online. "Each day as many as 200 million people are active on Facebook and Whatsapp who are capable of manipulating the news that can create troubles in near future," Kayet added. Talking to ANI regarding the same, Commissioner of Police, Chiranjivi Prasad, assured that the authorities would organise more programmes in schools, colleges, and public places in order to save people falling prey to fake news. In an attempt to battle fake news in India, the Whatsapp on July 20 had announced that they would soon launch a test to limit forwarding on the messaging app. In a statement, Whatsapp had stated, "In India - where people forward more messages, photos, and videos than any other country in the world - we will also test a lower limit of 5 chats at once and we'll remove the quick forward button next to media messages." 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. Facebooks prior announcement on the topic of fake accounts, in April, directly connected a Russian group known as the Internet Research Agency to a myriad of posts, events and propaganda that were placed on Facebook leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. Creators of fake accounts and news pages on Facebook are learning from their past mistakes and making themselves harder to track and identify, posing new challenges in preventing the platform from being used for political misinformation, cybersecurity experts say. This was apparent as Facebook tried to determine who created pages it said were aimed at sowing dissension among US voters ahead of congressional elections in November. The company said on Tuesday it had removed 32 fake pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram involved in what it called coordinated inauthentic behaviour. While the United States improves its efforts to monitor and root out such intrusions, the intruders keep getting better at it, said cyber security experts interviewed over the past two days. Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Digital Forensic Research Lab, said he had noticed the latest pages used less original language, rather cribbing from a copy already on the internet. Linguistic mistakes would give them away before, between 2014 and 2017, Nimmo told Reuters. In some of these newer cases, it seems theyve caught on to that by writing less (original material) when posting things. With their longer posts sometimes its just pirated, copy and pasted from some American website. That makes them less suspicious. Facebooks prior announcement on the topic of fake accounts, in April, directly connected a Russian group known as the Internet Research Agency to a myriad of posts, events and propaganda that were placed on Facebook leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. This time, Facebook did not identify the source of the misinformation. Its clear that whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past, the company said in a blog post here on Tuesday announcing the removal of the pages. Our technical forensics are insufficient to provide high confidence attribution at this time. Facebook said it had shared evidence connected to the latest flagged posts with several private sector partners, including the Digital Forensic Research Lab, an organization founded by the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. Facebook also said the use of virtual private networks, internet phone services, and domestic currency to pay for advertisements helped obfuscate the source of the accounts and pages. The perpetrators also used a third party, which Facebook declined to name, to post content. Facebook declined to comment further, referring back to its blog post. US President Donald Trumps top national security aides said on Thursday that Russia is behind pervasive attempts to interfere in Novembers elections and that they expect attempts by Russia, and others, will continue into the 2020 elections. They say they are concerned that attempts will be made to foment confusion and anger among various political groups in the United States and cause a distrust of the electoral process. Two US intelligence officials who requested anonymity told Reuters this week there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Russia was behind the latest Facebook campaign. However, one said, the similarities, aims and methodology relative to the 2016 Russian campaign is quite striking. PREVIOUS MISTAKES Experts who track online disinformation campaigns said the groups who launch such efforts have changed how they post content and create posts. These actors are learning from previous mistakes, said John Kelly, chief executive of social media intelligence firm Graphika, adding they do not use the same internet addresses or pay in foreign currency. And as more players in the world learn these dark arts, its easier for them to hide among the multiple actors deploying the same playbook, he said. Philip Howard, an Oxford University professor of internet studies and director of the Oxford Internet Institute, said that suspicious social media accounts like those taken down this week were once more easily identifiable because they shared the same information from high-profile publications like RT, the Russian English-language news service, or Breitbart News Network. But now, the content they often share is more diverse and less discernible, coming from lesser known sites, including internet forums that mix political news with other topics, he said. The junk news theyre sharing is using better quality images, for example, more believable domains, less-known websites, smaller blogs, Howard added. US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential campaign using tactics including fake Facebook accounts. The Internet Research Agency was one of three Russian companies charged in February by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller with conspiracy to tamper with the 2016 election. Moscow has denied any election interference. 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. More states are suing the Trump administration to dissolve a settlement it reached with a company that wants to post instructions online for making 3D-printed firearms that are hard to trace and detect. Mostly Democratic attorneys general from 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, filed an amended complaint Friday asking a judge make it illegal to share plans on creating printable plastic weapons. One Republican Colorados attorney general joined the lawsuit. It comes days after US District Judge Robert Lasnik blocked the plans from being released until Aug. 28. He has scheduled an Aug. 21 hearing on the states request to reverse the US State Departments agreement with Austin, Texas-based Defence Distributed. The settlement jeopardises states ability to enforce gun laws, including background checks, and puts public safety at risk, the complaint said. The availability of plastic guns threatens safety in prisons and jails and makes air travel more susceptible to terrorist attacks, the states said. The states and the District of Columbia have a clear and reasonable fear that the proliferation of untraceable, undetectable weapons will enable convicted felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill, and others who should not have access to firearms to acquire and use them, Lasnik said in his temporary order Tuesday. Defence Distributed owner Cody Wilson, a self-described crypto-anarchist, has said, governments should live in fear of their citizenry. His company seeks to make guns accessible to everyone, making meaningful gun regulation impossible, according to the complaint. Wilsons lawyer, Josh Blackman, told The Associated Press on Friday that they are still considering our options but did not elaborate. He told the judge this week that the safety risks claimed by the states are largely exaggerated because many of the files are already online. Washington state Assistant Attorney General Jeff Rupert acknowledged that some files are out there but hope the court rulings will make it clear that any new posts violate federal law. A group of gun-rights advocates called the Firearms Policy Coalition responded to the judges order by creating a website with plans for various firearms, including the Liberator, a 3D-printable single-shot handgun. Our Constitutions First Amendment secures the right of all people to engage in truthful speech, including by sharing information contained in books, paintings, and files, the group said in a statement online. Should any tyrants wish to chill or infringe the rights of the People, we would welcome the opportunity to defend freedom whenever, wherever, and however necessary. Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group, said the Firearms Policy Coalitions reckless and dangerous behaviour isnt a constitutional position but a publicity stunt that will lead to someone being hurt or killed. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson urged the federal government to enforce the court order prohibiting distribution of downloadable gun files. The states suing are Washington, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. The expanded lawsuit comes as a group of congressional Democrats introduced legislation that would block online instructions for 3D-printed guns, which are largely undetectable at security checkpoints, according to a statement released Friday by US Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, Brad Schneider of Illinois and Carolyn Maloney of New York. This isnt about freedom of information; this is about our national security and our public safety, Rep. Deutch said. Another measure introduced this week requires plastic guns to have serial numbers and enough metal to make them visible on screening machines. President Donald Trump has questioned whether his administration should have agreed to allow the plans to be posted online, tweeting Tuesday that the idea doesnt seem to make much sense! Since then, he has been largely silent on the issue. 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. The corrections department plans to return the tablets to inmates after the security concerns are addressed. (Photo: Pixabay) New concerns about the security of computer tablets offered to inmates prompted Colorado authorities to take away all 15,000 of its tablets from state prisoners. The confiscation comes a week after Idaho officials said 364 inmates exposed a glitch in their tablets that they used to apply a total of $225,000 in credits to their accounts, which they spent to send emails, stream music, play games, read books or take classes. Officials in Colorado declined to discuss the security issue that led them to confiscate the tablets. Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Fairbairn said Thursday prisoners were not using the tablets to hack into computer systems or to take money. It had nothing to do with what happened in Idaho, Fairbairn said. The corrections department plans to return the tablets to inmates after the security concerns are addressed, but its not clear when that will be, Fairbairn said. The Denver Post reported Wednesday that Colorado became the first state to provide inmates with tablets in 2016. Now, prison officials estimate that more than one in 10 correctional facilities across the U.S. offer tablets to their inmates. Inmates pay for the tablets services. For example, an email can cost anywhere from 25 to 50 cents. The manufacturers include Reston, Virginia-based Global Tel-Link, which donated the tablets to the Colorado prison system, and Miramar, Florida-based JPay, which supplied the tablets for prisons in Idaho. Fairbairn said he didnt know whether the security concern in Colorado affects other prison systems that use tablets from Global Tel-Link or GTL. I would assume GTL would address those concerns with other states that have the same tablet, Fairbairn said. I dont know that weve specifically reached out to a state agency. Global Tel-Link spokeswoman Vinnie Mascarenhas said in a statement that the company is obligated to let the Colorado corrections department complete its inquiry before commenting. We can say that to the extent that there is an issue, we are confident it is limited to this instance, she said in the statement. We hope that what doesnt get lost in this story is the transformational power of tablets to give inmates education, job training and ready communications to family and community. In Idaho, corrections officials took disciplinary action against the inmates who received credits earlier in July. Those inmates could lose privileges and may be reclassified to a higher security risk level. JPay has suspended the ability of the inmates to download music and games until they re-pay JPay. The inmates can still send and receive emails. 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. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the July 25 elections, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies. Islamabad: Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister, may take the oath of office on the country's Independence Day on August 14, a media report said on Saturday. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the July 25 elections, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies. Earlier on July 30, Khan, 65, had expressed his desire to take the oath of Prime Minister on August 11, as his party announced that it had acquired enough seats in the lower house through coalition talks to form a majority government. "It is my and caretaker prime minister retired Justice Nasirul Mulk's desire that the oath-taking of the new prime minister should take place on August 14," caretaker Law Minister Ali Zafar told Dawn on Friday. Unveiling a tentative schedule of the National Assembly formation, the minister said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was already on board as it was engaged in making necessary arrangements required to hold the prime minister's election on the desired date. Zafar said a fresh session of the assembly could be called on August 11 or 12. "If it is held on August 11, the election of the prime minister can take place on Augst 14 and on the same day President Mamnoon Hussain can administer the oath to the new prime minister," he added. Zafar elaborated that if the National Assembly (NA) session was held on August 11, the same day the new members would be administered the oath. He said that after printing of ballot papers for the elections of the NA speaker and deputy speaker, their elections could take place on August 13 and the next day the election of the prime minister could be held. However, if the National Assembly session was called on August 12, the election of the prime minister would be held on August 15, he added. "We wanted that the new prime minister should take his oath on Independence Day so that the new government can start its functioning with full national fervour and commitment to bring progress to the country," he said. Meanwhile, successful candidates of the July 25 general elections will have to submit returns of their election expenses today the deadline fixed by the ECP for filing of returns and a notification will be issued the following day. Three days will be given to independent candidates if they want to join any party. Similarly, three days will be spent on seats reserved for women and minorities. The caretaker law minister told the media that as per the Constitution, the first session of the National Assembly would have to be summoned within 21 days after the general election. He said it was necessary to fulfil this obligation by August 15. After election, the newly-elected prime minister would take the oath and the job of the caretaker Prime Minister and his cabinet would be over and power would be transferred to the new government under constitutional provisions. The minister said the ECP was completing legal formalities, including consolidation of elections results, and collection of returns of election expenditures from the wining candidates. The ECP after giving time to independent candidates to join a political party or stay independent would issue parties position in the assembly, Zafar said, adding that after that the comisssion would issue a list of winning candidates on reserved seat for women and minorities. Islamabad: Pakistans Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan on Saturday decided to limit the size of his Cabinet. Initially, it have 15 to 20 ministers among which, allies will also get some important posts. Party sources said that Mr Khan will himself monitor the performance of ministers. Those likely to be inducted are Asad Umer for finance ministers post and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for foreign ministers position. Shireen Mazari is also interested in the post, but there are chances of her being made the defence minister. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday concluded her "result-oriented" visit to Kyrgyzstan during which she held talks with the country's top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. Swaraj called on Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov on Friday and met her counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev today and discussed ways to deepen cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. She left for Uzbekistan on the final leg of her three-nation tour. "Concluding a focused and result-oriented visit, EAM takes off for Tashkent for the final leg of her 3-nation visit," Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. "Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev, a perfect host, came to the airport to see off EAM Sushma Swaraj and accepted EAM's invitation to visit India," Kumar said. After their bilateral meeting, Abdyldaev invited Swaraj for a stroll along the picturesque Lake Issyk Kul - the 2nd largest mountain lake in the world. "Issyk Kul means warm lake! The warmth that helped consolidate the traditional friendly ties between India and Kyrgyzstan during EAM Sushma Swaraj visit," Kumar tweeted. Swaraj arrived yesterday at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. "Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production," Kumar tweeted. Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev's trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has withdrawn the move to establish a social media communication hub for analysing online activities of citizens. Attorney General K K Venugopal informed a three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the government has taken a decision and the notification was being withdrawn. He submitted before the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, the government would review the social media policy. He also said the PIL has become infructuous. Taking note of the submission, the court disposed of the petition filed by TMC MLA Mahua Moitra. The move by the NDA government comes weeks after the apex court took strong exception to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's decision in April, saying it would be "like creating a surveillance state". The court had earlier also asked if the government wanted to tap citizens' WhatsApp messages. The decision by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry was to "monitor and collect digital media chatter from all core social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to give a positive slant to news and discussions for India and inculcate nationalistic feelings in the masses. The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL), a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the ministry, had floated a tender to supply a software for the project. The tender was to be opened on August 20. The petitioner claimed it will be a breach of privacy of an individual. Under the project, people, right up to the district level, will be monitored, she said. The next Lok Sabha elections may be several months away but the ongoing "kanwar yatra" (an annual pilgrimage in the Hindu month of Shravana during which the devotees carry the sacred waters of Ganga in earthen pitchers and offer the same to Lord Shiva) seems to have already acquired a political flavour. Songs heaping praise on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for allowing the use of DJs in the yatra, during which the devotees at times walk over 100 km barefoot carrying pitchers, are a big hit with devotees. Songs like "chakke churwa diya Yogi ne... dj bajwa diye Yogi ne" (Yogi beat everyone...Yogi allowed playing of DJ) could be heard playing loudly during the yatra in different parts of Uttar Pradesh, especially in the districts adjoining Varanasi, Allahabad, Muzaffarnagar and Meerut. A few songs criticising former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav for banning the use of DJ during the kanwar yatra, when his party was in power in the state, were also played. The Akhilesh Yadav-led government had banned DJs as it triggered communal tension in some parts of the state. The Muslim community had objected to the use of DJs especially when the groups of dancing devotees passed from near mosques. The Adityanath government, however, lifted the ban. The chief minister had even once remarked that the kanwar yatra was not a funeral procession, where DJs could not play. The state government, however, banned playing of film songs during the yatra. Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday told the Legislative Assembly that people were dumping puppies and kittens in the garbage while they were still alive. He said around 25 puppies and 35 kittens were rescued from the waste treatment plant during the garbage segregation work. Goa Waste Management Corporation's plant located at Saligao village near Panaji treats garbage collected from various village panchayats in North Goa. "We have been getting garbage which is of a mixed nature. We even find alive puppies and kittens dumped in the garbage...Right now there are 20-25 cats and 30-35 dogs in the area around the plant, which were rescued from the garbage," he said. The chief minister was responding to a question asked by BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral on the processing of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) collected at the waste treatment plant and its transportation to cement factories in Karnataka. "RDF is a mix of garbage and we get all kind of waste in it, including plastic, which needs to be burnt at 1,200 degrees centigrade. That is why we have to send it to the cement factories," Parrikar said. At the waste treatment plant, inorganic waste primarily plastic is shredded, crushed and moisture is entirely removed to form RDF, which can be used as fuel in the incineration plants of cement factories. Parrikar said four cement factories in Karnatka were taking RDF from Goa. Cabral said the Goa government should look out for alternative cement plants in other states considering the rivalry of the state with Karnataka over Mahadayi water dispute. Parrikar said the government was already in talks with the plants in Maharashtra as the state needed alternative arrangements. The stage is set for the crucial Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra led Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The yatra will set the mood for a pre-poll campaign for the BJP in Rajasthan. The 40-day yatra will begin from Charbhuja Ji Nath temple (350 km from Jaipur) and will be flagged-off by BJP national president Amit Shah on Saturday. After flagging off the yatra Vasundhara and Shah will reach JK Stadium in Kankroli in a helicopter to address a gathering of around two lakh people. The last-minute preparations are on for the address. "We have made six domes which are waterproof considering the monsoon season. We are expecting around two lakh supporters to attend the inaugural sabha of the yatra. Most of the attendees will come from Udaipur division", Social Justice Minister and BJP leader Arun Chaturvedi, who was taking stock of the preparations at the venue, told DH. Most of the MLAs are mobilising party workers in their constituencies to make the rally a historic one. Vasundhara will cover a distance of 6,054 km and visit 165 Assembly constituencies across the state in a refurbished rath (chariot) in form of a deluxe bus equipped with a lift for easy access to the roof. The chariot is also equipped with a makeshift office and has a smart TV for live streaming the yatra and to get a feedback from the locals, who come to participate in the yatra. Moreover, the bus is also equipped with a sofa, a bed and a refrigerator. However, Raje will also be taking helicopter rides in constituencies that are not easily accessible. Will Charbhuja be lucky again Vasundhara is repeating the same venue (Charbhuja temple) for the third time to start her election campaign. Earlier, she took out two election yatras from this temple, in 2003 and 2013, while being the leader of the Opposition. The yatra becomes crucial for Vasundhara after BJP president Amit Shah announced that she will be the chief ministerial candidate for Rajasthan if the BJP emerges as a winner. Whenever Vasundhara had started her yatras from Charbhuja ji Temple, the results have been favourable both for her and for the local leaders there. Raje has helped form BJP government twice in the state. On both the occasions, BJP candidate from Kumbhagarh, Surendra Singh Rathore, had won with a good margin. In 2003, BJP candidate Surendra Singh Rathore defeated Congress stalwart Hiralal Devpura by a margin of more than 24,000 votes. Similarly in 2013, when the BJP was fighting back to come to power, once again Rathore emerged victorious and defeated Congress candidate Ganesh Singh Parmar by more than 27,000 votes. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe SALT LAKE CITY A South Jordan man whose 8-month-old Australian shepherd died after he beat the dog for peeing on his bed has been ordered to serve roughly eight months in jail. Michael Anthony Fario, 25, was criminally charged in May after veterinarians determined his dog Pip suffered fractures to its ribs and liver, and had severe trauma to its thoracic and abdominal cavities. Third District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills on Monday sentenced Fario to 240 days in jail without the possibility of early release, plus three years of probation. The judge ordered Fario to undergo an in-custody addiction treatment program, plus an anger management evaluation and to complete any recommended therapy. He also is required to have no contact with minor children while on probation. Fario in May admitted intentionally or knowingly torturing a companion animal, a third-degree felony, plea documents show. A conviction carries a possible prison sentence of up to five years, but in exchange for the plea, prosecutors recommended no prison time. A misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice also was dismissed as part of a plea bargain. On March 25, investigators were called to Fario's home by his stepfather, who told them he had seen his stepson punch the dog repeatedly with closed fists and once heard a "thudding" sound after the dog urinated on Fario's bed, charging documents state. Fario allegedly told investigators he took issue with the puppy peeing on his bed several days in a row, so he "smacked" and "spanked" the dog. Charges say he noticed the puppy acting strange and not eating or drinking in the days before its death, but he did not call a veterinarian. When he discovered the dog had died, investigators say he put it in a trash bag in an outside garbage can. Police said Fario had the Australian shepherd for six months before its death. In the days after he was first charged, Fario's mother submitted a letter to the court. She said he needed treatment for anger and addiction and that he acknowledges he should not own a pet again, at least until he deals with those issues. "I know he is not an evil person," she wrote, adding that her son was in extreme pain as he came off of methadone. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. MURRAY The Murray School District will assist parents who need help registering their children for school during an event Tuesday at Hillcrest Junior High School, 178 E. 5300 South. During the event, which will run from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., representatives from the district will help translate registration forms and answer any questions. Free and reduced lunch forms will also be available. All students grades K through 12, new and returning, must be registered before the first day of school, which is Monday, Aug. 20. For more information, or to register a student, log on to murrayschools.org. MIDVALE Utah's Zagg, a business well-known for its line of mobile device accessories, announced its acquisition this week of Braven, an Orem-based retailer of earphones, headphones and Bluetooth speakers. The move grows Zagg's product line, which also includes keyboards, cases, mobile power supplies, phone and tablet screen protectors and wireless chargers. A Zagg spokesman told the Deseret News the company plans to maintain the Braven brand and retain all of the company's current employees. Zagg CEO Chris Ahern said the acquisition compliments and expands the company's portfolio of mobile device add-ons. "As a leading mobile lifestyle company, (Tuesday's) announcement marks an important milestone for our company," Ahern said in a statement. "Braven is a category creator and leader in technology, and expands our house of brands into new segments of the large and growing audio category while leveraging our global distribution to rapidly scale the company. "Together, we look forward to continuing the Braven brand heritage of developing intelligently designed products with cutting-edge innovation and craftsmanship that will thrill even the most demanding outdoor adventurers and audio enthusiasts." Braven, founded in 2011, specializes in wireless outdoor and active-lifestyle speakers, as well as earphones and high-performance indoor wireless speakers. Braven joins Zagg's other product lines including InvisibleShield screen protectors; Mophie battery phone cases and mobile power sources; and iFrogz earphones and headphones. In a statement to the Deseret News, Zagg President Brian Stech said bringing Braven into the fold will help the company continue to lead in the mobile accessory market segment. "The company is committed to enhance every aspect of performance, productivity and durability in mobile devices with creative product solutions," Stech said. "Zagg has created a platform that addresses specific consumer needs to empower a mobile lifestyle. Mobile devices are essential to modern living and ZAGG's mission is to ensure better performance in the real world." Zagg stock was selling for $14.70 per share at the end of regular trading on Friday. The company has a current market capitalization of about $436 million. SALT LAKE CITY Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, defended a mailer Friday sent by her office to constituents about her efforts on a banking bill that features a Deseret News masthead over a statement from an op-ed that appeared in the paper. "Its accurate. Its a quote that was published in Deseret News. So thats exactly what were stating here. Were not saying that this came from the editorial board," Love said. The mailer, sent out at taxpayers' expense, places the statement, "This will be the most signficant bipartisan action taken by Congress this year, and Love sponsored several key provisions in the bill," under the newspaper's masthead. The quote is not from a news story or a Deseret News editorial, but from a May 29 op-ed submitted by Scott Simpson, Utah Credit Union Association president and CEO, and Howard Headlee, who holds the same position with the Utah Bankers Association, titled "Thanks to Mia Love for fixing Dodd-Frank." An op-ed is a signed opinion piece from authors not associated with a newspaper's editorial board. "I dont think its a misrepresentation, but I would love to have a conversation with the editors," Love said. She said "there have been many different op-eds that have been published that we have quoted" from the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News. Editors of the Deseret News raised concerns about the mailer. "The mailer misrepresents a statement of a guest opinion writer as an official position of the Deseret News. Clarity and proper attribution are critical when communicating to the public and this mailer doesnt do that," said Doug Wilks, editor of the Deseret News, and Boyd Matheson, opinion editor, in a joint statement. "In a subsequent mailer the statement in question is properly attributed to a guest opinion writer. The mailer was brought to the newspaper's attention by the campaign of Love's Democratic opponent in the November general election, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. McAdams said the authors of the op-ed are banking lobbyists who are also Love supporters, yet their statement on the mailer is "being passed off as if it is the independent journalism of the Deseret News." That is "dishonest and misleading," the mayor said. He said Love is "using tax dollars to mislead the public. I think its unethical and an abuse of the privilege of her office." Love said in a statement later Friday that she thinks "this is an attempt from my opponent to distract from the results I am delivering for my constituents." She said Simpson and Headlee wrote the op-ed "as constituents who were thankful for my successful legislative efforts in reversing burdensome regulations which hurt Utah families and small businesses." Her communications director, Rich Piatt, said the mailer "like all mailers, went through a bipartisan House committee, which approved it without reservation. We were advised by the franking commission that the complaint was clearly political without validity. SOUTH SALT LAKE Pitched in a dusty field in 90-degree heat Friday afternoon, a line of tents stood next to a real estate office in South Salt Lake, near where old Granite High School once stood. Sitting in lawn chairs in their tents' shade Friday, Rinchen Phuntsok and Jeff Johnson were weary from the previous night's camp out but were still "running on adrenaline," as Johnson put it. "We were very anxious," Phuntsok said, telling of how he and his wife had nabbed the first place in line at 6 p.m. Thursday a move that caught the attention of Johnson's real estate agent and prompted him to immediately follow suit. Soon after they set up camp, the men would find out they have pretty good odds of becoming next door neighbors. "We already shook hands on splitting the cost of the fence," Johnson said, laughing with Phuntsok. The two men had pitched their tents outside the Garbett Homes real estate office the evening before, eager to claim a spot in line in anticipation of a chance they had been waiting months for the chance to buy a spot for one of the single-family homes on the former Granite High School property. As of Saturday morning at 9 a.m., the builders would begin taking "first-come, first-served" buyers rather than seeking out the biggest and best offer. It was a new approach to home sales that gave Phuntsok and Johnson optimism, as two hopeful homebuyers who had waited and searched for months for the perfect spot to build their dream homes but who knew, in today's hot market, they would be out of luck if an investor with a large cash offer were to swoop in. When they found out Garbett Homes was selling the first 31 homes on the first phase of the Granite Legacy development on a first-come, first-served basis, they said they felt they actually had a chance. Usually, homebuilders will take the highest and best offer, said Johnson's agent, Clint Warner, with KW Utah Realtors' Salt Lake Homes team. Typically investors who have a lot of cash and can offer $50,000 in earnest money or inflate their offer to win the bid, he said. "Most people can't compete with that," Warner said. It's a symptom of Utah's hot housing market, Warner added, where desirable homes are already only spending days on the market before they're placed under contract. "It's crazy," he said. "I mean, people are willing to sleep out for a few nights just to get a decent lot at a decent price." So Johnson said he's grateful Garbett Homes is "doing something different." "I think it's a lot better for everybody especially in this market, you know?" Johnson said. "Not everybody has that kind of cash to just throw away." Phuntsok said he and his wife are currently living in an apartment in Salt Lake City and have been looking for a home for almost two years. It's been "very difficult" for the average homebuyer, he said, "especially if you're looking for a central location and at the price point you want." But now, the men felt confident they'd have a good shot of putting their preferred lots under contract. Phuntsok had is eye on lot 106. For Johnson, lot 107. By Friday afternoon, a handful of others had followed their lead. They expected more to join them later Friday evening. "It's really interesting that there's already a bonding that's arising from the people waiting in line to pick our their choices of Salt Lake dirt," Johnson said, explaining that he and Phuntsok already feel like neighbors, even though they were complete strangers to each other the night before. Eileen Whiting, director of sales and marketing for Garbett Homes, said she pushed for a first-come, first-served approach to the Granite Legacy subdivision because there had been "just a lot of interest" in the lots dating back about six months and "there was a lot of pent-up demand." "Our whole goal is we want to be fair," she said. "We didn't want to get in a bidding war." Megan Miller, a Garbett Homes sales associate, said more than 200 people signed up on the subdivision's "interest list" eager to place an offer. Typically other builders accept the highest and best offer, Miller acknowledged, but they decided to try a different approach because "that's really discouraging to those that are kind of on a tight budget." "It just prices people out of homes, which I don't feel like is fair," Miller said. Miller said she'd be surprised if all 31 lots up for sale Saturday morning would be sold out in one day, but she said she expects to get close based on how many campers had begun to line up. The Granite Legacy development which previously attracted headlines as a controversial project when neighbors fought against the demolition of the historical school includes a total of 75 homes. Prices range from about $390,000 to $430,000 on the homes, with lot sizes from 0.14 acres to .22 acres. The 31 up for sale Saturday is the first phase of the development, Whiting said. She didn't know when the other phase, made up of 44 homes, would launch and whether they would also be sold by first come, first served, because she said she wanted to see how the first phase's sales go first. "This is an experiment for us; we've never done this before," said Glenn Hoggan, Garbett Homes marketing manager. "We've never had this kind of build up waiting for a community to open, so it's a learning experience for us." India to respond to US import tariffs despite STA-1 status India will start imposing higher duties on select imports from the United States beginning 18 September as Washington refused to exempt Indian exports of steel and aluminium to the US from punitive tariffs. The new US rates that will kick in from today (4 August) as New Delhis attempts to persuade the Trump administration from imposing trade distorting tariffs failed to yield results. With Washington refusing to exempt India from its tariff action, India has been left with no other option than raise taxes on some US products, including almonds, walnuts and apples, as a retaliatory measure. Officials from New Delhi and Washington, including US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis, are scheduled to hold a series of meetings, including strategic talks, with their Indian counterparts in September. Differences between India and the United States over the trade gap have been simmering ever since President Donald Trump took office. While bilateral trade rose to $115 billion in 2016, it has left a $31 billion surplus with India. Washington is now pressing New Delhi to ease trade barriers, especially in manufactured products, with President Trump often invoking the high duty that India imposes on US luxury bike brand Hardly Stevenson. India, the world's biggest buyer of US almonds, had in June proposed to raise import duties on the commodity by 20 per cent and a 120-per cent duty on import of walnuts, joining the European Union and China in retaliating against Trump's tariff hikes on steel and aluminium. India has proposed to buy petroleum products from the US to help narrow the trade deficit. The United States has also emerged as a top arms supplier to India and US companies are bidding for military aircraft deals worth billions of dollars. This is despite Washington elevating India to the status of a Nato ally in defence deals. US issued a federal notification making India the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to get the Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi, particularly in civil space and defence sectors. India is the 37th country to be designated the STA-1 status by the United States. The federal notification, issued yesterday, gains significance as the Trump Administration made an exception for India, which is yet to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Traditionally, the US has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and the NSG. In its federal notification, the Trump Administration notes that India is a member of three of the four multilateral export regimes. Mainly because of the political opposition from China, India's membership application has been pending before NSG, which takes decision by consensus. By placing India in the STA-1 list, the United States has acknowledged that for all practical purposes India adheres to the export control regimes of the NSG. SC approves RCom, Ericsson deal, R Jio to get telecom assets The Supreme Court has approved a settlement between Reliance Communications, owned by Anil Ambani, and the India unit of Swedish major Ericsson AB, paving the way for the sale of its telecom assets to Reliance Jio. Reliance Communications can sell its telecom assets worth over Rs180 billion to Reliance Jio, controlled by Anils elder brother Mukesh Ambani. The transaction will see RComs debt reduce by half. RCom has been asked to pay Rs5.5 billion to Ericsson by 1 October. The company will complete the sale of its assets by the Reserve Bank of India imposed deadline of August 27. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had in May put on hold the insolvency plea initiated by Ericsson India against RCom, following the discussion between the two companies for a mutual settlement. It ordered RCom to pay Rs5.5 billion to Ericsson India against its claims within 120 days. It had also cleared the sale of RComs telecom assets by its lenders to Reliance Jio. However, the insolvency procedures would resume if RCom was unable to clear Ericssons dues within the stipulated time frame. The company then approached the Supreme Court objecting to the NCLAT order. Telecom gear makers welcome Trai recommendations on promoting local manufacturing The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indias report, Recommendations on promoting local telecom equipment manufacturing, have been welcomed by telecom gear makers. The Trai recommendations to promote local telecom equipment manufacturing is a welcome move by the regulator, said Sanjeev Kakkar, vice-chairman, Telecom System Design & Manufacturing. The aim to make India net zero importer of telecom equipment by 2022 is particularly noteworthy. The Trai has urged that India should aim to be net zero importer of telecommunications equipment by 2022. It is now critical that these recommendations are implemented in true spirit for the benefit of the domestic manufacturers and thereby the country, said Kakkar. The authority said that the Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Council should identify and recommend specific areas of priorities to achieve the objective of net zero imports of telecom equipment. For promoting research, innovation, standardisation, design, testing, certification and manufacturing indigenous telecom equipment, it has suggested the setting up of a telecom Research and Development Fund with an initial corpus of Rs1,000 crore. The Trai has also suggested that the government should incentivise setting up of testing and infrastructure facilities in the country by private entities. These facilities should be accredited by the Telecom Engineering Centre. All telecom products meant for use in the telecommunication network or by consumer and marketed in the country should be classified as either fully finished imported products or indigenous products, says the Trai. Indigenous products should be further classified into Made in India Products, Designed in India Products or Designed and Made in India Products. The rules of attraction: Scientists find elusive molecule that helps sperm find egg Scientists affiliated with the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have identified a key molecule driving chemoattraction between sperm and egg cells in marine invertebrates. The study was recently published in Nature Communications. More than 100 years ago, MBL Director F R Lillie of the University of Chicago discovered that eggs from marine invertebrates release a chemical factor that attracts sperm, a process called chemotaxis. Sperm, for their part, swim up a chemical gradient to reach the egg, assisted by a pulsatile rise in calcium ion (Ca2+) concentration in the sperm tail that controls its beating. In past years, many of the cellular components that translate chemoattractant stimulation into a Ca2+ response have been revealed, but a crucial ingredient has been missing. A prerequisite for Ca2+ ions from the sperm's environment being able to enter the tail is that the sperm cell's pH becomes more alkaline. The molecule that brings about this change in pH has been elusive. In this new report, U. Benjamin Kaupp, a MBL Whitman Center Scientist from the Center of Advanced European Studies (Caesar) in Bonn, Germany, identifies this molecule. Kaupp spent 18 summers at the MBL conducting research in the footsteps of F.R. Lillie's original quest. The molecule that Kaupp and colleagues identified allows sodium ions to flow into the sperm cell and, in exchange, transports protons out of the cell. Such so-called sodium/proton exchangers have been known for a long time, but this one is special. It is a chimaera that shares structural features with ion channels, called pacemaker channels, which control our heartbeat and electrical activity in the brain. This sodium/proton exchange in the sperm cell, like in the pacemaker channels, is activated by a stretch of positively charged amino acids called the voltage sensor. When sperm capture chemoattractant molecules, the voltage becomes more negative, because potassium channels open and potassium ions leave the cell. The voltage-sensor registers this voltage change and the exchanger begins exporting protons from the cell; the cell's interior becomes more alkaline. When this mechanism is disabled, the Ca2+ pulses in the sperm tail are suppressed, and sperm are lost on their voyage to the egg. National Heritage Week takes place from Saturday, August 18 to Sunday, August 26 2018 and is coordinated by The Heritage Council and Local Authority Heritage Officers. The County Donegal Heritage Office, Donegal County Council has compiled the County Donegal Heritage Week Event Guide which is a free, pocket-size booklet that outlines 116 Heritage Week events taking place across County Donegal and most of them are free. The Event Guide will be launched at Glenveagh Castle, Glenveagh National Park on Tuesday, August 7 at 12 noon by Cllr. Seamus O Domhnaill, Cathaoirleach, Donegal County Council. Event organisers can collect their copies of the Event Guide at the launch. Everyone is welcome to attend and light refreshments will be served. As 2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage, people are encouraged to make a connection with their heritage whether its at a local, national or European level explains Joseph Gallagher, County Donegal Heritage Officer. Investment in our cultural, built and natural heritage engages people with place, supports local economies and animates our tourism industry. People from heritage organisations, community groups, museums, heritage centres and the Culture Division, Donegal County Council have come together again this year to produce a great Heritage Week events programme in County Donegal. The theme of this years Heritage Week is Share a Story and County Donegal has lots of stories to tell about its heritage, landscape, environment, history, folklore, traditional skills and the lives of its inhabitants. Its little wonder then that County Donegal is set to be the county with the most Heritage Week events per head of population in Ireland again this year. The aims of Heritage Week are to raise awareness of our heritage and to encourage its preservation, conservation and promotion. County Donegal is the county with the most events taking place per head of population and Culture Division, Donegal County Council has organised, or is hosting over 20 of the 116 Heritage Week events already planned in County Donegal. Events include built heritage open days, guided walks, heritage site visits, fieldtrips, exhibitions, illustrated presentations, workshops, storytelling, historical re-enactments, childrens activities, launch events and traditional skills demonstrations. Copies of the County Donegal Heritage Week Event Guide will be available in tourist offices, libraries, public service centres, museums and heritage centres next week and on-line at www.heritageweek.ie or www.donegalcoco.ie/heritage Fifteen young people from Donegal joined 250 other teenagers from India, the USA and Ireland in Kildare this week for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference. The conference, takes place throughout this week, 30th July 3rd Aug, on the grounds of NUI Maynooth, and brings together teenagers to empower them to become leaders in their own lives. Paul OConnell gave a talk to the young people as part of the Aldi guest lecture series, where he highlighted the importance of staying positive. Paul OConnell, Aldi Play Rugby Ambassador said God given talent is a myth, successful people work harder and smarter and thats how they achieve their goals. Its really important to keep positive. Dont let anyone say you cant do something. You have the capacity to work, train and do anything you put your mind to. It doesnt matter what it is, stay the course and be the person you want to be. Sean Campbell, CEO of Foroige, said These young people have come to this conference because someone in their lives saw their potential to lead, grow, develop and influence, whether that was a parent, Foroige youth worker, or teacher. Amongst other things, these teens will learn about resilience and perseverance this week, and further develop their ability to believe in themselves. Its more important than ever for these young people to realise that leadership is not about ego or personal advancement, its about showing the way and inspiring those around you to be the best that they can be. The conference offers these young people the fantastic opportunity of exploring their own unique set of leadership skills, whilst encouraging them to believe in their own ability to make real and powerful positive change in the world. The 250 delegates, aged 15 to 18, will graduate on Friday morning (August 3rd) having completed various stages of the leadership programme. As part of the week-long conference, the delegates also met inspirational guest speakers Louise Foody, Director of Digital & Brand at Kingspan Group and Maria Walsh, former Rose of Tralee, entrepreneur, and broadcaster Instantly delete email threats with 365 Threat Monitor With 365 Threat Monitor, scan all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Get real-time phone alerts, real-time security breach updates and delete threats instantly with just one click - for free! Learn More. A good way to understand what Salesforce articulated at Connections 2018 is to recall the direction it set a few years ago, when CEO Marc Benioff said the company would develop most apps for the small screen first. Translated, that was a concession that handheld devices -- phones and tablets -- would become the primary devices we'd all use in business. Lots of software vendors took the same position, though arguably few did it as fast. So far that's been a good bet, because while this piece is being written on a conventional laptop, it's highly likely that people will read it on a variety of devices and in a plethora of locations tethered to the Internet through WiFi. Fast-forward and the device is the primary computing platform, and the next big hurdle to overcome -- in the front office at least -- is delivering a consistent customer experience across the platforms, including relevant and timely offers and experiences. Some might have thought the job was done when apps crossed hardware boundaries, but when that happened a new set of expectations from customers -- that they could cross boundaries and that their vendors would keep up with them -- came into focus. Supply creates its own demand, they say. Billions of Transactions It turns out that's not easy, because along with multiple devices to account for, there's also the issue of many apps contributing to sussing out just what the customer wants and how to deliver it. The problem is like figuring out the next-best offer, plus understanding who the customer is, and what the customer has done previously with a vendor, and then some. It's "real-time personalization at scale for every customer at every vendor site," Salesforce President Bret Taylor explained in a keynote. In other words, don't forget this is cloud computing, so the system is using the cloud platform to do all this not just for a single vendor but for all vendors and their customers. Today, that literally means billions of transactions. In a day, the system processes 2 billion Einstein predictions, sends 15 billion emails, logs 2 million leads, and much more, according to one Connections presentation. You also could look at it as solving Rubik's Cube or, more likely, solving simultaneous equations. Essentially this means solving everything at once rather than holding everything constant and solving for one variable at a time the way we do in a classical science experiment. If you think I am perseverating, think again. This is a measure of where the technology world is today. We've done the easy stuff to capture and retrieve data. We've figured out how to extract significant information from all of it, too. Now we are trying to attack a pool of data that makes and informs other data in real time. News From the Stage That's why I think Connections 2018 was important. Here are some of the announcements that support my thinking: Commerce Cloud enhancements give B2B customers consumer-like shopping experiences. This is in line with the idea of giving people the same kinds of experiences at work that they have in their personal lives. Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio might be the trickiest thing to get right, and in some ways may be the key to the whole show. Marketing Cloud helps employees to analyze and manage customer experiences with context (who is the customer, what's unique about the customer, what can we recommend?) across a brand's owned online and offline channels. Service for Commerce, or adding a service element to a commerce interaction when needed. The demo showed a customer buying shoes and then going back into the event to change the delivery address. It was all mediated by a bot too. Salesforce next month will deliver to beta an integration with Google Analytics 360 that will enable marketers to create audiences in Analytics 360 and then activate those audiences for engagement within Marketing Cloud. Finally, Commerce Journeys will empower marketers and merchandisers to trigger transactional and behavioral journeys based on customer actions, like abandoning a shopping cart, confirming an account or making a purchase. My Two Bits Marketing is arguably the last frontier in CRM, because sales and service apps have been well articulated by now. Nonetheless, we should add that the marketing announcements coming out of Chicago this week blur the lines between the stovepipes very nicely. Those lines -- and other lines, like those between front and back office and B2B and B2C processes -- are evaporating. Supporting the move is a Swiss Army knife technology stack that delivers analytics and machine learning to business processes that take us well beyond simple next-best offer approaches. Bots have not replaced people yet, but they are being creatively inserted into niches that are too low-volume or too expensive to insert people. The result is a far better customer experience. A few years ago I wrote a book, Solve for the Customer," after examining early online apps for self-service and commerce, and finding their processes woefully inadequate, precisely because there was little or no intelligence built into them. Customers were assumed to be able to use those systems because they were "intuitive," which only meant that they were available on handheld devices, unfortunately. Customers were so enraged by those systems that some of them took to the Internet to build blogs and sites castigating vendors. Those sites are still out there, and you can find them by searching a vendor's name and adding the word "sucks." Many of those sites haven't been maintained in years, though, and there's no better proof for the efficacy of the revolution in commerce and marketing that is effectively and efficiently leveraging data than that. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network. Denis Pombriant is a well-known CRM industry analyst, strategist, writer and speaker. His new book, You Can't Buy Customer Loyalty, But You Can Earn It, is now available on Amazon. His 2015 book, Solve for the Customer, is also available there. Email Denis. Glyphosate, the controversial main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and other herbicides, is being connected to Lake Erie's troubling algae blooms, which has fouled drinking water and suffocated and killed marine life in recent years. Phosphorusattributed to farm runoff carried by the Maumee Riverhas long been identified as a leading culprit feeding the excessive blooms in the western Lake Erie basin. Now, according to a new study from chemistry professor Christopher Spiese, a significant correlation has been established between the increased use of glyphosate to the percentage of dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) in the runoff. As No-Till Farmer observed from the study, DRP loads in Lake Erie increased in the mid-1990s at the same time that farmers began the widespread cultivation of crops genetically engineered to withstand multiple applications of Roundup. "For every acre of Roundup Ready soybeans and corn that you plant, it works out to be about one-third of a pound of P [phosphorus] coming down the Maumee," Spiese told the agricultural publication. Here's how the team came to the conclusion, as No-Till Farmer reported: Through his own and others' research, Spiese found that depending on the types of metal in the soil, glyphosate does release P. For example, when glyphosate is applied to soil containing iron oxide-hydroxide, P is immediately released. But almost nothing is removed when it's an iron oxide material. Finally, Spiese took soil samples all over the Maumee watershed, applied P to them and then sprayed glyphosate to see how much P was released vs. soil that wasn't sprayed with glyphosate after 24 hours. He saw desorption occurred all over the watershed, but certain areas were higher than others, specifically in the southeastern corner. Based on the average two glyphosate applications growers make every year, Spiese estimates that overall, 20-25 percent of the DRP runoff is caused by glyphosate. But depending on the location within the watershed, that percentage could be much lower or much greater. "Some of those sites, it's less than a percent. Other sites it's almost 100 percent," he says. Previous studies have tied glyphosate to the phosphorous fueling Lake Erie's blue-green algae. In 2009, Ohio Sea Grant researchers, Drs. R. Michael McKay and George Bullerjahn of Bowling Green State University, found that glyphosate could only be detected in the lake at certain times of yearafter crops are planted. "Our research is finding that Roundup is getting into the watershed at peak farming application times, particularly in the spring," McKay said. Approximately 1,000 metric tonnes (about 2.2 million pounds) of Roundup is applied in the Lake Erie watershed per year, and it is being detected in adjacent waterways particularly in the spring, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted from McKay and Bullerjahn's study. The researchers also found that the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) in the lake are capable of using phosophonates. "It turns out that many cyanobacteria present in Lake Erie have the genes allowing the uptake of phosphonates, and these cyanobacteria can grow using glyphosate and other phosphonates as a sole source of phosphorus," Bullerjahn said. Harmful Lake Erie blooms have increased at record levels over the last decade, according to the U.S. EPA and are expected to become more common due to warmer temperatures and heavy rainfall that feed algae growth. The toxic algae rob oxygen from the waters creating dead zones where fish and other marine life are unable to survive. The algae is also a threat to humansswallowing it can cause health problems such as rashes, vomiting, numbness and difficulty breathing. In February this year, the U.S. and Canada announced a goal to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering affected areas of Lake Erie by a total of 40 percent by 2025. As summer gets into full swing, the people of Toledo, Ohio, begin what has become a disturbing annual ritualthe wait for a toxic algae bloom to erupt across Lake Erie. This year, however, the anticipation may be mixed with hope, as state and federal officials take on this persistent problem. A satellite image of the 2015 Lake Erie algae bloom. Photo credit: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory The harmful blooms have a notorious history. In 2011, toxic algae in the open waters of Lake Erie's Western Basin were 50 times higher than the World Health Organization limit for safe body contact. That same year, levels were 1,200 times higher than the limit for safe drinking water, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In August 2014, toxic algae shuttered the Toledo, Ohio drinking water treatment plant for several days, leading to advisories against the use of tap water in the city. The bloom also led to warnings for Pelee Island, Ontario residents not to use lake water. In total, more than 500,000 people were impacted. And the summer of 2015 produced the largest algae bloom in Lake Erie in 100 years. While it didn't reach earlier toxicity levels, the bloom covered 300 square miles. Lake Erie is the 12th largest lake on the planet and provides drinking water source for 11 million people. It's the smallest and shallowest of the Great Lakes. Ohio, Michigan and Ontario all border Erie's Western Basin, which is particularly vulnerable to toxic blooms. While algae are a natural presence in fresh water systems, large harmful outbreaks are linked to excessive levels of phosphorus in the lake waters. Coming into contact with the toxic algae or swallowing algae-laden water, can cause rashes, vomiting, numbness and difficulty breathing, among other symptoms. The toxic algae threaten not only drinking water, but rob oxygen from the waters creating dead zones where fish are unable to survive. The algae problem begins when phosphorus enters the Erie watershed, primarily through agriculture fertilizer and manure runoff. Watersheds contributing to the problem include Canada's Thames River and Leamington tributaries. In the U.S., the Maumee River Basin with its 6,500-mile watershed is the largest phosphorus contributor. Harmful Lake Erie blooms have been on the increase over the last decade, according to the EPA. Large toxic blooms are expected to become more common as warmer temperatures lengthen the algal growing season and strong spring rain storms create greater runoff of dissolved phosphorus, the type especially potent in feeding algae growth. Thankfully, the U.S. and Canada are stepping up their defense of the lake. In 2012, the two nations committed to an amended version of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which was first signed in 1972. And in February of this year, the two nations announced a binational goal to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering affected areas of Lake Erie by a total of 40 percent by 2025. An interim reduction goal of 20 percent by 2020 was also agreed upon. Targets are based on phosphorous levels from 2008, a year determined to represent the average annual phosphorous load in the lake. More than 40 Canadian and American experts were involved in the process of determining the phosphorous targets, under the leadership of Environment and Climate Change Canada and the EPA. A 40 percent phosphorous reduction would limit the annual load to Erie's Central Basin to 6,000 metric tons. Ohio, Michigan and Ontario have all pledged to support the goal, which took into account both commercial interests and environmental concerns. Having a collaborative agreement signed by two governors and the premier of Ontario is a commitment by entities that have the ability and resources to implement the Clean Water [Act] program," said Victoria Pebbles, program director with the Great Lakes Commission, an interstate compact agency that advocates for the healthy development of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region and has been involved in the target-setting process. Toxic algae in the water surrounds Pelee Island in 2009. Photo credit: T. Archer Even though the broad binational agreement is at the highest level of government, where the rubber meets the road when implementing Clean Water [Act] programs happens through states and provinces," Pebbles added. (The Clean Water Act gives the EPA authority to regulate certain types of pollutant discharges into U.S. waters). The two nations have agreed to develop action plans to reach phosphorus target goals by February 2018. While management plans are under development, some critics suggest the 40 percent target is inadequate. Sandy Bihn, executive director for the Ohio-based Lake Erie Waterkeeper environmental advocacy group, said the goal falls short because it doesn't adequately account for two significant factors: climate change and increased livestock farming in the region. Bihn believes climate change will exacerbate conditions leading to Erie's toxic blooms. As heavy rains increase in the region, they will contribute to high runoff levels. Higher summer temperatures will also promote blooms, she said. We're never going to slow down the rains from climate change," Bihn said. More rain in a short period of time causes havoc in Lake Erie." Manure runoff from new commercial-size livestock farms coming online since 2008 is another largely overlooked factor pertaining to phosphorus load levels, Bihn added. She believes manure management on new and existing large-scale farms could provide the single greatest relief from phosphorous overload. We estimate manure from big barn farms is 20 to 30 percent of the [(phosphorus]) load to Lake Erie," Bihn said. If we take out that 20 to 30 percent, that's half-way to getting Lake Erie blue and healthy again." Despite the complexities involved in reducing Lake Erie's toxic blooms, Bihn is optimistic that Erie's health can be restored. She pointed out that 90 percent of Erie's water flows down from the Upper Great Lakes giving Erie the fastest flushing rate of all the Great Lakes. Erie's waters turn over every 2.6 years, compared to 6, 22, 99 and 191 years for lakes Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Superior respectively. If you reduce sources, like manure, we would see results almost immediately," she said. Laura Johnson believes other solutions are key to phosphorous load reductions. Director of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Ohio's Heidelberg University, Johnson sees the agricultural industry's adoption of cover cropswhich are planted during the off-season and then either incorporated into the soil or left on the surfaceas a viable solution to reducing phosphorus in the lake. Johnson explained that the added organic matter adds a sponge-like quality to the soil, curtailing runoff. It takes five years before you see benefits," she said. But it can buffer against wet and dry years." Only 5 percent of growers in the Great Lakes region currently plant cover crops, according to Johnson. Johnson said a new, little-implemented farm practice also has potential to curtail phosphorous-rich runoff. The practice, called subsurface injection, deposits fertilizer a few inches below the soil's surface in crop rows. Sitting below the surface, the fertilizer is protected from runoff-causing rains. Financial support for solutions to the algae problem is growing. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture committed $41 million over a three-year period to help Ohio, Michigan and Indiana growers implement practices reducing runoff to Lake Erie. These funds are in addition to $36 million previously committed to the effort through the 2014 Farm Bill. While programs for reducing the phosphorus load gain steam, projections for the lake's summer 2016 outbreak forecast an average bloom, unlike the monster of 2015, according Johnson. But that doesn't mean the City of Toledo can relax. Johnson added that where the bloom settles this year, as well as its toxicity level, will depend on what weather conditions Mother Nature has in store. Sally Barber is a Great Lakes-based magazine and news writer. She is the author of The Michigan Eco-Traveler: A Guide to Sustainable Adventures in the Great Lakes State. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE New Website Helps Connect the Dots Between Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change The Climate Costs of Offshore Oil Drilling Alaska Is Having Hottest Year Since Records Began Flooding and Climate Change: French Acceptance, Texas Denial (Photo: Courtesy Radio Vatican)Philippines' bishops Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is facing opposition from one of the country's most powerful institutions and one that the country's leaders have often been loath to take on - the Roman Catholic Church. Priests and bishops the Southeast Asian nations that is overwhelmingly Catholic were seen as being initially quiet after Duterte assumed office in the middle of 2016 and began a violent crackdown on suspected drug dealers, New Europe reports. In just nine months Duterte's contentious war on drugs has led to the death of more than 8,000 dead people. New Europe cited a report in USA Today online, that the powerful Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines issued a recent pastoral letter that condemned Duterte's war on drugs as a "reign of terror." On March 19 the Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter against the death penalty saying, "Even with the best of intentions, capital punishment has never been proven effective as a deterrent to crime. "Obviously it is easier to eliminate criminals than to get rid of the root causes of criminality in society. Capital punishment and a flawed legal system are always a lethal mix," said the bishops without naming Duterte in their powerfully worded letter. "And since in any human society there is never a guarantee of a flawless legal system, there is always the great likelihood that those without capital will get the punishment more quickly because it is they who cannot afford a good lawyer and a guarantee of due process." They noted that as a law the death penalty directly goes against the principle of inalienability of the basic human right to life, enshrined in most constitutions of countries that signed the universal declaration of human rights. They called for the Catholic faithful to pray fervently for the legislators of the Philippines as they were they preparing vote on death penalty in the country's Senate. "As a church we don't want killings," Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the conference, which issues guidelines and policy for the Catholic Church told USA Today. "But it's becoming the new normal in our society. There's killing everywhere. The church right now is speaking forcefully against these issues." Duterte has issues a number of strongly worded criticisms of the Catholic Church, often using provocative language such as calling Pope Francis "a son of a bitch," and last month called the church one of the "oligarchs of this country." Despite the Church's condemnations, his war on drugs did not slow down as the Philippines celebrated Easter: when there were 39 reported drug-related killings. The USA Today reported noted that the Catholic Church is not the only institution taking on Duterte. A formal impeachment complaint was filed I March against him by Rep. Gary Alejano for crimes committed during the war on drugs and corruption allegations that claim Duterte has amassed $40m in unexplained wealth. IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT AGAINST DUTUERTE The opposition lawmaker the impeachment complaint against Duterte, accusing him of crimes ranging from abuse of power to running his own "death squad" when he was mayor of Davao. But the president dismissed the claims, as he looks to ramp up his deadly war on drugs and seeks to silence any dissident voices, Vice News reported. In making his complaint Alejano admitted it would be an "uphill battle" to impeach the president given support for him in both houses of parliament but said it would give the people of the Philippines a chance to voice their opinion on Duterte. "We wanted to give him the chance to run the country," Alejano said. "But what we're seeing so far is a clear indication of his policies, of killing without trial and due process of law. That is very dangerous to our democracy." On April 24, a Filipino lawyer filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court in The Hague accusing Duterte and 11 other Philippine officials of mass murder and crimes against humanity. (Photo: Reuters/Kyodo)An execution chamber is pictured at the Tokyo Detention Center on Aug. 27, 2010. Japan opened up its gallows for the first time to domestic media, a move that sparked public debate over executions in a country where a hefty majority supports retaining the death penalty. Pope Francis approval of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, with "a new understanding...of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the State," now says "the death penalty is inadmissible." There was little initial reaction as the word mulled over an announcment that was not totally surprising, but could it have an impact on the choice of a new justice for the U.S. Supreme Court? The decision was announced by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a 'Letter to the Bishops' dated August 1 and signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria, Vatican News reported. The catechism now will read: "Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good. "Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. "In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption," the new section continues." The change addresses several sentences of the catechism, the Catholic compendium of its beliefs, and it clearly elaborates the church's opposition to a policy that is heavily debated around the world and used in parts of the United States, The Washington Post reported. The church's updated teaching states that capital punishment is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." Previously, the church allowed for the death penalty in very rare cases, only as a means of "defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." America, the Jesuit Review wrote, "His statement is sure to be welcomed by bishops' conferences and the overwhelming majority of the Christian faithful around the world, many of whom have long called for the church to take this stance. "His predecessors have been slowly moving towards the position taken today by Francis. aEvery pope since St. John XXIII has appealed to governments worldwide on behalf of persons condemned to death, asking for clemency." Daniel Burke, CNN's religion editor wrote, "Pope Francis earned a standing ovation when he told (the U.S.) Congress in 2015 that he supports protecting human life 'at every stage of its development.' When he added that 'this conviction' includes working to end the death penalty, the response was far more subdued. "'You didn't see people jumping up and clapping,'" said John Carr, who was in the room, and is director of Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life." Burke said, however, "The church's shifting position on capital punishment may even arise later this year when the Senate holds confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, a federal judge and faithful Catholic whom President Donald Trump has nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court." He said the Catholic Church's shifting position on capital punishment may even arise later this year when the U.S. Senate holds confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, a federal judge and faithful Catholic whom President Donald Trump has nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court. America Magazine quoted Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, a Catholic, pro-life Republican, saying the change in the catechism would have no impact on policy in his state. It cited The New York Times reporting that the governor has said that he viewed his position on the death penalty as compatible with church teaching. He issued a statement in response to the Aug. 2 announcement. "While I respect the Pope's perspective, capital punishment remains the will of the people and the law of the state of Nebraska," Ricketts said. "It is an important tool to protect our corrections officers and public safety." Blacksburg, Va. They came from all over Virginia, battling gray weather and buckets of rain, to see the faces of a student-driven movement that shows few signs of stopping. They came by the hundreds, young people and older onesat least a third of the attendees were parents, judging by a show of handsto hear first-person testimonies from the survivors of the mass shooting in February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. They came to learn how they might be involved in ending gun violence. In a few cases, they came to protest. The message they got from the speakers at this traveling town hall, over and over, was this: Vote. As it matures over the course of its months-long Road to Change tour through the United States this summer, the March for Our Lives movements broad goal of ending gun violence is increasingly focused on voting, one of the most essential of all civic responsibilities. The rally here on Thursday was the 24th since the tour hit the road in June. It took place a stones throw from Virginia Tech, the site of the nations second deadliest school shooting, in 2007, which left 33 dead. So, as might be expected, the town hall here featured plenty of discussion about gun restrictions, the new possibility of manufacturing firearms with 3-D printers , and the medias frequently heartless way of depicting gun violence in communities of color. But the focus on voting was threaded throughout. It came up when the Parkland students and the local activists whove joined them here were asked how their movement against gun violence stacks up to earlier youth-powered movements. One thing I thought was lost in the movements before 2016 was that they didnt make voting a big enough priority, said Geoffrey Preudhomme, an intern for a Virginia U.S. congressional challenger who spoke alongside the Stoneman Douglas students. We have to vote out those majorities with the new majorities. It came up when Parkland survivor Ryan Deitsch, a senior when the attacks took place, was asked about how outside influences can skew the political process. Democrats and Republicans both had very different views on gun control, he said. That changes because of the influence of money in politics ... and because its easier to gerrymander the districts. That happens a lot in Virginia. It came up in the merch area in the lobby of the downtown theater where the town hall was held, where T-shirts for sale featured a QR code that directs curious smartphones right to the March for Our Lives voter registration page. And it came up when high school students attending the town hall shared their own aspirations, such as when rising Blacksburg High School senior Francesca Shaver said her dream is to be a politician, so I can represent you guys. By way of response, she received a gentle corrective from the activists: First, focus on learning the ins and outs of local electionsmaybe by volunteering to canvass in Virginias 2019 House of Delegates contest, which could tilt that chamber from Republican to Democratic hands. Knock on doors, phone bank. Thats how were going to get change, not from the top down, she was told. Signing Up Voters The subtext is clear: Efforts to boost voting can dramatically reshape the political contours of whats possible on gun policy. Elections can be won on the back of the 18-to-29 age category of voters, which makes up more than one-fifth of the electorate. That is, if they vote: In 2016, only about half of those eligibleslightly less than the rate for the population as a wholevoted. A recent analysis shows an increase in voter registration among young people, especially in swing states. In Virginia, it was up 10 percent, possibly one reason why the volunteers staffing the voter registration table at the town hall here found just one nonregistered person attending the Blacksburg town hall. Everyone else had already signed up. Organizers expected a couple hundred people at the town hall in Blacksburg. They got more than 500, pushing the Lyric Theatre far past capacity. Perhaps thats partly because its impossible to stroll through this college town without meeting someone whose life was affected by the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech. Nineteen-year-old Katarina Yuans mom was just a block away from the shooter that day, something that immediately changed her own perspective on guns. But it wasnt until Katarina was comparing notes with classmates during her first year at Smith College in Massachusetts that she saw how the shooting had also shaped her view of what was normal: What do you mean your schools dont do lockdown drills? she recalled saying. Yuan and two high school friends, Sarah Parker and Thomas Brunsma, are sharing a mini-reunion here over the summer break; All three attended the town hall and said they see activism in their own futures. Parker, who initially had hopes to be an English major at the University of Mary Washington, now thinks she may turn to government; she wants to be an activist or an organizer. Counter-Protesters Surface March For Our Lives focus on the importance of local action also explains why the lineup of activists at each stop on the tour differs. Partly, its a matter of participants schedules, since a Florida-based road tour is occurring simultaneously. But primarily its because each stop is coordinated with local groups that know the political contours of each community better. In effect, as the group works to educate communities on the importance of voting, it is also bringing a new coterie of activists into the spotlight, some of whom will continue to represent the movement in other cities. The Road to Change tour has attracted counter-protesters as well as fansmost notably the owners of a Utah online gun-sales portal who are following the group from city to city in a faux armored car, recording the meetings on iPhones, and encouraging counter-protesters to open carry their weapons, according to news reports. Bryan Melchior, the co-owner of the store, defended his groups tactics as reasonable to protect the U.S Constitutions Second Amendment. Guns aside, what did Melchior make of the groups message on voting? I do like that, he said. Student Getting Woke If voting is widely seen as key, both the youths and some adults at the town hall had more mixed views about their school-based preparation for civic participation. These kids are not apatheticthey are getting wokebut sometimes, kids dont know what to do, said one Blacksburg high school teacher who had brought a handful of her students with her. Shaver, the local high school senior-to-be, recalled her 8th grade civics class as focused on just how it works, not on the messy details of representing multiple, often conflicting constituencies. Brunsma, one of the college students, had a better experience in civics. Sometimes, he said, he wishes that the respectful tenor of those discussions carried over into political dialogue. I remember it being the first time I was encouraged to talk to my peers about my opinion and how and why it might be different from theirs, he said. Im not sure Ive really had a chance since then; its difficult without having people just yelling at each other. Sometimes the best lessons arent learned in the classroom. Activist Matt Post, an organizer and speaker at the Aug. 2 meeting, served as the student member of the school board in Montgomery County, Md., and was elected by the districts secondary students. The school board election has a turnout that would make most municipal election officers seethe with envy, and Post said he thinks his districts decision to give young people a chance to participate in a consequential election long before they turn 18 is partly why Montgomery County students turnout during the school walkouts in February was so high. Teachers were also among the new generation of activists featured on stage at the town hall. One was Ryan Wesdock, a 22-year-old who is completing his education and history teaching program at Virginia Tech, and who helped organize the meeting here. What would he do to improve civics? My goal would not be to do what my teacher did with textbook knowledge. It would be to teach them how lobbying works, to understand money in politics, and to teach them how to advocate, maybe with a yearlong project, Wesdock said. I dont want them just to go out and vote every four years; I want them to feel like their values fit somewhere in the system, and are reflected in their legislators, and in the legislation that gets passed. The Road to Change tour continues through Aug. 12, including a march in front of the National Rifle Associations Fairfax County, Va., headquarters this weekend. I know a lot of people thought the movement was going to die a long time ago, said Ramon Contreras, a New York-based youth advocate. But were still here. Were still traveling. Privacy Settings This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. Gail Rubin, CT, is author and host of the award-winning book and television series, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Dont Plan to Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (that's a death educator) and a popular speaker who uses humor and films to get the end-of-life and funeral planning conversation started. She "knocked 'em dead" with her TEDx talk, A Good Goodbye. She provides continuing education credit classes for attorneys, doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, financial planners, funeral directors and other professionals. She's a Certified Funeral Celebrant and funeral planning consultant who has been interviewed in national and local print, broadcast and online media. Known as The Doyenne of Death, she is the event coordinator of the Before I Die ABQ Festival. She also hosts A Good Goodbye Internet radio show and produces Mortality Minute radio and online video spots. Her YouTube Channel features more than 400 videos! Rubin is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association New Mexico Chapter. Her speaking profile is available at eSpeakers.com. Gail Rubin has been interviewed about funeral planning issues in national and local broadcast, print and online media. Outlets include The Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Kiplinger, CBS Radio News, WGN-TV, and local affiliates for NPR, PBS, FOX, ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV. Sign up for a free planning form and occasional informative newsletter at her website, AGoodGoodbye.com. A Harris County grand jury on Friday indicted the French chemical company Arkema in connection with the release of toxic chemicals during a fire after the Crosby plant was flooded during Hurricane Harvey last August. The company, CEO Richard Rowe, and plant manager Leslie Comardelle recklessly released chemicals into the air, putting residents and first responders at risk in the days after Harvey dumped 51 inches of rain on the Houston area, according to the Harris County District Attorneys office. They are charged with reckless emission of an air contaminant under the Texas Water Code. The charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison for the individuals named, and a fine of up to $1 million for the corporation. The 18000 Crosby Gate facility was inundated with six feet of water that wiped out its power and generators, leading to failure that caused volatile organic peroxides to explode multiple times over the course of a week. Companies dont make decisions, people do, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. Responsibility for pursuing profit over the health of innocent people rests with the leadership of Arkema. Pillars of fire and thick plumes of black smoke shot into the air after the explosions, and more than a half-dozen first-responders were sickened, according to various lawsuits. Prosecutors say the disaster could have been prevented. The Harris County Sheriffs Office, the Houston Police Departments Environmental Investigations Unit, and the Harris County District Attorneys Office Environmental Crimes Division all pitched in on the investigation. Indictments against corporations are rare, Ogg added. Those who poison our environment will be prosecuted when the evidence justifies it. Rusty Hardin, the prominent Houston defense attorney representing Arkema, concurred on the rarity of Fridays developments. There has never been an indictment like this in Texas or any other state, he said in a statement. The DAs office has no legal precedent in Texas courts and there are no cases on point. And they chose to use this unprecedented charge for a tragedy in which the company and its employees were victims of an unforeseen and horrific event just like everyone else in Harris County. He went on to deem holding the company criminally liable an ominous precedent moving forward, saying it was hard to imagine any reasonable person would consider the companys failure to adequately prepare for a disaster as massive as Harvey to be a criminal act. In pursuing these charges against Arkema, Hardin continued, Harris County will have the daunting task of trying to prove that Arkema anticipated the possibility of six feet of floodwater and then decided not to prepare for it. This will prove to be impossible, because its not what happened. The defendants are expected in court Monday. 2 1 of 2 Staff file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Jerry Lara /Staff photographer Show More Show Less A federal judge Friday refused to dismiss charges against ex-lawmaker Carlos Urestis co-defendant in a bribery and money laundering case set for trial in October. Lawyers for Lubbock businessman Vernon C. Farthing III in February had filed a motion to dismiss the governments case on various grounds, including that the conspiracy to commit bribery charge is barred by the statute of limitations. The San Antonio Independent School District teachers union plans to file a grievance over a school board policy change Wednesday that allows principals more flexibility in determining teachers work schedules. The district is making a material change to teachers working conditions after teachers were already locked into their contracts, said Shelley Potter, president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel. If the district was going to make this change, they should have done so back in the spring so that teachers would know what their working conditions would be before they were locked into their contracts. Before Wednesday, SAISDs policy manual mandated teachers work seven and a half-hour days, between 7:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., as determined by the school principal. At most campuses, students are in school for more than seven hours, meaning teachers arrive just before the bell, said Leslie Price, SAISD spokeswoman. Principals can require longer days for trainings and staff meetings with at least five working days notice, barring emergencies. The amended policy allows principals to schedule earlier arrival times or later end times for some teachers work days, to provide more supervision during student arrival and dismissal, district leaders said. A lot of this rose up from the parents themselves, said Patti Radle, president of SAISDs board of trustees. A lot of parents were frustrated their kids couldnt get into the building. At Madison Elementary School, which has a Head Start pre-kindergarten program, families are restricted from dropping off children early, leading to a 20-minute backup in the parking lot before school starts, SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. Parent drop-off could be streamlined in the morning with three or four extra teachers on hand to let students into the building and supervise them, Martinez said. Related: San Antonio events check off back-to-school needs Five Burbank High School administrators spend their time before school walking around the campus worried about fights between unsupervised students, Martinez said. Sometimes students are already fighting when an administrator finds them, he said. SAISDs new policy is similar to others in large school districts across Bexar County and the state. Potter said said other districts have administrative procedures limiting the total number of hours in a teachers work day to accompany the policy, and absent such procedures, teachers worry some principals will abuse their time. Many principals envision scheduling arrival or dismissal duty rotations, taking into account teachers own child-care schedules, Martinez said. Many principals have said they dont plan on shifting schedules more than 15 minutes. Principals have been ordered to reassess their practices after the first two months, Martinez said. The union suggested alternatives including before-school programming through organizations such as the YMCA or Boys & Girls Club, Potter said. Central office staff could adopt campuses and help with supervision in the mornings, or the school district could accept volunteers who pass background checks, Potter said. Some teachers worry theyll have less time for tutoring and their students will lose ground, Potter said. We were really trying to look at finding some solution that would meet all of the needs on the table, Potter said. Its very frustrating that the administration is not willing to work with us to figure this out. Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN The last victim among the five young adults found dead in a San Marcos apartment building gutted by fire has been identified, officials said this afternoon. Belinda Moats, 21, of Big Wells, was positively identified through DNA analysis, a spokeswoman for the city of San Marcos said. Moats had been missing since the fire erupted at 4:27 a.m. July 20. The other four victims found dead in the burned rubble at Iconic Village Apartments were Dru Estes, 20, of San Antonio; Haley Michele Frizzell, 19, of San Angelo; David Ortiz, 21, of Pasadena; and James Miranda, 23, of Mount Pleasant. Autopsy results revealing how the victims died are still pending, said Maggie Moreno, Hays County Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Place 2. Related: Victim's family sues San Marcos apartment owners after fatal fire Now Playing: Five young people died in a massive fire that erupted in the early morning of Friday, July 20. Video: San Antonio Express-News All five victims had been living or staying in second-floor apartments in Building 500 at Iconic Village, 222 Ramsay St., about two blocks from the Texas State University campus. Moats, a former Texas State student, had to interrupt her studies when her family could no longer afford the tuition. She was working at a Sonic drive-in and trying to save money with hopes of returning to school. Moats was the first in her family to attend college and loved to read, her father, Thomas Moats, said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News last week. Her dream job was to work in a book store, he said. Belinda Moats loved living in San Marcos and would routinely walk to and from work because she didnt have a car, her father said. She had declined her fathers offer to let her borrow a car so she would have transportation. Related: Investigators say they've determined the origin of fatal San Marcos apartment fire My daughter was walking to work a mile a day, Thomas Moats told the Express-News last week. She never complained. She was an angel, a pure soul She never bothered anybody. She never got in trouble in school. I dont think she ever got in trouble for anything. Peggy OHare is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare The last victim among the five young adults found dead in a San Marcos apartment building gutted by fire has been identified, officials said this afternoon. Belinda Moats, 21, of Big Wells, was positively identified through DNA analysis, a spokeswoman for the city of San Marcos said. Moats had been missing since the fire erupted at 4:27 a.m. July 20. The other four victims found dead in the burned rubble at Iconic Village Apartments were Dru Estes, 20, of San Antonio; Haley Michele Frizzell, 19, of San Angelo; David Ortiz, 21, of Pasadena; and James Miranda, 23, of Mount Pleasant. Autopsy results revealing how the victims died are still pending, said Maggie Moreno, Hays County Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Place 2. Related: Where to donate to San Marcos fire victims All five victims had been living or staying in second-floor apartments in Building 500 at Iconic Village, 222 Ramsay St., about two blocks from the Texas State University campus. Moats, a former Texas State student, had to interrupt her studies when her family could no longer afford the tuition. She was working at a Sonic drive-in and trying to save money with hopes of returning to school. Now on ExpressNews.com: A fire killed Zachary Sutterfield's friends. A leap saved his life. After 23 surgeries, his recovery is grueling but with significant victories. Moats was the first in her family to attend college and loved to read, her father, Thomas Moats, said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News last week. Her dream job was to work in a book store, he said. Belinda Moats loved living in San Marcos and would routinely walk to and from work because she didnt have a car, her father said. She had declined her fathers offer to let her borrow a car so she would have transportation. Related: Escaping the deadly San Marcos fire My daughter was walking to work a mile a day, Thomas Moats told the Express-News last week. She never complained. She was an angel, a pure soul She never bothered anybody. She never got in trouble in school. I dont think she ever got in trouble for anything. Peggy OHare is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare When Josh Cassada was tapped as an astronaut in 2013, he thought the Russians would take him up to the International Space Station. After all, NASA has relied on Russia to transport American astronauts to and from the outer space laboratory since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. But on Friday, the world learned what Cassada has known for some time now: He would be among the first in about a decade to launch to the stars from American soil. Being able to launch to the International Space Station from U.S. soil I cant imagine a better honor; and were ready, Cassada said Friday at an event at Houstons Johnson Space Center. Cassada was part of a group of nine named Friday by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine as the countrys first commercial crew astronauts, who will fly on the test flights or first missions of two commercial spacecraft being built by Boeing and SpaceX in partnership with NASA. This is a big deal for our country, and we want America to know that were back that were flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, Bridenstine said. READ ALSO: San Antonio man slated to be the first Army doctor in space next year Fridays crew announcements highlight the heightened governmental efforts to increase commercial company involvement in low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station has flown since 1998. There also is an effort to transition the space station to commercial operation by 2025 ending federal funding by the end of 2024 as stipulated in President Donald Trumps fiscal year 2019 budget for NASA. The idea is to allow NASA to focus on further human exploration in space. Its NASAs job, Houston Center Director Mark Geyer said in June, to provide vision and do things no company can make money doing. But NASAs commercialization plans have come across stumbling blocks. Boeings and SpaceXs commercial crew vehicles, for example, have fallen behind schedule, putting U.S. access to the space station in jeopardy. And experts have voiced skepticism about the feasibility of increasing commercial activity on the space station in time to hand operations over to commercial companies by the mid-2020s. Despite these problems, Bridenstine told a select group of reporters Thursday that the plans are necessary to further NASAs ultimate goals. We want to enable NASA to use its resources to go further and do things that havent been done before, Bridenstine said. Do we want to use government resources in low Earth orbit (where the space station flies) for the next 20 years, or do we want to spend that money on new things? U.S. astronauts and, perhaps more importantly, U.S. residents have not experienced a human spaceflight launch from U.S. soil since 2011, when the shuttle program was shuttered with Space Shuttle Atlantis. Instead, the United States has relied on Russia to transport American astronauts to and from the space station, paying $81 million per seat on the Soyuz spacecraft, a cost that includes the seat, the training, the spacesuit, and the search and rescue team. This arrangement is scheduled to end in November 2019, a timeline that seemingly left enough wiggle room for any delays in the development of the Boeing and SpaceX commercial spacecrafts. But a July report from the Government Accountability Office warns that it may not have been enough. Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts, totaling $6.8 billion, in 2014 from NASA to build their own crew spacecrafts and conduct missions to the space station. Both initially were expected to launch crewed test flights this year, but the schedules of both companies have slipped. Boeing announced Wednesday that the launches would be delayed after recent problems during a test of its launch abort engines. NASA then announced that both companies test flights which five of the astronauts named Friday will be on will be delayed until 2019. READ ALSO: Astronaut born in S.A. completed first American spacewalk 53 years ago this week This means there could be a period of time in the near future that the U.S. does not have access to the International Space Station. Bridenstine said he is concerned about these delays, but NASA personnel are working to make sure we dont have to be concerned about it. For example, he added, the agency is mulling whether to send U.S. astronauts to the station for longer periods of time to make the number of seats for Americans last until 2020. But any changes like this probably will have modest costs above $81 million per seat, said Ralph Grau, deputy manager of the International Space Station Program External Integration Office. Having to potentially pay more to adjust the timing of the launches is, however, better than putting astronauts in danger, he said, adding that the delays are a testament to the fact that we want to be safe. Neither Leanne Caret, CEO and president of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, nor Gwynne Shotwell, CEO and president of SpaceX, addressed the delays at Fridays event. But Shotwell assured the crowd attending the announcement that the company is on track to launch its first uncrewed test flight in November. For the first time in years, it feels real, Shotwell said. For the astronauts now assigned to these first missions, the constantly changing schedules arent affecting them too much, said Bob Behnken, a veteran astronaut now assigned to SpaceXs test flight. We just march through and try to figure out what work needs to be done, he said. We want to make sure all the work is done correctly. Trumps proposed 2024 funding end date for the space station is not arbitrary. It jibes with when U.S. operation of the floating laboratory is currently scheduled to end. But Congress can extend U.S. operation of the station, an option it has used in the past. U.S. senators, led by Texas Republican Ted Cruz, think that funding should be extended once again. NASA officials have said the station is safely operational until at least 2028. Theyre worried that commercial companies are not yet ready to take on such an enormous funding responsibility. Just in fiscal year 2017, NASA spent $1.45 billion on the space station and that doesnt include the costs to transport astronauts and supplies there. We cannot afford to allow funding for the space station to crater in 2025, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said at a June congressional hearing. What we need is a nuanced transition plan for the next great space age that reflects the commercial market and the space community. Thats not what this administration put forward. Markey, along with Cruz and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, want the space stations life extended into 2030 and theyve taken steps to make that happen through legislative means. NASAs Office of Inspector General also has weighed in and, though it doesnt endorse the extension plan, it agrees that commercial companies may not be ready to take on the financial burden. Based on our audit work, we question the viability of NASAs plans as outlined in its ISS Transition Report, particularly with regard to the feasibility of fostering increased commercial activity in low Earth orbit on the timetable proposed, the report states. Throughout the space stations 20-year history, there have been scant levels of commercial activity, the report states, making it hard to believe that a commercially operated station would be possible by the mid-2020s. Paul Martin, NASAs inspector general, has raised these concerns in the past. At a May senate hearing, Martin said, We question whether a sufficient business case exists under which private companies can create a self-sustaining and profit-making business using the ISS independent of significant government funding. Although the timeline may not be feasible, Bridenstine said, commercial companies already are expressing an interest in the idea. Many have submitted plans on how to take over operations, which NASA personnel are reviewing. It sounds really difficult and it is, no doubt, really difficult, but there definitely is interest, he said. But that doesnt mean it can be done and it doesnt mean it can be done in seven years. As the City Council prepares to vote on a $450 million reimagining of the Alamo, uninformed reverence is muddying the debate over whether to relocate the concrete and marble Cenotaph that towers over the downtown plaza and honors the defenders who died in the 1836 battle. The latest plan recommends moving the nearly six-story-tall monument 500 feet south to a more visible location. But various groups, including the Texas GOP, which passed a resolution opposing relocation at its June convention here, adamantly oppose any move. Among the opponents is Weston Martinez, a perennial Republican candidate whose arguments against relocation illustrate some of the misinformation driving the opposition. When I asked Martinez why he and others are so insistent that a monument built in the 1930s stay in place, he responded with a misunderstanding. Historically, thats where Santa Anna piled the bodies up and burned them to their ashes, Martinez said. So its befitting were marking where their ashes were burned by historical references. In fact, the Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio released a report in 1999 on the location of the funeral pyres; it concluded that the only place that can safely be eliminated from contention is beneath the Cenotaph, even though it is the place most tourists assume is the site of their burial. As San Antonio Express-News staff writer Scott Huddleston reported last year, By most accounts, most or all of the corpses are believed to have been burned along the Alameda, a dirt road running along rows of cottonwood trees, where Commerce Street is now a major thoroughfare downtown. Indeed, a marble marker on East Commerce Street across from Rivercenter Mall blocks from the Alamo footprint commemorates where bodies of heroes slain at the Alamo were burned. Its easy to see how Martinez arrived at his misperception, though. Carved into the Cenotaph itself is a quote: From the fire that burned their bodies rose their eternal spirit of sublime heroic sacrifice, which gave birth to an empire state. Even a document produced by the Office of the City Clerk and archived on the citys website states: According to tradition, the Cenotaph marks the spot where the slain defenders of the fortified mission were piled after the battle and burned in great funeral pyres. Councilman Roberto Trevino said the purpose of reimagining the plaza is precisely to correct these misunderstandings. The big picture is we do set that record straight, said Trevino, whose district encompasses the Alamo. The big picture is we tell a complete story and find how that story can weave a much more complete understanding of what happened. Trevino called the current location of the Cenotaph a very arbitrary spot. But try telling that to state Rep. Kyle Biedermann. Last week, the Republican lawmaker from Fredericksburg stood before the soaring monument and delivered an uncompromising speech. Im telling you that Im standing for Texas, Biedermann told a receptive crowd. Were writing letters right now, were getting other legislators together, so that we can put pressure on the GLO (Texas General Land Office) and (Land Commissioner) George P. Bush to be able to keep the Cenotaph right here where it belongs, where its been for the last 80 years, where the men died, where they fell and where we need to protect this shrine for Texas. Trevino disputed that historical assertion. That is a misunderstanding of history altogether, he said. The Cenotaph is not marking that spot. What we do know is that inside the mission footprint there are layers of burial grounds that go back to indigenous cultures, to the mission era, to the battle and after. Were trying to demonstrate whats really there and be factual about it. Trevino believes much of the opposition to moving the Cenotaph is rooted in an emotional connection to the Alamo. Ultimately, were just working to break through, to rationalize the way were working on the project and to show people the thoughtfulness of the subject matter experts who can tell us where these things are and why they are there, he said. The emotional connection isnt enough. It also has to be academic and thoughtful and led by historians and archaeologists and people who know what really happened. bchasnoff@express-news.net Guwahati, August 4 : Assam police had registered another case against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making provocative remarks regarding the Assam NRC issue. According the reports, the Geetanagar police in Guwahati city had registered a case against the West Bengal Chief Minister and eight All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) MPs, MLAs after an Assam based organisation Assam Public Works lodged an FIR. The Guwahati city police had registered a case (no - 286/18) under sections 20B, 153A and 198 of IPC at Geetanagar police station. In the FIR copy lodged by Dhrubajyti Talukdar, General Secretary of Assam Public Works stated that, on 30/07/2018, at around 12-00 (Noon) Smti. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, organized a press meet wherein she made various statements regarding the publication of the draft NRC Her statements were widely published in various News Channels as well as other form of Media across the entire Country. Those statements were totally communal as she tried to colour the process of NRC in Assam with Bengali versus Assamese which is likely to cause breach of peace and tranquility amongst the two communities residing in Assam as well as threat to the life and liberty of Assamese people residing in West Bengal. Further those statements of Smti. Mamata Banerjee, has created a tense situation and is on the verge of breaking some communal riot amongst Assamese and Bengali people across the State and other parts of the country as well. To the utter surprise, yesterday an eight member delegates namely Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna Dey Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Firhad Hakim and Mahua Moitra landed in Silchar, who had no connection with the process of NRC in Assam, with an intension to aggravate the tense situation created by their party leader Smti. Mamata Banerjee. Despite there being Section 144 in exercise, all the aforesaid eight members created a chaos at the Kumbhirgram Air Port and injured three Police personals namely Champa Das, Partha Shil and Rubirani Das. From the act, conduct and statements of Smti. Mamata Banerjee along with Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna Dey Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Firhad Hakim and Mahua Moitra, being the MLAs, MPs and office bearers of the political party Trinamul Congress, they are attempting to start communal riot, feelings of enmity, hatred which is to be curbed immediately, stated in the FIR. Earlier, Assam police had registered a case (no 832/2018) under sections 120B and 153A of IPC at the North Lakhimpur Sadar police station following following a complaint filed by Sudipta Hazarika, General Secretary of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Parishad (AJYP). Abhijit Sarma, President of Assam Public Works said that, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tried to create a disturbance atmosphere over the NRC issue. She said that, this NRC process is against the Bengalis, Hindus and Muslims. But the NRC process is going on to identify Indian and non-Indian. Yesterday we had filed a case at Geetanagar police station against Mamata Banerjee and few others, Abhijit Sarma said. I am shocked and dismayed with the the city of Austins Equity Office. The sheer audacity to suggest changing the capitals name eliminates any credibility the office had. This is the first step toward removing George Washington and others from our history because they were slave owners as well. The proposals to rename streets named after Confederates is, in itself, hypocrisy to the meaning of equity. Equity means if one group has something, the other should have something honoring a story or someone they feel is significant. By eliminating these streets, school names and statues, you are discriminating against descendants of these historic figures. Your silence is consent, allowing one minority to condemn, attack and ridicule another. Thats disgraceful. To create equity, you name new roads after underrepresented historical figures, build news schools and commission new memorials and statues for them. San Antonio has Navarro Street, named after Jose Navarro. His sons of Mexican descent fought alongside the Confederacy, yet no one has considered renaming it. De Zavala Road is named after the vice president of the Republic of Texas, whose children fought for the Confederacy and the preservation of the Alamo. Again, where is the outrage? Our grandparents made mistakes, yet we revere and adore them no less than they revered their grandparents, who were likely Confederate soldiers or patriots of the Texas Revolution. Ever since the people of the South were defeated, theyve became a docile, friendly people who dont want to make any trouble. And today, those meek and softhearted Southerners are asking for your help. Please take my suggestion to preserve the complete Texan history and legacy, while being inclusive to others and excluding none. Name new parks, new streets and schools after new noteworthy individuals so our history evolves but isnt amended or entirely eliminated. Christian Hilmar Lee Paid sick days Let me begin by saying that, as a very small (five-person) employer, I have always proudly offered paid sick leave, paid vacation and paid health insurance to my employees. In turn, we have standards for experience, behavior and performance that many applicants are unwilling to meet. Extending those benefits to any employee, regardless of skill or attitude, degrades our ability to compete for the best workers. But I am aghast at a legal system that allows one group of private citizens to demand direct payments from another. Mandating paid sick leave isnt a tax or a public entitlement. This is using the city government to confiscate funds from employers and hand them out simply because a lot of people would like to be on the receiving end. When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Benjamin Franklin. John F. Dini, Hollywood Park Didnt sign up During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed that Mexico would pay for the wall. But now hes threatening to veto the budget and shut down the government unless Congress budgets billions of our dollars to pay for the wall. Nobody signed on for this. Ken Phelps Too smart for mobs Re: Nazis revisited, Your Turn, July 22: Hugh Caddess mentioned Mobs organized and funded by George Soros. Soros has become a sort of bogeyman used by right-wing types to scare people. They did the same thing when Barack Obama was president claiming that he was going to take away peoples guns. I never participated in demonstrations, even when I was young, and I never believed that they changed anything, except perhaps the larger anti-Vietnam War ones, which got some politicians attention. Some smaller demonstrations do get TV coverage, but how many people would change their minds because of one? George Soros, however, is a shrewd businessman. I doubt that he would waste money funding a mob. He could exert influence through campaign contributions and hire lobbyists, as I would do if I had serious money. The people that I know who attend demonstrations do it because they feel passionate about issues nobody pays them. Caddess refers to another letter published on July 12 by Rick Garcia, suggesting that Garcia is a victim of a lot of socialist indoctrination. People these days often use the word socialism or its derivatives as an insult, with no idea of what the word means. Comparing Trump to Hitler requires thought, not name-calling. True, Trump scapegoats people, especially nonwhites, but to me, any resemblance to Hitler is superficial at best. Hitler believed the Germans were a master race and that they should conquer territory to the east, killing or enslaving the Slavic peoples there as well as Jews and other races considered undesirable, leaving land for Germans to colonize. From what I can ascertain, President Trump does not believe in anything other than Donald J. Trump. At heart, he is a showman, adept at telling people what they want to hear. There is, however, one resemblance. Trump used to claim he was smarter than his generals. Hitler must have felt the same he was the supreme leader of the Nazi military. Thomas L. Arnow Re: Property valuations, Your Turn July 25: Our elected leaders can do much more than lower the tax rate. Before they talk about raising taxes, they should tell us who is not paying taxes. Who knows how much land in Bexar County is not taxable and why? If every property owner paid taxes, it would help lower the burden. Im talking about nonprofit property, religious organizations, low-income apartments and many others that we dont know about. What the taxpayers need is a good investigator, from print media or TV, to look into this matter without fear from religious leaders or elected officials. Is there such a person? Robert Diaz Attack on free press The White House Press Offices recent barring of a reporter from an event following questions it deemed inappropriate was wrong. President Donald Trump, whom we can only hope was not involved in this decision, needs to promptly and publicly condemn this action and issue a very public apology to the press at large. Press office personnel readily acknowledged that the reason CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins was prohibited from attending a press event was that she had asked questions they did not like at an earlier press conference. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders later tried to explain away this punitive action, stating the press office had not banned the entire network, just this one reporter. That weak attempt at rationalization neither justifies the punitive action against a member of our free press nor rectifies its chilling effect. No doubt, the situation would be much worse had they barred the entire network from a press event. But the caveat that we only banned this reporter, and by their own admission for questions they did not like, just doesnt cut it. Its not about that single reporter; its about the stifling effect that message will undoubtedly and irretrievably have on her colleagues. The White House message is unmistakable: Toe the line our line or your involvement in a free press will be adversely impacted. If I were one of that reporters colleagues and saw what happened to her, you can bet I would remember that as I prepared to couch my next question. It would give me pause. And thats a problem. So long as reporters conduct meets a reasonable standard of decency, reporters should be allowed to ask whatever they want, whenever they want and however they want, without fear of adverse consequence. Thats the whole idea of a free press. The same press office personnel who committed this un-American action and later tried to defend it should immediately acknowledge it was wrong and issue an apology to all members of the press at large. The president should admonish the press office, publicly and loudly (that is certainly his style). Trump is ultimately responsible for the actions of his staff. And the president sets the tone, not just within the White House grounds but for the nation itself. The president should reassure all Americans the lay populace in addition to reporters and journalists of every stripe that preservation of this critically important American institution will be a priority under his watch. C.D. Godinez Jr. Listen up, Sessions An open letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions: May I suggest that you prove to we the people that you are not the attorney general in name only by doing the following: Immediately issue orders (in writing) that no documents in possession of the Department of Justice may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of in any manner without your personal written permission, and that any and all directives from any DOJ employee to any subordinate employee dealing with this must be in writing and personally signed by the one issuing the directive. The one issuing the directive and the one(s) receiving said directive(s) are directed to keep said directive on file as proof of their compliance with this order by the attorney general. Further, direct all DOJ employees to speedily supply any and all documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act, with only truly national security items redacted. In addition, direct that any DOJ employee proven guilty of leaking any information to the media will be dismissed immediately and their security clearance revoked. Finally, any DOJ employees failing to follow said directive, to the letter, will be immediately dismissed and their security clearances revoked. In each case, the accused and/or dismissed (suspended) employee will have opportunity to offer a defense. Mr. Sessions, prove to the American people that you are not a figurehead or, worse, an active member of the Deep State. Jerry L. Williams Love Emily Morgan Re: Triangular tower a work of art, S.A. Tricentennial, July 25: I so enjoyed this article. It is special to me as I was born there in September 1937 when it was the Medical Arts Building. I still have the hospital bill of $6.50 for the both of us for one week at the hospital. My mother saved it. I consider myself a true Texan as I was born across the street from the Alamo and won an Express-News contest for What it Means to Be a Texan. Before it became the Emily Morgan, I was still a patient of three doctors in the building. It had the fastest elevators in San Antonio, and we all loved it. Its great that the building is still there and much appreciated by the residents of San Antonio. Please continue honoring the fantastic past of San Antonio. Connie Fuller The Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate for Civil Aviation has refused to issue the Sarajevo-based start-up FlyBosnia an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC), further delaying its launch. The Directorate noted that the airline had not met all the necessary requirements in order to be granted a permit but added that that the company still has the opportunity to mend its shortcomings. The Saudi-backed start-up initially planned to commence services between Sarajevo and Riyadh with a leased Airbus A320 aircraft in June, but later pushed-back its launch until August. Although FlyBosnia plans to link Sarajevo with Riyadh and later with Jeddah, it also intends on expanding its network to in-demand destinations sometime in the future. It will officially unveil all of its plans once it is granted an AOC. In May, the airline's future cabin crew completed their training ahead of the planned launch. Out of 300 applicants, a total of ten female and five male cabin crew were selected and trained. They were awarded certificates at a public ceremony in Sarajevo after completing their course. FlyBosnia has been set up by Saudi Arabia's Al Shiddi Group, which was founded in 1975 with interests in various fields, including construction, real estate, agriculture and tourism. It has been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, where the group consists of four companies - SRE Investment, Shad Invest, Sarajevo City Center (SCC) and Hotel Bristol. The Saudi conglomerate has described FlyBosnia as a "new young and dynamic airline", which will "strive to ensure that passengers enjoy safe flights with high standards of customer service". Previous attempts to set up a commercial airline in Bosnia have failed. The country's flag carrier has gone into bankruptcy on two occasions, while Bosnian Wand Airlines (BWA), founded by the Iraqi Al Wand Group in 2015, with plans to fly from Sarajevo to Stockholm, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Malmo and Athens, lasted for only a month. There has also been a previous attempt, by a different investor, to set up an airline named FlyBosnia. In 2004, a UK-based company intended on establishing the carrier with flights between London Gatwick, Manchester and Sarajevo. However, those plans never materialised. STAMFORD A carpenter in The City That Works started too young, forcing a construction company to stop working on the infamous hole-in-the-ground site. Darien-based James Farrell Construction was ordered to stop working Friday on the sprawling Urby site on Greyrock Place after an investigation by the state Labor Departments wage and workplace standards division, department spokeswoman Nancy Steffens said. During its inspection on Friday, the state learned Farrell employed a 16-year-old as a carpenter and the company had no payroll records for its 59 employees on site and was paying them in cash, Steffens said. The workers were being paid in cash and incorrectly classified as independent contractors, Steffens said. There was no withholding for unemployment insurance or other protections, she added. The teenager was working 50 hours a week for $10 an hour in cash, she said the youth told investigators. The state minimum wage is $10.10 an hour. Federal law also prohibits those under 18 from working hazardous jobs. That is hazardous employment for a minor, you are not allowed to do that, she said. A local carpenters union has organized a protest for Monday afternoon, said Ted Duarte, an organizer with the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. Thats not your uncle's side job, Duarte said. This is a real site, its dangerous, and to boot, being paid cash undermines the whole economy. Who knows how long this child was working on their site without them batting an eyelash, Duarte added. Duarte said a dozen carpenters will congregate at noon Monday under a banner reading, Is this built with child labor? Dozens of other companies continued to work at the site Friday afternoon, but it appeared Farrell was not one of them. An employee wearing a Farrell vest declined to comment. He also declined to give his name or title. A spokesman for the company could not be reached for comment. Steffens said the stop-work order only applies to Farrell, and the company can resume construction once it proves compliance with wage and worker protections. They can go back to work once we work with the employer, Steffens said. Our goal is not to shut down companies, our goal is to make sure everyone is being paid correctly and there are the right protections. The state learned of the illegal payroll from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which had earlier this year inspected the site to investigate reports of a deficient number of port-a-potties for workers, Steffens said. The hole-in-the-ground site, known as Parcel 38, earned its moniker after decades of vacancy. It remained empty even though developers tried for more than 40 years to transform the property. Multi-family homes once there were razed in the 60s and 70s during the citys Urban Renewal movement. barry.lytton@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2263; @bglytton All things western and more. The following companies are subsidiares of The Travelers Companies: 10762962 Canada Inc., 350 Market Street LLC, 8527512 Canada Inc., Aetna Life and Casualty Co, American Equity Insurance Company, American Equity Specialty Insurance Company, Aprilgrange Limited, Arch Street North LLC, Auto Hartford Investments LLC, Bayhill Restaurant II Associates, Camperdown Corporation, Constitution State Services LLC, Discover Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Discover Specialty Insurance Company, F&G UK Underwriters Limited, Farmington Casualty Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Underwriters Inc., First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Company, Gulf Underwriters Insurance Company, IHP Capital Partners Fund VIII L.P., Northbrook Holdings Inc., Northfield Insurance Company, Northland Casualty Company, Northland Insurance Company, Phoenix UK Investments LLC, SPC Insurance Agency Inc., Select Insurance Company, Simply Business Holdings Inc., Simply Business Inc., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company, St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, St. Paul Protective Insurance Company, St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company, Standard Fire Properties LLC, Standard Fire UK Investments LLC, TCI Global Services Inc., TPC Investments Inc., TPC U.K. Investments LLC, The Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut, The Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, The Family Business Institute LLC, The Phoenix Insurance Company, The St. Paul Companies Inc., The Standard Fire Insurance Company, The Travelers Casualty Company, The Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America, The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut, The Travelers Lloyds Insurance Company, TravCo Insurance Company, Travelers (Bermuda) Limited, Travelers Brazil Acquisition LLC, Travelers Brazil Holding LLC, Travelers Casualty Company of Connecticut, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Travelers Casualty UK Investments LLC, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Europe Limited, Travelers Commercial Casualty Company, Travelers Commercial Insurance Company, Travelers Constitution State Insurance Company, Travelers Distribution Alliance Inc., Travelers Excess and Surplus Lines Company, Travelers Global Inc., Travelers Indemnity U.K. Investments LLC, Travelers Insurance Company Limited, Travelers Insurance Company of Canada, Travelers Insurance Designated Activity Company, Travelers Insurance Group Holdings Inc., Travelers Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company, Travelers London Limited, Travelers MGA Inc., Travelers Management Limited, Travelers Marine LLC, Travelers Participacoes em Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Personal Insurance Company, Travelers Personal Security Insurance Company, Travelers Property Casualty Company of America, Travelers Property Casualty Corp., Travelers Property Casualty Insurance Company, Travelers Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Syndicate Management Limited, Travelers Texas MGA Inc., Travelers Underwriting Agency Limited, Ultramar Travel Management, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Xbridge Limited, Zensurance Brokers Inc., and Zensurance Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mohawk Unilin Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk United Finance B.V., Mohawk United International B.V., Mohawk Vinyl Financing S.a r.l., Molber Beheer B.V., Monarch Ceramic Tile Inc., P.F. Onroerend Goed B.V., PF Beheer B.V., Pergo, Pergo (Europe) AB, Pergo Holding BV, Pergo India Pvt Ltd, Polcolorit S.A., Premium Floors Australia Pty Limited, RR Apex LLC, Rata International Pty Ltd, Recubrimientos Interceramica S. de R.L. de C.V., Riverside Textiles Pty Ltd, S.C. KAI Ceramics SRL, Sibir Kerama OOO, SimpleSolutions USA LLC, Soft Step (Australia) Pty Ltd, Spano Group, Spano Invest BVBA, Spano NV, Stroyagromekhzapchast ChaO, Stroytrans OAO Orelstroy, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, The Flooring Federation Ltd, Tiles Co OOD, Unilin (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited. Australia and New Zealand have an advantage in responding to the threat. Both countries have a long association with the Pacific, beginning with their roles as colonial powers and their facilitation of self-government processes. The diplomatic challenge for Australia is to harness a critical mass of informed people in the Pacific to manage potentially disruptive effects of Chinas activities. Well first it needs a genuinely inclusive campaign specifically targeting the Pacific audience. A renewed focus should engage with Pacific citizens. Because lets be clear, Pacific islanders are equally anxious about the increasing presence of China in their countries. So how should Australia the predominant Western power in the Pacific - respond? Chinas manoeuvre is viewed as a potential threat predicated on its activities elsewhere in the South China Sea where it has militarised disputed coral atolls and in the Indian Ocean where it has used debt diplomacy to its strategic advantage. PORT MORESBY - Chinas presence in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands is an unsettling prospect for traditional powers like Australia. Australia and New Zealand were founding members of the regional architecture of what is now called the Pacific Islands Forum. Western powers can only be effective in dealing with the effects of Chinas influence if they are attentive to the Pacific islands response to Chinas activities in the region. For example, and of great importance, Australia has squandered opportunities to enhance its solidarity with Pacific communities on climate change. Australia has not been forthcoming in this area of global and regional concern. This is a credibility test that raises doubts on whether Australia is truly genuine in its interactions with the region. Pacific islanders feel they need to be able to rely on Australias track record as a Pacific partner in dealing with any perceived threat in the region. Australian foreign policy officials and its media must be conscious of their use of condescending rhetoric. Australia conveys a patronising image of the Pacific Islands when citing the China threat. Labelling the Pacific Islands as our patch or our sphere of influence is an unproductive formulation. It casts Pacific islanders as insignificant pawns in great power politics. This is not the kind of rallying call to mobilise a collective effort in managing the possibly adverse effects of a potential belligerent power. The Pacific is comprised of predominantly sovereign independent states which are the rightful custodians of their backyard the vast Pacific Ocean. Australia will not win friends in the Pacific Islands if the messages it communicates infer it is going alone on the China threat. The rhetoric used by commentators and the media in Australia have an unfortunate and alienating effect on Pacific leaders and their people. Pacific leaders carefully guard the sovereignty of their countries. The Chinese know this and deal directly with political elites as they seek to foster the trust and confidence of Pacific leaders. Any rhetoric that is condescending will push Pacific political elites towards China and this is now the case. Chinas emphasis on South-South cooperation invokes a sense of affinity with the countries of the Pacific in partnership and joint development. And the political and bureaucratic elites of these states are ready to jump on the Chinese bandwagon. Treating Pacific islanders as long-term partners gains the confidence of peoples who are genuinely interested in relationships beyond China. This is the much-needed support that Australia can foster in managing the Chinese presence in the Pacific. Citizens of these states are concerned about threats to their business, their environment and the refinancing of debt undertaken in their name. Furthermore, Australia and other Western powers can counter the China threat by communicating the trustworthiness of Australian aid. Of all the grandiose infrastructure projects enabled through Chinese loans, many are of questionable quality even unnecessary to the long-term development of communities. From uneconomical sporting stadiums to unnecessary high-rise buildings, Chinas infrastructure aid does not correlate to the developmental needs of the Pacific. In the relatively short time that China has been involved in Pacific infrastructure , communities already recognise the sometimes doubtful worth of their infrastructure assistance programs. It seems the same rigour of peer review process and scrutiny of aid programs is not applied to China. In its attempts to bring some semblance of transparency and performance-oriented conditions for Chinese aid in the region, Australia has tried unsuccessfully to persuade China to sign up to the Cairns Compact, to bring new determination and an invigorated commitment to lift the economic and development performance of the region. Australian foreign minister Julie Bishops recent comments that Australia is poised to compete with China in development aid is timely. In dealing with Chinas debt-book diplomacy, Australia must have the support of Pacific island leaders, civil society and informed Pacific citizens. Pacific citizens should be made to see that it is in their interest to avert the adverse effects of the debt trap. This will entail demanding that the Pacific Islands Forum seek that China conforms to best practice reporting of aid to the region, lest it be viewed as an externally driven neo-colonial exercise. On the other hand, Australian infrastructure, though not perfect, has a proven record of longevity and high standards. For instance, Papua New Guineans see the enduring pre-Independence infrastructure as an example of Australian support and as a testament to competitive Australian architectural standards and reliability. Australia ought to be communicating this message of the reliability and the high standards in the delivery of its assistance to Pacific states. United States secretary of state Mike Pompeo hinted at this same logic recently when he said, With American companies, citizens around the world know that what you see is what you get: honest contracts, honest terms, and no need for off-the-books mischief. Pacific islanders are astute, and will weigh the outcomes of their engagement with development partners in terms of both the sustainable benefits and the integrity of the development assistance. An informed Pacific citizen is a powerful ally if the debt-book diplomacy of China is to be counteracted. Patrick Kaiku is a teaching fellow in the political science department at the University of Papua New Guinea by Brendan Tuma | Fri, Aug 3rd 3:54pm EDT The Seattle Mariners have announced that Dee Gordon's ankle injury is not considered serious. (Greg Johns on Twitter) Fantasy Impact: Gordon turned his ankle on Thursday night, but he might not miss much time at all as it turns out. The 30-year-old speedster will be re-evaluated before getting to the ballpark later today. Scottish farmers have used a meeting to identify solutions to the feed and fodder shortfalls this autumn and winter. In an exceptional year, months of cold, wet weather last winter and spring have been followed by the hottest, driest spell for a generation. It has had a huge impact. For livestock farmers, grass growth for cattle and sheep has ground to a halt, many are already feeding hay and silage that was intended for the coming winter and supplies of all feed and bedding are challenging to secure. For cereal growers, early indications are that the winter barley harvest has been, at best, average. Spring barley, sown during a cold, wet spring, will see its harvest start in earnest in the coming weeks and spring barley is Scotlands most important arable crop. Organisations attending the meeting included Scottish Government, AHDB, NFU Scotland and Quality Meat Scotland, and more. Exceptionally volatile weather over the past 12 months has made this a "costly and difficult" time for all farmers and crofters, according to NFUS Vice President, Martin Kennedy, who chaired the meeting. "That is having an impact that no one could have predicted. It was hugely worthwhile pulling in key stakeholders as we all work to identify short-term solutions that may address the serious shortfall in feed and fodder that is emerging," he said. There is no silver bullet, but farmers can be reassured that help and advice is available from several of those round the table today. Solutions It was agreed that farmers need to assess their fodder and bedding requirements for the winter ahead. The meeting heard how farmers should bale straw, and those who require straw should place orders now. The Scottish government has been urged to pay at least 90% of the basic payment scheme in October, as they did last year, and bring forward the payment of all pillar 2 payments. The roundtable also heard how the UK government must investigate the possibility of paying Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to anaerobic digestion (AD) plants who voluntarily choose to divert their distillery by products to animal feed, and to consider the long-term impact on animal feed supply because of the growth in AD plants. The meeting heard how the Scottish Government must request that Europe relax the 3-crop rule requirement to allow growers more time to bale straw rather than plant winter crops, and relax their rules that require Green Manure crops like clover, peas and oats to be ploughed in after 15 August, as this could be used for fodder. After the meeting, the NFUS Vice President said that the sooner farmers start to plan ahead, the better. In the past few weeks, we have seen examples of arable growers turning off the choppers on their combines and baling more straw for their livestock neighbours; grass margins around arable fields have been baled for fodder; plantings of fodder crops like kale are on the rise and livestock keepers have shifted from bedding their animals on barley straw to alternatives," Mr Kennedy said. This is set to be an extremely challenging autumn and winter, but those round the table today are committed to helping the industry through it. YFCs offered new support to upgrade club buildings Clubs will also be offered help with new builds Whatever here on, the employees of the airline must be prepared for some tough times ahead as cost cutting reaches a fever pitch. New Delhi: Cost cutting is never a pleasant exercise for any business but when it comes down to employees facing a salary cut, the situation turns from bad to worse. This is precisely what has been happening at Indias second largest airline by passengers, Jet Airways. It is painful for any employee to agree to a salary cut in any company but they need to remember that cost rationalisation is imperative to the very survival of the company which pays them their wages. Two things should be mentioned upfront here: First, Jet is a full service carrier (FSC) with cost heads vastly different and inflated compared to the LCCs like market leader IndiGo and SpiceJet. The other FSCs Air India and Vistara are also in continuous efforts to trim costs and raise revenue. Air India has sought yet another equity infusion from the government recently. And it must be clear that its inflated employee base was one of the reasons cited by potential bidders for not coming forward in the failed disinvestment exercise conducted recently. Vistara has just announced a category of fares which exclude complimentary meals something seen as a necessity in FSC model - to boost revenues. Second, Jet has anyways been on a cost rationalisation drive (costs other than jet fuel, which is out of its control) for several quarters now. If all areas of the airlines operations are being squeezed, how can employees remain untouched? The latest round of trouble started when the management, lead by Chairman Naresh Goyal, informed pilots earlier in the week that they should agree to a 15 percent salary cut for the next 24 months or be prepared to work for a company that is left with revenue to run for maximum 60 days more. There was a mention of significant impact on the on-time performance of the airline, mismanagement by the airline management and the possibility of lots of ground staff and cabin crew losing jobs. High fuel prices, major market share gain by a rival airline and no expansion in the last six years were other reasons provided for the current mess, according to sources at this meeting. Of course, some of what the pilots were told is true and needs urgent attention. Jet Airways, like all other airlines operating in India, has being facing headwinds due to high fuel prices coupled with high incidence of taxation on jet fuel, airlines inability to raise fares and depreciation of the rupee. So, assertions of the airline having enough cash to run for merely two months, which have since been denied by the Jet management, should be viewed in the context of a tough operating environment for all airlines. Jet is not alone in feeling the squeeze. Indias biggest airline by passengers, IndiGo, just reported a shock decline in its profitability for the June quarter its steepest such decline since listing on the bourses. The cash crunch at Jet is what all other airlines are also facing, in varying degrees. But having said that, there is also the little problem of this particular airlines staff costs, its indebtedness and the stated objective of reducing costs other than fuel. As this piece from MoneyControl points out, Jet has the biggest wage bill in the industry. Its wage bill was Rs 2,801 crore in FY18 compared to Rs 2,366 crore of IndiGo when the latter accounted for almost 40 percent of the domestic market. Jet was way behind at just 16.7 percent share along with JetLite. The point here is that though Jet is paying more in wages to its employees, it has less than half the share of the market IndiGo has and certainly needs to trim the wage bill. Jet employed 16,558 permanent employees on its rolls as on March 31 this year while IndiGo had just 18,060 people. The annual report of Jet mentions that permanent employees increased from 16,015 an year ago. Now, let us come to the avowed goal of Jets management to trim non-fuel costs. CEO Vinay Dube told analysts after the FY18 results in May that our focus continues to be on the non-fuel CASK (cost per available seat kilometer). We are on target to deliver the 12 percent to 15 percent non-fuel CASK reduction. A reduction of 15 percent in non-fuel costs, if the Jet management is seriously pursuing this goal, cannot come about by protecting salaries of the highly paid section of pilots. But the sources quoted earlier said several questions were raised by the pilots at the meeting with Goyal and other top management executives, when the salary cuts and their inevitability was mentioned. These included reasons for the airline shutting down profitable routes, under-utilisation of JetLite pilots, losses being incurred by running JetLite as a separate company and improper coordination between various airline departments. Whether any answers were forthcoming is not known. Another source said that Goyal has always pampered pilots, but this time his hands may be tied as the cost rationalisation exercise must touch every department. A section of employees cannot remain unaffected by the difficulties being faced by the company, this person said, asking not to be named. He also said there have been intermittent reports of Goyal wanting to trim his stake in the airline but no such decision has been implemented till now. On its part, Jet issued a statement after its scrip tumbled on the bourses through the day yesterday. It said recent media reports about the sustainability of the airline are not only factually incorrect, but also malicious. The airline would also like to deny any conjecture of a stake sale. Indian aviation is experiencing strong growth and Jet Airways is well-placed to be a part of this growth story. The company is committed to create a growth-oriented, sustainable future and a revitalised experience armed with the addition of 225 B737-MAX fuel efficient aircraft, which will be inducted in its fleet over the next decade, with 11 being inducted this fiscal. This envisioned growth will in fact, require additional human capital. In the coming days, it will of course become clear whether the pilots blink first or the airline management does. Or if there will be more hiring than firing. But whatever happens hereon, the employees of the airline must be prepared for some tough times ahead as cost cutting reaches a fever pitch. Mehul Choksi had fled India on 4 January this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on 15 January 2018. New Delhi:The CBI has sent an extradition request for fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to the government to be forwarded to Antigua where he has taken citizenship in November last year, an agency official said today. Elaborating on the move, CBI sources said the agency has cited three grounds on the basis of which Choksi, one of the alleged masterminds of the $2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, can be extradited to India to face trial. They said the agency has underlined the principle of reciprocity where fugitives can be exchanged between two countries as and when required, principle of dual criminality which states that the alleged charge on the fugitive should be an offence in both the countries, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption to which both Antigua and India are signatories. The UN Convention urges its signatory nations to cooperate in the matters pertaining to corruption, they said. The CBI move comes amidst media reports that Indian agencies told the the Caribbean nation that there was no adverse information against Choksi when it did a background check on the fugitive billionaire before granting him citizenship in 2017. According to a statement of Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda, published in Antiguan newspaper The Daily Observer on Friday, Antigua has claimed that Indian agencies had not shared any "derogatory information" about Choksi during its background checks. Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, the newspaper reported. Choksi was granted citizenship in November, 2017 after a detailed "background check" and "due diligence", The Daily Observer had said in an earlier report. After getting Antiguan passport, Choksi had fled India on 4 January this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on 15 January 2018. On 16 January, this year, the $2 billion scam was detected by Brady House branch of Punjab National Bank, making it the biggest banking scam in the country. As many as 21 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded in Iran for months without salary, food and accommodation, arrived in Chennai on Saturday. Chennai: As many as 21 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded in Iran for months without salary, food and accommodation, arrived in Chennai on Saturday. Upon their arrival at the airport by an early morning flight, they were taken to their native districts, including Kanyakumari, by the Fisheries Department, which arranged for vans to send them home. One of the fishermen said that he and 20 others were thrown out on the street by their employer in Iran and had to endure untold hardship. Thanking the government for bringing them back home, he appealed to the state to extend help to start their occupation in their hometowns. The fishermen had gone to Iran a year ago to take up fishing activity on a "share-in-income" arrangement with a firm, International Fishermen Development Trust president P Justin Antony had said. He had also said the victims had decided to go abroad as fishing was not so remunerative at home. However, they were not paid for about six months and their passports and other travel documents were taken away by the firm, Antony had alleged. Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami had on 21 June urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Indian embassy in Iran to take the necessary steps for bringing back the stranded fishermen. On 31 July, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had tweeted, saying, "I am happy to inform that 21 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were stranded at Nakhitaghi (Iran) have been released with the efforts of Indian Embassy in Iran and our Consulate at Bandar Abbas. We are repatriating them to Chennai in batches starting from 3rd August 2018 (sic)." Last month, DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi had visited Swaraj and requested for steps for the release of the fishermen. Antony said of the 21 fishermen, eight were from Kanyakumari, seven from Tirunelveli and six from Tuticorin districts. He thanked the Indian embassy in Iran, the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre for safely bringing home the stranded fishermen. The Hurriyat leaders in Kashmir have been refusing dialogue offers from the government saying that they would not hold talks under the Constitution of India, but the petitions challenging Article 35A has pushed them into defending a law that is part of the same Constitution The separatist groups' protest against any tinkering with Article 35A, which bars outsiders from purchasing land or getting government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir, has somehow pushed them in a narrative trap in which they have ended up defending a law that is part of the Constitution of India, something which the Hurriyat leadership never considered sacrosanct. The Supreme Court of India will be hearing petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A on 6 August. The fact is that the petitions challenging the special status are part of a well-planned assault on Kashmiri culture that will change the very definition of the Kashmir dispute, says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who led a protest on Friday afternoon in downtown area of Srinagar against the possible abrogation of the article. "It (Article 35A) is part of our identity and any tinkering with it is an assault on the people of Kashmir, be they Muslims Hindus, Sikhs or Christians," he said. However, mainstream politicians argue that the Article 35A is part of the Indian constitution and the separatist leaders, who have been striving for "Azadi" shouldnt play politics over it. It is the demand of those who swear by the Constitution of India and have time and again defended it by taking the oath of the Constitution of India and strived to work for it by participating in the governance process, senior National Conference leader and MLA, Ali Mohammad Sagar, said. With the state government sleeping over the matter, the National Conference on Friday filed an intervention plea in the Supreme Court, seeking to be included as respondents in the petition challenging Article 35A. We filed the intervention plea in the Supreme Court in reiteration of our commitment to fight against all machinations aimed at fiddling with the States special status and unique political identity. National Conference will fight this battle from the forefront and will do everything necessary to safeguard the states special status and political rights," said Nasir Aslam Wani, provincial president, National Conference, after the plea was filed in New Delhi. The separatists groups have called for a two-day strike to highlight the issue and have been taking out protests since last week. On Friday, both Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz led protests against what they called Indias larger design to change the demography of the Muslims majority Jammu and Kashmir". The separatists have warned the Centre of large scale protests in case Article 35A, which is coming up for hearing on 6 August, is touched. Already, around 30 trade bodies across Kashmir have warned that any addition or deletion of the article will have long term repercussions. However, the way the separatists are rallying around the issue has exposed their political dilemma. The Hurriyat leaders over the years have been refusing dialogue offers from the Government of India saying that they would not hold talks under the Constitution of India. But in this case they have come out on the streets to defend a law that is part of the Constitution of India. Mirwaiz, in series of tweets, said that no court whether of India or Pakistan has any right to take decisions about Jammu and Kashmir having implications on the overall settlement of the "dispute". Mirwaiz also said that Kashmiris will never allow tinkering with Article 35A and are ready to lay down their lives for its protection. Tinkering with Art 35A is not only an attempt to dilute the disputed nature of #Kashmir but an all out assault on the very existence on the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which will never be allowed by its people who are ready to even lay down their lives for its protection pic.twitter.com/MWxYa1VEeB Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) August 3, 2018 The issue has touched sensitive chords of identity and religion in the state with even a group of lawyers in Hindu majority Jammu region of the state taking out a rally in support of the protests being held in Kashmir. Hurriyat leaders also find it extremely difficult to stay away from the debate regarding Jammu and Kashmirs constitutional and legal relation with the rest of India. This, analysts believe, could be New Delhis 'ploy' to manage and lower Hurriyat Conference's bar from 'Azadi' to 'protection of special status of the state'. The active participation of Hurriyat in protests could also unnerve pro-India political parties like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party who claim to operate as a buffer between New Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir with their respective ideologies within the Constitution of India, and thus making issues surrounding Article 35A as their exclusive domain. The Hurriyats call for protests on Article 35A is being seen a political trespassing by the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir. It may appear as a deviation by Hurriyat leadership from their principle political stand, said Ajaz Wani, a political science professor at the University of Kashmir, but in the larger context it is the part of the resistance movement. "If outsiders will come and settle in Jammu and Kashmir, it will lead to a demographic change and also impact the right to self determination which is the basis of the politics of Hurriyat, said Wani, adding, "For pro-India and pro-election parties, even voting pattern would change which will be catastrophic for the health of democracy in the state." Assam chief minister Raman Singh said that the row about NRC in Assam was hyped too much and said that India was not a 'dharamshaala' for foreigners Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Friday said that the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam should not be hyped up as India was not a "dharamshala" (guest house) where foreigners would keep on infiltrating. He told reporters in Durg district that those who could not prove their nationality should leave the country. "There is no need to hype up the issue. Is our country a dharmashala that foreigners will keep on infiltrating," he said, when asked to comment on the issue. "Anybody comes here and start living. They must be dragged out, and for this purpose only such persons have been identified (in Assam)," he added. He said the exercise was the result of an eight-year-long protest by the Assamese youth. "The Supreme Court had formed a committee which was constituted during the Congress' rule. Today, the matter is being twisted," he claimed. "Either these 40 lakh people (who were excluded from the NRC) who have come from outside should prove their nationality or go back from where they have come," the chief minister said. Bangladeshi immigrants, or the Bengali speaking community, became a political issue in Assam because of identity and religion, but not so in West Bengal, because of linguistic and cultural similarities The National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft release in Assam has rendered 40 lakh people homeless. Citizenship for Bangladeshi immigrants becomes a critical political issue in the context of emerging religious nationalism. Bangla speaking immigrants are treated as a threat to national security, and all methods of conflict governance have failed to address this issue. Every Bangla speaking individual has to prove his/her identity every day to survive. It's a historical truth that the formation of East Pakistan in 1947 forced many to Bangladeshis or Bangla speaking people to migrate to India. The formation of Bangladesh in 1971, in fact, prevented such massive migration. Immigration to Assam has a history of its own, a paper by Sanjay Bhardwaj ('Illegal Bangladeshi Migration: Evaluating India-Bangladesh Approaches', published in CLAWS Journal, Winter 2014) shows; between 1911 to 1931, more than a million Bengalis migrated to India and settled down in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam. According to Bhardwaj, it continued later. It had been a political issue in Assam, but does not become so in West Bengal. Linguistic and cultural similarities between Bangladesh and West Bengal, and a sizeable percentage of Muslims in the latter, meant there isn't the same sense of insecurity in Bengal as in Assam. But the Bangladeshi immigrants, or the Bengali speaking community, become a political issue in Assam because of identity and religion. Settling down in Assam had never been an easy task for the immigrants. The Assam Accord in 1985 was an example of the local resistance against Bangladeshi immigrants. As per the Accord, those who came to Assam prior to 1 January 1966, including those whose names appeared on electoral rolls used for the 1967 elections, shall be regularised. It was a huge political success for the state of Assam, and the major beneficiary was the local political movement and parties like the Asom Gana Parishad. They came to power on this massive ground support. Local economy and culture Every instance of immigration and influx of refugees creates pressure on the local economy and culture. Understanding those changes and accepting them is a political economy process. The 'sons of the soil' approach has proved insignificant in the country, except for some short-term political gains. Like the Maratha consciousness in Mumbai and the formation of Shiv Sena, although even the Sena found it difficult to stick to the 'sons of the soil' ideology. The economy of Mumbai is a major factor behind this, since the capital owning classes are from across the country, and they are the sources of funding to political parties, and control the local economy and resources as well. However, this is not the case in Assam, where the immigrants have not become an economic class nor have they owned major resources. History also says that Muslims were brought to Assam as plantation workers by the British. Muslims in Assam have not moved much from their peasant status, and no political party in the state speaks in favour of them. Their contribution to the state's economy is spread across the informal sector and the huge labour contribution. The graph above indicates that Muslims' contribution to the GDP of Assam is comparatively lesser, and this is the reason why the government and a section of the public considers them as not contributing adequately to the economy. However, a proper assessment of the reasons and facts behind the citizenship issue is more important. There are multiple reasons associated with it, one is the uneven distribution of opportunities. Muslims are predominantly rural, and the graph below gives a detailed account of the division in terms of participation in the main work. Work force participation of Muslims Immigrants across the world are being blamed for hurting the local community and snatching their opportunities. In Assam too, the Muslims are blamed for denying local Assamese people their employment opportunities. Interestingly though, as explained by the graph below, Muslims are active in both the main and marginal working sectors. For instance, the percentage share of work participation of Muslims in the urban sector is much higher than the total population. This figure questions the established reason for enumerating the citizenship of 40 lakh people who have lived in the state for generations. The government should recognise their participation in the informal economy of Assam and their increasing participation in the job market which definitely contributing to the state's economy. It is not snatching away opportunities, but could instead be considered as a struggle for the existence of a vulnerable community. They have to contribute to survive. The figures 1 and 3 have to be assessed in this critical context. They reveal that Muslims are increasingly concentrated in the wage labour sector, which contributes to the local economy in terms of labour contribution, and not necessarily in the high value economy. Though there are fewer Muslims in urban areas, their participation in the main and marginal works in urban areas are much higher than the general community's. The government should consider the linkages effect of their contribution to the urban economy, including indirect tax contribution. As per the NSSO Survey of 2004, the informal sector occupies 88.9 percent of Assam's total labour force. Also, as per the 'Report on Employment in Informal Sector and Conditions of Informal Employment (2013-14)', only 19 percent of the country's informal sector workers receive social security benefits, but in Assam, there are 341 workers for every 1,000 who get social security benefits. The majority of the informal sector workers remain outside the social security net, and it's the immigrants who are suffering the most. Data shows that immigrants are the active working population with vulnerable conditions, so the government should enumerate their contribution rather than look just at the population numbers. The government should develop a proper assessment mechanism to measure their economic contribution to the state of Assam, and they are also not remitting any money outside. They are generating and spending money within Assam, so the government should think of a proper plan to capitalise their labour contribution in a more productive manner. The author is assistant professor, Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences The name of Assam's lone woman chief minister Syeda Anowara Taimur, who is residing in Australia, is missing from the NRC and she plans to return home to initiate the process of enlisting herself and her family in the register of citizens of the state. Guwahati: The name of Assam's lone woman chief minister Syeda Anowara Taimur, who is residing in Australia, is missing from the NRC and she plans to return home to initiate the process of enlisting herself and her family in the register of citizens of the state. ''It is sad that my name is not there in the list. I will return to Assam in the last week of August and then initiate the process to get mine and my family's name enlisted in the National Register of Citizens (NRC)," the octogenarian told a television channel. Taimur had headed the state government from December 1980 to June 1981. She has been ailing for some years and is living with her son in Australia. The former Assam chief minister said she had "requested a relative to submit the application for the family's inclusion in the NRC, but maybe it could not be done due to some reasons''. The NRC authorities in Guwahati, however, said there was no legacy data of the former chief minister available with them and as such it was not possible for them to ascertain whether she and her family members had applied for inclusion of their names in the draft NRC. Taimur had served as a Rajya Sabha member in 1988. She was elected as a member of the state legislative assembly in 1972, 1978, 1983 and 1991. She left the Congress to join the AIUDF in 2011. AIUDF General Secretary Aminul Islam on Friday told PTI that they, too, had heard from media reports about her name not being in the list. ''We have come to know from media reports that our party member and Assam's first woman chief minister's name does not figure in the list. There are others, like former president Fakhruddin Ali's nephew, whose names do not figure in the NRC. This is a serious matter," he said. "The NRC is full of errors and we will soon meet NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela and then chalk out our future course of action," he said. Meanwhile, Taimur's Guwahati residence near the Rajdhani Masjid in Dispur is lying vacant. The complete draft of the NRC released on 30 July included the names of 2.89 crore people, out of the 3.29 applicants, with the names of over 40 lakh people excluded. Two police complaints were lodged against Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in the city on Friday over alleged 'manhandling' and 'illegal detention' of TMC delegates at the Silchar airport on Thursday by Assam police officials Kolkata: Two police complaints were lodged against Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in the city on Friday over alleged "manhandling" and "illegal detention" of TMC delegates at the Silchar airport on Thursday by Assam police officials, TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said. One complaint was filed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport police station under the Bidhannagar Police commissionerate and another at Alipore police station in the city. TMC MLA Mohua Moitra had herself filed the complaint at Alipore police station. The charges made against Sonowal by the TMC were illegal detention of public representatives and manhandling, Dastidar said. An official of the Bidhannagar police commissionerate confirmed receiving the complaint from Dastidar. "I and our party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have lodged two separate complaints against the Assam home minister, who is also the chief minister, over manhandling and illegal detention yesterday (Thursday). We were assaulted by the police officials (at Silchar airport)," Moitra said. The officials on Thursday told them that they have orders from the "highest level of the state government" to ensure that we don't leave the airport, she claimed. "Assam home minister should answer, why elected representatives were manhandled and illegally detained," she said. Dastidar and Moitra were part of the delegation of the eight-member TMC delegation comprising six MPs, an MLA and a state minister, who were stopped at the Silchar airport and taken into preventive detention. They had travelled to Silchar to assess the ground realities in Bengali-dominated Cachar district of Assam after the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in that state on Monday. Reacting to the police complaints against Assam chief minister, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC is trying to "disturb the peace and stability in Assam." "The TMC is trying to put national security at stake and gain political mileage out of it. In the video clippings we have seen how the police personnel were pushed by TMC leaders," he said. Incidentally, three FIRs were filed recently against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Assam for her alleged "instigating remarks" that threatened the unity of the country and her attempt to create unrest in the state. Two cases were filed against Banerjee on Thursday at the Pan Bazar and Basistha police stations in Guwahati, while one FIR was filed against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief in Lakhimpur district on Wednesday. Banerjee has opposed the NRC in Assam, saying it will lead to "civil war and bloodbath in the country" as over 40 lakh applicants have been excluded in the final draft of the citizen's register. Stating that the rise in China's power globally is a 'fact of life', former foreign secretary S Jaishankar on Friday asserted that India has to deal with the country with a 'different mindset and a stronger resolve'. Mumbai: Stating that the rise in China's power globally is a "fact of life", former foreign secretary S Jaishankar on Friday asserted that India has to deal with the country with a "different mindset and a stronger resolve". He added that India could not afford the complacency like in the case of the Hambantota Port which Sri Lanka leased out to China. India had registered a protest with the island nation when a Chinese submarine had docked at the port in Colombo in 2014. Jaishankar also said it was Pakistan which came out with the narrative that Kashmir dispute was the "central issue" between the two countries. The former foreign secretary opined that the settlement of the Kashmir dispute may not solve all the problems between New Delhi and Islamabad. He said that Pakistan should move away from supporting terror activities as that was the "central issue" rather than the Kashmir dispute. Jaishankar was delivering the 24th Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture in Mumbai on 'Doing Foreign Policy Differently'. Jaishankar also pitched for working on a foreign policy based on changing situations across the world. "China's influence in the world cannot be disregarded. We should be open to find a common ground which is in our national interest. But all of this requires a different mindset and stronger resolve," he said. "We cannot afford the complacency of the past that oversaw the Hambantota project, of ballooning trade deficits nor can we take comfort in the rhetoric of combativeness. Chinese power is a fact of life," Jaishankar added. Talking about addressing the issue of trade deficit between India and China, he said that on the economic front India needs to accept that China will be a major investor. The former foreign secretary, however, said that India will have handle this part deftly in view of national security. "The trade deficit is unsustainable and the case to press for greater market access has only become stronger. Strategically, India can learn from China itself by leveraging the global environment to maintain and create a better balance," he added. While replying to a query from the audience about India's relation with Pakistan, Jaishankar refused to believe the Kashmir dispute was "central" to it. "If Kashmir is a central issue, then why do acts of terrorism take place outside Kashmir? Why was this city (Mumbai) attacked (in 2008)? I am not convinced that Kashmir alone is the issue and settlement of Kashmir will solve all problems with Pakistan," he added. Jaishankar said that the terror activities are supported openly in cities of Pakistan and asked the country to desist from such misadventures. CRPF personnel in Odisha's Kalahandi busted a powerful bomb planted by Maoists and averted a huge disaster Bhawanipatna (Odisha): A disaster was averted when a security patrol moving in Belagrha village detected and defused a powerful bomb planted by the Maoists in Kalahandi district, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) sources said. The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was spotted in the village in Tirmunhi forest area during a patrolling carried out by a team of CRPF personnel and police on Friday,the sources said. A sniffer dog which accompanied the patrolling team detected the powerful bomb which was defused by the bomb disposal personnel of the 4th battalion of CRPF on the spot, they said. The device contained about 10 kg of explosive materials. The explosives were kept in a 10-litre steel container fixed with electric detonator and wire, they said. The IED was found during intensified patrolling following information regarding movement of the Maoists in the area, the sources said. If the governments proposed move to delink the voter roll and Aadhaar from the NRC comes to fruition, it would be a frontal negation of the NRCs own intent and a gross misspending of taxpayers' money Not even a week has passed since the Assam government released the second draft of the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) to identify genuine Indian citizens in the state, and one can already see odd indications that this Rs 1,220 crore enumeration exercise may be a pointless endeavour. The internal logic of the NRC notwithstanding concerns about its normative basis and drastic socio-political consequences is to ensure that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are stripped off certain statutory rights and privileges that come exclusively with Indian citizenship. This includes voting rights and access to state-sponsored services and subsidies. For the longest time, the Assamese civil society had blamed the Congress government of permitting the 'illegals' to avail these benefits, most prominently voting rights. Back to square one? On Thursday, the Chief Election Commissioner revealed that the states voter roll would be delinked from the NRC. Although, technically, the District Election Officer (DEO) is supposed to issue a notice of voter decertification to those excluded from the final NRC list (either by referral from the NRC coordinator or suo moto), the Election Commission has clarified that the delisted individuals would be given a months time to produce fresh documents to support their citizenship claim. If the DEO is satisfied, the so-called 'illegal immigrants' will be placed (or retained) in the states voter roll. Further, on Friday, noted journalist from Assam, Rajeev Bhattacharyya reported that "a plan was being finalised to implement Aadhaar and make it available to all residents in the state with no links to the National Register of Citizens (NRC)". The stated intent of this is to allow the government to "track the movements of the aliens" and ensure that they do not migrate to other states. This is a shift in the governments earlier intent to not issue Aadhaar cards to delisted individuals. However, this would also mean that those who fail to make it to the final NRC list will be able to avail state-sponsored benefits something that local Assamese groups have always opposed to the T. The dominant civil society in Assam has already expressed alarm at the delinking of the NRC and Aadhaar ecosystems. They have demanded that the NRC exercise be concluded before Aadhaar cards are issued, which should be done in accordance with the listing status. They also argue that issuance of Aadhaar cards would hamper deportation attempts, thus bringing the whole anti-immigration movement back to square one. Assuming that the logic behind creating the NRC is legitimate, what is the point then of spending in excess of Rs 1,000 crores of taxpayers' money to identify 'illegal immigrants' if they ultimately end up with social security benefits and voting rights? Werent these the primary anchors of the whole anti-immigration movement that finally climaxed in the NRC? While it's too early to say whether these proposed policies would come to fruition, it's fair to conclude that Assams arduous citizenship determination process severely lacks structural coherence. This was also visible in the pre-NRC stage. A lack of inter-agency coordination between the Election Commission and Assams Foreigner Tribunals a quasi-legal authority mandated with confirming the citizenship status of a suspected "illegal" has meant that a positive verdict against a suspected 'illegal foreigner' by the latter has often made no difference to the Doubtful-Voter (D-Voter) categorisation of the suspect. Tracking immigrants: a dangerous proposition The Central government, last Tuesday, informed the Supreme Court that the biometric details "of all people whose names were not included in the NRC would be obtained with the objective of preventing them from migrating to other states". This is a dangerous prospect and only adds to the Machiavellian design of the Aadhaar ecosystem. In fact, it appears to be a vile attempt to provide social security cards to a certain set of people and then use the same to keep watch on them. Interestingly, government officials have revealed this plan at a time when the Aadhaar judgment remains reserved in the Supreme Court. The final verdict is expected to be out very soon, which means that the apex court has little time to take cognisance of the governments agenda to track individuals using Aadhaar. This permits the government to do what the court might have earlier disallowed: tracking card holders. However, there is still a good chance that the final verdict categorically bars the state from tracking Aadhaar beneficiaries. This would stall the plan to track even 'illegal immigrants' who are given Aadhaar. Yet, at the same time, it is possible that the government exploits a loophole in the judgment to go ahead with its Big Brother plans. Safeguards against detention and deportation? From the point of view of 'illegal immigrants' and those concerned about heavy-handed processes like detention and deportation, the proposed decisions to decouple the voter roll and Aadhaar system from the NRC listing can ultimately act as legitimate safeguards. Once a delisted individual (or 'illegal immigrant') is issued an Aadhaar card and also inserted into the voter roll, it will be hugely difficult for the Foreigner Tribunals to take away her or his citizenship and consequently, detain or deport. After all, how can the state detain or deport a legitimate voter and someone who holds a mandatory social security card? This would, no doubt, be unpalatable to Assamese nationalist groups like the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and perhaps even contravene the 1985 Assam Accord. But, in a larger context, these would be unwitting steps towards regularising 'illegal immigrants', ensuring basic social security for them, and in the longer term, reintegrating them into the countrys mainstream. Political franchise, too, stands as a crucial pillar in such a likely process of mainstreamisation. If the governments proposed move to delink the voter roll and Aadhaar from the NRC comes to fruition, it would be a frontal negation of the NRCs own intent. This basically amounts to a gross misspending of taxpayers' money to undertake a false administrative exercise that does not benefit everyone, but only placates concerned stakeholders. At the same time, it augurs well for the 'illegal immigrants' who can shirk off their fears about detention or deportation, and continue to live a secure life in Assam. The author is researcher and coordinator, Southeast Asia Research Programme, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies The Haryana government on Friday said it will launch a massive campaign in the state to create awareness among farmers about proper management of crops residue and the ill effects of stubble burning in view of the ensuing paddy harvesting season. Chandigarh: The Haryana government on Friday said it will launch a massive campaign in the state to create awareness among farmers about proper management of crops residue and the ill effects of stubble burning in view of the ensuing paddy harvesting season. This was informed by the Principal Secretary (Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare) Abhilaksh Likhi while presiding over a review meeting with officers in the field through video conference on Friday, as per an official release. The meeting was also attended by Director (Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare department), DK Behera and Director General (Information, Public Relations and Languages) Sameer Pal Srow. Likhi said strenuous efforts are being made for crops residue management in Haryana. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister, Om Prakash Dhankar have been continuously appealing to the farmers through social, print and electronic media not to burn the stubble. He said that those farmers, who would not burn crop residue, would be honoured by the chief minister and agriculture minister in a state-level function. He also directed the officers to specifically honour these farmers during the Independence Day function on 15 August. Likhi also reviewed the subsidy being given to farmers and other schemes. He said that besides the chief minister, who is very serious about burning of crop residue in the state, the Prime Ministers Office is also regularly monitoring in this regard. He directed the officers to organise awareness camps in villages about crop residue management and informed the farmers about departmental schemes. Likhi said the state government is providing 80 percent subsidy on the purchase of agriculture machinery and 50 percent subsidy in case machinery is being purchased personally. The central government has provided Rs 137 crore for the purpose. The HRD ministry's approval follows the UGC meeting in March, at which it prescribed graded punishment for plagiarism. New Delhi: Student researchers found guilty of plagiarism may lose their registration and teachers could lose their jobs as the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) approved new regulations on plagiarism drafted by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The ministry notified the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2018, this week. The UGC had approved the regulations in its meeting held in March this year, prescribing graded punishment for plagiarism. According to a gazette notification, for students, plagiarism of up to 10 percent would not invite any penalty, while that of between 10 percent and 40 percent would mean the students will have to submit a revised research paper within six months. In case the similarities are between 40 percent and 60 percent, students will be debarred from submitting a revised paper for one year. A student's registration for a programme will be cancelled if the similarities are above 60 percent. Teachers whose academic and research papers have similarities ranging from 10 per cent to 40 percent with other papers will be asked to withdraw the manuscript. In case the similarities are between 40 percent and 60 percent, they will not be allowed to supervise new masters, MPhil, PhD students for two years and will also be denied the right to one annual increment, it said. In case of repeat plagiarism of over 60 percent similarity, the faculty members will be suspended, even dismissed. The new regulations prescribe that if any member of the academic community suspects with appropriate proof that a case of plagiarism has happened in any document, he or she shall report it to the Departmental Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP). "Upon receipt of such a complaint or allegation the DAIP shall investigate the matter and submit its recommendations to the Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP) of the Higher Education Institutions (HEI). "The authorities of HEI can also take suo motu notice of an act of plagiarism and initiate proceedings under these regulations. Similarly, proceedings can also be initiated by the HEI on the basis of findings of an examiner. All such cases will be investigated by the IAIP," the regulations read. On Friday, Parliament was informed by the government that the UGC found three cases of plagiarism in writing PhD thesis, including two involving vice chancellors of different universities. Sushma Swaraj on Friday called on Kyrgyz president Sooronbai Jeenbekov and discussed measures to expand and reinvigorate India's ties with the Central Asian country across all sectors. Bishkek: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday called on Kyrgyz president Sooronbai Jeenbekov and discussed measures to expand and reinvigorate India's ties with the Central Asian country across all sectors. Swaraj arrived at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Kyrgyzstan's foreign minister Erlan Abdyldaev. Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted: First engagement in Kyrgyzstan! EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on the President Sooronboi Jeenbekov. Discussed steps to expand and reinvigorate our bilateral relationship across all sectors. pic.twitter.com/1gp03fTtD1 Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 3, 2018 Swaraj will also meet foreign minister Abdyldaev and other top leaders of the country's to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties in areas like defence, science and technology and health. Swaraj had interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The external affairs minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The bilateral visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 and of the then President of the Kyrgyz Republic to India in December 2016, as also interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries, providing impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. In the last segment of her three-nation Central Asian tour, she would arrive in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Saturday. India has also planned to impose a 120 percent duty on the import of walnuts in the strongest action yet against the United States. New Delhi: The government said on Saturday that delayed higher tariffs against some goods imported from the United States will go into force on 18 September. New Delhi, incensed by Washingtons refusal to exempt it from new tariffs, decided in June to raise import tax from 4 August on some US products, including almonds, walnuts and apples, and later delayed the move. Officials from New Delhi and Washington, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, are scheduled to hold a series of meetings including strategic talks with their Indian counterparts in September. Trade differences between India and the United States have been rising since President Donald Trump took office. Bilateral trade rose to $115 billion in 2016, but the Trump administration wants to reduce its $31 billion deficit with India, and is pressing New Delhi to ease trade barriers. India, the worlds biggest buyer of US almonds, in June decided to raise import duties on the commodity by 20 percent, joining the European Union and China in retaliating against Trumps tariff hikes on steel and aluminum. It had also planned to impose a 120 percent duty on the import of walnuts in the strongest action yet against the United States. India has proposed to buy petroleum products from the US to help narrow the trade deficit. The United States has also emerged as a top arms supplier to India and US. companies are bidding for military aircraft deals worth billions of dollars. With motherhood, the chances of women remaining in paid employment do go down. By Namita Bhandare Delhi/Gurgaon: Underneath two gigantic chandeliers in the conference room of a posh Gurugram hotel, 250 elegantly dressed women are ferociously beating drums. Faster, slower, louder, stop. Its easier than it looks. The women break out into a sweat as they whistle and shout hoi in unison, on cue. The idea of this 45-minute exercise, said Blesson Joseph of team-building company Dfrens, is to demonstrate the power of cooperation. If you come together, you can make a difference, he said. GurgaonMoms, the organiser of this day-long event of talks, competitions, pitches and, yes, drumming, aims to do precisely that: Get women to form a network where they help each other. Launched in 2011 by Neela Kaushik, an MBA with a background in digital marketing, as an online support group for mums with queries whats a good school, recommend a reasonably-priced dentist, yoga instructor, and even heated discussions on politics GurgaonMoms now claims 25,000 members, all of them mothers, most of them professionally qualified and some of them in search of opportunities that will put their qualifications to use. Theres Pooja Sardana, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, mother of two children a girl aged seven and a boy aged four who put in 14 years in various companies including Unilever and GSK before she quit after the birth of her son in 2014 to explore a different side of myself. I needed the time to figure out what I want to do, she said. For a while, she shared stories on her travel blog and by the end of this year, she plans to launch a brand of childrens shoes. Shagun Singh stayed with her sales job at a five-star hotel in Mumbai even two years after the birth of her son in August 2006. Then her husband got a job in Delhi and, so, she took a transfer. But the Delhi office expected her to clock in twice a day before and after going out on calls. The work culture did not allow for flexibility and I started exploring options to make better use of my time as a mom and a professional, she said. Singhs father ran a business that provided security and housekeeping services. I realised there is a demand for professional housekeeping services, she said, So I launched my own firm, HomeWork. The job gives her flexible hours and, more crucially, shes home by 2.30 pm, which is when her son, now 11, gets home from school. Its important for me to be around when he gets back, she said. Smiti Puri completed her MBA from City University New York and landed a job with a bank in New York. When she got married to a Delhi-based businessman, she moved back to India and took a transfer from the bank. But, she said, the work culture here was totally unprofessional. For a while she worked for an internet incubator. Then she got pregnant. Thats when I decided to help my husbands family business of textiles, shawls and carpets get online, she said. But when her second child was born, said Puri, it was like being hit by a train. Nothing I have done, not 20-hour days nor impossible deadlines, has been as physically and emotionally challenging as bringing up my children, she said. As of now, Puri is happy to be a stay-at-home mom, watching over her two boys aged four and one. She has no plans to get back to a job. Corporates Indias motherhood bump The motherhood bump is showing in corporate India. While there are few entry points for women, the exit gates are many pregnancy, child care, elderly care, lack of family support, and unsupportive work environment, said an April 2018 study, Predicament of Returning Mothers, conducted jointly by Ashoka University and the Genpact Centre for Womens Leadership. Having a young child in the home depresses mothers employment, an inverse relationship that has intensified over time, found a March 2017 World Bank policy paper, The Motherhood Penalty and Female Employment in Urban India, written by Maitreyi Bordia Das and Ieva Zumbyte. Indias low female workforce participation rate, at 24 percent, according to the 2018 Economic Survey, is amongst the worst in South Asia. Between 2004 and 2011, the year of the last census, nearly 20 million women fell off the labour map, and there are no signs that this slide has stopped. This dwindling participation by women in employment is perplexing because it comes at a time of increased educational attainment, declining fertility and economic growth. Paradoxically, as our September 2017 story showed, it is Indias most educated women who are leaving jobs faster than others. IndiaSpend's nation-wide investigation found that women are falling off the labour map for various reasons, including the need to get their familys permission to work, social attitudes about what is appropriate work for women, bearing a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, safety issues and the lack of infrastructure such as affordable and reliable public transport. And motherhood. A silent but stark effect on mums In most cultures around the world, mothers are the primary caregivers of their children. But in India, motherhood has been elevated to an exalted status. Socially, mothers are expected to put their childrens needs above all others, and certainly above their own, said Das, author of the 2017 World Bank paper we referred to earlier. A woman who prioritises her career ahead of, or even alongside, young children being brought up by domestic workers or in daycare often receives implicit or explicit censure both within and outside the house, she said. When women get pregnant, the barriers they already face at the workplace just making a name for themselves are amplified, said Sairee Chahal, founder and CEO of Sheroes, which describes itself as the worlds largest online career destination for women with two million members. For mothers, managing the logistics daycare, reliable household help, a support system can become problematic, Chahal said. The incentive to remain employed thus decreases dramatically as a result. There is a silent but stark effect on mums. As joint families break down, the burden of child rearing goes up. Motherhood places a penalty on almost all female workers unless formal or informal institutions, as well as fathers and husbands, step in to share care responsibilities with women and female wages are high enough to compensate for the monetary and non-monetary costs of childcare, said Das. Our own studies have found that having young children constrain womens employment whereas having an older female relative, say, a mother-in-law, increases her chances of employment, she said. Globally, mothers of children below the age of five have, at 47.6 percent, the lowest employment rate compared with 87.9 percent for fathers and 54.4 percent for women who had no children, found a June 2018 study of 90 countries by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work. Source: International Labour Organisation, Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work, June 2018.) The report confirms that motherhood definitely and demonstrably impacts womens employment prospects. But is it alone in keep women away from employment?Source: International Labour Organisation, Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work, June 2018.) Defining womens work All over the world, it is women who bear a disproportionate burden of not just child care but also other work around the house cooking, cleaning, looking after the elderly and disabled, fetching firewood, fodder and water. In no country do men and women equally share unpaid care work. It is women who end up doing over three-quarters of the total global amount of unpaid care work. This work, needless to say, is unpaid. Of course, it comes at a cost. Gender inequality in household work is reflected in the labour market. Put simply, the more you work (unpaid) in the house, the less time you have to work (paid) in the market. In 2018, found the ILO report authored by Laura Addati and others, 606 million women of working age all over the world declared themselves to be unavailable for employment due to unpaid care work, while only 41 million men were inactive for the same reason. It is unpaid care work that constitutes the main barrier to womens participation in labour markets, noted the report. Source: International Labour Organisation, Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work, June 2018. Note: Personal means education, sickness or disability. Reasons related to labour market includes awaiting recall to work, believing no work available and lacking required qualifications. All numbers in percentage. A high road to care work implies achieving gender equality in labour markets and in households, therefore addressing the motherhood penalty, said Laura Addati, lead author of the report and maternity protection and work-family specialist, ILO, Geneva. Since care is a common good, the report calls for the overall and primary responsibility of the State in adopting transformative care policies in five main policy areas: care, macroeconomic, social protection, labour and migration policies, she said in an email response. Farzana Afridi, an associate professor with the Indian Statistical Institute, agreed: It is marriage, rather than motherhood, that is the first stumbling block in womens workforce participation. In 2011, for instance, half of all unmarried women in the 15-60 age bracket were in the labour force while the comparative rate for married women was 20 percent a figure that has remained more or less stagnant for three decades, she said. For most women, there is a very narrow window to join the labour force between the time they complete their education and the time they get married, she said. With motherhood, the chances of remaining in paid employment do go down but not as much as they do with marriage, said Afridi. Time-use data also show that whether a woman has one child or three, the time she spends on unpaid care work remains the same, said Afridi. The issue is not so much having children, the issue is unpaid care work. You cannot address womens workforce participation without first addressing the amount of unpaid care work they are required to do, said Afridi. Motherhood is a penalty but it is not the only one. Bearing the cost Mandating paid maternity leave is one obvious intervention that governments can make, even though in India it impacts only the roughly 5 percent of women who work in the organised sector. Yet, found a recent study by human resources services company TeamLease, in the short-term, enhanced maternity leave could lead to as many as 12 million women potentially losing jobs across all sectors in 2018 as a result of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act of March 2017 that increased maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks. The job loss would typically take place in small and medium-sized enterprises and is likely to vary from reduced demand for women to unethical behavior of reducing the upfront salary for women, said the report. However, large, professionally managed companies both private and public sector and medium-sized public sector companies will actively back the amendment and are more likely to hire more women, it said. Among some companies, there is a recognition that they will have to lean out if they want to retain female talent and pursue employee diversity as a goal. Diversity is not a warm, fuzzy idea for corporates but makes sound business sense with a more heterogeneous group likely to throw up better innovation, said Roopa Wilson, who manages diversity and inclusion at IBM India. Quoting IBM chairman, president and CEO, Virginia M Rometty, Wilson said: IBM thinks about diversity the way we think about innovation both are essential to the success of our businessWhen we incorporate diversity into our business, we create better innovations and outcomes. IBM has several programmes designed specifically for returning mothers from providing an additional six-months unpaid leave post the mandatory six-month maternity leave to providing online learning courses and trainings so that employees, particularly women on long leave, dont become redundant, said Wilson. In addition, she said, the company provides for childcare centres in almost all locations across India and even has an elder care programme designed for the parents and parents-in-law of employees (picking up medical reports, sending a nurse for shots etc). Despite these steps, said Wilson, last year the company realised it had not fully factored in women themselves and their desires. The girl child in India has a strong education identity; we tell them study hard, become a doctor, said Wilson. They even have a sense of job identity and know that once they graduate they will get jobs. But we still have to develop a sense of career identity in our girls. Up to 51 percent of all entry-level jobs are filled by women, and these women only start hitting roadblocks after the first three to four years of their jobs, found a 2011 Nasscom survey. Thats when they might get married and have to relocate to where their husbands live and work. When they have children, there is a social and cultural issue where priorities change, and this is the challenge that workplaces have to address, said Wilson. But, warned Sairee Chahal, workplaces are becoming leaner and there has, in the past few years, been a lot of change and churn. Our economy is not creating enough jobs. We are creating 1.5 million corporate jobs a year, whereas we need a million jobs every month, she said. In this straitened situation, one person out is one person less and women who choose to opt out of jobs are not going to be anyones priority. Leaning in, leaning out Reams have been written ever since Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg advised professional women to lean in and stick it out. Its important to stay the course, agreed Paroma Roy Chowdury, vice president, public affairs, Softbank, and mother to a 26-year-old son. It can get really tough and the greatest attribute a woman at work can have is a thick skin, she said. Chowdhury made the switch from journalism to corporate communications, taking three months off when she had her son, and then diving right back to work. What moms want at work, she said, is a certain degree of empathy, when a kid falls ill, for instance. Having more role models and women in mentorship roles would also help. And, of course, she added, there is no overestimating the value of good support structures at home and at work. But dads are changing too, and its important to recognise this, said Aparna Samuel Balasundaram, an author and psychotherapist who has conducted corporate training sessions with companies such as Wipro and Accenture. Balasundaram said she recently held a parenting workshop that was attended by three times as many men as there were women. Theres a realisation that if youre going to remain a two-income family to enable a certain lifestyle, then men are going to have to support their wives, she said. Moreover, todays men just want to be better fathers. But ultimately there is no getting around the cultural mindset change needed to get more mothers back into the workplace. Everything goes back to the way we are raising our daughters, said Deepa Narayan, a former advisor to the World Bank and author of Chup: Breaking the Silence About Indias Women. We want our daughters to become doctors but her ultimate goal is marriage to be able to 'adjust' after marriage. So her inner conditioning is to pull back and be respectful, silent and obedient. But, for many women the challenge is not external but internal. They are hitting up against their own guilt all the time. It comes from your own judgment, the judgment of your family, and that of your peers, said Kachina Chawla, a public health specialist whose portal, GharKamai, connecting women professionals with project-based work recently got acquired by Sheroes. We were brought up to believe that we could change the world, so does staying at home mean we are letting down the side? Namita Bhandare is a Delhi-based journalist who writes frequently on the gender issues confronting India The National Conference has sought an NIA investigating into the security breach at Farooq Abdullah's house, where an intruder was shot dead. Security personnel on Saturday shot dead a man after he forcibly tried to enter former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah's home in Jammu in a car. The intruder was shot dead by security guards when he tried to forcibly enter the house in a car. The Jammu and Kashmir Police said the intruder identified as 25-year-old Syeed Murfad Shah was from Mendar and had entered the lobby of Abdullahs' home before being shot dead. The incident took place in Bhatindi on the outskirts of Jammu city. The intruder had rammed his car into the front gate of the former chief minister's house and driven recklessly through the compound till he reached the house where the Abdullahs live, the police said. Man gunned down by security personnel when he was trying to enter former #JammuAndKashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's residence in Jammu in a car; more visuals from the spot pic.twitter.com/hf8ecJA7HC ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 Vivek Gupta, senior superintendent of police, was quoted as saying by ANI that the intruder had breached the main gate and gone inside. "He had a scuffle with the duty officer there, who was also injured. After that he entered the residence and there has also been some sort of damage to the articles over there. Subsequently, he was shot dead," he added. Director General of the Jammu and Kashmir Police SP Vaid said a case has been registered and an inquiry is being conducted into the breach of security. "We are looking into the case and trying to ascertain the motive," he said. Abdullah was on his way to Srinagar from Delhi, where he has been attending the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, when the security breach was reported. Reacting to the incident, the National Conference chief told PTI: "It is very unfortunate that such an incident has happened and speaks volumes about the security situation in the state. The police must investigate the motive of the youth." His son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted that according to the initial reports, the intruder was able to gain entry to the upper lobby of the house. I am aware of the incident that took place at the residence my father & I share in Bhatindi, Jammu. Details are sketchy at the moment. Initial reports suggest an intruder was able to gain entry through the front door & in to the upper lobby of the house. Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 4, 2018 Further details are awaited as the security personnel carry out the anti-sabotage checks & ascertain the background of the person who was able to force his way in to the house. Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 4, 2018 Soon after the incident, relatives of the youth staged protests and demanded an inquiry into the incident, officials said. Shah's father and around 200 acquaintances initially stopped authorities from conducting an autopsy at the Government Medical College for several hours. As the postmortem examination finally got underway, another large group of protesters blocked the main road at Chinore along the Jammu-Bantalab road. The protestors also burnt tyres and shouted slogans against security forces. Shah's relatives told reporters that he had left home for the gym in the morning, and that they were not sure how he had reached the Abdullahs' residence. "Why was he not arrested? He was not carrying any weapon or explosives on him," one of them said. According to Inspector General of Police (Jammu) SD Singh Jamwal, Shah had also tried to snatch a rifle from an officer at Abdullah's house before he was killed. He said an investigation was on to ascertain how he had managed to reach the house without detection. After the protests, District Development Commissioner (Jammu) Ramesh Kumar ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. " The Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Jammu North will conduct the investigation and submit his report within four weeks," he said. Meanwhile, the National Conference has sought a high-level inquiry by the National Investigating Agency into the security breach. NC provincial spokesperson Madan Mantoo said: "As Abdullah is a central government-categorised protectee, the government of India should carry out an independent and impartial inquiry by a team deputed by the Ministry of Home Affairs." The spokesperson asserted that the investigation must cover all aspects, including how a car was able to gain entry into the supposedly highly-secured house with minimum cosmetic damage, considering the strength of the main gate. "The security lapse is needed to be probed expeditiously so that the truth comes to the fore," he added. The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has also demanded that an impartial and prompt investigation be conducted into the incident, and that the CCTV camera footage be released. "The BJP demands an impartial and prompt inquiry into the matter of the fake encounter. To set at rest the apprehensions of the members of the family of the deceased, the CCTV footage should be released to the media by the police immediately," BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta said, adding that the "cold-blooded" murder in a VIP residence raises many questions. "The family of the deceased is calling the incident a fake encounter and insists that their son was called by somebody to the residence of the former chief minister," he said. With inputs from PTI A special CBI court, hearing the discharge applications of DG Vanzara and NK Amin in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, is likely to pass its order on 7 August. Ahmedabad: A special CBI court, hearing the discharge applications of former police officers DG Vanzara and NK Amin in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, is likely to pass its order on 7 August. Special CBI court judge JK Pandya said the order, which was listed for Saturday, will be passed on Tuesday. The court had last month concluded hearing arguments of the two accused retired police officers, the CBI and Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser, who had challenged Vanzara's discharge plea. Former Gujarat DIG Vanzara has sought discharge on the ground of parity with former in-charge DGP of the state PP Pandey, who was discharged in the case in February this year for want of evidence against him. In his plea, Vanzara had also claimed that the chargesheet filed by the central agency was 'concocted' and there was "no prosecutable material" against him. The former Gujarat ATS chief said statements of the witnesses were "highly suspicious". Amin, who retired as the superintendent of police, sought his discharge on the ground that the encounter was genuine and that testimonies of witnesses produced by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were not reliable. Ishrat's mother sought to oppose Vanzara's plea and told the court that her daughter was "murdered following a conspiracy between high-ranking police officers and others holding powerful and influential positions". She said Vanzara played a "direct and key role" in the conspiracy behind the "staged encounter". Jahan, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra near Mumbai, and three others Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed by the police in an 'encounter' on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on 15 June, 2004. At that time, the police had claimed that the four had terror links and plotted to kill the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. A Special Investigation Team, set up by the Gujarat High Court, however, concluded that the encounter was 'fake'. Following this, the court transferred the case, initially handled by the state police, to the CBI. In the first charge sheet filed in 2013, the CBI named seven police officials, including IPS officers Pandey, Vanzara and GL Singhal, as accused. All were booked for kidnapping, murder and conspiracy, among other charges. Vanzara was also named an accused in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a suspected gangster, and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati. He was discharged by a court in Mumbai last year. Groups had protested against 'Meesha' for portraying Hindu women as 'sex objects', and the Mathrubhumi magazine had published excerpts from the novel. Since a moderate leader with a secular image was appointed the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Kerala unit, the hardliners in the outfit have been finding it difficult to pursue their aggressive Hindutva agenda. But the Hindutva lobby received a "manna from heaven" after Malayalam magazine Mathrubhumi published an excerpt from Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award-winner S Harish's novel Meesha, meaning moustache. The campaign, first against the novel and now against Mathrubhumi, has sowed the seeds of a fierce Hindu consolidation that the BJP hopes will give it rich dividends in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, in which it aims to win 12 of the 20 seats in the state. Interestingly, neither the BJP nor other Sangh Parivar outfits are anywhere in the picture in this case. A few units of the Nair Service Society (NSS) a socio-cultural organisation of the upper-caste Nair community is spearheading the campaign outside Kerala. Curiously, a few state units of the NSS have distanced themselves from the campaign. Some have even expressed solidarity with Mathrubhumi. The Delhi unit of the NSS is at the forefront of the campaign against the Mathrubhumi group of publications. They entered the scene after the magazine discontinued the serialised novel after right-wing outfits threatened the author and his family and protested against Meesha. In such cases, protestors usually vent out their ire by burning the publication or attacking the publisher's offices. Mathruhubmi had faced such protests in September 2015, after it had published a series of columns by well-known writer MM Basheer on the Ramayana, as well as in March 2016, when it had reproduced an "offensive" comment on Prophet Muhammad in the AppsTalk section of the newspaper. While the protests against Basheer's column died down after the daily stopped the series, it had to tender an open apology to quell the controversy triggered by radical Muslim outfits, such as the Popular Front of India and the Social Democratic Party of India, against the comment on the Prophet. NSS Delhi kicked off the campaign by calling for a boycott of all of Mathrubhumi's publications. Its president MKG Pillai claimed that the decision to boycott the publication was made unanimously at a meeting in Delhi of various Hindu organisations. "The novel has brought disrepute to all Hindu women who go to temples to pray to the almighty for the betterment of their family and society. The participants at the meeting expressed anguish over the refusal by the Mathrubhumi editor to tender an apology for insulting Hindu women," Pillai said in a statement. Janmabhumi, the BJP's Malayalam mouthpiece that has been struggling to survive in the highly-competitive Kerala market, has grabbed the opportunity by launching a separate campaign titled "From Mathrubhumi to Janmabhumi". With this campaign launched on the Facebook, it has appealed to the Hindu readers of Mathrubhumi to switch to the BJP publication. Taking the campaign to the streets, the daily's circulation department has fielded right-wing activists for door-to-door canvassing to boost Janmabhumi's readership. Messages shared through social media said their aim was to bring about a two-lakh drop in the circulation of Mathrubhumi. They claimed that the newspaper's circulation had already reduced by 50,000 since the controversy erupted. The BJP daily has appealed to its supporters to ensure that Mathrubhumi's loss is Janmabhumi's gain. It has listed the telephone numbers of its agents in all districts on social media to enable Mathrubhumi readers to subscribe to the mouthpiece. Janmabhumi's circulation manager has claimed that the newspaper's circulation had increased in all regions, and that they were finding it difficult to meet the additional demand in the absence of agents in several places. KR Pramod, a spokesperson for the Mathrubhumi group of publications, admitted that the count of the copies sold had dropped since the campaign was launched, but Mathrubhumi has no immediate plans to launch a counter campaign. "We are waiting and watching," Pramod said. "We are confident that those who have cancelled the subscription to our daily will realise the motive of the forces behind the campaign and return to the paper they have been reading for generations. Many have come forward to support us." Mathrubhumi Managing Director MP Veerendrakumar said the campaign against the daily was because of the strong stand it has taken on various subjects. He asserted that the newspaper, which is going to celebrate its centenary in five years, will not be cowed down by threats and intimidation, and that Mathrubhumi had survived all the attacks it had faced in its 95-year existence. "The people who ran the newspaper were not merely journalists," he had said. "They had fought for the freedom of the country and renaissance of the society. Many of them had gone to jail in the battle for freedom. Mathrubhumi will continue to fight for the country and its people," Veerendrakumar said. The BJP has denied any involvement in the campaign, though it is its direct beneficiary. Party spokesperson MS Kumar said that neither the party nor the Sangh Parivar could be blamed for the social media campaign against the daily. The portrayal of Hindu women as an object of sex has pained the entire community," the BJP leader said. "We too share their concerns. They have vented their anger on social media. They have their right to protest. We cannot prevent them." Writers and social critics have called the campaign a direct attack on the freedom of the press. Noted poet Sachidanandan said it was also an attack on the rights of the people to read what they want to, and that the move against the Mathrubhumi was part of the countrywide hate campaign unleashed by the Sangh Parivar. "The current rulers are afraid of the freedom of press, which brings the truth to the people. They are trying to 'buy' publications that criticise them and silence the others through threats and intimidation. It's part of the Sangh Parivar's attempts to 'saffronise' all institutions of the country," the poet said. Sachidanandan added that he was surprised to see this kind of intolerance gaining ground in Kerala, as the state had made great social advancements with various renaissance movements led by reformers such as Sree Narayana Guru and Ayyankali. Writer and social critic Professor MN Karassery is amazed by the entry of business interests in the campaign, referring to the Janmabhumi campaign. "One can understand people protesting against works of art. Such protests are democratic, and no one will object to them. But some trying to cash in on such protests is beyond my comprehension," he said. Karassery said it was disturbing to see the strange cocktail of religion, politics and business developing in Kerala, warning of the dangerous ramifications this trend could have in future. JKHCBA has planned to file a petition against Article 35-A before the Supreme Court and to nullify the provision Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA), Jammu on Friday night passed a resolution to file an impleadment application before the Supreme Court in connection with petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution. A statement issued by the JKHCBA, Jammu said it was unanimously resolved that the bar association would file the application before the apex court in the litigation regarding Article 35-A. JKHCBA president BS Slathia said termed the provision an aberration and said that no provision in the Constitution could be added or deleted, without amending the Constitution. He said the Presidential Order can't be an article of the Constitution and emphasised that it was important to abolish it in order to establish gender equality. He said senior lawyer Permod Kohli had agreed to plead the association's cause before the Supreme Court, it said. A committee of eminent lawyers also assured their pro bono services in representing the bar association in the apex court. Article 35-A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. Political parties including the National Conference (NC) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), have moved the Supreme Court in support of the Article 35-A that empowers the state assembly to define "permanent residents" for bestowing special rights and privileges to them. In a separate meeting, some lawyers passed a resolution for strengthening and retention of the Article 35-A. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of senior lawyer AV Gupta. He said Maharaja Hari Singh had executed the Instrument of Accession with certain conditions which later came out in the shape of Article 35-A read with Article 370. Gupta said that Article 35-A was beneficial for the permanent residents of the state. Under the bill passed by the state legislature, quota for STs was increased to 10 per cent from the existing 6 per cent, while that for BC-E category (the backward sections among the Muslim community) increased to 12 percent from the existing 4 percent. Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and sought the President's assent for a Bill, enhancing quantum of reservation for Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. In his second meeting with Modi in less than two months, Rao discussed various pending issues relating to the state. He sought the President's assent to the Bill for increasing quantum of reservation in educational institutions and government jobs for backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Bill passed by the state legislature last year was sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs for President's assent. According to a statement from the Chief Minister's Office in Hyderabad, during the hour-long meeting, Rao discussed 11 issues and submitted letters pertaining to them. KCR, as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief is popularly known, told the prime minister that the need to increase the percentage of reservations for SCs, STs and BCs arose as the proportion of the population of these sections increased consequent to the formation of Telangana state. Under the bill passed by the state legislature, quota for STs was increased to 10 per cent from the existing 6 per cent, while that for BC-E category (the backward sections among the Muslim community) increased to 12 percent from the existing 4 percent. The total reservations in the state, consequently, will go up to 62 percent from the existing 50 percent. KCR brought to Modi's notice that while capping the total quantum of reservations at 50 percent, the Supreme Court had also clarified that, if it should exceed 50 percent, the State shall make out a case showing compelling circumstances for exceeding the limit. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu is providing 69 percent reservation in the State. The TRS chief also sought the Centre's approval for new zonal system in Telangana pertaining to the government employment in the state. He called for immediate steps to amend the Presidential Order of 1975 to facilitate implementation of the new zonal system created keeping in view the requirements of the new state. As the issue of separate High Court is pending since the creation of Telangana in 2014, KCR urged the prime minister to expedite the process. He sought immediate steps for establishing a high court in the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh so that the High Court at Hyderabad exclusively caters to the needs of Telangana. KCR reiterated the demand for central grant of Rs 20,000 crores for Kaleshwaram Project being built on Godavari river. He said on completion, it would be the life line of Telangana as it is designed to irrigate 18 lakh acres. The total cost of the project if Rs 80,000 crore. Early completion of pending railway projects, transfer of defence land in Secunderabad for construction of new Secretariat building, funds for development of backward areas, establishment of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), sanctioning Indian Institute of Information Technology at Karimnagar, and funds to develop the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in Hyderabad as per the already approved scheme were the other key issues taken up by KCR. The arms licences of Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, will be suspended soon, a top official said. Patna: The arms licences of Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur, will be suspended soon, a top official said. Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Mohammad Sohail said that a notification to suspend the arms licences of Thakur has been issued. "The district administration will cancel his arms licences soon," he said. According to an official of the district administration, Brajesh Thakur was issued arms licences years ago. There were a rifle and a pistol in his name. Thakur along with nine others were arrested and jailed after an FIR was registered against them in the Bihar shelter home rapes case. Police in Muzaffarpur have also filed a charge sheet against him and others in the case. Bihar Health Department has issued directions to the State Aids Control Society (BSACS) to terminate the services of Thakur's NGO, Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti that was managing the shelter home where the rapes allegedly occurred. The social welfare department blacklisted the NGO after Thakur was named the prime accused in the case, a health department official said. The Muzaffarpur horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. DCW chief wrote to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar asking him of the steps being taken to ensure the wellbeing of the girls who were sexually assaulted in Muzaffarpur. New Delhi: Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal wrote to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday, asking him of the steps being taken by his government to ensure the wellbeing of the girls who were allegedly sexually assaulted at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur. She asked if the girls were being sent to school or if they are being given counselling. She also asked Kumar to ensure that the girls are not pressured into changing their statements. In Muzaffarpur, a case of alleged sexual assault of 34 minor girls living in a shelter home came to light. Medical examinations confirmed that 34 out of the 42 shelter home inmates were sexually exploited, police have said. The owner of the shelter home, run by NGO 'Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti', Brajesh Thakur, is the main accused in the case. The issue was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to Bihar's Social Welfare Department in April. An FIR in the matter was registered on May 31 against 11 persons. Ten out of them, including Thakur, were arrested on 3 June. One was absconding. Maliwal asked Kumar about the fate of the girls who were allegedly sexually assaulted and steps taken by his government to ensure the wellbeing of the 34 girls. Speaking for this first time since the scandal broke, chief minister Kumar said on Friday that he has asked the chief secretary to discuss with departments concerned and develop an institutional mechanism to prevent such incidents from happening again. "This is essential since the society is inhabited by all kinds of people and they may indulge in perverse acts at the slightest opportunity," he said. Two-time MLA Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya, whose name has gone missing from the final draft of the NRC, caims RSS pressurised NRC co-ordinator Prateek Hajela to come up with new rules which would help exclude more Muslims Editor's Note: Of the 4 million who didn't make it to NRC, 2.48 lakh have been marked as 'D' voters. The Supreme Court has asked Assam government not to take any coercive action on those who are found to be without proper documents as required under recent National Register of Citizens. NRC, a product of Assam Accord, is expected to solve the fear of Bangladeshi immigrants that has been prevalent in the state for quite some time now. The Centre proposed in 1999 an updated NRC in Assam to solve the problem of "illegal immigration" and two pilot projects were conducted in Dhubri and Barpeta districts. But breaking out of a riot in Barpeta grounded the project. In 2005, when All Assam Student Union opposed the prime minister's visit to the state, tripartite talk between AASU, State government, and the Centre resulted in a decision to prepare a model for the NRC process, which was delayed yet again by over 5 years by the state government. It was only when Abhijeet Sharma of Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO, filed a writ petition in 2009 that the SC's direct intervention led to the start of NRC process in 2014. Firstpost will run a series which will feature 30 profiles in 30 days of those residents of Assam who have not been covered under the final draft of NRC which will decide if they continue to live in the state that they call 'home'. *** Silchar, Assam: Two-time MLA Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya was in for a rude shock on 30 July. His name, which was present in the first National Register of Citizens draft, failed to make it to the final draft. "A mammoth-sized conspiracy is going on against Bengalis in the name of NRC," said the former MLA, who was left in a state of "liminal legality" along with over 40,000 others. The allegations of injustice have been around for some time now. While attending a public meeting in Silchar earlier this year, Mazarbhuiya said: "A section of the political class in the Brahmaputra Valley is conspiring to deprive the Bengalis of citizenship in the Barak Valley and other parts of the state. They are using NRC update as a weapon." Mazarbhuiya also threatened to take legal action against state co-ordinator Prateek Hajela for allegedly conspiring against him. "Hajela intentionally excluded my name from the list. We are not going to tolerate this sort of attitude," he said adding that Hajela is biased and was allegedly working under instructions of some influential groups. Born to a farmer from an interior part of Cachar district, Mazarbhuiya involved himself in politics during his student life. He served as the general secretary of state committee of All India Student Federation in college. He rose to prominence after serving as the first general secretary of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) a political party he formed along with Badruddin Ajmal, Hafiz Rashid and others. The AIUDF's emergence in Assam can be attributed to the failure of the Congress in drawing attention of the religious minorities to some extent. Ajmal's presence was a significant reason behind the defeat of veteran Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev in the 2009 Lok Sabha Election. Minority leaders in Assam, mostly those with a sense of being left out in the Congress, prefer to join AIUDF. Mazarbhuiya, however, left AIUDF to join the Congress when he was denied a ticket before the 2016 Assembly election. Mazarbhuiya was working as a government school teacher till 2006, after which he quit his job to actively participate in politics. He was elected as the Member of Legislative Assembly from Katigorah constituency in the same year. He chose his first tenure to focus on the various issues plaguing the Barak Valley and emerged as one of the most vociferous leaders. While Mazarbhuiya retained his seat during the 2011 Assembly polls, a fallout with some AIUDF leaders cost him dearly in 2016, when he was denied ticket by the party. This escalated the situation further and he quit AIUDF saying that Ajmal had polluted the ideology of the party. He has since then joined Congress. Continuing to be unabashedly vocal, Mazarbhuiya has also alleged that the Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government is more influenced by the RSS than the Constitution of India. "BJP's prime objective of bringing NRC was to divide people on the basis of religion. Both the communities have been living here peacefully for hundreds of years," Mazarbhuiya said. "The saffron brigade is using NRC as an extended version of their divide and rule policy. The party works under the direct influence of RSS and they don't follow the Constitution of India properly. "The draft NRC contains names of the elusive commander-in-chief of the anti-talk faction of ULFA, Paresh Baruah, but they excluded my name, the former MLA pointed out. Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, a Congress legislator, condemned the exclusion of Mazarbhuiyas name from the final draft. The Karimganj North MLA said that initially the left-out list had more Hindu names. "There were less names from Muslim families under the original rules of NRC updation procedure. But RSS pressurised Hajela to come up with new rules which would help excluding more Muslims. As a result, a large number of people from the Muslim community failed to get their names registered on the list. Most of them are women and children," he said. Veteran BJP leader and former union minister Kabindra Purkayastha, however, denied the allegation. "NRC is an application-based procedure where one has to apply first and follow the rules to include their names in the register. Each and every applicant is an independent individual and there is no Hindu-Muslim issue in it," he clarified. Cachar deputy commissioner Dr Lakshmanan S assured to deal with the matter carefully adding that Mazarbhuiya has adequate documents to get his name included in the list. Many local organisations along with BJP and Congress are now forming free legal cells for NRC left-outs who are from the financially deprived class. More than 2,000 Nagrik Seva Kendra (NSKs) are functioning across Assam which will look into the applications from the 40,000 people whose names failed to appear on the list. The cases are likely to be resolved by 28 September. The first draft of NRC released on 31 December, 2017 included names of 1.90 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The final draft, which was released last week, had 2.90 crore names, but over 40 lakh names were excluded. (The author is a Silchar-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters) The Congress alleged that the managing editor and two anchors of a prominent news channel had to quit due to pressure from the government for airing stories critical of the Modi dispensation. New Delhi: The Congress alleged that the managing editor and two anchors of a prominent news channel had to quit due to pressure from the government for airing stories critical of the Modi dispensation. Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge also accused the government of trying to "intimidate" the media and "curbing" its freedom. Strongly denying the charges, Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said the government has nothing to do with the internal developments in the channel and accused the Opposition of raising the matter because it has no issues to flag in the House. "No showcause notice was served on the channel when it was running wrong news. The government has nothing to do with it (the resignations). If the government wanted to interfere, it could have as the Free Dish (state-run satellite TV service) is in government's control," he said. "The TRP (television rating point) of the channel is going down rapidly," Rathore said. Though Kharge named the channel and the managing editor who resigned, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan objected to the leader naming a private entity and its employee. According to Kharge, the managing editor with 14 years of service in the channel and the two other employees were forced to quit following government pressure after it carried out a "reality check" on a Chhattisgarh woman farmer's claim during an interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that her farm income had doubled. Days after the woman, Chandramani Kaushik from Kanker district, claimed during the interaction with the prime minister on 20 June through the NaMo App that her income had doubled, the channel aired a story in which she said she was tutored by officials. After the story was telecast, the woman stuck to her remarks that her income had doubled as she had shifted from paddy cultivation to 'sitafal' (custard apple) farming and denied she was tutored. "The media is being targeted for doing its duty, for carrying out reality checks on the government's claim. The media is being intimidated. The managing editor (of the channel) was told to go. Two anchors of the channel were also asked to go," the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha alleged. He said after the channel ran the "reality check", the government put pressure on the channel to remove the three employees. "The Constitution has given the right to freedom of speech and expression... Attempts are being made to suppress the media which is not good," Kharge said. After the story was aired by the channel, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Modi, saying he not only tells people his Mann ki Baat but even wants to hear his Mann ki Baat from them. "Everyone knows that the PM tells his Mann ki Baat. But today, it was known that he wants to hear only his own Mann ki Baat," Gandhi had tweeted in Hindi, referring to Modi's 'Mann ki Baat' radio address. A special NIA court charged two men in Mumbai for trying to spread Islamic State ideologies among the youth of the city. Mumbai: A special court for National Intelligence Agency (NIA) cases in Mumbai framed charges against two men on Friday under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly instigating city youths to join terrorist organisation Islamic State. In 2016, the NIA arrested Rizwan Ahmed and Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed, residents of Malvani area in Mumbai, for alleged links with the Islamic State and for trying to indoctrinate several youths and persuade them to join the Islamic State. The court on Friday framed charges against the two under IPC section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) and various sections of the UAPA, the central agency said in a release. According to the NIA, the two indoctrinated one Ayaz Mohamad in 2015 and persuaded him to get a passport. In October that year, Ayaz went to Kabul from Delhi and allegedly joined the Islamic State in Afghanistan. They tried to incite many other youths in Malvani area to leave India and join the Islamic State for jihad in West Asia, the NIA alleged. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov held 'productive discussion' in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security Tashkent: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov held "productive discussion" in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security, and exchanged views on regional and global issues during delegation-level talks on Saturday. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to Uzbekistan, was personally received by Uzbek foreign minister Kamilov at the airport. She reached the Uzbek capital on the final leg of her three-nation tour after concluding her "result-oriented" visit to Kyrgyzstan, during which she held talks with the country's top leadership to deepen and reinvigorate the bilateral ties across all sectors. Swaraj and Kamilov led delegation-level talks and "had productive discussion in the fields of trade and economy, defence and security, pharma, healthcare, IT, agriculture and animal husbandry, tourism and culture," external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. The two ministers also exchanged views on regional and global issues, he said. Swaraj will also interact with the Indian community and offer tribute at Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial. "In Tashkent, Sushma Swaraj arrives to a personal welcome by Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov on her first visit to the country. Apart from meeting political leadership, she will interact with the Indian community and offer tribute at Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial," Kumar said in a tweet. The meeting between Swaraj and Kamilov is their third this year. Kumar said in another tweet, "third meeting with the foreign minister of Uzbekistan this year. Sushma Swaraj welcomed by Uzbek foreign minister Kamilov ahead of the delegation-level talks. India and Uzbekistan are strategic partners with strong historical and cultural linkages." The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. In The Unending Game, former R&AW chief Vikram Sood paints a panoramic view of espionage, traces it through its Cold War roots, introduces us to the shadowy cabal of intelligence, star moles of CIA, KGB, MI6, secret groups, and then brings us to the present before hand-holding us through to the future. Ian Fleming gave us James Bond the British super-spy with a licence to kill. Bond drives a flashy Aston Martin, dons Savile Row suits, drops savvy one-liners, picks up beautiful women, and powers one of the worlds highest-grossing movie franchises. When Bond walks into a pub for instance, he draws all eyes to him. And while you were busy watching him, you wouldn't have noticed the nondescript balding man sitting right next to you, with a deadpan expression. George Smiley, that polite British spy from John le Carres novels, is everything that Bond isnt: dull as a doorknob, bland as boiled cabbage, dowdy, apologetic, inconspicuous. Smiley the Bond antithesis is so vague and discreet that he attracts even lesser attention than a gecko on the wall. Behind that practised self-effacing exterior, however, resides a cunning, tough and ruthless operator. James Bond is fantasy, George Smiley is real, Vikram Sood tells us in The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chiefs Insights Into Espionage. And that line is the soul of his book. Theres a little bit of Smiley in Sood, the retired spymaster who ran R&AW (the Research and Analysis Wing, India's foreign intelligence agency) until his retirement in March 2003. And one may trace a little bit of Koval in him too. Koval, who? Zhorzh (George) Abramovich Koval, the deep-cover Russian spy trained by GRU (the erstwhile USSR's military intelligence) was the only Soviet intelligence officer to infiltrate the secret plans of US Manhattan Project (Americas most secret atomic facility). His exploits helped the USSR speed up the manufacturing of its atomic bomb, and the Russian spy was discharged honourably from the US Army in 1942. Koval eventually returned to Moscow where he led an uneventful life till his quiet death in 2006. He was 92. Only when Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a Hero of Russia medal posthumously to Koval a year later did the world come to know about the 20th centurys super-spy, and an embarrassed US was forced to admit its intelligence failures. The perfect spy, writes Sood, a career intelligence officer who roamed the shadowy world of espionage for 31 years, performs (the) invaluable work assigned to him, at great risk to himself, in a hostile country and then retires to live a quiet, normal life. Sood is doing normal these days. Living quietly as an adviser at the Observer research Foundation, writing incisive pieces on international relations, strategic affairs and national security. He could just as well be speaking about himself. He does, but not in the way one may imagine. This isnt the racy record of a retired spymaster. Sood discusses issues that concerned him as the head of Indias premier intelligence agency, delves into areas that concern India and its sphere of influence; but primarily, he deals with the theory of espionage. Deconstructs it, busts some myths and throws a realistic light on the worlds second oldest profession that in popular perception is either shrouded in mystery or reel glamour. Sood reminds us that the spy world isnt glamorous. It requires a band of men and women to sacrifice their individuality for anonymity and go against the grain of human nature that seeks self-adulation. It can occasionally be as exciting as watching paint dry. And sometimes, the brainy analyst at the desk whose job it is to process raw data into information, knowledge and finally shareable intelligence can trash a report that a globe-trotting glamour spy thinks is priceless. A dry humor permeates the book. For instance, Sood tells us nonchalantly that James Bonds cool gadgets would have been useless (in the real world). The Aston Martin looked good in the movies, but it was the precious old Landmaster that could merge into the background, he writes. Like Le Carres Smiley, the book is unpretentious yet profound and some of the best lines are nearly imperceptible. For intelligence to be effective, it must keep pace with all possible threats and would need upgradations, even anticipatory ones, similar to the ones needed by weapons systems, Sood writes a notion that is foreign in a country such as India, which is the biggest importer of arms but has routinely subjected its intelligence to bureaucratic nonchalance. Sood is quick to point out that all intelligence activity should synchronise with the countrys defence and foreign policies and priorities. This, he rues, is an ideal that periodically escapes most governments. In a span of 269 pages, the former R&AW chief paints a panoramic view of espionage, traces it through its Cold War roots, introduces us to the shadowy cabal of intelligence, star moles of CIA, KGB, MI6, secret groups, and then brings us to the present before hand-holding us through to the future. The future is troubling. HUMINT (human intelligence), OSINT (open source intel) or IMINT (imagery intel from satellite or other aerial source) must coexist with SOCMINT (social media intelligence) because the all-pervasive nature of social media and its deep penetration into our everyday lives have given terrorists and criminals an unprecedented advantage. Intelligence, therefore, must include SOCMINT into its framework to keep a tab on whats happening but, Sood stresses, this practice should be based on sound systems of collection and verification and also keep in mind the moral issues of privacy and rights. En route this fascinating journey, Sood offers an honest, if scathing, review of the Indian setup and tackles some of the most profound questions of our time the polarising debate between privacy and national security, the moral dilemma around espionage in a democracy and the tug-of-war between long-term assessment and short-term instant coffee analysis. He takes an absolutist position on no topic because life isnt defined by absolutes. Soods realism is apparent. What sparkles, though, is the minimalist approach. No frothy musings over pegs of rare liquor of the kind we were subjected to in The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace where two superannuated spy chiefs from enemy nations are shallow enough to believe that everything can be fixed over a drink (as Sushant Sareen wrote in his caustic review for the Daily O). Instead, Sood's book fills on the shelf an important space so far left unattended where the ideological and structural difference between Pakistan and India is made apparent through the configurations of their respective intelligence agencies. Sood writes: In Pakistans case, the ISI is part of the force that drives the countrys foreign policy and determines its strategic priorities; in India, the R&AW remains a service provider to policymakers. The ISI is a military formation headed by an army general answerable to the army chief and its strategic capabilities include interfering in domestic politics, tweaking and coercing political parties, the media, Islamists and the terror networks that make this organisation uniquely powerful and dreaded. As such, there can be no objective comparisons between the ISI and the R&AW (or any intelligence agency in a democracy). An understanding of this distinction is crucial to decoding Indias relationship with Pakistan, where the civilian administration is little more than a puppet under the armys hands and the master puppeteer preserves for itself the exclusive rights of setting Pakistans security and foreign policy. Therefore, surmises Sood, talks of joint consultations and intelligence-sharing between the two agencies as part of confidence-building measures (CBMs) are simplistic and sentimental statements totally divorced from reality. The former spy chief minces no words when he writes, There is an inability or unwillingness to understand the ethos of Pakistan, its army and its increasingly fundamentalist Islamic thought process from where it draws its ideological strength. Peace with India is not part of this ideology and there is no common ground between the two. One cant imagine Soods assessment going down well among the Track-II crowd whose domain expertise includes washing down galouti kebabs with a smoky single malt. He also deals a blow to peaceniks in India, forever ready to forgive Pakistans perfidies and push for talks. Pakistan is hardly going to share intelligence about terrorists and the terror attacks it has had a hand in sponsoring on Indian soil and there is little else on the basis of which mutual trust can be built, Sood asserts. This position isnt without context but is placed within Pakistans ideological opposition to the idea of Hindustan and follows an elaborate account of Pakistans quest for the Islamic Bomb that kicks off the book and sets the pace. Sood reveals that Indias moment of glory in 1971 was ironically also the time that Pakistans new President and founder of PPP Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was arranging for a secret meeting in Multan where the agenda was straightforward and simple: Pakistan had to have the bomb, and soon, even if its people had to eat grass to finance it. Soods account of Bhutto is laced with characteristic dry humor. The former R&AW chief calls him the actual father of the Pakistan bomb who could be Uriah Heep one moment and an arrogant Sindhi feudal lord the next, at ease in an agrarian setting as well as nursing a glass of Scotch in his pinstripes. The account of Bhuttos retail shopping for the nuclear bomb across Europe armed with US nonchalance and funds from some Islamic states is detailed and pacey. It sent R&AW into a tailspin as the intelligence officers were scouring the globe to find out how and from where Pakistanis were acquiring material and expertise. R&AWs job was made even tougher by the indiscretions and opposition of their own people writes Sood, and he has some unflattering things to say about former prime minister Morarji Desai, the acerbic Gandhian whose political opposition to Indira Gandhi caused him to nearly destroy the institution built by her when he assumed office in 1977. Desai, writes Sood, went about systematically decimating the organisation by ordering the shuttering of stations, surrender of posts, slashing of budgets and closure of sensitive operations that had taken years to build. Sood warns that in the world of espionage, as in any other institution, when you lose personnel, you save money but lose institutional knowledge and operational experience. The words are restrained, and therefore demand greater attention. The R&AW remains vulnerable to domestic political upheavals and this cannot be good for any institutions health. It seems a generic issue in India where we have failed not only to build institutions but have failed to preserve them or even leave them alone to pursue brilliance. Sood takes us through the lost decade for R&AW where it had as many as nine heads in succession and yet, never the time, attention or ideas that it deserved. The ISI, all the while, was getting stronger and had mounted a vicious campaign of terror in Jammu and Kashmir. It was left for the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pick up the pieces and recover some ground: It understood the role of and need for effective intelligence. Sood points out that intelligence agencies are the sword arm of the nation (not the government) and therefore, external intelligence, espionage and covert operations are a countrys first line of offence and defence. He credits Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee for understanding the benefit of advice from an agency that would tell them the truth as it existed and not what they hear which is impossible unless the agency is kept in a cocoon, sheltered from coalition or regional politics. There are some important pages on the Kargil invasion, which Sood is at pains to point out was as much a result of intelligence gaps as the willful ignoring of several intelligence inputs offered by the R&AW, IB and military intelligence between May 1998 and April 1999. Pakistan was aware of the Armys practice of deserting the Kargil heights every winter. Sood takes issue with the final report of the Kargil Review Commission (KRC) that spent considerable time looking into the reports and discussing them with R&AW and (the) Aviation Research Centre between August 1999 and December 2000 as it tried to collect evidence of intelligence failure. The KRC, writes Sood, discovered that the intelligence reports have been ignored by the consumers and this fact was omitted in the final report. The KRC report caused consternation among intelligence officers who felt it had been unfair to them. This sense of quiet indignation was heightened when General VP Malik, COAS during the Kargil War, in his book attributed the Pakistani invasion to an intelligence failure. Sood's sangfroid slips ever so slightly when he writes that the common feeling was that while the general was entitled to seek vindication for himself and the army, it should not have been at the expense of other agencies that had gamely allowed themselves once again to be treated as whipping boys in the larger national interest. One may be tempted to conclude that one of the motivations behind Sood's book was to set the record straight. But that would be a misleading conclusion. Sood paints on a much larger canvas. He perceives a grand strategy for India, lays down the rules for it and finds our setup hopelessly inadequate. He calls for lateral recruitment instead of letting generalist career bureaucrats, who have no imagination or stomach for risk-taking, dominate the corridors of intelligence. The underlying principle was that intelligence collection and operations should be performed by a dedicated service whose men and women wished to devote their entire careers to intelligence work and had been specially trained for it, Sood explains. Non-adherence to this principle has resulted in a situation where instead of (a) growing band of professionals, there is now a growing band of amateurs. One hopes Soods words wont escape the notice of powers-that-be. The only issue I have with the book is in places regarding secret groups arising out of the Cold War where the former spymaster leans towards conspiracy theories regarding the Pinay Cercle, Gladio A&B, The Safari Club or The Bilderbergers exclusive clubs of the super-rich and influential who apparently work silently behind the scenes to run the world. This isnt to discard his postulation on the deep state and its machinations, however, that remains a reality if only removed from public discourse. Soods work is as valuable as a treatise as a book. It never indulges in sensationalism yet offers invaluable insights from an unobtrusive corner but only to the patient reader. It is also marked by an understated brilliance that perhaps mirrors the character of its author. The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chiefs Insights Into Espionage, by Vikram Sood | Penguin Viking Publication | 304 Pages | Rs 599 Telangana Rashtriya Samiti member D Srinivas' son Sanjay has been booked for sexually harassing 11 nursing school students in Nizamabad Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP D Srinivas's son, D Sanjay, has been booked for sexually assaulting 11 nursing school students, reports said. The victims lodged a complaint against the TRS MP's son on Friday. According to reports, Sanjay has been booked under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, (Nirbhaya Act) 2013, Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354-A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of woman) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) with crime number 187/2018. The students had first approached state home minister N Narasimha Reddy on Thursday evening, The Indian Express reported. The students had told the minister that Sanjay would call the girls to his room and ask for sexual favours. The students claimed that he would abuse the girls and touch them inappropriately. Sanjay, according to the report, was running Shankary College of Nursing in Borgaon, Nizamabad (Telangana) when the incident took place. The victims then approached Commissioner of Police, Kartikeya, and lodged a complaint, a report in Deccan Chronicle said. They provided evidence of many obscene messages that they claim were sent by the accused, to the police. According to the report, the accused had said that the students would get more marks if they spent time with him. Sanjay, who is the eldest son of D Srinivas, however has denied the allegations. He claimed that this was a scam cooked up to tarnish his reputation and that of his father, according to Deccan Herald. The former mayor of Nizamabad told the police that he would cooperate with them in their investigations. Shankary educational institutions including nursing colleges have been leased out to others, I am in no way concerned with the administration, he said, as reported by Deccan Chronicle. His younger brother D Aravind, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) refused to comment on the issue. He said that he had cut ties with his family, reports said. A scrap dealer was seriously injured after two unidentified men shot at him in Marol area in Mumbai's Andheri suburb, police said on Saturday. Mumbai: A scrap dealer was seriously injured after two unidentified men shot at him in Marol area in Mumbai's Andheri suburb, police said on Saturday. The incident happened in the early hours of Saturday when scrap dealer Islam Vali Khan (58) was parking his car at his residential building on Marol Church Road, said Nitin Alaknure, senior inspector, MIDC police station. The two motorcycle-borne shooters fled the scene of crime soon after firing at Khan, the official said. "The security guard of the building alerted Khan's family who rushed him to a nearby hospital. A surgery was performed on Khan and he is now stable," another official said. He added that case of attempt to murder had been registered and CCTV footage of the area was being scoured to get clues about the shooting. A probe was underway to ascertain the motive behind the crime, he added. As rain continued to lash several parts of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath undertook an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Lakhimpur Kheri and instructed authorities to remain on high alert. Lucknow: Three more people were killed as rains and thundershowers continues to lash most parts of Uttar Pradesh, while major rivers, including Ghaghra and Sharda, were in full spate, leading to fears of floods in several districts. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath undertook an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Lakhimpur Kheri on Saturday and instructed authorities to remain on high alert to provide swift assistance to the needy. The meteorological department in Lucknow said that the south-west monsoon has been active over the eastern part of the state, leading to light to moderate rainfall and thundershowers at most places. There was also heavy rain in isolated areas. Three deaths were reported on Saturday, one each in Mirzapur, Unnao and Kanpur, in rain-related incidents. The toll in rain-related incidents had reached 183 since 1 July. The weather office warned that heavy rain was very likely in isolated places. The Central Water Commission said major rivers, including the Ghaghra, Sharda and Sai, were in spate and were flowing above the danger mark at some places. While Gonda and Shahjahanpur each received seven centimetres of rainfall, it was five centimetres in Gorakhpur, Bhinga, Chhibramau, Hardoi, Farridpur and Puranpur, according to the weather department. After the aerial survey, Adityanath told reporters that he has asked various departments engaged in flood relief operations to coordinate with each other as well as with public representatives and take swift action in extending all possible assistance to victims of floods. "The excessive rains since last fortnight in UP have raised apprehensions of severe floods in various parts of the state. There are 40 sensitive and hypersensitive districts in terms of floods. Kheri, Sitapur, Bahraich and Gonda fall in the hypersensitive category. We had already initiated preventive measures and released adequate budget after feedback from our MPs, legislators and other public representatives," said the chief minister, who also interacted with the flood-affected people. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath conducts aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Gonda district. pic.twitter.com/bsf0i3TUKT ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 4, 2018 Adityanath claimed that his government has been able to check the loss of human lives and properties due to the preventive measures initiated by it. He said that incidents of boat capsizing, snake bites as well as sewer, gas and borewell deaths have been incorporated among calamities where prompt relief will be provided to the aggrieved families. Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Deve Gowda visited ailing DMK president M Karunanidhi at a hospital in Chennai on Friday and recalled the support of the nonagenarian leader in making him the Prime Minister in 1996. Chennai: Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Deve Gowda visited ailing DMK president M Karunanidhi at a hospital in Chennai on Friday and recalled the support of the nonagenarian leader in making him the Prime Minister in 1996. "He (Karunanidhi) was also responsible for making me the prime minister in 1996 and I cannot forget it," he told reporters after visiting Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital. Lauding Karunanidhi for serving the people of Tamil Nadu as chief minister for five terms, he said the DMK chief had also played a major role in providing a stable government at the Centre. "All the coalition governments (at the Centre) stood on his support," he said. He was referring to coalition governments headed by Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and himself in the past, to which the DMK had lent support. The former Prime Minister said he prayed for Karunanidhi's speedy recovery, long life and good health and described him as the country's senior most leader. The DMK patriarch should 'cross a century and serve the people of the nation," he said. Asked if he met the DMK chief in person, Gowda said he saw him from a distance in the ICU, since doctors had advised against getting close to the ailing leader to avoid infection. Earlier, DMK working president MK Stalin and party Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi received Gowda at the hospital. Actors Vishal and Vineet were among others who visited the hospital on Friday. Karunanidhi was admitted to the hospital on July following a dip in his blood pressure. On 31 July, the hospital said the leader would require an extended period of hospitalisation due to "decline" in his general health though his vital parameters have normalised. What is intriguing and unfortunate for AAP is that its central leadership has been attempting to remote control the activities in Punjab and repeatedly humiliate the state leaders. After its grand victory in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had its best bet in Punjab where the voters were looking for an alternative to the revolving door reign of Congress on the one hand and that of the the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with its alliance partner the Bharatiya Janta Party on the other. Punjab voters elected all the four MPs of the AAP at the peak of Modi wave in 2014, even as the party drew a blank in the rest of the country. It has been a downhill slide for AAP in Punjab since then, with the party scoring a series of self goals. The repeated attempts of the party leadership in Delhi to control the state unit have backfired and have now culminated in an open revolt by many of its MLAs. The trigger for the latest crisis was the unceremonious removal of the party leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira from the post of Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly. Khaira is known for his outspoken character against the ruling party and for taking up cudgels with his own party leaders. His dismissal as the Leader of Opposition a Cabinet rank post in view of the fact that AAP was the largest party in the state Assembly, through Twitter by Manish Sisodia (party in-charge for Punjab) was the last straw. The announcement via Twitter merely said that a Dalit MLA, Harpal Singh Cheema, was being appointed to lead AAP in the House. In any democratic set up, the leader of the legislative party is elected by the MLAs of the party. In this case, they were merely informed about the new leader through email and WhatsApp. No wonder it led to a storm and Punjab party leaders, who had been constantly facing humiliation because of the arbitrary decisions imposed on the state unit, raised a banner of revolt. Although Khaira and his supporters had claimed that a majority of the 20 party MLAs would attend a rally to demand justice, only seven MLAs made it to the rally. This does not indicate that the others were happy or satisfied with the attitude of the central leadership, but it was a reflection that efforts were being made to mend fences. No action has been taken against the rebel MLAs, even though they have declared "autonomy" for the party's state unit. What is intriguing and unfortunate for the party is that its central leadership has been attempting to remote control the activities in Punjab and repeatedly humiliate the state leaders. From the manner in which the party removed one of its founding leaders in Punjab and the then chief of the state unit of the party, Sucha Singh Chhotepur, on grounds of alleged corruption, to the imposition of leaders from outside Punjab, to selection of candidates for Assembly elections, to the suspension of two of its four MPs, the party has been hurtling from one crisis to another. It was, at one time, the favourite to win the Assembly elections in the state. It had started methodical preparation for the Assembly elections much before the other parties could get into the act. It successfully set up booth-wise committees and extensively worked in rural areas to garner support. It also received huge support from Indians living abroad. However, the manner in which the central leaders of the party treated the state leaders, led to erosion of its support base. This subsequently reflected in the comparative poor result, but it still managed to emerge as the second largest party in the Assembly. The central leadership of the party has evidently learnt no lessons from its past arbitrary attitude and the latest action is likely to cause permanent damage to the partys prospects in the state. The party had also banked heavily on social media and continues to do so to make announcements. Its response to the latest crisis is also in the form of a tweet which says, No matter how much they try, one thing must be made clear: AAP derives strength from its volunteers, likewise every volunteer has only one hero, ie, Arvind Kejriwal. No volunteer will support a person who tries to break the emotional thread between Arvind Kejriwal and his army." This official tweet reflects the dictatorial attitude of the party leadership which had been opposing this tendency tooth and nail in Congress as well as in SAD. A war of sorts has broken up on the social media between the die-hard supporters of Kejriwal and those opposed to his brand of politics. For Punjab, the developments in AAP are hugely disappointing. Their disenchantment with the party has already been reflected in the minuscule support it received in the by-elections to Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat and for the Shahkot Assembly. The party shall have to reinvent itself in Punjab if it dreams of providing a viable and credible alternative. BJP president Amit Shah claimed that Rajasthan had become weak in the 50 years under Congress rule. Rajsamand: BJP president Amit Shah flagged off Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's pre-poll tour 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' on Saturday and tore into the Opposition Congress over the alleged lack of development in the state under its rule. Flagging off the 58-day yatra, aimed at seeking people's mandate in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, from the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district, Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Raje and Shah offered prayers at the temple before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president. They left for a helipad nearby to head to Kankroli city in the district to address the first meeting of the tour. The 'rath' will reach Kankroli by road and will be used by Raje for her onward journey. The 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' will cover 165 of the total 200 Assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on 30 September in Ajmer. Speaking at the first public meeting, Shah said 'Rahul baba' should go and see the villages where no development had taken place in the 50 years of Congress rule, but that the situation has changed under the BJP rule and now development works are happening there. "Congress leaders here have said that they will ask 40 questions during the yatra. Rahul baba also asks questions and seeks the account of works done by the BJP, but public is asking from you the account of works done by your four generations," he said. Shah said the Narendra Modi government had released two-and-a-half-times more funds to the state government as compared to the previous UPA government. Targeting the Congress over the National Register of Citizens issue in Assam, Shah said the Congress was seeing illegal Bangladeshis residing in India as its vote bank and asked people to pose a question to Rahul on whether they should live in India. "The Congress president should tell the people whether illegal Bangladeshis should be in India or not. The Congress is actually looking at a vote bank in this issue, but the Modi government does not run on the basis of vote bank," he said. Shah also said that BJP did not dilute the SC/ST Act but had strengthened it. He added that the Modi government wants to give statutory status to the OBC Commission. "When Rahul baba comes to Rajasthan, ask him whether the Congress will support the bill in Rajya Sabha," he said. The bill to give the statutory status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday. Talking about the schemes and programmes of the Rajasthan government, Shah said the Modi government brought 116 schemes for people, and the Raje government has touched upon all sections of the society in the state and carried out developmental works. "The Congress did nothing for development. Rajasthan, which had been a glorious state, became a 'bimaru' (weak) state because of the Congress, but now, under the leadership of Raje, the state is progressing and going to become a developed state. We have committed to form the government again," he said. He asked people to vote for the party to make Vasundhra Raje the chief minister of Rajasthan again in the Assembly elections and Narendra Modi as prime minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Raje said it was her third yatra and exuded confidence that the party will secure victory again. "Five years back, I had begun Suraj Sankalp Yatra and Parivartan Yatra in 2003 from here and people gave us their mandate. We worked hard, I conducted visits and tours of the state to know people's problems and provided them with what they wanted," Raje said. She said the government had launched programmes and worked to enhance the dignity of women by launching schemes such as Bhamashah scheme and others. "The Congress always tried to create rift among castes but we want to take every section along with us. It is our aim to launch public welfare schemes and transfer the benefit to people. Development works have taken place in last four years in every panchayat and district," she said. She said the state is no more a "bimaru" state. In the coming years, she said, industries will be set up, development will pick up pace for a progressive Rajasthan. "There is a need to end 'One time Congress, one time BJP' trend to push Rajasthan among fastest developing states. Development took place at fast pace in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat where the BJP is in power," the chief minister said in the public meeting. She also asked the Congress to give a list of works done by them in the past 50 years. "People should analyse who served the nation best," she said. State Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who is the convener of the yatra, hailed the prime minister saying he has worked for the nation, brought honour for the country globally. "He has worked for poor, women, youths and those in need," Kataria said in the meeting attended by a large number of people. Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari said that the party chief gave a message of "Ajay (invincible) Rajasthan-Ajay BJP", saying the 'Gaurav Yatra' will turn into the 'Vijay (victory) Yatra' of the BJP in Rajasthan. Tejashwi Yadav said that Nitish Kumar had gotten prime accused Brijesh Thakur's name removed from the FIR. Auto refresh feeds RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav lead a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against "heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur" shelter homes. The RJD said that his protest was a wake up call against the rakshas raj (demon's rule) in Bihar. Speaking to ANI , Tejashwi Yadav alleged that their was no information available about one of the inmates of the Muzaffarpur shelter home, who was also a key witness in the case. "The girl who had all the information has been shifted to a shelter home in Muzaffarpur. After being shifted there is no information about her. We don't know if she is dead or has been killed or is missing." Tejashwi Yadav claims no information available about a victim and key witness in case Tejashwi's sister and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti said that the central investigation agency could not be trusted with the investigation as it was under the BJP government at the Centre. She also slammed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar over his alleged silence on the case and alleged that he is hand in glove with the key accused in the case and is protecting him. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has arrived at Jantar Mantar to participate in the protest led by RJD against Bihar rape cases. Upon ariving, Kejriwal greeted all the other prominent Opposition leaders present on the stage. Congress president Rahul Gandhi is also expected to arrive shortly. RJD leader Manoj Jha also questioned that why was Nitish silent for so long and alleged that he was hand in glove with the accused. Opposition leaders hit at out at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for not doing enough in the case. Referring to a previous episode where Nitish resigned as Railway Minister following a deadly train accident, AAP leader Sanjay Jha asked that why wasn't Nitish displaying similar righteousness this time. "I demand that the investigation and trial should be completed within three months and those found guilty should be hanged to death," Kejriwal said. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who arrived at the venue minutes ago, came down heavily on the Bihar government as he said that not only the wrongdoers but also the elected representatives who failed the victims should be held guilty. He said that a fast-track investigation should be launched in this case to provide prompt justice to the girls. He also said questioned that why was Prime Minister Narendra Modi silent as rapists were being shielded in Bihar. "A single rape of Nirbhaya, and the protests threw away the UPA govt out of power. This is a serious issue and all the stake-holders should come together. The journalists are being attacked using social media. Even union minister SushmaSwaraj was also not spared," Kejriwal said. Speaking to reporters from the venue RJD MP Manoj Jha said that they took the conscious decision not to use any political party's flag to ensure that the issue is not politicised. The party leaders were also seen requesting the crowd to not raise slogans against any particular person or party. The Opposition leaders also tried to drive home the message that the protest was the civil society's reaction to the 'shameful incident' and not a political movement. CPI leader D Raja demanded the resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on moral ground and said that the state government had failed on every account as the incident revealed a systematic pattern of harassment and abuse. Manjhi was part of JD(U) and was even made the state's chief minister by Nitish, but he later parted ways with the party when Nitish took back the crown form him. Former Bihar chief minister Jitan ram Manjhi also came down heavily on his former leader Nitish Kumar. He said that Nitish Kumar has lost the moral ground to remain on his post after the horrendous case came to light. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has arrived at Jantar Mantar to join the RJD-led protest against the Bihar shelter home rape case. Rahul was seen posing with raised hands at the stage alongside other Opposition leaders, including CPM's Sitaram Yechury. "And the Bihar government kept sleeping all this while, only because the accused people were considered close to the chief minister," Tejashwi said. Tejashwi Yadav said that the horrifying acts revealed from the shelter home have shaken the conscience of the nation. He said that the people accused of the crime kept harassing the little girls who were staying at the home because they had nowhere else to go. He claimed that Nitish Kumar had a role to play in the delayed action against Thakur. Tejashwi alleged that the Nitish got Thakur's name removed from the FIR as he is a close aide of the chief minister. "Even after the report of Child Commission was out no action was taken. FIR was lodged 2 months after Tata Institute report came and even then, the name of prime accused Brajesh Thakur was missing from the report," Tejashwi said. "We have come here to speak for each and every woman of the country" He said that he wasn't protesting against the Muzaffarpur rape cases, but was present at the event to represent the voice of all women. Rahul Gandhi said that he joined the protest because his party believes in standing together all those who are marginalised and weak. He said that the atmosphere was getting vitiated under the BJP rule as the poor, weak and marginalised are living under fear. Taking on Nitish Kumar, Rahul Gandhi said that the Bihar chief minister said that he was ashamed! "Let me tell him, if he is really ashamed, and sincere then he must act promptly and ensure that justice is done to those 40 little girls. If Nitish really ashamed, then he must act soon, says Rahul Gandhi The entire gathering on the stage, led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, lit candles in a symbolic gesture and began a march to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. "You can see how the opposition stands united here. India stands united while BJP and RSS stands on the other side as one. But when India makes up its mind, no one stands a chance against them," Rahul said. "We have come to Delhi because my chacha's (Nitish) conscience has not woken up yet to these crimes. He says there is a rule of law in Bihar, but this is rakshas raj (monster rule)," Tejashwi said. Launching a scathing attack on Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi said that the Bihar chief minister's conscience was rather late in waking up this time. Manjhi was part of JD(U) and was even made the state's chief minister by Nitish, but he later parted ways with the party when Nitish took back the crown form him. Former Bihar chief minister Jitan ram Manjhi also came down heavily on his former leader Nitish Kumar. He said that Nitish Kumar has lost the moral ground to remain on his post after the horrendous case came to light. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has arrived at Jantar Mantar to join the RJD-led protest against the Bihar shelter home rape case. Rahul was seen posing with raised hands at the stage alongside other Opposition leaders, including CPM's Sitaram Yechury. "And the Bihar government kept sleeping all this while, only because the accused people were considered close to the chief minister," Tejashwi said. Tejashwi Yadav said that the horrifying acts revealed from the shelter home have shaken the conscience of the nation. He said that the people accused of the crime kept harassing the little girls who were staying at the home because they had nowhere else to go. He claimed that Nitish Kumar had a role to play in the delayed action against Thakur. Tejashwi alleged that the Nitish got Thakur's name removed from the FIR as he is a close aide of the chief minister. "Even after the report of Child Commission was out no action was taken. FIR was lodged 2 months after Tata Institute report came and even then, the name of prime accused Brajesh Thakur was missing from the report," Tejashwi said. "We have come here to speak for each and every woman of the country" He said that he wasn't protesting against the Muzaffarpur rape cases, but was present at the event to represent the voice of all women. Rahul Gandhi said that he joined the protest because his party believes in standing together all those who are marginalised and weak. He said that the atmosphere was getting vitiated under the BJP rule as the poor, weak and marginalised are living under fear. Taking on Nitish Kumar, Rahul Gandhi said that the Bihar chief minister said that he was ashamed! "Let me tell him, if he is really ashamed, and sincere then he must act promptly and ensure that justice is done to those 40 little girls. If Nitish really ashamed, then he must act soon, says Rahul Gandhi The entire gathering on the stage, led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, lit candles in a symbolic gesture and began a march to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. "You can see how the opposition stands united here. India stands united while BJP and RSS stands on the other side as one. But when India makes up its mind, no one stands a chance against them," Rahul said. "We have come to Delhi because my chacha's (Nitish) conscience has not woken up yet to these crimes. He says there is a rule of law in Bihar, but this is rakshas raj (monster rule)," Tejashwi said. Launching a scathing attack on Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi said that the Bihar chief minister's conscience was rather late in waking up this time. Bihar rape case protests latest updates: Launching a scathing attack on Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi said that the Bihar chief minister's conscience was rather late in waking up this time. He said that as a Bihari, he was ashamed of the horrendous crime and the institutional efforts to save the key accused thereafter. Tejashwi said that Nitish had gotten prime accused Brijesh Thakur's name removed from the FIR. The entire gathering on the stage, led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, lit candles in a symbolic gesture and began a march to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. Tejashwi Yadav claimed that Nitish Kumar had a role to play in the delayed action against key accused Brijesh Thakur. Tejashwi alleged that the Nitish got Thakur's name removed from the FIR as he is a close aide of the chief minister. Tejashwi Yadav came down heavily on Nitish Kumar claiming that he protected the key accused Brijesh Thakur. He said that Bihar was under 'monster rule' not 'jungle rule'. He claimed that Thakur has close ties with Nitish's family. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has arrived at Jantar Mantar to join the RJD-led protest against the Bihar shelter home rape case. Rahul was seen posing with raised hands at the stage alongside other Opposition leaders, including CPM's Sitaram Yechury. Left and Trinamool Congress were also seen sharing the stage on the occasion, with Sitaram Yechury and Dinesh Trivedi present on the occasion. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal came down heavily on the Bihar government as he said that not only the wrongdoers but also the elected representatives who failed the victims should be held guilty. He said that a fast-track investigation should be launched in this case to provide prompt justice to the girls. Kejriwal said that the Nitish Kumar-led government turned a blind eye towards the plight of the 40 girls who were continuously assaulted and harassed at their shelter homes. Opposition leaders hit at out at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for not doing enough in the case. Referring to a previous episode where Nitish resigned as Railway Minister following a deadly train accident, AAP leader Sanjay Jha asked that why wasn't Nitish displaying similar righteousness this time. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has arrived at Jantar Mantar to participate in the protest led by RJD against Bihar rape cases. Congress president Rahul Gandhi is also expected to arrive shortly. Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav lead a dharna at Jantar Manrar in Delhi on Saturday to protest rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur... sponsored and protected by Nitish Kumar government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday," Tejashwi had tweeted earlier, announcing his decision to stage protest. He is expected to be joined in by several Opposition leaders to raise the heat for Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is running a coalition government with the support of BJP. Tejashwi is the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He said Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik has written two letters to Nitish Kumar on the crime, asking him to take strict action against the culprits. "Indirectly the Governor has questioned Chief Minister's criminal silence...I will awake Nitish Kumar's inner voice and expose his fake morality," Tejashwi said. The CBI on Sunday took over the shelter home rape case after a recommendation by the Bihar Chief Minister who described it as "a heinous crime." With inputs from agencies Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday accused the BJP government of working hand-in-glove with global tech giants and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool. Mumbai: Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday accused the BJP government of working hand-in-glove with global tech giants and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool. The senior Congress leader also alleged that in 2016, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had asked global tech companies to embed Aadhaar encryption into their technology. "The BJP government, working in cahoots with global tech giants, and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool. The government must come clean," Chavan said in a tweet. "Under what authority UIDAI directed tech companies to embed Aadhaar encryption? If not, what penal action will the government/TRAI take against Google?," he asked. Late last evening, the Cyber Security Cell of the Maharashtra Police issued an advisory saying that if any number in the name of UIDAI was automatically added to the mobile phone contacts, it should be deleted. Amid public outrage over the Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Google apologised last night for 'inadvertently' loading the old UIDAI helpline number and 112 helpline number into the 'setup wizard' of Android phones. The clarification came following reports that many Android-run mobile phones listed by default the Aadhaar helpline number 1800-300-1947. Accusing the BJP of misleading people in the name of religion, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot on Saturday asked if the saffron party shows concern and talks about temples only to seek political advantage in elections. Jaipur: Accusing the BJP of misleading people in the name of religion, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot on Saturday asked if the saffron party shows concern and talks about temples only to seek political advantage in elections. Hitting out at the BJP and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Pilot said the BJP has emotionally exploited people and misled them. "BJP has been doing politics with temples at the centre of it. The party has always worked to force its divisive thought and mislead people in the name of religion," Pilot said in a statement in Jaipur. He said over 300 temples were demolished in the state capital for the construction of the metro corridor. Pilot alleged that while some of the idols sustained damages in the process of shifting of temples, a number of them were stolen. He said Chief Minister Raje, who began her "Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra" after offering prayers at the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district on Saturday, should reply to the questions raised by the Congress. Pilot said his party would raise 40 questions for Raje during 40 days of her 58-day "yatra". BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said every act of corruption in India is linked to the party and it was peddling lies and misleading people against the government. New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday described the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as "corruption wali committee" (committee of corruption). BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said every act of corruption in India is linked to the party and it was peddling lies and misleading people against the government. "The Congress has a clear connection with corruption. Wherever corruption happens in India, it goes to 10, Janpath. 10, Janpath is the permanent address of corruption in India and every act of corruption leads to the Gandhi family," he said. 10, Janpath is the official residence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The ruling party also dismissed allegations about irregularities committed by the Modi government in fixing prices of the Rafale fighter jets, saying the Congress is spreading untruth on the issue as it is 'frustrated' over the absence of any middlemen in the deal. "He (Rahul Gandhi) told Parliament that the French president said something in his ears. Within hours, the French government issued a statement exposing his lies. Can there be anything more humiliating than this? He was criticised the world over, and it happened for the first time that another country had to intervene...and issue a letter. But Rahul is carrying on with his lies," Patra said. He said the government took a decision on Rafale jets at a time when the squadron strength was vastly depleted and the Congress did nothing between 2002 and 2012 to address this issue. Patra also accused the Congress of playing vote bank politics on the controversy surrounding Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said that the party was only interested in having a "national register of illegal immigrants". Seeking to expose the party's hypocrisy on the issue, he said that while the party did not allow BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah from speaking on the issue in the Upper House, they were deliberating upon it in the CWC meeting. "Is the CWC more important than Parliament?," he asked. Countering the Congress' claim of the Modi government's complicity and connivance in allowing PNB fraud case accused Mehul Choksi to flee from the country and getting him citizenship of Antigua, Patra pointed to an interview given by Mehul Choksi's Antiguan lawyer David Dorsett where he had reportedly said that Choksi was being targeted as he had a 'loose' connection with the Congress. Daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, Surjewala said: 'On one side, they are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners, and on the other, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC.' New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday alleged that BJP President Amit Shah lied on the deportation of foreigners, claiming that the UPA government had deported 82,728 Bangladeshi foreigners between 2005-2013, while the count was only 1,822 in the last four years of the Modi government. On deportation, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recalled three replies given by the Home Ministry in Rajya Sabha on three different occasions in 2008, 2016 and 2018. These replies given in Parliament state that 88,792 Bangladeshi nationals were deported between 2005 and 2013 (during UPA rule). The reply also stated that from 2014 to 2017, 1,822 Bangladeshi nationals were deported during the NDA rule. The first reply was in October 2008 by then Minister of State for Home Affairs V Radhika Selvi (from DMK, UPA-I). She had said the number of deported Bangladeshis in 2005 was 14,916. In 2006, it was 13,692 and in 2007, the number was 12,135. The second reply was given by Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on 9 March, 2016 in Rajya Sabha (from 2008 to 2014) and the third reply was given again by Rijiju on 14 March, 2018 for the period 2013 to 2017. Surjewala also accused Amit Shah and Modi government of duplicity, deception and double-speak. Daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to clarify their stance on Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, Surjewala said: "On one side, they are shedding crocodile tears on NRC and claiming deportation of foreigners, and on the other, Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 seeks to give citizenship to foreigners undoing the entire process of NRC." "Instead of fooling the people, Modi, Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must answer whether they support the NRC process or whether they support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 as both are directly in conflict with each other. "NRC process will fail once citizenship is given to everyone as per the Citizenship Amendment Bill," he added. With Rahul Gandhi presiding over the CWC meet on Sunday, senior party leaders discussed the issues of the NRC final draft, bank fraud cases, corruption, Rafale deal, farmer woes and unemployment. New Delhi: The Congress decided to take on the Narendra Modi government on the issue of corruption by launching a public campaign that will highlight the bank scams, Rafale deal and the "bad" state of the economy. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi where the leaders also chalked out a strategy on the crucial issue of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC). The meeting of the working committee, the party's highest decision making body, was attended by top party leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Aza, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot. However, former party president Sonia Gandhi was unable to attend the meeting. This is the second meeting of the newly constituted CWC under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. The Opposition party decided to go all out in highlighting the issue of corruption both inside and outside Parliament. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said after the meeting that the party will launch a public campaign or 'Jan Andolan, details of which will be chalked out in the coming days in consultation with state units and leaders. "The CWC met today. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended today's meeting," Rahul said on Twitter. The party intends to corner the government on media reports which quoted Antiguan authorities as saying that Indian agencies had no adverse information against Mehul Choksi when the Caribbean country conducted a background check on the PNB scam accused before granting him citizenship in 2017. The Congress has alleged that it had "exposed the complicity and connivance" of the Modi government in the escape of the fugitive billionaire. On the Rafale deal, Surjewala said neither the prime minister nor the defence minister are disclosing the price of the jets purchased by this government and claimed that the price fixed during UPA was Rs 526 crore against Rs 1,676 crore for the jets purchased under NDA, that has caused a loss of Rs 48,000 crore to the exchequer. Taking a cautious stand on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam, Surjewala said after the meeting that the NRC was "Congress' baby" and was initiated as a consequence of the Assam Accord signed by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 and the party will ensure that no Indian citizen is left out of it. NRC is a baby of the Congress party and it will ensure that no Indian citizens is deprived of his legitimate right," he said. Surjewala also pointed out figures claiming that while the Congress-led UPA government from 2005 to 2013 had deported 82,728 foreigners (Bangladeshis), the NDA government has only deported only 1,822 foreign nationals in the last four years. He was citing figures shared by the Modi government in Parliament. "Every Indian citizen should get justice and foreigners should be identified," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday thanked the people of Maharashtra for their continued 'faith' in the BJP following the party's win in two civic polls. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday thanked the people of Maharashtra for their continued "faith" in the BJP following the party's win in two civic polls. The BJP scored a big win in the Sangli municipal elections by defeating the Congress-NCP alliance and also swept the Jalgaon civic body in Maharashtra where it trounced the Shiv Sena. "Impressive victories for @BJP4Maharashtra! Great performance in Jalgaon and outstanding win in Sangli. I thank the people of Maharashtra for the continued faith," he tweeted. "I also appreciate the hardwork of CM @Dev_Fadnavis, @raosahebdanve and the entire team of Maharashtra BJP," the prime minister added. Impressive victories for @BJP4Maharashtra! Great performance in Jalgaon and outstanding win in Sangli. I thank the people of Maharashtra for the continued faith. I also appreciate the hardwork of CM @Dev_Fadnavis, @raosahebdanve and the entire team of Maharashtra BJP. https://t.co/2vg47XiVW6 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 3, 2018 BJP president Amit Shah also hailed the win. This continued support for BJP in Maharashtra reflects peoples desire for a better quality of life, being delivered by the state government led by CM Devendra Fadnavis, and Modi governments commitment to take Maharashtra to greater heights. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 3, 2018 "This continued support for BJP in Maharashtra reflects people's desire for a better quality of life, being delivered by the state government led by CM Devendra Fadnavis, and Modi government's commitment to take Maharashtra to greater heights," he said. Tejashwi Yadav called for Nitish Kumar's resignation as the Bihar chief minister for failing to take action in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case. Turning the heat on the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) made some serious allegations against the Bihar chief minister at a sit-in protest he had called in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Saturday. The meet was organised to protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, where around 40 inmates of the centre were allegedly sexually abused and harassed repeatedly over a period of two years. Alleging that sushasan babu (Nitish Kumar) had turned Bihar into a rakshas raaj (monster rule), Tejashwi said the Bihar chief minister was protecting the key accused in the case. He accused Nitish of having Brijesh Thakur's name removed from the FIR filed in the case as the latter shared a good personal rapport with him. The RJD leader also claimed that the chief minister had delayed action in the case despite repeated red flags because Thakur the prime accused in the case and a local strongman had strong ties with the ruling Janata Dal (United) (JDU). The protest at Jantar Mantar, which was attended by several prominent political faces including Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saw a huge turnout of Delhi residents, Opposition members and social activists. Rahul and Kejriwal also spoke at the event, each expressing shock at the horrendous details of the crime. They also called for a speedy investigation and trial in the case, while fixing responsibility with those who kept the matter hushed up. Tejashwi levels serious charges against Nitish, says ashamed as a Bihari Tejashwi used the opportunity to mount a scathing attack on Nitish, claiming that his government had failed to prevent a grievous crime intentionally as it wanted to shield the accused. Tejashwi said that for months, the Bihar government ignored reports submitted by various NGOs that flagged suspicious activities at the Muzaffarpur shelter home. Accusing Nitish of having the name of the key accused removed from FIRs, the RJD leader also questioned the chief minister's prolonged silence on the matter. Nitish had reacted to the incident on Friday, saying that he was ashamed of the crime, and that the guilty will not be spared. However, the matter came to light nearly two months ago, when a report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences uncovered that the inmates, including minor girls, were sedated and sexually assaulted frequently. Tejashwi's party, the Congress and the Hindustani Awam Morcha a splinter group of the JD(U) had taken up the matter in the Bihar Assembly several times. At the protest in Delhi on Saturday, Tejashwi said it was after repeated attacks from the Opposition and constant media glare that Nitish finally reacted. "I told you I will force you to break your silence, and I did)," he said. Tejashwi also made a jibe against Nitish, who had cut ties with the RJD last year, claiming that the alliance weighed heavily on his conscience. On Saturday, Tejashwi said that the Bihar chief minister's conscience was rather late in waking up this time. "We have come to Delhi because my chachas (Nitish Kumar) soul has not woken up yet to these crimes. He says there is a rule of law in Biharit. It is not 'jungle raj', but rakshas raj," he said. He also claimed that one of the older victims, who was capable of giving a detailed account of the crimes at the Muzaffarpur shelter home, has been sent to another shelter home, and there has been no information on her whereabouts since then. "Since the identity of the girls is protected, who knows, the victims may be swapped to protect the victims," he alleged. Apolitical protest to show Opposition's political unity? The event turned into a platform to showcase Opposition unity as several leaders from non-NDA parties, who have yet to take a call on alliance partners in future polls, were present at the Jantar Mantar event. RJD leaders and workers, along with several other Opposition leaders, gathered at the Delhi protest site in huge numbers. Apart from Rahul and Kejriwal, those present included Samajwadi Party leader Ghanshyam Tiwari, Tejashwi's sister Misa Bharati, JD(U)'s rebel leader and former party supremo Sharad Yadav, AAP's Somnath Bharti and Sanjay Jha, Trinamool Congress leaders Dinesh Trivedi and the Communist Party of India's D Raja. The Opposition leaders tried to drive home the message that the protest was the civil society's reaction to the "shameful incident" and not a political movement. Speaking to reporters from the venue, RJD MP Manoj Jha said they had made the conscious decision not to use any political party's flag to ensure that the issue is not politicised. The party leaders were also seen requesting the crowd to not raise slogans against any particular person or party. However, when Rahul took the stage, he used the occasion to refer to the Opposition unity and claimed that the BJP-RSS ideology was sidelined. "The RSS is one side and the entire Opposition is on the other side. India will not tolerate this kind of attack on hits culture, history and institutions," he said. "You see how the Opposition stands united here. India stands united while the BJP and RSS stand on the other side. It will be more visible very soon. India is saying that whatever happened in the past four years was not good... There were attacks on Indian culture. But when Indians make up their mind, no one stands a chance against them." RJD demands Nitish's resignation; Kejriwal, Rahul want prompt justice Tejashwi made a strong pledge for Nitish to quit, saying that while he had been prompt in the past to show off his righteousness, this crime had truly left him no right to remain in his post. RJD's Manoj Jha said his party demanded three things through the protests Nitish's resignation as the chief minister of Bihar, a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation and a prompt trial and justice. "Enough is enough Nitish ji.. you don't have any moral right to remain in your post. Quit and quit now," Manoj Jha said. Kejriwal, too, weighed in and resonated similar sentiments, but he did not explicitly seek a resignation. He pointed out that it was the case of the Delhi gangrape in December 2012 and the protests that followed that put the UPA government out of power. "Here, 40 small girls were harassed for years. We should be ashamed of ourselves, and the responsibility should be fixed with those whose oversight led to the crime staying undetected," he added. AAP's Sanjay Jha also said Nitish should quit from his post on moral grounds. Referring to a previous episode where Nitish had resigned as the Union railway minister after a deadly train accident in 1999, he also asked that why the JD(U) chief was not displaying similar righteousness this time. Kejriwal also demanded that the guilty in the case be hanged till death within three months. "I demand that the investigation and trial be completed within three months and those found guilty be hanged to death," the Delhi chief minister said. Rahul, meanwhile, latched on to Nitish's recent reaction and said: "Nitish Kumar said he is ashamed of what happened in Muzaffarpur. If you are truly ashamed, then you should act now against the culprits and ensure speedy justice for the girls." Five FIRs have been registered against Mamata Banerjee in Assam since the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on 30 July. Guwahati: Two more FIRs have been registered in Assam against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and members of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation, which went to Silchar, for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion, a senior police official said on Saturday. A total of five FIRs have been registered against Mamata in Assam since the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on 30 July. The police said effigies of Mamata, who is opposing the NRC in Assam, were burnt and protests held against her across Assam during the day. Two police complaints were also filed against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in West Bengal on Friday. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Ranjan Bhuyan said the two FIRs were registered at Guwahati and Silchar for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion. One FIR was registered at the Geetanagar Police Station in Guwahati on the basis of a complaint by the Assam Public Works' Dhrubajyoti Talukdar and the other at the Udharband Police Station in Cachar by a policewoman, who was injured during an alleged scuffle with the visiting TMC members at the Silchar airport, he said. A police officer said the first FIR has been registered against Mamata and the eight-member TMC team under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR in Cachar was registered for violating Section 144, which was in place then, and attacking a public servant on duty, he said. On 2 August, one FIR each was registered against Mamata at Panbazar and Basistha in Guwahati and at the North Lakhimpur Police Station for her alleged "instigating remarks" that threatened the unity of the country and her "attempt to create unrest" in Assam. After that, she had said in Kolkata: "We know we are living in a super Emergency. There is no democracy in the country. I am not scared. I speak for the people. They (BJP) can lodge millions of FIRs against me, I do not care." The two complaints against Sonowal were filed by TMC MLA Mohua Moitra and MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, both members of the TMC delegation, for alleged manhandling and illegal detention at the airport after their return from Silchar. The TMC team, comprising six MPs, one MLA and a West Bengal minister, was kept under preventive detention by the Assam Police at the Silchar airport after they reached on 2 August to take stock of the situation following the publication of the NRC final draft and were sent back on 3 August. Sources said that the Rajya Sabha Chairman himself raised the matter based on some reports during the weekly meeting with party leaders on Saturday. New Delhi: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Biju Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party have expressed their confidence in Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu amid reports that the Opposition is actively considering writing to him flagging that it is not being given its legitimate space in the Upper House of Parliament. The TRS has written to Naidu expressing full faith in him, while some others non-NDA parties have personally lauded Naidu for managing the House well. Sources said that the Chairman himself raised the matter based on some reports during the weekly meeting with party leaders on Friday. At this, leaders from the TRS, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) said that they have full confidence in the way he was conducting business of the House and that they are not a party to any such letter being considered. TRS Rajya Sabha MP D Srinivas separately wrote a letter to the Chairman, stating that he was "surprised and taken aback at the wild allegation levelled against him". "It is very unfortunate that some opposition members are indulging in this kind of falsehood accusing Hon'ble Chairman of being unfair and biased. It is highly unacceptable to us to accuse you of favouring any particular section of the House. "I want to make it very clear that neither my party nor I, in any personal capacity, have been consulted or informed by the Opposition in this regard. Also, I want to make it amply clear that we are not upset with you and the way you are running the House," Srinivas said in his letter to Naidu. tech2 News Staff On 3 August 2018, a lot of people in India found a UIDAI number showing up on their smartphones without their consent. This left thousands of users confused and flustered. Hours later, UIDAI responded to the incident and denied forcing any smartphone manufacturer or telecom service provider to add a helpline number to their device. However, Google has accepted that in 2014 it inadvertently coded the 112 distress number and the UIDAI number into its setup wizard for Android. This confession by the Android-maker somewhat puts to rest the confusion about how the helpline number creeped into their smartphones. Our internal review has revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since. Since the numbers get listed on a users contact list these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device, Google has said in a statement. Google spokesperson said that it would like to assure users that this is not a situation of an unauthorised access of their Android devices. It said that if users wished, they can delete the number manually. Google has also promised an upcoming release of SetUp wizard which will be made available to OEMs over the next few weeks. While Google has reassured no unauthorised access, the question still remains that why would Android forcefully enter a helpline number for users without permission. It is another thing to put helpline numbers out-of-the-box, and absolutely another if an existing phone gets creeped in out of the blue. VA Asks Supreme Court for Delay in Resentencing Malvo | Main | Encouraging news from DC about prospects for prison reform with sentencing reform getting enacted in 2018 August 4, 2018 The War on Kids Post #2 In my last post, I addressed the irony of America inventing the juvenile court and then both exporting that concept to the world and abandoning it domestically. Today I want to unpack the realities of my claim that there has been a war on kids since the late 20th century. Let me acknowledge that, to some readers, the concept of a war on kids in America today may sound misguided or dramatic. After all, educators complain of helicopter parents and so-called free-range parents may face prosecution for granting their children liberties that were commonplace in my childhood. However, even as some children in America are more coddled and protected than ever before, I stand by my claim that the U.S. has waged a war on kids. This is what the war on kids looks like. On any given day, there are approximately 50,000 juveniles being held in American correctional facilities, thousands of whom are in adult jails and prisons. While some hold themselves out as camps, academies or training facilities, these are correctional institutions; 89% of them are locked and many employ handcuffs, leg cuffs and restraining chairs, as well as solitary confinement. At the same time, we are not reserving detention for the most serious juvenile offenders. Nearly a quarter of youth in juvenile facilities have only been charged with a technical probation violation or a status offense. Schools, with police officers in the halls and zero-tolerance policies on the books, have become a gateway to the criminal justice system. In at least 22 states its a crime to disrupt school in ways that may have earned a student a trip to the principals office a few decades ago. Preschoolers, yes, preschoolers, can face suspension and expulsion for age-appropriate behaviors. This is deeply problematic, as suspensions, especially repeated ones, increase a students risk of dropping out of school and coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Moreover, as I mentioned in my first post this week, our laws have cemented the notion that kids, once accused of a crime, may be treated as adults. Prosecutors routinely remove kids from juvenile court and charge them in adult court on the basis of the legal fiction of transfer laws. Youth in adult court are subject to mandatory sentences that today many of us would agree are too harsh even as applied to adults. Juveniles can be housed in adult correctional facilities, despite being the most vulnerable to physical and sexual assault in those locations. Until 2005 we were the only nation to execute people for juvenile offenses, and today we are the only developed nation in the world that still sentences children to die in prison. Perhaps most discouraging, the war on kids has taken its greatest toll on the nations most vulnerable kids those in poor, minority areas that are under-resourced and heavily policed. Black youth are more than twice as likely as white youth to be arrested, and, even as overall youth detention rates continue to decline, black youth are five times as likely as white youth to be detained. Similarly, poverty shunts children into the criminal justice system who would never be there if they had the financial resources to pay for private counsel, a diversion program, or even an ankle bracelet. Finally, when one looks at youth serving the most extreme sentence on the books, life without parole, approximately half were physically abused and nearly 80 percent witnessed violence in the home. Thus, like most wars, the war on kids has had its greatest impact on poor, minority and otherwise vulnerable communities. In my next post, Ill address recent Supreme Court decisions regarding juvenile sentencing and their implementation at the state level. August 4, 2018 at 10:59 AM | Permalink Comments "However, even as some children in America are more coddled and protected than ever before, I stand by my claim that the U.S. has waged a war on kids." Aren't handcuffs, prison bars, and shackles coddles of iron? The point I want to make with this rhetorical question is that if we dance to the other drummer, the drummer that David Behar dances too, then from that point of view the real war on kids isn't holding them accountable with imprisonment, the real war on children is the war being waged by the other coddling: the cops in schools, the helicopter parents, the high age of consent laws, and all those other things that have reduced children's liberties from those "that were commonplace in [your] childhood". So this line of argument would agree that there is a war on kids but the real defenders of children in that war are the free range parents you reference. The real defenders of kids are those adults who want to educate teenagers on their sexuality so that the children can grow into better stewards of their own bodies. The real defenders of children are those who align children's responsibilities with those biological cycles of development that have existed since time immemorial. From that perspective there is a war, you just happen to be on the wrong side of it Professor--the side that promotes childhood irresponsibility rather than the side promoting childhood freedom. Posted by: Daniel | Aug 4, 2018 11:31:44 AM Hi, Sweetie. We are going to need the home address. All those kids that are being victimized will be released to your house, including the arrested Kindergarten kids. You will love them. You can show us how to manage them better. They probably just need a hug. I want to see how you, as a single foster mother, will tell a member of organized crime he cannot go out, to make a salary higher than yours. Post it on YouTube so we may all learn from you. You are an advocate. You are using exceptional anecdotes from newspaper articles to persuade emotionally, to try to change policy. All of journalism violates the Exception Fallacy. You had a good education. Did you ever take a course in Critical Thinking? If you give your address to Prof. Berman I will gladly send him a book on Critical Thinking, and postage to send it to you. I may send Berman his own copy. The above post would have to be returned without a grade, to a high school student in Civics class. It is missing half, the other side of the story. Here you go, $3 on Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Thinking-Beginners-Decision-Problem/dp/1542966140/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1533403118&sr=8-6&keywords=critical+thinking I am going to repeat a comment you are evading. The young person in prison has a resting pulse lower than 60 beats/minute. He is not exercising nor physically fit. Does that mean anything to you? It is a far more reliable and highly proven indicator, in gigantic population studies, of the future, than studies of cartoons of shifting mathematical formula MRI results in a tiny sample of subjects, using subjects from researcher families and friends, not criminals. All these researchers are registered Democrats. You are probably looking at political immaturity, rather than culpability. Posted by: David Behar | Aug 4, 2018 1:24:33 PM Do you agree that teachers in New Jersey may not use school discipline, but most call the police for any serious disturbance? This is the policy in New Jersey. Is that in your book? So, when the police is called on a Kindergarten student, it is to avoid prison time for school officials if they violate this rule. Do you agree that corporal punishment without due process should return to schools by law? If corporal punishment does ever return, it should first be applied to educational law lawyers. They have totally destroyed all school discipline. The second place it should be applied is to the awful, overly entitled parents who disrespect school authority. Start with the horrible rich feminists. Do you agree that authors who refuse to address questions of physiology, of lawyer rent seeking regulations, of pro-criminal advocacy are deniers, and are not arguing in good faith? Posted by: David Behar | Aug 4, 2018 1:30:29 PM Here is the New Jersey Memorandum, to generate make work jobs for worthless government workers and lawyers. It is written by prosecutors. Education officials were forced to agree to it. It is unconscionable by coercion, and voidable, but it is the law in New Jersey. It is also against policy and against all common sense. They make excellent justifications for criminalizing school discipline problems. Do you have this in your book? https://www.state.nj.us/education/schools/security/regs/agree.pdf Do you want to do something that is actually useful to teachers and to students? You can sue New Jersey in the Third Circuit. I can help you get accepted. You will enjoy arguing before the great intellectuals on the Third Circuit. Posted by: David Behar | Aug 4, 2018 1:46:34 PM "Perhaps most discouraging, the war on kids has taken its greatest toll on . . . those in . . . areas that are . . . heavily policed." And the problem with heavy policing is? Seriously, if certain areas have a high crime rate, then by all means heavily police them. Posted by: MIJS | Aug 4, 2018 3:40:05 PM MIJS: Of course I recognize the value of law enforcement maintaining public safety, and yes, sometimes high crime areas warrant greater police presence. However: 1) As many have pointed out (and I recommend Andrew Ferguson's Rise of Big Data Policing), there is a risk today with the use of predictive policing technology that law enforcement is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy around racially disparate policing practices. 2) If crime rates are comparable (for example, drug use among blacks and whites) and one group is being policed/arrested/charged more than the other solely because one group is under police scrutiny and the other isn't, there is a big fairness concern. Posted by: Cara Drinan | Aug 4, 2018 5:35:29 PM OK, so police the others more. Don't just say, "stop." Posted by: MIJS | Aug 4, 2018 6:25:13 PM Professor Berman, Cuyahoga County exemplifies your concerns. In the last 18 months prosecutors here have increased their requests for discretionary bindovers of juvenile offenders into adult court by 400%. Unlike the cases subject to mandatory bindovers, once the discretionary kids are deemed not amenable to juvenile jurisdiction, there is no way a Common Pleas Court judge can send their case back should they find adult jurisdiction inappropriate. Posted by: Cleveland Attorney | Aug 6, 2018 11:04:28 AM Post a comment tech2 News Staff For over a year now, Microsoft is rumoured to be working on a Surface phone, also called the Andromeda device, which is believed to come with a dual-screen. Now, according to a recently applied patent by Microsoft, the device may come with a page flipping feature. In January 2017, Microsoft applied for a patent with the title Navigational Aid for a Hinged Device via Semantic Abstraction. The patent application was published by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on August 2, 2018. First spotted by Windows Latest, the patent application does not exactly mention the Surface phone or the Andromeda device, however, it does talk about a dual-screen display, exactly how the Surface phone is expected to look like. The company writes in its patent that mobile devices with multiple displays that are connected together with the help of a hinge introduce complexities which can not be fixed with the help of conventional gesture input. The company goes on to draw a parallel to a book, so that with the patent, users can view two pages on such devices in a way that resembles a book or a notebook. The application goes on to state that such devices with hinge can be used to make content such as journal entries, documents, or notes. This concept in the patent resembles with the infamous Courier concept tablet, which Microsoft dropped years ago. Even for this patent there is no guarantee that it will see the light of the day. Companies registered thousands of patents that never really get implemented. So, with a pinch of salt, will you! Indo-Asian News Service Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by NASA on 3 August for its first human spaceflight programme from the US soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. The astronauts will fly on the spacecraft developed by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Crew Dragon and global aviation firm Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, as part of the US space agency's Commercial Crew programme to send humans to the ISS on private US spacecraft. Williams has been named for the Boeing programme to the ISS, the first test flight scheduled to take place in the middle of 2019. "For the first time since 2011, we are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Born in Euclid (Ohio), Williams came to NASA from the Navy where she was a test pilot and rose to the rank of captain before retiring. Since her selection as an astronaut in 1998, she has spent 322 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for Expeditions 14/15 and Expeditions 32/33, commanded the space station and performed seven spacewalks, the US space agency said in a statement. "The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight," said Mark Geyer, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we can't wait to see them aboard the ISS," he added. In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded a combined $6.8 billion in contracts from NASA to develop spacecraft capable of flying crews to the space station. SpaceX is targeting November 2018 for Crew Dragon's first uncrewed demonstration mission (Demo-1), three months later than the previous schedule released by NASA early this year. The crewed demonstration flight, with two astronauts on board, will follow in April 2019, four months later than previously announced. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, on the other hand, will likely perform two crucial test flights next year, instead of this year as planned. Each test flight will provide data on the performance of the rockets, spacecraft, ground systems, and operations to ensure the systems are safe to fly astronauts. The crew for Boeing's Crew Flight Test and SpaceX's Demo-2 flights will each include at least a flight commander and pilot aboard to test out the systems. After successful completion of the flight tests with crew, NASA will review flight data to verify that the systems meet the agency's safety and performance certification requirements and are ready to begin regular servicing missions to the space station, the US space agency said. Additional crew members will be assigned by NASA's international partners at a later date. Denmark has imposed a fine on 28-year-old woman for defying the controversial law banning full-face Islamic veil Stockholm: A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab has become the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle on Friday with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency. "During the fight her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again," Borchersen said. Police took a photograph of the woman wearing the niqab, and obtained security camera footage from the shopping centre of the incident. The woman was informed she would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 ) in the post, and was told to either remove her veil or leave the public space. "She chose the latter," Borchersen said. As of 1 August, wearing a burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, in public carries a fine of 1,000 kroner. Repeated violations are fined up to 10,000 kroner The ban also targets other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas, masks and false beards. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. The full-face veil is a hot-button issue across Europe. Belgium, France, Germany and Austria have already imposed bans or partial bans. Malala Yousafzai and Imran Khan, who is to become Pakistan's prime minister condemned the burning down of 12 schools in Gilgit-Baltistan region Peshawar: Youngest ever Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai has strongly condemned the burning down of 12 schools, half of them all-girls', in Pakistan, saying the "extremists" have shown that a "girl with a book" frightens them the most. The schools were burnt down late Friday by unidentified assailants in coordinated attacks in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan, triggering protest by local residents who sought safety for educational institutions. Six fresh arrests have been made, four suspects were already arrested, taking the total number to 10, Gilgit Baltistan government spokesman Faizullah Firaq said, adding that the suspects are being interrogated at Darul Tangeer police station. "The extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book," Malala, 21, said in a tweet. She also called for the rebuilding of the damaged schools in Chilas town, about 130-kilometre from Gilgit. "We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the world that every girl and boy has the right to learn," Malala tweeted. Imran Khan, who is set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister, also condemned the attack, terming it an "unacceptable" act. "Shocking & condemnable torching of schools in GB, more than half of them girls' schools. This is unacceptable and we will ensure security for schools as we are committed to focusing on education, especially girls' education which is integral to Naya Pakistan," Khan said in a tweet. Malala, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for promoting girls' education in the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan Babar Hayat Tarar visited the schools today and directed the officials to repair the buildings. Girls' schools are often attacked in the northern areas of Pakistan. In December 2011, at least two girls' schools were partially damaged in low-intensity explosions in Chilas. Earlier that year, unidentified assailants had also blown up two girls' schools. In 2004, girls' schools in Chilas came under a string of attacks. Nine schools of which eight were girls' schools were attacked and destroyed in five days in the area in February. Terrorists have also blown up educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). According to a report, about 1,500 schools have been destroyed in the tribal belt during the last 10 years. In 2017, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report stated that attacks by the Taliban and other militant groups disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of children, particularly girls, in Pakistan. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saturday for pressure to be maintained on North Korea as a UN report warned Pyongyang is circumventing tough sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programme. Singapore: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saturday for pressure to be maintained on North Korea as a UN report warned Pyongyang is circumventing tough sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programme. In Singapore ahead of a major security forum, Pompeo said he had urged other countries to strictly enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea, which reports suggest has made slow progress to disarmament following a landmark June summit. The US's top diplomat said he had "emphasised the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation that DPRK has agreed to," using the initials of the North's official name. "I must say from my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," Pompeo told a press conference. "We're determined to do it, Chairman Kim is committed to doing it. I'm optimistic that we will get this done." His comments came as a UN report said Friday that North Korea has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions. The 62-page report sent to the Security Council also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports including coal, iron and seafood that generate millions of dollars in revenue for the reclusive regime. Pompeo has met with the foreign ministers of China and South Korea in Singapore, as well as with his Southeast Asian counterparts. His North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, is also in the city-state for the ASEAN Regional Forum, which takes place later in the day. But Pompeo said he was yet to meet with him on the sidelines of the gathering. 'Joint ventures' At the summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong-un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" - a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While there have been small signs of progress since the summit, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of sanctions on the North. "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said. "If these reports are proven accurate and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he added. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. The foreign ministers from all nations involved in stalled "six-party" negotiations with North Korea aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear programme will be at the gathering: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Pompeo said that during his meetings in Singapore, he called for countries to "strictly enforce all sanctions including the complete shut down of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum". US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia, as China forges ahead with plans to bolster its engagement in the region. Singapore: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia, as China forges ahead with plans to bolster its engagement in the region. Pompeo unveiled the figure to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other officials from around the world in Singapore. As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the United States is excited to announce nearly $300 million in new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the region, he said. The new security assistance will strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping capabilities and counter transnational threats, he added. The United States said earlier this week it would invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in emerging Asia which he called a downpayment on a new era of US economic commitment to the region. The United States developing vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific comes at the same time as China ramps up its influence as part of is Belt and Road plan to bolster trade ties with nations in Southeast Asia and beyond. Analysts have said that a spiralling trade dispute between Beijing and Washington could also ratchet up tensions over other regional hotspot issues, such as the South China Sea, claimed in whole by China and in part by some Southeast Asian nations. China and the ASEAN bloc on Thursday hailed a milestone agreement on a single working text to kick off what will likely be protracted negotiations towards a code of conduct for behaviour the disputed waters. But critics have said that this enthusiasm for talks is a means for China to buy time and solidify its position during a period of relative dominance in the region. Pompeo told reporters that he had raised concerns at the meeting about Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea and the importance of maintaining a rules-based order in the region. Progress towards resolving the continuing humanitarian in crisis in Myanmars troubled Rakhine state and other security issues were also essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific, he said. The use of Indo-Pacific has grown among diplomats from Japan, Australia, India and the United States in recent years, a shorthand for a democratic-led region, as opposed to an Asia-Pacific with China at its centre. China says that its Belt and Road plan is about promoting the common prosperity of all nations involved, but critics see the signature policy of President Xi Jinping as a bid for greater political clout. North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea. United Nations: North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programmes and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, a UN report said Friday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong-un's regime. Pyongyang "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US president Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump, however, has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Arms sales via Syria North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea. With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment." The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly $14 million from October to March. "Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China however put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018. UNHCR reports have said that more than 1,500 migrants have died while trying to reach Europe through the Mediterranean Sea Geneva: More than 1,500 refugees and migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in the first seven months of this year, over half of them in June and July, the UN refugee agency said on Friday. The rate of deaths is increasing despite a decline in the total number of migrants arriving on European shores compared with previous years, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement. Around 60,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean since January, around half the number of people in the same period in 2017. The agency called attention to the scourge of traffickers, urging "states and authorities along transit routes to take all necessary action to dismantle and disrupt smuggler networks", said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Mediterranean. "In order to save lives at sea, we must use appropriate and necessary measures to hold to account those who seek to gain profit from the exploitation of vulnerable human beings." The agency said that traffickers were using "ever-more unseaworthy and flimsy vessels", overloaded with people, to attempt crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. These boats "are then left to sail out at sea in the hope that a rescue will come in time", UNHCR said. But in recent months, Italy and Malta have closed their ports to NGO rescue ships, leaving them stranded at sea with desperate migrants on board. "With so many lives at stake, it's vital that we give shipmasters confidence that they will be able to dock rescued passengers, and thereby ensure that the long-standing principle of rescuing people in distress at sea is protected," said Cochetel. This year Spain, rather than Italy, has become the top port of entry for migrants into the European Union with more than 23,500 new arrivals, more than the total number of migrants in 2017, UNHCR said. In comparison, Italy has seen around 18,500 people arrive so far this year, and Greece 16,000. Syrians account for 13.5 percent of all new arrivals by sea to Europe, making them the largest single nationality group. BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's centre-left Social Democrats on Friday said she cannot rule out the collapse of Chancellor Angela Merkel's fragile coalition government if it runs into another divisive dispute such as its recent fight over migration. Andrea Nahles told the RND German newspaper chain that the battle over migration between Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its CSU Bavarian ally had frustrated many, including her party, because it was an internal squabble and not focused on substantial issues. Asked if a further dispute could undo Merkel's 'grand coalition,' Nahles said: 'After the experiences of the last months, I can't exclude that. BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's centre-left Social Democrats on Friday said she cannot rule out the collapse of Chancellor Angela Merkel's fragile coalition government if it runs into another divisive dispute such as its recent fight over migration. Andrea Nahles told the RND German newspaper chain that the battle over migration between Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its CSU Bavarian ally had frustrated many, including her party, because it was an internal squabble and not focused on substantial issues. Asked if a further dispute could undo Merkel's "grand coalition," Nahles said: "After the experiences of the last months, I can't exclude that. It was serious." Merkel's government was brought to the brink of collapse over strident demands from Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who leads the Bavarian conservatives, that Germany's migration policy be tightened up. The clash has further eroded support for the ruling parties, a new poll conducted by broadcaster ARD showed on Thursday. Nahles called for Seehofer to stop carrying out what she dismissed as "pseudo debates". "There are important challenges facing him - an immigration law, integration (of new migrants) and new housing construction," Nahles said. Seehofer on Friday said he plans to start using Twitter to take his message directly to the people ahead of an election in the state of Bavaria in October in which the CSU could lose its absolute majority in the region. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Hugh Lawson) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Turkey has planned to reopen a consulate in Mosul four years after ridding the city of Islamic State jihadists Ankara: Turkey is to open a consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul again, four years after it was seized and its employees held hostage by Islamic State jihadists, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Ankara had opened a well-staffed consulate in Mosul, in a sign of Turkey's ambitions in northern Iraq, before the rise of Islamic State in there and in neighbouring Syria. But 46 Turks, including diplomats, their children, special forces officers and other Turkish employees were taken hostage by the jihadists in June 2014. The hostages were freed in September 2014 after a three-month ordeal. Symbolically, the consulate building was destroyed in a US-led coalition air strike in April 2016 carried out in coordination with Ankara. The city was retaken by Iraqi forces in June 2017. "The consulates general in Mosul and (the southern Iraqi city) of Basra will resume operations within 100 days," Erdogan told a meeting on government plans after his 24 June election victory. Turkish officials had previously indicated Ankara was keen to reopen the consulate in Mosul but this was the first mention that a time frame has been evoked. Turkey evacuated the Basra consulate for security reasons in 2014 a week after Islamic State seized the Mosul mission. Analysts have said that Turkey is keen to bolster its presence in Mosul, which was once part of the Ottoman Empire and which Ankara still regards as part of its natural regional sphere of influence. The circumstances in which the Mosul consulate staff were freed remain murky, with reports at the time indicating they had been released in exchange for Islamic State militants held by Turkey. Erdogan, then premier, insisted no ransom had been paid, saying there were "only diplomatic and political negotiations" and describing the outcome as "a diplomatic victory." The former Turkish consul general in Mosul who was kidnapped with the other Turks, Ozturk Yilmaz, went into politics and became a deputy chairman of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and is its main spokesman on foreign affairs. The agreement was made during the countries' two-day talks, which began on Thursday in Seoul, following South Korean President Moon Jae-in's meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last month, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The route -- connecting Gimhae International Airport in the port city, some 450 kilometers south of Seoul, and Singapore's Changi Airport -- will mark the Busan airport's first medium long-range flight, according to the ministry. "We expect the new route to contribute to the convenience of southeastern residents' trips and lead to expansion of the government's cooperation with Singapore," a ministry official said. Source from the Yonhap. A US diplomat handed over a letter for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un from US president Donald Trump to North Koreas foreign minister. Jakarta: A US diplomat handed over a letter for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un from US president Donald Trump to North Koreas foreign minister at a meeting in Singapore on Saturday, a US State Department spokeswoman said. Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, who has played a prominent role in US talks with North Korea, handed the letter to Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of a regional meeting, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. She said the letter was a response to one from Kim Jong-un to Trump. In Singapore, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ri shook hands and exchanged words and smiles at a Southeast Asian security forum, but had no formal meeting, Nauert said. Nauert said Pompeo told Ri: We should meet again soon. She said Ri replied: I agree, there are many productive conversations to be had. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries against helping North Korea nuclearise. It said that the sanctions would be reversed Singapore: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday warned Russia, China and other countries against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Pompeo's comments came on the heels of a new United Nations (UN) report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating UN sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil. Speaking on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore, Pompeo told reporters that the US has new, credible reports that Russia is violating UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He said Washington would take "very seriously" any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed. "If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation," Pompeo said, noting that the UN Security Council had voted unanimously in favour of the sanctions. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea," he said. "Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally, fully denuclearising North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously." At the UN, meanwhile, a summary of a report by experts monitoring UN sanctions against North Korea was sent to the Security Council on Friday that said North Korea is continuing with both its nuclear and missile programmes. And, in addition to the oil transfers, it said the North was violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions. On Friday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley raised the alarm, saying that "talk is cheap." ''Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," she said in a statement. She made the remarks as the US asked the Security Council to add a North Korean bank executive, a North Korean company, a Chinese company and a Russian bank to the UN sanctions blacklist. In his discussions with Southeast Asian officials in Singapore, Pompeo said he had implored them all to "strictly enforce all sanctions," including an end to ship-to-ship transfers of oil for North Korea, and had been encouraged by the response. Despite the warning to Russia, Pompeo said he remained optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will follow through on his pledge to president Donald Trump to denuclearise. But he said the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress. Earlier, in an interview with a Singapore's channel News Asia, Pompeo had said the pace for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons programme would rest with Kim. "The ultimate timeline for denuclearisation will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he said. "The decision is his." At the news conference, however, Pompeo appeared to step back from that comment, noting that the timeline is subject to negotiation between Washington and Pyongyang. He recalled that Kim had committed to denuclearisation at the historic summit with Trump on 12 June in Singapore and that both sides "have been working since then to develop the process through which that will be achieved." "The process of achieving denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is one that I think we have all known will take some time," Pompeo said, adding later: "I am optimistic that we will get this done in a timeline and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded." Pompeo said yesterday that while there's "still a ways to go," the US remains "confident" in North Korea's commitment to denuclearise. On Thursday, the White House announced that Trump had received a new letter from Kim and had responded quickly with a letter of his own. The correspondence came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearisation despite a rosy picture of progress painted by Trump. Rumors so far been suggesting that Apple might be introducing a new dual-SIM variant of the upcoming iPhones. This would allow users to use two SIM cards with dual standby. However, it appears this functionality could be limited to iPhones that will be launched in China. According to Foxconn source, the dual-SIM dual standby feature could be exclusive to the 6.1-inch low-cost LCD iPhone model. Furthermore, new iPhones slated for a September launch is currently underway and Foxconn employees suggest that Apple is producing four unique model numbers (801, 802, 803, and 804) for the upcoming iPhones, hinting at the extra two SIM model. The 801 and 802 models are the 5.8 and 6.5-inch iPhones, while the latter two represent the 6.1-inch LCD iPhones; one with single and the another with dual SIM variant. Since the dual SIM usage is on the higher side in China and to stay competitive in the worlds one of the biggest smartphone market, Apple is said to be taking this route for the first time. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also suggested that Apple is working on two 6.1-inch iPhone models for launch in 2018. While the dual-SIM model might be slightly costlier than the regular single SIM variant, he didnt mention that it would be limited to China. According to Kuo, Apple could price the dual-SIM dual standby 6.1-inch iPhone at $650 to $750, while the single SIM model could be available at a lower $550 to $650 price range. It is also reported that the 2018 iPhones said to feature both embedded Apple SIM and traditional SIM card tray. With the Apple hardware launch coming in the next few weeks, we dont have to wait much longer before we see the phones. Source This week Optiemus launched the BlackBerry Evolve and EvolveX smartphones in India, Honor introduced the Note 10 smartphone, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Tab S4 and the new Tab A 2018 10.5, Motorola introduced the Moto Z3, and lots more from this week in our weekly roundup. Optiemus launched the BlackBerry Evolve and EvolveX smartphones in India, as expected. Both the phones have a 5.99-inch Full HD+ 18:9 aspect ratio display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, run Android 8.1 (Oreo) with secured DTEK app and feature a 16-megapixel front camera. The Evolve is powered by Snapdragon 450 with 4GB of RAM and dual 13-megapixel rear cameras, while the EvolveX is powered by Snapdragon 660 with 6GB of RAM, and has a 12-megapixel rear camera along with a secondary 13-megapixel camera with real-time depth of field effect for portrait shots. These pack a 4000mAh battery and the Blackberry EvolveX also comes with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 support and wireless charging. These come with soft touch back panel and grade 7 aluminium frame, and have a fingerprint sensor on the back. The BlackBerry Evolve and EvolveX are priced at Rs. 24990 and Rs. 34990, respectively and will go on sale exclusively on Amazon.in with EvolveX available from end of August and BlackBerry Evolve available from mid-September 2018. Huaweis Honor brand announced the Honor Note 10 smartphone, as it had promised. It has a 6.95-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with HDR10 support along with AI image quality enhancement that promises 20% increase in quality, dual speakers and Dolby Atmos audio experience. It is powered by Kirin 970 SoC with up to 8GB RAM and CPU Turbo, GPU Turbo and Double Turbo mode with a dedicated hardware button to launch it, for an ultimate performance. It has a 24-megapixel rear camera along with a 16-megapixel secondary camera, with AI scene recognition and the 13-megapixel front camera also comes with intelligent scene recognition. The Turbo button also doubles up as the camera shutter button. It features a 5000mAh battery with support for 5V/4.5A super fast charging technology. It comes in Midnight Black and Phantom Blue colors, starts at 2799 yuan (US$ 409 / 28,115 approx.) for the 6GB RAM with 64GB version and is already on sale in China. Motorola introduced the Moto Z3, the companys latest flagship smartphone in the Moto Z series with support for Moto Mods, as expected. It has a 6-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display, is powered by Snapdragon 835 SoC with 4GB of RAM, has 12-megapixel dual rear cameras with depth-sensing AI photo features. It has Corning Gorilla Glass protection on the front and back and lightweight, aircraft-grade 6000 series aluminum frame. It has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, but it doesnt have a home button the bottom. The phone supports Moto Display, Moto Actions and packs a 3000mAh battery with support for Turbo charging. It also introduced 5G moto mod with built-in 2000mAh battery that will make the Z3 worlds first smartphone with access to Verizons 5G Network when it launches in select areas in 2019. Motorola said that it has partnered with Qualcomm to achieve this utilizing the flagship Snapdragon X50 modem and millimeter wave components. After the Z3, the Moto Z2 will get support for 5G. It comes in Ceramic Black color, is priced at $480 ( 32,940 approx.) in retail or on contract at $20 a month for 24 months exclusively through Verizon starting on August 16. The 5G moto mod will be available in the US exclusively in early 2019, but no details about its pricing. Samsung introduced the Galaxy Tab S4. It has a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED WQXGA screen, is powered by a Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 SoC and runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo). It has quad-stereo speakers tuned by AKG by HARMAN, similar to the predecessor and comes with an an enhanced S Pen. It has got rid of the fingerprint scanner and the home button on the front for Iris scanner. It comes in Black and White colors, and starts at $649.99 ( 44,400 approx.) and will be available in the US from August 10, 2018. Samsung also introduced the Galaxy Tab A (2018) with a 10.5-inch WUXGA display. It is powered by Snapdragon 450 with 3GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) and comes with quad-speakers built into each corner of the tablet with support from Dolby Atmos. It packs a huge 7,300mAh battery. It comes in Black, Blue and Grey colors, is priced at 329 (US$ 383 / 26,195 approx.) for the Wi-Fi version and will roll out starting from August 24th. After the launch of Galaxy J8 smartphones in the J Series in India recently, Samsung launched its online-only version, the Galaxy On8 (2018) in the country. It has similar specifications, but it costs Rs. 16,990, cheaper compared to the J8. It will be available exclusively from Flipkart and Samsung Shop online starting August 6th. OPPO this week launched the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage version of the A3s smartphone in India for Rs. 13990, soon after the launch of 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version. It is now available from offline stores, and should be available from Flipkart as well soon. Infinix launched Smart 2, the companys latest smartphone in its new Smart series in India. It has a 5.45-inch HD+ 18:9 aspect ratio display, is powered by MediaTek MT6739 with up to 3GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with XOS 3.3 on top, has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and 8-megapixel front camera with dual LED flash. It lacks a fingerprint sensor, but it comes with face unlock that can unlock the phone in 0.3 seconds. It features dedicated dual SIM slots and a microSD card slot, Dual 4G VoLTE and packs a 3050mAh battery. It comes in Sandstone Black, Serene Gold, Bordeaux Red and City Blue colors, is priced at Rs. Rs 5,999 for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version and the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version costs Rs 6,999. It will be available exclusively from Flipkart starting from August 10th. Vietnam-based Mobiistar forayed into the Indian market with the XQ Dual and CQ selfie smartphones back in May. This week it launched five new selfie smartphones C1 Lite, C1, C2, E1 Selfie and X1 Dual in the country for the offline market. The Mobiistar C1 Lite, C1, C2, E1 Selfie and X1 Dual will be available at 4,340, 5,400, 6,300 8,400 and 10,500, respectively, and will be available through 600 distributors across the country. Sony launched new HT-S500RF and HT-S700RF Home Cinema Soundbar Systems with Bluetooth in India. Sony said that these come with exclusive India sound setting offering powerful bass sound with clear vocal sound. These offer 1000W output with high volume boxes using tweeters and rhombus-shaped high aperture ratio grill. Special tweets in these model reproduce high frequency sounds offering the perfect audio experience. The Sony HT-S500RF and HT-S700R are priced at Rs. 29,990 and Rs. 37,990, respectively and will be available through all Sony Centers, major electronic stores across India and on e-portals like Amazon and Flipkart from August 10th. LG announced new Signature Edition smartphone, the companys latest premium smartphone in the LG SIGNATURE series and the successor of last years Signature Edition in Korea. It is made of premium materials such as zirconium ceramic back cover that prevents scratches. Customers can also engrave their name on the back of the phone, similar to the predecessor. It comes in Black and White colors. The company will make only 300 phones and will start selling it from 13th August for 1,999,800 won (US$ 1,790 / 1,22,820 approx.) after taking pre-orders. It also comes with a free Bang & Olufsen (B & O) Beoplay H9i headphones. 1MORE launched Triple Driver Over-Ear Headphones in India. The company has collaborated with internationally acclaimed Grammy Award Winning producer, mixer, and sound engineer Luca Bignardi to perfect the final tuning. It is priced at Rs. 19,999 and comes with a 1-year warranty and is available at India.1more.com and many leading stores across India. Those who pre-order can get a flat 25% discount by using the code: 1MORE25. Qin AI Phone, a new 4G VoLTE feature phone is now available for order from Xiaomis crowd funding platform in China. It has a 2.8-inch QVGA color display with T9 keyboard and runs Android-based Mocor 5 OS. The main highlight of the smartphone its AI voice features that promises real-time voice translation in 17 languages. It comes in Black and White colors, is available for pre-order from Xiaomis crowdfunding platform for 199 yuan (US$ 29 / 1,990 approx.), and is expected to start shipping from September 15, 2018. iBall launched the Aasaan 4, the latest addition to the Aasaan series. The Aasaan series phones are targeted at senior citizens. The company says that the Aasaan4 focuses on the holistic needs of seniors with a bigger screen. It is priced at Rs. 3,499 and is already available offline. Every day, Wall Street analysts upgrade some stocks, downgrade others, and "initiate coverage" on a few more. But do these analysts even know what they're talking about? Today, we're taking one high-profile Wall Street pick and putting it under the microscope... A little over a month after downbeat guidance from Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) sank Carnival stock -- and those of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean Cruises as well -- one of them is doing a whole lot better this week. Which of the three cruise ship operators was it? I'll give you a hint: It was the one that reported earnings Thursday morning. Here's what you need to know. A Royal report Royal Caribbean reported its fiscal Q2 2018 financials yesterday morning. Earnings of $2.19 per share beat Wall Street estimates with a stick. Analysts had predicted the company would earn only $1.97 per share, and those estimates were only for pro forma earnings. Royal Caribbean's earnings were of the real, honest-to-goodness GAAP variety. The company's $2.34 billion in quarterly revenue likewise edged out estimates. In commenting on the report, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain said he was "frustrated by foreign exchange and fuel rates" that added costs to his business, but "we are tickled pink that our business continues to excel and overcome these headwinds." Sales climbed 6.5% year over year in Q2, while total cruise operating expenses rose only 4.5%. Marketing costs jumped 10% as Royal Caribbean spent heavily to spur revenue growth -- but at least the effort paid off. Also, marketing represents a relatively small percentage of Royal Caribbean's total revenue. While it bears watching going forward, it wasn't enough to derail the quarter this time. Clear sailing ahead? And what about next time? Royal Caribbean ended up growing its GAAP profit a whopping 28% year over year in Q2. The company also issued new guidance for the current quarter and full-year 2018. Royal Caribbean told investors to expect it will earn between $3.90 and $3.95 per share, pro forma, in Q3, which appears to mean growth of 13% year over year. Full-year 2018 earnings should range from $8.70 to $8.90 per share -- also pro forma -- implying perhaps 17% total earnings growth in comparison to 2017. While it would have been nice to see Royal Caribbean follow up its great GAAP earnings with similarly reliable GAAP guidance for the quarters to come, the company's GAAP numbers weren't really all that far off from its pro forma profit report in Q2. Assuming this holds true for the balance of the year as well, it looks like Royal Caribbean stock is selling for about 12.9 times this year's projected earnings. That's not at all a high price to pay for a stock that just turned in 28% profit growth, that's promising 17% growth this year, and that Wall Street analysts believe will be capable of growing earnings at a near-14% annual rate over the next five years. Upgrading Royal Caribbean And it's not just me saying that, either. This morning, analysts at British banker Barclays Capital announced they're upgrading Royal Caribbean shares to overweight and assigning this $114 stock a $145 price target, which implies a 27% profit over the next 12 months. Barclays thinks Royal Caribbean's Q2 results were "strong," says StreetInsider.com (subscription required). TheFly.com adds that Barclays sees a "significant disparity" between what Royal Caribbean stock sells for today, and what it's actually worth. If I could inject just one note of caution into this discussion, though, it would be this: While Royal Caribbean's sales growth is fair, and its earnings growth phenomenal, I do not like that the company's free cash flow suffered a steep fall in the first quarter, when it ran negative to the tune of $796 million. Q2 results showed a quick snap back to positive free cash flow. Still, trailing-12-month results now show Royal Caribbean generating just $641 million in cash profits against reported earnings of more than $1.7 billion -- a rather huge disparity. If free cash flow continues to improve as the year goes along, it could still be smooth sailing for Royal Caribbean and its shareholders. If not, however, well...all I'm saying is to keep your eye on the horizon. You might still want to disembark at the next port of call if the FCF number takes another turn for the worse. If there were one universal age at which seniors could file for Social Security, it would perhaps make the decision to claim benefits less stressful. But for better or worse, recipients get an eight-year window to file for benefits that kicks off at age 62 and runs all the way until 70. (Technically, it's possible to sign up for Social Security at an age later than 70, but you'll only lose out on benefits by doing so.) Since 62 is the earliest age to take benefits, it happens to be the most popular age for filing. But doing so comes with one major drawback: reducing your benefits for life. Any time you file for Social Security before reaching full retirement age (FRA), you'll take a hit on your monthly benefits. The extent of that hit will depend on your FRA and how early you file, but if you're looking at an FRA of 67, which is the case for anyone born in 1960 or later, and you start collecting benefits at 62, you'll slash your monthly payments by about 30%. And unless you undo your application and pay back that money within a year, you'll be stuck with those lower payments for life. It's for this reason that many folks are advised not to file for Social Security as early as possible. But here are a few good reasons to take benefits as soon as you're able. 1. You don't need the money It might seem counterintuitive to file for Social Security at 62 when you have a fully loaded nest egg and aren't desperate for money. After all, if you don't need those benefits to pay the bills, why not leave them alone and avoid a reduction? But here's another way to look at it: You're apt to have more energy to travel, pursue hobbies, and enjoy the freedom that comes with retirement at 62 than at 67 or a later age. So if filing early won't put you in a position where you're struggling to pay the bills, then you might as well start using the money you're entitled to when you want it. 2. You have no choice Maybe you planned on working until full retirement age or even beyond to get the most money possible out of Social Security. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans. In reality, 60% of Americans wind up having to retire sooner than expected, and the reasons run the gamut from health issues to layoffs. So if you happen to land in a scenario where you're out of work and don't have enough savings or other income to pay your bills, you're better off collecting Social Security than racking up debt and falling behind on your obligations. Remember, if your out-of-work situation is only temporary (say, your company downsized and you're actively looking for a new job), you can always claim your benefits and then undo that move within a year. As long as you repay all of the Social Security income you received, you can then hold off on filing until a later age to avoid a lifelong reduction in payments. 3. You can use the money to make money Maybe people think of retirement as a time to stop working, when actually, it's the perfect period of life to start a business. So if you're unhappy at your primary job and want to kick off your own venture, filing for Social Security at 62 might allow you to take that leap sooner. Once you start collecting benefits, you can use that money to pay for materials, filing fees, marketing, and many of the other expenses that come with getting a new business off the ground. And while one might argue that you could do the same at age 67 instead and avoid a reduction in benefits, remember that it takes energy and guts to start a business -- and you might have more of both at 62 than at a later age. Of course, filing for Social Security at 62 isn't always wise. If you're low on savings and have the option to continue working, it generally makes more sense to keep plugging away and hold off on benefits until you've reached FRA or older. But in the above scenarios, taking benefits at 62 could end up being the smartest retirement decision you'll ever make. Shane Fowles | August 1st, 2013 TRUCKING trailblazer Stuart McColl is remembered as an innovative and loyal man who grew his company from one milk truck into Australia's largest independent carrier. The 95-year-old, who died on Tuesday, is survived by June, his wife of 70 years and co-founder of McColl's Transport. Beginning with one truck in Geelong in 1952, McColl's now has 450 staff and annual revenue of more than $100 million from its 15 depots along the eastern seaboard. McColl's CEO Jamie Bolton said Mr McColl was an inspiration to generations in the trucking industry. "He was an example of what hard work, forward thinking and treating personnel as family can achieve in even the most competitive of industries," Mr Bolton said. "Stuart will be sorely missed by everyone at McColl's." Raised in Port Fairy, Mr McColl served in World War II as a 2nd Lieutenant in Papua New Guinea and in Darwin with the second AIF. NEW YORK - New York City Police say they have arrested 32 people on Friday morning and busted an illegal gambling house that was also a heroin and cocaine distribution hub. The operation conducted business in four states: New York City, Massachusetts, Georgia and Florida. The police indictment identifies David Diaz, 52, as the alleged head of both the narcotics distribution network and the gambling operation. Search warrants recovered $125,000 in cash, multiple money counters, gambling records, thousands of poker chips and two vehicles. Weapons were also confiscated. Cocaine, heroin, marijuana and Xanax pills were also discovered on the premises. From CBS News: Police described The Poker House as running from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. with two floors hosting 30 players at a time. Entry into the gambling games required vetting by a woman based in Atlanta who also oversaw an online poker business. She would text approval for individuals in order to participate at the East Village operation. Players at lower stakes tables on the first floor were required to purchase a minimum of $200 in chips, while higher stakes players upstairs were required to purchase $500 in chips. Each game lasted two hours, enabling tens of thousands of dollars to change hands in a single night, police said in a statement. - Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com First time in the low budget accommodations in Georgia - GeorgianJournal Facebook Dating Service goes to internal testing with "Conversation Starter" feature News oi-Vivek Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp Facebook made an announcement about launching a dedicated dating app at F8 event in May 2018. And now, according to leaked screenshots, the app development has been completed and the company is testing the app internally amongst the Facebook employees. According to a tweet from an independent researcher Jane Manchun Wong, the company is already testing the same and she event obtained evidence within the source code of the product. The leak According to the researcher, the company has asked its employees to use fake data for the dating profile and all the fake data will be deleted when the app goes live. The harassment policies are strictly applied on the Facebook Dating app as well. And the service clearly mentions that the service should not be used to date your co-worker. To sign up for the Facebook Dating service, a user has to submit specific gender, location, and which gender that the user is interested in to find the right match. Similarly, Facebook is also coming with something called Conversation starter, which should help to kick-start the conversation. The researcher was able to fill-in the dating profile application. However, as the service is still in testing mode she wasn't able to use the actual service. Considering all these developments, it looks like the service is in the final stage of testing and Facebook might launch the same to the public by the end of 2018. Just like Tinder, Facebook Dating service is expected to offer both free and paid service. In the free service, there will be a limited access to user profile and in the paid service the company is most likely to offer unlimited profile with ad-free user experience (speculated). However, Just like Instagram and Facebook, the company could just launch a free service with ads promotion. Conclusion When it comes to dating service provider app, Tinder has a kind of monopoly. With the launch of Facebook, dating service Tinder would face a stiff competition. As of now, there are no details on the actual launch date of the Facebook facebook dating service. However, considering all these developments, the dating service could go live in November or December of 2018. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Apple slapped with $145 million fine over patent infringement News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Apple in trouble over patent infringement. Apple has been hit with a $145 million by the jury in San Diego over infringing two WiLan patents. The patents deal with wireless communication technology. Apple has also confirmed that it plans to appeal against the decision. The company previously rejected the claims of infringement during the pre-trial filings. This dates back to 2013, when US jury ruled in favor of the Cupertino giant in which WiLan had sought $248 million in damages. This time around both the companies are in a patent infringement case. There isn't much known about the lawsuit, so it remains unclear whether the firms reach a conclusion. Previous, Apple was ordered to pay $502.6 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. after the company lost a patent infringement lawsuit. The verdict was announced by the grand jury in Texas after finding that Apple infringed patents that were related to secure communications The legal battle between the companies has been going on for the past eight years. VirnetX makes most of its money from licensing patented technology that powers virtual private networks over the web. The company filed three lawsuits against Apple back in 2010 alleging that Apple's FaceTime, iMessage, and VPN on Demand are already patented by VirnetX. In February 2016, Apple was ordered to pay $625.6 million in damages after two of the lawsuits were combined, but the verdict was later voided by a federal judge saying that combining two lawsuits would be unfair to Apple. Later in October 2017, a federal judge in Texas ordered the company to pay $439.7 million, which was almost $140 million more than what the company was asked to pay VirnetX in yet another lawsuit. VirtnetX spokesman Greg Wood believes that the verdict "fair and appropriate," but the judgment had a little impact as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled the patents invalid in 2016. Speaking of patents, this doesn't seem to bother Apple a lot. The company recently filed a patent for an AR adaptive display for self-driving cars. The patent comes under the moniker 'Adaptive vehicle augmented reality display using stereographic imagery.' Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Nokia Buyback program with Cashify is now live in India News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Heres how to benefit from Nokia Buyback program. Nokia has announced a new buyback program in India. Nokia and Cashify have joined hands to provide the buyback facility. This offer is available for all Nokia smartphones starting August 3 and the benefits can be availed directly from the Nokia India website. HMD Global that owns the license to make Nokia smartphones succeeded in regaining popularity among fans. However, this was possible for the company only in the entry-level and mid-range market segments. The premium market space remains out of HMD's reach for now as there are other dominant players in the market. Now, Nokia has come up with the new buyback facility, which might help the company recreate the lost success that the brand enjoyed in the past. With this program, buyers of a Nokia smartphone can spend a lesser amount on the purchase on exchanging an older device. Nokia buyback offer: Eligible phones The Nokia Buyback offer on Cashify will be applicable on all the new Nokia smartphones including Nokia 3.1, Nokia 5.1, Nokia 8, Nokia 8 Sirocco and more. Notably, this offer is applicable on the smartphones bought directly via the Nokia India website. The buyback discount will vary based on the product you exchange and the rate will be provided by Cashify, which is one of the popular platforms to sell used smartphones. Under this buyback offer from Nokia, you can exchange any smartphone from popular brands such as Apple, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Asus, Huawei, Micromax, BlackBerry, Asus, Karbonn and more. You can get more details from the official Nokia India website. How to avail Nokia buyback offer You need to follow the steps given below to avail the Nokia buyback offer. First, visit the Nokia India online store and choose a Nokia smartphone that you want to buy. Now, click on the Start Buyback button. You need to answer a few questions regarding the condition of the smartphone. Cashify will generate a quote based on the condition of the device as per your answers. Then you can add the new Nokia smartphone to the cart and complete the order. Once your order is delivered successfully, the Cashift team will contact you and set an appointment to evaluate the condition of your smartphone. A specified date will be given and an agent will visit you on the date and offer the amount based on the evaluation. Notably, there are possibilities for the amount you get from agent to be different from the quote you received while playing the order for the new phone. You can also take the money in the form of transfers to your bank accounts or e-wallets. So, what are you waiting for? If you want to purchase a new Nokia smartphone, then you can avail a decent exchange discount on your old smartphone from Cashify through this program. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Three divisions of the New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) for two-year-old trotting fillies were contested at a soggy Tioga Downs on Friday (Aug. 3). In the $35,866 first division of the NYSS, Winndevie (Jim Meittinis) nipped Amal Hall (Marcus Miller) in an exciting stretch drive to remain undefeated in her career. Qiss Me Blue Chip (Rick Zeron) led the field through a first quarter of :30.1. Amal Hall then took control, leading the way to the half in 1:00.3 and three-quarters in 1:29.2. Owned by Purple Haze Stables and trained by Trond Smedshammer, Winndevie ($3.50) made her move at the midway mark and she took over second before the three-quarters. Winndevie and Amal Hall then matched strides around the last turn and all the way down the stretch with neither filly giving an inch. Winndevie made one last lunge to prevail in a lifetime-best of 1:58. Amal Hall had to settle for second with Qiss Me Blue Chip taking third. Winndevie is a two-year-old filly by Credit Winner out of Vida De Vie. She is now a perfect four-for-four in her young career, racing exclusively in NYSS thus far. Quincy Blue Chip (Jim Morrill Jr.) charged late to win the second division worth $36,566. Liquorstoreblues (Kim Crawford) led to the opening quarter in :28.3. Sweet Chapter (Rick Zeron) blew by just after the first quarter and easily led the group to the half in :57.4 and was the first one to three-quarters in 1:26.3. Quincy Blue Chip ($3) was six lengths back after three-quarters. She just flew down the stretch to win in 1:56.1 for owner Blue Chip Bloodstock Inc. and trainer Gareth Dowse. With Out A Doubt (Marcus Miller) came on late to finish second with Thanks For Leaving (Jeff Gregory) finishing third. Quincy Blue Chip is a two-year-old filly by Chapter Seven out of Sirenuse. The win was her third in four career/NYSS starts. Woodside Charm (Verlin Yoder) was impressive in her NYSS debut, winning the third $36,566 division. Conway Kellyanne (Charlie Norris) controlled the first half of the race (:28.1, :58.3) while Woodside Charm ($3.30) followed in the pocket until the middle of the backstretch. Owned and trained by Yoder, she brushed to the lead hitting three-quarters in 1:26.2 and breezed in the stretch, winning in 1:55.2. She was just one-fifth of a second off the track record. Stella Jane (Jim Morrill Jr.) finished second and Sensibility (Mike Simons) was third-best. Woodside Charm is a two-year-old filly by Chapter Seven out of Fireworks Hanover. She is now two-for-two in her career. (With files from Tioga Downs) Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Flame Red variant India launch teased News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Redmi Note 5 is going to look sizzling in this color! Xiaomi is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Redmi lineup of smartphones. On this occasion, the company's Global VP and India Head, Manu Kumar Jain tipped that they would bring a new Red color variant of an existing Redmi smartphone for their fans in the country. But it remains to be seen when exactly the launch of the red colored Redmi phone might happen. While there is no word regarding which device will be launched in red, it is believed that it could be the Redmi Note 5. We say so as the company launched the Flame Red edition of the device in China last month. If this turns out to be true, then the Red color variant of the Redmi Note 5 will join the other color options - Magic Blue, Black, Gold, and Rose Gold. Xiaomi red phone teaser Manu Kumar Jain took to Twitter to share an image of all the Redmi series smartphones he had been using till date. The image also featured the red variant of a Xiaomi smartphone. This variant did not show the front of the smartphone but only its back. As mentioned above, there claims that this could be the Redmi Note 5 Pro Flame Red edition. And, the presence of a single camera lens at the rear makes us believe the same. Xiaomi's first Android One smartphone launched last year - the Mi A1 is also the company's first Red smartphone to be launched in the country. The Mi A1 Special Edition Red variant went official in December last year. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 variants and price Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 was launched in India in February this year. The device was launched alongside the Redmi Note 5 Pro in the country. The smartphone has been launched in two variants - one with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage space and the other with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage space. These variants are priced at Rs. 9,999 and Rs. 11,999 respectively. The device has been getting consistent updates in the recent times. Even now, the device received the MIUI 10 global beta ROM update, which adds Face Unlock to the smartphone. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Gboard update brings support for 28 new languages News oi-Sandeep Sarkar The latest update (v7.14.19.206421213) will add texts to the custom GIFs. Google had recently introduced the Morse code in Gboard for the Android and iOS platform. The Morse code is an input option in Gboard for the users with special needs. Besides the Morse code, the company had also integrated a custom GIF-maker in the Gboard app v7.2 Beta on Android. With the addition of the custom GIF-maker the intended to make it easier for the users to express their emotion using fun imagery. Now, the tech giant has rolled a new update for the Gboard with which it has expanded the custom GIF feature. The latest update (v7.14.19.206421213) will add texts to the custom GIFs. Users can now add text to the GIFs by simply selecting the 'A' symbol which will be placed at the top-right corner. After selecting the 'A' symbol users simply need to type their desired text which they want to be overlayed on GIF. The update also allows the text to be highlighted from any of the five available color options. The color options include White, Black, Red, Green, and Yellow. Once the user types the text the GIF can be posted as we normally do by selecting the 'Send' Button placed at the bottom-right corner. Also read, Google releases Chrome 69 Beta with new features like notch support and more Additionally, the update will also bring the support for 28 new 'language varieties', which includes two new Indian dialects which include Surajpuri and Maharashtrian Konkani. Apart from these Indian dialects, the list includes support for some other languages. The list includes Bagri, Batak Toba, Bench, Bhili, Capiznon, Chavacano, Eastern Min, Fiji Hindi, Ge'ez, Gurani, Ingush, Karachay, Khorasani Turkic, Kipsigis, Maharashtrian Konkani, Lezgian, Mizo, Maguindanao, Malay (Brunei), Maranao, Southern Min, Northern Sami, Qashqa'i, Rinconada Bikol, Surjapuri, Tausug, Upper Saxon, and Vasavi languages. Apart from the aforementioned features, the update will also allow users to search for stickers in as different as 15 languages. The new update is available for the masses on the Play Store in many regions including India. The company is expected to release a global update in the coming days. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Holiday Monday (August 6) at Dresden will see an influx of newcomers to Dresden Raceway as 23 horses will be making their 2018 debut at the local oval. Stonebridge Guard will be looking for his seventh win in a row for owners Doug Dunbar, Fred Woolford and Jack Wray. The three-year-old Shadow Play gelding is conditioned by Wray and driven by Scott Wray. Stonebridge Guard reeled off five wins in a row at Northside Downs and then visited the winners circle at Clinton. Veteran Quebec horseman Sylvain Lacaille will have five horses ready to go for Mondays card including three that are owned and trained by his daughter Kelly Duval-Lacaille. Lacaille will be between the shafts for Brandons Bandit, Eataam Whosurboy, Silky Cam, Bad Yankee and Jewels In The Sand. Dresden Raceway regular Donnie Rankin will be doing his best to see that the newcomers take home second-place money as much as possible as he will be going post ward with GD Cruise For Gold, On The Take and Feel The Bern. Another local trainer, Mike Carther, is also hoping to visit the winners circle with Hopetobefirst, Three Rockets and Team Leader. Dresdens purses have increased for the last two cards of racing with the top class going for $6,200 and the bottom purse at $4,000. Fans will be in for a treat on Monday with free hot buttered corn on the cob as well as a slew of giveaways including draws for six kids bicycles. The track will have free face painting, kids giveaways and prizes to celebrate Kids Day. Post time on Monday is 1:30 p.m. For entries, click the following link: Monday Entries - Dresden Raceway. DRESDEN RACEWAY GRANTED MAKE-UP DATE Dresden Raceway has been granted a make- up date of racing for the July 22 card that was rained out. The local half-mile oval will be racing Friday, August 10 with a 5:00 p.m. post time. The purses for the day will feature a top purse of $6,200 and the bottom purse of $4,000. The Friday evening card of racing will feature giveaways from Gateway Casinos as well as race sponsored by OLG. (with files from Dresden) GREENWICH For years, Greenwich resident Joseph Kaliko has focused volunteer and charity work on Greenwich and nearby cities including Bridgeport. But recently he widened his attention to take on an issue of much larger scale. Kaliko, who founded the Needs Clearing House charity in town and is a past president of the Cos Cob Fire Police Patrol, has filed a human rights complaint against President Donald Trump with the International Criminal Court in protest of his policy that forcibly separated thousands of children from their parents at the nations southern border. I wanted to find an outlet for my anger and disgust over an administration policy that had no regard for the damage to human beings wrought by their ill-conceived family separation strategy, Kaliko said. The policy was a naked disingenuous attempt to gain leverage over Congress regarding the funding of a border wall without regard to the damage to people who did not deserve treatment not seen in the U.S. since the internment of Japanese people during World War II. A retired attorney, Kaliko worked as part of Gov. Dannel P. Malloys transition team in 2011 and has served on many state boards and commissions, among them the state Medical Examining Board, appointed by Malloy, and the Connecticut Bioscience Advisory Committee, appointed by Republican Senate leaders John McKinney and Len Fasano. He acted in hope that a critical mass of complaints will be filed with the court, spurring it to investigate Trump for a crime against humanity. The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental tribunal located in The Netherlands. The United States participates as an observer. Citizens have the right to file complaints, which Kaliko did in June by emailing otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int. He has not heard back from the court. Filing a complaint with the ICC is a constructive vehicle for people to vent their anger and disgust over the crime already committed, Kaliko said. The Trump administration policy of separating children from families was ended by an executive order from the president in June, but Kaliko said that action was not enough to remedy the harm caused to many children. Most of the separated families have been reunited, but hundreds of children remain apart from their parents, including those whose parents were deported while they remained in custody in the United States. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, a Greenwich resident, criticized administration officials this week for inadequate reunification plans and unconscionable separation policies. Blumenthal joined other Democratic senators in requesting an oversight hearing on family separation and reunification. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which Blumenthal is a member of, on Tuesday heard testimony from Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a branch of the federal department of Health and Human Services. White said Trump administration officials were warned that their immigration policies would be dangerous to children. The separation issue is one of several charging a particularly intense mid-term election year as the parties bitterly fight to gain or retain control of Congress. In Connecticuts Fourth Congressional District, Republican Harry Arora comes with a unique perspective. Arora, a Greenwich resident challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, is a first-generation American who came to the country as a graduate student from India. He criticized Kalikos complaint this week. The policy of family separation has been ended, Arora said. A majority of the kids have been reunited with their parents and there is ongoing effort to reunite the remaining as soon as practicable. Joe Kalikos complaint to International Criminal Court against the U.S. government is offensive to his other fellow citizens like myself. The U.S. continues to help the cause of human rights around the world. This is a shameful political move which harms American interests and standing. Aroroa said there needs to be expeditious due process to see if people crossing the border qualify for asylum or refugee status, and those who dont need to be asked to return. He called for more resources for the federal Department of Homeland Security to provide due process within three weeks for families with children. Providing these extra resources would allow our government to implement the rule of law and do it in a compassionate yet firm manner, Arora said. In response, Kaliko said Arora should be offended by Trump, not him. My complaint concerns heartless people manipulating helpless children for political gain, Kaliko said. I too believe in border security; but not at the expense of the humane treatment of children and families. Himes, also a Greenwich resident, said the country is dealing with acute and chronic failures of its immigration system. The pressing concern right now is obviously reuniting children who were taken away from their families by this administrations policy, he said. After touring a detention center in Texas, its clear to me that the, lets not mince words, imprisonment of children is going to have lasting effects emotionally and psychologically. We also need to investigate all reports of abuse and neglect. As a nation we must right that wrong as quickly as possible, minimize the suffering that families and children must endure, and ensure that it never happens again. Himes said he understood why Americans are frustrated and angry because of a what seems like unjust or arbitrary enforcement and the perception that our immigration laws are being applied punitively instead of to make us safer. He said it is understandable why people like Kaliko would look for avenues to try to remedy the situation. The International Criminal Court offers that outlet, Himes said, adding he felt the onus shouldnt fall onto individual citizens to solve this problem. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com Downtown Plans for the dredging of the Greenwich Harbor channel, which is parallel to Steamboat Road to the foot of Arch Street, are proceeding, albeit slowly. The Board of Selectmen recently approved a contract sought by the towns Harbor Management Commission with a coastal engineering firm to look at how the dredging can be done and the material disposed of. Frank Mazza, chair of the commissions dredging subcommittee, said the harbor is both a federal navigational channel and a federal anchorage spot, meaning the responsibility for the actual dredging is with the Army Corps of Engineers. Mazza said the commission has been in contact with them and the Connecticut Port Authority to get the funding. They said at this time we think it makes only sense to try and dredge the federal navigation channel but not the anchorage because were talking about a huge amount of money to do both, Mazza said, acknowledging that Greenwich is in competition with the other municipalities along the Connecticut coast to get that money. Mazza did not specify to the selectmen how much he thought the price tag for the dredging would be. He did say the navigation channel has 120,000 cubic yards of material that has to be dredged and 60,000 yards of it are suitable for open water dumping which makes it very simple. The other 60,000 yards are not suitable, which Mazza said is a problem that has to be resolved. One option being explored, Mazza said, is reducing the depth being dredged down from 12 feet to 10 feet in areas of the harbor, which would mean a significant reduction in the amount of material to be disposed of. First Selectman Peter Tesei did offer a suggestion, saying the project could provide extra benefit to the town as it would not only clear the harbor but potentially enhance a heavily used amenity right near the channel. Theyre looking at opportunities to deal with the disposition of the spoils of the dredge that will occur and it is a costly undertaking to find locations that are suitable for this, Tesei said. One of the concepts that has been discussed and one I am pushing for as part of another initiative is those spoils can be used to expand the perimeter of Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, which is truly one of the destinations for community events. It is limited in size and capacity. This would add the opportunity to expand it and satisfy an important requirement to dredge and dispose of materials (at the same time). Mazza agreed it was an option to be looked at by the consultants as a conceptual idea. The Corps of Engineers is asking us to look at all the different means and methods that we can to dispose of this material, Mazza said. Thats what this contract is for. We will look at conceptual ideas for some of the disposal sites. Byram The towns Planning and Zoning Commission will discuss potential changes to the waterfront business zone regulations at its meeting on Aug. 7. Under the proposed changes, property owners would be able to apply to build restaurants, retail food establishments, seasonal farm stands, offices and even multi-family dwellings in waterfront areas. Three zones would be affected by the change, Byram, Steamboat Road in downtown and River Road in Cos Cob, but any change would likely affect Byram the most given the preponderance of development already in the other two areas. If the change were to be approved, any development would still need to have a water-dependent use. They must be able to demonstrate that these proposed activities maximize the opportunity for public access to and enjoyment of waterfront areas without conflicting with the water-dependent uses, Town Director of Planning and Zoning Katie DeLuca said. The commission will discuss the potential changes but no vote will be held at Tuesdays meeting. Discussion of the proposed change is scheduled to be part of the public hearing on the commissions agenda. The hearing portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m. Riverside When Greenwich Hospital recently held its Under the Stars benefit, the featured performer for the night was already very familiar with the area. Rising country star Caroline Jones performed for the sold-out crowd at Riverside Yacht Club. More than $600,000 was raised for Greenwich Hospitals womens and childrens health initiative. Jones is a former resident of town and took time off from a big summer tour, which included dates opening for Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, to perform for more than 400 people at the benefit. Greenwich Hospital has served both of our families more times than we can count, for ourselves, our children, our parents and of course, our neighbors and friends, said Andrea Sinkin Jaffe, who co-chaired the event with Jennifer Turano. To imagine we could somehow just slightly tip the scale and help this incredible organization to stay at the top of its game fills us both with immense pride and gratitude. Jaffe and Turano put the event together with the assistance of a 30-person volunteer committee. Jeff Glor of the CBS Evening News served as master of ceremonies for the second year in a row. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com Mobile gaming is already a huge deal and the latest rumor about Samsung partnering with Epic Games for the Galaxy Note9 launch, comes to only further confirm this. Just the other day, news broke that Samsung and Epic Games are planning to release Fortnite - the PC game that already took over iOS - exclusively to Galaxy Note9 owners for 30 days. Today, a string in Epic Games' website suggest that both companies are extending its partnership even further. When buying the Galaxy Note9, you will get 15,000 virtual in-game currency called V-Bucks, that's worth around $150. Pretty generous. In addition, the latest report claims that the one-month exclusive period could be extended to as long as four months in total. Now, that's an exclusive deal! However, we wonder if Epic Games' servers allow cross-platform gaming, because the app has been available for iOS only and if not, Galaxy Note9 owners will be stuck playing only against each other. The waiting queues for joining a game will be pretty long due to the small number of gamers, as well. Source Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help D.A. clears Fletcher officers in fatal shooting of armed suspect Four Fletcher Police Officers who responded to a call on July 18 of an armed suspect inside the Fletcher CVS Pharmacy and subsequently shot and killed the suspect will not face criminal prosecution, District Attorney Greg Newman announced on Friday. Related Stories State law permits law enforcement officers to defend themselves with the use of force when self- defense or the defense of innocent bystanders is imperative, he said. My decision in this case, like all cases, is driven by the facts and my office will follow the facts wherever they lead. The four officers that discharged their weapons were Capt. Ron Davis, Detective Daniel Barale, Officer Zack Warren, and Officer Mike Elizondo. The deceased was identified as Wesley Brandon Clyde Shelton, 33, of Buncombe County. The customary course of action in these matters where law enforcement officers must use their weapons is investigated by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Newman said. We then meet and they review their findings with me. I like to let the public know as soon as it is practicable whether the police shooting of a suspect is justified. It is clear in this situation that the actions of the four officers were not only justified, but necessary, to defend themselves and members of the public. Fletcher police were notified shortly after noon that a man holding a gun was inside the CVS Pharmacy at Hendersonville Road. The store manager was re-stocking shelves when she noticed a barefoot male walking through the store aisles and acting erratically. The man, later identified Shelton, pulled out a gun after the manager asked him if he needed help finding anything. The manager got her employees into a safe area and cleared the store of all customers. On-duty officers responded to the call were then joined by a detective and police captain who were working in their offices at the Fletcher Police Department. Sgt. Hensley, the first officer to arrive, located the armed suspect in the upstairs level of the stockroom. When other officers arrived, Hensley was shouting commands to Shelton to disarm and to leave the store with the officers. Shelton was lying prostrate on his back on the opposite side of the stockroom. His hands were initially not visible to the police, but Capt. Davis observed a gun in Sheltons left hand and could also see that Shelton appeared to be taking deep breaths. After numerous pleas from police for Shelton to put down his gun, Shelton said Lets do this and Lets get this over with and he sat up and pointed the gun directly at the officers. It was at that point that shots were fired resulting in Sheltons death. Officer Hensley discharged his Taser but only one probe made contact with Shelton. Hensley was later treated and released from the hospital for injuries he sustained from slipping down several steps at the scene. Sheltons gun was a Powerline/Daisy .177 caliber BB handgun. According to the SBI, the handgun looked like a real semi-automatic pistol. One agent said that the gun looked just like a Beretta 92F. It did not have the orange tip or markings to indicate the weapon was anything other than an actual semi-automatic firearm. The evidence developed by the SBI also revealed that Shelton has a long history of drug use. In 2011, Shelton was convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon for brandishing a firearm when he robbed a convenience store in Buncombe County. He served a six-year prison sentence before being released in the summer of 2017. Fletcher Police Chief Erik Summey conducted an internal review of the officers actions and concluded that they performed their duties within the guidelines established for North Carolina peace officers and adopted by the Fletcher Police. All officers involved in this incident are in the process of being cleared to return to work. We have been awaiting the District Attorneys decision and are now in a position to allow these men to resume their duties with the Fletcher Police, said Chief Summey. The CVS pharmacy is a busy store on a busy road. It is not our intention to use our weapons when we respond to a call for service, but my officers have no choice but to fire their guns when drawn upon by someone placing the public at risk, added the Chief. District Attorney Newman advised Mr. Sheltons wife of his decision. I will make the contents of the SBI file available for review by both Ms. Shelton and Fletcher Police Chief Summey in the near future, Newman said. Dublin Airport is set to lose out as Ethiopian Airlines is set to axe its service to Los Angeles. (Stock picture) Revenue officials have seized 100,000 in cash after searching a man and woman travelling through Dublin Airport. The operation, which was intelligence-led, targeted a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s who were about to board a flight. The pair were due to travel to Budapest via Dusseldorf when they were stopped by Revenue officers on Wednesday. Following a search of the man and woman, as well as their belongings, 100,000 was discovered hidden in their hand luggage. Dogs "Revenue officers seized the cash suspecting it to be the proceeds of, or intending for use in, criminal activity," a spokesman said. On Thursday, the matter was brought before the court, where Revenue officials applied for the cash to be seized. Judge John Lindsay granted a three-month detention order on the 100,000 at Dublin District Court. A spokesman for Revenue said that no further information on the background or nationality of the pair in possession of the cash was available. In a separate operation on Tuesday, Revenue officers seized more than 192,000 unstamped cigarettes. A further 10kg of tobacco and 1,960 litres of alcohol were also recovered when officers searched a house in Laois. The property was seized under warrant as part of an ongoing operation. The detections were made with the help of detector dogs Elvis and Stella, and were part of a joint operation involving Revenue's Customs Service and gardai. Separately, the leader of a cross-Border crime gang and one of the biggest drug dealers in the north of the country was targeted in a series of raids by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). The Donegal gang boss (34) is a target of both garda units and anti-organised crime units within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). He was recently jailed after being arrested over a 350,000 drug seizure being smuggled across the Border. Sources told the Herald that the CAB operation targeted a property portfolio that the convicted drug trafficker had been attempting to establish. "He is involved in trafficking across Donegal and the North and is attempting to establish a property empire," they said. Yesterday, CAB officers and gardai carried out raids across Donegal. The properties searched were three residential homes, a solicitors firm and a property agent. Ryanair's recent troubles continue to mount, as Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh warned the airline that anything that damages it is good for his business - and he has vowed to capitalise. Mr Kavanagh said that Aer Lingus flights are heavily booked at the moment, so the opportunity from Ryanair's current problems isn't significant. However, he indicated that these difficulties will soon provide opportunities. "In the longer term, I think you can see a very competitive business and anything that damages Ryanair is ultimately good for Aer Lingus," he said, as the carrier's owner IAG issued results for the second quarter of the year. He said the airline would capitalise by being disciplined, taking costs out of its business and being competitive. "Any disruption is regrettable. If that disruption continues, hopefully we'll be in a position to offer a competitive alternative," he said. "But we're not seeing a significant upside at this point in time, because the capacity we have simply has been sold." Meanwhile, Norwegian Air said it plans to hire an extra 40 pilots for its Dublin base as it adds more transatlantic flights. The carrier's recruitment drive comes amid the pilot strikes at competitor Ryanair. Earlier yesterday, Ryanair proposed third-party mediation to resolve a deepening row about terms and conditions with Ireland-based pilots. Pilots staged their fourth one-day strike yesterday, with their union, Forsa, scheduling another for August 10, the same day as similar strikes by Ryanair pilots in Belgium and Sweden. It will be the fifth strike by pilots since July 12. Blamed Around 30 pilots and their supporters picketed the airline's headquarters at Swords yesterday with placards and banners. The airline has blamed pilots from Aer Lingus who, it says, are using the strike to cause the maximum damage to Ryanair. Ryanair's chief people officer Eddie Wilson said: "Ryanair now feels the only way to introduce common sense is by way of third party mediation, and is suggesting Mr Kieran Mulvey, formerly of the Labour Commission and Workplace Relations Commission." Leo Griffin was also disqualified from driving for 10 years A successful boom-time builder who "lost all his income" during the recession has been jailed after he was caught driving without insurance four times. Leo Griffin (59), a grandfather and father-of-five, was already serving a driving ban on the days he was stopped by gardai in north Dublin. Judge David McHugh jailed him for five months, disqualified him from driving for 10 years and fined him 600. Griffin, of Ballygall Road East, Finglas, pleaded guilty to driving without insurance or a licence and failing to provide a breath sample. Blanchardstown District Court heard gardai saw the defendant drive through a red light at a junction at Seamus Ennis Road on January 24. When stopped, Griffin said he was going to pick up his nephew from school. The insurance and tax had expired and Griffin was serving a driving ban at the time. On March 3, 2017, Griffin was seen driving at Casement Drive. Gardai stopped him and he failed to provide a breath sample at Finglas Garda Station. Stopped At Cappagh Road, Finglas, on March 14 last year, gardai saw the defendant attempt to perform a right-hand turn before reaching a checkpoint. He was stopped and had no valid documents on display. He was a banned driver at the time. On March 29, 2017, Griffin was in an Audi A3 which was stopped with the engine running at Mount Eustace Green. He was alone and sitting in the driver's seat and the insurance and tax displayed were for a different vehicle. The court heard Griffin had 42 previous convictions, six of which were for no insurance. He was banned from driving for two years in December 2016. Griffin had done "reasonably well for himself" during the boom years, but lost all his income in the crash, his solicitor Simon Fleming said. There were no chases involved in any of the four incidents and Mr Fleming asked the judge for leniency. Judge McHugh said the defendant could not avoid a prison sentence and jailed him for five months. Recognisances were set in the event of an appeal. Les analystes du climat ont confirme que ce sera crucial Focus sur les emissions de methane Dans le meme temps... Dara Quigley took her own life five days after the video went viral A garda who recorded video footage of a Dublin woman being detained under the Mental Health Act while walking naked on a Dublin street will not face prosecution, the Herald has learned. Journalist and online blogger Dara Quigley (36) took her own life on April 12 last year, days after the footage was posted online and viewed more than 100,000 times. The matter was referred to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) and an investigation into the conduct of the garda began. It is believed the garda at the centre of the investigation was suspended at the time of the incident. Disciplinary A spokesperson for the GSOC said the investigation was still ongoing. However, the Herald has learned from other sources that the garda who is suspected of recording the footage is not to face criminal prosecution. The garda could, however, still face disciplinary action when the GSOC investigation is completed. It is understood that when the investigation was first launched, the possible criminal aspect of it was looked at first, and the decision was made by the Director of Public Prosecutions that there would be no criminal charge stemming from the incident. The matter of whether the garda will face disciplinary action or not is still being investigated by GSOC. It is unclear if the garda has since returned to work or could return in the near future. A garda spokesman said An Garda Siochana could not report on internal disciplinary matters, and also could not comment on the basis that the matter was still under investigation by GSOC. At the time of her death, Ms Quigley's family said the fact that the video was posted online caused them a lot of distress, which was made worse by the fact that her name was published on several websites. Ms Quigley had struggled with addiction and mental health issues in the months and years before her death. The footage is believed to have been shared on a WhatsApp message and subsequently posted on Facebook by someone other than the person who recorded it. Gardai requested the video be removed, but by the time it was taken down it had been seen around 125,000 times. Ms Quigley took her own life five days after the video went viral. Remember In May last year, just weeks after Ms Quigley's death, her family and friends held a vigil at Leinster House, where people were urged not to remember her by the arrest and video, but by the changes she was trying to bring to society. "In 2015 Dara decided she wanted to make a change in society," said her brother Sean. "She wasn't happy with a lot of the things that she saw, the way the most vulnerable in society were being treated particularly upset her. "So she said, 'As a New Year's resolution I'm going to be a writer and I'm going to make a change', and in January 2016 she was writing for the Dublin Inquirer. "That's the kind of Dara that I want to remember and that's the kind of Dara that should be remembered." A court hearing in Carlow gave an insight into what life behind bars is like for the extended Hutch organised crime gang. Before the local district court was a nephew of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, serial burglar Sam Hutch (42), who fled to the south-east because of threats to his life in the capital. He pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and trespass and was jailed for seven months for the offences carried out in the town on May 25. Lock-up During the hearing it emerged that Hutch, from Finglas, who has almost 100 previous convictions, was on 24-hour lock-up for his own protection in the so-called "Hutch" landing of Cloverhill Prison. His solicitor told the court he was so threatened he couldn't leave his cell and was suffering from "isolation" issues. He also said that Hutch had no chance of completing a drug rehabilitation programme because of security issues in the jail. The court heard that Hutch had lost friends and close family members because of the "situation they were in". His life was "blighted by heroin" and he was the "target of certain attention because of his surname". While describing Sam Hutch's recent life as "extremely difficult", reference was made to the fact his cousin Derek Coakley Hutch (27) was shot dead outside Wheatfield Prison in January. Also referred to was the death by suicide of his sister's partner Glen O'Toole (39), who killed himself in Cloverhill Prison last October while on remand for serious firearms charges linked to the Finglas feud. Jail bosses made the decision to house members of the Hutch mob in protection sections at Wheatfield and Cloverhill because of the constant threat from the rival Kinahan cartel. Rehab Among these are Sam Hutch's cousins including Derek 'Del Boy' Hutch (33), a convicted killer serving sentences for manslaughter, firearms and armed robberies and Nathan Coakley Hutch (25), an armed robber. Sam Hutch was described in court as being in "a very bad position health-wise", and someone who wanted to go to Italy for a rehab programme. He pleaded guilty to burglaries at a pub and jewellery store in Carlow as well as trespassing at another pub in the town. He was busted after a four-hour manhunt by local gardai. At a separate court hearing in Dublin Circuit Court two years ago, at which Hutch was given a two-and-a-half-year term for burglary, evidence was given that he was not allowed visitors or to mingle with other prisoners and couldn't access prison facilities or courses due to those arrangements. The court heard there was an "environment of fear and tension" and Hutch was "isolated" and "extremely lonely". It also emerged that he was close to his cousin Gary Hutch, who was shot dead by the Kinahan cartel in February 2016 - the first of 18 murders in the capital's deadly feud. However, counsel said he was "a completely different character" who was not associated with the "brand of criminality" of other members of his family. The court heard that Hutch had fallen into drug addiction at 16 years old and offended to feed his habit. This has been a monsoon of discount offers for residents of Mumbai and Delhi. Every day, a barrage of messages, emails and media advertisements assail us, from desperate real estate firms. A housing slowdown has been around for some time but now there are visible signs of panic. But buyers, particularly in north India, are just not interested. Sellers, having patiently waited it out so far, are now beginning to throw in the towel. An equilibrium will be reached eventually, but before that there may be more blood on the housing street. A recent Knight Frank report says that the residential housing market in Mumbai remained absolutely flat in the first half of 2018, despite prices falling nearly 10% in this period. The city has more than 1.2 lakh unsold flats. Some estimates suggest that it may take four years to clear Mumbais unsold housing inventory. In Delhi, this number is even higher, at 1.5 lakh units. And for the top seven Indian cities, there are now nearly half a million unsold flats. This is scary. Demonetisation, RERA and GST have been tossed around as reasons for a while now, but it is time to question whether a deeper malaise affects the Indian real estate sector. There are two types of home buyers in any market: genuine purchasers who acquire for self-use; and investors who regard it as a proxy to a financial instrument. It is the latter that sparked the initial decline, post demonetisation, as access to black money became problematic. Yet, Indians are very ingenuous at working around such constraints and cash is back in play, after a temporary hiccup. But the housing market is still dead. This is because returns have dried up. Investors may have worked out ways around the stick, but it is the carrot that continues to be elusive. Actually, what has happened in the real estate market is the exact opposite of the equity market. Where a switch has been snapped on with regard to stocks, with retail investors relentlessly pouring in money through SIPs every month; a switch has gone off in the real estate market. With practically no returns over the last three years, people have simply abandoned it as an asset class. Episodes such as Jaypee Greens have only added to the disillusionment. That is only half the story. Even genuine home buyers have dwindled. The obvious reason is that prices are on a steady decline. Buyers arent foolish and they can see the pile of unsold houses and signs of desperation from sellers. Prices have corrected about 10-20% in most north Indian cities but people are prepared to play the waiting game. The reality is that total costs of properties in metro cities are still way too overpriced. In Mumbai, the average cost of owning an apartment is eight times a familys annual income. In Gurugram, it is five times. This is exorbitant. In comparison, southern cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai are far more affordable, a reason why the housing slump is far less pronounced there. In this game of blink between buyer and seller, the buyer has the upper hand now. Prices may have to correct more. But, a bigger fundamental issue may be that the current generation of younger, salaried people dont seem to have the same sentimental attachment to owning a home as their parents may have had. Earlier, a home meant security. Now, a more financially savvy generation has figured out that in a market of inflated prices and relatively low rental yields, it may just be prudent to keep renting, as opposed to owning. Ownership, after all is notional. Whether your landlord owns it or your housing finance company does, is hardly material. One shouldnt be alarmist and conclude that the housing market is dead for good. In time, it will recover but it is important to distinguish between a cyclical slump and a fundamental reset. We are in the throes of the latter. The way an average Indian buyer looks at a home may have changed. Udayan Mukherjee is consulting editor, CNBC TV18 The views expressed are personal Word that Google is crafting a search engine to meet Chinas draconian censorship rules has sparked widespread employee anger at the company which has responded by limiting workers access to documents about the project, a report has said. Google was scurrying to stop leaks and quell outrage inside the company over what had been a stealth project prior to a report this week by news website The Intercept. Everyones access to documents got turned off, and is being turned on [on a] document-by-document basis, a source told the news site on Friday. Theres been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared... Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y. Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking but it is now working on a project for the country codenamed Dragonfly, an employee told AFP on condition of anonymity. The search project -- which works like a filter that sorts out certain topics -- can be tested within the companys internal networks, according to the worker. Theres a lot of angst internally. Some people are very mad were doing it, the source told AFP. The tech giant had already come under fire this year from thousands of employees who signed a petition against a $10-million contract with the US military, which was not renewed. A Google spokesman declined to confirm or deny the existence of the project. We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com, spokesman Taj Meadows told AFP when news of Dragonfly broke. But we dont comment on speculation about future plans. A Bloomberg report on Friday said that Googles effort to get back into China includes seeking local partners, perhaps Tencent Holdings, to provide datacentre and computing capacity for services hosted in the Internet cloud. Google did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. US Internet titans have long struggled with doing business in China, home of a Great Firewall that blocks politically sensitive content, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and The New York Times website are blocked in China, but Microsofts Bing search engine continues to operate. In early 2010, Google shut down its search engine in mainland China after rows over censorship and hacking. Google had cried foul over what it said were cyber attacks aimed at its source code and the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. But the company still employs 700 people in three offices in China working on other projects. The effort to regain footing in China comes amid a US-China trade war, with both sides imposing tit-for-tat tariffs and President Donald Trump accusing Beijing of stealing US technological know-how. The updating of the National Register of Citizens in Assam has landed us in a frightful mess and the fact its happened under Supreme Court supervision doesnt make a jot of difference. Not only has the future of 4.007 million been thrown into utter confusion but the international media is hearing echoes of the Rohingya situation in the potential outcome. We have lost out every which way. Ab initio this was a misconceived and foolish task. First, we knew it wouldnt be easy for millions of rural poor to prove their citizenship. How many have credible documents that stretch back 50 years? Apparently even Aadhaar cards and passports are not sufficient. Today, as a result, you have situations where three out of eight brothers, who presented the same documentation, are not on the Register. Wives and children have made it but husbands have not. Even MLAs have been kept out. The vast majority are, of course, Muslims but a fair number of Hindus have also found their names missing. These are not influential people. They are among the most poor and deprived. Now weve added the disadvantage of helplessness. What is to become of them? As they struggle to prove theyre Indian citizens and that, presumably, will be difficult because so far theyve failed to do so the prospect they face is bleak. Will they still enjoy the right to work, to healthcare and education, and housing? Or is that in doubt? And what about their right to vote in 2019? If their status is not satisfactorily resolved in the next nine months, they could end up disenfranchised. To start a process that you knew could condemn millions to this limbo was not just thoughtless but mean-hearted. Its one of the worst decisions the Indian state has taken. Now the state has difficult questions to answer. What will it do with those who, at the end of the process, cannot prove their citizenship? At that point they will have been rendered stateless. Will they be taken to detention centres? As people suddenly deemed to be unwanted aliens that, presumably, would have to be the case. But what then? India may wish to deport them but will Bangladesh agree? Almost certainly not. Dhaka does not accept there has been illegal immigration after 1971. So are these people then condemned to live their lives in detention centres? Meanwhile, what of the children born in India? Do they not have a claim to Indian citizenship? Is this to be ignored? Or will we end up splitting families? The world believes this process is targeted against Bengali Muslims. After all, the government calls them infiltrators. When western democracies realise this governments Citizenship Amendment Bill guarantees citizenship to illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who are Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi but excludes those who are Muslim, it wont simply underline their suspicions but prove them. Once passed, the bill guarantees that those declared stateless in Assam who are Hindu are free to stay as full citizens. Muslims, on the other hand, could face the door. The grim truth is weve stumbled into this situation with our eyes wide open. Promised by Rajiv Gandhi, the Manmohan Singh government initiated the Register, the Supreme Court monitored it and the present government seems only too willing to implement its grotesque logic. None of them care that this cruel process is undermining the idea of India. Were becoming a very different country to the one I was born in and brought up to love. Karan Thapar is the author of The Devils Advocate : The Untold Story The views expressed are personal The National Register of Citizens exercise is among the most ambitious experiments the Indian state has undertaken. The census is, of course, conducted every decade, on a national level and gives the state a window into the size and nature of Indian population. But the NRC is a unique exercise for the onus to prove citizenship lies with the citizens. They have to, through tedious documentary evidence, show how they have come to be citizens of India living in Assam. Last week, the final draft of the NRC in Assam emerged, provoking both passionate support and outrage. It has included over 28 million individuals, thus giving them a pride of place as citizens, while excluding four million residents of the state. This is, it must be emphasised, not a final list, for those left out have many avenues to assert their citizenship, and get on to the list. There has been a muddled, often ideologically driven, and definitely politically partisan, debate on the issue so far. It is thus important to disentangle the various threads of the NRC debate, focus on what is known, and also lay out what we know is not known. Here are the known knowns. First, we know Assam has a history of being a recipient of large scale immigration from outside. The issue of Bengali-speaking outsiders, both Hindus and Muslims, first from East Pakistan, and then Bangladesh, is an emotive plank. Those who see themselves as indigenous to the state have been alarmed at the scale of this immigration, frightened at the loss of opportunities it may bring, and worried about how changes in demographic complexion will eventually affect state politics. There can be different views on whether these concerns are entirely justified or exaggerated. But it is the single most important issue of the politics of the state. It was to acknowledge this that various central governments have repeatedly assured Assam that steps would be taken, and various political forces within Assam have sought to claim they would deliver a solution. In this lies the roots of NRC. Two, we know the NRC process, at the current juncture, is an outcome of both a judicial push and political balance of power. The Supreme Court has driven it, closely monitoring the entire process. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power at the Centre and in the state, has been both excited and concerned excited about leveraging it politically, and concerned because it knows that this is a complex administrative, security, and diplomatic issue. Three, we know that the process has been both an exercise in human enterprise and extracted substantial humanitarian costs. It has not been easy for those at the helm of the NRC machine to have percolated down to each village, to have given opportunities to each individual, and been fair. But the much larger onus has been on citizens. To extract documents, show they have strong roots in the state, and prove ones nationality is not easy. It has been tragic for those among the four million who may be genuine citizens but have been left out. And it has been most tragic for Muslims of the state who have had to bear the brunt of being perceived as the outsiders and thus deal with what can one safely assume to be an administration which would not be entirely empathetic. Four, we know that each political actor has seen in this an opportunity to expand its own base. Take the BJP. It has, with a degree of success, converted what was an insider-outsider debate in Assam into a Hindu-Muslim debate. Its political message in Assam revolves around how it is in the process of delivering on its promise of identifying illegal immigrants. Its political message nationally, articulated publicly sometimes, but through quiet whisper campaigns often, revolves around how it is minorities, Muslims, who had entered India and only the BJP had displayed the will to battle it. This will not be a straightforward task for the party, though, given well over one fourth of those left out are said to be Hindus. For a leader like West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has spoken forcefully against it, the political opportunity lies in consolidating her support among both Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims in her own state by projecting NRC as an exercise that is meant to disenfranchise their ethnic, linguistic and religious brethren across the state border. The Congress remains caught in the middle. It wants to cater to the native Assamese sentiment, and is thus seeking credit for the exercise. But it also wants to be seen as speaking for the excluded, and is keen to blame the government for the human costs of the exercise. The party wants to be seen to be distancing itself from the exercise. Whether it is able to strike the balance or falls between competing objectives is yet to be seen. But here is what we do not know. We do not know the exact meaning of being excluded from the current list. The central and state governments, as well as the Supreme Court, have said this list cannot, and will not, be the basis of coercive action against anyone who is excluded. The Election Commission too has said their names will not be struck off voter rolls. But we have also heard the Attorney General in SC suggest there could be biometric profiling of the four million to ensure they do not move to other states. BJP president Amit Shah use the term infiltrators for them. Does this mean that the four million will have to live with the burden of being perceived as non citizens? The gap that exists between institutional messaging and political messaging has created uncertainty. Two, we do not know the timelines for the next step in the process. Those excluded will be able to make claims. There were indications earlier that the final list after this process of revision and claims will be out by the end of the year. But NRC authorities have now indicated this is not a sacrosanct deadline. So there may, or may not, be a final list before the 2019 elections. This makes it even more important to have clarity on the status of the excluded in the interim period. Once the final list is out, those excluded will have a right to go to the Foreigners Tribunal and subsequently to the courts. All of this suggests that it could even be a matter of years before a final resolution on citizenship for many. And three, the biggest unknown remains what happens to those who are in this final, ultimate analysis, deemed as non citizens. Political campaign and rhetoric has been around deportation. But government and political functionaries are quick to admit that expelling them to Bangladesh is not an option at all. Dhaka has never accepted that they are its citizens or that there is a problem of illegal immigration. If deportation is not an option, some have suggested large scale detention camps. But locking in hundreds of thousands of people in camps or extensions of them is out of the question for a civilised democracy like India. Others have spoken of instituting work permits, which would give them limited legal rights to work but ensure they have no political voice. It is not clear how this will work for those who have worked for generations in India, or what will be the fate of children of such individuals. All of this cannot but make one wonder if NRC is a process without an end. Few issues have brought together law, citizenship, sovereignty, demography, religion, inter-state relations, administration as intricately as NRC. But across these very spheres, it has also perhaps exposed Indias political and institutional infirmities. letters@hindustantimes.com A police station set up to exclusively deal with alleged cases of corruption against Delhi Police officers has been able to arrest only 18 of the 121 accused police personnel. Records accessed by HT show that the vigilance police station was set in 2014. Ever since then, a total of 66 FIRs have been registered against police personnel under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Till August 1, two sub-inspectors, four assistant sub-inspectors, five head constables and six constables have been arrested on corruption charges. Although the FIRs name the accused policemen, most the cases are still under investigation. A senior police officer from the vigilance unit, while trying to explaining why only 14% of the accused had been arrested, said, Cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act are different. Unless a person is caught red-handed, we do not arrest the accused. We make arrests only after getting conclusive evidence of the video and audio recordings from the forensic laboratory. The officer said because there is only one forensic laboratory in Delhi, the reports take time. We are at present still waiting for reports in cases that were registered two years ago. We make arrests only after getting report from forensic laboratory. Investigating officers face action if they arrest someone but the report is inconclusive because of technical reasons. Also, please remember that the moment we have registered an FIR, the accused officer is suspended and while the case is being investigated, the officer is not given any sensitive posting. At present, there are at least 1,800 police officers across Delhi facing departmental inquiry because of our recommendations, the officer said. Police station that polices cops Anti- Corruption Helpline number: 9910641064 . Complainants can send audio and video recording via WhatsApp on this number . Complainants can send audio and video recording via WhatsApp on this number At least 387 police officers, which include one Deputy Commissioner of Police, one Assistant Commissioner of Police, 25 inspectors and other junior officers, were found guilty in the departmental inquiries Punishment ranged from suspension to warning and transfer and censure Currently 1,800 departmental inquiries are underway against police personnel across Delhi on the basis of vigilance departmental inquiry Vigilance department conducted 504 surprise checks at police stations posing as decoy complainants to check police response. Delhi Police officers say apart from vigilance police stations, if anypolice personnel is caught for a crime, he/she is suspended and can be arrested. Last year, 59 police officers were dismissed from service for different offences other than corruption. Senior advocate Rebecca John said that a policeman investigating another often leads to no investigation. The Supreme Court has often acknowledged that when a police officer investigates another officer, the investigation is compromised, she said, Records show that only 12 chargesheets were filed and there has not been a single conviction in any of the 66 cases. Vigilance department officers said within the next one month they would be filing 10 more chargesheets. Our cases are evidencebased and we need to build watertight cases. The evidence in our cases are scientific and needs to be conclusive enough for the courts to appreciate and help us secure convictions. There is no point filing chargesheets early without proper evidence because there is a risk that the courts do not like the proof we present and the accused gets an advantage. Even if there has been no convictions so far, please note that there have not been any acquittals either, said the senior police officer. The dust storm from Oman that has partially affected north-western India has spiked pollution levels in the national capital taking it into the poor category. The capital, which had been witnessing relatively good air quality over the past few days, is likely to have more dust pollutants in the air over the weekend, said officials of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Friday. Delhis air quality index (AQI) stood at 213 in the poor category on Friday. The storm in Oman has led to an increase in particulate matter (PM)10 level shooting up to 275 micrograms per unit (mcpm), against the prescribed safe limit of 100 micrograms per unit. According to the CPCB data, PM10 level was at 40.5 mcpm a week ago. The PM10 comprises coarse particles that gets lodged in the upper respiratory tract causing breathing problems. It is one of the major pollutants in Delhi-NCR. Storm-like conditions are likely to continue over the next two days in the city. This has increased PM10 concentration in the air. However, there is no reason for panic and, as per the weather forecast, the air will clear soon and rain is likely on Monday, P Gargava, member secretary, CPCB, said. Following the alert, the Delhi government has issued an advisory to all construction agencies to ensure dust-control measures are in place. All construction agencies have been alerted to step up vigil to ensure dust-control measures are taken at sites. According to the information received, pollution levels are likely to remain the same over next two days, a Delhi government spokesperson said. According to officials, a mass of dust is moving towards north-western India and has increased the concentration of dust pollutants in the air. The weather forecast received from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), stated that light rain is expected between Monday and Tuesday and the sky will remain partly cloudy over the weekend. We are still observing the pattern of the storm. It had started in Oman two or three days ago and has subsided to a large extent now, a senior IMD official said. Gufran Beig, head of the SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), said, This storm is not as severe as the one that hit in June. Air quality will not fall below poor this time. A 32-year-old woman allegedly smothered her newborn daughter at a west Delhi hospital on Sunday, the police said. Investigators said the woman told them she did not want a third daughter. The woman, identified by the police as Reeta Devi, reportedly told interrogators she was out of her senses when she killed her newborn daughter, the police said. Deputy commissioner of police (west) Vijay Kumar said Devi had allegedly told someone at the hospital that her husband did not want another daughter. Before the delivery, Reeta Devi had told a helper at the hospital that her husband would frequently fight with her over the birth of their other two daughters. Because of that, Devi said she did not want a girl child again, said the DCP. Once autopsy report confirmed the baby had been smothered, the police said a murder case was registered at Moti Bagh police station on Tuesday and Devi was arrested. The DCP said investigators found no evidence of direct involvement of Devis husband Asharfi Mahto. Mahto does not appear to know about the murder plan, said the officer. Mahto, who works as a helper with a private firm in Connaught Place, denied telling his wife he wanted a male child. For a poor man like me, a son or a daughter does not matter, said Mahto at his dimly lit one-room set in west Delhis Naraina village on Friday. Psychiatrist Nimesh Desai, director at Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, cautioned the act could be due to postpartum depression but added that the likeliest possibility was the polices theory. Postpartum disorder symptoms range from mild mood swings to depression, anger, anxiety, guilt, insomnia and even hallucinations and delusions. Post-partum depression affects between 15.3% and 23% new mothers in India, according to the National Mental Health Survey 2015. Of them, around 16% one in six new moms continue to display symptoms six months after delivery. A native of Chhapra in Bihar, Mahto lived with his wife and three children, two daughters aged nine and eight and a four-year-old son. Rita is a homemaker. The police said Devi, in the ninth month of her pregnancy, was admitted to ESIC Hospital in Moti Nagar on Saturday afternoon after experiencing labour pain. Mahto said he waited at the hospital for sometime before returning home to attend to their children. A woman we knew agreed to stay back as a helper, said Mahto. She gave birth to a healthy girl at 3.50am on Sunday, the police said. Police officials said there was nothing visibly unusual in Devis behaviour initially. Doctors checked the mother and daughter around 7am and found the baby in good health, DCP Kumar said. Around 9am, Devi raised an alarm and told doctors that the baby was not moving. Doctors found the baby dead. They found black marks around the childs nose. The marks were soon visible around her lips as well. Doctors suspected murder and alerted us, said the DCP. The body was sent for post-mortem as police kept a watch over the woman. Once the autopsy report confirmed murder, police questioned Devi and her helper before concluding the motive behind the alleged crime. There were occasions when the woman was alone in the ward. She used one such opportunity to smother and strangle her daughter, said the DCP. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Breastfeeding your child is one of the best practices which can benefit both the mother and the baby. It is believed to promote bonding between mother and child, reduce risk of asthma and cancer for babies, and boost their immune system. So much so, that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that all babies (even those who are premature, underweight or sickly, should be exclusively breastfed), right from the maternity ward, and ideally for two years. World Breastfeeding Week is held every year from August 1 to 7 to highlight the importance of this practice. Here are some of the benefits of breastfeeding: * A study done by Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, shows that breastfeeding may help reduce the mothers risk of type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes. Conducted over 20 years, the study suggests that breastfeeding for a longer period of time could help women diagnosed with gestational diabetes during pregnancy lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. * Breastfeeding can also help against overweight in babies who gain weight rapidly, says a study by the University of Delaware. In the study, babies who gained weight rapidly in the first four months of life were significantly more likely to be classified as overweight by one year of age, if they were exclusively formula-fed rather than breastfed for 11 months or longer. * Women who breastfeed their babies for six months or more may be able to cut their risk of developing diabetes in the future by nearly half, according to a study Tuesday. The findings from a three-decade US study of more than 1,200 white and African-American women were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine. * Mothers who breastfeed for at least 15 months over one or more pregnancies may be 53% less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) compared with those who do not breastfeed at all or do so for up to four months, says a study. * Mothers breast milk can help premature infants get a metabolic boost, says a new study. According to researchers, the breast milk of mothers with premature babies has different amounts of microRNA than that of mothers with babies born at term, which may help premature babies catch up in growth and development. Previous research said that breastfeeding can help boost immunity and brainpower in children, though if done extensively, it could lead to dental cavities. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Do you often leave home with the television on? Or go shopping but return to find that you have forgotten to buy the item you went shopping for? While these examples are comparatively trivial, poor prospective memory can have serious consequences as well. A failing prospective memory can be an early sign of Alzheimers disease, according to University of Chichester psychologists. New therapeutic methods are being used to utilise levels of prospective memory as a means to accurately diagnose diseases of cognitive impairment. Such methods can be effective non-invasive alternatives to traditional clinical methods such as the extraction of cerebral spinal fluid. The research led by a team of the University of Chichester included members from Radboud University Nijmegen, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Lisbon, looked at prospective memory performance before the introduction of an enhancement technique and compared it with performance after the enhancement technique. The technique used was encoded enactment, where subjects were encouraged to act through the activity they must remember to do. All age groups reported improvement in prospective memory, but it was particularly marked in those older subjects with mild cognitive impairment, that is, potentially in the early stages of Alzheimers disease. The study suggests that encouraging people in this category to adopt enactment as a means to enhance prospective memory could result in them leading independent, autonomous lives for longer. Dr Antonina Pereira, University of Chichester who led the study, said, Poor prospective memory can range from the vaguely annoying to life-threatening, depending on the circumstances. We wanted to confirm two things that prospective memory deteriorates with age and that enactment techniques might support those with a poor prospective memory. She added, We did find that prospective memory erodes as we get older, and our early findings in this little-researched area would suggest that enactment techniques are effective in improving prospective memory. Enactment techniques offer the potential for a cost-effective and widely applicable method that can support independent living. This contributes to an individuals health, well-being, and social relationships while reducing the burden of care. The full findings are present in the journal Neuropsychology. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more A lot has been discussed about the importance of breastfeeding to nurture a newborn, yet there is widespread ignorance about this topic. However, what really helps the cause is when we see our much-loved, much-followed celebrities support the cause by talking about it openly. When celeb moms post photos of nursing their babies, it makes us feel that they are just like us, real. This International Breastfeeding Day, lets take inspiration from these 5 celeb moms who celebrate breastfeeding by talking about it and showing us that it is very normal. This is a shout out to working Moms everywhere!! #TBT pic.twitter.com/jqtigN4Hzl Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) March 10, 2016 Padma Lakshmi: Model and host Padma Lakshmi has been consistently supporting the cause of normalising breastfeeding in public. Last year, she shared a photo of herself while getting ready and feeding her baby as a shout out to working moms everywhere. Lisa Haydon: Model and actor Lisa Haydon gave birth to her son last year and since then has been very real about being a parent. Last year, she shared a photo of nursing her baby to celebrate International Breastfeeding Week. Chrissy Teigen: Chrissy has always been very vocal about her parenting style through funny posts on social media. Shes also the most relatable celeb parent out there and is followed by many for humorous take on various aspects of parenting. Though shes regularly trolled by people on the Internet, nothing stops this woman from making the right choice for her babies. Mara Martin: Recently, the model made headlines for walking the ramp while breastfeeding her daughter. I think women should be able to feed their babies how they want, when they want and where they want. End of discussion! she wrote on Instagram. In honor of #wbw2016. #normalizebreastfeeding. A post shared by Alyssa Milano (@milano_alyssa) on Aug 3, 2016 at 9:44am PDT Alyssa Milano: The actor has always been vocal about normalising breastfeeding in public. Shes always supported other mothers in their fight to breastfeed their babies without judgement. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Theres something about road movies that taps into every human beings desire to escape, to the extent that were willing to watch two mismatched souls transport a dead body across south India, and even a curmudgeonly old man have diarrhoea on the highway. Were willing to watch a family take their young daughter to a beauty contest across the country and were willing to follow a deranged Kazakh journalist expose Americas most shameful secrets. Theres a road movie for everyone, because everyone, in their own way, can relate to the feeling of being somewhere else, of travelling to unknown destinations, meeting new people along the way, and having to deal with unplanned shenanigans. Karwaan, which released this week, is a terrific road movie, mostly because its so much more than that. Like the best films about clashing personalities trapped in a moving vehicle for long periods of time, Karwaan hurtles through dense emotional territory and takes its characters on a journey of self-discovery. Listing great road movies is a relatively easy task - easier than, say, listing films about neo-Nazis. But heres the thing: As with every genre, the popular road movies are really popular. So it makes no sense to repeat them here. Which is why the opening couple of paragraphs alluded to some of the most acclaimed road movies of recent times, films such as Piku (which also stars Karwaans Irrfan Khan), Little Miss Sunshine, Into the Wild, Borat and Almost Famous. There are more, of course. More obscure ones as well - films such as Grandma, the John Green adaptation Paper Towns, and the Netflixs one-two punch, Kodachrome and The Fundamentals of Caring. But for this list, were going to talk only about the films youre least likely to have seen. Nebraska Will Forte takes his father on a road trip in Nebraska. (Paramount Pictures) Like Karwaan (and like Kodachrome and the recent Like Father), Alexander Paynes black-and-white, Oscar-winning drama is about fathers and their children. Its quite a popular theme, isnt it, to trap family members with difficult relationships in enclosed spaces? Sort of like a makeshift therapy session where the chances of recovery are literally 100%. I wonder why everyone doesnt do this. But Nebraska is the perfect example of what road movies can accomplish when theyre well-made - and theyre sort of the rule book when it comes to writing characters. Away We Go John Krasinski was at the peak of his Office fame around this time. Before Sam Mendes made Skyfall - in fact, immediately before he made Skyfall - he made this quaint road movie about a married couple who embark on an adventurous journey to find the perfect new town in which to raise their child, who is expected to be born in a month. Along the way, they meet a typically colourful cast of characters, and learn valuable life lessons. Away We Go isnt the final answer when it comes to road movies, but with such fine talent both in front of and behind the camera - the film stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, and is co-written by Dave Eggers - its one you should check out. My Own Private Idaho River Phoenix in a still from My Own Private Idaho. American independent cinema was in its heyday when director Gus Van Sant made My Own Private Idaho, an indie oddity whose biggest claim to fame these days is that it featured a very young Keanu Reeves, and one of the final performances of the late River Phoenix. Poetically, Van Sants most recent film, the brilliantly named Dont Worry, He Wont Get Far on Foot, stars Rivers brother, Joaquin. Its one of Van Sants earliest encounters with taboo subjects, which he even back then handled with delicate empathy. Wendy and Lucy Michelle Williams in a still from Wendy and Lucy. Its not everyday that one gets to discuss the films of Kelly Reichardt here, so lets make the most of this opportunity. Reichardt is an acclaimed American filmmaker whose movies span a variety of genres and often have as their protagonists people that have been relegated to the fringes of society. In Wendy and Lucy, a vagrant (played by Michelle Williams, who worked with Reichardt on two more occasions, in Certain Women and Meeks Cutoff), searches for her lost dog across rural United States. Kalifornia Spot the young Brad Pitt, and bonus point if you recognised David Duchovny. For the sake of having a wild card in this list more than anything else, heres Kalifornia, a 1993 thriller - made in the vein of films such as Duel and The Hitcher - about two college students researching serial killers, who inadvertently pick up an actual serial killer on their trip. Its understandable if youre still not quite on board, but wait till you find out whos in it. A young Brad Pitt. He plays the killer. Follow @htshowbiz for more The author tweets @RohanNaahar The Jammu and Kashmir unit of BJP on Saturday demanded an impartial probe into the killing of a youth at the residence of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah here. It also demanded release of the CCTV footage of the incident and said the cold-blooded murder at the residence of a VIP raises many questions. BJP demands an impartial and prompt enquiry into the matter of the fake encounter. To set at rest the apprehensions of the members of the family of deceased, the CCTV footage should be released to the media by police immediately, BJP state spokesperson Anil Gupta said in a statement here. He said the family of the deceased youth called the incident a fake encounter and insisted that their son was called by somebody to come to the residence of the former chief minister. The family is demanding that they will not accept the police version till they are shown the CCTV footage, Gupta said. He said as per the friends of the deceased he was not a drug addict, as being alleged, but a regular visitor to gym. In a security breach earlier today, the youth forcibly drove into the residence of Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah here and vandalised the house before being shot dead by CRPF personnel guarding the premises. He was identified by the police as Syeed Murfad Shah, who would have turned 26 next month. Earlier this week, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries, including party president Amit Shah and senior ministers in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government attended an unusual two-day event in New Delhi and discussed the work of the government. The audience: the wives of BJP lawmakers. According to two people familiar with the event who spoke on condition of anonymity, the 17-hour workshop for the wives of BJP MPs was organised at the partys headquarters on New Delhis Deen Dayal Upadhayay Marg on Monday and Tuesday by Kamal Sakhi Manch, a forum of women parliamentarians and wives of BJP MPs. It was the first such event by the forum, one of the two said. The better halves of BJP MPs were also briefed on how to extend a helping hand to their husbands in discharging their duties. The event took place ahead of crucial state elections later this year (in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan), and parliamentary elections next year. We have attended several events in the past, but this one was special, the wife of a BJP lawmaker said, asking not to be identified. All of us are getting ready for 2019 election. Each one of us has to behave like the brand ambassador of the party and (Narendra) Modis government. The event was inaugurated by the partys general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs pointsman in the BJP. Senior ministers JP Nadda, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goel and Nitin Gadkari separately spoke to the audience too. And BJP chief Amit Shah joined them for an informal interaction over tea. 150 women, which included both wives of MPs and women MPs, attended the event. The broad message from the event was that the wives should start building relationships with voters and party leaders and also spread word on the work done by the government. We are told that all of us are one party, one family, the BJP lawmakers wife mentioned in the first instance said. For instance, they were told to stand in for their husbands and deal with issues of party workers and others. We were told to deal with them in such a manner as to earn their appreciation, the BJP lawmakers wife added. We were told that while we may not be able to solve their issues every time, how we treat them is more important. Given the diversity of the MPs, the ability of their wives to reach diverse voter groups isnt lost on the BJP. The audience was told that given their varied social and economic background, they could effectively communicate the governments achievements to a wide swath of the electorate. Kamal Sakhi was started about nine years back and has grown in size even as the range of its activities has expanded. Its members meet during every parliament session (this two-day meeting, the longest ever, took place during the monsoon session), and select one topic for discussion. In the past the group has organised exhibitions on issues such as the model villages adopted by MPs and the Goods and Services Tax. BJP president Amit Shah put the Congress in his line of fire on Saturday accusing it of playing vote bank politics with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam while saying that the BJP government will ensure that Bangladeshi infiltrators are identified and national security is not compromised. Addressing a public meeting at Kankroli in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan to flag off chief minister Vasundhara Rajes Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra, Shah said the Congress should clarify its stand on the NRC. The BJP government has undertaken the screening of illegal Bangladeshis in the country but Congress is opposing so that their vote bank remains intact, he said. Shah said the people of Rajasthan should ask Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his visit here whether the NRC should be implemented or not. This is not about vote bank politics but about national security, he said. There is a Supreme Court order and we will ensure it is implemented and they are identified. Setting the agenda for not only the 2018 Rajasthan assembly polls but also the 2019 general elections, Shah said the BJP government has decided to bring a constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament to restore the original provisions of the SC/ST Act after a Supreme Court judgment on 20 March had diluted the Act to bar the immediate arrest of an accused. He said the BJP has brought in a bill in the Rajya Sabha to give constitutional recognition to the OBC commission. OBCs have been demanding this since several decades. The people of Rajasthan should ask Rahul Baba if the Congress will support the Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Shah said under the BJP government in the state and the centre, Rajasthan had received funds worth Rs 2,63,000 crore while under the Congress government in the state and UPA government at the Centre, the state received central aid of Rs 1,09,000 crore. Amid chants of Modi, Modi, Shah exhorted the crowd to vote for Raje and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rajasthan has progressed under Raje. You have to repeat the Raje-Modi duo in the 2018-2019 elections. Referring to the large turnout of people at the public meeting, Shah said, It looks like the Gaurav Yatra might well turn into a Vijay Yatra. Shah took jibes at Congress president, repeatedly referring to him as Rahul Baba. The Congress has said it will ask us 40 questions. Rahul Baba also asks us what has the BJP done. You are asking us our account of four years but the people of the country want an account of your four generations. Shah continued, I have not come to give an account to Rahul Baba but to the people of Rajasthan. He said the Centre has brought in 116 schemes for welfare of the people and mentioned the hike in minimum support price (MSP) for farmers, Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala yojana, PM Awas yojana, electricity. He said 50 crore poor people will be covered under the Ayushman Bharat yojana from September. NRC in national interest: Rajnath While Shah taunted the Congress over NRC, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said there should be no politics over the exercise in Assam as it was an issue of national interest. I think there should be no politics on the issue of NRC, as the issue of NRC is an issue of national interest. People of Assam were demanding it for a long time, and their demands have been fulfilled. Some people are trying to create fears, but I feel that there is no need for anyone to feel afraid. This is only the draft NRC for Assam. People will get time to settle claims and objections, Singh said in Lucknow. Over 40 lakh people have been left out of the second and final draft of the NRC published on July 30. The process of claims and objections to the NRC will start on August 30 and continue for a month, and if required NRC authorities may extend the period by another month till October 30, according to the home ministry. If they are still not satisfied, people can appeal to the foreigners tribunal, Singh said. (With PTI inputs) The Congress highest decision-making body on Saturday decided to use the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal and suspected bank frauds as ammunition to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming state elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls The Congress Working Committee (CWC) also decided to corner the BJP on the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that excluded four million residents of the state; the partys opposition to the report, aimed at identifying and deporting foreigners, has triggered BJP claims that the Congress was soft on illegal, mainly Bangladeshi, immigrants. Congress retorted on Saturday by claiming that 82,728 Bangladeshis were deported from 2005 to 2013 when it was in power, compared to ust 1,822 fin the past four years of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. At a meeting chaired by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the CWC decided to weave the partys campaign around alleged wrongdoing in the Rafale deal and bank frauds, notably a Rs.14,000 scam at state-run Punjab National Bank suspected to have been carried out by fugitive diamond traders Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi. The partys campaign strategy follows an assessment that the corruption issue is going to hurt the BJPs electoral prospects not only in four states -- Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram -- where assembly polls will be held in November-December, but also the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In 2014, the Congress too was undone by corruption scandals. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party will launch a Jan Andolan (peoples movement) on the Rafale deal and bank scams and the details of the campaign will be chalked out in the coming days in consultation with state and central leaders. Gandhi tweeted, One of the highlights of todays CWC meeting was Mr (A K) Antonys brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 crore stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt. In 2016, India decided to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets in a fly-away condition from Dassault Aviation of France, scrapping an earlier agreement for 126 of the planes; State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was to make some of the aircraft in India through a transfer of technology clause. After receiving the revised deal, Dassault teamed up with Reliance Defence, a unit of Anil Ambanis Reliance Group. Surjewala claimed that the Rafale deal had caused losses to the public exchequer, and exposed the BJP governments crony capitalism and compromise of national interests. Neither the Prime Minister nor defence minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) is disclosing the price of the Rafale jets purchased by this government, he said, adding the price fixed during the United Progressive Alliance rule was Rs 526 crore against Rs 1,676 crore for the jets purchased under the NDA, resulting in a loss of Rs 48,000 crore to the exchequer. The BJP promptly hit back. Congress has been acting as a loan giving agent over the years and the BJP government has had to act as a loan recovery agent. Modi government has zero tolerance for corruption, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. He also referred to the CWC as a corruption wali committee, taking a jibe at the Congress. A joint press conference or a day-long convention of the Opposition parties on the corruption issue is likely to take place this month. Congress leaders are soon going to fan out across the country to take the issue to the people in every village and city and also hold nationwide protest demonstrations against the Modi government, party leaders said. One political observer said the Congress may have already lost the opportunity to make political capital out of the issue. The Congress move has come too late. They have already missed the bus. It should have come six months ago. I dont say that people suspect this Rafale deal, but they have raised some question marks about it. But I think the Congress has woken up a little late, said Sanjay Kumar, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Study of Developing Societies. The Congress also plans to attack the BJP government on the flight of business barons Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya, who are wanted in India for financial misdemeanours, and on reports suggesting that Indian agencies had no adverse information against diamond trader Mehul Choksi, uncle of Nirav Modi, when Antigua conducted a background check on the PNB scam suspect before granting him citizenship in 2017. The more than three-hour-long meeting was also dominated by the NRC issue as Assam leaders of the Congress, including former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, state chief Ripun Bora, legislature party leader Debabrata Saikia, and members of Parliament Bhubaneswar Kalita and Sushmita Dev gave a detailed briefing about the matter to the CWC for nearly 90 minutes, arguing that the party should not be seen as opposing the exercise. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjees stand against the NRC was also discussed. Surjewala said the CWC concluded that the NRC was a Congress baby given that the process was initiated by the UPA government in 2005 as a consequence of the Assam accord signed by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. It was the during the Congress government that 80% of the NRC process was completed from by May 2016 (please check. By then Modi was in power) While the Manmohan Singh had sanctioned Rs 489 crore and appointed 25,000 enumerators for the process, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee had given just Rs 5 lakh for it. The CWC condemned the deliberate and diabolic agenda of BJP to play politics to use NRC as a divisive and emotional tool for misleading the people. This is being done to deflect nations attention from the colossal failures and mega scams like Rafale, Surjewala said. We are also aware that there are multiple anomalies in the final draft NRC list, leaving out 40 lakh people comprising indigenous Assamese people, Hindu Bengalis, Nepalis, Gorkhas, tea tribes, religious minorities, Indian citizens from other states domiciled in Assam as also serving and retired defence personnel and those who are in other public or private sector services, he said. The Congress reiterated that every Indian citizen must be given an opportunity to establish their credentials and prove their citizenship in a just, equitable and humane manner without any fear or favour. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not attend the meeting that also discussed the state of the economy, unemployment and the agrarian crisis. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, and senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony, P Chidambaram, S Jaipal Reddy and Jyotiraditya Scindia were among those present. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended todays meeting, Gandhi said in a Twitter post. The Congress on Saturday decided to take on the Narendra Modi Government on the issue of corruption by launching a public campaign that will highlight the bank scams, Rafale deal and the bad state of the economy. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi where the leaders also chalked out a strategy on the crucial issue of Assams National Register of Citizens (NRC). The meeting of the working committee, the partys highest decision making body, was attended by top party leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Aza, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot. However, former party president Sonia Gandhi was unable to attend the meeting. This is the second meeting of the newly constituted CWC under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. The opposition party decided to go all out in highlighting the issue of corruption both inside and outside Parliament. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said after the meeting that the party will launch a public campaign or Jan Andolan, details of which will be chalked out in the coming days in consultation with state units and leaders. The CWC met today. As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended todays meeting, Gandhi said on Twitter. The party intends to corner the government on media reports which quoted Antiguan authorities as saying that Indian agencies had no adverse information against Mehul Choksi when the Caribbean country conducted a background check on the PNB scam accused before granting him citizenship in 2017. The Congress has alleged that it had exposed the complicity and connivance of the Modi government in the escape of the fugitive billionaire. On the Rafale deal, Surjewala said neither the Prime Minister nor the Defence Minister are disclosing the price of the jets purchased by this government and claimed that the price fixed during UPA was Rs 526 crore against Rs 1,676 crore for the jets purchased under NDA, that has caused a loss of Rs 48,000 crore to the exchequer. Taking a cautious stand on the National Registar of Citizens exercise in Assam, Surjewala said after the meeting that the NRC was Congress baby and was initiated as a consequence of the Assam accord signed by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 and the party will ensure that no Indian citizen is left out of it. The NRC is a baby of the Congress party and it will ensure that no Indian citizens is deprived of his legitimate right, he said. Surjewala also pointed out figures claiming that while the Congress-led UPA government from 2005 to 2013 had deported 82,728 foreigners (Bangladeshis), the NDA government has only deported only 1,822 foreign nationals in the last four years. He was citing figures shared by the Modi government in Parliament. Every Indian citizen should get justice and foreigners should be identified, he said. The final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that has excluded about one lakh Gorkhas from the list has evoked mixed reactions from the community in the countrys east and northeast. In Assam, a few Gorkha organisations welcomed the NRC draft. Bhaskar Dahal, the senior most general secretary of Assam Gorkha Sammelan (AGS) and Prem Tamang, the president of All Assam Gorkha Students Union (AAGSU) said that the exclusion of about 0.1 million Gorkhas from the final draft of the NRC was due to some minor errors in the titles of the applicants. AGS and AAGSU are the two most influential bodies of the Gorkhas in Assam. There is ample time to submit ones claims and objections in Assam, Dahal said. Prem Tamang the AAGSU president said, We are confident that most of the Gorkhas whose names were omitted will finally make it in the NRC. But Binay Tamang, chairman of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the semi-autonomous body that runs the affairs of north Bengal hills, described the exercise as the BJP governments design to oust Gorkhas from Assam. There are about 2.5 million Gorkhas in Assam. The NRC is a move to drive away Gorkhas. It is time to be on the alert. The BJP is now trying to conduct a similar exercise in Assam, said Tamang, who is also the president of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Binay Tamang faction). The BJP government is actually trying to backstab the Gorkhas while it preaches to be their saviour, said Tamang in a press release. Tamang is close to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who has criticised the NRC exercise as a move to evict Bengalis and Biharis from Assam. Significantly, the BJP won the Darjeeling seat in 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the support of the GJM which was then led by Bimal Gurung. Gurung along with a few of his close associates have been on the run for almost a year after the Bengal government slapped them with charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act following his unsuccessful struggle for a separate state of Gorkhaland. However, a few political parties in Darjeeling and Sikkim, where the Gorkhas constitute a majority, think there is no reason for bonafide Gorkhas in Assam to panic. Neeraj Zimba, a senior Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader said, No genuine Gorkhas would be affected by the NRC. GNLF is the second most influential party in the Darjeeling hills that spearheaded the first phase of struggle for Gorkhaland in 1986-88 in which about 1,200 people died. Bhim Dahal, spokesperson of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in Sikkim said, The NRC exercise is continuing. It wont be proper to react right now, said Dahal. Kalimpong Krishak Kalyan Sangathan (KKKS) a non-governmental organisation welcomed the NRC. Its general secretary Bishnu Chettri said We also demand similar NRC in West Bengal to identity foreigners. Fugitive former GJM president Bimal Gurung alleged that the Trinamool Congress government in Bengal has a secret plan to settle illegal Bangladeshis who have been removed from Assam. In a press statement circulated on Whatsapp on Saturday, Gurung said, The Bengal government is secretly measuring land in Darjeeling hills. If this is being done to settle illegal Bangladeshis who have been removed from Assam, it creates a national security threat.... If they attempt anything like this, then all the Rajbangshis, Kamtapuris, Adivasis, Meche and Gorkhas from Dooars and all the Gorkhas from the hills will speak with one voice against this. I shall soon write a letter to the Union home minister Rajnath Singh opposing the NRC, said Tamang. Its double whammy for tipplers in Gujarat with the state government tripling excise duty on alcohol and slashing the number of health conditions under which a person can apply for a permit to buy liquor in the dry state . With Gujarat getting drier, the hospitality industry and liquor shop owners say their business is down by almost by 40% in the first four months of this financial year as compared to the same period last fiscal. The government wants to boost revenue but insists that the decisions were taken to ensure that the tourism industry is not affected. Changes in the prohibition rules and regulations are aimed at further reining in irregularities while ensuring that the tourism industry is not affected, explained minister of state for home Pradeepsinh Jadeja. The first step Gujarat government took was a three-fold hike in the excise duty on spirit and wine and a special fees, ranging from Rs 1,500 to 6,000 per bottle on premium Indian Made Foreign Liquor and imported brands in the budget. We aim to increase the revenue to Rs 106 crore (from Rs 86 crore) by hiking the excise duty and other charges, said Gujarat finance minister Nitin Patel. So, a can of beer in Gujarat now costs Rs 240 as compared to Rs 80 to Rs 150 elsewhere, said a leading hotelier in Ahmedabad, who was not willing to be quoted for fear that his comments could be constructed as criticism of the governments policy. A bottle of premium whisky that earlier used to cost up to Rs 6,000 per bottle is now selling at Rs 14,000, he said. Our sales are down by about 40% from on an average Rs 90 lakh to 1 crore per month, said a liquor distribution license holder in the state capital. The second reason for fall in sales is the health department not renewing liquor permits to residents of Gujarat because the government wants to exclude common ailments like anxiety, body ache, insomnia or migraine from conditions to get the permit. Those above 40 years are entitled to get the permit. Health department officials say the move will reduce the permits from about 42,291 which increased after 2011 when tourism was being promoted to less than 20,000 per year. The government suspended renewal of permits in March this year and about 8,000 applications for renewal of the permit are awaiting government nod, officials said. What prompted the government to go on the overdrive was an anti-liquor campaign launched by young leaders Alpesh Thakor of Congress, independent MLA Jignesh Mevani and Patidar leader Hardik Patel. The three raided several places where liquor was being sold. Last month, they were booked for trespassing when then forcibly entered an alleged bootleggers home and claimed to have recovered liquor. Thakor is not convinced about the governments seriousness in enforcing prohibition. The new rules and regulations will remain on paperthe government officials and police are working in tandem with bootleggers, which has affected the effective implementation of prohibition laws, said Thakor, who had been running a de-addiction drive in his base in north Gujarat region for years. Last month, N K Singh, chairman of the 15th Finance Commission said in Ahmedabad that the the Gujarat government has sought Rs 9,000 crore compensation from the Central government for the revenue loss due to prohibition. Apples grown in Himachal Pradesh are giving a run for their money to imported varieties, particularly those from the China and the US, in the Indian market although the crop has fallen prey to vagaries of the weather. The traditional Himachali variety, Royal Delicious, is fetching a higher price than apples grown in the US, as plucking of the fruit picks up following a slow start in mid-July because of a strike by truckers. Good quality apples are being sold for Rs 2,500 to Rs 3000 per standard box( 20 kilograms). said Partap Chauhan, a fruit merchant in Shimlas Dhalli Sabzi Mandi. The American apple varieties are selling between Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,200 per standard box. Apple farming was introduced in the region by Samuel Evan Stokes, known as Satyanand Stokes, an American missionary settled in Kotgarh, in 1916. More than 450 cultivars of apple are now grown in the hilly state .In terms of commercial importance, the main varieties are Royal Delicious, Rich-A-Red, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. Indians have more preference for the apple varieties which are a rich red in colour. Moreover, the traditional Royal variety has more shell life than any other, said Abhinav Jaggi, a fruit merchant in New Delhi. Demand for Himachal apples has also increased in the markets of Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Surat, Bengalauru , Vadodra and Hyderabad, traders say. According to Himachal government surveys, the state is expected to produce 19.2 million 20-kg boxes of apples in 2018-19, the second consecutive year of below-normal production. In 2017-18, apple production fell to 22.3 million boxes from the annual norm of 25 million boxes. Weather has hit apple production in HImachal Pradesh. Less snow reduced moisture level in the soil, it impacted the blooming of apple trees. The damage was more in the apple trees in lower elevations below 7,000 feet, said horticulture director Manohar Dhiman . Drought -like conditions in May- June further affected fruit size . Apple growers of Himachal have been wary of imported varieties. Apple growers have for the past five years demanded an increase in customs duty on foreign apples. Currently, there is a 50% import duty on foreign apples. America and China are the two main exporters of apples to India . Despite being the worlds fifth largest apple producer, India has become a target market for the US apple. said Lokinder Singh, president of the Progressive Apple Growers Association of Himachal . Last year, 250,000 tonnes of apple were imported, mainly from China, US, New Zealand, Chile, Iran and Afghanistan. Apples produced in Himachal are also facing a threat from those being smuggled to India via Afghanistan. Apples from different countries, after reaching Iran, are being smuggled to the countries that signed the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement in 2004, including India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Days before the Supreme Court is to start hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of Article 35 A of the Constitution, which gives the Jammu and Kashmir legislature the powers to decide who are permanent residents of the state, the administration has written to the apex court to defer the hearings, citing upcoming panchayat and urban local body elections. In a letter written to the Registrar of the Supreme Court, on Friday, counsel for the Jammu and Kashmir government sought an adjournment of the hearings on account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat/urban local body and municipal elections. The hearings are to start on Monday. Hindustan Times is in possession of a copy of the letter written to the Supreme Court Registrar. Kashmiri separatist organisations have called for a two-day shutdown against the attempts to repeal Article 35 A. Article 35A gives special rights to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property in the state settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarships. A bunch of petitions have been filed in the top court challenging article 35 A of the constitution contending that the article was illegally added because it was never proposed before Parliament. Article 35 A was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order. It accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of J&K and also empowers the state legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of it violating the Right to Equality of people from other states under the Indian Constitution. A think tank associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that has been campaigning to repeal Article 35A of the Constitution has, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to garner support for its demand. The Jammu and Kashmir Study Centre (JKSC) has been opposing the article on grounds that it violates the rights of citizens and has been incorporated without following the due process. It has also been pushing for abrogation of Article 370 that confers special status on Jammu and Kashmir, JKSC has been trying to shape public opinion through discussions and closed door meetings on how Article 35 A is discriminatory against women and the marginalised sections. As per the provision of the law, if a woman from the state marries a non-state subject, her husband and children cannot inherit her assets and are denied a permanent resident certificate (PRC); this does not apply to men who marry non-state subjects. Women are the worst affected by this (35A) provision, said Abha Khanna, director (media) of the JKSC. She said over 200 Valmiki (lower caste) families that were moved to the state in 1957 with the promise that they would be granted a permanent residence certificate (PRC) had not yet been rehabilitated. These people were offered permanent residency, with the condition that it would last only till the time they were alive; now their children and grandchildren are denied admissions and jobs. Similarly, the Gorkhas who came in 18th Century and have served the state and its people are also denied PRC, she said. According to an RSS functionary, the issue came up for discussion at the Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak meeting held in Jammu in June, where the Sangh brass reiterated the need to repeal the Article. The decision to mobilise support for repealing the Article, which the Sangh feels is a fraud, was taken at the meeting, the functionary said on condition of anonymity. The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Saturday said the party was open to a debate over Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of the state, as protests continued against the August 6 Supreme Court hearing on petitions challenging the provision. The apex court is hearing a batch of petitions in the matter, including the one filed by an RSS-linked NGO We the Citizens, seeking quashing of the article. The BJP is open to a debate with anyone or any political party on whether or not Article 35A is in the interest of the people of the state. We are extending an open invitation, the state BJP chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi told reporters here. He said over the last few days, the political climate in the state has heated up over Article 35A and some political parties, especially those active in Kashmir, have taken an anti-national and anti-people stand on the issue. Targeting the National Conference (NC) and the Congress, Sethi said people in the Valley are being misled over Article 35A by being told that it is for their betterment and in the interest of the state. The continuation of Article 35A will not have any benefit for the state. The central government has pumped crores of rupees into the state over the last 70 years but the development has not been as it should have been, he said. He said Article 35A has acted as an obstacle in the states development because it did not allow outside investment. Investors do not come here to set up Infrastructure. The youth are not getting the jobs, he added. The BJP spokesperson alleged some politicians want to maintain the position for vote bank politics. Responding to a statement by the NCs provincial president Devender Singh Rana that the special provision was introduced by Maharaja Hari Singh to safeguard the interests of the state, Sethi said the situation was different from what it was now when the law was enacted. It was a princely state and not a part of India at that time. After accession, Jammu and Kashmir became part of India, he said. When we are a part of India then what is the need for separate provisions and that too when it has created hurdles in the development and is also discriminatory in nature, he added. Accusing Rana of playing politics over the name of Maharaja Hari Singh, Sethi said it was the NC and the Congress who conspired to send the king out of the state and did not allow him to return till death. As a result of Article 35A, West Paksitan refugees, who came to the state in 1947, have been denied the right of being state subjects, which was promised to them, and local girls who marry outside the state lose their right over property, he said. Jammu and Kashmir is not for foreigners but West Pakistan refugees are Indians and can live anywhere in the country, but not Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals, he said. My appeal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir is to understand the real purpose of Article 35A. It is like an iron chain which is keeping us from moving forward. If the state subject laws change, it will benefit the state, Sethi said. He said if the article is repealed, new laws could be made to pave way for industrial growth and to prevent outsiders from settling in residential areas. Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagams (DMK) principal secretary Duraimurugan said on Saturday that the partys ailing patriarch M Karunanidhi, 94, will be discharged from the hospital within two to three days. Karunanidhis health condition has improved a lot as compared to last week. He is able to listen to what we are saying. He has overcome the critical period and his health parameters are improving. He will return to home within two or three days, Duraimurugan, a senior party leader, told media. Karunanidhi was admitted to Chennais Kauvery Hospital on July 28 after his health deteriorated. Kalaignar, as the DMK chief is popularly known, had recently undergone a tracheotomy to enhance the functioning of his lungs and has been suffering from geriatric complaints. On Saturday, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and Union minister for civil aviation Suresh Prabhu reached Kauvery Hospital and enquired about the treatment being provided to the DMK supremo. The partys working president and Karunanidhis son MK Stalin and his half-sister MK Kanimozhi briefed the two leaders about the improvement in Karunanidhis health. Former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) director Mayilsami Annadurai also visited the hospital to enquire about Karunanidhis health. Kashmir is bracing for street protests and a two-day strike amid fears that Article 35A, which bars outsiders from owning property or getting jobs in the restive state, will be repealed when the Supreme Court hears a petition on Monday. Trade groups, civil society and other social organisations have come together with separatists and political parties amid fears that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to revoke the provision in an attempt to change the states demography. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) have given call for a two-day shutdown on Sunday and Monday across the state. The strike call has been supported by organisations across the spectrum, which have threatened to launch a mass agitation if the article is removed by the court. Posters and video clips issued by separatists and social organisations explaining Article 35As importance and dangers if it is repealed have been making rounds on social media. For the past three days, protests have been organised by various groups in different parts of the Valley as people fear that efforts are being made to remove the Article. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik led a protest demonstration at Residency Road in Srinagar soon after culmination of Friday prayers. Protestors carrying placards shouted pro-freedom slogans and warned of serious consequences if Article 35A is removed. No court whether in India or in Pakistan has any jurisdiction to take decisions that can in any way affect the disputed status of J&K as its original citizens are yet to exercise the right to determine their final dispensation as promised by the UN and backed by India and Pakistan, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said after chairing a high-level meeting to discuss the issue. Any attempt to change the demographic character of J&K and its disputed nature is intolerable. Our cadres and activists along with people are ready for all-out mass agitation if any tinkering with 35A is allowed under a legal garb, he added. Kashmir Economic Alliance, an amalgam of various trade and industrial bodies, has also said that people are ready for any sacrifice. For safeguarding our rights we are even ready to give our blood. The attempts are being made to remove Article 35A through court and we are not going to tolerate it, the alliances chairperson Yasin Khan said. The Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association has already filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court to defend the constitutional provision that allows the state legislature to define permanent residents and confers special rights on them. The bars team is already in New Delhi. Officials aware of the development said governor NN Vohra had also sought a deferment of the hearing and has taken up the issue with Union home minister Rajnath Singh. He has urged the Centre to defer the hearing until an elected government is back in the state. While Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Article 35A gives special rights to Jammu and Kashmirs permanent residents. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. It also forbids the J&K government from hiring people who are non-permanent residents. Four petitions three clubbed with the main one filed by NGO We The Citizens have challenged Article 35As legality on the grounds that it was never presented before Parliament and was implemented on the Presidents orders in 1954. Under the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954, the provision appears as an appendix in the Constitution and not an amendment. The family members of a man who was killed while trying to intrude into former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullahs Bhatindi house on Saturday morning have demanded a probe into the incident. The intruder Murad Ali Shah of Galuta in Poonch district had allegedly entered into a scuffle with CRPF personnel after crashing through the gates of Abdullahs residence around 9.30 am. Murad was here with me at our house last night. He left for the gym at Parade Ground around 5 am, as is his daily routine. I do not know how he reached Farooq Abdullahs house, or why he was killed by security personnel. Was he carrying a weapon? questioned his father, Imzaz Hussain Shah. Imzaz insisted that his son, who was preparing for his graduation as a private student, would have come armed if he was doing it at the behest of militant groups. He expressed ignorance when told that the authorities believed he could have committed the act under the influence of narcotics. I am not aware if he was using drugs. These days, no parent can be sure if their child has fallen victim to drug abuse, he said. Imzaz runs a gun shop at Ban Talab in the temple city. Murads cousin, Sartaj Din Shah, dismissed all suggestions about Murad being a drug user. Why would he take drugs? He was a pursuing his graduation. Security personnel could have easily arrested him. Why did they have to kill him? Did they find any explosives in his car? he asked. The Abdullahs were not home at the time of the incident. However, police said Murad was killed only after he entered into a scuffle with CRPF personnel. After crashing his Mahindra XUV into the gate of Farooq Abdullahs residence, the intruder tried to snatch a CRPF guards weapon. The man was scuffling with security personnel in the lobby area when he was taken down, said inspector general of police (Jammu zone) SDS Jamwal. Security personnel also found prescriptions for psychotropic drugs in Murads vehicle, indicating that he was either mentally ill or addicted to narcotics. The intruder did not have a weapon on him, said Jamwal, adding that security personnel are searching the grounds to check for other potential intruders. The police officer refused to speculate on a terror angle to the incident, stating that only a thorough investigation can help them ascertain all the facts. Poonch police have been asked to go into the details shared by their Jammu counterparts on Murad. A mentally unsound man forced his way into the Kerala House near Connaught Place on Saturday morning, but was stopped before he could get far. Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Madhur Verma said the state mission building was hosting Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the time when Vimal Raj a 46-year-old resident of Alappuzha barged in. An inspection of the mans bag revealed the presence of a kitchen knife. The police officer said Raj bypassed security personnel at the main gate and tried to enter the building around 9.45 am. Video footage then showed him telling a security officer on the Kerala Bhawan lawn that he had been running from pillar to post in connection with a certain case for the last one month. A group of security personnel landed at the spot and pinned Raj down, even as he insisted loudly that he had not done anything wrong. According to police, Raj had the Tricolour pinned to his shirt. Verma said medical records found in Rajs possession showed him as 80% mentally unsound. Police are in the process of admitting him to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences for examination and treatment. A planned protest by a section of the Opposition against Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu fizzled out even before it really began. Some Opposition parties had together prepared a letter to highlight their anguish against some actions of Naidu earlier this week but on Friday, at an informal morning meeting of party leaders at Naidus chamber, the Opposition appeared divided about its next course of action. According to a leader present in the meeting who asked not to be identified, Naidu told the leaders that he had read the news about a letter being drafted and added: I am waiting to get that letter. This person added that Naidu also said that as chairman he did not have the liberty to speak to the media and that he was leaving it to the wisdom of the members to decide their course of action. The leader said that the Congress floor leader Bhubneshwar Kalita announced that he wasnt aware about a letter and added that he had no issues with Naidu. Kalita could not be contacted for comment. Trinamools Derek OBrien was present but he didnt say anything. Samajwadi Party floor leader Ramgopal Yadav came late and said that he would never be a party to any such missive to the Chair, said a second political leader present in the meeting who too didnt want to be identified. The leaders mostly said they were not consulted and dont support it. Senior congress leaders also said they were not aware of any such draft, said a government functionary present in the meeting who asked not to be identified. According to another person familiar with the matter, minutes after the meeting was over, Congress deputy leader in the Upper House Anand Sharma met Naidu exclusively and is believed to have said that he too, is not aware of any such move. When contacted, Sharma confirmed that he told Naidu he was not aware of any such protest letter. Biju Janata Dal leader Prasanna Acharya wondered how such allegations against the chair could be made and told Naidu that he is ready to give a statement in the House to distance his party from the plan to write a letter against the chairman, according to another leader. Later, Telangana Rashtriya Samithis floor leader D Srinivas wrote a letter to Naidu saying that we are not upset with you and the way you are running the House. Nor are we a party to any plan to write to you. The Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Telugu Desam Party were not present in the meeting. The government functionary pointed out that given the personal equation between Naidu and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, it is unlikely that the TDP would be a party to protest letters against the Rajya Sabha chairman. The opposition parties have reached a broad strategic understanding to together defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and a decision on the groupings Prime Ministerial candidate will be taken only after the polls, said a senior Congress office-bearer who spoke on condition of anonymity. We dont want to create any confusion or disruption among the opposition parties at this juncture. The leadership issue is divisive and we dont want to discuss it at this point, he added. The Congress leader claimed that his party is dealing the alliance issue in two stages first that all of the opposition parties have to together take on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 polls; and second, that the call on the Prime Ministerial candidate will be taken after the results. A broad consensus has been reached among the opposition parties in this regard. Our primary job is to defeat the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh). There is a feeling among all opposition parties that the primary job is to defeat institution-capturing by RSS. What happens after elections will depend on how different parties perform, what elections have to show. We do not want to get into anything divisive, the leader said. The Congress leader expressed confidence that his party would considerably improve its performance in next years elections, especially in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Haryana. In 2014, it managed to win only 44 seats in the Lok sabha, a record low. Striking proper alliances in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra is crucial, he said, claiming that the BJP is expected to lose a major chunk of its seats in these states, which would pave the way for the ouster of Modi. Consultations between the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the Congress have been going on and details of seat-sharing are being worked out, the leader said. Asked about the alliance with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the Congress leader refused to give details, saying he cannot divulge the specifics now. However, he asserted that the Congress would not have a tie-up with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra as the two parties are ideologically poles apart and there can be no alignment between them. Asked about the possibility of a tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said the Congress leadership respects and does not overrule the views of state units before striking alliances. State units are the starting points when it comes to forging alliances. The Congress leadership does not overrule the state units and cant ignore their views, the leader said. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the partys highest decision making body, had on July 22 authorised Rahul Gandhi to take a call on pre and post-alliances for the 2019 polls. The Congress leader expressed confidence that his party would win the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He said the Congress is unlikely to project a chief ministerial candidate in these states. The Congress leader claimed that if the BJP wins less than 230 and 240 seats, Modi will not become the PM. The NDA allies might not agree to him becoming the Prime Minister. There is also a possibility that someone else from the BJP might emerge as the PM candidate, he said. We are sure that if proper alliances happen in UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, Modi will not come back to power. In fact, BJP will not even win five seats in UP. In 2014, the BJP won 71 seats out of 80 in the state and one of its allies won 2. After preventing a silent solidarity rally of opposition parties on Friday, police removed a temporary shed later in the night which protesters in Manipur University were using to stage a relay hunger strike to press their demand for the removal of Vice Chancellor Adya Prasad Pandey. A team of policemen came around midnight and removed the temporary shed where the university students, teachers and others stage hunger strike, a security guard at the Universitys main gate said. However, teachers and students of the Manipur University continued to stage relay hunger strike demanding the removal of Pandey inside the campus Saturday morning. The relay hunger strike began on July 9. V-C Adya Prasad Pandey is facing calls for resignation from students and teachers over allegations ranging from administrative negligence to misuse of varsity funds. Pandey who went on a month-long leave on Thursday, has claimed that the accusations are false allegation and refused to step down from his post. The District Magistrate of Imphal West district imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC in the district to prohibit any form of rallies or procession beginning 1 pm of Friday amid concerns over the deteriorating conditions on the Manipur University campus. The academic activities at the central university have been under suspension since May 30 after Manipur University Students Union (MUSU) launched indefinite shutdown demanding Pandeys removal over allegations of financial and administrative irregularities, including regular unofficial tours and violation of the University Act. The agitation is backed by Manipur University Teachers Association (MUTA) and Manipur University Staffs Association (MUSA). The one-month granted to the VC evoked sharp reaction from MUTA and MUSA. President S Jibankumar of MUSA alleged that the move was contradictory to the service rules and did not mention the reason for the leave while L Sanjukumar, Secretary of MUTA said that the varsity community opposed giving leave to Pandey when the state is agitating for his ouster for two months. He also claimed that W Vishwanath Singh, the sebior most professor has already declined to perform the duty of the V-C. On Thursday, Registrar in charge M Shyamkesho Singh of the Manipur University issued an order to grant leave for one month from August 2, 2018 to Prof Pandey as authorized by the HRD ministry. As per the statute 2(6) of the Manipur University Act, 2005, the senior most Professor shall perform the duties of the V-C if the office of the V-C becomes vacant, the order said. W Vishwanath Singh is the senior most professor. On July 17, the ministry had also re-constituted fact finding committee by including a retired judge of high court of Meghalaya following request from a delegation led by Manipur Chief Minister N Biren to conduct an enquiry into the allegations. However, the agitators have stuck to their demand of Pandeys removal and an enquiry by an independent body. Pandey, a professor of economics at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), was appointed as the head of Manipur University in October 2016. There seems to be no end to anomalies in the final draft of Assams National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was published on July 30. After reports of how 200 doubtful voters and declared foreigners found a place in the draft in Muslim-dominated Morigaon, contrary to the directions of the Supreme Court, families who claim to have come after March 25, 1971, the citizenship cut-off date in Assam, have still managed to get their names in the NRC draft. Bimal Das (32) claims he came to Assam about 25-26 years back. I do not remember the exact year when we came from Bangladesh. I was too young, Das, a resident of a settlement on Silchars Ashram road, said. While Das is in, but in line with several other instances, his two sons and his mother are not part of the draft. Sons Bikash and Biki are not there, he said. Bimal Das showed the legacy document (a document used to establish the lineage to pre-1971), a 1971 voters list which has the name of his father Shashi Das registered as a voter in North Karimganj. The son gave his voters identification card to establish his linkage. But he claims he has no memory of his father. He passed away when I was too young. We lived in another settlement in Silchar town then. Bimal Das daughter, however, managed to make it along with wife Shipu Choudhary, who submitted a gram panchayat secretary certificate a document submitted by married women as a proof of their residence in absence of other documents after a Supreme Court order from Irongomara village in Cachar. A similar claim was made by Promila Das. My husband came from Bangladesh, she said. Her 42-year-old husband Dhuroni Das pulls a cart. Promila claims she was born in Cachar. In this family, too, the 19-year-old daughter Pronobi Das has been left out while the rest of the family including the husbands names are in the draft. S Lakshmanan, the deputy commissioner Cachar says there are many possibilities of how those who came after March 25, 1971 could have made it to the NRC draft. But anyone can file an objection but the onus of proving it is on one who files it, he said pointing to the claims and objections exercise which will start from August 7, to verify the problems in the draft which excluded 40,07,707 people. The NRC Nagrik Seva Kendra at Ambikapur village, under which this settlement falls, saw 30% people excluded. Cachar district, with a 63% Hindu population, has seen around 13% of the 2,28,000 people not finding their names in the final draft list. It was from this settlement that we detected a large number of fake documents, said Subhash Chandra Sinha, an official working at the Seva Kendra. Contrary to Brahmaputra Valley, where the anti-Bidexi (anti-foreigner) narrative is shrill and demands for their deportation have been routine since the Assam Accord in 1985, a section of people in Bengali-speaking Barak Valley seem accommodative. Barak Valley districts have seen several waves of migration, especially after Partition when Hindus, who became a minority, first in East Pakistan and later Bangladesh, crossed the border to escape persecution. We supported the Citizenship Amendment Bill because of atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, said Shyamal Das, a former councillor in Silchars Kalibari Char, even as he maintained that none of the 10,000 people there have come after 1971. The Bill, which seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, would make attaining citizenship easy for religious minorities (Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians) who have come to escape religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Bill is stuck after it was referred to a joint parliamentary committee post protests on its anti-constitutional nature, especially in Brahmaputra Valley. But, Muslims, who have been living in Barak Valley for generations blame these outsiders for all the problems. Thirty years back there was nothing... NRC is good. Outsiders come and create trouble. We had no communal problem with the locals, says Fatehuddin Laskar, as he pointed to the shanties in Kalibari Char which has seen sporadic cases of low intensity communal conflagration since 2017. If they accommodate us it is good, but its also okay if they dont, he said. But it has been so many years since we came. Where will we go back? he asked. I hope my children also make it through in the next round, Bimal said. The National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party held separate protests in Srinagar on Saturday and warned the Central government that the situation in the state could deteriorate if Article 35 A of the Constitution that guarantees special privileges to the state is tinkered with. The protests were held even as Jammu and Kashmir government asked the Supreme Court to defer the August 6 hearing on a bunch of petitions for quashing Article 35A citing upcoming panchayat and urban local body elections. Article 35 A empowers the states legislature to define permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and provide special rights and privileges to them. Many NC leaders and dozens of activists marched from party office Nawaisubh to Sheri Kashmir Park in Srinagar carrying banners and chanting slogans in favour of the states special status. Senior NC leader and MLA Khanyar, Ali Mohammad Sagar said that there were conspiracies against the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and blamed them on people affiliated with the BJP. We are protesting across Kashmir and want to send a message to people in Delhi not to tinker with Article 35 A or Article 370. People of Jammu and Kashmir are united irrespective of their political affiliations; people from every region and religion have come together to defend these articles of the constitution. The leaders in Delhi should take note and there should be no action against the wishes and aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir, otherwise the situation will worsen here, Sagar said. Read| What is Article 35A and why the controversy Dozens of PDP workers led by some prominent leaders also protested outside the party office near Sheri Kashmir Park demanding dismissal of all cases against Article 35 A. This protest is in solidarity with wishes of people. Our leader Mehbooba Mufti has made it clear that any tinkering with Articles 370 and 35 A will create big issues in Jammu and Kashmir. People here wont tolerate any change to special status. We stand to protect states special position in every situation, said Mohammad Khurshid Alam, MLC and PDPs district president in Srinagar. While Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Article 35A disallows people from the rest of India from buying or owning immovable property in the state, settle permanently, or get state government jobs. For the past four days there have been protests by traders, transporters, fruit growers, people related to tourism, separatists and civil society amid fears that the states special status will be revoked through the legal route. Posters and banners have been erected across the city asking people to remain together. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) have given call for a two-day shutdown on Sunday and Monday across the state and blamed BJP and RSS for attempt to change the demography of the state. The strike call has been supported by many organizations and civil society members across the spectrum. The All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee has also come out in support of the special status. In a statement, the Committees Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said that majority of the people does not want any dilution of Article 35 A. People irrespective of caste, colour, religion and region have voiced their resentment over the attempts being made to abrogate Article 35 A. This unity should be an eye-opener for the fringe group and they should desist from their moves. People of Jammu and Kashmir have a distinct identity and they cannot compromise about it, said Raina. The Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association and the NC have filed intervention applications in the Supreme Court to defend the constitutional provision. Four petitions three clubbed with the main one filed by NGO We The Citizens have challenged Article 35As legality on the grounds that it was never presented before Parliament and was implemented on the Presidents orders in 1954. Under the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954, the provision appears as an appendix in the Constitution and not an amendment. The political battle over the sexual abuse of girls at the Muzaffarpur short stay home is all set to intensify, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) gearing up for a protest rally along with other Opposition parties at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday. A candlelight march will also be taken out as part of the event. RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav left for the national capital on Friday evening. He has said that the protest would be a non-political event despite the presence of top Opposition leaders. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have confirmed their participation in the demonstration because the incident has shaken them as well. Dinesh Trivedi from the Trinamool Congress, Dharmendra Yadav from the Samajwadi Party and Satish Chandra Mishra from the Bahujan Samaj Party will also be there, along with civil society workers, human rights activists and representatives of all major political parties, he said. Tejashwi also wrote a letter to chief minister Nitish Kumar, raising serious concern over the safety of girls in Bihar. Having seven sisters, it pains me to even imagine what the little girls at the shelter home were forced to undergo. It is a most shameful incident. When we raised it in the assembly, the government tried to mislead the house. Were they not Bihars daughters? Has our conscience died? Whatever happened with the girls amounted to betrayal of their trust, given that they were promised protection there. What they got in return was physical, mental and sexual torture. The culprits should be hanged once their guilt is established in court, he wrote. Tejashwi also wrote an emotional letter to chief minister Nitish Kumar, raising serious concern about safety of Bihars innocent daughters. Tejashwi declared that the dharna in Delhi was aimed at bringing the true picture of present-day Bihar before the entire country. It cannot get worse than this. The manner in which they tried to hush up the matter at the very beginning smacks of a deep-rooted conspiracy, he said, adding that the authorities delayed FIRs and manipulated inspection reports in connection with the crime. Tejashwi said the condemnation of the Muzaffarpur shelter scandal issued by the chief minister on Friday was not enough. Theres still a lot left to be answered. Why was Brajesh Thakur here, there and everywhere, running all kinds of stay homes, getting government funds from different departments for campaigns and ads? It shows that he had a lot of clout at all the right places, he alleged, adding that the scandal has exposed the so-called social reforms agenda of the Nitish Kumar government. Tejashwi also wondered how a girl staying at the Madhubani stay home, run by the Parihar Seva Sansthan, had disappeared mysteriously. In such a sensitive case, the government should have ensured their care and protection. There are reports that the Madhubani stay home is also run by the wife of a person close to a senior JD(U) functionary. The NGO claims to have a huge network in Bihar and Jharkhand, but the manner in which a girl can go missing from there is a cause for concern, he added. Major opposition parties, some of them fighting each other in states, came together, to protest against the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur on Saturday. They demanded the guilty be brought to book and accused the BJP-led NDA government of pursuing anti-women polices. The show of Opposition unity, led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, was occasioned by the protest march organised by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) at Jantar Mantar. Prominent leaders who joined the protest included Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, RJDs Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, CPI(M)s Sitaram Yechury, CPIs D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, DMKs TKS Elangovan, INLDs Dushyant Chautala and TMCs Dinesh Trivedi. Addressing the protesters, Opposition leaders attacked the BJP and demanded stringent punishment against those involved in such heinous crimes through a speedy investigation monitored by the Supreme Court. Congress president Rahul Gandhi said if Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is ashamed of the incident, he should take action immediately. We stand with the women of India, we stand with the girls and their families who suffered in this shelter home, Gandhi said. The Congress president said the country is at a crucial crossroads with the BJP and the RSS on one side and the entire nation on the other. This will be seen more in many ways in the coming days, he added. India is saying that what has happened in the last four years, we do not like. When India makes up its mind, then no one can stand before it, Gandhi said. We have gathered here for the women of our country and we stand with them. If Nitish ji is really feeling ashamed then he should take immediate action: Congress President Rahul Gandhi at protest led by RJD against Bihar government on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/9gwtMXg1W7 ANI (@ANI) August 4, 2018 Recalling the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl on December 16, 2012, Kejriwal said fast track courts should be set up to give death sentences to the accused for such heinous crime. I demand that this case be probed in three months and the accused be hanged, he added. The chief minister of the capital further alleged that the accused have connections with influential people and that women need freedom from BJP men and their social media warriors who dont even spare senior leaders like Sushma Swaraj. Tejashwi, who targeted Nitish Kumar over the incident, demanded a probe monitored by the Supreme Court. He said there is Rakshas Raj in the state of Bihar though those who support the government (the BJP) talk about Ram Rajya. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Demanding justice for the girls of the shelter home, he said the accused should be given exemplary punishment and steps be taken to ensure this does not happen again. He alleged that the state government kept on funding those who ran the home despite receiving clear signals of wrongdoing. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury alleged anarchy is being propagated by governments in BJP-ruled states. Sharad Yadav added that these crimes have taken place under the nose of the JD(U)-BJP government and demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe conducted by the CBI. This is only way to ensure justice to the people, he added. He also said that a national commission should be set up to probe such crimes across the country. The BJP is not saving the daughters of the country. It is instead busy saving cows, he added. How do you shoot war, hunger, poverty; capture the human impact of a rape, terror attack or natural calamity? These are questions as old as the camera itself, and there are no perfect answers. But there was general consensus that Italian photographer Alessio Mamo had got it wrong when he posted images from a conceptual series titled Dreaming Food on the World Press Photo (WPP) Foundations Instagram account last week. In the series, villagers in impoverished parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are shown with their hands covering their faces, standing before a table covered with plates of fake food. This series was not photojournalism or journalism of any kind, says Arko Datta, who won the World Press Photo of the Year award in 2004. (WPP gives out internationally coveted awards in photojournalism every year, and occasionally hands over its Insta page to renowned photographers.) So how do you get it right when shooting the poor, hungry person of colour? For one thing, you check your privilege, says documentary photographer Ronny Sen. Treat the subject as you would treat someone of your means, colour and social position. One of the images posted by Italian photographer Alessio Mamo on the World Press Photo Instagram account last week. The images were from a conceptual series titled Dreaming Food and were meant Colour, composition, tonality everything has an effect on how you tell your story. Its the politics of aesthetics. Look at the arrangement, light and skin tone of a CEO and a Rohingya refugee in the same magazine, and youll see it yourself, says documentary photographer Ronny Sen. In their pursuit of something different, Mamo and the organisation have treated poverty in the third world as interesting and that is an approach they should be ashamed of, says veteran photojournalist Raghu Rai. This was not documentation; the artificiality made it crude, insensitive and dehumanising. The post is still live on the WPP page, and what worries photographers is that the Foundation never explained why they thought it met their standards. A routine statement only reiterated that photographers are occasionally given the opportunity to share work of their choosing While its never a good idea to introduce props and request a pose, as Mamo did, several thumb rules are ignored in the field, particularly by people photographing the marginalised on a regular basis. Have you spoken to each subject; sought permission for the faces visible in a group; are you avoiding or reinforcing stereotypes, these are questions you have to ask yourself, says photojournalist Chirag Wakaskar, who runs the account Everyday Mumbai on Instagram. Rai recalls a time in the late 1970s when he visited Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity, to document the lives of the homeless people living there. Mother Teresa told me that she was fine with me taking as many photos as I needed, but asked me to ensure that the dignity of the person was not compromised. I was 36 and had been working for a while but this was surprising for me. This kind of concern had only come from celebrities and VIPs representatives. Her perspective helped me prioritise human dignity, which I believe is crucial for any good photographer. Rai adds that this also made him realise that there is constant dialogue between the photographer and the subject. Every person in a picture says something in their silence; it is the job of the photographer to respect that silent voice, he says. Mother and Child, Malana (Himachal Pradesh). I was shooting the architecture here, and the village was very suspicious of outsiders at the time, says photographer and curator Ram Rahman. There was no question of taking any photos of the women. But this mother stood in front of me with her baby and asked me to take her photo. I was very tense. I clicked this frame under her direction and it turned out to be one of my favourite photos. Shooting at a home run by Mother Teresa in the 1970s, I realised there is constant dialogue between photographer and subject. Every person in a picture says something in their silence; it is the job of the photographer to respect that silent voice, says veteran photojournalist Raghu Rai. Sen describes it also as the difference between saying something for shock value and actually having something to say. If you have something to say, you are already likely starting from a place of compassion and context, Sen adds. Do your homework Context is everything. You cannot tell stories in a place that is new to you, if you do not acknowledge the stories that already exist, says Wakaskar. Do your homework and learn about the place beyond a mere scratching of the surface. That is the only way to really move on from the racist past of photography, which has traditionally been the White eyes view of the world. This is also true of urban Indian photographers turning up overnight in parts of the country they know little about. Every photographer should spend some time in a new area, without a camera, as a research period, senior photographers say. Because a press photographer is not at the scene in the role of an artist, or creator, Datta adds. The most binding rule for the journalist to remember, Datta says, is that he or she is just a messenger communicating a ground reality. When you put yourself before the story, try to find ways to grab eyeballs, it starts to unravel. Talking about a photo he took of a woman from the Baiga tribe in Madhya Pradesh, documentary photographer Ronny Sen says, I make it a point to try to capture the person as I would if they had commissioned me to do a portrait. The proof that I got it right, for me, was that she loved the photo. Back to the basics If the intention (as stated) was to alert people to the food wasted at Christmas time, there are enough homeless and hungry people in the US and UK to represent that contrast, says photographer and curator Ram Rahman. Colour, composition, tonality, literally your point of view everything has an effect on how you tell your story, says Sen. Its the politics of aesthetics. I never photograph people from a top angle unless that angle is important or my last option. I try to photograph at eye-level. If the person is sitting, I sit. You look at the arrangement, light and the skin tone of an editorial shoot with the CEO of a company and compare that with photos taken of Rohingya refugees, for example, in the very same magazine, and you will see the difference yourself, he adds. He shares an example of a photo he took of a woman from the Baiga tribe in Madhya Pradesh. There is a tendency to romanticise or exoticise such images. I make it a point to try to capture the person as I would if they had commissioned me to do a portrait. The proof that I got it right, for me, was that she loved the photo. Thats very important to me, especially when representing the marginalised the person should like what they see, Sen says. He shares a line from the public intellectual Susan Sontag as a tip for photojournalists, particularly when covering deprivation: Someone who is permanently surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of gruesome, hands-on cruelties upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood. In a statement issued amid the uproar, Mamo argued that his intention was to shock. If the intention (as stated) was to alert people to the food wasted at Christmas time, there are enough homeless and hungry people in the US and UK to represent that contrast, says photographer and curator Ram Rahman. Many people have shot hunger in India too. Sunil Janah and Margaret Bourke-White focussed on the famine in Bengal and southern India in the 1940s with powerful images that shook the conscience of the nation. These images are terribly trite, at best. (With inputs from Paroma Mukherjee) Young people studying in Delhi will now be able to get their Learners Driving licence from their college or poytechnic, transport minister Kailash Gahlot announced on Saturday. The minister took to microblogging site Twitter to announce that the Delhi government has empowered directors and principals of colleges to issue learners licences. Young and studying in Delhi? You can soon get your Learners Driving licence from your college itself, the tweet read. A Learners Licence is valid for up to six months. The initiative will help about two lakh students from various colleges, polytechnics and ITIs in Delhi, according to Gahlot. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal retweeted the announcement and called it a big step in cutting red tape and reducing corruption. Delhi Govt empowers Directors & Principals of Colleges , Polytechnics & ITIs to issue Learner's License. Over 2 lakh students will benefit each year. "A very big step in cutting red tape, reducing corruption & making Aam Aadmis life easy"- @ArvindKejriwal#AAPGovernance pic.twitter.com/XKsF3tyVr1 AAP (@AamAadmiParty) August 4, 2018 Ahead of the August 6 hearing in the Supreme Court of the petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution, which grants special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir, separatists have called a shutdown on August 4 and 5 in protest against governments alleged move to tamper with the Article. The petition in the case has been filed by a Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens, saying the states autonomous status granted by Article 35(A) and Article 370 of the Constitution discriminate against fellow citizens from the rest of the country. What is Article 35A? Article 35A gives special rights to the Jammu and Kashmirs permanent residents. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. It also forbids the J-K government from hiring people who are non-permanent residents. Article 35A was added to Article 370 by a Presidential order in 1954. Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define the states permanent residents and their special rights and privileges. What is the controversy? The provision in Article 35A that grants special rights and privileges to permanent citizens appears in the Constitution as an appendix, and not as an amendment. According to the NGO, Article 35A should be held unconstitutional as the President could not have amended the Constitution by way of the 1954 order, and that it was only supposed to be a temporary provision. The Article was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately. The Jammu and Kashmir government has contested the petition, saying the President had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order. Even as the Opposition protested against a Mahatma Gandhi statue allegedly being painted saffron in a Shahjahanpur village, a similar issue involving the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) office in Lucknow created a flutter among party workers on Friday. Congress leaders insisted that the UPCC office walls had been painted yellow by mistake, but photographs of the structure purportedly painted in a shade of saffron a colour associated with the ruling BJP went viral on the social media. Later, the Congress repainted the walls white to avoid any further confusion. We had selected the German Yellow shade for our walls but the labourer painted the wall yellow by mistake. This created some confusion. We then decided to repaint the walls white, clarified UPCC media coordinator Rajiv Bakshi. Meanwhile, UPCC president Raj Babbar on Friday criticised the act of painting the Mahatma Gandhi statue saffron. Some people are trying to divide the society and spread hatred by painting the statues of great leaders. Mahatma Gandhi used white clothes, symbolising peace and purity, to cover himself. Painting his statue in a different colour amounts to disrespecting him, he said. Police on Thursday arrested a class 12 and class 9 student from Sonamukhi in Bengals Bankura district for threatening a teacher and demanding Rs 50,000. An improvised pistol and three cartridges were seized from the students at the time of the arrest. They were later produced before a special court that sent them to a home for juvenile delinquents till August 14. The class 12 student, the prime accused, told police that he wanted to take revenge on Bipul Biswas, an English teacher of Dhulai RKM Vidyamandir who also gives private tuitions in Sonamukhi. Read | Lets talk about teenage violence: I am a 15-year-old accused of murder Police also arrested Dipan Chatterjee, from whom the class 12 student purchased the firearm, as well as another class 9 student. Chatterjee had recently completed a course in engineering. All the students, who are from the same school, were sent to welfare homes while Chatterjee was sent to judicial custody for seven days after he was produced in Bishnupur court. The key accused paid Chatterjee Rs 30,000 to get hold of the firearm. He borrowed the money for the purpose, said a police officer of Sonamukhi police station on conditions of anonymity. Read | Lets Talk About Teenage Violence: Safety is not another word for care, writes a school principal On Thursday morning, the students telephoned Biswas on his mobile phone and said he would be killed if he did not pay up within half an hour. They said they had placed a camera inside Biswass toilet and recorded embarrassing videos of members of his family. They threatened to make the video public. The students have been booked under Arms Act and Section 506 of Indian Penal Code (punishment for criminal intimidation), said Sukhendu Hira, superintendent of police, Bankura district. Read | Why children are at risk of sexual violence in schools: We have rules, but no vigil To convince Biswas, the students made an audio tape in which they repeated their threats and took a photograph of the pistol. They transferred these files to a memory card and placed the card inside a matchbox. The students left the matchbox outside the entrance of Biswass residence and asked him to collect it. Confused by the call, Biswas went to Sonamukhi police station. Police tracked the number from which Biswas was called and the students were arrested within a couple of hours. The class 12 student attended my classes. I dont know why they did this, said Biswas, who lives in a rented house with his wife and child. A broad understanding has been reached among major opposition parties to give a joint fight to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Yes, there is a consensus to fight elections jointly to check division of votes. A respectable number of seats will be given to the allies, confirmed Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Raj Babbar. As modalities for seat-sharing are being finalized on state-to-state basis, and top leaders are in touch for the purpose, the Congress hopes the understanding among opposition parties will be able finally check the BJP in states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar etc. BSP, Samajwadi Party, RLD and the Congress will fight the elections together in Uttar Pradesh, said a senior Congress leader did not want to be named. The leader said the party already has allies in some states like the NCP in Maharashtra. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has given the go-ahead for the alliance and asked senior party leaders to ensure that the allies get respectable share of seats. Top leaders are in close touch. The Congress already has an alliance in the NCP in Maharashtra. There will also be some understanding in Bihar, Punjab and some other states, said the leader. A decision on the united oppositions Prime Ministerial candidate will be taken only after the polls, said a senior Congress office-bearer, on condition of anonymity, in Delhi. We dont want to create any confusion or disruption among the opposition parties at this juncture. The leadership issue is divisive and we dont want to discuss it at this point, he added. The Congress leader claimed that his party is dealing the alliance issue in two stages first that all of the opposition parties have to together take on the BJP and Prime Minister in the 2019 polls; and second, that the call on the Prime Ministerial candidate will be taken after the results. A broad consensus has been reached among the opposition parties in this regard. Our primary job is to defeat the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh). There is a feeling among all opposition parties that the primary job is to defeat institution-capturing by RSS. What happens after elections will depend on how different parties perform, what elections have to show. We do not want to get into anything divisive, the leader said. The Congress leader expressed confidence that his party would considerably improve its performance in next years elections, especially in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Haryana. In 2014, it managed to win only 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, a record low. Striking a proper alliances in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra is crucial, he said, claiming that the BJP is expected to lose a major chunk of its seats in these states, which would pave the way for the ouster of Modi. Asked about the alliance with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the Congress leader refused to give details, saying he cannot divulge the specifics now. However, he asserted that the Congress would not have a tie-up with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra as the two parties are ideologically poles apart and there can be no alignment between them. Asked about the possibility of a tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said the Congress leadership respects and does not overrule the views of state units before striking alliances. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the partys highest decision making body, had on July 22 authorised Rahul Gandhi to take a call on pre and post-alliances for the 2019 polls. The Congress leader expressed confidence that his party would win the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He said the Congress is unlikely to project a chief ministerial candidate in these states. He claimed that if the BJP wins less than 230 and 240 seats, Modi will not become the PM. The NDA allies might not agree to him becoming the Prime Minister. There is also a possibility that someone else from the BJP might emerge as the PM candidate, he said. We are sure that if proper alliances happen in UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, Modi will not come back to power. In fact, BJP will not even win five seats in UP. In 2014, the BJP won 71 seats out of 80 in the state and one of its allies won 2. (With inputs from HTC/Delhi) The Allahabad high court on Friday dismissed a petition, challenging the dismissal of a criminal complaint case filed against Yogi Adityanath in Maharajganj in 1999 when he was a Member of Parliament. After hearing the parties concerned, justice Saumitra Dayal Singh dismissed the revision petition filed by Talat Aziz, a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader. In the petition it was alleged that the then Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath reached a meeting, organised by Talat Aziz in Maharajganj on February 10, 1999, and created disturbances, which ultimately resulted in violent clashes. It was alleged that during the violent disturbances, a police head constable Satya Prakash, who was Talat Azizs security guard, died from gunshot injuries. Subsequently, Talat Aziz lodged an FIR at Maharajganj kotwali police station against Yogi Adityanath and several others, who were not named. Similarly, the then Maharajganj kotwali station house officer BK Srivastava lodged an FIR naming Yogi and 21 other people under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 153A and other sections of the Indian Penal Code. The third FIR related to the same incident was lodged by Yogi against Talat Aziz and others, alleging an attack by Talat Aziz and a few others. Subsequently, the matter was handed over to the CB-CID for investigation. The CB-CID closed the matter by submitting a final report which gave a clean chit to Adityanath. Talat Aziz challenged the final report in the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate, Maharajganj. The protest petition was treated as a criminal complaint case by the magistrate. The SHO B K Srivastava was examined as a witness and he supported the case of Talat Aziz. However, subsequently, the Maharajganj magistrate on March 13, 2018 dismissed the complaint case. Talat Aziz challenged the dismissal before the high court by filing the present criminal revision petition. The Bombay high court recently reunited a 14-year-old Hindu girl with the four-member Muslim family that brought her up ever since her biological mother abandoned her. Justice Gautam Patel ignored the biological mothers plea for her custody primarily on the ground that the woman was involved in some immoral activity. The girl was handed over the foster family on July 24. The Muslim family approached the high court, seeking guardianship of the girl. They contended that she had been living with them and has been taken care of as a family member since her biological mother abandoned her and moved to Kanpur. They complained that the biological mother returned to Mumbai and demanded the girls custody. They said the biological mother and one of her male friends had forcibly taken away the girl. The girl was brought back only after the petitioners approached the Child Welfare Committee. She was sent to a childrens home at Umarkhadi in south Mumbai. Noticing that the girl had to unnecessarily spend two months at the childrens home, Justice Patel on July 4 sent her to the residence of an advocate, who was willing to accommodate her and provide for her daily requirements for the time being. On July 24, the judge again interviewed the teenager and reunited her with her foster family after noticing that she desperately wanted to go back to the only family that she has known almost since birth. She emphatically said she did not want to go anywhere except to the Petitioners family and home, said Justice Patel. She is a young but articulate and intelligent. She is determined and knows where her own interests lie. Her own wishes, given her age, cannot be ignored, the judge said. The court also directed the in-charge of the Tardeo police station to periodically monitor the situation and ensure that there is no untoward incident. The guardianship petition filed by the Muslim family is now posted for further hearing on August 13. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Even as the ongoing agitations by the Maratha community targets the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, the party registered impressive wins in two civic body elections that took place on August 1 Jalgaon in North Maharashtra and Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad in the western part of the state. The BJP won 41 of 78 seats in Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad a traditional Congress-NCP stronghold. In Jalgaon, it wrested power from local strongman, Suresh Jain, who had aligned with Shiv Sena, winning 57 of 75 seats. Congress-NCP alliance won 35 seats in Sangli, while the Sena in Jalgaon won only 13 seats. The BJPs win is significant, as in both places, it managed to topple well-established bastions despite being on the backfoot in recent weeks after the Marathas and Dhangars (shepherds) began agitations demanding quotas. The Congress has controlled Sangli, where the Marathas are a dominant community, for more than a decade, while Jain has controlled Jalgaon for three decades. The victory is also well-timed for chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who had been targeted over the Maratha protests. While there were protests by the Maratha community for their demands, which are genuine and just, the voters firmly believe only the BJP government is capable of giving the community reservations, said Fadnavis. We are committed to the cause of development and creation of jobs in the state, he said. With these victories, the BJP now has control of 14 out of 25 civic bodies that have gone to the polls since 2015, and has captured a majority of the states urban political landscape as well. Only two more civic corporations, Ahmednagar and Dhule, are left to go to the polls, which are scheduled for December this year. Jubilant state revenue minister Chandrakant Dada Patil who led the BJPs campaign in Sangli said, Yes this is a historic win in the bastion of the Congress and the NCP. The people have voted us for our performance in the last four years. I am truly grateful to Sanglikars and I assure them of a clean and transparent rule in the civic body. BJPs victory in Sangli has come as a major blow to the Congress-NCPs influence in the sugar belt of western Maharashtra. Considered a firm Congress bastion of more than three decades, Sangli was the hometown of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil, and was under the political influence of Congress leaders such as Madan Patil, Patangrao Kadam and Pratik Patil, the great grandson of Vasantdada Patil. The Sangli civic election had also become a matter of prestige for NCP state president and former state finance minister Jayant Patil. In 2014, the BJP had bagged the Sangli Lok Sabha seat, while in the assembly polls (held in October 2014), the party secured four seats, the NCP (2), and one each was won by the Shiv Sena and Congress. Political observers said that the Devendra Fadnavis government focused attention on this region and allocated nearly Rs 30 crore for constructions of roads in Sangli and Rs 20 crore for roads in the neighbouring Miraj town. The Congress and the NCP had fielded a number of local heavy-weights including former mayors Kishor Jadhav and Idris Naikwadi who were defeated in the polls. On other hand,BJPs Chandrakant Patil led the campaign aggressively over the last six months. Significantly, the anti-BJP Maratha agitation failed to have any adverse impact on the BJPs poll performance. The Sangli defeat is a setback for state Nationalist Congress Party chief Jayant Patil, and state Congress youth wing president and legislator Vishwajit Kadam. Congress had 41 seats and the NCP, 19 corporators, in the outgoing body, while the BJP had officially no corporator in its kitty. Three of its party members had won civic seats as a part of a front floated by a local leader. Kadam said he was shock at the loss, and alleged the BJP had resorted to illegal means to win the election. The victory in Sangli-Miraj for the BJP is also surprising, as the Maratha community is dominant here. In Jalgaon, Jain was decimated even after controlling the civic body for more than three decades. Jain, a Shiv Sena leader and an accused in the Jalgaon housing scam, had been winning power through a local front he floated, the Khandesh Vikas Aghadi. This time, he decided to fight the election under the Senas party symbol. Former mayor Lalit Kolhe, who was with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, joined the BJP just a few days ahead of the elections, with 11 other corporators of his party. This helped BJP strengthen its position. The win in Jalgaon came despite an internal strife in the party between two senior leaders, former revenue minister Eknath Khadse and water resources minister Girish Mahajan. Mahajan has been credited with this victory, although Khadses aides insisted their leader had rooted for going solo. The voters stood by us, believing in our promise of development. We will stick to our promise and development in Jalgaon will be visible in the next one year, Mahajan said. Gopichand Padalkar, who has been leading the reservation protest for the Dhangar community, said neither the Marathas nor Dhangars made their demand an election issue as the reservation has little importance in local elections. If the decision about reservation is not taken well within time, the ruling parties will pay a heavy price in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, he said. Russian police detained around 25 gay rights activists who took part in an unsanctioned rally in St Petersburg on Saturday, according to Reuters witnesses. A few dozen activists gathered at Palace Square on Saturday afternoon, defying a ban to hold the rally. Organisers had said they would stage one-man protests to demand freedom of association after city authorities turned down their request to hold a parade. Police detained campaigners who unfurled rainbow flags or held placards, dragging them into a police bus. There were no clashes between police and the activists. Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the spreading of gay propaganda. Last month, Russian police briefly detained British LGBT campaigner Peter Tatchell after he protested near the Kremlin in support of gay rights. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is yet to make an announcement on forming the next government despite claims that it has achieved the required numbers, prompting observers to suggest the party is still negotiating deals with smaller parties and independent MPs to form a coalition at the centre. The PTI has 116 seats in Parliament and has to secure 137 to form government. There are fears that given the precarious situation it finds itself in, would-be coalition partners are increasing their demands. This in turn may result in anger within the PTI, which extensively campaigned with the agenda of a clean government. While the PTI struggles for numbers, the two main opposition parties - former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N which bagged 64 seats in Parliament and Bilwal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party that bagged 43 seats - have announced they are forming in alliance and will sit in the opposition. They will be accompanied by the Awami National Party (ANP) and the religious-political alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. All the opposition parties have said they are uniting against the PTI to protest the rigging that allegedly took place during the July 25 elections. PTI chairman Imran Khan and his associates have entered into dialogue with a number of smaller political parties to form the next government. Khan has said he expects to take oath on August 11. So far, the PTI has secured support from Karachi-based MQM, which has demanded two slots in the federal cabinet and some concessions for its jailed workers. But other parties are demanding much more. The PTI is negotiating with the PML-Q, which has demanded the chief ministers post in Punjab province. The PTI has the second largest share of seats and is trying to form a government there. The PTI won 123 seats in Punjab and its tally has reached 144, and the required number for a simple majority in the provincial assembly is 149 legislators. Observers said the formation of a PTI-led government in Punjab is essential for smooth sailing at the centre. "Historically we have seen that when there is one party at the centre and another in Punjab, there is friction which invariably leads to chaos," said analyst Ghazi Salahuddin. The PML-Q, which secured two seats in the National Assembly and seven in the Punjab assembly, knows what is at stake for the PTI and is pressing home its advantage. Amid efforts to secure a simple majority at the centre, the PTI has initiated formal talks with the leadership of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP). BNP president Sardar Akhtar Mengal put forward six demands, including a solid assurance from Imran Khan about the recovery of missing persons from the province and putting an end to enforced disappearances by the future government in return for his partys support at the Centre. Senior PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen has contacted JWP chief Shahzain Bugti and requested him to join the PTI-led government at the centre. Bugti expressed his willingness to join the coalition and a formal announcement is expected soon. Despite all its efforts, the PTI-led government will remain vulnerable to the demands of its coalition partners. Many of these demands, like those being made by Balochistan-based parties, run contrary to the agenda of the military. The army is not keen on opening up the issue of missing persons. This will pose a challenge to Imran Khan and could lead to tensions between the PTI and the military establishment, said observers. Tarunabh Khaitan, a law academic affiliated with the universities of Oxford and Melbourne, has been declared the winner of the inaugural Letten Prize for young researchers launched by the Letten Foundation and the Young Academy of Norway. Khaitan won the prize from among more than 200 researchers from around the world for his work across disciplines, including discrimination law, constitutional law, legal theory, political philosophy, democratic theory, constitutional design and ethics. In his scholarly activities, Khaitan has brought to the fore the stark and unjust inequalities that characterise present day society, not only in his native India but also in other countries," said a statement issued on Friday by the prize organisers . "His engagement extends way beyond his academic publishing: he has been active in mentoring young academics from the global South, and founded Indias leading academic law journal. Khaitan will use the prize money of $260,000 to launch an Indian Equality Law Program to be hosted at the Melbourne Law School. He said: I hope to use (the prize money) towards contributing, in a small way, towards a vision of an India free from unfair discrimination. This ideal, reflected in the principled pragmatism of Dr (BR) Ambedkar, the chief architect of Indias pluralistic Constitution, has been a guiding light for my scholarship. According to the statement, Khaitans achievements meet all the criteria listed in the call for the prize. His work bears on several of UNs Sustainable Development Goals, not least goal 10 (reduced inequalities) and 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions)," it said. Runners-up for the prize include Robert Aldridge (University College London) for research in public health, Nassim El Achi (Global Health Institute-American University of Beirut) for safe water management, Sophie Harman (Queen Mary University of London) for international relations and global health, and Jorge E Vinuales (Clare College, University of Cambridge) for environmental law. The number of votes rejected in Pakistans general elections was 1.67 million, 11.7pc more that the 1.5 million rejected in the 2013 polls, according to a report by the Free and Fair Elections Network (Fafen), a election watchdog. The report said the increase in rejected votes was observed in all four provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Opposition parties have alleged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which is set to form government, won a number of crucial seats at the centre and in the provinces based on the high incidence of rejected votes. Fafen reported that in the Islamabad area, the number of votes rejected during the count was more than double the figure for the 2013 elections. There was a 40% increase in the number of rejected votes in Balochistan, 30.6% in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 7% in Sindh and 6.6% in Punjab. The ballots excluded from the count surpassed the margin of victory in 49, or 18.1%, of the 270 National Assembly seats where elections were held. Among them were 26 constituencies in Punjab, 11 in Sindh, and six each in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Opposition leaders said this is a significant number. Similarly, the number of ballots excluded from the count exceeded the margin of victory in 120, or 21%, of the 570 provincial assembly seats where elections were held. This included 58 provincial assembly constituencies in Punjab, 24 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 22 in Sindh and 16 in Balochistan. Of the 49 National Assembly seats where the number of excluded ballots exceeded the margin of victory, 21 were won by PTI, 11 by PML-N, six by Pakistan Peoples Party, three by Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), two by Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and one each by Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamhoori Watan Party and PML-Q. Independents won two constituencies. Among the 58 constituencies of Punjab Assembly which witnessed the same phenomenon, PML-N won 26 seats, PTI 23, PPP two and PML-Q one. The remaining were won by independents. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwas 24 constituencies, 11 were won by PTI, seven by MMA, two each by PML-N and PPP and one by ANP. An independent won one seat. In Sindhs 22 constituencies, nine were claimed by the PPP, six by GDA, four by PTI, two by Muttahida Qaumi Movement and one by MMA. In Balochistans 16 constituencies, six were won by BAP, three each by PTI and MMA and one each by PML-N and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party. According to the provincial results of the 2018 general elections, 79 national and 169 provincial assembly constituencies had a margin of victory of less than 5% of the total votes polled or 10,000. Pakistans first Sikh police officer has been sacked from service for being absent from office for over three months, a traffic police spokesperson said on Friday. Gulab Singh, 35, has been dismissed from work for staying absent from office for over three months, traffic police spokesperson Ali Nawaz told PTI. Superintendent police (traffic) Asif Sadiq, after an inquiry against Gulab Singh for staying absent from office over three months, has dismissed him from service. He could not defend himself before an inquiry committee, Nawaz said. He said Singh can file an appeal in the office of the deputy inspector general, traffic police, against his dismissal. Last month, Singh had claimed that he was forcibly evicted by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), the parent body of Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) from his house in a village near Lahore along with his children and wife. Talking to PTI, Singh alleged that the traffic police SP had taken action against him on the request of the ETPB. The board had approached the traffic police and asked SP Sadiq to pressure me to withdraw a case against the board officials for illegally evicting me and my family members from our house at Gurdwara Janamsthan Bebe Nanki, Dera Chahal Lahore, he said. He said he had an accident and presented a medical certificate along with his leave application to the department. Since the department had no other legal point to initiate action it chose to proceed against me on the leave issue, he said, adding he was confident that the DIG traffic would listen to him and restore him during the course of appeal. Singh said he would not withdraw his case in the court against his and his family members illegal eviction by the ETPB. Even the Supreme Court has taken notice of our illegal eviction and the board is worried about that, he said. US intelligence officials have said they still see efforts by Russia to interfere in the upcoming 2018 midterm polls in November, adding that they are determined to do all they can to prevent it. We acknowledge the threat, it is real, it is continuing, and were doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the American people can have trust in, Dan Coats, director of national intelligence and the top American spy, said at a news conference at the White House on Thursday. Coats was accompanied at the briefing by national security adviser John Bolton, FBI director Christopher Wray, secretary of the department of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen and national security agency director Paul Nakasone. Together they sought to convey the administration was aware of the threat from Russia, was determined to stop it and that everything possible was being done to that end. And that they acknowledged Russia had interfered in the 2016 elections, distancing themselves from President Donald Trumps ambivalence. I think everyone on this stage has acknowledged the fact that the ICA was a correct assessment of what happened in 2016, Coats said, referring to a joint assessment by the intelligence community, in 2016 and updated in 2017 that Russia had interfered in the 2016 elections to damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump win the presidency. He said that though there has not been the kind of robust efforts seen 2016, were only one keyboard click away from finding out something that we dont -- havent seen up to this particular point in time. Asked if Russians are targeting any one party, Coats said: What we see is the Russians are looking for every opportunity, regardless of party, regardless of whether or not it applies to the election, to continue their pervasive efforts to undermine our fundamental values. FBI director Christopher Wray described ongoing Russian actions as malign influence operations, such as information warfare. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, Russians are alleged to have hacked the computers of the Democratic National Committee and distributed the stolen data directly and indirectly, to have sought to create and exploit social divisions, and to have spread misinformation through social media platforms using fake accounts and advertisements. Asked about this assessment at a news conference in Helsinki, Trump had indicated he gave equal weight age to it and to Russian President Vladimir Putins denial. He was forced to walk back that assertion by the bipartisan national uproar that followed, and said he believed his intelligence agencies. But he has continued to assail special counsel Robert Muellers probe of the meddling and possible collusion as a hoax and a with-hunt. Just hours before his intelligence officials press briefing, he tweeted his support for a book that echoed his sentiments. Congratulations to @GreggJarrett on The TREMENDOUS success of his just out book, The Russia Hoax, The Illicit Scheme To Clear Hillary Clinton & Frame Donald Trump. Its the Real Story of the Rigged Witch Hunt! he posted. As the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secures the backing of smaller parties and independent candidates to form the next government, several names are being considered for slots in the cabinet to be led by Imran Khan. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the vice-chairman of the PTI, is being tipped to be either the next foreign minister or interior minister. Qureshi, the son of a former Punjab governor, earlier served as foreign minister in the Pakistan Peoples Party government. He comes from south Punjabs powerful landed gentry and is the spiritual leader of one of Multans most prominent shrines. The other contender for foreign minister is Shireen Mazari, an old PTI hand who is perceived to be close to the military establishment. Mazari, who was once editor of an English daily, focuses on defence and strategic issues. She also headed the think tank Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad for several years and is known for her hardline stance towards India. Senator Shafqat Mehmood is being considered for the post of defence minister, PTI officials said. Mehmood may also be considered for the post of interior minister given his background in the bureaucracy, but that will depend on what Qureshi decides, they added. The man tipped for the post of finance minister is Asad Umar, the son of Maj Gen (retired) Ghulam Umar. Umars last job was as CEO of Engro Corporation, Pakistans first multinational company. He is the only leaders whose name has been announced for a ministerial post by Imran Khan. Arif Alvi and Shafqat Mahmood are being considered for the post of Speaker of the National Assembly while the slot of deputy speaker could go to Zartaj Gul Wazir or a member from a coalition partner. Fawad Chaudhry, the PTI spokesman and one of the most visible faces of the party, could be the automatic choice for information minister. But he is also being tipped as a candidate for the post of chief minister of Punjab. There is also a proposal to wind up the information ministry and make it a department under the interior ministry. The former chief minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak, could be offered a post at the centre as a cabinet advisor as Imran Khan may opt for a younger face in the northwestern province. Media reports have said Atif Khan may be given the chief ministers post. Khattak faces allegations of corruption over the unfinished metro-bus project in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which many have described as a disaster. A number of new faces, including women, are expected to be included in Imran Khans cabinet. The PTI could include a member from minority communities, which may give Pakistans its first Sikh cabinet minister. Sardar Suran Singh, a PTI member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly, was shot dead in mysterious circumstances in 2016. It is expected one of his family members may be inducted in the cabinet as an advisor, insiders said. Imran Khan will have to share some cabinet slots with coalition partners. This includes Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed of the Awami Muslim League (AML), who may become railways minister. Despite the fact that AML won only one seat in Parliament, Ahmed is one of the oldest allies of the PTI and has maintained a high profile at all PTI events. He is also known to be close to the military. Among the coalition partners, MQM-Pakistan would be interested in the ports and shipping portfolio while the Grand Democratic Alliance may vie for the agriculture or food portfolio. As things stand, the PTI is expected to announce its claim to form government over the weekend. PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry has said the party will be able to muster the required numbers by then. Recently, Kanye West has been talking a big game about Yeezy becoming a billion dollar company and no one is sure if it's true. What has definitely, without a doubt, happened is that Apple has become not a billion, but a trillion dollar company. As the company's CEO Tim Cook wrote, in his letter to Apple employees, at the "closing share price of $207.39, the stock market now values Apple at more than $1 trillion." They are the first ever publicly traded company to hit the trillion mark. For a little perspective, that number is getting close to Canada's GDP ($1.53 trillion) and is higher than both Amazon and Google. But Cook, in his address, wasn't too hung up on stock prices. He believes it's about the people: Its you, our team, that makes Apple great and our success is due to your hard work, dedication and passion. I am deeply humbled by what you do, and its the privilege of a lifetime to work alongside you. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the late hours and extra trips, all the times you refuse to settle for anything less than excellence in our work together. Kanye had a similar message for the company, also thanking the employees with the words "you are so great." He also had a message for Steve Jobs, his inspiration: Tim Cook ended his message to employees with a Steve Jobs shout-out too: Steve founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges and that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. In todays world, our mission is more important than ever. Our products not only create moments of surprise and delight, they empower people all around the globe to enrich their lives and the lives of others. Maybe one day Kanye will be in the position to write such a message. Travis Scott's roll out for Astroworld was unique in its own way. While fans eagerly awaited for the project to drop, massive golden Travis Scott heads were spotted in Houston, New York City and L.A. popped up which prompted many people to assume his project was coming soon. After confirming the August 3rd release date, the rapper flexed a custom Astroworld private jet on social media. Now, renting a private jet is already pretty expensive but then you're adding the costs of having a custom wrap but clearly, it was worth it for Scott. According to TMZ, the custom Astroworld wrap on Travis Scott's private jet ran him roughly $30K. The private jet itself was rented in order to fly Scott and his crew out to the Astroworld release party in Chicago. Travis Scott and his team reached out to Van Nuys, a private jet company, for the rental. They hooked LaFlame up with a Challenger jet for him which had room for Scott as well as eight other people. Van Nuys also handled the Astroworld custom wrap job. The wrap costs around $30K. The reason why it's so expensive is because it was made out from special material which required the approval of the FAA. Clearly, Travis went all out for the release of his new album, as he should. He announced the project nearly two years a go and for the amount of time that fans were anticipating it, it was well worth the wait. LyondellBasell boosts profit LyondellBasell grew its second quarter earnings. but reported lower profits from its plastics businesses as prices fell for certain base chemicals. The Houston-based petrochemicals company on Friday reported $1.7 billion in profits last quarter, up from about $1.1 billion the previous year. Revenues increased from $8.4 billion to $10.2 billion during the same period. In the Americas, the company's plastics segment earned $571 million, down from $738 million the prior year quarter. Lower profit margins on ethylene, the building block of many types of plastics, accounted for most of the decline. That business, however, reported stronger profit margins on polyethylene, the world's most common plastic, despite a wave of new production facilities that have recently begun churning out billions of pounds of material. "The wave of new polyethylene capacity additions is being absorbed by robust demand, CEO Bob Patel said in a statement. Overseas, the company's plastics segment earned $329 million, down from $549 the prior year quarter due in part to higher feedstock costs and lower profit margins. LyondellBasell saw substantial growth in its intermediates and derivatives business, which produces a range of base chemicals for industrial manufacturing. Stronger profit margins boost that segment's quarterly earnings to $569 million, up from $270 million the previous year. The company's refining business, a relatively small part of its overall operations, swung to profit as refiners across the board posted strong profit margins and high operating rates. That segment earned $58 million after posting a $21 million loss during the prior year quarter. Noble narrows Q2 loss Noble Energy posted a small loss in the second quarter and plans to focus some of its resources outside of West Texas Permian Basin oil field. The Houston oil and gas exploration and production company said Friday that is lost $23 million or 5 cents a share in the second quarter, which ended June 30. Thats compared to the companys loss of $1.5 billion, or $3.20 a share, in the same period of 2017. The company reported a profit of $554 million or $1.14 a share in the first quarter of 2018. David Stover, Noble Energys president and CEO, said that constraints in West Texas are pushing the company to focus some investments in other onshore oil and gas regions. Noble Energy operates in South Texas Eagle Ford Shale oil field and Colorados DJ Basin. In July, Noble Energy secured 20,000 barrels of crude oil pipeline capacity to move crude from West Texas Permian Basin to Corpus Christi. CenterPoint reports loss CenterPoint Energy, the Houston transmission and distribution utility, reported a second quarter loss of $75 million compared with a profit of $135 million the same quarter one year earlier. The loss included a pre-tax write down of $242 million to reflect CenterPoint's holdings in shares of telecommunication stock. The utility - which was then known as Houston Industries - acquired Time Warner stock after it sold its cable company KBLCOM in 1995. AT&T acquired Time Warner in June and an investment vehicle created by CenterPoint received $53.75 and 1.437 shares of AT&T common stock for each share of Time Warner common stock it held. CenterPoint CEO Scott M. Prochazka said CenterPoint's businesses, including electric distribution, natural gas distribution, energy services and midstream performed well. Second quarter revenues increased to $2.2 billion from $2.1 billion in the second quarter of 2017. Prochazka also said CenterPoint was making progress in closing its $6 billion acquisition of the Indiana utility Vectren. He said the merger is on track to be completed in the first quarter of 2019. Katherine Blunt, Rye Druzin and L.M. Sixel contributed. An appellate court Friday stayed a state district judges temporary restraining order that forced the city of Houston to remove a video from its website of a council committee hearing at which city officials and others raised concerns about the cost of a proposal to grant firefighters parity in pay with police. A panel of Texas 14th Court of Appeals judges agreed with the citys request to temporarily block the restraining order issued by state District Judge Kyle Carter this week, pending a hearing. Carter issued the TRO Tuesday after agreeing with the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association that a July 26 City Council committee hearing amounted to illegal electioneering against the proposal, saying a number of comments made at the meeting were beyond the pale. The city appealed the order, arguing that Carters decision did not meet minimum legal standards, was too broad, and was unconstitutional because it chilled the political speech of public officials. The panel of justices agreed to the stay, and asked the firefighters union to provide a response on the issue by Monday evening. Cris Feldman, attorney for the firefighters union, shrugged off the stay, calling Fridays machinations procedural, and noting that the order simply states, It appears that (the citys) request for relief requires further consideration. When orders such as Carters are appealed, Feldman said, it is more common for justices to temporarily block them than to leave them in place while further hearings are scheduled. The action taken by the court of appeals today was fully anticipated and is simply giving the firefighters a chance to respond on Monday, he added. The citys filings cast the matter in grander terms. No democratic deliberative body in the world, nor any elected politician, could function for long if, in their deliberations, elected officials were prevented from expressing their opinions or taking a side, the citys motion states. Moreover, no democracy could long exist without an electorate informed by relevant facts. At the council meeting in question, city officials estimated the parity measure, if approved by voters, would give firefighters, on average, a 25 percent pay raise and cost $98 million a year, forcing layoffs. Business leaders and police union chiefs also were invited to speak, and they raised concerns or blasted the idea. The fire union which had sued Mayor Sylvester Turner and Councilman Dave Martin, who chaired the committee hearing, over the issue on Monday declined to attend the meeting, calling it a disingenuous sham set up to bash their proposal. They said Carters decision had held Turner to account for political gamesmanship. Legal experts Tuesday had expressed surprise at Carters TRO and predicted it would be overturned. The firefighters submitted their parity petition a year ago but had to sue the city to force it to count the signatures they had gathered; the petition was validated in May. Firefighters have received just a 3 percent raise since 2011, while taking deep cuts to their pension benefits. The union declared an impasse with the Turner administration and sued the city over its contract last year. That case is pending. City Council next Wednesday will discuss whether to place the parity item before voters this November or in November 2019. mike.morris@chron.com twitter.com/mmorris011 A Harris County grand jury Friday indicted the French chemical company Arkema and two executives for the reckless release of toxic chemicals during Hurricane Harvey last August, a move that alarmed industry leaders and surprised environmental advocates. The company, CEO Richard Rowe and plant manager Leslie Comardelle put residents and first responders at risk when the Crosby plant caught fire as Harvey dumped record rainfall on the Houston area, according to the Harris County District Attorneys Office. ARKEMA DOCUMENTS: Planning, mechanical failures led to chem fires As the hurricane approached, Arkema was more concerned about production and profit than people, said Alexander Forrest, chief of the district attorneys environmental crimes division. Now Playing: FOX 26 News reporter Natasha Geigel Video: Fox 26 Houston The last time a chemical company faced criminal charges for a major incident in Texas was 2005, when an explosion at BPs Texas City refinery killed 15 workers and injured almost 200. BP paid $50 million in fines for the incident, but no one from the company served prison time. Arkema called the criminal charges filed against it astonishing and pledged to fight them vigorously. Now Playing: CSB Safety Video about the 2017 Fire at the Arkema Chemical Plant in Crosby, Texas, following Hurricane Harvey Video: USCSB, Houston Chronicle There has never been an indictment like this in Texas or any other state, Arkema attorney Rusty Hardin said. It would set an ominous precedent if a company could be held criminally liable for impact suffered as a result of the historic flooding of Hurricane Harvey that no one, including Harris County itself, was prepared for. But federal documents showed Arkema wasnt even prepared for a much smaller flood, despite being partially in a flood plain. LAWSUIT: Arkema harmed residents before fires, blasts The companys emergency plan provided little direction to employees on how to handle major floods, and as a result, it couldnt keep combustible organic peroxides cool. Its main power transformers and backup generators were not high enough off the ground. Neither was its backup liquid nitrogen cooling system. And Arkemas last line of defense failed when water inundated the fuel tanks that power freezer trucks. Over the next week, nine trailers of organic peroxides erupted in flames, sending pillars of fire and thick plumes of black smoke into the air. More than six first-responders were sickened, according to civil suits filed against the company. A federal Chemical Safety Board investigation said Arkema was warned of flood risks a year before Harvey hit by its insurer at the time. Prosecutors say the disaster could have been prevented. The grand jury charged Arkema, Rowe and Comardelle with reckless emission of an air contaminant under the Texas Water Code. The charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison for the individuals and a fine of up to $1 million for the corporation. Rowe and Comardelle are expected in court Monday. Rowe became the CEO of Arkemas North America division in 2015. Hes worked with the company for the last 16 years. Comardelle has worked for Arkema more than 25 years. He was part of the ride-out crew that tried to prevent the release. Comardelles lawyers, Paul Nugent and Heather Peterson, said their client acted heroically and committed no crime. Rowes attorney, Tim Johnson, called the charges baseless. Hardin, Arkemas attorney, said it would be hard for any reasonable person to call the companys actions criminal. FEDS INVOLVED: EPA requests documents, details from Arkema The American Chemistry Council called the charges alarming and unreasonable. Criminal charges following chemical incidents are rare in Texas. A 2013 explosion at an Air Liquide facility in La Porte killed one worker and severely burned another. The company was not fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Chemical Safety Board did not investigate the incident. No criminal charges were filed. An explosion of improperly stored ammonium nitrate in 2013 at West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas, killed 15 people. Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives believed arson started the fire, but no criminal charges were filed. When a 2014 leak of methyl mercaptan killed four workers at a DuPont plant in La Porte, again, no criminal charges were filed. But on Friday, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said shed go after companies who pollute. Environmental advocates applauded her actions. I hope these kinds of criminal charges will really get the attention of not just Arkema but the industry more broadly, said Luke Metzger, executive director of the advocacy group Environment Texas. They cant play fast and loose with safety standards and the protection of the public. keri.blakinger@chron.com matt.dempsey@chron.com david.hunn@chron.com As chaos descended during Hurricane Harvey, dozens of elderly and medically vulnerable residents at four area assisted living facilities were left trapped, in danger, or simply abandoned amid the rising water, state investigators have concluded. In previously undisclosed findings, state inspectors tracked complaints to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and discovered dangerous conditions some deeply disturbing at three assisted living facilities in Houston and one in Victoria. The details came through an open records request by AARP Texas. The organization will release on Monday a sharply critical report titled "Left Adrift," outlining what inspectors found at the four facilities as well as offering recommendations to avoid repeat calamity. The Chronicle obtained an advance copy of the AARP report as well as the supporting documentation from the state Health and Human Services Commission. In one instance, an elderly resident with dementia at Vitality Court in Victoria was simply overlooked during the rush of a mandatory evacuation. She was not discovered as missing until four hours later during a head count at another facility 141 miles away. Police eventally found her at the deserted facility, alone and frightened, locked in her room, according to a state investigator report. Her identity was not disclosed. More Information Have a story to share? If your family member was caught in an assisted living facility or nursing home during Hurricane Harvey, please contact Jenny Deam at jenny.deam@chron.com or 713-362-7584. See More Collapse Administrators at Vitality Court, a 109-resident assisted living facility, did not immediately return calls for comment. In a complaint against Lakewood 24-Hour Personal Care in Houston, state investigators found a resident with an 8-inch long, five-inch wide, gaping and possibly infected wound. The man, found in Septemberweeks after the storm said his injury had been healing but opened again as he tried to walk through rising floodwaters. He also said he had been asking to go to the hospital. At the same facility inspectors found unsecured medication and inner walls that did not appear to have been repaired. Water lines were as high as two-and-a-half feet and dark circles had started to appear which could indicate mold, the report said. The health and human services inspector was told the walls had been painted over rather than repaired by installing new drywall, according to the inspection report. Management at that facility did not respond to multiple requests for comment. "One is worse than the next," Amanda Fredriksen, associate state director for advocacy at AARP Texas, said about the complaints. "I think it can't get worse and then it does." Small penalties? Also potentially troubling are the small or non-existent penalties. At Vitality Court, where the resident was left behind, the facility received no fine. At Lakewood 24-Hour Personal Care, where the resident had a gaping wound, there also was no fine. However, its sister facility also in Houston and cited in the report, did receive a total of $1,000 in fines for three infractions. Those included a $250 fine for a violation of "rights to be free from abuse, neglect and exploitation"; a $300 fine for "missing personnel records"; and a $450 fine for a lack of an emergency preparedness and response plan. AARP focused on assisted living facilities because they are the fastest growing segment of elder care in Texas and the facilities are loosely regulated, falling only under state oversight. Nursing homes are regulated by both the state and federal government. Last year there were 1,888 licensed assisted living facilities in Texas. As of July 30, HHSC has received 91 Harvey-related complaints from all types of long-term care centers, a spokeswoman for the agency said in an email Friday. Of those, 10 were substantiated complaints from assisted living facilities. For its report, AARP asked only for the assisted living complaints during the immediate weeks following the hurricane. The "Left Adrift" report focused on four facilities, but Fredriksen cautioned there could still be unreported instances of neglect or abandonment during and after Harvey. "We don't know who didn't get rescued," she said. RELATED: Final report: Harvey's impact on Houston area laid out in grim detail Lisa Hayes, managing local ombudsman for the Houston-Galveston Area Agency on Aging, said she was not especially surprised about the AARP report's finding. "It's very consistent with what we were seeing during Harvey," she said. Part of the problem was that many facilities chose not to evacuate in advance of the storm or in its early hours. Hayes said many in the elder care community became "gun-shy about evacuations after Rita." In 2005, just weeks following Hurricane Katrina, 107 people died as they attempted to flee the Houston region in advance of approaching Hurricane Rita. Many of the deaths were connected to the oppressive heat as highway escape routes became gridlocked and cars ran out of gas leaving people stranded for many hours. Among those who died were 23 nursing home evacuees whose bus caught fire. Sheltering in place One of the most enduring and haunting images of Harvey was of a group of elderly women sitting in waist-deep water in recliners and wheelchairs inside La Vita Bella, a 15-resident assisted living facility in Dickinson. That facility was fined a total of $550 for violations "related to abuse, neglect and exploitation" as well as failing to provide adequate evacuation, according to the AARP report. Trudy Lampson, the 72-year-old owner of the facility, said in an interview Thursday she found the citation and public uproar sparked by the now-famous photo unfair. La Vita Bella made the decision not to use its detailed evacuation plan because the journey could prove difficult for the residents, she said. Instead they chose to "shelter in place," in part because as of late Saturday night it did not appear as if the flooding would be serious. She said families of each of the residents, who ranged in age from 59 to 99, had been called and asked if they wanted to pick them up. The families declined, she said. Around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 27 she got a call from a worker at the home saying that the toilets had started gurgling. Lampson and her husband set off through the drenching rain to return to the facility. Water was ankle deep on the lawn and she said she did not want to open the door for fear water would gush inside. Instead, she crawled through a window. The women were calm and in good spirits throughout, she said, each with their identity and medical information zipped into vests. But as the hours elapsed and still no help came Lampson said she took the now famous photograph and sent it to her daughter and son-in-law in Florida who posted it on social media. Lampson became frantic when authorities told her that the facility had already been evacuated even as she was calling from the rising water in the home's living room. "We're here," she said she pleaded. The photo quickly went viral. A family member brought a boat and took four of the residents to a hospital, the AARP report said. The remaining women were rescued by trucks from Texas City. Lampson, who will pay the $550 fine and plans to reopen La Vita Bella in coming weeks, said the photo became a double-edged sword. While it did prompt rescue, she believes that the attention it brought was what sparked a complaint against her facility with the state. RELATED: Delayed 911 responses during Harvey left some residents waiting days for help What happened at La Vita Bella stunned Hayes, the Agency on Aging ombudsmen, who said she had always thought highly of the care given to residents at the facility. Still, "when it came to an actual emergency, they really did fail their residents," she said. Among the recommendations made by AARP are that fines associated with failure to adequately prepare for storms be stiff enough to deter future violations. It also asks that assisted living facilities be required to report any damage or flooding to the state Health and Human Services Commission within 24 hours, and that damaged facilities be inspected. "There will be another natural disaster," Fredriksen said. "Hurricane Harvey exposed what happens when there aren't enough safeguards in place," she said. "If we fail to learn the lessons and don't make the necessary changes to protect frail seniors, then state leaders will be culpable next time." Jenny Deam is a staff writer at the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at jenny.deam@chron.com or via Twitter @jenny_deam. Do you have a story to share? If your family member was caught in an assisted living facility or nursing home during Hurricane Harvey, please contact Jenny Deam at jenny.deam@chron.com or 713-362-7584. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine admitted Thursday that the proposal to end federal funding for the International Space Station after 2024 may not be feasible. "There's still a lot to be determined," Bridenstine told a small group of reporters at Houston's Johnson Space Center on Thursday. "But it's important ... to start that conversation now." The 2024 cut off date was outlined earlier this year in President Donald Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal for the space agency. In that plan, which still must be approved by Congress, commercial entities would take over operation of the station by 2025. SPACE CENTER HOUSTON: New scientist in residence hopes to inspire next generation with space tidbits in this HoustonChronicle.com report Bridenstine said Thursday some commercial companies already have expressed interest in this idea, and they're submitted plans to the agency on how to accomplish this feat. NASA personnel currently are reviewing them. "It sounds really difficult and it is, no doubt, really difficult, but there definitely is interest," he said. But "that doesn't mean it can be done and it doesn't mean it can be done in seven years." Congressional leaders have spoken out against this plan, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, sponsored legislation extending the station's life until 2030. U.S. operations currently are scheduled to end by the end of 2024, but Congress can extend it past that date. And they have before The former Oklahoma congressman and Rice University graduate spoke to a select group of reporters Thursday ahead of a Friday event at Johnson naming the astronauts assigned to be the first humans to fly on commercial spacecrafts headed to space. The group announced Friday will be the first astronauts to launch from American soil since NASA's Space Shuttle program was shuttered in 2011. The Houston center is home to the nation's astronaut corps, where human space flight research and training take place. It is also home to the International Space Station's mission operations and the Orion program. The two spacecrafts, being built by Boeing and SpaceX, have been under development in partnership with NASA since 2014. Both companies have experienced delays in development, so much so that accountability organizations are worried that it could impact the country's access to the space station. U.S. astronauts currently rely on Russia to transport them to the space station from Kazakhstan, but that contract ends next year. Bridenstine said Thursday he is concerned about these delays, but NASA personnel are "working to make sure we don't have to be concerned about it." For example, he added, the agency is mulling whether to send U.S. astronauts to the station for longer periods of time to make the number of seats we have last until 2020. "Launching American astronauts from American soil for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle is a really big deal for us and we are focused on that," he said. "We're committed to it, we're going to get it done." The whole idea behind heightened commercialization of Low Earth Orbit, where the space station flies, is to allow the space agency to go where commercial companies can't. "We want to enable NASA to use its resources to go further and do things that haven't been done before," Bridenstine said. "Do we want to use government resources in Low Earth Orbit for the next 20 years, or do we want to spend that money on new things." JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE: Unexpected cost increases could cause cuts to other programs New things like the $2.7 billion Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway basically a mini-space station orbiting the moon where astronauts could live and work. The gateway was proposed in Trump's budget request, setting aside $504.2 million in the coming year to begin working on the foundation. Returning to the moon, and establishing a continued presence in it's vicinity, will help NASA get to Mars faster, Bridenstine said. The moon is the perfect place to test new technologies for the Mars trip because it is just three days away from Earth -- astronauts could return quickly if need be. Using current technology, a trip to Mars will take six to nine months. If something goes wrong on Mars, there may not be a return journey, Bridenstine added. "The way to get to Mars soonest is to prove out all technologies on the moon," he said. "The visionary goal is the 2030s to go to Mars, but putting that out as a specific time -- we just don't know what we don't know." Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. AUSTIN University of Texas System regents selected James Milliken, the former chancellor of the City University of New York, as the lone finalist to lead the largest network of universities in the state, with more than 230,000 students. Early on, there was speculation that the regents were considering corporate executive Rex Tillerson, President Donald Trumps former Secretary of State and former CEO of ExxonMobil; and Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education in President George W. Bushs administration, but regents instead opted for an experienced education administrator with national credentials. The vote for Milliken was without opposition Saturday. Milliken led the CUNY system from 2014 to 2018 and previously served as the University of Nebraska president. His selection comes as the UT Regents are trying to cultivate a strong relationship with the Texas legislature. The system endured a strained relationship with lawmakers who criticized the former chancellor for spending money on initiatives not related to academics, including $215 million to buy land for a campus in Houston without a concrete plan for it. A lawyer by training, Milliken has worked in higher education for decades. He lead the CUNY system, the largest public urban university system in the country, for four years before resigning in November 2017. Eight months prior to his resignation, Milliken announced he had throat cancer, and he cited additional health challenges when he resigned. He has assured the UT regents that he has a clean bill of health, according to Randa Safady, a spokeswoman for the system. Safady said Milliken shared a statement from his doctors with the regents saying that his cancer was cured as of last summer. All other medical issues have also been addressed, Safady said. Millikens selection comes nearly three months after Chancellor William McRaven retired in May. McRavens tenure at UT was marred by tensions with state leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, after the system purchased land to create a new campus in Houston. McRaven said his decision to resign was to focus on his health. McRaven was a formal Navy admiral who is best known for overseeing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The search for McRavens replacement began soon after he announced he would resign in December. Its been overseen by a committee of five current and former regents. Milliken will now enter a 21-day wait period during which he will negotiate his salary. The UT regents will convene a special meeting to confirm his appointment. That meeting has not been scheduled. Introducing the latest entry into the dictionary of doublespeak: The Department of Justice Religious Liberty Task Force. The task force, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced earlier this week, was necessary because a dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom. Sessions never named this nebulous anti-religion movement in his remarks at the Religious Liberty Summit, but he did note that the task force will protect nuns forced to buy contraceptives, bakers asked to make cakes for gay couples, and the freedom to say Merry Christmas. Seriously. Seriously? Lets call this initiative what it really is: Sessions latest effort to foist his personal beliefs on every soul in America. . This task force is not about religious liberty, a right enshrined in our Constitution and one revered by most Americans. It is about using the guise of religion to bludgeon anyone whose beliefs run contrary to those held by Sessions, the Trump administration and the Christian right. To be clear, those beliefs are not under threat far from it. Take that Christian baker Sessions vowed to protect. The Supreme Court already did, ruling earlier this year that Jack Phillips had the right to refuse to make a specialty wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious faith. Another court decision supported Christian-owned Hobby Lobby, which argued that it could refuse to cover contraceptive care for employees. No nuns have been required to buy birth control. (The Affordable Care Act only required employers to make available health care plans covering contraceptives). No one has tried to outlaw the phrase Merry Christmas. If Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh joins the Supreme Court, the high court is sure to swing even more toward an interpretation of religious liberty that favors the beliefs of Christian evangelicals over those of other believers. Thats the polar opposite of the intention of the First Amendment, which bars our government from establishing a national religion. In his remarks, Sessions was careful to decry attacks on a mosque in Texas, community resistance to an Orthodox Jewish congregation in New Jersey and discrimination against a Hindu temple in Maryland. But the attempts to profess sympathy for non-Christian faiths are the height of hypocrisy coming from a White House that issued a travel ban designed to keep Muslims from entering the country and from an attorney general who has been charged with violating the law of his own faith tradition: the United Methodist Church. Make no mistake. The Religious Liberty Task Force a name that would fit neatly in the Republic of Gilead, the dystopian theonomy in Margaret Atwoods Handmaids Tale is simply another way to discriminate against the LGBTQ community, another way to limit reproductive rights for women, another way to elevate the rights of Evangelicals over those of religious minorities. It is the wielding of religion to push an agenda of hate, as has been done far too many times before. White supremacists have claimed religious beliefs to argue for segregation and the superiority of their race. Before the Supreme Court ruled against laws banning interracial marriage, a Virginia judge decreed Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red and did not intend for the races to mix. Sessions himself used Romans 13, in which St. Paul commands the faithful to obey governing authorities, to defend the administrations zero-tolerance policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of children from asylum-seeking parents. That passage had been used in the past to defend slavery. Perhaps Sessions should be reminded of another Scripture verse, the one in which Jesus commands his followers to love one another as I have loved you. As the highest law enforcement officer in the land, Sessions needs to stop trying to legislate religion or to use his beliefs to selectively target Americans. It is his job to fight for the rights of all not just those who share his pew. Given the humanitarian crises on our Texas border, addressing the fundamental causes will be difficult. The Trump administration, immigration restrictionists and many Republicans would have us believe illegal immigrants are flooding the country and that only the wall can save us. Some Democrats, in calling for shutting down Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are also going to extremes. What both sides have in common is an inability to see the broader perspective. A wall would have no effect on asylum seekers at ports of entry. And abolishing ICE makes as much sense as doing away with police after alleged excesses. The problem is not with ICE, but with the administrations zero-tolerance policy, a posture that backfired when political impulse met the limitations of extreme enforcement including not enough detention space and too few judges to handle their suddenly massive caseload. Criminally prosecuting all who crossed the border without inspection resulted in children being taken from parents and federal courts overburdened with misdemeanor cases. Missing from the current focus on family separation is that the United States is experiencing its lowest rate of illegal immigration since Richard Nixon was president. Until recently, the vast majority of individuals detained at the border were Mexican. The so-called Other Than Mexican classification was always small. Now the largest component of detained unauthorized OTM migrants come from three Central American countries El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, also known as the Northern Triangle. Undocumented immigration from Mexico has fallen due, yes, billions being spent on border enforcement, but also because NAFTA has made Mexican jobs more plentiful, drug cartels have made border crossing more dangerous, and birthrates in Mexico are plummeting. Unique problems with the three Central American countries call for responses tailored to each, such as the United States adopted to deal with displaced persons in the aftermaths of World War II, the 1956 Hungarian revolution, the Cuban revolution, as well as for Soviet Jews and other peoples in crisis. Extraordinary factors in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras pushed 10 percent of theses populations to flee to the United States, where most have now lived for more than a decade. Those conditions, the result in part of U.S.- and Soviet-supported proxy civil wars during the height of the Cold War, caused major displacement and violent repression by military regimes. At the end of those conflicts, warriors on both sides turned to crime, which helped rank El Salvador and Honduras first and second, respectively, for world highest murder rates, with Guatemala in not-too-distant eighth place. So no matter how difficult the Trump administration makes life for new arrivals, they will continue to flee the far worse conditions at home. What the United States spends annually on immigration enforcement, most of which is spent on the Southern border, plus funds allocated to building a wall is nearly as much as the combined gross domestic product of the Northern Triangle countries. Rather than continuing to take the same approach as we have for past economic refugees, overwhelmingly from Mexico, common sense dictates that the United States enact a muscular new Marshall Plan focused on Northern Triangle countries to improve law enforcement, safety and their economies. With the election of Andres Manual Lopez Obrador as president, Mexico will treat those fleeing dangers humanely and will not serve as an enforcement arm of the Trump Administration. But AMLO has already proposed a major Central American development plan to stem the flow of immigrants heading north. Credible fear claims by Northern Triangle migrants continue to overwhelm our immigration courts, which are administered through the Department of Justice with cases being set as late as 2023. Democrats and Republicans, even U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, have called for a significant increase in the number of immigration judges and trial attorneys. As long recognized, justice delayed is justice denied. Recognizing that the vast majority of asylum applicants will not have legal representation, legislation that calls for funding more immigration judges and trial attorneys should mandate meaningful training on Northern Triangle conditions. It also should place a special ethical duty on the newly expanded DOJ immigration judges and trial attorneys to bring out all relevant facts for the asylum applicants in order that basic justice is done. Significant increases in both the number of immigration judges giving asylum seekers their day in court in a timely proceeding that is worthy of our justice system and foreign aid to create safer opportunities at home would be far more effective ways to deal with the current crisis rather than spending billions of dollars more on border detention facilities to detain individuals for months and even years. Foster is the chairman of Foster LLP, past president of the American Immigration Lawyer Association and immigration policy adviser to President George W. Bush. We've long argued that presidential daughter Ivanka Trump is unwilling or unable to move her father on major policy initiatives yet remains an enthusiastic advocate for him and his administration, making her complicit in his presidency. Gary Cohn quit over trade policy, about the closest anyone has come in this administration to quitting on principle. However, children generally cannot quit or get fired - which is precisely why nepotism in the White House should be unacceptable. But Ivanka remains, selling off her business to cement her loyalty to the White House. Still, she did give us a peek behind the family curtain in an interview Thursday morning at the Newseum in Washington. Asked whether she thinks the media are the enemy of the people, she said, "I do not." She continued, "I've certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripes, especially when they sort of feel targeted, but no, I do not consider the media the enemy of the people." No praise for the free press, its role in our democracy or recognition of the danger in encouraging violence against reporters. Whether she is afraid to diverge so boldly from the president or whether she doesn't give a fig about the First Amendment is unclear. As a child, I took courses on Judaics, from Jewish ethics to Zionism, in a classroom that featured seven framed newspapers from The Jerusalem Post. The first proclaimed the founding of Israel. The next five celebrated great milestones in the history of the Jewish state, from defeating coordinated attacks by its stronger neighbors, to forging peace with them thereafter, namely Egypt and Jordan. The Oslo Accords, featuring a famous handshake between Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, was prominently displayed. The final newspaper noted the assassination of Rabin, at the hands of a Jewish extremist. But the killing appeared like a blip that could not stop the coming tide toward peace. And indeed, the Jewish institutions of my childhood, namely my school and synagogue, pushed the line that peace was at hand and imminent. We prayed for it, we sang for it, and we the children truly, really believed it, in a way that made our identities as Zionists coexist with the liberalism and secularism that basically doubles as part of an American Jews identity. Benjamin Netanyahus second premiership has all but destroyed that dream. By further promulgating illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, needlessly alienating the worlds democracies while aligning with anti-Semites, such as Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russia President Vladimir Putin, and putting Israel on a path toward apartheid, Netanyahus government is simply destroying Israel. The so-called nation state bill passed last month, which prioritizes Israels Jewish majority and strives toward ensuring Israels 1.7 million Arab citizens get second-class status, really underscores the whole issue. In Hebrew School, we were taught that Israeli Arabs had equal rights. They had the full panoply of constitutional and legal protections, could vote and hold public office and served in any and every occupation throughout the country, including as doctors, lawyers, judges and in law enforcement. I honestly do not know what Hebrew Schools say these days. My best bet is that hard issues are sidelined, as the political polarization and extremism that has felled our country affects the Jewish community too, and as the hitherto nonpartisan values of decency, truthfulness and aversion to racism have gone with the wind that swept through our country so shamefully in 2016. Peace is as far off as most can remember. The settlements make withdrawal from the West Bank a necessary prerequisite to peace functionally impossible. And as the Ultra-Orthodox exponentially out-reproduce the secular, European-origin Jewry that founded Israel and led it intermittently for 60 years, the future will only be worse. Calls to officially annex the occupied territory and deprive the Arab citizenry of more rights will only increase, until the shift to apartheid will be complete. An added bonus will be the Ultra-Orthodox, with their medieval view of gender roles, bringing about a slow-motion version of the Iranian Revolution. Just ask any Israeli woman who wants to pray at the Western Wall or ride a bus in a religious neighborhood. Perhaps the cruelest irony about that last newspaper framed on the wall the one noting Rabins assassination is the role that Netanyahu had in causing it. He and his Likud party incessantly derided Rabins commitment to peace as somehow treasonous. The war hero in Israels battle for independence was libeled as an honorary Nazi. Netanyahu soon became prime minister after. Since 2009, he and his far-right ilk have held a stranglehold on power. Unless things change soon in Israel, my teachers may well have been all too prescient putting up that newspaper as the final turning point for a once-mighty and righteous nation. Horwitz is a student at the University of Texas School of Law. Imperial Valley News Center Vice President Pence in Office Call with Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Honolulu, Hawaii - Remarks by Vice President Pence in Office Call with Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command: THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Admiral Davidson. And I bring greetings from your Commander-in-Chief who wanted me to come by and not only receive a briefing from here at INDOPACOM but also to extend our gratitude and congratulations to you on your new assignment. ADMIRAL DAVIDSON: Thank you. THE VICE PRESIDENT: Indo-Pacific Command oversees 50 percent of the worlds population - U.S. military operations - across 14 time zones. And the leadership that youve provided and that your entire team provides contributes to the safety and security of the American people. I hope you will convey our gratitude and appreciation to the some 380,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard that operate under this combatant command. America is more secure every day because of the service of the men and women beneath your command. And so, Admiral, Im truly grateful to you and, obviously, my wife and I come to this assignment with great humility. President Trump gave me the great privilege to represent him at a ceremony today where we will receive the remains of American servicemen who fell in the Korean War. My father served in the United States Army and saw combat in Korea. And I come to this moment deeply humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to express not only the Presidents gratitude to the families of our fallen, but also to honor those who gave the last full measure. And so thank you for making that special occasion take place today. Were honored to be a part of it. And on this day and every day, were truly grateful for your leadership and your service, Admiral. ADMIRAL DAVIDSON: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I appreciate it. THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. ADMIRAL DAVIDSON: Thank you very much. Imperial Valley News Center Duiker Calf Born at the San Diego Zoo San Diego, California - A month-old duiker calf eagerly took a bottle from her keeper earlier today (Aug. 3, 2018) at the San Diego Zoo. Then the calf spent some bonding time with her mother and father. The female calf, named Etana (pronounced eh-TA-na, meaning Swahili for strong one), was born in an off-exhibit area of the Zoos Ituri Forest multi-species habitat on July 7, to first-time mom, Peep. After giving birth, 5-year-old Peep was not properly caring for her calf. Unsure if Peeps maternal instincts would kick in, the animal care team temporarily separated them and stepped in to give the calf bottle feedings, to ensure proper nutrition. That is when something out of the ordinary happened. The sire, 18-year-old Luke, showed attention and care for the calf, helping to demonstrate to the mother how to be a good parent. This is unique, since most male duikers do not play a role in parenting. Luke has sired six calves at the San Diego Zoo, so hes not unfamiliar with having a little bouncing baby around, said senior keeper, Jennifer Chapman. He was a great catalyst to reintroducing Etana and Peep, showing Peep that the calf is an okay addition to their group. Peep is learning how to care for her baby and doing well, added Chapman, and Luke is always there, furthering the trios bond as a happy family. Keepers report the trio will continue to develop their relationships off-exhibit for the time being. The calf will then be introduced gradually to the multi-species exhibit the duikers share with the okapis. Zoo guests should be able to see the duiker calf in about two weeks, with her parents and the okapis in their habitat in Ituri Forest. Duikers are small- to medium-sized antelopes native to sub-Saharan Africa. They are listed as Stable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Duikers are shy and elusive creatures with a fondness for dense cover. The name duiker (pronounced diker) comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch word for diver or diving buck. It refers to the duikers' practice of diving into tangles of undergrowth. Duikers must always be on the lookout for danger, as they make a hearty meal for many predators. Female duikers are a bit larger than males, but both males and females have short horns. In the wild, duikers live alone, in pairs, or in small groups of between 3 and 10 animals. Visitors to the San Diego Zoo may see the duiker trio in their habitat in the Ituri Forest in the near future. Those visiting the Zoo now through Sept. 3 can enjoy Nighttime Zoo, an annual summertime celebration that includes toe-tapping music, fascinating animal encounters, stilt walkers, exceptional acrobatic feats and African-themed music, dance, and more. The Zoo will stay open until 9 p.m., with special activities starting at 4 p.m. daily. Nighttime Zoo activities and attractions are free with Zoo admission or membership. Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global. First Lady Melania Trump Begins Planning for the 2018 Christmas Season at the White House Washington, DC - The initial planning for the 2018 Christmas season is underway at the White House. First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald J. Trump are opening the peoples house up to the public for the traditional Christmas decorating of the White House. This year, the White House invites local musicians including high school bands, choirs, and Christmas-themed entertainers to apply for the opportunity to perform during the Holiday Open Houses throughout the month of December. Anyone interested in volunteering to decorate or perform can find additional details below. Confirmed volunteers and entertainers will receive notification later this fall. VOLUNTEER APPLICATION Volunteers may apply through September 3, 2018. Please note each person should sign-up individually, as no group sign-ups will be accepted. However, applicants may outline specific requests and previous, relatable work experience using the online form. ENTERTAINMENT APPLICATION Musicians either individuals or groups may apply through September 17, 2018. Please note the form allows applicants to select a range of dates during the month of December. All confirmed applicants will be assigned a particular date and time for their performance. Additional requests or requirements may be outlined using the online form. All interested applicants should sign up HERE . All questions should be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Secretary Pompeo's Meeting With Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Singapore - Today in Singapore, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir to congratulate the new government and all of the Malaysian people on competitive elections and the peaceful transition of authority between governments. They discussed ways to work together to strengthen the U.S.-Malaysia Comprehensive Partnership based on shared democratic values, including advancing mutual security and economic interests across the Indo-Pacific. Zimbabwe's Elections Washington, DC - Zimbabwes July 30 elections presented the country with an historic chance to move beyond the political and economic crises of the past and toward profound democratic change. The Zimbabwean people turned out massively to cast their votes, underscoring their aspirations for a better future, despite challenges during the pre-election period. Unfortunately, Zimbabwes success in delivering an election day that was peaceful, and open to international observers, was subsequently marred by violence and a disproportionate use of deadly force against protestors by the security forces. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of those killed and injured and appeal to the leaders of all parties to urge their supporters to act peacefully. The United States welcomes the commitment by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release comprehensive election results in a form that provides full transparency. The United States will continue to review the data collected by its own observation teams, by international observation missions, and by local observers to make a complete assessment of the overall election. We encourage all stakeholders and citizens to pursue any grievances peacefully and through established legal channels, and we encourage all political leaders to show magnanimity in victory and graciousness in defeat. The United States remains focused on working with Zimbabwe as its people and government strive toward still-needed comprehensive electoral, political, economic, and human rights reforms. Secretary of State Pompeo's Meeting With Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Singapore - Friday, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore. Secretary Pompeo underscored the importance of pursuing a constructive U.S.-China relationship that produces meaningful results. He emphasized our shared commitment to the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, as agreed upon by Chairman Kim, as well as the importance of continued implementation of all related UN Security Council Resolutions. Secretary Pompeo also discussed additional priorities in our bilateral relationship, such as U.S. concerns about China's ongoing militarization of the South China Sea. Niger's Independence Day Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, congratulations to the government and people of Niger on your 58th anniversary of Nigers independence. "We value our strong and longstanding partnership. Nigers democratic institutions and active civil society provide important avenues for citizens to participate in their governance and future. The United States recognizes Nigers important contributions to stability and security in the face of multiple threats in the Sahel. We will continue to support Niger in the year ahead in the pursuit of economic growth and opportunity, regional security and good governance. "I wish the people of Niger peace and prosperity in the upcoming year as you mark 58 years of independence." It's the dream of so many entrepreneurs. They want to build a business, make millions, then move to some Caribbean island and run their company while sipping their Pina Coladas on the beach. But why wait? Why not just build your business on the beach now? In fact, you might well find that it's a lot easier to build a business on a Caribbean island when that island won't drown your company in taxes and heavy regulations. You might even reach that first million a lot faster. That's the promise offered by Cayman Enterprise City, a set of three special economic zones in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory located in the warm waters of the Caribbean between Cuba and Costa Rica. The zones--Cayman Tech City, Cayman Commodities and Derivatives City, and Cayman Maritime and Aviation City--levy no corporate, income, sales or capital gains tax. There are no government reporting or filing requirements. Five-year work and residency visas can be granted in as little as five days, and staff and business owners get to enjoy year-round sun and all the frills of a high quality island lifestyle. Cayman Enterprise City isn't just another tax haven though. The Cayman Islands expects businesses and their owners to move physically to the island, to set up their offices and work close to the beach (everywhere on the Cayman Islands is close to the beach.) Some 230 companies from 21 countries have already done so. More than two-thirds of those companies are from North America, and the numbers are growing, giving the businesses a cluster effect that allows ideas to spread and cross-marketing to take place. "In five years we conservatively estimate that there will be over 500 businesses in the SEZ, with roughly 60 percent of those operating from within Cayman Tech City," Charlie Kirkconnell, CEO of Cayman Enterprise City told me. The organization is building a new 53-acre campus to accommodate the influx. "We see our campus development as key to facilitating the creation of business activity hubs that enable like-minded individuals to easily socialize and collaborate," says Charlie Kirkconnell. Unsurprisingly for a zone that prides itself on minimal regulation and maximum business freedom, Cayman Enterprise City has attracted a lot of interest from blockchain-based firms. A quarter of all the tenants in Cayman Enterprise City are developing or using blockchain technology, a total of some 50 companies. Moving a company to the Cayman Islands starts by talking to lawyers and tax advisors in the home country to make sure that it's a good fit. (It's not a solution that suits every business.) Cayman Enterprise City then works with 100 vendors, from doctors and schools to real estate agents and social clubs, to smooth the relocation. I've visited Cayman Enterprise City and I can certainly say that it's a beautiful place. For any business, but especially one working on blockchain technology, it's an ideal environment that allows a company to develop and bring their ideas to fruition. Its easy to end up with hop-related choice paralysis when scouting for beer. New names and proliferating styles abound, so when two or more breweries appear on a badge, bottle or can, I jump at the chance to kill several birds with one stone. Collaboration brews are as commonplace post-craft revolution as beards on brewers; in whats still a tiny section of the market, cooperation is as big as competition. Its a David and Goliath situation with global brewing behemoths on top, but fortunately the collective Davids are mates. Im raising a glass to this spirit of camaraderie and innovation in the first of a new series on life-giving beer. And (of course) yesterday was World Beer Day, so dont take down the bunting just yet, but do feel free to raise an eyebrow at new research by a UK brewery showing Britons have rated their dear own British craft beer the best in the world... Sharing is caring Heads and hops come together in the brewing industry because of shared ideals and common interests, says Graham McAteer of London-based Fourpure brewery. Whether it be expertise, ingredients or imagination there is never a shortage of ideas for new beers and new concepts, he says. The brewerys recent Continental Collaboration series saw it work with six global, like-minded counterparts they werent chosen because they were the most hyped or trendy in the world, adds McAteer. The results range from a session pale ale to more out-there creations like a satsuma and seaweed gose. Fourpures Continental Collaborations are available from 3.50 per 500ml, fourpure.com, and are pouring at the London taproom (Fourpure) With projects like this, beer lovers can sample the delights of faraway breweries we might never have had access to otherwise. Smaller producers can enjoy the reach and resources of larger ones, which remain fresh and interesting. And collaborations often result in big, boundary-pushing flavours. Thats what happens when you put a bunch of beer geeks in a room together. The challenge is getting them before theyre gone the vast majority of collaborations are one-off brews. Theyll be talk of the town among beer enthusiasts, sell out in a flash, then fade into the ether. The poshest beers Show all 10 1 /10 The poshest beers The poshest beers Budweiser Budweiser, famous for its bullfrog adverts, came in 5th. 38 per cent of those who buy the beer are middle class. Spencer Platt/Getty Images The poshest beers Peroni Italian beer Peroni topped the list, as 50 per cent of its customers are middle class Jason Carter Rinaldi/Getty Images for Peroni The poshest beers Heineken Dutch beer Heineken came second. 45 per cent of its customers are middle class. Getty Images The poshest beers Kronenbourg 1664 Tastemaker Alex James joins the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the first Kronenbourg brewery at Le Cafe Du Marche Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Kronenbourg The poshest beers Beck's Beck's, a German beer, came 4th with 38 per cent of its customers being middle class The poshest beers A Belgian beer, Stella Artois came 6th with 36 per cent Mark Renders/Getty Image The poshest beers 35 per cent of the customers of Dutch beer Grolsch are middle class Piutus/Flickr CC The poshest beers Fosters lager Australian beer Fosters came in 8th. 33 per cent of its customers are in the AB social group GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images The poshest beers Carling 31 per cent of Carling customers are middle class Graeme Robertson/Getty Images The poshest beers Carlsberg came join last with Carling, with 31 per cent. Niklas Morberg/ Flickr CC Time and place Geographical ties inform projects as much as ideological ones: McAteer points to the North Sea Bridges series between Scottish and Scandinavian brewers, launching at Leeds Beer Week later this month. While the likes of Northern Monk (which is so hot right now) takes its cue from the north of Englands identity with its ongoing Patrons Projects. Beers in this series are made in collaboration with breweries far and wide, alongside athletes, artists and creatives from around Northern Monks Leeds locale. Patrons Projects 2.05: Northern Monk x 7 Island x Nomad Clan, Lost Highway Passion Fruit, Mango, Milk Sugar and Vanilla IPA, 7.4% ABV, 440ml, available in good beer shops (Northern Monk) The idea was always to provide an opportunity to showcase progressive northern talent to a new audience, says founder Russell Bisset. Cross pollination is key to the whole initiative. Cans tell collaborators stories, which are the inspiration for the beers themselves. When working with fell runner Ricky Lightfoot (yes, thats his real name) for example, lower alcohol, big flavour brews that work post-race or mid-hike are on the cards. That sounds like the kind of hike I could go for. People say theyve been introduced to artists, or that theyve spotted the mural weve commissioned thats a celebration of our industrial heritage, and learned more about the history of the region, says Bisset. Thats what its all about. Come together, right now Signature Brew comes at collaborations from another angle. Music fans will be familiar with choosing the best of a bad beer bunch at concerts, served lukewarm in a plastic cup. And while new wave beers have boldly entered our pubs, bars and shops, their advance into gig and festival venues has been sluggish. The Leyton brewerys founders, sick of suffering lacklustre selections, set about making beer for live music events. British indie pop band Banfi worked with Signature Brew on a self-titled grapefruit sour, 3.8% ABV, 2.90 per 330ml, ivveritas.com (Signature Brew) Collaborations with artists were the way in. We used bands of all different genres as our mouthpieces, says co-founder Tom Bott. It was our view that music fans would listen to them, not us. Band-beer collaborations arent new, but between two industries which prize authenticity highly, they can be left wanting and appear gimmicky. So Signature involves artists throughout the process: tasting and brainstorming, brewing and canning. It can be refreshing, says Bott, to work with collaborators unswayed by the latest trends. Consider the niche carved out. You can find Signatures seasonal collaborations and core range (added to the lineup in 2013) taking over taps at venues and festivals, while it scooped the Society of Independent Brewers Business of the Year 2018. Two high-profile collaborations are slated for later this year, but Botts lips are sealed on the artists, theres plans to crowdfund a new brewery to triple capacity. For now, look out for the self-titled Banfi grapefruit (sweet and) sour or the crisp, pineapple scented Festival Saison both ideal for crushing in the summer sun. Kitty Travers keeps notebooks filled with recipes of every ice cream shes made during the past 13 years. The pages are creased and carry splotches of custard, all marks of her frozen creations. The notebooks chart successes, including her wildly popular cucumber and sour cream flavour, as well as the occasional failure, such as the time she learned that her much anticipated lily of the valley-flavoured ice cream was actually poisonous. But mostly, they record how shes perfected the ice creams she sells to adoring fans of La Grotta Ices, at the Spa Terminus farmers market in London and in a few select shops. Now would-be ice cream makers can try their hand at making her unique takes on frozen treats, in her new recipe book, La Grotta Ices. Her flavours are hardly what youd find in the supermarket aisle. I dont make whats popular, I make what I like making, she says. So forget bog standard vanilla and chocolate and think instead blackberry and rose geranium or tomato and white peach flavours that are based on seasonal ingredients, with less sugar than youd find in other ice creams. The extra scoop On 22 September 1942 Winston Churchill wrote a letter to Lord Woolton, the mastermind behind wartime rationing. Churchill was clearly not pleased. The reason? Woolton hadnt consulted the cabinet before prohibiting the manufacture and sale of ice cream. Churchill mused that American troops would make their own arrangements adding that They are great addicts of ice cream, which is said to be a rival to alcoholic drinks. Its a story included in the book Ice Creams, Sorbets and Gelati: The Definitive Guide by Caroline and Robin Weir. Its a story near to Robins heart since he didnt take his first lick of ice cream until 1946. It was absolutely incredible. As a child I had never had anything like that the idea of something that was cold but you put it in your mouth and it melted, he says It was also the beginning of a lifelong obsession and a collection he and Caroline Weir amassed of 14,000 ice cream-related paraphernalia, some of which hes loaned to SCOOP: A Wonderful Ice Cream World, an exhibit launched by The British Museum of Food at Gasholders London, Kings Cross. SCOOP aims to bring ice cream to life so expect to sample glow-in-the-dark ice cream, learn about the neuroscience behind our favourite frozen food, and discover ice creams dark side SCOOP: A Wonderful Ice Cream World through 30 September 2018 (bmof.org Ice Creams, Sorbets & Gelati: The Definitive Guide by Caroline and Robin Weir is published by Grub Street Press She got her start selling her ice cream at the Islington farmers market in the capital where she had to use ingredients grown near the capital. So that meant no coffee, no chocolate, no vanilla, she says. What others might find restrictive, Travers found liberating. She remembers finding peaches in the summer that werent quite ripe, but they had leaves attached so I used to buy bags of peach leaves and use them to flavour the custards, she says. The leap wasnt too difficult for Travers in part because shed worked as a pastry chef at Spitalfields restaurant St John Bread and Wine where British ingredients form the backbone of the menu. When she started making her own ice creams, she found herself experimenting with ingredients like fig leaves. These arent new flavourings, theyre just flavourings you cant get in the supermarket. She also counts her time working at Londons Poilane bakery as influencing the way she thinks about food. Travers remembers how shed have to convince customers that it was worth paying almost 6 for a loaf of sourdough bread, and how Leon Poilane refused to diversify and do sausage rolls and pizza. It definitely fed into what I do and when I have wobbly moments it makes me think, no, its ok to do what youre doing and trying to do well. What Travers wants is to get people to think about ice cream differently. People are more used to the taste of processed food than natural foods so it takes a bit of adjusting your taste buds to get used to it. Scan a list of ingredients for one of Travers ice creams and its all reassuringly familiar: milk, cream, eggs and seasonal fruit with nary a stabiliser or emulsifier to be seen. Now Travers wants to encourage ice cream aficionados to try their hand at making ice cream. Shes been teaching ice cream making at the School of Artisan Food for around seven years, which has shown her where budding ice cream makers can run into trouble. There really are no secrets. Its just attention to what youre doing and a little bit of applying a few tips that Ive learned along the way about how to get the best flavour. And how to enjoy making it a bit more. When she started La Grotta Ices, Travers closed shop during the winter and spent time travelling in search out new ice creams and artisan ice cream producers. Countries like Italy, with their passeggiata, and France have long connections to the leisurely enjoyment of ice cream but so do surprising places like Iceland where the long summer days are spent outdoors with an ice cream or two. Now its like their national food, like curry is in Britain, she says. As her business has grown, Travers finds herself making more ice cream year round. But she still finds time to travel, including a jaunt to Europe in January or February to take advantage of the citrus harvest. I bring back weird collections of citrus in my suitcase and candy them so at least Ive got them for the year to last me. But one of the beauties of Traverss ice creams is that her menu is constantly changing based on whats in season. Once theyre gone, theyre gone. So if youre in London, enjoy her Amalfi lemon jelly in January and rhubarb and angelica in May, but if youre not, make it yourself. There is nothing as fun as pouring liquid into an ice cream machine and then 20 minutes later eating ice cream out of it. It never fails to be a joy. (Grant Cornet) Passion fruit sour Passion fruits have a surprise inside! Their crinkly, dun skins disguise highly scented, enticing pulp. They are dependable, too easily available and can be relied upon to yield rich, tropical flavour. This sorbet is very easy to make and delivers a high-impact sweetntart flavour. Its a real crowdpleaser. 180g sugar 200ml water 2 large oranges 8 ripe passion fruit (choose large, deeply wrinkled fruit) To prepare the sorbet: heat the sugar and water together in a pan, stirring to dissolve the grains of sugar. As soon as the syrup starts to simmer remove it from the heat. Rinse the oranges then pat dry and grate the zest of one of them directly into the hot syrup. Set aside to cool. Cut the passion fruit in half horizontally and use a teaspoon to scrape the seeds and pulp of each half into a clean bowl. Weigh this you should have about 180g of pulp. Squeeze the juice of both oranges over the passion fruit and then add the strained cold sugar syrup (discard the zest). Liquidise the lot together for 3-4 minutes until the passion fruit pips have broken down somewhat (leave these in the finished sorbet for texture) and the mixture is frothy and slightly milky looking. Cover the mixture and put in the fridge for 2-3 hours until chilled. To make the sorbet: once cold, whisk the mixture in case it has separated, then pour it into an ice cream machine and churn according to the machines instructions, about 20-25 minutes, or until thick and frosty-looking. Scrape the sorbet into a suitable lidded container. Top with a piece of waxed paper to limit exposure to air, cover and freeze until ready to serve. (Grant Cornett) Montmorency cherry sherbet Fresh cherries are a treat to eat sweet and sharp and juicy, with taut, shiny skins that crack as you bite into them. But their flavour is hard to distinguish unless they are of a sour variety. Dont spoil beautiful ripe cherries by turning them into ice cream or sorbet. No matter how tenderly you treat them, your efforts will be wasted. Hold out to make montmorency cherry sherbet instead. If you can get hold of a montmorency (or griotte) cherry to take a bite, youll find it mouth-puckeringly sour and wretched. Only lightly cooking the fruit brings out the intense flavour you recognise from classic cherry boiled sweets or cherry coke. They taste fake! Likewise, morello cherries are so clear and bright with such a plucky flavour; try contacting pick-your-own farms to seek them out. This recipe constitutes as a sherbet because of the addition of a splash of fresh cream just enough to soften the sharpness, leaving it tasting a little bit like Refreshers sweets. Its the perfect recipe to serve blended with ice-cold prosecco to make a sgroppino cocktail. Especially if you can find a succulent Luxardo maraschino cocktail cherry to top it with. 450g montmorency or morello cherries, stone in 150g sugar 100ml water Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed or Amalfi lemon Splash of double cream 1 tbsp Luxardo maraschino liqueur (optional) To prepare the sherbet: leaving the stones in, lightly cook the cherries with the sugar and water. If you have a microwave, zap them in a heatproof bowl for 4-5 minutes on high, until the fruit is lightly cooked. If not, cook it all in a small non-reactive pan just until the cherries burst and are piping hot. Allow to cool to room temperature. Once the cherries are cool enough to handle, wash your hands and de-stone each one carefully using your fingers. Place the cherries and their syrup in a blender along with the lemon zest and juice, cream and liqueur (if using). Liquidise for 2-3 minutes, or until very smooth. Use the back of a small ladle to push the mix through a fine-mesh sieve or chinois. Cover the puree and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours, or until completely cold. To make the sherbet: pour the cherry puree into an ice cream machine and churn according to the machines instructions, usually about 20-25 minutes, or until frozen and thick and creamy looking. Scrape the sherbet into a suitable lidded container. Top with a piece of waxed paper to limit exposure to air, cover and freeze until ready to serve. Note I like to cook cherries with their stones in, and pit them afterwards. Just like cooking beef on the bone, it adds flavour except it is a nicer, more almondy flavour! Recipes from La Grotta Ices by Kitty Travers. Published by Square Peg (18.99), which is out now Scientists have picked up a mysterious, energetic and deep radio signal coming from deep in space. It is not clear where the blast came from, or how it made its way to Earth. It was detected by researchers at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, a powerful telescope in British Columbia. The signal was the first to be heard between the frequency of 400 and 800 MHz, making it a much deeper and lower signal than many of those heard before. 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 Scientists have picked up more than 30 of the fast radio bursts over the last ten years or so. They remain one of the most mysterious phenomena in the universe, and could be a clue to some extreme activity happening billions of light years away. Since they were discovered in 2007, FRBs have become one of the most mysterious signals in the universe. They are incredibly strong signals that die away intriguingly quickly, and have been seen by telescopes all around the world. Most of them have also been picked up after the fact. The newly detected burst, which has been given the name FRB 180725A, is rare in that it was seen in real time. It is difficult to know when they will occur, since there seems to be little pattern to them. Scientists found the first repeating source of FRBs recently, allowing them to keep watch for the signals. Scientists have long been searching for the source of the bursts, which arrive with great force but last only a tiny amount of time. Scientists have suggested that they are emerging from some kind of "extreme" environment, but nobody has definitively shown where they are being sent from. That has led to speculation that they could be emerging from a huge undiscovered star, jets emerging from a black hole or even an artificial source such as alien life. Researchers last year revealed that they appeared to have tracked the bursts down to a faint dwarf galaxy more than three billion light years away. Before then, scientists had thought that the bursts could be coming from within our own galaxy but they appear to be arriving from deep within the universe, that research suggested. On 9 August 1991, The Independent ran a news story headlined, A murder that will haunt Iran Shapour Bakhtiar was stabbed to death by three terrorists using knives from the kitchen of his home in France. Fingers were pointed at Tehran. While Bakhtiar was vilified by Islamic Iran, he in fact took office only on condition that the shah left the country, the report said. And it was Bakhtiar who allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran in February 1979. As he did so, he warned his countrymen in a television broadcast, that they were in danger of exchanging one dictatorship for another. Bakhtiars obituary follows. Shapour Bakhtiar, the prime minister of the last shah of Iran, was a colourful and controversial politician. Born in 1914 into a powerful family of Bakhtiari chieftains, he went at an early age to France where he completed his high school, attended university, and returned to Iran in the 1940s after obtaining a doctorate. In the meantime his father and several other Bakhtiari chieftains were arrested in Iran and later executed on charges of treason an event that left a permanent scar on the young Shapours mind with regard to Rem Shah and the Pahlavi regime. Bakhtiar was so deeply impressed with French culture and civilisation that, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the French army as a volunteer, a career which came to a quick end with the French surrender. Returning to Iran, he became a civil servant, and joined the Iran Party. This party was composed mainly of younger technocrats, lawyers and university professors with a reputation for honesty and patriotism who were disenchanted with the post-war political situation in Iran and favoured the establishment of a popular and independent government. Bakhtiars first important post was the director of the Department of Labour in the oil province of Khuzistan where he characteristically made many friends as well as many enemies. It was the movement for the nationalisation of Iranian oil and the premiership of Mohammad Musaddeq that first brought Bakhtiar to public notice as an energetic and ambitious young politician. The Iran Party to which he belonged was far from being a mass movement, in fact consisting of a few hundred cadres and activists. But its leadership comprised a large number of influential and popular politicians, and once it affiliated itself to Musaddeqs National Front, it became the most important political force within that body. In April 1951, Musaddeq was elected prime minister, and the Iran Party supplied many of his leading lieutenants both in parliament and government, resulting in jealousies and infighting among members and affiliated organisations of the National Front. The Iranian parliament was exceptionally powerful at the time for both constitutional and political reasons, and it was predictable that a young and ambitious politician like Bakhtiar should wish to obtain a seat in that body. This was not to be. The general elections of 1952 were not completed, meaning that Bakhtiar missed the chance of being returned from a provincial town where the National Front was thought to have strong support. Instead, he was made deputy minister of labour, at the time a highly important post for a man of his youth and slight experience. The Independent reports on the killing of Shapour Bakhtiar in 1991 The minister himself was not a particularly strong personality, and Bakhtiar soon came to dominate the department and effectively to take most of its main decisions. He therefore took the blame for some policies which were unpopular with sections of the National Front, and managed to alienate influential politicians and activists within the movement. The coup ddetat against Musaddeq of 1953 brought Bakhtiars career in government to an abrupt end. After spending a spell in jail, he established himself in the private sector until the troubles of the early 1960s brought him back into the arena of political activity. The shahs government had grown unpopular for both economic and political reasons, allowing the formation of the second National Front in 1960. Although not a first rank Front leader such as Allahyar Saleh and Karim Sanjabi, Bakhtiar nevertheless became a dominant figure in the organisation, and played a leading role in its decisions and activities. Apart from being a member of its central council and executive committee, he was made the spokesman for student affairs and put in charge of the student organisation, the Fronts most active and vocal group. At first, Bakhtiar was an idol of the students, but soon a growing number of them became critical of some of his decisions as well as his style of decision-making, to the extent that they complained directly to Musaddeq (who was confined to his estate and could not partake in political activity) against the leadership of the National Front. Additionally, certain of the Fronts decisions, in which Bakhtiar had played a significant part, caused the alienation of the Freedom Movement and the Socialist League, and later brought on the vociferous opposition of many of the Fronts own affiliated bodies. The Independents obituary for Bakhtiar, Friday 9 August 1991 The failure of the second National Front, and the defeat of the uprising of June 1963, coupled with the shahs White Revolution, made it impossible for any individual or group to engage in open and semi-legal activities which had hitherto been the main vehicle for airing political discontent. Hence, in the Sixties and Seventies political opposition was increasingly manifested in clandestine activities with the principal aim of destroying the shahs regime. With the onset of the revolution in the late 1970s, it was no longer the old liberal ideas of the National Front which set the political agenda, but the much more radical Islamic and Marxist ideologies focusing on the downfall of the shah and the removal of US influence in Iran. Thus, the fourth National Front, which was hastily organised, had to assume a relatively low profile, and content itself with finding some of its most loyal supporters among the traditional and modern middle classes. Yet, the age and experience of some of the Front leaders, and the political prestige they derived from their past association with Musaddeq, made them obvious candidates for playing the role of conciliators and peacebrokers. It was an uphill task. On the one hand, the consequences of the revolutionary movement were unpredictable; on the other, public opinion was vehemently opposed to any settlement short of the downfall of the Pahlavi dynasty. Karim Sanjabi, the National Front leader, was sounded out but he refused to cooperate with what he called the illegal monarchical regime. The shah then contacted Gholam Hosain Sadiqi, a highly-respected former leader in the Front, who, on account of the disagreements of the early 1960s, had been alienated from it. Sadiqis conditions proved unacceptable to the shah, who turned to Bakhtiar, by then a member of the executive committee and effective deputy leader of the National Front. Bakhtiars daring and dashing personality meant that he was able to reach an agreement with the shah, be named prime minister by him, and be ready to face all opposition including that of his own political organisation. With Ayatollah Khomeini calling from Paris for the removal of the shah, and the Iranian public solidly behind him and his slogan, Bakhtiar was expelled from the National Front, who were incensed by the fact that he had effectively bypassed them in reaching his settlement. Bakhtiar, on the other hand, declared that he was opposed to an Islamic government, and quickened the pace of political liberalisation which had been in motion for some time. Yet even the shahs departure from Iran immediately upon Bakhtiars assumption of office failed to satisfy the revolutionary forces. When Khomeini returned to Iran, the tumultuous welcome that he received pointed to the likely outcome of the events. Bakhtiar had hoped that with the support of the army he would be able to ride the revolutionary tiger, but, following an armed uprising in February 1979, the army withdrew to their barracks, the revolution succeeded, and Bakhtiar had to flee the country. A few months after the revolution, disagreements began to surface among the revolutionary forces themselves, especially after US diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran. In November 1979 Bakhtiar seized the moment and stepped forward from his hideout in Paris as a leader of opposition to the Islamic regime. He declared himself a constitutional monarchist and launched his National Resistance Movement in exile with financial help from Iraq, where his supporters ran a Persian broadcast service directed into Iran. As a result of his declaration, an attempt was made on his life in 1980. It was foiled by French police, under whose protection he lived until his assassination yesterday. A few months before, the body of his deputy, marked with stabbed wounds, had been found in a lift at his Paris home. With the recent developments in Iran and the Middle East, and the dashing of the hopes of disaffected Iranian exiles for a quick radical political change in Iran, the role of Bakhtiar and the wale of his organisations activities had been significantly reduced relative to the early 1980s. Whatever the motive behind his assassination, he could hardly have been viewed as posing a danger to the survival of the Islamic regime in Iran. Shapour Bakhtiar, politician, born 1914, prime minister of Iran 1979, died Suresnes, France, 6 August 1991 Tommy Robinson has lodged an official complaint claiming he was mentally tortured after being given no TV while in prison. In what was purportedly a form lodged with the prison service, posted by the far-right figurehead on his Facebook page, he claimed he had been kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day for two months. The English Defence League (EDL) founder, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was released on bail on Wednesday as judges overturned his 13-month sentence for contempt of court and ordered him to face a retrial. The complaint form published by Tommy Robinson on his Facebook page (Facebook/ Tommy Robinson) He had been convicted in May after filming people in an ongoing criminal trial at Leeds Crown Court and broadcasting it to 250,000 people on social media. Robinson claims he lost nearly 40lbs during his two months in jail, eating only one tin of tuna and a piece of fruit daily and said he was paranoid that other inmates were tampering with his food. You are punishing me with no TV, he wrote. Id like to be given a TV as I feel I am being mentally tortured. I dont eat the prison food as I cant see if anything is done to it as servey [sic] may know its coming to my cell. Im paranoid so I rely on tinned food from the canteen. He was allowed no socialisation, no church, no education, no work and no gym, he wrote. He also complained about being moved from prison in Hull to HMP Onley in Rugby. You have moved me from Hull with a 7 per cent Muslim population to here where 1 in 3 prisoners are Muslim. Id like to know how that move could have happened considering you have a duty of care for my safety. This prison move is not progressive and is affecting my mental health. The Prison Service rejected his claims. Mr Yaxley-Lennon was treated with the same fairness we aim to show all prisoners he had access to visits, television and showers and it is totally false to say he was held in solitary confinement, said a Prison Service spokesman. He was initially placed into the Care & Separation Unit for less than 48 hours while an assessment of the risk to his safety was undertaken by prison staff. He then joined the main prison population. Robinson told Fox News programme Tucker Carlson Tonight that he had been spat at and had excrement thrown at him by other prisons. I was supposed to be in Her Majestys Prison Service, not Guantanamo Bay, he said. He claimed he had informed authorities he had previously been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following a five-month period of solitary confinement in 2012. Upon overturning his prison sentence, judges ordered Robinson to face a new hearing at the Old Bailey for allegations of contempt. Robinson left prison with more money and more supporters than when he entered, including public recognition from the US presidents son Donald Trump Jr. His Facebook following has increased by more than 10 per cent to 865,000, and he has received more than 20,000 in Bitcoin since he was jailed in May. Pro-EU MPs have demanded leading Tory Brexiteers "come clean" on why they abandoned their earlier support for a second Brexit referendum. Prominent eurosceptics including Jacob Rees-Mogg, David Davis and John Redwood have all previously proposed two separate votes on Britain leaving the EU. But they have ditched their support since the 2016 referendum and now oppose calls for a Peoples Vote on the final Brexit deal. It comes as a petition supporting The Independents campaign for a Final Say on Brexit passed 570,000 signatures. Supporters of a further vote called on Brexiteers to explain their backtrack after a video of Mr Rees-Mogg proposing a second vote was widely shared online. A speech given by Mr Davis, the former Brexit secretary, and an article by veteran Tory backbencher Mr Redwood were also circulated. Both backed the idea of a double referendum. Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a leading spokesperson for the Peoples Vote campaign, told The Independent: The Brexiteers hold themselves up as champions of democracy and have at various stages been advocates of a referendum on the final Brexit deal eagerly so in the belief they would win it and now have backtracked as their promises have run off the rails during the negotiations. Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats' Brexit spokesperson, said: "Giving people the final say on the Brexit deal is essential and common sense - the Brexiters who one claimed they'd trust people to have the final say must now come clean on why they've changed their mind. "A cynic may suggest it's because of the mess Brexit is becoming and the increasing clarify on the damage it will do the United Kingdom." They need to explain why they think an elite in Westminster should determine what the UK should do at the end of this process, and not the people. In a speech in parliament in 2011, Ms Rees-Mogg suggested a second referendum could be held and that it would make more sense if this was after Britain completed negotiations with the EU. Responding to a question about how the Brexit referendum would work, he replied: That issue can be dealt with in the legislation. Indeed, we could have two referendums. As it happens, it might make more sense to have the second referendum after the renegotiation is completed. People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS More recently, Mr Rees-Mogg has said calls for a second Brexit vote on the final deal negotiated with Brussels are absurd. Earlier this year he told LBC: Its quite clear that people have voted to support leaving the European Union. It is slightly to my mind contentious of democracy to say, we dont like the vote so you will vote again, and then you will vote again until you do what we say. That has been the European Unions approach too many times. David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, also previously proposed a double referendum. In a speech in 2012, he said the government should first spell out what sort of relationship it wanted with the EU, and put this to a public vote in a mandate referendum. A second vote should then take place after negotiations with the EU, he said. In this decision referendum, the British people would either approve the new negotiated relationship, or if it was not good enough, it would trigger the negotiation to leave the Union. How the 'Independent City State of Totnes' will start the reformation of Brexit Britain He said: This approach has a number of advantages: the mandate referendum would stiffen the spines of our negotiators, and undermine the legitimacy of the European resistance to change. One of the characteristics of the EU is that it never backs down in the face of national demands except when they are backed up by a referendum. This in turn would mean that British citizens would be offered the best possible circumstances for staying in, as well as a real alternative in pulling out. The purpose of this strategy is to maximise both the democratic legitimacy and the negotiating leverage to achieve our policy aims. Mr Redwood backed Mr Davis proposal in an article posted on his website in 2012. He said the public should be given a vote on whether they wanted the UK to negotiate a new relationship with the EU based on trade and political cooperation. Following negotiations, they would then be asked whether they wanted to withdraw from the EU. In a post in 2012, he wrote: The second referendum would follow once the negotiations were complete. That would ask: do you want to accept the new negotiated relationship with the EU or not? Voting No means withdrawing from the EU. This seems to me to be the best way forward. The negotiations would also allow the government to negotiate the items that would need to be sorted out for exit anyway. There do need to be arrangements on ferry routes, airspace, pipelines, extradition, police intelligence and all the rest between the UK and the rest of the EU. Mr Redwood also used a Guardian article in the run-up to the 2016 poll to suggest a second referendum was a certainty if Britain voted to remain in the EU. Explaining why he no longer backed a second referendum, Mr Redwood told The Independent: "The double referendum strategy was proposed when the leadership of the Conservative Party refused to offer a simple Leave/Remain referendum in a manifesto to see if they could accept that instead. They didnt. "Subsequently they agreed to a one referendum approach, as did the people in the general election and the Parliament which followed. You can't change strategies we did not have a mandate referendum, we held a single Leave/Remain referendum which now has to be implemented." Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Davis have been contacted for comment. A former Labour MP and minister has resigned from the party after saying its just not the place for me any more. Tom Harris said he was leaving after 34 years as a party member and described the decision as feeling like a bereavement. Mr Harris served as MP for Glasgow Cathcart and then Glasgow South between 2001 and 2015 and as a transport minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 2006 to 2008. He told The Herald: I have not been kicked out. Ive resigned. Im just an ordinary member of the Labour Party who has decided to resign after 34 years. It felt a wee bit like a bereavement, I felt a bit emotional, but its just not the place for me anymore. Its a personal decision. Its not a comment on any people who have chosen to remain. This is just whats right for me. Its just a personal thing. He did not plan to join another party, he said. The former MP is a vocal critic of Jeremy Corbyn but did not confirm whether his decision was linked to the antisemitism row gripping the party. He lost his seat to the SNP in 2015 and this year published a book titled Ten Years in the Death of the Labour Party, looking at the decade since Tony Blair stepped down as prime minister in 2007. Mr Harris said he had written to Scottish Labour last week to hand back his membership. Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP His resignation was announced hours after Jeremy Corbyn used a newspaper article to try to defuse the antisemitism row engulfing Labour. Writing in The Guardian, the Labour leader admitted the party hasnt done enough to foster deeper understanding of antisemitism among members but vowed to root out anti-Jewish abuse. He told Labour antisemites: You are not my supporters and have no place in our movement. However, he was criticised after it emerged that chunks of the text had been copied and pasted from an article he wrote for the Evening Standard in April. The Home Office is gagging victims of the Windrush scandal in return for fast-track compensation, sparking accusations that Sajid Javid has broken a promise to MPs. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) has been imposed on at least one person who suffered harm and at least one more has been approached, The Independent has been told. The move comes despite the home secretary telling MPs, three weeks ago: No one will be asked to sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement or anything like that. The gagging a tactic normally used by celebrities, to hide embarrassments was condemned as totally unacceptable by David Lammy, a Labour MP and Windrush campaigner, who called on Mr Javid to explain why he had apparently gone back on his word. And Yvette Cooper, the head of the Commons home affairs committee, said she was extremely concerned, adding: Using NDAs to hide things that have gone wrong cannot be justified. The Law Society, meanwhile, warned that anyone who tried to reach an agreement with the Home Office without independent legal advice could be denied justice. The controversy has blown up after Mr Javid was criticised for slamming the brakes on an official scheme to compensate members of the Windrush generation and for planning to cap their payments. No decision on how it will work will be taken until the end of the year, despite warnings that people have been left destitute after losing their jobs, their benefits or even their homes, or being wrongly detained. They were trapped by Theresa Mays hostile environment crackdown, unable to provide the correct documents to employers, landlords and the NHS acting as de facto border guards. But Mr Javid has now revealed the Home Office is prepared to pay out immediate compensation if threatened with possible legal action and if it accepts it is culpable. Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Show all 15 1 /15 Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaican immigrants being welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner who arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex, speaking at his home in Leeds PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner in Leeds shortly after he arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Gardner was 22 years old when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before they and hundreds of Caribbean migrants called on to rebuild post-war Britain disembarked the ship in Tilbury Docks PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner (right), during his RAF service in 1947 PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The son of Ruth Williams, a Windrush-generation immigrant, wants to the leave the country after threats of deportation. According to his mother, Mr Haynes applied for British citizenship in 2016 but was rejected, despite Ms Williams having lived in the UK almost permanently since arriving from St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1959. Ruth Williams, 75, said she felt "betrayed" by Britain after the Home Office twice turned down applications for her 35-year-old son, Mozi Haynes, to remain in the country. Ms Williams is understood to have cancer and said she relies heavily on her son for support. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port in 1954. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Ruth Williams, 75, with her British passport. "I feel betrayed and a second class citizen in my own country," she said. "This makes me so sad and the Home Office must show some compassion. "I am unwell and almost 75, I live on my own and I need my son to stay here. I need my family around me and I cant face being alone. He has applied to the Home Office and been refused twice." PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK From the top, hopeful Jamaican boxers Charles Smith, Ten Ansel, Essi Reid, John Hazel, Boy Solas and manager Mortimer Martin arrive at Tilbury on the Empire Windrush in the hope of finding work in Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaicans reading a newspaper whilst on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' bound for Tilbury docks in Essex. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK After half a century in Britain, Anthony Bryan decided it was time to go abroad. But the decision set off a nightmare that saw him lose his job, detained twice and almost deported to Jamaica. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaica-born Anthony Bryan poses outside his home in Edmonton, north London. Now 60 and a grandfather, Bryan thought the issue could be resolved swiftly, as he legally moved to Britain with his family as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants after World War II. In 1948, the ship Windrush brought the first group of migrants from the West Indies to help rebuild post-war Britain, and many others followed from around the Commonwealth. A 1971 law gave them indefinite leave to remain, but many never formalised their status, often because they were children who came over on their parents' passports and then never applied for their own. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Three Jamaican immigrants (left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush', smartly dressed in zoot suits and trilby hats. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury in 1948. Getty However, these offers are sometimes accompanied by confidentiality clauses, depending on individual circumstances, said a letter sent to the home affairs committee. Where we consider that the department has erred, we will seek to reduce any further distress for the claimant by making an offer of compensation, rather than continue through a lengthy legal challenge, Mr Javid wrote. I can confirm that Windrush generation cases are sometimes addressed through this route. The Home Office refused to say how many Windrush victims had been asked to sign gagging orders, but did confirm that one individual had done so and there had been contact sought with a second person. A spokesman stressed that case pre-dated the compensation scheme launched by the government in the wake of the Windrush scandal, and said no one applying for compensation through that scheme would be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Mr Lammy told The Independent: It is totally unacceptable to gag vulnerable citizens in this way. Windrush victims have the right to fair compensation at the same time as the right to speak out. Forcing victims to sign non-disclosure agreements contradicts Sajid Javids statement and is an appallingly cynical way to handle the crisis. The MP said he appeared to have gone back on his promise, adding: The home secretary, who promised to do right by the Windrush generation, has a lot of explaining to do. Ms Cooper said: The home secretary has assured us that the Home Office will be transparent over Windrush but using NDAs to hide things that have gone wrong cannot be justified. We will continue to pursue this. And Christina Blacklaws, the Law Society president, said: We see no reason why this process should not be handled transparently. Anyone affected by the Windrush crisis should get independent legal advice so they know their rights and understand clearly what they need to do to claim compensation if they have suffered as a result of home office errors. Mr Javid was quizzed on the use of NDAs in the Commons on 16 July, when he told MPs: Let me be very clear that we are in the process of designing a compensation scheme. Its design is going to be overseen independently by Martin Forde QC, and there will be no question with respect to the compensation scheme no one will be asked to sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement or anything like that. Asked why, in that case, gagging orders were being pursued, the home office suggested Mr Javid had been referring only to the approach to be taken through the official compensation scheme. But it refused to say how many NDAs had already been secured, or were being pursued, ahead of updating the committee later in the year. The Home Office also failed to answer a parliamentary question on the use of gagging orders before MPs left Westminster for the summer break, despite having almost one month to do so. Asked if Mr Javid had misled MPs, a spokesman said only: The home secretary and the immigration minister have said that they want to give the Home Office a more human face and it is a priority to right the wrongs that have occurred. We have a dedicated and hardworking team of caseworkers who are committed to providing a high level of service with often complex cases. It is four months since the Windrush scandal engulfed Ms May, forcing her to apologise for the harsh impact of the hostile environment policies she introduced as home secretary. The affair claimed the scalp of Amber Rudd, bringing Mr Javid to the Home Office promising a fairer, more compassionate immigration system. There have been about 8,000 referrals to the Windrush taskforce, right to residency papers have been issued to more than 2,000 people and about 150 staff are investigating the cases of people wrongly detained and deported. A driver said he was thankful for a "lucky escape" after a close encounter with a helicopter in the Lake District. Brian Weatherall, 45, was driving along a misty lane in Kirkstone Pass with his family when the aircraft emerged unexpectedly from the fog, forcing him to hit the brakes. Dash-cam footage of the incident shows the aircraft passing with within metres of his car. After the helicopter disappeared from sight, Mr Weatherall can be heard saying to his family: Dear me. Thats not something you see very often. It is thought that the aircraft was carrying out manoeuvres as part of an SAS operation. I just couldnt believe it, Ive never seen anything like it," Mr Weatherall, a civil engineer from Durham, said. I was on holiday at the time and the roads were bad so I was taking it steady on the steep hill. It happened about 2pm and I had the whole family in the car, it really was quite something and a lucky escape. He added it had been pretty awesome to witness such an event. "It does make you feel safe when you see how our forces can fly a helicopter. British Special Forces refused to comment on the incident. Republicans are concerned Donald Trump will limit candidates popularity in the upcoming midterm elections as he parachutes into Ohio, attempting to drag the party across the line in a once-safe seat. The GOP holds a razor-thin lead in Ohios 12th Congressional District as voters head to the polls for a special election on Tuesday in a constituency represented by a Republican for all bar two years since 1939. Democratic candidate Danny OConnor has narrowed the gap to Republican rival Troy Balderson to just one per cent according to recent polls of the district, which Mr Trump carried by 11 points in 2016. The president is expected to hold a rally in Ohio on Saturday in a bid to shore up GOP support just days after his deputy, Mike Pence, also paid a visit to the state to campaign for Mr Balderson. Democrat Danny O'Connor is in with a shout of winning Ohio's Republican-friendly 12th congressional district (Reuters) However, Mr Trumps appearance will do little to ease the worries of those in the party who fear they will suffer another embarrassing special election defeat. Republicans are growing concerned with the high-profile role the president seemingly intends to play in Novembers midterm elections, which could see them lose control of the house of representatives or the senate. Some believe voters opinions of Mr Trump could prevent candidates from surpassing his own level of popularity if he becomes embroiled in tight congressional contests. The president will have done nothing to help the campaign in Ohio after he mistakenly endorsed a candidate who is not even on the ballot. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Show all 14 1 /14 The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Time for a break-up? Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Sometimes simplicity works best. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Theres no place for Trump's other policies in our society. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Many were quick to point out that in the UK, Trump means 'fart'. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Some people were looking out for The Queen Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests There's a Mean Girl's quote for every occasion Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests There were a lot of hair references at the march toupee. Sorry, today. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Frack off. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Try and read this out without singing it... Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests A message all Brits will understand. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Simple, and to the point Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests We don't entirely understand this one, but we do rather like it Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests The Inbetweeners sends a hilariously petulant message Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Never underestimate Cher Horowitz Harriet Hall In now-deleted tweet, he offered support to Steve Stivers, a Republican congressman who already represents Ohios 15th district. [Mr Stivers] is a great Congressman who is tough on crime & borders & an inspiration to our Military & Vets, Mr Trump wrote. Get out and vote for Steve on Aug 7th. He has my full & total endorsement. Mr Trump is seemingly casting himself as the star of the midterms, inserting himself into hotly-contested primaries, headlining rallies in pivotal swing states and increasing his fundraising efforts for Republicans. Last week, he agreed to donate a portion of his re-election fund to 100 GOP candidates running in competitive House and Senate races. He's expected to be even more aggressive in his canvassing once autumn arrives. White House officials say Mr Trump is already reserving time on his schedule for midterm campaigning and fundraising likely to surpass efforts of former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. This is now about Donald Trump, said Al Cardenas, a former Florida Republican chairman. It's a high-risk, high-stakes proposition. The question facing Republicans is whether mobilising Trump loyalists is enough to win in close congressional districts or if victory depends on winning over independents and those turned off by the presidents turbulent first term. If we lose the governor's race for the first time in 20 years, all of a sudden President Trump's chances of winning in 2020 diminish with a Democratic governor, Mr Cardenas added. You can't win a presidential election if you're a Republican without winning Florida. Additional reporting by AP A US judge has ordered the Trump administration to fully reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, potentially opening the door for more young, undocumented immigrants to apply for legal protections as early as the end of this month. Upholding his April order requiring the reinstatement of the Obama-era programme, which President Donald Trump attempted to end late last year, US District Judge John Bates had earlier given the current administration 90 days to "to better explain its view that DACA is unlawful. He has now ruled that they failed to do so. A memo from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in June offered "nothing even remotely approaching a considered legal assessment that this court could subject to judicial review", he wrote. He added: The Court has already once given DHS the opportunity to remedy these deficiencies either by providing a coherent explanation of its legal opinion or by reissuing its decision for bona fide policy reasons that would preclude judicial review so it will not do so again." The judge based in Washington DC gave the government 20 days to appeal his ruling before it must start accepting new applications for the programme. He is the third judge to slow the administrations attempts to rescind DACA a programme that gives certain legal rights to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children. US rescinds DACA program for young immigrants Previous rulings in California and New York required the government to honour protections for the more than 700,000 existing recipients. The administration has appealed these rulings. The administration signalled it may appeal Judge Bates' ruling as well, reiterating its position that the DACA programme is an unlawful circumvention of Congress, which the Department of Homeland Security has the power to rescind. "The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend this position, and looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation, Justice Department spokesperson Devin O'Malley said in a statement. Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Show all 8 1 /8 Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Mishawaka, Indiana AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Washington DC AFP/Getty Images Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy New York Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks in Tornillo, Texas alongside the many other US mayors who have called for detained immigrant children to be reunited with their families AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Albuquerque Mayor Tim Kelle leaves a teddy bear as a gift for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti leave sandals as gifts for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy San Diego, California EPA Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy US embassy, Mexico City AFP/Getty Images Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy San Diego, California EPA The ruling may also conflict with an upcoming ruling in Texas, where the state and six other plaintiffs have sued to end the programme. If the suit is successful, it may put a hold on new applications. United We Dream, an organisation that represents the young, undocumented immigrants often called Dreamers, was hesitant to celebrate the decision. The situation for DACA beneficiaries remains dangerous and unstable, as we do not know how the administration will respond, and there are other court cases in progress, the group said in a statement. North Korea has not halted its nuclear weapons programme in a move that directly defies United Nations sanctions, a new UN report has found, despite Donald Trumps claim the country no longer presented a nuclear threat. Findings of an investigation submitted to the Security Council late on Friday said the secretive communist state was engaging in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products to contravene sanctions. Independent experts said Pyongyang was also cooperating militarily with Syria and attempting to sell arms to Houthi rebels in Yemen. [North Korea] has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018, the 149-page report said. Pyongyang also violated a textile ban by exporting more than $100m (77m) in goods between October 2017 and March 2018 to China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay, the report said. Experts also found North Koreas prohibited military cooperation with the Syrian Arab Republic has continued unabated. They said North Korean technicians visited Syria in 2011, 2016 and 2017 to engage in ballistic missile tests and other banned activities. Pyongyang has yet to respond to the findings of the investigation. Escape from North Korea Show all 16 1 /16 Escape from North Korea Escape from North Korea Jeong Min-woo A hat belonging to Jeong Min-woo in Seoul. Min-woo is from Hyesan, on the border with China. He was a commissioned officer in the Korean People's Army, and left in his uniform. South Korean intelligence confiscated it, but he persuaded his North Korean military contacts to send him a new one. Reuters Escape from North Korea Jeong Min-woo Jeong Min-woo, 29, poses for a photograph in Seoul Reuters Escape from North Korea Kang Kang, 28, who wanted to be identified only by her surname, poses for a photograph in Seoul. The parents of Kang sent out a coat across the Chinese border after she reached the South in 2010. "I didn't ask my mother to send me this coat," said Kang. "But she knew I feel the cold easily and sent it to me. She sent some honey too, but it went missing on the way. The coat is made of dog fur. I don't know what kind of dog. In 2010, it cost about 700,000 North Korean won ($88 at the unofficial rate). It was really expensive. A North Korean friend went to China to pick it up for me. I liked this coat when I got it. I thought my mother must've spent quite a lot of money on it. Reuters Escape from North Korea Kang The dog fur coat belonging to Kang, "My father was a party officer. Our family had a car and we lived in a special apartment. Ordinary people couldn't afford to wear this kind of coat, not even soldiers. Commissioned officers could afford them. Border guards would wear them. It wasn't easy to buy this kind of coat, but as time went on, fake ones began to appear. The state often clamped down on this item. It's technically military supplies so the state monitored people who altered the design of the coat. I know just from looking at this coat that it's a counterfeit one, not the official version. The counterfeit ones look quite different from the original ones. Military officials preferred the fakes to the original because the design looked much better. The children of rich families would wear them. I look too chubby in this, so don't wear it here. I thought I could probably wear it if I altered it." Reuters Escape from North Korea Lee Oui-ryuk Lee Oui-ryuk is from Onsong, near the border with China. He defected in 2010, and brought his ID card with him. "I brought my ID with me when I left North Korea. Juche 95.11.7 (the date in the North Korean calendar, which equates to Nov. 7, 2006) is the date I was issued with my ID. It says here my blood type is "A", but I'm actually an "O." For the 23 years I lived in North Korea, I thought my blood type was "A." They wrote down my blood type without even doing a test. They just wrote whatever they wanted to. I was caught trying to defect to South Korea around Kim Jong Il's birthday. They strengthen border security just before and after that date." Reuters Escape from North Korea Lee Oui-ryuk "The bottom of the lamp is dark," as the saying goes, and I thought I'd be able to cross right under their noses. The soldiers shot at me as I tried to run away from the Tumen River. I managed to get away and hid, but someone reported me and I was caught. That's when I was taken to the bowibu (North Korean secret police) for three months of interrogation. The state ruled that I had tried to defect to South Korea, and I was sent to a camp for political prisoners. I escaped when they were transferring me to the camp. I hid and managed to make it to my big sister's house - that's when I grabbed these photos. I couldn't go home easily, so decided I had to hide in the mountains or somewhere remote. I needed my ID to move around without getting caught. and I took these 12 photos with me in case I wanted to look back and reminisce. I wrote on the back of them so as not to forget." Reuters Escape from North Korea Ji Sung-ho Ji Sung-ho, 35, from Hoeryong, near the border with China. He left North Korea in 2006 with a pair of wooden crutches. "I lived as a child beggar in North Korea. I was stealing coals from a train when I fell off and lost my leg and my hand. I had to bring the crutches with me. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't have made it here. The state doesn't help you in North Korea, and people who need crutches make their own. Mine are therefore not factory-made, so they're not perfect and break easily. I had several pairs of crutches but they all broke, and this was the last pair. I used these crutches for 10 years, until I was 25, when I arrived in South Korea. I would steal coal from moving trains and fall off, destroying my crutches. Or I would get beaten up by the police and they'd take and then break my crutches. When they broke, I would make new ones. When I had new ones, I could go back outside." Reuters Escape from North Korea Ji Sung-ho "When I first arrived in South Korea I thought about throwing them out. South Korea's intelligence agency gave me a prosthetic leg. My friends said I should throw the crutches out and not think about North Korea. They said I should show Kim Jong Il I was living a new life in South Korea and throw out everything I had from the North. Some asked if I got upset when I saw my crutches. But I couldn't just throw them out. To make my crutches, my friends had given me some wood that they had bought, and someone I knew in North Korea who had carpentry skills had made them. It was my father who added the final touches. There is a lot of love from my North Korean friends and family in these crutches. So I didn't throw them out. The South Korean government gave me some new crutches because the wood from my North Korean ones is hard and painful. But I still keep them, so as not to forget those memories." REUTERS Escape from North Korea Kim Ryen Hui Kim Ryen Hui, 48, is from Pyongyang. She says she never wanted to defect. In 2011, she says, a broker helped her go to China for treatment on her liver. But the broker tricked her, she said, and she ended up in South Korea. She is campaigning to return, which Seoul says would be against the law. "I miss my parents even more than I miss my daughter. They're everything to me. For the first few years, I couldn't even breathe properly when I thought of them. My little brother lives with them in Pyongyang now. My mother can't see out of one eye. The thing I fear the most is finding out they've passed away before I have the chance to go back. Reuters Escape from North Korea Kim Ryen Hui "My daughter and I have been writing letters and sending photos to each other. My cousin lives in China, so she's been sending them on. My daughter's name is Ri Ryon Gum. She was born on February 15, 1993. I don't want her to live out her life with me here. When she was young, she did taekwondo. She wanted to get involved in espionage operations against South Korea. She was so fearless. That's why she was doing taekwondo - to get involved in anti-South espionage. So I was really surprised to hear she became a chef. In a video of her I received, she explained why. She said that after I had left, she moved in with her father in Pyongyang and had been cooking for him. She said she decided to become a chef so she could fulfill my role at home. I was sad when I heard that." Reuters Escape from North Korea Lee Min-bok Lee Min-bok, 60, was a researcher at North Korea's Academy of Agricultural Science. He first tried to defect, unsuccessfully, in 1990. He eventually left North Korea in June 1991 and came to South Korea in 1995. His family sent him these diaries. "I have a bit of an academic side. According to Kim Il Sung's teachings, people are supposed to keep diaries. Everyone in North Korea should strictly follow Kim Il Sung's teachings, so I did as I was supposed to and kept a diary. Even though Kim Il Sung is a villain here, in North Korea he's above everything. We learned that he studied well and gave our lives purpose. I lived according to those teachings. I wrote these out of loyalty to the Leader. That was our ideology, and I lived my life in strict adherence to it. No one could think differently." Reuters Escape from North Korea Lee Min-bok "I got hold of these diaries 10 years after I arrived in South Korea. I had been sending money to my family in the North and they sent them to me. I didn't write any complaints in diaries. I would've been in big trouble if I did. My diaries are a record of my history in North Korea. I am thinking about turning these diaries into a book. I'd like to publish a book about how to change North Koreans' thinking when unification happens. These diaries show how North Koreans think and how their minds are constructed. People need to make these into a textbook, because they need proof. Talking is not as effective." Reuters Escape from North Korea Song Byeok Song Byeok was a propaganda artist. His father drowned trying to cross the Tumen river, in 2000. When the artist finally left North Korea in 2001, he brought photos of his family with him. "We left that August to find food," Byeok recalled, describing the first attempt. "We were from a town further inland, and we weren't sure where the river was high and where it was low. I didn't know at the time but the river was swollen because of the rainy season. I thought we had to cross it anyway. All I could think about was getting to China to buy food. I took off my clothes and tied them into a rope to strap us together. I told my father not to let go. As we approached the middle of the river, the strap felt lighter. I looked back and saw my father drifting away. I was devastated." Reuters Escape from North Korea Song Byeok "He was going under the water and couldn't get out. I rushed up to the (North Korean) border guards and asked them to save him but they just said why did I come out, why didn't I die too. They handcuffed me and took me away. It was Aug. 28. I was tortured by the "bowibu" (North Korean secret police) in Hoeryong, then jailed for four months in Chongjin prison camp. But after I was released from the camp I felt like I needed to survive and carry on living. Right before I tried to defect again, I went back home and grabbed my family photos. Even if I died trying, I thought, at least I would have this picture with me. I never found my father. After I came to South Korea, I went back to China in 2004 and held a memorial service for him by the river. My heart still aches." Reuters Escape from North Korea Baek Hwa-sung Baek Hwa-sung, 33, left Sinuiju, on the border with China, in 2003 and resettled in South Korea in 2008. He kept a diary as he defected. "In 2004, I started to write down all my thoughts in a diary. I didn't know if I'd get caught. I just wanted to let it be known where I was from, and where I wanted to go. After I left the North, I became very depressed, hiding in the mountains alone for a while. The people who were watching over me told me not to come down to the village and left me by myself in a mountain shelter. Alone, with no one to engage with or talk to, I felt like I would go insane. So I wanted to leave something behind in case I died there or got caught - that's why I started to write. Reuters Escape from North Korea Baek Hwa-sung "Alone in the mountains, I desperately sought something to talk to. That was my diary. My diaries are proof of my life's journey. I read them when I want to remember home. I can't return home, and I already have no memories of my hometown. But when I go through my diaries, there are notes which detail the vivid memories of that time. Sometimes I might forget my father's birthday, but when I go back to my diary, his birthday and my mother's birthday are there. My diaries are a record of my life. They prove I'm alive." Reuters The report comes as Russia and China suggest the Security Council discuss easing sanctions following the historic summit between US President Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. However, the United States and other council members have insisted strict enforcement of sanctions must continue until Pyongyang acts. Mr Trump has previously said denuclearisation talks with North Korea were going very, very well, but last month rowed back on his previous assertions the process would be completed quickly, now saying there was no time limit on the negotiations. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, warned against violation of international sanctions, claiming it would reduce pressure on Pyongyang to denuclearise. He said the US has new, credible reports that Russia is violating UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He added Washington would take very seriously any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed. If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation, Mr Pompeo said. I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. The Security Council has unanimously sanctioned North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyangs nuclear and ballistic missile programmes banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, while capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products. Following his meeting with Mr Kim, the US president tweeted: Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future! Additional reporting by Reuters Two brothers have been killed by a lightning strike in eastern Finland while they were heating up a sauna at their summer cottage, according to local police. The two men, both in their 60s, were staying with their sister in Juuka, a community of 3,200 in the Northern Karelia region of Finland. They had gone out to heat the sauna late on Friday when a loud bang was heard. Recommended Woman struck by lightning while filming thunderstorm Upon hearing the sound, the woman ran out of the cottage to find her brothers on the ground. A nearby spruce tree was also damaged, leading police to suspect that lightning struck the tree and then its powerful electric charge was conducted into the men's bodies by the wet soil. Finland was hit by a massive onslaught of thunderstorms beginning on Thursday, driving away the hot, dry weather that had spread across the country. According to Finnish news outlet Yle, the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) reported 20,000 lightning bolts striking the country, setting a new record for this summer. Timelapse footage of the change in weather over London FMI has issued warnings in recent days for everything from thunderstorms and heavy rain to severe heat and forest fire risk as the extreme weather blanketing Europe takes its toll on the northern nation. More electrical storms are expected over the weekend. While the incident in Juuka was shocking, the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim said lightning tends to kill just one or two people each year in Finland. Around the same number of lightning related deaths occur in the UK, with one study reporting that in the 30-year period ending in 2016, 58 people had reportedly died in this manner. Recommended House destroyed by fire after lightning strike The highest proportion of lightning-related deaths occurs in young men, a figure experts think might reflect engagement in outdoor work and pursuits that put people at risk of lightning strike. Moisture increases the conductivity of electrical current so a wet location is more likely to result in a fatal strike than a dry one. Anyone caught in a thunderstorm should seek refuge in a building of vehicle, or if that is impossible simply crouch down and remain low until the threat has passed. In July a woman from Galashiels in Scotland reported being struck by lightning while she tried to film a thunderstorm out of her window. Tracey Kutluol warned others: Don't be a numpty like me. Additional reporting by AP. Russian police detained around 25 gay rights activists who took part in an unsanctioned rally in St Petersburg. A few dozen activists gathered at Palace Square on Saturday afternoon in defiance of a ban on holding the rally. Organisers had said they would stage one-man protests to demand freedom of association after city authorities turned down their request to hold a parade. One man was pictured in front of the Alexander Column holding a placard featuring a rainbow which read: My mum loves me, my dad loves me, my friends love me, why can not you? Police detained campaigners who unfurled rainbow flags or held placards and dragged them into a police bus. Police bundle an LGBT+ demonstrator onto a bus (Reuters) Three policemen were seen carrying one man who looked despondent but still held his multicoloured banner aloft above his head. There were no clashes between police and the activists. The gathering coincided with Pride celebrations and marches around the world, most notably in Brighton where up to 300,000 people are expected to attend. Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the spreading of gay propaganda. Last month, Russian police briefly detained British LGBT+ campaigner Peter Tatchell after he protested near the Kremlin in support of gay rights. Reuters contributed to this report Isis fighters accused of rape and murder may be granted amnesty after they surrendered to Afghan forces. Around 150 members of the militant group gave themselves up in Afghanistan's province of Jawzjan. The group included two senior commanders. Local civilians, many of whom have fled the area, have given detailed accounts of how the fighters abducted, raped and murdered women and girls. But the groups decision to lay down arms meant it was likely they would not be charged, in order to encourage other fighters to surrender, officials said. Any adversary of the government that joins the peace process has to be given amnesty, because if they are taken before the judges, other adversaries who have reached an agreement with the government will go cold on it, said Mohammad Reza Ghafouri, spokesman for the Jawzjan provincial governor. He added that people with allegations against individual Isis fighters could pursue them independently through the courts. One Afghan general said that Isis members would face justice for any crimes they had committed, and he doubted the potential for reconciliation (Reuters) The Taliban has taken credit for the surrender, claiming they drove the fighters from their strongholds after weeks of fighting. Officials say this is the largest number of Isis fighters to surrender at once. Women and children related to the militants also gave themselves in. The group are believed to be all Afghan. Any fighters who were foreign may have been captured or killed by the Taliban. The US looks set to reopen peace talks with the Taliban, after holding meetings with them at least twice in the last three months, according to the Financial Times. Isis has shown no sign of taking part in the peace process. Despite the suggestion of amnesty, one Afghan general said that Isis members would face justice for any crimes they had committed, and he doubted the potential for reconciliation. I am concerned and afraid that after surrendering, these people will commit more crimes because they are completely untrustworthy, said Jawzjan security commander General Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani. A spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry said that the fate of the former militants was for the government, not the military, to decide. As defenders of our people and country, our job is to fight our enemy until the battle ground, said Mohammad Radmanish. Now they have surrendered... our job is done. Additional reporting by Reuters. A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli soldiers during a border protest, Gazas health ministry has said. Muadh al-Suri died after he was shot in the stomach during clashes with the military in which a 25-year-old man also reportedly died and a dozens more were injured. News of the teenager's death came as the Israeli military said it had intercepted an Swedish activist ship trying to breach a decade-long blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Islamic militant group Hamas, has led months of border protests partially aimed at drawing attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after it took control of Gaza in 2007. Most of the protesters were injured by snipers from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) during demonstrations near Gaza City and in Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The IDF said thousands of people took part in the protests at five sites along the border and it responded with live fire, in accordance with its policy. When several Palestinians breached the border fence, throwing fire bombs and stones, the Israeli military shelled a Hamas post, it said. Since the start of the so-called March of Return protests, 157 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator shouts Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Tear gas canisters are fired by Israeli forces at Palestinian demonstrators Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A wounded Palestinian is evacuated Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A female demonstrator uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator with a slingshot looks on Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female Palestinian demonstrators react to tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Israeli forces fire teargas canisters toward Palestinian demonstrators AFP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian medics evacuate a wounded protester AP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator moves a burning tire Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators during clashes with Israeli forces AFP/Getty Israel says the blockade in place in Gaza is needed to prevent the Hamas from importing weapons, while critics say it amounts to the heartless punishment of the strip's two million people. United Nations and Egyptian-led efforts are under way to mediate a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas who have fought three wars since 2008. Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press Late on Friday, to nobodys surprise, the legal challenges began against plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Lawyers acting for Heathrow Hub, the plan to extend the existing northern runway rather than build a fresh one, are seeking permission for a judicial review of the decision by the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, to back the airports scheme for a third runway. They claim the Department for Transports evaluation process was flawed. As a result, they say: Mr Grayling has selected the most expensive, complex, disruptive expansion plan which, among other things, we believe will unnecessarily cause a substantial rise in fees for passengers and airlines. The backers of the extended runway are merely first in the High Court queue: local authorities and environmental groups will all take their turns. But Heathrow Airport is confident that by 2026 a third runway will be boosting connectivity at Europes busiest airport. For prospective travellers to or from Carlisle, Cincinnati and Caracas, the key questions is: what will be the new arrivals on the departure screens? The airport itself gives a few clues, at least in terms of internal UK links: An expanded Heathrow means an opportunity for new domestic connections to airports like Humberside, Dundee, Newquay or Liverpool. (I think Heathrows popularity elsewhere in the UK might be bolstered were the or replaced by an and in that sentence.) But an excellent new piece of work by OAG, leading provider of digital flight information, assesses the new routes that the 54 per cent increase in capacity might enable. The researchers have looked at current links from UK regional airports to Amsterdam airport to assess how similar connectivity could be achieved to Britains leading airport. New or, mostly, restored links are predicted to Belfast International, Carlisle, City of Derry, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dundee, Durham-Tees Valley, Exeter, Humberside, Liverpool, Newquay, Norwich and Prestwick. In addition, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey may regain routes to and from Heathrow. Looking ahead a couple of decades, though, would it really be feasible to sustain routes to airports such as Carlisle, Dundee and Prestwick in relatively sparsely populated regions, when airlines are desperate to expand intercontinental networks? Heathrow Airport seizes on Brexit to say: Leaving the EU will create the opportunity to prioritise and protect air links from Heathrow to other UK airports. At present the EU has strict rules on the assignment of slots basically, allowing the market to decide who flies where. But, says Heathrow: New slot rules could be created to ring-fence a certain portion of the slots at Heathrow for domestic use. Those UK regional services, OAG calculates, would comprise one in nine of all the new routes facilitated by the third runway. For international flights, though, the researchers predict mainly more of the same: Whilst much of the case for the third runway has been based around increased domestic connectivity and access to new emergent markets around the globe, we believe that the majority of new slots will be consumed by European services. OAG expects there will be a decidedly orange tint to the network map. Our core assumption: major low-cost airlines such as easyJet, which has already expressed an interest in serving Heathrow, would seek to secure a large part of the new entrant slot capacity available. With those slots, you can expect frequent flights to Berlin, Basel, Geneva, Paris, Toulouse, Lyon, Nice, Lisbon, Milan Malpensa and Rome all bread-and-butter routes for British Airways. But would easyJet view the new market opportunity as complementary to Gatwick, or simply move assets around the M25 to Heathrow? OAG answers with another question: In simple strategic terms, why would you move and give up valuable slots and market strength at an airport [Gatwick] with 46 million passengers per annum? Gatwick has established itself as a long-haul leisure airport, with British Airways, Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic all competing to Florida, the Caribbean and beyond. OAG predicts twice-daily services to Barbados, Cancun and Orlando. But airports will be keener to serve business destinations, which have more balanced year-round demand and higher numbers of premium passengers. Numerous locations that have dropped off the route map from Heathrow could be restored, including Anchorage, Caracas and Harare though political turmoil in the last two may delay their reappearance. But it is Asia that is frequently touted as hungry for Heathrow links. OAG has found 26 airports in both North and South East Asia that handle more than 10 million scheduled outbound seats a year but currently have no service to Heathrow. Two of them are airports previously served non-stop from Heathrow, but which have been superseded by newer airports: Bangkok Don Muang and Seoul Gimpo. Because they are closer to the centres of the Thai and South Korean capitals they serve, they could be ripe for revival. Also on the list: the Indonesian island of Bali, the Japanese island of Okinawa and Chinas northernmost city, Harbin well placed to serve Vladivostok in Russia as well as North Korea. Finally, what about the prospect of a competitor such as Norwegian or British Airways sister airline, Level launching long-haul, low-cost links? Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Toronto are the top five prospects. Ensuring there are enough aircraft and pilots deliver the expected growth is one challenge; working out how the expansion is managed is another. No airport can possibly accommodate such an immediate level of growth overnight, or can it?, says OAG. However the route map turns out, in the early stages at least, you can look forward to a price war: Initially, there will be an excess of capacity in the total London market which will in turn lead to some very competitive fares during the developmental stages of the third runway opening; good news for all travellers, at least for a while. If a second Brexit referendum is being seriously considered, then we must use the opportunity to give Northern Ireland a much-needed choice between unions. A no-deal Brexit will hit Northern Ireland hard, with the border issue uniquely affecting the region. With its constitutional status wholly dependent upon the consent of the people, it cannot be ignored that Northern Ireland voted by 56 per cent to remain in the EU; support for this position has since soared to 69 per cent. Surely everyone can acknowledge that Northern Ireland is facing a different situation, and and such, should face a different question: should Northern Ireland leave the EU as part of the UK, or remain in the EU as part of a united Ireland? The Good Friday Agreement dictates that the secretary of state for Northern Ireland may call a border poll on Irish unity, when they believe there is sufficient public appetite. Many have asked how this could be measured: let me count the ways. In the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election, unionists lost their overall majority for the first time ever. As the nationalist vote grows, there is evidence that centre parties like Alliance are also becoming more in favour of Irish unity. In May, it was reported that Theresa May did not want to risk a referendum on Irish unity. In June, a YouGov poll showed support for Irish unity at 42 per cent, while another poll by Lord Ashcroft put it at an unprecedented 44 per cent: a dramatic surge, which implies the question is now wide open. If its looking this close, surely its high time that current secretary of state, Karen Bradley, put it to the test? The campaign couldnt be more divisive than the Brexit ones, and as far as major constitutional changes go, were already facing that. There is an obvious logical argument for debating the issue of EU membership and Irish unity simultaneously. Any Brexiteer who called for shaking off the grip of foreign powers, regaining independence and taking back control could hardly deny Ireland the chance to debate Londons claim on the six counties. And while conservatives and unionists may scoff at an idea as ambitious and grand as Irish unity, we owe them a debt of gratitude. Through their example of deceitful campaigning, poor planning and cowardly leadership, Irish nationalists can learn all the lessons of how not to fight a referendum. If we have already learned anything from the Brexiteers, its that pie-in-the-sky visions of a utopian future are not enough. Real plans and decisive leadership are required. A 2016 report projected that the island of Ireland could see a 35bn economic boost within eight years of reunification but a tangible plan for getting to that point has yet to be produced. The parties of Ireland pay various degrees of lip service to unity, but they need to produce a realistic proposal that can win over the centre ground north and south with a message that appeals both economically and emotionally. Reuniting the country is a long-held nationalist dream, but an appealing vision for the role of unionists in the new country must also be drawn up. Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Show all 20 1 /20 Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Women in Dublin celebrate the result of yesterday's referendum on abortion law Reuters Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum A woman in Dublin celebrates the result of yesterday's referendum Reuters Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Activists react at the count centre as votes are tallied folowing yesterday's referendum Reuters Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Co-Director of Together For Yes Ailbhe Smyth speaking to the media at the count in Dublin PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Yes voters react, as the results of the votes begin to come in PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Long time campaigner Annette Forde, from Drumcondra, at the count centre in Dublin's RDS as votes are counted PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Minister for Health Simon Harris (centre) with Fine Gael's Kate O'Connell and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy (left) speaks to the media on arrival at the count centre PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Yes voters celebrate at the count centre in Dublin as official results for constituencies are announced PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Yes campaigners celebrate at the count in Dublin PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum A woman writes a message on a mural to Savita Halappanava, a woman who died of pregnancy complications AFP/Getty Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Activists react at the count centre as votes are tallied folowing yesterday's referendum Reuters Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald reacts with a member of the Yes campaign PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Yes campaigners celebrate at the count in Dublin PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Yes campaigners react, as the results of the votes begin to come in Reuters Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Senator David Norris at the count centre in Dublin as votes are counted PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum A woman sits in front of the Dublin mural of Savita Halappanavar, a woman who died of pregnancy complications PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Repeal supporters at Dublin's RDS await the start of the count last night PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Minister for Health Simon Harris is greeted by retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness at the count in Dublin PA Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum Yes campaigners react, as the results of the votes begin to come in AP Ireland celebrates historic Yes vote on abortion referendum A Yes voter poses with a badge as votes are counted AFP/Getty The EU have agreed to allow Northern Ireland to automatically rejoin as part of a united Ireland. It is conceivable that with their help, Northern Ireland could remain in the customs union and single market, and keep its seats in the European parliament during any transition period, because of course unification would not happen overnight. Parties like Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and the SDLP have discussed embarking on a phased period of unification, perhaps across five or 10 years, during which power would be gradually shifted from London to Dublin perhaps even retaining the devolved assembly in Belfast. The point is, the issue is now on the table. Its all up for debate. And none of this is any more uncertain, far-fetched or idealistic as the no-deal Brexit cliff-edge were being hustled towards, with absolutely no plan in sight. There will never be a perfect time to debate Northern Irelands ultimate constitutional question but this seems as fitting a moment as any. Ulster Bank will consider further distressed mortgage sales once it completes the disposal of 6,500 problem loans later this year. Interim chief executive Paul Stanley said that the bank will assess the 1.6bn distressed loan book sale once it closes in "Q3 or Q4" this year, as well as the pace of resolutions of problem mortgages by the bank itself before making a decision. The bank is under pressure from European regulators to cut its stock of bad loans to around 5pc of all loans by the end of next year. "We'll have another run through the book at that point, I wouldn't rule one out," he said. He was speaking after the bank announced an operating profit of 100m in the six months to June 30, significantly up on the 12m reported in the same period last year. The performance was driven by a number of one-off items, as well as a 9pc (10m) reduction in operating expenses, the bank said in a trading update. The bank had been behind its traditional mortgage market share coming into the year, Paul Stanley said, but had recovered and now expects further uplift in the second half of the year after introducing a 2.3pc two-year fixed rate - the cheapest in the market - in June. Pricing at that reduced level is sustainable for the bank, given its cost of capital, he said. Ulster Bank has not been asked to consider any potential merger partners by the European Central Bank (ECB) or by officials in Dublin, he said. That was in response to a report in the 'Times' newspaper that Daniele Nouy, chairwoman of the supervisory board at the European Central Bank, suggested that Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank be merged at a meeting with officials from the Department of Finance in April. The ECB across Europe has been talking about consolidation in general terms, Paul Stanley said, and Ulster Bank would consider potential deals, he added. However, no putative merger is under discussion, the interim chief executive said. IAG boss Willie Walsh, pictured with Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos, said it would be foolish not to exploit Aer Lingus growth opportunities. Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg IAG boss Willie Walsh has given Scandinavian airline Norwegian a maximum of one year to agree to a takeover deal. IAG - which owns Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Vueling - snapped up a 4.6pc stake in Norwegian earlier this year. Mr Walsh said at the time that IAG would be interested in making an outright bid for the airline. Expand Close Aer Lingus CEO Stephen Kavanagh, centre, is looking at two new US routes. Photo: Maxwells/No Fee / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Aer Lingus CEO Stephen Kavanagh, centre, is looking at two new US routes. Photo: Maxwells/No Fee But he stressed yesterday that the window for thrashing out a deal was finite. "There's no immediate hurry. But this time next year, if we haven't acquired Norwegian, we won't be holding those shares," he said. "If we're not acquiring it, we're not interested in being a shareholder. We'll wait and see what happens, but it's not a big issue on our agenda." Mr Walsh confirmed that no talks had been held between IAG and Norwegian since April. The former Aer Lingus pilot and chief executive said that IAG could continue to use its new low-cost Level airline to deliver the strategy that would have been accelerated with the acquisition of Norwegian. Level started as a long-haul operation, but has now launched a short-haul base in Vienna, serving 14 European destinations. That move puts it in direct competition with Vienna-based low-cost carrier Laudamotion, in which Ryanair will soon have a 75pc stake. Mr Walsh said he was "surprised" at the 150m that Ryanair said last month that it expected Laudamotion to lose in its first year. That's higher than the 100m Ryanair had previously predicted. "We're very pleased to have to have the opportunity to grow with Level," said Mr Walsh. "We started with four aircraft and clearly have plans to expand that significantly. We think it's going to be a good market for us. "We've always said that we have two options. One is that we can grow organically, and that's why we created Level," he said. "When we expressed our interest in Norwegian, we said it wasn't going to slow us down in terms of our growth plans and we continue to focus on that organic growth." Mr Walsh also said it would be "foolish" not to exploit the growth opportunities presented by Aer Lingus. The Irish carrier saw its operating profit soar 51pc to 104m in the first half of the year, and delivered a return on invested capital in the past four quarters of 27.8pc - the highest by far of any other IAG division. IAG delivered an operating profit of 835m for the second quarter, which was up from 790m in the second quarter of 2017. Aer Lingus plans to launch two new routes to North America next year as it takes delivery of four new Airbus A321 LR jets, according to its chief executive, Stephen Kavanagh. It will bring its total North American routes to 15. The new routes will be announced in the coming weeks, with plans to launch them next July. Mr Walsh said Aer Lingus' model had been "very effective". "We always believed that there was a market opportunity there but, credit to the team there, they've demonstrated that it's even better than we thought," said Mr Walsh. But Mr Kavanagh has also said that infrastructure development at Dublin Airport needed to keep up with the airline's growth ambition. "Dublin Airport's forthcoming capital investment plan will represent a step change in investment to facilitate further long-term growth at the airport," said a DAA spokesman. Marian OGorman with her husband Michael and their son Greg. Picture: Don MacMonagle The bitter Kilkenny Group family feud between mother and son, Marian and Greg O'Gorman, has been resolved following months of tortuous conciliation talks. In a brief statement, the leading Irish luxury goods firm confirmed last night that the two-year row which sparked a high-profile High Court action has ended. "Kilkenny Group is happy to confirm that the dispute between Gregory O'Gorman and Marian O'Gorman has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties," the statement confirmed. The settlement followed months of conciliation talks and private negotiations aimed at settling the bitter dispute which had threatened to seriously damage the firm. Many had feared the row, if it continued to full a High Court hearing, had the potential to prove one of Ireland's most destructive family feuds. The row erupted in 2016 when Marian O'Gorman, the chief executive of the successful Cork-based family business, terminated the employment of her son Greg. Mr O'Gorman was the marketing director for 13 years for the Kilkenny Group, a chain which sells luxury goods. He had played a key role in the successful expansion of the retail operation. Mr O'Gorman immediately took legal action to stop his dismissal - and to require his mother to honour a deal which he claimed held the Kilkenny Group in trust for him and his siblings. It was claimed he had a 25pc stake entitlement to the business. Ironically, the trust involved was devised to try to avoid the bitter family rows which marked the Blarney Woollen Mills empire from which the Kilkenny Group emerged. Following the collapse of mediation talks last May, Mr O'Gorman warned he had no alternative but to proceed with full discovery of all legal and financial documentation. Mr O'Gorman had also expressed exasperation last Christmas when a settlement was rumoured but not agreed. Ms O'Gorman has repeatedly declined to comment on the two-year dispute. Without a settlement, the legal battle between the mother and son had been set for full High Court hearing later this year. Mr Justice Brian McGovern had urged both sides to embrace mediation talks to try to reach an agreement. Clydaville Investments Ltd, which carries on the business of luxury design under the Kilkenny brand and employs 300 people, increased its turnover under Mr O'Gorman's watch from 18m in 2010 to approximately 30m in 2016. Profits rose from 300,000 to 1.5m over the same period. Turnover was 27m in 2015 and the High Court was told there was a preliminary desktop valuation of some 50m for the business, including its "significant" property assets. Mr O'Gorman has consistently maintained that his dismissal, signalled in a letter delivered to his Cork home on July 8, 2016, was with "no suggestion of misconduct or non-performance". He also claimed the manner of his dismissal was both "demeaning and humiliating" for him and his family. It was claimed that under the so-called 'Family Constitution', the Kilkenny Group is divided in equal shares between Mr O'Gorman and his three siblings Michelle, Melissa and Christopher. The 'Family Constitution' was established in an effort to avoid the family feud which involved Ms O'Gorman and her own siblings over the ownership of the hugely successful Blarney Woollen Mills Group founded in Cork by her late father Christy Kelleher. Mr Kelleher's death in 1991 sparked a power struggle among his children - Marian and her sister Freda had a major falling out that year, the latter going on to form another business, the hugely successful Meadows & Byrne lifestyle chain. This dispute was followed in 1999 by a High Court battle when Marian, her husband Michael and her sister Bernadette Kelleher Nolan went to court to prevent their brothers Pat, Frank and Kevin from removing Michael from the group's board. The stand-alone Kilkenny Group, originally owned by the Government but bought by Blarney, was carved out in the settlement. An angry backlash faces An Post, which is closing around 160 post offices while claiming that "everybody will live within 15km" of an outlet. Rural campaigners said they were again being neglected and elderly people would be left completely isolated by the policy. The Taoiseach was warned "there is life beyond the Red Cow junction in Dublin" after it emerged that 161 post offices are set to close. Leo Varadkar's Government stood accused of abandoning those without cars or public transport due to the closures. The post offices are shutting because some postmasters accepted a voluntary exit package. A deal they signed with An Post means communities of more than 500 people must have a post office within 15km of their home. The CEO of An Post, David McRedmond, said yesterday that "everybody would live within 15km of a post office". He said most of the closures will be in rural areas and will happen over the next six months. He said 161 post offices will close out of a network of 1,100 and there is unlikely to be many more closures. 'Disaster' But Leas-Cheann Comhairle Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher hit out at the Government over the controversy. He said 13 communities in Donegal alone will suffer from the closures under the An Post scheme, which was approved by the Government. He accused the Government and An Post of a "cloak and dagger policy disaster" by failing to allow for replacement services if the postmasters went for the redundancy deal. He claimed rural-based ministers sitting at Cabinet were "asleep" when the scheme was approved. "The Government must now at this late stage awake from its slumber and finally realise there is life beyond the Red Cow Junction in west Dublin," he said. Fianna Fail wants the communications department to roll out a public service obligation strategy to keep at-risk post offices open. Policy and communications officer with Irish Rural Link, Louise Lennon, said she was concerned older people in particular will be stranded. She said postmasters who are retiring should consider takeovers or downsizing their business and relocating in local shops. "There is one post office in Kerry and the local school is reliant on it because there is no bank. Teachers, school secretaries and students use it for lodgements and so on. That's an example of the reliance there is on them." A spokesperson at the Irish Postmasters Union said it welcomed the plan when it was launched as the best possible deal that could be agreed. An Post has said the number of closures is unlikely to rise above 161. What has happened since the scandal first emerged in April? A court case involving Vicky Phelan was heard in the High Court in April which sparked a series of damning revelations about the CervicalCheck programme. Some 221 women went on to develop cervical cancer after their smear test was misread. Their smears were then audited but the results of that audit were kept from them. The scandal has sparked several resignations, shaken people's trust in the health system and heaped pressure on Leo Varadkar's Government to answer a long list of questions as to how and why this happened. What has the Government response been? The Government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to the scandal and was this week accused by a widower of a woman affected by the scandal of being "reactive". The State has pledged to carry out a number of short-term inquiries and has committed to holding a commission of inquiry in public. What is the Scally Inquiry? Dr Gabriel Scally, a UK expert, has been tasked with leading an initial scoping exercise into the scandal. That report is expected to be completed by September 1 and Dr Scally has already published two interim reports. The report was due to be published in June but it was delayed following delays in the doctor getting sufficient access to documents from the HSE. Following an intervention from Health Minister Simon Harris and Mr Varadkar, who warned that anyone not co-operating was effectively blocking the Government, documents began to flow more efficiently. Dr Scally has also interviewed those affected. Isn't there another audit? A review of some 3,000 smears is also to be led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, who will try to identify the genuine false negatives and those cases which should have been reported differently. It is expected that this audit will take up to six months despite initial assurances that it would be completed by the end of May. It emerged this week that consent forms have not yet been issued to all women involved in order for the review to begin. In the past three months there have also been ongoing discussions in the Department of Health and the Royal College about methodology and terms of reference for the review of smear-test results. What was announced this week? The Government announced this week that Justice Charles Meenan has been appointed to examine alternative resolution methods to adversarial court proceedings for the women affected. The Taoiseach was also forced to clarify a commitment that no woman affected would have to go to court. Members of the Irish Postmasters Union staging a protest about post office closures in the GPO in Dublin last year. Photo: Doug OConnor A postmistress who has agreed to take voluntary redundancy has said she had no other option. Donna McDaid has been the postmistress of Burnfoot post office in Co Donegal for the past 19 years. But she said in recent years business has been tough and there have been fewer and fewer customers. "I don't want to go, but I have to. I'm losing every year. I still need to work, I'm going to have to reskill after this," she said. Some 13 different post offices on the leaked list of redundancies were in Donegal, with many of them on the rural Inishowen peninsula. Ms McDaid said the people of her town understood her decision but many were upset with the Government's handling of post offices. "They're angry that they don't have a post office. "I have a very good customer base here," she said. "I'm the second village in from Derry after Bridgend where the post office is very busy because of custom from across the Border. "It's not so far away, but some of the more elderly people wouldn't drive and it's far if you walk," she said. "It's a social occasion here as well. When I first arrived, it took some people a few years to gain that trust in me," she said. The postmistress, who will close up the office in January, said the final nail in the coffin for the office was the decision by the Government to allow social welfare payments directly into claimants' bank accounts. She accused the Government of doing little to help with the survival of post offices in the face of technology. Presidential hopeful Gavin Duffy only revealed details of his business relationship with a Fianna Fail TD after he was questioned by the Irish Independent. This newspaper sent queries to Mr Duffy about his business dealings with Louth TD Declan Breathnach on Wednesday. The next morning, after receiving the queries but before the story was published, the 'Dragons' Den' star tweeted details of his relationship with Mr Breathnach. Yesterday, the Irish Independent revealed Mr Duffy's company had been paid 9,600 by Mr Breathnach for communications services. The businessman had provided the figure to the newspaper on Wednesday but did not mention it in his tweet. Yesterday, the day the story was published, the businessman wrote on Twitter: "Following my tweet yesterday that Deputy Declan, a FF TD (who) is endorsing me, was a client the paper covers the story today." He included a photograph of the printed story. It has also emerged he enlisted the help of a retired senior garda to ensure he is compliant with strict rules governing candidates. Mr Duffy revealed the former head of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation Detective Superintendent Eugene Gallagher will be responsible for ensuring he is compliant with the Standards in Public Office (Sipo) guidelines as his Sipo officer. The former 'Dragons' Den' investor has said he believes people entering the race from a business background will face additional questions on their past and that he is happy to answer them. Mr Duffy, who this week made his first public pitch in his bid to secure a nomination, said he has enlisted Mr Gallagher's help and the former garda and qualified barrister "will ensure all of the i's are dotted and t's crossed". The businessman also told a meeting of Waterford City and County Council that if he secures a nomination he will produce a robust document outlining his business dealings in order for people to examine. As well as being a businessman in his own right with a consultancy business and a background in media, Mr Duffy has invested in around 50 start-ups through his work on 'Dragons' Den'. Above: presidential hopeful Gavin Duffy and his wife Orlaith Carmody during Ladies Day at the Galway Races this week. Photo: Mark Condren Presidential hopeful Gavin Duffy offloaded a substantial property portfolio to settle borrowings from a string of investments from the 1990s and the boom years. At one point, the businessman and 'Dragons' Den' star and his wife Orlaith had interests in 15 properties including residential and commercial buildings. A trawl of Registry of Deeds and Land Registry records by the Irish Independent revealed a portfolio that once included addresses in Dublin's exclusive Ailesbury Road, as well as a Georgian building on Upper Mount Street. Mr Duffy last night confirmed that his family home at Kilsharvan, Co Meath, is the only property among the 15 identified by this newspaper that remains in his ownership. In a statement, he said that a "full and final settlement" has been made on the borrowings. He did not answer a question on how much was paid in the settlement. One of the properties, a house on Ailesbury Road, sold for 1.75m in 2015, according to the Property Price Register. The land records show that many of the couple's investments were financed with a series of loans from the now-defunct Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS). INBS collapsed into State ownership in 2010 and its assets were folded into Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC). In 2013, a special liquidator was appointed to IBRC. A tranche of INBS's loans - including Mr and Ms Duffy's borrowings along with those of many other people - were subsequently sold to fund management company LSREF III Stone Investments Ltd. Mr Duffy last night said: "In a special liquidation, all previous covenants are null and voided and the acquirer can call in all loans... "In 2015, we made a full and final settlement of our borrowings." Satisfied He added: "Since that date, except for our family home at Kilsharvan, we no longer own nor have we any beneficial interest of any kind in any of the other properties listed." Mr Duffy received a letter from LSREF III Stone Investments referring to the 2015 agreement and confirming that "all obligations" have been satisfied. The letter says "there are no liabilities due and owing to LSREF III Stone Investments DAC under the settlement agreement". Mr Duffy has promised an open and transparent campaign if he succeeds in getting on the ballot paper. Last night, he said he hoped other prospective candidates would face similar queries and that they would "come forward with full information". Mr Duffy needs the support of four local authorities if is to succeed in his bid to challenge President Michael D Higgins for Aras an Uachtarain. The 58-year-old began his career in local radio, founding LMFM in the late 1980s. In more recent years, he shot to fame on RTE's 'Dragons' Den'. Along with his wife, he has a consultancy business which offers "bespoke leadership development and communications training". Its website describes him as "one of Ireland's leading business mentors". Mr Duffy made his first pitch to win the support of local representatives to get a nomination for the presidency at Waterford City and County Council earlier this week. It also heard submissions from Pieta House founder Senator Joan Freeman and former Aer Lingus employee Patrick Feeney. Cork City Council and Fingal County Council in Dublin are to hold special meetings next month. PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Gavin Duffy was paid 10,000 for public relations services he provided to former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Independent.ie can reveal. Mr Duffy was also paid 10,000 to moderate last years Fine Gael leadership election hustings which resulted in Leo Varadkar becoming party leader and Taoiseach. The Dragons Den star revealed the payments following a series of questions from this website about his business dealings with political parties. However, Mr Duffy insisted he has no affiliation with any political party. I have stated a number of times this week that I have never been a member of a political party, nor have I ever donated to party, he told Independent.ie The businessman said his communications company, Gavin Duffy and Associates, provided services to Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the 2011 General Election campaign. Fine Gael formed a coalition government with the Labour Party after the election. Mr Duffy also said he worked with three other Taoisigh during his time as an employee of Carr Communications. However, he is not in a position to provide information on the clients of another private company. During last years Fine Gael leadership contest between Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, Mr Duffy was paid 2,500 for each the hustings he moderated. A Fine Gael spokesperson confirmed the party has enlisted the services of Mr Duffy but refused to say how much they paid the businessman. "I can confirm Mr Duffy has worked with Fine Gael on a professional basis in the past. I cannot disclose details of professional contracts, she said. Mr Kenny did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier this week, the Irish Independent revealed that Mr Duffys company was paid 9,000 by Fianna Fail Louth TD Declan Breathnach for public relations advice. Mr Duffys son Lorcan, who works for his fathers company, was seconded to work with Mr Breathnach for six months. Mr Breathnach has publicly declared he will vote for Mr Duffy in a presidential election despite Fianna Fails position being to support a second term in office for Michael D Higgins. Mr Duffy said his company has no contracts with public organisations and as a rule does not tender for public contracts. He revealed he was paid 5,000 per series for the Dragons Den television show by production company Shinawil. Mr Duffy said he is running a transparent election campaign and is planning to personally respond to all questions put to him by the media. If he gets a nomination to officially run against Michael D Higgins he will appoint a press team who will then deal with queries. I truly believe I have nothing to hide, fear no enquiry but will have to explain the context of certain things, and I am happy to do that, he said. Last week, he sought a nomination from Waterford County Council and attended the Galway Races. He has also being personally seeking the support councillors though phone calls and meetings. Tributes have being paid to the transgender woman with an infectious smile who died while living at a direct provision centre in Galway yesterday. Sylvie was one of those rare people that brought you completely into the moment when you saw her,"said Niall O Tuathail, a Social Democrat representative for Galway who knew her. "She had an infectious smile and made everyone around her feel good. She was an incredible activist. Its terrible to hear about her passing in a Galway Direct Provision centre. Chris Noone who is a lecturer in Galway tweeted about the loss of his friend. Sylvie wasnt only a trans woman in #DirectProvision. She was my friend who loved to cook and me me jealous of pics with her work, she was a joker, he said. She had strong feelings about her situation and was brave enough to share them and she loved Whitney Houston a lot! I miss her. Teach Solais LBGT+ Resource Centre paid tribute to a great friend in a Facebook post. AMACH and Teach Solais are devastated at the loss of our great friends Sylvia, she was part of our family, it said. The Irish Refugee Council paid tribute and said: we are very sad to hear of the passing of a transgender woman living in Direct Provision in Galway. We express our deepest condolences to the family and friends and wed like to offer our support to anyone affect by this tragic loss. The Department of Justice and Equality confirmed the death of the woman believed to have been living in the mens ward of the centre despite identifying as a woman. Her body was found on Thursday afternoon and a post-mortem examination is due to take place In line with normal practice where a death occurs of a person who is availing of accommodation services, the Department was notified of the sad passing of this person, a spokesperson said. Our understanding is that the person fell ill at the Centre. As is normal practice in cases of unexplained deaths, a post mortem examination will take place. We wish to express our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased. A garda spokesperson confirmed they were aware of the situation and will be conducting an investigation but are not treating the death as suspicious. Gardai in Galway are investigating a sudden death which occurred at the Great Western House, Frenchville Lane, Eyre Square, Galways yesterday August 3rd 2018, they said. The purpose of the investigation is to submit a report to the Coroners office. At this stage there are no suspicious circumstances. The Meningitis Research Foundation feels passionately that the new vaccine should be made freely available to more people. I was worrying about the fact my son had never got his BCG vaccination when a doctor friend came out with a surprise revelation: "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," she said. "It doesn't protect against all the strains and most other countries don't even give it to babies." My confusion was compounded by the fact that I knew I'd had my own BCG jab at the age of 11, so surely there was no immediate rush to get my, then six-months-old son inoculated? Then another friend said she was desperate to get her infant son immunised, but everywhere had run out of the drug. The evident desirability of the tuberculosis vaccination had me worried again: Is this a must-have immunisation, or something my child can easily, and healthily live without? Because that's the most important question in every parent's mind, isn't it? What is the healthiest, safest and best option for my son or daughter's well-being? Unfortunately, when it comes to vaccinations, it's not always clear what the right answer is. One problem is that the choice of vaccinations is always changing. This month sees two new additions to Ireland's childhood immunisation schedule. Babies, born on or after October 1, will now receive vaccines for Meningitis B and rotavirus at two and four months. For decades, MenB has been the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in the UK and Ireland, and a leading infectious cause of death for children under five. The new vaccine was introduced in the UK last year and covers about 85pc of the MenB strains, and has so far proved effective in reducing the number of cases. Trials have also shown it to have a good safety profile. "The only issue is that when we give MenB with the other vaccines, babies are more likely to get a temperature," explains Dr Brenda Corcoran, consultant in public health medicine at the National Immunisation Office. "Because of this, we will be recommending that babies are given paracetamol at and after the first dose at two months and at four months." Expand Close This month sees two new additions to Ireland's childhood immunisation schedule. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This month sees two new additions to Ireland's childhood immunisation schedule. The additions mean the vaccine schedule for children born this month now looks like this. Birth: BCG/ Tuberculosis Vaccine. At two months, the six-in-one vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough/pertussis, Hib (Haemophilus influenza) Polio, Hepatitis B), PCV (Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) MenB and rotavirus. Four months; six in one, MenB, rotavirus. At six months, six in one, PCV, MenC vaccine. At one year, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), MenB vaccine and only a month later, Hib/MenC and PCV. Then when a child is in junior infants, it's recommended to get a booster against diphtheria, polio, tetanus and whooping cough, as well as a second dose of MMR vaccine. In secondary school there's a tetanus, low-dose diphtheria and pertussis booster, MenC booster and, for girls, the HPV vaccine to protect against cervical cancer (see panel). Some diseases need multiple doses to make the vaccine effective (which is why you'll see the same names creep up) and you need to talk to your GP if your child has missed one because dosage can change with age. But what about children on the old schedule - are they missing out? The Meningitis Research Foundation feels passionately that the new vaccine should be made freely available to more people. "Introducing the MenB vaccine for babies is a major step forward, but restricting the vaccine to only this narrow highest risk age group can never prevent the majority of cases," says Vinny Smith, chief executive of the Meningitis Research Foundation. "We believe vaccinating teenagers could be key to greater protection, as it may stop them picking up and passing on the bacteria to others." Parents can, depending on availability, buy the vaccine. On average one dose costs between 130 and 180 and children need between two and four doses to be fully protected (depending on their age). "The schedule has to start at some point. We don't have enough funding and there was no catch-up programme recommended by the expert group," explains Dr Corcoran. "The hope is that once as many of the newer group are covered, that will help protect the older babies as well because there will be less of the germ around." The second new vaccination is rotavirus, given orally, to protect against vomiting and diarrhoea bugs that hospitalise around 1,000 babies every year. It's a vaccine that has been introduced in most European countries and proved effective. The WHO has been recommending it since 2009 but, until now, it wasn't deemed cost effective in Ireland. Since rotavirus is expected to affect every child in Ireland before they hit five, you might feel it's one worth paying the 140 for the required two doses. But, not necessarily says pharmacist at Milltown totalhealth and wonderbaba.ie, Sheena Mitchell. "After 24 weeks, it's not on the licence of the manufacturer as there is no safety data for use in older children," she reveals. "Time is of the essence and ideally it should be done before 16 weeks." The first dose can only be given from six weeks and doses must be four weeks apart. The other two main discretionary vaccines are chicken pox and flu. If you or your child is in an 'at risk' category - suffering diabetes, liver or renal disease, severe asthma, Down syndrome - the flu jab is recommended. It's seasonal - this year's vaccine is to guard against the three main strains of flu for 2016/17 - so it only lasts the year and is only between 40-90pc effective. But for 20 it has an excellent safety profile and could reduce the risk of having your child off sick for a week. Chickenpox has been on the vaccine schedule in the USA for over two decades. In Ireland parents have to pay around 55 per dose. Children must be over 12 months, need two doses, one month apart and at least one month after other live vaccines, like MMR. It's safe and has about a 90pc rate of success but it's not clear what its long-term success is. "With chickenpox, the question of whether to vaccinate or not is difficult because the symptoms can be quite mild or severe," says Sheena, also a pharmacist expert for mummypages.ie. "And we don't know if it gives long-term immunity." Most people who have had chickenpox develop lifelong immunity, whereas its unsure whether the vaccine will do the same, potentially leaving adults susceptible to the disease (which is more severe as an adult). There's also a possibility that reducing the incidence of childhood chickenpox could increase the level of adult shingles. Expand Close Baby vaccine / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Baby vaccine The reason Ireland has some vaccines on its schedule and not others, compared to other Western countries, is because vaccinations are both area and time specific. The BCG is not given in most other Western European countries and was only advised in Ireland in recent years because we had high rates of TB. Now rates are down, it looks likely that routine BCG will no longer be advised. We have MenB and MenC because those illnesses are common here. Even though diseases like polio aren't commonplace in Ireland, we still need the vaccine because they are common elsewhere in the world. "Even though you don't see the diseases, they may only be a plane ride away, so you have to make sure you get the vaccines and keep our rates up, otherwise we may be vulnerable," explains Dr Corcoran. "This is the issue, parents don't see the diseases because the vaccine rate is so high but if we drop the vaccine rates, the diseases come back." While some parents might be keen to fork out for additional vaccines, others worry about accessing the existing recommended jabs. One of the largest ever global surveys of attitudes of people on vaccines recently revealed that Europeans are the most sceptical of vaccine safety. Despite Andrew Wakefield's 1998 report - linking MMR and autism - being widely disproved, a 2014 survey by the National Consumers League found that one third of parents with children under 18 still believe vaccines can cause autism. Currently many countries, including Ireland, are facing controversy around the HPV vaccine. "I think parents are questioning the timing and the sheer number of vaccines currently on the schedule," says Catherine Weitbrecht from Irish Vaccination Awareness (IVA). "In Ireland a baby will receive 27 doses of 13 diseases by the time they are 13-months-old (excluding BCG at birth). Some parents question a baby's ability to develop sufficient antibodies at such a young age, especially given the combination given at any one time. They also are questioning the ingredients for such small babies." The uptake for infant vaccines in Ireland is high, standing at 96pc; MMR is 93pc (up from 70pc at the height of the autism scare) but HPV has dropped from 87pc to 70pc. Catherine reports that parents feel "brushed off" when they voice concerns to their doctor about vaccine ingredients, multiple vaccines and whether a one-size fits all is the best approach to childhood immunisation. "Healthy scepticism and a need to know exactly what they are injecting into their babies brings parents to IVA," she says. "There appears to be too many, too soon in most people's minds." There's also confusion about the efficacy of some vaccines. For example, it was recently revealed that the whooping cough vaccine has no long lasting protection. "But whooping cough as an adult is annoying, in small babies it can result in hospitalisation and even death," says Dr Corcoran. "That's why it's important to get the vaccine at the recommended age." She worries that parents reading online about vaccines don't get the full story. "No medicine is without risk, so it's important to get scientifically accurate information. Our website, immunisation.ie, is accredited by the World Health Organisation as providing factual, accurate information." For more information, see www.immunisation.ie or call 01-867 6108 HPV vaccine: is it safe or Not? Since September 2011, the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine has been offered to girls in their first year of second-level school. The vaccine protects against over 100 viruses including the two types causing seven of all 10 diagnosed cervical cancers. The two main HPV vaccines are Gardasil (used by the HSE) and Cervarix. But in recent years Gardasil has received negative press with girls more than 300 in Ireland and many more in other countries claiming a link between receiving the vaccine and developing severe long-term conditions, including chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. The vaccine most parents worry about is the HPV vaccine, says Catherine Weitbrecht, from Irish Vaccination Awareness. Parents are mostly questioning the ingredients in Gardasil and the affect they might have on pre-pubescent girls. Fuelling the belief that Gardasil might be dangerous is the fact that Denmark recently replaced using the drug with Cervarix. But Dr Corcoran says there was another reason for this. The reason Denmark changed was because they did a tender process and, based on finance, on a cost basis, they chose Cervarix. It was nothing to do with the safety of the vaccine, it was a commercial decision. She says parents need to look at the science before making a decision on HPV. All scientific evidence shows there is no link between the HPV vaccine and the development of these long-term conditions, she says. The scientific evidence is that these conditions occur in teenagers and have done so for many, many years. There is no change in the numbers of girls who are getting these conditions in girls who have been vaccinated compared to girls who are not being vaccinated. Every year 90 women in Ireland die from cervical cancer. You want to do whats best for your child, you want to protect them from terrible diseases and we know that last year 5,000 girls were not protected from HPV who would have been protected in the previous year, says Dr Corcoran. And we know that unfortunately some of those girls will develop cervical cancer, they may have to have quite invasive treatment, surgery, chemotherapy. They may end up having actual cervical cancer and some of them will unfortunately die. What were trying to do is prevent that. We dont want to scaremonger, we want to give parents the facts. Expand Close A pregnant mother-of-two is among three patients fighting the swine flu in Wexford General Hospital, prompting public health doctors to urge people to get the flu jab. Photo: PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A pregnant mother-of-two is among three patients fighting the swine flu in Wexford General Hospital, prompting public health doctors to urge people to get the flu jab. Photo: PA Chrissie Russell Cork County Board chairperson Tracey Kennedy has opened up about her "traumatic" experience with cancer and how the GAA helped her battle through it. In 2015, Kennedy (43) was diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after going for her smear test in January 2015. "It was a pretty traumatic experience, but I was pretty lucky and looking back now I see how lucky I was, because I was diagnosed at a very early stage," Kennedy said. "I had surgery in September of 2015, but luckily progressing well." The diagnosis came shortly after being appointed Vice Chair of the Cork GAA board, but the Killeagh native has since become the first female chair of the Cork County Board- the second female chair in the country. It was her involvement with the GAA that helped her cope with the difficult time, describing the support from the GAA community as "wonderful". "My involvement with the GAA, as I think it has been at other difficult times in my life, was a wonderful thing," she said. "I still have a box of well wishes at home they were sent to me by members of the GAA community at the time and again highlights the good that being involved with the GAA can be, even at a very difficult time in your life." While the topic can be difficult to talk about, Kennedy believes speaking out will help others who can't. "Im quite comfortable speaking about it and I know there are many women out there who have suffered cancer experiences who are not comfortable speaking about it. "So, I feel that I should as much as I can." Russell Brand appears to be living his best life in Ireland right now. The multi-talented comedian, actor and author is in Ireland to shoot Four Kids and It, in which he plays the villain. During his down time he has paid a visit to The Happy Pear in Greystones and enjoyed some yoga with Teresa Murphy Moore in Wicklow and gave a shout out to both businesses on Instagram where he has more than 600,000 followers. Brand (43) has also shared photos and videos of himself out and about with his dogs Carly and Bear and shared another selfie with the caption, "Me looking #spiritual as all hell beneath an #Irish sky" The posts are interspersed with his answers to questions about his spiritual life posed to him by fans. The Get Him to the Greek star has battled addiction throughout his career but in recent years he has adopted a quieter life and has revealed that meditation has been key to instigating and maintaining his health. Four Kids and It is based on the 2012 novel by Jacqueline Wilson which is in turn base don the 1902 book Five Children and It by E. Nesbit. It tells the story of four children on holiday in Cornwall who meet a magical creature on the beach which has the power to grant wishes. Cheryl Cole flew in two weeks ago to film a cameo and Michael Caine, Paula Patton and Matthew Goode star. No longer off the beaten tourist track, Ethiopia is now a direct flight from Dublin. Louise Hogan explores. In a small one-bedroom house in northern Ethiopia, a woman is serving a powerful brew. The aroma is distinct and earthy. It takes just a single sup to confirm. Yes it's beer. Although the gritty brown liquid sloshing around my cup is a tad stronger than your average Smithwicks. This is one of the amazing things about Ethiopia. Not the earthy home brewers (signalled by a pole with a red flag on top of their houses), but the universal welcome almost everywhere you go. More and more people are set to experience those welcomes, too. Ethiopian Airlines has just launched direct flights between Ireland and Addis Ababa, making it easier than ever to get a taste of this unique and enchanting culture. But back to that little brewery. I may be a newbie to Axum. I may just have seen the 2,000-year-old obelisks in its Stelae fields for the first time, but it's clear that the people propped atop of boxes around the room are on more familiar territory. After a bit of negotiating, through an obliging local translator, farmers Mersea (68) and Berhe (75) tell me about their difficult lives "fighting with oxen" in the hot sun. Ethiopia is a country of 94 million souls. Its people talk in a myriad 200 dialects. But Mersea's story is strong and simple. He tells me of great changes from the time of the "cruel" Derg government that "killed many people" during the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Today we have justice, peace and schools," he says. Expand Close Ethiopia / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ethiopia Enchanted by Ethiopia... Reluctant to leave, but with many more miles to travel, I step blinking out into the dry heat. I still can't believe I'm in Axum. I still can't believe I landed into the bustling city of Addis Ababa only a few days earlier. Addis's airport is perched on the edge of this sprawling, African city. It was bright and early when we landed, but it was clear that this was a city on the move. It wasn't hard to see how Ethiopia produces some of the world's best athletes, either - scores of people were running in never-ending laps, crisscrossing Meskel Square in an early morning workout. My sense was of a city on the rise. Ethiopia remains a poor country, but everywhere you look you see evidence of development, of large corporations buying up slices of former state assets. Traffic is teeming. Workers sup bottles of St George beer in corrugated iron-roofed shacks popping up all over. It was just before rush-hour when I stepped into Ethiopia's National Museum. I was looking for Lucy. Discovered in the eastern Afar region in 1974, she's a 3.2 million year-old partial skeleton and one of the earliest known human ancestors. Along with local schoolchildren, I gazed in wonderment at the bone pieces. Appropriately, Lucy is called Dinknesh in Ethiopia meaning 'You are Wonderful'. Looking at her made me realise the depth of history beneath Ethiopia's soil. Everywhere you look in Ethiopia, however, there are reminders that infrastructure is in its infant stages. Travelling back to the airport to catch a flight to Lalibela, the electricity waned and hummed. Internal flights are surprisingly good here; the roads, not so much. As you fly over the undulating, rusty brown landscape it's not hard to see how famine could have gripped the vast plains only 30 years ago. Back then, images of starving children brought the country to worldwide attention. Today, the work of Live Aid and the name of Bob Geldof still evoke a reaction. Expand Close Ancient wonder: The monolithic church of St George / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ancient wonder: The monolithic church of St George St. George's Church in Lalibela Landing into Lalibela, our group caught a bus transfer along the dusty, haphazard roads. We passed many pilgrims making their way to the town on foot. Faith is extremely important here, with much history dominated by Orthodox Christianity. Lalibela's famous churches are an architectural wonder, chiselled into rock faces in the 12th century, and one of the must-see sights for any tourist. After paying the 45 entrance fee, I found myself a little breathless as we began the tour in sunshine more than 2,500 metres above sea level. Stepping into one of the murky medieval churches felt like stepping back in time. A colourfully-garbed priest held up the 12th century gold cross of Lalibela (it weighs a hefty 7kg). I donned a thick pair of socks to walk across the well-worn sheep carpets dotting the floors. As I left, one image stayed with me - the eye-catching, cross-shaped Church of St George (above), looming up out of the rocky ground. Ethiopian food can be surprising, too. In the pretty surroundings of the Seven Olive restaurant nearby, with a view over the hills of Lalibela, I enjoyed a flavoursome taste of the local cuisine. A 'fasting plate' delivered a vegetarian medley of spicy chickpeas and seasoned vegetables served up on fresh injera - the country's famous flatbread-like bread, used to mop or swipe up the food. The grain it is made from, teff, is being touted as one of the new 'superfoods'. Here, it's just a fact of life. Expand Close Ethiopian vegetarian platter with injera / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ethiopian vegetarian platter with injera Ethiopia's famous injera I'd come a long way since that earthy home brew. But there's a lot further to go. Some of those tucking in around me in Lalibela were trekkers destined for the nearby Simien Mountains, a UNESCO world heritage site. Next time I'll be packing my walking boots. Some of those tucking in were trekkers destined for the nearby Simien Mountains, a UNESCO world heritage site. Next time I'll be packing my walking boots. What to pack Bring Euro or dollars, as it is easy to exchange money in hotels. If you are travelling onwards from Ethiopia, check what vaccinations are required, as some countries require a yellow fever vaccination. Thick socks are good for covering your feet (shoes need to be removed in churches. I recommend Philip Marsden's 'The Chains of Heaven - An Ethiopian Romance' for a read, too! Getting there Ethiopian Airlines (ethiopianairlines.com) flies direct from Dublin to Addis Ababa from June 20, with return fares from 577pp going to press. Internal flights are a handy way to get around, connecting popular tourist spots and pilgrimage locations. Ethiopian can also connect to Jo'burg, Khartoum, Lagos, Nairobi and Zanzibar among other African destinations, via Addis. Where to stay The Tukul Village Hotel in Lalibela (tukulvillage.com) offers traditional round rooms near the ancient churches from $67/61.50. In Axum, the Consular Hotel (consularhotelaxum.com) has doubles including breakfast from $60/55. In Addis, a luxury option is the Radisson Blu (radissonblu.com) from $200/184. Read more: Light and Shade: Sunset over the Lalibela region of Ethiopia. The top of the Church of St George can be seen to the left emerging from the rock into which it is carved Ill let you in on the little surprise thats waiting after you climb the final 200 meters to Abuna Yemata Guh church in Northern Ethiopia. It takes a lot of effort to get here. Tigray is a region famous for churches carved into the mountain, and because this is one of the hardest to get to, it's one of the best-preserved. Abuna Yemata Guh is 2,580 meters above sea level. The journey involves a tough yet very enjoyable trek, if youre the outdoorsy type. But the views are worth the sweat. Expand Close Geraldine climbing to Abuna Yemata Guh in Tigray / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Geraldine climbing to Abuna Yemata Guh in Tigray At the end of the trek is such a steep climb that a rope and local scout are needed to push and support tourists to get up there. It needs to be done barefoot, as the gaps in the rock are so small that this is the only way you can get a proper grip. Its miraculous how people managed to create these hand-carved caves so many hundreds of years ago -actual churches carved into the rock atop of the mountain. And the surprise? Abuna Yemata Guh dates back to the sixth century, and stepping inside after the climb, you'll find religious wall paintings from the 15th century all still perfectly, brightly coloured. Expand Close Inside Abuna Yemata Guh, a church in Tigray, Ethiopia. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Inside Abuna Yemata Guh, a church in Tigray, Ethiopia. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan This is because the sunlight cant reach inside the cave (if you ever make it there, please dont use a camera flash or touch the paintings as theyve been there for centuries before us and hopefully will last centuries after us). Personally, I relished the chance to act the cat for the day, climbing and using all fours and I sure smiled like a Cheshire cat when I reached the top. Tucking into injera Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, is an hour's flight from Addis. Taking in the views from the balcony of Wukro Lodge here, two teenage local sisters approached to ask if they could speak with me. They were so cute and curious of my light skin and freckles... and all they wanted from me was to chat and ask me about the world outside Ethiopia. I answered their questions with enthusiasm and within minutes they invited me to eat with them. I always grab opportunities like this when travelling, so I humbly accepted and my new friends Meron and Zaid began to teach me how to eat with my right hand only, without using utensils. Expand Close Injera in Tigray. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Injera in Tigray. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan We all shared from a large plate - a meal of local flatbread called injera and chickpea shiro (stew), which is mildly spicy. I paid great attention as they showed me how to scoop up the shiro using a wrap of injera and then tuck it into my mouth to enjoy. Meron, they younger of the two, fed me a mouthful of injera from her hand - actually quite the honour in Ethiopia, as it is their way of showing respect and making the guest feel very welcome and important. They certainly managed to do that. Eating with the two girls was one of the most authentic experiences I had during my time in Ethiopia. A procession in Askum Expand Close Morning procession in Aksum. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Morning procession in Aksum. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan If you travel to Aksum, do it during the second week of the month. This is when the daily processions happen. Between the 9th and 15th of the month (approx.), thousands of worshippers gather at St. Mary of Zion Church from 4am wearing white linen shawls covering their bodies, and in women's cases, heads. Why? At around 4:30am, priests and monks emerge carrying the Ark of the Covenant to the centre of the square wrapped in a blue cloth. Yes, that Ark of the Covenant. Many Ethiopians are staunchly Orthodox Christian, and in Aksum they believe they are protecting the Biblical Ark - stored in the securely guarded Chapel of the Tablet next to this church at the heart of ancient Aksum. Expand Close Map of Ethiopia / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Map of Ethiopia The Ark is lifted overhead by one of the priests and paraded around with a procession of thousands of believers all holding candles in the dark morning light, whilst chanting in the ancient language of Geez - an old South Semitic language it is said that angels speak. Im not the most religious person in the world, but youd have to be made of stone not to be touched by such a sight. I held on to my candle and walked in step with the crowd, listening to their chanting and feeling strongly like I belonged to something bigger than myself - even if its not religion. The human connection, or spirituality, touched me right in the gut. In so many ways we are all the same, I felt, regardless of religion, skin colour, nationality or belief system. We all want happiness, food daily, to grow mentally and emotionally and to see our loved ones thrive. These are the things I put out to the universe on that morning in Askum, as Im sure many of those other women who walked alongside me did. A (strong) coffee ceremony Expand Close Coffee Ceremony in Tigray, Ethiopia. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Coffee Ceremony in Tigray, Ethiopia. Photo: Geraldine O'Callaghan Considering the wild coffee plant, 'Arabica', originates in Ethiopia, they dont just make and drink coffee. Oh, no! In true Ethiopian style, they make a ritual out of the whole process. Even if youre a not coffee lover, youll be charmed by this. First, they set the scene with all the authentic equipment needed (clay pot and mini handless cups). Then, they decorate the floor with plants and grasses, and the person making the coffee (usually the women of the house) is dressed in colourful traditional clothing with local music on in the background. Once raw beans are placed over open coals to be roasted, the host takes the pan of beans around to every guest wafting the aromas beneath their noses. I dont love coffee, but this part really gets my mouth watering for the liquid to follow. Once we all nod and agree that the smell is delicious, our host grinds the beans in a wooden pestle and mortar, before heating the powder in water inside the traditional, sphere-shaped clay pot called a jebena - which has a tall, thin neck and spout. Once its heated, we all get to try a mini cup of the rich brown fluid. Let me warn you, it's strong - very strong - but most possibly exactly what youll need to keep you alert enough to take in all Ethiopia has to offer. Getting there Expand Close Geraldine O'Callaghan in Lalibella, Ethiopia / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Geraldine O'Callaghan in Lalibella, Ethiopia Geraldine O'Callaghan (above) travelled as a guest of the Ethiopian Tourism Organisation (ethiopia.travel). Tours: Covenant Ethiopia Tours offer the same itinerary Geraldine followed (covenantethiopia.com) from $560pp (482 approx.) based on one to four people sharing a car or minibus, guide and driver. Accommodation, meals, entrance fees and government taxes are all included in the price (but not flights). Flights: Ethiopian Airlines (ethiopianairlines.com) flies direct from Dublin to Addis Ababa - return flights cost Geraldine around 700 for this trip. Hotels: Wukro Lodge Eco Lodge in Mekele (wukrolodge.com; from 60 per night); Florida International Hotel in Gondar (+251 94 348-1087; from 55) and the Mountain View Hotel, Lalibela (mountainview-hotel.com; from 60). For local guides, contact Amare Shiferaw (Simien Mountain Guide; amareshiferaw08@gmail.com) or in Lalibela Masresha Misganaw (lalibelaguide.com). Read more: The road has been closed off for a forensic investigation Gardai are investigating after a number of people, believed to be refugees, ran from a trailer when the startled truck driver opened its doors in Co Laois on Thursday evening. The incident happened in the Straboe area on the outskirts of Portlaoise. The truck driver had stopped the vehicle at 6.50pm and when he opened the doors of the trailer a number of people bolted past him and fled into the surrounding area. Investigating gardai, who were concerned about the welfare of the people involved, began searching the area once the matter was reported. A Garda helicopter was used to search for what are believed to be five men. It is not clear what nationality the individuals are. The truck had travelled to Laois from Rosslare Harbour in Co Wexford, a distance of 125km, which would take up to two hours. It is not yet clear what port the truck had sailed from, or how long the men were in the trailer. This is the second time that a group of migrants were found in a truck in Co Laois after traveling through Rosslare. Almost a year ago, on August 13, six refugees, including a child, were found when a refrigeration truck was searched by gardai at Stradbally. The truck driver alerted gardai after hearing noises coming from his truck. Gardai found six foreign nationals on board three men, two women and a child. Last May, a teenage stowaway was found in Croke Park, having hidden in a truck being used for the Rolling Stones concert. The young man was later taken into the care of Tusla, the child and family agency. The truck involved in the rock legends tour cavalcade had recently passed through the French port of Calais. In 2016, eight refugees, all Kurdish, were found hiding in a truck in New Ross and later sought asylum in Ireland. People trying to flee strife in their countries of origin have been known to hide in trucks and cargo at major European ports in the hope of being transported overseas and to safer environs. Many have died in the process and it is believed the people who fled the truck near Portlaoise are refugees who gained access to the trailer without the knowledge of the driver. The investigation into the matter is ongoing. Gardai stressed that they were interested in the welfare of the men who appeared to have travelled such a long distance in the back of a truck. However, it is understood that the search was stood down yesterday afternoon. Anyone with information is asked to contact Portlaoise garda station on 057 8674100. This week a report, prepared for Minister Charlie Flanagan, warned that Brexit could have an enormous impact here as any perceived tightening of UK immigration controls could see illegals increasingly look across the Irish Sea instead. The sign in Dublin Castle after the referendum on amending the Eighth was succinct, if slightly tongue in cheek: "I fancy Simon Harris." It said everything that needed to be said about how starved we were for thoughtful, articulate politicians. A tall, skinny and slightly geeky Health Minister had become a heart throb in the midst of the most unlikely circumstances. On the surface, everything was stacked against him. He lords it over the ministry long-dubbed Angola, the abyss of ever-lengthening waiting lists and chronic service shortfalls. Trolley crises. Tragedies. Budgetary problems. The CervicalCheck scandal had already surfaced by the time the Referendum on the Eighth had come round. And yet breathless reports in May gushed about how the nation had suddenly fallen in love with a Wicklow man with an earnest air far beyond his tender years. Twitter described him 'the feminist hero we never saw coming' after a 'Prime Time' debate in which Harris had argued clearly and calmly for abortion reform. "If you believe that it's wrong that every day nine women - and they're not faceless women, they could be our mothers, our wives, our sisters, our nieces, our neighbours, our work colleagues - if you believe it's wrong that they have to travel, you need to repeal the Eighth Amendment. "This is a once-in-a-generational opportunity... let's not squander it," he concluded to rapturous applause. So focused was the country on this single issue, that on all other aspects, it seemed the minister got a free pass. We were willing to overlook the inadequacies because he had come out on the right side of history so far as the Eighth Amendment was concerned. Asked about those signs long afterwards, Harris amiably laughed them off as being the work of his mum. He was far from foolish enough to let all the adulation go to his head. But if all political careers end ultimately in failure, so too must all crushes on political figures - or at least any politician who plans on hanging around. The road is a long and winding one, and such adulation can surely never last - unless of course he can prove himself capable as a man of action as well as one of debate. And the rumblings have already begun. The summer break has probably never come at such a fortuitous time for a Government. Brexit clouds hang low and heavy in the sky - and from a health perspective, the CervicalCheck calamity is far from going away. Pressure is now building amid the outrage over the broken promises given by the Taoiseach and the health minister that sick women would not be forced to go to court and give evidence. Those pledges sounded comforting and forceful - but shattered just 10 weeks later amid the sight of a tearful Ruth Morrissey, who had lost her hair from chemotherapy, standing in the High Court as she told the judge how she is not afraid to die but does not want to. Fianna Fail's health spokesman Stephen Donnelly called on Leo Varadkar and Harris to apologise for making "false and empty promises" to the women. The Government had acted "rashly", Harris admitted, popping up to give an interview on Thursday. He said he was "upset and angry" Ruth Morrissey had had to go to court. "Who in their right mind would want to see a terminally ill person in court? So [the Taoiseach] gave a commitment that every woman would be able to avail of mediation," he said. "Clearly we hit a roadblock, a very serious blockage... What we have to do now is... work out a way of overcoming that roadblock." But notwithstanding the appointment of High Court judge Charles Meenan to look at the compensation options, Harris admitted: "There is a big piece here in relation to whether there was negligence." The 'champion of women' tag has been a boon money cannot buy for Harris - but faced with hard-faced lawyers, here the minister's run of good fortune and way with words may run out. And is the love for Simon Harris destined to fade, amid the vista of yet another health minister who has let them down? Archbishop Eamon Martin with members of the Hughes and McParland families also present Mr. Malachi Cush, Fr. Gerry Campbell, Sr. Anne Lyng and Mrs. Sharon Dunne. Photograpy by Liam McArdle Pope Francis pays his first visit to Ireland next month for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin and events are being held in dioceses around the country to coincide with the opening ceremony. The Archdiocese of Armagh and Armagh City will host an opening festival on the evening of Tuesday August 21st, beginning at 5pm in the Shambles Market. The festival is free to all and includes music, dance, bouncy castles, face painting and a wide range of other activities, for people of all ages. Among the performers who will be providing music and song on the day are Malachi Cush, Andrea Begley, Cliona Hagan, Niamh McGlinchy and Anna Plata Kostecka to name but a few performers on the day. Dancers from Carol Leavy's School of Irish Dancing, Blackrock, will lead the possession from the Shambles Market to St Patrick's Cathedral, where Archbishop Eamon Martin will lead the congregation in evening prayer. No tickets are required for the event and a free bus will depart from outside St Patrick's, Dundalk at 3.45pm, first come, first served. Gerry Adams TD with Cllrs Ruairi O Murhcu and Anne Campebell at the opening of Victoria Lock phase of the Carlingford Lough Greenway The opening of the Victoria Lock phase of the Carlingford Lough Greenway represents the best of cross-border collaboration, and has given residents of the area, as well as tourists, a world-class facility, guests at the official opening were told. Members of Louth County Council, including chairperson Cllr. Liam Reilly, Cllr. Ruairi O Murchu and Cllr. Anne Campbell, were joined by their counterparts from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (NMDDC); TDs Gerry Adams and Declan Breathnach, and invited guests for Friday morning's opening at the Victoria Lock, which is located between Newry and Omeath. The 5.7km Greenway, which runs from the Dublin Road Bridge in Newry to Victoria Lock, has been open to the public since May 4th and is already proving popular with walkers and cyclists as it provides a traffic-free facility with stunning views. It will form part of the planned 20km green footpath and cycle way stretching from Newry to Carlingford, linking in with the existing Omeath to Carlingford Greenway, which is due for completion in 2020. It will also link-in with the existing Newry/Portadown/Towpath providing a 52km route all the way from Carlingford to Portadown. Cllr. Mark Murnin, who is chairperson of NMDDC, said the official opening represented the fruits of many years' hard work in both councils, who worked with each other to bring the project to fruition - turning the once overgrown area along the lough shore into a top class recreational amenity. Cllr. Murnin described the Greenway, which had the support of the EU through the INTERREG 5A fund, managed by SEUPB, as 'a wonderful example of effective cross-border co-operation to deliver a world-class facility'. SEUPB, which invested over 3.4 million in the project, was represented by CEO Gina McIntyre,who said she couldn't get over how amazingly beautiful the Greenway's location is. She said the EU funders are 'ready to move to phase two' of the project, with commitments, secured from both the EU and Britain, to future PEACE funding in Ireland. Another of the Greenway's funders, the Landfill Community Fund, administered by the Ulster Wildlife Trust, was represented by CEO Jennifer Fulton, said they were delighted to see the Greenway located in a richly biodiverse environment, where the facility makes the most of the outstanding natural beauty of the area. The second phase of the project, which will be overseen by Louth County Council, will take around 18 months to complete. Cllr. Liam Reilly said the Victoria Lock opening will build on the already popular existing Greenway and Louth County Council is proud to be the lead partner in the next phase. He said the Greenway 'provides a spectacular and majestic' background, linking two communities together, which, when completed, will provide 'a world-class, cross-border greenway that will have a positive impact on people's lives on both sides of the border'. Dundalk gardai have launched a major appeal for information relating to a fire at a house in Castle Park nearly four weeks ago. The blaze broke out in the early hours of July 4th in the property after an item was reportedly thrown into the downstairs of the house. A 56-year-old man, who was upstairs in the house jumped out of a window to escape the blaze. Gardai confirmed that the man was found at the scene. Almost four weeks later, he remains in a critical condition in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. A garda spokesman told the Argus that an incident room has been set up to investigate the fire. 'An appeal has been launched in relation to a fire on July 4th 2018 at 29 Castle Park. Gardai at Dundalk are appealing for witnesses. At approximately 2.11am, gardai and emergency services were called to a fire at 29 Castle Park. A 56-year-man was discovered at the scene and was removed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.' The spokesman added that a number of people were seen running from the scene. 'An incident room has been established at Dundalk garda station, and gardai are appealing for witnesses, or anyone with any information about the incident to make contact with them.' 'In particular they are appealing to anyone who was in Castle Park, on Castletown Road, Bellewsbridge Road, Mill Road or Newtownbalregan between 1.30am to 2.30am on July 4th to contact the incident room on 042 93 88470 or 042 93 88400 or the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111.' Investigating gardai are also keen to speak to anyone who was in the area and may have dashcam footage. Meanwhile, in a separate incident Dundalk gardai are also investigating the theft of almost 2000 worth of tools and machinery following the break in at a van parked along the Dundalk to Castleblayney from 7a.m to 9.45am on Thursday last. The owner returned to find a number of items missing including a Milwaukee cordless drill set, a Milwaukee Max Cango and a Panasonic drill set. Anyone with information relating to theft is asked to contact gardai on 042 93 88470. Gardai are investigating the discovery of a burnt out van abandoned at Dromad on Saturday morning last. The 11-D registered Volkswagen van was discovered at around 3am on Saturday. The theft of cash from a till at the Maxol station on the Dublin road is being investigated. On Friday last, staff were attending to customers when the culprit went in behind the counter and stole cash from the till. Gardai are currently reviewing cctv footage. An attempted burglary was reported in a house in Knocknagoran, Omeath last week. The occupants of the house noticed lights on outside at around 3am. They discovered attempts had been made to force open both the front and back door with some type of implement. An attempted break in was also reported at E.K Fuels on the Carrickmacross Road in the early hours of Friday morning last. An alarm was activated at the premises, and it was discovered that sensor lights had been pulled off a rear wall and phone lines to the shop cut. Anyone who witnessed suspicious activity in the area in the early hours of Friday last, July 27th is asked to contact Dundalk gardai on 042 93 884700 or the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111. Rev. Fr Mark OHagan who has been appointed Parish Priest of St Patricks, Dundalk Sweeping clerical changes announced last week mean that for the first time in 150 years, the Archbishop of Armagh will no longer be the Parish Priest of Dundalk. In the clerical appointments announced by Archbishop Eamon Martin on Thursday, Fr Mark O'Hagan, who has served as Administrator of St Patrick's Parish, Dundalk for the past seven years, has been appointed as Parish Priest of one of the biggest parishes in the Archdiocese. Other changes in the Dundalk parish see curate Fr Brian Slater leaving to take up an appointment as CC, in Ardee and Collon. He will be replaced by Fr Maciej Zacharek, who is currently CC, St Peter's Parish, Drogheda. Fr Zacharek will also take up the post of Director of Studies at Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary, Dundalk. Deacon Paul O'Reilly, a former RMS seminarian in Guam who was recently ordained in Armagh, is to serve in St Patrick's Parish, Dundalk, and Holy Redeemer Parish, Dundalk. The Holy Redeemer Parish gets a new Adm, Rev Michael Sheehan, who is currently Adm, in Kilsaran, while the current Adm Fr Paul Montague, is being appointed as PP, Tallanstown. Fr Sean McGuigan, CC, is leaving the Holy Redeemer Parish, to be PP, Ardboe. Fr Shajan Panachickal Michael, who is on loan to the Archdiocese from Eparchy of Kothamangalam, India, is taking up the position of curate at Holy Redeemer Parish, Dundalk, and will serve the Syro-Malabar Community in Dundalk. The Syro-Malabar Church is one of the 22 Eastern (Oriental) Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome. Other appointments see Fr Stephen Duffy, PE, Adm, VF, Termonfeckin, becoming PP, Lordship, while Fr Padraig Murphy, the current PP is to be Pastor Emeritus and Priest in Residence, Jenkinstown, and Diocesan Archivist / Curator. Fr Linos Dube, who is currently assisting in the Parish of Lordship, is to be CC, St Peter's Parish, Drogheda. And a former Lordship PP. V Rev Bobby McKenna, PE, AP, Lower Killeavy, is to retire, remaining in residence at the Parochial House, Camlough. Rev Bernard King, SM, CC, Glassdrummond (Upper Creggan), to retire and return to his Marist Congregation. V Rev Sean McCartan, PP, Ardboe, to be Chaplain to the Irish Defence Forces, based at Aiken Barracks, Dundalk, and Gormanstown Army Camp. Fr Neil O'Donoghue, Vice-Rector, Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary, is leaving Dundalk, to join the Theology Faculty, St Patrick's College, Maynooth. The appointments will come into effect on September 8th. Announcing the changes,Archbishop Eamon Martin thanked the priests for their continued ministry and service in the Archdiocese and wishes them well in taking up these new appointments. He also thanked the people of the Archdiocese of Armagh for their ongoing prayers and support of their priests and encouraged them to welcome their new pastors in the coming weeks. Aaron Brady who is charged with the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe A man accused of the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in a shooting in 2013 has been sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court. Aaron Brady, 27, from New Road in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh was served with a book of evidence when he appeared before Judge Victor Blake at Cloverhill District Court last week He had been charged earlier this year with the murder of a member of an Garda Siochana, namely Adrian Donohoe, in the course of his duty at Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co Louth on January 25, 2013. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed trial on indictment. A four-volume book of evidence was served on him in court by Det Sergeant Mark Philips. Judge Blake noted the DPP was requesting that Mr Brady would be returned for trial to the next sitting of the Central Criminal Court on the single charge in the book of evidence. He told him he was sending him forward for trial, in custody, to the next term of the Central Criminal Court which begins in October. Joseph Woods and Katie Bailey who have been invited to meet Pope Francis during his upcoming visit to Ireland Dundalk couple Katie Bailey and Joseph Woods, who got engaged last October, have been invited to meet Pope Francis during his visit to Dublin for the World Meeting of Families next month. They will be among recently engaged and married couples who will have an audience with the Pope in Dublin's Pro Cathedral on the afternoon of August 5th, before His Holiness attends the World Festival of Families in Croke Park. 'I am really looking forward to it,' says Katie, adding that she had been planning to get tickets for the Papal visit before Fr Mark O'Hagan, Adm St Patrick's asked her if she and her fiance would be interested in travelling as part of sixteen couples representing the Archdiocese of Armagh. 'I was planning on getting tickets for the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park when Fr Mark asked if we would be interested in going so I was over the moon,' says Katie. Katie, who is a social care worker at St John of Gods, Drumcar, and fire fighter Joseph are both actively involved in St Patrick's Parish. 'I went to the World Youth Day twice, when it was held in Madrid and Rio de Janeiro,' says twenty-six year old Katie. 'The Pope was at both events to meet the young people but there are thousands and thousands there so you couldn't get anyway close to him.' Katie has also worked as a volunteer in Lourdes and travelled to Calcutta, India, with a group of young people led by Fr Mark when she was just seventeen. She is also a minister of the Eucharist and a liturgical reader in St Patrick's and helps out in the soup kitchen with Joseph. Katie was presented with the Pope John Paul 11 award and the Papal Cross Gold award in recognition of her commitment to faith and community. The couple got engaged last October and are planning to get married next summer. Louth is the luckiest county in Ireland when it comes to Lotto wins Louth has been revealed as the luckiest county in Ireland when it comes to the Lotto. While the Wee County is the smallest in the country it has been the luckiest over the last 30 years when it comes to lotto wins, according to new data from the National Lottery. It boasts the most Lotto millionaires per head of population since the Lotto launched three decades ago, with an incredible 76 Lotto jackpot millionaires. Between them those 76 lucky individuals have won in excess of 89 million. The success rate is 5.9 jackpot winners for every 10,000 people. Second luckiest is Co Donegal which has clocked up 90 jackpot winners in the last 30 years, between them winning 116 million. That works out at 5.65 winners per 10,000 of population. Mayo was third and Dublin fourth with Carlow rounding out the top five. National Lottery CEO, Dermot Griffin said, 'One of the most frequent questions we are asked is what is Ireland's luckiest Lotto county. 'There has always been friendly competition amongst our players all over the country to claim this title, so we are delighted to confirm that using the 2016 Census population figures, Co. Louth is Ireland's luckiest spot.' 'But it is important to note that chance has no memory and playing Lotto is purely a matter of luck, regardless of where you buy your Lotto ticket or where you live. 'Whether it is in Laois, Limerick or Louth, in a shop or online on www.lottery.ie from the comfort of your own home, you have the exact same chance of winning a prize. 'However, our Lotto players in Louth have punched above their weight for the last 30 years with considerably more Lotto millionaires per head of population. Congratulations to the county and all its winners.' Workers at OpenHydro's Greenore plant were left reeling last Thursday when they were told that they were without a job. The devastating news came after the High Court appointed provisional liquidators to OpenHydro Group Ltd. and OpenHydro Technologies following an application by Naval Energies. The court agreed to the appointment after being told that OpenHydro's French parent company Naval Energies, which had invested 260m in the venture, was no longer prepared to support the wave energy enterprises. Ms Justice Caroline Costello was told the OpenHydro Group was 'seriously insolvent' with debts of approximately 280m and needed 1m a week to survive. OpenHydro was founded in 2006 by Dublin chartered accountants Brendan Gilmore and Donal O'Flynn, and was acquired by the French OpenHydro Group Naval Energies in 2013. The French parent company blamed a 'deterioration in the market' and a 'lack of commercial prospects in the long term' for its decision. The decision came as a huge shock to its workforce, including the 70 staff employed in the technical facility in Greenore as well as 30 in its Dublin offices. Michael McAteer and Stephen Tennant of Grant Thornton, who were appointed as joint provisional liquidators met, with the Greenore workers on Thursday afternoon, breaking the bad news that the company is being wound up. Local Green Party councillor Mark Dearey said that the workers have been left 'reeling' after being told that they are without a job when they went into work on Thursday. 'There are no redundancy payments beyond statutory and they have been left very exposed,' he said, calling on the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to take steps so that 'these highly skilled people won't be left without any jobs.' Sinn Fein councillor Antoin Watters said it was 'very disappointing' to see that the operation which had promised so much was being closed. 'It's sad to see that a company which had employed so many people on the peninsula is gone.' He also pointed to the knock-on effects of the closure, as the company did a lot of business through Greenore port as well as for a number of smaller suppliers in the county who have filed for creditor protection. Deputy Peter Fizpatrick stated pledged that 'no stone will be left unturned to find alternative employment for the Open Hydro workers.' Describing the closure as 'sad news', he said his 'heart goes out to the workers and their families at this difficult time.' He had been in contact with his party colleagues, Minister for Employment Affairs & Social Protection, Regina Doherty and Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation, Heather Humphreys. Classic VW Beetles and camper vans will be back on Market Square this Saturday Fans of the iconic VW Beetle and camper vans should head to the Market Square on Saturday afternoon for a fun day out for all the family. This is the third year that a gathering of these distinctive vehicles has been organised by local enthusiasts in conjunction with Dundalk BIDS and it's expected that over twenty cars and camper vans will be on display. While most of the owners will be from the locality, Paul expects others to travel from Dublin or Belfast. 'The Volkswagen takes its name from the German for 'the people's car' as they were meant to be for the average person,' explains Paul. From cars and vans which were designed so that everyone could afford them, they have now become coveted collectors' items. Production of the old VW Beetle ceased in Mexico in 2003, will the last 'Bug' as they are affectionately known, rolling off the line 65 years after its launch and manufacture of the camper van or 'bus' stopped in 2013. The Beetle is instantly recognisable and a 1962 model was the star of 'Herbie: The Love Bug' while a 960 Volkswagen Type 2 featured in the Disney hit 'Cars'. A bright yellow camper van also made a guest appearance in 'Little Miss Sunshine'. 'There are millions of them out there but they are becoming popular with collectors and are becoming expensive so it's not as easy to pick up a bargain as it once was,' explains Paul. Paul is the proud owner of a 1970 cream VW camper bus and the family have travelled all over Ireland in it. They also attend special events for VW enthusiasts such as the Vantastival music and camping festival in Drogheda and the recent Jump Start in Limerick. Owners take great pride in restoring their vehicles and swapping stories. The VW owners will be joined by members of the Andiamo Scooter Club who are celebrating the club's 10th birthday that day. The group of Vespa and Lambretta scooter owners will stop off at The Square en route to Castlebellingham where they are having a birthday party in the brewery tavern. The VWs will be in Market Square, from 12 noon until mid-afternoon and everyone is welcome to go along. 'It's just a laid back gathering, where people can come along and look at these old cars and buses, and chat to the owners,' says Paul. There will be free face painting for the kids too, and Pat O'Shaughnessy from LMFM will be doing an outside broadcast from the event. Six young men from Kilcoole set off for Galway City last Monday to 'Walk for Life' in aid of Pieta House and Feileacain. Pieta House is a suicide support service, while Feileacain is the Stillbirth and Neonatal death association of Ireland. The idea was conceived by Aaron Lennon after he lost his baby son Alex at 20 weeks. The group was delighted that Kilcoole Thrift Shop kicked off their fundraising efforts with a donation of 1,000. 'Both of these charities do a huge amount of work with clients that have been affected by awful suddenness of death and we are delighted to do this walk to raise funds,' said Aaron. After months of training, the men started at Kilcoole Beach, making their way over the Sally Gap to Blessington. They are determined to walk a straight line to Galway and hope to reach their destination by Saturday, August 4. There is a fundraising page at idonate.ie/WOL18. The lantern from the former lightship Alf Skua in its new home on the roundabout at junction 20 of the M11 A new eye catching landmark was installed on the outskirts of Arklow on Friday. The 10 tonne lantern from the former lightship 'Alf Skua' was placed on the roundabout at Junction 20 on the M11 and required two cranes to get it into position. Over the last 18 months Arklow Municipal District (AMD) developed plans to refurbish the lantern and erect it a prominent place within the town. Funding of 28,000 was secured from the Fisheries Local Action Programme (FLAG) 2016-2023 and was matched by Wicklow County Council. The lantern has been extensively refurbished and restored to its former glory. It represents a tribute to the maritime history of Arklow town and will now become a recognisable landmark within the area for locals and visitors alike. AMD Cathaoirleach, Cllr Miriam Murphy, said that she is delighted that the lantern, which will be lit once the electricity supply is connected, now has a permanent home. 'I also wish to thank the following local companies who were engaged by Arklow Municipal District for their help in making this project possible: Arklow Marine Services, Arklow Crane Hire, Hudson Civil Engineering, ASL Safety and Training, Conor Mc Carthy & Associates and CHM Traffic Management.' The lantern served for decades on the former lightship 'ALF Skua' (ARLHS IRE-122) having been based at several stations off the Irish coastline. The lightship 'Skua' was constructed in 1960 by Philip & Sons of Dartmouth for the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL). In 1982 the ship was converted to an unmanned automated lightfloat (ALF). It served alternately on the South Rock (off the coast of Co Down) and Coningbeg (off the coast of Co Waterford) stations, but in later years it was moored at Dun Laoghaire as CIL's reserve light float until Irish Lights sold the lightship to Arklow Shipping Ltd in 2005. Meanwhile, confirmation has also been received from Transport Infrastructure Ireland that they will clean and light up the sand castle sculpture on the slip road of junction 20 in the coming weeks. A feast of food, drink and entertainment will be on offer on Sunday, August 5, as the popular Macreddin Village Food Market returns. Brooklodge and Macreddin Village hosts this event on the first Sunday of every month from March to October and it makes a great day out for food lovers. Macreddin Village provides a great location for Artisan Food Producers and Farm Food Producers to showcase and sell their products to the public. Market-goers will enjoy a wide variety of quality, fresh foods, some live jazz, organic prosecco, creamy pints from Actons Country Pub and much more. Come along and enjoy a great family day out this August bank holiday weekend from noon. For information see www.brooklodge.com Although in excess of 9,000km separates the sandy beaches of Sri Lanka from the rolling hills of Duhallow, romance was the common denominator that prompted Bernie Kearney and Trevor Ashton to celebrate their wedding in the two far apart locations. Last weekend the couple enjoyed a fabulous wedding get together with their families, relatives, neighbours and friends at Bernie's home in Kilbrin. Trevor's family made the journey from Lancaster in north west England to be with the couple for the special occasion. It was a first visit to Ireland for Trevor's parents, Kevin and Angela, who were delighted with the warm welcome they received in Kilbrin and by the beauty of the Irish countryside. Bernie and Trevor work in the construction industry in Australia where they first met shortly after both emigrated to Oz nine years ago. Cupid quickly stepped in and a few months ago the couple fulfilled their dream of getting wed on the beach in the idyllic paradise island of Sri Lanka. The newly weds told The Corkman that the setting fulfilled all of their expectations when they got hitched on April 19. "It was very relaxed, we had a wedding planner who looked after details like the cake, photography and music but it's very laid back compared to weddings in Ireland," Bernie said. Following their beach wedding, they honeymooned for two weeks in Sri Lanka followed by seven more days in the Maldives. The party in Kilbrin was the icing on the cake for the couple when they got to celebrate with their families and friends. Bernie and Trevor head back to Australia next week. Barnardos, the charity which works with more than 15,300 children each year and which has two centres in Cork, needs valuable volunteers for their national collection day. This year their collection day is being supported by Dell and Olympian and World champion Sonia O'Sullivan. The national collection day is asking for volunteers to join an in-store bag pack for two hours and help support them in any way which they can on Friday, September 14. Barnardos seeks to transform the lives of children in Ireland by providing services to help them meet their milestones and get ready for school; by providing family supports to those facing challenges such as poverty and homelessness; and by helping parents to create a better home life for their children. From 8am until 9pm, volunteers are sought for two hour shifts at a number of locations throughout Cork city. At Dunnes in Mallow, Charleville as well as Tesco in Wilton and Ballincollig and Down's Supervalu in Ballincollig are all seeking volunteers to help out for two hour shifts. At the launch of the National Collection Day, Barnardos Ambassador Sonia O'Sullivan said that their day on September 14 "is a fantastic day" that helps the charity ensure they can continue their vital work within communities throughout Cork. Bob Savage, Site Leader, Dell EMC Cork Campus, said: "Last year was the first year for Dell to be an official partner of Barnardos and as a company we were inspired by the impactful work that Barnardos undertook to ensure the wellbeing of children across Ireland". He said their employees in Dublin, Limerick and in Cork are busy planning a series of fundraising events to support Barnardos. To volunteer on Friday 14 September please call 01-7080418. For more information, email buckets@barnardos.ie or visit www.barnardos.ie. Corajio ULC, the Dublin based retail company, has received planning permission from Cork County to change the use of the former John Lane & Sons bed manufacturing unit to a retail complex at Charleville. The new complex will be located at the junction of Broad Street and Baker's Lane, Charleville in an area which was formerly the bed manufacturing facility at the Broad Street side and, in former times in the 19th Century it was the site of a tannery and leather and harness making for the farming sector. The company got permission for the demolition of derelict dwellings, car repair garage, lean-to warehouse extension and ancillary buildings. They propose to change the use of the building from industrial use to retail with ancillary storage use, including elevation alterations and addition of signage. They also propose to widen the existing entrance and provide dished kerb access off Baker's lane, with the relocation of speed ramps on Bakers Lane, the provision of 35 carpark spaces, a new landscaped plaza and all associated site works at Broad Street/Bakers Lane. The company trades as Mr. Price and is the most innovative and rapidly expanding discounted variety retailer in Ireland. They are an Irish owned company and have 42 stores up and down the country with more set to follow. Mr Price sells branded products at low prices - from health and beauty to household, home decor, stationery, arts and crafts, toys and confectionery. Dark and comic tale of recession is local authors first novel Congratulations to Charleville writer Michael Sheehan, who has had his first novel, entitled 'The Sugar Sugar Cafe', published by Dalzell Press, and it is available on Amazon and kindle, for the next year, and thereafter will be available in bookshops all over the country. The novel is a series of interlinking episodes and intertwining stories set in a small town in County Cork. It looks at the lives of ordinary individuals in the dark days after the 2008 financial crash. The action centres on the cafe, a small 'greasy spoon' type in Rathluirc, but encompasses other locations such as Panama and New York, as the story moves from the past to the present, and between comedy and tragedy, and fantasy and grim reality. A bleak yet compelling narrative, told through the alternating perspectives of each of the key characters, hammers home the extent to which, for so many people, daily life is mostly taken up with a gruelling struggle to simply get by, and isolation and frustration are an inevitable part of the everyday routine. This sense of hopelessness is alleviated, however, by many moments of dark humour - and above all, by the rich and often surprising inner lives of these individuals, into which we as readers, are given a privileged glimpse. As the novel progresses, each character reaches their own individual point of crisis. Some will look disaster squarely in the face and manage to sidestep its worst consequences; others will plunge with a kind of fatalistic enthusiasm into fresh setback and new worlds of pain. The common denominator in all of their stories is a realisation that many of the key structures of modern society - family, church, romantic relationships, work, school, the justice system - all the things we are taught to aspire to - are woefully inadequate in helping us navigate the crushing realities of the daily grind. Dark and yet funny, tragic and yet comic, the 'nasty, brutish and short' lives depicted in this compelling novel are rescued from despair by the deep humanity and compassion of the writer who has conceived them. Michael Sheehan (Micheal O'Siochain) was born in Gorey, Co. Wexford in 1962 and grew up in Charleville. He has lived and worked in Barcelona, Laredo, Washington DC and London, and has now returned to his hometown of Charleville. He currently works as a lecturer in accounting in LIT Limerick, and is married with three children. Since 2010, Michael has had numerous short stories short or long-listed for national awards, including the William Trevor award, the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition and the Penguin/RTE short story award. In 2017, he won the Over the Edge short story competition, as well as their New Writer of the Year 2017/8 award. The Sugar Sugar Cafe is Michael's first novel. In addition to the above, his work has either been on the long or short list for the Hennessy New Irish Writing short story competition, the Carried in Waves short story award, the Glimmer Train shorty story competition and the Mercier Press fiction competition. Fond farewell for Fr Naughton A farewell Mass for Reverend Father Tom Naughton, C.C. Charleville was concelebrated by Fr. Naughton, Very Rev. Donal O'Mahony, P.P., and Rev. Fr. Anthony Sheehan in the local Holy Cross Church, to mark his departure from the parish to minister in Mallow. Fr. Naughton was in Charleville for the past six years and during that time he endeared himself to parishioners, who expressed their sadness at his leaving the town. Fr. Naughton thanked the people for their kindness and generosity to him during his time in Charleville, and he said he would remember them in his prayers, even those who disagreed with him. Ms Carmel Hannigan, chairperson of the local Parish Council, made a presentation to him on behalf of the parish, and said that while they regretted his departure, she wished him well in his new parish. "When he first came to town he pledged to visit every house in the parish and it took him three years to complete this task," she said. Very Rev. Donal Canon O'Maohny, P.P. Charleville thanked Fr, Naughton for his contribution to the many organisations in the town during his stay in Charleville, and he applauded his efforts in the parish over the past six years. Fr. Naughton thanked Ms Hannigan for her kind words and Canon O'Mahony, saying it was important to feel appreciated. He got a standing ovation from the congregation. He was noted for his singing at Mass and advised the congregation to keep on singing. He is replaced by Rev. Fr. Anthony Sheehan, C.C., who last ministered in Charleville in 2002. 'Breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck ... looks like we got us a convoy' echoed across Duhallow last weekend for a charity truck run hosted by Millstreet Vintage Club. The truckin' line-up of rigs supported Jacob Nowak, a nine year Millstreet boy who was born without eyes. All types of trucks, classic to modern rigs from across the south west region, came out in support of the initiative, with the spectacle of the assemblage and departure and return of the trucks delighting patrons. Organiser Mike P Kelleher expressed delight at the turn out from the K&L base in Millstreet, with favourable weather adding to the occasion. "We were overwhelmed by the response of so many people, truck drivers and business outlets who came from many areas. The support confirms the popularity of nine year old Jacob, who recently left Millstreet and returned with his parents to their native Poland. We hope that the kindness of the Millstreet people will go a long way in helping them in their new life back home," he said. "Thanks are extended to the excellent K&L facility in addition to the stewards, gardai and the many that worked behind the scenes", said Mike. Given a flashing light escort, the impressive convoy of more than 80 trucks embarked on a picturesque jaunt across Duhallow to the Sandpit House Cross, Ballymaquirke Cross, Kanturk, Newmarket, Boherbue, Kiskeam, Ballydesmond, Knocknagree, Rathmore, Cullen, Derinagree and returning to Millstreet for a barbeque at the K&L base. For decades on end, Egyptian authorities brushed aside the incurable defects in society as being just that: incurable. A glazed jaded attitude accepted these defects as unfixable considering them Egyptian attributes. In other words, no effort was put into resolving these issues. No doubt Egypt suffered and still suffers from some hard core, fossilized conditions restrictive to our social well being and quality of life, and detrimental to our image to visitors and around the world. We all realize these defects and complain about them vehemently, but, since authorities had shrugged these matters off as unsolvable, we also accepted them as a given, an ingrained defective norm in our society. Though a defunct healthcare system, a stagnant education system, unemployment, corruption, and lack of inhabitable housing that led to informal settlements and encroachment on agrarian land are the main culprits, other debilitations have cramped Egypts development, too. Then, after January 25th, some Egyptians perceived freedom as the freedom to do whatever one pleases, that they were beyond reproach, free to act as though they owned the proximity to where they lived in terms of land, buildings, or infrastructure. Lawfulness became a thing of the past, and no act was liable. Today, it is a different story. Egyptian authorities are overcoming these chronic conditions in the hopes of improving what was deemed standard previously. Bribery, embezzlement, extortion, favouritism, and the squandering of billions existed in public services, as a spiralling down endemicsuperiors did it allowing subordinates to follow suit. Today, a nationwide crackdown on corruption is in full swing. Officials, including ministers and governors still in office, are held accountable, detained, and charged. The examples are endless. It began in 2015 when the Agriculture Minister had to resign but was afterwards arrested for receiving bribes and was sentenced to 10 years. In January, 2018, the Menufeya Governor was arrested on corruption charges. This May, four officials including the head of Food Industries Holding Co., a state-run company responsible for importing food commodities and advisor to the Supply Minister, were arrested, for accepting bribes from commodity suppliers. And just this July, the head of Egypts Customs Authority was arrested on corruption charges. In fact, EgyptToday cites the detainment of several officials in ten corruption cases in one week of last November. Encroached upon land is being seized and reclaimed, and buildings going beyond the permissible limit are being demolished. Hopefully, this accountability level will act as a deterrent to others about to perform similar heinous crimes. Informal housing, or ashwayat, had become the dominant feature of the urban sprawl in Cairo and other cities and was considered unfixable and terminal. Overcrowded, crumbling slums endangered the lives of its inhabitants who lived in dwellings unbefitting for humans. Today, authorities have vowed to move all those living in unsafe slums to new apartments. As mere examples, the residents of Doweiqa, Manshiet Nasser, and El Assal, via the Tahya Masr Fund, were rehoused in new apartment buildings, and thousands more apartments are being built to provide decent accommodations for many across the country. What else do Egyptians see as an impediment to the road to recovery? With population growth, lack of sources and provisions, and indifference amalgamated, the public education system taught our youths little, neglected extra curricular activities or teaching the distinction between right and wrong, and left private tutors the task of teaching. Reforming the educational system is a colossal task that has been undertaken head on. This September a new curriculum will be introduced in schools. It does away with memorization; it focuses on critical thinking skills, puts an end to private lessons, focuses on improving teachers working conditions while providing them with the necessary training, and eliminates the Thanaweya el Amma, the high school diploma that terrorizes parents and students alike. We will wait to see the outcome of this initiative, but definitely changes had to be made or else the education system will have remained in the same rut it had been in for decades affecting first the younger generation and ultimately Egypt as a whole in an adversary way. The health system in Egypt is in a dilapidated state, too. Hospitals are unsanitary, unequipped, or appropriately funded; post operative nursing is horrendous and waits at doctors offices are in the hours as many patients pay hundreds of pounds to see a specialist. In another magnanimous effort, a new healthcare insurance law, a massive enterprise, was approved after having been in the works for several decades as no one in power then had the drive or vision to pass it. The new healthcare system aims is to cover 100 percent of the population under one insurance system. It will increase equitable access to high-calibre health services and reduce the medical care burden on Egyptian families at a cost of LE 120 billion. Undoubtedly logistic nightmares will mar the efforts exerted in implementing this massive change, but undoubtedly the end result will create a better and improved healthcare system in Egypt. One other fundamental issue is the lack of work opportunities for the younger generation who end up loitering on streets, sitting at cafes, or doing menial jobs that dont satisfy their needs or fulfill their ambitions. In 2013, the unemployment rate reached 13.4 percent; today, it is at 11 percentthe difference translates to over two million jobs. At the same time these are not governmental jobs that cram personnel in offices where they do very little, but new jobs created in various sectors in all governorates across Egypt, complementing existing and newly developed plants and projects. Much more needs to be done as far as reforming the religious sermon, curbing population growth, easing congestion, and cleaning our cities of the piled garbage, but no one can deny that an extensive effort is directed at many issues that were ignored in the past. All issues may not be resolved, but the change in what used to be the norm is a healthy much needed approach. The inspiring work of a Macroom-based artist has been recognised by judges of one of the continent's most prestigious competitions for up and coming artists. Sarah Roseingrave was honoured at the 2018 Future Makers Awards, one of the largest prize-funded European award programmes for students and emerging artists. A graduate of the Crawford College of Art and Design, completing her degree in Contemporary Art and Design last year, Sarah specialises in a range of different media including glass, ceramics and printmaking. Describing her work, Sarah said she draws her inspiration by exploring themes of abandonment and the hidden "but also resilience and growth". "I begin by exploring deserted spaces, and the objects left behind, be it for sentimental or superstitious reasons. I often photograph windows, perhaps as portals, a potential escape, but also as barriers - the images often evoke isolation," said Sarah. "I am interested in grey areas, the blurred ideas of memory and truth. Layering and obscured imagery are often features. I use layers of printed glass with ceramic slips and glazes over decals to produce cracked imagery and abstract/organic lines to reference a fragmented history. I am creating things that appear damaged - but yet hopeful." It is her ability to use her art to tell a story that impressed Future Maker judges Claudia Casali, the director of International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy and Phillip Hamilton the creative director of Perch Dynamic Solutions. In their citation, they said that Sarah's work "demonstrated an interesting use of glass panels and craft of screen printing assembled in a 3-D perspective, forming a great platform for storytelling." As one of the 22 Irish students, and emerging designers and crafts people honoured under the auspices of Future Makers 2018, Sarah received a certificate and a cheque for 1,000. Kevin Hennessey, chief executive of the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCol) said Sarah and the other award winners demonstrated "traditional and contemporary techniques as well as imagination, innovation and skilful execution". "Investing in the development of the next generation of Ireland's designers and craftspeople through our Future Makers programme is crucial in order to create a pipeline of talent and pave the way for a strong, dynamic and innovative design and craft sector into the future," said Mr Hennessey. "We wish Sarah and all the other winners every success as they establish their careers." The CEO of Amerenco Solar, John Mullins, has said the first of the companys planned Cork solar farms could be operational by the end of next year The head of the Cork-based company planning to build a dozen solar farms across the county, including seven across the north and mid-Cork regions, has said he anticipated the first would-be fully operational by the end of next year. Plans by Amarenco Solar to build the facilities have been in limbo pending the outcome of deliberations on a subsidy scheme for renewable energy. However, news that the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) had been given governmental approval has prompted Amarenco CEO, former Board Gais chief John Mullins, to commit to the commencement of the construction phase for the planned solar farms. The new scheme has been designed to diversify the State's renewable energy production and enhance Ireland's chances of meeting key EU targets. These include that 16 per cent of Ireland's energy needs to come from 'green' sources by 2020. The scheme has also been designed to ensure Ireland's contribution to achieving an EU-wide target of 32 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Under the scheme, which it is proposed will be funded through the Public Service Obligation Levy, regular auctions will be held to allow the State to take advantage of falling technology costs. Subject to EU approval, it is hoped that the first auction will take place around this time next year and will prioritise 'shovel-ready' projects. This will suit Amarenco as the company has already secured planning permission for 11 solar farms in Cork, including two in Castlelyons and at sites in Mallow, Kanturk, Whitechurch, Crookstown and Inniscarra. Each of them will incorporate around 22,200 photovoltaic panels on ground-mounted frames and once operational will generate five-mega-watts of power, enough to power approximately 1,000 homes, which will be fed back into the national grid. Mr Mullins said the announcement by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughton that the scheme had been approved was "very welcome". "It now brings Ireland in line with most other European Union nations in terms of an official recognition of solar energy, which is the fastest growing renewable energy sector on the planet," said Mr Mullins. "Amarenco has been calling for this support for some considerable time, and we will now commence our preparatory work for the installation of solar farms to provide Ireland's electricity grid with much needed clean electricity," he added. It is believed that each solar farm will cost in the region of 7 million to build, with each one creating up to 40 jobs during the construction phase and a number permanent roles once they are up and running. The normal build time for each farm will be three months, with Mr Mullins saying "we expect to see our first one operational by the end of 2019". The Cork network of solar farms is not the only one planned by Amarenco, who aim to have similar facilities operational in Kerry, Waterford, Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny by 2019. The company also operates five huge solar farms in France. Irish Water has urged homes and businesses connected to the Newmarket scheme, which covers Newmarket, Kanturk, Tullylease, Kilbrin and Boherbue, to make "every possible effort" to conserve water, warning that supply to the scheme remains "extremely low" While there has been some small relief from the dry weather this week, Irish Water has warned that water supplies to a key regional scheme covering a vast swathe of Duhallow still remain at critically low levels. The company has urged homes and businesses connected to the Newmarket scheme, which covers Newmarket, Kanturk, Tullylease, Kilbrin and Boherbue, to make "every possible effort" to conserve water, warning that supply to the scheme remains "extremely low". "Demand is exceeding supply and, combined with the extended dry weather period, the sources for the water supply scheme are coming under increasing pressure," said an Irish Water spokesperson. The company said it was working in conjunction with Cork County Council taking measures to alleviate pressure across the scheme through a combination of reducing water demand, closely monitoring supplies and investigating alternative sources. The spokesperson said 'find and fix' crews had been mobilised across the area to identify and repair leaks to the supply system, and large water users were also being requested to reduce consumption where possible. "We are also asking local communities to check for internal leaks and fix any dripping taps or leaking toilets. If people identify leaks they cannot fix themselves, we would ask they contact us so our crews can investigate them," said the spokesperson. "Any measures taken to reduce consumption, no matter how small they may seem, will help in terms of replenishing water supplies." The spokesman said that while the Newmarket supply was particularly badly affected, other schemes across north Cork were also feeling the pinch. "It will take sustained rainfall over many weeks and even months to replenish raw water levels in rivers, lakes and groundwater sources and treated drinking water levels in our storage reservoirs," they warned. "In the meantime we all have a role to play in conserving water. Simple steps like taking a short shower instead of a bath, turning off taps and fixing leaks in outside taps or farm troughs all help to make a difference." Meanwhile, Irish Water has installed a booster pump in Ballyhooly in a bid to address the ongoing issue of low water pressure impacting on many homes in the village. "Water pressure has now been increased, and further improvements are being planned. We would ask customers who still may still have water supply issues, including low pressure, to contact us on 1850 278 278 so we can investigate," said the spokesperson. "We will continue to monitor performance and will complete the assessment for future investment on the network in the autumn." Louth County Council have nominated Collon village to represent Louth in this year's national 'Pride of Place' competition. The competition will involve showcasing the sense of community and civic spirit in the village in a presentation to three judges who will visit the village on 28th August next. The presentation to the judges will involve community groups, local businesses residents associations and other groups and individuals demonstrating how they contribute to the civic pride and sense of 'Pride of Place evident in Collon. The presentation will start at the historic building at Collon Church of Ireland. The judges will then be shown a number of venues in the village and the main presentation and closing ceremony will be at the club house of Mattock Rangers. Dundalk couple Katie Bailey and Joseph Woods, who got engaged last October, have been invited to meet Pope Francis during his visit to Dublin for the World Meeting of Families next month. They will be among recently engaged and married couples who will have an audience with the Pope in Dublin's Pro Cathedral, before His Holiness attends the World Festival of Families in Croke Park. 'I am really looking forward to it,' says Katie, adding that she had been planning to get tickets for the Papal visit before Fr Mark O'Hagan, Adm St Patrick's asked her if she and her fiance would be interested in travelling as part of sixteen couples representing the Archdiocese of Armagh. 'I was planning on getting tickets for the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park when Fr Mark asked if we would be interested in going so I was over the moon,' says Katie. Katie, who is a social care worker at St John of Gods, Drumcar, and fire fighter Joseph are both actively involved in St Patrick's Parish. 'I went to the World Youth Day twice, when it was held in Madrid and Rio de Janeiro,' says twenty-six year old Katie. 'The Pope was at both events to meet the young people but there are thousands and thousands there so you couldn't get anyway close to him.' Katie has also worked as a volunteer in Lourdes and travelled to Calcutta, India, with a group of young people led by Fr Mark when she was just seventeen. She is also a minister of the Eucharist and a liturgical reader in St Patrick's and helps out in the soup kitchen with Joseph. Katie was presented with the Pope John Paul 11 award and the Papal Cross Gold award in recognition of her commitment to faith and community. The couple got engaged last October and are planning to get married next summer. Fianna Fail's Anthony Moore has called for Louth and Meath County Councils to do more to improve access for disabled persons to the counties' beaches. "We are having one of the best summers on record, and we all know that in this weather there's nothing better than going down to the beach and enjoying the sun. Unfortunately, the lack of accessible facilities for wheelchair access to our beaches means that disabled persons or persons with mobility issues cannot enjoy these facilities to the same extent as able-bodied people. This is a breach of their right to equality and flies in the face of Dail Eireann's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last March. 'It's high time that Louth and Meath County Councils made our beaches and open spaces more inclusive. In England, there have been pioneering schemes which include ramps on the sand and availability of special beach wheelchairs. In France, tourist hotspots like Nice have designated areas on the beach for the enjoyment of wheelchair users. There is no reason why we can't do that here so that disabled people can enjoy our natural amenities to the full.' A delegation of US tourists arrived in Bunclody to enjoy all the sights, sounds and entertainment that the annual Streams of Bunclody Festival had to offer. The delegation was led by Mayor Bob Coburn of Muskogee, Oklahoma, who was honoured with a civic reception at Bunclody Golf Club. Mayor Coburn was welcomed by Chairman of the Municipal District Willie Kavanagh who pointed out all that is great about the picturesque border town to his esteemed guest. Mayor Coburn got to hear about how the local community of Bunclody has come together under the umbrella of the Bunclody Town Team to work in partnership with Wexford County Council in order to deliver a range of economic, social and cultural initiatives in the local area. Among the main project which Mayor Coburn learned of were the walking trails and access to recreational activities on the river, activities which it was hoped would peak the interest of his travelling party over the course of their week long stay in the area. Mayor Coburn discussed the similarities with his home city of Muskogee which has a strong rural economy and is also working hard to promote itself as a tourism destination. He said that he saw this visit as the beginning of a new collaborative partnership between the two towns who could work to promote links and exchange information and ideas. He thanked everyone for the wonderful Wexford hospitality before he and his ground enjoyed the official opening of the festival. With the M11 bypass of Enniscorthy said to be well and truly on schedule to open during the summer next year, calls have been made to formulate a proper plan for Oylegate village. Although it has been mooted that eventually the N11 village will also be bypassed, when the new road opens, it will finish just north of Oylegate at Scurlockbush, meaning that traffic coming off the motorway will all filter through the village. Fears have been expressed that this will lead to similar traffic build-ups as those that are currently seen in the likes of Camolin. Fianna Fail TD James Browne has called on Wexford County Council to be proactive and draw up a detailed traffic and community plan for the village as a matter of urgency. 'When the Enniscorthy bypass opens,' he said. 'Oylegate will become the only urban centre between Belfast and Rosslare Europort. The traffic that Ferns, Camolin and Enniscorthy witness every week will instead converge on Oylegate. A traffic and community plan needs to be put in place by the County Council.' Deputy Browne says that the motorway traffic could have a devastating impact on the Oylegate community. 'If lengthy tailbacks become the norm, it will almost certainly cut the Oylegate community in half,' he said. 'Access in and out of the village by local people will become extremely difficult and local businesses may suffer as a result. Equally access the community centre, primary school and the local church will become nightmarish. Wexford County Council needs to engage and consult with the Oylegate community to ensure that this nightmare does not become a reality for Oylegate residents.' There was a real sense of anticipation at Enniscorthy Credit Union on Friday night as organisers and friends of the annual Hope and Dream 10 gathered to announce the figure raised through this year's run. A well-guarded secret, only a small few knew the figure ahead of the night and there was great excitement as the Hope Centre, Wexford Hospice Homecare and Friends of Wexford General Hospital's MRI Now campaign gathered to find out the extent of the vital cash injection they would receive. Race director Michael Jordan spoke of how the event had taken on a life of its own over the years, the first event having come from a small idea back in 2012. 'The lads behind this idea initially could have had no idea what they were beginning,' said Michael. 'They couldn't have foreseen what this would become. It's all down to the good will and support of endless people across county Wexford.' Michael said that sharing the money raised with other charities was a big part of the event's success and that once again the team at Wexford Hospice Homecare were a great fit, as were the MRI Now campaign group. 'The purple and gold colour on the t-shirts was fitting this year, because what we do is local and for the local people of Wexford,' said Michael. 'I think the reason this event has been so successful is that every cent goes to charities locally. Sponsorship is huge in making this happen and covering the cost of one of the biggest events of its type in the South East.' Particular thanks were reserved for his colleague Denise McDonald who he said, once again, had gone above and beyond the call of duty. 'A phenomenal amount of organisation goes into this event,' he said. 'Denise, as always, has asked that I don't mention the tireless work she put in, the countless hours, that we couldn't do it without her and that she was absolutely faultless once again - so I'll obey her wishes and not say,' he laughed. As well as this, Michael expressed his gratitude to each and every one of the 2,229 people who took part in this year's event before a slideshow was shown containing some great photos of this year's event. He spoke of how the event is a real community effort with countless volunteers helping out in the build-up, be it by collecting money and sponsorship cards at The Presentation Centre or out marshalling the route with the help of An Garda Siochana, Enniscorthy Red Cross, Slaney Search & Rescue and Crimewatch. Hope Centre Chairperson Una Doherty said that it was amazing the effort that goes into the event each year. 'I'm delighted to see so many familiar faces once again,' she said. 'It would, however, be remiss of me not to single out two people in particular - Michael Jordan and Denise McDonald. They are huge workers and special thanks is due to them on behalf of everyone. All of the funds raised will be used to maintain the services we have at the professional level that people have come to expect.' Filling in for Chairman Eamonn Mernagh, who couldn't be there on the night, Marie Condon from Wexford Hospice Homecare said: 'The Hospice committee, once again, was thrilled to come on board with Hope & Dream again this year. I can't get over the momentum that this event has gained and the phenomenon it has become. Once again, we'd like to thank Michael, Denise and everyone involved.' Finally, Ciaran Sheridan of the MRI Now campaign once again thanked everyone involved in making the event such a success and said that he hoped that they were only about two weeks away from hitting the figure required for an MRI machine at Wexford General. 'I don't know what's going to happen here or how much has been raised, but I'm pretty sure that this will be the single biggest contribution to our campaign so far,' he said. Finally, the moment of truth arrived and after building the tension slightly, the figure from this year's event was announced as 145,120. This resulted in a wonderful 72,560 for the Hope Centre and 36,280 each for Wexford Hospice Homecare and the MRI Now campaign. The figures showed that, since its inception in 2012, the event has raised a total of 974,013 for local causes, bringing it ever closer to the 1m mark, which will surely be broken at next year's event. Michael also pointed out that more money was due to arrive in matched funding from BNY Mellon which would mean that the event will actually have raised a total in excess of 153,000. Since this money wasn't in the account at the time of the presentation, however, it was not included in the final figure, but is due to arrive in the coming weeks. 'We're over the moon,' said Michael Jordan. 'We're looking forward to doing it all again and we've already set a date for April 7, 2019. 'I think the appetite to do this is certainly still there and we're looking forward to doing it all again. I'd like to thank the board at the Hope Centre for facilitating us and for allowing us to share it with other people and charities.' Michael also made the official announcement on which charities would benefit from the 2019 event. While traditionally, the organisers have changed the second charity every few years, he said that they had found a great fit with the Wexford Hospice Homecare team. 'Every charity out there is worthy of support,' he said. 'But not every charity has that reach right across county Wexford. 'It was a relatively easy decision and next year, the proceeds will be divided with 60% going to the Hope Cancer Support Centre and 40% going to Wexford Hospice Homecare. 'The two charities are linked for obvious reasons and Eamonn (Mernagh) and his team have been fantastic since they came on board. 'Please God we'll have over 2,000 people lining up on the Promenade again on April 7!' The red carpet was rolled out at Enniscorthy Castle recently as a civic reception was hosted for Hungarian Ambassador Mr Istvan S Palffy. Chairman of Enniscorthy Municipal District, Cllr Willie Kavanagh, welcomed Mr Palffy to the castle after he had been brought on a quick tour of the town by County Council Chairman Cllr Keith Doyle. Cllr Kavanagh said it was an absolute pleasure to be able to show the Ambassador around the castle and impressed upon him how the town and district of Enniscorthy is steeped in history. 'As you walk through the building, you will be able to take in the views of our town, the River Slaney and the historically significant Vinegar Hill, the site of the 1798 battle,' he pointed out. The Chairman stated that Enniscorthy is proud of its past and is looking forward to an exciting future. He highlighted the many economic and infrastructure projects planned over the next three years for the town, including the bypass, flood defence scheme, new business park and Templeshannon regeneration project. Mr Palffy said it was an honour to visit Enniscorthy, describing it as a 'beautiful town'. He said he was struck by the heritage and architectural buildings, including the 'majestic' Enniscorthy Castle and vowed to endeavour to strengthen ties of economic co-operation between his home country and County Wexford, the Arts being of particular interest. Enniscorthy Vocational College student Conor Kenny performed a variety of tunes on the tin whistle for the Ambassador, which he greatly enjoyed and he said that he hopes to return to Enniscorthy again soon. A Davidstown woman is hoping to dazzle the judges as she represents Wexford in this year's International Miss Macra Festival over the August bank holiday weekend. Jennifer Whelan of Wilton, Davidstown, is a member of Kilrush/Askamore/Ferns Macra and is looking to flying the flag for the model county as she travels to Tipperary for this year's festival. A clerical worker with An Post, Jennifer will be one of 24 contestants from 20 counties taking part in the competition and hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year's winner Lynsay Hawkes from Tyrone. Jennifer is extremely active in her local club and has been secretary of Ferns Macra for three years. Back in 2016, she even travelled to Norway for the rural youth seminar and she regularly helps out at county level with the Killag show each year. Jennifer will take part in an onstage interview in The Dome at Semple Stadium on the Saturday night, followed by a gala banquet in the Anner Hotel in Thurles on Sunday where the winner will be crowned. She'll have the whole of her home county behind her and everyone is hoping she'll cross the border back to Wexford as Miss Macra 2018! For ticket information, see www.missmacra.com. Local AIB Branch Manager Maree Lyng was re-appointed as President of Enniscorthy Town and District Chamber of commerce for a second term at their recent AGM. She was returned unopposed, as was Vice-President, Slaney Street auctioneer Michael O'Leary. Ms Lyng's re-appointment comes as the Chamber is actively engaged in a number of major developments for the town including the bypass, the Templeshannon regeneration programme, the business and technology park and the flood defence scheme. In her address to the members, Ms. Lyng assured those present of her continued support and leadership for all projects planned and designed for the betterment of Enniscorthy and said the Chamber would continue to use its influence in helping to bring to fruition the work already underway or planned for the town. 'A lot done but more to do' was the theme of President Lyng's address during which she detailed the work of the Chamber over the past 12 months before outlining her vision for the year ahead. It contained any number of achievable objectives, all of which President Lyng was satisfied could and would be achieved with the support and co-operation of members. Two long serving Directors of the Chamber, Dan Kickham, a founding member, and P.J. D'Arcy did not seek re-election to the Board and both were the recipients of warm tributes from Board colleagues and Chamber members. Their replacements are Michael Bennett and Eric Barron, both former Presidents and both of whom were unanimously elected in view of their years of experience as office holders within the Chamber. Recording Secretary Margo Hogan, another long serving member, also stepped down at Wednesday night's annual meeting amid warm tributes from all present and 'her position will be filled by the Board in due course'. A detailed financial report by Company Secretary Eugene Doyle showed the Chamber to be in a sound financial position, thanks, he said, to Chamber Treasurer Connie Doyle whose work in 'keeping the books' was exceptional, he said. Ms. Doyle was returned unopposed as Treasurer for another year, while Sheil-Kinnear Accountants, were re-appointed Auditors. Newly appointed Development Officer, Jimmy Gahan gave a detailed report of his efforts on behalf of the Chamber to date and outlined his plans to improve the profile of the Chamber and its involvement in activities consistent with its image as the representative body of the business community in Enniscorthy. Fingal-based FX Makeup Academy, which has three outlets in the region, has won a number of prestigious industry awards. The Irish Makeup Awards hosted their inaugural awards ceremony in The Crowne Plaza Hotel. FX Makeup Academy was set up in 2015 by Beauty Industry expert Emma Smith, Emma has been in the industry for over 18 years and has worked in many different sectors within this industry from hair to beauty to makeup on tv, fashion shows etc. FX Makeup Academy was crowned Overall Training Academy Of The Year through out all of Ireland. With three of their locations based in Fingal, FX Makeup Academy offer a wide range of Makeup and Beauty Courses with ITEC accreditation. Also on offer is our fun teen bootcamps and workshops teaching people how to apply their own makeup. FXMA offers a fun, relaxed learning environment focusing on a more hands on practical learning experience. FXMA caters for all ages and levels in makeup and beauty and holds a 100% pass rate across all academies. Become a qualified beautician, makeup artist or simply learn how to perfect your own makeup like a pro with Irelands Training Academy of the Year 2018! Visit www.fxmakeupacademy.ie for more information on any of our services in Malahide, Blanchardstown, Balbriggan or Dublin 2. Newbridge House and Park in Donabate is set to host an amazing fun event. The Dublin Glow Neon Run is scheduled to take place on Friday, August 17 at 7pm and it promises to be a great evening for all the family. You can run or walk, whichever you prefer but most find it hard to resist having a little dance at some point! It's a chance to do something together with your family and friends that will never be forgotten. #The Glow Neon Run provides participants with an entertaining way to get healthy and have fun with those you love It is so many fab things all packaged into one night! The Glow Neon Run is an evening fun event that is totally suitable for everyone from children right up. It's a fun event and is totally non-competitive. Each course has been deliberately chosen for its suitability for all entrants, so they are all easy routes, approx. 4-5km and are designed to light up the night with several UV black light glow-zones, upbeat music, and neon participants who are dressed up and ready to have fun. Remember whether you want to RUN, WALK or DANCE your way around, this is the event for you! This run is definitely more about fun that speed! So grab those neon colours and glow sticks and head on down to your nearest event! Have a great time and dance your way to the finish. The event was launched recently and prices are from 9.95 for children and 19.95 for an adult. Family tickets are 49.95 and children under three are free! Online registration is now open at ww.eventbrite.ie/e/glow-neon-run-dublin-tickets-47787638112. Progressive Credit Union continues to great work for charities and has just made another generous donation to the Irish Cancer Society. Progressive Credit Union would like to thank all who supported their recent charity bingo in aid of the Irish Cancer Society. Finian Kilty, Chairman of Progressive Credit Union presented a cheque for 8,000 to Mary Murray from the Irish Cancer Society, which will go towards continued research to help fight and treat cancer. A spokesperson for the local credit union said: 'Thank you all for helping us make this difference and remember by doing business with your local Credit Union you are making a difference to your community.' Find out more about your local PCU by calling 01 8411 348, emailing info@progressivecu.ie or visiting www.progressivecu.ie To find out more about the Irish Cancer Society, and their work and lots of helpful information visit www.cancer.ie Artist and former television presenter, Kevin Sharkey who has made his home in Balbriggan in recent years is launching a bid to become the next President of Ireland and said he wants to become a 'Citizen President'. Two years ago, Kevin talked tot he Fingal Independent about his political ambitions and favoured a run in the General Election or at local elections at that time but now his thoughts are turning to the Phoenix Park. Explaining the switch in his political focus, he told the Fingal Independent: 'I've been giving politics serious consideration for years and I looked really long and hard into the effectiveness of politicians in Ireland -- the way the party system almost suffers individual idealism. 'I concluded that the presidency of Ireland struck me as a much better platform for giving something back in relation to my own personal experiences, and my own personal relationship with Ireland. ' Defining that relationship, he said: 'You have to remember that I was born in 1961 in Dublin. 'My mother was Irish and I was brought up in Killybegs. 'In Killybegs in 1961, I was the only black kid there but what I found as a child, growing up in Killybegs and in rural Ireland, was that instead of being held apart, instead of being ridiculed, instead of being made to feel unwelcome, the community really, really embraced me. 'They accepted me and in many ways, they almost made me feel very welcome and very happy to be with people that had something in their soul and in their core which was kindness and generosity and acceptance.' He said his upbringing gave him a 'real sense of gratitude' to the country and said his run for the presidency was about 'giving back'. Given all of that background, it has surprised many that one of the main platforms of Kevin's politics these days is his call for greater control over immigration in Ireland. Explaining his views on the controversial issue, he said: 'I've gone through places like the UK and I've seem multiculturalism and all kinds of diversity -- all wonderful ideas and in many ways, when they work it is a beautiful thing to witness but when they don't it's scary what happens because you end up with ghettos.' He added that 'the big question is how do you want Ireland to be in 100 years?' Kevin asked: 'Do you want it to still be Ireland or what? When you ask people that question, sometimes they haven't thought about it and I think now is the time to start thinking about that.' The presidential hopeful said: 'When you as an individual, as an Irish citizen, bring up the subject, for example, of immigration, just to bring it up you have people jumping on you and say: 'Oh, you're against immigration.' But nothing could be further from the truth, my father was an immigrant. We need immigration -- it's very important for our hospital, for our workers and all of that but I do think that if we are not mindful of the long-term effects of mass immigration, it could be a problem for us in the future.' Kevin favours the Australian points system and said that system welcome immigrants but says that 'we need them to be in tandem with what's important for our values'. The Balbriggan-based artist said: 'In terms of the presidency, I am very aware that the President has limited powers but however, what he does have a lot of power to do is to open up discussions and debates on topics which people have a lot of difficulty defining. 'So for me, immigration is a very important thing for any country but to manage it well is something that will benefit everybody in the long run -- not just the people who are Irish and who are here, but the people who come. 'I would love people to have the same experience I had growing up in Ireland - it was truly remarkable and yet I know, that as a black man in Ireland, if they don't get this right, it falls on me. It falls on the black people and foreign people who have come here. 'If it becomes a problem, them I and them are seen as part of the problem and I don't what that to happen.' Kevin knows that statements like that one leave him open to charges of racism and it's a charge he rejects completely although he says he recognises the danger of people with racist intent attaching themselves to his campaign. He explained: 'The minute they raise their head, I know who they are because I've spent a lifetime dealing with racism. 'When I talk about racism, I'm talking from 57 years of learning what it is, where it comes from and who engages it.' Kevin added: 'I have had to say to a couple of people, hold on, this is not about hate, this is not about exclusion. It's about acceptance and understanding. As you say, I became aware very early on that there are people out there who want to tie their boat to my mast. 'Out and out racists are abhorrent. They make me sick because what they really do is hate - there's no other word for it.' Asked if his position on immigration denies the kind of warmth and welcome he described having in his childhood in Killybegs, Kevin said: 'The reason I'm speaking out is because I want people who come here from other countries to experience Ireland the way I did. 'But I've seen what happens when the numbers are wrong and they don't have that welcome and they don't have that experience. There are people here who have come from other parts of the world that are more than welcome here. 'We have here in Balbriggan, for example, lots of people from other cultures and they come and they contribute, they educate their children and their children are well behaved. 'That is the way I think it should be and that comes from the gratitude I was talking about but it's not always that way. There are other poor countries that see Ireland as a destination for income and I cannot blame them. 'I might feel the same way if I was coming from a place where there wasn't anything for me. It is far from denying anybody the welcome and experience I had, it's actually to ensure that they get just that.' Kevin said he wants Ireland to stand on its own two feet and set it's own course and favours the country leaving what he called the 'experiment' that is Europe. He said: 'I think we have lost confidence in ourselves. I think we have lost confidence in our ability to lead and make decisions for ourselves.' The aspiring President said to those who doubt Ireland could prosper outside the EU: ' Why not? Where has this low self-esteem come from? I don't think we would suffer, I actually think we would thrive.' Presidential races are notoriously brutal and every skeleton in every candidate's closet can expect an airing but Kevin believed he has an advantage in that regard, in that he has aired most of his in public already. He said: 'If being honest with you and honest with the Irish people costs me this job then so be it. '20 years ago when I was stuck in a foreign country, I had no money and I had no way back. I didn't know what I was going to do and I went to work for an escort agency and in that agency, I was offered money for sex and I accepted it and it was a very, very dark period in my life. But it was one which I felt the need to talk about, to bring forth and to be honest about. 'The reason I mentioned that is because when you are asking people to trust you with one of the most important jobs in the country, it's really important to be open and honest. I think the fact that we all grew up in a culture that was sometimes very secretive and very far from open and honest, I think that's where the maturity I was talking about comes from. You have to own your mistakes. If you learn from them, they are not such bad mistakes. What we forget sometimes is that nobody's perfect but I do think that Irish people have at their core, an understanding that life is not perfect and people are not perfect.' Kevin believes he stands out from other candidates because he is not 'an elite' and not 'connected' and he wants to become a 'Citizen President'. A man who claimed a bag of cocaine that fell out of his pocket in front of gardai was given to him 'to hold' by a man he didn't know and that he made a 'ferocious mistake', a court has heard. Gicusor Danila (48) has been convicted and fined 300 for being in possession of the drug after the presiding judge did not accept his evidence. Danila came to garda attention at the time as he was drunk, unsteady on a his feet and talking to a number of youths, Balbriggan District Court heard. As gardai approached him, a small bag of cocaine, worth 70, fell out of his pocket. He was searched but no other drugs were found on him, the court heard. The defendant, of Dun Saithne, Flemington Lane in Balbriggan pleaded guilty to being in unlawful possession of the cocaine at Castle Mills, Balbriggan on August 23, 2017. He has no previous convictions. Defence barrister Annette Kealy said the father-of-two was standing outside a pub smoking a cigarette when someone asked him to hold the bag of cocaine. 'He foolishly did and realises it was a bad mistake,' said Ms Kealy, adding that the defendant doesn't take any drugs. 'He feels really bad and is worried about the consequences if he gets a drugs conviction. He is essentially a good man and made a ferocious mistake,' she said. Sergeant Darren Farrelly said the excuse that he did not know the man and the man had asked him to hold the drug was not the excuse given to gardai at the time of his arrest. "He had alcohol taken and his judgement was poor,' explained Ms Kealy. Judge Dermot Dempsey called the defendant to the stand to explain why he had the drug. 'It's the truth. He said 'Hold this for me.' I had a few drink. That was a very big mistake for me,' the defendant said. When asked why did he accept the drug, the defendant replied: 'I regret it. I realise I shouldn't have done it. I don't know who he is.' On hearing the evidence Judge Dempsey said he was not accepting it. 'He can live with the consequences. I am not accepting he didn't know the man who handed him a bag of white powder.' Ms Kealy continued to explain the defendant's judgement was cloudy. 'In the overall scheme of things he hasn't come before the courts before. He is doing his best to provide for his family. He is contrite and remorseful and it was a stupid thing to do. He is not proud. He is ashamed,' said Ms Kealy. Reiterating that he is not accepting the defendant's evidence, Judge Dempsey proceeded to convict and fine him 300. He fixed recognisances in the event of an appeal. Local TD and Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Housing Darragh O'Brien TD has called for a review of the Housing Delivery Office. The office was established under Re-Building Ireland in August 2016 to support the accelerated delivery of housing across the social and private sectors. Working with the broader Housing and Planning Divisions in the Department of Housing, other key agencies, local authorities and the construction sector, the aim of the office was to support the roll-out of complex projects, including identifying and resolving barriers to delivery. However, PQ replies have revealed staff shortages and high turnover within the unit undermining its capacity to carry out its role, according to the local TD. Deputy O'Brien said: 'There are currently only three people working in the Housing Delivery Office. 'This is extraordinary considering the huge remit the office currently has. What's even more worrying is the fact that the office has actually lost staff since it was first established two years ago, down from four posts. Many of the original members of staff have left the office since its establishment.' He added: 'The loss of staff and turnover is obviously having an impact on its ability to carry out its work. This means that a critical part of the Re-Building Ireland plan is simply not working. Instead of expanding and building up its experience and expertise it is instead losing staff.' The Fianna Fail TD concluded, saying that the country can simply not afford 'to allow blockages and institutional problems to delay construction in the middle of a housing crisis'. Well over 150 submissions have been filed to Fingal County Council objecting to the location of a new drive-thru fast food restaurant in Skerries with a prominent expert in obesity having his say on the issue. Locals are objecting to the development on a number of grounds from pedestrian and traffic safety but the aspect of the plan that has garnered the most concern is its proximity to a local primary school. The HSE Clinical Lead for Obesity Prof. Donal O'Shea has also made his feelings clear on the issue. Local Green Party representative Joe O'Brien a member of the organising committee against the proposal said that along with more than 150 submissions objecting to the proposal from the community, there was also a petition against the project from the community with over 500 signatures. He said: 'This proposed development is bad one on a variety of clear technical grounds including traffic issues, size of the building and parking spaces. 'There are also serious concerns about littering and anti-social behaviour. At our public meeting in June we asked the Irish Heart Foundation to speak. 'We were particularly concerned about schoolchildren's health considering the proximity of the development to the Skerries Educate Together NS and the growing evidence of the impact of fast food chain marketing on our growing childhood obesity crisis.' HSE Clinical Lead on Obesity Prof Donal O'Shea made his feelings know to the counci on the proposal, saying: 'Ireland has an obesity crisis; a third of our children are overweight and 1 in 10 are obese. 'Carrying excess weight as a child has serious long-term effect on physical and mental health. The determinants of obesity are multiple, but it is preventable if we all work together. Such a development conflicts with the Government's cross departmental Healthy Ireland Framework and the Department of Health's Obesity Policy and Action Plan. 'I ask the Council to show strong leadership in this area and to refuse the planning permission.' Skerries councillor, Cllr Tom O'Leary echoed all the concerns laid out by the community against this proposal and said he is particularly worried about the lack of car parking at the facility which will mean customers who want to sit inside the restaurant crossing an entry point to a busy shopping centre. He said: 'This fast food restaurant has 125 seats over 2 floors and also a takeaway counter and will generate a large amount of pedestrian traffic across and narrow busy junction with no apparent safe dedicated pedestrian access to the Fast Food Restaurant from the dedicated car parking which is located very close to incoming cars to the main shopping centre. It is high risk and unsafe.' The secretary general of the bus driver's union (NBRU) has savaged the new proposals to change Dublin Bus routes, saying that the National Transport Authority (NTA) has simply got the plan 'wrong'. The NBRU secretary general, Dermot O'Leary told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport that 'the NTA have got the BusConnects plan wrong in its attempts to correct perceived problems in the Dublin Bus network'. Anger is bubbling up in communities across Fingal at the proposals which will rob may of our towns of a direct bus service to the city centre, and instead take them to a feeder service from Swords and elsewhere. Hinting at the groundswell of opposition to the plan that is happening in communities like these, Mr O'Leary said: 'First and foremost, members, as professional politicians, should not underestimate the reaction that will ensue from local communities should the plan, as announced, become a reality. No direct buses, isolated communities, and a necessity to use multiple buses to reach destinations that are currently served by one direct bus, are just some of the issues that will play out over the coming weeks and months.' Mr O'Leary said he worried that the glossy presentation of the plan was hiding 'the devil in the detail'. He warned that the voices of people who depend on the Dublin Bus Service needs to be listened to, saying: 'Dismiss the anger from those in society who depend on buses at one's peril.' But the CEO of the NTA, Anne Graham told the same Oireachtas Committee that the changes to the routes will actually bring more people closer to their nearest bus service and that the interchange between routes will be managed to minimise the distance between them. She said the NTA's objective was to 'minimise the distance between the interchange from one service to another. Many of the services will interchange at the same stop'. Local Fianna Fail TD, Darragh O'Brien has said that the large number of people who turned out for his public meeting on the proposed Bus Connects changes to Malahide bus services is proof that there is considerable concern in the local community. Deputy O'Brien was commenting after over 400 local residents packed into the Seabury Parish Centre to raise their concerns about the proposals to buses servicing Seabury and wider Malahide area. The meeting was co-hosted with local Malahide Councillor, Eoghan O'Brien. Deputy OBrien said: 'It's clear from the large number of people who attended the meeting that many local residents have legitimate concerns about how the proposals will affect their local bus services.' He added: 'The fact that over 400 attended on a warm evening in the middle of summer tells its own story. The community values its current bus services, and there is a concern that the proposed changes will lead to a reduction in both frequency and connectivity.' The local TD said that the meeting in Seabury is just the start of a series of public meetings he will host across Fingal to hear concerns of other communities who feel they will be negatively impacted by the proposed changes. He said: 'This is the first in a series of public information meetings that I, and local Fianna Fail councillors, will be hosting throughout Dublin Fingal. 'We need to ensure that there is full public consultation on the proposals, and that local people have the opportunity to raise their concerns about their bus services.' There is huge concern over the proposed changes particularly in north Fingal where the various incarnations of the 33 route will be scrapped and a direct link from these communities to the city centre replaced with a feeder service to Swords. Deputy O'Brien said: 'I am aware that Bus Connects has proposed a number of public consultation meetings for the month of August. I think this is very short-sighted. WE need the maximum number of residents taking part in the process to ensure that as many opinions are taken into account. Based on the feedback from our public meeting, and in addition to feedback from future meetings, I, and the local Fianna Fail organisation, will be compiling all the responses and making a detailed submission. Swords has been named as one of the Dublin Bus transport hubs for the Phoenix Park mass celebrated by Pope Francis on Sunday, August 26. If you have a ticket to attend the Phoenix Park event, you will be able to avail of free public transport in the Greater Dublin Area on the day of the event. Dublin Bus will have 7 dedicated transport hubs, throughout the city, to bring you as close as possible to the Phoenix Park. Regular services from the transport hubs will commence from 08.00am and finish at night. In Swords, the hub service will depart from Swords Business Park and stop at the Pavilions and Airside as well as the National Show Centre before going on to Dublin Airport, Omni Park in Santry, DCU, Finglas Village, and terminating at the Ballyboggan Road. Dublin Bus will complete 400,000 journeys across our full fleet of 1,000 buses. Up to 1,500 drivers and 100 additional support staff will be on duty. Courtown RNLI have issued a major warning for those travelling by water this August bank holiday weekend. Sam Kennedy from Courtown RNLI is urging people to be vigilant and to take care on the water and along the coastline, noting that last August volunteer crew members helped keep a 13-year old girl with suspected spinal injuries afloat for 40 minutes off the coast of Ardamine. The girl, who was wearing a life-jacket and wetsuit, fell off an inflatable donut while was being towed by a jet-ski before the rope caught in the intake pipe which disabled it. Her father swam out to her, and stayed with her until the lifeboat arrived. 'I just want to get the message out there to people with boats and jet skis to please be aware of the dangers,' said Sam. 'Just simply stop and think of your own life that you are putting at risk and those around you.' Sam said if someone sees something out in the water and is unsure if it is someone in danger or not, do not be afraid to pick up the phone and all the RNLI station. 'It is better we go out and not be needed, than unsure and sorry,' he added. The August bank holiday can be an extremely busy time for coastal areas, but Sam said once people are aware and take the right precautions then they should not have a problem. Creagh College will receive 3,000 to support the roll out of new Leaving certificate subjects this September. Computer Science and Physical Education will be on the curriculum for the first time to make sure the education system keeps pace with the changing society and the evolving needs of the economy. Minister Michael D'Arcy said he is delighted that Creagh College in Gorey is taking part in the roll out of the new Leaving Cert subjects. 'Education is vitally important and needs to keep pace with the changing needs of our society,' said Minister D'Arcy. Creagh College will receive 3,000 for Computer Science, and they will also receive a grant for PE based on student participation. The figures will not be available until after September. Minister D'Arcy added the introduction of PE as a full examinable Leaving Certificate subject reflects the priority this government puts on promoting healthy lifestyles and choices. Six healthcare workers are just back from a successful trip to Malawi, where they have been helping advance the work of the Gorey Malawi Health Partnership. Three GPs, a nurse, a pharmacist and a biomedical scientist worked in Mzuzu for one week, the third largest city in Malawi, in two hospitals. Their initial job was to, for the first time in Mzuzu, develop a system to help manage and treat patients with asthma and COPD. Two of the GPs Who took part in the trip , Joe Gallagher and Peter Harrington, are based in The Palms Surgery on The Avenue. The Partnership was formed in May 2016. It links the Palms Surgery with two hospitals in Northern Malawi - Mzuzu Central Hospital and St John's Hospital. In Mzuzu Central Hospital, there are 2,500 people attending with asthma and yet they had no inhalers for nine months of 2017. The healthcare workers educated others and developed systems and processes that would prove sustainable in Malawi. During the week they spent in Mzuzu they worked with their clinical fellows Chikondi, Themba and Hastings and other staff at wards and outpatients to raise awareness about the management of asthma and COPD. Peter Harrington, a GP in the Palms GP Surgery on The Avenue, said they are conscious, now that they are back in Ireland, of the vast distance between them. 'Mobile phones are everywhere in Malawi even though only eight per cent of the population has electricity,' said Peter. 'Using tools such as WhatsApp and Skype, we can deliver educational podcasts, discuss clinical cases and develop education initiative even at a great distance.' The Gorey Malawi Health Partnership is primarily about clinical care, but it is important they ensure they are achieving this in an appropriate and sustainable way. Nurse Sharon Morrow undertook a series of governance and quality improvement workshops with clinical and management staff in Mzuzu. Biomedical Scientist Chris Watson continues to advance the research arm of the work together with their key Malawian partner, laboratory scientist Master Chisale. He will also obtain his MSc this year from UCD following work with their partnership. On returning home, the healthcare workers visited the Irish Ambassador in Lilongwe to discuss their work and future plans which were well received. They met the Ministry of Health in Malawi to discuss how initiatives such as this can be scaled up. Dr Csabe Abel will travel to Malawi in August 2018 to continue the work in person while they continue with web conferences. Mr Harrington said they are also planning to expand on other chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Gorey Malawi Health Partnership would like to thank all of the companies and individuals who were critical to the success of the trip to Mzuzu this summer. Dreams came true and precious memories were made for one Enniscorthy family recently as they travelled to Share a Dream's new Dreamland Fun Centre in Limerick. Sheila Tobin, who suffers from a rare genetic condition called cri du chat syndrome, was over the moon to enjoy all the centre had to offer along with her parents Nancy and Philip and her aunt Sheila. The gang had a great day out and Nancy was full of praise for the service that Share a Dream offer there, saying that it was a great opportunity for whole families, regardless of ability or disability, to play together. 'Sheila just loved every minute of her visit and if I'm honest so did I,' said Nancy. 'From being a princess, a fireman, a doctor, a hairdresser, a pilot, a cafe, a construction worker, a supermarket operator, a banker to the super magic slide... Dreamland is amazing! Sheila had her own 'flying carpet' that brought her to the top of the castle and for the very first time in 21 years, she got to whizz down a slide. It was a truly wonderful experience to see the absolute happiness in her face and fear in mine!' A former winner of Wexford Man of the Year, Share A Dream founder Shay Kinsella made a promise that he would someday build a magic place where all children feel welcome. Now he is delighted to have such a place up and running and to be welcoming people like Sheila and her family. Nancy has encouraged the local community to give what they can to help Shay and his team to continue to raise funds to help other families around the country. All seriously ill and disabled children go free to Dreamland and Share A Dream rely solely on the generosity of the public to keep going. If you could help out by organising a fundraising event or by making a donation, please contact dream@shareadream.ie or call 061 200080. We've reached the halfway point in Conor O'Grady's term as the Siamsa Tire Artist-in-Residence and that seems like a perfect time to sit down and have a chat with the Castlebar native about his time here in Tralee. Now into its second year, the residency program was set up to help provide a great opportunity for visual artists as they get the space and time to develop projects they are working on. Karen Hendy was the inaugural artist last year and this year, after an extensive selection process, Conor delighted to be chosen for the 2018 period. A graduate of Fine Art from the National College from 2006 to 2009 and Dublin Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2013, Conor has seen his work exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions around the country. Conor was first appointed to the role back in May and his term will run right up to the start of Culture Night on September 21 and since then, he has undertaken a number of personal projects designed to connect the town and Siamsa Tire. First and foremost though, what does his role as Artist-in-Residence entail? "They give me a lot of freedom to do my own work and my own projects, but I still do get to do a lot of work that reflects the historical and contemporary use of the building and the site around it," said Conor, speaking to The Kerryman on Monday. "My role is to help and create work in response to the site and to create strong public engagement. I want to help bring people into the centre who might necessarily have come into Siamsa Tire before this to see the exhibitions," he continued. One such plan that Conor has come up with is the idea to hold an open artists talk where lots of different artists from around Tralee and Kerry would be invited into the centre; there, they would discuss his work and some of the different topics that he has researched over the past few months. Conor said that he would encourage anyone who is interested in art to pop into him in the theatre and chat to him about some of his exhibits down there. "I currently have an exhibition in place in the main space in the theatre which is basically objects that I have found in the Town Park. One of the first few days that I was there, I noticed that there was a lot of people using the crowd for let's say, some anti-social behaviour, and so I started to collect some of the things that they were leaving behind," he said. "One of the most fascinating things that I keep finding down there is false nails. I've found maybe 50 of them so far in the last few weeks and these, along with other objects, I've put them all into an exhibition and people can come along and see these in the theatre." "It's an examination of peoples relationship between themselves and the park," he continued. Throughout his residency, Conor said that he has been spending a lot of time engaging with lots of people and areas in the town about some of the artistic rejuvenation that has been taking place. "I've been linking up with the Kerry County Museum as a reference to how I want to exhibit my work and that has been very helpful." The owners of the Maddens coffee house down in Milk Market Lane too, they are trying to bring about a rejuvenation of that area down there so I've been spending a lot of time engaging with the owners there about this," he said. "I love to find group. It can be any sub-group in society and I like to research them through dialogue and my own research on the internet. After this them I like try and find materials or objects in everyday life that I can express their experiences through. That's how I work," he said. If anyone is looking to come in to chat to Conor about any of his exhibits, he is usually available in Siamsa anytime from Tuesdays to Thursdays. "That'd be one of my main focuses, to be available to chat to anyone who pops in, We want to help cultivate that link between the artist and the public," he finished. Anyone to check out more of Conor's work can do so at the 'SiamsaTireResidency2018' Facebook page or by heading over to Conor's own personal Facebook page at 'Conor O'Grady Visual Artist'. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae lashed out at proposals to increase carbon tax which he said only increases financial pressures on ordinary people. The criticism comes in response to John Fitzgerald of the Climate Change Advisory Council, who asked the government to increase carbon tax by as much as 30 a tonne in October's budget - a hike that would see a bag of coal rise by over 1. "How are poor people and families going to survive? Have these people any clue the cost involved for people? We don't have housing for our people, and yet these people are suggesting we raise carbon tax, which would see increases for heating oil, turf, gas and coal. Fair play has to come into it." The deputy added if Ireland was totally compliant, and emissions free, it would only make 0.13 per cent of a difference in the world wide context of reducing carbon emissions. He also argued that since 1850 temperatures in Ireland have only increased by one degree Celsius. Moreover, Deputy Healy-Rae heavily criticised the forthcoming hike in domestic electricity prices, describing it as a way of 'contributing to hardship'. "This is only going to hit ordinary people getting up in the morning, and business people. Do they want people to perish with the cold?" he added. "I've asked in the Dail that the government decrease the tax to minimise the savage increases. Diesel has also risen and this is crippling our haulage operators. I've asked the Taoiseach why he hasn't taken the energy regulator to task. It seems they just won't they won't intervene." Danny Healy-Rae also lambasted the government's 'double speak' when it comes to dairy expansion and reducing methane emission levels. In May of this year the EPA said by 2020 Ireland will only achieve a one per cent reduction on its 2005 emissions, well short of the 20 per cent target. "We were told to increase milk production a few years ago, now they're asking us to reduce numbers. What are they at? You can't increase production without increasing numbers. They're not codding the people," he concluded. The Climate Change Advisory Council believes that by making carbon use costly it would serve as an incentive for homes and businesses to alter their use of carbon. There are few more grateful to be alive today than Glenbeigh native Danny Tim O'Sullivan. Indeed, walking around and meeting the locals was something Danny Tim didn't think was possible over a year ago after he suffered a brain aneurysm while training for the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle. He spent almost four months in hospital with no idea where he was or what had happened. And, to this day, he can't recall this time. "From June 27 to October 1, I don't remember anything. They showed me photos, and I actually said to my wife 'you are an awful woman to put me in here to this place'. I was in an awful state. I came out of hospital in December. I had to learn to walk and talk and eat." It was a disturbing time for Danny Tim, one he still finds difficult to talk about, but he recalls as much as he can with huge emotion, recounting experiences that he felt could be life-changing, if not life-ending. "It was like coming back from the dead," he reveals. Bed-bound in intensive care, news of Danny Tim's condition in June last year sent shock waves across the county. One of the county's best-known sons - both in Kerry and his adopted London - news of his plight was spoken about in many circles. He believes that the huge support he received from both sides of the Irish sea helped him achieve the miraculous recovery he has made today. "I could be in a wheelchair but, thanks be to almighty God, I got wonderful support from the public and the many Masses that were said. "It is great the way I am today. I can remember things that happened 50 years ago, but things that happened last week are more difficult as my short-term memory is affected - but it is coming back. "I want to thank people for the Masses, as their support helped me a lot on both sides of the Irish Sea. I very much appreciate it. I can't thank them all personally, but I am grateful for the support." For Danny Tim, the accident has been a significant turning-point in his life. He didn't know if he would ever get better, and he is most grateful for the fact that he is here today and that he is able to hand over the reins to the next generation. Family is important to him, not least his wife, Sheila, who is from Portmagee but met Danny Tim in London. They have been married for 37 years and she is his stalwart - the woman who was by his side every single day after the aneurysm. "I have a wonderful wife and family. That is what got me through. I was very lucky with the woman I married; she brought me great luck," he says. One of the success stories of the Irish emigration wave of the early 1970s, Danny Tim left Glenbeigh for the UK in January 1971 to work "a campaign" in the Sugar Beet Factory. In total he did six campaigns in the factory, and in between those campaigns, which run from October to February, it was back to working on the construction sites. And that's how he got his lucky break. "I was working for a subcontractor, and he asked me would I take on the job. I was lucky, very lucky I had some great people working for me. You are only as good as your people." From his first contract on Surrey Docks, he later set up his own company, starting with a few hundred staff, eventually expanding to 1,500 across the UK. He went on to work on some of the UK's biggest projects, including many of the major railway and motorway initiatives. The company supplies labour for leading projects, and current projects include Hindley Point oil refinery and the HS2 running from London to Edinburgh, which has led to new offices in Birmingham. He has given hundreds, if not thousands, of fellow Kerrymen and Irishmen a solid start in life when they too crossed the Irish Sea. And says he always tries to ensure that his county and his home place benefits from his success, helping sponsor and support organisations across Kerry that needed and sought his help. He has also helped many Irish organisations in the UK. Chairman of the Kerry Association in London and a former 'Kerry Person of the Year', he says he has been lucky to be able to give back but also admits that hard work, determination and choosing the right staff have played a huge part in success. "It won't happen without making it happen," he says. "You are only as good as your men. I had and have great men behind me." He does have rules for life, and one of them is to be "straight and honest".He believes that helping others will come back to you, and it has in more ways than one. "There was a late friend of mine once that I buried. He didn't have anything, and that evening I got a call to say I got a big contract. I firmly believe that if you give it will come back to you again. If you look after somebody it will come back to you," he said. Danny Tim and Sheila have five children, Daniel, Timothy, Patsy, Caroline and Julie, and three grandchildren - Seamie, Jay and Daniel. Much of his company's new projects are now being overseen by Timothy, who he has handed the reins over to in an increased capacity since his accident. He knows it's the right time to step back and take life a bit easier, and he's now living in Kells in his beloved Kerry, where he plans to spend his time farming and - his real love - meeting people at fairs and events around the county. And next on his agenda is the Puck Fair and the August 15 Fair in Kenmare. "I am 64; I'm happy once I can get up and around and go to the fairs and meet the people and meet the public." And that sums up his attitude - happy to be here and happy to be walking around. A new text alert system has been launched at Tralee which will allow the public to instantly and anonymously alert gardai if they see a crime - be it a public order incident or a robbery in progress. The 'See Something, Say Something' initiative - which embraces know-how from local technology company ZinMobi and Text Republic - has been launched by Tralee Chamber Alliance in partnership with An Garda Siochana. The project, the first of its kind in Ireland, is for members of the public who 'See Something' that might need Garda intervention and to 'Say Something' by texting TRALEE and the incident details to 50555. The free text message will be received by the sergeant on duty and it will be acted upon immediately by local Gardai. Managing Consultant at Tralee Chamber Alliance Ken Tobin explained the thinking behind the initiative. "The findings of our recent brand-development survey confirmed that we all love Tralee and we are proud to live and work in Tralee. But, sometimes, as is the case in every town in the world, there could be a small element who affect how we enjoy it," he said. "We want to send out a message that we won't tolerate anything that impacts on our quality of life. So if you 'See Something', 'Say Something'; text TRALEE and the incident details to 50555. Rather than assuming that someone else will report it, take out your phone, describe what you see and text the details for FREE to 50555," Mr Tobin said. Tralee Chamber Alliance has been working with ZinMobi, a Tralee-based technology company, who have sponsored the development and delivery of the 'See Something, Say Something' campaign. Zinmobi and Text Republic Managing Director Brian Stephenson said the firm was proud to be involved in the roll-out of this new service. "ZinMobi and Text Republic are delighted to be sponsoring the 'See Something, Say Something' campaign in Tralee," he said. "The technology we've built for this initiative uses text messaging, which is ideal as it works on all phones, and it's a technology that everyone is very familiar with. We designed this system with the goal of making it simple, user-friendly and effective, while ensuring the anonymity of the person making the report," Mr Stephenson said. The Valentia Ferry company have rejected Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin's claim that EU state aid rules are preventing the Government from releasing funds to keep the vital service operating. The service - which transports up to 250,000 visitors a year to and from the island - faces closure by 2020 if funding can't be sourced to replace the aging 56-year-old ferry that is currently in use. Valentia Island Ferries have sourced 1 million but needs a further 1.8 million to buy a replacement vessel that would keep the ferry service in operation for another 30 years. Citing state aid rules, the Government and Department of Transport have, thus far, refused to provide funds to help the company bridge the financial gap. In last week's The Kerryman Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Junior Minister at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin said that EU rules on state aid prevented the state from funding a new ferry. Minister Griffin said: "In relation to Valentia Ferry the key challenge for us is we've had numerous meetings with the committee. State aid is the big challenge for us there. We can't find an avenue to legally provide funding to replace the ferry. If you cross the 200k threshold you're into State aid territory; that's the stumbling block and we are trying to find some way of getting around it." The Taoiseach - citing the difference between infrastructure spending and operational subsidies - said funding the ferry could be "a problem" as the state "could be providing state aid to what is essentially a private business." Valentia Island Ferries Co- Director and Manager Richard Foran said he strongly disagrees with the Minister and Taoiseach's take on the situation. Mr Foran told The Kerryman that under Failte Ireland's own funding guidelines 'local infrastructure' projects are exempt from EU rules on state aid for tourism projects. While ports can be funded as 'local infrastructure' tourism projects, boats cannot. That is unless they are deemed as being 'integral' to the project. As such, it would appear that a mechanism does exist to fund the new ferry without contravening EU regulations. Mr Foran said he feels the Government has no interest in keeping the ferry operational. "If there was a real will (to keep it running) they'd find a way," he said. "It's an urban-rural thing. The civil servants in Dublin just don't understand what this means to the area," said Mr Foran. "We get the feeling that the Minister (Transport Minister Shane Ross) just isn't strong enough to deal with the civil servants." Mr Foran also pointed to the provision of state funds to Stobart air - a private company - to subsidise the otherwise financially unviable Kerry Dublin flight route. The example of the similar Stangford Lough ferry in Down, which receives 1.5 million a year in subsidies from the UK Government, was also given. "We're not looking for subsidies, we're looking for a one-off grant. The Strangford ferry gets 1.5 million a year. We only need a single grant of 1.8 million, which could keep the ferry going for the next 30 or 40 years," Mr Foran said. "Over thirty years 1.8 million is nothing," he added. If subsidies were to be provided, both Mr Varadkar and Minister Griffin said that the operation of the ferry service would also have to be put out to tender. Valentia Island Ferries say they would have "absolutely no problem with that". "We don't care who runs it once it's running. All we want is for the ferry to be maintained," said Mr Foran. He added that if the Ferry service ends it will cut out a key part of the 'Skellig Ring' and leave Valentia Island isolated at the end of a 'cul-de-sac'. Mr Foran said research has shown that areas located along loops off main routes typically receive far more visitors than areas which are at the end of a spur and are more awkward to reach. Valentia Island Ferries says it is tired of excuses and it wants the truth. "They're using state aid rules to create a stumbling block. If they don't want to fund the ferry, can't they at least come out and tell us all the truth and not just give us another excuse," Mr Foran said. The Valentia community has gathered to mark the 152nd anniversary of the day the first message was successfully sent along the transatlantic cable from Heart's Content, Newfoundland, to Valentia. The commemoration - organised by the Kerry Amateur Radio Group and the Institution of Engineering and Technology - took place at Valentia Cable Station on Friday and saw the group resend the original message to another amateur radio group at Heart's Content Cable station. The original message was sent from Newfoundland via wired CW Morse code on July 27, 1866. Prior to this, any messages from Europe to the US would have taken at least two weeks to cross the Atlantic by ship The occasion also acknowledged Valentia as a potential World Heritage site due to its importance in telegraph and radio communication and its historical influence on technology. The organisers thanked the Valentia Development Group and the Royal Hotel in Knightstown for their help in facilitating the event. New Ross man Dr James (Jimmy) Walsh, the former deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health who devised the State's policy to combat the Aids epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, has died aged 94. A pioneering doctor, who embraced and espoused the beliefs of the French Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity, through his work and in his life, Dr Walsh died on May 30. Born in Dublin to a Wexford couple on November 21, 1923, Dr Walsh grew up in New Ross. His mother, Ena Warren, was kind and gregarious. According to her grandson Paul Walsh at his grandfather's funeral Mass, she was ecumenically minded, despite a sectarian attack by anti-Treaty forces that forced her from her home at Arnestown. Jimmy's father, James, was a merchant who became active in local politics, promoting social housing and road construction. Dr Walsh's grandfather James was a dispensary doctor who founded a fever hospital and it was he who inspired young Jimmy to take up medicine. In his youth Jimmy accompanied his father to political meetings and torchlight processions of the unemployed, hearing WT Cosgrave and Eamon de Valera address crowds on the burning issues of the day. After boarding with the Vincentians at Castleknock College, in northwest Dublin, Jimmy studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and public health at University College Dublin. In 1953 he met and married Nancy O'Brien from Ferns, a ward sister at Meath Hospital in Dublin. Unable to obtain permanent work, they headed for England. The then fledgling National Health Service, under the Labour minister for health Aneurin Bevan, enabled him to engage in disease eradication and school medicine in Lancashire. Their three children, Paul, Ann and James, were born there. While in St Helens, just outside Liverpool, Nancy developed breast cancer. So they returned to Ireland, where she died in June 1964. Dr Walsh's second wife, Patricia, died in 2005. With the economy's rising tide under Taoiseach Sean Lemass, new job opportunities arose, including his appointment as medical inspector in the Department of Health. In 1968 the Care of the Aged report ended the Poor Law system, with its segregated workhouses. With Prof Geoffrey Burke and others, Dr Walsh founded the faculty of community medicine (now the faculty of public-health medicine) of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1976. They felt it essential to train doctors to meet the changing needs of medicine in the community. He later became dean of the faculty. Next Dr Walsh helped build Cork Regional Hospital, then known as the Wilton Hilton (and now known as Cork University Hospital). This was followed by the replacement, from 1978 to 1983, of Dublin's Jervis Street and Richmond hospitals by Beaumont. Although Dr Walsh retired in November 1988, he continued as an adviser until 1992, the year a national strategy for Aids was finally adopted. His work on infectious diseases brought him in contact with the European Union, which he greatly admired, and he travelled widely in Africa and Turkey for the World Health Organisation. It also brought him up against the Catholic Church hierarchy. As he told the Lindsay tribunal, which was investigating the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C, the use of condoms to prevent the spread of infectious sexual disease was opposed by the Catholic bishops. He also told Judge Alison Lindsay, in 2000, that the Blood Transfusion Service Board failed to withdraw stocks of HIV-infected blood even though he had issued instructions to do so. He insisted that had he been aware of this he would have had no hesitation informing the relevant authorities. In his later career as an innovative public-health specialist he tackled the new threats of legionnaires', Ebola and other transmittable diseases. In all he worked under 14 ministers for health. A lover of theatre and opera, Dr Walsh was amused by the colocation of EU centres for disease control with major opera houses in Berlin, Rome and Paris. He was a keen supporter of Wexford Festival Opera and of horse racing, with membership of the Curragh and Leopardstown courses. Through his stories about his ancestors in the United Irishmen in Wexford in 1798, Dr Walsh passed on to a new generation his appreciation of French republicanism, including to his family in New Ross, where the Walsh name is known to all through the local Walsh doctors practise at Northgate Medical Centre. One of the mourners at Dr Walsh's requiem at the Church of the Three Patrons, in Rathgar in Dublin, was Fr Paul Lavelle, who was previously responsible for the drug-awareness programme of Dublin archdiocese and for ministering during the Aids epidemic. Afterwards, at Brady's carvery in Terenure, the story was told of how on one ecclesiastical occasion Walsh discomforted Bishop Cornelius Lucey of Cork and Ross: rather than kissing his huge episcopal ring, as expected, the unfazed doctor mischievously shook his lordship's hand and pressed his ring into his squeezed knuckles. Dr Walsh is survived by Paul and his wife, Miriam; Ann and James Fergus; James and Judy; and six grandchildren, Isabeal, Paddy, Molly, Deirbhle, Ben and Tu Tuan. New Ross Lions Club collected an eye popping 2,800 glasses in their Recycle for Sight campaign. Lions Club President Petra Curtis said: 'We would like to thank the local community for their donations of spectacles to the Lions Club. An amazing 2,800 pairs of glasses were collected over the past 12 months in locations throughout New Ross.' Ms Curtis said the used or unwanted spectacles will be couriered to England where they get graded and sorted. She said: 'Then on they go to third world and developing countries, where they help improve the lives of people with vision impairments. The glasses can still be donated at any of the following locations: Burke's Chemist, Byrne's Opticians, French's Chemist, Eyecatcher's Opticians, Caroline's Hairdressers & Lawlor's Menswear. With the kind help of these collection points, our local community continues to give to the less fortunate.' Sisters Emer and Lauren Lynch joined forces to raise money for the Rapunzel Foundation, a charity which provides wigs for people suffering from hair loss. Our Lady of Lourdes student Emer, 17, came up with the idea after hearing about other girls donating their hair. Inspired by her sister, Lauren, 10, who attends St Joseph's NS in Clonard, Wexford, said she would also donate her hair. Supported by their principals and teachers, the Lynch girls of Clonleigh, Palace, raised 340 within a short space of time. They travelled together to Anna Furlong's hair salon in New Ross where they were treated like royalty and given new hair dos. Emer said: 'I just wanted to give something back to people who are suffering from cancer and hair loss. We want to thank everyone who supported us. To be honest I was glad to have it cut as I had been growing it for some time. It was all worthwhile and people have said they like our new hair styles.' The launch of the 2018 New Ross & District, Business & Community Awards took place at a barbecue at Creacon Wellness Retreat on Friday night which was attended by a large group of businesspeople and community group representatives. Now in their eleventh year, the awards are firmly established on the business community's calendar, attracting more than 75 entries in 2017. The New Ross Standard are media sponsors of the awards which provide business and community groups in the town and district an opportunity to share their inspiring stories and showcase achievements, within the spheres of business and the community. Speaking on the night, Chamber president Jonathan Keenan welcomed everyone to Creacon Wellness Retreat where a spread of barbecue food was laid on. Mr Keenan said the Chamber awards raise the profile of businesses, companies and community groups in the area. 'They are doing their bit to make New Ross shine.' He encouraged people to make awards submissions early as the deadline is September 14, adding: 'I think the awards are a great way of keeping our business community strong.' This year a total of 13 award categories were announced. These include some firm favourites such as 'New Start Up Business Award', 'Small Business of the Year Award', 'Community & Social Enterprise Award', 'Professional Services Award', 'Social Media Award' and 'New Ross & District Person of the Year Award.' The hotly contested 'Business Woman of the Year Award' and 'Sports Club of the Year Award' feature for the third consecutive year with the addition of a new category 'Best in Health, Fitness & Wellbeing Award'. Speaking on behalf of Wexford County Council, this year's title award sponsor, Ms Carolyne Godkin Economic Development Officer said: 'As your county council we are delighted to be part of the awards. The New Ross Chamber awards nights are always fantastic events for local businesspeople. I want to compliment the organisers and everyone involved in coordinating them.' Everyone enjoyed the food, refreshments and some excellent music and looked forward to the awards this October. The awards are free to enter and applications are now open. Business and community groups across the town and district will have until September 14 to get their entries in. This year's awards will also be supported by the Brandon House Hotel and world renowned crystal sculptor Fred Curtis, from Carrig on Bannow, who has once again designed this year's awards for the lucky winners. Award category sponsors include AIB Bank New Ross, Wexford Local Enterprise Office, Guardian Fire & Safety, Creacon Wellness Retreat, Lake Region Medical (Integer). New sponsors this year are Kennedy Boutique Hotel, Permanent TSB New Ross, BOI New Ross, and Wexford Local Development. There are still some sponsorship opportunities available and those interested are asked to contact Teresa Delaney on 051 425077. A full list of award categories, criteria and application forms, can be found at www.newrosschamber.ie or by contacting the Chamber office. Winners will be announced at a gala awards ceremony on Saturday, October 20, in the Brandon House Hotel. One of Ireland's most famous ham companies has joined forces with Wexford Home Preserves in their new range. New Ross based company Wexford Home Preserves provides a whiskey marmalade glaze for the award winning ham. Among the other new flavoured hams are Twice Turf Smoked and Black Pudding Spiced. The award-winning Wexford jam and glaze company, based at the Waterford Road Business Park just outside New Ross, has won numerous awards in recent years and sells to multiples across the country. Commenting on the partnership with Brady Family, Laura Sinnott, owner at Wexford Home Preserves, said: 'We are delighted to partner with Brady Family in this innovative and uniquely Irish take on sliced cooked ham. We hope that customers enjoy the fabulous fusion of our handmade Irish Whiskey Marmalade with the authentic Irish taste of Brady Family Ham. We source the best quality ingredients as locally as possible and take our recipe inspiration from time-tested tradition.' Emergency works have been carried out on an 180-year-old shop premises in New Ross which partially collapsed. The back wall of the four-storey Harney's shoe shop on John Street, which has been closed for several years, collapsed at around 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 17. Wexford County Council were notified the following morning and officials visited the site. Demolition workers have been dismantling sections of the structure, which was described as dangerous. Senior Executive Engineer Daniel McCartan said the entire rear wall collapsed, adding that he had not witnessed anything on that scale before in New Ross. He said the immediate concern was for a three storey vacated building adjoining 'Harney's' to the north. 'It is a storey lower and there was potential for damage after the collapse.' He advised that the owners were contacted immediately and advised of the situation. He said there was no obvious evidence of damage to that building from the collapse, but stressed that access to Harney's was still very limited and detailed structural assessment cannot be completed until the collapsed building is stabilized. Dating from 1840, Harney's was a shoe shop for many years run by the late Jim Harney from 1966. He leased the building and Wexford County Council are currently trying to find the property's owner. The building is listed as a protected structure and is one of Ireland's national heritage buildings. Mr McCartan said Wexford County Council came in to the site under the Dangerous Structures regulations. 'We had to intervene immediately to make the structure safe. We took immediate action and organised a suitable structural engineer and contractor.' John Creed Assoc and Mythen Construction were hired and they brought in a specialist demolition expert. 'The priority for us was to make the building safe, we are still in the process of getting it to that point,' Mr McCartan said. 'We are getting it to the point where it is stable in the short to medium term. We will then look at options. We are doing stabilization works at the minute and as access improves we are developing a number of options for a long term solution.' A crane had to be stationed on John Street for most of last week to enable workers to gain access to the upper rear section of the building. This was deemed unstable and had to be removed before any works could be completed below. There have been traffic delays and diversions due to the building works, which will continue this week. Mr McCartan said: 'It has to be assessed as they do the work. We are having to develop our procedures as we go. Wexford County Council are doing the works in the interest of public safety and we are doing all we can to minimise disruption and risk. The businesses on John Street have stayed open and access to John Street has been maintained. For example, John Street car park and the medical centre are accessible to vehicles. You can still access North Street and down to the quay. We only really closed the road locally and traffic travelling to Waterford was diverted along the ring road.' He said Wexford County Council will do everything it can to ensure the best possible long term solution for the building in the interests of John Street and New Ross Centre. All efforts will be made to maintain the architectural heritage of the street but it was stressed that the priority for Wexford County Council was public safety. The Office of Public Works has announced that President Michael D Higgins will be the guest of honour and keynote speaker at a special dinner to mark the 50th Anniversary year of the JFK Memorial Park and Arboretum at New Ross on Saturday, September 8. The special dinner will also mark the end of this year's Kennedy Summer School. President Eamonn De Valera officially opened the JFK Memorial Park and Arboretum near New Ross in May 1968. To mark this 50th anniversary year, the Office of Public Works will present a day of unique tours, talks, workshops and special events at the park on Saturday, September 8. The day will conclude with the gala dinner at the JFK Memorial Park & Arboretum Marquee to celebrate this important milestone for the arboretum and to mark the close of the 2018 summer school. The dinner will be preceded by a formal tree planting and the launch of a new commissioned guide for the Arboretum. Commenting on the announcement Commissioner of the Office of Public Works John McMahon said, We are delighted to partner with the JFK Summer School to celebrate such a significant milestone for the JFK Memorial Park and Arboretum. We are honoured that President Michael D Higgins can join us at what promises to be a wonderful conclusion to a thought provoking and stimulating few days. Welcoming the announcement of the Presidents visit Mr William Keithy, Chair of the Kennedy Summer School said: The Kennedy Summer School has grown from strength to strength each year and it is indeed a great honour on the occasion of our sixth annual summer school weekend to have the President of Ireland participating in our closing event. It will be a wonderful occasion to mark the 50thAnniversary of JFK Memorial Park and Arboretum and a great testament to the work of all who are involved in re-enforcing links between the Kennedy family heritage and the local area. President Higgins will get a very warm New Ross welcome A number of tickets for the 50th Anniversary Dinner and for other Summer School events are still available at St Michaels Theatre and at kennedysummerschool.ie Five secondary schools in County Wexford are to receive grants in support of the roll-out of new Leaving Certificate subjects in September when Physical Education and Computer Science will be on the curriculum for the first time. The schools due to receive funding include: Colaiste Bride (Enniscorthy), St Mary's Secondary School (New Ross), Creagh College (Gorey), St Mary's CBS (Enniscorthy) and the Presentation Secondary School (Wexford). Around the country 64 schools will receive grants from the Department of Education and the size of the funding allocated to each will be dependant on the number of students involved. Computer Science will be introduced as a leaving cert subject in two schools: St Mary's CBS in Enniscorthy and Creagh College in Gorey. Speaking about the allocation Minister Paul Kehoe said the Wexford schools will receive 3,000. 'The introduction of Physical Education as a full examinable Leaving Certificate subject reflects the priority this Government puts on promoting healthy lifestyles,' he said. He added that the introduction of Computer Science is aimed making Ireland a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) leader in Europe. A man from the New Ross area was arrested by specialist firearms officers after a high-speed motorway chase in Northern Ireland on Thursday night. Fionin Killian, along with Mark McPhillips and Sean Rooney were arrested on the M2 in Belfast. The trio appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on Saturday on a series of drugs charges as a result of searches following the operation and have been accused of running a cocaine factory. A police officer told the court that at around 11 p.m. on Thursday a Vauxhall car with three men inside was stopped at Fortwilliam roundabout in the north of the city. Rooney was driving the car, with McPhillips sitting in the passenger seat and Killian in the back of the vehicle. The officer said when McPhillips (39) was asked to get out of the vehicle. He failed to comply with instructions and an officer used a stun gun to subdue him. A search of the car revealed a small amount of cocaine and seven tablets of the opium-based painkiller trapentadol, the court heard. A list of what the officer said seemed to be drugs payments and five mobile phones were also discovered in the car. The officer explained that three searches were carried out the following morning at McPhillips' house in Holywood, County Down, Rooney's home in Oceanic Avenue in north Belfast, and at an industrial unit in Ballymena. In the lock-up police found scales, a cocaine press with some white powder on it and 10 one kilogram bags of what they suspect is a mixing agent along with 160 grams of suspected high purity cocaine and around 100 diazepam tablets, the court heard. The officer said it is the police case that it is a facility for producing cocaine, with forensic tests on the substances under way. Further searches were carried out on a Ford Transit van parked outside which revealed a small amount of herbal cannabis. McPhillips was charged with nine offences including possession of cocaine, conspiring with others to supply cocaine and possession of criminal property. Rooney faces nine charges which include possession of cocaine with intent to supply and conspiring with others to supply cocaine. Killian (22) from the Graiguenamanagh area, was charged with possession of cocaine and possession of trapentadol. Under questioning, Rooney (39) told police that they had been to Dublin that day and were heading to Derry, but came off the motorway in Belfast to buy cocaine. He later said they were going to the lock-up to get two grams of cocaine. A search of Rooney's house turned up a small amount of cannabis, 1,300 in cash and a passport in McPhillips' name. Rooney told police the money belonged to McPhillips. The officer told the court that Killian did not answer any questions during interview at Musgrave police station. Objecting to them being released on bail, the officer said there was a risk they might reoffend given the substantial amount of money the men owed as part of the alleged drugs factory operation. Rooney's solicitor told the court that he denied being part of a criminal gang and said he had no drugs offences on his record. He said there was no issue of Killian contacting the other two men, as he is planning to return to his native County Kilkenny. No bail application was made for McPhillips, but his solicitor told the court that Killian was his son and he had no knowledge of his father's alleged drugs operation. District Judge Harry McKibben refused bail for Rooney, but granted bail for Killian with a surety of 500. All three are due to appear in court again on August 23. Political pundit, Noel Whelan, from Ballycullane, has ruled himself out of running for the presidency, saying going up against an incumbent like Michael D Higgins swayed him against the tilt. Mr Whelan, 49, strongly considered running for the role of president of Ireland earlier this year and again after Michael D Higgins declared his intention to retain his position in Aras an Uachtarain, for which he is paid 250,000 a year. Mr Whelan, who takes silks in August having worked as a barrister for 19 years, said he believed he could re-purpose the role of president to champion the rights of people on the fringes of society. 'Myself and a group of people who worked on the referendum campaigns had been looking at this in January and February. After several weeks we decided we wouldn't seek to mount a campaign.' When Michael D announced his intention to run in late June, and with no Fianna Fail or Fine Gael candidate declared, Mr Whelan and his team reconsidered running. 'Given my own background and my family's background in politics and my own connections with my brother I knew I would have had an opportunity to get a nomination through a council ballot paper.' He said having assessed his chances all indications were that Michael D Higgins would get re-elected in a 'one horse race', adding that he did not want to waste the time of his family and campaign team on a presidential campaign. Mr Whelan said he felt he would have been very suited to the role. 'I have watched the political system since I was a teenager and have been active in politics, having run for the General Election in 1997. I have been a political campaigner and was an advocate on European affairs in Government for a peroid and I have spent 20 years practising criminal and constitutional law. As president you can do an awful lot of things and have a big impact on people's lives.' The family man said: 'There is a task in persuading people you are qualified for any job. Sometimes people can pigeon-hole you. I am from a family of 12 and if I didn't have a strong work ethic and if I didn't have the courage to put myself in a position to do these things in politics, or otherwise, I wouldn't have considered running. At the end of the day everyone has to be able to think of themselves as being capable of reaching the heights that they can reach.' He is not ruling out running in the 2025 Presidential elections, saying: 'Seven years is a long time in politics: who knows? I have no other immediate plans to get involved in politics.' Children and adolescents in County Wexford will have to continue to endure 34 month waiting lists as the Government refuses to place mental health on a par with physical health. This is the view of Fianna Fail spokesperson on mental health James Browne, who has supported outgoing consultant paediatric psychiatrist Dr Kevin Moore's call for radical action in the Dail on the matter. Deputy Browne said children and teenagers present to psychiatrists and psychologists for help due to a variety of reasons, adding that the county's child and adolescent mental health service is meant to be for children who have a mental illness, as distinct from a youth who is going through a crisis in his or her life. 'You can have a child whose parents have broken up. They might need a little counselling. You need someone to carry out an assessment as you can have people who are not talking about being suicidal but who could seriously do it.' He said the 10 per cent of most acute cases should be seen by the team at Slaney House. 'The problem remains that there is a 34 month waiting list and the psychiatrist and his team is still not seeing urgent cases. What happens when someone suffers a bereavement and they need counselling but nothing is available for 34 months. They become more and more depressed and the issues escalate and then you have a child who has developed an actual psychiatric condition and I have seen that happen.' Deputy Browne said children should never be placed in adult psychiatric wards. He said parents are left in an invidious position where they are trying to safeguard their son or daughter and cannot mind them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so they are left with no option but to bring them to Dublin or Waterford for treatment in an adult ward. 'There are 44 adult beds in Waterford, but that unit should only be for people who need acute attention but because there are no long stay beds available anywhere in the region they end up staying for two weeks or more. What there should be is a no wrong door policy.' Deputy Browne said far too many inappropriate referrals were made to Dr Moore of autistic children. 'They should be going to the disabilities department and diagnoses should be made earlier. I am dealing with distraught parents every day and they are so frustrated that they are at their wits' end as they can't get access into the services or to information about their son or daughter either. I have seen their mental well-being deteriorate because they can't get the support they need for their child.' He said a 55m extra allocation to the mental health service this October agreed under the Confidence & Supply Agreement will help, but nobody knows, or will say, exactly where will benefit from the funding. When asked if the south east region and, particularly County Wexford, will benefit, Deputy Browne said: 'I would hope so. Getting the money is one thing but we don't know how it is being spent.' Deputy Browne, who is a barrister at law, said he does not think a referendum - as suggested by Dr Moore in this newspaper last week - is the correct mechanism to force the Government to resource and fund mental health services throughout the country. 'I do think something radical is needed. I agree with the sentiment but we have a Government there and there is a minister and if they were doing their job we wouldn't need radical action. 'I have my mental health party bill 2018 which states that mental health should be treated on a par with physical health and the government won't agree to it. That doesn't mean having mental health funded cent for cent. I do think young people get the importance of mental health but I think there area lot of senior people in our mental health services that don't give it the same respect. I think there is still a stigma there unfortunately, and a lack of respect for it. We have shown in our cancer, stroke and cardiac care, (with the exception of Waterford), that we can provide excellent services when we want to. I give the example of the child being treated with a plaster paras for a broken arm. You don't stop half way through, you complete the procedure. ' Criticising the government's inaction in appointing a Digital Safety Commissioner, Deputy Browne said preventative and not reactive policies are needed if Ireland's mental health crisis is to be tackled. 'Children are being exposed to hardcore porn and extreme violence; all sorts and they are not being prepared at school by targeting building resilience for what is out there. This is why more and more children are presenting with severe anxiety. 'I know of one example of a young woman who was self harming because of what she was seeing on Instagram. I have a concern that we are spending 400m on anti depressants and 10m on counselling services.' He said medication does have an important role to play, but so does the support network team and counsellor services. 'The balance is not right and we need to intervene a lot earlier,' Deputy Browne said. Cllr Johnny Mythen said the past few weeks have been sad for families and children in the county who are suffering from mental illness, following the departure of Dr Kieran Moore. 'I wish him well in his new post. Wexford now has no clinical child psychiatrist at a time when we have the worst ever crisis with children's mental health.' Cllr. Mythen was speaking after he and fellow Sinn Fein councillors attended protests at Slaney House in Wexford. 'Please God, Dr Moore's departure will serve as a wake-up call to a government who seemingly couldn't care less when it comes to the mental health of our children. I fully support Dr Moore's call for An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar to apologise that this so-called progressive, tolerant and liberal society in the year 2018 is still locking up children in adult psychiatric wards. I also agree that we really do need a Bill to make this inhumane practise illegal.' Cllr Mythen said: 'We need to now move forward on an honest basis with the way statistics are being presented. Mental Health Minister Jim Daly claims that there is only one child waiting over 12 months on one particular psychiatric list. However, the painful reality is that there are 203 children and adolescents still waiting to even access Psychological services in County Wexford, as well as an indeterminate number - most likely hundreds - waiting to access Autism services. 'The psychological service needs an estimated 30 staff. We need immediate action from the Minister and An Taoiseach - not more talk and spin-doctoring with figures.' Wexford's Art in the Open is in full swing with up to 200 artists enjoying paint-outs this week in some of the county's most impressive locations. Today (Tuesday), Artramon House and Farm in Crossabeg is the star of the show as participating painters gather there with their brushes and easels, while tommorrow (Wednesday) it will be the turn of Clonegal and Huntington Castle to pose, followed on Thursday by Rosslare safe and harbour and on Friday by Bunclody while Wexford town and Duncannon beach and fort were the paint-out locations during the first few days of this year's Plein Air festival. A nocturne or night-time painting session is planned on Thursday, August 2, on the quayside in Wexford. The popular annual Charity Quick Draw in aid of Cottage Autism Network will take place in the Bullring, Wexford on Saturday, August 4, from 2 to 4 p.m. The official opening of the gala exhibition featuring selected works by the artists will be officially opened in Greenacres Gallery in Selskar on Sunday, August 5, at 3 p.m. The exhibition will continue on Monday, August 6. Prizes totalling 5,000 will be awarded for the best works in various categories with one award providing for the purchase of a selected painting for the Mayoral Collection of Wexford County Council. The 11th Art in the Open festival will sign off with a paint-out in Merrion Square in Dublin on Tuesday, August 7, as the artists make a special visit to the National Gallery of Ireland to take in the Roderic O' Connor exhibition. In 1996, when a fresh-faced, 30-something Tom Cruise accepted his mission to revamp the classic 1960s TV series, it's unlikely he envisioned that he would still be breaking sweat as gung-ho IMF agent Ethan Hunt more than two decades later. Life is full of surprises and few are as sweet or exhilarating as Mission: Impossible - Fallout. The sixth and arguably best instalment of the globe-trotting franchise welcomes back writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, Oscar-winning screenwriter of the Usual Suspects, for a suspenseful thriller that unravels tangled narrative threads from the 2015 film, Rogue Nation. While other blockbusters rely heavily on digital trickery, Fallout places its most expensive special effect, its leading man, in almost every adrenaline-pumping shot. Cruise performs his own death-defying stunts including riding a motorcycle without a helmet at high speed against the flow of traffic around the Arc de Triomphe, piloting a helicopter during a stomach-churning 360 degree downward spiral, and freefall jumping at 25,000 feet from an aircraft travelling at 165mph. McQuarrie keeps the camera as close as possible to Cruise so we can appreciate every straining sinewy and split-second decision between life and horrific injury, including a leap between buildings during a climatic chase high above the streets of London, which resulted in the Hollywood star breaking his ankle. The wince-inducing aftermath of that bone-crunching jump makes the final cut. IMFs communications might self-destruct after five seconds but Cruise grimly and gallantly endures. Hunt receives word from his superiors at Impossible Missions Force that the terrorist network fronted by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who is behind bars, is poised to take delivery of stolen plutonium. The sale is being brokered by a black market arms dealer called the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) and Hunt must infiltrate the exchange to prevent the payload falling into hands of Lane's disciples, who intend to detonate portable nuclear devices in Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca. Fellow IMF operatives Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) join the mission, overseen by boss Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin). However, the team's movements are closely monitored by hulking CIA operative August Walker (Henry Cavill). He has been instructed by his boss, Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett), to terminate Hunt if the plan goes sour. A deadly game of cat and mouse is complicated when undercover MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) resurfaces with her own agenda. Mission: Impossible - Fallout is turbo-charged by Cruise's boundless energy and a script peppered with double-crosses and shadowy ulterior motives. 'The IMF is Halloween - a team of grown men in rubber masks playing trick or treat,' snarls Bassett's CIA director. McQuarrie's film has plenty of narrative tricks up its sleeve and treats us to brilliantly choreographed action sequences that quicken the pulse. Summer has arrived with a crash, boom, bang. Irish Rail is urging people hoping to travel to see the Pope at the end of August to book their seats now. Demand for train seats is expected to be unprecedented, with gardai and National Transport Authority advising people to use public transport for their journeys to Dublin or Knock. Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny says nobody will be allowed get on a train on Sunday, August 26th unless they have a ticket or a reservation, something that will also apply to the Sligo/Dublin line. The NTA has put in place a robust transport plan to cater for everyone attending the event from across the island. Those with a ticket to see the pope will travel free on all public transport. It's been a long time coming but after planning delays of three years, the 'Surfing Centre of Excellence' in Strandhill has finally got the green light to go ahead. The state-of-the-art building will be situated at the 'Four Winds' site along the seafront next to Shells cafe. Sligo County Council has just submitted a funding application to Failte Ireland for almost 1m to fund the 1.27m development. The Four Winds site is owned by the Walton Family who run the popular Voya Seaweed baths from the council owned building next door. Voya's Neil Walton explained that they will effectively be doing a 'straight swap' with the council and donating 200k on top of that to the community centre project. "There will be a swap of locations. We will be giving a cash donation of 200k on top of that as part of the deal and we get to keep this building which is owned by the council. We plan to do a major extension and renovation project here," he said. "There was two objections to the plans for the interpretative centre from a local business to the council and An Bord Pleanala but they were overturned," said Neil who is delighted that the major project looks set to start soon. He said: "There is so much positive good will towards this. The whole community has got behind this, the local clubs, surfing fraternity and Strand Celtic. I'm overwhelmed with the positivity from local people." The multi-purpose space will be state of the art and building with changing facilities, retail units and will incorporate an international surfing centre. It will be called The Surfing Centre of Excellence. Sligo County Council is project managing the development. The council is seeking 956k in Failte Ireland funding. Sinn Fein Councillor Chris MacManus has welcomed the latest move: "This is great news for the community, not only from the continued potential for tourism growth, but also as Strandhill is the largest village in the County with no dedicated community centre. "For too long the community has watched as the village has grown but no community centre has been provided to match the rising population. Further, a state-of the-art surf centre facility, will enhance the tourism potential for the area as a key piece of infrastructure along the Wild Atlantic Way." Referring to the ongoing delays Cllr McManus said: "There was some concern in the community that the process had stalled over recent months." The President of Tubbercurry Chamber of Commerce is calling on the Government to provide adequate training for any Basta Parsons Ltd staff who may lose their jobs as a result of the firm going into examinership. The firm's woes were raised at last Wednesday's meeting of Tubbercurry Chamber of Commerce where local businesses expressed their concern and support for Basta. "I'm sure some of the staff are older people - will there be re-training for them? Will that be accessible here? We're always have to leave town for training," she said. "It would be nice to help them progress their careers. The Government just seems to be funding just a little bit of training and leaving it at that. We need more training and more apprenticeships and not just in manufacturing," she said. "There's great concern locally about it. It has a long history here in Tubbercurry since it was started 62 years ago," said President Geraldine Brennan. "Everyone is put out about it, both businesses and community people. They've employed whole families, mums, dads and kids have got jobs out of it," she said. "It's part of what Tubbercurry is renowned for - toolmaking. It would have started off many a young person's career," she said. "All we can do is offer our support and best wishes that they get through it," said President Geraldine Brennan. The Chamber has sent a letter of support to Basta to that end. Brennan says Brexit must be one of the concerns affecting Basta: "I'm sure they're considering it in their future. Everybody has to consider it. It's not great for Tubbercurry overall, it's worrying. We've lost a lot of jobs already with the Government and Aurivo jobs leaving. "As a town and Chamber we are very active. We are open for business," she added. An update is expected later this week on the ongoing situation at Basta. Managing Director Dermot Foster told this newspaper that staff were being briefed last week and this week about their future at the door lock manufacturer. The firm is looking for voluntary and compulsory redundancies after it went into examinership on Thursday 19th July. An interim examiner appointed by the High Court has 100 days to restructure the firm's finances. Local public representatives have raised concerns at the impending closure of more Post Offices in rural Sligo. Independent County Councillor Margaret Gormley said the latest Post Office likely to go is Monasteraden in South Sligo. "It's another body blow. We're losing every service in rural Ireland," she told The Sligo Champion. "Now we heard the news about broadband," she added. The Post Office in Cliffoney is now also in danger of closure according to Sinn Fein Councillor Thomas Healy. Today is the deadline set by An Post management for Postmasters to accept a voluntary redundancy package. "I have been working alongside local people to keep the post office in Ballinfull open but news has reached me that the nearby Cliffoney Office is now under threat also," he said. "It would be completely detrimental to two rural communities to lose their most important local service. There appears to be an approach both from the government and An Post management to allow rural services to close and consolidate all in a more urban setting," he said. Cllr Healy has written to senior An Post management on both Cliffoney and Ballinfull Post Offices and reminded them of their own protocol for closure and their social obligations. A public meeting will take place in Cliffoney Hall on Thursday night at 8 o'clock. Last weekend's Hagstravaganza international brewery festival in Ballymote brought in an estimated 250,000 into the local economy. That's according to local brewery The White Hag Managing Director Paul Mullin. The festival was held last Saturday and attracted over 1,500 tourists to Sligo and Ballymote. Most of the festival goers - 80 percent - travelled from outside of Sligo. There wasn't a bed to be had in either Sligo or Ballymote Saturday night as a result, with the student village in Ballinode filled also. "We had some breweries who don't normally do beer festivals such as Malmo beer. We became friendly with them at a Moscow beer festival and they decided to come to Sligo and get to know the place for the weekend. "It's a great way to expand. We also had a tiny brewery from Berlin - Schneeeule Brauerei - who are going to be huge," he said. Iarnrod Eireann laid on a 'party train' at 10pm to bring the beer-lovers in to Sligo town on the Saturday night. Mullin told The Sligo Champion that they brought over 23 breweries from around the world - Canada, the USA, Germany, Sweden, Italy, France and Australia to name a few. Unlike other beer festivals, The White Hag team brought brewery representatives over a day before the festival and treated them to some local attractions in Sligo. "We brought them on a tour of Sligo, out on the Inisfree boat tour of Lough Gill, a whiskey-tasting tour of Hazelwood House, out to Carters Oyster farm in Strandhill where they tasted oysters and stout by the shore and then back to our brewery on the Friday evening for some tasting," he said. "The intention of that was to get them to show off Sligo on their own social media channels. They were blown away by Sligo. It went really well," he said. A tip-off from authorities in Luxembourg led to Gardai searching the home of a young man and child porn images were found on a laptop and a computer hard drive. On Tuesday last, Timothy Laffey (33) of Mullaghmore Road, Cliffoney appeared for sentencing before Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Court sitting in Tullamore. In June at Sligo Circuit Court he had pleaded guilty possessing 41 images of child pornography on a laptop and 213 images on an external hard drive at his address on September 24th 2010. Members of the Gardai attached to the Online Child Exploitation Unit at Harcourt Square in Dublin were contacted by authorities in Luxembourg regarding the downloading of images by an IP address in the defendant's name. Gardai went to the defendant's home where he lived with his parents on September 24th 2010. The court heard the reason for the delay in bringing the case was down to the fact that the specialist Garda unit which examines computers was under an immense work load. The court heard that the defendant, who has a degree in computing had downloaded software in order to access the images. Detective Garda Pauline O'Neill told Ms Dara Foynes BL (prosecuting) the initial interview with the defendant was at his house when Gardai called and he made denials. He subsequently attended formally at Sligo Garda Station voluntarily on September 27th and was co-operative and helpful. Witness agreed with Ms Foynes that the images were of young girls aged between ten and 17 which had focussed on certain body parts. Four computers were seized in all from the family home, two of which were located in the defendant's bedroom. He admitted there were a lot of images on the hard drive of his computer and said he wished to be forthright. Witness agreed with Ms Foynes that the defendant had a fascination with nude pictures of child stars which had been placed on porn sites. Some of the pictures were of particular child models. Asked if he had any idea of the age of the girls, he told Gardai, ten, eleven or twelve. "I tried to avoid anything younger than that," he said. "When I wasn't looking at images I would look for, my intention was mid teen but sometimes I ended up getting younger than that. "I was looking specifically for mid teens of a certain person but I came across other images that I downloaded for some reason but I can't give you any reasons," he told Gardai. The defendant was aware of how young the children were and stated he was fooling himself into thinking it didn't matter that they were ten, eleven or 12 year old girls. The defendant went into a lot of detail of how he managed to access the child porn sites. A further interview took place on April 7th last in order to put further matters to him and he exercised his right to silence. The defendant did not have any previous convictions and came from a very respectable family. He had a BSc in computing IT support and no longer lived in Sligo. He was working full time in the south of the country in IT support. In reply to Mr Colm Smyth SC with Mr Keith O'Grady BL instructed by Ms Laura Spellman, solicitor, Det Garda O'Neill accepted the defendant had co-operated and gave technical assistance in how he had accessed the material. It was accepted said the Garda that there had been a seven year wait before the defendant was charged. Mr Smyth said this had an effect on him but that it was a blessing in one way in that he had availed of counselling services through TUSLA, rehabilitating himself in the process and never coming to Garda attention again. Detective Garda Donagh Mannix from Garda Heaquarters said he had examined the defendant's Apple Mac laptopwhich had 41 child porn images and a computer hard drive which contained 41. All of the children had their genital area exposed and were aged between 10 and 17. The earliest image dated from February 2002 and the latest was from August 2010. The material would be classed as being of a lesser scale than those involving sexual activity. There was no question of sexual assault being involved in these images, witness agreed with Ms Foynes. Witness also agreed that the defendant did not just 'stumble across' the material. The defendant had accessed a network which was not easy to access and he also had to download two pieces of software. The defendant did not pay for the images. Laffey told the court he was doing his best to rehabilitate himself. He wanted to better himself in his life. He attended counselling for the past seven years, the last appointment being last May. He had travelled to Donegal for these sessions and he had engaged actively with the service. Laffey said he found the counsellor supportive and easy to talk to. The defendant agreed that he was stupid to think it was victim less crime. He now realised it did involve victims of crime. He didn't own a computer now, saying he didn't see the need for one. He did have a smart phone and an Xbox. Mr Smyth submitted in mitgation that the report from the defendant's counsellor was very faviourable. He had attended for some 50 appointments which was a significant commitment.A probation report was also very positive. The defendant's mother, Caren, in evidence, agreed with Mr Smyth that the matter had been a shock but that she and her husband were totally supportive of their son. "What happened was totally out of character," she said. She said he had spent a lot of his time in his room playing computer games. He had kept his head down since and was working. She agreed that since the case came to court there had been some fairly harsh comment on social media which her son has also had to deal with. Mr Smyth pleaded that Laffey had rehabilitated himself over the past seven years and had to deal with the adverse reaction and he had become somewhat isolated. Passing sentence, Judge Johnson said the internet providers needed to be far more proactive in protesting children and they had a moral and legal responsibility to do so. He said they needed to direct more resources into protecting chidlren. He noted that the images in this case were ranked in the lower to mid range and did not involve any sexual activity, were not moving images and none had been paid for. While one image was one too many, the quantity of images would also place them in lower rank of such offending having dealt with cases where thousands would have been involved, said the Judge. The defendant had co-operated and gave Gardai far more information than they would have been able to gain themselves. He was also genuinely remorseful. Judge Johnson said he had to send out a message that anyone convicted of such offences would suffer significant sanction and this defendant had already done so with the matters hanging over him for eight years. He said the defendant possibly had a case in terms of delay in bringing the case but this was through no fault of the Gardai who simply didn't have the resources. The defendant had undergone as proactive an engagement in rehabilitation he had seen in these type of cases, added the Judge who noted the probation service had place the defendant at a moderate risk of re-offending. The defendant's reputation could not be restored and that, in itself was a huge punishment and being on the sex offenders' register for five years was also a significant punishment, said the Judge. He imposed a nine month jail term, suspended for two years on his entering a bond to be of good behaviour for two years. A 31-year-old man has been sent forward for trial on a charge of murdering Jimmy Loughlin (20) at Connolly Street on February 24th last. The book of evidence in the case was served on the accused, Richard McLoughlin of City Gate Apartments when he appeared at Sligo District Court last Thursday. Garda Tom Flynn gave evidence of serving the book of evidence on the accused who was represented by Mr Gerard McGovern, solicitor. On an application from Inspector Donal Sweeney, Judge Kevin Kilrane returned the accused for trial to the next sittings of the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Mr McGovern told the court that the case may be listed as early as yesterday (Monday). The remand was made in custody to Cloverhill Prison but the accused will then be returned to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin from where the accused had come, the court was told. Mr Loughlin had worked in McDonald's Sligo and had lived in a house at Connolly Street. He is survived by his parents, Michael and Paula along with sisters, Grace and Rose and Kitty. South Wicklow is to feature on an upcoming episode of RTE's Nationwide after filming took place during the recent Coollattin Canadian Connection Homeward Trek 2018. The community of Carnew and south Wicklow recently welcomed home a group of descendants of their kinfolk who emigrated to Canada during the bleak, hungry years of mid-19th century Ireland. The visit was organised by the Coollattin Canadian Connection, an initiative of Carnew couple Kevin and Eleanor Lee, and will feature on RTE's Nationwide programme later this month, with a date yet to be confirmed. The Coollattin Canadian Connection was launched at Coollattin House in January 2016 by Minister Simon Harris and the Canadian Ambassador, Kevin Vickers. Since the launch the organisers have managed to reunite many Canadian-Irish with their south Wicklow roots. This year's homecoming took place between July 14 and 21 and the group came from places as far flung as Ottawa, Waterloo, North Bay, Kemptville, Gananoque, Vancouver, Edmonton, North Carolina and Michigan as well as Carnew's twinned town of Smiths Falls in Ontario. The organisers of this very successful week of homecoming, history, heritage and theatre wish to acknowledge the generous support of Wicklow County Council and the Creative Ireland Wicklow Programme. Calls have been made to An Post to reveal the list of Wicklow post offices which are being offered exit deals in a bid to reduce the number of outlets in operation nationwide. According to the Independent Postmaster Group, the offices in question must be revealed to the public, who deserve to know if their local service is to be phased out. Chairman Tom O'Callaghan has called on An Post and Communications Minister Denis Naughten to reveal the list and said that 'whether a community has a post office, or not, should not hinge on a postmaster wishing to retire'. 'The public are entitled to know and nobody is willing to name the post offices which are being offered a deal. This is just the worst thing for towns and villages and there is no need for it,' he said. As part of a restructuring plan, An Post is offering a number of current postmasters a choice between an exit deal with two-year salary pay-off or a new seven-year contract which, after three years, has no guarantee that incomes will not drop. In addition to this, the Government contract for social welfare payments will go out to tender again in 2019 and there is no guarantee that An Post will win it, sparking concern for the viability of the model. Individual postmasters will have to make the decision for themselves but one south Wicklow operator told the Wicklow People that 'once they (post offices) are closed, they will not reopen'. There is some concern amongst operators in the county who say they are very unsure about what decision to make. 'I have no idea, at this stage' said a second operator in a rural part of south Wicklow. 'I'm keeping quiet and seeing what will happen. I have not made any decision because I'm really not sure,' he said. Another neighbouring operator said that it is a 'very individual decision'. 'Everyone is a bit confused and it is a very big decision. It depends on the person, I suppose, and whether you are willing to stay on and adapt the business or not. Those who want to keep going and grow the business will sign the seven-year contract but others might be happy to take the exit deal. After seven years, there is no guarantee and we don't know what sort of contract, if any, would be offered,' the operator said. According to Mr O'Callaghan the launch of a new community bank 'owned by the people' would solve the problem and allow all rural post offices to remain viable into the future. He said that a Dail private members' motion to this effect has already been passed and 'is sitting on the shelf' waiting to be enacted. Mr O'Callaghan wrote to every local councillor in the country yesterday, asking them table a motion in support of calls on An Post to impose a five year postponement on the plans, to allow time for such a bank to be established with a view to strengthening the current post office network. Rathdrum has been nominated for the 2018 Pride of Place Award by Wicklow County Council. The competition acknowledges the work being done every day by communities all across Ireland and nominees demonstrate their pride in their locality through an oral presentation, exhibitions of community activities and culture, and a tour of the area highlighting the aspects of which they are particularly proud. It is also important that the community demonstrates real partnership with their local council and shows that all sectors of the community are included. Cllr Pat Kennedy, who is coordinating and spearheading the Rathdrum campaign, said: 'This is a huge honour for the town of Rathdrum and will show the town at its very best on a national stage.' The Rathdrum entry is focused around four key areas of the town: The Famine Graveyard, The Market Square, The Parnell Memorial Park and Avondale House and Forest Park. Cllr Kennedy paid tribute to the many community groups who have worked together to prepare the entry. 'The community does a huge amount of work in all of the above areas and takes great pride in them. I would like to thank the various community groups for working with me in getting Rathdrum ready for judging, including the Rathdrum Development Association, playground committee, Tidy Towns and Christmas lights. I would also like to particularly thank the various Tus workers and individuals who have been out working over the past couple of weeks cleaning around the town,' he said. Cllr Kennedy also acknowledged the work of Wicklow County Council and said that its nomination of the town 'shows the council's commitment to Rathdrum going into the future'. The Wicklow Regatta Festival is already well under way, and will culminate in a weekend full of fun this August bank holiday. Wicklow Regatta Festival has been running since 1878 and is believed to be the oldest festival in Ireland. Organisers have put a lot of effort into making sure it is also one of the best. The festival programme was launched at Wicklow Sailing Club last week, giving a full break-down of all the events. 'It's a jam-packed programme with something for everyone but the old favourites like golly fishing are still front and centre,' said Wicklow Regatta Chairman John Goodman. 'This year, to highlight this tradition, which is unique to the regatta, we want to introduce 'Nipper the Golly' as a new mascot for the festival.' Among the events lined up this week is Wicklow's Got Talent, while Walking Through Ulysses will take place at Wicklow Sailing Club. There will also be an afternoon of mindfulness activities, golly fishing at Parnell Bridge and The Maguires performing live in Market Square. A family day at the Abbey Grounds will feature music from the Dublin Ukulele Collective, games, a dog show, fancy dress and much more. A comedy night will take place in The Forge. The Wicklow Male Voice Choir will perform in St Patrick's Church, there will be a gymnastics display at the Murrough, the Singing Pubs still have a few bars to play and the ever-popular raft race is sure to draw a crowd. 'This is the 140th year of the festival and we hope that it will be one of the most memorable,' said Mr Goodman. 'We are delighted to have so many of our sporting clubs participate by inviting people to try out their sport. 'I hope as many people as possible will get involved and enjoy the experience. We're continuing this community involvement by inviting several local charities to use events during the festival as a vehicle to raise awareness and funds. Programmes are on sale for 4.50 and are available from Cora's, Earl's, Flannery's and Malones newsagents in Wicklow town. Each programme has number on the bottom of the front page which can be entered into a raffle with some great prizes, including flying lessons from Newcastle Airfield and the opportunity for children (aged six to 12) to set off the fireworks which end the festival on Sunday, August 5. Domestic violence charity Sonas will phase out its support service on Fitzwilliam Road in Wicklow town by mid-2019. The service currently looks after seven families at the facility on Fitzwilliam Road. All other Sonas services are based in Dublin and the charity is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the Wicklow operation. Sonas CEO Fiona Ryan said: 'Our clients are our priority and our decision to phase out this service next year was not taken lightly. As a relatively small organisation, all of whose services are based in Dublin with the exception of Wicklow, we have found it increasingly difficult to maintain the service operationally. 'We understand how anxiety provoking and stressful change can be, which is why we are taking a phased approach to our withdrawal of services. It is also why we prioritised communications with clients and met with them to discuss the decision and offer to meeting. They also have the ongoing support by an on site support worker 'In consideration of individuals' circumstances, we also waited to make our decision until the majority of clients had finished their 18 month support period with us and were due to move on through Wicklow County Council'. Sonas moved into the building in 2013. Previously the premises on Fitzwilliam Road was to open in 2004 as a refuge for abused women and their children to be operated by Suaimhneas. However, the premises never officially opened and fell into a state of disrepair before Sonas moved in. Ms Ryan added: 'We started providing services in Wicklow five years ago and are proud of the work we have been able to do supporting women and children. We have found it increasingly difficult operationally to continue to provide the service. The decision to phase out our Wicklow service was not taken lightly but we are doing so in a responsible and appropriate manner over a timescale. We will ensure existing clients are supported around any domestic violence-related needs they may have as they move on to other accommodation'. The property on Fitzwilliam Road was provided by Wicklow County Council under a capital assistance scheme mortgage. The building transfers back to the local authority once Sonas services are phased out. According to Cllr John Snell Wicklow County Council are already in talks for a replacement service. 'The phasing out of Sonas from Wicklow town will be a loss,' said Cllr Snell. 'Talks have taken place with the clients currently in situ at the facility. I know Wicklow County Council are also in dialogue over plans for the building which will also include the provision of a family orientated service'. Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Osama Bin Laden's brother has urged the former al-Qa'ida leader's son Hamza not to follow in his infamous father's foot steps. Hamza (29) is widely seen as a possible successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian ideologue who took over al-Qa'ida after US special forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a 2011 raid in Pakistan. After vowing to avenge his father, he has been put in charge of a highly trained group of the terrorist organisation's fighters in Afghanistan, western officials said. In a letter to his mother leaked in the media, Hamza said his 12-year-old son died a "martyr", suggesting he was killed in an air strike or in fighting. "We thought everyone was over this," said Hamza's uncle Hassan Bin Laden in an interview with 'The Guardian', referring to Osama bin Laden. Expand Close Osama Bin Laden masterminded the Twin Towers attack in 2001 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Osama Bin Laden masterminded the Twin Towers attack in 2001 "Then the next thing I knew, Hamza was saying 'I'm going to avenge my father' ... If Hamza was in front of me now I would tell him, God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don't retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul." Osama bin Laden's mother, Alia Ghanem, insisted the Saudi-born terrorist behind the 2001 World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks had been a good man until he was "brainwashed" in university by ideologues. "He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult," she said. Al-Qa'ida has never completely recovered from the death of Osama Bin Laden. His successor, Zawahiri, was seen as less charismatic and over the past few years many jihadists abandoned the group to join Isil. With Isil suffering heavy losses in Syria and Iraq, al-Qa'ida now hopes to woo jihadists back to its fold and Hamza is seen as key to that effort. He has released several audio speeches, including one in 2016 in which he vowed to avenge his father's death. He has also called for attacks on Jews and westerners in an attempt to keep his organisation relevant to jihadists attracted to Isil. Isil had split from al-Qa'ida and declared its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi "caliph" of the territories it seized across Syria and Iraq in 2014, attracting thousands of jihadists to its ranks. It also fought al-Qa'ida's affiliate in Syria and Yemen. It has since lost most of its territory in Iraq and Syria and many of its members have been killed or captured. ( Daily Telegraph London) Samantha Eastwood who was last seen leaving work at Royal Stoke Hospital at 7.45am on Friday, July 27. Detectives in the UK searching for missing midwife Samantha Eastwood have discovered a body in Stoke-On-Trent. Ms Eastwood (28) vanished last Friday after driving home from a night shift at the Royal Stoke Hospital. Detectives searching for her have confirmed that a body has been discovered and that three men are currently in custody in connection with her disappearance. Detectives searching Stoke-On-Trent for missing Samantha Eastwood have discovered a body earlier today. Three men are currently in custody in connection with Samantha's disappearance. https://t.co/ZZ3YM0EYpW pic.twitter.com/bJzfqZyWZx Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) August 4, 2018 A 32-year-old man who had previously been arrested by Staffordshire Police in connection with the disappearance has been re-arrested on suspicion of murder. The force said two other men, aged 28 and 60, have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. Forensic teams remain at the scene near Caverswall, Staffordshire and will remain there for some time. Police said the body has yet to be formally identified and a post-mortem will take place in due course. It emerges on Thursday that police are treating the home of her ex-fiance's brother-in-law as a potential crime scene. Neighbours told police they heard screams coming from her semi-detached house at around 2pm, some six hours after she finished work. Miss Eastwoods devastated sister Gemma, 26, sobbed as she appealed for information about her happy, bubbly sibling on Friday, adding: Without her, half of me is gone. Detectives released pictures of her 85 Radley purse, which is missing, and asked for anyone with dashcam footage recorded in north Staffordshire last weekend to come forward. Miss Eastwood had been due to marry John Peake, 34, this June but their engagement was called off in January and Mr Peake moved out of her home. She put her unworn wedding dress up for sale last month. Police have been stationed outside a property belonging to Mr Peakes sister, Katie Stirling, and her husband Michael, a fencing contractor, since Sunday. An officer outside the address, which is three miles from Miss Eastwoods home in the Baddeley Green area of Stoke, told reporters the house was being treated as a scene and a crime scene log was reportedly visible inside her police vehicle. Another Stoke property connected to the family, whose elderly owner lives in a care home, was searched by forensics experts for several hours, according to neighbours. A neighbour said: Me and my wife just came back from church and saw two unmarked police cars in the road. Later on a third one came then a fourth. There was a forensic team too and they were there for three or four hours. Mr Peake, who is understood to have met Miss Eastwood at Keele University has made repeated appeals for information on social media, while Miss Eastwoods mother, Carole Eastwood, as said: I just want my baby back. CCTV footage of the midwife leaving work in her blue scrubs last Friday as well as further video footage of her driving her Volvo XC60 away from the hospital has been released by police. She was reported missing 12 hours later when she failed to turn up for work, which colleagues said was completely out of character. Her car was later found at her home, with the keys and bank cards inside her house. Gemma Eastwood, a support worker, said: "Samantha is a fantastic woman and friend. She is warm, friendly, loyal, kind and generous, with a great sense of humour. And whoever she is with she will always make their times together fun. "Samantha was determined to become a midwife from a young age and succeeded. "All of Samantha's work friends describe her as an amazing midwife. "She is caring, harmless and gentle. Samantha is selfless and would do anything for anyone before herself." Officers have declined to say whether they have recovered Miss Eastwood's mobile phone, stating that it was part of an "ongoing investigation". Detective Superintendent Simon Duffy, who is leading what is being termed a high-risk missing persons inquiry, said concern was continuing to grow, noting that Miss Eastwood had "no access to money. He asked the public to report any sightings of vehicles parked in "strange locations", isolated areas, or lay-bys, no matter how inconsequential they may appear. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. Pippa, a British pedigree pug who splits her time between Brussels and Britain, is taking Belgian 'citizenship' amid fears of a looming no-deal Brexit. The four-year-old pooch is one of the quarter of a million pets that cross from the UK to the EU every year and regularly visits friends and family in Britain and Ireland. Thanks to the EU's pet passport scheme - which covers cats, dogs and ferrets - she is spared the six-month quarantine that used to be common practice when travelling to Europe. Her British-issued passport, which is a certificate of good health and vaccinations in a blue book with a room for a photo, will not be recognised if Brexit negotiations collapse. Pippa's owner Nick Petre (38) has decided to pay a vet 100 for a Belgian pet passport, effectively giving her dual citizenship, in what is believed to be a first for both Belgium and for pugs. "Pippa's UK passport will be null and void if we crash out of the EU," said Nick, who works at the European Parliament and has lived in Brussels since 2006. "With talks still blocked on some major issues I thought it made sense to take precautions. Who knows where this could lead?" The Belgian pet passport may not be recognised in Britain after a no-deal Brexit but Nick hopes British officials will still accept her UK papers. Pippa, who cost more than 1,100, would still be able to travel to Ireland thanks to EU freedom of pet movement. British and EU negotiators have not begun talks on whether the passport will survive or what arrangement could succeed it. Detailed discussions are not expected until the transition period, which should begin after March29 next year. EU officials are drawing up emergency Brexit plans for British cats, dogs and ferrets after Jean-Claude Juncker took a personal interest in how "no deal" could damage the EU's pet passport scheme. "We are not only for the free movement of people but for the free movement of pets," a commission spokeswoman said. A UK government source said it wanted pet owners to be able to travel to and from the EU s with "the of minimum of inconvenience". Donald Trump has rejected reports he was late to meet the British queen as "fake disgusting news", explaining that it was actually she who made him wait. The US president also dismissed claims he overstayed his welcome during the royal encounter at Windsor Castle last month. The comments came as Mr Trump renewed his campaign against the media at a Pennsylvania rally, during which he denounced the press for underselling his accomplishments and doubting his political rise. "I was asked to have tea with the queen, who is incredible by the way. Incredible," Mr Trump told the crowd. "I was about 15 minutes early and I'm waiting with my wife and that's fine. Hey, it's the queen, right? We can wait. But I'm a little early." The president said he then went to have tea with the queen. "And I didn't know this - it was supposed to last 15 minutes but it lasted like an hour. Because we got along. And she liked our first lady and our first lady liked her. "But we got along fantastically well. "But the time went by - you know, sometimes you get along and the time goes by. "So here was the story by the fake news: The president was 15 minutes late for the queen. Wrong. "So they said I was late when I was actually early, number one. Number two, I guess the meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes and it lasted for almost an hour. The president overstayed! "So I was late and I overstayed...they can make anything bad because they are the fake, fake disgusting news." ( Daily Telegraph, London) US and North Korean officials have traded polite words and then barbs in the latest round of diplomacy, leaving efforts to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons at an uncertain point. At a security conference in Singapore, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea and countries including Russia of continuing to violate UN sanctions aimed at pressing the North to give up its nuclear arsenal. But at the same time, he oversaw the handover of a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from US President Donald Trump and exchanged pleasantries with the Norths foreign minister Ri Yong Ho. Mr Ri, meanwhile, greeted Mr Pompeo with a smile and posed for photos but then delivered a scathing attack on the Trump administration for approaching the negotiation poorly by insisting on sanctions enforcement. I had the chance to speak with my #DPRK counterpart FM Ri Yong Ho @asean today. We had a quick, polite exchange. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver @Potus reply to Chairman Kims letter. pic.twitter.com/1DiR6UDj4Q Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 4, 2018 Mr Ri said North Korea would not be forced into acting unilaterally, and demanded that the US undertakes confidence building measures if the negotiation is to be successful. After Mr Pompeo warned once again that no sanctions would be lifted until North Korea fully and finally denuclearises, Mr Ri told the annual ASEAN Regional Forum that the North will not be bullied into concessions. Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight, he said. In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the US, it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another. Only when the US ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the US and show it in action. Expand Close Donald Trump met Kim Jong-un in June (Kevin Lim/The Straits Times/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump met Kim Jong-un in June (Kevin Lim/The Straits Times/AP) The US has previously dismissed calls for a phased approach, insisting that sanctions be maintained until the North delivers on its commitments but suggesting some other steps may be possible. Mr Ri, though, appeared unmoved and accused elements of the US government of going against Mr Trumps wishes by taking a hard line on sanctions. What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leaders intention, he said. Instead of responding reciprocally to North Koreas suspension of nuclear tests and missile launches and other goodwill gestures such as the return of suspected remains of American troops killed in the Korean War, the US has maintained hostility, Mr Ri said. The United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula, he said. Expand Close Mike Pompeo was in Singapore for talks with foreign ministers from around the globe, before travelling to Indonesia (Joseph Nair/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mike Pompeo was in Singapore for talks with foreign ministers from around the globe, before travelling to Indonesia (Joseph Nair/AP) He also accused Washington of taking extremely inappropriate moves by discouraging third countries from sending high-level delegations to the Norths 70th anniversary celebrations in September. Mr Pompeo had already left the meeting in Singapore when Mr Ri delivered his remarks in order to travel to Jakarta for talks with senior Indonesian officials. As he arrived in Jakarta, the State Department said that a written reply to Mr Kim from Mr Trump had been delivered to Mr Ri in Singapore. We had a quick, polite exchange, Mr Pompeo tweeted. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver (Trumps) reply to Chairman Kims letter. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Mr Trumps reply to Mr Kim was given to Mr Ri by Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearise. Ms Nauert would not address the content of the letter. The White House said earlier in the week that the North Korean leader had sent a new letter to Mr Trump and that the president had written a response. @SecPompeo joins 27 ARF member states and the #ASEAN Secretariat for the ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat. #ASEAN2018 pic.twitter.com/tMk0V8hxYX U.S. Embassy Singapore (@RedWhiteBlueDot) August 4, 2018 Earlier on Saturday, Mr Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. His comments came on the heels of a new United Nations report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and is violating UN sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil. Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States. The foreign ministry announced the move on its Facebook page, saying Seagals portfolio in the unpaid position would be to facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges. Expand Close Seagal has also toured the UK with his band (Yui Mok/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Seagal has also toured the UK with his band (Yui Mok/PA) Hard To Kill and Under Siege star Seagal is an accomplished martial artist like Russian president Vladimir Putin. The actor, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2016, has robustly defended the Russian leaders policies, including Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea, and has criticised the US government. Last year, Ukraine banned Seagal from entering the country for five years, citing national security reasons. Lisa Brennan-Jobs has released a new memoir about her life as the daughter of Steve Jobs CREDIT: FACEBOOK Steve Jobs told his daughter she smelled like a toilet on his deathbed, a new revelatory memoir detailing their troubled relationship has revealed. Lisa Brennan-Jobs, who the Apple founder had denied was his daughter, also recalls him telling her youre getting nothing in a disagreement over inheriting his prized Porsche, she writes in her soon-to-be-released memoir Small Fry. Brennan-Jobs also chronicles in an excerpt of her memoir published Vanity Fair magazine, how her father was sued for child-support payments, claimed he was sterile in a deposition and lied about naming Lisa, one of the first personal computers released by Apple, after her. I have a secret. My father is Steve Jobs, Jobs' daughter also told her school friends, proudly telling them about the Apple Lisa desktop computer. The 40-year-old also recalls how her mother, Chrisann Brennan, who had a five year on-off relationship with the tech visionary, supplemented her welfare parents until she was aged two by cleaning and waitressing, writing: My father didnt help. For him, I was a blot on a spectacular ascent, she writes, as our story did not fit with the narrative of greatness and virtue he might have wanted for himself. My existence ruined his streak. Brennan-Jobs recalls how her father remarked she smelled like a toilet during one of their final meetings at his Tudor-style suburban home in Palo Alto, California, three months before his death in October 2011 from complications of pancreatic cancer. She would visit him for a weekend every other month or so in his final 12 months, but admitted: Id given up on the possibility of a grand reconciliation, the kind in the movies, but I kept coming anyway. The writer adds that making efforts to see my sick father in his room began to feel like a burden, a nuisance before one of their last goodbyes. Before walking into his bedroom she remembers spraying some expensive rose facial mist she had found in one of her fathers bathrooms on herself. Before I said good-bye, I went to the bathroom to mist one more time, she wrote. The spray was natural, which meant that over the course of a few minutes it no longer smelled sharp like roses, but fetid and stinky like a swamp, although I didnt realise it at the time. As I came into his room, he was getting into a standing position. I watched him gather both his legs in one arm, twist himself 90 degrees by pushing against the headboard with the other arm, and then use both arms to hoist his own legs over the edge of the bed and onto the floor. When we hugged, I could feel his vertebrae, his ribs. He smelled musty, like medicine sweat. Ill be back soon, I said. We detached, and I started walking away. Lis? Yeah? You smell like a toilet. By the age of seven, her father began visiting their house around once a month, with the pair going roller-skating together through the local neighbourhood. One night, Lisa asked if she could have his Porsche when he was done with it, having overheard her mother tell a friend he bought a new one when it gets a scratch. Absolutely not, he said in such a sour, biting way that I knew Id made a mistake, she remembers. I understood that perhaps it wasnt true, the myth of the scratch: maybe he didnt buy new ones. By that time I knew he was not generous with money, or food, or words; the idea of the Porsches had seemed like one glorious exception. I wished I could take it back. We pulled up to the house and he turned off the engine. Before I made a move to get out he turned to face me. Youre not getting anything, he said. You understand? Nothing. Youre getting nothing. Did he mean about the car, something else, bigger? I didnt know. His voice hurtsharp, in my chest. The microcomputer pioneer initially denied Brennan-Jobs, who says he was rarely present in her life when she was young, was his daughter. Born on a farm in the spring of 1978, she said her father arrived a few days later telling everyone, Its not my kid. Two years later, Jobs was sued by the district attorney of San Mateo County, California, for child-support payments. My father responded by denying paternity, swearing in a deposition that he was sterile and naming another man he said was my father, she writes. I was required to take a DNA test. The tests were new then, and when the results came back, they gave the odds that we were related as the highest the instruments could measure at the time: 94.4 percent. The court required my father to cover welfare back payments, child-support payments of $385 per month, which he increased to $500, and medical insurance until I was 18. She writes the case was finalised on December 8, 1980, with my fathers lawyers insistent to close, adding: Four days later Apple went public and overnight my father was worth more than $200 million. For 27 years, Jobs had denied the Apple Lisa, the commercially unsuccessful desktop computer that only sold 100,000 units, was named after his daughter. Brennan-Jobs writes how the idea that hed named the failed computer after me was woven in with my sense of self, even if he did not confirm it, and I used this story to bolster myself when, near him, I felt like nothing. In high school, she plucked up the courage to ask: Hey, you know that computer, the Lisa? Was it named after me? Nope. His voice was clipped, dismissive. Like I was fishing for a compliment. Sorry, kid. At the age of 27, she was invited by her father on a yacht trip in the south of France, accompanying him for lunch at U2 frontman Bons villa in Eze. We had lunch on a large covered balcony overlooking the sea. Bono asked my father about the beginning of Apple. Did the team feel alive? Did they sense it was something big and they were going to change the world? My father said it did feel that way as they were making the Macintosh, and Bono said it was that way for him and the band, too, and wasnt it incredible that people in such disparate fields could have the same experience? Then Bono asked, So, was the Lisa computer named after her? There was a pause. I braced myselfprepared for his answer. My father hesitated, looked down at his plate for a long moment, and then back at Bono. Yeah, it was, he said. I sat up in my chair. I thought so, Bono said. Yup, my father said. Jobs relationship with his former girlfriend and daughter was previously examined in 2015 biographical film Steve Jobs, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Russia, China and other countries against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons. His comments came on the heels of a new United Nations report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and is violating UN sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil. Speaking on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore, Mr Pompeo said the US has new, credible reports that Russia is violating UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He said Washington would take very seriously any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed. Expand Close Mike Pompeo, left, greets North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore (Joseph Nair/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mike Pompeo, left, greets North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore (Joseph Nair/AP) If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation, Mr Pompeo said, noting that the UN Security Council had voted unanimously in favour of the sanctions. I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow, he said. We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea. Any violation that detracts from the worlds goal of finally, fully denuclearising North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously. During a group photo at the ASEAN Regional Forum ministerial meeting later on Saturday, Mr Pompeo went to greet North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho. They shook hands and briefly exchanged smiles and a few words before Mr Pompeo went back to his original position. But speaking at the Forum later, Mr Ri hit back at the US for its warning to other countries, condemning it for raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against North Korea. Mr Ri said that while North Korea has initiated goodwill measures including a moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground, the US has gone back to the old, far from its leaders intention. It has been nearly two months since Indian Army soldier Rifleman Aurangzeb who was leaving for home in Poonch to celebrate Eid was abducted and killed by terrorists. As the grief over his brutal murder tuned into anger, some 50 youths from his village who were working in Saudi Arabia have returned home with one aim - to avenge his killing. According to NDTV they are now volunteering to enlist himself in the Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police. "When we heard about the killing of brother Aurangzeb, we left Saudi Arabia the same day, and forcibly got ourselves relieved from the job. It can't be done on the spot, but we managed somehow. 50 youth from this village returned with me. The only mission is to avenge the death of Aurangzeb", Mohammad Kiramat who came back from Saudi Arabia told NDTV. Aurangzeb, a rifleman with 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, was killed by suspected terrorists, for his 'crime' of joining the Indian Army. He was reportedly targeted as he was a close aide of an army officer who led the team that killed Sameer Tiger and part of the team that carried out the encounter that killed the hardcore Hizbul militant. Aurangzeb hailed from a family which had history of serving the Indian Army, where his father Mohammad Haneef, is an ex-Indian army man, while his eldest son Mohammad Qasim is a serving army personnel and two of Aurangzeb's younger brothers had cleared the tests to join the forces. My son has died but if all people stop sending their children to the Army, then who will fight for the nation? Haneef had then said. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), in collaboration with the Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC), has organised the Solar Decathlon Middle East Seminar, which emphasised the importance of Net Zero Energy Buildings through the Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME), which is organised by Dewa. SDME is part of an agreement between Dewa and the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy with the US Department of Energy. Dubai will host the first two rounds of this competition; the first in November 2018 with the participation of 18 university teams from 13 countries, and the second in 2020 to coincide with Expo 2020 Dubai. The seminar was attended by a number of the university teams of SDME 2018 who presented their projects for the competition, which will be held at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park from 14-29 November 2019. The forum also included a panel discussion titles Accelerating Net Zero Living Through SDME. This years competition is particularly important, not only because it is being held for the first time in the Middle East and Africa, but also because it is being organised during the Year of Zayed, which marks 100 years since the birth of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who consolidated the principles of sustainable development in the UAE, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa. Dewa provides all that is needed for the success of the Solar Decathlon Middle East in the UAE, which has become a platform for innovation, a destination for innovators, and an incubator for creative minds from all over the world. I take this opportunity to thank the sponsors, partners, volunteers, organisers and everyone involved in organising the world's largest, most competitive, and challenging global university competition. Im also pleased to invite you to visit the competitions venue at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park from 14 to 29 November 2018, to review the innovative designs of these smart homes and meet the university teams from around the world, concluded Al Tayer. The Emirates Green Building Council is honoured to be an official supporter of the Solar Decathlon Middle East. The SDME is an important initiative to drive innovation and dialogue on the topic of net zero energy buildings in the UAE, and the region, said Saeed Al Abbar, chairman of EmiratesGBC. I look forward to witnessing the progress of the Solar Decathlon competition and the outcome; especially since it nurtures the next generation of sustainability thought leaders. Our collective purpose is to promote sustainable development, and it is encouraging to see how students are designing innovative solutions to achieve this. The competition demonstrates the feasibility of applying net zero concepts in the UAE by providing demonstrable case studies with measurable performance data. This will assist in validating that the time is appropriate to transition from an early adopter state to mainstream adoption for net zero energy buildings. Through, the councils Net Zero Centre of Excellence we provide an important platform for government, academia and the private sector to learn and share knowledge on how to advance net zero carbon buildings by the global timeline of 2050, and continue to position the UAE as a global leader in sustainable buildings, concluded Al Abbar. TradeArabia News Service Even when performing religious duty, Indians never forget their beloved nation. Wherever we go, we keep out national symbols close to our heart. We are Indians first, then anything else. Carrying forward the tradition, 35 Kanwar Yatri from Bulandshahr's Keshopur Sathla began their pilgrimage carrying a 361-feet long tricolour in memory of the martyrs. It was a wonderful sight for the people as they enjoyed watching the huge national flag. The pilgrims also paid homage to martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country. According to ANI, after fetching water from River Ganga in Har Ki Pauri of Haridwar, Uttarakhand, the pilgrims are now walking back to their village and will offer 'Gangajal' at a temple in their village. "We love the tricolour and our country. We are proud of the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives while protecting the country," said Moolchand Rajput, one of the devotees carrying the flag. Muzaffarnagar: Carrying a 361 feet long tricolor, 35 devotees from Bulandshahr's Keshopur Sathla village are undertaking Kanwar Yatra this year. After fetching water from river Ganga in Uttarakhand's Har Ki Pauri, the 35 devotees are now walking back to their village. (03.08) pic.twitter.com/ruGhYHQFrA ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 4, 2018 Another pilgrim, Narendra Saini, said that the purpose of bringing the flag is to remember the martyrs. Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage that is undertaken in the month of Shravan, dedicated to Lord Shiva. An Ahmedabad woman has narrated her experience of unabated torture at the hands of an insanely suspicious live-in partner of 15 years, who forced her to have her two front teeth removed to look ugly so that she does not attract any other mans attention. The man, a 57-year old autorickshaw driver, did not stop at that. He also forced the woman, Geetaben (55), to stop working as domestic help. He made her life so miserable that she jumped off his autorickshaw in Dudheshwar area on Wednesday to escape from the unending trauma. khambenhlau.edu.vn/Representational Image A passerby called 181 Abhayam, the helpline for women. Geetaben revealed her story to the counsellors, speaking of her unceasing attempts to douse the flames of her husbands suspicions, which choked her self-esteem and freedom. Officials stated that Geetaben said she and her partner fell in love 15 years ago. Both were married and left their spouses and children to live with each other. Their life together was smooth. It was only last year that her partners suspicions became overpowering. After I had my teeth removed and stopped working, he suspected that I was seeing somebody at home, she said. He got opaque plastic sheets pasted on the windows and doors so that nobody can see inside. Representational Image The last straw was the mans insistence that he accompany him as he drove the auto. He would make me sit next to him the whole day as he ferried passengers, she said. I had become his prisoner, Geetaben said. The counsellors summoned the man. We told him that there was no cure for suspicion. The woman said that she loved him and did not want to press charges, said Falguni Patel, co-ordinator of the 181 helpline. The man has submitted in writing that he will mend his ways and not curb the womans liberties. Prosecution of WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange endangers viability of The First Amendment. This is a call for We the People in the city of San Francisco to join the global mobilization to defend the right of free speech and journalism. Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for over 6 years as a political prisoner against the threat of extradition to the U.S., relating to his publishing activities with WikiLeaks. Ecuador is reportedly preparing to evict Assange from the embassy where he is put in solitary, deprived of sunlight and medical care. If he walks out of the embassy, Assange is expected to be arrested by the UK authorities. There is an ongoing secret grand jury against WikiLeaks and its staff since 2010 and it is reported that the US government is preparing to prosecute Assange for the publication of classified documents. This prosecution against journalists set a dangerous precedent for press freedom, opening a door for criminalization of journalism at large.Prosecution of Julian Assange endangers viability of the First Amendment. We the People in San Francisco will join the global mobilization to defend the right to free speech and journalism.1) Action 1- Emergency Protest on the Following Day of Julian Assanges Eviction from the Ecuadorian EmbassyWe will hold a rally at 12:00 PM outside San Francisco City Hall, 1Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl2) Action 2- Mass Rally on the Following Sunday of Assanges Eviction from the EmbassyThis initial mobilization will then be followed by the mass rally at 12:00 PM also outside San Francisco City Hall.Endorsed by Classconscious.orgFollow Courage Foundations live blog update to check on the development of Assanges situation.Follow Twitter hashtags- #Revolution4Assange #Beready4JA #WorkersoftheworlduniteBring whistles, music and your high spirit for this lively rally!Let stand up for WikiLeaks, the fearless publisher Julian Assange who sacrificed his liberty in order to bring back the First Amendment to all people around the world. Norway Demands Explanation for Israeli Seizure of Gaza-bound Boat by IMEMC Friday Aug 3rd, 2018 9:19 PM Reuters reported, according to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, that Norway has asked the Israeli government to explain the legal grounds for detaining a Norwegian-flagged fishing boat seized, while activists tried to sail with aid to the Gaza Strip, Norways foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry said its diplomats in Israel had been providing consular assistance to five Norwegians who were among the 22 passengers and crew detained onboard the vessel Kaarstein, on Sunday. Two Israelis on board were quickly released. We have asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the circumstances around the seizure of the vessel and the legal basis for the intervention, the spokesman for the Norwegian foreign affairs ministry in Oslo said. A spokesman for Israels Foreign Ministry declined to comment. Torstein Dahle, head of the group Ship to Gaza Norway which organized the shipment, said it was the first Norwegian aid vessel to attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The captain had been struck on the head by Israeli soldiers who ordered him to sail for Israel, but no one was seriously hurt, Dahle said. This is a peaceful boat; its impossible that it can threaten Israels security, he said. Gaza Strip is home to 2 million Palestinians, mainly the stateless descendants of people who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel at its founding in 1948. Under the blockade, Gaza has suffered an economic crisis creating what the World Bank describes as a collapse in humanitarian conditions including access to clean water, medicine and electricity. Numerous activist ships have been prevented from reaching Gaza in recent years. An Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla in 2010, in which ten activists were killed, caused a serious rupture in relations between Israel and Turkey, one of Israels few friends in the Middle East. Audun Lysbakken, leader of Norways opposition Socialist Left party, called on the foreign ministry to protest against what he described as Israel hijacking the Norwegian boat in international waters. Among those detained is Mikkel Gruner, a Danish citizen who lives in Norway and is the Socialist Left representative in the municipal council of the Norwegian city of Bergen. Lysbakken said the activists had legal rights to protest against Israels blockade, demanding the release of Gruner and the others. Candlestick charts are a type of financial chart for tracking the movement of securities. They have their origins in the centuries-old Japanese rice trade and have made their way into modern day price charting. Some investors find them more visually appealing than the standard bar charts and the price actions easier to interpret. Candlesticks are so named because the rectangular shape and lines on either end resemble a candle with wicks. Each candlestick usually represents one days worth of price data about a stock. Over time, the candlesticks group into recognizable patterns that investors can use to make buying and selling decisions. Key Takeaways Candlestick charts are useful for technical day traders to identify patterns and make trading decisions. Bullish candlesticks indicate entry points for long trades, and can help predict when a downtrend is about to turn around to the upside. Here, we go over several examples of bullish candlestick patterns to look out for. 1:34 Click Play to Learn How to Use Bullish Candlestick Patterns to Buy Stock How to Read a Single Candlestick Each candlestick represents one days worth of price data about a stock through four pieces of information: the opening price, the closing price, the high price, and the low price. The color of the central rectangle (called the real body) tells investors whether the opening price or the closing price was higher. A black or filled candlestick means the closing price for the period was less than the opening price; hence, it is bearish and indicates selling pressure. Meanwhile, a white or hollow candlestick means that the closing price was greater than the opening price. This is bullish and shows buying pressure. The lines at both ends of a candlestick are called shadows, and they show the entire range of price action for the day, from low to high. The upper shadow shows the stocks highest price for the day, and the lower shadow shows the lowest price for the day. Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2020 Bullish Candlestick Patterns Over time, groups of daily candlesticks fall into recognizable patterns with descriptive names like three white soldiers, dark cloud cover, hammer, morning star, and abandoned baby, to name just a few. Patterns form over a period of one to four weeks and are a source of valuable insight into a stocks future price action. Before we delve into individual bullish candlestick patterns, note the following two principles: Bullish reversal patterns should form within a downtrend. Otherwise, its not a bullish pattern, but a continuation pattern. Most bullish reversal patterns require bullish confirmation. In other words, they must be followed by an upside price move which can come as a long hollow candlestick or a gap up and be accompanied by high trading volume. This confirmation should be observed within three days of the pattern. The bullish reversal patterns can further be confirmed through other means of traditional technical analysislike trend lines, momentum, oscillators, or volume indicatorsto reaffirm buying pressure. There are a great many candlestick patterns that indicate an opportunity to buy. We will focus on five bullish candlestick patterns that give the strongest reversal signal. 1. The Hammer or the Inverted Hammer Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2021 The Hammer is a bullish reversal pattern, which signals that a stock is nearing bottom in a downtrend. The body of the candle is short with a longer lower shadow which is a sign of sellers driving prices lower during the trading session, only to be followed by strong buying pressure to end the session on a higher close. Before we jump in on the bullish reversal action, however, we must confirm the upward trend by watching it closely for the next few days. The reversal must also be validated through the rise in the trading volume. Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2021 The Inverted Hammer also forms in a downtrend and represents a likely trend reversal or support. Its identical to the Hammer except for the longer upper shadow, which indicates buying pressure after the opening price, followed by considerable selling pressure, which however wasnt enough to bring the price down below its opening value. Again, bullish confirmation is required, and it can come in the form of a long hollow candlestick or a gap up, accompanied by a heavy trading volume. 2. The Bullish Engulfing Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2020 The Bullish Engulfing pattern is a two-candle reversal pattern. The second candle completely engulfs the real body of the first one, without regard to the length of the tail shadows. The Bullish Engulfing pattern appears in a downtrend and is a combination of one dark candle followed by a larger hollow candle. On the second day of the pattern, price opens lower than the previous low, yet buying pressure pushes the price up to a higher level than the previous high, culminating in an obvious win for the buyers. It is advisable to enter a long position when the price moves higher than the high of the second engulfing candlein other words when the downtrend reversal is confirmed. 3. The Piercing Line Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2020 Similar to the engulfing pattern, the Piercing Line is a two-candle bullish reversal pattern, also occurring in downtrends. The first long black candle is followed by a white candle that opens lower than the previous close. Soon thereafter, the buying pressure pushes the price up halfway or more (preferably two-thirds of the way) into the real body of the black candle. 4. The Morning Star Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2020 As the name indicates, the Morning Star is a sign of hope and a new beginning in a gloomy downtrend. The pattern consists of three candles: one short-bodied candle (called a doji or a spinning top) between a preceding long black candle and a succeeding long white one. The color of the real body of the short candle can be either white or black, and there is no overlap between its body and that of the black candle before. It shows that the selling pressure that was there the day before is now subsiding. The third white candle overlaps with the body of the black candle and shows a renewed buyer pressure and a start of a bullish reversal, especially if confirmed by the higher volume. 5. The Three White Soldiers Image by Julie Bang Investopedia 2021 This pattern is usually observed after a period of downtrend or in price consolidation. It consists of three long white candles that close progressively higher on each subsequent trading day. Each candle opens higher than the previous open and closes near the high of the day, showing a steady advance of buying pressure. Investors should exercise caution when white candles appear to be too long as that may attract short sellers and push the price of the stock further down. Putting it All Together The chart below for Enbridge, Inc. (ENB) shows three of the bullish reversal patterns discussed above: the Inverted Hammer, the Piercing Line, and the Hammer. The chart for Pacific DataVision, Inc. (PDVW) shows the Three White Soldiers pattern. Note how the reversal in downtrend is confirmed by the sharp increase in the trading volume. The Bottom Line Investors should use candlestick charts like any other technical analysis tool (i.e., to study the psychology of market participants in the context of stock trading). They provide an extra layer of analysis on top of the fundamental analysis that forms the basis for trading decisions. We looked at five of the more popular candlestick chart patterns that signal buying opportunities. They can help identify a change in trader sentiment where buyer pressure overcomes seller pressure. Such a downtrend reversal can be accompanied by a potential for long gains. That said, the patterns themselves do not guarantee that the trend will reverse. Investors should always confirm reversal by the subsequent price action before initiating a trade. So, you've decided to sell investments. Whether you want to be a registered representative (RR) or an investment advisor, the first step in either process is obtaining the proper securities license. The license needed is determined by several factors, such as the type of investments to be sold, method of compensation, and the scope of services that will be provided. In this article, we'll examine the different types of licensing and show you how to determine which license is right for you. Key Takeaways In order to market and sell investments professionally, an individual must obtain a securities license. What license you need is determined by what kinds of products you want to sell, how you want to be compensated, and what kind of services you want to be able to provide. The Series 7 license, also known as the general securities representative (GS) license has the broadest reach, allowing holders to sell almost all types of securities. Other commonly-held licenses administered by FINRA include Series 6 and Series 3. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) oversees the licensing of Series 63, Series 65, and Series 66. FINRA Licensing Breakdown The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) oversees all securities licensing procedures and requirements. This self-regulatory organization administers many of the exams that must be passed to become a licensed financial professional. It also performs all relevant disciplinary and record-keeping functions. FINRA offers several different types of licenses needed by both representatives and supervisors. Each license corresponds to a specific type of business or investment. While there are several licenses geared toward specific types of securities, there are three general licenses that the majority of representatives and advisors usually obtain: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) supervises all securities licensing procedures and requirements and also administers many of the exams necessary to obtain the licenses. Series 6 The Series 6 license is known as the limited-investment securities license. It allows its holders to sell "packaged" investment products such as mutual funds, variable annuities, and unit investment trusts (UITs). The Series 6 exam is 135 minutes long and covers basic information regarding packaged investments, securities regulations, and ethics. This license is also required for insurance agents that sell variable products of any kind because securities constitute the underlying investments within those products. Principals who supervise representatives holding a Series 6 license must obtain the Series 26 license in addition to having already obtained the Series 6. Series 7 The Series 7 license is known as the general securities representative (GS) license. It authorizes licensees to sell virtually any type of individual security. This includes common and preferred stocks; call and put options; bonds and other individual fixed income investments; as well as all forms of packaged products (except for those that also require a life insurance license to sell). The only major types of securities or investments that Series 7 licensees are not authorized to sell are commodities futures, real estate, and life insurance. The Series 7 exam is by far the longest and most difficult of all the securities exams. It lasts for 225 minutes and covers all aspects of stock and bond quotes and trading; put and call options; spreads and straddles; ethics; margin, and other account holder requirements; and other pertinent regulations. Those who carry this license are officially listed as "registered representatives" by FINRA, but they are generally referred to as stockbrokers. Many insurance agents and other types of financial planners and advisors also carry the Series 7 license to facilitate certain types of transactions inherent in their businesses. Principals of general representatives must also obtain the Series 24 license. Series 3 The Series 3 license authorizes representatives to sell commodity futures contracts, which are generally considered the riskiest publicly traded investments available. Representatives that carry the Series 3 license tend to specialize in commodities and often do little or no other business of any type. The Series 3 exam is approximately 150 minutes long and covers all forms of commodities transactions, options, hedging, margin requirements, and other regulations. An offshoot of this license is the Series 31 license, which allows representatives to sell managed futures (pooled groups of commodities futures similar to mutual funds). NASAA Licensing Breakdown Not all securities licenses are administered by FINRA. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) oversees the licensing requirements of three key licenses: Series 63 The Series 63 license, known as the Uniform Securities Agent license, is required by each state and authorizes licensees to transact business within the state. All Series 6 and Series 7 licensees must carry this license as well. The provisions of the Uniform Securities Act are tested on the 75-minute exam. While this test is much shorter and covers less material than the FINRA exams, it is known for asking "trick" questions that force the candidate to definitively know the difference between which transactions and situations are permitted and which are required by the rules. This test also contains some experimental questions that the NASAA uses to gauge future relevance. Series 65 The Series 65 license is required by anyone intending to provide any kind of financial advice or service on a non-commission basis. Financial planners and advisors that provide investment advice for an hourly fee fall into this category, as do stockbrokers or other registered representatives that deal with managed-money accounts. The exam for this license is a 180-minute exam that covers the rules and regulations pertaining to registered investment advisors, as well as various investment vehicles and disciplines, economics, ethics, and analysis. Much of the material is covered on the Series 7 exam as well, as many of the advisors who sit for this exam are not, and may never become, Series 7 licensed and therefore need exposure to the investment material covered therein. Series 66 This Series 66 is the newest exam offered by NASAA. In essence, it combines the Series 63 and 65 exams into one 150-minute exam. This test contains no investment material, as the Series 66 license is only available to candidates that are already Series 7 licensed. Making the Grade Most securities exams administered by both FINRA and the NASAA have a passing score of 70%, except for Series 7, 63, and 65, which have passing scores of 72%, and Series 66, which has a passing score of 73%. All tests are now given via computer at approved proctor testing sites. Broker-Dealer Sponsorship vs. RIA Requirements Once all relevant securities tests have been taken and a passing grade received, licensees must register their securities licenses with an approved broker-dealer, who will hold their licenses and oversee their business (in return for a portion of the commission income). Generally, those who intend to hold themselves out to the public as Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) must register with the state they do business in if their assets under management are less than $25 million. The location of the RIA's principal office, as well as the number of assets under management, determine whether the RIA must register with the SEC. Registered Investment Advisors do not need to associate themselves with a broker-dealer. Securities License FAQs What Are Securities Licenses? Securities licenses are needed by anyone who wants to market and sell investments. The specific type of license depends on what type of investments the person wants to sell, how they expect to get paid, and what level of service they want to be able to provide to their customers. How Do You Get a Securities License? To get a license, an individual first needs to pass the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Exam through FINRA. Next, you need to be sponsored by a company that is a member of FINRA. Some companies will pay for a study course and the fees for taking the exam. Then, you must register for, study, and pass a FINRA license exam. What Is a Series 7 Securities License? The Series 7 license or general securities representative (GS) license allows the holder to sell almost all individual securities, including common and preferred stocks, call and put options, bonds, and other fixed income. Excluded from the list: commodities futures, real estate, and life insurance. What Does It Cost to Get a Securities License? The cost of the SIE exam is $60. In order to obtain any securities license, a person must pass the SIE. The Series 6 exam costs $40; the Series 7 costs $245; the Series 63 costs $135; the Series 65 costs $175; and the Series 66 costs $165. There are also other fees associated with getting a license, such as the cost of a study course to prepare for the exam. What Jobs Can You Get With a Securities License? A securities license allows you to market and sell investments. Depending on the license held, you might have a job as a registered representative or an investment advisor. The Bottom Line The majority of financial and investment companies that hire or train new advisors will have a mandatory licensing program included in the training package. The company will, in most cases, mandate which licenses must be obtained to sell the company's products and services. Those that decide to go into business for themselves still need to meet the licensing requirements of their chosen profession; the only real freedom of choice comes in which profession is chosen. We hate to drag out that old, on-the-fence phrase, "it depends." But it does. Your 401(k) plan's rate of return is directly correlated to the investment portfolio you create with your contributions, as well as the current market environment. That being said, although each 401(k) plan is different, contributions accumulated within your plan, which are diversified among stock, bond, and cash investments, can provide an average annual return ranging from 3% to 8%, depending how you allocate your funds to each of those investment options. Key Takeaways How your 401(k) account performs depends entirely on its asset allocation. Different assets offer different returns; generally, the greater the growth potential, the greater the risk. Typically, an individual with a long time horizon takes on more risk within a portfolio than one who is near retirement. You can compare your 401(k) holdings' performance to those of similar funds or a benchmark index. A moderately aggressive portfolio, around 60% stocks and 40% fixed-income vehicles and cash, posts an average annual return in the 5% to 8% range. How 401(k) Plans Work Let's review the basics. An employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k) can be a valuable tool in accumulating savings for the long-term. Each company that offers a 401(k) plan provides an opportunity for employees to contribute moneya percentage of their wageson a pretax basis [or after-tax basis for Roth 401(k)s], through paycheck deferrals. Often, employers provide a match on employee contributions, up to a certain percentage, creating an even greater incentive to save. While they vary according to the company and the plan provider, each 401(k) offers a number of investment options to which individuals can allocate their contributionsusually, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Employees benefit not only from systematic savings and reinvestment, their investments' tax-free growth, and employer matching contributions, but also from the economies-of-scale nature of 401(k) plans and the variety of their investment options. It's All About the Asset Allocation How your 401(k) account performs depends entirely on your asset allocation: that is, the type of funds you invest in, the combination of funds, and how much money you've allocated to each. Investors experience different results, depending on the investment options and allocations available within their specific plansand how they take advantage of them. Two employees at the same company could be participating in the same 401(k) plan, but experience different rates of return, based on the type of investments they select. Different assets perform differently and meet different needs. Debt instruments, like bonds and CDs, provide generally safe income but not much growthhence, not as much of a return. Real estate (available to investors in a real estate investment trust (REIT) or real estate mutual fund or ETF) offers income and often capital appreciation as well. Corporate stock, aka equities, have the highest potential return. However, the equities universe is a huge one, and within it, returns vary tremendously. Some stocks offer good income through their rich dividends, but little appreciation. Blue-chip and large-cap stocksthose of well-established, major corporationsoffer returns that are steady, though on the lower side. Smaller, fast-moving firms are often pegged as "growth stocks," and as the name implies, they have the potential to offer a high rate of return. But of course, what goes up can go down: the greater a stock's potential for aggressive growth, usually the greater its chances of big tumbles, too. It's called the risk-return tradeoff. It sounds like an advertising cliche, but it bears repeating anyway: Past returns of funds within a 401(k) plan are no guarantee of future performance. Your asset allocation should be determined based on your specific appetite for risk, also known as your risk tolerance, as well as the length of time you have until you need to begin withdrawals from your retirement account. Investors with a low appetite for risk are better served by placing investments in less volatile allocations that could result in lower rates of return over time. Conversely, investors with a greater risk tolerance are more likely to choose investments with more potential for higher returns but with greater volatility. Balancing Risk and Returns Now, it's time to return to that 5% to 8% range we quoted up top. It's an average rate of return, based on the common moderately aggressive allocation among investors participating in 401(k) plans that consists of 60% equities and 40% debt/cash. A 60/40 portfolio allocation is designed to achieve long-term growth through stock holdings while mitigating volatility with bond and cash positions. On the risk/reward spectrum, the 60/40 portfolio is about in the middle. For instance, if you invest in a more aggressive portfoliosay 70% equities, 25% debt, and only 5% cash you may expect higher, double-digit returns over time. However, the volatility within your account may also be much greater. Conversely, if you went more conservative75% debt/fixed-income instruments, 15% equities, 10% cashyour portfolio would have a pretty smooth ride, but returns of only 2% to 3% (depending on what prevailing interest rates were). Typically, an individual with a long time horizon takes on more risk within a portfolio than one who is near retirement. And it's common, and prudent, for investors to gradually shift the assets within the portfolio as they get closer to retirement. As a one-stop-shopping way to accomplish this metamorphosis, target-date funds have become a popular choice among 401(k) plan participants. These mutual funds allow investors to select a date near their projected retirement year, such as 2025 or 2050. Funds with a further-out target date focus investment allocations in a more aggressive manner than funds with a near-term target date. Rates of return on target-date funds vary from company to company, but these one-fund allocations offer a hands-off approach to asset allocation within a 401(k). $109,600 The average 401(k) plan balance as of Quarter 3 2020 at Fidelity Investments, provider/administrator for over 30 million such accounts. How Is Your 401(k) Doing? Allocate your assets as you will, you can't ever be 100% certain of the returns your 401(k) will generatethat's why it's called investing, not saving. But if you want a sense of how your portfolio is performing, you can, and should, make comparisons. Specifically, you can compare the investments in your account to other mutual funds or ETFs that invest in similar assets (corporate bonds, small-cap stocks, etc.), or have similar investment objectives (aggressive growth, balanced income, appreciation, etc.). You can also see how a particular fund is doing compared to an overall index of its asset class, sector, or security type. For example, if you owned a real estate fund, you might want to see whether it is underperforming or outperforming Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index (DJUSRE), which tracks over 100 REITs and real estate companies. If you own broad-based equity funds, you can even compare them to the stock market itself. Don't be surprised, though, if your actual return lags the index by 1% to 2%. The cause is, in a nutshell, the annual fees charged by both your individual funds and by the 401(k) plan itself. Unfortunately, this sort of expense is pretty much beyond your control, and to be expected. However, if the index is up and your fund is down, be afraid, be very afraid. The Bottom Line It is not possible to predict your rate of return within your 401(k), but you can use the basics of asset allocation and risk tolerance, in conjunction with your time horizon, to create a portfolio to help you reach your retirement goals. Also, look carefully at the fees different choices entail. Each of these factors influences the overall rate of return within your 401(k) account and should be reviewed regularly to ensure that your account meets your investment preferences and nest-egg accumulation needs. Theres no one return that's "right" to expect from a 401(k). But it's not like it's some situation or event outside your controllike watching the weather and making vacation plans accordingly. It works the other way around: You pinpoint what youll need in retirement and your time frame until you retire, and determine what you expect from your 401(k) from that. By Geoff Percival Aer Lingus nearly doubled its profits to 104m in the first half of the year, new figures from parent IAG show. The airline saw 9.5% year-on-year growth in passenger numbers last month. It comfortably outperformed sister carrier British Airways which saw its profits rise 6.4% in the first half. On the back of IAGs interim results, Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh said the airline is reinvesting in its business to meet its growth targets. However, he warned that to realise its ambitions significant infrastructure development is required at Dublin Airport. We expect that the airports forthcoming capital investment programme will begin to address the infrastructure deficits at the airport, Kavanagh said. Work on Dublins new runway is set to start this year and be completed by the end of 2021. The DAA has described it as the most important thing Ireland will build in a generation and warned that failure to amend night-flying and outdated noise-restriction planning conditions could result in the loss of 2.4 million passengers and the erosion of the airports international competitiveness. Higher ticket prices and lower costs helped IAG post a 6% rise in second-quarter operating profit, to 835m, and keep it on track for full-year growth. First-half revenue increased 3.1% to 11.2bn. The group also owns Spanish airlines Iberia, Level, and Vueling. It reiterated its outlook that it expected annual operating profit to be higher this year at current fuel prices and exchange rates. IAG continues to want to add new airlines to its portfolio and its chief executive, Willie Walsh said the group remained interested in Norwegian, the struggling low-cost carrier it had approached earlier this year. In April, IAG acquired a 4.6% stake in Norwegian with a view to starting takeover discussions, but Mr Walsh said that there were no active discussions taking place, adding that Norwegian would be transformed under IAG ownership. We believe that long-haul, low-cost is a segment of the market that is undeserved and we believe that we can do so profitably, Mr Walsh said. Meanwhile, Norwegian Air plans to hire an extra 40 pilots for its Dublin base as it adds more transatlantic flights. Norwegian is seeking to hire captains and first officers certified to fly Boeing 737 aircraft and will almost double the number of flight crews at its Dublin base. Last year, Norwegian said it had poached more than 140 pilots from Ryanair in Europe. Additional reporting Reuters By Joe Dermody West Corks fishing industry is to gain a 23.5m, 216m-long quay development following approval of the project and associated works on Dinish Island, Castletownbere. Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Michael Creed attended the signing of the contract with L&M Keating builders. Mr Creed said: The new facilities will be on a par with the best in Europe, and will significantly drive the fishing industry and the economy on the Beara peninsula and allow for a major expansion of the seafood support sector and other marine related industries in the South West. The expanded landing facilities and increased quay space will also provide opportunities for further local economic diversification. The project will double Dinish Islands workable quay space and significantly expand fish landings, on-shore processing and general marine activity at the port. The minister added: Government Policy is to substantially increase the landings into Ireland from all vessels that fish in the waters around Ireland. We want to see Ireland become the hub for all the marine activities that can be generated by the sustainable harvesting of these renewable resources in our marine sphere. As well as the 216m of extra landing berth, the project will deliver 2.2 acres of highly usable reclaimed quay storage area, two new major breakwater structures at the entrance to the harbour, and dredging works to further facilitate landings by vessels up to 100m long. The last major quay development in Castletownbere was completed in 2010. Since then, overall landings into Castletownbere have risen 60% in volume from 19,030t to 30,522t and 232% in value from 29.9m to 99.4m in 2017. The number of landings from other large EU fishing trawlers has increased by 317% from 370 to 1,543 per annum over the same seven-year period. The Dinish Island project has been proposed for EU part- funding under Irelands European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Operational Programme, co-funded the Government of Ireland and the European Union. Implementation of the Governments 2.75m incentive for tillage farmers must be kept simple, farm organisations have urged. The Irish Farmers Associations (IFA) grain committee chairman Mark Browne welcomed the move by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed. But he said: We cannot afford to have any uncertainty or unnecessary bureaucracy around this scheme. These crops need to be sown urgently to take advantage of the recent rain. The scheme is aimed at encouraging tillage farmers to plant fast-growing fodder crops as a catch crop. Joe Healy, president of the IFA, said growing fodder crops on tillage ground has the potential to play a part in closing the national fodder deficit arising from the drought. Mr Creed, announcing the scheme, said he was acutely aware of the need to prepare for the winter ahead. I have been actively engaged with the fodder group and, through their work, maximising production of homegrown fodder is a collective priority this autumn. The minister urged tillage growers to actively engage in the fodder production market. The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) tillage chairman, Gavin Carberry, said it was encouraging the minister listened to calls for urgent action. Discussing the newly announced tillage fodder measure today are Tom Short, @PaulKehoeTD @michaeldarcy Mark Browne @ADoyleTD and Angus Woods pic.twitter.com/KFYp4AqsQO Irish Farmers' Association (@IFAmedia) August 3, 2018 It is vital that the incentive is in place immediately with no red tape so that farmers can get the crops sown without delay, he said. Under the scheme, an incentive of 155 per hectare will be paid to tillage growers who grow a temporary crop of short rotation grasses for fodder production over the winter months. Meanwhile, 100 per hectare will be provided for those growing catch crops such as fodder rape and turnips. Mr Carberry said tillage farmers can be part of the solution to the fodder crisis and said it serves as a reminder that we should not put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to the agri-food strategy. He added: In the longer term, we need to seriously examine how to reverse the decline in cereal growing in Ireland because we need more homegrown feed, not less. Mr Creed said: This year has been challenging for both livestock and tillage farmers. "This measure will support tillage farmers to supply into what is a strong market for fodder. The Tucson Theatre Announcements List is a monitored e-mail list. Notices from Tucson area theatre companies, filmmakers and others are forwarded to the list members. These notices include auditions, casting calls, openings and other announcements of interest to actors, directors, techies and theatre lovers in our community. This Blog contains an archive of recent posts to the list. For more information go to http://tucsonstage.com By Eoin English and Aodhan O Faolain The granting of court orders to prevent two patients with dementia from leaving a hospital is indicative of a broken healthcare system for people with dementia, campaigners say. The Alzheimer Society of Ireland described as deeply worrying a scenario whereby the State obtains permission to detain people living with dementia in an environment without their control or consent. It also raised concerns about how such patients might be prevented from leaving hospitals. Will they be physically or chemically restrained? it asked. It was reacting to separate and unrelated cases in which a hospital secured High Court orders preventing two of its patients with severe dementia from leaving the facility. The hospital sought the orders over concerns that a woman in her late 80s and a man in his late 70s, who have severe cognitive difficulties arising out of their dementia, may try and leave. The hospital, in a case where none of the parties can be identified for legal reasons, had serious concerns about the health and safety of both patients if they were to leave and asked for orders allowing it to keep them as in-patients. Medical experts who have treated both patients said it is in their best interests that they are not allowed to leave the hospital where they are receiving the care and support they require. David Leahy, counsel for the hospital, told Mr Justice Michael Hanna that the applications arose following a recent Court of Appeal judgment which found there is no common law power permitting a hospital preventing patients with conditions like dementia from leaving if they so desire. He said the orders, which are among the first of their kind to be sought from the courts, were being applied for in the best interests of the patients well-being. In the case of the woman, she was admitted to the hospital in recent days and had no insight into her severe difficulties and has severe paranoia. Mr Leahy said that since her admission, she had been disruptive, thought the staff were gangsters, and had set off a fire alarm in the hospital, threatening to leave and return home. She insisted she can still drive despite not having motor tax or insurance. When her car was immobilised she had gone and bought another car. He said the social work team that had been dealing with her was very concerned about her financial affairs and an application to make her a ward of court was pending. In relation to the male patient, the court heard he has severe cognitive communication difficulties, is highly agitated, and his family have been unable to cope with him. He had recently injured himself in a fall and had a tendency to wander and again there were fears he could leave the hospital. Mr Justice Hanna made orders in both cases allowing the hospital to prevent the patients from leaving. Both applications were supported by the patients next of kin. The judge, who in the case of each of the patients appointed a guardian ad litem to look after their interest during the proceedings, adjourned the actions to a date in September. But Alzheimer Society of Ireland said it has been campaigning for the government to fund more community supports and services for people with dementia and their family carers as a matter of urgency in order to prevent crises situations such as these. Its head of advocacy and public affairs, Tina Leonard said a culture change is now required in how people with dementia are treated, perceived and reported on. She said the families of the people in these cases and the hospital staff were also victims of the inadequate provision from the healthcare system that is in place to support people living with dementia and those caring for them. There is extensive evidence to indicate that the behaviours described in these cases can be initiated by change in the environment of the person with dementia, a change in caregiving staff or a frightening experience. By Sean ORiordan Bus Eireann has hired 66 new drivers this year in an effort to provide better services in the face of increased traffic congestion and a near 20% increase in passenger numbers in Cork City. Plans are in place to shortly increase opening hours at the Black Ash park-and-ride and August 9 will see the re-introduction of bus priority measures in Patrick Street which will benefit most of its services with quicker journey times. A spokeswoman for Bus Eireann said it is expected that the National Transport Authority (NTA) will run some promotional city fares as a result of this. Congestion and traffic levels in Cork City are exceeding the pre-recession peak levels of 2006-2008 so the bus priority is very much welcomed, the spokeswoman said. Passengers journeys in Cork City are up just under 20% year-on-year to 5.046 million. They were also up 14.4% in July compared to June. The spokeswoman said that 12 additional double-deckers will be introduced to the fleet next month, specifically to provide extra capacity for city services. A further tranche of new state-of-the-art buses will be introduced into the fleet in early 2019 with NTA funding, she said. The 66 new drivers are from a number of countries including Ireland, Italy, Africa, Romania, and mainland Europe. Park and Ride at Black Ash, operated by Bus Eireann on behalf of Cork City Council, will shortly operate for longer hours from 7am to 8pm and will now serve Patrick Street. There will be a 10-minute frequency of buses between 7am and 9.30am and 4pm and 7pm. Meanwhile, major changes are set to come into effect on the busy Route 220/220X by the end of September with an increase in frequency to every 15 minutes from 7am to 7pm. There will also be increased Saturday and Sunday services. The acting Garda Commissioner has described 2017 as a challenging year for gardai, which was marked by unacceptable behavioural and governance failures. Donall O Cualain said, however, that there had also been significant positive developments. In the latest annual report of An Garda Siochana, Mr O Cualain acknowledged the major controversy which emerged over the widespread inaccurate recording of roadside breath tests on motorists over an eight-year period. The commissioner said it was not in keeping with a professional and ethical police and security service. He said the issue had also highlighted poor supervision, a disregard for data quality, management, governance, systems and training. Mr O Cualain said a focus of the force last year was introducing new systems and processes so such failures cant happen again. He said there also needed to be cultural change among gardai which is why the Code of Ethics introduced last year had become the basis for all garda work. He said there was a clear determination and commitment within the force to cultural change and implementation of the Modernisation and Renewal Programme, although he accepted that the pace of change was not as quick as gardai would like. Mr O Cualain said 2017 had been marked by many operational successes, including against gangland crime, while Operation Thor had saved thousands of people from the trauma of suffering a burglary. The acting commissioner, who is due to retire in September with the appointment of the new commissioner, Drew Harris, the current PSNI deputy chief constable, also welcomed the fact that 2017 was the lowest level of road deaths since records began in 1959 with 159 fatalities a 15% decrease on 2016 figures. Drew Harris The report showed that the force had met 48 objectives of its 2017 Policing Plan but had not met 27 targets, while 14 were partially achieved. Among the targets not reached were increased detections of burglaries, robberies and assaults, the re-opening of Garda stations and the recruitment of 300 new members of the Garda Reserve. The annual report reveals an average of 26 people were reported missing each day last year. A total of 9,522 missing cases were filed in 2017 a decrease of 3% over the previous year. Gardai said the vast majority were located within a short period of time but 36 still remained missing at the end of the year. There was also a substantial increase in the number of victims of child sex abuse identified by gardai following the establishment of a Victim Identification Unit as part of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau in July 2017. The report also reveals that 145 gardai were disciplined last year for breaches of regulations with various sanctions imposed including fines totalling 59,880. One garda was dismissed from the force, while 28 gardai were on suspension at the end of the year. By Jimmy Woulfe Limerick will be without Gods man on the terraces when they line out at Croke Park for the All-Ireland Hurling final. Christian evangelist, Frank Hogan, aka John 3:7, yesterday revealed he has been forced to blow the final whistle on invoking spiritual assistance for Limerick. For more than 30 years, Frank has brought his one-man crusade to grounds all over the country. Frank Hogan, Castletroy, Limerick who is well known in sporting crowds as the man that holds the sign John 3:7. Pic: Liam Burke Press 22 Frank, 80, said: I have some heart trouble and I had hoped to be back this year with the sign. However, my wife Myrna feels I am not well enough. "Im so sad not to be able to get to Croke Park with my sign with its message which is so appropriate as Limerick hurling is born again. Aaron Gillane from Patrickswell, he said, is one of the finest players he has ever seen in the green jersey of Limerick. Frank said: I am very sad at the thought of not being in Croke Park for the final. My heart will be with the Limerick team but it mightnt be strong enough to cope with the excitement. While I was delighted for Limerick, I was sorry it had to be Cork we beat. The Cork GAA supporters are great, nearly as good as the Kerry lads. Frank recalled only one unfortunate incident with his sign. Some fella from Clare threw the sign out the train window near Limerick Junction, he said. But a good Tipp farmer came on it in a field near the railway line and brought it to Thurles railway station and they got it sent on to me. I dont think the Lord will hold it against Clare on Sunday. Frank got his John 3:7 missionary idea when watching Pat Cash defeat Ivan Lendl in the Wimbledon mens final in 1987. He said: When Cash went up into the crowd I saw a man with a car number plate with the John 3:7 message and I took up the idea with a much bigger sign. "I have met great friends over the years and gatemen have been very good in allowing me in with the sign. Frank is praying his sign will have one last outing for the Limerick hurlers. Please god, theyll bring back the McCarthy Cup and Ill definitely make it into OConnell St for the homecoming," said Frank. By Sean ORiordan The owners of a pier which was the last piece of Ireland walked on by more than 1m emigrants have submitted revised plans for its upgrade. Initial plans for the refurbishment of Heartbreak Pier, Cobh, Co Cork, were withdrawn by the Titanic Experience centre for further consultation with engineers, archaeologists, and architects and the local planning authority. The new plans have been lodged with Cork County Council to turn it into a visitor platform. The Titanic Experience has carried out a comprehensive preservation project on the pier, which at one stage was in danger of falling into the sea. Gillen Joyce, managing director of the visitor centre, said they want to upgrade it so visitors will be able to walk in the footsteps of the emigrants who left there for Australia and America. It was also the place where 123 passengers got onto tenders to board the ill-fated Titanic. Mr Joyce said: The new visitor structure for Titanic Pier is designed to create a synergy between the surviving timber pier structure, which rises from the water and stretches out to sea in front of the former White Star Line offices (now the Titanic Experience) and a sculptured structure which moves over and around the historic pier in a form carefully considered to reveal the evocative profile of the historic timber pier. He said the latest design is modern and contemporary, to distinguish between the past and the future. Previous concept for the Titanic Pier The new elements of the Titanic Pier will look contemporary, and we have tried to ensure the most aesthetically pleasing structure, whilst also managing visitor engagement, interpretation, safety and preservation considerations, he said. Mr Joyce said the visitor centre has also held talks with people in Cobh to come up with a new and hopefully acceptable design. He said the new design follows international best practice conservation principles of contemporary intervention to a historic object, and design guidelines for the placing of new works in a historic urban context such as Cobh. From access to the pier to structural, preservation and safety considerations to interpretation, we have worked to provide the optimal solution for all concerned, Mr Joyce said. He added that, in sharing the story of the Titanic in Cobh through the Titanic Experience, staff at the visitor centre have seen firsthand the level of interest and respect for the Titanic story from all around the world. Thousands of people each year visit Titanic Experience Cobh to learn more about the Titanics connection to Ireland, said Mr Joyce. By Lynne Kelleher State papers have revealed how plans for an early release of prisoners for Pope John Paul IIs Phoenix Park mass 39 years ago were scotched due to concerns over the risk of burglary to empty homes all over the capital. The official documents were unearthed for a RTEs Documentary on One: The Popes Prisoners, which sheds light on the papal amnesty which gave 76 Irish inmates their freedom before their release date in September 1979. The Polish pontiff celebrated Mass for 1.25m people in the capital in 1979 which was the largest gathering in our countrys history leaving most of Dublins neighbourhoods completely deserted. The RTE Radio One documentary sheds light on the amnesty, which was originally mooted to allow devout prisoners join the huge crowds flocking to see Pope John Paul II. Tom Quinlan, keeper at the National Archives in Dublin, reveals how the amnesty was suggested by the Minister for Justice as a gesture from the Government to the Vatican. However, the State papers reveal this was rowed back when a senior civil servant expressed concern about public reaction. What the [senior civil servant] says is we have a serious level of crime, a very poor rate of detection, and a serious problem of recidivism, said Mr Quinlan. He said it would be risky to give the amnesty on the first day of the visit because of the threat to Dublins empty homes. There was also concern that most of the gardai in the country would be on duty at the various masses during John Paul IIs three-day visit, September 29 to October 1. Kevin Warner, who oversaw education in the prisons at the time, said it was pointed out that this might be too tempting for prisoners on early release. People got the image of most of Dublin being in the Phoenix Park and these guys mightnt necessarily go to the Phoenix Park, he told the documentary-makers. It was eventually decided to go ahead with the papal amnesty but only on the day Pope John Paul II was flying out of Ireland. According to Mr Quinlan, official State papers said the prisoners who were proposed for release were all serving sentences of two years or less. Tomorow's @RTEDocOnOne @1pm travels back to 1979 and to the first visit of a #Pope to #Ireland when the Irish Government made an unlikely humanitarian gesture by granting early release to 76 Irish prisoners - but there was a twist.... https://t.co/ZdBult2T9l RTE Radio 1 (@RTERadio1) August 3, 2018 The papers also reveal how gardai on duty during Pope John Paul IIs visit ended up so hungry during their long shift that they resorted to stealing apples from a private orchard. There is a very interesting file on the whole business of guards being hungry, said Mr Quinlan. There were no catering arrangements and a lot of guards were on duty for quite a long time. Apparently some of the guards were forced to make use of a private orchard. Its a minor amusing thing where you find guards themselves possibly on the wrong side of the law because of their own hunger. Former Labour TD and prison campaigner Joe Costello said the early release of the 76 prisoners did not cause a spike in crime as feared. It didnt cause any uproar or any increase on the level of criminality, said Mr Costello. Documentary on One: The Popes Prisoners will air today at 1pm and will be repeated at 7pm tomorrow. By Tom Tuite A youth has been given a 12-month sentence for a vicious gang attack in Dublin where a college student was left with an imprint of a shoe on his forehead after getting kicked 20 times. The 17-year-old boy and two men have pleaded guilty at the Dublin Childrens Court to assault causing harm to the man aged 20 at Malahide Castle on October 14, 2017. However, the teens one-year custodial sentence could not be activated due to a shortage of spaces in the Oberstown juvenile detention centre. The teenager has been found to be at a high risk of committing more crimes over the next 12 months. Judge John OConnor said the sentence had to be deferred until a later date. Garda Lisa Murray told the court the 17-year-old boy was also one of the main instigators of the attack. He had no prior criminal convictions. The victim was pushed to the ground and kicked full force approximately 20 times. The court heard the man pleaded for it to stop. His mobile phone was taken and when he got to his feet he was pulled back to the ground and repeatedly kicked again to the face. A victim impact statement was read in court. The student described how he suffered severe bruising to his head and face and there was a stamp mark and shoe imprint on my forehead that did not go away for a week. He was also spitting blood as a result of mouth injuries. The attack affected his confidence and left him suffering depression and unable to sleep, he said. He felt he was deliberately targeted by his attackers and it caused trauma for his family who are concerned where I am all the time. The teenager had also admitted that he attacked the same man just over three weeks earlier. He had also pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery of a woman in Malahide as she was walking her dog on April 15. Judge OConnor heard that, during the latest incident, the woman was approached from behind by two males, one of whom allegedly produced a knife before a demand was made to hand over her purse. However, they left empty-handed. In her victim impact statement, the woman said she did not suffer any injuries but the incident affects me daily. She now suffered anxiety, was afraid to go out at night, and was always looking over my shoulder. The court had also heard that the youth had drug issues and complex needs and wanted to apologise. A probation report on him was furnished to Judge OConnor for the sentence hearing. Defence solicitor Kelly Breen, pleading for leniency, said the youth was very remorseful. Judge OConnor noted from the pre-sentence probation report that the teenager remained at a high risk of reoffending over the next 12 months. Drugs, alcohol, and his peers were identified as major problems for the youth. He had told his probation officer that during the first attack the 20-year-old man was known to him and thought of him as a friend. The man received several blows during this incident, and three weeks later the youth and two other young men attacked again. The 17-year-old started the argument and began punching him and continued hitting him, while his accomplices kicked the victim. He expressed no regret and had a lack of empathy, the judge noted. The probation worker found the youth had tried to minimise the incident and struggled to explain why he attacked the man or the level of animosity and aggression. Alcohol and drug-taking had played a part, the judge noted. However, he said that while that might be an explanation, it was not a mitigating factor. The teenager had also been assessed in relation to his mental health, the court heard. Ms Breen said the teenager had had a turbulent upbringing and had lived in various residential centres. His ability to control his impulses lessened and his aggression increased when he had alcohol taken, she said. Judge OConnor said he could have given the teen a sentence of up to two years but noted his guilty plea and lack of previous convictions. He said he had to give a sentence and imposed a 12-month term. Due to a lack of space in the Oberstown detention centre, a problem that arises frequently, the judge deferred activating the sentence and ordered the youth to appear again in October. He warned that, in the meantime, this will be hanging over you. His co-defendants are due back in court in September for sentencing. From 18-inch heels to skinny jeans, Annmarie OConnor looks back at the trends that have dominated her 10-year tenure as Weekends Fashion Editor THIS YEAR marks my decade-long anniversary as Weekend Fashion Editor. Not bad going, given the industrys reputation for change. And things have changed a lot. The past decade alone has witnessed a global recession, the spread of social media, and a complete restructure in shopping behaviours all of which allude to a burgeoning democracy in matters of taste. It also gave us wedge sneakers, onesies, harem pants and the Kardashians. Thats the thing about fashion: not all trends were created equal but all have equal sway. Some are exciting like first-date butterflies; others are comforting like chocolate and Friends reruns; a few will elicit shame, remorse and/or flat-out denial. Like them or loathe them, their tenure on the style-scape collectively represent a sign of the times. In the spirit of nostalgia, Ive taken a look back at matters sartorial that have mattered the most; and those that, at the very least, have given us a reason to laugh. Behold the good, the bad, and the downright puzzling. HIGH HEELS Lady Gaga showcases extreme heels at a press conference in 2011. Picture: Marina Bay Sands via Getty Images In 2008 heel heights grew to 6- and 7-inches. While podiatry bills rose, models and celebrities fell much to the delight of paparazzi. Not to be outdone, Christian Louboutin announced he was making the first 8-inch heel outside of the fetish world. This was the start of competitive footwear fashions most lethal sport. By 2012 heel heights soon resembled a scoreboard Natascha Marro (7-inch); Iris Van Herpen (7.4-inch), Jan Taminau (10-inch); Alexander McQueen (12-inch) with 9- to 18-inches from Japanese designer Noritaka Tatehana. Lady Gaga and socialite Daphne Guinness may have risen to the occasion but us mere mortals breathed a sigh of relief when the adidas Stan Smith trainer gained global popularity (thanks to Celine designer Phoebe Philo) and sparked a white sneaker sensation which has yet to abate. ANTI-FASHION New Balance trainers and the rise of anti-fashion on the runway in 2015 in Madrid. Picture: Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images Theres a certain challenge in making bad taste look good. Maybe thats the allure. From the revival of tacky Christmas jumpers to the ugly shoe trend spearheaded by Christopher Kane pool sliders (2010) and Celines fur-lined Birkenstocks (2012), pretty was losing its footing. Normcore a term coined by New York trend agency K-HOLE to describe the backlash against trophy dressing, received increased media attention. An alloy of normal and hardcore, the movement towards anonymous dressing, inadvertently mainstreamed with New Balance sneakers, cargo pants and dad sneakers rising in popularity. Fast forward to 2018 and kitsch continues its commercial ascent with the runway success of the Balenciaga Triple S behemoth trainers, bum bags, and comedically oversized puffer coats. The biggest irony? Anti-fashion has been consumed by its own irony; worn by fashion die-hards in a bid to look, well, fashionable. Ponder that. HYBRIDS Skousers (skirt trousers) by Armani in 2015 were part of the hybrid trend that saw cardigans become cardigowns and skirt/shorts become skorts. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images Something curious happened around 2010. Perfectly sensible garments divided and multiplied, causing a semantic minefield. Cardigans split into cardigowns (cardigan-dressing gown) and coatigans (coat-cardigan); jackets morphed into mackets (mac-jacket) and jardigans (jacket-cardigan); with skirt bisected into skousers (skirt-trousers) and skorts (skirt-shorts). Then things got out of control. Flirts (full-length skirts) raised eyebrows, mace (male lace) sounded like a self-defense spray; and whorts (winter shorts) made us reach for over-the-counter medication. Needless to say, there are certain style stem cells that shouldnt mate ever. SAVVY SHOPPING Budgeting belts tightened during the recession George at Asda showcased supermarket chic in 2014. Picture: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images for George At Asda As budgeting belts tightened between 2008-2017, traditional retail models felt the squeeze. Consumers wanted more bang for their buck and were prepared to look elsewhere to get their shop on. Clothes swaps (known as shwopping and swishing) experienced a redux while designer clothing consignment and charity stores offered second-hand swag for a fraction of the swing tag. Independent designers found strength in numbers as collectives and pop-up shops engaged directly the consumer, while designer-highstreet collaborations and supermarket fashion lines catered to those with more dash than cash. The fall in footfall coincided with an exponential rise in internet sales as online markets from eBay to Depop offered a way to cash in on ones closet by selling off unwanted clobber. FAKE NEWS AND SKINNY JEANS Vogue declared skinny jeans were dead but the public says otherwise. Topshop still sells a pair every second. Picture: Ben A. Pruchnie/ Getty Images for George At Asda When Vogue magazine declared the skinny jean dead in 2016, fashion followers went in search of the morgue. We wanted evidence preferably to the contrary. After all, skinny jeans have been a reassuring wardrobe presence since the early noughties, reminding us that some things never change. Until they did. The skinnys straight leg counterpart attempted its hostile takeover to high fashion praise and a suspicious look from the high street. In 2017, online retailer ASOS shifted 30,000 pairs of their Ridley skinnies. Oh, and Topshop reportedly sell a pair of skinny jeans every second. The style cognoscenti may have declared their untimely demise but the denim demi-god is, most definitely, alive and well. Elvis told us. POWER DRESSING Thanks to social media, fashion became a level playing field. Style stars include producer and actress Lala Anthony, writer and activist Sinead Burke, Kim Kardashian and founder of The Business of Fashion, Imran Amed. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Business of Fashion When it comes to making a political statement, its not always what you say but how you say it that matters. Take the Duchess of Cambridge whose love of Reiss dresses (she wore on in her engagement portrait to Prince William) and L K Bennett pumps, made HRH the uncrowned queen of the high street. Likewise, Michelle Obamas deference to labels like Gap and J Crew coupled with a fondness for cardigans (if its good enough to meet the Queen) made her a truly democratic First Lady. Fashion has also proven its power as an agent for change as evidenced by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. Slogan t-shirts from Dior (We Should All Be Feminists) and Irelands 2018 Repeal the Eighth campaign have become visually impactful ways to deliver a collective message. Spoiler alert: Expect the codes of dressing to shift further with female empowerment at the forefront of the upcoming autumn/winter collections. STYLE STARS Slogan T-shirts from Dior, part of the Power Dressing trend. Back in the day (circa 2009-2010), street style blogs were at peak influence. Found by FaceHunter? Spotted by The Sartorialist? Consider yourself made. The ensuing popularity of YouTube and photo-sharing app, Instagram have since created a level playing field for burgeoning style stars to share their own content. Whats more, some rad revolutionaries are using the platform for something other than shopping hauls or Outfit of the Day posts. Irelands Sinead Burke (@thesineadburke) has made big strides for little people in advocating for design inclusivity with plaudits from Vogue and The Business of Fashion; while sixty-four-year-old American university professor Lyn Slater (@iconaccidental) became a scion for senior style thanks to her avant-garde fashion diary. At 5 feet 3 inches and a size 22, model Tess Holliday continues to challenge aesthetic perceptions with her body positive message - #EffYourBeautyStandards. The new vanguard has spoken and were listening. Main-image credits Photo: Hazel Coonagh -www.hazelcoonagh.com Hair: Aviary Lane, Dublin -www.aviarylane.com Earrings: Annika Inezlarge glassy hoops, Loulerie -www.loulerie.com Annmarie wears: Dress, Kahlo & Apfel; Shoes, Dries Van Noten (Annmaries own) Earrings: Margaret Elizabeth pink druzy earrings, Loulerie, www.loulerie.com; Dress, Miss Daisy Blue; Belt, American Apparel; Shoes, Uterque Women read crime novels twice as much as men but are we really hardwired to love thrillers? Rowena Walsh examines the genre we cant get enough of. They set our pulses racing, get our adrenaline flowing and allow us to play detective. No matter how heinous a crime has been committed, justice is served. Its hardly surprising that the lure of the thriller has been irresistible. We love them on the big screen, the small screen and, most especially, on our bookshelves. The phenomenal success of Gillian Flynns Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and their subsequent movie adaptations has enticed millions of us to this genre. As we enter the busiest time of the year for holidays, it seems that most female readers will be packing a thriller in their suitcase, one probably penned by a woman. A recent UK study found that more than twice as many women read crime novels, compared with men, while Maria Dickenson, MD of Dubray Books, says the crime genre was worth 9 million in the Irish market in 2017. Already its up 11pc year to date this year, and is outperforming the rest of the trade, she says. She believes that domestic noir a genre in which female writers excel really appeals to women. Books set in the domestic realm such as Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train or AJ Finns best-selling The Woman in the Window have relationships at their heart, and while there is always a big crime at the centre of them, its this emotional content that is striking a chord with female readers. The Girl On The Train was a literary and cinematic success globally. Irish author Karen Perry, whose critically acclaimed fifth novel Your Closest Friend has just been published, says that this trend has made thrillers less about heroism and taken them into a more psychological space. This area of the genre has refocussed on peoples normal lives in the home and the workspace as an arena for risk and danger, and I think women are excited by that, she says. Theyre interested in exploring how ordinary people respond to extraordinary circumstances. Women are also interested in the female character as a protagonist, an agent of change within the story, rather than just as the beautiful corpse whose death is being investigated. Male authors tend to have a lone wolf at the heart of their books, usually one named Jack, who happens to have a shadowy backstory and has fortuitously arrived in a small town just as a crime has been committed. Female authors, in contrast, usually offer a more complicated set-up a woman who exists within a web of connections and that is appealing to their readers. These are empowering reads for women, says Dubrays Maria Dickenson, who points out that while there can be a lot of violence against women in thrillers, if the crime is solved by a strong female protagnast, that works as a counterbalance. Karen Perry believes that women are drawn to thrillers because essentially a thriller is a puzzle, a messy knot of hidden clues and deceits that needs to be unpicked to get to the truth, and I think that women inherently like making sense of puzzles, they like solving problems. We revel in details, says psychotherapist Stella OMalley. She says that women are more interested in minutiae, while men are focussed on broad strokes. So a woman will go aha, I knew he didnt close the window. The stakes are usually very high in a thriller so that immediately draws the reader into the story. The reason I read in its simplest form is to find out what happens next, says author Melissa Albert, whose debut Young Adult novel The Hazel Wood has been described as mixture of horror and fairy tale. I love beautiful writing, but what I really love is the thrill of the story and with a thriller, its like everything else aside - you have to find out what happens next. Its this addictive, page-turning quality that make thrillers so enticing. Who hasnt stayed up late too engrossed in a story, dying to find out the next twist and guessing where the author will take us next? The thriller isnt just alluring to adults, young readers are devouring them too. Elizabeth Klehfoths debut novel All These Beautiful Strangers has been published in this country as Young Adult fiction but is directed at an adult audience in the US. She feels that the lure of thrillers for younger readers is similar to what attracts adults the page-turner quality, the suspense, the high stakes. Younger and older readers want to find out whats going to happen before the character does. As a thriller reader, youre very connected to whats going on and invested in whats going to happen, and theres a slow doling out of information that creates the suspense, says Elizabeth, whose novel has been optioned by producer Bruna Papandrea. Brunas literary-to-film projects include the incredibly successful Gone Girl and Big Little Lies. Ben Affleck in Gone Girl, another crime novel that made it to the big screen. Tensions run high in thrillers and perhaps women are so attracted to them because they allow us to have a safe adrenaline high. Stella OMalley agrees, but is quick to point out that the violence has become a much more sellable story in the last 30 years. Violence has become more normalised. Freak incidents, before the 90s wouldnt have penetrated our minds so much, and therefore what were reading is reflective of what were viewing in society, she says. But, globally, violent crime is statistically down, were less likely to die today of a violent crime than ever before in history. She says that our human instinct wants to make sense of tragedies, such as the recent Greek wildfires, and thats whats drawing us to read thrillers. Because we believe theyre likely to happen, we want to read about it to figure out how wed escape from it. Another aspect is that we all have a shadow side, and it lets our shadow, darker side free, she says. In a way, thrillers give freedom to explore the darker side of humanity, which is the darker side of ourselves. Melissa Albert, whose day job is that of editor of the teen blog for the US book retailer Barnes & Noble, says that as a reader and a writer, she wants to live in a very calm manner so that she can cut loose in her writing and really explore the dark and the strange in what she writes and reads. I would say thats most people would like to have their id expressed vicariously so that it doesnt destroy their actual personality. By exploring the darker side, we might come to understand it better, says Karen Perry, whose books are being adapted for both TV and cinema. Theres a long history of human beings using stories to better understand and explain the world around them. From a young age, girls are taught to be aware of their surroundings. We learn about the potential dangers that lurk in the dark corners of our world, so the setting within a thriller can be a safe place to explore our anxieties and fears. Melissa has had arguments with male friends about why she mightnt feel comfortable calling out a mans bad behaviour, but when you read a thriller, a woman can actually say the things she wants to fling in someone elses face. Although statistics show that the rates of violent crime are dropping globally, we are living through uncertain times, and Maria Dickenson says that crime tends have its heyday during times of political turbulence, citing the popularity of Dorothy L Sayers novels in the years leading to the Second World War. While terrible things might happen in a thriller, at the end, the bad guy or girl is caught, the questions are answered and order is restored. Its cathartic for the reader. We dont really get that in the real world, so perhaps its no surprise that the escapism offered by thrillers is irresistible to readers male and female. Thrillers that thrilled Karen Perry: Whenever I read a thriller, I am always trying to guess the outcome or the twist as I read. Erin Kellys He Said/She Said completely blindsided me in that regard. With a tense, complex, gripping plot that is full of misdirection and intrigue, it kept me guessing right until the end. Melissa Albert: Allegedly by Tiffany D Jackson is utterly pitch dark. Its like a vortex, you get sucked in. People use it as a euphuism, but I genuinely missed my train stop while engrossed in it. You leave it feeling as if theres a stain on your skin. Elizabeth Klehfoth: I love Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll its got a dark complicated heroine who you can still root for even though shes got some hard edges and she doesnt come across as immediately likeable. Maria Dickenson: Theres such a chilling image from the start of Tana Frenchs novel In The Woods of a little boy finding a shoe filled with blood. I heard about it and just had to read it. A study involving responses from more than 1,000 secondary school students shows that while the majority are happy, bullying is something many witness, and classes can be riddled with distractions. The research, conducted by Mary Kent for the School of Education in Trinity College Dublin, found that 35.6% of all responding students indicated feeling embarrassed, upset, or nervous when they saw their peers being targeted. In relation to practical and positive responses to bullying, 18.5% of responding students indicated that they had tried to help but had not specified how they had done so. Only 12.5% of responding students or 5.5% of the total sample indicated that they had sought help from an adult. Another question, asking if based on previous experience they would seek adult support to resolve bullying situations in the future, resulted in only 14.4% of those who replied (0.9% of total sample) responding that they would be confident to report to an adult again. According to the study: Male and female students at junior and senior levels shared this attitude almost equally. Some 12.4% of students who indicated that they had previously sought help, replied that they would be careful to whom they would report in the future, and 1.8% of students who replied that they had previously sought help from an adult, indicated that they would not do so again. "The few students in the latter group were all junior males. Alongside the high level of under-reporting of school bullying, the findings also call into question whether the current responses at school level are adequate. Author Mary Kent wrote: Notwithstanding most recent efforts to address the issue of school bullying, serious concerns continue to exist regarding the prevalence of bullying, with warnings of the potential for damage to health, wellbeing and academic success from this behaviour. Approximately 29% of participants in the study attended single-sex schools, with just over 70% attending mixed gender schools. The schools included a fee-paying, mixed gender, private school in Munster, a non-fee-paying VEC in a large town, a fee-paying girls school in a suburban area, and a co-educational community school in a smaller town. In general, almost 79% of respondents said they were very happy or usually happy with the atmosphere in their class, with this attitude more prevalent among senior cycle students. As for those who said they were never happy in school, this peaked at 4.9% among senior students but was lower among those in junior cycle. Only a handful of students said they had no friends, while just 6.9% of students responded that nothing distracted them from their work. Overall, 90% described experiencing or participating in a number of types of behaviours which distracted them from their work, while 75% of respondents stated that, at times, they felt uncomfortable with the behaviour of others in their classrooms. In the main messing was the main distraction, while just over 28% of respondents referred to unruly or raucous behaviour, and 4.1% of the total student group said they felt uncomfortable when they witnessed an insubordinate or disrespectful attitude being directed towards their teachers, or disrespect being shown to peers. The study found those in the community school sector were more likely to have witnessed bullying over the past year, peaking at 60.8% of senior male students in those schools in the sample. Of those who felt they had been bullied, 81.6% said they had been targeted in the classroom and 83% referred to being bullied in corridors. Students, therefore, felt themselves more vulnerable in these two places than either the school yard (50%) or the toilets (33.3%). This data was compared to information given by students of their observations of bullying. These showed that 75.1% of the students who indicated concern for their peers felt it happened in the classroom, 60.1% on corridors, 33.7% indicated the school yard and 16% identified the toilets. 80% of students who felt they had been bullied and 35.2% of those who felt some of their peers were being bullied marked the box other. Overall, 38.8% of students who felt they had been bullied, and 43% of students who observed others being bullied, identified verbal abuse in the form of racial or sexual comments as the most prevalent of the bullying behaviours. According to the study: Overall, 2.9% of the total sample, 20% of students who responded to the question, felt they had witnessed bullying on a daily basis. Of those who highlighted daily bullying, 62.6% were male and 37.7% were female. 12.4% of the junior male students reported witnessing daily bullying, while 9.8% of their senior counterparts indicated the same, although, as stated above, the percentage of senior male students who reported witnessing bullying generally was higher than that of junior males. As for what people did on witnessing bullying, 34.5% (32.2% of total cohort) gave self-protection as their reason for distancing themselves from a bullying situation, specifying so I wont get picked on. This was more common among male students at both junior and senior level than among female students. Just under a quarter of all those who indicated having walked away gave dislike of the targeted person, or the fact that this person was not their friend, as their reason for doing so, with junior cycle female students most likely to give this as their reason for walking away. Read the full study at tara.tcd.ie. "Ankara is going to respnose to symmetrically to US sanctions imposed on Turkeys Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. On August 4, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country will freeze assets of the US justice and interior secretaries in Turkey. I am instructing my friends today. We will freeze assets, if there are any, of the U.S. justice and interior secretaries in Turkey, the president said speaking at ruling Justice and Development (AK) Partys Women Branch congress in Ankara. He emphasized that the Turkish nation will not step back because of threatening rhetoric and silly decisions of sanctions. Especially the latest step by America regarding pastor Brunson issue in Izmir, is an ill-fitted step for a strategic partner, Erdigan said. An August 1 decision by the US to impose sanctions on two Turkish top officials were justified by Ankaras refusal to release US Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, who faces terrorism charges in Turkey. This decision was the latest in a series of diplomatic and political incidents between the sides. The US-Turkish relations are slowly deteriorating."SF ------------- Slowly deteriorating? Ion Perdicaris was a Greek immigrant to America resident in Tangier who was kidnapped in 1904 by one Moulai Raisuli one of the claimants to the sultanate of Morocco. When informed of this President T. Roosevelt sent the South Atlantic Fleet of the US Navy toward Morocco with a few hundred hard bitten US Marine veterans of various banana war expeditions on board. Roosevelt's intention was clear. "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli Dead?" was the meme of the day in the yellow press. Hysteria ran high then as now in the "Speak softly and carry a big stick" segment of the population. TR's enthusiasm abated when John Hay, then SECSTATE informed him that Perdicaris had renounced his US citizenship some time earlier to avoid taxation. Nevertheless, Roosevelt supposedly said that so long as the sultan THOUGHT Perdicaris was an American that was enough reason to "go for him." Perdicaris was eventually released when his relative the Sultan of Morocco decided to negotiate with Raisuli rather than have all this annoyance and fuss from the infidels. Perdicaris had become a great admirer of Raisuli whilst a captive. I suppose you could call that the first instance of the "Marrakesh Syndrome." John Milius (one of my favorite film makers) turned this non-crisis into a fun film in 1975. It was called "The Wind and the Lion." It had little to do with the Perdicaris Incident but it was gorgeous, especially just as the debacle in VN was ending. In the film the aged former American Perdicaris is played by Candace Bergen and Raisuli by Sean Connery who has a great Scottish Moroccan accent. Candace? Well, she had a lot of things going for her. In the film the marines do land in Morocco, storm the "bashaw's" (governor's) palace in Tangier and end up fighting to save Raisuli who is revealed as one of "the good guys." I have an unfair suspicion that DJT has seen this movie. Now we have Sultan Tayyip Erdogan in the role of Raisuli. He is afflicted with the traditional weakness evident in many potentates of the past. He believes that what Churchill called "The Great Republic." is a trivial and weak willed enemy. Amusingly, Tayyip says he will sanction the US Attorney General and the Secretary of the Interior. Well, pilgrims, Jeff Sessions would like nothing better than to be thought to be a protector of a minister of the Gospel and the US Secretary of the Interior is not the police minister as in Turkey. No. He is the person who runs the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, etc. And Americans are accused of not understanding foreign countries? Oh well! Will the US go to war with Turkey over Brunson? We might. pl https://southfront.org/turkey-to-impose-sanctions-on-us-justice-and-interior-secretaries-erdogan/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Perdicaris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_and_the_Lion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_the_Interior The Law Reform Commission suggests the emphasis for consent should be shifted onto the man - where he would be expected to actively seek consent rather than the woman be required to give it, writes Mary Morrissy How do you prove sexual consent? Can it be done in a court of law? That was at the kernel of the Belfast rape trial. It figures in most rape trials since the legal definition of rape is sex without consent. And in the court process it nearly always comes down to he said, she said. The Belfast trial raised larger questions too, such as: Can our courts really deal with rape, and is our current system working? The statistics suggest the answer is no. The 2002 Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland report the last comprehensive study on the subject found that 42% of women had experienced some form of sexual abuse but only 10% of sexual offences were reported.Recent statistics show that only 8% of trials result in a conviction. The legal machinery employed in rape cases is particularly cumbersome and pretty hostile to complainants. In our courts, the alleged rapist is seen as having broken the law of the State so the putative victim is considered a mere witness. So the man is perceived as having wronged society, but not having wrong the woman. As Roe McDermott, journalist and gender/sexualities scholar, put it: She is a vehicle for oral and other evidence, really, for whether this crime was committed by the defendant and if that defendant should be convicted for breaking the States law. Last week (July 27), the Law Reform Commission published a discussion document on rape justice, concentrating specifically on the issue of consent. As it stands in Irish law, a man is not guilty of rape if he honestly even if mistakenly believes that the woman has consented to sex. This defence applies even in cases where the mans belief is shown to be unreasonable. It should not be the case that a man can walk out of court with his honest but unreasonable belief intact in a case where a woman had not consented to sex, said Noeline Blackwell of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Although the defence of honest belief is rarely a deciding factor in rape trials, its existence is inconsistent with the view that sex without consent is rape, according to Ms Blackwell. The Law Reform Commission is seeking submissions on whether a more objective reasonable belief should replace the honest belief clause in relation to consent, for instance, whether a more normal standard of proof should apply in rape cases. Ms Blackwell has suggested that a commonsense test could be applied to consent. This would shift the emphasis for consent onto the man where he would be expected to actively seek consent rather than the woman be required to give it. This puts a different spin on the no means no model, which places the onus on the unwilling partner to put a stop to an unwanted sexual encounter. The commission also floats the possibility of introducing a lesser rape charge for those perpetrators who unreasonably, but honestly, believe the woman has consented. You could perhaps liken this to the division of the crime of killing between manslaughter and murder. Its interesting to see this option being put on the table for public debate by a respected legal body. Because, earlier this year veteran feminist, writer, and academic Germaine Greer made a similar suggestion and caused an absolute uproar. Germaine Greer Greer argued that the legal system couldnt cope with rape. My feeling is we ditch rape altogether [as a crime] because its hopeless, she told The Guardian in January. I have seen the police working up a rape case trying desperately hard to build it up so it will stand up in court and wasting their time. The burden of proof is too high and thats because the tariff is too onerous. Rape is a daily crime, its not spectacular. What we need is a coherent law of sexual assault. Following up on this thesis at the Hay Literary Festival in May, she used more colourful language. Most rape is just lazy, just careless, insensitive, she said. Every time a man rolls over on his exhausted wife and insists on enjoying his conjugal rights he is raping her. It will never end up in a court of law. Instead of thinking of rape as a spectacularly violent crime, and some rapes are, think about it as non-consensual that is bad sex. Sex where there is no communication, no tenderness, no mention of love. She suggested that a fitting sentence for rape might be 200 hours community service and an r tattoo on the rapists hand, arm, or cheek. Greers latest book, entitled On Rape, will be published in September. Ah yes, youll say, the provocative Greer is promoting a book. And yes she is, but does that undermine her argument? Isnt Greer saying in more intemperate and impatient language what the Law Reform Commission is now throwing out here for public discussion should we consider gradations of rape? Greers suggestion to downgrade rape legally has been widely attacked. Its seen in a broader context as evidence of Greer throwing in the towel on feminism, rejecting the principles of the #MeToo movement (she has been very dismissive of them, describing the Weinstein accusers as whingeing career rapees), as going over to the dark side of misogyny. But is she not simply proposing another way of looking at rape? Regardless of her perceived motives self-promotion, publicity she is presenting a radical take on a really thorny issue. A take that acknowledges how ingrained sexual cruelty is in our Western culture and how poorly our justice system deals with it. Isnt this what the #MeToo movement is all about? The movement has challenged the stereotype of the sexual predator as a stranger with a knife down a dark alley by demonstrating that the predator can be your friend, your brother, your husband, or your boss. It has exposed sexist and entitled behaviour from the illicit squeeze of the knee to penetrative sex as part of a continuum that has persisted as a sickness in our society. Greer has never been a clubbable feminist. Her views have always divided public opinion. Shes a contrarian, a controversialist, and has come out with some very wacky opinions. For example, that banning female genital mutilation is an attack on cultural identity. This time, however, not only is she being attacked as being anti-feminist, she is being silenced by those very forums where her views could be debated and challenged. The Brisbane Writers Festival, for example, has uninvited her to its September event. Is that because her views on rape dont conform with the prevailing feminist consensus? The #MeToo movement is at a fervid moment of revolutionary action. It has managed to break open a decades-old silence about mens sexual behaviour. After a century of not being believed, or being blamed for instigating sexual assaults and attacks, women are saying enough is enough. Now that the dam-burst has broken, this is not the time to stifle debate, particularly among feminists. And that means listening to views you dont agree with, or even ones which offend you. Greers contention about rape is simple and pragmatic: why not believe the woman and lower the penalty? It seems to me she is only voicing what weve all been wondering since the Belfast rape trial. We know who loses, but who exactly wins in a rape case? Hed know plenty about it already but the last couple of trips up the M18 from Ennis have given Louis Mulqueen great insight into the Galway psyche. Prior to the drawn game with his native Clare, the jibing among the Liam Mellows group he hopes to guide to back-to-back senior county titles later this year was that the Banner were done for. They were telling me not to even bother turning up, smiled Mulqueen. The mood was considerably more subdued at training this past Wednesday, though. The voice is different in Galway now theyre beginning to doubt themselves. The confidence was very high. "Going into last weekend, I thought their nine forwards would get onto any county team but what Clare actually did was put doubt into this Galway team. When Colm Galvin went to sweeper, Galway did the same but they didnt need a sweeper in the first 15 minutes I would have thrown Aidan Harte up on Galvin to try and stop him. "The Galway management have done brilliantly all year but how are they going to deal with this Clare resurrection? A lot of people felt Galway were coming up to win by eight or nine points. Not that the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final between the counties has much bearing on this latest meeting except for the venue and several of the players still being involved, but the Galway swagger was evident then as it has been to the detriment at times this year. I remember Alan Kerins walked over to me after it and said, Jesus, how did you beat us? We had a sweeper system, Paddy Donnellan was mopping up. At the time, you just had to mark Joe Canning and thats with all respect to Galway. If you snuffed out Joes scoring ability, you were actually halfway there to beating them. He was the icon then as he was when I was with (Ger) Loughnane there in 2006 and 07. Galways following should have learned from the Leinster final that they cant get ahead of themselves. Not that Micheal Donoghues men have done the same but they are lacking a vital ingredient, says Mulqueen, a multi Clare selector and an All-Ireland winning one in 2013. I was praising Micheal and the Galway management all year because they were doing something we failed to do in Clare, which was grounding players after winning an All-Ireland and ensuring the hunger was still there. If they stuff Clare on Sunday, well say the hunger is there but the bite in the first game against Kilkenny wasnt there. That killer instinct wasnt there. "They pottered about in Division 1B and came through Leinster handily but it took them a replay to beat Kilkenny and another one to beat us so theyre not the composed team that I thought they were at the start of the year. They havent lost yet so final judgement has to be reserved and Galway still had that edge to come through the second time of asking against Kilkenny but theyre not the 100% article. "With all respect, whoever comes through to make the final will have it all to do because they will have to earn it against Limerick. We played them in the semi-final in 13 and Ger Canning came up to me beforehand and asked me did I realise there were 40,000 Limerick people out there and only 20,000 from Clare. "I said, Therell be an awful lot of people going home disappointed this evening so, Ger. Limerick went up that day just to push their neighbours to one side but they wont be caught out like that the next day, whether its Galway or Clare. Theyll be a different animal. Mulqueen has learned the hard way that Clare too have jumped to lofty conclusions about themselves after success. When they returned to the team hotel after the 2013 All-Ireland final replay win over Cork, he was told over and over that a period of dominance was ahead of the group. We had played exciting hurling but we had won an open game against Croke Park and the following year Kilkenny and Tipperary came back with physical hurling and were hitting each other hard and we werent up to that level. Davy (Fitzgerald) and myself were racking our brains as to why the mojo didnt come back but this year its there. We lost to Cork twice but we started to win games and fellas came back into the form they were when they were with us. "Shane ODonnell is back with three or four points, John Conlon is untouchable, TK (Tony Kelly) is back the way you expect him to throw five or six points over the bar. "Galvin, to me, was the fella who hadnt yet done it this year - and I love him to bits - but he actually distributed the ball brilliantly from the sweeper role the last day. Give Clare a sniff and they will take it, Mulqueen warns. He draws parallels between how Jason McCarthy was able to score the equaliser last Saturday from an errant Galway sideline as Domhnall ODonovan was from a Cork one in 2013. We could have been 15 or 16 points down at half-time but Galway found it difficult then. Weve two twin towers up there now, Aron Shanagher and Conlon. "Id play Shane ODonnell off them, Podge Collins at centre-forward and Tony Kelly back to midfield. Man for man, Galway will match anyone physically but when Daithi Burke has that ankle worry and Gearoid McInerney mightnt make it with the calf problem and Joe could be ginger on his leg there are a lot of doubts. "Niall Burke and Jason Flynn came in but they didnt have the same effect as they did other days and the Clare backs were on top. "I was worried the Galway forwards would make them struggle but the sweeper gave them the confidence again. Who writes off the losses for the wronged cervical cancer victims? How will they be bailed out? What hopes of a haven have they, failed by a hellish health system? asks Juno McEnroe THIS week saw public outrage over the treatment of two very vulnerable groups women with cancer having to fight for justice and humility in the courts, and distressed mortgage holders offloaded to a corporate vulture fund. Weak and vulnerable women and families are left behind clamouring for help, while Ireland Inc and big business elsewhere is facilitated, rewarded. Why do we do injustices so well here? The disturbing case of Ruth Morrissey, emerging from Dublins Four Courts in recent days, has again highlighted the sickening dilemma faced by women caught up in the cervical cancer scandal. Ms Morrissey is suing the HSE and laboratories over alleged misreading of her cervical smear tests. Harrowing evidence included mention of her daughters plea of Mammy, please dont die, I love you, dont leave me. Some 17 lawyers were pitted against the Limerick woman. who has been undergoing no hair as a result of chemotherapy. Ruth and husband Paul were reduced to tears in court. After the cervical cancer controversy erupted in May, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar promised that women would not be put through this pain. The State would settle with them and then pursue labs. This hasnt happened. But we have been here before. This is no country for vulnerable women. Vicky Phelan, whose court case shone a light on this scandal, tweeted this week: I am deeply disturbed by the lack of empathy in some quarters towards the women and families affected by the scandal. Ruth Morrissey with her husband Paul Morrissey And that is just it. This is no country for victims, for the needy, for the wronged. It took years of persistent campaigning for frail women from Magdalene laundries to get any redress for the horrors they experienced under the religious institutions. Only last month were dozens allowed by the Government to apply for a redress scheme originally approved five years ago. A promise to remove homeless families from hotels and B&Bs came and passed in June last year. Still, more than 3,800 children have no permanent roof over their heads, victims of a housing crisis not yet corrected. Some infants even have mobility and behavioral problems growing up in cramped rooms. Another deeply disturbing crisis for the vulnerable surrounded the care of foster children in the south-east. It took a year for an agreement on an inquiry which was sparked by claims that Grace, a young girl with intellectual disabilities, was abused for years while in care. The inquiry is now delayed. And still more victims wronged await justice in this State. Hundreds of girls and boys were sexually abused in schools and now, as adults, are fighting the Department of Education for redress. An EU ruling for Cork victim Louise OKeeffe in 2014 is contested by the department. It found the State was liable for abuse suffered in the schools. The latest trampling of the vulnerable or distressed was the PTSB sale this week of 7,400 family home loans to vulture fund Lone Star, a horrible day for the anxious mortgage holders, it was warned. The State-owned banks fire sale prompted fears that the US fund may sell homes, leaving borrowers homeless. Returning to the cervical cancer test scandal these brave, yet ill and vulnerable women affected so grievously by the testing scandal are also being failed. While Mr Varadkar and others will understandably point out that actual legal negligence must be factually established in a court of law or inquiry, these women were neglected. Their cervical cancer was missed. And in some 221 cases, their smear tests were incorrectly read and they were not informed. A decision to ensure that these women and their families, like Ruth Morrissey, dont have to fight for redress, treatment costs, and support, has now been put on the long finger. The Taoiseach can say he should have been clearer in his promise to the women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal and that people are entitled to go to court, but the simple recorded truth is that he promised those women the State would look after them. Yet now their fate will be partly decided by a judge who will report back in October on alternatives to court cases or mediation. Judge Charles Meenan will also report back on the potential cost of a redress scheme. In the meantime, some of Irelands sickest women look toward Mr Varadkar for assurance. This is what Vicky Phelan sought in a brutally frank meeting with him in Government Buildings this week. But amidst the painful battle by Ruth Morrissey to seek pecuniary justice, the unforgettable cries of Emma Mhic Mhathuna on RTEs Morning Ireland as she talked about dying, and the steely courage of Vicky Phelan, rewards are doled out to bigger and more profitable interests in this State. Corporate tech giants such as Facebook receive gilded tax breaks; there are special funds for construction firms under State schemes; and banks are even let off paying tax. Facebook paid just 30m tax here in 2016 on revenue of some 12.6bn. It says it will wash its revenue elsewhere now. The social network firm has escaped sanction after allowing abusive material onto its pages at its Dublin HQ. Property developers emerged as the biggest winners of the 2018 budget, with a 750m fund launched as an incentive to landowners to build homes. An expensive carrot indeed. Furthermore, Ireland, whether we like it or not now, is considered by many as being part of a global tax avoidance industry. Aside from the specialised systems which allow massive tax avoidance by companies dealing in intellectual property, technology, and pharmaceutical giants, lets just look at our own banks and the bailout of those taxpayer-funded institutions. Last year Bank of Ireland, AIB, and PTSB made combined profits of 2.5bn. Between them, they will not pay a cent in corporation tax. The Government in 2015 changed rules so they did not carry on losses for a generation. Those banks can write their losses off effectively. And the State declines to collect hundreds of millions of euro a year in tax from them. Who writes off the losses for the wronged cervical cancer victims? How will they be bailed out? What hopes of a haven have they, failed by a hellish health system? Mr Varadkar in part rose to prominence when he took a stand for Garda whistleblowers, declaring that they were distinguished and not disgusting. As a minister in 2015, he took a stand on same-sex marriage in a role which helped drive through the referendum, and he is also facing down the Brexiteers in a fight for Irelands interests. Now he needs to stand up for Irelands vulnerable, and repair these broken promises for the needy, as opposed to overseeing corporate rewards for the rich. We remember what happened to Hepatitis C victim and Donegal mother of 12 Brigid McCole, who died fighting for justice in the courts. This scenario is happening before our very eyes again. The Government, independent of Judge Meenans report, must make a stand for our women: Cover their losses, ease their suffering, and not only promise but ensure court is avoided. Taoiseach, keep your word. Dont allow these dying women to see out their last precious moments in an unforgiving courtroom, fighting for their childrens futures, for treatment and some scrap of humility or respect. Reconciliation is a risky undertaking, but the Irish can be a forgiving people. Pope Francis, wed like to move on. Help us in that process, writes Joyce Fegan How do you forgive someone who isnt sorry? Forgiveness, even when your wrongdoer stands before you asking for mercy, can be a hard act to stomach for the most saintly of human beings. But to actively forgive when your wrongdoer is silent or, worse still, unrepentant, must be the hardest of things for a human to do. In July 2016, a man by the name of Tony Walsh was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for raping a boy three times, once with a crucifix. He had previous convictions for sexual assault. Walsh had been ordained as a priest in 1978. Two days after his first appointment as a curate in Ballyfermot, a complaint was received in the Archbishops House that he had sexually abused an eight-year-old boy. Over the course of the next 15 years or so, complaints would be received here and there and Walsh would be sent to England for treatment or moved to a new position. The first complaint about him was made to gardai in 1991, by a parent of a boy he tried to assault. The gardai would receive more of these complaints, only ever from parents, in the following years. It would be 1995 before the Archdiocese itself would provide the gardai with all the other complaints about Walsh, 17 years after they had received their first one. Its not that there is anything particular about Walshs case. It models the Catholic Churchs standard handling of abuse allegations: Priest abuses child, Church hears about abuse, priest is moved to another parish, priest receives private Church-run counselling, priest goes on abusing. The State and the law of the land remain in the dark and the priest goes on to leave a trail of destruction in his abusive wake, including at worst, the suicide of his victims, as has been documented. Pope Francis will arrive in Ireland on August 25 and spend 36 hours here. He will visit Aras an Uachtarain and the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless. Whether he will meet with survivors of clerical abuse remains to be seen, because his time is very tight. Time is tight, it seems, for a visit that has been more than four years in the making. It is tight for a visit that was officially announced last March. In the Churchs own teachings, forgiveness is comprised of a few parts. We confess our sins and make amends through the sacrament of penance. Penance means repairing the wrongdoing. Penance must take the penitents personal situation into account. The penance must correspond with the gravity of the sins confessed. Penance can be a work of mercy, a sacrifice or a service to others. But when penance is not forthcoming, forgiveness can be hard, and reconciliation and healing harder still. A lot has changed since Pope John Paul IIs visit here in 1979. Homosexuality has been decriminalised in Ireland. Divorce is legal. Men can openly love and marry other men, and women can openly love and marry other women. Something else has changed here too. Years of abuse scandals have blighted peoples faith. The Churchs unwillingness and inability to really say sorry has isolated and damaged not only victims, but those who would like to have a faith in a power higher than themselves. In Budapest, there is a Jewish synagogue, its courtyard a memorial to the Holocaust, its walls a canvas of images from before, during, and after the Second World War. In the same city, there is another memorial, the Shoes on the Danube Bank, remembering the Jews shot barefoot on the bank of the river between December 1944 and January 1945. They were rounded up from the newly established ghetto, ordered to take their shoes off, and shot dead by the fascist militia. Their bodies fell into the Danube, to float away. Its estimated that 20,000 Jews died in this way. Memorials and visual reparations of this kind serve as reminders of historic wrongs and go along way towards healing and forgiveness. They also help to make sure the same does not occur again. Anglican cleric Desmond Tutus practical thoughts on forgiveness are easy to stomach. Forgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering, he said. The remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you dont want to repeat what happened. However, what the former Archbishop of Cape Town has to say about reconciliation is probably more important in the context of Pope Franciss upcoming 36-hour visit. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth, said Archbishop Tutu. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end, only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing. Pope Francis, that your time is tight is undeniable, but beware you are visiting a changed land compared to that visited by your predecessor. You are entering a land where 3.7m of our 4.7m people still identify as Catholic and there is not one of those several million citizens who would ever condone the sins of your Church. Youre entering a land where wider access to education has lifted many boats and given rise to critical and independent thinking. Youre visiting a people who have swapped blind deference for the brave questioning of authority, both official and otherwise. Youre meeting a people where 468,400 of us declared ourselves as having no religion in the last census. And most of all, youre visiting an increasingly secular state, but a state that knows the importance of accepting religious difference; a state compromised of Hindu (14,300), Muslim (63,400), and Church of Ireland (126,400) people. Pope Francis, we know you are here for a short time, but it would be prudent to use your time wisely. Forgiveness is hard but its made all the more harder, when the doer of wrong is unwilling to engage. As Desmond Tutu said, reconciliation is a risky undertaking, but the Irish can be a forgiving people. Pope Francis, wed like to move on. Help us in that process. Dateline President Gives Courts, Govt Officials Some Good Advice -- Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! President U Win Myint recently met with executive, legislative and judicial branches. The president told the officials of those branches not to make trouble for people but to help them. He also asked the ministers not to answer vaguely in Parliament. Why did he intervene after the case of the alleged murder of comedian Aung Yell Htwe was dropped? How can the corrupt judicial system be rectified? Yangon Region lawmaker U Than Naing Oo and lawyer U Htay join me to discuss this. Im Kyaw Zwa Moe. Ko Than Naing Oo. President U Win Myint came to Yangon and met executive, legislative and judicial officials for two-and-a-half hours. Many people applauded what he said in the meeting. He spoke about the New (Yangon) City project and also called for judicial impartiality. What stood out to you in his two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting? Than Naing Oo: The president said the union government was making reforms. Reforms should be made in line with global trends, and people in our country are not aware of that, he said. He gave practical guidelines to executive, legislative and judicial branches despite the limited time. Regarding the judicial branch, he called for swift and fair trials, especially for civil cases. There are many civil cases in Yangon Region. He called for swift trials in those cases. He also called for imposing fitting penalties in cases related to children. The president said that, when he worked as a lawyer, he had never heard of certain cases throughout his legal career, such as citizens dropping lawsuits in murder cases. He said that even when murders are committed by civilians they are a concern of the government, and that such cases indicate that the judicial system is paralyzed. He also said that the lawmakers should thoroughly understand their powers and responsibilities. He also asked the ministers to adequately answer questions asked by lawmakers in Parliament. The president also called for people to be given good public services. The government should not indulge in taxes and emoluments from the people but is obliged to provide good public services. What he said should be heeded. He asked the officials in the three branches to ask themselves whether they are helping or hindering the people. He said, If you are not good at helping people some people get a position but they have no ability then try not to be the one who hinders the people. This is a very good point. He urged them to always consider the interests of the people whatever they do. The president admitted that some civil servants cannot lead a decent living and that the government can only fulfill some of their requirements. He warned them to avoid causing permanent harm (to people) due to their greed for short-term gains. KZM: The president spoke about injustices in the judicial sector. He seemed to specifically refer to the murder of comedian Aung Yell Htwe. The day after the meeting, the president and the state counselor (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) inquired about the case, as it had become the talk of the town on social media and among the public. It seemed that the president and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi heard about it and consequently intervened. U Htay, what is your view of the judicial reasoning in this case? U Htay: The case of comedian Aung Yell Htwe aroused controversy across the country, including Yangon. The accused were released after the charge against them was allowed to be dropped. It has caused fierce controversy because the country is undergoing a transition, and especially because the National League for Democracy is in office. The home affairs minister is nominated by the commander-in-chief of defense services. The Home Affairs Ministry is headed by a military official. Military officials who have transferred from the military dominate the police force, including the police chief position. Because the police, who are responsible for ensuring the rule of law and public order, have weaknesses, they fail to bring crime under control. There are many murders, rapes and muggings in Yangon. They were reported in newspapers. The case of comedian Aung Yell Htwe is a high-profile case. He was killed in public in an act of revenge. Then the case was dropped suddenly and the accused were released. Meanwhile, the president came to meet officials from the three branches in Yangon, and what he said regarding the judicial sector has come under the spotlight. He called for judicial impartiality and it resulted in a re-investigation of Aung Yell Htwes case. We welcome this. The case of Aung Yell Htwe was withdrawn according to Section 494 (d) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. According to the procedures, it has to be withdrawn by the public prosecutor with the consent of the court. The law doesnt specify which type of charge can be withdrawn. According to the precedents, the court has to make remarks on the dossier, that is, to give reasons for the withdrawal. The court cant allow the withdrawal just because the public prosecutor asks it to do so. It has given no reason for the withdrawal to the media. So this has aroused controversy in the public as well as in the judicial world. KZM: The president asked the ministers not to answer questions perfunctorily, but to respond to questions with real interest in Parliament. He also spoke about the (New Yangon City) project. The new town project, initiated by Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, has drawn widespread criticism. People ask if it is necessary. The president implied that the project may proceed if it is necessary but should be aborted if it is not. He also asked him to improve the existing satellite towns. What did he mean by that? Is it a warning to the Yangon Region chief minister and his cabinet? TNO: The president advised that the project may proceed if it is necessary after careful review. But he asked if the existing towns were perfect, and if they have the fundamental characteristics of a town. It is not good if apartments are built among paddy fields and transportation is poor there. He said that if the new town is not properly built, it will be an extra burden for people amid the economic decline of the country. So the Yangon Region government should pay proper attention to it. Speaking of projects, weve always said that we lawmakers should have sufficient time to carefully analyze the projects proposed to the regional parliament by the regional government. We have to make a study and consult with experts to identify the pros and cons. We have parliamentary committees in Yangon. They are small parliaments. While Parliament is not in session, these parliamentary committees meet with relevant experts and people from all walks of life to discuss relevant topics. We learn about the advantages and disadvantages for the development of Yangon from such meetings. We support the eyes and ears of the government. The government has to analyze our suggestions and make the decisions. If the government does like this more often, I hope it will be able to shape Yangon into its best form. KZM: You said the president asked the ministers not to answer perfunctorily to questions from lawmakers in Parliament. TNO: Yes. KZM: So are ministers just responding perfunctorily? How do they respond in Parliament? TNO: Sometimes we feel frustrated after ministers answer questions. The answers do not match the questions. I dont want to see such things anymore in the age of reform and transparency, because our government has come to power with the slogan It is time for change. We lawmakers point out (the faults of) our government for the sake of the country and the people. We have become lawmakers thanks to the vote of the people. They have become the government thanks to the vote of the people. We must owe our allegiance to the people only and no one else. KZM: This is one of the faults (of the government). The president has complained and everyone knows that there is corruption everywhere, not just in the judicial branch. But corruption in the judicial sector negatively affects people from all walks of life when justice is obstructed. So the president has called for remedying the judicial branch. How bad is the situation? How can it be corrected? U Htay: The judicial system has been paralyzed for a long time. The Tatmadaw (military) has ruled the country since it seized power on March 2, 1962. Their mindset is that they want to get water and dont accept the complaint that the container is leaky. That mindset is entrenched. Ex-military officials who were transferred from the military have held positions in various departments as well as various levels of the courts and the attorney-generals office. Their mindset is to get water and they do as they are told. The 2008 Constitution must be amended. There is a problem with its description of the rule of law. The rule of law is described as the prevalence of law and order in Article 21 (c) and Article 354 of the English version of the 2008 Constitution. Globally, rule of law is a common term. Prevalence of law and order means ruling by law. That is wrong. So the essence comes from the Constitution, and it must be changed. If you ask me how we can change that mindset, we should start with education in schools so that it can be gotten rid of among the younger generations. Another viable solutions weve suggested, as provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure, is a jury system. I assume that there will be judicial impartiality if a jury system is implemented in Myanmar. KZM: What else would you like to point out, since the judicial sector is riddled with problems just like other sectors? U Htay: There is an answer in the speech of the president to reform the judicial branch. In his inaugural speech, President (U Win Myint) said the first priority of the government is ensuring the rule or law and improving the living standards of the people. The second is national reconciliation and peace. If what he said were put into practice, reforms would take place. But if national reconciliation is prioritized, both the rule of law and judicial impartiality will diminish. Because we wont be able to make any reform if we are considerate to the military for the sake of civil-military relations. There will not be justice and truth then. Therefore, there is a need to work according to the list of priorities. KZM: U Htay, Ko Than Naing Oo, thank you for your contributions! Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. South Korea intends to tax Amazon, Google, Apple and other multinational technology companies, as these enterprises earn billions of dollars within the country and pay no taxes under existing rules. A report in The Korea Times said local companies like Naver and Kakao had been complaining for many years about being disadvantaged, saying their foreign competitors should pay corporate income tax on revenue generated in South Korea. Current South Korean laws do not allow the government to tax global companies as they are not required to disclose sales and operating profits within the country. The Corporate Tax Act says only global companies with a fixed place of business in South Korea need to pay taxes. South Korea is the latest country to express concern about the way multinational tech firms avoid paying taxes. Australia has made a fair bit of noise about it and the European Union has said that it is looking for a permanent solution to the problem. The Korea Times report said Amazon was trying to boost its revenue in South Korea by offering customers free shipping for goods they purchased. Google and Apple were making oodles of money through the sale of apps, with the search giant recently launching an in-car infotainment app known as Android Auto in South Korea. The report quoted Ahn Jeong-sang, a policy adviser to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, as saying: "Under the current law, preliminary or ancillary places of business are not regarded as global companies' offices in (South) Korea, and this has played a role in their tax avoidance. "Considering the characteristics of the digital economy, the concept of fixed places of business needs to be expanded so that the government can secure authority to impose taxes on them." Ahn said when companies use cache servers in South Korea, it should be considered that they also had a place of business locally. The Ministry of Economy and Finance said its officials were participating in a taskforce operated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to discuss taxation policies targeting global IT companies. Google Korea, the company's South Korean branch, said it complied with laws and regulations. "Google follows the laws and pays all applicable taxes in (South) Korea," it said in a statement to the newspaper. "Information on Google Korea's revenue and profit is regularly reported to the Korean tax authority." Managers at Google have been trying to shut down access to any material connected to a project to build a censored mobile app for China, The Intercept reports , citing company insiders. Only a few of the search behemoth's 88,000 workers were briefed on the project before The Intercept reported on 1 August that Google had plans to launch a censored mobile search app for the Chinese market, with no access to sites about human rights, democracy, religion or peaceful protest. The customised Android search app, with different versions known as Maotai and Longfei, was said to have been demonstrated to Chinese Government authorities. In a related development, six US senators from both parties were reported to have sent a letter to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, demanding an explanation over the company's move. The six are Republicans Marco Rubio of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Democrats Mark Warner of Virginia, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Robert Menendez of New Jersey. One source inside Google, who witnessed the backlash from employees after news of the plan was reported, told The Intercept: Everyones access to documents got turned off, and is being turned on [on a] document-by-document basis. Theres been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared. Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y. One staff member was reported to have posted a link to the story on an employee message board forum, with a note stating that he/she and two others on his/her team had been asked to work on the Chinese project, which had the codename Dragonfly. This staffer was reported to have asked to be removed from the project, while another member of the team resigned from the company, with concerns over the project being the main reason. Work on the project is said to be progressing at Googles headquarters in Mountain View, California, and its offices in New York, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Santa Barbara, Boston, Washington DC, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo. The project was apparently kicked off after a meeting between Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and Wang Huning, a senior figure in the Chinese Communist Party, last December. Work on the search app was begun during the Western spring of 2017 and had been fast-tracked after the Pichai-Huning meeting. Following The Intercept's report, other news organisations like Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Financial Times, Agence France-Presse, Vice News, and Bloomberg have all run their own versions of the story. with their own sources. Bloomberg said some Google staffers had argued for the project, saying that boycotting China would not bring change. Google had a search presence in China between 2006 and 2010, but the censored search engine was subject to intense criticism in the US over its falling in line with Chinese Government policies. The service was shut down in March 2010, with Google saying that the reasons for its pulling out were China's bid to limit free speech, block websites, and break into Google's computer systems. Google's move to return to China does not come as a total surprise because American technology companies are all looking to China as it represents the lone remaining, sizeable market to conquer. According to the latest statistics, China has 772 million net users in the country out of a population of 1.4 billion. As iTWire reported, smartphone users in China total 717 million or 51% of the population, compared to the 226 million or 69% in the US. Mobile Internet users number 753 million in China and 237 million in the US. The six US politicians said in their letter to Pichai that the news about Dragonfly was "deeply troubling" and risked "making Google complicit in human rights abuses related to Chinas rigorous censorship regime". They queried the company as to what blacklist of censored searches and website it would be using for the search app and why the company had reversed its policy on China. "It is a coup for the Chinese government and Communist Party to force Googlethe biggest search engine in the worldto comply with their onerous censorship requirements, and sets a worrying precedent for other companies seeking to do business in China without compromising their core values," they wrote. A huge gulf exists between what businesses know about voice-enabled technologies, and what they do about it. To illustrate that fact, Globant surveyed more than 600 senior decision makers and found that while huge majority of respondents see big benefits to voice technology, only 31% use it daily at work. It's no secret that voice technology is valuable. Just look at the consumer smart speaker market. More than 43 million Americans now own one. Many of the people who will eventually use voice technology at work are already using it every day at home. Google says some 20% of all searches today are voice searches. Within two years, 30% of all web browsing will be done without a screen, according to Gartner, along with half of all searches, according to ComScore. And yet only a tiny fraction of this is being done at work for professional purposes. Smart speakers - such as the Amazon Echo line and related devices, Google Home devices and the Apple Home Pod - are directly aimed at consumers. But all the major companies are working on developing platforms for businesses and enterprises. The products Pindrop says that three-quarters of all businesses are planning to invest in customer-facing voice systems based on Cortana, Google Assistant and Alexa. Smaller but significant percentages are investing in similar systems based on IBM's Watson, Apple's Siri and even Samsung's Bixby. IBM's Watson Assistant is a white label tool for enterprises to build voice-activated virtual assistants using their own datasets. It's basically Watson Conversation and Watson Virtual Agent cobbled together, and uses IBM's analytics APIs. IBM says the tool is preferable to using Alexa for Business because it doesn't give the data and control to Amazon - or IBM, for that matter. Cisco's Spark Assistant is focused entirely on meetings inside enterprises. The company intends to build it into all its conference room devices and make it available on any client device. The Spark Assistant is especially interesting, because it's based on the work of a company called MindMeld. Five years ago, MindMeld was an experimental app I used; it would listen to a conversation and kind of free-associate with search results based on what was said. Further development of this concept, especially if in-house data were employed, would make an amazing meeting tool, where a screen would be constantly refreshed with facts and context about whatever's being discussed at the moment. In a few years, voice technology will enable intelligent products like Spark Assistant to actually participate in meetings, interjecting facts, making suggestions and answering questions. The assistant can also record meetings with a command, and the product will be able to take action items, send meeting summaries and help plan future meetings, according to the company. Even Mozilla is building a voice-activated web browser called Scout, according to a leaked agenda item for a company all-hands meeting in San Francisco recently. Everybody knows these products are here or coming soon. And the consensus is they'll make a big impact. But what's poorly understood is the glaring problem we're facing with one application - voice search - and the true benefit of voice-enabled technology. Let's start with the Big Problem with voice technology: search. The (search) problem The unresolved problem with voice-activated search, which is a major part of how people do and will use virtual assistants, is that the result is a single answer, not an endless list of ranked options. That sounds like a small thing; in fact, it's a huge problem that nobody has a solution for. Search result rankings today are highly contentious, the source of major investigations and fines when companies like Google are found to favor their own results unfairly. Such cases are almost always brought by Google's competitors, who feel that the order of results on the first page of results is unfair. Such complaints are likely to grow when virtual assistant-based replies represent not all results ranked, but a single result chosen by companies like Google. This is why the new realm of voice search optimization will become a make-or-break skill and task for enterprises hoping to stay relevant. Businesses are already uneasy about the power of search engine companies like Google because their search algorithms determine the rank or order of search results. With voice search, such companies will choose the one and only result. While voice search is probably the No. 1 application for voice technology today, in the future it will be stalled and hampered by the one-result problem. For non-search tasks, however, voice technology will be far more transformative than expected. The promise Amazon's CTO, Werner Vogels, calls voice the "the universal user interface." It's the UI that requires no training, and which almost anybody can use. While voice interaction is, in fact, a user interface, the impact will go far beyond how people interact. It will change how companies function. Voice-activated technologies will facilitate the smart office, where IoT devices will transform how everything works. Office management will be transformed by intelligent devices, which will increasingly enable voice interaction for finding out basic facts about office equipment, including location, service status, who the users were and others. Voice-based note-taking means meeting participants are free to participate, instead of keeping their eyes glued to a screen and their hands glued to a keyboard for note-taking. And voice will transform business communication. Increasingly, instead of every user crafting exact wording for email or, say, a Slack communication, voice technology will enable a command and description - for example, "tell Janet I'd like to meet tomorrow afternoon" - and the virtual assistant will arrange the meeting. This kind of A.I. assisted communication will increase collaboration. It will increasingly enable employees who used to be considered disabled, and unlock new talent for an organization. In manufacturing and distribution centers, much of the work conducted with a screen, keyboard and mouse will be replaced by a spoken conversation with an agent, freeing up hands for other duties and enabling employees to stay focused on the job. Voice technology will similarly transform customer service, training, data access, identification and authentication and nearly all aspects of IT. Everyone who interfaces with a company using voice technology - whether C-level executives, rank-and-file employees, customers, partners or the government - will enjoy a sense of intimacy, personalization, frictionless data access and even a sense of fun. We'll move from everyone focusing on using equipment operation skills to focusing instead on problem solving, creative thinking and learning. Over the next three years, enterprises will increasingly adopt voice-enabled technologies. In advance of this change, it's time we stop thinking about voice tech as a great boon to search - it's not. And we should also stop thinking about it as nothing more than a user interface - it's not that, either. In reality, voice-enabled technology is part of a total and largely positive shift in how enterprises will operate, how business people interface with both data and each other and how customers are ultimately served. Reddit Email 2K Shares According to Jared Kushner and other hard line Zionists, the Palestinian people dont exist. Ever since they ethnically cleansed the majority of Palestinians, the Israelis have been hoping that they will just go away. They look out on Galilee, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon, and ask, why are you still here? as though the Palestinians were a houseboy in their mansion that they had fired last week. According to Foreign Policy, Kushner has bought into a theory that Palestinian identity, and Palestinian desire to return home to what is now Israel, have been artificially kept alive because millions of Palestinians are recognized by the UN as refugees. And the UN Relief and Works Agency provides schooling, vocational training, and sometimes makeshift housing to these families that the Israelis forced into tents in the wilderness. So if you wanted to wipe Palestine off the map, youd want to decertify the Palestinians as refugees and destroy UNRWA. Without that infrastructure, the spoiled rich bigot Kushner thinks, why the Palestinians will fade away and stop asking to go home. The far, far right Likud Party that rules Israel has finally found a White House that despises the poor and oppressed as much as it does, and which is happy to try to dissolve the body of the displaced Palestinians in the acid bath of malign neglect, for all the world like cleaners in a mob movie. This theory is incorrect, of course. Palestinian identity is passed on by families, cultural practices, songs, books, and memories, not by UNRWA. One anthropologist who worked in the camps in Lebanon to which the Israelis expelled the Palestinians found that the Palestinians had arranged themselves within the camp according to their original village. They made the camp a microcosm of Palestine. UNRWA workers did not tell them to do that. However, it is true that UNRWA keeps the wolf from the door for many Palestinians, and that infant mortality will certainly go up if it is dismantled. Yes, I am saying that Jared Kushner and Nikki Haley are trying to kill Palestinian babies. They are even worse than Jeff Sessions, who just wants to steal the babies. I once visited the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon. An old man told me that in 1948 he and his mother were in their apartment in Haifa when a Zionist gang barged in and took it from them, expelling them over the border to Lebanon. He stayed there a year. Then the UN put him on a train up to northern Lebanon to a camp, far from home, where he had been ever since. Lebanon is a balancing act between Christians and Muslims, and the Christians refused to offer the Palestinians, mostly Muslim, citizenship. They also did not let them own property or work in most professions. They could not travel because they have no citizenship and nobody trusts them enough to let them in. We are in jail, he told me. He took me next door where two old women were lying on mattresses, taking oxygen, having fallen ill. The only medical care was arranged by UNRWA. He took my forearm. Is this any way to live? Most of the Palestinians in Nahr al-Bared were just living their lives and trying to get buy. But camps are lawless, and disturbances in 2008 had angered the Lebanese army, which destroyed the camp to get at a small criminal gang of 50, that were characterized as terrorists. The mans apartment building was destroyed, along with most of the camp. Most of them had nothing to do with the gang. Nahr al-Bared, 2010, photo by Juan Cole. UNRWA had given them prefab units to live in until Nahr al-Bared could be rebuilt. Nahr al-Bared, 2010, photo by Juan Cole. Getting rid of UNRWA will increase the misery of Palestinians. But that mans children know they are Palestinians, they know they will never be allowed to fit in in Lebanon, nor do they want to. They want to go home to Haifa. When the British conquered Palestine away from the Ottoman Empire during WW I, it had about 680,000 Palestinians. The British established the Mandate of Palestine over their heads without asking their permission, denied them the sort of nationhood achieved by Iraq and other League of Nations-designated Class A Mandates, and then tried to flood the country with European Jews so as to create a local population favorable to long-term colonial occupation. By 1946, this Palestinian population had grown to 1.3 million. In 1947-48 the British declared they were going home and that the Palestinians would just have to deal with the half-million European Jews that the British had brought into the colony over Palestinian objections. The Jewish community was highly organized and had wealthy backers, and they launched into action to ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of hapless Palestinian villagers. When they declared Israel in 1948, only 165,000 Palestinians remained within it. Most Israelis now think it was a mistake to let that many stay, since they have grown into about 20% of the current Israeli population. Some 720,000 Palestinians were made into refugees. That is, they were forced out of their homes by concerted Zionist campaigns that in some cases involved massacres of innocents. They were penniless. The immigrants, whom they viewed as illegal, stole their houses, apartments and farms. Some 70% of Gazas population is refugee families from 1948. h/t BBC. Other hundreds of thousands were forced to the West Bank (grabbed by the Jordanian army), to Jordan proper, to Lebanon. A few ended up in Syria and Egypt. Over time, the population increased. There are now nearly 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel has occupied since 1967. Many still live in refugee camps. Of the 9.5 million Jordanians, probably some 6 million are of Palestinian heritage, having been chased from their homes in 1948 and 1967 by the Israelis. Although the UN says there are 450k Palestinians in Lebanon, probably it is half that, with many having slipped away to Europe. But over 200,000 people in refugee camps is still too many. Al-Awda writes, There are about 7.2 million Palestinian refugees worldwide. More than 4.3 million Palestinian refugees and their descendents displaced in 1948 are registered for humanitarian assistance with the United Nations. Another 1.7 million Palestinian refugees and their descendents, also displaced in 1948, are not registered with the UN. About 355,000 Palestinians and their descendents are internally displaced i.e. inside present-day Israel. When the West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied in 1967, the UN reported that approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes. These 1967 refugees and their descendants today number about 834,000 persons. As a result of house demolition, revocation of residency rights and construction of illegal settlements on confiscated Palestinian owned-land, at least 57,000 Palestinians have become internally displaced in the occupied West Bank. This number includes 15,000 people so far displaced by the construction of Israels Annexation Wall. Such dispossession of the Palestinian population continues today. Featured Photo: Jared Kushner in Baghdad, Wikimedia Commons Reddit Email 400 Shares Sanaa (AFP) A series of explosions Thursday on Yemens rebel-held port city of Hodeida killed 55 civilians and wounded dozens of others, the Red Cross said, denouncing the reprehensible disregard for human life. The attacks, which were also denounced by a senior UN official, come as the United Nations has said it will invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6 in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations. UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a military campaign to restore the internationally recognised government to power and push back the Huthi rebels, who still hold the capital Sanaa. The war has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday said 55 civilians were killed and 170 others wounded when a series of explosions rocked densely populated districts of the coastal city, including a fish market and the area around Al-Thawra Hospital. It was the first independent toll since the attack took place. An earlier toll Thursday by medics and witnesses had said at least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded in an air strike at the Al-Thawra hospital and the bombardment of the fish market in Hodeida. Al-Thawra hospital Yemens largest is supported by the ICRC, which also said that two ambulances were destroyed in Thursdays attacks. AFP / ABDO HYDER. A Yemeni man lies in a hospital bed on August 3, 2018, after being wounded in a reported air strike on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida. But the ICRC said the details of the attacks were still unknown. While the exact circumstances around the ground explosions are still unknown, this lack of respect for civilian life and civilian property is reprehensible, Johannes Bruwer, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said in a statement on Friday. Rebels, coalition trade accusations The scenes coming from Hodeida are horrific. The disregard of international humanitarian law in Yemen cannot be tolerated, said Bruwer, condemning the attacks. Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, earlier said hundreds of thousands of people depend on Al-Thawra. This is shocking, she said of the attacks. Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Nothing can justify this loss of life, she added. Yemeni government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition have been conducting an offensive to capture Hodeida from the Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Last month they said they were pausing the assault to give UN mediation efforts a chance. But strikes have picked up again around Hodeida since the Saudis last week said that two oil tankers operated by one of the kingdoms companies were attacked in the waters of the Red Sea. Rebel-run media outlets have accused the coalition of carrying out Thursdays attacks in Hodeida. But the coalitions spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, on Friday denied the charges, accusing the Huthis of having bombed the hospital and the fish market. The nearest target hit by the coalition on Wednesday or Thursday was more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the two sites, Maliki told a news conference in Riyadh. Everything at risk The fighting around Hodeida has raised UN fears of a new humanitarian catastrophe in a country already standing at the brink of famine and gripped by a deadly cholera epidemic. Every day this week we have seen new cholera cases in Hodeida, and now this, Grande said. The impact of the strikes is appalling. Everything we are trying to do to stem the worlds worst cholera epidemic is at risk. In Geneva, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Yemen is likely to be struck by another major wave of cholera cases, calling for a three-day truce to allow vaccinations. AFP / MOHAMMED HUWAIS. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, arrives at Sanaa international airport on July 25, 2018 for talks with rebels. UN envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Thursday a political solution to end the war in Yemen was available and urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotiations. Resolving the crisis over Hodeida would have to be part of a comprehensive political settlement between the rebels and the government, he said. Griffith also expressed concern that Hodeida a key entry point for humanitarian aid could be a flashpoint that may derail the push for talks in September. A Yemeni official told AFP the internationally recognised government would attend the Geneval talks although it was not optimistic over the outcome, while there has been no response from the rebels. Featured Photo: AFP / ABDO HYDER. People walk past damaged cars at the entrance of Al-Thawra hospital after an air strike in the Red Sea town of Hodeida on August 2, 2018. Reddit Email 119 Shares Kuwait City (Middle East Monitor) Kuwait has become one of the first countries in the Middle East to give full political rights to women. Gulf news agencies reported that the oil rich state has granted full suffrage after decades of campaigning by womens rights campaigners. Praising Kuwaits progressive move, regional media commented on the leading role women have been playing in driving the countrys overall development across all sectors, including public works, social services, economy and politics. Opportunities for women are now said to exist in all areas of society with many high profile jobs overlooking men in favour of women. The journey for full political rights has been a long one but the course had been set during the 90s when women are said to have played a major role in coordinating resistance against Saddam Hussains invasion of the Gulf state in August 1990. Read: Egypt says its universities not involved in forged certificates controversy in Kuwait Ever since, women have overcome one hurdle after another to obtain equality; a rarity in the region dominated by powerful men. Dr. Rasha Al Sabah was one of the pioneers. She held the position of the first under-secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education in 1993. Others like Nabila Al Mulla followed in her step. She was appointed as the first Kuwaiti ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa in 1993. Mulla was then appointed in 2003 as the permanent representative at the United Nations to become the first Arab Muslim ambassadress to the global organisation. In Kuwait women have bucked the trend and taken senior roles in several municipal, national and international positions that are normally the preserve of men only. They have achieved successes in many fields, proving that they represent half of the community and cannot be marginalised. The progress has continued and more recently women have been appointed as ministers in several areas including the Minister of State for Housing Affairs which went to Dr. Jenan Bushahri in 2017. A similar rise to the top saw Hind Barak Al Subaih being appointed as minister of social and labour affairs and minister of state for planning and development. This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Via Middle East Monitor. - Featured Photo: Mall scene in Kuwait City, Feb. 9, 2013, by Juan Cole Arena Minerals Announces Private Placement Financing of $2,000,000 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, Aug. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arena Minerals Inc. (Arena or the Company) (TSX-V: AN) announces that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing of units of the Company (the Units) at a price of $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of $2,000,000 (the Offering). Each Unit shall consist of one common share of the Company (a Common Share) and one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant). Each Warrant entitling the holder to acquire one Common Share of the Company at $0.10 for a period of 36 months from the date of issuance. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to fund potential future property acquisitions, continue the development of its Atacama Copper property located in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile, and for general corporate purposes. The Company may, subject to additional interest received, increase the size of the private placement. The Common Shares, Warrants and shares underlying the Warrants will be subject to a four month statutory hold period from the closing of the private placement. Closing of the transaction remains subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company is issuing this press release to correct a prior press release (issued on August 2, 2018) announcing the proposed private placement. The prior press release contained incorrect, historical information regarding the Company under the heading About Arena Minerals this press release contains the correct information. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 1933 Act), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. To view the website, please visit www.arenaminerals.com. In addition to featuring information regarding the Company, its managements and projects, the website also contains the latest corporate news and an email registration allowing subscribers to receive news and updates directly. About Arena Minerals Arena Minerals owns 80 percent of the Atacama Copper property, consisting of two projects covering approximately 7,000 hectares within the Antofagasta region of Chile. The projects are at low altitudes, within producing mining camps in infrastructure rich areas, located in the heart of Chile's premier copper mining district. The technical and scientific aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Vernon Arseneau, P.Geo, who is a qualified person pursuant to NI 43-101. As the Vice President of Exploration of the Company, Mr. Arseneau is not considered independent. For more information, contact William Randall at (416) 309-2697. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Arena Minerals Inc. William Randall, President and CEO Cautionary Note Regarding Accuracy and Forward-Looking Information: This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements, projections and estimates relating to the future development of any of the Companys properties, the anticipating timing with respect to the private placement financing, the ability of the Company to complete the private placement financing, the results of the exploration program, future financial or operating performance of the Company, its subsidiaries and its projects, the development of and the anticipated timing with respect to the Atacama project, and the Companys ability to obtain financing. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The statements made herein are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of the Companys interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Estimates underlying the results set out in this news release arise from work conducted by the previous owners and the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current exploration activities; other risks of the mining industry and the risks described in the annual information form of the Company. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Arena Minerals does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. 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. Ex-rebel DR Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba will head back to Europe after returning to the African country this week to launch his bid for the presidency in Decembers long-delayed elections, a leader of his party said Saturday. The former DRC vice president arrived in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday after 11 years abroad a decade of it behind bars and on Thursday officially launched his bid to succeed long-serving President Joseph Kabila. Bemba, 55, then arrived in the town of Gemena in his stronghold in the northwest on Saturday. Senator Bemba is coming back tomorrow (Sunday) to Kinshasa and immediately leaves for Brussels, Jacques Djoli, a leader of Bembas MLC party, told AFP. His next visit to DRC is scheduled for September to take part in work in the Senate and further electoral activities, Djoli added. Bemba was acquitted of war-crimes charges in June by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Now a senator, he had been in Belgium the DRCs former colonial power since his acquittal. Another rival of Kabila, opposition leader Moise Katumbi, is attempting to launch his own bid for the presidential election, ahead of the August 8 cut-off date for candidates to submit their applications. Analysts say Bembas return has introduced even more uncertainty into an already volatile election process. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. On Saturday, a pro-Kabila group said it was making final adjustments before it chooses its candidate for the December 23 presidential election. Supporters of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila were making final adjustments on Saturday, four days before they must choose their candidate for a December 23 presidential election, a government spokesman said. We are not talking about an heir apparent to please foreigners. Our platforms candidate for the Common Front for Congo (FCC) will be known by August 8, Lambert Mende told AFP. We are making the final adjustments, said Mende, stressing consultations had to be made with various groups under the umbrella of the FCC. The FCC is a grand political electoral coalition created by the cabinet earlier this year to provide support for a single candidate for the elections. It has named Kabila as its moral authority. Mende stated that everything is being undertaken without foreign interference as we absolutely insist that our countrys next leaders are chosen by the Congolese themselves. There has been fierce speculation that Kabila, who has been in power since 2001 and is ineligible to run again, will seek another term. Kabila told lawmakers last month he would respect a constitutional bar on standing again in a vote which has been much delayed in the vast mineral-rich country. It was scheduled to take place two years ago and will finally go ahead after dozens have died in repeated anti-Kabila protests. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Kabila has asked each group forming part of the FCC to propose four names meeting 11 criteria from whom he will designate his choice as the best candidate to go forward. Former rebel chief and former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, freshly acquitted of war-crimes convictions in The Hague, who flew back to the capital Kinshasa this week to lodge his candidacy. But the authorities have barred wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga Moise Katumbi, who was turned back at the border after being charged with offences against state security. The cut-off date for candidates to submit their applications is August 8. bmb/st/thm/cw/dl FCC FOMENTO DE CONSTRUCCIONES Y CONTRATAS SA Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, currently on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has been chosen to head the dissident wing of the Ivorian Peoples Party (FPI), the party he created. Gbagbo, 73, was the only candidate for the position and won 97.5 percent of 5,325 votes cast, said Franck Anderson Kouassi, spokesman for the pro-Gbagbo wing of the opposition FPI party. Laurent Gbagbo remains the cornerstone of our group, Anderson Kouassi told AFP. Meanwhile FPI head and former Ivory Coast premier Pascal Affi Guessan, was on Saturday re -elected to head the party for another five years, a party official said. The party is in crisis, split into two factions. The larger group supports Guessan while the dissidents back Abdoudramane Sangare, a close ally of Gbagbo. Gbagbo is the first ex-head of state to be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He has pleaded not guilty to charges arising out of the post-election violence which wracked the Ivory Coast in 2010 to 2011. About 3,000 people died in the turmoil that swept Abidjan once one of Africas most cosmopolitan cities in the aftermath of the November 2010 presidential polls when Gbagbo refused to accept defeat to bitter rival Alassane Ouattara, who remains in power. Ex-rebel DR Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba will head back to Europe this week after returning to the African country to launch his bid for the presidency in Decembers long-delayed elections, as another potential candidate on Saturday remained blocked at the border with Zambia. Former DRC vice president Bemba arrived in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday after 11 years abroad a decade of it behind bars and on Thursday officially launched his bid to succeed long-serving President Joseph Kabila. Bemba, 55, then arrived in the town of Gemena in his stronghold in the northwest on Saturday. Senator Bemba is coming back tomorrow (Sunday) to Kinshasa and immediately leaves for Brussels, Jacques Djoli, a leader of Bembas MLC party, told AFP. His next visit to DRC is scheduled for September to take part in work in the Senate and further electoral activities, Djoli added. Opposition leader Moise Katumbi, meanwhile, was again blocked from returning home as he attempted to get across the border from Zambia, his supporters said. Lies and manipulation Earlier, Katumbi supporters had wanted to go to the town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border, to meet him and bring him back so he could submit his election candidacy by the deadline on Wednesday. He was turned back at the border on Friday although on Saturday he appeared to be poised to finally return with Delly Sesanga, secretary-general of Katumbis Ensemble (Together) coalition, telling AFP he was in the process of completing formalities on the Zambian side of the border. But later Saturday, Kamitatu said in a tweet that the Zambian government had just officially indicated (to Katumbi) the refusal of the Kinshasa authorities to allow him to cross the border to return to his own country. In response, DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende decried lies and manipulation in a tweet, without elaborating. Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, which lies just across the border from Zambia, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said earlier. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with Kabila who has ruled DRC for 17 years. Katumbi had planned to fly by private jet from Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, to lodge his application but the citys mayor refused him entry, while the public prosecutors office said Katumbi had been charged with harming the states domestic and external security and would be arrested if he returned. Moral authority Bemba was acquitted of war-crimes charges in June by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Now a senator, he had been in Belgium the DRCs former colonial power since his acquittal. Analysts say Bembas return has introduced even more uncertainty into an already volatile election process. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. Supporters said they were making final adjustments on Saturday, four days before they must choose their candidate for a December 23 presidential election, a government spokesman said. We are not talking about an heir apparent to please foreigners. Our platforms candidate for the Common Front for Congo (FCC) will be known by August 8, Lambert Mende told AFP. The FCC is a grand political electoral coalition created by the cabinet earlier this year to provide support for a single candidate for the elections. It has named Kabila as its moral authority. Kabila had been scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. He has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Phil Quin writes: In the event that the Supreme Court upholds the lower court ruling on Kim Dotcoms extradition, the scalding hot potato lands in the lap of New Zealands political leaders. In weighing next steps on this matter, I would urge them to take into account the state of the Trump administration in general, and the conduct of the Department of Justice in particular. However distasteful one may find Dotcom as a person (very, in my case), this ought to have no bearing on the broader question: should the Government actively co-operate with the Trump administration by handing over legal residents to face untested charges in what looks more and more like a vendetta, and less than ever a genuine effort to tackle piracy or protect intellectual property? According to Dotcom, the prosecution has nothing to do with Trump. In fact Dotcom is a huge Trump fan. Dotcom says it was Obama and Biden behind it. Calling the charges untested is a red herring. All charges are untested. That is why extradition is sought so they can be tested in court. In the Megaupload case, its strategy is transparently to bully its way to a plea deal with defendants dragged from home and family, and deprived of a proper defence. Theres no interest in a fair go; only total victory. These are Trump values, not ours. New Zealand must not play along. Trump just happens to be the current President. The charges and extradition request occurred under the previous President. Dotcom is again a huge fan of Trump, so arguing he should not be extradited because Trump is now President seems counter-intuitive to me. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr A scary case from Canada about how out of control the anti speech fascists are. A reader writes in: At Wilford Laurier University,In Ontario, a Teachers Aide, Lindsay Shepherd, who identified as a left leaning liberal, conducted a class regarding the evolution and use of Pronouns, and in doing so, played a short clip from a program that had recently been broadcast on Canadian State Television featuring Dr. Jordan Peterson and Nicholas Matte. What occurred afterwards at the hands of university officials is nothing short of chilling. Shepherd was hauled before a tribunal of 3 professors where she was subjected to what can only be described as a hostile interrogation for daring to use a clip featuring Peterson, who was compared by one of the tribunal members to Hitler. Shepherd was informed that this was instigated as a result of a complaint by one of her students. No such complaint was made. Shepherd has the foresight to record the meeting, and when it was released, the university was made to apologise to Shepherd, and admit that it had treated her appallingly. If only it had ended there. What happened afterwards is even worse, and is now the subject of a lawsuit from Shepherd, filed against Wilfred Laurier University. The Statement of Claim is attached below. https://www.scribd.com/document/381838890/Lindsay-Shepherd-s-3-6-million-lawsuit-against-Wilfrid-Laurier-University-and-individual-defendants Bamako, Aug 4 (AFP) President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has urged Malians who voted for him to turn out for a second round next week while his run-off opponent Soumaila Cisse called on parties to forge a "broad democratic front" against the incumbent. Keita won 41.42 per cent of votes in the first round of voting in the sprawling, landlocked African nation, easily ahead of Cisse with 17.8 per cent. The second round will be held on August 12. The first round, held on July 29, was marred by sporadic violence and threats from armed groups that led to several hundred polling stations being closed, mainly in the lawless central region. "You proved all the naysayers wrong," Keita told crowds of rapturous supporters in Bamako yesterday. He urged followers to "up this momentum and confirm the choice of peace and progress". Cisse, meanwhile, speaking to hundreds of supporters outside his party headquarters slammed an official tally of Sunday's first round results, as "neither sincere, nor credible". Turnout was put at 43 per cent, higher than many previous votes in a country where many live in rural, hard-to-access areas. The European Union this week pressured the government to present a "complete and detailed list" of polling stations where voting did not take place. The vote was monitored by observers from the European Union, the African Union, the regional ECOWAS grouping and the Francophonie organisation. "These are the results of fraud, a shameful vote rigging in favour of the outgoing president," railed Cisse. "We will not accept it", the former finance minister vowed. He urged the 22 candidates eliminated in the first round to support him and create a "broad democratic front against fraud and for political change," adding he believed that a majority of people backed change. Cisse, 68, also stood against Keita in 2013 but ended up well beaten. This time, he insisted, victory was "within reach" if anti-Keita forces stood together. The only female candidate, Djeneba N'Diaye, said earlier that her 11,600-strong support, equivalent to a 0.36 percent vote share, would now plump for Keita. Teams from the European Union, the African Union, the regional ECOWAS grouping and the Francophonie organisation sent observers to Sunday's poll with the international community hoping the winner can foster broad support for strengthening a 2015 peace accord. The government and mainly Touareg former rebels signed the agreement but its actual application has remained out of reach as jihadist violence has continued amid repeated states of emergency, the unrest permeating neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Mali, considered a linchpin state in the troubled Sahel region, is one of the world's poorest countries, with most people living on less than USD 2 a day. (AFP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) If you have seen Mission Impossible Fallout in India, you might have missed out that the heart-stopping climax of the film was supposedly set in Kashmir, India. But Censor Board made sure nearly every reference of Kashmir is cut from the film. It is another fact that the makers of Fallout didn't get shoot the film in the valley, as the Indian army didn't give permission (and rightly so, knowing the fragile situation at the border). So they have to do with shooting some portions in New Zealand. But one important portion of the Fallout climax where Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill's character were seen hanging on the side of the cliff, was actually shot in Pulpit Rock, Norway. Recently Paramount Pictures arranged for a special screening of the film for the movie's most die-hard fans right on top of the cliff. So these fans had to take a hike of about 2000 feet to reach on top and attend the screening. Talk about an out-of-the-world experience! If you want to know whether fans bothered to do a 'Tom Cruise' and climbed that cliff to watch a movie, well, the turnout was more than 2000 fans! Even the star, Tom Cruise was glad with this kind of response and he tweeted out, 2,000 feet, 2,000 people, 4 hours of hiking. The most impossible screening of #MissionImpossible Fallout. Thank you all for coming! I wish I could have been there. pic.twitter.com/ufi1FkP6KI Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 2, 2018 Mission Impossible Fallout is directed by Christopher McQuarrie and also stars Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Seah Harris, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin, Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett. The movie has taken a fantastic opening over the world, and could turn out to be the highest grossing film in the Mission Impossible franchise. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2018 04:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). After phone security concerns were raised, the UIDAI in its statement said, "In the wake of some media reports on default inclusion of UIDAIs outdated & invalid Toll free no. 1800-300-1947 in contact list of Android phones, it is clarified that, UIDAI has not asked or communicated to any manufacturer or service provider for providing any such facility whatsoever." The intelligence wing of Madhya Pradesh police has issued an alert to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police regarding a death threat to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. According to a report published in News18, it is mentioned in the alter that the possible attack can even take place at Yogis Delhi residence. The alert also states that the security of the chief minister should be increased. The government on Friday pushed for reservation in promotions for employees belonging to SC/ST communities in the Supreme Court. Attorney General K K Venugopal told the apex court that 22.5 per cent (15 per cent SC+ 7.5 per cent ST) quota was needed in promotions. The top court was hearing the Centre's plea seeking a re-look at 2006 judgment that had barred reservation in promotion on the grounds that a large number of posts are lying vacant due to it. Private carrier Jet Airways is staring at its worst financial crisis in over two-decades of existence as the company is being forced to sell-off its non-core assets and real-estates to remain afloat. The airlines' founder chairman Naresh Goyal is also expected to shed a part of his 51 per cent shareholding. Some big developments that are expected to happen today are: India will resume its chase for a victory in the first Test match against England in Edgbaston on Day 4 of the match. India, who are chasing 194, managed 110/5 at the draw of stumps on Friday. Indian captain Virat Kohli, who scored a scintillating 149 in the first innings to give his team a chance, is batting at 43 in the second innings and his partnered by wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, who is at the crease on 18. England will look to take 5 wickets to start the series on a winning host. Follow all the live updates regarding the match here. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will hold a protest in Delhi against the Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Rape and Minor Abuse Case. The RJD protest, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav, has been demanding the resignation of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, alleging that the state government has failed to provide justice to the victims. We at LatestLY will bring all the breaking and latest news and updates around the world. Stay with us for the latest updates of the day Washington, August 4: In a big achievement for India, the United States has given the Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) status. India has also become the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea, to get STA-1 status. The US issued a federal notification regarding this, thus, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi. India will now get US cooperation, particularly in civil space and defence sectors. India is the 37th country to be designated the STA-1 status by the US. The Trump administration has made an exception for India, as it is yet to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The US, generally, has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and the Nuclear Security Group (NSG). India is not a member of NSG, as China has always opposed Indias entry into the group. According to the federal notification, India is a Major Defence Partner of the US. The notification also states that the US and India will continue their commitment to work together to strengthen the global non-proliferation and export control framework. The two countries have mutually agreed to expand cooperation in civil space, defence, and other high-technology sectors. The US has also shown commitment to support Indias bid to NSG and to realign India in its export control regulations. India has been admitted to the MTCR on June 27, 2016, the Wassenaar Arrangement on December 7, 2017, and the Australia Group on January 19, 2018. The US had recognised India s the major defence partner in a joint statement on June 7, 2016. After getting the status, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), formally recognises Indias membership in the WA multilateral export control under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Earlier, India was listed in the STA-2 category along with Albania, Hong Kong, Israel, Malta, Singapore, South Africa and Taiwan. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2018 02:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). At least 55 people, including women and children have been killed in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah after air raids were carried out by a Saudi Arabia and UAE alliance against Houthi rebel fighters. The number of wounded was atleast 102 and likely to go up. The figures were released by the Houthi rebel-run health ministry. In a statement issued late on Thursday, the ministry said the air attacks targeted the city's public al-Thawra Hospital and a busy fishing port area. Due to the nature of the location of the targets the number of casualty is likely to go up. Chinas Xinhua news agency was already reporting that up to 70 people may have been killed in the Saud-led air raids. The International Red Cross, which supports the al-Thawra hospital, said it sent surgical supplies that will be enough to treat up to 50 patients who are in critical condition. Taha al-Mutawakil, the Minister for Public Health and Population in the Houthi-led administration, said "What we have seen in Hodeidah is a heinous crime," according to the Houthi-run SABA news agency saying. He added that United States shared responsibility for the deaths. With logistical support from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been carrying out attacks inside Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who was overthrown by fighters from the Houthi tribe. The Houthis consider the Mansour Hadi government a puppet of Saudi Arabia and not representative of Yemenis aspirations. The resulting battle for Yemen has claimed the lives of 10,000 people till date and a Saudi-imposed embargo on Yemen has led to more than 100,000 children dying from extreme hunger and starvation. The UN has initiated peace talks to try to bring the violence to a halt. The peace talks are also aimed at slowing the Saudi-led siege of the vital port city of Hodeidah. Saudi-led pro-government forces have commenced attacks on Yemens vital commercial hub, in a bid to seize it and cut off remaining supplies to Sanaa from the outside world. The United Nations has warned of a resulting humanitarian catastrophe that could take 250,000 lives. The UN warned had also warned in May that 22 million Yemenis were dependent on humanitarian assistance or protection -- over eight million of whom are at risk of starvation. Another 10 million lives could be at risk by the end of the year. Human Rights Watch has accused the Saudi-led campaign of 85 instances of unlawful airstrikes -- a charge that the coalition has denied. A few months ago, locals said, an airstrike hit a nearby gas station, as part of an alleged campaign to limit the fuel supply to the capital. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 03, 2018 11:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Los Angeles, CA Why should a worker bear the burden when an employer cant keep track of time? With this question, the California Supreme Court threw open the doors to Why should a worker bear the burden when an employer cant keep track of time? With this question, the California Supreme Court threw open the doors to California labor lawsuits on behalf of workers who are tired of being nickel and dimed out of their pay for brief, but repeated, stints of off-the-clock work. The Message: Count Every Minute. Pay Every Penny. The Long and Tangled Tale of Troester The De Minimis Exception vs. All Hours Worked Standard The Future of Donning and Doffing Lawsuits in California What About Other States? On July 26, 2018, the Court held that California law requires employers to pay wages even when tracking short periods of time is an administrative nuisance.Douglas Troester worked as a shift supervisor for Starbucks for seventeen months during 2009 and 2010. Starbuckss computer software required him to clock out on before initiating the softwares close store procedure on a separate computer terminal at the back office. After he did that, he activated the alarm, exited the store and locked the front door. On occasion, he also walked his coworkers to their cars in compliance with Starbuckss safety rules and brought in store patio furniture mistakenly left outside. Sometimes, he had to let employees come back into the store to collect forgotten belongings.In his original Complaint, he estimated that he was underpaid by roughly $102 for this off-the-clock work during his entire period of employment. Thats not a lot of money to Starbucks. But it might pay a utility bill for someone who works there. It could be a lot of money when you think about all the shift managers at Starbucks. It could be even more when you think about all the other Californians who do shift work.Troester brought a class action lawsuit in 2012. The federal district court granted summary judgment to Starbucks. The court held that while the employees closing activities occurred regularly, they typically took him only a few minutes per day, and were administratively difficult to track and compensate. Therefore, these activities weretime for which Starbucks was not required to pay wages.Douglas Troester appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit asked the California Supreme Court to decide whether therule is available as a defense to wage claims brought under the California Labor Code. The California Supreme Court has now come back with an answer, and the answer is no.is legal shorthand for the fusty Latin maxim, "de minimis non curat lex", or [t]he law does not concern itself with trifles. In other words, Dont bother the court with stupid, little stuff. But what is stupid, little stuff is very much in the eye of the beholder.The Fair Labor Standards Act, the principal federal law that protects workers wages, requires that workers be paid for all time during which they are suffered or permitted to work . Over time, court decisions and federal regulations have recognized an exception for short periods of time that were too difficult to measure.This is also often referred to as the donning and doffing exception, named for the time it took workers to put on and take off protective gear. It is now taken to mean all brief periods of off-the-clock work activity. Under federal law, the donning and doffing orexception continues to exempt employers from paying for certain short periods of time.Under basic principles of legal interpretation, California law may be more protective of workers than federal law but never less. In California, the law governing payment of workers is made up of a combination of the California Labor Code and various wage orders. Together, they require that California workers must be paid for all hours worked. Does this include the federal exception for shortperiods of time? The California Supreme Court found no such carve out.The California Supreme Courts decision is somewhat more subtle and nuanced, however. Although it does not find that theexception currently exists in California law, it does not decide Douglas Troesters case. That decision remains for the Ninth Circuit. That court must still weigh and evaluate the facts under the newly clarified California law.From a realistic viewpoint, the fate of similar lawsuits depends on whether they can proceed as class action lawsuits. Very few people can actually afford to pursue lawsuits about $102. A workers right to pursue a class action lawsuit is, itself, under attack, since the U.S. Supreme Court has recently upheld the enforceability of forced arbitration clauses in employment agreements. These are increasingly common even for lower paid workers. Douglas Troester and similarly situated workers are still far from out of the woods.Since the latestdecision involves an interpretation of California state law, it may be informative, but it is certainly not binding on other states. In Florida, for example, the Eleventh Circuit recently held that theexception did prevent an employee from recovering for small stretches of unpaid time. It matters where employees sue. In the long run, though, to the extent that the law can change and develop and a national consensus can emerge, the Ninth Circuit is generally thought to be a leader in employee protections. The Friends of the Delaware Canal will lead two 2-mile boat trips on the waterway Saturday, Aug. 18. Launches are set for 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. from the Theodore Roosevelt Recreation Area (aka Groundhog Lock), 300 Canal Road, Easton. Each journey is expected to take two hours. Kayakers and canoeists will have the opportunity discover the canal from an in-water vantage point. State Park educator Katie Martens will lead the paddle, which will head north from Locks 22 and 23, passing the lost town of Uhlersville to the remains of the hydroelectric plant that powered the Easton-to-Doylestown trolley line. Paddlers may bring their own kayaks, canoes and personal floatation devices or borrow equipped kayaks the State Park will have available. There will be 16 seats available on 12 single kayaks and two tandem kayaks. They will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. A $10 donation is requested if participants use State Park kayaks. Registration for this activity is required no later than Monday, Aug. 6 by calling 215-862-2021 or emailing friends@fodc.org. For more information about this and other events, visit fodc.org. The Friends of the Delaware Canal is an independent nonprofit organization working to preserve, restore and improve the canal and its surroundings. A former Allentown man, and father of two, will be laid to rest this week in Lehigh County after his tragic death last month in Texas, according to his obituary. Nickolas K. Bosch, 40, was shot and killed by a security guard at his apartment building, according to a news report and Facebook posts from a neighbor and family friends. The incident occurred July 26 at the Thirty Oaks apartments in Bexar County, in the San Antonio area, mysanantonio.com reports. Bosch died of multiple gunshot wounds after a getting into a confrontation with the guard, who was trying to get him to leave the apartments' swimming pool area, according to the report. The guard was not immediately charged in the incident, the website reported. The incident happened two days before 44-year-old Joseph "Joey" Santos, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, was fatally shot July 28 by a South Whitehall Township police officer in an incident outside Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom. Bosch's wife, Jessica, started a fundraising effort on Facebook to help with funeral expenses and related costs. The couple was approaching their 10th wedding anniversary in November and had two children. Nickolas Bosch attended William Allen High School in Allentown, said Megan Ables, his neighbor in Texas. He was employed as a plumber since 2007, his obituary states. A funeral service is scheduled 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Harding Funeral Home, 25-27 N. Second St. in Slatington. Friends and family may call beginning at 6 p.m. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. TROPHIES a part-time employee for the Stewartsville Post Office, rescued a 64-year-old man who was pinned under a motorcycle in his garage in Asbury, Hunterdon County. Perez, an Easton resident, heard the cries of Jack Anderson, who had been trapped for a half-hour under the heavy bike, which was running and burning his leg. Perez, who is studying criminal justice at Northampton Community College and wants to be a postal inspector, was honored this week by the Postal Service. "I didn't think it was a big deal. I just helped him out," he said. The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley is looking to develop a "zombie subdivision" in South Bethlehem -- a proposed housing complex that was abandoned more than 10 years ago after installation of streets, sidewalks and utility connections. The nonprofit CACLV plans to convert the site to a mixed-income housing community, dubbed "City Lights" for its hillside location and views of the city. Thirty-six twin homes are planned, 26 to be sold at market prices and 10 leased as less expensive land-trust units. Neighborhood residents and people interested in buying the homes are invited to a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Southside Lofts, 435 Hayes St., Bethlehem. LANTA is expanding its low-cost fare program for middle school and high school students. The transportation authority, which has had $1 fares for Allentown and Bethlehem students for years, is extending the offer to other school districts in Lehigh and Northampton counties. The $1 passes, good for unlimited rides for a day, will be available through the schools. In addition to getting kids to and from school, the passes can be used to travel to after-school jobs, shopping or other places, LANTA Executive Director Owen O'Neil said. The authority also offers discounted passes to local community colleges, and has contracted with Lehigh University to provide a free-ride program for students and staff. TURKEYS A brick thrown through a window last weekend in Bethlehem Township raised more than the usual speculation about intent. The vandalism occurred at a building that houses the headquarters of Marty Nothstein, the Republican candidate for Congress in the Lehigh Valley, a day before the grand opening of the office. Nothstein's campaign manager, Charlie O'Neill, suggested a political motive: "Our political opponents, including far-left groups from outside the district, have declared the Lehigh Valley a battleground, so it's little wonder that extreme rhetoric has now translated into physical violence." Bethlehem Township police questioned whether the act was politically motivated, noting that the brick went through the window of a tattoo parlor in the building, not the campaign office. The Diocese of Harrisburg disclosed the names of 71 priests and other church members accused of child sex abuse in a wide-ranging grand jury investigation. Diocesan officials said the bishops who led the diocese for the last 70 years should be held accountable for their failure to protect children, announcing that their names will be removed from church properties. Bishop Ronald Gainer apologized to those who were abused and expressed "profound sorrow." The Diocese of Erie made a similar disclosure last month, but victims and parishioners in four other dioceses, including Allentown, are still waiting. The public release of the grand jury probe, which Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert supports, has been delayed by challenges by some priests and former priests. The state Supreme Court ruled that a version of the report, with some names blacked out, could be released next week. An Upper Mount Bethel Township business plans to open another plant about 3 1/2 miles down the road from its existing facility. Air Liquide Advanced Materials announced it will open the new facility at the former Formica-Surrell Building at 1379 Delaware Drive in the township. The company develops, manufactures and delivers specialty gases, liquids and solid materials for the semiconductor and other high technology industries. Air Liquide currently has a facility at 103 Demi Road in Upper Mount Bethel near the Portland border, which it has operated since acquiring Voltaix in 2013. Air Liquide plans to invest $45 million into the new 105,000-square-foot facility and will create 188 new jobs and retain 80 jobs over the next three years, according to a statement released by Gov. Tom Wolf. "We look forward to expanding our operations in Northampton County and are proud to contribute to the growing economic vitality in the area and strengthening the manufacturing industry in the state," said Paul Burlingame, president and CEO of Air Liquide Advanced Materials. Air Liquide received $564,000 in Pennsylvania First funding and another $564,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits to be distributed upon creation of the new jobs. The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC) and the Governor's Action Team, a group that works with businesses that are considering locating or expanding in Pennsylvania, helped coordinate the project. UPDATE: More Musikfest acts moved as flood cleanup continues Streams overflowed their banks and flash flooding led to water rescues and road closures Saturday morning across the Lehigh Valley region. The Warren County Farmers' Fair canceled the final day of the 81st annual fair on Saturday, and Musikfest closed three of its venues for Day 2 of the 35th annual 10-day festival, organizers said. A total of 3.3 inches of rain fell in 24 hours through 8 a.m. Saturday at Lehigh Valley International Airport, said Trent Davis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Most of that, 2.01 inches, fell in the six hours leading up to 8 a.m. Trained spotters submitted 24-hour totals around 4 inches in the region, Davis said. "Most of it kind of fell along U.S. 22 and north," he said. "It really went all the way from Berks County, the heaviest rain, into north-central New Jersey. Allentown kind of fell right in the smack-dab middle of it." A log of Northampton County 911 calls showed numerous trees down, flooding incidents, pump details for flooded basements and road hazards overnight into Saturday, as well as water rescue calls about 4 a.m. along Route 22 West in Hanover Township and about 6 a.m. at Locust Road and Beth-Bath Pike in East Allen Township. "That's because people went through road-closed barricades," said Todd Weaver, emergency management director for the county. "That was more or less get the people out of vehicles because they were stalled out." Northampton County crews were also called to assist with water rescues in neighboring Lehigh County about 5:15 a.m. on Lehigh Street and about 5:30 a.m. along Eberhardt Road, both in Whitehall Township. Another water rescue call came in about 10:15 a.m. at Hokendauqua Park, 3450 Lehigh St. in Whitehall Township, according to an emergency radio broadcast. A swift-water rescue was reported about 11:30 a.m. at Iron Lakes Country Club, 3625 Shankweiler Road in North Whitehall Township, an emergency radio broadcast indicated. Crews quickly canceled their response on that one. There were no injuries reported across Northampton and Lehigh counties as of about 11 a.m., said Weaver and John Kalynych, special operations team coordinator for Lehigh County. Water levels were continuing to recede by late morning, but hazards remained, officials said. "If roads are closed, heed the warning of the signs," Weaver stressed to motorists. "That keeps them safe and it also keeps our responders safe." In Forks Township, Bushkill Park was underwater and Bushkill Drive was among the area roads closed, from Northwood Avenue to Newlins Road. "Do Not Drive Through Water," Forks authorities said via their nixle.com account. Other closures in Northampton County included Steuben Road from Keystone Drive to Georgetown Road in Lower Nazareth Township; Kesslersville Road north of Kuebler Road in Forks Township; Route 512 at Jaindl Boulevard, Locust Road and Silver Crest Road in East Allen Township; the intersection of Van Buren and Corriere roads in Palmer Township; and Lehigh Drive from Palmer Township into Easton, according to Weaver. The weather service issued a flood warning until 10 p.m. Saturday for Warren County and until 10:15 p.m. for Lehigh and Northampton counties. Those warnings had been set to expire earlier, but were pushed back several times throughout the day. "At 954 AM EDT, rainfall has ended across the area," the Lehigh Valley warning stated. "Several local creeks and streams continue to rise, including the Monocacy Creek and the Little Lehigh River. Several roadways remain flooded and this residual flooding will continue for another few hours." On the New Jersey side, the warning stated: "At 737 AM EDT, local law enforcement reported flooding across portions of Sussex and Warren counties. In addition, local creeks and streams are also rising and flooding, including the Pequest River near Pequest. Although rain is beginning to taper off, up to 4 to 5 inches of rainfall fell overnight in some areas. Residual flooding will continue for the next few hours." In a Facebook post Saturday morning, the Warren County Farmers' Fair stated: "Due to the extreme conditions, we unfortunately cannot open the Fairgrounds today. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding." Due to the extreme conditions, we unfortunately cannot open the Fairgrounds today. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. Posted by Warren County Farmers' Fair featuring Hot Air Balloon Festival on Saturday, August 4, 2018 At Musikfest, which had its official start Friday following a preview night Thursday, the heavy rains over night forced the closure for at least Saturday of the Handwerkplatz, Familienplatz and Volksplatz venues. The parent organization ArtsQuest said an update would be provided Saturday afternoon on when the venues would reopen. All three are adjacent to the Monocacy Creek, which overflowed its banks overnight. No one was reported injured. Scott Siegfried, of Whitehall Township, jogged by the flooding about 7:15 a.m. and noted it had already begun to recede by about 8:45 a.m. "It's sad, it's such a shame," he said from the Broad Street bridge looking down on the Colonial Industrial Quarter, parts of which remained submerged in water from the Monocacy. "I hate it for Musikfest." Portable restrooms could be seen tipped over and lying in muddy water, and floodwaters were encroaching on numerous vendor tents at the creek-side venue. Borough officials in Freemansburg reported debris from Musikfest including "coolers, equipment and porta-johns ... floating down the river." "All music stages other than Volksplatz will be opened as planned and the Daughtry concert at the Sands Steel Stage is on as scheduled," ArtsQuest said in a statement. "For the first time in the history of the festival, Musikfest's SouthSide at SteelStacks will open at noon on weekends, with a performance by Neil Young tribute Sugar Mountain kicking things off at the Community Stage at noon." In addition, ArtsQuest moved these performances scheduled for Volksplatz to the Musikfest Cafe at SteelStacks: 1:30-2:30p.m.: FLoxy Bee, Yeye Asa, Yeye Osun and Hikosso Queen. 3-4:30 p.m.: Gina Chavez Living Vines moved to the South Side, as well, with performances at 3, 5 and 7 p.m. in the Americaplatz area, ArtsQuest spokesman Mark Demko said. The noon Allegro Dance show at Volksplatz has been canceled, he noted. "City of Bethlehem emergency, police, health and fire personnel and ArtsQuest staff are on-site assessing the situation and the cleanup process has begun," the nonprofit Musikfest parent stated. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A Portlaoise woman appealing a prison sentence for selling heroin to undercover gardai has been told that if there is a positive probation report on her by the next court date she will not go to prison. Deirdre Kelly, 12 OMoore Place, appeared before the recent circuit court to appeal a six-month sentence she received for selling heroin to undercover gardai. Her appeal was previously adjourned by Judge Keenan Johnson for a probation report to indicate the appellant had made genuine efforts to turn her life around. Her arrest arose out of Operation Nero, an ongoing operation into the supply of drugs in the district. Kelly sold heroin to undercover gardai valued at 20, at Dr Murphy Place, Portlaoise, on July 22 and again on July 27, 2015. She had 33 previous convictions and was sentenced in the district court to six months in prison for the offence. When the appeal first came before the circuit court last year, barrister, Mr Rory Hanniffy said that his clients arrest had been part of a wider operation, and she had been acting as a courier in this transaction. When arrested, she identified other individuals. Garda Sgt Justine Reilly confirmed that someone else would have been contacted by those wishing to buy drugs and then Kelly brought the drugs down to them. Sgt Reilly agreed with Mr Hannify that the appellants evidence had assisted the gardai in arresting other people involved. Mr Hannify told the court that Kelly was a heroin addict and her addiction was linked to her previous convictions, but she has been receiving treatment at Coote Street. Her addiction brought great anguish to her and those around her, said Mr Hannify. Shes clearly a work in progress. Remarking that Kelly had gone out and sold heroin, Judge Keenan Johnson told her: Your life is a tragedy, you know better than anyone its an appalling state of affairs. I have a duty to ensure that the tragedy thats befallen you doesnt befall anyone else. Judge Johnson said he would adjourn the case for a probation report and wanted the report to indicate the appellant had made genuine efforts to turn her life around. You have the keys to prison in your own hands, the judge told her. When the case returned to court recently, solicitor, Ms Josephine Fitzpatrick said the case had been adjourned to monitor the appellant regarding her rehabilitation. Ms Fitzpatrick said the appellant had completed all but three or four days of a residential programme. She said the appellant consumed a single can of Bulmers and was not allowed to stay to complete the programme. Ms Fitzpatrick said the appellant is now stabilised on 40ml of methadone. Judge Keenan Johnson said there was quite a positive probation report on the appellant and agreed to adjourn the case to December 5 for the appellant to continue under probation supervision. The judge said that if the report is positive in December he would deal with the matter without a custodial sentence. Work on the construction of the long-awaited 180,000 playground in Sallins is likely to start next year. An official start date is not yet available but it will be spring 2019 and it will take 12 to 16 weeks to build. The playground has been the subject of a prolonged campaign by politicians who see it as a necessary facility in a town which has seen many houses and apartment built but not enough amenities. Sallins politician Carmel Kelly said many children had grown up in the Sallins area without having a playground to use and she told a Naas Municipal District meeting that she is disappointed that the work wont start until next year. The playground will be built close to the church on land owned by the parish. The campaign for a playground there goes back a number of years and before the 2011 census revealed that village has the highest population density outside Dublin. A site was originally identified close to Castlefen but it is owned by Kildare County Council which rejected the idea because the land may be used for housing at some future date. The council was also concerned that there would not be adequate parking spaces there. A second alternative site was put forward, near the community centre in the village but there was little progress to report for some time. In 2013, over 100 adults and children protested over the absence of a playground at the facility in Monread - the nearest one to Sallins. In early May 2015, then councillor James Lawless sought a commitment from the council that playgrounds would be developed in Sallins. Referring to competing requests for playground in other areas around Naas, he said population growth must be taken into account as an important factor. At that time Cllr. Fintan Brett said: It is a disgrace to us and Kildare county council that there is no playground in Sallins. When completed the playground will cater for children between the ages of 1 to 12. Its attractions will include swings, slides, seesaws, rockers, multiplay units, play panels, sand and water play and landscaping. Fianna Fail TD for Roscommon/Galway Eugene Murphy has welcomed his party's wide ranging and radical series of proposals to secure the future of Irish print journalism. Quality journalism, the bedrock upon which people are informed in order to make decisions for themselves is currently jeopardized by a significant downturn in revenues for news publishers in Ireland. The figures are stark. National newspaper circulation is down 50% over the past 10 years, and down 35% for local newspapers. Fianna Fail is proposing to expand the role of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and to establish a Print Journalism Unit and I must commend my party colleague Communications Spokesperson, Timmy Dooley for all his work on this issue . Its remit would be to deliver innovative schemes to support the work of print journalists at both national and local level. The unit will also disperse grant aid to support newspaper publishers in providing public service content. We believe that a single Government Minister must have oversight over all aspects of the Irish media, and in the next Fianna Fail government, authority over print, digital and broadcast media will be vested in a single Department. Many print newspapers see their work being shared widely and freely on digital platforms. They receive no payment for this content, and this needs fixing. Newspaper journalists research and fact check this costs money. Those reusing their work must pay for that, otherwise we risk seeing newspapers go bust. The work of the Print Journalism Unit could be funded in two ways; by ring fencing current Exchequer VAT receipts from newspaper sales, c. 27 million or a new 6% digital advertising levy. Based on 2018 sales, it would realise c. 30 million per annum. Our proposals will secure the future of quality print journalism in the country for generations to come. Many of our EU colleagues are already investing in print journalism. In France, for example, 262 million was made available to newspapers in direct support for distribution, home delivery and modernization and innovation in 2016. "If we want independent quality journalism, we need to invest. Out citizens deserve open, honest and compelling journalism, and Fianna Fail will protect its future, concluded Murphy. A County Longford man, who was knocked down and critically injured after being struck by a police vehicle in Canada earlier this year, has died. Mullinalaghta native Brendan Keogh passed away on Wednesday morning (August 1), some four months after sustaining serious injuries following an incident on March 13 last in Squamish, about 60km north of Vancouver. 29-year-old Mr Keogh, a former student at Cnoc Mhuire in Granard, was walking along the intersection of Highway 99 and Garibaldi Way in the bustling town of Squamish when he was struck by an unmarked Police SUV. The officer, attached to the Lower Mainland Integrated Police Dog Services, had been on duty at the time. That resulted in Canadian police watchdog The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) launching an investigation into the circumstances behind the incident. The former Dundalk IT student's parents Kevin and Marian, and two sisters, Niamh and Aine, flew out to Canada to be by his side, while back at home, two prayer services were held in Mullinalaghta's St Columba's Church. Mr Keogh had been living in the Canadian province of British Columbia for a year and had been working at local bar and restaurant the Howe Sound Inn up until the time of the incident. The well liked and much respected north Longfordian was flown home to Ireland a number of weeks later where, it was hoped, he would continue his rehabilitation. News of his passing, however, has been greeted with shock and much anguish within the tight knit community of Mullinalaghta. "It is very sad to hear that Brendan has passed away," said local Cllr PJ Reilly. "It's very tough on his parents Kevin and Marian and two sisters as it is for the local community." Mr Keogh's family expressed thanks to Vancouver General Hospital, Cavan General Hospital and the Mater Hospital, Dublin for the care they afforded him since the accident. He will lie in repose at Our Lady's Manor Nursing Home, Edgeworthstown on Saturday, August 4 from 4pm until 7pm. Funeral Mass takes place on Sunday, August 5 in St Columba's Church, Mullinalaghta at 2pm with burial immediately afterwards in local cemetery. House private please. Sympathy is extended to his parents Marian and Kevin, sisters Niamh and Aine, brother in law Colm, uncles, aunts, cousins and a large circle of friends, R.I.P. THE HSE will pay out more than 46,000 to developers, a day, for the construction of a new four-storey building at University Hospital Limericka new measure to tackle the regions chronic overcrowding crisis. The proposed 60-bed block will act as an interim measure while the hospital awaits the delivery of a new 25m 96-bed block by 2021. And according to the HSE, who has put the project out to public tender, the successful candidate will be awarded a 14m contract and will have to carry out the rapid-build in just 300 days. That amounts to a daily expenditure of 46,666.67 on the projects completion by the HSE. The HSE filed a planning application for the development on June 22, and a decision is expected to be made by Limerick City and County Council by August 16. According to the tender, the proposed development will comprise 60 ensuite single bedrooms, with wards based on a racetrack plan where the beds are arranged on the perimeter of the building. As part of the Governments 2040 capital plan, it will fund the 25m 96-bed complex. In the medium term, a new bed block is being considered as an interim solution to the bed capacity issue. This would provide 60 additional beds in the medium term, is contingent on funding and would take 12 months to complete. UL Hospitals understands that the proposal for system build additional acute beds at UHL is currently under active consideration by the Department of Health and the HSE. Asked what will happen to the block when the 96 beds arrive, the spokesperson said the 60-bed block would remain in place and be used for clinical purposes, the specifics of which will be determined at that time and be based on patient demand. According to a monthly report by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, UHL had the worst level of overcrowding in the country with 897 patients being treated on emergency department trolleys and on extra trolleys or beds in the wards. It was significantly higher than every other hospital in the country, with Cork University Hospital next on the list with 614 patients. Overcrowding this July was 26% higher than July 2017, when there were 235 fewer patients on trolleys in the ED and wards. In July 2007, there were just 18 patients on trolleys. On a daily basis, there are more than 40 patients on trolleys. Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan described the situation as disgraceful. The situation cannot continue with these shocking figures. If 897 people in the middle of summer are on trolleys in Limerick University Hospital is not a wake-up call for this government one wonders when they will act decisively and intervene. The 60-bed block is expected to be delivered in late 2019. A SERIAL offender who broke into two commercial premises in the city centre will avoid a prison sentence if he completes 240 hours of community service. Michael Desmond, aged 36, who has an address at St Munchins Street, St Marys Park, previously pleaded guilty to burglary charges relating to break-ins during the early hours of November 1, 2016. Detective Garda Barry OGrady told Limerick Circuit Court a cash float was taken from one premises while nothing was taken from the second - a pub. During a sentencing hearing, he said the defendant was identified as a suspect after his movements were tracked on CCTV at a number of locations in the city centre. Judge Tom ODonnell was told when arrested a number of days later, Desmond made full and frank admissions in relation to the offences. Brian McInerney BL, said his client, who has more than 40 previous convictions for burglary, has a background of addiction. He said Mr Desmond, who has no trappings of wealth only ever targets commercial premises which are closed. He doesnt do house break-ins, he doesnt engage with people, he goes for empty premises, he said. Mr McInerney submitted his client operates at a low level and generally steals small amounts of money which is converted very quickly into narcotics. He said the defendants admissions and guilty plea were helpful as a jury would have been asked to join various dots had the matter gone to trial. Having requested a report from the Probation Service, Judge ODonnell commented that he had not seen the defendant in such good shape for some time. He also noted that he has not come to the attention of gardai for over a year. While noting that burglary offences are very high on the agenda at present, he said he would like to see the defendant doing something positive in the community. Having been informed that Desmond is a suitable candidate for community service, the judge imposed the maximum penalty of 240 hours in lieu of a ten month prison sentence. CONTROVERSIAL plans to build almost 50 social homes near the North Circular Road have been criticised by local TD Willie ODea. Last month, the Limerick Leader revealed plans by the council to construct a new housing estate on a patch of land just off the Condell Road. Following this, Mr ODea organised a meeting between local authority bosses and residents. Residents", he said, "have concerns over the development lacking a proper mix of houses and becoming a ghetto in the future. They feel that the proposed development lacks the kind of facilities and connectivity to services that a social housing scheme should have. Mr ODea argues there are many other council-owned sites which are infinitely more suitable for housing. Pat ONeill, who chairs the Clonmacken Residents Association, added: We as residents feel its not a proper location as it stands totally isolated within a flood plain with no amenities within walking distance. People of the area would welcome a proper housing development of mixed use of affordable and social housing. Local residents strongly oppose any development of just a stand-alone isolated site with just social housing. If history tells us anything, it does not work and we have seen by the councils very own actions that they too know it doesn't work to isolate social housing and that the only way forward is integration. The community activist said as a consequence of this development, a riverside walk along the Shannon will go. This will impact on a lot of people and they will not want to lose this. Finally, this will be a social housing scheme with no amenities which in itself can lead to anti-social behaviour, he argued. The proposed development will consist of 43 residential units consisting of 23 two storey units and a three storey block comprising 20 units. A number of other members have also spoken out against these plans. A HORSE that got into difficulty in mud in Limerick city has been saved by a group of local volunteers. The mare was stuck in a pond of mud in Rhebogue on Friday evening. She was submerged up to her neck and unable to pull herself up out of the pond. After receiving an out-of-hours call from some locals, Limerick Animal Welfare (LAW) sent out an appeal on Facebook for more people to come along and help. Volunteers from LAW were in attendance but asked for more man-power and equipment, such as ropes, to help rescue the horse. And thanks to the fantastic community response, the horse was saved. LAW thanked those who helped, including their tireless volunteer Anna Gallagher and the Clarkes, Reillys, and all the boys that came to help and brought ropes and straps. They all worked together to pull the mare free from the mud. Equine vet Paraic McNamara also attended, and antibiotics were given to the mare. Her owner then took her her home to be stabled and watched over to ensure she would make a full recovery, said LAW. Volunteer Anna Gallagher, who works with young people in the Horse Education Limerick Project Southside, said that the mare is in good condition and is a well-cared for horse. The animal was grazing on land that the owner rents, when it got into difficulty in a pond in the field. The owner has now taken the mare home to continue to care for her as she was suffering from shock and antibiotics will be administered for a week to ensure infection doesn't set in, said Ms Gallagher. Well done to all those urban horse owners and a huge thank you for coming out to assist in this mares rescue. The rescue effort gained a huge audience online, with many congratulating the everyday heroes who helped save the horse. The two wildfires scorching Mendocino and Lake counties forced more evacuations as they grew rapidly Saturday, while in Shasta County, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. worker was killed in an accident near the Carr Fire. The PG&E crew member died Saturday afternoon while doing restoration work near the blaze burning in the Redding area, J.D. Guidi, a utility spokesman, said Sunday. The utility worker is the seventh person to die in the fire two firefighters and four other people have been killed in the blaze. Crews in a remote area with dangerous terrain were performing restoration work when a crew member suffered an accident and a fatal injury in western Shasta County, Guidi said. PG&E crews arrived shortly after the incident to ensure the area was safe for first responders and supported public agencies accordingly. The person has not been identified. Guidi said PG&E is working with law enforcement to investigate the death. The safety of our customers, employees, contractors and communities we serve is PG&Es top priority, Guidi said. Unfortunately, one member of the PG&E family has died and our thoughts are with those involved in the incident and their families. In Mendocino and Lake counties, the River Fire and Ranch Fire, which make up the Mendocino Complex, expanded by 75,268 acres since Friday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. By Saturday afternoon, flames were getting dangerously close to crossing into Colusa County, said Will Powers, a spokesman for Cal Fire. The fire is showing some extreme fire behavior in some of these areas, consuming a lot of fuel and moving at a moderate rate of spread and, in some cases, a dangerous rate of spread, Powers said. Intense weather conditions Saturday fueled the blazes with high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity, he added. Collectively, the blazes had burned 229,006 acres as of Saturday night, up from 153,738 acres Friday. The Ranch Fire was just 22 percent contained and the River Fire was 50 percent contained. New mandatory evacuations were ordered Saturday in Lake, Colusa and Glenn counties near the Indian Valley Reservoir and the Spring Valley area. With more than 3,000 fire personnel battling the blaze, the low humidity, dry vegetation and gusty winds pushed the fire to grow overnight, Cal Fire said. Throughout Saturday, fire crews and bulldozer operators worked to cut new containment lines. But limiting the relentless blazes has been difficult. The northwest part of the Ranch Fire was expected to move farther into the Mendocino National Forest, burning south of Lake Pillsbury and pushing to the east, Cal Fire said. The north side of the River Fire is forecast to burn toward Cow Mountain and Scotts Valley Road. The flames have destroyed 55 homes and 49 other buildings, and 15,300 remain threatened. The cause of the fires is not known. Gov. Jerry Brown requested a presidential major disaster declaration Saturday to help with repair of damaged facilities and infrastructure, unemployment assistance, crisis counseling and other aid for Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Shasta counties devastated by wildfires. Ive asked the president make a major declaration. Hes done it in the past. Im confident he will do it again, Brown said. A red flag warning was in effect for the areas affected by the Mendocino Complex and the Carr Fire near Redding, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento. The expected strong winds, low humidity and warm weather can create critical fire weather, and any fires that develop during the red flag warning could spread rapidly, the Weather Service said. The Carr Fire grew to 145,015 acres Saturday. The blaze, caused by a spark from a vehicle, was 41 percent contained. On Saturday, Brown met with local leaders and fire and emergency personnel in Shasta County to discuss the damage inflicted by the Carr Fire. His meeting prompted the request for the major disaster declaration, which would help both local and tribal governments. Already the sixth most destructive fire in California history, the Carr Fire has razed 1,073 homes, 14 commercial buildings and 492 other structures, Cal Fire said. A total of 1,358 structures continue to be threatened. Officials have not yet determined when it will be fully contained. Near Yosemite Valley, firefighters worked through the night to contain spot fires near the Ferguson Fire just outside Wawona, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The Ferguson Fire, which has been burning for 23 days, grew only slightly from 77,207 acres to 81,699 acres Saturday, and was 35 percent contained. Two firefighters have been killed in the blaze and 11 others injured. Officials have closed Yosemite Valley, Wawona Road, the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias and Hetch Hetchy to visitors, because smoke created unhealthy conditions and to allow firefighters to continue their operations. Chronicle staff writer Roland Li contributed to this report. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani BART officials continued their search Saturday for a 27-year-old homeless man suspected of stabbing two males on a train at the MacArthur Station in Oakland on Friday night. The incident comes as BART struggles to deal with growing criticism of the increase in violent crime on trains and at stations in recent weeks, including the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Nia Wilson at the same BART station just two weeks ago. Public safety is our top priority, BART Police Deputy Chief Lance Haight said at an Oakland news conference Saturday, but added that, Were unable to have officers at every station on every train. On Friday, an altercation involving Solomon Espinosa on a Richmond-bound train ended with two males, whose names were not released, getting stabbed, one on his arm and the other on his face, said Anna Duckworth, a BART spokeswoman. It is unclear whether the train was at the station or moving, but soon after the fight began, the two victims and Solomon spilled onto the MacArthur platform as passengers fled, Duckworth said. Espinosa left the area and has not been located by police, authorities said. A box cutter believed to be the weapon used by Espinosa was found at the station, police said There were no officers on the platform when the stabbing occurred, Haight said. The two men ran down the platform and alerted police on the ground level after the stabbing. Espinosa has a criminal history, but Haight was unable to provide additional details. As we discussed in the past, the homeless crisis is a regional issue, Haight said in reference to Espinosas background. Were working to address that within BART. One victim has been released from Highland Hospital with a wound to his arm, and the other was still hospitalized Saturday morning with a facial cut. At the time of the incident, Duckworth said, six BART police officers and three Oakland police officers were on duty at the station. Haight said the heightened police presence was because of a gathering of mourners after the funeral for Wilson, who was stabbed to death at the same station in an unprovoked attack on the platform on July 22. There are two prominent memorials for Wilson on the ground level of the station. Espinosa apparently did not know the victims, Duckworth said. A woman who was with Espinosa at the time of the attack was interviewed by police and positively identified him as the suspect involved in the stabbing. Her name has not been released. BART officials have reviewed footage taken on the train and station. The station was shut down for more than an hour Friday night while police investigated the stabbings. Detectives pulled down the metal caging in front of one of the ticket monitor areas at the ground level of the station, where investigators slipped on black gloves, swabbed one of the monitors and photographed the area for evidence late Friday. After train service to the station was restored after 9 p.m., some passengers hopping off trains lingered to watch detectives collect evidence at the ground floor ticketing area. Others shuffled past detectives amid the hum of high-powered construction lights drowning out the normal bustle of the station. Wilson was one of three people who died in late July after violent attacks on BART. Don Stevens, 47, was punched by an unidentified man at Bay Fair Station, fell, struck his head and died. Gerald Bisbee, 51, died from an infected cut after being attacked at Pleasant Hill Station. Suspects have been arrested in all three cases. Were not going to be able to be everywhere all at once, so we do rely on our riding public and our BART customers to be our eyes and ears in places where we arent at the moment to report on activity that is suspicious or criminal behavior, Haight said. Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, unapologetic atheist and author of "God Delusion," tweeted a picture of himself outside the Winchester Cathedral in England, which said: "Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great medieval cathedrals. So much nicer than the aggressive-sounding 'Allahu Akhbar.' Or is that just my cultural upbringing?" This lit a twitterstorm of retweets and replies. Dawkins then retweeted: "The call to prayer can be hauntingly beautiful, especially if the muezzin has a musical voice. My point is that 'Allahu Akhbar' is anything but beautiful when it is heard just before a suicide bomb goes off. That is when Islam is tragically hijacked by violence." There is a history of the Muslim call to prayer being misconstrued and opposed. In my research that looks at Muslim experiences of ritual practices in the U.S., I've spoken to Muslims who are forced to hide their prayer practices from colleagues. Many delay their prayers when out in public in fear of being attacked. Part of the suspicion comes from the fact that the prayer words "Allahu Akbar," or "God is the greatest," is associated with suicide bombers and other extremists. Film studies scholar Corey Creekmur surveyed Hollywood's "war on terror" films and found nearly all invoking Islam or the Middle East include the call to prayer in the background. It is believed that Prophet Muhammad received the words of the call from God through the archangel Gabriel. The Quran commands Muslims to pray five times a day. Many stop what they are doing during the call and make supplications to God. There is a science of reciting the prayers, called tajwid in Arabic. Ethnomusicologist Kristina Nelson explains how professional reciters use melody to reflect the emotions and teachings of the sacred text. Tapping into the message of the Quran, reciters can evoke piety and remembrance of God in their listeners. For over a millennium, Muslim poets have described their experience of the prayer. American Muslim poet Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore recalls his practice of prayer as being able to experience God in an intimate way. Throughout his writings, 13th-century Persian Sufi poet Rumi fondly describes prayer as a direct door to God's presence, offering spiritual delights, and saying: Across religions, prayer has been found to have a calming effect on practitioners. Islamic prayer is no different. American Muslims have explained that prayer takes away their worries and brings them peace. It also brings families and entire communities together, connecting them to the Quran and God. So the next time you hear a Muslim call to prayer, do remember, it is simply the Islamic way to remind us of the divine. Rose S. Aslan is an assistant professor of global Islam at California Lutheran University. This article was first published on The Conversation, a global nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary. Montreal For generations, parishioners whispered their sins in the dark wooden confessional booths of Notre-Dame-du-Perpetuel-Secours, an imposing Roman Catholic church in Montreal. But on a recent day, the edgy Quebec comedian Sugar Sammy was being filmed inside one of the booths, the latest celebrity confessional on the talk show "Y'a du monde a messe," or "The Church Is Packed." The once-hallowed space, illuminated with a pink chandelier, has been reinvented as the Theatre Paradoxe at a cost of $3 million. It is now host to, among other events, Led Zeppelin cover bands and Zumba lessons. And it is one of dozens of churches across Quebec that have been transformed into university reading rooms, luxury condominiums, cheese emporiums and fitness centers. The radical makeovers of Quebec churches reflect the drastic decline of the Catholic Church in a majority-Catholic Canadian province, where 95 percent of the population went to Mass in the 1950s but only 5 percent do so today. That sharp drop, coupled with spiraling maintenance costs, has made heritage groups, architects and the church itself think creatively to conserve historic buildings at risk of being shuttered or demolished. Officials from Quebec's Roman Catholic Church said the repurposing of churches was a matter of demographics and economic pragmatism, even as they acknowledged that it was often accompanied by heartbreak. At a freewheeling event at Theatre Paradoxe, dozens of amateur dancers undulated in a trance-like state before the altar amid drums and chanting. Two men in tank tops clasped hands and twirled each other. A woman juggled three white balls. Wooden pews were recast to build a bar for alcohol-fueled banquets. The sacristy where priests prepared for Communion is a dressing room fit for a diva. While the church has welcomed a "Crucifix Halloween" party featuring barely dressed, dancers gyrating in front of a lit-up cross, its director, Gerald St-Georges, a Roman Catholic, stressed the church's main function was still sacred rather than profane. It teaches recovering addicts, juvenile delinquents and high-school dropouts technical theater skills so that they can enter the job market. On this date in ... 1918: Leo Levy, a manufacturer from New York City, was speeding on Central Avenue in Albany before he was overtaken by a motorcycle policeman, who said he was used to speeders but had a difficult time catching up to Levy's car. Levy didn't deny that he was "going some," but explained to the officer and later the judge that he was attempting to catch the night boat back to New York. The judge levied a $10 fine, to which Levy offered a $100 bill, saying, "This is all the change I have, judge." The judge told him he could get it changed across the street from the courthouse. "I thank you for your confidence in me, your honor," said Levy, who left and soon returned to pay his fine with a $10 bill. 1968: The University at Albany had made spectacular progress in recent years, wrote William Trombley, education writer for the Los Angeles Times. He found the Edward Durell Stone-designed $110 million campus complex "impressive" but he wondered if the boom would continue. The decision to make Albany one of SUNY's four university centers the others were at Buffalo, Binghamton and Stony Brook had been reached in 1962. Trombley was traveling throughout the state examining the mammoth State University of New York system. 1993: For generations, tourists had come from far away to sample the wondrous waters for which the Spa City was named. Much like the mythical "fountain of youth," the waters spouting from Saratoga's natural mineral springs had long been rumored and renowned as a cure for everything from skin disorders to digestive problems. But ironically, some of the mineral springs were aging and in need of cosmetic care, and a volunteer group had set out to help restore eight of the old geysers located in the city. The springs restoration project, with help from the city, was planning improvements, including new plantings, fresh coats of paint and some piping repairs. Want to read more about the Capital Region's past? Have any memories or thoughts about how our history relates to today's events? See http://blog.timesunion.com/history/. Google Earth Searchers on Saturday evening recovered the body of a man who fell from a boat in Texas City on Friday night, near the Texas City Dike. The 40-year-old fell from a 22-foot recreational boat into Moses Lake around 8:30 p.m. Friday and was not wearing a life jacket, prompting air and water searches through the night, the Coast Guard said. Las Vegas In the year before Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock carried out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the high-stakes gambler appeared to have become increasingly unstable, distant and constantly complained of being sick, according to a final investigative report released Friday. Financial records also showed Paddock had lost more than $1.5 million in the two years before the Oct. 1 shooting that left 58 people dead and more than 800 others injured. One of Paddock's brothers told investigators that he believed the gunman had a "mental illness and was paranoid and delusional," and his doctor believed he may have been bipolar. Despite the revelations, police say they are closing their investigation without a definitive answer for why Paddock amassed an arsenal of weapons and unleashed gunfire from a hotel suite onto a concert crowd below. "What we have been able to answer are the questions of who, what, when, where and how," Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. "What we have not been able to definitively answer is ... why Stephen Paddock committed this act." Paddock was the only gunman, and he didn't leave a manifesto "or even a note" to answer questions about his motive, the sheriff said. "Today it is still incredibly difficult to try to comprehend this senseless act of violence," he said. With the final report released, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has closed its 10-month investigation and no one else will be charged, said Lombardo, the elected head of the agency. Earlier this year, U.S. prosecutors charged a man accused of selling illegal armor-piercing bullets found in Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Douglas Haig has pleaded not guilty and maintains he sold tracer ammunition, which illuminate a bullet's path. Interviews with Paddock's doctor indicated he had a "troubled mind" but displayed no behavior leading up to the shooting that would have prompted someone to alert police, the sheriff said. Italy's government fired the opening salvo in what promises to be a fractious period of negotiations ahead of the 2019 budget, in a high-stakes process that's already sparking investor concern. As budget talks began in Rome on Friday, the two parties in the ruling coalition pledged to start implementing their bold spending plans next year, risking putting Premier Giuseppe Conte's cabinet on a collision course with European Union partners. A spike in the yield of Italy's 2.3-trillion-euro ($2.7 trillion) public debt on Friday showed how closely markets will be following the talks. The budget discussions will be key to gauging whether Finance Minister Giovanni Tria -- a university professor with no previous political experience -- will be able to withstand pressure from Conte's political sponsors to deliver on their electoral promises. Tria has pledged to keep the deficit within the EU's limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product. "We have agreed on the economic and financial planning that will be presented in September," Conte said in a statement after meeting with Tria, Deputy Premier and Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio, Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero, Europe Minister Paolo Savona and Cabinet Undersecretary Giancarlo Giorgetti. Conte gave no details on budget figures. Cabinet Undersecretary Giancarlo Giorgetti, a representative of the League -- a partner in the ruling coalition -- who was at the meeting, said in interview with Italian daily La Stampa on Saturday that he is confident that both flat tax and citizen's income measures will be included in the budget law. The two measures will be developed in accordance with budget balance rules and common sense, he said, ruling out that the government will choose only one of the two: "both or nothing," he was cited as saying. The government coalition has advocated populist economic policies that could cost over 100 billion euros ($116 billion). The Five Star leader's priority is the citizen's income proposal aimed at helping the poor, while the League wants the flat tax and limits on immigration. The outcome of the meeting confirms that the government's spending plans are "compatible" with current budget targets, Tria said in a statement. Treasury officials will start working on a draft budget law, as Tria proposed Friday, to finance the flat tax with a higher VAT, according to la Repubblica. A follow-up meeting is set for Aug. 8, the newspaper said on Saturday. The government's coalition agreement calls for sweeping fiscal measures. The anti-immigration League wants tax cuts for businesses and individuals while the Five Star Movement, Italy's largest party, wants to introduce a so-called citizen's income for the poor, with spending projected to rise as much as 120 billion euros in the first full year, according to calculations by Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund executive who nearly became premier himself. Italy's government is due to set new public-finance targets in late September, and to submit a draft budget to the European Union for review by Oct. 15. The budget law will have to be finally approved by the Rome-based parliament by year-end. "What we have to wait for is for the final proposal because in this period you will have meetings, you will have Twitter, you will have politicians saying 'we will spend a lot'," Carlo Messina, chief executive officer of Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday. "We have to go back to reality, and reality is you can't make expenditure if you don't have inflows." In July, Tria told Bloomberg News in an interview that the government won't pass any supplementary budget adjustments this year and will stay within the deficit and debt forecasts set by the previous administration. That means a deficit of 1.6 percent of GDP and a debt ratio of 130.8 percent. Yet Di Maio confirmed on Thursday that the citizen's income draft law will be presented to parliament "shortly." As the government geared up for the meeting, Italian bonds suffered amid resurgent concerns about a trade war. Returns on the country's debt rose for a third day on Friday, with 10-year yields rising above 3 percent for the first time in almost two months. "Meetings on the budget law, or even rumor of them, is clearly having an impact on Italy's bond yields," said Vincenzo Longo, analyst at IG Markets in Milan. "This is going to be the biggest theme for Italian markets for the autumn." --Bloomberg's Jerrold Colten contributed. Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, one of the 11 members of the commission formed by President Donald Trump to investigate supposed voter fraud, issued a scathing rebuke of the disbanded panel on Friday, accusing Vice Chair Kris Kobach and the White House of making false statements and saying that he had concluded that the panel had been set up to try to validate the president's baseless claims about fraudulent votes in the 2016 election. Dunlap, one of four Democrats on the panel, made the statements in a report he sent to the commission's two leaders - Vice President Mike Pence and Kobach, who is Kansas's secretary of state - after reviewing more than 8,000 documents from the group's work, which he acquired only after a legal fight despite his participation on the panel. Before it was disbanded by Trump in January, the panel had never presented any findings or evidence of widespread voter fraud. But the White House claimed at the time that it had shut down the commission despite "substantial evidence of voter fraud," due to the mounting legal challenges it faced from states. Kobach, too, spoke around that time about how "some people on the left were getting uncomfortable about how much we were finding out." Dunlap said that the commission's documents that were turned over to him underscore the hollowness of those claims: "they do not contain evidence of widespread voter fraud," he said in his report, adding that some of the documentation seemed to indicate that the commission was predicting it would find evidence of fraud, evincing "a troubling bias." In particular, Dunlap pointed to an outline for a report the commission was working on that circulated in November 2017. The outline included sections for "Improper voter registration practices," and "Instances of fraudulent or improper voting," though the sections themselves were blank as they awaited evidence, speaking to what Dunlap said indicated a push for preordained conclusions. "After reading this," Dunlap said of the more than 8,000 pages of documents in an interview with The Washington Post, "I see that it wasn't just a matter of investigating President Trump's claims that three to five million people voted illegally, but the goal of the commission seems to have been to validate those claims." After a career of more than 20 years that has included stints as a state representative and the chairmanship of a committee on fisheries and wildlife, Dunlap said that his time on the panel was "the most bizarre thing I've ever been a part of." "We had more transparency on a deer task force than I had on a presidential commission," he said. "We had probably a dozen meetings. They were all public. We published everything we did in the newspaper and published results, including information we got from the public." In contrast, the voter-integrity panel was marked by obfuscation, secrecy and confusion related to the work the panel was engaged in. "I was asking for a schedule," he said. "If they had handed me a bunch of binders, I probably would have been satisfied. But they didn't do that." So Dunlap filed a lawsuit against the commission while it was still active in November, alleging that he and the other Democratic members were being excluded from its work and materials. He received the documents he sought only in July, after a federal judge ordered the administration to turn them over, despite the objections of the Justice Department. The materials provide a window into the panel's operations. In one email, Christy McCormick, a Republican member of the commission, spoke to a staff member about recruiting a career statistician from the Department of Justice to the commission, writing that she was "pretty confident that he is conservative (and Christian, too)." Other documents showed what American Oversight, the accountability-focused nonprofit working on the lawsuit with Dunlap, said was an attempt to shut out him and other Democrat members. Another email showed one of Pence's aides sharing with Kobach what he said was data about same-day voter registration in New Hampshire, which Kobach later used in a Breitbart column arguing that the alleged fraud had swung the state's 2016 senate race. Trump's claim that as many as three to five million fraudulent votes were cast in the 2016 election remains one of his most notable falsehoods. No credible evidence has ever been produced, by the White House or anyone else, to substantiate the claim. The commission, formally known as the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, was formed in May 2017, and it quickly faced controversy from a wide array of groups, including many state officials from both political parties who objected to its requests for detailed data on voter rolls. By the time it was disbanded in January, it had drawn at least eight lawsuits, including Dunlap's. That lawsuit is not yet resolved. Dunlap says he believes that the committee may yet have more information to procure, while the government has said it wants to terminate the litigation, said Clark Pettig, a spokesman for American Oversight. Maria Butina, the Russian gun rights activist who was charged last month with working as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin, socialized in the weeks before the 2016 election with a former Trump campaign aide who anticipated joining the presidential transition team, emails show, putting her in closer contact with President Donald Trump's orbit than was previously known. Butina sought out interactions with J.D. Gordon, who served for six months as the Trump campaign's director of national security before leaving in August 2016 and being offered a role in the nascent Trump transition effort, according to documents and testimony provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and described to The Washington Post. The two exchanged several emails in September and October 2016, culminating in an invitation from Gordon to attend a concert by the rock band Styx in Washington. Gordon also invited Butina to attend his birthday party in late October of that year. Prosecutors have said Butina, 29, who became a graduate student at American University in 2016, attempted to infiltrate the U.S. political system at the direction of a senior Russian official. Her activities came at the same time that, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Moscow was seeking to interfere in the presidential election to help Trump. During the campaign, Butina asked Trump at a public event in 2015 about his views on Russia and briefly met Donald Trump Jr. at a National Rifle Association meeting in May 2016. U.S. investigators probing alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia have been examining dozens of contacts between Russians and Trump associates, including Trump Jr., former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as foreign policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. Gordon, 50, a former naval officer who served as a Pentagon spokesman under President George W. Bush before working on several Republican political campaigns, said his contacts with Butina were innocuous. "From everything I've read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years," he said in a statement to The Post, noting that she networked extensively. Gordon provided the same statement and some details of his interactions to the Washington Times, which published his account Friday afternoon after The Washington Post contacted Gordon for comment. "I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn't come across?" Gordon asked. Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said the email exchanges show that Butina was a student eager to network with Americans who shared her interests and no more. Gordon and Driscoll both said the interactions were not romantic and the two had no additional contact after the birthday party in October 2016. "A military guy who had been involved would have been a prime target, if that's what she was about," Driscoll said. "But the evidence is clear that there wasn't any significant contact." Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Senate Intelligence Committee. Prosecutors say an American identified in court documents as "person 1" helped introduce Butina to people who had "influence in American politics." The Post has identified that person as Paul Erickson, a GOP operative from South Dakota with whom Butina was in a romantic relationship. The emails described to The Post show that Butina met Gordon at a party at the Swiss ambassador's residence on Sept. 29, 2016. Gordon told The Post that he had been invited to the party by Faith Whittlesey, the prominent Republican and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland who died earlier this year. Later that night, Erickson wrote an email to Gordon and Butina, offering to "add an electronic bridge" to the pair's meeting earlier that evening. Erickson wrote to Butina that Gordon was "playing a crucial role in the Trump transition effort and would be an excellent addition to any of the U.S./Russia friendship dinners to occasionally hold." He continued that Gordon's view on international security was listened to by all the "right" people in the "immediate future of American politics." Erickson did not respond to a request for comment. Erickson explained to Gordon in the email that Butina was living in Washington while she completed a master's degree at American University. Erickson described Butina as a "special friend" of the NRA and said she was the special assistant to the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, according to the correspondence described to The Post. Prosecutors have said the central banker, Alexander Torshin, helped direct Butina's activities in the United States, including an effort to make contacts in the leadership of the NRA. NRA officials have not responded to requests for comment. The emails show Gordon quickly responded to Erickson, sending Butina and Erickson a clip of a recent appearance he had made on RT, the Russian state-run English language television network. In the RT interview, Gordon said Trump took a "real common-sense approach to Russia." "We want to reduce hostility with Russia because, look, we have common interests," he said. Butina responded with praise, writing in an email to Gordon that he "looked very good" and had appeared smart and comfortable in the television appearance. She invited Gordon to attend a group dinner at the Army and Navy Club, hosted by George O'Neill Jr., the conservative writer and heir to the Rockefeller fortune, to discuss the relationship between the United States and Russia. Prosecutors cited the dinners organized by O'Neill, described in court documents as "person 2," as part of Butina's efforts to influence thought leaders. O'Neill did not respond to requests for comment. Gordon responded that he could not attend the dinner, but he asked Butina over emails to get together for drinks and the concert. In one email described to The Post, Gordon included a link to a September 2016 Politico story reporting that he was a part of Trump's growing transition effort. Gordon included a smattering of Russian phrases in his emails, beginning several notes "Privyet Maria," with a Russian word for "hello." In one email, he wrote "Kak di la?" The phrase is Russian for "How are you?" In an emailed statement to The Post, Gordon said that Butina presented herself to "likely thousands of people" as a graduate student and founder of a Russian gun rights group. "It appears she sought out countless influential Americans in her steadfast efforts to strengthen relations with Russia. Recognizing that every single president since the Cold War tried to improve relations with Russia, including Pres. Obama, her Russian-American friendship efforts seemed in sync with a decades-old US foreign policy goal," he said. The contact was not Erickson's first attempt to connect Butina and Torshin to the Trump campaign. In May 2016, he emailed Trump adviser Rick Dearborn and urged Dearborn to set up a meeting between Trump and Torshin at an upcoming NRA convention. Erickson described Torshin in the email as "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's emissary" for building warmer ties with the United States. The campaign declined Erickson's invitation but Torshin and Butina ultimately encountered the candidate's son at a private dinner at the NRA convention, and they chatted briefly, Trump Jr. has said. Gordon, who said he was never paid for his work on the Trump campaign and never performed any duties on the transition team, was assigned in March 2016 to serve as the point person for a newly named advisory group on foreign policy and national security. That committee also included Page, who has drawn interest from investigators for delivering a foreign policy speech in Moscow in July 2016, and Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. Gordon attended a March 2016 meeting of the group presided over by Trump while he was a presidential candidate, where Papadopoulos introduced himself by announcing he could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Page told the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017 that he had informed Gordon before visiting Moscow in July 2016, where he delivered a speech at a Russian university and exchanged brief greetings with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. While in Moscow, Page wrote Gordon and another Trump aide that he had received "incredible insights and outreach" from a "few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here." Page testified that he exchanged only brief greetings with one Russian official, Dvorkovich, who had attended his speech. Gordon has described Page and Papadopoulos as "peripheral members of a relatively peripheral advisory committee." Gordon has also said he briefly met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention, in an exchange he has said was innocuous. And he was the Trump campaign's point person for a Republican platform committee discussion in which he argued against language that would have endorsed having the United States send lethal weapons to Ukraine. The proposed provision, which was not adopted, was perceived as hostile to Russia. Gordon has said he pushed the platform committee to reject the language, proposed by a Republican delegate, because he had heard Trump talk about his desire to forge better relations with Russia and considered the language to be damaging for that goal. Because of those contacts, Gordon has said he was asked to testify before all three congressional committees that have investigated Russian interference in the election, as well as investigators working for Mueller. Gordon said he disclosed his Butina contact in congressional testimony but was not asked about her by Mueller's team. He said FBI agents in Washington who have been investigating Butina have not asked to speak with him. - - - The Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig, Alice Crites and Shane Harris contributed to this report. COLUMBUS, Ohio - It was a muggy Thursday morning when Drew Niccum, a rising sophomore at Ohio State University, drove 40 miles from campus to his hometown of Newark to conduct a rather unusual summer activity for central Ohio: cast a ballot for a Democratic congressional candidate - who just might win. "It's been a pretty safe Republican district for a pretty long time," Niccum said. "I'm just excited that my district is actually competitive this year." Ohio's 12th Congressional District, which spans the largely well-to-do suburbs around the state capital and backed President Donald Trump by 11 points in 2016, has been solidly Republican for decades. Voters here sent now-Gov. John Kasich to Congress in 1982 for the first of nine consecutive terms. Kasich was succeeded by Republican Patrick J. Tiberi in 2001, who held the office for 17 years before he resigned in January - leaving the seat wide open for the first time in a generation. But after a string of Republican special-election losses over the past year in areas that voted for Trump but have grown less supportive of him, the vote here on Tuesday to replace Tiberi has suddenly emerged as the latest big test foreshadowing which party will win control of the House in November. The midterms, after all, will probably be determined by contests in dozens of similarly conservative-leaning suburban communities across the country. Prominent Republicans have found themselves following a familiar playbook in yet another special election: Send in the cavalry. Both House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., and Vice President Mike Pence have made trips to Ohio in recent days to campaign for the GOP candidate, Troy Balderson, 56, a state senator whose mainstream party bona fides would probably make him a slam dunk for victory in ordinary times. On Monday, Trump tweeted his "full and total Endorsement!" of Balderson, then declared Saturday he would fly in himself to host a rally in the suburbs of Delaware County, just north of Columbus. Nevertheless, the 31-year-old Democratic candidate, Danny O'Connor, has kept apace with Balderson, with the latest Monmouth University poll showing the race to be a statistical dead heat. O'Connor, a lawyer who was elected Franklin County recorder in 2016, has evoked comparisons to another young moderate Democrat, Conor Lamb, whose March special-election victory in a heavily GOP Pennsylvania district Trump had won by 20 points served as an early sign of a potential Democratic wave in the fall. Adding to the GOP's anxiety is the sense that Ohio, a perennial battleground that Trump easily won two years ago, is looking more like a Democratic stronghold in 2018, with Sen. Sherrod Brown favored to win reelection and the party looking competitive in the governor's race. The special election in recent days has offered a glimpse of how the parties are likely to approach their fall campaigns across the country in many key House battlegrounds. O'Connor is presenting himself as a centrist who is willing to work with Trump at times while attacking Balderson for his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, the health-care law enacted by President Barack Obama that Democrats have rallied around. Balderson and his allies, meanwhile, are attacking O'Connor as an ally of national Democrats, seizing, for instance, on his comments that he "would support whoever the Democrats put forward" for House speaker after initially saying he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi. National Republican groups have poured more than $3.3 million into local television ads, according to NBC News, that have tried to tie O'Connor to Pelosi. The presence of Trump points to a fundamental question of this year's elections: whether the president's ability to excite core GOP voters can overcome the fact that many Republicans who live in closely fought suburban House districts have soured on the president. Publicly, Balderson's campaign has embraced Trump's support. But some Ohio Republicans have voiced skepticism over whether a Trump rally might do more harm than good, especially because the president will be visiting a more affluent, higher-educated, suburban part of the district where Republicans' support for him has waffled. "The best-case scenario is that the presence of the president reminds not only Republicans but center-right voters that there's a special election on Tuesday," said Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party and a longtime supporter of Kasich. "Of course, we have no control - as seemingly no one else does - to what [Trump] may say, so 'Get Out the Vote' . . . probably won't be the headline." Preisse waved off concerns about the tight race, saying it reflected more on Trump than it did the district. "It's a real interesting, isn't it? It's a Republican district. It should be a Republican seat," Preisse said. "Is this a referendum on Donald Trump? Sure. Every midterm election is, especially the first one after a president is elected - doesn't matter if he's popular, unpopular, Republican or Democrat." Kasich, a Trump critic, endorsed Balderson for his old seat July 26 and filmed a commercial in which he vouched for Balderson as "a partner of mine as a member of the Ohio State Legislature" who helped cut taxes and "turn Ohio around." Balderson, whose campaign did not respond to requests for comment, told Politico that the convergence of Trump and Kasich endorsements was evidence he had united Republicans. Democrats on the ground say Trump's upcoming visit has only galvanized their efforts. O'Connor has steered clear of some of the far-left positions that have taken hold in much of the national Democratic Party. He said he doesn't support abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a position embraced by many liberals. He tells voters that he's open to working with anyone, including Trump, if and when they agree. O'Connor often notes that his fiancee, who is campaigning with him, is a Republican. "She's a Dannycrat now," he jokes. "I think I come across as someone who wants to solve problems for people, who wants to get the job done," O'Connor said. O'Connor, like many Democrats, has sought to focus his campaign on health care - though he has stopped short of embracing a "Medicare for All" plan that has taken hold on the left. Balderson opposed Ohio's Medicaid expansion - which Kasich supported - and has vowed to "repeal and replace Obamacare once and for all." O'Connor has said he is vehemently opposed to cutting back access to care, stemming from his mother's breast cancer diagnosis in 2005, when O'Connor was a freshman in college. At his campaign office, signs warning of the GOP's efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act are splayed on every wall - even in the bathroom. "Once you have breast cancer, it's a preexisting condition for the rest of your life, and for me, I don't want us to go back to being a country that says, 'You've done everything right but you get breast cancer and now you don't get health care,' " O'Connor said. "I mean, that's just - that's bull--." On Friday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the countrys first commercial crew astronauts, who will fly on the test flights or first missions of two commercial spacecraft being built by Boeing and SpaceX in partnership with NASA. There are nine astronauts on two separate crews, one assigned as the Boeing team, the other as the SpaceX one. Boeing crews Eric Boe: Assigned to test flight mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, Boe, 53, is a veteran of two space shuttle flights. He was born in Miami but grew up in Atlanta. He joined NASA after serving as a fighter pilot and test pilot who eventually rose to the level of colonel. Chris Ferguson: Assigned to test flight mission. Selected as an astronaut in 1998, Ferguson, 56, is a veteran of three shuttle flights. He is a Philadelphia native and retired Navy captain who retired from NASA in 2011. He has been an integral part of Boeings commercial spacecraft program. Nicole Mann: Assigned to test flight mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2013, this will be Manns first trip to space. Mann, 41, is a California native and Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. She is a test pilot with more than 2,500 flight hours on more than two dozen aircraft. Josh Cassada: Assigned to first space station mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2013, this will be the first spaceflight for Cassada, 45. He is a Navy commander and Minnesota native. Also a test pilot, Cassada has more than 3,500 flight hours in upward of 40 aircraft. Sunita Williams: Assigned to first space station mission. Williams, 52, first space station mission. Selected as an astronaut in 1998, Williams, 52, is a veteran of two spaceflights. She was born in Ohio and is a retired captain in the Navy, where she was a test pilot. She has performed seven spacewalks in her career. SpaceX crews Bob Behnken: Assigned to test flight mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, Behnken, 48, is a veteran of two space shuttle flights. He has a doctorate in engineering and is a colonel and flight test engineer for the Air Force. He has logged 37 hours across six spacewalks during his career. Doug Hurley: Assigned to test flight mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, Hurley, 51, is a veteran of two spaceflights. Hurley is from New York and was a colonel and test pilot in the Marine Corps before becoming an astronaut. He flew on Atlantis for the final space shuttle mission. Victor Glover: Assigned to first space station mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2013, this will be the first spaceflight for Glover, 42. Glover is from California and is a commander, aviator and test pilot in the Navy. He has nearly 3,000 hours of flying on more than 40 aircraft. Mike Hopkins: Assigned to first space station mission. Selected as an astronaut in 2009, Hopkins, 49, is a veteran of one spaceflight. He is from Missouri and is a colonel in the Air Force, where he was a test pilot before coming to NASA. He has conducted two spacewalks in his career. For more about the mission, click here for the article on Express-News.com. Source: NASA and staff reporting Family and friends of Rudolph Rudy Quinones II describe him as caring and generous, the sort of person who would, as the expression goes, give you the shirt off his back. Quinones died Monday after a prolonged battle with diabetes, kidney failure and heart problems. He was 65. His kindness was exemplified when one of Quinones nephews, Wesley Richter, was hospitalized after a car struck him. A friend of the Quinones family, Barbara Zars, recalled Rudy saying he would have traded places with his nephew if he could have. It wasnt just that he said it, Zars said. You could feel it and you knew he meant it. Quinones set up a television set, DVD players and more for his nephew, Hooker said. Of course, they made him take it all out because you're not allowed to do that (in the hospital), but he had set it all up, Hooker said. That was Rudy. Quinones parents started Jacala Restaurant, one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in San Antonio, in 1949. After they died, Quinones and his sisters became the co-owners. Quinones oversaw Jacala, known for its puffy tacos and tried-and-true menu, with a hands-on approach, according to best friend, Tommy Cude. At Jacala, Quinones favorite dish was the enchilada plate, a time-honored tradition for the family. More Information Rudolph "Rudy" Quinones II Born: May 9, 1953, San Antonio Died: July 30, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents Rudolph and Adelfa Quinones Survived by: Sisters Yolanda Wright, Lucille Hooker and Cynthia Lambert, and numerous nephews and nieces Services: Burial services will be held later at Holy Cross Cemetery See More Collapse Growing up, our parents worked every night, Hooker said. So they would bring enchiladas home at 10 p.m. for dinner. We all stayed hooked on them. Cude and Quinones, who became close friends while growing up, would hang out at each others family establishments Quinones Jacala and the Cude familys Alamo Funeral Home. In their teens, the pair hunted and fished across South Texas. A particular thrill came for them both around their 16th birthdays. Rudys dad gave him a 68 Chevy, Cude said. A month after that, I got a 68 Dodge Charger. Rudy helped me fix it up to go drag racing, which was just such a thrill. Quinones, who enjoyed parties and vacations that took him around the globe, was always engaging in conversation, Cude said. And his sense of humor was unmatched, according to Zars. All the small funny things you sometimes miss, he'd pick up on, she said. He didn't have a good sense of humor, he had a great sense of humor. Cude called Quinones not just the life of the party, but the party itself. That charisma worked, Cude said, when they were selling cars at a local Pontiac dealership in the 1990s. They decided to try to tag-team deals a tactic that put them on a selling tear with Pontiacs premier sportscar, the Firebird. We would work customers together, and for some reason that month he and I sold a hundred jillion of them, Cude recalled. We got a company fishing trip to Port Aransas, and it was a tough ride out. But we were about the only ones who didnt get sick and we just caught a ton of fish. Quinones always looked out for Cude, even as his own health problems worsened. He underwent dialysis treatment three days a week for about the last 10 years of his life, according to Hooker. The last time I talked to Rudy, he told me that he was getting pretty sick, but he was still positive, Cude said. He told me he was there for me, and he really was. Memorial services for Quinones were conducted Thursday at Sunset North Funeral Home. The family suggests donations be made in his fathers name to the 100 Club of San Antonio, www.100clubsa.org. austin.horn@express-news.net | @Littlbighorn Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. National excellence awards are like late night buses you wait twenty two years and then two awards come together within eight months, County Arts Officer Fergus Kennedy laughed after receiving the latest award for the Office last week. Longford County Council Arts Service was once again the recipient of another prestigious national award, this time from the Public Sector Service Award - Arts Category. The awarding body, the Public Sector Magazine is Irelands largest online magazine concerned with all aspects of both central and local government and each year the magazine awards prizes to government departments, local authorities, statutory agencies and private sector supplier. Last November Longford County Council Arts Services was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Local Government Award for Sustaining the Arts. The prize, awarded by Chambers Ireland, was ostensibly for the literary development website www.virtualwriter.ie but was in fact a recognition of the sustained pioneering programme of the use of digital technology to develop local arts in Longford, specifically through the additional websites www.visuallongford.ie, www.longfordmusic.ie and www.longforddigitalarts.ie. Meanwhile, Mr Kennedy says that the development of these creative support websites and the many innovative digital projects associated with them has placed Longford County Council as the leading local authority in Ireland in the use of digital technology in local development and most specifically in local cultural development. The winning of these awards has put the spotlight of national publicity on the work of Longford County Arts Office and the kind of Longford projects that impressed the adjudicators included the digital technology cultural programme, Longford Schools Photography Programme - which is Irelands largest and longest running arts schools programme, the international portrait photography programme Expressions and the Midlands Arts & Culture Magazine produced in partnership with the three other Midlands local authorities, Mr Kennedy said. As a small local authority it is difficult to have successful projects and programmes recognised for their quality at a national level and therefore the winning of these prestigious awards is a validation of the work of the County Arts Office and more importantly, is a testament to the creativity and dedication of all Longford artists. Before concluding, Mr Kennedy also acknowledged the support of Longford Co Council and its Arts Office line manager, Michael Nevin, Head of Local Enterprise and its Chief Executive Paddy Mahon. Read Also: Longford County Arts Office recognised with national award Celebrating Longford's young talent during Cruthu Arts Festival A struggling rural school district in Franklin County could gain a Beacon Hill bailout. Under emergency legislation filed by Rep. Paul Mark (D-Peru) and Sen. Anne Gobi (D-Spencer), the Pioneer Valley Regional School District would be able to borrow up to $2 million to help plug budget deficits for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. In exchange, the district -- which serves Northfield, Bernardston, Leyden, and Warwick -- would see tight fiscal oversight from the state, and any money borrowed would have to be paid back within ten years. Last week H.4768 was reported favorably from House Ways and Means, and on Thursday was sent to the Senate Committee on Bills in the Third Reading, on which Gobi sits. Neither Mark nor Gobi immediately responded to requests for comment. Under the legislation, the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education would have to approve all district budgets, line item transfers, collective bargaining agreements, contracts over $25,000, and other major financial transactions. The district would be ordered to contract with a fiscal overseer, and quarterly reports reconciling spending with budget documents would be sent to the state. If the commissioner after three years believes the district is on the path to financial stability, the district could end its contract with the overseer. On the other hand, the education commissioner could at any time establish a five-member financial control board which would have complete authority over district finances. The cause of deficits amounting to around $1 million for fiscal 2018 and an estimated $1.3 million for fiscal 2019 has been the subject of much finger-pointing, with regional school committee chair Patricia Shearer blaming former superintendent Ruth Miller, and Miller blaming the school committee. Shearer said in a Saturday telephone interview that Miller had left the School Committee in the dark about many problems, had grossly under-budgeted for items such as transportation, and that overspending occurred. For instance, a school lunch program ran up major deficits. Asked if the school committee exercised its oversight duties, Shearer admitted that the body approved the problematic budgets, but said one problem was that Miller served as both superintendent and district finance director. "We learned the hard way that that's not a good idea," said Shearer. "Moving forward with a new superintendent, those will be separate positions." She said Hatfield resident John Scagel was recently hired as the top administrator, that Miller did not seek renewal of her contract, and that Tanya Gaylord is the new finance director. "It's a breath of fresh air," said Shearer. State officials visited the district in June to discuss the problem at a well-attended community forum. The regional school committee later voted to borrow money and deficit spend through fiscal 2019 rather than gut programs and slash staffing. Nonetheless, three teachers were laid off under the approximate $14 million budget. The pending legislation seems to have some teeth. Employees who knowingly spend in excess of their departmental appropriations would be held personally liable to the district, and could be sued in superior court. Overspending would also constitute grounds for termination. Shearer said she welcomes the state intervention and hopes the bill is signed into law. She said the school committee supports making hard changes, and that the district has a fiscal overseer lined up who could start work immediately. A meeting is set for Aug. 16 where officials plan to discuss, among themselves, what happens next. That public meeting is set for 6 p.m. at the Pioneer Valley Regional High School in Northfield. In a related matter, it's unclear if the district will continue to maintain elementary schools in all four towns. A new district agreement is now being developed, and language guaranteeing the grade schools could be eliminated. Consultants have said they plan to present the revised draft agreement to the public this fall. Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com As a Boston police officer was kicked in the face by a juvenile suspect inside a Roxbury community center, fellow officers trying to assist were forced to watch the altercation through a glass door because they were initially not allowed inside to help, police say. A staffer at the community center allegedly delayed the responding officers' entry because she was reprimanded for allowing the first officers into the building, police said in a statement released Friday. Officers assigned to the City Wide Drug Control Unit were patrolling in Roxbury on Thursday, trying to serve a search warrant in connection with a firearm investigation involving a juvenile boy who lives in the neighborhood, police said. The officers saw the juvenile along with another boy. One of the two looked nervous, police said, and was clutching his backpack close to his body. Police saw the two teenaged boys duck into the Dewitt Community Center located at 122 Dewitt Drive. The officers identified themselves as police and went into the center, the statement said. The officers were directed toward an upstairs classroom, where the two suspects were sitting, police said. However, the boys exited the classroom and tried to run away, "pushing and physically assaulting" the officers, police said. One of the suspects was subdued in the hallway and the other suspect ran toward a stairwell leading to the first-floor exit. One of the officers tried to apprehend that suspect, which started a physical altercation that caused the both of them to tumble down the stairs, police said. The suspect repeatedly kicked the officer in the face and upper body, police said. "As the altercation spilled into the main lobby of the building, responding officers, forced to watch the altercation through the community center's glass doors, were unable to gain entry and provide support to the struggling officer because a front desk staffer refused to let them in," the statement read. Eventually, the responding officers were allowed inside. Officers asked the front desk staffer why they were not being allowed into the building. The staffer explained that she was reprimanded by a supervisor for allowing officers inside building in the first place, the statement said. "Dismayed and disillusioned by the explanation, officers promptly explained to the staffer that a search warrant isn't a suggestion or topic for discussion, but rather a court order that gives police officers the authority and authorization to conduct a search of a person regardless of location," the statement read. A search of the backpack carried by one of the suspects revealed a Chiappa .22-caliber revolver. The two officers were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening. Police arrested the two boys. Names of juveniles are not released. A 16-year-old Boston boy is being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, carrying a firearm on a public way, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. A 15-year-old Boston boy is being charged with assault and battery on a police officer and interfering with police officers. SPRINGFIELD - A Connecticut man who allegedly struck, dragged and attempted to "run over" two Springfield police officers with his car while attempting a getaway has been arrested, police said. Denroy Robinson, 21, of East Hartford, was taken into custody Friday morning in East Hartford and subsequently extradited to Springfield as a fugitive from justice, police said. In an incident that took place around 1:50 a.m. July 2, Robinson is alleged to have hit police officers with his car after a round of questioning became combative. Springfield police responded to a report of a domestic disturbance on the 100 block of Belmont Avenue, where they stopped Robinson's vehicle and proceeded to question him. During their interaction, police saw Robinson "appearing to reach" for or hide something inside the car, which caused officers to "fear for their safety," police said. Police subsequently demanded that Robinson get out of his car. When he refused, an officer attempted to force him from the vehicle. It was at this point that the Connecticut man stepped on the accelerator, hitting and dragging two officers--a man and a woman--for a stretch of 5 to 7 feet, police said. Robinson then allegedly drove at a high rate of speed through the "X," heading towards East Longmeadow while traveling at speeds over 100 mph. Police eventually lost sight of him and he was last seen heading towards Connecticut. Both officers subsequently taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment. One of the officers was also transferred to Baystate Medical Center for further evaluation, police said. "Both officers miraculously only suffered non-life threatening injuries," police said in a statement about the incident. Robinson will be charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, as well as other charges, police said. NEWTON - A Gofundme has been set up for a family in Newton after the mother was recently diagnosed with brain cancer while the father faces deportation. Rigoberto Mendez originally entered the U.S. as an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant in 1991, and has spent the last 27 years supporting a family--his wife and two sons. His wife, Imelda Felipe Lopez, was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, according to Wicked Local. The crowdfunding page has already raised over $20,000 for the family, surpassing its original goal by hundreds of dollars. The Horace Mann School, a local elementary school where Mendez's 9-year-old son goes to school, recently hosted a fundraiser for Mendez and his family, as well, according to WHDH. "With great thanks to the Horace Mann Staff and the Horace Mann Community for all their hard work and dedication to the Rigoberto and his family," the Gofundme page reads. "Anyone looking to do more please send a letter to ICE on behalf of Rigoberto." Mendez is scheduled to be deported on Sept. 15. SPRINGFIELD -- One of two suspects charged with beating and robbing a Springfield man in front of his family during a botched home invasion has been indicted by a grand jury. Jose A. Davila, 48, of New Britain, Connecticut, is charged with home invasion, kidnapping, possession of a loaded machine gun, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and related offenses in an 18-count indictment issued by a Hampden Superior Court grand jury. Davila denied the charges during his arraignment on in Hampden Superior Court on July 24. At the request of Assistant District Attorney Nina Vivenzio, Davila was ruled too dangerous for pretrial release and was ordered held without right to bail. The arraignment came nine weeks after Davila was arrested for his alleged role in terrorizing a family during a home invasion in Springfield. Davila and an accomplice allegedly forced their way into a Dwight Street apartment on May 18, ordered the husband to lie face down on the kitchen floor, zip-tied his hands and stuck a gun to his head. The victim's wife was forced down to the floor, too, with their two young children, according to the arrest report. "Where's the money?" one assailant allegedly yelled. "We were sent here to get the money. Give us the money." When the husband denied having any money, they struck him with a gun and snatched his gold chain and necklace. After more threats, they walked into a hallway where one said, "Something isn't right," the report said. At that point, the mother grabbed her youngest child and ran to a nearby elementary school, where the staff called 911. Realizing the woman had escaped, the assailants also fled, leading police on a chase across the city to Interstate 91, the report said. The men bailed out near the Longmeadow line and Davila, sweating profusely after running through swamps and woodlands, was captured several hours later by state and local police. The second suspect escaped. Following his arraignment in Springfield District Court, Davila was held for a hearing on June 8 to determine if he posed too great a threat to the victims or the public to be a candidate for pretrial release. Rather than requesting bail, Davila, represented by attorney Joe A. Smith III, conceded that he met the criteria for dangerousness and was ordered held for 120 days. Prosecutors can seek to renew the order when it expires. In addition to home invasion, kidnapping and assault charges, the indictment includes two counts of possession of a loaded machine gun -- charges not filed at the district court level. Davila is due back in superior court for a pretrial hearing on Dec. 4. The Maine Warden Service is asking the public for any information about the whereabouts of a Massachusetts man whose boat was found abandoned near the shore on Moosehead Lake. Robert Hammond, 66, of Hanson, did not return to his campsite at Spencer Bay on Moosehead Lake Thursday night, the Maine Warden Service said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Hammond's boat was found abandoned near the shore of Moose Island. The boat was in very shallow water and Hammond was nowhere to be found, the statement said. Anyone who saw Hammond Thursday on Moosehead Lake is asked to call the Maine Warden Service at 207-973-3700. NORTHAMPTON -- A Smith College student involved in a controversial incident involving campus police claims she has been struggling to "sleep or eat" ever since it occurred. Oumou Kanoute, a rising sophomore at the school, had campus police called on her this week after an employee said she looked "out of place." Now Kanoute claims that she was "dehumanized" by the event and that it has left her "terrified." "I have to check my closet at night now before I go to bed; I'm terrified in my own room," Kanoute said, CNN reported. "I don't even feel like leaving my room sometimes. I can't sleep or eat, and all I want is this person to understand the predicament they've put me in." In an interview with Boston's WBZ-TV, Kanoute said she wanted information on the employee who reported her and that she also wanted them to be fired from Smith. "It just still upsets me to just talk about it because I don't even feel safe on my own campus and I'm away from home," Kanoute said. "I'm the first in my family to go to college. I'm doing this not only for me but for my family, for my ancestors." Kanoute's claim about wanting the staff member fired appears to have taken place before a different statement she made over social media Thursday in which she said she would like to meet with the person before a decision was made "for or against punishment" of them. Smith announced Friday that the employee had been placed on leave until the conclusion of an external investigation of the incident. "I want to know what was said during that call that dehumanized me and criminalized me," Kanoute said, when speaking with CNN. "It's the scariest and most upsetting thing that's ever happened to me." Kanoute has also said that she wanted the recording of the call to police that kicked off the incident. The school has so far released a transcript of the call and posted it on its website. The entirety of the transcript is available here. Kanoute, who will be a sophomore at the prestigious liberal arts college this year, is originally from New York City. She previously attended the Westminster School, a private high school in Simsbury, Connecticut. WEST SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man has been arrested for his alleged role in an armed robbery and home invasion at a West Springfield residence last month, police said Friday. Hipolito Rodriguez is one of three suspects allegedly responsible for a break-in and robbery at the Squire Apartments on Westfield Street on the morning of July 31. Rodriguez's alleged co-conspirators, Amber Beattie, of Chicopee, and Anthony Zeno, of Springfield, were arrested the same day of the robbery. Police say Beattie and Zeno fled the scene of the robbery in a getaway car, leading authorities on a two-mile pursuit that ended when West Springfield police boxed them in on River Street. Rodriguez, meanwhile, is believed to have fled the scene at Squire Apartments in a vehicle belonging to the victim of the home invasion. Police later found the victim's vehicle abandoned. Rodriguez was taken into custody at 69 Longhill Street in Springfield Friday morning by members of the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force, the Massachusetts State Police and city police. He is now charged with committing an armed home invasion, assault with a dangerous weapon, armed robbery while masked, larceny over $1,200 and larceny of a motor vehicle. Police did not specify if or when Rodriguez had been arraigned. The National Weather Service in Boston has issued a tornado warning for Northwestern Worcester County and Northeastern Franklin County. The NWS warned that a severe thunderstorm that could produce a tornado was located near Orange earlier this evening. The storm was moving northeast at approximately 35 mph. The agency warned that "flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely." Take shelter now ... https://t.co/GID5ra4aTx NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) August 3, 2018 "TAKE COVER NOW!" the agency said. Move to a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. Avoid windows. If you are outdoors, in a mobile home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from flying debris." The warning is in effect until 5:45 p.m. BOSTON -- Gov. Charlie Baker did not sign a bill that would give consumers free credit freezes at any time and free credit monitoring after a data breach. Instead, Baker returned the bill to the Legislature on Friday with several amendments. Lawmakers will now have to decide whether to adopt Baker's amendments. Any action will have to be taken with support from the full Legislature, since formal sessions concluded Tuesday and opposition from a single lawmaker can block a bill from passing in informal sessions. Baker wrote in his amendment letter that he supports some of the main provisions of the bill, including requiring credit agencies to offer free credit freezes and prohibiting the use of credit reports in hiring. But Baker asked lawmakers to include provisions ensuring that the state agencies charged with protecting the credit history of children in state care, ensuring that child support is being paid and fulfilling other duties that require checking credit history are not restricted. Baker also worried that financial institutions will be prevented from issuing pre-qualified offers of credit or insurance, which they are allowed to do under federal law. Baker's proposed amendments would address both these issues, and would also allow officials at the Department of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation to write regulations to implement the bill. BOSTON -- Steve Pearce on Thursday joined Kevin Millar (July 23, 2004) and Mo Vaughn (May 30, 1997) as the only three Red Sox players ever with three-homer games against the Yankees. His family was just as excited as him when the crowd cheered and chanted his name. Pearce and his wife Jessica have a 5-year-old daughter Jensen and 6-month-old son Crew. "She's starting to understand," Pearce said about his daughter. "She's like really competitive. So she was very excited. She waited up for me last night. It was pretty cool." During Pearce's final at-bat, the crowd chanted his name "Steve! Steve! Steve!" hoping for a fourth home run. Instead he walked and Red Sox fans booed Yankees pitcher Luis Cessa. Falling asleep was difficult last night. "It was tough. I'm kind of dragging a little bit today. She (Jessica) was excited. Everybody was excited. Not just the people out here but the people back home were excited. It was a great game." The Yankees designated Pearce -- a lifelong Red Sox fan thanks to his dad who grew up in Rhode Island -- for assignment during the 2012 season. "It was such a long time ago," Pearce said when asked if he feels extra motivation against the Yankees because they designated him. "I just look it at more as the rivalry than the DFA. In 2012 I got DFA'd a bunch of times. So I don't remember a lot." The Yankees designated him. The Twins (2012) and Orioles (2014) released him. But he always continued to believe he could be a productive major leaguer. "I was having success," Pearce said. "I was just getting drilled by injuries. And I knew I wasn't overmatched at this level. I just needed the chance to stay healthy and show people what I could do. But I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't stay healthy. But thankfully some breaks went my way and I was able to get some everyday playing time." The National Weather has issued a flash flood warning for parts of Massachusetts. A warning was issued shortly after 11 a.m. for the following counties: Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk. It will remain in effect until 1:30 p.m. Saturday. A tornado warning was issued earlier for Worcester County, then extended to Middlesex County. The warning expired at 10:45 a.m. The National Weather Service is sending a crew to Worcester County to investigate a possible tornado. Bulgaria opened a new looping section of its transit gas pipeline to Turkey yesterday, expanding its capacity and adding the possibility of two-way flows as the Balkan country bids to transport Russian gas from the TurkStream pipeline to Europe. Reuters reports in its article Bulgaria expands pipeline to Turkey in bid for Russian gas that the new 20-km looping link in southeastern Bulgaria will boost the Transbalkan pipelines capacity to 15.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year from its current 14 bcm, and will help increase security of gas supplies, officials said. Now we have constructed a pipeline that will allow for reversible flows, so we can get gas from Turkey, from Azerbaijan and Russia, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at the official ceremony, which was also attended by Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez. Sofia has also launched a tender for an 11 km pipeline to provide a higher capacity link between the new looping section and the Turkish border. The process has been put on hold however, as one Bulgarian company is appealing the tender conditions. At present Russias Gazprom ships about 13 bcm of gas through Ukraine and Bulgaria to Turkey. The shipments however may cease next year, when Moscow expects the first line of TurkStream to become operational. Turkstream is part of the Kremlins plans to bypass Ukraine, currently the main transit route for Russian gas to Europe, and strengthen its position in the European gas market. It consists of two lines with an annual capacity of 15.7 bcm each that will run under the Black Sea to Turkey. The first line, already completed, will be used for local consumption. The second line is planned to run through Turkey to southeastern and central Europe. Bulgaria has said it wants to serve as an entry point to Europe, but Russia is yet to decide whether that pipeline will ship gas via Bulgaria or Greece. Sofia hopes to reach an agreement with Moscow, Ankara and Brussels that some of the Russian gas from TurkStream can be transported through Bulgaria to Serbia, Hungary and Austria, while part of it can be traded at its planned gas hub. , Mediapool.bg, , - . - , . 18:00 . Planning to go on a much-needed vacation? Or a solo trip and explore the world? Either way, there are a few things you might want to make sure are on your phone. Here is a list of a few apps we'd advise you to download on your phone for all your travel needs. And don't worry, we've made sure that these are available for both, Apple and Android fanboys. These set of apps are super useful for international as well as domestic travelling and range from trip organizers to bookings: 1. Google Trips: Google This app is basically a compiler that scans through your trip-related info with the assistance of Google services. Just like your flight and hotel bookings often show up on Google Now, Google trips extracts that information from Gmail. Apart from that, it uses Google's already robust Maps to show you nearby attractions and restaurants. It has a feature that gives you an itinerary for the day if you wish to. It's a neat little app to help keep travel info together. The information is as reliable as the one on Google maps. Users have reported poor to no information of small cities and towns, although larger cities have a well-curated list of things to do and places to visit. Thanks to Google's Local Guide program, the details are even more accurate. Download for Android 2. Easy Currency Converter: Google Play Store Straightforward name of an app which gets the job done and you can rely on for currency conversions. It updates whenever you are connected and allows you to save numerous currencies offline. All you need to do is select currencies, start your favourites and save for offline. The only drawback seems to be the UI which is by and large primitive. But that's only on Android. Functionality comes over aesthetics here. And don't worry, it has added Bitcoin as well! Download for Android 3. Skyscanner: Skyscanner This should be your go-to app for affordable flights, car rentals, and hotels. It is an all-in-one for your transport and accommodation needs. It has the most affordable time and flights listed in neat lists. For the adventurer in you, the app can surprise you whenever you type Everywhere" in the search. It comes up with the cheapest travels to destinations around the world. Added benefits: it has it's own frequent flyer miles program and has no additional fees. It is also smart enough to show you cheaper routes to cities which have multiple airports. For last minute trips, this app should be your first stop. Download for Android 4. Duolingo: Duolingo One of the best things to bring back from any trip you take to a foreign land is the culture and language of the place. Duolingo allows you to learn new languages on the go for free. This app has been a trusted one for many users to learn the basics of any, among a host of popular languages. It is fun, has a net UI, uses visual, audio and textual aid to help you get a good grip on the language. What's more, you can practice what you learn while travelling, and impress the locals with your knowledge of the same. Download for Android 5. Google Translate: Google Learning a new language is not easy and while you may know the basics, it is still a foreign language to you. Finding yourself in a new land with little connection may be your idea of a perfect holiday, but sometimes you need to navigate through signs and text which you don't understand to reach a destination or even interact with locals. Google Translate, a long and withstanding service from Google, will come to your rescue. The most exhaustive resource of a number of languages which can help translate images containing text by just pointing your camera at it. You can translate and make the local you're speaking to, listen to the audio. No need to fret about the accent and the pronunciation. Download for Android A regional security conference in Manila 12 months ago was a nervy affair, coming on the back of two North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Delegates shunned their counterparts from Pyongyang. A year on, and the mood is much brighter. Nikkei Asian Review reports in its article North Korea welcomed at ASEAN forum a year after being ignored that the North Koreans, led by Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, on Friday were welcomed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Singapore. They are expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and officials from nations across the region at a dinner hosted by the city state. Both Ri and Pompeo took part in the unprecedented summit two months ago between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un. In Manila last year, Ri made a speech against the U.S. campaign of maximum pressure. "We should have the ability to target the heart of the U.S. with intercontinental missiles if we want to check the U.S.'s military invasion effectively," Ri said. "We are ready to teach lessons to the U.S. with our nuclear force if the country is against us with its weapons." By contrast, this weekend's conference takes place days after the White House said Trump had received a "nice letter" from Kim. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said the president would respond to the North Korean leader and didn't rule out a second summit. While tensions have cooled, North Korean delegates were still not being treated like other members of the forum. No announcement has yet been made on any official meeting between Ri and Pompeo, as both sides struggle to narrow gaps on how to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear arms and facilities. The conference comes after media reports that U.S. intelligence has found evidence the North continues to illegally build ICBMs. Trump had previously dismissed the danger from the North's nuclear capabilities in a tweet following the June 12 Singapore summit, saying North Korea was "no longer a Nuclear Threat." The president has been keen to flaunt his friendship with Kim, a source of concern among lawmakers frustrated with a lack of concrete progress toward denuclearization. These lawmakers see the concessions offered by the North so far as simply time-stalling tactics. In a recent hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo defended the White House's strategy and insisted that the U.S. "has not been taken for a ride." Since Trump came to power, some officials in these countries thought they had found what they were missing in the White House, as they were dealing with someone who cared only about money and worked according to the logic of deals, not the logic of a responsible statesman. Middle East Monitor reports in its article The Gulf, Iran and Trumps tweets that they naively and foolishly believed that they could buy the mans loyalty and have him at their beck and call. They did not realise that the US president is not working in a vacuum, but through institutions that monitor him and hold him accountable for his behaviour. They also forgot that the man ultimately only commits to the interests of his country, regardless of what others want. This became clear at the start of the Qatar siege crisis. After they rejoiced in Trumps irresponsible remarks and tweets regarding Qatar and imagined they would be able to use them as a cover to attack their neighbour, the American institution, especially the State Department and Department of Defence, brought the man back to his senses. They stopped the recklessness and disorder with which he was dealing with the Gulf crisis. The situation has reached the point of Trump criticising the besieging countries for refusing to sit and conduct talks with Doha. He has held them responsible for the continuation of the crisis. After Rex Tillersons departure from the State Department and the arrival of Mike Pompeo, these states thought they could buy the man and pressure him in relation to the Qatar and Iran files, but the result was the opposite. Pompeo blamed Saudi Arabia during his first visit there for its inflexible position in the Gulf crisis and he uttered his famous word, Enough! to express Washingtons frustration at the continuation of the crisis, as reported by the New York Times a few months ago. There are also on-going US efforts to hold a Gulf summit in the autumn in order to end the crisis and focus on the Iran file. Trumps wavering with regard to Iran has prompted a Gulf academic from Abu Dhabi to tweet angrily about the man, as if he were working for his country. There is no dispute that Iran poses a real threat to the Arab region, and it is indisputable that its crimes in the region over the past years provide sufficient proof of the need to confront Iran and its actions. However, those who imagine that the US would fight Iran for the Arabs are absolutely delusional. The most Trump may do is exploit the Gulfs fear of Iran in order to financially, politically and strategically take advantage of them. A while back, Trump had publically demanded that the Gulf states concerned by Iran should pay the cost of his protection. Of course, he will not stop his protection as long as there is someone subject to and accepting of extortion. Thus, Irans mischief in the region will not be stopped by trying to buy the loyalty of a foolish individual such as Trump, but through a Gulf and Arab policy with clear priorities and the will to work together, without conflicts or internal clashes, as is the case now. UPPER THUMB A communitys vitality, economic health and development is done with a carefully crafted master plan. The village of Cass City is in the process of updating its master plan, and it is seeking public input. The misconception is input is only being sought from those who live in the community. That isnt true. We want input from those who just visit here also said village Trustee Nancy Barrios. People who go to Cass City to shop, use any of the wide range of medical services available in the community, those who use the park and swimming pool or any of the other programs and services available, are asked to take the survey as well. Having input from those who are not village residents will give an understanding on how others see the community, explained Barrios. The survey can be found on the villages website at www.casscity.org, or a paper survey can be picked up at the Village Municipal Building, 6505 Main St., or by calling 989-872-2911. The survey has 30 questions in a multiple choice and comment format. Doing the survey will take about 10 minutes. Questions range from demographics, to recreation, land use, and how the community should look in the next five to 10 years. The deadline to take the survey is Aug. 17. The villages planning commission has been working on updating the outdated master plan with consultants from McKenna Inc., of Northville. The agency will help the village craft a plan that will be used to guide the communitys development for the next five years. McKenna is experienced in master plan development, zoning ordinances, urban design plans, and Redevelopment Ready Communiites, which Cass City is also working on. Our master plan is out of date and in need of revision. We need to develop a new plan to stay current with state law, said Russ Biefer, who chairs the planning commission. It will be essential for us to evolve effectively. Updating the master plan was one of the goals in our strategic planing, according to village Manager Debbie Powell. Having an updated master plan is also a key component to being able to apply and receive grant funding. Also as part of planning for the future, the village is participating in the Michigan Economic Development Corporations Redevelopment Ready Communities certificate program for strategies for redevelopment to benefit the economic vitality of the community. For more information about the survey, call 989-872-2911. Women Redefining Retirement to meet MILFORD Women Redefining Retirement will meet at 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at Golden Hill Rehabilitation Pavilion, 2028 Bridgeport Ave. Members of Milfords Eastbound Theatre will be presenting several one-act plays. School supplies will be collected to benefit a local school with students in need, and food donations will benefit the Milford Senior Center. New members welcome; visit wrrofmilford@google.com. Ocean State Job Lot boosts Connecticut Food Bank WALLINGFORD Ocean State Job Lot recently donated 1,929 cases 13,503 pounds of frozen clam strips to the Connecticut Food Bank, according to a release. Were thrilled to get this food donation from Ocean State Job Lot, Connecticut Food Bank CEO Bernie Beaudreau said in the release. Its unusual to get this type of product and were anxious to share it with our network of feeding programs across the state. It will provide a great source of protein and a special treat to many people who visit those programs. Beaudreau added that the Food Bank last year received nearly 400,000 pounds of food from Ocean State Job Lot. Were happy and proud to call the Connecticut Food Bank our partner in helping address the needs of the communities we serve, David Sarlitto, executive director of the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation, said in the release. With their leadership, and the generosity of customers we think are among the most generous on the planet, were that much closer to a hunger-free Connecticut. According to the release, the Ocean State Job Lot Three Square Meals program offers donated food to regional food banks across the Northeast each year, and the program in 2017 provided more than eight million pounds of food. The program is funded through Ocean State Job Lot customers during the holiday season and is matched by the company, which then uses its purchasing power to source large amounts of a broad range of foods that are delivered to food banks in eight states. Beshear Awards $10 million for new Vocational Ed. Center in Christian County A fight between senior citizens over free food led to police being called to a Greenville, S.C., Costco last week. According to The State newspaper, an argument broke out at one of the big-box store's free samples tables. A 70-year-old man was waiting for his complimentary bite-size chunk of cheese, when a second senior citizen a 72-year-old man in a Hawaiian shirt cut ahead of him, snatched the cheese and walked off. The first group of American astronauts who will fly to and from the International Space Station from U.S. soil in nearly a decade all served as military officers. Eric Boe, Christopher Ferguson, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley, Josh Cassada, Sunita Williams, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins hope to usher in a new era of American space travel. They'll head to space in aircraft that weren't designed by NASA. The astronauts will fly the first test flights and missions in two American-made, commercial spacecraft: Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon. NASA has worked closely with the companies throughout design, development and testing to ensure the systems meet the agency's safety and performance requirements, according to a news release. "We're looking for spaceflight to look a lot like flying a commercial airplane," Ferguson said during a Friday Reddit "Ask Me Anything" question-and answer-session. "It's safe and reliable, and provides transportation to space instead of another city." Boe, Behnken and Hopkins served in the Air Force; Ferguson, Cassada, Williams and Glover in the Navy; and Mann and Hurley in the Marine Corps. These missions will be the first space flights for Cassada, Glover and Mann. Here's how nine military officers landed on NASA's first-ever commercial spacecraft crews: Retired Air Force Col. Eric Boe, Starliner's test flight Retired Air Force Col. Eric Boe (Photo: NASA) Boe was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2000. He studied astronautical engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned his commission in 1987. Before retiring from the Air Force in 2012, Boe logged more than 6,000 flight hours in more than 50 aircraft. He's flown two spaceflights, including one in which he expanded the living quarters on the International Space Station. He's married with two children. Boe told Reddit readers Friday that he'd love to go to Mars some day. "However, we have a few more years of research and development to get our spacecraft ready to see the red planet with humans (and hopefully me)." Retired Navy Capt. Christopher Ferguson, Starliner's test flight Retired Navy Capt. Christopher Ferguson (Photo: NASA) Ferguson reported to Johnson Space Center in Texas in 1998. He studied mechanical engineering at Drexel University and earned his commission in 1984. He earned his Navy wings in 1986 and flew an F-14 Tomcat before logging 5,700 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft before he retired in 2010. Ferguson piloted and commanded space shuttles before retiring from NASA in 2011. He's been an integral part of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner program. He is married with three children. During the Reddit Q&A, Ferguson claimed to love space food on Earth and off. "But my favorite by far is crawfish etouffee." Marine Lt. Col. Nicole Mann, Starliner's test flight Marine Lt. Col. Nicole Mann (Photo: NASA) Mann was selected by NASA in 2013. She earned her commission in 1999 after studying mechanical engineering at the Naval Academy. She holds a master's degree in the same subject. Mann serves as a test pilot for the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet and has deployed aboard aircraft carriers twice in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is her first space mission. She's married with one child. During Friday's Reddit chat, she stressed the importance of a solid education for those who want to pursue careers with NASA. "I think doing something you love and feel passionate about is important and will give you the drive to succeed. Don't forget to have fun while you are at it." Air Force Col. Robert L. Behnken, Crew Dragon's test flight Air Force Col. Robert L. Behnken (Photo: NASA) Behnken joined NASA in 2000. He studied physics and mechanical engineering and entered the Air Force after graduate school. He served as a flight-test engineer for the F-22 Raptor and has flown over 1,500 flight hours in more than 25 aircraft. He has also flown more than 700 hours in space. Behnken said during the Reddit talk that the length of their first SpaceX mission is still being finalized. "[The International Space Station] is a busy place, so we have to make way for other traffic too. Right now, we are expecting two weeks to 30 days." Retired Marine Col. Douglas Hurley, Crew Dragon's test flight Retired Marine Col. Douglas Hurley (Photo: NASA) Hurley has been with NASA since 2000. He studied civil engineering at Tulane University and earned his commission in 1988. He attended the Marine Corps' grueling Infantry Officers Course before heading to flight training in 1989. He flew F/A-18s and was the first Marine pilot to fly the F/A18 E/F Super Hornet. Hurley retired from the Corps after 24 years, having logged more than 5,500 hours in more than 25 aircraft. He's piloted two spaceflights, and is married with one child. Hurley said during Friday's Reddit session that the two commercial spacecraft these crews will fly are similar. "[The differences are] subtle. The way they are laid out and how they operate are slightly different. For example, the Starliner has three seats in row and one at the feet of the other three, while the Dragon has all four seats in a row." Navy Cmdr. Josh Cassada, Starliner's first mission Navy Cmdr. Josh Cassada (Photo: NASA) Cassada was selected by NASA in 2013. He completed his doctorate in physics before becoming a naval aviator in 2000. He's flown 23 combat missions in the P-3C Orion and served as a test pilot, accumulating more than 3,500 flight hours in over 40 aircraft. This will be Cassada's first space mission. He is married with two children. He said during the Reddit chat he's both excited and scared for the mission. "There's always risk in doing something worth doing. Courage is being afraid, but going anyway." Retired Navy Capt. Sunita L. Williams, Starliner's first mission Retired Navy Capt. Sunita L. Williams (Photo: NASA) Williams has been a NASA astronaut since 1998. She received her commission in 1987 after studying physical science at the U.S. Naval Academy. She was a basic diving officer before reporting to Naval Aviation Training Command. She flew the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, eventually logging more than 3,000 flight hours in over 30 aircraft. Williams, who is married, has spent 322 days in space on two missions. With 50 hours and 40 minutes, she ranks second on the list of total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. After spending nearly a year in space, Williams told Reddit readers Friday that she learned how to make the most of the often-boring space food. "It is important to have a lot of selection in space food and ways to make it tasty. I specifically liked wasabi, garlic and pesto sauce to spice up my mundane food." Navy Cmdr. Victor Glover Jr., Crew Dragon's first mission Navy Cmdr. Victor Glover Jr. (Photo: NASA) Glover was selected as an astronaut in 2013 while serving as a legislative fellow in the U.S. Senate. He studied general and systems engineering. After earning his commission, has served as a test pilot in the F/A18 Hornet, Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler. He has flown 24 combat missions, has more than 400 carrier-arrested landings, and has clocked 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft. Glover is married with four children, and this is his first space mission. He said during Friday's Reddit Q&A that he hopes these new flights show Americans that NASA is flying and operating in space. "It was said today that the Space Station has been continuously manned for almost 18 years, which means there's a whole generation of people coming into adulthood that have lived their whole lives under Americans living in space." Air Force Col. Michael Hopkins, Crew Dragon's first mission Air Force Col. Michael Hopkins (Photo: NASA) Hopkins was selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2009. He studied aerospace engineering and earned his commission in 1992. He tested C-17 Globemaster and C-130 Hercules aircraft and later served with the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. He was selected as a special assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2008, where he stayed until he began astronaut training. He has spent 166 days in space and is married with two children. During Friday's Reddit chat, Hopkins was asked about the ultimate milestone for astronauts. "For many astronauts, the opportunity to go outside the space station on a spacewalk is about as ultimate as it gets." -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins. The U.S. Army said Friday that Pvt. 2nd Class Jeremy J. Wells, 19, of Adairsville, Ga., died Wednesday in a training accident at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Wells was conducting weapons training with the 101st Airborne Division at a small-arms range at the time of the accident. He was medically evacuated to a base hospital, where he died of his wounds. No other soldiers were injured. Wells was an aircraft electrician in the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. He joined the Army in 2017 and arrived at Fort Campbell in 2018 after training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Fort Eustis, Virginia. His decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Basic Aviation Badge. He was posthumously awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal. "101st Combat Aviation Brigade has lost an incredible member of the Destiny family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members of this soldier," Lt. Col. Cayton Johnson, commander, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, said in a statement. "We ask that everyone respect the privacy of his family as they grieve this tragic loss." The cause of the incident is under investigation. Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date. Second Lt. Christofer Ahn, a student pilot, said he's never been inside a real cockpit. He began his Air Force career in basic flight screening in Colorado before going straight into the service's new Pilot Training Next program. Even though Pilot Training Next is an experiment to gauge whether pilots can learn faster and thus expedite the training pipeline, Ahn said the Air Force was generous in the time it gave airmen to grasp the information at their own pace. He explained that, in some instances, the students could take their virtual reality simulators to their living quarters to practice. "We could come back and work over the weekends," he added. "'In normal pilot training ... there are limits for how long you could be in [the simulator]. We basically got nearly unlimited access. Learning something in the books, it's just the books. Or visualizing something mentally. We could practice ... anytime we want." Amid an ongoing pilot shortage, the Air Force launched the first-of-its-kind study, testing the ability of students to learn faster and absorb more through cutting-edge technology aids and simulations. The experiment not only tested the students -- it tested the ways the Air Force can adapt using futuristic technologies at the forefront of its day-to-day training routine. While student pilots typically begin their training with heavy academics and regimented simulator time, the Pilot Training Next program plunged them directly into augmented reality and simulator training, allowing them to learn and self-correct as they went through realistic flight scenarios. Student pilots graduated the program Friday after six months of learning how to fly in virtual reality simulators alongside fellow pilots and instructors. While the students had much to take away from the program, Air Force officials also were learning where the service should invest its efforts before taking certain pilot training tools mainstream, officials recently told Military.com. Related content: "The failures are just as valuable as the successes," said Maj. Scott Van De Water, Pilot Training Next deputy director. Military.com interviewed officials involved in the months-long study in Austin, Texas. "There are a lot of ways that we're finding that the things that we're doing here are inadequate to the ends, and the legacy system is exceptional at doing." Successes and Failures As students flew the virtual reality sim, biometric monitors collected data on heart rate, eye movements and other factors that could help the Air Force understand how pilots interpret their tasks. The virtual reality goggles, Ahn said, seemed to offer more realistic environments as compared to other simulators. "From the very get-go, [it's] helped us accelerate our training [in tandem] with the hands-on feedback that we need to perform in an actual jet," he said. "We want to learn as fast as possible. Being able to use the simulators is a huge step in allowing us to accelerate through our training." An instructor monitored two students at a time as they went through the daily flight plan. While Van De Water did not specify the program's failures, he said there were a few issues, from a software component that interrupted the teaching process to educational approaches that "fell flat" with students. It required a feedback forum at least once a week on how leaders could amend the program as they went along. "I think the big takeaway [is] we inherently had to do some bumper bowling here and find out where the edges are," he said. "If we had it all solved coming straight into this program, there would have been no point in doing the program in the first place." Under Air Education and Training Command, the study explored how airmen could train "by using existing and emerging technologies that can decrease the time and cost of training," but with the same depth of understanding to produce quality pilots. The experiment included using virtual and augmented reality simulation to teach airmen aircraft specs, and provide an in-flight experience, faster. The group included 20 airmen -- 15 officers and five enlisted, AETC officials said during the interview. Enlisted airmen were included so the Air Force could better understand how airmen who may not have had prior college-level academics conceptualize their experience, officials said. One student, Van De Water said, was sent back through the normal undergraduate training process "because what we were doing here wasn't working for him." "And we take the fact that he was unable to get through this program just as a data point and a feedback mechanism for us," he said. In all, 13 officer pilots received their wings at graduation Friday, AETC spokeswoman 1st Lt. Geneva Giaimo told Military.com. "Two officer pilots were stationed back at traditional [Undergraduate Pilot Training] bases to complete training. The enlisted participants went on to their previously assigned career fields," she said in a statement. Van De Water added, "I highlight the fact that we're failing in order to highlight the fact we are finding the edges of the power of the technologies and the techniques and the methods. But ... this program demonstrated efficiencies are there to be gained." The Air Force has received approval to run a second PTN class in January, Van De Water said. Watching Them Learn The Air Force is beginning to incorporate more technologies as it shifts from a manpower-intensive approach toward more machine learning, officials have said in recent months. It's aiming to create a more efficient, agile and worthy pilot training class by using data analysis and streamlined learning practices. "Everything we're doing is all about, 'What can we do to innovate better and create better tools for our instructors [and airmen] and ultimately just generate some lessons learned,' " said Capt. John Joern, a T-6 Texan II instructor overseeing students in the study. "A lot of the biggest, most successful companies are using these big data analytics, and we thought, 'Why can't we do that also?' " he said. Joern added the program in no way is the precursor to removing or overhauling Undergraduate Pilot Training, the standard pre-flight training before airmen are assigned to a formal training unit. The Air Force's goal is to push pilots through basic pilot training "more quickly, more accurately and more repeatedly" by leveraging a multitude of factors, he said. "If we can capture biometrics, if we can capture the way a student reacts, if we can try and capture data from a multitude of sources, and [can] synthesize that into what factors are going to play into a student performing at their absolute best, then we can start to get a better picture of what causes a student to do better, and maybe we can identify some potential ... qualities that belong to pilots and potentially use that to shape the way that we select people to be pilots," Joern said. The standards the students were required to meet were the same any airmen going through UPT would experience and be graded on. The simulators have basic avionics -- from the joystick, throttle, rudder pedals, screens -- to give students the full feel of being in a cockpit. The only thing that changed, Joern said, was the process of how he would get a pilot to learn information. For example, instead of using handheld model planes to simulate what a pilot did, Joern said he'd put a student right back into the simulator with the VR goggles and show him his maneuvers. In the end, it's about being "a good aviator" instead of just being proficient in the aircraft that a pilot would fly, he said. "We can teach them how to fly in a T-6, but every once in a while I can throw in an F-16 and say, 'Let's try this pattern but let's talk differences,' " Joern said. 'Tremendously Faster' The Air Force chose officers slated for the next undergraduate pilot training December 2018 class for the PTN program. After PTN, the officers will head to UPT, and the enlisted members will continue on to their predetermined technical training, officials have said. Van De Water said the students excelled despite some programmatic hiccups. "We've seen leaps and bounds increase, especially at the beginning of the program," Joern said. He said it was unexpected that the airmen learned as fast as they did in only a few short weeks. "They were flying very complicated profiles during their first check ride," Van De Water added, "and in just a fraction of the time on average of the traditional check ride provides." The deputy director said it took roughly about half the time it would take another pilot going through UPT to arrive at the same complexity of the check ride. For this reason, both Joern and Van De Water said there were successes in giving airmen more leeway as well as personalized "versus cookie cutter" lessons during the program. "Those things have shown out to be very valuable," Van De Water said. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Strunz Dana Chemical Elements Mineral List Gold 1 valid mineral. 1 valid mineral. Detailed Mineral List: Gold Formula: Au Reference: Cusack, J., Neylon, A, Briggs, J. (2011) Ballarat West Growth Areas. Bonshaw Creek and Greenhalghs Road Precincts. Historic Archaeology Assessments, Final Report, Context Pty Ltd for City of Ballarat, 27 September 2011. List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification Group 1 - Elements 'Gold' 1.AA.05 Au List of minerals arranged by Dana 8th Edition classification Group 1 - NATIVE ELEMENTS AND ALLOYS Metals, other than the Platinum Group Gold 1.1.1.1 Au List of minerals for each chemical element Au Gold Au Gold Au Regional Geology The Prince of Wales Mine was historically the second highest alluvial gold producer on the Ballarat Goldfield at 168 929 ounces.The company was registered in 1859, with mining starting in 1862. It was a co-operative of 61 members, formed to mine alluvial gold on Cobblers Lead. The Bonshaw Claim adjoined to the south, and the Working Miners claim to the north.A shaft was sunk, then drive towards the gutter, but all they found was flooding amounts of water. The company struggled for two years, purchasing ever larger and numbers of pumps. The water problem was temporarily overcome, finding much gold in the gutter, and paying dividends. Alexander Dempster and F.W. Tatham were early mine managers.A riot broke out in 1868, when striking miners tried to prevent workers from entering the mine. In 1874, a dispute arose with the Bonshaw Company who objected to the Prince of Wales pumping sludge onto their property. Around the same time the Prince of Wales broke into the Working Miners underground mine, both companies claiming the ground as their own. Barricades were erected underground, with miners facing off at each other.In 1862, the Prince of Wales reef was discovered, with soon a 16 stamp battery erected. In 1865, a new battery of 40 stamps was erected. A second shaft was sunk in 1867.Water again was becoming a problem, with the mine let to tributers who abandoned it. Meanwhile the company leased 100 acres nearby from Jock Winter's pastoral land, naming the mine the United Albion, but with little success. All operations had ground to a halt by 1878.A new company was formed in 1882, merging the Prince of Wales and Bonshaw leases. The Bonshaw Freehold Company began in 1858 as a co-operative of 46 shareholders. They leased 180 acres from Jock Winter for five years. The mine manager was W.M. Acheson.In 1862, the company purchased the land, and sank a second shaft, a half mile north-west of the first shaft. By the mid 1860's, large amounts of money was being invested into the company by Ballarat speculators and capitalists. The mine in its own right produced 96 520 ounces of alluvial gold, the sixth highest for the Ballarat goldfield.When the leases merged in 1882, it covered 500 acres, with the company planning to sink a new shaft. J.A. Chalk is mine manager. A shareholder meeting in 1889 states operations had been suspended 'for some time'.A new company was formed in 1891 over both leases. There was only a small number of shareholders, and limited capital. A new battery was erected, with operation confined to the 500 foot level on the reef found by the original Prince of Wales company. Little gold was found, and the company lasted until around 1900.The Prince of Wales #1 shaft is south of the Miles and Grant streets intersections, as disturbed ground and mullock heaps, partially obscured by trees, in the middle of a paddock. #2 shaft is several hundred metres west north-west, also in a paddock and south of Miles Street. #3 is just south of the Worldmark Resort (former St Josephs boys home). Little can be seen at the latter two. This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found. Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org Newer Volcanic Group Age: Cenozoic (0 - 23.03 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Newer Volcanic Group Description: Cinder cones - scoria, minor ash and agglutinates; Lava flows - tholeiitic to minor alkaline and basanitic lavas. Comments: igneous mafic volcanic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic volcanic Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5] Paleozoic sedimentary rocks Age: Paleozoic (427.4 - 541 Ma) Comments: Lachlan Fold Belt Lithology: Sedimentary rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154] Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License References Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A) The Ballarat Star newspaper (1868) Strike at United Albion and Prince of Wales Claim, 13 January 1868. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1871) Prince of Wales Company Mine Sebastopol, 20 January 1871. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1874) United Albion and Prince of Wales Company Sebastopol, 02 February 1874. The Argus newspaper (Melbourne) (1886) The Prince of Wales and Bonshaw United Mine, 24 September 1886. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1889) Prince of Wales Company, 26 May 1889. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1891) Prince of Wales Company Sebastopol. Marking Out the shaft, 01 August 1891. The Ballarat Star newspaper (1896) Mining Enterprise at Sebastopol, 20 April 1896. Geological Survey of Victoria (1981) Ballarat Goldfield South 1:10 000 geological map. Department of Minerals & Energy, Victoria. Cusack, J., Neylon, A, Briggs, J. (2011) Ballarat West Growth Areas. Bonshaw Creek and Greenhalghs Road Precincts. Historic Archaeology Assessments. Final Report, Context Pty Ltd for City of Ballarat, 27 September 2011. Centenary Gold Monument plaque, Sturt and Albert streets, Ballarat. External Links Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Strunz Dana Chemical Elements Mineral List Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities Gold 1 valid mineral. 1 valid mineral. Detailed Mineral List: Gold Formula: Au Reference: The Age newspaper (Melbourne) (1868) United Working Miners Sebastopol, 06 April 1868. List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification Group 1 - Elements 'Gold' 1.AA.05 Au List of minerals arranged by Dana 8th Edition classification Group 1 - NATIVE ELEMENTS AND ALLOYS Metals, other than the Platinum Group Gold 1.1.1.1 Au List of minerals for each chemical element Au Gold Au Gold Au Regional Geology The United Working Miners gold mine is located on the south-western edge of Ballarat. The claim was registered June 1856, and a co-operative was formed as the United Working Miners Company in 1858, its aim to mine gold on Frenchmans Lead.Initially six shafts were sunk, but only to 50 feet down, all encountering much water, a problem for most mines in the area. Various shareholders left, until 57 remained. The company was reconstructed in 1863, and again the following year.Two shafts came to prominence. #1 was located in a poor position, requiring 2,700 feet of driving to reach the gutter. The first gold yield was December 1862, and the total to December 1863 was 1,958 ounces of gold. Yields steadily increased, and the first dividend was paid in October 1866.In 1867, it was discovered that directors of the company were selling their shares. The company share price plummeted when news leaked mining was occurring in the gutter near the mine boundary. However the lead took a horseshoe bend and re-entered the lease, with some investors picking up shares at bargain basement prices.In the #2 shaft rich wash was struck in a 40 foot prospecting drive from the shaft. To April 1868 the mine had produced 32,537 ounces of gold.The United Working Miners Company took the Kangaroo Company to court across 1857-1858 accusing it of encroaching on its land. The company lost a court case against the Prince of Wales Company which owned the neighbouring United Albion lease in 1869. Shareholders failed to respond to a call, and banks refused loans to pay the damages bill, with operations suspended. Some mining subsequently continued until the mine closed in 1873.John F. Spillman was mine manager. The mine is said to have produced a total of around 57 000 ounces of alluvial gold.#1 shaft is located in Borough Depot Reserve, south of Victoria Street, and east of Grant Street, almost completely surrounded by housing. Little remains. #2 shaft is located in MR Power Reserve on Crown Street. The area was once used to dump council rubbish. The mullock heaps bordering Crown Street may relate to the neighbouring United Albion Mine. The #2 site may contain some building foundations, but it is unclear if this relates to the mine.The Mindat co-ordinates show the #1 shaft site. This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found. Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org Newer Volcanic Group Age: Cenozoic (0 - 23.03 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Newer Volcanic Group Description: Cinder cones - scoria, minor ash and agglutinates; Lava flows - tholeiitic to minor alkaline and basanitic lavas. Comments: igneous mafic volcanic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic volcanic Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5] Paleozoic sedimentary rocks Age: Paleozoic (427.4 - 541 Ma) Comments: Lachlan Fold Belt Lithology: Sedimentary rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154] Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License References Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A) The Ballarat Star newspaper (1869) United Working Miners Company, 28 October 1869. Finlay, I.S., Douglas, P.M. (1992) Ballarat Mines and Deep Leads 1:100 000 Map Geological Report. Geological Survey of Victoria Report No. 94. Cusack, J., Neylon, A., Briggs, J. (2011) Ballarat West Growth Areas. Bonshaw Creek and Greenhalghs Road. Historic Archaeology Assessment. Final Report, Context Pty Ltd for City of Ballarat, 27 September 2011. The Star newspaper (Ballarat) (1858) Encroachment Case, 27 February 1858. The Age newspaper (Melbourne) (1868) United Working Miners Sebastopol, 06 April 1868. Localities in this Region Show map How to use the mindat.org media viewer Click/touch this help panel to close it. Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. 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Summary of all keyboard shortcuts Zeytin Turkish Restaurant celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at their new location in the redeveloped Ada village area. On Thursday, Aug. 2, owner U. Turan, surrounded by Ada Township officials, community members, friends and family opened the doors to his new location at 7437 River St. "Zeytin is a well-known business and the township is thrilled they've been able to grow in unison with us," Ada Township Supervisor George Haga said. "Zeytin is the type of unique, locally-owned business that helps make Ada a special and vibrant community." While construction for the new building started in fall 2017, Turan said this project has been in the works for four years. The new location is just around the corner from the site Zeytin originally called home for 12 years. The new restaurant has 40-percent more space and also features two outdoor patios, a large full-service bar and additional rooms for group events. "It's a dream come true to show off our new home to our customers," Turan said. Turan said this has always been his dream; to own his old building, as he was leasing the former location and there was no option to buy it. Erhardt Construction built the new restaurant, which was designed by Dixon Architecture and is located just around the corner from the original site. According to Turan, the restaurant remained open at its old location while the new one was being built and only closed for 48 hours to relocate. "This was the lifetime opportunity and I took it," he said. Zeytin Turkish Restaurant is one of many businesses in Ada Township relocated to the redeveloped village area as a part of the Envision Ada project. Envision Ada is the $13 million redevelopment of Ada's riverfront area and village, and includes new businesses, new residences, new green space and new roads. "I just love the town and I just love the people, and I want to be here," Turan said. While Turan thanked the many people who helped make this project a reality, he said it wouldn't have been possible without his many followers and customers. "Thanks to my local followers and local customers, they kept us standing and we made it through," he said. ANN ARBOR, MI - A local group promoting the renewal of a transit tax in the Ann Arbor area has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations, including $20,000 from DTE Energy. Campaign finance reports show the Partners for Transit ballot committee collected nearly $33,000 in cash contributions between May 7 and July 22, while spending more than $18,000. That left the group with about $15,000 left to spend heading toward Election Day. The money is being used to pay for yard signs, mailers and other efforts to promote the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority's proposal on the Tuesday, Aug. 7, primary ballot, a renewal of the 0.7-mill tax that voters in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township first approved four years ago to expand local transit services. The nonprofit Ecology Center in Ann Arbor has been paid $6,000 to manage the campaign, campaign finance report show. Here are all 32 reported campaign contributors: DTE Energy -- $20,000 Bank of Ann Arbor -- $3,000 University Bank -- $1,000 First Martin Corp. -- $1,000 Richard Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations -- $1,000 Matt Carpenter, AAATA CEO -- $1,000 Larry Krieg, AAATA board member -- $1,000 Mike Allemang, AAATA board member -- $500 Martha Darling, retiree -- $500 Robert Boonin, local attorney -- $500 John Metzinger, AAATA deputy CEO -- $333 Xuhui Yang, AAATA employee -- $333 Lana Pollack, former state senator -- $250 Bob Guenzel, former county administrator -- $200 Susan Pollay, Ann Arbor DDA director -- $200 Roger Hewitt, Red Hawk Bar and Grill owner -- $200 Eli Cooper, AAATA treasurer and Ann Arbor transportation coordinator -- $200 Paul Glendon, retiree -- $200 Dawn Gabay, retired AAATA employee -- $200 Lucas Kempen, PetSmart salon leader -- $200 Alma Wheeler Smith, former state lawmaker -- $150 Leah Gunn, former county commissioner -- $100 Prashanth Gururaja, AAATA board member -- $100 David Nacht, former AAATA board chairman -- $100 John Hieftje, former Ann Arbor mayor -- $100 Kyra Sims, AAATA board member -- $100 Phil Roos, Michigan League of Conservation Voters board president -- $100 Jan Barney Newman, library board member -- $100 Sarah Pressprich Gryniewicz, AAATA employee -- $99 Jerry Lax, AAATA attorney -- $50 Harvey Somers, Scio Township resident -- $50 Prudence Rosenthal, former library board member -- $50 The tax was approved with 71 percent support from voters in 2014. It faced opposition from a group called Better Transit Now, which criticized the AAATA's plan and spent thousands campaigning against it. The opposition group is no longer active. The pro-millage mantra in 2014 was "more buses, more places, more often." Now it's "our buses, our places, our community." The 0.7-mill tax costs the owner of a home with a $200,000 market value and a $100,000 taxable value $70 per year. It's on top of a 2-mill tax Ann Arbor residents pay and a 1-mill tax Ypsilanti residents pay for AAATA service. The AAATA indicated in 2014 it would use the additional funding to increase service by 44 percent, including about 57,000 more service hours for Ann Arbor, nearly 8,500 more service hours for Ypsilanti, and at least 9,400 hours of new service for Ypsilanti Township. Voter approval to renew the tax on Tuesday would extend it and continue the expanded services through 2024. MLive has partnered with the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Michigan to provide information to voters. Check out the league's election guide at Vote411.org to find out more about candidates and proposals on the ballot. Additional election information from the nonpartisan CivCity Initiative in Ann Arbor can be found at AnnArborVotes.org. To find out where to vote and view what's on your ballot, go to the Michigan Voter Information Center website. UPDATE: DETROIT - A police officer is in critical condition after being struck in a hit-and-run crash early Saturday morning. Officers from the Detroit Police Department's 8th Precinct were clearing out a large crowd leaving a cabaret about 2:40 a.m. Aug. 4 when the incident occurred near West McNichols Road and Stahelin Avenue, said Detroit Police Capt. Darrell Patterson. An officer was going back to his vehicle to go back on patrol when he was struck by a vehicle from the rear traveling at a high rate of speed, eastbound on McNichols Road, Patterson said. The vehicle continued eastbound and was not located, he said. Officers on scene tried to administer first aid to the officer, and then transported him to a hospital, Patterson said. He said the officer was in surgery after suffering head trauma. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said during a Saturday morning press conference that the officer was listed in critical condition. The chief said the officer is on life support. Craig said a Jeep Liberty or Compass went through a gap between two marked police vehicles with lights on. The vehicle is dark blue or dark black in color, Craig said. He added it should have some front-end damage. The officer, who has not been identified, is 30 years old and graduated from the Detroit Police Academy in August 2017, Craig said. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who also spoke at the press conference, said he spoke with Craig and the officer's family. The officer had been married for one month, Duggan said. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the vehicle are asked to contact the Detroit Police Department. This is the second time in nine days a Detroit police officer was involved in a crash. Detroit Police Officer James Hearn was killed in an off-duty crash July 26. WYOMING, MI -- A 15-year-old Wyoming boy killed in a Portage crash is being remembered as a "joyful person" who loved karate and music. Matthew Colvin died Wednesday, Aug. 1 after a car driven by his father was struck from behind on U.S. 131 near the 29 Mile Marker in Portage. Colvin was returning from a trip to Indiana where he spent time with his father and step-siblings, according to relatives. "Matthew was just a joyful person and his smile was infectious," said a cousin, Di'Lon Love-Gibbs. He had been involved with karate since a young age and recently won a tournament in Ohio. He had reached the "green belt" level. "He just loved it," said a grandmother, Edna Love. In a Facebook post, one of his karate instructors described Colvin as a respectful young man with a love for the martial arts. "He was so kind and gentle with a smile so big it was hard not being happy around him," the instructor wrote. Colvin had attended Wyoming Junior High School. He played the drums, both at his church and in a performance band at school, relatives said. His grandmother also said Colvin was devoted to his faith. Colvin was a passenger in a Mazda 6 that was going north on U.S. 131 about 9:20 a.m Aug. 1 at a decreased speed, possibly due to a mechanical issue. The car was struck from behind by a Chevy Avalanche. The 48-year-old Mazda driver and four other children in the car were injured and taken to Bronson Methodist Hospital for injuries not believed life threatening. A Saturday, Aug. 11 funeral is planned at Lamb of God church, 57 Rena St. SW in Grand Rapids. The service is planned for 11 a.m. Relatives established a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A 19-year-old babysitter who did not return a 1-year-old child to his mother -- instead going to Benton Harbor -- will be charged with kidnapping, police said. Grand Rapids police on Friday, Aug. 3 said Iyesha Gibbs was to be arraigned over the weekend on the charge of kidnapping-child enticement. Gibbs was babysitting 1-year-old Miquis Jenkins on Wednesday afternoon in Grand Rapids. Later that day, the mother tried to contact Gibbs to get the child returned but Gibbs did not respond. She also could not be found at the Southeast Grand Rapids home where she claimed to be staying. The mother, Laquaya Gillard, called police and an Amber Alert was issued Thursday morning. Gibbs was tracked to Benton Harbor, where she has family ties, and was taken into custody the following afternoon. Miquis was in good health and reunited with Gillard on Thursday afternoon. MONTCALM COUNTY, MI -- Water serving the Tri County Schools Middle School has tested positive for PFAS near a federal safety level, leading the district to provide bottled water. Tri County Schools Superintendent Allen Cumings sent a letter to parents Friday, Aug. 3 on the issue. Recent tests showed the PFAS level in the middle school's well water at 62 parts-per-trillion, slightly below an Environmental Protection Agency safety standards of 70 ppt. Water at the nearby high school showed no PFAS. Cumings said that the district plans to shut down drinking fountains at the middle school and provide bottled water for drinking and food preparation, even though the tests came back below the safety standard. District leaders are working with the state Department of Environmental Quality to identify the source of the PFAS and long-term solutions for alternative water sources. They also plan to hire an independent environmental engineering firm to help with the issue. The district's two elementary schools are connected to a municipal water source, but that also is being tested. The results are due back soon, Cumings said. "Tri County Area Schools is committed to providing our students, staff and community with quality drinking water," Cumings said. Earlier this year, PFAS was identified in groundwater at the Central Sanitary Landfill off Cannonsville Road near Pierson, but the landfill is a considerable distance from the middle school. ALGOMA TOWNSHIP, MI -- Numerous fire departments are at the scene of a fire at an industrial building south of Cedar Springs. The fire was reported about 6:20 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3 at 11800 White Creek Ave. NE. Firefighters arrived at the scene to find flames and smoke showing from the building. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. The business is Refrigeration & Mechanical Services. Asked about their support for President Donald Trump in a May debate, all four Republican candidates for governor were emphatic in trying to align themselves with the president and his agenda. Schuette pointed to his endorsement from Trump. Calley, in a tricky position because he un-endorsed Trump, said Republican voters came together on Election Day to elect him. Hines said he loved the guy, and Colbeck said Trump got some "bad information," and Trump supporters in the grassroots were on his side. And from the looks of it, Republicans aligning themselves with the president has been a smart move. "All you have to do is take a look at the candidates that have the Trump endorsement, and they seem to be doing much better than those who don't," said pollster Steve Mitchell, of East Lansing-based Mitchell Research & Communications. Schuette has touted his Trump endorsement on the campaign trail, and says it's something voters are interested in. "I think the endorsement of President Trump of my candidacy for governor is huge, as he would say. And it resonates across the board, it does. I hear it all the time, I hear it when we're knocking on doors," Schuette said. "My son was in Standish and Cheboygan and the Soo and Marquette knocking on doors, and he told me that people are always talking about that Trump has endorsed Schuette. And so, I think it has big impact, and so I think that's part of the reason I'm ahead." That's probable, according to Mitchell. Schuette got Trump's endorsement early, before polling really got off the ground. But he pointed to a big surge for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James when he got the Trump nod. James is a veteran businessman locked in a primary battle with Sandy Pensler, a businessman and economist. Each aims to take on Stabenow in the November election. And for a while, they looked neck and neck in the polls - specifically an Emerson College poll of 600 likely voters with a +/- 4.3 percent margin of error that ran July 19-21. In it, Pensler and James tied at 28 percent each, with 44 percent undecided. Then on July 27, Trump endorsed John James. Mitchell's latest poll, of 413 likely voters taken on July 30, had James pulling 44 percent to Pensler's 30 percent, with 26 percent undecided. The poll had a 5 percent margin of error. "Now John James has a 14-point lead, and that's the Trump factor," Mitchell said. Schuette and James are the only Trump-endorsed candidates in Michigan, but it's something others are trying to tap into. Republicans up and down the ticket have trumpeted their support for the president and his policies. It's something that's caught the notice of Trump's team in Washington. Brad Parscale, campaign manager of Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, tweeted a reprimand against other candidates trying to tap into the enthusiasm. Only @realDonaldTrump endorsed candidates in Michigan are AG Schuette & John James. Enthusiasm for POTUS is great but making it look like you have an endorsement when you dont is not. Look forward to working with all nominees post primary. Brad Parscale (@parscale) August 3, 2018 Trump won Michigan over Hillary Clinton 47.5 to 47.3 percent. Since taking office, he's maintained support of many of his voters in Michigan. He's kept the grassroots fired up here, too, last visiting the state in April. Wayne State University Associate Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Grynaviski, who studies voter behavior and political parties, said he's not noticing any regrets among Trump voters. "My impression from the polling data and what I hear in talking to people out in the communities is that the people who voted for Trump because the message resonated with them, they're pretty happy with what he's done," Grynaviski said. Trump was able to tap into groups like middle-aged men who regretted their good-paying jobs going away, Grynaviski said. In general, he said voters may not have a lot of information about candidates going into a primary, and said the Trump distinction could be a deciding factor. "If voters are looking for some kind of cue on how to choose amongst them, the fact that one of them has the support of the president, it says something," Grynaviski said. JACKSON, MI - After three decades of fulfilling the Jackson community's cosmetology needs, the in-store salon at JCPenney is getting a makeover of its own. On Friday, JCPenney unveiled The Salon by InStyle - a revamped version of the store's salon section. The renovation is the product of a 2015 partnership between JCPenney and InStyle magazine. The salon is located at the north entrance of the JCPenney location at the Westwood Mall, 1850 W. Michigan Ave. The Jackson location is one of 100 JCPenney stores nationwide to be receive a makeover this year. "(JCPenney) has been going strong since the 1960s, but many younger shoppers aren't familiar with our salon services," said salon manager Yvonne White. "By rebranding and bringing a new generational appearance, we're bringing in the younger crowd." Cosmetic changes to the salon include updated visual elements like graphics and photography on the walls, accent lighting and modern furniture. The salon contains 21 chairs in total, divided between three sections of the store, including two styling rooms and a shampoo area. JCPenney is in the process of hiring 20 new stylists following the rebrand. White said she hopes that new employees are attracted to the benefits offered by the company, including some of the highest commission rates in the industry, paid professional training and 401K eligibility. One of the younger stylists on staff is Hailey Minix, 22, who has been working for the salon for four years. Minix began as a receptionist while she was still in high school and also attending cosmetology school. "The atmosphere is really fun - we all come in here looking forward to seeing each other and we have great time every single day," Minix said. Although there is a focus on attracting fresh talent, the salon will not be letting go of any of its senior stylists to bring in a younger crowd, White said. Among the more experienced members on staff is master stylist Deena Piper, 57, who has been an employee at the salon since its opening in 1981. "When we opened (in 1981), it was state-of-the-art and beautiful, but things get old," Piper said. "To see this (renovation) is wonderful. This is the first big remodel - everything is new." The salon will be open during the same hours as the rest of the store: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Several limited-time deals will be offered during the first few months after the reopening, including $10 haircuts for K-6th grade kids until Sept. 15 and extended hours on Sundays for appointments. NAPOLEON TWP., MI - A discussion on the Moon Lake Road bridge replacement is set to take place later this month. An informational presentation is slated for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, at Napoleon High School, 201 West St. Questions will be addressed afterward. The Jackson County Department of Transportation and Great Lakes Engineering Group, LLC -- the bridge designer -- are hosting the presentation. The bridge currently is open to one lane of traffic due to weight restrictions associated with the deterioration of the structure, according to JCDOT. The department was recently awarded a $906,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation's Local Bridge Program, which funds 95 percent of the construction costs. Replacement bridge construction is planned to begin this winter, with the project being completed by June 2019. The bridge goes over Dollar Lake. Anyone with questions can contact JCDOT at 517-788-4230 or visit its website or Facebook page for more information. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - A man with two criminal sexual conduct convictions has been charged with the sexual assault of a child. Eldred Lee Brooks, 39, also has a conviction for failing to comply with the sex offender registry. His latest charge is second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child under age 13. It's alleged he sexually touched the child on more than one occasion between March 2017 and March 2018, said Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat. The victim is not related to Brooks, but visited his home on regular occasions, Maat said. He was convicted in 1998 of two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim between the ages of 13-15. In 2013, he was convicted of failing to comply with the sex offender registry act, which is a felony. He currently is on probation, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections web site. His other felony convictions are for resisting and obstructing police in 1996 and possession of a controlled substance in 1998 and 2016. He has a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction from 1996. Brooks is being charged as a four-time habitual offender, which increases the potential penalty for the CSC charge from 15 years to life. He listed addresses in Muskegon and Muskegon Heights on court papers. Bond was set at $1 million at Brooks arraignment on July 12. He waived his preliminary examination and faces trial in Muskegon County Circuit Court. MUSKEGON, MI - Aquastar is the new name of the Muskegon Lake-based cruise boat formerly known as the Port City Princess. The vessel's new name was announced at a christening ceremony on Friday, Aug. 3, featuring Miss Michigan 2018 Emily Sioma and Miss Michigan Organization local titleholders. The name was chosen from more than 200 contest entries. It pays homage to the former S.S. Aquarama, a luxury passenger ship that moored in Muskegon for 26 years after operating as a ferry from 1955-1962. The Port City Princess was operated by the Precious family for about 30 years. When matriarch Silvia Precious retired this year, the family business was sold to a local group of entrepreneurs. The boat is now operated by Port City Cruise Lines LLC, a company affiliated with the Mart Dock where the boat is moored. Patrick McKee is heading up operations. Aquastar has been painted aqua, gray, red and white with its name on the back. The owners also recently obtained a liquor license. The new owners are also slowly renovating the boat. Regularly scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday cruises will begin soon, said Max McKee, president of Mart Dock Co. While the new owners don't have experience in cruise boat operations, they do have experience on the water, McKee said previously. "We'll be OK," he said previously. "I don't think we'll have to coax Silvia out of retirement." In the spring of 1987, Sylvia Precious and her husband Ralph brought the former Mackinac Island ferry boat to Muskegon, rechristened it the Port City Princess, and offered a dinner and sunset cruise service. The 65-foot former Arnold Transit ferry boat, hosted thousands of people each year on Muskegon Lake and Lake Michigan. In addition to dinner and sunset cruises, it has hosted weddings and corporate outings. Contact Port City Cruise Lines at 231-903-0669 or portcitycruises@hotmail.com to schedule charters. Comstock Park Public Schools has a new superintendent. The Board of Education has voted unanimously to hire David Washburn to serve as the next superintendent. He currently is the principal at Forest Hills Middle School. The decision was made during second-round interviews with two candidates -- Washburn and Art Garner, the principal at Muskegon High School, on Tuesday, July 31. Board President Christy Nowak said the superintendent search was a long process, but said it went smoothly and the board is happy with the choice they made. "We feel good. We feel confident. We're excited about Dave," Nowak said. "We just want to plow forward and get moving." The position became available after Superintendent Ethan Ebenstein, who was with the district for 10 years, announced he was leaving to become superintendent of the Ionia County Intermediate School District, on July 1. "I am honored and humbled to be chosen as the new superintendent for Comstock Park Public Schools," Washburn said. "It is a tremendous opportunity and I truly look forward to partnering with students, staff, parents, and community members." There were 24 candidates in total that were presented to the board on July 16 by Gary Rider, search consultant with the Michigan Leadership Institute. Four candidates were offered interviews, but two withdrew due to other job prospects. Nowak said the board followed its candidate profile when interviewing candidates. Before applying, applicants could view a candidate profile on the school's website. The profile was developed from more than 120 surveys that were collected from the Comstock community. It described what the school district wanted in a superintendent. It included: someone who has had success in education; who has a wide variety of experience as a teacher and administrator; experience as a superintendent or assistant superintendent and a strong leader who effectively handles issues without micromanaging. During second-round interviews, Nowak said the board felt that Washburn fit the candidate profile "better." "He's a strong communicator, leader, has experience and wants to be visible and get to know the staff," Nowak said. "He seems collaborative and will work well with the business team." Washburn, 46, said he comes from a long line of educators. His dad, Michael Washburn, was a superintendent for 27 years with 21 of those years at Forest Hills Public Schools. "I have learned many leadership traits from my dad over the years," Washburn said. "Most importantly, I've been taught to value and appreciate all staff members." In addition, Washburn said his dad instilled many traits in him including being a servant leader, collaborative, confident but humble, communication, commitment, passion, positive attitude and a sense of humor." "My grandmother was a high school counselor; my mom taught for many years at an alternative high school program (Horizons) in Wyoming; my twin brother is a principal in Thornapple-Kellogg," Washburn said. "In addition, my wife is a first-grade teacher and my mother-in-law was a secretary for many years before she retired." Washburn said he is looking forward to getting to know the Comstock Park community. "He's very personable," Nowak said. "He's easy to talk to." Nowak said a start date for Washburn has not been determined. A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Milan had to return to the airport in Italy within 30 minutes of take-off after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, the airline said on Saturday. According to an airline spokesperson, the incident happened on August 2 when the passenger, and Indian citizen whose seat no. was 32C, tried to enter the cockpit in clear violation of aviation rule. On landing back, he was handed over to the local police who are probing the incident. The aircraft had over 250 passengers onboard. "AI 138 Milan-Delhi flight delayed by 2.37 hours as one unruly passenger Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after take-off from Milan on schedule. The aircraft landed back and the passenger was handed over to the local police," an airline statement said. Gurpreet's action could land him in the 'no-fly-list' pending the completion of the enquiry, the airline hinted. The 'no-fly' list was introduced following several reports of unruly incidents involving passengers, including Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who allegedly assaulted an Air India staffer at the Delhi airport for not being allowed to fly business class. In May, Mumbai-based jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, who had created a hijack scare onboard a Jet Airways flight on October 2017, was put in the 'no-fly' category, the first person in the list. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council headed by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal approved setting up of a group of ministers (GoM) to tackle taxation related issues faced by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It has also decided to incentivise digital transactions by giving 20 percent cashback on the tax paid to users of RuPay, and UPI platforms on a pilot basis. The GoM, headed by Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla, is expected to submit its report in the next six weeks on tax issues faced by MSMEs. Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia, Assam FM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Bihar deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, among others, will be part of the panel. A law committee comprising bureaucrats from states and the Centre will be looking at law related issues that MSMEs are dealing with. Similarly, a fitment committee, comprising senior government officials will consider proposals related to rate cut. All proposals will be reviewed by the ministerial panel in consultation with the law review committee and fitment committee," Goyal said. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said that the report will focus on enabling industries to be more competitive. It will try to find out the processes that are destabilising smaller players, he said and added that small companies have been bearing losses of up to 300 percent. In its 29th meeting held on August 4, the Council considered all aspects of GST, while focussing on laws, simplification of the policy, reducing compliance burden and technology-related issues affecting MSMEs. There were concerns about MSME sector ever since GST was rolled out because in the earlier excise and service tax regime the businesses with (annual) turnover of more than Rs 1.5 crore were treated differently, while those of less than Rs 1.5 crore differently. There is big business who give more taxes, but then there are small businesses who are large in number, who gives employment. Both have to be given importance...with this, MSMEs will get the required support, said Manish Sisodia. The next GST Council meeting will be held on September 28 and 29 in Goa. West Bengal FM Amit Mitra, who was also present at the meeting said it is estimated that government had to bear revenue losses of Rs 43,000 crore during the April-June quarter. However, referring to the cut in GST on around 80 goods a senior official government said that rate cut may not happen for the time being as there are revenue concerns. "The view was that now GST Council should adopt RBI's terminology of a pause in rate cut," the official noted. Revenues from GST in April-June was at Rs 2.86 lakh crore, as compared to an estimate of Rs 3.36 lakh crore, according to monthly data released by the government. Incentivising digital transactions The Council approved incentives for digital payments, with a broader idea to promote a cashless economy. Payments made using instant real-time payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay cards will get a cashback of 20 percent of the GST amount, Goyal said, adding the cashback will be capped at Rs 100. The pilot programme will be implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) and can be introduced by any state that is willing to run it voluntarily. Tamil Nadu, Assam, Maharashtra and Bihar are some of the states that are keen on implementing the pilot project. The Centre and states will have to bear a loss of Rs 1,000 crore annually, towards giving sops for digital payments. ...It remains to be seen how many states are interested in implementing the scheme and what is the monetary limit fixed on the benefit. Besides, the Banks and the Government will be required to put in place an appropriate software and infrastructure support to facilitate the cashback scheme, said Abhishek A Rastogi, Partner, Khaitan. Hospitality and food service company K Hospitality Corp is planning to expand its Copper Chimney and Bombay Brasserie brands under Charcoal Concepts verticals to 50 outlets in India and 20 restaurants overseas in the next three years. "We are looking to aggressively expand our overseas presence under Charcoal Concepts that is working on bringing various new Indian food formats to the market, both in India and abroad, over the next three years. Currently, we have presence in Kuwait and Dubai with five outlets," K Hospitality Corp Director Karan Kapur told PTI here. Copper Chimney is a contemporary Indian restaurant brand, while Bombay Brasserie is the eclectic all-day Indian eatery catering to younger audiences. This expansion will all be with company-owned outlets as K Hospitality has bought out the franchise rights of Copper Chimney from Everstone Capital-owned Pan India Food Solutions. Pan India Food Solutions was operating three Copper Chimney, Kapur added. K Hospitality Corp is also looking at opening a new fast casual format overseas and the brand will be decided by the end of this year, he added. Going forward, he said, the company is looking at presence in the Middle East and UK, with total 20 outlets. In the domestic market, K Hospitality is eyeing 60 outlets mostly in Copper Chimney and Bombay Brasserie brands, he said. "We are looking forward for aggressive expansion of Copper Chimney. We currently have 20 outlets under this brand. Overall, including all our brands we are looking at 60 out in pan India," he added. K Hospitality Corp will invest Rs 120 crore to fund this expansion. "We have outlined a capex of Rs 120 crore for this domestic as well as overseas expansion. These funds will be raised with a mix of equity, internal accrual and debt," Kapur added. By The Associated Press Aug. 02, 2018 | 09:22 PM | FANCY FARM Terrie White was happy as a retired teacher in western Kentucky who did not follow the news. But that was before a bill popped up in the state legislature that would have reduced the cost-of-living raises for her pension. Now, as Kentucky politicians prepare to launch their fall campaigns at the annual Fancy Farm picnic, White is preparing a launch of her own. She has ordered T-shirts, organized logistics and recruited others for what could be the largest teacher protest since spring, when thousands marched on the state Capitol. "I've sat back and didn't do anything," she said. "I've vowed to not let that happen again." As Republicans in Congress prepare for a possible backlash this fall against President Donald Trump, their counterparts in the Kentucky legislature are grappling with a similar threat from the state's teachers and public workers. The Republican-controlled legislature put billions of more dollars in the state retirement systems, but made some changes late in the session that prompted protests. The spring teacher protest shuttered more than 30 school districts across Kentucky and pressured lawmakers to remove some of the most hated proposals from a pension bill that would have removed cost-of-living raises. In May, a high school math teacher who had never run for office defeated the state House majority leader in a Republican primary. Now with at least 34 current and former educators on the ballot in November, teachers are preparing to launch their fall offensive Saturday at the annual Fancy Farm picnic. It's the traditional start of Kentucky's general election campaigns, where candidates for both parties share the stage before hundreds of hecklers in matching T-shirts, all being broadcast live on statewide television. "We want them to see us. We want them to know our faces and to know that we still are angry," said Nema Brewer, who works for the Fayette County school system and is a co-founder of #120strong. The group, whose name refers to Kentucky's 120 counties, says it could have up to 200 people at the picnic along with a red "moving truck" offering to help state lawmakers clean out their offices. Republican leaders dismiss the protests as noise from a small, but loud, minority of voters. They point to the GOP's impressive gains in voter registration, with Democrats now accounting for less than 50 percent of all registered voters. "I just don't see what having a bunch of screaming, angry people, how that classifies as momentum," state Senate Republican Leader Damon Thayer said. Blake Brickman, chief of staff for Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, said teachers should be angry at past Democratic leaders for not fully funding the pension system. "Gov. Bevin is the only governor in recent history to fully fund the pension system," he said. Although Fancy Farm could be the teachers' biggest show of force since their protests at the Capitol in March and April, the group hasn't been quiet since then. They have used social media to organize more protests at fundraisers for Republican candidates. In June, about 20 teachers demonstrated outside an Italian restaurant in Ashland that was hosting a fundraiser for Republican state Senate candidate Scott Sharp. And last week, Republican state Senate candidate Robby Mills decided to move his fundraiser from a restaurant in Henderson after the owners were worried about how planned protests could affect their business. The protests have unnerved Republicans, who have condemned them for hurting local businesses. In a news release earlier this week, the Republican Party of Kentucky lumped the protests in with other reported acts of vandalism, including a broken window at the Fayette County Republican Party headquarters and smashed mailbox at the home of Republican state Senate candidate Matt Castlen. "Something has come unglued on the left-hand side of the aisle and they need to get their people in order," GOP spokesman Tres Watson said. Brewer said her group did not vandalize property and never would. "They are trying to dismiss us as some radical group, which really isn't true," Brewer said. "If they won't look us in the eye at the Capitol during business hours, we'll come to them in fundraisers and ask them, 'Hey, why did you do this?'" Candidates are approaching the protests carefully. Sharp delivered pizza to the protesters at his fundraiser. Mills criticized the protests on social media, but said in an interview the teacher opposition is not to be taken lightly. "My political sense tells me that they could have a little bit of an effect," he said. "I think in all races they could have an effect." White said teachers can't go to the state Capitol every day, but "we were there when it mattered." "And we'll be there again," she said. Axita Cotton | Company received order for Indian organic raw cotton valuing $19,73,117 from Olam International, Singapore. () Geojit Financial Services Cotton prices skyrocketed to record highs in the domestic market on expectations of higher export demand and lower supply. On the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), the most active near-month futures hit its all-time high of Rs 24,200 per bale this week, while in the international market, on the benchmark Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), prices are placed at 89.44 cents per pound. India is the leading producer of cotton in the world, followed by China and the US. As per the government's third advance estimates, Indian cotton production in 2017-18 (July-June) is estimated at 34.9 million bales, higher than last year's production of 33.9 million bales. The demand for export requirements is predominantly bolstering the price. Amid concerns over a trade spat between the US and China, Chinese importers have now turned to India for meeting their cotton demand. Accusing China of theft of intellectual property and unfair trade practices, the US recently imposed tariffs on Chinese imports. As a retaliatory measure, China too slapped duties on American products, which worsened their trade relations. As per reports, Chinese buyers are now entering forward deals with Indian exporters. In India, forward deals are typically signed during late July and August as the new season produce starts arriving in markets by September. However, this year, deals were signed earlier than usual, possibly indicating higher demand. Due to a huge drawdown in cotton reserves in China, the country recently increased its cotton import quota as well. Cotton exports from India are estimated to be around 8 million bales during the 2018-19 period, with China alone accounting for 30-40 percent. During the 2016-17 period, cotton exports from the country were 6.7 million bales. As per trade agencies' forecast, Indian cotton export to China will treble to around 1 million bales this year due to a Chinese supply shortage. Meanwhile, as this year's normal sowing period of cotton is drawing to an end, farmers are expecting a lower yield this year on concerns over pest attack. The outbreak of pink bollworm, a pest that can cause large-scale damage to cotton plants, has been reported from many parts of major producing areas. Weather-related vagaries led to fears on production. As per latest data released by the farm ministry, cotton sown in the country is down by 8 percent so far against the previous year. Cotton sowing is also down in all major growing states except Haryana and Tamil Nadu. However, sowing may pick up the pace soon due to a recent hike in the minimum support price of the crop. Meanwhile, a sharp surge in MSP may presumably damage the competitive edge of Indian cotton in the global market. In July, the Government of India has raised the MSP of medium staple cotton to Rs 5,150 per quintal and for long staple cotton to Rs 5,450. Looking ahead, an outbreak of pink bollworm in India and dry weather condition in the US, which is raising concerns over global output, may keep prices firm. The ongoing positive momentum would continue in Indian futures prices, though there are chances for an immediate correction. Any possible fall in US cotton prices due to the ongoing trade turmoil between China and US may hit Indian prices as well. However, prevailing weakness in domestic currency is likely to support Indian exporters. The author is Head Commodity Research at Geojit Financial Services. The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Once Nifty registers a decisive breakout above its critical resistance then new targets shall open up which shall initially take indices towards 12,200 levels, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand. Q: Indian markets scaled fresh record highs this week but we lost momentum in the second half. Do you see profit booking at higher levels and investors should bring down their long positions? A: When the long-term trend is very strong one should not worry about short-term correction which is part and parcel of the uptrend as these dips will eventually get bought into and the indices will scale fresh new highs. Having said that, at this juncture indices are approaching major resistance point which is known to create sharp dips and lead to time-wise consolidation. Traders with a short-term view will be better off by taking some money off the table. Hence, as Nifty50 heads into the critical resistance zone of 11,450 11,500 levels we advocate positional traders with short to medium-term outlook to take some money off the table. However, based on our analysis of long-term trends we believe that once Nifty50 registers a decisive breakout above its critical resistance then new targets shall open up which shall initially take the indices towards 12200 kinds of levels. So, in the zone of 11,450 11,500 some sort of consolidation cant be ruled out. On the downsides, the zone of 11,210 11,185 shall continue to remain as critical support. Q: Small and midcap stocks have picked up momentum which was not visible in earlier rallies. Do you think that recovery has begun in this space? A: The Nifty midcap-100 and the small-cap 100 indices just started a mild recovery after hitting a new swing low three weeks back i.e. in the month of July and are hardly up by 8-9% from their respective lows. However, momentum in the broader markets shall further pick up once Nifty500 index, which is just 2 percent away from its lifetime highs registers a sustainable breakout above its all-time highs of 9,895 levels. When this broader gauge hits new highs then momentum in the broader markets shall get cemented further. In such a scenario, scrips from the mid and small cap segment also try to piggyback on this broader momentum and we can expect them to test their interim tops registered in last May which are roughly 10 percent away from current levels. Q: Which sectors are looking to lead the rally and which could be laggards? A: Market participants are still interested in buying the same names making things look more expensive which are being already considered by generalist as expensive. Therefore, leadership may continue to remain with Financials, IT and FMCG. But, now new pockets of opportunities are appearing which may deliver decent returns from current levels. Hence, investors can shift their focus selectively towards Pharma, metals and some of the prominent names from PSU Banking space. Q: What is the outlook on the rupee? Do you think the worst is over? A: Essentially for the last four weeks, the rupee is moving in a range of 69 68.25. Unless it settles below 68 for a couple of days we cant conclude that the worst is over. As long as it trades inside this range the threat of more weakness going forward will remain open as a breakdown of 69 will open up a range target placed around 71. Hence, unless a breakout below 68 occurs for the rupee the currency will not strengthen. On such a breakout we can expect an initial target of 67. Q: Top three stocks which investors can look at with a holding period of 1 month? A: Here is a list of top three stocks which could give 4-8% return in the next 1-2 months: Bata India: Buy | LTP: Rs 938 | Target: Rs 1,020 | Stop Loss: Rs 900 | Return 8.7% After hitting lifetime highs this counter appears to be on the verge of a fresh breakout above its two-month-old ascending channel. Such a breakout will throw up a new target placed around Rs 1,020 levels. Hence, positional traders should buy now and can add further on declines around 920 and look for a target of Rs 1,020. A stop loss could be placed near Rs 900. Havells India Ltd: Buy | LTP: Rs 641 | Target: Rs 697 | Stop Loss: Rs 620 | Target: Rs 8.7% This counter registered a breakout above its three-month-old ascending channel with a new lifetime high which is throwing up a bigger target placed around Rs 730. Interestingly, this kind of breakout on this counter occurred after a multi-month struggle inside the broader range of 590 480 kind of levels. Hence, such a bigger target cant be ruled out going forward. Positional traders are advised to buy now and on declines up to Rs 625 and look for a target of 697 by placing a stop below 620 on a closing basis. Yes Bank: Buy | LTP: Rs 372 | Target: Rs 390 | Stop Loss: Rs 360 | Return 4.8% After the recent correction from the lifetime highs of Rs 394, this counter appears to have bottomed out at the recent low of Rs 356 and resumed its up move. As the long-term trend is buoyant in this counter it can be expected to retest its lifetime highs. Hence, positional traders should buy into this counter for a target of 390 with a stop of 360. The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert 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. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia, as China forges ahead with plans to bolster its engagement in the region. Pompeo unveiled the figure to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other officials from around the world in Singapore. "As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the United States is excited to announce nearly $300 million in new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region," he said. The new security assistance will strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping capabilities and counter "transnational threats", he added. The United States said earlier this week it would invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in emerging Asia which he called "a down payment on a new era of U.S. economic commitment to the region". The United States' developing vision for a "free and open Indo-Pacific" comes at the same time as China ramps up its influence as part of is Belt and Road plan to bolster trade ties with nations in Southeast Asia and beyond. Analysts have said that a spiralling trade dispute between Beijing and Washington could also ratchet up tensions over other regional hotspots, such as the South China Sea, claimed in whole by China and in part by some Southeast Asian nations. The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told reporters at the same forum that China welcomed, and was willing to work with, the United States to help with faster development and better security in the region. He added, however, that the United States had been sending "massive strategic weaponry" into the South China Sea and the region as a show of military might that puts pressure on China and other regional countries. "That is the biggest force behind militarisation in this region," he said. China and the ASEAN bloc on Thursday hailed a "milestone" agreement on a single working text to kick off what will likely be protracted negotiations towards a code of conduct for behaviour the disputed waters. But critics have said that this enthusiasm for talks is a means for China to buy time and solidify its position during a period of relative dominance in the region where it has built island bases on submerged reefs. Pompeo told reporters that he had raised concerns at the meeting about Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea and the importance of maintaining a rules-based order. Progress towards resolving the continuing humanitarian in crisis in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state and other security issues were also essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific, he said. The use of "Indo-Pacific" has grown among diplomats from Japan, Australia, India and the United States in recent years, a shorthand for a democratic-led region, as opposed to an "Asia-Pacific" with China at its centre. China says that its Belt and Road plan is about promoting the common prosperity of all nations involved, but critics see the signature policy of President Xi Jinping as a bid for greater political clout. RJD workers block the railway line at Digha during Bihar bandh to protest against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's new sand mining policy, in Patna on Thursday. (PTI) The Rashtriya Janata Dal and several other opposition parties staged a protest here today, voicing their anguish over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. In a show of opposition unity, almost all major political parties joined the protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital, organised by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. Prominent leaders who joined the protest included CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav. Tejashwi has been targeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzzafarpur. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the CBI. Various speakers at the protest demanded stringent punishment against those involved in the heinous crime. The National Conference (NC) and its arch rival PDP on Saturday took out separate protest rallies here ahead of the August 6 Supreme Court hearing on petitions challenging Article 35A of the Constitution, which confers special status to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The apex court is hearing a batch of petitions in the matter, including the one filed by an RSS-linked NGO 'We the Citizens', seeking quashing of the article. MLA Khanyar Mohammad Sagar led hundred of party workers, carrying banners and placards, from the NC headquarters Nawai-e-Subah to Sher-e-Kashmir park. One of the banners read, "If there are no Articles 35A and 370, then there is no accession (of Jammu and Kashmir to India)". The protestors tried to march towards the city centre Lal Chowk but had to turn back due to a posse of policemen that stood guard at the park. The PDP also took out a rally from its office near the Sher-e-Kashmir park. Led by NC general secretary Nizamuddin Bhat and MLA Khursheed Alam, the protesters marched towards Lal Chowk but were stopped by the police. A traders body also held a demonstration here. The separatists and mainstream leaders have called for dismissing the PIL before the Supreme Court. The Jammu and Kashmir government yesterday approached the apex court seeking adjournment of the hearing, citing local body elections in the state. Article 35-A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday held talks with her Kyrgyzstan counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev on deepening cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. Swaraj arrived at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on Friday for a two-day visit, after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. "Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production," Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. "Walking together to take our relationship to new heights! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev proceed to the restricted format meeting in Issyk Kul," he had said in a tweet before the meeting. Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev's trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. In the last segment of her three-nation Central Asian tour, Swaraj would arrive in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent today. Amid public outrage over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Google has apologised for "inadvertently" loading the old UIDAI helpline number and 112 helpline number into the 'setup wizard' of Android phones. "Our internal review has revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the setup wizard of the Android release given to OEMs (Original equipment manufacturers) for use in India and has remained there since. "Since the numbers get listed on a user's contact list these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Google apologised for the same and said the numbers can be manually deleted from the phones. It also promised to fix the same in future editions of its setup wizard. "We are sorry for any concern that this might have caused, and would like to assure everyone that this is not a situation of an unauthorised access of their Android devices. Users can manually delete the number from their devices," the statement added. The tech titan said it will "work towards fixing this in an upcoming release of SetUp wizard which will be made available to OEMs over the next few weeks". Earlier today Aadhaar-issuing authority UIDAI had said it has not asked any phone maker or telecom service provider to include its toll-free number on mobile phones, as it tried to assuage user concerns relating to the invasion of privacy. Telecom operators' body COAI too said none of its members had pre-loaded any unknown numbers on any mobile phone. The clarification had come on reports that many Android-operating system run mobile phones listed by default the Aadhaar helpline number 1800-300-1947. UIDAI said the number 1800-300-1947 appearing in the contact list of Android phones was an "outdated and invalid" helpline number. Defending itself after drawing flak on social media over the default inclusion of the number in mobile phone contact list, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had said that, "...the said 18003001947 is not a valid UIDAI toll free number and some vested interests are trying to create unwarranted confusion in the public". The UIDAI's valid toll free number is 1947, which is functional for more than the last two years, it had said. The appearance of the number on smartphones had caused a social media furore, as users expressed concerns over how the helpline number had snuck into their smartphone contact list. #UIDAI was trending on the micro-blogging site as the Twitterati sought to unravel the mystery, and questioned the "breach of privacy". Yesterday, a French security expert who goes under the pseudonym Elliot Alderson and describes himself as "worst nightmare" of the UIDAI had tweeted, "Hi @UIDAI, Many people, with different provider, with and without an #Aadhaar card, with and without the mAadhaar app installed, noticed that your phone number is predefined in their contact list by default and so without their knowledge. Can you explain why?" The UIDAI controversy, second in the last one week, comes at a time and the Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar Act. There are also heightened concerns over personal information being allegedly compromised in some instances with increasing use of biometric identifier Aadhaar in an array of services. Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today asked newly elected members "to leave politics outside" and focus on people's welfare inside the House. Naidu inaugurated a two-day orientation programme for the new members of the Rajya Sabha here and spoke with them on different aspects of the functioning of Parliament for about an hour. He made a passionate appeal to all MPs to ensure smooth functioning of the Rajya Sabha and Parliament by making good use of opportunities and improving the quality of debates. "I firmly believe in discipline and upholding rules. I do get emotional if rules are violated and the House is disrupted," he said. "Mobocracy should not be allowed to derail deliberative parliamentary democracy. A group of MPs rushing into the well of the House and disrupting the proceedings subverts democracy. We need to respect each other irrespective of being in majority or minority. We need to respect the people's mandate," he told the members. Naidu complimented Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri for attending the 'Orientation Programme' despite having piloted quite a few bills and answering several questions in both the Houses of Parliament over the last one year. "Puri has been one of our leading diplomats for a long time and minister for over a year, but he is attending this programme to know more from seniors about the functioning of Parliament like a fresher. This shows learning never stops," statement quoted Naidu as saying. Puri sat through the day-long interaction today. Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien, one of the country's most famous quiz masters, explained the role and functioning of the committees of Parliament and their strengths to the delight of all. Leaving the podium, he took a cordless mike and conducted a quiz from amidst the MPs. He gave the first word of the acronym STRENGTHS' and asked the newly elected MPs to indicate which function of the Standing Committees that letter suggested. He offered chocolates to those who gave correct answers and his quiz show enlivened the interaction and got a huge applause. Rajya Sabha secretary general Desh Deepak Verma gave an overview of the Secretariat, including the support services being extended to members of the House. Over 40 MPs attended the first day of the 'Orientation Programme'. Q1. What was summarized by the press as they survived the Nixon administration, but they didnt survive the Internet? Answer: Jeff Bezoss acquisition of The Washington Post. In his letter to the employees of the newspaper, he said I wont be leading The Washington Post day-to-day. I am happily living in the other Washington where I have a day job that I love. Q2. A store of this chain is holding a food drive for its employees with low compensations. Signs attached to bins located in employee backrooms ask workers to donate food items here so associates in need can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. Which retail chain is this happening in? Answer: Walmart. The food donation drive is happening in its Canton, Ohio, store. Q3. Identify this advertisement. Answer: Birla Sun Life Insurance Q4. Who has filed an application at the Intellectual Property Office to trademark this logo and what does it depict? Answer: Gareth Bale has filed an application at the Intellectual Property Office to trademark a logo depicting his heart-shaped celebration with his No 11 in the centre. Q5. What did Anandabazar Patrika do on the day after Tagore's demise in 1941 and the day after Satyajit Ray's demise in 1992 as a mark of tribute? Answer: They published editions without any advertisements (Image: Reuters) Q6. Which Indian brand of apparel traces its name to 1877, when someone bought William Wright's tobacco factory in the Broad Marsh, Nottingham, and founded his tobacco business? The UK brand later went into the hand of Imperial Tobacco Group. Answer: John Players - this brand name traces its origins to Imperial Tobacco Groups John Players brand. Q7. When Pepsi became the first company to break the Soviet trade barrier by entering the Soviet Union market, what were they obliged to sell in USA in return as a part of a counter-trade agreement? (Image: Reuters) Answer: Stolichnaya Vodka Q8. Who is the designer of this famous 'bottle with doves'? It has a couple of doves fluttering above the stopper as a symbol of love and tenderness and was created in 1951? Answer: Nina Rocci Q9. It was first launched in 1940 as Indias first narrative journalism magazine. It was discontinued in 1988 to make way for a current affairs magazine. It was re-launched recently. Name the magazine Answer: The Caravan Q10. The Bolsa Familia is the largest of its kind in the world today and is winning converts worldwide. Which country came up with this and where do we see a copy-paste application of it in India? Answer: The Food Security Bill. The Bolsa Familia program was the key factor contributing to the reduction of poverty in Brazil, which fell 27.7% during the first term in the Lula administration. Q11. According to Pear Analytics, what does this pie chart indicate? Answer: Tweets Q12. Limited edition set of which company dedicated to whom? The company is a Swiss manufacturer of prestige watches and a brand of the Richemont group. The owners of this brand include Napoleon Bonaparte, Pope Pius XI, the Duke of Windsor and Harry Truman. Answer: Vacheron Constatins and Edgar Degas Q13. Created by Bill Graham and born in 1957, Louie was the apple of his mother Marg's eye. He was mean, the perfect villain. He was afraid of no one except something whose name translated to 'the dead one'. Louie made his first appearance as a child star in 1957. In his every appearance he was killed only to reappear again. Who is Louie afraid of? Answer: Mortein Q14. Whose style is IKEA paying a nod to through this advertisement? Answer: Bansky Q15. Imagine a tiffin carrier, but not just any tiffin carrier. Its massive and made from 21 gauge brass (an aluminium option was also available), with four compartments that stack and fit within a larger structure that has the usual handle on top, but also a small coal stove at its base. You place raw ingredients in each compartment - a helpful diagram shows that rice should go on top, dal at the bottom, vegetables in-between - light the stove and leave them to cook. You can carry the cooker on your travels, and when you're ready to eat you'll have four hot dishes ready. Kalidas Vanmalidas Bhavsar the owner of Lalji Vanmalidas & Bros, the company that made them even patented the device (Patent No.62397). What are we talking about? Answer: Santosh Cookers Q16. In a November 12, 1911 edition of The Constitution newspaper, published in Atlanta, the Southern Compressed Coal Company placed an ad for Coalettes, a refined fuel product for fires. What did this ad inspire? Answer: The Chevrolet bowtie logo Q17. Seen here is the Black Diamond Express reaching its destination from Howrah. Name the place. Answer: Dhanbad Q18. The Smartest Guys in the Room, is a 2005 documentary film based on the best-selling 2003 book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. What is it about? Answer: ENRON Scandal Q19. Who created this ad to go with their tagline telling people that they would either love the product or hate it? Answer: Marmite. A German chemist named Liebig discovered that the waste of yeast used in brewing beer could be self-digested and made into a concentrate, resulting in a protein-rich paste. The yeast extract used in Marmite mostly comes from Bass's brewery in Burton-on-Trent and other breweries. The breweries pay Marmite to remove the yeast from their factories. Salt to the waste-product produced by the yeast in the brewing process, thus rupturing the yeast cells by osmotic pressureand then concentrating the resulting sludge. The image on the front of the jar shows a "marmite", a French term for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot. Q20. Which dark character owns this picture studio with a partner in crime called Jose L. Rodriguez? North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, according to a UN report yesterday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Un's regime. Pyongyang "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump, however, has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea. With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment." The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance, deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly USD 14 million from October to March. "Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China, however, put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018. So forced or high-pressure abortions to which the left turns a blind eye are cases of choice devouring itself. Perhaps the most common type of example comes from coercing or pressuring people into "consenting" to euthanasia, or euthanizing people who by definition cannot give mature and informed consent (those with dementia, children, etc.). In the most extreme cases, the victim is physically coerced, as in one of the stories in this post. Several stories all came up around the same time in the "choice devours itself" department. Readers to whom this concept is new may need it explained. I coined the phrase "choice devours itself" over ten years ago while writing for a different blog. It doesn't describe merely in general the fact that the party of "consent" becomes increasingly coercive. Rather, it describes situations where the person who was supposed to benefit from having the option to "choose" something the left considers good (generally in the categories of sex, abortion, or euthanasia) is actually coerced into this alleged "choice." I reported last year on this case in the Netherlands in which a female doctor openly and directly murdered an elderly patient by having relatives hold the patient down while the doctor administered a lethal injection. The more recent news is that a review board in the Netherlands has clarified that literally holding down a squirming patient is unethical (!) and that the case will be investigated further. I doubt that this means that anything will happen to the doctor. The Netherlands is famous for pushing the envelope farther and farther by simply giving a slap on the wrist to scofflaw doctors who kill patients even when it is formally against the law. However, the recent official tut-tutting over this messy case may save a few lives, and the death advocates are unhappy about it: "At last there is clarity," said Bert Keizer, a doctor who works for a euthanasia facility in the Netherlands. "But for people with a living will who want to die if they have advanced dementia, this is a negative ruling. If they can no longer indicate that they still want to die, they will have to drink the cup [of sedative] otherwise they will not receive euthanasia." Shoot! We're going to have to go to the trouble of inveigling elderly dementia patients to drink enough sedative so we can be sure they will chill out and be calm, otherwise we aren't allowed to kill them. Notice that this apparently does not mean that people with dementia can't be killed after they are unable to give present, legal consent. It just means that they, unlike the patient in the story last year, have to be doped up enough so that they don't struggle. But even this is considered a "negative ruling." Why? I guess Bert Keizer wanted it to be A-okay to murder patients by lethal injection while they struggle. A report on child euthanasia is out from Belgium. The minors killed there in the last two years were ages 9, 11, and 17. (This out of more than four thousand people officially euthanised overall.) The minors were 9, 11 and 17 years old, according to the report. Their conditions ranged from muscular dystrophy to brain tumors to cystic fibrosis. The conditions of all three were determined to be terminal, and euthanasia was approved unanimously by the committee. Remember when this was all about consenting, rational adults? Yeah, I remember that too. But the euthanasia advocates are happy: "There is no age for suffering," said Professor Wim Distelmans, chairman of the euthanasia committee. "Fortunately, euthanasia among young people remains very exceptional. Even if it were only one, the law would have been very useful." Very useful. Brrrr. And finally, a new-to-me case in Canada. I don't have full clarity on the nature of the legal dispute between disabled patient Roger Foley and a Toronto hospital. My best understanding is that Foley, who is mentally competent but severely physically disabled and dependent, wants to live on his own in the community and receive care from caregivers of his choice. The Toronto hospital tells him that he must work with their chosen contracted agencies for community care or else he will not receive financial assistance for leaving the hospital and living in the community. He claims to have had extremely bad experiences in the past with their contracted home-care agency and wants to work out a self-directed plan of care. So they have told him that either they will sock him with an $1800-per-day bill to stay in the hospital, or he can agree to their plan for assisted living, or they can offer him lethal injection. He's asked for a higher review of his preferred plan, but it keeps getting delayed. Now Foley has released audio tape of two occasions on which lethal injection has been pressed upon him by representatives of the hospital. The exchanges are...interesting: In one audio recording from September 2017, Foley is heard speaking to a man about what he has described as attempts at a forced discharge, with threats of a hefty hospital bill. When Foley asks the man how much hed have to pay to remain in hospital, the man replies, I dont know what the exact number is, but it is north of $1,500 a day. Foley expresses shock at the figure and tells the man that hed just read an article that quoted the Ontario health minister saying its not legal for hospitals to coerce patients like that. The man is heard saying that the hospital does not use this conversation in every situation. It is only in situations where somebody has a plan in the community that is feasible that theyre not going to accept and thats OK, the man says. Foley then says that he hasnt been informed of a plan for his care and that his rights as a patient are being violated. You have already violated my preferencesSo what is the plan that you know of? Foley asks the man. Roger, this is not my show, the man replies. I told you my piece of this was to talk to you about if you had interest in assisted dying. In a separate audio recording from January 2018, another man is heard asking Foley how hes doing and whether he feels like he wants to harm himself. Foley tells the man that hes always thinking I want to end my life because of the way hes being treated at the hospital and because his requests for self-directed care have been denied. The man is then heard telling Foley that he can just apply to get an assisted, if you want to end your life, like you know what I mean? When Foley says that he is being forced to end his life, the man protests and says thats not the case. Oh, no, no, no, the man is heard saying. Im saying if you feel that wayYou know what I mean? Dont get me wrong. Im saying I dont want you to be in here and wanting to take your life. Wow. I commend Foley's stubbornness and courage. He admits that of course he sometimes thinks about wanting to die. That is psychologically natural under the circumstances. But he refuses to go along quietly with the Canadian hospital's desire to euthanize him. It's his essential cussedness and desire for them not to win that are saving his life for the moment. But he's not sure it's going to last: [H]e wants the public to know the real truth before it is too late for my voice to be heard. It is the real truth of what is going on in Canada regarding so many assisted deaths without appropriate safeguards, in combination with the lack of necessary care that is not being provided to persons who are suffering, he says in the statement. I have not received the care that I need to relieve my suffering and have only been offered assisted dying. I have many severe disabilities and I am fully dependent. With the remaining time I have left, I want to live with dignity and live as independently as possible. I don't know enough about Foley's physical problems to know how long he has before he is unable to speak out boldly, with all his mental faculties. But presumably a time will come when he can't. At that point it would be all too easy for the hospital to use his earlier admissions of ideation about death as an excuse for bumping him off, hypocritically claiming to be carrying out his wishes. May he continue to refuse to go gently into that good night. Cussedness can be a blessing. Those of us who are Christians need to recognize that as well. A generally conciliatory attitude toward the world is going to erode our resistance across the board. This is simply psychology. Christians have already allowed themselves to be manipulated in so many ways by talk of compassion (I'm thinking here particularly of the homosexual agenda) that I have little confidence in the continued ability of such Christians to resist in other areas. Because often you just need to be stubborn. You need to be willing to think in "us" and "them" terms and in terms of fighting. You're definitely going to need that if you ever have to act as a patient advocate for someone the medical establishment is trying to bump off. You're going to need that if you are involved in ethics review in a medical context. You're going to need it as a pastor or other counselor if people come to you for advice on these and many other issues. If you have systematically squelched in yourself the ability to think in those terms and to dig your heels in, if for years you've been telling yourself that such thinking is bad for outreach, sets up barriers, etc., where is that internal toughness going to be when you need it on an issue that you may now think you would never compromise on, like active euthanasia? Cultivate the gift of cussedness so that, at least, your voice, like that of Roger Foley, will be heard. Anthony Bourdain was in the middle of filming the next season of his popular CNN travel/culture/food show "Parts Unknown" when he took his life in early June. What was going to happen to all the footage already shot was up in the air, until now: CNN is cobbling together enough material for seven episodes to air this fall, according to the Los Angeles Times. The destinations include Kenya (a collaboration with W. Kamau Bell, host of CNN's "United Shades of America"), New York City's Lower East Side, Indonesia, Spain and the Big Bend region of Texas. The only one that was fully completed before his death was Kenya. One worker died from injuries suffered as a result of the natural gas pipeline explosions in southeast Midland County earlier this week. Dale Little, Emergency Management coordinator for Midland County, confirmed Friday that a person died earlier in the day. He also reported that of the five sent to a Lubbock hospital, three remain one in critical condition and two in severe condition. The other was treated and released earlier this week. ALBANY The state Education Department on Friday said it had erroneously given an additional $12 million to hundreds of charter schools last year for teacher training and, in the process, underfunded hundreds of public schools. As a result, charters will get less money going forward under the program that helps pay for teacher training in disadvantaged schools. This is our error and we own it, Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said during a conference call about the error. We are taking immediate steps to correct it. All said, 275 charter schools and three districts will get less money this year under the program while 687 will get more. The misallocations were part of the $153 million in New York funds under the federal Title IIa program that pays for activities like teacher training sessions and mentoring programs in schools that serve needy students. The mistake came at the start of the last school year, when details of the federal program had changed. It was discovered recently as State Education officials began preparations to send out the money for the coming year. The amounts vary. The Albany Community Charter School, for example, received $108,284 last year when it should have gotten $44,532. This year, the school will get $28,524, which is a reduction of $12,750. The reductions will be spread out over four years in order to ease any financial burdens to the schools that were overpaid. More for you Albany court rules against charter school teacher certification At the same time, the Albany district will get an additional $67,716 for a total of $741,800 to make up for last years shortfall. Funding for Title IIa in New York has been dropping, as it has for other large urban states, with the federal Department of Education under President Donald Trump shifting more money toward smaller rural states. New York is set to receive $145,007,794 for this school year, compared with $152,744,759 in the 2017-18 year and $174,957,199 in 2016-17, according to the state Education Department. A list of the allocations is here. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU Custer Gallatin National Forest In the valley of the Yellowstone and Boulder Rivers, snuggled up against Rocky Mountain ranges, sits the little western town of Big Timber, Montana. I found this jewel on a paper road atlas many years ago. Just south of town is the Custer Gallatin National Forest; one of the largest intact ecosystems in the contiguous U.S., at 3.1 million acres. At the time, I already had a dual Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP trip planned. So why not detour north and see if Big Timber, Sweet Grass County was the western wilderness it sounded like in the names? Well, the 1,800+ square-mile county still has the cottonwood monsters that Lewis and Clark laid eyes on over 200 years ago. The highest mountain in Montana, Granite Peak at 12,799 feet, is just south in the Absaroka Mountain Range. And, there are 300+ species of birds in this breathtaking region of the northern Rockies. What surprised me was the availability of birds, birds, birds on the ground a cure for that chronic birding condition that I call binocular neck. All of the neck-strain-free birds below breed in Montana. . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Steve Fairbairn USFWS contest photo . Photo by Robin Edwards . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Mike Blevins . Photo by Michael Todd . Photo by Robin Edwards I saw my first swan on that first trip to the Rockies. I even remember what the lake, and sky, and weather was like on that day. The Forest Service has a pretty nice checklist set, and a huge page of water birds in keeping with the binocular neck avoidance. . Photo by Mike Blevins On a horseback ride into the mountains, I saw an off-season (unoccupied) eagles nest in a cave. This added to the whole birds of prey experience in Big Sky country. They are everywhere. So when your neck recovers, look up! The Yellowstone District south of Big Timber is full of campgrounds, if you want to bird right next to the tent. Check in at the ranger stations, and do become cognizant of the major carnivores who call this beautiful land home. Ask how to be bear aware, as they say. In addition to the 300+ bird species, there are 1,300 species of flora, nearly 50 mammalian species, and eight species (and subspecies) of trout in the streams. Insider tip: Take some serious insect repellent. The mosquitoes and black flies are hungry in Montana. Ive visited many times in this little-known area of The West; and hope to soon return to Big Timber, Sweet Grass County, Montana. Speak up for the Sage Grouse and the sagebrush sea of the west. (Feature image: view south from Big Timber, MT. Photo by Tim Evanson/Flickr) Associated Press Writer One of Ira Einhorn's former girlfriends testified that he smashed her over the head with a bottle and nearly strangled her after she told him they were through. The testimony came Tuesday in the final day of the prosecution's case against Einhorn, who is charged with bludgeoning girlfriend Holly Maddux of Tyler, Texas, in September 1977 because she wanted to break up with him. Her mummified corpse was found in a steamer trunk in his closet 18 months after he said she went to the store and never returned. Judith Sabot was a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania when she met the former hippie guru in 1965. They fell in love and had an intense four-month relationship, which she then sought to end. "My feelings had started to change. I was feeling very silenced; I found Ira to be more domineering and manipulative," she testified, citing in particular his efforts to have her sever ties with her family because he said "families were outmoded" and she was "doomed to a boring and ordinary life" if she did not. He tried for months to win her back and she met him for coffee at a friend's apartment in March 1966 to tell him she would never change her mind about a reunion, she testified. As she returned from a corner store with some cream for their coffee, Einhorn attacked her, Sabot said. "Ira came out from behind the door and smashed me over the head with a bottle; I was bleeding and I reeled across the room," she testified. "He came at me at least a couple more times. I was twisting to get out of the way. I fell to the floor. He then dropped the bottle and came at me with his hands and started to choke me with his thumbs over my windpipe." Sabot, who was 20 at the time and needed stitches to close her head wound, said she thought her life was over. "I felt and believed I was dying," she said, choking back tears. "I believed that this was it. But then he stopped and he was gone." Einhorn, 62, likely will take the stand Thursday and testify that the CIA killed Maddux and framed him for the murder because of his research into "psychic warfare." She suffered six crushing blows to the head. He was on the lam for 20 years before he was returned to the United States in July 2001. The 1970s counterculture figure fled on the eve of his 1981 trial and was tracked down in 1997 living in a French village. A French appeals court allowed the extradition after receiving assurances that Einhorn's 1993 conviction in absentia would be vacated. Defense attorney William Cannon said Sabot's testimony was "devastating" to his case. "I thought (the jurors) were deeply moved by it, and were wondering if what happened to her happened to Holly," Cannon said, but added that his client was a "changed man" by the time he met Maddux six years later. Also testifying Tuesday was Michael Hoffman, a retired English professor who knew Einhorn during their student days at Penn and recounted what Einhorn told him about the assault on Sabot as well as a similar attack in 1962 when his then-girlfriend tried to end their relationship. He said he watched that woman's face change color as he choked her, Hoffman testified. Einhorn's views on violence included the belief that "in order to understand who we were, we had to confront the violence within ourselves," Hoffman testified. He also read one of Einhorn's diary entries that stated: "To kill what you love when you can't have it seems so natural." Assistant District Attorney Joel Rosen closed his case with testimony from Michael Chitwood, the former Philadelphia homicide detective who found Maddux's remains stuffed in the trunk. "The allegation is that he killed her because she was going to leave him, and this was his way of saying. 'You'll never leave me,'" Chitwood, now the police chief in Portland, Maine, said outside court. "I believed that then and I believe it 23 years later." The defense starts its case Wednesday. Countless ducks waddled the shore of the playa lake at the Travis Trussell Pond Park Thursday morning as city employees continued the ongoing work to revamp the community park. Tim Crosswhite, director of public works for the City of Plainview, said he hopes the city employees will be finished by the end of the month. When the city conducted its comprehensive plan in 2013, renovations to the park were outlined as a priority, he said. He attributes that to the city's plan to help boost the economy. A better-looking city attracts more business, he said. "It (the playa lake) is the only body of water in Plainview," Crosswhite said, which is why it was deemed important to make it look its best. So the city applied for a Non-Urban Outdoor Recreation grant from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission and received $250,949 in 2016. The final designs for the park were approved in December and work began in February. Changes to the park include the removal of the chain link fence surrounding it, the addition of benches, trees and redo of the sidewalks. The park now also includes a storyboard for those interested to learn about the types of birds in the area and duck crossing signs to remind motorists to use caution as they drive by. There are still a few finishing touches left for the park, he said. The city is currently offering citizens a chance to leave their mark on the park. You can get your name on a brick for $150 or on a plaque by one of the 26 new trees planted around the park. The cost to sponsor a tree is $750, Crosswhite said. Donations can be made at City Hall. NEW YORK The price war among mutual fund companies is hitting a new frontier, to the further benefit of investors. Fidelity says it will soon offer a pair of mutual funds that charge zero in expenses. The new index funds are part of a suite of changes Fidelity is making to lower expenses and make investing easier, even for investors with smaller amounts to put into the market. Mutual fund companies have been battling to attract customers, who have become increasingly aware of how much high fees can limit returns. Vanguard, the largest mutual fund provider, said last month it will stop charging commissions for online trades of most ETFs, for example. The two zero-fee Fidelity index funds will be available Friday. One will cover the U.S. stock market, and the other will follow the international stock market. These kinds of funds often form the centerpiece of a retirement portfolio, along with bond funds. Fees for mutual funds have been dropping steadily for years, and investors last year paid $59 of every $10,000 invested in stock mutual funds in expenses. Thats down from $100 in 2003, according to the Investment Company Institute. Investors have been flocking to the lowest-cost funds with the knowledge that high-fee funds have to perform that much better just to equal their after-fee returns. More than three quarters of all the money invested in stock mutual funds is in a fund that ranks in the bottom quarter of expenses, according to the Investment Company Institute. Among other changes Fidelity is making: It set zero minimums to open accounts and zero account fees. It also is cutting expenses for its existing stock and bond index mutual funds by letting investors have the lowest-priced share class available, regardless of how much they have invested. Fidelity said the change will save shareholders about $47 million annually. All the investor-friendly actions by Fidelity and others across the industry mean its never been this cheap or easy to put money into the market. Perhaps the only downside is the timing: The stock market is more than nine years into one of its longest-ever upward runs, and some experts on Wall Street are questioning how much longer it can go. One other potential drawback to making investing easier is that it could make investors more likely to try to time the market and jump quickly in and out of stocks, something that many investors get wrong. Maureen Aumand grew up in Cohoes, across the street from a Catholic church, Sacred Heart; its school that she attended, as did her parents; a rectory; and a convent. She got a scholarship to the Academy of Holy Names in Albany where her teachers were nuns of the same order as the convent across the street. That community of women inspired her and she entered the convent. Two years later, in 1966, she entered the College of Saint Rose as a student. The Second Vatican Council would soon transform her religion and her generation. It was the 1960s, the decade of the New Frontier and the Great Society, when young people embraced changes in the culture. Maureen started college wearing a habit and graduated wearing regular clothes. She didn't take her final vows and is not a member of any formal church but finds inspiration in many faith traditions. She taught English at Watervliet High School, got a master's degree in English at SUNY Albany and went back for another master's in library science when her children arrived. More Information Kateri Peace Conference 20th annual gathering of activists and concerned citizens. Friday, Aug. 17, in Albany, Reflection to build resilience, 1-4 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Society and Rocking the Boat for Peace on the Dutch Apple, 6:30-10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at the National Kateri Shrine in Fonda, speakers and discussion, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Information: www.kateripeaceconference.org or call 518-312-6442 See More Collapse As a librarian, she integrated the arts into the curriculum, collaborating with teachers and helping kids learn from a new perspective. One year, with the ninth grade class taught by a woman she had taught in ninth grade, students did research on historical figures, contemporary and past, and worked with a professional actor to become the characters they had researched. When she retired, she reached out as education director for Capital Repertory Theatre to the Albany summer youth jobs program that blossomed into a full experience for teenagers with the theater. In the second half of the 20th century, there were watershed events, some like the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, were mourned. Others, like Vatican II, Woodstock and the Bicentennial, were celebrated. The millennium was celebrated too, until 2001, when the world was wounded. The catastrophic attacks on 9/11 impelled her to be an activist for peace. She joined with others in Grannies for Peace, Women Against War and many more groups in an interfaith community inspired by prophets like Martin Luther King Jr., strengthened by the core values of people of all faiths as well as of the nones, those with no religion, defending human and civil rights and freedom. A passionate and indefatigable communicator, as anyone who has received a deluge of emails from her may testify. She is the co-coordinator of the Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference at the birthplace along the Mohawk River of the Native American woman whose life as a Christian has for centuries has inspired people in this country and Canada and who was canonized in 2012 as the first Catholic saint born on this continent. The conference which takes its title, "The Fierce Urgency of Now," from King's words in his 1967 "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church in New York City where he made the connection between militarism and poverty, racism and inequality was born out of a desire of John Amidon to bring attention to impact of war on indigenous people globally. Amidon is a Marine Corps Veteran for Peace, whose civil disobedience includes getting arrested for carrying a cross into the desert of a nuclear testing ground in Nevada and blocking the entrance to the Hancock Air National Guard base in Syracuse where drone warfare is waged on battlegrounds thousands of miles away. Over the past two decades, people have gathered on the third weekend in August with men and women who have traveled the world as witnesses to the impact of war and will talk about issues that must be confronted. Maureen and her husband, Ray, live in Colonie along the Lisha Kill in a home Ray reconstructed 41 years ago when their first of their three sons, Michael, was born. He and his brothers and their families still live in Albany County, and Maureen and Ray are eagerly awaiting their ninth grandchild. PLAINVIEW A 7-year-old child drowned early Friday after being found unresponsive in Plainviews Lake Catatoga, according to Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl. At approximately 7:31 a.m. Friday, Macoupin County sheriffs deputies, along with Dunns Ambulance and Gillespie-Benld Ambulance, responded to the 1200 block of Apache Lane in Plainview regarding a possible drowning. On arrival, deputies observed family members performing CPR on a 7-year-old child who was found unresponsive in Lake Catatoga, according to Kahl. The deputies immediately took over performing CPR until they were relieved by responding paramedics. Paramedics transported the child to Carlinville Area Hospital to continue treatment. After more than an hour of CPR by medical staff, they were able to regain a pulse. Survival Flight Air Medical responded to Carlinville Area Hospital, and the 7-year-old was airlifted to St Johns Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. The child was pronounced dead later that day around 5:15 p.m. at St Johns Hospital. The Macoupin County Sheriffs Office, along with Illinois State Police Crime Scene Division, DCFS and the Sangamon County Coroners Office is conducting an investigation. One of the biggest players in House Republican elections has, so far, committed zero dollars to Rep. Barbara Comstock's race in Northern Virginia - among the most competitive contests this fall. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC tied to retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has reserved $60 million in advertising time on behalf of Republican candidates in dozens of races throughout the country, but none are in Virginia. Comstock is seeking a third term - challenged by Democratic state Sen. Jennifer Wexton of Loudoun County - in an election that will help determine whether Republicans maintain control of the House. The suburban district is home to the kind of affluent, educated voters who polls show disapprove of President Donald Trump, and Wexton is hoping they will help propel her past Comstock. In May, the Cook Political Report gave the edge to Wexton when it moved the race from toss-up to "Leans Democrat." Just two weeks after Wexton won the Democratic nomination, before any campaigning had begun in earnest, a Monmouth University poll found the Democrat ahead of Comstock by 10 points. But Comstock outperformed Trump in the district in 2016, is an exhaustive campaigner who spent her June birthday at community events and a prolific fundraiser - all factors that make her formidable. CLF declined to say why it isn't spending on behalf of Comstock, but noted that plans could change before Election Day. "Nobody works harder than Barbara Comstock," CLF spokeswoman Courtney Alexander said. "Anyone who would bet against her is foolish, and CLF is closely monitoring the race." Others are backing Comstock. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) made its largest reservation for television advertising time, $6.4 million, for Comstock in the expensive Washington media market. Virginia's 10th District spans the Washington suburbs of Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties and reaches as far west as Appalachia. The NRCC plans to spend the same amount in Minneapolis, where Rep. Erik Paulsen, R, faces a competitive race; CLF made a $2.8 million reservation for Paulsen. The CLF and NRCC can't coordinate their activities, but they often take cues from each other, based on how much TV and digital ad time they reserve. Before she was elected to Congress, Comstock built a national profile in GOP politics for investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton and for professionalizing the opposition research operation at the Republican National Committee. She has tapped that network to raise more money than other vulnerable Republicans. She had $1.7 million cash on hand by the end of June, which was more than double Wexton's war chest at the time. "She's one of our strongest incumbents," NRCC spokeswoman Maddie Anderson said. "We do acknowledge that it's going to be a fight. We don't shy away from fights like that; neither does she." The latest public polling in Virginia's 10th District shows that 53 percent of potential voters disapprove of the job Trump has done and nearly half of voters intensely disapprove. Nearly 8 in 10 of all potential voters said it's very important or somewhat important to them to cast a vote that reflects their attitudes about Trump, the June poll by Monmouth University showed. That's why Democrats are working to tie Republican incumbents to Trump while Republicans like Comstock are focused on local issues in hopes of burnishing a brand distinct from the president. "That Donald Trump and the NRCC would try to bail out Barbara Comstock is no surprise," Wexton's campaign manager, Ray Rieling, said in a statement. "She's voted with him 97% of the time and now she's being paid back for putting the President's agenda over the interests of her constituents." This week, Comstock wrote a column in a Loudoun newspaper about the scourge of Lyme disease. She has targeted the MS-13 street gang, which is active in the capital region, and, with all the federal workers and contractors in her district, she is against government shutdowns. Two independent rating agencies say the race leans toward Wexton, while Nathan Gonzales of Inside Elections considers it a toss-up - for now. "Some Republicans can't fathom Comstock losing because they see her as a solid member who raises a bunch of money and is a hard campaigner," he said. "But the truth is that Comstock can run a perfect campaign this fall and still lose." Senate Democrats will begin meeting with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to press him privately on releasing his papers, a senior Democratic aide said Friday, after Democrats had boycotted these sit-downs for weeks amid a document dispute with Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, had held off scheduling the traditional one-on-one sessions as they tussled with Republicans over releasing documents from Kavanaugh's voluminous paper trail, primarily from his time in the George W. Bush White House. But Schumer and Feinstein will start meeting with President Donald Trump's pick to succeed retired justice Anthony Kennedy after the Senate returns from its truncated recess Aug. 15, a senior Senate Democratic aide said. They will press Kavanaugh on releasing his papers from his tenure as Bush's staff secretary - which Republicans argue are irrelevant in assessing his fitness to be a justice - and "question him about their contents." "In addition to questioning Judge Kavanaugh on health care, women's freedom, presidential power and other issues, Senate Democrats intend to demand that he call for and support the release of all of his files from his time in the Bush White House," the aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to freely describe party strategy. "Democrats will urge Judge Kavanaugh to ask the National Archives and President Bush to adhere to the same standard that was met for Justice [Elena] Kagan's confirmation." Republicans have agreed to release only papers from Kavanaugh's time as associate White House counsel, which span two of the five years he served under Bush. Democrats made a separate request to the National Archives to release the staff secretary records, but the Archives rebuffed their request in a letter dated Thursday. The Archives said only the chairman of a committee can make such a documents request. White House spokesman Raj Shah said Friday afternoon that Schumer and Feinstein have yet to schedule their meetings with Kavanaugh. Invites were sent to them more than three weeks ago. "While we look forward to potential meetings, both of these Democratic senators and many of their colleagues have publicly opposed Judge Kavanaugh's nomination," Shah said. He added that Democrats were "continuing to disingenuously demand millions of pages of documents from former President Bush that are irrelevant to evaluating the Judge's judicial thinking." Although most Democrats deferred to Schumer and Feinstein's boycott, there had been a handful of exceptions. Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., up for reelection in one of the most Trump-friendly states, met with Kavanaugh for two hours Monday. Other red-state Democrats, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, have scheduled meetings with Kavanaugh for Aug. 15. On Friday, a spokesman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she would sit down with the Supreme Court nominee Aug. 21. McCaskill, another red-state Democrat up for reelection this fall, had faced criticism from GOP challenger Josh Hawley's campaign for not meeting with Kavanaugh. The National Archives has started reviewing Kavanaugh's documents from his time as associate White House counsel but said it won't finish going through all of them until late October. Still, Senate Republicans plan to go ahead with confirmation hearings in September, as a private legal team led by Bush's presidential records representative conducts a separate review of Kavanaugh's paperwork and provides them to the Senate. Schumer raised concerns Friday that this separate process means neither the public nor senators outside of those on the Judiciary Committee would be able to see Kavanaugh's records. "This unprecedented effort on the part of Republicans to keep hidden Judge Kavanaugh's records from the American public, and even the large majority of senators, is a new and astonishing level of secrecy," Schumer said in a statement. To make their case, Democrats pointed to a line in a letter from Bush's records team to the Judiciary Committee, saying they had no issue making the documents public but were temporarily providing the records on a "committee confidential" basis, pending input from the Archives. But a committee spokesman said Judiciary Republicans are actively working with officials representing Bush and the Archives to ensure the documents are made public as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Feinstein jointly sent a request to the Archives on Friday for about 20,000 pages of Kavanaugh's records from his time working for independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the Clinton administration. The Archives has already released about 1,000 pages of the nominee's Starr papers in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from news organizations. Alexandria, Va. One of Paul Manafort's tax preparers admitted Friday that she helped disguise $900,000 in foreign income as a loan in order to reduce the former Trump campaign chairman's tax burden. The testimony of tax preparer Cindy Laporta came as prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller's office focused on the heart of their financial fraud case against Manafort, with jurors hearing testimony that he inflated his business income by millions of dollars and concealed foreign bank accounts he was using to buy luxury items and pay personal expenses. Manafort's defense has sought to blame any criminal conduct on his longtime deputy Rick Gates, while witnesses for the prosecution have testified that Manafort was heavily involved in his own finances and personally directed Gates' actions. On Friday, Laporta acknowledged she agreed under pressure from Gates during a conference call in September 2015 to alter a tax document for one of Manafort's businesses to show the $900,000 loan. When Laporta and a colleague provided an assessment of how much tax Manafort would owe, Gates responded that Manafort didn't have the money to pay it. After a back-and-forth discussion about how much income should be reclassified as a loan to aid Manafort, they settled on $900,000, she testified. The result, Laporta said, was an altered tax payment that Gates told her "could be paid by Mr. Manafort." Laporta, who testified under a grant of immunity from prosecutors, said she knew what she did was "not appropriate," adding "you can't pick and choose what's a loan and what's income." Asked why she engaged in misconduct, Laporta said she had few good choices. "I could have called them liars," she said of Manafort and Gates. "But Mr. Manafort was a longtime client of the firm, and I didn't think I should do that." That testimony is important as prosecutors try to rebut defense arguments Manafort can't be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others. Those others include Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year and is expected to testify soon as the government's star witness. Most of the email evidence introduced Friday implicated Gates more than Manafort in a scheme to convert income into loans. But Manafort was copied in on several emails discussing the matter. Laporta also described an effort by Manafort and Gates to falsify financial records that would allow Manafort to obtain mortgage loans. As late as August 2016 the same month he resigned from the Trump campaign Manafort was sending emails to Laporta asking her to alter a profit-and-loss statement for his company. At that time, his company had not received any income in 2016, but Laporta testified that Manafort directed her to reflect that he expected to receive $2.4 million in income later that year. A flurry of recent polls have thrown Texans into a tizzy because they suggest Beto ORourke, the U.S. representative from El Paso, has a chance of ousting Ted Cruz from his U.S. Senate seat in November. One from Quinnipiac University, released Wednesday, shows Democrat ORourke trailing the Republican incumbent by six points. A poll from the Texas Lyceum, also released Wednesday, shows ORourke down by two points. And a survey from Public Policy Polling, on Thursday, put ORourke behind by four points. In light of all this, Cook Political Report changed its rating of the Texas Senate race from Likely Republican to a mere Lean. Suffice it to say that ORourke has made incredible progress in a pretty red state, at least when it comes to running for statewide office, editor Jennifer Duffy wrote, explaining the websites reasoning. As a result, Ive fielded a slew of questions about ORourkes prospects. Can ORourke really win? Do I think he will? What will it take for a Democrat to win in Texas, after a generation of Republican hegemony? First, let me be clear: Yes, ORourke has a chance of winning. So does Lupe Valdez, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. The same is true of Mike Collier, the partys nominee for lieutenant governor, and Justin Nelson, its nominee for attorney general. Its true that Democrats havent won statewide in Texas since 1994, but stranger things have happened. In 2016, for example, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Most of Americas political pundits expected Jeb Bush to be the Republican Partys presidential nominee in 2016. Its funny to think back on that, considering everything thats happened since. There once was a widespread consensus that the 2016 presidential election would be boring. Today were debating whether its a good idea for the federal government to separate immigrant families. In light of such things, Im not sure how reliable Texas polling is, at this stage. I dont mean to espouse empirical nihilism, but our working assumptions about the states electorate based on the models that held up during the last mid-term election cycle in 2014 surely have to include an asterisk. In any case, Texas Republicans continue to insist that their hold on power is secure. Yet, their actions give lie to these claims. Most of the statewide incumbents are, for example, obviously reluctant to debate their Democratic challengers. Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks chief strategist, Allen Blakemore, has even tried to cast Patricks refusal to meet with Collier as a sign of strength. But its obviously a sign of weakness. If youre a Republican statewide official in Texas you should have nothing to fear from a Democrat, at least in theory. Its just common sense Meanwhile, theres only so much we can learn from the polls at this point. For example, the recent batch suggest that ORourke has a better chance of winning than Valdez does. The Lyceum poll, for one, found Gov. Greg Abbott with a 16-point lead among likely voters 47 percent of whom support him, compared to just 31 percent who support Valdez. Common sense would tell you the same. ORourke has been on the trail since the beginning of last year. He has raised more money than his opponent, and his campaign has been covered extensively in both the state and national media. Valdez, by contrast, didnt file to run for governor until December 2017, and didnt secure the partys nomination until the runoff, which was held in May. Most Texans havent even heard of the former Dallas County sheriff, as of yet. Under the best of circumstances, polls tell us little about the actual merits of anyones candidacy. Many unknown quantities Just 25 percent of likely voters, again according to the Texas Lyceum poll, support Nelson over the incumbent attorney general, Ken Paxton. But almost half of likely voters in that survey declared themselves undecided in that race. That also conforms to common sense. Paxton is a deeply and demonstrably flawed candidate. He has been under indictment, for example, for more than a year; he apparently is the only statewide elected official under indictment anywhere in the country. And Paxton has used his position to push his own ideological agenda rather than focusing on enforcing and upholding the laws of Texas. Nelson, by contrast, has no such liabilities. Hes trailing Paxton because he like Valdez and Collier, or Kim Olson, the Democratic nominee for agriculture commissioner largely is an unknown quantity. All things considered, I would encourage Texas voters to ignore the polls at this stage. Instead, they should take the remaining time between now and Nov. 6 to learn about the candidates running for office. Let the pundits worry about the horse race. erica.grieder@chron.com twitter.com/ericagrieder UT Health San Antonio is expected receive an $11 million expansion in state funding next month to distribute the life-saving opioid overdose drug naloxone statewide and train Texans how to use it. The funding would allow the program to purchase $9 million worth, or 240,000 doses, of naloxone. It will also help the state not only expand training programs for first responders but also get the drug into the hands of more people most likely to be the first to encounter an overdose victim: friends, family, librarians, fast-food workers. "I know Texas gets knocked sometimes, but I feel like we've been pretty proactive," said Lisa Cleveland, an assistant professor of nursing at UT Health and runs the school's naloxone first-responder training and distribution program. "At the state level, they truly recognize that this is a crisis." The funding from the state's Health and Human Services Commission would be the largest amount the school has ever gotten for this purpose from the state. In April, UT Health received a $1.87 million Texas Targeted Opioid Response grant, and the additional funding coming in September is an expansion of that. Though the group has been told it would receive the funding, no contacts have been signed yet. RELATED: Federal grant would fund next chapter of San Antonio area's opioid task force For several years, UT Health San Antonio as well as the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative and Operation Naloxone at the University of Texas-Austin have worked to get naloxone into the hands of first responders and everyday Texans across the state. Mark Kinzly, the co-founder of TONI and partners with UT Health to hold naloxone trainings, said the $11 million grant is a huge step forward in preventing overdose deaths. "It's hard to even wrap our heads around it, how big this is," Kinzly said. "It sounds like a huge amount of money, and it is. We could still probably use more, but the fact of the matter is, it will still save a lot of lives." In 2017, Texas had 2,831 drug fatalities. Thom Duddy, the vice president of corporate communications for Adapt Pharma, the top maker of naloxone, said Texas is the company's second biggest retail market for the drug - retail meaning pharmaceutical prescriptions - and will likely soon surpass Florida, which holds the top spot. Adapt Pharma holds a 94 percent market share in the production naloxone. "Texas is doing a great job on both sides, they are getting naloxone into the hands of everyday citizens (through prescriptions)," Duddy said. "And they are getting it into the hands of first responders and community." Last week alone, 1,066 prescriptions for naloxone made by Adapt Pharma were filled in Texas, Duddy said. By comparison, California had just 611. The primary form of naloxone distributed is called Narcan, a nasal spray made by Adapt Pharma. After the drug is administered, it reverses the effects of respiratory depression that often lead to death if left untreated. UT Health has already held several sessions this year to teach people how to use naloxone and is planning a multi-day training in September for the San Antonio Police Department. SAPD officers assigned to the Tactical Medic Unit as well as narcotics detectives have already received the training but the department plans to expand that to patrol officers. "SAPD believes in having the most up to date training when it comes to the growing concern regarding the opioid epidemic," the SAPD public information office said in a statement. The San Antonio Fire Department has carried the drug for several years. It was administered by the department 3,229 times in 2014 and 2,882 times in 2015. More recent numbers were not immediately available. RELATED: Bexar County files lawsuit against opioid companies, including Purdue Pharma There is also a growing push to train what are called non-traditional first responders, like friends and family of drug users as well as fellow users, Cleveland said. A recent poll said one in three Texans know someone addicted to pain killers, and with as big as the crisis has grown, Cleveland said anyone could be a first responder. "Often times when an overdose occurs, that's who's present," Cleveland said. "We want to make sure that they are equipped, so that if they witness an overdose they can respond to it." Kinzly said there has also been a growing focus in Texas on training people who work near publicly accessible bathrooms, such as librarians and fast-food workers. People tend to utilize public bathrooms to inject opioids, such as heroin or its fatally potent relative fentanyl, Kinzly said. This creates the need to ensure the people who find them are equipped with the medicine and knowledge needed to help them. With the expanded state funding, UT Health will be able to conduct 40 more naloxone trainings throughout the entire state. "If you train 50 or 100 people at a clip, it makes a huge difference because they can then go teach other people," Kinzly said. "It's pretty exciting ... and the ability to distribute that medication is a big deal." Chase Karacostas is a staff writer for mySA.com. | Chase.Karacostas@express-news.net | Twitter: @ChaseKaracostas A 54-year-old was charged with three counts of arson and a count of attempted capital murder while committing arson Friday after authorities say he doused his former property manager with what may have been gasoline. Martin Munoz faces two counts of arson of a habitation, one of arson of a motor vehicle and one of attempted capital murder in the course of another felony (arson), according to his affidavit from the Bexar County fire marshal's office. Three fires -- two buildings, one vehicle -- on the night of Thursday, Aug. 2 prompted an investigation by authorities, the affidavit says; evidence of ignitable liquid accelerants at the scene, as well as witness statements and interpretation of the fire patterns, led the investigators to believe the cause of all three fires was arson. RELATED: S.A. pastor killed, Alamo Heights student injured in Texas crash A witness told authorities that one of the structure fires had taken place at a rental property she manages. The witness went to attempt to put out that fire, authorities say, when she heard a scream for help from her mother -- who lives with her -- whereupon she walked back to her home and saw a man setting fire to her mother's car. The woman attempted to get the suspected arsonist to stop by throwing her phone at him, the affidavit says, at which point the man doused her with what she described as gasoline, took out a lighter and attempted to set her on fire by igniting the gasoline vapors. The woman and her mother were forced to retreat into their home, which the man had also set on fire, the affidavit adds. The man fled the scene and attempted to run down another neighbor who had witnessed the incident, authorities say. RELATED: 23 arrested on child sex crime charges in Bexar County Later, the arson investigator gathered the witness' clothes and confirmed that they smelled like gasoline, the affidavit says. The witness recognized the man from past experience with him as a former tenant who she had recently evicted, authorities say, and she identified him as Munoz. The witness told authorities she believes Munoz was angry about being evicted, the affidavit says. A representative of the Bexar County magistrate's office said Munoz' total bail amount for the four charges is $375,000. The chain-link fence went up last spring. It wrapped around the playground at Beacon Hill Academy, and cut off part of a field where kids used to play and run free. No one knows when children will play in this space again. The new school year begins Aug. 13, and the fence remains. Thats because no one knows if the city of San Antonio will allow San Antonio Independent School District to tear down a yellow-brick school house on the property. City officials, elected and unelected, want to save the building, which they say has the potential to be historic. They want to save it even if that means students at Beacon Hill Academy cant use the playground or field next to the building. You see, the building is in rough shape. Its been vacant for 20 years. It has its own fence around it because the floors and rooftop are rotting and metal joists are rusting. Its no place you would ever want to be, but just the kind of place a kid might explore. Built in 1915, the building is next to the playground and the field. A report commissioned by SAISD warned of falling debris in the case of severe winds. And so more fences went up around the playground and the field. The fence went up to protect the children from (potential) falling debris, said Michelle Ricondo, a COPS/ Metro leader who attended Beacon Hill as a child and whose son and daughter are students there. There is a courtyard and some small patches of grass where students can play outside, she and others said. There is even a strip of grass behind the school, next to a residential street. Sometimes the kids play there with supervision. There is no shade on that portion, and there is no fencing on that portion, Ricondo said. But there is shade at the playground and room to run on that field. If the kids were allowed. Ricondo said she doesnt care if the building is restored or torn down. She just wants something to happen so kids can again use the playground and field. To that point, signs from a recent COPS / Metro press conference hang from the schools outermost fence, begging for action. Our kids matter, one says. We need a solution, another says. Kids matter too! This building has been a source of debate between the city and district for years. Should it be renovated and restored? Should it be torn down? Round and round the questions go. The SAISD board recently voted to pursue demolition, but the city has to grant a permit. It could reject the request and designate the building as historic. The building continues to become more dilapidated, SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. Its becoming now a bigger safety concern. We have expressed that to the city multiple times. And multiple times, Martinez said, City Councilman Roberto Trevino has said just imagine what this building could be if it were restored. The councilman has promised resources, Martinez said. I am not blaming him, but nothing has materialized. In an interview, Trevino, an architect, expressed sympathy for the students and families and talked about finding a solution. Hed love to see Child Advocates of San Antonio occupy a renovated building. We all agree that something must happen, and how do we balance that with the wants of the community? he said. By he also said: I think philosophically, we should always be working toward saving buildings. Demolition is kind of a death penalty. Likewise, Shanon Miller, director of the citys Office of Historic Preservation, said the city has produced its own study that refutes the districts study about the buildings dangers. While the district has informally estimated any renovation would cost $6 million (demolition would be up to $250,000), Miller is skeptical and would like to see a formal estimate. Besides, she said, historic tax credits could cover a significant chunk of any renovation. All reasonable positions except the children cant play in the playground or field. The desire to preserve what once was is commendable, but in this case it obscures the present. The building belongs to SAISD, which just laid off teachers. It has not been designated as historic. No one has emerged to purchase and renovate it. Its time to move forward, and let the kids play. jbrodesky@express-news.net More than a quarter of a century has passed since the brutal beating of Rodney King in 1991. The nation was focused on this case, with its videotaped beating of King by members of the Los Angeles Police Department and the acquittal of the four officers accused of assaulting the helpless citizen. Since that tragedy, there have been many such encounters in the United States. At least 14 of those resulted in deaths at the hands of police officers who were held responsible for using unwarranted force. The publics respect for police has fallen. Being a police officer is a stressful job. Officers deal often with the mentally ill, and they encounter unsavory characters: criminals, addicts, bullies. Im not glorifying police officers far from it. As a lawyer, I learned there are good cops and bad cops. Our task is to commend the good ones and do something about the bad ones. Meanwhile, we should treat them with respect, even when they have an off day or dont act professionally. My perception of them has changed through the years. As a youngster, I was intimidated by them. They stood as authority figures. Then came my years as a criminal defense attorney. Police officers testified against my clients. Some were easy to like; others, not so much. Their beliefs in my clients guilt often caused them to stretch the truth. They became biased adversaries in what were, after all, adversarial proceedings. If they lied, I tried to persuade the judge or jury of that to discredit all their testimony. But the misdeeds of a few taint the whole. I fought hard not to be misguided by the few bad ones. As an appellate judge, I sometimes presided at trials. When police officers appeared as witnesses in nonjury cases, my job was to assess their credibility. Even when that job fell to a jury, at times I couldnt help thinking that a police officers testimony wasnt worthy of belief. Now retired from the bench, Im not surprised by the growing criticism of law enforcement. My interest in exploring the causes of tragic events involving police officers grows each day. In 2016, I explained in a commentary that mental illness was the crux of homelessness and had become a policing challenge. I learned recently that Austin police have been called to address 90,000 mental health cases in the past eight years. I also said that police arent trained to deal with the mentally ill. Confrontations with the mentally ill havent put police in a favorable light. One might conclude that inadequate police training explains officers fall from grace in the publics eyes. Some critics suggest that the problems lie in training, first at the academies and then during their tenure. But Ive always questioned whether unwarranted use of force can be so easily explained. The reasons lie much deeper. Recently, the Austin American-Statesman reported that ex-cadets of Austins police academy complained that the training of rookies was too aggressive and out of step with national reforms. Austins police chief took issue with the report. Later, he shifted his position, announcing that the training academy will now view officers as public servants, not enforcers of the law, and that it wont treat cadets as military recruits. Nationally, law enforcement agencies are making changes in training from warrior to guardian. The warrior mindset was of police as strict enforcers, ready to do battle. Experts now are encouraging police to view themselves as guardians trusted to help the public. Its too early to tell if the change in mindset will result in better police officers and improve the publics attitude toward them. What if inadequate training is only a small part of the problems? Shouldnt we look for other causes? Recruitment, for example. Lets examine the candidate pools. Maybe were not choosing those with the proper mental makeup, and maybe we should tighten the criteria. Psychologists and other behavioral experts should be consulted. Ive come across many police officers who had no business being guardians. In delving into whether recruitment has ever been considered as a root of the problems, I ran across a July 2016 article by Julesyka Lantigua-Williams in The Atlantic. Her piece How Much Can Better Training Do to Improve Policing? was based on her interviews of two former police chiefs. I was heartened to discover that they agreed with my premise that the problems might lie in recruitment. One of them, Donald Grady II, contended that the problems faced by law enforcement arent explained by improper training. Thats just a convenient thing to say, he claimed, adding that he couldnt point to a single training course he could give cadets that would change their thinking when deciding whether to shoot when theres absolutely no threat. This is not a training issue, Grady insisted. This is an issue of who it is that weve decided we would allow to police our country. This dates back to the beginning of policing, not to some recent phenomenon. Ronal Serpas, a former police chief, agreed with Seth Stoughton, a law professor, whos argued the guardian-warrior mindsets. The police have to be true to (a supportive community) by delivering the service in a way that the community can support. Which means you dont go in as an occupying force, as a warrior. You go in as a guardian, he said. Grady agreed, arguing that this sort of approach shouldnt be seen as a new development but as a return to the ethos of American policing. Weve gotten distracted over the years, he said, and if you talk to most police officers today, and ask them, What do you do for a living? they will tell you, I am a law enforcement officer. Thats a mischaracterization of what they were hired for. Law enforcement was never the mission. (It) is only one small part of what we should be doing in policing. Policing is community building . It allows us to be most responsive to the people that we have sworn to serve and protect. As with many other problems, the crucial, first step is to recognize there are problems that need fixing. By tackling the smaller problems first, well eventually solve the big ones. But to get there, we must take that first step. Rudy Apodaca, a former chief judge of the New Mexico Court of Appeals, is an Austin attorney and writer. He may be reached at www.rudyapodaca.com. AFRICAN leaders yesterday congratulated President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF for winning Mondays harmonised elections and urged the opposition to accept the results. Sadc chairperson and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa phoned President Mnangagwa early yesterday morning to congratulate him. He called on Zimbabweans to accept the poll results that were announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec). President Ramaphosa has appealed to all political leaders and the people of Zimbabwe to accept the outcome of the election and should they have challenges, they must follow legal remedies provided for in the constitution and electoral law, read a statement from the South African presidency. He called on Zimbabweans to be peaceful and focus on building the country. However, President Ramaphosa expressed concern over the violence on Wednesday that resulted in the death of six people. He expressed commitment to working closely with President Mnangagwa to enhance the historical political and fraternal relations which exist between South Africa and Zimbabwe with particular emphasis on strengthening economic co-operation in priority areas as mutually identified by the two countries. President Mnangagwa won 50,8 percent of the votes cast with MDC Alliance presidential candidate Advocate Nelson Chamisa getting 44,3 percent in an election which had 23 presidential candidates His Excellency, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa and the chairperson of Sadc has called and congratulated Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa on his election as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, following elections held on 30 July 2018, read the statement. President Ramaphosa urged political parties to accept the polls and if not satisfied with the outcome they should take legal routes. The statement said in his telephone conversation with President Mnangagwa, President Ramaphosa, renewed his commitment towards strengthening ties with Zimbabwe. President Ramaphosa concluded his phone call by expressing his commitment to working closely with the President elect, Mr Mnangagwa to enhance the historical, political and fraternal relations which exist between South Africa and Zimbabwe, with particular emphasis on strengthening economic cooperation in priority areas as mutually identified by the two countries, it said. It hailed Zimbabweans for conducting themselves in a peaceful manner during the polls. President Ramaphosa also expressed his concern about the violence that occurred on 1st August which resulted in the tragic death of six people, said the statement. In this regard, President Ramaphosa has conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes the injured speedy recovery. Tanzanian President John Magufuli sent his congratulatory message through his Twitter account. Cde. Mnangagwa On behalf of the Government and people of Tanzania, I convey my sincere congratulations on your victory in the Presidential Election of Zimbabwe. Your victory is a reflection of the confidence reposed in you by the people of Zimbabwe in leading them to prosperity, tweeted President Magufuli. Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza also shared his congratulatory message through twitter. Dear Mr. President @edmnangagwa, on behalf of the Burundian People and on my own behalf, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations on your election as President of Zimbabwe. I wish you much success and good health for the prosperity of your country and Africa, tweeted President Nkurunziza. South Africas ruling party, the African National Congress which has a team of election observers here was confident that the result was a reflection of the will of the people. We want to take this opportunity to congratulate Zanu-PF for having won a majority of seats in the Zimbabwean National Assembly. We also congratulate Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa on his election as president of Zimbabwe, said the party. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko also congratulated President Mnangagwa on the victory. He expressed confidence that the changes which are taking place in Zimbabwe under the leadership of Emmerson Mnangagwa will contribute to the prosperity of the country and the quality of life of people. I look forward to further development of Belarusian-Zimbabwean cooperation based on the principles of trust and support, the message reads. Chronicle Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Bolaji Abdullahi has announced his resignation as chairman of the Nigeria Sugar Development Council.. He announced his resignation on Friday, August 3, via his twitter page. READ ALSO: No peace in Senate until Saraki resigns - Senator insists This is coming a day after he announced his resignation as national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and left the party. Meanwhile, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has approved the appointment of Yekini Nabena as the acting national publicity secretary of the party. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Legit.ng gathered that the appointment was contained in a letter issued on Wednesday, August 1, in Abuja and signed by the national secretary of the party, Mai Mala Bunu. The letter said the appointment followed the resignation of the partys national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abudullahi, who defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) earlier on Wednesday, August 1. Nigeria News 2018: Buhari Reacts To APC Senators Betrayal | - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - There were indications that the APC is in serious talks with former governor Godswill Akpabio and he might be defecting from the opposition party - Report has it that top PDP leaders, including the National Working Committee of the opposition party, have been jittery in the past few week over this move - If Akpabio defects, analysts are of the opinion that it would be a major political mileage for President Muhammadu Buhari in the south-south The minority leader in the Senate, former governor Godswill Akpabio, might defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) any time soon. There are indications that he is in serious talks with the APC and might dump his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), once the terms are wrapped up, The Nation reports. This move is said to have unsettled the PDP as analysts believe it will be a major boost for President Muhammadu Buhari in the south-south ahead of the 2019 election. A PDP top notch disclosed that the party has been appealing to the ex-governor not to defect but we cannot please him and then displease the governor of the state, Udom Emmanuel, who is the PDP leader in the state. The duo have been at loggerheads. Emmanuel was practically made governor by Akpabio in 2015. READ ALSO: APC does not have my permission to use stadium for rally - Umahi Report has it that Akpabio had made up his mind to defect on July 24 but was not allowed to have his way by Senate president Bukola Saraki who got intelligence report about his plan. The former governor showed signs of his departure from the PDP on Thursday, August 2, when he boycotted the special meeting of the National Executive Committee of the PDP held to welcome defectors including Saraki and governors Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (Sokoto) and Samuel Ortom of Benue state, among others. A top APC source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: The APC and some of our leaders are in serious talks with Akpabio, who is rated as a matchmaker in the south-south. The talks border on more deals for the south-south, especially increase in derivation formula; enhanced infrastructure for oil producing areas; how to sustain the ongoing reforms by President Muhammadu Buhari; and arresting the developmental slide in Akwa Ibom state. The former governor said his likely defection to APC is informed more by patriotism than selfish interest. READ ALSO: Southeast for Buhari leadership meeting currently ongoing According to the source, the terms are still being worked out and it was part of the talks that made him visit Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday when the PDP national EXCO was meeting in Abuja. Findings, however, confirmed that top PDP leaders, including the National Working Committee of the opposition party, have been jittery in the past few weeks. A member of the National Executive Committee of PDP said: I think Akpabio has irreconcilable differences with Governor Udom Emmanuel and our leaders stepped into the matter and initiated reconciliation. If at the end he is defecting, we are suspecting that he wants to join the APC to settle scores with Emmanuel in 2019. The two leaders have been managing themselves, but Akpabio seems unhappy with the governor. We felt that defection is not an ideal option for Akpabio. Maybe he has another agenda. A member of the NWC said the power equation in PDP at present in Akwa Ibom state does not favour Akpabio and he is bound to be embittered. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng had earlier reported that Akpabio arrived the State House Villa on Thursday, August 2, by 3.06pm with Ita Enang, an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on the National Assembly (Senate) for a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The report said Akpabio and Enang got to Aso Rock an hour after President Muhammadu Buhari departed for Bauchi state on an official engagement. It was learnt that the meeting between Akpabio and Osinbajo lasted for about two hours. Even though details of the meeting were not known, it is believed that it could be related to Akpabios planned defection over his rift with the governor of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel. Here's what Saraki and Tambuwal's defection means for the APC on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit The drama surrounding Reverend Funke Adejumo seems unending as another man of God has called her out during one of his sermons. Reverend Funke has been slammed severally after several videos showing the popular pastor asking for donations from church goers went viral. In one video, she asks for N1million and in another she asks for $1000. Clergyman Reverend Yomi Kasali has shared his opinion concerning Reverend Funke. He said judgement is coming soon for her over her frequent requests for seeds from church members. READ ALSO: Prophet ThankGod Abam reportedly dies just 2 days to son's dedication (photos) The Lagos based pastor, hit out at the popular clergywoman saying judgement is coming on her soon. While preaching in his church recently, Reverend Kasali said Funke was fleecing members of their money and that judgement is coming on her very soon. He said; Christians no longer have consciences. Preachers have dead consciencess. I watched the video of a preacher fleecing members, asking for $1000 and I said does this woman have a conscience? You know you are lying. The bible says speaking lies in hypocrisy and have their consciences seared. She knows what I am talking about. If she has an ear, let her hear, Judgement is coming on her very soon. Meanwhile, Reverend Funke Adejumo may be barred from entering the UK, US and other EU nations that is if a new petition launched on change.org goes through. The petition launched by a Mayowa Olaiya wants Reverend Adejumo to be barred from entering the UK because "she is a religious charlatan who defrauds people." PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Who is the most influential Nigerian pastor? On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit The people of a rural parish near Carrick-on-Suir will celebrate Mass at a scenic Comeragh Mountains lake on Bank Holiday Monday close to where their ancestors worshipped in secret during Penal Times. Parishoners of Rathgormack and Clonea-Power Parish will hike up to the shores of Lough Mohra that lies under Knockanaffrin peak for the Mass celebrated by their parish priest Fr PJ Fegan at 3pm on Monday. Fr Fegan said the Mass was being organised to mark the upcoming visit of Pope Francis 1 to Ireland and the Catholic Church's World Meeting of Families in Dublin, which the Pope will be attending. "My idea is for the parish to do something together to mark the occasion. Our ancestors were the ones who kept our faith going and we will be the people who pass on the faith to the next generation. He hopes the Mass will be a joyful and memorable event for the parish. Lough Mohra was chosen as the venue as a Mass rock is located in its vicinity. The rock was used as a place of worship for Catholics persecuted by the Penal Laws during the 18th century. Knockanaffrin literally translates as Hill of the Mass. Fr Fegan said it wasn't suitable to have the ceremony at the actual Mass rock as its location was too physically dangerous so they are celebating it at the lake side. Michael O'Donoghue of Rathgormack Ramblers hiking club will lead the pilgrimage walk from the R678 Rathgormack to Clonmel Road up to Lough Mohra. The hike will take approximately 45 minutes along a forestry track with the final ten minutes of the trek over a mountain path. Limited car parking will be available at the start of the forestry trail and the organisers are recommending that people car pool to get to the start point. A limited mini-bus service provided by Local Link Waterford is being organised for people wishing to attend the Mass who do not have transport or will find the walk difficult. A bus will depart Clonea Church at 1.30pm on Monday stopping at Rathgormack Community Centre to pick up more people at 1.45pm. Another bus point will be located at the start of the walk. To book a place on a bus, please contact the following: Mary Greene at (086) 2447768 or Maura Brunnock at (051) 646077 by today Wednesday, August 1. People attending the Mass are advised to wear suitable footwear and clothing and bring a bottle of water. They may also consider taking a small fold up chair or blanket if they wish to sit while at the lake. After the Mass, the congregation will return to Rathgormack Community & Hiking Centre where refreshments will be served. (Natural News) Two of the three closest stars outside our solar system are reportedly emitting comparable amounts of X-ray energy as the sun. That tolerable level of radiation gives alien life a fighting chance to survive on any planets that might be lurking around one of those stars, an article in Space.com stated. These stars are known to astronomers as Alpha Centauri A and B. Because of their closeness to Earth; these binary stars are fairly popular candidates for hosting possible alien life. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (UC Boulder) pored over radiation data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. They believe that the stellar radiation levels from Alpha Centauri A and B were mild enough to permit life. This is very good news for Alpha Cen AB in terms of the ability of possible life on any of their planets to survive radiation bouts from the stars, remarked UC Boulder researcher Tom Ayres, who acted as the lead author of the new paper. Chandra shows us that life should have a fighting chance on planets around either of these stars. (Related: NASA has been covering up the truth about life on Mars.) A tale of three stars and their potential habitable exoplanets The Alpha Centauri system is found a little more than four light-years 25 trillion miles from our star system. It is made up of three stars that rank among the brightest in the night sky. Alpha Centauri A and B are medium-sized yellow stars like the Sun. They are also binary stars that orbit each other very closely. Astronomers often combine them as AB for convenience.The third member of their system is Proxima Centauri, which is some distance away from them. Unlike A and B, it is a red dwarf star, one of the most common types in the galaxy. So far as exoplanet hunters can gather, no exoplanets are orbiting either Alpha Centauri A or B. Undaunted astronomers keep searching for any signs. Proxima Centauri, on the other hand, hosts a single exoplanet called Proxima b. The planet is around the same size as Earth; it lies in the Goldilocks zone, the region of space around its parent star where water can exist in the liquid state required by life as we know it. The problem for hypothetical alien life on Proxima b is that red dwarf stars are very active stars. They often release powerful stellar flares that can burn away the atmospheres of planets. Proxima Centauri is no exception to this. Researchers, therefore, believe that Proxima b no longer has an atmosphere due to this regular bombardment of stellar radiation. . Habitable zones around Alpha Centauri A and B are safe for life Instead, the UC Boulder researchers focused on Alpha Centauri AB. The binary has been monitored by the NASA-operated Chandra space observatory twice a year since 2005. Ayres and his team sifted through 13 years worth of radiation data on Alpha Centauri. They reported that the X-ray radiation levels in the habitable zone around Alpha Centauri A are lower than those on Earth. The Goldilocks zone around Alpha Centauri B, on the other hand, experienced five times the amount of X-rays in our solar system. However, these higher radiation levels are still not lethal for life, Ayres asserted. The findings of the UC Boulder researchers are not just applicable to extraterrestrial life. The Alpha Centauri binary exhibited X-ray activity similar to the 11-year-long sunspot cycle of the sun. Understanding Alpha Centauri A and Bs behavior would, in turn, allow us to predict the activity of our own star. For more observations of extrasolar stars that may harbor habitable planets, touch down at Cosmic.news. Sources include: Space.com Chandra.SI.edu (Natural News) Is global warming to blame for the multiple wildfires that are right now raging across California, destroying homes, businesses, and hundreds of thousands of acres of native forest land? Absolutely, according to California Governor Jerry Brown, who recently blamed the intense heat coming from the blazes on climate change. The latest reports indicate that there are currently some 20 active fires burning across the Golden State, some small, and some very large, most of which are barely contained. One of the larger ones, the Carr Fire, which has already burned more than 115,000 acres and is now ranked as the sixth most destructive wildfire in Californias history was apparently started by a non-criminal vehicle fire. At the moment, the Carr Fire, which more than 4,100 firefighters are said to be battling, is among the largest, most intense, and most threatening wildfires currently ravaging the northern part of the state, with steep terrain, erratic winds, and previously unburned fuels contributing to spot fire potential. And just to reiterate one more time, this fire was started by a car fire, which of course has nothing to do with global warming or climate change. But this isnt the opinion of Governor Brown, who during a recent press conference blamed human activity for making things warmer, which he says is a direct cause of fires. Even though most of whats burning in these fires is trees and brush, Brown is convinced that human ingenuity resulting in climate change is whats fueling these infernos. Were fighting nature with the amount of material were putting in the environment, and that material traps heat, and the heat fosters fires, and the fires keep burning, Brown is quoted as saying. Since civilization emerged 10,000 years ago, we havent had this kind of heat condition, and its going to continue getting worse and thats the way it is. . Brown: California needs more money to fight future global warming wildfires Brown is apparently unaware of the fact that fires are hot and tend to warm the air around them and that they have nothing to do with his climate change conspiracy theory. But he sees his beliefs as fact, and warns that things are only going to get worse unless more steps are taken to shift the weather back to where it historically was. Some people dont want to accept that, some just outright deny it, Brown stated, referring to people who dont necessarily buy his take on why fire is hot. I dont say it with any great joy here were in for a very rough ride. Its going to get expensive. Its going to get dangerous, and we have to apply all our creativity to make the best of what is going to be an increasingly bad situation, not just for California, but for people all over America and all over the world. So whats the solution, in Browns view? To add more money to Californias already bloated budget specifically for dealing with global warming-fueled fires that he says are sure to happen in the future. This will presumably mean higher taxes for Californians, who will be told that their mere existence is causing these fires, hence why they need to pay up. So far, this fire activity is a small part of our very large budget, but it is growing and it will continue to grow as we adapt to the changing weather, Brown argues. Brown offered up a similarly bogus narrative late last year, blaming wildfires in Ventura County on man-made global warming while declaring such fires to be a kind of new normal. Sources for this article include: PJMedia.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Its easy to avoid dangerous confrontations with large wild animals such as bears and elephants, but what if the danger is lurking just underneath your very skin? Parasites are among the many microscopic organisms that can penetrate our skin and feed off our flesh and blood. Some of these organisms are so tiny, you wont feel their presence in your body. However, others are able to make their presence known through blood-curdling symptoms. These blood-sucking, brain-eating, flesh-boring monsters inside our bodies cause horrifying diseases as they find sustenance on the living. Below are six of these gruesome creatures and some ways on how you can avoid them: Brain-eating amoeba (Naegleria fowleri) This deadly parasite is typically found in warm lakes, rivers, hot springs, warm water runoff from industrial plants, and even filthy swimming pools in the southern states of the U.S. This parasite may infect people who swim in warm bodies of freshwater, but it can also be found in the soil. N. fowleri amoeba infects people through the nose. From the nose, they travel up to the brain, where they eat the brain tissue. The symptoms of N. fowleri infection include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, and stiff neck, while advanced symptoms include confusion, loss of balance, seizures, and hallucinations. Almost every person to have become infected with this has died. Avoid exposure to this deadly amoeba by holding your nose shut or using nose clips when you go into the water. It is also advisable to avoid digging in or stirring up sediment in potentially infectious bodies of water. Candiru vampire fish (Vandellia cirrhosa) You may have heard of the vampire bat, but a tiny catfish from the Amazon River has the same blood-sucking reputation. Also known as the toothpick fish, the candiru measures just three to five centimeters in length, and is a parasite of larger fish, feeding off the blood from their gills. Reports on its attack on humans date back in the 1820s, with records saying that candiru often swam up mens penises as the man was urinating in the river, entering the urethra and feeding off the tissue. There are even accounts when the patients penis needed to be amputated to get the fish out. There was also one account of candiru entering a womans vagina while also in the river. Whether the reports are true or exaggerated accounts of local tribes-people, it is advisable to avoid peeing in the river to prevent any parasitic creature from entering your private parts. Filarial nematodes Filarial worms are parasitic worms in the family Filariidae. Filarial worms are responsible for several infectious disorders collectively known as filariasis, the most common of which are heartworm and elephantiasis. Be wary of traveling to the tropics, where worm-bearing mosquitoes reside; always bring bug repellents, wear long sleeves and pants and sleep under mosquito nets. Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) Found in sub-Saharan Africa, the Guinea worm is a parasite that is transmitted to human hosts by drinking contaminated water from ponds or shallow open wells. The parasites live out their larval stage inside the intestines; the adult worm eventually emerges out of the hosts body, from the feet in most cases. This causes intense pain, blisters, and ulceration of the area where the worm emerged. Avoid this painful experience by drinking filtered water and avoiding stagnant water at all costs. Human botfly (Dermatobia hominis) Dont confuse this parasitic fly with the relatively harmless bumblebee the larvae of the human botlfy will infest the skin of mammals and live out the larval stage right under the hosts skin, causing painful pustules. The adult fly deposits its eggs on a blood-sucking host vector, usually mosquitoes or ticks, which then transmit the eggs to the mammalian host when feeding on its blood. The larvae will grow for several months and eventually crawl out of the skin. The human botfly is indigenous from Mexico in the north to Paraguay and northeast Argentina in the south. Dont forget to bring your insect repellents and mosquito nets when traveling to these areas. Toxoplasma gondii This parasite is the number one cause of food-borne illness in the U.S. Commonly found in undercooked food (especially pork, lamb, and venison) and cat feces, the Toxoplasma parasite causes a disease known as toxoplasmosis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 60 million people in the U.S. may be infected with the Toxoplasma parasite. The disease may cause flu-like symptoms, but advanced symptoms include blurred vision and even eye damage. You can prevent exposure from this parasite by cooking your meat properly and changing the cat litter consistently. We share this planet with all kinds of creatures, including parasites. Avoid exposure to these deadly organisms mainly by staying away from unhygienic places. . To learn more about other infectious diseases, head over to Outbreak.news today. Sources include: GearJunkie.com CBSNews.com PlanetDeadly.com Britannica.com CDC.gov WHO.int EntNemDept.UFL.edu (Natural News) In an on-air rant to his network earlier this week, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta complained about how supporters of POTUS Donald Trump and Florida gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis were chanting fake news and other taunts. The National Sentinel reported that Acosta said the rally felt like we werent in America anymore. Americans should not be treating their fellow Americans in this way. But unfortunately, what weve seen and this has been building for some time since the campaign Ive been talking about this as an issue since the campaign, Acosta whined. His complaints reveal a mind-boggling tone deafness and disconnect with a growing majority of Americans who have tuned out the Democratic Partys propaganda division otherwise known as the mainstream media because not only are they untrustworthy, they are routinely condescending, dismissive, and insulting to much of the population. Consider how a Politico reporter covering the same Florida rally described POTUS supporters and those of DeSantis. As reported by Breitbart News, reporter Marc Caputo mocked rally attendees by referring to them as toothless garbage people. In tweets that have since been deleted, Caputo first tweeted: If you put everyones mouths together in this video, youd get a full set of teeth. And then: Oh no! I made fun of garbage people jeering at another person as they falsely accused him of lying and flipped him off. Someone fetch a fainting couch. Later no doubt after he was savaged by pro-Trump users Caputo tweeted a series of apologies, claiming he was over-reacting with anger to the way Acosta was being treated. I need to apologize for tweeting caustic remarks after seeing a reporter berated & abused. Hate begets hate. My comments referred ONLY to those jeering and swearing at the man, not a broad swath of people. But the fault is mine for causing confusion and feeding anger. 1/3 he wrote. I need to apologize for tweeting caustic remarks after seeing a reporter berated & abused. Hate begets hate. My comments referred ONLY to those jeering and swearing at the man, not a broad swath of people. But the fault is mine for causing confusion and feeding anger. 1/3 Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 1, 2018 In the age of social media, where divisiveness serves no decent purpose, these flippant comments on my part only made things worse and contributed to a cycle of rage that I should not have inflamed further. So Im sorry. 2/3 he continued. In the age of social media, where divisiveness serves no decent purpose, these flippant comments on my part only made things worse and contributed to a cycle of rage that I should not have inflamed further. So I'm sorry. 2/3 Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 1, 2018 While its usually a good idea to just delete tweets that are wrong, I own this and the criticism (both accurate and misleading) that has followed. Ill do better. Here they are: 3/3 he concluded. While its usually a good idea to just delete tweets that are wrong, I own this and the criticism (both accurate and misleading) that has followed. I'll do better. Here they are: 3/3 pic.twitter.com/G2rZrHjYWb Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 1, 2018 Which side is all the violence REALLY coming from, though? Fair enough. Anyone whos willing to apologize for what were obviously comments made in bad taste deserves another shot. But the reality is the Left, not the Right and certainly not Trump supporters, have been on the receiving end of faulty reporting and violence for going on two years. (Related: HuffPo: Violence against Trump okay, violence against Clinton and Obama, not so much.) One of Acostas complaints, The National Sentinel noted, was that POTUS Trump is whipping these crowds up into a frenzy, to the point where they really want to come after us. If that were true, Trump supporters would be coming after journalists. But theyre not. By comparison, Trump supporters are regularly beaten, assaulted, and threatened sometimes just for wearing a Make America Great Again hat. So its absurd for Acosta to make that claim. Furthermore, he should be criticizing elected Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters of California and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey for whipping supporters into a frenzy. Earlier this summer Waters stunned many seasoned political observers when she dog-whistled to supporters to harass Trump administration figures wherever they go. And just a week ago Booker literally told supporters to traipse over to Capitol Hill and get in their faces meaning Republicans, of course. Lets also remember that Republicans have been beaten and shot, namely Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Steve Scalise, respectively. If Acosta wants more civility he should stop virtue signaling at press conferences and refuse to take part in his networks fake news trafficking. Read more about news fakery at NewsFakes.com. Sources include: TheNationalSentinel.com Breitbart.com (Natural News) When one begins researching the number of gun laws already in the statute books on the federal, state, and local levels its hard to imagine that any politician really believes additional laws are needed. But theyre out there alright, and the vast majority of them belong to the Democratic Party. In fact, few Democrats have ever seen a gun control law they didnt like. And to hear them discuss the issue, youd think that our country has few, if any, restrictions at all on gun ownership. Now theyre pushing for new restrictions on gun parts that can be printed on 3D printers through the use of misinformation and intentional misleading. As Breitbart News Awr Hawkins reports: The left uses words like untraceable and undetectable in describing 3D-printed guns while avoiding questions of practicality and safety. Some of this avoidance could be unintentional but some is no-doubt due to the fact that the establishment media has represented 3D-printed guns in a way that is misleading but beneficial to those seeking to ban the weapons. And to be sure, Democrats are leading this ban effort because Democrats rarely push for less gun control and more gun rights protection under the Second Amendment. Hawkins notes that in its purest form a 3D gun part or complete weapon is made of plastic from a special 3D printer. And though its plastic, such firearms are far from undetectable because they come with metal firing pins and other metal parts. And yet, are such weapons even safe to fire? Hawkins noted that CNN reported (accurately for once) that people who conducted testing with 3D firearms in Europe found that they are liable to be more harmful to shooters than to what he or she is aiming at. Specifically, German police tested a 3D gun and came to the conclusion that it could endanger the shooter as much as anyone else. Anyone who is familiar with guns even passingly understands that what German police concluded was exactly right. Democrats are intentionally misleading people about this issue This is commonsense for those who understand firearms, who understand the pressures associated with a chambered cartridge at the point a primer is struck and powder ignites within the shell casing, Hawkins wrote. There is a lot of heat and pressure generated by firing bullets which is why guns are made out of metal and not 3D-print plastic. Its especially noteworthy to point out the kind of guns Democrats and their propagandists in the Left-wing establishment are referencing when arguing for a new 3D gun parts ban. Democrats generally do not hold up full-plastic versions of 3D-printed firearms like the ubiquitous AR-15; rather, they hold up a mostly metal version that comes with a 3D plastic-printed lower or frame to mislead. (Related: Federal government declares AR-15s are not weapons of war as gun rights opponents frequently claim.) Hawkins writes that lowers on AR-15 models contain the trigger and hammer, while the upper holds the bolt carrier group and to which the barrel is attached. Of all those parts, the only one regulated by the government is the lower, so in the 3D-printing world, he continues, the idea is to make a lower of strong plastic, then affixed [sic] it to a metal upper and barrel that are the same as any other AR-15 youd generally see. The extreme heat and pressure are contained in the upper, while the trigger and hammer are situated in the plastic lower where pressure and heat arent factors. The gun is by no means undetectable because of all the metal parts, though it may be safe to fire. That said, the media wont show these kinds of firearms because doing so would wreck Democrats undetectable argument. Even so, Hawkins, further noted, undetectable guns are already against the law and have been since 1988. Read more Democrat attempts to limit the Second Amendment at SecondAmendment.news. Sources include: Breitbart.com TheNationalSentinel.com (Natural News) More and more Americans are beginning to see special counsel Robert Muellers investigation for what it really is: A desperate last-ditch effort to undermine POTUS Donald Trumps administration and eventually drive him from office, overturning the results of the 2016 election. As Muellers case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort launched this week, additional evidence emerged proving that the former FBI director operates more like a terrorist than a federal prosecutor, though as politicized as the Justice Department became under President Obama many would say there isnt much difference. As The Gateway Pundit reported, FBI special agent Matthew Mikuska described in court on Wednesday the manner in which Manaforts home was raided last year a pre-dawn affair that involved several agents with weapons drawn. Whats more, the agents insisted on searching Manaforts wife, Kathleen, for weapons over alleged financial crimes that her husband may have committed. As CNN reported: The search, an unusually hard-nosed tactic in a probe that centers on possible tax and financial crimes, began before dawn and Manafort and his wife lay in bed, according to sources briefed on the matter. FBI agents entered with guns drawn and insisted on searching Kathleen Manafort for weapons, a standard part of FBI searches but a jarring event for the Manaforts, the sources said. The Washington Examiners Byron York tweeted the passage from CNN. CNN: FBI agents broke into Manafort's home with guns drawn. https://t.co/gBKrBC2eu7 pic.twitter.com/LtUr9jUdsC Byron York (@ByronYork) September 20, 2017 But as the Washington Post reported in August 2017 shortly after the raid, the FBI seized documents that Manafort had already provided to Congress. The documents seized in the raid include materials Manafort had provided to Congress, said people familiar with the search, and the significance of what was obtained remained unclear the paper noted. One White House adviser told the Post, If the FBI wanted the documents, they could just ask [Manafort] and he would have turned them over. Manafort had already provided more than 300 pages of documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House and Senate intelligence committees by then. (Related: Manafort indictment shows that Mueller is a fraud.) Meanwhile, Hillary remains free But that wasnt enough for Robert Mueller; he chose to go full Gestapo on Manafort. The Washington Examiner, in a separate report discussing the trial this week, said that Mikuska testified that he was the seizing agent in the raid. He told jurors that he knocked on the door three times to gain access but used a key after no one came to the door (remember it was pre-dawn and likely the Manaforts were spooked by the presence of someone at their door so early). Once inside, agents saw Manafort, the news site noted. Mikuska told federal prosecutor Uzo Asonye that the documents obtained by the government consisted of loan agreements, loan applications, and invoices for work on a number of properties along the East Coast Manafort owns. At one point the judge in the case, T.S. Ellis III, a Reagan appointee who has been critical of Muellers prosecutors, challenged them to tell him how the invoices and other documents are related to Manaforts case. Earlier, the Washington Examiner noted further, Ellis also took issue with the use of the term oligarch to describe various Ukrainians who paid Manafort for his work there, adding that he believes the term is generally used to describe people who are criminals or who belong to despotic governments. The point is at the time of the raid Manafort and his attorneys were cooperating with the government and Congress. They were providing requested documents, and any that had yet to be obtained would have been Muellers for the asking. But obviously, Muellers not playing any of this straight. His objective from the outset has been to get Trump. And the longer hes able to harass anyone tied to the president while Hillary Clinton continues to breathe free air, the more profound this injustice becomes. Read more about Robert Muellers misbehavior at RobertMueller.news. Sources include: TheGatewayPundit.com WashingtonPost.com WashingtonExaminer.com TheNationalSentinel.com The explosion that rocked Eta Carinae in the 1840s was nearly as powerful as a supernova explosion. Amazingly, the star survived. Eta Carinae is the most luminous star in the Milky Way, and its near annihilation over a century ago is still subject of study. Until now, 170 years later, scientists puzzle over the eruption and the mysterious reason behind it. Light Echo Unveils New Clues It's impossible to backtrack and get a glimpse of the explosion, but scientists have found another way to get more information by observing what's known as "light echoes." This phenomenon is when the light emanating from the explosion bounces off interstellar dust and arrives on Earth much later. The light echo from the Eta Carinae explosion is only just making its way to Earth. One of the astronomers who led the research is Nathan Smith of the University of Arizona, who calls light echoes "the next best thing to time travel." "They give us a chance to unravel the mysteries of a rare stellar eruption that was witnessed 170 years ago, but using our modern telescopes and cameras," Smith explains in a report from the Gemini Observatory, adding that the data from the event can be compared to the nebula created from the blast. This is a valuable piece of knowledge to pursue, he points out, as it's an event that has not occurred since then in the Milky Way galaxy. The team used the Gemini South telescope from the Gemini Observatory as well as other telescopes in Chile to study the blast and its echoes. Trio Of Stars May Be The Blast's Origin By analyzing the wayward light, astronomers discovered that material expanded from the blast up to 20 times faster than they expected, according to NASA. The speed is comparable to the fastest material ever ejected from a supernova explosion. It's strange to witness from dying stars, as these often produce very slow, gentle winds. Due to the new findings documented in a pair of papers in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the astronomers suggest that the explosion may be borne from a tussle among three stars. In a violent explosion, the Eta Carinae may have devoured one of its siblings, spitting out material 10 times the mass of the sun. This mass eventually became the dumbbell-shaped gas cloud called Homunculus that's still seen in modern images. "We see these really high velocities in a star that seems to have had a powerful explosion, but somehow the star survived. The easiest way to do this is with a shock wave that exits the star and accelerates material to very high speeds," Smith says. Eventually, Eta Carinae will experience a true supernova explosion and meet its end. This is due in the next half million years, potentially much sooner. Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season. Brown inspected neighborhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the Northern California city of Redding and the Democratic governor said he was confident the Republican president he has clashed with over immigration and pollution policies would send aid, which Trump did last year when California's wine country was hit hard. "The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters so I'm hopeful," Brown said. "Tragedies bring people together." Authorities said there are 17 major fires burning throughout California. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people and shut down Yosemite National Park. "Fire season is really just beginning," said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection chief Ken Pimlott. The biggest blazes continue to burn north of San Francisco, including twin wildfires fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather. Those fires destroyed 55 homes and forced thousands of residents to flee their neighborhoods about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the city. They have grown to almost 250 square miles (648 kilometers). The two fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph (56 kph) that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames. "This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach," the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco. As a precaution, new evacuations were called Friday for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires are threatening about 9,000 homes. The NWS & @CAL_FIRE Serious Accident Review Team (SART) are conducting a storm damage survey regarding the large fire whirl that occurred Thursday evening in Redding. Preliminary indicators placed max wind speeds achieved by the fire whirl in excess of 143 mph. #cawx #CarrFire pic.twitter.com/3iRX90lhLJ NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) August 2, 2018 The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake but "it looks like there's dicey weather on the way," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said. However, some days-old evacuations were lifted Friday in an area near Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft continue battling an immense blaze about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire's southeastern flank were reopened to residents. California burning. These fires are frightening to watch, even from space. Here a shout-out from space to all firefighters on this planet, my former colleagues. Stay safe my friends! pic.twitter.com/y7PNmR006b Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) August 3, 2018 Cal Fire officials said the so-called Carr Fire, which killed seven people and incinerated 1,067 homes, started two weeks ago with sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer's flat tire. The blaze is currently 41 percent contained. One of the deceased was a PG&E employee who died while working in the area of the Carr Fire Saturday. "The safety of our employees and our customers is PG&Es top priority. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fallen team member, his family and our extended team. We are working with law enforcement to investigate the circumstances of the incident," PG&E said in a statement. The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber. It burned so furiously on July 26 that it created a "fire whirl." The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kph), which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which uses acres to describe fire size, said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles (533 square kilometers). In the Sierra Nevada, firefighters achieved 41 percent containment of a forest fire that has shut down Yosemite Valley and other adjacent portions of Yosemite National Park at what is normally the height of summer tourism. The fire had reached into remote areas of the country's third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemite's popular Valley region were ordered to leave Friday because of inaccessible roads. The blaze has killed two firefighters. A new report says the first firefighter, a California bulldozer operator, nearly slipped off a steep mountain trail three times before his vehicle finally rolled into a ravine and fatally crushed him. Each earlier slip alone qualified as a "near miss" warning that the century-old mining trail could collapse, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's preliminary report. Braden Varney, 36, was working alone overnight July 14 fighting the wildfire while his assistant went to get a new hydraulic hose. Varney's radio wasn't communicating with headquarters, so his assistant relayed messages until they lost contact. The report says the death of the 10-year veteran highlights the need for better risk assessment, communication and supervision. In less than a week, it's likely that Tennessee will perform a legally sanctioned, premeditated killing of one of its citizens. Meanwhile, Pope Francis just announced the Catholic Church now opposes the death penalty under all circumstances. The Pope said the death penalty violates the Gospel and amounts to the voluntary killing of a human life, which is always sacred in the eyes of the creator. Billy Ray Irick is scheduled to be put to death by "lethal injection protocol" at the Riverbend Maximum Security Facility on Aug. 9, unless Governor Bill Haslam grants clemency, or there is another delay. The last time the state of Tennessee performed a court sanctioned killing was 2009. There are over 60 Tennessee inmates on death row, so now's a good time to take another look at this taxpayer funded folly. First, there's the ethical question. Is it right to take a life? Why don't persons who oppose abortion see the inconsistency of supporting the death penalty? Is it humane? Over two-thirds of the countries on earth have abolished it. The U.S. is one of five countries in the world responsible for most of these premeditated killings, along with North Korea, China, Iran and Yemen. And within the U.S.,Tennessee is one of only 31 states where it is legal. Killing some innocent defendants is an unavoidable consequence. Over 150 people in the U.S. have been exonerated from death row since 1973, (many with DNA evidence) prior to their execution. We may never know how many innocents have actually been put to premeditated death by mistake. The death penalty is arbitrary and unfair. Almost all death row inmates could not afford their own attorney at trial. Local politics, the location of the crime, plea bargains and pure chance make it a lottery of who lives and who dies. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, about 80 percent of all executions have taken place in the South (about 35 percent in Texas alone). Then there are practical questions. From a taxpayer's perspective, it costs less to keep a convicted murderer locked up for life than it does to legally kill them. And there is no good evidence that the death penalty reduces murder rates or acts as a deterrent for crime in general. In April 2012, The National Research Council concluded that studies claiming that the death penalty affects murder rates were fundamentally flawed because they did not consider the effects of noncapital punishments and used incomplete or implausible models. A 2009 survey of criminologists revealed that over 88 percent believed the death penalty was not a deterrent to murder. FBI data showed that the 14 U.S. States without capital punishment in 2008 had homicide rates at or below the national rate. Regarding the specifics of the process in Tennessee: This killing likely will involve the use of the sedative midazolam in an attempt to cause unconsciousness, and potassium chloride to stop his heart from beating. A third drug (pancuronium) may be used to cause muscle paralysis and to stop breathing. This three drug protocol has been challenged as resulting in an experience of "torture". In a five to four decision in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court case (Glossip v. Gross) ruled that midazolam can be used as the first drug in a three drug protocol. The dissenting justices argued that there was no evidence that midazolam would cause deep, coma-like unconsciousness required where a state intends to cause death with painful drugs. Midazolam has been used in prior botched execution attempts where observers stated the victim did not seem fully unconscious. If Tennessee wishes to continue killing, our legislature should modify the process to include euthanasia by nitrogen gas - inert gas asphyxiation. In this method, the condemned is sealed in an airtight chamber pumped full of nitrogen. The prisoner would detect no abnormal sensation while breathing the odorless, tasteless gas and would not undergo the painful experience of suffocation which is caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood, not lack of oxygen. The process is very rapid and there is no evidence that it is painful. Matthew Hine, M.D. * * * Mr. Hine, Billy Ray Irick openly confessed to raping 7-year-old Paula Dyer while she was unconscious from blunt force trauma before she was murdered by asphyxiation. I cant even imagine the sheer pain and fear this young girl suffered before she was murdered as these thoughts are inhumane. And you want to compare his rights to those of an unborn child? Irick lost his human rights due to his inhumane torture and killing of a child and the death penalty is not even just punishment for this man. You, sir, need to have your head examined for even trying to make a comparison between the two. Chris Morgan * * * While there is always much to be said about cruel and unusual punishment by learned, introspective and well-spoken members of our society (discounting the knee-jerk liberal anti-everything adherents), capital punishment is not only needed in America, it needs to be more consistent and wide-spread. Only 60 death row inmates in Tennessee? Its sad there are so few when so many are deserving of it. While I agree that nitrogen asphyxiation may be a more humane means of execution, the fact that it is faster and easier should play a larger role in a bigger picture. And once sentence has been passed, humanity has nothing to do with it. What makes Dr. Hine more worthy of supplanting his pacifist views on the punishment of capitol offenders than you or I? What I find heinous is allowing dangerous and socially pathological offenders 30 years on death row to get their just reward. Execution only after dozens of useless and needless appeals is a waste of time, energy and monetary outlay. Personally, I feel it is the offender who made the ultimate decision for capital punishment when the crime was committed. I have found few if any believable mitigating circumstances. Pacifists like Dr. Hine would probably note that many murders take place in a one time act of heightened emotional state, probably never to occur again. On the contrary: murder is murder, death is death, culpability should be inescapable, unless Dr. Hine is on your sentencing jury. Only 60 death row inmates? With all the hard-drug pushers meting out poison multiple times each hour, certainly a majority of them are deserving an immediate appointment with God. Habitual drunk drivers, nationally, kill well-over three times as many people each year than were killed at Pearl Harbor or 9-11. I dont see any national referendum placing tighter restrictions on these miscreants. Yes, capital punishment is not only needed but required. Tennessee needs more of it without feather-bedding the legal profession with so many loopholes for appeal. Ethics, personal feelings, mitigating circumstances are all slippery slopes that result in failing to do what is right, needed and lawful. For me, shirking social responsibility in the name of pacifism is an unswallowable stone. If the measure of a society is based on its mercy, then society has ventured far enough. Dave Fihn * * * I do not wish to debate the death penalty with you.But an example of your wrong headed conclusions follows. The death penalty when carried out does in fact deter the murder from ever murdering again. Pete Clark * * * Dr. Hine, I have never actually studied the pros and cons of capitol punishment. After reading your article, I spent some time looking at writings from both sides of the issue. What I definitely saw was that some of the findings regarding capitol punishment you have listed are actually due for more study in order to be validated. I am not a physician but I do have some relevant experience from the victim end of murder cases. During my tenure at Erlanger Medical Center one of my radiology duties was to perform series of x-rays on suspicious deaths and known murders. During that time the Chattanooga Police did not have their own forensics center. Since Erlanger was the county hospital, it fell to the morgue and pathologists there to examine suspicious deaths, etc. The most horrible of circumstances surrounding death passed in front of my eyes and through my hands. I cannot elaborate here or my writing will not be published. I remember each and every case and have experienced vivid dreams on many occasions. Suffice it to say that if I remember these cases over a period of 38 years, they were beyond any measure of human morality. A jury looks at an accused murderer after they have been scraped clean, nicely dressed, and had a "makeover". The jury hears about the crime and they may see pictures of the victim and or the murder scene. It is quite different from standing next to the victim in a morgue and hear the pathologist describe the death. It is different when you overhear detectives sharing observations from the crime scene soon after a murder. I could care less what other countries do in regards to capitol punishment. I am not a Catholic but I do respect those who are. Unfortunately they have ignored Old and New Testament warnings about those who do evil and the justness of the man whose sword administers punishment for that evil. I have always wondered about the drugs used for lethal injection. The cocktail seems unduly complex and cases were cited where the administration was not calculated properly. Another problem is that some lethal injections were halted because they could not locate veins due to the prisoners size or previous IV drug abuse history. We all know that there are many ways to provide quick executions, but not all of them lend themselves to an audience. I can say that nothing I read changed my mind about capitol punishment. When a person or persons step outside of known humane actions, they give up the right to a humane death or treatment in my opinion. Ted Ladd * * * I used to support the death penalty but am now against it because punishment should be swift. In many cases it takes years to actually convict someone and a ridiculous amount of time to actually carry out a sentence, 20-30 years or more in most cases. The cost of putting someone to death is higher than life in prison given all the legal challenges. Lock them up in a supermax prison, throw away the key, and never mention their name again. Jerry Hickey * * * If, in fact, the Pope believes the death penalty is wrong in all cases why is he still protected by armed guards? What is the purpose of being protected by armed guards if the guards don't plan on carrying out the death penalty if need be? When he dismisses his armed guards I might take him seriously. Until then I could care less what he thinks on this subject, and most subjects, for that matter. Mike Lynn (8/3/2018) - The Humane Society of the United States is chipping in a $5,000 reward for information on whoever shot fireworks into a Sanilac County pasture last weekend, killing four cows. The dead calves were discovered early on the morning of July 28 after the Sanilac County Sheriff's Office was called to a home in the 4900 block of Cumber Road. Police say someone shot fireworks into the pasture and caught the grass on fire, which spread and burned the calves. The fire also damaged to 10 calf hutches. Investigators believe the suspects shooting fireworks were riding in a small passenger vehicle that fled westbound on Cumber Road. The national Humane Society said the case amounts to animal cruelty, which often leads suspects to commit more serious crimes later. This callous act led to the painful death of four young animals, said Molly Tamulevich, Michigan state director for the Humane Society of the United States. We hope that anyone with information about this terrible crime will come forward. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sanilac County Sheriff's Office at 810-648-2000 ext. 2 Before the break of dawn in a small agricultural town in Monterey County, 21-year-old Florencia prepares for another long day out in the broccoli fields. Her day starts at 4 a.m. so she can get her young daughters over to a babysitter before heading to work. For many in the town of Greenfield, it's a day spent packing broccoli, sometimes for as many as 12 hours, out in the hot Central California sun. But it doesnt end there. Each day, usually around 5 p.m., Florencia and a few of her fellow field workers still have work to do but this time its in the classroom. They are students enrolled in a program designed to provide training and education to people in underserved rural communities. The Farmworker Institute for Education & Leadership Development, better known as F.I.E.L.D., was founded in 1978 by labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, an icon in the farm working community. Initially, Chavez started the program in hopes of helping people learn the necessary skills to find work beyond the fields, but his death in 1993 put many things at a halt. It wasnt until 2000 that new leadership at the United Farm Workers made the decision to start F.I.E.L.D. again with David Villarino-Gonzalez, Chavezs son-in-law, as the head of the program to provide free GED completion and English language courses to the local communities. We started our first training education with 40 people and now were doing seven to eight thousand [students] a year, Villarino-Gonzalez said. Most students who join F.I.E.L.D. take about four years to graduate and the program has an 80 percent success rate. For many field workers, this program is not only providing them with a chance to pursue careers outside of agriculture, its giving their kids a better opportunity. Jennifer Gonzalez / NBC Bay Area You learn a lot and its good that a program like this exists to help you complete your education, Florencia said. I dont really know [what I want to do] but I want a good job because I really like to work. Florencia has been working in the fields since she was 17; before she packed broccoli, she harvested lettuce. It wasnt until recently that she realized not finishing high school was a mistake -- not just for herself, but for her daughters as well. "I know how exhausting it is to work out in the fields," said Alice Rodriguez, a teacher and supervisor at F.I.E.L.D. "Many of them want their children to do better, they don't want their children working in the fields. So they come to class and they do their best to learn as much as they can." In January, Florencia signed up for a GED completion course at F.I.E.LD. with hopes it will help her go to a local college like Hartnell to pursue a career. But F.I.E.L.D. does more than provide education to underserved rural communities, it gives undocumented field workers hope that theyll be accepted into American society. They want to be citizens, lets be clear, Villarino-Gonzalez said. They want to participate, they want to help in the economy of our country, our future and theyre willing to sacrifice to get it done. When F.I.E.L.D. first relaunched, they only had about $60,000 in their budget for the year, but as theyve grown their free educational program to over 26 campuses across the Golden State - with hopes of establishing more - its requiring more resources. According to data provided by F.I.E.L.D., it takes about $350,000 a year to fund one location with classroom essentials, teachers, etc. While they have grown exponentially in California over the past 18 years, F.I.E.L.D. plans to extend its reach beyond the Golden State and even make its way east to help other field workers across the country. [A program like this] is important because most rural communities are forgotten, Villarino-Gonzalez said. Most of the resources go to the big cities and yet these are the areas that really contribute to the economy in the long run. A man was killed and six others were wounded in gun violence Thursday in Chicago. About 11:15 p.m., Carlos Fabian Pagan-Guzman, 19, was shot to death as he was walking on a sidewalk in the 5000 block of North Albany Avenue, Chicago Police and the Cook County Medical Examiners Office said. said. Someone exited a dark-colored SUV and opened fire, striking him in the head. Pagan-Guzman was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he died about 12 hours later, according to authorities. Area North detectives were conducting a homicide investigation. The last nonfatal shooting of the 24-hour period left a person grazed in the shoulder as they were lying on a couch in Lawndale on the West Side. A bullet had passed through a window into the home about 11:20 p.m. in the 2200 block of South Kolin Avenue, according to Chicago Police. Paramedics showed up but the person refused to be treated. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More About 8:10 p.m., a man was seriously wounded Thursday evening in a Roseland neighborhood shooting on the Far South Side. The 19-year-old was shot walking down the street when he was struck in the leg and back in the 11400 block of South Princeton, according to police. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was listed in serious condition. Earlier in the evening, a 58-year-old man was wounded in a South Side Park Manor neighborhood shooting. The man was shot in the back about 5:45 p.m. in the 7400 block of South Evans, police said. Paramedics took him to University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition stabilized. He didnt know anything about the shooting. About 4:50 p.m., a man was wounded in an East Garfield Park neighborhood shooting on the West Side. The 21-year-old was riding his bicycle about 4:50 p.m. when someone in a car pulled up and opened fire in the 3900 block of West Jackson, according to police. He went to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was in good condition. About the same time, a 17-year-old boy was wounded Thursday afternoon in a Gresham neighborhood shooting on the South Side. The boy was on the front porch of a home about 4:50 p.m. in the 7500 block of South Carpenter when someone on foot fired shots nearby, police said. The boy was shot in both legs and taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was stabilized. The first shooting Thursday wounded a man in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side. About 12:05 p.m., the 61-year-old was standing on the corner near the CTA Green Line King Drive station when he heard shots and felt pain in the 400 block of East 63rd Street, according to police. The man was shot in his leg and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized. He did not know where the shots came from. For DePaul music student Jingjing Hu, her cello worth nearly $30,000 is priceless. Maybe Im exaggerating, but its more than our life," she told NBC 5 Friday. So, for her trip to Miami to perform in a music festival, she and her husband booked two seats: one for her and a second for her prized cello. Hu said she called American Airlines and verified with the agent that both her departing and returning flights would be able to accommodate the cello in a set. When I flew from Chicago to Miami, I didnt have any trouble with that," she said. The flight crew gave her a special strap to hold the instrument in place. But after boarding her return flight Thursday she was told she needed to get off. She said your cello is too big," Hu recalled an America Airlines employee telling her. "This aircraft is too small to hold your cello." Hu was cleared by security and American Airlines representative to board the plane on her return flight, and given the strap again even though it was a slightly smaller plane, she said. But after securing the instrument, it appeared the airline had changed its mind. Federal regulations allow musicians to carry oversized instruments like cellos in the cabin when passengers purchase an additional seat. Americans own policy makes this clear on their website: as long as the instrument doesnt weigh more than 165 pounds and meets unspecified "seat size restrictions based on airplane type." Hus weighs less than 10. Still, she says she was escorted off the plane by law enforcement. This isnt the first time its happened. Last year an American Airlines passenger was booted from a flight because the airline said his cello--also in its own seat--posed a security risk. The airline later said that was an error and apologized. The airline said it rebooked Hu for another flight the next morning on a larger aircraft and provided her with hotel and meal accommodations. American Airlines told NBC 5 in a statement there was a "miscommunication" about whether the cello met the requirements to fit onboard the aircraft. "We apologize for the misunderstanding and customer relations will be reaching out to her," the statement read. A tearful Hu finally made it back to Chicago Friday where her husband, Jay Tang, was waiting. I dont think we did anything wrong here and I think the way they handled it was humiliating," Tang said. Hu says she hopes to get a sincere apology from the airline and hopes other musicians can learn from her experience. You had so many chances to tell me 'you cannot board' yesterday," she said. "You never told me until I sat down." Lincoln Park residents were on edge Friday after an alarming sexual assault attempt in the middle of the day and in an area bustling with businesses and families. Police say it was around 12:30 p.m. in the 1900 block of Nor Halsted Street when a man tried to sexually assault a woman in an alley but she was able to get away. The suspect however was taken into police custody. "You just think in the middle of the day that youd be safe going in and out of your alley," neighbor Kristen Ishbia said. "Cause I was just pulling my bike out around 11:30, so just an hour before this woman was attacked!" "Our bar has been able to identify many criminals because there are cameras everywhere," neighborhood bartender Lee Foster said. And Foster says its those cameras that caught the suspect stalking his victim. "The guy saw the woman from across the street, crossed the street followed her and then as soon as she got close to the alley, and he sped up and thats all that we were able to see," Foster said. It was enough to help police identify a suspect now in custody. The quick arrest was consolation for some neighbors, but not very much. "I think its very scary, very scary indeed and alarming that something like that could happen in the middle of the day," neighbor Ellen Gavan said. Anti-violence protesters who blocked Lake Shore Drive are threatening to shut down access to OHare International Airport. Rev. Gregory Livingston organized the Lake Shore Drive protest to ask Mayor Rahm Emanuel to help all of Chicago with gun violence. "If the mayor doesnt respond to the needs of his own citizens then we need to go and possibly disrupt airport traffic," Livingston said. Mayoral candidate and Emanuels former police chief, Garry McCarthy, supports the protesters but says the city shouldve blocked them from Lake Shore Drive. People are protesting because they dont have access to the mayor," he said. "They dont have access to vent whats going on." By allowing the protests onto Lake Shore Drive, McCarthy says the law was broken. "The city, not just the police, facilitated the illegal activity of blocking Lake Shore Drive by using sand trucks and snow plows to stop traffic," he said. The city also supported Rev. Michael Pflegers protests on the Dan Ryan Expressway this summer, so Livingston wants the city to allow protests on the Kennedy to OHare even if it impacts flights. Thats more the mayors worry than mine," he said. "Hes the one whos going to have to talk to his friends who are flying in to make multi-million dollar deals." There's no timeline for the OHare protest. The mayor's office did not immediately respond to NBC 5's request for comment Friday night. Lee Tager of Simsbury is accustomed to declaring his firearm and going through additional security screenings at airports. But the retired Bloomfield police officer said he was caught off guard during a round trip flight from Logan International Airport to Seattle Tacoma International Airport in April when his luggage was destroyed enroute. The locks had been cut off. The zipper had been broken. My suitcase was open. The clothes were wet, said Tager. Tager said he declared his unloaded firearm with JetBlue as required. An agent examined his luggage, verified his information and made sure he locked the weapon in an approved hard case. I asked them can I put on my own lock and they told me we recommend that you do put your own locks. So nobody has access to it, according to Tager. After the first leg of his trip to Seattle, Tager noticed the damage to his luggage. Thats when he filed a claim with JetBlue and reported the incident to a TSA agent in Seattle. He said the agent instructed him to go to the large baggage area where they perform hand inspections of the luggage. Once they completed that, Tager said the TSA agent approved his gun case. She said give me your lock. I will put it on there and I will mark your suitcase so that it will be noted as being inspected by the TSA. So the same thing doesnt happen, said Tager. But it did happen again. When he retrieved his wifes suitcase on the return trip to Logan, Tager said the zipper was broken. During his return trip, the TSA says it conducted the search of Tagers luggage in front of him. The agency says that was the only time they interacted with his bag. It was unacceptable because I made specific efforts to make sure that it wasnt going to happen again and the TSA told me it was not going to, said Tager. Tager told NBC Connecticut he filed a second claim with JetBlue at Logan for the $240 worth of damage to two pieces of his luggage. A week later, Tager said he filed two written complaints against the TSA. The TSA says they denied his claims. I want to find out why it happened, said Tager. So, he turned to NBC Connecticut Responds. A TSA spokesperson tells Responds: TSA is required to screen all checked baggage. Many airports, including Logan International Airport and "Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, have automated inline baggage handling systems that can screen luggage remotely as it travels along a series of conveyor belts, resulting in no physical inspection by TSA. "At Logan International Airport (BOS) the passengers luggage was screened remotely by the explosive detection system as it traveled along the inline baggage handling system into the airlines custody. TSA confirmedby reviewing inspection logs and CCTV footagethat at no point did the luggage physically interact with a TSA employee. "At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport the passengers luggage was screened at the over-sized luggage station in the ticket lobby, which is in plain sight of the passenger. CCTV confirms that the passenger observed the entire screening process and waited while the TSA officer placed a lock on the luggage. The luggage was then placed on the airlines baggage handling system and was never again in TSAs possession." Jetblues spokesperson confirmed that they did receive Tagers baggage complaints and stated: While damage to locks and zipper pulls fall outside the coverage of our Contract of Carriage, the team elected to send the customer a replacement bag and issue an additional $75 in JetBlue credit for the inconvenience. And this situation, turned out to be a valuable lesson for Tager. I did buy another suitcase. It does have a TSA approved lock on it. The TSA recommends that passengers contact the individual airlines for their policies on damaged items or to file a complaint and/or claim. Correction: The statement from the TSA in the original story was paraphrased and not the actual response from the agency. We have updated the story to include the full TSA statement. We have also clarified TSAs role in inspecting the bag on the return flight. Finally, we incorrectly reported that Mr. Tager had not received a response from the TSA. He received two denial letters for his damage claims. We have updated the story to reflect that. The National Rifle Association is accusing New York state of "blacklisting" the organization, costing it "tens of millions of dollars" this year and potentially making it "unable to exist as a not-for-profit or pursue its advocacy mission." The Second Amendment advocacy group says in a lawsuit that the state is hindering its fundraising efforts and cutting it off from insurance providers and "other financial services essential to the NRAs corporate existence and its advocacy mission, NBC News reported. And yet the NRA appears to remain at the peak of its powers, able to mobilize its millions of members to support state and federal political candidates who share its gun-rights agenda. It spent heavily on President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign, and now has an avowed supporter in the White House. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said late Friday the state is filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, The Associated Press reported. A priest in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth has resigned over claims that he failed to follow proper procedures for reporting suspicions of sexual misconduct. Rev. Richard Kirkham resigned June 4. Hed been the priest at St. Martin De Porres Catholic Church in Prosper since 2015. The accusation came to light after a racy letter Kirkham wrote surfaced in May. The letter describes, in graphic detail, a conversation he claims he had with a Dallas priest in October. The name of the priest was redacted in the letter by the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth. In the letter, the priest confides in Kirkham at a Frisco bar about having a sexual relationship with a woman in the church. We were sitting at the bar [sic] you had been drinking and you told me you had a girlfriend and were getting laid, the letter states. The letter, addressed to the priest, tells him hes about to be reported for violating church policy. But the priest took the letter to the bishop in Dallas. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Dallas said, Both parties in the Diocese of Dallas were shocked by the allegations and deny it to be true. Both of these individuals are believed to be credible." Father Kirkham was then disciplined for writing the letter, and asked to resign. He was not making this up, said Kirkhams attorney Jack Walsh. Walsh says he tried rescinding Kirkhams resignation days later but it was denied. He is still a priest he has been suspended from performing mass, Walsh said. Walsh says he and another attorney are looking at legal options in an effort to restore Kirkham's reputation and his place in the pulpit. The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth says Kirkham was asked to resign because he did not follow proper procedures for reporting suspicions of sexual abuse. According to the Fort Worth Diocese, there still has not been a report filed in the case. A Texas woman accused of trying to hide evidence in the 2014 death of her 2-year-old son and failing to find him medical care has pleaded guilty. Meagan Work pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and injury to a child by omission under a plea agreement in Travis County District Court on Thursday. "She has accepted responsibility for her part, and is going to leave her fate in the hands of the judge," said Darla Davis, Work's attorney. The 24-year-old's plea bargain eliminates the need for a jury trial, which had been scheduled for Aug. 20. "By entering this plea, we avoid the expense and effort of a jury trial," District Attorney Margaret Moore said. "Plus, for the state, it's very satisfying to have her admit to her guilt." The plea bargain was reached after prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of injury to child by commission that alleged Work caused her son's death, said Davis. Work contends she didn't hurt her son Colton Turner. Work's felony case has been delayed for years due to misleading statements she made to investigators about Colton's disappearance. Her former boyfriend, Michael Turner, 33, is serving 20 years in prison in the toddler's death after pleading guilty in 2016 to injury to a child. Work's four-day sentencing hearing is expected to begin Nov. 26. What to Know President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of a tight election, in Zimbabwe's first vote since the fall Robert Mugabe The peaceful vote had turned deadly when the military fired on protesters 48 hours later "The level of opaqueness, truth deficiency, moral decay & values deficit is baffling," opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said Zimbabwe's opposition leader forcefully rejected the election win of President Emmerson Mnangagwa as fraudulent, a vote "stolen from the people." Zimbabwe's closely-watched elections began with Monday's peaceful vote but turned deadly 48 hours later when the military fired on protesters and six people were killed. Friday morning three truckloads of police, with shields and batons, tried to disperse about 100 local and international press gathered to hear Chamisa. With cameras recording their every move, the police eventually pulled back, allowing Chamisa to give a blistering denunciation of Mnangagwa's win. "We won this election," asserted Chamisa, who said that rigging gave Mnangagwa victory. He declared "a day of mourning ... for democracy." Chamisa, who received over 44 percent of the vote, alleged violence and harassment against his supporters and manipulation of the election results. He said his opposition party has evidence of vote-rigging but that the electoral commission "didn't want to listen to us." There was a subdued reaction to Mnangagwa's win, marked by the apprehension that remained in Harare after the army rolled in with tanks on Wednesday to disperse rock-throwing demonstrators who denounced Mnangagwa and alleged vote-rigging in the country's first vote after the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. The military were not visible on Harare's streets on Friday. Water cannons and police remained present, however, at the headquarters of the main opposition party, a day after authorities raided it and made 18 arrests. Mnangagwa, Mugabe's former enforcer and confidante, said he was "humbled" by the victory and in a Twitter post urged Zimbabweans to stay peaceful. The opposition said it will challenge in court the results of the election, which Mnangagwa won with just over 50 percent of the vote. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, who received more than 44 percent of the vote, said on Twitter that "unverified fake results" had been announced by the electoral commission. The commission "must release proper & verified results endorsed by parties," he tweeted. "The level of opaqueness, truth deficiency, moral decay & values deficit is baffling." In a brief moment of drama shortly before the commission announced the winner in Friday's early hours, two agents for Chamisa's Movement for Democratic Change party took the stage and told waiting journalists that they "totally reject" the results and said they had not signed them as required, in protest. Police escorted them from the room. The week's events left many Zimbabweans with a sense of unease and questions about how different Mnangagwa is from his predecessor Mugabe, who stepped down in November under military pressure amid a ruling party feud after 37 years in power. The 75-year-old Mnangagwa has tried to recast himself as a voice of change, declaring that the once-prosperous Zimbabwe is "open for business" and inviting the Western election observers who for years had been banned by Mugabe. If this election is judged credible, it will be a big step toward the lifting of international sanctions on this southern African nation whose economy has long collapsed and whose reputation has suffered after years of repression of the opposition and allegedly rigged votes. So far international observers have issued mixed reviews, calling Monday's election peaceful and a break from the past but expressing grave concern about the military's "excessive" use of force. They criticized the delay in releasing the results of the presidential vote, saying it raised concerns about possible manipulation. Anxious Zimbabweans waited to see what would happen next. In Kuwadzana, a poor suburb outside the capital where groups of youths overnight sang and chanted MDC slogans before results were announced, it was silent. One street vendor in the capital, Roy Mukwena, said Mnangagwa "won by force. No, I'm not happy, just because these elections were not free and fair." Some, however, were content to move on and deal with the new leader. "Yeah, I think he's the right man. Because he has been there for quite some time and he knows where the weaknesses are," said a 29-year-old clerk who gave his name only as Eddy. "He has the experience from ... previous government. So he knows how to maneuver all the problems we have. I just hope he will do well." What to Know Dr. Laura Pinter-Brown, a former UCLA hematologist, won an extra $1.8 million to pay legal fees from a discrimination lawsuit. A judge sided with Pinter-Brown's claims in a February ruling that UCLA colleagues had discriminated against her due to her age and gender. UCLA was already forced to pay $13 million in damages to Pinter-Brown due to the initial ruling. Brown now works at UC Irvine. A former UCLA hematologist who won $13 million after claiming she was forced out of her job as director of the medical school's lymphoma program because a male-dominated administration ignored her complaints of age and gender discrimination was awarded another $1.8 million in attorneys' fees Friday. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Linfield said the amount was reasonable, despite protests to the contrary by attorneys for the Regents of the University of California. They argued that Dr. Lauren Pinter-Brown's lawsuit was a routine case and that lead plaintiffs' attorney Carney Shegerian's fees of $1,100 per hour were excessive. He was one of nine lawyers who worked on behalf of Pinter-Brown. "Mr. Shegerian is known as one of the top two or three plaintiffs- side trial attorneys," Linfield said. A jury on Feb. 15 found that Pinter-Brown was subjected to gender discrimination and retaliation. The panel rejected the 63-year-old doctor's age discrimination claim. Pinter-Brown, an expert in T-cell lymphoma research, testified that conditions for her became nearly intolerable at UCLA. "I lived in a state of terror, basically," she said. "I was anxious all the time." Pinter-Brown testified she was repeatedly berated for her clinical trial work by a subordinate physician, Dr. Sven De Vos, who also once turned his back to her during a meeting and often interrupted her when she spoke. "I was trying to establish myself as someone who was respected," Pinter-Brown said. "It was like the butt of a joke." Defense attorney Jason Mills said during trial that much of the conflict between Pinter-Brown and De Vos was rooted in their different ideas about how clinical trials should be conducted. In addition, some medical committee members became concerned about how Pinter-Brown's trials were proceeding, resulting in the suspension of her research privileges in June 2012, Mills said. The research privileges were reinstated in October 2013 and Pinter- Brown was doing well, but she departed for UC Irvine in January 2016 on her own volition, he said. In her argument opposing the Shegerian firm's fees request, defense attorney Kathryn McGuigan argued that the hourly rate charged by Shegerian is normally only seen by those who practice patent or antitrust law. She said Shegerian's fees on previous cases he won were for about $700 an hour. Lawyer Barbara Fitzgerald, also on behalf of the UCLA regents, told the judge that Pinter-Brown's lawsuit was a "run-of-the-mill case" that also happened to be tried in the midst of the #MeToo movement, likely benefiting the plaintiff. But Anthony Nguyen, who works for the plaintiff's firm, said Shegerian received $1,000 an hour in fees in a previous case. He also said the Pinter- Brown case was not an easy one to try because the plaintiff resigned due to the conditions at UCLA and was able to get new employment at UC Irvine. "A run-of-the-mill case?" Nguyen asked. "I think far from it." Nguyen also said that neither Pinter-Brown nor any of her lawyers have received any compensation since the verdict because the UC regents have appealed. What to Know Ralphs stores (select locations) Aug. 4 through Sept. 9 (select weekend dates) Fresh roasted chile for purchase Look, it happens. No one anticipates it. We try and avoid it. But sometimes? Your breakfast burrito underwhelms on the spicy end of the scale. Your posole lacks panache. And the carne adovada you'd hoped would sing with flavorful heat is on the blander side. But early August is an auspicious time of year for fiery food-makers and eaters-of-hot-stuff, for that's when the first truckloads of fresh Hatch chile begin to arrive in Southern California. Hatch chile? You know it: These are the world-famous peppers grown in Hatch, New Mexico, and they out-zest just about every other famous zesty pepper out there, once they're roasted and added to a host of classic caliente dishes. The Hatch chile's celebrity is well-earned, and soon it shall be well-eaten, for roasting season at select Ralphs grocery stores around Southern California will begin on Saturday, Aug. 4. Frieda's Specialty Produce partnering with Ralphs on this piquant 2018 roll-out of green chile goodness. Up first? The Ralphs at 521 W. Foothill Boulevard in La Canada Flintridge, beginning at 8 a.m. on Aug. 4 and ending by 2 o'clock. Temecula is next, on Aug. 5, and there are more Ralphs roastings to come, with Studio City, Pasadena, Costa Mesa, and San Clemente all on the luscious, pile-it-on list. Check the whole fragrant roster out ASAP. We do mean "fragrant," by the way, for if you can't find the roaster outside the Ralphs with your GPS, your nose will probably lead you to it. You can make reservations for your chile, by the by. The first weekend is filled up, reservations-wise, but walk-ups are a-okay. Reservations are open for later weekends. And surely you'll pile your green chile on, once it is nicely roasted, skinned, and chopped? Onto quesadillas and enchiladas and, gulp, even vanilla ice cream? Some people do, is all we're saying. No judgement. Only admiration. Superfans who dig their Hatch chile will want bundles of it, during this fairly tight window, so best arrive earlier in the day at whatever Ralphs you visit, if you want to score your stuff. Chileheads are an intense lot, as they should be, for once you're under the spell of the pod, that's that: You're chile for life. As far as the final day on the Ralphs 2018 roasting schedule? No one anticipates it. We try and avoid it. But, sigh: Sunday, Sept. 9 is the date to watch, with two locations still to be determined. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has an elite air rescue team that responds to roughly 300 calls per year, making them the busiest unit in the country. And they recently got a rare, unique challenge thanks to an urgent request from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. "We received what we call a mutual aid request," said Deputy Steve Doucette, a crew chief with the air rescue unit. It came from nearby Riverside County where a hiker trapped on a 1,000-foot cliff in Palm Springs had to be rescued. "[The hiker] was stuck in a very small, probably about a three foot area," Doucette said. Narrow canyons and a steep, almost vertical cliff face would mean a difficult approach for the helicopter known as Rescue Five. "If you could picture, [it was] almost like an L shape. So there's a cliff face, there's a cliff in front of us and he's tucked in this crack of a rock," Doucette said. Undaunted, Rescue Five geared up and prepared to face the challenge. "We had to get as close to the rocks in order to hoise within a reasonable distance to the aircraft," said Deputy Keith Edey, who pilots the squad's helicopter. Doucette said wind from the helicopter's rotor made things difficult for the rescuer going down to grab the hiker. The team was able to use the grounding cable, a line that discharges powerful static electricity generated by the helicopter, to pull the rescuer to the victim. Doucette said it takes "a lot of crew management between the pilot, the crew chief and the men working the aircraft," to get the team going. The rescue mission concluded shortly after the crew got out the victim from the narrow canyon with only small bumps and bruises. A U.S. citizen from California of Vietnamese descent who had gone missing in Vietnam in early July has been under detention in the country for almost a month, according to his family and a member of Congress. Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, a 54-year-old father of four who lives in Orange County, was detained on July 7 on his way back to Ho Chi Minh City from Da Nang, Vietnam, according to a statement from the family. They said he is under investigation for "activity against the people's government." "For sure, the family is looking forward to his full release and safe return to his family, his four girls and wife in California," Mark Roberts, Nguyens brother-in-law, told NBC News by phone. Nguyen left California in late June to visit friends and family in Vietnam, where he was born, Roberts said. Nguyen met with U.S. consular officials for about an hour on July 31 and appeared to be in good health, according to his family. A statement from the office of Rep. Mimi Walters, a Republican who represents a portion of Orange County, said the State Department received consular access on July 31. State Routes 74 and 243 in the Cranston Fire burn area re-opened at noon Saturday to Idyllwild, Mountain Center, Apple Canyon and Hemet, officials said. Motorists will be escorted by pilot vehicles on state Route 74 between Lake Hemet and Mountain Center, as well as from Mountain Center to Hemet, and were advised to expect delays of up to 45 minutes to allow pilot vehicles to take traffic in one direction of travel, then return. There will be no restrictions on state Route 243. [UPDATED 7/30] PHOTOS: Cranston Fire Tears Through Riverside County Mountain Communities Fewer than 200 firefighters and other personnel remained assigned to the Cranston Fire that burned 13,139 acres, destroyed 12 buildings and damaged five others near Idyllwild. The fire, which broke out on July 25, was 96 percent contained and all evacuation orders have been lifted. Full containment is expected Thursday. The blaze broke out off Highway 74 in the San Jacinto Mountains between Hemet and Mountain Center, just east of the Cranston Fire Station. Three firefighters were injured last week battling the fire, which authorities believe was deliberately set by a Temecula man who's also accused of setting eight other fires. [NATL-LA GALLERY UPDATED 10/28] Smoke and Fire From Space: Wildfire Images From NASA Satellites Brandon N. McGlover, 32, was arrested near Newport Road and State Street in Hemet about 12:30 p.m. the day the fire broke out and charged two days later with 15 felony counts. He pleaded not guilty and is being held in lieu of $3.5 million bail pending a Sept. 24 felony settlement conference. The cost of fighting the fire has been estimated at $20 million, with the final cost projected at $23 million, officials said. "Vista Grande Hotshots hiked into the South Ridge portion of the fire today to inspect the fire line and found no threats to the containment line," according to a Forest Service statement Friday that said residents may see glowing embers at night and minor smoke from smoldering heavy fuels in the interior portions of the fire. "Please do not notify authorities of this situation as fire personnel are monitoring all portions of the fire," officials said. Repairs to electrical infrastructure are complete and Southern California Edison and the Anza Electric Co-op were working to re-energize lines and Caltrans continues to replace guard rails and traffic signs along state Routes 243 and 74. All U.S. Forest Service lands in the San Jacinto Ranger District and the adjacent Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument were ordered closed to public entry. However, a new order that went into effect Friday reopened "the majority of popular hiking trails, campgrounds and roads on the district and national monument," according to the forest service. Some sites that will remain closed include the South Ridge Trail, the South Ridge Road and a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. The public can call 909-383-5688 for information on the closures. Kamala Harris has been the target of social media misinformation campaigns since she became a U.S. senator. Every month for the last 18 months, her office has discovered on average between three and five fake Facebook profiles pretending to be hers, according to a Harris aide. It's unclear who creates the pages, which are often designed to mislead American voters about the ambitious Democratic senator's policies and positions. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity, like more than a half dozen campaign officials contacted for this story, for fear of attracting unwanted attention from adversaries or scrutiny on the Senate office's evolving cybersecurity protocols. Such internet mischief has become commonplace in U.S. politics. Facebook announced earlier this week that it uncovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms. Senior intelligence officials declared Thursday that foreign adversaries continue waging a quiet war against U.S. campaigns and election systems. Still, one thing has become clear: With the midterm elections just three months away, campaigns are largely on their own in the increasingly challenging task of protecting sensitive information and countering false or misleading content on social media. The Democratic National Committee has worked to strengthen its own internal security protocols and encouraged state parties to do the same, according to Raffi Krikorian, who previously worked for Uber and Twitter and now serves as the DNC's chief technology officer. But in an interview, he acknowledged there are limits to how much the national party can protect the thousands of Democratic campaigns across the country. "We're providing as much assistance to campaigns as we can, but there's only so much we can do," Krikorian said. "For all the high-level campaigns I'm worried, but at least there are people to talk to," he continued. "The mid-sized campaigns are at least getting technical volunteers, but the truly down-ballot campaigns, that's where the state parties and coordinated campaigns can help, but there's no doubt that this is an uphill battle when we're dealing with a foreign adversary." Officials in both political parties have intensified cybersecurity efforts, although the known cases of interference have so far overwhelmingly focused on Democrats. The DNC now has a staff of 40 on its technical team, led by Krikorian and other Silicon Valley veterans hired in the months after Russians hacked the party's email system and released a trove of damaging messages in the months before President Donald Trump's 2016 victory. Top U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials raised new alarms Thursday about outside efforts to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections during a White House press briefing. Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said: "Our democracy is in the crosshairs," while Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats added: "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States." Facebook said it removed 32 accounts from its site and Instagram because they were involved in "coordinated" political behavior and appeared to be fake. Nearly 300,000 people followed at least one of the accounts, which featured names such as "Black Elevation" and "Resisters" and were designed to manipulate Americans with particular ethnic, cultural or political identities. In many cases, House and Senate political campaigns said they're just beginning to adopt basic internal security protocols, such as two-step verification for all email, storage and social media accounts and encrypted messaging services such as Wickr. There is no protocol in place for campaigns or national parties to monitor broader social media misinformation campaigns, however. Nor is there any sign that law enforcement is playing a proactive role to protect campaigns from meddling on a day-to-day basis. The FBI has set up a Foreign Influence Task Force and intelligence agencies are collecting information on Russian aggression, but campaigns report no regular contact with law enforcement officials. "At the end of the day, the U.S. government is not putting any type of a bubble around any (campaign). They do not have the authority, capacity or capability to do it," said Shawn Henry, a former senior FBI official who now leads the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which works with political campaigns. "NSA is not sitting in the ISPs filtering out malicious traffic." Henry added: "They've got to take pro-active actions themselves." Earlier this month, Microsoft said it discovered a fake domain had been set up as the landing page for phishing attacks by a hacking group believed to have links to Russian intelligence. A Microsoft spokesman said this week that additional analysis confirmed the attempted attacks occurred in late 2017 and targeted multiple accounts associated with the offices of two legislators running for re-election. Microsoft did not name the lawmakers. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network in 2017. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford of Nebraska also recently confirmed that his 2016 campaign emails had been hacked by Russian agents. Ashford, who narrowly lost his seat to Republican Don Bacon that year, said hackers obtained all of his campaign email correspondence with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He said he was notified of the breach in late July or early August 2016 by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's office. Ashford has said he doesn't believe any of the stolen information ever went to Bacon or the Republican Party, and he doesn't know whether it made a difference in his race. He did face a series of anonymous political attacks on social media. By their very nature, U.S. political campaigns can be a challenge to defend from a cybersecurity standpoint. They are essentially pop-up organizations that rely heavily on volunteers and are focused on a singular task winning. In addition, high-level IT expertise costs money and campaigns typically run on tight budgets. Some 2018 House campaigns have yet to hire basic communications staffers. In the case of California Sen. Harris, who is considered a 2020 presidential prospect, her office plans to continue rooting out fake social media profiles on its own. They have had no contact with the FBI. They have reported the issue to Facebook in every case not the other way around. "It's on the forefront of everybody's mind," said Patrick McHugh, a former Senate campaign official who now leads the Democratic-aligned super PAC Priorities USA. He acknowledged the tremendous challenge for many campaigns. "All it takes is one person on a campaign to make a mistake," McHugh said. "You're up against a foreign country. That's a pretty big adversary that can and will go to all ends to get in." AP correspondent Grant Schulte contributed to this report. Rosie O'Donnell and cast members from some of Broadway's biggest musicals plan to serenade President Donald Trump on Monday but from outside the White House in protest. The group will sing "The People's Song" from "Les Miserables," Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," ''A Brand New Day" from "The Wiz" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from "The Sound of Music" from Lafayette Park. The performers will be current and former Broadway cast members from "Wicked," ''Beautiful," ''Hamilton," ''Phantom of the Opera," ''The King and I," ''Les Miserables," ''Cinderella," ''Xanadu," ''The Producers," ''Head Over Heels" and more. The trip is organized by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, the host and producer of Sirius XM's "On Broadway." It will be livestreamed on the MoveOn Facebook page. A family is splitting in two in Florida, where the wife of a former Marine and Iraq War combat veteran is being deported after exhausting all her appeals. Tears flowed as Alejandra Juarez checked in for her flight to Mexico Friday at Orlando International Airport. Her husband Cuauhtemoc Temo Juarez, a naturalized citizen, had written a letter to President Donald Trump, who he had voted for, requesting help, Stars and Stripes reported. It was delivered through his congressman, Democratic Rep. Darren Soto. Alejandra Juarez said that if she could talk with Trump, she'd ask how he could let this happen, since her husband served the United States and Trump "always says he loves the military and he's doing everything for the military." There is an immigration policy for military members and their families called "parole in place," NBC News reported. The Citizen and Immigration Services website says they provide discretionary options such as parole in place or deferred action on a case-by-case basis. The 39-year-old woman lived in the U.S. for 20 years without trouble until a traffic stop in Davenport, Florida, exposed her legal status. Afterward, she regularly checked in with U.S. Immigration and Customs officials, which typically went after higher-priority targets like people with criminal records. Temo didn't figure his vote for Trump would affect them personally. That was before the enforcement of Trump's "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal immigrants. Alejandra Juarez raised two American citizen daughters, ages 16 and 8, with her husband, a naturalized citizen who runs a roofing business. The older daughter, Pamela, cursed at the immigration agency before her mother checked in for her flight, saying, "My mom is a good person. She's not a criminal." For now, Alejandra Juarez was traveling by herself. After she is settled, younger daughter Estela will join her. Temo Juarez will care for Pamela in Florida and pay the bills. "My husband fought for this country three times. The administration, yourself, you think you are punishing me. You're not just punishing me," she said, referring to her family. "I hope this make him happy. Perhaps we will forgive him." Alejandra Juarez petitioned to become a citizen in 2001, but was rejected because she was accused of making a false statement at the border when she sought asylum in 1998, said her attorney, Richard Maney. Asked about her citizenship, she had told authorities she had been a student in Memphis, Tennessee for a short time, and border officials apparently thought she was falsely claiming to be an American citizen, the attorney said. U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., who couldn't get the votes in Congress for legislation to allow Juarez to remain, called her situation disgraceful. "We're not going to give up," he told her with a hug at the airport. "It's an absolute disgrace by the Trump administration to be deporting a patriotic spouse," Soto said. "Her husband, Temo, served in the Marines ... while she was at home on the home-front, raising two young women. What justice does this serve?" Alejandra Juarez ultimately decided to "self-deport" to Mexico, rather than turn herself in to be detained and then deported. After 20 years in the United States, she no longer has family or friends in the country, so she chose Merida, a city in the Yucatan where a small community of deported military spouses might help her. Emotionally spent, she wiped her own tears behind sunglasses and stroked Pamela's hair while gripping Estela, who stood by her side. Temo Juarez said he preferred not to talk before they were all escorted through security for their final goodbyes. The aroma of toasted almonds and sesame seeds, chiles and spices emerges from this small Brooklyn store where about 1,600 pounds of mole poblano is made every day. Three generations of Mexican women work inside, wearing white hairnets while they peel, cut and grind ingredients, standing next to enormous two-handled pots with onions and garlic boiling in oil. There is so much to do, says Damiana Bravo, a petite woman of nearly 80, when asked why she still works. The matriarch started making the Mexican sauce in New York in the 1970s to sell it to her fellow factory workers. Now, her dark-hued paste of ground chiles and a dozen other ingredients is distributed to bodegas, supermarkets and restaurants in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina. Getty Images Preparing the sauce, a staple of Mexican culture, is not for the fainthearted. It takes two days to make and involves the seeding and toasting of dried chiles, the frying of almonds, the grinding of sesame seeds, and the cooking of dozens of ingredients, including chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, peanuts and a several herbs. Year after year, the family-run business on Knickerbocker Avenue uses the recipe Bravos mother used to make in Piaxtla, a town of about 5,000 in the state of Puebla. Bravo, her two daughters and two granddaughters still use pasilla and mulato chiles as key ingredients. The result is a mole not too spicy, not too sweet, that resonates among Mexican-food lovers. According to Mexican government data, there are about a million people of Mexican origin in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and nearly half are from Puebla. When I first tried their mole, it brought me childhood memories, says Arturo Leonar, who has bought Bravos mole for the last 12 years for his restaurant, Chavelas, in Brooklyn. Bravo moved to the U.S. from Piaxtla in the 1970s. In the 80s, three daughters and two small granddaughters joined her in New York. The familys mole production increased considerably about 15 years ago, when the two granddaughters, Sally and Canny Rojas, spread the word about the business. They were forced to learn how to drive so they could distribute mole in the Bronx and other neighborhoods. Now, several men help the women in the family. Two grandsons stir the heavy paste in the pots, and Sallys husband and a great-grandson of Bravos drive a truck to distribute the sauce. On a recent Tuesday morning, a Spanish-language telenovela played on a small TV on the corner while the women worked alongside one another with methodical repetition. They placed the mole in small plastic containers. They peeled garlic. They ground sesame seeds in a big, rudimentary mill purchased in Puebla and transported to New York. Bravo attached stickers that say in red letters, Mole Poblano Asuncion Corp, to small plastic containers the family sells for $6.50. A 25-pound container costs $162.50. We feel proud because we never thought we would get to this point, says Candida Fuentes, 60 and one of Bravos daughters. I feel that this business has also brought us close as a family because here we are every day; every day we see each other and every day we talk. Bravos family calls the sauce La Asuncion to honor Piaxtlas patron saint, Our Lady of the Assumption, and hope to find a bigger space to make it. They also hope to sell online soon. I used to work at a beauty salon and I left it more than 10 years ago to do only this, says Sally Rojas, who is 35. There is no going back now. What to Know A 12-year-old girl was abducted from DCA airport Thursday morning. She was visiting from China. She was found in Queens, NY, Friday, officials said. Authorities said she is safe and with her parents. A 12-year-old girl who left Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with an unknown woman has been found safe in New York City, officials said Friday. "We are pleased to share that Jinjing Ma has been found and is safe," the Reagan Airport tweeted. Jinjing Ma was reported missing Thursday from Reagan Airport in D.C. and was located Friday in Queens. The Washington Airports Authority said in a statement that Ma was found "safe and in the custody of her parents." Ma, who is visiting the U.S. from China, was reported last seen at the airport at 8:15 a.m. Thursday. Her tour group had visited multiple cities in the country, and after spending a night in D.C., they arrived at the airport for the next leg of their journey. Authority police Chief David Huchler said at a news conference Friday that the girl excused herself to go to the bathroom Thursday after getting her passport at Reagan Airport. He said the girl met a woman, changed clothes and got into an SUV with New York tags. Huchler said a couple had earlier approached Ma while her tour group was at the World Trade Center. He said there appeared to be a link between that couple and the people she met at the airport. Investigators previously said Ma was abducted. They later called her a "critical missing juvenile." Investigators said there appeared to be some familiarity between Ma and the couple, but they didn't know what they said or whether they knew each other. Police didn't say when the New York encounter occurred. It's not clear if the woman who approached Ma at Reagan National Airport was the woman who approached her in New York. Police believed Ma and the woman left the airport in a white 2016 or 2018 Infiniti QX70 with New York plates. A man was driving. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority released photos Thursday, including the following photo of a woman and a man arriving at the airport's ticketing and departures level. Another photo showed the woman with the girl. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority A witness told police he may have seen the woman meet up with Ma in New York and give her food. Police said they were working to contact Ma's grandfather, who lives in China, and reaching out to her relatives who live in the U.S. An SUV belonging to a New York woman reported missing has been found in Fairfax County, Virginia, and police have arrested a man for stealing the vehicle. Vianele Tavera, 50, left her home in New York for a planned trip to Philadelphia. The mother of five has not been in contact with her family since Saturday, July 28, police said. Fairfax County police said Tavera's Acura MDX was found in the 9000 block of South Park Circle in Fairfax Station on Monday. Officers were initially called there about a man inside the SUV who needed medical attention, police said. They found 38-year-old Luis E. Negron-Martinez, of Philadelphia, inside the SUV. Police then discovered the SUV belonged to Tavera and she had been reported missing. Officers then obtained a search warrant and found a handgun inside the vehicle. Negron-Martinez was arrested on charges of grand larceny and possession of a concealed weapon. He was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and held without bond. Fairfax County police said Negron-Martinez and Tavera know each other. Police believe Tavera made it to her destination, but that she may have been harmed. Fairfax County authorities said they have been working closely with the New York Police Department, Philadelphia Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police. Police are asking anyone with information related to the disappearance of Tavera to call 703-691-2131. What to Know The former Mountain View Diner traveled nearly 250 miles from Willimantic, Connecticut, to Philadelphia. The diner will reopen as the Wayne Junction Diner an homage to a former restaurant and train station that was nearby. This is the sixth time the diner has moved since it was built by a New Jersey company in the 1950s. Philadelphia's newest diner was greeted by eager guests and antique collectors as it literally rolled into town Friday. The 1950s Mountain View diner traveled 244 miles south from Willimantic, Connecticut, to Berkley Street in Philadelphia. There, it will reopen as the Wayne Junction Diner. It'll be named after a restaurant formerly located across from Wayne Junction Station, which closed in the 1990s. The nostalgia of the Wayne Junction Diner will be a major draw to lower Germantown and a key ingredient to its revitalization, said Ken Weinstein, President of Philly Office Retail, the company that owns the diner. "Anyone can build a building and call it a diner, but its much more difficult and people appreciate it more if you do something like this. Moving the diner required a lot of coordination. Police in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had to work together to make sure the building traveled safely and, once in Philly, the driver had to navigate the citys narrow streets. Area residents and visitors from other Philadelphia neighborhoods greeted the diner with enthusiasm as it drove up to its location. Carolyn Sutton traveled from East Falls because of the diners long history. I collect antiques and things like that so I love everything thats from the past, Sutton said. This isn't the first move for the diner. It has quite a travel history: Originally manufactured by the Mountain View Diners Company in New Jersey, the diners first move was to Waterbury, Connecticut, where it originally opened as Egans Diner. The diner then moved to Willimantic and became the Windham Diner until 1971 when it made the move to Southington, Connecticut, as G. Ottos Hiway Diner. In 1986, it moved back to Waterbury and operated under the name Valley Diner until 1993. The diner found new life back in Willimantic in 2005 when it became Mickeys and was later connected to the college-oriented nightclub Jonathans Cafe. They detached in 2016, and the diner was put up for sale. In May 2018, Philly Office Retail purchased the diner as part of the Wayne Junction Revitalization Project. The project began in Oct. 2017. While the diner wont open as the new Waynes Junction until next year, children attending the opening already knew what they wanted to eat. One of the kids told NBC10 she wanted fries, a burger and some milkshakestwo milkshakes. The diner, which currently seats 65, will be expanded before the opening to include a larger seating area, a new kitchen and bathrooms. Weinstein believes the diners memorable move in will make it worth the wait. It is not every day that a 1950s diner arrives in our city, Weinstein said. People will remember where they were on this day for years to come. The new Wayne Junction Diner will be the second diner Weinstein has delivered to Philadelphia. The first diner, a 1952 Mountain View, arrived in 1999 and opened in 2000 as Trolley Car Diner in Mount Airy. President Donald Trump took the stage at an arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Thursday evening as the main character in a campaign rally for Lou Barletta, the Republican candidate trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in November. Trump served as master of ceremonies for an event in which several thousand people came from across northeastern Pennsylvania and waited hours to see a president that Luzerne County voters overwhelmingly voted to send to the White House. Barletta, who trails by double digits to the incumbent Democrat Casey, is hoping the rally serves as an ignition point for a campaign that so far has lacked fuel in the way of name recognition and campaign funding. At the last reporting deadline June 30, Casey had $10 million compared to $1.5 million for Barletta. After the event started promptly at 7 p.m., the president spoke for much of the next 90 minutes. He talked about his long political relationship with Barletta, an early supporter of Trump's presidential run and what one pollster has called "Trump before Trump was Trump." But Trump also talked about Barletta's opponent, Casey. His initial remarks about the two-term senator included a claim that he has "never met" Casey. President Donald Trump told a crowd in Wilkes-Barre during a campaign rally for Senate candidate Lou Barletta that he has met or has he? two-term Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat running for re-election in November. "I've been in Washington now for more than a year and a half, I hardly, I am honestly, Im not sure I ever met Bob Casey, I never met him," Trump said. But then he continued: "And I'm sure I did, I shook his hand. His father was a good man, a totally different person. I don't think, I don't know this man. Hes a senator, theres 100 senators, I dont know him." To put Trump's confusion to rest, there is photographic proof that Trump has in fact met Casey: Evan Vucci/AP That photo was taken Feb. 13 during a meeting at the White House. Trump and several House and Senate members from both parties, including Casey, discussed proposed tariffs on imported steel. Here's the exchange Trump and Casey had during the meeting: SENATOR CASEY: ... In your opening, you talked about the job impact, as well as the national security impact, and Im glad you raised both. Ill just focus on national security. In Western Pennsylvania, as well as in Eastern Pennsylvania, you have two examples among several. But the two are AK Steel in Western Pennsylvania. They are the last remaining manufacturer of electrical steel, meaning the steel that goes into our electricity grid. Theyve been hammered by this, as you know. In the eastern part of the state, as Senator Young from Indiana mentioned, ArcelorMittal THE PRESIDENT: Theyve been hammered by what? SENATOR CASEY: Hammered by not having the remedy the 232 remedy. THE PRESIDENT: Okay. SENATOR CASEY: To the extent that you can focus on that, I think the steel executives the letter they sent you on the 1st of February, I think, outlines the problem. But this really is a national security issue. THE PRESIDENT: Why didnt the previous administration help the steel workers? Why didnt the previous administration work on 232? SENATOR CASEY: Well, look, I think there are a lot of us that had disagreements over the years, with the administration then, about being more aggressive on this issue. THE PRESIDENT: Tremendous disservice. SENATOR CASEY: I just hope that in this I know its a 90-day period youre in, but I hope you can promptly determine it. THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. A spokesman for Casey's re-election campaign noted Friday that Trump may also recognize the senator from three other interactions in recent months, and as recently as this week. "The president's attacks also haven't stopped him from signing into law three of Senator Casey's bills in the last four months, including the first major workforce training legislation in 12 years, which was signed just this week," Casey spokesman Max Steele said in an email. A non-student accused of exposing himself Thursday at Cal State San Marcos (CSUM) was issued a stay away order from campus, school officials confirmed Friday. The man was reportedly masturbating in his car in Parking Lot C just before 5 p.m. when a female student walking past saw him. The University Police Department described the suspect as a clean-shaven male in his 20s with a Middle Eastern accent. His car was described as a light gold or beige BMW with California license plates. A school spokesperson confirmed Friday that the suspect was positively identified as a non-student. The school said the case was being submitted to the District Attorneys Office. A federal judge on Friday said the Trump administration was solely responsible for reuniting hundreds of children who remain separated from the parents after being split at the U.S.-Mexico border, puncturing a government plan that put the onus on the American Civil Liberties Union. "The reality is that for every parent that is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration," U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said. His remarks in a conference call came a day after the administration and the American Civil Liberties Union submitted widely divergent plans on how to reunify more than 500 still-separated children, including 410 with parents outside the United States. The government proposed Thursday that the ACLU, which represents parents, use its "considerable resources" to find parents in their home countries, predominantly Guatemala and Honduras. The Justice Department said in a court filing that the State Department has begun talks with foreign governments on how the administration may be able to aid the effort. Sabraw said he was disappointed with the court filing "in the respect that there's not a plan that has been proposed." He said he would order the government to name someone to lead the effort. "This is going to be a significant undertaking, and it's clear that there has to be one person in charge," he said. Left unresolved Friday was a temporary halt on deporting reunified families that Sabraw imposed on July 16 to allow time to address another dispute. The ACLU has asked that families have at least a week to decide if they want to seek asylum after they are reunited with their children, a step that the administration opposes. Sabraw said he wanted to wait to see how a federal judge in Washington, D. C., rules on a lawsuit that also seeks a temporary halt on deportations. If that judge transfers the case to San Diego, Sabraw said he planned to convene a hearing next week for oral arguments. In late June, Sabraw ordered that more than 2,500 children rejoin their parents by July 26. Hundreds remain apart, however, mainly because their many of those parents are outside the country. Survivors of a deadly shooting at a Florida high school joined a march in Virginia to protest what they consider efforts by the National Rifle Association to block gun-control laws and bans on assault rifles. Protesters descended on the NRA building Saturday for the "National March on NRA" at the association's headquarters. Among the activists and organizers will be students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the February shooting in which 17 students and staff members were killed. Speakers highlighted the horrors of gun violence and urged listeners to vote out lawmakers who have resisted gun reform laws. Bria Smith, a rising high school senior from Milwaukee, decried the prevalence illegal guns as a cause for violence and said police brutality should count as gun violence. "I know what it's like to be afraid to leave your own front door for the threat of being struck by a stray bullet," Smith said. She "I want to remind every single person in this crowd: Our vote is our power and we will use it." Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed during the Parkland shooting, called for stricter gun laws and urged the crowd to vote out legislators supported by the NRA. He directly addressed counterprotesters in the crowd. "I happen to be a believer in the Second Amendment," Guttenberg said. "To those who are outside of this crowd walking around with AR-15s and other weapons, if you're a lawful gun owner, I hate the fact that you think you have to make a point to those of us who have lost loved ones." Marissa Lang, a Washington Post reporter, tweeted a picture of at least one counterprotester holding a firearm. Police have separated #MarchOnNRA protesters from counterprotesters. Some elected to stay, and there are some v civil debates happening in the crowd here, including between this young man in a tactical vest, and a young woman with a sign that says, NOT TODAY -Satan- NRA. pic.twitter.com/Oda7gwJvHZ Marissa J. Lang (@Marissa_Jae) August 4, 2018 Police kept protesters and counterprotesters, some of whom were armed, separated during the rally. Scores of demonstrators turned up, holding sunflowers and signs with messages including "N.R.A. Russian Front" and "$1.18," referencing how much money gun reform groups say the NRA has donated to politicians per U.S. student. A judge ruled Friday evidence exists that could prove there is a second suspect in the slayings of four people found dead in a northwest D.C. mansion. For more than three years, Daron Wint has been the only suspect accused of killing Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their 10-year-old son, Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, who were found dead inside the Savopoulos family's multimillion-dollar home in May 2015. Wint's defense presented the judge with evidence suggesting someone else killed them. The judge said the evidence already exists in what the prosecution collected and the defense doesn't have to explain the evidence to the prosecution prior to the trial. "It's evidence that the government turned over in the course of discovery, so they think its reliable to some extent," legal expert Bernard Grimm said. "They just didnt believe it was enough to charge that person because they had Wint." He said Friday's ruling is a turning point in the case. "The government not only needs to prove that Wint is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but that the other guy didnt do it beyond a reasonable doubt," Grimm said. Wint, of Lanham, Maryland, kidnapped the victims inside their home, extorted $40,000 from them, killed them and set fire to the $3 million house, according to police. He allegedly held the victims captive for roughly 18 hours. The prosecution said it has tested hundreds of items found in the Savopoulos home, and DNA linked Wint to five items. Wint pleaded not guilty to 20 felony charges in the brutal crime. The murder charges include four counts each of felony murder in the course of a kidnapping, felony murder in the course of a burglary and felony premeditated murder. Wint faces life in prison without possibility for release on each murder charge. The minimum sentence is 30 years on each murder charge. Jury selection begins Sept. 5. The trial could last up to two months. UPDATE: Metro's board chair now says the transit system will not have separate trains for demonstrators. This story is no longer being updated. See here for the latest coverage. Metro is considering providing separate trains for opposing groups when demonstrators come to Washington, D.C., for a "Unite the Right" rally Aug. 12, the chairman of the transit agency's board said. "We have groups clearly at odds with each other," Chairman Jack Evans said. "We'd like to keep the groups separate. We don't want incidents on Metro." "Unite the Right" demonstrators plan to use Metro from the Vienna, Virginia, station to Foggy Bottom in D.C. Police and Metro are making plans to avoid a deadly confrontation like the one at the Charlottesville, Virginia, rally last year. "Maybe put all of one group on a train or a certain car on a train," Evans said. "We're trying to see how can we keep the groups separate so we don't have any incidents but not put in place programs that could be problematic in the future." According to Metro's largest union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, sources said a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan will be provided with three private Metrorail cars. The union said more than 80 percent of its membership is people of color. "We draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech, especially considering that the courts granted Metro the ability to deny ads on buses and trains that are 'issue-oriented,'" ATU Local 689 President Jackie Jeter said. "We find it hypocritical for (Metro General Manager and CEO) Mr. (Paul) Wiedefeld to make these unprecedented special accommodations for a hate group." The union is advising its members to do what they feel is best to stay safe Aug. 12. Metro would not confirm that separate trains are even being considered. "As we do for all events of this nature, Metro is working collaboratively with law enforcement to ensure safe travel for our customers and employees," Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said in a statement to News4. "Transit Police are engaged in ongoing discussions with MPD (the Metropolitan Police Department), the lead agency for the Aug 12. event, as well as Virginia State Police and others as to how to keep everyone safe on that day. While details of the plan are security sensitive at this stage, I can tell you that it has not been finalized." D.C. police plan to provide and escort for the protesters from Foggy Bottom to the White House, Evans said. The National Park Service gave initial approval for his application for an Aug. 12 "white civil rights" rally at Lafayette Square, near the White House. Four counterdemonstration applications have been filed as well, according to the National Park Service, but no permits have been issued yet. Last August, hundreds of people traveled to Charlottesville to participate in the "Unite the Right" rally and protest the city's plans to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a park named after the Confederate general. The list of scheduled speakers included several leading white nationalist figures, including Richard Spencer. On the eve of the Aug. 12 rally, dozens of young white men wearing khakis and polo shirts marched through the University of Virginia's campus, carrying torches and chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. The next day, hundreds of white supremacists and counterprotesters clashed in the streets before a car plowed into a crowd, killing 32-year-old counterprotester Heather Heyer. James Fields Jr., 21, of Maumee, Ohio, is charged with murder in Heyer's killing under Virginia state law. He is charged separately in federal court with hate crimes. A monthslong investigation of the rally violence, led by former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy, found the chaos stemmed from a passive response by law enforcement officers and poor preparation and coordination between state and city police. In July, rally organizer Jason Kessler reached a settlement agreement in a separate lawsuit over last summer's violence in Charlottesville. Kessler signed a consent decree in which he agreed to "actively discourage" coordinated, armed activity at any future rallies in the city. More than a dozen other defendants signed similar agreements. Also last month, Kessler withdrew his request for a court order allowing him to stage an event in Charlottesville. Lisa Woolfork, a University of Virginia professor and Black Lives Matter Charlottesville organizer who attended the hearing, said she felt sure white supremacists would return to Charlottesville with or without a permit. "What's more important is that we as a community come to resist," she said. Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney said the department would prepare for an event and monitor social media. "We understand that the weekend and that day has national significance and even international significance, so we are going to be prepared for that weekend to come regardless," she said. What to Know Republican Glenn Jacobs, aka Kane, won his mayoral bid in Knox County Jacobs also runs an insurance and real estate company A former WWE wrestler known as Kane has won a "no-holds-barred, last-man-standing" round, this time in the political ring. Glenn Jacobs went by Kane in the WWE. Now the 6-foot-8, 300-pound Republican has the title of Knox County Mayor. Jacobs runs an insurance and real estate company and was leading Democrat Linda Haney by a large margin with most of the votes counted on Thursday. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Jacobs claimed victory at his watch party. He said some politicians responded with "pretty resounding laughter" when he announced his decision to seek the top job in Tennessee's third-largest county. Jacobs said he doesn't normally use wrestling analogies for campaigning. "But this professional wrestler got into a no-holds-barred, last-man-standing match, and when the bell rung, he was victorious," he said. "We were victorious." Jacobs follows in the footsteps of Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who was a professional wrestler before he was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998. Fellow wrestlers The Undertaker and Dustin Rhodes also known as Goldust posted photos and congratulatory messages on social media. Jacobs won a close primary in May. Those results were delayed when the county's election-reporting website crashed after a concerted cyber attack that experts deemed "malicious." County officials said no voting data was affected, the vulnerability was fixed, and additional safeguards were put in place. Haney ran small businesses with her husband before she retired, and was considered an underdog in the solidly Republican county. The body of a Massachusetts boater who went missing Thursday was recovered Saturday afternoon in Moosehead Lake in Maine, officials said. At approximately 12:45 p.m., Warden Divers located the body of 66-year-old Robert Hammond, a Hanson, Massachusetts resident who was last seen getting gas from store before heading to the lake. It is believed that Hammond left the Spencer Bay camps with his boat Thursday morning the traveled south to Greenville, Maine to dock his boat. Officials suspect he bought gas from a local store then headed back to Moosehead Lake, where his boat made a 180-degree slow turn for unknown reasons. Hammonds body was found near the south end of Moose Island, not far from where wardens found his boat. Maine Warden Service remind boaters to wear life jackets when operating boats. Juba, South Sudan On a dirt path dotted with bright-red bougainvillea, women in ankle-length dresses gather in groups of five or more before venturing into the forest. Right outside the largest refugee camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital, sickles readied in their hands to cut firewood, the women say banding together offers a tiny sense of security, a little protection and the reassurance that if something happens to them inside the forest one of them might escape to tell someone. Armed forces Continents and regions Demographic groups Females (demographic group) Immigration, citizenship and displacement International relations and national security Middle East and North Africa Military Northern Africa Population and demographics Refugee and relief camps Refugees Sex and gender issues Sexual assault Society South Sudan Families and children Parents and parenting Africa Regions - Africa In four or five hours, they'll be back at the camp, one of them says. "If God is willing," another adds. In the five years of South Sudan's civil war, 1.9 million have fled to camps within the country, where the UN provides physical protection as well as food rations amidst an ongoing famine. To cook the food rations, firewood must be collected -- a task that falls to the women. "If you're in the forest to collect firewood and the soldiers see you, they will rape you," Nykeer Mut, the women's leader of one of the camp's zones, said. "But what are we supposed to do?" The women know of the dangers, she said. They've heard of those who, far from the protection of the camp's razor wire and UN soldiers, were raped, tortured and kidnapped. Or they have experienced it themselves. Based on interviews, the UN estimates that 70% of women living in camps have been raped. Since the beginning of the conflict in 2013, South Sudanese army soldiers have been accused of using rape and other forms of sexual violence as a tactic of war, aimed at systematically traumatizing and humiliating entire ethnic groups. Outside the refugee camp, when the women get to the forest, soldiers are often already waiting for them, hiding behind tall grass and tree trunks, Mut said. The day soldiers raped Mut, she recounted that the grass was high and everyone in her group was focused on the task at hand, hoping to return to the camp as quickly as possible. Nobody had seen the soldiers coming, she said. When the soldiers jumped out of the grass, the women screamed to alert others. They ran for their lives, but the grown soldiers' steps easily outpaced those of Mut's 10-year-old daughter, who had come to the forest to help. The soldiers grabbed the girl. Mut turned around. "I couldn't leave my daughter," she said. As they tied Mut's hands behind her back, they talked about how young the girl looked, Mut said. "They said: 'Let's just rape the mother.'" One soldier pushed Mut to the ground. Two others pinned down the girl, forcing her to watch. The government has not replied to requests for comment, but a government spokesman told Al Jazeera last September that soldiers who rape are punished. The same spokesman also questioned survivors' claims. Four other residents of the camp said that they too had been attacked in the forest, and several more said that rape and assault are common. Christine Ayoo, the head of an International Rescue Committee center where rape cases are recorded at the camp, says that such attacks happen every day. "It's not just rape, we even have kidnappings and killings," she said. A few months ago, a search party was looking for a small group of women who had disappeared in the forest. They found remains hanging from ropes on a tree -- six in total. The number didn't match the missing group, suggesting that they had found another group. "But we couldn't identify them anymore," Ayoo said. The solution, Mut, Ayoo and others suggest, could be simple: If each family was provided charcoal or firewood, nobody would have to venture outside anymore. South Sudan's civilians face many dire challenges. An ongoing famine is currently threatening the lives of some 5.7 million people, and humanitarian organizations are scrambling to get emergency relief to the starving. This year alone, 20,000 have fled insecurity and hunger to neighboring Ethiopia. A peace deal is currently being discussed, but such agreements have been made in the past, and the hope for real resolution is low. So far, the UN has received only about one-fifth of the funding it has appealed for. "We are in a totally resource-poor environment where we are really just trying to save lives," said Andrea Cullinan, the gender-based violence coordinator for the United Nations Population Fund in South Sudan. If there was sufficient funding, Cullinan said, NGOs could look into alternatives, such as teaching people how to make briquettes from animal manure or grass. Such initiatives would mitigate risks, however, and not address the root cause of the rape epidemic: Gender inequality. Civil war, a breakdown of rule of law and impunity for perpetrators has worsened the situation, Cullinan said, "but if it didn't have patriarchal norms that place traditional expectations on women, then you wouldn't have gender-based violence." With South Sudan's entrenched patriarchy, the chance for girls to obtain an education is harder than anywhere else in the world -- so hard, in fact, that they are more likely to have been married as teenagers than to have gone to primary school. Their role is that of obedient daughters, sisters and wives, their domains restricted to childcare and cooking. That's also why only women are seen heading into the forest. That men are more likely to be killed than raped plays a role, but even if it were safe, women in South Sudan say societal norms dictate that they fetch firewood. And the burden to prevent incidents of sexual violence stays with women and girls who are instructed to protect themselves. They're told: Be careful how you act, mind your environment. And if you can, don't venture out of the camp. But none of that had protected Mut, or other women like her. In the afternoon, the women trickle back into the camp from the forest, balancing bundles of firewood as heavy as 60 kilos on their heads. The physical weight doesn't bother them -- they are used to it, they said, and it doesn't compare to the psychological burden of having to go into the forest. Mut isn't among them anymore. She hasn't returned to the forest since the attack, and is now living off her meager savings, buying firewood off those who are still taking the risk. What happens when she runs out of money? She stared at the blank wall of her mud house and sat upright, her turquoise rosary swinging from her neck. She only knows that neither her nor her daughters will ever venture into the forest again. "I'd rather starve," she said. The fire department in Everett, Massachusetts, is mourning the loss of their first and only female firefighter, who died Wednesday from occupational cancer. Fifty-six-year Susan Pipitone of Haverhill battled the disease for more than a year. "Today we lost our one and only Active Duty female Firefighter/Engineer in the history of our department, Susan Pipitone, to Occupational Cancer ... rest easy now Sue ... we'll take it from here," read a statement on the Everett Firefighters Facebook page. The Central Fire Station has been draped in black to honor the loss the beloved firefighter, who had been with the department since May 26, 1993. "I think she took a tremendous amount of pride in being the first female firefighter," said Everett Fire Chief Tony Carli. For the last dozen years, Pipitone was the driver for Engine 1. "She loved the fire department. She loved all of us, and she had other passions. She was in a band so she loved her music, rode motorcycles, love her wife deeply, they had a real tight connection. She was just a really, really good person," said Craig Hardy, president of the Everett Firefighters Union. Cancer is becoming a major concern for all firefighters. Coincidentally, Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation last week that recognizes cancer as a work-related condition for Massachusetts firefighters, requiring health insurance coverage for their illness. "This cancer is 100 percent an epidemic within our world. We lose too many too quick to the disease," said Hardy. The loss of one firefighter to cancer and the injury of two others several weeks ago on the job is making things difficult for the citys 100-member department. "We lost a member of our family. We lost Sue. It's very tough, coming off the heels of our two firefighters injured on July 13. We've had a really tough month here," said Carli. A wake for Pipitone is scheduled for Friday from 4-8 p.m at Rocco's Funeral Home in Everett. Fellow firefighters will hold a uniformed walk through ahead of the service. Pipitone's beloved Engine 1 will also be a part of the service. Funeral services will be held at the funeral home Saturday at a 10 a.m. A Firefighter Honor Guard will conclude services at Woodlawn Cemetery. Pipitone leaves behind her wife of 18 years, Darlene Braley; her mother, Fran Pipitone; a brother; a sister; a niece; two nephews and an extended family. Lightning set fire to a library Friday afternoon in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Fire officials confirm a blaze was reported at the Hopkinton Town Library around 4:45 p.m. Crews arrived to find light smoke coming from the cupola, a structure on the library's roof. A second alarm was ordered after Hopkinton Fire Chief Jeff Yale assessed the smoke conditions in the cupola and the eaves. It was difficult for firefighters to access the cupola and crawlspaces, but officials say the fire was quickly under control. Crews from the neighboring communities of Concord, Hillsborough, Boscawen, Henniker, Warner and Bow assisted Officials did not immediately give a damage estimate or say when the library would reopen. Friday's storms left significant damage across New Hampshire. What to Know Two tornadoes touched down as powerful storms ripped through New England. Three buildings were deemed unsafe and had to be demolished in Webster, Massachusetts as a result. Webster fire chief says there was only one minor injury, thankfully. Two tornadoes touched down Saturday in New England, causing extensive damage. An EF-1 from Dudley, Massachusetts to Webster was reported at 110 mph while an EF-0 with winds up to 80 mph was reported in Woodstock, Connecticut. Trees are down and roofs were ripped from buildings, according to multiple reports. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado early Saturday afternoon but said they are continuing to survey the damage, adding in a tweet that it will "take quite some time" to determine intensity, path and width of the tornado. Residents in Dudley, Massachusetts are cleaning up following a tornado that touched down in the area. The tornado warnings expired at 10:45 a.m. after being in effect Saturday morning for Worcester and Middlesex counties. The most significant damage appears to be along Main Street in Webster near the Dudley town line, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said in a tweet Saturday that the significant damage in Webster and Dudley displaced both residents and businesses. This morning's tornado has caused significant damage in Webster and Dudley, displacing both residents and businesses. @MassEMA is coordinating the response with local officials, utilities and the @RedCrossMA. Thank you to first responders and others for your quick response. Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) August 4, 2018 "[Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency] is coordinating the response with local officials, utilities and the [American Red Cross]," Baker's tweet read. "Thank you to first responders and others for your quick response." Main Street at the Webster-Dudley line was shut down due to damage from the tornado. "In Dudley, the main impacted locations include the Schofield Ave, Chase Ave, Central Ave, Cross Street, and West Main Street near the Webster line," Dudley Police Chief Steve Wojnar said in a statement. "There are power outages and numerous roads, including much of Websters South Main Street, blocked by debris and trees. Several are Impassable. Non-emergency vehicle and pedestrian traffic are asked to stay out of the area, especially due to downed power lines." The Uxbridge Fire Department confirmed building damage in Webster early Saturday, and images showed part of a roof that was ripped off of a Webster building. MEMA shared there have been reports of significant tree debris in Dudley, but no significant structural damage at this time. In Webster, three buildings were demolished, two commercial and one mixed use that includes several apartments in the upper levels, according to MEMA. An additional four to five buildings have been declared uninhabitable. Webster Fire Chief Brian Hickey said it was necessary to tear down three buildings that were deemed unsafe. The roof of the first brick building was torn completely off and it landed on the second building. It sounded like a train coming through, the woman said of the weather event, which has been confirmed as a tornado. "Everything that's being torn down is being treated as hazardous waste," Hickey said. The fire chief, along with town administrator Doug Willardson, held a 2 p.m. press conference Saturday to provide an update. Hickey said the immediate concern is the safety of residents in the area, and crews will be focusing Saturday evening on restoration of power, telephone poles and getting downed trees out of the area. "We're working to open up the streets and get things back in order," Hickey said. Willardson added, "we'll get this cleaned up as soon as we can." A woman told NBC10 Bostons Mike Manzoni that her business was completely destroyed by a possible tornado in Webster. Hickey said most residents in town had their power back online; more than 880 Worcester and Essex County residents remained without power as of 2:45 p.m., and National Grid remained on scene to resolve the outages. At one point, more than 5,600 people were without power following the tornado Saturday. Webster Deputy Police Chief Michael Shaw told NBC10 Boston there was one minor injury but they are making sure everybody else who was affected by the event has been accounted for and is okay. "It was a woman who was traveling on Main Street and a piece of debris hit her car and caused a minor injury. She was transported to the hospital but believe she is going to be okay," he said. Hickey confirmed that woman has since been treated and released for her minor injuries. Tia Durand-Paradis, of Southbridge, was in downtown Webster for a ribbon cutting ceremony when the severe weather moved through. She described what she witnessed as the storm came through. He added she was inside her vehicle, driving down Main Street when the tornado came through. Hickey said when the roof of the first building came off, landing on the second and third building, part of it also landed on her car. Hickey said thankfully there were no other injuries. "Extremely lucky... very fortunate to only have one minor injury," he said. Cleanup crews and utilities on the ground were on scene all morning and afternoon Saturday. "We are running through with MEMA, and we have the Red Cross on scene, obviously the fire department and EMS, everyone is working," Shaw said. The deputy chief, who was in Worcester at the time the tornado touched down, added that the damage is pretty good in size, and that Main Street in Webster took the brunt of the damage. PHOTOS: Tornado Causes Major Damage in Central Mass. "We've got several buildings that were affected, a couple of them were vacant. We do have some buildings that are contained apartments that unfortunately had to have residents evacuated," Shaw said. "Our building inspector is checking to make sure that those are OK in case they are able to go back into them. If not, we have opened an emergency shelter. But we've got a lot of debris down, telephone poles snapping. From what I'm being told, the majority of the town is without power, so we're taking precautions. We have National Grid on scene, both gas and electric, making sure that we can try to resolve that situation as soon as possible." Hickey said 30 to 50 people are homeless following the tornado. He added the American Red Cross is on scene to assist those people in finding temporary housing. Shaw said everything happened pretty quickly, and while images do show the damage, seeing it in person "doesn't prepare you when it's your community." "We have a very dense downtown with a lot of buildings, and it could have been a lot, lot worse. And fortunately it wasn't." Tia Durand-Paradis, of Southbridge, was in downtown Webster for a ribbon cutting ceremony when the tornado touched down. She described what she witnessed as the storm came through. "The whole sky changed...it was just like sideways rain, and the windows kind of started rattling so everyone kind of made their way downstairs...by total luck the backdoor blew open which I think saved all of the windows from smashing, but the next store over, the costume shop, blew out every window that's in the place, and just a few doors down I guess took the roof right off the building, so it was pretty intense," she said. A tornado warning has expired for Middlesex and Worcester counties in Massachusetts. Durand-Paradis added that they were concerned because the Main Street buildings have all glass fronts. "We were just focused on the glass not coming in at us," she said. "Looking out at it, the only way I can explain it is if you were to stand in an automatic car wash, like it was just torrential downpour, and sideway winds and things just literally blowing by." Durand-Paradis said she has never witnessed anything like it, adding it was pretty scary to experience. Kristen St. Laurent, who owns the Dancer's Sole on Main Street in Webster, told NBC10 Boston they all took cover in the basement. "We grabbed our stuff and ran downstairs and we heard a loud bang and the power went out and it was extremely scary, one of the scariest moments of my life," St. Laurent said. "I was honestly in shock and panic, and I don't even know, I ran, and my safety, and my mom's safety, and my staff's safety, that was my first priority. I didn't care about anything else. I just wanted to get to a safe area and make sure that we were going to be OK. Damage is damage and it can be fixed. You know, people can't be replaced so that's what's important." St. Laurent added her dance studio suffered a lot of damage. "We do have a lot of damage, we do have windows blown out in our front studio, lots of glass, water. Our upstairs studio, part of the roof is missing so we can look up and see the sky which is a little devastating...we definitely have some work to do and repairs to get done," she said. On Pleasant Street in Webster, an electrical pole snapped in half. One woman who has a business down the road from there discussed the devastating damage following the tornado. Severe Storms Cause Flooding and Damage Throughout New England "It took the whole roof off," the woman said. "We have trees down, everything. It's our business, and it's destroyed. We lost everything over there." The woman said she was at the store when it touched down. "Thank God we weren't here, we probably would have been gone with it," she said. The business woman said she witnessed a lot of damage, including at stores like CVS and gas stations. She added it will take time to rebuild everything. The Auburn Fire Department sent ambulances to Webster for station coverage, as Webster was backed up on multiple calls for both Fire and EMS. The Southbridge Fire Department covered Dudley, as both Dudley and Webster received multiple calls due to the tornado. Willardson thanked all of the emergency responders Saturday and said they appreciate everyone who reached out. "It's been an all around good effort to respond," the town administrator said. The town's senior citizen center was opened for a period Saturday to allow people to cool off. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service conducted damage surveys in Woodstock, over to Dudley and to Webster, according to a second tweet. They made the determination that it was a tornado. NBC10 Boston meteorologist Michael Page says it's all about the trees when surveying damage. He says the direction the trees fall is very telling. If the trees are perpendicular to each other, it would indicate there was rotation touching down. The National Weather Service team moved into Dudley around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon as it continues to work southwest along the track towards Woodstock, Connecticut. The team will then work back toward Webster and toward Grafton as it continues to do an evaluation of the tornado's strength along the track. Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito surveyed the damage at 3 p.m. Saturday. Chief Hickey said the Department of Environmental Protection was also on scene to investigate the source of a spill into a nearby river. He added that booms and spill pads were placed in the river to try to contain the spill, but officials are not currently sure how much has spilled into the water. It's not immediately clear what kind of spill it is. With the sky darkening, the wind picking up, and the rain starting, Don Johnson says he rushed to get his family into the basement of their New Hampshire home. "We saw, like, a wall of water. We couldn't even see the lake," the Gilmanton resident said. "The doors were flying open." The storm hit the community around Sawyer Lake Friday evening, leaving trees on top of houses. Downed power lines and toppled trees made driving in the area dangerous. "We couldn't even hear the trees come down, it was blowing so hard," Lou Thibault said. "A little bit of excitement I wasn't expecting to have." By dusk, clean-up and power crews were on the scene, starting to clear toppled trees. As they worked, residents waited, hoping to be able to return to their homes. As they did, they recounted a crazy evening in Gilmanton. "All of a sudden the windows just went black, and you just saw the branches flying, and I looked out and we had trees wrapped around our house," another resident said. "I was scared at the moment, and right now, I'm must relieved my brother wasn't hurt." Southwest of Gilmanton, lightning struck the Hopkinton Town Library, causing a 2-alarm fire. A tornado warning has expired after being issued issued for parts of southeastern Worcester County and south central Middlesex County in Massachusetts. It was in effect until 10:45 a.m. Saturday. The National Weather Service - Boston allowed the warning to expire as the circulation associated with it weakened. Meteorologists are now continuing to monitor the threat and are focused on heavy rain and flash flooding for eastern and southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, particularly urban areas of the Boston/Providence corridor. A flash flood warning was issued for parts of Suffolk County (Boston), Essex County, Norfolk County and Middlesex County in Massachusetts until 1:30 p.m. An earlier tornado warning for parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island has since expired, as well. Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed. Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur. Tree damage is likely. Click here to see active severe weather alerts. An earlier story follows: Each day this week seems to have outdone the previous as far as thunderstorm activity goes. Hundreds of reports of damage from trees being broken by wind, to flooding, to lightning strikes, and perhaps a tornado or two all occurred from noon through sunset Friday. Severe Storms Cause Flooding and Damage Throughout New England Saturday picks right up where we just left off. Although it shouldn't be as hot, the storms are going to be widespread with heavy rain and flash flooding likely. The ground is saturated in much of southern Vermont, southern New Hampshire, and central and western Massachusetts. With another two to four inches of rain possible, flooding may be the biggest issue of the day. Showers and storms start the day in an arc from north-central Maine through central New Hampshire, and much of Vermont through central Massachusetts and Connecticut first thing in the morning. The arc then contracts and moves east and south as the day goes on. Perhaps some of the Pan-Mass bicyclists will make it to the Cape Cod Canal ahead of the rain. Rain moves into southeastern New England after two in the afternoon, and then to Cape Cod by evening. Rainfall in excess of three inches is likely, with possible damaging thunderstorms, as well. We'll see partial clearing overnight, with temperatures cooling to the 60s in Western New England, but remaining sticky with a low in the 70s east. [NATL] Extreme Weather Photos: Record Heat Threatens Europe Sunday is by far the pick of the weekend with partly to mostly sunny skies and a high temperature back to near 90 degrees, but humidity will be down a notch. Monday looks similar, close to 90 degrees. Then Tuesday is also near 90 degrees, but thunderstorms come back, leading to a slight cooling trend for the second half of next week. The Glenholme School in Washington recently held its 14th commencement exercises. The event not only marked graduation, but it celebrated the schools 50th anniversary. More than 200 parents, family members, friends, faculty, and fellow schoolmates gathered to salute the 18 members of the graduating class. Glenholme Executive Director Maryann Campbell provided the welcome address, highlighting the history of the school, beginning with gift of the Glenholme Farm to the Devereux Foundation in the mid-1960s and all the schools accomplishments on campus, in the community, and the around the world over the last 50 years. She followed with memorable tributes to the soon-to-be-graduates as their images scrolled across the backdrop. Today, we are recognized for all of our hard work and achievements, said Michael, Student Council president. But more importantly, we leave Glenholme as positively changed people. After the speeches, awards and scholarships were bestowed upon six deserving seniors. The honors included the Susan Clark Memorial Scholarship and the Harry Van Sinderen Award for exceptional character values. Campbell returned to the podium to convey the Campbell Spirit Community Awards, recognizing two individuals for their participation in every after school program available that Glenholme has to offer its students. Following the honors, each member of the Class of 2018 received his or her diploma and time in the spotlight. Additional musical pieces were perfectly woven into the event including Light of Glenholme, the school song, and the graduates rendition of Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). Closing remarks were then made by the schools executive administrator. Experts from the world's major heart surgery organizations-;including The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), the Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS), and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS)-;are calling for urgent action to develop and implement effective strategies for treating rheumatic heart disease (RHD), which affects 33 million people and kills 320,000 annually. The joint statement, known as the "Cape Town Declaration," was published online today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and eight other journals. The statement originated during a December 2017 conference in Cape Town, South Africa, arranged to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the world's first successful heart transplant operation. The conference was attended by representatives from STS, AATS, ASCVTS, and EACTS, as well as from numerous other national and pan-national heart surgery organizations, including the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons, the Brazilian Society of Cardiovascular Surgery, and the World Heart Foundation. "The Cape Town Declaration represents the first truly worldwide initiative on rheumatic heart disease and involves every major cardiothoracic surgical organization throughout the globe," said STS President Keith S. Naunheim, MD. "While this may only be the first step, we look forward to a joint effort that involves not just surgical organizations but industry, regulatory agencies, legislative bodies, and charitable foundations. Only through such a coordinated effort can we hope to roll back the tide of global rheumatic heart disease." RHD accounts for a major proportion of cardiovascular disease in children and young adults in low- and middle-income countries. It most often begins in childhood as strep throat. Left untreated, strep can progress to rheumatic fever and then RHD, which is characterized by one or more damaged heart valves. Although virtually eliminated in Europe and North America, RHD remains a leading cause of cardiovascular mortality in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, the South Pacific, and impoverished pockets of developed nations. "The global burden of mortality from what is essentially a treatable disease remains underrecognized by different factions of society, including many health care providers," said AATS President David H. Adams, MD. "The Cape Town Declaration is a call to arms to work together to treat those currently suffering from RHD and hopefully to one day shift the focus to prevention through access to appropriate antibiotic treatments of streptococcal infections." Currently, the only effective treatment for RHD is open heart surgery; however, this life-saving operation is not readily available in the affected regions. In those populations most vulnerable to RHD, the need for heart surgery is estimated at 300 operations per 1 million people. However, there is a serious shortage of both heart surgeons and hospitals that perform cardiac surgery in those areas most susceptible to the disease; for example, there is only one cardiac center per 33 million people in Africa. Furthermore, valve reconstruction as opposed to valve replacement in rheumatic disease is often possible and associated with better survival after surgery, and these techniques need to be broadly expanded through educational efforts in affected regions. "The majority of people in the developing world are still lacking access to quality cardiac surgery," said Friedhelm Beyersdorf, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. "The recent 50th anniversary of the world's first heart transplantation in Cape Town should be the turning point." ASCVTS President Shinichi Takamoto, MD, PhD, agreed. "We need a coordinated international effort, which draws upon the experience of fighting this disease in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere in the world, to make true progress in eliminating RHD." Previous efforts to address RHD have focused on prevention and, while important, have failed to eradicate the disease, meaning that surgery likely will remain an integral part of RHD treatment for several generations. The declaration signatories are proposing a comprehensive solution with two principal aims: To establish an international coalition of individuals from cardiac surgery societies and representatives from industry, cardiology, and government to evaluate and endorse the development of cardiac care in low- to middle-income countries. To advocate for the training of cardiac surgeons and other key specialized caregivers at identified and endorsed centers in low- to middle-income countries. More specifically, the declaration sets forth that the proposed international coalition should include two representatives each from STS, AATS, ASCVTS, and EACTS, along with one person from the device manufacturing industry and another from the World Heart Foundation. This group will be responsible for establishing criteria for the clinical care and training centers, as well as selecting and endorsing the centers. In addition, the declaration states that providers should receive training relevant to the conditions and resource-constrained settings that they can expect to encounter in their own countries. The statement also calls for the identification and endorsement of up to three clinical care and training centers to form a program nucleus as quickly as possible. New Delhi: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several other opposition parties, including Congress, on Saturday held a candle march at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to protest against the alleged sexual exploitation of 34 minors at a shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur. The former Bihar deputy CM was joined by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in his dharna that soon turned into a show of opposition unity. The collective demand from Jantar Mantar read: Death penalty for all offenders within three months. Leading the protest, Yadav demanded prime accused Brajesh Thakur be hanged till death. In a show of unity, the protest was also joined by CPI leader D Raja, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, former JDU leader Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Shehla Rashid. We want Brajesh Thakur to be hanged till death. If you see, the number of crimes in Bihar has increased in the past one year. Cases of gangrape are being reported back to back from various districts of the state. The ruling party has only worked towards saving the accused and using all possible ways to bypass the law, said Yadav at the protest. Yadav also alleged a lackluster approach by the state machinery that has led to a delay in investigating the Muzaffarpur rape case. Even after the report of Child Commission was out, no action was taken. FIR was lodged two months after the Tata Institute report came out and in that, too, name of the prime accused Brajesh Thakur was missing somehow. Brajesh has been a close aide of Nitish Ji, Yadav added. Taking a personal stance, Yadav also said that he has seven sisters who have daughters as well and is ashamed of the fact that people in the country are not able to protect women. Lending support to the cause, Gandhi said, If Bihar CM Nitish Kumar really feels bad about what happened, he should take the matter to the Supreme Court and get an independent CBI inquiry done as soon as possible. Kejriwal said that this is the same Jantar Mantar from where the Nirbhaya protest rocked the foundation of the then UPA government and this time its about 40 Nirbhayas. He demanded death sentence for the accused and political figures defending him. On Friday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke his silence over the incident and said that it has shamed the government, adding that those found guilty will be severely punished. Muzaffarpur mein aisi ghatana ghat gayi ki hum sharamsaar ho gaye. CBI jaanch kar rahi hai, High Court iski monitoring kare (The incident in Muzaffarpur has shamed us. The CBI is investigating it and I want the High Court to monitor it), Kumar said. The shelter home came under the spotlight following a social audit report by TISS, which detected large-scale complaints from inmates of sexual exploitation. Medical examination of the inmates confirmed sexual exploitation in the case of 34 of the 44 girls. The police registered a case against 11 people, including Brajesh Thakur and Madhu Kumari, on May 31. All 44 girls have since been shifted to short-stay homes in Madhubani, Patna and Mokama. The top Democrat in the New Hampshire state senate is under pressure to step down after he was charged with domestic violence. The New Hampshire attorney general's office on Thursday announced the arrest of Jeff Woodburn, charging him with several misdemeanors, including simple assault, domestic violence and criminal trespass. The victim, a woman, is described as an "intimate partner" in a news release, and Woodburn allegedly struck her, threw water at her and broke into her home. In June, Woodburn allegedly bit the woman on her hand and forearm, resulting in bruising, the release said. Continents and regions Crime, law enforcement and corrections Crimes against persons Criminal offenses Domestic violence Government and public administration New Hampshire North America Northeastern United States Politics Resignations Society The Americas United States Violence in society Political organizations US Democratic Party US political parties Woodburn is serving his third term and running for re-election in the fall. His office did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment. But in a statement to The Washington Post, Woodburn said he intends to "fully address and defend against these charges in court," not addressing whether he will stay in office. But the charges have prompted multiple calls for him to resign, including from the leader of the state's Democratic Party and its two Democratic US senators. "We take these accusations against Sen. Jeff Woodburn very seriously and stand with his accuser and support her during this unimaginably painful time. We are asking Senator Woodburn to resign from office immediately," Raymond Buckley, the state's Democratic Party chairman, said at an event in Exeter, New Hampshire, Thursday night, according to video posted by Paul Steinhauser, a reporter for the Concord Monitor. "Domestic violence should always be condemned in the strongest terms and there must be accountability for acts of abuse," US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement. "I'm appalled by these charges and call on Jeff Woodburn to resign." "We must never tolerate the grave and despicable crime of domestic violence," US Sen. Maggie Hassan said in a statement. "Given these extremely disturbing and serious charges, Jeff Woodburn must resign immediately." Senate President Chuck Morse, a Republican, also called for Woodburn to step down. Woodburn is scheduled to be arraigned on August 20, the attorney general's office said. Info Stone at the Lake Louise displays a brief info about how the lake got his name and why it is called 'Lake Louise'. (Image: News18/Varun Sharma) Finance ministry in China announced new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the US New Delhi : China announced retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods ranging from liquefied natural gas (LNG) to some aircraft, as a senior Chinese diplomat throw doubt on prospects of talks with Washington to solve their harsh trade conflict. The Donald Trump governance tightened pressure for trade concessions from Beijing this week by announcing a 25 percent tariff hike on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. China promised to retaliate while also urging Washington to act rationally and return to talks to resolve the dispute. The United States and China executed tariffs on $34 billion worth of each others' goods in July. Washington is expected to soon implement tariffs on an additional $16 billion of Chinese goods, which China has already announced it will match immediately. China has now either imposed or just proposed tariffs on $110 billion of U.S. goods, representing the vast majority of China's annual imports of American products. Last year, China imported about $130 billion of U.S. goods. The finance ministry of China revealed new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States, with the extra taxes ranging from 5 to 25 percent. "The U.S. side has repeatedly escalated the situation against the interests of both enterprises and consumers," it said. "China has to take necessary countermeasures to defend its dignity and the interests of its people, free trade and the multilateral system." Adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump said the new tariffs were not as severe as the White House had been refreshing for, and he warned China not to test Trump's determination. "They better not underestimate the president," White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said in an interview on Fox Business Network. "He is going to stand tough." Islamabad : About 1.67 million votes were excluded from the count in Pakistan's July 25 general election, surpassing the number of ballots rejected in 2013 polls, according to a report by an independent poll watchdog. Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) is a coalition of 30 domestic non-governmental organizations that observe general election and mobilize voters. According to the FAFEN report, the increase in the number of discarded ballots was a ubiquitous phenomenon observed in Pakistan's all four provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Overall, the increase was recorded at around 11.7 per cent. There were more than 100 million registered voters in Pakistan but out of them, only about 51 per cent exercised their franchise, according to the Election Commission. Around 40 per cent increase in the number of rejected votes was observed in Balochistan, 30.6 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 7 per cent in Sindh and 6.6 per cent in Punjab, said the report cited by Geo News. In ICT, the number of ballots excluded from the count was over double the discarded ballots in the region in 2013 election. The report also said that the number of votes excluded from the count surpassed the margin of victory in 120 (21 per cent) of the 570 provincial assembly constituencies where polls were conducted. These included 58 constituencies in Punjab, 24 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22 in Sindh and 16 in Balochistan. The victory margin in 79 national and 169 provincial assembly seats was less than 5 per cent of the total votes cast, FAFEN said. Tripoli : The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that nearly 680,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Libya in May. "In May 2018, IOM Libya identified 679,897 migrants in Libya from 42 nationalities, 8 per cent of them are minors," Xinhua news agency quoted the organisation as saying on Friday. "The top five nationalities were Nigerian, Egyptian, Chadian, Sudanese and Ghanaian. Together these nationalities account for up to 65 per cent of Libya's migrant population," it added. Libya has become a preferred departure point for illegal immigrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe due to insecurity and chaos in the North African country following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Refugee shelters in Libya are crowded with thousands of migrants who have been rescued at sea or arrested by the Libyan security services. : Sao Paulo, Aug 3 (IANS/WAM) With the attendance of diplomatic and cultural figures, authors and publishers, the 25th Sao Paulo International Book Fair began its 10-day celebration of books and literature, with Sharjah taking the centre stage as its first-ever guest of honour, reflecting the growing cultural ties between the UAE and Brazil. On the sidelines of the opening ceremony on Thursday, the Sharjah pavilion, hosting a cultural programme for the fair's visitors, was launched amid the presence of top leaders and officials of Brazil and Sharjah. Sheikh Fahim bin Sultan Al Qasimi, leading the Sharjah delegation in Sao Paulo, said: "We are proud to be here in Brazil, a country of acclaimed authors who have shaped global literature. Its vibrant and exciting literary history, which is preserved in novels, plays, poems and songs. "It exemplifies a society where people share a unified cultural identity, which they use as a shield to face common challenges. The exceptional beauty and distinctive flavour of Brazilian and Latin literature never fail to mesmerise," he said. Sheikh Fahim affirmed that the United Arab Emirates enjoyed close cultural relations with Brazil and was keen to strengthen their cultural ties, to build a better future together. "This year's edition is the first to honour a city in the Middle East. Sharjah, our guest of honour, is the cultural capital of the UAE, and we look forward to experiencing the richness of its culture, through its music, dance and literature," said Brazilian Book Chamber President Luis Antonio Torelli. --IANS/WAM soni/sed About 1,500 schools have been destroyed in last 10 years in Pakistan New Delhi : Schools and colleges in Pakistan has become a hotspot for terrorism. Twelve girls' schools have been set ablaze by unidentified persons, corresponds the attacks in the countrys agitated Gilgit-Baltistan. The attack seems to be triggering protest by local residents who asked safety for educational institutions which are often attacked by the militants, a media reports. The schools in Chilas town, about 130-kilometre from Gilgit, were targeted late last night by unidentified men who also damaged school property across Diamer district, police said. "Explosions were also set off in two schools," Geo News reported, quoting police officials. Following the attacks, local residents staged a protest at Siddique Akbar Chowk demanding the arrest of culprits and seeking safety for educational institutes which are often targeted by the militants, it said. Pakistan cops have started a search operation in the area to arrest the perpetrators. According to the district administration, the schools were under-construction. For past few years, girls' schools have been a target for attackers in the northern areas of Pakistan. In 2011, unidentified persons had also blown up two girls' schools. In 2004, girls' schools in Chilas came under a string of attacks. Nine schools of which eight were girls' schools were attacked and destroyed in five days in the area in February. Terrorists have also blown up educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Report confirms that about 1,500 schools have been destroyed in the tribal belt during the last 10 years. Sorry! This content is not available in your region REDDING, Calif. - A picture of a cat and hen who were brought together during the Carr Fire are going viral on social media. Grass Valley crews were on patrol in Redding last Friday when they came upon the pair huddled together in a doorway. Firefighters say the cat and the chicken both had burns that would require treatment. Fire crews say they gave them water and the SPCA picked up the animals and took them for treatment. Both the cat and chicken are expected to make full recoveries. (NBC News) The White House cheered Friday's numbers showing another drop in the jobless rate. "These are good numbers. This is another strong jobs report in a series of strong EMP reports," said Jared Bernstein, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. China warned today, if President Trump continues to escalate the trade war, it will retaliate by hiking tariffs on U.S. beef, seafood, and thousands of other goods totaling $60 billion. Meanwhile, more evidence surfaces showing that the President doesn't take the threat from Russia seriously. Soon after his top intelligence officials affirmed the Russian attack on U.S. Elections, the President threw cold water on it. "We're being hindered by the Russian hoax," exclaimed President Trump at a rally. Read More here. Almost a year since opening its doors in the Sportsplex, Candlewood Market is planning to add some new gear to its shop with the help of some additional funding from the Town of Fairfield. The family-run coffee shop at 85 Mill Plain became the latest recipient of a micro-enterprise grant from the towns Department of Community & Economic Development. The grant will be covering the cost of new equipment that owner Tony Inzero plans to add to his family-owned and operated shop, which he opened in December 2017. Were happy to be in Fairfield and with the welcome that we have received from the Town, said owner Tony Inzero in a press release. My family and I look forward to providing great coffee and exceptional service to the Fairfield community for many years to come. The Brookfield resident opened the cafe with his family last year, with the goal of offering resident coffee and tea lovers with an alternative to commercial cafes With 12 years of experience in coffee roasting, starting in Colorado and branching into his hometown, Inzero and his family opted to open the coffee and tea emporium with an emphasis on offering fresh coffee and tea that would give competitors like Starbucks, which is less than a mile away, a run for their money. Along with traditional coffee beverages, Candlewood Market is known for kombuchas as well as a Nitro Bar dispensing cold brew coffees and teas. It also features specialty grab & go prepared foods, bakery items and unique gifts. The grant was awarded through the towns Micro-Enterprise Assistance Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The program provides entrepreneurs with training, technical assistance and startup capital to create and sustain their businesses. To be eligible candidates need to be a micro enterprise employ five to 10 employees among other stipulations. We try to assist all businesses that meet the criteria, said Mark Barnhart, Director of the Department of Community & Economic Development. We were thrilled to provide a grant to Candlewood Market, they were one of the latest businesses to open at the Sportsplex, they are an independently owned and operated coffee shop. With Inzeros background in the coffee industry, Barnhart said the program committee was impressed with his track record of running businesses. Candlewood is joining the ranks of local businesses that have been awarded the additional funding through the assistance program. Past recipients have been Alchemy, The Salon, Swim N Surf, and Ballroom DanceSport Center, which is also located in the Sportsplex. Jordan.grice@hearstmediact.com A movement to ban plastic bags that harm fish and other wildlife in Long Island Sound is slowly gaining traction along Connecticuts shoreline. Towns from the New York border to Stonington are considering bans on plastic bags the type grocery stores and other retailers hand out daily, as well as plastic straws and other products. But so far, only Greenwich and Westport have banned plastic bags. Similar bans are being considered in Stamford, Norwalk, Newtown, Waterford and Mansfield, to name a few. Its become common in the ecosystem, said Bill Lucey, the Long Island Soundkeeper, referring to plastic bags and other products. Its coming into the Sound from the shoreline and from rivers, Lucey said. This stuff can last for a 100 years. The Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport recently banned banned plastic straws and is now using only biodegradable food containers. "Single-use plastics are a source of land and sea pollution that cause the death of birds, marine mammals and sea turtles," said Gregg Dancho, the zoo director. "Were proud of the first steps weve taken to be part of the solution." In Massachusetts, 81 cities and towns have regulated plastic bags, either imposing a five or 10 cent fee per bag or banning them outright. Plastic everywhere Lucey has seen the volume of plastic in Long Island Sound first hand. He said boats towing a special net routinely pull up shellfish with plastic microfibers inside them. Activists say plastic, whether in the form of a bag, bottle, straw or microfiber that slips through sewage treatment plants, causes severe damage to animals such as clams, fish, birds, turtles and seals. Plastic bags are ingested by sea turtles; it gets stuck in their stomach, Lucey said. A fin whale in the Mediterranean Sea that recently died had 50 pounds of plastic in its stomach. Lucey noted dozens of species in Long Island Sound are threatened. There is a whole range of impacts, from big animals to micro feeders, Lucey said. We are working to define the problem and find solutions, Lucey added. You can bring your own shopping bag to the store. There are technologies that can be put in sewer plants. Another solution is banning bags and straws. A bill before the legislature last year sought to slap a five cent fee on plastic bags to discourage use. The legislation moved out of one committee but was not put up for a vote in the Senate or House. Straws and bags The National Park Service estimates that Americans throw away 500 million single use plastic straws every day enough to fill 46,444 school buses. The United Nations says 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans each year. The Citizens Campaign for the Environment said a plastic bag is used for an average of only 12 minutes but can remain in oceans, landfills, parks and on beaches for thousands of years. Robert Burg with the Long Island Sound Study, an arm of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said the volume of plastic in the Sound is startling. We do cleanups along Long Island Sound and last year in one day we took 18,000 pounds of debris off the shore, Burg said. The top items collected were cigarette butts, which have plastic in them, plastic stirrers, straws and grocery bags, Burg said. Clearly the evidence exists that plastic is being found on the shore, and its coming from the shoreline as opposed to ocean currents, Burg added. The Connecticut River, which winds throughout New England, is also a major source of plastic, along with other rivers that enter the Sound, Burg said. Awareness campaign The Long Island Sound Study has begun a public awareness campaign to alert people to the growing problem of plastic. The campaign is focusing on not using single use material and to use reusable, Burg said. Both Lucey and Burg said its not known how much plastic is in the Sound and along its shores, although studies are under way to find out. We really have no feel for the volume, Lucey said. The EPA does not have a protocol. But a lot of people are looking at it. Lucey said the solution comes down to a choice between the convenience of plastic bags and the effort involved in bringing a reusable bag to a grocery store. People have to determine what the value is to have clean water, Lucey said. bcummings@ctpost.com Bioengineered lungs have been grown in a Texas lab and transplanted into adult pigs with no medical complication. This could begin solving the human transplant problem starting in about 5 years. They could grow lungs to transplant into people in compassionate use circumstances within five to 10 years. Transplant organs were recovered from 10,281 deceased donorsmore than a 3% increase from 2016 and a 27% increase over the last 10 years. There were a total of 34,768 transplants performed in 2017 using organs from both deceased and living donorsa new record for organ transplants in the United States. At Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, there are ongoing clinical trials where people are given organs from donors who are infected with hepatitis C. After the transplant, recipients take a drug that will clear them of the disease. So far, the trial is having positive results. Another reason for the increase is the rise in drug overdose deaths across the US. There are about 115,000 people in the USA waiting for transplants. In 2014, Joan Nichols and Joaquin Cortiella from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston were the first research team to successfully bioengineer human lungs in a lab. In a paper now available in Science Translational Medicine, they provide details of how their work has progressed from 2014 to the point no complications have occurred in the pigs as part of standard preclinical testing. The number of people who have developed severe lung injuries has increased worldwide, while the number of available transplantable organs have decreased, said Cortiella, professor of pediatric anesthesia. Our ultimate goal is to eventually provide new options for the many people awaiting a transplant, said Nichols, professor of internal medicine and associate director of the Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB. To produce a bioengineered lung, a support scaffold is needed that meets the structural needs of a lung. A support scaffold was created using a lung from an unrelated animal that was treated using a special mixture of sugar and detergent to eliminate all cells and blood in the lung, leaving only the scaffolding proteins or skeleton of the lung behind. This is a lung-shaped scaffold made totally from lung proteins. The cells used to produce each bioengineered lung came from a single lung removed from each of the study animals. This was the source of the cells used to produce a tissue-matched bioengineered lung for each animal in the study. The lung scaffold was placed into a tank filled with a carefully blended cocktail of nutrients and the animals own cells were added to the scaffold following a carefully designed protocol or recipe. The bioengineered lungs were grown in a bioreactor for 30 days prior to transplantation. Animal recipients were survived for 10 hours, two weeks, one month and two months after transplantation, allowing the research team to examine development of the lung tissue following transplantation and how the bioengineered lung would integrate with the body. US Natural gas fracking is enabling the boom in natural gas production and will be building up liquid natural gas imports to tens of millions of tons over the next few years. China will increase natural gas imports and this will offset about 15% of coal power generation. Natural gas has about half the air pollution as coal. This would mean about an 8% reduction in energy production air pollution for China. China air pollution causes an estimated 1.6 million premature deaths a year according to U.S.-based Health Effects Institute. An 8% reduction in air pollution should have some an effect on air quality and save tens of thousands of lives each year. If it was a linear effect it would save about 130,000 lives each year. Natural Gas displacing coal power Replacing the electricity generation provided by 1 gigawatt of coal in China would require the installation of 2.3 GW of wind or 4.5 GW of solar or 1.0 GW of natural gas. In 2010 China imported 10 million metric tons (mtpa) of LNG and 20 mtpa in 2015. In 2017, China imported almost 40 mtpa. In the first four months of 2018 imports hit 15.75 million metric tons (which could reach 50 million metric tons for 2018. China has 17 LNG import terminals with a combined capacity of 7.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). China LNG import terminal capacity will grow to 11.2 Bcf/d by 2021 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By 2035 China is forecasted to import 200 mtpa. In 2017, the global LNG trade amounted to 294 mtpa. A one-gigawatt natural gas power plant would use to 0.168 BCF / day at peak. This is 3,500 tonnes of LNG per day. 1.28 million tons per year. Chinas 50 million tons of imports would offset about 39 GW of coal production. Chinas installed coal-based electrical capacity was 907 GW, or 77% of the total electrical capacity, in 2014. China increasing to 200 million tons of natural gas imports per year would allow 120 GW less coal power. US LNG Export Facilities In 2019 shipments will begin from the USA Cameron LNG export facility. The Gulf Coast facility will bring three production units online by the early 2020s capable of exporting 15 mtpa, or a little over 2 Bcf per day. This will be valued at over $10 billion. Two more production units could increase the facilitys total export volume to 25 mtpa, or 3.5 Bcf/d. Pembina Pipeline (NYSE:PBA Canadian company) bought the Jordon Cove LNG project in Oregon in late 2017. Increased demand in China and Japan might ensure the 1 Bcf/d project is built. Delfin LNG recently had a floating LNG facility in the Gulf of Mexico approved by regulators, which could boast 13 mtpa (1.8 Bcf/d) of LNG export capacity and start shipments by 2022. The gap is getting wider, and Connecticut is a focal point of the chasm. According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute issued this week, the incomes of the top 1 percent of earners grew faster than that of the bottom 99 percent in 43 states. Connecticut had the third-largest gap, trailing New York and Florida. When you look at these states, it speaks to the economic polarization we are seeing all throughout the U.S., especially in the East, Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research at DataCore Partners, said. How you rectify this, I dont know. Thats a challenge for policy makers to stimulate economic growth in the aggregate. How do all boats get lifted? States with wide gaps, he said, create an environment of haves and have-nots, which stress the economy and put additional burdens on social services. Benjamin Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management for Connecticut, said federal laws have allowed hedge funds to flourish and many individuals among the top 1 percent in the state are managers of hedge funds. Add that into the mix and it makes our income gap that much more striking, he said. Barnes said Connecticut is a state of high standards and is known for taking care of its people. The top 1 percent, he said, contribute much to the state in the form of taxes and charitable giving. Id rather have them live in Connecticut than not live in Connecticut, Barnes said. They make significant contributions to the state each year. Connecticut had 17 residents on the latest Forbes magazines List of the Worlds Billionaires, led by Greenwichs Ray Dalio. The hedge fund manager has a net worth of $17.7 billion, according to Forbes. Steven Cohen, another hedge fund manager from Greenwich, was the second state resident on the list with a net worth of $14 billion. Fellow hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones II, of Greenwich; Andreas Halvorsen, of Darien; Clifford Asness, of Greenwich; and Stephen Mandel Jr., of Greenwich; were also in the top seven. Thirteen of the 17 billionaires in the state live in Greenwich. According to the EPI report, Connecticut had the highest threshold in the country for making the top 1 percent with annual earnings of $700,800. The national average is $421,926. The report is based on 2015 figures. Authors of the report, Estelle Sommeiller of France and Mark Price of Harrisburg, Pa., found that the top 1 percent in the country earned 26.3 times as much as the bottom 99 percent. In Connecticut, the top 1 percent earned 37.1 times as much as the lower 99 percent, which earned an average of nearly $68,000. The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk region was the fifth-most unequal metropolitan region with the top 1 percent earning $6,290,951 and the lower 99 percent making an average of $101,213, a top-to-bottom ratio of 62.2. Barnes said closing the gap should be a matter a elevating the lower 99 percent with better educational and employment opportunities. Klepper-Smith agreed: It comes down to economic policy that is conducive to spurring business activity. Thats not something we have here and it makes it hard for policy makers to create aggregate economic growth. Without education and knowledge of technology, which not all residents have the means to acquire, you are left behind. Rising inequality affects virtually every part of the country, not just large urban areas or financial centers, Sommeiller, an author of the report, said in a statement. While the economy continues to recover, policymakers should make it a top priority to grow the incomes of working people while reigning in corporate profits. Price, the reports other author, said policies should be enacted to boost bargaining rights for workers, rein in CEO salaries and financial sector managers, and implement a progressive tax system. The writer may be reached at cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338 CHESHIRE Town officials have signed an agreement with a Middletown-based company to build a carport big enough to accommodate 40 cars at the towns Police Department and have solar panels on the roof. Town Manager Sean Kimball said Friday the deal with Greenskies Renewable Energy will allow the department to save $6,000 annually on its electric bill without having to spend a dime. The carport will be built in back of the departments headquarters and will encompass the rear and middle lots where officers personal cars and department vehicles are kept. The lot on the south side of the headquarters building, which is located 500 Highland Ave., will not be part of the carport, Kimball said. That part of the parking area is used by members of the public, he said. Stanley Chin, president and chief executive officer of Greenskies, said his company will build and own the carport. The electricity produced by the solar panels on the roof will be sold back to the town, through what is called a power purchase agreement, according to Chin. We will be generating the electricity and will charging the town at a significantly lower rate than they are paying now, he said. The project wont cost the town anything because it is being built under Connecticuts Zero Emissions Renewable Energy Credit Program. The program requires Eversource Energy and the United Illuminating Co. to procure renewable energy credits under 15-year contracts with owners or developers of renewable energy projects like the one that Greenskies will build in Cheshire. As a result, Chin said Greenskies will earn $15,000 a year for the life of the contract for the Cheshire project, which is based upon the amount of energy the carports solar panels are expected to produce. He said Greenskies has done more than 100 Zero Emissions Renewable Energy Credit projects that are either already built or under construction. Kimball said all of the energy produced by solar panels will be used to operate the police station. Its a great place for it because the police station is a 24-hour operation, he said. In addition to the reducing the cost of the departments electric bill, Kimball said having a cover over police vehicles during snowstorms will save officers who are leaving from the headquarters precious time when responding to emergency calls. Kimball said the towns agreement with Greenskies gives community officials the option to purchase the carport at the end of 15 years. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com WASHINGTON - A Federal Judge says the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program should be fully restored. That's the ruling Friday from District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C. Bates says the Trump Administration has yet to justify its proposal to end DACA. He's giving the White House 20 days to appeal. The decision comes as a related case unfolds in Texas. That sets up the possibility of conflicting rulings. DACA is an Obama-era program. It protects about 800,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation. They were brought to the U.S. as children. ORANGE Its First Selectman Jim Zeolis first year selling USDA approved beef through his Shamrock Farm business and already hes got a winning burger on the specials menu of a popular local restaurant. Cristian Mortali, 21, who has worked for many years at Shamrock Farm, was the brainchild behind the idea to promote putting the grass-fed, hormone-free and antibiotic free meat on a menu, Zeoli said. Mortali , who is friends with Orange Ale House and Grille owner Jim Hassenmayer, said he approached Hassenmayer because locally grown products are popular and theres nothing more locally minded than the ale house, a popular venue that draws from other communities, as well. The Orange Ale House and Grille, 517 Boston Post Road, is known for accommodating fundraisers of all kinds and for being community-minded all around. I thought there would be no better way to promote, an orange grown burger, Mortali said. Eating local a big deal he was immediately interested. And so, the Shamrock burger was born described on the specials menu as a fresh half pound locally sourced, grass-fed, hormone-free beef from Shamrock Farm in Orange (USDA inspected). The burger is topped with lettuce, tomato, onion on a brioche or sesame bun. Cheese is optional, and a side is included. The price is $14.99. Zeoli has sold livestock through Shamrock Farm for many years, but this is his first year selling the meat, which is available at the Orange Farmers Market Thursday nights, at the Oxford Farmers Market Mondays or by arrangement can be ordered and picked up at Shamrock Farm. Zeoli said he sells all kinds of cuts including ground beef, filet mignon, ribs, roasts and more. A woman who works for him raises lambs and sells all kinds of cuts of those as well. Zeolis cows roam the pasture eating grass so they are not too fatty and arent given growth hormones or antibiotics. Mortali said not only is Zeolis ground beef healthier than cheap feed lot beef, its also tastier and leaner. Theres definitely a difference, he said. Mortali, a graduate of University of Connecticuts two-year agriculture program, said that while he got the burgers on the menu, he had nothing to do with the recipe. I told them, Im not a chef, Im a cow person, Mortali said. On Facebook, Hassenmayer Orange Ale House promoted the Shamrock burger with these words: Introducing our newest burger addiction, no, it didnt say addition. The post warns of limited availability. On customer, Steven Chagno, commented on the Facebook Post: Now this is a burger I can make a special trip for! Another customer, Craig Stahl, wrote on Facebook, I had one tonight....Great Burger from Orange Ale House Grille and Burger Bar....and Shamrock Farm Stand.....It took 2 Jims to make it happen.. There is no mention of Zeoli on the menu or his status as first selectman. While hes had Zeolis burgers, Mortali hasnt had a chance yet to try a Shamrock burger yet, he said, because hes up milking cows at 5 a.m. and goes to bed early but he plans to try one at the Ale House this weekend. The restaurant just started selling Shamrock burgers early this week and theyre selling fast, Mortali said, as he had to make a second, unexpected delivery Thursday. Its pretty exciting, Zeoli said of having one his farms cuts on a local menu. Zeoli added: Its a new venue for the next generation, of farmers. Its absolutely wonderful. Mortali, who wants to be a farmer someday, but recognizes the obstacles such as land costs, said agriculture is an important part of Orange history and thats another reason to celebrate the Shamrock burger. The Newark man who gunned down a Jersey City man in a robbery gone wrong three years ago has been sentenced to life in prison. Rakeem Y. Johnson, 37, was convicted of first-degree armed robbery, felony murder, and weapons charges by a jury in July. Rakeem Y. Johnson "The life sentence imposed by Judge Sules today ensures that this defendant, Rakeem Johnson, will never again be able to fatally shoot someone,'' Essex County Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Roger Imhof said in a statement Friday. "This is his second homicide. He has clearly and repeatedly demonstrated that he poses a serious and ongoing threat to the community." Johnson had killed 36-year-old Abner Dominguez on Dec. 22, 2015. Police responded to a call at around 9:50 p.m. and found Dominguez lying on the ground next to the open driver's side door of his car, which was running at the time. Dominguez had a gunshot wound and was rushed to University Hospital where he died, the prosecutor's office said. During the trial, Imhof argued that Dominguez was a robbery victim. Witnesses said they saw Johnson running from the scene with a gun after hearing shots. Investigators also recovered a palm print from the outside passenger side of the vehicle where Johnson entered the car. Surveillance video captured Johnson touching the vehicle as he entered it. At the time of the Dominguez's murder, Johnson was on parole for aggravated manslaughter. He had served a 17-year sentence in New Jersey State Prison for a Sept. 2, 1998 homicide. Johnson had been out of prison for just over two years when he killed Dominguez, according to Department of Corrections records. Records also state that Johnson was convicted of a drug distribution charge in 2000 and in a separate incident a drug distribution in a school zone, resisting arrest and aggravated assault of an office. Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips For people with severe, potentially life-threatening food allergies, it's a question they must face everywhere they eat: is there a potentially fatal ingredient lurking on my plate? One New Jersey town, however, is seeking to help alleviate that concern with a proposed ordinance that some officials believe would be among the "strictest and most impactful" food allergy laws in both New Jersey and the country. The ordinance, introduced recently by Edison Township Councilman Sam Joshi, would likely cause a significant overhaul in the township's eatery industry, requiring more than 630 establishments in the town and nearly 400 catering companies outside the town to rework their menus and label all allergens for every dish and beverage they serve. Currently, there are no statewide laws on the books in New Jersey requiring restaurants and catering companies to label allergens in the food and beverages they serve. Five states -- Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Rhode Island and Virginia -- currently have some of the strictest food allergy laws in the country, with similar measures that are now being proposed in Edison, according to Food Allergy Research and Education. Under the proposed ordinance, "allergy friendly" menus would have to note which items contain the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's eight most common allergens: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans -- along with MSG and sulfites. Bars will also have to label allergens that are in each dish and beverage. Joshi said that data has shown that allergic reactions most often occur from miscommunications with food served at restaurants, banquet halls, schools and other establishments. "Food allergies have increased so dramatically in the last decade that a lot of owners or servers don't have a clear policy on food allergies, but they need to," Joshi said. For catering companies located outside the township but who come to Edison for events will also be required to label their foods and beverages, Joshi said. Joshi said that it is unacceptable for a server to plead ignorance to what could become a deadly mistake. While food allergies are nothing new, they are on the rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), food allergies in children in the U.S. have risen by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. From 2010 to 2016, more than 4.5 million children 18 and under throughout the U.S. had to go to the emergency room for food allergies, mostly from peanuts, tree nuts and seeds, according to a report this year by Blue Cross Blue Shield. Joshi said he hopes that the ordinance will become a standard for other towns to adopt throughout the state to protect those susceptible to certain allergens. The ordinance will go before the township's seven-member council on Aug. 22. If passed, the ordinance would become effective on Oct. 1 for handout menus. Larger display menus, like those placard on a wall, will have to be changed by Feb. 1. Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have information about this story or something else we should be covering? Tell us. nj.com/tips President Trump has decided that America needs more fossil fuel consumption, more consumer spending at the pump, more carbon pollution and fewer technological advances - which everyone thought were worthy things, until big oil and automakers convinced him that the EPA hasn't done enough lately to endanger health standards and the environment. Accordingly, the agency -- now run by a coal lobbyist -- announced a massive regulatory rollback on federal fuel emission standards and the annulment of California's waiver to issue tougher standards. That will invite a pile of lawsuits from 20 states, including New Jersey, while creating regulatory uncertainty and upheaval in the car market. It is reasonable to revisit the enormously successful fuel efficiency rules imposed by the Obama Administration from time to time, but this is more like slamming the brakes on the best way to reduce our country's largest source of greenhouse gases. And it was telling that Team Trump floated this gasbag by inventing a bogus conflict between fuel efficiency and safety. Seriously, the EPA cited three ways that lower standards "save" lives: People who buy fuel-efficient cars drive more, and, ergo, have more accidents; new car prices rise when there are tougher standards, so fewer motorists will drive cars with the latest safety features; and automakers are forced to make cars lighter to reach the efficiency goals, making them less protective. Not surprisingly, each argument is specious. Yes, maybe we'll drive more if we have get more miles per gallon. But over the last 40 years, fuel efficiency has improved 88 percent while fatalities-per-mile have dropped 65 percent. As for declining sales, that hasn't happened since the rules changed. In fact, consumer savings at the pump ($60 billion, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists) far outweigh the cost of technology. And the tariffs Trump seeks to slap on foreign cars will increase imports by $5,800, a far greater factor in keeping people in older cars. And with regard to vehicle weight, most of the reductions are with larger vehicles, which puts occupants of smaller vehicles in less jeopardy by lessening crash force, studies have shown. Still, lower fuel prices and Americans' preference for SUVs over Corollas merits a technical review of the fuel standard, which Obama's EPA had planned before Trump was elected. "If we force manufacturers to develop vehicles that consumers don't want to buy," analyst Rebecca Lindland of Kelley Blue Book says, "they may end up keeping their existing cars longer and delay the greening of the fleet." Strong point. Markets run on willing buyers, and auto companies must comply based on what consumers buy, not what they make. So it isn't unreasonable to reexamine - not repeal - the rules, particularly the 54.5 mpg fleet-wide average mandated for 2025. Yes, automakers whine a lot, but consumer habits show why some flexibility is needed: In 2013, sales were evenly split between cars and SUVs/pickups, according to Motor Intelligence data. In 2017, 63% of new sales were the bigger vehicles. California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible: https://t.co/OWqbFIUmUl https://t.co/qrH7gSaWDn Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) August 2, 2018 That may be why California's top air regulator, Mary Nichols, said her state is open to "minor adjustments" in how they measure compliance. That doesn't mean California and New Jersey should retreat from its standards, however, so a coalition of 20 Attorneys General are ready to go to court, where the California's ability to impose stricter air rules has been upheld twice in major rulings. But given the toxic stench Scott Pruitt left behind and Trump's anti-regulatory obsession, one assumes the EPA will pursue a wholesale rollback. Given the choice of the scalpel or meat axe, Trump will choose the latter. And whenever the term "Obama-era" is affixed to any policy, he will try to abolish it, if only because he nourishes himself on resentment, revenge, and carbon pollution. It is yet another step in his methodical destruction of key climate initiatives enacted over the last decade. He has destroyed the Clean Power Plan, rejected the Paris accord, resurrected coal, and revoked many EPA regulations. Now fuel standards. As Environmentalist Bill McKibben put it, "Gotta say, it takes a special kind of stupid to embrace gas guzzlers the same day scientists tell us America recorded the hottest month in earth's history." Well, it's a special presidency. Gotta say, it takes a special kind of stupid to embrace gas guzzlers the same day scientists tell us America recorded the hottest month in earth's historyhttps://t.co/V6FqUvJ5WU Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) August 2, 2018 Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion . Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook . REDDING, Calif. - California Gov. Jerry Brown is set to visit the City of Redding Saturday after the Shasta County community had hundreds of residents lose their homes by the Carr Fire. According to Deputy Press Secretary Ali Bay, Brown is scheduled to visit the North State in the late morning. It is unknown what part of Redding he will visit. This is a developing story check back for updates. The United States is a country awash in firearms. For the most part, these weapons are legally owned by responsible people. But now there is a new kind of gun that can be made with 3D printers and other basic tools. They could readily become the weapon of choice for terrorists, gang members and criminals. Because they are made of plastic, they won't set off metal detectors at security conscious locations such as airports, schools and large gatherings. Equally troubling is that they can be impossible to trace since they can be made at a home or a clandestine location without serial numbers. The threat of a proliferation of 3D-print plastic guns became a real concern when a Texas gun rights group called Defense Distributed announced its intention to resume making design schematics available on the internet after reaching a settlement with the Trump administration. That prompted New Jersey and several other states and the District of Columbia to join Washington state in a federal lawsuit to prevent the group from publishing the blueprints. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal took the added step of filing an emergency restraining order in state Superior Court last week to block the group from making the plans public. This followed a cease-and-desist letter Grewal sent to Cody Wilson, the founder of group. Grewal made the right move to keep these plastic guns from becoming common lethal weapons. New Jersey, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, doesn't need untraceable and reportedly unsafe plastic guns on the streets of our cities and towns. The states' effort to prevent Defense Distributed from going public with its gun-making plans got a favorable ruling from a federal judge in Seattle who issued a temporary restraining order just hours before those plans were scheduled to go online. Without a doubt, this case is fraught with all kinds of constitutional questions and Wilson has already filed a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming the legal objections amounted to "an unconstitutional prior restraint." The group contends the publication of open-source designs for firearms is protected under both the First and Second amendments. But before all the legal questions are settled, the safety of the public should be uppermost. For that reason, it makes sense to put a hold on the dissemination of what could be dangerous information. But all this legal maneuvering may have little impact in the end. The Pandora's Box has already been opened and other websites have stepped in to share the 3D-printer directions for making plastic guns and thousands of downloads have already been made. Unfortunately, the marvels of technology can work both ways. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker are slamming the Federal Communications Commission and Secaucus-based WWOR-TV in a letter imploring the agency to reverse the renewal of the television station's license. The senators say the network has failed to meet its obligation to serve the North Jersey community. "The FCC grant of this renewal raises a serious question as to what a concerned local citizen would have to demonstrate for the FCC to deny a license renewal based upon the inability of WWOR (or any other station) to serve its local community consistent with its license obligations," Menendez said. The Democratic senators had also urged the FCC to not renew the station's license back in January. They say WWOR, the state's only commercial, high-power broadcast television station, replaced its previous newscasts with "Chasing New Jersey," a TMZ-style program that airs weeknights on My9NJ and on Fox 5. The program, which has since been rebranded as "Chasing News," covers a smattering of local and national stories. A 1982 federal law mandates the license holder for WWOR "devote itself to meeting the special needs of its new community (and the needs of the Northern New Jersey area in general)." "For more than a decade, WWOR has failed to live up to its obligations to the people of New Jersey. And we believe that in renewing this license, the FCC has failed to live up to its statutory obligations," the senators wrote in the letter. Do you think the FCC should revoke WWOR's license? Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and tell us why in the comments. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Jersey political insiders: On the left, Julie Roginsky, a career Democratic strategist and TV commentator; on the right, Michael DuHaime, a Republican strategist and public affairs executive. Can Americans still have a sensible and friendly political discussion across the partisan divide? The answer is yes, and we intend to prove it. Julie Roginsky, a Democrat, and Mike DuHaime, a Republican, are consultants who have worked on opposite teams for their entire careers yet have remained friends throughout. Here, they discuss the week's events, with prompts from Tom Moran, editorial page editor of The Star-Ledger. Don't Edit Q. The Russians, as expected, are messing with the 2018 mid-terms. They tried to hack into the computer system of Democratic U.S. Sen. Clare McCaskill of Missouri, and Facebook found evidence they were opening pages to sow social division. Yet President Donald Trump this week demanded that his attorney general kill the investigation by the special counsel. Is the fight over Robert Mueller's independence coming to a head? Roginsky: It's been coming for a long time. Let's not forget that the president has been trying to get Mueller fired for a very long time. The better question to ask is whether the president is perilously close to committing treason. He wants to shut down an investigation into how a hostile foreign power attacked and has continued to attack his political enemies, thereby enabling that same hostile foreign power to continue its attacks. If that's not treasonous behavior, I don't know what is and I don't throw a word like that around lightly. Don't Edit ..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Don't Edit DuHaime: The hacking attacks are not new, as the Russians tried to hack into the RNC and DNC in 2016. We need to fight foreign interference in a bipartisan way. On that we should all agree. But both President Trump himself as well as all the Trump haters need to stop conflating the Russian meddling of 2016 with the outcome of the election. The Russians attempted to interfere, but that's not why Trump won. He won because people are sick of Washington and the status quo, and Hillary Clinton embodied the status quo. And if the Hillary campaign didn't complete political malpractice by not even campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan, we might be talking about something else today. Don't Edit Q. Rep. Tom MacArthur is still favored to win in November over his Democratic challenger in the 3rd District, Andy Kim. But two respected election-watchers in Washington, Inside Elections and the Cook Political Report, say it is tightening and that health care is a big issue. Are they right about the race? Roginsky: Tom MacArthur has been President Trump's biggest enabler in New Jersey and he represents a district that will be hard hit both because of his continued attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and his vote to raise taxes on his own constituents, he is facing some strong headwinds. It is a difficult district for Democrats, but the political climate only helps Andy Kim, his Democratic challenger. DuHaime: The first midterm election is difficult for the president's party, no matter who the president is, so I am not surprised pundits predict it will be closer than his last win. But he will undoubtedly win again. The voters in his district respect that he is unafraid to take on difficult and controversial issues no matter the political consequences, a trait that's rare in Washington, D.C. Don't Edit Don't Edit There are a lot of things to learn when you are running for office for the first time. Yesterday Senator @CoryBooker not only helped kicked off our general election campaign, but demonstrated the art of the selfie! Thanks Senator! pic.twitter.com/zeNcJgBAbF Mikie Sherrill (@MikieSherrill) July 1, 2018 Q. GOP Assemblyman Jay Webber, running for Congress against Democrat Mikie Sherrill in the 11th District, is close in the polls but it having trouble raising money. As of the last report, he had raised under $600,000, compared to Sherrill's $4.2 million. What's the reason? Roginsky: Mikie Sherrill has energized the party, in her district and across the country. She is exactly the type of candidate Democrats have talked about recruiting for many years. So, I am not surprised that she is able to raise money, especially since Democrats know that the road to the House majority runs very much through districts like hers. Webber is yet another Trump-supporting Republican, so I can see why he isn't bringing the same kind of energy to an electorate and donor base that is very much motivated in a different direction this year. Don't Edit Great to join @JrzyJoePiscopo and @am970TheAnswer this morning at the Salem Biz Breakfast, and see so many friends in Passaic county #NJ11 pic.twitter.com/AIvVLNY9GT Jay Webber (@JayWebberNJ) April 19, 2018 DuHaime: Sherrill got into the race about a year before Jay, so that has certainly helped her amass a war chest. As Julie says, her left-leaning positions have energized those who want Nancy Pelosi back as Speaker, and that's resulting in financial contributions from the far left and well outside of New Jersey. I suspect Republicans will see this disparity and even it up. National Republicans also see this district as key to keeping the majority, so there will be much more financial parity by the end of the race. Don't Edit Q. What do you make of Trump's threat to shut down the government this fall unless Democrats agree to support money for his wall? Roginsky: I think that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan banged their heads against the wall when they heard that. In an already difficult environment for Republicans, they have their own Republican president threatening to shut down a government run by congressional Republicans. Also, why should the president expect American taxpayers to pay for a wall? I thought Mexico was supposed to pay for it unless my lying eyes were deceiving me when I watched Trump rally after rally in 2016 where that was a central talking point. Don't Edit Pres. Trump on shutdown threat if no border wall funding: "I would personally prefer before (November's midterm elections). But whether it's before or after, we're either getting it or were closing down government. We need border security." https://t.co/X6lk4jTIuD pic.twitter.com/jaTiZCBjCE ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 2, 2018 DuHaime: Republicans would be better served by talking about the economy, which continues to offer positive news. The party in power doesn't benefit from a shutdown ever. This would be no exception. The president has the power through Twitter to get the media to talk about just about anything he wants, so I hope more focus will be on the economy going forward. Don't Edit Q. Senate President Steve Sweeney won Senate approval of a constitutional amendment to strip governors of the power to certify revenues, a move that would diminish Murphy's leverage in budget talks next year. The vote was not even close, 28-3. Does Murphy have a core of loyal supporters in the Senate? Or is Sweeney's control of his caucus absolute? Roginsky: It's fairly absolute. This is the part where you get mad at me for talking about the need for constant communication, but Sen. Sweeney does a very good job of communicating with virtually every member of his caucus and even with members of the Republican caucus. Sen. Sweeney has been around for a very long time and Gov. Murphy is new to the scene in Trenton. No one should ever underestimate the power of personal relationships that develop over time and how they impact political decisions. DuHaime: Ditto. I was not surprised the motion carried, but I was surprised by the lopsided margin - just three votes against what would be a major change in the state's budgeting process and the authority of the governor. Don't Edit Don't Edit Vacation, all Murphy ever wanted ... Vacation, had to get to Italy ... Vacation, meant to spent without the press finding out where he is but he failed and now I wonder where he'll go next ...https://t.co/HzogiHeGCS pic.twitter.com/VcbLJS8LO4 Jeff Edelstein (@jeffedelstein) August 2, 2018 Q. Finally, Murphy went on vacation, would not say where, and then was found to be going to his 23-room mansion in Italy. So, this move did nothing but draw attention to his immense wealth and a clumsy attempt at secrecy. Another unforced error? Roginsky: This one is puzzling. New Jerseyans voted for him overwhelmingly after having read reports about his house in Italy. Had he just said that he was going to Europe with his family, no one would have cared. I get the desire to have some semblance of privacy but doing it this way just brought way too much attention to what otherwise would have been a non-story. He works hard, the first lady works hard, and they deserve some down time with their kids. Not one reasonable person would have begrudged them time away with the kids in Italy, so I don't understand the play. Don't Edit Detail of artist rendering via Twitter @jeffedelstein of The Trentonian. DuHaime: Most people don't care about this story at all, where he is or how it was handled. The voters know he is very wealthy. No breaking news there. It's a non-story, but a lesson that simple transparency can help avoid annoying stories. Don't Edit RELATED: Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. WASHINGTON -- New Jersey's voting machines are among the nation's most vulnerable to hacking, and state officials asked Congress for more money to protect their equipment. Republicans who run the show in Washington said no. Both the House and Senate declined to allocate millions of dollars in grants to states when they passed spending bills funding the Election Assistance Commission for the 12-month period beginning Oct. 1. "This is going to be an ongoing need and election officials are going to need a regular stream of funds to combat the threats and defend their systems," said David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a Washington research group. The debate over helping states guard against voter hacking came as top officials in President Donald Trump's administration warned that Russian attempts to interfere with U.S. elections didn't end in 2016. "In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said at the daily White House press briefing. "We also know the Russians tried to hack into and steal information from candidates and government officials alike." State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal sought more federal help. "I strongly believe that the federal government should be doing more, not less, to ensure our democratic institutions are free from foreign intrusion, and I'm disappointed that Congress disagrees," he said. Grewaland 20 other state attorneys general had written to key congressional Republicans last month, urging them to approve a new round of state grants. "The existing Election Assistance Commission grants are simply insufficient to provide for the upgraded technology needed," the attorneys general wrote. "More funding is essential to adequately equip states with the financial resources we need to safeguard our democracy and protect the data of voting members in our states." Republicans, though, said plenty of funds remained unspent. "Most of that money is not yet out the door," said U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., during Senate debate. "I believe it is far too early to add another quarter billion dollars." Steve Wilson, a spokesman for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-11th Dist., did not respond to a request for comment. Frelinghuysen voted against an amendment in the committee to provide another $380 million in grants. In the Senate, an amendment to allocate $250 million failed to get the necessary 60 votes for passage. U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., voted yes. Booker called the Senate rejection of funding "an egregious dereliction of duty that is downright dangerous." A report issued last month by the Democratic members of the House Administration Committee named New Jersey as one of the five most vulnerable states to hacking. The report said New Jersey's voting machines do not have a paper record, making it "nearly impossible" to tell if they had been hacked and vote tallies changed. New Jersey has received $9.7 million in federal funds to improve election security, said Tim Carroll, a spokesman for the state Department of State. Becker said states need to improve security, buy new voting machines, improve training and secure voter registration databases. Both the federal and state governments need to provide funding, he said. "That all costs money," he said. "We're never going to be able to say we're secure because as they get better the bad guys also get better." Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Michelle Ayala is returning Saturday to the Franklin Borough beach where, four days ago, cops were called because she was breastfeeding her 2 1/2-year-old daughter. This time, she is hoping to have plenty of company. Ayala, 36, is organizing a "nurse-in" at Franklin Pond in support of breastfeeding, and will be bringing her daughter, Daisy. The event is open to all, including moms who no longer breastfeed, dads and husbands. She said on Friday that doesn't know how many will attend, but is expecting around 20. If it rains Saturday, the nurse-in may be moved to Sunday. Attendees are being asked to arrive at 1 p.m. The nurse-in will start at 1:30 p.m. near - but not on - the Franklin Pond beach, whose use is limited to members and their guests. "It's a park that anybody can use," said Ayala, who moved from Verona to Franklin Borough in 2013 and has a family beach membership. Ayala said she was at the beach around noon on Tuesday, and her two older children were swimming, when a borough employee asked her to stop breastfeeding Daisy -- even though New Jersey law permits breastfeeding in public. When Ayala refused, she said the employee called the cops. An officer was on the scene within minutes, but left without taking any action and, according to Ayala, sympathized with her situation. Franklin Borough's municipal attorney, John Ursin, said afterward that he views the incident as an "opportunity for education and counseling" about the law. The employee had been responding to a complaint from someone else on the beach, Ursin said. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A Gentilly man who withdrew from an agreement that would've given him five years in prison and later rejected a last-minute deal offering 15 years was sentenced Thursday to 20 years, according to Orleans Parish court records and the DA's office. Reginald Jones, 52, received the sentence after a jury found him guilty of using a gun to threaten his 63-year-old neighbor and then tossing the weapon into a nearby canal nearly two years ago. He was convicted in April of aggravated assault with a firearm, illegal possession of a firearm by a felon and obstruction of justice. He was also convicted as a fourth-time felony offender under Louisiana's habitual offender law, resulting in a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years. The charges stem from a Sept. 12, 2016 argument between Jones and the 63-year-old neighbor outside of their houses in the 2500 block of Elder Street. According to an NOPD report on the incident, the neighbor told police that Jones had followed him into his yard, pointed a gun at him and shouted "(Expletive) I'm gonna get you." The argument was caught on the victim's security cameras, including the part where Jones raised his right arm and pointed "what the officer recognized as a pistol" at the victim, the report states. When officers spoke with Jones, he said the weapon used was a water gun and that he had broken the toy into pieces and thrown it into the Peoples Avenue Canal. Earlier this year Orleans Parish DA's office spokesman Ken Daley said the actual handgun used in the threat was not recovered by police. Jones was indicted in October and more than a year later, in November 2017, entered an agreement with the state that had him plead guilty to the aggravated assault charge and receive a five-year prison sentence. The agreement dismissed the felony gun-possession charge and did not include the obstruction of justice charge. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up However, during the next two months, Jones appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, asking to reverse his decision and filed a motion in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court to withdraw his plea due to "abandonment of counsel" and "ineffectiveness of legal representation" by Orleans Parish public defenders. During a March 15 hearing in Orleans Parish Criminal Court, Jones said he had been pressured by his previous attorneys into accepting the plea agreement. State prosecutors joined in his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and the court ordered the plea be withdrawn. Jones, through new attorney Alex Kriksciun, indicated that he preferred to stand trial rather than plead guilty, eradicating the plea agreement, the DA's office said. Prosecutors tacked on the obstruction of justice charge after Jones withdrew his guilty plea and instead pleaded not guilty, court records show. Jones was convicted by jury April 2, after a one-day trial. On July 13, the Orleans Parish DA's office offered Jones an agreement in which he could plead guilty as a three-time felony offender and receive a 15-year prison sentence, but Jones rejected that deal, Daley said Friday. Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Paul Bonin on Thursday sentenced Jones as a four-time felony offender on the aggravated assault and obstruction of justice charges, and as a three-time felony offender on the felon in possession of a firearm charge. South Roebuck, Ala. - Authorities have released the names of a couple found slain in their South Roebuck neighborhood after their granddaughter was found wandering outside in blood-stained clothes. Birmingham police on Saturday identified the victims as Mary Holt, 67, and Joe "Steve" Holt, 68. Their bodies were discovered Thursday afternoon inside their house on Ninth Court Circle South. Jefferson County Coroner's officials said their bodies were found at 3:50 p.m. Aug. 2 when East Precinct officers responded to the 8700 block of Ninth Court Circle South after they were notified about a child wandering the street alone. Sgt. Johnny Williams said the child's clothing was stained with blood, but the child was not injured, police said. The child led officers to two unresponsive adults inside the home. Both adults were pronounced dead on the scene at 4:41 p.m. A neighbor said her front door was open Thursday afternoon when the little girl came to their house. She was bloody and crying out for her grandparents but didn't say anything else. Someone from inside the neighbor's home called 911 and that's when the brutal crime scene was discovered. She said she knew Mary Scott often kept her granddaughter while the mother was at work, but said she usually kept her at the child's home. Another neighbor said several people had been seen the child in the neighborhood that day but, for some reason, didn't notify authorities. Another neighbor said she knew Mary Scott often kept her granddaughter while the mother was at work, but said she usually kept her at the child's home. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The couple has lived in the home since the late 1970s or early 1980s, court records show. Neighbors said the couple kept to themselves and they only saw them once or twice a week. Mary Scott had sold Mary Kay cosmetics so some of the women on the street got to know her through that. "She was the sweetest thing ever,'' said one neighbor who didn't want her name used. That neighbor said they were told there was no forced entry into the home and residents are baffled by the shocking crime. "This neighborhood is not only peaceful and quiet,'' she said, "but we've got eyes and ears everywhere. The whole thing is strange and crazy." Birmingham police have been tight-lipped about the investigation. A team of detectives was back out at the home Friday afternoon, as well as at least one of the couple's sons. The family members on the scene declined to comment. Homicide detectives were canvassing the neighborhood in search of home surveillance cameras and any possible witnesses or evidence. The Holts are the city's 65th and 66th homicides of 2018. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and therefore the Birmingham Police Department does not include those in their year-end tally. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 98 homicides, including the 66 in Birmingham. Anyone with information pertaining to this case should call the Birmingham police Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. In a Thursday morning (August 2) news conference, NOPD's Eighth District Commander Nicholas Gernon said a "workplace dispute" sparked the French Quarter shooting that left a 30-year-old man dead hours earlier. A warrant for the shooter's arrest reveals the dispute centered around the Attiki Bar's closing time. At some point in the night, James Nero, 21, an employee at Attiki Bar, and another man who previously worked at Attiki Bar, argued about when the establishment should close. Nero wanted to close the business, while the man wanted it to remain open. Throughout the argument, Nero threatened to shoot the man several times, said a warrant for Nero's arrest. According to bar's website, the bar closes at 4 a.m. every day of the week. Just after 3 a.m., the shooter, Nero, exited the bar at 230 Decatur Street and retrieved a gun from a man in a nearby GMC SUV. Minutes later, another man left the bar and confronted Nero in the street. The two men argued briefly, but when the man attempted to punch Nero, he pulled out a gun and shot him in the neck, according to a nearby business owner who observed the scene on surveillance video. After shooting his former coworker, Nero unloaded his gun, placed it in the middle of the road and waited for police to arrive, the arrest warrant and nearby business owner confirm. The man who handed Nero the gun, sat on the SUV's hood and also made no attempt to flee. When asked by police who had shot the man, Nero admitted he had. Police arrested him at the scene, but did not apprehend the man atop the SUV. The injured man was transported to the hospital. He died from his wounds around a half hour after the shooting. Nero is being held on $250,000 bond on one count of second-degree murder. He does not have a criminal history in Orleans Parish, court records show. Attiki Bar and Grill declined to comment on the shooting and Nero's arrest. My email inbox stays full with demands from readers that I write about the latest outrageous crime. The comments section at NOLA.com seems to always include similar orders that I write about the more important issues: the more important issues, of course, being crime in black neighborhoods or crime in white neighborhoods where black people are known or presumed to be the perpetrators. I'm confident that nobody who writes, "How come you haven't written about ...?!!!" has written more thoughtfully or more frequently about crime than I have or that they've written with more concern and compassion for the people and neighborhoods who are suffering than I have. There's a record of everything that I've written as a columnist, and it belies the criticism that I don't write about crime. I'm just as convinced that those who write to complain that I haven't written about some crime don't actually want me to write about crime. What they want, I sense, is for me to broadly denounce black people or to write off whole neighborhoods as incorrigible and irredeemable. They want columns that validate their low opinions of black people. Tuesday morning at NOLA.com and Wednesday morning in The Times-Picayune, my column about the July 28 mass shooting in the 3400 block of South Claiborne was published. Gunmen were reportedly chasing one man, but shot 10 people, including the three people they killed. The column about that attack included a long list of previous crimes where gunmen disregarded the presence of innocent people - sometimes women, sometimes pregnant women, sometimes children, sometimes babies - and opened fire on somebody else they were trying to kill. That column repeated the speculation I heard from a local pastor that the killing of innocents isn't a bug but a feature, that is, that many of the city's gunmen open fire even in crowds of people to send a message to their enemies that there's nowhere they can hide. That column said that we need a code of the streets that mandates the turning in of the killers of innocent people. If I were to change anything about that column, I would be more explicit in making this point: that people who believe there's some kind of code that prevents them from identifying killers to the police should, at a minimum, consider such a code non-binding when gunmen are killing women and babies and other innocents. What does it profit the people in a neighborhood to operate by a code if the people with guns are, as New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison described the South Claiborne gunmen, firing "indiscriminately?" If there are no rules that bar the maiming and killing of innocents, then there can be no rules that bar cooperation with police who are looking for those killers. The day that column appeared in The Times-Picayune, a 2-year-old boy, a 16-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man were all shot as they traveled west on Interstate 10 near the Morrison Road exit. Everything said in the column about the mass shooting and murders on Claiborne applies to the attack on that car on I-10. The interstate attack happening so soon after the column about the Claiborne shooting should make it plain why I don't write about crime more often than I do. There's a certain futility to it. I don't expect that people whose hearts are set on murder will read a column decrying violence and then decide not to kill. Which brings me back to an earlier point: Readers demanding more columns about crime aren't doing so because they think such columns are likely to decrease crime. Because who actually thinks that? They're doing so because they want some kind of concession from me that black people are bad people. Consider this email that arrived the day after my column about the Claiborne shooting appeared in the newspaper: "thugs shooting thugs on the I-10 in daylight !!!!!! another thug shot and killed this am in French quarter !!! 2 thugs in missouri shot a guy in cold blood becuase he taps thier car !!!!! wow, 13% of the population sure cause alot of damage. better write about slavery and bad white people and taking down mouments." I could have corrected this correspondent's spelling errors, but his email would be no less ignorant with editing. Besides, it illustrates a point that I had recently made in the comments section on NOLA.com: that no amount of columns I can write about crime will ever be enough to satisfy readers who are merely looking for justification for their prejudices. The author of the above email expresses no concern for those who've been shot or killed. He's angry that a columnist chooses to decry racism when there exist black people who do bad things. If you're one of those readers demanding more columns about crime, ask yourself why. Is it an expression of empathy for those whose neighborhoods are besieged? Or are you simply trying to win a debate about some other, unrelated topic? Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA.COM | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jdeberry@nola.comor at twitter.com/jarvisdeberry. CHICO, Calif. - The Chico Police Department arrested a man for allegedly stealing a vehicle, burglary, vandalism and brandishing a knife at Pleasant Valley High School. According to Chico police, school employees noticed a man on Friday at 8 a.m. identified as Rigoberto Sosa-Barrera, 25, walking on the campus. When school employees confronted him, he entered a storage locker. There, he stole several items such as vehicle keys to a black Dodge truck, which had been stored behind a locked gate, officials said. Barrera then drove the truck through the school fence and sped off only to return 45 minutes later to the school to retrieve some of his items he left behind while allegedly stealing the car. The owner of the Dodge reviewed surveillance video of the incident and confronted Barrera. Barrera then threatened the stolen vehicle victim with a knife, giving the suspect a chance to walk away from the scene, officials said. Chico police say officers arrested Barrera a short time later at a nearby area. Barrera was placed under arrested and taken to Butte County Jail on charges of possession of a stolen vehicle, burglary, felony vandalism, and brandishing a knife. The exercise is as old as the Republic, but the first thing you need to understand about redistricting is that hot-water cornbread is as ubiquitous in north Louisiana as etouffee is in the south, says Rick Gallot, the Ruston Democratic representat Thank you for reading The Cascadia Advocate, the Northwest Progressive Institutes journal of world, national, and local politics. Founded in March of 2004, The Cascadia Advocate has been helping people throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond make sense of current events with rigorous analysis and thought-provoking commentary for more than fifteen years. The Cascadia Advocate is funded by readers like you and trusted sponsors. We dont run ads or publish content in exchange for money. Help us keep The Cascadia Advocate editorially independent and freely available to all by becoming a member of the Northwest Progressive Institute today. Or make a donation to sustain our essential research and advocacy journalism. Your contribution will allow us to continue bringing you features like Last Week In Congress, live coverage of events like Netroots Nation or the Democratic National Convention, and reviews of books and documentary films. Become an NPI member Make a one-time donation In the debate over the test for New York Citys elite high schools, one question had seemed to be unanswered: Whether there was evidence that the exam was a good predictor of how well students would do at the schools. But on Friday, the citys Education Department released for the first time a study it had commissioned in 2013 that showed a strong positive relationship between doing well on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test and high school academic performance. Metis Associates, a research firm, studied five groups of eighth graders who took the test from 2005 to 2009 through their first two years of high school, using metrics such as grade point average and scores on the Regents examinations and Advanced Placement tests to measure performance. The study found the mean G.P.A. for students who scored high enough on the test to be accepted to one of the specialized high schools was 3.036 in their first year compared with 2.387 for students who were not accepted to the specialized schools. Similarly, the mean scores for accepted students on Regents examinations ranged between 82.59 and 93.41 across various subjects. The mean scores for students not admitted ranged from 68.69 and 79.16. A beautiful, ancient riverside city deep in northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is a laid back destination known for its temples, wildlife and, today, buzzing food, cocktail and local art scene. Its well worth a visit, but before you go, pack these essentials for your trip. We walk you through what to do if you visit Chiang Mai in our local guide, but we also talked to Ria Misra, an editor at Wirecutter, about some of the things you might want specifically for the trip, based on our itinerary. She checked with Candy Krajangsri, spokeswoman at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to make sure her picks were on point. Here are their suggestions: Lots of Layers Above all, and perhaps most obviously, you should prepare for tropical weather, Ms. Krajangsri said. Wear loose and breathable clothes that will be comfortable in the heat and dry quickly when wet from either sweat or rain. Average temperatures in the area can soar above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or well over about 33 degrees Celsius, and thats even in the soaking rainfall of the rainy season. But Ms. Krajangsri also cautions that in December and January, Chiang Mai can get chilly enough that youll be grateful to have a warmer layer tucked in your bag for the evenings. Ms. Misra recommends the trusty Arcteryx Squamish jacket, which packs down small, and will provide some protection from wet weather. If youre visiting between July and October, when rains are heavier and temperatures are higher, Ms. Misra suggests you opt for an actual rain jacket, like the Patagonia Torrentshell, a Wirecutter favorite, especially if you plan to go out hiking or explore Chiang Mais natural beauty. Everything You Need to Go Birding Only a couple of hours drive from Chiang Mai, the mountainous, waterfall-filled Doi Inthanon National Park is home to more than 360 bird species, making it one of the countrys best spots for bird-watching, particularly during the spring and summer months. Facing rapid gentrification, the city has seen a recent decrease in its black population despite its long history as a center of black culture and activism. BART itself has been at the center of controversy: In 2009, a BART police officer shot and killed Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, at another train station. Its that historical background, Ms. Brooks said, that makes Ms. Wilsons death resonate in a broader context. Mr. Cowell has been charged with murder and attempted murder, and is being held in an Alameda County jail, said Michael OConnor, an assistant district attorney in the county. Mr. Cowell has not yet entered a plea, and he is expected to do so during a hearing on Aug. 22, Mr. OConnor said. Christina Moore, who is representing Mr. Cowell, said that he was recently released from a state hospital that treats felons who suffer from mental illness. The authorities said that Mr. Cowell had two previous felony convictions for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in a neighboring county. Ms. Wilsons family will sue the transit agency next week, arguing that weak public safety protections allowed her killing to take place, said Robert Arns, a lawyer for Ms. Wilsons family. The lawsuit will be filed in Alameda County Superior Court. Mr. Arns said the lawsuit will assert that Mr. Cowell jumped a turnstile without paying his fare, that he should have been prevented from getting on a train, and that BART has been negligent in providing security for its riders. The lawsuit picks up on escalating concerns about safety in the transit system, which is one of the largest in the country and an integral means of commute for people living in the different corners of the San Francisco Bay Area. Violent crimes on BART have risen nearly 70 percent from 2007 to 2017, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, with 2018 on track to closely resemble 2017 numbers. Whats needed is a neutral and unbiased individual to review the documents, said Nan Aron, founder and president of the Alliance for Justice, a liberal advocacy group. That is not Bill Burck, whose loyalty lies with Brett Kavanaugh and the Bush administration. During his long career in public service as a lawyer working for Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated former President Bill Clinton, as an associate White House counsel to Mr. Bush and later as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006 Judge Kavanaugh has left an especially voluminous paper trail. On Thursday, Mr. Burck wrote to Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and enclosed what he described as an initial production of more than 125,000 pages of records from Judge Kavanaughs stint as the associate White House counsel. Mr. Grassley had requested those records. But Republicans have rebuffed Democrats repeated demands for access to emails and other records from the three years that Judge Kavanaugh spent as staff secretary a job that the judge himself has said was the most interesting and informative for me as preparation for his current role on the federal appeals court. Mr. Manaforts work running the campaign is the backdrop to his federal bank and tax fraud trial in Northern Virginia. Prosecutors are not addressing that work. But as they present evidence that he was growing desperate for money, the question of why Mr. Manafort, now 69, agreed to an unpaid job for Mr. Trump has become increasingly tantalizing. While his trial is unlikely to reveal the answer, there is evidence that Mr. Manafort saw Mr. Trumps campaign as a potential loss leader an upfront freebie that he could use to boost his stature and eventually parlay into more work for foreign clients. After working decades earlier for Bob Dole, George Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, Mr. Manafort viewed the Trump campaign as a chance to return to prominence on the biggest stage in American politics, his associates said. Mr. Manaforts memo made its way to Mr. Trump through a mutual friend, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who described Mr. Manafort to the candidate as the most experienced and lethal of managers and a killer. For the notoriously stingy Mr. Trump, the price was right. And he liked the fact that he and Mr. Manafort lived in the same Trump-owned Manhattan high rise. He once quipped that it was great to have a campaign chairman who paid him money, and not the other way around, campaign officials said. Running a winning presidential campaign is a surefire path to a White House job. But Mr. Manafort told people he had no interest in working in the Trump administration. My dad is Trumps right-hand man right now and will be through November, Mr. Manaforts daughter, Andrea Manafort Shand, wrote in a text message that was publicly disclosed after her phone had been hacked. But he wont accept any position in the White House. But Mr. Manafort recognized that his work with the Trump campaign was worth something. In April 2016, just days after becoming a Trump campaign strategist, he tried to use his positive news media coverage as leverage in a debt dispute with a Russian oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska. President Trump urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsels investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, raising more questions about whether Mr. Trump has tried to obstruct the investigation. The White House and the presidents lawyers sought to minimize any damage by arguing that the call, issued on Twitter, was an angry opinion, not an order. Mr. Trump has also sought an interview with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and his office, in an attempt to clear himself of any wrongdoing. Yet even as Mr. Trump characterizes the investigation as a Russian hoax, top administration officials came forward on Thursday to assert that Russian election interference was a serious threat and to vow to prevent it. Yet at a rally in Pennsylvania hours later, Mr. Trump dismissed the special counsels investigation of Russian interference as a hoax that was impeding his efforts to nurture a constructive relationship with the Russian president. I got along great with Putin, he said of their recent meeting in Helsinki, Finland. As for NATOs members, he said, they were delinquent and in need of a stern lecture about paying their bills. It was important that the national security team spoke en masse and forcefully on Russian aggression towards our elections, said R. Nicholas Burns, a former ambassador to NATO who served under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. But Putin will not be deterred on this issue, or Crimea, or the nerve agent attack until he hears Trump say it forcefully and convincingly. Until then, Mr. Burns said, he will view Trump as weak. Administration officials said Mr. Trump directed his national security team to hold the briefing on Thursday to underline how seriously he takes the threat of election interference. They said his softer language whether about Russia or North Korea merely reflects his conviction that he should cultivate a positive relationship with the leaders of those countries. Asked why Mr. Trump rarely, if ever, sounds the alarm about Russias election meddling, the national security adviser, John R. Bolton, told reporters: The president has made it abundantly clear to anybody who has responsibility in this area that he cares deeply about it and that he expects them to do their jobs to their fullest ability. The dissonance between Mr. Trump and his staff extends to countries like Iran, with which neither he nor his aides are seeking a warm relationship. The presidents declaration that he would meet Irans leaders anytime they want without preconditions came just as other officials, including Mr. Pompeo, were hardening their language toward the country. Mr. Pompeo quickly listed three preconditions for engagement: that the Iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behavior and enter into a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation. For aides like Mr. Pompeo or Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, there could be another reason for the disconnect with Mr. Trump: they harbor their own long-term political ambitions and do not want to run afoul of traditional Republican constituencies. The Chattanooga Police Department is asking for the community's help in locating the suspect involved in the fatal shooting of Cortez Alford that occurred on July 18 1101 Arlington Ave. The suspect is identified as 23-year-old Oshea Arkeith Williams. He is a black male who is 5'7"and weighs approximately 165 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. Williams has also been named to the TBI's 10 Most Wanted List. Williams has been charged with criminal homicide, felony reckless endangerment, possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony Williams could be in the Detroit area. CPD is working with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to locate Williams. Investigators believe Mr.Williams could be in the Detroit area. CPD is working with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to locate Williams. If you have any information on the whereabouts of Oshea Williams please call the CPD Homicide Tip Line at (423) 643-5100, the U.S. Marshals at (313) 234-5656 or the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND. HOUSTON (AP) - Houston's police chief says a man accused of killing one of former President George H.W. Bush's doctors killed himself when confronted by authorities. Chief Art Acevedo said Friday that 62-year-old Joseph James Pappas died from a single self-inflicted shot to the head during a confrontation with police. Acevedo reported that Pappas had body armor on during the confrontation. Police allege Pappas shot Dr. Mark Hausknecht on July 20 while the cardiologist rode his bike to work at Houston Methodist Hospital. Acevedo has said Pappas might have been seeking revenge for his mother, who died on the doctor's operating table more than 20 years ago, in April 1997. Authorities had previously described Pappas as armed, dangerous and possibly suicidal. (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) The Red Cross on Friday reported a near doubling of the death toll from attacks on a rebel-held Yemeni seaport under siege by a Saudi-led coalition, describing the killings and destruction as a horrific disregard of international law. As recriminations over Thursdays attacks escalated, the Saudis and their military partners in the Yemen conflict denied any responsibility and blamed their enemies, the Houthis, the Yemeni insurgent group that controls the seaport, Al Hudaydah. At least 55 civilians were killed and 170 were wounded by bombings that struck densely crowded areas of the seaport, including a fish market and areas around Al Thawra Hospital, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement from its Yemen delegation. It did not identify who was responsible. The scenes coming from Hudaydah are horrific, the statement said. The disregard of international humanitarian law in Yemen cannot be tolerated. Because of this, Professor Stulz said, Its not possible for the general public to invest in a diversified portfolio of really small, publicly traded companies in the way they could a few decades ago. Profits are increasingly concentrated in the cluster of giants with Apple at the forefront that dominate the market. For a far larger assortment of smaller companies, though, profit is often out of reach. In 2015, for example, the top 200 companies by earnings accounted for all of the profits in the stock market, according to calculations by Kathleen Kahle, a professor of finance at the University of Arizona, and Professor Stulz. In aggregate, the remaining 3,281 publicly listed companies lost money. In theory, as a shareholder, you are entitled to a piece of a companys future earnings. Thats one of the main arguments for buying stock in the first place. But the reality is that you often are buying a piece of a money-losing proposition. Aside from the top 200 companies, the rest of the market, as a whole, is burning, not earning, money. A quirk of accounting is at the root of some of that profit deficit, especially for smaller and younger companies. Increasingly, value resides in intellectual property intangibles like software and data and biological design rather than in the production of physical objects like cars. But under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, which American companies must follow, research and development must be deducted from corporate income and those charges can reduce or eliminate profits. (Capital expenditures in physical things like factories appear on corporate balance sheets, not income statements, and dont reduce profits.) Without deep knowledge of a companys critical research which businesses may be reluctant to share, for competitive reasons its difficult for outsiders to evaluate a start-ups worth. That makes it harder to obtain funding, and it may be partly responsible for certain trends: why there are fewer initial public offerings these days, why smaller companies are being swallowed by the giants, and why so many companies remain private for longer. That creates opportunities for private equity firms, which have insider access to innovative start-ups that may never go directly to the public markets. Meanwhile, Main Street investors are consigned to a less diverse universe than they may realize. In most cases, Mr. Steinmetz researched and proposed the locations and what he wanted to shoot, then editors and researchers with the magazine talked to scientists to confirm that climate change had affected them. But then he had to get there and get the photo, and even for Mr. Steinmetz a longtime contributor to the magazine and onetime National Geographic Adventurer of the Year that proved stressful. When possible, he called around, did research and made good use of Google Earth to figure out specifically where and what he wanted to shoot, then used a drone to get the picture. But it wasnt always clear, or easy. Mr. Steinmetz was in Tanzania giving a TED Talk when he read that Hurricane Harvey was dumping unprecedented amounts of rain on Houston. Scientists say a warmer world means hurricanes will be more intense, with higher wind speeds and more precipitation. He consulted with Kathy Ryan, the magazines director of photography, caught the next plane back out and headed for Austin. When he got to Texas, he followed the forecast and the news that the rain was heading to Beaumont, Tex., a city near the Louisiana border that suffered extensive flooding. From the ground, the message from the air traffic control tower was that the airspace above Beaumont was closed. But he boarded a helicopter in Austin that took off at sunrise to see what was possible. In the air, with an experienced pilot who knew the area, he found that officials were more flexible. What he saw in Beaumont was devastating. In his photograph, suburban homes sit soaking in water for as far as the eye can see. They were just drowned, he said. There was no place for the water to go. In June, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina organizer, unseated Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful Democratic incumbents in the country, many analysts were shocked. But maybe they shouldnt have been. Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs victory came after she criticized Mr. Crowley regularly on the campaign trail for voting to establish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in 2002. She called for the agency to be abolished. And as she zeroed in on the brutality of immigration enforcement, she became a leader in the movement to abolish ICE, going so far as to spend the last few days of her campaign at the border bearing witness to the viciousness of Americas immigration system. While some saw this as a sign of her political weakness, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was tapping into a sharp shift in the way that Democrats understand immigration. In much the same way that the Democratic Party has had a reckoning on financial deregulation, the punitive 1994 crime bill and the callous welfare reforms of the mid-90s, incumbents are now facing criticism for their votes on immigration. From the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996 to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Democrats have voted overwhelmingly to help construct the apparatus that President Trump is using to engage in a campaign of mass deportation. And candidates like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez are forcing them to take those votes seriously. Ayanna Pressley, who is challenging another incumbent, Michael Capuano, in the Seventh Congressional District of Massachusetts, has also called for abolishing ICE. In Delaware, Kerri Evelyn Harris, running against Tom Carper, another incumbent who supported the creation of the agency, has too. Scientists perception of public irrationality is having an impact on our ability to rationally discuss things that deserve discussion, says Andrew Read, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Read studies how pathogens evolve in response to vaccines, and he is fiercely pro-vaccine his goal is to keep the shots effective. He says he has had unpleasant encounters at scientific conferences; colleagues have warned him, for instance, not to talk too openly about his work. I have felt the pressure and for that matter the responsibility acutely, he says. In 2009, Danuta Skowronski, the lead epidemiologist in the division of Influenza and Emerging Respiratory Pathogens at the British Columbia Center for Disease Control, and her colleagues stumbled across unexpected data that suggested a link between seasonal flu shots and an increased risk for pandemic flu. The findings could not prove a causal link perhaps people who get seasonal flu shots differ from those who dont in ways that make them more susceptible to pandemic strains. But one possible interpretation is that seasonal flu shots inhibit immunity to those strains. Dr. Skowronskis team replicated the findings in five different studies and then shared the data with trusted colleagues. There was tremendous pushback, Dr. Skowronski recalls, and some questioned whether the findings were appropriate for publication. I believed I had no right to not publish those findings, Dr. Skowronski says. They were too important. The findings were submitted to three journals and underwent at least eight lengthy reviews before the final study was published in PloS Medicine. Last September, researchers with the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a collaborative project between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and various health care organizations, published a study in the journal Vaccine that found an association not a causal link, the authors were careful to note between a flu vaccine and miscarriage. Soon after, Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of a lifesaving rotavirus vaccine, said in The Daily Beast that the paper shouldnt have been published, in part because the study was small and conflicted with earlier research. He also suggested that the authors had cherry-picked their data a charge they vehemently deny. One physician questioned in the popular blog Science-Based Medicine why the research had been funded in the first place. Dr. Offit says that researchers should handle findings differently when theres a chance they might frighten the public. He thinks that small, inconclusive, worrying studies should not be published because they could do more harm than good. Knowing that youre going to scare people, I think you have to have far more data, he explains. But even an inconclusive paper can be important, others say, as it can spur the larger, more definitive studies that are needed. It should be put out there for the scientific community, to look at it, see it, know about it, refine study design and go and look again, says Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic vaccinologist and the editor in chief of Vaccine. It is crucial, though, for researchers to carefully explain such results in their papers to prevent misinterpretation. If a study scares parents away from vaccines, people could die. Thats a big risk to take to protect the sanctity of scientific discourse. I was warned several times that covering this issue could leave me with blood on my hands, too. But in the long run, isnt stifling scientific inquiry even more dangerous? Why does it matter how the census is run? Its important to remember that the constitutional requirement to count each and every person, not just citizens or legal residents, is based on the very first thing the federal government was told to do when this country was established. Its literally Job 1. And theres only one constitutional purpose for the census, which is to allocate seats in the House of Representatives and to determine Electoral College votes. This is the basis for political power, and the census is foundational to our democracy because of that. Today, of course, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money gets doled out to communities based on the census count. Isnt it reasonable for the government to want to have data on citizenship? Well, for starters, states already know that information. They have it through the American Community Survey, which the Census Bureau sends out to about 2.5 percent of households every year, and which asks a broad range of questions about jobs, housing, schools, citizenship status and more. But the mandate of the decennial census is one thing alone: to count every single person in this country. It isnt to be used as a fishing expedition to get random information on people. Also, we know that in this administration, a citizenship question is not benign. Which communities are most at risk of being undercounted? We know who the hardest to count communities are: communities of color, rural communities, urban low-income households, immigrants, children under 5. Even before the citizenship question was added, there were tremendous levels of fear among immigrant communities in particular around reporting personal data to the government. Consider what happened to the Dreamers, who were told by the Obama administration to trust the federal government and register in order to get some level of stability in their status. Then the Trump administration yanked that away from them, and their status is now in limbo. Remember also that a lot of immigrant families are mixed status there are undocumented family members living in the same homes as legal immigrants and U.S. citizens so the repercussions of this fear are significant. The Census Bureau encountered unprecedented fear about confidentiality of responses in September 2017 pretests, even without being asked about citizenship. The concern, which is understandable, is that their data will be used against them for enforcement purposes or otherwise. What the authors are describing pejoratively, the way that a general Jewish liberalism can coexist with more conservative impulses and attitudes, has long been particularly obvious in debates about the state of Israel, where the most cosmopolitan of Jewish liberals can suddenly sound like strident nationalists. (Or as the writers of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend put it in their rap battle between two rivalrous female Jewish lawyers: Cause were liberals/ duh, progressive as hell / though of course, I support Israel.) But it extends to a general Jewish interest in, and sometimes alarmism about, issues like fertility rates and cultural preservation that in the world of Gentile politics are associated with the social and cultural right. This combination has often frustrated more thoroughgoing conservatives Jewish ones especially who dont understand why more American Jews dont extend their conservative impulses beyond the tribe and vote Republican. But a liberalism without/conservatism within combination is common to minority populations, and its a particularly reasonable reaction to the experience of Jewish history: An oft-persecuted peoples flourishing can both depend on maintaining a certain conservatism about its own patterns of marrying and begetting and cultural transmission (and, in the case of Israel, the safety of its lonely nation-state), and on encouraging liberalism and cosmopolitanism in the wider, potentially-hostile order in which the diaspora subsists. (And then, of course, this complicated combination also reflects the fear among many politically liberal Jews that if they dont sustain a certain familial traditionalism, theyll just cede the Jewish future to the ultra-fecund ultra-Orthodox.) The interesting question is whether the combination can survive the pressures of our own era. One form of pressure comes from the left, which is increasingly intent on rooting out all residues of traditionalism within the liberal order treating any form of nationalism as suspect, any policing of religious orthodoxy as dangerous, any approach to sex and family and childrearing that isnt purely gender-egalitarian as a dangerous atavism. That spirit, seeking ideological consistency and opposing (to quote Cohens critics) patriarchal, misogynistic, and anachronist assumptions about what is good for the Jews, may not be able to tolerate the mix of cosmopolitanism and tribalism, liberalism and traditionalism, that has defined American Judaism for years. One of the beautiful aspects of riding a motorcycle is that, for those few precious moments when you watch your speedometer leap into life and feel the wind rush past your face, when you feel the pull of gravity drawing you closer toward the blur of a corner, things like your gender cease to matter. Its just the machine and you. That is the joy of the road. That is freedom. Freedom that lasts just up until you stop, step off the bike, take off your helmet and are promptly greeted with offers to help park the machine you just rode in on. The pleasures of taking to the open road on a motorcycle are gender-neutral: Theres the rumble that growls from deep within your machine when you twist the throttle; the sheer distortion of sound and vision at 70 miles per hour; the sudden lurch as you and your bike suddenly pull away, leaving traffic behind you. Image The author, Esperanza Miyake, on her motorcycle. And yet all my years of riding and I have been riding for about half of my life now, on different machines, in all manner of places have taught me that while the pleasures themselves may be gender-neutral, people consistently assume that the people experiencing them are male. He removed her makeup when he thought she was wearing too much. He refused to put her name on the leases for their car and their house. He told her that she had a green card only because he chose to marry her. Reema Zaman, our guest in this weeks episode, was in an emotionally abusive marriage. Although her husbands abuses never left any physical mark, it took her years to repair the damage he inflicted upon her. Because emotional abuse is so insidious, it can be difficult to recognize. Ms. Zaman describes some of the telltale signs of an emotionally abusive relationship and helps the Sugars answer two painful letters from women who are struggling to disentangle themselves from their abusive partners. One letter writer continually returns to her ex-boyfriends arms despite her familys warnings. Another letter writer yearns to take control of her voice after signing divorce papers that stipulate that she cant say that she is the mother of her four children. We think its only a physical bruise that acts as a receipt of grief and a permission slip to leave, Ms. Zaman says. But feeling your heart break is reason enough to leave. Ms. Zaman is an award-winning author, speaker, actress and artist from Bangladesh. Shes the 2018 Oregon Literary Arts Writer of Color Fellow and the author of the memoir I Am Yours, which is available for pre-order now. RIDGEFIELD, Conn. Everyone wants to ask Dick Cavett the same question, and it is a question that he never wants to answer: Of all todays talk-show hosts, who is the next Dick Cavett? Well, thats an awkward subject matter for me, because I know all of them, Mr. Cavett, 81, said on a recent sunny Thursday afternoon at his sprawling country house in Connecticut. Im not addicted to talk shows. God knows, Ive spent enough time on them. As in Mr. Cavetts 1960s and 70s heyday, the country is in a period of turbulence, with racial tensions flaring, protests in the streets, and a fundamental ideological fissure. The hosts who have emphasized substance, who have gone political, have been praised and nominated for Emmys. But the next Cavett? Is such a thing possible? If only. For three decades, Mr. Cavett was the thinking persons Johnny Carson, embodiment of an East Coast sophisticate. He wore smart turtlenecks and double-breasted blazers, had more cultural references than a Google server and laced martini-dry witticisms into lengthy, probing talks with 20th-century luminaries including Bette Davis, James Baldwin, Mick Jagger and Jean-Luc Godard. On Nov 22, 2014, Washington Post reporter Michelle Boorstein had the story, Pope turns to help the autistic at next Vatican conference. It was about the autism conference held at the Vatican Nov 20-22. Boorstein wrote, "Experts from 57 countries updated one another on such issues as genetic research, pain management and government policies toward people with autism." The current rate of one in every 68 children in the U.S. was noted in the story. There were calls for inclusion and awareness of autism. Readers were told, "The church's role is also sensitive. So much research goes into preventive medical discoveries, which could lead to a genetic marker for autism that could then lead to more abortions - similar to what has happened with Down syndrome." Boorstein seemed to be telling people that the only way to PREVENT autism is by finding the genetic markers and aborting a baby who could potentially end up with autism. She mentioned that Bob and Suzanne Wright, co-founders of Autism Speaks, are Catholic, and she brought up the controversy over vaccines and autism: "The Wrights said they hope the church will see autism as an issue because it challenges and divides many families. They said they themselves have had a dispute with their daughter - the mother of their autistic grandson - over the role of vaccines." Boorstein had this to say on the topic of vaccines and autism, "Organizing any conference on autism - which affects one in every 68 children, according to Autism Speaks - is challenging because of the range of opposing views on such issues as the role of vaccines in autism spectrum disorder. The conference didn't touch on vaccines but includes a presentation on other potential environmental impacts." It seemed that the elephant in the room, as usual when the subject of autism is brought up, was the link to vaccines. Participants were willing to talk about genetics and the possibility of "environmental impacts," but not vaccines. Also on Nov 22, a story on the conference was released from the official Vatican News Network titled, Francis: overcome the isolation that burdens the autistic and their families Written in big white chalk letters on the door of Dora La Tostadora are the words No hay caviar, pero hay maiz. Theres not caviar, but theres corn. That shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone who knows the place. The restaurant a few blocks from the heart of Cuatro Grados Norte, or Zona 4, Guatemala Citys bustling cultural and gastronomic hub specializes in Guatemalan tostadas. It is a showcase for corn and other local ingredients. Inside the former shoe store are just a few wooden tables and a two-stool counter thats lined with a dozen or so bottles of different hot sauces. The decor has a haphazard, thrown-together feel: Christmas lights, a poster of the ruins of Tikal on the wall, a cartoon cutout of Dora the Explorer, the tiny restaurants namesake. Even the birth of the restaurant was a little offhand: In the midst of moving the location for Mercado 24, a market-driven restaurant thats also in Zona 4, there was a lag time of several months and the staff needed to have income. In late 2017 the owners of Mercado 24 tested out Dora La Tostadora as a pop-up and it was a surprise success. Crowds lined up when they opened and most of the food sold out. It still does. Uses of the chair and mask are among the more extreme examples of complaints that have emerged from inside a handful of detention centers that house teenage migrants with a history of violence, mental health problems or, in some cases, gang affiliation. A few hundred a year are held in this separate network of jail-like facilities that also hold American juveniles who have been sent there for a range of behavioral issues and crimes, including assault and murder. The centers have tougher security measures than the immigrant-only shelters where the vast majority of the migrant teenagers are sent after entering the country illegally, either on their own or with their families. For years, the government has sent the most troubled migrant youths to these more restrictive facilities, and many complaints about these sites came well before the Trump administrations crackdown on illegal immigration. Others, though, have been lodged in the wake of the recent surge of detained immigrant children and teenagers, accusations that include use of the restraint devices, injections of psychotropic drugs and long periods in solitary confinement. In sworn statements at the center of a class-action lawsuit against the Shenandoah Valley facility and the government commission that receives millions of federal dollars to run it, six former detainees paint a hellish portrait of daily life inside. They locked me in a room that was 8x10, or maybe 8x16, for 23 hours a day, all by myself, said one detainee identified only as R.B. in the suit. Originally from Guatemala and now 18 and living with his mother in Texas, he had a pre-existing mental illness and was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley facility because of behavioral problems, according to the lawsuit. He said he often got into fights with other detainees and guards because he felt so isolated and angry over his fate. Punishment was the chair and mask, he said. On Feb. 8, 2017, Mr. Cruzs failing grades forced him to withdraw from school. On Feb. 11, 2017, he legally bought an AR-15 assault rifle. It would be used a year later, almost to the day, when the authorities say he returned to Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 14 and killed 17 students and staff members in one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. Mr. Cruz, now 19, remains in jail awaiting trial on charges of capital murder. The new details about Mr. Cruzs educational record come from a consultants report commissioned by the Broward school district to review how it handled Mr. Cruzs education. A judge ordered the release of the review, conducted by the Collaborative Educational Network of Tallahassee, over the objections of Mr. Cruzs defense lawyers after several news organizations, including The New York Times, sued to make it public. The report found little fault in the school districts handling of Mr. Cruzs special needs. Yet two key errors his junior year left Mr. Cruz without therapeutic services from the district for more than a year before the shooting and prevented him from returning to Cross Creek, the only high school where he had improved his behavior and found some academic success. They are the latest in a series of lapses by federal, state and local officials who came in contact with Mr. Cruz during his troubled teenage years but failed to take actions that might have prevented the shooting. We accept the recommendations regarding procedural improvements, and are pleased with the overall review, recommendations and findings, Robert W. Runcie, the Broward schools superintendent, said in a statement on Friday. We are actively reviewing our policies and procedures, training protocols and data systems in an effort to implement the recommendations in a timely and effective way. Much of the educational report was redacted, as approved by Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to protect Mr. Cruzs privacy. But the text of the blacked-out document could nevertheless be extracted, copied and pasted into another file so that it could be read in full. The content of the unredacted document was first reported by The Sun Sentinel of South Florida. WASHINGTON By the beginning of 1998, Brett M. Kavanaugh seemed set: a Yale law degree, three judicial clerkships, including one with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, and, less than a decade out of law school, a coveted partnership at Kirkland & Ellis, a prominent law firm with offices a block from the White House. At just 32, Mr. Kavanaugh had wrapped up a three-year stint working for his mentor, Ken Starr, on the sprawling Whitewater investigation of President Bill Clinton. The inquiry was finally winding down, and Mr. Kavanaugh believed it was in some ways deeply flawed, telling an audience at Georgetown University Law Center, It makes no sense at all to have an independent counsel looking at the conduct of the president. Then, just as he was starting at the law firm, he went back. For nearly seven months, Mr. Kavanaugh, now President Trumps nominee to replace Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court, worked for Mr. Starr once again, despite his objections, helping to assemble the case that the president had an affair with Monica Lewinsky and obstructed justice by trying to cover it up. It was Mr. Kavanaugh who pressed Mr. Starr to aggressively question Mr. Clinton on the details of his sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky and who drafted the section of Mr. Starrs report to the House that laid out 11 possible grounds for Mr. Clintons impeachment. Mr. Kavanaughs decision to return to Mr. Starrs side plunged him into an immersion course in the brutal ways of Washington combat, forever connecting him to an investigation that Democrats called a partisan witch hunt, foreshadowing the epithet that Republicans now use to describe the efforts of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. WASHINGTON Twelve days after a young Russian gun-rights activist gained access to some of Americas most prominent conservatives, at an elegant dinner near the Capitol, a Republican operative was eager to keep the momentum going. In a February 2017 email, the operative, Paul Erickson, proposed another U.S./Russia friendship dinner. He noted that the activist, Maria Butina, who now is accused of being a covert Russian agent, was making an ever-expanding circle of influential friends. Ms. Butina, he wrote in the email, had just met Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, during a visit to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. The Russian woman had also gotten to know the ex-wife of a supermarket heir, who had endowed an institute dedicated to furthering American-Russian relations, and the silky smooth former Russian diplomat who ran it. Then there was the recipient of the email, George ONeill Jr., a Rockefeller relative and conservative writer. He was helping pay Ms. Butinas bills, said a person familiar with their relationship, and hoped to make her the centerpiece of his own project to improve Americas ties to Russia. For some, the old image of the nations white Northwest sometimes called Cascadia, a piney, mythical homeland free of immigrants and minorities lives on as a place worth defending, even though it is now largely a mirage, Mr. Blazak said. And many Oregonians refuse to study or acknowledge the legacy of their history, from the states founding to the rise of its Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s to the gentrification and displacement of communities of color today, he said. Language incorporated by popular referendum in the 1857 State Constitution prohibited blacks from living here, owning property or entering legal contracts, and made Oregon the only non-slavery state admitted into the union with a so-called exclusion clause. The provision was never strictly enforced, historians said. But some racist language remained in the Constitution through as late as 2002. Oregons population is still only 2.2 percent black. When I talk to people and say Oregon was formed as this whites-only state, theres this look of How that could possibly be? Mr. Blazak said. People are just shocked that this is our history. That history still endures. Skinhead groups rose to prominence here in the 1980s, and last year, a man spouting what witnesses said were racist and anti-Muslim language stabbed two people to death on a transit train. Oregon for many years deliberately sought to cordon itself off from the rest of the country, and by some measures succeeded. In the early 1970s, Gov. Tom McCall famously urged Americans to come and visit with a caveat: But I also ask them, for heavens sake, dont move here to live. (Some have speculated that Mr. McCall was using reverse psychology: Tell people not to come and theyll immediately think theyre missing out on something great.) SHEBERGHAN, Afghanistan The top commander of the Islamic State in northern Afghanistan stood behind a lectern decorated with the shield of the Afghan governments powerful intelligence agency. On his left was the police general in charge of the province. Arrayed behind him was an assortment of other dignitaries: police, army, political figures. An attendant put a bottle of mineral water nearby, in case the intense heat made the commander thirsty. This is how the Islamic State commander, Maulavi Habib ul-Rahman, began his imprisonment on Thursday. Along with 250 of his fighters, Mr. Rahman had surrendered the day before to the Afghan government in the northern province of Jowzjan, to avoid being captured by the Taliban. He thanked his hosts and, in a scolding tone, warned them to stick to the deal they had just made. Provide us with personal security as well as stay loyal to the commitments made between us so it prepares the ground for others who fight against the government to join the peace process, Mr. Rahman demanded from the dais. Those demands, Mr. Heo says, were just one source of stress that began to build as the months in China went on. He also began to hear that friends in North Korea were being sent to prison camps, caught up in a wave of purges. He said he was becoming disenchanted with his countrys system and interested in South Koreas. He says he began to nurture a dream of working for the South, and ultimately for Korean reunification. Switching Sides One day in 2014, he says, he approached one of the restaurants regular customers, an ethnic Korean Chinese man who seemed to know an interesting variety of people. Cautiously, he said, he asked the man if he knew anyone who worked in South Korean intelligence. The contact put him in touch with a man who, after a series of conversations, identified himself as a National Intelligence Service officer. By 2015, Mr. Heo said he was giving that officer information about North Koreas missile and submarine programs, which he obtained from friends among the North Korean elite. And he had signed a pledge of loyalty to South Korea. The arrangement went on for months, he says. Then trouble came from an unexpected source. The customer told Mr. Heo that he knew about his espionage and he demanded $100,000 for his silence. He pressed his demands so insistently that Mr. Heo moved the waitresses to the city of Ningbo near Shanghai to work in another restaurant, hoping to evade him. But the customer showed up there, too, he said. It seemed only a matter of time before he would be exposed. In early 2016, he began pleading with the South Korean intelligence officer to help him get to South Korea. They discussed May 30 as a target date. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan The economic mess awaiting Pakistans new leader could take the thrill out of his election victory. The countrys current account deficit, a broad measure of the imbalance between imports and exports, has soared to an alarming $18 billion. Foreign currency reserves would cover less than two months of imports. The Pakistani rupee is shaky, tax collection is scandalously low (last year, in a country of 200 million, fewer than a million people paid any taxes) and Pakistan was recently returned to an international gray list for failing to curb terrorism financing, making foreign transactions more complicated and expensive. So whats a new prime minister to do? Imran Khan, the former cricket player whose political party won Pakistans disputed election late last month, vowed to tackle the distressed economy the moment he ascends to the premiership, which is expected to happen in the coming days. PARIS In Northern Europe, this summer feels like a modern-day version of the biblical plagues. Cows are practically dying of thirst in Switzerland, fires are gobbling up timber in Sweden, the majestic Dachstein glacier is melting in Austria. In London, stores are running out of fans and air-conditioners. In Greenland, an iceberg may break off a piece so large that it could trigger a tsunami that destroys settlements on shore. Last week, Swedens highest peak, Kebnekaise mountain, no longer was in first place after its glacier tip melted. Southern Europe is even hotter. Temperatures in Spain and Portugal are expected to reach 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend. On Saturday, several places in Portugal experienced record highs, and over the past week, two people have died in Spain from the high temperatures, and a third in Portugal. But in the northernmost latitudes, where the climate is warming faster than the global average, temperatures have been the most extreme, according to a study by researchers at Oxford University and the World Weather Attribution network. Note: There is a paywall, but you get the jist of this sad story from India. Of more children had died, would the parents be more believable? One death isn't horror enough? The media outlet is the Business Standard. Vaccines are a business at the beginning, middle and end of the day. God bless this child and her grieving family. ### A 3-year-old girl died today after falling ill in Gujarat's district, with her family blaming her death on the Measles- which was administered to her. Officials dismissed claims that she died due to complications from the They said that she was administered the MR along with over 30 children and none of the others fell ill. Guj: Girl died due to MR vaccine complications, alleges kin ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Saturday that he was ordering reciprocal sanctions against two American officials in retaliation for United States measures against two of his ministers, escalating a diplomatic wrangle between the NATO allies. Those who think that they can make Turkey take a step back with ridiculous sanctions have never known this country or this nation, Mr. Erdogan said in a speech in the capital, Ankara. We have never bowed our heads to such pressure and will never do so. The Turkish action came after the White House announced sanctions freezing the assets of the Turkish interior and justice ministers this past week, in protest against Turkeys detention of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson. Mr. Erdogan said he would order his government to freeze the assets in Turkey of the American counterparts of the targeted Turkish officials, describing them as the U.S. justice and interior ministers. Such an order would be largely symbolic. Its unclear whether American officials would have assets in Turkey. TEHRAN Across Irans heartland, from the sweltering heat of its southern cities to the bustling capital, protesters have taken to the streets with increasing intensity in recent months, much to the satisfaction of the Trump administration, which is hoping the civil unrest will put pressure on Iranian leaders. Some demonstrations about the weak economy, strict Islamic rules, water shortages, religious disputes, local grievances have turned deadly. The protesters have shouted harsh slogans against clerical leaders and their policies. The events are broadly shared on social media and on the dozens of Persian language satellite channels beaming into the Islamic republic. On Thursday, protests were held in the cities of Arak, Isfahan, Karaj and Shiraz, as people in numbers ranging in the hundreds, perhaps more took to the streets, chanting slogans like death to high prices, but also criticizing top officials. A smaller protest was held in Tehran, where some people were arrested, according to videos taken at the scene. In the city of Eshtehard, west of the capital, protesters attacked a religious school on Thursday, forcing 500 clerics in training to flee, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. Becoming a mother used to be seen as a unifying milestone for women in the United States. But a new analysis of four decades of births shows that the age that women become mothers varies significantly by geography and education. The result is that children are born into very different family lives, heading for diverging economic futures. First-time mothers are older in big cities and on the coasts, and younger in rural areas and in the Great Plains and the South. In New York and San Francisco, their average age is 31 and 32. In Todd County, S.D., and Zapata County, Tex., its half a generation earlier, at 20 and 21, according to the analysis, which was of all birth certificates in the United States since 1985 and nearly all for the five years prior. It was conducted for The New York Times by Caitlin Myers, an economist who studies reproductive policy at Middlebury College, using data from the National Center for Health Statistics. In 2016 Avg. age: 26.3 The difference in when women start families cuts along many of the same lines that divide the country in other ways, and the biggest one is education. Women with college degrees have children an average of seven years later than those without and often use the years in between to finish school and build their careers and incomes. People with a higher socioeconomic status just have more potential things they could do instead of being a parent, like going to college or grad school and having a fulfilling career, said Heather Rackin, a sociologist at Louisiana State University who studies fertility. Lower-socioeconomic-status people might not have as many opportunity costs and motherhood has these benefits of emotional fulfillment, status in their community and a path to becoming an adult. There has long been an age gap for first-time mothers, which has narrowed a bit in recent years, driven largely by fewer teenage births, Ms. Myers said. Yet the gap may be more meaningful today. Researchers say the differences in when women start families are a symptom of the nation's inequality -- and as moving up the economic ladder has become harder, mothers' circumstances could have a bigger effect on their childrens futures. A college degree is increasingly essential to earning a middle-class wage, and older parents have more years to earn money to invest in violin lessons, math tutoring and college savings accounts all of which can set children on very different paths. Yet an education and a high-paying career also seem out of reach for many people. Without a college degree Avg. age: 23.8 With a college degree or higher Avg. age: 30.3 For unmarried women Avg. age: 23.1 For married women Avg. age: 28.8 These education patterns do help drive inequality, because well-educated women are really pulling ahead of the pack by waiting to have kids, said Caroline Hartnett, a sociologist and demographer studying fertility and families at the University of South Carolina. But if going to college and achieving an upper-middle-class lifestyle seems unattainable, then having a family might seem like the most accessible source of meaning to you. College is a stronger factor than geography or home prices. The average age of first birth among college-educated women doesnt vary much between counties with large, expensive cities and those with smaller, more affordable ones. In Hennepin County, the home of Minneapolis, where Zillow says the typical home costs $259,000, the average age of first birth for a college-educated woman is 31. In Brooklyn, where the average home costs $788,000, its 32. Counties with the oldest first-time mothers When do women enter motherhood in your county? The gulf aligns with other disparities in the way Americans live including differing attitudes about the role of women. The law professors June Carbone and Naomi Cahn described in a 2010 book how red and blue families were living different lives. The biggest differentiating factor, they said, was the age that mothers had children. Young mothers are more likely to be conservative and religious, to value traditional gender roles and to reject abortion. Older mothers tend to be liberal, and to split breadwinning and caregiving responsibilities more equally with men, they found. In places where people have children earlier and younger, it doesnt mean theyre less happy, but they are less gender equal in terms of economics, said Philip Cohen, a sociologist studying families and social inequality at the University of Maryland. New parents tend to be older in general. The average age of first-time mothers is 26, up from 21 in 1972, and for fathers its 31, up from 27. Women are having babies later in other developed countries, too: In Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Italy and South Korea, the average age of first birth is 31. In the United States, it increased sharply in the 1970s, after abortion was legalized. Now, more people are going to college and marrying later, and there has been a large decline in teenage pregnancy and a rise in the use of long-acting birth control like IUDs. But the experiences of American mothers look very different across the country. People are more likely than before to live in places surrounded by people like them. And local factors job opportunities, housing prices and social mores about things like going to church and using contraception all influence their family planning. It feels like no one here has babies under 35 anymore, said Mary Norton, interim chair of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Because of fertility treatments and genetic testing, there is less fear about health complications and less stigma about having babies after 35, she said. By that age, parents are more likely to have one or more degrees and to be planning to invest in their childrens educations. The wage penalty for women who have children is high, so many try to advance in their careers before giving birth. They are more likely than young mothers to be married, and less likely to divorce. Theyre also less likely to live near their childrens grandparents, or because their parents are older, they juggle child care with elder care. And they might have fewer children than they hoped, because fertility declines during a womans 30s. Ellen Scanlon, who lives in San Francisco, became a first-time mother three months ago at age 40. Cayce Clifford for The New York Times Ellen Scanlon, who lives in San Francisco, became a first-time mother three months ago at age 40. First she went to business school, built a career in finance and started a strategy consulting firm. She met her future husband when she was 31, but they were in no rush to start a family. We were just having a really good time, she said. We love to travel, we were really happy we found each other, and I think I sort of believed you can have a baby when you want. But after they married, when she was 36, they struggled with fertility. It took three and a half years of visiting specialists around the country before she became pregnant via in vitro fertilization. Being further along in her career gave her flexibility to take time off for treatments and a long maternity leave, she said: I have more confidence that its not going to be that challenging to pull it back together. It has also given her and her husband, who works in financial services, enough money to have already started a college savings account for their infant son, Lee, and to be able to enroll him in private school and to travel. Were dying to take him places and just show him that the world is large, she said. Women who have children young tend to live in areas that view family ties as paramount. Parents might be physically healthier because of their youth, and the childrens grandparents are younger and often live nearby. But parents are less likely to have significant savings or a college degree and career. Their pregnancies are more likely to be unintended, and three-quarters of first-time mothers under 25 are unmarried. Natalia Maani, an obstetrician at Starr County Hospital in Rio Grande City, Tex., where the average age of first birth is 22, said very few of her pregnant patients are married, and she can count on two hands the number of pregnancies that were planned. Many cant afford birth control, she said. Most wouldnt consider abortion, and there is no provider nearby. And the cultural norm is to start families young. People here dont have a population going from high school to college, she said. Theres no thoughts about getting your degree, becoming independent or traveling the world. Sadie Marie Groff, 28, of Missoula, Mont., with her three sons. She became a mother for the first time at 20. Tim Goessman for The New York Times Sadie Marie Groff, who lives in Missoula, Mont., was 20 when she had her first son, Dahvon. It wasnt planned, and she wasnt married. She had two more boys, Allen and Zayden, with a different man, who is now her husband. She hadnt thought much about college before becoming pregnant, she said, but her goal now is to get a degree in radiologic technology, once she has time to take courses. Now 28, she takes care of her children during the day and works three-hour shifts as a health aide at night. Being a young mother has benefits, she said: I still have a lot of energy to deal with them, and when they get older, I wont be too old. But it has been financially difficult. When she was pregnant with her second baby, she temporarily moved into a home run by Mountain Home Montana, a nonprofit aimed at helping young mothers. It also provides child care and employment counseling, and she receives government assistance for housing and health care. Research has shown that where children start in life strongly influences where they end up. Providing resources for young mothers and children like the program that helped Ms. Groff, and policies like affordable child care and college can help smooth the differences. The strategy, Ms. Rackin, the L.S.U. sociologist, said, is to provide the best opportunities for children. Most people in Ontario would assume that our courts in Ontario are among the most ethical and responsible in the word. After all, we, in Canada have been empowered by our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and our democratic values relies on our Judges who pride themselves on being totally neutral adjudicators of our court system. Well, I can't blame you for thinking this way, but if you live in Province of Ontario in Canada would be making a sad mistake. Ontario courts are completely corrupt, except for isolated pockets within the small claims court system. You might say, well if this is so, why haven't I heard it on CTV News, the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen and on so many other media organizations across Ontario? That's because the billionaire owners and government run broadcasters are all direct beneficiaries of this corruption. Our current ex-lawyer Judges in Ontario are presumed by "the system" to "impartial" and "neutral" even when they are not! There's absolutely no accountability for Judges who abuse their authority. If you complain to either the Ontario Judicial Council or the Canadian Judicial Council they will ignore your complaint and the other judges when they find out will will just target you more and subject you to persecution. A self-represented litigant who is a friend of mine was declared by Justice Sylvia Corthorn for being a "vexatious litigant" simply because he made a complaint to the Canadian Judicial Council about his treatment by Justice Roger. In short, the Ontario Court system is presided by the most corrupt ex lawyers who become Judges. You know the same money grubbing lawyers in this province who could care less about your pain, suffering and other human dimensions of your litigation. The first thing this guys... ladies want to know is: "Can you pay my often $300/hr to $700/hr fees? And, if you can't f-ck off." Ontario lawyers are greedy psychopaths little accountability to any organization, and are not bound by ethics in their efforts to saddle unwary clients with huge bills they seek to rack up from the most mundane activities. The Law Society of Upper Canada has become a veritable joke at ensuring that lawyers action responsibly in the province. When these lawyers become judges in Ontario, they manipulate the system in behalf of the interests of the law firms that enabled them to rise to power. If you are seeking to sue someone and especially if you're a self-represented litigant who happens to be up against an adversary who the presiding judge favours as a former client or for other reasons associated with their former career in the law profession, these judges won't even bother looking at your evidence against them. They won't even pretend to look because no one is watching them. They can do whatever they like! Unlike the United States which has elected judges, Ontario judges have tenure. This means that once one of these corrupt lawyers becomes a judge, they have free reign to manipulate the system as they like until they retire unless they decide to shoot someone in the courtroom or something like that. As a result, bribery, kick-backs, back-room deals and other such manipulations have apparently become the norm in Ontario because all this obvious corruption is hidden in these courtrooms and outside the range of public scrutiny. It's no wonder judges have been opposed to cameras in Ontario's courtrooms. They want to be free to carry out well over 150 years of corruption that has been going on in Ontario's courtrooms since before Confederation. As a result, Ontario Courts operate largely as Kangaroo Courts in behalf of the most rich and powerful in Ontario. Judges in Ontario are not impartial in any way. They are political actors who operate as gatekeepers in behalf of balancing the interests on the corporate and government Establishment and if you seek to oppose this Establishment, you will loose unless who have gained such massive political clout that these judges are forced to try to accommodate to your demands while protecting rich and powerful interests in this province. You can read more about Ontario's corrupt judges in a new book entitled Court of Appeal For Ontario Versus The Canadian Public. Love is a wonderful and strong bond to have with someone, especially if youre bringing new life into the world. But what happens when the connection is so strong, youd do anything to keep it? Rosa Castellanos Diaz, a young woman from the village of El Coyolar, Honduras, was expecting twins with her boyfriend, Melvin Mendoza. Or at least thats what everyone thought, including Melvin, as Rosa looked pregnant and had even showed everyone an ultrasound scan. Last Friday, as he big day approached, the mother-to-be boarded a bus to the capital of Tegucigalpa, so she could give birth to her babies at Escuela Hospital. However, later that night, she called Melvin with heartbreaking news: one of the their twins had died while she was in labor, and the other one would have to stay at the hospital in order to receive special care. Photo: La Prensa On Saturday, Rosa returned to El Coyolar with a small casket in order to attend a wake held by her boyfriend and his relatives. When people started asking if they could see the infant, the woman told them that the casket had been sealed by the hospital and she had been instructed not to open it. The wake proceeded as planned, with everyone expressing their sorrow and paying respects to the grieving parents. Melvin was so grief-stricken that he even had to be propped up by friends while watching his childs coffin be buried. After the funeral, everyone focused their attention on the living twin, who was fighting for its life in Escuela Hospital. However, for some people, something about Rosas story just didnt add up. Many of Melvins friends had long suspected that the woman had made the entire pregnancy up in order to keep their relationship going. Photo: video screengrab The whole thing didnt seem right, Ismael Mejia, a friend of Melvins, said. So in the night we went to the cemetery to dig it up. To our surprise what we found inside was a doll, dressed up as if it were a child. Melvins friends recorded the entire horrifying discovery with cell phones as proof of Rosas trickery. They then took the casket and video evidence to the police and returned the doll to Rosa to show they knew of her deception. Surprisingly, after learning of his girlfriends trickery, Melvin actually did not press charges on Rosa and asked the police not to pursue further action against her. Although it has yet to be confirmed, given the creepy discovery, it is highly likely that the second infant does not exist either. This strange incident demonstrates the amazing and sometimes twisted power of love. While it can inspire us to do incredible things and make great sacrifices, it can also embolden us to carry out crazy acts, such as those in this bizarre event. Joe Honick The Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Reagan and Goldwater is now under single ownership: Donald Trump. With the virtual withdrawal of two of the most influential and committed contributors to the party and specific principles, it is more than money that has walked out the door. It is not as if I think the Koch brothers have been personal favorites of mine. The fact is, however, these men have never hidden their goals and their own favorites behind any walls. Moreover, beyond mere politics, they have contributed generously to the cultural sides and educational institutions of American life. Conservatives like to toss the name of George Soros in the faces of Democrats as if the billionaire owns the party, simply because he puts his own money where his opinions are in much the same way as the Kochs have done, as members of a hugely wealthy clique of Republican donors. Now, however, the Kochs have decided that the President no longer has their political affection. And what does Trump do in return? The same as he does almost every day with his tweeting fingers, flashing his smirks and smears at these two gentlemen as if they never really counted in the first place. It does not stop there, however. Steve Bannon, a guy with no official position in the Republican Party, is on the hustings actually warning all Republicans in any jurisdiction not to even think of disagreeing or otherwise contradicting Trump, with the loudly implied or else threat. These realities with not one single counter argument clearly defines Trump as the singular owner of the Republican Party. After all, he has humbled another branch of the American government, Congress, which has been under Republican control for some years, defined foreign policy as insulting friends and warming to those defined for generations as foes and smearing quite openly public servants whose resumes he could never equal. While doing all these things, he has an unwavering base not unlike that of some others who rose to power in the 1930s both here and abroad. He has even boasted and used similar slogans of those times. Sadly , and perhaps inexcusably, those who report the news, good, bad and editorially to the American people and the world, have failed utterly to give any historical perspective to current events. Given what some call cheerleader presentations by heavily financed public PR and marketing professionals, any attention to historical realities that led to our present circumstances is almost completely ignored.except for those pros who know how to repeat them with new polish. So, with Trumps tossing aside the impact of the Koch decisions, and in the same ways he campaigned to electoral college success, he defines with insult any opinions that do not praise him. Most forget the amazing televised session soon after the presidential election that installed Trump in the White House, when he assembled many appointees around a large table. Their mission, carried out as if addressing the Crown, one by one: to thank Trump for allowing each to be in his presence and serve his every wish. The problem of course is that so few of those who did their obeisance are still around, as the revolving door has either cast them out a la the Trump television showor having had enough, they simply escaped back to what poses as the real world. More importantly for the moment is the Koch decision and the Trump response along with the Bannon threats to all other Republicans. One might have thought the Democrat leadership would have seen these events as a wonderful platform for response. Maybe, just a very distant maybe, Soros and the Kochs could meet and come together to support the people Trump trumpeted as the forgotten he allegedly remembered: ordinary Americans. Except that one Trumpian boast in response to the Kochs said it all: Why are they complaining? I made them a lot of money! *** Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. He can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com Rahul Gandhi meets party leaders from Gujarat, asks them to be prepared for assembly polls Bihar Rape Protest: Rahul joins Tejashwi's protest at Jantar Mantar India oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, Aug 4: In a show of unity, leaders of a number of opposition parties including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi joined the RJD in a massive protest at Jantar Mantar over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar take immediate action against the accused. Prominent leaders who joined the protest included Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and TMC's Dinesh Trivedi. In Muzzaffarpur, a case of alleged sexual assault of 34 minor girls living in a shelter home have rocked the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. Medical examinations have confirmed that 34 out of the 42 shelter home inmates were sexually exploited, police have said. The owner of the shelter home, run by NGO 'Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti', Brajesh Thakur, is the main accused in the case. The issue was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to Bihar's Social Welfare Department in April. Here are the highlights of Bihar protest Newest First Oldest First Rahul Gandhi starts off with a candlelight march to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. You can see how the opposition stands united here. India stands united while BJP and RSS stands on the other side as one, says Rahul. Nitish Kumar said that he is ashamed, he needs to start an inquiry immediately if he actually feels ashamed:Rahul at Jantar Mantar. We have come here not just for the 40 girls of Muzzafarpur , but for the safety of women, workers, adivasis, dalits and minorities all over India, he says. I am here to protest against what happened in Muzaffarpur, says Rahul Gandhi at protest against Bihar Homes Of Horror. "This was the same Jantar Mantar. One Nirbhaya had shaken the foundations of the UPA (government). This is the case of 40 Nirbhayas. Many powerful leaders will lose their reign. Within three months death penalty should be given to all the accused and the powerful leaders who are trying to protect them," Kejriwal tweeted. Congress President Rahul Gandhi joins Tejashwi Yadav's show of unity at Jantar Mantar. What happened in Muzaffarpur is horrific and barbaric. I condemn this. Nitish Kumar should not continue as the Bihar CM as he has no moral rights to do so, says D Raja This is not a political issue. I am with everybody who is supporting the cause of these girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home, he further said. I demand capital punishment for all offenders within 3 months, he said. Those who are shielding the culprits should also be punished, rapists are being shielded, says Arvind Kejriwal. Student activist Kanhaiya Kumar also joins protest at Jantar Mantar. Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi and CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury arrive at the Jantar Mantar protest. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Jantar Mantar to join the protest against Bihar government led by RJD on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. We want Brajesh Thakur to be hanged till death. If you see the number of crimes in Bihar, it has only increased in the past one year. Cases of gangrape are being reported back to back from various districts of the state: Tejashwi Yadav to ANI. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav reaches the protest venue. A number of opposition leaders, including Sharad Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Misa Bharti and CPI(M)'s D Raja also at Jantar Mantar. Congress should play the role of an elder brother in Mahagathbandhan. Plans of a grand alliance is intact, it is our priority to stay together and its Lalu Prasad Yadav's vision. Together, all parties can defeat the BJP in the next elections, Tejashwi said ahead of the protest. Hundreds of supporters have started gathering at Jantar Mantar to protest against the Bihar shelter home rape cases. The Tejashwi Yadav-led dharna at Jantar Mantar against the Bihar shelter home rapes is likely to start soon. We know what happens in Rahul Gandhi's protests, even Priyanka Gandhi can't be assured of safety. And now Tejashwi Yadav is too a part of it. No woman will be safe: BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi on Muzaffarpur shelter home case. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on Muzaffarpur rapes: CBI is looking into the issue. It should not be given a political colour. I am sure the law of land is not going to spare anyone responsible for this gruesome act. We should not politicise this issue. Sushil Kumar Modi asserted that with the case having been handed over to the CBI and the Supreme Court having taken suo motu cognizance of the matter, there was no scope left for politics and the proposed dharna at Jantar Mantar will "only bring shame to Bihar". Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has sharply criticised the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Yadav for his decision to stage a dharna in New Delhi over the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal. Tejaswi said condemnation issued by the chief minister on Muzaffarpur shelter case wasn't enough. He questioned that why Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case running all kind of shelter homes and getting funds from the governments. Yadav added that the scandal has exposed 'social reforms' agenda of Nitish Kumar government. "Having seven sisters, it pains me to even imagine what the little girls at the shelter home were forced to undergo. It is a most shameful incident. When we raised it in the assembly, the government tried to mislead the house. Were they not Bihar's daughters? Has our conscience died? Whatever happened to the girls amounted to a betrayal of their trust, given that they were promised protection there. What they got in return was physical, mental and sexual torture. The culprits should be hanged once their guilt is established in court," he wrote. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored and protected by Nitish government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday, August 4 at Jantar Mantar. Request all to attend", the RJD heir apparent tweeted. Tejaswi, raising serious concerns over the safety of girls wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Tejaswi, raising serious concerns over the safety of girls wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored and protected by Nitish government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday, August 4 at Jantar Mantar. Request all to attend", the RJD heir apparent tweeted. "Having seven sisters, it pains me to even imagine what the little girls at the shelter home were forced to undergo. It is a most shameful incident. When we raised it in the assembly, the government tried to mislead the house. Were they not Bihar's daughters? Has our conscience died? Whatever happened to the girls amounted to a betrayal of their trust, given that they were promised protection there. What they got in return was physical, mental and sexual torture. The culprits should be hanged once their guilt is established in court," he wrote. Tejaswi said condemnation issued by the chief minister on Muzaffarpur shelter case wasn't enough. He questioned that why Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case running all kind of shelter homes and getting funds from the governments. Yadav added that the scandal has exposed 'social reforms' agenda of Nitish Kumar government. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has sharply criticised the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Yadav for his decision to stage a dharna in New Delhi over the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal. Sushil Kumar Modi asserted that with the case having been handed over to the CBI and the Supreme Court having taken suo motu cognizance of the matter, there was no scope left for politics and the proposed dharna at Jantar Mantar will "only bring shame to Bihar". BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on Muzaffarpur rapes: CBI is looking into the issue. It should not be given a political colour. I am sure the law of land is not going to spare anyone responsible for this gruesome act. We should not politicise this issue. We know what happens in Rahul Gandhi's protests, even Priyanka Gandhi can't be assured of safety. And now Tejashwi Yadav is too a part of it. No woman will be safe: BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi on Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The Tejashwi Yadav-led dharna at Jantar Mantar against the Bihar shelter home rapes is likely to start soon. Hundreds of supporters have started gathering at Jantar Mantar to protest against the Bihar shelter home rape cases. Congress should play the role of an elder brother in Mahagathbandhan. Plans of a grand alliance is intact, it is our priority to stay together and its Lalu Prasad Yadav's vision. Together, all parties can defeat the BJP in the next elections, Tejashwi said ahead of the protest. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav reaches the protest venue. A number of opposition leaders, including Sharad Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Misa Bharti and CPI(M)'s D Raja also at Jantar Mantar. We want Brajesh Thakur to be hanged till death. If you see the number of crimes in Bihar, it has only increased in the past one year. Cases of gangrape are being reported back to back from various districts of the state: Tejashwi Yadav to ANI. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Jantar Mantar to join the protest against Bihar government led by RJD on the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi and CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury arrive at the Jantar Mantar protest. Student activist Kanhaiya Kumar also joins protest at Jantar Mantar. Those who are shielding the culprits should also be punished, rapists are being shielded, says Arvind Kejriwal. I demand capital punishment for all offenders within 3 months, he said. This is not a political issue. I am with everybody who is supporting the cause of these girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home, he further said. What happened in Muzaffarpur is horrific and barbaric. I condemn this. Nitish Kumar should not continue as the Bihar CM as he has no moral rights to do so, says D Raja Congress President Rahul Gandhi joins Tejashwi Yadav's show of unity at Jantar Mantar. "This was the same Jantar Mantar. One Nirbhaya had shaken the foundations of the UPA (government). This is the case of 40 Nirbhayas. Many powerful leaders will lose their reign. Within three months death penalty should be given to all the accused and the powerful leaders who are trying to protect them," Kejriwal tweeted. I am here to protest against what happened in Muzaffarpur, says Rahul Gandhi at protest against Bihar Homes Of Horror. We have come here not just for the 40 girls of Muzzafarpur , but for the safety of women, workers, adivasis, dalits and minorities all over India, he says. Nitish Kumar said that he is ashamed, he needs to start an inquiry immediately if he actually feels ashamed:Rahul at Jantar Mantar. You can see how the opposition stands united here. India stands united while BJP and RSS stands on the other side as one, says Rahul. Rahul Gandhi starts off with a candlelight march to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. Superstar Salman Khan to fans: Say no to piracy, watch 'Radhe' on right platform 'You will get into trouble': Salman Khan warns of action after 'Radhe' leaks online Blackbuck poaching case: Salman Khan can't travel abroad without permission India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Jodhpur, Aug 4: The Jodhpur court hearing the blackbuck poaching case against Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan ruled that the actor would need to seek its permission every time he travels abroad. Salman Khan's lawyers moved an application in the court of District and Sessions Judge Chandra Kumar Songara today, seeking an exemption from this requirement. The court was hearing Salman Khan's plea against his conviction by a trial court, which had handed him a five-year jail sentence for killing two blackbucks 20 years ago in Kankani village near Jodhpur. Public prosecutor PR Bishnoi opposed the application for exemption from travel permission, arguing that the trial will be over soon. Salman Khan's counsel Mahesh Bora argued that the actor could not be convicted in the Kankani case as similar evidence had been rejected by the high court in two other poaching cases against him. Calamitous situation in Bengal: 3 crore illegal Bangladeshis reside there India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 4: The Assam NRC has been a subject matter of debate and the opposition led by West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has questioned the rationale behind the move. This was a process that was started several years back, but the issue kept lingering on for long. The consequence of not acting soon on the issue has led to a huge problem called illegal immigration. Now, the problem is that when you keep lingering like this, this is where you come to says Amar Bhushan, former special secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing who also recently authored the book," "The Zero Cost Mission/The Wily Agent. Interestingly, Bhushan's book narrates a dare-devil operation undertaken by the R&AW in Bangladesh in 1992-93 to immobilise targets of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The operation largely dealt with stopping the Jamaat from undertaking a major operation in which involved infiltrating Bangladeshis into India with a motive of creating a Greater East Pakistan. Bhushan took time off to discuss with OneIndia the issue relating to the NRC, the possible outcome and repercussions. However, the former R&AW officer makes it clear that the noise being raised by the opposition has nothing to do with human rights. They are worried that this exercise would result in all these people declared illegal citizens losing their voting rights. West Bengal has the bigger problem: While Assam undertook this exercise, what one must note is that the bigger problem is in West Bengal. We had an estimate that there were 3 crore illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengal of which 1.2 crore moved to other parts of the country. The situation in Bengal is more calamitous, when compared to the rest of the states, Bhushan says. Post the 1971 war, I feel we ought to have been more strict. Had we been more strict back then, we would not have reached this stage. The Bengal problem was immense and it had first been exploited by the CPI(M) and now the Trinamool Congress. It is clear that all these people have come in from Bangladesh. The thing now is that Bangladesh would never take these people back and this has been their old strategy. The issue is a serious one and everyone in the media and also the politicians are glossing over it. First we need to identify who is legal and who is not. Give citizenship to the genuine person. What is to be done with these people is something that would come up in the second stage says Bhushan. The issue has to be dealt with and one cannot make up the excuse as to what is to be done with them. The Zero-Cost Mission/ Wily Agent: R&AW's dare-devil operation Bangladesh operation that saved India Voting rights is the real issue: The opposition has been crying foul and citing humanitarian issues. This is an issue for everyone including those who lose out on their benefits thanks to illegal immigrants. Every Indian citizen is entitled for government benefits. If you are not a citizen, why should you benefit, asks Bhushan. We are not on that part here and what we must speak about is what is legitimate and what is not. In this regard I would commend the BJP's courage on the issue and had it not been for them the NRC would have never happened. The NRC is about deciding what is legitimate and what is not. What I anticipate is that these people who have been declared illegal citizens will continue staying here, They would however lose all benefits including their voting rights. The problem for the opposition is not that these persons would not get a job, ration, education etc. The real problem for them is that these persons would lose their voting rights, the former R&AW officer also points out. How illegal immigration into Bengal has yet again fuelled demands for a Greater East Pakistan 260 percent increase: From time to time attempts had been made by various parties to enumerate the illegal Bangladeshis. Several meetings have been held in the past to discuss this issue, but every time it was put saying, ' now is not the time.' There were a number of reports in the Home Ministry which have been buried right from the beginning. Every one kept glossing over the issue, Bhushan also says. What the BJP has done is that they have expedited the process and I am sure by December the final list would be ready. The best thing is that it is happening under the supervision of the Supreme Court. My question is why not have such an exercise in every state. If this is done, think of the subsidy and ration that the government would save. Another thing, Bhushan points out is that between 1971 and 1996 there had been a 266 per cent increase in the number of infiltrations from Bangladesh. The information I have suggests that post 2014, it has come down a lot. What next: The next course of action which would follow would be undertaken in a phased manner. Once the final list is released, the action would begin. I do not think there would be any criminal action against these persons. They would continue to work and live here, but minus the voting rights. There would be a tough bargain with these people depending on which government is there. I doubt that these people would be sent to jail or deported. As I said, they would continue to live here, without any benefits, which also includes voting rights. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 10:10 [IST] Catastrophic ramifications says Mehbooba Mufti is J&K special status is meddled with India oi-Madhuri Srinagar, Aug 4: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said fiddling with the state's special status would have "catastrophic ramifications" for the entire country. Her warning comes days before a Supreme Court hearing, scheduled for August 6, on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution, which grants special rights and privileges to the state's residents. "Today people cutting across party lines and other affiliations are united in their fight against dilution of Article 35A. As I have already stated before, fiddling with J-K's special status will have catastrophic ramifications for the entire country," Mufti said. Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, also denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. "My father (former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed) took great pride in the special status that J-K enjoys under Article 370. He would often mention that while people of the state have made great sacrifices for larger goals, we need to safeguard what we already have," the PDP president wrote on Twitter. Protests by the separatists, business and trade bodies and civil society organisations have rocked the Valley over the past few days against petitions demanding that Article 35A be repealed. The separatists have called for a two-day strike on Aug 5-6 over the issue. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 7:13 [IST] Rahul Gandhi meets party leaders from Gujarat, asks them to be prepared for assembly polls CWC chaired by Rahul Gandhi discusses Assam NRC, Rafale deal India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar New Delhi, Aug 4: Senior Congress leader and former PM Manmohan Singh briefed Congress Working Committee (CWC) on the economic condition of country on Saturday. Congress President Rahul Gandhi chaired the meeting attended by Ashok Gehlot and other CWC members. The issues of National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft bill, Rafale deal issue and corruption were discussed. Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, said, "Issues of NRC Draft Bill, corruption, bank fraud cases and Rafale deal were discussed in CWC. Discussions were held on the issue of unemployment. We have also started preparations for upcoming elections in four states." Sonia Gandhi did not attending the CWC meeting because she is unwell. During the previous CWC meet on July 22, the Congress had laid down its strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party, which will fight the election under the stewardship of Gandhi, will set up a group to look into forming alliances across the country. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 15:11 [IST] Daggers drawn by the opposition against NDA India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Aug 4: Though it is too early to say that opposition political parties will join hands to take on the Modi juggernaut but they have been able to put up a good show at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government for failing to take appropriate action against culprits in the rape case in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The rally called by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leder Tejashwi Yadav is represented by almost all the major important anti-Bharatiya Janata Party political outfits. Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Sitaram Yetuchry, Communist Party of India leader D Raja, Indian National Lok Dal leader Dushyant Choutala, former JNU SU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Loktantrik Janata Dal patron Sharat Yadav, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, representative of Trinamool Congress Dinesh Trivedi, Surendra Nagar of Samajwadi Party and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi were present in the meeting while Rashtriya Lok Dal expressed its solidarity by sending its message. RJD Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti was also present in the rally. However, the rally has remained unrepresented by Nationalist Congress Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Biju Janata Dal. The Opposition also put up united show at the swearing in ceremony of Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy but Janata Dal (S) representative was not present at the rally. Rahul Gandhi said in the rally that it is not just a matter of Muzaffarpur incidence but for the security of mother, sister and daughter of the country. Political analyst say that this is an attempt to target Modi more than Nitish Kumar. However, the opposition has many fault line that it needs manage before formal alliance is being discussed. Interest of political parties will come to fore when elections will come close and the real unity will be visible when they will remain united that very moment. Moreover, despite having so many political parties their pan India presence in not visible as it was when National Front or other fronts were made. There was no representation either from DMK or AIADMK. But the Congress decision to agree to the fact that name of the prime ministerial candidate to be decided by the 2019 elections has given a big leverage to the leaders of these political parties for maneuvering. This has ended inhibition among the leaders from different political parties. Leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Sitaram Yetchury, Tejashwi Yadav, Mayawati, Akhilesh and Sharad Yadav have the only objective to unseat the BJP led by Modi but this is not true with some other political parties. They are more interested in winning their own elections than dethroning the BJP. So it is not necessary that they will accept all conditions by these leaders. The political alternative given by these leaders have completely unrepresented by northeastern leadership. This rally could prove to be making of Mahagathbandhana and breaking of the Modi government but it is too early to predict as many cards are yet close to the chest of many politicians making many things uncertain. Dalits to continue with their plan of Bharat Bandh on August 9 India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Aug 4: Dalit activists from all across India to continue with their decision to paralyze normal life of the entire country on their scheduled Bharat Band plan on August 9, 2018. Dalit community is pressing for their demands with the Central government. They will also choke the entire Delhi by blocking roads, markets, demonstration and rallies including the Connaught Place area of Delhi to send the message across the governments. Chairman of the National Confederation of Dalit Organisations Ashok Bharati told OneIndia that Dalit organizations have been sticking to their plans to organize rallies, dharna and bandh across the country. They also plan to send petitions from the district headquarters to the central government and around two crore post cards will be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the demands of the community. On being asked that since the government introduced a bill in Parliament against the decision of the Supreme Court, Bharati said first the government does not have any control over the court so anything may happen and second that the government does not have clarity in its move to generate confidence among Dalits. It is also not providing us the right data about the government moves. So the community is not ready to believe the government. Last bandh by Dalits on April 2 had a major impact. None of the past commitment of the Centre and state governments have been fulfilled. The government did not release Dalit leader Chandrashekhar and over 20,000 Dalit activists are still languishing in jail and despite commitments made by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, MP CM, Rajasthan CM none of them have been released. So it is difficult for Dalits to have faith on the government. On the other hand, the government is trying to cajole the community by bringing a bill to nullify the court decision. However, how far the government will be successful is yet to seen. The government does not want to annoy Dalits when Lok Sabha elections are coming closure by the day. Ahead of Diwali, NGT bans sale or use of firecrackers in Delhi from midnight today till Nov 30 Drop poop mid-air and we will stop your pay, NGT warns airlines India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 4: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has rapped the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for "repeated defiance" on issuing circular to airlines operating at the IGI Airport to ensure they do not empty toilet tanks mid-air. A bench headed by NGT chairperson justice Adarsh Kumar Goel warned that if the order was not complied with by August 31, the salary of the Director General of Civil Aviation would be stopped. The green panel took strong objection that despite its specific order, there was neither any valid explanation nor was there compliance by the aviation regulator on the issue. "Neither there is any valid explanation nor there is compliance by the DGCA. It is not disputed that the order is operative and has not been stayed in any proceedings... "Since there is a repeated defiance by the DGCA with absolutely no acceptable explanation, we have no option but to direct the DGCA to comply with the directions already issued on or before August 31," the bench, also comprising justice Jawad Rahim, said. The tribunal also warned that if there is "continued defiance" it may have to consider prosecution of the Director General on the next date. "If the order remains uncomplied, the Director General may be required to remain present in person," the bench said. The NGT directed that a copy of the order be sent by e-mail to the officer concerned and posted the matter for hearing on September 17. During the hearing, the DGCA told the bench that the order has not been complied till date because a review petition against the NGT's order was pending adjudication. The DGCA had sought stay and review of NGT's December 20, 2016, and the January 10 order of the tribunal claiming that it was impossible to dump human waste mid-air from aircraft toilet. On October 2016, a Delhi resident, Lt Gen (retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya, had filed a case alleging that houses in his neighbourhood were damaged by faeces dumped from planes at night. Dahiya had moved the NGT alleging that faeces were splattered from aircraft on his South Delhi house before Diwali in 2016 after which the tribunal on December 20, 2016 had directed the DGCA to issue a circular to all airlines to pay Rs 50,000 as environmental compensation if their planes are found dumping waste mid-air. The petition has referred to the findings of the expert committee, constituted by NGT, and said there is no switch or system available in the aircraft to dispose waste in flight. "The aircraft system has three level of in-built external protection for disposing the waste and under no circumstance release of waste during flight is possible and there has been no such resort ever by the operators. "The modern day airline toilets are sealed and cannot be emptied in flight and toilet waste can only be disposed of by manual operation on ground during its servicing," the DGCA had said. The tribunal had earlier constituted committee comprising representatives from the DGCA, Central Avian Research Institute and CPCB to collect samples from the house of Dahiya. Aviation regulator DGCA had maintained that it was impossible to dump human waste mid-air from aircraft toilet, and bird droppings had landed on the complainant's house, after which the green panel had ordered testing of the excreta samples. The CPCB had said that there were traces of faecal coliform in the samples, indicating presence of human waste. The tribunal had in 2016 held that if "any aircraft, airlines and the handling services of registered aircraft" were found to be dumping human waste from air or toilet tanks were found to have been emptied before landing, they shall be subjected to environmental compensation of Rs 50,000 per case of default. The NGT had also asked the DGCA to carry out surprise inspection of aircraft landing at the airport to check that their toilet tanks are not empty while landing and prevent waste from being splashed over residential areas and any other place before landing. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 6:13 [IST] Time not right to bring petrol under GST: Nirmala Sitharaman Zomato, Swiggy food delivery to come under GST: But customers won't pay more The full list of recommendations made by the GST Council States to test GST cashback for payments via Rupay, BHIM app: Piyush Goyal India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar New Delhi, Aug 4: States will roll out on pilot basis incentives for digital transactions through Rupay card and BHIM app under the GST, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. The 29th Goods and Services Tax council meeting headed by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal was held at Vigyan Bhawan. The issues related to small businessmen and retailers were discussed. The GST council has decided to form a sub-committee under the leadership of Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance. Delhi Minister Manish Sisodia, Finance Minister of Punjab and Finance Minister of Kerala will be a part of this committee. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, said, "Law Committee will take decisions related to law. Fitment Committee will take decisions related to rates." With regard to incentives for digital transactions, Goyal said that these would be rolled out on trial basis by states who volunteer to do so. "Based on the pilot, we can asses the revenue gain or loss," Goyal told reporters after the GST Council meeting. ( With PTI inputs) Have proof of Rs 25 lakh bribe amount reaching Ahmed Patels residence says ED India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 4: The Enforcement Directorate has told a Delhi court that it has evidence of Rs 25 lakh suspected to be bribe, delivered at the residence of Ahmed Patel, a Congress Rajya Sabha member and close aide of Sonia Gandhi. The submission was made when the ED was seeking custody of a person by the name Ranjit Malik, who had been arrested in connection with a money laundering case. The case which was registered by the CBI relates to the Sterling Biotech, a pharmaceutical firm in Gujarat that got Rs 5,000 crore loan on forged documents. The ED further told the court that it had recorded the statement of one Rakesh Chandra, who said he had acted as a courier for Malik. He also spoke about delivering Rs 25 lakh cash to 23, Mother Teresa Crescent Road, which incidentally is the official residence of Ahmed Patel. The charges were however rubbished by Patel who said it was baseless and like the one against him win the AugustaWestland case. The ED also said that in addition to the statement, it also had telephonic conversations and financial transactions as proof to back its charges. It may be recalled that in 2011, Income Tax raids at the pharma had led to the recovery of a diary which allegedly has a list of payoffs to several persons including politicians, tax officials and a senior police officer. Last year, the CBI registered a case. The government says three of the firm's directors, Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, fled the country in 2017. The ED however said that it had seized the company's assets worth Rs 4,700 crore. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 10:22 [IST] Protect country without worry, Modi govt will take care of your families: Amit Shah to troops Amit Shah spends night at CRPF camp in Pulwama; says will see a peaceful J&K 'in our lifetime' Balkanisation of India: Lt. Gen would look to further bolster Operation Tupac in Kashmir Terrorist who was going to kill shopkeeper in J&K gunned down Jammu and Kashmir: 5 militants gunned down in Shopian's Kiloora village India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Srinagar, Aug 4: Five terrorists have been killed in fresh firing in Shopian's Kiloora village on Saturday. The operation concluded with the recovery of all five bodies of terrorists killed in the encounter. The encounter between security forces and terrorists started on Friday. The four militants who have been killed today in the encounter have been identified as Arshad Ahmad Khan (LeT), Aijaz Ahmad Paul (AL Badr), Waqar Ahmed Sheikh (LeT), Umar Nazir Malik (LeT). A body of one terrorist was recovered following an encounter between security forces and terrorists in the area on Friday. The body, which was recovered from the site of the encounter, has been identified as a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, Umar Malik. An AK-47 rifle was recovered. DGP Jammu and Kashmir S P Vaid, said, "We had info that a group of terrorists are there in the area (Shopian's Killora village). J&K police, Army, CRPF cordoned the area. A terrorist was killed in the encounter last night. The firing was resumed today and bodies of 4 more terrorists were recovered. The operation called off." S P Vaid tweeted, "4 more bodies of terrorists visible at encounter site kiloora Shopian taking the total to 5 terrorists killed." 4 more bodies of terrorists visible at encounter site kiloora Shopian taking the total to 5 terrorists killed. Good Job boys , good for peace. Shesh Paul Vaid (@spvaid) August 4, 2018 PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission: What we know about the scheme, so far? Karunanidhi laid to rest with full-state honours at Marina Beach India oi-Oneindia Staff By Oneindia Staff Chennai, Aug 8: DMK patriarch and five-time Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi was finally laid to rest on Wednesday alongside Jayalalithaa, DMK founder CN Annadurai and MGR at Marina beachfront in Chennai as a sea of humanity bid him a tearful farewell. He was buried with full state honours next to his mentor and former chief minister C N Annadurai at the Marina beach. No Hindu rituals were performed as Karunanidhi was a self-proclaimed atheist and rationalist. Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin received the national flag wrapped around his father's body. Other family members including the leader's wife Rajathi Ammal, other sons and daughters showered flower petals at his feet. Draped in a tricolour, the five-time chief minister was taken for his burial in an open procession. A sea of supporters were lined up along the route to catch a final glimpse of the departed leader and chanted slogans for their Thalaivar. The last journey of 'Kalaignar' Karunanidhi began at 4:00 pm. The 94-year-old Dravidian icon, who was affectionately called as Thalaivar and Kalaignar, had breathed his last at Kauvery hospital after fighting for life for 11 days. He had been battling age-related ailments for a long time. Earlier today, leaders from across the country, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, came to Chennai to pay their last respects to the doyen of Tamil Nadu politocs who breathed his last at Kauvery hospital in Chennai on Tuesday. Several Chief Ministers and political leaders paid tribute to late DMK chief M Karunanidhi at the Rajaji Hall here today. Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, former chief ministers of Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, Oommen Chandy and Akilesh Yadav respectively, among other leaders paid homage to the departed leader. Here are the Highlights: DMK working president MK Stalin said in an interview that DMK supremo Karunanidhi's health is stable and that doctors are monitoring his condition at the hospital. Actor Vijay meets DMK leader MK Stalin at Kauvery hospital where former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment Chennai: Actor Vijay meets DMK leader MK Stalin at Kauvery hospital where former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment pic.twitter.com/CxRFxzKYOz ANI (@ANI) August 1, 2018 Rajnikanth meets Karunanidhi. On July 31, Congress president Rahul Gandhi met Karunanidhi and wished him a speedy recovery. I wanted to come and see M Karunanidhi Ji. He is a tough person, I met him & he is stable. Sonia ji has sent her best wishes and regards to the family: Rahul Gandhi Congress President Rahul Gandhi to travel to Chennai today to meet DMK chief M Karunanidhi who is admitted to Kauvery Hospital. Stalin says Karunanidhi's condition is stable and that the veteran leader continues to remain under keen observation of doctors. Representatives of Sri Lanka President, Maithripala Sirisena, visited Kauvery hospital to meet former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi. They submitted a letter from Sirisena to DMK working President MK Stalin wishing speedy recovery to Karunanidhi. NCP leader Sharad Pawar visited Chennai's Kauvery hospital today. He met M K Stalin and Kanimozhi and inquired about the Karunanidhi's health. Supporters of DMK chief M Karunanidhi pray at his residence in Coimbatore where he used to reside in 1945. He is currently admitted in Chennai's Kauvery hospital. Visuals from outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M #Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment #Visuals from outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M #Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/ious2kR6GT ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2018 DMK supremo Karunanidhi is fighting with Yaman (the God of death) but he will return victorious, said MDMK general secretary Vaiko Kaveri after visting him at Kauvery Hospital on Monday. Isha Yoga founder and spiritual guru Jaggi vasudev also visited DMK chief Karunanidhi at the Kauvery Hospital on Monday, News18 Tamil reported. AIADMK member Nanjil Sampath and famous Tamil poet Vairamuthu visited DMK chief Karunanidhi in Kauvery Hospital on Monday, according to local media reports. E Palaniswami met Karunanidhi in ICU. He said that the DMK chief is doing fine and a team of expert doctors team is monitoring him, according to reports. DMK volunteers need to maintain peace and cooperate with the police, MK Stalin requests to supporters. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami and and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam have arrived at the Kauvery hospital to enquire about M Karunanidhi's health, according to sources. DMK workers continue to gather outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. According to Thanthi TV, DMK chief Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi who had stayed at the hospital overnight has said that he is doing good and his well-wishers and party workers should be "brave" in these testing times. DMK workers continue to gather outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M #Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. pic.twitter.com/Y98hwdh0RZ ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2018 A DMK worker died of a heart attack in Thiruvarur on Sunday morning after hearing about the deteriorating health of party veteran M Karunanidhi. Another DMK worker, Raju, committed suicide by hanging himself on Sunday, according to local media reports. The security was beefed up both at the hospital and Karunanidhi's residence on Sunday. DMK leader A Raja, in an address to people outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai, asked not to believe in rumours. Raja said, "Karunanidhi is responding well to treatment". A massive crowd has gathered outside Kauvery hostpital and a tight security has been put in place. Some reports had earlier said that Karunanidhi's condition was upgraded to 'very critical' from 'critical'. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami, who was in Salem, has reportedly cancelled all his meetings and rushed for Chennai. Leaders cutting across party lines are arriving at Kauvery hospital. Massive crowds have gathered outside the hospital. People are shouting slogans "Long live Kalaignar". MK Stalin issues statement over M Karunanidhi's health condition,states 'There was unexpected setback in his health but after intense medical care,he's normalising.Doctors' team is continuously monitoring him.Appeal to cadres to not indulge in violence or disturb police or public pic.twitter.com/1tsAoUF4mU ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2018 Karunanidhi was admitted to the Hospital in a critical condition around 1.30 a.m. on Saturday after his blood pressure began to fall. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance past Friday midnight from his Gopalapuram residence. Former BJD leader Bijayant Jay Panda earlier called on M Karunanidhi at Kauvery hospital today and wished for the DMK president's speedy recovery. "I came here to convey my best wishes for Karunanidhi Ji's speedy recovery. He has played a tremendous role in social transformation and economic development of the nation. I met MK Stalin, Kanimozhi and other DMK leaders," Panda told ANI after meeting. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu earlier today met the DMK Chief at Kauvery hospital where Karunanidhi is admitted following a drop in blood pressure. The crowd stayed put outside the hospital even past midnight. Despite assurances that Karunanidhi was recovering, the crowd refused to disperse. Anna University has announced that there has been no holiday declared for its constituent colleges. BJD leader Bijayant Jay Panda calls on M Karunanidhi. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu meets DMK Chief M Karunanidhi at Kauvery hospital where the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was admitted following a drop in blood pressure. DMK supporters gathered outside Chennai's Kauvery hospital, where DMK Chief M Karunanidhi was admitted following drop in blood pressure. Police personnel have cordoned off for the entire area for general public. Karunanidhi's condition has hogged attention over the past couple of days, with political leaders from across the spectrum lining up to visit him. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will meet Karunanidhi at the hospital on Sunday. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi's health condition continues to remain stable with ongoing active medical support, said the latest bulletin issued by Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. The hospital statement said, "DMK President and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Kalaignar Dr M Karunanidhi's health condition continues to be remain stable with ongoing active medical support. He is continuously being monitored & treated by the panel of expert doctors in the Intensive Care Unit." Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman meets DMK's MK Stalin at Chennai's Kauvery hospital to inquire about M Karunanidhi's health condition Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad visits Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital TN CM E Palainiswami's statement: Karunanidhi was not feeling well & was undergoing treatment at home. Now, he is being given the best treatment at the hospital. Our ministers had met MK Stalin and inquired about his health. He will recover soon. If necessary we are willing to provide any help with medical aid. He is better. His blood pressure has stabilised: DMK leader Kanimozhi on DMK President M Karunanidhi's health condition. Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit met MK Stalin at Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President M Karunanidhi was admitted late last night. DMK supporters continue to gather outside Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President M Karunanidhi is admitted. Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit visits DMK President M Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital who was admitted to the hospital late last night following a drop in blood pressure. MK Stalin arrived at Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President Karunanidhi is admitted following a drop in blood pressure. DMK supporters gathered outside Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President is admitted. Karunanidhi, 94, was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit of Kauvery Hospital at 1:30 am. After the hospital informed that Karunanidhi was responding to treatment, the crowd started to disperse. His family members including Stalin and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran too left the hospital. The hospital in a statement said he was brought there after his blood pressure had dropped. "His blood pressure has been stabilised with medical management and he continues to be monitored and treated by the panel of experts," the hospital said. Several senior DMK leaders, including working president M K Stalin and his estranged elder brother M K Alagiri were at the hospital. Other frontline leaders such as Duraimurugan, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and former Union minister A Raja were also there. Hundreds of party cadres and well-wishers have gathered at the hospital. Security beefed up in and around the area. Slogans like "Long Live Kalaignar Karunanidhi" rent the air. Earlier in the day, Kauvery hospital in Chennai released a medical bulletin stating that Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi's health had deteriorated and a team of medical experts were treating him for fever due to urinary tract infection and had kept him under observation for 24 hours. "There has been a decline in the health of DMK president M Karunanidhi's due to age-related ailments. He is being treated for fever due to urinary tract infection. He is being given hospital level treatment at home," a medical bulletin released by the Kauvery Hospital said. Given his condition, the team of doctors attending to him has recommended the restriction on visitors. DMK working president and Karunanidhi's son, M K Stalin, told that the veteran leader is recovering steadily as his fever is coming down. News agency ANI quoted him as saying "he (M Karunanidhi) is recovering steadily as his fever is coming down." Stalin was made the party's working president in 2016 after Karunanidhi retreated from the mainstream politics. He tweeted: "I am thankful to Rahul Gandhi, SitaramYechury & D Raja for calling to inquire about Thalaivar Kalaignar's health. The concern and wishes from everyone will surely aid @kalaignar89's recovery and we hope he will be able to meet everyone soon." On behalf of the DMK, I thank @rashtrapatibhvn & @PMOIndia for their enquiries about @kalaignar89's health. I am extremely grateful for their offers of help. Thalaivar is getting the best medical care and treatment. We hope he will recover soon and thank everyone in his own words M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) July 27, 2018 Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that he spoke with Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin, who is the Leader of Opposition, and daughter Kanimozhi and enquired about the veteran leader's health. "I pray for his quick recovery and good health," wrote Modi on Twitter and added that he has offered any assistance required. Also, President Ram Nath Kovind spoke to Karunanidhi's family members, President's office tweeted, "Spoke to Thiru Karunanidhi's family members on the phone and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery." Spoke to Thiru Karunanidhis family members on the phone and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery #PresidentKovind President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 27, 2018 Arpudhamaal, the mother of Perarivaalan who is accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, visited Gopalapuram to meet Karunanidhi. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to wish for Karunanidhi's speedy recovery. MK Stalin took to Twitter to thank PM Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi for enquiring about Karunanidhi's health. Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot took to Twitter to wish Karunanidhi a speedy recovery. Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan said that meeting MK Stalin & Kanimozhi, he was apprised that Karunanidhi's health is improving and that PM Modi spoke to them inquiring about his health. Karunanidhi's house has been flooded with party workers today after Kauvery Hospital stated a "slight decline" in his health Thursday night. Stalin's estranged brother and former union minister M K Alagiri arrived at the residence along with his son Durai Dayanidhi. Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan said, "Kalaignar should get back to active life and that is my prayer. He presided over my marriage..." Among other visitors were, MDMK chief Vaiko, Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, CPI leader D Pandian and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader Velmurugan who enquired about his health from family members and Stalin. "Such fever after a tracheostomy procedure is usual. Stalin told me that he is fine. I am confident that he will bounce back with the same magnetic voice," Vaiko told reporters. Karunanidhi completed 50 years as party chief today and the DMK had planned to celebrate it by distributing sweets and welfare assistance. After loss of seniority, Major Gogoi will now be shifted out of Kashmir valley Major Gogoi likely to be indicted by Army CoI for hotel incident India pti-PTI New Delhi, Aug 4: Major Leetul Gogoi, who was detained by police in a Srinagar hotel after he was seen with a local woman in May 2018, may face punitive action as a Court of Inquiry ordered by the Army into the incident is likely to indict him in the case, official sources said in New Delhi. They said the CoI has found that he violated the Army's rule against developing relationship with a local woman in a conflict zone and breaching the standard operating procedure of staying away from place of duty. The sources said the findings of the CoI are being placed before the top brass of the Srinagar-based XV corps for approval following which charges against Major Gogoi may be slapped under relevant sections of the Army Act. On May 23, Major Gogoi was detained by police following an altercation at the hotel in Srinagar where he was allegedly trying to enter with a woman. Days later, the Army had ordered the CoI into the incident after Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said in Pahalgam that exemplary punishment would be given to Major Gogoi if he was found guilty of "any offence". "If any officer of the Indian Army is found guilty of any offence, we will take strictest possible action," Gen. Rawat had said. The sources said the Army authorities are likely to examine the legal aspects of the case before taking a final call on future course of action. Major Gogoi had hit the headlines in 2017 after he tied a man to a jeep in Kashmir purportedly as a shield against stone-pelters during polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election on April 9. PTI Rain fury sweeps through India: 27 dead in Kerala, 5 in Uttarakhand; several other states affected Heavy downpour in Kerala for next 2 days; rainfall activity likely to reduce in Uttarakhand How many pregnant women in Kerala have died due to Covid-19? Health Minister Veena Geroge reveals 'Mentally unstable' man tries to enter Kerala house with knife, flag India pti-PTI Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4: A 46-year-old-man from Kerala allegedly entered the Kerala House here today with a knife and a national flag when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was inside the building, police said. The man, identified as Vimal Raj, is a resident of Karipuzha in Kerala. He is "mentally unstable" and was admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital's neurological department, they said. Raj wanted to meet the Chief Minister Vijayan, police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Delhi) Madhur Verma said when alert security guards at the Kerala House noticed Raj entering with a knife and a national flag, they stopped him. The guards initially heard his plea but when he kept on threatening to commit suicide, they caught him and handed him over to the police, the officer said. During interrogation, Raj told police that he required some money and wanted to meet the Kerala chief minister. He is "mentally unstable", Verma said. PTI No vacancy for PM's post in 2019, Opposition can work hard for 2024: Paswan India pti-PTI Chandigarh, Aug 4: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday asserted that there was no vacancy for the Prime Minister's post in 2019 and the Opposition should work hard and aim for it in 2024. The ruling NDA partner Lok Janshakti Party chief Pawan made the assertion claiming that the achievements of the Narendra Modi government in last four years were more than those of any other regime since Independence. Paswan also spoke at length on Dalit issues, acknowledging that the government earlier had a problem of perception on the Dalit issue, but the same had been set right. The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution was addressing a news conference here, during which he also described the NDA government as "pro-poor, pro-Dalits and pro-farmers". Paswan made the remarks in reply to queries on his experience as the NDA partner and if he would be the part of the BJP-led alliance in the 2019 polls. "The Modi government has been in power for over four years now and if you count the achievements of this government during this tenure, it has been better than any other government since Indpendence. "There is no charge which the Prime Minister faces, he comes from a humble background. Out of 24 hours, he works for 20 hours... This government brought so many schemes for common man and the poor like Jandhan Yojana, insurance cover for common people. Besides, India is emerging as an economic superpower," he said. He said the LJP supported the NDA when it had only two other allies -- the Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena. "For the last two years, we (LJP) have been saying that in 2019, there is no vacancy, the Congress and the opposition can work hard, but they should realise there is no vacancy in 2019. They can work hard for 2024 and not 2019," he said. Asked if the LJP would be part of the NDA in 2019, Paswan categorically said, "Not being so is unthinkable." Referring to the Supreme Court March 2018 order which had laid down some safeguards against the misuse of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan said after this verdict some people started a campaign to portray the Modi regime as "anti-Dalit". He said the entire country knew that the Supreme Court had diluted the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and that it was not a government's decision, but a countrywide protest was started as if the government had done it. "We filed a review petition in the court. As we felt it may take time, a decision was taken in the Cabinet and a bill (to undo the Supreme Court order) was introduced in the Lok Sabha yesterday," he said. With the Opposition targeting the BJP over dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan said various Dalit organisations would hold rallies across the country from August 11-14, and thank the Prime Minister for bringing the bill to undo the apex court verdict on the matter. The Dalit Sena, affiliated to the LJP, has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the government's "historic" decision to bring the Bill to undo the Apex court order on the law on atrocities against the Dalits. Paswan said four-five months back he had stated that despite so many works and achievements of the Narendra Modi government, there was "a perception that this regime is anti-Dalit." And he had also said he would set this perception right, he added. Paswan said while speaking in the ongoing session of the Parliament recently, he had pointed out that that the Opposition brought the no confidence motion against the government, "but not even one from the Opposition, be it the Congress or the SP, uttered a word pertaining to Dalits or the atrocities." Asked if the government's stand would change in case the Supreme Court stands by its verdict in response to the petition for review of the March verdict on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Paswan asserted that "it is the government's job to make law." "Parliament is supreme, the court's work is to see whether the laws which have been made, are constitutionally right... it is the government's job to make law," he said. Countering arguments that the apex court's judgment had only laid down some safeguards to prevent the misuse of the SC/ST Act, Paswan said any act can be misused, but the misuse of any law is not a valid ground for repeal of its provisions. "Did it not happen in dowry cases when entire family often landed behind bars?" he asked. He said "many Dalits feared lodging an FIR after dilution of the Act." "Now, they have said a DSP will probe, but which DSP favours the poor? The result will be that the atrocities will once again rise," he said referring to the apex court's March 20 verdict, which stipulated that before registering the FIRs under the SC/ST Act, a DSP-level officer would hold a preliminary inquiry and the prior permission of an SP-rank officer would be needed to arrest the accused. Asked about Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) protest rally with other opposition parties at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over sexual abuse of the girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home, Paswan said taking out protest march was the job of the Opposition and they would do that. What was important in this case, he said, was to see the intent of the Bihar Chief Minister, who has described the incident as "shameful" and assured that the culprits would not be spared. PTI Protect country without worry, Modi govt will take care of your families: Amit Shah to troops Amit Shah spends night at CRPF camp in Pulwama; says will see a peaceful J&K 'in our lifetime' Balkanisation of India: Lt. Gen would look to further bolster Operation Tupac in Kashmir Terrorist who was going to kill shopkeeper in J&K gunned down Now NC joins the bandwagon in SC to support Article 35-A India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 4: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) has moved the Supreme Court in support of the Constitution's Article 35-A that empowers the state assembly to define "permanent residents" for bestowing special rights and privileges to them. After the CPI(M)'s Jammu and Kashmir unit, the NC moved the present petition seeking to be heard in the present matter, saying that the Article serves as an important link between the state and the Union and its people and serves to maintain a fine balance of constitutional federalism. The court is already seized of a batch of petitions in the matter, including the one filed by NGO We the Citizens seeking quashing of the article, which confers special status to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The NC's intervening application, filed through advocate Adeeba Mujhaid, has sought intervention in the "We the Citizens" petition, saying that the challenge raised in the pending writ petition suffers from gross delays and latches and being raised after more than 60 years and cannot be maintainable. The matter is listed for hearing on Monday before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. "Any attempt to tinker with the said balance would ruin the fabric of the federal structure envisaged under the Constitution and jeopardise the avowed special status guaranteed to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, thereby landing a devastating fatal blow to the state and its probe," the petition filed by NC through its provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani said. It said that "Article 35-A and the special status and special laws of the J-K are a crucial existential issue for the state and its people." "The rights of all permanent residents of the state, irrespective of their religion, creed, region, socio-economic standing etc. Are firmly and constitutionally rooted in Article 35-A. "The people of all the three regions of the state -- Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir Valley -- will be vitally affected by the outcome of the present proceedings," it said. On July 31, CPI(M)'s J-K unit had said in its petition that it was of the unequivocal opinion that the Article shall in "no circumstance be annulled, modified or repealed". On May 14, Attorney General K K Venugopal had informed the court that the Centre's interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir is currently discussing with all stakeholders the "sensitive" issues relating to the challenge to Article 35-A of the Constitution. He had said the interlocutor, appointed by the Centre to hold talks with stakeholders to resolve the Kashmir issue, was discussing these issues and it was an "ongoing process". Dineshwar Sharma, former director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), was appointed the Centre's interlocutor for the state on October 23 last year. Article 35-A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of J&K and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. Several interlocutory petitions have been filed in support of Article 35-A by various individuals and civil society groups seeking continuance of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir government through its standing counsel Shoeb Alam had referred to two judgments by the constitution benches of the court and said the issues raised in the pleas challenging Article 35-A were covered by these verdicts. The state government, while defending Article 35-A, had cited two verdicts by the constitution benches of the Supreme Court in 1961 and 1969 which had upheld the powers of the President under Article 370(1)(d) of the Constitution to pass constitutional orders. The article was incorporated in the Constitution in 1954 by an order of president Rajendra Prasad on the advice of the then Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet. It empowers the state legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violation of the right to equality of people from other states or any other right under the Constitution. The court had on August 14 last year said a constitution bench may examine whether Article 35-A was gender-biased and violative of the basic structure of the Constitution. The court while hearing a plea earlier by Charu Wali Khanna, a Kashmir resident, had indicated that if the article violated basic structure of the Constitution or was ultra vires, the issue may be dealt with by a five-judge bench. It had tagged the plea challenging Article 35-A with a similar petition that is pending for hearing by a three-judge bench. The state government had earlier said the issue has already been "prima facie settled" by a full bench of the High Court in its verdict in 2002. In the case, the high court had, by a majority view, held that a daughter of a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of a permanent resident. In Srinagar, Wani said in a statement that the party "will fight this battle from the forefront and will do everything necessary to safeguard the state's special status and political rights." "We will make our case in the Supreme Court in light of the constitutional facts through which the state negotiated its accession with the Union of India - after having acceded to the Union in extraordinary circumstances," he said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 6:09 [IST] On Asiya Andrabis contact list, Hamid Gul, Hafiz Saeed, Nawaz Sharif and several others India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 4: Kashmir separatist and Dukhtaran-e-Millat Asiya Andrabi chief, Asiya Andrabi has spilt the beans on the nexus between her and Pakistan. During the questioning by the National Investigating Agency, she confessed that former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif had assured her that he would do all he could for Kashmir. The response from Sharif came following a letter that Asiya had written to him in which she had stated, " Pakistan is doing nothing for Kashmir." During the questioning, she gave out a long list of Pakistanis who were on her contact list. They included, Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief Hafiz Saeed, who calls her sister, Hizbul Mujahideen boss, Syed Salahuddin, former ISI chief, Hamid Gul, former Pakistan National Security Adviser, Sartaj Aziz among others. She said that she was in regular touch with all these people and would tell them they must do more to free Kashmir. She had even told Saeed that since he is a powerful man, he should continue to exert pressure on the Pakistan government to take stronger action where Kashir is concerned. Further she revealed that her outfit had several WhatsApp groups through which they would spread the propaganda. The groups included Kashmir Media, Pak Media and Free Kashmir, she also said. She further said that she would be in constant touch with Hamid Gul, considered to be one of the most dangerous spies. The telephonic conversations would happen on a regular basis and she would tell him to impress upon the army to free Kashmir soon. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 13:20 [IST] PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission: What we know about the scheme, so far? PM reviews preparations for launch of Health Assurance programme under Ayushman Bharat India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 4: Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, today reviewed the progress of preparations towards the launch of the Health Assurance programme under Ayushman Bharat. The scheme will provide health assurance cover of upto Rs. 5 lakh per family. It will be targeted to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. Top officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, NITI Aayog and PMO, briefed the Prime Minister on various aspects, including the preparations in States, and development of the technological infrastructure associated with the scheme. In April, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the first 'Health and Wellness Centre' under Ayushman Bharat, in the aspirational district of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 14:44 [IST] PNB fraud: Vipul Ambani gets conditional bail India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Mumbai, Aug 4: The Special CBI court granted conditional bail to accused Vipul Ambani in Punjab National Bank scam case. The court directed him to furnish security bond of Rs 1 lakh and not to leave India without permission of the court and not to tamper with evidence. Vipul Ambani is a senior executive in one of fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi's company. Vipul Ambani, a top official of a company controlled by Nirav Modi,had moved the Bombay high court challenging his arrest in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, and sought bail. Ambani, arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in February, claimed that the agency did not follow due procedure while arresting him. Ambani was president, finance, at the Nirav Modi-controlled Firestar Group of companies. He is a nephew of Reliance Industries founder late Dhirubhai Ambani. The CBI had claimed while arresting him that Ambani was aware of fraudulent letters of undertaking issued by PNB's former deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty in favour of Modi's firms. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 15:39 [IST] Farooq Sahab suggested me to speak with Pakistan but I will speak to the youth: Amit Shah in Srinagar Amit Shah spends night at CRPF camp in Pulwama; says will see a peaceful J&K 'in our lifetime' Shah flags off 'Gaurav Yatra', targets Cong for lack of development over 4 generations India pti-PTI Rajsamand, Aug 4: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah flagged off chief minister Vasundhara Raje's pre-poll tour 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra' on Saturday and tore into the opposition Congress over the alleged lack of development in the state under its rule. Flagging off the 58-day yatra aimed at seeking people's mandate in the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Raje and Shah offered prayers at the Charbhujanath temple in Rajsamand district before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president. They left for a helipad nearby to head to Kankroli city in the district to address the first meeting of the tour. The 'rath' will reach Kankroli by road and will be used by Raje for her onward journey. The 'yatra' will cover 165 of the 200 assembly constituencies in the state before its culmination on September 30 in Ajmer. Speaking at the first public meeting, Shah said 'Rahul Baba' should go and see the villages where no development had taken place in the 50 years of the Congress rule. "Congress leaders here have said that they will ask 40 questions during the yatra. Rahul Baba also asks questions and seeks the account of works done by the BJP, but public is asking from you the account of works done by your four generations," he said. Shah said the Narendra Modi government released two-and-a-half-times more funds to the state government as compared to the previous UPA government. Targeting the Congress over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue in Assam, Shah said the Congress was seeing illegal Bangladeshi residing in India as its vote bank and asked people to pose a question to Rahul Gandhi whether the illegal Bangladeshi people should live in India or not. "Congress president should tell the people whether illegal Bangladeshi should be in India or not. Congress is actually looking at vote bank in this issue but the Modi government does not run on the basis of vote bank," he said. Shah also said the BJP did not dilute the SC/ST Act and instead had strengthened it. He said the Modi government wanted to give statutory status to the OBC Commission. "When Rahul Baba comes to Rajasthan, ask him whether the Congress will support the bill in Rajya Sabha or not," he said. The bill to give the statutory status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday. Talking about the schemes and programmes of the government, Shah said the Modi government brought 116 schemes for people and the Raje government has touched upon all sections of the society in the state and carried out developmental works. "The Congress did nothing for development. Rajasthan which has been a glorious state became a 'Bimaru' state because of Congress but now under the leadership of Raje, the state is progressing and going to become a developed state. We have committed to form the government again," he said. He asked people to vote for the party to make Vasundhra Raje the chief minister of Rajasthan again in the Assembly elections and Narendra Modi as prime minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Raje said it was her third yatra and exuded confidence that the party will secure victory again. "Five years back, I had begun Suraj Sankalp Yatra and Parivartan Yatra in 2003 from here and people gave us their mandate. We worked hard, I conducted visits and tours of the state to know people's problems and provided them with what they wanted," Raje said. She said the government launched programmes and worked to enhance the dignity of women by launching schemes such as Bhamashah scheme and others. "Congress always tried to create rift among castes but we want to take every section along with us. It is our aim to launch public welfare schemes and transfer the benefit to people. Development works have taken place in last four years in every panchayat and district," she said. She added that the state was no more a Bimaru state. In the coming years, she said, industries will be set up, development will pick up pace for a progressive Rajasthan. "There is a need to end 'One time Congress, one time BJP' trend to push Rajasthan among fastest developing states. Development took place at fast pace in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat where the BJP is in power," the chief minister said in the public meeting. She also asked the Congress to give a list of works done by them in the past 50 years. "People should analyse who served the nation best," she said. Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who is the convener of the yatra, hailed the prime minister, saying he has worked for the nation, brought honour for the country globally. "He has worked for poor, women, youths and those in need," Kataria said in the meeting. Higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari said the party chief gave a message of 'Ajay (invincible) Rajasthan-Ajay BJP', saying the 'Gaurav Yatra' will turn into the 'Vijay (victory) Yatra' of the BJP in Rajasthan. PTI Rahul Gandhi meets party leaders from Gujarat, asks them to be prepared for assembly polls To discuss Maratha agitation, Rahul calls for meet of Maha Cong leaders India oi-Madhuri Mumbai, Aug 4: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has called a meeting of senior party leaders from Maharashtra on August 8 to discuss the ongoing agitation of the Maratha community for reservation, a party source said. The meeting will be held in Delhi, said a senior Congress leader here. The agitation of the politically influential Maratha community has put the BJP-led state government on the back foot, with protests taking a violent turn in many parts of the state. Many Congress MLAs had announced last week that they would resign from the Assembly to put pressure on the government to accede to the demand. State Congress chief Ashok Chavan had said the decision in this regard would be taken after a discussion with the party's central leadership. The Maratha community constitutes about 30 percent of the state population. Elections to the Maharashtra Assembly are due next year. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 11:02 [IST] Explained: Can Mukul Roy be disqualified as MLA for jumping from BJP to TMC Plea in SC to decide disqualification of Trinamool's Mukul Roy as MLA Y-category security for Mukul Roy to remain: HC India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 4: The Calcutta High Court directed that the 'Y-plus' security given to BJP leader Mukul Roy by the Centre would remain, as it dismissed a PIL seeking withdrawal of the security cover given to the leader. A division bench comprising Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice A Banerjee passed the direction after considering a report placed by the Centre on threat perceptions on Roy and the requirement to provide security to him. Roy is a former railways minister and was a Rajya Sabha MP representing the Trinamool Congress, before joining the BJP. A TMC councillor from Salt Lake, Debraj Chakraborty had filed a PIL claiming that Roy, being an ordinary citizen at present, did not need a security cover using public money. The court had sought a report from the central government on the issue. Additional Solicitor General Kaushik Chanda filed a report in a sealed cover before the court stating the threat perceptions and requirement of security to Roy. After going through the reasons given by the Centre for providing security cover to Roy, the court dismissed the PIL. The petitioner claimed that Roy had returned 'Z' category security provided to him by the West Bengal government, days before quitting the TMC, of which he was the general secretary. Roy was given 'Y-plus' category security by the Centre with 12 CRPF personnel after joining the saffron party, Chakraborty claimed. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 12:50 [IST] China vows no compromise or concessions on Taiwan after US Prez Biden comments Top US general says China hypersonic missile test is 'very concerning' China threatens new tariffs on 60 billion dollar worth of US goods International oi-Madhuri Beijing, Aug 4: Beijing warned it was prepared to impose new tariffs on 60 billion worth of US goods if Washington ups the ante in the escalating US-China trade war. The commerce ministry issued a statement saying the new duties would be applied if Washington pulled the trigger on President Donald Trump's threat to raise tariffs on 200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The statement said China reserves the right to apply "other countermeasures". "China always believes that consultation on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit is an effective way to resolve trade differences," the ministry said. "Any unilateral threat or blackmail will only lead to intensification of conflicts and damage to the interests of all parties." The threat came a day after Chinese officials appealed for dialogue based on "mutual respect", with Foreign Minister Wang Yi urging the United States to remain "cool-headed". US officials said Wednesday that Trump had asked the US Trade Representative to consider increasing the proposed tariffs on 200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent from the planned 10 per cent. Washington and Beijing are locked in battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies, as well as theft of American technological know-how. Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on virtually all of China's exports to the United States in the tit-for-tat trade conflict. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 10:47 [IST] Collapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump Trump downplays Ivankas remarks on media International oi-Madhuri Washington, Aug 4: Donald Trump tried to tamp down speculation of differences with daughter Ivanka over his remarks about the press by saying that it is the 'Fake News' and not the entire media that is the enemy of the people, hours after she distanced herself from the US president's comments. Trump has repeatedly criticised the media before and during his presidency. He has declared journalists to be "enemies of the people", drawing condemnation from across the political spectrum. During an event yesterday, when Ivanka was asked about her father's repeated accusation that the media is the "enemy of the people", she said, "No. I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people." "I've received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I've had some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they sort of feel targeted," Ivanka, who is also Trump's senior adviser, said. Her remarks were construed as her differences with the president on this issue. However hours later, President Trump took to Twitter to clarify the issue. "They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people! (sic)," he tweeted. Asked at the White House briefing about Ivanka's remarks, press secretary Sarah Sanders refused to reject the president's statements that the media is the enemy of the people. "The president's rightfully frustrated; 90 per cent of the coverage on him is negative despite the fact that the economy is booming, ISIS is on the run, and American leadership is being reasserted around the world,"she said. When Acosta insisted her to express her views, Sanders said, "I'm here to speak on behalf of the president. He's made his comments." A few days back, Trump had called American journalists "unpatriotic" as he accused them of putting lives at risk by their reporting. "When the media - driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome - reveals internal deliberations of our government, it truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk! Very unpatriotic!" he had said. He ramped up his attack on the media last night during a campaign rally by criticising the press as "fake, fake, disgusting news" and describing journalists in attendance as "horrible, horrendous people", despite UN experts' warning earlier in the day that his actions were putting journalists at risk. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 13:20 [IST] UP B.Ed JEE Exam to be held on July 30 Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to reach Lucknow on July 16; Key meetings scheduled in Delhi before visit UP Board Class 10th, 12th Result 2021 Declared: How to check Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah Dalit youth set on fire Lucknow oi-Madhuri Mathura, Aug 4: A Dalit youth was allegedly set on fire by two men in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district, police said. The two accused allegedly assaulted Pardesi first, poured kerosene and set him on fire in Satoha village last night, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Vinay Singh Chauhan. People rushed towards him and doused the fire. Pardesi received nine per cent burns and has been hospitalised. He is out of danger, Chauhan said. Search is on for the two unidentified accused, who are absconding, he added. For more Lucknow news, Click here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 9:15 [IST] Four arrested for selling glass coated kite strings New Delhi oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 4: Four men were booked for allegedly selling banned glass-coated 'manja' in Gandhi Nagar area of Shahdara and central Delhi's Hauz Qazi, area the police said. Ahead of the Independence Day, police have intensified checking shops selling manja (kite string). On August 1, a team from PETA visited Gandhi Nagar police station and informed that some shopkeepers are storing glass-coated kite manja for purpose of sale, the police said. Raids were conducted at the shop located at Chand Mohalla, Gandhi Nagar, where a shopkeeper identified as Sukhwinder Singh was found to be in possession of 14 rolls of glass-coated manja, they added. The seized rolls will be sent for forensic examination for checking the glass coating. In a similar operation, three shopkeepers were booked for selling glass-coated manja yesterday from Hauz Qazi. They were arrested and were later granted bail. In 2017, the National Green Tribunal had imposed a complete ban on manja, the string used to fly kites, made of nylon or any synthetic material which is non-biodegradable, saying it posed a threat to the lives of birds, animals and humans. The green panel had said that the ban order would also apply on nylon, Chinese and glass-coated manja (cotton threads coated with glass). For more New Delhi news, Click here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 4, 2018, 11:50 [IST] Now, Delhi students can get learner's driving license from college New Delhi oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, Aug 4: The Delhi government on Saturday announced a new scheme that will empower colleges and universities in the city to issue a Learner's Driving Licence to their students, reducing the need to visit Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) or driving schools. Taking to twitter Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot announced that the Delhi government has empowered directors and principals of colleges to issue learner's licences. "Young and studying in Delhi? You can soon get your Learner's Driving licence from your college itself," the tweet read. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal retweeted the announcement and called it a "big step in cutting red tape" and "reducing corruption." Delhi Govt empowers Directors & Principals of Colleges , Polytechnics & ITIs to issue Learner's License. Over 2 lakh students will benefit each year. "A very big step in cutting red tape, reducing corruption & making Aam Aadmis life easy"- @ArvindKejriwal#AAPGovernance pic.twitter.com/XKsF3tyVr1 AAP (@AamAadmiParty) August 4, 2018 Since most of the individuals applying for a driving license (DL) are from the age group of 18 to 15 years, this initiative will help the government in limiting the crowd at RTO. With 53% of DL applicants in this age group, provision of learning license at colleges will be of great help. The government will initially provide this facility from polytechnics colleges and colleges that fall under the administration of the Delhi government including 6 DU colleges. Those willing to apply for a driving license will have to appear for an online test. All applicants will have to answer 6 out of 10 objective-type questions correctly in order to get the learner's driving license. A Learner's Licence is valid for up to six months. The initiative will help about two lakh students from various colleges, polytechnics and ITIs in Delhi, according to Gahlot. For more Delhi news Click Here As an African American woman, I am proud to have made such an impact in the District 3 school board race. Winning 32 percent of the votes, I feel like a champion. We had a great campaign and this has been a wonderful experience. Im so glad I entered. I learned a lot about the political process and hope that Ive empowered other women and young girls to get involved in politics. Thank you to all of my volunteers. Thank you to everyone who donated to my campaign. Thank you to my campaign team for their hard work and the many hours they dedicated to the campaign. I congratulate Joe Smith on his victory. I wish the best for all school board members as they embark on the next leg of supporting our students and teachers. I will continue to do the work that I set out to do by advocating and empowering our community, our teachers, our students and the administration of HCDE by being a voice for mental health. Miracle Hurley Candidate for School Board District 3 B. G., Opalesque Geneva: Orchid Asia Group is reopening its China alternative investment offering to external investors, according to an email seen by Opalesque. The Orchid China Master Fund ($), which has a track record of 10 years and manages $265m, had up until May annualised 12.8% since inception, with a YTD return of 14.3% - compared to the Hang Seng index' 1.8%. In May, the fund was up 9%, during "a relatively calm month for Chinese equities." But June was a month during which many China-focused hedge funds suffered losses after the benchmark stock index posted its biggest monthly decline since January 2016. According to Bloomberg.com, the Orchid China Master Fund lost 4% that month, bringing the H1 returns down to 9.4%. China-focused hedge funds lost an average 4.4% that month according to Eurekahedge. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite Index decreased by 8%, reflecting the difficulties brought on by China's trade row with the U.S. and the country's crackdown on shadow banking, says the newswire. The Caymans-domiciled fund follows long/short strategies of fundamental investing in equity securities of Chinese companies listed anywhere in the world, to capitalize on the growth of the country's domestic consumption. Its management fee is 2%, the performance fee 20%. The portfol...................... To view our full article Click here Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Informed Comment According to Jared Kushner and other hard-line Zionists, the Palestinian people don't exist. Ever since they ethnically cleansed the majority of Palestinians, the Israelis have been hoping that they will just go away. They look out on Galilee, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon, and ask, "why are you still here?" as though the Palestinians were a houseboy in their mansion that they had fired last week. According to Foreign Policy, Kushner has bought into a theory that Palestinian identity, and Palestinian desire to return home to what is now Israel, have been artificially kept alive because millions of Palestinians are recognized by the UN as refugees. And the UN Relief and Works Agency provides schooling, vocational training, and sometimes makeshift housing to these families that the Israelis forced into tents in the wilderness. So if you wanted to wipe Palestine off the map, you'd want to decertify the Palestinians as refugees and destroy UNRWA. Without that infrastructure, the spoiled rich bigot Kushner thinks, why the Palestinians will fade away and stop asking to go home. The far, far right Likud Party that rules Israel has finally found a White House that despises the poor and oppressed as much as it does, and which is happy to try to dissolve the body of the displaced Palestinians in the acid bath of malign neglect, for all the world like "cleaners" in a mob movie. This theory is incorrect, of course. Palestinian identity is passed on by families, cultural practices, songs, books, and memories, not by UNRWA. One anthropologist who worked in the camps in Lebanon to which the Israelis expelled the Palestinians found that the Palestinians had arranged themselves within the camp according to their original village. They made the camp a microcosm of Palestine. UNRWA workers did not tell them to do that. However, it is true that UNRWA keeps the wolf from the door for many Palestinians, and that infant mortality will certainly go up if it is dismantled. Yes, I am saying that Jared Kushner and Nikki Haley are trying to kill Palestinian babies. They are even worse than Jeff Sessions, who just wants to steal the babies. I once visited the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon. An old man told me that in 1948 he and his mother were in their apartment in Haifa when a Zionist gang barged in and took it from them, expelling them over the border to Lebanon. He stayed there a year. Then the UN put him on a train up to northern Lebanon to a camp, far from home, where he had been ever since. Lebanon is a balancing act between Christians and Muslims, and the Christians refused to offer the Palestinians, mostly Muslim, citizenship. They also did not let them own property or work in most professions. They could not travel because they have no citizenship and nobody trusts them enough to let them in. "We are in jail," he told me. He took me next door where two old women were lying on mattresses, taking oxygen, having fallen ill. The only medical care was arranged by UNRWA. He took my forearm. "Is this any way to live?" Most of the Palestinians in Nahr al-Bared were just living their lives and trying to get buy. But camps are lawless, and disturbances in 2008 had angered the Lebanese army, which destroyed the camp to get at a small criminal gang of 50, that were characterized as terrorists. The man's apartment building was destroyed, along with most of the camp. Most of them had nothing to do with the gang. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. (Image by WUD) Details DMCA The recently enacted Jewish Nation-State Law of the Jewish state of Israel declares not only that Israel is "the nation-state of the Jewish people", it also states that national self-determination "is unique to the Jewish people". This makes Gentile people living in the Jewish state of Israel, at best, second-class citizens. Avi Dichter, the Knesset member who originally sponsored the Jewish nation-state bill, said, "We are enshrining this important bill into a law today to prevent even the slightest thought, let alone attempt, to transform Israel to a country of all its citizens." This is a blatant promotion of Jewish superiority over all other people living in Israel. The Jewish Nation-State Law extends Jewish superiority to adjoining lands with its statement that Jewish settlement "is a national value", which gives a green light to expanding Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. As an objective look at the Hebrew Bible shows, the Jewish superiority of the Hebrew Bible extends to all Gentile (non-Jewish) people around the world, and is not at all limited to the Palestinian people. The Jewish superiority clearly promoted in the Jewish nation-state law has its roots in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The ancient Hebrews and Jews who wrote the Hebrew Bible placed great importance on Hebrew/Jewish superiority over all other people along with the promotion of the Jewish state of Israel over all other nations. Deuteronomy 7:6 is a great example of this Bible-based Jewish superiority. The ancient Hebrew/Jewish clergymen who wrote this verse claim that God said of and to the Hebrew and Jewish people: For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. This ludicrous idea put forward by this Bible verse was addressed by Albert Einstein when he wrote: For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong ... have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything "chosen" about them. Now that there is a Jewish state of Israel, they are no longer "protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power" as the Jewish nation-state law, as well as the expanding and cruel Jewish state occupation of Palestinian lands, are making very clear. The Hebrew Bible, which Israel is based upon, not only promotes Jewish superiority, it promotes Israel over all other nations on Earth. This is evident by objectively reading verses such as Deuteronomy 28:1, which claims God told Moses and the Hebrews/Jews/Israel that "the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth" and verse 28:10, which claims God said, "And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee." The Hebrew/Jewish authors of the Hebrew Bible had a stern warning for Gentile nations that refuse to submit to the Jewish state. Isaiah 60:12 claims God said: For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. Israel's growing nuclear, chemical and biological stockpile of very real Weapons of Mass Destruction, along with a growing fleet of high-tech German-made submarines that can deliver the Jewish state's WMD virtually anywhere on Earth, give this threat from the Hebrew Bible much more importance and significance. Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Truthdig The crew of the littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) successfully performs a live-fire demonstration of a Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile off the coast of Southern California. (Image by (Naval Warriors / Flickr Creative Commons)) Details DMCA On July 22, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed a crowd of Iranian-Americans, giving voice to a new American policy on Iran that seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the Iranian government. It would also strangle Iran's economy through the reimposition of economic sanctions that had been set aside when Iran and five other Western nations, including the United States, came to an agreement in 2015 over Iran's nuclear program. According to this agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, Iran accepted sanctions on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. When President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in May, he promised to reimpose sanctions that had been approved by Congress, including those targeting Iran's sale of oil. The goal of the Trump administration, Pompeo told the crowd, was to "get [Iranian oil] imports as close to zero as possible" by this November. Pompeo's address did not go over well in Tehran. Addressing a gathering of Iranian diplomats, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani asked, "Is it possible that everyone in the region sells their oil and we stand idly by and watch? Do not forget that we have maintained the security of this waterway [Strait of Hormuz] throughout history. We have historically secured the route of oil transit. Do not forget it." Approximately 18.5 million barrels of oil a day transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel of water separating Iran from Oman. The loss of this oil to the global economy would be devastating. On July 5, Rouhani commented on the American plan to shut down Iran's oil imports, saying, "The Americans say they want to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero. ... It shows they have not thought about its consequences." While Rouhani had remained silent about what those consequences would be, Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, made it clear that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz to all oil traffic. "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars," Rouhani said, warning the American president not to "play with the lion's tail, this would only lead to regret." President Trump's response, delivered via Twitter the next day, caught the attention of the world. NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS! On July 24, the Iranian Armed Forces chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, responded to Trump's threats. "As the dominant power in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, [Iran] has been the guarantor of the security of shipping and the global economy in this vital waterway and has the strength to take action against any scheme in this region," Bagheri said. "As our president correctly pointed out, the enemies, particularly America, whose centers of interest are within reach of the visible and hidden defense forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, should not play with the lion's tail," the Iranian general said, "because they will receive a strong, unimaginable and regrettable response of great magnitude in the region and the world." That same day, President Trump addressed a gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, seemingly a perfect venue for offering a bellicose response to the Iranian threats of action. Instead, the president offered up a fig leaf of sorts. "We'll see what happens," Trump said, "but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration, which was a disaster." The seesawing rhetorical game of threat and counterthreat being played by Trump seems reminiscent of a similar approach taken late last year and early this year with North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Last August, responding to North Korean threats to test missiles capable of reaching the United States, Trump had declared that North Korea "best not make any more threats to the United States," saying that if North Korea disregarded him, "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." Trump later went on to famously belittle North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, as "little rocket man," while Kim in turn responded by calling Trump a "dotard" and a "warmonger" whose true nature was that of a "destroyer of the world peace and stability." In June, Trump and Kim held a summit in Singapore, where they discussed the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Many observers believe that Trump is reaching back to his North Korean playbook in engaging in the current hostile exchange with Iran. Iran, however, is not North Korea. What follows are major reasons why Trump is wrong if he thinks Iran will accede to his demands that it renegotiate a nuclear agreement with the United States to replace the JCPOA. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. By Dave Lindorff F-35, mankind's most costly weapon at $1.5 trillion, and 40 Dem senators just voted to fund it (Image by usafa.af.mil) Details DMCA Democrats in the US Senate showed themselves to be just another war party this week, with 40 of their number out of 47 voting to pass a record $717-billion military budget for FY 2019. Only seven Democrats (Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, D-MA, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-OR, Kamala Harris, D-CA, Dick Durbin, D-IL, and Kirstin Gillibrand, D-NY) and independent Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democratic Party, voted against the bill (Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who also caucuses with the Democrats, neutralized Sanders' vote by voting for the measure). For those who may have hoped that perhaps the growing number of self-described "democratic socialist" candidates running for seats in Congress might call out this war-mongering by the Democratic Party establishment, there was just silence. Sen. Sanders, to be sure, said he would vote against the bill, but he didn't say he was doing that because he thought it was an outrageous amount of money to spend on war and preparations for war. In fact, he prefaced his opposition by saying, "I support a strong US military." Rather, as he always does, Sanders decried the "waste, fraud and mismanagement" in the Pentagon budget, instead of the reality that virtually the entire budget, representing two-thirds of all federal discretionary spending, is a waste. The sad truth is that when it comes to Democratic candidates running openly wearing a "democratic socialist" label, including Sanders, the standard-bearer for this newly popular identity, there is a sort of fraud being perpetrated on the public. Most such candidates, including Sanders, simply won't talk about US imperialism, hegemonism and about the need to slash the grossly outsized US military budget, which surpasses the budgets of nations with the next ten largest militaries. Why does this matter? Because when progressive Democrats, and especially those who call themselves "democratic socialists" (implying that somehow straight-up "socialists" might not be sufficiently democratic!), espouse popular socialist programs like Medicare for All, expanded and enhanced Social Security benefits, free public college for anyone who wants to get a higher degree beyond high school, a guaranteed job for all, paid maternity/paternity leave, etc. -- all worthy and popular ideas -- they open themselves up immediately to charges by Republicans and by conservative and establishment liberal Democrats that they won't be able to pay for those programs, or that they'd have to rise taxes to pay for them. And those charges are justified, because most of those so-called progressive, and even "democratic socialist" candidates, tacitly or, in Sen. Sanders' case even overtly support, fundamentally, the US military and most of America's militaristic foreign policies and actions abroad -- the majority of which are in flagrant violation of international law and have nothing to do with national defense" For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the uncompromised, collectively run, six-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative news site, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/3938 Quicklink Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them. To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here. From The Intercept This Sunday, the entire New York Times Magazine will be composed of just one article on a single subject: the failure to confront the global climate crisis in the 1980s, a time when the science was settled and the politics seemed to align. Written by Nathaniel Rich, this work of history is filled with insider revelations about roads not taken that, on several occasions, made me swear out loud. And lest there be any doubt that the implications of these decisions will be etched in geologic time, Rich's words are punctuated with full-page aerial photographs by George Steinmetz that wrenchingly document the rapid unraveling of planetary systems, from the rushing water where Greenland ice used to be to massive algae blooms in China's third largest lake. The novella-length piece represents the kind of media commitment that the climate crisis has long deserved but almost never received. We have all heard the various excuses for why the small matter of despoiling our only home just doesn't cut it as an urgent news story: "Climate change is too far off in the future"; "It's inappropriate to talk about politics when people are losing their lives to hurricanes and fires"; "Journalists follow the news, they don't make it -- and politicians aren't talking about climate change"; and of course: "Every time we try, it's a ratings killer." None of the excuses can mask the dereliction of duty. It has always been possible for major media outlets to decide, all on their own, that planetary destabilization is a huge news story, very likely the most consequential of our time. They always had the capacity to harness the skills of their reporters and photographers to connect abstract science to live extreme weather events. And if they did so consistently, it would lessen the need for journalists to get ahead of politics because the more informed the public is about both the threat and the tangible solutions, the more they push their elected representatives to take bold action. Click Here to Read Whole Article Which is why it was so exciting to see the Times throw the full force of its editorial machine behind Rich's opus -- teasing it with a promotional video, kicking it off with a live event at the Times Center, and accompanying educational materials. That's also why it is so enraging that the piece is spectacularly wrong in its central thesis. According to Rich, between the years of 1979 and 1989, the basic science of climate change was understood and accepted, the partisan divide over the issue had yet to cleave, the fossil fuel companies hadn't started their misinformation campaign in earnest, and there was a great deal of global political momentum toward a bold and binding international emissions-reduction agreement. Writing of the key period at the end of the 1980s, Rich says, "The conditions for success could not have been more favorable." And yet we blew it -- "we" being humans, who apparently are just too shortsighted to safeguard our future. Just in case we missed the point of who and what is to blame for the fact that we are now "losing earth," Rich's answer is presented in a full-page callout: "All the facts were known, and nothing stood in our way. Nothing, that is, except ourselves." Yep, you and me. Not, according to Rich, the fossil fuel companies who sat in on every major policy meeting described in the piece. (Imagine tobacco executives being repeatedly invited by the U.S. government to come up with policies to ban smoking. When those meetings failed to yield anything substantive, would we conclude that the reason is that humans just want to die? Might we perhaps determine instead that the political system is corrupt and busted?) This misreading has been pointed out by many climate scientists and historians since the online version of the piece dropped on Wednesday. Others have remarked on the maddening invocations of "human nature" and the use of the royal "we" to describe a screamingly homogenous group of U.S. power players. Throughout Rich's accounting, we hear nothing from those political leaders in the Global South who were demanding binding action in this key period and after, somehow able to care about future generations despite being human. The voices of women, meanwhile, are almost as rare in Rich's text as sightings of the endangered ivory-billed woodpecker -- and when we ladies do appear, it is mainly as long-suffering wives of tragically heroic men. All of these flaws have been well covered, so I won't rehash them here. My focus is the central premise of the piece: that the end of the 1980s presented conditions that "could not have been more favorable" to bold climate action. On the contrary, one could scarcely imagine a more inopportune moment in human evolution for our species to come face to face with the hard truth that the conveniences of modern consumer capitalism were steadily eroding the habitability of the planet. Why? Because the late '80s was the absolute zenith of the neoliberal crusade, a moment of peak ideological ascendency for the economic and social project that deliberately set out to vilify collective action in the name of liberating "free markets" in every aspect of life. Yet Rich makes no mention of this parallel upheaval in economic and political thought. WHEN I DELVED into this same climate change history some years ago, I concluded, as Rich does, that the key juncture when world momentum was building toward a tough, science-based global agreement was 1988. That was when James Hansen, then director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, testified before Congress that he had "99 percent confidence" in "a real warming trend" linked to human activity. Later that same month, hundreds of scientists and policymakers held the historic World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere in Toronto, where the first emission reduction targets were discussed. By the end of that same year, in November 1988, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the premier scientific body advising governments on the climate threat, held its first session. But climate change wasn't just a concern for politicians and wonks -- it was watercooler stuff, so much so that when the editors of Time magazine announced their 1988 "Man of the Year," they went for "Planet of the Year: Endangered Earth." The cover featured an image of the globe held together with twine, the sun setting ominously in the background. "No single individual, no event, no movement captured imaginations or dominated headlines more," journalist Thomas Sancton explained, "than the clump of rock and soil and water and air that is our common home." (Interestingly, unlike Rich, Sancton didn't blame "human nature" for the planetary mugging. He went deeper, tracing it to the misuse of the Judeo-Christian concept of "dominion" over nature and the fact that it supplanted the pre-Christian idea that "the earth was seen as a mother, a fertile giver of life. Nature -- the soil, forest, sea -- was endowed with divinity, and mortals were subordinate to it.") Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Mike Malloy Website QAnon followers are a tiny fringe of Trump supporters who claim to be government insiders with knowledge of secret .deep state. plots (Image by YouTube, Channel: Newsweek) Details DMCA Star Trek fans, such as myself, might remember "Q" as the omnipotent, but impish, alien outcast from the "Q Continuum" who tormented Captain Jean Luc Picard on "Next Generation." If I lost you there, sorry. Trekker here. Now the damnable Neocons have co-opted that, too, with "Q Anon," a movement or person that sprang to life around October 2017, and has captured the zeitgeist of the wack-a-doodle conspiracy theory obsessed MAGA crowd. They are growing in numbers. Rapidly. Looking at that Tampa rally earlier this week, they are experiencing some kind of mass psychosis. Q Anon or Q, is an alleged member of the American Military Intelligence that serves President Trump (best president in history) on a mission to defeat deep state child sex pimps and the mainstream media by sending secret messages encoded in Trump's misspelled Tweets. And I'm not even kidding. This Q Anon has managed to usurp Alex Jones as most dangerous lunatic in America. Welcome to The Great Awakening. These fanatics believe Trump is a political Messiah who will bring the Second Revolution. J.P. Morgan sank the Titanic and that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and George Soros are planning a coup and traffic children on the side. Pizzagate was real. Sandy Hook was not. Here's the inner workings of the "movement" according to WaPo and others: "Q Anon supporters believe that at least one government insider, "Q," is using various platforms to feed "anons" -- Q's followers -- information about...well, all sorts of things. As the Guardian noted in this excellent explainer, it can be difficult to pin down what exactly proponents of Q Anon take the consequences of Q's dispatches to be. But many have extrapolated the breadcrumbs supposedly left behind by the deep state agent (or agents) to mean that Hollywood celebrities are engaged in a widespread pedophilia ring; that bad actors once tried to shoot down Air Force One with Trump aboard -- and other evidence-free notions." True believers accept as absolute fact that Trump and Mueller (get this) are secretly working together against the Clintons, various Hollywood actors, shadowy unnamed Deep State villains, and random child sex offenders to bring about the Second American Revolution. They exist in a world of alternative facts where Trump is constantly battling a virtual Marvel Universe of evil forces, like the mainstream media. And Tom Hanks. Yes, he is actually one of the leaders of the child sex trafficking ring. Because of course he is. And a large percentage of Q Anon followers are convinced that Q is none other than JFK Jr. They are undeterred by the fact that he and his wife died in a tragic plane crash 20+ years ago. Why him? Q knows. Y not? One "breadcrumb" used as proof is that Trump met Putin in Helsinki on July 16, the anniversary of JFK Jr's death. Yeah, that makes sense. If you're already brainwashed by Alex Jones and Sean Hannity. Q Anon believers claim Kennedy has even been spotted in disguise at Trump rallies, posing as just another Trump actor. Can't make this up. Like many delusional psychotics, they seek hidden coded messages everywhere. Many are embedded in Trump's personal appearances. Q helps his supporters "decode" these "breadcrumbs." The weird covfefe Tweet? Yup -- secret hidden message. Whenever Trump misspells in a tweet, that's a sign. When Trump walks back a statement about Putin and the lights go out in the conference room, Q is sending a coded message. Of course, the manic ravings spread by Q Anon's followers are likely to turn violent. For example, The Daily Beast reported that a man armed with a rifle and a hand gun was arrested in June after he drove to the Hoover Dam in an armored truck and demanded the Deep State release "the OIG report," which had already been released. But, you see, the report didn't tell the whole story according to Q fanatics. Cryptic typographical changes to the report in "the margins and the fonts that are used" proved that the released OIG report had been altered. Maybe by Barbara Streisand, who knows. But this armed domestic terrorist was sure Trump was going to get to the bottom of it, because Q prophecy demands it. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Pan Masala Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2025 | Leading Key Players: Manikchand, Godfrey Phillips Pan Masala Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/977453-global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east-and-africa-pan-masala-market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/977453-global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east-and-africa-pan-masala-market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=977453 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/977453-global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east-and-africa-pan-masala-market HTF MI recently introduced Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization. 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Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc.Market Segments:The Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Market has been divided into type, application, and region.On The Basis Of Type: Pan Masala with Tobacco, Plain Pan Masala, Flavored Pan Masala & Other.On The Basis Of Application: Retail Stores, Supermarket, Online Stores & OthersOn The Basis Of Region, this report is segmented into following key geographies, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share, growth rate of Pan Masala in these regions, from 2013 to 2023 (forecast), covering North America (U.S. & Canada) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Latin America (Brazil, Mexico & Rest of Latin America) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden & RoE) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Rest of World {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis}Buy Single User License of Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Market 2018 Forecast to 2023 @Have a look at some extracts from Table of ContentIntroduction about Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan MasalaGlobal (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Pan Masala Market by Application/End UsersGlobal (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications(2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Retail Stores, Supermarket, Online Stores & Others]Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023)Pan Masala Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and ApplicationPan Masala (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined.Global (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Pan Masala Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataAdditionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturersMarket Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) table for each product type which include Pan Masala with Tobacco, Plain Pan Masala, Flavored Pan Masala & OtherPan Masala Manufacturing Cost AnalysisPan Masala Key Raw Materials AnalysisPan Masala Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain AnalysisMarket Forecast (2018-2023)........and more in complete table of ContentsBrowse for Full Report at:Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.com Barcode Verification Market Is Booming Worldwide | Key Players: RJS Technologies, Cognex Corporation, Axicon Auto ID Ltd Barcode Verification Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1270421-2015-2023-world-barcode-verification-market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1270421-2015-2023-world-barcode-verification-market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1270421 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1270421-2015-2023-world-barcode-verification-market https://www.linkedin.com/company/13388569/ https://www.facebook.com/htfmarketintelligence/ https://twitter.com/htfmarketreport https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NidhiBhawsar-SEO_Expert?rel=author HTF MI recently introduced World Barcode Verification Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization. At present, the market is developing its presence and some of the key players from the complete study are RJS Technologies, Cognex Corporation, Axicon Auto ID Ltd, REA VERIFIER, Stratix Corp., Microscan, Webscan, AIS Ltd, Zebra, Honeywell & Code Corp etc.Request Sample of 2015-2023 World Barcode Verification Market Research Report by Product Type, End-User / Application and Regions / Countries @:Summary This report includes market status and forecast of global and major regions, with introduction of vendors, regions, product types and end industries; and this report counts product types and end industries in global and major regions.This report studies the World Barcode Verification market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the World Barcode Verification market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Browse 100+ market data Tables and Figures spread through Pages and in-depth TOC on " Barcode Verification Market by Type (Portable Barcode Verifier & Desktop Barcode Verifier), by End-Users/Application (Packing Printing Industry, Quality Control Department, Manufacturing & Retailing Industry & Others), Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2023". Early buyers will receive 10% customization on comprehensive study.In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Enquire for customization in Report @Competitive Analysis:The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as RJS Technologies, Cognex Corporation, Axicon Auto ID Ltd, REA VERIFIER, Stratix Corp., Microscan, Webscan, AIS Ltd, Zebra, Honeywell & Code Corp includes its basic information like legal name, website, headquarters, its market position, historical background and top 5 closest competitors by Market capitalization / revenue along with contact information. Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc.Market Segments:The World Barcode Verification Market has been divided into type, application, and region.On The Basis Of Type: Portable Barcode Verifier & Desktop Barcode Verifier.On The Basis Of Application: Packing Printing Industry, Quality Control Department, Manufacturing & Retailing Industry & OthersOn The Basis Of Region, this report is segmented into following key geographies, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share, growth rate of Barcode Verification in these regions, from 2013 to 2023 (forecast), covering North America (U.S. & Canada) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Latin America (Brazil, Mexico & Rest of Latin America) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden & RoE) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Rest of World {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis}Buy Single User License of 2015-2023 World Barcode Verification Market Research Report by Product Type, End-User / Application and Regions / Countries @Have a look at some extracts from Table of ContentIntroduction about World Barcode VerificationWorld Barcode Verification Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Barcode Verification Market by Application/End UsersWorld Barcode Verification Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications(2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Packing Printing Industry, Quality Control Department, Manufacturing & Retailing Industry & Others]World Barcode Verification Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023)Barcode Verification Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and ApplicationBarcode Verification (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined.World Barcode Verification Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataAdditionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturersMarket Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) table for each product type which include Portable Barcode Verifier & Desktop Barcode VerifierBarcode Verification Manufacturing Cost AnalysisBarcode Verification Key Raw Materials AnalysisBarcode Verification Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain AnalysisMarket Forecast (2018-2023)........and more in complete table of ContentsBrowse for Full Report at:Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.About Author:HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us at Microfiltration Membrane Market Is Thriving Worldwide with Evoqua, X-Flow (Pentair), IMT, Lenntech, Synder Filtration Microfiltration Membrane Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1268344-global-microfiltration-membrane-market-8 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1268344-global-microfiltration-membrane-market-8 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1268344-global-microfiltration-membrane-market-8 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1268344 https://www.linkedin.com/company/13388569/ https://www.facebook.com/htfmarketintelligence/ https://twitter.com/htfmarketreport https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NidhiBhawsar-SEO_Expert?rel=author Latest research study from HTF MI with title Global Microfiltration Membrane by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the market and contains Future trend, Current Growth Factors, attentive opinions, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry validated market data. The study is segmented by products type, application/end-users. The research study provides estimates for Global Microfiltration Membrane Forecast till 2023.If you are involved in the Microfiltration Membrane industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. Its vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications Market Overview, Product Types such as [Product Type, PVDF, PTFE & PES] and some major players in the industry. 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It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [North America Country (United States, Canada), South America, Asia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea), Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy) & Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)]. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. On the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth, sustainability, financial overview and recent developments.Stay up-to-date with Microfiltration Membrane market research offered by HTF MI. Check how key trends and emerging drivers are shaping this industry growth as the study avails you with market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, shares, trend and strategies for this market. In the Global Microfiltration Membrane Market Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023, the revenue is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023. The production is estimated at XX million in 2017 and is forecasted to reach XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2018 and 2023.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Key questions answered in this report - Global Microfiltration Membrane Market Report 2018What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate beWhat are the key market trendsWhat is driving Global Microfiltration Membrane Market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in Microfiltration Membrane Market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Microfiltration Membrane Market ?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Microfiltration Membrane Market?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Microfiltration Membrane market? Get in-depth details about factors influencing the market shares of the Americas, APAC, and EMEA?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Microfiltration Membrane market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Microfiltration Membrane, Applications of Microfiltration Membrane, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, Export & Import, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes North America Country (United States, Canada), South America, Asia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea), Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy) & Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC), Microfiltration Membrane Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Microfiltration Membrane Segment Market Analysis (by Application Major Manufacturers Analysis;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Product Type, PVDF, PTFE & PES], Market Trend by Application;Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Microfiltration Membrane by region, type and application ;Chapter 12, to describe Microfiltration Membrane Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Microfiltration Membrane sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy this research report @Reasons for Buying this ReportThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a 5-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsThanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us at Wind Turbine Market a Comprehensive Analysis | Key Players - Enercon, Vestas, General Electric, Nordex Acciona, Siemens Gamesa, Senvion, MHI-Vestas, Goldwind, United Power, Envision Energy, Suzlon, Mingyang and Wobben https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2679 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2679 https://www.gminsights.com https://gminsights.wordpress.com http://algosonline.com/news A highly remunerative recipient of the changing sustainability landscape, wind turbine market has emerged as one of the most lucrative verticals of the energy industry. The growing awareness among the regulatory bodies and regional governments about the benefits of deploying renewable energy facilities over non-renewable ones is one of the primary factors fueling the installation of wind energy power plants. In addition, since last few years, a supportive regulatory spectrum has been set up by most regional governments in order to encourage the masses to adopt renewable energy facilities.The establishment of a regulatory frame of reference has also proved useful for the proprietors of this business space, who incidentally comply with the mandated norms to brainstorm a slew of advanced products and strive to increase the dependency on wind energy. The rapidly increasing rate of wind turbine installations installation of wind energy plants across the globe is thus slated to boost overall wind energy turbine industry share.Taking into account the widespread expanse of this vertical, prominent contenders have been adopting tried-and-tested as well as unique growth strategies to contribute toward carbon emission reduction. Say for example, recently, in order to consolidate its presence in the green energy industry, GE Renewable Energy Business acquired the WMC test facility center based in Netherlands. At this facility, GE will test wind turbine rotor hubs and provide the research facilities to other wind turbine firms in Netherlands and other European countries. In addition, this well-known green energy contributor is looking forward to carrying out design and manufacturing advancements in wind turbines. A proactive approach like that of GE is certain to expedite wind turbine market trends.Get a Sample Copy of this Report @A latest observation in the wind power dynamics is that the energy output from the wind energy plant remains unmatched with the investment cost, due to an excess of energy transformation losses. Having considered the energy-economic imbalance and the requirement of developing advanced wind energy technology, many regulatory bodies are encouraging industry contributors to carry out extensive, technology oriented research and development activities. Validating the aforementioned fact, recently, the Wind Energy Technologies office of the Department of Energy (DOE) provided funds for the advancement of wind turbines and aims to encourage a spate of research activities with the same. The research plausibly targets cost reduction and lowering the environmental impact of off-shore and land-based wind turbines.In fact, through the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the Wind Energy Technologies Office plans to provide funds of approximately USD 6 million, which will be distributed as per the development categories. The continuous involvement of regional governments and regulatory bodies in R&D development activities is thus slated to push wind turbine industry share over the years ahead.Speaking about offshore wind turbine deployment, it would be imperative to state that as on today, companies need more capital for testing and maintaining these systems. In this regard, most of the energy companies are looking forward to using new technology trends including IoT, AI, and automation. In addition, some of the firms have also gone ahead and signed agreement contracts with several technology companies in the automation sector to maintain the energy consistency.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Citing an instance justifying the aforesaid statement, the leading developer of offshore wind farms, rsted recently collaborated with the renowned robotics solutions provider for wind energy industry, SkySpecs, that will inspect rsteds offshore wind turbine installed at the Irish sea. SkySpecs will provide its robust and precise software-based inspection facilities, which will take approximately fifteen minutes to test turbine blades. The use of advanced analytics dashboards and repair planning workflows will reduce the overall maintenance cost of wind energy plant.Report ContentChapter 1. Methodology and Scope1.1. Methodology1.2. Market definitions1.3. Market estimation & forecast parameters1.4. Data Sources1.4.1. Primary1.4.2. Secondary1.4.2.1. Paid Sources1.4.2.2. Public SourcesChapter 2. Executive Summary2.1. Wind Turbine industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 - 20242.1.1. Business trends2.1.2. Axis trends2.1.3. Installation trends2.1.4. Connectivity trends2.1.5. Rating trends2.1.6. Application trends2.1.7. Component trends2.1.8. Regional TrendsAbout Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary researchContact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:Explore Our Blog @ Power Transmission Lines & Towers Market Prominent players are Siemens, ABB, GE, EMC, K-Line, ICOMM, CG, KEC, Aurecon, Arteche, Mastec, Sterling & Wilson, Skipper, Zhejiang Shengda, Sumitomo, Southwire Company, and Nexans Power Transmission Lines & Towers Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1182 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1182 https://www.gminsights.com https://gminsights.wordpress.com http://algosonline.com/news The commercialization matrix of power transmission lines & towers market has gained a substantial traction over the past few years, in sync with the increasing need of power supply across the globe. In a bid to address the expanding consumer base with unremitting electric supply, electric utilities have been scrupulously investing in novel grid infrastructure projects. Some of the encouraging efforts by both the developed as well as developing nations, in this regard, is prudent to take a note of.Under Trumps administration, the United States is projected to invest USD 110 billion in smart grid infrastructure by 2027. The figure itself gives a clear picture of the regional power transmission lines & towers market demand. In fact, as per estimates, U.S. market is forecast to exceed USD 4 billion by 2024.For a significant transmission line refurbishment project between Mbarara and Masaka, Africa power transmission lines & towers market recently witnessed a sudden push. For the records, in a bid to suffice this massive project, Uganda recently received a hefty sum of USD 44.2 million from AFD (Agence Francaise de Developement), after the two signed a financial agreement on the same.The Chinese government has recently proposed a joint DPR (detailed project report) of the first China-Nepal cross border transmission line. Reportedly, the 800km extended transmission line would span from Galchhi of Nepal to Shigatse, China.Get a Sample Copy of this Report @These aforementioned projects, needless to say, have left an inexorable impact on power transmission lines & towers industry share. Testament of the fact is a USD 30 billion industry valuation in 2017. Transmitting bulk power with minimal line resistive loss is the prime focus. As a result, HVDC and HVAC transmission have been gaining a burgeoning demand in the power sector worldwide, leaving a perpetual impact on HVDC and HVAC power transmission lines& towers industry share. Recently, Chinas State Grid Corporation signed a contract with Power Division of Pakistan for the construction of a 600 KV HVDC bipolar transmission line extending from Matiari to Lahore. Chinas favorable regulatory framework with regards to HVDC network integration, as per experts opinion, has allowed the country to easily operationalize various cross border interconnection plans, which by consequence boosted China power transmission lines & towers industry.Considering the huge expansion in the renewable energy space, it is quite coherent that power transmission lines & towers industry would also witness a consequential transformation. The clean energy propaganda is expected to influence majority of the regional markets, in response to which, the Europe power transmission lines & towers market is likely to be strongly characterized by the sustainability trends. The European Governments constant push to streamline electricity transmission via renewable means by providing viable incentives to energy efficient components is probably the primary factor driving the regional market.Speaking of the competitive landscape, major power transmission lines & towers industry participants such as ABB, K-line, General Electric, Arteche, and General Cable have been investing heavily in rural electrification and renewable energy projects. In support of the regional governments, these firms are making incessant efforts to combat the power supply shortage across the world, which in essence has contributed immensely toward the business augmentation. Inherently stimulated by a slew of governmental as well as corporate initiatives in pipeline, global power transmission lines & towers industry share is slated to exceed USD 60 billion by 2024.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Report ContentChapter 1. Methodology and Scope1.1. Methodology1.2. Market definitions1.3. Market estimation & forecast parameters1.4. Data Sources1.4.1. Primary1.4.2. Secondary1.4.2.1. Paid Sources1.4.2.2. Public SourcesChapter 2. Executive Summary2.1. Power transmission lines & towers industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 - 20242.1.1. Business trends2.1.2. Product trends2.1.3. Conductor trends2.1.4. Insulation trends2.1.5. Voltage trends2.1.6. Current trends2.1.7. Application trends2.1.8. Regional TrendsAbout Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary researchContact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:Explore Our Blog @ A Clackamas County sheriff's deputy who got into a courtroom scuffle with a criminal defendant last year won't face prosecution. The investigation of Deputy Dan O'Keeffe began after a former deputy, Joel Manley, filed a notice that he planned to file a lawsuit against the county for retaliation and harassment. Manley alleged in the notice that O'Keeffe had deliberately sought out a courthouse security assignment so he could beat up a defendant. The Clackamas County District Attorney's Office asked the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office to review the allegations. Portland police investigated the claim. "None of Manley's claims have any merit since they are not supported by the evidence," Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Bumjoon Park wrote Friday in a memo announcing the decision. "Deputy O'Keeffe did not attack (Ronald) Strasser in the courtroom for no reason." Park noted that the review was limited to whether a crime had been committed, not whether O'Keeffe had followed civil and administrative law. He said the investigation did not find "premeditated intent to hurt and arrest" Strasser. "Once Deputy O'Keeffe went over to Strasser in order to arrest him, Strasser was defiant and did not follow the instructions he was given," Park wrote. "Strasser continued to resist and struggle, which resulted in Deputy O'Keeffe using force to detain Strasser." Park noted that Manley's allegations came to light in a tort claim notice and that the former deputy did not report his concerns to law enforcement. Manley retired earlier this year. "This resulted in Manley having a financial incentive for his claims and contributes to his bias," Park wrote. "In addition, Manley did not witness these events first hand but rather watched the incident on video later." Manley's lawyer, Randy Harvey, said he was "disappointed but not surprised" by the decision not to prosecute. "I will put Joel Manley's credibility up against anyone in the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office," he said. Chris Owen, chief deputy district attorney in Clackamas County, declined to comment. A voicemail left for Strasser was not immediately returned. Manley says he was the subject of two internal affairs investigations and isolated by coworkers after he refused to participate in an off-color photo shoot at the courthouse last fall for a co-worker's retirement calendar. Manley alleges that O'Keeffe last year asked to be placed in a courtroom with Strasser. "I just want a reason to beat the crap out of him," Manley recalled O'Keeffe saying that day. "He's going to give it to me." Manley alleges that O'Keeffe's supervisor, Sgt. Cory Smith, said OK. O'Keeffe was later assigned to a courtroom where Strasser's criminal case was to be heard. When his name was called during the July 6, 2017, hearing, Strasser did not respond at first. O'Keeffe pointed him out to the judge and Strasser again denied his identity. The judge then issued an arrest warrant for Strasser. According to a report written by O'Keeffe, he asked Strasser to put his hands behind his back. He said Strasser said "excuse me" and pulled away, prompting the deputy to pull the man's hair and drive him to the floor to gain control. O'Keeffe said Strasser resisted by keeping his hands near or under his body. The deputy said he then delivered "10-12 knee strikes" to Strasser's side and back. Other deputies entered the courtroom and helped arrest Strasser on accusations of resisting arrest, interfering with a police officer and contempt of court. He was then booked into the Clackamas County Jail, where he was held for 56 days. Park said the investigation also concluded that Smith had not committed misconduct, saying "the insinuation" that he had done something criminal in assigning O'Keeffe to the courtroom is "meritless." -- Noelle Crombie ncrombie@oregonian.com 503-276-7184 @noellecrombie By BRAD MARTIN In his four short years as a Republican state representative from Bend, Knute Buehler would have you believe that he's tackled all the big, difficult problems facing Oregon. At least, that's what he's implying in his campaign rhetoric. What he neglects to mention is his record -- and that record makes clear he really hasn't accomplished much at all. Instead of delivering results, Rep. Buehler has become the king of "protest votes" and partisan maneuvers out of the right-wing playbook. Much like President Trump's unwillingness to admit that leadership is hard work and serving the people is serious business, Buehler would have you believe that his slogans and charisma are the answers to all of our problems. That's a hard sell, seeing that Buehler has yet to demonstrate the capacity to solve any big problems at all. Gov. Kate Brown has led our state through some trying times and Oregonians are better off for it. We have record low unemployment, rising graduation rates and 95 percent of Oregonians have health care. Buehler's anemic record just doesn't compete. Not only does Buehler have little to show for his four years in the Legislature, his votes show how he is hopelessly out of touch with Oregon's values. One key example? During his time in the Legislature, Buehler joined ranks with his fellow Republicans to vote "no" on a critical bill to guarantee health-care coverage for abortion and enshrine Roe v. Wade into state law. He also voted no on a bill toprotect Medicaid funding for thousands of Oregon kids and families. With changes coming to the U.S. Supreme Court, these fundamental rights are facing new threats. Even when given a second chance to improve his record (and presumably while pondering a gubernatorial run), Knute Buehler has twice voted against efforts to increase funding for foster care, human services and Oregon classrooms, choosing to put politics ahead of seeking bipartisan solutions to help Oregonians. In fact, Buehler has often voted against bills that received support from both sides of the aisle. He turned down $5.3 billion for a statewide transportation package, said "no" to common-sense background checks for gun owners, and rejected bipartisan work to provide access to health insurance for every child in Oregon. Kudos to those Republicans who worked to improve our state, but Oregonians should be puzzled by why Knute Buehler would align himself with the most far-right members of his party. Knute Buehler wants a chance to lead this state, but he hasn't delivered results or earned our trust. He's had plenty of chances in his four years in Salem to step up and deliver for Oregonians, but instead, he blames everyone but himself for his failure to lead. And now he's trying to cover up his record. Oregon has a great, proven leader in Gov Kate Brown. We know where she stands, and we can trust her to get things done. Let's re-elect her this fall. Brad Martin is the executive director of the Democratic Party of Oregon. Testimony in the trial of FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita turned Friday to how forensic investigators worked to identify the path and source of a bullet that struck the roof of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum's truck. Astarita is accused of lying to conceal that he fired two shots at the truck at the moment Finicum stepped out of the driver's seat with his hands in the air. Finicum, the spokesman for the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016, had just crashed into a snowbank on the west side of U.S. 395 to avoid a police roadblock on Jan. 26, 12016. One of Astarita's shots hit the roof and the other missed, investigators said. Finicum moments later was fatally shot by two state police SWAT officers after he was seen reaching into an interior pocket of his jacket for a loaded 9mm Ruger, investigators said. The trial is in its second week. The government plans to wrap up its case with two more experts and have Finicum's truck towed to the courthouse garage for jurors to examine Monday. Astarita's lawyers then will present their defense. Prosecutors have argued that Astarita is the only one who could have fired the disputed shots based on his location and the bullet's path. Defense lawyers contend no eyewitnesses or evidence links Astarita to the shots and that three people could have taken the shots, most likely a state SWAT officer referred to only as "Officer 1" at trial. Victoria Dickerson, a senior forensic scientist with Oregon State Police, described how she examined Finicum's white Dodge Ram in the evidence bay at the state crime lab in Bend. Two days after the shooting, she identified four bullet strikes to the truck: one each in the front hood, front grill, driver's side mirror and top of the cab. The one in the roof was near the center and back of the cab and is central to the trial. Identified as "Impact W,'' Dickerson described it as having an elliptical shape with a bulge at the top. Prosecutor Gary Sussman showed jurors photos of the yellow ballistic rods that Dickerson said she threaded through the hole in the roof and a hole in the truck's headliner material inside the cab that the bullet penetrated. Because the metal hole in the roof was much wider than the rods, Dickerson used what's called a centering cone to stabilize the rods and then determined the vertical and horizontal angles at which the bullet hit the truck. Dickerson testified that the bullet traveled at a horizontal angle of 125 degrees from behind and to the right of Finicum's truck and at a vertical angle of 20 degrees. She said the margin of error for each angle was 5 degrees, an industry standard, and that the use of the centering cone may have altered the vertical angle somewhat. Defense lawyer Meghan Ferguson asked if Dickerson was familiar with author Dean Garrison Jr.'s book called "Police Shooting Scene Investigation.'' She had Dickerson examine one page from the book, which said that when two defects, or holes, from a bullet are separated by just a half-inch, a one-quarter-inch error could throw off angle measurements. Dickerson said she knew of the book and its author. While she acknowledged she didn't measure the distance between the hole in the roof's metal and the hole in the headliner cloth, she believed the distance was greater than a half-inch just from observing the length of the rods lined up through the two holes. Ferguson said it appeared Dickerson had assumed that her use of a centering cone to hold the rods in place didn't affect the measured horizontal angle of the bullet's path. Dickerson said she double-checked her placement of the rods through the bullet holes and found the rods appropriately passed through the so-called pinch point of the rooftop metal where the bullet entered the truck. Deschutes County sheriff's Deputy Kevin Turpen testified that he used a Total Station laser measuring device to produce a scaled diagram of the shooting scene, marking locations of all the evidence and vehicles. Turpen, trained as a traffic crash reconstructionist, said he arrived at the shooting scene about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 27, 2016, and returned to the scene on Feb. 12, 2016, to take additional measurements. Turpen estimated that Finicum's truck was traveling at 75 mph north on U.S. 395 as it headed toward the roadblock after evading state police and FBI agents who initially pulled Finicum over as he and other refuge occupation leaders were heading to a community meeting in John Day. The speed was determined by measuring how fast Finicum traveled between two signposts on the highway. At the point Finicum's truck swerved into the snowbank, it was traveling about 55 mph, Turpen said. While taking measurements at the scene through the following morning, he estimated Finicum's truck settled in the snow about 4 inches. Dickerson estimated the truck was resting in the snowbank, tipping down toward the passenger side, at an angle of between 14 and 15 degrees. "We documented the position of the truck where it was when we found it,'' Turpen said, acknowledging during cross-examination that he didn't know how much the truck may have settled in the nine hours that passed from the shooting until his arrival. Astarita's defense lawyers pointed out that investigators didn't consider how the truck was resting in the snow when the disputed shots occurred and how much it might have settled overnight, which could alter the bullet trajectory analysis. Dickerson also said she examined Finicum's body at the scene. Jurors were shown photos of the butt of a black Ruger 9mm pistol found protruding from the left inner pocket of Finicum's jean jacket. Deschutes County sheriff's Detective Ron Brown, the lead case agent in the Finicum shooting investigation, said Finicum's pistol was loaded with a round in the chamber. Finicum had two spare 9mm magazines of ammunition in the right inside pocket of his jacket. In his truck, a loaded .38-caliber revolver was found on the rear driver's side floorboard, and two loaded AR-15-style rifles were under the back seat. Brown testified that he contacted Ryan Bundy, who suffered a wound to his shoulder in the backseat of Finicum's truck, by email, phone and in person to try to convince him to have the "metal fragment or whatever it may be'' removed. "It could be a fragment of a bullet that can be traced back ... and help determine where it came from," Brown said. But Bundy either refused or made "completely unreasonable demands,'' he said, such as wanting certain people criminally charged. The day ended with a tense exchange when defense lawyer David Angeli asked Brown if he agreed that Officer 1 wasn't truthful on the witness stand earlier in the trial when he said he had told investigators from the U.S. Office of Inspector General that he had been startled by a loud noise to his right, which could have been a gunshot, when Finicum stepped from his truck. "Objection,'' yelled prosecutor Paul Maloney. Angeli asked the question another way. Brown, who attended the Inspector General interviews, said neither he nor the federal investigators had ever heard Officer 1 mention being startled by a loud noise before he shared that with prosecutors a month before the trial. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian A former director of operations at Village Baptist Church has been accused of stealing at least $70,000 from the Beaverton church, court and police records show. Scott Edward Moore, 52, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to seven felony counts of aggravated theft. In a written statement, church board secretary Ben Spotts said Moore had been a 20-year employee who left for a new job in March. Moore now has a Texas address. "Village Baptist Church is deeply saddened by this situation and believes this was an isolated situation," Spotts said in the statement. The money was taken from August 2015 through March 2018, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Moore turned himself in Tuesday at the Washington County Jail, police said. He was released on bail. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 20. In addition to Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys and antifa descending on Portland on Saturday, clowns will be joining the masses and having a dance party. Unpresidented Brass Band, a marching band created about a year and a half ago in response to the political climate, is organizing the event "Send in the Clowns!" which encourages "colorful folk" to protest Patriot Prayer's Saturday rally. "I love being colorful and silly," band organizer Miles Thompson said, "and that's something that can really go a long ways towards distracting from violence and towards poking fun at things and making things a little less serious." Joey Gibson, a U.S. Senate candidate in Washington and leader of Patriot Prayer, is planning on leading supporters in a rally Saturday at the waterfront in downtown Portland. Counter-demonstrations including this one with clowns have been scheduled in response to Gibson's rally. Thompson said he hopes the clown and band protest will help provide an alternative to violence. He said they will join Popular Mobilization in a march to the waterfront where Gibson's rally is scheduled for noon. Thompson said he expects around 40 or more clowns to show up. Unpresidented Brass Band has been going to marches and rallies for more than a year to bring joy and combat protest fatigue, Thompson said. He said he hopes the Saturday protest will bring a strong peaceful response to the people mainly Patriot Prayer, he said bringing violence into the community. A post on the clown event page reminds protest-goers that oil-based face paint, lotion and sunscreen can be problematic if exposed to pepper spray or tear gas. "Consider just painting your cheeks with colorful dots or stripes, and keep makeup away from your eyes, just to be safe!" the post reads. Clowns are not a new sight to events like these. Previously, clowns have been seen at demonstrations in Oregon and other states. Micah Fletcher, survivor of the MAX train stabbing, dressed like a clown some weeks before the attack in an attempt to ease tensions between demonstrators at a Patriot Prayer rally. Local organizations have been vocal in their response to Gibson's rally. Popular Mobilization will be gathering at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall for a rally before moving to the waterfront. The Facebook page refers to the organization as a group of concerned Portlanders united around inspiring people to resist the alt-right. Antifa groups also plan to meet at the waterfront at 11:30 a.m., according to another Facebook page. "We may not be muscle bound gym rats, we certainly aren't the sort of sadistic bullies we are facing, but never the less we have to go out there and be the ones willing to physically protect people already under attack in our communities," the description reads. "We are regular people called to do extraordinary things." The description also says counter-demonstrators will not apologize for the use of force to keep the community safe from right-wing violence. A coalition of more than 30 local and regional organizations released a joint statement prior to the rally calling on the governor, mayor and other city officials to denounce racist and sexist violence from both Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys. "Elected officials must not abandon the Portland community when we are under attack," the statement reads. Activists from Charlottesville also issued a statement. It says Saturday's rally resembles last year's Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Virginia. "Charlottesville understands all too well what it means to have fascist agitators bring choreographed terror into our community," the statement reads. "We remember bracing ourselves last year against the threat of white supremacist attacks cloaked as free speech. We send solidarity and love to Portland, particularly to communities most targeted by the Islamophobic, transphobic, anti-immigrant, genocidal agenda of Saturday's fascist event." Gibson, meanwhile, has said his group doesn't promote white supremacy or racism. Portland police said they will have weapon-screening stations at the waterfront Saturday, as well as dogs that can detect explosives. --Hannah Boufford hboufford@oregonian.com / @hannahboufford Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is sending the city's police force out to Saturday's protest with words of encouragement following several tense exchanges with the police union in recent weeks. Wheeler wrote an open letter Friday expressing his trust in and gratitude for the Portland Police Bureau as officers and command staff prepare for right-wing Patriot Prayer and left-wing counter-protesters to hold dueling protests Saturday. Such encounters normally lead to violence. "Serving as a police officer is undoubtedly one of the most challenging, risky and demanding jobs in our city," Wheeler wrote. This letter comes a day after Daryl Turner, president of Portland's police union, said the mayor has "failed miserably" as police commissioner, citing perceived "personal, political bias" as having inappropriate influence over Wheeler's command of the bureau. Turner's was the latest in a series of statements made in opposition to Wheeler's leadership of the police. Through their union, officers have been highly critical of Wheeler's policies regarding homeless people, with Turner saying the mayor allowed the city to become "a cesspool." An attorney representing employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday accused Wheeler of hindering law enforcement services to ICE employees during a 38-day-long occupation. Wheeler earlier tweeted that he did not want Portland police "engaged in the conflict." The attorney's letter claimed policies put in place by Wheeler created "a zone of terror and lawlessness" which resulted in threats of physical violence and harassment toward ICE employees. The mayor denied such policy claims, calling the assertion "inaccurate and inflammatory" in a letter Tuesday. Wheeler's letter Friday was remarkably affable. " ... As always, you will rely on the strong leadership of your command staff, your training and your good judgment," Wheeler wrote Friday. Wheeler in the letter said he wants to make clear his support for the bureau, citing the addition of 52 officers to the bureau, strengthened funding for the Service Coordination Team and increased support for Behavioral Health Unit and other developments. "Chief Outlaw has exceeded my expectations," he also said of Danielle Outlaw, whom he named police chief one year ago. Wheeler also thanked the non-sworn staff, calling them "the backbone of our operations," a group whose work he said is often overlooked. "I know that this is a particularly challenging situation, and I want you to know that I have complete trust in your ability to manage it," Wheeler said in reference to Saturday's demonstrations. Here is the full statement from Wheeler: It is an honor to serve as your Police Commissioner. Serving as a police officer is undoubtedly one of the most challenging, risky and demanding jobs in our city. Once again, you will be called upon to secure the safety of our residents during this weekend's planned demonstrations. I know that this is a particularly challenging situation, and I want you to know that I have complete trust in your ability to manage it. As always, you will rely on the strong leadership of your command staff, your training and your good judgement. It is unfortunate that there are conflicting stories around my support for the Portland Police Bureau at such a critical time. I believe it is my duty to clarify a couple of points. While you were doing your part to protect and serve the community, I was pleased to champion an increase the number of sworn police officer positions by 52, strengthen funding for the Service Coordination Team, increase support for the Behavioral Health Unit, fund new trainers and data analysts, and work with local business leaders to support increased revenues for critical services, including public safety enhancements. I will continue to support you as your Mayor. I also appreciate my strong relationship with the Command Staff. Chief Outlaw has exceeded my expectations I am glad she accepted my offer to lead our team. She has proven herself to be an effective leader for the Bureau and the community, and she and her leadership team have my full confidence. The Bureau is fortunate to also benefit from top-flight non-sworn staff. You are the backbone of our operations, and your work is often difficult and overlooked. The Bureau could not succeed without you. Thank you again for your service to the community. I want you to know that I appreciate it. Respectfully, Ted Wheeler. --Anna Spoerre A tornado? Scary. Wildfire? Horrific. A tornado made out of fire? Just about the most terrifying thing Mother Nature can whip up. On July 26, the Carr Fire near Redding, California, unleashed a vortex with winds so strong it uprooted trees and stripped away their bark. On Thursday, the National Weather Service estimated the fire-induced tempest packed winds in excess of 143 mph. Such wind strength is equivalent to an EF3 tornado, on the 0-to-5 scale for twister intensity. "This is historic in the U.S.," Craig Clements, director of San Jose State University's Fire Weather Research Laboratory, told BuzzFeed News. "This might be the strongest fire-induced tornado-like circulation ever recorded." The tornado formed as the blaze, which has already charred an area three times as large as the District of Columbia, erupted and began to rotate like a supercell thunderstorm. Initially the smoke plume reached about 20,000 feet. That's not overly impressive for a thunderstorm, but it couldn't rise any higher: It was trapped beneath an inversion. That "cap" in the atmosphere caused the smoke to spread out. But around 7:15 p.m. Pacific time, two plumes suddenly managed to break the cap. They rose into an unstable environment and exploded upward, towering to nearly 40,000 feet within 30 minutes. That extreme, rapid vertical growth of the fire fueled an updraft that eventually would spawn the tornado. Looking at a profile of the atmosphere from a nearby National Weather Service office on the day of the fire, changing winds with altitude were apparent. That means any cloud that spans multiple layers in the atmosphere is going to experience this shearing force resulting from being pushed in multiple directions. This caused the entire smoke cloud to rotate, just like any tornado-producing thunderstorm. Eventually a pair of quickly rotating updrafts became established between 7:30 and 8 p.m. - rivaling the intensity of the turbulent behemoth storms that sweep across the Plains each spring. The southern updraft went on to produce a legitimate tornado. The key was how quickly the updraft rose. After all, the smoke cloud top doubled in height, surging upward nearly four miles in 40 minutes. Just like a skater pulling in her arms, when a vortex near the ground is stretched, it intensifies - likely the main ingredient in tornado formation. While the National Weather Service forecast office in Sacramento, California, described the vortex as a fire whirl, our analysis suggests this was an actual tornado. Fire whirls are much more common. They are the equivalent of dust devils and shed off by large wildfires by the hundreds. But this vortex's rapidly-rotating updraft that was embedded in cloud-based rotation bore the hallmarks of a textbook tornado. "I'm relatively comfortable calling this a tornado; I'm sure some people will take issue with it," Neil Lareau, a physics professor at the University of Nevada at Reno, told Axios. Lareau specializes in fire weather phenomena. The funnel produced tornado-like damage, too. It tore trees from the ground, destroyed additional structures and even collapsed or twisted large high-tension electrical towers. While this may be the most intense fire tornado observed in the United States, an even more vigorous fire tornado has been documented in Australia. On Jan. 18, 2003, a lightning-sparked wildfire near Canberra produced a pyrocumulonimbus smoke cloud that grew into a supercell thunderstorm. It produced 80 mph winds, fueling the blaze and exacerbating fire suppression efforts. Similar atmospheric conditions were in place, and the storm produced a tornado that traveled roughly 15 miles over the course of an hour, touching down four times and carving out a path about a quarter-mile wide. Investigators in the wake of the Canberra Fire Tornado found a path of clockwise-laid trees, suggesting convergent rotating winds at the surface. That particular tornado skirted most towns, but did level a neighborhood in the Australian community of Lincoln Close, Chapman. The storm did damage consistent with 160-mph winds - even tossing the eight-ton roof of a water tower more than a half mile near Mount Arawang. --The Washington Post Andrews Hooper Pavlik PLC has hired Ashley M. Horton as a staff accountant in its Midland office. Horton graduated from Northwood University with a bachelor of business administration degree in accounting. Also, she holds an associate of arts degree from Delta College. Horton gained accounting experience through Stuart T. Wilson, CPA PC. She worked in billing for a year and half. Also, she has recently become member of MICPA. Andrews Hooper Pavlik PLC is a Michigan-based certified public accounting and consulting firm with offices in Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, Bay City, Grand Rapids, Greater Lansing, Midland, Owosso and Saginaw. For more information, visit www.ahpplc.com. Adapted from a recent online discussion. Dear Carolyn: I just spent the weekend in the company of my boyfriend's brother, who mimicked/mocked me, belittled almost all my actions, and made fun of my chronic health condition. My boyfriend says this is just "George's' sense of humor," and that I should ignore it and not be so sensitive. I experienced this as abusive, and believe my boyfriend should have spoken up on my behalf, even by calmly stating, "That's enough, George." My solution is to limit my participation in future family gatherings, which bothers my boyfriend. What do you recommend? -- Mocked Being single. Sounds like an upgrade. I'll elaborate, but I hope you don't need me to. (1) Your boyfriend didn't stand up for you while his brother treated you like dirt. That's grounds enough for dumping your boyfriend. (2) Your boyfriend found a way to blame you for it, not his brother, by calling you "too sensitive." What other bad things that happen to you are going to be your fault over the course of your lives together? It won't stop here, guaranteed. (3) Your way of standing up for yourself against jerk brother is to avoid jerk brother. And look who your boyfriend is annoyed at: not his brother! Nope, he's annoyed with you. Run, run, run. The family that created a mean-spirited George also created your boyfriend, and that usually leads to one of two outcomes: Your boyfriend is determined and careful not to be mean-spirited, knowing too well its emotional costs; or your boyfriend is mean-spirited, too. This guy has just given you ample evidence he's the latter, at least under pressure, which is when you least want that to be turned against you. Re: George: If you want, before you dump the boyfriend, or while you're doing it, own up. Say, "Yes, I'm sensitive. I think being sensitive is a good thing, and I'm not going to become callous just so your brother can act like a jerk toward me. I'm not willing to be around George as long as he behaves that way." Then don't back down. You show your toughness by standing up for your own feelings, not by ignoring them or ignoring some glassbowl's idea of humor. Columnist Carolyn Hax dishes out advice daily. Email Carolyn at Read the Email Carolyn at tellme@washpost.com , follow her on Facebook or chat with her online at noon Eastern time each Friday at www.washingtonpost.com Read the daily Carolyn Hax columns at https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/advice/ -- Anonymous True -- sensitivity could use some good PR. Hi Carolyn: I'm finalizing the guest list for my wedding. My friends since high school are acrimoniously divorcing, and by my understanding it would probably not be a good idea for both to attend. Do I have to pick whose friendship I want more, and only invite that person? Invite them both, tell them both, and see who shows up (and take that as a sign of who wants MY friendship more)? Or invite them both, say nothing, and let them figure it out? -- Friend Invite both and let them figure it out. Re: Divorcing Friends: Please do not treat this as a sign of which one wants your friendship more. It's not fair to test people's emotions like that, and the problems between them are not about you. -- Anonymous 2 Well said, thanks. MSU Extension of Midland County and cooperating parent educators sponsor the Parent's Corner. Send submissions to Midland County MSU Extension Educator, Lisa Treiber, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland, MI 48640. Trinity Lutheran Preschool Trinity Lutheran Preschool has openings for 2 to 4 year olds starting this fall. Classes focus on kindergarten development, self-exploration and STEM technology. Affordable tuition, scholarships and a longer calendar year. Children can also join lunchtime learners program. Looking for a Young 5's program? Visit www.tlcmidland.org or call 989-631-0692 for more information and a tour of the facility. Summer Exploration Days Chippewa Nature Center is offering themed experiments, games and crafts throughout the Visitor Center, highlighting the unique characteristics of different ecosystems. The themes will change on a bi-weekly basis. Aug.1-13 the focus will be on the forest. Join in the fun at Chippewa Nature Center, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland. Visit www.chippewanaturecenter.org to learn more and see upcoming themes. Hanging with Hummingbirds Many people enjoy watching ruby throated hummingbirds at their feeders during the birds' annual summer visit to Michigan. Have you wondered what their nests looks like, how many young they raise or what flowers attract hummingbirds? Allen Chartier, Michigan's hummingbird expert, will answer these questions and more during a one-hour indoor program, followed by an outdoor banding program at Chippewa Nature Center on Aug. 4, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Chartier will discuss his research compiled from banding hummingbirds for more than15 years. CNC is located at 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI 48640. Discover Summer Wildflowers The fields abound with yellow, purple, orange and white summer wildflowers at Chippewa Nature Center. Join Interpretive Naturalist Jeanne Henderson by the Log Schoolhouse from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 8 to traipse through the fields learning to identify flowers by their patterns and leaves. Participants will also learn how to dry flowers at home to keep for arrangements. CNC is located at 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, visit www.chippewanaturecenter.org to learn more. STEM Explorer Bus Hop on the Delta College STEM Explorer Bus to experiment with circuits, generate electricity, solve a mystery and more at Chippewa Nature Center on August 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hands-on activities will engage learners of all ages with science, technology, engineering and math. The bus will be parked in the Visitor Center parking lot, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland. Bat Hike Chippewa Nature Center's Interpretive Naturalist Michelle Fournier will be leading a Bat Hike on Aug. 9 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. at CNC, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland. On this walk, participants will learn about these unique flying mammals. With the help of a bat detector, you will be able to listen to the sounds of their echolocation. Please bring a flashlight. Kids & Canvas This gathering is specifically for children to experience a fun, creative activity even if they "don't do art!" Kids will follow along to paint their own version of bunnies sitting on a log looking up at a clear summer sky on Aug. 11, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Call Creative 360 to register 989-837-1885 or register online at www.becreative360.org Dehydrating Class Creative 360 and Michigan State University Extension are partnering for a food preservation program about dehydrating food. Dehydrating is the oldest form of food preservation. Join in the fun to learn how to dry fruit, veggies and herbs. This will be a demonstration style class complete with samples! Participants will leave with resources and recipes. The class will take place on Monday, Aug. 13 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Cost is $15; to register, contact Creative 360 at 989-837-1885. RELAX Alternatives to Anger helps teens, adults, parents and caregivers understand and manage anger and stress, and develop the communication and problem solving skills needed for healthy relationships. A new group is forming at Michigan State University Extension, meeting from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Thursdays, Sept. 6 through Sept. 27. Participants will learn: What anger is, What triggers anger, Calming down and de-stressing methods, Problem solving, Effective communication skills, and Forgiving and letting go of the past. This class is offered for interested individuals at no charge. Contact Sean knurekse@msu.edu or 989-832-6713 to register. EDITOR'S NOTE -- OWI means operating while intoxicated. DWLS means driving while license suspended. (MC) is for Judge Michael D. Carpenter. (L) is for Magistrate Gerald Ladwig. (B) is for Circuit Judge Michael J. Beale. (SC) is for Circuit Judge Stephen P. Carras. Sentences may vary based on previous offenses committed by the defendant. Some sentencings include other fees imposed by the state. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame. Auburn Alicia Louise Shawl, 47, destruction of property on May 11, $400 fines and costs, $437.48 restitution, six months probation, no contact with the victim, sentence delay granted (MC). Coleman Nathan John Taft, 36, failure to report accident on Jan. 13, $225 fines and costs (MC). Edenville Eric Leo Boyd, 43, DWLS on July 6, $450 fines and costs (L). Freeland Jason Rober Nalevayko, 28, DWLS on June 22, six weekends in jail, $500 fines and costs (MC). Kesean Marquis Walker, 17, drove while unlicensed or license not valid on July 20, $275 fines and costs (L). Midland Joshua Alan Alexander, 37, North Scramlin Drive, DWLS on May 27, five days in jail, $500 fines and costs (MC). John Edward Andrews Jr., 49, Nine Mile Road, domestic violence on March 31, 93 days with all but five days suspended and credit for two days, $400 fines and costs, two years probation, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, intimidating, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward any person, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Bryan Andrew Barry, 30, Baldwin Street, second-offense OWI on April 20, one year in jail with all but seven days suspended and credit for one day, $900 fines and costs, 18 months probation, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Bailey Rei Boyle, 22, East Stewart Road, driving without insurance on April 5, $400 fines and costs (MC). Amber Lynn Bradford, 34, Dublin Avenue, attempted driving without insurance on June 13, 27 days in jail with credit for time served (MC). Matthew Jeston Burton, 28, North Union Road, third-degree retail fraud on Jan. 9, 93 days in jail with credit for 11 days, $125 fines and costs, $40.48 restitution (MC). Robert Lyle Dohm, 60, East Renee Drive, attempted fail to comply with sex offender reporting duties on Sept. 1, one day in jail with credit for time served $400 fines and costs (MC). Korey Patrick Gensel, 26, West Violet Street, malicious use of telecommunications service on July 3, 120 days in jail with credit for 20 days, $125 fines and costs (MC). Martin Tracy Gill, 56, West North Union Road, DWLS and no proof of insurance on April 16, 30 days in jail with credit for one day, $335 fines and costs (MC). Douglas Michael Haner, 45, West Chippewa River Road, domestic violence and interfering with electronic communication on April 8, 93 days in jail for the first count and one year in jail for the second count with all but two weekends suspended and credit for one day, $1,100 fines and costs, nine months probation, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, intimidating, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward any person, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Janiko Jerel Hill, 30, East Ashby Road, DWLS on June 20, six weekends in jail, $500 fines and costs (MC). Joshua Allen Hurd, 26, Abbott Road, drove while unlicensed or license not valid and unregistered vehicle on July 12, $325 fines and costs (L). Debra Sue Johnson, 46, West Isabella Street, DWLS on June 5, two weekends in jail, $125 fines and costs (MC). Lorie Ann Kuhn, 55, Garland Street, allowing DWLS on April 27, $200 fines and costs, $490.50 restitution (MC). Clifford Arthur Lamonte, 39, South Poseyville Road, DWLS on July 15, $500 fines and costs (L). Ryan Elijah Larson, 20, Eastlawn Drive, drove while unlicensed or license not valid on July 8, $275 fines and costs (L). Roy James Miller, 31, Eastlawn Drive, violation of instruction permit on July 5, $275 fines and costs (L). Tonia Ann Miller, 45, Eastlawn Drive, impaired driving on April 24, 93 days in jail with all but two weekends suspended and credit for one day, $125 fines and costs, six months probation, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Kimberly Diana Moldovan, 35, Smith Road, impaired driving on March 25, 93 days in jail suspended with credit for one day, $775 fines and costs, four months probation, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Dakota James Randolph, 22, West Wheeler Road, no insurance on March 1, $300 fines and costs (MC). Shannon Marie Saenz, 35, West Union Street, aggravated domestic violence on March 3 and bond violation, 75 days in jail with credit for 19 days, $125 fines and costs (MC). Timothy James Turner, 26, Isabella Street, DWLS and unregistered vehicle on June 23, one weekend in jail, $400 fines and costs (MC). Casey Max Weaver, 63, East Ashman Street, DWLS on July 15, $200 fines and costs (L). Bryan Dean Williamson, 42, Sandow Road, no license on person on July 11, $200 fines and costs (L). Richard Lee Wolf, 24, Arbury Place, domestic violence and impaired driving on Jan. 1, 93 days in jail with all but three days suspended and credit for four days, $1,000 fines and costs, one year probation, vehicle immobilized for 90 days, not to be involved in any assaultive, threatening, intimidating, violent, aggressive, disorderly or abusive behavior toward any person, no contact with the victim, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Eileen Renee Wrona, 34, Burning Bush Lane, OWI on March 3, 93 days in jail with all but seven days suspended and credit for one day, $125 fines and costs, $1,780 restitution, one year probation, may not use or possess drugs or alcohol, subject to random drug and alcohol screening, may not enter bars, attend counseling as directed (MC). Rhodes Shelley Faythe Stoll, 53, failure to report accident to fixtures and DWLS on April 6, $200 fines and costs, $138.14 restitution (MC). MILL HALL - A Texas natural gas-related company is relocating its Clarksburg, W. Va., operations into the former Baker Hughes facility near Mill Hall and it anticipates having more than 200 employees. BJ Services will move its entire natural gas fracturing operation from Clarksburg over the next three months, spokesperson Michelle Pyner said Friday. It is just the reverse of what happened in March 2016 when Baker Hughes closed the Mill Hall facility and moved the operations to Clarksburg. "This is great news," Michael Flanagan, chief executive officer of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, said. "We couldn't be happier." It indicates the gas industry to coming back in this area, he said. The 38-acre, $40 million facility in Lamar Twp. has sat empty since Baker Hughes closed, he said. Peak employment under Baker Hughes was 300, but as gas well activity slowed the number decreased until the facility was closed, Flanagan said. BJ, based in Tomball, Texas, is the largest oilfield services provider in North America that has a specific focus on land cementing and hydraulic fracturing services. It is an independent company created when CSL Capital Management and West Street Energy Partners in December 2016 acquired it from Baker Hughes which retained a 46.4 percent ownership stake. The move to Clinton County will better support "our growing business in the Marcellus and Utica natural gas basins," Pyner said. The Clarksburg employees have been given the opportunity to stay with the company but Flanagan said he anticipates there will local hiring. Fracturing fleets and crews will report out of Mill Hall that will serve as the district office for support operations in the Marcellus and Utica natural gas basins, Pyner said. This will be the only BJ facility in Pennsylvania, she said. Manheim Township police have closed route 222 in both directions around Cocalico Creek due to heavy flooding. The department says that all southbound traffic must exit in Brownstown and all northbound traffic must exit at Oregon Pike. The flooding follows a night of heavy rain that fell across central Pennsylvania on Friday night. By Dennis M. Davin Entrepreneurship and small business has been in Pennsylvania's blood throughout our 231-year history. Dennis Davin (Commonwealth of Pa. photo) Today, Pennsylvania's small businesses account for nearly half of the state's workforce. They provide workers with family-sustaining wages and reward the hard work and drive of entrepreneurs who decide to take the life-changing risk of starting a business of their own. Clearly, they are a vital part of our economy, which is why Gov. Tom Wolf has placed supporting small business at the top of his agenda since day one. One of the best examples of the governor's support of small business and entrepreneurship is the new PA Business One-Stop Shop. Launched earlier this year, the PA Business One-Stop Shop is a team of experts who offer the resources, tools, and experience to help our entrepreneurs plan for the future and achieve their goals. T he PA Business One-Stop Shop website - business.pa.gov - takes the mystery out of starting or operating a business, and distills the process down to the basics, guiding entrepreneurs through all stages of development -- from planning and startup, to operation and expansion, all from one place. We want to make navigating business-related processes as simple and easy as possible, so our hard-working business owners can get back to doing what they do best -- innovating, creating jobs, and succeeding in Pennsylvania. In addition to the website, aspiring entrepreneurs or current business owners can also call a phone number, (833) 722-6778, to connect to a team of dedicated business consultants and subject matter experts who can answer questions. Together, the website and team of experts will help guide entrepreneurs and businesses owners through the processes of starting and running a business, no matter what the business type may be. The website covers a broad variety of relevant business topics, but there are a few essential sections: 1. Turn Your Concept into an Actionable Plan Every small business needs to start with a plan, and it's important that first step be as informed and hassle-free as possible. Our Plan section can help turn a concept or idea into an actionable strategy. It includes a template for writing a business plan and information about business structure, business names, and where you can find free local business advice and mentorship. 2. Register Your Business Registration may appear tricky, but we have a breakdown of everything involved in the business registration process in Pennsylvania, including state and local registration, permits, and a checklist including all the necessary steps so you can stay organized during the process. 3. Explore Small Diverse Business Resources In Pennsylvania, Small Diverse Businesses (SDBs) are defined as those that are disabled-, women-, minority-, LGBT-, or veteran-owned. Business ownership should be accessible to all, and we are dedicated to creating more opportunities for our SDBs. In the Grow section, there is information on how to get certified in Pennsylvania and nationally, as well as resources and unique opportunities available only to SDBs. 4. View Employer Responsibilities for Operating Businesses The Operate section covers many common employee-related requirements for Pennsylvania employers, including Workers' Compensation, Local Earned Income Tax, Employer Withholding, common business taxes, and more. The PA Business One-Stop Shop website has assisted approximately more than 50,000 unique visitors since it was created in February. We hope all Pennsylvania entrepreneurs take advantage of the Business One-Stop Shop and view it as the go-to resource for turning their business idea into reality. From the state perspective, we will continue to work on policy to inspire current and future generations of creative and hard-working Pennsylvanians to join our vibrant and supportive business community. Dennis M. Davin is secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. He writes from Harrisburg. 3.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Government Accountability Office will be investigating Trumps voter fraud commission thanks to the efforts of Democratic Sens. Cory Booker (NJ), Michael Bennet (CO), and Amy Klobuchar (MN). The Senators requested the GAO investigation after the voter fraud commission refused to respond to congressional requests for invitations about their activities. The Democrats originally requested: The GAO responded: Dear Senator Bennet: Thank you for your letter of October 18, 2017, jointly signed by Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and Senator Cory A. Booker, requesting that the Government Accountability Office review the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. GAO accepts your request as work that is within the scope of its authority. At the current time we anticipate that staff with the required skills will be available to initiate an engagement in about five months. Your request has been assigned to Mr. George Scott, Managing Director, Homeland Security and Justice. Closer to the time GAO can start this engagement, Mr. Scott or a member of his team will contact Mr. Brian Appel to confirm that this request continues to be your priority for us. As applicable we will also be in contact with the cognizant Inspector Generals office to ensure that we are not duplicating efforts. If an issue arises during this coordination, we will consult with you regarding its resolution. The investigation would not have been necessary if Trumps Election Integrity Commission was open and transparent with their activities. The voter fraud commission was always intended to suppress the vote, but Democrats are fighting back. Without the majority in the Senate or House, their powers are limited, but they are using their resources to protect the right to vote. The probe is a win for Democrats, as Trump is finding out the hard way that Democrats are up to the challenge and taking him on. By Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) An accountant for U.S. President Donald Trumps one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort admitted in trial testimony on Friday that she helped backdate documents and falsify financial records at Manafort and his business partners request to reduce his tax burden and help him qualify for loans. Cynthia Laporta, who prepared Manaforts tax returns starting in 2014, told a jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that she was testifying under an immunity agreement with the government to avoid being prosecuted as Manafort was charged with bank fraud and tax fraud. One member of the jury nodded in apparent agreement when U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis cut off the prosecutions questioning to ask her if she was afraid of being prosecuted herself. Correct, answered Laporta, explaining that she went along with accounting maneuvers suggested by Manafort and his longtime business associate Rick Gates because she did not want to create problems for her firm or lose a top client. I very much regret it, Laporta said on the trials fourth day as prosecutors build their case that Manafort hid tens of millions of dollars he earned working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine to evade taxes. Laporta, the 14th witness to testify for the prosecution, was the most damaging yet for Manafort in the first trial arising from Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, charges that largely pre-date the five months Manafort worked for Trump, some of them as campaign chairman. Once the jury had been dismissed for the day, Ellis gave defense lawyers a green light for detailed cross examination of Laporta on Monday. You are not limited in your cross examination of her, Ellis said. Both Laporta and fellow accountant Philip Ayliff, her predecessor who handled Manaforts tax filings at the firm KWC, testified that they had no knowledge that Manafort controlled foreign bank accounts. The government has provided trial evidence of Manafort controlling a web of overseas accounts in Cyprus and elsewhere. Such accounts must be reported to tax authorities if they contain $10,000 or more. Laporta also detailed multiple examples in which Manafort and Gates sought to doctor financial records. One instance involved classifying revenue from a Cyprus-based company as a loan to lower his taxable income, Laporta testified. Its hard-hitting testimony that creates an uphill battle for the defense, but thats what cross examination is for, said Andrew Boutros, a former federal prosecutor who is now a white collar defense lawyer. I dont know if there is enough to convict him right now, but theyre laying the groundwork for it. A conviction would give momentum to Muellers probe, in which 32 people and three companies have been indicted or pleaded guilty. Trump, angered by any questions about the legitimacy of his election win, has called Muellers investigation a witch hunt and wants it to be shut down. TARGETING GATES After spending the first two days of the trial laying out Manaforts lavish spending, the prosecution is now digging into how he accounted for the more than $60 million he made in Ukraine and his efforts to allegedly mislead banks to get loans once the income from Ukraine dropped off precipitously in 2014. Manaforts attorneys have signaled they will seek to blame Gates, who was Trumps deputy campaign chairman in 2016. Gates pleaded guilty in February and is expected to testify against Manafort, possibly next week. Prosecutor Uzo Asonye focused some of his questioning on money transfers from a Cyprus-based company called Telmar Investments Ltd, which records showed had paid Manaforts firm more than $5 million for consulting work. That income posed a problem for Manafort when it came time to prepare his business tax returns in September 2015, Laporta testified. She said Gates told her in a conference call the income level was too high and proposed reclassifying a portion of it as a loan. Laporta said she knew it was inappropriate but agreed to alter the records to show that Manaforts firm received a $900,000 loan from Telmar in 2014, a change that would save Manafort nearly a half million dollars in taxes, Laporta said. Manafort signed an agreement to account for that loan that was backdated, according to Laporta and an exhibit shown to the jury. Trial consultant Roy Futterman, who is following the trial but not involved in it, said, The prosecution is doing a very good job of keeping a brisk pace, putting witnesses on for short direct examinations, keeping it lively and keeping very tight messages for each witness. Manaforts attorneys do not seem to have scored a lot of points on cross-examination, Futterman said, but added that the witnesses who have testified so far are not the main targets. Earlier on Friday prosecutors asked Ayliff about Manaforts accounting of a $1.5 million transfer in 2012 from Peranova Holdings Ltd as a loan, even as records showed that no interest or principal was paid on it in subsequent years. Peranova is one of numerous Cypriot entities that prosecutors have said Manafort controlled. Ayliff testified that KWC did not know Manafort controlled Peranova, and that if the transfer was a payment related to his consulting work in Ukraine it would have been treated as income not as a loan on his tax returns. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Nathan Layne in Alexandria, Virginia; additional reporting by Karen Freifeld and Susan Heavey; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Will Dunham and Grant McCool) Jeremy Corbyn copies and pastes his commitment not to exterminate British Jews I will root antisemites out of Labour they do not speak for me, says Jeremy Corbyn, whose friendship with those who would see all Jews dead is finally riding high on the news cycle. Having spent an age denying accusations of anti-semitism in Labour (and rewarding those who agreed with him), Corbyn says Jew hatred is rife in Labour but its got sod all to do with him, its leader. Jez does not for one moment accept that a Labour government would represent any kind of threat, let alone an existential threat, to Jewish life in Britain, as three Jewish newspapers recently claimed. There is no threat to Jews from Jeremy Corbyns Labour. Zis ist vy he now tells readers of der Guardian zat Juden vill not be forcibly deported and / or shot: That is why I want to make it absolutely clear that any government I lead will take whatever measures are necessary to guarantee the security of Jewish communities, Jewish schools, Jewish places of worship, Jewish social care, Jewish culture and Jewish life as a whole in this country. As Jews sleep easy in the knowledge that a British Government led by Corbyn (as seen on Press TV!) will not seek to exterminate them, let no-one deny that the Labour leader is deeply commited to protecting Jews, including many of the wrong kind of Jews (see Zios, baby killers, blood-munchers, confident Jews, Tories, Jew-Nazis, Trump-ists, Jew bankers enslaving the other races, the uniquely barbaric Jews who never learn, Jews in the mainstream media and possibly the bloke with the drum at the front of Spurs Yid Army, although he might be Greek). Jeremy is not just trotting out any old guff. He means it. Just as he meant it when he said it on April 24 in the Evening Standard. I am not antisemitic says Jeremy Corbyn over and over and over. And if you dont believe him, you can read his words and ask his friends Anorak Posted: 4th, August 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink 1.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Melania Trumps policy director announced that she is leaving the White House, as America expresses surprise that Melania Trump had a policy director. Politico reported: First Lady Melania Trumps top policy aide has left the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Reagan Hedlund, a former executive assistant at the National Security Council who joined the first ladys staff in January as policy director, left the role last week. . Melania Trumps small staff is tight-knit and has a reputation for avoiding leaks. Indeed, multiple West Wing aides and others close to President Donald Trumps administration said they either hadnt heard about Hedlunds departure or were unsure of the exact reason. Being Melania Trumps policy director appears to be an empty job, as Mrs. Trump is most often used when the White House needs someone who is capable of acting like a human being to appear after a natural disaster or to do PR for their unpopular child separation policy. Mrs. Trump does have any policy initiatives of her own. Her anti-bullying Be Best campaign was lifted from Michelle Obama, so being this First Ladys policy adviser seems like a fairly empty job. The resignations should move at a rapid pace after the midterm election. For an administration that already cant fill many key positions, the departure of more staff could make a bad situation even worse. The Trump ship is sinking, which is why White House staff are looking to get out. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. 2.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said on MSNBCs The Beat with Ari Melber that the walls are closing in on Trump as besides the Russia and Cohen investigations, the president could be facing issues with criminal tax fraud over the Trump Foundation. Video: Rep. Lieu said, The walls are closing in on the president, you have the Manafort trial going on, youve got Cohen with the tape and him potentially flipping. You also have a separate state investigation into the Trump Foundation which could lead to criminal tax fraud issues. Thats why were seeing an increasing number of angry tweets by the president. When he goes out and tells his attorney general to shut down the Mueller investigation, thats obstruction of justice. And just because he does it in full public view doesnt mean its not obstruction. When Ari Melber asked Lieu why Trump keeps doing incriminating things, the Congressman from California said, I think the president just doesnt care what the law is. To him it doesnt matter if you publicly obstruct justice we saw this happen when he fired James Comey, then went on TV a few days later and said the one thing his attorneys would have told him never to say, which is he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. I think the president does not care. Thats why we need to hold him accountable, flip the house in November. The Trump Scandals Are Converging Rep. Ted Lieu brought up a great point. It isnt just one scandal that is causing Trump headaches. It is at least three major scandals. The Russia probe, the Cohen investigation, and the Trump Foundation are all coming together at the same time to pin down this president. It isnt Trump versus Mueller. The situation is Trump versus Mueller versus Cohen versus the state of New York. The one common thread that each of these investigations has in common is decades of corrupt and or criminal behavior by Trump. The walls are closing in which is why all Trump can do is scream hoax and witch hunt at his base while he clings on to presidential power that is slipping away by the day. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. 516 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) The Trump administration has rescinded an Obama-era ban on the use of pesticides linked to declining bee populations and the cultivation of genetically modified crops in dozens of national wildlife refuges where farming is permitted. Environmentalists, who had sued to bring about the 2-year-old ban, said on Friday that lifting the restriction poses a grave threat to pollinating insects and other sensitive creatures relying on toxic-free habitats afforded by wildlife refuges. Industrial agriculture has no place on refuges dedicated to wildlife conservation and protection of some of the most vital and vulnerable species, said Jenny Keating, federal lands policy analyst for the group Defenders of Wildlife. Limited agricultural activity is authorized on some refuges by law, including cooperative agreements in which farmers are permitted to grow certain crops to produce more food or improve habitat for the wildlife there. The rollback, spelled out in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo, ends a policy that had prohibited farmers on refuges from planting biotech crops such as soybeans and corn engineered to resist insect pests and weed-controlling herbicides. That policy also had barred the use on wildlife refuges of neonicotinoid pesticides, or neonics, in conjunction with GMO crops. Neonics are a class of insecticides tied by research to declining populations of wild bees and other pollinating insects around the world. Rather than continuing to impose a blanket ban on GMO crops and neonics on refuges, Fish and Wildlife Service Deputy Director Greg Sheehan said in Thursdays memo that decisions about their use would be made on a case-by-case basis. Sheehan said the move was needed to ensure adequate forage for migratory birds, including ducks and geese favored and hunted by sportsmen on many of the nations refuges. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, has made expansion of hunting on public lands a priority for his agency. Sheehan wrote that genetically modified organisms have helped maximize production, and that neonicotinoids might be needed to fulfill needed farming practices. It marked the latest in a series of Obama-era environmental restrictions to be reversed under Trump, his Republican successor, who campaigned on a pledge to roll back government regulations. In a 2014 Obama administration memo announcing plans to phase in the ban, Jim Kurth, head of the refuge system, wrote that seeds treated with neonics give rise to plants whose tissues contained compounds that could harm non-target species. He also said, refuges throughout the country successfully meet wildlife management objectives without GMOs or neonics. Thursdays memo named 50-plus national wildlife refuges across the country where the revised policy now applies. The entire system consists 560 refuge units encompassing roughly 150 million acres nationwide. (Editing by Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler) 468 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration must fully restore a program that protects from deportation some young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, including accepting new applications for the program. U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., said he would stay Fridays order, however, until August 23 to give the administration time to decide whether to appeal. Bates first issued a ruling in April ordering the federal government to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, including taking applications. He stayed that ruling for 90 days to give the government time to better explain why the program should be ended. On Friday Bates, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, said he would not revise his previous ruling because the arguments of President Donald Trumps administration did not override his concerns. Under DACA, roughly 700,000 young adults, often referred to as Dreamers, were protected from deportation and given work permits for two-year periods, after which they must re-apply to the program. The program was created in 2012 under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Two other federal courts in California and New York had previously ordered that DACA remain in place while litigation challenging Trumps decision to end it continued. Those rulings only required the government to process DACA renewals, not new applications. Another lawsuit in a Texas federal court is seeking to end DACA. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday that the government would continue to defend its position that it acted within its lawful authority in deciding to wind down DACA in an orderly manner. Congress so far has failed to pass legislation to address the fate of the Dreamers, including a potential path to citizenship. Fridays ruling came in lawsuits filed by several groups and institutions, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Princeton University. (Reporting by Andrew Chung Editing by Sue Horton) Maybe Americans are waking up to see what is really going on in Washington D.C. where the U.S. government has been under complete control of Republicans for the past year and a half. In a new poll that could have major ramifications in this falls midterm elections it has been confirmed that a majority of Americans now say they do not approve of how the U.S. budget deficit is being handled by Republicans and the Trump administration. In the latest American Barometer poll, published by The Hill, 56 percent of respondents said they disapprove of what the GOP has done to increase the size of the budget deficit. The Trump administrations own estimates show that the staggering deficit will be over $1 trillion this year. In a somewhat surprising response, 44 percent of poll participants indicated that they actually approve of what Republicans are doing with the deficit. The survey also found that just 21 percent of Republicans disapprove of the GOPs handling of the deficit, and 79 percent said they approve, which shows that the GOP is no longer the party of fiscal responsibility. Democrats of course see the rising red ink as a problem, with just 19 percent of those who were polled saying they approve of how the administration and GOP have handled the budget while 81 percent said they disapprove. The problem for Republicans in the midterm elections will be the negative view held by independent voters of how U.S. finances are being handled by the party in power in Washington. It is these swing voters who are not affiliated with either party who almost always determine the outcome of close elections. And in the new survey, 30 percent more independent voters disapprove of the GOP than approve of the way Republicans are handling the budget deficit. Fully 65 percent of the independent voters expressed disapproval with what Republicans are doing with the budget, compared to only 35 percent who said they approved. In June the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said that U.S. federal deficits in 2019 could surpass $1 trillion for the first time, a staggering number which is over 5.1 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Tied in with attitudes on the budget deficit are opinions about the massive GOP tax-cut law which was passed in December of last year. It was touted as a tax cut for the middle class, but most middle class voters know it was intended to provide hundreds of billions of dollars of unneeded tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations. Also creating problems is the massive spending bill signed by President Trump last spring. Republicans are trying to bankrupt the country in order to force social programs to be reduced or terminated. It is up to voters in this falls election to throw them out of power so that Democrats can take over and bring new fiscal responsibility to the U.S. government. 378 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard One of the members of the commission formed by President Trump to investigate supposed voter fraud, heavily criticized the controversial panel on Friday, saying the panel was created to support Donald Trumps lies. Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap accused Vice Chair Kris Kobach, along with Donald Trump and administration officials, of making false statements about voter fraud. Dunlap said he had reached the conclusion that the voter fraud panel had been established in attempts to find validation for the presidents baseless claims that there were millions of fraudulent votes in the 2016 election. According to Dunlap the intent of the Trump administration wasto promote a pre-ordained objective: ratifying the Presidents statements that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 elections. Dunlap, one of just four Democrats on the 11-member panel, made his remarks in a written report he submitted to the commissions leaders Vice President Pence and Kobach, the Secretary of State of Kansas. He said he had personally reviewed over 8,000 documents which the panel had gathered as part of its work, but which he was able to obtain only after winning a legal battle. Before it was disbanded by Trump in January, the voter fraud panel had never presented any findings or evidence of widespread voter fraud. But the White House claimed at the time that it had shut down the commission despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, due to the mounting legal challenges it faced from states. Kobach, too, was quoted in the media at that time saying some people on the left were getting uncomfortable about how much we were finding out. But Dunlap said that the commissions documents clearly expose that Trump and Kobach were lying, writing in a letter to the White House: After months of litigation that should not have been necessary, I can report that the statements of Vice Chair Kobach and the White House were, in fact, false. I have reviewed the Commission documents made available to me and they do not contain evidence of widespread voter fraud. He also said that the documents showed that the commission was predicting it would find evidence of fraud, evincing a troubling bias. One especially troubling item disclosed by Dunlap was an outline for a report the commission distributed in November of 2017. The outline had headings for Improper voter registration practices, and Instances of fraudulent or improper voting, even though there was no evidence of these things. Dunlap said this showed that the committee had preordained conclusions. After reading this, Dunlap said, I see that it wasnt just a matter of investigating President Trumps claims that three to five million people voted illegally, but the goal of the commission seems to have been to validate those claims. After a career of more than 20 years of public service, Dunlap said that his experience of serving on Trumps voter fraud panel was the most bizarre thing Ive ever been a part of. 527 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard On July 23rd we reported that: More than 450 immigrant parents who were separated from their children when they entered the United States illegally are no longer in the country though their children remain behind, according to a joint court filing on Monday by the federal government and the American Civil Liberties Union. Then on Thursday we reported that: The U.S. government told a federal court judge on Thursday that volunteers and non-profit groups, rather than government officials, should take the lead in locating more than 400 immigrant parents who were separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border and deported from the United States. The ACLU has repeatedly said that it would assist with efforts to find the deported parents, but the group made clear in Thursdays filing that it expected the U.S. government to bear ultimate responsibility for locating them. On Friday the judge in the case, Dana Sabraw, rejected the governments request to make the ACLU take primary responsibility for locating the parents who were deported after they had their children taken away from them by U.S. border patrol agents. Judge Sabraw made very clear that in his opinion the government bears 100 percent of the burden of finding the parents of the kidnapped children. Sabraw said the ACLU along with other nonprofit, non-governmental organizations, volunteers, and attorneys may assist U.S.government officials in their attempts to identify and find the parents who were deported without the children who the government took away from them. But Sabraw said that the lawyers who are representing the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit dont have primary responsibility because they did not take the children away from their parents in the first place. The reality is that for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration, Sabraw said. The government has the sole burden and responsibility and obligation to make reunifications happen. Sabraw said he was disappointed that only a dozen of the deported parents have been identified for possible reunification with their children. That is not acceptable, he said during the hearing. Sabraw also said that he was displeased and unhappy that attorneys on both sides had not brought to him their detailed plans for speeding up reunification, which he had ordered to be done last week. The family separations took place after the Trump administration adopted the now-abandoned government policy of zero tolerance for undocumented border-crossers, requiring them to be arrested while their children were taken away from them and incarcerated, often in unknown locations. Most of the parents involved in the current case were deported to their home countries of either Guatemala or Honduras. 4.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Russian spy Maria Butina, is sitting in jail without bond, waiting for her criminal trial for working as a foreign agent of the Russian government. All the facts of Butinas crimes havent been released to the public but we do know she was given the job of coming to the U.S. and establishing contacts and relationships with powerful executives of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Through her NRA contacts she was then able to meet and get to know intimately some of the NRAs top employees: Republican politicians, including prominent members of Congress as well as governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Yesterday the Washington Post reported that now Russian spy Butina was also connected closely with the Donald Trump presidential campaign and transition team in 2016. Butina was connected to the Trump campaign and transition through her relationship with J.D. Gordon, who was the Trump campaigns director of national security. Gordon left the campaign officially in August of 2016 and then in November was given a significant role on president-elect Trumps transition team. Coincidentally, Gordon left the campaign around the same time as Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort, for reasons that were never fully explained. Prosecutors said in their charging documents that Butina infiltrated the U.S. political system at the direction of a senior Russian intelligence officer, and was in fact a highly trained Russian intelligence agent herself. Part of her training was to use seduction as a tool to gain espionage secrets and influence the behavior of her targets. U.S. intelligence officials have said that her espionage activities against the U.S. occurred at the same time that Putins government took many other steps to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win. During the campaign, Butina met candidate Trump at a public event in 2015 and talked to him about his views on Russia. In May of 2016 Butina met with Donald Trump Jr. when both were in attendance at a national NRA meeting. It is well documented that during the Republican National Convention, top members of Trumps campaign team met in secret with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and that the party platform was changed to favor Russia, at Kislyaks request. J.D. Gordon was one of the Trump campaign officials who met with Kislyak during the convention. Shortly after that Gordon and Butina began socializing with each other, and Gordon temporarily left Trumps team. Whats fascinating is that Butina herself is the source of this shocking new revelation that directly connects her espionage activities to the Trump campaign and transition. According to the Post, they got the information for their story directly from Butinas testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which took place in April. This testimony didnt become known to the public until the time of her arrest a few weeks ago. Because Butina has confessed that she was closely connected to Donald Trumps campaign and transition, she may be able to answer such questions as: Why did Gordon meet with the Russian Ambassador during the convention? Why did Gordon really leave the campaign? Why did Trump bring him back after the election to join the transition? What was Butinas espionage goal in her relationship with Gordon? Was Butina friendly with other Trump advisers also? Apparently there is a lot of information that Butina told the Senate Intelligence Committee that has not been made public. We know that Mueller has all of this information, and has connected all the dots between Russia and the Trump campaign, transition, and administration. When the full story of Butina is finally told it will reveal many secrets that Donald Trump wants to keep hidden secrets about how his campaign was infiltrated by Russia spies. 5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance didnt hold back on Saturday, saying plainly that Donald Trump was put in the White House by Russia and now hes essentially an agent of the Kremlin. In a panel discussion on AM Joy, Nance said Russia will never be deterred from carrying out cyber attacks against U.S. election as long as Trump is in charge. They now have a working partner in the President of the United States, he said. Whatever [Trumps] oath is sworn to, it is not sworn to the Constitution of the United States. Video: Nance said: Russia has never been deterred. They put a man into the White House. Lets just say that bluntly here, okay? They now have a working partner in the President of the United States. He is covering for their activities and that the national security establishment had to come out and do a cover-your-butt press conference just before this, shows the ineffectiveness that they have. The president will not lead on this. Whatever his oath is sworn to, it is not sworn to the Constitution of the United States. Russia will not be deterred with Trump in the White House With Donald Trump as commander-in-chief, the Russians will never be deterred from launching future cyber attacks on U.S. democracy. After all, the last successful attack from Moscow put Trump in the White House. Career officials in the intelligence and national security apparatus can organize as many pre-election press conferences as they want before the 2018 election to discuss the ongoing and active threat from Russia. But with Trump constantly undermining and contradicting the rhetoric and actions of his own administration officials, Russia will not be deterred. Thats a dangerous position for the United States to be in with three months until the midterm elections. During an August 3 press briefing at Russias Foreign Ministry, official spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed she had no information about who sent three Russian journalists to the CAR, where they were murdered. She also claimed she had no idea what they were doing there or who they were working for. "I don't even know who sent them there, Zakharova told reporters. "I dont know whether they represented the media or a public organization there. I have no such information, she added. Zakharova was answering a question from a reporter at a ministry briefing, about the journalists investigation of a Russian private military company operating in the CAR. The spokeswoman pointed out the journalist had not followed appropriate procedures to report their activities. She would certainly have had access to such information about the employer and mission of the three journalists, since this was made public just hours after their deaths were first reported. The three Russian journalists, Orkhan Jemal, Kirill Radchenko, and Alexander Rastorguev, were killed in the Central African Republican (CAR) when their vehicle was ambushed by unknown assailants near the town of Sibut In a story posted on July 31, the website of the BBCs Russian service quoted Andrey Konyakhin, head of the Investigation Control Center, a project funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Konyakhin said he and the three journalists were working together on a project. The BBC story also reported that Maria Zakharova had been in contact with Orkhan Dzhemals wife, but did not made clear whether she had informed Zakharova of her husbands activities. The Russian news agency Interfax also published a story on June 31 which reported that the three journalists had arrived in the CAR on July 28 to work on a documentary film that was joint project with Khodorkovskys Investigation Control Center (ICC). Interfax reported they were investigating the presence of Russian private military companies in the CAR. However, Zakharova had already demonstrated she had some awareness of what the journalists were doing and who sent them. On August 1, Polygraph.info published a fact check of her posting on Facebook earlier that day. I'm listening to and reading this nonsense about the investigation of PMCs (Private Military Companies) in the CAR, the post read. Khodorkovsky himself made a statement about the murdered journalists and their investigation on his official website on July 31, pointing out they were investigating Russian private mercenaries, in particular the Wagner group. Zakharova, herself, showed familiarity with these facts in her August 1 Facebook post, in which she quoted Andrey Konyakhin and mentioned the ICC, and noted Mikhail Khodorkovskys connection to the project. At the end of the post, she asked the ICC to name the local United Nations officials who allegedly told them where they could travel within the Central African Republic. In the August 1 fact check of Zakharovas comments, Polygraph.info pointed out Zakharova made no mention of Wagner. Private military companies are illegal under Russian law and acting as a mercenary carries a criminal penalty in Russia. Based on those two Facebook posts from Maria Zakharova herself, its clear that she is well aware of who the slain Russian journalists were working for and what they were investigating in the Central African Republic. Here is the upcoming Red Bank Commission agenda for Tuesday: I. Call to Order Mayor John Roberts II. Roll Call City Manager Mayor Roberts ____, Vice-Mayor Pierce ____, Commissioner LeCompte ____, Commissioner Pope ___, Commissioner Rose ____ III. Invocation IV. Pledge of Allegiance V. Consideration of the Minutes for approval or correction: A. July 17, 2018 Agenda Work Session B. July 17, 2018 Commission Meeting VI. Communication from the MayorVII. Commissioners ReportA. Vice Mayor PierceB. Commissioner Ed LeCompteC. Commissioner Terry PopeD. Commissioner Carol RoseVIII. City Manager ReportPublic HearingThe purpose of the public hearing is to receive citizen input in regard to a rezoning request torezone property located at 621 Lullwater Rd. (Map Tax Parcel 117N A 007), 637 Lullwater Rd. (MapTax Parcel 117N A 002) and an unaddressed property located on Lullwater Rd. at Map Tax Parcel117N A 006, from R-1 and R-1A Residential to R-T/Z Residential Townhouse/Zero Lot Line************************************************************************************************************************IX. Unfinished Business A. ORDINANCE NO. 18-1126 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF RED BANK, TENNESSEE,TO ADD A NEW SECTION 6-108 TO TITLE 6 OF THE RED BANK CITY CODE WITHRESPECT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE STATE PLAN OFOPERATIONS RELATIVE TO ACQUISITION BY THE RED BANK POLICE DEPARTMENTOF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TRANSFER OF MILITARY GRADE PERSONALPROPERTY VEHICLES, AND MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT AS AUTHORIZED BY THEPROVISIONS OF TITLE 10, U.S.C. SECTION 2576(A), ET SEQ. (SECOND AND FINALREADING)X. New BusinessA. ORDINANCE NO. 18-1127 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OD RED BANK, TENNESSEE,AMENDING THE ZONING MAP TO REZONE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 621 LULLWATERROAD, HAMILTON COUNTY TAX PARCEL 117N A 007, 637 LULLWATER ROAD,HAMILTON COUNTY TAX PARCEL 117N A 002 AND AN UNADDRESSED PROPERTY ATHAMILTON COUNTY TAX PARCEL 117N A 006, FROM R-1 RESIDENTIAL AND R1-ARESIDENTIAL TO R-T/Z TOWNHOUSE ZERO LOT LINE (FIRST READING)B. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1238 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASE ANDINSTALLATION OF A SECURITY ACCESS AND VIDEO MONITORING SYSTEM FROMJOHNSON CONTROLS SECURITY SOLUTIONS LLC, IN THE AMOUNT OF $20,732.38C. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1239 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT BETWEENTHE CITY OF RED BANK, TENNESSEE, AND TALLEY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY INC.,IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $1,137,481.00D. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1240 A RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE ENGINEERINGAGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF RED BANK, TENNESSEE, AND WISERCONSULTANTS LLC. FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROJECTSE. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1241 A RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE ENGINEERINGAGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF RED BANK, TENNESSEE, AND WISERCONSULTANTS LLC. FOR THE ASHLAND TERRACE CULVERT REPAIR PROJECT ANDTHE FAIR STREET STREAM BANK REPAIR PROJECTF. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1242 A RESOLUTION DECLARING CITY OF RED BANK OWNEDPROPERTY AS SURPLUS AND AUTHORIZING THE TRADE THEREOFG. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1243 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASE OF ABREATHING AIR SYSTEM, CONSISTING OF A COMPRESSOR, FILL STATION ANDCASCADE SYSTEM, FROM BREATHING AIR SYSTEMS, IN THE AMOUNT OF $34,199.00H. RESOLUTION NO. 18-1244 A RESOLUTION APPOINTING CITY RECORDER RUTHROHEN AS THE LOCAL ADMINISTRATOR FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONNEXTGEN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING SOFTWAREXI. Citizen Comments from Red Bank Citizens about Red Bank business (3 minute limit)IF YOU WILL BE SPEAKING PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS AND FILL OUTTHE INFORMATION BELOW AND TURN IN TO THE CITY MANAGERNAME: ___________________________________________________RED BANK ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________XII. Adjournment by This weekends Wall Street Journal includes my review of Roger Allens Wilhelm Furtwangler: Art and the Politics of the Unpolitical. As some readers of this blog may remember, my most controversial and notorious book Understanding Toscanini (1987) deals rather extensively with the American career of Furtwangler. I also use Wagners Lohengrin Prelude to illustrate fundamental differences between Furtwangler and Toscanini, showing how Furtwangler uses harmonic structure to shape an inward interpretation. Heres my review: One of the most thrilling documents of symphonic music in performancereadily accessible on YouTubeis a clip of Wilhelm Furtwangler leading the Berlin Philharmonic in the closing five minutes of Brahmss Symphony No. 4. Furtwangler is not commanding a performing army. Rather he is channeling a trembling state of heightened emotional awareness so irresistible as to obliterate, in the moment, all previous encounters with the music at hand. This experience is both empowering andupon reflectiona little scary. And it occurred some three years after the implosion of Hitlers Third Reicha regime for which Furtwangler, though not exactly an advocate, was a potent cultural symbol. In 20th-century classical music, the iconic embodiment of the fight for democratic freedoms was the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, who fled Europe and galvanized opposition to Hitler and Mussolini. Furtwangler (1886-1954), who remained behind, was Toscaninis iconic antipode, eschewing the objective clarity of Toscaninis literalism in favor of Teutonic ideals of lofty subjective spirituality. Furtwangler was inaccurately denounced in America as a Nazi. His de-Nazification proceedings were misreported in the New York Times. Afterward, he was prevented by a blacklist from conducting the Chicago Symphony or the Metropolitan Opera, both of which wanted him. Furtwangler was no Nazi. Behind the scenes, he helped Jewish musicians. Before the war ended, he fled Germany for Switzerland. Even so, his insistence on being nonpolitical was naive and self-deluded. As a tool of Hitler and Goebbels, he potently abetted the German war effort. In effect, he lent his prestige to the Third Reich whenever he performed, whether in Berlin or abroad. He was also famously photographed shaking hands with Goebbels from the stage. In Wilhelm Furtwangler: Art and the Politics of the Unpolitical, Roger Allen, a fellow at St. Peters College, Oxford, doesnt dwell on any of this. Rather he undertakes a deeper inquiry and asks: Did Furtwangler espouse a characteristically German cultural-philosophical mind-set that in effect embedded Hitler? He answers yes. But the answer is glib. Mr. Allens method is to cull a mountain of Furtwangler writings. That Furtwangler at all times embodied what Thomas Mann in 1945 called the German-Romantic counter-revolution in intellectual history is documented beyond question. He was an apostle of Germanic inwardness. He endorsed the philosophical precepts of Hegel and the musical analyses of Heinrich Schenker, for whom German composers mattered most. All this, Mr. Allen shows, propagated notions of organic authenticity recapitulated by Nazi ideologues. Furtwanglers writings as sampled here (others are better) are repetitiousand so, alas, is Mr. Allens commentary. The tensions and paradoxes complicating Furtwanglers devils pact, his surrender to communal ecstasies ennobling or perilous, are reduced to simplistic presumption. Furtwanglers murky Germanic thinking remains murky and uncontextualized. One would never know, from Mr. Allens exegesis, that Hegel formulated a sophisticated holistic alternative to the Enlightenment philosophies undergirding Anglo-American understandings of free will. One would never suspect that Schenkerian analysis, extrapolating the fundamental harmonic subcurrents upon which Furtwanglers art feasted, is today alive and well. Heres an example. Furtwangler writes: Bruckner is one of the few geniuses . . . whose appointed task was to express the transcendental in human terms, to weave the power of God into the fabric of human life. Be it in struggles against demonic forces, or in music of blissful transfiguration, his whole mind and spirit were infused with thoughts of the divine. Mr. Allen comments: It is this idea, with its anti-intellectual subtext, which associates Furtwangler so strongly with aspects of Nazi ideology. . . . That Bruckners music represents the power of God at work in the fabric of human existence, can be seen as an extension of the Nazi . . . belief in God as a mystical creative power. But many who revere Brucknerian divine bliss are neither anti-intellectual nor religiously inclined. A much more compelling section of Mr. Allens narrative comes at the end, when he observes that Furtwangler blithely maintained his musical ideology after World War II, with no evident pause for reflection. One can agree that this says something unpleasant about the Furtwangler persona, suggesting a nearly atavistic truculence. But it is reductionist to analogize Furtwanglers unrelenting postwar hostility to nontonal music to the non-rational censure of degenerate art by the Nazis. Far more interesting is Furtwanglers own argument that the nontonal music of Arnold Schoenberg and his followers lacks an overview. A calibrated long-range trajectory of musical thought was an essential ingredient of Furtwanglers interpretive art. Absent the tension-and-release dynamic of tonal harmony, he had little to work with. The political dangers inherent in German Romantic music are a familiar concern, beginning with Nietzsches skewerings of Wagner. The best writer on this topic remains Thomas Mann, who lived it. Here he is in Reflections of a Non-Political Man (1918): Art will never be moral or virtuous in any political sense: and progress will never be able to put its trust in art. It has a fundamental tendency to unreliability and treachery; its . . . predilection for the barbarism that begets beauty [is] indestructible; and although some may call this predilection . . . immoral to the point of endangering the world, yet it is an imperishable fact of life, and if one wanted to eradicate this aspect of art . . . then one might well have freed the world from a serious danger; but in the process one would almost certainly have freed it from art itself. With the coming of Hitler, Mann changed his tune and moved to California. The most impressive pages of Mr. Allens book come in an appendix: Manns lecture Germany and the Germans, delivered at the Library of Congress in 1945. Mann here becomes a proud American: Everything else would have meant too narrow and specific an alienation of my existence. As an American I am a citizen of the world. It is pertinent to remember that seven years later, having witnessed the Cold War and the Red Scare, Mann deserted the U.S. for Switzerland; as early as 1951 he wrote to a friend: I have no desire to rest my bones in this soulless soil to which I owe nothing, and which knows nothing of me. Wilhelm Furtwanglers refusal to emigrate, however else construed, is not irrelevant here. He processed much differently the stresses that drove Thomas Mann into permanent exile. Tucked in between Ukraine and Romania, near the Black Sea, the Republic of Moldova continues to push away from its Soviet past. Most of what is now Moldovan territory endured Russian rule or influence since the Ottoman Empire ceded it in 1812. And now, with the Russian government headed by Vladimir Putin intent on restoring the power of the bygone Soviet era, Moldova finds itself facing an invasion of Russian-produced news and propaganda. While the 2014 Moldovan census showed that more than 82 percent of the population was Moldovan or Romanian-language speakers, it is clear many Moldovans still speak and read Russian fluently. And the Metropolis of Chisinau of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the countrys most trusted institution, is still considered to be oriented toward Russia. The Ukrainian Prism think tank, in a study titled Resistance to Disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe, concluded that Moldova is the country in the region most exposed to Russian propaganda. Consider a recent story by the Russian media outlet Mir 24 that seemed to brag about the Russian role in handing over newly-manufactured ambulances to Moldova. The TV story and online article only gets to the cost close to the end, and never states affirmatively that Moldova paid the bill. The news story says that it is about assistance from Russia, although these funds have been transferred from the budget of Moldova, Petru Macovei, executive director of the Independent Press Association of Moldova, told Polygraph.info. So information was presented in a manipulative manner. This news distorts the truth. Correct and professional news should not leave questions. In fact, the money was transferred from the budget of Moldova. This becomes clear on the official sites of the Moldovan Ministry of Health and State News Agency. Veronika Vichova, a coordinator and analyst with the Kremlin Watch Program European Values Think-Tank in Prague, told Polygraph.info the ambulance story sounds like a fairly common method of Kremlin disinformation. Manipulative or an outright wrong translation to cause misconception is a tool which is often used, Vichova said. In the Czech cases, we see this phenomenon often on Czech language websites which tend to translate English or Russian language articles into Czech. The manufacturing of ambulances perhaps does not carry great geopolitical heft, and Macovei says it does seem harmless compared to the greater disinformation landscape in Moldova. There is a division of the Russian news agency Sputnik in Moldova that shows how much Russia is helping us and how much negativity we get from the European Union or West, Macovei pointed out. On August 2, 2018, Sputniks Russian-language Web site for Moldova carried stories critical of NATO, the United Nations and the EU, as well as a Russian government narrative relating to the murder of three Russian journalists investigating a government-linked private military company operating in the Central African Republic. This is a whole recipe for exploiting a sensitive topic for each country, Macovei said, adding that Russian narratives which inflate small problems to large problems are similar across Eastern Europe, though they vary somewhat country to country. The Lithuanian theme is the problem with the Russian language, in Moldova - the antagonism between Russian-speaking and Romanian-speaking population. Partial dependence of the Moldovan economy on Russia is maximally exploited, he added. According to a study titled Resistance to Disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe, 10 out of 15 top television channels that are most watched are mostly Russian language broadcasts and programs. The Audit Bureau of Circulation Moldova (BATI) October 2017 ratings, cited by the disinformation study, show that four out of the 10 most viewed news online websites in Moldova, including the most popular site, Point.md, promote pro-Kremlin positions. Furthermore, another top site is Ria.ru, which is Russian with a reach of over six percent of the Moldovan population. The Web site of the Russian government-run, Sputnik.md, has both Russian and Romanian versions. Most of these sites were found to promote fake or manipulative news, according to local fact-checking initiatives. The Vkurse.md Website, is seen to often promote the Party of Socialists and Moldovan President Igor Dodon. Local experts on disinformation accuse the agency of producing misleading and fake news favorable to Russia. In January, it published an article headlined: The first project of the NATO Liaison Office in Chisinau became known: Moldova is being prepared for a hybrid war with Russia. The piece claimed that the U.S. will conduct a research on possible Moldovan involvement in hybrid war. On the Stopfals.md site, which is dedicated to uncovering fake news in Moldova, NATO responded: The NATO Liaison Office in the Republic of Moldova did not receive any request or question about the information in this article, which is false. Our mission is to facilitate political dialogue and practical cooperation between NATO and the Republic of Moldova. The NATO office said it supports Moldovas internal reforms and modernization. Also in January, Russian TV host Irada Zeynalova traveled to Moldova and produced a TV report broadcast on the NTVs Itogi nedeli (a weekly TV news report), about so-called anti-Russian officials in Moldova. It claimed that the lagging economy had driven most Moldovans to work abroad. Media outlet NewsMaker.md found several factual errors in this report. Zeynalova said that 80 percent of agricultural exports from Moldova were sold to Russia. In fact, the National Bureau of Statistics reported in 2016 that Moldova exported food and live animals worth a total of $498.5 million. Of that, the EU accounted for $ 292.9 million, while the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States accounted for $98.9 million. Newsmaker.md said Zeynalova cited only left-wing Moldovan politicians and experts, who tend to be supportive of Russia. Speaking about migration, Zeynalova claimed that with a population of three million people in Moldova, only one million live in the country permanently. According to the Center for Demographic Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, the resident population of the country is about 2.9 million people. We made this conclusion on the basis of comparing different data, excluding migrants who have not been in the country for more than a year, said the centers head, Olga Gagauz. According to official data, about 300,000 Moldovan migrants work abroad. Zeynalova said that the Moldovan parliament recently passed a law banning Russian news channels. In fact, the law bans programs with analytical, military or political content produced in countries that have not ratified the European Convention on Trans-frontier Television. President Dodon wrote on Facebook that in his opinion this law represents an outright violation of the freedom of citizens of the Republic of Moldova in obtaining information. I will not yield to the regime, he added. Dodon twice refused to promulgate this anti-propaganda law, so it was done by Speaker of the Parliament Andrian Candu. (This article was reported and written by a Moldovan journalist who is on a fellowship at the Voice of America and Polygraph.info). The frontman sits down for a chat, plays some album cuts and enjoys a beer or two. April 27, 2018 | Josh Teskey, of the Teskey Brothers, possesses one of those voices you just can't shake. "Everyday is pain," he weeps, immediately situating his heart on his sleeve in full sorrowful glory. "Pain and Misery" is caked in the kind of raw, gravelly, completely visceral emotion that worms its way under your skin. Stepping out of his musical exterior like a python, Teskey stopped by our office for a hearty chuckle, tasty beer, and good tuneage as part of the ongoing series Popdust Presents. Prompted by our esteemed Editor-in-Chief Dan Victor, Teskey opened up about his early days, why he wanted to go next-level, honing song-craft, and other hot topics. Check out the interview above. The Teskey Brothers "Pain and Misery" is only scratching the surface of the band's debut album, Half Mile Harvest, which is flavored to perfection with a classic Motown spirit but resoundingly modern. "Crying Shame" growls from the inside out, whereas "Louisa" is a front-porch blues sessions brimming with piercing hand claps and a muddy vocal line. Elsewhere, "Til' the Sky Turns Black" peers into the soul with glassy eyes and a concrete touch, and "Honeymoon," the record's final bow, is as ripe and hazy as the harvest moon, grilled with harmonica and the electric guitar's razor bite. Watch "I Get Up" and "The Talking Lion" | Live & Acoustic In knowing their roots, of shifting through aged and tattered records of such greats as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, the music speaks for itself. It's earth-splitting in execution, and you'd think The Teskey Brothers were legends themselves already. Josh and Sam Teskey spent many of their early days busking on the streets, especially the local Melbourne marketplace, but that kind of dirty, cut-your-teeth experience was a necessary vehicle to fuel their passion even further. 2008 brought two more band members (Brendon Love and Liam Gough) and a dedication to brave the bad times as much as the good. Upon its Australian release, Half Mile Harvest climbed to the Top 20 of the ARIA chart and ultimately the top slot on the ARIA Independent Album chart. They went on to headline an impressive three-string of shows at the Corner Hotel and mount successful showcases in London, New York City, and Los Angeles. The starlight is only getting bright for them, and we're at the ground level. Watch "A Crying Shame" and "Pain and Misery" | Live & Acoustic Earlier this week, it was announced the band has signed a lucrative worldwide deal with Ivy League Records (under the Mushroom Group umbrella) and Glassnote Records (for the stateside of things). In a press statement, band member Brendon Love shared his excitement, "The Teskeys are extremely happy to be joining the Ivy League family. They are a forward-thinking and enthusiastic bunch of music nerds and we couldn't imagine a better home for our band. Having been together for 12 years and never worked with a label or publisher before, it was super important to us that there was an understanding of our approach to music. Ivy League totally gets it." www.theteskeybrothers.com Follow The Teskey Brothers on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram Jason Scott is a freelance music journalist with bylines in B-Sides & Badlands, Billboard, PopCrush, Ladygunn, Greatist, AXS, Uproxx, Paste and many others. Follow him on Twitter. POPDUST | Read More PREMIERE | EE Beyond Deconstructs Fantastical Pictures of Love with 'Too High (The Story of Us)' READY TO POP | Transviolet, Dagny & More Embrace Vulnerability PREMIERE | Tom Freund Sees Hope in 'Homer Simpson's Clouds (Day of the Locust)' Charleston, SC (29403) Today A steady light rain this morning. Showers with perhaps a rumble of thunder developing for the afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 71F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low 59F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Because Christopher Steele, author of the bogus anti-Trump dossier, supplied confidential information to the media, the FBI formally terminated him as a source. Therefore, FBI personnel were not supposed to accept information from him. But Byron York reports that the FBI continued to use Steele as a source. In fact, it did so on 12 separate occasions: [The FBI] devis[ed] a system in which Steele spoke regularly with Bruce Ohr, a top Obama Justice Department official whose wife worked for Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to search for dirt on Donald Trump in Russia. Ohr then passed on Steeles information to the FBI. In a highly unusual arrangement, Ohr, who was the fourth-highest ranking official in the Justice Department, acted as an intermediary for a terminated source for the FBIs Trump-Russia probe. His task was to deliver to the FBI what Steele told him, which effectively meant the bureau kept Steele as a source. We know this because FBI agents made a record each time Ohr gave the bureau information from Steele. The records are in the form of so-called 302 reports, in which FBI agents write up notes of interviews during an investigation. There are a dozen 302 reports on FBI post-election interviews of Ohr. The first is from November 22, 2016. The last is from May 15, 2017. (There were none between early February and early May. Its probably just a coincidence, but the reports resumed on May 8, the day before President Trump fired James Comey). Byron says congressional investigators have read the Ohr-Steele 302s, but the FBI has kept them under tight control. It insists that they remain classified, with access limited to a few lawmakers and staff members. Congress is not allowed to physically possess copies of any of the documents. Sen. Charles Grassley wants to change this state of affairs. He says there is no continuing justification for the FBI to keep the documents secret. However, the FBI is holding firm in its resistance. Only one snippet from an Ohr 302 has been made public. Its a 16-word passage in which Ohr tells of Steeles determination to stop Donald Trump: [Steele] was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president. The passage is hugely significant because Ohrs knowledge (and the FBIs) of Steeles anti-Trump bias apparently was not disclosed to the FISA court, even though the FISA warrant application relied heavily on Steeles dossier. The fact that the FBI continued to gather information from Steele even though (1) it was not supposed to and (2) it knew of Steeles passionate anti-Trumpism suggests to me that the FBI itself was interested in Trump not being president. Thats not the only possible explanation, though. Byron notes that the FBI had already presented allegations from the dossier as evidence to the FISA court. Having, thus gone out on a limb, the FBI had an interest in obtaining any new information Steele possessed that might back the dossiers allegations. On the other hand, the fact that the FBI went out on that limb in first place is evidence of its anti-Trumpism. Byron concludes: [T]he Ohr-Steele 302s could shed some light on how an effort it certainly included Steele, but also others to keep Trump from being elected morphed into an effort to keep Trump from being inaugurated and then morphed into an effort to remove Trump from office. A version of that effort is still going on, of course, even as some in Congress try to find out how it started. In response to complaints about the obvious racism of Sarah Jeong, the new member of the New York Times editorial board, leftists are contending that its logically impossible for minority group members to be racist in their view of whites. This theory has long been articulated by deep-thinkers in Black Studies departments who pollute Americas college campuses. For those interested, Andrew Sullivan takes on this bit of neo-Marxist clap-trap here. For purposes of analyzing the Jeong hire, though, we need not waste time discussing it. If you dont want to apply the word racist to Jeong sophomoric ravings, lets say instead that she hates whites. I doubt that even Black Studies professors have yet theorized that its logically impossible for minority group members to hate whites, though some PhD candidate may be about to. When I walk in my neighborhood, I see yard signs that say, in several different languages, HATE HAS NO HOME HERE. I dont know any of the folks who indulge in this example of virtue signaling, but Id be willing to bet that some of them hate Donald Trump. Im just speculating. But its not speculation to say that hate has a home at the New York Times. The Times is now the home of the foul Sarah Jeong, who hates whites and, for good measure, non-white males too. Paul Mirengoff frequently refers to our robed masters in the federal judiciary. Yesterday our robed master Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia administered the latest in a series of legal defeats to President Trumps attempted rescission of President Obamas unconstitutional program to regularize illegal immigrants by executive decree. The is President Trumps second defeat in this case. The New York Timess Miriam Jordan gave an account of Master Batess initial ruling in the case this past April in U.S. Must Keep DACA and Accept New Applications, Federal Judge Rules. Our robed master Bates ruled that the Trump administration had inadequately explained its rejection of the Obama administrations DACA decree, but he kindly afforded Trump one more chance to explain. As Jordan put it: The judge stayed his decision for 90 days and gave the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, the opportunity to better explain its reasoning for canceling it. If the department fails to do so, it must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications, Judge Bates said in the decision. This time around I have embedded the 25-page memorandum opinion below Judge Bates declares that the administrations restatement of its rationale for withdrawing DACA still fails to pass muster. He nevertheless graciously continues the stay of his order of vacatur for a brief periodtwenty daysto permit the government to determine whether it intends to appeal the Courts decision and, if so, to seek a stay pending appeal. As I noted in April, the very first joke Jonathan Swift inserted into chapter 1 of Gullivers Travels plays on the name of James Bates, the physician whom Gulliver served as a bound apprentice. Swift warmed up to the joke with several variations and near misses: Mr. James Bates, Mr. Bates, my good master, Mr. Bates, and Mr. Bates, my master. In the third paragraph Gulliver finally renders it my good master Bates. In this case the joke may be on us. Even so, I cant help but think of Gulliver and his good master when reading Judge Batess opinions in this case. While the Bates joke is Swifts first in the text of chapter 1, Judge Batess joke takes its place in a long line brought to us by our robed masters, and not just on DACA. On the DACA version of the joke, see Josh Blackmans January 2018 NR column criticizing yet another ruling to the same effect in A ludicrous ruling that Trump cant end DACA. Opinion.daca by Scott Johnson on Scribd Im gaining weight and running out of popcorn watching the left freak out about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy. But beyond just the theatrics of the lefts primal screams and desperation tactics it is delightful to see the left begin to reckon with something more fundamental going on, which in one sentence Ill assert is the growing vindication of the constitutional originalism of Justice Clarence Thomas. It should be noted, as a placeholder, that constitutional originalism comes in several forms which differ considerably, but I wont go into these myriad distinctions because it would take a long time. Interested readers might check out some of the helpful work on this by Lawrence Solum of Georgetown Law School. Some conservative juristsone thinks of Rehnquist and Scalia in particularwere highly inconsistent in their originalist jurisprudence, but Thomas has been consistent from Day One on the Court. If the principles and reasoning of Thomass opinions are to be compared with a particular jurist of our past, it would have to be John Marshall. Liberals have always dismissed Thomas as simply Scalias wingman, though no one who actually read with any care their separate opinions, concurrences, and dissents would think so. But the great thing about being a liberal is that you can just go with a cliche and skip the careful thinking part. But now that the whole scene is in flux with the arrival of Justice Gorsuchwho, like Justice Thomas, believes that the natural law tradition in legal history stretching back to Roman times still has today what social scientists call normative valuethe left is taking stock of things, and realizing that they are in a heap of trouble. Linda Greenhouse, the chief tablet keeper of liberal shibboleths at the New York Times (where the Greenhouse effect has a whole different meaning) had an article a few days ago entitled Is Clarence Thomas the Supreme Courts Future? We should be so lucky! Anyway, it is not hard to decode Greenhouses liberal hothouse with passage like these: There is something almost discordant about including Justice Thomas in a discussion of the future because his highly personal and eccentric jurisprudence would take the court and the Constitution hurtling backward into the past. Thats no great revelation. He has long insisted that the only legitimate way to interpret a constitutional provision is to give it the public meaning it supposedly had at the time it was written. This last sentence is arguably incorrect, depending on how you understand public meaning, but never mind for now. . . While Justice Thomass unyielding view of originalism has been evident since he took his seat on the court 27 years ago, his output in the most recent term was little short of astonishing. In a term that produced only 59 signed opinions, I counted six important and long-enduring precedents that Justice Thomas would have wiped off the books as inconsistent with the original understanding. . . Taken individually, the opinions Ive discussed here may seem quite technical and rather unremarkable. Taken as a whole, as the work of a single justice during a single Supreme Court term, they paint an extraordinary picture of a judge at war not only with modernity but with the entire project of constitutional law. . . Those of us on the progressive side of the street are unlikely to look back on Justice Kennedys final term with nostalgia. But soon enough, we may decide that it was the best were going to see for a long time. Thats the finest endorsement I can think of! Meanwhile, Hothouse cites a similar article from Ian Millhiser, who writes about legal affairs for the Center for American Progress. He, too, thinks Thomas defines the center of gravity for conservative jurisprudence, calling Thomas the most important legal thinker in America. No one on the left would have entertained this thought about Thomas 25 years ago. And Millhiser offers a mea culpa of sorts: If President George H.W. Bush had chosen someone other than Clarence Thomas to sit on the Supreme Court, the world might look vastly different today. . . There is a commonly held view that Thomas is an intellectual lightweight. Radical and far-too-quiet on the bench. Idiosyncratic and lacking in influence. A fairly persistent take on Thomas career holds that hes lived in the shadow of Justice Antonin Scalia, and his views were, at most, an exaggerated version of Scalias originalism. This view of Thomas is wrong. Ive been saying this since Thomass first day at the Supreme Court, but we know liberals are slow learners. Better late than never I suppose. Heres the fun part: Thomas waged a quiet war of ideas against twentieth century liberalism and he won the hearts of a legion of conservative law students. Many of those former students are now old enough to be judges. As of this writing, fully 20 percent of the judges Donald Trump appointed to the federal appellate bench are former Thomas clerks. Here youd think liberals, who dominate American law schools, might be introspective about how they have been routed intellectually, and might rethink their general jurisprudence of convenience. But dont hold your breath. Chaser: It must be miserable to be Ian Millhiser these days. Perhaps you caught the article in Politico a few days back by Lisa Blatt entitled, Im a Liberal Feminist Lawyer, and Heres Why Democrats Should Support Judge Kavanaugh. Blatts lede and conclusion run as follows: Sometimes a superstar is just a superstar. That is the case with Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who had long been considered the most qualified nominee for the Supreme Court if Republicans secured the White House. The Senate should confirm him. . . Democrats should quit attacking Kavanaughfull stop. It is unbecoming to block him simply because they want to, and they risk alienating intelligent people who see the obvious: He is the most qualified conservative for the job. Blatt heads the Supreme Court practice for Arnold and Porter, but all of this is too much for Millhiser to take. So naturally he is attacking Blatt. Hence this tweet about Blatts article: Then he wrote a whole piece asserting Blatt is corrupt and self-interested: Sometimes a superstar is just a superstar. And sometimes a superstar is a powerful Republican with the power to decide whether my clients will win or lose billions of dollars. That is the case with Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The Senate should confirm him. . . Democrats should quit attacking Kavanaughfull stop. It is unbecoming to block him simply because they want to, and they risk alienating intelligent people. Like my clients. Wowwhat cleverness! Did Millhiser stay up late to come up with this? Pass the popcorn. The hearings havent even been scheduled yet. According to Goldstein Research, ICS is adopted by various companies and governments for the security and automation purposes. The automation of the control system directly impacts the profitability of a business. India Industrial Control Systems Industry PR-Inside.com: 2018-08-04 06:39:06 Press Information Goldtsein Research 99 Wall Street ,Suite No- 527, New York, NY 10005 Steve Blade Global Sales Head 6465687747 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 433 Words 99 Wall Street ,Suite No- 527, New York, NY 10005Global Sales Head6465687747 According to Goldstein Research, ICS is adopted by various companies and governments for the security and automation purposes. The automation of the control system directly impacts the profitability of a business. For instance, the performance of smart grid being established by the government in various regions of India is dependent upon the efficiency of the control system implemented for electricity generation, transmission and distribution. India Industrial Control Systems market also includes product development, marketing and investment strategies adopted by major market players in order to expand their business across the country. Moreover, growing demand of industry processes security and efficiency is the major driving factor in the growth of India industrial control system. The growing manufacturing and production industries are inclining towards automation of the system, thus increasing the risk of cyber-attacks and machine breakdown, which calls for the installation of the ICS and increase the productivity of the operations.Browse Full Report: https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/report/india-industrial-control-systems-market Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, India industrial control systems industry can be segmented as follows:By Types of Control System Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) Distributed Control Systems (DCS) Supervisory control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)By Applications Industrial Security Process Controlling Others (Supervision, etc.)By End-Users Energy and Mining Sector Transportation and Logistics Sector Manufacturing Industry Electric and Electronic Industry Aviation Industry OthersIndia Industrial Control Systems Market Outlook 2025 contains detailed overview of the India industrial control systems industry. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by control system type, by applications and by end users.Download Exclusive Sample Report: https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/request-sample/india-industrial-control-systems-market The India Industrial Control Systems Market Report covers deep dive analysis of the market along with demand generated from various end use industries such as Energy & Mining Sector, Transportation & Logistics Sector, Manufacturing Industry, Electric & Electronic Industry, & Aviation Industry. This market report also includes competitive outlook of some of the major players profiling of companies such as Monsanto, Mahyco, Syngenta, Bayer, DowDuPont, Maharashtra Seed Co. Ltd. etc. The company profiles include business strategy, geographical revenue distribution, major information of the companies which encompasses business outlook, products, services and industries catered, financial analysis of the company and recent developments. The report represents the India industrial control systems industry trends along with the industry growth drivers, market challenges, risk analysis, market attractiveness, BPS (Base Point Scale) analysis, Porters five force which will help market consultants, technology providers, key players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities.Download Similar Report: https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/report/north-america-automotive-robotics-market-outlook-2024-opportunity-assessment-and-demand-analysis-market-forecast-2016-2024 PR-Inside.com: 2018-08-04 00:26:34 Press Information America's Finest 360 4573 Voltaire Street Brad Gamson Owner Of America's Finest 360 6193169671 email http://www.americasfinest360.com Published by Brad Gamson 6193169671 e-mail http://www.americasfinest360.com # 438 Words 4573 Voltaire StreetOwner Of America's Finest 3606193169671Brad Gamson6193169671 Virtual reality, VR, is becoming a very popular aspect of the internet and the demand is growing every day. On certain websites like restaurants, hotels, resorts and multi-family apartment complexes, people want to "see inside".They want to visually experience themselves being there. They want to see what the pool looks like and how the tables are arranged. They want to see what the rooms look like and what the view looks like from the balcony.Still pictures are old technology. They are boring, stale and dry. Still pictures do not tell a story. They are not stunning, immersive or engaging.VR is the way of the future for every business in every industry. Imagine you are planning a vacation to an exotic location where the water is turquoise blue, the sand is white as snow and the palm trees are lacing the beach. The rooms are all facing the ocean and have tile floors with dark wood furniture and beautiful white linen bedding.You start your Google search and you find 2 hotels that have the same things. Good reviews, still pictures of all the hotel amenities and a Google map.You dive deeper into the sites and you see one has a virtual tour embedded into the site. You now begin to click through and see all the amazing features of the property. You can turn the picture completely around from the pool area to see the pristine beach. You can move the picture up and see the tips of greenest palm trees you have ever seen. You picture yourself on the lanai overlooking the peaceful blue water with the sun shining on its rolling waves. In your mind you are already on vacation.Now that you are picturing how it will be when you are there, your excitement begins to elevate and before you know it, BOOM, you just booked your hotel in paradise. You will visit the tour over and over until the day you get there.This is what virtual reality will do. This will also happen to each person that visits that website. The marketing team did this on purpose. They wanted your emotions to run as high as possible while you pull out your credit card. VR is powerful technology and because of its power, every business in every industry should have it.So, the next time you look for a business on Google, think about how much better your experience would be, if there was a virtual tour attached to it.P.S. - If I could have, I would have embedded a Google Virtual Tour in this article. The death toll ensuing from twin suicide bombings on a Shiite minority Mosque in Afghanistan climbed to 34, a police official said on Saturday. The number of people wounded in the incident on Friday, however, had been revised downwards to 76, a police chief spokesman, Sardar Wali Tabasum, said. Initially, officials spoke of 29 dead and 81 injured in the incident which took place in Gardiz, the capital city of Paktia province. Two male suicide bombers dressed in womens clothes and armed with rifles, entered a Shiite mosque in the Khoja Hassan in Gardiz on Friday afternoon, opened fire on worshippers and subsequently blew themselves up, officials said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though Taliban militants denied involvement in the deadly incident. Members of the Islamic State terrorist militia have been targeting minority Shia across Afghanistan regularly. Some 200 Shiite families are living in Khoja Hassan, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Abdullah Hasrat, said. Paktia province is mainly populated by ethnic Pashtuns, who mostly follow Sunni Islam. According to a United Nationss Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) report, 115 civilians have been killed and 251 injured in attacks during the past six months on the Shia Muslim population. Nearly all have been claimed by IS members. Turkey is to block the access of two top U.S. officials to Turkish assets in retaliation for U.S. sanctions placed on two Turkish ministers. The sanctions were placed on the two Turkish ministers over the continued detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday. Today, I am also instructing my colleagues: we are going to freeze the assets of American justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if they have any, Erdogan told a televised womens branch congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara. In his first public reaction to the dispute, Erdogan said he was hoping for a speedy solution. Diplomatic channels are working very intensely, Erdogan said, adding that he hoped that the U.S. side will return to common sense as soon as possible. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had their first face-to-face meeting in Singapore on Friday with both indicating that talks over the Brunson issue would continue. On Wednesday, the U.S. blocked all U.S. properties belonging to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul in the U.S., saying the two played leading roles in the arrest and detention of Brunson. Brunson was detained in October 2016 and arrested in December that year in the aftermath of a failed coup in Turkey and faces charges of espionage and terrorism in Turkey. He currently remains under house arrest in Izmir province. (dpa/NAN) On Monday, in Imo State, the controversial removal of the state deputy governor, Eze Madumere, was finally actualised on the floor of the state House of Assembly. The deputy governor was sacked by 19 out of the 27 members of the legislature in what is seen as part of the battle for the governorship seat of the state in 2019. Mr Madumere had been embroiled in a supremacy battle with his boss, Rochas Okorocha, who is backing his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as his successor, against his deputy, who is also in the race. Mr Okorocha leaves office in May next at the end of his second tenure. In the battle for the APC governorship ticket, Mr Okorocha told his deputy to forget his ambition and gun for the senatorial seat of Imo East (Owerri zone) from where he (Madumere) hails. But the deputy governor rejected his principals offer, insisting that he had made up his mind to contest for the office of governor. While vowing not to back down on his decision, Mr Madumere said the plan to contest was not just about him but the entire Owerri zone that had been sidelined and marginalised. The zone is yet to produce the state governor since the return of democracy in 1999. The deputy governor described Mr Okorochas offer as an act of betrayal, stating If Jesus Christ could be ill-treated by those he called his friends and was later betrayed by Judas, how much more a mere mortal like me. Mr Madumeres bitterness was not misplaced. He had been a close confidant of the Mr Okorocha ever before the latter became governor. Both have been friends and associates for more than two decades. In 1998, upon his return from the United States where he bagged degrees in business management, Mr Madumere served in Rochas Okorocha Campaign team as director for women and youth mobilisation in Imo State under the PDP. He was to become the chief strategist on media and logistics in Okorocha Presidential Campaign under the defunct ANPP in 2002/2003. Mr Madumere had a stint in the presidency as chief of staff to a presidential adviser. He ran for the Imo East senatorial seat when its occupant, Amah Iwuagwu, died. When Mr Okorocha became governor in 2011, he appointed Mr Madumere as chief of staff. He was elevated to the position of deputy governor in March 2013 following the removal of the former deputy governor, Jude Agabaso. Perhaps, this informed the governors claim that Mr Madumere is paying him back with ingratitude after he had taken him from the gutters to the exalted governor. In the midst of this, Mr Madumere teamed up with a senator, Osita Izunaso, the erstwhile national organising secretary of the All Progressives Congress and Ifeanyi Ararume, a former senator, to wrestle control of the party from Mr Okorocha during the ward, local government and ward congresses of the party in May. But Mr Okorochas faction headed to the court arguing that there was no congress in the state. The Federal High Court in Owerri agreed with the arguments of Mr Okorochas faction and quashed the congress. It cited the report of INEC which said that elections did not take place in the state for its decision even as it ordered for fresh congresses. As Mr Madumeres faction was still pondering the next step to take, the assembly commenced impeachment process against him on allegations of gross misconduct and dereliction of duty. However, Mr Madumere went to court and obtained an injunction stopping the impeachment. The state government also went to another court to obtain a ruling vacating the injunction. Not done yet, Mr Madumere approached another court in Imo State and obtained another injunction stopping the House from removing him. But the House of Assembly ignored the court case and proceeded with the removal process against the deputy governor. Expectedly, Mr Madumere headed to court seeking the annulment of his sack and possibly reclaim his mandate. The suit halted the swearing in of the Mr Madumeres replacement, Callistus Ekenze, last Tuesday. What next for Mr Madumere? With the removal, the question on the lips of many in the state and even beyond is what is next for the sacked deputy governor? Although, the 54 years old former deputy governor is down right now, he is not completely out as he might yet get his removal quashed legally. Already, the court on Wednesday ordered the stoppage of Mr Ekenzes inauguration, which the state government obeyed. Even if he should be reinstated by the court, his chances of emerging APC candidate are very slim, as Mr Okorocha now controls the approved party structure in the state. Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha Should Mr Madumere fail to reclaim his mandate via court, there are options open available to him to relaunch his political career and indeed actualise his governorship ambition. One of those options is to defect to another party. Yet, that may not come easy. Of all the political parties in Imo State, three are considered strong enough to win elections. These are the APC, PDP and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). While he is obviously having issues with the APC, at least with the Okorochas faction of the party, PREMIUM TIMES gathered that he may not be wanted by the two other major parties in the state. The PDP is led by a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, who is also in the race for the governorship ticket of the party. Mr Ihedioha contested for the governorship in 2015 against Mr Okorocha under the PDP but lost. There are many other candidates in the party who are battling for control of the party and they may not be favourably disposed to working with Mr Madumere. APGA appears to be a no-go area. Mr Agbaso, who Mr Madumere replaced as deputy governor in 2013, and his brother Martin Agbaso, may not be disposed to working with him. Reason: The two brothers and their supporters feel that Mr Madumere was partly instrumental to Mr Agabasos removal in 2013 and therefore may not be disposed to working with him. The Agbasos have reportedly not forgiven him for his role in that removal saga and may not trust him. The other option for him is to stay in the APC and work with other like-minded politicians to thwart Mr Okorochas plot to install his in-law as the next governor of the state. Whichever way Mr Madumere chooses to go will definitely tell on his political vocation, positively or otherwise. No fewer than 1,500 refugees and migrants have lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean in the first seven months of 2018, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said. The refugee agency said the bleak milestone was confirmed after more than 850 lives were lost in June and July alone, marking the Mediterranean crossing as the deadliest sea route in the world. UNHCR said it was particularly concerned, as the rate of deaths was increasing, in spite of the fact that total number of people arriving on European shores is significantly reduced compared to previous years. Around 60,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, about half as many as in 2017 and a return to pre-2014 levels. However, one in every 31 people attempting the crossing in June and July died or are missing, compared to one in 49 in 2017, the UN agency said. Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Mediterranean, said: UNHCR urges States and authorities along transit routes to take all necessary action to dismantle smuggler networks. In order to save lives at sea, we must use appropriate and necessary measures to hold to account, those who seek to gain profit from the exploitation of vulnerable human beings. Exploitative traffickers and smugglers were reportedly organising increasingly dangerous crossings, in ever-more unseaworthy and flimsy vessels. These boats, which smugglers severely overloaded with passengers, are then left to sail out at sea in the hope that a rescue will come in time, UNHCR regretted. Without further action, more people are expected to perish at sea in the months ahead, as traffickers look to exploit the opportunities offered by improved weather conditions, the refugee agency warned. Unlike in previous years, when Italy received the majority of new arrivals, Spain has become the primary destination with more than 23,500 people arriving by sea, compared to around 18,500 in Italy and 16,000 in Greece. In July, UNHCR urged for search and rescue capacities on the Mediterranean Sea to be strengthened, after various legal and logistical restrictions were placed on NGO boats looking to rescue people in distress at sea. Earlier in 2018, a number of boats carrying rescued passengers were left stranded at sea for days on end after being refused initial opportunities to disembark. Enhanced search and rescue capacities and a clear and predictable mechanism for disembarkation are cornerstones of the Joint Concept Note put forward by UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). They are calling for a regional and collaborative approach to saving lives on the Mediterranean Sea. Without a harmonised and collaborative way forward, that brings coastal states and key stakeholders from the maritime and shipping industry together, we are certain to see the tragedy of the Mediterranean Sea continue. With so many lives at stake, its vital that we give shipmasters confidence that they will be able to dock rescued passengers and thereby ensure that the long-standing principle of rescuing people in distress at sea is protected, Cochetel said. Refugees fleeing Syria make up around 13.5 per cent of all new sea arrivals in Europe, the largest nationality group, highlighting the continued desperation faced by those affected by the worlds largest refugee crisis. UNHCR reiterated its call for the international community to address the root causes of displacement that are driving people from their homes and forcing them to take increasingly dangerous and perilous journeys. (NAN) The national chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, on Saturday alleged that politicians in the country are trying to give the security challenges in the country an ethnic colouration in other to score cheap political points. He therefore urged Nigerians not to allow themselves to be deceived by such antics. Mr Oshiomole stated this in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, at a rally organised by the party to welcome some new members who recently decamped from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state. According to him, there is a plot to portray the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in bad light by portraying all the killings in some states in the country as the handwork of herdsmen. Let me urge you to be more careful because this season people are spreading untruth. People are being hired to turn the gospel upside down. They want us to believe that every problem should be explained in ethnic and religious terms, he said. We have a problem and we must confront those problems. Criminals must be dealt with individually as criminals and government at all levels must work hard to protect every Nigerian regardless of tribe or religion, he said. He said President Buhari and the security agencies are working hard to put an end to the security challenges facing the country. Mr Oshiomole urged the people of the South East to vote for APC and President Buhari in next years election as he has delivered democracy dividends to the zone. If Buhari has remembered the South east which did not give him more than 10 percent in 2015 imagine what he will do if you give him 85 per cent in 2019, he said. The Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, in his remarks said in 2015 he pleaded with the South East not to put its eggs in one basket but his pleadings fell on deaf ears. In 2015 I pleased with the zone not to put our eggs in one basket. To day I want them to compare the 16 years of PDP and relate it with just 3 years of PDP. The three years of APC is greater than the 16 years of PDP, he said. He said that in addition to the new River Niger bridge and many federal roads in the zone, Mr Buhari has also approved a new agency for robotics and artificial intelligence to be established in the South east. The time has come for the South east to be in the mainstream of Nigerian politics by voting for President Buhari and APC in 2019, he said. He urged the people not to give their PVCs to anybody but to guide it jealously as it is the only way they can return President Buhari in 2019. Former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, said the new River Niger bridge, which the PDP could not construct in 16 years, has now reached 53 per cent completion. He also noted that work is progressing in the two major highways in the zone, the Onitsha to Enugu Road and the Enugu Port harcourt expressway. According to him, the South east will give the president and APC majority of its votes in 2019 to repay him for all the projects and democracy dividends he has cited in the zone. Some of the decampees who were received include, Senator Sunny Ogboji, former Minister of Power and Steel, Goody Ogbaga, for Secretary to the State Government, Ifeanyi Odoh, and former Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Augustine Nwankwegu. The rally which was scheduled to hold at the Pa Oruta Ngele stadium Abakaliki, was later moved to a a playground near the Enugu-Abakaliki expressway following the refusal of the state government to grant the APC permission to use the stadium. The Plateau state Police Command has confirmed killing of three people in Zanwra area of of Bassa local government area of Plateau state. According to the Plateau state Police Public Relation Officer, Tyopev Terna, in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, the attack occurred Friday at about 6.30 p.m. He said the attack was carried out by armed men suspected to be Fulani herders. Today being 04/08/2018 at about 0745hrs the Nigeria Police Force, Plateau State Command, Jos received an information that on 03/08/2018 at about 1830hrs unknown armed men suspected to be Fulani Herdsman attacked Zanwra area of Jebbu Miango, Bassa LGA. As a result of the attack three persons were shot dead. They are; Emmanuel Gado M age 22 years, Ladi Monday F age 30 years and Mary Monday F age 5 years, the statement added. Mr Terna said on the receipt of the information about the incident, police detectives led by the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) of Bassa Police Division mobilised to the scene of crime. According to PPRO, one expended shell of 7.62mm Ammunition was recovered. He however said investigation was in progress to arrest the perpetrators of the crime, calling on members of public to help the command with the needed information that would assist to get the perpetrators apprehended. Gombe state governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, has declared his intention to contest the 2019 presidential election. Mr Dankwambo said he will seek the position on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He made the declaration at the Government house, Gombe, on Saturday, during a meeting with party officials led by the deputy national chairman, Babayo Gamawa, elders and delegates from the six states of the North-east zone. While addressing the party officials, Mr Dankwambo said he accepted the call of the people across the country to run next year for the top post. He said he decided to contest to consolidate on the gains of democracy and save the country from hunger and starvation. Mr Dankwambo said the north east zone was long due for the presidency, saying its last shot was the regime of late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. We have been consulting and seeking the support of other zones to produce the next president of the country in 2019, he said. According to him, the zone needs to present a candidate with a formidable track record of achievement in both security and economy which he said the administration of Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigeria woefully. Perekeme Kpodo, a former Security Adviser to ex-Gov. Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa, being tried for alleged rape at a Bayelsa High Court in Yenagoa, was on Friday denied bail. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Mr Kpodo was, earlier on July 27, arraigned before a Magistrates court in Yenagoa for the same offence and was remanded in prison custody till August 10 for ruling on his bail application. Mr Kpodo, re-arraigned on Tuesday before Justice E. Eradiri, on a two-count charge of unlawful detention and rape of one Teke Blessing on June 20, was brought into court on a stretcher. The judge, on sighting the accused in an ambulance, ordered the prison officials to return him to the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa where he had been receiving treatment. The case subsequenty continued in his absence. Ruling on the bail application by counsel to the accused, Julius Iyekoroghe, the judge said that the application, based on medical grounds, did not indicate that the accused was not getting adequate medical attention from prison. He said that the denial of bail was based on the grievous nature of the charge which, on conviction, attracted life imprisonment. Rape is felony, I have discretionary powers to grant bail to the accused, but that power has been hampered by the opposing arguments of the prosecution who had argued that the accused will influence the witnesses in this case. Former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva The application, based principally on the health of the acused, did not indicate that he would not get adequate medical attention from prison custody from where he was taken to Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa. Also, the medical report before the court did not indicate that the case was beyond the expertise of the Federal Medical Centre where he is currently receiving medical attention from prison custody, so bail is denied, Mr Eradiri said. The judge adjourned the case to September 21, for commencement of trial. (NAN) The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, on Saturday assured Nigerians of the Armys commitment toward the unity and indivisibility of the country. He made this known at the 60th Passing Out Parade (POP) of the Nigeria Military School held in Zaria, Kaduna State. Represented by the Commandant, Depot, Nigerian Army, Victor Okwudili-Ezugwu, the army boss said the Nigerian Army was doing its best to restore normalcy in crisis areas across the country. He said, Let me use this opportunity to assure Nigerians that the Army is committed to the unity and indivisibility of this country. We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that no part of this country is occupied by criminal elements or insurgents. We will also continue to support the civil authorities in ensuring that citizens are safe and protected in the course of pursuing their legitimate activities. The army chief said the security of the country was of great concern to the Federal Government and Nigerians, saying that the Nigerian Army, in collaboration with other security agencies was able to recover areas from the hands of terrorists and insurgents. Mr Buratai added that economic activities in affected areas were gradually taking shape and that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were returning to their ancestral homes and farmers back to the land. He also assured that efforts were actively on to ensure that clashes between herders and farmers were brought to complete halt. He said The Nigerian Army has the constitutional right to support other security agencies to ensure the security and safety of Nigerians. This is an obligation that we must undertake in line with our oath of allegiance to the nation. I will like to recognise the role of our galant troops in all ongoing operations across the country. Accordingly, the emotional and spiritual support of the family members and relations at large for the troops is highly appreciable. The chief of army staff, who expressed concern over the well-being of students of army school, assured that their educational and medical facilities had been upgraded. He particularly congratulated the graduating students and applauded their determination and discipline during their stay in the school and urged them to be good ambassadors of the institution and the Nigerian Army. He charged them to always exhibit high sense of discipline, commitment, patriotism and dedication wherever they found themselves. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 149 boys graduated during the 2017/2018 academic session. (NAN) Former Kaduna state governor, Ahmed Makarfi, has ruled out the possibility of leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for any other political party if he does not win the partys ticket for the countrys top job in 2019. He said he would rather quit politics instead of joining any other political group. Mr Makarfi said this on Saturday while addressing journalists at the PDP secretariat in Minna, the Niger State capital. NAN reports that Mr Makarfi is in Minna to drum up support for his presidential bid in 2019. If I leave PDP, I would leave politics. If I was to leave PDP, I could have defected a long time ago. So that possibility is not there, he said. He said he predicted the recent mass defections to PDP, adding that the biggest challenge is managing it. I welcome all the defectors and as a matter of fact I predicted it. I said it that after the APC convention you would see a lot of defections and thats what has happened. But the challenge is how to manage it. If we manage it well, the party would be better for it but if we dont we may run into problems, he said. His position in Minna on the defectors, is softer than what he said in Lokoja on Friday, when he warned his party against giving them special treatment. He said if not for the steadfastness of committed members, PDP could have become history. Some people when you pinch them like this (touching his arm), they will run to another party. When the going was tough, I stayed on but you accept them into your house and give them your guest room. Next, they take the master bedroom; next, they drive you out of your house. We must not allow this, nor give undue advantage to them, so that we do not alienate our people. Modu Sheriff was brought from another party; they said he had three jets; he had billions, but what did he do? He was taking the party down, but I, the bush boy, with the support of others, I was able to make members close ranks, and today, we can all see. Mr Makarfi said Bukola Saraki should be left alone as Senate president because he has not breached any provision of the constitution on account of his defection from APC to PDP. The constitution says the senators should elect from among themselves and not from the majority party, said Mr Makarfi, who also was a senator from 2007 to 2011. Party affiliations are only attached to other positions like minority whip, majority leader and so on. Therefore, Saraki should be left alone because he was elected based on constitutional provisions and his continued stay is lawful, he added. He noted that addressing issues of insecurity, unemployment, power, infrastructure and national unity would be his top priorities if given the chance to lead the country. A basket of issues including security, infrastructure and power would be top of my priorities. National cohesion is also key because we are divided and getting more divided by the day. And this national cohesion is where the issue of restructuring comes in as it will address unemployment, he added. Mr Makarfi is the immediate past national chairman of the PDP. (NAN) The Nigerian military conducting Operation Sharan Daji to flush out bandits in Zamfara, on Saturday said it had neutralised 20 bandits and freed their captives in Zamfara. The Force Information Officer of the operation, Muhammad Dole, disclosed this in a statement in Kaduna. In continuation of the ongoing Operation SHARAN DAJI, the troops conducted several raids and ambush operations in major identified camps and routes in Maradun, Tsafe and Zurmi Local Goverment Areas of Zamfara State. He said during the encounter at DABAN- DOKA village near Dansadau, troops laid ambush along bandits identified routes where 20 bandits were neutralised. Some bandits escaped with gunshot wounds and several motorcycles were burnt. In one of the troops encounter with the bandits, two notorious bandits, Bello Danboko and Sani Maza, were eliminated in Yanwari ward near Yankuzo and Mai Tukunya village near Dansadau all in Zamfara. According to him, during a recent clearance operation along Mashema, Kwadi, Kalage, Gambiru and Kagara axis, heavy fight ensued between troops and bandits. However, he said due to overwhelming military fire power, a reasonable number of bandits were neutralised and their camps were set ablaze. This successful feat has created relative peace and spurred massive returns of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their villages in Zurmi Local Govt Area. He said the troops had begun aggressive day and night fighting patrols around Kyaranke and Giwabawa villages in Kanoma District of Maru area, following a tip-off on imposition of one million naira levy each on the two villages. Another tip-off led to the rescue and recovery of kidnapped victims and the sum of N500,000 ransom from kidnappers in Subulu forest. He also said the troops in their recent exploits, apprehended two notorious bandits, known for terrorising Maradun town and its environs. He identified the alleged abandits as Muhammad Aminu and another one popularly called Yellow at Tashan Udda in Maradun. They are undergoing interrogation, he added. He said some weapons, ammunition motorcycles, phones and large herds of cows were recovered. He said the Force Commander, Mohammed Mohammed, wishes to assure the law abiding citizens that the troops are poised to ensure quick restoration of peace and safety in all the vulnerable areas in Kaduna and Zamfara States. Former Gov. Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto on Saturday said defectors to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties from All Progressives Congress (APC) will surely regret their actions. Mr Wamakko stated this on Saturday at a rally in support of President Muhammadu Buhari and APC organised by their loyalists, in the wake of the defection of Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to PDP from the ruling APC on Aug. 1. He described PDP as a dead political party and categorically ruled out Mr Tambuwals exit being a threat to APC hold on the state. He said the Sokoto APC still has two senators, seven members of the Federal House of Representatives and 12 state assembly members, beside the high percentage of political elders, youths, women and others in the state. He conveyed President Buharis goodwill message to Sokoto residents. He debunked Gov. Tambuwals statement that the federal government has not executed any project in Sokoto. Mr Wammako said many projects have been executed and many have been proposed across the state. He thanked the Sokoto people for the warm reception as well as huge support for President Buharis administration. He urged the people to sustain the support to ensure Mr Buhari and APC victory in 2019 elections. The present political situation in Sokoto is not between me and Governor Tambuwal but between APC as a political party and the dead PDP, he said. The senator enjoined Nigerians to shun detractors and support the leadership of President Buhari and APC at all levels. State APC Chairman, Sadiq Achida, said APC is still in control of the state and the control will continue. Goodwill messages were received from former Kebbi State Governor, Nasamu Dakingari, Umaru Gwandu, representative of Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state and Muhammad Bello, who attended the rally, to show solidarity with the people of Sokoto people. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report Mr Wamakko was received by a crowd that delayed the landing of the aircraft for hours as motorcyclists and people troop onto the runway. NAN reports that the rally witnessed a long motorcade, a long chain of tricycles and thousands of pedestrians who trekked from the airport to Mr Wammakos residence in Gawan Nama in Sokoto metropolis. (NAN) The Senators representing Bauchi Central and Kwara South respectively, Isa Misau and Rafiu Ibrahim, have warned their counterpart from Katsina South, Abu Ibrahim, and others in the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to foment any trouble when the Senate resumes on September 25, as the Senate President, Abubakar Saraki, will never resign from the position. Messrs Misau and Ibrahim, in a statement jointly signed by them in reaction to an interview granted by the Katsina Senator to the Cable online newspaper, stated that Mr Ibrahim and his colleagues will meet their match if they tried anything illegal even with all the deployment of security forces which they might have been assured of by the executive arm of government. It is obvious from the statements of Abu Ibrahim that he and his cohorts are not democrats. They do not believe in rule of law, the provisions of the constitution, the standing order of the Senate, parliamentary procedure and the due process, they said. How will a supposed democrat be threatening disruption of peace in the parliament because his party lost members and lost its majority status? His statements showed why one of them led thugs to disrupt the proceeding of the Senate, steal the mace, the symbol of authority of the legislature, and yet there is no consequence. Both the mastermind and his thugs have been protected from being prosecuted. Now, Abu Ibrahim has given us an insight into what they are planning and we will be ready for them. He has also shown an indication of how he, as the chairman of the Police Affairs Committee, has been misusing the police against other Senators. APC should note that they are now the minority party. PDP have more members. When we resume, if they push us, we will move for a head count of members and change some of our principal officers to reflect party strength. Today, by the list paraded by APC themselves, they have only 48 Senators and PDP has 54, APGA has 2 and ADC has 2. There are two vacancies. That is the distribution in the Senate. Let them continue to deceive themselves. We will use our strength to defend the position of the present leadership of the Senate under Dr. Saraki and Senator Ike Ekweremadu. We will defend democracy and rule of law against the pretenders. We will show that every Senator represent different constituencies in our country. Our colleague from Katsina State has equally demonstrated that even though he has spent four terms in the legislature, he has not imbibed parliamentary ethos. Even his knowledge of the provisions of the law and the Senate rules is suspect. That is why he misrepresented the provisions of Rule 12 order 1, 2 and 3 of the Senate about the process of reconvening the Senate after it properly adjourned. By the provision, without all the leaders of the four parties initiating the reconvening of the Senate before the adjourned date, nothing can legally happen. Also without the consent of the Senate President, nothing can happen. We urge him and his colleagues to know that if they tried anything illegal and indecent, we will resist it through legal means. They saw an instance with the way our colleagues in the House of Representatives quickly gathered to foil their failed coup early this week. Abu Ibrahim and his cohorts have shown that they are desperate to win the 2019 elections at all cost by all means. We are surprised that this defection is making APC so uncomfortable that they are ready to bring the country down because some Senators left their party. We gave them all the opportunities to make amends from their destructive, non-inclusive and dictatorial ways. They did not take the chances and were behaving as if nobody matters. They are running a government by cabals, serving selfish interests and forgetting all the promises the party made to the people before being elected into office. The APC government has always demonstrated serious contempt for the legislature. That is why they have sent only a paltry 11 executive bills to the National Assembly in 38 months despite their promise of reform in various sectors of the country, The APC government came in 2015 and the first proposal they put forward was to have emergency powers in a democracy. Thank God we did not fall for their antics. Mr Misau is the chairman of Senate Committee on Navy while Rafiu Ibrahim is the chairman of Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation Lafiya Dole has conducted a successful attack on a Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) hideout in Daban Masara in Borno. An air commodore, Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, who disclosed this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, said that the operation was carried out on Friday. The surgical air strikes were conducted on the strength of credible intelligence which indicated that remnants of BHTs on the Lake Chad Islands were hiding out in settlements at the Southern part of the lake, including Daban Masara, and were amassing in some buildings for a meeting. An air interdiction mission was therefore planned and executed to destroy 2 out of the green roofed buildings within Daban Masara that were identified as BHT rendezvous points. Upon receiving the intelligence, the ATF dispatched a NAF Alpha Jet aircraft, along with an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform, to attack the 2 buildings where the BHTs were gathered with bombs. Overhead the area of interest, the Alpha Jet successfully released its bombs on the targets in successive strikes leading to massive destruction of the target buildings as well as the neutralisation of several BHTs, he said. The Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, is defecting from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a presidential aide has said. President Muhammadu Buharis Special Assistant on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, posted a message on Facebook, Saturday night, saying that Mr Akpabio will be received into APC on Thursday by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and other top leaders of the party at a rally in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom state. Mr. Obono-Obla also posted on the social media site a photo of Mr Akpabio with an APC leader, Bola Tinubu. Information has been making the rounds since last week that Mr Akpabio, who is a former governor of Akwa Ibom, was perfecting his plan to leave the PDP. There were speculations that the defection was delayed because Mr Akpabio was negotiating for some favourable terms for himself and his political supporters in the state. It is claimed that the senator was asking for the position of the senate president and also that he should be made the APC leader in the state and the party political structure handed over to him. PREMIUM TIMES, however, has not been able to independently verify these claims. Mr Obono-Obla, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said: Senator Akpabio is defecting to the APC, you can take that to the bank. When asked about the claim that Mr Akpabio was asking the APC for the position of the senate president, Mr Obono-Obla said, I cannot confirm that. But if he wants the position of a senate president, he is eminently qualified for it. Mr Obono-Obla dismissed the fear that the senator could be PDPs Greek gift to the APC. I dont subscribe to that position. He is a very ebullient leader. He is very charismatic. I believe his coming to the APC will change the fortunes of the APC in Akwa Ibom in particular, and the South-South in general, he said. Mr Akpabios defection is surprisingly coming at a time several APC leaders, including the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, have defected to the PDP. It is believed that the senators political differences with Governor Udom Emmanuel may be responsible for his defection. Governor Emmanuel, meanwhile, on Saturday night convened an emergency PDP leaders meeting in Uyo. The defection of Senator Akpabio is believed to have been top on the agenda of the meeting. For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. BROOKLINE, Mass., Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chester Allan Alper, MD is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Lifetime Achiever in Medical Research in recognition of his role as a Pediatrician, Genomist, & Immunologist at Boston Children's Hospital. Known as one of the most prevalent medical facilities in the United States today, Boston Children's Hospital prides itself on its exceptional customer service and hands on approach in assuring the health and wellness of their patients. With communication, respect, excellence, accountability, teamwork and innovation at the forefront of the company's values, Boston Children's Hospital is a well-regarded medical practice whose mission is to be the "leading source of research and discovery." Devoted to implementing quality and efficient patient safety in everything they do for over 140 years, the medical institution hopes to advance pediatric care worldwide. With over fifty five years of experience in the medical professional, Dr. Chester Allan Alper is revered for his remarkable contributions to the medical profession. With participation in groundbreaking medical research in genomics and immunology, Dr. Alper has conducted research in establishing population markers for Type One Diabetes in children. Attributing his longstanding success to his ability to work with good people, when asked his advice to newcomers in the industry, Dr. Alper states "It's often a matter of chance." When asked his advice to newcomers in the industry, Dr. Alper states, "Persevere and maintain curiosity, critical thinking and open-mindedness." Well versed in the areas of Genomics and Immunology Research, Dr. Alper has studied the genetics of complex (polygenic) disease in humans. Dr. Alper and his colleagues have investigated expansively the relationship between genetic differences in the human MHC with differences in the immune function of a variety of "white blood cells," or leukocytes. Early in his career, Dr. Alper attained his Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School. Thereafter, Dr. Alper would then go on to complete both his internship and residency at Boston City Hospital. Curiosity has driven him ever since. Upon entering his fellowship in Hematology, Dr. Alper moved into pediatrics, immunology and, finally, genetics. This led to discoveries in the field of the serum proteins. Once it was clear that several of these were encoded within the major histocompatibility complex, his interest and focus shifted to the genetics of human autoimmune diseases, including type 1 or childhood diabetes. When he is not working, Dr. Alper plays the recorder, and does Chinese calligraphy and cartooning in his spare time. Dr. Alper dedicates this recognition to his current colleague, Instructor Charles Larsen. For more information, please visit http://www.childrenshospital.org Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634 [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com NEW YORK, Aug 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Steven Victor and ReGen Medical along with Emirates Hospital Jumeirah, an Emirates Healthcare Company, announced they have treated the first four patients with stem cell therapy. Caroline Stanbury was treated for rejuvenation, beauty and a damaged shoulder successfully. Emirates Hospital Jumeirah is the first to receive approval from the Dubai Health Authority and will be the first, through its partnership with ReGen Medical PC, to offer a range of specialty regenerative medical services in the UAE region. ReGen Medical Management ReGen at Emirates Hospital is certified for the medical tourism market and will operate under U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) standards. ReGen will boast an international staff of physicians who are board-certified or board-eligible and experienced in administering the leading cellular therapies available to treat a variety of conditions. The staff will be led by board-certified physicians and ReGen Medical PC founder Dr. Steven Victor who has treated numerous patients for rejuvenation, beauty and diseases with unmet clinical needs. Steven Victor, M.D., ReGen Medical PC, said, "We are proud to partner with Emirates Hospital Jumeirah and the DHA and bring regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy to Dubai. The first four patients did extremely well and have reported successful outcomes. It was an honor to be able to treat Caroline Stanbury who is well-known worldwide and is a great ambassador for our cellular therapy." Caroline Stanbury, celebrity TV star and businesswoman, said, "After my stem cell treatment, I felt fabulous and needed less sleep and felt more alive. It's amazing - my hair is so much thicker and my nails stronger. Also, I look younger and my skin is improved. Also, I was able to go back to my normal routine immediately." The launch of ReGen at Emirates Hospital is one amongst the various initiatives being taken by Emirates Healthcare Company in its efforts to contribute to healthcare advancements in the UAE. Media Contact: Anna Rhodes Phone: 212-249-3050 Email: [email protected] SOURCE ReGen Medical Management CHICAGO, Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Treasurer's Office is refunding $19.5 million without any paperwork to about 53,000 homeowners in Cook County because of changes in property tax benefits, called exemptions, that took effect for the bill that was due August 1, 2018, Treasurer Maria Pappas said today. Here is the refund schedule: 36,000 homeowners who earlier this year paid by check or online will receive a credit to their bank or credit card accounts by August 15 15,000 homeowners who paid through a bank/mortgage escrow account will be mailed a refund check by October 15 2,000 homeowners whose taxes were paid in cash will be mailed a refund application by August 15 to ensure the proper party receives the refund Letters with details will be mailed by August 9 to all homeowners entitled to refunds. To see if you are entitled to a refund, visit cookcountytreasurer.com and take these steps: Select the purple box "Your Property Overview" Enter your address or Property Index Number (PIN) The refunds are due to legislation passed last year by the Illinois General Assembly that increased existing tax exemptions for homeowners and senior citizens. For thousands of homeowners, the exemptions not only eliminated any balance due August 1, but also created refunds for payments earlier this year. SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office Related Links http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com BEIJING, Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Qudian Inc. ("Qudian" or the "Company") (NYSE: QD), a leading provider of online small consumer credit products in China, today provided an update of its business. Currently, the Chinese peer-to-peer ("P2P") lending industry is experiencing volitilty and uncertainty largely due to difficulities in securing funds from individual investors. The Company would like to emphasize that its business model differs fundamentally from that of P2P lending platforms, as the Company does not rely on individuals for funding. Qudian utilizes secure, regulated, institutional funding sources, not individuals, and does not face the same liquidity concerns many P2P businesses may struggle with today. Qudian's target market, those underserved by traditional financial institutions, comprise the majority of China's 1.4 billion population, and their demand for small consumption-based credit is growing. With the Company's over 140 million historical transactions and cutting-edge big data and AI-based capabilities, Qudian's efficient platform is ideally suited to seize the consumption credit opportunity that lays before it. The Company's business fundamentals remain robust and operations are on track to achieve solid growth going forward. The Company looks forward to sharing more details in its upcoming second quarter 2018 earnings conference call. About Qudian Inc. Limited Qudian Inc. ("Qudian") is a leading provider of online small consumer credit in China. The Company uses big data-enabled technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to transform the consumer finance experience in China. With the mission to use technology to make personalized credit accessible, Qudian targets hundreds of millions of young, mobile-active consumers in China who need access to small credit for their discretionary spending or budget auto financing solutions, but are underserved by traditional financial institutions due to lack of traditional credit data. Qudian's data technology capabilities combined with its operating efficiencies allow Qudian to understand prospective borrowers from different behavioral and transactional perspectives, assess their credit profiles with regard to both their willingness and ability to repay and offer them instantaneous and affordable credit products with customized terms, and distinguish Qudian's business and offerings. For more information, please visit ir.qudian.com Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the expectation of its collection efficiency and delinquency, contain forward-looking statements. Qudian may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the SEC, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Qudian's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Qudian's goal and strategies; Qudian's expansion plans; Qudian's future business development, financial condition and results of operations; Qudian's expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, its credit products; Qudian's expectations regarding keeping and strengthening its relationships with borrowers, institutional funding partners, merchandise suppliers and other parties it collaborate with; general economic and business conditions; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Qudian's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Qudian does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: Investor Relations Annie Huang Director of Capital Markets E-mail: [email protected] Media Binbin Yang VP, Public Relations E-mail: [email protected] The Piacente Group, Inc. Ross Warner Tel: +86-10-5730-6200 E-mail: [email protected] In the United States: The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi Piacente Tel: +1-212-481-2050 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Qudian Inc. ALBANY, New York, August 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global rheumatoid arthritis drugs market was valued at US$ 19597.4 Mn in 2016. It is anticipated to expand at a stable CAGR of more than 2.5% between 2018 and 2026, according to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled "Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018 - 2026". Expansion of the global rheumatoid arthritis drugs market is due to strong research & development and increasing awareness regarding usage of biologic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis treatment during the forecast period. The rheumatoid arthritis drugs market in Asia Pacific is expanding with a high potential to grow, registering a CAGR of more than 3.0% due to the high prevalence of diseases, development in health care sector, and increased focus on research and developmental activities in the region. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664869/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ) Get PDF Brochure for Research Insights at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2011 Rise in geriatric population with increasing incidence of diseases that require drugs to drive market The global population is aging rapidly, especially in some developed countries such as the U.S., most countries of Western Europe, and Japan. Developed countries witnessed high rates of aging as compared to the developing countries. This is attributed to improved health care infrastructure, reimbursement policies, and advancement in health care facilities in these countries. Moreover, easy access to various drugs treatment has improved in recent years, especially in developed countries. This, in turn, has boosted the life expectancy of the population. The geriatric population is a major end-user of rheumatoid arthritis drugs treatment for the improvement in the quality of their lives. Increase in number of geriatric people leads to high rate of ailments, which in turn is likely to propel the demand and consumption of various drugs. Request a Custom Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=2011 Rise in investments in research & development Demand for development of newer and biotechnologically enhanced products such as biologics and biosimilar is rising globally, owing to the treatment efficiency of drugs. Hence, major players operating in the rheumatoid arthritis drugs market are investing in research and development programs in order to develop new drugs. In 2015, Takeda Pharmaceuticals invested US$ 3.2 Bn in research and development activities. According to an annual report published by GlaxoSmithKline plc, in 2015, the company partnered with more than 1,500 companies and other academic organizations around the world for the development of new drugs. Rise in investment in research and development programs by key players of the market is likely to boost the market significantly during the forecast period. Request For Discount On This Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=2011 Increase in strategic alliances and awareness programs Major companies focus on strategic alliances for sales and distribution in order to increase business in untapped markets. For instance, Merck, a prominent drug manufacturer, entered into an alliance with Immulogic Pharmaceutical, a startup, in order to develop drugs for auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Increasing strategic alliances coupled with new product development is expected to boost the rheumatoid arthritis market. In terms of drug type, the market can be divided into disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, and biologic response modifiers (biologics). The biologics segment is likely to account for a leading share of the global rheumatoid arthritis drugs market during the forecast period, owing to the rising adoption of biologic drugs in severe chronic diseases. Strong research and development in biologic drugs is estimated to propel the biologics segment during the forecast period. Request a Sample of Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=2011 Rising patient preference for treatment at hospitals drives hospital pharmacy as a distribution channel Based on distribution channel, the market can be segmented into hospital pharmacy, retail pharmacy, and online pharmacy. The hospital pharmacy segment is estimated to expand at a prominent growth rate during the forecast period, owing to the increase in number of hospitals. Increasing prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in Asia Pacific to create more opportunities for rheumatoid arthritis drugs market Based on geography, the global rheumatoid arthritis drugs market is divided into major five geographical regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is estimated to hold a leading share of the global market during the forecast period, owing to the high rate of adoption of biologic drugs and high health care expenditure in the region. Europe is anticipated to account for a significant share of the global market between 2018 and 2026. Increase in the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis diseases in Europe is projected to fuel the market in the region during the forecast period. The market in Asia Pacific is projected to witness expansion at a high growth rate during the forecast period, due to increasing health care expenditure in the region. The rheumatoid arthritis drugs market in Latin America is at a pivotal point, currently. It was valued at US$ 866.1 Mn in 2016 and is anticipated to witness significant expansion in the near future. Browse Research Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/rheumatoid-arthritis-drugs.htm Increasing focus of key players on expansion in Asia Pacific, in order to cater to the large untapped population, and rising awareness about health care propel the rheumatoid arthritis drugs market in the region. AbbVie, Inc., Janssen Biotech, Inc., Amgen, Inc., were market leaders in the rheumatoid arthritis drugs market in 2017 Key players covered in this report include Pfizer, Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi S.A., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lilly and Company. Companies operating in the global rheumatoid arthritis drugs market are focusing on strategic collaborations in order to develop new products in emerging markets such as Asia Pacific and Latin America. Popular Research Reports by TMR: Porcine Vaccines Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/porcine-vaccines-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/porcine-vaccines-market.html Geriatric Medicines Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/geriatric-medicine-market.html About Us Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend 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. TMR's data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Mr. Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Research Blog: https://theglobalhealthnews.com/ SOURCE Transparency Market Research ALBANY, New York, August 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global voice biometric solutions market is expected to reach a value of US$ 13,049.2 Mn by 2026 on account of growing adoption of voice biometric solutions and biometric technology across various industries. The market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 17.3% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026. Asia Pacific is anticipated to experience healthy growth which is expected to be followed by Middle East & Africa during the forecast period. The authentication speech recognition software segment is expected to see flourishing growth, owing to rising demand for authentication and client and customer verification solutions. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664869/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ) Request a Brochure for Research Insights at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=47700 Adoption of voice biometric solutions driving the global voice biometric solution market Rapid developments in technologies for authentication and payment purposes have made it possible for the biometrics industry to increase the number of consumers across the world. There has been a significant need for technological solutions in biometric technology due to its advance features that helps in enhancing authentication and verification solutions. This is likely to create strong demand for voice biometric solutions in the near future. Similarly, vendors across countries such as China, India, the U.S., Australia, Germany, Finland, Singapore, and Denmark are focusing on enhancing voice biometric technological aspects of the biometric technology. Public agencies as well as private companies are also emphasizing on providing voice biometric solutions mainly due to the benefits offered by biometric technology, as these solutions are highly effective for improving the performance and infrastructure of organizations across regions. Get a PDF Sample at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=47700 Voice Biometric Solutions Market: Scope of the Report The voice biometric solution market is segmented based on solution, application, end-user, and geography. According to the research study, the automatic speech recognition software market is anticipated to experience flourishing growth during the forecast period. This is mainly due to its multiple applications in most industries such as BFSI, government, healthcare, call centers etc. In addition to this, various users across regions prefer speech recognition to be the reliable authentication solution compared to PINs and passwords. By 2026, automotive speech recognition software is projected to cover more than 60% of the global market. Apart from this, access security application also plays a vital role in supplementing the growth of the voice biometric solution market. Vendors are integrating voice biometric solutions due to the rise in need for authentication and fraud detection and customer verification solutions. Furthermore, the payments segment is likely to hold a significant share of the voice biometric solutions market. Download Report TOC for in-depth analysis at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/47700 North America is leading the voice biometric solution market with more than 30% share globally. This is due to increase in advance technologies for voice biometric solutions and also high penetration of biometric solutions in the region. Furthermore, strong presence of voice biometric solution providers across the region is contributing to the growth of the market. North America is contributing the highest share in the voice biometric solution market because the U.S. is considered as a highly developed country in terms of technological innovations and adoptions. In terms of new opportunities, Asia Pacific is expected to witness healthy growth during the forecast period. Increasing awareness of voice biometric technology as well as adoption of advance and technological solutions in the biometric industry across countries such as Singapore, India, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and Thailand is expected to offer prominent opportunities to the voice biometric solution market. Browse Research Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/voice-biometric-solutions-market.htm Global Voice Biometric Solutions Market: Competitive Dynamics The research study includes profiles of leading companies operating in the global voice biometric solution market. Some of the key players profiled in the market include Agnitio SL., Bioid Ag, Nuance Communications, OneValult, VoiceTrust Ag.,ValidSoft, Ltd, VoicePass Technology, VoiceVault, Voice Biometrics Group Limited, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Auraya Systems, Geamlto N.V. and Verint Systems. The global Voice Biometric Solutions Market is segmented as below: Global Voice Biometric Solutions Market, by Solution Automatic Speech Recognition Software Speech-to-text Systems Global Voice Biometric Solutions Market, by End-user Automotive IT & Telecom Consumer Electronics BFSI Government Healthcare Retail Others (Call Centers, Defense etc.) Global Voice Biometric Solutions Market, by Application Forensic Voice Analysis Access Security Authentication and Fraud detection Customer Verification Payments Transaction Processing Speech enabled password reset Others (Vocal Passphrase etc.) Global Voice Biometric Solutions Market, by Geography North America The U.S. Canada Rest of North America Europe The U.K Germany France Rest of Europe Asia Pacific (APAC) India China Japan Rest of APAC (APAC) Middle East & Africa (MEA) GCC Countries South Africa Rest of MEA & (MEA) South America Brazil Rest of South America Popular Research Reports by TMR: Biometrics Technology Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/biometrics-technology-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/biometrics-technology-market.html Healthcare Biometrics Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/healthcare-biometrics-market.html About Us Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals. Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories. TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision. Contact Mr. Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Research Blog: https://transparencyjournal.com/ SOURCE Transparency Market Research SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Republican candidate John Cox confirmed his participation in the We Stand With Seniors/KGTV ABC10 gubernatorial debate in San Diego this fall. The debate will be broadcast statewide and is co-hosted by We Stand With Seniors Will You? and KGTV ABC10, in partnership with the California Broadcasters Association (CBA). "We commend John Cox for being a part of this debate and letting voters know where he stands in addressing the critical issues facing our older population and their families," said Shelley Lyford, president and chief executive of West Health. "For far too long issues like affordable housing, access to healthcare and caregiver support have been ignored in this state. This is an opportunity for candidates to share their plans, so voters can make the right decision in November." The Golden State faces a looming crisis. By 2030, nearly one-fifth of the state's population will be over the age of 65, yet the state is woefully unprepared to care for this rapidly growing demographic. Fortunately, statewide surveys show that voters see and understand the widespread implications of this crisis and want California's next governor to tackle it head-on by creating a master plan for aging. "We are thrilled John Cox has committed to #StandWithSeniors by agreeing to participate in the We Stand With Seniors/KGTV ABC10 debate. Despite older adults making up more than half of likely voters, it seems candidates and policymakers have historically ignored their needs. This debate will finally allow candidates to publicly address the challenges faced by California's older adults, families, and caregivers and share their ideas for solutions," said Bruce Chernof, MD, president and CEO of The SCAN Foundation. The We Stand With Seniors/KGTV ABC10 debate provides an unparalleled opportunity for voters to see where the candidates stand on a number of issues that directly impact their lives. The campaign is partnering with CBA to make the debate available statewide to its member stations. We Stand With Seniors looks forward to working with Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom's campaign to confirm his participation as well. About We Stand With Seniors West Health and The SCAN Foundation's We Stand With Seniors Will You? nonpartisan, public awareness and education campaign focuses on the specific challenges seniors and their families face in accessing high-quality, affordable healthcare, dental care and supportive services and the cost to the state if these challenges are not addressed. Keep up with #StandWithSeniors by visiting www.WeStandWithSeniors.org and following on Facebook @WeStandWithSeniors and Twitter @WeStandWSeniors. SOURCE We Stand With Seniors Related Links http://www.WeStandWithSeniors.org DURHAM, N.C., Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company ("CBLife") values the relationship it has with its employees, producers, advisors, and policyholders and understands the importance of protecting personal information. On June 20, 2018, CBLife completed its investigation of a data security incident that involved a targeted phishing attack that compromised some of its employees' cloud-based email accounts. Upon discovery, CBLife secured employee email accounts, changed account settings to enhance security, and engaged a leading cyber security firm to assist with the investigation. CBLife undertook comprehensive review of the emails and attachments in the email accounts and determined that personal information existed pertaining to CBLife employees, producers, advisors, and policyholders. This information varies among individuals, but includes names along with one or more of the following: Social Security number, driver's license number, passport number, financial account information, financial account numbers, medical information, and online account credentials. The investigation confirmed that CBLife's internal network and systems were not affected. To date, CBLife is not aware of any misuse of the information or any other criminal activity as a result of the phishing attack. However, out of an abundance of caution, CBLife will begin mailing letters to the potentially affected individuals on August 3, 2018. For additional information about this incident, please visit CBLife's website: https://www.cblife.com. CBLife is offering eligible individuals one year of credit monitoring and identify theft restoration services. To help prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future, CBLife has extensive training to its employees regarding phishing emails and other cybersecurity issues. In addition, CBLife has enhanced existing security measures by implementing multi-factor authentication for email. About Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company is a national insurance carrier that provides voluntary, supplemental insurance products including life, accident, critical illness, and annuities. SOURCE Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company Related Links https://www.cblife.com NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Unum Group ("Unum" or the "Company") (NYSE: UNM) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, and docketed under 18-cv-00154, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Unum securities between January 31, 2018 and May 2, 2018, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Unum securities between January 31, 2018, and May 2, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until August 13, 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 [email protected] 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] Unum purports to provide financial protection benefits in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Company represents that its products include disability, life, accident, critical illness, dental and vision, and other related services. 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) Unum was experiencing a higher claims incidence for its long-term care business; (ii) Unum was experiencing less favorable policy terminations in connection with its long-term care business; (iii) accordingly, Unum's long-term care business loss ratio would foreseeably reach the upper 90% range; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' statements about Unum's business, operations, and prospects, including statements related to Unum's long-term care reserves and capital management plans, were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. On May 1, 2018, after the market closed, Unum issued a press release entitled "Unum Group Reports First Quarter 2018 Results." Therein, Unum reported that its first-quarter 2018 loss ratio for its long-term care business was a disappointing 96.6%, compared to only 88.6% for the first quarter of 2017. The first quarter 2018 loss ratio also far exceeded the Company's earlier-stated expectation of 85-90%. On May 2, 2018, the Company held a conference call to discuss its first quarter 2018 financial results. On the call, Defendant John F. McGarry, the Company's Chief Financial Officer, elaborated on the Company's disclosures in the May 1, 2018 press release, stating that "[b]enefits experience this quarter was driven by new claim incidence that ran much higher than expected" and "the higher loss ratio this quarter was negatively impacted by a lower level of policy terminations." On this news, the Company's stock price fell $8.12 per share, or nearly 17%, to close at $39.78 per share on May 2, 2018, on unusually heavy trading volume. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links http://www.pomerantzlaw.com NEW YORK, Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating the Board of Directors and Officers American Express Company ("American Express" or the "Company") (NYSE: AXP) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty. Click here for more information: https://monteverdelaw.com/case/american-express-company. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you. Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017 Top Rated Lawyer. If you own common stock in Bioverativ and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341. Contact: Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC| The Empire State Building 350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405 New York, NY 10118 United States of America [email protected] Tel: (212) 971-1341 Attorney Advertising. (C) 2018 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC Related Links http://www.monteverdelaw.com HURLEY, N.Y., Aug. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amtrak customers now have a new option to reach destinations across New York State not accessible by rail, and Trailways of New York customers have gained access to destinations throughout the continent. Beginning today, customers are now able to enjoy connecting service at Amtrak stations in Rochester, NY, Syracuse, NY, Utica, NY, and Saratoga Springs, NY, allowing passengers to continue on to cities such as Cooperstown, Ithaca, Cortland, Glens Falls, Oneonta, and Lake George. "Trailways of New York is pleased to be partnering with Amtrak," said Anne Noonan, Vice President of Traffic and Marketing. "Travel to more cities and towns is now available to our customers and, with one ticket, they can now move seamlessly between Trailways and Amtrak." Adam Krom, Director of Transportation Connectivity at Amtrak knows that this partnership comes at a time when upstate New York is a growing destination, saying, "As upstate New York continues to grow, becoming an increasingly popular place to visit and live, partnering with Trailways of New York helps Amtrak customers travel where they want to go, even after they get off the train." Tickets may now be purchased online at Amtrak.com, by calling 1-800-USA-RAIL, or at any Amtrak station. Contact: Anne Noonan at 845-339-4230 x117 About Trailways of New York Trailways of New York (Adirondack, Pine Hill, and New York Trailways) operates over 150 trips per day to more than 140 destinations in New York, New Jersey, and Canada. The largest, and longest continuously operating intercity bus carrier in New York State, Trailways of New York boasts an unmatched legacy of service in the region. As an interline partner with Greyhound, and member of the National Trailways Network, Trailways of New York is able to connect passengers to thousands of destinations throughout North America. Connect with Trailways of New York online at TrailwaysNY.com, on Instagram, Twitter @TrailwaysNY, and at Facebook.com/TrailwaysNY. About Amtrak Amtrak - America's Railroad - is dedicated to safe and reliable mobility as the nation's intercity passenger rail service provider and its high-speed rail operator. With our state and commuter partners, we move people, the economy, and the nation forward, carrying more than 30 million Amtrak passengers for each of the past six years. Formally known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Amtrak is governed by a 10-member board of directors, nine of whom are appointed by the President of the United States plus the Amtrak CEO. Anthony R. Coscia is board chairman and Jeffrey R Moreland is vice chairman. Amtrak operates more than 300 trains daily at speeds of up to 150 mph (241 kph) connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and three Canadian Providences. Learn more at Amtrak.com or call 800-USA-RAIL for schedules, fare, and other information. SOURCE Trailways of New York Related Links http://www.trailwaysny.com WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the ExportImport Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) announced that a Chicagoarea business owner was sentenced for his role in a scheme to defraud the EXIM Bank. On July 31, 2018, Victor Luyi Ogbebor (Ogbebor), 61, the owner of Aegis Trading and Shipping Company (Aegis) of Country Club Hills, Illinois, was sentenced by Judge Manish Shah in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, IL. Ogbebor was sentenced to 24 months of probation. Ogbebor was also ordered to pay $92,817.66 in restitution. Ogbebor, a naturalized United States citizen, pled guilty on January 17, 2018, to one count of False, Fictitious or Fraudulent Claims with a scheme to defraud the EXIM Bank of approximately $150,000. According to court documents on or about August 16, 2011 and on or about August 29, 2011, in Oakbrook and in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and elsewhere, Ogbebor made, presented and caused to be presented to EXIM Bank, an agency of the United States, claims upon and against EXIM Bank; namely, claims indicating that the defendant's international customers had defaulted on payments of invoices insured by EXIM Bank, knowing that the claims were false, fictitious and fraudulent, in violation of Title 18, USC Code, Section 287. Under the terms of the loan, Ogbebor was required to instruct his international customers to transmit payments to a specific bank account in the name of the lender, in payment of Ogbebor's loan. However, Ogbebor instructed two customers to deposit payments into other bank accounts which were controlled by Ogbebor and Aegis. Ogbebor then filed claims with EXIM Bank alleging that these customers had defaulted. This scheme caused over $150,000 in losses to the United States. This case was prosecuted by the Eastern Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. The case was investigated by EXIM Bank OIG in Washington, D.C. EXIM Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing. EXIM Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services. EXIM Bank OIG is an independent office within EXIM Bank. The OIG receives and investigates complaints and information concerning violations of law, rules or regulations, fraud against EXIM Bank, mismanagement, waste of funds, and abuse of authority connected with EXIM Bank's programs and operations. Additional information about the OIG can be found at www.exim.gov/oig. Complaints and reports of waste, fraud, and abuse related to EXIM Bank programs and operations can be reported to the OIG hotline at 888OIGEXIM (8886443946) or via email at [email protected] . SOURCE Office of Inspector General for the Export-Import Bank of the United States Related Links http://www.exim.gov/oig Jerusalem, Aug 4 : The Israeli military on Friday struck a Hamas military post in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a statement issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The strike was carried out by an IDF tank after several Palestinians infiltrated into Israel from southern Gaza, and hurled firebombs and an explosive device in the border fence area, said the Israeli army, Xinhua reported. According to the army, about 8,000 Palestinians on Friday gathered in five locations along the Gaza Strip border, attempting to sabotage security infrastructure. A 25-year-old Palestinian was killed and 220 others wounded during the clashes on the Gaza Strip border, the Israeli media quoted the Gaza Health Ministry as saying. "The troops are responding with riot dispersal means and operating according to standard operating procedures," said the IDF. The Islamic Hamas movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, was considering accepting the terms of a long-term cease-fire with Israel, which was brokered by the United Nations envoy for Middle East peace and Egyptian officials in recent months, Israeli media reported. Srinagar, Aug 4 : Five militants were killed by the security forces in an ongoing operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, a defence official said on Saturday. "Five terrorists have been killed so far in the operation that began on Friday evening in Kiloora village," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told the media here. Jammu and Kashmir Police chief S.P. Vaid tweeted: "Four more bodies of terrorists visible at encounter site (in) Kiloora, Shopian, taking the total to five terrorists killed. Good Job boys, good for peace." The identities of the slain militants were not immediately known. New Delhi, Aug 4 : An international two-day media forum here has deliberated several significant issues facing the media industry at present. The opening day of The Media Rumble, organised by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts, saw sessions on a wide range of subjects and journalists like Maria Ressa, Christopher Lydon, Raju Narisetti and Francesca Panetta participating in thought-provoking sessions that were held across multiple venues at the India Habitat Centre here. In the inaugural session, Newslaundry founder Madhu Trehan spoke about viewing technology in news through the ruthless lens of responsibility, to which Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, said that journalism is at the forefront of war and that journalists hold the strength of democracy in the palm of their hands. They ended on a sombre note mentioning the magnitude of the task ahead for responsible and fearless journalism. The key highlight of the first day of the media forum was a session titled "Journalism Resisting and Surviving" that had the intrepid Maria Ressa, former lead investigative reporter for CNN and CEO of Rappler, an online news platform which exposes fake news, questions government statistics and propaganda, and exposes a systematic attack on free speech via social media in conversation with Hartosh Bal, Political Editor at The Caravan. Ressa candidly spoke about her work and how she has been hounded by a state-backed online hate machine, slapped with six different criminal investigations, accused of tax evasion, and receives 90 hate messages per hour to this day. "And all this, for calling out the government," she said. The use of social media by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's government in the Phillipines in changing the public's perception of reality is its most powerful tool, said Ressa citing the establishment's modus operandi -- "using free speech to silence free speech". On social media, where algorithms celebrate popularity over veracity and where the loudest voice wins, the worry "that the biggest megaphone lies with the state" was pointed out. "Take the fracture lines of society and hit it with a hammer," Ressa said, "is the motto of all populist governments today", who distort public perception and dilute focus on real issues like increasing corruption, state-sponsored violence and rampant inequality. Ressa further added that democracy was in danger and reminded the gathering of journalists of the need to continue fighting "the good fight". New Delhi : Ever since the former saffron stalwart, Arun Shourie, created a stir in the 1980s with his articles on illegal immigrants in Assam comprising Bangladeshi Muslims, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has seen the issue as an excellent one to furbish its nationalist credentials by portraying the "aliens" as a security threat. The depiction also fitted in with the party's anti-Muslim worldview. The latest row over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state can be regarded, therefore, as a continuation of the anti-foreigner agitation conducted by the All Assam Student Union (AASU) the 1980s although the lead has been taken this time by the BJP while its ally in the state government, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which is the AASU's successor, is maintaining a low profile. However, a solution to the problem of "foreigners" is not simple. Since Assam has long been a province of immigrants with the tea plantation labourers having been brought in from the tribal areas in Bihar by the colonial rulers and the "hardy" peasants of East Bengal being encouraged to settle down in the state in the pre-partition period to cultivate land, Assam has become a mosaic of various communities, including its own tribals. Untangling the medley of the diverse ethnic groups is fraught, therefore, with the likelihood of creating tension leading to violence although Mamata Banerjee's outbursts about a "civil war" and a "bloodbath" are an overstatement. Her objective is obviously to consolidate her own pro-Muslim and "liberal" supporters in West Bengal and elsewhere in the context of her prime ministerial ambitions. However, it is the near-certainty of a volatile outcome of the detection and deportation of the "foreigners" mandated by the Assam accord of 1985 which has come in the way of implementing the central point of the agreement. This "failure" was not so much the result of the Congress's "appeasement" of Muslims, as the BJP alleges, as the need to proceed with caution. The same advice is now being given by the Supreme Court, under whose aegis the enumeration of the citizens is being conducted. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, too, has been favouring circumspection with the assurance that all opportunities will be given to the four million people excluded from the NRC to prove their bona fides. In contrast, BJP president Amit Shah has virtually disenfranchised the four million by dubbing them "ghuspetias" (infiltrators) while the Advocate General has told the Supreme Court that their biometric details will be collected so that they may not settle down in other states. What is more, the BJP leaders are talking in terms of similar headcounts in other states, especially West Bengal, which is believed to harbour a substantial number of Bangladeshi infiltrators. It appears, therefore, that even before the NRC's final report has been prepared, the BJP is seeing the exercise as a means of raising the fear of the nation being overrun by aliens. The party evidently believes that such charges will help it in the forthcoming elections while its opponents seem to believe that the fear will make the minorities support the "secular" parties. To both the groups, the hapless individuals are nothing but electoral fodder. On the other hand, there is no sign that the BJP is willing to recognise the difficulty of weeding out the illegals from the other citizens without creating a social upheaval. The task is made all the more difficult by the problem of distinguishing the Muslims of Bangladesh from the Muslims of Assam since there is little difference between them about their dialect and lifestyle, especially when the paper documents are not always reliable even where they are available. To make matters worse, the focus of the authorities on those who speak Bengali tends to frighten even the Bengali Hindus in view of the fact that there had been a series of anti-Bengali riots in Assam in the 1960s. Not surprisingly, a section of the Bengali Hindus fled to West Bengal in search of safety during the anti-foreigner agitation of 1979-85. The BJP also pays no heed to Bangladesh's summary rejection of the possibility of accepting those whom India will like to evict since such an admission will detract from its political propaganda. Yet, since the presence of the "aliens" cannot be wished away, a group of ministers (GoM) under the chairmanship of then Home Minister L.K. Advani had proposed in 2001 that they be given work permits, which will be their only valid document. As such, they will not be able to vote and cannot constitute the "vote bank" of any party. Since illegal immigrants stoke the xenophobia of "nationalist" parties, it is a card which they are reluctant to forsake. It is not in India alone that the card is played. The compulsions are the same in Donald Trump's America and among pro-Brexit Britons, not to mention the far right parties in Europe. The NRC controversy is likely to persist, therefore, at least till the 2019 general election. (Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com ) New Delhi : Call it coincidence or mysterious design, there are moments in world affairs when disparate societies have the same experience. I had barely registered that the sword of Damocles hung on the heads of over four million people, mostly Muslims, in Assam by a very Orwellian sounding National Register of Citizens, when a friend from New York drew my attention to similar happenings in Israel. In Assam, the terrified Muslims have apparently failed to provide documentary proof of citizenship. The BJP governments at the Centre and in the state have been at pains to reassure Muslims staring at the abyss that they will have a chance to appeal what is for the time being only a provisional finding of the NRC. In any case whatever is happening is at the Supreme Court's prodding. Meanwhile, far removed from Assam, on July 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's kindred spirit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushed a boulder into the pond: He called it "a pivotal moment in the history of Zionism and the Jewish state". The Knesset (Parliament) had passed a law which says: "The right of national self-determination is unique to the Jewish people." Israel's non-Jewish population have been left out. Assam's Muslims, you are not alone. I wish someone in the opposition galaxy would lambast the NRC half as effectively as Hanan Ashrawi of the PLO did the Israeli "perfidy". The Jewish Nation State law, she said, is "apartheid, discrimination, ethnic cleansing and sectarianism at the expense of the Palestinian people". The way Donald Trump is distributing largesse to both Netanyahu and Modi (shifting the embassy to Jerusalem and promising NATO status to India), he qualifies as their "big daddy" for more reasons than one. He set very high standards on how to treat the "others" when they try to violate national borders. He separated children from their parents. Children were sent to foster homes and parents to jail. Netanyahu's dilemma is as old as Israel: Is it a democracy or a Jewish state? The new law would tend to tilt the balance one way. Of all the American Presidents, Jimmy Carter was the only one to place his finger on the pulse: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." In the past, New Delhi always had two distinct approaches to Israel. There was a tweed-wearing, liberal, socialist disdain for Zionism opposed to a much more powerful "Hindu" empathy for the Jewish state which, like India, was surrounded by hostile Muslim neighbours. Trump, the great guru of anti-foreigner xenophobia virtually tousled Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte's hair, like a school master showering affection on a promising pupil. At a White House Joint Press Conference, Trump said: "I like your policies against illegal and legal immigrants." Matteo Salvini, of the xenophobic League Party, a self-confessed admirer of Mussolini, Deputy Prime Minister but in effect the driving force behind the coalition in Rome, must be swooning in ecstasy. He must feel reassured that he has kindred spirits in very high places. His ties to Le Pen once raised the hackles of Jewish leaders like Riccardo Pacifici for anti-Semitic potential of the two. After all, Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen was a holocaust denier. Salvini clarifies that he hates Muslims, not Jews. That is salutary. I doubt if friends in Israel would be overtly impressed by a Mussolini admirer denying his anti-Semitic instincts. Indeed, there is growing anxiety that wherever across the globe the raging anti-establishment wave has taken a turn to the far right, anti-Semitism has followed. The People's Party in Austria, a very fascist outfit, under 31-year-old Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, has, as expected, revealed itself as virulently anti-Semitic. There are moves afoot to have Jews buying kosher meat to be placed on a separate registry. The most shrill voice supporting the move had been of Gottfried Waldhausl, former animal welfare minister. "Soon you will ask us to wear the Star of David on our chests" said a spokesman for the Jews. In Austria has surfaced the perfect example of enemies joining hands in the face of common danger: Jewish and Muslim organisations have made common cause because "halal" meat too has come under fire. Spokesman of the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office has denounced attacks on "halal" meat for Muslims. "These are attacks on Jewish and Muslim ways of life." Global media, like the ostrich, has buried its head in the sand in the hope that a gust of anti-Semitism will pass even from a country like Poland where Auschwitz was supposed to be a constant reminder -- "never again". But what is happening is quite the contrary and scary. A law has been passed prohibiting Jews from reclaiming properties they lost during the holocaust. Trump has rushed in with an act called "Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today". In brief it is called the Just Act. It requires the State Department to monitor the activities of a dozen or so countries where anti-Semitism stands in the way of Jewish access to property lost during World War II. US President as a realtor is a brand new concept. The potential of explosive nationalism (say, in Poland) being stoked by this kind of foreign intervention has apparently been lost on the authors. The image of Trump as a backyard bully will only grow, as will anti Semitism. There is a profound lesson for a society like Israel in all of this. There is a potential for fascism, anti-Semitism, when anti-status quo movements take a sharp right turn. No such fear lurks when the Podemos rises in Spain, Syriza in Greece or when a 28-year-old Leftist bartender in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, beats a 10-term Democratic Law maker, or when Lopez Obrador knocks the stuffing out of the Right in Mexico. There are examples galore. Neither Jews nor Gentiles are invoked when movements talk of distributive justice and inequality. (A senior commentator on diplomatic and political affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com . The views expressed are personal.) New Delhi, Aug 4 : Several issues surrounding gender equality in Indian newsrooms were discussed at a session titled "Women Editors: Always the Bridesmaid," at an ongoing two-day international media forum here. The panel for the session at The Media Rumble, organised by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts comprised Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor at CNBC-TV18; Durga Raghunath, CEO (Digital) of The Indian Express; senior political journalist and presently Consulting Editor at The Indian Express Coomi Kapoor; and Maria A. Ressa, CEO and Executive Editor of Rappler and formerly CNN's bureau chief in Manila. Conversations ranged from a unanimous voicing of the repeated and unwelcome emphasis on a woman's marital status, the need to rethink policies and benefits extended to women, as well as parities in compensation to male and female employees to which both Shereen and Maria observed the need for women to realise their worth and negotiate with the same tenacity that men do. Coomi Kapoor, whose book "The Emergency: A Personal History" created quite some buzz in 2015, however, highlighted how women's representation in newsrooms has gone up since the 1970s. She reminded the audience that during those days the only women one would see in newsrooms were the secretaries. The panel further discussed the blatant gender disparity still prevalent in the country's vast language media. New Delhi, Aug 4 : A mentally unsound man was detained by the Delhi Police on Saturday after he tried to forcibly enter the Kerala House here at Jantar Mantar, police said. "The incident occurred at around 10 a.m. after which the security staff informed the police about it. The man was later identified as a 46-year-old Vimal Raj, a native of Kerala's Karippuzha," Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said. "The medical documents he was carrying have suggested that he is 80 per cent mentally unsound. He is now being sent to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS), Shahdara as per the law," he added. Panaji, Aug 4 : A court here on Saturday, rejected two anticipatory bail applications filed by a priest at Goa's Mangeshi temple in a molestation case. A senior police officer said, that the accused, Dhananjay Bhave, could not be traced after the n Additional District and Sessions Court in Ponda cancelled the applications of the priest, who has been booked for allegedly molesting two women in June. "We are on the lookout for him," he said. In July, Bhave was booked in two separate cases under section 354 (outraging modesty) of the Indian Penal Code, after two victims, including a Goan-origin student studying medicine in the US, complained to the police, that the priest had allegedly molested them by hugging and kissing them near the sanctum sanctorum of the Magueshi temple. Before approaching the police, the complainants had approached the Shree Manguesh Devasthan Committee, which had said that it could not find any dependable evidence to establish a prima facie case against Bhave. Islamabad, Aug 4 : Pakistan has approached Interpol for issuing Red Corner Notices against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's sons Hasan and Hussain, the media reported on Saturday. The jailed leaders' sons were declared proclaimed offenders by an accountability court after they failed to appear despite repeated orders to face the all three graft references --filed against them and their father -- in line with the Supreme Court's July 2017 verdict in the Panama Papers case. Hasan and Hussain Nawaz already have permanent arrest warrants issued against them in Pakistan. The decision to issue Red Corner Notices was taken after anti-corruption body -- National Accountability Bureau (NAB) -- Chairman Javed Iqbal had asked the Interior Ministry to initiate the process of bringing back the two, currently living in London to take care of their ailing mother Kulsoom Nawaz, the Express Tribune reported. The daily cited sources as saying that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted an application to the Interpol headquarters in France with the request to issue red warrant of Hasan and Hussain Nawaz. The application submitted through the FIA headquarters stated that both men were wanted in Pakistan in corruption references. Previously, the court had issued directions for separate trials of Hasan and Hussain after they failed to appear before the court. Last month, Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in jail, his daughter Maryam Nawaz got seven-year term while his son-in-law Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar Awan received one year in the Avenfield corruption case. It was one of the three references filed on the orders of the Supreme Court last year. Sharif and his sons were accused in all the three graft references -- the Avenfield, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, and offshore companies, including Flagship Investment Limited -- whereas Maryam Nawaz and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only. Mumbai, Aug 4 : Actress Sonal Vengurlekar took up dance classes to shoot only two minutes of a song for a show. She had to perform to a song in the show "Saam Daam Dand Bhed". "I was never inclined towards dancing since childhood, but I have now realised that it is important to know at least the basics of dance irrespective of the form. There was a dance sequence scheduled in our show and that is when I realised that it was important to learn the basics of dance," Sonal said in a statement. "I think I become stiff when it comes to dancing so, I immediately took up a two-day crash course. It (the song) demanded sultry moves. I learnt to perform to this particular song in two days. The result was amazing and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I have decided that I will take up dancing as a full course now," she added. New Delhi, Aug 4 : A Kerala Police team -- probing the case relating to a Catholic Bishop accused of sexually abusing a nun -- arrived here on Saturday to record the statement of the Vatican representative, but they failed to as they had not taken prior permission for it. The team is now expected to travel to Punjab in the coming days where they will meet the accused, Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar. According to the probe team, they will return on Monday to the Vatican Embassy as they have now applied for permission. The six-member team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police A.T. Subhash, in their first stop in Delhi, was to take statement on Saturday from a city-based couple who raised a complaint against the nun. The team met them, but they told the police that their complaint against the nun was based on a misunderstanding and now they have no complaints against her. According to the police team, they will now meet the Ujjain Bishop of the Catholic dioceses, as the nun had informed this Bishop about the way she was subjected to abuse. The nun alleged in June that Mulakkal sexually abused her several times at a convent in Kuruvalangadu near Kottayam between 2014 and 2016. An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent. Mulakkal, however, denies any wrongdoing. Statements were also taken from the head of the Syro-Malabar Church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and a few other former nuns who were residents at the convent. New Delhi, Aug 4 : Google's admission that it had in 2014 inadvertently coded the 112 distress number and the UIDAI helpline number into its setup wizard for Android devices triggered another controversy on Saturday as India's telecom regulator had only recommended the use of 112 as an emergency number in April 2015. After a large section of smartphone users in India saw a toll-free helpline number of UIDAI saved in their phonebooks by default, Google issued a statement, saying its "internal review revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since". However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended only in April 2015 that the number 112 be adopted as the single emergency number for the country. According to Google, "since the numbers get listed on a user's contact list, these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device". Google was yet to comment on the new development. Meanwhile, a French security expert that goes by the name of Elliot Alderson and has been at the core of the entire Aadhaar controversy, tweeted on Saturday: "I just found something interesting. I will probably do a full disclosure tomorrow". "I'm digging into the code of the @Google SetupWizard app and I found that". "As far as I can see this object is not used in the current code, so there is no implications. This is just a poor coding practice in term of security," he further tweeted. On Friday, both the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as well as the telecom operators washed their hand of the issue. While the telecom industry denied any role in the strange incident, the UIDAI said that some vested interests were trying to create "unwarranted confusion" in the public and clarified that it had not asked any manufacturer or telecom service provider to provide any such facility. Twitter was abuzz with the new development after a huge uproar due to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R.S. Sharma's open Aadhaar challenge to critics and hackers. Ethical hackers exposed at least 14 personal details of the TRAI Chairman, including mobile numbers, home address, date of birth, PAN number and voter ID among others. New Delhi, Aug 4 : Shedding light on the poor condition of the country's art schools, Lalit Kala Akademi Chairman Uttam Pacharne said the institution will soon propose to the government to implement a uniform curriculum to bring smaller schools at par with the established ones. "Provision for government resources and staff needs some uniformity. Many art schools are heavily understaffed and many of them don't have enough infrastructural facilities," Pacharne told IANS over telephone. A sculptor himself, he said that students cannot refine their art if they are not taught basics at the initial level. Explaining that the syllabi of art schools have unnecessary variety, Pacharne said: "A unique curriculum nationwide must be implemented, with some scope of localization of the syllabus." He was speaking ahead of the 64th Foundation Day of the Lalit Kala Akademi, established on August 5, 1954 to promote visual arts and build a national cultural identity in tandem with the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi. Upholding past traditions, Pacharne said the genius of Indian art lies in the form, colours and originality of tribal art, and in our "obsession with modernity, we are unable to separate our values with those of the western artists". To give greater space to artists for exhibiting tribal art, the premier art institute will host an event -- Triennale -- showcasing the current trends and happenings in contemporary art movement across the world, in December. With the multi-disciplinary Triennale also featuring sculptures, installations, photographic material and new media, among others, Pacharne hopes to familiarize non-Indian artists with the totality of Indian art and culture. "Lalit Kala Akademi has always promoted young artists through studio facilities, scholarships, grants, and giving them national and international platforms. The Triennale is our next big step in continuing to do so," he said. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) Singapore, Aug 4 : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced a new $300 million fund for security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region where Washington and Beijing are competing for influence. "As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the US is excited to announce $300 million of new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region," Pompeo told a press briefing on the sidelines of a meeting of Foreign Ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore. The new security assistance is designed for maritime security, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities, and countering transnational threats, Efe news reported. "This new security assistance will advance our priorities, especially strengthening maritime security, developing humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities," Pompeo said. Earlier this week, the US said it will invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives. The top US official said that he discussed Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea and the importance of a rules-based order in the region with the Asean nations. He also highlighted US President Donald Trump's commitment to the Indo-Pacific strategy as a major engine for economic growth. Regarding North Korea, Pompeo said pressure on Pyongyang should be maintained as concerns mount about the Kim Jong-un regime's willingness to denuclearise. He said he discussed with Chinese officials the US decision to maintain sanctions on North Korea. "We also talked about the importance of enforcing UN Security Council resolutions and they made clear their commitment to do that." However, Pompeo said the US was confident North Korean denuclearisation would be implemented according to the accepted timeline. The Asean meeting coincided with a bitter trade dispute between Washington and Beijing. Talking about the ongoing row, Pompeo said: "President Trump inherited an unfair trade regime where American workers in American companies are not treated reciprocally or fairly by the Chinese. Efforts of the Trump administration are to right that, to correct that, to adjust that." Trump threatened to double tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, while China said it would impose tariffs ranging from 5 to 25 per cent on $60 billion worth of American products. New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 : The Kerala unit of CPI-M on Saturday blamed Delhi Police for the security lapse at Kerala House in the national capital where a mentally ill person tried to forcefully enter the building. The incident created a flutter after the man wielding a knife tried to enter Kerala House when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was present inside. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) demanded a probe by the Central government into the occurrence. "The security arrangements at the Kerala House is taken care by the Delhi Police and it was shocking to see a person with a knife trying to enter the building," said Kerala CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in a statement issued in Thiruvananthapuram. "Delhi Police officials did not do anything and it was the commandos attached to the Kerala Police ... who overpowered the person who intruded. This was a serious security lapse when the Chief Minister was present there," the statement said. "The Centre should launch a probe to find out what went wrong," demanded Balakrishnan. Vijayan has been in the national capital since Friday to attend party meetings. "The incident occurred at around 10 a.m after which the security staff informed the police about it. The man was later identified as a 46-year-old Vimal Raj, a native of Kerala's Karippuzha," Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said in Delhi. "The medical documents he was carrying suggested that he is 80 per cent mentally unsound. He is now being sent to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS), Shahdara, as per the law," he added. Before his attempt to force his way inside the building, Raj, who had breakfast at the Kerala House canteen, told the staff that "today, his issues would be addressed". At the Kerala House, Raj also got to see another top Kerala leader, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Seeing Chandy, he said he had met him five times when he was the Chief Minister and sought his help to solve his various issues but nothing happened. Chandy told him that he does not remember the meeting. The Kerela Police, however, pointed out that three years ago, Raj had created a flutter by climbing a tree at the state's Secretariat complex in the heart of Kerala capital, demanding solutions to his problems. It was after much coaxing and cajoling that the police had managed to make him come down the tree. London, Aug 4 : A homeless man who trespassed into the grounds of Buckingham Palace before damaging a glass display cabinet and falling asleep on it has been jailed. Steven Lawlor, 44, entered the protected royal site on July 16 and broke poster boards and glass cabinets fixed to metal railings to use as bedding, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard, the BBC reported. He stayed there for more than four hours before the security guards spotted him on CCTV cameras. Lawlor was jailed for 28 days for trespassing and 21 days for criminal damage, to be served concurrently. The Queen was not in the palace at that time. Lawlor appeared in court via video-link on Friday and pleaded guilty to criminal damage and trespassing on a protected site. He caused 210 pound of damage but no order of compensation was made because of his limited means, the report said. The break-in prompted concerns over the security of the royal site. The Times newspaper reported that there were at leat two intruders at the palace last year. A 22-year-old man was arrested trying to climb a security fence last August, while in December a man was caught attempting to scale a wall within the perimetre fence. In 2016, a convicted murderer was jailed after climbing over the wall to get inside the palace. New Delhi, Aug 4 : A student of the National School of Drama (NSD) has alleged that a retired professor of the institution molested him during an examination here, police said on Saturday. The woman filed a complaint over the alleged molestation on August 1, in which she said that she was inappropriately touched by the professor, 62, who had came to the NSD as a guest teacher to conduct the examination. "On the complaint of woman, a case of molestation has been registered against the professor. We are cross-checking the allegations of woman and trying to ascertain the facts," said a senior police officer. Chandigarh, Aug 4 : The Haryana Police on Saturday arrested three men in the state's Palwal district after they allegedly beat up an unidentified man to death on suspicion of cattle theft. The police said that the three accused, who are brothers, caught hold of the man on the intervening night of August 2 and 3 when he and two others were allegedly trying to steal cattle from the cattle yard belonging to their father by cutting the fencing around it. His two other accomplices, however, managed to flee. Those arrested include Bir Singh, Prakash and Ram Kishan. They have been booked for murder. The deceased is believed to be in his 20s. The police said efforts are being made to identify him. Islamabad, Aug 4 : At least two people were killed and five others were injured in a cylinder blast on Saturday in Pakistan's port city of Karachi. The blast took place in a building in Karachi's Shershah vicinity. Two died on the spot due to the impact of the explosion and those injured were shifted to a hospital, Geo News reported. Two of the injured were said to be in critical condition. A probe was ordered into the incident to ascertain the cause of the explosion, said the police. Several vehicles parked in the vicinity of the building were also damaged in the incident. Kolkata, Aug 4 : Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has changed her stand on illegal immigrants, saying she was trying to make an issue out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam to divide people. The BJP leader said Banerjee's protest against the draft NRC was aimed at fulfilling her dream of becoming the Prime Minister. "It is shameful that someone in the position of a chief minister is trying to divide the people only to pursue her dream of becoming the prime minister," Vijayvargiya, BJP general secretary in-charge of West Bengal, told reporters. Referring to a 2005 incident in Parliament when Banerjee was a Trinamool Congress MP, Vijayvargiya claimed Banerjee had threatened to resign from Parliament if steps were not taken to curb infiltration from Bangladesh. "She had shed tears during her speech, but she is now supporting the illegal immigrants because she gets their votes," said Vijayvargiya. "On August 4, 2005, Banerjee had thrown a bunch of papers at the speaker's podium in Parliament and shed tears while speaking against the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. She even threatened to resign. We wonder what has happened in the last 13 years that has made her to completely change her views," he said. "In 2004, the CPI-M used to get the votes of these immigrants. But after coming to power, Banerjee has managed to gain their vote bank. Trinamool Congress is busy doing vote bank politics even at the cost of national security," Vijayvargiya alleged. The saffron party leader also claimed that Banerjee had gone to Delhi to seek support against the NRC, but "none of the political parties supported her stand on it." "The Union Home Minister has clearly said it is a draft NRC. The people who have been left out would get a chance to fight their case and submit their documents. But the Bengal Chief Minister is trying to misguide the people," the BJP leader said. The complete draft NRC was released in Assam on July 30 that has left out over 40 lakh people from the list. Banerjee strongly criticised it, claiming it was Centre's attempt to drive out a section of Indian citizens. She also warned that NRC implementation or any attempt to deport people would lead to "civil war and bloodshed". Jaipur, Aug 4 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Saturday flagged off "Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra" at Charbhuja temple in Rajsamund, which is also being seen as the official start of the party's election campaign in the state. Before flagging off the Yatra, Shah and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje offered prayers in the renowned Vishnu temple. Addressing a huge gathering on the occasion, Shah asked the Congress to give an account of the work done by its leaders during their four generations of rule. "Instead of shooting 40 questions, you should present the report card of the last four generations of Congress, which ruled the country for many decades," he said. The BJP chief said that Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra has been converted into a victory march as the Chief Minister of this state is taking out this procession and is ready to present her report card before the public for the works done during her tenure, he said. Attacking the Congress, he said that the Congress leaders failed to make any significant achievement during their successive terms in the government. "Rajasthan was referred to as a "Beemaru" state earlier. But ever since Raje took over the reins, the state is being counted as a developed state." On Friday, Raje performed pooja of the bus to be used in the Yatra, which the party is calling as "Vijay Rath" (victory juggernaut). Meanwhile, refuting the charges levelled by Shah, state Congress vice president Archana Sharma said that the BJP leaders, instead of answering a decent question, are issuing indecent statements. "'Who has authorised the PWD officials to organise this political event?' was our question and the BJP has failed to answer the same. It seems they are baffled and hence are beating around the bush instead of speaking to the point," she said. Bhubaneswar, Aug 4 : In the run-up to the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018, the state government has decided to organise an investment roadshow in Mumbai on August 7-9. It has also planned to depute a delegation to China, Japan and South Korea to attract investors in the coming days. The state government has partnered with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the second Make in Odisha conclave scheduled in Bhubaneswar from November 11-15. The focus of the Mumbai roadshow will be on showcasing investment potential and business opportunities in Odisha to investors. A delegation of state government will meet investors on August 7-9. The Chief Minister will hold one-to-one meetings with many industry captains during the visit. During the meetings with investors, the strategic advantages of Odisha will be highlighted such as the low cost of doing business, incentives for investors, dedicated sector-specific clusters and over 1,25,000 acres of land bank available for industrial development. The investment roadshow is expected to witness encouraging response with over 300 leading companies confirming their participation to explore attractive growth opportunities across Odisha's focus sectors, said an official. "We have seen a significant rise in attracting manufacturing projects with more than 118 large projects approved with employment potential of 1,28,572 in the past 4 years alone in the state," he added. Holding a review meeting on the preparation of Make in Odisha conclave, the Chief Minister on Saturday advised the Team Odisha to highlight the competitive advantages of the state to the global investor community to increase the growth of manufacturing sector. IANS cd/prs New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday said it would decide on alliances and seat adjustment for the upcoming elections in states in two months. It recognised BJP as its 'number one target' in the national elections and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal as its key adversary. "The party would hold a Politburo meeting on September 26 to decide who to ally with in the forthcoming state elections. The party will decide the possible tie-ups in the states in accordance with the party congress' decision. The Central Committee on October 5, 6 and 7 will finalise the tie-ups and seat adjustment," said CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury at a press conference. The CPI(M) politburo met in Delhi for two days beginning August 3. The CPI-M leader said his party's electoral tactics would be determined by "maximisation of the anti-BJP vote" because the "imperative is to defeat the BJP in the coming elections." "Our slogan in West Bengal is to defeat Modi to save India and defeat TMC to save Bengal," he said. Asked about the possibility of his party's alliance with Congress, Yechury said it will be decided after the meetings of the two top bodies of the party. Yechury hit out at BJP chief Amit Shah for terming over 40 lakh people, whose names have not figured in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, as illegal migrants. "The BJP is out to polarise the society for electoral gains. Amit Shah's statement is misleading....On the other hand, the TMC's plitics is all about sub-nationalism in West Bengal," Yechury said. He said the politburo meeting also discussed electoral reforms. The party wants that the electoral bonds should be done away with as these "legalise corruption". Replying to a question over the authenticity of EVMs, he said his party has serious concerns over the fairness of these machines. "The CPI(M) proposed that every electronic voting machine must have a paper trail. The Election Commission should call all political parties and discuss if paper ballets should be continued," Yechury said. The Marxist leader said crony capitalism has increased under the present regime. "The government is yet to tell us how absconding diamond businessman Mehul Choksi's application for Antigua citizenship was processed. The government has to answer how clean chit was given to him despite cases pending against him," he said. He also said that the party will lend its support to the August 9 and September 5 Bharat bandh calls given by dailt organisations, trade unions and farmers. The politburo also demanded that the proposed higher education body aimed at replacing the Universit Grants Commission should be dropped. The party also sought withdrawal of National Medical Commission Bill, presented in Lok Sabha this week. Pointing out that innocent citizens were being targeted by lynch mobs, Yechury said a law to curb the evil should be brought in immediately. He said incidents of attacks on media and attempts to intimidate journalists reflected that the situation is even worse than what it was during the Emergency. Yechury also demanded an inquiry into intrusion in Kerala House in the national capital on Saturday where party's politburo members and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan were present. Mumbai, Aug 4 : Mumbai Police on Saturday said the Regional Passport Office (RPO) here had issued a passport to the absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, one of the prime accused in the PNB fraud, after granting him a no 'Police Verificiation Required (PVR) status. Accordingly, no PVR was generated for the passport, issued under the 'Tatkal' category on September 10, 2015, valid for 10 years, said an official statement. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said on Friday that a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) was issued on the basis of a clear PVR available on his (Choksi's) passport. However, according to the Mumbai Police today, it was only after nearly one-and-a-half years - on February 23, 2017 - that Choksi had applied for getting a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) to the RPO. On February 24, 2017, the Malabar Hill Police downloaded the Personal Particular Form for police verification, prior to issuing the PCC. On March 10, 2017, it submitted the PCC report of "no criminal antecedents against Choksi." This was done after duly checking the Criminal Antecedents and Information System (CAIS) of Mumbai Police for checking the criminal records of any passport applicant within its jurisdiction. "The system will reflect only the applicant's name if he has been arrested in any offence," said the statement. Four days later, on March 14, 2017, the Passport Branch of SBI-II, CID, had forwarded its PCC report to the RPO. Yesterday, MEA's spokesperson Kumar had said that all passport issuing authorities can issue a PCC if there is a clear PVR in the system, and in case there is no PVR, then a fresh PVR is obtained prior to issuance of a PCC. "As the PVR of Mehul Choksi was clear in the system at the time of issuance of PCC, the process followed by the Passport Office, Mumbai was as per extant instructions," he stated, adding that the PCC was issued to Choksi in March 2017 for his travel to Antigua and Barbuda. Choksi flew out of India from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here on January 04, 2018. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR against him January 31, and a fortnight later, in mid-February, the scam erupted after PNB admitted that it had been defrauded. On February 23, 2018, the RPO Mumbai had revoked Choksi's passport. In the wake of controversies surrounding Choksi's citizenship of Antigua, the Mumbai Police has now initiated an investigation into the process of issuing PVR, and examining its internal processes involved in the criminal antecedents verification process to improvise the existing systems. Chennai, Aug 4 : PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Saturday said the marks-for-money scam in Anna University should be probed by a team of experts drawn from different fields rather than being investigated by the anti-corruption wing of the government. In a statement issued here S. Ramadoss said it is said that officials at various levels in the Anna University were involved in the re-evalutiaon of answer sheets scam. According to Ramadoss, the scam cannot be probed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) wing alone. Using the holes in the procedure for re-evalution of answer sheets the intricate marks-for-money scam was perpertrated. He said only education experts and those involved in education administration alone can understand the issues involved in this scam. The PMK leader said the state government should constitute a team comprising of senior DVAC officials, education experts and those involved in education administration to probe the scam. The varsity has suspended its former Controller of Examination G.V. Uma, a Professor in the Department of Information Science and Technology, for the irregularities reported in the re-evaluation of engineering examination answersheets, officials said. Tamil Nadu Minister for Higher Eduction K.P. Anbalagan told reporters that evidence was being collected against the suspects. On Friday Ramadoss had demanded a probe into the role of private engineering colleges as well as former Vice Chancellors and Education Department officials in the scam. Investigating a complaint regarding irregularities in the re-evaluation of answersheets, the DVAC had registered a case against 10 officials including Uma, Controller of Examinations between 2015 and 2018. DVAC teams had also searched Uma's house here, apart from those of P. Vijayakumar and R. Shivakumar in Dindivanam and the office of Controller of Examinations on August 1. According to DVAC, students who had applied for re-evalution of answersheets paid Rs 10,000 per subject to get higher marks. In 2017, 302,380 students had applied for re-evaluation, of which 73,733 passed exams and 16,636 others improved their scores. Officials were accused of destroying original answersheets of students who had paid bribes. New Delhi, Aug 4 : Bangladeshi-American human rights activist and writer Rafida Bonya Ahmed, whose husband Avijit Roy was hacked to death by Islamic extremists in February 2015 while they were visiting Dhaka, has called for citizens right to critique the religion. She was participating at an international media forum here on Saturday. "Religion is a problem. It propagates hate and divisions. We should have the right to criticize religion. You don't pick up machetes, you pick up the pen. I see the hunger for change," Ahmed said at a session titled "Fighting Machetes with a Pen" during the closing day of The Media Rumble. Unnerved by the personal tragedy and attack that she and her late husband faced, she spoke in concern of issues related to free speech and highlighted the rise of religious extremism and censorship in Bangladesh. She said that religious fractiousness is injected very strategically in the country by those in power for purely self-driven ends. She also mentioned that extra-judicial killings have become common, and stated that religion, politics and class issues are all related. She said such issues have to be talked about in public space. Rafida Bonya Ahmed and her late husband, Avijit Roy, a writer, blogger and online activist, was attacked with machetes by Islamic extremists in Dhaka. Roy died and Ahmed was critically injured. She had received deep wounds in her head. The Media Rumble, organised by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts, touched upon a wide range of issues facing the media industry and journalists in contemporary times. The two-day event was held across several venues at India Habitat Centre. Varanasi, Aug 4 : The government on Saturday upgraded the status of the Institute of Medical Sciences - Banaras Hindu University (IMS-BHU) to the level of AIIMS, entitling it to get funding and other facilities from the Central government. The upgrading was formalised in the form of an agreement between the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. "It is a historic moment and a dream that has become reality today. The hard work was put for the last two years and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the biggest gift to the great university," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said, according to a statement. "I am sure that the institute will come up as world-class medical institute, getting inspiration from none other than Bharat Ratna Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya," he added. The Minister also said that the institution will get 700 additional beds and super-speciality health facilities. He emphsised that "the institute will not face any financial problems" in its becoming AIIMS-like or even better. Health Minister J.P. Nadda said the institute has the "potential" to emerge as world-class institute, which will cater to one-sixth of the Indian population from the eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. New Delhi, Aug 4 : Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju will on Sunday visit flood and landslides-affected areas in Nagaland which has been facing a crisis-like situation in the wake of the widespread natural calamities. The Minister will visit the affected areas in Dimapur and Kohima districts and review the search, rescue and relief measures taken by the state government and other Central government agencies, a Home Ministry statement said on Saturday. The move comes after Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought immediate central assistance to battle the problems generated by the incessant rainfall hammering the state for a few weeks. Rio along with the Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the state administration will also visit the flood-affected areas with Rijiju. A team of officers from National Disaster Management Authority, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will assist Rijiju during his visit. Nagaland has been receiving unprecedented heavy rainfall which has resulted in several natural calamities all over the state. Landslides and sinking zones have created immense damage on public infrastructure all over the state as also caused loss to life and property. Through the statement, the Union Home Ministry communicated that a team of NDRF consisting of 35 rescuers with essential rescue equipment were already deployed in Nagaland to assist the state administration in the relief and rescue operation as well as distribution of essential relief material and to provide medical support to affected people in the time of emergency. "Two Air Force helicopters have also been deployed in Nagaland for assisting state administration in lifting and dropping of essential commodities," it said. Guwahati, Aug 4 : Assam chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday lauded the restraint and patience shown by the people of Assam, especially by the residents of Barak Valley, following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks on the draft NRC. Sonowal also thanked the people of Barak Valley for the exemplary composure that they exhibited without falling prey to the divisive design of the external forces. Chief Minister Sonowal also expressed his gratitude to the Bengali-speaking people and different organizations across the state for unequivocally registering their protests against West Bengal Chief Minister's plan of 'polarizing' the state. He also said that since the very beginning of updating the NRC, some vested interests were hell-bent on destabilizing the process by making remarks inimical to the age-old unity prevailing among the people of Barak, Brahmaputra, hills and plains. "Assam is a land known for its unity since ages. People belonging to different caste, community, creed and religion symbolize unity which is unique," he said. "Though several attempts were made to disturb this unity, people of Assam showed resilience and reinforced the state's unity", Sonowal added. New Delhi, Aug 4 : The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday expressed concern over the poor state of economy, 'tax terrorism' and unemployment, noting that agrarian distress has become a hallmark of the Modi government. "CWC noted with anguish over the poor state of economy and tax terrorism that prevails today in the country. Government has discovered the virtues of pre-liberalised regime moving towards a system of tax terrorism control and 'licence raj'. "Gross Fixed Capital Formation, the biggest indicator of fresh investment, has fallen from 31 per cent to 28.5 per cent. Index of industrial production continues to hover around 3.2 per cent," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. "Credit growth is dismal with MSMEs experiencing negative credit flow. NPAs of banks have risen to an alarming high figure of 11.6 per cent in 2018 and have been assessed at Rs. 10.30 lakh crore. "FDI and new projects are declining. In industrial hubs across the country, MSMEs are shutting down leading to loss of jobs. Rupee is on a downward spiral getting devalued from Rs.64 to Rs.69.50 in less than six months. A myopic Modi government has no control or vision to kick start the economy," he added. Surjewala said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and CWC expressed deep concern on the state of joblessness. He said CWC also noted that Modi-made disaster of demonitisation and ill-implemented GST has led to severe job losses. "The government is shying away from releasing the Labour Bureau Survey figures for December, 2017. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of creating 2 crore jobs a year fails, it is regrettable that he exhorts the youth to sell 'pakoras' and 'pans' instead of creating real jobs," said Surjewala. CWC also noted that agrarian distress has become a hallmark of Modi government. "PM Modi promised 'Cost+50 per cent profit' on MSP, but it has proved to be a 'jumla'. The latest increase in MSP of crops doesn't confirm it as per the report of CACP 2018. The declared MSP being given to farmers in mandis, where crop is selling at rates ranging from 27 per cent to 42 per cent, is below the declared MSP," said Surjewala. "PM Fasal Beema Yojna has profiteered the insurance companies with Rs.14,800 crore leaving the farmers to a pittance of compensation claim of Rs.5,600 crore. New Delhi, Aug 4 : Hitting out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Saturday said it was not enough for him to say that he was ashamed of the incidents of rape at a state-run shelter home in Muzzaffarpur. "He should sack his social welfare minister Manju Verma," he said. "It is not enough for Bihar CM Nitish Kumarji to say he is ashamed. He should be appalled and should sack his Social Welfare Minister," said Chidambaram on Twitter. "This demand is because it is the Social Welfare Department which has administrative responsibility for shelter homes," he added. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said he was ashamed of the incident. He also said that the guilty would be brought to book. After another man was beaten to death in Behrola village of Haryana's Palwal district on suspicion of cow theft, Chidambaram said: "Lynching for alleged cattle theft continues. Is central government so helpless that it can do nothing to stop such outrage by self-appointed protectors of the cow?" "Or is it because the Central government tacitly approves the actions of the vigilantes and is unwilling to apprehend and punish the culprits?" he asked. Bengaluru, Aug 4 : Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday called upon startups to develop technologies and weapons for the Indian armed forces. "We (Ministry of Defence) want you to provide Indian solutions to problems faced by the armed forces. By indigenisation, India doesn't need to import many of the products that we do," Sitharaman told startups in this tech hub. "India wants its sectors disrupted through technological advancements," she said at the launch of "Defence India Startup Challenge", a national contest for startups to develop arms and technologies for the defence sector. "Indigenisation has been a priority for India, however, we did not indigenise sufficiently enough," the Minister added, addressing a gathering of 200 startups, incubators and defence officials at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Convention Centre in the city centre. Through the contest, startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual researchers and academic institutions can take part in 11 different categories of creating technologies and products that can be used by the armed forces. The 11 categories in which the startups and researchers can develop products or solutions include building see-through armour for the army, development of 4G-based tactical Local Area Network for the Navy, and laser weaponry and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles development for the Air Force, among others. Select few startups will also receive a funding of up to Rs 1.5 crore through the Ministry for developing their ideas, and given access to test their products. As part of the event, a Bengaluru-based firm Tonbo Imaging has been given an order to make night fire control system for Russian-made grenade launcher AGS-30. "The Ministry will ensure the startups working on their ideas get the orders," Sitharaman said. Noting that unmanned drones with missiles are the envy of many countries, the Minister added it is not beyond India's capacity to develop them. The Defence Ministry, on the occasion, also tied up with five business incubators to promote and support the startups, including Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship with Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad; Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay; T-hub startup incubator in Hyderabad; 'Forge' incubator in Coimbatore; and IIT Madras. "The contest is in line with the Innovations for Defence Excellence (IDEX) scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in April during Defence Expo in Chennai, to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in defence sector," an official statement said. The competition will also give a fillip to the country's innovation potential and create networks for collaboration between defence sector and startups, it added. Over 200 startups, 50 SMEs and 12 business incubators took part in the defence-business gathering. Islamabad, Aug 5 : At least 14 people were killed and over 30 others injured in a deadly road crash in Pakistan's northwestern district of Kohat on Saturday, the media reported. According to the reports, the accident occurred when a passenger bus collided with an oil tanker at the Indus Highway near Samari area of Kohat, a district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Rescue teams and police rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital in the district. The deceased included two women and two children, police said, adding that the accident happened due to over-speeding. The ill-fated bus was on its way to the countrys southern port city of Karachi from northwestern Buner city. Road accidents frequently happen in Pakistan mainly due to poorly maintained roads, violation of road safety rules and reckless driving. Tehran, Aug 5 : Iran plans to open an interests office in Saudi Arabia to undertake diplomatic affairs, Tasnim news agency reported Saturday. Bahram Qasemi, spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, pointed to the existing problems between Iran and Saudi Arabia, while voicing Iran's readiness for negotiations with its main Gulf rival. Tehran welcomes mediations by the third countries to settle problems with Riyadh, despite Saudi Arabia's apparent reluctance to mend ties with Iran, Qasemi noted. "We believe that the problems originate mostly from Saudi Arabia," he said. On the future of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh, the Iranian spokesman said Switzerland has been representing Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia under an agreement reached with Bern eight months ago. "There have been advances made in the past two weeks, and I believe there are signs that (Iran's own) interests office would open and become operational in Saudi Arabia", he was quoted as saying. Saudi Arabia severed its diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016, following the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad were stormed by angry Iranian protesters, who set the diplomatic missions ablaze for the execution of top Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia. Besides, Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015, to support the government of internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia. Caracas, Aug 5 : A television broadcast by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was cut short during an outdoor speech at a military event after a reported explosion, the media reported. The country's leader was addressing the military to mark the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela, Daily Star reported. While Maduro was speaking about Venezuela's economy, the audio suddenly went. Witnesses told Efe that the Venezuelan President was apparently attacked by a drone. The TV visuals showed scores of soldiers running, before the transmission was cut. There were reports of an explosion but the Information Ministry has not yet confirmed this. Maduro is believed to have been taken to safety. Benzer Pharmacy is honored to announce that it has been recognized among the fastest growing companies in the region by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, placing 25th on this years list. Eligibility for consideration requires each entrant to be a privately held, for-profit company which has posted positive revenue growth for three years in a row, starting from a baseline annual revenue total of $1 million in 2015 or $5 million in 2017. In large part, Benzer Pharmacy merited inclusion based on a significant jump in earnings from $158 million in 2016 to $232 million in 2017. Yet, that figure is only part of the story. As Benzer's Cheif Financial Officer, Robert Shatanoff points out, the companys Fast 50 award was well-deserved in other areas beyond the bottom line. In the past year, Benzers mission was to upgrade technology all across the board, Shatanoff said. [As a result], we streamlined our processes by changing the point-of-sale (POS) system, the AR system, and the accounting system for all [our affiliated] pharmacies. Perhaps more impressively, Shatanoff also spoke highly of the company achieving the Accreditation Commission for Healthcare (ACHC) [designation] for the services of the Community Retail and Specialty Pharmacy Program, and PCAB accreditation [both in 2018]. Outstanding achievements by any measure, but they dont necessarily provide much insight into what life is like for employees on the front lines, as well as for those working behind the scenes at company headquarters. On that score, Maitri Mehta, Marketing Manager, gladly explained, Benzer is a great place to work besides just being a reliable place to cash a paycheck. We have ongoing employee activities for team building and raising positive spirits in our employees, [including] motivational speakers, company-sponsored lunches and potlucks to enhance the company culture of a family environment, Mehta reasoned. Essentially, we do our best to take care of each other so that all of us can play a part in supporting the needs of patients to the best of our ability. Benzer Pharmacy is a chain of independent retail pharmacies specializing in specialty drugs and medication management programs for people with complex chronic diseases. In addition to this years TBBJ Fast 50 award, the company has also been ranked among Tampa Bays top workplaces for the last three years running. TBBJs Fast 50 annual awards program evaluates privately-held, for-profit companies within the counties of Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Polk/Sarasota. The TBBJ reports that selected companies had collective 2017 revenues of $3.4 billion while employing nearly 6,000 people. Final rankings were released late last week at a luncheon in downtown Tampa. To learn more about Benzer Pharmacy, visit http://www.benzerpharmacy.com ### About Benzer Pharmacy Founded in 2009, Benzer Pharmacy is a chain of independent retail pharmacies specializing in compounding and specialty medication. Currently, there are 70+ corporate and approximately 20 franchise locations situated throughout Florida, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Louisiana, New York, Missouri, Mississippi, Maryland, Indiana, and Idaho. Projections call for continued rapid growth as the organization seeks to substantially increase its customer base while ensuring experiences match expectations at every touchpoint. Benzer Pharmacy earned position 1,500 on the 2015 Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest growing private companies in America; correspondingly, the company earned a 39th place among the fastest-growing private companies in Florida on the 2015 Florida Fast 100 list, while concurrently placing 67th on the 2015 TBBJ 200 list of Tampa Bays largest private companies. Benzer was also voted favorite pharmacy in 2015 Best of Fuquay Varina in North Carolina and achieved PCAB compounding accreditation with Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC). All Benzer Pharmacy medications require a doctor's prescription. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BenzerPharmacy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/benzerpharmacy Instagram: https://instagram.com/benzer_pharmacy Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP The underpinning of this claim is that Defendant, pursuant to an established written policy, did not allow its employees to leave restaurant premises during their paid 10 minute breaks On July 30, 2018, the Honorable Judge William Claster ruled a lawsuit brought on behalf of hourly El Pollo Loco workers in California should be able to proceed as a class action. The El Pollo Loco class action lawsuit, Case No. JCCP 4957, is currently pending in the Orange County Superior Court for the State of California. The Court's opinion certifying the two El Pollo Loco classes can be read here. The class action lawsuit originally filed by the Los Angeles Labor Law Lawyers at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP in February of 2014 can be read here. The lawsuit alleges that El Pollo Loco required hourly employees to work off the clock after their closing shifts and also allegedly failed to provide their Golden State workers with off-duty rest periods. The Honorable Judge William claster stated in his order "[t]he underpinning of this claim is that Defendant, pursuant to an established written policy, did not allow its employees to leave restaurant premises during their paid 10 minute breaks. According to Plaintiff, this across-the-board limitation on all employees violates the IWC wage orders and Labor Code Section 226.7 which require duty-free rest breaks . . . The Court finds that Plaintiff has satisfied the commonality requirement." The court has certified the following Rest Break class in its Order: [A]ll individuals employed by [El Pollo Loco, Inc.] as a non-exempt employees in one of the restaurants owned by Defendant El Pollo Loco, Inc. in California from february 24, 2010 to the present." The Judge's Order certifying the Rest Break class of can be read here. According to the Order, the rest break class includes approximately 14,650 employees. The Court also certified a class of hourly cooks who worked at least one closing shift, but asked the Parties to meet and confer regarding a revised class definition. According to the Order, the off-the-clock hourly cook class includes approximately 3,403 employees. In the coming months, all individuals who part of the classes will be notified of their rights. If you work in California and need employment law advice contact attorney Nicholas J. De Blouw at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP at (415) 935-3957. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and other types of illegal workplace conduct. ***This is an attorney advertisement*** Come talk to our staff about what makes Opelousas General different as Acadiana's FIRST Baby Friendly designated facility. Proclaimed by Mayor Donald Cravins in 2013, that August be recognized as National Breastfeeding Month by the City of Opelousas and the Parish of St. Landry , and because World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated internationally August 1-7, Opelousas General Health System plans to celebrate by hosting a free Community Baby Shower. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), breast milk is the preferred and most appropriate source of nutrition for infants, adapting over time to meet the changing needs of the growing baby. Breastfeeding is also a proven primary prevention strategy, protecting both infants and mothers from a host of chronic and acute diseases and conditions and building a foundation for life-long health and wellness. The act of breastfeeding builds a strong emotional connection between the mother and infant, a bond which lasts a lifetime and evidence-based research indicates that infants and children who are breastfed are at a lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), infections of the ear, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract and urinary tract, asthma, meningitis and obesity. Opelousas General is the first Baby-Friendly designated hospital in Acadiana. Mothers who give birth at Baby-Friendly hospitals and birthing centers are more likely to initiate exclusive breastfeeding and are more likely to sustain breastfeeding at six months and one year of age. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is a global effort sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. With 22 years of research to support it, this initiative has become the gold standard in how to care for babies in the hospital. OGHS has also recently earned The Gift designation The Gift is an evidence-based designation program for Louisiana birthing facilities designed to increase breastfeeding rates and hospital success by improving the quality of maternity services and enhancing patientcentered care. The Gift designation gives Opelousas General Health System a better opportunity to achieve further certifications and accreditations, as well as meet national and international quality measures and standards of care. In celebration and recognition of National Breastfeeding Month and World Breastfeeding Week, Opelousas General Health System is offering a free Community Baby Shower for all new & expectant parents and grandparents, as well as business owners, church and community organization leaders on Thursday, August 9th from 3:00 7:00 p.m. in the 3rd floor OGHS Auditorium. Come talk to our staff about what makes Opelousas General different as Acadiana's FIRST Baby Friendly designated facility. Several community agencies will be on hand to offer education and information on topics such as pre-natal care, breastfeeding, and new parent resources. Pre-natal break-out sessions will be held throughout the event in lieu of our usual 3 weeks of prenatal class. These mini-sessions will cover topics that include breastfeeding, labor comfort measures, infant care and safety, and a brand new class for grandmothers-to-be called Nana's Time. See flyer for class schedules. RSVP is not required to attend the Community Baby Shower, however, if you would like to register for the next series of Pre-natal classes in October or December, please visit http://www.opelousasgeneral.com, our Facebook page or contact Darlene Fontenot at 948-5103. Since we started Shop LC One for One in October 2017, we matched more than 5 million purchases...By partnering with No Kid Hungry, we are now able to help children in need right here in the U.S. Shop LC, an Austin-based TV network and online retailer of beautiful, affordable luxury jewelry, accessories, and more, today announced that it has partnered with the No Kid Hungry campaign to expand its Shop LC One for One program, which seeks to end childhood hunger globally. For each product sold, Shop LC currently donates one meal to a hungry child in India and the United Kingdom, and through the partnership with No Kid Hungry, the companys donations will now help connect kids in the U.S. with healthy meals during the school day and in the summer. Since we started Shop LC One for One in October 2017, we matched more than 5 million purchases from our customers, regardless of the amount of the order, and donated more than 5 million meals to those in need. By partnering with No Kid Hungry, we are now able to help children in need right here in the U.S., said Kevin Lyons, President of Shop LC. It may come as a surprise, but millions of children in this country are living with hunger. This not only impacts their overall growth and health, but means theyre not getting the nutrition needed to focus and perform well in class. No Kid Hungry has the solution as the number of children facing hunger has dropped by one-third since the campaign launched in 2010. They will be a great partner for us as they hold the same values and goals we do. The online retailers philanthropic mission began in India with Sunil Agarwal, founder of Vaibhav Global Ltd, Shop LCs parent company, who saw the need to battle the hunger and education crisis amongst school children in the country. With the help from their global partner, Akshaya Patra, Vaibhav Global Ltd. and Shop LC have delivered millions of hot meals to school children across India and later the U.K. Today in America, one in six children faces hunger, said Jill Davis, Senior Vice President, Corporate Partnerships, No Kid Hungry. Were proud to partner with a philanthropic-focused company like Shop LC as theyll be fundamental in contributing to the ongoing effort to end childhood hunger in every community across the country. Shop LC is also a strong supporter of Texas Advocacy Programs Handbags for Hope. Earlier this year, Shop LC donated 3,500 handbags to the annual drive. In addition, the company supports the Central Texas Food Bank and Central Texas Veterans programs, which provide food to local families in need and assistance to men and women who have served this country. About Shop LC: Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Shop LC (formerly Liquidation Channel), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vaibhav Global Ltd. (VGL), a vertically integrated company with global sourcing and manufacturing capabilities. Shop LC is a value-conscious, socially responsible, interactive retailer focused on the fine jewelry, beauty, fashion, home decor and lifestyle product categories. Established in 2007, Shop LC reaches approximately 80 million U.S. households via metrics standard, high-definition and digital streamed programming offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, live 365 days a year. Shop LC is also proud to serve the communities where it works and operates. Shop LC One for One is a global campaign. Whether its giving meals to hungry children, making contributions to local non profits or helping folks find affordable luxury products, service to customers and communities is at Shop LCs core. For more information, visit http://www.shoplc.com. About No Kid Hungry: No child should go hungry in America. But 1 in 6 kids will face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger through effective programs that provide kids with the food they need. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization working to end hunger and poverty. "Im always working on something, says Kate Atkinson, whose new novel, Transcription, will be published in September by Little, Brown. Its really tedious, but Ill never stop. If I stop Ill never start up again. Its 4 p.m. and Atkinson, whos published 11 books, including the international bestseller Life After Life, has just finished work for the day, clocking up another six pages of the book that will follow Transcription. Its a revolting comparison, Atkinson says, but it is a bit like a chicken, with the eggs in the oviduct. In another life, years ago, she kept chickens. They all died. You start at the very end with the egg in its shell, and before that its the egg without its shell, and then its the yolk, and it gets smaller and smaller and youve got this queue of eggs waiting to be laid. Atkinson laughs, an explosion of mirth tinged with a hint of wickedness. Novels for me are a bit like that, she adds. You can feel theres a small one at the end of the queue, and they get bigger as they get nearer. And by the time youre getting to the end of the novel youre writing, the next one is really pushing. Revolting or not, its an apt comparison. Atkinsons first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread First Novel Award. Since then, she has published a book, steady as she goes, every two to three years. Transcription appeared in the queue roughly four years ago, as Atkinson was researching A God in Ruins, a companion novel to Life After Life. One day while snooping in the U.K.s National Archives, Atkinson came across a declassified release from MI5, Englands domestic counterintelligence and security agency, about WWII British spy Jack King. The release revealed Kings real nameEric Robertsand his perfectly dull nine-to-five job: bank clerk. In that moment, Atkinson says she told herself, I have to write about this. Her interest quickly fell on the spys transcriber, and she began to imagine the complex relationship this young woman would develop with the King figure, named Godfrey Toby in the book, whose inscrutability creates a suspicion of double dealings. With A God in Ruins in production, Atkinson began Transcription. Like her two previous books, the novel would deal with WWII, only more obliquely. Id done the blitz, Atkinson says. While Transcription doesnt focus directly on the war, it still bears the authors trademark temporal Gordian knots. The novel begins in 1981, when Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Mikhail Gorbachev ruled the globe, but its mostly set in 1940 and 1950. I find the postwar period particularly interesting, Atkinson says. A country that feels defeatedbankrupt and filthyand an exhausted populace, just shabby. Atkinsons heroine is the plucky Londoner Juliet Armstrong, recruited at the age of 18 into MI5. Juliet begins her life in espionage in a flat in Dolphin Square in 1940, transcribing secretly recorded conversations. In the bugged neighboring flat, Godfrey Toby, posing as a Gestapo agent, meets a dreary bunch of British Nazi sympathizers who pass on intelligence about Jews and other enemies of the Fuhrer. To Juliet, the conversations are either difficult to discern or achingly dull. Her transcriptions, amusingly, are full of notes like biscuit interval and inaudible. But she gains the trust of MI5, and is soon promoted to full-fledged spy. Juliets secret service becomes far more exciting when shes running around London. She must infiltrate the Right Club, an insidious group of well-connected fascists, befriend its female members, and steal its membership ledger. As she gets closer to success and real danger, the mission takes a deadly turn. A decade later, Juliet has put her clandestine activities behind her to focus on her job with the BBC. But, as Atkinson knows better than most, history is never as far behind us as we would like to believe. Atkinson thinks she would have made a good spy. I like secrets, she says. Although Im not very good at keeping them. Like her heroine, she thinks of herself as a voyeur and claims to have felt this way almost since birth. Everything is a foreign country to me, she says. Atkinson was born in 1951 in the ancient walled city of York, in Northern England. In 1995, she moved 200 miles north to Edinburgh, Scotlands medieval capital, where she lives in an Edwardian house that she endeavors to return to what it would have looked like in an ideal world, she says. By ideal world she means the beginning of the 20th century, an irony not lost on the author of extremely popular historical fiction. Inside her historic home, Atkinson is surrounded by the past. The Victorian wallpaper is William Morris, a woodland scene with deer. Heat rises from cast-iron radiators popular in the 18th century. A sofa is draped with a grey toile de Jouy pattern dating to the 16th century. The curtains on the windows are lace. A wooden case containing stuffed Indian birds hangs on one wall. Lamps are topped with shades made by Downton Abbeys art department; they may not be old, but they look it. I completely forget were actually in the 21st century, she says. Atkinson rises around 5 a.m. each morning and puts the Bialetti on the hob for her first cup of strong coffee. Before writing, she spends a few hours faffing about, doing yoga, organizing her life, and making more coffee. Id probably give up one of my childrenno, both, I couldnt chooserather than coffee, she says. Atkinson dives into the writing by 9:30 a.m. at the latest, working in one of two rooms, sitting on one of her two sofas, feet up. I need to be in a very relaxed position, she says, due to an uncooperative back. Very much Elizabeth B. Browning style. For Atkinson, most days are writing daysfive or six per week. She stays at it for eight to nine hours before her brain packs up, she says. Nobodys holding a gun to my head to write. Its a joba job Ill be doing until I drop in harness. When asked how long it usually takes her to write a novel, Atkinson speaks about quarters. The last quarter is the easiest, a race to the end. I speed up phenomenally, she says, because I know what Im doing by then. The first is simultaneous writing and revision, moving both forward and back. I rewrite all the time, she says. Every day. Every day. If you looked at my process, as we call it, you would think, God, this woman is faffing. But it helps me think. Its not that the first quarter, half, three-quarters is more difficultits just that its much, much slower. Transcription was very slow in the middle. I kept changing the time structure, rejigging where chapters were and that took a lot of time. By the end, I knew where I was going and what I was getting to and knew I was going to enjoy writing the last quarter. When Atkinson reaches the end of that heavily revised initial draft, she says that its sound, needing one or two more passes before going off to her longtime publisher (Transworld in the U.K.; Little, Brown in the U.S.). If you locked me in a room, Rapunzel style, and gave me excellent, five-star room service, I could write a novel in less than six months, she says. Tomorrow and the next day, and most days after that, Atkinson will rise before dawn, take her coffee to her couch, and write until the birds outside start settling down for the night. I always think Ill know when its time for me to go, Atkinson says, because there wont be any books there waiting to be written. Mike Harvkey is the author of In the Course of Human Events (Soft Skull, 2014) and a former deputy reviews editor at Publishers Weekly. L.A. Yogi Gets Woke at SoundsTrue In a six-figure, world rights deal at auction, yoga and meditation teacher Justin Michael Williams sold Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us to Sounds True. Jennifer Y. Brown bought the book from Gareth Esersky at the Carol Mann Agency. Esersky said Williamss book is targeted to a multiracial, millennial audience and will offer guidance to a new generation of meditators. Soloways Topple Adds First Books TV writer/creator Jill Soloways recently announced imprint at Amazon, Topple Books, has acquired its first two titles. Topple, which focuses on titles by women of color and those who identify as gay, queer, bi, trans, and/or gender nonconforming, has taken world rights to Precious Brady-Daviss I Have Always Been Me: A Memoir and Lucile Scotts An American Coven(ant). Brady-Davis is an LGBTQ advocate and her book, Amazon said, will chronicle her traumatic childhood of abandonment and neglect and her resilience as a biracial, Pentecostal, queer young person growing up in Omaha, Nebr. Scotts book, Amazon said, is a queer-feminist pop history of how mystical traditions intersected with modern feminism in America. Melissa Edwards at Stonesong represented Brady-Davis, and Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret represented Scott. The books are both set for 2020, with Brady-Daviss book to be edited by Hafizah Geter and Scotts to be edited by Erin Calligan Mooney. Fleischmann Takes Debut to Berkley For Berkley, Jen Monroe took North American rights, at auction, to Raymond Fleischmanns debut, How Quickly They Disappear. Monroe bought the literary mystery, along with a second title, from Michelle Brower at Aevitas Creative Management. How Quickly They Disappear, slated for early 2020, is set in the early 1940s, Berkley said, and follows a woman living in a remote Alaska town who is haunted by her twin sister who disappeared two decades earlier. When a World War I veteran shows up in town claiming her sister is still alive, the heroine must determine how far shell go to uncover the truth. Fleischmann, an MFA graduate of Ohio State University, has published work in, among other journals, the Iowa Review and the Los Angeles Review. Blackstone Nabs Debut for Six Figures Rick Bleiwiess at Blackstone Publishing shelled out six figures, in a three-book deal, for James Wades debut novel, All Things Left Wild. Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group handled the world rights agreement, describing the novel as exploring elements of race, religion, and human nature through a panoply of difficult decisions and deadly encounters during the turn of the 20th century. Wade won the 2016 Writers League of Texas manuscript contest and was a finalist of the 2016 Tethered by Letters short story contest. Briefs For Kensington, Esi Sogah took world rights to a new trilogy by Rebekah Weatherspoon called the Cowboys of California. Agent Holly Root at Root Literary said the western romance series is set on a black-owned luxury dude ranch, and the first book, A Cowboy to Remember, is a twist on Sleeping Beauty featuring a celebrity chef stricken with amnesia reunited with her high school crush. A Cowboy to Remember is set for winter 2020. Abby Jimenez, a winner of the Food Network show Cupcake Wars, sold a debut novel to Grand Central Publishing. The world rights agreement for The Friend Zone was brokered, at auction, by Grand Centrals Leah Hultenschmidt and Red Sofa Literarys Stacey Graham. GCP said the book tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass. Jimenez is a motivational speaker and the owner of Nadia Cakes Bakery, which has locations in Minnesota and California. For more childrens and YA book deals, see our latest Rights Report. Four indie bookstores are taking the services they provide to their communities to a new level: booksellers in these stores are registering voters this summer and fall. Though all the booksellers in-store voter registration drives are nonpartisan, they vary in scope. One indie simply has a table with registration forms on it for customers to fill out and mail in themselves; another hands out forms at the cash register for customers and then mails in the completed forms for them; one store has set up a display of books about politics and citizenship next to its stack of forms; and anothers one-day registration drive is heavily promoted and this year will feature a presentation by an elected official. Left Bank Books co-owner Jarek Steele reported that the St. Louis, Mo., indie has organized voter registration drives in previous years, including, most notably, in 2016. During that years campaign season, the store registered about 25 voters and sent the forms in one large envelope to the local board of elections for processing. This year, however, Left Bank is doing things a little differently: registration forms for both city and county residents are set out on a table for customers to fill out. Left Bank booksellers are providing stamps and envelopes, then directing customers to drop their forms into a mailbox just outside of the store. For people wanting to print out the forms at home, the store provides a link to Missouris online registration forms via Left Bankss own site. We supply everything, Steele said, describing the service as the stores civic responsibility. Our freedom is based on the participation of every citizenregardless of race, gender, age, religion, ability, or party. One of our duties as community booksellers is to promote that participation by providing literature and a place where people can talk, where the discussion of ideas grows. The reason our government has gone the way it has is because education about how our government works and our roles have fallen off. Participation is the important piece. Since the table was set up a month ago, Steele said, the store has registered a couple dozen people, including some of its own staff members. The only pushback Left Bank has received to date was from Facebook, which refused to boost a post on Left Banks page promoting the voter registration drive due to its political nature. A few weeks ago, Buffalo, N.Y.s Talking Leaves Bookstore set up a display of books on politics, along with voter registration forms for New York residents. The store provides postage for those mailing in the forms, although there is a link on its website for those wanting to print out and mail in the forms themselves. We feel that it is the absolutely most important way for people to take control of their government, said assistant manager Alicia Michielli. We want to raise awareness, and we want to make it easier for people. After all, she pointed out, registering voters is merely an extension of a bookstores core mission of giving authors a voice and readers a way to find those voices. Though, she said, she has mailed about a dozen filled-out forms from her customers to the local board of elections, her bookseller colleagues also have mailed in forms. Forms must be postmarked by October 12 for New Yorkers wanting to vote in Novembers general election. Michielli noted that she is allowed to pick up 100 blank registration forms at a time from the local board of elections. Its an ongoing process: its not just about this November; theres an election in two years, and then again. She added that the store is particularly committed to registering young people to vote: Its especially important for young people to show up, and take an interest in shaping our city, our state, and our country. Subtext Books in St. Paul, Minn., is also emphasizing its outreach to young people in its voter registration drive, which it launched in March and is continuing through the November election. Minnesota state law permits election day voter registration at polling places. We are an urban bookstore: we want to be active and activist, said owner Sue Zumberge, noting that the store in downtown St. Paul is near two high schools and thus is preparing for an onslaught of first-time voter registrations once classes resume after Labor Day. Subtext registering voters and filing their forms for them, and its staff is also acting as witnesses for people filling out absentee voter ballots for the August 14 statewide primary races. Minnesota requires the signature of a witness to affirm the absentee voters identity, and the booksellers will also provide this service before the general election. Its easy for us to get the forms to the board of elections office within [the required] 10 days, Zumberge said, disclosing that, to date, there have been more people asking for assistance with absentee ballots than with voter registration forms. Subtext booksellers are also considering launching a voter registration drive this fall targeting homeless people in St. Paul. Zumberge noted, If theres another Womens March, well be out there with our clipboards. After all, we can register anyone in Minnesota. For the second year, Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass., is holding a one-day voter registration drive as part of its ongoing series of Be the Change events addressing social justice and activism topics. Congressman Mike Capuano will make a presentation on August 25, during which he will encourage people to register either in person at the store or online. The deadline to register to vote in the general election in Massachusetts is October 17. The goal of our Be the Change series is to provide resources to our community so people will be more politically active, said Josh Cook, Porter Squares publicity manager. He noted that last years late-summer voter registration drive event prompted 3040 people to register. The Massachusetts legislature recently passed a bill that automatically registers as a voter any state resident who interacts with any state office, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. Cook noted with a laugh that if Gov. Charlie Baker signs it into law, the store will need to offer a new public service: Were just going to have to do something different next year. Red Scare The #1 book in the country is The Russia Hoax by Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett. President Trump had kind words for the book in an August 1 tweet: Congratulations to @GreggJarrett on The TREMENDOUS success of his just out book, The Russia Hoax, The Illicit Scheme To Clear Hillary Clinton & Frame Donald Trump. Already number one on Amazon. Hard work from a brilliant guy. Its the Real Story of the Rigged Witch Hunt! (See all of this week's bestselling books.) Also new this week, The Briefing by Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary and communications director, lands at #7 in hardcover nonfiction. The president tweeted a ringing endorsement on June 30: A friend of mine and a man who has truly seen politics and life as few others ever will, Sean Spicer, has written a great new book, The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President. It is a story told with both heart and knowledge. Really good, go get it! Movie Watch Crazy Rich Asians, adapted from Kevin Kwans 2013 novel, opens in theaters August 15. The tie-in edition pubbed July 17 and debuts on our trade paper list at #13, and the conventional edition is the #6 book in the country, with print unit sales up 21% compared to the week before. The final book in Kwans trilogy, Rich People Problems, which pubbed in May in trade paper, returns to that list at #19, up eight positions from the week before. Another tie-in, to the Netflix movie adaptation of Jenny Hans To All the Boys Ive Loved Before, pubbed July 10 and lands at #24 in children frontlist fiction. The 2014 novel has sold 255K copies in hardcover and conventional trade paperback. Eerie Similarity Ghosted by Rosie Walsh, #14 in hardcover fiction, is a bittersweet debut, our review said, that tackles the perils of modern dating. It arrives with a blurb from Liane MoriartyI absolutely loved this book and didnt want it to endand a jacket reminiscent of a Moriarty cover. New & Notable Thrawn: Alliances Timothy Zahn #2 Hardcover Fiction Those who know the Star Wars franchise from the movies alone may be unfamiliar with Thrawn, first introduced in Zahns 1991 novel Heir to the Empire. If online chatter is to be believed, the popular character could figure into the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode IX. Balanced and Beautiful Katrina Scott and Karena Dawn #16 Hardcover Nonfiction Scott and Dawn, whose online fitness community has 1.4 million Instagram followers, are also the authors of Tone It Up: 28 Days to Fit, Fierce, and Fabulous, which was released as a trade paper original in 2015 and has sold 35K print copies. Top 10 Overall Rank Title Author Imprint Units 1 The Russia Hoax Gregg Jarrett Broadside 72,730 2 Liars, Leakers, and Liberals Jeanine Pirro Center Street 36,082 3 Girl, Wash Your Face Rachel Hollis Thomas Nelson 25,493 4 Origin Dan Brown Books 24,251 5 The President Is Missing Clinton/Patterson Little, Brown/Knopf 21,363 6 Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan Anchor 20,182 7 Magnolia Table Joanna Gaines Morrow 16,578 8 You Are a Badass Jen Sincero Running Press 15,689 9 The Rooster Bar John Grisham Dell 15,463 10 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman Penguin Books 14,929 All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted. Hamid Sulaiman, trans. from the French by Francesca Barrie. Interlink, $20 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-62371-995-1 The story: At the height of the Syrian Civil War, a young Syrian woman sets up a makeshift hospital in the heart of a city controlled by the Assad regime and, with a friend, shuttles back and forth across the Turkish border in a risky effort to support the hospitals work. The author: Sulaiman was born in Syria, escaped to Egypt, and now lives in France. In Publishers Weeklys most recent salary and jobs survey, of the 664 people who responded, 119 (18%), including four men, said they have been sexually harassed. Of the 535 women who responded to the question, 115 (22%) said they had been harassed. More people of color experienced harassment than white employees: of the 91 respondents who are people of color, 21% reported being sexually harassed, compared to 17% of the 563 white respondents. Though most men and women said their companies have sexual harassment policies, only 40% of women thought complaints were followed up on, while 67% of men believed complaints were looked into. Most women who reported sexual harassment (55%) said that the incidents occurred in the office. Conventions and book fairs trailed the office as the second most frequent spot for harassment, followed by parties or other after-hours industry gatherings. Sales and marketing was the department where harassment most often occurred, followed by management. Both of those departments have a greater percentage of men than editorial, where 13% of women said they were harassed. Publishers with revenues between $10 million and $100 million were the companies with the highest percentage or harassment complaints. The results of the survey came the same week another media mogul, Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, faced charges of sexual harassment. Moonves told the New Yorker that, though he may have acted inappropriately at times, I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyones career. A number of CBS women executives threw their support to Moonves, including Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, a CBS subsidiary. Reidys statement gave her full support to Moonves: I have directly reported to Leslie Moonves for nearly 12 years, and during all that time I have been heartened and deeply impressed by the way in which women have been promoted and championed under his leadership at CBS, treated as equals, and rewarded for their accomplishments and talent. He has always been supportive, straightforward, and helpful to me and Simon & Schuster. While it is not my desire or intent to question the accounts of the women in the New Yorker article, I can without hesitation state that the Leslie Moonves described therein is not recognizable as the man with whom I have been personally and professionally privileged to work. Moonves continues to run CBS, although the company board has appointed lawyers from the Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton firms to investigate the allegations. Sexual Harassment in Publishing Does your company have a formal sexual harassment policy? Total Male Female Yes 77% 78% 77% No 10% 14% 9% Dont know 12% 6% 14% Prefer not to answer 1% 2% 0% To the best of your knowledge, are complaints followed up on? Total Male Female Yes 45% 67% 40% No 4% 3% 4% Dont know 50% 29% 55% Prefer not to answer 1% 1% 1% Have you ever personally been sexually harassed in the context of your job in the book industry? Total Male Female Yes 18% 3% 22% No 80% 97% 77% Dont know 2% 0% 2% Prefer not to answer 0% 0% 0% If yes, where did this harassment take place ? Suicide is complicated. Though there is only one definitive, devastating result of the completed act, there are countless roads that lead to it. Long Island psychotherapist Nancy R. Goldstein says that there is no one go-to book that is recommended to patients or used in the professional treatment for suicide prevention. Risk for suicide and the clinical presentation of depression varies among different demographics. Assessing suicidality and depression are very different in an elderly person and a teenager, different in men and women, and also may differ according to race and ethnicity. But there is one chilling aspect that everyoneprofessionals and laypeople alikeknows to be true: the statistics are staggering and are worsening every day; the national suicide rate is up 25% since 1999. Among the gruesome litany of stats are the facts that it is now the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. and that suicide claimed the lives of nearly 45,000 people in 2017. Annually, there are approximately 1.3 million attemptsmeaning there is an attempt every 28 seconds. In the wake of the suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, an urgency has arisen to find answers for those at risk, and for the survivors left to cope with the loss of loved ones. The good news is that, although there isnt an easy solution, books can help. Jen Altman, a New Jersey clinical psychologist, agrees with Goldstein that it is difficult to identify a single book but says that literature is so powerful. She cites three overarching issues that can lead to suicide: alienation and lacking a sense of identity, perceiving the world as a lonely place and feeling disconnected, and an inability to cope with or solve problems. Books, by enabling readers to see themselves, can tell them that their stories do not have to have tragic endingsthat there is an alternate path, a way out. We all need a mirror, Altman says. Its no surprise then, that so much of the literature about suicide is either in the form of straightforward memoir or contains elements of it. But one recently published book, Lee Daniel Kravetzs Strange Contagion: Inside the Surprising Science of Infectious Behaviors and Viral Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves, takes a more scientific approach. In 2009, a student from the local high school in Palo Alto, Calif., killed himself by stepping in front of an oncoming train. Within six months, the high school lost four more students to suicide along those tracks. Kravetz, a science journalist, explores what caused these tragedies and how it was possible that a suicide cluster developed in a community of concerned, aware, and hypervigilant adults. He found the answer in social contagions: the physiological, psychological, and social factors that can combine to establish highly volatile states of mind. For many, more than science or therapy, faith brings solace and hope in struggle. Yet, according to Rachael A. Keefe, author of The Lifesaving Church: Faith Communities and Suicide Prevention (Chalice, out now), Theres so much silence around suicide in the church that it is quite literally killing us. A pastor and suicide survivor, Keefe shatters the silence of the church on the topics of mental health, depression, and suicide prevention. The book includes resources about how to educate congregations about suicide prevention, a What Your Congregation Can Do Now section, clinical and theological reflections on suicide, and scriptures and prayers for clergy and church leaders, suicide loss survivors, and those struggling with suicidality. Finding Solace Through Other Peoples Stories IIn Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves (Univ. of Chicago, Nov.), Jesse Bering mixes science and personal experience. Throughout his 30s, Bering, a successful psychologist and writer, thought he was going to kill himself. After he emerged from those dark years, he became curious as to the science and psychology of suicidal impulses: Are they a uniquely human evolutionary development? Would his personal battle return? In Suicidal, he brings together scientific studies, personal stories, and cross-species comparisons to help readers critically analyze their own doomsday thoughts and better understand their condition. Originally published in 2002, Susan Blauners How I Stayed Alive When My Was Trying to Kill Me: One Persons Guide to Suicide Prevention is on the recommended reading list of the American Association of Suicidology and endorsed by the National Council for Suicide Prevention. A survivor of multiple suicide attempts, Blauner eloquently describes the feelings and fantasies surrounding a suicide and offers affirmations and suggestions for those experiencing suicidal thoughts and for their friends and family. Published last year to much acclaim, Cree LeFavours harrowing memoir, Lights on, Rats Out, will be available in paperback on August 21. In the book, she recounts her journey from self-harm and offers her personal take on psychiatric treatment. She moves deftly between meticulously kept records of the dialogue and observations from psychiatric documents and her own memory. As the deaths of Spade and Bourdain reaffirmed, fame and fortune are no safeguard against unhappiness. Legendary rap star and cofounder of Run DMC Darryl McDaniels speaks out about his battle with depression and suicidal thoughts in the 2017 book Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide. Overwhelmed with success, McDaniels turned to alcohol as a retreat from pain, but eventually he plunged into severe depression and became suicidal. In addition to telling his own story, he provides essential information on resources for getting help. Trigger Publishing, which has offices in the U.K. and the U.S., calls itself the voice of mental health and specializes in books on the topic. Its Inspirational series consists of memoirs written by people who have recovered from difficult struggles, who tell their stories with humor and hope. Coming out this month is Sex, Suicide and Serotonin: Taking Myself Apart, Putting Myself Back Together by Debbie Hampton, in which she recounts how she woke up strapped to a hospital bed after having ingested more than 90 pills, causing lasting damage to her brain and body. The mother of two young children, Hampton had to relearn how to speak, eat, and fit back into society. Surviving the Wreckage There are two types of survivors in any discussion of suicide. There are those who survive suicide attempts, and struggle to recover and be free of their demons; and there are those who have lost someone to suicide, or grapple with a loved one who is suicidal. The following books aim to help the latter population of survivors. Comedian Adam Cayton-Hollands career was just taking off when his 28-year-old younger sister, who struggled with mental illness, killed herself. Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragic-Comic Memoir (Touchstone, Aug.) is his moving tribute to his lost sibling and an inspiring guide to navigating grief and pain. Funny and frank, Cayton-Holland shares his journey of choosing life in the wake of a devastating loss. Anxiety: The Missing Stage of GriefA Revolutionary Approach to Understanding and Healing the Impact of Loss (Da Capo Lifelong, Sept.) by Los Angeles therapist Claire Bidwell Smith, who specializes in grief, takes a more measured approach, positing that anxiety is a sixth, largely unrecognized stage of grief and providing practical strategies for healing. Ken Falke and Josh Goldberg adapt the mental health strategies used for veterans to make them practicable by anyone in Struggle Well: Striving in the Aftermath of Trauma (Lioncrest, out now). Falke spent 21 years in the U.S. Navy as a explosive-ordinance disposal (EOD) specialist. Goldberg spent 11 years as a communications executive for two of the worlds biggest corporations. Both have struggled with suicidal thoughts. In 2017, Falke founder of the EOD Warrior Foundation teamed up with Goldberg to found the Boulder Crest Institute, which seeks to help all those who struggle with posttraumatic stress to find strength and achieve lifelong growth. Traumatic events throw our lives into turmoil in unpredictable ways; no two people will respond to them in exactly the same manner, write Steven Southwick and Dennis Charney, the authors of Resilience: The Science of Mastering Lifes Greatest Challenges (Cambridge Univ.), the second edition of which was published in May. Both are experts in psychology and neurobiology. Southwick is on the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine as well as at the School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, where Charney is dean. What will resonate with readers is not their unparalleled credentials but that both have endured severe traumas of their own and have overcome them. In Things Jon Didnt Know About; Our Life After My Husbands Suicide, released in 2017(Jessica Kingsley), Sue Henderson candidly recounts her experience as a single parent after her husband took his own life. In addition to describing the emotional impact of her husbands death, she offers advice on how to talk to children who have lost loved ones about death and suicide, how to support them as they grow up, and how to be aware of the heightened emotional risks they face. Teens at Risk Suicide statistics among teens are even more staggering. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among those ages 1218. Amanda Shofner, a publicist at Free Spirit Publishing, says, Its more important than ever to put books in kids hands that can help them cope with depression and suicidal thoughts. She suggests three such titles from Free Spirit. Registered nurse Bev Cobaincousin of Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in 1994penned her 2007 book When Nothing Matters Anymore to reach out to teens with a lifesaving message: You dont have to be sad, discouraged, or depressed. There is help and hope for you. Cobain shows teens how to recognize depression in themselves and others, as well as how to understand its effects and take care of themselves. She provides treatment options, facts about therapy and medications, and explanations regarding the differences between various types of helping professionalssuch as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, physicians, and counselors. Richard E. Nelson has given more than a thousand workshops across the U.S. on suicide prevention and youth at risk. In The Power to Prevent Suicide: A Guide for Teens Helping Teens, written in 2006 with coauthor Judith C. Galas, he spells out the warning signs, guides teens through the steps of reaching out to a friend, and explains when and how to seek help. School Library Journal praised it as an excellent, practical manual that is easy to read and understand. What to Do When Youre Cranky and Blue by counselor and clinical psychologist James J. Crist, which came out in 2013, is written for children ages nine to 13 who may find themselves feeling down. Crist teaches kids 10 blues busters to shake unhappy feelings. He shows how to talk about feelings, boost self-esteem, make and keep friends, and enjoy time alone. We are very disappointed with the actions of the NTC since they went behind this arrangement to issue a letter indicating the writing of the examination and the fees of (GHC 220.00), it added. READ ALSO: Government increases Student Loans by 50 percent GNAT was reacting to media reports that the NTC has issued the fees to be charged by the NTC for the licensing examination. GNAT, therefore, urged the NTC to suspend the implementation of the examination fees to be charged pending the outcome of the stakeholder meeting with the Hon. Minister of Education. At a meeting with the NTC on May 29th, 2018, the Unions were promised that the documents will be sent to us by NTC through the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, for our study and inputs. Unfortunately, as at the release of this press statement, no document has been received by the Unions as promised; for us to make the necessary input GNAT has also called on the Minister of Education to convene an immediate stakeholder meeting to discuss and resolve outstanding issues. Background In 2017, the NTC indicated that teachers will now have to pass a special examination before they are granted the license to teach. The NTC explained that this is to ensure discipline among teachers and also eliminate non-performing teachers from the system, in pursuance of the Teachers Licensing Policy under the Education Act 778 (2008). The then Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service, Rev. Johnathan Bettey, disclosed that teachers who will fail the exams will not qualify as professional teachers. According to her, she slapped the policeman to provoke him so he could assault her. By so doing, she will court public sympathy which will lead to financial donations as it happened to the woman who was assaulted by a policeman at the banking hall of Midland Savings and Loans Limited in Accra. READ MORE: Woman mercilessly assaulted by police lodges formal complaint The complainant, according to the brief facts seen by Pulse.com.gh, are "police personnel" whilst the accused persons are "petty traders." The case, being handled by D/L/CPL Francis Osei Bonsu, notes that on August 1, 2018, while the police personnel were on duty at the Inchaban police check point, the accused persons were on board "a mini Urvan bus from Takoradi direction towards Shama junction" in the Western Region. On reaching the junction check point, the 1st accused person (a woman) started raining insult on the complainants for blocking the road just for one Ghana cedis from the drivers, the facts of the case noted. One of the duty men now complainant got closer to the bus to enquire from the lady if they have done her wrong or she is the driver. Just as the police man piped through the window of the bus to ask questions, the lady quickly gave him a slap and took off the cap he was wearing, according to the fact sheet. The Urvan driver, the police said: started filming the action of the lady. The police man managed to control his temper by asking the driver to drive to Inchaban Police Station for all the passengers to come down so that he could retrieve his cap from the woman. The police man demanded to know the reason for the ladys action but was told by the lady that she want to provoke the police for them to beat her so that she could also make money as it happened in Accra. READ MORE: Medical report reveals nursing mother suffered severe bruises The accused was handed over to the Western Region Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for further investigations into the matter. The denial comes after former winners of the pageant, Margaret Dery (Miss Ghana 2017), Stephanie Karikari (Miss Ghana 2010), Giuseppina Nana Akua Baafi (Miss Ghana 2013) and Antoinette Delali Kemavor (Miss Ghana 2015) said Inna Party, CEO of Exclusive Event, sexually exploited them to raise funds for the organisation. "It is very sad that in this modern era some young women still see themselves as only useful sex objects. Beauties without brains always consider themselves as sex objects and nothing else," the statement said. Exclusive Events also challenged the former beauty queens to back their sex allegations with mentioning the names and addresses of these Big Men who wanted to sleep with them so the necessary legal action can be taken against them. "Exclusive Events Ghana andhave never on any occasion use the Beauty Pageant to sexually harrass and abuse contestants and that is so," the statement said. It added: "We urge our former beauty queens to exhibit maturity and back their sex allegations by mentioning the names and addresses of these Big Men who wanted to sleep with them so the necessary legal action can be taken against them. Chariots Delivery, which is the first-ever charity-driven courier and delivery service company in Ghana, was launched on Friday, August 3, 2018, at the King Solomons Heights, near Spintex road. The company offers services in all the major cities in Ghana and across Africa, including same-day deliveries in Accra and Tema. Also, Chariots Delivery offers next-day delivery to other regional and district capitals in Ghana and to Lagos. Speaking at the launch, CEO of King Solomon s Group, Kaycey Ogbonna, said 10 pesewas of the proceeds of each service will be donated to accident victims. According to him, the company had other investment options but decided to resort to this course because we are all potential victims of road accident. He said Chariots Delivery is not just focused on making profits, but also providing support to the Ghanaian society. As the first ever charity-driven Courier and Delivery Service Company, we aim at not just providing business solutions to Ghanaians and Africans at large but a step that will provide support to society, Mr. Ogbonna said. He further stated that the courier and delivery service company will ensure that customers get the best of services and hustle free deliveries. Anchored with speed, safety and innovations, Chariots Delivery will provide the best of service to our customers. Key to note among our service delivery is our Web and mobile application that provides a real time tracking system for both the company and customers to track their packages to the point of delivery, Mr. Ogbonna added. Chariots Delivery is driven by technology and offers 24/7 service to customers, irrespective of their locations. UniBank Ghana Limited, The Royal Bank Limited, Beige Bank Limited, Sovereign Bank Limited, and Construction Bank Limited were on Wednesday merged to form the Consolidated Bank of Ghana Limited (CBG) owing to liquidity challenges and fraud in acquiring banking license. READ MORE: Here are the reasons BoG revoked licenses of 5 indigenous banks There will be no way Bank of Ghana can be exonerated for it has in itself totally failed its laws of operating as a mother bank, said Mr Pratt on Peace FMs 'Kokrokoo' show. How can you grant licenses to yet-to-become banks that have a fault with its documents it is a statement over your capacity as the issuer to do due diligence. He also cited government indebtedness as a major factor in the collapse of the local five banks. I will not accept the blame that some bank institution leaders are the cause of their banks' malfunction, rather governments numerous deficits and some citizens unpaid loans to some of the banks are also a major factor, he said. I found it amazing that foreign banks are left to operate in the same procedures and same total adequacy rate, just as local banks in this country. So how do we grow and improve local banks under these criteria? he asked. The worrying trend is that, in many cases, even after the public has been misinformed, and the true facts are later made known, mainstream media often chickens out of an honest open acknowledgement that we were wrong. The choice is often to sweep it under the carpet and move on to the next big story, he said. This occurs, the president posited, often to get the best headline or to be the first to break the news. This happens when there is a little twist of facts often to get the best headline or a publication of the unverified claim in the haste to be first in breaking the news, he said. According to him, deliberate misinformation must be confronted, identified and eliminated. It is not something to be left only to regulators to deal with, he said. READ MORE: Another NDC bigwig is boosting the Alabi campaign In an interview, the former Ghana Consul General to Dubai said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will be "doomed" if the former president is made to lead the party into the 2020 election. Mahama appointed me but I know he is incompetent; the NDC will be doomed if we make him flagbearer, he told Asempa FM on Friday. "Im making all these noises because I know we will lose if Mahama is made flagbearer. Ghanaians are ready for real change so this is a golden opportunity for us all to take off our partisan huts and put Ghana first, he added. Ambassador Osei, has been Mr Mahama critic in chief since the ex-president gave hints that he will run for president again. The three students, Shehu Abdullahi of ABU, Jibrin Abdullahi and Idris Usman both of IBBU, were reportedly arrested on July 23, 2018. According to Punch, the students were arraigned on Thursday, July 2, 2018, before Senior Magistrate Fatai Auna on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide, contrary to Sections 97 and 221 of the Penal Code Law. Narrating how Mubarak was killed, the prosecution told the court that the suspects beat Mubarak mercilessly after he was accused of stealing an android phone, which belongs to one of them. The prosecution added that the suspect took the deceased from Etsu-iko hostel to Cheche Village where he was illegally detained and beaten to death. During the detention, the deceased was beaten to stupor before being put in a toilet where he lost consciousness. He, however, died on his way to the hospital after the trio later tried to help him regain consciousness. the prosecution said. ALSO READ:M The prosecution further said that the case was reported at Lapai Division of the Niger State Police Command by the Chief Security Officer of the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida University, Captain Aliyu Mohammed (retd.) leading to the arrest of the suspects. However, while ruling on the matter, the Senior Magistrate, Fatai Auna said he has no jurisdiction to entertain the case as he urged the prosecution to duplicate the case file and forward it to the Ministry of Justice. According to Punch, the Joint Action Committee of the university on Friday, July 3, 2018, held a press conference where it announced that it could resolve to indefinite strike. The committee, comprising the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, National Association of Academic Technologists and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, accused Osun and Oyo states, which own the institution of deliberately trying to incapacitate the school so that their state individual universities could survive, Punch reports. Alesinloye Muraina who is the SSANU chairman in an address he read at the event said both Oyo and Osun state governments starve LAUTECH of funds. Muraina said the situation had worsened since the two state governments promised to make corrections, adding that was the reason the union called off its 16-month strike on October 23, 2017. ALSO READ: When is LAUTECH going on strike again He said, The government said that the school accounting records were untidy and that forensic auditing would be done by KPMG. The result has yet to be made public. The external auditor discovered that the university can only survive by adequate and proper funding from the two states. The issue of allegation of operating 97 accounts was found to be imaginary and a mirage. The action of the two governments is to destroy the last standing legacy of the Yoruba race educationally by their refusal to face their statutory responsibilities to the school and incessant increasing of school fees. Governors of Oyo State and of Osun State have destroyed the mission and vision of the founders of the school. Their mischief is to ensure LAUTECH does not survive so that University of Osun and Technical University, Ibadan can survive. Academic staff too may go on strike In a similar development, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomosho threaten to start another strike action on Thursday, July 26, 2018. The union said that LAUTECH workers are owed 10 months salary and promotion arrears, among others adding that the institution itself lacked adequate funding. However, Adewuyi Daniel is a rare talent among medical students in Nigeria. In this interview with Pulse, the 200 level student of Obafemi Awolowo University(OAU)talks about how he developed his pencil arts and why he decided to study Medicine. Pulse: When did you discover your pencil drawing skill? Daniel: I've always been the one whose hands never stops disturbing everything (there is a label for that in Yoruba). But I actually learnt the reason what my hands don't stop in the Junior Secondary classes when we had to draw a lot. I was always the best. Pulse: Why did you choose to study Medicine when you are so talented with an amazing pencil drawing skill? Daniel: I chose Medicine for three reasons: The Nigerian factors, the parental factors and the personal factors. Most importantly, I love being among the few best, and you can say that about Medicine. Pulse: Did you learn the skill anywhere or it is self-taught? Daniel: I come from a talented family, every member of the family has something they know best which they didn't even have to learn from anyone. I guess that affected me too because I can't say I learn the pencil art from anyone, but then, I can't deny I have some people whose work guide me in making mine better. Pulse: How do you intend to combine medicine and art together? Daniel: I'm a very polygamous person when it comes to making things happen, I could multi-task and still do amazing. I want to have my art gallery which will be where I spend my off-hospital times. I'm not sure I want to have a hospital yet, but I can tell my eyes are on the office of the Minister of Health. ALSO READ: VC says OAU has the best ICT facility in Nigeria Pulse: What level are you now? Daniel: I'm in 200 Level. Pulse: So since there is a parental influence in your choice of course, does this affect your academic performance as you are not studying what you are passionate about? Daniel: I'm passionate about what I'm studying too, and I don't think I want to study Art or even anything in the Faculty of Art. That's why I mentioned the Nigerian factor earlier on. I have interest in the Biological Sciences, that's why I joined the Science Class in Senior Secondary School. My parents only influenced me to choose Medicine over any other Biological Sciences course. Pulse: Medical students often complain about their course being one of the most difficult courses, how do you combine the rigour of your course with your creative work? Daniel: Medicine is exactly what only the Medical students understand. It is difficult. When it gets to OAU's Medicine, it's like you have no other thing in your life anymore but Medicine. Medicine likes to take the whole of your 24 hours every day. But I have my way. I manage my time brilliantly. I carry the work I'm doing around, and my tools too. Any tiny chance I have to stay idle, I just draw. Pulse: How then do you relax when you jump from academic tasks to your passion-driven task? Daniel: I'm introverted, so relaxation has to be with myself and my stuff, which makes it easy and possible to be anytime and anywhere. Pulse: If you have to choose between Medicine and Pencil Art as a career which will you choose? Kazaure gave the commendation when he visited the NYSC permanent orientation camp on Saturday in Paiko Local Government Area of the state. He said that the renovation of the camp would provide befitting accommodation for corps members and ensure their safety. Represented by Mrs Victoria Okakwu, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, the director-general appealed to the government to improve on the welfare of corps members. He enjoined corps members to take seriously the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development training in order to become self-reliant and after service. After the three weeks orientation course, you are going to be posted to your place of primary assignment; ensure you make positive impact that will last in the minds of the people you will encounter, he said. Earlier, Mrs Theresa Arokoyo, the state NYSC Coordinator, said that 2,125 corps members were registered for the 2018 Batch B orientation course comprising 1,129 females and 996 males. The University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun announced the development at a press conference on Tuesday, July 31, 2018. The VC according to NAN said the donation was to mark the maiden edition of the Ahmed Bola Tinubu Spirit of Africa Awards, instituted by the institution to honour the statesman. Fagbohun said that the awards had been slated for September 27 adding that President Muhammadu Buhari was expected at the event. The VC said, The former visitor to our university, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has fully bought into this vision of our institution by accepting this event to be an annual event in his honour. Asiwaju Tinubu has long been a champion of a progressive cause in Nigeria and is a committed Pan-Africanist. His advocacy for anti-poverty initiatives in ending all forms of ethnic and religious biases in Nigeria is well known, We will be hosting eminent personalities across the African continent, including heads of government, leaders in both private and public sectors and policy makers from all walks of life. The Vice-Chancellor added that a former U.S. envoy, Mr Walter Carrington, had been chosen to lead a team of respected individuals to select people to be honoured at the event. LASU to build 6000 space hostel As part of effort to provide more infrastructural facilities for students, the management of the university recently announced that the university is ready to deliver a 6,000-bed space accommodation for the students. The VC made this known while receiving a team of newsmen from the Independent Newspapers on Monday, March 26, 2018. Rotary Club of Chattanooga Hamilton Place celebrated a rotary club member who achieved a second Paul Harris Fellow recognition. Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1000 or more to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. "During the past 100 years, the Rotary Foundation has spent $3 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects such as efforts towards the eradication of polio, training future peacemakers, supporting clean water, strengthening local economics," officials said. Phil Smartt with the Rotary Club of Chattanooga Hamilton Place, achieved a Paul Harris Fellow recognition Plus 1, which means he contributed the initial $1,000 and recently contributed a second $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. "The Rotary Club of Chattanooga Hamilton Place is excited and proud to announce Phil's achievement as a Paul Harris Fellow Plus 1," officials said. A news platform based in Abuja, The Nigerian Voice reported that Justice A.A. Onojovwo on Friday, August 3, 2018 sentenced Okoro and his accomplice, Ejemuta Adam Ogofure, a driver to death by firing squad or hanging for kidnapping and armed robbery at Oleh in Isoko South Local Government and its environs. According to the Nigerian Voice, the Judge after listening to the prosecuting counsel said Okoro and his accomplice are guilty of the charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, kidnapping, attempted kidnap and demanding property with menace. Justice Onojovwo, who condemned the criminal acts of the accused persons reportedly said they are to die for kidnapping Ogboghro Vincent, a Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro in May 7, 2012. The judge also held that the accused persons also robbed the lecturer of his Honda Accord and also placed a ransom of N5m on him before he could be released. ALSO READ: Dad impregnates daughter he has been sleeping with for 8 years Justice Onojovwo according to the Nigerian Voice also said that the prosecution was able to establish the case of the substantial offence of kidnapping and multiple armed robberies against two out of the three accused persons arraigned before the court on a 10 -count charge. Mrs. Jereoma Sam-Oligida, Counsel to the State told the court through the prosecuting witnesses that the accused persons robbed the lecturer of his car and thereafter whisked him to Bayelsa State where he was kept for days while a ransom of N5m was demanded from his family. According to Punch, the herdsmen attacked Zanwra area in Jebbu Miango community on Friday, August 3, 2018. Police confirm deaths The spokesman of the Plateau state police command, Matthias Tyopev also confirmed the incident. According to Tyopev his men have commenced investigation into the recent attacks. He said Today, being Saturday, August 4 at 0745hrs, the Nigeria Police Force, Plateau State Command, Jos received an information that on August 3 at about 1830hrs, unknown armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen attacked Zanwra area of Jebbu Miango, Bassa LGA. As a result of the attack three persons were shot dead. They are; Emmanuel Gado M aged 22, Ladi Monday F age 30 and Mary Monday F aged 5 years. Police detectives led by the Divisional Crime Officer of Bassa Police Division mobilised to the scene of crime. One expended shell of 7.62mm ammunition was recovered, Photographs of the corpses were also taken. Meanwhile, the corpses were buried by relations according to Irigwe rites. An investigation is in progress to track and arrest the perpetrators to face justice. We also appeal to members of the public to help with the needed information to unravel the mystery behind the attack. Punch also reports that the herdsmen invaded the community after the new Commander of Operation Safe Haven, Maj. Gen. Augustine Agundu visited the area. Between Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24, 2018, over 100 lives were lost following attacks on several communities in Barkin Ladi local government area of Plateau state by Fulani herdsmen. Heroic Imam gets national honour Meanwhile, the Imam who saved 300 people, mainly Christians, during an attack in Plateau State, Abdullahi Abubakar was recently invited to Abuja by President Buhari for a handshake and a national award. According to Vanguard, Frank the same amount is being offered to members of the party in the House of Representatives also, to impeach the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara. Saraki recently announcedhis departure from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently. According to the former APC spokesman, the APC is jittery about the possible defection of the House Speaker. Frank made the revelation in a statement which he issued to newsmen on Saturday, August 4, 2018. Lawmakers in Sokoto, Benue, Kwara to receive N55,500,000 each Frank also alleged that House of Assembly members in Sokoto, Benue, Kwara states will be given ($150,000) about N55,500,000 each to impeach the Governors Aminu Tambuwal, Samuel Ortom and Abdulfatah Ahmed respectively, who recently dumped the ruling party along with their supporters. He said From available information, the Presidency in collaboration with the leadership of the APC is about to dole out the sum of $400,000 each to APC Senators and House of Representatives members to impeach Saraki who has defected to the PDP and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara who they fear may soon dump the party as well. They are also offering legislators in some State Houses of Assembly the sum of $150,000 (about N50million) each, to impeach their Governors that recently defected to the PDP. Buhari allegedly ordered NNPC to bear the cost The former APC spokesman also alleged that President Buhari ordered the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to make the payments. I have been reliably informed that after separate meetings with APC Senators and House of Representatives members, shortly before his U.K. trip, the President summoned the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and after informing him that APC lawmakers have a proposal, he directed the GMD to attend to their needs. I want Nigerians and members of the international community to note that this presidential order is coming at a period when State Governors have incessantly complained, during their monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings in Abuja, about unexplained shortfalls in remittances of crude oil sales to the Federation Account by the NNPC. From this curious directive, it is now clear to Nigerians and the world at large, that the amount accruing to the Federation Account from monthly crude oil sales is being deliberately and illegally deducted at source and set aside by the NNPC on the orders of the presidency to fund illegal operations like their present desperate bid to remove Saraki, Dogara and Governors that recently dumped the APC. I am not surprised about this unholy cash inducements to lawmakers to do a dirty job because the Presidency and the APC recently conducted a dressed rehearsal of an inducement heist in Ekiti State during the see and buy votes saga with which they allegedly rigged the Ekiti Governorship election in favour of the APC. Frank calls for help According to Vanguard, Frank also called on the international community to call President Buhari to order. He also warned the presidency and the APC to stop their move to impeach the Governors and the National Assembly leaders. According to him, the plot will lead to chaos in the country. Frank said I also want Nigerians and members of the international community to jointly hold the presidency and the leadership of the APC responsible for any unintended consequences of their present action aimed at removing the leadership of the National Assembly and governors who recently switched allegiances from the APC to the opposition PDP. Let me warn the Presidency and the leadership of the APC to desist from their present desperate plot to bribe some Federal and State legislators so as to force the illegal removal of Saraki, Dogara and Governors that recently dumped the APC. Let me also urge APC lawmakers to be circumspect about this unholy transaction as they will be risking the wrath of Nigerians should they yield to the inducements and attempt the illegality for which they are now being primed with loads of cash. Is it not curious that this illegal cash bazaar is being clandestinely orchestrated by a government that has visited untold hardship on Nigerians in the last three years? On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, PDP members in the House of Representatives alleged that some Senators are planning to impeach the Senate President illegally. He made this known at the 60th Passing Out Parade (POP) of the Nigeria Military School (NMS) held in Zaria, Kaduna State. Represented by the Commandant, Depot, Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Victor Okwudili-Ezugwu, the army boss said that the Nigerian Army was doing its best to restore normalcy in crisis areas across the country. He said let me use this opportunity to assure Nigerians that the Army is committed to the unity and indivisibility of this country. We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that no part of this country is occupied by criminal elements or insurgents. We will also continue to support the civil authorities in ensuring that citizens are safe and protected in the course of pursuing their legitimate activities. The army chief said that the security of the country was of great concern to the Federal Government and Nigerians, saying that the Nigerian Army, in collaboration with other security agencies wasable to recover areas from the hands of terrorists and insurgents. Buratai added that economic activities in affected areas were gradually taking shape and that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were returning to their ancestral homes and farmers back to the land. He also assured that efforts were actively on to ensure that clashes between herders and farmers were brought to complete halt. He said the Nigerian Army have the constitutional right to support other security agencies to ensure the security and safety of Nigerians. This is an obligation that we must undertake in line with our oath of allegiance to the nation. I will like to recognise the role of our galant troops in all ongoing operations across the country. Accordingly, the emotional and spiritual support of the family members and relations at large for the troops is highly appreciable. The chief of army staff, who expressed concern over the well-being of students of army school,assured that their educational and medical facilities had been upgraded. He particularly congratulated the graduating boys and applauded their determination and discipline during their stay in the school and urged them to be good ambassadors of the institution and the Nigerian Army. He charged them to always exhibit high sense of discipline, commitment, patriotism and dedication wherever they found themselves. Not only did two state governors and the party's spokesperson defect to the People's Democratic Party (PDP) this week, the icing on the cake has to be Senate President, Bukola Saraki, finally making the move everyone saw coming. It's hard to say with any authority if the defections had anything to do with the president's decision to go on vacation, but he left the country to his auxiliary home in London for 10 days to get some air. Here are the biggest stories from this week: Defection-gate After weeks of intense speculation about his political future, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, dumped the APC for the PDP, stating that the ruling party neglected and persecuted him. It didn't take long before Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, jumped the ship after Saraki, claiming that he was also neglected by the party. A Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa, Ahmed Ibeto, also dumped the APC for the PDP after resigning his position. The band of defectors reunited to rejoice at the PDP's NEC meeting where Saraki was appointed the party's national leader. Judging from the words dropping out of his own mouth, President Buhari is not particularly happy about all the defections. He made his feelings known during a campaign rally in Bauchi which held just hours after he met security chiefs in Abuja. He soon jetted out of the country and headed to London for a 10-day vacation, leaving Prof Yemi Osinbajo in charge as Acting President. The president also emerged as the new Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Imo drama rages on The months of simmering tension between Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, and his deputy, Eze Madumere, reached fever pitch this week as Madumere was impeached by the House of Assembly and quickly replaced with Calistus Ekenze. Unwilling to be outplayed, Madumere secured an order in court which stopped the government from inaugurating Ekenze just yet. In other news... The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) is back in the news as it opened its secretariat this week and inaugurated committees. Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu was forced to deny that he suffered from high blood pressure while being questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Over 50 National Assembly lawmakers, including the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the former spokesman of the APC, Bolaji Abdullahi, the Governors of Kwara, Benue, Sokoto states, Abdulfatah Ahmed, Samuel Ortom and Aminu Tambuwal respectively, have left the ruling party. Also, 13 local govt chairmen in Benue, all the local govt chairmen in Kwara state, including some lawmakers in the state have so far dumped the APC for the PDP. Speaking on the recent defections, Sagay said that no power can crush President Buharis government. Daily Post reports that he said Obasanjo has a hand, and open about it. He is not hiding it that his greatest objective now is to stop Buhari from being re-elected. He has not hidden it. Buharis govt will be stronger now The PACAC chairman also described the defections as a positive thing for the APC. He said that Buharis government will be stronger, adding that Saraki and the others who came into the APC made the party sick. It is not possible to cripple or frustrate Buhari government. He was elected until May 29, 2019. Nothing on earth anybody can do about it; he will be in power until that day for certain. So, how are they going to cripple the government? When you have a mole; an internal enemy, who is gradually eating inside of your party out and making it sick, finally crawls out because some injection has been given to you, which destroys it or forces it out, I think it is a positive thing. In fact, Buharis government is going to be stronger now. There is nothing much. Everybody is truly going to where he belongs; there are too many odd fellows both in APC and the PDP; too many people who do not belong, who are ideologically different, whose social and moral obligations were different; those who do not care for the country, for the populace, but only care for their pockets and progress. They were all mixed up and that created a lot of tension and crises. Those who were indiscipline and totally uncontrollable were in a party headed by Buhari, who is a man of discipline and integrity. The whole thing was a mixture of odd fellows, which sparked off so many crises, so now that they have gone, there is going to be peace and progress and productivity, he added. Senators to receive N148m each to impeach Saraki Meanwhile, former APC spokesman, Timi Frank has alleged that the ruling party is offering Senators $400,000about N148,000,000 each (at the rate of N370 to $1) to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki. Frank told Vanguard that each member of the APC in the House of Representatives, will also be given the same amount to impeach the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, whom the party fears might decamp to the PDP soon. He alleged that House of Assembly members in Sokoto, Benue, Kwara states will be given ($150,000) about N55,500,000 each to impeach the Governors Aminu Tambuwal, Samuel Ortom and Abdulfatah Ahmed respectively, who recently dumped the ruling party along with their supporters. The former APC spokesman further revealed that Buhari allegedly ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to make the payments. Though Atiku and Obasanjo served Nigeria as the Vice President and President of Nigeria for eight years respectively - between 1999 - 2006 - Obasanjo has refused to change his stand against Atiku. In an interview with Premium Times, Obasanjo said he would never support the candidacy of Atiku knowingly in other to avoid God's wrath. "How can I be on the same side with Atiku? To do what? If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support," Obasanjo told Premium Times. ALSO READ: Nobody can intimidate me - Obasanjo Continuing, Obasanjo said, It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual. If you are working for the good of Nigeria, I am working with you. If you are not working for the good of Nigeria it does not matter who you are I am not working with you. I don't have personal grudge with Atiku or anyone - Obasanjo Obasanjo however told Premium Times that he has no personal grudge with Atiku or anyone but maintained that he knows the ex-VP very well, hence, his reasons for not changing his stand on Atiku's ambition. I do not have personal grudges with anyone. If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us. Most of you do not understand the way I operate. I know Atiku very well. And I have mentioned my position with Atiku. My position has not changed." Continuing, Obasanjo said, If my children are getting married, he has sent representatives. If his children are getting married, I have sent representatives. That is social. That is not political. On political ground, my position has not changed. If I support Atiku for a political office other than the one I supported him in the past when I did not know him. Now that I know him, God will not forgive me. ALSO READ: Atiku Abubakar says Obasanjo does not have a say Obasanjo wanted to become Nigeria's life president - Atiku Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC Hausa service on Saturday, April 28, 2018, Atiku Abubakar has said that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo cannot stop his presidential ambition. Shedding more light on why he was at loggerheads with his boss, Atiku said his troubles startedwhen he refused to support the tenure elongation plan of former President Obasanjo. The Force Information Officer of the operation, Col. Muhammad Dole, disclosed this in a statement in Kaduna. In continuation of the ongoing Operation SHARAN DAJI, the troops conducted several raids and ambush operations in major identified camps and routes in Maradun, Tsafe and Zurmi Local Goverment Areas of Zamfara State. He said during the encounter at DABAN- DOKA village near Dansadau, troops layed ambush along bandits identified routes where 20 bandits were neutralised. Some bandits escaped with gunshot wounds and several motorcycles were burnt. In one of the troops encounter with the bandits, 2 notorious bandits, Bello Danboko and Sani Maza, were eliminated in Yanwari ward near Yankuzo and Mai Tukunya village near Dansadau all in Zamfara. According to him, during recent clearance operation along Mashema, Kwadi, kalage, Gambiru and Kagara axis, heavy fight ensued between troops and bandits. However, due to overwhelming military fire power, a reasonable number of bandits were neutralised and their camps were set ablaze. This successful feat has created relative peace and spurred massive returns of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their villages in Zurmi Local Govt Area . He said the troops had begun aggressive day and night fighting patrols around Kyaranke and Giwabawa villages in Kanoma District of Maru area, following a tip-off on imposition of one million Naira levy each on the 2 villages. Another tip-off led to the rescue and recovery of kidnapped victims and the sum of N500,000 ransom from kidnappers in Subulu forest. He also said the troops in their recent exploits, apprehended 2 notorious bandits, known for terrorising Maradun town and its environs. He identified the alleged abandits as Muhammad Aminu and another one popularly called Yellow at Tashan Udda in Maradun. They are undergoing interrogation. He said some weapons, ammunitions, motorcycles, phones and large herds of cows were recovered. He said the Force Commander, Maj-Gen. Mohammed Mohammed, wishes to assure the law abiding citizens that the troops are poised to ensure quick restoration of peace and safety in all the vulnerable areas in Kaduna and Zamfara States. Muhammad urged the populace to continue to give credible information for the success of the operation. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the registration began on April 27, 2017. Mr Solomon Ogbonna, President, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, Lagos State Chapter, said in Lagos on Saturday that those yet to register for the cards should create time to do so in places they would want vote in 2019. Ogbonna addressed a press conference to announce the 2018 New Yam Festival celebration of Igbos in Lagos State. He said that Igbos residing outside, but wishing to vote in their home states, should register there. We want to end the belief that the Igbos do not vote at elections. Even if there had been something like that in the past, we want to ensure that it does not happen again.We have written to various market leaders in Lagos where our people are trading to encourage members to get the card. We need to be part of the process to elect leaders of the country and the states where we are getting our daily bread, Ogbonna said. The newly-inaugurated president said that the group had been maintaining a good relationship with the Lagos State Government. He advised Igbos in Lagos State to live in harmony with their host communities and avoid inflammatory statements. He said that the New Yam Festival would be used to strengthen unity among Igbos in the state. Mr Cyril Madugba, Chairman, Igbo Speaking Communities Ojo, Lagos, Chapter, said at the event that a committee had been inaugurated to mobilise Igbos in Ojo to vote during elections. According to Daily Post, the Senator said that the police authorities have refused to release his international passport. He said they were ordered by a Magistrates Court in the Federal Capital Territory to give him back his passport. The lawmaker, who said he no longer feels safe around the police, asked his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome to collect the document on his behalf. Melaye said The same police have been looking for me to kill me. As I speak to you, I have six arraignments in six different courts for one frivolous, framed-up charge or the other. No politician has been so humiliated in this country. Six arraignment! One by the Federal Government through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and five by the Nigeria Police. The latest was on Wednesday last week, a fresh arraignment before an FCT High Court. Dino Melaye was recently kidnapped and he escaped from his captors by hiding on a tree. Salman Khan had requested that he be exempted from the order but his request has been rejected by the court on Saturday. Salman Khan who had been sentenced to five years in jail for killing two blackbucks in Kankani village during the shoot of Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998 walked out of the Jodhpur Central Jail on April 7, two days after his sentencing. (Photo: File) Jodhpur: Bollywood actor Salman Khan, released on bail in the decade old blackbuck poaching case had been ordered to seek permission form the Jodhpur court to travel outside the country. The actor had requested that he be exempted from the order but his request has been rejected by the court on Saturday. Salman Khan who had been sentenced to five years in jail for killing two blackbucks in Kankani village during the shoot of Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998 walked out of the Jodhpur Central Jail on April 7, two days after his sentencing. His bail was agreed on a condition by Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi that the actor can't leave the country without the court's permission. Also Read: Hours after bail, Salman Khan walks out of jail, reaches Mumbai After that, every time the 52-year-old actor had travelled abroad, he had to inform the court. The actors counsel Mahesh Bora applied for relief saying that Salman Khan's work demands him to travel abroad frequently. The case against Salman Khan was brought by and fought for two decades by members of the Bishnoi community, who worship antelopes and the blackbuck is considered to be especially sacred. Salman Khans co-stars from the movie including Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam Kothari and Sonali Bendre, were, however, acquitted by the Jodhpur court, even though they were present at the time of the shooting. Akpabio held a meeting with Vice-President YemiOsinbajo at the Presidential Villa on Thursday, August 2, 2018, fuelling speculations of his possible defection. One of the reasons given in the media for his reported defection plan, is the reported fall out between him and his protegee and Governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Emmanuel Udom. Akpabio allegedly being blackmailed According to a source who spoke to Punch, Akpabio wants to leave the PDP because he is being blackmailed. The source said that the former Governor has been asked to deliver Akwa-Ibom state to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or face the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). What is happening is that the APC has threatened to deal with him, using the EFCC and he doesnt want that at all. Although, we are all pleading with him not to leave the party (PDP), but he is afraid. He doesnt want to be in EFCCs net at all. He is really under pressure but we hope that he would listen to us, the source said. PDP sources react According to The Nation, some PDP sources think that defection is not the right way for Akpabio to go. A member of the PDP source who spoke about the defection report said I think Akpabio has irreconcilable differences with Governor Udom Emmanuel and our leaders stepped into the matter and initiated reconciliation. If at the end he is defecting, we are suspecting that he wants to join the APC to settle scores with Emmanuel in 2019. The two leaders have been managing themselves, but Akpabio seems unhappy with the governor. We felt that defection is not an ideal option for Akpabio. Maybe he has another agenda. Another source told The Nation that By the policy of our party, Governor Emmanuel cannot be denied the right of first refusal for the PDP gubernatorial ticket in 2019. We cannot abandon him to please Akpabio. You can see that as soon as Governor Samuel Ortom defected, he was automatically made the leader of PDP in Benue State. Some of our leaders have been comparing notes and there is this suspicion that Akpabio might defect because of multiple cases he has with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The sad aspect is that the Senate Minority Leader does not share his position with anyone. At one of our meetings during the week, we all noticed that Akpabio was not vibrant and articulate in his speech. He spoke like a despondent leader who is fed up with PDP. Our fears were confirmed when he boycotted the NEC meeting on Thursday. He said he was travelling abroad, only for us to see him at the Villa with VP Osinbajo. Earlier, we learnt that he had wanted to defect to APC on the floor of the Senate on July 24, but the President of the Senate, Dr. Saraki, who got intelligence report, did not allow him to have his way. APC ready to welcome Akpabio Meanwhile, an APC source has said that some top party chieftains are in talks with Senator Akpabio to work out conditions of his defection. The APC and some of our leaders are in serious talks with Akpabio, who is rated as a matchmaker in the South-South. The talks border on more deals for the South-South, especially increase in derivation formula; enhanced infrastructure for oil producing areas; how to sustain the ongoing reforms by President Muhammadu Buhari; and arresting the developmental slide in Akwa Ibom State. The former governor said his likely defection to APC is informed more by patriotism than selfish interest, the source added. ALSO READ:What the law says about Saraki remaining senate president According to the source, The terms are still being worked out, but APC is favourably disposed to Akpabios defection. The ex-governor has an open mind, he has no airs and he does not pretend in asking for a better nation which he thinks Buhari can offer. In fact, it was part of the talks that made him visit Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday when the PDP national EXCO was meeting in Abuja. We will no doubt accept him into APC. This is a major development from the South-South. Mass defection The All Progressives Congress (APC) has been hit by mass defections in the past few weeks. Currently, 3 Governors, over 50 lawmakers in the National Assembly including the Senate President , Bukola Saraki have defected to the PDP. He said he would rather quit politics, instead of joining any other political group. NAN reports that Makarfi is in Minna to drum up support for his presidential bid in 2019. If I leave PDP, I would leave politics. If I was to leave PDP, I could have defected a long time ago.So that possibility is not there, he said The one time governor of Kaduna said he predicted the recent mass defections to PDP, adding that the biggest challenge is managing it. I welcome all the defectors and as a matter of fact I predicted it. I said it that after the APC convention you would see a lot of defections and thats what has happened. But the challenge is how to manage it. If we manage it well, the party would be better for it but if we dont we may run into problems, he said. His position in Minna on the defectors, is softer than what he said in Lokoja on Friday, when he warned his party against giving them special treatment. The said if not for the steadfastness of committed members, PDP could have become history. Some people when you pinch them like this (touching his arm), they will run to another party. When the going was tough, I stayed on but you accept them into your house and give them your guest room. Next, they take the Master Bedroom; next, they drive you out of your house. We must not allow this, nor give undue advantage to them, so that we do not alienate our people. Modu Sheriff was brought from another party; they said he had three jets; he had billions, but what did he do? He was taking the party down, but I, the bush boy, with the support of others, I was able to make members close ranks, and today, we can all see. Makarfi said Senator Bukola Saraki should be left alone as Senate President because he has not breached any provision of the constitution on account of his defection from APC to PDP. The constitution says the senators should elect from among themselves and not from the majority party, said Makarfi, who also was a senator from 2007 to 2011. Party affiliations are only attached to other positions like minority whip, majority leader and so on Therefore, Saraki should be left alone because he was elected based on constitutional provisions and his continued stay is lawful, he added He noted that addressing issues of insecurity, unemployment, power, infrastructure and national unity would be his top priorities if given the chance to lead the country. A basket of issues including security, infrastructure and power would be top of my priorities. National cohesion is also key because we are divided and getting more divided by the day. And this national cohesion is where the issue of restructuring comes in as it will address unemployment, he added. Ologbondiyan, who described the ruling APC as a discredited fold, said that nobody will choose to run into a sinking ship. He said Indeed, no one, no matter the enticement, runs into a collapsing building from where terrified, wounded and traumatized people are already taking flight for their dear lives. Nigerians can now see the shameless hypocrisy of the APC, which is now going about, cap in hand, to beg the same persons it haunted as corrupt and evil, seeing that it has been overrun by the tides. Having failed to cow such persons through threats, media trials, trumped-up corruption charges and raw violence, the APC is now seeking to ensnare them with promises of political opportunities it no longer has control over. ALSO READ: The dilapidated APC, by now, ought to have known that no Nigerian will again fall for its gimmick of false promises and subject him or herself to the prison yard democracy, that it offers. Rumours of Akpabios defection Senator Godswill Akpabios meeting with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo recently, has fuelled rumours of his defection from the PDP. A source who spoke to Punch, said that the Senator wants to leave because he is being blackmailed to deliver Akwa-Ibom state to the APC or face the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Three Governors and over 50 lawmakers in the National Assembly including the Senate President , Bukola Saraki have left the ruling party for the PDP. During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing the protests. "At 9 pm (1530 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying. It gave only his clerical rank -- Hojatoleslam -- not his given name. "They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said. "These people came with rocks and broke the sign and all the windows of the prayer house and they were chanting against the system." 'Death to the dictator' Videos on social media in recent days have shown people marching in the streets of several cities, chanting "Death to the dictator" and other radical slogans. But these have been impossible to verify and the authorities have charged that they are promoted by foreign-based opposition groups funded by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Foreign media are barred from observing or filming "unauthorised" protests. But the government of President Hassan Rouhani also faces opposition from conservatives and religious leaders, who have long opposed his outreach to the West and are keen to leverage anger over corruption to unseat him. The conservative Qom News published a video of a protest in the holy city of Mashhad after Friday prayers, in which a cleric tells a sizeable crowd: "Most of your representatives don't care about people's problems. "Most have two passports and their families are abroad. The judiciary should find these people and arrest them," the cleric says, to chants of "Allahu Akbar" from the crowd. So far, social media reports suggest the current protests are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities. Sanctions return But all Iranians are concerned about the struggling economy, especially since the United States walked out of the nuclear deal in May and announced it would reimpose full sanctions in two stages. The first phase hits on Tuesday with blocks on financial transactions and imports of raw materials, as well as sanctions on Iran's automotive sector and commercial aircraft purchases. Iran Air announced it would take delivery of five ATR aircraft from the French-Italian firm on Sunday, sneaking under the wire before the sanctions return. Iran says the sanctions are endangering lives by blocking the sale of new planes and spare parts for its ageing fleets. Iran's Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes in February after one of them crashed in the Zagros mountains, killing all 66 people onboard. Remaining sanctions -- including on Iran's oil and gas sector and central bank -- will resume on November 5. Although smaller foreign firms have vowed to work around the US measures, multinationals such as France's Total and Peugeot, and Germany's Siemens have already said they will have to pull out. Increased US hostility has also driven a run on Iran's currency, which has lost around two-thirds of its value in six months. It is not yet clear how all this will affect ordinary Iranians, but a Western diplomat in Tehran who monitors the economy said prices of basic foods were already creeping up. "We are already seeing car prices going through the roof over fears about raw material imports," she said. "In November, when oil sales are affected, we will have a clearer view of the impact on daily lives." She said the collapse in the value of the rial was not driven by purely economic factors but instead by people rushing to buy gold or hard currency as a safe haven for their savings because they do not trust the government to improve the situation. According to CNN, she said Osama was a good boy until he met Abdullah Azzam, a Muslim Brotherhood member in the university. Ghanem said that the Muslim Brotherhood operated like a cult, adding that her son got involved with the group in the higher institution. The people at university changed him. He became a different man. He was a very good child until he met some people, who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult; they got money for their cause. I would always tell him to stay away from them and he would never admit to me what he was doing because he loved me so much, she told The Guardian. Osamas father divorced Ghanem Osama bin Ladens mother, Alia Ghanem is an Alawite from Syria. She was divorced by Osamas father, Mohammed bin Laden when he was three years old. Osama stayed with his mother who got married again to Mohammed al-Attas, who later raised him. The Al-Qaeda leaders father died in a plane crash when he was 10 years-old leaving 53 children and about 20 wives. Al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam formed Al-Qaeda in 1988 and the group was prominent in the war against the Soviet Army, who reportedly invaded Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda was tagged a terrorist organisation by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, the United States and many other countries because of its attacks. Notable among some attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda include the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya and the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York that left over 2000 people dead. September 11 attacks The September 11, 2001 attacks which is now known as the 9/11 attacks was reportedly co-ordinated by Al-Qaeda under the supervision of Osama Bin-Laden. The attacks, which left over 2000 people dead and 6,000 others injured was carried out using four passenger planes that were hijacked by terrorists. Two, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were commandeered and used to crash into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center. The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon building leading to the damage of a part of the structure, while the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93 was forced to crash into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania following the efforts of the heroic passengers. Osamas mother in shock Speaking on the 9/11 attacks, Osamas mother, Ghanem said she was shocked at the news that her son had masterminded the attacks. According to CNN, she said We all felt ashamed of him. We knew all of us were going to face horrible consequences." Ghanem saw her son last in 1999, when she reportedly went on the request of the Saudi government to convince the Al-Qaeda leader to stop his acts, according to Osamas body guard, Abu Jandal. CNN also reports that Jandal said the Al-Qaeda leader refused his mothers plea, saying "This is a principle. I keep it in my heart and I have promised God not to abandon it." Osama Bin Laden killed Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011. The ministry statement said it was based on initial findings of the investigation in CAR. The journalists were in the war-torn country to shoot footage of a shadowy Russian mercenary group called Wagner whose soldiers have fought in conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, according to Western and independent Russian media reports as well as foreign governments. They were working for a media project founded by self-exiled Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in Britain after spending a decade in prison in Russia. Russian officials and state media have sought to downplay the journalists' assignment. There has been no official acknowledgement of Wagner's role in conflicts or casualties among its fighters. In December 2017, Russia was authorised by the UN to provide the armed forces in CAR with weapons and training. Experts have said that the officially announced five military and 170 civilian instructors could be part of Wagner. Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Content distributor Vivicast Media Canada has licensed Travelxp 4k to TELUS Optik TV, available in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Travelxp is a travel-centric network designed by Mumbai-based Celebrities Management. The debut marks the first time a 24/7 linear 4K HDR network is available in Canada.We are excited to join with TELUS for the Canadian launch of Travelxp 4k, the worlds first 4K travel channel with 100% exclusive programming delivered in stunning 4K HDR, said Stuart Smitherman, president of Vivicast Media . TELUS Optik TV subscribers can view Travelxp 4ks content in full 4K high dynamic range for a viewing experience that is truly unmatched.Prashant Chothani, CEO Travelxp , added: We are delighted to launch Travelxp 4k as the first 24x7 4K channel in Canada, which takes our global reach to over 92 million TV homes in 26 countries. Canada is a large and important market with a highly evolved audience which is known to be amongst the largest spenders on international travel. We feel privileged to enter so many wonderful TV homes in Canada, thanks to our agreement with TELUS Optik TV. We hope to add to their wanderlust with our unique, exclusive, premium and 100% originally-produced travel content presented in 4K for an unmatched experience. The National Interest asked 13 scholars and experts to respond to the following question: Given growing tensions between the United States and China, where do you see the overall relationship headed? Towards a permanent state of competition? We do not prepare the VIP list. It is the state security committee that decides whom should be accorded VIP status. Bhopal: Weeks after veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh was asked to vacate his official accommodation, which was allotted to him here as former chief minister, the Madhya Pradesh government on Friday withdrew his security co-ver after removing him from the VIP list. The former chief minister who has been assigned the responsibility of uniting the faction-ridden Con-gress in Madhya Pradesh by the central leadership of Congress ahead of the year-end polls, has failed to make it to the revised VIP list of MP, announced by state security committee here on Friday, denying him security cover being provided to him by the police till now. MP Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Kamal Nath has replaced Mr Singh in the revised VIP list of MP, which has retained the VIP status of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and senior BJP leaders and former chief ministers Babulal Gaur and Uma Bharti, who is also a Union minister. Director general of police of MP Rishi Kumar Shukla said, We do not prepare the VIP list. It is the state security committee that decides whom should be accorded VIP status. Congress, however, cried foul, accusing the state government of victimising Mr Singh to cow him down ahead of the Assembly pol-ls, which are due in MP this November-December. Panic has set in the BJP ever since Mr Singh became active in state politics four months ago. Mr Sing-hs stature has gro-wn among the public when he dared to traverse the banks of the Narmada on foot despite being a septuagenarian. He is attracting huge crowds wherever he goes in the state, making the BJP nervous, PCC vice-president Raja Pateria said. Three ex-chief ministers including Mr Singh were asked to vacate their government quarters, allotted to them here, as per an apex court directive. However, later, two former chief ministers and senior BJP leaders Kailash Joshi and Ms Bharti were allowed to retain their bungalows after being categorised as dignitaries. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Kanye West and his eldest two children appear on a new cover of Harper's Bazaar. ADVERTISEMENT The magazine assembled the 41-year-old rapper and other music stars with their families for its September issue. West poses with 5-year-old daughter North West and 2-year-old son Saint West, whom he shares with wife Kim Kardashian. The couple are also parents to 6-month-old daughter Chicago West. "My babies @harpersbazaarus," Kardashian captioned a photo of the issue on Instagram. West said in the issue that he hopes his children "never lose their confidence to society." Kardashian had praised the rapper's parenting in an Instagram post on Father's Day in June. "Happy Father's Day babe. Thanks for being such a good dad to our babies!" Shout out to all the amazing dads out there!" the television personality wrote. Mariah Carey and her twins, son Moroccan and daughter Monroe, Christina Aguilera and her children, son Max and daughter Summer, Bruce Springsteen and daughter Jessica, Lionel Richie and daughter Nicole, and sisters Theodora and Alexandra Richards also appear in the issue. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! "Move over Bella & Gigi because this new Supermodel family can't be tamed!" Richie wrote on Instagram. "HARPERS BAZAAR ICONS 2018 FALL FASHION ISSUE. Styled by @carineroitfeld. [photo by] @mario_sorrenti." Local Congress workers gathered at the spot in huge numbers and they blamed the local BJP leaders for the act. Lucknow: Tension prevailed in Shahjahanpur on Friday after a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, installed on the Gram Sabha land, was found painted in saffron colour. Local Congress workers gathered at the spot in huge numbers and they blamed the local BJP leaders for the act. UPCC president Raj Babbar told this correspondent on phone that painting the statue of the Father of the Nation in saffron was nothing short of blasphemy. Gandhiji always dressed in white and to colour him in a shade that is synonymous with a particular party is nothing short of blasphemy. Gandhi ji had always shunned the politics of hatred and was even killed by those who promote hatred. The act of painting his statue saffron deserves to be condemned and strict action must be taken against those responsible for this, he said. According to local police sources, the white-colored statue of Mahatma Gandhi, installed at the gram sabha land in Dhaka Ghanshyampur in Shahjahanpur, was painted saffron in the night by some unknown miscreants. Incidentally, this is the second time that the Gandhi statue has been painted saffron. A similar incident had taken place about two years ago and the statue was repainted in white within no time. On getting the information about the incident, district police officials rushed to the spot. Thousands of people gathered in the Chechen village of Geldagen for the burial of Yusup Temerkhanov, a native of the village who died on August 3 in a Russian prison while serving a 15-year sentence for the 2011 murder of notorious Russian Colonel Yury Budanov. Budanov was shot dead in Moscow two years after his early release from prison, where he served eight years of a 10-year sentence for the March 2000 kidnapping and brutal killing of an 18-year-old Chechen woman, Elza Kugayeva. Budanov admitted to killing Kugayeva, saying he believed she was a sniper and that he killed her in a fit of rage while interrogating her. A Russian military commission determined that Kugayeva had also been sexually assaulted, but no one was ever charged with that. In his own trial, Temerkhanov pleaded not guilty and denied any involvement in Budanov's killing. Despite his conviction, Budanov enjoyed broad support in Russia. But he was hated by many in Chechnya, including pro-Russian Chechens. Moscow-installed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov attended the burial ceremony, writing on social media that Temerkhanov was "a hero who avenged the despoiled honorof a Chechen girl." Kugayeva's entire extended family appeared in Geldagen to pay homage to Temerkhanov, who was being treated like a martyr. "The mourning for us is even greater than for you," Kugayeva's father, Visa Kugayev, said in a video that was widely shared on social media. "We are grateful to [Yusup]. He is a genuine hero. You and your entire village have the right to be proud of him. He is the pride of your village and of all of us. We are ready to die for any member of his family. He died a martyr." Temerkhanov was buried immediately after his body arrived from the Siberian city of Omsk, but thousands of cars continued arriving in Geldagen bearing people from across Chechnya to pay their respects. Temerkhanov died in a prison hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk, reportedly of an unspecified heart illness. Temerkhanov was buried immediately after his body arrived from Omsk on August, but thousands of cars continued arriving in Geldagen bearing people from across Chechnya to pay their respects. Moscow fought two wars in the 1990s and early 2000s against Chechen separatists. In 2009, Moscow declared an end to the "antiterrorist action" in the region, although sporadic violence continues throughout the North Caucasus. Police in Romania are investigating anti-Semitic graffiti that was painted on the birthplace of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel in the northwestern town of Sighetu Marmatiei. Police launched the probe on August 4 after the graffiti appeared during the previous night. Among other comments, the graffiti said Wiesel was "in hell with Hitler." Wiesel's family home is a protected monument in Romania. Wiesel and his family were among some 14,000 Romanian Jews who were deported from the town to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in May 1944. His mother and younger sister died there, while he and two older sisters survived. Wiesel wrote over 40 books, most of them nonfiction works about the Holocaust. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work against violence, repression, and racism. He died in 2016. Based on reporting by AP and sighet247.ro North Korea's foreign minister is scheduled to visit Iran on August 7, as both countries deal with stepped up political and financial pressure from the United States over their nuclear programs. Ri Yong Ho is set to make the trip following his attendance at the ASEAN summit in Singapore, where he lashed out at the United States for "alarming" actions, including "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" North Korea. The United States is pushing Pyongyang to denuclearize after the summit between President Donald Trump and North leader Kim Jong Un. Trump hailed an agreement for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, but Pyongyang appears to have made slow progress toward that goal in the weeks since. U.S. officials have urged all countries to maintain sanctions until Pyongyang achieves "the final, fully verified denuclearization" to which it has agreed. Meanwhile, the United States has ramped up pressure on Tehran since Trump pulled his country out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which provided Iran with some relief from financial sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Media have reported on a growing number of protests on Iranian city streets as economic woes, many tied to U.S. sanctions against Tehran, have intensified. According to media reports, United Nations and U.S. nuclear experts have expressed concern about interactions between North Korean and Iranian officials. According to the Korean Central News Agency, Ri met with a high-level Iranian delegation at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Azerbaijan, in April. A delegation from Pyongyang also attended Iranian President Hassan Rohani's August 2017 inauguration. A 2017 report cited the presence of sanctioned North Korean weapons traffickers living in Tehran and similarities spotted between missile designs in the two countries, specifically Irans Shabab-3 and Khorramshahr missiles and North Koreas Nodong and Musudan weapons. Iran has said its nuclear program is strictly for civilian services. With reporting by AFP, ChannelNews Asia, and TASS A group of several dozen people attacked nine gay-rights activists in Armenia's Syunik region, the Pink Armenia activist organization has reported. The attack is said to have occurred on the evening of August 3 in the southern village of Shurnukh, and two of the victims were reportedly hospitalized. The website Epress.am spoke with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activist Elvira Meliksetian, who was among the victims. She said the group arrived in the village on August 2 to visit a local resident. Several hours before the attack, two men arrived at the house where they were staying and shouted homophobic slurs and threats. The activists reported the threats to the police, but officers were unable to locate the two men. Later that evening, a large crowd of locals -- including men, women, and children -- returned to the house. When the visitors gathered their baggage and tried to leave, the locals reportedly attacked them. With reporting by Epress.am ALEXANDRIA, Virginia A former accountant testified how she helped falsify income and tax statements for Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trumps ex-campaign chairman, as prosecutors further buttressed their tax and bank fraud case against him. The August 3 testimony by Cindy Laporta -- on the fourth day of Manaforts criminal trial -- shed further light on Manaforts complicated finances and the income he earned primarily as a political consultant for Ukrainian politicians, including former President Viktor Yanukovych. Laporta was the latest in a string of accountants that prosecutors have put on the stand, to build their argument that Manafort had lied on tax returns, loan applications, a federal bank declaration, and other records. Manaforts trial, being held in U.S. federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, is the first arising out of Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into the interactions between Trump associates and Russian officials. The 18 charges against Manafort predate his time managing Trumps U.S. presidential election campaign in 2016. Though the charges concern the work he did in Ukraine for Yanukovych, they dont directly deal with Russia, nor with questions of Trump officials dealings with Russian officials. In previous days, prosecutors had called on home renovators, audiovisual technicians, landscape designers, and a high-end tailor to show how Manafort had an extravagant lifestyle that he sought to maintain, even after his Ukraine work dried up following Yanukovychs ouster as president in 2014. Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye walked Laporta through e-mails and balance sheets from ledgers and tax filings, showing how Manafort, allegedly with the help of his deputy Rick Gates, tried to inflate and deflate income by declaring, then writing off, loans made to his consulting business from foreign entities, many based in Cyprus. The foreign entities, prosecutors have suggested, were all shell, or pass-through, companies, set up by Manafort to handle the income he was earning from his Ukraine work. Numerous Properties Manafort owned homes and properties in Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, as well as in a tony Long Island community, and townhouses in Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York. Prosecutors charged that Manafort lied on applications for bank and mortgage loans by back-dating loans issued by one of his foreign entities to his consulting company. He also allegedly failed to declare he had stashed some of his income in foreign bank accounts; failing to declare those foreign accounts to U.S. authorities is a crime. Laporta, who filed Manaforts tax returns beginning in 2013, had been granted immunity to testify -- a move that suggested she may have been complicit in some of the alleged financial crimes Manafort has been charged with. At one point, Asonye asked Laporta why she didnt object when in 2015 she was presented with documents including a back-dated loan that was forgiven. I had a couple choices. One, I could have refused to file the tax returns, which could have exposed our firm to potential legal liability, she told the court. Or two, I could have called [Manafort and Gates] liars. But then they were longtime clients of the firm and I did not want to do that either." Do you regret what you did? asked Asonye. I very much regret it, Laporta responded. Do you take responsibility for your actions? Asonye asked. I do, she said. As he has every day since the trial began, Manafort sat quietly throughout the proceedings, dressed in a suit and tie, flanked by his defense lawyers. Much of the documentation concerning back-dated bank loans and other accounting issues involved Gates, who was also charged with various financial crimes. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to financial charges and lying to federal investigators, and agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigators. On August 2, prosecutors said they had planned to call Gates to testify, but that did not happen, and they gave no indication in court when that might occur. Other Cases Prosecutors have said they intend to complete their arguments as early as next week. Once that happens, Manaforts defense team will present its case to try and persuade the jury of his innocence. If the trial continues quickly, it could wrap up before a second, more consequential, trial against Manafort begins. It is scheduled to start in September. That trial, in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., focuses on allegations that Manafort failed to register as a foreign agent when he was working for Yanukovych and his Ukrainian political party. While Manafort's is the first case that Mueller has brought to trial, he has charged 31 other people with dozens of charges including conspiracy, failure to register as foreign agents, and lying to federal law enforcement. One of Mueller's leading cases involves 12 Russian military intelligence officers who were accused of hacking and leaking Democratic party documents in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election. Others who have pleaded guilty to Muellers charges include Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Trump has repeatedly attacked Muellers investigation, denying any effort by him or his associates to collude with Russian officials to sway the election. NASA has announced what it said will be a new era in U.S. space exploration, naming a group of nine astronauts charged with launching into space on private rockets from the United States. The space agency said on August 3 that the astronauts will launch new generations of spacecraft made and owned by private companies like Boeing and SpaceX into low-Earth orbit and to the International Space Station in coming years. The astronauts will carry out the first flight tests and missions of two leading Boeing and SpaceX crafts next year, NASA said, with the first test flight of a SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled for April. NASA hasn't launched a crew from the United States since it retired its space shuttles in 2011. Since then, it has relied on Russia to fly U.S. astronauts into space, with each ride on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft costing NASA about $80 million. "This is a big deal for our country and we want America to know that we are back," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. "For the first time since 2011, we are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil." Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has blasted the latest sanctions efforts coming out of Washington, contending that experience has shown such sanctions "do not work." Ryabkov's comments on the ministry's website late on August 3 came after the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions targeted against a Russian bank and two North Korean bankers living in Moscow, saying that they, among others, had not complied with UN sanctions imposed on North Korea last year. The remarks were also directed against legislation recently introduced in Congress to impose "crushing" sanctions on Russia because Moscow allegedly continues to interfere in U.S. political campaigns and target the United States with cyberattacks, among other alleged "malicious" activities. Ryabkov denounced the "pile of bills surfacing in the U.S. Congress" and claimed that the Treasury's sanctions against Agrosoyuz bank in Moscow "are the 54th sanction attack by the United States on our country since 2011." Ryabkov said the growing number of sanctions coming out of Washington "will surely fail" to "make Russia swerve from its course." "Even U.S. politicians, who suffer from a particularly sharp form of Russophobia, have started to admit that attempts to put pressure on Russia do not work,"he said. Ryabkov claimed Washington legislators are sponsoring get-tough measures against Moscow in an effort to attract votes in the upcoming congressional elections -- something that he said "makes us smile." Based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and TASS Russian authorities say 18 people were killed when a Russian helicopter crashed after a mid-air collision in Siberia. The Russian Transport Ministry said the Mi-8 helicopter carrying three crew members and 15 passengers crashed on August 4 when it collided with machinery carried by another helicopter soon after takeoff. The ministry added that the second helicopter landed safely and that the accident took place in "normal" weather conditions. Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said the helicopter went down around 10 a.m. local time on August 4 about 180 kilometers from the town of Igarka. The passengers were workers heading to their shift at an oil-pumping station, said Russia's aviation watchdog, Rosaviatsia. The incident occurred in the Vankor Field area in eastern Siberia the watchdog said. Vankor is the region's largest oil field, operated by Russian oil company Rosneft. The two aircraft were owned by UTair-Helicopter Services, a unit of Russian airline UTair. Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, TASS, and the BBC Russian police have detained around 30 LGBT rights activists who took part in an unsanctioned rally in St. Petersburg. Several dozen activists gathered at Palace Square on August 4, despite a ban to hold the rally. Organizers had said they would stage one-person protests to demand freedom of association after city authorities denied their request to hold a parade. City authorities rejected their request, saying there was ongoing road repairs in the city and claiming that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) actions were "harmful to the health of children." The activists held rainbow flags and placards. There were no clashes between police and the activists. Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the spreading of gay "propaganda." With reporting by Reuters The Railways has said that the impact of pension payment on the railways at the moment is around Rs 50,000 crore annually. Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani, in his submission to the board, has said that the pension orders of all the pensioners who have retired prior to January 2016, be revised. (Photo: File/PTI) New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has suggested that the Finance Ministry should consider taking over a part of the pension liability of the railways, if not in full, as it is being done in all other ministries. The Railway Convention Committee on Internal Resource Generation has said that the impact of pension payment on the railways at the moment is around Rs 50,000 crore annually. Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani, in his submission to the board, has said that the pension orders of all the pensioners who have retired prior to January 2016, be revised. Lohani said that it has been mandated that the Ministry of Railways' expenditure has to be met out of the income and it is only the Ministry of Railways which bears its pension liability and for everyone else it is borne by the Ministry of Finance. "I would like to submit here that when it comes down to devising the salary structure and the pension structure, the Ministry of Railways has no say in that." "The decision is taken by a different ministry, irrespective of whether it is Rs 3,000 crore or Rs 5,000 crore...it is the Ministry of Railways which is expected to generate these additional resources," he said. The committee agreed with Lohani and said that the Railway Board should approach the Ministry of Finance for the same. "The Railway Board has thus suggested that the pension liability of the railways be taken over by the Finance Ministry as it is being done in all other cases. The committee finds some merits in the contention of the Ministry of Railways as the huge impact of the pension liability is adversely affecting internal resource generation by the railways," it said. "The committee desires that the Railway Board take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance and other appropriate authorities so that at least a part of pension liabilities of the railways, if not full, is borne by the Finance Ministry," the committee said. In its report submitted in the Lok Sabha earlier this week, the committee has said that they were deeply concerned to find that during the last five years from 2013-3014 to 2017-2018, there have been shortfalls on the part of the railways in achieving internal revenue generation targets, except in 2014-2015. During 2013-2014, 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 the shortfall was of Rs 2,828 crore, Rs 769 crore, Rs 2,782 crore and Rs 8,238 crore respectively. At least seven rebels and an Indian Army soldier were killed in gun battles in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, sparking violent protests by residents opposed to Indian rule. Police in the town of Shopian, in India-controlled Kashmir, exchanged fire with rebels, killing five late on August 3. The gun battle triggered protests and clashes as hundreds of residents tried to help the rebels escape. Government forces fired warning shots, shotgun pellets, and tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters, injuring at least 15 people, three of them critically. Separately, two rebels and an Indian soldier were killed in the northwestern Sopore area on August 3. Kashmir has been divided between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the region in its entirety and have fought two wars over it. There have been renewed rebel attacks and protests against Indian rule in the Indian-controlled portion in recent years, and Indian and Pakistani forces have often clashed. Based on reporting by AP and dpa Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will impose personal sanctions against two U.S. officials in response to a similar move earlier by Washington. Speaking in Ankara on August 4, Erdogan stressed that Turkey had been "patient" since the U.S. sanctioned Turkey's justice and interior ministers on August 1 but proceeded to order his government to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any." It was not immediately clear which U.S. officials would be affected by the order or whether they have any assets in Turkey. Washington imposed the sanctions to put pressure on Ankara to release jailed U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being tried in Turkey on charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member." He could face up to 35 years in prison. Erdogan also called for a return to amicable relations between the two countries. "We think there is no problem we cannot solve with the American administration," he said. He called on the administration of President Donald Trump to back down from its "hot-tempered attitude and return to its good senses." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the issue on August 3 in Singapore with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. "I am very hopeful that we will make progress on [Brunson's release] in the days and weeks ahead," Pompeo told journalists after that meeting. Based on reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters United Nations has confirmed Russia's claim that UN peacekeepers have returned to a buffer zone on the border between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time in six years. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on August 3 that the force, known as UNDOF, is "implementing a gradual return" to the area. "The ultimate goal for UNDOF is full return, conditions permitting," he said, adding that a key goal for the peacekeepers is the reopening of the Quneitra crossing between the two countries. Syrian government forces, backed Russian air power, have recently retaken full control of Syria's Quneitra Province and other border areas with Israel and Jordan. UNDOF had patrolled the Golan Heights area until 2012 under a 1974 cease-fire deal between Israel and Syria that created a UN-monitored buffer zone between the two countries following the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. But the UN forces were driven out during Syria's long and chaotic civil war, with Syrian rebel groups -- including an affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group -- becoming entrenched in parts of the border area. In a swift campaign this summer, Russia and Syria ousted the last of the rebel groups and reasserted control of the region, where by some accounts the Syrian civil war began with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011. Russia announced on August 2 that UN peacekeepers had returned to the area and were patrolling alongside Russian military police. But Haq emphasized that the Russian military police patrols have been kept "separate and distinct" from the UN peacekeeping force. Russian officials have said their police are there, in part, to ensure that no Iranian fighters or facilities are stationed within 85 kilometers of Israel's border, in keeping with an agreement recently reached with Israel. Based on reporting by AP and dpa The United States has called on Russia to comply with UN sanctions on North Korea, citing "deeply troubling" reports that Moscow has granted new work permits to North Korean laborers that are barred under the sanctions. The calls from top U.S. diplomats on August 3 came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Moscow has allowed thousands of new North Korean laborers into the country and granted them work permits in what appear to be sanctions violations. Russia is denying the accusations. Citing records from the Russian Interior Ministry and Labor Ministry, the Journal wrote that over 10,000 new North Korean workers have registered in Russia since September and a minimum of 700 new work permits have been issued to North Koreans in Russia this year. The non-profit research organization C4ADS also recently reported that initial restrictions on new North Korean laborers set by both China and Russia -- where around 80 percent of North Korea's laborers work -- appear to have been loosened recently. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited the reports on August 3 in calling on Russia to comply with the UN sanctions. "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said as he visited Singapore. "If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he said. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow," he said. "We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea." 'Deeply Troubling' U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the "credible reports of Russia violating UN Security Council resolutions on North Korean laborers working abroad are deeply troubling." "Talk is cheap -- Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," she said in a statement at the UN. "Until we see the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, there can be no easing of sanctions," Haley said. The labor sanctions are a part of a broader series of sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council last year to eliminate important revenue streams that reportedly have been used to finance North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The labor sanctions specifically bar governments from issuing new work permits for North Korean workers, and require that current contracts for laborers be terminated by 2019. Aleksandr Matsegora, Russia's ambassador to North Korea, denied Moscow had allowed any new workers to enter Russia, saying fresh documents had been issued only to laborers already based in Russia who were working under old contracts, Russian news agency Interfax reported on August 3. Matsegora said the laborers granted work permits this year are allowed to work in Russia until November 29, 2019 because their work contracts were signed before the sanctions went into effect, Interfax reported. He said 3,500 new work permits have been issued to workers who signed contracts in Russia before November 29, 2017, Interfax reported. Most of the money North Koreans earn abroad ends up in government coffers, the UN has said. "It is estimated that North Korean laborers in Russia send between $150 milliion and $300 million annually to Pyongyang," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on August 3. "Moscow should immediately and fully implement all the UN sanctions." Call To Black List Bank Also on August 3, the United States asked the UN council to add a Russian bank and two North Koreans working in Moscow to the UN's sanctions blacklist after the U.S. Treasury targeted them with sanctions. The Treasury said it was targeting Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank with sanctions because it allegedly had conducted "a significant transaction" for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank. The Treasury also slapped sanctions on Ri Jong Won, the Moscow-based deputy representative of FTB, and said both Ri and Han should be expelled from Russia. At the UN, the United States is asking that the Moscow bank and the North Korean banking officials working in Moscow all be put on the UN's blacklist, which subjects them to a global asset freeze and travel ban. Washington has been struggling to maintain international support for sanctions on North Korea since U.S. President Donald Trump made a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April to work toward ridding the country of nuclear weapons. So far, U.S. officials say North Korea has made little progress toward shutting down its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities despite several rounds of talks. U.S. officials have said that sanctions violations are hurting their efforts to gain concessions from Pyongyang. Last month at the UN, the United States charged that Pyongyang has already exceeded a limit on its imports of oil products imposed under the UN sanctions because of illegal transfers of oil to Korean ships on the high seas. But Russia and China teamed up to block a U.S. demand that all further legal deliveries of oil products to North Korea be stopped in light of the alleged illegal oil smuggling. Russia denies any involvement in the illegal smuggling, but Reuters has reported instances of North Korean ships leaving Russia with cargoes of fuel and heading for their homeland despite having told Russian authorities the fuel was headed to other destinations. U.S. officials told Reuters that this ploy has often been used to undermine sanctions. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters Cancun mayor-elect meets with US consular, agreeing to work hand-in-hand Cancun, Q.R. Mara Lezama Espinosa, the mayor-elected of Benito Juarez, met with the new US Consul General Courtney Baele, to strengthen tourism ties between the two countries. During their first meeting, both officials agreed that working hand-in-hand with student exchange programs, economic, social and cultural development, as well as public security for both sides of the border will prove beneficial to the millions of tourists who come from the US to Cancun. Lezama Espinosa stressed that these type of meetings will provide continuity to exchanges and visits between both governments, private companies and cultural organizations, which have been carried out with other administrations. We have strengthened an excellent relationship, and I reiterate that we will work hand-in-hand in a coordinated manner and in collaboration with the United States and the three government orders in matters of security, she said. At the meeting, Lezama Espinosa said that there was a lot of feedback on working together to strengthen American tourism in the southeast of the country, adding that they hope to create the Municipal Tourism Secretariat, which will work in coordination with the Secretariat of Tourism of the next federal administration, which is scheduled to be relocated to Chetumal. The US Consul General Courtney Baele thanked the mayor-elect for her hospitality and interest in following up the inter-institutional relationship with the United States, but above all, for wanting to work hand-in-hand on topics of great interest for the US government such as public safety, tourism, economic development and cultural matters. The man was arrested soon after the plane landed back in Milan. New Delhi: An Air India flight enroute New Delhi from Milan had to return back to the Italian city after a passenger forcibly tried to enter the cockpit. The incident happened after flying over an hour after taking off from Milan with 250 people on board. The man was arrested soon after the plane landed back in Milan. The captain of the flight AI 138, which had about 250 people on board, decided to dump fuel (as it had been refuelled for the eight-hour flight to Delhi) and be light enough to return to land in Milan almost an hour after taking off from there. AI 138/ Milan-Delhi flight (arrival in Delhi on 3 Aug) was delayed by 2 hrs 37 minutes as one unruly passenger Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after take off from Milan on schedule. The aircraft landed back and pax was handed over to local police. Aircraft departed after security clearance to Delhi, Air India said in a statement. Big win for BJP in Sangli The BJP in Maharashtra trounced the Shiv Sena in the Jalgaon civic body polls, winning 57 of the 75 seats, and came up trumps in the Sangli municipal elections, bagging 41 out of the 78 seats. The BJP, an ally of the Shiv Sena in the state and at the Centre, won 57 of the 75 seats in the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation (JMC). Local strongman and Shiv Sena leader Suresh Jain's Khandesh Vikas Agadhi (KVA), which ruled the JMC for several years, won only 13 seats. Jalgaon municipal corporation election 2018 Advertisement The KVA, a local outfit which contested the election on the Shiv Sena symbol this time, had 36 seats in the JMC. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) bagged three seats, while Independents won two seats. The NCP, which had 11 corporators in the civic body, drew a blank. The Congress in Jalgaon failed to open its account for the second consecutive time. The BJP also posted an impressive victory in the Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad Municipal Corporation, winning 41 seats in the 78-member House and ousting the Congress from power. BJP in Maharashtra trounced the Shiv Sena in the Jalgaon The Congress, the current ruling party in the civic body in western Maharashtra, won only 20 seats, while its ally, the NCP, got 15. Others won two seats. The BJP did not have a single corporator in the civic body. The elections to the two civic bodies were held on August 1 and counting of votes took place. Rahul to meet Maha Cong leaders Congress president Rahul Gandhi has called a meeting of senior party leaders from Maharashtra on August 8 to discuss the ongoing agitation of the Maratha community for reservation, a party source said today. The meeting will be held in Delhi, said a senior Congress leader here. The agitation of the politically influential Maratha community has put the BJP-led state government on the back foot, with protests taking a violent turn in many parts of the state. Maratha agitation Advertisement Many Congress MLAs had announced last week that they would resign from the Assembly to put pressure on the government to accede to the demand. State Congress chief Ashok Chavan had said the decision in this regard would be taken after a discussion with the party's central leadership. The Maratha community constitutes about 30 per cent of the state population. Elections to the Maharashtra Assembly are due next year. Sources say that Nitish Kumar has also been upset after Social welfare minister Manju Vermas husbands name surfaced in the case. Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday promised strict action against those guilty in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case where 34 minor girls were brutally raped by employees and officials of the facility. While addressing a gathering at Makhy-amantri Kanya Uthan Yojna program Nitish Kumar described the incident as most shameful and said, The state government will not compromise on the issue and all those who have been involved in the case will be severely punished. Bihar CM further said that The case has already been handed over to the CBI. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had earlier said on the floor of the house that the state government would like the probe to be monitored by the high court. There is a rule of law in Bihar and the state government will never compromise on the law and order issue. This was the first occasion when Bihar CM spoke on the Muzaff-arpur incident. Sources say that Nitish Kumar has also been upset after Social welfare minister Manju Vermas husbands name surfaced in the case. Nitish Kumar has been facing stiff criticism from the opposition parties especially RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who demanded his resignation and blamed him and other NDA leaders of trying to protect big faces involved in the case including the main accused Brajesh Thakur. Tejashwi Yadav has also announced to lead a protest march and stage a dharna in New Delhis Jantar Mantar on Saturday against the Muzaffarpur shelter home incident. Tejashwi Yadav said that he also urged all opposition parties to support him in his protest in the national capital. Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored and protected by Nitish Kumar, we will stage a dharna on Saturday at Jantar Mantar. Request all to attend, Tejashwi Yadav said in a tweet on Friday. Muzaffarpur Shelter home issue had surfaced in March after a Mumbai based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) found sexual assault victims. An audit report was submitted to the social welfare department by the institute following which authorities registered an FIR and rescued girls from the shelter home and shifted them to other safer places. Officials and employees of the shelter home run by NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikash Samiti have been accused of physically and sexually exploiting children between 7 to 17 years. Ten persons including Brajesh Thakur, the administrator of the NGO was arrested by the police in June. The victims, including handicapped minor girls, were subjected to extreme brutality and even thrashed when they tried to raise their voices against employees of the shelter home. Sources claim that they were beaten up by iron rods and made to sit naked for hours. There are also allegations that shelter home authorities in connivance with the administrator of the NGO running the shelter home had carried out the abortion of girls after they became pregnant. Inhibiting the Jagged 1 protein in mice prevents the proliferation and growth of colon and rectal tumours. What is more, this approach to the disease permits the removal of existing tumours. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer and Stem Cells research group from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), directed by Dr Lluis Espinosa, who is also a member of CIBERONC (the Network Centre for Biomedical Research into Cancer), in collaboration with the Pathological Anatomy and Medical Oncology Units at Hospital del Mar, and the IDIBELL-Catalan Oncology Institute. The work has been published in Nature Communications. The researchers took tumours from patients and then implanted them into mice in order to analyse the role of this protein in cancer cell proliferation. Jagged 1 is essential for cancer cells due to its role in activating the so-called Notch cell-signalling pathway. Generally speaking, Notch inhibits cell differentiation, in other words, a cell's ability to become a mature cell that can no longer proliferate. In the case of colorectal tumours, the activation of this signalling pathway favours their proliferation and growth. In this study, the researchers discovered that the intestinal tumours of mice lack a protein known as Fringe, implying that Jagged 1 is essential for activating Notch. "The fact that Fringe is present in the normal cells of the small intestine represents a significant therapeutic opportunity for treating patients with colorectal cancer," says Dr Espinosa, since by inhibiting Jagged 1 you can halt tumour growth without affecting the function of normal tissue. In fact, researchers have been able to see how, in the case of healthy mice, the colon and rectum do not need Jagged 1, since in the presence of the Fringe protein there are other mechanisms for activating Notch. This need to have Jagged 1 in order to activate Notch in the absence of Fringe was observed in 239 of the cases of human tumours that were analysed. Therefore, inhibiting this protein could enable doctors to combat the disease without affecting the functioning of the body. Dr Espinosa explains that "we implanted human tumours with Jagged 1, without Fringe, into mice and then we treated them with antibodies. Post-treatment, the tumours were very small and had necrosed." In the study, the tumours had shrunk after 10 weeks of treatment. Prognostic factor The study also enabled the researchers to demonstrate that Jagged 1 protein levels in patients with colorectal cancer is a prognostic indicator. Where levels are high, the disease rapidly becomes worse. The researchers believe that this way of treating the cancer is very promising and there are already several pharmaceutical companies working with specific antibodies to inhibit Jagged 1. Even so, the work that has just been published is a preclinical trial, and not yet transferable to patient treatment. In this regard, Dr. Joan Albanell, one of the authors of the study, head of the Medical Oncology Unit at Hospital del Mar, and director of the IMIM's Cancer Research Programme, points out that "these results lead the way towards therapeutic strategies for selectively deactivating the properties of malignant multipotent stem cells in colon cancer. It is now very important to continue this research so that in the next few years it can culminate in clinical trials for patients with colorectal cancer. For these people, the identification of new therapeutic targets is essential." Colorectal cancer This is the most common type of cancer in Catalonia, with more than 6,000 new cases every year, and the second leading cause of cancer death. The frequency of colon cancer is similar in men and women, while rectal cancer is more common in men. In 2017, 6,201 people were diagnosed in Catalonia and 2,700 died. For Spain as a whole, the number of patients diagnosed exceeded 34,000, making it the most prevalent cancer in the country. Mortality, however, has gone down 5.3% in men and 6.7% in women since 2012, thanks to the success of early detection programmes, like the Early Detection Programme for Colorectal Cancer, a joint action between Hospital del Mar and Hospital Clinic that has been running since 2009. The McAuley Professor of International Health at the University of Otago is labelling the findings of new international collaborative research a step forward in the fight to eliminate the world's top infectious disease killer, tuberculosis. Professor Philip Hill was involved in the research, published today in the world-leading New England Journal of Medicine, which evaluated the effectiveness of a new way to prevent people with latent tuberculosis infection developing the full-blown disease. Results show a four-month daily regimen of antibiotic rifampicin in both adults and children is as effective as a nine-month daily regimen of another antibiotic, isoniazid. "Not only was it as effective at preventing tuberculosis, but the participants were more likely to complete the course and had fewer side effects," Professor Hill explains. "This is a real step forward in our aspiration to eliminate tuberculosis. It means we can now offer a more attractive option to the many millions of people in the world who are at risk of developing tuberculosis." Tuberculosis is a major global health problem. It is estimated a quarter of the world's population are infected with the pathogen that causes tuberculosis and very few of them are offered preventive treatment to stop them developing the disease. advertisement "Importantly, we know that if we don't find a way to give them preventive treatment, we will never eliminate tuberculosis from the planet," Professor Hill says. Led by Professor Dick Menzies from McGill University in Canada, the study recruited individuals in Canada, Indonesia, Guinea, Benin, Brazil, Australia, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Ghana. Professor Hill's group worked with collaborators in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia to enrol and follow-up 1000 of the 6900 participants across the study. Professor Hill explains that most people who are infected after exposure to tuberculosis do not develop the disease, the mycobacterium stays "asleep" in their system. The risk can be brought down to close to zero if they have preventive treatment. Traditionally, this has involved nine months of daily isoniazid, but the long duration of treatment and the side effects, including the potential to develop hepatitis, are major drawbacks. While the results of the present study may not impact on the large part of the world's population who are not offered preventive treatment, Professor Hill considers this may not be the case if researchers can discover an even shorter treatment regimen. "One option already envisaged is higher dose rifampicin, which is now used safely for tuberculosis meningitis and is being evaluated in the treatment of tuberculosis of the lungs. Preventive treatment using high dose rifampicin for four to six weeks is an obvious option to consider next." In anticipation of the increasing importance of combating latent tuberculosis infection for the elimination of tuberculosis, Professor Hill and others have made this area a major focus of their research, conducting a wide range of studies with collaborators in different parts of the world. It is hoped that some of this work will be done in New Zealand where, for example, M?ori are likely to have a relatively high rate of latent tuberculosis infection. Although New Zealand has a low rate of the disease, new cases continue to occur with half of New Zealand-born tuberculosis patients being M?ori. Earlier this year Professor Hill received a $250,000 grant from the Health Research Council to further investigate tuberculosis among M?ori in New Zealand. Rice University researchers have found that fracture-resistant "rebar graphene" is more than twice as tough as pristine graphene. Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon. On the two-dimensional scale, the material is stronger than steel, but because graphene is so thin, it is still subject to ripping and tearing. Rebar graphene is the nanoscale analog of rebar (reinforcement bars) in concrete, in which embedded steel bars enhance the material's strength and durability. Rebar graphene, developed by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour in 2014, uses carbon nanotubes for reinforcement. In a new study in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, Rice materials scientist Jun Lou, graduate student and lead author Emily Hacopian and collaborators, including Tour, stress-tested rebar graphene and found that nanotube rebar diverted and bridged cracks that would otherwise propagate in unreinforced graphene. The experiments showed that nanotubes help graphene stay stretchy and also reduce the effects of cracks. That could be useful not only for flexible electronics but also electrically active wearables or other devices where stress tolerance, flexibility, transparency and mechanical stability are desired, Lou said. Both the lab's mechanical tests and molecular dynamics simulations by collaborators at Brown University revealed the material's toughness. advertisement Graphene's excellent conductivity makes it a strong candidate for devices, but its brittle nature is a downside, Lou said. His lab reported two years ago that graphene is only as strong as its weakest link. Those tests showed the strength of pristine graphene to be "substantially lower" than its reported intrinsic strength. In a later study, the lab found molybdenum diselenide, another two-dimensional material of interest to researchers, is also brittle. Tour approached Lou and his group to carry out similar tests on rebar graphene, made by spin-coating single-walled nanotubes onto a copper substrate and growing graphene atop them via chemical vapor deposition. To stress-test rebar graphene, Hacopian, Yang and colleagues had to pull it to pieces and measure the force that was applied. Through trial and error, the lab developed a way to cut microscopic pieces of the material and mount it on a testbed for use with scanning electron and transmission electron microscopes. "We couldn't use glue, so we had to understand the intermolecular forces between the material and our testing devices," Hacopian said. "With materials this fragile, it's really difficult." Rebar didn't keep graphene from ultimate failure, but the nanotubes slowed the process by forcing cracks to zig and zag as they propagated. When the force was too weak to completely break the graphene, nanotubes effectively bridged cracks and in some cases preserved the material's conductivity. advertisement In earlier tests, Lou's lab showed graphene has a native fracture toughness of 4 megapascals. In contrast, rebar graphene has an average toughness of 10.7 megapascals, he said. Simulations by study co-author Huajian Gao and his team at Brown confirmed results from the physical experiments. Gao's team found the same effects in simulations with orderly rows of rebar in graphene as those measured in the physical samples with rebar pointing every which way. "The simulations are important because they let us see the process on a time scale that isn't available to us with microscopy techniques, which only give us snapshots," Lou said. "The Brown team really helped us understand what's happening behind the numbers." He said the rebar graphene results are a first step toward the characterization of many new materials. "We hope this opens a direction people can pursue to engineer 2D material features for applications," Lou said. Hacopian, Yingchao Yang of the University of Maine and Bo Ni of Brown University are co-lead authors of the paper. Co-authors are Yilun Li, Hua Guo of Rice, Xing Li of Rice and Zhengzhou University and Qing Chen of Peking University. Lou is a professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry and a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering Rice. Gao is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown. The research was supported by the Welch Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research's Multidisciplinary University Research Institute, the Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Science Foundation. 'If Nitish Kumar is ashamed of Muzaffarpur rape incident, he should immediately take action against those involved.' said Rahul Gandhi. The event was attended by several prominent leaders including, Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav. (Photo: Twitter/@AamAadmiParty) New Delhi: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several other opposition parties staged a protest on Saturday, voicing their anguish over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. In a show of opposition unity, almost all major political parties joined the protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital, organised by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. Voicing his discontent at the handling of the case, Rahul Gandhi said, "If Nitish Kumar is ashamed of Muzaffarpur rape incident, he should immediately take action against those involved. We stand with the women of India, girls and their families who suffered in Muzaffarpur." (Photo: ANI | Twitter) The event was attended by several prominent leaders including, Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have confirmed their participation in the demonstration because the incident has shaken them as well. Dinesh Trivedi from the Trinamool Congress, Dharmendra Yadav from the Samajwadi Party and Satish Chandra Mishra from the Bahujan Samaj Party will also be there, along with civil society workers, human rights activists and representatives of all major political parties, he Yadav had earlier confirmed. Also read: Rahul, Kejriwal to join RJD protest in Delhi against Muzaffarpur shelter rapes today (Photo: ANI | Twitter) He, however, emphasised that despite the presence of top Opposition leaders, it would be a non-political event. Tejashwi has been targeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzzafarpur. He had said that condemnation issued by the chief minister on Muzaffarpur shelter case wasnt enough, questioning why Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case, was running shelter homes and getting funds from the government. The girl who had all the information has been shifted to a shelter home in Madhubani. After being shifted there is no information about her. We don't know if she is dead or has been killed or is missing, the RJD leader said. Yadav had stated that the scandal has exposed social reforms agenda of Nitish Kumar government. Also read: 'Shameful', a 'sin': Nitish Kumar breaks silence on Bihar shelter home rapes We want Brajesh Thakur to be hanged till death. If you see the number of crimes in Bihar has increased in the past one year. Cases of gangrape are being reported back to back from various districts of the state, Tejashwi Yadav told news agency ANI on Saturday. Even after the report of Child Commission was out no action was taken. FIR was lodged two months after Tata Insititute report came and in that too name of prime accused Brajesh Thakur was missing. Somehow Thakur has been a close aide of Nitish Ji, he added. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the CBI. Various speakers at the protest demanded stringent punishment against those involved in the heinous crime. Speaking on the protest, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi said, We know what happens in Rahul Gandhi's protests, even Priyanka Gandhi can't be assured of safety. And now Tejashwi Yadav is too a part of it. No woman will be safe. Earlier, on Thursday, Left parties and groups in Bihar had called for a state-wide bandh in Patna to protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal. This was also supported by RJD members. (With inputs from Agencies) 'The protest would be a non-political event despite the presence of top Opposition leaders,' Tejaswi Yadav said. New Delhi: The political battle is all set to intensify as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) gears up for protest rally with other opposition parties at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday over sexual abuse of girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home. Apart from the rally, a candle march will also be taken out. RJD leader Tejaswi Prasad Yadav who left on Friday for New Delhi said, The protest would be a non-political event despite the presence of top Opposition leaders. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have confirmed their participation in the demonstration because the incident has shaken them as well. Dinesh Trivedi from the Trinamool Congress, Dharmendra Yadav from the Samajwadi Party and Satish Chandra Mishra from the Bahujan Samaj Party will also be there, along with civil society workers, human rights activists and representatives of all major political parties, he said. Tejaswi, raising serious concerns over the safety of girls wrote a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Having seven sisters, it pains me to even imagine what the little girls at the shelter home were forced to undergo. It is a most shameful incident. When we raised it in the assembly, the government tried to mislead the house. Were they not Bihars daughters? Has our conscience died? Whatever happened to the girls amounted to a betrayal of their trust, given that they were promised protection there. What they got in return was physical, mental and sexual torture. The culprits should be hanged once their guilt is established in court, he wrote. Tejaswi said condemnation issued by the chief minister on Muzaffarpur shelter case wasnt enough. He questioned that why Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case running all kind of shelter homes and getting funds from the governments. Yadav added that the scandal has exposed social reforms agenda of Nitish Kumar government. Questioning the role of the police, RJD leader wondered as to how a girl can disappear mysteriously from a government-funded shelter home. The police and the government should have ensured care and protection in such sensitive cases. He also alleged that there are reports the shelter home is also run by a wife of a person close to senior JD(U) member. The situation cant get any worse than this and the manner in which everyone tried to keep the matter under wraps is the beginning of the deep-rooted conspiracy. On a rare sunny summer day in the Mission District, Nina Wright rolled up Clarion Alley with a large suitcase in hand. She dropped it in front of a group of six teenage girls and unzipped it. Spray cans burst out as the girls watched with a shy glee, eager to get their hands on the aerosol containers. Behind them was a wooden fence with the words Grrrl Power crawling up the planks in bold, squiggly letters. It was a fitting rallying cry for this latest edition of Graffiti Camp for Girls. The five-day-long workshop last month at Clarion Alley, San Franciscos famous mural space, with the next one at Petaluma Arts Center from Monday to Thursday, Aug. 6 to 9 seeks to teach girls how to use spray paint to create a work of public art. Its the passion project of Wright, an Oakland artist who often found herself as the lone female in a street art scene dominated by men. As her alter ego, Girl Mobb, 32-year-old Wright would often showcase her work at local galleries and soon realized that out of 100 murals she counted in Oakland, only a dozen or so were made by women. She decided it was time to change that. I wanted to eliminate the intimidation and give females the tools and confidence so if they want to make a piece of public art, they know how to do it, she says. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle At first, Graffiti Camp for Girls was a one-off project encouraging the next generation to bring a female voice to graffiti. But the inaugural camp in Berkeley in April 2017 was such a success that Wright decided to do more. Soon, cities from across the United States started reaching out to Wright, asking her to bring Graffiti Camp for Girls to them. More Information Graffiti Camp for Girls: 1-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, Aug. 6-9. $250. Petaluma Arts Center, 230 Lakeville St., Petaluma. www.graffiticampforgirls.com See More Collapse It just felt so natural, and there seemed to be a great need for it, she says. Since then, Wright has hosted 15 camps in California, Ohio, Kentucky and even overseas in Cambodia. The camp is really less about street art and more about girls balancing the scales in a male-dominated world, Wright says. Street art is very public you have to be confident to do it and have the skills to pull it off. Its totally empowering. That sentiment isnt lost on the girls at the San Francisco camp. I think Id feel different if there were guys in the camp, says 16-year-old Caroline Trotter, who hails from Virginia and signed up for camp during a family visit to the Bay Area. I would feel lesser, which is not how I should feel, but thats just how it is because (graffiti art) is male-dominated. But the first step to changing that is acknowledging it and bringing attention to it. After spray-painting her first letter on the wall, 11-year-old Sydney Goldfarb of Marin County chimes in: Its pretty powerful to see all girls spray-painting a wall, because youre not used to that. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle As the rattling sound of shaking spray cans mixed with a Metallica tune blasting from a tiny speaker, the girls learned different spray-painting techniques and started creating their own characters. Watching over the group of girls, Wright says, I wish I had something like this growing up. Raised in rural Ohio, Wright remembers when she was 16 sneaking out in the middle of the night to spray-paint barns with simple stencils depicting a robot holding a flower in its hands, an early piece that set the tone for Girl Mobbs colorful and cartoonish style. Wright eventually moved to the Bay Area to attend the Academy of Art University, but quickly found it boring. To her, the streets seemed like a more immediate and playful canvas than the conventional art world could offer. Thats not to say Wrights camp advocates vandalism. She does not encourage her students to partake in illegal graffiti, and all her classes are taught in spaces where they have permission to spray-paint. In Clarion Alley during that last week of July, the girls were eager to learn. From the moment they put respirator masks on their faces to protect from the aerosol fumes, they felt like real graffiti artists. It makes us look cool, Sydney says. Soon, paint dusted their T-shirts, torn jeans and sneakers. The girls hardly took notice of the hordes of curious tourists walking through the alley taking photos of them. Clarion (Alley) is my favorite place to do camp because the girls get to paint in front of an audience, Wright says. Its urban and gritty, and you get the full experience of all the smells and the characters walking by. At the culmination of camp, the group unveiled a collaborative mural of their own design depicting a butterfly and the word Rise with a nail-polished fist as the I, which will continue to adorn Clarion Alley until the next group of Graffiti Camp for Girls hits up the walls. For Caroline, the experience has already made an impact on her. Where I live, there is nowhere you can do street art legally, so to be able to do this without worrying is pretty dope, she says. After having hundreds of people watching me paint, I already feel more confident. Sole Moller is a freelance writer. The U.S. Navy knew as far back as 1993 that the tap water at its former shipyard in San Francisco contained dangerous amounts of lead, but didnt tell local officials, visitors or people who worked there, including hundreds of police employees stationed at the site since 1997. Documents obtained by The Chronicle show how the Navy has sometimes kept other government agencies and the public in the dark about hazards at the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, a sprawling Superfund waste site contaminated with radioactivity and industrial pollutants. For the past quarter century, the Navy has hired contractors to remove or cover toxic material and prepare the 500-acre site for transfer to San Francisco, which plans to turn the land into homes and businesses. But the cleanup has been roiled by a scandal over faked soil data and allegations of wider fraud. A recent Chronicle investigation revealed that shipyard dangers werent properly explained to the San Francisco police employees who worked there for years, according to interviews with dozens of retired officers and communications and documents from that time. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called for a federal investigation into the Navys main shipyard cleanup contractor, Tetra Tech, as well as the potential failings of the Navy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, citing an unacceptable cloud of fear and doubt and a disturbing lack of transparency. Who knew what, when? Pelosi asked Tuesday. Tetra Tech has stood by its work and has said that any wrongdoing was confined to a cabal of rogue employees. The Navy owns the shipyard, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates its cleanup. Both have defended their oversight of the former base. The new documents reveal a piece of what the Navy knew during an early, formative phase of the cleanup. In 1993, Navy tests concluded that the drinking water supplied to shipyard buildings was contaminated with lead and copper, probably from corrosion in the pipes. The amount of lead in drinking-water samples was significantly above safe levels, a Navy official wrote years later in a letter to the San Franciscos development agency. Lead can cause cancer and brain damage and is particularly poisonous to pregnant women and children. One water sample tested by the Navy contained 15 times the safe amount of lead. Copper also showed up in the drinking-water samples, though at levels considered acceptable by the EPA. Copper is potentially harmful to the blood, liver and kidneys. More Information Dangerous Ground Read The Chronicle's investigative reporting on the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and related issues online: www.sfchronicle.com/dangerous-ground Email The Chronicle's Investigative Team: iteam@sfchronicle.com To learn how to contact reporters confidentially: https://projects.sfchronicle.com/newstips/ See More Collapse Despite learning that the shipyards water was dangerous in 1993, the Navy didnt disclose the information right away. In 1996, the Navy leased three shipyard buildings to the city. One of them, known as Building 606, became the new home for specialized police units such as the SWAT Team, the dirt-bike unit, the K-9 unit the Muni Transit unit and the citywide crime lab. Yet the Navy didnt mention the water contamination in lease paperwork for Building 606. It offered the building as is, and the city signed on without performing its own tests of the water. Police employees, both officers and civilians, started transferring to Building 606 in February 1997. By March, about 40 police officers were working there. Early on, they drank the tap water and also used it to take showers and brush their teeth, according to interviews with 30 former officers who were stationed at the building. 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. It wasnt until that summer when the Navy finally issued an alert. Hunters Point Shipyard is concerned with the quality of the drinking water provided to employees, tenants, and visitors on the station, Navy base-closure official Beverly Freitas wrote to the citys development agency on July 16, 1997, detailing the troubling lead results from 1993. Appearing surprised, city official June Bartholomew replied in a letter on Aug. 13, The city had significant questions and concerns about the limited information you provided, she wrote, then posed nine sharp questions to the Navy, among them: Why the delay in notification to the [city]? and What specific steps will the Navy take to address the long term lead problem? The development agency, which provided the Navys letter to The Chronicle in response to a public records request, said it had no record of a reply to Bartholomews letter. At some point during 1997, police employees working at Building 606 were told by commanders to stop drinking the tap water, officers who worked there recalled. They were also told that showers and brushing teeth were fine. The Police Department brought in bottled water. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A San Francisco Department of Public Health spokeswoman referred to previous assurances the department has given about the safety of Building 606s water. A department of health industrial hygienist said in 1999 that that she believed the water issues were resolved by flushing the pipes. Both the health department and the Navy have maintained that any potential hazards were properly addressed and that the police building, and the people within it, are safe. Jason Fagone and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jason.fagone@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfagone, @cdizikes The light is going out from the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Theyre turning it off so they can turn it back on in two months, bigger and better. Except theyre only going to turn it on for the tourists, not for the ship captains. Thats how it goes for lighthouses these days. Theyre beautiful, stately and obsolete. Theyre collectors items. Like typewriters, they still work but nobody needs them to. This lighthouse still operates, said Ranger Paul Engel, standing near the fabled landmark at the westernmost tip of Point Reyes, the foggiest spot in California. Its not dysfunctional. It would work if we needed it to work. And it will work even better in two months, if we need it to work then. Since 1975, the beam of light at Point Reyes that warns errant ship captains has come not from the lighthouse but from an automated beacon perched nearby. But that hasnt stopped the 148-year-old lighthouse from attracting 400,000 visitors a year. Its the main thing to visit at Point Reyes National Seashore, besides the national seashore. People love the place, rangers say. The public identifies with something that could work if it needed to. Like most things along the coast, the Point Reyes Lighthouse takes a beating from the elements. The building is rusting, the paint is peeling, the walkways are crumbling, the stone wall is failing and the restroom roof is decaying. Talia Herman / Special to The Chronicle And the whole area must be made accessible to disabled visitors. That means adding three steps to the fabled 308-step staircase that leads down to the lighthouse, in order to flatten out the observation and whale-watching deck on the upper level for wheelchair users. So starting Monday, the lighthouse will shut down to visitors for two months, for a $5 million face-lift that has been two decades in the planning. The biggest job, said contractor Karl Lindstrom, who is overseeing the project, will be dismantling the giant lens inside the lighthouse. The lens, made in France and shipped around Cape Horn in the 19th century, comprises more than 1,000 glass prisms, looks like a giant fire hydrant and could be the most beautiful single object in Marin County, if not the most complex. Its known as a Fresnel lens, after Augustin-Jean Fresnel, its Parisian designer. About half of the prisms have chips or cracks. Lindstrom will repair or replace them at a secret location (I dont want to say where, because people steal things, he said) before reassembling the whole contraption so that it could be turned back on if the Coast Guard needs it to be, which it wont. What will happen in October is that the lighthouse will go back to being turned on exclusively for visitors. Twice a month, the rangers will fire up the main lamp for the evening tour. Guests get to stand inside the lighthouse and see the glittering lens in all its glory while, at the same time, the lighthouse suffers the ultimate indignity rangers hang curtains on the outer windows so that the beam will not shine out to sea and interfere with the automated beacon. We have to draw the curtains, said chief of interpretation John DellOsso. Otherwise, it could be confusing. Having the second beam shouldnt be an issue to sailors, but why take a chance? Talia Herman / Special to The Chronicle Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. On Friday, visitors were getting in a final look before the gates are locked for two months. Getting a look at the lighthouse means walking down the 308 steps from the visitor center and then walking back up. Richard and Margaret Van Zandt, from Napa, made the trek to get a last look at the 1,000 prisms with all the historic cracks and chips still in them. They said they came to the lighthouse because they always tell their out-of-town guests to visit the lighthouse and they figured it was time to pay a visit themselves. Its beautiful, said Margaret Van Zandt. And coming down the 308 steps wasnt so bad. We havent gone back up yet, though. The staircase now poses something of a metaphysical problem. The steps are numbered from top to bottom, so an out-of-breath visitor knows how many more remain. But the three new steps will be added to the top of the staircase, above the step that has been painted Step No. 1. So what do you call the three new steps that precede No. 1, if you dont want to repaint the numbers on all the other steps? I dont know, Lindstrom said. Maybe Step Zero and Step -1 and Step -2. Its a puzzle. Can you have a Step Zero? Its been bothering me. Its really been keeping me up nights. Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF A rampaging stranger broke a 36-year-old Brisbane womans nose, knocked out her tooth and cut her head at a Daly City car wash, authorities said. The victims daughters, ages 4 and 6, witnessed the attack from the back seat of their mothers car, police said. Authorities are looking for the assailant, described as a 5-foot-5, 160-pound woman in her 30s. The episode happened around 7:50 p.m. July 29 at the Shell gas station on Hillside Boulevard. The victim, who was not identified, told police she started driving into the gas stations car wash when the vehicle in front of her began driving back and forth, nearly slamming into her car. The driver ahead then parked in the car wash and got out, prompting the victim and others in line to start honking, police said. The erratic driver, now out of her car, flew into a rage and began hitting the victims vehicle with her hands and her phone, police said. Now Playing: These Bay Area towns and suburbs have the highest crime rates. Video: Ted Andersen, SFGATE After the woman in the car lowered her window, police said the assailant grabbed it with both hands and slammed it down. With the window open, she began throwing punches, police said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The attacker grabbed the victims cell phone, saying, Youre not going to call police, authorities said. The victim got out of her car, and the assailant grabbed her by the hair and begin beating her, police said. The attacker landed several punches before pushing the woman to the ground and chucking the cell phone at her, police said. The assailant then got in her car and took off, police said. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky California prides itself on technological innovation. But as brutal fires scorch the state, its arsenal remains traditional: axes and fire trucks on the ground, and planes and helicopters dropping water and foam. Our basic foundation is the tried and true, said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Theres no real shiny object out there that would work for us right now. The technology Cal Fire is most excited about: Over the next five years it will get a dozen new Black Hawk helicopters designed in the 1970s to replace its fleet of Hueys, which previously served in the Vietnam War. Its not that firefighters are Luddites. But in life-and-death situations, they cant afford to rely on solutions that havent been thoroughly field-tested. And, of course, there are major budget constraints as money gets consumed by the day-to-day battles. We dont want to introduce unintended consequences, said Ralph Gonzales, fire and aviation portfolio manager at the U.S. Forest Services Technology and Development Program in San Dimas (Los Angeles County). The Forest Service, with almost 20,000 full-time and seasonal workers dedicated to firefighting nationwide, spends $3.4 billion a year 57 percent of its budget on battling blazes, both in the field and from labs and offices. It has 80 people working on research and development, plus new technologies. An example is using longer handles for the Pulaski, a hand tool for clearing vegetation to construct firebreaks that combines a fire ax and adze (or hoe), in use for more than a century. The Pulaski has been around a long time its not sexy, but its a tool firefighters use all the time, Gonzales said. We did an ergonomic study and field testing of whether longer handles would help with the fatigue and back issues that firefighters have. Firefighters from 1955 would readily recognize the tools and techniques being used to battle Californias raging infernos but they might not recognize the increasingly intense fires. Thats a problem, experts say. Were using decades-old tools and strategies to fight fires that are a lot different than they were 30 or 40 years ago, said Edward Struzik, author of Firestorm: How Wildfires Will Shape Our Future. Weve got a new dynamic in the landscape, he said. Weve got heat drying up the forests, extending droughts, providing more fuel for ignition. The heat drives winds like the Santa Anas even harder than in the past. Hed like to see major investments in technology, but noted that agencies like the Forest Service are so frenzied dealing with so many fires burning almost year-round now that it has to be up to Congress to pull together resources for this. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo., are spearheading congressional efforts to allocate more money to modernize firefighting technology. Master Sgt. Julie Avey / California Air National Guard 2013 Solutions are being developed to help with finding and dousing flames, notifying residents about evacuations, pinpointing air quality issues and improving protective gear for firefighters. Some examples: Visualizations: Eyes in the sky planes, drones, satellites can help pinpoint wildfires in their early stages, provide comprehensive overviews of ones currently raging and track where containment is and isnt working. Computer models can crunch that data, along with weather and wind patterns, to predict where and when fires will spread. FUEGO (Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit), a joint project of UC Berkeley researchers and Reno company Fireball, is one approach. Our detectors gather images, spatial data, results from simulations, local weather and turn it into intelligence thats actionable, said Carl Pennypacker, an astrophysicist at the Lawrence National Berkeley Laboratory. Fireball CEO Tim Ball, who has a doctorate from Stanford and spent about a decade as a firefighter, said FUEGO delivers big-picture views in near-real time and then turns them into lines and points on a map, symbology that can be quickly transmitted and communicated. Hes seeking funding for the system, which would use a combination of infrared-camera-equipped planes and sentinel drones that fly at about 60,000 feet above commercial airspace so they wont interfere with firefighting planes. Meanwhile, the Forest Service is working to use satellites to supplement its existing imaging. Currently, the agency takes aerial infrared images at night providing a good snapshot of the fire first thing in the morning but not throughout the day. Wed like to increase capacity to have a persistent stare on fires and how they are behaving, said Lisa Elenz, assistant director of capabilities, development and integration for the Forest Services fire and aviation management division. The best route: partnerships with the military or private contractors with satellites. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Information technology is also key. Were trying to expand our ability to access information off aircraft, download it while theyre still in the air, store it and make it searchable for analysis and documentation, Elenz said. We want to improve situational awareness so we have better information for line officers, decision makers and crews on the ground. A new app called Collector allows firefighters in the field to capture information via photos, geographic information system data and text on factors such as water sources and structures at risk. As soon as theyre in cell range, the information is automatically uploaded. Before, we wouldnt find that out until the fire crew came off the line at 6 or 7 at night, she said. Now we can collect it earlier in the day. Some 8,000 firefighters are using the app. Firefighter protection: In 2013, 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died in the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona when raging flames cut off their escape route. All used portable fire shelters that couldnt withstand the intense heat. That tragedy has touched off a quest to develop stronger shelters. Josh Fody, a thermal engineer at NASA, has spent three years working on better shelters, using heat-shield technology developed for rockets landing on Mars. The projects name, CHIEFS, stands for Convective Heating Improvements for Emergency Fire Shelters. Fifteen of the shelters are being carried by firefighters this year. Applying our technology to a tangible thing that will save lives was very meaningful, Fody said. Deploying fire shelters is very rare its a last resort. But when it happens, being able to withstand intense heat for a short period of time is crucial. In 1953, the nation convened a firefighting summit at Camp Pendleton (San Diego County) called Operation Firestop. Participants sought ways to use surplus military technology from World War II and the Korean War and discussed research on chemical retardants, weather influences and aerial delivery. Stephen Pyne, a fire historian and professor at the Arizona State University, says its time for Firestop 2. Lets look at digital technology, see what can transfer, set up a large multiagency campaign, he said. The idea that there is a technological savior, a way to change the calculus and disrupt how we fight fires is delusional, but there are plenty of changes that could help. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid The 33-year-old firefighter who died Sunday while battling the Ferguson Fire in Mariposa County was a leader and mentor to a 20-person elite crew responsible for battling blazes in the most rugged terrain in the region. Capt. Brian Hughes, a firefighter with the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshot Crew at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, was fatally struck by a falling tree on the fire line near Yosemite. His crew had been operating in an area where there are a lot of dead trees, according to the Sequoia Parks Conservancy. He died at the scene. Hughes is survived by his parents, Peter and Suen Hughes of Hilo, Hawaii; his sister, Meriel Hughes; and his fiancee, Paige Miller, who is expecting their first child in February, according to the conservancy. His death leaves a void in the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots, one of the two interagency crews of the National Park Service, said Mike Theune, a fire information officer with Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. He was one of the most hardworking people Ive ever met, Theune said. He was a leader and highly respected by his crew, but he was also the type of person you could share a laugh with. His family could not be reached for comment. The conservancy described him as a friend to everyone he met: Brian always put others first, stopping to help people no matter what. He was positive, funny and selfless. A man of strong morals, Brian had a clear sense of the right thing to do at the right time. Courtesy of Sequoia Parks Conservancy Hughes, who was born in Hawaii and had early dreams of becoming a stuntman, spent his first two years as a firefighter working in an emergency fire and rescue unit in Fort Collins, Colo., called the Larimer County Yellow Jackets, according to the Sequoia Parks Conservancy. He went on to serve on the Midnight Suns hotshot crew in Alaska, the Roosevelt Hotshot Crew in Fort Collins, the Monterey hand crew with the Los Padres National Forest, and then returned to Alaska to work for the Bureau of Land Management. Four years ago, he joined the Arrowhead Hotshots crew, according to the conservancy. At the time of his death, Hughes had been working a two-week rotation on the Ferguson Fire. Theune said the rotation requires firefighters to work 14 days straight for 16 hours at a time. After resting for two days, they begin another 14-day work period, continuing the rotation until the fire is contained, he said. As one can imagine, this has been a big hit for the firefighters, for the fire staff and for the entire firefighting community, Theune said. Its times like these where we come together with the support of the community. Having that brotherhood and sisterhood makes a difference. Woody Smeck, the superintendent of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, said at a press conference this week that Hughes was a pillar of strength for the hotshot crew and was a friend to all of his colleagues in the National Park Service. Smeck said Hughes was the second-in-command of the Arrowhead Hotshots crew, a group of firefighters trained specifically to respond to high-risk fires. Brian was one of the best, Smeck said. Gregarious, outgoing, positive in his outlook. Just a positive, wonderful individual. Hughes started with the Arrowhead Hotshots in 2015, working on the Rough Fire, which burned for three months, Theune said. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California His first season with the hotshots was also my first season and, under Brians leadership, they battled that fire hard, Theune said. He fostered development of the younger crew members, and he was a person that I looked up to, and that a lot of firefighters looked up to. In recent weeks, Hughes sought insight as he approached fatherhood, according to a GoFundMe page created by his colleagues. He was excited and nervous to be a father, and would go around asking the other fathers on the crew for some fatherly advice, reads the GoFundMe page. He loved Paige and his family very much. A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday in Valdez Hall of the Fresno Convention Center. Hughes was the second firefighter killed in the Ferguson Fire. Cal Fire bulldozer operator Braden Varney was killed July 14 when his vehicle plunged off a hillside. Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor MARK RALSTON;Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty Images The Hearst family and the Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle, said Friday they will partner with a Northern California foundation to contribute $120,000 to help victims of the deadly Carr Fire near Redding. The fire has killed six people and burned nearly 132,000 acres in Shasta and Trinity counties, and by Friday it was 39 percent contained. A man ignited a bomb under a Sonoma County Sheriffs Office patrol car Friday morning to injure one person, authorities said. Shortly before noon Friday, the deputy parked his car in the parking lot of the Safeway in Guerneville and walked inside before a loud explosion rattled the windows of the grocery store, according to the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office. The deputy rushed out and witnesses pointed at a man running through the parking lot, authorities said. The suspect was taken into custody after being tackled by an off-duty police officer. Witnesses allegedly saw the man throwing items under the deputys patrol car prior to the loud explosion. One Safeway employee near the explosion suffered minor injuries. She was treated at the scene and was able to return to work, authorities said. At the time of his arrest, the suspect was allegedly holding a backpack that containing more explosive devices, leading deputies to evacuate the Safeway and surrounding area. The Sonoma County Sheriffs Bomb Squad neutralized the backpack, authorities said. The Safeway parking lot remained closed while the Sheriffs bomb dog swept for more explosives. Deputies also investigated the suspects car for further explosives. The Safeway store reopened for business, but with limited access, authorities said. Now Playing: Franklin Zimring, a criminologist and law professor at UC Berkeley, explains why some types of murders go unsolved while others get solved more easily. Video: Drew Costley/San Francisco Chronicle Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The Sheriffs office said they are not releasing the suspects name at this time but he is believed to be a Sonoma County man. The investigation is ongoing. Erin Stone is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: erin.stone@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erstone7 Rahul Gandhi shared a short video of launch of Gold Monetisation Scheme in 2015 where PM Modi had referred to Mehul Choksi as 'Mehul bhai'. The blame game between the two major political rival parties was triggered by a statement put out by Antiguas Citizenship by Investment Unit that is facing criticism for allowing Choksi to buy the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda. (Photo: PTI | File) New Delhi: A fresh row sparked off between BJP and Congress when Congress pointed to Antiguas assertion that Indian agencies had given him a clean chit during BJP-led government. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has often criticised and accused the Modi-led BJP government at the Centre of letting diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehlu Choksi flee the country also waded in later, with a short video where PM Modi calls Mehul Choksi as Mehul bhai at the launch of Gold Monetisation Scheme in 2015. In todays big news: India gave Mehul Bhai Chowksi, Mr 56s suit-boot BFF, a clean chit in Nov 2017, enabling him to obtain Antiguan citizenship. This Bhai looted PNB of 13,000 Cr., before scooting from India. Heres a little video of Mr 56 with Mehul Bhai pic.twitter.com/tt8K5XzBH4 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 3, 2018 In retaliation to the allegations, BJP asked the Congress to explain the statement by Mehul Choksis lawyer in which he mentioned that Choksi had links with big leader of the opposition parties. Anil Baluni, BJP spokesperson said, The fact is that Mehul Choksis assets were raised during 2012-2014 when Congress-led UPA was in power. The blame game between the two major political rival parties was triggered by a statement put out by Antiguas Citizenship by Investment Unit that is facing criticism for allowing Choksi to buy the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda. Antiguas Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) in its explanation said that it had sought and received clearance from Mumbai passport office which certified that there was no adverse information against Choksi. Also Read: India cops okayed our background check of Mehul Choksi: Antigua Choksi had applied for Antiguas citizenship in May 2017. The background check was done before he became a wanted man in India. According to reports, Choksi had bought Antiguas citizenship as a part of Citizenship by Investment policy by paying Rs 1.3 crore. He left India in first week of January and took oath of allegiance on January 15 as Antiguas citizen. The CBI had filed a case on January 29, 2018 and started investigating Nirav Modi and Choksi. Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi are accused of Rs 13,500 crore fraud involving fake guarantees in the name of Punjab National Bank to facilitate overseas loans. The Congress, however, said the statement by the Antigua government had uncovered new facts that demonstrate the "the active connivance and complicity of every agency of Modi Govt." Congress spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala said, "Loot and make them scoot is the prime policy of the Modi government. The shocking details reveal how the Modi government enacted this mega scam." Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not raise the issue when he met his Antiguan counterpart Gaston Browne in April 2018, questioned Surjewala. The most stirring call to break up California came a quarter-century ago from Stocktons own Pavement. Over the less than two minutes and 20 or so words of the bands anthem Two States, they dont offer much detail, but they do, for some reason, repeatedly shout, Forty million daggers! Several more recent state-splitting proposals have been a lot less infectious and only a little more serious. Weve endured attempts to make California six states, three states, 1 states and, now, two countries. The latest from the leaders of the Calexit campaign advocates that California secede not only from the United States but from itself, with the inland half returned to Indian tribes a gesture whose sincerity is diminished by the fact that the group appears to have closer ties to Russians than to Native Americans. Another (adoptive) California band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, offered a more generous assessment of the state leading to a prayer against, not for, disintegration: Californias been good to me. Hope it dont fall into the sea. Josh Gohlke, editorial writer A group of teenagers and children took the federal government to court, saying it hadnt done enough to protect them against climate change. This unusual case may sound like a movie drama, but its real. So far, the kids are winning. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the case, which was first brought by a group of 21 young people, can go forward. The result could be a historic climate change decision that will affect every American. The lawsuit dates to 2015, when the young plaintiffs (they now range in age from 10 to 21) first filed suit against the Obama administration. It is a wide-ranging lawsuit, startling in the thoroughness of its demands. The plaintiffs say the federal governments inaction on climate change has endangered their constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They want the courts to order many remedies: an end to government subsidies for carbon-based energy, a phase-out of carbon emissions as soon as possible and the creation of a national plan to stabilize the climate system. Given the fact that some congressional representatives claim they dont even believe in human-made climate change, the plaintiffs demands are, to put it mildly, a tall order politically. The Obama administration sought to have the case dismissed. It failed. This lawsuit may be groundbreaking, but that fact does not alter the legal standards governing the motions to dismiss, wrote U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, who ruled against the Obama administration in 2016. Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of environmental law, and the world has suffered for it. Things have changed on the national environmental front following President Trumps election mostly for the worst. President Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the global Paris climate agreement. His administration has pursued a long list of anti-regulatory environmental actions, from weakening vehicular emissions and mileage standards to rolling back parts of the Clean Air Act. But while a concerted federal response against climate change may seem further away than ever, the plaintiffs are pressing forward with their suit. The question is, for how long? In its unsigned order, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administrations request to dismiss the climate change lawsuit. But it gave a hint of how future judges may choose to rule: The breadth of respondents claims is striking, however, and the justiciability of those claims presents substantial grounds for difference of opinion. In plain English, that means the case can go forward, but future judges may choose to limit its scope. The stakes are high. The world will find out how just how high when the case goes to trial in October. 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. Eighteen months ago, customers lined up outside Cockscomb, the popular San Francisco restaurant run by celebrity chef Chris Cosentino, on a mission to try a veggie burger they had only read about. Cockscomb still serves the fabled Impossible Burger you know, the one that expresses pink juices that turn brown as the wheat-gluten meat cooks, leading people to label it the veggie burger that bleeds. But, as of Friday, so does the San Francisco Cheesecake Factory. Among the 3,000 places where you can now eat the Impossible Burger are AT&T Park and 141 White Castle branches as well as the high-end restaurants that debuted it. As Impossible Foods, based in Redwood City, hits the mainstream with the force of a Cardi B song, its fulfilling founder Pat Browns vision of a sustainably produced, plant-based hamburger appealing enough to replace ground beef, which in 2017 represented 64 percent of all beef sold in restaurants, according to a Technomic report. For all the virtue that the Impossible Burger represents, its remarkable to see a processed food appeal to both the mass market and high-end chefs at the same time. Virtue is a slippery thing. As the supply continues to grow, will customers both vegetarian and omnivorous continue to embrace it? And can the Impossible Burger retain the cult status conferred on it by top chefs like Cosentino? Brown, a former Stanford biochemistry professor, founded Impossible Foods in 2011 and sold Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures on his vision, not to mention funders from Hong Kong, Switzerland and Singapore, accruing almost $400 million in investment, according to Crunchbase, a site that reports and records news on global companies. The Impossible Burger first made public appearances mid-2016 at some of Americas leading restaurants, including Cockscomb and Traci Des Jardins Jardiniere in San Francisco and David Changs Momofuku Nishi in New York, with prices in the $16-$19 range. The scarcity of the burger, as well as its embrace by the fine dining realm, proved excellent marketing as far as the print and social media were concerned. Its exclusive nature also reflected the size of the Impossible Burger test runs. That began to change in September 2017, when Impossible Foods opened a 68,000-square-foot factory in East Oakland. The factory, which employs 80, now manufactures 500,000 pounds of ground nonmeat every month, according to chief of operations David Lee, and will double that volume to 1 million pounds within the next few months. At maximum capacity, the Oakland facility could make 48 million pounds a year eight times what it currently produces. In mid-July, Applebees began serving the Impossible Burger at select locations, and a major casino chain in Macau agreed to import the Impossible Burger. On July 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that, after balking in 2015, it had accepted the companys assertion that bioengineered soy leghemoglobin the ingredient that gives the product its meaty look and taste was proven to be safe for human consumption. White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson said that the plant-based meats physical properties it cooks much like ground beef, though at lower temperatures fit into the way the fast-food chain prepares its signature sliders. The price for an Impossible Slider: $1.99. White Castle did some limited advertising and held a press event in Brooklyn, but were surprised by the amount of intrigue the Impossible Burger seemed to generate. Social media fans of either the Impossible Burger or White Castle did the rest. Within a week and a half of the launch, Katy Perry tweeted out something, Richardson said. (Actually, she shared her enthusiasm over Instagram, where she has 70 million followers.) Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media 2016 The Impossible Burger had also caught the attention of Cheesecake Factorys chief culinary officer, Donald Moore, when it showed up at Cockscomb and Momofuku Nishi. He invited Impossible Foods to a meeting a year ago, and fell in love with the samples the company gave him. I was extremely intrigued by the fact that someone was able to replicate the all-American burger, Moore said. The chain added the Impossible Burger to its menu in six locations in the winter, alongside its two house-made veggie burgers, and monitored the response. Some customers, unaware of the burgers reputation, tried to send it back, thinking they had received beef instead. Moore said the reception was so positive that the remaining 192 locations, including seven in the Bay Area, will serve the burger by Aug. 31. In San Francisco, the burger will cost $16.50. Impossible Foods says that it still has no immediate plans to sell the burger in grocery stores, as its closest competitor, Beyond Meat based in Southern California, does. Restaurants have been the making of the brand; they and other food-service outlets like college cafeterias will continue to be its only outlet. According to Lee, some of the countrys biggest restaurant wholesale suppliers, such as Sysco and US Foods, now carry the Impossible Burger, too. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Thats how John Makhoul, owner of Papa Maks Burgers, a tiny, independent storefront in the Outer Sunset, got ahold of the plant-based product. His Sysco rep told him that famous chefs on the other side of town were cooking with it. I was hesitant about it in the beginning, but with the kind of toppings you put on it, you cant tell youre not eating meat, Makhoul said. This winter, Papa Maks began selling a third-of-a-pound patty on a toasted sesame-seed bun with grilled onions and fries for $14.99, well above the price of a regular cheeseburger. Both Makhoul and his cashier said its been popular. So what does the burgers newfound ubiquity mean for those leading chefs that sparked its popularity? Cosentino says that growing availability of the Impossible Burger has definitely driven down demand at Cockscomb, where he still serves it for lunch. Plus, it costs him more for the raw ingredient, he added, than for dry-aged beef. Now people will come in and look at the price, and say, Oh, I can get it for cheaper. I think thats whats going to happen until the price equalizes, he said. In an era when chefs are drying their own spices and fermenting their own miso paste, Syscos catalog of prepared foods has a muddied reputation, at least publicly, among San Franciscos high-end restaurants. Processed meat even more so. Yet Cosentino said that, for him, the Impossible Burger became an ingredient, not a premade puck. He has served the un-meat raw like beef tartare; it was recently on his menu as a larb, a Lao-inspired ground-meat salad. Other chefs are experimenting, too. San Mateos Wursthall serves spiced Impossible Foods kebabs. Bostons Clover Labs serves it as a meatball sub. Restaurants in Hong Kong, Lee said, are stuffing steamed bao with the product. The success of the Impossible Burger among mainstream restaurants may boil down to its branding; to retain its prestige, though, chefs will have to make it their own. Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @jonkauffman McDonalds is fighting to hold onto customers as the Big Mac turns 50, but it isnt changing the makings of its most famous burger. The company is celebrating the 1968 national launch of the double-decker sandwich whose ingredients of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a sesame seed bun were seared into American memories by a TV jingle. But the milestone comes as the company reduces its number of U.S. stores. Customers are visiting less often. Other trendy burger options are reaching into the heartland. The Golden Arches still have a huge global reach, and the McDonalds brand of cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries remains recognizable around the world. But on its home turf, the company is toiling to stay relevant. Kale now appears in salads, fresh has replaced frozen beef patties in Quarter Pounders, and some stores now offer ordering kiosks, food delivery and barista-style cafes. The milestone for the Big Mac shows how much McDonalds and the rest of fast-food have evolved around it. Clearly, weve gotten a little more sophisticated in our menu development, McDonalds CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a phone interview. As with many of its popular and long-lasting menu items, the idea for the Big Mac came from a franchisee. In 1967, Michael James Jim Delligatti lobbied the company to let him test the burger at his Pittsburgh restaurants. Later, he acknowledged the Big Macs similarity to a popular sandwich sold by the Big Boy chain. This wasnt like discovering the light bulb. The bulb was already there. All I did was screw it in the socket, Delligatti said, according to Behind the Arches. McDonalds agreed to let Delligatti sell the sandwich at a single location, on the condition that he use the companys standard bun. It didnt work. Delligatti tried a bigger sesame seed bun, and the burger soon lifted sales by more than 12 percent. After similar results at more stores, the Big Mac was added to the national menu in 1968. Other ideas from franchisees that hit the big time include the Filet-O-Fish, Egg McMuffin, Apple Pie (once deep-fried but now baked), and the Shamrock Shake. The company has benefited from the ingenuity of its small business men, wrote Ray Kroc, who transformed the McDonalds into a global franchise, in his book, Grinding It Out. Franchisees still play an important role, driving the recent switch to fresh from frozen for the beef in Quarter Pounders, Easterbrook says. They also participate in menu development, which in the U.S. has included a series of cooking tweaks intended to improve taste. Messing with a signature menu item can be taboo, but keeping the Big Mac unchanged comes with its own risks. Newer chains such as Shake Shack and Five Guys offer burgers that can make the Big Mac seem outdated. Even White Castle is modernizing, recently adding plant-based Impossible Burger sliders at some locations. A McDonalds franchisee fretted in 2016 that only one out of five Millennials has tried the Big Mac. The Big Mac had gotten less relevant, the franchisee wrote in a memo, according to the Wall Street Journal. McDonalds then ran promotions designed to introduce the Big Mac to more people. Those kind of periodic campaigns should help keep the Big Mac relevant for years to come, says Mike Delligatti, the son of the Big Mac inventor, who died in 2016. What iconic sandwich do you know that can beat the Big Mac as far as longevity? said Delligatti, himself a McDonalds franchisee. Candice Choi is an Associated Press writer. Amazon said this week that it will no longer let third-party retailers sell products that feature Nazi and white nationalist symbolism, after pressure from nonprofit groups and lawmakers. In a letter to Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., Amazon said it had removed products that violated its policy against product listings that promote hatred, violence or discrimination. We have reviewed the products and content referenced in your letter, and removed the listings that were found in violation of our policies and permanently blocked the seller accounts that were in violation of Amazon policy, Brian Huseman, Amazons vice president for public policy, wrote in the letter, which was earlier reported by BuzzFeed. We are also reviewing the seller accounts for potential suspension. Amazon sent its letter after two nonprofit groups the Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy called attention in July to product listings on the e-commerce site that included an infant onesie with a burning-cross graphic and jewelry emblazoned with Nazi swastikas. Amazon enables the celebration of ideologies that promote hate and violence by allowing the sale of hate symbols and imagery on its site, including Confederate and anti-black imagery, Nazi and fascist imagery, and the newly adopted imagery of the modern white nationalist movement, the groups wrote in a report. In response, Ellison wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, expressing alarm. I am disturbed that such a powerful corporation is materially fueling the rise of hate groups in our country, Ellison said. He also questioned Amazon about the profits it generated from white supremacist literature available on its Kindle e-reader platform. The Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy pointed to Amazons sales of an illustrated childrens book by George Lincoln Rockwell, who founded the American Nazi Party in 1959. In a statement, an Amazon spokeswoman said: Sellers are expected to comply with our policies, and we immediately investigate any reported violations. The items referenced by Rep. Ellison were previously reviewed, and we removed those that violated our policies well before we received his letter. While Amazon said the products in question would not be available for purchase anymore, the company is still removing them from its fulfillment centers. The childrens book was still available to buy on Amazon as of late Thursday. The retailer uses a combination of automated tools and human investigation to uncover and remove products that violate its policies. In his letter, Huseman declined to disclose how much money Amazon had made from the sale of literature published by groups that the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as hate groups. Amazon does not reveal its profits from individual publishers or product listings, he said. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ellisons office said he was not available for comment. Kate Conger is a New York Times writer. Big technology firms are on the hunt for cloud security startups to help their corporate customers lock down their networks. On Friday, Cisco agreed to buy cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35 billion. Duos technology allows companies to provide employees or customers with remote access. Its software verifies the identity of users, scans their device for security weaknesses and then lets them connect, a kind of supercharged username-and-password. Cisco said it would integrate Duos technology across its network, device and cloud services. The acquisition is part of a trend in which cloud providers and cybersecurity companies are trying to bolster the services they offer. Many businesses have turned to the cloud to run everything from human resources administration to artificial-intelligence analysis on remote computers. The attractions are numerous: The cloud allows workers to be more mobile, data to be accessible and processed from anywhere, and hardware systems to be less frequently updated. Tech giants, especially Amazon and Microsoft, have capitalized on the trend. They have built the software and huge banks of servers that allow businesses to run their systems on remote computers. The technology is a huge driver of growth at Amazon and Microsoft. In the quarter that ended June 30, for instance, Amazons cloud service generated $6.1 billion in net sales, up almost 50 percent from the same quarter in 2017. Gartner predicts that cloud revenue as a whole will grow by 21.4 percent in 2018. But some organizations have balked at handing their data to third parties like Amazon. With more sensitive data and critical information needing to be protected in these cloud deployments, we believe security vendors stand to benefit, wrote Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer and head of technology research of GBH Insights, in a note last week. Big tech companies have turned to acquisitions in recent years to bolster their existing offerings to customers, Ives said. San Joses Cisco alone paid $2.7 billion for hardware and software maker Sourcefire in 2013, $635 million for OpenDNS in 2015 and $293 million for cloud-security provider CloudLock in 2016. But Cisco has hardly been the only buyer. In the past 12 months, Oracle acquired Zenedge, Amazon purchased Sqrrl, VMware struck a deal for CloudCoreo, McAfee bought Skyhigh, and Symantec acquired Skycure. The pace of such deals particularly in identity management, like Duo should only pick up over the coming years as companies try to strengthen their defenses against cyberthreats, Ives said. Jamie Condliffe is a New York Times writer. Last year was a banner year for the exposure of personal information, and so far this year there has been a steady drumbeat of data breaches, so many that experts worry that people are just throwing up their hands in defeat. Timehop, an app that collects old photos and posts from social media, disclosed a breach in July that affected 21 million users. Names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses were among the identifiable details that were leaked. Under Armour revealed a data breach in March of 150 million accounts on its food and nutrition app MyFitnessPal; the genealogy site MyHeritage announced one in June affecting 92 million users, and 340 million individual records held by the marketing firm Exactis were exposed that month on a publicly accessible server. In one of the most jaw-dropping cases, Yahoo last year updated figures to reveal that an attack in 2013 had affected all 3 billion of its user accounts, up from a previous estimate of 1 billion. Experts caution that the stream of news about such breaches can set a new normal and instill a sense of fatalism and complacency in consumers. Anthony Vance, an associate professor and director of the Center for Cybersecurity at the Fox School of Business at Temple University, said last years breach of information held by the credit reporting company Equifax, which affected 145 million Americans, was a game changer. The information gleaned could be used to fraudulently open new credit accounts, he said, adding, That should give even the most jaded American consumer pause and prompt them to do something. But evidence suggests that high-profile breaches do not typically change consumers behavior. A Pew Research Center study found most Americans keep track of their passwords by memorizing or writing them down, with only 12 percent using a password manager, which can generate hard-to-crack passwords. A Rand Corp. report in 2016 said only 4 percent of people started using password managers after being notified that their data was exposed in a breach, Vance said. And an experiment conducted by Vance and other researchers found a disconnect between consumers professed concerns about online security and their actions. In the experiment, people using their personal computers to complete an assigned task tended to ignore warnings that some sites they were about to visit were not secure. He said consumers may be told the same advice repeatedly but are slow to respond unless they have already had a bad experience. Only then does this once bitten, twice shy lesson sink in. Youre not going to back up data, no matter what I tell you, until you lose the baby pictures of your first child, Vance said. Sometimes it takes an incident to internalize behavior. Its so easy to get inured. Experts call this behavior breach fatigue. Steven Andres, who teaches at the Fowler College of Business and homeland security program at San Diego State University, said it would be reasonable to think consumers would be more diligent after heavily publicized breaches, but some research indicates just the opposite. We may adjust to this being the new normal, he said, adding that digital natives and younger generations may perceive their personal data in a distorted sense to never have been private, so whats the big deal with it leaking out on the web anyway? A recency bias leads consumers to believe that as a breach recedes in the headlines, it becomes less threatening, Vance said. However, the data in the Equifax breach does not have a half-life and could be used for nefarious purposes at any point. Blame human nature. Anticipated danger can easily be deflected, deferred or declined because it makes us feel anxious and stressed, said James Norrie, dean of the Graham School of Business at York College of Pennsylvania and a cybersecurity expert. People also tend to have unrealistically optimistic outlooks about future events and believe that bad things will happen to someone else, experts said. Theres not going to be a magic bullet, said Vinny Troia, chief executive and principal security consultant of Night Lion Security and an expert in network security. Its the same things weve been saying over and over again. Consumers will be best served if they heed this familiar advice: Do not reuse passwords, rely on two-factor verification, install software only from trusted sources, question any alert that pops up on your screen and get a password manager. We are not living in a bubble per se, but instead we are underestimating the security of our data, said Gilbert E. Franco, an assistant professor of psychology at Beacon College in Leesburg, Fla. Much like a teenager underestimates the risks they take, we as a society are still in our adolescent years when it comes to the internet. Christopher Mele is a New York Times writer. Gumps, a San Francisco luxury department store founded in 1861, filed for bankruptcy protection late Friday, another sign of the upheaval in the retail industry. The company said it is seeking a buyer. It plans to liquidate merchandise to pay off lenders, with Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers handling sales. The company and its affiliates reported $61 million in assets and $64 million in liabilities in the Nevada bankruptcy filings. We will continue to seek a source of capital to enable this storied brand to continue to serve its devoted customers, Tony Lopez, Gumps chief operating officer, said in a statement. Retailers are struggling with increased competition from online companies such as Amazon, as well as high rents and operational costs in urban centers, particularly the Bay Area. Dozens of retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past few years, including San Franciscos Gymboree, as well as Brookstone, Nine West Holdings and the Bon-Ton Stores. Gumps has been navigating the overwhelmingly difficult retail environment that has affected many retailers, the company said. The Gumps store is at 135 Post St., near Union Square. Gumps has more than 100 employees, and the store occupies about 17,000 square feet, a spokesman said. Other Union Square retailers have been downsizing. Macys sold its mens store building in 2016 and is seeking to sell its 240,000-square-foot historic I. Magnin building. Macys also closed its Stonestown Galleria store this year. The Gump family founded the company and survived the 1906 earthquake, which destroyed its store. Merchandise includes mirrors, Asian rugs, porcelain and silks, according to the companys website. Gumps expanded beyond its retail location with a catalog in the 1950s. Its online and catalog sales now account for more than 75 percent of total sales and more than 90 percent of sales are outside the Bay Area, the company said in May. Three investment firms bought Gumps in 2005, and the company has added shareholders since then, according to the bankruptcy filings. Bloomberg first reported the bankruptcy filing. Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf American Red Cross of Northwest Georgia has scheduled an Introduction to Disaster Action Team meeting in August. This meeting is intended to recruit new DAT members throughout Northwest Georgia. The need for local volunteers can never be over-stated, said Executive Director Larry Brooks. Those interested are encouraged to attend. The event will be held on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 1 p.m. at the American Red Cross Rome Office, 112 John Maddox Dr. in Rome. KCR requested Modi that an IT investment region should be set up in Telangana. New Delhi: Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, apparently discussed the forthcoming general elections including the post-poll scenario. While his Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is not expected to enter a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, the party reportedly has kept its options open for the post-poll scenario. The second option could fructify considering the fact that during the July 20 no-confidence motion, which was moved by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) against the NDA Government, the TRS had walked out of Lok Sabha just minutes before the voting for the motion was to begin. Political observers noted that Mr Raos meeting with the Prime Minister his first after the no-confidence motion holds a lot of significance as the Lok Sabha polls are just months away. Even as the meeting led to a lot of speculation within political circles, Mr Rao on his part kept the focus of the meeting on various issues related to the state. The Telangana chief minister submitted a memorandum on various state-related issues to the Prime Minister, some of the important ones being a request to the law ministry through the PMO to establish a separate high court for Andhra Pradesh as currently, both the states have a common high court in Hyderabad. Mr Rao also requested Mr Modi to instruct the defence ministry to expedite the proposal of transfer of defence lands to Telangana, to enable the state government to take up construction of the new secretariat building. The chief minister also urged upon the Prime Minister to sanction an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) as well as an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the state. He also sought setting up of 21 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in as many districts of the state. He requested Mr Modi that an IT investment region should be set up in Telangana. As California's wildfires continue to burn, their collective destruction has become visible from space. Several of NASA's satellites have captured images of three wildfires the Carr Fire and Whaleback fires in California, as well as the Perry Fire in Nevada. The images highlight the burning areas in alarming detail, and showcase the thick blankets of smoke the fires continue to produce. A new video released Thursday by Red Bull Racing shows Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo speeding through San Francisco before beginning a western road trip to Las Vegas in his Aston Martin Red Bull RB7. It's not clear when the footage was shot. In the video, Ricciardo motors across the Golden Gate Bridge, which shows surprisingly little traffic into the city for a weekday commute. Then he burns rubber through a nearly empty Financial District, kicking up discarded newspapers along the way. Incredibly he doesn't get stuck behind a single double-parked Uber driver. Just when we were hoping he would test his skills on Lombard Street's hairpin curves, Ricciardo instead heads to the Bay Bridge. Poor guy. The traffic is going to be terrible on the bridge at this time of day ... or maybe it will be TOTALLY EMPTY?! Yes, there are no cars on the Bay Bridge even though it appears to be early morning, maybe around 7. Where are all the cars?! At least there's this consolation for all the drivers stuck behind roadblocks during the filming: A Formula 1 racer can zip across the Bay Bridge in seconds, so this delay should be over in a flash ... wait, what? Now he's taking a pit stop on the Bay Bridge. Somehow an entire pit crew walked onto span with new tires, jacks, portable compressors. CHECK CAR PRICES: By the way, if Ricciardo is headed to Vegas, what is he doing on the upper deck, which for everyone except Benjamin Braddock in "The Graduate" goes east to west? No wonder he got detoured to Monument Valley on his way to Las Vegas. His Aston Martin obviously needs a new nav system. A federal judge on Friday upheld his previous order to revive an Obama-era program that shields some 700,000 young immigrants from deportation, saying that the Trump administration had failed to justify eliminating it. Judge John Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave the government 20 days to appeal his decision. But his ruling could conflict with another decision on the program that a federal judge in Texas is expected to issue as early as next week. The Trump administration announced late last year that it would phase out the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which protects unauthorized young adults from deportation and grants them two-year renewable work permits. The administration argued that President Barack Obama had overstepped his authority and circumvented Congress when he created the program in 2012. The decision to end the program has faced numerous legal challenges. Currently, the government must continue accepting applications to renew DACA status, if not new applications from those who meet the criteria to qualify. DACA recipients often called Dreamers typically were brought to the U.S. illegally as children through no choice of their own. Bates ruled in late April that the administration must restore the DACA program and accept new applications. He had stayed his decision for 90 days to give the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the program, the opportunity to lay out its reasons for ending it. Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, responded last month, arguing that DACA likely would be found unconstitutional in the Texas case and therefore must end. She relied heavily on the memorandum that her predecessor, Elaine Duke, had issued to rescind the program and said the department had the discretion to end the program, just as the department under Obama had exercised discretion to create it. Bates, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, did not agree. He called the shutdown of the program arbitrary and capricious and said Nielsens response fails to elaborate meaningfully on the agencys primary rationale for its decision. Two federal judges, in New York City and in San Francisco, issued injunctions this year ordering the government to keep the program. But neither of those rulings required that the government accept new applications, as the ruling by Bates does. Meanwhile, the state of Texas and several other plaintiffs have sued the government to rescind the program, contending it is illegal. The District of Columbia lawsuit was brought by the NAACP, Microsoft and Princeton University. Miriam Jordan is a New York Times writer. The children were caught by neighbours but the fire killed the woman in China. After catching the siblings, the neighbours yelled at the mother urging her to jump, but the woman gradually passed out as smoke billowed out of their apartment. (Photo: Pixabay) Two siblings in China survived a fourth-floor fire when their mother threw them out of the window for neighbours to catch, according to local media. Their mother, however, was later found lying unconscious in the flat and died in the hospital, it is reported. The two children, a 9-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl were saved by neighbours ho caught them with bed sheets. The incident took place in central Chinas Henan Province, according to Henan TV. It is said the mother as well as her son and daughter were trapped in their four-floor home after a fire had broken out. The woman first threw two bed sheets out of their fourth-floor balcony - so her neighbours could use them to catch her children, then she threw her son and daughter out of the window one by one. After catching the siblings, the neighbours yelled at the mother urging her to jump, but the woman gradually passed out as smoke billowed out of their apartment. Firefighters later found the mother in the flat and took her and her two children to the hospital where she sadly died. While both children are safe, the girl sustained fractures on the leg, and is set to undergo surgery, according to Henan TV . PORTLAND, Ore. Small scuffles broke out Saturday as police in Portland deployed flash bang devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described anti-fascist protesters. There were arrests and some injuries, but it wasnt immediately clear how many. A reporter for the Oregonian/OregonLive was bloodied when he was struck by a projectile. Eder Campuzano said later on Twitter he is okay. Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, gathered around midday in a riverfront park. Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as Alt right scum not welcome in Portland. Officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated. The counterprotesters were made up of a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists and other groups. The rally organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fights and riots, and one counterprotester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture. This time, Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters could carry concealed weapons as they demonstrated. Gibson disputed the groups classification by some as a hate group. Were here to promote freedom and God. Thats it, Gibson told TV station KGW. Protesters saw a significant police presence that included bomb-sniffing dogs and weapons screening checkpoints. In a statement, police said weapons may be seized if there was a violation of law and added that it is illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person has a valid Oregon concealed handgun license. Among the things police confiscated were long sticks and homemade shields. Just before 2 p.m., police in riot gear ordered people to leave an area downtown, saying demonstrators had thrown rocks and bottles at officers. Gibsons insistence on bringing his supporters repeatedly to this liberal city has crystallized a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in other cities, including Berkeley, that have drawn violent reactions. But the Portland events have taken on outsize significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathizer was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defense of two young black women one in a hijab whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017. Gibson is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state. Manuel Valdes and Gillian Flaccus are Associated Press writers. WASHINGTON After weeks of refusing to meet with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats in the Senate plan to begin meeting with him when they start returning to Washington in mid-August, according to a senior Democratic aide. The aide said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee tasked with holding hearings for Kavanaugh, will be among those meeting with him. Only one Democratic senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has met with Kavanaugh as lawmakers sparred over access to records from the nominees time as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush. Kavanaughs lengthy public record has emerged as a key battleground as senators scrutinize the 53-year-old appellate judge, a conservative whose views on gay marriage, abortion and executive power could move the court rightward for a generation. The National Archives and Records Administration is compiling records from Kavanaughs time in the White House counsels office. But leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee are at odds over what records should be turned over from Kavanaughs time as Bushs staff secretary. A senior Democratic aide said the senators will demand the records in dispute from Kavanaugh directly and question him about their contents during their meetings with him. The aide said Democrats also intend to demand that Kavanaugh call for and support the release of all of his files from his time in the White House, and to urge the National Archives and former President Bush to adhere to the same standard used in Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagans confirmation. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity. Republicans have fought the release of all the Bush-era staff secretary documents saying there are plenty of other files on his record. Already the committee is poised to release more than 125,000 pages from Kavanaughs time in the White House counsels office during the Bush years, and on Friday it requested another 20,000 from his time on the Kenneth Starr team investigating President Bill Clinton. Earlier, some 17,000 pages were released from his questionnaire as well as more from his 300-plus cases as an appellate judge. Republicans have been pressuring Democratic senators up for re-election this year to meet with Kavanaugh, particularly in states that President Donald Trump won in 2016. The office of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., confirmed Friday that she has a meeting scheduled with Kavanaugh on Aug. 21. Trump won Missouri in 2016. Kevin Freking is an Associated Press writer. The pooch is one of many pets who travel from UK to Europe every year and regularly visit friends and family in Britain and Ireland. Nick Petre, Pippa's owner, has decided to pay a vet for a Belgian passport, effectively giving her dual citizenship, a first for pugs. (Photo: Pixabay) Pippa, a pedigree pug who spends her time shuttling between Brussels and Britain, is taking Belgian citizenship amidst fears of a no-deal Brexit. The pooch is one of many pets who travel from UK to Europe every year and regularly visit friends and family in Britain and Ireland. If Britain and Brussels split with 'no deal' in March 2019, Pippa's documents allowing her to travel will be void. Nick Petre, Pippa's owner, has decided to pay a vet for a Belgian passport, effectively giving her dual citizenship, a first for pugs. According to EUs passport scheme, cats, dogs and ferrets can travel without being quarantined if they are cleared by a vet. The animals blue passport confirms their good health and allows them free movement. However, if UKs Theresa May led government fails to strike a deal with Brussels, the passports may become void. According to Petre, the Belgian passport means the dog will have both Belgian and British papers after Brexit covering her for travel. She will still be able to travel to Ireland thanks to EU freedom of pet movement. The UK Government has said it is keen to ensure pets are able to travel freely and safely between EU nations and Britain. Alina Kukanova was found guilty and jailed for 3.5 years for trying to sell the 13 year-old girl to a wealthy Emirati for the night. Shockingly enough, Kukanova was inspired to auction off the young girl by Irina Gladkikh - the girl's mother. (Photo: Pixabay) Thanks to an undercover cop, a Russian woman was nabbed while trying to sell her friends underage daughters virginity to the highest bidder. Alina Kukanova was found guilty and jailed for 3.5 years for trying to sell the 13 year-old girl to a wealthy Emirati for the night. Shockingly enough, Kukanova was inspired to auction off the young girl by Irina Gladkikh - the girl's mother. Gladkikh, from the city of Chelyabinsk in western Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast region, encouraged her friend to search for buyers online. According to a news report in MailOnline, a major deal was almost reached with a man from UAE who offered 18,000 for a night with the teen, but the deal fell through. Kukanova then told her friend that she had found another buyer in Moscow. The buyer in Moscow was actually an undercover cop. It turns out that the police had spotted the attempts to sell her virginity online and had decided to intervene. The undercover police officer met the women at a Moscow restaurant and handed over fake money before arresting them shortly thereafter. The teenage girl was taken to hospital to be checked over before being handed over to relatives. Both women, believed to be sex workers, were unemployed and believed to be trying to finance a lavish lifestyle. According to a report, police said Reeta Devi was 'out of her senses' when she killed her newborn daughter. Police have registered a murder case after the autopsy report confirmed that the baby was smothered and Devi was arrested. (Photo: File | Representational) New Delhi: A 32-year-old woman smothered her newborn daughter at a Delhi hospital on July 29 as she did not want a third daughter. According to a report, police said Reeta Devi was out of her senses when she killed her newborn daughter. Vijay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) said, Before the delivery, Reeta Devi had told a helper at the hospital that her husband would frequently fight with her over the birth of their other two daughters. Because of that, Devi said she did not want a girl child again. Police have registered a murder case after the autopsy report confirmed that the baby was smothered and Devi was arrested. Investigators found no evidence against Devis husband Asharfi Mahto. Mahto, who works as a helper in a private firm denied all allegations about telling his wife that he wanted a male child. For a poor man like me, a son or a daughter does not matter, said Mahto. Mahto, a native of Chhapra in Bihar, lived with his wife and three children- two daughter aged nine and eight and a four-year-old son. Police investigations revealed that Devi was admitted to ESIC hospital in Motinagar on Saturday after experiencing labour pain. She gave birth to a healthy girl child at 3:50 am on Sunday and doctors checked both the mother and daughter at 7 am and found in good health condition. Around 9 am Devi, raised an alarm and said the baby isnt moving. Doctors found black marks around the kids nose and lips and declared the baby dead. Doctors suspected murder and informed the police about the incident. The babys body was sent for post-mortem while the woman was kept under police supervision. There were occasions when the woman was alone in the ward and used it as an opportunity to smother and strangle her daughter, said DCP. DUBLIN (BCN) A vigil and rally for two people who recently died at or near the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin will be held in front of the jail from 5 to 7:30 p.m. today, according to Cat Brooks, an Oakland mayoral candidate who's with the Anti Police-Terror Project. Brooks said the event concerns the deaths of Jessica St. Louis, a 26-year-old Berkeley woman whose body was discovered near the passenger pick-up/drop-off area at the Dublin station at about 5:30 a.m. last Saturday, about four hours after she was released from the jail, and of 23-year-old Dujuan Armstrong on June 23. Brooks alleged in a news release that Armstrong and St. Louis "were killed by Santa Rita" and that the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and jail staff "have blood on your hands." Brooks said family members of St. Louis and Armstrong and their supporters will "demand justice" at the rally. Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said, "We're listening to what she (Brooks) and her group are saying." But Kelly said, "They don't know all the facts and are rushing to judgment. To say that we have blood on our hands is unfair." In her release, Brooks said, "There should be no circumstances under which women are released into the dead of night, when public transit is closed and no programs are open to transition women into support services. Jessica would be alive today were it not for this violent practice that puts girls and women into harm's way." Brooks said, "In Jessica's memory, we vow to put an end to this inhumane practice." But Kelly said jail officials can't keep people in custody after they're released and gave St. Louis a BART ticket when she left. Kelly also said that St. Louis had a cellphone and had access to phones while she was held in jail for 11 days for arrest warrants for various cases. Alameda County court records indicate that St. Louis was charged with felony grand theft for an offense last Nov. 16 and that she entered a not guilty plea on June 15. Court records also indicate that she was charged with two misdemeanor counts of second-degree burglary and one count each of misdemeanor grand theft and misdemeanor vandalism for offenses last Sept. 29. Kelly said after St. Louis's body was found, investigators found drugs inside her body cavities and a medical exam showed no signs of foul play and the preliminary indication is that she died from a drug overdose, although a toxicology report hasn't yet been completed. Kelly said the sheriff's office didn't previously disclose Armstrong's death to news reporters because "there are a lot of unknowns we need to resolve and investigate." However, he said sheriff's officials followed its protocols and told the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, the District Attorney's Office and the coroner's bureau about his death. Kelly said Armstrong had recently been convicted of burglary for an offense in Fremont but was considered a low-level offender and was allowed to serve his jail time on weekends. Kelly said that when Armstrong came to Santa Rita on the night of June 22, which was a Friday, he was "agitated, aggressive and uncooperative" and told jail officials in a conversation that was recorded on deputies' body cameras that he was high on cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and prescription pills. A nurse who examined a sample of Armstrong's urine found that it contained controlled substances, he said. Jail officials started to move Armstrong to the jail's clinic but he continued to be uncooperative and tried to run away so deputies restrained him and he went to the ground and stopped breathing, according to Kelly. A nurse at the scene began CPR on Armstrong and he was transferred to Stanford Valley Care in Pleasanton but was pronounced dead there on the morning of June 23, Kelly said. An autopsy was done on Armstrong but it's not yet complete because investigators are still waiting for toxicology results, according to Kelly. The cause and manner of Armstrong's death has yet to be determined but at this point there are no obvious sings of physical trauma to his body that could have been caused by jail personnel who were restraining him, Kelly said. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Two former bank officers and an attorney were sentenced Friday for their roles in the 2010 collapse of Sonoma Valley Bank, which cost investors and taxpayers millions of dollars. Sean Clark Cutting, former chief executive officer, and Brian Scott Melland, former chief loan officer, were sentenced for their December 2017 convictions for conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, falsifying bank records, lying to bank regulators and other crimes, according to Alex Tse, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. Cutting, 44, of Sonoma, and Melland, 45, of Santa Rosa, were each sentenced to eight years, four months in prison by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston. Also sentenced was co-defendant David John Lonich, an attorney for Bijan Madjlessi, the Marin and Sonoma County real estate developer who had been indicted on charges of bank fraud and other offenses. Madjlessi was a fourth defendant in the case until he died May 6, 2014, when his car plunged into a steep ravine off Highway 1 in Marin County, near Muir Beach. Lonich, 59, of Santa Rosa, was convicted for his role in the bank's collapse, for conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and other offenses. He was sentenced to six years, eight months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The trio was convicted in December for crimes that led to the failure of the community bank, resulting in $47 million in losses, Tse said. "Senior bank executives and the corrupt attorneys who help them must always be held accountable for threatening the safety and soundness of federally-insured banks, as today's significant sentences reaffirm," Tse said Friday in a news release. Much of the evidence during the eight-week trial last year related to Madjlessi's real estate projects at the Park Lane Villas in Santa Rosa and Petaluma Greenbriar Apartments in Petaluma. Evidence at trial showed that between 2004 and 2010, Sonoma Valley Bank loaned Madjlessi, and persons and entities he controlled, in excess of $35 million - about $24.7 million more than the legal lending limit set by the bank's regulators, according to Tse. To conceal the loans, Cutting and Melland recommended a set of loans for $3.65 million to a "straw" borrower controlled by Madjlessi, who received the bribe the next day, Tse said. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A former 70-year-old Hillsborough resident was arrested and charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering for allegedly running a real estate Ponzi scheme, federal prosecutors in San Francisco announced Friday. Michael James Frew allegedly defrauded individuals beginning in 2010, telling numerous victims that he would invest their money into real estate in the United States and abroad, according to prosecutors. Instead, he allegedly used the money to finance his personal lifestyle, speculate on the stock market and repay other victims a portion of their investments. The scheme involved allegedly convincing victims to wire money for real estate investments in areas that had recently been under distress due to natural disasters, according to prosecutors. Frew allegedly received over $380,000 from one couple who he promised a 10 percent return on investment, then used it for personal finances. Frew was arrested in Beatty, Nevada and arraigned in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada, for two counts each of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering on July 26. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for each count of wire fraud and mail fraud and 10 years for each count of money laundering, according to prosecutors. He also faces up to $250,000 in fines and additional restitution for the victims. Frew is scheduled to appear before Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco federal court on Aug. 21. Public Defender Margaret Lambrose of Las Vegas federal court could not be reached for comment. 435-7265 Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. RICHMOND (BCN) A fire at a single-family home in the 200 block of South Seventh Street displaced six residents Friday morning, a Richmond fire official said. The one-alarm fire was reported at 8:20 a.m. and brought under control within 25 minutes, Battalion Chief Aaron Osorio said. The displaced residents are receiving housing assistance from the America Red Cross. The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Nia Wilson, the 18-year-old woman who was fatally stabbed at the MacArthur BART station in Oakland, was honored at an emotional memorial service on Friday, as politicians and religious leaders called for justice and vengeance. Wilson, accompanied by her sisters Letifah and Tashiya, was allegedly stabbed by 27-year-old transient John Lee Cowell on the station's platform at 9:36 p.m. on July 22. Cowell has been charged with murder for allegedly killing Nia and premeditated attempted murder for allegedly stabbing and wounding Letifah. Although the Wilson sisters are black and Cowell is white, police and prosecutors said there's no indication at this point to show that the vicious attack was racially motivated. However, many of the speakers at Nia Wilson's service Friday at the Acts Full Gospel Church in East Oakland, which was attended by about 500 people, said they believe the knife attack was racially motivated. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office detained a man suspected of igniting an explosive device and throwing it under a deputy's patrol car at the Safeway in Guerneville. The deputy had parked his car on the west side of the Safeway parking lot and went inside to get lunch late Friday morning. When the deputy heard an explosion that rattled the store's windows, he ran outside and saw a man chasing another man. The pursuit involved an off-duty law enforcement officer chasing the suspect, sheriff's officials said. Witnesses said a man threw suspicious items under the patrol car before the explosion. The deputy handcuffed the suspect, who was holding a backpack believed to contain more explosive devices. The suspect was taken to the sheriff's office sub-station nearby and other deputies evacuated the Safeway. A bicyclist killed Thursday in a collision with a big-rig truck in Lafayette has been identified as 54-year-old Martin Nelis, a Pleasant Hill resident and city official. Police were alerted shortly before 12:30 p.m. to a hit-and-run involving the truck and bicyclist on the 1800 block of Reliez Valley Road. Nelis was treated at the scene by emergency responders and taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Nelis had worked as the public information officer for the city of Pleasant Hill since 2007. He played a leading role in organizing several community events, according to a city statement on his death, including the summer concert series, Community Service Day, Off the Grid food truck events and programs with the library and local schools. "Martin was often the first to volunteer for any civic event or meeting, and the last to leave and turn off the lights," the city statement said. A vigil and rally for two people who recently died at or near the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin was going to be held in front of the jail, according to Cat Brooks, an Oakland mayoral candidate with the Anti Police-Terror Project. Brooks said the event Friday evening concerned the deaths of Jessica St. Louis, a 26-year-old Berkeley woman whose body was discovered near the passenger pick-up/drop-off area at the Dublin station at about 5:30 a.m. last Saturday, about four hours after she was released from the jail, and of 23-year-old Dujuan Armstrong on June 23. Brooks alleged in a news release that Armstrong and St. Louis "were killed by Santa Rita" and that the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and jail staff "have blood on your hands." Brooks said family members of St. Louis and Armstrong and their supporters will "demand justice" at the rally. Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said, "We're listening to what she (Brooks) and her group are saying." But Kelly said, "They don't know all the facts and are rushing to judgment. To say that we have blood on our hands is unfair." San Francisco's newest Navigation Center, located on the northern edge of the Mission District and tasked with housing and providing resources for homeless individuals, is open after Mayor London Breed and Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, helped cut the ribbon on it. Wedged between 13th Street and the U.S. Highway 101 on-ramp from South Van Ness Avenue, the Division Circle Navigation Center will provide not only shelter, but also housing and employment resources, to as many as 125 homeless people at a time. "This is why we do this work, to make a difference in the lives of people who need us to make sure we make the right investments," Breed said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning. "I'm committed to addressing this humanitarian crisis that we see all over San Francisco and all over our state. It's going to take a consistent, sustained effort to open Navigation Centers like this all over our city," she said. Operated by the St. Vincent De Paul Society of San Francisco, the center sits on land owned by Caltrans and leased to the city at a reduced rate. The land was formerly used as a parking lot for Caltrans vehicles. Bay Area first responders started flying drones in the area of the Carr Fire near Redding in Shasta County to document the damage caused by the deadly blaze. Drones, or unmanned aerial systems, are often a point of frustration for fire crews because ones flown unauthorized by civilians can often cause firefighting aircraft to be grounded out of safety concerns to avoid a midair collisions. But a drone program collaboration between the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and the Alameda County Sheriff's Office was tapped to fly over the city of Redding and other areas of Shasta County Friday and over the weekend to help, rather than hinder, the response to the fire. The Carr Fire, which started around 1:15 p.m. on July 23, has caused the deaths of two firefighters and has destroyed more than 1,000 homes as well as 19 commercial structures and 481 outbuildings. The blaze was only 39 percent contained as of Friday morning. Chief Harold Schapelhouman of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District said the damage assessment his crews are doing in partnership with the sheriff's office is similar to aerial documentation work they did in response to the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa and other parts of Sonoma County in October 2017. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bear Delhis share of rapid transit cost, CM Kejriwal tells Puri. New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged the Centre to bear Delhis share of the cost of the proposed rapid transit project between Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut, citing inadequate finances. In a letter to Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri earlier this week, Mr Kejriwal said the estimated cost of the 82.15-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut regional rapid transit system (RRTS) was Rs 31,902 crore. Out of this, the Delhi governments share is expected to be Rs 1,138 crore for the corridors 13 kilometres that will fall in the city, said Mr Kejriwal, who had met Mr Puri over this issue last week. Mr Kejriwal said his government was ready to grant in-principal approval for the implementation of the rapid transit corridor in National Cap-ital Region (NCR). However, he said, the Delhi government did not have adequate finances to meet the cost. Therefore, I would urge that the Delhis share in the project cost may be borne by the Central government. As per the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), the proposed corridor falling in Delhi has two elevated stations at Sarai Kale Khan and New Ashok Nagar and one underground station at Anand Vihar. In 2013, the Centre had approved setting up of NCRTC for designing, implementing, financing, operating and maintaining the RRTS in NCR to provide comfortable and fast transit to NCR towns. Threat to finish off Kerala CM, who was present in the building. Vimal Raj being detained by the Delhi police in New Delhi on Saturday. Raj, a mentally unstable man in his 40s, allegedly entered the Kerala House with a knife, while Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was present inside, according to the police. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Delhi police detained a mentally unsound man, on Saturday, after he tried to forcibly enter the Kerala House here at Jantar Mantar. The incident was reported at around 10 am when the Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, was heading for the CPM politburo meeting. The incident took place at around 10 am. Following this, the security staff informed the police. The man, identified as 46-year-old Vimal Raj, is a native of Keralas Karipuzha, DCP Madhur Verma said. The security personnel immediately overpowered him and whisked him out of the premises. The man entered the premises carrying a knife and some papers and threatened to finish off the Kerala CM. The medical documents he was carrying suggested that he is 80 per cent mentally unsound. He is now being sent to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS) in Shahdara as per law, he added. According to sources, the suspect had tried to commit suicide in front of CM Vijayan. There have been death threats to the CMs life earlier. Last year, a Sangh Parivar leader had declared a bounty of Rs 1 crore on Mr Vijayans head. This is not the first time that the Kerala CM has faced death threats. In March, the RSS leader from Ujjain, Kundan Chandravat, had declared a bounty of Rs 1 crore on the CMs head in his home district of Kannur. Mr Chandravat had vowed to sell off his entire property to collect the reward money. Similarly in June, a Dubai-based Indian national and RSS supporter had threatened to kill the CM. Earlier on Saturday, a man tried to barge inside former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullahs house at Bhatindi in Jammu. The man was gunned down by CRPF security guards. A delegation of TMC party was held under Section 151 of CrPC and was made to halt the night at guest house near Silchar Airport on August 2. Other TMC leaders Mamata Thakur and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have also filed complaint against Assam Chief Minister in this regard. (Photo: PTI) Kolkata: All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from West Bengal's Karimpur, Mahua Moitra on Friday filed a police complaint against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, in connection with the incident where the party leaders were detained at Silchar Airport on August 2. Other TMC leaders Mamata Thakur and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have also filed complaint against Assam Chief Minister in this regard. A delegation of TMC party was arrested under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and was made to halt the night at a guest house near the airport. The delegation claimed that they were allegedly manhandled and physically assaulted by the authorities at the airport. Read: Mamata says TMC leaders manhandled at Silchar airport, calls it 'super emergency' The delegation-- comprising MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra-- was scheduled to visit Silchar on the issue of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft. Earlier on Thursday, Moitra allegedly assaulted a lady constable, who restrained her at the Silchar airport. In a video accessed by ANI, Moitra was seen physically assaulting a female constable, even as the latter pleaded the lawmaker with folded hands to calm down. The video also showed some of the other party workers sitting on the conveyor belt in the airport as a mark of protest against the NRC draft. The draft list left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. Read also: 40 lakh left out of draft list of NRC in Assam, no threat of deportation The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crores of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971. After becoming the first $1 trillion publicly-listed US company, Apple last traded up 0.1 pct at $207.57. Shares in Apple Inc edged higher on Friday but stayed close to the $1 trillion valuation milestone the iPhone maker reached a day earlier, even as Wall Street predicted more gains. After becoming the first $1 trillion publicly-listed US company on Thursday, Apple last traded up 0.1 pct at $207.57 after falling as low as $205.48 and as high as $208.74, as it oscillated around the $207.0425 price that marked the record market cap. Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, said Apples lukewarm Friday was a temporary pause for the stock rather than a sign it could lose ground. Its like the horse that crosses the finish line and says Im totally wiped out, said Morgan, whose firm holds more than 200,000 shares in Apple. There was a strong earnings report on Tuesday. All the enthusiasm around the $1 trillion market capitalization, both those things have just exhausted the current trading in Apple. And its Friday. The whole week was engulfed by Apple, he said. Apple still looks relatively cheap even with a trillion dollar valuation. Its shares trade at less than 16 times earnings estimates for the next 12 months, according to Morgan, who said he would be comfortable with a multiple of 18 or 19 for the stock. Thats a reasonable level so I dont feel theres any risk that people will say its trading at a $1 trillion lets put the brakes on this ... If it was Amazon or Netflix that were hitting a trillion, then we could have that conversation, he said. Netflix currently trades at 93.8 times estimates for its earnings in the next 12 months while Amazon.Coms multiple is 83.74. If Apple trades at 20 times earnings that would be crazy, he said, estimating that Apple shares could go as high as $220 by year-end. Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet are in a tight race to become the second US company to reach the $1 trillion milestones. Most sell-side analysts also seemed to see $1 trillion as just one milestone on Apples way to greater gains as the median price target for the stock is $218.50 and the mean price target at $215.46, according to data collected by Thomson Reuters. The highest price expectation for the stock is Brian Whites $275 target, which would mean a $1.3 trillion valuation, according to the analyst from Monness Crespi Hardt, who says he was first on the Street with a price target that reflected a $1-trillion valuation. Despite the record valuation, White said, Apple is one of the most under-appreciated stocks in the world. Trip Miller, a managing partner at Gullane Capital LLC in Memphis, said Apple should trade much higher. They are so dependent on one product for such a huge part of their revenue that I believe thats why it gets that discount, said Miller whose firm also owns Amazon shares. (Source) Torrells family said that Eric had Down syndrome, autism and was essentially nonverbal. According to Swedish police authority, officers assumed the scene was threatening. (Photo: File/Representational) Stockholm: 20-year-old Eric Torrell was shot by the police as he was seen walking with what appeared to be a gun around Vasastan district in central Stockholm. According to Swedish police authority, officers assumed the scene was threatening. According to a report, Torrells family said that he had Down syndrome, autism and was essentially nonverbal. They also said that his vocabulary mainly had the word mum (mother) and about the weapon in his hand, they clarified that it was a toy gun. Katarina Soderberg, mother of Eric said, "We are furious because of their lying and making up things. A threatening man? He's like a 3-year-old." Torrell's father said that "three police officers shot him in his stomach." Stockholm police, in a statement, said that their officers wound up in threatening situation while searching for someone and then opened fire on him. Martin Tiden, Swedish prosecutor investigating the case said that multiple officers fired at Eric but none of them are suspected of foul play. "The man held a weapon-like object and officers opened fire after judging the situation as threatening," Tiden said. Ulf Johansson, regional chief of police in Stockholm, said that Torrell's death was "very tragic for everyone involved." Johansson also stated from his experience that decisions like these are difficult as it is unclear and high-pressure situations and must be taken within seconds. John Stauffer, legal director at Civil Rights Defenders, a watchdog group in Sweden, said its too early to decide whether the police acted improperly or not. But the police interventions have increased the number of deaths. The County Commission made last-minute redistricting changes to its 11-member plan at a lengthy meeting on Wednesday. The commission is expected to pass the plan next Wednesday and send it on to state officials for their approval. Officials said the completed plan is within deviation standards (not having one or more districts too much larger or smaller than others) and keeps ... (click for more) Former Shandong University physics professor has criticized China's foreign investment policy and Xi Jinping's claim to be president for life. Sun is a signatory of Charter 08, the manifesto for China's social and political reform. Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Sun Wenguang, a retired academic, often a critic of government policy, was arrested by the police while giving an interview to the Voice of America (Voa) channel in his city of Jinan. His last words were: "I have my freedom of speech!". Then the broadcast was stopped. The arrest happened three days ago and since then nobody knows what has happened to him. Sun, 84, was a professor of physics at Shandong University. Recently he had written an open letter to President Xi Jinping, criticizing his decision to distribute money, aid, loans abroad, instead of focusing on the poverty present in China. The interview with VOA was precisely on the subject of Beijing's foreign investments. VOA has spread the interview in Chinese via Twitter. In it you hear voices in the background and then that of Prof. Sun who says: "Here they are again: seven, eight of them". Then, addressing the newcomers [the policemen], he says: "What, did I say anything wrong? Listen to what I say, is it wrong?" He goes on again to explain his criticism of China's foreign investments: "People [in China] are poor. Let's not throw our money in Africa. Throwing money like this is of no good to our country." At a certain point, Prof. Sun shouts: "What are you doing? It's illegal for you to come to my home. I have my freedom of speech." The line then abruptly goes dead. Sun Wenguang spent more than 10 years in prison at various times from 1960 to 1980, for criticizing Mao Zedong. He is also one of the signatories, along with Liu Xiaobo, of the Charter 08 manifesto for China's political and social reform. In 2009, he was beaten while visiting the tomb of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party secretary who was expelled for opposing the Tiananmen massacre. In recent months, in his open letter to Xi, he had criticized the change in the Chinese constitution that allows the president to hold his office for life. HARARE, Zimbabwe Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on Friday forcefully rejected the narrow election win of President Emmerson Mnangagwa as fraudulent, calling it a vote stolen from the people. For his part, Mnangagwa praised the vote as free, fair and credible ... an unprecedented flowering of freedom and democracy in our beloved homeland as the country seeks to move beyond Robert Mugabes decades-long rule. The opposition said it will challenge in court the results of Mondays election, which Mnangagwa won with just over 50 percent of the vote. The closely watched elections began with a peaceful vote but turned deadly 48 hours later when the military fired on protesters in the capital, Harare, and six people were killed. Chamisa, 40, spoke shortly after three truckloads of riot police with shields and batons tried to disperse dozens of journalists gathered to hear him. With cameras recording their every move the police eventually pulled back, allowing the opposition leader to give a blistering denunciation of the results. We won this election, Chamisa said, declaring a day of mourning ... for democracy. Chamisa received over 44 percent of the vote but claimed that, based on the oppositions own count, he won 56 percent. He was asked for evidence but didnt share it, instead saying the electoral commission didnt want to listen to us. Mnangagwa said people are free to challenge the vote in court. Speaking to the press, he said Chamisa has a crucial role to play in the countrys future. Zimbabweans had a subdued reaction to Mnangagwas win in the first election after the fall of Mugabe, whose rule was marked by increasing repression and the economys collapse. Mnangagwa, 75, Mugabes former enforcer and confidante, said he was humbled by the victory. He called the violence on Wednesday unfortunate and said the military was called in because vehicles were burned and lives were threatened. He said he will order an independent investigation by people of integrity in Zimbabwe and abroad. Mnangagwa has tried to recast himself as a voice of change, declaring that the once-prosperous Zimbabwe is open for business and inviting the Western election observers who for years had been banned by Mugabe. Christopher Torchia and Farai Mutsaka are Associated Press writers. Last Man Standing isnt rushing to pick up the Roseanne pro-Trump mantle when it starts life at its new network this fall. Tim Allen, star of the comedy that was axed by ABC and picked up by Fox, said his character is a centrist who would support Trump administration policies that help his business. But Mike Baxter probably isnt a vocal defender of President Donald Trump, Allen told TV critics Thursday, Aug. 2. Series executive producer Kevin Abbott described Allens character as a conservative Republican, but he said its unlikely the show will address Trump one way or the other. Allen chimed in teasingly, saying, Oh yes, we will. A change of network wont change the show, which will remain familiar to fans of its ABC run, Abbott said: The show was beloved by a large audience, and we want to keep that audience and we hope expand it a little bit. His fellow executive producer, Matt Berry, said Last Man Standing and Roseanne cant really be compared. The only similarities with the Roseanne show is were a family sitcom and the central character has a more conservative view, Berry said. But the revived Roseanne was an issue-of-the-week comedy, and we dont do issues of the week. We consider ourselves a family show with a traditional character at the center. Barrs series, in which the stars support for Trump was mirrored by her character, was canceled by ABC after one hit season when Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Barr has both apologized for and denied knowing it would be seen as bigoted. A spin-off, The Conners, will air this coming season on ABC with the Roseanne cast minus Barr. Abbott and Allen said they were surprised by ABCs abrupt 2017 decision to cancel Last Man Standing after six seasons, which Allen said was very poorly handled. Allen said at the time that his personal politics he attended Trumps inauguration might have played a role, and on Thursday he said that if there was a political motivation, the network certainly wouldnt admit it. But he added that it was a financial decision on ABCs part. Allen also said that viewers shouldnt judge him by his TV character and that his stand-up comedy was more revealing of what he believes. The final season of Last Man Standing averaged nearly 6 million weekly viewers, more than some other ABC series that were brought back, including Black-ish, Shark Tank and The Goldbergs. Fans clamored for more, and Fox announced its decision last May to revive the show produced by sibling 20th Century Fox Television. Some fans may be drawn to the family sitcom because of Allens personal political views, but they arent really a big feature of the show, Fox Television Group executive Gary Newman said then. We just think its a really funny show with general appeal. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Newman echoed Allens description of his character as a centrist and said producers werent planning on portraying him as a Trump supporter. Lynn Elber is an Associated Press writer. BEIRUT For nearly three years, green buses have filed into Syrias Idlib province, bringing those evacuated from other opposition enclaves that fell to government forces thousands of defeated rebel fighters, wanted activists and civilians who refused to go back under President Bashar Assads rule. They now face what is likely to be the last showdown between Assads forces and the opposition. Assad has vowed to retake the province, and pro-government media promise the mother of all battles. If it comes to an all-out assault, it could bring a humanitarian crisis. Filled with displaced from elsewhere, the province in Syrias northwest corner is packed with some 3 million people, the most deeply opposed to Assads government and including some of the worlds most radical militants. They have little option but to make a stand, with few good places to escape. Currently, all (opposition) from around Syria came to Idlib. The only solution is to fight. There is no alternative, said Firas Barakat, an Idlib resident. The 28-year old said that for years he has dedicated himself to civilian opposition activities, but now he must take up arms. The opposition capture of Idlib in 2015 signaled the low point for Assads government during the course of war that is now nearly 8 years old a time when rebels controlled large parts of two main Syrian cities, major highways, border crossings, dams and oil resources. Russian and Iranian backing enabled Assads military to claw back territory. Most recently, it scored a victory with heavy symbolic resonance in the south, recapturing Daraa, one of the first places to rise against Assads rule in 2011. Around a third of the country still remains out of government hands in the north and east, most of it held by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces that wrested it from the Islamic State group. But Idlib stands as the last significant enclave of the armed opposition that rose up dedicated to ousting Assad. Squeezed, the opposition is desperate. But its forces are not small, and their territory is not tiny and sealed off as other opposition holdouts were. That portends a complex and difficult battle. The number of fighters in Idlib is estimated at tens of thousands, including thousands of battle-hardened militants from al Qaeda-linked groups and from Chinas Turkic-speaking Uighur minority. Although the al Qaeda-linked group dominates, other non-jihadi factions have maintained their presence, including some of the earliest forces to take up arms against Assad. With Turkeys backing, they have formed a National Liberation Front, excluding al Qaeda. Idlib has seen a wave of lawlessness and assassinations among the various factions, including shootings and car bombs. Sarah El Deeb is an Associated Press writer. ISTANBUL Turkey will freeze the assets of two U.S. officials in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against Turkeys justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor, Turkeys president said Saturday in a move that appeared more symbolic than practical. Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had been patient since the U.S. Treasury sanctions were imposed Wednesday, but ordered authorities to freeze the assets of Americas justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are searching for the person who shot a 19-year-old man in West Brighton early Saturday morning, authorities said. The victim was near 225 North Burgher Ave. when a silver van pulled up and the perpetrator inside the vehicle shot the man once in the left shoulder, according to an NYPD spokesman. The victim was with a group of friends who fled when the shots were fired, police said. A shell casing was recovered at the scene. The incident occurred at around 3:09 a.m., police said. The victim was transported to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton in stable condition, police said. There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing. In the province of Jianxi, the authorities decide for a "zero tolerance" policy against those who decide to be buried. Everyone in China must be cremated. Funeral rituals also forbidden. The cult of the dead resists in rural areas. Burial is prohibited because it subtracts land from agriculture. Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - In the southeastern rural areas of Jiangxi, the authorities have decided to implement a zero tolerance policy towards those who decide to be buried. Officials seized and destroyed hundreds of coffins and forced people to abandon funeral rituals. Six months ago, the governor of the region decided to clamp down on the burial practices of the dead. The officials went to the villages of Ganzhou, Jian and Yichun, entered people's homes and confiscated all the coffins they found. The photos and videos testify to piles of hundreds of coffins piled up and destroyed by the bulldozers. Some seniors tried to fight back to retrieve their coffins. In Yiyang County, a body that had been buried against cremation policies was exhumed in April. These facts sparked the indignation of the local and national media that defined the actions of "barbaric and unpopular" government officials. Until a few years ago, cremation in rural areas was not widespread and the authorities were turning a blind eye to the violations. The Jiangxi government wants to make cremation mandatory as the only way to dispose of the remains of people in order to safeguard the arable land. For the expropriations of the coffins the authorities have offered compensation of 2 thousand yuan (290 dollars). Making a coffin is very expensive, about 5,000 yuan, the compensation is not convenient for poor rural people. A young man from the village of Jian says that on Sunday 29 July the officials took away his grandparents coffins: "They have been kept for more than 30 years. They were made by carpenters with the wood of our land ". In rural China there is the tradition of custom made coffins. These are kept at home in the hope that they will bring longevity and luck. Provincial Governor Liu Qi commented: "It was the intention of the government to introduce environmentally friendly funeral services, but it went astray and created resentment". The Chinese agencies report that in 2014 at least six senior citizens of Anqing, in the southeastern province of Anhui, committed suicide after hearing about the government's plan to seize their coffins. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The buyer was a cop, which was bad news for this felon. Michael Briggs, 32, pleaded guilty on Friday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, stemming from a drug transaction last year. It was the top count and one of seven such charges against him. According to court records, Briggs admitted to peddling cocaine to an undercover officer on July 6 of last year. Authorities did not list an address for the defendant. In exchange for his plea, Briggs will be sentenced on Aug. 28 to 54 months in prison and two years' post-release supervision. The defendant is a second-felony offender. He was previously sentenced in January 2014 to 18 months to three years behind bars for attempted stolen-property possession, court records show. Attorney Matthew Blum represents Briggs in the current case. Assistant District Attorney Carrie Low is prosecuting it. Jayden Hanly, 25, used to order takeaway from food delivery service, Menulog, at least once a month as a treat. But as his average monthly share of the cost of food delivery rose to $100 - $200 to his home in Ryde, he's scaled back. Harry Brown (left), Jayden Hanly (centre) and Cassie Sloan (right) enjoying a delivered meal on a night in. Credit:Roger Stonehouse "It has dropped off since I started because it is so expensive. And I have to get better at learning to cook," said Mr Hanly. Mr Hanly likes the convenience of food delivery, but the cost of the service is rising and businesses are passing on these costs to consumers, finds a report by industry analysts at IBISWorld In the wake of the news that the smallest of the food delivery companies Foodora will quit the Australian market on August 20, IBISWorld analyst Andrew Ledovskikh said the future was anything but rosy for the rest of the sector. You've got a subscription for your television, your music, what about your car? Melbourne startup Carbar has raised $5.75 million to launch a car subscription service where customers own a car on a month-to-month basis with all costs including insurance and services paid for. Desmond Hang, chief executive and co-founder of Carbar which is a car subscription service. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Co-founder Desmond Hang started Carbar three years ago with university friends Davie Saw, Richie Chen and Kenneth Teo. "I love cars but I kind of hate the shopping experience," he says. "At this stage I felt that the current process in the market is broken. You have to often take a huge chunk of your time away to buy a car and get your car serviced so we are trying to alleviate all the stress of owning the vehicle. We describe Carbar as a vehicle-owning experience." The level of insecure work - in the form of casual and fixed-term jobs - has reached crisis levels in many parts of the Australian economy. We have come to associate poor employment practices with the hospitality and franchise sectors, but few people are likely to realise that one of the worst industries for insecure work is now higher education. It is remarkable that our universities manage to conduct such important and useful research and provide such great education with such precariously employed workforces. Australian universities employ vastly more casual and fixed-term staff than staff in ongoing positions. Large numbers of our best researchers are employed on short-term contracts, while fully half of undergraduate teaching is performed by casual staff, many of whom need multiple jobs to survive. Our analysis of the latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency data shows that 27 of the nations 42 universities have rates of casualisation exceeding 40 per cent, including 14 with a rate equal to or exceeding 50 per cent. The highest is the University of Wollongong, with 71 per cent, while the worst in Victoria is RMIT, with 63 per cent. Note that these are just the percentages of casual staff; add to this staff on fixed-term contracts and it is clear that the big majority of our universities have rates of insecure work that far exceed 50 per cent, and many exceed 70 per cent. The idea that major public institutions with budgets in many cases over a billion dollars would be reliant to a considerable extent on casual workers to perform their central function - the teaching of the nations university students - should be a national disgrace. Careers Australia was one of the most aggressive recruiters of VET students. Credit:Eddie Jim Australias student loans Ombudsman has been swamped by more than 5000 complaints in nine months from people who claim theyve been ripped off by shonky private colleges or substandard vocational education courses. The federal government watchdog has also warned that complaints are likely to rise in coming weeks as more former students lodge their tax returns and discover debts on tertiary loans that were issued without their knowledge. New figures reveal that between last July and March this year, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Student Loans Ombudsman received 5193 complaints, of which 2309 are yet to be resolved as the investigations pile up. The highest proportion of complaints came from people discovering loans issued by colleges without consent during one of the biggest rorts in Australian education history. There is little doubt that Hughes obsession influenced his bid for conscription to show that Australia was going to the brink, to the last man and the last shilling. In this sense, Australias Great War represented a race war, the massive commitment, the great blood sacrifice, a quid pro quo to future-proof the racial purity of the nation. Hughes had come to understand that Australia must earn by sacrifice the right to a voice in the making of the peace: a voice that could not be denied, speaking for a nation that could not be forsaken. His own censorship legislation, in the form of the draconian War Precautions Act, prevented Hughes from explicit criticism of an ally and yet, repeatedly, he spoke of Australias peril, declaring a defeat for the empire could prefigure the undoing of white Australia. On his way home from London he made a typically fervent speech at Adelaide which somehow got past the censors, perhaps because he did not name Japan: We have lifted up on our topmost minaret the badge of White Australia, but we are, as it were, a drop in a coloured ocean ringed around with a thousand million of the coloured races. How are we to be saved? What arrogance and what futility it would be to emblazon White Australia on our banners if we are not prepared to fight for it, and how are five to fight a thousand, valiant though they may be? That fight was only possible with the support of the British Empire, but Hughes ventured to imagine a day when his nations population would be much enhanced and better able to look after itself, and the population, he insisted, must be white to prosper and be free: "If we are to hold our own," he told the gathered crowd, Australia "must be peopled by men of our own race and ideas." The great orator: prime minister Billy Hughes speaks for the cause of conscription in Sydney's Martin Place in 1916. Credit:Australian War Memorial The day after he announced the decision to hold a conscription referendum, Hughes addressed a closed session of members of both houses of Parliament. No record was made but the proceedings were reported, years later, by E.L. Piesse, who was director of military intelligence at the time. Piesse was not present but he was well placed to know, as were the anti-conscription Labor men in Parliament who refused to be gagged and talked publicly about the meeting: The proceedings were not published but it was currently reported and widely believed that an authoritative statement had been made to the meeting [by Hughes] that Japan would challenge the White Australia policy after the war, that Australia would then need the help of the rest of the Empire, and that if she wished to be sure of getting it then she must now throw her full strength into the war in Europe. Conscription was a warming topic in Australia well before Hughes returned home, not least because Britain had introduced it, first for single men in January and then for all men aged 18 to 41 in May 1916. The cause sparked the most passionate and bitter political contest in Australias history. Anti-conscription banners at the Trades Hall in Lygon Street, Melbourne. Credit:Fairfax Archive Conscription raised issues of civil liberty and the morality of compelling men to kill. It violated the cherished tradition of volunteers fighting for empire. It stoked tensions between labour and capital, and it stirred deep divisions of religion and race for those Irish Catholics who saw the British army as a brutal oppressor in their homeland. Yes campaigners appealed to King and Country, to destiny, democracy and decency. Protestants said God was pro-conscription as sure as he was in Heaven. They conjured images of a Teutonic dark age should the war be lost; they pondered the economic, strategic and cultural frameworks that would surely be undone; they worried the nation would be rendered a put-upon backwater. The No or "Antis" organisation was based overwhelmingly in the labour movement, with a strong Catholic representation led by Archbishop Mannix, perhaps the only man in the country who could match Hughes for unflappable resolve and inflammatory language. "No" campaigners saw the war progressing with no equality of sacrifice, just profiteers making a bundle while poverty spread among working people, with industry and agriculture blighted for lack of hands to do the work. They assumed, wrongly, that Hughes had been duchessed while in London and was doing the bidding of "British plutocrats and peers". They agreed with the "Yes" campaigners on just one count: everything that mattered was at stake ... A pro-conscription poster targets Archbishop Mannix, Sinn Fein and the International Workers of the World. On both sides the spectre of Japan was employed to support the case. Hughes argued for the maximum possible commitment. He argued for a quick, decisive victory in Europe, for Lloyd Georges avowed "knockout blow" - the best way to secure Australia for the British race. In Parliament, some members ... declared themselves unable to tell the public all they knew, restrained as they were by censorship. They spoke of Japan in thinly veiled terms: "the foe" and "an Eastern race". The Victorian independent George Wise argued for conscription on the grounds that a swift victory was essential lest this terrible war of attrition consume the white races: Are we going to win quickly or are we going to spin this war out until we, like every other white race, are absolutely exhausted? Every man with any capacity for thinking at all must have realised that sooner or later the great Armageddon must come - when the white and the coloured races of this world meet in conflict. At present the white races are engaged in destroying their manpower, leaving the coloured races untouched. This makes it all the more necessary that the war should be brought to an end as quickly as possible in order that our nation, at any rate, may not be absolutely exhausted when peace comes about. Wise was incorrect to suggest the war was fratricide only for whites. Millions of "coloured" soldiers and labourers were mobilised and deployed in one way or another, by both sides, and like the "white races" they paid a terrible price. Opponents of conscription ... played on race possibly to greater effect. William Maloney quoted from his 1905 booklet Flashlights on Japan and the East. Back then he had urged the government to establish armouries and arsenals to ready Australia against the menace of the East: I said that if the East fights the West, the West must combine ... I say again, tonight, that it would be better for us to go to America cap-in-hand, than, perhaps, to bend some day in sackcloth and ashes under the yoke of an Eastern race. Therefore, whilst I hope that Prussia will be destroyed, I desire to retain every man in Australia. In the Upper House, Senator John Mullan was also in favour of keeping the men at home. "If the people of Australia today really knew the dangers to which they are exposed, they would lynch every legislator who advocates the policy of further denuding this country of its manhood," he said. An anti-conscription poster from World War I points to the dangers of race mixing should Australia follow Britain into conscription. He quoted Hughes to his own advantage - "we are but a drop in a coloured ocean" - and spoke of Japan without naming it: I cannot say all I would like on this matter, but perhaps the hour of trial will come to Australia, when perhaps it is too late, and then an infuriated and betrayed Australia will be looking for the men who were responsible for this policy of sending away our manhood. Womens organisations on both sides of the conscription divide also worried about the depletion of the manhood, the racial cost of losing the best blood. The sex educator Marion Piddington published a booklet in 1916 which advocated a scheme to allow women of good stock who were left widows by the war to have children through artificial insemination. Piddington was advocating, she wrote, "for the amelioration of individual and national destiny after the war such as will accord with the principles of modern eugenics". The Adelaide-based School for Mothers Institute also published a booklet in 1916, the text keeping as best it could to a neutral stance on conscription, with the emphasis clearly on the racial cost of the war: The war is depleting our country of her finest and most vigorous manhood. This will weaken her not only in the present, but in future generations. The soundest and healthiest men are needed for the battlefield while the less fit are spared to be fathers of the coming race. The poster "Vote No and Keep Australia White" appeared to be everywhere, according to Hughes private secretary, Percy Deane ... A racist poster of the time portrays conscription as a mortal blow to White Australia. Credit:Riley and ephemera collection/State Library of Victoria J.H. Catts was a Labor anti-conscriptionist who spoke ... defiantly in the parliament about the Japanese danger. He listed the terms Japan would demand at the making of the peace, including "the removal of race prejudice in Australia" and everything that would mean. He said Britain would desert them. He commended a passage from the Pastoralists Review of February 1916: After the peace is declared the colour line will become more and more indefinable, and we shall be compelled to recognise the fact, for Britain will bay to us, Renounce your White Australia policy or suffer the consequences. Your blood will be on your own head. Catts actively campaigned in town and country in defiance of the War Precautions Act. "Conscription for Australia means race suicide," he declared in the first referendum campaign. The race question was also a class question. For some of the Labor Antis, conscription served only the capitalists and the Japanese, and coloured labour was merely another way for a tyrannous government to subjugate the workers. As Ross McKibbin notes: "For the Antis, conscription would destroy White Australia by killing off white Australians, who would be replaced by a low-paid mongrel race favoured only by the capitalist." ... When a shipload of Maltese migrants arrived in Sydney late in 1916, it was said these foreign workers were proof that cheap labour would be introduced to replace conscripted men. Hughes was sufficiently worried by the propaganda value of such arrivals that his government decided a second shipload of 214 Maltese men would not be allowed to land - they were ruled ineligible because they could not speak Dutch - and instead would be sent on to New Caledonia. The prime minister was on the defensive. He declared that "during the War, no coloured labour would be admitted to Australia", his strict definition of "coloured" including the Maltese. The Antis seized on the word "during". What of thereafter, asked the journal of the Australian Workers Union: "What does Mr Hughes think 300,000 volunteers left Australia so willingly for? To come back after the war and find that it has been necessary to throw aside one of the nations ideals in White Australia?" At a monster rally at the Sydney town hall, Hughes delivered a typically ferocious case for "Yes", an outpouring of argument and invective directed at his opponents: It is not conscience that holds them back; it is not a manifestation of love for a White Australia; but it is an outward and visible sign of the white feather. (Prolonged applause.) When they speak of the yellow peril they would do well to speak also of the yellow streak. Best We Forget: The War for White Australia 1914-18 by Peter Cochrane Shifting tone, he appealed to "the young men still left in this country" to rise up to the spirit that sustained their fellow countrymen in the trenches: The spirit of Australia, the spirit of our race, the spirit that has made free men, that has carved out the Empire and that alone can hold this country a White Australia and a free government. (Loud Cheers) ... If Britain wins and we stand with her, the White Australia policy is forever safe. (Applause.) Hughes said, "every institution we cherish, White Australia, the power of the people, all these things are in deadly peril", and he implored the eligible men to fight for these cherished things, and to "fight for White Australia in France". Daniel Hadley, 28, was arrested Friday night for possession of .79 of a gram of cocaine, worth $200, while off duty at a hotel in Rouse Hill following an investigation by officers from the Professional Standards Command. On Saturday, he questioned his own adequacy as a father after revealing his only son Daniel, a serving police officer, had been charged with cocaine possession, and had since been admitted to a clinic for ''very serious'' mental health issues. Sydney radio broadcaster Ray Hadley long ago conceded his position as chief public pontificator hasn't always been kind on his family. The senior constable, who is attached to the North West Metropolitan region, has been suspended from duties and his employment status is being reviewed, a police statement said. ''When I was first told I was angry and perplexed,'' Ray Hadley said, reading from a statement and taking no questions, his eyes rimmed red as he choked with emotion. ''I had no idea my son, a respected police officer, would be involved in such a matter. I brought Daniel back to my home and my anger turned to shock and sadness. ''My son revealed to me he's been having mental health issues for some time. The serious nature of his illness is such that he has been admitted to a clinic immediately.'' Hadley said his son had dislocated his knee on duty some time ago, and was waiting on surgery for a hernia. Seven years as a police officer ''have had a dramatic impact on him''. Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart is to reprise the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a new series for the US streaming platform CBS All Access. The new series would be set approximately two decades after the conclusion of the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and its spin-off films. Stewart made the announcement himself, in a surprise appearance on stage at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. "It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him," Stewart told the crowd. Seven months after Harris Farm Markets stopped giving away plastic bags, the state's landfills and the waterways have already been spared 15 million of the waste items from their 25 outlets alone. The family-owned company was surprised Coles cited consumer reaction to a voluntary phase-out of single-use bags at its supermarkets to start giving them away again last week. It was less surprised at the bigger rival's backflip just a day later to reset a phase-out date. Angus Harris with his sons Hunter and Theodore at Harris Farm in Drummoyne. Credit:Cole Bennetts "We definitely did not notice a drop in our customers since we brought [the bag plan] in," Angus Harris, co-chief executive of Harris Farm Markets, told The Sun-Herald. Coles now plans to hand out free bags until August 29, with managing director John Durkan telling staff the company wants to do the right thing by customers struggling to adapt. "In some of the higher categories, Silver and Gold, we are no longer permitting restricted cover, which was also confusing." Some policies offered a low level of cover for example if the overnight cost was $1200, the refund would be $300, so if these conditions exist in a policy they will be replaced by a full exclusion, Dr David said. National chairman of the Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons Dr Kelly MacGroarty said they support more transparency but they're "not happy" with the categories because they are not as simple as they could be. "The Basic level of cover private health insurance companies are proposing, is somewhat junk policy," Dr MacGroarty said. "Weve seen a rise in junk policy over the last 10-15 years in the order of 30 percent. "What they're proposing makes it easier for them, as health funds, to work with each other in terms of product development but it doesn't make it more transparent. It doesn't make it easier for the Australian public to understand what products they're buying." Dr MacGroarty suggested Bronze should cover any accident or emergency treatment at a private hospital. Silver should cover all elective procedures but with a higher excess payment. And Gold should cover all procedures but with no or low excess payments. "At least the public could compare apples with apples and the only difference then [if the above standard categories were adopted] would be the cost," Dr MacGroarty said. "What they're proposing doesn't deliver transparency. "Health fund 'A' might have XYZ in Silver and health fund 'B' might only have XY in Silver that doesnt make it easy to understand." Spine surgeons warn the move to limit spinal surgery to the top two bands and split different types between Silver and Gold will force them to offer a level of care dependent on the patients level of cover. For example, they may offer less effective treatments instead of spinal fusion, because, under the proposed changes, it will be restricted to Gold policies. Sydney neurosurgeon Dr Bill Sears said coverage for spinal surgery should be an all or nothing proposition, arguing policyholders are entitled to feel confident that they will receive the procedure that is best suited to their problem. There are about 12,000 privately insured spine surgery patients each year. Dr David from PHA said there is "doubt in the clinical community about the effectiveness of some [spinal] procedures in the long run", particularly for the treatment of lower back pain. "It is also a very expensive claim. This is why it is currently covered and will continue to be covered in higher-priced categories," Dr David said. The Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA) said the emphasis on category care runs the risk of insurance policies influencing or modifying the type of care offered, including joint replacement. Similarly, issues around multidisciplinary care, where some orthopaedic practices are covered, while other related procedures are not, also need to be addressed, AOA said. Bariatric surgeons say restricting weight loss surgery to the Gold tier will only make it harder and harder for patients to undergo the procedure, which is already difficult to access. More patients are being denied lifesaving surgery at the expense of profit margins, Dr Ahmad Aly, president of Australian and New Zealand Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Society, said. However, he said their focus was on increasing access to the surgery in the public hospital system, as it was hampered by a shortage of services. Ear surgeons successfully lobbied for cochlear implantation surgery to be extended to the Silver tier, but are now calling for it to be in the Bronze tier too. Exclusion of cover for these surgeries from lower cover policies would devalue private health insurance and would not result in any savings, the otolaryngology society's submission to the review said. If patients cannot afford the private insurance pathway, there is a high possibility that patients would instead require hearing aids at a high cost to themselves and/or the Government while they are awaiting treatment in public hospitals. Australasian Sleep Associations Dr Garun Hamilton said restricting access to the appropriate investigation would be detrimental for many patients and lead to significant problems. This may lead to an under-recognition of important diseases such as sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and more recent evidence links it strongly with an increased risk of dementia, he said. Health Minister Greg Hunt's spokesman said Labor's plan for health insurance will increase premiums by 16 per cent because they plan on removing the health insurance rebate from Basic policies. The sanctuary was built in 1908. Every year at least 2 million pilgrims arrive, both Christians and Muslims. "A meeting place between East and West". Harissa (AsiaNews) - The shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, with the statue that dominates the entire coastline of the country from the summit of Harissa, begins tomorrow to celebrate her Jubilee. Opened in 1908, it celebrates 110 years. The solemn opening mass will be celebrated tomorrow at 11 am in the great basilica. Then there will be a procession for the opening of the "holy door" of the sanctuary, which will remain open throughout the year, welcoming pilgrims. The shrine of Harissa is the destination of many pilgrimages by Christians, but also by Muslims, who honor the Virgin Mary, mentioned in the Koran. Muslim women visit the shrine, light candles and offer flowers and money especially to ask for the grace of having a child. Fr. Khalil Alwan, vice-rector of the sanctuary, in an interview with the Orient-Le Jour, affirms that the basilica "is a meeting place between East and West". Every year at least 2 million pilgrims arrive. In 2016, with a solemn mass in Harissa, the Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai consecrated Lebanon and the Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (photo 3). Leaving New York to fly into Sydney for our fashion shoot, top model and David Jones ambassador Victoria Lee gives us a glimpse of next seasons four biggest looks. She give us the inside word on what she'll be wearing this spring. Zimmermann Tempest tucked contour mini, $1750, and slouch knee boot, $1500. Credit:Simon Lekias What are your favourite looks at the moment? I am loving all of the bright colours and bold clashing prints. I particularly enjoy a full colour-blocking look to really make a statement. Power suiting is also a look I will be adopting this season, although it will be more relaxed, with draped blazers and slouched pants. What is your favourite colour palette this season? Cold-calling other people became rude once the smartphone was invented. Sure, the original purpose of the phone is to talk to other people but as time goes on its purpose has evolved. Were more likely to use our phones to take and upload selfies, to send others emojis and to read the news. Millennials: Phoning someone is just not something were used to. Credit:Shutterstock This is a generational thing those older than say, 40, seem to be less hesitant when it comes to dialling someones phone number and actually talking to them. Younger folk will send a message or an email asking someone if its OK to call them before we do. The Wall Street Journal asked a range of professional millennials why they didnt pick up the phone. They responded that phone calls interrupted them, that they were burdensome, and that phoning someone implied that youre putting your own needs to talk right away over others workflow and schedule. One went so far as to unplug his desk phone and throw it into a cabinet. Phoning someone is just not something were used to. Were more likely to see it as an intimidating form of communication, one that requires an uncomfortable degree of spontaneity (you cant edit what you say the way you can in a WhatsApp chat), one thats used to deliver bad news (if someones died, were hardly likely to get a text message), and one that some of us might be afraid of. This is a problem because we still live in a world where using the phone is important particularly for our health. The new Victorian president of the Australian Medical Association, Julian Rait, has expressed concern that not enough of those under the age of 30 are seeing their GPs. Those aged 15 to 24 have the lowest rates of GP attendance in the country. This could mean that theyre missing out on treatment for things like sexually transmitted infections and mental health issues in particular. Rait suggests that one way we could fix this issue is if more clinics used online bookings. One Facebook contact told me that she got to her local library at opening time one day and found a group of elderly people waiting outside, some even cutting the queue. When the doors opened, they all made a bolt for the row of computers. The library not only provided them with technology they didnt have at home, but also trained them in how to use it. Ive found my library habits ebb and flow with my phase of life. When I was a child, my mother took me to the library to borrow books and toys and to research school projects. Then as a teenager, I went to our awesome local library which closed at a luxurious 10pm - to study, research assignments and practise for my HSC exams with past papers. I didnt spend much time in libraries as a young professional though I still had a library card because life was full and busy and I could afford to buy books. Libraries are inclusive community spaces. But I came back to the library as a mother, looking for cheap and wholesome ways to entertain my twin toddlers. We went every week to Rhyme Time, then read a few books together and borrowed some to take home. Now my children are at school and there are more than enough books to keep them entertained in the school library, but we still seek out the public library in school holidays for the free activities, everything from arts and crafts to movie screenings. There are plenty of events for adults that look great too author and literary talks or workshops on everything from bee keeping to writing grant applications. Occasionally, I work in the library on my laptop, while my children read or play or do a workshop. Libraries are not as quiet as they used to be, but still much more conducive to concentration than the local cafe, and cheaper too. Ive used libraries to print or photocopy, get documents witnessed by a justice of the peace, and borrow CDs and DVDs, as well as books. There are plenty of library services I personally dont use but are nonetheless valuable for those who do. One of the libraries near my home has an impressive range of books in Greek, Vietnamese and other languages, plus courses in English as a foreign language. There are books with large print or audio books for people with vision impairment and some libraries even have home delivery services for people who have disability or infirmity. There are mobile library services that visit small towns. You can reserve and renew books online from home. And for my friends whove given up on paper books, most libraries have a decent e-book collection that you can access from home. Libraries use the open-source EPUB format, supported by all the major e-book readers except Amazons Kindle - and I hear theres a workaround for the Kindle if you search online. Many devotees of e-books say they'd never go back to print on paper. Credit:Cole Bennetts Most of all, libraries are a valuable community space. Along with parks and playgrounds, they are part of our social infrastructure. Shops and cafes and pubs are fine but its important to have spaces where youre free to be a citizen not a consumer. Credit:Matt Golding We talk a lot about mental health these days and human connection is one of its most vital ingredients. If youre lonely youre also more vulnerable to addiction and romance scams. Whether youre a stay-at-home mum (or dad) longing for some adult interaction, someone dealing with homelessness or unsafe housing, an elderly person living alone, or a freelancer tired of working in your pyjamas, libraries can provide a sense of community. How fabulous some libraries are staying open late at night to offer an alternative to playing the pokies. But libraries cant do all this without public money. Loading Both NSW and Victoria have low per capita funding for libraries compared with other states. In NSW, the total funding was $48.46 per person each year in 2014-2015, and only $3.76 of that came from state government with the bulk from local councils. In the same year in Victoria the funding per person was a paltry $43.59 a year, though the state government contributed $7.94 more than double its NSW counterpart. Even worse, the NSW 2018/2019 budget slashed state funding for libraries by 18 per cent. NSW Public Libraries Association says $23.5 million allocated for libraries is the lowest state government contribution since 1999-2000 - and is pressing for it to be doubled. This seems very short-sighted. The Libraries Work! paper found public libraries in Victoria generate $848 million in net benefits to the public. For every dollar invested in public libraries, the return for the local community was $4.30. Cutbacks often mean branch closures or fewer opening hours. And a library system thats only open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, is a library system thats only serving a fraction of the community. Love your library and dont take it for granted. Stacey Barrass was within months of personal bankruptcy after a relationship break-up left her with about $100,000 in debts. The single mother of three boys, the oldest aged 16, says she had, and still has, a large mortgage and had to take drastic measures in order not to lose her home. Barrass, 47, received some budgeting advice and tips on how to negotiate with her bank from a neighbour, who is a friend and also a financial adviser. "I negotiated with the bank to consolidate my credit card debts into the home loan and under the bank's financial hardship provisions and I was able to extend the loan term and reduce the repayments," Barrass says. I have a house that is currently rented out and we plan to move there in two years. Neither of my parents have superannuation and we have invited them to live with us. They will be selling their home, which would give them about $350,000 profit. They hope to give us $200,000 to be used to renovate or rebuild so they can be accommodated. They are aware of the rules of gifting and their aim is to contribute without affecting their pensions. They are aged 66 and 75. T.M. Credit:Michael Mucci You might find Centrelinks granny flat rules helpful as they allow pensioners to contribute more than the usual gifting limits of $10,000 a year and up to $30,000 over a five-year period. In a nutshell, those gifting rules do not apply if a person, or a couple, transfer the title of their home to someone else, or buy a property in another persons name, or pay to build a flat or addition onto another persons property and, in return, receive a life interest or a life tenancy in that property, which will be the donors principal residence. The rules are not concerned with age or family relationship. However, when extra amounts over the cost of transfer or construction are transferred, Centrelink applies a reasonableness test, which permits the maximum amount that can be transferred, covering both the transfer cost plus the additional amount. Head of ACT Policing's sexual assault and child abuse team Detective Sergeant Tony Crocker urges victims of image abuse to come forward to police. Credit:Fairfax Media Reactionary laws introduced a year ago to tackle revenge porn and image abuse are difficult to monitor unless someone comes forward. ACT Policing sexual assault and child abuse team head Detective Sergeant Tony Crocker said police don't have the resources to be identifying victims of these crimes, and instead rely on people to come forward to report them. We dont become aware of the victims until a teacher or a parent has located the information or a victim has been threatened with the release of it," Detective Sergeant Crocker said. He said the nature of online image sharing made the police's ability to locate all unwanted intimate images online an impossible task. While they love to put smiles on the faces of children who see their incredible constructions, it's more serious than just fun and games for the men. Like the movie explains, Lego is much more than a child's toy. "It's a highly sophisticate interlocking brick system", according Will Ferrell's character Lord Business. The Lego Movie. The men said there is usually a transition time between when Lego stops being a toy and starts being a hobby. They call it "the dark ages", and not everyone reaches the light at the end of the tunnel. "Virtually every adult fan of Lego goes through what's called the dark ages. Where maybe in the later teens where other things [take priority], they get distracted, which is fair enough," Mr Kirkpatrick said. Only one of Mr Kirkpatrick's sons, now in their 20s, still enjoys looking at his creations. "A proportion of them come back to it when they have children, then they realise they still enjoy it." Mr Kirkpatrick didn't have that experience because growing up in New Zealand in the 1960s, he never had Lego. "It was only when my kids in the 1980s and '90s were growing up that we started to buy it, and I bought far too much. I now collect classic Lego from that period. "[The first set was] a swamp boat for my kids. I didn't think that much of it, but a few months later I discovered I was buying sets, and waiting for the kids to go to bed to make them up." Mr Abdilla said as a child he loved playing with Lego, but he always wanted what he couldn't afford - trains. Now, he has one of the biggest train collections in the Canberra Lego Users Group. After going through "the dark ages", he found the light when he was looking for a Christmas train to go around the tree for his own children. One of the great things about the Brick Expo for Mr Abdilla is that he gets to run his trains along metres and metres of track - something he, and many other train enthusiasts - don't have the space for at home. He hopes children that visit the expo will become the next generation of adult Lego enthusiasts. "I just love that it's something simple you can get a lot of pleasure out of. "You can play on the floor with a block and it can be whatever you want, your imagination is the biggest tool." The Brick Expo not only entertains children, it also helps save lives by raising money for Paediatric Care at the Canberra Hospital (PatCH). Mr Abdilla said setting aside all the fun that's had at the expo, he's proud to raise money for a service that once saved his baby's life. Born with a hole in her heart, his now 19-year-old daughter was cared for by PatCH. What ever you think of personalised number plates, they are sure to elicit a reaction from passing motorists. Perhaps that is why people opt to pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to get them. However some Canberrans were denied the chance to generate a reaction because of the likelihood they would cause offence with their desired number plates. Access Canberra has released some of the personalised number plates refused by the agency which included DRDEATH, J1HAD, UP4MDR and FATASS. We simply dont do things like that at Fairfax and an editor would resign sooner than bow to pressure from an advertiser or be obliged to refer it upstairs to the CEO, who has no say as to what runs and what doesnt. Personally, in my three decades of journalism in a variety of forums, only once has an advertiser ever been so presumptuous as to think that money dropped on our heads gave them any rights in what I write at all. No matter that he was gentle about it, in response on a morning when the Herald was demonstrating its own independence of me, by running in big black headlines a story on the back page of how I had just been deservedly dropped from the Waratahs I yelled at him for two minutes. Which turned out to be a little awkward, frankly, because no more than a year later, I married his sister. All good now! Greyhound racing 1. Homeless 0. You know the Missionbeat mob, yes? They are the ones on the frontline with the homeless, handing out blankets, advice and support to all those they find in doorways, back alleys and the like. There used to be three vans patrolling Sydney Streets 7am-11pm seven days a week, with medical support. Then that was cut to two vans with no medic, before being cut to just one van, with the weekend hours to be cut to eight hours in the day. This week, I received a report from someone involved, warning that the NSW government is about to cut it again, with Missionbeats hours being pulled back from just 11am-7pm, due to a reallocation of the $500,000 funding away from the van service and towards social housing for the vulnerable, outreach workers and so forth. While my correspondent supports the move to better fund social housing, he asks Who is going to be providing help to the suicidal recently homeless teenagers who fetch up at Central from country trains of an evening? What prompted him to write was an article I wrote on Thursday, noting the cruel juxtaposition of the government announcing they are putting $500,000 towards supporting the very greyhound racing they had previously wanted to ban at the very time they want to move that very amount away from a frontline service to the homeless! Surely, surely, the NSW government wouldnt do that, would they? Joke of the week In the aftermath of the disastrous Super Saturday byelections, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has sensationally resigned. The member for IKEA, Mr Allen Key, has been asked if he is able to form a cabinet. Quotes of the week This an extraordinary situation a private charity financially supported by mining firms, big banks and the BCA has been handed nearly half-a-billion dollars of taxpayer money in a private meeting by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. - The redoubtable Senator Kristina Keneally, on #ReefGate. When Coles phased out single-use plastic bags on July 1 in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, some customers told us they needed more time to make the transition to reusable bags. - A Coles spokesperson, defended the retailers first backflip, to continue providing plastic bags, free of charge. Shoot me! I had hoped to defer this decision until after the appeal process had been completed. However, there is just too much pain and distress being caused by my maintaining the office of Archbishop of Adelaide, especially to the victims of Father Fletcher. I must end this and therefore have decided that my resignation is the only appropriate step to take in the circumstances. - Archbishop Philip Wilson finally takes the hint and resigns. These are matters for the church to determine. Im not so sure that the people of South Australia would welcome a continuing role for the former archbishop. - South Australian Premier Steven Marshall at the suggestion that ex-Archbishop Wilson might still be able to do pastoral work. "The amendment will ensure no record can be released to police or government agencies, for any purpose, without a court order. The Digital Health Agencys policy is clear and categorical - no documents have been released in more than six years and no documents will be released without a court order. This will be enshrined in legislation." - A statement by Health Minister Greg Hunt, backing down on one element of the Health Record Act. If we go down that path then forget it, Im out, see you later, goodbye. Thats just nutcase stuff. I mean we are sick of having all these caveats placed on us by green groups, by well-intentioned, well-paid people in Giorgio Armani suits, sitting back and pontificating about the world, and then leaving the bill [for taxpayers]. No, we are not paying the bill for that. Those days are over. - Barnaby Joyce, threatening to pull his support for the Turnbull governments national energy guarantee if it places emissions targets on the agriculture sector. Earlier today Jarrod made the decision to stop active treatment and begin palliative care. He has given everything that hes got to give, and his poor body cannot take any more. Well be taking him closer to home in the next couple of days so he can finally leave the hospital. - Jarrod Lyles wife, Briony. Lyle, 36, has acute myeloid leukemia. Nothing much has changed. The dogs are still dying. They're still breeding, racing, caging, injuring, doping and routinely discarding greyhounds. - Lisa White, from Friends of the Hound. We know the drought will break, we just dont know when that will be. - Premier Gladys Berejiklian announcing more drought relief money. The way Robert Bob Hamblion tells it, his eldest daughter was going to be named Marcelle. He had a colleague of French origin by that name, and it really appealed. Having toyed with the idea, though, they opted for the more traditional Michelle, which turned out to be the most popular girls' name in NSW when she was born in 1970. Asked why they played it safe, Bob says, I guess that would have been what might be said within the family or our circle of friends. The pressures of choosing a child's name have changed a lot over the past 50 years, with parents now often reluctant to pick a name thats too popular - although it can't be too unusual either (more on that later). Names have always come and gone out of fashion, but the most common names in NSW are now far less common than they used to be. Once upon a time the list of top 100 names in a year used to capture nearly 90 per cent of the boys born, and three-quarters of girls. Now it's less than half of either gender. by Melani Manel Perera About 8.7% of the population is disabled on the island; 57% are women. A document describes the violence suffered by women during the conflict. So far there has been no cause-effect study between the development of disability and civil war. Colombo (AsiaNews) - Recognize our rights and the dignity of women. This is the appeal of dozens of Sri Lankan women disabled by the civil war that bloodied the island for about 30 years. Their testimony was collected in a report presented to the public on July 24th in Colombo. President of the Association of Women with Disabilities (Akasa), Kamalawathi Narayanagedara, who was disabled because of polio, told AsiaNews: "We want to have a real recognition from society and the government because we are human beings like everyone else. I am very sorry for the women made disabled by the civil war (1983-2009), we should give them more attention ". In Sri Lanka the numbers of people with physical and mental disabilities are very high: according to the 2012 census, at least 8.7% of the population is disabled; of this, 57% are women. The research carried out on the condition of the latter is called "Out of the Shadows: War-affected Women with Disabilities in Sri Lanka" and is done by the Law and Society Trust (Lst) and Western Sydney University. Three versions have been drawn up: in English, Sinhala and Braille, to allow reading also for the blind. The report describes the violence suffered by women during the conflict in the provinces and border villages to the north and east of the country, where the Tamil Tigers guerrilla targeted especially women of Islamic faith. Because of those atrocities, many have been disabled with movement, sight and hearing problems. The study also finds that that women are the majority of disabled people in the districts of Kandy, Trincomalee and Puttalam, those where the fighting between the regular army and Tamil rebels has been more tightly controlled. The study also highlights a serious shortcoming: the fact that there has never been a similar research linking disability to war. Recognizing that link of cause and effect, say the experts, would greatly contribute to the process of national reconciliation. On the contrary, we read in the text, "the National policy for reconciliation has never considered the condition of disabled women in the post-war scenario and also the government's attention has been inconsistent and inadequate". The report also stresses the difficulty of women in obtaining justice and access to the legal system, not only for the defense of their rights, but also from the point of view of architectural barriers that prevent wheelchair movements. A forty-two-year-old man has been refused bail after police seized 16 kilograms of the drug ice addressed to a business on the NSW Central Coast. The 42-year-old man was arrested at a home in Terrigal. Credit:NSW Police The drugs, which have an estimated potential street value of $8 million, were concealed in packaging containing bearings, intended for industrial purposes. In the lead up to Levi Russell's arrest at a home in Terrigal, officers from Strike Force Gilbulla yesterday executed six search warrants at properties in Berkeley Vale, Glenning Valley, Terrigal, Tuggerah and Wamberal. Along with the drugs, police seized $300,000 cash, a conductive electric device, documentation, and other items relevant to the investigation. A secret report prepared by the state government's own experts warned the plan for Sydney's light rail was talked up without knowing the "hidden realities" of the project. The report, titled Lessons for Light Rail, identifies a range of problems, from rising costs to the design drawings being "dumbed down" and major stakeholders not involved in the early planning. Light rail construction in the CBD. Credit:Jessica Hromas It says the project for a light rail from Sydney's CBD to the eastern suburbs would be hit with "high prices and design delays" as a result of "onerous contract modifications" and the design process should have been more detailed with a longer "evaluation and negotiation period". The report has emerged as the government remains locked in a legal battle with the Spanish contractor building the project. During my recent sojourn in Scotland I spent an uplifting Edinburgh morning at the newish Scottish parliament building. The Scottish parliament commissioned the poet laureate Edwin Morgan to write a poem to be declaimed at the opening 9 October 2004. He obliged with a feisty, celebratory composition. I am a minor poet for the moment, but, burning with ambition, I have cunning plans to use a forthcoming major Canberra event to turn me into a great big one. Edwin Morgans muscular poem reminded me of the crying need for Australian poets laureate. Certainly Canberra should have one. With more imagination the Barr government would instead of appointing Brendan Smyth something called Commissioner for International Engagement, have spent that money ($252,000 a year plus sparkling benefits) on appointing me as Canberra poet laureate. Hungry for that poet laureate post I have been thinking of a looming Canberra occasion that calls, just as the opening of the Scottish parliament called, for a grand celebratory poem. The official opening of stage one of the wondrous light rail network will come to pass in just a few months time. So as my irresistible application for the post of poet laureate I am at work on just the kind of poem that occasion will need. On that day I will recite it in my manly baritone after police have dispersed anti-tram protesters (all of them fogeys in their 70s) with water cannons. Right now it is an unfinished work in progress, very closely modelled on Edwin Morgans aforementioned classic. His poem begins Open the doors! Mine, of which I now give you some excerpts, begins with a similar fanfare. Roll out the network! Take the first fares! Light of the 21st century shine in. Light of the enlightened mind shine out! With this Stage One we join at last the international family of light-rail-blessed cities, we become (rapture!) a sister of fabulous Addis-Ababa, of characterful and go-getting Volgograd, and even (heres looking at you, Canberra!) of Bogart and Bergmans now progress-savvy Casablanca. How noble this grand vision of having our city reach out to once remote and forbidden Gungahlin (how musical that name is, how redolent of mystery!) with its far away suburbs with strange-sounding names. They are names that, on an ancient parchment map, would have quickened Marco Polos pulse as he dreamed of going in search of them. Say them soft and its almost like praying. Amaroo, Ngunnawal, Moncrieff, Timbuctoo, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Popocatepetl, Shangri-La, Crace, Jacka. The Andrews government has made record investments in schools and TAFE, but a new poll suggests its Education State message is not cutting through to voters. The poll of 1025 Victorians, which was commissioned by the Australian Education Union, reveals that just 34 per cent of voters think state Labor is better equipped to deliver on education, compared to the 31 per cent who prefer the Liberals approach. Meredith Peace, Victorian President of the Australian Education Union, says education will be a critical issue at the state election. Credit:Jason South But when it came to funding TAFE, public schools and preschools, Labor has a significant lead of up to 15 points over the opposition. With less than four months before the November state election, the Australian Education Union will on Sunday launch a campaign that calls on all parties to fund free preschool for all three and four-year-olds and to close a gap that sees Victorian students receive $1589 less state and federal funding per student than the national average. Veteran St Kilda homelessness support worker Billi Clarke is not one to mince her words. There is no doubt, she says, that the Gatwick Hotel billed by Channel Nines hit reality renovation show The Block as Australias most notorious hellhole was a shithole. Homelessness support workers including SJ Finn and Billi Clarke outside the Gatwick, where they will gather on Sunday to protest the increase of homelessness in St Kilda since the former boarding house was sold. Credit:Daniel Pockett We are not saying it should have stayed the way it was, she says of the seedy, violence-plagued former St Kilda boarding house, which housed some of Melbournes most vulnerable people when no one else would take them in. But as Melbourne becomes more gentrified and boarding houses like the Gatwick close down, Ms Clarke and other community sector workers worry about the ripple effects felt in the local area and on the homeless. "It is time for truth-telling in this country," declares a sombre but hopeful Malarndirri McCarthy. Truths about the darker episodes of Australian history particularly the massacres of Indigenous people at the hands of European settlers must be properly aired if the nation is to be united and move forward, the NT Labor senator and Yanyuwa woman says. Malarndirri McCarthy. Australia must have this discussion in a mature way, Senator McCarthy says, otherwise: "We continue to enable wilful blindness and deafness to our history. And that does nothing to encourage hope among younger Australians for a better country." And the upshot, should the nation collectively wrap its head around the legacy of colonisation? A traditional role of applying and gathering intelligence had been displaced by a lust for kill counts. Troop Captain Andrew Hastie, now a Liberal MP, who deployed briefly on a familiarisation exercise for that 2012 rotation, caught a glimpse of blood in the eye of a mission that was "grasping for operational clarity in a fog of strategic ambiguity". Black-ops rockstars Identifying the moment it went wrong is a principal task for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF), now investigating allegations of a slew of unlawful killings by members of Australias Special Forces. Many insiders believe a key reason things may have gone off the rails is "tier 1 envy". Across the global network of Special Forces units is a spread of skill sets and specialisations. The US ranks units such as the Navys Seal Team Six, and the Armys Delta Force, as "tier 1". While the designation relates to resourcing and tasking rather than status, the black-ops rockstars tend to get the cool missions - such as hunting down Osama bin Laden - and thus the envy. A notch down along the Joint Special Operations Command pecking order, tier 2 operators such as the US Armys Green Berets are tasked with a role closer to that described in the opening paragraphs. Working closely with locals to improve self-defence capability, they share principles that are also part of SASRs repertoire. Loading But over time and there was a lot of it in Afghanistan operators appeared to show more interest in direct action than in hiding out unobserved, reporting local patterns of life. Because of inter-operability, exchange of personnel and the fact Australia deployed the third-largest Special Operations Task Group to Afghanistan after the Americans and British, Australians were exposed to significant influence from their "cousins". In terms of personal fitness, training and patrolling nous, the Australians compared well. But in the global special operations pool, we are minnows. The US has more special forces personnel than Australia has men and women in uniform. US tier 1 Special Forces, with its superstructure of command, intelligence, assault boats, helicopters and autonomy, are in a whole other league one senior defence sources say we might have sensibly avoided. While Seal Team Six got the sexy jobs, they also drew fire and over time it became clear that maximum power with minimum oversight produces moral cost. In 2015, The New York Times published an extensive investigation of the Seals, detailing the evolution in Afghanistan of a "kill fest" in which the victims were too often unarmed civilians. Seals were using customised weapons such as tomahawks and practises such as "canoeing" (splitting open a victims skull). There was similar reputational blight in Britain, with their famed SAS (on which Australias SASR is modelled) accused of planting weapons and unlawful killing. Taliban fighters in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, in June. Credit:AP Close observers see a gradual rise among some of a rampant warrior ethos over the 13 years of the Australian mission. Hearts were hardened by a series of factors, not the least their own mounting casualty count. On the battlefield, Afghan militants blended in with local farmers. When Taliban commanders were caught, they frequently bribed their way clear of a dysfunctional and corrupt justice system. Strategic oversight wobbled in the hands of a coalition of 50 nations. Beyond the myriad approaches of different nations, objectives drifted between killing off al-Qaeda, building a democratic Afghanistan and arresting a burgeoning Taliban insurgency. Australian Special Operations commanders also brought different approaches to their four to six-month rotations. In 2009, one leadership group emphasised intelligence and policing strategies to separate the militants from the farmers. The bloodless removal of Taliban commanders from the valleys was deeply appreciated by long-suffering locals, but not so much by many Special Forces soldiers trained and poised for battle. Loading The following year, by contrast, there was fighting aplenty, including the famous Chenartu-Tizak action. As a feat of arms, it was remarkable. Outnumbered Australians confronted an enemy arrayed defensively and in superior numbers, completely destroying them while sustaining minimal casualties. But "clear, hold, build" was the counterinsurgency mantra and only the first box had been ticked. The Taliban soon seeped back in. The episode also generated dissent within the ranks and not only between long-term special forces rivals, SASR and the Commandos. While the fighting produced a Victoria Cross and the first Australian Army battle honour since Vietnam, within SASR they dont really commemorate "Tizak Day". A divide developed among brothers in arms, in part over the dispensation of honours and awards. Another legacy was a growing challenge to the habit of having gunfights in an environment where it was long understood that the shot not fired is more important than the one that is. In the pre-deployment training for a 2011 rotation, one SASR officer took care to demonstrate the importance of killing the enemy rather than those they were sent to protect. The Afghanistan arithmetic was simple kill one innocent farmer and you generate 10 more Taliban. The officer understood that armed foreigners arriving, sometimes in the dead of night, would be terrifying. He knew a farmer "moving tactically" might just as easily be fleeing to safety. So language training in simple directions was introduced with the objective of limiting confusion and saving lives. Then in the following year, during more pre-deployment scenario training, an SASR patrol commander was heard ordering a newer soldier to execute manacled detainees. 'Compassionate psychopaths' In jest, Special Forces personnel are sometimes described as compassionate psychopaths. The "Killer Angel" characteristics of being able to apply lethal force without hesitation - but also to know when it is not necessary - are not found in ordinary mortals. Special Forces candidates endure rigorous psychological examination, with the few who gain entry further exposed to millions of dollars' worth of punishing training. In the last years of the war, as the coalition struggled to navigate its way out, Australias Special Operations Task Group became able to call on Blackhawks and Apaches from the USs 101st Aviation "Expect No Mercy" regiment and the 82nd Aviation regiment "Wolfpack". US special forces rush a wounded Afghan soldier to a helicopter of the 101st Aviation brigade in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province in December 2010. Credit:New York Times The vulnerability of helicopters to ground attack adjusted rules of engagement. An Afghan armed only with a two-way radio could order a grenadier into position to bring down an aircraft, with a single projectile killing 15 men. Landing zones became kill zones, with any fighting-aged males hanging around to be considered combatants. At Australias Camp Russell, operators were now turning up having already completed six or eight rotations. T-shirts were commonly stamped with gunslinger, Spartan and "Professional Infidel" iconography. That Australian Special Forces were overused in a conflict that had dragged on for too long now seems undeniable. One Army psychologist told me: "We want them controllable and reintegrate-able. But what happens if they become an attack dog you cant control?" I dont want to know all the details of what has gone on. I just want you guys to keep us safe. Sky News host Ross Cameron As Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Hart and Major Tom McDermott note in Armouring Against Atrocity: Small units within the military are easily seen as primary groups and groups are inherently less moral than individuals. When the group is virtuous there is often a positive outcome; however, where the group norms are shifted and the behaviour is atrocious, individuals in the group are often unable to apply the brake. So how will the public react if revelations of war crimes are proved? Judging on responses so far, condemnation and forgiveness run neck-and-neck. On Sky TV, former SASR Lieutenant-Colonel Riccardo Bosi began his recent commentary with a quote, which is alternatively attributed to Sir Winston Churchill and George Orwell: "We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men are ready to deliver punishment to those who would do us harm." One of the interviewers, Ross Cameron, added: I dont want to know all the details of what has gone on. I just want you guys to keep us safe. The argument that the public be denied a vote on what our special forces get up to has some formal endorsement. Clandestine operations against terrorist cells remain secret because there is no logic in signalling intentions or capability to the enemy. But Afghanistan was hardly a secret war. A massive database of intelligence gathered demonstrates many enemies killed were cruel and oppressive, but many others were farmers defending their homeland. In the course of this work, many special forces veterans have given confidential interviews. The overwhelming majority make no excuses for any small teams that went rogue. Soldiers fight principally for one another. Unethical conduct in Afghanistan made a tough job harder. Recklessness with the rules further embittered the Afghan locals and effectively betrayed the Australian mission, its soldiers and their mates. These soldiers also expect no excuses from the public. They hold to a proud heritage which honours toughness and decency. As one decorated SASR veteran put it: We are not Viking raiders or Genghis Khans marauders. We are Australian soldiers. A 41-year-old man and his eight-year-old son have been taken to hospital after they fell between three and four metres from a balcony on Sydney's northern beaches. Emergency services were called to a home on Pittwater Road at Church Point at about 4pm on Saturday. When they arrived, they found the man had been knocked unconscious from the fall, and his son had also been injured. Both were treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics at the scene before the father was flown to Royal North Shore Hospital in a serious condition, according to police. The child was also taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, with minor injuries. Interpol has an alert out on a South African father and son, living in a $2.5 million home in the upmarket Sydney suburb of St Ives, who authorities in their homeland allege misappropriated up to 100 million rand (about $10 million) from their clients. Lawyers Ronald and Darren Bobroff are alleged to have systematically overcharged their clients in South Africa, laundered money through a trust account and stolen money before fleeing to Australia. Ronald and Darren Bobroff at their home in St Ives. Credit:Janie Barrett Although the pair were both struck off South Africas roll of attorneys, they have not been charged with any crime in that country. In their first Australian interview, they insist this proves they are victims of a wide-ranging conspiracy. Ronald said his tireless advocacy for the mostly "poor, black and illiterate" road accident victims led a prominent South African insurance company to "destroy" him and his son. He detailed a plot involving the fake kidnapping of a former spy from the USSR who infiltrated his law firm, frozen Israeli bank accounts, Erin Brockovich and MI6. Chicago: Two agricultural researchers from China were charged on Friday in connection with a 2013 attempt to steal US rice technology for use in the medical field. A US grand jury indicted Liu Xuejun, 49, and Sun Yue, 36, for conspiracy to steal trade secrets and conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Rice farming Credit:Nicolas Walker NKW Lawyers for Liu and Sun could not immediately be reached for comment. The Chinese Embassy in Washington also could not immediately be reached. The charges come as the United States and China have slapped tariffs on imports of billions of dollars' worth of each other's goods in an escalating trade war. The United States alleges that China steals US corporate secrets and wants it to stop doing so. Portugal and Spain are sweltering under an intense wave of heat that has produced near-record temperatures in the southern European countries. Portugal has issued red alerts for extreme heat for more than half the country Saturday, with thermometers approaching 46 degrees celsius. The country's highest ever recorded temperature was 47.4 degrees in 2003. Huge crowds swarm beaches in San Sebastian, northern Spain, during the country's heatwave. Credit:AP The hot, dry conditions have led to several wildfires in Portugal. The biggest outbreak has burnt about 1000 hectares near the town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region. Osama bin Laden's mother, Alia Ghanem, spoke out for the first time this week about her son's life and radicalisation in a bombshell interview with The Guardian. Ghanem, who lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with her husband of more than 50 years and two of bin Laden's brothers in one of the most lavish homes in the country, sat down with journalist Martin Chulov to discuss bin Laden's childhood and how he became the most famous terrorist in the world, responsible for the 9/11 attacks and others across the world. Before he was killed ... an undated file photo of al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Credit:AP The interview covers more than 50 years of the extremist's life, and bin Laden's family and friends blame everything from global political forces to bin Laden's own character for the former leader of al-Qaida's decades of fanaticism. Chulov spoke with bin Laden's mother and siblings, as well as Saudi officials, to piece together his life. Bin Laden's family remembers a loving, passionate young man. Ghanem called bin Laden, her first born son, "shy," and "academically capable" as a child. The granularity of the charges might lead us to believe it's a trial about tax evasion, or the failure to comply with arcane regulations covering registration as a foreign agent, or money laundering to hide the resources required for the lavish lifestyle, the expensive rugs and bespoke suits to which Manafort became accustomed. The trial of Paul Manafort has begun. The first of 35 federal grand jury targets to face allegations in court, Donald Trump's former campaign manager stands accused of more than 30 criminal counts in a Virginia federal court. We probably won't hear much about that in court. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, which brought charges against Manafort as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, has said it will not bring forward evidence regarding Russian coordination with US campaigns at the trial. But that background is what we need to keep in mind when the coverage gets lost in the language of taxation and regulation. Manafort's trial is no more about tax evasion than former House speaker Dennis Hastert's 2016 trial was about wire fraud rather than sexual abuse. It's a trial about the astonishing ways in which Vladimir Putin effectively transformed Manafort into a Kremlin subsidiary, first in Ukraine and then in the US, turning a famed Washington political operative like Manafort - once adviser to Ronald Reagan and George Bush snr - into a Russian stooge. To understand why, you have to begin where the Manafort-Putin journey began: in eastern Ukraine. It's no secret that Putin called the breakup of the Soviet Union the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. The Russian president sought to maintain control over former Soviet states, none more so than Ukraine, birthplace of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In 2004, Putin was enraged when the "Orange Revolution" freed Ukraine from the Kremlin's tight grip. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Moscow in 2013. Credit:AP Putin's choice to run Ukraine was a burly former coal miner named Viktor Yanukovych, whom Putin bankrolled against his pro-Western rival, Viktor Yushchenko. For the crime of opposing Putin's favoured candidate, Yushchenko was not-so-mysteriously poisoned. Canada's CHIME radio telescope (seen at night here) recently detected a rare, low-frequency burst of energy from deep in the universe. Astronomers are eagerly searching for an explanation. Our universe is teeming with invisible light. Beyond the visible spectrum, space is a colorful mess of radio signals and microwaves fired off by flaring "suns," collapsing stars, crackling magnetic fields, roiling dust clouds and seething black holes. Then, there's the light nobody understands mysterious, ultrastrong sparks of energy zipping billions of light-years across the universe from unknown origins, for unknown reasons. Puzzling pulses like these are sometimes called fast radio bursts (FRBs), because they may last just a few milliseconds. On the morning of July 25, one such burst of mysterious energy whizzed past a new array of radio telescopes nestled in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, registering one of the rarest radio frequencies ever detected. [7 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space] According to a statement released in The Astronomer's Telegram (a bulletin board of astronomical observations posted by accredited scientists), the mystery signal named FRB 180725A after the year, month and day it was detected transmitted in frequencies as low as 580 megahertz, nearly 200 MHz lower than any other FRBs ever detected. "These events have occurred during both the day and night, and their arrival times are not correlated with known on-site activities or other known sources," wrote Patrick Boyle, author of the Astronomer's Telegram report and a project manager for the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) the radio telescope that detected the strange new signature. The pulse's fast, low frequency suggests that the blast was extremely bright and originated from an insanely powerful source somewhere in the cosmos. Studying the peculiar signal could give astronomers better clues as to how these extragalactic radio waves form and where they're coming from. "Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," Avi Loeb, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who was not involved in the discovery, said last year in a statement related to new research on these bursts. He added that an "artificial origin" of the signals (i.e., extraterrestrial intelligence) is worth considering. Other possible origins include supernovas (exploding stars), supermassive black holes or various other sources of mighty electromagnetic radiation, such as pulsars. FRBs remain an utter mystery to astronomers and routinely draw the curiosity of alien hunters. The signals are, by nature, extremely brief and travel exceedingly far across space; pinpointing a precise source of such elusive pulses is no easy feat. On top of this, only about 40 or so FRBs have been detected on Earth since they were first discovered in 2007, so research on them remains sparse. But despite FRBs' relative rarity in astronomy, they are probably a regular cosmic occurrence, Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham who was not involved in the discovery, told The Daily Mail. FRBs may even reach our planet thousands of times a day, Conselice said; we just haven't built enough tools to detect them all yet. The latest mystery signal was detected by CHIME, a state-of-the-art radio telescope that looks like a skateboarder's half-pipe in the mountains of British Columbia. CHIME was designed to detect ancient radio waves sent out when the universe was just a toddler, some 6 billion to 11 billion years ago. Though it has been in operation for only about a year, it has already detected several noteworthy FRBs, including several more low-frequency signals that followed shortly after the noteworthy FRB 180725A last week. Originally published on Live Science. An artist's depiction of the Parker Solar Probe at work in orbit around the sun NASA is just a week away from launching its next science mission, a spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe that will eventually "touch the sun." If all goes according to plan, the probe will take off aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in the early morning of Aug. 11 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The 45-minute launch window opens at 3:45 a.m. EDT (0748 GMT). You can watch the launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. To successfully reach the sun, the Parker Solar Probe needs to leave Earth incredibly quickly hence the massive rocket, which is second in launch power only to SpaceX's brand new Falcon Heavy rocket. [NASA Mission to 'Touch the Sun' Due to Launch in Early August] See more Once the spacecraft waves goodbye to Earth, it will loop around Venus in a maneuver called a gravity assist that will slow down the spacecraft and carefully control its approach to our star. The gravity assist is scheduled for Oct. 2 and will put the probe on track to reach its first point of close approach to the sun on Nov. 5. That flyby will kick off 24 orbits, performed over seven years, that will gradually pull the spacecraft closer and closer to our star. On its final close approach, in 2025, the Parker Solar Probe will get within 4 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the sun's surface so close that it will actually fly through the star's incredibly hot atmosphere, called the corona, NASA officials have said. The spacecraft will survive the heat for so many years because of the powerful shield engineers have designed. This shield doesn't weigh down the spacecraft but keeps the instruments aboard at a safe 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius). During the spacecraft's orbits, those instruments will be working to solve three major scientific mysteries about our local star: why its atmosphere becomes hotter farther away from the surface of the sun, how the solar wind of charged particles streaming out into space is born, and what causes the gigantic outbursts scientists call coronal mass ejections. The answers could be crucial to scientists' understanding of how stars beyond our solar system work. And closer to home, the probe's work should also help scientists understand and predict the hazards of living near a star. Solar activity can interfere with communications and navigation satellites around Earth and even knock out power grids on the planet's surface. The Aug. 11 launch date comes after a couple of delays, including one due to additional software testing and one caused by a small piece of foam found inside the rocket's nose cone. The spacecraft's original launch window opened on July 31 and was due to close on Aug. 19, but NASA was able to extend the launch window to Aug. 23, according to a NASA tweet from Aug. 2. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. SpaceXs robotic Dragon cargo craft begins its separation from the International Space Station after being released from the Canadarm2 on Aug. 3, 2018. Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California later that same day. SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule returned to Earth today (Aug. 3), wrapping up the company's latest cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, shortly after 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT), about 5.5 hours after departing the orbiting lab. A boat will soon pluck the freighter out of the sea and haul it back to shore, where technicians can begin offloading the gear that Dragon brought down to Earth. And there's a lot of stuff to offload "several tons of experiment results and orbital lab hardware," NASA officials wrote in an update Wednesday (Aug. 1). Many of the research samples are packed inside special portable freezers, they added. [In Photos: SpaceX's Dazzling Dragon Launch to Space Station] Dragon launched atop a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 29 and arrived at the space station on July 2. The uncrewed capsule brought about 5,900 lbs. (2,700 kilograms) of supplies, food (including treats such as blueberries and ice cream bars) and scientific equipment to the ISS. Among the science gear toted up were an intelligent robotic "astronaut helper" named CIMON (short for "Crew Interactive Mobile Companion") and NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) instrument. ECOSTRESS will be affixed to the station's exterior and track how plants respond to heat stress and a lack of water around the globe. SpaceX has now flown 15 ISS cargo missions, which the company performs under a contract with NASA. The agency holds a similar deal with the aerospace company Northrop Grumman, which uses its own Cygnus spacecraft and United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rockets to do the job. (Unlike Dragon, Cygnus is disposable, burning up in Earth's atmosphere when its orbital work is done.) This particular Dragon has now flown two ISS missions; it previously visited the orbiting lab in 2016. The first stage of the Falcon 9 that lofted the capsule was pre-flown as well, having helped launch NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite in April. Such reuse is a priority for SpaceX billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk, who sees it as a way to slash the cost of spaceflight and make a variety of bold exploration goals economically feasible. The splashdown wasn't the only Dragon-related news of the day. NASA also announced the nine astronauts who will fly on the first crewed missions of the astronaut-taxi version of Dragon and Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule. SpaceX and Boeing have been developing these crewed spaceships for several years under multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA. The current schedule calls for Crew Dragon to fly its first crewed test flight to the ISS in April 2019, and for Starliner to do the same a few months later. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Boeing and SpaceX plan to launch private, crewed missions to the International Space Station in 2019, but their astronauts will be wearing very different suits. SpaceX and Boeing are working to launch commercial crewed vehicles into space so what will the astronauts wear? As part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX and Boeing will fly crewed test flights in 2019, according to new schedule changes. These flights will follow uncrewed test flights that are scheduled for late 2018. Today (Aug. 3), NASA announced the astronauts who will make up the first commercial crew for these missions. It will be exciting to follow the journey of these astronauts, from their training to their launch to the International Space Station. But what will they wear on their epic journey into orbit? Boeing has designed bold, blue spacesuits, whereas SpaceX has taken a more futuristic approach to space-travel fashion although currently short on details. [Photos: Meet the 'Boeing Blue' Spacesuit for Starliner Capsule] Keep in mind that Boeing and SpaceX's suits are designed for traveling in spacecraft to the space station; they are not created to be worn in the vacuum of space. For spacewalks, astronauts will continue to use the large, protective, recognizable white suits that are stored aboard the space station. Former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson tries on the "Boeing Blue" spacesuit. (Image credit: Boeing) Boeing's blue suits Of the new spacesuits designed for a commercial crew launch, Boeing's suits are certainly more reminiscent of NASA's classic "pumpkin suit," formally known as the Advanced Crew Escape Space Suit System (ACES). Boeing astronauts, who will fly aboard the company's CST-100 Starliner capsule, will don bright blue suits that are easily recognizable as spacesuits but are far slimmer and more form-fitting than NASA's orange duds. Each suit, known as the "Boeing Blue" spacesuit, weighs about 20 lbs. (9 kilograms), including an integrated shoe, compared with the 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) of NASA's ACES suit. A Final Frontier Design IVA suit being tested by Project PoSSUM on astronaut candidate Shawna Pandya inside a Falcon 20 jet. SpaceX and Boeing have their own spacesuits that their astronauts will wear in upcoming crewed missions. (Image credit: Adrien Mauduit/Project PoSSUM) Aside from their lighter, sleeker construction, Boeing's blue suits have a number of advanced features. The Boeing Blue suits have touch-screen-sensitive gloves, which will allow astronauts to interface with digital displays on board; the suit will be made of material that is more flexible than what was used in older spacesuits; and the suits' helmets will be soft, with both the helmet and visor incorporated into the suit as compared to the older, detachable, hard helmets from NASA's older designs. Astronaut Suni Williams, who will fly with the Boeing team, spoke about the spacesuit in a Reddit AMA thread," saying that "advancement in material technologies allow us to do things like use touch screens. Both new suits also are designed to make it easier to see inside the spacecraft." The suits will have vents to keep the astronauts cool and will allow the suit to pressurize immediately, a key safety feature, as the purpose of these spacesuits is to act "as the emergency backup to the spacecraft's redundant life-support systems. If everything goes perfectly on a mission, then you don't need a spacesuit. It's like having a fire extinguisher close by in the cockpit. You need it to be effective if it is needed," Richard Watson, a subsystem manager for spacesuits for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement from NASA. The blue suit design is also much simpler than the older NASA suits, a feature that Boeing and SpaceX's suits share. This is a huge improvement because "complicated systems have more ways they can break, so simple is better on something like this," NASA astronaut Eric Boe said in the statement. Boe added, in the Reddit AMA, that "the spacesuits are much more comfortable than those from the shuttle days: lighter, simpler, require less cooling, and easier to work with. The technology from these suits came from those of the past." Boeing Blue will also feature stylish footwear in the same vibrant color as the suit. The shoes, which will be integrated into the rest of the suit like the helmet and visor, are inspired by cross trainers and, at first glance, look like a cool pair of running shoes. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk posted this photo to Twitter, revealing the full head-to-toe design of the company's spacesuit that astronauts will wear aboard the Crew Dragon. (Image credit: SpaceX/Instagram) SpaceX's sleek design SpaceX's spacesuit design is striking and unique. When Elon Musk first showed off the full design on Instagram, it received an enormous amount of attention for its ultra-modern appearance that looks straight out of a science-fiction flick. The suit is mostly white with black details and it seems almost too slim and aesthetically sleek to be a fully functional spacesuit. But, as Musk assured reporters at a news conference in February, "It definitely works. You can just jump in a vacuum chamber with it, and it's fine." A sneak peek of the spacesuit that astronauts will wear aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon. (Image credit: SpaceX) Aside from comments like this from Musk, and from company images, SpaceX has not revealed many of the details or features of its suits. But there are certain aspects that the suit will most likely have for it to function as intended and keep the astronauts safe. NASA's ACES spacesuits, for example, feature an emergency breathing system, a liquid cooling system, an automatic inflatable parachute, even emergency food and water supplies. Alsony, in the event of depressurization, ACES suits are able to fully pressurize, a potentially life-saving feature of every spacesuit to date. As mentioned, if SpaceX's Crew Dragon's onboard life-support systems perform without issue, then functionality of this suit is redundant. But a fully functional spacesuit is critical to ensuring the safety of astronauts. And so, while SpaceX has not publicized many details about its suit, it will likely have many of the same or similar features as ACES, if not more protective features. One of the most fascinating aspects of SpaceX's spacesuit is that it was created by legendary Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez. Fernandez has most notably designed costumes for blockbusters like "Wonder Woman," "Wolverine," "Batman vs. Superman" and "Captain America: Civil War." Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her @chelsea_gohd. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. It's hard to overstate the significance of President Donald Trump's decision to impose sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of American pastor. It's the first time the U.S. has imposed sanctions on government officials of a NATO ally.Let that sink in. A little more than a month ago, Turkish military officers showed up at a Texas airbase for a formal ceremony marking the sale of F-35A stealth aircraft. U.S. pilots fly missions out of Turkey's Incirlik airbase against targets in Syria. In July, Turkish leaders met with other allies in Brussels for the NATO summit. Now the U.S. is treating Turkey like it's Iran. The reason for this sudden turn in U.S.-Turkish relations is Andrew Brunson. He is the American evangelical pastor arrested in 2016 on allegations that he was part of the failed military coup that summer. The charges against him are risible, relying on secret witnesses and conspiracy theories. The prosecutor for example notes that Brunson appeared in a photograph wearing a yellow, red and green scarf, the colors favored by a Kurdish terrorist group. And while Brunson's freedom is a worthy goal, there is a greater risk in the Trump administration's approach to achieving it. By negotiating for the release of Brunson, the U.S. is teaching Turkey that Iranian-style hostage diplomacy works. The situation unraveled last week after a judge released Brunson from prison, but ordered him to remain under house arrest. Trump believed he had a deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that involved a state-run Turkish bank, Halk Bankasi, which allegedly evaded U.S. sanctions on Iran's nuclear program. As my Bloomberg colleague Benjamin Harvey detailed this week, in exchange for Brunson's freedom the Trump administration was going to recommend a lenient fine against Halkbank, and to send one of its executives who is currently in a U.S. jail back to Turkey to serve out the remainder of his sentence. However, U.S. officials tell me, Trump personally surmised that Erdogan wasn't going to make good on the deal, hence yesterday's sanction announcement. And this gets to the second problem. Brunson is only one hostage the Turks currently have. There is also Serkan Golge, a Turkish-American NASA scientist who was also arrested on charges of being in on the 2016 coup. In 2017, the Turks arrested two local employees of U.S. diplomatic missions in Turkey. Would Trump allow things to go back to normal with Turkey if Brunson were released but Golge and the Turkish citizens remained in prison? Besides, Brunson is just a pawn in a bigger game. The Turks allege that a cleric named Fethullah Gulen, who was once Erdogan's closest political partner, orchestrated the attempted 2016 coup. Gulen has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999 and secured a U.S. green card in 2001, straining Turkish-American relations for two decades. While the Turks demand he be extradited, U.S. officials say they have yet to present any compelling evidence of his complicity in the failed putsch from 2016. That said, Turkey has not limited its hostage-taking to Americans. According to a report from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the Turks have arrested 30 Western nationals for taking part in the failed coup. Aykan Erdemir, an author of that report, told me Turkey's hostage diplomacy was a symptom of the bigger problem of Erdogan's slide toward authoritarianism. "The issue is much larger than Pastor Brunson, it's also much larger than the hostages," he said. "This is a NATO member-state that is drifting away from the alliance and its values." Erdogan has been gradually consolidating power and criminalizing his opposition for years. This trend accelerated after the failed coup. In addition to purging thousands of alleged Gulenists from the civil service, Erdogan's government has launched a campaign to go after the coup plotters abroad. In April, Turkey's deputy prime minister said in a television interview that Turkish agents in 18 countries had brought back 80 individuals connected to the coup. This trend has also manifested itself through Turkey's foreign policy. Erdogan has moved closer to Russia, which controls much of the airspace in neighboring Syria. Even though Turkey and Russia have technically been on opposite sides of that civil war, the Turks have nonetheless entered into agreements to purchase Russian air defense systems and a nuclear power plant. The Erdogan government says it won't adhere to new sanctions the U.S. will implement in November against banks and businesses that purchase Iranian oil. Trump is within his rights to offer leniency to Turkish banks and other blandishments in negotiations with Erdogan. The problem is that when he does so to free American citizens, he is creating the same kind of moral hazard Ronald Reagan's envoys established with Iran, when they traded arms for hostages. The Iranians have been taking Western captives ever since. Trump knows this moral hazard well. He campaigned against the Obama administration's cash payment to the Iranians ahead of the release of U.S. prisoners in 2016. That's why Trump must be mindful that his efforts to free Brunson don't encourage Turkey to take more hostages in the future. - - - Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast, and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI. The Duchess of Sussex celebrated her 37th birthday by accompanying Prince Harry to the wedding of his childhood friend, Charlie van Straubenzee. Arriving at St Mary The Virgin Church in Surrey, the newlyweds looked delighted as they mingled with guests on their way into the church. A beaming Meghan looked effortlessly elegant wearing a black midi-dress, which featured a pleated skirt in contrasting white, forest green and millennial pink hues. The Duchess of Sussex talks to fellow guests as they arrive at the church / PA Wire/PA Images The modern frock was by Club Monaco, a US brand owned by Polo Ralph Lauren, and currently retails for a reasonable 400. This wouldn't be the first time Meghan has accompanied Prince Harry to a wedding. Back in June, the newlyweds attended the nuptials of Princess Diana's niece, Celia McCorquodale, and George Woodhouse. The special event called for Meghan to show off her thrifty shopping skills, wearing a 29.50 fascinator from Marks & Spencer. Meghan Markle wore a hat by Philip Treacy / PA Wire/PA Images For her birthday, though, Meghan opted for a more luxe piece of headgear, by wearing an intricate black hat by Philip Treacy. The rest of Meghan's accessories also stuck to dark hues, the duchess finishing off her look with a pair of Aquazzura bow-detailed heels and a 173 straw clutch by Kayu. Watch this: May 25 1933: Some of the first people to use the new Hyde Park Lido in London compete in the Opening Stakes contest Getty Images T wo moped robbers have been jailed for more than 30 years after they targeted elderly victims and stabbed a man in his 50s over his bible. The pair hunted people down and made a sport of it in south London, police said, and targeted vulnerable people in Croydon, Lambeth, Kingston, Sutton, Hammersmith and Fulham and Merton. Mikelle Alexander, 21, of Sutton, and Karim Hussain, 20, of Romford were jailed for a combined 22 offences, including robbery and theft of a motor vehicle. Police say the crimes occurred last year, between September and December, and the robbers attacked vulnerable people - often women and left their victims afraid to be in the neighbourhoods they had lived in for years. Hussain and Alexander carried out their ruthless attacks on stolen mopeds and often targets elderly Asian victims for their jewellery. In one violent attack, a man in his 50s was stabbed over a bible. According to Police, Alexander approached the man on his moped and tried to grab at his bag, which only had a bible inside. The man was bravely able to hold on to his property, as the moped rode off. Moments later Alexander returned and subjected the man to a brutal attack, punching and kicking him before stabbing him with a knife. His bible, police said, was eventually stolen. Hussain has been jailed for 15 years for his crimes, with Alexander handed 17 years. Detectives from the Mets Operation Venice Investigation Team, which tackles scooter-enabled crime, launched an investigation into the men. Following the robbery of a woman in September, in Croydon, Hussains ring was recovered from the scene after the victim grabbed hold of it. It was forensically tested and DNA from the item matched Hussain. Hussain was arrested in December and charged. Alexander was arrested in December then released under investigation. Officers continued to piece together mobile telephone evidence, CCTV footage and witness accounts linking both Hussain and Alexander to the crimes. Barrister Nicholas Cooper, prosecuting on behalf of the Crown, said: These offenders attacked vulnerable people - often women and left their victims afraid to be in the neighbourhoods they had lived in for years. They hunted people down and made a sport of it. A teenage moped rider has been rushed to hospital with leg injuries after he crashed into a police car following a chase in central London. The 17-year-old was being chased by two police cars before the crash at 4.30am on Saturday at Hyde Park Corner. Police said they were in pursuit of a moped with two riders on it after they had reports of it being involved in a series of offences. A marked police car chased the moped before it reached Grosvenor Place, at the junction with Chapel Street. When the moped reached this point it was then involved in a crash with a second marked police car which was travelling in the other direction. The first police car involved in the chase overturned, although no officers were seriously injured. The moped left in the road / @automaticdog The teen was then rushed to hospital with serious leg injuries, according to police. He was arrested on suspicion of motoring offences. The other passenger fled the scene. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: Efforts to trace him are ongoing. The police car involved in the collision overturned. No officers were seriously injured as a result of this incident and did not require medical treatment. The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed as a matter of course and a referral has been made to the IOPC. The crash comes just days after another moped pursuit in Catford, where a Waitrose lorry driver swerved across a busy road to halt the two moped drivers involved. On Wednesday, when police were trying to apprehend two moped riders, the bike sped up and drove directly into an officer, knocking him to the ground. He then made off along Brownhill Road where the Waitrose heavy goods vehicle swerved in an apparent effort to stop them in their tracks. The scooter crashed into the lorry and the two riders fled the scene on foot, police said. P olice pursued four jet ski riders down the river Thames in a chase likened to a scene from the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. The Metropolitan Polices marine policing unit was filmed chasing four jet skis down the river towards central London on Friday night. Police said the chase was prompted after they received reports the boats were speeding down the River Thames. The high speed chase was filmed by multiple onlookers. Footage showed the jet skis making their way past the O2 Arena. Leigh Jackson was eating dinner with his fiancee, Kristina Kuznetsova when the unusual chase happened. The 34-year-old said he had thought could have been a group filming for a television show or film before he had realised it was a police chase. Mr Jackson said: "We were sat down eating and we saw four jet skis flying past and we thought 'you don't often see that'. We watched them and they came back the other way. "From what I saw, it looked like the police could not catch them and we were asking ourselves how do you even apprehend someone on a jet ski? "They [the police] were just getting them to try and slow down, but they [the four jet skis] were having none of it." Mr Jackson added he believed the chase went on for "about 25 minutes". Striking similarities to James Bond, the chase resembled the scene in the 1999 Piers Brosnan film where a chase on the Thames finished near the O2. "Thankfully no one was hurt", he said, "At first it was exciting, but then we were a bit worried that someone was going to get hurt." The couple, he added, had lived in their new home for about three months, but had lived on the Thames before, and had "never" seen something like that. "In terms of a full on police chase, it's nothing like we've ever seen before," he said. In a tweet, Police said: Marine Policing Unit officers pursued four jet skis this evening after reports that they were speeding down the River Thames. The jet skis were approaching central London and we were able to make them change their course. The decision was taken to no longer pursue the jet skis for safety reasons. A beaming Duchess of Sussex arrived with Prince Harry for the wedding of Harry's school chum Charlie van Straubenzee in glorious sunshine in the Surrey countryside this afternoon. The Duchess, who turns 37 today, waved to well-wishers and briefly chatted to people outside St Mary the Virgin church in Frensham, Surrey. The Duke of Sussex was pictured with Mr van Strauzenbee as he assumed best man duties. Mr van Straubenzee was an usher at Harry's recent wedding. The Duchess waved to well-wishers as she attended the wedding / PA His older brother Charlie is good friends with the Duke of Cambridge and is also godfather to Princess Charlotte. Mr van Straubenzee, who works for investment management firm Brown Advisory, married party and wedding videographer Daisy Jenks. Harry and Meghan attend society wedding The Duchess, who is celebrating her first birthday as a member of the royal family, was pictured wearing a navy blue short-sleeved dress and a matching fascinator. She could be seen talking with members of the wedding party. Daisy Jenks married Charlie van Straubenzee today in Surrey / PA Princess Eugenie was also in attendance with her fiancee Jack Brooksbank. Princess Eugenie pictured with her fiancee Jack Brooksbank / PA Eugenie has confirmed that her sister Princess Beatrice will be her maid of honour. Kensington Palace tweeted a thank you message to those who had wished the Duchess of Sussex a happy birthday. Last year, Harry whisked Meghan away for a romantic break in Africa to mark her 36th birthday, flying to Botswana. She married Harry during a ceremony watched by an estimated television audience of hundreds of millions, and it was praised for combining tradition with modernity and diversity. The duchess pictured talking to members of the wedding party / PA Harry and Meghan were able to enjoy their honeymoon without being discovered, jetting off to their undisclosed destination soon after they wed on May 19. They live in a property in the grounds of Kensington Palace but are rumoured to also have a country bolt-hole somewhere in the Cotswolds. E DL founder Tommy Robinson has claimed he was being mentally tortured while locked up in prison, a letter has revealed. Mr Robinson real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has disclosed in personal letters he was paranoid about his food and requested he only ate tinned items. The 35-year-old was released from HMP Onley, in Rugby, on Wednesday following his successful challenge against a contempt of court finding. He had been jailed over an allegation that he committed contempt of court by filming people in a criminal trial at Leeds Crown Court and broadcasting footage on social media. Complaint forms posted to Mr Robinsons Facebook page, give an insight into how he was feeling while imprisoned, where he requested to be upgraded to an enhanced level. The letters were posted on Mr Robinson's Facebook page / Facebook He wrote: Id like to be given a TV as I feel I am being mentally tortured. His other demands included more visitation time and extra money to spend in the canteen as this would make up a bit for being held in isolation. Mr Robinson also complained of being in a prison which he claimed had a higher percentage of Muslim prisoners. Mr Robinson asked for more visitations / Facebook He wrote: You have moved me from Hull with a 7 per cent Muslim population to here, where one in three prisoners are Muslim. Id like to know how that move could have happened considering you have a duty for my safety. Now you are punishing me with no TV because someone decided to play with my life. Mr Robinson could still face jail over the allegation he committed contempt of court. Mr Robinson wrote the letters on complaint forms / Facebook Three leading judges in London quashed the contempt finding and granted Robinson conditional bail from a 13-month jail sentence pending new proceedings at the Old Bailey. T he Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to attend a society wedding later today on Meghan Markle's 37th birthday. Harry's old friend Charlie van Straubenzee is marrying Daisy Jenks in Surrey and, according to reports, the royal couple will be among the guests. The groom may have paid the royal the ultimate compliment by asking him to be his best man. Meghan's 37th is her first birthday as a member of the Royal Family. Charlie was an usher at Harry's recent wedding, along with older brother Thomas van Straubenzee. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also rumoured to be invited to the couple's big day as William is good friends with the van Straubenzee brothers, with Thomas a godfather to his daughter Princess Charlotte. Last year Harry reportedly whisked Meghan away for a romantic break in Africa to mark her 36th birthday, flying to Botswana. She married Harry during a ceremony watched by an estimated television audience of hundreds of millions, and it was praised for combining tradition with modernity and diversity. Sir Elton John, who performed at the wedding reception, described it as a memorable event and said: "To have a black gospel choir, a multiracial bride, a black cellist, who was wonderful, a preacher - it felt like a party, and it felt like progress had been made. "Thank God, thank God." Sir Elton added: "I think the Queen had a lot to do with it. I think she's been magnificent. It was a wonderful thing to be at." Harry and Meghan were able to enjoy their honeymoon without being discovered, jetting off to their undisclosed destination soon after they wed on May 19. They live in a property in the grounds of Kensington Palace but are rumoured to also have a country bolt-hole somewhere in the Cotswolds. B ritish holidaymakers are bracing themselves for record temperatures as a heatwave which has claimed the lives of three men sweeps the continent. The three men died from heatstroke in Spain as Europes heatwave rages on. A middle-aged man in Barcelona was found in the street after he collapsed and two other men, a road worker and a 78-year-old man, have also died from heatstroke. Civil Protection workers covering the area tweeted: Medical response workers inform us a man has died in Barcelona from heatstroke. A man fans himself as he walks across a square in Madrid / REUTERS He was pronounced dead after being rushed to Barcelonas Clinic Hospital yesterday as temperatures in the Catalan capital neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37C). Heat warnings have been issued for 41 of Spain's 50 provinces as temperatures are expected to reach up to 44C. Loading.... Spain's highest recorded temperature is 46.9C in Cordoba, in July 2017. The World Meteorological Organisation says continental Europe's record is 48C in Greece in 1977. A man sunbathes as others cool off in Tagus River at Ribeira das Naus in Lisbon / AFP/Getty Images Europes heatwave shows no signs of stopping, with countries across the continent reaching record breaking heights. Eight places in Portugal have broken local temperature records as a wave of heat from North Africa swept across the Iberian Peninsula. A tourist cools off in a fountain in Madrid, as temperatures soar across Europe / REUTERS Temperatures built to around 45C (113F) on Friday in many inland areas of Portugal. Officials have predicted the heat could get worse in Portugal across the weekend, too, as it is expected temperatures will peak at 47C in some places on Saturday. Portugals highest recorded temperature was 47.4C in 2003. Emergency services have issued a red alert until Sunday and have placed extra services such as medical staff and firefighters on standby. The highest temperature recorded on Thursday, when the heat began to rise, was 45.2C (113.4F) near Abrantes, a town 93 miles north-east of Lisbon. 400 firefighters and five water-dropping aircraft have also been battling a wildfire in southern Portugal's Algarve region. Riders and their horses cool down during hot weather in Lake Constance near Guettingen, Switzerland / REUTERS There are highs of a possible 31C degrees predicted in London this weekend. According to forecasters, temperatures on Saturday will have moderated compared to Friday, where London saw one of the hottest days of the year. A packed beach at Nazare, Portugal / EPA The UK has so far enjoyed its longest prolonged heatwave since the famous summer of 1976, with Brits warned to stay out of the sun amid an amber weather warning. A high of 35.1C was recorded in Surrey in July, but the record remains the 36.7C recorded at Heathrow in July 2015. Children play in a fountain in Nice, southern France / EPA Meanwhile, in other parts of Europe, a mountain glacier in Sweden has melted so much that its peak is no longer the countrys highest point. Sweden has had its hottest July in 250 years and is currently under threat from wildfires. A woman rests next to the beach in Barcelona as weather alerts were issued in Spain and Portugal / Emilio Morenatti/AP Sweden's Civil Contingencies Agency warned of "a high risk" for wildfires in central and southern Sweden this weekend because of the continuing dry weather and strong winds. In Moscow, as temperatures rose to close to 30C city authorities announced they are opening hundreds of "cool rooms" where residents can rest amid air conditioning, with water dispensers and medical attendants. Although that temperature is far below the blazing heat hitting southern Europe, it is well above the Russian capital's average August maximum of 23C. Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe Exploiting natural gases in the offshore and onshore sectors and the strategic projects ran on the Black Sea, especially, will be a success for the economy and security of Romania, Romanian Ambassador to the USA, George Cristian Maior, said in a statement remitted to AGERPRES on Friday regarding the investment projects in the energy sector on the Black Sea. "Capitalizing the natural resources of Romania in the service of the country is a priority project," Maior underscored after presenting, in a meeting with the American Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, the stage of completion of the Romanian segment of the BRHA gas pipeline. In the context of discussions had with the American official, the ambassador expressed his hope that the states participating in this project, especially Hungary, respect their commitments assumed at a government level, towards their partners and the European Union."Furthermore, I showed that Hungary must understand the importance of gas exploitation in the Black Sea and act constructively, avoiding incorrect actions or messages that can generate harmful confusions for the entire project. Moreover, I mentioned that Romania has the historical, geographical, economic and strategic potential to become a regional hub in the energy sector," George Cristian Maior stated.In what regards the legislative framework in Romania regarding the new natural gas exploitations, the Ambassador reiterated his conviction that the process is following a natural, balanced and constitutional path in the interest of Romania, which would take into account the conditions for economic success that our country, as well as the investors involved, need.Furthermore, during the discussions had with the American Secretary of Energy, George Cristian Maior expressed his belief that it will be a successful project which will bring multiple benefits to Romania and will have a major impact on raising the level of energy security of our country and the region.At the meeting, the United States Secretary of Energy confirmed his interest to participate in the high level summit of the Three Seas Initiative which is to take place in Bucharest on September 17-18, 2018. President Klaus Iohannis said on Saturday that there is a need for a "rational alternative" instead of the current government, a context in which he pointed out that National Liberal Party (PNL) must be a strong and solid party. "This irrational governing style cannot continue. There is the need for an alternative, a rational alternative, you must do everything you can to reinstate rationality and normalcy to Romania. For this, (...) the PNL must be a united strong and solid party. And you can! Be determined! Build a solid and serious political program. Be united and strong and go tell people what you want with Romania, go to people and tell them you have solutions for the Romanian economy, public finances in Romania, that you know how real administrative reform is done, that for you the youths matter, that for you the Romanians in the diaspora count, that for you justice matters. People have to believe that justice is not only efficient, it is fair and for that you have to fight. Tell people you know how to govern the country. (...) Do not wait for an electoral campaign. I hear too often: We have a media deadlock, we do not get to communicate. There is not something like that! People are out there waiting for you," Iohannis said at the PNL National Council meeting. He demanded that the liberals explain to the Romanians how to build "rational leadership"."Tell people how to build a normal, rational leadership, government. We need a government of national rationality in Romania. Explain to people why it is not possible like this. Explain to them that you have solutions to replace incompetent and toxic leadership with a leadership for people, for Romania!", the head of state said.President Iohannis also said he was fighting with the social-democrats to "limit the adverse effects" of their governing, and asked the liberals if they were with him in this fight."I have been fighting, from the beginning, for a strong Romania, for a democratic Romania, for a European Romania, for a prosperous Romania! We declared these things together in 2014. I am fighting to limit the adverse effects of this PSD governing. I am fighting with the PSD abuses. I invite you to do the same! (...) I am involved, I am fighting for a strong Romania, for a European Romania, for a prosperous Romania. And I ask you: Are you with me in this fight? Are you with me in this fight?" the head of state asked and received an affirmative answer from the audience.At the end of the speech, he told the liberals to be strong. We are united by a common vision of the modern polycentric world order, by our concurring or close assessments of the ongoing processes in the world and in the Asia-Pacific region, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on August 2 in his opening remarks at the Russia-ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Singapore. The event will be followed by a Russia-ASEAN Economics Ministers meeting to take place in Singapore at the end of August. ASEAN member states are expected to have a wide representation at the Fourth Eastern Economic Forum to be held from September 11 to 12 in Vladivostok. Moscow joined ASEAN as a full dialogue partner in 1996. In 2004, it signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC). It has since become a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMCs) 10+1, ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus and the East Asia Summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend a Russia-ASEAN summit on the fringes of the 18-member East Asia Summit (EAS) slated for November in Singapore the first time Russia will be represented by the head of state instead of prime minister. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong invited the Russian leader to the event. The EAS is held annually to bring together the leaders of Asia-Pacific states, including the US, Russia and China. The first summit was held in 2005. President Putins participation is an important sign that Russia is ready to promote its vision of East Asian security architecture at the highest levels. Moscow has a lot to offer to East Asia, including partnerships in technology, counter-terrorism, arms trade and energy. Russian energy exports to ASEAN have increased fivefold since 2013. Russia is holding talks with Thailand on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil exports. The relationship may deepen. Moscow is interested in transport, logistics, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. The development of the Eastern Economic Corridor is likely to attract Russian investors. Moscow has come up with an initiative to boost the regional cooperation. At the Russia-ASEAN summit in Sochi in May 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced for consideration the Greater Eurasia project, or the Greater Eurasian Partnership, to create a common space through agreed rules and standards, joint projects and trade facilitation. Economic, logistic, information and security cooperation is to encompass the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the countries involved in the integration of the Chinas One Belt One Road initiative. The SCO can act as a binder in this construction. In 2016, the Eurasian Union and Vietnam signed a free trade area (FTA) agreement and memoranda of cooperation with Cambodia and Singapore, which could be viewed as first steps on the way. An FTA is being negotiated between the EAEU and Singapore. In August, 2017 the SCO and ASEAN secretaries-general agreed on the expansion of relations based on the Memorandum of Mutual Understanding between the ASEAN and the SCO secretariats. At present, the two organizations are preparing road maps to go further. ASEAN states and Russia are getting close to a cyber-security agreement. Singapore suffered its worst cyber attack in July when hackers stole the personal information of about 1.5 million people. Malaysia had fended off an attempted cyber heist on its central bank. In 2018, defense cooperation between Russia and ASEAN was literally thriving. In March, Russia and Laos signed an agreement to establish a facility in Vientiane to promote military cooperation. In July, Russian Helicopters completed the first service contract for the Ministry of Defense of Laos and turned over four Mi-17 helicopters. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu visited Laos in January. A Russia-Vietnam military cooperation agreement from 2018 until 2020 was concluded in April. The parties will hold joint exercises among other things. Vietnam also operates a Russian K300P BastionP coastal defense system. The Philippines has just confirmed its intent to buy Russian weapons despite the US threats to impose sanctions. Las year, Manila inked a $7.48 million purchase of 750 RPG-7B rocket-propelled grenade launchers from Russia's state-owned Rosoboronexport. The transfer has not been completed as yet. Russia has donated assault rifles and trucks to that country. The grenade launchers deal is the first purchase. In 2016, Russia also donated arms to Fiji. Russia held a joint exercise with Indonesia last December. Last October, Russia participated in the 4th ASEAN defense ministers meeting in the capacity of the organizations dialogue partner. Russia is a Pacific nation. Its only natural for it to move eastwards, diversifying the relations. The upcoming visit of President Putin to Singapore in November demonstrates Moscows desire to move to the East. It has no doubt that the relationship with ASEAN states offers a promising future. Former British Prime Minister and patrician guardian of post-WWII UK 'One Nation' politics, Harold MacMillan, once quipped to always be alert for 'events, dear boy, events.' Who could have foreseen the events of Donald Trump's disastrous first visit as President of the United States to the United Kingdom. It is hard to overstate how important these visits are in the continuum of the US-UK 'special relationship', how damaging Trump's appalling visit was to the health of the Anglo-American alliance, and what a disgrace and embarrassment Trump was as Head of State for America on British soil. Firstly, it should be noted that this was the longest wait in sometime for a newly elected American President to visit the United States so-called number one ally in Europe and around the world. Almost 18 months have past since Trump took the oath of office before setting foot in the UK. That in itself is revealing of the true state of relations between Washington DC and London and the contempt the British Establishment holds Trump in. Then there was the hilarious fact that despite the British Prime Minister Theresa May embarrassingly falling over herself in the wake of Trump's election to ingratiate herself with him by issuing (against convention and indeed proper State/Royal diplomatic protocol) a 'State Invitation' for Trump to come to the UK, the whole enterprise had to be downgraded from a 'State' visit to a 'Working' visit which is an entirely different beast. One of the more galling aspects of the amateurish and pathetic way 10 Downing Street and May's team have handled British foreign policy, diplomacy and strategic international affairs since assuming power has been the total lack of regard for proper British State diplomatic protocol. The original State Invitation should have been signed off on and issued by Buckingham Palace and not 10 Downing Street in close consultation with the Foreign Office and Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. This never occurred much to the anger and disgust of Buckingham Palace which would never have consented to an invitation for a State Visit for someone like Trump and so soon. Relations between Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street, already strained by Theresa May's dirty deal with the DUP, have crashed to rock bottom, and May and her Downing Street team are held in total disdain by Buckingham Palace for inflicting upon the Queen the ordeal of having to meet with Trump when it was not required for a 'Working' visit. Trump is loathed by the British Royal Family for many reasons, hence the absence of all members of the Royal Family such as Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke of Edinburgh and everyone else, apart from the dutifully stoic and amazing Queen Elizabeth II who had no choice as Head of State but to briefly host Trump thanks to the crass constitutional slight of hand of Theresa May and Downing Street. The British Prime Minister Theresa May must herself be held accountable for the national humiliation that Trump's visit was. It was not only personally humiliating to May herself, it made Britain in the eyes of the world look like nothing more than a completely subservient lap dog of Trump and the United States and desperate for anything that the United States under Trump is willing to give it. Whether Trump was aware of the damage his behaviour was doing while in Britain to the strength of the US-UK 'special relationship' is beside the point. A great deal of damage it did. It was the most vulgar display from the disgrace of an American President that is Donald Trump. Trump trampled over all kinds of political and Royal protocol. To intervene so bluntly and directly in the internal political affairs of the UK with his outrageous interview with The Sun newspaper was atrocious. It was a wake up call to the British that far from being America's closest ally, the White House views Britain as nothing more than a useful stoogeor useful idiotand a satellite controlled by Washington DC to kicked around. To kick Britain hard in the teeth when the country is on the verge of a Brexit catastrophe by stating that because the British Prime Minister Theresa May did not obey his instructions, there would be no US-UK Trade Deal, was quite something. Trump not only kicked Britain when she is down and badly in need of a Brexit lifeline, he also roundly humiliated Theresa May, despite her lavish and totally unjustified hospitality, and made quite clear how little he thinks of May and of the UK. So long as Trump is President and May is Prime Minister there will be no post-Brexit UK-US Trade Agreement. Then his gaudy and fraudulent Press Conference with the Prime Minister was stomach churning with his open backtracking and casual lying. Trump not only shamed May and made her look so weak, feeble and desperate but she allowed this to happen to herself which makes her even more of a vilified and pathetic Prime Minister lacking in real backbone and strategic political policy intellect. It was nauseating to see Trump, who had just trashed and back stabbed May the night before with his Sun interview after being hosted to high heaven in Churchill's birth home, grab May by the hand and arm and almost pull her along with him. Yet, she let him do it which was sickening and demonstrated what a spineless and gutless light weight leader she really is. From watching how she threw herself at Trump and the pounding Trump gave her politically one begins to wonder if Theresa May has a sadomasochistic tendency? Whatever this deranged and obsequious woman's psychology is, it was embarrassing for Britons to watch their Prime Minister being treated as nothing more than a piece of dirt to be disposed of easily. The British press went wild with justified anger at the contemptuous treatment the President of the United States had meted out for the UK, America's supposed number one ally. Then there was the most repellent act of all in the sorry Trump 'National Lampoons' British visit saga. It was quite clear when Trump arrived at Windsor Castle Her Majesty The Queen wanted nothing to do with this visit, wanted to be elsewhere and couldn't stand this creature Trump being any where near her. The Queen, who is magnificent at the age of 92 and still as strong and brilliant as ever, handled herself in this most difficult and nauseating of situations perfectly and managed to do what Theresa May did not and what the UK had been crying out for, by snubbing Trump and indicating her total disdain for him. The Queen barely made eye contact with him and only chatted with him for ten seconds before motioning him into position for the American national anthem. The Queen made sure to stand as far away from Trump as possible without crashing into the First Lady Melania Trump. The physical gap between Her Majesty and Trump spoke volumes. All of Trump's hopes and dreams of meeting the Queen of England and making a good first impression and being embraced by the ultimate paragon of the British Establishment were dashed in an instant and his professions of adoration of the Queen and that of his late mother must have jarred deeply in his massively and wildly overinflated fragile ego. One suspects Trump may need therapy for the rest of his life after the embarrassment he made of himself in front of Her Majesty The Queen for all the world to see. One could tell Trump knew that the Queen couldn't stand him and if it had been anyone else he would have tried to chastise them and humiliate them. In fact he almost nearly did. He nearly knocked the Queen over. He rushed ahead of her. He attempted to outpace her. He showed no respect or awareness at all for the proper procedures of meeting The Queen and inspecting the Coldstream Guards. It was the most disgusting, vulgar, infuriating display from a peasant like Trump and made many Britons blood boil at the sight of him charging ahead so rudely in front of Her Majesty, trying to outpace her and almost knocking into her and knocking her over. It was an utterly repulsive display from the President of the United States and it will not be forgotten in Britain by the powers that be for a very, very long time. The Prime Minister Theresa May herself must be held accountable for this most egregious event and for subjecting Her Majesty The Queen to a swine like Trump especially with his record of sexual violence towards women and thuggish behaviour. The whole trip stank and will go down in history as the most catastrophic visit of any American President to Britain, ever. It is hard to recall a more cataclysmic and obnoxious visit to Britain by an American President in the history of Anglo-American relations and it shamed not only Theresa May but also Trump and all of Trump's voters and supporters. The only people who know speak of a US-UK 'special relationship' are the two deluded dumb and dumber hand holders May and Trump. The rest of the political class, diplomatic Establishment and public in the UK now know full well that there is no such 'special relationship' and that America, especially while under the control of Trump, is not Britain's number one ally. A severe political price will have to be paid by Theresa May for allowing this most offensive and objectionable circus act to have been conducted on British soil involving (against Buckingham Palace's wishes) Her Majesty The Queen, not to mention the cost to the British taxpayer in terms of security and the desecration of using Churchill's birth home and Her Majesty The Queen in such a shameful manner. Theresa May is completely unhinged in putting on this grotesque display and getting a kicking in the teeth for it from the man she did it for while Trump is what everyone with half a brain already knew nothing more than a cheap, tacky, vile con artist gangster thug who is an abomination of an American President. Update 9.30am - A fire is now under control at a business near Greerton. Fire and Emergency New Zealand northern communications shift manager Murray Bannister says the fire happened just before 9am. We received a number of calls prior to 9am stating smoke was coming from a building on Marshall Street. Upon arrival crews discovered a small fire in what has been described as a workshop. No one is injured, no one was on the premises and it is not being treated as suspicious. Murray says around the same time, crews were also called to a job at SH29 where a car was reported to be on fire near Kaimai School. It was not on fire when we arrived. All occupants were out of the car and it looked as though they had put it out prior to our arrival. Fire are currently at the scene keeping it safe until police arrive. Earlier: Reports are coming in about a fire at a business near Greerton. A caller to the 0800 SUNLIVE news hotline says it looks as though it's happened near Marshall Street. "Fire crews are at the scene." SunLive is working on getting more information. Theres heavy debate on whether the classic savoury treat should be consumed with a dollop of tomato sauce or just by itself, but theres no question who is New Zealands pie making king. Tauranga pie maker Patrick Lam is carving his way through the pie world by creating award winning pies that you want to savour with every bite. On Tuesday night Patrick, from Patricks Pies Cafe and bakery, won his sixth Bakels New Zealand Supreme Pie Award with a Roast Pork and Creamy Mushroom pie in the Gourmet Meat category. Its been amazing and exciting to win, we didnt think we would win again, so it was a very big surprise to win another Supreme, says Patrick. Every year we try to work harder at improving our pastry and our filling, so there is a balance of flavours. He says last year they missed out on the supreme award, so they were determined to do even better this year. We choose the Roast Pork and Creamy Mushroom pie because it won quite a few awards, so we wanted to take the same ingredients and make it even better. Patrick won a cheque for $7,500 and the coveted New Zealand Bakels Supreme Award Trophy, as well as $1000 for each of the three Gold Awards he has won. The Award was announced in Auckland on July 31 at a 1950s themed gala dinner attended by bakers from all over New Zealand keen to find out who among them would win the top accolade. NZ Bakels managing director Brent Kersel says, This really is pie-making history its a huge achievement. In the 22 years of The Bakels New Zealand Pie Awards, Patrick has won the most Supreme Awards and he deserves every single one of them. He has come back year after year and he just keeps on getting better and better. Tauranga police are making enquiries into a number of suspicious approaches made by adults to school-aged children in different suburbs around the city. A police media spokesperson says several reports have been made over the past month. "This has involved reports of suspicious approaches and comments made to school age children by adults in different suburbs of Tauranga. "There has been no pattern linked to any of the activity." Police say the incidents highlight a need for parents to have open and honest communication with their children. "These incidents are a timely reminder for families to have discussions around behaviours and actions that are inappropriate or that make a child feel uncomfortable, rather than concentrating on the types of people that could harm them. "We actively encourage people to tell children and young adults to report anything that makes them feel unsafe or uncomfortable. "This can be to a trusted adult, a teacher or the Police. "Police will communicate to the community when specific risks or further details are identified." Police request that any such approaches are reported immediately to Police via the 111 Emergency number. "All matters will be investigated with urgency." Click the image above to watch the video Theyre geared up and ready to cheer, in whats pegged as one of the Bay of Plentys biggest cheerleading competitions yet. More than 1000 competitors are expected to be perform over the course of the day at Battle in the Bay, the Bay of Plentys growing cheer and dance competition. The event is running until 7.45pm at BayPark arena. Representing the Bay of Plenty loud and proud and hosting it, is the Bay Twisters. Chairperson Rebecca Grigson says this years Battle In The Bay is the biggest its been since she started running it in 2016. This year Aziz from the AM Show is MC for the day and a massive performance is expected from the Manurewa High School with their Fresh Prince Bel Air Performance that went viral after Will Smith shared their video performance. The doors opened at 7.45am and will close at 7.45pm. Its going to be a massive day with more than 161 performances expected, ranging from solo and duos (both cheer and dance), stunt groups, and dance and cheer teams. The Bay Twisters hosted the competition for the first time in 2016. In 2017, they added dance and the event almost doubled in size, says Rebecca. She says next year, theyre expecting it to be even better. We can see this competition being run over two days, with dance competitions held one of the days, and cheer on the other. She says the event is run professionally by six judges, with many volunteers working behind the scenes. SunLive photographer Nikki South went along to catch a glimpse of the action. A celebration of 152 years of church and community ministry is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 12, at Second Missionary Baptist Church, 2305 E. Third St. Members and guests are invited to share in either of two services; at 8 a.m. or 10:45 a.m. The theme is "Running with Endurance," using scripture from Hebrews 12:1-3. Dr. Arthur L. Brown, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Harrisburg, Pa. will be the guest minister. A special church-wide choir will bring the music, under the direction of Paula Coleman, music coordinator. Pastor Ernest L. Reid, Jr. will bring the 8 a.m. "Hour of Power" message. "SMBC looks forward to the Chattanooga community joining in this historical celebration of over a century of worship, spiritual enrichment, bible study and community service," officials said. For more information, call the church office at 423-624-9097. People in Onondaga County have received scam calls directing them to call the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office Civil Department about "an ongoing civil matter," according to the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office warned residents that a caller is spoofing the sheriff's office phone number to direct them to settle a civil matter with the office, deputies said in a Friday news release. "The Sheriff's Office Civil Enforcement Division will not contact citizens by phone to settle a civil matter," the sheriff's office said in the release. It warned that if anyone receives a call prompting them to settle a civil matter with the sheriff's office they should hang up immediately. The sheriff's office said it "never solicits or makes these types of phone calls." It also warned that people who receive these calls should never provide personal information or credit card numbers to the person calling. CAZENOVIA, N.Y. -- A Cazenovia man was arrested Thursday after New York State Police say they found pictures and videos of a child younger than 7 years old being sexually abused by the man at his apartment. Naven E. Conley, 74, of 5006 East Lake Road in Cazenovia, was charged with predatory sexual assault against a child, New York State Police said. "Images consistent with child pornography" uploaded on a social media site Tuesday sparked an investigation, police said. Police searched Conley's house and a forensic exam of "all electronic media" by the State Police Computer Crime Unit turned up the images and videos, police said. They were able to identify Conley as the suspect, police said. Conley was arraigned in Town of Cazenovia Court and was remanded to the Madison County Jail without bail, police said. Police and Homeland Security are still investigating Conley and he could more charges, police said. New York State Police ask that anyone who has more information about Conley call the bureau of criminal investigation at 315-366-6000. WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) -- Thundering that the media is the "fake, fake disgusting news," President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of grievances Thursday at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in which he cast journalists as his true political opponent. Trump barnstormed in a state that he swiped from the Democrats in 2016 and that is home to a Senate seat he is trying to place in the Republicans' column this fall. But the race between GOP U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta and two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey took a back seat to Trump's invectives against the media, which came amid a backdrop of antagonism to journalists from the White House and hostility from the thousands packed into a loud, overheated Wilkes-Barre arena. "Whatever happened to the free press? Whatever happened to honest reporting?" Trump asked, pointing to the media in the back of the hall. "They don't report it. They only make up stories." Time and time again, Trump denounced the press for underselling his accomplishments and doubting his political rise. He tore into the media for dimishing what he accomplished at his Singapore summit with North Korea leader Kim Jung Un. He tore into the tough questioning he received in Helsinki when he met with Russia's Vladimir Putin last month. And he began the speech with a 10-minute remembrance of his 2016 election night victory, bemoaning that Pennsylvania wasn't the state to clinch the White House for him only because "the fake news refused to call it." "They were suffering that night, they were suffering," Trump said of the election night pundits. He then promised that the Keystone State would deliver his margin of victory "next time." "Only negative stories from the fakers back there," the president declared. With each denunciation, the crowd jeered and screamed at the press in the holding pen at the back of the arena. The inflammatory performance came just hours after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to distance herself from Trump's previous assertions that the media is the "enemy" of the American people. Pressed during a White House briefing on the issue, Sanders said Trump "has made his position known." In a heated exchange with reporters, she recited a litany of complaints against the press and blamed the media for inflaming tensions in the country. "As far as I know, I'm the first press secretary in the history of the United States that's required Secret Service protection," she said, accusing the media of continuing "to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration." Though Barletta's bid was an undercard to the Trump's main event, savaging his opponents, the president did bless the congressman's bid. Trump, who has accelerated his campaign schedule in recent weeks to help the Republicans he favors both in primaries and November's midterms, was the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988. "For years and years, they said Republicans should win the state of Pennsylvania," Trump said. "It always got away. But we won the state of Pennsylvania." He and Barletta, who is trailing by double digits in the polls, share hard-line immigration views, and Trump lashed Casey with his own derogatory nickname: "Sleeping Bob." But Trump's focus was defending his own accomplishments and beliefs. He pushed for tougher borders, overstating the threat posed by violent gangs like MS-13 and making the murderous group a stand-in for all immigrants in the United States illegally. He defended his kids-glove approach to both Kim and Putin, saying, "it would be a good thing, not a bad thing" to have warmer relations with the hostile powers and dismissing the talk that meeting with the autocrats elevated them on the world stage. He bashed the Democratic leadership of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and, curiously, suggested that his frequent foe Rep. Maxine Waters of California was "a new star" of the party. Lou Barletta on stage at Trump rally Posted by PennLive.com on Thursday, August 2, 2018 He raved about the booming economy and said, without evidence, that his blue-collar supporters in states like Pennsylvania were the biggest beneficiaries. And he looked ahead to his 2020 re-election campaign, touting his new slogan, "Keep America Great Again" while musing whether he wanted Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom he decried as "Pocahontas," or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom he flatly deemed "crazy," as his opponent. The rally came at a perilous time for Trump, who the day before bluntly declared his attorney general should terminate "right now" the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet was "not an order" and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. "It's the president's opinion," she said. But Trump's tweetstorm again raised the specter that he could try to more directly bring special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia-Trump election-collusion probe to a premature end. And it revived the idea that the president's tweets themselves might be used as evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Negotiations have also started again about a possible presidential interview as Mueller's team has offered the White House format changes, perhaps willing to limit some questions asked of Trump or accept some answers in writing, according to a person briefed on the proposal who wasn't authorized to discuss private talks and spoke on condition of anonymity. By JONATHAN LEMIRE and JILL COLVIN Syracuse, N.Y. - The city's first Long Table Syracuse meal will be next weekend next to Armory Square's newest art collaboration, Wildflowers Armory. The five-course meal is also a collaboration of art and food, said two of the event's organizers, Mark Pawliw and Michael John Heagerty. The third host is Chef DeAnna Germano of Chef4Rent and The Chef and The Cook. Earlier this year, Heagerty opened Wildflowers Armory, a place where local artists and craftspeople can sell and display their works. It's where the Umbrellas over Armory exhibit was earlier this summer. Pawliw is the founder of Farm to Fork 101, which aims to expose more people to the foods grown and procured at farms in the area. Each month, Pawliw hosts a dinner where an area chef prepares a meal with local foods. The Long Table is a different version of that monthly meal that incorporates more art - and an outside setting - into the meal. The first one will be Aug. 12 just outside Wildflowers, on the platform next to the former OnTrack stop that overlooks the MOST and part of downtown Syracuse. "The food scene and the farmers are another strand of art and culture," Heagerty said. Pawliw finished the thought: "Chefs are artists who work in food. At least I think so. I hope everyone does." Germano is cooking and orchestrating the first meal. She did a smaller one-table event previously at Abbott Farms. She's working with her partners, chefs Mark Germano and Jason Jessmore; Carter Smith of The Stoop Kitchen; and Jessica Doran of Jessicakes in Baldwinsville. Each course will come with a pairing from New York purveyors, including Heron Hill Winery, Lock 1 Distilling Company, Middle Ages Brewery, Black Button Distilling and Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery. Each chef will take charge of one course. Germano plans to pair an Asian noodle salad with a cocktail made from a mix of Lock 1's Drawbridge Gin and white tea. The meal will be from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 12. Tickets cost $75. Wildflowers Armory is at 225 W. Jefferson St., Syracuse. The event will start at Wildflowers; the dining will be on a platform next-door. The meal will happen rain or shine, Pawliw said. Heagerty and Pawliw said they hope to make the Long Table a monthly dinner with different chefs that moves around the area. "We have to prove an event like this can happen on a regular basis," Heagerty said. Note: An earlier version of this story said six chefs were part of the meal. It's five, according to Germano: herself, Carter Smith, Mark Germano, Jason Jessmore and Jessica Doran. If you know someone from Syracuse who led a more interesting life than Charles Mason Mitchell, we'd like to hear about him or her. Until then: This guy should be in a beer commercial. He was, and remains, in a class of his own. Mitchell was a Broadway actor, world traveler, big game hunter, served in Theodore Roosevelt's celebrated Rough Riders and was a diplomat to countries around the globe. His wedding announcement in 1905 briefly mentioned his bride but went on at length about how he shot a six-ton elephant in Zanzibar. In 1915, while in Syracuse to visit his mother while acting as American Consul to German Samoa, the Post-Standard described Mitchell as a "striking figure" and had "squeezed more adventure into his life than most men have ever dreamed." Col. Theodore Roosevelt stands with his Rough Riders on top of San Juan Hill in 1898. He was born in Hamilton, N.Y. in 1859 but moved to Syracuse a year later. His father David was one of the top attorneys in the city. Mitchell attended the Manlius School, then known as the St. Johns Military School. After graduation he attended the Phillips-Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, one of the oldest secondary schools in the United States. He became an actor and became a member of the Broadway Theater Company, where he worked with Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, and was leading man to Helena Modjeska, considered to be the top female Shakespearean actress in the United States. But it was said that the stage did not create enough excitement for Mitchell. The outdoors called him. In 1885, he enlisted in the Canadian army and became chief of scouts during the Riel Rebellion, an uprising by the Metis people in northwestern Canada. He was awarded a medal for gallantry by Britain's Queen Victoria. His love of adventure and the outdoors continued after he left the Canadian service. He spent the last years of the 1880s traveling through South America and the South Sea Islands, writing and illustrating travel articles for magazines. While in Samoa, he spent time with writer Robert Louis Stevenson. He returned to the United States with a boat load of natives from Samoa for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, took them back in a 200-ton cargo ship before returning with another group of natives from Fiji. In 1896, he returned to New York City and the theater, managing the Garrick Theater, but two years later he was of the first to answer Theodore Roosevelt's call for volunteers to join his regiment of Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War. Fighting the Spanish in Cuba, Mitchell was wounded by shrapnel in his back and side in the trenches outside of Santiago. Returning to New York after healing at Key West, Mitchell became very good at telling the story: "I saw the shell over my head, which when it burst, put me out. How did it feel? The wound itself, I thought it had ripped open my back. The concussion, although the missile was small, was so terrible that I was sure that nothing was left of my anatomy from neck to my waist." After the Spanish American War, Mitchell returned to New York and toured the state telling audiences his experiences with the Rough Riders and the courage of Theodore Roosevelt. His speeches help launch Roosevelt's campaign for governor. He toured much of New York telling of the Rough Riders' exploits and, especially, Roosevelt's courage. Vogue magazine called his performance "a tremendous sensation" and the New York Sun said the "dramatic height" of Mitchell's performance was its praise of Roosevelt. Despite New York already having a Republican governor, Roosevelt lobbied for the nomination in 1898 and used Mitchell, who Roosevelt said was the only Rough Rider with the necessary "dramatic and literary capacity" to speak on Roosevelt's behalf. After securing the nomination for Roosevelt, and later the governorship, Mitchell went national with his speaking tour, helping boost Roosevelt's national reputation and landing him a spot on the 1900 Republican ticket as running mate to President William McKinley. Following the assassination of McKinley, Roosevelt remembered the work Mitchell had done and secured him the position of consul to the British protectorate of Zanzibar, off the east Africa coast. "I have quit the stage for good," Mitchell said in 1902. "My ambition now is to serve my country in the consular service. I've always wanted to do that." What he really wanted to do, though, was hunt. A 1902 article in the Post-Standard says that he would live in the city of Zanzibar but "when he wants recreation" he will cross over to the mainland to hunt. A clipping from a 1904 Syracuse Herald shows Mitchell, American consul to Zanzibar, with his "vice consul" Ebenezer Brooks, a chimpanzee he had befriended. A letter to Syracuse published in the Herald in 1904 mentions little diplomatic work but plenty of big game hunting of lions, elephants, birds and gazelle. Mitchell also befriended a chimpanzee he named Ebenezer Brooks and made him his Vice Consul. "He is almost human, lights and smokes his cigarettes, sits and eats and drinks at the table with a spoon with utmost propriety," Mitchell wrote. Possibly because of being laid up by four bouts of fever, Mitchell was transferred to Chungking, China in 1905. He married Edna Ellis of California and discovered two new species of animal which were named after him. His wedding announcement in the San Francisco Call on Nov. 26, 1905 is truly unique. The hometown newspaper of the bride mentions her in passing then gives of Mitchell killing a six-ton elephant while in Africa. In Tibet he killed a new specimen of cat, like a lynx, and it was officially named "Felis Temmincki Mitchelli." And while hunting in China, he shot a new variety of grey takin, which was named "Budorcas Taxicolor Mitchelli." He served in China until 1908, then served as consul in Samoa, Ireland and then Malta where he had one more adventure. In December 1923, he was approached by a World War I veteran, Lorenzo Bonello, who had been dishonorably discharged from the military. He demanded compensation. Mitchell refused and said Bonello had no claims against the American government. Bonello drew a .38-caliber revolver and shot Mitchell in the side. Though he made a full recovery, Mitchell would soon retire from his diplomatic work after 22 years. He died on June 16, 1930 of heart disease at the age of 71. In an editorial two days later, the Syracuse Herald said: "The gamut of his ventures ranged from his prosaic occupancy of consular posts to stirring exploits of daring, to hairbreadth escapes we usually associate with the extravagant imaginings of the literary romancer." This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle: Email | 315-427-3958. The Perseid meteor shower 2018 will peak on the moonless nights of Aug. 11, 12, and 13. The celestial event will be visible worldwide. Stargazers across the world have the best reason to wait for the Perseid meteor this year as the dark moonless night will make the streaks of lights more magnificent. Astronomers say the Perseids may shower as much as 50 or more meteors per hour. In the case of most meteor shower events, the best time to watch is between midnight and dawn. The best location will be those far from the glaring city lights. When Is The Best Time To Spot The Perseids The Perseids is visible in the northern sky soon after sunsets during the month of August of every year. This year though, it has already been slightly visible since July 17. Perseids' best peak will be between the moonless summer nights of Aug. 12 and Aug .13, from 4 pm to 4 am EDT, according to NASA. Since the moon will be out of sight, stargazers can already see significant meteor showers in the nights and in the days that lead to the 12th and 13th of this month The space agency also suggests watching from a few hours after twilight until dawn to maximize the experience. Perseid will somewhat fade but will remain visible until Aug. 24. Perseid meteor showers have a broad peak because it happens while Earth takes more than three weeks to travel through the wide trail of cometary dust coming from the Swift-Tuttle comet. Perseid's broad peak is what sets it apart from most of the meteor showers. Sky enthusiasts in the mid-northern latitude will be the luckiest to have the best views of the Perseid meteor shower. NASA estimates that Perseids may shoot between 60 and 70 per hour at the peak. The Best Shower Of 2018 Bill Cooke, a NASA meteor expert, said Perseid's generous fireballs this year, coupled by the moonless dark nights make it the best shower among all the meteor showers that will take place this year. Most of the meteors in the Perseids are as tiny as about the size of a grain of sand. He reiterated how the moon is seemingly working favorably with the Perseids. It will be crescent, which will set just in time before the Perseid peak after midnight, according to Cooke. "The moon is very favorable for the Perseids this year, and that'll make the Perseids probably the best shower of 2018 for people who want to go out and view it," Cooke said. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A woman is suing a California hospital after doctors performed an emergency C-section on her without anesthesia. What happened during her childbirth ordeal? Emergency C-Section In the morning of Nov. 15, 2017, then 25-year-old Delphina Mota went to the hospital to induce her labor. She was alert and awake and requested for epidural to manage her pain during a consultation with the doctors. She was given the epidural at around 11 p.m., and Pitocin augmentation began less than 30 minutes later, but it caused her blood pressure to drop so it was discontinued. Hours later at around 5:20 a.m., doctors could no longer read the fetal heart rate, so they decided to perform an emergency C-section less than five minutes later. However, the anesthesiologist allegedly did not respond even after multiple pages, so the doctors proceeded with the emergency C-section even without the anesthesia. Strapped Down To The Table According to the lawsuit, Mota's four extremities were strapped down onto the operating table, and the doctors proceeded with the C-section operation, which entailed cutting through her abdomen, skin layers, muscles, and lower uterine segment. Although she was given an epidural earlier to numb her from the waist down, this was a part of their original plan, which was for a natural childbirth, and had no effect whatsoever on the surgical site on her abdomen. "All of the sudden, I felt cutting on my stomach ... a burning sensation," Mota said of the incident. Through the process, Mota was said to be crying and screaming at the top of her lungs that she could feel everything, pleading for help, and begging the doctors to stop cutting her. She later passed out from the pain. Her fiance, who was in the hallway outside the operating room during the process, stated that he knew there was something wrong when he heard the screams. Lawsuit The couple is now suing the hospital as well as the doctors involved in the incident for medical malpractice, loss of consortium, assault and battery, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The doctors declined to comment, and the hospital released a statement wherein they note how patient health and quality are their top priorities but also declined to comment further on the case. "I understand why they did it," said Mota. "But this is a hospital ... There should have been measures in place." The baby delivered that day, a girl they named Cali, is now over 7 months old and is said to be doing well. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela and the Carter Center of the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to guarantee the impartiality and objectivity of the... | Read More The federal Coalition has a chance to simultaneously right an injustice in the labour market, directly stimulate the economy and solve an existential political problem. It should abandon the final tranche of its corporate tax cuts and use the money to augment the salaries of some of the most important yet underpaid contributors to our economy and society childcare professionals, teachers, nurses and aged-care staff. This would be of far greater benefit to the economy than delivering tax cuts to businesses with billions of dollars of revenue. Those businesses might increase investment, or they might just pocket higher profits. But we can be utterly confident that increasing the real wages of these dedicated professionals will immediately boost the economy because pretty much every cent would be spent, thus creating a multiplier effect across the nation. The governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Philip Lowe, says stagnant real wages are the biggest brake on the economy. The Senate is likely to again reject the cut, giving the government an honourable way out. We need to see the light and pay what's right. Credit:Michele Mossop Psephology is fraught, particularly when extrapolating byelections, but after 500,000 people across five electorates voted last month on Super Saturday, it is not imprudent to conclude the governments signature policy of corporate tax cuts is hardly hauling in votes. Theres a good reason for that. While a two-tier corporate tax system is not optimal, the most important and stimulatory cuts ones to small and medium-sized firms have already been passed, as have income tax cuts. And while lower corporate tax rates are not a bad idea per se, they should be far from the top policy priority at the moment because they are, by the Treasurys own calculation, likely to have only a marginal positive economic impact. Young would-be terrorists who are being deradicalised need a new, positive role and identity within the community, an international terrorism conference in Brisbane has heard. The Trajectories of Radicalisation and Deradicalisation conference has brought 50 international academics from psychology, political science, criminology, anthropology and other disciplines to the University of Queensland St Lucia campus this weekend. American protesters march in Oakland, California, in 2017, to decry racism in the wake of deadly violence that erupted at a white nationalist demonstration in Virginia. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Credit:AP UQ School of Psychology's Professor Winifred Louis said the aim of the conference was to bring together experts from across the board to find new ways of approaching the central issues. "It was just really about trying to put a lot of these people into the same room, talking to each other, and sharing that incredible wealth of expertise," she said. Zee Meyer, left, with a coffee cup featuring her missing husband Warren Meyer, at Aucuba cafe, South Melbourne with missing persons advocate Loren O'Keeffe. Credit:Darrian Traynor Its been 10 years and four months since Warren Meyer set off for a bushwalk at Dom Dom Saddle, in the Yarra Ranges National Park, and was never seen again. But hes still in the hearts of his loved ones. His wife, Zee, says it is "torture" not knowing what happened to him. "My father died in a car accident when I was 15 years old and it was tragic, but there was closure," she says, in her gentle way. "We could go to a funeral." Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins meets Samantha Fraser's father Trevor (left) and Cowes residents on Saturday. Credit:Chris Hopkins Residents of the Phillip Island township where mother-of-three Samantha Fraser was found dead last week have confronted Victoria's Minister for Women over the islands lack of support services for victims of domestic violence. Ms Fraser, 38, was found dead in the garage of her family home in Cowes on Monday, July 23, after failing to pick up her children from the local primary school. White bows in memory of Samantha Fraser adorn the bridge connecting Phillip Island to the mainland Credit:Chris Hopkins Her ex-husband Adrian Basham, 41, was charged with her murder on Thursday. He faced court that day and was remanded to reappear in January. If you wish to imagine what a city of that size looks like, think of Britains biggest city, Greater London (8.7 million) or the biggest city in the US, New York City (8.5 million). It might, of course, be nice to imagine Australia having a London or a New York. But heres the rub: Britain has a population of 66.5 million, but it has only one very large city. After London, the only city in the UK with a population of more than 1 million is Birmingham. In other words, the British have managed to spread three times the equivalent of Australias population over a land mass that would fit 32 times into Australias, without building many particularly large cities. Even in the US, with its population of 327 million, there are only 10 cities boasting more than a million residents. And Australia? With just 25 million people, Australia has five cities with populations more than 1 million - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Together, they house around 15 million of Australias people. Loading The result is that while billions are spent on widening city freeways like the Tulla that will soon enough be crammed again, and spending even greater sums on tunnels and skyrails, you need only drive a few hours into regional and rural areas to discover the roads are falling apart. The focus on cities has left country Australia to cry in the wilderness. Even taking into account the immense amount of near-uninhabitable land in Australias interior, Australia has clearly messed up its population planning. But dont imagine that a decent population policy is impossible because so much of Australia is not suited to human settlement. The 10 per cent of Australia that is fertile, relatively well-watered and suited to human population is equivalent to the size of Britain and France combined. Consider, say, the tiny Netherlands, a country that could comfortably occupy a narrow strip of land from Melbourne to Swan Hill. Its people - who prefer bicycles to cars - enjoy a lifestyle envied by the world. Yet it has 17 million people, and bicycles are popular partly because the Netherlands has not one city with a population of 1 million or more. Way back in 1994, a trailblazing parliamentary inquiry into Australias Carrying Capacity, chaired by one of Australias greatest living thinkers, Barry Jones, begged for the question of Australias future population to be elevated to the highest political level. Recommendation 2 of the inquiry exhorted: The Australian government should adopt a population policy which explicitly sets out options for long-term population change, in preference to the existing situation where a de facto population policy emerges as a consequence of year-by-year Loading decisions on immigration intake taken in an ad hoc fashion, such decisions being largely determined by the state of the economy in the particular year and with little consideration of the long-term effects. All these years later, nothing of great consequence has changed, apart from a spectacular growth in the level of immigration to meet the business lobbies demands. Decisions are still taken in an ad hoc fashion, with little serious consideration of consequences for the environment or society. If you think thats dispiriting, consider that forecasts concerning our fast-growing population are always wrong, and vastly underestimated. In 2003, the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggested there would be 26.4 million people living in Australia by 2050. In the past couple of weeks, Australia has clocked up a population of 25 million, 30 years earlier than forecast. By 2006 the ABS outlook for 2050 had risen to 28.1 million. In 2008, the guesstimate had increased to 34 million. Treasurys Intergenerational report of 2010 figured the 2050 population would be 35.9 million. No one has a clue, because the main assumption - the immigration level - can, and does, change at the whim of politicians. Under the proposal, which applies only to the electricity sector, energy retailers would be required to deliver both a set level of reliable power that can be delivered on demand, and electricity from low-emissions sources such as wind and solar. But critics say the electricity sector is unlikely to raise a sweat to meet the modest emissions reduction task the government has set. They argue that if Australia is to act seriously on climate change, farmers, manufacturers, motorists and other parts of the economy will be forced to make up the shortfall - at a potentially greater cost. National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said agriculture has already reduced its environmental footprint and has more work to do. But progress will be hard. By contrast the electricity sector has already made huge gains in [cutting emissions] and arguably it could be easier for them to make some more, she said. As ageing coal-fired power stations retire, renewables will fill the energy shortfall, experts say. Credit:Michele Mossop The federal government says the level of emissions reduction to be imposed on electricity 26 per cent by 2030 is a fair pro rata contribution in line with Australias international obligations under the Paris climate deal, which will also help reduce power bills. Mired in negotiations over the energy plan, the government has not yet waded into the treacherous territory of imposing emissions cuts elsewhere in the economy. Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg says the government will consider policies on a case-by-case basis rather than set hard targets for every sector. But leading environmental economist Frank Jotzo says if the Paris target is to be met, it is fair to assume the average emissions cuts across the rest of the economy will match the contribution made by electricity. This, he says, is a problem. The technology to cut emissions created by electricity generation already exists. As ageing, polluting coal-fired power stations close, they are replaced by renewable energy sources - technology which is becoming ever-cheaper. In fact the governments own modelling projects the electricity sector will largely meet its emissions reduction target before the energy plan even starts in 2021, leaving little work to do. But other sectors are far behind. For some, the technology is in its infancy. For others, change is expensive or politically fraught. It means the electricity sector's pro rata contribution is inadequate, said Jotzo. It would mean nothing beyond business as usual would have happened in the electricity sector, and a lot of hard lifting would have been done in other sectors. That would be a very inefficient outcome. Jotzo, who directs the Australian National University's Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, said prospects for cutting agriculture emissions were good. But change would be gradual and little can be achieved for free. National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson says the sector will do its bit on climate change but progress will be "hard". Credit:Jacky Ghossein Many potential solutions, such as curbing methane emissions from cattle and sheep through feed changes or selective breeding will take a long time to come to fruition, and many of them imply higher production costs. Policy measures that would have an immediate impact, such as a meat tax, are politically unpalatable. Programs that encourage farmers to revegetate their land are small and plagued by technical problems, he said. Simson said a suite of options to cut agriculture emissions were being explored, including capturing methane at piggeries and intensive livestock farms. The sector was ready to pitch in to the national climate change effort, but this should not come at the expense of farm productivity, she said. And agricultures position at the bottom of the supply chain was another reason its harder for us ... farmers cant impose those costs on people who eat our food. Loading Climateworks Australia chief executive Anna Skarbek said the carbon-cutting potential of the land sector was huge and farms could both revegetate and maintain output. Trees can help reduce erosion, shade livestock and improve soil quality, and need not be planted on prime agricultural land. However she said there was no escaping the fact that electricity has more cost-effective options for reducing emissions than all the other sectors do. Critically, decarbonisation of the electricity grid also enables other sectors such as transport, industry and buildings to reduce their emissions, Skarbek said. The Property Council of Australia has warned the government that inadequate emissions cuts by the electricity sector will constrain climate action in homes, business premises and public buildings. Together they comprise about 23 per cent of Australias emissions and more than half its electricity consumption. The Property Council of Australia says gains to be made by making buildings more energy efficient are limited, and the electricity grid must be decarbonised. The Property Councils national policy manager for sustainability and regulatory affairs, Francesca Muskovic, said while the sector wanted to transition swiftly to net-zero emissions, you can only do so much within the envelope of the building. All our policy in this space ... prioritises efficient buildings, looking at energy efficiency, looking at onsite solar generation - but thats not going to get you the whole way to net-zero, she said. It really does require ambition in the electricity sector to help effectively decarbonise the rest of the grid. If and when the federal government clears the barnacle of energy policy from its ship, all eyes will be on the transport sector. Transport activity, mostly from cars and light vehicles, is forecast to drive Australias greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. The government has established a ministerial forum on vehicle emissions to mull over possible reforms to Australia's fuel efficiency, fuel quality and noxious emissions standards. But the process, which began in 2015, appears to have stalled amid opposition from industry groups. ANU professor Frank Jotzo says the electricity sector's emissions targets are inadequate. The government has proposed reducing new car emissions to 105 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre by 2025 a change the Australian Automobile Association says is "extreme" and would make vehicles more expensive. Petroleum refiners have opposed improvements in fuel quality standards, saying they threaten the viability of the industry and motorists would ultimately be slugged. Jotzo said consumers generally valued a lower car purchase price over fuel efficiency, despite more efficient vehicles reducing petrol costs over the long term. You need mandated standards to nudge or force people to do the right thing, he said. But thats the reason why standards arent popular - because you are preventing people from buying cheap but inefficient cars. NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said lowering vehicle emissions was a short-term measure and accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles was the best way to cut transport emissions in the longer term. The number of electric cars on Australian roads has increased by 160 per cent in the past five years, but the nation remains an international laggard. Frydenberg has heralded the pending transport revolution, but has proposed little to encourage the transition. Electric vehicle advocates say financial incentives should form part of government assistance to the industry a move strongly opposed by right-wing Coalition backbenchers. Frydenberg has previously pointed to existing support for the industry, such as a discount on the luxury car tax threshold for low-emission vehicles. Khoury said any luxury car tax on electric vehicles was quite frankly, absurd. We think government has a role to play [through] investment, sensible tax reform, and leading by example through their own fleet, he said, adding that governments can also reduce upfront purchase and registration costs for electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are key to reducing vehicle transport emissions, the NRMA says. Credit:Rebecca Hallas Khoury said while electric vehicles were already less polluting than traditional cars, a decarbonised electricity grid would mean emissions savings will be even more significant. Deep emissions cuts by the electricity sector would also transform the environmental footprint of manufacturing and mining, which are heavily reliant on fossil fuels, Jotzo said. You need to heat up minerals and metals ... you need to boil vegetables to turn them into soup, he said. A large share of that today is using direct combustion of fossil fuel. And the bulk of this can be converted to electricity ... if [the grid is] run on renewables then thats a great reduction. A transition is slowly underway. Mines are increasingly including renewable energy in their operations and British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, who bought South Australia's troubled Whyalla steelworks, plans to power it using solar, battery and pumped hydro. But for the most part, momentum to cut carbon emissions in heavy industry is lacking, Skarbek said. Governments could assist through funding for research and development as well as clear signalling of the emissions targets for that sector. Its a lot easier for companies to lead if they know their competitors will need to be doing the same, she said. Frydenberg told Fairfax Media that Australia had a strong track record on meeting our international emissions reduction targets while growing the economy and creating jobs. The governments ambitious Paris target stands in stark contrast to that of Labor, who seek to implement an economy-wrecking 45 per cent emissions reduction target, which is a recipe for higher power bills and fewer jobs, he said. Industry groups and companies including the Business Council of Australia, Bluescope Steel and the Minerals Council of Australia back the electricity sector targets. However Frydenberg has sought to assuage those who fear the targets are too timid, offering to allow them to be reviewed in 2024 five years earlier than expected. Labor is keen to ensure the target - which it describes as pathetic - can easily be changed by a future government. The partys climate change and energy spokesman, Mark Butler, said its 45 per cent target will not be spread uniformly across the economy but will apply to sectors based on their ability to make emissions cuts at lowest cost. This would ensure economic growth as Australia met its international climate obligations, he said. The Queensland state government is advertising for a president and casual members of its new Councillor Conduct Tribunal, which will investigate any reports of corrupt conduct in the state's councils. The independent statutory body was announced under Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe's local government legislation changes in May, following ongoing corruption allegations peppering several Queensland councils. Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe announced that the tribunal would form part of major legislative changes to Queensland's Local Government Act. Credit:Glenn Hunt More than 150 formal complaints about Queensland local councillors were made in 2017-2018. Twenty-two of those complaints were about alleged corrupt conduct and were referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission. The Victorian Ombudsmans report into the ALPs scheme to manipulate guidelines and rules so they could gain access to parliamentary monies, in order to partially fund the Australian Labor Partys Community Action Network in the lead-up to the 2014 state election, presents a perfect case study on why the electorate no longer trusts MPs. The entire report should be compulsory reading for all Victorian parliamentarians (and beyond) as it lays bare behaviours that explain why MPs are held in such very low regard individually and as a profession. Illustration Matt Davidson The following may seem harsh, but after analysing all 203 pages of the Ombudsmans report, it is not possible to excuse the Labor Party people involved in what is now commonly referred to as the Red Shirts affair. There is no plausible excuse that justifies their conduct. One of the unfortunate legacies from this saga is that all MPs cannot be trusted to put the public interest before party and personal interest. They cannot be trusted to adhere to the rules and guidelines specifically established to ensure MPs decisions are ethical. They cannot be trusted to be open or accountable. Quite simply, they cannot be trusted. The scheme outlined in the Ombudsmans report reveals a calculated, premeditated plan designed to allow Labor MPs to access parliamentary funds for party political purposes, despite the Members Guide clearly stating that such conduct is prohibited. When Sasson Gabay first heard that there was going to be a musical version of The Band's Visit, he didn't believe it. "Not in a million years," he said, did he think that Eran Kolirin's 2007 film, which earned him an Ophir Award (the Israel equivalent of an Oscar), could be adapted for the stage, let alone as a musical. But when Gabay was approached about making his Broadway debut, and returning to his signature role of Tewfiq, the conductor of an Egyptian police band stranded in the middle of the wrong city, he moved mountains. Gabay put his prosperous career as a film and stage actor in Israel on hold, moved to New York, and, at 70, is living a dream he never even thought to have. Sasson Gabay as Tewfiq in the Broadway production of The Band's Visit. ( Evan Zimmerman) It's been 11 years since the movie The Band's Visit came out. Did you ever think you'd be here, back in this part, and on Broadway? Not in a million years. I didn't imagine that The Band's Visit could be adapted into a play, not to mention a musical. This part is very dear to me. In a way, it changed my career. I traveled with it a lot, to festivals and ceremonies. I never left the role totally; it's like meeting an old friend you haven't seen for years. When [producer] Orin Wolf told me there was a chance, I didn't believe it. People ask me, "Do you dream to play Broadway?" No, I didn't. Maybe my wife's dream was the West End in London, maximum. The dream came to me. It took some time until we managed all the problems, but I think I came at the right time. What problems were there? I'm involved with a theater in Tel Aviv, and I have a popular play based on a character that I created on the TV series Polishuk. It took some time until we found a replacement for me. Only after my first performance here, my wife and I were walking hand in hand in Times Square, and I hugged her and told her, "Look, Daphna. It happened. We managed all the obstacles and came here. It's for real." How does the Israeli theater scene compare to what you're experiencing on Broadway? I'm so amazed by the audience here. The audience in Israel is not as responsive. In Israel, they're tougher, and sometimes they're running quickly to the parking lot to not get caught in a traffic jam. We have a lot of theater. It's not Broadway, but we have three major theaters. I've been involved with a theater called Beit Lessin for the last 23 years. There's a theater in Jerusalem that's more experimental, and there's also a theater in Be'er Sheva. The scene is very alive. I had to get used to many new manners and habits in work. Here, they're very precise. When you rehearse onstage, there are numbers where you have to stand. I'm not used to it. In Israel, we're more open although we're still accurate. I'm amazed by the devotion of [theater professionals] here. You've now starred opposite two acclaimed actors playing leading lady Dina onscreen, Ronit Elkabetz, who passed away in 2016, and onstage, Katrina Lenk. Katrina is wonderful. She's a magician. She's got the right mood, the right feeling, the right action, and she's doing it very how do you say off the cuff. You don't see the effort. She touched my heart when she said at the Tonys that she wanted to thank Umm Kulthum and Ronit Elkabetz. I think if Ronit, rest her soul, would see her, she would have approved of Katrina. She's done justice to the part and to Ronit. Sometimes, I look in her eyes and I see Ronit. I think it's a wonderful way to memorialize her. What's the most exciting part of this whole experience? The work is the most thrilling thing, and also New York. New York is crazy. I've been to New York as a visitor, but to live there? I don't believe it. I feel like I'm in a movie. I'm on the 14th floor and I see Central Park. It's amazing. Is it true you're using the same conductor's baton you used in the film? Yeah. It's here. At the beginning of rehearsals, I used their baton, but I brought mine from Israel. It was in my drawer for years and I didn't imagine it would come to life this way. When I decided to come, I said to my wife, "I'm taking the original baton and I'm going to use it." Photo: Courtesy of Summer Lee for PA, Sarah Innamorato for State Rep One afternoon earlier this summer, Crystal Grabowski was carrying a sign that read Not An Abortion Provider down Pittsburghs Fifth Avenue. She was headed for Womens Choice Network, a crisis pregnancy center located near the University of Pittsburgh campus. Crisis pregnancy centers are mostly faith-based organizations that counsel women not to end their pregnancies. Lately, theyve been in the news due to a Supreme Court decision that upheld such centers rights to withhold information about abortion from their clients. Clarence Thomas, the conservative justice who authored the opinion, wrote that, under the First Amendment, the state of California couldnt determine what information such centers provided effectively allowing them to market themselves as abortion providers while, in a deceptive bait-and-switch, distributing only literature and advice opposed to abortion. If you Google Pittsburgh abortion, this clinic comes up at the top of the list, she told me. Grabowski, who is 29 and works in health care, also heads the local committee of feminist socialists, a group of 40 or so members of the Democratic Socialists of America, which, in Pittsburgh, is one of the most vibrant chapters in the nation. Over the past year, the feminist socialists have met every month to brainstorm creative ways to defend womens rights. Along with Sophie Wodzak, the committees secretary and a working mom, Grabowski had come up with an innovative action, which was part of a nationwide campaign called exposefakeclinics.org. In late June, Grabowski and Wadzat decided to flip the script both on crisis pregnancy centers, and on anti-abortion protesters who gather outside of clinics, waylaying women. If those who opposed abortion could stand outside clinics carrying signs to attempt to disrupt the procedure, then why couldnt pro-choice advocates adopt similar tactics? After all, Clarence Thomas had just defended the First Amendment principle of free speech in relation to CPCs and religious conservatives. Didnt the First Amendment apply to everyone? So Grabowski and several others stood quietly outside, with their signs and pamphlets informing women about where they could find affordable health care. Trying to be respectful of the clients, the protesters werent shouting so much as street-canvassing; unlike anti-abortion protesters, they didnt want to interfere with women seeking help. Through the window, Grabowski watched the centers workers take pictures of her and the others. She was worried that she might become the subject of serious doxxing, but instead, the center posted her photo and those of other sour-faced protestors on Facebook. Those who oppose our mission are very unhappy with recent headlines, they wrote. Cuts in Planned Parenthood funding, a victory in the Supreme Court, and now a new vacancy! This kind of tactic may seem, at first, like an act of political theater. But what is perhaps most remarkable about Pittsburghs feminist socialists is that they are among the vanguard actually rising to power and national attention, in the long aftermath of the 2016 election. In Pittsburgh, the D.S.A. endorsed two millennial powerhouses, Summer Lee and Sarah Inamorato, state-legislature candidates who won landslide victories that foreshadowed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs recent win in New York. In Western Pennsylvania, where I covered these races in real time, Lee and Inamoratos campaigns seemed at first like crazy long shots. Both were young first-time candidates calling out ineffective but deep-pocketed incumbents. Then these millennial feminists won, heralding a new era that foregrounded national issues, like health care and environmental justice, on the ground in small, local races. In the city alone, there are at least 21 crisis pregnancy centers. This number is particularly high when one compares it to the number of abortion clinics in all Western Pennsylvania: four. We hear a lot, these days, about womens advocates and activists who do their thing on the national stage. But the battles surrounding womens rights dont play out exclusively, or even heavily, in Washington, D.C., or on Fox and MSNBC. As a Rust Belt City and a blue island in a conservative and rural red sea, Pittsburgh is a real-world battleground for Roe v. Wade. In the city alone, there are at least 21 crisis pregnancy centers. This number is particularly high when one compares it to the number of abortion clinics in all Western Pennsylvania: four. This illustrates just how vital womens health care is as both a political and a practical issue. Women come from all over the Rust Belt and from Appalachia for abortion services that are dwindling and nearly impossible to procure in more conservative rural areas. And what they often get is a place like the Womens Choice Network, sending them home in shame with a purse full of pro-life pamphlets. But these activists Ive been following in Pittsburgh arent just focused on everyday problems theyre also strategically visionary. Averse to promoting themselves on Instagram or co-opting #MeToo to sell key chains and onesies, theyre about identifying the gamut of interwoven structural inequality and working communally to solve them. Ive found it thrilling lately, especially, as a bulwark against the dismal, daily political slog to follow an emergent activism that doesnt rely on hashtags and #pussygrabsback T-shirts, or any other trappings of late capitalism. Unlike liberal feminists, who focus principally on issues of gender and representation, feminist socialists see themselves as calling for a much more profound redistribution of power, particularly when it comes to class and race. I picture all of us as a tree, Crystal Grabowski said. Liberal feminism wants to cut the trunk and be done with it, but there are roots to this tree. She went on, Racism, capitalism, imperialism these big institutions have had power for so long. We really have to dig up the roots. Digging up these roots begins with the fight for womens reproductive health an issue that disproportionately affects women who are poor and of color. It irked Grabowski that on social media such centers often spoke about targeting women at risk of abortion, which included students and women living in poverty. Health care was a human right, and should be available to everyone, the D.S.A. argued. You cant have socialism without feminism, Grabowski told me. The inverse, she implied, was also true. As women fighting for the rights of working people, Pittsburghs feminist socialists have much in common with nearly a century of little-known Appalachian feminists whose lives Jessica Wilkerson chronicles in her astonishing new book, To Live Here You Have to Fight, How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice. I discovered Wilkersons work while researching women in Appalachia for my recent book, Amity and Prosperity. Over many years of working as a reporter in southwestern Pennsylvania, Id learned firsthand about the role that women played in supporting their families in hard times and keeping small Rust Belt economies afloat. Beginning in the 60s and 70s, when the bottom fell out of the steel industry and the coal mines dwindled, fathers, brothers, and husbands lost their jobs. For the first time, earning a paycheck fell to women, and they left home in droves to work. Many became housekeepers or took care of the children of more affluent families; others found careers in the burgeoning medical-care industry. Pittsburgh survived the post-industrial collapse by relying on a new economy fueled by whats termed meds and eds. As nurses, cleaners, and paid caregivers, women formed a ready army, supporting their families by working long hours in low-paying jobs. Most, however, werent really challenging the system as much as trying to survive within it. Still, given the conservative communities from which many came, the shift in earning paralleled a new era of empowerment for Appalachian women. Through Wilkersons work, however, I learned that this history was older and far more radical than Id understood. As a historian, Wilkerson, too, was surprised by what she found. When I started this history going to archives, people kept saying to me that youre not going to find Appalachian women in the feminist movement, she told me. But Wilkerson proved them wrong. Beginning nearly a century ago, she found abundant evidence to support the fact that Appalachians formed a vanguard of women fighting against systemic injustice. Appalachian feminism insists upon an understanding of class oppression, she writes. Which operates within a capitalism that thrives on racist and sexist social structures. It requires listening to women whose feminism is rooted in their daily experiences and charting feminist movements that will transform society for all women, not just those in positions of relative power. Wilkerson has spent her lifetime listening to Appalachian women at kitchen tables before she was even old enough to be conscious she was doing so. Born in East Tennessee, she grew up in a family with a long history of union organizing. Her great-grandmother worked two jobs as a cafeteria worker and a dairy farmer. Her grandfather was raised in poverty, then made his fortune as the owner of a window factory. Every year, her family made a pilgrimage to Dollywood to pay tribute to its owner Dolly Parton, whose mythic rags to riches tale mirrored that of her own family. Wilkerson, who is 37, remembers the pride with which her grandfather ferried her around in the back of his white Lexus. When Wilkerson moved away in her 20s to attend graduate school in history at Sarah Lawrence in New York, her grandmother Laverne cautioned her about the dangers of too much learning. Education could cost young Jessie her identity. Dont ever forget where you come from, she told her granddaughter. In her book, Wilkerson recounts the lives of remarkable women over the past century, beginning with Frances Granny Hager who took on the coal companies to fight against the injustice of black lung disease, which killed her husband. She cites Mary Harris Mother Jones, who became the miners angel, leading a union fight for labor rights in the 1920s that included both white and black miners. She writes about the role that folk song has played as protest in Appalachia, including the work of Sarah Ogan Gunning, the 1930s author of I hate the Capitalist System. They call this the Land of Plenty To them I guess its true. But thats to the company bosses. Not workers like me an you. Woody Guthrie called Ogans songs deadlier than rifle bullets. In hollows and coal patch towns, many rural Appalachian feminists were more visionary than the liberal elite in distant cities. They understood that different forms of injustice were interrelated, because they lived them. In hollows and coal patch towns, many rural Appalachian feminists were more visionary than the liberal elite in distant cities. They understood that different forms of injustice were interrelated, because they lived them. For nearly two centuries, beginning with early white settlers driving Native Americans off of their land, Appalachia, like most of America, has been a land marked by racial violence. Following emancipation, African Americans arrived in Appalachia to mine coal as an alternative to sharecropping and to escape the worst of the deep souths Jim Crow laws, but few found ready welcome and most eventually moved north. By the 1960s and 70s, some Appalachian feminists were working across racial lines in a fight against systemic poverty. They marched in Martin Luther Kings Poor Peoples Campaign, launched in 1968 to draw poor rural whites and blacks together to call for an end to the system that trapped them in poverty alongside one another. Kings vision revolved around the idea that an era of civil rights had become an era of human rights. In a 1967 letter to his followers, King wrote, We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together you cant really get rid of one without getting rid of the others the whole structure of American life must be changed. Racism, economic exploitation and militarism 50 years on, Appalachian feminists are still out to change the whole fucked up structure of American life. In Pittsburgh this spring, Summer Lee modeled her efforts to bring disenfranchised black and white voters together on Kings Poor Peoples Campaign, and succeeded. Both she and candidate Sarah Inamorato are also inspiring because their political visions are personal: theyre based on their own tough life experiences. Summer Lee was raised in poverty in Braddock, one of Pittsburghs ailing steel towns along the Monongahela River. A brilliant young attorney, Lee graduated from Howard University Law School and returned home to take on the legacy of environmental injustice that has allowed the steel industry to pass on its costs to the towns predominantly African-American community. Here, in Appalachia, fights over land have long been intertwined with fights for basic rights. On the other side of the Mon River in Pittsburgh, Sarah Inamorato grew up as the child of a father addicted to opioids, a crisis that runs particularly rampant in Appalachia, where a history of heavy labor and injury has led to over-prescription. His addiction sent her family on a downward economic spiral that nearly drove them out of the lower middle class. Inamorato managed to make it through college and to become the first woman in her family to own her own home. Still, she remained painfully aware of the precariousness of health care that led her to campaign on a Democratic Socialist platform of single-payer health care for all. To women like Grabowski, the battle for womens health care doesnt involve solely abortion, but also access to information about health access more readily available to those who are better off and better educated. As Professor Wilkerson points out, the notion that health care is a human right isnt new in Appalachia; its part of a longstanding tradition of grassroots women speaking and singing of their own experiences to call for change. Like so many other aspects of grassroots protest coming to the fore once again in Appalachia, the 1930s protest songs of Sarah Ogan Gunning have a contemporary equivalent in Rising Appalachia, a band I discovered on Spotify while poking around for a soundtrack late one night to keep myself finishing my book. In Resilient, Leah Song and Chloe Smith, who are sisters, sing, I trust the movement Ill show up at the table again and again and again. Ill close my mouth and learn to listen. Joanna Coles. Photo: Desiree Navarro/WireImage Joanna Coles is resigning her post as chief content officer of Hearst, according to the New York Post. She is reportedly expected to leave the company by the end of next week. Coles joined Hearst in 2006 as the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. Soon after, she became the top editor of Cosmopolitan in 2012, and also took on the additional role of editorial director at Seventeen two years later. In September 2016, it had been announced that Coles was promoted to be the publishers first-ever chief content officer. Under that role, Coles oversaw all Hearst titles and helped develop television shows, including Freeforms The Bold Type. The Post reports Coles gave her resignation to Hearst president and CEO Steve Swartz in recent days. As of Friday, she was reportedly negotiating her exit package, a source told the Post. Coless reported resignation came shortly after Troy Young was named as the new president of Hearst Magazine. The Post claims Youngs appointment irked some people at the company and that Coles was reportedly one of several candidates up for the position. The Cut has reached out to Coles and Hearst for comment. A photo of JinJing Ma circulated in an alert after she disappeared from the tour group she traveled to the United States from China with. She was found safe late on August 3. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) 12-Year-Old Chinese Tourist Found Following Reported Abduction A 12-year-old Chinese tourist has been found safe in New York a day after her tour group reported her missing from a Washington-area airport. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police said JinJing Ma was found on Aug. 3 in the custody of her parents in Queens, New York. Authority Police Chief David Huchler said at a news conference on Aug. 3 that the girl excused herself to go to the bathroom on Aug. 2 after getting her passport at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He said the girl met a woman, changed clothes, and got into an SUV with New York tags, sparking fears that she had been abducted. So many questions about this story! Missing girl from China seen talking to woman in NYC, woman happens to meet her at #DCA after girl gets her passport from tour chaperones? Car has NY plates. Police say she left willingly. #AmberAlert @VSPPIO @fox5dc https://t.co/JOzBF43fRQ pic.twitter.com/gZ0KjWgupj Melanie Alnwick (@fox5melanie) August 3, 2018 Alerts were put out by the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children and other groups. Huchler said a couple had earlier approached JinJing Ma while her tour group was at the World Trade Center and that there appeared to be a link between that couple and the people she met at the airport. We are in the process of trying to determine the identity of these individuals but it does appear that they are connected to the incident here, Huchler told reporters on Aug. 3, reported Fox News. It appears there was some familiarity, but I dont know if it is a cordial exchange but that is something we are trying to verify at this time. #AMBERAlert SAFELY #RECOVERED! 12-year-old JinJing Ma missing from @reagan_airport in Arlington, #Virgina has been found safe! Thank you for sharing her poster, without your help we wouldn't be able to bring you this fantastic news! pic.twitter.com/hxIfqSvB45 NCMEC (@MissingKids) August 3, 2018 But the legal counselor for Mas parents, Anna Demichik, told CBS that Ma was not abducted and that Mas parents are the ones who picked her up at the airport. The investigation into Mas disappearance is still ongoing despite her being found, Demichik said, noting that parents have been living in the United States for two years and that Ma has been living with relatives in China. The girl is on a visa issued for a tour group trip, but will be staying in New York for the time being with her parents. We are grateful that JinJing is safe and with family, Huchler told reporters after Ma was found. Our goal was to locate her to ensure she was safe and unharmed, and we accomplished that goal. The Associated Press contributed to this report. From NTD.tv Carter Worden, 14, died in Oregon on August 3 after stealing his grandparents' truck and crashing it into a tree. (Oregon State Police) 14-Year-Old Dies in Oregon After Crashing Grandparents Truck A 14-year-old boy died in Oregon after crashing a truck he was driving, authorities said. Carter Worden of Toledo took his grandparents truck for a joyride but swerved over the center line on state highway 229 and hit a tree on the east side of the road, the Oregon State Police said. A picture from the police shows the truck mangled from the wreck, which took place in the early hours of Aug. 3. Responding officers found Worden dead at the scene around 2:40 a.m. The teenager lived with his grandparents, police officers said in a press release obtained by The Oregonian. Worden attended Toledo Jr./Sr. High School. The school said in a Facebook post that it was open for three hours on Aug. 3 to provide support. Boomer Nation, Im afraid I have some sad news to share with you. Last night we lost a member of the Boomer family, Carter Worden. The school will be open today from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. for any students or community members that may need support as we work through this tragedy, the school stated. TJSHS received permission from the family to release Carters name. Wordens family members have not commented on the tragedy as of yet. A similar incident took place in Oregon, when a Porsche was discovered 27 years after it was reported stolen, crashed on a hill off a forest road. From NTD.tv Veterinarian Dr. Heather Barron, from the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, cares for a Loggerhead sea turtle that was found washed ashore after becoming sick in the red tide on Aug. 1, 2018 in Sanibel, Fla. Dr. Barron said, this year's red tide is absolutely the worst she has seen for adult sea turtles. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) 400 Dead Sea Turtles in Florida as Algae Crisis Continues Four hundred dead sea turtles have been found in Florida as the so-called red tide algae crisis continues. The bloom conditions for the algae started in November 2017 and since then 400 stranded and dead turtles have been pulled from the waters off the coast of Southwest Florida, reported the Fort Myers News-Press. The algae bloom has also been killing other marine animals. Theres lots of dead everything here, Florida Gulf Coast University marine researcher Bob Wasno said after leading a group of high school students to Estero Bay. Im watching a sea trout die right at my feet. Theres mullet, snook, pinfish, seasnakes, small grouper, and theres a lot of it. And its looking very, very fresh. Red tide counts of over 1 million cells per liter have been recorded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission; fish can be killed, and people can suffer respiratory problems, when counts reach 10,000 cells per liter. This is horrific what were enduring now, but it needs to be a wake-up call to people that clean water is important to more than just wildlife, Heather Barron, a veterinarian and research director at Sanibels CROW Clinic wildlife rescue center, told the Miami Herald. The center began treating poisoned birds as early as October. As the person dealing with all these hundreds of dying animals, Im upset. Emergency Order Declared Florida is also suffering from blue-green algae, which prompted Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency in seven counties in early July. According to the emergency order, the cause of the algae blooms was Lake Okeechobee water discharges from the Army Corps of Engineers. As Governor, it is my duty to protect Floridians, no matter what it takes. Today, our state is once again facing a crisis from water releases controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said in a statement. This has prompted me to issue an emergency declaration, so our state agencies can do everything in their power to minimize the harmful impacts these releases are having on our communities, he said. Scott told reporters on Aug. 2 that the red algae bloom is an issue the Gulf Coast has been dealing with for a long time but the blue-green algae is new. Under the prior administration, they wouldnt give us the money to fix it. Thats been something thats been going on for a long time. And the federal government just hasnt done their job, he said. I worked with the Trump administration as soon as he got elected to see if I could finally get the federal government to do their part. They have committed to do that now. It is still going to be frustrating for a while, but at least the federal government is putting the money up now to finish the dike. Theyve committed that money and it is there, Scott said. As part of the $3 million emergency order, $700,000 was directed to Lee County to clean up the algae. TC Palm noted that Scotts contender for the Senate, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), criticized Scott over his handling of the algae crisis, but that none of Nelsons most significant efforts on the algae front have been successful. A Korean Air plane sits at a gate at Los Angeles international airport (LAX) on Jan. 30, 2017. (Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images) American Woman Kicked Off Plane in South Korea An American woman was dragged off of a Korean Air flight after refusing to leave business class to sit in her purchased economy seat. The unnamed woman was kicked off the flight, set to fly to San Francisco from South Korea on July 27, because she created a disturbance. Footage of the incident was shared by Korean newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily, with the womans face pixelated. The video shows several flight attendants working together to pull the woman out of a business class seat and push her out of the plane with the help of police officers. Some seated passengers are heard clapping. The American woman makes several statements while being removed, including U.S. Marshal and Nuclear Disarmament. Korean Air told the San Francisco Chronicle that the disturbance caused the flight to be delayed for an hour and 40 minutes. The woman has not been identified apart from being an American and 30-years-old. The airline stated that the woman was assigned to sit in 40D in economy class but wanted to sit in 14B in business class. The woman was transferred to the hospital first as she seemed to be suffering from a mental illness, a police official said in a statement obtained by All K Pop. We plan to investigate her as soon as the hospital completes her examination. From NTD.tv Supporters of Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in Thailand sent a message to country officials at an impromptu airport press conference at Don Muang airport in Bangkok on Jan. 15, 2006. They were there to see off Huang Guohua and his 4-year-old daughter Huang Ying, who boarded an evening flight to New Zealand to be resettled there. (The Epoch Times) An Open Letter to the Vice President Dear Mr. Vice President: This is a letter of request from Falun Gong practitioners exiled in Thailand. We fled from mainland China due to the extermination and suppression of the Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice, and after strict review by the UNHCRs political asylum program, were recognized as U.N. refugees in Thailand. The refugees include 16 children under 14 years old. Dear Mr. Vice President, I believe you already have an in-depth understanding in regard to the fact that the Falun Gong religious group has suffered severe persecution in mainland China. During this 19-year persecution, hundreds of millions of families have been affected. According to the incomplete statistics from minghui.org, from July 20, 1999, to November 2017, at least 4,236 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death. In 2016, a comprehensive report was published on endtransplantabuse.org, presenting evidence of the widespread illegal organ harvesting operations sponsored by the CCP. At present, Falun Gong practitioners who have escaped from the persecution and fled to Thailand have been forced to stay, due to the CCPs penetration of U.N. agencies. They have been told that they will not be resettled. The longest stranded person to date has been in exile in Thailand for over five years. At the same time, the Thai military government, influenced by economic and political pressure, is cooperating with the CCP and arbitrarily arresting and detaining Falun Gong practitioners holding U.N. refugee certificates, regardless of international public concern. Disregarding the U.N.-certified refugee status, a total of seven Falun Gong refugees were arrested by Thai police in March-May this year, and are awaiting trial in October. So far, two Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in immigration detention centers. At present, many cases show that the majority of Falun Gong practitioners stranded in Thailand have experienced a second persecution at the hands of Thai police. The Thai police have repeatedly acknowledged and defended the results of direct intervention by the Chinese Embassy. In addition, since Thailand has never signed the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, it does not recognize the status of refugees. As a result, legal refugees stranded in Thailand cannot work and support their families. Life is extremely difficult. They can only rely on friends and family to support their livelihoods. Falun Gong is an ancient cultivation practice that teaches morality and meditation. It is based on the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It was introduced to the public by Master Li Hongzhi in 1992. It cultivates the mind, body, and longevity. Because of the effectiveness of its exercises and the principles imparted, there have been millions of people around the world who have embraced the practice and benefitted greatly, both in health and moral development. Unfortunately, in 1999, former president Jiang Zemin, in his jealousy, hatred, and fear of the increasing number of Falun Gong practitioners (estimated to be over 100 million), started a violent campaign against Falun Gong. He created a false propaganda campaign to slander the practice and used extrajudicial police forces to ban anything related to Falun Gong, focusing the efforts of the CCP on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Millions of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested, sent to prison, tortured, and murderedsome through having their organs harvested while still conscious and alive. Many in prison or in hiding lost all contact with their families. A small number of these practitioners got a chance to flee to Thailand, seeking humanitarian help from the UNHCR and related refugee assistance agencies from around the world. We must first thank the U.S. government for its long-standing support for Falun Gong. Over the years, America has accepted and placed thousands of victims of the persecution. We are deeply touched by the continued concerns and appeals on behalf of Falun Gong. Dear Mr. Vice President, on July 24, 2018, the first Ministerial Conference to Advance Religious Freedom was hosted by the U.S. State Department in Washington. In the face of more than 80 foreign delegations and religious leaders from around the world, you represented the United States. The government announced two plans for defending freedom of belief: the Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program, and the International Religious Freedom Fund project. The U.S. government will assume a leading role, bringing together national and global resources, and uniting official and civil forces to protect believers. You also said defending freedom of belief is a top priority of the Trump administration. According to this Epoch Times report, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said: We will work with others around the world to help those under attack for their beliefs, and that we expect leaders around the world to make it their priority as well. We sincerely hope that these important tasks undertaken by the Trump administration and its plans will proceed smoothly, and will prevent the persecution of religious believers by totalitarian dictatorships, demonstrating the universal values of freedom and liberty that America seeks to protect. The Ministerial Conference to Advance Religious Freedom once again proves the consistent position the U.S. government takes to safeguard freedom, justice, and human rights in the world. The good people of the world have been shocked by the atrocities taking place in China. The hundreds of millions of religious believers have seen the dawn of human progress. We want to take this opportunity to ask the distinguished Vice President for support. I hope that the U.S. government will lend a helping hand to include Falun Gong refugees who have been certified by the U.N., yet detained in Thailand for many years. We thank the U.S. government for its great contribution to world peace and freedom. We believe that if President Trump can fulfill our request, he will gain the support of the international community, and will certainly make the dictatorship of China feel the pressure. We firmly believe that the Trump administration is taking concrete actions to defend the freedom of belief. Most respectfully, The Falun Gong refugees in Thailand, July 2018 Sincerely waiting for your reply! Praying for peace in the world! Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Shareholders walk through the exhibit hall at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc annual meeting, the largest in corporate America, in its hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., on May 4, 2018. (REUTERS/Rick Wilking) Berkshire Hathaway Profit Surges as Economy Gives Buffett a Boost Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett, on Saturday said quarterly operating profit rose 67 percent, as insurance underwriting rebounded and several business units benefited from a growing economy. Results easily topped analyst forecasts. Underwriting profit at the Geico auto insurance unit more than quintupled, the BNSF railroad benefited from demand to ship consumer products, grain, petroleum and steel, and the Berkshire Hathaway Automotive car dealership financed more vehicle purchases. Good results across the board, said Doug Kass, who runs the hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management Inc in Palm Beach, Florida. He has previously sold Berkshire shares short, betting on a decline, but is not doing so now. Berkshire also said second-quarter net income nearly tripled, though that reflected a new accounting rule requiring it to report unrealized investment gains with earnings. Buffett says the rule distorts net results and can mislead investors. Operating profit rose to $6.89 billion, or roughly $4,190 per Class A share, from $4.12 billion, or $2,505 per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected operating profit of $3,387 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income rose to $12.01 billion, or $7,301 per Class A share, from $4.26 billion, or $2,592 per share, a year earlier. Results also reflected a decline in Berkshires effective income tax rate to 20 percent from 28.9 percent, following last years cut in the federal corporate tax rate. Berkshire is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and has more than 90 businesses in the insurance, chemicals, energy, food and retail, industrial parts, railroad and other sectors. Their day-to-day operations are overseen by Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, each seen by investors as a possible successor to Buffett, 87, as chief executive. Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 94, handle major capital allocation decisions. BITING INTO APPLE Book value per Class A share, reflecting assets minus liabilities and a preferred measure of growth for Buffett, rose 3 percent in the quarter to $217,677. Berkshire also ended June with $111.1 billion of cash and equivalents, some of which Buffett could use to repurchase stock under a new policy giving him and Munger more freedom to buy back stock they considered undervalued. The change reflected Buffetts inability to find big acquisitions since January 2016, when Berkshire paid $32.1 billion for aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts. Buffett has not bought back stock in 2018, but has spent money on stocks, and Berkshire said it ended June with a $47.2 billion stake in Apple Inc. Apples share price at the time suggests that Berkshire may have bought about 15 million Apple shares in the second quarter, on top of 239.6 million it already owned. The iPhone maker this week became the first U.S.-listed company whose stock market value topped $1 trillion. Berkshire spent $6.08 billion on equities in the quarter. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Class A shares of Berkshire closed Friday at $304,671, or 7 percent below their Jan. 29 peak, while Class B shares closed at $200.24, or 8 percent below their peak the same day. GEICO, BNSF Insurance underwriting profit totaled $943 million, compared with a year earlier $22 million loss. Geicos pre-tax underwriting profit rose to $673 million from $119 million, after it boosted rates in response to rising accident and storm losses. Float, or insurance premiums collected before claims are paid and which help fund Berkshires growth, ended June at $116 billion. BNSF profit surged 37 percent to $1.31 billion, as economic growth led to more shipments of consumer goods, and demand for fertilizer, grain, petroleum products, plastics, sand and steel. Profit from manufacturing, services and retailing units rose 29 percent, reflecting demand at Precision Castparts, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive and the German motorcycle accessories unit Detlev Louis Motorrad. Meanwhile, tax credits for wind-powered electricity generation helped boost profit 14 percent at Berkshire Hathaway Energy. By Jonathan Stempel French rapper Booba performs during the 16th Mawazine World Rhythms International Music Festival in Rabat, Morocco May 16, 2017. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal) Celebrity Rappers Ordered Held in Custody for a Month Pending Trial After French Airport Brawl French judges ruled on Saturday that two celebrity rappers should be held in custody ahead of their trial in a months time following a brawl in the departure lounge of a Paris airport earlier this week. The two, Booba, 41, and Kaaris, 38, were arrested on Wednesday in the aftermath of a fight between their respective entourages, during which punches and kicks were exchanged and bottles containing perfume were thrown, sending other passengers scurrying for safety. Booba, whose real name is Elie Yaffa, has sold millions of records and is one of Frances most downloaded artists. Judges at the court in the Paris suburb of Creteil set the trial for Sept. 6, citing a risk of further violence to justify the decision to hold the rappers and nine other suspects in jail. Potential penalties would range from a 750 euro ($870) fine to several years in jail and fines of more than 100,000 euros ($115,000) depending on the circumstances and the severity of any injuries, under French law. On both sides, were disappointed, said Yassine Yakouti, a lawyer for Kaaris. There are a number of people who in any case deserved to be free. The rappers, who once collaborated but fell out five years ago, have blamed each other for starting the fight at Orly airport. Cell phone footage of the fight went viral on social media. The bizarre fist fight between French rappers #Booba and #Kaaris at Paris-Orly airport (which led to the cancellation of flights) pic.twitter.com/iVxqA1TWs2 Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) 1 sierpnia 2018 Videos show the rap stars swinging punches at each other before others join in and a full-blown brawl breaks out in the lounge and a duty-free shop. The incident forced several flights to delay their departures. ADP, which operates Orly airport, has filed a legal complaint. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2018. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) Feinsteins Close China Ties Under Scrutiny After Chinese Spy Discovery News of a Chinese spy working for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein broke recently, revealing the spy was employed by Feinstein for 20 years. Initially reported as part of a larger story about spies in Silicon Valley, a former intelligence official later revealed that the staffer was Feinsteins driver for many years. The source told the San Francisco Chronicle that the driver passed information to Chinese officials based at the local Chinese Consulate. Part of the staffers role was acting as a liaison between Feinsteins San Francisco office and the local consulate. The staffer was recruited to spy after visiting China. The staffer, who has not been named, worked for Feinstein for 20 years. Senator Feinstein was alerted to the spy about five years ago. The FBI alerted Feinstein after investigating and finding the staffer shared nothing of substance. They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it, the source said. None of her staff ever knew what was going on. They just kept it quiet. Feinstein wouldnt comment on the spy but her office told CBS that none of the staffers in San Francisco have ever had security clearances. Noting the oddness of the discovery, President Donald Trump said via Twitter on August 3: Dianne is the person leading our Nation on Collusion with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself? Dianne is the person leading our Nation on Collusion with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself? https://t.co/OG6l04bBwg Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018 Feinsteins Relationship With China Some details of Feinsteins past are now being examined anew, centered on her close relationship with China, beginning with her service as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988. Feinstein has long been linked to China. For instance, she hosted former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin at her home for dinner when she was mayor of San Francisco, and celebrated the resumption of air service from China to the United States (starting with San Francisco International Airport) after a 32-year hiatus. San Francisco and Shanghai have been sister cities for 38 years, after the agreement was put into place by Feinstein and Jiang, who was then Shanghais mayor. Feinstein was cited as having a close relationship with Jiang and ties between the two continued for many years later. Jiang is infamous for suppressing human rights, most notoriously by banning the peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong and throwing many of its estimated 100 million adherents into jail. Under Jiang, torture, rape, murder, and even organ harvesting from detained practitioners became common. To help facilitate the relationship between the U.S. and China, Feinstein asked organizers of the citys popular Chinese New Year Parade to stop displaying the flag of the Nationalist Chinese government, which ruled in exile in Taiwan after 1949. Feinstein also defended China, despite its communist policies, insisting that it was merely socialist. There was originally this kind of anti-communist view of China, Feinstein told the Washington Post. Thats changing. . . . China is a socialist country but one that is increasingly becoming capitalistic. Husband Becomes Prominent Investor in China Several articles from the 90s explore the development of not only Feinsteins developing relationship with China while she was mayor, but her husbands burgeoning investments there. According to the Los Angeles Times, in 1997 Feinsteins husband Richard Blum, who invests his own and clients money into undervalued firms, expanded his business investments into the communist nation to the point that his firm is now a prominent investor there. In 1992, the investments amounted to one project worth less than $500,000. Two years later he was planning to invest up to $150 million and two years after that a Blum investment firm paid $23 million for a stake in a Chinese government-owned steel company. Another investment by Blums firm was helped by the International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank, which invested $10 million in the leading producers of soybean milk and candy in China. Utterly amazing to read this 1997 report on Sen Feinsteins familys political and business ties to #China in context of revelations about a Chinese spy working for her as a driver for 20 years, quietly let go seemingly rather than being brought to justice https://t.co/efwT2yZgkg pic.twitter.com/twAI5igZ2I Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) August 4, 2018 It seems to be going quite well, Rashad Kaldanwho in 1994 managed the IFCs capital markets investments in Asiatold the Times of the project. He added: There also was some comfort in that Mr. Blum had some contacts with the Chinese. Blum said that his interest in China went back many years, predating political connections. He won permission from the Chinese in 1981 to climb the east face of Mt. Everest and called himself a close friend of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader who the Chinese government opposes. In dispatches written for the San Francisco Examiner, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Blum said that a goodwill visit to China by Feinstein in 1979 helped him win permission to climb Everest. We had come to build goodwill, promote trade and to make new friends, Blum wrote in one story, adding, but I asked for and received permission to have another kind of meetingone with the Chinese Mountaineering Association. Trips to China Feinstein took three trips between 1995 and 1997 to China, in addition to trips earlier in her mayoral service, to meet with top communist officials, including Jiang. Blum often attended the meetings with her, an arrangement the Times described as unusual. At one time, the couple had dinner at Zhongnanhai, the enclave reserved for the Chinese Communist Partys officials located in Beijing. We had dinner in Zhongnanhai in Mao Tse-tungs old residence in the room where he died. We were told that we were the first foreigners to see his bedroom and the swimming pool. It was a very historic moment to see some of these things, told the Los Angeles Times. Mao was the communist leader of China whose policies led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people. Feinstein insisted that Blum had never spoken to officials during meetings about business. I am open to any suggestion as to how I can even make a firewall more fireproof, she said. I dont know what else I can do. . . . Either he retires or I suppose we end our marriage. Experts noted that even attending the meetings and being so visible conferred a certain benefit to Blum, in addition to Feinsteins pro-China record. There is no doubt in my mind that, if Dianne Feinstein had a pattern of taking positions on U.S.-China policy that Chinese officials disliked, Mr. Blum would have a great deal more difficulty doing business in China and probably would find it impossible to do, said Ross Munro, co-author of The Coming Conflict with China. By 2000, Blum pledged not to invest in China or Hong Kong as long as his wife remained a senator. The Los Angeles Times noted that Feinstein has sometimes taken on issues that seemed to coincide with those of her husband, such as calling in a speech on the Senate floor in 1994 for President Bill Clinton to increase favorable trade relations with China. At the same time, Blum was planning to invest up to $150 million there. Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. China Attempts Illegal Contributions A widespread campaign of making potentially illegal donations stemmed from a 1996 vote on whether to bestow permanent most-favored-nation trading status on China, an effort Feinstein led. According to Slate and the Washington Post, Feinstein was alerted in the early 90s by the FBI that the Chinese government was working to illegally contribute money to various campaigns, including hers. Though no donations could be definitively linked to the government, Feinstein returned a $12,000 check to businessman and Democratic National Committee Vice-chair John Huang. We have reason to believe that the government of China may try to make contributions to members of Congress through Asian donors, a statement in the FBI briefing materials to elected officials read. A Justice Department task force said Feinstein nor any other member of Congress knowingly received illegal payments from the Chinese government. However, authorities said that the Democratic National Committee returned $3 million in campaign contributions because the money came from questionable or improper sources. Officials believed the potentially illegal campaigns were an attempt to influence votes on the trading status. Feinstein has received awards and recognition from some groups for promoting U.S.-China ties, accepting the California-Asia Business Councils New Silk Road award in 2005. The rise of China is one of the most remarkable transformations the world has ever seen, she told the crowd. For many of us who watch China, there is both a sense of awe at what China has accomplished, as well as a sense that it could all unravel overnight. Rather than just pinning the blame on China, we need to better understand the costs that lead to outsourcing abroad and take action to remediate them, she added. I strongly believe that the US-China relationship is and will be Americas most important bilateral relationship. We must not let differences, economic or otherwise, derail the progress that has already been achieved over the past three decades. From NTD.tv The logo for internet company GoDaddy Inc. is shown on a computer screen in this illustration photo in Encinitas, California, May 3, 2016. (Reuters/Mike Blake) GoDaddy Reports Web Hosting Sales Below Estimates Internet domain provider GoDaddy missed Wall Street estimates for sales from its highly profitable web hosting business, pushing its shares down 4 percent on Thursday. GoDaddy is the worlds largest domain name registrar and manages about a fifth of all global web domains, but its web hosting business that serves consumers and small businesses has driven the bulk of its profits in recent quarters. Analysts have said the Scottsdale, Arizona-based companys web hosting division generates profit margins well above 70 percent, compared with roughly half that amount at the domain business. GoDaddys revenue from web hosting rose about 14 percent to $244.6 million in the second quarter ending June 30. The figure missed analysts average expectation of $247.3 million, according to FactSet. The result overshadowed stronger-than-expected revenue and profit for the second quarter and a higher revenue forecast for the year as GoDaddy signed up more customers and earned more from each user. The company had some 18 million customers overall at the end of the quarter, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier, thanks in part to its acquisition of European peer HEG last year. Average revenue per user rose 10.2 percent to $142. The company says small businesses that start by choosing one GoDaddy service gradually sign up for others and help boost average revenue per user. GoDaddy now expects annual revenue of between $2.65 billion and $2.66 billion, compared with $2.62 billion to $2.64 billion earlier. A roughly 10 percent increase in overall expenses, largely to fund investments in new products, dragged GoDaddys net income lower by 13 percent to $18.1 million. The company earned 12 cents per share, above analysts estimates of 8 cents. Revenue rose to $651.6 million. Analysts had expected $643.6 million. Shares of GoDaddy, which have gained about 52 percent this year, fell to $73.50 in after-hours trading. Reporting by Munsif Vengattil Mailman Ivan Crisostomo and the human trafficking victim he helped rescue, Crystal Allen, in Sacramento, California on Aug. 2, 2018. (Image via Fox) Mailman Meets Girl He Rescued From Sex Traffickers A postal worker was reunited with a girl he helped save from human trafficking. Crystal Allen, 16, had been missing for 3 months when she made her escape and met postal worker, Ivan Crisostomo in the process. During he capture, she said that she was drugged, tortured, and sexually abused. Allen met Crisostomo at his postal facility to express her thanks. Allen, Crisostomo, and Allens mother, Stacy Ohman looked back on how the 16-year-old was brought to safety. The ordeal started when Allen wound up in Sacramento, lured by someone she mistook for a friend. Then she found herself in the midst of drugs and sex trafficking. When her captors were driving through Oak Park, she jumped out of a car and got away. They told me that they were taking me somewhere to hurt me. And then I kind of just thought Id grow the balls and jump out the car, said Allen. Fortunately, Allen grabbed the phone of one of her captors before she fled. She was able to later use that phone to contact her mother, Ohman. Meanwhile, she encountered Crisostomo. I heard this crying when I came out of the vehicle, Crisostomo said, reported KPIX, So I approached her, and I asked her if she was afraid. She started to point to her arm, saying, They were putting things in me. They were putting things in me. They are coming to get me,' he added. Allen attempted to communicate with her mother via the phone she had wrested from her captors. She was frantic, said Ohman, reported KPIX, I couldnt even talk to her, she was so upset. I told her she had to reach out to someone for safety. Until she handed the phone to Ivan and we spoke with him, we had no idea what was going on. We had no idea where she was or anything, Ohman added. Crisostomo stayed with Allen until police arrived and took her to the hospital. She says she will always be grateful to Crisostomo for rescuing her. Detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo is escorted by police officers as he leaves Insein court in Yangon, Myanmar July 30, 2018. (Reuters/Stringer) Pompeo Urges Release of Reuters Reporters in Meeting With Myanmar Minister SINGAPOREU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the immediate release of two Reuters reporters detained in Myanmar when he met Myanmar Foreign Minister Kyaw Tin on Saturday, Aug. 4 on the sidelines of a regional conference in Singapore, the State Department said. Secretary Pompeo raised the issue of two detained Reuters reporters with the Burmese foreign minister, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. He said that they should be immediately released and expressed our concern about their ongoing detention. Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and his Reuters colleague, Wa Lone, 32, are facing up to 14 years in prison in Myanmar for allegedly violating the countrys colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have told the court how they were trapped by police officials who planted documents on them. The trial has been adjourned until Monday, when the defense is expected to call character witnesses. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay, asked to comment on Pompeos call for the reporters release, said the case was already before the court. According to the constitution, our judiciary is independent so we must wait and see what the court decides, he told Reuters by phone. Reuters and the families of the reporters are being treated equally under the law, with all the procedures being respected. For example, they can hire the lawyers they want. At the time of their arrest in December, the journalists had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmars Rakhine state. The killings took place during an army crackdown that United Nations agencies say sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. Pompeo and Kyaw Tin were asked by a reporter at the start of their meeting whether they would discuss press freedom and whether this was important to resolving the Rohingya issue. Neither replied. Pompeo told a subsequent news conference that during the meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, the United States reaffirmed U.S. support for Myanmars democratic transition but also addressed the important steps required to resolve the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine state. Progress on these and other critical security issues is essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific, Pompeo said. The United States has imposed sanctions on one Myanmar general, Maung Maung Soe, who was in charge of a crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine, after declaring that it constituted ethnic cleansing, an accusation the Myanmar government denies. The European Union and Canada have sanctioned more military figures. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond on Saturday when asked if the United States threatened any further action on Myanmar over the issue of the journalists or the wider Rohingya issue. Joey Gibson, left, leader of Patriot Prayer, heads the group's rally in Portland, Oregon on this June 30, 2018. Portland is bracing for what could be another round of violent clashes Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018, between a right-wing group holding a rally here and self-described anti-fascist counter-protesters who have pledged to keep Patriot Prayer and other affiliated groups out of this ultra-liberal city. (Mark Graves/The Oregonian via AP, file) Portland Braces for Clashes as Militant Antifa Vows to Confront Right-Wing Rally Portland, Oregon is bracing for what could be another round of violent clashes between the right-wing conservative-libertarian Patriot Prayer group and far-left Antifa counter-protesters. There will be a significant law enforcement presence in the area of the demonstration due to past threats and acts of violence, the Portland Police Bureau announced, in an apparent reference to two previous events that ended in bloody fistfights and riots. Self-described anti-fascistsor Antifahave been organizing anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, in the streets. Patriot Prayer was founded by Senate seat hopeful Joey Gibson, a self-described conservative libertarian, who says the group is about fighting corruption and big government with the strength and power of love. He denies links to the racist alt-right, and has made statements specifically excluding violent hate groups from its rallies. No Nazis, Communists, KKK, Antifa, white supremacists, i.e. or white nationalists, stated an earlier Facebook post by Patriot Prayer, insisting that no extremists will be allowed in to its events, according to a Fox report. The Proud Boys were established by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes. They deny any connection to white supremacist groups, and describe themselves as western chauvinists, who seek to spread an anti-political correctness and anti-white guilt agenda. The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, describes the Proud Boys as an extremist group and says that despite the pronouncement of its leadership, rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and have appeared alongside known hate groups at rallies. According to this Epoch Times report, Antifa is an extremist anarchist-communist group with roots in the united front of the Soviet Unions Communist International (Comintern), an organization set up to spread communist ideology around the world. The idea of the united front strategy was to bring together left-wing organizations in order to incite a communist revolution. Gibson said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he wont stop bringing his supporters to Portland until they can express their views without interference. I refuse to do what Portland wants me to do because what Portland wants me to do is to shut up and never show up again, he said. Saturdays event is being billed as a Gibson For Senate Freedom March. In the footage streamed on July 31, Gibson outlines plans for the march, including that supporters of his group plan to infiltrate the counter-protesters by dressing in black, in a manner similar to the Antifa counter-protesters. Posted by Joey Gibson on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 This time, Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters can carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate. Portland police said they will be checking for weapons to ensure anyone who is armed has an Oregon concealed handgun license. They also said that protesters should expect to see a significant police presence including bomb-sniffing dogs and checkpoints where weapon screenings will occur. The intent of law enforcement is to provide a safe environment for all participants, non-participants, and community members while ensuring the peaceful exercise of the First Amendment, the police said. Chartered buses will bring participants from Vancouver, Washingtonwhere Gibson livesto downtown Portland with armed security on board. Gibsons insistence on bringing his right-wing supporters repeatedly to this liberal city has crystallized a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the U.S. West, including Berkeley, California, that have drawn violent reactions. A live stream of the rally is recorded here: A counterprotest organized by a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights groups, and artists also will gather at City Hall before the Patriot Prayer rally. In a post on antifascistnews.net, an unnamed source posting on behalf of the counter-protesters, states an intent for militant antifascists to challenge the Patriot Prayer rally. Converge on Tom McCall Waterfront Park at the Salmon Street Fountain. This is where Patriot Prayer will be coming. This action will be frontlined by militant antifascists, including Rose City Antifa, Eugene Antifa, PNW Antifascist Workers Collective, SHARP, and RASH NW. This will be backed by Pop Mob, which makes up the large mass of participants. This coalition has been endorsed by a range of groups, from the ones listed on the 10:30 a.m. rally to other groups like KBOO, Black RoseRosa Negra, the Democratic Socialists of America. Dueling protests a month ago ended with Portland police declaring a riot and arresting four people. A similar Patriot Prayer event on June 4 devolved into fistfights and assaults by both sides as police struggled to keep the groups apart. Recommended Video: The Origins of Antifa Picture of front entrance to Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, CA, September 10, 2012. ("Marin Marine Mammal Center" by Canticle/WikipediaCommons[CC BY-SA 3.0 (ept.ms/2Bw5evC)]) Sprout Chosen as Name for Otter After 4500 Votes A southern sea otter in rehabilitation at The Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands has been named Sprout with a little help from roughly 4,500 people who participated in a voting contest, center officials said Thursday. There were more than 800 names initially suggested, but veterinarians working with Sprout narrowed it down to just six, which they said best suited the young otters personality. The runners up included Abby, Harper, Harry Otter, Lola and Zoe. Sprout ended up in the Marin Headlands to keep Langly, another rescued otter pup, company after Langlys mother suffered a shark bite and subsequently died. Southern sea otters are a threatened species, and bites from great white sharks are a leading cause of their mortality in California. Scientists say the sharks dont usually even eat otters, but they get mistaken for seals. Sprout was just a few months old when she was stranded in Monterey in February. Veterinarians say she was malnourished and found to have a severe parasite infection. She was also suffering seizures. Test results later showed shed been exposed to domoic acid, a biotoxin that sometimes builds up in shellfish. Officials with The Marine Mammal Center said that anyone who wants to help Sprout can make a symbolic adoption through the Adopt-a-Seal program and those who do will receive a photo and adoption certificate. Center officials will use the adoption fee to help feed the otters sustainably-caught seafood and buy lifesaving veterinary equipment for use at the center. The Marine Mammal Center is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4p.m. daily and is located at 2000 Bunker Road. A Tokyo medical school has been cutting women's exam scores to boost more males into the program. Tokyo Medical University Cut Womens Exam Scores to Curb Numbers TOKYOA Tokyo medical school systematically cut women applicants entrance exam scores for years to keep them out and boost the numbers of male doctors, Japanese media said August 2. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made creating a society where women can shine a priority, but women still face an uphill battle in employment and hurdles returning to work after having children, despite Japans falling birth rate. The exam score alterations were discovered in an internal investigation of a graft allegation that emerged this spring over entrance procedures for Tokyo Medical University, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said. From 2011, it said, the university began cutting the scores of female applicants to keep the number of women students at about 30 percent, after the number of successful women entrants jumped in 2010. The paper quoted university sources as saying the action was prompted by a strong sense at the school that many women quit medicine after graduating to get married and have children. Tokyo Medical University spokesman Fumio Azuma said an internal investigation had already begun after allegations this spring of bribery involving the medical school admission of the son of a senior official of the education ministry. Of course, we will ask them to include this in their investigations, he said, adding that while result of the first investigation is expected this month, he does not know when the probe into the new allegations will be completed. Social media erupted in anger at the reports, with some posters demanding more steps to ensure equality while others said similar things were happening everywhere. It feels as if the earths crumbling under my feet, wrote one. Who are you kidding with Women should play an active role? Another said, Women are told they have to give birth; if they dont, theyre mocked as being unproductive, but then again, just the possibility that they might give birth is used to cut their scores. Whats a woman supposed to do? Trump Supporters Concerned About Socialism 'I believe [Trumps] core values are completely in opposition to what socialism is all about' TAMPA, Fla.Thousands of people lined up on a swampy Tampa afternoon to attend President Donald Trumps Make America Great Again rally on July 31. Several rally-goers who spoke with The Epoch Times expressed concerns about the push toward socialism in America. Discussions about socialism have intensified in recent weeks, especially after New Yorks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a stunning primary election victory over incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley on June 26. Ocasio-Cortez, 28, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, ran on a platform that included abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A number of Democratic Socialists of America leaders have publicly endorsed communism, an ideology that, according to some estimates, is responsible for the unnatural deaths of 100 million people during the 20th century. Former Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin explained in his writings that the ultimate goal of socialism is communism. Ocasio-Cortez has recently campaigned with Sen. Bernie Sanders (IVt.) to espouse socialist ideas such as bigger government, free education, and health care for all through substantial tax hikes. An American Patriot Vietnam War veteran Larry Clement, 74, said that as of a year ago, he is no longer a Democrat or Republican. Im an American patriot, he said. Being a military person, the very first thing is, protect your flag. When people dont want to protect my flag anymore, I get quite upset, and I was quite upset. So that was where I stood. I stand for my flag. Clement has been to almost every Trump rally in the region so far. He is very important to me because hes a business-type individual and he says what he feels, he said. Clement said that, after fighting communism in Vietnam, the creep of socialism in America is very scary. Having been in different countries and seeing what those poor people have to go through and seeing what we go through, we are very, very luckyvery lucky people, he said. We need more people to go and see what other countries have to go through, because they dont get that freedom under socialism. He said hed like to see all American children attend a two-month boot camp-type program after high school, to show them how to start life, because so many of them dont know whats going to be involved. Something for Nothing Dianne Wilhelm, 79, has noticed a decline in values over the years, and she attributes some of that to socialism. I think actually we have a lot of younger people that really want to go socialistic, she said. I mean they think that you can have something for nothing. Wilhelm said Ocasio-Cortez wanting everything to be free is untenable: Whos going to pay? A recent projection for Sanderss free Medicare for all plan put the cost at $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study commissioned by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a public research university in Virginia. And the thing that bothers me about the whole thing is so many people dont respect the office, Wilhelm said. I dont say you have to respect him [Trump], but respect the office. People used to do that, and they dont anymore. Wilhelm said she supports Trump because he does his best to follow through on his promises and wants to do the right thing. I think his heart is in the right place, and you know hes trying to bring us back to our old values, she said. The American Dream Nena Chancy said much of what she sees on the left is worrisome. A lot of the socialist ideas concern me. I believe that the American dream is about working hard and earning money and being rewardedand thats what capitalism is all about, she said. I believe [Trumps] core values are completely in opposition to what socialism is all about. I think Trump wants to see America succeed, and I like that he puts America first. I feel like thats his job. Hes elected in that role and thats his concern. Chancy has seven children between the ages of 13 and 27one is in the Marines, three are married, one is in college, and two are still at home. Her youngest, Hayden, 13, was harassed in 2016 by a teacher at his previous school in southern Georgia for supporting Trump and wearing a Trump t-shirt. She would, like, pick on me in class in front of everybody, trying to embarrass me, Hayden said. He wore a Trump shirt, Chancy said. She would tell him hes as obnoxious as his shirt and just make really rude comments. It concerned me that he couldnt go to school and, you know, say what he believed, she said. Chancy said she looked into private schools for Hayden when the family moved to Florida to avoid a similar situation. Hayden was also bullied by a woman when he was at the beach. I was just standing there with all my stuff, and they just came up to me, and grabbed my stuff, and started making fun of me, he said. [She] grabbed my shirt and pulled it and then talked a bunch of garbage to me, then they walked away and scoffed at me. They grabbed at my hat. However, he remains undeterred and still wears his Trump-branded clothing. Zero Job Skills Henry Kones grew up in the 1980s and has noticed a socialist, progressive movement chip away at many aspects of American life, including traditional values, work ethic, and the family unit. He said, generationally, its millennials that lean toward socialism, partly because they dont know what its like to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And thats where the disconnect comes in, Kones said. I am an employer, so I know. They come out of universities and they have zero job skills. Part of the goal of socialism is to destroy the family unit, eliminating the most basic form of social order to give the government power over minute household decisions. Kones said he sees the attack on the family happening even in sitcoms on TV. Look at the way men are portrayed on sitcomsthey are all idiots, he said. Traditionally, men have always been the providers in household, but there is a complete devaluing of really the male role in a household. Koness wife, Paula, is originally from Colombia, and she has seen socialism in action. If there is a politician who is going to run on a socialist platform, I think it would be required that that person should live in a socialist country for at least two years, so they can come and talk from experience, not from a romantic idea of what socialism iswhich is a failed system, she said. This is the best country in the world. Why would you change it? I Picked Conservative Seventeen-year-old Victor Bellino plans to join the Navy after completing his final year of high school. Meanwhile, he feels he has to lay low about his support for Trump at school. I wouldnt want to wear a Trump shirt, Id feel a little bit scared. Our school is pretty rough, he said. I used to have a sticker on my truck. I took that off because I was scared of vandalism. Bellino said the 2016 presidential election was his political coming of age and that discussions with his father have helped teach him to form his own opinions. I have decided to pick conservative, he said, but I just want to support our president. I love that he really doesnt care what people think. He has a great foreign policy. What hes doing with the economy is just amazing. I like his strong standpoint. I like that he doesnt get bullied. Uber Driver Receives Guilty Verdict in Fatal Accident San Francisco Superior Court jury today found a former Uber driver guilty of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for fatally striking a 6-year-old girl on New Years Eve in 2013. Prosecutors said that 61-year-old Syed Abid Muzaffar, of Union City, struck Sophia Liu with his car around 8 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2013, at Polk and Ellis streets. Muzaffar, driving a Honda Pilot while working for the ride-hailing service Uber, struck Sophia as she walked with her mother and 3-year-old brother, who was in a stroller, in the crosswalk. The family members were injured in the collision, with her mother suffering a major injury; however, they survived. According to prosecutors, after striking Sophia, Muzaffar reversed and backed over her body. Following Sophias death, Uber officials said that Muzaffar was not responding to a fare at the time of the collision and did not have a passenger in the car. Uber deactivated his account afterward. During the trial, Muzaffars defense attorney Sliman Nawabi argued that the fatal collision did not occur as a result of distracted driving and that Muzaffar made a legal right turn from Ellis Street onto Polk Street on a green light. Muzaffar, however, was unable to see Sophia and her family, however, due to the A-pillar in his vehicle, which connects the windshield and passenger windows, creating a blindspot, Nawabi argued. The blind spot was present up until a certain spot. He braked but it was too late, Nawabi said today. There were no records that showed he was on his phone at the time of the collision, according to Nawabi. Muzaffar, a father of four, was working on New Years Eve for Uber in order to provide for his family, Nawabi said. He recognizes the pain that Sophias family has gone through, and hes always recognized it. At the same time, I think its fair to say that he was disappointed (with the verdict). Our position was that this was an accident. Muzaffar had been out of custody during the trial. Hes set to return to court for sentencing on Sept. 25. We have a responsibility to each other when we get behind the wheel, District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement. Its imperative that we all slow down and remain completely alert when operating a vehicle. Far too much is at risk, and our city is more congested than ever. This family had their lives turned upside down, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Ostly said in a statement. San Franciscos first responders came together that night to try and save this little girl, and many of them remain profoundly affected by Sophias death. On behalf of Sophias family, attorney Christopher Dolan filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages from both Uber and Muzaffar. The suit, which was eventually settled for an undisclosed amount in 2015, alleged he was viewing or interacting with his smartphone app for the company when the collision occurred. According to Dolan, the suit was the first-ever wrongful death suit against Uber. As a result, Uber changed its policies to expand insurance coverage for crashes caused by Uber drivers even if there is no passenger in the car when the crash occurs, as long as the driver is logged into the companys app and available to accept rides, Dolan said. In a statement, Sophias mother, Huan Hua Kuan said, He did the crime. Im glad the jury held him responsible and that justice will be done. I miss my daughter every day and nothing will bring her back. Reporting by Daniel Montes. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn delivers his speech during the 134th Durham Miners Gala on July 14, 2018, in Durham, England. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) UKs Corbyn Breaks Silence on Anti-Semitism, Draws More Ire Labour leader says he will root out anti-Semites, but timing of article ahead of Sabbath angers Jewish community leaders UK Labour leader and would-be prime minister Jeremy Corbyn finally broke his silence on the accusations of anti-Semitism that have engulfed his party after Jewish community leaders said it posed an existential threat. However, Corbyns promise to root out anti-Semites was dismissed as a stunt by some leading figures in the Jewish community, who scorned the fact that his article was cynically published late on a Friday afternoon, meaning many observant Jews could not engage with it. They also criticised the fact that part of the piece appeared to have been cut and pasted from an earlier article. Writing in the Guardian on Aug. 3, Corbyn did not back down on the issue of the definition of anti-Semitism at the centre of the criticism, but acknowledged that there was a real problem with anti-Semitism in the party. I do not for one moment accept that a Labour government would represent any kind of threat, let alone an existential threat, to Jewish life in Britain, as three Jewish newspapers recently claimed, wrote Corbyn. That is the kind of overheated rhetoric that can surface during emotional political debates. But I do acknowledge there is a real problem that Labour is working to overcome. And I accept that, if any part of our national community feels threatened, anxious, or vulnerable, not only must that be taken at face value but we must all ensure those fears are put to rest, he said. Published Just Before the Sabbath The Anti-semitism debate exploded after the Labour Party refused to adopt wholesale the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of Anti-semitisman almost standard definition used by many organisations. The new guidelines were being drawn up by the partys executive committee in response to long-running concerns of anti-Semitism. Criticising the move, a joint editorial from three Jewish newspapers said, Under its adapted guidelines, a Labour Party member is free to claim Israels existence is a racist endeavor and compare Israeli policies to those of Nazi Germany, unless intentwhatever that meanscan be proved. In his article, titled I will root anti-Semites out of Labourthey do not speak for me, Corbyn defended Labours decision not to accept the IHRAs definition. It is unfortunately the case that this particular example, dealing with Israel and racism, has sometimes been used by those wanting to restrict criticism of Israel that is not anti-Semitic, Corbyn said. But the timing of Corbyns article, just ahead of the Sabbath, quickly drew ire from the leaders in the Jewish community. The editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard wrote, Anyone, and I mean anyone, who releases a statement directed toward the Jewish community late on a Friday afternoon is doing so deliberately and cynically. Everything Jeremy Corbyn does is a stunt. The fact that two paragraphs appeared to have been copy and pasted (with minor edits) from an Evening Standard article in April was also criticised. MP Threatens to Prove Corbyn is an Anti-Semite in Court Gideon Falter, head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, described Corbyns article as vague and meaningless saying that they remained convinced Corbyn is an anti-Semite. He has tried to divide and conquer by dismissing the Jewish communitys unprecedented unity as overheated rhetoric, when that is exactly what he is guilty of, said Falter in a statement. He has tried to shift attention to the far-right. And crucially, he has tried to make this about Israel when this is about anti-Semitism in his British Labour Party. Labour has been wrestling with accusations that it has been tolerant of anti-Semitism among some of its members, and in April, leaders of Britains 270,000 Jews organized a protest accusing Corbyn of failing to address their concerns. On July 23 lawmaker Dame Margaret Hodge threatened to take Labour to the High Court to prove that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite, after the party launched an investigation into her behaviour when she berated Corbyn over the anti-Semitic claims. Hodge, a veteran Jewish MP said that the investigation waspunishing her for fair criticism, which her lawyers claim is a breach of natural justice. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends an ASEAN-U.S. Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, Aug. 3, 2018. (Reuters/Edgar Su) US Pledges Nearly $300 Million Security Funding for Southeast Asia SINGAPOREU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged on Saturday, Aug. 4 to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia. Pompeo unveiled the figure to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other officials from around the world in Singapore. The United States said earlier this week it will invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in emerging Asia which he called a downpayment on a new era of U.S. economic commitment to the region. A view of the progess of Tower 3 at the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, New York, Jan. 13, 2014. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times) US Steel Tumbles as Investors Seek More From Tariff Windfall U.S. Steel Corp. fell the most among peers as a mixed bag of quarterly results left investors wondering if they would see any real benefit from trade policies that have pushed up U.S. prices of the metal. While the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker raised its 2018 earnings forecast after a better-than-expected second quarter, it gave a third-quarter projection that trails the average analyst estimate and kept dividends unchanged at 5 cents a share. In a year in which Trump administration tariffs have helped fuel a 40 percent surge in domestic steel prices, U.S. Steel shares have lost ground even as most rival producers gain. The company, which is working to revitalize its aging facilities, also has the lowest dividend yield among major rivals tracked by Bloomberg. Given the amount of cash coming from this company right now, I think people are getting a little impatient, Seth Rosenfeld, a managing director at Jefferies in London, said by telephone. If you think the macroeconomic outlook is untenable and you think demand could suffer because of these trade policies, youre a lot less patient. For the third time in a row, U.S. Steel slumped after delivering earnings. The shares were down 9.8 percent at midday, Aug. 2, heading for the biggest drop since it released first-quarter results. Concerns about demand growth have been on the minds of investors throughout the earnings season. Caterpillar Inc. shares fell as investors worry that the full brunt of Donald Trumps trade war is yet to hit the biggest maker of machinery for mining and construction at a time that some end-user industries may be reaching peaks in their growth cycles. The biggest risk to the U.S. market is demand begins to weaken, and if thats the case then people will want to get their cash out beforehand, Rosenfeld said. From Bloomberg NORWALK The citys Common Council elected in November, when Democrats nearly swept the board is already one third of the way through their two-year term. Council members are paid $600 a year to serve as the citys legislators, which involves attending Common Council meetings every other week in addition to the meetings for whichever committees they sit on. Which representatives have been filling their seats at the table? Out of the 15 council members who emerged victorious on the night of Nov. 7, five have attended every Common Council meeting since: Council President John Kydes, Michael Corsello, Douglas Stern, Chris Yerinides and Thomas Livingston. District B in transition While overall absences have been low, they coincided once to leave one district without any representation at Common Council meetings District B, which includes South Norwalk. At the Feb. 27 meeting, the school budget was discussed and the principal of Columbus Magnet School, located in the district, spoke asking for support. It was one of two meetings Council Member Phaedrel Bowman missed before stepping down as she moved out the city, and one of two meetings Council Member Travis Simms has missed so far according to minutes. In addition, Simms has been tardy to five out of the 13 meetings he has attended, according to minutes. Simms did not respond to phone or email requests to comment. Ernie Dumas has since replaced Bowman on the council, where he has made attendance even at committees he is not on a priority. Ive been to all of the meetings so far, even the ones that Im not assigned to, because I want to be abreast of the things that are going on in the city, Dumas said. Im one of the people that can be a mouthpiece for people in Norwalk in District B. Overall good track record In general, attendance has been high and all but two councilmen have attended at least 80 percent of this Common Council meetings this term. As far as my perfect attendance, I take every responsibility I have seriously, Kydes said. But I will say most of the work is done on a committee level... and not on the council floor. While he grants that important issues are voted upon on the council floor, he said, The council more so is the final approval after all of the information has been thoroughly discussed and vetted. The approval most of the time is just a formality on the council floor, Kydes added. If you missed a Common Council meeting, that doesnt mean that you were not familiar with the issues and did not have input on it. New council member-at-large Stern said of his immaculate attendance, I understood that there are going to be an awful lot of 7 p.m. commitments at City Hall when I was elected to the City Council. Also helpful, he said, were the facts that, I live and work in Norwalk fairly close to City Hall, and I didnt have any personal commitment or emergency that prevented me from attending. Personal and family health issues lead to absences Both personal and emergency circumstances were at play for the two council members with the most absences. John Igneri, who represents Rowayton and has missed a third of Common Council meetings so far, said two of his absences were for outpatient surgery, one was from when he was in Italy, and he was uncertain about the circumstances of the other two. I just had some personal family matters and medical matters, which have all cleared up, he said. He is looking forward to tackling many issues involving potential developments, including Norwalk Hospitals plans for the old YMCA property, during the remainder of his term. Thats exciting because that will continue the revitalization of that area with the mall going up, he said. And Nicholas Sacchinellis four missed meetings happened during a period when his mother was battling an aggressive cancer. I made that my priority at that time and then she passed, he explained. Now, he is working with the public safety committee to involve more people, including high school students, in public safety events such as meet-and-greets with first responders. rschuetz@hearstmediact.com; @raschuetz EDWARDSVILLE Plans to build a Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Pontoon Beach received a boost this week after two Edwardsville committees approved changes that will add 3.5 acres to the Gateway Commerce Enterprise Zone. Pontoon Beach and Madison County have already signed off on the request by Amichi Corporation, and the expected approval on Tuesday by the Edwardsville City Council would allow them to move forward with what is expected to be a $10 million project. Cambodia asked to arrest Phuket killer of young couple BANGKOK: Police have asked Cambodian authorities to arrest a Phuket nightclub operator wanted for the killing a young couple aged 20-21 as they believed the suspect was hiding in the neighbouring country patongmurdercrimepolicehomicide By Bangkok Post Saturday 4 August 2018, 01:10PM Police show the pictures of nightclub operator-turned-murder suspect Panya Yingdang, 39, who is believed to be hiding in Cambodia. Photo: Bangkok Post / Nopparat Kingkaew A police source said yesterday (Aug 3) that the Crime Suppression Division already contacted local Cambodian police and military units for the arrest of Panya Yingdang, 39, who was believed to have fled the country after the shooting of Paweena Namuangrak, 20, and Anantachai Jitram, 21, in Chon Buri province on July 29. Thai police already learned that Panya, also known as Sia Uan Bangla, was hiding in Cambodia and they expected a positive response from Cambodia in the near future, the source said. Media reported that one of the arrested suspects told police that Mr Panya had fired six gunshots at the young couple in a vehicle out of jealousy, killing them on the spot. Paweena earlier worked at Panyas Pum Pui bar on Bangla Rd in Patong, in Phuket. It was reported he fell for her and wanted to marry her. Violence later prompted the woman to leave him. After the killing, Panya reportedly tried to flee the country to Cambodia through the Chong Chom border crossing in Surin province but changed his mind when he saw a police checkpoint. Panya then went through a border crossing in Sa Kaeo province. Police located Panyas mobile phone in Cambodia. Read original story here. Phuket nightclub guard arrested for previous murder PHUKET: Police in Phuket last night (Aug 3) arrested a nightclub security staffer wanted for a murder in Surat Thani 10 years ago. crimemurderhomicidedeathpolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Saturday 4 August 2018, 01:51PM The arrest warrant for Somjai Chartrithap, then 27, for a murder in Surat Thani 10 years ago. Photo: Phuket Provincial Police The wanted notice for Somjai Chartrithap issued for a murder in Surat Thani 10 years ago. Photo: Phuket Provincial Police Police arrived at the Hor. NokHook (.) night venue on Patak Rd, near Chalong Circle, at 10pm. Photo: Phuket Provincial Police Somjai Chartrithap, 37, is shown the warrant for his arrest for a murder in Surat Thani 10 years ago. Photo: Phuket Provincial Police Officers led by Col Akanit Danpitaksarn, a Deputy Commander of the Phuket Provincial Police, arrived at the Hor. NokHook (.) night venue on Patak Rd, near Chalong Circle, at 10pm and arrested Somjai Chartrithap, 37. The venue is technically registered as a "restaurant". Somjai was shown two outstanding warrants for his arrest: one for working together with others to commit premeditated murder, the other for skipping bail. The murder arrest warrant was issued by the Surat Thani Court on March 16, 2008 and also confirmed that Somjai was also facing charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and carrying a firearm in public place without a permit. The subsequent arrest warrant issued on Jan 15, 2009 was for Somjai failing to present himself to the Surat Thani Provincial Court. Somjai, still registered as living in Phlu Thuean of Phanom District in Surat Thani, near the provincial border with Phang Nga, has been handed over to officials in Surat Thani to face legal action he had managed to dodge for a decade. The section he has been charged with for the murder alone, if he is found guilty, incurs from 15 to 20 years in prison. CALGARYHundreds of Calgarians rolled up their sleeves and picked up a paintbrush to add some colour to a northeast community fence and help create in the largest mural in the country. The Northern Hills Community Association is looking to complete the largest mural in Canada along a 2,400-foot stretch of fence on Coventry Hills Boulevard NE. Were making history in Canada, said Prub Bassi, who has lived in the community for 14 years. Theres so much symbolism of the city and of the country and how amazing it is that we get to be a part of this. Bassi is working on section of the fence that recognizes Canadas military. While painting, she got paired with Fatima Saddiqui. Saddiqui also lives in the area, but the two had never met. Saddiqui said the murals appeal goes beyond the visual. Theres a sense of bonding because were not just people coming to look at it but people coming to work on it, Saddiqui said. It just helps us get more connected with our community. Area resident Kim Walker, who first pitched the idea, said said she was tired of looking at the bland fence which was in desperate need of a paint job. I always wanted to put something on this fence, because the sun sets in the west and it lit up the fence every single night and you noticed that it needed to be repainted, said Walker. Walker said she wanted a mural drawn over the long stretch of fence, because it would revitalize the community. Its going to add a sense of pride to the community and a sense of knowledge and learning and a realization that a community can come together and really contribute, said Walker. Although its a single length of fence, each section is the responsibility of the homeowner on the other side of the fence. Walker said every homeowner had to agree to take part and sign an eight-year agreement to allow the mural to stay up. The fence was divided into 20 sections, with professional artists overseeing each section. It took a week to draw the outline of the design. Artist Mark Vazquez-Mackay created the design of the mural after two months of community engagement. Vazquez-Mackay said he wanted to engage with the public, because public art is sometimes a sore spot for the city. Everyone wants public art. But a lot of people need to be engaged in the dialogue, Vazquez-Mackay said. You have to spend time with the community and get to know the people. The work will span 20,000 years of history in the area, beginning with the last ice age and showing Indigenous peoples and later the settlers. The power of art is that it makes you question and it pulls you out of whatever ignorance you have, Vazquez-Mackay said. Were all born into certain ignorance, be it our family or education or whatever it may be, art can make you reassess and question your reality and your perceptions. The project will use around 2,000 litres of paint with a he project budget of roughly $100,000. The money coming from grants, donors, corporate sponsors and the community association. The project will continue over the weekend and wrap up on Monday. For more information on how to get involved, visit northernhills.ab.ca/mural/. Read more about: EDMONTON Police are searching for the body of a 29-year-old who fell into a reservoir in central Alberta. Rocky Mountain House RCMP say the man fell into the Brazeau Reservoir located about three hours southwest of Edmonton on Friday. RCMP responded to the emergency and determined that the male fell over the edge after climbing up on the guard rail of the reservoir in the early hours of the morning, the RCMP said in a release. The Mounties, along with the assistance of search and rescue, fire departments and conservation enforcement completed an extensive search of the reservoir and North Saskatchewan River throughout the day, police said. Police are presuming the man dead and are treating the search as a body recovery. RCMP officers and other local first response agencies in the area continued to search the reservoir and river on Saturday. Read more about: NEW YORKThe meowdels wore couture and the crowd was cat-tastic at The Algonquin Hotels annual feline fashion show, presided over by the historic Times Square establishments 12th resident cat, a ginger boy with a theatrical name, Hamlet VIII. Thursdays theme for the catwalk and lobby party, with some human attendees in cat-ear headbands and feline-adorned finery, was The Purring 20s. Thats the era that Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Alexander Woollcott and other writers, critics, actors and all-around wits first sat around the hotels famed Round Table. Hamlet VIII made his party debut this year, perched in his tree house at the front desk, strutting for guests in a sparkly silver bow tie as about 150 human partiers munched on hors doeuvres and sipped wine. Their camera phones were at the ready as four-legged models were held by their owners for a red carpet walk, including a tiny cutie just a month old, a black rescue named Frank Sinatra. His bespoke ensemble included a puffy red newsboy hat. The event is a fundraiser for the Mayors Alliance for NYCs Animals, which helps support more than 150 animal shelters and rescues in New York. Organizers said more than $10,000 was expected to be raised, fuelled in part by $75-a-pop ticket sales and a silent auction. As for the fashion, it came courtesy of certified pet fashion designer Ada Nieves. Leather? Absolutely not, she told The Associated Press in a pre-show interview. There were Art Deco touches in crystals and laces, a pink-fringe flapper dress and feather head band worn by a longhair named Aine, and a knockout orange youngster that goes by Mango in bowler hat and double-breasted tuxedo. A chill girl rescue named Sake got a wide-brim garden hat and lavender low-waisted dress a la the Roaring 20s, while Baloo scored a striped zoot suit for his big runway moment. The long history of cats presiding at The Algonquin is a bit murky but dates to the early 20s with Billy, who during the heyday of the Round Table belonged to hotel owner and manager Frank Case. After Billy passed away, so the story goes, a stray marmalade cat made his way into the hotel in the early 1930s and was declared Rusty. The name didnt sit well with actor John Barrymore, a hotel resident at the time, so Rusty became the first Hamlet, honouring what is said to have been Barrymores greatest stage role. They thought the name Hamlet was more dignified for the Algonquin, said Alice De Almeida, the hotels Chief Cat Officer. And a legend was born. Hamlet is, indeed, the eighth Hamlet at the Algonquin, which has also been home to three cats named Matildas rescues each and every one. We have no clue who picked the name Matilda or why, De Almeida said. The current Hamlet is a people cat, though hes not terribly fond of huge TV cameras. He loves a good scratch behind the ears, De Almeida said. The hotel chef cooks him special meals on holidays and his portrait hangs above the front desk. The white-glove treatment for felines stretches back to Rusty, who had the run of the hotel (Hamlet VIII is restricted to the front desk area) and was given milk out of a Champagne glass, De Almeida said. As for the Round Table crowd and whether they were cat people, she wasnt sure. We know Dorothy Parker had dogs, De Almeida said. At that time there was no board of health, so Rusty was in and out of rooms, and they had a special door for him to go in and out of the kitchen. He sat in the Blue Bar. I mean, who had a better life? Hamlets life is pretty sweet. He receives fan mail and gifts from around the world thanks to the international guests he has befriended at the front desk. He will soon have a picture book telling his story and that of his hotel home. The hotel went with a Roaring 20s theme for its fashion show this year to mark the 125th birthday of the caustic Parker, a poet and critic who was omnipresent at the Round Tables near-daily lunches. Really, though, it was all about the cats. Im looking around the room and thinking this is one place, at least for the next hour, where every person has a smile on their face, said Kathleen Duffy, a hotel spokesperson. We need that right now. A giant white warehouse. Soaring metal shelves, painted bright orange. Guards stationed at the entrance to check identification as people file in to join a massive crowd. No, Im not describing the setting of the latest dystopian young adult novel. Im talking about Costco. For the unaware, Costco is a multinational corporation known for selling products in bulk in its enormous warehouse locations. As only those with memberships are allowed to shop there, this chain has always held a sort of country-club style mystique for me. Until this summer, Id only been in Costco once, because it didnt exactly register as a place for someone like me: a grad student without a car living with one roommate in a small apartment in Toronto. But with the aid of a Costco member and guide (my roommates mother), I was able to gain access recently to a location on Warden Ave. in Scarborough to find out just what the deal was. I selected seven products ranging from practical to fun to just plain strange. Peeled Love Beets Is this the epitome of laziness or progress? I spent five solid minutes just holding this package asking, why? Why does this exist? This is a plastic box of pre-peeled, pre-cooked, organic beets for $8.69 that have been encased in yet more vacuum seals of plastic. It is literally plastic bubbles of beet. I suspect Im going to get boiled in hot water myself by a lover of Love Beets for this statement, but this is one of the most ridiculous things Ive seen. Does it get rid of the hassle and red-stained hands that come with preparing beets on your own? I suppose. But Id rather cry Out! Damn spot! a thousand times while scrubbing my hands in the comfort of my own kitchen than add to a plastic landfill by purchasing these. (My guide suggested to me that someone could take a beet bubble to work as a snack with this packaging style, and honestly, Im too terrified to argue with anyone powerful enough to eat beets by themselves as a snack. Ill concede that point.) Bulk buy savings factor: If age or disability make pre-peeled and cooked beets a valuable time saver, go for it, but if not, I guarantee you can find 1 kg of beets for less if you buy them in their natural packaging their own skin! Weird and wonderful factor: checking every box here! Read more: Costco makes me question my life. But theyve got some good stuff Himalayan Pink Salt Slab Have you ever thought to yourself, Boy, wouldnt it be nice to own a slab of pink salt so heavy I would crush the bones in my foot if I dropped it on myself? No? Well, same here, which meant, of course, that I had to get this to write about. This is the cornerstone of the subsection of Costco offerings that surprised me the most: the products that appeared to be aimed at either strangely well-off, Instagram-loving millennials, or middle-aged couples who really want to impress their new vegan neighbours at their next cookout. According to the internet, Himalayan pink salt slabs are some sort of bougie cooking deviceyou can use them to cook on and to display food on, and the salt infuses the food with subtle flavour. It holds heat and cold equally well, and I can confirm the cold end of that for sureafter an hour in the freezer, the slab was so icy to the touch that it felt like it was sucking the moisture from my hand, and it still held some of that coolness four hours later. The fact that the lightly glimmering soft pink is very lovely to look at certainly doesnt hurt either. At $20, this was the most expensive thing I bought, but the pricing I found on Google suggests that I still got a deal. And while I dont know enough about cooking for this to be useful to me as much more than a pretty paperweight, its good to know that if someone breaks into my house, I will be able to knock them out with a well-placed and esthetically pleasing swing of this strange thing. Bulk buy saving factor: Its one object, so its not exactly in bulk. Weird and wonderful factor: Maybe chefs would find this perfectly normal, but I definitely find this in the realm of fancy frivolous luxuries! Fancy Olive Oil I spoke too soon when I called those beets the most ridiculous thing Id seen, for on my Costco journey, there was one product that filled me with an unmatched sense of immediate bewilderment, joy, wonder and awe, and that was: extra virgin olive oil in a glass container shaped like a giant bottle of perfume, right down to the stylized No. 3 on the label (surely a reference to the classic Chanel No. 5 scent). As soon as I cradled this bottle in my arms, I knew it was so stupid and inexplicable that I had to have it. It wasnt much more expensive than the other types of olive oil around it, and when I used it to make eggs, they tasted exactly the same as always. The only thing that really sets this olive oil apart is that it happens to look like something Id delicately spritz on my neck instead of pour into a frying pan, and thats the kind of benevolent chaos everyones life needs. (It should be noted that two of my co-workers thought this was a bottle of alcohol at first glance, instead of perfume, so I would just like to caution everyone who frequents Costco to read labels carefully, and not take a swig of olive oil thinking its tequila.) Bulk buy savings factor: at $12.99, Ive seen cheaper for 1 litre of olive oil. Weird and wonderful factor: catch me on my next date accidentally dabbing on Eau de Olive. Bulk Microwave Popcorn Now, I realize this is junk food, but Ill say it: this is the most practical thing I purchased all day, and its the best deal I got. Its 44 bags of microwave popcorn. Its not really packed with intense butter flavour, but it is perfectly serviceable popcorn that can be seasoned any way you want, or enjoyed plain, if youre lazy like I am. This is a great example of something that makes sense to buy in bulk no matter who youre feeding or where you live. Its a snack food that basically doesnt expire, can be prepared quickly with only the aid of a microwave, and can be stored compactly. And if the box it comes in is genuinely too large for your downtown studio apartment that costs so much that microwave popcorn is sometimes the only food you can afford, you can always take out the individual packages and tuck them into the spare cracks of space in your underwear drawer. If I had any doubts whatsoever about my choices, this one was definitely validated when a woman in the checkout line excitedly asked me where I had found the popcorn. When I told her, she ran out of the line to go snag a box of her own. Thats a satisfied customer right there. Bulk buy saving factor: A price tag of $12.99 puts it at around 29 cents a bag, making this one of the best microwave popcorn deals Ive seen. Weird and wonderful factor: Its basic popcorn. Eggo Waffles It turns out 72 waffles can fit inside my freezer, but the reality of it is haunting me. I could now have two waffles everyday for breakfast for a month and a week. If I wanted to drown in maple syrup and completely put myself off waffles forever by eating two waffles for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I still wouldnt run out for 12 full days, almost two weeks. Its great. Its brilliant. Its ... definitely too much for one person. Theres no way I can eat all of this before freezer burn renders it inedible. Help me. Bulk buy savings factor: if I did the math correctly, each waffle is only 18 cents in this $13.99 box. Savings! Weird and wonderful factor: I mean, its just waffles. But a lot of them. Surface Savers Household Kit Anyone who is as familiar with the aisles of a dollar discount store has seen something like these before nothing fancy, just those little felt pieces you stick to the bottom of furniture to protect the floor from scratches. But have you seen a package of these with 310 pieces in varying sizes before? This thing is called a Household Kit and I am honestly struggling to envision what kind of Toronto household has so much furniture in it that you would require 96 circles of a specific size of felt. Some rough calculations, based mostly on the assumption that the majority of chairs and pieces of furniture either have four feet or four corners, tell me that I now have enough surface savers for approximately 64 pieces of furniture. Who am I, royalty? Bulk buy savings factor: Are you in charge of protecting the feet of every single chair at your office? For $9.79, the solution will be in your hands. Weird and wonderful factor: Pretty commonplace, practical stuff, if you ignore the amount. INTERLUDE Inside the store, seasons mattered not mittens are sold beside the door, with snowsuits farther in and hours squashed down into what felt like minutes as we explored countless aisles. It had that feeling of an indoor city where capitalism is god. And the best part? The samples. In the space of three aisles we tried six different things for free. One employee brought out full-size Popsicle samples, and a crowd of people descended on him so fast that within 30 seconds he was shouting that he was all out. Carts were getting into traffic jams in front of a sample stall of garlic chicken. A family whizzed by me with two carts, a woman balancing a 40 pack of toilet paper on her shoulder. At one point, in the baked goods section, I found myself just turning on the spot with my hands on my face like a confused figure skater. Shes hit the Costco overwhelm, my guide said. Giant Craft Jar This was the very first thing I picked up because it was the first thing that gave me that wow! factor (apologies for sounding like a guest judge on a fashion reality show.) Upon spotting this colourful plastic monstrosity, my inner kindergarten teacher lit up with sublime glee. I was inundated with visions of leading a gaggle of easily-distracted, paint-streaked, pint-sized terrors in a dazzling array of crafts as outlined in the jars complimentary book, which promised me 100 different crafts. However, I soon discovered that it was not quite as packed full as I had been lead to believe: a large curl of construction paper hid a smaller box in the middle, leaving a lot of empty space around it. I was supplied with around 17 different types of crafting materials, but there wasnt really enough of each thing to support a lot of crafts (I made one of the crafts outlined in the booktiny penguinsand had to make their feet pink because I wasnt given enough yellow foam to match the picture of the craft in the book). If you genuinely are buying this in the hopes that it could cut down on bulk buying for your class of 30 children, youll be disappointed. Bulk buy savings factor: You might be better served by taking your $18.99 to the dollar store craft aisle instead, as this jar looks like its meant to serve more people than it actually can. Weird and wonderful factor: Its a colourful plastic jar the size of my torso. Enough said. Read more about: Ontarios highest court has dismissed an appeal from doctors to keep secret how much the top OHIP billers are paid from the public purse. In a unanimous decision released Friday, the Court of Appeal for Ontario rejected all arguments from three doctors groups, including the Ontario Medical Association, which have been trying to block the Toronto Star from learning the identities of the highest paid doctors. We do not accept these submissions, a three-judge panel wrote in reference to all arguments made by the doctors who were seeking to have a unanimous lower court decision overturned. The doctors main argument was that physician-identified OHIP billings constitute personal information and that their release would be an unjustified invasion of personal privacy. But the appeal court found otherwise, noting that business revenue is not the same as personal income. Out of their gross revenue, physicians pay office, personnel, lab equipment, facility and hospital expenses. In our view, where, as here, an individuals gross professional or business income is not a reliable indicator of the individuals actual personal finances or income, it is reasonable to conclude not only that billing information is not personal information but also that it does not describe an individuals finances (or) income, the 10-page decision states. Read more: OMA clarifies plans for legal fight to keep top-billing doctors names secret OHIP billings should not be public because doctors are different, court told Doctors propose plan to reveal top OHIP billers As a result, we are not persuaded that the adjudicator erred in concluding that the billing information was not personal information, continues the ruling by Associate Chief Justice Alexandra Hoy, and Justices Paul Rouleau and Mary Lou Benotto. The decision marks a key chapter of a four-plus-year quest by the Star to get access to the names of doctors who receive the most money from the taxpayer-funded Ontario Health Insurance Plan. The battle started with a Freedom of Informationrequest to the health ministry and was followed by three appeals, including the most recent one, all of which favoured the Star. The Stars lawyer, Paul Schabas, said that Friday was a good day for access to information: The decision is a clear rejection of the assertion that doctors are somehow different. The court clearly finds that, like everyone else who receives money from the government, the public has a right to know and question payments to doctors. Thats good for government accountability and democracy. Which is why we have access to information laws. The first appeal ruling came in June 2016 when John Higgins, an adjudicator with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, found in favour of the Star in ordering that the names be released. He wrote in his decision that public disclosure is in the best interest of transparency and accountability. But the doctors sought a judicial review of the order, arguing that Higgins erred by departing from previous decisions by the information commission, which found that names constitute personal information. The Ontario Divisional Court last year denied the doctors request to quash the information commissions order. And now the Court of Appeal has upheld the lower courts ruling. Both courts awarded costs to the Star, the most recent in the amount of $25,000. Lawyers representing the doctors said they are reviewing the latest court decision and are uncertain whether they will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Because decisions of the nations highest court are final, such an appeal would be a last resort for the doctors. The names of the highest billing doctors will remain under wraps until the next legal steps are decided. However, according to ministry data, in one fiscal year alone 2012-13 the top 100 billers took in a combined $191 million. The highest biller alone claimed more than $6 million, while the second and third highest billers each claimed more than $4 million. Nineteen doctors received payments of more than $2 million each. In a written statement, OMA president Dr. Nadia Alam said that publishing physician billings without context does not paint an accurate picture of the physician pay structure. On average, 30 per cent of a doctors gross pay goes to overhead. Doctors pay staff salaries out of billings and employ nearly 100,000 people across the province. We cover the costs of our infrastructure, equipment, out-of-hospital operating rooms, and everything right on down to chairs, desks and examining tables. None of this is mentioned when an Excel sheet is printed in a newspaper to generate clicks. This request serves only as a distraction from a bureaucratic and inefficient health-care system which, for the past six years, has failed to put patients first. Read more: Health Ministry urged to crack down on problematic doctor billing In the past, the OMA has said that the public would not understand the difference between physician income and OHIP payments. The OMA represents 28,100 practising physicians in the province. The other two doctors groups involved in the case describe themselves as Several Physicians Affected Directly by the Order and Affected Third Party Doctors. The Star had to argue a motion in Divisional Court to learn more about the membership of these two latter groups. They are made up of a total of 34 doctors, all of them men, more than half of whom practise in the GTA. Approximately one-third are radiologists and another third are ophthalmologists. These specialty groups are among the top OHIP billers. The case originated in early 2014 with a Freedom of Information request from the Star to Ontarios health ministry for physician-identified data on the top 100 OHIP billers. In its FOI request, the Star asked for physician-identified billing data on the top 100 billers for the most recent five years available, which back then was 2008 to 2012, inclusive. The request captures about 160 doctors. Requests for billing data have been made by media outlets for decades. The ministry responded to the Stars request the same way it had to previous requests. It granted partial access payments and most medical specialties but withheld physician names, deeming their release would be an unjustified invasion of privacy. This time the Star decided to appeal the decision to the information commissioner, arguing there is a public interest in disclosure of the names. Other jurisdictions already release physician-identified billing data annually. New Brunswick began doing so last year, the United States in 2014 (for Medicare payments), Manitoba in 1996 and British Columbia in 1971. The Court of Appeals decision is significant because it will likely affect how much data on physician billings can be released in future. Pending the outcome of this case, the information commissioner has put on hold another appeal by the Star, this one seeking the release of physician-identified billings for all Ontario doctors. The City of Toronto will install automatic speed enforcement technology as part of a pair of new Vision Zero initiatives to reduce traffic-related fatalities, but drivers will not be ticketed under the pilot. In a statement, Mayor John Tory said the new initiatives will help reduce speed in Toronto. We all have a responsibility to keep people safe on Torontos roads, and excessive speed is a major contributor to deaths and injuries in Toronto, the Mayor said in a statement. An automated speed enforcement pilot program using photo-radar technology will run from September to December in different locations across the city. The pilot will collect traffic data including speed and volume of vehicles for educational and outreach purposes, the city said in a statement. Drivers will not face tickets for excessive speed under the pilot, however, as provincial laws do not allow it, the city said. The city will also expand the existing Watch Your Speed Program in each city ward. The program features mobile LED signs that show drivers their speed in real time. Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25 Don Valley West), called the two programs significant steps forward. We are committed to improving safety for all road users and these programs will serve as two key tools to curb aggressive driving behaviours in the city of Toronto, the chair of the public works and infrastructure committee said. Its been more than two years since Mayor John Tory announced Vision Zero, a plan to reduce traffic deaths to zero by 2021. By the Stars count, 21 pedestrians and four cyclists have been killed in Toronto this year alone, with nearly 100 total deaths since the initiative was announced. The Stars numbers are higher than police statistics in part because the force doesnt count collisions on provincial highways within Toronto, or cyclist deaths that dont involve a motorist. In June, council approved $22 million in new spending to accelerate the Vision Zero plan. Here is the latest jail booking report from Hamilton County: AUSTIN, ASHLEY MESHELLE 2301 EAST 18TH STREET CHATTANOOGA, 37406 Age at Arrest: 26 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County FUGITIVE (ARREST FOR CRIME IN BARTOW COUNTY GA) --- BACHAND, DION THOMAS 2531 CUMMINS HWY #12 CHATTANOOGA, 37419 Age at Arrest: 30 years old Arresting Agency: UTC DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE --- BASS, LAKISHA MICHELLE 2300 WINDSOR STREET NO 105 CHATTANOOGA, 37406 Age at Arrest: 35 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County CHILD SUPPORT NON PAYMENT --- BEACH, MARQUEL JOVON 1612 E 12TH ST CHATTANOOGA, 37404 Age at Arrest: 29 years old Arresting Agency: Chattanooga DOMESTIC ASSAULT --- BINKLEY, CLARA RENEE 1409 S KELLY ST CHATTANOOGA, 37404 Age at Arrest: 47 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS --- BREWER, JOEY EUGENE 1860 CORTNER RD WARTRACE, 373557840 Age at Arrest: 36 years old Arresting Agency: Federal Marshall Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) --- BURCH, VICTOR VANSHEN 625 W 14TH STREET CT CHATTANOOGA, 37402 Age at Arrest: 20 years old Arresting Agency: Chattanooga AGGRAVATED DOMESTIC ASSAULT --- CANNON, MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER 1312 ELY ROAD APT 9 HIXSON, 37343 Age at Arrest: 30 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REGISTRATION, DRIVING UNREGISTERED VEHICLE --- CARTER, TANISHA M 4905 JEFFERY LANE CHATTANOOGA, 37410 Age at Arrest: 30 years old Arresting Agency: East Ridge VIOLATION OF ORDER OF PROTECTION OR RESTRAINING OR --- COSTLOW, JASON ALLEN 124 ARNOLD STREET SAVANNA, 31401 Age at Arrest: 27 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County VIOLATION OF PROBATION (THEFT OF PROPERTY) --- CRUTCHER, LONDON JAMES 4611 PAW TRAIL CHATTANOOGA, 37416 Age at Arrest: 29 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS --- DAVIS, SARA RENEE 815 W 13TH STREET APT 327 CHATTANOOGA, 37402 Age at Arrest: 22 years old Arresting Agency: East Ridge Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) --- DRAGG, KEVIN DEVON 2704 ROANOKE AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37406 Age at Arrest: 29 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County AGGRAVATED STATUTORY RAPE --- DUNN, ALEXUS JADE 1513 HOWARD STREET CLEVELAND, 37311 Age at Arrest: 19 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County THEFT UNDER $1,000 --- ECTOR, TONYA LASHAN 4000 Fagan St Chattanooga, 374101718 Age at Arrest: 46 years old Arresting Agency: Chattanooga CRIMINAL TRESPASSING --- FISHER, CARLOS MONWELL 6614 GLENWOOD PARKWAY HARRISON, 37341 Age at Arrest: 23 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County VIOLATION OF PROBATION (AGGRAVATED BURGLARY) --- FORD, JOHN ELIGHA 343 DUCKTOWN STREET SODDY DAISY, 37379 Age at Arrest: 24 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS --- GARMANY, GREGORY SCOTT 6932 GLEN ARROW WAY CHATTANOOGA, 37412 Age at Arrest: 51 years old Arresting Agency: Hamilton County VIOLATION OF PROBATION (RESISTING ARREST OR OBSTRU DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE --- GARRETT, DARIAN GAGE 24 PALM BEACH AVE. ROSSVILLE, 30741Age at Arrest: 19 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRUGS GENERAL CATEGORY FOR RESALETAMPERING WITH OR FABRICATING EVIDENCE---GASS, MELISSA ANN315 HARBOR LANE CHATTANOOGA, 37402Age at Arrest: 20 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS---GODSEY, TIMOTHY15 PINHOOK ST SAVANNAH, 38372Age at Arrest: 55 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---HAMILTON, GARRELL LANDRELL7372 BAYOU BEND MEMPHIS, 38125Age at Arrest: 20 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaVANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF---HAYNES, WILLIAM J21 CAMBRIDGE DR HAMILTON, 45013Age at Arrest: 30 years oldArresting Agency: Tenn Highway PatrolDRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE---HICKMAN, TERRIE ELIZABETH1622 DALLAS LAKE ROAD HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 48 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SDRIVING ON SUSPENDED LICENSESEAT BELT LAW VIOLATION---HILDRETH, SUSAN REBECCA745 DELAWARE AVE NASHVILLE, 37115Age at Arrest: 37 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS---HITCHCOCK, EDDIE TERRELL1220 GROVE STREET CT CHATTANOOGA, 37402Age at Arrest: 47 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIOLATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (VIOLATION OF SVIOLATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (VIOLATION OF SVIOLATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (ATTEMPT VIOLAT---HUNTER, PATRICK DEMETRIUS1607 E 13TH ST CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 44 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaDOMESTIC ASSAULT---JARVIS, THOMAS JASON6402 RIDGE LAKE RD HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 28 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaPUBLIC INTOXICATIONPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCEPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCEPOSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA---JENKINS, JIMMY TERRELL1105 ARLINGTON STREET CHATTANOOGA, 37402Age at Arrest: 25 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSEFINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY---JOHNSON, JAMES LEBRON713 CASTLE DR CHATTANOOGA, 37411Age at Arrest: 33 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaAGGRAVATED ASSAULT---JOHNSON, LATEEFAH NASHEED4517 BADGER LN CHATTANOOGA, 37416Age at Arrest: 34 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyFUGITIVE (WHITFIELD COUNTY GEORGIA)---JORDAN, ROBERT THOMAS5004 JARRETT ROAD CHATTANOOGA, 37416Age at Arrest: 42 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaTRAFFIC CONTROL SIGNALS VIOLATIONDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE---KNIGHT, LAVANTEZ CORSUANTA2801 TAYLOR ST CHATTANOOGA, 37406Age at Arrest: 24 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaVIOLATION OF PROBATION ( AGGRAVATED ASSAULT DOMEST---KNOX, ERIC SCOTT7343 STERLING ROAD HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 49 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---LANDA, JANELLE LIN6931 GLEN ERROL WAY CHATTANOOGA, 37412Age at Arrest: 44 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaVIOLATION OF PROBATION ( THEFT UNDER 500)VIOLATION OF PROBATION ( THEFT UNDER 500)---LEPARD, LOGAN DEWAYNE4577 WEST HASSLER ROAD SIGNAL MOUNTAIN, 37377Age at Arrest: 21 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRIVING ON SUSPENDED LICENSE---MARTIN, AMY RANEE727 E 11TH ST CHATTANOOGA, 37403Age at Arrest: 43 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---MILES, GEORGE NATHANIEL706 CHICKAMAUGA AVENUE ROSSVILLE, 30741Age at Arrest: 40 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE---MILLRANEY, SAMANTHA NICOLE3902 DODDS AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37407Age at Arrest: 29 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyFUGITIVE (DADE COUNTY GEORGIA)---MILLS, TRINITY KRISTIN21 CAMBRIDGE DR HAMILTON, 45013Age at Arrest: 34 years oldArresting Agency: Tenn Highway PatrolDRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE BY CONSENT---MONCIER, CHARLES HOWARD3718 VALERIN CHATTANOONGA, 37405Age at Arrest: 46 years oldArresting Agency: Soddy DaisyFAILURE TO APPEAR---MOON, KIANA NASHAY404 TUNNEL BLVD E9 CHATTANOOGA, 37411Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyFAILURE TO APPEAR---MORRIS, LORENZO JERMAINE2907 N CHAMBERLAIN AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37406Age at Arrest: 27 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaVANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF---NASH, MELVIN RAY4008 HIGHLAND AVENUE CHATTANOOGA, 37410Age at Arrest: 30 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIOLATION OF PROBATION (BURGLARY OF A BUSINESS)VIOLATION OF PROBATION (BURGLARY OF A BUSINESS)VIOLATION OF PROBATION (BURGLARY)---NEWTON, CHERYL LYNN4904 13TH AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37407Age at Arrest: 43 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaVIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SVIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED S---OLIVER, KAYLA LEE1413 MCCALLIE FERRY ROAD SODDY DAISY, 37379Age at Arrest: 41 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyCRIMINAL CONSPIRACY---PARKER, MARK LAMAR1700 WALKER ST CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 54 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF FIREARM WITH---PHILLIPS, CAROL ELIZABETHSALVATION ARMY MCCAL CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 28 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDOMESTIC ASSAULTDOMESTIC ASSAULTFAILURE TO APPEAR---PILGRIM, AMBER FAITH414DOGWOOD LANE CHATTANOOGA, 37406Age at Arrest: 32 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyVIOLATION OF PROBATION (ATTEMPT TO INITIATE THE PR---PRITCHETT, JEREMEY TODD484 COHULLA RD SE CLEVELAND, 373239110Age at Arrest: 41 years oldArresting Agency: Collegedale PoliceBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---RIDGE, ROBERT TIMOTHY427 BOY SCOUT ROAD HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 58 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE---SISSON, JEREMY ALLAN3015 A ADDISON RD CHATTANOOGA, 37406Age at Arrest: 34 years oldArresting Agency: East RidgeBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---SMITH, HUGH LYNN5604 CHESTNUT POND DR OOLTEWAH, 37363Age at Arrest: 64 years oldArresting Agency: Collegedale PoliceBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---SMITH, TAUREA C5000 WOODLAND VIEW CIR CHATTANOOGA, 374102153Age at Arrest: 39 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE---SWAFFORD, WHITNEY DASHA2300 WILSON ST #3K CHATTANOOGA, 37406Age at Arrest: 32 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaAGGRAVATED ASSAULTAGGRAVATED ASSAULTAGGRAVATED ASSAULTCONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONSAGGRAVATED ASSAULT(DOMESTIC)---SYLVESTER, JANA DONISE6171 VERONICA DRIVE OOLTEWAH, 37363Age at Arrest: 37 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountySPEEDINGDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSEDRIVING ON REVOKED LICENSE---TESTER, JOHN A900 MOUNTAIN CREEK ROAD SIGNAL MOUNTAIN, 37403Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaRESISTING ARREST OR OBSTRUCTION OF LEGAL PROCESSEVADING ARRESTPOSS. OF HANDGUN WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCEDRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCEIMPLIED CONSENT LAW - DRIVERS---THOMAS, TODD DEWAYNE711 OGRADY DR CHATTANOOGA, 37419Age at Arrest: 42 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaPUBLIC INTOXICATION---TOWNSEND, CALEB DREW5821 NORTHSHORE DRIVE HIXSON, 37343Age at Arrest: 33 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSEREGISTRATION, DRIVING UNREGISTERED VEHICLE---TURNER, JOSHUA BENJAMIN15 HENDRIX BOULEVARD CHATTANOOGA, 37415Age at Arrest: 36 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s)---TURPEINEN, ANGELA LINEA12807 PIERCE RD BIRCHWOOD, 37308Age at Arrest: 43 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyDRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE---WALKER, TANNER NICOLE936 MOUNTAIN CREEK ROAD APT P180 CHATTANOOGA, 37405Age at Arrest: 22 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCEPOSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIAFAILURE TO MAINTAIN LANE---WELCH, CLIFFORD ARTHUR2306 E 14TH ST APT B CHATTANOOGA, 37404Age at Arrest: 42 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaFUGITIVE (ARREST FOR CRIME IN ANOTHER STATE)---WELCHER, ZACHERY JAY7710 CECLIA DRIVE CHATTANOOGA, 37416Age at Arrest: 28 years oldArresting Agency: Hamilton CountyPOSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIAPOSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE---WESTFIELD, DANNY ANTONIO3301 PINEWOOD AVE CHATTANOOGA, 37411Age at Arrest: 35 years oldArresting Agency: ChattanoogaLEAVING SCENE OF ACCIDENTFAILURE TO YIELDDRIVERS TO EXERCISE DUE CAREDRIVING ON REVOKED LICENSERECKLESS AGGRAVATED ASSAULTDRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCEDRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE---WOTTON, BERNARD LEON10288 VIRLEY LANE COLLEGEDALE, 37315Age at Arrest: 73 years oldArresting Agency: Collegedale PoliceBooked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) Here are the mug shots: BACHAND, DION THOMAS Age at Arrest: 30 Date of Birth: 05/05/1988 Arresting Agency: UTC Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE BASS, LAKISHA MICHELLE Age at Arrest: 35 Date of Birth: 10/13/1982 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CHILD SUPPORT NON PAYMENT BEACH, MARQUEL JOVON Age at Arrest: 29 Date of Birth: 05/08/1989 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT BINKLEY, CLARA RENEE Age at Arrest: 47 Date of Birth: 01/19/1971 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS BREWER, JOEY EUGENE Age at Arrest: 36 Date of Birth: 02/14/1982 Arresting Agency: Federal Marshall Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) CANNON, MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER Age at Arrest: 30 Date of Birth: 02/27/1988 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REGISTRATION, DRIVING UNREGISTERED VEHICLE CARTER, TANISHA M Age at Arrest: 30 Date of Birth: 03/26/1988 Arresting Agency: East Ridge Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF ORDER OF PROTECTION OR RESTRAINING OR COSTLOW, JASON ALLEN Age at Arrest: 27 Date of Birth: 02/21/1991 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (THEFT OF PROPERTY) CRUTCHER, LONDON JAMES Age at Arrest: 29 Date of Birth: 02/14/1989 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS DAVIS, SARA RENEE Age at Arrest: 22 Date of Birth: 03/31/1996 Arresting Agency: East Ridge Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) DRAGG, KEVIN DEVON Age at Arrest: 29 Date of Birth: 12/26/1988 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): AGGRAVATED STATUTORY RAPE DUNN, ALEXUS JADE Age at Arrest: 19 Date of Birth: 04/14/1999 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): THEFT UNDER $1,000 ECTOR, TONYA LASHAN Age at Arrest: 46 Date of Birth: 12/21/1971 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CRIMINAL TRESPASSING FISHER, CARLOS MONWELL Age at Arrest: 23 Date of Birth: 05/24/1995 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (AGGRAVATED BURGLARY) FORD, JOHN ELIGHA Age at Arrest: 24 Date of Birth: 06/14/1994 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS GARMANY, GREGORY SCOTT Age at Arrest: 51 Date of Birth: 02/20/1967 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (RESISTING ARREST OR OBSTRU DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE GASS, MELISSA ANN Age at Arrest: 20 Date of Birth: 02/18/1998 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS HAMILTON, GARRELL LANDRELL Age at Arrest: 20 Date of Birth: 04/01/1998 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF HAYNES, WILLIAM J Age at Arrest: 30 Date of Birth: 02/04/1988 Arresting Agency: Tenn Highway Patrol Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE HICKMAN, TERRIE ELIZABETH Age at Arrest: 48 Date of Birth: 05/26/1970 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED S DRIVING ON SUSPENDED LICENSE SEAT BELT LAW VIOLATION HILDRETH, SUSAN REBECCA Age at Arrest: 37 Date of Birth: 01/20/1981 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CONTRABAND IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS HITCHCOCK, EDDIE TERRELL Age at Arrest: 47 Date of Birth: 06/05/1971 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (VIOLATION OF S VIOLATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (VIOLATION OF S VIOLATION OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (ATTEMPT VIOLAT HUNTER, PATRICK DEMETRIUS Age at Arrest: 44 Date of Birth: 12/03/1973 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT JARVIS, THOMAS JASON Age at Arrest: 28 Date of Birth: 06/20/1990 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): PUBLIC INTOXICATION POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA JENKINS, JIMMY TERRELL Age at Arrest: 25 Date of Birth: 03/20/1993 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOHNSON, LATEEFAH NASHEED Age at Arrest: 34 Date of Birth: 11/11/1983 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): FUGITIVE (WHITFIELD COUNTY GEORGIA) JORDAN, ROBERT THOMAS Age at Arrest: 42 Date of Birth: 09/22/1975 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): TRAFFIC CONTROL SIGNALS VIOLATION DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE KNOX, ERIC SCOTT Age at Arrest: 49 Date of Birth: 06/10/1969 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) LEPARD, LOGAN DEWAYNE Age at Arrest: 21 Date of Birth: 03/02/1997 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON SUSPENDED LICENSE MARTIN, AMY RANEE Age at Arrest: 43 Date of Birth: 08/27/1974 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) MILES, GEORGE NATHANIEL Age at Arrest: 40 Date of Birth: 02/01/1978 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE MILLRANEY, SAMANTHA NICOLE Age at Arrest: 29 Date of Birth: 11/24/1988 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): FUGITIVE (DADE COUNTY GEORGIA) MILLS, TRINITY KRISTIN Age at Arrest: 34 Date of Birth: 03/26/1984 Arresting Agency: Tenn Highway Patrol Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE BY CONSENT MONCIER, CHARLES HOWARD Age at Arrest: 46 Date of Birth: 12/27/1971 Arresting Agency: Soddy Daisy Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): FAILURE TO APPEAR MOON, KIANA NASHAY Age at Arrest: 22 Date of Birth: 11/22/1995 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): FAILURE TO APPEAR MORRIS, LORENZO JERMAINE Age at Arrest: 27 Date of Birth: 07/23/1991 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VANDALISM/MALICIOUS MISCHIEF NASH, MELVIN RAY Age at Arrest: 30 Date of Birth: 07/24/1988 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (BURGLARY OF A BUSINESS) VIOLATION OF PROBATION (BURGLARY OF A BUSINESS) VIOLATION OF PROBATION (BURGLARY) NEWTON, CHERYL LYNN Age at Arrest: 43 Date of Birth: 12/09/1974 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED S VIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED S OLIVER, KAYLA LEE Age at Arrest: 41 Date of Birth: 02/22/1977 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY PARKER, MARK LAMAR Age at Arrest: 54 Date of Birth: 08/07/1963 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (POSSESSION OF FIREARM WITH PHILLIPS, CAROL ELIZABETH Age at Arrest: 28 Date of Birth: 10/27/1989 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DOMESTIC ASSAULT DOMESTIC ASSAULT FAILURE TO APPEAR PILGRIM, AMBER FAITH Age at Arrest: 32 Date of Birth: 02/26/1986 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): VIOLATION OF PROBATION (ATTEMPT TO INITIATE THE PR PRITCHETT, JEREMEY TODD Age at Arrest: 41 Date of Birth: 02/07/1977 Arresting Agency: Collegedale Police Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) RIDGE, ROBERT TIMOTHY Age at Arrest: 58 Date of Birth: 11/23/1959 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE SISSON, JEREMY ALLAN Age at Arrest: 34 Date of Birth: 06/28/1984 Arresting Agency: East Ridge Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) SMITH, TAUREA C Age at Arrest: 39 Date of Birth: 08/16/1978 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE SYLVESTER, JANA DONISE Age at Arrest: 37 Date of Birth: 10/27/1980 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): SPEEDING DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE DRIVING ON REVOKED LICENSE TESTER, JOHN A Age at Arrest: 22 Date of Birth: 11/08/1995 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): RESISTING ARREST OR OBSTRUCTION OF LEGAL PROCESS EVADING ARREST POSS. OF HANDGUN WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE IMPLIED CONSENT LAW - DRIVERS TOWNSEND, CALEB DREW Age at Arrest: 33 Date of Birth: 03/22/1985 Arresting Agency: Chattanooga Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Charge(s): DRIVING ON REVOKED, SUSPENDED OR CANCELLED LICENSE REGISTRATION, DRIVING UNREGISTERED VEHICLE TURNER, JOSHUA BENJAMIN Age at Arrest: 36 Date of Birth: 07/12/1982 Arresting Agency: Hamilton County Last Date of Arrest: 08/03/2018 Booked for Previous Charges or Other Reason(s) As fury mounts over the Ford governments cancellation of Ontarios basic income pilot project, advocates are looking for ways to salvage it, both out of compassion for participants who signed up in good faith and to learn the results. Some are suggesting Ottawa should take up the reins. The federal government already runs income programs for seniors and children, but not for low-income working-age adults, said Sheila Regehr, chair of the Basic Income Canada Network. They have an obligation to make income security work better for all Canadians, Regehr said. If Ottawa completed Ontarios $50-million-a-year pilot, the results would either support or dismiss the feasibility of a national basic income and align with a two-year-old Liberal Party policy to pursue the idea, she added. Read more: Ontarios cancellation of basic income pilot is seen as a setback by B.C. proponents Basic income recipients feel shock, betrayal at Ford governments surprise move to cancel pilot program I may end up homeless again: Six Ontarians talk about their life before, after and, once again, without basic income Ottawa was already supporting the pilot by sharing participants federal tax return data with Ontario. But the federal government has not responded to the projects demise this week. The design of provincial social programs is up to the provincial governments, federal Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Ducloss office said in a statement. Ontarios pilot project was launched in April 2017 and offered 4,000 low-income residents in three communities almost $14,000 a year to individuals or $24,000 to couples, and an extra $6,000 for the disabled. At the time, all provincial party leaders supported the experiments quest to determine whether unconditional payments to low-income workers and people on welfare improved health, housing and educational outcomes. After the Progressive Conservatives elected Doug Ford as their leader, a senior campaign spokesperson confirmed in writing to the Star that Ford would allow the three-year experiment to proceed if he became premier. Despite that promise, Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod axed the pilot on Tuesday, after just 15 months. MacLeod has been vague about when the payments would stop, saying more details would be released at a later date. What do you think? While Regehr doesnt think Ottawa should be bailing Ford out, if he really refuses and will not budge, participants in this pilot shouldnt suffer, she said. And across Canada, we shouldnt suffer the waste of this learning potential that is important to everybody in the country, added Regehr, whose network has been advocating for a national program for more than a decade. The research this generates allows all provinces, and ideally Ottawa too, to make better policy. MacLeod said she killed the project because it isnt sufficiently aligned with the Ford governments focus on moving people on welfare into jobs. However, 70 per cent of participants were already working when they enrolled, but earned too little to pay rent and buy food. For participants with jobs, the basic income was reduced by 50 cents for every dollar earned until annual incomes thresholds of about $34,000 for singles and $48,000 for couples were reached. One of the research goals was to see what happens when low-wage, precarious workers receive a financial top-up. Thats information any government concerned about vulnerable populations should value, Regehr said. Poverty, insecurity, precarious employment dont stop at provincial and territorial borders, she said. This matters hugely. This isnt just about Ontario. In addition to 4,000 people in Hamilton-Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay who volunteered to receive the monthly, no-strings-attached payments despite widespread mistrust of such government largesse another 2,000 agreed to answer surveys as a comparison group. It is actually quite difficult to get 6,000 people into a study, noted Kwame McKenzie, director of health equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and CEO of the Wellesley Institute. It is a study that has put Ontario and Canada at the forefront of thinking about an issue that has gained a lot of attention worldwide, said McKenzie, the previous Liberal governments research adviser on the project. Basic income experiments are planned or are underway in Scotland, India, Kenya, Finland and Oakland, California. In Canada, B.C.s NDP-Green coalition government has also commissioned a feasibility study. Killing Ontarios project before the results are known, is a loss, no question, McKenzie added. When Ontario announced its intention to fund a basic income pilot in 2016, Duclos welcomed the initiative and said Ottawa would be watching. Although Duclos was not commenting this week, federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was on Twitter expressing her concern for participants. We are talking about peoples lives, McKenna tweeted, linking to a media report that said the 1,000 Hamilton participants were sold a bill of goods by the Ford government in the election. They were lied to. Bob Bratina, the former Hamilton mayor and Liberal MP for Hamilton-East Stoney Creek, said he also felt for constituents who would be suffering as a result of the provincial move. But he was noncommittal about any role Ottawa might play. I hadnt thought about it . . except to say everything the provincial government does is a matter of discussion for us, he said when asked if he thinks Ottawa should step in to complete the project. However, he said it would be a worthy topic at the governments caucus meeting in Saskatoon on Sept. 12 and 13. Meantime, Hamilton participants and advocates are considering legal action and planning to protest at Queens Park next week. And in Lindsay, where 2,000 residents were signed up for the program, a rally is scheduled at Victoria Park, across from the library. One man is injured following a shooting in Brampton Saturday afternoon, Peel police say. They received the call shortly after 4:30 p.m. and were dispatched to the area of Aylesbury and Veterans Drs., just down the street from Aylesbury Public School. One man was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police say. There was no suspect description immediately available. Officers and a K-9 unit were canvassing the area for witnesses. Anyone with information or video surveillance is asked to call investigators at 905-453-2121, ext. 2233. Aylesbury Dr. is closed at Veterans Dr. for the investigation. Claire Floody is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @claire_floody Read more about: TALLAHASSEE, FLA.Florida Democratic legislators are using an obscure state law to try to force the Republican-controlled Legislature to repeal the states contentious stand your ground law. Democrats asked Secretary of State Ken Detzner to officially poll legislators on whether they would support holding a special session to amend or repeal the law. The law allows people to use deadly force without retreating if they believe they are in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm. A Florida sheriff recently cited the law as the reason he did not charge a white man who shot an unarmed Black man during a parking lot dispute. A yes vote by three-fifths of the Legislature would result in a special session. But Republicans rejected a similar request in 2013. NASA has named the astronauts chosen to fly on commercial spacecraft made by Boeing and SpaceX to and from the International Space Station, the research laboratory that orbits around Earth. Their voyages are scheduled to begin next year, and they would be the first American astronauts to launch from U.S. soil since 2011. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet that year, and started sending astronauts to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of $81 million (U.S.) per seat. What an exciting and amazing day, Jim Bridenstine, NASAs administrator, said at the announcement at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. But a Government Accountability Office report published last month raised alarm bells that the project is running behind schedule, and could miss key deadlines. The delays could even result in a gap in U.S. access to the space station, because NASA has contracted for seats on Soyuz only through November 2019, the report found. Friday, NASA said that if unmanned test flights go smoothly, the group of nine astronauts will fly before then, on the first test flight and mission of Boeings CST-100 Starliner and SpaceXs Crew Dragon. NASA worked closely with the companies to engineer both spacecraft. The opportunity to fly in a new vehicle is any test pilot and astronauts dream, Mike Hopkins, an Air Force colonel who will fly aboard the Crew Dragon on its first mission, wrote on Twitter. Hopkins had previously spent 166 days on the International Space Station, and conducted two spacewalks. He will be joined by Victor Glover, a Navy commander who will be making his first trip into space. The test flight astronauts on the Crew Dragon, both of whom joined NASA in 2000, will be Col. Bob Behnken of the Air Force and Doug Hurley, a retired Marine Corps colonel. The Crew Dragon will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The uncrewed test is planned for November; the test flight with crew aboard is set for April 2019. The astronauts assigned to the Starliners first mission are Sunita Williams, who retired as a Navy captain, and Cmdr. Josh Cassada of the Navy, who will be making his first voyage into space. Williams has spent 322 days aboard the International Space Station since becoming an astronaut in 1998. While she was there in 2007, she completed the Boston Marathon on a treadmill in 4 hours 24 minutes, marking the first time an entrant had finished the race from orbit. On the test flight for the Starliner will be: Eric Boe, a former space shuttle pilot who retired from the Air Force; Christopher Ferguson, a Boeing astronaut who left NASA in 2011; and Lt. Col. Nicole Mann of the Marine Corps. It would be the first space trip for Mann. The Starliner will launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The unmanned test flight is scheduled for late 2018 or early 2019. The test flight with crew is scheduled for mid-2019. Maintaining the International Space Station costs the federal government up to $4 billion a year, and NASA is working on plans to privatize it. The Trump administration proposed eliminating direct federal funding for the station by 2025, and allocating money to commercial entities who could operate it. But NASAs options may be limited by the international agreements that established the station in 1998. Both Boeing and SpaceX are also working with Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas company that plans to launch private space stations into orbit, to be leased to nations or companies. The contracts for travel to the International Space Station were awarded in 2014. Boeing received a $4.2-billion contract, and SpaceXs was for $2.6 billion. Read more about: WASHINGTONA Russian citizen who worked for more than a decade at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was terminated last summer after she was discovered having unusual secret contacts with Russian intelligence agents, according to documents and two people familiar with the case. The woman had worked as a local investigator in the U.S. Secret Service office in the embassy since 2001, the people said. But she was fired in early August 2017 after State Department investigators surveilled her movements and were alarmed to find her meeting and communicating with agents of the Federal Security Service, better known as the FSB, the people said. It is unclear if her FSB conversations led to any damage to national security. A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the investigator lost her position after a standard security review. The statement stressed that she would have never been provided or placed in a position to obtain secret or classified information. The Secret Service issued a statement saying it conducted an internal review the day that the State Department notified the service in July 2017 about proposing to terminate the Russian employee. The review resulted in the determination that no unusual activity occurred and there were no issues from a data exfiltration perspective, the statement said. But others with knowledge of her termination said the Secret Service failed to conduct a full damage assessment of the kind of information she may have accessed and shared over her 16 years in the office. The Russian woman did have access to the Secret Services official email system, according to one of the people familiar with the termination. On this system, agents share closely held, but unclassified, information on plans for the presidents trips and schedule. In her job, she served as a liaison between Russian law enforcement and the Secret Service, and former embassy staffers said she would have had access to information about agency investigations of financial fraud and cybercrimes. Secret Service investigators were the first to identify the Russian government as directing the 2014 hack into the White Houses unclassified email system. The Washington Post, which was unable to reach the woman by email, is not identifying her by name. A routine State Department security review first raised a flag about her FSB communications in 2016, and two State Department investigators began investigating and then reported their findings in the summer of 2017 to the embassys top security officer, Michael Mack, internal correspondence shows. She was stripped of her security access and barred from the building pending a full review. On Aug. 3, 2017, Mack formally recommended that she be terminated, the records show. The ambassador at the time, John Tefft, later agreed. Just after she was fired, the Secret Service closed down its small Moscow office, which normally was staffed by one resident agent. The timing of both the firing and the offices closure coincided with a major blow to the embassy: President Vladimir Putin announced he was expelling hundreds of embassy employees from Russia. The State Department declined to detail the reasons for the womans departure. Spokesmen for the State Department and the Secret Service emphasized that they are on guard for the risk of foreign service nationals being pressured to spy for their country. The U.S. Secret Service recognizes that all Foreign Service Nationals (FSN) who provide services in furtherance of our mission, administrative or otherwise, can be subjected to foreign intelligence influence, a statement read. As such, all Foreign Service Nationals are managed accordingly to ensure that Secret Service and United States Government interests are protected at all times. The State Department carefully vets and monitors foreign service nationals for just this kind of security breach, a spokesman said. Diplomatic Security and other law enforcement agencies rigorously vet new hires at our missions overseas, and all employees are also subject to ongoing reviews to ensure they are fully complying with their security responsibilities and Department security requirements, said a statement from the State Department. When we identify an employee in violation of security directives, we take appropriate action at the appropriate time. The woman was described by former co-workers as a native of St. Petersburg, a wife and mother, and a mild-mannered investigator who kept to herself. Her State Department employee picture shows a trim woman with a pale complexion and straight brown hair. She was not a social butterfly, said David Rubincam, an FBI agent who served as the FBIs legal attache in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and retired in 2013. There were a lot of Russians you would meet in the cafeteria. She wasnt one of them. Pretty much kept to herself. Did her work and went home. U.S. embassies employ hundreds of local citizens to serve in a range of roles, including cafeteria workers and housekeeping staff as well as investigators and translators. In Russia, China and other adversarial countries, Rubincam said, U.S. officials assume that foreign service nationals will be approached by their home countrys intelligence agencies for information. In Russia, sometimes they will be pressured to begin working secretly for the FSB to find out information the bureau is seeking about American diplomats or activities in the office. If you are a foreign-service-national investigator especially, the odds of the host nation, your own countrys intelligence agency, trying to sweet talk or strong-arm you for information is virtually 100 per cent, Rubincam said. But you have to report it. If someone asks you to spy on the embassy that employs you, you have to report it. If you fail to report it, youre gone. Rubincam said the FSBs pressure on foreign nationals grew increasingly aggressive after Putin returned to the presidency in 2012. Some local employees found FSB agents in their apartments waiting for them after work. They pushed the door in on them when they got home from grocery shopping, Rubincam said. They said, Youre going to do this, and youre doing to do that. They tried to use leverage on them. To protect sensitive information, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has created a hard line in the building, which means there are separate floors of offices where foreign service nationals are unable to go. U.S. marines guard the entrance to their floors to check badges. People with blue badges American staffers can enter. Those with yellow badges foreign nationals cannot. Read more about: PORTLAND, MAINEThe now-disbanded voting integrity commission launched by the U.S. Trump administration uncovered no evidence to support claims of widespread voter fraud, according to an analysis of administration documents released Friday. In a letter to U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who are both Republicans and led the commission, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said the documents show there was a preordained outcome and that drafts of a commission report included a section on evidence of voter fraud that was glaringly empty. Its calling into the darkness, looking for voter fraud, Dunlap, a Democrat, told The Associated Press. Theres no real evidence of it anywhere. U.S. Republican President Donald Trump convened the commission to investigate the 2016 presidential election after making unsubstantiated claims that between three- and five-million ballots were illegally cast. Critics, including Dunlap, reject his claims of widespread voter fraud. The Trump administration last month complied with a court order to turn over documents from the voting integrity commission to Dunlap. The commission met just twice and has not issued a report. Dunlaps findings received immediate pushback Friday from Kobach, who acted as vice chair of the commission while Pence served as chair. For some people, no matter how many cases of voter fraud you show them, there will never be enough for them to admit that theres a problem, said Kobach, who is running for Kansas governor and has a good chance of unseating the incumbent, Jeff Colyer, in the Republican primary Tuesday. It appears that Secretary Dunlap is wilfully blind to the voter fraud in front of his nose, Kobach said in a statement released by his spokesman. Kobach said there have been more than 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since 2000, and that the commission presented 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election in 20 states. Had the commission done the same analysis of all 50 states, the number would have been exponentially higher, Kobach said. In response, Dunlap said those figures were never brought before the commission, and that Kobach hasnt presented any evidence for his claims of double voting. He said the commission was presented with a report claiming over 1,000 convictions for various forms of voter misconduct since 1948. The plural of anecdote is not data, Dunlap said in his Friday letter to the shuttered commissions leaders. Pences office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Dunlap said he is unsure whether the administration has released all relevant documents, and said the matter is in litigation. He said he was repeatedly rebuffed when he sought access to commission records including meeting materials, witness invitations and correspondence. Dunlap released his findings on a website . Emails released by Dunlap and promoted by the non-profit American Oversight, which represented Dunlap, include examples of Republican voting integrity commissioners emailing each other as they worked on information requests without including Democrats. Indeed, a very few commissioners worked to buttress their preordained conclusions shielded from dissent or dialogue from those commissioners not included in the discussions, Dunlap said in his Friday letter. In a June 2017 email, commissioner Christy McCormick unsuccessfully tried to suggest that the commission hire a statistician she knew. When I was at DOJ, we had numerous discussions that made me pretty confident that he is conservative (and Christian, too), said McCormick, in reference to the U.S. Department of Justice. The emails also show some commission members had planned to ask for an interstate database used to identify duplicate voter registrations, as well as lists of individuals deemed ineligible for federal jury service due to death, relocation, convictions or lack of citizenship. It wasnt clear in the emails whether or not such requests ended up being fulfilled, Dunlap said. In two November 2017 emails, Republican commission member and election lawyer J. Christian Adams emailed all members and said there hadnt been any prosecutions for double voting or any non-citizen voting in years. Understanding the extent of unprosecuted and known election crimes can inform the commissions recommendations, Adams said. Adams also called for U.S. Customs and Immigration Services to obtain metadata from citizenship applications as well as a list of individuals removed from the U.S. due to their unlawful participation in elections. Many applicants note they have been registered to vote and are voting, Adams said. Read more about: SAO PAULOThe Workers Party in Brazil named jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday as its nominee for the countrys top job. Delegates of the left-leaning party confirmed da Silva, who served two terms as Brazils president between 2003 and 2010, with enthusiastic approval at a convention in Sao Paulo. Since March, the former president has been jailed on a corruption conviction, but he denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted. Members of Brazils top electoral court have suggested he will be barred from running in Octobers elections. But da Silva leads polls for the office by a large margin, and surveys show voters would lend their support to another Workers Party candidate if he cannot participate. The party is not expected to name his running mate until Monday. In a recorded message to the convention, da Silva said that it is those that sentenced me that are jailed in a lie. Read more: Brazilian judge blocks order to release former president Lula da Silva from jail Ex-Brazil president Lula da Silva in police custody, vows to continue his political comeback from jail Brazils ex-president Lula da Silva starts serving jail sentence Brazil needs to restore its democracy, find itself and be happy again, he said. They might lock me up, shut me up, but I will keep my faith in the Brazilian people. After his nomination was approved, another message written by da Silva was read aloud. They already brought down a president that was elected and now they want to veto the right of the people to elect their next president. They want to invent a democracy without people, he said. Meanwhile, other candidates criticized da Silva and his party. It pains my heart, but I dont expect anything from them now, said left-leaning presidential hopeful Ciro Gomes, of the Democratic Labor Party. Conservative Geraldo Alckmin, who was named by the Social Democracy Party as its presidential nominee Saturday, cast blame for the countrys 13 million unemployed. It was the lies and the radicalism that created the chain of events that is the tragic heritage of the Workers Party, he said. Workers Party chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann, who is trying to lure other left-leaning parties to the ticket, addressed supporters at the convention after two fringe parties endorsed da Silvas run. They tried to exclude Lula from the political discussion, she said. There is no political discussion in Brazil without Lula and the Workers Party. Centrist Marina Silva was also nominated by the Rede party on Saturday. Read more about: HELSINKIA 28-year-old woman wearing a face veil has become the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new law banning such garments in public places. Danish news agency Ritzau reported that police were called Friday to a shopping centre in Horsholm, a city of 46,000 close to Copenhagen, to confront a woman wearing a niqab garment covering her face. The woman was fined 1,000 Danish kroner ($201.78) and was asked to either remove the veil or leave the premises. She opted to leave. Since Aug.1, the countrys much-debated Burqa Ban has prohibited full-body burqas, as well the niqab Muslim dress which only shows the eyes. Both are rare in Denmark. The government says the law is not aimed at any religion and does not ban headscarves, turbans or the traditional Jewish skull cap. The Danish law allows people to cover their face when there is a recognizable purpose such as cold weather or complying with other legal requirements, such as using motorcycle helmets. Anyone forcing a person to wear garments covering the face by using force or threats can be fined or face up to two years in prison. Austria, France and Belgium have similar laws. Read more: Denmark passes law banning burka, niqab Opinion | Shree Paradkar: Quebec and its niqab legislation should have stayed out of womens closets Quebecs face veil ban may face a Supreme Court challenge Ford takes aim at city hall, July 27 Toronto city council is irrelevant and redundant. Doug Ford and Ford Nation have the right vision and plan for Ontario. Smaller, more accountable, more efficient elected government by the people for the people. Reduce the bloated bureaucracy and give the money back to the people. Ford should take this one step further and reduce the size of all municipal governments. Darrell J. Hicks, Ancaster, Ont. I would have been more sanguine with the Ford governments decision to halve the size of Toronto council if it had already shown a commensurate measure of commitment to that particular notion of smaller government, say, by first halving the size of the legislative assembly at Queens Park and then taken one for the team with the resignation of each MPP who voted to find that efficiency. Unless and until hands off Toronto council, please. Mark Henschel, Toronto PCs blasted for lookalike news, August 1 I almost choked on my morning coffee when reading in todays Star that Premier Ford was shrinking Torontos city council because hes concerned about the homeless. Not so long ago, July 4 to be exact, an article by Jennifer Pagliaro outlined Fords opposition to a proposed homeless shelter, and back in May 2014 the compassionate premier was against a home for developmentally disabled youth. So, now hes concerned? Only a fool would believe hes looking out for the little guy. Elizabeth Priddle, Barrie The Ford brothers always loudly proclaimed that Rob was the greatest councillor because he answered every phone call from his constituents and took an active interest in their issues. This level of attention would obviously be impossible if council is reduced to 25 members. If his brothers work as a councillor was considered so praiseworthy then, why does it suddenly count for nothing in Doug Fords world? Sheila Dudley, Toronto So Toronto is set to cut its elected council members in half. What a great move! For Torontos citizens, that is. For the councillors who wont be elected, boo hoo. This is a premier with guts to do something. Go Doug. Art Flood, Fort Erie, Ont. Though municipalities have limited legal status and it is within Mr. Fords power to change the structure of Toronto city council, it is unconscionable to do this without consultation and in the middle of an election campaign. This is not government for the people. Kathleen Vowinckel, Belleville, Ont. I agree with the reduction in the city council. This city council had been dysfunctional all these years. One only need to look at our commuter experience every day. I dont believe putting in more money is the solution. The whole system need to be restructured. Bravo to Premier Ford for having the guts to take leadership. Ontarians did not vote for keeping the status quo. Ivy Yeung, Toronto Dear Premier Ford, In your recent statement regarding cuts to Toronto council, you indicated you have never heard anyone say they wanted more politicians. Read my lips: I want 47 community-responsive city councillors to serve my city of Toronto. I really value being able to call my local councillor and get a quick response. I dont want a cheapened system that cant possible provide the current level of responsiveness or local authentic input and representation. Walk this decision back! There is still time for you to grow into being a positive leader for all the people of Ontario. Vera E. Taylor, Scarborough So Premier Ford thinks that its like a comedy show at city hall. He forgot to add that the original and biggest stars of the farce were himself and his brother. Charles Campisi, Oakville In his first month in office, Premier Doug Ford has made some pretty stupid policy moves, such as dismantling Ontarios Green Energy Program and cancelling the updated sex-ed program for Ontario schools. But he has finally made a good decision with his plans to reduce Toronto city councillors from 47 to 25. Anything that will make one of the most dysfunctional political bodies in the world more effective and save some money as well is a good thing. Andrew van Velzen, Toronto Your columnists and editorial writers have shown an amazing lack of balance in their emotional response to the proposed reduction in the number of municipal constituencies to 25. Since this matches the number of federal and provincial constituencies, and no one suggests that we need more of them, why do we need more municipal politicians? Bill Bain, Toronto What a pleasant change to actually have something done to make changes for the better here in Toronto! Perhaps now we can even get moving on our long-talked-about TTC problems. Seems there is actually hope for the future here in our great city. Congratulations Doug Ford on actually doing something you and others believe will help us move ahead. Dorothy Gordon, Toronto We have a democracy, as messy and imperfect as it is. Lets learn to work with it, rather than wasting valuable time and effort screaming out veiled hints that sound much like calls for a coup detat, suggesting that the recently democratically elected Conservative government is acting undemocratically and the premier is a dictator. Mario Godlewski, Toronto Do you hear the drip, drip, drip? That is the sound of democracy draining away in Ontario. Soon the drip will become a stream and then a torrent. It should be illegal in our democracy for any government to interfere in an election process already underway. This is a characteristic of dictatorships, as is favouring allies by arbitrarily reducing council sizes, restructuring boundaries and changing elected positions to government appointments. Marie Jacobs, Burlington Read more about: SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) Springfield, Illinois, is hosting as many as 30,000 motorcyclists this week for the 41st National Bikers Roundup . The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports that the five-day rally coordinated by black motorcyclists began Wednesday at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. It features concerts, a car-and-bike show, a food drive for local pantries, a blood drive and vendors. About 20 years before a certain territory along the eastern banks of the upper Mississippi became a state, a man named Maurice Daly tied his ass and cart to a fence in the little Irish town of Dungarvan and set off for America. He added an e to his last name along the way and the die was cast for the most powerful political brand in Illinois 200-year history. The Daleys of Chicago ran the states largest city for more than 40 years, watching from the fifth floor of City Hall as the city grew from a thriving but unpolished Midwest railroad hub to a sprawling global metropolis. Whether its the skyscrapers that Richard J. Daley so dearly loved, or the wrought-iron fences and European-style greenery pushed by his son, the legacy of the citys two longest-serving mayors is impossible to avoid. There are also things not seen, of course. Like Meigs Field, the quirky lakefront airport that the younger Daley brazenly and illegally bulldozed in the middle of the night in 2003. And then theres a trail of Daley pals either shamed or jailed for various corruption schemes, part of a long-tolerated, wink-and-nod Chicago way of doing city business. The elder Mayor Daley struggled to reconcile his neighborhood tribalism with the growing civil rights movement and anti-war protests. And his son watched grand plans for his city spiral into sweetheart deals and crippling budget deficits. But the Daley Machine also saw Chicagos fortunes grow while other Rust Belt cities declined. And they helped elect two Democratic presidents while wielding the kind of statewide clout in Springfield that a small army of Machine-bred representatives and senators can make possible. Richard J. Daley, great-grandson of Maurice, was born in the citys Bridgeport neighborhood in 1902, not far from where he lived when he died 74 years later. He rose through the ranks of Democratic politics by building a reputation as both an old-school ward heeler and nimble numbers cruncher. Lacking the oratorical flourish of so many politicians of the day, he prided himself on getting things done. Good government is good politics, he liked to say. And he correctly surmised that few would mind if city payrolls were stocked with Daley Machine foot soldiers, so long as the trash got collected and the streets got plowed. When he arrived at his desk in City Hall every morning, he was greeted with a list of the names of new city workers, along with their political sponsors. His ride home in the evening often took a wandering path, stopping at various wakes and retirement parties, each visit cementing that particular familys multi-generational allegiance to the Democratic Party. While the husband was running the city, his beloved wife, Sis, was raising a growing brood of seven children. Little Richie, the first-born son, came along in 1942. Then came Michael, a prominent lawyer and the only son who stayed away from politics (unless, ahem, you count helping clients win city zoning cases political). Then there was John, a former state senator and state representative who is still a Cook County Commissioner. He is also the 11th Ward Democratic Committeeman, a job that has been in the Daley family since the 1940s. William Daley, the youngest son, is the only one to have officially stepped onto the national political stage, serving as both U.S. commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton, and White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama. In 2013, Daley briefly ran for Illinois governor, only to drop out of the race a few months after entering it, citing personal reasons. But it was Richard M. Daley who made the family name synonymous with big city clout, eclipsing even his fathers run on the fifth floor. Even as business-hub suburbs like Naperville and Schaumburg sprouted gleaming corporate headquarters, Daley presided over continued growth downtown. And Millennium Park, his crown jewel, remains a source of civic pride, perhaps allowing the memory of his failed Olympic bid to fade. His administration also was marked by a series of scandals, including the Hired Truck scandal, in which the city government leased hundreds of privately owned dump trucks that did little or no work, wasting $40 million a year. Sun-Times reports about the program fueled a swift-moving federal investigation that led to the indictments of 49 people on public corruption-related charges. All were convicted, except for one individual who died after being charged. South Jacksonville trustees have voted to purchase three vehicles two for the police department and one for the water department. The village bought a 2018 Ford F150 pickup truck for about $31,000 and a 2018 Ford Explorer for about $29,000, both for the police department. Village President Harry Jennings said $30,000 will be taken from the police departments drug asset forfeiture fund to cover part of the vehicles cost. They are replacing squad cars that have over 100,000 miles on them, Jennings said. He added that the pickup truck will be used to tow the police departments emergency equipment trailers. We are also making the switch to the pickup truck and SUVs because they have a much higher resale value, so we anticipate that our long-term fleet costs will go down, Jennings said. Trustees also approved buying a 2019 Ford F250 pickup truck for the water department at a cost of $28,800, which will be covered by the villages water revenue account. All three vehicles were purchased on a state bid contract through Morrow Bros. Ford in Greenfield. In addition, trustees approved the hiring of Andrew Morgan as a full-time police officer and the expenditure of $17,000 for new air packs for the fire department. Trustees also learned about plans for the South Jacksonville Celebration. The celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 6 on the Prairie Land Heritage Museum grounds. We were going to hold the celebration in late August or early September in Godfrey Park, but the park renovation was not going to be completed, so we pushed the celebration date to October, Celebration Committee Chair Stacy Pinkerton said. The celebration kicks off at 6 p.m. Oct. 5 with a Little Mr. and Little Miss pageant on the Prairie Land bandstand. The next morning, a parade begins at 10 a.m. at Dewey Park. The procession will go down South Main Street to West Greenwood Avenue and end at the Prairie Land grounds at West Michigan and Lincoln avenues. George and Marilyn Murphy of South Jacksonville will serve as parade marshals. During the celebration, music will be provided by disc jockey Randy Coultas, Jacksonville musician Robert Sampson and local band Exit 52. The celebration also will feature bounce houses, burgoo, food vendors and craft booths. Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg. 3 1 of 3 Photos by John Badman | For the Intelligencer Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Photos by John Badman | For the Intelligencer Show More Show Less 3 of 3 It was a muddy job, but work on the Illinois Route 143 bridge over Indian Creek between Wood River and Edwardsville was starting to show some real progress this week. Workers were putting up forms for the concrete pillars that will support the bridge, and some of that work is being done in the very wet and muddy creek bottom. The old bridge has been completely removed and some utility work is still ongoing simultaneously with the construction process. The job, which has diverted traffic from the heavily traveled artery, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. A bit of a bridge to nowhere was all you could see from the roadway surface this week over Indian Creek. The eastern side of Illinois Route 143 can be seen in the distance beyond a very muddy construction area, which will likely get only worse with more rain in the forecast for the first part of next week. Sen. Dick Durbin recently introduced a bill to crack down on flavored tobacco in e-cigarettes. He believes Big Tobacco is marketing to kids with flavors like cake batter, whipped cream and gummy bears. As a mother and grandmother, I applaud his efforts. But theres another industry targeting kids right under our adult noses Big Marijuana. (L-R) Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge watch the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, as members of the Royal Family attend events to mark the centenary of the RAF on July 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson/Getty Images) (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images) Meghan Markle, in sunshine yellow Brandon Maxwell, illustrates how wearing one colour head-to-toe can have a leg-lengthening effect. Photo: Reuters Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan the Duchess of Sussex arrive at a charity polo match in Windsor, Britain, July 26, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex during Trooping The Colour on the Mall on June 9, 2018 in London, England The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to attend a society wedding today, on Meghan's 37th birthday. Harry's old friend Charlie van Straubenzee is marrying Daisy Jenks in Surrey and, according to reports, the royal couple will be among the guests. The groom may have paid the royal the ultimate compliment by asking him to be his best man. It may be enjoyed as a double celebration as it is also Meghan's 37th birthday and her first as a member of the Royal Family. Expand Close LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Charlie van Straubenzee and Daisy Jenks attend the Gentleman's Journal Bermuda 35th America's Cup summer party, hosted by Jack Guinness, at Ham Yard Hotel on May 18, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Gentleman's Journal) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Charlie van Straubenzee and Daisy Jenks attend the Gentleman's Journal Bermuda 35th America's Cup summer party, hosted by Jack Guinness, at Ham Yard Hotel on May 18, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Gentleman's Journal) Charlie was an usher at Harry's recent wedding, along with older brother Thomas van Straubenzee. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also rumoured to be invited to the couple's big day as William is good friends with the van Straubenzee brothers, with Thomas a godfather to his daughter Princess Charlotte. Last year Harry reportedly whisked Meghan away for a romantic break in Africa to mark her 36th birthday, flying to Botswana. She married Harry during a ceremony watched by an estimated television audience of hundreds of millions, and it was praised for combining tradition with modernity and diversity. Sir Elton John, who performed at the wedding reception, described it as a memorable event and said: "To have a black gospel choir, a multiracial bride, a black cellist, who was wonderful, a preacher - it felt like a party, and it felt like progress had been made. "Thank God, thank God." Video of the Day Sir Elton added: "I think the Queen had a lot to do with it. I think she's been magnificent. It was a wonderful thing to be at." Harry and Meghan were able to enjoy their honeymoon without being discovered, jetting off to their undisclosed destination soon after they wed on May 19. They live in a property in the grounds of Kensington Palace but are rumoured to also have a country bolt-hole somewhere in the Cotswolds. The Indian narrative on the stunning victory of Imran Khan in the Pakistani elections has a self-serving bias. The narrative becomes all but an advocacy for inaction on the part of the government vis-a-vis the emergent situation. The narrative is repeating that the more things change, the more they stay the same in Pakistan. Yet, the heart of the matter is that the ascendance of Imran brings Pakistan to an inflection point, an event that marks the start of a significant improvement, deterioration or disruption in India-Pakistan relations. It is, arguably, a strategic inflection point; a continuation of the status quo would only lead to certain failure. What makes Imran extraordinary is that he has a westernised history, a subsequent history of being dangerously accommodative toward religious extremism and a concurrent history of addressing the chronic problems of Pakistans political economy as his lifes missionpoverty, social disparities, corruption and so on. What adds to the mystique is that he freely acknowledges today that Pakistan cannot achieve its social and economic potential without being at peace with its immediate neighbours. Illustration: Bhaskaran The astonishing part is that the Indian narrative is blithely unaware that Imran is a product of our turbulent times. The Pakistani election results have completely overshadowed an event of momentous significance to that countrydirect talks between the United States and the Taliban (without the participation of Afghan government), which took place in Qatar. The timingjust two days before the Pakistani electionswas exquisite. And, the Pakistani military leadership made it possible. The Taliban since expressed satisfaction that the meeting ended with very positive signals with an agreement to meet again soon and that the two sides discussed Talibans participation in the Afghan government. A recurring fallacy of Indian foreign policy discourse is its tunnel visionthe singular failure to correlate diplomacy with the wider geopolitical templates and regional and global alignments. We must understand that Pakistan is preparing for the formidable challenge posed by the imminent outbreak of peace in Afghanistan. The tumultuous history of Pashtun irredentist claims underscores that had there been no Imran, Pakistan would have had to invent one. This has sub-plots and a few of them have direct bearing on Indias vital interests, too. First, peace in Afghanistan eases pressure on Pakistans internal security and allows it to concentrate its forces more on its eastern border with India (which brings us to the Kashmir issue.) Second, Pakistan expects quid pro quo from the US for bailing it out of a humiliating defeat and ignominious retreat from Afghanistan. Pakistan seeks strategic balance in South Asia, which requires course correction in US regional policies. Third, Pakistans close cooperation with the US helps it to breathe new life into its relations with the west, while its Eurasian integration processes also continue apiece. (No doubt, Imran makes a brilliant global salesman for his country.) Fourth, in a stable regional environment, Pakistan hopes to garner the benefits of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative as well as attract western investment. Geo-economics gains primacy. Indeed, history has not ended in our region. Being tentative towards Imran will be a catastrophic mistake. The Indian leadership should not fall for the narrative that Pakistan is caught in a time warp. India no longer has a choice of dialogue-or-no-dialogue. Imran held out an olive branch in his victory speech. Delhi also has a wonderful opportunity to reciprocate by ending the stalemate over the scheduling of the SAARC summit in Islamabad. Indeed, a meeting in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly can help break the ice and establish a personal rapport between Narendra Modi and Imran, who may have mutual affinity and common concerns they are unaware of. The writer is a former diplomat. Narendra Modis appearance in a monogrammed suit at the tea he hosted for Barack Obama three years ago created much mirth and derision. The scene reminded many of Malvolio appearing in yellow stockings and cross-garters in Twelfth Night, and provoked the best quip ever from Rahul Gandhi. He scoffed at the Modi regime as suit-boot ki sarkar. Modi has since sold the suit, and got himself a genteel wardrobe. His clothes these days are of the kind which Jeeves would have approved for an Indian Bertie Wooster, a Bharat Vastrakar. All the same, the suit-boot label has stuck. Modis criticsCongressmen, Communists & chave since been making much of his proximity to the Adanis and the Ambanis, and of the distance the regime keeps from the aam aadmis. They have been debunking his economic policy as crony capitalism, a term that George Tabel claims to have coined in 1980 while giving headline to a colleagues article in Time. Illustration: Bhaskaran The critics draw much from the opaqueness in the Modi governments business deals. The regime cant explain why they hijacked the Rafale plane from the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics who have been making warjets since the 1960s, and gave it to the Ambanis who havent made a toy plane yet. The government cant explain why the Ambanis Jio University was honoured and haloed, even before the tycoons constructed a classroom or bought a blackboard. There is more. The Modi governments lack of interest (or lack of skill, to be charitable) in solving peasants problems, in aiding the note ban-hit small traders, in assisting the GST-hit small businesses, and in stopping the mobs who lynch dalits and Muslims have all led to a perceptionright or wrongthat Modi cares only for moneybags. Modi, too, has to share the blame personally. He has been indiscreet in choosing the company he keeps, as he had been in selecting the clothes he wears. Fraudster Nirav Modi was photographed among those who feted him at Davos. The Ambanis printed his picture in their promotion pamphlets, and he hasnt said a word till date. But trust Modi to turn any table, or change any narrative. Instead of squirming at being called suit-boot ki sarkar, he has signalled to his partymen to wear the suit-boot label on their sleeves. Like Calvin Coolidge who said Americas business is business, Modi has made it clear that businessmen arent all thieves and robbers, but also nation-builders. You dont get tainted by standing with anybody, he declared at an entrepreneurs event in Lucknow the other day. We arent... scared of standing next to businessmen.... Those people are scaredthe ones who dont meet industrialists in public but do everything behind the curtains.... Dont we know in whose airplanes they fly around? Then he invoked the most sacred name in Indian politics: Gandhiji didnt hesitate to stay with the Birlas. Most PMs had their funders and favouritesin the open or in the closetbut the whole issue is about the optics. Jawaharlal Nehru was close to the Tatas, and got them to send cheques not only to the Congress treasury but also to Homi Bhabhas atomic lab. And Nehru didnt scowl when the Tatas also sent cheques to the opposition Swatantra. Indira Gandhi had a disdain for the boxwallah barons, but encouraged new money. The old-moneyed Charat Rams (DCM) and the Nandas (Escorts) faced takeover threats from the pound-plenty Swraj Paul under her regime, while the new-moneyed Ambanis and the Ruias got richer. Only V.P. Singh hunted them all, as FM and PMthe boxwallah ITC, the old-moneyed Birlas, the thread-tyre-tobacco Modis, Orkays Kapal Mehra, and the respected Kirloskars and Bajajs. Some even went to jail. No wonder VP lasted hardly a year as PM. prasannan@theweek.in The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite... Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has sought dismissal of sexual assault charges against him. According to court documents obtained by CNN, attorneys for the disgraced film mogul filed a motion for dismissal in the federal court here on Friday. Among other things to have been cited is the discovery of evidence that the grand jury was not shownspecifically "dozens of emails" sent from one of Weinstein's anonymous accusers, characterised as "extensive warm, complimentary and solicitous messages to Weinstein immediately following the now claimed event and over the next four year period." "These communications irrefutably reflect the true nature of this consensual intimate friendship, which never at any time included a forcible rape," Weinstein's attorney Ben Brafman told CNN in a statement. The emails and text messagesallegedly sent and received through Weinstein's official company account and phonewere obtained by his legal team earlier this year after a bankruptcy judge in Delaware granted access to them for his criminal defense. In an email sent from one of Weinstein's accusers on January 5, 2014, ten months after the alleged rape in March 2013, she wrote: "You're the one who makes it look good with your smile and beautiful eyes!! But thank you that makes me so happy to hear." Two other emails were cited. When contacted by CNN, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined to comment on Friday's motion for dismissal. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to six felony sex crimestwo counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of rape, one first-degree criminal sex act charge and one criminal sex act. The charges stem from allegations from three women, according to court documents. Kamal Haasan is in a spot yet again, years after his Vishwaroopam-1 gave him a tough time. The sequel Vishwaroopam-2 is due to release on August 10, but Haasan faces trouble from a productuon company: it has taken Haasan to court over unpaid dues of Rs 7.75 crore. The Madras High Court on Friday directed the actor-turned-politician to file his reply by August 6 to the petition filed by Pyramid Saimira, a movie production company. The court issued a notice to the actor asking him to reply by August 6, the next date for hearing. Pyramid Saimira has alleged that Kamal Haasan owed it Rs.7.75 crore. The company says the dues cannot be recovered from the actor if Vishwaroopam-2 is allowed to release. According to the company, it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Raaj Kamal Films InternationalKamal Haasan is one of the partnersfor joint production of a Tamil movie Marmayogi. As per the MoU, Kamal Haasan had agreed to play a lead role in Marmayogi, pen the story, screenplay and dialogues. It is alleged that Pyramid Saimira paid Kamal Haasan Rs10.9 crore in two instalments. The production company accused the actor of diverting the money for producing another of his movie. Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are currently building a team for their very own Netflix production company. According to the Hollywood Reporter, sources confirmed that social activist and filmmaker Priya Swaminathan has been hired to work in the highly anticipated project. Priya has, in the past, produced and co-directed Very Young Girls, a 2007 documentary on New York's teenage prostitutes and has also worked for Annapurna Pictures and Dickhouse Productions. She was a part of the Sundance Institute's 'FilmTwo' initiative that focused on encouraging minority filmmakers and the recent 'Time's Up' movement against sexual harassment. Since Netflix and a rep for Obamas have refused to comment on the matter, Swaminathan's exact role in the project remains unclear. Earlier this year, Netflix announced that it will be collaborating with the couple to produce films and TV series. Five For Fun In Juneau, Alaska Juneau is a popular port of call on Alaska cruise itineraries. Alaska's capital offers a wide variety of activities and attractions, from soft adventure tours and flightseeing trips to museums and natural wonders. The shopping and dining options are excellent here as well. Some popular shore excursions in Juneau are quite expensive, while other cool things to do in this city are easy to afford. There are plenty of great activities here to match every interest and vacation budget. Here are five awesome things to see and do if youre planning to visit Juneau on your Alaska cruise: 1. Go Wildlife Watching. Humpback whale viewing is one of the highlights of an Alaska cruise and the waters around Juneau are filled with these majestic creatures from April to November. Whale watching tours offer cruise passengers an additional opportunity to see whales breaching, bubble net feeding and more. Some tours even guarantee whale sightings. It may be possible to see orca whales, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, Dall's porpoises and other mammals on these tours as well. Juneau is also an excellent port for bear viewing. Admiralty Island National Monument (known as "Fortress of the Bears") has the world's largest density of brown bears and is located just a short floatplane ride away from Juneau. Tours are available to Admiralty Island's Pack Creek Bear Sanctuary from June to September. 2. Take a Floatplane Trip to Taku Glacier Lodge. This flightseeing tour from downtown Juneau offers the best of all worlds. Guests take a 35-minute flightseeing trip on their way to serene Taku Glacier Lodge, located across from a massive glacier in a remote area of the Tongass National Forest. On the way, passengers fly over five huge glaciers flowing out from the Juneau Icefield. After landing on the water in front of Taku Glacier Lodge, theres time to explore the lodges beautiful grounds or do a little shopping before sitting down to partake of an amazing salmon feast complete with all the fixings. After lunch and the opportunity for a nature walk, a scenic 15-minute return floatplane trip brings guests back to Juneau. 3. See The Salmon. Located a little over two miles from downtown Juneau, the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery provides an excellent way for visitors to learn more about Alaska's salmon industry. The hatchery contains museum-like exhibits, displays, a huge saltwater aquarium, and a shop featuring delicious local salmon produce. During salmon spawning season which typically runs from late June through September, visitors have the chance to see wild salmon climbing the hatchery's outdoor ladder from Gastineau Channel. You may see bald eagles in this area during that time period as well. If catching salmon and halibut is more to your liking, arrange to go sportfishing on one of Juneau's many Coast Guard licensed charter fishing boats. An Alaska state fishing license is required and your catch can be conveniently shipped to your home by one of Juneau's fish processors. 4. View Mendenhall Glacier. Located just 13 miles from the citys downtown area, Mendenhall Glacier is Juneaus most popular tourist attraction. This "drive in" glacier is magnificent and the site's Visitors Center offers an informative film, excellent exhibits and superb glacier viewing through its large windows. During your visit to Mendenhall Glacier, take the time to trek to spectacular Nugget Falls and walk along the Mendenhall Glacier sites nature trail. This trail can be an excellent place to see bears at close range during salmon spawning season. While tours to Mendenhall Glacier are available through the cruise lines and are often combined with other sights, several local tour operators shuttle buses that transport cruise visitors directly to the glacier on a regular basis. Taxis are another good option as well, especially for larger groups. 5. Enjoy Mount Roberts Tramway. Located directly opposite Juneau's main cruise pier, the Mount Roberts Tramway provides its guests with magnificent scenery, interesting nature and cultural exhibits, spectacular views, and a network of great mountaintop hiking and nature trails. One ticket purchase provides unlimited rides throughout the day, however it's quite easy to spend much of the day hiking and exploring all that this area has to offer. The Timberline Bar & Grill at the upper Tram Station serves both lunch and dinner along with beautiful views. Visiting the Alaska State Museum is another fun and inexpensive excursion in Juneau. Located at 395 Whittier Street within walking distance of the downtown cruise pier, the Alaska State Museum features a wealth of exhibits on Alaska's natural and cultural history. The exceptional museum houses a historical collection of 1,700 items and about 1,800 works of fine art. The immense natural history collection of mounted birds, animals, seashells and fossils is a treat to see. There's an excellent museum shop as well. The Alaska State Museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from mid-May to October 1 and has modified winter hours after that time. Admission is $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and free children 18 years of age and under as well as active duty military members and their families with military ID. In what will be construed as a tit-for-tat response to the Assam government's decision to register two FIRs against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the NRC issue, Kolkata Police lodged two FIRs against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The FIRs were lodged following a complaint by a TMC MLA. Mahua Maitra, a former investment banker who is now a TMC MLA, was part of an eight-member delegation from the party that went to Silchar in Assam on Thursday to assess the situation there after the publication of the NRC. But the TMC delegation was detained at the airport by the Assam Police. In addition to Maitra, the team had one minister and six MPs. The TMC delegation members alleged that they were manhandled by the police team, including women officers. They alleged some women delegation members were pushed to the ground in scuffles with the police. "Our mobile phones were forcibly taken away, and we were not allowed to step outside the airport. We were physically tortured," said Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a delegation member. Suskhendu Sekhar Roy, another member of the TMC delegation, had a pacemaker in his chest but he too was reportedly manhandled. Maitra lodged two complaints against Sonowal. One with Airport Police Station and the other with Alipore Police Station, the vicinity of which resides in. Maitra has alleged criminal conspiracy and outraging of modesty of a woman. In her complaint, Maitra alleged, "All was done at the instruction of chief minister [Sonowal]." Hence, Sonowal was made principle accused in the case. However, sources have confirmed that no action has been initiated by the Assam government regarding the FIRs against Banerjee and no action has also been initiated in Kolkata around 24 hours after the lodging of FIRs against Sonowal. Banerjee's office refused to say anything about the FIRs being lodged against Sonowal. A close confidante of Banerjee said, "Let them file 100 FIRs. This is all drama." Meanwhile, the TMC delegation that was sent back was disallowed to hold any meeting in Silchar in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley region of Assam. In fact, no auditorium was even allowed to be given on rent for the TMC delegation's planned meeting in Silchar. BJP MP from Assam Bijay Chakraborty alleged around 1.18 lakh cases were sent to the West Bengal government few months back for verification for their address. "West Bengal government did not respond to them. Even Mamata Banerjee refused to identify people of her own state. She has no locus standi to raise her voice against this now," said Chakraborty. The MP said the NRC is a serious issue and it's done with great care and proper investigation. More than 50,000 employees were engaged in the humongous process, which was finished by the Sonowal government in the shortest period of time, he declared. "Even after that, West Bengal chief minister is raising objections. Her objection is against Supreme Court," said Chakraborty. The demand to retain Article 35A of the Constitution is becoming an emotive issue in Jammu and Kashmir politics with major political parties holding separate rallies on the issue on Saturday, ahead of a hearing in the Supreme Court challenging the provision on August 6. Article 35A of the Constitution empowers the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir to define who are permanent residents of the state. Article 35A denies property rights in Jammu and Kashmir to outsiders and women who marry persons from outside the state and has been criticised as being discriminatory against other Indians. Several organisationsincluding an NGO linked to the RSS, We the Citizenshave filed petitions demanding the quashing of Article 35A; the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the petitions on August 6. Hundreds of National Conference activists held a march in support of retaining Article 35A in central Srinagar on Saturday. The NC workers wanted to march toward the city centre at Lal Chowk but were deterred by the heavy security presence. A march by the PDP to Lal Chowk was also stopped by police. A traders body also held a demonstration in support of Article 35A on Saturday. Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had told his supporters on July 31 to prepare for a mass agitation in the event of the Supreme Court modifying or striking down Article 35A. A civil society group has called for a shutdown on August 6 to protest against alleged legal and constitutional onslaughts on Article 35A. The Central government has refused to defend Article 35A in the Supreme Court and had said there was no need to have a debate on it. (With PTI inputs) The Congress's keenness to counter the BJP's efforts to make political capital out of the National Register of Citizens was clear as the Congress Working Committee on Saturday decided to emphasise that the process for carrying out the exercise was started by the United Progressive Alliance government. The CWC, which met under the chairmanship of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, also sought to counter the Narendra Modi government and the BJP by claiming that genuine Indian citizensincluding indigenous Assamese, Bengali Hindus, Nepali people, Gorkhas, tea tribes, serving and retired members of armed forces and religious minoritieswere left out of the final draft of the NRC. The CWC noted that the historic Assam Accord was signed by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and from that accord flowed the NRC. It was done with the aim of identifying all those foreigners who came into Assam illegally, said Randeep Surjewala, in-charge of the AICC Communications Department. Surjewala, who briefed the media on the CWC meeting, said the highest decision-making body of the Congress also noted that the framework for the NRC was laid down by the Manmohan Singh government, which allocated Rs 490 crore for the process and appointed 25,000 enumerators to carry out the exercise. The Congress realises that it is a tight rope walk for the party as it takes on the BJP on NRC, as protests will be projected by the saffron party as sympathy for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The BJP has accused the Congress of protecting illegal migrants as they were its 'vote bank'. The strategy discussed at the CWC meeting is that the party should emphasise that 80 per cent of the work on NRC was carried out under Congress governments. An idea also being pursued is to accuse the BJP of attempting to damage Assam's social fabric through the NRC. Surjewala claimed that while 82,728 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were deported during the UPA's tenure, the Modi government has deported only 1,822 illegal immigrants to the neighbouring country. Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi made a detailed presentation before the CWC on the historical background of NRC, how it flew from the Assam Accord that was signed by Rajiv and the work done on NRC by the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress regimes in the state. Assam PCC chief Ripun Bora and CLP leader Debabrata Saikia were especially called to the CWC to brief the decision-making body on the political situation arising out of the NRC. CWC members from Assam Gaurav Gogoi and Sushmita Dev also spoke in the meeting on the NRC issue. Meanwhile, the CWC has decided the party will launch a jan andolan (mass agitation) in a bid to corner the Modi government and the BJP on the issues of corruption, especially the alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal and also bank scams, the deteriorating condition of the country's economy, agrarian crisis and unemployment. This was the second CWC meeting to be held in two weeks. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was not present at the meeting. AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot, who is in charge of organisation, said Rahul wants the CWC to meet on a regular basis, and there should be at least one meeting of the committee every month. Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar on Friday backed the proposal for a separate Purvanchal state, saying that illiteracy, poverty and unemployment could only be eliminated if the division takes place. Rajbhar is leader of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, an ally of the BJP. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Rajbhar said, "People in Purvanchal are demanding a separate state. Uttar Pradesh is so huge that development of Purvanchal is not possible without a division." "Illiteracy, poverty and unemployment are at the peak here [in Purvanchal]. These will be eliminated only when Purvanchal will be a separate state," Rajbhar added. Since few months, the people of Uttar Pradesh have been proposing the idea to divide the state into four new statesBundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. Earlier, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale had also said that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss the idea of making Purvanchal and Vidarbha two separate states. Meanwhile, Rajbhar also hit out at China for doing business in India, pointing out that the former country uses that money to buy weapons. "China has taken over our consumer market. Their products are sold throughout the country. China does business here and uses that money to buy weapons and threaten India. I believe if China's business license is revoked, crores of youth will get a job here," Rajbhar noted. Following the lynching of a mentally unstable woman who was dubbed a child-lifter on social media groups in Singrauli, the Madhya Pradesh Police launched a crackdown on WhatsApp groups spreading false rumours in the district. And the crackdown is showing progress. On Fridaynearly 10 days after the woman's lynchingpolice arrested three men, including the administrator of a WhatsApp group, for allegedly posting fake news about the gang-rape of a girl by 13 men and subsequent castration of a youth. Singrauli, the remote eastern district of Madhya Pradesh bordering Varanasi, is called the 'Power Capital of India', with over a dozen coal-based power plants producing over 25,000MW of electricity. The district that has been developing as an industrial hub has been in the news for fake news and subsequent lynchings. After many reports of fake news and rumours spreading on social media, the local police had formed a social media watch cell called Cyber Suraksha Samiti to keep a vigil on groups spreading rumours. It was this watch group, which included citizens, that informed police that a message was being circulated on social media that a girl was caught in a compromising position in Khutar village of Singrauli and was gang-raped by 13 men. The group also castrated a man who was found with her. To make the message look authentic, a photograph was also attached with the message. After the message was reported by the social media watch group, the inspector in-charge of Waidhan police station, Manish Tripathi, visited the village, only to find that the incident portrayed on social media was fake. Following this, he arrested the administrator of a WhatsApp group called 'Evil of Urjanchal', Surendra Diwedi. Police also arrested two more peopleGhulam Raza and Rajesh Diwediwho posted the message and forwarded it. All the three arrests were made under Sections 353 (2) and 453 (2) (6) of IPC and Section 67 of IT Act. Section 67(B) of IT Act prescribes the punishment for publishing or transmitting material depicting children in a sexually explicit act in an electronic form. Police in Singrauli has started an operation called Operation Yatharth (in reality) to counter the menace of viral fake news in the district. The district have seen many cases of viral videos and fake news on social media causing extreme trouble for people. Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with Americas top general to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a US government memo. The proposal was sent in a July 19 letter by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian militarys General Staff, to US Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the memo which was seen by Reuters. The Russian plan, which has not been previously reported, has received an icy reception in Washington. The memo said the US policy was only to support such efforts if there were a political solution to end Syrias seven-year-old civil war, including steps like UN-supervised elections. The proposal illustrates how Russia, having helped turn the tide of the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad, is now pressing Washington and others to aid the reconstruction of areas under his control. Such an effort would likely further cement Assads hold on power. The proposal argues that the Syrian regime lacks the equipment, fuel, other material, and funding needed to rebuild the country in order to accept refugee returns, according to the memo, which specified that the proposal related to Syrian government-held areas of the country. The United States in 2011 adopted a policy that Assad must leave power but then watched as his forces, backed by Iran and then Russia, clawed back territory and secure Assads position. The United States has drawn a line on reconstruction assistance, saying it should be tied to a process that includes UN-supervised elections and a political transition in Syria. It blames Assad for Syrias devastation. Dunfords office declined comment on communications with Gerasimov. In accordance with past practice, both Generals have agreed to keep the details of their conversations private, said spokeswoman Captain Paula Dunn. The Kremlin and Russias defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Syria conflict has killed an estimated half a million people, driven some 5.6 million people out of the country and displaced around 6.6 million within it. Most of those who have fled are from the Sunni Muslim majority, and it is unclear whether Assads Alawite-dominated government will allow all to return freely or whether they would want to. Sunnis made up the bulk of the armed opposition to Assad. The United States will only support refugee returns when they are safe, voluntary and dignified, said the memo, which is specifically about the Russian plan for Syria. Rebuilding Syria will also be a massive effort, costing at least $250 billion, according one UN estimate. Some US officials believe Syrias dependence on the international community for reconstruction, along with the presence of US and US-backed forces in part of Syria, gives Washington leverage as diplomats push for a negotiated end to the war. Military channel The exchange offered a rare glimpse into the military communications channel between Moscow and Washington, one that Dunford himself has fiercely sought to keep private. Dunford, who speaks periodically with Gerasimov, has stressed that the two militaries need to be able to have candid, private communications to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to armed confrontation. But it was unclear how reconstruction and refugees fit into military-to-military communications. Gerasimovs letter suggests that channel is also being used by Moscow to broach non-military matters. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Syria, and the issue of refugees, at their July 16 summit in Helsinki. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the talks focused on how we might get the refugees back. But US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week no policy changes came out of the summit. The US government memo explicitly said the Russian proposal was not an outcome of the Trump-Putin talks, but cautioned that Russian officials were trying to present it differently. Russian diplomats and other officials have also been engaging in an aggressive campaign to describe the initiative in other capitals and to insinuate that it is an outcome of the US-Russia meeting in Helsinki, which it is not, repeat not, the memo read. The Russian cover letter for the proposal sent to Dunford recommended the United States, Russia and Jordan repurpose a hub designed to monitor a 2017 ceasefire agreement to form a joint committee to implement the reconstruction and refugee return plan, the memo said. Jordan is hosting more than 650,000 Syrian refugees. The Russian letter also suggests that the United States and Russia form a joint group to finance infrastructure renovation in Syria, the US memo says. -Reuters A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab has become the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle on Friday with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency. "During the fight her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again," Borchersen said. Police took a photograph of the woman wearing the niqab, and obtained security camera footage from the shopping centre of the incident. The woman was informed she would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 euros) in the post, and was told to either remove her veil or leave the public space. "She chose the latter," Borchersen said. As of August 1, wearing a burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, in public carries a fine of 1,000 kroner. Repeated violations are fined up to 10,000 kroner. The ban also targets other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas, masks and false beards. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. The full-face veil is a hot-button issue across Europe. Belgium, France, Germany and Austria have already imposed bans or partial bans. In his first public address since his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), gained plurality in the general elections, Imran Khan said Pakistan and India needed to resolve their issues, including the core Kashmir issue, through dialogue. He said that if India took one step, Pakistan would take two. Imran has said that the PTI will suggest ground-breaking proposals for resolving the Kashmir dispute. In fact, this was in the PTI election manifesto. My party is already working on these, said Imran. Our Kashmir policy will be substantive and not restricted to declaratory platitudes. It is believed that the PTI proposal on Kashmir would include some confidence-building measures that were agreed between former president Pervez Musharraf and the United Progressive Alliance-1 regime. Musharraf had proposed a four-point formula to resolve the Kashmir dispute. It comprised more autonomy on both sides of the line of control, free movement of people across the border, demilitarisation and joint management of subjects like tourism and water resources. Senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had opposed the proposal while the moderates Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Professor Abdul Gani Bhat were in agreement. After Imrans statement, Geelani said that he hoped Delhi would respond positively to Imran for resolution of issues in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiris. Mirwaiz tweeted that Imrans statement was welcome and expressed hope that the two neighbours would give real peace a chance. Professor Bhat told THE WEEK that he hoped that India and Pakistan would grab the opportunity and resume dialogue. He [Imran] has been elected by the people of Pakistan and he is stressing on the need to resolve all issues, including Kashmir, through talks. We welcome it, said Bhat. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, in a statement, termed Imrans address as kind-hearted. We want him to implement what he is saying, said Abdullah. Peoples Democratic Party president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti welcomed Imrans statement at a rally on the partys 19th Raising Day on July 19. I want to tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi that a new government is forming in Pakistan, she said. He [Imran] has offered India the hand of friendship. He has talked about dialogue and you should respond positively to that. Imran has made the right noises on Kashmir, much to the delight of both separatists and peaceniks in India and Pakistan. But, unless the Pakistan army supports his Kashmir policy, a breakthrough is unlikely. Syed Hassan Akbar The foremost challenge for Imran Khan is the dismal state of Pakistans external finances. Over the past year, reserves have declined well below $10 billion, while the current account deficit has burgeoned to nearly $18 billion. Analysts agree that Pakistan would require anywhere between $10 billion and $12 billion in the current financial year to arrest an impending economic free fall. Imrans choice for finance minister remains Asad Umar, a former CEO of one of Pakistans largest industrial corporates. Umar said the economic situation was grave and that all options were on the table, including an extended IMF programme. The new government is likely to seek a combination of Chinese support and an IMF programme. China has already agreed to provide $2 billion for the caretaker government and reverse the depreciation of the rupee. However, the mood in Washington remains pessimistic. Recent reports suggest that the US is likely to resist any IMF programme that is seen as a means of supporting the over-leveraged China Pakistan Economic Corridor. With Pakistans persistently low tax-to-GDP ratio, its failure to widen the tax net, and its increasing inability to finance fiscal deficits and commitments under CPEC, the new government will be operating in an economic straitjacket. Having laid out a reformist agenda for fiscal spendingwith commitments for higher budgetary allocations for social welfare, education and healthit will be severely restricted in the first two years because of the widening deficit. This will impact Imrans ability to deliver on a wide range of campaign promises, including turning Pakistan into a welfare state and creating new jobs to reduce unemployment and provide livelihood to a large youth cohort. What we can expect in the near term are populist measures such as reducing government spending on government residences and protocols, a renewed focus on the agricultural sector to boost exports, and a push for the privatisation of publicly-owned enterprises. The success of Imrans populist election manifesto will rest solely on his governments ability to reduce spending on large ticket items such as public administration, infrastructure and defence, while increasing revenues and creating the fiscal space to spend on priority areas outlined throughout his campaign. Akbar is director, programmes, at Jinnah Institute, Islamabad Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri served as foreign minister of Pakistan from 2002 to 2007. A career politician, Kasuri helped draft a bilateral agreement that could have ended the animosity between India and Pakistan. The agreement, which was worked on by president Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Manmohan Singh, was aimed at finding an answer to the Kashmir question. But, it was never signed or was made public. Kasuri joined Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 2011. He still believes that the agreement he helped draft remains the only way to solve bilateral issues. In an exclusive interview, he spoke to THE WEEK over the phone from Lahore. Excerpts: Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri How will Imran Khan shape relations with India? Imran Khan mentioned India in his first speech just after the elections. Why would he talk of India, if he felt that the subject was such dangerous territory? So, if he took the risk of mentioning India and emphasised the need for improving relations with it, it means that it is an important consideration for him. If you look back, when he last visited India, he was asked about my book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove. He suggested, on more than one occasion, that he agreed with the solution given therein. Of course, he mentioned Kashmir [in his post-poll speech]. The current situation [there] is unsustainable. I dont think he has made an impossible demand on India by saying that we need to talk on Kashmir, as some hardliners in India are suggesting. You will have to talk about Kashmir. Leaders of both major parties in India have admitted it on different occasions. Vajpayee did so. Manmohan Singh went ahead with it. Even Narendra Modi, by visiting Lahore, had indicated that Kashmir needed to be resolved. Everybody realises itKashmir will not be resolved without talking to Kashmiris or Pakistan. What about the army? I would like to contest the belief of many Indians that the army would never allow peace between India and Pakistan. Now, it [the belief] makes one or two assumptions. First, it assumes that the Pakistan army is very insecure, and that it needs some sort of an enemy in India for it to be accepted in Pakistan. This is not really true. Things with India have largely improved when the military was directly in control. Most informed people know the details of the progress made by the two countries during the tenures of Ayub Khan, Zial-ul-Haq and Musharraf. The peace process that I was able to follow in my tenure, when Gen Musharraf was president, [would not have reached as far as it did] if the army had been so opposed to the peace process as well as to the envisaged framework of the Kashmir settlement. Musharraf would not have been able to get away with it without having the corps commanders and the Pakistan army behind him. So, I am certain that the army will accept a negotiated solution on Kashmir, provided it is an honourable settlement. There is a general feeling, in Pakistan and in India, that Imran is the armys puppet. Those who know Imran Khan also know that he cannot be anyones puppet. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, every election is questioned by the losing party. Every single election. So, there is nothing new about what is happening now. Will the army let him find a solution? The question again assumes that there is a fundamental difference in approach between Imran Khans thinking and the militarys thinking on Kashmir. I dont think so. India is a status-quo power on Kashmir. It is, therefore, assumed by some in India that any solution on Kashmir will be at Indias expense. Thus, it is not unnatural for such people to be hostile to Pakistans army. But, the current status quo is harming Indias polity as well as its international image. You talked about Musharraf having the army on board. Nawaz Sharif could not manage it. How will Imran? It was the way that Mian Nawaz Sharif dealt with things generally. Had he adopted a professional, more institutional approachfor instance, [holding] regular meetings of the cabinet committee on securitythis situation would have not arisen. He felt he could do it on his own, and that he did not need a consultative process. He did have meetings with the army chief regularly, but these were more in the nature of photo-ops. Look at the manner in which Modis visit to Lahore was handled. I was one of the few in Pakistan who welcomed that visit, because I have always believed that there is no substitute for talks and a sustained peace process. Such visits need to be handled with great care. Both parties were guilty. First, Modi blasted Pakistan in Kabul, which was only an hour away by air from Lahore. To make matters worse, Nawaz Sharif treated the visit as a personal affair. The adviser on foreign affairs was not present, nor was the adviser on national security or the foreign secretary or anyone of any consequence. Instead, the Indian prime minister was taken to a private wedding. This is not how relations are conducted. You can have all this bonhomie on a personal level. I have many friends in India, as does Imran Khan, but that doesnt mean that when you conduct state relations, there are no note-takers. The reason Modis visit failed was that it was badly conducted on both sides. I hope Imran Khan will do nothing of the sort. Reham Khan has been propelled to fame. Just ahead of the elections, her soon-to-be-released autobiography made her the most trolled, the most read, the most reviled and, perhaps, the most googled Pakistani, all in the span of a few weeks. She turned Pakistanis into readers just for a brief weekend in a high-octane election campaign. Her book was being sent across the borderpirated copies were being circulated widely, courtesy non-resident Pakistanis. Reham describes her former husband, Imran Khan, as a playboy. Sweet nothings that fall on your ears is what he is good at. That is what he has done all his life, she says. He doesnt deliver. Thats what playboys do. They say I love you, but they dont mean it. Thats what he has done to the voters. Reham Khan has come out with the first bestseller on Imran Khans life in his political avatar. She wont be the lastImran is likely to be like Modi, a book churner. Reham is in London, telling her story. You can recover sometime from a punch in the chest. But you cant recover from deceit that has been planned, she says. Why couldnt he just be man enough and say the establishment doesnt like you? Or, I cant be PM with you. Or, even, for example, I have fallen out of love with you. The allegations she has made are personal, damningfrom illegitimate children to sexual favours in return for ticketsand well-timed. Unlike the political accusations thrown at Imran, Rehams charges are much tougher to contradict. It is also the kind of stuff that goes viral and is lapped up greedily. They want to silence me, she says. I walked out. I said that I cant put up with this. This is too much deceit, too much lies. Reham did what most women in her place would not doreveal details. Even if it was for fame, as her critics claim, it was a reckless route to choose. Well-informed and opinionated, she isnt just the weather girl that Imrans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters like to dismiss her as. She is ambitious, outspoken and is on a crusade. The bookhowever distasteful it may have been for his supportersbrought to the fore, in a very ugly manner, the underlying misogyny. The PTI pack, as powerful as the troll army of Donald Trump or the bhakts on Twitter in India, turned the full force of their hatred on her. Did she expect it? Yes, she says. I expected worse. Even before the book came out I was being abused right, left and centre. My privacy is compromised. I know what they are capable of. I know that they were scared. If anything, they have baited me to write this book. The book will be out in India in August, and is being published by HarperCollins India. Filled with detailsthe kind that tabloids would love, of drugs, women and peccadilloesRehams book is a portrait of a man who has been created by the army. She talks about his relationship with former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Hamid Gul. Gul was obsessed with him, she says. I was told back in 2015, this is how they were going to do it [make Imran the prime minister]. This is painful for me to accept because I thought they couldnt. I was told that, step by step, this would be done judicially. There will be no martial law. This was written down by someone at the lower level in the crew who had been fed this information straight from the Hamid Gul lobby.... So, that is what is depressing. For die-hard optimists like me, we believe that we must not give up. And, that is why I want to go back [to Pakistan]. Friday, August 3, 2018 at 11:14PM While useful, we might have reached another level of creepy with the newest feature on Google Maps. Android Police first noticed this during an APK teardown of the app but now its going live for users. When you share your location on the app, itll now show your contact your battery level. And it isnt just an estimate but more of an accurate number. But it is useful for those who might be wondering why the person theyre tracking isnt answering. There doesnt seem to be a way to turn this off, so if you share locations and want to lie about not answering their call because the battery is dead, then you might want to rethink that. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA provides dialysis care and related dialysis care services in Germany, North America, and internationally. It offers dialysis treatment and related laboratory and diagnostic services through a network of outpatient dialysis clinics; materials, training, and patient support services comprising clinical monitoring, follow-up assistance, and arranging for delivery of the supplies to the patient's residence; and dialysis services under contract to hospitals in the United States for the hospitalized end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and for patients suffering from acute kidney failure. The company also develops, manufactures, and distributes dialysis products, including polysulfone dialyzers, hemodialysis machines, peritoneal dialysis cyclers, peritoneal dialysis solutions, hemodialysis concentrates, solutions and granulates, bloodlines, renal pharmaceuticals, and systems for water treatment; and non-dialysis products, such as acute cardiopulmonary and apheresis products. In addition, it develops, acquires, and in-licenses renal pharmaceuticals; offers renal medications and supplies to patients at homes or to dialysis clinics; and provides vascular, cardiovascular, endovascular specialty, vascular care ambulatory surgery center, and physician nephrology and cardiology services. The company sells its products to dialysis clinics, hospitals, and specialized treatment clinics directly, as well as through local sales forces, independent distributors, dealers, and sales agents. As of December 31, 2020, it operated 4,092 outpatient dialysis clinics in approximately 150 countries. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany. Read More Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. Read More Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove retired from the National Guard Saturday after 27 years in the military. A ceremony was held at the National Guard Joint Force Headquarters in Latham, and Abelove was awarded the Army's Meritorious Service Medal for his work as a judge advocate officer, the New York Army National Guard said in a statement. Abelove enlisted as a military police soldier in 1991 and finished his enlistment obligations with the New York National Guard in 1995. After graduating from Albany Law School he was commissioned as a judge advocate general officer in 1998. In 2008, he deployed with the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to Kabul, Afghanistan, as trial counsel as part of a joint task force. Abelove later served as brigade staff judge advocate for the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, as a judge advocate in the 42nd Infantry Division and Joint Force Headquarters, as the trial defense services chief and as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate in the 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters and most recently as Staff Judge Advocate for the 53rd Troop Command Headquarters, according to the National Guard. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. During his career he received the the Joint Service Medal, the NATO medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Army NCO Professional Development Ribbon, and the Army Reserve Overseas Training Ribbon. Saturday, August 4, 2018 at 12:02AM Sonos seems to have finally set a deadline for itself. The Verge reported that the company plans to bring Google Assistant to its Sonos One speaker before the end of the year. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence told The Verge that Sonos is working as hard as we can and so is Google to get it ready in time for the holiday season. The Sonos One already supports Amazon Alexa and even has AirPlay 2 functionality to support Apple users. And if we do get Assistant soon, itll make the speaker an even more attractive purchase. Source: 9to5Google Tru and Homewood Suites by Hilton are holding a job fair to find new employees for their dual-branded hotel at Crossgates Mall. The fair will be held Aug. 7-10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily on the upper level of Crossgates near Best Buy. Open positions include guest service representatives, room attendants, cooks and servers and van drivers. Albany In recent days, I've written about a man who hurled insults at a Home Depot worker, another who yelled Nazi in a T-shirt shop and a town clerk who refused a marriage license for a gay couple. The ugliness out there gets wearying. So I went to the Spectrum and watched the Mr. Rogers movie. "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" hit me like a ton of bricks. At first glance, there's nothing especially remarkable or moving about the documentary. It shows us how Fred Rogers got into television and why he thought the work was important. A good chunk of the film is footage from his show. For those of us who grew up watching "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," it's familiar terrain. We know the trolley and the worn Daniel Tiger puppet and how the sweater and sneakers came on and off. We remember that Rogers talked directly to us. We know the show was somehow different than anything we saw on television. When I got older and no longer watched, I underestimated Rogers. If I thought about the show at all, I didn't take it seriously and or realize how special it was. And sure, Rogers seemed like a nice man, but how could a normal person be that earnest? Why did he talk so slowly? Where was the sarcasm? He seemed, to be honest, like an oddball. The film doesn't dispel that notion, certainly not when one of his sons tells us his father used the voice of the Lady Elaine puppet at the dinner table. Or when we learn that Rogers kept his weight at exactly 143 pounds, because 1-4-3 matches the number of letters in "I love you." But oddballs and eccentrics change us with their refusal to conform. If the world was cold, Rogers would insist on a different path. His kindness and decency were not only counter-cultural, but radical. If widely adopted, they would be revolutionary. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rogers was an evangelist who wore a sweater instead of a collar. His love-your-neighbor and everybody-is-special morality came straight from the Bible. He venerated the weak over the powerful. In children, Rogers saw the divine. The lifelong Republican got into TV because children's programming disrespected childhood. Then, as now, it was loud and hurried, if not harsh and mean. It treated children as dumb adults, instead of something sacred. If it cared about their futures, it was only as future consumers of stuff. The show he made was not frivolous. When Robert Kennedy was killed, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" explained assassination. There were episodes on death and divorce. When whites were furious about integrated swimming, Rogers cooled his feet in a kiddie pool with Officer Clemmons, who was black. There was no rude talk in this neighborhood. Adults may have been fools elsewhere on TV, but here they were actual grown ups. They knew best and were ready to teach. Their work was celebrated, with many episodes featuring a trip to a factory, farm, store or workshop. Not everybody liked what they saw. In the movie, TV talking heads are shown condemning Rogers for telling children they were special a commonly heard criticism. Lavishing praise on their little egos, the argument goes, creates entitled adults. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. It's a terrible simplification of Rogers' message, ignorant of its religious echoes and obtuse to what children need. When we read, as reported by The New York Times, that one in four teenage girls have cut or burned themselves deliberately, we should realize that more children need to be told they are loved. When a teenager shoots up his school, we should pray that more kids hear "What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel?" a classic Rogers song. More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse Since he died in 2003, children's television has grown louder and more coarse. The young are playing less and spending more time getting primed to be ants in the global economy. The pace of life has increased. So has childhood anxiety and depression. If the world isn't meaner, it feels like it is. Rogers' quiet humility can seem dated in a culture that celebrates winning and wealth at the expense of kindness and generosity, cruelty and anger at the expense of tenderness and joy. Perhaps because we want a reminder of something better, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" is a surprise hit. Audiences, when confronted by the overwhelmingly decency of the earnest man from Pittsburgh, often can't help but cry. When you're sitting in the dark of the theater, feeling a bit foolish for the tears streaming down your face, it's clear Rogers was conveying what's necessary for happier people and a better world. Love is the root of everything, he said. Silence is a gift. And what is essential to life is invisible to the eye. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill As stored rail cars are removed from the Saratoga & North Creek Railway in the coming weeks, the Saratoga County sheriff's office advises people to stay off the tracks. The rail line, which runs in part from Saratoga Springs north through Greenfield, Corinth and Hadley, are private property and trespassing on the lines is extremely dangerous, the sheriff's office notes. "Members of the public should not use the rail lines or the adjacent property for recreational use of any kind. In addition, please use caution when approaching the rail crossings in these towns," the sheriff's office warns. The decision to remove the 22 old hopper rail cars has cheered members of Protect the Adirondacks. The cars had been stored on the banks of the Hudson River for more than two years outside of North Creek beside state Route 28. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The removal appears to be one of the last steps of Iowa Pacific Holdings withdrawal from the area as it has walked away from its lease with Warren County and the town of Corinth for the Saratoga & North Creek Railway, according to PROTECT's Peter Bauer. "Many people have complained about the string of dilapidated railcars standing between the highway and the Hudson River for more than two years. It's good that these rail cars have been removed, but they never should have been allowed to be stored for years on the banks of the Hudson River," said Bauer said in a statement. NISKAYUNA -- Edwin Reilly defined eclectic. The Niskayuna resident, who died Wednesday at the age of 86, had a wide range of knowledge and life experience, his obituary shows. He worked for the National Security Agency in Washington, then as a manager and analyst at Knolls Atomic Power Lab in Niskayuna, then chaired the new SUNY at Albany computer science department in 1965. In that long life he also managed to author textbooks, preside over the Schenectady County Historical Society, serve on the Schenectady Public Library board and economic and regionalization panels, and was an active part of his church, his obituary notes. Of course one of his most notable roles was as supervisor of the town of Niskayuna for five two-year terms in the 1970s and again from 1989 to 1997. The town he oversaw paid tribute to him this week in a post on its website, honoring those 18 years of service. It made special note of how he presided at a time of "unprecedented growth" throughout the town and that a lasting accomplishment was the building of the Town Hall in the mid-1990s. "Supervisor Reilly knew how to work with people of all backgrounds, and in doing so has taught us lessons we continue to draw from today. In addition to his service to the Town, Ed Reilly was an accomplished writer, teacher, and dedicated volunteer." When Reilly, a Democrat, lost his final re-election bid, he appeared graceful in defeat, sitting with incoming Conservative/Republican Kathleen DeCataldo, for four two-hour sessions, mainly to go over financial matters and town projects that were in the works, according to a December 1997 Times Union article. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. ''I'm doing my best to fill her in,'' Reilly told reporter Marv Cermak. ''I think we've had good relations during the changeover. She will have to get her sea legs, but she'll do fine.'' He was named grand marshal of the town bicentennial parade in 2009. His daughter, Diane Percy, is town tax receiver. Calling hours are 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Gleason Funeral Home. The funeral takes place at 8 a.m. Monday at the funeral home and at 9 a.m. at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church, 1803 Union St., Niskayuna. Burial with military honors will be at the Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Niskayuna, Reilly's obituary says. ALBANY Amid a debate on the feasibility of a single-payer, universal healthcare system for New York, the RAND Corp., a national nonpartisan think tank, has released its long-awaited study on the potential implications of the proposed New York Health Act. To explore impact of the legislation, authored by state Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, the New York State Health Foundation commissioned RAND researchers to assess how the plan would affect health care use and spending in the state. While Gottfried's bill could greatly expand coverage and lower healthcare costs for the majority of New York residents, the New York Health Act would be considerably more expensive than earlier estimates, according to the report released this week. "Our analysis finds that a single-payer plan in New York does not have to increase the amount of money spent overall on health care in the state, but it would substantially change who pays for health care," said Jodi Liu, the study's lead author and an associate policy researcher at RAND. Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Assembly health committee, touted the analysis this week as a victory for his bill, which he has introduced in the Assembly every year since 1992. "This is an important validation of the New York Health Act by one of the most prestigious analytical firms in the country," Gottfried said. "RAND shows we can make sure every New Yorker gets the care they need and does not suffer financially to get it; save billions of dollars a year by cutting administrative costs, insurance company profit, and outrageous drug prices, and pay for it all more fairly." The report focuses on fiscal implications, and assumes that the state would surpass several hurdles to implementation, such as securing a federal waiver and challenges on the grounds that it violates regulations which bar states from mandating insurance coverage. Researchers used a micro-simulation model to estimate the plan's effects and compare them with estimated outcomes under the current system for 2022, 2026, and 2031. They estimate that new taxes for health care would need to be about $139 billion in 2022 and $210 billion in 2031 to fully finance the proposal, a 156 percent increase from the state's current tax revenue. To fund the program, new payroll and employer-payed taxes would replace premiums, co-pays and employer insurance contributions. Gottfried's bill is deliberately vague on the tax structure that would fund the state-wide plan. Researchers focused on one hypothetical tax schedule, noting that many others can be designed, according to Liu. "[The New York Health Act] does at least specify that it would be a payroll tax and it will be progressively graduated, so there is some degree of specificity, but the revenue proposal will be figured out at a later date to help guide those who will eventually be coming up with that tax schedule," Liu said. A big unknown raised by the RAND report is how high-income New Yorkers, who make up a relatively small portion of the population, will react to significant tax increases. If they seek to avoid taxes by changing investments or move out of state to avoid taxes, it could put the program in jeopardy. Opponents of the New York Health Act, including the New York State Business Council, also touted the report's findings, citing its expense to employers. "The RAND report confirms what we have been saying for years, a single payer system would result in the largest tax increase in New York history and cripple an industry that employs tens of thousands across the state," said Heather C. Briccetti, president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Empire Center for Public Policy's Bill Hammond, a long-time critic of the single-payer plan, said that the projected savings for the state's overall healthcare spending outlined in the study can be attributed, in large part, to the fact that medical providers would have to accept lower payments. The savings rely on the assumption that a single-payer system, that covered all 19 million New Yorkers, would grant the state more bargaining power against providers. While it may be wise to curb healthcare spending, one does not need to upend the state's healthcare system to pay providers less money, he said. "They had to take for granted these really big hypotheticals," Hammond said. The study's release coincides with the first year that the legislation may be given serious consideration in Albany. The New York Health Act has passed the Assembly multiple times, and while it has been repeatedly blocked from coming to a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate, all 31 members of the Democratic caucus have signed on to the bill, meaning it could pass if the Democrats flip just one Senate seat November. The healthcare debate has also cropped up in the governor's race in recent days, with Democratic candidate Cynthia Nixon voicing her support for universal healthcare and Republican Marc Molinaro vowing to veto the bill if he were elected governor and it passed both houses. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office declined to indicate whether or not the governor would sign the legislation, though he has called it a "very exciting possibility." The idea universal healthcare has gained momentum across the country in recent years, with a number of state legislatures advancing single-payer state plans, and Medicare for All becoming a liberal touchstone for Democratic congressional candidates. ALBANY Financial aid officers from all 64 State University of New York campuses have been told not to answer media questions about the Excelsior Scholarship and instead refer to a prepared statement put out by Chancellor Kristina Johnson following a Times Union story noting the confusion that exists about the recently implemented program. That is all we are supposed to say, said one SUNY official who was on the conference call that came in the wake of complaints about the Excelsior Scholarship. The complaints were brought up during a meeting of the states Higher Education Services Corp., which administers the Excelsior Scholarship. During that meeting on Wednesday, a financial aid officer from Erie County Community College, speaking on behalf of a statewide association of such officials, complained that they were having difficulty getting answers from HESC about details of the scholarship. The questions have arisen as they struggle to determine whether students qualify for the scholarship. We have gone months without formal written guidance, said the financial aid officer, Sarah Buell. We are essentially, in our 64 campuses, establishing 64 different versions of this program, she added. Her remarks appeared to take HESC officials and trustees, as well as representatives of Gov. Andrew Cuomos office, by surprise. It was unclear if Buell knew that reporters from two news outlets, the Times Union and Politico NY, were at the meeting. A relatively obscure state agency, HESC meetings rarely generate much interest or news. In this case, however, the remarks prompted a rebuttal from Cuomos office. "It is shocking that financial aid officers do not yet understand this program. The Excelsior Scholarship is now a year old and New York has devoted an enormous amount of resources towards explaining its policies and procedures. We would encourage any students to contact HESC directly if their schools are incapable of providing the appropriate direction," Cuomo spokesman Don Kaplan said following the HESC meeting. Then on Thursday, financial aid officials, as well as some business directors from the campuses were told to participate in the conference call led by SUNYs central administration. The call was followed by a mass email to campus officials from Lauren McCabe, an assistant to Johnson. The email recapped Johnsons press statement on Thursday saying, Misstatements were aired by a handful of financial aid administrators about the process in implementing the program. Unofficial statements such as these create unnecessary confusion and are not productive in ensuring that this scholarship benefits as many students as possible if there is a question or concern about the implementation of the Excelsior Scholarship, please call my office or someone from my executive team, call HESC, or go to the HESC website. SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis noted that media inquiries always get coordinated through the communications office either here at SUNY or on each campus. The Excelsior Scholarship was rolled out by Cuomo last year and approved by the Legislature in April 2017. It is designed to provide free SUNY tuition to middle class families by covering the last dollar or amount that isnt paid by other grants such as the states longstanding Tuition Assistance Program. This year Excelsior is open to students from families with incomes up to $110,000, which will rise to $120,000 next year. An estimated 23,000 students are expected to take advantage of it this year. The program also applies to students in the City University of New York system and there is a similar plan for private schools that chose to participate. Students need 30 credits per year and must graduate in five years, then remain in New York state for as many years as they received the scholarships. While popular, financial aid officers point out that Excelsior can be complicated, especially when it comes to the application process. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The family incomes, for instance, need to be verified and there are specific instructions regarding course credits for students who, for instance, have a disability. The SUNY campus official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, said financial aid officers are upset that Cuomos office seemed to suggest they were falling down on the job. Others have noted that campus aid officers have for months been asking for clearer guidance on how to run the program. More for you Aid official: Excelsior scholarship has lots of unanswered questions They are not happy that somebody decided to voice all the problems we are having, one individual said. Were in the trenches every day trying to deal with this day in, day out and losing sleep trying to make this program work. HESC has offered webinars and has much information on its website, but the information comes from piecemeal sources, the officers said. In addition to the webinars and training there are several HESC websites. A look at the social media site Reddit did turn up some comments from CUNY students who were wondering if they had qualified for Excelsior. I applied for the Excelsior scholarship back in June, and I have not heard anything from the state in regards to my application. Is this normal? asked one comment posted less than two weeks ago. I haven't heard anything either. The semester is only a few weeks away and it has me worried, wrote another. Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever on Friday said, The state is working in lockstep with school administrators and financial aid officers offering webinars, conference calls, regular bulletins and memos to ensure they have the necessary guidance to implement this first-in-the-nation program and we will continue those efforts until every eligible student is enrolled in our free-tuition scholarship." rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU Restoring the Everglades is a multifaceted, multi-project undertaking. Even though the Everglades is south of Lake Okeechobee, part of the restoration effort is occurring north of the lake, too. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking public comment on a project north of Lake Okeechobee: the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project. This project is a part of the overall Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). The Corps held a public meeting in Lehigh Acres Tuesday to explain the project and get feedback. The project is in its draft report now; a final report will be submitted to Congress to get authorization to do the project, and then it will have to be funded through a future Water Resources Development Act. Reaching the funding stage of this project is probably about two years away, said Corps spokesman John Campbell. Its a 50/50 cost share between the Corps and the South Florida Water Management District, but the Corps is taking the main lead on this project. The Lake Okeechobee project hones in on the water coming into the lake from the Kissimmee River. Estimated at $1.4 billion, it will establish a wetland attenuation feature, two restored and managed wetland areas, and 80 aquifer storage and recovery wells. This is above and below ground storage, plus treatment, said Lisa Aley, the Corps Planning Lead. It gives us more flexibility to not make some releases to the estuaries. The wetland attenuation feature works as a shallow reservoir, holding 1.5 to 3 feet of water depth. Its planned at about 12,500 acres. It would be build north of the lake and to the west of the Kissimmee River. It will mostly look like a wetland, Aley said. The Corps will be able to divert the Kissimmee River through the two planned wetland restoration areas, which will help clean the water and slow its arrival into Lake Okeechobee. Aley gave a history lesson on why this storage north is needed. In 1947, a series of bad floods prompted the government to start managing the states rivers and lakes to prevent homes and businesses from being flooded out year after year draining southwest Florida, she said. It caused the environmental issues the state faces today, but also allowed more development on dry land which was historically wet. The Kissimmee River also used to have a more winding, meandering path, which slowed the waters arrival to the lake. Weve lost a lot of natural storage north of the lake, she said. So, then theres the 80 wells. They will be clustered together in areas mostly north of the lake, with the exception of one cluster near the C-43 Canal and another near the C-44 Canal. Bob Verrastro, a hydrogeologist with SFWMD, said these wells will go down about 1,000 feet and span about 300 feet in width. Their surface footprint is relatively small. Water can be pulled from the canals and the attenuation feature into these wells to store and reduce the amount going into Lake Okeechobee. The water has to be treated before it enters the well, through both a filter and an ultraviolet blast to kill bacteria, Verrastro said. While in the well, the phosphates that may be in the water get reduced because the well will be made of limestone, which reacts and bonds with the phosphorous, he said. Limestone has an affinity for phosphorous, Verrastro said. The water must meet drinking water quality standards when it gets in the well; then, when more water is needed, its pumped back out and cleaned again. The Corps already has two pilot wells in operation to test the project. So far, one has retained 90 percent of the water put in it. The remaining 10 percent could be mixing with the groundwater flowing beneath the well, but Verrastro said the wells wont lose much: the groundwater moves, on average, 0.01 feet per day. After a year, youd maybe lose a foot (of water), he said. The Corps believes these well systems will be a more efficient way of storing water to the north, as it doesnt require tens of thousands of horizontal acres. The entire scope of the wetlands, attenuation feature, and wells will increase storage, cleaning mechanisms and wildlife habitat north of the lake according to the Corps study. The Corps held a similar meeting several weeks ago to collect input about a project south of Lake Okeechobee; however, recent water quality concerns brought a higher number of attendees to Tuesdays meeting. Many of those in attendance expressed concern about the red tide in the Gulf of Mexico and cyanobacteria in the Caloosahatachee. We are dealing with a very major disaster in our area. This all goes back to storing water and sending it south, said Kay Haering, a meeting attendee, during public comment. We dont want to see contaminated water sent down our Caloosahatachee. We may not have a choice in taking water, but we dont want the contaminants with it. Karl Deigert is a hotel owner, tour captain, and president of the Matlacha Civic Association in Matlacha. He said during public comment that he hasnt gotten a phone call for business in weeks. This week, he noticed for the first time small clusters of cyanobacteria in the canal behind his business. He said hes honest with people who want to book boat tours right now and he wont take them anywhere the water is questionable. Businesses will fail. Employees will go, he said. Were already thinking about selling. He said he was concerned about the 10 percent of water lost into the Florida aquifer in the wells proposed by the Corps. Its seeping to somewhere into our drinking aquifers, Deigert said. Lt. Col. Jennifer Reynolds outlined some of the actions the Corps is taking now to work on the water quality issues, but warned a long-term fix wasnt happening soon. From the Corps perspective, a significant portion of the long-term answer is the Everglades restoration. Storage and conveyance south, she said. There are a lot of projects, theyre going to take a long time. We know we cant wait. She said the Corps was working with SFWMD to identify all available storage, including finding out how much more water the lake can safely hold outside the 12.5-15.5 feet preferred range and how much water can be put into canals, cleaned, and sent south into the Everglades. And its still not enough, Reynolds said. And, we know that. More information and maps of the Lake Okeechobee project are available at saj.usace.army.mil/LOWRP. Public comment on the Lake Okeechobee project ends Aug. 20. To submit a question or comment about the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project to be included in the official report, email OkeechobeeWatershedRestoration@usace.army.mil [August 03, 2018] All-In-One 'Infinite Cooler' Raised $100K Just After Launching Infinite Cooler combines state-of-the-art portable refrigeration with bluetooth speakers, blender, phone charger, touch screen, LED lighting and more. BURLINGAME, Calif., Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A veteran team just launched an amazing product crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. They achieved their funding goal within 2 hours and hit 100 000 dollars soon after it. This amazing product called Infinite Cooler is an outdoor multi-function cooler assumed to be a Party-in-a-box. Infinite Cooler brings together a spacious 61 quart capacity food refrigeration, bluetooth speaker, wireless charger, blender/coffee grinder, LED lighting and storage all combined in a sleek, modern design. It takes too much time and effort to organize all the gear you need to have a great outdoor party with friends. The Infinite Cooler was built to make outdoor parties and excursions extremely easy to put together and a lot more fun. This convenient, swiss-army like device lets you pack everything you need- drinks, food, music, power, lighting, blender and more, all in one compact place. The Infinite Cooler is now available on Indiegogo at a special early-bird price of $229. Early bckers will get 60% off the MSRP price of $599. Infinite Cooler will start shipping to backers at the end of 2018, with early-bird backers receiving their coolers first and the rest of backers receiving their product in April 2019. The campaign will provide regular updates and transparency every step of the way until the the cooler is delivered to backers. http://igg.me/at/infinitecooler Infinite Cooler has endless useful features and an exceptional design. Cooler features Include: 61 quart capacity 550 watt blender/coffee grinder Hi-Fi duel powerful bluetooth speakers digital screen+easy touch button Wireless charger, USB ports and power bank 360 degree rotatable LED lamp USB insect repellent lamp 6 cup holders Cutting board / utensils Bottle opener and corkscrew Connected smartphone app (for playing music, camera and social media) Telescope handle Bungee cord and bundling ropes ABOUT INFINITE COOLER: Infinite Cooler was created with the mission of making high quality, easy-to-use, multi-function coolers to everyone. We believe big things always come in one package that's why we created an all-in-one box that can help you solve the problem of grabbing too much extra stuff for outdoor parties . So you can be everywhere and have fun with everything you need. In creating the Infinite Coolers we focused on 3 things: quality, affordability and design. We partnered with our user community to create a cooler that is useful, easy-to-use and affordable. It has the features users want, in an elegant, simple design. We're not just selling a cooler we're creating a new way for the outdoor party lovers to participate in the product development journey, from vision to testing to launch. And this is just the beginning. We can't wait for you to join us! View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/all-in-one-infinite-cooler-raised-100k-just-after-launching-300692021.html SOURCE INFINITE COOLER [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 03, 2018] SEABOARD INVESTIGATION INITIATED by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of Seaboard Corporation - SEB Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Seaboard Corporation (NYSE: SEB). Since September 2014, the Company has been the recipient of numerous subpoenas and informal inquiries by the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") seeking information relating to foreign entities as well as an affiliate of Seaboard, including a 2017 probe into money transfers and bank accounts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries for which the DOJ also seeks "to interview certain Seaboard employees and to obtain testimony before a grand jury." In February 2016, the Company revealed it was being investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") under the Clean Air Act with regard to ammonia releases at an Oklahoma processing plant, disclosing later in December 2017 that it had settled the violations by "agreeing to pay a civil penalty and to implement a supplemental environmental project, the aggregate amount of bot totaling less than $1 million." KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Seaboard's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to Seaboard's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws. If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Seaboard shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-seb/ to learn more. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180803005515/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 04, 2018] Blackboard and Higher Colleges of Technology Establish Digital Education Center of Excellence in the Middle East ABU DHABI, UAE, August 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New initiative to boost the institution's strategic role in Emiratization by training technology-savvy educators Blackboard and the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) largest education institution, extended their partnership to create the first Blackboard Center of Excellence in the Middle East. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/725608/Blackboard_Center_of_Excellence.jpg ) Signed in the presence of Dr. Abdullatif Al Shamsi, Vice Chancellor of HCT, Dr. Jihad Mohaidat, Executive Dean - Ed Tech of HCT and Bill Ballhaus, Chairman, CEO and President of Blackboard, the main goal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is to create a dedicated facility to help teachers improve their knowledge of edtech solutions and to develop a community of skilled professionals who can become future leaders in digital education. The Center of Excellence will leverage Blackboard's eTeacher certification program to train instructors on the fundamentals of digital teaching and learning, on how to implement a digital platform and create outstanding online courses. In today's technology-driven and dynamic economy, education institutions must adapt to the rapidly changing requirements and demands of students, who are technology aware and more connected than ever before, and expect education to be the same. Moreover, in 2010 the UAE government launched the UAE Vision 2021, which sets the key themes for the socio-economic development of the country and calls for a shift to a diversified and knowledge-based economy. To deliver on this vision and meet the needs of the learners, HCT has impleented a strategy for 'Transforming Applied Higher Education' that includes investing in academic excellence, promoting innovative learning approaches, making sure student success is held to the highest possible standard, and ensuring student employability after graduation. The institution also provides its educators and students with world-class facilities that support individualized, blended and distance learning. "This agreement with Blackboard is an important milestone," said Dr. Abdullatif Al Shamsi, Vice Chancellor of HCT. "Our organizations have been working closely for many years and this MOU will further strengthen our partnership and empower our educators and staff with the necessary knowledge and tools they need to be successful today and tomorrow. Eventually, this will also benefit our students, equipping them with much-required skills." "A critical figure of this digital revolution is a competent, well-trained, and digitally fluent educator," said Robert Speed, Regional Vice President of Blackboard. "Institutions recognize that it is no longer acceptable to have only a handful of technologically capable instructors if they want to attract students and help them become more employable and successful. The Center of Excellence will empower educators with the right competencies to successfully use technology in their pedagogical approach." Blackboard has been working with HCT for almost two decades to rethink the educational experience and to better support students in the UAE, and is focused on delivering an integrated, flexible platform able to provide a unique connected experience throughout its entire portfolio. About Blackboard Our mission is to partner with the global education community to enable learner and institutional success, leveraging innovative technologies and services. With an unmatched understanding of the world of the learner, the most comprehensive student-success solutions, and the greatest capacity for innovation, Blackboard is education's partner in change. About HCT: Founded in 1988 with four campuses, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) has grown to be the UAE's largest applied higher educational institution, gaining a well-respected reputation for innovative and job-focused experiential learning. Approximately 23,000 students attend 16 modern, technology-oriented men's and women's campuses in the cities of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai, Fujairah, Madinat Zayed, Ras Al Khaimah, Ruwais and Sharjah. HCT offers a wide range of programs in the academic fields of Applied Media, Business, Computer Information Science, Education, Engineering Technology & Science, General Academic Requirements and Health Sciences. These programs are all relevant to the UAE's fast-growing economy and are designed in consultation with business and industry leaders to ensure that HCT students' skills are job-relevant and to the highest standards. The courses taught at the HCT campuses are a hybrid blend of innovative, academic studies and work-relevant programs, ensuring that HCT graduates have the necessary 21st century skills to make positive and lasting contributions to UAE society. All HCT programs are constantly monitored to ensure they are at the cutting-edge of industry standards and technological change. For more information: Blackboard Massimo Morigi massimo.morigi@blackboard.com +44-(0)20-7534-2063 The Content Factory layth@tcf-me.com +971507145640 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Earlier this year, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S9 to near-universal raves. Critics liked the camera improvements that resulted in better low-light photos. They praised the performance gains introduced by Qualcomm's then-new Snapdragon 845 processor. We declared the Galaxy S9+, the larger-screen version of the phone, to be the best Android device you could buy and we still feel that way many months later. And yet, many smartphone shoppers aren't buying it. (Image credit: Samsung unveiled the Note 8 a year ago in New York. (Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty)) When announcing its earnings this past week, Samsung specifically noted "slow sales" for the Galaxy S9. The news didn't just inform us how Samsung's last major smartphone launch went it also ratcheted up the pressure on the Galaxy Note 9, which is set to debut this coming week at Samsung's Aug. 9 Unpacked event. "As Samsung just admitted that Galaxy S9 sales are slow due to lack of differentiation and high pricing, Samsung could certainly use a hit with the next Note," said Avi Greengart, GlobalData's research director of consumer platforms and devices. Where the Galaxy Note fits in Galaxy's Note smartphones used to occupy its own special place in Samsung's lineup. The Note was the big-screen phablet built for power users who needed a high-performance productivity tool. "The Note 9 has historically been Samsung's flagship device to roll out new innovations," said Ramon Llamas, research director for mobile devices and AR/VR at research firm IDC. "Think of what they've done in the past larger screen that basically jump-started the phablet craze, the S-Pen, which has been a key differentiator all of these years, and the curved display." MORE: Galaxy Note 9 Rumors: What to Expect But somewhere along the way, the Note lost some of its uniqueness. The S Pen is still linked exclusively to the Note, but screen sizes on the Galaxy S phones have been inching upward to where the Galaxy S9+'s 6.2-inch display is only fractionally smaller than the 6.3-inch Note 8. Samsung's Infinity Display made its debut on the Galaxy S lineup, after all, before arriving on the Note. "Traditionally, Samsung put its largest, highest resolution displays and biggest batteries in the Note, but it cannibalized the screen size advantage with the Galaxy S+, and pulled back from large batteries after the Note 7 debacle," Greengart said. (Image credit: The Note 9 is set to debut at an Aug. 9 event. (Credit: Samsung)) Can the Note 9 reclaim some of that mojo? Based on the rumors circulating about the new phone, Samsung will have its work cut out for it. Note 9: What we expect Early reports on Samsung's plans for the Note 9 suggest it will retain the same look as the Galaxy Note 8, and leaked images reportedly of the new phone bear that out. From the renders we've seen circulating on Twitter and elsewhere, the Note 9 is expected to feature an Infinity Display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, just like last year's phone. (Image credit: A leaked render shows of what the Galaxy Note 9 might look like when it's unveiled August 9. (Credit: Evan Blass/@evleaks)) The bezels may be a little thinner, allowing Samsung to squeeze in enough extra screen real estate to include a 6.4-inch screen without increasing the overall size of the phone. And while that will be a welcome change for people who want a lot of usable screen space, it's not the kind of improvement that screams innovation. "Samsung could certainly use a hit with the next Note."Avi Greengart, GlobalData Other rumored enhancements also echo what Samsung has already done with the S9. The Note 9 is on tap to get the Snapdragon 845 mobile processor, which already debuted in the S9 and many other leading Android flagships at this point. (At least, the Note 9 is expected to ship with more RAM, up to 8GB depending on the configuration.) The dual rear cameras introduced with the Note 8 last year should also be in line for an improvement, though many of the rumored enhancements such as a variable aperture for improved photos in low-light situations were first rolled out with the S9 this spring. That leaves productivity as a way of making the Galaxy Note stand out. And that means one of the standout features for this year's model could again be enhancements to the S Pen, the stylus that can already do everything from translate text to scribble down memos even when the phone is locked. "There's definitely some overlap between the [Galaxy S and Note], but for me the big difference has always been the S Pen and the Note's overall focus on productivity," Llamas said. "That has changed somewhat, but I think users gravitate to the S or the Note depending on whether they want content consumption or content creation/productivity." (Image credit: The Galaxy Note 8 (Credit: Tom's Guide)) To that end, this year's S Pen is rumored to be gaining Bluetooth connectivity as part of the Note 9. That would let you use the stylus as a remote control, letting you handle things like music playback and other tasks. The S Pen could also help you game better if another rumor about the Note 9 pans out. Two reports claim that Fortnite will make its long-awaited debut on Android as a Note 9 exclusive, and players will be able to use the S Pen for aiming and shooting in the multiplayer battle royale game. A game like Fortnite would give Samsung the chance to show off the Note 9's processing power, though reports that Samsung will promote the phone as a gaming device seem at odds with the Note's reputation as a productivity tool. One Note 9 rumor Samsung has essentially confirmed involves Bixby. Samsung has already said that Bixby 2.0 will make its debut on the Note 9. It's unclear exactly which features Bixby 2.0 will bring to the new Note, though apparently the digital assistant can now recognize individual voices and provide responses and contextual information relevant to the user's preferences. Bixby hasn't really caught on with owners of Galaxy phones, where Google Assistant still seems to be the voice-powered helper of choice. And it's unclear if an update to Bixby on the Note 9 will change that. Llamas sees Bixby as a cross-device feature for Samsungs products, instead of a centerpiece feature for a smartphone: "Still, it needs an endpoint from which to begin, and [with] previous comments about 2.0's availability on Samsung's next flagship device during the second half of 2018, this seems to be it." Outlook There will be another elephant in the room when Samsung unveils the Note 9 this Thursday, and it will look a lot like Apple. While Galaxy S9 sales have struggled by Samsung's own admission, Apple is enjoying record revenue driven in large part by the iPhone X. In fact, Apple as a company just surpassed $1 trillion in market value. And with new iPhones expected as soon as September, the Note 9 will have a limited window for capturing the imagination and dollars of smartphone shoppers. "Even as the smartphone replacement cycle has lengthened, Apple has proven that consumers will pay dearly for innovation," GlobalData's Greengart said. "Now it's up to Samsung to deliver." A Major Conservative Donor Is Meddling In A Democratic Primary In Kansas A group largely funded by a major conservative donor is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a swing seat Democratic congressional primary in Kansas, hoping to persuade voters to nominate a progressive candidate supported by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Supporters of this labor lawyer cry foul as cash pours into the Kansas 3rd District and capitalists flex on this candidate championing the plight of workers.Read more: Top 10 Best Kansas City Public Relations Firms & Communications Agencies Are you searching for Kansas City public relations firms or communications agencies? No matter how good your company may be at marketing, when it comes to public relations, we can all benefit from the services of a hired PR gun to launch a new product or service! Media ranking from one of our favorite listicle blogs takes a look at some of our old pals and new contenders.Here's a guide to the local media game: McCaskill sets Kavanaugh meeting, with other Dems to follow A fourth vulnerable red-state Democratic senator set a date on Friday to meet with Brett Kavanaugh - and more liberal colleagues are poised to follow in the coming days. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) plans to sit down with President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee on Aug. 21, her office said. Like it or not, the top political lady in the Show-Me State isn't given her opponents much ammo in this critical election issue.Read more: The community at-large is invited to a four-day conference that "guarantees to provide sound biblical preaching and teaching, songs of praise to the highest degree and fellowship among the saints from any background" at the 145th Annual Session of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County BM&E District Association. We are addressing the divisive climate of todays culture by asking people of faith to come together as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is our time to change the atmosphere for the cause of Christ. We are reaching out across every line and into all communities asking Christians to come together for four evenings of worship and praise," said E. Lamar Young, moderator, Chattanooga-Hamilton County BM&E District Association. The annual session will involve preaching, lecturing and Gospel music. The line-up is as follows: Monday, Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m. - Pastor Gerald OGuinn and the Congregation/Choir of the Love Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church Tuesday, Aug. 14, 6:30 p.m. - Rev. Edward L. Thrasher and the Congregation/Choir of the Stoney Point Missionary Baptist Church Wednesday, Aug. 15, 6:30 p.m. - Dr. Ternae Jordan, Sr. and Congregation/Choir of the Mount Canaan Missionary Baptist Church Thursday, Aug. 16, 6:30 p.m. - Rev. Carlos D. Williams and the Congregation/Choir of the Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 13 and 14, 6:30 p.m. - Dr. Kelly Miller Smith, Jr., Pastor of First Baptist Church Capitol Hill, Nashville For more information about the 2018 Annual Session, contact Chattanooga-Hamilton County BM&E District Association at 423-680-6393 or email at thedistrictchcda@gmail.com. Blue Water Hawaii: We just returned home to Cape Coral from visiting several islands in Hawaii. The water around all of the islands was so clean, blue and beautiful. It saddened my wife and I to think that we moved to Southwest Florida in 2014 to enjoy the fishing, boating and beaches that we have here, only to find that the waters here are so often brown and polluted from the discharges from Lake Okeechobee, now full of algae and red tide. When friends and family visit here they ask why is the water is so gross? The politicians act like they care but nothing seems to get done! The water from Lake O needs to flow south again like nature intended, to the Everglades. The Army Corps of Engineers created this problem, now they need to fix it!!! Gary Westhues Cape Coral Community news gets up-close & personal with a denizen of their neighborhood and might not realize that, given that he's innocent until proven guilty, he'll be right back out on the street by tonight.Read more: COLUMBIA - Craig O'Dear, a trial lawyer practicing business litigation in Kansas City, is throwing his hat in the hotly-contest ring for one of Missouri's Senate seats in November. On Monday, O'Dear - an independent - turned in more than 20,000 signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State's office supporting his candidacy. KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The wife of a Chinese missionary murdered in Kansas City earlier this week has shared her husband's story, saying he aimed to bring God's love to those in hopelessness and pain. Xingdong Hao, 38, was killed Wednesday when a man suspected of being high on PCP opened fire on a neighborhood street. Right now the count stands at 17 shot and three dead over the past two days in KCMO. The police chief said he wanted to hold the press conference to share three points: 1) The police department understands the seriousness of the past 48 hours. 2) KCPD Detectives are working to get criminals off the streets. 3) Investigators need the communitys help to prevent and solve crimes. AS KCPD WARNS OF RESOURCES STRETCHED THIN . . . MORE DEADLY VIOLENCE THREATENS THE BUSY FIRST FRIDAY WEEKEND!!! From the loop to Midtown, Kansas City streets are typically clogged with party people from all demographics on this hottest 1st Friday night of the year. Will locals respect the police cry for help or continue along the same murderous path??? Channel 9: Three men taken into custody after exchanging gunfire with KCMO officers Kansas City has suffered historic violence over the past two days and this afternoon authorities were forced to call an emergency press conference given alarm and fear of more violence this weekend.The official main takeaway from the KCPD presser . . .Unfortunately, police refused to say the violence was part of any specific trend and stuck to a generic call for peace that didn't offer many specific details.More interestingly a question to our blog community . . .TKC public safety notice . . .Check the links offering crime round-ups and some of the latest violent incidents . . .You decide . . . To the editor: There are simple solutions to the ecological disaster of red tides, and green slime flowing in our state. Before presenting them, observing the facts is essential. First, dead whales, dead sea turtles, dead manatees, and dead fish washing ashore on our public beaches have the potential to destroy our tourism industry. Second, toxic waste on our beaches, in our canals, and in the sea pose a health risk to our citizens. Third, this is not a quirk of nature. Its man made. From all that Ive read, this disaster is a result of the runoff from fertilizers including those used by the corporations engaged in the sugar industry. Our elected officials are aware of this, but since these corporations are a source of large campaign contributions, they allow these corporations to use the public water ways as their personal sewer pipes. There are three quick fixes to this problem. 1) Determine which specific fertilizers create this problem, and issue a total ban of them. There are alternatives that dont involve creating toxic waste, and agricultural corporations can use those, even if it results in a lower crop yield. 2) There should be a total ban on allowing corporations to use the public waterways to discharge toxic waste. Thats so obvious it shouldnt even have to be mentioned, but our current elected officials have shown they lack the will to take that step, and protecting our tourism industry, and the health of our citizens isnt a priority to them. 3) Stop electing state officials that are willing to allow toxic waste to flow across our state and beaches. Its time for the media to create a list of elected officials that allow this disaster to happen, and publish it, informing voters who the culprits are. If these three steps are ignored, there will be no other solutions to this serious, and growing disaster, that will have much impact. Kenny Belford Cape Coral singhking99@yahoo.com Om Prakash Dhankar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, says that the state government has implemented all key recommendations of the Swaminathan committee. He claims that various schemes launched for rural development are bearing results. He believes the criticism of the MSP formula (50% profit over crop cost) is unfair and unjustified. Excerpts from an interview with Geetanjali Gayatri... Saudi Arabia has halted import of basmati rice after traces of cancer-causing fungicide were found. Since Haryana produces basmati, how will it impact our economy and farmers? The quality of basmati rice comes into question every time a crop is due to arrive in market. This is usually done with a view to keeping its prices low. It was rumoured that basmati has arsenic. The FDA of the USA took samples of all varieties of rice grown across the world and concluded that every sample contained arsenic, organic or inorganic. The FDA did not name any country and did not issue specific instructions to any country. The only thing the FDA mentioned as the conclusion was that all kinds of grain should be consumed rather than sticking to one grain. Then, not long ago, there were news reports that our rice consignment to the USA had been given a red card due to high content of pesticide. I followed it up and found that 2.5 lakh metric tonnes of rice had been exported to the USA and of which only 30,000 tonnes were shown the red card. I spoke to the owners of the companies which had got the red card and they told me it was similar to an inspector checking stocks randomly and they would take care of it. It is not in the interest of farmers that such a situation is created every time a crop is to arrive in market. Also, there is no scientific study to prove any of these claims. Our rice is of very good quality and is valued in the world market. You were in the forefront seeking the implementation of the Swaminathan commission report when the BJP was in the opposition and the Congress was in power at the Centre and in the state. You seem to have done a U-turn on the issue after the BJP came to power. Why? Who has taken a U-turn? We have implemented everything. The main recommendations have been implemented. The entire Swaminathan commission report is a bouquet and its recommendations are to be implemented at different levels; some at the state level and others at the national level. However, all its recommendations pertaining to monetary benefits have been implemented. This is especially true for my state. The report wanted Rs 10,000 per acre as compensation to farmers while we are already giving Rs 12,000 per acre. The crop insurance scheme is in place and the recommendation that the minimum support price (MSP) should come with 50 per cent profit stands implemented. In fact, for some crops, we are giving 97 per cent profit. There are no recommendations which are yet to be implemented in Haryana. If your MSP formula is in consonance with the Swaminathan committee report, why is the Opposition not convinced? People challenging the formula are those who made farmers walk barefoot all these years. I am only explaining this as an example that when we gave them slippers, the Opposition is asking why we did not give shoes. They are the ones who withheld the profitable price from reaching farmers, put this entire exercise in cold storage and resorted to mere sloganeering to appease farmers. They are the ones who are raising issues about the formula and pricing. To what extent is the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana benefiting farmers and how much benefit is going to corporate houses or insurance companies? This insurance scheme has two parts and those who condemn it are holding the wrong end. Also, their criticism is unfair and partial. As far as farmers go, this is the best they could have got. As many as 3.10 lakh farmers have benefited from the insurance scheme. Those who condemn the scheme are basically criticising it on the ground that insurance companies are earning more than they are giving. Give and take in an insurance scheme can never be evaluated. There may come a day when they have to give away more by way of insurance claims than what they have earned in five or 10 years. This cannot ever be judged on any scale and this give and take calculation is completely wrong. After you became minister, a number of agricultural summits have been held across the state at huge costs. What are the benefits of such summits? I believe agricultural summits are leadership summits. A leader is anybody who is giving his best to farming and earning a lot while directly marketing his produce and making it a brand. We have given away 25 Rattan awards in different fields of agriculture, including animal husbandry, fisheries, and horticulture. We are identifying them. Around 10 per cent of our farmers have attended these summits. For three days, agriculture and the best practices converge under one roof and discussions, seminars, and demonstrations are held, giving exposure to our farmers. I see these summits as an engine. The USA, New Zealand, and Israel have been holding such summits for long. I am happy to say that we have raised our summits to that level. The 10 per cent farmers, who attended the summits, translate into 1.60 lakh farmers who had registered themselves with us. We have been able to connect to so many of them and they are taking our vision to other farmers and people for next year. All senior government functionaries, as also the Governor, the Chief Minister, and the Union Minister for Agriculture attend the three-day programme. Thanksgiving rallies are being organised across the state, and also at Malout in Punjab, to thank the Prime Minister for the hike in the MSP. Isnt it an attempt to create an impression that farmers are happy with the BJP government? When farmers are happy, they want to express their happiness. When a farmer growing bajra knows he will get Rs 1,950 instead of Rs 1,425 and realises that it would have taken 10 years for the price to rise to this level at the present pace; when cotton farmers think they will get Rs 18,080 per acre and it would have taken 11 years to reach that level; when paddy farmers think they will get Rs 1,200 crore in three months; when sunflower farmers earn big money, they want to express their gratitude. It is for the first time in Haryana that rallies are being organised in the name of crops sunflower farmer thanksgiving rally, paddy farmer thanksgiving rally, cotton farmer thanksgiving rally. These are not orchestrated and are happening because farmers cannot believe they will get Rs 33,500 crore as lump sum. What is more heartening for the farmers is that a formula has been set and they will get 50 per cent profit. The previous government would give Re 1, Rs 5 or even Rs 50 around elections. Now, if their cost is Rs 1,000, they will get Rs 1,500 and so on and so forth. The previous governments fixed these prices arbitrarily and had condemned farmers to the non-profit zone. The present Prime Minister has taken the lead and moved them to the profit zone, something Chaudhary Charan Singh or Chaudhary Devi Lal or HD Deve Gowda could not do for farmers. All governments will now have to give the MSP with 50 per cent profit over the cost and a government that does not do it will be shown the door. In future, governments can raise the profit rate to 60 per cent or 65 per cent but they cant roll back the 50 per cent profit we have given. The government introduced educational qualifications for the representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Has the move ensured betterment of villages? Rural Haryana has undergone a change. The Central Finance Commission recently visited Haryana and interacted with the youth panchayat only to comment that it was very different from what they had imagined. Our panchayats have educated representatives; they have accepted the e-panchayat system; they have the power to spend Rs 20 lakh. Now, a panchayat can create a village of its dreams. This is a big change and the entire country is appreciating our model and looking for ways to adopt it. Though we have suffered a setback in the high court, the Supreme Court termed it as one of the best 10 decisions. We have introduced the concept of star villages and 18 per cent panchayats are in this category; which is an achievement. By August 15, we will have entry gates in all villages bearing the names of its sportspersons, martyrs, and people who have contributed to their development. We have a programme to involve the youth in the development of villages. This is to strengthen our system and the youth are being given a chance to steer their villages in the direction they want to. An idea behind introducing educational qualifications was to empower women, but at most of the places the husbands of the elected representatives are running the show. Has that purpose been defeated? This may be true for a few villages but women are discharging their responsibilities with dedication wherever they occupy the seats of authority. Among the identified star villages, a number of them are headed by women. Instead of 33 per cent reservation, we have given them 43 per cent representation through the PRIs. In fact, I have no reservation in stating that women are doing a better job than men. The open defecation free programme was a success only because women came forward. Documentaries on these women are being made. They are very enthusiastic. In fact, in one programme, a woman sarpanch wanted to speak after the Governor and had to be told that this is against the convention. The Haryana Government marketed the village adoption scheme and a number of MLAs adopted villages. However, not much work has been achieved in these adopted villages where people are almost fed up with this title. Was the scheme intended to be only on paper? We have formulated various schemes for rural development. The Mahagram Yojana is for villages with a population of 10,000 or above. Sewerage will be provided in these villages. There is the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission under which villages will be developed with city-like facilities. Haryana has a number of clusters and work has started in five of these while two others are in the pipeline. There is the Deenbandhu Haryana Gram Uday Yojana under which 1,200 villages will be chosen for a special development project. We have taken up 400 villages in the first phase. The Adarsh Gram Yojana is one of the many schemes under which MLAs were supposed to adopt villages. They were to be the motivators. Money has been released twice over. It is for the MLAs to identify schemes, get plans made and get them executed. A lot of good work has taken place. There may be instances where an MLA did not take interest. These cases should be specifically quoted. However, to say that no work has happened is also not true. The Jat quota agitation created a divide between Jats and other communities. The state Cabinet was also divided on the issue. Yashpal Malik and Raj Kumar Saini are still carrying on with their programmes. Being a Jat leader, how do you respond to that? There is no division in society on caste lines and there were no differences within the Cabinet also. Haryana is a mature society and all my Cabinet colleagues, too, are very mature. However, the names you have mentioned are those who are trying to do politics on caste lines. They have a particular agenda. However, our society rejects all such people. The BJP came to power in Haryana on the non-Jat card. Will this card be played again in the Assembly elections next year? The BJP came to power on the promise of good governance. It is not a party that belongs to any one caste. It is Indias party. It is an all-inclusive party that does not believe in creating divisions. A BJP leader or worker is a nationalist. He does not think or work on caste lines. We believe in taking everybody along. That is why our party slogan is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. Anybody who behaves otherwise has no place in the BJP. The state Cabinet has only two Jat ministers; you and Capt Abhimanyu. Why is it that the Jats seeking the OBC status wanted to keep you out of their talks with the government? Some elements dont want the Jat leadership to grow. Some leaders have done only caste politics and have taken on themselves the responsibility of taking their communities forward. Every time a leader comes forward to take everybody along, they cannot stand that and find ways to demoralise him. Are you keen on contesting the Lok Sabha elections? Charkhi Dadri was made a district; will you now shift your Assembly seat from Badli? I will contest whichever election the party wants me to. I am a party man. I represent Badli and will continue to do so. I could carve out a district because I was the chairman of the committee constituted to study its feasibility. We created a district, sub-divisions and blocks (14 new units). This has nothing to do with contesting elections. rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Solan, August 4 The Solan police on Friday arrested a Nigerian who supplied heroin to local dealers. ASP Shiv Kumar Sharma said this is the second such arrest of a Nigerian after the one by the Shimla police recently. The Solan police nabbed the Nigerian after the arrest of a local youth, Ashutosh Attri, who had been buying the contraband from him for the past year. Attri, along with eight other youths who were buyers, was earlier arrested here and 11 gm heroin was seized from him. Attri had been supplying heroin to the youth, including women, in the age group of 20 to 30 in Solan and Shimla. The Nigerian will be produced before a local court on Saturday evening. It is yet to be verified whether he was staying in India on a valid visa or had overstayed. The police will also search his Dwarka-based residence in Delhi where he claims to be residing. A six-member team led by ASI Ramesh Kumar brought him from Delhi on Friday evening and arrested him after questioning him. rchopra@tribunemail.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, August 4 Four more suspected militants were killed in a fresh gunfight at Kilora in Shopian district in south Kashmir on Saturday morning taking the militant toll in the operation to five. On Friday evening, one top local Lashkar-e-Toiba militant was killed in the initial encounter between militants and security forces in the area. The anti-militancy operation was launched on Friday evening on the basis of information about the presence of militants in the area. Four more militants have been killed at Shopian. A total of five militants have been killed so far, Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said. He said weapons had also recovered. The operation is continuing, he added. The identity of the four militants is being established. On Friday evening, a top Lashkar militant, Umer Malik of Malikgund Shopian, who was active since August 2017 was killed. Meanwhile, two suspects were detained by security forces at Panthachowk on the outskirts of Srinagar on Saturday morning and two hand grenades were recovered. The two were being questioned, a security officer said. amansharma@tribunemail.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, August 4 Four more local militants were killed in a fresh gunfight at Kilora in Shopian district in south Kashmir early Saturday morning taking the militant toll in the operation to five. A civilian was also killed and more than 50 were injured in subsequent clashes in Shopian. Last evening, one top local Lashkar-e-Toiba militant was killed in the initial encounter between militants and security forces in the area. The anti-militancy operation was launched Friday evening at Kilora village, 55 km from Srinagar, on the basis of information about the presence of militant group in the area. "Four more terrorists have been killed at Shopian. A total of five terrorists have been killed so far," Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said. He said weapons have also recovered. The slain militants have been identified Arshid Ahmad Khan of Lashkar; Waqar Aslam Sheikh and Aijaz Ahmad Paul of the Al-Badr. The identity of one militant is being established. On Friday evening, a top Lashkar militant Umer Malik of Malikgund Shopian who was active since August 2017 was killed. As the gunfight resumed this morning, a large number of people tried to march towards the encounter site to help the militants to escape. They also pelted forces with stones. In the subsequent clashes, over 40 protesters were injured. A civilian was killed in clashes and another critically injured after security forces opened fire at stone-pelting youth -- following the funeral of a local militant -- at Ganawpora village of Shopian, local sources said. The slain civilian has been identified as Bilal Ahmad Khan, a resident of Karlchek village in Pulwama district. Defence spokesman Col Kalia, however, said he died in the crossfire. "Army troops came under fire from terrorists near Ganawpura orchards. They immediately retaliated. In the cross-fire, one civilian unfortunately got injured, who later succumbed to the injury," the spokesman said. Meanwhile, militants, including wanted Pakistani militant Naveed Jat, appeared in the funeral of one of the slain militants and gave a "gun salute". Jat escaped from police custody in February this year from Srinagar's premier hospital. Clashes also broke out in Anantnag district, after the Shopian gunfight ended, which left over a dozen injured. Meanwhile, two suspects were detained by forces at Panthachowk in Srinagar outskirts along with two hand grenades this morning. "The two are being questioned," a security officer said. (With inputs from Suhail A Shah in Anantnag) amansharma@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 4 Amid protests by National Conference and PDP in favour of Article 35A of the Constitution, the Jammu and Kashmir government has requested the Supreme Court to defer the August 6 hearing on petitions challenging the controversial provision in view of upcoming panchayat and urban local body polls in the state. In a letter written to the Supreme Court Registry, the state governments counsel M Shoeb Alam said he would be seeking adjournment of the case on Monday, "on the account of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming panchayat/urban local body and municipal elections". Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and debars rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state. The Supreme Court had on May 14 deferred hearing on petitions challenging Article 35A of the Constitution that gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The provision debars non-permanent residents from buying property or getting state government jobs. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had posted the matter for hearing on August 6 after Attorney General KK Venugopal had sought an adjournment. "This is a very sensitive matter. Our only prayer is that it may not be heard before three weeks as a solution is in the course of being devised," Venugopal had told the Bench. The state government has maintained that the Supreme Court had already settled the issue by ruling that Article 370 of the Constitution had attained permanent status. But the Centre has been shying away from filing its response to spell out its stand on Article 35A. The Attorney General had last year told the court that the government didn't want to file its affidavit in response to petitions against Article35A. It has been challenged on the ground that the President could not have amended the Constitution by an Order in 1954 and it was to be a temporary provision. Amid growing political unease in Jammu and Kashmir over alleged attempts to do away with Article 35A, the top court had on August 14, 2017 hinted at sending all five petitions challenging the controversial provision to a Constitution Bench for a definitive finding on its validity. Petitioners Radhika Gill, Eklavya and Vijay Kumar -- residents of Valmiki Colony, Gandhi Nagar in Jammu -- challenged the validity of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954 on the ground that it violated their right to life, right to equality, right to non-discrimination, right to equality of opportunity in public employment and right to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India. "It is a strange situation in J&K as persons from Pakistan can come and settle in the state but those who have been staying there for generations cannot even get a government job," senior advocate Ranjit Kumar had said on behalf of petitioners. There were five petitions demanding scrapping of Article 35A in Jammu and Kashmir listed before the CJI's Bench, the first one was filed by 'We the Citizens', a Delhi-based NGO in 2014. Four more petitions have been filed since then against the controversial provisions and all the petitions have been clubbed together. The latest petition, which was filed on May 1, is on behalf of more than 4,000 persons belonging to the second, third and fourth generation of 272 Safai Karmcharis (sweepers) who moved from Gurdaspur and Amritsar and settled Jammu way back in 1957 at the stance of the Jammu and Kashmir government to work as sweepers to replace the sweepers of the Municipal Corporation of Jammu who had gone on an indefinite strike. The petitioners said they were the descendents of few persons amongst the 272 safai karmcharis and were born in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and had been residing in the state since their birth. Earlier, the top court on October 30, 2017 deferred hearing on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A in view of negotiations initiated by the Centre with various stakeholders in the state. amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, August 4 A senior officer on Saturday said the court of inquiry involving Major Leetul Gogoi, who was caught with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel, is still in progress and nothing has been finalised yet. Major Gogoi was detained by the J&K Police on May 23 from a Srinagar hotel, along with a local Kashmir woman and another soldier. After the incident, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat had announced exemplary punishment to Major Gogoi if he was found guilty of any offence. Last year, Major Gogoi was accused of using a youth in Budgam district as a human shield. Gen Rawat had awarded him and supported his action. The court of inquiry is still in process, a senior defence officer privy to the probe said. It has not been finalised yet. The process is going on, he said. The officer said any action against Major Gogoi would be taken only after the finalisation of the court of inquiry and its outcome. Major Gogoi is posted at the place of his posting. All attachments take place after the court of inquiry, he said. While Army court of inquiry is under way, the J&K Police, in its report to the Chief Judicial Magistrate on May 30, had said that the woman who was detained along with Major Gogoi was 19 years old and had gone with the officer of her own free will. It has further said that no case was made out against Major Gogoi. However, not satisfied with police probe, a human right activist moved an application demanding an investigation to explore other angles. editorial@tribune.com New Delhi, August 4 A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Milan had to return to the airport in Italy within 30 minutes of take-off after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, the airline said today. According to an airline spokesperson, the incident happened on August 2 when the passenger, an Indian citizen whose seat no. was 32C, tried to enter the cockpit in clear violation of aviation rules. On landing back, he was handed over to the local police who are probing the incident. The aircraft had over 250 passengers onboard. AI 138 Milan-Delhi flight was delayed by 2.37 hours as one unruly passenger Gurpreet Singh tried to enter the cockpit after take-off from Milan on schedule. The aircraft landed back and the passenger was handed over to the local police, an airline statement said. Gurpreet's action could land him in the no-fly-list pending the completion of enquiry, the airline hinted. The no-fly list was introduced following several reports of unruly incidents involving passengers, including Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who allegedly assaulted an Air India staffer at the Delhi airport for not being allowed to fly business class. In May, Mumbai-based jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, who had created a hijack scare onboard a Jet Airways flight on October 2017, was put in the no-fly category, the first person in the list. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Muzaffarnagar, August 4 A bike-borne kawad pilgrim was killed after being run over by a vehicle near Mansurpur on the Delhi-Hardwar highway in the district, police said on Saturday. Nitish Sharma (26) was on his way to Hardwar on Friday when he was run over by the vehicle, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead, they said. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 4 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reviewed the progress of preparations for the launch of the Health Insurance programme under Ayushman Bharat. The scheme will provide health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family. It will be targeted to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. Top officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, NITI Aayog and PMO briefed the Prime Minister on various aspects, including the preparations in states, and development of the technological infrastructure associated with the scheme. In April, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the first Health and Wellness Centre under Ayushman Bharat, in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. So far 26 states have signed MOUs for NHPS with Delhi and Odisha disinclined to join. uttara@tribuneindia.com New Delhi, August 4 In a show of unity, leaders of a number of opposition parties including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi joined the RJD in a massive protest at Jantar Mantar here over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar take immediate action against the accused. Prominent leaders who joined the protest included Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and Atul Kumar Anjan, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav and TMC's Dinesh Trivedi. Addressing the protesters, opposition leaders attacked the BJP and the JD(U) and demanded stringent punishment against those involved in such heinous crimes. Congress president Rahul Gandhi said if Nitish Kumar is ashamed of the rape incident, he should immediately act against the culprits. "We stand with the women of India, we stand with the girls and their families who suffered in this shelter home," he said. The Congress chief said on one side is the ideology of the BJP and the RSS and on the other is the entire country and "this will be seen in the coming days". "India is saying that what has happened in the last four years, we do not like. When India makes up its mind, then no one can stand before it," he said. Tejashwi Yadav, who targeted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged rape incident at the shelter home in Muzaffarpur, demanded a probe monitored by the Supreme Court. The Bihar government has handed over the case to the CBI. Demanding justice for the girls of the shelter home, who were allegedly sexually exploited, Yadav said the accused should be given exemplary punishment and steps be taken to ensure this does not happen again. Recalling the Nirbhaya incident in Delhi, Kejriwal said fast track courts should be set to to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crime. "I demand that this case be probe in three months and the accused be hanged," he said. The Delhi chief minister alleged that the accused have connections with influential people. Yechury alleged anarchy is being sheltered by governments in BJP-ruled states. "We need to change this government....the slogan of 'beti bachao is now 'save beti from BJP'," he said. Sharad Yadav said that these crime have taken place under the nose of the JDU-BJP government and demanded "a Supreme Court monitored probe conducted by the CBI". He also said that a national commission should be set up to probe such crimes across the country, including Bihar. "The BJP is not saving the daughters of the country. It is instead busy saving cows," he said. - PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Bishkek, August 4 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday held talks with her Kyrgyzstan counterpart Erlan Abdyldaev on deepening cooperation in a number of areas, including trade, energy and defence and security. Swaraj arrived on Friday at Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan on a two-day visit after wrapping up her tour to Kazakhstan. She was received by Abdyldaev. Taking steps to tap the huge potential that exists between our two countries! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Abdyldaev discussed opportunities for cooperation in fields of trade and investment, defence and security, IT, health, HRD, tourism and joint film production, Raveesh Kumar, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, tweeted. Walking together to take our relationship to new heights! EAM Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldaev proceed to the restricted format meeting in Issyk Kul, he had said in a tweet before the meeting. Swaraj has interacted with Abdyldaev on a number of occasions, including on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The minister is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of Indias efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. India and Kyrgyzstan share multi-dimensional relations, including political, parliamentary, defence, science and technology and health. The visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyrgyzstan in July 2015 followed by Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayevs trip to India and interactions on the margins of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, have consolidated the traditionally cordial and close ties between the two countries. It has provided impetus to further strengthening of bilateral ties, according to an official statement. In the last segment of her three-nation Central Asian tour, Swaraj would arrive in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on Saturday. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Washington, August 4 India has become the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to get the Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status after the US issued a federal notification to this effect, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi, particularly in civil space and defence sectors. India is the 37th country to be designated the STA-1 status by the United States. The federal notification, issued on Friday, gains significance as the Trump Administration made an exception for India, which is yet to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Traditionally, the US has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and the NSG. In its federal notification, the Trump Administration notes that India is a member of three of the four multilateral export regimes. Mainly because of the political opposition from China, Indias membership application has been pending before NSG, which takes decision by consensus. By placing India in the STA-1 list, the United States has acknowledged that for all practical purposes India adheres to the export control regimes of the NSG. This exception for New Delhi is intended to send a strong political message to China and the world, taking into account that Americas closest ally Israel is yet to be given this status, primarily because it is not a member of these multilateral export control regimes. This action befits Indias status as a Major Defence Partner and recognises the countrys membership in three of the four export control regimes--the MTCR, WA and AG, the federal notification said. This rule is another in the series of rules that implement reforms to which the US and India mutually agreed to promote global non-proliferation, expand high technology cooperation and trade, and ultimately facilitate Indias full membership in the four multilateral export control regimes. This rule also makes conforming amendments, the federal notification said. According to the notification, the US and India continue their commitment to work together to strengthen the global non-proliferation and export control framework and further transform bilateral export control cooperation to recognise the full potential of the global strategic partnership between the two countries. This commitment has been realised in the two countries mutually agreed-upon steps to expand cooperation in civil space, defence, and other high-technology sectors and the complementary steps of the US to realign India in US export control regulations, and support Indias membership in the four multilateral export control regimes, it said. To date, with the effective support of the US, India has been admitted to three of the four multilateral export control regimes, the MTCR on June 27, 2016, the Wassenaar Arrangement on December 7, 2017, and the Australia Group on January 19, 2018. These memberships, important to the two countries global strategic partnership, are enhanced by the US recognition of India as a Major Defence Partner in the India-US Joint Statement of June 7, 2016 titled, The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st Century. This recognition facilitates and supports Indias military modernisation efforts with the US as a reliable provider of advanced defence articles, the notification said. As a result, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), formally recognises under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) Indias membership in the WA multilateral export control regimes and revises the EAR accordingly, the federal notification said. PTI pardeepdhull@gmail.com Houston, August 4 Indian-origin US astronaut Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by NASA who will fly the first missions into space on commercially provided rockets and capsules, starting next year. After years of vehicle development and building anticipation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has now put the crew in commercial crew spacecraft. The space agency announced yesterday that the nine astronauts will launch on the first crewed test flights and missions of new commercial spacecraft built and operated by The Boeing Company and SpaceX. Future Commercial Crew astronauts will be riding to space on partner vehicles built by SpaceX & BoeingSpace, NASA said in a tweet. We are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during the Launch America announcement. The eight active NASA astronauts and one former astronaut-turned-corporate crew member will launch on Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragoncapsules to the International Space Station beginning in 2019. The missions will mark the first crewed launches from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011. Today, our countrys dreams of greater achievements in space are within our grasp. This accomplished group of American astronauts, flying on new spacecraft developed by our commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX, will launch a new era of human spaceflight, Bridenstine said. He said the announcement advances our great American vision and strengthens Americas leadership in space. NASA has worked closely with the companies throughout design, development and testing to ensure the systems meet its safety and performance requirements. The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight, said Mark Geyer, director of NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we cant wait to see them aboard the International Space Station, Geyer said. In addition to naming the crews of the test flights, NASA also announced the four astronauts who will fly aboard the first operational Starliner and Dragon missions to the space station. Both vehicles were developed in cooperation with NASA to deliver crew members to and from the orbiting laboratory. Josh Cassada, 45, will fly with Sunita (Suni) Williams, 52, aboard NASAs first contracted Starliner mission. It will be Cassadas first spaceflight. Williams previously logged 321 days in orbit on two stays aboard the space station, most recently returning to the Earth in 2012. The commercial crew members took to the stage during an event led by Bridenstine at the agencys Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 51, will fly together as SpaceXs first Dragon crew. Veterans of two spaceflights each, Behnken and Hurley will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centers Pad 39A the same Florida launch pad where the space shuttle left Earth for the last time in July 2011 with Hurley as pilot. NASA astronauts Eric Boe, 53, and Nicole Mann, 41, will join the commander of that same final space shuttle mission, former astronaut and now Boeing executive Christopher Ferguson, 56, as the crew of the Starliner test flight, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ferguson, who has been involved from the start in the Starliners development, flew three shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut. Boe piloted two shuttle flights. This will be Manns first launch, having joined the astronaut corps in 2013. Behnken, Hurley, Boe and Mann are NASAs first astronauts to be named to the test flights of new US spacecraft since the March 1978 announcement of the space shuttles first orbital flight test crews. Ferguson will become the first former NASA astronaut to return to orbit as a companys crew member when he flies. Prior to their maiden crewed missions, both Boeing and SpaceX plan uncrewed test flights in late 2018 or early 2019. Both companies will also conduct abort system test flights to ensure the astronauts can safely escape should their rockets go awry. Victor Glover, 42, and Michael Hopkins, 49, will fly on the first operational mission of SpaceXs crewed Dragon. It will be Glovers first time in space. Hopkins logged 166 days aboard the space station in 2014. The two pairs of NASA crewmates will fly to the station with Russian cosmonauts and international astronauts to be announced at a later date. Between the end of the space shuttle program and the start of commercial crew operations, NASAs crew members have and are continuing to launch to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Behnken, Boe, Hurley and Williams were named in 2015 as NASAs commercial crew cadre and have been working with Boeing and SpaceX on the development of the spacecraft and the simulators that will be used to train astronauts to fly. Boeings and SpaceXs commercial spacecraft may also open the space station and more broadly, Earth orbit to more privately-funded visitors and spaceflight participants from countries that do not have their own domestic crewed spacecraft and rockets. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Moscow, August 4 Moscow on Saturday said 18 people were killed when a helicopter crashed on its way to an oil station in northern Siberia in the early hours of the morning. The Russian Transport Ministry said the Mi-8 helicopter carrying three crew members and 15 passengers crashed when it collided with machinery carried by another helicopter soon after takeoff. It added that the second helicopter landed safely and that the accident took place in normal weather conditions. AFP pardeepdhull@gmail.com Jakarta, August 4 Indonesian authorities have denied entry and will deport an Australian graduate student who was travelling via Bali to Indonesias easternmost province of Papua on vacation. Belinda Lopez, a PhD candidate for Indonesian studies at Macquarie University in Australia, wrote on social media that she had been detained at Balis Denpasar airport since midnight on Saturday and was told she was on a government blacklist. Papua has suffered a simmering separatist conflict since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized UN-backed referendum in 1969 and remains one of its poorest regions. Access to international media remains restricted. Lopez, who was formerly a reporter in Jakarta, said on Facebook that she was on her honeymoon and had plans to visit the Baliem tourism festival in Papua. But upon arriving at Bali airport, she was denied entry by immigration and asked if she was a journalist and whether she had done something wrong to Indonesia. Lopez wrote she had previously been deported from Papua in 2016, after being suspected of being a reporter. Immigration office spokesman Agung Sampurno denied Lopez was being deported on suspicions she was heading to Papua as a journalist. Belinda was barred from entering Indonesia on an immigration issue, he told Reuters, confirming, though, that she was on an immigration blacklist. Sampurno declined to provide an explanation for the immigration issue, noting it was Indonesias sovereign right to deny entry to travellers. Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said Lopezs case shows once again that the Indonesian authorities are still restricting foreign journalists, or anyone suspected (of doing) journalism, to enter Papua. President Joko Widodo after coming to power in 2014 pledged to ease media restrictions for Papua, but activists say journalists continue to be blocked when trying to report from there. In February 2018, a BBC reporter was ordered to leave the province after Indonesias military said tweets she sent on her trip had hurt soldiers feelings. Reuters ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM United Nations, August 4 North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programmes and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, according to a UN report. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Uns regime. Pyongyang has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018,said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains a primary method of sanctions evasion involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions ineffective by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear missile programmes. North Korea also attempted to supply small arms and light weapons and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of embargo on North Korea. AFP North criticises alarming US behaviour ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Beijing, August 4 Twenty persons were killed and eight others went missing as torrential rains triggered flood in northwest China, state-run media reported today. Over 8,700 houses, farmland, roads, railway lines and power and telecommunication facilities were damaged in the floods that have wreaked havoc in China since early this week, it said. While 20 persons died this week in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, eight remained missing after heavy downpours hit Qincheng Township in Hami on July 31, state-run Xinhua news agency said. Over 5,500 persons have been evacuated, sheltered in tents and provided with daily necessities and medical aid, the report said. PTI Not only MA park is busy and popular (we felt it was crowded in the rain season, cannot imagine going there in the peak holiday season...) , but one of your initially planned days for it falls on Monday, when the park is closed, thus making Tuesdays busier. I did not feel the vibe you are referring to with S. Caribbean. We went there twice, so spent a few weeks total on that coast. As Sonia said, Dec. has a high rainfall average that month. So you should be prepared. We had been there in July, which is even wetter, the wettest month of all, and we still went back afterwards, so we liked it. But it can be cloudy, very humid, rainy, multiple times a day or night, and some sun, too. We stayed in Cahuita close to the national park, in Manzanillo (might not be a choice for a solo traveler, as it is too small, isolated), visited Punta Uva beaches (we loved the beaches there, but did not stay there, as we choose not to rent a car in CR, so needed to be within an easy reach of places to eat and buy groceries, and PU was not it), Puerto Viejo (biggest town there, but the beach right in town is not the best. Might be good if you need nightlife). To get back to your hotels after dark - e.g., after dinner - you would need to call a taxi. We found it easy to use local buses between near by towns and attractions on the Caribbean coast. In Arenal, without a car, you would need to stay in La Fortuna, or be prepared to pay quite a bit for taxis, which are expensive. Unlike some other areas, like Monteverde, tours in Arenal, in our experience, required additional charge for transportation/pick up from the hotels. We stayed at Arenal Observatory Lodge, which is farther from La Fortuna, but the closest to the volcano, and we enjoyed their trails and views. They have local shuttles for US$8 one way to La Fortuna, where most tours originate, a few times a day, but a taxi is $30, and the tours all had extra costs for transportation, even SkyAdventure, which is basically next door. If you have a flexible budget, just add transportation to whatever you want to do (you can go to the sites of most attractions and either read How to Get Here? or FAQs or pretend to make a tour booking and it will ask you to add transportation or not and will show you the costs from/to your hotel, so it will not be a problem to take tours. If you stay in La Fortuna itself, it will be more convenient for tours, but possibly not as enjoyable in terms of the surroundings of the hotel itself. Between SJO and S. Caribbean, we used PleasureRideCR shared shuttles (if you r the only person booked for that day, you would need to pay for 2 tickets), and Interbus prepaid shuttles. From Cahuita, for ex., to Arenal, with Interbus, it took us well over 6 hrs, but it included 2 stops, one - almost an HR long, for no reason (the confirmation said stops should have been 15 min long), plus weather, traffic, etc might affect your travel times. The transfer times are always approximate, estimated. Shuttles had a/c, rarely - WiFi. Definitely enjoyed being driven in CR...and we felt that the price of the transfer by shared shuttles, especially for longer segments, was quite reasonable. Entering in Vietnam from Cambodia through Chau Doc by boat Entering in Vietnam from Cambodia through Chau Doc by boat Hello, as the subject states, I've planned to move from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc by boat. I know this question has been already discussed before, but I haven't still found a 100% sure and reliable answer. Do I need a "full" visa, issued by vietnamese embassy in Italy, or just an evisa is ok? In the list of ports allowing to get to Vietnam with evisa, there is 'Song Tien', which is a landport... is it correct specifying that port on the evisa, even if I cross the border by boat? I sent an email with this question to the vietnamese embassy in Italy and to the mail address of vietnamese e-visa page. Of course no answer from them both. It's interesting what #17 says about this very same topic: I'd like to have some confirmations more. Many thanks for your help. Alessandro from Italy Hi guys/girls Im planning to travel to Japan by April and decided I would take the opportunity to do some divings. I was thinking mainly in Okinawa, and specifically Yonaguni as one of the spots to see. As I notice it is really close to Taiwan I was thinking to cross to Taiwan afterwards, but Im not sure if there is any ferry or another fast and preferably not too expensive way to get there. In short, I'm wondering if it's worth it to cross to Taiwan to avoid an innecesary "long" return to Tokyo before I return home, taking benefit of visiting another place in the process. Could you please provide some advice? Also, if there is any comment you would like to share about Japan I'll be glad to hear your experience Thanks in advance - Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria claimed he was the owner of chopper Deputy President William Ruto uses regularly - Ruto fully agreed with Kuria's statement saying he only borrows the chopper from the MP - The DP said those who had been asking a lot about the aircraft he owned had finally found an answer - He said nobody should question him more about the helicopter - A military like chopper believed to belong to Ruto arrived in the country early June, 2018 Deputy President William Ruto has stated the high end chopper he uses to traverse the country belongs to Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria. TUKO.co.ke understands Ruto's statement came less than a month after he echoed President Uhuru Kenyatta's sentiments on undergoing lifestyle audit where he said he would be among first public servants to declare his wealth. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: William Ruto's military-like chopper arrives in Kenya after customisation A military like chopper reported to belong to Deputy President WIlliam Ruto arrived in Kenya after customisation in early June 2018. Photo: Lewis Momanyi/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: William Ruto airlifted to safety after helicopter runs out of fuel In a video which has gone viral seen by TUKO.co.ke, on Saturday, August 8, Ruto who was accompanied by close ally Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria in a public forum seemed to fully agree with the legislator's confession that he was the owner of the state of the art helicopter. "I want to make some clarification after my remarks. I heard the principal say the DP's chopper landed in the school field. It should be clear that the helicopter is not Ruto's by mine. We have to speak the truth as Christians sometimes," Kuria said as the crowd burst into laughter. Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria was the first hto tell the public that the chopper DP William Ruto frequently uses belonged to him. The DP echoed his sentiments. Photo: Moses Kuria/Twitter. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Female legislator causes drama as William Ruto watches Maybe, the crowd's laughter was hinged on the perception that Kuria was joking about the revelation but they had to rethink their conclusion when Ruto stood up to address them. "My brother Moses Kuria is truthful in saying the chopper I use belongs to him and I have just borrowed. people have been bugging me over the helicopter and now they have the answer because the owner has been known. I am his friend who only borrows from him," said Ruto. William Ruto said Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria's confession that he was the owner of the chopper should be taken seriously. Photo: The Star. Source: UGC READ ALSO: DPP disagrees with acquittal of Mombasa tycoon arrested with KSh 44 million ivory The DP observed that those who had been talking too much about his wealth and purchase of helicopters had found a reason to keep their mouths shut. "It is time to stop much banter now that you know the truth. I thank Moses Kuria for being a gentleman and speaking the truth. Whatever he has said let it be that way. We need to ashamed the devil by speaking the truth," Ruto added. In June, the DP was reported to have bought the KSh 1 billion Airbus H145 with a capacity of eight passengers and the first of its kind in Kenya. Among its superior features is its ability to fly at night and reach high speeds of 418 kilometers/ hour. 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: Nazlin Umar - Ruto Is Behind The Sugar Scandal | Tuko TV Source: Kenyan Breaking News - The parents through their spokesperson said class 8 pupils should be enrolled at NYS for three months before joining high school - They argue this will not only instill moral values in their children but also curb indiscipline among students - Their spokesperson suggested NYS to established in more regions to enable all pupils to enroll Parents now want their children enrolled in the National Youth Service (NYS) before joining secondary school. Through their National Parents Association chairperson Nicholas Maiyo, the parents said this was the only way to instill good morals and values in their children. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Ex-cabinet minister Henry Obwocha dies at a Nairobi hospital Parents want children go through NYS before joining secondary to curb school unrests Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Mother to missing child moves to court seeking to have him back from estranged husband According to Maiyo, the government should enroll Class Eight candidates in the institution for three months before they join secondary school to curb school unrest. In an interview with TUKO.co.ke, Maiyo attributed the school unrest to indiscipline as observed on a recent special investigation report. It is the mandate of parents to instill good character in their children and that is why we are suggesting that they do join NYS before going to secondary schools, said Maiyo requesting the ministry of education to look into the proposal. READ ALSO: Uhuru leads Kenyan leaders in mourning ex-minister Henry Obwocha He said the training manual given to the students at the NYS will enable the learners desist from indiscipline actions but rather have them respect school property and become law abiding citizens. We all know that NYS is a good institution when it comes instilling good moral values in young people, Maiyo told TUKO.co.ke in Eldoret Town. Maiyo further stated the institutions should be established in regions where students from different backgrounds will interact before joining secondary schools. READ ALSO: Row over Mau Forest evictions moves to Hague These children come from different backgrounds that is there is need to have them come together to jointly go through the disciplinary lessons before they join secondary schools, he said. A report prepared by the Ministrys Quality Assurance and Standards in July 2018, put indiscipline and lack of values among learners at 38.8%,. A lot of changes in the second term programme was at 30% , fear of examinations at 13% and disconnect between teachers and the students at 0.3%. READ ALSO: I use Moses Kuria's chopper to fly around - DP William Ruto TUKO.co.ke previously reported, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed disclosed a total of 107 cases of unrest had been reported in secondary schools in 2018. The CS added that there were 23 cases of walk-outs, eight sit-ins cases and 14 breakages. Mohamed indicated the eastern region had the highest cases of unrest at 40, Rift Valley had 25, and Nyanza had 20 while north eastern did not report any form of unrest. Story by Thaddeus Asesa, Uasin Gishu county 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. Gikomba's Biggest Fire Destroys Property Worth Millions of Shillings - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Breaking News - Kigumo MP Jamleck said Murang'a county was yet to produce a president unlike other regions in Central Kenya - DP Ruto has visited Murang'a county three times in one month to inspect government projects - Ruto however asked the leaders to put politics aside and focus on development Deputy President William Samoei Ruto has been making inroads into Murang'a county in very quick succession raising political temperatures in one of the richest counties with area leaders now demand an executive seat. His latest visit to Murang'a on Friday, August 3, obviously did not go unnoticed and politicians who addressed in Kandara constituency and later in Maragua openly rooted for Governor Mwangi wa Iria as Ruto's presidential running mate. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: I use Moses Kuria's chopper to fly around - DP William Ruto Meru Senator Kithure Kindiki, Murang'a Governor Mwangi wa Iria and DP Ruto in Kandara, Murang'a on Friday, August 3. Photo: William Samoei Ruto/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Raila received warmly in Muranga county as the handshake effect continues to grow "All these counties around us have produced presidents and as we vote for Ruto in 2022, we also want the deputy president's seat be reserved for Governor Wa Iria," said Kigumo MP Jamleck Kamau. Senator Irungu Kangata echoed Kamau's sentiments saying it was time for the Murang'a region jostle for the country's second command seat. "The fact that we have never produced a successful candidate and therefore we feel it is time to present a strong candidate. I would imagine as Ruto tours this county to evaluate whom he can tap into," added Kangata. READ ALSO: Kikuyu elders warn Uhuru to avoid DP Ruto in his campaigns Kigumo MP Jamleck Kamau asked DP Ruto to nominate Governor Wa Iria as his running mate. Photo: Jamleck Kamau/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: ODM party official accuses DP Ruto of looting to bankroll 2022 campaigns The deputy president opted to steer clear off the 2022 succession debate, insisting it was not time for politics. He asked the leaders to put their focus on the development agenda so as to help Jubilee government realise its Big Four agenda at the county level. "Politics has its time and we closed that chapter when Kenyans voted for their leaders. Our work and preoccupation is how to build railway lines,how to build more roads and hospitals," said Ruto. Other leaders who accompanied Ruto to inspect government projects included Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoroa and Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki. Though the DP entered into a pre-election pact with President Uhuru Kenyatta, he is however facing strong opposition from a section of Mt Kenya leaders and even from the Kikuyu Council of Elders who feel he should retire with the president. Among the politicians from the central Kenya bloc who are critical of Ruto's 2022 ambition include Nyeri MP Ngunjiri Wambugu. 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: Nazlin Umar - Ruto Is Behind The Sugar Scandal | Tuko TV Source: Kenya Breaking News Today - Dennis Omondi was laid to rest on Saturday, August 4 - He was described by many as hardworking and determined - Dennis succumbed to Acute Leukemia at Kenyatta Hospital where he was receiving treatment Dennis Omondi was laid to rest on Saturday, August 4 at his rural home in Busia County in an emotional funeral attended by family, friends and former colleagues he worked with from various media houses. Omondi's mother, Mary Anyango comforted his widow noting they will not abandon her, his children and that they were always welcome to her home even without Omondi. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Journalist Dennis Omondi's body to be airlifted to Kisumu ahead of burial Nancy Mwanza, the widow with her daughter. Source: Original READ ALSO: Journalist pleads with Uhuru, Ruto to help him raise KSh 12 million for bone marrow transplant in South Africa "We will not abandon Dennis's widow. Even if you go, I'll pray to God to return you," Mary Anyango, mother. West Media Limited director, Cyprian Wekesa urged journalists not to abandon the young family left behind by the journalist who was always full of life. READ ALSO: Kampuni ya Unga wa Dola yamsaka jamaa aliyeonekana amebeba shungi la ugali begani Halima Osman who was instrumental in mobilising for funds from journalists. Source: Original He further urged family, friends and former colleagues to continue helping the family for the sake of the two children left behind. "Its God's Will. Dennis was exemplary at only 31 years," said Wekesa. "West Media will stand with you Nancy. We will do everything to help you and your children.," Philip Muyoti, director. READ ALSO: Journalist Dennis Omondi who died from leukemia to be laid to rest on Saturday Journalists were among friends and family who paid their last respects Source: Original Nancy Mwanza, described her husband as an exemplary person who went extra miles to provide for his young family. "Dennis was an extraordinary person. He did extraordinary things to me and my family, "I will be strong for our children, just like Dennis would have wished," Nancy said. READ ALSO: Journalist Dennis Omondi who died from leukemia to be laid to rest on Saturday Journalists were urged not to abandon the young family left behind by Dennis Source: Original Dennis succumbed to Acute Luekimia on Friday, July 27, at Kenyatta National hospital just a few months after he had returned from India where he hoped to get a bone marrow transplant. He had captured the hearts of many Kenyans with his passionate appeal for financial support to undergo a bone marrow transplant in India where he stayed for five months. READ ALSO: Ex-cabinet minister Henry Obwocha dies at a Nairobi hospital The amount was raised but it was too late to save his life. He has left behind a young widow and two children, the last one having been born in May 2018 while he was receiving treatment in India. 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. Gikomba's Biggest Fire Destroys Property Worth Millions of Shillings - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko The number of Ukrainian enterprises, which received the right to export food products of animal origin, increased from 690 in October 2017 up to 836 as of early July 2018. This is reported by the press service of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection with reference to department director Borys Kobal. "Over the past nine months, the joint efforts of the state and business facilitated the expansion of the geography of exports of domestic products and the number of enterprises, which received the right to export food products of animal origin. Their number increased from 690 in October 2017 up to 836 as of early July 2018," Kobal noted. In addition, 289 Ukrainian enterprises now have the right to export their products to the countries of the European Union, including 109 poultry, fish, honey, eggs, milk and dairy producers. ol The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry of Ukraine should seek financial resources to boost coal production and ensure the proper activity of the industry. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said this, commenting on results of the government meeting with participation of the leadership of the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry and the Finance Ministry, the Government portal reports. "Until September 1, the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry and the Minister personally [Ihor Nasalyk] should focus on seeking financial resources to boost production and ensure the proper activity of the industry... I am ready to help to assert our energy independence," Groysman said. Currently, there are 102 state-owned coal mines in Ukraine, but the overwhelming majority is located in the Joint Forces Operation area in Donbas. Only 33 mines operate outside the JFO area. Of these, only four mines are profitable. During the first five months of 2018, 1.852,900 tons of coal were extracted, which is 3.6% less than planned volume and 7.6% less than over corresponding period in 2017. At the same time, the product cost grew by more than 30.5% compared to last year. ol It is reported all cases have been or will be documented and analyzed by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. The United Nations in Ukraine condemns the appalling attack on a civil activist Kateryna Handziuk. "Kateryna sustained severe acid burns over 30% of her body and is currently being treated in an intensive care unit. The United Nations in Ukraine is also closely following up other recent attacks on civil activists in Ukraine. All cases have been or will be documented and analyzed by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine," the United Nations in Ukraine said. Read alsoHope for justice shines through as police detain Kherson acid attacker "We call on the government and law-enforcement agencies to conduct a transparent, comprehensive and effective investigation into the attack on Kateryna, and into all such cases. We reiterate that a vibrant civil society with guaranteed fundamental right to freedom of speech and security is necessary for transparent and accountable governance," the report says. As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 31, adviser of the Kerson Mayor, civic activist Kateryna Handziuk was assaulted just outside her house. The attacker poured sulphuric acid on the woman's face. The chemical substance eventually affected some 30% of Handziuk's body. Having suffered 2-3-degree burns, the woman was hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the Kherson Regional Clinical Hospital to be later transferred to a Kyiv clinic on a medical plane. Her condition was assessed by doctors as difficult. The police qualified the attack as murder attempt. The investigation was supervised by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko who later decided to transfer the probe under control of the Security Service. The victim was provided state protection. The hotel is still running but branding identifying it as a Best Western hotel has been removed from the building and is now identifying itself on booking sites under the name "Sevastopol Hotel and Spa." U.S. firm Best Western Hotels & Resorts, the last Western hotel chain still in Crimea, has pulled out because of sanctions imposed after Russia annexed the region from Ukraine, two hotel employees said. "The Best Western Sevastopol Hotel", a Soviet-era building on the quayside in the port of Sevastopol was one of the few visible signs of an international business presence left since the 2014 annexation. Other major brands, among them McDonald's Corp and Radisson Hotels have already quit Crimea, as reported by Reuters. The hotel is still running but branding identifying it as a Best Western hotel has been removed from the building and is now identifying itself on booking sites under the name "Sevastopol Hotel and Spa." Read alsoSatellite imagery confirms environmental disaster in Crimea (Photo) The ending of Best Western's presence this year shows that, even four years after the sanctions were first imposed by the United States and the European Union, they are still forcing Western investors out of Crimea. The sanctions bar U.S. companies from operating in Crimea and prohibit new investment in Crimea. They block business with a long list of Crimean individuals and entities and make it impossible for Western firms to move money through Crimean banks. The general director of the hotel declined to comment. Best Western, which has its headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, declined to comment, and referred questions to the hotel's owner or operator. The majority owner of the hotel is a company called Sevastopol Investment Group Ltd, which is registered in the Seychelles, according to Russian tax service records. Reuters was unable to seek comment from the Seychelles firm because no contact details were listed for it. Best Western does not own or operate hotels itself but has a franchising system under which hotel owners or operators can pay for the right to use the company's brand, marketing and support services. A member of the staff at the hotel told Reuters the franchise agreement with Best Western ended in October last year because of the sanctions. "Now we're just called the Sevastopol Hotel," said the employee, who wished to remain anonymous. "We stopped paying for the franchise." A second employee also told Reuters that the agreement with Best Western ended because of the sanctions. It was not clear, from the employees' accounts, whether the deal was ended by Best Western, or at the initiative of the hotel's owners, and it was not clear which aspect of the sanctions led to the agreement ending. Russia's annexation of Crimea, still internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, prompted international condemnation and sanctions from the United States and European Union. Russia said it acted to protect Crimea's Russian-speaking population, and that the majority of residents wanted the region to be part of Russia. Since then, Crimea has seen an influx of Russian state investment. Pensions and public sector wages have gone up, and new infra-structure has been built. However, the private sector, which depends heavily on tourism, has suffered from the effects of the sanctions. No casualties among the Ukrainian troops have been reported over the past day. Russian-led forces mounted 36 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past day, using heavy weapons in six instances. Read also"You can expect anything": Ukraine on Russia amassing troops at demarcation in Donbas "No casualties among the Ukrainian troops have been reported over the past day. According to intelligence reports, one occupier was killed and another one was wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on August 4, 2018. The Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire mainly from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the towns Maryinka and Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Krymske, Makarove, Novoluhanske, Luhanske, Pivdenne, Zalizne, Hnutove, Lebedynske, Pavlopil, Vodiane, and Shyrokyne. Along with this, the enemy shelled the Ukrainian positions near Krymske three times, using 82mm mortars. In addition, the defenders of the village of Talakivka came under fire from 82mm mortars, while the Ukrainian positions near Pavlopil were attacked with the use of tank shells, and 120mm and 82mm mortars. "Since Saturday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted five attacks on the Ukrainian positions near Maryinka, and the villages of Novozvanivka, Troyitske, and Vodiane," the report says. Hug described the situation in the eastern Donbas region as "unstable and unpredictable." The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says that more than 160 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the year. Read alsoOSCE UAV spots large number of heavy weapons in militant-controlled areas of Donbas Alexander Hug with the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine told reporters that as many as seven people were killed in July alone. Hug spoke to journalists in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine late on Thursday, according to The Washington Post. Hug described the situation in the eastern Donbas region as "unstable and unpredictable." He said heavy weapons must be removed from the frontline. The separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted after Russia's annexation of Crimea and has killed more than 10,000 since April 2014. A 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk has helped reduce hostilities, but clashes continue. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on Thursday received the envoy of the Kingdom of Sweden to Yemen and Libya, Peter Semneby, to review the latest developments in the two embattled countries, and the efforts tirelessly made by the Pro-Legitimacy Arab Coalition forces in Hodeidah. DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Aug, 2018) Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on Thursday received the envoy of the Kingdom of Sweden to Yemen and Libya, Peter Semneby, to review the latest developments in the two embattled countries, and the efforts tirelessly made by the Pro-Legitimacy Arab Coalition forces in Hodeidah. Dr. Gargash has reaffirmed the UAE's staunch support for the efforts made by the United Nations to secure a political settlement to the situation in Yemen. "The UAE's principled and supportive stance for UN efforts stems from the country's firm belief that the solution in Yemen should be a political one that is built on relevant international resolutions and the basic references represented by the Gulf initiative on Yemen," he said. "The UAE is aware of the scourge of humanitarian suffering inflicted by the Houthi rebels who oppose political settlement and opt for violence to keep the country under their grip," he added. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The United Arab Emirates has condemned the terrorist attack that took place inside a mosque in Afghanistan, leaving a number of victims in the eastern Paktia province. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Aug, 2018) The United Arab Emirates has condemned the terrorist attack that took place inside a mosque in Afghanistan, leaving a number of victims in the eastern Paktia province. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation expressed the country's vehement condemnation of these acts of terror, affirming that the blast flies in the face of all human and religious principles and values. In a statement, the ministry reaffirmed the UAE's categorical rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism, which target all without distinction between religions or ethnicities. The ministry reiterated the UAE's solidarity and support to the Republic of Afghanistan in countering violence and extremism and called upon the international community to close ranks and uproot the evil of terrorism, which threatens international peace and stability. The ministry extended the condolences of the UAE to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Moeen Abdul Malik, Yemen's Minister of Public Works, has praised the significant role played by the UAE and its humanitarian arm, the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, in providing continuous support to his country. ADEN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Aug, 2018) Moeen Abdul Malik, Yemen's Minister of Public Works, has praised the significant role played by the UAE and its humanitarian arm, the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, in providing continuous support to his country. The minister's remarks came during a meeting with Saeed Al Kaabi, Director of the UAE Humanitarian Operations, in which the two sides discussed the means to increase cooperation to implement infrastructure projects across liberated governorates, especially on the Red Sea Coast. Al Kaabi also asked the Yemeni minister to develop a study on the requirements for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the coastal highway in the governorate of Hodeidah, which suffered severe damages by the Houthi militias. Abdul Malik presented a number of proposed projects, including the construction of Al Dhala and Al Hebailain ring roads, the maintenance of bridges on the Aden-Mukalla Highway and the Al Naqba bridge in Shabwa. He also presented an overview of post-liberation strategic plans to resume providing services to the people of Yemen and to ease the difficulties created by the Iran-backed Houthi militias. Al Kaabi said the UAE attaches great importance to development and service projects in the liberated areas of Yemen, in a way that will contribute to rebuilding the infrastructure, which was systematically destroyed by the Houthi militias. He added that all proposed projects will be studied thoroughly, and implemented in line with the reconstruction programme for the liberated governorates of Yemen. Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to ensure he faces a fair trial in his homeland, where he's been charged with bribery and fraud, his lawyers said on Thursday. Bogota, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2018 ) :Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to ensure he faces a fair trial in his homeland, where he's been charged with bribery and fraud, his lawyers said on Thursday. Now a senator, the 66-year-old Uribe has been placed under formal investigation by the Supreme Court. But his lawyers have sought guarantees from the IACHR that Uribe's case will be held under the "strictest compliance with legality and the rule of law" by "competent, independent and impartial" authorities. Added to that, Uribe's lawyers want to ensure they are given "equal opportunity" to "question witnesses," be given "prompt access to evidence," and guarantee the former head of state's "right to defend himself." Uribe was a popular president from 2002 to 2010 and is political mentor to Ivan Duque, who will be sworn in on Tuesday to succeed Nobel Peace prize winner Juan Manuel Santos. In 2012 Uribe filed a formal complaint in the Supreme Court against opposition politician Ivan Cepeda, accusing Cepeda of a plot to incriminate him in criminal involvement with right-wing paramilitary groups, and of witness tampering. In March however the complaint rejected, and instead prosecutors started probing Uribe for witness tampering. Uribe resigned from the senate last week after the Supreme Court opened formal proceedings against him, only to change his mind and announce on Wednesday that he was rescinding his request to allow the Supreme Court to conduct its investigation. Had Uribe continued with his resignation, a lower court would have taken over his case. Uribe insists he's the victim of political persecution, but the accusations have nonetheless come as a blow to Duque, a member of his mentor's right-wing Democratic Center party. (@FahadShabbir) Eritrea's national airline on Saturday made its first commercial flight in two decades to Addis Ababa, the capital of neighboring Ethiopia, the latest step in a surprise peace process between the former foes that began just two months ago. Addis Ababa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2018 ) :Eritrea's national airline on Saturday made its first commercial flight in two decades to Addis Ababa, the capital of neighboring Ethiopia, the latest step in a surprise peace process between the former foes that began just two months ago. An Eritrean Airlines plane carrying the country's transport and tourism ministers landed at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, where it was welcomed by senior Ethiopian officials. Already last month, the Ethiopia's own flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, had made its first commercial flight in the other direction, landing in Asmara International Airport on July 18. Once a province of Ethiopia, Eritrea seceded in 1993 after a long independence struggle. A row over the demarcation of the shared border triggered a brutal 1998-2000 conflict which left 80,000 people dead before evolving into a bitter cold war. But in a surprise move in June, Ethiopia's new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced he would finally accept a 2002 United Nations-backed border demarcation, paving the way for peace between the two nations. He then paid a historic visit to Eritrea, during which he and President Isaias Afwerki declared an official end to the war. Afwerki reciprocated with a state visit to Ethiopia just days later. Embassies have since been reopened and phone lines between the two countries have also been restored. Eritrean Airlines currently has only one leased airplane. "The new route will expand existing regional flights of the airline to Cairo, Khartoum, Jeddah and Dubai," Eritrea's information minister Yemane Gebre Meskel said on Twitter. Last month, Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam revealed his state-owned company was in talks to buy a stake in Eritrean Airlines as part of efforts to boost commercial ties between the two countries, who were once each others' biggest trading partners. Ethiopia's flag carrier is the most profitable in Africa and in recent years has been has been buying shares in other African airlines. (@FahadShabbir) A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab on Friday became the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Stockholm, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2018 ) :A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab on Friday became the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency. "During the fight her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again," Borchersen said. Police took a photograph of the woman wearing the niqab, and obtained security camera footage from the shopping centre of the incident. The woman was informed she would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 Euros) in the post, and was told to either remove her veil or leave the public space. "She chose the latter," Borchersen said. As of August 1, wearing a burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, in public carries a fine of 1,000 kroner. Repeated violations are fined up to 10,000 kroner. The ban also targets other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas, masks and false beards. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. The full-face veil is a hot-button issue across Europe. Belgium, France, Germany and Austria have already imposed bans or partial bans. The initiative organized by the Italian bishops conference is in preparation for the Synod on young people in the Vatican in October and the World Youth Day in Panama in January. By Robin Gomes More than 30,000 young people of some 200 Italian dioceses set out in groups Friday morning on a weeklong walking pilgrimage in the territories of their respective dioceses, an experience that will conclude in a mega rally in Rome next weekend with meetings with Pope Francis. The National Service for Youth Ministry of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) has organized the initiative in view of the Synod of Bishops on young people scheduled for October in the Vatican. Father Michele Falabretti who heads the Youth Ministry office explained that they wanted to add a special experience to their meeting with the Pope, hence the initiative called, Per Mille Strade (Through a thousand roads), which is a pilgrimage involving young people and those accompanying them; and Siamo Qui (We Are Here), the encounter with Pope Francis on the last two days in Rome, August 11 and 12. Pilgrimage through the world To be able to make the most of the walking pilgrimage, each participant has been provided with a pilgrims kit containing both practical and spiritual items. This includes a pilgrims shoulder bag with items such as a headlamp for use at night, a hat, a portable water bag, a diary, a Gospel, a cross, a commentary booklet on the encounter between Jesus and the disciples, a small canvas with the image of the holy shroud, a map and an identification badge. The young pilgrims have also been furnished with a log, where they will post their experiences as they pass through the various stages of their journey. Fr. Falabretti said the purpose of the pilgrimage is to help young people step out of the beaten path, slow down and keep their eyes open to the testimonies of life and faith that they come across and to know about the stories of todays man and his difficulties and hopes. This journey is to make the children think and feel as part of the Church, he said. Rally with the Pope in Rome After the pilgrimage across their respective dioceses, the youngsters will board buses, trains or other means to converge on Rome on Saturday, August 11, where they will hold an evening prayer vigil at Circus Maximus with the participation of the Holy Father. The following day, Sunday, they will attend a Mass in St. Peter's Square, at the end of which the Pope will hand them a missionary mandate and bless the Crucifix of St. Damien and Our Lady of Loreto which they will carry to the World Youth Day in Panama, next year. The young people have been encouraged to remain connected by posting their experiences online on the social media that will be shared with all in real time as the pilgrimage progresses. Germany's central bank is changing its terms and conditions to provide for more in-depth scrutiny of cash transfers amid international concerns that Iran seeks to repatriate cash held in a Hamburg-based bank. The move also comes at a time when the United States is pressing its allies to get tough on Tehran. By Stefan J. Bos Germany, the European Union's largest economy, faces a dilemma. Iran wants to bring home 300 million euros some $347 million it has in the European-Iranian Trade Bank ahead of new U.S. sanctions. German authorities have been examining that request for weeks amid pressure from the United States. Washington says it fears that Iran wants to use the money for potential terrorist financing and money-laundering. That's why Germany's Central Bank is believed to have announced new business conditions. Under the rules, which take effect August 25, the Bundesbank can block cash transfers in the absence of assurances from those involved in a transaction that it doesn't violate financial sanctions or policies to prevent money-laundering and the funding of terrorism. The bank also mentions possible risks to what it calls "important relationships with third countries' central banks and financial institutions." These changes don't specifically mention Iran, but commentators here are viewing it as a reaction to the transfer request. US Ambassador pleased In a statement, U.S. ambassador Richard Grenell said Saturday that the United States is "grateful" to its German partners at the chancellery and throughout the government for recognizing the need to act. He added that "Iran's malign activities throughout Europe are a growing concern" for the United States and its allies. The German finance ministry said this week, after Germany's Bild daily reported on the new Bundesbank rules, that the Iranian request is still under consideration. That process involves Germany's financial market regulator and financial intelligence unit. That move comes at an awkward moment for Germany. It wants to keep alive the 2015 deal with Iran which provides incentives in exchange for Tehran not pursuing a nuclear weapon. But it also wants to maintain good relations with the U.S. at a time of trade tensions. But Iran says it wants to observe the nuclear deal only as long as the remaining signatories stick to the agreement, and it continues to enjoy economic incentives. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration began dismantling the sanctions relief that was granted to Iran under the deal in June, after he announced to the world the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the accord. Tuff-N-Uff returns to give the future stars of MMA another shot at glory in the cage, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, at the Casablanca Hotel and Casino in Mesquite, Nevada. The excitement begins Friday, Aug. 10, for ceremonial weigh-ins at 6 p.m., and a pre-party event at 8:30 p.m. that same night. Blue String theory, a high energy cover band, will be playing some of the best beats of classic rock like, 867-5309/Jenny, and Hungry Like the Wolf. After the main event on Saturday evening, there will be an after-party hosted at 9:30 p.m. in the CasaBlanca Showroom, where DJ Sally will be entertaining all of Tuff-N-Uffs fight fans. The majority of the fighters for this event are coming from Las Vegas gyms, however brandishing red gloves, fighters Kori Kamachi and Hyrum Labaron, debut fighters, and Morgun Colledge will competing from St. George. From the blue corner, two fighters, Mark Dubovoy and Arious Caudell, are travelling from gyms in Florida, while debut fighter, Christian Hermosillo, will be travelling from Mexico. Fight cards are subject to change, but the event expects eleven fights from weight-classes ranging from 135 to 205, and heavyweight. Rick Harrison of HISTORYS hit reality show Pawn Stars leads his 5th Annual Pawn Stars Poker Run to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of Nevada on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. Harrison is a spokesperson for the national Epilepsy Foundation, dedicated to helping promote their mission by bringing attention to the greater need for epilepsy awareness, education and acceleration of new seizure therapies. Harrison will lead motorcycle riders through Las Vegas starting at the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop. Other stops include the 104-year old historic Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, NV and the Porchlight Grille. The final stop brings the riders back into downtown Las Vegas to Pawn Plaza for the official after party featuring a raffle, live band and catering by Ricks Rollin Smoke BBQ & Tavern. Participants will have their chance to win $2,000 for best hand, $1,000 for the worst hand and a Kawasaki bike, among many other prizes. Photo: spacetelescope.org: Illustration, Zolt Levay We are now having a close encounter with Mars. The planet rises as a brilliant reddish lamp in the southeastern sky around 10 p.m. It's clear why Mars is also often referred to as the Red Planet. Earth is the third planet out from the sun; Mars is the fourth. We take almost 365.25 days to complete each lap around the sun, and Mars takes 687. This means that every 780 days or so, the Earth overtakes Mars, passing between it and the sun. We call these events oppositions because at that time the Earth is exactly between the planet and the sun, so the sun and planet are on opposite sides of the sky. Astronomers look forward to these close encounters. However, not all oppositions of Mars are created equal. Mars' orbit is elliptical rather than circular taking it between 208 and 249 million kilometres from the sun. Earth's orbit is not quite circular either, ranging between 147 and 152 million kilometres from the sun. During an encounter, the distance between the two worlds can vary a lot depending on where they are in their respective orbits. The closest encounters occur when Earth is at its furthest from the sun and Mars is at its closest, when the two worlds pass within 56 million kilometres of each other. The most distant ones happen when Mars is at its most distant from the sun and Earth is at its closest, in which case the closest they get is about 102 million kilometres. Of course, most times the Earth overtakes Mars the two planets are neither at their farthest nor closest to the sun, so the encounter distance is something in between. The current opposition is not one of the closest ones, but it is still a good one, with Mars coming to within 59 million kilometres. Mars has always been a tantalizing object to observe. Even in opposition, it is not that large in the sky. Moreover, since it is opposite the sun, in our Northern Hemisphere summer, when the sun is high in the sky during the day, Mars will be low in the sky at night; this is not ideal for observing. We have to wait for the moments when the shimmering of our atmosphere steadies and we get a few seconds of good viewing. It is the difficulty in observing Mars that led to the "discovery of Martian canals." In the 19th Century, Schiaparelli reported he saw canals on Mars. This is Italian for channels, but was mistranslated into English as canals. This launched the idea of the Martians undertaking a global water managing system on their drying-up world. In the 1890s, Percival Lowell built an observatory primarily to map Mars, and he carefully recorded a complex canal network. However, then the doubts started. In those days, astrophotography was in its infancy and the long exposures needed yielded blurry images. The maps of Mars were drawn by observers as they stared hard at Mars for hours, waiting for those moments of good "seeing." Some astronomers noticed that when observing conditions are good and the observers' eyes are not tired, there were no signs of canals: just blobs and patches. When the conditions were not so good and fatigue was setting in, out popped the canals. In the 1960s, the Mariner 4 spacecraft put an end to the canals. The images it sent back as it flew past Mars showed a cratered desert. There were no canals and no locals waving as the spacecraft shot past. Now is the time to get out your telescope. You should see a dusty red planet with some darker patches and one of its prominent polar ice caps. Watch for the canals. Next time, we'll look at the recent discovery of a Martian lake. On the Aug. 11-12 weekend, Earth will be passing through a stream of comet debris. As the particles enter our atmosphere, they burn up, giving us our annual Perseid Meteor Shower. Keep an eye on the northeastern sky. The Galleria at Sunset is hosting the Las Vegas Artists Guild as they present the Las Vegas Artists Guild Galleria Fine Art Expo. The two-day art event will be on Saturday, August 18 and Sunday, August 19. The Galleria Fine Art Expo will feature artwork from the Las Vegas Artists Guild. These award-winning artists from across the Vegas Valley area will be displaying the very best in fine art. Various mediums will be presented including oil and acrylic paintings, sculptures, glass, photography and more. The artists will offer both original works of artwork as well as fine art giclees for purchase. This is a great opportunity to meet the artists. Many of which will be giving live art demonstrations so the public can watch a masterpiece being created. Free and open to the public The Galleria Fine Art Expo will be inside the Galleria at Sunset on the ground floor level center court. The Las Vegas Artists Guild has been a driving force in the Las Vegas art community since 1996 and has hundreds of members. With monthly meetings, workshops and various art shows it strives to offer education and opportunities for artists. Members are currently showing their artwork at the LVAG Members Gallery in the newly remodeled Art House located at 1229 Casino Center Blvd. in the heart of the 18b Arts District downtown Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Artists Guild is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit arts organization and presents annual Dale Karr Scholarships to worthy art projects that are in need of support. The board members are all volunteers who donate their time and energy to the guild. Las Vegas Artists Guild President, Jacie Urquidi-Maynard says The LVAG guilds motto is Artists Helping Artists and its my pleasure to work for such an amazing group of artists who want to grow artistically. Their passion for the Las Vegas Valley art scene is amazing! Jacie will be at Welcome Table during the Las Vegas Artists Guild Galleria Fine Art Expo to answer questions about art and the guild. Membership sign-ups are available for those who wish to join and support the guild. Corporate sponsors are also welcome. Jamie Cooper, CMD Marketing Director of the Galleria at Sunset says The Galleria at Sunset is very excited to host The Galleria Fine Art Expo. We feel that community involvement and supporting the arts is essential to maintaining the culture of the Las Vegas Valley. Ferraros Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar will partner with Franco Wine Imports for its next unique Taste & Learn event to bring quality, small production and handcrafted Italian wines to Las Vegas on Saturday, Aug. 25, at 6 p.m. Owner Gino Ferraro invites guests to experience some of Italys best family vineyards featuring traditional and lesser-known grapes loved for centuries in the villages of Italy. Throughout the evening, guests will be taken on a journey sampling exclusive wines served along perfectly paired small plates created by Executive Chef Francesco DiCaudo. The night will start with a white wine from Bocale, located in the city of Montefalco in the Umbria region, followed by a Pinot Noir from the Veneto region. The latter will be paired with Chef Francescos Spaghetti al Caffe coffee spaghetti, artichokes and veal sweetbread ragout. Guests will also travel to Lanciola in Tuscany, which produces fine Chiantis and Sangioveses. Providing a sweet conclusion to the evening will be Chef Francescos Pinolata Senese soft, toasted pine nut Siena cake with a vanilla pastry cream. The complete menu for the evening follows: Trebbiano Spoletino, Bocale, 2017 Tonno Tuna carpaccio, peach panzanella Tenuta del Morer, Pinot Noir, 2015 Spaghetti al Caffe Coffee spaghetti, artichokes, veal sweetbread ragout Lanciola Chianti Classico Riserva, 2015 Pernice Partridge, cabbage, farro, juniper berry jus Antiche Terre de Ricci, Terricci, 2007 Pinolata Senese Soft, toasted pine nut Siena cake, vanilla pastry cream This event sells out each month and space is limited. Make reservations for Taste & Learn by phone at (702) 364-5300. 1. 1st U.S. President George Washington. 1st U.S. President George Washington 2. 2nd U.S. President John Adams. 2nd U.S. President John Adams 3. 3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. 3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson 4. 4th U.S. President James Madison. 4th U.S. President James Madison 5. 5th U.S. President James Monroe. 5th U.S. President James Monroe 6. 6th U.S. President John Quincy Adams. 6th U.S. President John Quincy Adams 7. 7th U.S. President Andrew Jackson. 7th U.S. President Andrew Jackson 8. 8th U.S. President Martin Van Buren. 8th U.S. President Martin Van Buren 9. 9th U.S. President William Henry Harrison. 9th U.S. President William Henry Harrison 10. 10th U.S. President John Tyler. 10th U.S. President John Tyler 11. 11th U.S. President James K. Polk. 11th U.S. President James K. Polk 12. 12th U.S. President Zachary Taylor. 12th U.S. President Zachary Taylor 13. 13th U.S. President Millard Fillmore. 13th U.S. President Millard Fillmore 14. 14th U.S. President Franklin Pierce. 14th U.S. President Franklin Pierce 15. 15th U.S. President James Buchanan. 15th U.S. President James Buchanan 16. 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 17. 17th U.S. President Andrew Johnson. 17th U.S. President Andrew Johnson 18. 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant 19. 19th U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes. 19th U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes 20. 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield. 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield 21. 21st U.S. President Chester A. Arthur. 21st U.S. President Chester A. Arthur 22. 22nd U.S. President Grover Cleveland. 22nd U.S. President Grover Cleveland 23. 23rd U.S. President Benjamin Harrison. 23rd U.S. President Benjamin Harrison The President of the United States is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is indirectly elected to a four-year term by the people through the Electoral College.Since the office was established in 1789, 44 men have served as president. The first, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms in office, and is counted as the nation's 22nd and 24th presidents; the incumbent, Donald Trump, is therefore the 45th president.Here below is a cool sketch image collection from Alexander anitzenko that shows the first 23 presidents of the United States.George Washington (1732-1799) was a soldier, farmer, and statesman, as well as the first President of the United States under the U.S. Constitution. Since the late 1780s, Washington has been referred to as the "Father of His Country" by compatriots.Washington was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and presided over the 1787 Constitutional Convention. As a leading Patriot, Washington was among the nation's Founding Fathers.John Adams (1735-1826) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the first Vice President (17891797) and second President of the United States (17971801).Adams was a lawyer, diplomat, political theorist, and a leader of the movement for American independence from Great Britain. He was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor, Abigail.Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809.Previously, Jefferson had been elected the second vice president of the United States, serving under John Adams from 1797 to 1801. He was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights motivating American colonists to break from Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level.James Madison Jr. (1751-1836) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.James Monroe (1758-1831) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fifth President of the United States from 1817 to 1825. Monroe was the last president of the Virginia dynasty, and his presidency ushered in what is known as the Era of Good Feelings.John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was an American statesman who served as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829 at the peak of a political career during which he served in various capacities as diplomat, United States Senator, United States Secretary of State, and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.Adams was the eldest son of second president John Adams (served 17971801) and his wife, Abigail Adams.Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837.Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress. As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the "common man" against a "corrupt aristocracy" and to preserve the Union.Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841.A founder of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the ninth Governor of New York, the tenth U.S. Secretary of State and the eighth Vice President of the United States. Van Buren won the 1836 presidential election because of the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison due in part to the poor economic conditions of the Panic of 1837.Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an important anti-slavery leader and led the Free Soil ticket in the 1848 presidential election.William Henry Harrison Sr. (1773-1841) was an American military officer, politician, and the ninth President of the United States.Harrison died of pneumonia thirty-one days into his term, thereby serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. Because he was the first president to die in office, his death sparked a constitutional crisis about succession.John Tyler (1790-1862) was the tenth President of the United States from 1841 to 1845 after briefly being the tenth Vice President (1841); he was elected to the latter office on the 1840 Whig ticket with President William Henry Harrison.Tyler ascended to the presidency after Harrison's death in April 1841, only a month after the start of the new administration. He was a supporter of states' rights, and as president he adopted nationalist policies only when they did not infringe on the powers of the states. His unexpected rise to the presidency, with the resulting threat to the presidential ambitions of Henry Clay and other politicians, left him estranged from both major political parties.James Knox Polk (1795-1849) was the 11th President of the United States (18451849). He previously was Speaker of the House of Representatives (18351839) and Governor of Tennessee (18391841).A protege of Andrew Jackson, he was a member of the Democratic Party and an advocate of Jacksonian democracy. During Polk's presidency, the United States expanded significantly with the annexation of the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory, and the Mexican Cession following the American victory in the MexicanAmerican War.Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850.Taylor previously was a career officer in the United States Army, rose to the rank of major general and became a national hero as a result of his victories in the MexicanAmerican War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died sixteen months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress.Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was the 13th President of the United States (18501853), the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House.A former U.S. Representative from New York, Fillmore was elected the nation's 12th Vice President in 1848, and was elevated to the presidency by the death of Zachary Taylor. He was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852; he gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later, and finished third in that election.Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was the 14th President of the United States (18531857), a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. He alienated anti-slavery groups by championing and signing the KansasNebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act; yet he failed to stem conflict between North and South, setting the stage for Southern secession and the American Civil War.James Buchanan Jr. (1791-1868) was an American politician who served as the 15th President of the United States (185761), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War.A member of the Democratic Party, Buchanan was the 17th United States Secretary of State and had served in the Senate and House of Representatives before becoming president.Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil Warits bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) was the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson became president as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the former slaves, and he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was an American soldier and statesman who served as Commanding General of the Army and the 18th President of the United States, the highest positions in the military and the government of the United States.A prominent United States Army general during the American Civil War, Grant led the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy with the supervision of Abraham Lincoln. As President of the United States (18691877) Grant led the Republicans in their efforts to remove the vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery during Reconstruction.Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) was the 19th President of the United States from 1877 to 1881, an American congressman, and governor of Ohio.Hayes was a lawyer and staunch abolitionist who defended runaway slaves in court proceedings. He was seriously wounded fighting in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He assumed the presidency at the end of the Reconstruction Era through the Compromise of 1877.In office he ended Army support for Republican state governments in the South, promoted civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction.James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) was the 20th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his assassination later that year.Garfield had served nine terms in the House of Representatives, and had been elected to the Senate before his candidacy for the White House, though he declined the Senate seat once he was elected president. He is the only sitting House member to be elected president.Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 21st President of the United States from 1881 to 1885; he succeeded James A. Garfield upon the latter's assassination.At the outset, Arthur struggled to overcome a slightly negative reputation, which stemmed from his early career in politics as part of New York's Republican political machine. He succeeded by embracing the cause of civil service reform. His advocacy for, and subsequent enforcement of, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was the centerpiece of his administration.Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (18851889 and 18931897).Cleveland won the popular vote for three presidential electionsin 1884, 1888, and 1892and was one of two Democrats (with Woodrow Wilson) to be elected president during the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd President of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, creating the only grandfather-grandson duo to have held the office. He was also the great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a founding father. Join moderator Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard for a round table discussion of the weeks top stories with Tom DeFrank from the National Journal and Emily Tamkin for Buzzfeed News. Topping the headlines Trumps invitation to Iran for direct talks falls flat, North Korea continues building missiles even as Pyongyang fulfills its commitment to send some remains of US soldiers back to the United States, the Paul Manafort trial begins and Facebook discloses more evidence of information warfare ahead of the 2018 midterm elections on its platform. An accountant for Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, testified Friday that she prepared his tax returns despite her concerns about the propriety of classifying money he had transferred from overseas as loans. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis asked the accountant, Cynthia Laporta, whether she was testifying under an immunity agreement with the government because she was concerned that she could be prosecuted. She answered, "Correct." Laporta testified she knew an accounting treatment for a loan was wrong when preparing Manafort's tax return for 2014. "I very much regret it," she told the courtroom. Her testimony came on the trial's fourth day as prosecutors sought to drive home their case that Manafort tried to hide millions of dollars he earned working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. The trial in federal court in Alexandria is the first arising from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election. Both Laporta and fellow accountant Philip Ayliff, her predecessor who handled Manafort's tax filings at the firm KWC, testified that they had no knowledge that Manafort controlled foreign bank accounts. Such accounts must be reported to tax authorities if they contain $10,000 or more. Laporta said she asked Manafort directly about any such holdings and was told there were none. Prosecutors have tried to make their case first by presenting testimony about Manafort's lavish lifestyle and then detailing his financial maneuvering. Defense attorneys have signaled they will seek to blame the financial charges against Manafort on his business partner, Rick Gates, who was Trump's deputy campaign chairman in the 2016 presidential election. Alleged order from Gates Laporta testified that Gates, in a conference call with her and another accountant at the firm, instructed them to alter a loan amount to lower Manafort's tax bill because it was too high for Manafort to pay. "Rick said it was too high" and that Manafort "didn't have that money," Laporta said in response questions by prosecutor Uzo Asonye. Gates, who pleaded guilty in February of conspiracy and lying to the FBI, is cooperating with Mueller's probe, and is expected to testify later in the trial. The charges against Manafort largely predate the five months he worked for Trump, some of them as campaign chairman, during a pivotal period in the race for the White House. Trial consultant Roy Futterman, who is following the trial but not involved in it, said, "The prosecution is doing a very good job of keeping a brisk pace, putting witnesses on for short direct examinations, keeping it lively and keeping very tight messages for each witness." Manafort's defense attorneys do not seem to have scored a lot of points on cross-examination, Futterman said, but added that the witnesses who have testified so far are not "the main targets." Prosecutors asked Ayliff about Manafort's accounting of a $1.5 million transfer in 2012 from Peranova Holdings Ltd. as a loan, even as records showed that no interest or principal was paid on it in subsequent years. Peranova is one of numerous Cypriot entities that prosecutors have said Manafort controlled. Ayliff testified that KWC did not know Manafort controlled Peranova, and that if the transfer was a payment related to his consulting work, it would have been treated as income not as a loan on his tax returns. Kevin Downing, Manafort's attorney, signaled Friday that his defense strategy might also involve raising questions about whether Manafort in fact had willfully deceived his accountants. One way to do that could be to show that documents Manafort had provided to the accountant contained details about foreign bank accounts. "Only a fool would give that information to his accountant if he was trying to conceal it" from the Internal Revenue Service, Downing said, referring to whether the accountant had names of the Cyprus-based entities in his files and had retained them for his records. Late on Thursday, Manafort filed an objection to the government's bid to block his legal team from raising the fact that he and his companies were never audited by the IRS. Mueller's team has argued that any such civil action is separate from the criminal charges at hand. Villagers and relatives in eastern Afghanistan Saturday dug a common grave and buried 35 victims of the previous days devastating suicide gun-and-bomb attack on a Shiite mosque. A reporter for VOAs Afghan language broadcast said hundreds of mourners attended the mass funeral organized under tight security in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, where Fridays massacre took place. Three children were among the dead. The provincial health director, Walayat Khan Ahmadzai, confirmed to VOA on Saturday that the attack injured more than 90 people and the condition of 17 of them is extremely critical. Attackers wearing burqas Police and witnesses said a pair of burqa-clad suicide bombers, armed with assault rifles, stormed the crowded mosque during afternoon prayers in the Khawaja Hasan area of the provincial capital. The assailants entered the main prayer hall and sprayed worshippers with bullets before blowing themselves up, the provincial police chief, Raz Mohammad Mandozai, told VOA. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the bloodshed in Paktia, which borders Pakistan. A spokesman for the Taliban insurgency swiftly denied its involvement in the mosque raid, prompting suspicions Islamic State could be behind the Shia carnage. The Afghan branch of the Middle Eastern terrorist group, known as ISK-P, has claimed responsibility for almost all recent attacks against Shiite worship places and gatherings in Afghanistan. Attack condemned President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah have both strongly condemned the terrorist attack on innocent civilian worshipers. This attack targeting civilians has no possible justification, said Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. He called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and held to account. These brutal and senseless attacks against people at prayer are atrocities. Such attacks directed against congregations and places of worship are serious violations of international law that may amount to war crimes, Yamamoto said. UNAMA in its civilian casualty report released last month said that civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan armed conflict. In the first six months of 2018, it said, battlefield attacks and militant bombings killed nearly 1,700 Afghan civilians, the highest number of fatalities recorded in a decade. Twenty-two opposition activists, facing charges of inciting violence and causing malicious damage to the ruling ZANU-PF party offices, were told Saturday to return to court Monday for bail hearings because there wasn't enough time to hear their cases. The charges followed a protest Wednesday that resulted in at least six deaths after the army used live ammunition. Members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance were demonstrating against the electoral commission, which they accused of rigging the July 30 election and delaying the release of the results. Gift Mtisi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said after Saturday's court proceedings that his clients had been trapped in the MDC offices after the Wednesday protests in Harare. "We made an application for refusal of remand because we are saying the charges are not coming from the facts [in the state papers]," Mtisi said. "The alleged facts took place at the ZANU-PF head office. These clients were not there. They were detained at Harvest House all along, from the 1st to the 2nd [of August]," with police blocking the entrance. While these protesters were in court, some MDC officials were attending the funerals of some of the people who were shot during the Wednesday protests. The opposition has indicated that it will follow all avenues possible for it to reclaim what it calls stolen votes, including more protests. The general election was the first one held since the ouster of founding leader Robert Mugabe last November. Official results released Friday indicated incumbent Emerson Mnangagwa beat challenger Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance. Mnangagwa got 50.8 percent, avoiding a runoff. On Friday, Chamisa said he was contacting the head of the Southern African Development Community, Cyril Ramaphosa, to discuss the issue. California Governor Jerry Brown said Saturday that he had asked U.S. President Donald Trump for emergency aid to help the state fight wildfires that are ravaging communities up and down the drought-stricken West Coast state. The governor visited Northern California on Saturday to look at the damage done by a fire in the city of Redding. He said he was confident Trump would respond to California's request for aid. "The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so I'm hopeful," Brown said, noting that people with differing political views can still cooperate in a crisis. Later Saturday officials announced the death of a seventh person in the Carr fire. The fire, about 162 miles north of Sacramento, killed a power company lineman Saturday, according to a CBS affiliate citing a spokesman for the PG&E Corp. Neither a spokesman with the electric company nor fire officials were immediately available for comment. No other details about the death were made public. Fire experts said 17 major fires were burning throughout California. Thousands of people have evacuated their homes, and eight people have died in the blazes. California's famous Yosemite National Park has been closed for the past week because of dangerous conditions at what is normally the busiest time of year for tourism. Northern California's major blaze, the Carr Fire, was 41 percent contained after two weeks, officials said. They believe it started with sparks from the steel wheel of a trailer with a flat tire. The fire's damage is thought to span 533 square kilometers (205 square miles). Two firefighters have died while working to contain the flames. Brown has called the past couple of years' dramatic fire seasons "the new normal," and California fire officials have warned that this year's fire season is just getting started. The detention of a retired Chinese academic who was taken into custody during a live television interview with VOA has sparked criticism from human rights activists and analysts who worry the Chinese government is increasingly cracking down on dissent. Sun Wenguang, a retired Shandong University professor who is critical of China's human rights record, is believed to be in detention in a military-run hotel in Jinan, eastern China. He was taken away during a telephone interview on the VOA Mandarin television show Issues & Opinions on Wednesday morning. Chinese authorities have disclosed no information about why the professor was detained. VOA tried to reach the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China for comment, but the mobile phone open to the public was turned off, and the landline was not answered. The Public Security Department of Shandong University and the Shanda Road Police Station of Jinan's Public Security Bureau were also contacted. Neither would comment. Sources told VOA's Mandarin service that Sun was being detained at Yanzi Mountain Villa at Jinan Military Region, a military-linked hotel and reception center. On Friday, VOA's Beijing reporter visited Sun's home in an apartment building and spoke with his neighbors. They said the professor has long had security officers staking out his apartment and watching his movements. None said they understood why he drew such scrutiny. One of the neighbors said Sun was "a good person and a good neighbor." The detention of the retired Chinese academic has sparked criticism from human rights activists and analysts, who worry that the government is increasingly cracking down on dissent. "There is no question that since taking and consolidating power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has not only cracked down harder on dissidents, but has in effect changed China's social contract, which had offered a significant amount of personal freedom if you stayed outside the political realm," Atlantic Council senior fellow Robert Manning said Friday. The changes narrow "the bounds of the acceptable in terms art, culture, social expression, civil society." 'Distressing' Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson said the news about Sun was distressing on a number of levels. "This is a man who has a long and laudable track record of peacefully criticizing the government," said Richardson, "so it's bad enough the government is persecuting him at all. It's worse still for them to do so as a result of surveilling his communications with media outside of the country, to break through his apartment to take him away while being interviewed live." "We are certainly extremely concerned about the treatment of him. He is not a young man. And the fact that he is being held routinely is very worrying," she added. Chen Guangcheng, a well-known blind civil rights activist and lawyer, related this incident to his personal experience. Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in 2012. He left the embassy for medical treatment in the U.S. after U.S. officials negotiated with the Chinese government. "I've had a similar experience. Those Communist Party minions one grabbed the phone, others grabbed his hands and forced him to the side. Such a scene just jumped out in my mind," Chen said. Entry by police While Sun was being interviewed, criticizing China's foreign aid and diplomatic strategy in Africa, he suddenly said that local police had forcibly entered his residence and demanded he end the interview. When Sun refused, the phone line went dead. Subsequent efforts by VOA to reconnect with him have been unsuccessful. VOA was interested in interviewing Sun because he had written an open letter critical of Xi on the eve of the Chinese president's trip last month to Africa and the Middle East. In the letter, Sun urged Xi to stop spending money overseas on aid, loans and investments, saying the money would be better spent in China. Sun also criticized Xi's authoritarian rule. Xi consolidated his power at the National People's Congress in March. On the show, Sun said Xi "wants to make nice with African countries, and that's not what we are against. But there are so many other things for him to take into account. China has got a huge population, and there are still so many people living in destitution. You need to consider your own economic capability when providing for others. If you don't actually have the scale of capability to match up with the scale of things you are trying to do, just don't do it." Xiao Yu, Nike Ching and Yibing Feng contributed to this report. U.N. officials warn the deadly Ebola virus could be spread by refugees leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province. Officials are urging neighboring countries to increase surveillance at border crossings. The number of confirmed cases in Congo's new outbreak of the virus has risen to 13, including three deaths, the nation's health ministry said late Saturday. This latest outbreak was announced Wednesday with four confirmed cases, a week after the previous outbreak in DRC's northwest had been declared over, having killed 33 people. It was not clear whether the new outbreak, more than 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) away, was related. More than 100 armed groups are involved in long-standing conflicts in DRC's North Kivu province. Ongoing fighting and instability in the region are adding layers of complexity and difficulty to international efforts to combat an Ebola outbreak in the region. At least two decades of conflict has displaced more than 1 million of the province's 8 million inhabitants. Peter Salama, World Health Organization emergency response chief, told VOA an additional threat was posed by refugees. He warned that some of those fleeing into neighboring Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi might be taking the infection with them. "So, not only do you have the problem of tracking that internal displacement, but then you have the potential exportation of infection across borders," Salama said. "And, that is why we are already working with the government of Uganda, particularly, but also Rwanda, which shares a border as well with northern Kivu, to be fully prepared for any eventualities across the border." The U.N. refugee agency is lending its expertise to this situation. It is preparing shelters for at least 1,000 vulnerable internally displaced persons and other extremely vulnerable people in the Ebola-affected Beni area. It also is undertaking protection and monitoring activities. UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said his agency's staff in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania were on Ebola alert. "Specifically, in Uganda, we have a continuous influx from the DRC. Our operation has intensified the awareness-raising among the refugee and host communities. We have also increased the infection control and outbreak preparedness measures," Mahecic said. "And, we also are preparing for entry screening. That could be the temperature checks for arriving Congolese refugees at the borders." Mahecic said around 92,000 Congolese refugees have fled to Uganda so far this year. He said they are continuing to arrive at an average rate of between 100 and 200 a day. Some information for this report came from AP. Photo: baitcar.com Eleven people have been arrested and a Kelowna auto theft ring is busted. A three-week investigation by Kelowna Street Enforcement Units with the provincial IMPACT team targeted prolific auto theft suspects in the Central Okanagan. Along with the 11 arrests, 15 stolen vehicles were recovered. Five people were arrested July 23 after investigators witnessed two subjects in a stolen dump truck. Tasha Dawn Smith and Daniel Frank Briggs, both 40 years,have been charged with possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance. Three young offenders were charged in a separate incident following surveillance on a stolen car earlier in the day. Two days later, police observed a stolen vehicle driven by Lenny James Lipscombe, 19, of Kelowna. He faces a total of 10 charges, including possession of stolen property and breach of probation. Two others were also arrested during the initiative, however charges have yet to be laid. While enforcement action is a valuable tool in reducing auto crime, the most valuable tool is in every citizens hand prevention. The majority of auto crime is the result of insecure vehicles. Keys left in the vehicle, valuables left in plain view... said Insp. Brian MacDonald, officer in charge of the IMPACT team. The joint force initiative used bait vehicles, and several of the offenders arrested are responsible for multiple thefts, says Sgt. Alex Lynch of the Kelowna SEU. Some survivors of one of the deadliest school shootings in American history joined a march just outside Washington Saturday to protest National Rifle Association efforts to block gun control laws and bans on assault rifles. The survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and staff members were killed February 14, joined the March on NRA at the lobbying groups national headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. Former fellow student Nikolas Cruz, who police said was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, has been charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in the shooting and remains in custody in Florida. Several students from Great Mills High School in a Maryland suburb near Washington also attended the rally. Great Mills students were pushed into the national spotlight after 17-year-old student Austin Rollins fatally shot 16-year-old classmate Jaelynn Willey and injured 14-year-old Desmond Barnes. Rollins died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a confrontation with a school resource officer. Other anti-gun protests were planned around the country, according to the gun control advocacy group National March on NRA, which organized the events. Protesters demanded that the Internal Revenue Service revoke the NRA's tax-exempt status, said access to downloadable blueprints for 3-D-printed guns should be prohibited, and called on lawmakers to approve tougher gun control laws. Saturday's events were part of the "March for our Lives: Road to Change" tour, a national summer-long bus journey that honored victims of gun violence and encouraged young people to register to vote. Israeli lawmakers say Israel will not tolerate Iranian-backed Shiite fighters remaining near its northern frontier with Syria, signaling Israeli suspicion of Russian assurances that Iranian forces have left the area. In an interview with Russian state-run news site Sputnik published Friday, opposition lawmaker Ksenia Svetlova of the Zionist Union party expressed concern that Iranian militia and advisers may be in the ranks of the Syrian Army, including in the Golan Heights. She said Israel would deem such a presence absolutely unacceptable and an act of aggression. In earlier remarks to Israeli radio Wednesday, Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, a lawmaker for the ruling Likud Party, said the government will not accept Hezbollah, an Iranian-financed Lebanese militant group, establishing a new front on Israels northern boundary with Syria. This is something that is dangerous. If we dont prevent it today, when still at its outset, it will exact a heavy price of us down the line, he said. Russia: Iranian forces out Hanegbi and Svetlova were responding to Russias Wednesday announcement that Iranian forces had withdrawn their heavy weapons in Syria to a distance of 85 kilometers from the Israeli-occupied western sector of the Golan. Russian state news agency TASS quoted Russian special envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev as saying The Iranians withdrew (from the area) and the Shiite formations are not there. But, Lavrentiev also said Iranian military personnel whom he described as advisers could be among Syrian government forces who remain closer to the Israeli-controlled Golan. Israel has pressed Russia for months to persuade Iran to remove its forces from Syria, where both Russia and Iran have sent military resources to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fight a seven-year civil war. Israel sees Irans presence in Syria as an existential threat because Iranian leaders long have called for Israels destruction and described their involvement in the Syrian conflict as a means to that end. Russia has resisted the Israeli demand, saying it cannot compel Iran to leave Syria, whose leader Assad has welcomed the Iranian support in his battle with rebels. Hezbollah in Syria Hezbollah has been fighting alongside Assads forces for years. The head of its executive council, Hashem Safi al-Din, said last month the group was part of Assads offensive to oust rebels from southern Syrian territory bordering the Israeli-held Golan. The rebels were defeated earlier this week. Speaking in the Lebanese town of Nabatieh in a televised July 21 speech monitored by several research groups including the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center, Safi al-Din said: The resistance [Hezbollah] has a presence in the campaign in south Syria, and those who will retreat are American and Israeli collaborators [i.e., rebel organizations].They are the ones who will leave south Syria today and tomorrow. The resistance [Hezbollah] has not left south Syria [in particular] and Syria [in general]. Russia has not explicitly stated its position toward the Hezbollah presence on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan, a presence that the group itself had not publicly disclosed until Safi al-Dins speech. But Moscow has refrained from publicly criticizing occasional Israeli air strikes targeting what Israel believes to be Iranian bases in Syria or weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah forces in neighboring Lebanon. This report was produced in collaboration with VOAs Persian Service. Israel's navy Saturday seized a Swedish-flagged sailboat carrying activist passengers that was trying to breach the long-standing blockade of the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said the vessel, named "Freedom for Gaza," was "intercepted in accordance with international law." The 12 passengers, from Sweden, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Spain, are in custody and will be flown home, an Israeli Immigration Authority spokeswoman said. The organizer of the trip, the Swedish group Ship to Gaza, said the boat was carrying mainly medical supplies and maintained it was wrongly intercepted in international waters. "The demands of the Ship to Gaza are that the ship with its crew and cargo ... be allowed to go in peace through international and Palestinian waters in accordance with international law," it said in a statement. "This is a demand that the 11 years-long illegal and destructive blockade on Gaza will be lifted at last." Israel's military said the boat violated the "legal naval blockade" and that "any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod." The vessel Freedom for Gaza was the second vessel of the "Freedom Flotilla" to be seized as it tried to "break the blockade" on Gaza, organizers said. Earlier this week the Israeli navy intercepted a Norwegian-flagged activist boat, one of four that left Scandinavia in mid-May. Israel contends the the blockade is necessary to keep Palestinian militants from getting weapons or other materials that could be used for military purposes. Israel and Palestinian militants have fought three wars since 2008 in Gaza, an economically disadvantaged 365 square kilometer territory where more than two million Palestinians reside. United Nations officials have called for the lifting of the blockade, citing worsening humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave. The first week of Paul Manafort's trial ended Friday, with prosecutors calling a bevy of witnesses to testify about the former Trump campaign chairman's alleged financial crimes. Manafort, 69, is accused of filing false tax returns, failing to disclose foreign bank accounts to U.S. authorities, and obtaining fraudulent bank loans after his earnings dried up from his political consultancy business for pro-Russia politicians. The trial is the first to arise from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow. Manafort's former business partner, Rick Gates, who was indicted along with Manafort, has pleaded guilty and has become a cooperating witness. Manafort's lawyers, through their opening statement and cross-examination of witnesses, sought to pin the blame on Gates. Here are highlights from the first four days of the trial: Day 1: The trial started with the selection of a jury of six men and six women pulled from a pool of several dozen randomly summoned citizens. Manafort's fate rests in their hands. Prosecutors and defense lawyers then delivered their opening statements to the jury, laying out their sides of the story. Prosecutor Uzo Asonye said Manafort committed tax and bank fraud, believing "the law did not apply to him." Manafort's lawyers responded by blaming the crimes on Gates. "We're primarily here because of one man. That man is Rick Gates," defense lawyer Thomas Zehnle said in his opening statement. The day featured testimony from the prosecution's first witness, Tad Devine, a Democratic political consultant who worked with Manafort on campaigns in Ukraine. His testimony was aimed at demonstrating that Manafort worked for the Party of Regions and its leader, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Day 2: The second day of the trial was focused on Manafort's lavish lifestyle, with testimonies aimed at showing his taste for luxury and establishing his need for money and motive to commit fraud. Several vendors, including a high-end New York men's clothier, a landscaper and a home technology executive, testified how Manafort spent millions of dollars on luxury goods and services, almost always paying with wire transfers from foreign accounts. Admonished by the judge on Tuesday that "it isn't a crime to make a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," prosecutor Asonye said that while it isn't "a crime to have a lot of money," it is a crime to not pay taxes. Asonye made a stir on Wednesday by suggesting Gates might not be asked to take the stand. But prosecutors later put the speculation to rest, saying they had "every intention" of calling Gates to testify. Day 3: The prosecution's focus shifted on the third day of the trial from Manafort's extravagant lifestyle to his financial history, and how he kept his bookkeepers and tax preparers in the dark about his overseas accounts. Longtime Manafort bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn took the stand, testifying that she did not know about Manafort's foreign bank accounts and relied on him for determining whether to report something as income or a loan. Contradicting the defense's argument that Manafort was too busy to be involved in his finances, she said Manafort "approved every penny of everything we paid." Day 4: Accountants Philip Ayliff and Cindy Laporte, who prepared Manafort's tax returns for several years, testified that they had no knowledge that Manafort controlled foreign corporate entities and bank accounts. They told the jury they asked Manafort every year about his foreign holdings and he told them he had none. Laporte testified that she changed Manafort's tax return in 2014 to lower his taxes by as much as $500,000 and two years later helped him falsify documents in order to get bank loans. Like several other witnesses, Laporte has been given immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. Defense lawyer Kevin Downing questioned the prosecution's claim that Manafort willfully hid his foreign accounts from his financial advisers, saying the firm kept documents containing details about them. "Only a fool would give that information to his accountant if he was trying to conceal it" from the Internal Revenue Service, Downing said. The trial resumes on Monday afternoon with the cross-examination of Laporte by defense lawyers. Crews battling deadly Northern California wildfires braced for a weekend of windy, hot weather that could drive the flames into new areas and threaten more homes. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flame. This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach, the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco. New evacuations As a precaution, new evacuations were called Friday for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where week-old twin fires have destroyed 41 homes and threaten about 9,000 more. The fire has charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and is only 30 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated. The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake but it looks like theres dicey weather on the way, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said. Others lifted However, some days-old evacuations were lifted Friday in an area near Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft have been battling an immense blaze about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Oregon border. Some areas on the fires southeastern flank were reopened to residents. The Carr Fire was 39 percent contained after killing six people and incinerating 1,067 homes. Gov. Jerry Brown was scheduled to visit the fire area in Shasta County Saturday. The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber. Fire whirl The blaze burned so furiously on July 26 that it created a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kph), which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which uses acres to describe fire size, said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles (533 square kilometers). Yosemite fire In the Sierra Nevada, firefighters achieved 41 percent containment of a forest fire that has shut down Yosemite Valley and other adjacent portions of Yosemite National Park at what is normally the height of summer tourism. The fire had reached into remote areas of the countrys third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemites popular Valley region were ordered to leave Friday because of inaccessible roads. The blaze has killed two firefighters. When Rebecca Gadzama meets with the teachers she oversees, they sometimes hold the meeting outdoors, under trees in open fields. It gives them a chance to spot danger and run in case of an attack. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram is still an ever-present danger in northeastern Nigeria and is still against people being educated in Western-style schools. Yahaya James, an elementary school math teacher, recalled one attack in his hometown of Lassa, in the southern part of Borno state. I was here in the town when they came. I was living with my mom and my dad and we just heard gunshots and we started running, he told VOA. WATCH: Nigerian Activist Uses Education to Counter Impact of Boko Haram Violence Signs of attacks Lassa lies adjacent to Sambisa Forest where most Boko Haram members are believed to be hiding. The insurgents frequently invade Lassa for supplies, and the town shows visible signs of attacks. Buildings here are crumbling. Thats why Gadzama returned home from where she was living in central Nigeria. She brought dozens of teachers, Yahaya James and others, together to work in a school that she co-founded with her husband. The program is called the Education Must Continue Initiative, or EMCI. It was created in 2014 to respond to the need for quality education in a region where Boko Haram militants have destroyed most of the government schools. We are just private individuals, just good citizens, natives of this area, so because we werent sure when the government would start their school, we just found this place, Gadzama said. EMCI runs two schools for displaced children, one in Lassa and one in the city of Yola. Gadzama said the schools have 1,600 students being instructed by 80 teachers. The teachers sometimes meet in the open, but classes are held under roofs, either in newly constructed buildings or tents provided by the government. Government focused on Maiduguri The schools run mainly on donations. Much of the governments reconstruction spending in Borno State is directed at Maiduguri, the state capital and the city where Boko Haram started. In June, a newly built neighborhood of 200 housing units was opened in the Maiduguri area, which is more than 200 kilometers north of Lassa. Largely a private-funded venture, the new community provides brand new housing for Boko Haram victims. We hear about what is happening in northern Borno. Buildings are made, they are allocated to people. It doesnt look like there is government presence in the situation in the rebuilding of this area, Gadzama said. James and a group of local schoolteachers walk around an aging school building in Lassa. Among them is 23-year-old Maimuna Zhubairu. Boko Haram killed three of her uncles and her older brother. She feels the government has abandoned Lassa. Most of the help comes from NGOs, she said. The government, they are not doing much help. She thinks the inaction may be because Lassa is a mostly Christian town, while the majority of people in northern Nigeria are Muslim. When Boko Haram launched its violent insurgency in 2009, Christians and their churches were among the groups early targets. Muhammed Bulama, the Borno state minister of information, told VOA the government is overwhelmed by the amount of damage Boko Haram caused: $9 billion in northern Nigeria and $6 billion in Borno state alone. He said that most of the reconstruction efforts are focused on northern Borno because it is where most of the damage is, and also because parts of southern Borno are still inaccessible. He said the government has begun working in Lassa, helping to rebuild a church. Lassa is not even a local government capital, yet it has received some rehabilitation. Reconstruction is not an event, it is a process. We have not neglected any area and most of the people accusing the government of religious bias are mischief makers, Bulama said. Dealing with trauma Gadzama stops by to visit another EMCI school. Most of the students are Christians still traumatized by what they have seen. Some of them want to become soldiers when they get older to get revenge on what Boko Haram did in their communities. Boko Haram, I see them use knife, chop my grandfather head, 13-year-old Ibrahim Daniel told VOA, speaking in pidgin slang English. I like to be a soldier because anything that them do, I like to do for them. If me I see them, me I go carry them, me I kill them. Under the blazing sun in a sandy field, the kids play war games, with one side pretending to be soldiers and the others acting like Boko Haram. Rebecca hopes the school library shes working on will help heal the students minds. It is not an issue of fighting back, she said. Its an issue of how do we get over this? How do we become one again because the guys in the Boko Haram are also children. ... When will it stop? So we thought that the best thing to do is to give these children here education, good education, and psychosocial counseling and teach them positiveness in the society. In her mind, education is the only way that the region can withstand and defeat Boko Haram. As the United States and North Korea engage in rare, high-level diplomacy to resolve disputes over the Norths nuclear weapons program, theres new attention focused on Pyongyangs abduction of Japanese citizens four decades ago. Tokyo and Pyongyang have long been at odds over the truth-really-is-stranger-than-fiction stories of abductions by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, and what happened to the victims, most of them snatched from locations scattered on Japans western shore. The 17 people identified as victims by the Japanese government included college students, couples, a mother of toddlers, and a teenager. In a nation known for conformity, not one of them stood out for anything other than disappearing. But that was enough to keep the abductees fate near Japans heart. To this day, the victims families and support organizations regularly hold meetings and ask people to sign petitions in their determination to prevent Japanese citizens from being abducted by a foreign force again. In 2002, there was a partial breakthrough in the mystery when then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted that North Korean agents had abducted 13 Japanese citizens and allowed five of the abductees to return to Japan. North Korea and Japan do not agree on the number of abductees. Identity theft The true motivation was identity theft, said Masami Abe, a former Sankei Shimbun reporter who first raised the abduction issue in 1980. North Korean spies used the victims identifications to pass themselves off as Japanese nationals. While many details of the abductions remain unknown, victims who were released testified that they were used to teach Japanese language and culture to North Korean spies, suggesting the abductions were part of North Koreas espionage program. Obtaining information on the fate of the remaining 12 abductees has emerged as a top priority for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Although North Korea says the issue has been resolved, Abe has met with U.S. President Donald Trump four times since January 2017 and has raised the abductions at each meeting. In early June, Trump promised, We will try and bring those folks back home. Abe has said Trump raised the issue at the U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore, but there was no mention of it in an agreement signed by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Abe continues to push for direct talks with North Korea. Of course, I wish to directly face North Korea and talk with them so that the abduction problem can be resolved quickly, Abe said. To this end, I am determined to take all possible means. Robert Boynton, author of The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Koreas Abduction Project, holds out little hope that Abe will get his wish. The North Koreans are very good at playing the long game, he said. "Theyll wait until the generation that really cares most about the abductions dies off. A prominent U.S. gun rights group, the National Rifle Association, says it is facing financial danger because the state of New York has pressured financial institutions to cut ties with the gun group. The NRA claims are part of a lawsuit it has filed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the state's Department of Financial Services, and New York's superintendent of financial services, Maria Vullo. An amended version of the suit, recently filed in New York, said the NRA had lost insurance coverage, endangering its day-to-day operations. The group accused New York of subjecting it to a state-led blacklisting campaign. The NRA said it could soon be forced to cut services for its members, such as the groups television channel or various print publications. It said it was facing irrecoverable loss and irreparable harm because of the states actions. The NRA complaint said it has had trouble obtaining corporate insurance coverage, media liability coverage and basic banking services. New York state argued in an opposing motion that the NRA was selling insurance, called Carry Guard, that violated state law. The insurance provides coverage for legal costs incurred after a gun is used in self-defense. In April, Cuomo said in a statement, I am directing the Department of Financial Services to urge insurers and bankers statewide to determine whether any relationship they may have with the NRA or similar organizations sends the wrong message to their clients and their communities who often look to them for guidance and support. In response, the NRA sued, saying the governor was encouraging New York-based businesses to cut ties with the NRA based on Cuomo's political views. Cuomo has previously described the NRA lawsuit as a futile and desperate attempt to advance its dangerous agenda to sell more guns. The arrest of Sun Wenguang, a retired professor from the Shandong province of northeastern China, during a live-telephone interview with VOA has come at a sensitive time when the rule of Chinese leader Xi Jinping is being seriously challenged. Observers say that has led to the security apparatus' swift action in crushing the country's rising anti-government sentiments, which they see as a threat to the Communist Party's regime. Three days after his "enforced disappearance," rights activists at home and abroad are demanding that China immediately release the 84-year-old professor for fear he may face physical torture, criminal charges or both. They also are urging the international society to call for a systemic change of China's political and legal framework, in which they say the state is continuing to abuse its power and crack down on dissidents. Nodes of independence in China "It's absolutely part of the attempts under Xi Jinping to find every little node of independence in society and crush it," said Michael Caster, co-founder of Safeguard Defenders. Sun's arrest has to do with "the political situation in mainland China, including the image of Xi Jinping recently also being challenged by [those] both inside and outside [the] establishment. That may also [pose] a security concern" to Chinese authorities, said Richard Tsoi, vice chairman of Hong Kong Alliance. Caster added that Sun makes an obvious target under China's intensified crackdown on dissidents since he has had a long track record of being critical of the state and is a signatory of Charter 08 a manifesto drafted by late Chinese Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo to advocate reforms that would result in a separation of powers, a new constitution and legislative democracy in China. Speaking out Critics have been emboldened by a recent vaccine scandal in China, a trade spat with the United States, and economic headwinds, and are openly questioning Xi's sweeping control. This includes Xu Zhangrun, a law professor from Tsinghua University, who has delivered what was believed to be the fiercest denunciation yet of Xi from a Chinese academic. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Xu "challenged political taboos" at a time when the voice of Chinese intellectuals is dying out. Xu urged the Chinese government to overturn its condemnation of the pro-democracy Tiananmen protests in 1989, calling on Chinese lawmakers to reverse the vote that abolished a two-term limit on Xi's presidency. Many are keeping an eye on how authorities will deal with Xu once he returns to China from Japan orwhether he will encourage others to speak out. Relentless harassment Prior to Xu, Sun has long been outspoken, which has made him a target of constant harassment by the communist government. Earlier this year, Shandong University's Communist party chapter ruled to cut Sun's retirement pension by almost half for what it said were his subversive remarks, and it further threatened to eliminate altogether his pension if he continued to talk to foreign media. Sun had been under intense scrutiny for some time, and security officers had staked out his apartment, keeping a tab on all of his movement. Sources tell VOA's Mandarin service that Sun currently is being detained at Yanzi Mountain Villa at Jinan Military Region, a military-linked hotel and reception center. Other details of his incarceration are unclear, and rights activists are concerned about what may be coming next for Sun. "The legal system in China is serving purely to the will of the party, and so if they decide to conjugate some charges against him, then they will. Or they'll hold him for an indefinite period of time," Caster said. He said Sun may share a fate similar to that of his one-time defender and legal counsel, Wang Quanzhang. Wang vanished more than three years ago and has not been heard from since, although he reportedly was seen in the Tianjin No. 1 Detention Center by a former colleague. Wang's wife has said reports are that her husband is alive in a decent physical and mental state. Sun also may be forced into making a televised confession. A report from Safeguard Defenders concludes the state has grown heavily reliant on illegal forced confessions by detainees to denounce right activists and dissidents for both a domestic and international audience. False charges In addition, Sun could face charges of colluding with a foreign power, according to Hunan-based rights activist Ou Biaofeng. "As a minimum, [he will be given] a warning or [put under] house arrest. Or the authorities may make up some false charges against him, for example, collusion with foreign hostile forces," Ou said, calling authorities in China "barbaric, ridiculous and evil" in suppressing the true voice of its citizens. International rights groups, including Reporter Without Borders (RSF), have joined hands to throw support behind Sun and demand his immediate release. "The professor is known for his assertive public interventions against censorship and propaganda. RSF demands his immediate release and stresses that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are explicitly written the Constitution of the People's Republic of China," its statement read. "China may be richer, [but certainly not freer.] The regime has intensified its suppression on rights crusaders and dissidents by having lawyers arrested and using technologies to launch a full-scale surveillance on the public's freedom of speech online or offline. China has gone overboard," said Chiu Ee-ling, secretary-general of Taiwan Association for Human Rights. Honeybees are essential to our food supply, but bee colonies around the world are declining. Among the main culprits are insecticides containing chemicals known as neonicotinoids, which are highly toxic to honeybees. In Europe, where about 80 percent of crops rely to some degree on insect pollination, the chemical is banned but exceptions allowed. Poland's agriculture ministry has temporarily approved it for use in rapeseed crops, worrying the country's beekeepers. VOA's Julie Taboh has more. Photo: The Canadian Press In the months before unleashing a hail of bullets into a Las Vegas concert crowd, Stephen Paddock burned through more than $1.5 million, became obsessed with guns and increasingly unstable, and distanced himself from his girlfriend and family, according to an investigative report released Friday. With those revelations, police announced they were closing their 10-month investigation without a definitive answer for why Paddock, a high-stakes gambler, amassed an arsenal of weapons and carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. "By all accounts, Stephen Paddock was an unremarkable man whose movements leading up to Oct. 1 didn't raise any suspicion," Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. "An interview with his doctor indicated signs of a troubled mind, but no troubling behaviour that would trigger a call to law enforcement." Paddock left no manifesto or "even a note to answer questions" about his motive for a rampage that killed 58 people and injured more than 800 others, Lombardo told reporters. The FBI is expected to release its final investigative report, including a psychological profile of the gunman, later this year, Lombardo said, noting that authorities want to leave "no stone unturned." "The FBI's assessment may shed a better light on Paddock's personality and what motivated him, but I don't know if they can provide a motive," said police Sgt. Jerry MacDonald, a key investigator in the case. One of Paddock's brothers told investigators that he believed the gunman had a "mental illness and was paranoid and delusional." A doctor believed he may have had bipolar disorder, the report said. Paddock's girlfriend said he had suddenly stopped being affectionate and constantly complained of being ill. Marilou Danley told investigators that he said doctors could not cure him but told him he had a "chemical imbalance." In its final report released Friday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department found Paddock acted alone and no one else will be charged, said Lombardo, the elected head of the police department. Earlier this year, U.S. prosecutors charged an Arizona man accused of selling illegal armour-piercing bullets found in Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino. Douglas Haig has pleaded not guilty and maintains he sold tracer ammunition, which illuminate a bullet's path. The report included a summary of 14 of Paddock's bank accounts, which contained a total of $2.1 million in September 2015. Two years later, the amount had dropped to $530,000. He "wasn't as successful in the gambling as he was in the previous years," Lombardo said. Investigators said Paddock paid more than $600,000 to casinos and over $170,000 to credit card companies. The analysis said he also made nearly $95,000 in firearms-related purchases. The report gave no other information about the casino purchases. High-rollers like Paddock are often given credit lines at casinos. Paddock bought more than three dozen guns between 2016 and 2017. Danley told investigators that she noticed he was buying large amounts of ammunition, but he dismissed her concerns by saying it was cheaper to buy in bulk, according to the report. She told police that she accompanied Paddock to gun stores and gun shows and helped him set up a gun range in Nevada. Danley told authorities he tended to be obsessive when he dove into a new hobby, and she considered the behaviour part of that same pattern, said Detective Trever Alsup, the lead investigator in the case. Paddock's mother, Irene Hudson, told investigators she did not understand why her son would carry out an attack and believed he "must have developed some type of 'brain tumour,'" the report said. An autopsy did not find anything unusual with Paddock's physical condition, even after a microscopic brain examination by experts at Stanford University. A brother, Eric Paddock, described his sibling as a "narcissist" who only cared about people he could benefit from. Survivor Megan O'Donnell Clements, who attended the music festival with three friends, said she had come to accept that a motive would likely never be found but "to see it written out and finalized" in the police report was gut-wrenching. "It's worse. It's not closure," the resident of Wilmington, Delaware, told The Associated Press. "To know for real that we'll never really know, it's kind of horrifying. I just don't understand what would have driven someone to that, and to have absolutely no answers, even if I had in my brain accepted that, it's just really hard to swallow." Police body camera recordings earlier made public showed officers using explosives to blast through the door of a 32nd-floor hotel suite to find Paddock dead on the floor from a self-inflicted gunshot. There were 23 assault-style weapons, including 14 fitted with rapid-fire "bump stock" devices, strewn about the room and a revolver near Paddock's body. Authorities concluded that Paddock fired for 11 minutes, using multiple weapons outfitted with target scopes and bump stocks. Eight incendiary rounds were directed at an aviation fuel tank at the nearby airport. Two hit the tank, but it did not explode. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is wrapping up his Southeast Asia tour in Jakarta, but North Korea again is capturing much of the attention. Pompeo arrived in Jakarta on Saturday from Singapore, where there were mixed messages on relations between the U.S. and North Korea amid talks over denuclearization. On the plane to Jakarta, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho had approached each other during the "family photo" session and had shaken hands. Pompeo said, "We should talk again soon," to which Ri responded, "I agree. There are many productive conversations to be had." After that, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim delivered to Ri a letter from President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The contents of the letter were not disclosed. A senior U.S. administration official said the brief encounter between Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart was not surprising. "This is to be expected. Much of the intervention was positive and that's an improvement from the past. We're building a relationship with North Korea after years of difficult relations." Pyongyang statement Pompeo left the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to head to his final stop in Jakarta. After he left the room, North Korea's Ri delivered a statement saying his country was committed to adhering to the agreements made between Trump and Kim at the Singapore summit last month. But he called the U.S. attitude on urging other countries to keep up the sanctions on North Korea "alarming" and said it was not what Trump wanted. Ri's remarks followed the release of a U.N. report warning that North Korea had found ways to navigate around the sanctions. The report said North Korea has had a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions. The report also documented violations of a ban on North Korean exports, including coal, iron and seafood, all of which generate millions of dollars of revenue for Pyongyang. There also are indications the North is continuing to build rockets, and concerns the nation has not been clear about when and how it will disarm. Pompeo said the U.S. was taking any infringement of the sanctions very seriously. "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said. "If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation of U.N. sanctions." On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department said it had imposed sanctions on a Russian bank for helping North Korea avoid Security Council actions intended to restrain Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The agency said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank had expedited "a significant transaction" with an individual whom the U.S. blacklisted for being involved in North Korea's weapons development. The Treasury said the Russian bank had conducted the transaction for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based head of North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), Pyongyang's primary foreign exchange bank. Han's deputy, Ri Jong Won, who also is based in Moscow, also was targeted by the sanctions. The department said both Han and Ri should be expelled from Russia under U.N. resolutions designed to pressure North Korea for its weapons programs. And the Treasury targeted what it said were two FTB front companies, China-based Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co. Ltd. and Korea Ungum Corporation. Reuters journalists Before leaving the ASEAN summit in Singapore, Pompeo met Saturday with Myanmar Foreign Minister Kyaw Tin and called for the immediate release of two Reuters journalists detained in the Southeast Asian country. The State Department's Nauert told VOA that Pompeo had raised the issue during their sideline meeting and added the U.S. was very concerned about their detention. The journalists were charged with possessing documents linked to security operations against Rohingya militants in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state. Additionally, Pompeo also met Saturday with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. He signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan for the U.S.-Singapore Third Country Training Program, which supports community-building efforts among the 10 ASEAN member states. On Friday in Singapore, Pompeo was asked about tensions with Turkey over detained American pastor Andrew Brunson, prompting Pompeo to again call for his release. He said Turkey remained a valuable NATO ally of the United States, and said he was working closely with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on a number of issues. Tariff threats Pompeo met Friday with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore. The two men did not speak to reporters after the meeting, but shortly thereafter China warned it would impose new tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods if the Trump administration followed through with its latest trade threats. The Commerce Ministry said the proposed tariffs of 5 percent to 25 percent on more than 5,200 U.S. goods were restrained, and maintained it had the right to take retaliatory action in the escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies. On Thursday, the Chinese foreign minister told reporters the U.S. needed to calm down and consider its own consumers, responding to threats by the Trump administration to raise its proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from the initially planned 10 percent to 25 percent. The U.S. says it wants China to stop stealing U.S. corporate secrets and stop subsidizing Chinese companies with cheap loans that give them an unfair advantage. The Washington Post is reporting that an alleged Russian agent who cultivated close ties with U.S. gun rights groups was also socializing with a former Trump aide in the weeks before the presidential election. The paper said Maria Butina sought out interactions with J.D. Gordon, who served for six months as the Trump campaigns director of national security and who was later offered a job with the presidential transition team. It said the two exchanged several emails in September and October 2016 and said Butina also attended Gordons birthday party in October 2016. The Post says the new information puts Butina in closer contact with the Trump campaign than was previously known. Prosecutors say Butina, 29, who was a graduate student at American University, attempted to infiltrate U.S. political organizations at the direction of a senior Russian official. When asked by the Post for comment, Gordon said his contacts with Butina were innocuous. From everything Ive read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years, he said in a statement to the paper. Federal prosecutors accuse Butina of conspiring with two American citizens, one of whom she cohabited with, and a top Russian official to influence U.S. policy toward Russia by infiltrating the National Rifle Association gun rights group and other conservative special interest groups potentially influential on the Trump administration. Butina was charged last month with acting as an agent for the Kremlin, but was not formally charged with espionage, most likely because her role was not to steal state and military secrets but allegedly to insinuate her way into U.S. political circles to advance Russias policy aims. Butinas lawyer, Robert Driscoll, denied in a statement that she was an agent of the Russian Federation. He described Butina as a Russian national in the U.S. on a student visa. The UN refugee agency is ramping up life-saving aid to nearly one million people displaced by violence in southwestern Ethiopia and is urging accelerated reconciliation efforts to defuse tensions in the region. As its name implies, the UN refugee agency's mandate is to assist and protect refugees. But, at the request of the Ethiopian government, it is extending its humanitarian support to include the nearly one million Ethiopians internally displaced by intercommunal violence in the Gedeo and West Guji areas. Clashes flared up in April in the border area of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region and the Oromia Region following more than a year of crippling drought and tensions over resources. UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, says the displacement, which peaked in June and July, was prompted by escalating violence and horrific abuse by armed groups. He says women and unaccompanied children are especially traumatized by the experience. "Those who fled described witnessing extreme violence during village raids, including indiscriminate killing, rape, livestock slaughter and houses being burnt to the ground," Mahecic said. "Most report fleeing with nothing but their livesFamilies have been separated and the overcrowded conditions are leading to serious protection risks." Mahecic tells VOA that UNHCR has emergency teams on the ground assessing the situation and beefing up the distribution of aid to the displaced. He notes the importance of buttressing the humanitarian operation with government-led reconciliation efforts. "A government led response needs to focus on re-opening a dialogue between these communities who have clashed over the resources, as I said, which came after the very, very long drought and clearly raised tensions among the communities," Mahecic said. "So, the first period will have to be about the confidence building measures and rebuilding trust after these events." The government of Ethiopia and humanitarian partners are appealing for nearly $118 million to scale up their operations to meet the critical life-saving and protection needs of the displaced. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced retaliatory measures Saturday against the U.S., following the U.S. sanctioning of two senior ministers for the ongoing detention of an American pastor. Erdogan announced the measures while speaking at a women's party meeting in Ankara. "We have shown patience until yesterday evening. Today I am instructing my friends that we will freeze the assets of U.S. secretaries of justice and interior in Turkey" Erdogan said. "Those who think that they can make Turkey take a step back by resorting to threatening language and absurd sanctions show that they do not know the Turkish nation." On Wednesday, Washington sanctioned Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, blocking their access to U.S. assets. The sanctions are for their role in the detention of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson. Brunson was released into house arrest last month after nearly two years in jail. The pastor is on trial for espionage and terrorism charges over alleged links to conspirators blamed for Turkey's 2016 failed coup. Brunson faces up to 35 years in jail. Washington dismisses the charges as baseless, accusing Ankara of hostage taking. Diplomatic initiatives Erdogan's strong pushback comes as diplomatic efforts are continuing. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday met his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Singapore. Both sides described the talks as "constructive." Brunson's detention is not the only point of tension in U.S.-Turkish relations. Washington's support of a Syrian Kurdish militia in the war against Islamic State is condemned by Ankara, which considers the militia a terrorist group. Ankara also refuses to enforce U.S.-Iranian sanctions. In addition, Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 missiles is straining ties. Until now Erdogan had relied on his political relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump to manage bilateral differences. However, local and international reports say a collapse in an agreement to secure Brunson's release has damaged that relationship. "Ankara has inadvertently painted itself into a corner and has lost it's only asset, President Trump," said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Washington. "Why is Ankara not effective in Congress? Because we no longer have the support of the Israeli lobby because we don't enjoy good relations with Israel.Moreover, the Pentagon, because of their support of Syrian Kurds, has hurt relations," said Selcen. An online report Saturday in Turkey's leading Hurriyet newspaper says the deal between Trump and Erdogan to secure Brunson's release failed over Turkish demands the U.S. end its investigation into the Turkish state-owned Halkbank. After a few hours, the report was removed from the newspaper's website. The newspaper's owner has close ties to the Turkish president. Economic pressure A New York court earlier this year convicted a senior executive of Halkbank of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran. The U.S. Treasury is considering a fine against the bank, which could be many billions of dollars. Analysts are warning that could hit Turkey's fragile economy. The deepening U.S.-Turkish tensions are fueling fears of further sanctions by Washington, in particular, targeting Turkey's financial system. Last week Turkish financial markets fell heavily, with the currency hitting record lows. Erdogan called Friday for the defense of the Turkish currency by converting foreign savings or gold into Turkish liras. The president also announced Turkey had received financial support from China. Analysts warn such efforts can do little to meet the hundreds of billions of dollars in loans owed by the government and private sector, which are becoming increasingly expensive to pay off with a plummeting currency. Diplomatic options also could be running out for Erdogan. "Just like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, Erdogan is an expert at sensing his opponents' weakness and exploiting it," political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners said. "Only by putting up a united front and proposing a credible threat to Turkish interests can one earnestly negotiate with Erdogan. Now that is what we appear to be seeing by Washington." Observers point out, however, that Erdogan, who portrays himself as a political strongman, will be wary of being seen as bowing to U.S. threats. In similar predicaments, the Turkish president has double downed, although analysts warn he does not have a strong hand. "This is not poker, this is chess, and you can't bluff in chess," analyst Yesilada said. "Because both sides can see one another's hands, and Turkey really doesn't have enough pieces to beat the U.S. Whatever it does would bring down twice the retaliation by the United States." Other analysts suggest Erdogan may be playing neither chess nor poker, but chicken daring Trump to risk destabilizing Turkey in a region already beset by instability, but in need of Turkey's cooperation to meet U.S. goals. When Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed last month to end their decades-long conflict, the international community responded enthusiastically. Less than a day after the countries signed a joint declaration of peace, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres suggested that sanctions against Eritrea, imposed for alleged support of al-Shabab, an extremist group based in Somalia, may soon be lifted. That action would further undo Eritreas isolation. But lingering grievances with its neighbor, Djibouti, could complicate regional integration, experts say. Escalating tension Eritreas push to forge regional ties moved forward last week when President Isaias Afwerki invited Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to the capital, Asmara, in a striking show of high-level diplomacy after more than a decade of frayed relations. But rapprochement with one neighbor heightened tensions with another. During the visit, Mohamed voiced his countrys support for lifting U.N. sanctions against Eritrea, a gesture that drew ire from both Djibouti and opposition groups within Somalia. Sanctions were imposed in 2009, not only over concerns about Eritreas role in Somalia, but also its dealings with Djibouti. Last November, the U.N. recommended dropping inquiries into connections in Somalia after failing to find evidence of links to al-Shabab. But it reiterated concerns about Eritreas border with Djibouti and its unwillingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Thats prompted Djibouti, which contributes troops to the African Unions peacekeeping mission in Somalia, to demand mediation. But other factors may be fueling its grievances. Some experts on the region believe that a rekindled relationship between Ethiopia and Eritrea leaves Djibouti out in the cold. Ulterior motives? Kelsey Lilley is the former associate director for the Atlantic Councils Africa Center. She told VOA that Djiboutis response to the possible lifting of sanctions reflects deeper concerns. The fear of U.N. sanctions being lifted on Eritrea points to the really sticky situation that Djibouti is in overall, which is that, as Eritrea opens, what happens to its business model, Lilley said. Djibouti has spent recent years investing in large-scale infrastructure projects: a port, a railway, a water pipeline and, most recently, a free-trade zone. The deals for these projects, funded and built by China, were inked when Djibouti provided Ethiopias sole access to the sea. With discussions already underway for Ethiopia, the regions economic powerhouse, to utilize Eritrean ports, Djiboutis unique value may be diminished, and that puts it in a precarious economic position, Lilley said. Djibouti has taken on massive debt to build its infrastructure, and most projects promise to pay dividends, but only after many years. Diplomatic impasse In an open letter to the U.N. Security Council on July 30, Mohamed Siad Doualeh, Djiboutis ambassador to the United Nations, said, [T]here is no escaping the fact that the international boundary remains disputed, Eritrea continues to occupy Djiboutian territory, prisoners of war remain unaccounted for, threat of force continue to emanate from the Eritrean side, and the risk of violent confrontation remains high. In a series of tweets, Nebil Said, Eritreas counselor to its Permanent Mission to the United Nations, refuted Djiboutis claims. Said stated that Eritrea had released all Djiboutian prisoners of war in 2016 and had never occupied Djiboutian territory. The burden of proof to substantiate accusations of wrongdoing, he added, lies with Djibouti, not Eritrea. Doualehs concerns have been validated, at least in part, by the U.N.s Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group. In its most recent report, published in 2017, the Monitoring Group concluded that Eritrea was continuing to support the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy, an armed group intent on destabilizing Djibouti. But the truth behind other claims remains obscure. Last year, U.N. investigators said they saw evidence of Eritrean troop movement near disputed land, but only on their own side of the border. And claims about the number of POWs still captive in Eritrea have not been verified following prisoners who escaped, were released, or have died. Conflicting claims have led to an impasse, and Eritrea has, so far, not shown a willingness to negotiate. Political stability Threats to Djiboutis economy could also jeopardize political stability in the country, Lilley said. That stability has helped the current government maintain its grip on power, but it hasnt necessarily translated into benefits for everyday people. Djibouti has a high poverty rate, and the political opposition says theyre locked out of the process. I think the regime could lose here, but I think the Djiboutians really are already losing, Lilley said. For things to improve, the government would have to rethink how it uses the money that comes in through sources like multi-year leases to rent space for military bases, a source of significant revenue for the country. It may also have to re-approach its relationships with international partners. Tighter regional integration could mean the possibility of military bases in Eritrea, giving nations interested in a presence in Africas Horn more options. That could prompt countries to scrutinize their partnerships with Djibouti, Lilley said, and consider better deals elsewhere. Djibouti has been backed into a corner, according to Lilley, but its best strategy is to avoid being a spoiler for the peace process unfolding. Peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea should be good for the entire region, should be good for all of East Africa, should be good for the world, Lilley said. The United States has urged countries to be diligent in maintaining sanctions on North Korea. Pyongyang, meanwhile, says it is alarmed by recent U.S. attitudes, but remains committed to its nuclear deal. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on countries Saturday to strictly enforce sanctions on the isolated nation. His remarks followed the release of a United Nations report warning that North Korea has found ways to navigate around the sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear weapons program. Pompeo emphasized "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization that DPRK has agreed to," using the initials of the North's official name. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country "stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing" the terms of denuclearization "in a responsible and good-faith manner." The minister said, however, that recent U.S. attitudes are "alarming" and "go back to the old, far from its leader's intention." The U.N. report said North Korea has had a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions. The report also documented violations of a ban on North Korean exports, including coal, iron and seafood which generate millions of dollars of revenue for Pyongyang. There are also indications that the North is continuing to build rockets and concerns that it has not been clear on when and how it will disarm. Pompeo said the U.S. is taking any infringement of the sanctions very seriously. "We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said. "If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation "of U.N. sanctions." he said. At a meeting of regional foreign ministers in Singapore Saturday, Pompeo and Ri approached each other during the "family photo," shook hands and exchanged a few words. Pompeo said, "We should talk again, soon." "I agree," Ri said. "There are many productive conversations to be had." Following that exchange, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines gave Ri a letter from President Trump to North Korea Chairman Kim. The White House said it was a response to a letter Kim had written to Trump earlier in the week. Cindy Saine contributed to this report. People who make asylum claims after coming to the U.S. illegally are much more likely to be turned down than granted asylum. Out of 120,094 asylum claims by illegal entrants in 2017, 6,995 were granted according to the Justice Department. That makes Sergio very lucky. I came to the United States in 1992 because there was not a lot of work down there, the 64-year-old man, who wanted to be known only by his first name, explained in Spanish. Under the Trump administrations strict enforcement procedures, he was targeted for deportation after being arrested for drunkenness in May last year. Asylum claims made after an illegal entry are called defensive asylum and are handled by the Department of Justice. Asylum claims made by people who came to the U.S. legally are called affirmative asylum and handled by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The odds of being granted defensive asylum got a little better in the first half of 2018. Petitions fell to 85,534 of which 6,946 have been granted. But it is still a long, long shot. And still worse than the odds of getting affirmative asylum. Out of 115,399 affirmative petitions filed in 2016, 11,729 were granted. Disagreement with guard Sergio was transferred to a jail in Orange County, near Los Angeles, where he says a guard insulted him early in his nine months in detention. Sergio said the guard accused him of being disrespectful and reminded him that he was prisoner. I said, No, Im not a prisoner, Sergio responded. Im in detention for immigration, I havent committed any crimes. He says his relationship with the guards went downhill from there. His lawyer, Joel Frost-Tift of Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project of Catholic Charities, applied for asylum for his client, noting that he suffered from mental illness. He did have some medical treatment in detention, the attorney said, but it was clearly very inadequate. Sergio tried to commit suicide a month before the end of his detention. I think thats a sign that his medication wasnt right, he wasnt getting adequate care, Frost-Tift said. Asylum granted A judge agreed with the lawyer that Sergio would not receive proper care if returned to Mexico, and granted asylum February 15. Because the judge didnt make a full written or oral decision, theres no way to know for sure what his rational was, Frost-Tift said. Some judges have found that conditions in mental health institutions cause people to face a reasonable possibility of persecution, and in some cases even that they are more likely than not to be tortured. Petitioners for asylum must prove they have a reasonable fear of persecution in their home country. Reasonable fear is defined by the United Nations as at least a 10 percent chance of persecution. They must also file for asylum within a year of their arrival in the U.S., which Sergio did not do. There are two exceptions to this rule, Frost-Tift explained. First an applicant can demonstrate changed circumstances which materially affect the applicants eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing, both of which usually come in to play with claims based on mental illness. Claims skyrocket U.S. officials say asylum claims have skyrocketed because many migrants are exploiting a broken system. While USCIS changes to (affirmative) asylum interview scheduling have been able to help slow the backlogs growth, said Michael Bars, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a written statement. Our current system, prone to loopholes, fraud and abuse, prevents legitimate asylum seekers from being seen in a timely fashion. Sergio is still waiting for the government to send him a visa. He says he feels relieved to be granted asylum, but also frustrated. Im frustrated, he said, because Im staying at a shelter. Free, living in a homeless center in central Los Angeles, Sergios health has stabilized and he is ready for the next chapter to begin. Authorities in southern Afghanistan said Saturday they have lost contact with scores of soldiers after Taliban insurgents assaulted a military base in the restive Uruzgan province. A regional Afghan National Army (ANA) spokesman told VOA heavy fighting erupted following the late Friday insurgent offensive in the Chinarto district. Colonel Yahya Olawee said clashes were still raging in the area and he promised to provide more details later in the day. Separately, the district police chief told VOA that around 100 ANA troops were stationed at the base but their whereabouts were not known following the Taliban attack. Akhtar Mohammad suspected the missing soldiers might have joined insurgent ranks and he confirmed the army base had fallen to the Taliban. An insurgent spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed the "multi-pronged" Taliban offensive overran the Afghan army base, killing 55 soldiers and capturing six others. In a brief statement sent to reporters, Ahmadi said that Taliban fighters have also seized large qualities of arms, ammunition and other military equipment placed in the ANA base. There was no independent confirmation of the claims and insurgents are known for issued inflated details of their battlefield advances. The Taliban has inflicted heavy losses on Afghan security forces. The Islamist insurgency currently controls or intensely contests nearly half of the country's 407 districts. SIGAR quarterly report A U.S. government agency in its quarterly report released this week has noted that the Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) failed to improve its control over the country's districts, population and territory as of May 15 this year. "Instead, district and territorial control became slightly more contested between the government and the insurgency,"said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The watchdog noted that the ANDSF has lost 8,500 personnel since April 2017, and 5,353 since April 2016. Since 2015, according to SIGAR, the Afghan government control and influence over its districts has declined by about 16 percentage points; contested districts have increased by nine points; and insurgent control or influence has risen by nearly seven points." Afghan peace prospects Meanwhile, efforts aimed at seeking a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war seem to have gained ground in recent weeks in the wake of recent direct talks between the United States and the Taliban. Senior U.S. State Department official for regional diplomacy, Alice Wells, traveled to Doha, Qatar, and met with Taliban negotiators on July 23,fulfilling a primary insurgent demand of direct talks with Washington to further Afghan peace efforts. There were no Afghan government representatives present at the table. The Taliban dismisses the Kabul government as an "American puppet" and is averse to engaging in any discussions with it. A Taliban spokesman told VOA immediately after the Doha interaction with U.S. officials that the "preliminary dialogue was"productive and held in a friendly atmosphere." He said the discussions focused on laying the ground for future contacts and meetings between the two sides. Emmerson Mnangagwa called Friday on his country to unite, a day after he was declared the narrow winner of Zimbabwe's presidential election, while the opposition leader said the poll was a fraud and pledged to challenge the result. Both Mnangagwa and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa held news conferences in Harare claiming they had won the election, the first poll since longtime leader Robert Mugabe's removal from power. The election commission said Mnangagwa took 50.8 percent of the vote, while Chamisa received 44.3 percent. Because Mnangagwa won more than 50 percent of the vote, he avoids a runoff election. Mnangagwa pledged Friday to be president for all Zimbabweans and said Chamisa would have a vital role to perform in the country's future. Chamisa said his Movement for Democratic Change party wanted a "proper result to be announced.'' "We are not accepting this fiction,'' he said. Chamisa also condemned the killing of six people at an opposition protest this week and said authorities should be held accountable. Chamisa supporters erupt Mnangagwa called for an independent investigation into the election violence, which began when hundreds of Chamisa supporters, angry that announcement of the election results had been postponed, threw rocks at police outside commission headquarters Wednesday. Police responded with tear gas and water cannons. The army was called in, and witnesses said soldiers beat and shot at marchers. In addition to the fatalities, 14 people were wounded. Mnangagwa said the violence was "unfortunate." The United States said Friday that it was reviewing Zimbabwe's election results and called on political leaders to "show magnanimity in victory and graciousness in defeat." The State Department said it would continue to review the data before making "a complete assessment of the overall election." "We encourage all stakeholders and citizens to pursue any grievances peacefully and through established legal channels," the department's statement said. Zimbabwe's election commission has said turnout for Monday's election was high in most provinces, but that a large number of votes had to be rejected. Mnangagwa was vice president and took over for the authoritarian Mugabe after the latter was forced from office last year. Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party must try to fix Zimbabwe's ailing economy and poor international image while also dealing with a population demanding change after 40 years of Mugabe. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4) A group of anti-crime advocates is offering a 1-million reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of Anti-Poverty Commissioner Liza Maza and other three former solons facing a double murder charge. The Citizens' Crime Watch in a press briefing on Saturday said it has raised 250,000 bounty for each of the four leftist leaders, but also called on them to surrender instead. "Maigi siguro na managawan kami dun sa apat na dating lawmakers na lumutang na lang, sumurrender na lang sila and maging example sila na isubmit nila sarili nila for a judicial process," said Diego Magpantay, National President of the Citizens' Crime Watch. [Translation: "Perhaps, it's best to call on the four former lawmakers to just surrender and be examples of those who submit themselves to judicial process."] Maza's co-accused include former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael "Paeng" Mariano who also served as Anakpawis Partylist lawmaker, and former Bayan Muna House Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casino. Maza previously represented Gabriela Women's Party at the lower chamber. They are accused of murdering two supporters of rival partylist Akbayan in Nueva Ecija, particularly Jimmy Peralta in 2001, and Carlito Bayudang in 2004. Charges were filed in 2006, junked in 2008, but revived recently. A court in Nueva Ecija province on July 11 issued arrest warrants against them. The lawyer of the four leftist leaders slammed the bounty as "bizarre and unsettling." Public Interest Law Center managing counsel Rachelle Pasteros speculates the money could have come from taxpayers' money funneled to the group, or from former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio admitted that some of his clients donated money for the bounty, but denied Arroyo was one of them. "A lot of people are fed up with the antics of some of these politicians na nakakayamot na," he said. When asked about Arroyo, Topacio said, ""Flatly no. Si GMA? Kuripot nun e (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is stingy)." He added this is not the first time the group pooled money for a bounty, saying they also raised P1 million for the arrest of Ronnie Dayan, a co-accused of Senator Leila de Lima, who has been detained on drug charges. The militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said the raising of the bounty was a "cheap publicity stunt that unfortunately edangers the lives of the four accused." President Emmerson Mnangagwa called on Friday for Zimbabwe to unite behind him after he was declared winner of national elections, but the opposition leader insisted he had won and said he would use all means necessary to challenge the result. Mnangagwa said his victory was won fairly and he had nothing to hide, although he criticized chaotic scenes where police shouting clear out chased away journalists waiting for a briefing by his main presidential election rival Nelson Chamisa. Chamisa later told reporters Mnangagwas ruling Zanu-PF had used deadly violence against opposition supporters following the vote because it had lost the election the first since the army removed 94-year-old Robert Mugabe from office in November. We are going to explore all necessary means, legal and constitutional, to ensure that the will of the people is protected, Chamisa said. Voting passed off relatively smoothly on the day, raising hopes of a break from a history of disputed and violent polls. But an army crackdown on opposition supporters in which six people were killed and opposition claims that the vote was rigged revealed the deep rifts in Zimbabwean society that developed during Mugabes four decades in power, when the security forces became a byword for heavy-handedness. After three days of claims and counterclaims, 75-year-old Mnangagwa - a former spy chief under Mugabe - secured victory. He polled 2.46 million votes against 2.15 million for 40-year-old opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced in the early hours of Friday morning. This is a new beginning. Let us join hands, in peace, unity and love, and together build a new Zimbabwe for all, Mnangagwa said on Twitter. Later, after the ruckus ahead of Chamisas news conference, he added: The scenes today at the Bronte Hotel have no place in our society and we are urgently investigating the matter to understand exactly what happened, Mnangagwa wrote on Twitter. We won the election freely and fairly, and have nothing to hide or fear. Anyone is free to address the media at any time. But his efforts to rehabilitate the image of a country synonymous with political repression and economic collapse were undermined by a police raid on the headquarters of Chamisas Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Fridays dispersal of journalists by riot police at Chamisas news conference. Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote, just edging over the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff. The delays in announcing the presidential results and the narrow margin of victory fueled the opposition accusations of rigging. He now faces the challenge of persuading the international community that the army crackdown and lapses in the election process will not derail his promise of political and economic reforms needed to fix a moribund economy. European Union observers said on Wednesday the elections had several problems, including media bias, voter intimidation, and mistrust in the electoral commission. Its final assessment will be critical in determining whether Zimbabwe can return into the international fold. VERIFY Chamisa, who earlier accused the election commission of trying to rig the vote, said on Friday it should release proper and verified results. He told a news conference he would pursue all legal means necessary to challenge the result, which had serious legitimacy problems. He declined to divulge the specific action that his party would take to challenge the outcome of the election. Christopher Dielmann, economist at Exotix Capital, said the immediate priorities for Mnangagwa and his government would be to continue on the path of restoring the economy and boosting exports, helped by international engagement. By many accounts, this imperfect election delivered sufficient transparency, especially in relation to past results in the country, that should allow reengagement to occur relatively smoothly. Charles Laurie, head of country risk for Verisk Maplecroft, said for international investors, Zimbabwes election was less about an MDC or a ZANU-PF win, and far more about electing a legitimate, stable and trustworthy leader. There is a bleak pall over Mnangagwas win, he said. South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa, current chair of the Southern African Development Community, urged all Zimbabweans to accept the poll results. tmsnrt.rs/2LWcHfm The streets of the capital Harare were quiet early on Friday, with traffic thinner than usual. Water cannon and anti-riot police remained outside the MDC offices, a reminder of the clashes between opposition and the security forces this week. We are not happy with this election but what can we do? said Patience Sithole, a cleaner in Harare. We dont trust these observers, we dont trust these courts. Im not sure things will ever change in Zimbabwe. The Herald newspaper, which acts as a mouthpiece for the government, hailed the election as reflecting the will of the majority and admonished the opposition. Unfortunately in Zimbabwe we have allowed to grow and flourish a culture of rabble-rousing and sham protests of alleged rigging whenever a party loses that this has become a default mode in the opposition, a Herald editorial said. United States Senator Jeff Flake, who was observing elections in Zimbabwe, says the use of the Zimbabwean military to respond to political protests does not signal a new era for the troubled southern African nation. In a statement released on his website, Flake (Republican, Arizona) said the killing of people in the streets of Harare on Wednesday during protests by the opposition over the delay in releasing presidential poll result reminds local people of the government of former president Robert Mugabe. After a day of peaceful voting on July 30th, the violence on August 1st that claimed the lives of at least six people and injured many more was a throwback to the old days. The use of the Zimbabwean military to respond to political protests, or the use of the police force to disrupt press conferences, does not signal a new era, rather it echoes a dreadful past. According to Zimbabwean police, seven people died when the national army fired live bullets to stop protesters, who demanded an immediate release of election results of a poll that was conducted last Monday. The protesters accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of favoring the ruling Zanu PF party. Flake says to ZEC needs to take action to dispel these fears. In order to instill confidence in the election results, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must now make good on its commitment to release comprehensive polling data in a transparent manner that includes results from each polling station signed off by party agents who were present for the casting of ballots and the tabulation of results. Challenges to the results must be pursued through legal channels. He said Zimbabweans want a democratic and prosperous future. During my visit to nearly a dozen polling stations scattered throughout rural Zimbabwe, I saw citizens, some young and agile, others bent with age, walking miles for the chance to cast a vote that mattered. I saw representatives of ZANU PF and MDC Alliance sitting together, chatting amicably and helping each other keep proper tallies. In everyone I encountered, I saw the hope for a brighter, more democratic and prosperous future for Zimbabwe. Flake noted that locals deserve a good government. After decades of misrule by Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe deserves to have a government worthy of its people. Heres hoping that future is at hand. Flake, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, is among several Americans who observed the elections. Zimbabwean opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has rejected official results showing he lost Monday's presidential election to incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa. Chamisa said Friday he would pursue all available routes, including protests, to reclaim what he called the "stolen vote." Chamisa told reporters results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission giving President Emmerson Mnangagwa 50.8 percent of the vote were "fiction." He said he won 56 percent of the vote in Monday's poll. "We want proper result to be announced," he added. "We will pursue all means necessary legal and constitutional to make sure that we protect the people's vote. The people have voted, they have cheated. We will not allow it. Mr. Mnangagwa sir, respect the people. Do not usurp power." Chamisa, who heads the MDC Alliance party, accused the electoral commission of rigging the vote for the ZANU-PF party. He said the final vote tallies given to Mnangagwa in some areas were higher than the commission announced after polls closed Monday. In a telephone interview with VOA, Electoral Commission spokesman Qhubani Moyo said the election is now a "closed chapter" for the ZEC. He said "we are not going to comment on what they are saying unless we are in court." Tonderai Bosha, a ZANU-PF youth spokesman, dismissed claims by Chamisa that the election had been stolen. "That has been the narrative during the campaigns, before the elections," he said. "They said ZANU-PF is going to rig, then they said they have got mechanisms on the ground to stop the rigging. They are saying a lot of things in regards to this election. What they only wanted was victory on their side. If it's victory on ZANU-PF side; it's not victory. That's the problem." Chamisa's news conference Friday took place only when journalists regrouped after police tried to disperse them. The opposition leader said police intervention was not necessary if ZANU-PF has nothing to hide. If you havn't done it yet,to get one of the fastest volcano news online: A luxury tour in Italy with a volcanologist to discover the famous volcanoes of Italy: Mt Vesuvius that destoyed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, smoking Vulcano and Lipari, famous for its obsidian and pumice deposits, erupting Etna and Stromboli... Last but not least, very nice accommodation and delicious food wait for you! Armenia is a very photogenic country with a large variety of landscapes showing some very spectacular geology, century-old monasteries and castles, and much more. An adventurous expedition to some of the most spectacular and active volcanoes in the world! Our volcano expedition to Vanuatu lets you spend 1 week on Ambrym with its multiple active lava lakes and 4 days on Yasur, famous for its spectacular fireworks. Guided by professional volcanologist, small groups (May-Sep). Ebeko on Paramushir Island in the northern Kuriles, Russia, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It has been in near-constant eruption for years. The Hawaiian Islands are not only home to the most active volcanoes in the world, Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island, but also boast a unique natural environment. Born by volcanic activity of a very active hot spot in the middle of the Pacific Plate, they are a showcase of natural history. Support us - Help us upgrade our services! Maintaining our website and our free apps does require, however, considerable time and resources. We're aiming to achieve uninterrupted service wherever an earthquake or volcano eruption unfolds, and your donations can make it happen! Every donation will be highly appreciated. Improved multilanguage support Tsunami alerts Faster responsiveness Earthquake archive from 1900 onwards Detailed quake stats Additional seismic data sources Download and Upgrade the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: Android | IOS to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world.We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team.If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please PayPal or Online credit card payment )., these features have been added recently: stratovolcano 1117 m / 3,665 ftKyushu, Japan, 31.59N / 130.66E(3 out of 5)1955-ongoing, 1954(?), 1950, 1948, 1946, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1939, 1938, 1935, 1914-15, 1899(?), 1860, 1799, 1797, 1794, 1792, 1791, 1790, 1785, 1783, 1782, 1779-81, 1756, 1749, 1742, 1706, 1678, 1670(?), 1642, 1478, 1471-76, 1468, 778, 766, 764, 716-18, 712(?), 708Explosive(5-day volcano expedition to observe Sakurajima volcano's activity from close) If you havn't done it yet,to get one of the fastest volcano news online: A selection of images taken during our photo tour on Santorini . We offer customized small-group photography tours and workshops on the beautiful island of Santorini. Stromboli provides one of the most remarkable opportunities to watch volcanic eruptions from close: a natural ridge located 150 m above the active vents. A classic and all-time favorite tour by anyone interested in seeing active volcanoes! One of our best volcano expeditions! Stay 3 full days / nights at the active lava lake of Erta Ale, explore the wonders of Dallol and the Danakil desert in northern Ethiopia. 14 days expedition during Nov-March, small groups, guided by geologist. Support us - Help us upgrade our services! Maintaining our website and our free apps does require, however, considerable time and resources. We're aiming to achieve uninterrupted service wherever an earthquake or volcano eruption unfolds, and your donations can make it happen! Every donation will be highly appreciated. Improved multilanguage support Tsunami alerts Faster responsiveness Earthquake archive from 1900 onwards Detailed quake stats Additional seismic data sources Download and Upgrade the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: Android | IOS to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world.We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team.If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please PayPal or Online credit card payment )., these features have been added recently: Walmart is testing automated carts that retrieve bins of groceries from storage as it tries to speed up the process of packaging online orders to send out or bring to customers at their cars. The company said Friday it's working with Alert Innovation on the Alphabot, which it's testing in Salem, N.H. The mobile carts move up, down and sideways to retrieve items faster than people can. Humans will still handpick produce, meat and other fresh products, and assemble, pack and bring the orders out to shoppers. Photo: The Canadian Press In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, a thank you banner for fire fighters, first responders and hospital workers hangs outside Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif. Dozens of staff members, including doctors, nurses and others at the medical center are keeping the hospital running despite losing their homes to the flames. (AP Photo/Michael Burke) For the past week, Robert Tierney Jr. has been registering patients at a Northern California hospital in the mornings and checking out possible rentals after work, trying to count his blessings even though his house is one of the more than 1,000 destroyed in a deadly wildfire. Tierney is among dozens of staff members, including doctors, nurses and others, at Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center in Redding keeping the hospital running despite losing their homes to the flames. Tierney, 57, choked up briefly as he recalled the moment he learned from a kid on a bicycle that his house and belongings were gone, save for a wedding dress and several hampers of clothes he grabbed before leaving his neighbourhood 225 miles (360 kilometres) north of San Francisco. "I have to come to work. My wife is disabled and I have to make a living and I have a terrific job and it is my pleasure to be here, so I'm just real fortunate I have a job to come to at a time like this," he said Thursday. Mike Mangas, spokesman for Dignity Health North State, said 67 staff and volunteers at the hospital are without permanent shelter, their homes destroyed or too damaged to occupy. "It's been amazing," he said. "There have been people sleeping on the floor at the hospital, people sleeping at relatives' (homes), or in hotels if they can get them." For many Californians, wildfire season has turned into a series of upheavals that starts with terror of approaching flames. The experience soon gives way to an anxious scramble for shelter, followed by tedious but tense days of waiting. Police officers, physicians and emergency staff often don't get much time to grieve as they deal with the chaos of evacuations and danger. The police chief in Redding and a sheriff's deputy in Sonoma County are among those working after losing their homes in the wake of the sixth-most destructive fire in California history that killed six. The damage to the region is so severe roads are blocked by downed power poles, bridges are damaged and fires continue to burn that more than 20,000 evacuees still have not been allowed to return to their homes. "I think the biggest issue is the infrastructure damage is horrendous," said Ken Pimlott, California's top fire official. So evacuees wait, often relying on the kindness of strangers, friends and relatives. A young couple set up a gas grill on a Redding street corner and handed out hot dogs and hamburgers to victims. After a local radio station broadcast the couple's good deed, the intersection soon turned into an impromptu gathering spot for evacuees and donations of additional grills, volunteers and food showed up. Many worry when things will return to normal. With the first day of school fast approaching, 16-year-old Samantha Barber has no idea where she will be living when her senior year starts on Aug. 15. Barber and her mother were barred from returning to their home in tiny French Gulch last month and spent the first five nights in a hotel. They moved on to sharing a spare bedroom in a relative's home. "We pretty much had the clothes that were on our back," said Barber. "It's just breathtaking not being able to get anything, having to wash your clothes every night and go out and get laundry soap and have to buy dinner every night." Some residents who were spared from the destruction took in evacuees' pets and livestock while offering recreational vehicles and spare bedrooms. Carla DeLauder, 47, said she learned Thursday that roads to her Redding home are open. But her utility can't verify whether power is back and she can't risk a five-hour drive from where she and her husband are staying with the nine dogs and cats she grabbed when they fled a week ago. The couple is staying at her parents' home in Livermore, California, some 225 miles (360 kilometres) south of Redding but her husband, Rich King, needs to return to work. She's had crying fits and bouts of frustration, but she's also felt gratitude toward strangers who rescued her rooster Henry and found a temporary home for the flock she left behind. "And all this is done by people I've never met," she said. "I mean, chickens? I didn't even consider that someone would go out to help my flock of chickens let alone rescue them." Area churches have thrown open their doors and the Red Cross has turned high schools into temporary shelters. Red Cross spokesman Stephen Walsh said the number of evacuees is dwindling at its five temporary shelters as firefighters get a handle on the flames, but many remain. "People are very tired and anxious to get home," Walsh said. "Those who have a home to go back are frustrated they can't go home." Ms. Olmsted was born in Duluth, Minn., grew up in Titusville, Fla., and joined the Foreign Service in 1945. She was an economic officer in New Delhi and was a deputy director of personnel. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford tapped her to establish the embassy in Papua New Guinea. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to serve concurrently as ambassador to the Solomon Islands. She retired the next year. He was spotted by members of Titos partisan forces, which controlled swaths of Yugoslav territory; Tito became Yugoslavias postwar Communist strongman. Taken to a farmhouse, Mr. Martin was greeted by one of Titos men as a warrior on the side of the Allies, he told the Experimental Aircraft Association. The guy fried me an egg and gave me a glass of grappa when he found I was hungry, and just told me to sit and wait. It is difficult to ascertain how widespread such problems are, but watermen, seafood suppliers, lawmakers and environmental groups have all expressed concerns about crab fraud in recent years and whether enough is being done to stop it. A 2015 report by Oceana, an international nonprofit focused on ocean conservation and advocacy, found that nearly 40 percent of crab cakes it tested that were labeled as local in area restaurants contained imported meat. According to the county police, the woman had left her home in New York for a planned trip to Philadelphia. Police said they think she reached her destination. However, they said she is the mother of five and her lack of contact with her family is highly unusual. Photo: File photo The number of confirmed cases in Congo's new outbreak of the Ebola virus has risen to 13, including three deaths, the health ministry said late Saturday. The World Health Organization has warned that this new outbreak of the deadly virus in North Kivu province poses a particular challenge as the region is a "war zone" with several active armed groups and thousands of displaced people. The nearby city of Beni and heavily travelled borders with Uganda and Rwanda also complicate efforts to contain the disease, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead. Congo announced the latest outbreak on Wednesday with four confirmed cases, a week after declaring the end to a previous outbreak in the northwest with 33 deaths. It is not clear whether the new outbreak, more than 2,500 kilometres (1,553 miles) away, is related. The ministry noted 30 probable Ebola cases in the new outbreak and said another 33 suspected cases were under investigation, with laboratory testing underway. Overall 33 people have died, it said. The swift vaccinations of more than 3,300 people helped in containing the previous outbreak, and WHO has said it hopes to know as early as Tuesday whether the Ebola strain in this new outbreak is the one for which the vaccine can be used. The WHO emergencies director has said 3,000 vaccine doses are still in Congo's capital after being positioned there for the earlier outbreak. WHO can mobilize up to 300,000 more doses "at very short notice," Dr. Peter Salama said Friday. Congo's health ministry said vaccines would be moved from Kinshasa to Beni as soon as the "cold chain" to keep them at the optimal temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius is reached. Congo has dealt with Ebola for decades and this is its tenth outbreak of the virus. Ebola, first identified in the country in 1976, jumps to humans from animals including bats and monkeys. There is no specific treatment, and the virus can be fatal in up to 90 per cent of cases, depending on the strain. WHO has said the "signal event" in the new outbreak was the death of a 65-year-old woman who had been admitted to the hospital in Mangina village. "She was buried, we believe, in an unsafe burial in terms of Ebola standards and seven deaths have occurred in her immediate family," Salama said. Congo's health ministry said health officials also were looking at suspected cases in the neighbouring province of Ituri to the north, which also shares a short stretch of border with South Sudan. The ministry said overall more than 875 contacts had been registered as teams try to track down anyone who might have been in touch with those infected. With the region's armed groups in mind, the ministry said it was working with Congo's defence ministry and the U.N. peacekeeping mission on security for health workers and the community at large. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Whats different today is that the scale of the liability in California from these fires has gotten so large that it is essentially bigger than the companies involved, said Michael Wara, a senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. The fear is that if the utilities get pneumonia for the next 10 years, it really calls into question the states ability to achieve its climate goals. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Catch our reddish neighbor Mars in the southeastern sky now after sunset. Fresh after reaching opposition July 27 and being relatively close in late July, it dims noticeably through August. Mars is bright at -2.8 magnitude now, but this planet will be at -2.2 magnitude (still bright) Aug. 30, according to the Naval Observatory. The planet sets just before sunrise in the early part of August, and it sets around 3:45 a.m. toward months end. Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle turns 37 today. Before she became the member of royal family, she used to follow a complete different lifestyle. She was quite active on social media and acted legal drama series 'Suits.' She used to be in headlines for her eat-pray-love lifestyle, and she used to travel a lot. She has travelled so much that her journey was recorded by the British royal in her ex-lifestyle website, Tig. In 2017, Prince and Meghan Markle were spotted in Jamaica. The picture of them enjoying on the beach started the rumours of them officially dating. In 2016, Meghan Markle was spotted enjoying a beach vacation in Tulum. She also holidayed for a while in Italy in 2017, where she opted to stay at a cliff-side hotel, La Sirenuse. Also Read: Happy Birthday Meghan Markle: 5 facts you didn't know about Duchess of Sussex She has been vocal in the past about her love for healthy eating and excercise. As her mother is a yoga instructor and Markle is excited about the big day. Markle's favourite cheat food is, "French friesI could eat French fries all day. And I love pasta. I love carbs who doesn't love a carbohydrate? The same goes for wine. Of course I'm going to have that glass of wineit's delicious and I enjoy it," she said. Israeli troops kill 1 Palestinian, wound at least 220: Israeli troops fatally shot a Palestinian and wounded at least 220 others at protests on the Gaza border Friday, a Gaza hospital official said. The official said that a 25-year-old man was killed and that of the 220 wounded, 90 suffered wounds as a result of live fire. The Israeli military said troops had responded with "riot dispersal means" after Gazans broke through the border fence and attacked with firebombs and an explosive device. As with others who have married census data with voting data, Frey sees the long-term changes in the countrys makeup as more favorable to Democrats than Republicans if all voting groups continue to maintain the current allegiances to one party or the other. With the white share of the population and the electorate shrinking, a Republican Party that gets 9 of every 10 votes from whites faces a challenging future, to say the least. Gordon, who said he was never paid for his work on the Trump campaign and never performed any duties on the transition team, was assigned in March 2016 to serve as the point person for a newly named advisory group on foreign policy and national security. That committee also included Page, who has drawn interest from investigators for delivering a foreign policy speech in Moscow in July 2016, and Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. But after a string of Republican special-election losses over the past year in areas that voted for Trump but have grown less supportive of him, the vote here on Tuesday to replace Tiberi has suddenly emerged as the latest big test foreshadowing which party will win control of the House in November. The midterm elections, after all, will probably be determined by contests in dozens of similarly conservative-leaning suburban communities across the country. The largest annual gathering of liberal activists, now in its 13th year, has reclaimed its place as a showcase for candidates from the White House on down and for activists who see elections as life-or-death chances to dismantle the conservative movement. Democrats, they said, could get on board and win, or resist and be replaced. The only disruption came when a group of black protesters demanded that next years conference include more community members from the host city. Most lawmakers agree that the problems of this Congress will not be solved by more days in session and more time together. Instead, they say the institution needs to foster better relations so the two sides work better together which would, most likely, lead to less time in the Capitol and a more productive body. Ahn Byung-min, a South Korean railway expert who advises Moons government, said he had not seen any improvements in North Koreas trains in more than 40 visits since 2000. Id say its got worse, he said. Some of his travel was on trains that reminded him of the runaway mine cart in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he said. From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved, Pompeo told reporters. There has not been single country that hasnt thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world toward the possibility of achieving this. . . . Im optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded. The new records emerged mid-week, and in short were good news for shareholders of the countrys two biggest mining companies with an eye on making cash. But the glow from those peaks was pretty quickly overshadowed by what happened in the following 72 hours, as rising concerns over the latest escalation in US-China trade tensions hit confidence, and then cascaded through to commodity prices and major mining company stocks at home and abroad. Muscular stances from the US and China on trade have hit commodity prices. Credit:AP On Tuesday shares in BHP on the Australian market hit a four-year high, when they traded at a lofty peak of $35.29. At this point BHP was almost 60 per cent higher than it was just 14 months ago, when it dropped to a 2017 closing price low just above $22. Often, what the better machines and ways of organising things are intended to do is further exploit economies of scale. Point is, its the almost continuous improvement in productivity, year after year, that does most to explain why we are so much more prosperous than our ancestors. Hence economists consternation over the rich worlds unusually weak rate of productivity improvement for the past decade or so, and their search for explanations. Loading The most popular explanation among them, advanced by Professor Bob Gordon, of Northwestern University in Illinois, is one the rest of us would find hard to credit. Its that the present information and communication technology revolution isnt transforming the economy to the extent that earlier general-purpose technologies such as electricity, the internal combustion engine, the automated production line, and even running water and indoor toilets did. A different, but probably only partial, explanation is that much of the benefits coming from the digital revolution are going unrecognised by a system of national accounts (gross domestic product) designed to measure the industrial economy. A month ago, I argued that another partial explanation was that the innovations of too many of our brightest and best brains were being used for nothing more productive than finding new ways to get around inconvenient laws and taxes. Then theres the notion of secular stagnation from Professor Lawrence Summers, of Harvard. Among other things, it says that the ageing of the population and very slow population growth in the rich countries (though not in Australia) means they face a future of weaker growth in consumer spending, thus diminishing the incentive for firms to invest in expansion. Which links to the much more straightforward and thus persuasive explanation offered by former senior econocrat Dr Michael Keating and Professor Stephen Bell, of the University of Queensland, in their book Fair Share. They argue that the key to productivity improvement is investment particularly investment by businesses and the spur to business investment is economic growth and the expectation it will continue. Innovation is fine, but the main way some new technology is diffused throughout the economy is by firms replacing their old machines and structures with new ones that incorporate the latest advances. Investment is also an essential part of the continuous process of change in the industry structure of the economy, where changes in consumers preferences and other developments cause some industries to contract while others expand and new industries emerge. If firms are reluctant to invest, you dont get enough expansion to offset the contraction. If firms are reluctant to invest, you dont get enough expansion to offset the contraction. But what is businesses main motive for investing? Their expectations of increased demand for whatever theyre selling, Keating and Bell say. But this is where the global financial crisis and the Great Recession come in. It was by far the deepest recession the developed world has suffered since the 1930s. The crisis was 10 years ago next month, and the recovery has been particularly weak. Things in America may look pretty good today unemployment is very low, profits are high and the economy grew at an annualised rate of 4.1 per cent in the June quarter. But all is not as it seems. The latest amazing growth is the product of fiscal stimulus from Trump's income tax cuts and wont last. Low unemployment conceals a marked fall in the proportion of the population (particularly less-skilled middle-aged men) participating in the labour force. Many people who lost their job during the recession have given up looking for another one. Their skills have atrophied wasted away and are a loss of human capital to the US economy. Keating and Bell show that business investment fell more in this recession than previous ones and has been remarkably slow to recover. Seeing no great reason to expand, US businesses have been using their profits not to reinvest but to pay big dividends and to buy back their shares on the stockmarket, hoping to boost their price. Trumps company tax cut has pushed buybacks to record levels. Get it? Weak economic growth in the advanced economies is discouraging businesses from investing. Weak investment means weak productivity improvement and skills atrophy. But weak productivity means more weak growth. Satirists and comedians are not the only benefactors of the scandal-ridden Trump White House - publishers, too, have ridden a wave of interest around a presidency that defies ordinary description. Be they cash-ins or penetrating portraits, Australian readers have been keen to know more about the businessman-turned-politician, but the appetite for Trump exposes is to be tested with a slew of new titles due on bookshop shelves in the lead up to Christmas. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has a new book out. Credit:AP Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer's The Briefing has just been released, while Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodwardwill publish an inside story on the 45th presidency next month. Given the media interest in previous Woodward books, Simon & Schuster says its print run for Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House will be ''significant'' and it predicts big sales for a forthcoming explosive Trump expose by Omarosa Manigault Newman, billed as ''female version of [Michael Wolff's] Fire and Fury''. I lived through a war, came as a refugee that is now a pop star what are the goal posts? When M.I.A., the British rapper and pop firebrand Mathangi Arulpragasam, talks about her life and work, and the way they inhibit, inform and enhance each other, the friction makes for a fascinating, constantly shifting story. The documentary that tells it Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., a title that recognises the multiple identities she embodies is just one part of the Music on Film program at this years Melbourne International Film Festival. Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. Credit:MIFF Stephen Loveridges film dives into the archives obsessively compiled by M.I.A., whose career since her emergence in 2005 with the electrifying breakthrough debut album Arular has been dogged by misunderstanding thats ended as controversy, to show the view from inside out. Her perspective is of a young woman, born in London, raised in Sri Lanka where her Tamil father was a political activist, and returned to a London council estate as an 11-year-old as Sri Lankas civil war escalated. As M.I.A., Arulpragasam knew how to draw attention to her underlying concerns about inequality, racism, and repression with songs that were blaring, beat-driven and often bedazzling. Hardened South Asian beats and London art college moxie were an intoxicating combination, even if fans didnt always connect that her 2007 hit single Paper Planes, with its gunshot-punctuated slow groove, was a commentary on the borders that hold refugees fleeing violence in a dangerous limbo. It's ambitious, attempting to fuse together a political narrative with the tropes of the horror genre. The intended result is a political horror story, depending perhaps on your perspective, but one which pivots nearly into a truly disturbing space. American Horror Story is, to some extent, a modern day Dark Shadows, born as its forebear was in a simple telling of a haunted house story in its first season, but evolving with each new season to ever more complex and compelling layers of storytelling. In the 1960s television audiences in America were captivated by a daily gothic horror soap opera titled Dark Shadows. It was the progenitor of modern vampire lit that is, modern vampire lit's pantheon of female authors all grew up watching it from behind the sofa but it also treated its cast like a travelling company of actors, transporting them into new settings and new characters every year. First and foremost: warning, this program contains clowns. Not the funny ones, the genuinely creepy ones. It's like It on steroids.The story kicks off in the final moments of the 2016 election, and two very different reactions to the ascendancy of imminently victorious US president Donald Trump. Ally (Sarah Paulson) and Ivy (Alison Pill) are watching with slowly unfurling dread as they realise things are not going as they planned. Across town, Kai (Evan Peters) is thrilled, as the installation of Trump is the confirmation of his deep frustrations. Not so happy: his sister Winter (Billie Lourd), who had dropped out of college to campaign for Hillary Clinton.That setup might suggest that this season is deeply political. Perhaps it is, though not in the obvious way that you might expect. Instead, American Horror Story: Cult explores the disorientation and disconnection which followed the election and how, as the fine thread which holds the normal world together seemed to fray, the shadows begin to behave differently. Ally, of course, comes with a bunch of issues notably, coulrophobia, haemophobia, and trypophobia, which are, respectively, irrational fears of clowns, the sight of blood and irregular patterns, specifically involving small holes. That grab bag of issues is barely being held together using good luck and therapy, so when Ally's sense of disorientation is amplified, it all starts to unravel. Enter the clowns.There is, of course, a tendency to applaud all of this by simply plopping the credit on the lap of Ryan Murphy, to whose name it is all attached. As usually, the truth is more complex. Murphy and Brad Falchuk wrote a stunning first episode; Tim Minear, James Wong and John J. Gray are among the other series writers. And Bradley Buecker directs a sharp opener, with Liza Johnson and Gwyneth Horder-Payton following up in the first few episodes. Most are, to varying degrees, long-term collaborators of Murphy. Buecker, for example, worked as an editor on Nip/Tuck and Glee. Within the spectrum of American Horror Story itself, Cult is simultaneously the most disturbing and the least steeped in the properly supernatural. The traditional artillery of spooky nuns, creepy shadows and things that go bump in the night have their power, but Cult hopes to mine the most ordinary of situations and moments, and is at times successful with devastating effect. When a group of tourists disembarked their cruise ship MS Bremen last Saturday to explore a remote Arctic island known for its polar bears, they probably werent expecting to come directly face to face with one. The animal attacked a guard charged with protecting the group from the vulnerable species, a spokeswoman for luxury cruise company Hapag Lloyd Cruises said, and a second guard shot the polar bear dead in an act of self-defence". Illustration: Simon Letch The death of the polar bear in its own environment prompted global outcry and criticism of one of the latest travel trends Arctic cruises. The cruises, aimed at cashed-up baby boomers, provide warm doonas, cordon-bleu menus and luxury ice-breaking travel. You have probably seen the sales pitch. A celebritys smiling face, a distant icy seascape and the spacious decks of a large Polar Class cruise ship. When the benefit ended in 2012, the company rebranded the vans to take advantage of a new Medicare benefit scheme: the Child Dental Benefit Schedule. The scheme gives eligible children, aged two to 17, $1000 worth of basic dental treatment over two years. An information pamphlet distributed to parents and schools in 2014. Credit:Smiles Onsite Smiles Onsite has travelled to hundreds of schools around NSW, from Doonside Technology High School and Holsworthy High School in Sydney to rural schools like Cullen Bullen Public School and Canowindra High School, where they treated 400 students in 2014. Staff have made the alarming accusation that, until the company was prosecuted, every child was X-rayed as soon as they entered the van by clinic managers who didn't have radiation licenses. Children and staff were not given proper protective wear and children were not asked if they had been X-rayed recently, potentially exposing some to years worth of radiation dosage in a short period, sources claimed. Children would then see a dentist, often a qualified practitioner who was new to the country. One former clinic manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he applied for a job as a dental assistant in 2013 but was immediately put into a more senior role. "The first thing I noticed was the X-rays, I wasn't sure if the walls were lead lined," he said. "I decided with some other clinicians to ask but the bosses ... got angry and said that we should just concentrate on our individual duties and leave other things to them." He said company heads often monitored CCTV in the van and would call staff to tell them to hurry more students through. "There were a few times that I was called into [the] office to warn me that I had to see a certain amount of students in a day," he said. "If I didn't get that done then they will not roster me to work." Another former employee, who asked to be moved from a dental assistant role to an administrative role because she wasn't given proper safety gear, claimed she was told to bill Medicare for procedures that weren't done or weren't necessary to perform. No charges have been laid by Medicare. Children from Cowra High School pose for a photo after visiting the Smiles Onsite van in 2014. "I raised some issues and it was kind of like 'it's OK, we're not doing anything wrong'," she said. "I didn't have a full enough understanding in terms of what the actual items were. I actually ended up leaving because I just didn't ... feel like what they were doing was right." A fourth employee, who worked in admin for a year, asserted her job was to access children's Medicare information using the Medicare provider numbers of five dentists who didn't work for the company. "We would check every single child in a school to see if they were eligible [for the benefit]," she said. "They were the priority kids that would get treatment." The former sales rep said she worked gruelling hours, driving between rural schools in her own car. The former clinic manager said he would often leave home at 4am to be at a rural school by 9am, then get home late at night. "When I raised my concern the only reply was we can find someone else," he said. Former operations manager, Steven Venter, said he complained vociferously last year when he wasn't paid superannuation or remuneration. A few days later, less than four weeks after he started, he was terminated. Former operations manager Steven Venter said he raised concerns about school children operating a mechanical lift in and out of the mobile dental van. Credit:Steven Venter The EPA launched an investigation in late 2014 and raided the company's Castle Hill headquarters. They stopped X-raying children as a result but the vans have continued to treat students. In a June letter sent to prospective investors, the company said they have expanded to five vans, 10 dentists, 40 support staff and see 30,000 patients each year. Despite being briefed several times on the company's alleged conduct, the Department of Education only circulated an internal memo in April 2016 saying the company had been charged with radiation offences and principals should use their discretion. The memo, based on advice from NSW Healths Office of Oral Health Strategy, said it was "unclear" if the X-rays were necessary and there is "no evidence that these X-rays have been done in a way to endanger children". "NSW Health isn't associated with, and doesn't regulate [the company] ... [their] services are not endorsed by NSW Health," the memo said. A spokesman for NSW Health revealed that, as early as December 2013, the Australian Dental Association raised concerns around the lack of informed consent and improper use of the Child Dental Benefit Schedule by mobile dental providers. In advice passed on to schools, the ADA strongly advised parents to choose a local dentist who is accessible for future appointments, to attend visits, to make sure X-rays aren't taken unless necessary and to make sure "only services actually provided are claimed from Medicare ... to ensure that the child receives the benefit of their full entitlement under the CDBS". Dr Neil Peppitt, president of the ADA's NSW branch, told Fairfax Media that the CDBS was a "wonderful" scheme but there were "concerns about some private mobile dental services that conduct visits in isolation to schools and child-care centres". "The ADA unequivocally supports the prosecution of anyone suspected of abusing the system," Dr Peppitt said. In 2015, the federal health department issued a directive to the company to stop implying in their publicity and forms that they were a government service, the NSW Health spokesman said. Lake Heights Primary School principal Peter Heddles expressed surprise at the X-ray prosecution but said he would still let the van come in August unless the Department of Education advised him otherwise. He said he never received any departmental memos and previous visits had been positive. A letter sent to Victorian school principals from Smiles Onsite in March, 2018 said 22,014 students in the state had been treated. Credit:Smiles Onsite "We're very happy to have them back," he said. "All the people we had were lovely and the parents really appreciated it." Education Minister Rob Stokes said he was "appalled and angry" that the mobile service "potentially put a group of NSW school students at risk by using ... unlicensed X-ray operators". "Fortunately, health professionals view the risks to long-term health as very small, but it is unacceptable that this has happened," he said. During a sentencing hearing last Thursday, defence barrister Scott Goodman, SC, said "no particular harm" had been identified by the unlicensed activity, though he conceded "no doubt there was a potential for persons to be harmed by this radiation". He argued the company should be given a discounted sentence given the guilty plea cut seven days of trial time and saved 12 witnesses from being called. Ian McLachlan, for the EPA, said the business was engaged in "deliberate flouting of the law" and that obtaining a license was a "relatively simple measure to amend". The court heard the maximum financial penalty is $165,000. The company will be sentenced on August 13. Company spokesman Cabral Douglas told Fairfax Media the former staff members' allegations were "false and defamatory". "In fact, due to the latest innovations in the design of our mobile clinics, the standard of care these children are receiving exceed that of the vast majority of standard brick-and-mortar dental practices," he said. He said the company had "opened all of our books" dating back to 2014 to Medicare investigators. Mr Douglas said the legislation under which they were prosecuted was "obsolete" and he had raised the issue with Member for Baulkham Hills, David Elliott, who, he said, had promised to raise it with NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton. "It doesn't contemplate criminalising owners of the regulated material, particularly in clinical settings," he said. "We have mobile clinics providing services ... while the owners of the clinic could be located in another state. "[The legislation has] failed to keep up with innovation and developments in the provision of medical services." We vented together when the building's cafe found Instagram fame and hordes descended on the area, lining up around the block to buy grotesque milkshakes, then leaving the half-drunk remains behind. "What is wrong with Sydney!?" cried one, speaking for all. Everyone needs help settling into their new lives, and in our early days the Facebook page posts appeared fairly anodyne. What's the best way to stop the fire alarm going off when you're cooking? Is anyone else having air-conditioning problems? Are there any parking spaces for sale? There were Meetups, too; the pictures uploaded afterwards, showing a dozen or so residents circled around Jatz and dips, were always rather sweet. As it turned out, we rarely saw, let alone spoke to, the people who lived beside us in this 300-unit block. But we quickly got to know them through their tiny circular profile pictures: young professionals smiling during their trips to Europe; young mums and dads posing proudly with their toddlers; older empty-nesters represented by flowers, beloved pets or awkwardly close-up selfies. The A4 piece of paper was the first thing my girlfriend and I saw when we moved in. Taped to the glass door of our new inner-Sydney apartment building, it invited newcomers to be part of the block's private Facebook group. We moved into our one-bedroom unit and promptly signed up, figuring it was as good a way as any to meet the neighbours. Our requests to join were approved within minutes. Then, one Tuesday, someone posted a photo of a kitten cowering outside the glass entryway. The group swung into action. One woman brought the creature, which appeared to be injured, into her unit. Several people offered to come home from work to take it to the vet, while others wondered about the possibility of adoption. Inexplicably, however, things turned ugly. When one member said the kitten looked like his, a neighbour replied that if he couldn't secure his balcony and look after his pet, he shouldn't be allowed to have one. Her timing was poor; the man soon relayed the news that the kitten had been hit by a car and did not, as it turns out, belong to him. The vet had determined it was a stray. "Way to be judgmental," chimed in another resident. Even after it was revealed that the kitten had been euthanised, its injuries too severe to treat, the second woman never apologised. Rather than forcing members to take stock of their behaviour, this grim episode only emboldened the busybodies. While the majority of posts were still neighbourly, aggression, both passive and otherwise, began to burst forth with regularity. People's personal habits, pets, parking etiquette and even plant-watering techniques were all subject to public criticism. In one particularly acrimonious exchange, a man who had been asked to turn down his hip-hop music suggested that the same standards were not applied to other genres ("If it ain't rock and it ain't white, it just ain't right"). He was promptly accused of "playing the race card", in a thread that had more than 50 replies. In another, neighbours turned on one another over proposed bylaws that would ban 15-kilogram-plus dogs from residing in the building. "Is there going to be a doggie weight scale set up?!" howled the owner of a husky hound. Months later, another dog-related fracas ended in name-calling and accusations of bullying, prompting soul-searching among some members. "Maybe take it offline and have a chat face to face to resolve?" suggested one. What Collins didnt know was that while police were asking him to talk, in the very same jail Williams was making a deal and naming The Duke as the Hodsons killer. Collins believed Williams would stay loyal, telling his girlfriend: Im Carls mentor. Everybody knows that ... Even Carl will tell you that himself. Carl Williams: Did a deal that cost him his life. Credit:Jason South Williams was telling police he was the middle man in the deal and the $150,000 hit was funded by former drug squad detective Paul Dale. If Collins made a statement that independently corroborated Williams version, the case would be watertight. The trouble was Collins was demanding a large slice of the million-dollar reward and a pardon to make the statement. He was confident he could out-negotiate the negotiators. Im gonna be sharper than f---ing three of them put together ... I need an indemnity right, over the Hodson murders ... I know who it was. The copper, you know the copper theyre trying to pinch? He worked for Carl all right. Im not telling them shit. [Addressing Detective Sergeant Sol Solomon] 'When I walk out the door and you give me bail and I walk out the door and go home to my baby, then Ill sit down and talk to you'. He assures his girlfriend he was not the killer: Absolutely it wasnt me. I swear on the little kids lives. I know why they are coming to me and asking me cause they know they dont have enough f---ing ammunition for the trial. They know that. But strangely for a man protesting his innocence, he adds: I wouldnt admit it, you know. He says police jumped to the conclusion he was the Hodsons killer based on the Abbey murders, because in both cases it was alleged the women were shot because they could identify their husband's killer. Cause they say it is similar to the other thing. What, cause it is a bloke and a chick? Thats the only similarities. He tells Amanda he will beat the main charges and Ill probably do five years. Ill be out, dont worry about that. Ill be able to have sex up until Im 90 years old. (This proved to be wildly optimistic. Less than a year later he was found guilty of the Abbey murders and sentenced to life with a minimum of 32 years. He died in custody earlier this year, aged 72.) While Collins appeared to be upbeat about his upcoming trials, his true colours surfaced when he plotted to kill a witness who would testify against him over the armed robbery. Im not concerned about that at all, the stick-up. Im not concerned about it. Im gonna get someone to f---ing whack down the dog. Ill get someone to f---ing hurt, f---ing smash him. At one point he considers using his reputation as an underworld killer to make money selling autographs to so-called fans. OK go and get someone to open a website for you, all right concerning me, OK and receive a birthday greeting or a Christmas greeting from me. Thats why I want to see Carl cause I know Carls doing all that sort of thing so Im a bit like that too, right. Charge em $100 ... or charge em $50 ... [for] the square heads. When his girlfriend points out that he doesnt have Williams profile, he says: Thats the way I like to fly, under the radar. He asks her for copies of articles on him written in The Age, cause Im just curious who wrote it. When told, he responds: John Silvester. Oh yeah, right John Silvester, f---ing copper dog. Yeah Im just curious to what he said. (Luckily for us, Rod didnt make it to the Walkley judging panel.) Discussing one case, he says: [Detective Sergeant Solomon] said, What if theyve got alibis? I said, Let me tell you something about alibis Solly. People who have alibis have got something to hide. Russell Cox: Spent 11 years on the run. Credit:Police mugshot His girlfriend seems keen on Collins dealing with the police, but he says: I did what you asked me to do, OK. And I didnt even like doing that, believe me. I gave them enough. Look at me, Im not giving them any more. But Collins did talk, dobbing in old associate, Russell Cox, who escaped from a Sydney prison in 1977 and spent 11 years on the run. Police believe that in 1982 Cox and Collins shot dead standover man Brian Kane, whom they blamed for the murder of their friend Ray Bennett, gunned down inside the Melbourne Magistrates Court in November 1979. Brian Kane. Police suspect he was shot dead in 1982 by Rod Collins and Russell Cox. Credit:The Australasian Criminal Register 1973 Collins tells his girlfriend: So, I told him the person responsible for those two murders was Russell Cox, a bloke named Russell Cox, f---ing dog. He got Ray pinched. He got Ray arrested and then after that Ray got f---ing shot in the head in court. When Collins was arrested in 2008, the hitman was in possession of a loaded handgun, a balaclava, a burglary kit and surveillance equipment. He also had a confidential 58-page police surveillance report that tracked the movements, habits and associates of a major drug dealer. Detectives feared Collins was using the police intelligence report to plan a hit on one of the men named in the dossier. He tells his girlfriend that when police asked how he obtained the secret dossier, I told 'em I got them from a f---ing bus stop. I said there is no way in the world I will ever tell you or anyone else where they came from. If you want to know what police station they came from, they came from Broadmeadows. That person is a personal friend of mine. Im not a f---ing dog. I have too much pride. I have too much self-respect. On the back of Carl Williams statements, Paul Dale was charged with the murder of Terence Hodson, and Rod Collins with the murders of both Terence and Christine Hodson. But the case collapsed when Williams was bashed to death inside Barwon Prison in 2010. Prison CCTV captures the moment prisoner Matt Johnson ambushes Carl Williams, who was reading a newspaper before he was fatally bashed. It wasn't The Age. At one point Collins considered a backup plan. He would tell his girlfriend the real story on the Hodson killings and she could tell the police and collect the million dollars on offer. Ill just go OK, I was the person involved and you get the reward. She asks: How do you think, baby?'' Collins: "Like a criminal. Criminals are always thinking - criminals are plot thinking. Its like me trying to think how you think, like a square head. I cant possibly do that. A former head of Australia's special forces expressed fears that some of the nations most elite SAS Regiment and Commandos soldiers were deeply compromised ethically and their command "not fit for purpose". In a blistering secret briefing, the then Special Operations Commander Major General Jeff Sengelman attacked a collapse of leadership, "tribalism", government policy that exhausted special forces through multiple deployments to Afghanistan, and a failure by individuals to take responsibility for their actions. The report went to the then recently appointed defence force chief, Angus Campbell who seized on Mr Sengelmans advice to commission a major quasi-judicial inquiry into rumours of alleged breaches of the laws of armed conflict involving special forces in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2016. Mr Sengelman warned that those who feel threatened at the prospect of transparency, personal accountability and the evidence of inadequate standards would resist any reform attempts.Cumulatively, these reports convey a sobering insight into our Command that for many starkly contradicts the public image and reputation many unconditionally hold, he said. Every member of the Command who values their integrity" should support reform, "because we are all responsible to ensure the organisation walks the right path. As the school funding wars heat up yet again, it seems the story of Australian education is stuck in an absurd and unresolved plot, uncertain if the climax should be Catholic, independent or state. Yet for a long time, the history of schooling in Australia was a place to find a national story: a coming of age tale, from illiterate colonies to the great public education covenants of the 1880s, which included the great (Irish) Catholic separation from the educational social contract. A century of fairly stable educational narrative followed. Several generations started and finished in local comprehensive state schools: free, compulsory and non-sectarian. This defined the local community and shaped its networks. In thousands of tiny tales including mine - it became an epic narrative of Australian progress. Students at Queanbeyan Public School. Several generations of Australians started and finished in local comprehensive state schools. Though the majority were fervent in neither demeanor nor Sunday attendance, state schooling was a generally Protestant arrangement for about 80 years. Throughout the 1950s, it became a centrally administered and collectivist model with a persistent Catholic exception. School choice was limited: constrained by geography and a fact now largely forgotten - tribal sect. It was a progress story, from small to big, from primitive to civilised, from convict to free, from colony to nation. But now, the story has become crowded by the alternative theme of school choice: bickering about funding is one of its many consequences. School choice is a particularly Australian theme - according to the OECD, Australia has the worlds highest access to school choice. WA Liberal leadership on life support On Tuesday, WA Liberal Leader Mike Nahan revealed he hadn't properly renounced his US citizenship because the US government won't let him until he resolves a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. WA Opposition Leader Mike Nahan campaigns in Byford during the Darling Range byelection. Dr Nahan might have thought he was clearing the air on whether he might have fallen foul of an obscure provision of WA's constitution that affects dual citizens, but instead he raised more questions about why the man who was our treasurer until the beginning of last year was slugging it out with the US tax office. It turned out he was just one of about 200,000 US citizens living in Australia who the IRS is going after for income they've made in Australian superannuation funds. Beijing: China said on Friday it is poised to impose retaliatory tariffs on $US60 billion ($81 billion) worth of US imports, including coffee, honey and industrial chemicals, if Washington goes ahead with its latest trade threat. China's Finance Ministry accused the Trump administration of damaging the global economy after the US proposed increasing duties on $US200 billion of Chinese goods in the second round of a dispute over technology. Containers sit stacked at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China. Credit:Bloomberg "China is forced to take countermeasures," said a ministry statement. It said retaliatory duties of between 5 and 25 per cent will be imposed on 5207 products "if the US side persists in putting its tariff measures into effect." Washington imposed 25 per cent duties on $US34 billion of Chinese goods on July 6 in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing retaliated by imposing similar charges on the same amount of US products. Washington: The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on a Russian bank it said had facilitated a transaction with a person blacklisted by Washington for involvement with North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The move comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presses Southeast Asian countries during meetings in Singapore to maintain sanctions to pressure Pyongyang, which is in talks with the United States about dismantling its nuclear program. Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state Credit:Bloomberg Sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council, which include a ban on exports of coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood from North Korea, and caps on imports of oil and refined petroleum products, are aimed at choking off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The US Treasury Department said Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank had conducted "a significant transaction" for Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank. Swift Current, Sask. One phenomenon you have to get used to when you start hanging out with organic farmers and researchers is seeing plants that appear to be in the wrong place. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Swift Current, Sask. One phenomenon you have to get used to when you start hanging out with organic farmers and researchers is seeing plants that appear to be in the wrong place. Organic fields tend to be a bit "weedier" than conventionally farmed fields because they havent been treated with herbicides. But among both organic and conventional farmers theres a growing interest in "intercropping" growing two crops in the same field. LAURA RANCE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Peas and oats grown together result in higher yields, fewer weeds and better soil health. For example, looking a little closer at a patch of oats in the research plots on the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) research farm here you can also see a few pods of field peas peeking out from the shady undergrowth. Plots containing the yellow mustard used in condiments might also be growing lentils or chickpeas. Walking through the plots, you might find up to eight blends of plant species including cereals, legumes, brassicas and more growing as one big multicultural family. These combinations, called "cover crops," can be sown into a field after the spring crop is harvested, or used as a rotational crop to build soil fertility. They can also serve as a source of forage for livestock, helping farmers lengthen their grazing season. The species used in these mixtures can have some pretty exotic names, such as Japanese millet, Persian clover, collards, badger relish and chickling vetch. Most of them arent crops that are typically grown in these parts. But they all have a role. Scientists are studying how various combinations work together to improve soil fertility and choke out weeds. Theres no doubt about it. It looks messy if you are accustomed to looking out across the smooth uniform stands of canola and wheat sprawled across surrounding hillsides. The monoculture view is what were cultured to believe is normal in agriculture, a sign that farmers are doing a good job at protecting their crops from other plants that might compete for sun, water and nutrients. It might be normal, but its not natural in the grand scheme of things. And as researchers here delve into the messy business of mixing things up a bit in the field, their results corroborate the positive experience of farmers already incorporating these practices into their field plans. There are synergistic effects when two crops are grown together instead of alone. For example, when chickpeas are grown together with flax they mature seven to 10 days earlier, there is less immature seed and disease levels are lower. As well, its common to see the two crops combined "over yield" compared to trials in which the two crops are grown separately. That puts more money in the bank, often with fewer bills for weed and disease control to pay off. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Another emerging field of study is the differences in disease pressures between organic and conventional systems. Fusarium head blight, a disease that costs the cereal industry millions due to yield and quality losses, has been endemic in Manitoba since the early 1990s due to the higher-moisture conditions here. But the disease has gradually spread across the Prairies and in 2016, conditions were ripe for a major outbreak in Saskatchewan. There were anecdotal reports from farmers and buyers that autumn that organic fields didnt have the same levels of infestation as conventional fields. Saskatchewan crop insurance data has since confirmed those observations, showing the percentage of samples that were downgraded as a result of fusarium damage was twice as high in conventional fields as in organic. The challenge for researchers now is to find out why and whether lower levels of the disease also correlate with lower levels of the mycotoxins it produces. This years field day highlighting AAFCs research into organic and low-input agricultural systems drew more than 150 farmers, a number that had organizers scurrying to make sure there were enough chairs set up in the hall rented for the afternoons presentations. But these projects are attracting financial support from a broad range of producer groups because the answers to these questions have the potential to benefit all farmers. Laura Rance is editorial director at Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at 204-792-4382 or lrance@farmmedia.com Canadians may be able to get a legal buzz off cannabis this October. But many investors in cannabis stocks have been getting giddy for the last couple of years. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Canadians may be able to get a legal buzz off cannabis this October. But many investors in cannabis stocks have been getting giddy for the last couple of years. Its likely you know someone who has made a few thousand, or much more, investing in the big names of medical cannabis production (soon to be potentially even bigger names in recreational weed). Maybe youre one of the lucky ones who bought low to see your shares in the likes of Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth and MedReLeaf Corp. soar by over 1,000 per cent in some instances. Or perhaps you missed out and are now curious about giving cannabis a whirl (as an investment, that is). Of course, the question you might be asking is: have I missed that train, and is any investment in the fledgling sector likely to end up a painful buy high/sell low lesson? That is a definite possibility, a few investors who followed the industry since its inception have said. "Its not a market for the faint of heart, and due diligence is critical," said Michael Cobb, a 65-year-old Winnipeg accountantreferred to as Professor cannabis by a small, but dedicated community of peer investors because of his deep knowledge of the industry. Cobb saw cannabis stocks as investments with a lot of upside a couple of years ago. And he still does see money to be made, as the industry sits on the cusp of an unprecedented new era. That being legalization of an illicit drug for recreational purposes in a major developed economy. Still, many of the so-called established pot stocks are pretty much fully valued today. In fact, many market watchers, who generally have never invested in this sector, consider them highly overvalued because these companies have market capitalizations worth billions when their revenues are in the tens of millions at best. And profits if there are any to speak of are much, much smaller. Even those who invest in the sector are worried about valuations, for the near-term at least. "It depends on the time frame youre looking at, so if you look at the next few years until about 2020, they do look expensive," Bruce Campbell, a portfolio manager with StoneCastle Investment Management in Kelowna. Many investors are valuing cannabis stocks on future earnings once legalization takes shape. And therein lies the conundrum for investors. They have to make assumptions on sales and market growth of an industry that has largely worked in the shadowsespecially regarding its consumptionfor decades. Campbell said among the questions to grapple with are whether licensed producers of cannabislike Aphria, Organigram Holdings and Winnipegs Delta 9 Cannabiswill have enough product to meet demand. Or will it be the other way around, where supply outstrips the number of people wanting cannabis? Certainly, those who follow the industry have made predictions on valuations and earnings. For example, Canopy today doesnt have any real tangible valuation figure because it has no earnings. But in 2020, its market worth is forecast to be around 26 times earnings. Thats high considering the average for the overall stock market is about 15 times earnings. But by 2021, profits are expected to increase, and its share price starts to look a lot less inflated, Campbell adds. Moreover, investors still willing to wager a portion of their portfolio on pot can likely still find some potentially lucrative investments, but a key number they need to focus in on for producers is the cost per gram, said Jesse Lavoie, a 26-year-old, do-it-yourself investor. "What I look for in stocks are companies with low costs and high volumes." Thats why he believes firms aiming to grow outdoors may have a lot of upside. The intrepid investor, however, may still be able to find big winners in the U.S. market and in early-stage firms that are ancillary to cannabisinvolved in retail, equipment or developing beverages and edibles. For the most part these companies are incredibly speculative. Youre just as likely to lose money as you are to make money. Scratch that youre more likely to lose money. Still, Campbell sees some promise in makers of cannabis-infused products. "Thats where the Canadian market starts to expand because you get a cross-over effect where someone, who is not going to buy a dried flower to smoke a joint, may go and purchase a beverage," he said. "In that respect, there could be an expansion of the market." But at this juncture, without regulations for edible products or even concentrates (think high-tech, high potency hashish), picking a winner among dozens is challenging. "You cant know ahead of time, so it almost comes down to luck and timing," Campbell said. Yet even the green chip, elder statesmen of the industry likely still have room to grow, given they are first to market, have developed the cutting-edge production techniques and are well positioned to be global leaders should the legalization dominos fall around the world. Just Canada alonethough smallcould produce pretty tidy profits some-day soon, Cobb said. "The big three (Aurora, Canopy and Aphria) will be each producing about 200,000 kilos of cannabis in about two to three years time," he said. Furthermore, as the market matures, its also likely its characteristic volatility today and in the recent past will lessen over time, Campbell adds. "So maybe you dont get 100 per cent swings." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. More like 30 or 40 per cent ups and downs, he said. For some, thats still likely to lead to a bad trip. "There will be a lot of investors who get hurt," Campbell said. "But there will also be a lot of investors who make a killing." BRANDON An animal rights group in Manitoba claims a group of pigs were mistreated last month while en route to the Maple Leaf Foods Inc. facility in Brandon. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. BRANDON An animal rights group in Manitoba claims a group of pigs were mistreated last month while en route to the Maple Leaf Foods Inc. facility in Brandon. Footage captured by Manitoba Animal Save, a local branch of the larger Save Movement, shows several people in safety vests stopping a pair of semi-trailers on a dirt road. Inside the trailers are pigs, which the group claims were overcrowded and dehydrated. In the video, reportedly taken July 13 and posted to YouTube on July 28, people are seen spraying water on the pigs and taking temperature readings inside the trailer. One thermometer reportedly gave a reading of nearly 40 C. The video was further shared in a news release Friday by Animal Justice, a group made up of animal rights lawyers from around the country. "Obviously, its heartbreaking its devastating to see animals suffering so much," said Cheryl Sobie, co-organizer for Manitoba Animal Save, adding it was important for them to be there to offer the pigs love and compassion. "Because if that was me on that truck, I would want someone to be there for me at my final moments." In a statement, a spokesperson for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the agency was contacted by Manitoba Animal Save, but the professional assessment of a CFIA veterinarian was the load was "in compliance with the Health of Animals Regulations, and that the animals were not overcrowded for the weather conditions at the time." That stance did not sit well with Manitoba Animal Save, nor Maple Leaf Foods. "Ultimately, what we witnessed is that pigs were extremely crowded, it was extremely hot, (and) they were frothing at the mouth and dehydrated," Sobie said. In a statement, Greg Douglas, vice-president of animal care at Maple Leaf Foods, described the events as "completely unacceptable and unfortunate." "These animals were being transported by a third-party carrier and were in transit to the Maple Leaf Foods Brandon facility," he said. "Maple Leaf is working in complete co-operation with the CFIA, and we are in support of their investigation and conclusions. "These events are unacceptable, and Maple Leaf Foods is on record supporting long-overdue changes to the federal animal transport regulations." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Andrew Dickson, general manager for Manitoba Pork, which represents the provinces pork producers, said he has not spoken to any of the parties involved but noted the pigs are owned by the farmer until they are unloaded at the destined facility. "I cant tell anything from that video as to the condition of the animals inside. I cannot react to any claims this group is making about the number of animals on board. I dont think they can either," he said. Dickson said regulations exist around lowering pig transport densities in the summer, and when they do arrive at a plant, they are supposed to be unloaded quickly into a cool building and hosed down. The pigs are then inspected by the CFIA to make sure they arrive in good condition. Dickson said it is in the best interests of producers to ensure their pigs are healthy. Brandon Sun The wake-up call, this time, came after Anthony Bourdain died. It came when I was curled up under a blanket, tears staining my pillow. Thinking about how the author and travellers life had ended, lost in that aching pain. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The wake-up call, this time, came after Anthony Bourdain died. It came when I was curled up under a blanket, tears staining my pillow. Thinking about how the author and travellers life had ended, lost in that aching pain. For days, I struggled to understand the depth of my grief. I felt Bourdains absence, in ways that seemed outsized for someone I didnt properly know. Yet all the same, his death left me undone, fixating on a sad, lonely question. If even he didnt want to see how the story ends, what hope was there for me? That thought would lead me to decide, for the first time in my life, to take stress leave from work. It would lead me to face the evolution of my depression, and grapple with the slow dissolution of the ambitions I once tended. This was not the most depressed I have ever been. Yet in the wake of Bourdains suicide, it was as loud an alarm bell as I have ever heard rung. A warning: whatever spirit has kept me going was now ready to throw in the towel. So this is a personal column, the kind I have done many times, yet more and more resist doing. Because my problems are not special, nor am I someone who needs more of societys attentional triage than many others. I have a steady job, four cats and a partner. I have food in the cupboards, and a body that is other than the exhaustion that saps my strength mostly healthy. And I have a rare, precious thing: work that has meaning. Yet after I spoke about my experience on Twitter, I heard from dozens of people in the same situation. People wrestling with the same malaise, the same fog that chases joy from a day, and I realized my voice had a place. The privilege of a writer is that we are given space to say what others dont always have room to speak. There is no risk to me for being public (again) about my depression: only a chance it could make little changes happen. So yes, I must write about it. Not only to "spread awareness," because there are so many campaigns to do that already. Yet awareness is only so good as the action it commissions, and that is where I want to focus my story. With all that in mind, Id like to tell you a little about my time on mental health leave. The decision was a long time fomenting. For months, it seemed, I had been hanging onto my life by dangling threads. Doing just enough of that, and barely enough of this, to hold a tattered semblance of a life together. Yet as much as I tried, it was falling apart. My inbox piled up with emails unseen and unanswered. I dragged myself from my bed to meetings, half-slept and undershowered. I woke every morning with a gut full of dread. When I read what little I had published, it spanned out like the terrain inside my mind: flat, formless and empty. "What are you thinking right now?" my therapist asks. I shake my head: nothing. There is nothing. That is what scares me most of all. This was not the most depressed I have ever been. Yet in the wake of Bourdains suicide, it was as loud an alarm bell as I have ever heard rung. A warning: whatever spirit has kept me going was now ready to throw in the towel. So that was when, with the support of my editors, I took a leave of absence from work. Rest is necessary, and time to build support is a critical part of mental health recovery. But time lived without meaning casts a shadow on you. Over the next four weeks, I read a little, and napped a lot. I went to visit friends in the country and we ate wild raspberries plucked straight from the bush. I retreated from the news, insulating myself against its violent jolts. The boys trapped in the cave, though, I consumed news about them with a fervent obsession. I lay in bed until nearly dawn, phone rested beside my cheek. Falling asleep as news trickled out of their rebirth, re-emergence. If we can do that, I thought, if we can bring these boys back into the sun, maybe we are not so far gone. And all in between, there were appointments: medical, massage, therapeutic. Appointments to try to connect those myriad frayed threads, to pull the pieces of my life back together again. Some of it worked. Some didnt. When I decided to return to work, it was because time is no longer what I need. Rest is necessary, and time to build support is a critical part of mental health recovery. But time lived without meaning casts a shadow on you. So I came back, because this is what I know how to do. Its scary sometimes, but it can also be liberating, too. Now, as I step back into this strange life of a writer, as I try to negotiate again the myriad connections between subject and storyteller, I want to reflect on a few things: what I learned, after four weeks on mental health leave. I learned Id been too long neglecting my body. I learned that the patterns of my life are etched on my body, like the wrinkles on a dress that languished too long in storage. Thats how I felt: folded, forgotten, shelved away. The muscles of my upper back, knitted into knots that screamed protest as firm hands worked them away. A writers back, the massage therapist told me. The kind you get from hunching over your keyboard every day. I learned how the multitude pressures of life had buried me under a rock cairn made of a thousand small problems. I learned Id become so afraid of failure, that doing nothing at all had become the only safe option. And in the lazy afternoon of another undifferentiated day, I watched a red squirrel scampering across boughs no wider than my finger, lost in a chase of his own imagination. I thought about play, and yearned for that freedom. if you are an employer, or an employee who can raise your voice, please take a few moments to think about how your workplace supports mental health. Are managers informed? Are there safe avenues for help? We all need that time, to dance through the branches. So thats how this column ends, with a call to action. The links between mental health and work have been well researched, and well established. It is, for many, a critical part of their mental foundation: it does, after all, consume a significant chunk of our time and energy. And work can be tolerable, satisfying or exciting. It can also be hopeless, suffocating, isolating, grinding: some research has found that workers who have less control over their work experience higher rates of depression. So if healing the mind is a puzzle, then work is almost always an anchoring edge part. Doug Speirs | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. What this means: if you are an employer, or an employee who can raise your voice, please take a few moments to think about how your workplace supports mental health. Are managers informed? Are there safe avenues for help? The Canadian Mental Health Associations Winnipeg office offers several workshops on mental health in the workplace. So does the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. SAFE Work Manitoba offers an online course. Even if you think your workplace is well informed, it never hurts to have a refresher. That knowledge could help save a life, or at least, make a struggling life in some small way better. More than ever, that has to matter. And above all, if you see yourself in this column, if you recognize something of yourself in anything I have written: be good to yourself, in the ways you are able. Find space for yourself to breathe: a few minutes, an hour, a week. Wherever that space opens up for you, I hope it helps bring the healing you need. melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion August is treaty time in Manitoba. The first two of the "numbered" treaties the agreements that laid the foundation for the Canada of today were signed in August here. Thats no coincidence. August is the time when we renew our relationships. Its the time of gift giving. This is how life operates here. This was the message 200-plus young Manitobans delivered at the Treaty One commemoration Friday at the Manitoba Museum. I spent the morning with these remarkable young leaders. Some Indigenous, some not. Here are things I heard. Treaties create families. Families care for one another. Were all in this thing together. We are all treaty people. This is what young Manitobans said after spending a morning studying the agreements that made us. Are we ready for them? This burgeoning young population is a lot on my mind these days. Its been a hard summer, with trials over the deaths of Tina Fontaine and Colten Boushie, and Manitobans threatening on social media to "purge" native youth and have a "shoot a Indian day." Makes me wonder where we are at and where we are going. We need leadership. Vision. Bravery. This is what I was looking for when I heard about the provincial cabinet shuffle this week. How would the Brian Pallister government deal with the past few tumultuous months? Cabinet shuffles are always interesting. Regardless of how much changes are downplayed, they are strategic moves by a government to position itself better in the eyes of the public. Or fix major problems. One of the two. So, on the first day of August, Pallister shuffled his cabinet. There were some interesting moves, like the promotion of Colleen Mayer, a backbench MLA and a Metis woman. She was raised to Minister of Crown Services. With Mayer tasked with overseeing Manitoba Hydro, I suddenly had hope for the deepening divide between the province and the Manitoba Metis Federation. To recap: the province is being sued by the MMF for reneging on a $67-million agreement regarding the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project, a dispute that resulted in the mass resignation of the Manitoba Hydro board. In June the conflict intensified when Manitoba Hydro attempted to have all references to the agreement removed from the MMFs testimony to the National Energy Board. The two sides will meet again in court this fall. Simply put, the relationships between Manitoba Hydro and the MMF is toxic. Something had to be done and hopefully Mayer can bring some expertise and perhaps some empathy to the situation. Next, I expected to see a change at the helm of Indigenous and Northern Relations. Quick quiz: name the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Relations for Manitoba. Cant? Me either. I had to look it up. Its Eileen Clarke. Minister Clarkes reign as Minister has been, well, contentious. Her opening days were hampered by Premier Pallister combining Indigenous Affairs with "Municipal Relations" what the province refers to as inter-governmental land management, community revitalization, infrastructure, and "building the capacity of local governments." The first problem: Indigenous nations are nations, not municipalities. The second problem: First Nations governments deal primarily with the Crown (whose proxy is the federal government), not provinces. First Nations, of course, engage provincial governments but as willing partners, not via political whim. So, Pallister saddled Clarke with an organizational problem. When this was finally sorted out last year and Municipal Relations was removed from her portfolio it was widely expected that Indigenous issues would get more attention. But things have been getting worse especially recently. First is the virtually forgotten Path to Reconciliation Act, passed by the previous NDP government in its final days. Regardless of what the current government thinks about the law, its passed. The Act positions Manitoba as a leader on Canadas most critical issue, requiring the province to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions 94 calls to action, engage the legacies of the residential school period in areas like child welfare and education, and task a minister with this responsibility. Almost nothing has occurred and the government barely mentions the Act. Meanwhile, poverty in Indigenous communities particularly in the inner city has exponentially increased, Indigenous youth incarceration rates have increased to over 80 per cent of population in some institutions, and Indigenous-run organizations and businesses are going bankrupt (see: Neechi Commons and the Thunderbird House). First Nations chiefs, desperate to find answers, sued the province in 2017 for almost $1 billion over casinos. After being promised a cut in gaming, First Nations leaders launched a suit claiming they have been shut out of Winnipeg while the province gives entities like the Winnipeg Jets a casino license. The suit is still ongoing but with interest rising in Peguis First Nations development of Assiniboia Downs, the issue is not going away. And things have worsened even more this summer. In early July, 15 chiefs from Treaty Two traveled to the Manitoba Legislature to protest their absence in a $540 million deal to create two channels that impact their traditional territories. Two weeks later, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas made a public plea to Premier Pallister to halt his plan to tax First Nations cannabis retailers. Legally, provinces cant tax First Nations and this will open the province up to a legal challenge. Shall I go on? Clarke seems inadequate to deal with the incredible expertise, time, and commitment required to handle Indigenous and Northern Relations. Or maybe, just maybe, Pallister is really in charge. Either way, we have a problem and this weeks cabinet shuffle didnt fix it. Manitoba needs a visible, visionary, and strong Minister of Indigenous and Northern Relations. Theres simply too much to do. And too much at stake. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. August is a time of treaty. Too bad this provincial government missed this chance to renew. Maybe we need a different voice. I suggest a young Manitoban. Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press. The black bear who bit a hiker last month remains at large, the province said Friday while announcing it has reopened the Mantario Trail in Whiteshell Provincial Park in time for the long weekend. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The black bear who bit a hiker last month remains at large, the province said Friday while announcing it has reopened the Mantario Trail in Whiteshell Provincial Park in time for the long weekend. The north section of the trail, from the Big Whiteshell Trail Head to Mantario Lake, is open to the public after a month-long closure due to a bear attack on the trail July 2. SUPPLIED Daniel Dacombe has hiked the Mantario Trail half a dozen times. He planned to take his wife on a hiking trip this fall, but said he'll be revisiting their plans. A couple was hiking the trail, when a bear snuck up behind them and bit the man's leg. Ryan Potter previously told the Free Press he took out his bear spray and scared the animal off, while he and his wife "high-tailed it" in the other direction. "To date, attempts to capture the bear have not been successful, and this bear may still be in the area," the province warned in a news release Friday. The trail was reopened after department staff felt comfortable about the amount of time that has passed since the incident, and there have not been any further bear reports from the area, government spokesman John Neufeld said in a message to the Free Press. Despite the trail being closed, people travel through the area numerous times a day, he said. "The bear trapping effort is expected to end shortly," Neufeld said, adding signage has been placed at the trailhead to remind the public to be aware of the animals. Outdoor enthusiasts should be sure to clean up after themselves, keep bear spray on hand, and always assume bears are in the vicinity, even if no recent conflicts or encounters have been reported, the release from the province advises. Avid hiker Daniel Dacombe said Friday he suspects campers carelessly leaving food around are behind a heavier presence of aggressive bears in Manitoba this year. The Hanover resident said he's hiked the Mantario Trail a half-dozen times over the years. The trail extends 60 kilometres between the south trailhead off Provincial Road 312 and the north trailhead on the north shore of Big Whiteshell Lake. While Dacombe said he's never encountered an aggressive bear, only seeing bears in the distance, he once came across a note scribbled into a picnic table at Ritchey Lake -- near where the Potters were hiking -- warning of an aggressive animal. Dacombe said he planned to return to the trail over Labour Day weekend, bringing his wife along for the first time, but he's hesitant -- despite the province giving the OK -- because the aggressive bear could still be roaming the area. "The trail's right through the Canadian Shield, it's very technical. You have to stop and use your map a lot and do lots of up and down. When you're up there, you see these lakes down below, and you see these rivers stretching off into the distance and the trees that go for miles. You can take pictures, but pictures just don't do it justice," he said. "There's nothing quite like being out there and so, that kind of makes it worth the risk." However, he said, the recent bear attack has made him think twice about plans. "It's giving me some pause. I think I'd like to wait a little bit and see what happens." If they do decide to go, Dacombe said he'll be sure to pack the essentials: hiking boots, water-filtration system -- and bear spray. Otherwise known as bear deterrent, it is a long-distance spray that allows a user to defend against a bear from as far as nine metres away, said Kim Titchener, the founder of Canmore, Alta.,-based Bear Safety and More. "It engulfs (a bear) in the spray and goes into their mucous membranes and causes an inflammatory reaction: it causes involuntary eye closure, a burning sensation to the skin, coughing, gagging," she said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "They go from wanting to attack you or defend themselves to basically self-preservation. They're in a lot of pain." The spray has a lasting affect for 10 to 30 minutes, allowing people to get away from the animal, Titchener said, adding that research has shown it's a highly-effective product. "It's much more effective than a gun, and it means that people, instead of having to play dead in a bear attack and either get severe injuries or killed... this is another option to save the life of a human -- and also the life of the bear," Titchener said. Although provincial conservation officers haven't caught the bear involved in the July 2 attack, Neufeld told the Free Press they are attempting to confirm DNA of two bears recently removed from Whiteshell Provincial Park to determine if either was involved in a July incident at South Cross Lake, when a bear swiped at an eight-year-old girl. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie Even though the number of asylum-seekers crossing the border into the province continues to drop, Manitobans lead the country in believing Canada cant handle any more. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Even though the number of asylum-seekers crossing the border into the province continues to drop, Manitobans lead the country in believing Canada cant handle any more. A new poll, taken by the Angus Reid Institute, has found 76 per cent of Manitoba respondents agreed with the statement: "This situation is a crisis Canadas ability to handle the situation is at a limit." The other 24 per cent of Manitobans said the situation was not a crisis and "the situation is being overblown by politicians and the media." Manitobas "crisis" number was tied with Saskatchewan for highest in the provinces, with Alberta not far behind (72 per cent). The survey finds two-thirds of Canadians (67 per cent) call the current situation a "crisis," while 65 per cent said Canada has received "too many" irregular crossers for the countrys authorities and service providers to handle. Tom Denton, executive director of Winnipegs Hospitality House Refugee Ministry, said hes disappointed in the polls findings about the feelings towards refugees. "Everybody is talking about this as an economic or political issue, instead of talking about the moral, the faith and the human rights of the issue," Denton said Friday. "Theyre forgetting the humanity in all of this." Denton also noted there continue to be fewer asylum-seekers coming to Manitoba. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said recently only 31 refugee claimants came to the province in June, compared to 35 the month before, and a total of 219 since the beginning of the year. Across the country, the number of asylum-seekers dropped in June for the sixth consecutive month, with 1,179 arriving in Quebec, the lowest number for a month this year. Denton said there are 24 million refugees around the world, and Canada is only allowing the sponsorship of 8,500 this year. "Refugees dont want to be refugees there is a real need," he said. Angus Reid Institute executive director Shachi Kurl pointed out the number of Manitobans who think the situation is a "crisis" tops Quebecs number of 68 per cent. "Both Manitoba and Quebec have received more people crossing in than others," Kurl said. "Manitobans have had to grapple with this first-hand in the last 18 months. This is how they perceive the people crossing and how they are absorbed... Some of this is based on perception and some of this is based on reality." The poll also found 44 per cent of Manitobans polled believe the border-crossers are coming looking for economic opportunities, while eight per cent believe almost all are genuine refugees fleeing persecution. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Canadians are skeptical whether these people are genuine refugees or not," Kurl said. "We didnt have push-back when 25,000 Syrians came there was a feeling these people are fleeing terrible circumstances. "This is more thinking of them as being economic opportunists than refugees." The poll also found 48 per cent of Canadians who voted for the Liberals, Tories or NDP in the last federal election believe Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is most trusted to deal with the issue of border security and asylum-seekers, followed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (35 per cent) and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh (16 per cent). As well, 58 per cent of Canadians say they believe the country has been "too generous" to people crossing irregularly, while most Canadians would rather see border monitoring and security be beefed up (78 per cent) than help asylum-seekers (50 per cent). The poll was an online survey of a representative randomized sample of 1,500 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The institute said, for comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca A 23-year-old Winnipeg man who drove a stolen vehicle through a North End neighbourhood at speeds topping 100 km/h on Thursday was stopped with the help of the police helicopter. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A 23-year-old Winnipeg man who drove a stolen vehicle through a North End neighbourhood at speeds topping 100 km/h on Thursday was stopped with the help of the police helicopter. Police said officers spotted a stolen vehicle at about 12:15 a.m. on Thursday and tried to stop it near McGregor Street and Dufferin Avenue but it took off at a high rate of speed. Const. Jay Murray said the police helicopter Air1 began to track the stolen vehicle and officers on the ground backed off. The stolen vehicle continued racing through city streets until it crashed through a guardrail at Hallet Street and Rover Avenue and came to a stop on an embankment. He said a male suspect fled from the vehicle and was tracked as he attempted to hide in some bushes or trees but officers in the chopper could clearly see where he was. Officers on the ground were able to apprehend the man. "Stolen vehicles are very dangerous. You dont have to look far to see several incidents here in Winnipeg where a stolen vehicle was used to either seriously injure someone or even cause death," Murray said at a media conference on Saturday. "If an individual is going to drive like that, they need to be taken off the road." Murray said officers in police vehicles try to avoid chasing other vehicles because it is so dangerous. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. It was estimated that the vehicle was going at least 100 km/h at times. "We never want to pursue unless we have to. Its a last alternative. We always try to do preventative measures to stop the vehicle from becoming involved in a pursuit," Murray said. "Were very fortunate that we had the helicopter so we could back off and watch from a distance." The vehicle was stolen from a residence in West St. Paul on Tuesday while parked overnight. The suspect, who was known to police, remains in custody. He has been charged with possession of property obtained by crime Over $5,000, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and failing to comply with conditions ordered by a judge. Police released footage involving the Air1 helicopter. ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca Correctional officials must explain to inmates why they're being placed in segregation, a Correctional Service of Canada representative confirmed, after one of Manitoba's most high-profile killers recently claimed he was never shown evidence on the decision to segregate him and tighten his security classification. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Correctional officials must explain to inmates why they're being placed in segregation, a Correctional Service of Canada representative confirmed, after one of Manitoba's most high-profile killers recently claimed he was never shown evidence on the decision to segregate him and tighten his security classification. Federal law and internal policies dictate the Correctional Service's requirement to provide reasons and all information related to decisions made about a particular inmate to that inmate, a CSC Prairie region spokesperson said in a statement Friday. "CSC has policies in place regarding the requirement to share information with offenders about their case, as well as the reasons for the decision about their case. This includes information and the reasons regarding security classification reviews and placements in segregation," the statement reads in part. If an inmate's security classification has changed, the CSC is required to give the inmate the rationale as well as all information considered in coming to the decision within five working days. If an inmate is placed in administrative segregation another term for solitary confinement they must be notified of the reasons for doing so in writing within one working day, according to the CSC's policies. Inmates who believe they've been treated unfairly can go through an internal complaint process to file a grievance, a spokesperson said. The CSC would not comment on the case of convicted triple murderer Denis Jerome Labossiere because of privacy concerns, the spokesperson said. Denis Labossiere is serving life for ordering the deaths of his parents and brother in 2005. Labossiere tried to argue in Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench that correctional officials failed to disclose any evidence to him, after they told him he was accused of ordering violent attacks on two other Stony Mountain Institution inmates in 2015. One of the inmates died and the other was severely injured in the attacks, which were allegedly carried out by Manitoba Warriors gang members. Labossiere's legal motion was dismissed this week over a lack of jurisdiction as he is currently being held in prison in Alberta. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. He claims he was placed in segregation and had his medium-security classification raised to maximum security before he was transferred to a prison in Prince Albert, Sask. He claims he was not involved in either of the attacks, and says he was never shown video evidence correctional officials told him they had. An affidavit filed in court in support of his legal challenge said he wanted to be classified as minimum security as he prepares to make a bid to be released on parole. He won't be eligible to apply for parole until 2030 25 years after the murders he orchestrated. Labossiere was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in 2012 for killing his parents, Fernand and Rita, and his brother, Remi Labossiere, in 2005. The three were shot and found dead after a fire was set at their St. Leon farmhouse. A jury convicted Labossiere and acquitted a co-accused, after a third co-accused took a deal from the Crown and testified against Labossiere. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay A ventilation problem at St. Boniface Hospital has been fixed so operating rooms will be available starting Tuesday for all scheduled procedures for the remainder of August, health officials said Friday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A ventilation problem at St. Boniface Hospital has been fixed so operating rooms will be available starting Tuesday for all scheduled procedures for the remainder of August, health officials said Friday. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) stated in a media release that repairs to the ventilation system at St. Boniface Hospital are complete. Air quality control tests are being done and will be finished before the rooms are opened. PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES St Boniface Hospital has repaired a ventilation problem that forced it to shut down several operating rooms. Earlier this week, a malfunction of the air handling system caused several operating rooms to be closed. "We acknowledge the inconvenience this may have caused for those individuals impacted, but are grateful for their understanding as weve addressed the repairs. We are also grateful to the leadership of St. Boniface Hospital and the surgical and acute program teams, as well as the hospitals who hosted the redirected surgeries. These teams all came together to minimize the disruption this has caused," Krista Williams, the WRHA's chief health operations officer, said in a statement. She said St. Boniface Hospital will continue to offer emergency procedures during evenings and over the weekend. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Due to the ventilation system problem, there were 21 surgeries originally scheduled for St. Boniface Hospital that were were accommodated at other sites this week and 14 that were postponed or rescheduled. "Our care team is working with our surgeons to reschedule any procedures that were delayed as a result of the mechanical failure," Brenda Badiuk, the acting executive director of clinical programs at St. Boniface Hospital, said in the media release. Of the 14 procedure rooms some of which are closed over the summer months five suites had remained open during the ventilation system repairs. The problem, the WRHA said, was that a ventilation fan needed to be repaired. The repair has been completed and the fan is back in service. Quality control testing, infection prevention and control testing will continue during weekend. No further problems are anticipated for the remainder of the summer, but the WRHA stated that the operating rooms will be monitored closely through the month of August and as the hospital begins to see more patients into the fall. staff Newly elected Ontario Premier Doug Ford is certainly making news. In more ways than one. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Newly elected Ontario Premier Doug Ford is certainly making news. In more ways than one. On the heels of several weeks of blunt-force policy-making moves that included cancelling Ontarios carbon-reducing cap-and-trade system, returning sex education to 1950s sensibilities, firing the chief provincial scientist and introducing legislation to cut Toronto city council in half it was revealed that Fords Progressive Conservative government is generating its own news content. Ontario News Now is a TV-news-style video series, posted on Twitter and Facebook, that offers viewers reports on decisions and policies of the Ford government. It is self-described as "timely exclusive content on the PC governments priorities for the people of Ontario." The videos are shot and edited to look exactly like a story from an actual television news network. They are fronted by a Tory staffer playing the part of reporter, who signs off each piece with her own name. Just like real television journalists. Criticism has flowed fast and furiously from all quarters, focusing largely on the issue that Ontario News Now does not identify itself as partisan propaganda. Despite the fact it is produced and paid for by the Ontario PCs, there is no reference to the party in the videos and no party logo displayed on its Twitter page. And given that the Ontario Tories host their own branded YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages, along with the premiers own "Ford Nation" channels, Ontario News Now gives the impression that its just another source of online news. It should be said that most governments in this country do produce their own multimedia content to populate social media channels. All major political parties in Manitoba, for example, have a robust social media footprint. The current PC government of Premier Brian Pallister has upped its social media content significantly in the last year by hiring a former television journalist to curate content across multiple platforms. However, the Manitoba Tories have not yet attempted to blur the line between partisan content and professional journalism. Although not all the individual pieces of content are branded with a party logo, they are all posted on channels that are clearly the domain of the Manitoba PC party. That is not to say that some Canadian politicians havent blurred that line. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harpers government produced the 24/Seven video series, which offered intimate and exceedingly flattering "inside" looks the life of the then-first minister. Two concerns arose when the Harper Tories started producing 24/Seven. Although it wasnt particularly newsworthy in its content, the "behind-the-scenes" access that these partisan videos presented was generally denied to professional news organizations, something that rankled veteran journalists who had limited access to Tory politicians and government experts under the Harper governments iron-fist media management policies. But the bigger concern was that, like Ontario News Now, there was nothing in 24/Seven that identified it as partisan content. There was no reference to the Conservative Party of Canada, and no tag line describing it as paid political content, as is required during election periods. Take away all of the production value, and what you have is a deliberate attempt to confuse citizens into thinking they are watching a piece of professional journalism. And on that basis, this is truly "fake news." The oft-invoked term "fake news" has certainly dug itself a firm position in the global lexicon, even though there is no firm definition. It gained popular usage to describe malicious content produced by shadowy forces to manipulate, misdirect or misinform, as was the case with the information circulated by dark forces from Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But that is clearly not the only context in which this term is used. For some, fake news is a weapon used by newsmakers to debase legitimate, critical news coverage. U.S. President Donald Trump has perfected the use of the term fake news to obscure his own dubious intentions and drive his claim that journalists are "enemies of the people." Ford and the Ontario Tories are certainly demonstrating a third, equally disturbing form of fake news: partisan propaganda masquerading as professional news content. This is a particularly worrisome development at a time when fake news is getting harder to spot and equally difficult to control. Three major forces have combined to give fake news the opportunity to influence. First, the news-consuming public has lost its capacity to tell the difference between fake and legitimate news. This is due mostly to the fact that, despite an abundance of sources of news available through the internet and mobile devices, we actually consume less content. And as we have lost the will to read news, we have lost interest in the sources of news. Ask someone today how they get their news, and many will rattle off a long list of online sites, many of them offering free content. Then, ask them who or what is behind the creation of that news; most people will admit they have lost touch with the identity of the content creators. This lack of public interest in the identities behind the news has combined with the next major trend: the decline of traditional media. As fewer people are willing to pay for news, the ranks of professional journalists have been culled by shrinking newsrooms and an ever-diminishing number of vehicles for imparting the news. In other words, traditional news organizations have less people producing content for smaller, and fewer, publications and broadcasts. And finally, you have a trend among governments and politicians to take their messages directly to the people via social media platforms that do not discriminate on the basis of truth or integrity. The federal Liberal government has previously expressed doubt that anything could be done to stop the proliferation of fake news. Then, last month, Ottawa announced its intention to do a better job of providing access to government information. The theory was that in an era when its hard to tell real from fake, government should become more transparent. That is not a bad idea, really. But making government more open, and giving citizens better access to information about who and what government really is, will not solve this problem. First, it cannot guard against the inherent tendency of government to present information in the most flattering manner possible. For this initiative to have any effect, there must be independent third parties willing to provide the analysis and context. Third parties like professional journalists. Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. And remember, this promised greater flow of government information will still have to compete with bad news, fake news and deliberate attempts to conceal propaganda as journalism. In that kind of marketplace, raw government information isnt likely to generate a lot of eyeballs. All of which brings us back to the current governments responsibility to work with traditional news organizations to help them sustain professional journalism. The future is uncertain, largely because online behemoths are sucking the revenue-generating opportunities out of the digital information marketplace. Tax policy may help sustain some of the best-run news organizations, but increasingly it looks like the future will see many private news outlets evolve into not-for-profit foundations devoted to public-interest journalism. Unfortunately, that future can only be achieved if Ottawa understands the important role journalists play, not only in holding power to account, but also providing the context and analysis necessary to understand the world. To date, the federal Liberals have shown profound ignorance about forces affecting the news ecosystem. In the absence of a clearly defined action plan from the federal government that helps to fortify traditional news, agents of mischief and malice such as Ontarios new premier will continue to mislead, misinform and, ultimately, misuse the trust of the public. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca In the 1990s, Vancouver experienced an overdose crisis similar to the epidemic sweeping the United States. The surge was driven by a potent supply of China White heroin. The city saw more than 1,300 fatal overdoses during the decade. During the worst year of the crisis, 1998, there were about 400 fatal overdoses across the province. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 4/8/2018 (1180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion In the 1990s, Vancouver experienced an overdose crisis similar to the epidemic sweeping the United States. The surge was driven by a potent supply of China White heroin. The city saw more than 1,300 fatal overdoses during the decade. During the worst year of the crisis, 1998, there were about 400 fatal overdoses across the province. This rate of fatal overdoses was considered so unfathomable that Vancouver was galvanized into action. Activists marched in the streets and occupied city hall, demanding that drug users have a say in drug policy. Advocates pushed for "harm reduction," a set of strategies in which the goal is not to eliminate drug use, but rather to minimize its worst outcomes. As a result, Vancouver adopted a host of progressive programs, such as needle exchanges, and in 2003 opened North Americas first sanctioned supervised injection facility, Insite. There, people can use illegal drugs under the supervision of nurses without fear of apprehension by police. In the following decade, British Columbia saw a roughly 50 per cent reduction in annual overdose deaths. Other Canadian cities followed Vancouvers lead. There are now more than 25 supervised injection facilities across Canada. When you compare the low points of Vancouvers previous epidemic 1,300 dead in the city over a decade, 400 across B.C. at its peak to overdose rates in the United States right now, its shocking that more Americans arent marching in the streets. There were 1,217 fatal overdoses in Philadelphia in 2017 alone, and some 70,000 fatal overdoses across the country. The United States needs supervised injection facilities more than ever. But it is illegal to establish them because of the so-called "crack-house statute," a federal law that forbids the operation of spaces for the purposes of making, distributing or using controlled substances. Instead, drug users in the U.S. must rely on makeshift versions. In many cities, these spaces function similarly to Canadas sanctioned facilities. Just dont call them supervised injection sites. I recently travelled to a number of these places across the U.S. northeast to learn how drug users and their allies are responding to fentanyl. The dangerous synthetic opioid was linked to about 40 per cent of last years fatal overdoses in the U.S., up from roughly 31 per cent the previous year. (Fentanyl is behind a new epidemic in Canada as well, causing 84 per cent of some 1,450 fatal overdoses across B.C. last year.) In New York, I visited Washington Heights Corner Project in the Bronx. You cant inject drugs out in the open there, so people inject drugs in the bathrooms, behind closed doors. The staff cannot stop clients from using their bathrooms, though they know some clients will do drugs in them. So they make the situation as safe as possible, within the confines of federal law, providing clean needles and other supplies. If a client has been in a bathroom for too long and does not respond to a knock on the door, the staff will enter and, if necessary, respond to an overdose if thats what has occurred. In Boston, I visited the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, a one-stop-shop for those in need located on "Methadone Mile." Their bathroom situation is similar to Corner Projects, but theyve added another service: the Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment. Its a simple room off the lobby where someone who feels they are at risk of an overdose can rest under the supervision of a nurse. In other words, users can obtain a clean needle and use drugs in a bathroom, and then walk across the lobby to this room. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. I also visited a number of so-called crack dens and shooting galleries in Philadelphias Kensington neighbourhood. At these informal gatherings, hidden along train tracks and in the forest, drug users take a strength-in-numbers approach by supervising one another. Outreach workers often circulate, handing out syringes, cookers and vials of clean water safer alternatives to used needles, dirty spoons and puddle water. While its critical that these unsanctioned sites exist, it is also absurd. Its absurd that Corner Project needs to provide a toilet and plumbing to clients who really only want to inject drugs. Its absurd that visitors to Boston Health Care for the Homeless must inject drugs behind closed doors on one side of the building and then, if they feel they are at risk of overdosing, stumble across the lobby to a different room. And its absurd that users in Philadelphia are providing each other with almost every service that a supervised injection site would, but must do so in filthy conditions, hiding in dark alleys and along train tracks. These shortcomings are not the result of drug use. They are the result of Americas failed war on drugs. With its annual death toll poised to surpass 70,000, the United States urgently needs to treat addiction as the health-care issue it is. Several American cities are reportedly considering safe injection sites, but they still face legal hurdles. The U.S. simply does not have another decade to waste before legalizing these facilities. By then, the death toll will be in the hundreds of thousands. Travis Lupick is a journalist in Vancouver and the author of Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One Citys Struggle with Addiction. Los Angeles Times Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 3/8/2018 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. It's no big thing. After one of the most profound and unusual cabinet shuffles in the province's history, Premier Brian Pallister essentially told the citizenry that it's nothing to worry about. No need to fret. Nothing to see here; time to move along. BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Former health (and current education) minister Kelvin Goertzen All of which raises the question: if it wasn't such a big deal, why did he do it in the first place? Conventional wisdom at least the kind that Tories were willing to discuss openly this week is that the shuffle was necessary to give former health minister Kelvin Goertzen a new and less-demanding job. For two years, he has carried the water for his government on a seismic shift in resources in the health care system. The construction of personal care home beds has been slowed to a crawl, funding for elective surgeries has been effectively frozen, discretionary services have been cut, Winnipeg hospitals have been reorganized, prompting the closure of emergency departments. All, we are told, to improve service delivery while reining in costs. For any minister, that would be quite a workload. So, let's accept for the moment that Mr. Goertzen needed a break. That may be good for Mr. Goertzen, but is it good for the province? And, if we are operating on the theory that Mr. Goertzen needed to be reassigned, what are we to think about the myriad other moves that were made? Mr. Goertzen ends up in education, triggering the demotion of former minister Ian Wishart. Cameron Friesen, formerly the finance minister, is tapped to move into health. Scott Fielding, the families minister, is reassigned to finance. Heather Stefanson, formerly justice minister, goes to families. And Cliff Cullen moves from his post as minister responsible for Crown services to justice. That last move, along with Mr. Wishart's demotion, creates room for St. Vital MLA Colleen Mayer to move into Crown services. If government sources are correct, this was all the result of Mr. Goertzen's need for a change of scenery. And despite the fact fulfilling that wish required the installation of new leadership in the four largest and most expensive departments in government, we are told it's no big thing. That's more than a bit of a stretch. With due respect to the premier's view of the past week's events, it is a big thing. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. This cabinet is not awash in overachievers. The first two years of governing have demonstrated the steep learning curve for politicians experiencing their first taste of governing. Decision-making has been erratic, communications a constant cause for concern. Many of the ministers in Mr. Pallister's government seem unsure of themselves; they do not grant interviews to the media, relying instead on communications staff to issue emailed statements in response to journalists' queries. It is true that most of the ministers involved in this shuffle are among the government's most capable and confident. But they didn't start out that way; assigning them new duties when they have just started to master their first assignments seems a rather risky strategy. Cabinet shuffles are big deals, in every instance deeply strategic and intensely political. They can re-energize a moribund cabinet, or help a first minister remove weak links from the leadership chain that controls government. And they are almost never inconsequential. The full rationale for this cabinet shuffle has yet to be revealed. However, given the intense scrutiny that accompanies a cabinet post, Manitobans will learn sooner rather than later if the premier knew what he was doing. Bank of America Corp. is a bank and financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and nonbank financial services. 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Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Banco Santander: 2 & 3 Triton Limited, A & L CF (Guernsey) Limited (f), A & L CF June (2) Limited, A & L CF June (3) Limited, A & L CF March (5) Limited, A & L CF September (4) Limited, AFB SAM Holdings S.L., ALIL Services Limited (b), AN (123) Limited, ANITCO Limited, Abbey Business Services (India) Private Limited, Abbey Covered Bonds (LM) Limited, Abbey National, Abbey National Beta Investments Limited, Abbey National Business Office Equipment Leasing Limited, Abbey National International Limited, Abbey National Nominees Limited, Abbey National PLP (UK) Limited, Abbey National Property Investments, Abbey National Treasury Services Investments Limited, Abbey National Treasury Services Overseas Holdings, Abbey National UK Investments, Abbey Stockbrokers (Nominees) Limited, Abbey Stockbrokers Limited, Ablasa Participaciones S.L., Administracion de Bancos Latinoamericanos Santander S.L., Aduro S.A., Aevis Europa S.L., Afisa S.A., Albert., Aljardi SGPS Lda., Alliance & Leicester, Alliance & Leicester Cash Solutions Limited, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (Derivatives) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (No.2) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments Limited, Alliance & Leicester Limited, Alliance & Leicester Personal Finance Limited, Altamira Santander Real Estate S.A., Alternative Leasing FIL, Amazonia Trade Limited, Amherst Pierpont, Andaluza de Inversiones S.A., Aquanima Brasil Ltda., Aquanima Chile S.A., Aquanima Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aquanima S.A., Arcaz - Sociedade Imobiliaria Portuguesa Lda., Argenline S.A. (b), Asto Digital Limited, Athena Corporation Limited, Atual - Fundo de Invest Multimercado Credito Privado Investimento no Exterior, Atual Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos e Meios Digitais S.A., Autodescuento S.L., Autohaus24 GmbH, Auttar HUT Processamento de Dados Ltda., Aviacion Antares A.I.E., Aviacion Britanica A.I.E., Aviacion Centaurus A.I.E., Aviacion Comillas S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Intercontinental A.I.E., Aviacion Laredo S.L., Aviacion Oyambre S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Real A.I.E., Aviacion Santillana S.L., Aviacion Suances S.L., Aviacion Triton A.I.E., Aymore Credito Financiamento e Investimento S.A., BEN Beneficios e Servicos S.A., BRS Investments S.A., BZW Bank, Banca PSA Italia S.p.A., Banco Bandepe S.A., Banco Madesant - Sociedade Unipessoal S.A., Banco PSA Finance Brasil S.A., Banco Popular, Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A., Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 100740, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 2002114, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso GFSSLPT, Banco Santander - Chile, Banco Santander Consumer Portugal S.A., Banco Santander International, Banco Santander International SA, Banco Santander Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Banco Santander Peru S.A., Banco Santander Rio S.A., Banco Santander S.A., Banco Santander Totta S.A., Banco Santander de Negocios Colombia S.A., Banco de Albacete S.A., Bansa Santander S.A., CCAP Auto Lease Ltd., Canyon Multifamily Impact Fund IV LLC, Capital Street Delaware LP, Capital Street Holdings LLC, Capital Street REIT Holdings LLC, Capital Street S.A., Carfax (Guernsey) Limited (f), Carfinco Financial Group, Carfinco Financial Group Inc., Carfinco Inc., Casa de Bolsa Santander S.A. de C.V. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Cater Allen Holdings Limited, Cater Allen International Limited, Cater Allen Limited, Cater Allen Lloyd's Holdings Limited, Cater Allen Syndicate Management Limited, Centro de Capacitacion Santander A.C., Certidesa S.L., Chrysler Capital Auto Funding I LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Funding II LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Receivables LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 2 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 4 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding LLC, Cobranza Amigable S.A.P.I. de C.V., Community Development and Affordable Housing Fund LLC (g), Compagnie Generale de Credit Aux Particuliers - Credipar S.A., Compagnie Pour la Location de Vehicules - CLV, Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Argentina S.A., Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Iberica S.L. Unipersonal en liquidacion (b), Consulteam Consultores de Gestao Lda., Consumer Lending Receivables LLC, Crawfall S.A. (b), Cantabra de Inversiones S.A., Cantabro Catalana de Inversiones S.A., Darep Designated Activity Company, Decarome S.A.P.I. de C.V., Deva Capital Advisory Company S.L., Deva Capital Holding Company S.L., Deva Capital Investment Company S.L., Deva Capital Management Company S.L., Deva Capital Servicer Company S.L., Digital Procurement Holdings N.V., Diners Club Spain S.A., Direccion Estratega S.C., Dirgenfin S.L. en liquidacion (b), Ebury, El Corte Ingles, Elavon Mexico, Electrolyser S.A. de C.V., Entidad de Desarrollo a la Pequena y Micro Empresa Santander Consumo Peru S.A., Erestone S.A.S., Esfera Fidelidade S.A., Evidence Previdencia S.A., Financeira El Corte Ingles Portugal S.F.C. S.A., Financiera El Corte Ingles E.F.C. S.A., Finsantusa S.L. Unipersonal, First National Motor Business Limited, First National Motor Contracts Limited, First National Motor Facilities Limited, First National Motor Finance Limited, First National Motor Leasing Limited, First National Motor plc, First National Tricity Finance Limited, Fondos Santander S.A. Administradora de Fondos de Inversion (en liquidacion) (b), Fortensky Trading Ltd., Fosse Funding (No.1) Limited, Fosse Master Issuer plc, Fosse Trustee (UK) Limited, GTS El Centro Equity Holdings LLC, GTS El Centro Project Holdings LLC, Gamma Sociedade Financeira de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Gesban Mexico Servicios Administrativos Globales S.A. de C.V., Gesban Santander Servicios Profesionales Contables Limitada, Gesban Servicios Administrativos Globales S.L., Gesban UK Limited, Gestion de Instalaciones Fotovoltaicas S.L. Unipersonal, Gestion de Inversiones JILT S.A., Gestora de Procesos S.A. en liquidacion (b), Getnet Adquirencia e Servicos para Meios de Pagamento S.A., Global Vosgos S.L. Unipersonal, Grupo Empresarial Santander S.L., Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. de C.V., Grupo Financiero Santander SAB de CV, Guaranty Car S.A. Unipersonal, HQ Mobile Limited, Hispamer Renting S.A. Unipersonal, Holbah II Limited, Holbah Santander S.L. Unipersonal, Holmes Funding Limited, Holmes Master Issuer plc, Holmes Trustees Limited, Hyundai Capital Bank Europe GmbH, Iberica de Compras Corporativas S.L., Independence Community Bank Corp., Insurance Funding Solutions Limited, Interfinance Holanda B.V., Inversiones Capital Global S.A. Unipersonal, Inversiones Maritimas del Mediterraneo S.A., Isla de los Buques S.A., Klare Corredora de Seguros S.A., Landcompany 2020 S.L., Langton Funding (No.1) Limited, Langton Mortgages Trustee (UK) Limited, Langton Securities (2008-1) plc, Langton Securities (2010-1) PLC, Langton Securities (2010-2) PLC, Laparanza S.A., Liquidity Limited, Luri 1 S.A. en liquidacion (b) (e), Luri 6 S.A. Unipersonal, Master Red Europa S.L., Mata Alta S.L., Merciver S.L., Mercury TFS, Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.A. de C.V., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.L., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.p.A., Moneybit S.L., Mortgage Engine Limited, Motor 2016-1 PLC, Motor 2017-1 PLC, Mouro Capital I LP, Multiplica SpA, NW Services CO., Naviera Mirambel S.L., Naviera Trans Gas A.I.E., Naviera Trans Iron S.L., Naviera Trans Ore A.I.E., Naviera Trans Wind S.L. (b), Naviera Transcantabrica S.L., Naviera Transchem S.L. Unipersonal, NeoAuto S.A.C., Norbest AS, Novimovest Fundo de Investimento Imobiliario, Open Bank Argentina S.A., Open Bank S.A., Open Digital Market S.L., Open Digital Services S.L., Operadora de Carteras Gamma S.A.P.I. de C.V., Optimal Investment Services SA, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland Euro Fund, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland US Dollar Fund, PBE Companies LLC, PECOH Limited, PI Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., PSA Bank Deutschland GmbH, PSA Banque France, PSA Finance UK Limited, PSA Financial Services Nederland B.V., PSA Financial Services Spain E.F.C. S.A., PSA Renting Italia S.p.A., PagoFX Europe S.A., PagoFX HoldCo S.L., PagoFX UK Ltd, PagoNxt Merchant Solutions S.L., PagoNxt S.L., Parasant SA, Patagon.com, Pereda Gestion S.A., Pingham International S.A., Popular Spain Holding de Inversiones S.L.U., Portal Universia Argentina S.A., Portal Universia Portugal Prestacao de Servicos de Informatica S.A., Prime 16 Fundo de Investimentos Imobiliario, Punta Lima LLC, Punta Lima Wind Farm LLC, Retop S.A., Return Capital Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos S.A., Return Gestao de Recursos S.A., Riobank International (Uruguay) SAIFE (b), Rojo Entretenimento S.A., SAM Asset Management S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, SAM Investment Holdings S.L., SAM UK Investment Holdings Limited (b), SANB Promotora de Vendas e Cobranca Ltda., SCF Eastside Locks GP Limited, SDMX Superdigital S.A. de C.V., SMPS Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A de C.V, Sancap Investimentos e Participacoes S.A., Santander (CF Trustee Property Nominee) Limited, Santander (UK) Group Pension Schemes Trustees Limited, Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 1 S.A., Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 2 S.A., Santander Alternatives SICAV RAIF, Santander Asesorias Financieras Limitada, Santander Asset Finance (December) Limited, Santander Asset Finance plc, Santander Asset Management - S.G.O.I.C. S.A., Santander Asset Management Chile S.A., Santander Asset Management LLC, Santander Asset Management Luxembourg S.A., Santander Asset Management S.A. Administradora General de Fondos, Santander Asset Management S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Asset Management UK Holdings Limited, Santander Asset Management UK Limited, Santander Back-Offices Globales Mayoristas S.A., Santander Banca de Inversion Colombia S.A.S., Santander Bank & Trust Ltd., Santander Bank National Association, Santander Bank Polska S.A., Santander Brasil Administradora de Consorcio Ltda., Santander Brasil Gestao de Recursos Ltda., Santander Brasil Tecnologia S.A., Santander Capital Desarrollo SGEIC S.A. Unipersonal, Santander Capital Structuring S.A. de C.V., Santander Capitalizacao S.A., Santander Cards Ireland Limited, Santander Cards Limited, Santander Cards UK Limited, Santander Chile Holding S.A., Santander Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Santander Consumer (UK) plc, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L4 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L5 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Bank, Santander Consumer Bank AG, Santander Consumer Bank GmbH, Santander Consumer Bank S.A., Santander Consumer Bank S.p.A., Santander Consumer Banque S.A., Santander Consumer Credit Services Limited, Santander Consumer Finance Benelux B.V., Santander Consumer Finance Global Services S.L., Santander Consumer Finance Oy, Santander Consumer Finance S.A., Santander Consumer Finance Schweiz AG, Santander Consumer Financial Solutions Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Finanse Sp. z o.o. (b), Santander Consumer Holding Austria GmbH, Santander Consumer Holding GmbH, Santander Consumer International Puerto Rico LLC, Santander Consumer Leasing GmbH, Santander Consumer Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.L., Santander Consumer Multirent Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Operations Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Receivables 10 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 11 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 3 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 7 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables Funding LLC, Santander Consumer Renting S.L., Santander Consumer S.A., Santander Consumer S.A.S., Santander Consumer Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Services S.A., Santander Consumer Technology Services GmbH, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc., Santander Consumer USA Inc., Santander Consumo S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Corredora de Seguros Limitada, Santander Corredores de Bolsa Limitada, Santander Corretora de Cambio e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., Santander Corretora de Seguros Investimentos e Servicos S.A., Santander Customer Voice S.A., Santander Digital Assets S.L., Santander Drive Auto Receivables LLC, Santander Equity Investments Limited, Santander Espana Merchant Services Entidad de Pago S.L. Unipersonal, Santander Espana Servicios Legales y de Cumplimiento S.L., Santander Estates Limited, Santander F24 S.A., Santander Facility Management Espana S.L., Santander Factoring S.A., Santander Factoring Sp. z o.o., Santander Factoring y Confirming S.A. E.F.C., Santander Finance 2012-1 LLC, Santander Financial Exchanges Limited, Santander Financial Services Inc., Santander Financial Services plc, Santander Finanse Sp. z o.o., Santander Fintech Holdings S.L., Santander Fintech Limited, Santander Fundo de Investimento SBAC Referenciado di Credito Privado, Santander Gestion de Recaudacion y Cobranzas Ltda., Santander Global Consumer Finance Limited, Santander Global Facilities S.A. de C.V., Santander Global Facilities S.L., Santander Global Operations S.A., Santander Global Services S.A. (b), Santander Global Sport S.A., Santander Global Technology Brasil Ltda., Santander Global Technology Chile Limitada, Santander Global Technology S.L., Santander Global Trade Platform Solutions S.L., Santander Guarantee Company, Santander Holding Imobiliaria S.A., Santander Holding Internacional S.A., Santander Holdings USA Inc., Santander ISA Managers Limited, Santander Inclusion Financiera S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Insurance Agency U.S. LLC, Santander Insurance Services UK Limited, Santander Intermediacion Correduria de Seguros S.A., Santander International Products Plc. (d), Santander Inversiones S.A., Santander Investment Bank Limited, Santander Investment Chile Limitada, Santander Investment I S.A., Santander Investment S.A., Santander Investment Securities Inc., Santander Investments GP 1 S.a.r.l., Santander Inwestycje Sp. z o.o., Santander Lease S.A. E.F.C., Santander Leasing LLC, Santander Leasing S.A., Santander Leasing S.A. Arrendamento Mercantil, Santander Lending Limited, Santander Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Operations S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Services S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Uruguay S.A., Santander Merchant Platform SolucoesTecnologicas Brasil Ltda., Santander Merchant S.A., Santander Mortgage Holdings Limited, Santander Paraty Qif PLC, Santander Pensiones S.A. E.G.F.P., Santander Pensoes - Sociedade Gestora de Fundos de Pensoes S.A., Santander Private Banking Gestion S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Private Banking UK Limited, Santander Private Banking s.p.a. in Liquidazione (b), Santander Private Real Estate Advisory & Management S.A., Santander Private Real Estate Advisory S.A., Santander Real Estate S.A., Santander Retail Auto Lease Funding LLC, Santander Rio Asset Management Gerente de Fondos Comunes de Inversion S.A., Santander Rio Trust S.A., Santander Rio Valores S.A., Santander S.A. Sociedad Securitizadora, Santander Secretariat Services Limited, Santander Securities LLC, Santander Seguros y Reaseguros Compania Aseguradora S.A., Santander Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., Santander Servicios Especializados S.A. de C.V., Santander Technology USA LLC, Santander Tecnologia e Inovacao Ltda., Santander Tecnologia Argentina S.A., Santander Tecnologia Espana S.L.U., Santander Tecnologia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Totta SGPS S.A., Santander Totta Seguros Companhia de Seguros de Vida S.A., Santander Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A., Santander Trade Services Limited, Santander UK Group Holdings plc, Santander UK Investments, Santander UK Operations Limited, Santander UK Plc, Santander UK Technology Limited, Santander Wealth Management International SA, Santander de Titulizacion S.G.F.T. S.A., Santusa Holding S.L., Services and Promotions Delaware Corp., Services and Promotions Miami LLC, Servicio de Alarmas Controladas por Ordenador S.A., Servicios de Cobranza Recuperacion y Seguimiento S.A. De C.V., Sheppards Moneybrokers Limited, Shiloh III Wind Project LLC, Sociedad Integral de Valoraciones Automatizadas S.A., Sociedad Operadora de Tarjetas de Pago Santander Getnet Chile S.A., Socur S.A., Sol Orchard Imperial 1 LLC, Solarlaser Limited, Sovereign Community Development Company, Sovereign Delaware Investment Corporation, Sovereign Lease Holdings LLC, Sovereign REIT Holdings Inc., Sovereign Spirit Limited (f), Sterrebeeck B.V., Suleyado 2003 S.L. Unipersonal, Summer Empreendimentos Ltda., Super Pagamentos e Administracao de Meios Eletronicos S.A., Superdigital Argentina S.A.U., Superdigital Colombia S.A.S., Superdigital Holding Company S.L., Superdigital Peru S.A.C., Suzuki Servicios Financieros S.L., Swesant SA, TIMFin S.p.A., TOPSAM S.A de C.V., Taxagest Sociedade Gestora de Participacoes Sociais S.A., Teatinos Siglo XXI Inversiones S.A., The Alliance & Leicester Corporation Limited, The Best Specialty Coffee S.L. Unipersonal, Time Retail Finance Limited (b), Tonopah Solar I LLC, Toque Fale Servicos de Telemarketing Ltda., Tornquist Asesores de Seguros S.A. (b), Totta (Ireland) PLC, Totta Urbe - Empresa de Administracao e Construcoes S.A., Trabajando.com Mexico S.A. de C.V. en liquidacion (b), Trabajando.com Peru S.A.C., Trans Rotor Limited (b), Transolver Finance EFC S.A., Tresmares Growth Fund Santander SCR S.A., Tresmares Santander Direct Lending SICC S.A., Tuttle and Son Limited, Universia Brasil S.A., Universia Chile S.A., Universia Colombia S.A.S., Universia Espana Red de Universidades S.A., Universia Holding S.L., Universia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Universia Peru S.A., Universia Uruguay S.A., Uro Property Holdings SOCIMI S.A., WIM Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., WTW Shipping Designated Activity Company, Wallcesa S.A., Wave Holdco S.L., Waypoint Insurance Group Inc., and Wirecard (Technological Assets). Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. provides various financial products and services primarily in Italy. It operates through Banca dei Territori, IMI Corporate & Investment Banking, International Subsidiary Banks, Asset Management, Private Banking, and Insurance segments. The company offers lending and deposit products; corporate, investment banking, and public finance services; industrial credit, factoring, and leasing services; asset management solutions; life and non-life insurance products; and bancassurance and pension fund, and fiduciary services. It also provides consumer credit, e-money, and payment systems; wealth management and private banking services. The company serves individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, non-profit entities, corporates and financial institutions, private clients and high net worth individuals, institutional counterparties, and other customers. The company is headquartered in Turin, Italy. Read More Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4) The navies of China and Southeast Asian nations had their first maritime exercises together to ease tensions in disputed waters. The "table-top" exercises included plans to deal with maritime incidents, Singapore's Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday. The naval drills were held on Thursday and Friday at the RSS Singapura - Changi Naval Base. "We had fruitful discussions and developed plans that help to enhance understanding and confidence between our navies. We look forward to furthering practical cooperation by exercising these plans during the sea exercise later this year," Colonel Lim Yu Chuan, exercise co-director and commanding officer of Republic of Singapore Navy's 185 Squadron said in a statement. The naval drills came amid growing tensions in the widely-disputed South China Sea. Four member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines have overlapping claims with Beijing over islands in the region. China has deployed missile structures in the waters after asserting its nine-dash line claim, which covers majority of the South China Sea. Captain Liang Zhijia, deputy chief of operations in the Naval Forces of China's People's Liberation Army, said the exercises are a good platform to build confidence, cooperation and understanding between the country's navies. "We all have common interest and we should work together. Such practical cooperation will help build trust so that we can work together towards safer seas for all," Liang said. Earlier, China has proposed to conduct military exercises and energy exploration with ASEAN countries in the South China Sea, planning to exclude the United States. The U.S. has recently increased patrols in the contested waters to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight there. Trillions of U.S. dollars worth of global trade pass through the area yearly. The following companies are subsidiares of Humana: 154th Street Medical Plaza, 516-526 West Main Street Condominium Council of Co-Owners, 54th Street Medical Plaza, American Eldercare, American Eldercare of North Florida, Anvita Health, Arcadian Health Plan, Arcadian Management Services, Atlantis Physician Group, CAC Medical Center Holdings, CAC-Florida Medical Centers, CDO 1, CDO 2, CHA HMO, CHA Service Company, Care Partners Home Care, CareNetwork, CarePlus Health, CarePlus Health Plans, Cariten Health Plan Inc., Certify Data Systems, CompBenefits, CompBenefits Company, CompBenefits Corporation, CompBenefits Dental, CompBenefits Direct, CompBenefits Insurance Company, Complex Clinical Management, Concentra Managed Care, Continucare Corporation, Continucare MDHC, Continucare MSO, Continucare Medical Management, Dental Care Plus Management, DentiCare, Emphesys, Emphesys Insurance Company, Enclara Healthcare, FPG, FPG Acquisition Corp., FPG Acquisition Holdings Corp., FPG Senior Services, Family Physicians of Winter Park, Go365, HUM Provider Holdings, HUM-e-FL, Harris Rothenberg International, Health Value Management, Humana Active Outlook, Humana At Home (Dallas), Humana At Home (Houston), Humana At Home (San Antonio), Humana At Home (TLC), Humana At Home 1, Humana Behavioral Health, Humana Benefit Plan of Illinois, Humana Dental Company, Humana Digital Health and Analytics Platform Services, Humana EAP and Work-Life Services of California, Humana Employers Health Plan of Georgia, Humana Government Business, Humana Health Benefit Plan of Louisiana, Humana Health Company of New York, Humana Health Insurance Company of Florida, Humana Health Plan, Humana Health Plan of California, Humana Health Plan of Ohio, Humana Health Plan of Texas, Humana Health Plans of Puerto Rico, Humana Healthcare Research, Humana Inc., Humana Innovation Enterprises, Humana Insurance Company, Humana Insurance Company of Kentucky, Humana Insurance Company of New York, Humana Insurance of Puerto Rico, Humana Management Services of Puerto Rico, Humana MarketPOINT, Humana MarketPOINT of Puerto Rico, Humana Medical Plan, Humana Medical Plan of Michigan, Humana Medical Plan of Pennsylvania, Humana Medical Plan of Utah, Humana Pharmacy, Humana Pharmacy Solutions, Humana Regional Health Plan, Humana Veterans Healthcare Services, Humana WellWorks LLC, Humana Wisconsin Health Organization Insurance Corporation, Humana at Home, HumanaDental, HumanaDental Insurance Company, Humco, Hummingbird Coaching Systems LLC, Independent Care Health Plan, KMG America, Kindred Healthcare, MCCI Group Holdings, MCCI Holdings, MCCI Medical Group, MCCI Specialty, MCCI/Lifetime of Aventura, MD Care, METCARE of Florida, Managed Care Indemnity, Medical Care Consortium Incorporated of Texas, MetCare, Metropolitan Health Networks, Naples Health Care Specialists, North Region Providers, Nursing Solutions, OSF HealthCare, PHP Companies, Partners in Integrated Care, Preferred Health Partnership, Preservation on Main, Primary Care Holdings, Primary Care Holdings II, Primary Care Specialists of the Palm Beaches, RMA Medical Centers of Florida, RMA Medical Group of Florida, ROHC, SeniorBridge, SeniorBridge Family Companies (CT), SeniorBridge Family Companies (FL), SeniorBridge Family Companies (IN), SeniorBridge Family Companies (MO), SeniorBridge Family Companies (NY), SeniorBridge-Florida, Texas Dental Plans, The Dental Concern, Transcend Population Health Management, and Transcend Population Health Management II. The following companies are subsidiares of Tyson Foods: APF Legacy Subs LLC, Advance Food Company LLC, AdvancePierre Foods, AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., AdvancePierre Foods Inc., Aidells Sausage Company Inc., Allied Specialty Foods Inc., American Proteins Inc, Artisan Bread Co. LLC, Australian Food Corporation Pty Limited, Australian Food Corporation Trust, BRF, Barber Foods LLC, Bosco's Pizza Co., Bryan Foods Inc., C.S. Grain LLC, C.V. Holdings Inc., CBFA Management Corp., Central Industries Inc., Chefs Pantry LLC, Clovervale Farms LLC, Cobb (Hubei) Breeding Co. Ltd., Cobb (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Cobb Ana Damizlik Tavukculuk Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cobb Columbia S.A.S., Cobb Europe B.V., Cobb Europe Limited, Cobb Peru (Andina) S.A.C., Cobb-Heritage LLC, Cobb-Vantress Brasil Ltda, Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cobb-Vantress New Zealand Limited, Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc., Coominya AFC Pty Limited, Coominya AFC Trust, DFG Foods Inc., DFG Foods L.L.C., Don Julio, Egbert LLC, Equity Group - Georgia Division LLC, Equity Group - Kentucky Division LLC, Equity Group Eufaula Division LLC, Equity Meat Corp., Flavor Corp., Flavor Holdings Inc., Foodbrands America Inc., Foodbrands Supply Chain Services Inc., Gallo Salame Inc., Global Employment Services Inc., Grow-Out Credit LLC, Grow-Out Holdings LLC, Haimen Tyson Poultry Development Co. Ltd, Hudson Foods Company, Hudson Midwest Foods Inc., Hybro Genetics Brasil Ltda, IBP Caribbean Inc., IBP Foodservice L.L.C., IBP Inc., International Affiliates & Investment LLC, Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Keydutch Finance B.V., Keydutch Holdings I LLC, Keydutch Holdings II LLC, Keydutch Investments B.V., Keystone CLJV Holdings Limited, Keystone County House Road LLC, Keystone Foods, Keystone Foods (AP) Limited, Keystone Foods Holdco LLC, Keystone Foods Intermediate LLC, Keystone Foods LLC, Keystone Foods Pty Limited, Keystone Management Inc., Keystone Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, LD Foods LLC, M & M Express LLC, M&M Restaurant Supply (MI/OH) LLC, MFG (USA) Holdings Inc., Mac Food Services (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Madison Foods Inc., McKey Food Services (Hong Kong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Shandong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Thailand) Limited, McKey Food Services Limited, McKey Luxembourg Holdings APMEA S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg S.a.r.l., McKey VI Holdings Limited, Myung Seung Food Company Ltd., National Comp Care Inc., New Canada Holdings Inc., Oaklawn Capital Corporation, Oaklawn IT Solution Private Limited, Original Philly Holdings Inc., PBX inc., Pierre Holdco Inc., River Valley Ingredients LLC, Rizhao Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Rizhao Tyson Poultry Co. Ltd, Rural Energy Systems Inc., Sara Lee - Kiwi Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Diversified LLC, Sara Lee Foods LLC, Sara Lee Household & Body Care Malawi Ltd., Sara Lee International LLC, Sara Lee International TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Mexicana Holdings Investment L.L.C., Sara Lee TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Trademark Holdings Australasia LLC, Saramar L.L.C., Shandong Tyson-Da Long Food Company Limited, Smart Chicken, Southern Family Foods L.L.C., Southwest Products LLC, TF 20 B.V., TF 5201 B.V., TFA Leasing LLC, TFA Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, TFI of California Inc., Tecumseh Poultry LLC, Texas Transfer Inc., The Bruss Company, The Hillshire Brands Company, The IBP Foods Co., The Pork Group Inc., TyNet Corporation, Tyson (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Tyson Americas Holding Sarl, Tyson Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Tyson Breeders Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Tyson China Holding 2 Limited, Tyson China Holding 3 Limited, Tyson China Holding Limited, Tyson Deli Inc., Tyson Europe Holding Company, Tyson Farms Inc., Tyson Farms QOZB LLC, Tyson Foods Brasil Investimentos Ltda., Tyson Foods Canada Inc., Tyson Foods Europe (Netherlands) B.V., Tyson Foods Europe GmbH, Tyson Foods France S.A.R.L., Tyson Foods Germany GmbH, Tyson Foods Group Limited, Tyson Foods Holland B.V., Tyson Foods Huadong Development Co. Ltd, Tyson Foods Iberia Alimentos S.L.U., Tyson Foods Italia S.p.A., Tyson Foods Korea, Tyson Foods Netherlands B.V., Tyson Foods Products Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Europe Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Sales (Europe) Limited, Tyson Foods UK Limited, Tyson Foods Wrexham Limited, Tyson Foods oosterwolde B.V., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Sales and Distribution LLC, Tyson Global Holding Sarl, Tyson Hog Markets Inc., Tyson India Holdings Ltd., Tyson International APAC Ltd., Tyson International Company Ltd., Tyson International Holding Company, Tyson International Holding Sarl, Tyson International Service Center Inc., Tyson International Service Center Inc. Asia, Tyson International Service Center Inc. Europe, Tyson Mexican Original Inc., Tyson Mexico Trading Company S. de R.L. de CV., Tyson New Ventures LLC, Tyson Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Tyson Pet Products Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc., Tyson Processing Services Inc., Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats Inc., Tyson Sales and Distribution Inc., Tyson Service Center Corp., Tyson Shared Services Inc., Tyson Storm Lake Holdings LLC, Tyson Warehousing Services LLC, Tyson of Wisconsin LLC, Uninex SA, Universal Meats (UK) Limited, WBA Analytical Laboratories Inc., Wilton Foods Inc., Xamol Consultores e Servicos, and Zemco Industries Inc.. White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. engages in the acquisition of businesses and assets in the insurance, financial services and related sectors. It operates through the following segments: HG Global/BAM, NSM, Kudu, and Other Operations. The HG Global/BAM segment refers to the White Mountains's investment in HG Global Limited, and the consolidated results of Build America Mutual Assurance Company (BAM). The NSM segment comprises of full-service managing general underwriting agency and program administrator for specialty property and casualty insurance. The Kudu Segment provides capital solutions for boutique asset managers for a variety of purposes including generational ownership transfers, management buyouts, acquisition and growth finance and legacy partner liquidity. The Other Operations segment comprises of the Company, its wholly-owned subsidiary, WM Capital, its wholly-owned investment management subsidiary, WM Advisors, and its other intermediate holding companies, as well as certain consolidated and unconsolidated private capital and other investments. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Hanover, NH. Read More Niles Niemuth is the Socialist Equality Partys candidate for Congress in Michigans 12th Congressional District. To donate and get involved, visit niles2018.com. After turning in the thousands of signatures required to be on the November 6 ballot, the Socialist Equality Partys (SEP) campaign for Michigans 12th district has begun to move into its next stage. On Thursday evening the campaign team held its first election committee meeting in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area to discuss the current political situation, the significance of our campaign, and how we plan to reach the broadest layer of workers and youth throughout the district. Thea Students and workers explained what motivated them to get involved in the work of the SEP. Thea, a 17-year-old high school student from Ann Arbor, told us that she attended the meeting because: I feel that there is a real opportunity for change right now. I think we are in a period of flux where many workers, and especially young people, want to fight. Vanessa, a worker from England who lives in Ann Arbor, said she felt compelled to get involved after speaking to me at a rally last month in Ann Arbor against the attack on immigrants. She explained that she had been excited to meet socialists in America and agreed with the perspective we were putting forward on immigration. At the meeting, Vanessa spoke about the devastating state of health care in America. She explained that the ruling class everywhere is attacking the social conditions of workers and drew striking parallels to the situation facing workers in England. There, she explained: The people fought very hard for us to have decent health care. But it is now under attack. The current government of Theresa May has tried to blame immigrants for destroying health care, which is a complete lie. For Vanessa, like millions of workers around the world, health care is a very important issue. The claim that there is no money is a lie. There is loads of money, which they spend on defense among other things. I am tired of watching them destroy the quality of life for workers. Sam, a graduate student at University of Michigan, explained why he was drawn to participate in the election committee, and why the SEP is different from the Democratic Socialists of America and other pseudo-left organizations that promote illusions in the Democratic Party. The SEP is explicitly anti-capitalist, Sam said. With Bernie Sanders, hes just another New Dealer, just like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He thinks we can just go back a hundred years, reproduce the supposed golden age of capitalism, and its going to somehow turn out to be different now, like the capitalists havent figured out how to abate every single regulation. Theyve spent decades degrading all the New Deal regulations. We have to have a massive overhaul. We have to have a revolution. I support neighborhood committees, I support workplace councils, I want people to be talking about all these issues, he said. Sam concluded by calling on workers to get involved with my campaign. If youre a worker, youve been exploited. I want people who have been victims of capitalism to get together and figure out a way to throw it out. We have to democratize everything. Priscilla Priscilla, a recent graduate of University of Michigan, attended the meeting and commented afterward on her experience working with the campaign so far. I really like the sheer enthusiasm of these meetings and the fact that people of all age groups are attracted to the meetings. It's very inspiring. I appreciate the political clarity which comes out of these meetings. I notice that the views of IYSSE and SEP members is very singular and united and on the same page, which I find very powerful. You don't have the model of the DSA of trying to gather as many people as possible without making any strong claims whatsoever. I am very excited for all of the potential of this campaign. I think exposure is really important, and I think a lot of young people would join this party if they knew it existed. Our newly formed election committee put together a busy schedule of campaign events for the next week that includes campaigning throughout the district for our first meeting series, A Socialist for Congress: A meeting with Socialist Equality Party candidate, Niles Niemuth. The campaign kick-off meeting series will be held at the following dates and locations: Ann Arbor Thursday, August 9th, 6p.m., University of Michigan central campus 1000 North University Ave. Building,Room 1528 Brownstown Charter Township Thursday, August 23rd, 7p.m. Brownstown Community Center 21311 Telegraph Road, Hall C Dearborn Details coming soon We will be intervening at an event in Ypsilanti with Senator Bernie Sanders this Sunday, which has been called to rally last-minute support for the Democratic Party primary candidate for governor of Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. Hailed as a progressive Democrat, El-Sayed is running as a status quo Democrat, championing empty promises of Medicare for All. For El-Sayed, this is a promise not of quality universal healthcare, but of a statewide healthcare system paid for by workers from their own paychecks, one which his website boasts will exempt a substantial number of businesses from healthcare contributions. Last week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), also visited Southeast Michigan after her primary victory in New Yorks 14th congressional district last month over incumbent Congressman Joe Crowley. After becoming, virtually overnight, a leading spokesperson for the Democratic Party, Ocasio-Cortez was quickly deployed to intervene on behalf of Democrats in other state primary races. That the Michigan primaries have now become a focus in mainstream politics is an indication of the growing fear that the decades of Democratic Party betrayals in the region could lead to a break with the Democratic Party by masses of workers. In this context, my campaign, calling for an independent movement of the working class in opposition to the Democrats and Republicans, becomes all the more significant. We plan to attend the event to warn workers and students about the role of Sanders in giving a left cover to the pro-capitalist, pro-war policies of the Democratic Party. We will fight for a genuine socialist program for the working class. I urge workers, youth and students in the 12th district and beyond to get involved in my campaign. If you live in the area, join us campaigning this weekend or in the coming weeks. You can get in touch with us by signing up at Niles2018. com. If you dont live close, there are many more ways to get involved: donate to our campaign, follow me on Facebook and Twitter and share our campaign statements on social media. Hans-Georg Maaen, the president of Germanys Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), met with former Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Frauke Petry several times in 2015, advising her how to avoid nationwide surveillance of the AfD by the German secret service and having her party designated as right-wing extremist. This was revealed in a recently published book, Inside AfD, by AfD dropout Franziska Schreiber. The 28-year-old author was a close colleague of Petrys and was chairperson of the AfD youth organization Junge Alternative in Saxony. Petry informed me later that Maaen had told her what the AfD had to do to evade surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which he had not wanted himself, writes Schreiber. They both seem to have developed a certain sympathy for one another. Maaen is said to have advised the AfD leader to expel Bjorn Hocke, a representative in the state parliament of Thuringia associated with the AfDs ethnic nationalist wing. In December 2015, shortly after meeting with Maaen, Petry did in fact call for Hockes resignation and prepared expulsion procedures against him. According to Schreiber, she did this at the urgent advice of the chief of intelligence. The BfV has in the meantime indirectly confirmed that Maaen met with Petry. One generally conducts conversations with representatives of all parties, a spokesperson told the Suddeutsche Zeitung, not denying that the meetings took place. He did, however, deny that Maaen advised the AfD or recommended the expulsion of specific leading members. That there were close relations between Maaen and Petry was already known long before the publication of Inside AfD. The news magazine Der Spiegel reported in early 2016 that they had at Petrys request met several times in the fall of 2015. The magazine referred to several AfD politicians, including Petry. There was talk even then of counsel given to Petry. It was understood that Maaen warned the AfD leader that the Saarland chapter would be placed under surveillance because of extremist activity. Shortly thereafter, the AfD moved to disband it. Maaen has for some time declined to investigate the radical right-wing AfD. In early 2016, Die Welt quoted him as saying, The AfD is not a right-wing extremist party. According to the article, Maaen spoke with unexpected clarity against surveillance of the AfD. The conditions requiring such an investigation had not been met, according to Maaen. Since then, the AfD has increasingly advocated openly for National Socialist (Nazi) and ethnic-nationalist positions. Petry, who as head of the AfD called on police to make use of their firearms if necessary against those crossing the border illegally, left the party because it was, by her own admission, too right-wing. Her successor, Alexander Gauland, has called Hitler and the Nazis a speck of bird shit in over a thousand years of successful German history. Not only is Bjorn Hocke still a party member, he has triggered nationwide protests with several inflammatory right-wing speeches. At the beginning of last year, he railed against the culture of remembrance of the crimes of the Nazis, called the Berlin Holocaust Memorial a monument of shame, and accused the Allies of seeking to rob us of our collective identity and eradicate us root and branch with their bombing runs on German cities. Despite this, party expulsion procedures against him ceased under pressure from the party leadership. Notwithstanding these developments, the BfV maintains its defence of the AfD. In the new 2017 Report on the Protection of the Constitution, which Maaen and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (Christian Social UnionCSU) presented last week at a press conference in Berlin, the chapter on right-wing extremism does not devote so much as a syllable to the AfD. Their name appears more frequently in the chapter on left-wing extremismas a victim of alleged left extremists. The report reads as if it had been written at AfD headquarters. Protests against the two party conferences of Alternative for Germany (AfD) held in Cologne in April and Hannover in December are cited as defining characteristics of left-wing extremism. The same goes for the persistent struggle against right-wing extremists and the fact that, in addition to the AfD, the left-wing extremists hold the federal government of the Christian Democrats and social democracy as well as the party Alliance 90/The Greens responsible for the tightening of asylum laws. Whoever criticizes the far-right or rejects the brutal and inhumane refugee policy of the grand coalition in the Bundestag (parliament), is, according to the definition of the secret service, a left-wing extremist and a threat to the Constitution. Still more reprehensible, according to the report, is the collection of information on alleged or actual right-wing extremists and their institutions. Maaens meetings with Petry and the Report on the Protection of the Constitution make clear that the BfV does not protect the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, but rather defends the AfD against all those who seek to exercise these basic rights. This is consistent with the policies of the federal government, which is made up of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the CSU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). This grand coalition government has not only adopted the policies of the AfD, it does everything it can to promote the growth of this widely hated party. With its decision to join with the CDU and CSU in a second grand coalition following the disaster in last years parliamentary elections for these, the parties of the previous grand coalition government, the SPD not only helped form the most right-wing government since the founding of the federal republic after World War II, it made the AfD, which received only 12.6 percent of the vote, the official opposition. Because of this, the right-wing demagogues of this neo-fascist party have unlimited access to prime time TV cameras and are able to freely spout their brown poison in the Reichstagthe very building whose destruction in a fire served as the pretext for the recently installed Chancellor Hitler to assume total power. The grand coalition has adopted and implemented the demands of the AfD regarding refugees. Its policy of militarism and the building up of the state apparatus is supported by the AfD. The BfV, which has more than 3,100 employees and a budget of 350 million euros at its disposaland this does not include the secret police offices of the 16 states and their numerous informants, or V-Leute is playing a key role in the political shift to the right in Germany. This process recalls more and more the end of the Weimar Republic, with its conspiracies and political killings. It was no accident that after the Second World War, many Nazis and members of right-wing organizations such as the Organization Consul (OC), which destabilized the Weimar Republic with political assassinations, were integrated into the BfV. The links between the BfV and the neo-Nazi scene are notorious. The BfV was involved in covering up the background to the 1980 Oktoberfest bombing, in which 13 people were killed and more than 200 injured. After the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which murdered nine immigrants and a police officer, was broken up, it was revealed that at least two dozen V-Leute had been in the immediate periphery of the far-right terrorist cell. This, too, was covered up. During the NSU trial, which lasted five years, the judge and the prosecuting attorney ruled out any investigation into this background, despite the insistence of the joint plaintiffs. Several V-Leute received limited or no authorization from the interior minister to speak before the court or a parliamentary investigating committee. Maaen, who claims to be unaffiliated with any party, has been a top official in the state intelligence apparatus for almost 30 years. In 1991, Otto Schily (SPD), then federal minister of the interior, brought Maaen into his ministry, where he quickly became the head of the department on immigration law. In this capacity, he prevented the Guantanamo prisoner Murat Kurnaz, who grew up in Bremen, from returning to Germany in 2002. In August 2012, Maaen was appointed president of the BfV by then-Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU). A short time later, he attacked whistleblower Edward Snowden as a traitor and called for the media to collaborate more closely in the strengthening of state security. In 2015, Maaen brought forward several criminal charges to initiate an investigation against two bloggers from netzpolitik.org on suspicions of treason. With this action, Maaen unleashed a major attack on freedom of the press. Hundreds of Kentuckians and West Virginians have been diagnosed with Hepatitis A, with dozens of new cases being reported in recent weeks. More than 1,200 cases have been reported in Kentucky, over half resulting in hospitalization. Eight Kentuckians have died from the infection. In West Virginia, at least 699 people have been diagnosed and two have died. Officials in both states caution that the real rate may be far higher, and that the outbreak may take months or even years to peak. Hepatitis A is a highly contagious infection of the liver, caused by contact with infected fecal matter. The virus can take several weeks to manifest symptoms. It causes abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and jaundice. A large number of those diagnosed with Hep A are intravenous drug users, and many are homeless. Although restaurants where workers are infected have dominated news headlines, overcrowded shelters and jails are among the primary sources of contracting the infection. In Lexington, Kentucky, the Catholic Action Center homeless shelter began mandating a Hep A vaccine for people seeking overnight shelter, and has put clients on sanitizing all surfaces to help prevent contamination. Unlike many viruses, Hep A can remain alive on a surface for months. Catholic Action Center co-founder Ginny Ramsey pointed out in a July 30 interview with reporter Mary Meehan of the Ohio Valley ReSource that low-wage restaurant workers and the homeless population are not mutually exclusive groups. We do have a lot of people who do that, she said; about 40 percent of our clients have full-time jobs. In Ashlands Boyd County, on the border with West Virginia, a spate of infections among food service workers prompted county health officials mandating vaccination of all food workers. The mandatory order reflects business owners distress at plummeting restaurant visits by many who are scared by local news reporting. Ohio Valley ReSource cited one restaurant franchise owner who said another restaurant lost 70 percent of its customers after a Hep A infection was linked to the business. Since 2016, the CDC has warned of the danger of an HIV and Hepatitis C outbreak in Kentucky and West Virginia. In February, the Northern Kentucky Health Department reported a cluster of 43 cases of HIV, centered in injection drug users. Similarly, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found 40 new cases of HIV last year in West Virginia, spreading in 15 largely rural counties. Ten of the HIV-diagnosed individuals had already developed AIDS. In Madison County, Kentucky, south of Lexington, the local health department has warned of a Hep A outbreak in the massively overcrowded detention center in Richmond. The facility was built to house 240 inmates, but currently houses over 400 people. Most of the inmates are drug addicts. Its like a petri dish, they are packed so close together, Health Department spokesperson Jim Thacker told the Ohio Valley ReSource July 27. Thacker expressed frustration that the CDC offers free vaccines to countiesbut only after the county has triggered a threshold of five confirmed cases. Madison County has registered only one confirmed case, leaving the Health Department with only a few dozen doses of the vaccine. Most jails and prisons around the state are confronting the same overcrowding dangers. All of the states prisons, as well as all 70 county jails housing state inmates, are full. Some county jails are more than 200 percent over capacity, with inmates forced to sleep on mats on cell floors. Jailers have converted gyms and multi-purpose rooms into inmate housing, according to a report by the Lexington Herald-Leader. A state study issued in December last year found Kentucky prison admissions have grown 32 percent over the past five years (from 20,000 in 2013 to 24,600 in early 2018) due to the drug epidemic and other non-violent and low-level offenses. The states incarceration rate is among the top five per capita in the US. Earlier this year, the state legislature shot down a bill aiming to reduce sentencing for drug crimes; instead, the state has resumed use of three private prisons to house hundreds of inmates. The prisons are all run by Nashville-based CoreCivic, a company with a long history of abuse, overcrowding, and riots at its facilities. Aside from convicted inmates, the state jails a huge number of low-level offenders before they ever receive a trial. The close quartering has raised the possibility of accidents, mass injuries from fires or fights, and disease outbreaks. In West Virginia, the drug epidemic continues to rage, likewise feeding a rising incarceration rate, straining social services and emergency response budgets. The state has registered the highest fatal overdose rate in the nation for several years in a row. Although the population of West Virginia is only 1.8 million, the state has reported 699 confirmed cases of Hep A. By comparison, Californias Hep A outbreak, officially declared over in April of this year, totaled 704 cases for a population of 39 million. In June alone, some 300 cases were confirmed in West Virginia, and officials estimate the outbreak could last another two years before receding. State Department of Health and Human Resources data shows most diagnosed cases are clustered in the state capital Charlestons Kanawha County (363 cases), and in Huntingtons Cabell County (155 cases) and surrounding areas. Both Charleston and Huntington have populations of around 50,000. Of those diagnosed with Hep A, over 80 percent are drug users; about one in seven are homeless. The West Virginia Bureau of Public Health reports that an increase of cases since March has been concentrated among drug users, the homeless, and the recently incarcerated. Two in three cases (428 cases) have required hospitalization, and two people have died of the illness. Significantly, 408 of 604 cases screened have found co-infection of Hep A with Hepatitis Ca rate of 67.5 percent. Hepatitis C (HCV) is a long-term, chronic liver infection commonly spread through injection drug use that develops into cirrhosis or liver cancer. The infection can take anywhere from two weeks to six months to manifest symptoms. There is no vaccine for HCV. Harm reduction services that could provide Hep A vaccination, including needle exchange programs, have encountered political opposition. In Charleston, Mayor Danny Jones ordered the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to close in March, calling it a mini-mall for junkies and drug dealers. The health departments location across the street from the currently expanding Charleston Civic Center and mall is likely a factor in the citys clampdown on services for the drug addicted. Needle exchanges regularly screen for hepatitis and HIV and offer counseling services, and have proven to reduce opioid overdose deaths. They have also reduced the number of dirty needles left in public places. Before being shuttered, Charlestons services saw nearly 500 people exchange needles in 8 hoursa sign of the profound level of addiction gripping the city. Officials estimate some 3-4 percent of Charleston residents inject drugs. More than a quarter of those drug users screened at the health department tested positive for Hepatitis C. In rural counties, treatment and needle exchange programs are nearly non-existent, and officials warn that many cases of hepatitis simply go unreported. Beyond the drug epidemic, deep poverty in both West Virginia and Kentucky exacerbate conditions wherein viruses like hepatitis can thrive. In both cities and rural areas, thousands of people lack access to clean water, adequate housing, and sanitation. A shortage of medical care providers, lack of transportation, along with social stigma, official indifference, starved municipal budgets, and lack of knowledge about disease prevention have all compounded the dangers of a major epidemic. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) concluded an important series of public meetings late last month against foreign interference legislation jointly rammed through parliament in July by the federal Liberal-National government and the Labor Party opposition. Addressed by SEP national committee members, the meetings were the only political events called in opposition to the legislation, which constitutes the most far-reaching attack on democratic rights since World War II (see video of Sydney meeting). SEP speakers explained that the laws were aimed at criminalising growing opposition to Australias central role in the US-led preparations for war with China, illegalising the activities of publishers and whistleblowers exposing war crimes and government wrongdoing, and cracking down on the emerging struggles of the working class. The meeting in Newcastle was addressed by Nick Beams, a longstanding leader of the SEP and regular correspondent of the WSWS. In Melbourne, Patrick OConnor delivered the main report. WSWS writer Mike Head addressed the gathering in Brisbane. A section of the meeting in Newcastle In Newcastle, Beams delivered an extensive report, placing the legislation in the context of the attempts by successive US administrations, beginning with that of President Barack Obama, to ensure that the Australian political establishment was committed to Washingtons confrontation with Beijing. Beams outlined the relationship between the hysterical official campaign in Australia, alleging Chinese interference in domestic politics, business and social life, and the trade war measures being imposed by the Trump administration against China. He noted that both were expressions of the attempts by the US to ensure its continued hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, and globally, through military, economic and repressive measures directed against China. Beams concluded that the foreign interference laws were aimed at suppressing the emerging social and political struggles of the working class. He insisted on the need to build a mass socialist movement, to prevent the drive to war and dictatorship. Lively question and discussion periods followed the major reports at each of the meetings. In Newcastle, an attendee asked Beams whether Australia could not avoid conflict with Beijing, based on its close trading ties with China. Nick Beams addressing the Newcastle meeting In response, Beams said that while Australia had major trade links with China, this was trumped by the great deal of investment and financial ties with the United States. Australia is interlocked with US imperialism through the stock market, the banks, the privileges into foreign markets The greatest investor in the Australian economy is the US. The speaker explained that there was no national solution to the turn toward a global military conflagration. He stated: Vladimir Lenin said of World War I that the socialist revolution would unfold internationally out of necessity, because there was no national path out of the war. The world was too interconnected for that. All of the belligerent powers were like bodies thrown into a tangled, bloody heap, from which no nation could extricate itself on its own. Lenin wrote this 100 years ago, and the world has only become more connected since. The answer to the drive to war is the fight to unify the international working class on a socialist perspective. Other questions were raised about the dangers of political repression posed by the legislation and US accusations against China of intellectual and trade property theft. In Melbourne, attendees asked about the response of legal experts to the laws, the dangers of fascism and the Turnbull governments prosecution of a whistleblower and his lawyer who exposed Australian spying against East Timor. The meetings were attended by a diverse cross-section of students, young people, retirees, and workers in a variety of trades and occupations. WSWS reporters spoke to some of them. Tessa In Melbourne, Tessa, a University of Melbourne student, stated: I was really interested in the discussion on the background to the new laws. I was taken aback by the hypocrisy of those who denounce China, while defending all of the connections of Australian business and politicians to the US. David, a young worker, said the Newcastle meeting, brought everything together in an insightful way. It showed how issues such as WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, which are very sensitive, are one of the main motives for these anti-democratic foreign interference laws. The wording of the bills is vague so they can be used in a politically-motivated way. With Julian Assange, the major powers, including here, have complained they dont have enough laws to prosecute him for exposing their war crimes and wrongdoing. Now we see Australia is being used as a testing ground to set a precedent for the type of repressive measures the US intends to implement. Robert, a 60-year-old worker, said: I didnt know a great deal about the legislation to begin with, only heard a tiny bit on the news. I think the one good thing to take from this is that they are worried about people, especially the youth, entering into big struggles. They are worried about a mass, political awakening of what is going on behind the scenes. The ability to label someone or a group of people as influenced by an external power is a tool to suppress internal dissent. For a long time the elite have been able to control the information in the media, and the narrative for the population. This is now breaking apart and all politicians appear as narrow, shallow frauds. Both parties, Labor and Liberal, can be placed onto a postage stamp of ideas, and it is good to see the Socialist Equality Party giving a different perspective on how the world works. Nicholas Nicolas, an honours student at the University of Newcastle, said: It sounds as though these laws can be manipulated to the whim of the political establishment. Theyre so unspecified. Theyre really quite dangerous in that regard. The purpose of these laws is to control political dissent. The government is making sure that theyve got all the legislation and precedents in place so that they can execute them when they need to. They want to be able to send people to jail for expressing opposition to their policies. Graham Graham, a taxation department worker, commented: The passing of the foreign interference laws has been very hush-hush in the press. There was only a scant mention of them and the main object was to suggest that the laws are to prevent Chinas interference in the Australian political system. The reality is extremely scary. Probably half the population in Australia or more, particularly the working class, and anyone else who wants to stand up and say no to war, to injustice, could be restricted by these laws. Most working-class people dont know that these laws have even been passed, but it is something that will affect all of us. People definitely need to know. The authors also recommend: Australias new foreign interference laws: A threat to anti-war dissent [12 July 2018] Australian government unveils draconian foreign interference bills [31 January 2018] The implosion of the French National Assemblys commission of inquiry on the police scandal involving top presidential aide Alexandre Benalla has exposed the anti-worker politics of Jean-Luc Melenchons Unsubmissive France (LFI) party. LFI, a populist pseudo-left group linked to Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain, formed a tactical alliance with the right-wing The Republicans (LR) party and the neo-fascist National Rally (RN, formerly the National Front) based on common support for the police apparatus complaints against Benalla. Ultimately, representatives of the Republic on the March (LRM) party of President Emmanuel Macron brought down the work of the commission last Friday. At that point, LFIs Daniele Obono spoke in front of the cameras to attack LRM commission president Yael Braun-Pivet. Then she invited other opposition figures, including RN leader Marine Le Pen, to do the same. Le Pen spoke first after Obonos invitation. Obonos defence on Twitter, claiming that she had addressed her remarks to LR rather than to Le Pen, changes nothing essential. Not only was it Le Pen who accepted Obonos invitation to speak, but it confirms that LFIs perspective in the crisis unleashed by the Benalla Affair is to cut deals with right-wing, pro-police forces. This underscores the warnings made by the Parti de legalite socialiste (PES), the French section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, on the repressive and anti-democratic character of Melenchons politics. Like other pseudo-left groups, such as the New Anti-capitalist Party, Melenchon and his party refused to give any clear leadership in the second round of last years presidential elections, when millions of Melenchon's voters refused to vote for either Macron or Le Pen. The PES was the only party to call for an active boycott and fight for the building of a political movement in the working class against whichever right-wing candidate won the election. If some were surprised at Obonos behaviour, given her Gabonese origins, the PES was not. Her appeal directed to Le Pen, the main political representative not only of neo-fascism but of the security forces, was a clear sign. After Syriza and its electoral alliance with the right-wing Independent Greeks, and the populist Five-Star Movements alliance with the fascistic Lega of Matteo Salvini in Italy, it is emerging that LFIs populism is compatible with right-wing, anti-worker policies rejected by millions of LFI voters. This vindicates the PES record and its struggle to build a Trotskyist vanguard in France. The Benalla affair unmasked the arbitrary, violent and illegal character of the French ruling class and political establishment. A video showing Benalla assaulting two young protesters on May Day exposed the arbitrary powers given to police since France imposed a state of emergency. A police state is rapidly taking shape in France and across Europe, as the European Union (EU) decrees the construction of a vast network of concentration camps for refugees across the continent targeting refugees first of all, but ultimately directed at all internal opposition. In this situation, what brings together Melenchon, the right and the extreme right is the promotion of the police and of state repression. As the ruling elite bickers over the best methods of imposing a dictatorship, it summons together various political tendencies to cover up or downplay the significance of police brutality, which is at the center of the emerging police state regime in France. Whether or not it was intentional, Obonos invitation to Le Pen to speak was not an accident. It was the inevitable outcome of the political convergence between Melenchon, LR and FN over the preceding days. Melenchon made no bones about his delight in allying with right-wing forces. When it is a question of protecting the state and to ensure the respect of the norms of our Republic, we are allied with the right and I am proud of it, he said. Last week, he carried out intensive discussions with LR parliamentary group chief Christian Jacob and with Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the head of a small far-right nationalist party, Arise France, that allied with Le Pen during the 2017 presidential run-off, on motions of censure targeting the Macron government. The reactionary and cynical opportunism of LFIs appeals to LR and even the neo-fascists is only surpassed by the hypocrisy of LRM, which objects now to links between LFI and the neo-fascists even though it was Macron who addressed a Republican salute to Le Pen on the night of his election. More fundamentally, the spat between Melenchon and Macron over the Benalla affair shows what the entire French political establishment, including its pseudo-left components, agrees upon. Melenchon attacks Macron, claiming his approach is amateurism and reproaching Macron, in effect, for trying to build a police state without the full and unqualified support of the police forces and the old political parties. With this platform, he is getting support from the police and the army, which have a significant presence inside LFI, and from Le Pen. LFIs support for the bourgeoisies preparation of a police state is that of an affluent middle class, obsessed with identity politics and hostile to the working class and the class struggle. This social layer is built around demoralized post-1968 student radicals who have passed through various petty-bourgeois Pabloite parties that postured for a time as the far left and occasionally claimed to be Trotskyist in order to cover up their right-wing policies. Obono is a typical representative of this layer. Obono was initially a member of Socialism From Below (SPEB), an organization affiliated to Britains Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a petty-bourgeois tendency that denounced the Soviet Union as state capitalist. In 2004, together with SPEB, she entered into the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), Frances main Pabloite organization, and then into the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) into which the LCR dissolved itself in 2009 under the direction of Alain Krivine and Olivier Besancenot. She joined the Convergence and Alternative (C&A) tendency of the NPA, which left the NPA in 2011 and joined the United Left group of ex-LCR leader Christian Picquet, who together with the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF) had joined Melenchons Left Front coalition already in 2009. These corrupt links underscore that, in order to fight the rising police state and the deep social austerity measures imposed by Macron, the working class needs a new party, the PES, fighting for a socialist program on which to unify the international working class, and based on which the working class can take power. Events have confirmed the PESs call for an active boycott of the second round of the presidential election and its warning that Macron was not a lesser evil to Le Pen. Nor was the boycott call a manoeuvre to get voters to vote Melenchon in upcoming elections. It sought to make clear that the only viable perspective was a politically independent, revolutionary movement of the working class in opposition to the pseudo-left. The role of the pseudo-left, and particularly the recent comments of Melenchon and Obono, have yet again confirmed this analysis. China has announced that it will impose tariffs on an additional $60 billion of US exports if the Trump administration goes ahead with its threat to strike a 25 percent levy on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The measures were decided at a meeting of Chinas State Council on Friday. The Commerce Ministry said the implementation and date of the tariffs depended on US actions. Coming on top of the tariff already imposed on $34 billion of US goods, the new measures would mean that around 85 percent of US exports to China would be affected. The proposed tariffs cover more than 5,000 goods from the US and the duties range from 5 to 25 percent. Among the most critical targets are aircraft and liquefied natural gas (LNG). China is the worlds second-largest importer of LNG and the third largest market for US LNG exports, with expectation that it will be the most significant source of additional demand in the future. The State Council said that in addition to the tariffs China reserves the right to introduce other counter-measures. It did not specify what they might be, but could include increased checks on US products, delays in approvals for US firms seeking licenses and other business requirements. The most significant counter-measure so far, though it was not labelled as such by China, was the blocking of the $44 billion Qualcomm takeover of the Dutch semiconductor firm NXP. The intensification of the trade conflict has been accompanied by an escalation in the aggressive rhetoric emanating from the Trump administration. Speaking after China had announced its new tariff move, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow warned that Beijing should not underestimate the determination of Trump. The administration is drawing strength from a rise in the US growth rate and signs of a slowdown in Chinas growth as the value of the yuan continues to fall. Their economys weak, their currency is weak, people are leaving the country. Dont underestimate President Trumps determination to follow through, Kudlow said in a Bloomberg Television interview. In another television interview, Kudlow laid emphasis on the agreement between Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker for joint action in the World Trade Organisation over Chinas alleged technology theft and the subsidising of key industries. The best news, he said, was that we are coming together with the European Union to make a deal with them. So well have a united front against China. Kudlow has said while talks have stalled in recent days there had been some communication at the highest level between the US and China. But there are major obstacles in the way of further negotiations. Officials in Beijing are reported to be unwilling to commit to any further discussions unless the White House can decide on who is the point person in charge. Last May, when talks were held in Washington, China agreed to increase its imports from the US by up to $100 billion in return for at least a suspension of hostilities. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin duly declared that the trade war had been put on hold, but this was overturned in a matter of a few days. The issue of who is to take charge of US policy if negotiations do take place is bound up the question of what are the central objectives of the trade war. Mnuchin is more in favour of coming to an agreement that would bring about a reduction in the US deficit. Others, including the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, insist that the reduction in the US trade deficit while necessary is by no means sufficient. For them, the central objective is to block Chinas economic and technological development under its Made in China 2025, plan which they regard as the most significant threat to the economic, and ultimately military, supremacy of the US. Therefore, the US needs to continue escalating tariffs against China in order to secure concessions. This outlook was reflected in the statement issued by White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters who said that instead of retaliating, China should address the longstanding concerns about its trading practices. Those longstanding concerns centre on two key issues: the acquisition and development by China of advanced technology in the fields of communications, robotics and artificial intelligence; and the state subsidies provided to companies. But for the Chinese regime, Washingtons demands mean that it should cease its efforts to move up the industrial and hi-tech ladder and take a subservient position in relation to the US, something which it regards as intolerable. The essential objective foundations of the trade war are now emerging more clearly into the open. As the Financial Times noted, the fight has become about the two countries economic futures, with US officials portraying their aggressive approach to Beijing as a way to protect Americas economic future from a China that is intent on leading the world in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics. On the other side, it said, Chinese policymakers had arrived at the conclusion that Trumps trade challenge was aimed at thwarting Chinas technological development. The irresolvable nature of these positions means that whatever talks, negotiations and manoeuvres may take place, the objective logic of events is towards intensification of the trade war and ultimately military conflict. The toll from US-backed Saudi coalition air strikes on a fish market and hospital in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah Thursday has risen to at least 60 people dead and 130 others wounded. The bombardment, which has been all but ignored by the establishment press, comes amid a weeks-long siege of the western city and coalition efforts to destroy vital civilian infrastructure, threatening to sharply escalate the worlds most dire humanitarian crisis. Saudi coalition warplanes struck a crowded Hodeidah fish market as throngs of residents packed in to purchase one of Yemens only abundant domestic sources of food. Witnesses report a chaotic scene as a warplane overhead fired upon the packed market, then continued to linger above the city. As people rushed the dead and injured to the al-Thawra hospital just 20 meters (60 feet) away, the warplane began bombing the entrance to the hospital, apparently to prevent the injured from receiving treatment. By all accounts, there were no military targets in the surrounding area, nor even a noticeable presence of armed men. Rather, rights groups and witnesses argue that bombing of the fish market and the follow-up attack on the hospital served no apparent purpose other than to spread terror within Yemeni society following a series of attempts over recent weeks to recapture the city that have all ended in defeat or stalemate for the invading forces. These are comprised primarily of mercenaries from Central America and members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from the countrys east and south. A 38-year-old Hodeidah resident, Alaa Thabet, told Middle East Eye that he was on his way home when, I heard a warplane hover over Hodeidah. Then I heard an air strike target the fish market and the buzzing of the warplane was clearer after the attack. After that people went to take the casualties to several hospitals, including al-Thawra Hospital, but the warplane returned to hover again. Dr. Yaser Nour was working in the oncology center at al-Thawra Hospital when he heard the sound of air strikes and saw the smoke rising in front of the gate. He continued: I was in a state of severe panic. Everyone was running scared while I was heading towards the emergency gate. I saw more than 10 bodies, including four women and a young girl. The Saudi-led coalition began its offensive against Yemen in March 2015 following the overthrow of the corrupt puppet regime of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2014. The Houthis, a militant political movement based on the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam, today controls most of the countrys densely populated north, including the capital of Sanaa. The Saudi-led campaignwhich could not be waged without vital support from the United States in the form of intelligence, logistics and weaponryhas killed tens of thousands of people in the poorest country in the Arab world due to the indiscriminate targeting of civilians and deliberate destruction of infrastructure. Over the past month, the coalition has targeted water treatment facilities that serve the 600,000 residents of Hodeidah, leading to fears of a deepening cholera outbreak that has already infected over one million, as sanitation is shut off. The suffering of the Yemeni people at the hands of the Saudis has been compounded by a US-enforced blockade of the nation, which relies on imports for over 90 percent of its food supply, 70 percent of which flows through Hodeidah. This has led to more than one-third of the population of 22 million being at risk of starvation. CHEYENNE. (AP) A man whos running for governor of Wyoming amid accusations he lives in Colorado will remain in the race. CHEYENNE. (AP) A man whos running for governor of Wyoming amid accusations he lives in Colorado will remain in the race. A judge in Cheyenne denied a request Friday to order Republican Taylor Haynes to withdraw. Wyoming officials, including Secretary of State Ed Buchanan, also have asked Laramie County District Judge Thomas Campbell to declare Haynes ineligible to be governor. The judge... How do you grow a city? Thats a question facing the city of Worland as they fight to keep the population above 5,000 in order to hold on to federal Urban Systems funding. How do you grow a city? Thats a question facing the city of Worland as they fight to keep the population above 5,000 in order to hold on to federal Urban Systems funding. The Urban Systems funding has helped the city build major streets including 23rd Street. The Urban Systems Committee has been setting aside funding potentially for a Washakie Avenue improvement project. They have $633,000 i... The disappearance of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts: A timeline originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Authorities are still searching for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, who mysteriously vanished in a rural Iowa town. ABC News has put together a timeline of what is known so far about the days leading up to and following her disappearance. July 16, 2018 Tibbetts, a rising sophomore at the University of Iowa, was staying with her boyfriend, Dalton Jack, for the summer in Brooklyn, Iowa, a close-knit farming community of about 1,500 people. Jack, 20, told ABC News he last saw Tibbetts on July 16. July 17, 2018 Jack traveled to the city of Dubuque, Iowa, for his work at a construction company on July 17. Tibbetts stayed at his house in Brooklyn alone and watched his dogs, he said. PHOTO: Dalton Jack and Mollie Tibbetts are pictured in a photo posted to Facebook, July 20, 2018. (Facebook) July 18, 2018 Jack told ABC News he chatted with Tibbetts via text messages and social media on July 18, just before she went out for an evening jog which, Jack said, was her regular routine. "She goes for a run every night. She likes to go whenever the sun's not down," Jack told ABC News in a recent interview. "She knows Brooklyn extremely well, better than I do, and Ive lived here my entire life." Jack said he believes Tibbetts would have had both her FitBit activity tracker and her cellphone when she went out for her jog. Tibbetts was last seen at approximately 7:30 p.m. local time that night while running along the city streets of Brooklyn. She was wearing dark-colored running shorts, a pink sports top and running shoes, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety. PHOTO: Missing Person billboard for University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts. (KCRG) July 19, 2018 Tibbetts was reported missing by her family on July 19, after she didn't show up for work. "That is so out of Mollie's character, one, not to show up for work, two, not to let her employer know, and, three, boyfriend, myself and her brother -- just no one was notified that she didn't go to work," Tibbetts' mother, Laura Calderwood, told ABC News in a recent interview. Story continues (MORE: Search continues for college student who went missing while jogging) (MORE: Mom says search for college student who went missing while jogging is 'excruciating') PHOTO: Laura Calderwood, the mother of Mollie Tibbetts, spoke out in an exclusive interview with ABC News about her 20-year-old daughter's disappearance. (ABC News) July 26 Police in Kearney, Missouri, responded on July 26 to an unconfirmed sighting of Tibbetts at a truck stop in the area. The location was more than 230 miles away from where she was last seen. Officers conducted a search of the area, spoke with witnesses and reviewed any potential surveillance video, according to ABC News affiliate KMBC. Meanwhile, Iowa authorities were analyzing surveillance video from businesses in Brooklyn that are along the route Tibbetts usually jogs. They were also examining data from her FitBit, a GPS-enabled activity tracker, according to Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel. "We do believe that there's going to be some useful information [from the Fitbit data] but [we are] not willing to share that," Kriegel told ABC News in an interview July 26. Fitbit Inc., which makes the activity trackers, declined to comment at the time. Kriegel also told ABC News that Tibbetts' boyfriend and brothers are not suspects. (MORE: Missing Iowa jogger is 'fighting her best to get back home,' says brother) (MORE: Investigators examine missing Iowa jogger's Fitbit data as search for 20-year-old moves to 9th day) (MORE: Missing Iowa jogger Mollie Tibbetts possibly seen in Missouri) July 27, 2018 Authorities, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, scoured swaths of land in Brooklyn and surrounding Poweshiek County looking for Tibbetts in the days following her disappearance. Investigators canvassed neighborhoods and conducted dozens of interviews. They also searched a pig farm several times near Guernsey, Iowa, about 10 miles south of Brooklyn. Richard Rahn, special agent in charge of the Iowa Department of Public Safety's Division of Criminal Investigation, told ABC News it's "not uncommon" to go back to a site and conduct additional searches as tips come in. Rahn declined to reveal what clues, if any, investigators may have found at the pig farm. But he said one thing is for certain -- Tibbetts isn't there. "I can tell you she's not there. Aside from that, I'm not sure what I'm able to release, but she's certainly not there," Rahn said in an interview July 27. (MORE: 'You won't see me giving up hope,' says mother of missing Iowa woman (MORE: Authorities 'hopeful' missing University of Iowa student is 'still alive' as search enters 10th day) PHOTO: The FBI is involved in the search for missing 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in Brooklyn, Iowa. (Rob Hess/ABC News) July 31, 2018 Authorities held a press conference outside the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office on July 31 to provide an update on the investigation, though they were extremely cautious about what information they released. At that point, investigators had received and followed up on more than 200 leads. Searches were conducted on the ground, from the air and with the help of canine units, authorities said. The Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case or the discovery of Tibbetts. The TIP Rural Electric Cooperative in Brooklyn agreed to match that reward, for a total of $2,000. (MORE: Police follow up on hundreds of leads in missing Iowa jogger case) Aug. 2, 2018 Tibbetts' family held a press conference on Aug. 2, where they said they believe she is being held captive and that the reward for her return has been increased to $172,000. "We believe that Mollie is still alive and if someone has abducted her we plead with you" to let her go, Tibbetts' mother, Calderwood, told reporters. "Every day I feel Mollie's presence with me. Sometimes I just feel her sitting on my shoulder. And Mollie was an incredibly strong young woman, and I don't know that I have the strength in me, and Mollie is lending me her strength every day and every night." Tibbetts' boyfriend also had a direct message for possible kidnappers. "If they're listening I would just like them to know, imagine if this was you," Jack said at the press conference. "Imagine if this was you. Somebody had taken your Mollie. Wouldn't you want to help? Wouldn't you want her back? Just do the right thing and let her go." That day, authorities told The Associated Press that a reported sighting of Tibbetts in Missouri was proved false. (MORE: Family of missing Iowa woman offers $172K for her return) PHOTO: Rob Tibbetts, the father of missing student Mollie Tibbetts, 20, speaks at a press conference in Brooklyn, Iowa, Aug. 2, 2018. (WOI) Aug. 3, 2018 Authorities held a press conference outside the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office on Aug. 3 to provide another update on the investigation but remained tight-lipped on any clues or information they have uncovered. Kevin Winker, director of investigative operations for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, acknowledged how "frustrating" it is for the community and Tibbetts' loved ones. "We believe that it gives us the best opportunity to resolve this investigation," Winker explained at the press conference. Winker did say that Tibbett's disappearance is being treated as a missing person's case and the investigation "has not slowed." He told reporters that investigators are "confident" they have a "solid timeline," but declined to give further details. He also declined to say whether they have identified any suspects. "We continue to look at all possibilities," Winker said. "I'm not in a position right now to say we have suspects, we dont have suspects, persons of interest or anything else" (MORE: Missing University of Iowa student's boyfriend speaks out) ABC News' Andy Fies, Rob Hess, Meghan Keneally, Amanda McMaster, Alex Perez and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report. Melania Trump not 'taking sides' in war of words between Trump, LeBron James originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Melania Trump praised LeBron James after President Trump took a shot at him on Twitter -- but the first lady is not "taking sides" in the escalating war of words between the basketball legend and her husband, a senior White House official said. Through a spokeswoman Saturday, Melania Trump said James was "working to do good things on behalf of our next generation." "Just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today," the first laday's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said in the statement. "As you know, Mrs. Trump has traveled the country and world talking to children about their well-being, healthy living, and the importance of responsible online behavior with her Be Best initiative. "Her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools, and she would be open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron," the statement continued, referring to the school James opened last week for so-called at-risk elementary children. The statement came a day after President Trump took a swipe at James, saying it was hard to make "LeBron look smart." The president also got a final dig in at James, saying "I like Mike," a reference to all-time great Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan. The tweet came in response to an interview James conducted with CNN host Don Lemon, a frequent punching bag for the president. James spoke to Lemon from the public, non-charter school he opened for at-risk kids in Akron, called the I Promise school. Every student receives free tuition, as well as free food, uniform and even a free bike. But the senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the first lady's remarks shouldn't be interpreted as her picking James over her husband. Story continues "That wasn't her taking sides -- that was her office stick to what she is focused on, which is using Be Best for what it's intended -- to help children," the official said. The tit-for-tat between President Trump and one of the greatest basketball players of all time drew in other players, too, most of them to defend James. CNN took to Twitter to Saturday morning, referencing Melania Trump and suggesting that she decided the first couple's TV viewing Friday night. Sounds like @FLOTUS had the remote last night. ?? We hope you both saw the incredible work of @KingJames. #BeBesthttps://t.co/3Ok0z9Z6Ro CNN Communications (@CNNPR) August 4, 2018 Jordan, meanwhile, responded to the president's tweet through a spokesperson. "I support LJ," he said. "Hes doing an amazing job for his community. Lemon, too, responded via Twitter, using the first lady's iniative against her husband. "Who's the real dummy?" he tweeted. "A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages. #BeBest." Whos the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest https://t.co/XO50qVksnR Don Lemon (@donlemon) August 4, 2018 Lemon's interview with James only made direct mention of Trump at the end of the hour-long interview. Lemon asked James if he had any aspirations of running for office. He responded, "I don't think so," until Lemon brought up Trump as a possible opponent. "If someone tried to recruit a LeBron to run for president, they said, 'Listen, they've got no one, if you don't run, Trump's going to win,' would you run?" Lemon asked. "Well, in that case, I may," James said. Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James speaks as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a campaign stop at Cleveland Public Hall in Cleveland, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016. (AP) (MORE: LeBron James opens school for at-risk students) At the end of the interview, Lemon asked if James, "What would you say to the president if he were sitting right here?" The future NBA Hall of Famer responded, "I would never sit across from him." He followed that up to say he would sit across from Barack Obama. James has been outspoken in his dislike for Trump in the past. He unleashed a tweet following the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August saying, "Hate has always existed in America. Yes we know that but Donald Trump just made it fashionable again! Statues has nothing to do with us now!" Hate has always existed in America. Yes we know that but Donald Trump just made it fashionable again! Statues has nothing to do with us now! LeBron James (@KingJames) August 15, 2017 He also called him a "so-called president" in the wake of the Charlottesville violence. James also said he wouldn't attend a ceremony at the White House if his team had won the NBA Finals. (In the end, the Golden State Warriors won, and they won't be attending either.) The basketball player appeared at a rally for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign in his home state of Ohio, a critical swing state during the election that Trump ended up carrying. That campaign appearance probably turned the tide, as Trump didn't always feel so strongly against James. In 2013, he congratulated James on winning Athlete of the Year at the ESPYs and "a great guy." Congratulations to @KingJames on winning Athlete of the Year in last nights @ESPYS. LeBron is also a great guy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2013 James opted out of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this offseason and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. ABC News' Wil Cruz contributed to this report. Breastfeeding mom Jennifer Howard says her doctor told her to cover up during an appointment. (Photo: Courtesy of Jennifer Howard) A mother says her doctor stopped her from breastfeeding during a postpartum appointment to prevent lawsuits from something inappropriate. In June, Jennifer Howard of Stayton, Ore., who had given birth to daughter Evelyn four months earlier, went to a follow-up appointment with her new doctor at Salem Clinic. While speaking to the physician, the baby started crying so Howard picked her up to begin nursing. The doctor seemed uncomfortable and abruptly stopped me, asking if I had a cover, Howard, 38, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. I was confused and told him no one had ever asked me such a thing. According to Howard, the doctor explained the clinic had rules to to prevent lawsuits from something inappropriate. Flustered, Howard dug around in her diaper bag for a cover and wound up using a swaddle. As I pulled it out, the doctor took it from me, held it up like a shield, and turned his head away while Evelyn latched. Then he covered both me and my baby with it. Howard says the duration of the appointment was nothing short of humiliating. When she tried to show the doctor her painful C-section scar, he turned and left the room, returning with a female nurse who remained in the room. I should have left but I was focused on getting Evelyn fed, says Howard. I cried on the drive home, and then got angry. Later that day, the mom called the patient relations department at the clinic and asked about its breastfeeding policy. I was told there was none, she says. The woman I spoke to encouraged me to file a complaint with the office. Howard did so and filed an additional complaint with the Oregon Medical Board. I also called the clinic and asked to switch doctors, says Howard. About two weeks later, after playing phone tag with the office and my calls were ultimately ignored, I received a letter from the clinic stating my request was denied and that I was free to seek care elsewhere. A representative from the Oregon Medical Board told Yahoo Lifestyle that details from Howards complaint could not be made public and a representative from the Salem Clinic did not return Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment. Story continues Public breastfeeding is legal in Oregon. This protection is needed since women breastfeeding in a public place may be asked to stop, leave or cover up, causing embarrassment and stigmatization. Embarrassment remains a barrier to breastfeeding, states the Oregon Health Authority. In July, Howard posted her story on Facebook, writing, This post is not about whether or not you agree with breastfeeding in public. Its not about whether women should cover or not. I simply could not care less what anyone thinks. I parent my baby for her comfort, not for the comfort of the general public. It is my right to feed my baby anywhere, anyhow. The law says so. And the fact that I was hassled in a DOCTORS OFFICE just blows my mind. That was the one place I thought Id be free from being shamed. The one place where I assumed I wouldnt have to be on alert for someones disapproval. Apparently, no place is safe.the patriarchy is alive and well folks and Im tired of being silent. Howard has now hired a lawyer as a precaution. We have not sued, but I need some guidance, she says. All I really want is an apology and for the doctor to be educated. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Gabrielle Gibson claims she was harassed by mall security and kicked out because of her short shorts. (Photo: Gabrielle Gibson via Gabrielle Gibson) A teenage girl has posted on Facebook that she was harassed and kicked out of a Mobile, Ala., mall because her shorts were too short. Gabrielle Gibson, 19, shared a photo of her outfit, which she wore to the Shoppes at Bel Air. She said it prompted the malls security officers to threaten to call the police and resulted in her being kicked out. Apparently grown men [couldnt] contain themselves so I get kicked out, Gibson wrote. Gibson claims that two security guards at the mall were extremely unprofessional, and one was initially looking at her butt. I told them I have bigger thighs and its just too hot for jeans that I cant help they ride up a bit. It doesnt bother me then it shouldnt bother you. Everyone had short shorties on, she wrote, adding that the temperature that day was 100 [degrees]. The young woman also claims that the security guards threatened to call the police on her. Gibson told the Mirror, When I left the house I felt beautiful and happy about myself, but having grown men attack me about what Im wearing when Im just trying to walk around and buy things was just so excessive. They didnt have to throw me out. Its a sad day when grown men cant control themselves. I just dont want anyone feeling like I did. However, the Shoppes at Bel Air stand by their decision to remove Gibson from the property. They released the following statement to WKRG-TV: Given the high degree of importance we place on maintaining a family-friendly shopping environment, our policy requires all of our customers to dress in a manner that reflects our code of conduct. Anyone who violates this policy will be asked to change or to leave the premises. Both Gibson and the Shoppes at Bel Air did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyles requests for comment. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Meghanlike many of us this summerwill be spending her birthday celebrating someone else's big day. This Saturday, the royal crew will reportedly be heading to the countryside to be a part of the nuptials between Prince Harry's groomsman, Charlie van Straubenzee and his soon-to-be-wife and videographer Daisy Jenks. Having had her own, rather large, wedding this year, we're sure she doesn't find forgoing a few celebratory moments for her 37th birthday. However, we would hope that the newlyweds might have other plans up their sleeves for a belated 'do (maybe another trip to Botswana?), and we're certain that the dashing prince has some thoughtful gifting ideas up his regal sleeves. Judging from the heirloom aquamarine ring Harry passed from his mother, Diana, to Meghan on their wedding day, we know this is a boy who puts some effort into his gifting strategyno last-minute Interflora mess ups here, thanks. With such thoughts fresh in our minds, we admit to getting carried away and generating our own (entirely imaginary and speculative) gift wish list. If we were Meghan (one can dream), then the following lovely things would be written down well in advance, left open in browsers on one's laptop, and perhaps accidentally send over as e-commerce shopping links to the family group text. Whoops! Keep reading for Meghan Markle's birthday gift list, as imagined by our editors. As J.Lo once famously said, "my love don't cost a thing." We are certain that Meghan isn't the grabby, greedy, materialistic type, so the first order of the birthday proceedings will surely revolve around a big ol' smacker of a kiss from H. Striding ahead as Meghan's most-worn shoe brand, we'd say it's a safe bet to just keep buying her more and more from Aquazzura. In public, she tends to wear nude courts, but we'd imagine these sassy little numbers would be perfect off-duty party attire. As Meghan's wedding and engagement rings are silver, it makes complete sense to get a watch to match ASAP. This Cartier classic will be forever in fashion and isn't as expensive as some styles Pleeeease? Since designing Meghan's wedding dress, Givenchy has been favoured by the new royal on multiple occasions. It's tricky buying clothes for people, so we'd recommend a crossbody bag in a plain colour because the lady does love a crossbody bag in a plain colour. Oh, how they chuckled in bed together drinking coffee from their very own royal wedding mugs. Preferably a Louis XV chaise longue. And preferably with a Kindle and a flake and nothing/no-one else. Ta. If only we knew What we do know is her handbag collection inside and out though. This post was originally publish on Who What Wear UK. Charlotte Olympia has collaborated with Laduree to create the most fashionable macaroons and tea blend you've probably ever seen. The collection doesn't drop until August 29, but we would assume the Royals could pull some strings. Maybe Meghan could even share the loose tea leaves with HRH, as they appear to get along well. Story continues Dreaming of a being a duchess or princess someday? Then you'll have probably imagined the pony to boot. Okay, maybe you didn't imagine it'd be a Shetland wearing the same tartan coat as you, but we know she's in this for the laughs as well as the love. Being thoroughly modern royals, Harry and Meghan urged well-wishers to donate to charity rather than shower them with material goods and treats on their wedding day. You can see the list of their chosen funds and associations here. Everyone loves being treated to a romantic break, right? And these two haven't exactly had the most private 2018 thus far. So we'd recommend that Harry checks out this insanely cool Norwegian tree hotel. There's a huge hammock for stargazing, plus minimalist rooms (we know Meghan isn't one for pomp and fuss), husky-drawn sleds, a wood-fired sauna and so much more. Book 7th Room on Canopy & Stars for $1590 per night. One does like fashion! Okay, you can't buy someone a seat at LFW (as far as we know), but we'd love for this to happen. We might be in the end of so-called wedding season, but that doesnt mean its time to pack away those wedding guest jumpsuits and comfortable wedges for the dance floor. If youre wondering what the heck to wear to an upcoming fall or winter wedding, weve got you covered. Most importantly, youll want a dressy coat or jacket thatll complement your carefully chosen maxi or dressy jumpsuit, not take away from it. Thats why weve pulled together some of our favorite outerwear that would look stunning at a wedding. From leather jackets and trench coats for an edgier look, to embellished and jacquard coats for something dressier, theres something below for every kind of wedding guest style. Below, 22 dressy jackets and coats to wear to a wedding: BCBGeneration Mixed Faux Fur Jacket Sizes: S to XL Get it at Nordstrom. ASOS DESIGN Embellished Collar Coat Sizes: 00 to 28 Get it at ASOS. Tinsel Faux Fur Leopard Jacket Sizes: S to L Get it at Nordstrom. BlankNYC Suede Moto Jacket Sizes: XS to XL Get it at Nordstrom. ASOS DESIGN Curve Mongolian Ombre Faux Fur Festival Jacket Sizes: 14 to 28 Get it at ASOS. J.Crew Olga Boiled Wool Topcoat Sizes: 00 to 16 Get it at Nordstrom. Halogen Tie Sleeve Trench Coat Sizes: XS to XL, XS petite to L petite Get it at Nordstrom. ASOS DESIGN Jacquard Trench Sizes: 0 to 14 Get it at ASOS. Sejour Ruffled Faux Leather Jacket Sizes: 14 to 22 Get it at Nordstrom. Sam Edelman Collarless Chubby Faux Fur Jacket Sizes: XS to L Get it at Nordstrom. ASOS DESIGN Frill Bonded Coat Sizes: 0 to 14 Get it at ASOS. Rag & Bone Sven Reversible Wool Blend Coat Sizes: S to L Get it at Nordstrom. Leith Midi Coat Sizes: XS to XXL Get it at Nordstrom. ASOS DESIGN Tailored Lace Blazer Sizes: 0 to 14 Get it at ASOS. Weekday Faux Fur Jacket Sizes: XS to L Get it at ASOS. Levi's Lamb Touch Faux Leather Moto Jacket Sizes: 1X to 3X Get it at Nordstrom. Kensie Faux Fur Leopard Print Coat Sizes: XS to XL Get it at Nordstrom. Only Edge To Edge Coat Sizes: XS to XL Get it at ASOS. Sam Edelman Single Button Brocade Coat Sizes: XS to XL Get it at Nordstrom. BB Dakota Gabrielle Faux Leather Asymmetrical Jacket Sizes: XS to L Get it at Nordstrom. Halogen Blouson Sleeve Jacket Sizes: XS to XXL, and XXS petite to XL petite Get it at Nordstrom. Kate Spade New York Faux Fur Collar Wool Blend Coat Sizes: XS to XL Get it at Nordstrom. HuffPost may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Related... 15 Wedding Gift Ideas For Couples Already Living Together 20 Clever Wedding Gifts For Couples Who Travel 17 Dressy Jumpsuits To Wear To A Summer Wedding Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. SRINAGAR, India (AP) A young man was killed and two other people wounded when India's army fired at a funeral of a rebel in disputed Kashmir on Saturday, police and residents said, as seven rebels and an Indian soldier were killed in gunbattles in the region. Soldiers descended on a village in the suburbs of southern Shopian town as thousands gathered to participate in the funeral of a rebel killed along with four others in a gunbattle with government forces in a neighboring village early Saturday, said top police officer S.P. Vaid. Vaid said the soldiers were acting on a tip that a group of militants had come to the funeral and came under a barrage of stones thrown by local residents. Locals said clashes erupted after soldiers fired live ammunition at the funeral procession, killing one person. Two others were wounded. Earlier, army soldiers and counterinsurgency police cordoned off a neighborhood in the suburbs of southern Shopian town overnight, leading to an exchange of fire with rebels, police said. One militant was killed overnight while four more died early Saturday. The fighting sparked protests and clashes as hundreds of residents tried to march to the site of the battle to help the militants escape. Government forces fired warning shots, shotgun pellets and tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters, injuring at least 15 people, three of them critically. Separately, two rebels and a soldier were killed in the northwestern Sopore area on Friday, authorities said. Meanwhile, security guards posted at the residence of Farooq Abdullah, a member of India's Parliament and Kashmir's former top elected official, shot and killed a young man after he allegedly forced his entry into the residence on Saturday, Vaid said. Vaid said the man traveling in a car was unarmed and gate-crashed into the residence in southern Jammu city. He scuffled with security guards before he was shot to death. Abdullah was not at the residence. Story continues The slain man's family rejected the police version of the incident, saying that the residence was not on his route to the gym where he had gone in the morning. They sought an independent probe. There was no independent account of the shooting. India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in its entirety. Most Kashmiris support the rebel cause that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. In recent years, mainly young Kashmiris have displayed open solidarity with rebels and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown. The Daily Beast DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo foreign female tourists were caught in a crossfire between rival crime groups and shot to death last Thursday in the high-end resort town of Tulum, Mexico. Three other people were also wounded when the firefight broke out in the popular restaurant, La Malquerida, not far from the beach. Of the two women who were killed, one was from Germany and the other India.They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got caught in an exchange of gunfire betwee By Senior Airman Julianne Showaltercombined by FOX 52 - af.mil, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61121033 Warfare History Network, Ron Sanders Technology, Asia The fixed-wing AC-130 gunship started as a Gooney Bird and became a true weapon of war during the Vietnam conflict. How the AC-130 Became a Terror in the Sky Off in the distance came the faint drone of a large propeller-driven aircraft. The sound got steadily louder, when suddenly a curtain of red fire erupted from the sky and rained down on the rice paddies in front of us. Puff! Puff, the Magic Dragon! When Puff unleashed that first six-second burst every man knew instantly what it was. The sound was indescribable, a deep guttural roar that anyone who has ever heard and lived, will always remember. Puff flew back and forth over the battlefield that night in 1967, dropping huge two million-candle-power parachute flares and occasionally lighting up the sky with his fiery red breath. When daylight began Puffs work was done. The drone of his huge engines faded into the distance and a deathly silence lingered over the battlefield. Nothing moved in the eerie glare of the last flare as it floated slowly to the earth. The Evolution of Puff the Mighty Dragon The mighty dragon Puff evolved from very humble beginnings. The predecessor of the first fixed-wing gunship used in Southeast Asia was the WWII twin-engined C-47 (DC-3) Gooney Bird, which was first brought to Vietnam as a transport and cargo ship in November 1961. Shortly after their arrival, many C-47s were outfitted as flare ships and designated FC-47 (F for flare) to drop huge parachute flares over enemy positions during night attacks. In November 1963, FC-47s flung more than seven thousand flares over enemy positions. Due to increased night activity by the Viet Cong (VC) in 1963, it soon became apparent that a better night air effort was necessary. After much deliberation, and because of the diligence and persistence of several young Air Force Officers, the modern concept of the fixed-wing gunship was accepted. The effectiveness of such a gunship was dependent upon its ability to direct concentrated fire on enemy positions in near proximity to friendly forces. The chosen craft also had to have enough power and cargo space to carry the necessary armament and heavy loads of ordnance. Story continues The flying maneuver that was necessary for this type of precision fire mission was to circle the enemy position in a tightly banked pylon turn while firing from side-mounted guns. This would allow the craft to sustain continuous fire on a relatively small area. A cargo or transport-type craft was needed for the huge amounts of munitions required, and it had to be propeller driven, because jet aircraft were much too fast for the precision maneuvers necessary. The C-47 was chosen as the test plane. The armament chosen for the gunships was the General Electric rotary-barreled M-134 machine gun, known as the minigun, which could fire either fifty or a hundred rounds of 7.62-mm ammunition per second. Initially three miniguns per ship would be fixed-mounted in a side-firing configuration. Positioning the aircraft at the proper altitude and angle was the only means of aiming the weapons. Using this armament, a C-47 flying at three thousand feet in a tight circle could place a bullet in every square yard of a football-field-sized area (five thousand square yards) in approximately 17 seconds. Spooky and Puff An Air Force team was dispatched to Bien Hoa Air Force Base outside Saigon in December 1964 toconvert two C-47s into gunships for evaluation. The conversion was completed on the first ship in less than two weeks. Preliminary tests were run, and the gunship flew its first-day combat mission on December 14, 1964, firing on enemy sampans, trails and staging areas. The gunship scored its first verified enemy kills on December 21, 1964, with 21 VC dead. The first night mission was flown on the night of December 23, over an outpost under attack near Thanh Yend. The ship fired more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition and dropped 17 flares, successfully halting the enemy assault on the outpost. By then, the two converted gunships had flown 16 combat and 7 training missions. In February 1965, a gunship was sent to Bong Son, killing a hundred VC. Another 150 or so VC are believed to have been killed in that action, but the survivors dragged away the bodies and a total body count was not possible. Gooney Bird was quickly evolving into Puff the Magic Dragon. The armored planes fame quickly spread throughout Vietnam. American GIs were comforted by its presence, and the enemy lived in mortal terror of it. Reports have it that, on occasion, just the sound of one of them flying overhead and the dropping of the first giant flare was enough to break off an enemy attack. The test of the new gunships was considered successful and the order was given to convert 20 C-47s into gunships. They were now to be designated AC-47 (A for attack) Spooky gunships. The conversions were to be carried out in the United States, and the planes flown to Vietnam upon completion. SOS Arrives Near Saigon for Command Support The 4th Airborne Command and Control Squadron (aka SOS, Special Operations Squadron) arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, near Saigon, on November 14, 1965, with 16 combat gunships and four others for command support and attrition. Their mission was to respond with flares and firepower support of friendly positions under night attack, convoy escort, armed reconnaissance, close-air support, and interdiction. Although designated Spooky by the Air Force, the AC-47 was quickly nicknamed Puff the Magic Dragon by ground troops. In some areas even its official call sign was changed from Spooky to Puff. Anyone who has ever heard Puff fire those three miniguns knows the reason for the new name. The guttural roar made by the guns firing simultaneously could only come from a dragona very angry one. For the next four years, AC-47 gunships distinguished themselves in more than four thousand missions over South Vietnam and Laos. They accounted for at least 5,300 enemy killed, and hundreds of enemy trucks destroyed or damaged. Not a single hamlet or fort defended by Puff was ever overrun. AC-47 gunships operated out of bases throughout South Vietnam, including Nha Trang, Bien Thuy, Da Nang, and Pleiku. From November 1965 to December 1969, 53 of them expended over 97 million rounds of ammunition and dropped 270,000 flares. By 1969, the old AC-47s were beginning to wear out, and it was no longer feasible to keep rebuilding and maintaining them. On December 1, 1969, a lone AC-47 gunship flew its final mission in Vietnam under American command. The remaining ships were turned over to the South Vietnamese and Laotian Air Forces and continued to fight. Creep, Shadow, and Stinger In seeking a replacement for the AC-47, the brass settled on the new C-130. Unfortunately there were not enough of them available at the time, so the C-119G Flying Boxcar transport planes would be used until sufficient C-130s were available. The first AC-119G gunships arrived in Vietnam in December 1968, as the 71st Special Operations Squadron. Four AC-119Gs were in country by January 1969, but trials revealed that the craft was slow, hard to maneuver, and vulnerable to enemy ground fire; consequently it was not to be used in high-threat situations. Close-air support was the most appropriate use for the G model. The original designation of the G model was Creep, but after strenuous protests from their crews, the new gunships were renamed and were redesignated Shadow. Although this was its official designation, many GIs (Ground Pounders) continued to refer to all gunships as Puff. By mid-March 1969, all 18 of the original contingent of AC-119Gs were in Vietnam, but these twin-engined ships were so underpowered that, with a full complement of armament and ammunition, their performance was marginal. So a J-85 jet engine was added to each wing of the craft, and this modified version of the AC-119 K model was called Stinger. The first K models didnt start arriving until October of 1969 at Phan Rang Air Base. By January 1970, there were 16 G model and 18 K model AC-119s in Vietnam. FLIR System Enhances Ships Abilities All AC-119G and K gunships were equipped with four miniguns and a NOD (Night Observation Device) or starlight optical sensor. In addition, all AC-119Ks were equipped with two 20-mm cannon and a side-looking radar. The later addition of a Forward-Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) system greatly enhanced the ships ability to detect and destroy enemy vehicles. Even when stationary and hidden under heavy foliage, the new system could detect heat rising from still-warm engines. During May and June of 1970, AC-119s fired more than two million rounds of 7.62-mm ammunition and over 22,000 rounds of 20-mm cannon shells during one seven-week period over Vietnam. Starting in May AC-119s were used over Cambodia, and from May 5 to June 30 they flew 178 sorties. From July 1970 to March 1971 AC-119s destroyed or damaged 609 enemy vehicles and 731 sampans, and killed over three thousand of the enemy. In February 1970, AC-119s were assigned to Ubon Air Base in Laos and air bases in Thailand for use over Cambodia. Their primary mission was to destroy enemy shipping (trucks) along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and they proved very effective in this role. In September 1971, AC-119s began to be turned over to the South Vietnamese Air Force in preparation for the introduction of the latest model gunship, a converted four-engine C-130 cargo plane. The transfers were completed and Vietnamese crews were fully trained by May. AC-130A Prototype Arrives for Testing In September 1967, the first AC-130A prototype arrived at Nha Trang Air Base and began its test program. Like its predecessor, the AC-119, the AC-130A carried four miniguns; in addition, it was equipped with four 20-mm cannon with 2,500 rounds of high-explosive incendiary ammunition, advanced electronics sensors, fire control systems, and searchlights. Among the advanced technology on the AC-130A was the NOD, side-looking and forward-looking radar, and two steerable 20-kilowatt, variable-beam xenon arc illuminators (spotlights), capable of producing up to 1.5 million candle-power. The AC-130A prototype test program ended on December 12, 1967. The final evaluation stated that the AC-130 had three times the combat effectiveness of the AC-47. The AC-130A gunships principal advantages were more power (four engines), more cargo space, and more cargo-carrying capability. These advantages permitted the AC-130 to have more and larger armament, more ordnance, and more speed. The prototype AC-130A was sent back to the States for refurbishing but was returned to Vietnam in February of 1968, to begin flying combat missions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. From February to November, the AC-130A prototype destroyed 228 enemy trucks, damaged 133, and destroyed nine enemy sampans. The AC-130A prototype flew its last mission on November 18, 1968, and was returned to the States once more. During its short combat career, the prototype was determined to be the most cost-effective close-support and interdictive craft in the U.S. Air Force arsenal. Six Spectre Gunships in Southeast Asia By the spring of 1969 there were six AC-130A Spectre gunships operating in Southeast Asia. In December 1969, a newly modified AC-130 gunship arrived at Ubon Air Base. Dubbed The Surprise Package, the new model sported two 20-mm rapid-firing Vulcan cannon, two 40-mm Bofors cannon, and advanced electronics. During its 38-day combat evaluation, the Surprise gunship destroyed 178 enemy trucks, damaged 63 others, and logged 37 vehicles as results not observed. In addition, it attacked three antiaircraft sites, destroying one and causing major explosions at the other two. The new gunship was determined to be twice as effective in its interdiction role as previous models. The resulting advanced model was designated the AC-130E, and began arriving at Ubon AFB in Laos during October 1970. Between November 1970 and January 1971, six more E model gunships arrived in SE Asia. In the summer of 1971, six AC-130E gunships were produced with an advanced fire-control computer, higher gross weight limit, and improved countermeasure electronics. In addition, a flare-launching system equipped with 24 chaff flares to counter SAMs (Surface-to-Air Missiles) was installed. Before the addition of the flare launcher, the crews of gunships had only two crude but innovative defenses against the heat-seeking SA-7 Strela missiles commonly used by the enemy. The first was for a crewmember to manually fire a handheld flare directly at an oncoming missile while hanging out the open rear cargo bay ramp. The tactic was meant to confuse the missiles infrared tracking system by giving it another hot target to lock onto; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt. The main problem was, you usually only had one shot. The second defense against heat-seeking SAM attacks was for the pilot to bank the craft in such a way that the gunships wing would shield its engines heat signature from the oncoming missile. Neither tactic was effective against more advanced radar-guided missiles, however. As suspected, the flare-launching system was a great improvement over both previous tactics. Gunships Destroy, Damage 10,000 Enemy Vehicles During the winter campaign of 71 to 72, gunships destroyed or damaged over 10,000 enemy vehicles, destroyed 223 watercraft, and damaged 142 others. Most gunship activity in 1972 countered assaults by Communist forces on fire-support bases and provided fire support for troops. In February 1972, the first AC-130E Spectre was outfitted with a 105-mm Howitzer in place of one of the 40-mm Bofors cannon. This gave the gunship a much greater firing range and allowed it to fire from a higher altitude. The addition of the Howitzer also made the gunship a much more effective spotter aircraft. The ground explosion from the 6.5-pound artillery shell was much easier to spot by escorting jet fighter-bombers carrying napalm. F-4 jets often accompanied gunships on missions; three was the usual complement. This allowed two jets to stay with the gunship at all times, while one left for refueling by air tanker. The combination was very effective at suppressing antiaircraft fire. The truce of January 1973 ended American gunship operations in Vietnam and Laos. The last combat mission for American gunships was flown over Cambodia on August 15, 1973. Unquestionably gunships played a vital role in Americas efforts in Vietnam and were responsible for saving thousands of American lives. The Gunship Post-Vietnam The end of the Vietnam War did not mean the end of the gunship, however. It has been an active participant in defending American ground and air forces in Grenada, Panama, Operation Desert Storm, Somalia, and Bosnia. During the Granada invasion of October 1983, AC-130s suppressed enemy air-support systems and attacked ground forces, according to the Air Force. Gunships were especially helpful during the assault on the Point Salines Airfield. In Panama in 1989, gunships destroyed the Panamanian Defense Force Headquarters and numerous command and control facilities by what the Air Force called a surgical employment of ordnance in an urban environment. During Operation Desert Storm, Spectre gunships provided close-air support for ground forces and defended air-base installations against enemy attack. During operations Continue Hope and United Shield in Somalia in 19921995, Spectre gunships flew reconnaissance missions and helped defend NATO ground forces. In recent years, Spectre gunships have provided support for NATO ground forces in Sarajevo. Major Modifications, Upgrades to the Spectre Gunship Since the end of the Vietnam War, the AC-130 Spectre gunship has undergone several major modifications and upgrades in its performance, armament, and electronics. The latest version is the AC-130U. This air-to-ground attack aircraft features advanced armament with new computer- directed gun systems. No longer stationary, or fixed-mounted, the guns now have computer-driven, trainable mounting systems, integrated with fire-control avionics. These advanced fire- control systems are fed target coordinates from infrared and radar sensors. Two 20-mm Vulcan cannon have been replaced by one General Electric GAU-12/U 25-mm Gatling gun. The new gun can fire five rounds per second, has greater range, has a much more powerful projectile, and is much more accurate than the 20-mm Vulcans. Other armament includes one 40-mm Bofors cannon with 256 rounds of ammunition, and one 105-mm Howitzer with a hundred rounds. The new gunship can fire on two separate targets from an altitude of 20,000 feet, with a slant range of 25,000 feet (more than four nautical miles). This new capability greatly improves its standoff firepower and has improved its survivability. The U also has an advanced array of sensors including forward- and side-looking radar, low-light television, infrared sensing devices (ISDs), a global positioning system (GPS), and inertial navigation systems. This gives the gunship, according to the Air Force, a method of positively identifying friendly ground forces as well as effective ordnance delivery during adverse weather (and night) conditions. This article by Ron Sanders originally appeared on the Warfare History Network. Image: Wikimedia Commons Read full article The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees is reaching peak intensity this season. A lot of that is because the storied franchises are once again battling over the top spot in the AL East standings. But theres been bad blood on the field fueling the feud too. That includes one run-in that turned physical in April. The latest disagreement took place during Bostons 4-1 win against the Yankees Friday night at Fenway Park. And this time, the series of events left Bostons rookie manager Alex Cora steaming mad. [Yahoo Fantasy Football leagues are open: Sign up now for free] What set Alex Cora off? Mookie Betts, the Red Sox MVP candidate, nearly wore a 96-mph fastball. Thats enough to anger any manager, regardless of the circumstances. But there were other factors too that pushed really pushed Coras anger over the edge. It started with Red Sox starter Rick Porcello hitting Yankees leadoff batter Brett Gardner with an 0-2 pitch to begin Fridays game. In the bottom of the first inning, New Yorks Luis Severino buzzed Betts with a first-pitch fastball under his chin. The Yankees ace has undeniably had his share of command issues recently. However, Cora and the Red Sox were convinced the pitch was in retaliation for Gardner being plunked. Regardless of intent, the pitch in question was dangerous. Considering the bad blood that previously existed, home plate umpire Adam Hamari issued a warning to both dugouts in an attempt to prevent further retaliation. If Cora wasnt mad enough before, this really set him off. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora gives an earful to home plate umpire Adam Hamari after the Red Sox and Yankees were warned during an intense first inning. (AP) The Red Sox manager charged at Hamari and was ejected for the first time in his managerial career after a profanity-laced tirade, some of which made it through on television. Cora was adamant then, and again after the game, that Porcellos pitch was not intentional. In his belief, the umpires overreacted by issuing warnings, when in his opinion only one team acted intentionally. Cora: "They know how I feel about it. I dont appreciate them throwing at Mookie Betts head. If they felt 0-2, front-door sinker had intent, well, first pitch of the game, right at the head of the best player in baseball theres intent." Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) August 4, 2018 Major League Baseball will ultimately make the final determination on intent. If they believe Severinos pitch was in retaliation, he could face a fine or suspension. Story continues While Fridays game was completed without further incident, this situation is clearly still simmering. Cora offered this final take Friday, which clearly doubled as a jab at Severino. Alex Cora was asked if after Severino-Betts, the situation was over. He gave this walk-off response, getting up to leave as he finished it (the question had been announced as the last): I dont know, we scored four runs in less than six innings. Is that a quality start?" Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) August 4, 2018 Whether or not it boils like April is to be determined. What led to the Red Sox-Yankees brawl in April? The tension began when Boston shortstop Brock Holt took exception to then Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin making an aggressive slide on a force play at second base. Austin had his left foot elevated as he slid into second base, which caused him to spike the back of Holts leg. Austin insisted his slide was clean after the game. The Red Sox felt then like they feel now about Severinos pitch. Cooler heads prevailed initially, but it boiled over innings later when reliever Joe Kelly drilled Austin with a fastball. That led to a benches-clearing brawl with Kelly firing off a series of punches. Kelly was suspended six games for his actions. Austin saw his five-game suspension reduced to four games on appeal. Will the bad blood continue? We dont anticipate things getting April-level heated again. Both teams have too much to lose in that scenario as the postseason nears. After Fridays win, Boston owns a 7 1/2 game lead in the AL East standings, while New York is up five games in the AL Wild Card standings. Both are obviously in great position to play beyond the regular season. Of course, they also play each other eight more times, including Saturday and Sunday. Thats a lot of opportunity for more bad blood to brew. More from Yahoo Sports: EA Sports apologizes for editing out Colin Kaepernicks name in Madden WWEs Kane wins mayoral election in Tennessee Dan Wetzel: Loyalty may be Urban Meyers undoing at Ohio State Terez Paylor: Keeping Big Ben happy is top task for Steelers new coordinator Ankara (AFP) - Relations between NATO allies Turkey and the United States are at their lowest ebb in recent times after Ankara vowed to retaliate against Washington's sanctions on two senior Turkish ministers. The United States has imposed the measures in response to Turkey's failure to release American pastor Andrew Brunson who has been held in jail and now under house arrest for almost two years. But the Brunson case is far from the only area of tension bedevilling relations between Washington and Ankara, with a list of disputes scotching hopes of any rapprochement under the presidency of Donald Trump. - Russia - Turkey's increasingly cosy relationship with Russia and President Vladimir Putin has alarmed both the United States and the European Union, in particular a deal for Ankara to buy Russian S-400 air defence systems. Despite being nominally on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, Ankara and Moscow have since late 2016 been working on a peace process aimed at ending the civil war. The US Senate on Wednesday passed a defence authorisation bill which notably prohibits the delivery of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to Turkey over the S-400 purchase. But Ankara has threatened to apply international arbitration if the delivery does not go through, with presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin this week warning the US that Ankara had legal options to challenge any block. - Gulen - Turkey is increasingly frustrated that the United States has failed to hand over Fethullah Gulen, the exiled Muslim preacher Ankara blames for the 2016 attempted coup, so he can face trial at home. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, strongly denies the charges. Turkey has stepped up the pressure on Washington to return Gulen but the US says the conditions to detain or return Gulen have not been met, according to American law. "They presented a very large quantity of information about the Gulen organisation and about the coup, but the issue is 'is there sufficiently clear evidence of Fethullah Gulen's personal involvement in the coup'?" a senior US official said last month. Story continues - Prisoners - Brunson is not the only prisoner whose detention by Turkey has angered the US. Several Americans were caught up in the crackdown that followed the failed coup, including NASA scientist Serkan Golge, a dual national, who was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in February for being a member of Gulen's movement. Two employees from US missions in Turkey remain in custody on terror charges and another under house arrest. "The US has grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of Turkish progress on addressing its main complaints," said Amanda Sloat, former State Department official, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She cited the "troubling" plans of a NATO ally to purchase a Russian missile defence system and the imprisonment on "spurious terrorism charges" of US citizens and Turkish consulate staff. - Halkbank - Turkey reacted with fury in January when Mehmet Hakan Atilla, 47, deputy director general of Turkish lender Halkbank, was convicted by a US federal jury in a New York court in January of helping Iran evade US sanctions on billions of dollars of oil proceeds. The trial had heard testimony which implicated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials in the scheme. The president called the case a "plot" against Turkey. Media reports, including in the pro-government Daily Sabah, have suggested Turks and Americans discussed swapping Atilla, who was sentenced to 32 months in jail, for Brunson. "They already have a deal which was in the works. It's one both sides could present as a victory to their own public," Asli Aydintasbas, fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) told AFP. Halkbank also faces a massive fine from the US Department of the Treasury, which could lead to "strains in the balance of payments, pressure on the lira and a tightening of credit conditions," said Jason Tuvey, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics. - Syrian Kurds - A still unresolved issue is US support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which controls much of northern Syria after ousting jihadists but Turkey regards as a terror group. In January, Turkey launched an offensive supporting Syrian rebels against the YPG in its western enclave of Afrin, despite US calls for restraint. Ankara repeatedly threatened to take the operation further to the YPG-held city of Manbij where there are US forces but, thanks to a flurry of diplomacy, the NATO allies produced a joint "roadmap" in May to coordinate security and avoid a clash. But Aydintasbas said there was now the risk of a "pause" on Manbij. "I don't see how the (Manbij timetable) could work out with US sanctions imposed on Turkey," she added. Harry J. Kazianis Security, Asia "Protecting the aircraft is just a first step." Can America and Its Allies "Play Fort" against China Deadly Missiles? In general, investing in inherently defensive measures like hardening tends to increase crisis stability and reduce the security dilemma. If both sides had nothing but defensive weapons, then there would be no security dilemma. Defensive measures increase crisis stability by 1) reducing confidence on the part of the attacker that preemptive knock-out blows will succeed and 2) reducing the tendency of the defender to view the defended systems as use it or lose it assets. As the United States continues to place tremendous time, energy and resources into its rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, many are questioning the military and strategic aspects of this effort. Specifically, many analysts are concerned over the emphasis China has placed on its ballistic- and cruise-missile platforms. If a crisis were to occur, and with so many U.S. and allied bases now in range of Beijings growing missile forces, is there a case to be made to harden bases that might be in range? Harry J. Kazianis of The National Interest, spoke to CSBA Senior Fellow John Stillion in an effort to break down this complex issue. (This first appeared in 2014 and is being reposted due to reader interest.) Kazianis: There is a lot of talk about base "hardening" when it comes to American forward-deployed assets in the Asia-Pacific. The fear is that many of these bases would be vulnerable to Chinese missile saturation strikes in the event of a conflict. For starters, what exactly is base hardening? Are we talking about just protecting fighter jets or something more? Stillion: At the outset of the Six Day war in 1967, the Israeli Air Force attacked Egyptian air bases and destroyed hundreds of unsheltered fighter aircraft on the ground. This resulted in immediate and total Israeli air superiority and is widely viewed as an important factor in the rapid Israeli victory. It also illustrated the vulnerability of unsheltered aircraft to surprise attack. Air forces around the world took note and many, including those of NATO, the Warsaw Pact, Iran, the Gulf States and others began to build hardened shelters for their fighter aircraft. These shelters were usually arch-shaped structures with steel or concrete doors. They were generally about three feet thick and could protect a fighter aircraft from anything short of a direct hit by a bomb. This was completely adequate in the preprecision-guided-munitions era because direct hits on targets this size were relatively difficult to achieve. They look something like this: Story continues This type of shelter is not adequate to protect aircraft from direct hits by precision weapons as shown here: However, protecting the aircraft is just a first step. Combat aircraft sortie generation can be thought of as an industrial process with the airfield as a sortie factory. The factory needs working aircraft, but the aircraft must be able to taxi to a runway that is long enough for them to operate from safely and when they return they must be able to be repaired, refueled and rearmed, and their crews must be able to receive orders and plan missions. This means other parts of the factory must be protected if the base is to function under attack. This means hardening maintenance, fuel storage and distribution and operations facilities. Building shelters to protect aircraft larger than fighters is possible, but cost obviously scales with shelter size. Kazianis: Are there different degrees to which a base can be hardened? For example, can a base be hardened to such an extent that it can survive most forms of bombardment by Chinese ballistic- and cruise-missile strikes? Stillion: There are. For example, you could harden a base to withstand bombardment with submunition warheads. This would be much less expensive than hardening the base to withstand attack by large, unitary warheads. Submunition warheads allow much larger areas of the base to be attacked per warhead, so hardening against them would force the attacker to use more weapons per attack to achieve the same level of damage. Kazianis: Japan is also in range of Chinese missile forces. If a Japan-China conflict were ever to occur, presumably Japanese and U.S. bases on Japanese territory would be in Beijing's crosshairs. What is the state of Japanese forces when it comes to their levels of hardening bases? Recommended: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber Recommended: Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico? Recommended: Would China Really Invade Taiwan? Stillion: Japan has a number of bases with hardened shelters, but most of them were built during the Cold War. They tend to be in northern Japan, as they were primarily a response to the possibility of Soviet attacks against Japan. Kazianis: How expensive is it to effectively harden a base? I have been told, for example, by one anonymous source at the U.S. Department of Defense that just one large base in the Pacific would cost "billions and billions of dollars." In your view, is that correct? If it would cost so much, is the payoff worth it? Stillion: It depends on how effective and extensive you want the hardening to be. In general, bases within range of enemy fighter-bombers attacks would likely be subject to barrage attacks using ballistic missiles armed with submunitions. These would destroy any unsheltered aircraft and spread millions of sharp metal fragments across the runways and taxiways. This would also prevent any aircraft inside shelters from leaving until a path was cleared through the debris (known as FODForeign Object Damage). This could be a time-consuming and laborious process. In the meantime, the enemy might conduct follow-on attacks using cruise missiles and manned aircraft with precision-guided weapons to target fuel storage, runways and aircraft in their shelters, rendering the base unusable until extensive repairs were undertaken. At longer distances beyond the maximum range of manned aircraft, enemy forces would probably have to rely on missiles alone. In this case, they could still destroy large numbers of unsheltered aircraft with submunition warheads, shut down the base for some period of time and reduce sortie generation rates periodically, but they would lack the ability to cause extensive, long-term damage. The key to operating effectively in the face of a credible precision-strike threat is to find a combination of hardening, dispersal, rapid repair capability, active defenses (like Patriot and THAAD) and distance from the threat that allows sustained, efficient operation of the sortie factory. Range is key, because the closer one is to the threat, the greater the weight of fire the adversary can deliver and the harder and more heavily defended the base must be. At some point, if an adversary is capable and competent enough, and the base is close enough, it may not be possible to operate efficiently no matter how hard and heavily defended the base may be. Kazianis: If U.S. and/or allied forces did start hardening bases close to China, would Beijing view that as an escalatory step? Does this create an even deeper security dilemma for both sides? Stillion: In general, investing in inherently defensive measures like hardening tends to increase crisis stability and reduce the security dilemma. If both sides had nothing but defensive weapons, then there would be no security dilemma. Defensive measures increase crisis stability by 1) reducing confidence on the part of the attacker that preemptive knock-out blows will succeed and 2) reducing the tendency of the defender to view the defended systems as use it or lose it assets. Kazianis: And for my final question: All of this presumes that Chinese ballistic and cruise missiles that would target allied bases in a conflict are highly accurate and that the crews that would fire them are well trained. In your opinion, how accurate are the various Chinese missiles that could hit U.S. or allied bases, and what is the level of training of these forces, the much-discussed second artillery, that would carry out such strikes? Stillion: The short answer to these questions is I dont know for sure. However, there is considerable evidence that the 2nd Artillery is a capable and competent military organization. For example, it is entrusted with delivery of nuclear weapons. More broadly, prudent defense planners should assume adversary weapons will work as advertised and their crews will be competent. When a conflict occurs, if the enemys equipment turns out to perform poorly or the personnel are incompetent, so much the better. If, on the other hand, your plans assume a poorly trained and equipped adversary and this turns out to be wrong, the price could be quite high in lost lives, equipment and territory. Read full article American defender Antonee Robinson has signed a three-year contract with Everton and has been loaned to second-tier Wigan for the 2018-19 season. The 20-year-old made 30 league appearances and 34 in all during a loan to second-tier Bolton last season. Everton announced his new deal Friday. Robinson made his U.S. national team debut on May 28 against Bolivia. He spent part of his youth in White Plains, New York, and was eligible to play for both England and the U.S. He joined Everton's youth academy when he was 11. By Abdul Matin Sahak MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters who surrendered to Afghan forces this week in the northern province of Jawzjan may be granted amnesty despite accusations of atrocities including rape and murder, officials said. Around 150 Islamic State fighters, including two senior commanders, gave themselves up after being driven from their strongholds in Jawzjan by the Taliban after weeks of fighting. Thousands of civilians fled the area in the districts of Darzab and Qush Tepa and many accused Islamic State fighters of multiple atrocities, giving detailed accounts of women and young girls being taken from their families, raped and, in some cases, murdered. However the spokesman for the Jawzjan provincial governor said the need to encourage militant fighters to surrender was likely to mean that they would not face charges. "There is an amnesty for the Daesh group that surrendered in Darzab district," Mohammad Reza Ghafouri, spokesman for the Jawzjan provincial governor, said, referring to Islamic State. "The group will not be presented to legal and judicial authorities because they are taking part in the peace process," he said, adding that people with complaints about individual Islamic State members were free to take the matter up with the courts. Government officials said it was the first time such large numbers of Islamic State fighters had surrendered at once. Several women and children, all related to the fighters, had also handed themselves to Afghan authorities. "Any adversary of the government that joins the peace process has to be given amnesty because if they are taken before the judges, other adversaries who have reached an agreement with the government will go cold on it," Ghafouri said. While pressure has been building for peace talks between the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban, the local affiliate of Islamic State, which has gained an unmatched reputation for brutality, has shown no signs of joining. The Taliban, seeking to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, also took credit for the surrender, saying they had cleared Jawzjan. Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said the military had done its duty and it was now for the government to decide the next step. "As defenders of our people and country, our job is to fight our enemy until the battle ground. Now they have surrendered...our job is done," he said. Another official, Jawzjan security commander General Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani, said any Islamic State fighter who had committed crimes against humanity would face justice and expressed scepticism about any reconciliation. He said those fighters who surrendered to the government were Afghans, although foreign fighters believed to be in the area may have been killed or captured by the Taliban. "I am concerned and afraid that after surrendering, these people will commit more crimes because they are completely untrustworthy," he said. (Additional reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi. Writing by James Mackenzie. Editing by Nick Macfie) Prince Harry is a major fan of Barack Obama and is undoubtedly head over heels for new wife Meghan Markle. But did you know that the two Americans share something else in common? Their birthday! August 4 marks the big day for both the actress turned duchess and the former U.S. president. So how are they celebrating? President Obama, who turns 57 today, is likely luxuriating in the birthday messages he's gotten from two of his own favorite people: Michelle Obama and former VP Joe Biden. "Happy birthday @BarackObama! The view is always better with you," Mrs. Obama wrote along with her husband staring across a desert vista. Biden shared a photo of himself with Obama after their recent "bromantic" lunch together at Washington's Dog Tag Bakery along with his own birthday message. "Our lunches together were a highlight of every week at the White House. Last week's trip to @DogTagBakery was no different. Happy birthday to my brother, my friend, @BarackObama," Biden tweeted. Obama was also honored with the first ever Barack Obama Day in Illinois to honor the occasion. Our lunches together were a highlight of every week at the White House. Last week's trip to @DogTagBakery was no different. Happy birthday to my brother, my friend, @BarackObama. pic.twitter.com/0faYjvnPW6 Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 4, 2018 Meanwhile, across the pond, Meghan Markle spent part of her 37th birthday attending the wedding Saturday of husband Prince Harry's long-time friend Charlie van Straubenzee to Daisy Jenks. Van Straubenzee has known the prince since childhood and was an usher at Harry and Meghan's wedding at Windsor Castle in May. Story continues The prince wore a tailcoat and sunglasses, and Meghan a short-sleeved blue dress and matching fascinator, as the couple arrived at the medieval church of St. Mary the Virgin in Frensham, 40 miles southwest of London. Thank you everyone for your lovely messages on The Duchess of Sussex's birthday! #HappyBirthdayHRH pic.twitter.com/kECGU6fnl0 Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) August 4, 2018 Markle happily waved to well-wishers outside the church. She also thanked her fans on the Kensington Palace Twitter. No word yet whether Barack and Meghan wished a happy birthday to each other. RELATED STORIES Scenes From a Royal Wedding: Photos of Meghan and Harry's Big Day Weirdest Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Wedding Souvenirs: See the Photos Meghan Markle's Family Tree: See Photos of Her Relatives Related Articles: JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) An Australian graduate student whose honeymoon plans in Indonesia included a cultural festival in the insecure Papua region says she's being deported after officials accused her of being a journalist. Belinda Lopez told The Associated Press she was detained on arrival in Bali on Friday and has been informed she'll be deported on a 10 p.m. flight Saturday. She said immigration officials wanted to know if she was a journalist and repeatedly asked her if she had "done something bad to Indonesia." Almost a decade ago she was an editor for English-language newspapers in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, and has produced podcasts for Australia's state broadcaster. A freelance journalism site says she won awards in 2012 and 2013 for reporting, including a report on juvenile incarceration in the U.S. She is currently a Ph.D student at Sydney's Macquarie University, studying the cultural experiences of migrants to Java, Indonesia's most populous island. Being deported is "devastating," Lopez said. "It's the first place I moved to as an adult, have visited so many times since, to learn the language and to visit people who have become some of my best friends in the world," she said in a WhatsApp message. Her holiday plans included the Baliem festival in the easternmost Papua region that Indonesia strictly polices and restricts foreign journalists and diplomats from visiting. A pro-independence insurgency has simmered in the Melanesian region since it was annexed by Indonesia in the early 1960s. Indonesia's police and military are frequently accused of human rights abuses in Papua. A recent Amnesty International report documented 95 unlawful killings by security forces in Papua since 2008. Lopez said she was refused a visa renewal two years ago in Papua because officials suspected she was a journalist. At that time they said she couldn't re-enter Indonesia for six months, according to Lopez. Story continues The head of the Immigration Office at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali, Amran Aris, said Indonesia's military had added Lopez to a government blacklist as a "covert journalist." He said he couldn't give other details because it's a state secret. "We only carry out the duties as her name is listed on the government's blacklist, so we have to refuse her entry," said Aris. More than 100 people were injured in Bangladesh Saturday after police fired rubber bullets at students protesters, a doctor and witnesses said, a major escalation in a stand-off between the government and demonstrators. For the last week students have brought parts of the capital Dhaka to a standstill with a protest against poor road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government. On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighborhood. Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment. Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. "It's not true. Nothing happened at Jigatola," Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously. "We have treated more than 115 injured students so far since the afternoon," emergency ward doctor Abdus Shabbir told AFP, adding some sported injuries consistent with rubber bullets. "A few of them were in very bad condition," he added. A protester said students were holding protests peacefully on the road when they were attacked. "We all are feeling threatened here. We wanted a peaceful protest. We don't want any trouble occurring around here. Yet rubber bullets were shot at our brothers," Sabbir Hossain, a student, said. Road transport minister Obaidul Quader rejected allegations that party cadres from the ruling Awami League party had attacked the students. He said the party office which was close to Jigatala was vandalised by some unidentified youths, dressed in school uniforms, moments before the clashes erupted. Story continues An AFP photographer at the scene of one the clashes saw students and unidentified young adult men fighting with sticks and rocks, leaving several wounded. - Growing discontent - The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year. But their pleas have had little effect. Earlier on Saturday thousands of students wearing school uniforms defied rain to block major intersections in the capital for the seventh consecutive day. Teens as young as 13 were seen on Dhaka's notoriously clogged roadways checking whether cars and buses had valid licenses and were in a roadworthy condition. "We won't leave the roads until our demands are met. We want safe roads and safe drivers," said protester Al Miran. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, only poured oil onto the fire earlier in the week. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology. The education ministry shut down high schools on Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered. Dhaka suffers from daily gridlock but congestion has been exacerbated by blockades set up across the city since Sunday. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. A 8-year-old boy in Indiana who died after reportedly mistaking his dads methamphetamine for breakfast cereal had more than 180 times the lethal amount of the drug, according to a toxicology report released Thursday. Curtis Collman III died June 21 after overdosing on meth at the home of his father, Curtis Gilbert Collman, 41, according to WAVE TV. Reports said the boy ingested several grams of meth that were on a plate, thinking it was cereal. Around 10 a.m., the elder Collman noticed his son seemed ill and called a friend who came over to look at the child, according to reports. When the woman suggested calling 911, Collman Jr. allegedly ripped the phone out of her hand and said, Im not going back to prison. He then grabbed a handgun from another room and threatened to kill himself, the woman and his son, according to the Seymour Tribune. Collman then took his son to his parents home, but fled when they too wanted to call 911, reports said. Although the suspects parents called for help, the boy later died. Police finally apprehended the elder Collman on Thursday evening and charged him with failure to register as a sex offender, which stemmed from a 2006 conviction on a Class D felony of sexual misconduct with a minor, the Tribune reported. Collman has since been charged with neglect of a dependent causing death, pointing a firearm and theft. On Friday, he requested a bond reduction so he could spend time at home with his parents while awaiting trial, but Jackson County law enforcement officials planned to fight to keep Collman behind bars. The judge was to decide by close of business Friday if the bond would be lowered. He faces 20 to 40 years in prison if convicted when he goes to trial on Dec. 4, according to The Associated Press. Also on HuffPost Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Rehabs.com Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday there was a "real problem" of anti-Semitism in his party which he would root out, but he also hit back at strong criticism of Labour from Jewish newspapers. In an article written for The Guardian newspaper, Corbyn stopped short of agreeing to adopt in full an internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism, along with a series of examples, as sought by Jewish groups. Corbyn, a veteran campaigner for Palestinian rights and a critic of Israel, has been hit by accusations that Labour has tolerated anti-Semitism among some of its members. Last week, Jewish newspapers said Labour would represent an "existential threat to Jewish life in this country" if it won power. Corbyn said in Friday's article that he did not accept a Labour government would represent any kind of threat to Jewish life in Britain. "That is the kind of overheated rhetoric that can surface during emotional political debates," he said. "But I do acknowledge there is a real problem that Labour is working to overcome." He said if he was prime minister he would guarantee the security of Jewish communities and drive anti-Semitism out of the party. He also acknowledged Labour had been too slow process cases of anti-Semitic abuse. Corbyn has previously apologized for what he called "pockets" of anti-Semitism in Labour and has promised to stamp them out. Labour has taken a modest lead over Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party, according to some opinion polls. The next national election is scheduled to take place only in 2022 but could occur sooner depending on May's ability to steer Britain, and her party, through Brexit. (Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) As more than a dozen blazes rage across California this week, a state senator whos been personally affected by the states constant wildfires is urging support for legislation focused more on fire prevention than on response. In a call with reporters Friday, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D) reiterated the need for legislation she introduced in February in light of the massive Carr and Ferguson fires, which have burned a total of more than 200,000 acres in Northern California. Her bill aims to change the states wildfire strategy from one that is largely reactive to one that would do a better job of preventing out-of-control fires from igniting on Californias bone-dry land in the first place. A DC-10 air tanker drops fire retardant along the crest of a hill to protect two bulldozers that were cutting fire lines at the River Fire in California's Mendocino Complex in Lakeport. (Photo: Fred Greaves / Reuters) Bottom line, California is a tinderbox ready to burn, Jackson said, noting that climate change has warmed the state and been linked to its years-long drought. At its core, the legislation would clear the path for more prescribed burns on federal, state and privately held lands in order to reduce wildfire fuel. It would also create training standards for people carrying out prescribed burns on all land. The bill, Jackson says, would provide funding that would allow the state to triple the amount of land treated with prescribed burns. Clearly we have to think differently, and we have to act differently, she said, calling her proposal a more scientific and pre-emptive approach. The bill is deeply personal to Jackson, she said Friday. Last year, her Santa Barbara community was affected by the devastating Thomas Fire, which burned 288,000 acres for 40 days and led to debris flow that killed 23 of her neighbors. Jacksons bill is currently moving through the Assembly appropriations committee. The bill has support from environmental groups and people residing in heavily forested areas. Related... Wildfires Are Scorching California Tapping Script for the California Wildfires and Other Disasters California Wildfire Calls For Evacuation Of Thousands Story continues California Firefighter's Home Burned Down In Carr Fire While He Fought Other Blaze Ferguson Fire Forces Yosemite Valley To Evacuate All Visitors Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Makini Brice (Reuters) - A fast-growing California wildfire that has already forced thousands to flee their homes and shut down a large national park surged overnight into Saturday, as fatigued firefighters battled gusting winds. The blaze in Mendocino County, about 90 miles (145 km) north of San Francisco, had spread to cover a total of 201,471 acres (81,500 hectares) by early Saturday, after increasing more than 25 percent in size from Friday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. It was 34 percent contained. The Mendocino Complex Fire is now the state's largest fire at more than two-thirds the size of sprawling Los Angeles, and has forced the evacuation of nearly 16,000 residents and destroyed more than 100 structures. It has swelled to become larger than the deadly Carr Fire, about 100 miles (160 km) to the northeast, which has killed at least six people and destroyed more than 1,500 homes, businesses and other structures. Firefighters have managed to contain 41 percent of that blaze and authorities are allowing some people who had evacuated to return, Cal Fire said. Both areas remained under a "red flag warning" issued by the National Weather Service for strong winds, low relative humidity and temperatures topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), all conditions that can drive the growth of wildfires. This year's California wildfire season has been more destructive than in years past, burning about 290,000 acres (117,300 hectares), more than double the five-year average over that same period, according to Cal Fire. In total, 14 states are currently reporting large fires. Most are in other western states but wildfires have also struck Texas and Florida, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. So far this year, fires have blackened 4.9 million acres throughout the United States, significantly higher than the 10-year average, according to the center. Story continues (Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Tom Brown) Related Video: California Wildfires Continue to Blaze Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View. NEW YORK (AP) Kamala Harris has been the target of social media misinformation campaigns since she became a U.S. senator. Every month for the last 18 months, her office has discovered on average between three and five fake Facebook profiles pretending to be hers, according to a Harris aide. It's unclear who creates the pages, which are often designed to mislead American voters about the ambitious Democratic senator's policies and positions. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity, like more than a half dozen campaign officials contacted for this story, for fear of attracting unwanted attention from adversaries or scrutiny on the Senate office's evolving cybersecurity protocols. Such internet mischief has become commonplace in U.S. politics. Facebook announced earlier this week that it uncovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms. Senior intelligence officials declared Thursday that foreign adversaries continue waging a quiet war against U.S. campaigns and election systems. Still, one thing has become clear: With the midterm elections just three months away, campaigns are largely on their own in the increasingly challenging task of protecting sensitive information and countering false or misleading content on social media. The Democratic National Committee has worked to strengthen its own internal security protocols and encouraged state parties to do the same, according to Raffi Krikorian, who previously worked for Uber and Twitter and now serves as the DNC's chief technology officer. But in an interview, he acknowledged there are limits to how much the national party can protect the thousands of Democratic campaigns across the country. "We're providing as much assistance to campaigns as we can, but there's only so much we can do," Krikorian said. "For all the high-level campaigns I'm worried, but at least there are people to talk to," he continued. "The mid-sized campaigns are at least getting technical volunteers, but the truly down-ballot campaigns, that's where the state parties and coordinated campaigns can help, but there's no doubt that this is an uphill battle when we're dealing with a foreign adversary." Story continues Officials in both political parties have intensified cybersecurity efforts, although the known cases of interference have so far overwhelmingly focused on Democrats. The DNC now has a staff of 40 on its technical team, led by Krikorian and other Silicon Valley veterans hired in the months after Russians hacked the party's email system and released a trove of damaging messages in the months before President Donald Trump's 2016 victory. Top U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials raised new alarms Thursday about outside efforts to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections during a White House press briefing. Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said: "Our democracy is in the crosshairs," while Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats added: "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States." Facebook said it removed 32 accounts from its site and Instagram because they were involved in "coordinated" political behavior and appeared to be fake. Nearly 300,000 people followed at least one of the accounts, which featured names such as "Black Elevation" and "Resisters" and were designed to manipulate Americans with particular ethnic, cultural or political identities. In many cases, House and Senate political campaigns said they're just beginning to adopt basic internal security protocols, such as two-step verification for all email, storage and social media accounts and encrypted messaging services such as Wickr. There is no protocol in place for campaigns or national parties to monitor broader social media misinformation campaigns, however. Nor is there any sign that law enforcement is playing a proactive role to protect campaigns from meddling on a day-to-day basis. The FBI has set up a Foreign Influence Task Force and intelligence agencies are collecting information on Russian aggression, but campaigns report no regular contact with law enforcement officials. "At the end of the day, the U.S. government is not putting any type of a bubble around any (campaign). They do not have the authority, capacity or capability to do it," said Shawn Henry, a former senior FBI official who now leads the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which works with political campaigns. "NSA is not sitting in the ISPs filtering out malicious traffic." Henry added: "They've got to take pro-active actions themselves." Earlier this month, Microsoft said it discovered a fake domain had been set up as the landing page for phishing attacks by a hacking group believed to have links to Russian intelligence. A Microsoft spokesman said this week that additional analysis confirmed the attempted attacks occurred in late 2017 and targeted multiple accounts associated with the offices of two legislators running for re-election. Microsoft did not name the lawmakers. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network in 2017. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford of Nebraska also recently confirmed that his 2016 campaign emails had been hacked by Russian agents. Ashford, who narrowly lost his seat to Republican Don Bacon that year, said hackers obtained all of his campaign email correspondence with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He said he was notified of the breach in late July or early August 2016 by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's office. Ashford has said he doesn't believe any of the stolen information ever went to Bacon or the Republican Party, and he doesn't know whether it made a difference in his race. He did face a series of anonymous political attacks on social media. By their very nature, U.S. political campaigns can be a challenge to defend from a cybersecurity standpoint. They are essentially pop-up organizations that rely heavily on volunteers and are focused on a singular task winning. In addition, high-level IT expertise costs money and campaigns typically run on tight budgets. Some 2018 House campaigns have yet to hire basic communications staffers. In the case of California Sen. Harris, who is considered a 2020 presidential prospect, her office plans to continue rooting out fake social media profiles on its own. They have had no contact with the FBI. They have reported the issue to Facebook in every case not the other way around. "It's on the forefront of everybody's mind," said Patrick McHugh, a former Senate campaign official who now leads the Democratic-aligned super PAC Priorities USA. He acknowledged the tremendous challenge for many campaigns. "All it takes is one person on a campaign to make a mistake," McHugh said. "You're up against a foreign country. That's a pretty big adversary that can and will go to all ends to get in." __ Cassidy reported from Atlanta. AP correspondent Grant Schulte reported from Lincoln, Nebraska. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that preliminary laboratory results indicated a cluster of cases of the Ebola virus in the North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Thursday, August 2 On July 24, the WHO reported that the recent outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which resulted in the deaths of 29 people, was over. WHO said the new cluster of cases is occurring in an environment which is very different from previous locations as it is an active conflict zone, and added that the major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population, said Farhan Haq, a deputy spokesperson for the UN, on August 2. According to the UN, North Kivu is home to over 1 million displaced people. The province shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda with great deal of cross-border movement due to the trade activities, which could increase the risk of possible spread of the virus, they said. Credit: United Nations via Storyful Chile made history on Friday when it became the first country in South America to ban the commercial use of plastic bags. "I want to share with you the joy that as of today we're enacting the law," said President Sebastian Pinera at a public ceremony in the centre of Santiago, after which he handed out cloth bags to passers-by. Large businesses have six months to phase out the use of plastic bags, while smaller ones will be given two years to adopt the new rules. It means that any form of plastic bag other than those constituting primary packaging "necessary for hygiene or to prevent food wastage" are prohibited, the government gazette Diario Oficial said on Friday. Those flouting the ban will be subject to a $370 fine, in a country where the minimum wage is just $800. "Without a doubt we're taking a giant step towards a cleaner Chile," added Pinera. In the meantime, companies will be limited to handing out a maximum of two plastic bags per transaction. The law was passed on June 1 but appealed by the Association of Industrial Plastics, whose objections were rejected by the constitutional court. - Chile leading the way - Chile has been one of the countries leading the way in Latin America against the use of plastic bags. In 2014 the government of Michelle Bachelet banned them in Chilean Patagonia and last year extended that to coastal areas. Chile's problem has reached epic proportions with 3.2 billion plastic bags used every year -- some 200 per person, according to the government. "A plastic bag takes seconds to make, is used for less than half an hour between the supermarket and the home, and then takes 400 years to biodegrade," said Pinera. Some 90 percent of them end up in landfill sites or the sea, where they can be swallowed by birds or fish. The toxic impact of these polyethylene bags on oceans was highlighted recently in Thailand by the death of a whale that had swallowed more than 80 plastic bags. Story continues "We cannot continue like this," said Pinera, adding that "nature is suffering the effect of plastic bags." On top of that, only four percent of Chile's 17.5 million people recycle. "What we want to do is very simple: we want to change Chileans' way of life," said Pinera. - Environmental disaster - Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly vulnerable to this environmental disaster as the region enjoys one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. According to the UN, it has 16 million square kilometers (6.1 million square miles) of sea comprising almost a quarter of the world's fish population. The Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda were the first country in the region to ban plastic bags in 2016. That same year Colombia prohibited the use of small bags before also placing a tax on the use of bigger ones a year later. Ecuador has moved to restrict the use of plastic bags, straws and bottles around the biosphere reserve of the Galapagos Islands, which are a World Heritage Site. Panama was the first country in Central America to announce a complete ban on plastic bags in January, but it has given businesses up to two years to comply to the new directives. The three biggest cities in Latin America have also taken action, with Mexico City banning the distribution of free bags in 2009. Sao Paulo followed suit in 2015 while Buenos Aires went a step further in January 2017, putting a stop to supermarkets either using or selling such bags. Public and government awareness about the environmental impact of plastics has been increasing. Last year the United Nations passed a resolution, albeit non-binding, to prevent plastics from entering the oceans. ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) A 12-year-old Chinese tourist has been found safe in New York a day after her tour group reported her missing from a Washington-area airport. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police said JinJing Ma was found Friday in the custody of her parents in Queens, New York. Authority police Chief David Huchler said at a news conference Friday that the girl excused herself to go to the bathroom Thursday after getting her passport at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He said the girl met a woman, changed clothes and got into an SUV with New York tags. Huchler says a couple had earlier approached JinJing Ma while her tour group was at the World Trade Center. He says there appeared to be a link between that couple and the people she met at the airport. Related Video: Record Number of Tourists Traveling to Europe Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View. President Donald Trump took aim at NBA superstar LeBron James and CNN host Don Lemon via Twitter on Friday night. Trump insulted both mens intelligence with the following post: Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isnt easy to do. I like Mike! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018 Lebron (sic) James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon, wrote Trump. He made Lebron (sic) look smart, which isnt easy to do. I like Mike! Trump added, in apparent reference to former NBA legend Michael Jordan. Lemon hit back early Saturday, with this post: Whos the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest https://t.co/XO50qVksnR Don Lemon (@donlemon) August 4, 2018 Trumps tweet appeared to be in reaction to Lemons interview with James, which actually aired on Monday night. Check out the interview here: (Trump) kinda used sports to kinda divide us, James told Lemon in their sitdown. And thats something that I cant relate to because I know that sport was the first time I was around someone white. James, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in July, also accused Trump of enabling racists. The president in charge now has given people, they dont care now they throw it in your face now, he said. Last year, James called Trump a bum for uninviting Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry to the White House. Lemon, meanwhile, used his CNN Tonight show last Friday to say that Trumps presidency can be defined by lies. Also on Monday, James opened the I Promise School for at-risk children in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The establishment is a joint venture between his foundation and Akron Public Schools. Story continues James hasnt responded to Trumps tweet, but it has sparked outrage on Twitter. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Related Coverage Melania Trump Gardening In Immaculate Sneakers Is A New Summer Meme Donald Trump Gets Brutal Geography Lesson After Great Britain Gaffe Stephen Colbert Delivers Blistering Takedown Of Ivanka Trump: 'WHAT DO YOU DO?' Twitter Explodes Over Donald Trump's 'Disgusting' Attack On LeBron James Also on HuffPost This article originally appeared on HuffPost. In this article: BRNO, Czech Republic (AP) Andrea Dovizioso claimed pole position in qualifying at the Czech MotoGP on Saturday. The Ducati rider took his sixth career pole after covering the 5.403-kilometer (3.357-mile) Brno circuit in 1 minute, 54.689 seconds. Dovizioso led Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha by 0.267 seconds, while championship leader Marc Marquez finished third on his Honda, another 0.005 back. Marquez leads overall on 165 points while Rossi is a distant second on 119. Rossi's Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales is third on 109, and Dovizioso is fourth on 88. Lubumbashi (DR Congo) (AFP) - DR Congo Opposition leader Moise Katumbi is determined to try again to return home so he can run in presidential elections after being turned back at the border on Friday, his supporters said. They said on Saturday they would go to the town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border, to meet Katumbi and bring him back so he can submit his election candidacy by the deadline on Wednesday. Katumbi, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said. Katumbi, 53, has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled DRC for 17 years. He had planned to fly by private jet from Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, to lodge his application to stand in long-delayed elections in December -- a move that would heap pressure on Kabila. But the city's mayor refused him entry, while the public prosecutor's office said Katumbi had been charged with "harming the state's domestic and external security" and would be arrested if he returned. A journalist with the French radio network RFI said Katumbi instead arrived at the Zambian border post of Kasumbalesa. Videos posted online by his aides and others showed him on the Zambian side of the border, greeting hundreds of supporters from his car. "The regime forbids me from landing and barricades the border... My crime? Wanting to enter my country and file my candidacy," Katumbi wrote on Twitter. "By trying to block me, they want to remove from Congolese their right to real elections. I will fight," he added. On the Congolese side of the border, security forces responded to protesters who were throwing stones in the air, Congolese police said, adding that a Tanzanian truck driver was slightly injured. Another rival of Kabila, former warlord and ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, returned home this week. He officially launched his bid for the presidency on Thursday. Story continues The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. Lubumbashi (DR Congo) (AFP) - Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi was on Saturday again blocked from returning home as he attempted to get across the border from Zambia, his supporters said. Earlier, Katumbi said he was determined to try again to return home to run in presidential elections after being turned back at the frontier on Friday. On Saturday he appeared to be poised to finally return when Delly Sesanga, secretary-general of Katumbi's Ensemble (Together) coalition, told AFP he was in the process of completing formalities on the Zambian side of the border. "Nothing can stop a Congolese citizen from returning to his own country," tweeted his spokesman Olivier Kamitatu, adding that he was with Katumbi at the Kasumbalesa crossing, which borders the opposition leader's home Katanga province on the DR Congo side. But later Saturday, Kamitatu said in a tweet that the Zambian government "had just officially indicated (to Katumbi) the refusal of the Kinshasa authorities to allow him to cross the border to return to his own country". In response, DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende decried "lies and manipulation" in a tweet, without elaborating. Katumbi supporters had wanted to go to the town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border, to meet Katumbi and bring him back so he could submit his election candidacy by the deadline on Wednesday. Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila who has ruled DRC for 17 years. Katumbi had planned to fly by private jet from Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, to lodge his application to stand in the long-delayed elections in December -- a move that would heap pressure on Kabila. Story continues But the city's mayor refused him entry, while the public prosecutor's office said Katumbi had been charged with "harming the state's domestic and external security" and would be arrested if he returned. Videos posted online by his aides and others earlier showed Katumbi on the Zambian side of the border, greeting hundreds of supporters from his car. "The regime forbids me from landing and barricades the border... My crime? Wanting to enter my country and file my candidacy," Katumbi wrote on Twitter. "By trying to block me, they want to remove from Congolese their right to real elections. I will fight," he added. On the Congolese side of the border, security forces responded to protesters who were throwing stones in the air, Congolese police said, adding that a Tanzanian truck driver was slightly injured. Another rival of Kabila, former warlord and ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, returned home this week. He officially launched his bid for the presidency on Thursday. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. (NEW ORLEANS) Speaking Friday at a historically black university, potential Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren delivered what she called the hard truth about our criminal justice system: Its racist I mean front to back. The Massachusetts senator identified some of the systems failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete. Warren was participating in a Q&A session hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond at the historically black Dillard University in New Orleans. She was among several possible Democratic White House contenders who spoke Friday at Netroots Nation, an annual conference for progressives. She was the only leading Democrat to appear at Dillard. The stop is the latest sign of Warrens effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts and avoid the fate of fellow progressive icon Bernie Sanders, who struggled to win over African-Americans during his failed bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Warren has previously addressed the NAACP and the Rev. Al Sharptons annual civil rights gathering. She visited Martin Luther King Jr.s Atlanta church last year for a program alongside the Rev. Bernice King, the slain civil rights leaders youngest daughter. Facing re-election to the Senate this year, Warren did not directly address her 2020 plans. But when Richmond asked her what might have changed since she decided not to run in 2016, the senator was ready. Two words: Donald Trump, Warren said, before shifting to warn the audience that the November midterm vote is the immediate fight as Democrats try to break GOP control of Congress. Other than on criminal justice, Warren did not focus her answers on race, offering her usual creed about bending public policy back toward working-class Americans. She called for support for unions, massive investments in infrastructure and more spending on education, including programs for preschool-age children and debt relief for student loans. Story continues Ahead of the event, Richmond said any aspiring Democratic nominee will have to address black voters directly. The biggest political frustration in the African-American community, Richmond told The Associated Press, is that we have a bunch of Democrats, both black and white, but primarily white, they dont get it the black experience, the black struggle, what its like to raise a young black man or black woman from infant to high school. Richmond praised Warrens work as a consumer advocate and her willingness to explain her policies with her personal story, principally her mothers venture into the workforce to support the family amid her fathers health problems. Warren opened with that narrative at Dillard, and it struck a chord with some who came to hear her. What really resonates with me was her background, coming from a meager place and using hard work and education to get to where she is today, said David Hoey, a pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana. C.J. Wiltz, a retired Dillard professor who came to hear Warren, said her work on Capitol Hill stands out. I was especially interested in whats shes been saying about the financial sector and how the impact of big banks on poor people has manifested, he said, adding that hed like to see her run in 2020. In Massachusetts, less than 10 percent of the electorate is African-American. Running for president, Democrats must navigate a primary calendar front-loaded with Southern states where African-Americans determine the outcome. In 2008, that helped Barack Obama sweep the South and build an early, insurmountable delegate lead over Hillary Clinton. In 2016, Clinton managed the same sweep against Sanders, a Vermont senator whose home base is mostly white. The coming campaign could include several black candidates such as Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Sanders could make another bid. And while Obama isnt on the ballot, his vice president, Joe Biden, could be. There will be a search for someone they can hear and see and immediately identify with, Aneesa McMillan, who worked for Sanders campaign, said of black voters. But, she added, its not impossible for that to be a white candidate. Ankara (AFP) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey would impose sanctions on two US officials as retaliation for a similar move by Washington, hitting back in an unprecedented row between the NATO allies. Turkey's holding of pastor Andrew Brunson on terror-related charges for almost two years has sparked one of the most intense crises between Washington and Ankara since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. But in his first comments on the dispute since Washington imposed the sanctions on Wednesday, Erdogan also appeared keen to ward off any further escalation by saying that neither side had an interest in a "lose-lose" scenario. "Today I will give our friends instructions to freeze the assets in Turkey of the American justice and interior ministers, if they have any (such assets)," Erdogan said in a televised speech. He did not specify to which members of the US administration he was referring. The US attorney general is Jeff Sessions and while the United States does not have an interior ministry similar to Turkey, the Secretary of the Interior is Ryan Zinke and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is Kirstjen Nielsen. - 'Intense diplomacy' - Erdogan's announcement was a response to Washington's decision to impose sanctions on Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul over Brunson's detention. The sanctions freeze any property or assets on US soil held by the two ministers, and bar US citizens from doing business with them. Turkish ministers have denied having any assets in the US and it is highly unlikely the American officials would have assets in Turkey. But analysts say the sanctions are still of critical importance. "Although it is unlikely the sanctions will have much practical effect in either case, it is significant and unprecedented that two NATO allies have sanctioned members of each other's government," Amanda Sloat, a former State Department official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told AFP. Story continues The Turkish lira, which has plunged in value this year, has already reached the five to the dollar mark for the first time in history over the sanctions. "There is a risk of more sanctions to come... which could hit more directly at the heart of Turkish government interests and which have the potential to cause a run on the lira," Anthony Skinner, director of Middle East and North Africa at risk management consultants Verisk Maplecroft, told AFP. He said the "Achilles' heel" of Turkey's fragile economy was its exposure to foreign portfolio investments and credit. And Erdogan appeared to indicate that he did not want the crisis to escalate further to full-scale economic sanctions. "We don't want to be a party to lose-lose games. Moving political and judicial disputes into an economic dimension will be harmful for both sides," Erdogan said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who discussed the issue with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday, said he was "hopeful" of progress in the "days and weeks to come". Erdogan said diplomatic channels were working "very intensely" and added he thought "a significant part of the issues of discord can soon be left behind". - 'High economic stakes' - Brunson was moved to house arrest last week following nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges but the change only increased tensions. President Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence, who shares Brunson's evangelical Christian faith, have made his release and return back to his family in the United States a priority. The US Treasury implemented the sanctions against the Turkish ministers under the 2016 Global Magnitsky Act named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow jail, and which allows the US to sanction foreign officials implicated in rights abuses. The dispute is just one of a long list of problems in relations between Ankara and Washington, including Turkey's cosy ties with Russia and the failure of the US to extradite the alleged mastermind of the 2016 failed coup Fethullah Gulen. Two Turkish employees of US consulates in Turkey are also currently in jail on terror charges and another is under house arrest. "Given the high economic stakes for Turkey, some kind of agreement is more likely than not," said Skinner. "Erdogan has an unrivalled track-record of playing with fire, but he too knows when he has tracked too far across the coals." Sloat argued "quiet diplomatic negotiations" were the best solution since "Trump will not back down until Brunson is home, while Erdogan does not want to look like he capitulated to the Americans". By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Mobs looted shops and burned down properties in Ethiopia's eastern Somali region on Saturday, as unrest gained momentum and spread across the province following deployment of soldiers, witnesses said. On Friday evening, Ethiopian troops entered the regional capital Jijiga in an apparent attempt by central authorities to arrest regional officials, residents said. On Saturday soldiers traded fire with members of local government security forces. Violence has since broken out in at least four towns, with mobs attacking civilians and looting property, witnesses said. "Ethnic non-Somalis are the ones being targeted. (The region's) security forces are collaborating with them," one resident told Reuters. At least two Ethiopian Orthodox churches have been burned down, another witness said. Shops, hotels and banks remained closed, he added. Residents in four other towns said gunshots were being heard. A third witness in Jijiga said government soldiers had been deployed in the region's administration offices with the intention of arresting officials. It was not immediately clear why authorities in the capital Addis Ababa sought to apprehend them. Government officials in Addis Ababa and Jijiga were not immediately available for comment, but Ethiopia's defence ministry confirmed the deployment of soldiers. "The violence has not been halted despite attempts by defence forces and other security forces to restore calm," the ministry said in a statement. "Hence, as the region's peace and security has come under threat, our defence forces will not remain silent in the face of unrest and chaos and will take necessary measures in accordance with constitutional obligations." The ministry did not give reasons behind the deployment. The province has been plagued by violence for the last three decades. The government has fought the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) since 1984 after the group launched a bid for secession of the region, also known as Ogaden. Since 2017, clashes along the Somali region's border with Oromiya province have displaced tens of thousands of people. The region's officials have recently been accused by the government in Addis Ababa of perpetrating rights abuses. Last month, Ethiopia fired senior prison officials there after details emerged of torture and other abuses in one notorious prison. In a statement, the ONLF criticised the deployment of federal troops, saying the government had ordered its military "to attack and take over the Somali regional administration ... creating chaos and uncertainty". The "ONLF calls upon the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia to halt immediately any military activities and initiate a peaceful process," it added, referring to Abiy Ahmed, who took office in April. (Editing by Stephen Powell) Abidjan (AFP) - Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, currently on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has been chosen to head the dissident wing of the Ivorian People's Party (FPI), the party he created. Gbagbo, 73, was the only candidate for the position and won 97.5 percent of 5,325 votes cast, said Franck Anderson Kouassi, spokesman for the pro-Gbagbo wing of the opposition FPI party. "Laurent Gbagbo remains the cornerstone of our group," Anderson Kouassi told AFP. Meanwhile FPI head and former Ivory Coast premier Pascal Affi Guessan, was on Saturday re -elected to head the party for another five years, a party official said. The party is in crisis, split into two factions. The larger group supports Guessan while the dissidents back Abdoudramane Sangare, a close ally of Gbagbo. Gbagbo is the first ex-head of state to be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He has pleaded not guilty to charges arising out of the post-election violence which wracked the Ivory Coast in 2010 to 2011. About 3,000 people died in the turmoil that swept Abidjan -- once one of Africa's most cosmopolitan cities -- in the aftermath of the November 2010 presidential polls when Gbagbo refused to accept defeat to bitter rival Alassane Ouattara, who remains in power. A Dutch-made submarine docks in a military port in Taiwan's northern city of Keelung, November 24, 2005. Taiwan's military is seeking public support to buy eight submarines, which are part of an arms package offered by Washington, to beef up the island's Sebastien Roblin Security, Asia Taipei would like to acquire newer submarines, but it is confronted with a series of major obstacles. FACT: 2 of Taiwan's Submarines Are from World War II. And Replacing Them Won't Be Easy. Taiwans defense planners have a uniquely unenviable missionthe defacto island state of twenty-three million somehow seeks to deter an invasion from mainland China, a rising superpower only a hundred miles away. Realistically, the breakaway Republic of China cannot hope to prevail in a knockdown-dragout fight with Beijing. However, Taipeis gambit is to make such a battle so potentially costly that Beijing will not be tempted to abandon its strategy of seeking reunification through peaceful means. Submarines could potentially prove a useful conventional deterrence to attack by interdicting the waters around Taiwan from amphibious landing ships and harrying the PLA Navys numerically superior naval forces, while remaining submerged at sea to avoid attacks by Chinas land-, sea- and air-launched anti-ship missiles. However, the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) has only four submarines. Two of these, the Hao Si and Hai Pao, are American Tench-class boats that date back to the end of World War II. The oldest submarines still in service anywhere on the world, they are used only for training purposes. The other two are Dutch-built 2,660-ton Zwaardvis (Swordfish)-class diesel submarines, acquired in the early 1980s and renamed the Hai Lung and Hai Hu (Sea Dragon and Sea Tiger). Though dated, they were upgraded in 2008 to fire UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship or ground attack missiles, giving Taiwan a limited submarine ground attack capability. Taiwan had planned to purchase two to five more Zwaardvis boats, but Chinese pressure on Amsterdam forestalled the deal. Taipei would like to acquire newer submarines, but it is confronted with a series of major obstacles. Taiwans principally ally, the United States, is willing to assist in building submarines. Indeed, in April 2018 the State Department approved a marketing license for submarine parts to Taiwan, including a Combat Management System. Taiwan already possesses licenses for Mark 48 torpedoes and Harpoon missiles. Story continues However, the United States has not produced any conventionally powered submarines since the Barbel-class in the 1950sand conventional propulsion is far more affordable and appropriate to Taiwans need for a short-range coastal defense submarine. Reportedly, the Pentagon is also weary that technology transferred to Taiwan could make its way to the mainland. In Europe, there are numerous conventional submarine buildersbut most appear unwilling to sell to Taiwan because of the likely political retaliation from Beijing, which appreciates the strategic complications a modernized Taiwanese submarine force could pose. Chinese pressure sabotaged a 2001 initiative under the George W. Bush administration to facilitate the purchase of European-built submarines for Taiwan. Therefore, late in 2015 Taiwan declared it would seek to build four to eight Indigenously Designed Submarines. This initiative gained additional steam with the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who favors maintaining Taiwanese independence from China. At a maritime defense exposition in 2016, the government showed off a model (picture here) for a 1,500-ton Qianlong project submarine with a hydrodynamic teardrop-shaped hull. A prototype pressure hull had reportedly been built out of Taiwanese HSL-80 high-strength alloy steel by the China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC). Supposedly the Qianlongs could enter service by 2026, with the first four estimated to cost $5 billiontwice the per unit price of contemporary conventional submarines like the German Type 212. Recommended: Forget the F-35: The Tempest Could Be the Future Recommended: Why No Commander Wants to Take On a Spike Missile Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? But Taiwan has never built submarines before and does not possess the expertise. In 2015, Taiwanese engineers dismantled one of the World War II-era submarines to figure out how it works! Taipei has allocated only $65 to 100 million to design its home-made submarines, which is a fraction of what a full-scale submarine development effort would cost. Australian analyst Peter Coates bluntly wrote me Taiwan has only been talking tiny, unrealistic, amounts to fund the [Qianlong] Project. The government apparently hopes to slap together component acquired from abroad. The United States, for example, may lack a diesel propulsion system, but could provide a Combat Management System (the hardware and software which integrates sensors, weapons and controls for the crew), sonar, weapons and other key technologies. Taiwan may wish to secure a state-of-the-art Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system, which allow a conventional submarine to very quietly operate submerged for weeks instead of having to surface or snorkel every few days. China, France, Germany, Japan and Sweden all have deployed AIP-powered submarines, and Spain is close to doing so despite setbacks. However, the European countries are weary of inciting Beijings wrath, though the Dutch RH Marine did recently agree to overhaul Taiwans Zwaardvis-class submarines in 2022. In Asia and the Pacific, Australia, India, Japan and South Korea are all submarine builders and have a strategic interest in reinforcing Taiwans naval capabilities. However, they are also more directly exposed to Chinese diplomatic and economic retaliation, which likely forestalls South Korean involvement. Of the others, Japan is the most advanced submarine builder of the three. It produces advanced Soryu-class submarines using Stirling AIP, and is set to upgrades these with new lithium-ion batteries that could substantially improve performance. However, Tokyo has been reticent to transfer submarine technology abroad. Though Australia and India build submarines domestically, they depend upon largely foreign designs. A Twenty-First Century Barbel-class Submarine? In July 2018, Taiwans Liberty Times reported that six companies had submitted bids to assist the Taiwanese submarine program. These included manufactures from India, Japan (retired engineers from Mitsubishi and Kawasaki Heavy Industries), and two companies each from the United States and Europe that presumably prefer to remain anonymous for now. Reportedly the United States facilitated the contracting of the Japanese engineers. One of the proposals will be selected in 2019 and supposedly a design blueprint will be finalized in 2020. Coates argues that several factors suggest Taiwan is seeking to build a 21st-century version of the Barbel-class submarine, which pioneered the teardrop-shaped hull featured in Qianlong model. Taiwans Dutch Swaardvis-class submarines are based upon the Barbel, and Japan also built Uzushio (Whirlpool)-class submarines inspired by that design. Thus Dutch, Japanese and American ship builders would all possess some familiarity with a Barbel-style designand the ROCN would have experience operating the type. A modernized Barbel would still entail major improvements to sensors, command systems, propulsion, quieting of machinery and so forth. However, given the lack of funding from Taipei, it remains questionable whether submarines are truly a practical solution to Taiwans security needs. Anti-ship missiles mounted in coastal batteries or small fast attack craft could offer a more cost-effective and survivable means of defending Taiwanese waters. Submarines, conversely, could be hunted down by Beijings vastly larger submarine force, or destroyed in port by a surprise attack by PLA missile. The threat posed by a missile barrage is far greater than an amphibious attack in Coatess estimation. If China waged war, Taiwans current or future submarines would be very limited in countering Chinas main advantage, which is to invade Taiwan using airpower. This would begin with a strike employing over a thousand PLA short or medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles targeting military bases and infrastructure in Taiwan, followed by air strikes by hundreds of PLAAF warplanes, and concluded with an air-landing operation to occupy the island. The much slower, more vulnerable option of a Chinese amphibious invasion may not occur. This would render Taiwans submarines, superfluous. For this reason, Coates sees the Project Qianlong as an optimistic political exercise in engaging US and other Western submarine firms in a lengthy project in support of Taiwanese Government foreign and defense policy aims. For the US in particular, the more political and financial capital invested the more the US would be inclined to again underwrite Taiwans defense (in power and some financial terms). 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: Reuters. Read full article Washington (AFP) - Police in Portland, Oregon braced for violence at a rally Saturday by two far-right groups that has raised fears of a replay of last year's deadly "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. "It is particularly troubling to me that individuals are posting publicly their intent to act out violently," Ted Wheeler, mayor of the Northwestern US city, said in a statement Friday. "We don't want this here." Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, right-wing groups linked to violence at a previous Portland rally, planned to march in the city's Tom McCall Waterfront Park in support of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who is running as a Republican for the US Senate. Meanwhile, a group called Popular Mobilization is organizing a counter-demonstration at the park, accompanied by a marching band and protesters in clown costumes. On the event's Facebook page, organizers said they "make no apologies for the use of force in keeping our communities safe from the scourge of right-wing violence." Riana Goren, an analyst with the Anti-Defamation League, told HuffPost that discussion about confronting counter-protesters has been taking place online "for weeks." Police have warned protesters to leave their guns at home even though holders of valid Oregon concealed-handgun licenses are permitted to carry their weapons at the park. They said police will screen people for weapons at entrances to the park, and explosive-sniffing dogs will also be brought in. "The potent combination of bigotry and violence on the streets of Portland poses a serious threat to community safety, and particularly to residents who are people of color, women and LGBTQ," said a statement from the Western States Center, signed by around 40 activist groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that monitors extremism, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have appeared together at several rallies in the Pacific Northwest since 2017. A rally on June 30 was declared a riot and shut down by police after marchers and counter-protesters clashed, leaving several people injured. MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) Investigators are offering no new details in their search for a University of Iowa student who vanished more than two weeks ago. Kevin Winker, investigative operations director for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said Friday he knows the tight-lipped approach is frustrating for people who are eager to know what happened to 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts. But he says investigators will continue to withhold basic details about the case because they believe it gives them the best chance to solve it. At a news conference, Winker said investigators are confident in their timeline of the night Tibbetts went missing from her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18. But again he declined to say whether Tibbetts is believed to have returned home safely from a jog that evening. BERLIN (AP) One of Germany's most prominent left-wing politicians on Saturday launched a self-styled new "movement" that she says is aimed at reviving the fortunes of the country's ailing left. However, it is meeting with widespread skepticism. Sahra Wagenknecht's "Aufstehen" ("Stand Up") movement opened its website Saturday, with a full official launch to follow next month. Wagenknecht told the weekly Der Spiegel that "our aims are of course different political majorities and a new government with a social agenda." Germany has three parties that are broadly left-leaning, the Social Democrats, the Greens and the furthest-left, Wagenknecht's Left Party. However, they lack a parliamentary majority together, and policy differences and personal antagonism have also been a barrier to a national alliance. No serious consideration was given to a left-wing coalition when the three did have a joint majority in 2005 and 2013 elections. Instead, conservative conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel formed "grand coalitions" with the Social Democrats. The same combination governs now, and the Greens last year explored a possible coalition with Merkel and a pro-business party. One of the Left Party's parliamentary leaders, Wagenknecht is a divisive figure even within her own party, in part for taking a skeptical position on migration. She is keen to dent the appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany to protest voters who previously supported her party, but a recent party congress backed "open borders" for asylum-seekers. Wagenknecht says she wants to encourage people who don't feel at home in any party to get involved in politics. She told Der Spiegel that no one has to leave the organization they are in to join her movement but she wants to create "social pressure" on political parties. However, other leaders of her party oppose the initiative and there's little sign of significant support from its rivals. Ralf Stegner, a deputy leader of the Social Democrats, said that Europe needs "progressive alternatives" but not "a PR initiative led by notorious separatists who, on European or integration policy issues, don't represent progressive or left-wing positions." Diane Greene Greg Sandoval/Business Insider Google is reportedly looking for a partner to deliver cloud services to China. The report comes as Google is said to be preparing a version of its search engine for China and that complies with government censorship rules. Microsoft and Amazon have already tapped local partners in China to deliver cloud services, because of the country's strict rules around data needing to stay within its borders. Google is looking to make a grand re-entry into China, after years away. Media reports earlier this week about Google's plans developing a special censored search product for China sparked outrage. But that's not the only effort Google has underway to tap into the world's largest internet market by users. Google also wants to bring its cloud business to the Chinese mainland, and the company is recruiting a local ally to help make it happen, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday. Specifically, the report says that Google is in talks with Tencent, Inspur, and other Chinese companies though the current trade tensions between the United States and China loom large over the negotiations, and Bloomberg cites a source saying that the plans may not move forward. Under such a deal, Google's cloud partner would be responsible for hosting and delivering services like Google Drive and Google Docs to customers in China, from their own servers. It would give Google access to the tremendous Chinese market. Because China has strict laws requiring that data needs to be stored within its borders, Google Cloud rivals Amazon and Microsoft have both tapped local allies, as well. In China, Amazon Web Services is delivered via Beijing Sinnet Technology, while the Microsoft Azure cloud is delivered via 21Vianet Group. Those same laws also require that the Chinese government has some oversight of how data moves through digital networks. In that sense, this move might not sit well with Google employees, who are already upset over reports that the company plans to release a version of its search engine that complies with Chinese government censorship. Story continues Google declined to comment. NOW WATCH: INSIDE WEST POINT: What its really like for new Army cadets on their first day See Also: SEE ALSO: The rise of Apple CEO Tim Cook, the leader of the first $1 trillion company in the US FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) Broward County schools officials in general properly handled the special-needs education of troubled Parkland shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, according to an independent report released late Friday on the orders of a judge. The 70-page report , much of which is heavily redacted under privacy rules, concludes that during Cruz's 16 years in the school system the correct decisions were made in most instances under programs for students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. "Available evidence indicates that, with isolated exceptions, the district adhered to procedural and substantive requirements when implementing this student's exceptional education program," says the report by Collaborative Educational Network Inc. and commissioned by the Broward school board. Release of the report came after Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer overruled defense objections that the report paints a misleading portrait of Cruz's longstanding psychological problems, many of which have already been disclosed. Scherer said all of Cruz's actual educational records are among 27 pages of redacted material, which are exempt from disclosure. "I do find there is nothing in the redacted report ... that would interfere with the administration of justice and the defendant's right to a fair trial," Scherer said. Attorneys for media organizations including The Associated Press argued the report had to be disclosed under Florida's broad public records laws. Cruz, 19, faces the death penalty if convicted of 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. His attorneys have said he will plead guilty if guaranteed a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that offer. The report focused on two instances during Cruz's schooling where state law or the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was not followed. These involved a requirement that consent be obtained from either a parent or an adult student before placement in an alternative school and an improper response by school officials when Cruz requested special services after having them revoked several months earlier. Story continues The exact details of these violations were not provided, but the report makes recommendations on such things as training to make sure the proper procedures are followed and consider "all possible scenarios" in what can be emotionally charged meetings. A number of other general recommendations for improvement of the handling of students like Cruz were also listed. "We accept the recommendations regarding procedural improvements, and are pleased with the overall review, recommendations and findings. We are actively reviewing our policies and procedures, training protocols and data systems in an effort to implement the recommendations in a timely and effective way," Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said in a statement. Defense attorney David Frankel said the independent report appears crafted to defend against civil claims filed by victims' families, by attempting to show that Cruz's mental problems did not rise to a level that caused great concern. That could affect jurors considering Cruz's guilt and his sentence at a criminal trial. "It gives the misperception that somehow he didn't have psychological issues that were that important," Frankel said. "This was a broken and damaged person from the get-go. They want to ignore that." School board attorney Debra Klauber said officials there believe the report is public record that should be released but took no position on its implications for Cruz's trial. Media attorney Dana McElroy said it does not qualify for any of the exemptions that apply in a criminal case. "This is not the kind of record that this court has the ability to review," McElroy said. The Cruz school report is the latest of several court battles involving media organizations, the school board, prosecutors and defense lawyers over release of evidence and other material related to the Feb. 14 mass shooting. Previous requests to unseal video showing the law enforcement response outside the school and Cruz's post-arrest statement to detectives are under appeal. ___ Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt MEXICO CITY (AP) Hurricane Hector roared as a major Category 3 storm over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, but was far from land. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hector is expected to remain powerful through early next week, but no coastal watches or warnings were in effect. Hector had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph). It was centered about 1,525 miles (2,455 kilometers) east of Hilo, Hawaii and was moving toward the west at 12 mph (19 kph). By Sijia Jiang HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Huawei raised its forecast for full-year smartphone shipments to more than 200 million and said it could become the world's top vendor of the devices in the final quarter of next year. Huawei, which recently displaced Apple as the No. 2 smartphone vendor in the June quarter, expects full-year shipments to beat an initial target of 180 million after it shipped more than 95 million smartphones in the first half, consumer business group CEO Richard Yu said on Friday. "I think it's no problem that we become the global No.2 next year; in Q4 next year, it's possible we become No.1," Yu told a Huawei media briefing at its headquarters in Shenzhen. He attributed the growth to strong sales in Europe and China, bolstered by premium products such as the p20 series, of which it has sold more than 9 million units since its launch four months ago. The Chinese market is key for Huawei as it has come under fire in the United States, Australia and other nations over concerns it could facilitate Chinese government spyingwhich it has repeatedly denied. Yu said there was nothing the company could do about being virtually shut out of the United States market with no major carriers there selling its smartphones. But strong growth in some other markets has offset that. Huawei's consumer business group, which includes the smartphones operations, saw 73 percent revenue growth in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region in the first half. Revenue from China grew 37 percent. Yu declined to provide half-year revenue figures for Huawei's consumer business group, but said it made a higher revenue contribution, a trend that could continue. The unit accounted for 39.3 percent of Huawei's total revenue in 2017. Huawei overtook Apple to become the world's second-biggest smartphone seller in the June quarter, data from market research firms showed. The company's full-year forecast for smartphone shipments would represent a 31 percent rise for 2018, a strong recovery after a sharp slowdown a year ago. Story continues Huawei's recovery comes as the Chinese smartphone market, the world's largest, shows signs of further consolidation towards the largest vendors. Yu said Huawei managed to increase its global share in the premium market of above $500 smartphones in the first half to 16.4 percent from 12.8 percent a year ago. Sales of its P and mate series of premium phones grew 45 percent from a year ago. Huawei plans to add 10,000 retail stores around the world before the end of this year. It also plans to do internal testing of 5G phones in the fourth quarter of this year for a launch some time next year, Yu said. (Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) SIGATOKA, Fiji (AP) India's Gaganjeet Bhullar took a one stroke lead and Ernie Els surged into contention Saturday after the third round of the Fiji International. Bhullar, who plays mainly on the Asian Tour, shot a second consecutive 69 to move to 8-under after three rounds, a shot clear of Australians Jake McLeod, Jarryd Felton, Terry Pilkadaris and Andrew Dodt. New Zealand's Ben Campbell, who led the $1.2 million tournament by four shots after the second round, had a 5-over 77 and dropped back into sixth place at 6-under, a stroke ahead of Els who carded a 69 to lie seventh, three shots off the lead. Els produced a brilliant back nine to revive his week in Fiji and to sit only three shots off the lead at 5-under. He had been tied for 19th after an even-par first round of 72 and was 20th after his 2-under 70 in the second round. Bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes Saturday dropped him back to 1-under, eight shots behind Campbell who was still in front early in the third round. But the four-time major champion had four birdies in his last 10 holes to move into contention as players still on the course battled high winds. "Conditions were a little bit tougher than yesterday, obviously," Els said. "But I still made a bit of a mess on the front nine. I made two very soft bogeys." Els has struggled only the front nine at the Natadola Bay course this week, playing it in four over par and posting eight bogeys in the first three rounds. "I've just got to keep it together a bit more on the front nine," Els said. "The front nine, I think, has been playing a little bit tougher this week. Doing that, maybe I can make a little bit of a charge ont he back nine tomorrow." Els hasn't finished in the top-10 at a professional tournament since June, 2016 and had missed cuts in his last eight tournaments before Saturday. "There is a low score out there for me," he said. "I'm starting to hit the ball nicely, starting to get a bit more confidence in the putter. So it's there and if it really blows tomorrow anything can happen." https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/IAIO_Qaher-313_5.jpg Sebastien Roblin Technology, Middle East Certainly, Iran has reasons to want a stealth fighterit fears an attack by Israel or the United States, some of the most capable air arms on the planet. Furthermore, Iran is competing for regional dominance with multiple Arab states lavishly equipped with fourth and 4.5-generation F-15, F-16, Typhoon and Rafale jet fighters. Can Iran's Stealth Fighter Actually Fly? There can be such a thing as posturing too hard. Irans aviation industry has accomplishments to boast about despite operating under heavy sanctions for nearly forty years. It has managed to keep once state-of-the-art U.S.-built F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat fighters in operational condition for decades, including nine years of high-intensity aerial warfare with Iraq, despite being cut off from spare parts from the United States. It has refurbished the rusting hulks of old F-5 Freedom Fighters into twin-vertical stabilizer Saeqeh fighters, reverse-engineered their J85 turbojet engines, and created a variety of viable capable drones. All of these scrappy-underdog accomplishments fall far short of developing a working stealth fighter. Russia, which possesses a mature military aviation industry, has basically thrown the towel on its Su-57 stealth fighter program (at least on the short term) because the expenses and technical challenges have proven so prohibitive. Much wealthier countries ranging from France, Germany, India, Japan and the UK are only in the early stages of developing their own. But Tehran would have the world believe that it quietly developed its own stealth jet way back in February 2, 2013, when one was unveiled as part of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies attended by then-President Ahmadinejad. IAIO Qaher (Conqueror) 313 stood out as a diminutive franken-plane that would look cool in an action flick. It retained significant design characteristics of the F-5 Freedom Fighter, but sported canted vertical stabilizers like an F-22 Raptor, flouncy wings reminiscent of a 1950s-era MiG-17, drooping wingtips resembling Boeings discarded Bird of Prey concept, and bat-like canardsa second set of wings next to the cockpit. Story continues It didnt, however, look like something that could actually flyas pointed out by David Cenicotti of The Aviationistin an epic takedown. Some of the key points: The Cockpit Was Too Small to Fit an Average-Height Human Being Unless that person was a dwarf. The pilot would have to tuck his knees up in front of him to fit. Likewise, the nose was too small to fit a radar. Simplistic Cockpit Instruments One of the pictures depicts a relatively low-tech instrument panel likely taken from a civilian light plane. One of the tells? An airspeed indicator maxing out at 260 knots, which is little over half the speed of a subsonic civilian airliner. No Jet Exhaust Nozzle Nozzles help a jet not melt itself when engaging afterburners. Furthermore, the jet intakes seem too small as well. No visible weapons bays or sensor apertures. Stealth jets generally carry weapons in internal bays to maintain a low-radar cross section. But such internal bays, or even provisions for external weapons or sensors, were visibly absent. Iran claimed the little Qaher could somehow carry two two-thousand-pound bombs and six air-to-air missilesbut the airframe simply did not have enough space to carry them all. It appeared to be made out of shiny plasticwithout tell-tale rivets and screws. Recommended: Forget the F-35: The Tempest Could Be the Future Recommended: Why No Commander Wants to Take On a Spike Missile Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? And the canopy appeared to be smudgy plexiglass and had no latch. Iranian state media released a video which supposedly depicted a Qaher in flight. But a glance at the footage made clear it was a less-than-full-scale remote-control replica. After the outcry, Iranian media clarified that these were in fact two different reduced-sized test drones. Another dramatic photo depicting a Qaher flying against a mountain backdrop appears to have been produced via the magic of Photoshop. Basically, the Qaher was a highly unconvincing plastic mockup designed for crude propaganda purposesand international media called it out for being just that. Qaher 2.0: It Can Move! The hypothetical stealth jet disappeared for several years only to resurface in a somewhat more convincing form in April 2017 when prototyped number 8 was paraded before President Rouhani and recorded taxiing on a runway. This time, Iranian media conceded that the jet had yet to undergo flight tests. The new jet now has a cockpit that can fit a full-sized pilot, two turbojet engines with exhaust nozzles so as not to melt itself, and an infrared-sensor turret under the nose which could be handy but would likely mess up its radar cross section. The turbojets are believed to be J85s, an American-built type from the 1950s which Iran successfully reverse-engineered. The Qaher has a wingspan of only 11 meters and is 16 meters long. However, the unconventional airframe still seems rife with aerodynamic flaws and radar reflective hot spots. Moreover, sharp-eyed analyst Galen Wright noticed that an Iranian mechanic had stenciled on the tire-pressure for the Qaher as 50 psi. For comparison, the tires on a lightweight F-16 ramp up to 300 psi. This suggests even the more realistic Qaher model is too light to be a real, functioning jet fighter. For that matter, the notion that even the mockup Qaher has a stealthy radar cross section is dubious as Iran likely lacks the prerequisite radar-absorbent material and precision-engineering technology. Notably, the Fars news agency described the new Qaher as a logistic aircraft (whatever that meansits clearly not a cargo plane) and a light fighter jet for military and training purposes. This hints that if Iran ever does build flying Qaher, it might not be intended for frontline service. Perhaps it could serve as a prototype, or a means to test detection of a quasi-low-observable airframe. Iranian sources, including a deputy defense minister, have also offered the eyebrow-raising claim that the Qaher is intended to shoot down helicopters, based on a chain of dubious premises. Supposedly, the threat posed by swarms of Iranian motorboats armed with anti-ship missiles is so great that the U.S. Navy will rely on attack helicopters to destroy them. These, however, could in turn be easily shot down by fightersso long as those fighters are stealthy enough to evade the surface-to-air missiles of ships, so the reasoning goes. Iran may eventually design an actual flying jet plane resembling the mockups it passed off as the real thingbut even, such a plane would likely merely be a testbed and showpiece. By now, one can consult the experience of the United States, China and Russia to show what a real stealth fighter program would entail. By comparison, Irans effort does no seem credible. One should also bear in mind that back in 2003, Iran unveiled an earlier, more convincing fake subsonic stealth fighter called the Shafaqrevealed in 2014 to be a mock-up made of wood. Certainly, Iran has reasons to want a stealth fighterit fears an attack by Israel or the United States, some of the most capable air arms on the planet. Furthermore, Iran is competing for regional dominance with multiple Arab states lavishly equipped with fourth and 4.5-generation F-15, F-16, Typhoon and Rafale jet fighters. However, attempting to develop a working stealth jet from scratch is probably the most expensive and least practical solution to address those challenges. Meanwhile, Tehrans predilection for fabricating easily disproven evidence of its military capabilities testifies to the revolutionary states enduring sense of insecurity. 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: Creative Commons. Read full article SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said on Friday China was "pivotal" to salvaging a multilateral nuclear agreement for the Middle Eastern country after the United States pulled out of the pact earlier this year. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 deal in May. International sanctions were lifted under the pact between world powers and Tehran in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. Trump has ordered U.S. sanctions on Tehran, while a senior State Department official said Washington has told allies to cut imports of Iranian oil by November. Iran and other signatories, including China, have been trying to salvage the deal. "The role of China in the implementation of JCPOA, in achieving JCPOA, and now in sustaining JCPOA, will be pivotal," Mohammad Javad Zarif said, referring to the technical name for the nuclear deal. (Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Paul Tait) Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli navy intercepted a Swedish-flagged activist boat bent on breaching its more than decade-long blockade of Gaza, the second in less than a week, the military said on Saturday. "The ship was monitored and was intercepted in accordance with international law," the military said in a statement, before the vessel, named Freedom for Gaza and carrying 12 people, was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. "The (military) clarified to the ship's passengers that they are violating the legal naval blockade and that any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod," the statement said. The people on board were taken for "further inquiry". The organisers of the flotilla said the boat, which was carrying medical supplies, was intercepted in international waters. "The demands of Ship to Gaza are that the ship with its crew and cargo will be returned to the site of the boarding, and that they will be allowed to go in peace through international and Palestinian waters in accordance to international law," they said in a statement. "This is a demand that the eleven years-long illegal and destructive blockade on Gaza will be lifted at last." Freedom was the second boat of the "Freedom Flotilla" to be intercepted en route to "break the blockade" on Gaza, organisers said. Four boats left from Scandinavia in mid-May and stopped in some 28 ports along the way, with two remaining behind after a recent stop in the Italian port of Palermo. On Sunday, the Israeli navy intercepted a Norwegian-flagged activist boat that was part of the flotilla. Israel has fought three wars with Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008 and says the blockade is necessary to keep them from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas where 80 percent of the two million population are dependent on aid. Tel Aviv (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Israeli Druze and their supporters rallied in central Tel Aviv Saturday to protest a new law they say makes them second-class citizens. The law, which passed last month and is part of Israel's so-called basic laws, a de facto constitution, proclaims the country the nation state of the Jewish people. It makes no mention of equality or democracy, implying the country's Jewish character takes precedence, and speaks of Israel as the historic homeland of the Jews, who have a "unique" right to self-determination within its borders. Arabs have strongly criticised the legislation, particularly those from Israel's 130,000-strong Druze community. Druze, unlike other Arabs who may volunteer, are subject to compulsory service in the military or police alongside Jewish Israelis. Holding colourful Druze flags alongside Israeli ones, protestors at Saturday's demonstration, estimated by local media at over 50,000, chanted "equality". "Despite our unlimited loyalty to the state, the state doesn't consider us equals," Israeli Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif said in a speech. Former military general Amal Aad said that senior Druze members of the security establishment like himself "want to retain our Israeli identity, and think the government and its head can fix the law". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had conducted a series of meetings with the Israel's Druze leadership, telling them there was "nothing in this law that infringes on your rights as equal citizens of the state of Israel". But the meetings and implications of new pro-Druze legislation have not eased their discontent, with a number of junior Druze military officers resigning from the Israeli army in protest. By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian and wounded at least 220 others at protests along the Gaza border on Friday, Gaza health officials said, as diplomats sought to secure a durable ceasefire deal. Over four months of weekly Friday border protests that began on March 30 have reduced in intensity lately but organizers have vowed they would continue until Israel lifts economic sanctions on the coastal enclave. The Israeli military said troops had responded with "riot dispersal means" and had operated "according to standard operating procedures," a term that refers to the use of accurate live fire, after some Gazans broke through the border fence and attacked troops with firebombs and an explosive device. It said some 8,000 Gazans had participated in the protests at five locations along the border. A Gaza hospital official said of the 220 hurt, 90 suffered wounds as a result of the live fire. The dead was a 25-year-old man. At least 156 Palestinians have been killed in the protests and one Israeli soldier was shot dead by a sniper in Gaza. Israel has lost tracts of farmland and forests to fires set by kites and helium balloons laden with incendiary material and flown over from Gaza. MEDIATION EFFORTS Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a trip to Colombia next week, his office said, and is due to consult with top ministers on Sunday on proposals to end the tensions, Israeli media has reported. Some top ranking Hamas officials arrived in Gaza from Egypt late on Thursday to discuss the possible deal but no details have been given. The delegation included the group's deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri, exiled by Israel in 2010. "The delegation will (consult) ... over issues of concern for the Palestinian people, foremost in achieving the national reconciliation and ending the Gaza blockade," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said before the delegation arrived. More than two million Palestinians are packed into the narrow strip which suffers deep economic hardship. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, citing security concerns over Hamas and other militant groups. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border. Israel, the United States and other Western countries regard Hamas as a terrorist organization. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008, the last of them in 2014. On Sunday, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said on Twitter that he held "productive meetings" with Egyptian officials in efforts to de-escalate Gaza tensions and resolve humanitarian issues. "The devil is always in the details but we are #movingforward in the interest of #peace," Mladenov said. Israeli media said Israel was seeking a long-term commitment from Hamas to end the protests and halt the launch of the incendiary balloons and kites that have destroyed thousands of acres of farmland and forests, in exchange for lifting restrictions on the passage of goods and travel for Gaza. Speaking about the Hamas delegation's visit, Hamas political official Hussam Badran said: "We will achieve a national unity of the highest level in order to break (Israel's) blockade... We want the blockade to end once and for all." (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Diane Craft) remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Ivanka Trump (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto) Model Karlie Kloss who recently confirmed on social media that she is engaged to her boyfriend of six years, Joshua Kushner, 33, whos the businessman brother of Jared Kushner and the brother-in-law of Ivanka Trump celebrated her 26th birthday yesterday. She shared a photo of her celebration, posing on a rooftop in Manhattan holding up balloons announcing her new age. She wrote, I have truly never felt more happy in my own skin and energized and excited for the future I want to build. I am so grateful for your love and supportI have a feeling 26 is going to be the best one yet. Clearly fond of Kloss, Trump shared the celebratory image on her Instagram stories, writing a happy birthday message of her own on top of it. Photo: Instagram courtesy Ivanka Trump When the couple of six years shared the happy news of their engagement, Trump posted a congratulatory message to her brother-in-law. So incredibly happy for you Josh! she wrote. You and Karlie are blessed to have found one another. Heres to a lifetime of love, laughter + adventure for you both! Kloss recently showed off her engagement ring in a sweet tweet to her fans. Thank you ALL for your sweet wishes! So happy to share this news with you, I am feeling like the happiest girl in the world. Thank you for your love and support, it truly means the world to me. pic.twitter.com/ZvkRaFufUD Karlie Kloss (@karliekloss) July 25, 2018 At first glance, the ring appears to be a cushion-cut diamond set on a diamond pave band. No designer has been revealed, but we know this much is true: That baby is big. Story continues Kloss and Kushner, who have been dating for six years, shared their happy news on Instagram in June, though People reports that the proposal actually happened during a trip to upstate New York a few weeks prior. The nuptials are expected to draw lots of attention, as both Kloss and her new fiance have expressed opposition to President Trumps policies, including family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, but it doesnt seem to have impacted the friendship between Kloss and Trump. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. A New York judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought against Fox News by the parents of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich over the networks coverage of a conspiracy theory involving their slain son, claiming that it was not portrayed as sufficiently outrageous, according to the ruling. Rich was killed in what his family believes was a botched robbery attempt in July 2016 near his Washington, D.C., home. He was 27 and had just been offered a job on Hillary Clintons presidential campaign in New York. He became the focus of a right-wing conspiracy theory that he was targeted for supposedly leaking thousands of DNC emails to WikiLeaks. Fox News posted a story linking Richs death to the leak on its website and left it up for six days as anchors on the channel, including Sean Hannity, promoted the idea on air. (While the website retracted the story and issued a statement, Hannity showed less remorse for his role in spreading the baseless idea.) According to U.S. District Judge George Daniels, claims in the suit brought by the parents, Joel and Mary Rich, fail to adequately allege essential elements of the causes of action asserted. It is understandable that Plaintiffs might feel that their grief and personal loss were taken advantage of, and that the tragic death of their son was exploited for political purposes, the judge stated. However, a general allegation that Defendants had an agreement to collaborate against Plaintiffs cannot form the basis of an [intentional infliction of emotional distress] claim. The couple filed the lawsuit in March to seek unspecified compensation for emotional distress caused by the networks coverage. No parent should ever have to live through what we have been forced to endure, the Riches said in a statement at the time of the filing. The pain and anguish that comes from seeing your murdered sons life and legacy treated as a mere political football is beyond comprehension. Story continues Daniels also dismissed a similar lawsuit Tuesday brought by private investigator and Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler, who said the reporter for the website article attributed fabricated quotes to him linking Seth Rich to the email leak. Related... Trump Linked To Fox News Bogus Seth Rich Story, Lawsuit Alleges Parents Of Slain DNC Staffer Seth Rich Sue Fox News Over Fake News Story Wealthy GOP Donor Sued Twice By Seth Rich Family: How Many Riches Want To Sue Me? Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Taken from the Air Force web page at [1]. The link followed was the Air Force Museum's P-38 page at [2]., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=362123 Warfare History Network, Robert F. Dorr Security, Asia P-38 pilot Roger Ames, an American eyewitness, tells of the shooting down of Japans most important admiral. Killing Yamamoto: How America Killed the Japanese Admiral Who Masterminded the Pearl Harbor Attack When American air ace Major John Mitchell led 16 Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters on the longest combat mission yet flown (420 miles) on April 18, 1943, Mitchells target was the Japanese admiral considered the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. Mitchells P-38 pilots, using secrets from broken Japanese codes, were going after Isoroku Yamamoto, the poker-playing, Harvard-educated naval genius of Japans war effort. Mitchells P-38s intercepted and shot down the Mitsubishi G4M Betty bomber carrying Yamamoto. After the admirals death, Japan never again won a major battle in the Pacific War. No band of brothers ever worked together better than the men who planned, supported, and flew the Yamamoto mission. Yet, after the war, veterans fell to bickering over which P-38 pilot actually pulled the trigger on Yamamoto. One thing they never disagreed on. Like most young pilots of their era, they believed the P-38 Lightning was the greatest fighter of its time. Roger J. Ames (1919-2000) flew the Yamamoto mission. This first-person account by Ames was recorded by the author in 1998 and appeared in his 2007 book, Air Combat: A History of Fighter Pilots; it has never before appeared in a magazine. Intercepting a Crucial Japanese Radio Message The downing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is arguably the most studied fighter engagement of the Pacific War. Yamamoto, 56, was commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet and the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. He called himself the sword of Japans Emperor Hirohito. He claimed he was going to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue on a white horse and dictate the surrender of the United States in the White House. Yamamoto studied at Harvard (1919-1921), traveled around America, was twice naval attache in Washington, D.C., and understood as much about the United States, including U.S. industrial power, as any Japanese leader. In April 1943, Yamamoto was trying to prevent the Allies from taking the offensive in the South Pacific and was visiting Japanese troops in the Bougainville area. Story continues On the afternoon of April 17, 1943, Major John Mitchell, commander of the 339th Fighter Squadron, was ordered to report to our operations dugout at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. The 1st Marine Division had captured the nearly completed field the previous summer and named it for Major Lofton Henderson, the first Marine pilot killed in action in World War II when his squadron engaged the Japanese fleet that was attacking Midway. Now Mitchell found himself surrounded by high-ranking officers. They told him the United States had broken the Japanese code and had intercepted a radio message advising Japanese units in the area that Yamamoto was going on an inspection trip of the Bougainville area. The message gave Yamamotos exact itinerary and pointed out that the admiral was most punctual. They told Mitchell that Frank Knox, secretary of the Navy, had held a midnight meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the intercepted message. It was decided that we would try to get Yamamoto if we could. The report of the meeting was probably inaccurate because Roosevelt was on a rail trip away from Washington, but the plan to get Yamamoto unquestionably began at the top. Eighteen P-38s Selected For the Mission The Navy would never have admitted it, but the Armys P-38 was the only fighter with the range to make the approximately 1,100-mile round trip. We were under the command of the Navy at Guadalcanal, so you can bet theyd have taken the job if they were able. According to the intercepted message, Yamamoto and his senior officers were arriving at the tiny island of Ballale just off the coast of Bougainville at 9:45 the next morning. The message said that Yamamoto and his staff would be flying in Mitsubishi G4M Betty bombers, escorted by six Zeros. The Yamamoto trip was to include a visit to Shortland Island and Bougainville. Mitchell was to be mission commander of 18 P-38s that would intercept, attack, and destroy the bombers. Thats all the P-38s we had in commission. The Plan of Attack Led by Mitchell, we planned the flight in excruciating detail. Nothing was left to chance. Yamamoto was to be at the Ballale airstrip just off Bougainville at 9:45 the next morning and we planned to intercept him 10 minutes earlier about 30 miles out. To ensure complete surprise, we planned a low level, circuitous route staying below the horizon from the islands we had to bypass, because the Japanese had radar and coastwatchers just as we did. We plotted the course and timed it so that the interception would take place upon the approach of the P-38s to the southwestern coast of Bougainville at the designated time of 9:35 am. Each minute detail was discussed, and nothing was taken for granted. Takeoff procedure, flight course and altitude, radio silence, when to drop belly tanks, the tremendous importance of precise timing and the position of the covering element: all were discussed and explained until Mitchell was sure that each of his pilots knew his part and the parts of the other pilots from takeoff to return. Mitchell chose pilots from the 12th, 70th, and 339th Fighter Squadrons. These were the only P-38 squadrons on Guadalcanal. The only belly tanks we had on Guadalcanal were 165-gallon tanks, so we had to send to Port Moresby for a supply of the larger 310-gallon tanks. We put one tank of each size on each plane. This gave us enough fuel to fly to the target area, stay in the area where we expected the admiral for about 15 minutes, fight, and come home. The larger fuel tanks were flown in that night, and ground crews worked all night getting them installed along with a Navy compass in Mitchells plane. Four of our pilots were designated to act as the killer section with the remainder as their protection. Mitchell said that if he had known there were going to be two bombers in the flight he would have assigned more men to the killer section. The word for bomber and bombers is the same in Japanese. (Authors note: Ames is incorrect on this point about the Japanese language). Captain Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr., led the killer section. His wingman was 1st Lt. Rex T. Barber. 1st Lt. Besby F. Frank Holmes led the second element. His wingman was 1st Lt. Raymond K. Hine. The cover section was led by Mitchell and included myself and 11 other pilots. Eight of the 16 pilots on the mission were from the 12th Fighter Squadron, which was my squadron. Although 18 P-38s were scheduled to go on the mission, only 16 were able to participate because one plane blew a tire on the runway on takeoff and anothers belly tanks failed to feed properly. Bogeys! Eleven OClock, High! It was Palm Sunday, April 18, 1943. But since there were no religious holidays on Guadalcanal, we took off at 7:15 am, joined in formation, and left the island at 7:30 am, just two hours and five minutes before the planned interception. It was an uneventful flight but a hot one, at from 10 to 50 feet above the water all the way. Some of the pilots counted sharks. One counted pieces of driftwood. I dont remember doing anything but sweating. Mitchell said he may have dozed off on a couple of occasions but received a light tap from The Man Upstairs to keep him awake. Mitchell kept us on course flying the five legs by compass, time, and airspeed only. As we turned into the coast of Bougainville and started to gain altitude, after more than two hours of complete radio silence, 1st Lt. Douglas S. CanningOld Eagle Eyes uttered a subdued Bogeys! Eleven oclock, high! It was 9:35 am. The admiral was precisely on schedule, and so were we. It was almost as if the affair had been prearranged with the mutual consent of friend and foe. Two Betty bombers were at 4,000 feet with six Zeros at about 1,500 feet higher, above and just behind the bombers in a V formation of three planes on each side of the bombers. We dropped our belly tanks. We put our throttles to the firewall and went for altitude. The killer section closed in for the attack while the cover section stationed themselves at about 18,000 feet to take care of the expected fighters from Kahili. As Mitchell said, The night before we knew the Japanese had 75 Zeros on Bougainville and I wanted to be where the action was. I thought, Well, Im going on up higher and were going to be up there and have a turkey shoot. We expected from 50 to 75 Zeros should be there to protect Yamamoto just as we had protected Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox when he came to visit a couple of weeks before. Wed had as many fighters in the air to protect Knox as we could get off the ground. I guess the Japanese had all their fighters lined up on the runway for inspection. Anyway, none of the Zeros came up to meet us. Our intercept force encountered only the Zeros that were escorting Yamamoto. Lanphier and Barber: The First to Make Contact With the Enemy Lanphier and Barber headed for the enemy. When they were about a mile in front and two miles to the right of the bombers, the Zeros spotted them. Lanphier and Barber headed down to intercept the Zeros. The Bettys nosed down in a diving turn to get away from the P-38s. Holmes, the leader of the second element, could not release his belly tanks so, in an effort to jar them loose, he turned off down the coast, kicking his plane around to knock the tanks loose. Ray Hine, his wingman, had no choice but to follow him to protect him. So Lanphier and Barber were the only two going after the Japs for the first few minutes. From this point onward, accounts of the fight get mixed up about who shot down whom. Briefly, here is probably what happened based on the accounts of all involved. I did not see what was happening 18,000 feet below me. As Lanphier and Barber were intercepted by the Zeros, Lanphier turned head-on into them and shot down one Zero and scattered the others. This gave Barber the opportunity to go for the bombers. As Barber turned to get into position to attack the bombers, he lost sight of them under his wing, and when he straightened around he saw only one bomber, going hell bent for leather downhill toward the jungle treetops. Barber went after the Betty and started firing over the fuselage at the right engine. And as he slid over to get directly behind the Betty, his fire passed through the bombers vertical fin and some pieces of the rudder separated from the plane. He continued firing and was probably no more than 100 feet behind the Betty when it suddenly snapped left and slowed down rapidly, and as Barber roared by he saw black smoke pouring from the right engine. Shooting Down the Betty Barber believed the Betty crashed into the jungle, although he did not see it crash. And then three Zeros got on his tail and were making firing passes at him as he headed toward the coast at treetop level taking violent evasive action. Luckily, two P-38s from Mitchells flight saw his difficulty and cleared the Zeros off his tail. Holmes said it was he and Hine that chased the Zeros off Barbers tail. Barber said he then looked inland and to his rear and saw a large column of black smoke rising from the jungle, which he believed to be the Betty hed shot. As Barber headed toward the coast he saw Holmes and Hine over the water with a Betty bomber flying below them just offshore. He then saw Holmes and Hine shoot at the bomber with Holmes bullets hitting the water behind the Betty and then walking up and through the right engine of the Betty. Hines started to fire, but all of his rounds hit well ahead of the Betty. Then Holmes and Hine passed over the Betty and headed south. Barber said that he then dropped in behind the Betty flying over the water and opened fire. As he flew over the bomber it exploded, and a large chunk of the plane hit his right wing, cutting out his turbo supercharger intercooler. Another large piece hit the underside of his gondola, making a very large dent in it. After this, he, Holmes, and Hine fired at more Zeros. Barber said that both he and Holmes shot down a Zero, but Hine was seen heading out to sea smoking from his right engine. As Barber headed home, he saw three oil slicks in the water and hoped that Hine was heading for Guadalcanal, but that was not the case. Lanphier, having scattered the Zeros, found himself at about 6,000 feet. Looking down, he saw a Betty flying across the treetops, so he came down and began firing a long, steady burst across the bombers course of flight, from approximately right angles. In another account, Lanphier said he was clearing his guns. By both accounts, he said he felt he was too far away, yet, to his surprise, the bombers right engine and right wing began to burn and then the right wing came off and the Betty plunged into the jungle and exploded. Return to Guadalcanal Lanphier said that three Zeros came after him, and he called Mitchell to send someone down to help him. Then, hugging the earth and the treetops while the Zeros made passes at him, he unwittingly led them over a corner of the Japanese fighter strip at Kahili. He then headed east and, with the Zeros on his tail, he got into a high-speed climb and lost them at 20,000 feet; he got home with only two bullet holes in his rudder. Contrast this to the 104 bullet holes in Barbers plane, plus the knocked-out intercooler and the huge dent in his gondola. Flying back to Guadalcanal, I heard Lanphier get on the radio and say, That SOB wont dictate peace terms in the White House. This really upset me because we were to keep complete silence about the fact that we had gone after Yamamoto. The details of this mission were not to leave the island of Guadalcanal. This article by Robert F. Dorr originally appeared on the Warfare History Network. Image: Wikimedia Commons Read full article CLEARLAKE, Calif. (AP) The Latest on California wildfires (all times local): 4:15 p.m. Authorities are ordering residents along a Northern California lake to evacuate homes in the path of a growing wildfire amid concerns that hot, windy and dry weather conditions will persist throughout the weekend. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa says a wildfire remains several miles from the communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake, about 110 miles (175 kilometers) north of San Francisco. But LaBoa says its trajectory and the weather forecast prompted officials to evacuate the communities Friday out of an abundance of caution. The wildfire has grown to 175 square miles (280 square kilometers) and is a few miles from connecting with a second blaze that has grown to 64 square miles (105 square kilometers). The twin fires have destroyed 41 homes. ___ 11:50 a.m. A California bulldozer operator nearly slipped off a steep mountain trail three times before his vehicle finally rolled into a ravine and fatally crushed him. A Department of Forestry and Fire Protection preliminary report says each earlier slip alone qualified as a "near miss" warning that the century-old mining trail could collapse. The report says 36-year-old Braden Varney was working alone overnight July 14 fighting a wildfire sparked hours earlier outside Yosemite National Park. His assistant had gone to get a new hydraulic hose. Varney's radio wasn't communicating with headquarters, so his assistant relayed messages until they lost contact. Varney was a 10-year veteran. The report says his death highlights the need for better risk assessment, communication and supervision. Varney became the first of four California firefighters to die this year. ___ 11:15 a.m. Experts say a deadly Northern California wildfire burned so hot at its peak that it created a cyclone of flames that reached 143 mph, ripping through the region with the force of a destructive Midwest tornado. Story continues National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said Friday that the blaze still burning near Redding created a fire whirl that uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes. Dykema says the whirl started when hot air from the exceptionally hot fire rose and twisted tightly, creating a powerful tornado of flames and wind. He says fire whirls are common, but not at the intensity recorded on July 26. The fire burning near Redding has grown to 206 square miles (533 square kilometers) and destroyed at least 1,060 homes. ___ 7:40 a.m. Increasing winds are expected in Northern California areas where deadly and destructive wildfires are burning. The National Weather Service has issued warnings for critical fire weather conditions Friday and Saturday as a series of dry low-pressure systems pass through the region, bringing gusts up to 35 mph (56 kph) in the afternoon. Forecasters say highest threat areas include a fire near the city of Redding and the Mendocino Complex of two fires north of San Francisco. The forecast includes extremely low humidity levels that leave vegetation ready to burn. The 206-square-mile (533-square-kilometer) Carr Fire 100 miles south of the Oregon border is 39 percent contained after destroying 1,060 homes and many other structures. Two firefighters have died there. New evacuations were ordered late Thursday at the Mendocino Complex. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The Latest on protests in Portland, Oregon (all times local): 8:30 p.m. The head of the Oregon branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the way the Portland Police Bureau handled Saturday's demonstrations. "The Portland Police Bureau's response to protest is completely unacceptable in a free society," David Rogers said in a statement issued Sunday night. "The repeated use of excessive force, and the targeting of demonstrators based on political beliefs are a danger to the First Amendment rights of all people. We call on the Portland Police Bureau, Mayor Wheeler, and Chief Outlaw to immediately end the use of weapons, munitions, and explosives against protesters." Saturday's clashes were the most recent of several this year in the city as right-wing militants converged, met by counter-protesters, including members of anti-fascist, or "antifa," groups. City officials have struggled with striking a balance between free speech and keeping events from spiraling out of control. But on Saturday, some said police seemed to act mostly against those protesting the presence of the extreme-right demonstrators, using stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets against them. ___ 6 p.m. Sunday Portland police were accused Sunday of being heavy-handed against people protesting a rally by extreme-right demonstrators, reportedly injuring some counter-protesters and prompting the city's new police chief to order a review of officers' use of force. Police in riot gear tried to keep the two groups apart, many of whom had come on Saturday dressed for battle in helmets and protective clothing. Dozens of the extreme-right protesters were bussed to Portland, one of America's most liberal cities, from nearby Vancouver, Washington. Saturday's clashes were the most recent of several this year in the city as right-wing militants converged, met by counter-protesters, including members of anti-fascist, or "antifa," groups. City officials have struggled with striking a balance between free speech and keeping events from spiraling out of control. Story continues But on Saturday, some said police seemed to act mostly against those protesting the presence of the extreme-right demonstrators, using stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets against them. Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, who assumed command less than a year ago as Portland's first African-American female police chief, said in a statement Sunday she takes all use-of-force cases seriously. Outlaw directed the professional standards division to begin gathering evidence to determine if the force used was within policy and training guidelines. The Office of Independent Police Review will be provided with the information for review and investigation. ___ 8:50 p.m. Saturday The Portland Police Bureau says four people were arrested during rowdy protests between right-wing activists and self-described anti-fascists. The bureau says in a statement that officers also seized "multiple weapons throughout the day." The rally was organized by Joey Gibson, leader of right-wing leaning group Patriot Prayer. It drew hundreds of supporters and counter-protesters. ___ 2:55 p.m. A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive was injured when he was struck by a projectile during rowdy protests between right-wing activists and self-described anti-fascists in Portland. Eder Campuzano was bloodied Saturday afternoon but said in a Tweet published on the newspaper's website that he was "okay" and was going to get evaluated. Police deployed "flash bangs" and other devices to try to disperse the crowds. Authorities say demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at officers. The rally was organized by Joey Gibson, leader of right-wing leaning group Patriot Prayer. It has drawn hundreds of supporters and counter-protesters. __ 2:10 p.m. Police have deployed "flash bangs" and other devices to try to disperse crowds of right-wing activists and self-described anti-fascist counter-protesters in Portland, Oregon. The demonstrations Saturday drew hundreds and there was a heavy police presence as similar gatherings have turned violent. Just before 2 p.m. police ordered crowds to disperse, saying protesters had thrown rocks and bottles at officers. There were arrests, but it wasn't immediately clear how many. There was also debris left on the street by demonstrators. The rally organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture. ___ 1:05 p.m. A right-wing activist who organized a rally in Portland, Oregon, that has also drawn counter-protests says the country is getting soft and leaders need to step up. Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson on Saturday says his group has the American spirit and will unapologetically stand up for what the group believes in. It's the group's third such rally in Portland, which has again drawn self-described anti-fascist counter-protesters. The two previous events resulted in violence. Portland police appear to be trying to head off any violence Saturday with a strong presence amid the hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters. Police in riot gear have confiscated items that could be used as a weapon. Police have also announced they will not respond to non-emergency calls in the city due to the demonstration in a Portland park. ___ 11:40 a.m. A right-wing group and self-described anti-fascist counter-protesters are rallying in Portland, Oregon, as police tried to prevent the gatherings from turning violent as they have before. The Saturday rally organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture. This time, Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters can carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate. The Portland Police Bureau said that protesters should expect to see a significant police presence including bomb-sniffing dogs and checkpoints where weapon screenings will occur. ___ 10 a.m. Police in Portland, Oregon, say there will be "weapon screening locations" at the entrances to the site of a planned protest by a right-wing group. The protest by the Patriot Prayer organization is scheduled for mid-day Saturday at a Portland park and self-described anti-fascist counter-protesters are also rallying. Police promise a heavy presence as previous encounters between the two groups have turned violent. In a statement police said weapons may be seized if there is a violation of law and added that it is illegal in Portland to carry a loaded firearm in public unless a person has a valid Oregon concealed handgun license. Many protesters are expected to be from out of state. A broader counter-protest organized by a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights groups and artists also will gather at City Hall. ___ 4:41 a.m. Police in Portland, Oregon, are preparing for clashes that could turn violent when a rally organized by a right-wing group is met with self-described anti-fascist counterprotesters. Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson says his followers will be bused to Portland Saturday with armed security and group members who will carry concealed guns. Gibson has staged several similar marches in the liberal city in recent months that have ended with people hospitalized and arrested. Gibson has said that he won't stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their right-wing views without interference. Self-described anti-fascists or "antifa" have been organizing to confront Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group known as the Proud Boys. A broader counter-protest organized by a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights groups and artists also will gather at City Hall. SINGAPORE (AP) The Latest on U.S. warnings on violating sanctions on North Korea (all times local): 6 p.m. The North Korean foreign minister has shot back at the U.S. over its warning to other countries against violating international sanctions on North Korea, saying recent moves by the U.S. are "alarming." Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said at a Southeast Asian regional forum in Singapore on Saturday that the U.S. "is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" North Korea. Ri said that while North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" including a "moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground," the U.S. has gone "back to the old, far from its leader's intention." He made the remarks in a speech that came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the same conference, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. ___ 5:45 p.m. The U.S. State Department says President Donald Trump's reply to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's latest letter has been hand-delivered to the North's top diplomat. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump's written response was given to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at an Asian security forum in Singapore on Saturday. Ri and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were both attending the forum and briefly shook hands and exchanged pleasantries at the start of the meeting. Nauert said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim. The White House said earlier in the week that Kim had sent a new letter to Trump and that the president had written a response. ___ 9:15 a.m. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. Story continues He says Washington will take seriously any action that reduces pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Speaking in Singapore on Saturday, Pompeo told reporters the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia has violated U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He says the reports will be raised with Moscow and roundly condemned. Pompeo says he remains optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledge to President Donald Trump to denuclearize. But he says the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress. LAS VEGAS (AP) The Latest on the final report into the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people (all times local): 6 p.m. A survivor of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history says it was gun-wrenching that Las Vegas police didn't determine a motive for the rampage. Megan O'Donnell Clements of Wilmington, Delaware, told The Associated Press on Friday that not knowing why Stephen Paddock opened fire on the concert she attended in October is "kind of horrifying" and that she lacks closure. Police released their final report from a 10-month investigation into the shooting that killed 58 people and injured hundreds of others. It says Paddock became increasingly unstable and distant from loved ones but that there was no troubling behavior that would have led to a call to law enforcement. ___ 4:40 p.m. Police in Las Vegas say the gunman who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in the nation's modern history also fired armor-piercing incendiary bullets at nearby aviation fuel tanks. A final investigative report of the Oct. 1 shooting was released Friday. It says gunman Stephen Paddock fired eight incendiary rounds at a fuel tank at the city's airport. Two bullets hit the tank, but it didn't explode. A timeline says those shots were among the first of 1,057 that Paddock fired for 11 minutes from the windows of the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort into a concert crowd below. Police who entered the room more than an hour later found Paddock dead of a self-inflicted gunshot next to a handgun as well as 23 assault-style weapons strewn about. ____ 1:50 p.m. Those who knew the gunman who opened fire at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip last year painted an inconsistent picture for investigators of a successful gambler who enjoyed traveling but avoided germs and hand-shaking. The people interviewed by investigators in a report made public Friday said Stephen Paddock was very detail-oriented but had poor-health and an unkempt appearance. They also said he was not interested in attention or flashy items but always wanted to be the best. Story continues Paddock's ex-wife Peggy Paddock told investigators her former husband grew up with a single mom in a financially unstable home and felt a need to be self-reliant. She says Stephen Paddock was not interested in drawing attention to himself and did not buy flashy clothes, jewelry or cars. His youngest brother Eric Paddock called his brother a narcissist and said he needed to be seen as important. Investigators say the brother described Stephen Paddock as someone who "always wanted to be the best and known to everyone." Friends and family said he did not appear violent and or to be abusing drugs or alcohol. ___ 12:40 p.m. The girlfriend of the Las Vegas mass shooter told investigators that gunman Stephen Paddock didn't talk much about politics but expressed a dislike for President Barack Obama's administration and "was happy when President Trump was elected." Las Vegas police said in a report on the shooting made public Friday that Paddock told his girlfriend Marilou Danley that "he believed President Trump would do something to stop illegal immigration." The report says Paddock did not belong to any political organizations, did not comment on gun control did not display any racial bias. ___ 12:35 p.m. Detectives investigating last year's mass shooting in Las Vegas conducted interviews with valet attendants, security officers, housekeepers and other workers of the Mandalay Bay casino-resort who interacted with gunman Stephen Paddock at the Mandalay Bay casino-resort before he opened fire on a country music festival. Two bellmen who helped Paddock move luggage to his room during his stay at the property on the Las Vegas Strip told authorities none of the items they moved were unusually heavy. One told authorities Paddock requested the use of back or service elevators, which the employee explained is not uncommon for VIP guests to do. Authorities have said Paddock amassed an arsenal of weapons in his 32nd floor suite. The report shows a housekeeper told authorities she saw an open laptop surrounded by papers when she was cleaning the room, but never saw guns or bullets in the room. Workers reported he requested more towels, a change of linens and a new mini fridge. ___ 11:50 a.m. The number of dead in the final police report of the Oct. 1 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip remains the same, at 58 people plus the gunman who authorities say killed himself. However, the final report from Las Vegas police on Friday raises the number of people with "documented physical injuries" to 869 from the 851 reported by Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo when he released preliminary report in January. Police said they confirmed that 413 people received gunshot or shrapnel injuries, down from the 422 reported in January. The injuries to the other 456 were not specified or listed as "other than gunshot or shrapnel." Some people may have been treated for injuries but never reported them to police. In witness accounts and 911 calls made public in recent months, some people who escaped gunfire reported being trampled on by other people as they fled the country music festival. ___ 11:45 a.m. Investigators say people who knew the gunman behind the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival described him as a narcissist who cared only about himself. A report released by Las Vegas police said Stephen Paddock did not have any religious or political affiliations. Before the shooting, he had only minor interactions with law enforcement related to traffic tickets and no history of arrests. Investigators said Paddock had several hobbies and would become "heavily invested, monetarily and emotionally, in any activity he began." He bought all required gear after learning to scuba dive and bought an airplane after getting a pilot's license. ___ 11:00 a.m. A final report released by Las Vegas police into the mass shooting in Las Vegas last year shows the gunman's primary care physician told FBI agents his patient may have had "bipolar disorder." The report made public Friday does not name the Las Vegas physician who also told investigators that Stephen Paddock did not want to talk about the possible disorder further with him. The physician described Paddock's behavior as "odd" and showing "little emotion." The doctor told federal agents Paddock refused antidepressants, but accepted prescriptions for anxiety medication. He said Paddock "seemed fearful of medications" and often refused to take them. The doctor last saw Paddock a year before the shooting for an annual checkup. ___ 10:55 a.m. The lead investigator into last year's mass shooting in Las Vegas says authorities were unable to corroborate accounts from at least two people who told police that a person they believed to be Paddock ranted in the days prior to the attack about the federal government and gun control. Detective Trever Alsup's comments were in a final report made public Friday into the rampage by Stephen Paddock, who rained gunfire from a 32nd floor hotel-casino suite onto a country music festival, killing 58 people. The claims about Paddock's rants were among redacted witness accounts released by the authorities in May under court in a public records case by media including The Associated Press. One man told police he heard the man say, "Somebody has to wake up the American public and get them to arm themselves," and that, "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made." A woman provided a handwritten account saying that she overheard a man she later said was Paddock at a Las Vegas restaurant talking angrily about the 1990s standoffs at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge in Idaho. ___ 10:35 a.m. A brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock told investigators that he believes the gunman cheated on tax preparation. Eric Paddock told investigators he was worried that he might be implicated for tax evasion if evidence was collected from Stephen Paddock's computers after he was found dead in his hotel suite after opening fire on a country music festival, killing 58 people. Investigators said in a final report into the shooting made public Friday that at least one laptop found in Paddock's 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel was missing a hard drive. When police told Eric Paddock about the missing hard drive, he repeated several times: "Maybe he did care for us." ___ 10:05 a.m. A brother of the gunman in the Las Vegas mass shooting last year told investigators he had not spoken with Stephen Paddock for more than 10 years but believed he suffered from "mental illness and was paranoid and delusional." Bruce Paddock's comments were in an investigative report into the shooting made public Friday. Bruce Paddock also told detectives he did not believe his brother was a "violent person" or abused drugs or alcohol. Authorities say Paddock unleashed a hail of gunfire from his high-rise hotel suite on Oct. 1, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more. Investigators say they did not determine a motive for the attack. ___ 10 a.m. The gunman in last year's Las Vegas shooting repeatedly complained to his girlfriend that he was sick and doctors could not cure him. The account was included in an investigative report released Friday by Las Vegas police. Marilou Danley told investigators that Stephen Paddock's doctors told him he had a "chemical imbalance." She said Paddock would also get "very bad headaches" from chemical smells and would need to change hotel rooms, would not shake hands with people and often wore cotton gloves. Danley, who is Catholic, told investigators that Paddock would also often say, "Your God doesn't love me." She said Paddock had described himself as an atheist. Authorities say Paddock unleashed a hail of gunfire from his high-rise hotel suite on Oct. 1, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more. 9:50 a.m. The investigation into last year's mass shooting in Las Vegas has found that the gunman spent $1.5 million over 2 years, including money paid to casinos. A report into the shooting made public Friday included a summary of 14 of Stephen Paddock's bank accounts. The report said Paddock had $2.1 million in the accounts in September 2015. By September 2017, the total amount had dropped to $530,000. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo says Paddock was a reclusive, high-stakes gambler but had not been "as successful in the gambling as he was in the previous years." Investigators say Paddock paid $600,000 to casinos and. More than $170,000 was paid to credit card companies. The analysis said Paddock had also made nearly $95,000 in firearms-related purchases. ___ 9:25 a.m. Authorities in Las Vegas says the investigation into last year's mass shooting shows no evidence of a conspiracy or a second gunman. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo says Friday that the investigation revealed that Stephen Paddock acted alone in the Oct. 1 shooting. Lombardo says there was "no other gunman" besides Paddock. Earlier this year, federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against a man who they say Paddock sold armor-piercing bullets. Authorities have said the man, Douglas Haig, sold Paddock 720 rounds of tracer bullets. He has pleaded not guilty. ___ 9:20 a.m. Authorities in Las Vegas say the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit is expected to release a psychological profile of the Las Vegas mass shooter later this year. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo made the announcement as he made public results of the investigation into the shooting. Shooter Stephen Paddock was found dead in a 32nd floor hotel suite after he opened fire on crowds at a country music festival below, killing 58 people. ___ 9:10 a.m. Authorities in Las Vegas say they cannot "definitively" determine the gunman's motive in the Oct. 1 mass shooting that killed 58 people. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo made the announcement as he made public results of the investigation into the shooting. Lombardo says shooter Stephen Paddock was "an unremarkable man" who showed signs of a troubled mind. Lombardo Las Vegas police have completed their investigation into the shooting. Paddock was found dead in the hotel room where he opened fire. ___ 8:30 a.m. Las Vegas police are making public their final report on the shooting that killed 58 people and injured hundreds last year at a country music festival and was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo announced he will provide reporters with the results of 10 months investigating the Oct. 1 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, though it's unclear if police will have any answers as to why gunman Stephen Paddock shot from a Mandalay Bay hotel room into a concert crowd of 22,000 people. The sheriff and the top FBI official in Nevada have said that they believe the shooter acted alone and it was not terrorism and that they may never know his motive. Police have released 13 batches of investigative documents, 911 audio, police reports, witness statements and video over the last three months Beirut (AFP) - Her trainers beating down on the pavement along Beirut's seafront, Nour Safieddine, 24, cuts past strollers ambling in the evening sun. In her bright pink t-shirt, she is running to survive. "I run to carry on, so life can smile at me even if it made me cry -- or in fact, not to die after the thought of suicide crept into my head," the journalist and graduate student wrote recently. In Lebanon, mental health and suicide have long been deeply taboo subjects, with both major religions in the tiny country -- Islam and Christianity -- condemning the taking of one's own life. But one in three adults in Lebanon will develop a mental disorder by the age of 75, a 2008 study found. The small Mediterranean country has been rocked by decades of war, and weathered endless political crises in recent years as it fights to stave off an economic meltdown. To shake the mould and help save lives, Lebanese like Safieddine are speaking up. The sudden deaths of her sister and father around one year ago sent her into crippling depression, but running has helped pull her out. In May, she bravely shared her own struggle with depression in a public social media post. "I decided I had to give positive energy to these people and remind them that life is worth living and that they deserve to live," the tall, lean athlete told AFP. She was surprised by the positive response. "I felt like my experience was the experience of many people who hadn't dared to speak up about what they were going through," she said. The issue has been getting a wave of attention in Lebanon in recent weeks amid concern over rising suicides. - 'He fell' - The first seven months of this year alone have seen 89 suicides in Lebanon, compared with 143 for all of 2017, according to Lebanon's security forces. This year's rate amounts to roughly one suicide every two and a half days, but social norms in Lebanon may mean suicides are underreported. Story continues "You have families who said, because of stigma, that he fell," said Nour Kik, of the health ministry's mental health programme. To fight rising numbers, a group of mental health professionals and volunteers launched Lebanon's first suicide prevention hotline in late 2017. The Embrace Lifeline has received around 600 calls since November, said Omar Ghosn, a psychiatrist and board member of the Embrace association behind it. In a small, bright office in downtown Beirut, around 45 volunteers work in shifts to receive phone calls from people in distress, but also worried relatives or friends. "Callers are women and men of all ages," but teenagers especially rely on the service, said Sally, who like other hotline volunteers did not give her second name. "I've had a lot of calls from elderly men," said the 22-year-old psychology student. Without work or a pension, "most call upset because they're struggling to provide themselves with food, drink -- or even a home". But vulnerable groups in Lebanon also include around one million Syrian refugees who fled the seven-year war in their neighbouring homeland. A 2014 World Health Organization report found that 41 percent of Syrian youth in Lebanon have sometimes or often contemplated suicide. - 'Listen to them cry' - Fadi, a 37-year-old Syrian volunteer at the hotline, said he often feels callers have never had anyone empathise with them. He talks them through their problems, trying to highlight their achievements, he said. Though "sometimes, they just need someone to listen to them cry". Fadi is determined to speak out, especially after witnessing a crowd egg on a suicidal Syrian man threatening to throw himself off a Beirut cliff in April. "They were eating sunflower seeds and watching the scene as if they were watching a movie at the cinema," he said. Fadi gained the man's trust by throwing him his coat, and managed to coax him off the edge. He is also trying to raise awareness individually. His gym coach, who initially did not want to talk about the taboo topic, is now helping spread the word. "Now he's the one telling everybody: By the way, there's a suicide hotline in Lebanon. The number is 1564," said Fadi. Authorities say they are working on preventing suicides, including through better access to mental healthcare. "Ninety percent of persons who attempt suicide have a mental disorder that can be treated," said Kik, of the health ministry's mental health programme launched in 2014. "We are working on making services more available, accessible and affordable," she said. But Safieddine's coping mechanism is still running. She has completed a half-marathon and is working on improving her time. "I run for freedom, I run for life, I run for myself, I run for my pain, and I run for those like me," she said. MONTREAL (AP) Rick Genest, a Quebec model known for his head-to-toe tattoos and participation in the Lady Gaga music video "Born This Way," has died, his talent agency said. Dulcedo Management confirmed on Facebook late Thursday the passing of Rick Genest, who was better known as Zombie Boy. Dulcedo said it "was in shock" and called the 32-year-old represented by the agency an "icon of the artistic scene and of the fashion world." Lady Gaga said on her official Twitter account Thursday night that "the suicide of friend Rick Genest, Zombie Boy is beyond devastating." The American singer added: "We have to work harder to change the culture, bring Mental Health to the forefront and erase the stigma that we can't talk about it." According to his website, he holds the Guinness World Book of Records for the most insects tattooed on a human body (178), as well as the most bones inked on a human body, at 138. But while his outward appearance may have been intimidating, he was unfailingly mild-mannered and polite, according to the CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission, a homeless shelter Genest visited as a teen and continued to support as an adult. Sam Watts said he last saw Genest in June, when the artist lent his famous image to a campaign to raise awareness about the issues facing marginalized and homeless youth. "This was a guy who put you totally at ease," he said. "Immediately you knew this was a kind and gentle soul who had some deep concerns about anybody who is on the fringes or being dismissed for how they looked." In early 2011, a photo of Genest in a fashion magazine drew the attention of fashion designer Nicola Formichetti, then the artistic director for French fashion house Mugler. It was Formichetti who helped Genest secure his first major modelling gigs with Mugler and introduced him to Lady Gaga, who cast him in the video for her 2011 single "Born This Way." In their scenes together, the singer sported face paint that mimicked Genest's tattoos as the two performed to the hit song in matching black suits. Quebec's coroner's office said an autopsy would be conducted to determine the cause of death. Washington (AFP) - Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray withdrew from the ATP Washington Open on Friday, citing fatigue after a 3 a.m. finish that left him crying into a towel. The 31-year-old British star, who returned in June from an 11-month layoff with a right hip injury, also withdrew from next week's ATP Toronto Masters, also citing the drain from three grueling three-set victories over more than eight hours on the US capital hardcourts. "I'm exhausted after playing so much over the last four days, having not competed on the hard courts for 18 months," Murray said. "I also need to be careful and to listen to my body as I come back from a long-term injury." Murray, whose last prior hardcourt appearance was in March 2017 at Indian Wells, played only two June grasscourt events in his comeback prior to coming to Washington, where he played three of the week's four longest matches. "I've played quite a few matches this week in Washington and I need to be smart with my rest and recovery as I come back from injury," Murray said. The Scotsman, whose next US Open hardcourt tuneup event will be the Cincinnati Masters starting August 13, was upset following his 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Romanian Marius Copil at having been forced to play from midnight to 3 a.m. -- the latest finish in the Washington event's 50-year history. "I don't think I should be put in a position like that," Murray said after the victory. "(My body) doesn't feel great right now. "Finishing matches at three in the morning isn't good for anyone involved in the event, players, TV, fans, anyone. When you're expected to come back and perform the next day, I think that's unreasonable." Murray said in the pre-dawn hours he might withdraw, adding, "I don't know how players are expected to recover. It's a very difficult position to be coming back from a long injury to be finishing matches at 3 o'clock in the morning." Story continues - Andy 'gutted' to withdraw - In a statement released by the event, Murray expressed more disappointment at being unable to continue. "I'm gutted not to be playing and I'd like to thank the tournament and all the fans," he said. "There are lots of positives to take from this week, so I'll take some time to rest and recover and then head to Cincinnati early to prepare and get ready." After the match, a shattered-looking Murray wept into a towel for several minutes, calling it, "just the emotions coming at the end of an extremely long day and a long match," Murray said. Murray's pullout handed a walkover into the semi-finals to 19-year-old Australian Alex De Minaur, who ousted 11th seed Steve Johnson and eighth seed Chung Hyeon, both on Thursday. - Role model Murray leaves - Tournament director Keely O'Brien had told the Washington Post she wanted Murray to play, citing his role model status. "Certainly if he can't play because of his injury, that's one thing. But he's a fighter, and he doesn't give up, and he needs to have everyone see that," she said. After Murray's announcement, O'Brien said she expected Murray would return next year. "I am so grateful that Andy, an incredible champion, came back to DC to begin what we all know will be a great comeback," she said. "I sincerely respect his decision and know that his health and recovery process is his top priority, as it should be." Singapore (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Saturday called on his Myanmar counterpart to release two Reuters journalists accused of breaking a draconian secrecy law during their reporting of a Rohingya massacre. Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been detained since December and face up to 14 years in prison for possessing classified documents linked to security operations in crisis-hit Rakhine state. Pompeo said in a tweet that he had raised the issue with the Southeast Asian country's foreign minister at a regional security meeting in Singapore. "I spoke with #Burma's Minister Kyaw Tin and raised US concerns about 2 @Reuters reporters detained in Burma for doing their job. They should be released immediately," he said, using the former name for Myanmar. The journalists were arrested while reporting on a military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine which the United Nations and Washington have described as ethnic cleansing. They had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din -- a massacre in which the military eventually admitted involvement. During the pair's ongoing trial, Kyaw Soe Oo said last week he had been entrapped by police while reporting on the massacre with his colleague and had been abused in custody. Northern Rakhine state has been in virtual lockdown since the military campaign began last August and forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the bloody crackdown alone. Family and friends of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts endured weeks of mystery after she vanished from her small town of Brooklyn, Iowa, in mid-July having last been seen alive out on her regular evening run On Tuesday, a police source told PEOPLE that Tibbetts dead body was found, more than a month after she was reported missing in Brooklyn. While the police source said the body was found Tuesday morning in a field in Poweshiek County, where Tibbetts lived, additional details about the discovery were not immediately available. Confirmation is pending on the remains but authorities are confident that they belong to Tibbetts, according to the source. A news conference about the case is scheduled for later Tuesday. Investigators have so far declined to release much information about their work. The discovery of a body marks a grim end to the search for Tibbetts, which captured national attention as a reward fund for information leading to her safe return broke records in Iowa, with hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring in. Her death is an answer to the question of her disappearance that loved ones hoped never to see. We know that Mollie knows how much we love her and how important she is to her entire family, her cousin Emily Heaston previously told PEOPLE. We want her to know that we will never stop looking for her. Speaking after the announcement that Tibbetts had died, friend Alyssa King said, We are all devastated. Heres what we know about the case so far. RELATED: Excruciating Mystery After Beloved Student Vanishes as Locals and Celebrities Seek Answers Mollie Tibbetts 1. Tibbetts Was Dog-Sitting When She Decided to Go for a Run the Last Time She Was Seen The last time anyone saw Tibbetts was around 7:30 p.m. on July 18, as she was jogging in Brooklyn, a community of some 1,500 people in eastern Iowa, authorities said. She was wearing dark-colored running shorts, a pink athletic top and running shoes. Tibbetts had been dog-sitting but headed out for some exercise as part of her typical routine, according to her boyfriend, Dalton Jack. Story continues She reportedly sent him a photo on Snapchat that he opened later that night. Then she vanished. Its Brooklyn. You dont lock your doors, Jack told Fox News. We lock our doors now. Every night. He has reportedly said he first learned Tibbetts was gone on the afternoon of July 19, when one of her coworkers called and said she had not called into work that day and she hadnt showed up. Hed texted her that morning but got no response. And then I looked at the messages and she hadnt opened or read the message, Jack said. And then I started getting in contact with her friends and family, saying, Have you seen her or heard from her? And they all said the same thing: No, we havent heard from her since yesterday. Tibbetts was reported missing that same day by her family. Weeks later perhaps longer than any missing-persons case has lasted in the area it remains unclear why, how or where she disappeared or who may be responsible. Everything and everybody is under review, the county sheriff, Thomas Kriegel, previously told PEOPLE. State authorities confirmed that was still the case at an Aug. 3 news conference, saying, We continue to look at all possibilities. Mollie Tibbetts 2. Her Boyfriend Has Been Ruled Out as a Suspect Jack, Tibbetts boyfriend of nearly three years, has been cooperating with investigators, who have formally excluded him as a suspect, authorities previously told PEOPLE. In early August Tibbetts should have attended a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic, where she and her boyfriend had planned to watch his brother get married on the beach. Instead the ceremony was canceled as Tibbetts stunned loved ones searched for answers in her mysterious disappearance, according to the Associated Press. Tibbetts and Jack were scheduled to attend the nuptials of his 23-year-old brother, Blake Jack, the AP and CBS News report. Blake had even said jokingly that it was there that Dalton should propose to Tibbetts. Black addressed his missing girlfriend in an interview with the Des Moines Register published July 24, saying, I miss you so much and I love you. RELATED: An Evening Run, a Snapchat Selfie and Then Nothing. How Missing Students Boyfriend Realized She Vanished Speculation that Tibbetts could not have been abducted by a stranger is misguided, Mitch Mortvedt, a spokesman for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, previously said. One avenue of thought is that if it wasnt a struggle, and we have found no signs of a struggle, then maybe it was someone she was familiar with, Mortvedt told PEOPLE. But then the other avenue of thought is it could have been a stranger who simply overpowered her or tricked her. We just have very little to go on. Mortvedt did confirm to PEOPLE that investigators were interviewing a number of people Tibbetts knows or seems to have a connection to, including other University of Iowa students and her co-workers. Mollie Tibbetts 3. Searchers Have Covered the Area by Ground, Water and Sky At the Aug. 3 news conference , Kevin Winker, the director of investigative operations for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, outlined in general terms the expansive sweeps conducted so far for Tibbetts. We have been searching ponds, fields and even from the air, so weve been doing searches in many different manners, he said. A massive ground search involving more than 200 people broken up into 37 teams was conducted on July 20 encompassing the farmlands and fields within a five-mile radius of Brooklyn, with helicopters hovering above, according to authorities. Kayakers were also directed to probe two small rivers for clues, Sheriff Kriegel previously said, and other local bodies of water were searched. On July 26, detectives searched a pig farm in Guernsey, Iowa, which is about 15 minutes by car from Brooklyn. Investigators have also reviewed extensive surveillance footage from the area as well as Tibbetts digital footprint including her social media activity and data from her fitness tracker, according to her family and law enforcement. 4. Authorities Are Keeping Mum About Key Questions but Have a Solid Timeline A lot is still publicly unknown in Tibbetts case. While authorities have stayed tight-lipped about several key questions in the investigation, they said earlier in August that they were not slowing down. RELATED: Missing Iowa Student Is Likely Still Alive, Parents Believe Shes Out There. We Feel It Asked if authorities knew when and where, exactly, Tibbetts was when she went missing, Kevin Winker with the Iowa DCI instead confirmed that they were working from a solid timeline in her disappearance but he did not elaborate. Beyond that, he declined to discuss most parts of the ongoing investigation such as whether or not there were suspects. Repeatedly Winker said he was unable to discuss questions about whether or not physical evidence had been located, such as Tibbetts clothing, which exact locations had been searched and other inquiries about the investigations work and direction. Winker acknowledged that while some information has been released, the lack of full clarify for the public about what is known in the case can be frustrating. But, he said, officials believe their reticence so far gives us the best opportunity to resolve the investigation. Mollie Tibbetts (bottom) with relatives 5. Loved Ones Arent Staying Silent Tibbetts had a personality to match the beaming smile she showed off in so many photos, according to her friends and family. She really does not have a single enemy everybody loves Mollie, Alyssa King, who has known Tibbetts for years, told PEOPLE. She described Tibbetts as always there when she was needed and always trying to make people laugh. Breck Goodman, an incoming University of Iowa freshman, said Tibbetts helped her decide which school to attend this fall: As always, she was very helpful, very kind and very nice about it. Goodman was friends with Tibbetts for more than five years and considered her one of her closest confidants. We talked about everything and anything and agreed on most subjects everything from politics and social justice to typical teenage girl stuff like boys. She is such a caring person, Goodman said. Jack, Tibbetts boyfriend, told ABC News she was kind, sweet, caring, shell do anything for everybody. Aunt Kim Calderwood called her beautiful and positive a very responsible and conscientious young woman, according to local TV station WOI and the Des Moines Register. Tibbetts was on the debate and track teams in high school and was a presence at her church, the paper reports. Shes strong and sassy and a fighter and stubborn, her aunt said, according to the Register, and she is not a quitter. Cousin Emily Heaston echoed that to PEOPLE, previously saying Tibbetts comes from a long line of passionate, strong and talkative women. Goodman said the entire ordeal had been heartbreaking for me. Speaking with ABC in July, Tibbetts mom used another word: excruciating. (L-R) Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Chris Ferguson, Eric Boe, Josh Cassada, and Suni Williamson at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas - AFP NASA named the first nine astronauts who will fly to space on Boeing and SpaceX vehicles in 2019 on Friday - a mix of novices and veterans who are tasked with restoring America's ability to send humans into orbit. These pioneering flights to the International Space Station aboard commercially built crew capsules will be the first leaving US soil to put people into orbit since the iconic space shuttle program ended in 2011. For the past seven years, NASA astronauts have hitched rides to the orbiting outpost on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft - at a cost of some $80 million a seat. "This is a big deal for our country and we want America to know that we are back, that we are flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said as he unveiled the crew members in Houston, Texas. An unmanned Boeing flight test is scheduled for later this year, with the first crew on board in mid-2019, NASA said. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine giving remarks during a NASA event announcing the astronauts assigned to crew the first flight tests and missions Credit: AFP For SpaceX, a demonstration flight with no passengers is set for November 2018, and the first manned flight set for April 2019. Those named for the crew test flights for Boeing's Starliner include NASA shuttle veterans Eric Boe and Christopher Ferguson, along with Nicole Aunapu Mann, a naval aviator who was named a NASA astronaut in 2013 and will be making her first flight to space. "It is going to be a proud moment for America," Mann said. NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann Credit: Barcroft/UPI US President Donald Trumpalso praised the news while giving himself a pat on the back: "NASA, which is making a BIG comeback under the Trump Administration, has just named 9 astronauts for Boeing and Spacex space flights," he tweeted. "We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them," Trump said. "Exciting things happening." "Space Force!" he added, referencing a sixth branch of the military he has called for that would focus on defending US interests. Story continues NASA, which is making a BIG comeback under the Trump Administration, has just named 9 astronauts for Boeing and Spacex space flights. We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them. Exciting things happening. Space Force! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2018 SpaceX's first crew tests will be manned by shuttle veterans Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. After that, the companies move on to actual missions. NASA "has contracted six missions, with as many as four astronauts per mission, for each company," the agency said. On board Starliner's first mission will be NASA veteran Sunita Williams, a retired Navy captain and experienced space shuttle astronaut, and Josh Cassada, a Navy pilot making his first flight to space. SpaceX's first crew will include naval aviator Victor Glover, also a novice to spaceflight, and shuttle veteran Michael Hopkins. Space exploration | Recent exciting discoveries More astronauts will be announced to join the crews at a later date, NASA said. NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 as part of its commercial crew program, aimed at helping private industry build spaceships to reach low-Earth orbit. "The goal is to have safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and foster commercial access to other potential low-Earth orbit destinations," NASA said. The US space agency, meanwhile, is working on building rockets and spacecraft that could allow humans to return to the Moon in the coming decade. Both Boeing and SpaceX are slightly behind schedule when it comes to their crew vehicles. The first manned flights were initially supposed to take place in 2018. NASA has announced the first astronauts to fly to the International Space Station in spacecraft provided by SpaceX and Boeing. As the Commercial Crew Programs first crewed test flights, the team will not only make history as US astronauts aboard commercial spacecraft, but they will be the first to fly American vehicles launched from American soil since 2011 when NASA retired its space shuttle program. The agency assigned nine astronauts to crew the first test flight and mission of both Boeings CST-100 Starliner and SpaceXs Crew Dragon. Although this is the first commercial crew program, NASA says it worked closely with the private companies throughout the process of developing and testing the vehicles, ensuring they comply with the US agencys safety and performance requirements. I will tell you that space has transformed the American way of life, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said before announcing the individual crew members on Friday. Speaking alongside representatives from Boeing and SpaceX, Bridenstine listed the ways in which satellites enable daily American living, from food production and energy to national security and banking. All of these capabilities, Bridenstine explained, were blazed by a trail that was NASA. After listing the intricacies of daily American life made possible by space travel, it became clear why the US government took interest in improving the countrys domestic spacecraft production, even if aided by commercial companies. Bridenstine acknowledged Senator Ted Cruz and members of Congress in the room before explaining how small contributions from taxpayers has led to NASAs expansion and an overall improvement of American life. The health of NASA and space program is getting stronger every day, he said to momentous cheering. We appreciate you. Bridenstine frequently mentioned his feelings of patriotism while announcing the first commercial crew astronauts, which was echoed in the cheering and chanting of USA! while listing the home state of each astronaut slated for takeoff. We are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, Bridenstine explained. Each astronaut already has extensive experience working with US military, NASA, and international agencies, and yet together they will make history as the first American commercial crew, creating an all-American mission into space that has not existed for seven years. Story continues Starliner Test Flight Astronauts Eric Boe Miami-born and Atlanta-raised, Boe is a former Air Force test pilot who became a colonel before joining NASA in 2000. Previous missions include the STS-126 and Discovery. Christopher Ferguson Phillys own Chris Ferguson is a retired Navy captain who not only piloted space shuttle Atlantis for STS-115 but commanded shuttle Endeavour on STS-126 and Atlantis for the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-135. Although he retired from NASA in 2011, he has been an integral part of Boeings CST-100 Starliner program. Nicole Aunapu Mann The California native completes the trifecta of former military on the Starliner. Mann is a former lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps and F/A-18 test pilot with more than 2,500 flight hours behind her. Mann was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and this will be her first trip to space. Crew Dragon Test Flight Astronauts Robert Behnken The former Air Force colonel from St. Ann, Missouri has a doctorate in engineering and has been an astronaut since 2000. He flew aboard space shuttle Endeavour twice, for the STS-123 and STS-130 missions, during which he performed six spacewalks. Douglas Hurley New York native Hurley has also worked with NASA as an astronaut since 2000. Before piloting the Endeavor for STS-127 with the space agency, he was a test pilot and Marine Corps. colonel. Starliner First Mission Astronaut Josh Cassada The Minnesota native is a Navy commander with more than 3,500 flight hours across more than 40 aircraft. This will be his first spaceflight. Starliner First Mission Astronaut Sunita Williams Suni Williams came to NASA as a Navy captain. Since becoming an astronaut in 1998, she has spent 322 days aboard the International Space Station, where she performed seven spacewalks. Crew Dragon First Mission Astronaut Victor Glover The California native is a Navy commander and test pilot with almost 3,000 hours flying more than 40 aircraft. In addition to his 24 combat missions, he has made 400 carrier landings. This will be his first spaceflight. Crew Dragon First Mission Astronaut Michael Hopkins The Air Force colonel was born and raised on a farm near Richland, Missouri. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and went on to spend 166 days on the International Space Station, conducting two spacewalks. The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight, said Mark Geyer, director of NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we cant wait to see them aboard the International Space Station. These nine astronauts will take part in test flights scheduled for mid-2019, with flights to the ISS to follow. Photos via NASA, Boeing, SpaceX More From Inverse Late Friday night, President Donald Trump attacked both Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and CNN host Don Lemon on Twitter after watching James CNN interview, which originally aired Monday. He called Lemon the dumbest man on television and said he made Lebron [sic] look smart, which isnt easy to do. He also weighed in on the LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan debate, adding I like Mike! Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isnt easy to do. I like Mike! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018 Of course, the tweet comes on the heels of a monumental week for James. He opened a glorious public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio thats why he was being interviewed on CNN and is already paying for over 1,000 students to attend the University of Akron. In the full interview, James says, I believe our President is trying to divide us. From free uniforms and transportation to college tuition guaranteed for all graduates. LeBron James takes CNN's Don Lemon on an exclusive tour of his new 'I Promise' school https://t.co/roRxI7qlZl pic.twitter.com/Q1nc62asZe CNN (@CNN) July 31, 2018 James has been a vocal critic of Trump in the past, and though Trump has sung James praises many times, he took a completely different tone Friday. Michael Jordan sided with LeBron James Despite his previous tweets, Trump declared his preference for Mike Michael Jordan on Friday. On Saturday, Jordan responded via a statement to NBC News Geoff Bennett and supported James: NEW: Jordan sides with James over Trump tweet. NBA legend Michael Jordan tells NBC News through a spokesperson: "I support LJ. Hes doing an amazing job for his community. Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) August 4, 2018 NBA stars such as Karl-Anthony Towns fire back at Donald Trump Story continues Several NBA players, however, fired back at President Trump in the wake of the tweet. Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns urged President Trump to get off Twitter and get stuff done for our country. So let me get this straight: Flint, MI has dirty water still, but you worried about an interview about a man doing good for education and generations of kids in his hometown? Shut your damn mouth! Stop using them twitter fingers and get stuff done for our country with that pen. https://t.co/sEkX3OKaJM Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) August 4, 2018 Towns teammate Anthony Tolliver said he was done being quiet regarding Trumps criticisms. I've been silent about ALL of the DUMB stuff this man has tweeted but THIS is attacking the NBA brotherhood and I'm not rollin'! What an embarrassment https://t.co/zHjgokig8R Anthony Tolliver (@ATolliver44) August 4, 2018 Stephen Curry backed James, too. Utah Jazz star guard and noted good guy Donovan Mitchell thought Trumps tweet was a sign of insecurity. A sign of an insecure human being is one who attacks others to make themselves feel better im just sad that young kids have to see stupid tweets like these and grow up thinking its okay forget everything else Donald your setting a bad example for kids our future https://t.co/eg0MECg8xC Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) August 4, 2018 Wizards All Star Brad Beal kept it simple: Hornets big man Frank Kaminsky weighed in: This is officially the most 2018 thing ever https://t.co/e72YhlFsKF Francis Kaminsky III (@FSKPart3) August 4, 2018 Nets forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson tweeted his affinity for Barack Obama. And fellow Nets forward Jared Dudley said simply Hes gotta go! Current free agent Sean Kilpatrick also tweeted: Let me find out the president is clout chasing Sean Kilpatrick Jr (@SeanKilpatrick) August 4, 2018 Hillary Clinton joined the cadre of NBA players to tweet on James behalf. .@KingJames is a great family man, incredible ballplayer, gives back to his community, and isnt afraid to speak his mind. Hes a world class athlete and a class act. We need more like him in this world. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 4, 2018 As did Lakers owner and team president Jeanie Buss. The following statement was issued today by Jeanie Buss on behalf of the Los Angeles Lakers: pic.twitter.com/5rRTzGbU9s Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 4, 2018 Even Lemon himself had to weigh in. The CNN anchor asked rhetorically, Whos the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? Whos the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest https://t.co/XO50qVksnR Don Lemon (@donlemon) August 4, 2018 More from Yahoo Sports: Ohio States Urban Meyer admits he knew about allegations on ex-assistant EA Sports apologizes for editing out Colin Kaepernicks name in Madden WWEs Kane wins mayoral election in Tennessee Terez Paylor: Keeping Big Ben happy is top task for Steelers new coordinator iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Feeling hot lately? Well, so are sharks. And over the last decade, theyve been changing age-old habits to keep up with the rising heat habits that could have far-reaching consequences on the ecosystem as well as our economy, scientists have found in two different studies conducted in the U.S. This week, the American Meteorological Society released its State of the Climate report, an annual look at how the planets seas and atmosphere are faring. Not only was 2017 one of the hottest years on record, greenhouse gases and sea levels were at record highs and sea surface temperatures touched levels rarely observed before. Glaciers continued to shrink, coral reefs were dying out fast, and heat waves, hurricanes and wildfires struck again and again. And while it may take decades or centuries before humans understand how to adapt to an ever-hotter planet, researchers have discovered that sharks are already reacting to higher water temperatures by rapidly changing when and where they swim, breed and hunt along American coasts. Every year since 2011, Stephen Kajiura, a researcher at the Florida Atlantic University, and his team have flown a plane over a strip of the Florida coast to observe the migration patterns of black tip sharks, a species that grows up to 6.5 feet in length and is found from New England to the Florida Keys, and the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of these sharks swim along the Eastern Seaboard every winter in search of warmer climes and amass just off the Florida coast, where the clear water and light-colored, sandy sea-floor makes it easy to spot and count them from the air. What Kajiuras team found was startling the number of black tip sharks has been dropping rapidly, from about 12,000 sharks in 2011 to below 3,000 in a recent count. Its a dramatic change for such a short period of time, Kajiura told ABC News. And theres a strong correlation to warmer waters, which suggests that in the future, fewer and fewer sharks will be seen. The average water temperature went up from 23.3 C (73.9 F) in 2011 to about 24.7 C (76.5 F) in 2017, he said. An increase of over a degree may not seem like much, but it could have a profound effect on the marine ecosystem. Thats not to say that the black tip sharks are dying. On the contrary -- using their remarkable ability to adapt, the sharks are moving northwards to coasts like that of North Carolina, where waters are now warm enough in the winter, but not too warm as near Florida, Kajiura said. They may also be following a shift in distribution of their prey going where the food goes. And this could spell bad news for both local fish and fisheries. When top level predators like these enter new waters, there are cascading effects on the entire ecosystem, he said. It could affect the populations of fish being farmed, which would have an economic impact on people whose livelihood depends on it. The plankton smaller fish feed on could multiply. Already, weve been hearing anecdotes that local fishermen have noticed the number of bait fish like mullet or menhaden going down. Maintaining a healthy balance between populations of sharks and other fish is vital to the U.S. economy. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, ensuring this balance is important for commercial and recreational use and integral to coastal communities. While conducting a separate study, Charles Bangley, a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, accidentally found that the population of juvenile bull sharks in North Carolina had increased. Bangley had been conducting a survey in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, a giant, shallow lagoon where a few bull sharks, which can tolerate waters with lower salinity, hang around every year near the mouth of an inlet and feed on shellfish and smaller fishes. It was during this work that we stumbled on the evidence for the increase in juvenile bull sharks, he told ABC News. Around 2010 and 2011, we noticed that juvenile bull sharks went from being kind of rare, sporadic catches to showing up regularly every year. And then in 2012 there was a huge increase in them. A total of 70 bull sharks were captured between 2013 and 2016. It's not like bull sharks have never been there before, Bangley added. But the way they use the estuary seems to have changed from being a place where the adults wander in to feed, to being a place that they give birth in and which functions as a nursery habitat for their young. Much like black tip sharks, attacks on humans by bull sharks are rare. In fact, Bangley described the ones he found in the estuary as pretty cute, mostly under 4 feet in length. For me the serious aspect of this is not the sharks themselves but the kind of environmental change that they represent, he said. If these sharks are shifting how they use the environment -- theyre the upper tier of the ecosystem, everything below them and around them will also be changing. And are we going to run into these mismatches where these sharks are shifting in but some other species that havent had to deal with them previously haven't shifted out yet? While both these studies were conducted on the East Coast, a paper published in Nature Climate Change in 2012 predicted that the habitat of sharks in the Pacific too would be similarly affected. We used data gathered by 4,300 electronic tags placed on 23 marine species, including tuna, sea birds, blue whales, turtles, and of course, sharks, and plugged it into climate models to map where their habitat is likely to go, Elliott Hazen, a research ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who led the study, told ABC News. We looked at salmon sharks, we looked at great white sharks, we looked at blue sharks and mako sharks. What we found was that the habitat of all these sharks would shift northward by more than 600 miles over the next 100 years. What about the threat of shark bites? Attacks on humans are extremely rare, all three experts emphasized. Sharks are at far greater danger from humans than humans are from them. But that doesnt mean attacks, often by accident, will never occur. As sharks move to areas where humans traditionally dont expect them to be, encounters between swimmers or surfers and sharks are likely to increase, said Kajiura. And great white sharks have been spotted more frequently in places as far north as the coast of New York, where some reports suggested they were even breeding. Last month, two children were bitten by sharks in the waters near Fire Island. On the West Coast, more and more great whites and whitecap sharks will likely reach the offshore waters of the northeast Pacific, including British Columbia in the next few decades, William Cheung, associate professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia, told ABC News. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. By Jack Kim and John Geddie SINGAPORE (Reuters) - North Korea's foreign minister said on Saturday he was increasingly alarmed by U.S. attitudes toward the isolated state but said it remained firm in its determination to implement the nuclear deal it reached with Washington in June. The United States and North Korea pledged to end the North's nuclear program and establish peace on the Korean peninsula in the landmark June agreement reached by their leaders in Singapore. "The DPRK stands firm in its determination and commitment for implementing the DPRK-U.S. Joint Statement in a responsible and good-faith manner," said Ri Yong Ho, referring to his country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "What is alarming however is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pressed Southeast Asian nations at regional meetings in Singapore this week to maintain sanctions on North Korea but said he was optimistic that the deal to end the North's nuclear program would be implemented. "We have initiated goodwill measures of, inter alia, a moratorium on nuclear tests and rocket launch tests and dismantling of nuclear test ground," Ri said in a statement delivered to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum. "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean peninsula." North Korea, backed by China, fought the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces in the 1950-53 Korean War which ended in a mere truce, not a peace treaty. (Reporting by Jack Kim and John Geddie; Editing by Nick Macfie) United Nations (United States) (AFP) - North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile programs and continues to evade UN sanctions through increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea, a UN report said Friday. In a 62-page report sent to the Security Council, the UN panel of experts also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, seafood and other products that generate millions of dollars in revenue for Kim Jong Un's regime. Pyongyang "has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," said the report, seen by AFP. The transfer of petroleum products to North Korean tankers at sea remains "a primary method of sanctions evasion" involving 40 vessels and 130 associated companies, it added. The violations have rendered the latest batch of sanctions "ineffective" by flouting the cap on oil, fuel and coal imposed in a raft of UN resolutions adopted last year, it added. At a historic June summit with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in the hope of getting UN and US sanctions relief. Trump however has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that the sanctions must remain in place and could even be tightened as long as there is no progress on ending its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. - Arms sales via Syria - North Korea also "attempted to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries" to Libya, Yemen and Sudan, said the report. It named Syrian arms trafficker Hussein Al-Ali who offered "a range of conventional arms, and in some cases ballistic missiles to armed groups in Yemen and Libya" that were produced in North Korea. Story continues With Ali acting as a go-between, a "protocol of cooperation" between Yemen's Huthi rebels and North Korea was negotiated in 2016 in Damascus that provided for a "vast array of military equipment." The panel continues to investigate such military cooperation that would be in violation of an arms embargo on North Korea. North Korea continued to receive revenue from exports of banned commodities, for instance deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries that generated nearly $14 million from October to March. "Financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime," said the panel. North Korean diplomats play a key role in sanctions evasion by setting up multiple bank accounts, it added. Despite a ban on joint ventures with North Korea, the panel has uncovered more than 200 such jointly-run firms, many of which are involved in construction and other businesses in Russia. The panel is tasked by the council with monitoring the implementation of the raft of sanctions imposed in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test and ballistic missile tests. The United States last month asked a UN sanctions committee to order a halt to all deliveries of oil products to North Korea after reporting that Pyongyang had exceeded the cap through the illegal ship supplies. Russia and China however put a six-month hold on that request. The report cited US figures estimating that North Korea had procured over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products in the first five months of 2018 By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs in violation of United Nations sanctions, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Friday. The six-month report by independent experts monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions was submitted to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee late on Friday. "(North Korea) has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," the experts wrote in the 149-page report. The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the report. The U.N report said North Korea is cooperating militarily with Syria and has been trying to sell weapons to Yemen's Houthis. Pyongyang also violated a textile ban by exporting more than $100 million in goods between October 2017 and March 2018 to China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay, the report said. The report comes as Russia and China suggest the Security Council discuss easing sanctions after U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for the first time in June and Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization. The United States and other council members have said there must be strict enforcement of sanctions until Pyongyang acts. The U.N. experts said illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in international waters had "increased in scope, scale and sophistication." They said a key North Korean technique was to turn off a ship's tracking system, but that they were also physically disguising ships and using smaller vessels. The Security Council has unanimously sanctioned North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products. The experts said "prohibited military cooperation with the Syrian Arab Republic has continued unabated." They said North Korean technicians engaged in ballistic missile and other banned activities have visited Syria in 2011, 2016 and 2017. The report said that experts were investigating efforts by the North Korean Ministry of Military Equipment and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) to supply conventional arms and ballistic missiles to Yemen's Houthi group. A country, which was not identified, showed the experts a July 13, 2016 letter from a Houthi leader inviting the North Koreans to meet in Damascus "to discuss the issue of the transfer of technology and other matters of mutual interest," according to the report. The experts said that the effectiveness of financial sanctions was being systematically undermined by "deceptive practices" of North Korea. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Chris Sanders and Toni Reinhold) Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - A Palestinian teen died of his wounds Saturday a day after he was shot by Israeli troops during clashes on the Gaza border, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said. Muadh al-Suri, 15, was shot in the stomach on Friday in central Gaza, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, raising the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire during those clashes to two, with over 200 wounded. According to the Israeli army, some 8,000 Gazans had gathered at different spots along the frontier Friday, attempting to sabotage the Israeli border fence. A number of Palestinians "infiltrated" Israel and threw firebombs and "an explosive device" before returning to Gaza, it said. Another Palestinian, 25-year-old Ahmed Yaghi, was killed by a sniper east of Gaza City on Friday. Yaghi and Suri were buried on Saturday. At least 159 Palestinians have been killed in border demonstrations that began at the end of March, while one Israeli soldier has been shot dead. Palestinians have also flown balloons and kites carrying incendiary devices across the border, starting hundreds of fires inside Israel. On Saturday, the Israeli army said aircraft had fired at "terrorist squads" launching "arson balloons" at Israel in two separate instances, from northern and southern Gaza. Palestinian sources said drones were used by the army but that no one was wounded. Meanwhile, the leadership of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was to meet for a second consecutive day on Saturday amid speculation of a long-term truce between the Gaza Strip's rulers and Israel. They convened late Friday in Gaza, for the first meeting of its kind by Hamas's political bureau, but ne details of the talks have emerged and Hamas officials did not reply to requests for information. The meetings were expected to deal with UN and Egyptian proposals for a truce with Israel and lifting the blockade imposed on the Palestinian enclave, according to a senior Hamas source. Story continues Israel had on Thursday reimposed a blockade on fuel supplies to the enclave in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites and balloons across the border. With borders to both Egypt and Israel largely sealed in recent years, Gaza suffers from desperately high rates of poverty and unemployment. Israel insists its blockade is necessary to isolate Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, with which it has fought three wars since 2008. Critics say it amounts to collective punishment of the coastal territory's two million residents. By Andrei Khalip LISBON (Reuters) - More than 740 firefighters battled a forest fire in southern Portugal on Saturday as temperatures climbed to near record highs in the Iberian Peninsula amid a Europe-wide heatwave that has brought drought and wildfires from Greece to Sweden. Seeking to prevent more deaths after 114 people were killed in two massive forest blazes last year in Portugal, civil protection sent mobile text alerts warning the population of an extreme risk of fires in some regions, including around the capital Lisbon. In Greece, a wildfire killed 91 people last month. In the coastal resort area of Cascais, outside Lisbon, a power network overload due to heavy use of air conditioning caused a blackout on Friday night, leaving tens of thousands of people without power for several hours and shutting a large shopping mall. In Lisbon, temperatures reached 43 degrees Celsius on Friday. The blaze began on Saturday in the hilly Monchique area of the southern Algarve region, popular with tourists. Authorities evacuated two villages in the area and 10 water-carrying aircraft were being used to fight the flames. Hot air from North Africa has caused the most severe heatwave in Iberia since 2003, one of the worst years on record for forest fires. RECORD HIGHS Temperatures in Spain and Portugal will remain above 40C at least until Sunday, with the IPMA weather service expecting 47C in Santarem in central Portugal later on Saturday, just below Europe's record high of 48C, set in Athens in 1977. The previous record highs in both Spain and Portugal were just over 47C. Portuguese weather forecasters said the hot air from North Africa also brought particles of sand, which tend to subdue maximum temperatures slightly. Three men died this week in Spain as a result of soaring temperatures. Two died of heatstroke in the southeastern region of Murcia, Spanish radio Cadena Ser reported, while another man died in Barcelona on Friday, emergency services said. The Spanish military assisted emergency services fighting a wildfire in Nerva, southern Spain, on Friday and Saturday, but the blaze was now stabilized, emergency services said. Two people were injured and six homes damaged in a separate forest fire near Madrid on Friday, they said. The longest drought in decades has been drying out rivers in the Netherlands and affecting farmers in Germany. Wheat fields have been devastated across northern Europe, driving up prices. In Scandinavia, temperatures hit records until a few days ago. In Sweden, July was a record hot month and wildfires burnt in parts of the country. Temperatures approached 30C this week in Finland, where the August average is 19C. With few air-conditioned homes in the country, a supermarket in Helsinki invited 100 customers to sleep in its air-conditioned store on Saturday. Authorities on both sides of the Baltic Sea, in Sweden and Poland, have warned against swimming due to a huge bloom of toxic algae spreading because of hot temperatures. Graphic: European soil moisture map - https://tmsnrt.rs/2M4kIvA (Addditional reporting By Sam Edwards; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Every year our skies are lit up by returning meteor showers, from Perseids to Lyrids, Orionids to Geminids. If the weather conditions are in our favour and the moon isn't too bright, there's a chance you'll be able to see some spectacular shooting stars in action. Here is our guide to the must-see meteor showers of 2018 including the spectacular Perseids shower which will peak this weekend as well as where and how to see them. What exactly is a meteor shower? A meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through the debris stream occupying the orbit of a comet - or, in simpler terms, when a number of meteors flash across the sky from roughly the same point. Meteors are sometimes called shooting stars, although they actually have nothing to do with stars. If you're lucky you could see up to 100 meteors or 'shooting stars' every hour on December 13/14. Credit: PETE LAWRENCE Perspective makes meteor showers appear to emanate from a single point in the sky known as the shower radiant. A typical meteor results from a particle the size of a grain of sand vaporising in Earths atmosphere when it enters at 134,000mph. Something larger than a grape will produce a fireball and this is often accompanied by a persistent afterglow known as a meteor train. This is a column of ionised gas slowly fading from view as it loses energy. Meteor, meteorid or meteroite? Let's get this straight. A meteor is a meteoroid or a particle broken off an asteroid or comet orbiting the Sun that burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere creating the effect of a "shooting star". Meteoroids that reach the Earth's surface without disintegrating are called meteorites. Meteors are mostly pieces of comet dust and ice no larger than a grain of rice. Meteorites are principally rocks broken off asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and can weigh as much as 60 tonnes. They can be "stony", made up of minerals rich in silicon and oxygen, "iron", consisting mainly of iron and nickel, or "stony-iron", a combination of the two. Story continues The Geminids meteor shower in Vladivostok, Russia in December 2017 Credit: Yuri Smityuk Scientists think about 1,000 tons to more than 10,000 tons of material from meteors falls on Earth each day, but it's mostly dust-like grains, according to Nasa, and they pose no threat to Earth. There are only two incidents recorded where people reported being injured by a meteorite, including one in 1954 when a woman was bruised by a meteorite weighing eight pounds after it fell through her roof. When is the next meteor shower? The meteor shower currently gracing our skies is the Perseids, which began in the middle of July and grows in intensity before peaking in mid-August every year. The shower appears to originate from within the star constellation Perseus hence the shower's name. It occurs when Earth passes through the debris stream occupying the orbit of the comet Swift-Tuttle. The wonderfully named comet is the largest object known to repeatedly pass Earth (it's 16 miles wide). It orbits the sun ever 133 years and each time it passes through the inner solar system it warms up, releasing fresh comet material into its orbital stream. The last time it was closest to the sun was in December 1992. It will be back again in July 2126. Perseid meteor radiant When can I see the Perseid meteor shower? The window for the current Perseid meteor shower is from July 17 to August 24 2018. Stargazers stand a chance of seeing the shower at any point in this window, however the peak will occur this weekend, between August 12 and August 13. The best time to take a look at the sky will be from about 1am BST in the Northern Hemisphere until the onset of dawn twilight. Peak rates of 150-200 meteors per hour were recorded in 2016, but typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour streaking across the night sky, each leaving a trail. To see it, look at a height approximately two-thirds up the sky in any direction. If you want a recommendation, east through south offers some great background constellations in the early hours during August. Look for the shower's "radiant" from the north-east corner of Perseus. 2018 | Major meteor showers The best stargazing spots in the UK A dark night is best for a meteor shower, after midnight and before dawn. Head somewhere away from the bright lights - into more rural areas if you can - and be prepared to wait a good hour if you want the best chance of seeing a shower. Look for a wide, open viewing area - perhaps a national park or large field on the side of a road - and make sure you concentrate your gaze towards the east. Meteor showers are unpredictable though, so prepare for the fact you might not see much. Choose a dark location away from stray lights and give yourself at least 20 minutes in total darkness to properly dark adapt. Britain has some wonderful stargazing locations, including three "Dark Sky Reserves" (Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and Exmoor national parks) and Europe's largest "Dark Sky Park" (Northumberland National Park and the adjoining Kielder Water and Forest Park). best stargazing locations Galloway Forest Park: Galloway is a couple of hours from Glasgow and an hour from Carlisle. The park's most popular spot for stargazing is Loch Trool. Exmoor and around: Exmoor was granted International Dark-Sky Reserve status by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2011. Light pollution is managed to make the area more appealing to amateur astronomers. Romney Marsh: Night once provided cover for smugglers known as Owlers, but today Romney Marsh offers celestial bounty, arching over a landscape adorned with the spires of ancient churches. Kielder: Kielder Forest is officially the darkest place in England 250 square miles of wooded beauty where Northumberland brushes against Scotland. It has its own fabulous, modern, wood-clad observatory on the slopes of Black Fell above Kielder Water. North York Moors: As well as stunning night skies, the North York Moors boast historic market towns such as Helmsley and Pickering, plus appealing coastal spots, including Scarborough and Whitby. The other major meteor showers to look out for in 2018 The Quadrantid meteor shower The Quadrantids was the first major meteor shower of 2018; it peaked at around 8pm on January 3 when between 10 and 60 meteors were shooting per hour. It had a sharp peak, which means the best of the shower only lasted a few hours - although it remained active until January 12th. First spotted in 1825 by the Italian astronomer Antonio Brucalassi, astronomers suspect the shower originates from the comet C/1490 Y1, which was first observed 500 years ago by Japanese, Chinese and Korean astronomers. Why is it called Quadrantid? The Quadrantids appear to radiate from the extinct constellation Quadrans Muralis, which is now part of the Bootes constellation and not far from the Big Dipper. Because of the constellation's position in the sky, the shower is often impossible to see in the Southern Hemisphere - however there is a chance of spotting it up to 51 degrees south latitude. The best spots to see the display are in countries with high northern latitudes, like Norway, Sweden, Canada and Finland. The Lyrid meteor shower The Lyrid meteor shower takes places annually between April 16 and April 25. In 2018, it peaked on the morning of April 22, with the greatest number of meteors falling during the few hours before dawn. With no moon, stargazers might have been able to see between 10 and 20 Lyrid meteors per hour at the shower's peak. Lyrid meteors are typically as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper, but some are much more intense, even brighter than Venus, the brightest object in the night sky after the moon. Called "Lyrid fireballs", these cast shadows for a split second and leave behind smokey debris trails that linger for minutes. Tim Peake space pictures What causes the Lyrid meteor shower? The ionised gas in the meteors' trail burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, creates the glow which can be seen streaking across the night sky. The shower occurs as the Earth passes through the dust left over from Comet Thatcher (C/186 G1), which makes a full orbit of the sun once every 415 years (which is why there are no photographs of it). Flakes of comet dust, most no bigger than grains of sand, strike Earth's atmosphere traveling 49 km/s (110,000 mph) and disintegrate as streaks of light. Comet Thatcher last visited the inner solar system in 1861 - before the widespread use of photography - and isnt expected to return until the year 2276. How did the Lyrids get its name? The shower radiates out from the direction of the star Vega, the brightest light in the constellation Lyra the Harp, from which it takes its name. Vega is a brilliant blue-white star about three times wider than our Sun and 25 light years away. The Lyrids radiating from the vicinity of the blue star Lyra Credit: earthsky.org You might remember Vega being mentioned in Carl Sagan's movie Contact - it was the source of alien radio transmissions to Earth. When were the Lyrids first observed and recorded? The earliest sightings of the Lyrid meteor shower go back 2,700 years and are among the oldest of known meteor showers. In the year 687 BC the ancient Chinese observed the meteors and recorded them in the ancient Zuo Zhan chronicles saying: "On the 4th month in the summer in the year of xin-mao (of year 7 of King Zhuang of Lu), at night, (the sky is so bright that some) fixed stars become invisible (because of the meteor shower); at midnight, stars fell like rain. That era of Chinese history corresponds with what is now called the Spring and Autumn Period (about 771 to 476 BC). Tradition associates this period with the Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius, one of the first to espouse the principle: Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself. American observers saw an outburst of nearly 100 Lyrid meteors per hour in 1982. Around 100 meteors per hour were seen in Greece in 1922 and from Japan in 1945. The Orionid meteor shower The Orionid meteors appear every year, with showers producing around 20 meteors every hour. The shower is active throughout October until November 7, but the best time to see it will be on October 20 between midnight and dawn, when the sky is darkest and the shower will be at its brightest. Tom Kerss, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich said:"If you can brave the cold, make a plan to stay out and enjoy the thrill of seeing tiny flecks of Halley's Comet disintegrate at hypersonic speeds above your head." He advises finding a secluded spot and allowing the eyes to adjust to the darkness. Orionid meteors streak across the sky over Kula town of Manisa, Turkey on October 21, 2017 Credit: Anadolu Agency Mr Kerss said: "There's no advantage to using binoculars or a telescope, your eyes are the best tool available for spotting meteors, so relax and gaze up at the sky, and eventually your patience will be rewarded. "Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, though if you have to pick a direction, you might fare slightly better looking east." The meteoroids from Halley's Comet strike Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 148,000mph, (238,000kph) burning up in streaking flashes of light that can be seen with the naked eye. Orionid meteors are known for their speed and brilliance, so if you persevere there's a good chance you'll see several bright 'shooting stars' zipping across the sky. The Orionid Meteor Shower is one of two meteor showers created by debris from Halley's Comet - the other is the Eta Aquarids, which occurs in May. Unfortunately, Halley's Comet itself has not been visible from Earth since 1986. Why is it called Orionid? It's named Orionid because it appears to radiate from the constellation Orion. Orion is one of the brightest and best known constellations and contains two of the 10 brightest stars in the sky Rigel and Betelgeuse, as well as the famous Orion's Belt. Orion's Belt is made up of three bright stars quite close together almost in a straight line, and is about 1,500 light years from us on Earth. Orion has been known since ancient times and is also referred to as Hunter thanks to Greek mythology. He is often seen in star maps facing Taurus, the bull. The Geminid meteor shower The Geminids are an annual meteor shower caused by the 3200 Phaethon asteroid. Its orbit brings it very close to the sun, causing its surface material to crumble and break off. The Earth passes through this space debris every December, which burns up as hits our atmosphere. These are the meteors visible in our sky. The Geminids were first observed relatively recently, in 1862, compared with the Perseids (36AD) and the Leonids (902AD). The meteor shower appears to come from a point in the constellation Gemini, hence its name. The Geminids meteor shower over Egersheld Cape on Russky Island in the Sea of Japan in December 2017 Credit: Yuri Smityuk When can it be seen? The next Geminid meteor shower can be seen from around December 4th to 17th, with peak activity from about 10pm on December 13th and into the early hours of the 14th. Sightings are possible around the world, but there's good news for Britons: the shower favours observers in the Northern Hemisphere over those in the Southern. If you're lucky you could see up to 100 meteors or 'shooting stars' every hour. You can spot the meteors anywhere, but they will appear to come from the Gemini constellation. Stars in the Milky Way over Kielder Forest Credit: Owen Humphreys During December, it begins the evening in the east and moves across the sky to the west during the night. Find Orion's Belt - three bright stars positioned in a row - and then look above it and a little to the left. They will appear as streaks of light, and will sometimes arrive in bursts of two or three. They vary in colour, depending on their composition. An average of 120 meteors an hour - or two a minute - can be expected, or more during the 2am peak. Paul Manafort became the first person to face trial in the Russia probe this week. President Trump's former campaign chair's trial is focused on bank and tax fraud charges. The prosecution's opening statement included claims that Manafort opened more than 30 foreign bank accounts to hide his income from Ukraine and once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket. Manafort's bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn testified that he approved "every penny" of his personal expenses. The 69-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Other major headlines of the week included the presumed remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War returning home, the continued devastation caused by wildfires in California and Apple hitting $1 trillion stock market valuation. Click through the slideshow above to see photos from all of these events and more, and be sure to check back next weekend for our selection of the best photography from the week. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has officially concluded its investigation into the October 1st, 2017 mass shooting that occurred during the Route 91 Harvest Festival. While investigators determined that there was no conspiracy or second shooter involved in the incident that left 58 dead and hundreds more injured, they could not determine a motivation for Stephen Paddocks actions. What we have been able to answer are the questions of who, what, when, where and how, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. What we have not been able to definitively answer is the why Stephen Paddock committed this act. Lombardo also described Paddock as an unremarkable man with a troubled mind. Police were able to confirm that Paddock acted alone, opening fire on the crowd from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel which overlooked the open-air festival venue on the Vegas Strip. In their report, they noted that there was no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organization. They also said they found no note or manifesto in the hotel room, and were left to attempt to determine Paddocks motivation on their own. The LVMPD also determined that Paddock purchased all the weapons and ammunition he used in the massacre legally, concluding that he did not commit a crime until he fired the first round into the crowd at the Las Vegas Village. Paddock had booked hotel rooms outside of Lollapalooza in Chicago, indicating the iconic festival as his initial target, though the reservations were canceled two days before check in. He also booked rooms that overlooked the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. He apparently was present during that event and was seen on video surveillance transporting a number of suitcases into the rooms, though its unclear if he had intended to commit the attack then or was planning one for the future. Read the entire 187-page report released by the LVMPD. SINGAPORE (AP) Despite a sharp deterioration in relations over the detention of an American pastor, the United States and Turkey remain valued partners, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday, in an apparent bid to ease tensions that have rocked ties between the NATO allies. Pompeo told reporters on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore that the two countries would continue to work with each other in the framework of the alliance and on other matters. "Turkey is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively," Pompeo said. Earlier this week, the Trump administration took the rare, if not unprecedented, step of hitting two senior Turkish officials with sanctions over the case of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who remains in detention despite repeated demands from President Donald Trump for his release. Pompeo met on Friday with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to discuss the matter behind closed doors and said those talks had been "constructive." "I made clear that it is well past time that Pastor Brunson be freed and be permitted to return to the United States," he said, adding that several detained local State Department employees should also be released. "I am hopeful that in the coming days we will see that occur," Pompeo said. He acknowledged "lots of challenges" with Turkey, but said Washington and Ankara had been able to work closely and well together. They have been at odds over numerous matters, including military activity in northern Syria and Turkey's plans to purchase an advanced air defense system from Russia. Speaking to Turkish journalists after his meeting with Pompeo, Cavusoglu also described their discussion as "extremely constructive" and said the two would continue to work toward resolving disputes. But he said threats would not work. "We repeated to them that nothing can be achieved through threatening language and sanctions and we believe that this was well understood," he said. Story continues Brunson, 50, is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges, which he and the U.S. government vehemently deny. He was arrested in December 2016 following a failed coup on charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member" and espionage. Although he was released to home detention, he faces a prison sentence of up to 35 years if he is convicted on both counts at the end of his ongoing trial. The evangelical pastor, who is originally from Black Mountain, North Carolina, has lived in Turkey for 23 years and led the Izmir Resurrection Church. Last week, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey if Brunson was not immediately released. They said his recent transfer from prison to house arrest was not enough and on Wednesday, the Treasury Department hit Turkey's Justice Minister, Abdulhamit Gul, and Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, with sanctions that block any assets they may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected the U.S. demands, saying his government won't back down and is willing to "go its own way" if the U.S. acted. The Turks have also vowed to retaliate for the sanctions "without delay." The Turkish leader has previously connected Brunson's return to the U.S. to the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania. Ankara blames Gulen for the coup attempt, while the cleric denies involvement. Singapore (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday he was hopeful there would be progress towards freeing an American pastor whose detention in Turkey has sparked a diplomatic crisis. His upbeat tone came despite talks on Friday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu having failed to end the standoff surrounding Pastor Andrew Brunson, with Ankara warning that sanctions imposed by Washington would not work. Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most serious crises in relations between the NATO allies in years. The pastor was moved to house arrest last week after nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges, but the change only increased tensions. The US responded to the failure to fully free Brunson by hitting two top Turkish ministers with sanctions, prompting Ankara to threaten reciprocal measures. At a press conference Saturday, Pompeo insisted he had a "constructive conversation" with Cavusoglu on Friday on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Singapore. "I made it clear that it is well past time that Pastor Brunson should be freed and be permitted to return to the United States, and the others being held by Turkey also similarly must be freed as well," he said. "I'm very hopeful that we will make progress on that in the days and weeks ahead," he added. However Cavusoglu struck a less positive tone after his meeting with Pompeo, also calling the talks constructive but warning that threats and sanctions would not work. Apart from Brunson, two Turkish employees of US consulates in Turkey are also currently in jail on terror charges and another is under house arrest, while several Americans have been caught up in the crackdown that followed a failed 2016 coup. The standoff appears to be one of the most serious fallouts between the two NATO allies in modern history, along with the rows over the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Pompeo insisted Saturday Washington would continue to work with Ankara despite the row. Turkey "is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively", he said. SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the immediate release of two Reuters reporters detained in Myanmar when he met Myanmar Foreign Minister Kyaw Tin on Saturday on the sidelines of a regional conference in Singapore, the State Department said. "Secretary Pompeo raised the issue of two detained Reuters reporters with the Burmese foreign minister," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. "He said that they should be immediately released and expressed our concern about their ongoing detention." Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and his Reuters colleague, Wa Lone, 32, are facing up to 14 years in prison in Myanmar for allegedly violating the country's colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have told the court how they were "trapped" by police officials who planted documents on them. The trial has been adjourned until Monday, when the defense is expected to call character witnesses. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay, asked to comment on Pompeo's call for the reporters' release, said the case was already before the court. "According to the constitution, our judiciary is independent so we must wait and see what the court decides," he told Reuters by phone. "Reuters and the families of the reporters are being treated equally under the law, with all the procedures being respected. For example, they can hire the lawyers they want." At the time of their arrest in December, the journalists had been investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar's Rakhine state. The killings took place during an army crackdown that United Nations agencies say sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. Pompeo and Kyaw Tin were asked by a reporter at the start of their meeting whether they would discuss press freedom and whether this was important to resolving the Rohingya issue. Neither replied. Pompeo told a subsequent news conference that during the meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, the United States reaffirmed U.S. support for Myanmar's democratic transition but also "addressed the important steps required to resolve the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Rakhine state. "Progress on these and other critical security issues is essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific," Pompeo said. The United States has imposed sanctions on one Myanmar general, Maung Maung Soe, who was in charge of a crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine, after declaring that it constituted "ethnic cleansing", an accusation the Myanmar government denies. The European Union and Canada have sanctioned more military figures. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond on Saturday when asked if the United States threatened any further action on Myanmar over the issue of the journalists or the wider Rohingya issue. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Nick Macfie) The LeBron James-Michael Jordan debate has officially reached the Oval Office, though President Donald Trump doesnt seem to be making his choice based on basketball reasons. Trump entered one of basketballs most heated debates with a single tweet Friday evening, saying that James had been interviewed by CNN anchor Don Lemon, who Trump called the dumbest man on television. Lemons chief offense was apparently making James look smart, which Trump said wasnt easy to do. After throwing insults at both men, Trump also mentioned that he likes Mike, which is almost certainly a reference to Jordan. Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isnt easy to do. I like Mike! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018 The interview Trump was referring to occurred Tuesday night, when the Los Angeles Lakers superstar joined Lemon on CNN Tonight in a taped interview to discuss the opening of the I PROMISE school for at-risk 3rd and 4th-graders in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. James has been the schools largest donor and active in its development. From free uniforms and transportation to college tuition guaranteed for all graduates. LeBron James takes CNN's Don Lemon on an exclusive tour of his new 'I Promise' school https://t.co/roRxI7qlZl pic.twitter.com/Q1nc62asZe CNN (@CNN) July 31, 2018 This isnt the first time Trump has expressed an opinion about James on Twitter, but, funnily enough, its the first time hes been anything but laudatory to the NBAs biggest star while on Twitter. President Donald Trumps past praise of LeBron James Story continues As one of Miamii's largest landowners, I am pulling for the @MiamiHEAT in the @NBA finals. Lebron's time is now! @KingJames Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2012 "@IcyJordan: @realDonaldTrump do you like LeBron as a player and person? @KingJames" LeBron is a great player and a great guy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2013 Congratulations to @KingJames on winning Athlete of the Year in last nights @ESPYS. LeBron is also a great guy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2013 Great shot by @KingJames yesterday. Lebron is a tough competitor who delivers under pressure. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2015 Trump hadnt tweeted at James since he took office, so Fridays tweet was a predictable sea change on social media. Trump had also previously made the move of preemptively not inviting James Cavaliers and their Warriors opponents last season, when both James and Warriors star Steph Curry said neither team had an interest in visiting the White House as NBA Champions. President Donald Trump had something harsh to say on Twitter about LeBron James, seen here taking part in the opening of a school for under-privileged children. (Getty Images) LeBron James past criticism of President Donald Trump The reason why Trump has changed his mind on all issues LeBron likely comes down to James being politically outspoken against him while also being one of the faces of the NBA. During his interview with Lemon, James criticized Trump for sowing discord in America through sports with issues like kneeling during the national anthem. Were in a position right now in America where this whole race thing is taking over. One, because I believe our president is trying to divide us. Hes dividing us, and what Ive noticed over the last few months is that hes kind of used sport to kind of divide us. Thats something that I cant relate to, because I know that sport was the first time I ever was around someone white. I got an opportunity to see them and learn about them, and they got an opportunity to learn about me, and we became very good friends. I was like this is all because of sports. And sports has never been something that divided people. Its always been something that brings someone together. To be fair, James has also not been so kind to Trump on Twitter in the past, though he probably wont be changing his mind in the near future. U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up! LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017 More from Yahoo Sports: Ohio States Urban Meyer admits he knew about allegations on ex-assistant EA Sports apologizes for editing out Colin Kaepernicks name in Madden WWEs Kane wins mayoral election in Tennessee Terez Paylor: Keeping Big Ben happy is top task for Steelers new coordinator The President of the United States of America thundered through a rally in Pennsylvania with another bombastic attack on the media, calling it fake, fake disgusting news . The WWE-style event also saw Donald Trump struggle to understand the concept of Great Britain, while denying he was late to meet The Queen during his recent visit. He began the rally with his favorite subject, his 2016 election victory, and complained that the media refused to call a state for him, saying the fake news refused to call it. He then disputed reports that he was 15 minutes late to meet Queen Elizabeth II (despite the fact that video clearly showed the Monarch waiting for him to arrive, even looking at her watch). Wrong, he claimed. They said I was late when I was actually early and number two, I guess the meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes and it lasted for almost an hour, the president overstayed. Honestly, it was such a beautiful visit and afternoon, they can make anything bad because they are the fake, fake, disgusting news. However, despite his recent visit, Trump still doesnt seem to understand that the United Kingdom of Great Britain is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I have great respect for the UK United Kingdom great respect, Trump said. People call it Britain. They call it Great Britain. They used to call it England different parts. He then immediately, and somewhat out of context, moved on to criticism of his handling of the visit to Helsinki, where he refused to call out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his countrys meddling in the election. But I got along great with Putin. They wanted me to have a boxing match. Whatever happened to diplomacy. I used to study, not too much, diplomacy, he said. The rally, which saw Trump supporters constantly shout CNN sucks, came after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to walk back Trumps earlier claims that the media is the enemy of the American people. Story continues Related stories 'Last Man Standing' Will Not Mirror 'Roseanne's "Issue Of Week" But Tim Allen's Character "Probably Pro Trump" - TCA Omarosa Writes Donald Trump Showed "Mental Decline" During Lester Holt Interview Sarah Sanders Won't Tell CNN's Jim Acosta He's Not The Enemy - Video & Transcript London (AFP) - Britain's opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn conceded in a newspaper article Saturday that his party had a "real problem" with anti-Semitism as the issue continues to dog the veteran leftist. "I do acknowledge there is a real problem that Labour is working to overcome," he wrote in a guest column in the Guardian. "And I accept that if any part of our national community feels threatened, anxious or vulnerable, not only must that be taken at face value but we must all ensure that those fears are put to rest," he added. Corbyn, who has accused of being too soft on members of his party who have made anti-Semitic comments, vowed to root out the problem. "People who dish out anti-Semitic poison need to understand: you do not do it in my name," he wrote. "You are not my supporters and have no place in our movement." The issue has dogged Corbyn since he took over as Labour leader in 2015, and resurfaced earlier this week when the party refused to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. Three of the country's leading Jewish newspaper joined forces in protest, proclaiming "united we stand" on their front pages. Corbyn earlier said that there had been 300 internal party referrals for anti-Semitism since 2015, around half of which led to expulsions or resignations. However, he said that some of the accusations were "overheated rhetoric" and that he would not accept that a Labour government would represent "any kind of threat" to Jews in Britain. Jewish groups reacted with scepticism to Corbyn's comments, saying they no longer had any confidence in the Labour leader. "Today, other than another article bemoaning a situation of the party's own making, nothing has changed," said a spokesman for the Jewish Labour Movement. "There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words." Robert Haddick Security, The United States and China have found themselves engaged in a range war in the western Pacific, a competition over the distances their missiles and aircraft can attack targets. The fielding of new technology by one side is resulting in responses by the other, with the dimensions of the potentially contested space in the Asia-Pacific region growing with each move in this competition. The Real U.S.-China War We Should Worry About: A "Range War" The more China can extend its range past U.S. capabilities, the more challenging the execution of ASB will be. But as China extends its threat against U.S. warships past Indonesia, deep into the Indian Ocean, and into the Central Pacific, implementing a distant blockade will also become more tenuous. Under the range of Chinas missiles, the Navy would no longer be able to use Indonesias straits as control points for merchant shipping to China. And as the range of Chinas missiles increases, it would dramatically increase the length of the blockade perimeter the U.S. would have to patrol, making the blockade potentially more porous. The United States and China have found themselves engaged in a range war in the western Pacific, a competition over the distances their missiles and aircraft can attack targets. The fielding of new technology by one side is resulting in responses by the other, with the dimensions of the potentially contested space in the Asia-Pacific region growing with each move in this competition. Although the subject of weapons performance and missile tactics may seem tediously arcane, these details will substantially influence the policy options available to both sides during a hypothetical crisis. And the limits of those options may in turn influence the grand strategies of players across the region. (This first appeared in 2014 and is being reposted due to a surge in reader interest.) Sixty years ago, Washingtons concern about Chinas ability to project firepower was limited to Quemoy and Matsu, two small island groups near the mainland garrisoned by Nationalist forces that occasionally fell under artillery bombardment from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). Assistance from the United States, combined with the decrepit state of the PLAs air and naval power, meant that Nationalist Taiwan was secure, a status that would endure for decades. Story continues We now know that the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in March 1996 (during which the United States deployed two aircraft-carrier strike groups to the region) and the stunning tactical performance displayed by U.S. forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War persuaded Chinas leaders to embark on a dramatic reform of Chinas military power, centered on the development of counterintervention naval, air and missiles capabilities. The goal of this program, still ongoing after nearly two decades of effort, is to create a deep PLA-dominated security zone in the western Pacific that will be too hazardous for adversary forces to operate in during a future potential crisis. In 2007, just eleven year after the 1996 crisis, a study from RAND produced for the U.S. Air Force concluded that the U.S. military could lose to the PLA and its counterintervention forces should another such crisis occur. Chinas Latest Moves in the Range War Are U.S. forces in the Pacific really out-sticked by Chinese missiles and aircraft with greater range? Chinas ship- and submarine-launched antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs), such as the YJ-83 (range of 160 kilometers), the SS-N-22 Sunburn (up to 250 km) and the SS-N-27 Sizzler (300 km) outrange the U.S. Navys legacy Harpoon ASCM (124 km). In a surface naval battle, U.S. ships might have to endure a volley of Chinese missiles before surviving U.S. ships could sail within range to respond. U.S. planners may count on their comparative advantage in submarines and undersea operations to dominate an adversarys warships. But Chinas land-based air and missile forces present another layer of trouble for U.S. and allied forces in the region. Just as with naval missiles, China has gained a range advantage with its land-based air and missile forces. China operates several variants of the Russian-designed Su-30 Flanker strike-fighter (with a combat radius up to 1,500 kilometers). In the near future, Chinas Flankers could be armed with the YJ-12 ASCM (range of 400 km), thus potentially threatening targets up to 1,900 kilometers from China. This would exceed the combat radius of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier air wing (about 1,300 kilometers for F/A 18 E/F and F-35C strike aircraft armed with the Navys air-to-surface standoff missiles) and the Navys Tomahawk land-attack missile (1,600 km). China possesses a large inventory of land-based land-attack ballistic and cruise missiles capable of suppressing U.S. military bases in the western Pacific. In addition, China has the capacity to strike fixed land targets with air-launched cruise missile up to 3,300 kilometers (past Guam and the Strait of Malacca) from China. Finally, Chinas well-publicized DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (range of 1,500 km), armed with a guided and maneuvering warhead, may eventually introduce a new challenge to U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships underway in the western Pacific. The United States Fights Back Absent a response by the United States, Chinas military planners and policymakers could come to believe that they would have the military tools to suppress U.S. airbases in the western Pacific and threaten U.S. aircraft carriers and other surface ships before they could come in range of Chinese targets. Such a perception would make a future crisis in the region highly dangerous. The U.S. has responded with a few initiatives designed to add more range to U.S. forces. The U.S. Air Force is acquiring the Joint Air-Surface Standoff MissileExtended Range (JASSM-ER), a smart stealthy air-launched cruise missile with a range over 900 kilometers. JASSM-ER can receive targeting updates in flight, can be programmed to autonomously search for particular targets, and can precisely strike fixed and relocating aim points. The Air Force intends to arm all of its strike aircraft with the missile, although JASSM-ER is too large to fit in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters internal weapons bay, a requirement for the attack planes stealthy flight. Realizing the legacy Harpoon ASCM has now been outclassed by several Chinese models, the U.S. Navy is adapting JASSM-ER to serve as its new Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). Should LRASM retain JASSM-ERs range, it would have over seven times the range of Harpoon and leapfrog over its Chinese ASCM competition. The Navy has launched LRASM prototypes from one of its standard surface ship launchers and from an aircraft, where the missiles sensors successfully discriminated from several ships in an underway formation to attack the intended target. U.S. aircraft and warships armed with long-range JASSM-ER and LRASM missiles might be able to engage in fights from which they were previously excluded, a development that would presumably cause Chinese military planners to recalculate their assumptions. The Navy is also taking steps to extend the range and capabilities of the defenses that protect its aircraft carrier strike groups from air and missile attack. These measures, which include integrating new aircraft, radars, missiles, and software, are a response to the increasingly dangerous antiship missile threats. Yet in spite of these stepped-up ship defenses, Pentagon officials and policymakers are not wholly confident that even the most heavily defended aircraft carrier strike groups will be able to stand their ground everywhere. Thus, a debate is now raging inside the Pentagon and the Congress over how aggressive the Navy should be with the design of its forthcoming unmanned aircraft carrier-launched surveillance and strike aircraft (UCLASS). Perhaps chastened by the severe schedule and cost overruns suffered by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, Navy and top Pentagon officials apparently prefer to limit the new robotic aircraft to mainly patrolling the skies near a carrier strike group at sea. Others, now acknowledging the substantial missile threat now menacing U.S. surface ships, are pleading for a smart stealthy robotic strike aircraft that can launch from beyond the range of enemy missiles and then fly very long distances into heavily defended airspace, autonomously finding and attacking selected targets. If successful, such a robotic strike aircraft will sustain the relevance of U.S. aircraft carriers by greatly extending the reach of the carrier air wing, thus keeping the ship out of enemy missile range. Advocates of the smart, stealthy, and autonomous UCLASS reason that the U.S. has made a huge investment in its aircraft carriers and the surface ships that support them and that the carrier air wing needs to adapt for the future, as it always has in the past. By contrast the more cautious officials inside the Navy and the Pentagon seem highly concerned with the technical and cost risks associated with developing such a leap-ahead robotic aircraft. They likely fear that another development debacle like the F-35 could result in the cancellation of UCLASS, which would leave the Navy far worse off than if it tried only the more modest robotic surveillance aircraft first. Chinas Next Moves We can be certain that there will be more moves in the range war. For example, once China has proven the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile system (China has apparently not yet actually tested the missile and its maneuvering warhead against a moving target at sea), it seems reasonable to assume that Chinese engineers will adapt the maneuvering warhead and its sensors to an intermediate-range ballistic missile, with a range two or three times longer than the 1,500-kilometer range of the DF-21D. If successful, such a capability would allow China to attack moving ships east of Guam, south of Indonesia, and deep into the Indian Ocean. We should also expect China to extend the range of its aircraft and cruise missiles. Chinas large stealthy J-20 strike fighter, now under development, it thought to have a combat radius of 2,000 kilometers. Should Chinas engineers eventually develop a cruise missile like JASSM-ER, a reasonable presumption given their track record, China might again leapfrog ahead with its ability to deliver stealthy strikes against mobile land and naval targets at ranges approaching 3,000 kilometers. So Whos Winning the Range War? The Pentagons Air-Sea Battle concept (ASB) has been developed to organize a coordinated response to long range anti-access capabilities China and other potential adversaries are fielding. The concept is thought to rely mostly on direct military action to thwart an adversarys access-denial military capabilities. In the case of China, critics of ASB assert the concept is incoherent, contains dangerous escalation risks, and recommend instead a distant blockade, implemented by U.S. naval power outside the reach of Chinas weapons, as an alternative course of action. However, the ongoing range war has implications for both concepts. The more China can extend its range past U.S. capabilities, the more challenging the execution of ASB will be. But as China extends its threat against U.S. warships past Indonesia, deep into the Indian Ocean, and into the Central Pacific, implementing a distant blockade will also become more tenuous. Under the range of Chinas missiles, the Navy would no longer be able to use Indonesias straits as control points for merchant shipping to China. And as the range of Chinas missiles increases, it would dramatically increase the length of the blockade perimeter the U.S. would have to patrol, making the blockade potentially more porous. We can also see that it is increasingly expensive for the U.S. to compete in the range war. With its continental position, China has scores of bases from which its strike aircraft can fly, while the U.S. has only a few in the western Pacific, all of which are vulnerable to missile attack. Chinas land-based aircraft will enjoy size, range, and payload advantages compared to smaller carrier-based aircraft. The U.S. Air Force has made its new long-range bomber a top procurement priority, hardly a surprise given the vulnerability of its forward tactical airbases in the Pacific. And although the new bomber will be based on mature technology, the programs estimated $55 billion tab will not be cheap. But when priced in dollars per pound of payload or targets attacked, that figure will be cheap compared to matching costs (not to mention the technical risk) of the robust version of the Navys UCLASS project. China enjoys its greatest cost advantage with its ability to design and mass produce relatively cheap theater-range ballistic and cruise missile. Perversely, the anachronistic 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty prohibits the United States (and Russia) from possessing such weapons while China is completely unconstrained. As long as the INF treaty remains in force, the U.S. is denied the cheapest and most straightforward method of maintaining deterrence in the Asia-Pacific region. As a conversation begins on this odd yet increasingly dangerous state of affairs, U.S. military planners will be compelled into expensive work-arounds such as the new bomber and UCLASS. Finding themselves on the wrong side of the cost inequality, should U.S. policymakers give consideration to abandoning the range war in the Pacific? Surrender is not a responsible option. Japan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and all others in the region (except Russia) are not signatories to the INF treaty. The barriers to missile proliferation are relatively low and should the U.S. give up on the region, the incentives by Chinas neighbors to acquire cheap yet effective offensive missile inventories would be very high. The resulting multi-sided regional missile race would be an arms control advocates worst nightmare. Even worse, that race would occur in the worlds most dynamic economic region, with millions of U.S. jobs at risk from the potential instability. Yet such would be the foreseeable outcome should the U.S. effectively abandon its long-held and highly successful position as the regions stabilizing force. Technical and arcane expositions on weapon performance and tactics cause many eyes to glaze over. Yet what seems like trivia will have implications for the plans military staffs assemble, for the advice these staffs provide to policy makers, and for the assumptions and decisions those policymakers make during crises. As we saw a hundred years ago this month, those decisions can quickly sum to a disaster. U.S. policymakers need to reckon with the ongoing range war in the Pacific and consider some new and better ways to stay in the fight. Robert Haddick is an independent contractor at U.S. Special Operations Command. He writes here in a personal capacity. On September 15, 2014, Naval Institute Press will publish Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific, Haddicks book on the rise of Chinas military power and U.S. strategy in East Asia. Read full article TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reports that a man taking part in a protest in the northern province of Alborz was fatally shot. The Saturday report says a protest was taking place a day earlier in Karaj, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tehran, when someone fired from a car. There were no additional details. Fars reported authorities arrested 20 protesters and many of the protest leaders were women. There have been several demonstrations in Iranian cities in recent days over economic conditions and public buildings have been damaged. The Iranian rial has dropped to a record low amid growing concerns about renewed U.S. sanctions, which kick in on Monday. Also on Friday, about 500 protesters attacked a seminary in Karaj and broke windows with stones and bricks. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue has been vandalized. Red paint was splattered on the statue's base. The letters BLM, an apparent reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, was also sprayed on the base. Virginia Capitol Police, which is responsible for policing the monuments, told news outlets the vandalism occurred late Friday or early Saturday between patrols. The vandalism occurs a week ahead of the one-year anniversary of the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville that was organized in part as a protest to plans to remove a Lee Statue there. A Richmond commission that reviewed the city's row of Confederate statues on Monument Avenue recommended earlier this year removing a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis but keeping others in place. CHICAGO (AP) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein came to Chicago to speak on Thursday, but steered clear of discussing a conservative Republican effort to impeach him or President Donald Trump's calls to halt the investigation into Russian election interference that Rosenstein is overseeing. In a 20-minute speech followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session at the American Bar Association's annual meeting, Rosenstein barely mentioned Trump, and when he did it was to praise the president for the leadership team he installed at the Justice Department. But Rosenstein said it was the duty of government lawyers and all attorneys to be "guardians of the rule of law" and he made it clear repeatedly that he will resist political pressure to interfere in any way with special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation. The Department of Justice, he said must "never be a partisan actor" and has e a duty to "insulate investigations from the real and appearance of political influence..." Further, amid the talk from conservative lawmakers and pundits about the lack of evidence that the president colluded with the Russians, Rosenstein said that "the rule of law requires us to reserve judgment until we have heard from all the parties and considered all the evidence." And, he said, "we need to hold people accountable when they break the rules." Rosenstein in his speech took pains to put what is happening now in historical context, mentioning Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and others. He made a point of quoting respected attorneys general who held their jobs two years or less. "Just saying," he said, to laughter of the audience that showed its appreciation of Rosenstein's public service with two standing ovations. Sworn in in April of last year, Rosenstein began overseeing Mueller's probe when Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself following reports of a meeting he had with a Russian ambassador. As the investigation continued, a furious Trump has repeatedly criticized Sessions for recusing himself, criticized the investigation and as recently as this week tweeted that Sessions must put an immediate stop to what he called a "Rigged Witch Hunt." At the same time, a group of 11 conservative Republican lawmakers have launched an effort to have Rosenstein impeached. That effort has stalled, with House Speaker Paul Ryan speaking out against impeaching Rosenstein and Sessions voicing his support for his deputy. Russian servicemen drive a T-14 Armata tank during the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, at Red Square in Moscow, Russia May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Charlie Gao Security, Eurasia While information is somewhat scarce, patents available online and various PowerPoint type diagrams have given some picture of how formidable the full defensive suite of the Armata might be. Russia's New Armata T-14 Tank Has a Secret Weapon While much has been written about the T-14 Armatas layout and armament, the Afghanit active protection system, or APS, utilized on the Armata also contains many innovations and even some systems that have never been seen on an APS before. The issue with many APS on Russian and Soviet tanks before the Armata was that hard and soft kill systems were not integrated into one overall system. The only hard-kill system put on a tank in serial production, the Drozd system on the T-55AD was cued by a limited radar sensor suite and could only provide protection for a very limited arc to the turrets front. Soft kill systems like the Shtora had better sensor suites, including laser warning receivers, but had no hard-kill capability, relying on powerful infrared jammers and automated smoke deployment to divert missiles before they impacted the tank. Even then, the jammers themselves were considered to be rendered obsolete by newer versions of the TOW and HOT anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM). Thus, the next-generation active-protection system for a future Russian tank would have to integrate well with the entire system and use various different detection methods to detect threats from all around. It would then use both novel soft-kill and hard kill methods to defeat that threat. Afghanit aims to accomplishes all of this and more. While information is somewhat scarce, patents available online and various powerpoint type diagrams have given some picture of how formidable the full defensive suite of the Armata might be. In order to detect oncoming threats, Afghanit utilizes two active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar arrays put on both turret cheeks. These provide a detection arc that covers slightly more than the 90 degrees to the left and right of the gun. The radars have also been described as being able to operate in active and passive mode. Presumably, the passive mode would allow the Armata to detect enemy ground search radars or perhaps even commands given by radio controlled anti-tank guided missiles. Story continues In addition to radar, the Armata features an optical sensor suite to detect missile launches. The details are unsure, but similar systems on aircraft usually feature a distributed set of UV/IR sensors that provide a rough angle from which a launch occurred by detection the signature of a missile launching. The Armata also features a directional laser-warning receiver, but such systems are standard on Soviet tanks since the 1980s. While all these systems are in position to detect when the tank is being attacked, the T-14 also has some stealth features that are aimed at preventing it from being detected in the first place. Some sources state that Ternovik radar-absorbing material is utilized on the Armata to make it harder to detect by ground search radar. Information has also been published on methods to reduce the Armatas magnetic signature, making it possibly immune to mines with magnetic fuzes. Heat managing coverings are also utilized on the Armata, but such coverings are already in use on many NATO tanks. When the projectile is detected, the Armatas Soft-Kill APS systems begin to kick in. As pure jamming systems a la Shtora are largely considered to be obsolete with contemporary ATGMs, Afghanit focuses on various methods to disrupt the ATGM gunners aim or the seekers lock. Recommended: Forget the F-35: The Tempest Could Be the Future Recommended: Why No Commander Wants to Take On a Spike Missile Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? To accomplish this, the Armata has two launchers on the rear of the turret. These would likely be loaded with a multistage multispectral smoke cartridge with a flare/thermal decoy component and chaff cartridges. The smoke/flare cartridges probably aim to divert missiles that rely on a thermal or electro-optical lock like the Javelin or Spike-MR. The smoke could even counter the Spike-LR in a manual guidance mode or laser-guided missiles like the Hellfire, if it is thick and rapid enough and tank quickly moves evasively in a way to cause the gunner to be unsure where it is in the smoke. While these chaff, smoke, and flare cartridges are going off, the integrated radio jammer that is also part of Afghanit is also attempting to jam the missiles radio guidance, if applicable. Plenty of Western missiles use radio guidance, the Spike LR II uses it when fired from helicopters, and most advanced TOW missile in US service, the TOW 2B Aero RF uses it as well. If an incoming projectile is not diverted at this point, the Afghanit hard-kill systems active. Unlike earlier Drozd and Arena systems which used large shotgun blasts of fragments to destroy projectiles, Afghanit uses a small homing projectile to destroy incoming projectiles. According to Russian sources, the hard kill component can intercept projectiles going up to 1.7 kilometers per second. Despite the multitude of advanced systems, there are still significant limitations to Afghanit. One major concern is the use of shotgun type shells (such as the German AHEAD shell) by NATO tanks or armored vehicles that could severely damage sensors used by Afghanit. Such shells would break into a field of small projectiles outside of the Afghanit hard-kill interception range, rendering them impossible to stop. The 1.7 kilometers per second interception limit is impressive but definitely breakable. 152mm Soviet tank guns were reaching velocities in excess of 1.9 km/second, and as NATO considers larger and/or alternate gun technologies such as ETC, they are likely to push their rounds past the 1.7 km/s limit as well. Its also important to note that all of the systems are in development. The Afghanit system might exclude any of these modules for the sake of simplicity, or could include others. The capabilities of the system as a whole are very much an unknown, but this article aims to examine what capabilities a best-case Afghanit may have. Charlie Gao studied political and computer science at Grinnell College and is a frequent commentator on defense and national-security issues. Image: Russian servicemen drive a T-14 Armata tank during the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, at Red Square in Moscow, Russia May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Read full article Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it was resuming oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, ending a 10-day suspension triggered by rebel attacks off the coast of Yemen. The decision came after measures by a Saudi-led military coalition to "ensure the security of navigation in this strait and in the Red Sea", said Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khaled al-Falih, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency. Measures had been taken "in coordination with the international community", Falih added, without providing further details. Bab al-Mandab is a crucial shipping lane between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. On July 26, Saudi Arabia said it was temporarily suspending oil shipments through Bab al-Mandab after two oil tankers operated by Saudi shipping group Bahri were attacked, slightly damaging one vessel. Saudi leads a coalition backing Yemen's government in a war against Huthi rebels. The pro-Huthi Al-Masirah television said at the time that the rebels had targeted a Saudi warship named Al-Dammam, without providing further details. The Huthis are backed by Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran in Yemen's conflict and retain control of the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran his country would join military action to stop Tehran if it attempted to block the strait. "If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this. This coalition would also include the state of Israel and all its arms," Netanyahu said. About 4.8 million barrels of oil and petroleum products pass through the strait every day, according to US government figures. Scientists believe theyve solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle and Conspiracy theorists are obsessed with the supposedly deadly Bermuda Triangle known for a series of mysterious incidents such as the sinking of a Navy cargo ship in 1918. But a new theory suggests an answer rogue waves. Paranormal enthusiasts claim that the area is cursed and that the sinkings are caused by forces such as time portals or something to do with Atlantis. Its said to have claimed at least 1000 human lives, 20 planes and 50 ships in the past 100 years. But University of Southampton scientists used indoor simulators for a new documentary and now believe the phenomenon can be explained by rogue waves created by storms colliding at sea. MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK TODAY: Photographer behind viral starving polar bear image speaks out on climate change Apple could be set to launch a huge iPhone XL this year heres what we know Great Pyramid can conduct electromagnetic energy, study claims Britains heatwave could push up food prices as crops are withered by the sun Forget romantic gestures heres why being organised is the key to a good sex life Rogue waves were first spotted by satellites, and could explain the mysterious sinkings in the Bermuda Triangle, the experts say. Dr Simon Boxall said, There are storms to the south and north, which come together. And if there are additional ones from Florida, it can be a potentially deadly formation of rogue waves. They are steep, they are high weve measured waves in excess of 30 metres. DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) Police in Bangladesh's capital fired tear gas and used batons on Saturday to disperse hundreds of protesting students angry over the traffic deaths of two fellow students, leaving many people injured. Dhaka remained largely cut off from the rest of Bangladesh as buses continued to stop plying from other parts of the country. The owners and workers of the bus companies have said they will not run their vehicles unless they feel safe after dozens of vehicles were either vandalized or torched in Dhaka and elsewhere. Witnesses and media reports said Saturday's chaos broke out in Dhaka's Dhanmondi area as police and ruling party men swooped in on the students. A top leader of the ruling Awami League said some "criminals" wearing school uniforms joined the violence. Many protesters blamed the student wing of the ruling party for the attacks. TV stations aired footage of the clashes, with protesters seen throwing stones at police as the chaos continued for hours. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said many people, including some journalists, were injured in the clashes. The English-language Daily Star reported that up to 25 people were injured. Thousands of other students took to the streets elsewhere in Dhaka on Saturday, but no major violence was reported. The protests, which began last Sunday after two college students were struck and killed by a pair of buses, have paralyzed Dhaka, a city of 10 million. The two buses were racing to collect passengers, a common occurrence in the city, which is regularly gridlocked by traffic chaos. The protests are an embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of a general election due in December. Hasina's party is blaming the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and its main ally Jamaat-e-Islami, for using the sentiment of young students to create chaos for political gains. Story continues Zia's party formally extended its support to the protesters. Hasina also said their demands are justified and pledged to fulfill them in phases. The protesters are demanding safer roads in Bangladesh, where corruption is rife, making it easy for unlicensed drivers and unregistered vehicles to ply the roads. At least 12,000 people die each year in road accidents often blamed on faulty vehicles, reckless driving and lax traffic enforcement. The students have stopped thousands of vehicles including those of top officials and judges demanding to see if the cars were registered and the drivers licensed. Buses are key to transportation in Bangladesh, where trains are overcrowded and most people cannot afford cars. Let's start with something positive: Seven extremely cute puppies have been rescued from the wilds of Canada, and are right now on the road (literally) to a better life. The circumstances of how the puppies came to be stranded on an uninhabited island in the Canadian province of Manitoba remains a mystery, however. Most of the obvious possibilities here lead to some troubling conclusions. SEE ALSO: Internet, why won't you let me live stream this dog surfing competition?! The saga of the puppy rescue began on Monday when a volunteer for Winnipeg's Norway House Animal Rescue called in to report their existence. The roughly four-month-old pups had been discovered by a local boater, Junior Cook, near Cross Lake, Manitoba, about 300 miles north of Winnipeg. "He actually heard them the night before. He and his friend were out and it was getting dark already, and they heard some noises on the island," NHAR director Debra Vanderkhove told the CBC. The two couldn't see anything other than shadows, but they returned the next day to investigate. Instead of wolves (their initial suspicion), they found seven puppies. The men left food for the lot of them and called the Winnipeg shelter. In the days since the puppies were first discovered, Vanderkhove made the trip up to Manitoba, picked up the lot of them "They will be the Gilligan's Island crew four boys, three girls," she said and, as of Saturday, is driving them back to the shelter. All throughout, NHAR kept the public updated with Facebook posts featuring photos and videos of the rescued pups. There are so many more on the shelter's official Facebook page. It's wonderful to know that these tykes are safe and sound, and headed off to be cared for before they're placed in homes. But in a Facebook message exchange with Mashable, Vanderkhove wants everyone to remember that the pups shouldn't have been on that island in the first place. Story continues "Today the focus is on the puppies and getting them to the shelter. We're still driving. And tomorrow is another day for the fight on investigating this cruelty." WASHINGTON (AP) After weeks of refusing to meet with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats in the Senate plan to begin meeting with him when they start returning to Washington in mid-August, a senior Democratic aide said Friday. The aide said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee tasked with holding hearings for Kavanaugh, will be among those meeting with him. Only one Democratic senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has met with Kavanaugh as lawmakers sparred over access to records from the nominee's time as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush. Kavanaugh's lengthy public record has emerged as a key battleground as senators scrutinize the 53-year-old appellate judge, a conservative whose views on gay marriage, abortion and executive power could move the court rightward for a generation. The National Archives and Records Administration is compiling records from Kavanaugh's time in the White House counsel's office. But leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee are at odds over what records should be turned over from Kavanaugh's time as Bush's staff secretary. A senior Democratic aide said the senators will demand the records in dispute from Kavanaugh directly and question him about their contents during their meetings with him. The aide said Democrats also intend to demand that Kavanaugh call for and support the release of all of his files from his time in the White House, and to urge the National Archives and former President Bush to adhere to the same standard used in Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's confirmation. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely on strategy. Republicans have fought the release of all the Bush-era staff secretary documents saying there are plenty of other files on his record. Already the committee is poised to release more than 125,000 pages from Kavanaugh's time in the White House counsel's office during the Bush years, and on Friday it requested another 20,000 from his time on the Kenneth Starr team investigating President Bill Clinton. Earlier, some 17,000 pages were released from his questionnaire as well as more from his 300-plus cases as an appellate judge. Story continues The White House greeted the news that Senate Democrats would begin meeting with Kavanaugh by saying its requests for meetings between Kavanaugh and Schumer and Feinstein have remained unanswered for more than three weeks. "While we look forward to potential meetings, both of these Democratic senators and many of their colleagues have publicly opposed Judge Kavanaugh's nomination, while continuing to disingenuously demand millions of pages of documents from former President Bush that are irrelevant to evaluating the judge's judicial thinking," said White House spokesman Raj Shah. Meanwhile, David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, told Schumer that the National Archives cannot provide Democrats with non-public records covering Kavanaugh's time as staff secretary. He said such a request must come from the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, or the committee itself. He said in a letter to Schumer dated Thursday that the practice is based on a 2001 Justice Department legal opinion. Ferriero said the National Archives declined to process similar requests from the lead Republicans on the Judiciary Committee in connection with the nominations of Attorney General Eric Holder and Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan during the administration of President Barack Obama. The National Archives holds millions of pages of records related to Kavanaugh, significantly more than for prior Supreme Court nominees who worked in the White House. Republicans have been pressuring Democratic senators up for re-election this year to meet with Kavanaugh, particularly in states that President Donald Trump won in 2016. The office of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., confirmed Friday that she has a meeting scheduled with Kavanaugh on Aug. 21. Trump won Missouri in 2016. ___ AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. MOTHERWELL, Scotland (AP) Two years after earning Croatia's first Olympic gold medal in rowing, the Sinkovic brothers have won a major title again in a different discipline. Valent and Martin Sinkovic won the men's pair final of the European Championships at Strathclyde Country Park on Saturday, having switched from the double sculls after their Rio de Janeiro triumph to give themselves a new challenge. "We had a goal after the Olympic Games to try to win everything in pair," Valent Sinkovic told The Associated Press. "Now is the first championship medal in pair, and we are really happy about that. But I think we can still get much better." Clocking the fastest time in qualifying, the Croatian brothers started the final as favorites but had to overcome fierce resistance from another pair of brothers, Valentin and Theophile Onfroy. The Frenchmen led the race from scratch and were still ahead by 1.25 seconds at the 1,000-meter mark. In one of their trademark strong finishes, however, the Sinkovic brothers overtook their rivals on the final 250 meters and beat them by less than a second. They pumped their fist, and briefly shook hands to celebrate their victory. "It was a hard race, especially with the cross wind. Our boat went all over to the left and the right," Valent Sinkovic said. "We expected to lead after 1,000 meters but we were behind quite a lot. It was a hard battle but we managed to do it and we are proud about that." Valent, who turned 30 on Thursday, has been competing with his younger brother for 10 years on an international level. Their first major successes came in the quadruple sculls, most notably in 2012 when they won the European title in Varese and Olympic silver in London, teaming up with David Sain and Damir Martin. The brothers continued in the double sculls. They became the first pair to break the six-minute mark, and they racked up back-to-back world titles in 2014-15, the European Championships in 2016 and, three months later, ultimately, the Olympic gold medal. Story continues Having dominated the discipline, they decided they needed a new challenge approaching the Tokyo Games in 2020. How about making a rare move and winning Olympic gold in another discipline? They found it far from easy to start with and even considered switching back to double skulls. "It is tough for us to find the balance," Valent Sinkovic said. "We need to be 100 percent at the same level with our oars. For us it is tough to loosen up, to be relaxed, like we were in double." But slowly they found their rhythm taking home a surprise silver medal from the worlds in Sarasota, Florida, in September and started winning races this year. They landed their first victory in pair at a World Cup in Belgrade in June, and broke a 23-year-old course record from British rowing greats Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent at the Henley Royal Regatta in July. "We are still not 100 percent used to the pairs. We have our ups-and-downs. But it is going better and better so we are confident for the final preparations for the worlds," said Martin Sinkovic, referring to the world championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, next month. "We hope we will go faster than here," he added. "We must take our speed from the heat race and the semifinal with us because we rowed much better there. We have a few weeks of training camp coming up and then, I think, we can do everything." Despite approaching the top in a new discipline, the Sinkovic brothers are still reluctant to dream aloud about Tokyo 2020. "That's the real goal, but we don't think about that now too much," Valent Sinkovic said. "This European Championship is the first step and we only think about the next step, and that is the worlds." SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's foreign minister said on Saturday that Southeast Asian nations "didn't get down to settling" a cyber security agreement with Russia. The draft of a communique seen by Reuters before meetings between regional leaders and other world delegates started on Thursday, spoke about strengthening cooperation with Russia, accused of meddling in U.S. elections, in the field of cybersecurity. The wording was dropped in the final communique issued on Thursday evening. Asked about the proposed agreement, Vivian Balakrishnan told reporters: "We didn't get down to settling it." He added that cyber security was one of the major issues discussed at the meetings, both within ASEAN as well as with external partners. China and the United States were among world powers represented at the meetings. Singapore recently suffered its worst ever cyberattack when hackers stole the personal information of about 1.5 million people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, from a government health database. Earlier this year, Malaysia said it had foiled an attempted cyber heist on its central bank. (Reporting by John Geddie and Jack Kim; Editing by Stephen Powell) Oaxaca (Mexico) (AFP) - After the earthquake that devastated Juchitan in southern Mexico in September last year, Jorge Jimenez and his dance troupe sprang into action. The 8.2-magnitude quake -- the most powerful ever recorded in the country -- killed at least 96 people in the area. Entire families were buried, and the town hall was split in two. Streets were left strewn with debris, and residents had no water or electricity. "We helped to find survivors and distributed food," recalls Jimenez, the director of Juchitan de Zaragoza, a traditional dance troupe. "Then after a while, we decided to dance because the population needed some distraction to overcome the shock." But the many festivities that are a usual part of life in the community were all cancelled in the wake of the earthquake. "We are still in mourning," says the 33-year-old Jimenez. The dancers nevertheless decided to go to Oaxaca, the capital of the state of the same name, to take part in Guelaguetza, the biggest traditional Mexican festival. "We want to thank the country for its support" and proclaim "to the world that 'Juchitan lives, and long live Juchitan!'" Jimenez says. - 'Deep cultural traditions' - The large Guelaguetza gathering, which means "offering" in the native Zapotec language, was itself founded after an earthquake that devastated Oaxaca in 1931. Following the quake, locals decided to create a celebration bringing together the many local cultures "to pray to the Virgin and express solidarity," said Alfonso Martinez, the spokesman for Oaxaca state. Much more than just a festival, Guelaguetza has been a must on the region's social calendar for 86 years, and showcases the variety and richness of what Martinez calls the country's "deep cultural traditions." Every year, 30 troupes present their unique culture in a parade and performance before 12,000 spectators, dancing in colorful costumes -- some with a pineapple or even a vase in hand, others wearing demon masks and cracking a whip. Story continues The event, broadcast on local television, has achieved great success, attracting more than 110,000 visitors to Oaxaca for the annual festivities. For the capital of the second-poorest Mexican state, the economic benefits are significant, estimated at over $16 million, according to local authorities. The Guelaguetza festival is also a link between the numerous communities, which are sometimes isolated in a mountainous state where agrarian conflicts sometimes lead to violence. On July 16, 13 people were killed in a clash between groups of farmers in the south of the state. - Traditional culture still alive - Participating in Guelaguetza is a time-honored for the many communities of this region of four million inhabitants. The selection committee is made up of 10 former dancers whose average age is 75 -- but whose judgment is sharp. "We traveled 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) last year," says Margarita, the 82-year-old chair of the selection committee, which is also known as the "authenticity committee." The committee members roam remote villages and select the very best troupes. "We evaluate the quality of the dance, the clothing, the hairstyle, the chemistry between the couples," she says. The stakes are high -- if a certain community is not selected, its members sometimes go so far as to protest in the capital or complain to the media. "Participating is a great pride for us," says Nivardo, 34, the director of another troupe. The state of Oaxaca is home to "the most indigenous communities; 16 languages are listed," says Martinez. There is no question of wearing a redesigned dress, or introducing a dance inspired by Beyonce. Here, each costume tells a story. A pattern on a dress "symbolizes the mountains that overlook the village," while embroidery can represent a river that crosses the hamlet, or even the underworld, says Nivardo. From an early age, children are immersed in their local culture. Some young people listen to hip-hop, but they never get away from their cultural roots, says Graciela, 31, a dancer from Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec. "We learn music before we even know how to write," she says. "These cheerful rhythms define us -- it's our culture." MADRID (AP) Spanish authorities say they have rescued 223 migrants attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea. Spain's maritime rescue service says its craft intercepted three boats carrying 180 people Saturday and a Civil Guard vessel pulled 43 others from a fourth boat. Spain is seeing an uptick in the number of migrants landing on its shores from Africa after Italy shut down its ports to aid groups who rescued migrants at sea. Since the end of May, almost 15,000 migrants have been saved from boats in Spanish waters more than 240 people a day as Spain surpassed Italy as the main EU destination for migrants coming by sea. In addition, more than 1,500 migrants have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean as smugglers turn to even more unseaworthy vessels. REUTERS Diane Black, the long-time favourite in Tennessee's Republican primary for governor who was being supported by Mike Pence, has lost to Nashville businessman Bill Lee. Every candidate in the primary was an ally of Donald Trump but just one had an endorsement from the White House. Ms Black aligned herself with the president as closely as possible. She ran on a campaign of "Making America great again" and supporting the White House administrations economic agenda although she never received an endorsement from Mr Trump himself. Meanwhile, Mr Lee's campaign was reflective of Mr Trumps bid for the Oval Office in 2016. The cattle farmer and business executive is a political newcomer with no experience holding elected office, much like the president. His lack of a track record allowed him to largely avoid heavy criticism from his opponents, until he began leading in the polls near the final stretch of the race. Mr Lee, who won with nearly 36.7 per cent of the primary vote, will run against Karl Dean, the Democratic former mayor of Nashville, in the Tennessee midterm elections. It has been my greatest honor to serve our great state. My campaign for governor came up short, but I will not stop fighting for the conservative cause. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/WwOGZpnClg Diane Black (@DianeBlackTN) August 3, 2018 The president officially endorsed Mr Lee the day after his primary victory, writing on Twitter, "Congratulations to Bill Lee of Tennessee on his big primary win for Governor last night. He ran a great campaign and now will finish off the job in November. Bill has my total and enthusiastic Endorsement!" Ms Blacks loss doesn't necessarily indicate that a White House endorsement is no longer powerful in local elections in fact, it may actually prove the importance of receiving the presidents support. Story continues The former representatives campaign was dealt a major blow when Mr Trump failed to provide a direct endorsement. Speaking at a campaign speech for Tennessee Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, Mr Trump said Ms Black was "in a big race." "Good luck, Diane," he added, without mentioning her again at any point throughout the rally. Mr Trump is planning to aggressively campaign across the country for conservative candidates in Senate, congressional and gubernatorial races. However, it remains unclear whether a personal endorsement from the president can secure a victory for firebrand conservatives. Ms Blackburn now faces a close race against Phil Bredesen, Tennessees former Democratic governor. Mr Bredesen sailed to victory on Thursday night in Tennessees Democratic primary, and is seen as a moderate who could potentially threaten a Republican stronghold in the state that voted over 60 per cent for Mr Trump in 2016. Mae Sai (Thailand) (AFP) - The Thai boys freed from a flooded cave in a rescue bid that gripped the world left a Buddhist monastery Saturday, 11 days after ordaining as novice monks to honour a diver who died during the mission to save them. The ordeal of the "Wild Boars" football team dominated global headlines as divers worked round the clock to extract the group from the flooded chambers and twisted, narrow passages of the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand. In a dangerous and unprecedented rescue, the 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach were sedated and carried through the waterlogged chambers by divers, ending a nearly three-week saga. But joy at the rescue was tempered by grief at the death of former Thai Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan, who died while installing oxygen tanks along the rescue route. Eleven of the boys and their coach ordained to "make merit" according to Buddhist ritual for "Sergeant Sam", as the diver is now affectionately known across Thailand. One player, Adul Sam-on, was not ordained as he is a Christian. On Saturday the boys, heads shaven and dressed in white to mark Buddhist Lent, left the Pha That Doi Wao temple in northern Thailand's Mae Sai district. They received a Buddhist blessing from monks as they asked in unison to leave the temple, each adding "I am now a layman". Their coach Ekkapol Chantawong remained in the temple, where he has become a full monk as he is an adult. Thailand is a Buddhist-majority country and the faith is weaved tightly into daily life. Family and friends waited for the boys at a reception hall, facing a a table of offerings where the centrepiece was a large photo portrait of a smiling Sergeant Sam. Authorities have told the media to give the teammates time to adjust to their lives. But interest in the remarkable rescue remains frenzied in and outside Thailand, where production houses are looking to make a Hollywood-style film. After entering Tham Luang following football practice on June 23, the children and coach were quickly pushed deeper inside the cave by monsoon flooding, and were only found nine days later by British divers. Story continues They later explained that they survived on rainwater dripping from rocks. Expert divers involved in the rescue mission which began days later said they had grave doubts the whole group would survive. All 13 made it out safely. (Photo: DragonImages via Getty Images) A prestigious Japanese medical university allegedly doctored female applicants entrance exam scores for years because school officials believed that once women get married or have children they are less dependable workers than men. The Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japans largest daily newspapers, published a groundbreaking report Thursday that accused Tokyo Medical University of deducting points from womens entrance exams to ensure that women only account for 30 percent of students at the school. The report alleges that school officials believed women wouldnt contribute to the universitys hospital staff. One anonymous source explained to Yomiuri Shimbun why the university began doctoring female applicants exams. Many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children, the source said, according to Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun. There was a silent understanding (to accept more male students) as one way to resolve the doctor shortage. The South China Morning Post also reported a source told Yomiuri Shimbun that There is a consensus inside the university that male doctors support the university hospital. Although the number of doctors in Japan has increased slightly in recent years, a shortage of doctors has plagued the country for decades. The shortage of medical professionals in Japan stems from most doctors choosing to work in larger cities and in similar fields such as dermatology and ophthalmology to avoid working long hours. Yomiuri Shimbun found that between 2009 and 2010 the incoming rate of female students to Tokyo Medical University doubled, with women making up 40 percent of the 2010 class. According to a translation by The Japan Times, Yomiuri Shimbun, citing unnamed sources, reported the school began doctoring exam scores for the 2011 class by deducting anywhere between 10 to 20 points from female applicants tests. Asahi Shimbun analyzed Tokyo Medical Universitys pool of 2018 students and found that only 30 women were accepted, compared to 141 men. Story continues Following the report this morning, we asked a law firm to launch an internal investigation into the reported issue, a spokesman for the Tokyo Medical University Fumio Azuma said, according to South China Morning Post. Executive board member of Japan Joint Association of Medical Professional Women Ruriko Tsushima condemned the universitys alleged gender discrimination in an interview with the Japan Times. I cant forgive (what the institution is said to have) done to people who studied hard to get into the university, hoping to become doctors, she said. It shouldnt happen in a democratic country that is supposed to provide equal educational opportunities. Tokyo Medical University is currently under investigation over accusations of corruption and bribery. According to Japan Times, school officials added points to high-level education ministry official Futoshi Sanos sons entrance exam scores in exchange for access to a school financial grant. Sano was arrested last month and is denying all allegations. The investigation into Sano intensified media scrutiny of the schools practices. CORRECTION: The photo in a previous version of this story portrayed the wrong medical school. Related... What I Learned About Sexism as an Office Lady in Japan Medicine Has A Sexism Problem, And Its Making Sick Women Sicker Here's What Happens When A Catholic Hospital Won't Try To Save You Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Japanese car giant Toyota on Friday posted a record first-quarter net profit but warned that threatened US sanctions on the auto sector could have a "very big" impact on earnings. The firm added that ongoing trade frictions between the US and China, as well as Washington's tariffs on metal imports, would also eat into its bottom line. US President Donald Trump has unsettled rivals and allies alike with harsh trade rhetoric and a raft of tariffs that have affected sectors ranging from agriculture to auto. Toyota said strong sales in the US and Asia, helped boost profits 7.2 percent to 657.3 billion yen ($5.9 billion) in April-June, its highest-ever first-quarter result. Operating profit jumped 18.9 percent to 682.7 billion yen, with sales up 4.5 percent at 7.4 trillion yen. But it maintained a forecast for net profit to fall 15 percent for the fiscal year to March 2019, with lingering concerns about threatened auto tariffs and raw material costs rising amid trade tensions. "On trade issues, we are expecting profits will decline by 10 billion yen because of (higher costs of) steel and aluminium in North America," Toyota senior managing director Masayoshi Shirayanagi, told reporters. "We have not yet factored in the impact of auto tariffs. If they are imposed, we think the impact will be very big," he added. Satoru Takada, an analyst at TIW, a Tokyo-based research and consulting firm, told AFP: "Compared to its domestic rivals, Toyota has been relatively competitive. "The firm performed strongly in North America and its sales in China are steady." But Trump's threat to impose stiff tariffs on vehicles imported into the world's number two car market remains a concern for Japanese automakers. "US tariffs will be a major risk for the Japanese auto industry. If tariffs are imposed, it will deal a big blow to Japanese carmakers," said Takada. Kentaro Arita, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute, estimated the US tariffs could cost Japan's auto industry as much as $10 billion. Story continues "In particular, auto parts makers will suffer the impact drastically," Arita told AFP. Toyota's global sales grew as the auto giant scored growth in the key North American, European and Asian markets. Increased sales volume and marketing efforts helped boost the bottom line by 45 billion yen while cost cutting contributed 15 billion yen, the company said. Foreign exchange rates -- a major factor for the industry -- had little effect on its earnings for the quarter, it added. Last week rival Nissan said its net profit for the three months to June plunged more than 14 percent, under pressure from rising material costs and a higher yen. It said sales were up in China in the three months to June, but fell in North America and Europe. For the year to March 2018, Toyota reported a record net profit thanks to a weaker yen and US tax cuts. "The business environment for the industry remains severe," Takada said. "Japanese carmakers need to step up their investment in new technologies, such as self-driving systems, in order to compete with their global rivals, while growing costs of raw materials are pressuring their earnings," he added. Shares in Toyota fell 0.85 percent to close at 7,220 yen after its earnings announcement. "Earnings figures are not bad at all but uncertainty over its future lingers due to the trade frictions," Makoto Sengoku, market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, said. Ivy Academy Chattanooga is a Hamilton County public charter school beginning its tenth year of operation by announcing its partnership with Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Division of State Parks. Because of the schools environmental focus, the sponsorship and resulting partnership with Tennessee State Parks was a natural fit. Nancy Dorman, interpretive program manager for Tennessee State Parks noted, This program and partnership are groundbreaking advances for environmental literacy within our state. As part of this partnership, Ivy will provide office space to the rangers of the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Cumberland Trail State Park in its new facility scheduled to open in September. With the new facility, Ivy Academy will have over 35,000 square feet of classroom and covered outdoor learning spaces. Previously, the rangers had no office space in close proximity to the North Chickamauga Creek Gorge, a popular recreational area, and where Ivy Academy does most of its field work. Two part-time state parks personnel will work directly with classes at Ivy Academy, in addition to other CTSP rangers, who will be on campus in the new office space. Angie Markum of Ivy Academy who worked with TSP to develop the partnership explained that, Resident rangers will work closely with Ivy staff and the Ivy middle school Student Junior Ranger Program--a pilot program launched at Ivy. They will also work with Ivys Tennessee State Parks Environmental Institute, which houses three majors for high school students: Veterinary Science, Environmental Audio and Video Production, and Environmental and Natural Resource Management. The purpose in all of this is to increase student investment into the learning process with the end result being increased academic achievement and preparedness beyond high school. There are limited 9th grade spots still available in the Institute for this school year. In addition to their own participation, the rangers will schedule guest speakers from the states network of professionals practicing in the career fields related to each environmental topic. Tennessee State Parks will also offer seminars and fee-based programming on weekends on the Ivy Campus. By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - The Trump administration has rescinded an Obama-era ban on the use of pesticides linked to declining bee populations and the cultivation of genetically modified crops in dozens of national wildlife refuges where farming is permitted. Environmentalists, who had sued to bring about the 2-year-old ban, said on Friday that lifting the restriction poses a grave threat to pollinating insects and other sensitive creatures relying on toxic-free habitats afforded by wildlife refuges. "Industrial agriculture has no place on refuges dedicated to wildlife conservation and protection of some of the most vital and vulnerable species," said Jenny Keating, federal lands policy analyst for the group Defenders of Wildlife. Limited agricultural activity is authorized on some refuges by law, including cooperative agreements in which farmers are permitted to grow certain crops to produce more food or improve habitat for the wildlife there. The rollback, spelled out in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo, ends a policy that had prohibited farmers on refuges from planting biotech crops - such as soybeans and corn - engineered to resist insect pests and weed-controlling herbicides. That policy also had barred the use on wildlife refuges of neonicotinoid pesticides, or neonics, in conjunction with GMO crops. Neonics are a class of insecticides tied by research to declining populations of wild bees and other pollinating insects around the world. Rather than continuing to impose a blanket ban on GMO crops and neonics on refuges, Fish and Wildlife Service Deputy Director Greg Sheehan said in Thursday's memo that decisions about their use would be made on a case-by-case basis. Sheehan said the move was needed to ensure adequate forage for migratory birds, including ducks and geese favored and hunted by sportsmen on many of the nation's refuges. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, has made expansion of hunting on public lands a priority for his agency. Sheehan wrote that genetically modified organisms have helped "maximize production, and that neonicotinoids might be needed "to fulfill needed farming practices." It marked the latest in a series of Obama-era environmental restrictions to be reversed under Trump, his Republican successor, who campaigned on a pledge to roll back government regulations. In a 2014 Obama administration memo announcing plans to phase in the ban, Jim Kurth, head of the refuge system, wrote that seeds treated with neonics give rise to plants whose tissues contained compounds that could harm "non-target" species. He also said, "refuges throughout the country successfully meet wildlife management objectives without" GMOs or neonics. Thursday's memo named 50-plus national wildlife refuges across the country where the revised policy now applies. The entire system consists 560 refuge units encompassing roughly 150 million acres nationwide. (Editing by Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler) President said fake news misreported and that he was 15 minutes early despite images of the monarch standing alone, waiting Donald Trump: I was about 15 minutes early and Im waiting with my wife and thats fine. Hey, its the Queen, right? We can wait. But Im a little early. Photograph: AFP Contributor#AFP/Getty Images Many enduring images came from Donald Trumps visit to the UK last month. There was the huge blimp baby, the streets full of protesters, Trumps views on Brexit and the footage of the Queen appearing to check her watch as she waited for the US president to arrive. The image of the Queen standing alone on a stage as she waited to be presented to Trump captured the imagination of many. Reports emerged that Trump had turned up late, enhancing the the notion that his was a gaffe-filled visit. But everyone was wrong, Trump claimed at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday night. He was actually early, and the fake news is to blame. Trump said: I was asked to have tea with the Queen, who is incredible, by the way. Incredible. I landed, [and] Im on the ground, and Im waiting with the Kings and the Queens Guards, wonderful people. Im waiting. I was about 15 minutes early and Im waiting with my wife and thats fine. Hey, its the Queen, right? We can wait. But Im a little early. And his account was backed up on Friday by Valentine Low of the Times, who attended the event at Windsor Castle. The shock is that he is right, tweeted Low. He didnt keep the Queen waiting. In fact, he was early, and had to wait before going up to Windsor Castle. On Thursday, Trump, who, according to the Washington Post, has made 4,229 false or misleading claims, told the rally that after waiting he and the first lady, Melania Trump, enjoyed tea with the Queen, who he described as fantastic. We got along fantastically well, and the time went by, Trump said. You know, sometimes if you like somebody you get along good chemistry the time goes by. So we were there for about an hour. So here was the story by the fake news: the president was 15 minutes late for the Queen. Wrong. Trump was appearing at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, nominally to support a Republican candidate for the US Senate. But instead he launched into a sustained attack on the free press or the fake, fake, disgusting news which looped in his meetings with the Queen, the leaders of Nato, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Story continues As well as using the rally to correct the record of his encounter with the Queen, Trump also treated his audience to a reverie on the history of the UK. I have great respect for the UK United Kingdom great respect, Trump said. People call it Britain. They call it Great Britain. They used to call it England different parts. President was campaigning for Senate candidate but continued his increasingly alarming verbal vendetta Donald Trump ramped up his attack on the media on Thursday night, criticizing the press as fake, fake, disgusting news and describing journalists in attendance as horrible, horrendous people, despite UN experts warning earlier in the day that his actions were putting journalists at risk. Nominally appearing in Wilkes-Barre, in Pennsylvania, to support a Republican candidate for the US Senate, Trump instead spent more than 15 minutes listing a series of grievances with the press, inducing angry chanting from the crowd towards the assembled media. The president angrily attacked the medias coverage of a range of topics including his 2016 election victory, his meeting with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, his meeting with Vladimir Putin, his meeting with Nato, and finally his meeting with the Queen in July. Trumps most intense criticisms came during an anecdote about the latter. Trump said he and the Queen got along fantastically well and enjoyed good chemistry, but told the thousands-strong crowd that the fake news had instead reported that he turned up late. They can make anything bad. Because they are the fake, fake, disgusting news, Trump said. The insult prompted wild applause, as did his series of other denunciations of the press, which Trump continued despite widely shared videos showing the crowd at a Trump rally in Florida on Tuesday using aggressive language and gestures towards the CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. During the middle of his speech on Thursday Trump pointed to the press area in the middle of the arena as he recalled the skepticism around his chances of victory in November 2016. Even these people back there, these horrible, horrendous people, Trump said, would agree there has never been anything like what happened in November, Trump said. Earlier in the day UN experts had warned that Trumps rhetoric could increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence, while his daughter, Ivanka Trump, said that, unlike her father, she does not consider the media the enemy of the people. Story continues The level of hostility on Tuesday had been such that Acosta later tweeted that he was very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. On Thursday Acosta had clashed with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, repeatedly asking if she disagreed with Trumps view of the press as the enemy of the people. Huckabee-Sanders declined to answer. Trump was appearing at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, in a bid to boost Lou Barletta, a congressman running for the Senate. Barletta was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Trump for president and has remained a firm supporter. Barletta is currently trailing his opponent, the incumbent Democrat Bob Casey, by an average of 16 points in the polls, and had just $1.6m cash on hand at the end of June compared with Caseys $9.9m. Bartlettas campaign said Trumps appearance had been an immediate success, prompting a swathe of donations, but the lasting memory of Trumps appearance is likely to be his sustained attacks on the free press. During his lengthy diatribe Trump referenced his meeting with North Koreas Kim Jong-un which was widely criticized as having achieved little in furthering his characterization of the media and fake news. Trump claimed he had returned to DC from the Singapore summit and told his wife, Melania, that he was excited to see the media coverage. I just stopped missiles from being launched every two seconds, Trump quoted himself as saying to his wife. And baby, I got the hostages back, Trump said. And you know what, honey, theyre not testing any more nuclear. Oh the media is gonna finally treat me so good, Trump recalled himself saying. Im looking forward to waking up tomorrow and reading those dying papers. Instead, Trump said, he faced only negativity from the fake news. Turning to his widely criticized meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump again said the coverage had been unfair. They wanted me to go up and have a boxing match, he said of the medias reporting of his cowed performance alongside Putin, as the crowd roared. The crowd was particularly hostile to CNN of whom Trump has been most critical but as the president continued his lengthy aside the angry boos, shouts and downturned thumbs were directed to almost all of the journalists packed inside the small media zone. Whatever happened to fair press? the president lamented towards the end of his speech. Whatever happened to honest reporting? One thing both the crowd and the media could likely agree on is that, given his performance on Thursday, Trumps war with the media is far from over. By Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration must fully restore a program that protects from deportation some young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, including accepting new applications for the program. U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., said he would stay Friday's order, however, until August 23 to give the administration time to decide whether to appeal. Bates first issued a ruling in April ordering the federal government to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, including taking applications. He stayed that ruling for 90 days to give the government time to better explain why the program should be ended. On Friday Bates, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, said he would not revise his previous ruling because the arguments of President Donald Trump's administration did not override his concerns. Under DACA, roughly 700,000 young adults, often referred to as "Dreamers", were protected from deportation and given work permits for two-year periods, after which they must re-apply to the program. The program was created in 2012 under former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Two other federal courts in California and New York had previously ordered that DACA remain in place while litigation challenging Trump's decision to end it continued. Those rulings only required the government to process DACA renewals, not new applications. Another lawsuit in a Texas federal court is seeking to end DACA. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday that the government would continue to defend its position that it "acted within its lawful authority in deciding to wind down DACA in an orderly manner." Congress so far has failed to pass legislation to address the fate of the Dreamers, including a potential path to citizenship. Friday's ruling came in lawsuits filed by several groups and institutions, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Princeton University. (Reporting by Andrew Chung Editing by Sue Horton) JAKARTA (Reuters) - A U.S. diplomat handed over a letter for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from U.S. President Donald Trump to North Koreas foreign minister at a meeting Singapore on Saturday, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said. Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, who has played a prominent role in U.S. talks with North Korea, handed the letter to Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of a regional meeting, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. She said the letter was a response to one from Kim Jong Un to Trump. In Singapore, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ri shook hands and exchanged words and smiles at a Southeast Asian security forum, but had no formal meeting, Nauert said. Nauert said Pompeo told Ri: "We should meet again soon.She said Ri replied: "I agree, there are many productive conversations to be had." (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Nick Macfie) SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged on Saturday to provide nearly $300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia, as China forges ahead with plans to bolster its engagement in the region. Pompeo unveiled the figure to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other officials from around the world in Singapore. "As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the United States is excited to announce nearly $300 million in new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region," he said. The new security assistance will strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping capabilities and counter "transnational threats", he added. The United States said earlier this week it would invest $113 million in technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives in emerging Asia which he called "a downpayment on a new era of U.S. economic commitment to the region". The United States' developing vision for a "free and open Indo-Pacific" comes at the same time as China ramps up its influence as part of is Belt and Road plan to bolster trade ties with nations in Southeast Asia and beyond. Analysts have said that a spiraling trade dispute between Beijing and Washington could also ratchet up tensions over other regional hotspots, such as the South China Sea, claimed in whole by China and in part by some Southeast Asian nations. The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told reporters at the same forum that China welcomed, and was willing to work with, the United States to help with faster development and better security in the region. He added, however, that the United States had been sending "massive strategic weaponry" into the South China Sea and the region as a show of military might that puts pressure on China and other regional countries. "That is the biggest force behind militarization in this region," he said. China and the ASEAN bloc on Thursday hailed a "milestone" agreement on a single working text to kick off what will likely be protracted negotiations toward a code of conduct for behavior the disputed waters. But critics have said that this enthusiasm for talks is a means for China to buy time and solidify its position during a period of relative dominance in the region where it has built island bases on submerged reefs. Pompeo told reporters that he had raised concerns at the meeting about Chinese militarization of the South China Sea and the importance of maintaining a rules-based order. Progress toward resolving the continuing humanitarian in crisis in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state and other security issues were also essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific, he said. The use of "Indo-Pacific" has grown among diplomats from Japan, Australia, India and the Untied States in recent years, a shorthand for a democratic-led region, as opposed to an "Asia-Pacific" with China at its center. China says that its Belt and Road plan is about promoting the common prosperity of all nations involved, but critics see the signature policy of President Xi Jinping as a bid for greater political clout. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jack Kim; Writing by John Geddie and Christian Shepherd; Editing by Nick Macfie) Pedestrians walk past 666 Fifth Avenue, June 20, 2018, in New York. Kushner Properties bought the 1.5 million-square-foot office and retail development at 666 Fifth Avenue in 2007. (Mary Altaffer / AP) By Tom Hals (Reuters) - The U.S. government told a federal court judge on Thursday that volunteers and non-profit groups, rather than government officials, should take the lead in locating more than 400 immigrant parents who were separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border and deported from the United States. The proposal came in a San Diego Federal Court lawsuit challenging some 2,500 family separations initiated by the Trump administration as part of its "zero tolerance" policy to curb illegal immigration. In the case, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government to reunify the families by July 26, but that deadline was not fully met. While more than 1,900 children have been reunited with their families, or seen their cases resolved in other ways, hundreds remain separated, including the children of more than 400 parents no longer in the United States, according to the government's latest filing. In its plan for reuniting those families, filed with the court on Thursday, attorneys from the Department of Justice said that the government would supply what information it had about the deported parents to the plaintiffs' attorneys. At that point, the filing said, "plaintiffs' counsel should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others," to establish contact with deported parents and determine their wishes. The ACLU has repeatedly said that it would assist with efforts to find the deported parents, but the group made clear in Thursday's filing that it expected the U.S. government to bear ultimate responsibility for locating them. Most of the removed parents were returned to their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. "Not only was it the governments unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States Government has far more resources than any group of NGOs," the ACLU said in the filing. The ACLU noted that the government seemed not to have addresses for some 120 of the deported parents. Government lawyers said they would need until Aug. 10 to go through the files of the children of those parents to find information that could help in the search. Judge Sabraw will hold a hearing on Friday to discuss the ongoing reunification efforts. He is also expected to decide soon when to lift a stay that prohibits rapid deportation of reunited families. Government lawyers told Sabraw last week that about 300 children were in family detention centers, and could be deported quickly once the judge allowed it. The ACLU has argued that the reunified families need time to discuss their options with legal counsel. A separate class action lawsuit recently brought in the District of Columbia on behalf of separated children seeks a separate stay on deportations. That lawsuit said that minors should be allowed to remain in the United States to pursue their legal rights apart from their parents. The Trump Administration ended family separations in June, after weeks of international outcry over the policy. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Sue Horton, Toni Reinhold) UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United Nations said Friday it is implementing "a gradual return" of the U.N. peacekeeping force to the frontier zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that a key goal in the return of the peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, is reopening the Quneitra crossing between the two sides. "The ultimate goal for UNDOF is the full return, conditions permitting," he said. U.N. peacekeepers returned Thursday for the first time in years to the Syria-Israel frontier, conducting joint patrols with Russian military police in a reflection of Moscow's deepening role in mediating between the decades-old foes in the volatile region. Haq said "the Aug. 2 patrol to the Quneitra crossing point is part of UNDOF's ongoing efforts to return incrementally to the area of separation." Russian military police have been deploying in all areas recaptured from rebels by the Syrian government, and they have deployed on the edge of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights in the past two days a move that also appears aimed at reassuring Israel. Israel considers Iran's growing influence in Syria it has advisers and allied militias fighting alongside Syrian troops as an existential threat and had looked for guarantees from Moscow to push pro-Iran fighters away from its frontiers. Haq stressed that the Russians are not part of UNDOF, which has been authorized to patrol the buffer zone between Syria and Israel since 1974, a year after the Arab-Israeli war. He said the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement state that UNDOF's members cannot include the five permanent members of the U.S. Security Council the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France. For nearly four decades, UNDOF helped enforce a stable truce between the two countries but the seven-year Syrian war moved into the zone not only with intense fighting but the abduction of peacekeepers by al-Qaida-linked anti-Syrian government militants. After being placed on administrative leave Wednesday amid reports he turned a blind eye to a domestic abuse incident in 2015, Ohio State University football coach Urban Meyer apologized for his actions Friday but stopped short of explaining or apologizing for the incident itself. Meyer made the statement in a letter addressed to OSU Buckeye fans, portraying his claim not to have known about the 2015 incident as him simply being caught off guard by unexpected questioning. My intention was not to say anything inaccurate or misleading, Meyer wrote. However, I was not adequately prepared to discuss these sensitive personnel issues with the media, and I apologize for the way I handled those questions. I understand that there are more questions to be answered and I look forward to doing just that with the independent investigators retained by the University and I will cooperate fully with them. At the appropriate time, I will also address the questions and speculation in a public forum. But for now, out of respect for the ongoing inquiry, I will refrain at this time. At issue are domestic abuse allegations leveled against former OSU assistant wide receivers coach Zach Smith, whose ex-wife Courtney accused of engaging in a years-long pattern of physical abuse leading up to, and on the night of, their separation in October 2015. College football reporter Brett McMurphy published a series of text messages Wednesday showing Meyer was aware of the abuse back in 2015 yet took no action. Prior to the texts being published, Meyer claimed ignorance and pledged hed have fired Smith in 2015 had he known. Meyers statement Friday seemed to acknowledge that wasnt quite true: The power of what I say and how I say it, especially regarding sensitive and serious domestic issues, has never been more evident than now, he wrote. My words, whether in a replay to a reporters question or in addressing a personnel issue, must be clear, compassionate and most of all, completely accurate. Story continues OSU fired Smith last Monday, but only after a domestic violence civil order was filed against him. In a separate statement to ESPN on Friday, Smith said he didnt deserve to be fired, instead blaming the media for his forced departure. Heres a text message McMurphy obtained of Smith admitting he cheated on Courtney, then strangled her after she found out about it: Zach Smith told @1057TheZone he never abused Courtney. Here is text message b/w Zach & Courtney when he admits & apologizes for strangling his wife on Punta Cana trip in March 2015 & again in April pic.twitter.com/GjcjWh6mFT Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 3, 2018 Related Coverage Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer Placed On Leave After Alleged Silence On Domestic Abuse Bob Evans Suspends Partnership Deal With Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Los Angeles (AFP) - The federal judge who ordered the reunification of families separated at the southern US border said Friday it was the government's responsibility to locate parents deported without their children. According to government figures submitted to the court Thursday, 410 of the 572 immigrant children still under government care have parents -- or another associated adult -- outside of the United States. "Many of these parents were removed from the country without their child; all of this is the result of the government's separation and then inability and failure to track and reunite," US District Judge Dana Sabraw told a telephonic status conference from his San Diego office, according to US media reports. "And the reality is that for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanent orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration." Sabraw ordered that the government put someone in charge of the "significant undertaking" to find the adults. So far, only 13 parents have been located. "The judge is refusing to let the government off the hook for the mess it made," said lawyer Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sued the government over the separations which resulted from the "zero tolerance" immigration policy. The government, meanwhile, said in a court-ordered joint status report filed Thursday that the ACLU should use its "considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers and others" to find deported parents and orchestrate reunification. The rights group said it had made clear that it would help however it could, but that "the government must bear the ultimate burden of finding the parents." "Not only was it the government's unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States government has far more resources than any group of NGOs," it said in the report. Story continues Gelernt also accused Washington of holding back information that could help locate the deported parents. "Every day the government has sat on this information has been another day of suffering for these families," he said. Sabraw had ordered on June 26 that all children under five years of age be reunited with their guardians by July 10, and all other children by July 26. The government said it had met that deadline, but children remained in custody because family ties had not been confirmed, or the parent had a criminal record, a communicable disease or could not be found. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United States imposed North Korea-related sanctions Friday on a North Korean bank executive and company, a Russian bank, and a Chinese company and asked the U.N. to add them to its sanctions blacklist. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stressed in a statement imposing the new sanctions that "the United States will continue to enforce U.N. and U.S. sanctions and shut down illicit revenue streams to North Korea." "Our sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully-verified denuclearization of North Korea," he said. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Ri Jong Won, the Foreign Trade Bank deputy representative in Moscow and an official of the North Korean government. The Foreign Trade Bank is already under U.S. and U.N. sanctions. The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank, saying it knowingly conducted or facilitated "a significant transaction on behalf of Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank." Han is also subject to U.S. and U.N. sanctions. The Treasury Department said a 2016 U.N. Security Council resolution states that if a country determines that an individual is working on behalf of, or at the direction of a North Korean bank or financial institution that individual should be expelled. "Therefore, Han Jang Su and Ri Jong Won should be expelled from Russia," it said. Nevertheless, the Treasury Department said Agrosoyuz continued to provide services to Han into 2018 and also "knowingly opened multiple bank accounts for at least three Foreign Trade Bank front companies." The U.S. also imposed sanctions on two front companies associated with the Foreign Trade Bank the Korea Ungum Corporation based in Pyongyang and Dandong Zhongsheng Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., based in China. The U.S. Mission asked the U.N. Security Council later Friday to impose sanctions on Ri Jong Won and the three entities. According to documents sent to council members and obtained by The Associated Press, the Netherlands, which chairs the committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea, sent a letter giving council members until 3 p.m. EDT on Aug. 10 to raise any objections. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said the request coincided with actions by the U.S. Treasury Department "and is part of a coordinated U.S. government effort to continue to implement existing sanctions, both domestic and multilateral, and cut off North Korea's illicit financial activities." Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's controversial Constituent Assembly marks its first anniversary on Saturday as the embodiment of President Nicolas Maduro's entrenchment in power despite an economic crisis that has crippled the country's public services and destroyed its currency. The assembly's very creation last year was largely responsible for four months of street protests that left some 125 people dead. Opposition politicians accused Maduro of staging a "coup" as the assembly, dominated by the president's Chavista allies, supplanted the opposition-controlled parliament, leaving it impotent. It was the culmination of the under-pressure Maduro's belligerent fight to retain the power he was at risk of losing as recession paralyzed the country. "The Constituent Assembly was the beginning of the crushing of democratic suffrage," political analyst Luis Salamanca told AFP. The opposition's supermajority victory in 2015 parliamentary elections -- the first time in 16 years Chavistas had lost control of parliament -- had left Maduro vulnerable to a potential challenge but his allies acted quickly before the new legislators could take their seats, packing the Supreme Court with regime loyalists. In early 2016, the Supreme Court prevented four opposition lawmakers from taking their National Assembly seats, subsequently eliminating the supermajority. Bit by bit the Supreme Court chipped away at the National Assembly's powers, siding with the president every time it clashed with him. At the same time, the numbers of political prisoners increased as Maduro critics found themselves accused of treason. - 'Communist dictatorship' - Maduro wasn't done there, though, and last year announced the creation of the Constituent Assembly to replace the legislative body of which he'd lost control. Opposition lawmakers boycotted elections for the new assembly, decrying the "illegality" of the body's creation and saying it would establish a "communist dictatorship." Story continues The Supreme Court subsequently dissolved the National Assembly and its replacement body declared itself a superagency with authority above all other government branches. Washington called it "a setback for democracy." "With the Constituent Assembly, peace triumphed," Maduro said as the bodies piled up and civil unrest spread, with the United States and European Union amongst those accusing him of political repression. This year it hastily brought forward to May presidential elections slated for December, with the opposition again boycotting and Maduro winning a landslide and new six-year term. Originally created to re-write the constitution and expected to function for two years, the Constituent Assembly's president and close Maduro ally Diosdado Cabello announced earlier this week it could extend its term for up to four years. "It has become an organism to crush the opposition," political analyst Luis Salamanca told AFP. - 'Above all powers' - The assembly was quick to act, dismissing public prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who had left the ruling coalition accusing Maduro of breaching the constitution. Ortega has since fled to Colombia. It's "an organization that's above all powers," analyst Mariano De Alba told AFP. The National Assembly continues to operate but all its decisions are annulled by the same judicial authorities that dissolved it. The Constituent Assembly has been implacable, calling municipal elections last year for mayors and governors, dealing more blows to the disillusioned opposition. Even when one opposition governor maintained his seat and refused to submit to the assembly, that body called new elections where a Chavista prevailed. Once Maduro won re-election, he made a sweeping "reconciliation" gesture, freeing 120 opposition political prisoners. "He does what he wants in the service of the revolution," analyst Luis Vicente Leon told AFP. The socialist revolution inaugurated by Maduro's now-deceased predecessor Hugo Chaves lives on, no matter whether the people support it or not, and no matter how deep the country sinks into political and economic crises. Citizens suffer food and medicine shortages while public services such as water and electricity supplies and transport collapse. The International Monetary Fund projected last week that inflation would hit a staggering one million percent this year. Quite apart from reinforcing Maduro's iron-fisted grip on power, the Constituent Assembly gives him "an additional bargain chip" against his opponents, said De Alba. "It's impossible to envisage a political resolution to the crisis without that body being dismantled." By Sinead Carew and James Thorne (Reuters) - Shares in Apple Inc edged higher on Friday but stayed close to the $1 trillion valuation milestone the iPhone maker reached a day earlier, even as Wall Street predicted more gains. After becoming the first $1 trillion publicly-listed U.S. company on Thursday, Apple last traded up 0.1 pct at $207.57 after falling as low as $205.48 and as high as $208.74, as it oscillated around the $207.0425 price that marked the record market cap. Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, said Apple's lukewarm Friday was a temporary pause for the stock rather than a sign it could lose ground. "It's like the horse that crosses the finish line and says I'm totally wiped out," said Morgan, whose firm holds more than 200,000 shares in Apple. "There was a strong earnings report on Tuesday. All the enthusiasm around the $1 trillion market capitalization, both those things have just exhausted the current trading in Apple. And it's Friday. The whole week was engulfed by Apple," he said. Apple still looks relatively cheap even with a trillion dollar valuation. Its shares trade at less than 16 times earnings estimates for the next 12 months, according to Morgan, who said he would be comfortable with a multiple of 18 or 19 for the stock. "That's a reasonable level so I don't feel there's any risk that people will say its trading at a $1 trillion let's put the brakes on this ... If it was Amazon or Netflix that were hitting a trillion, then we could have that conversation," he said. Netflix currently trades at 93.8 times estimates for its earnings in the next 12 months while Amazon.Com's multiple is 83.74. "If Apple trades at 20 times earnings that would be crazy," he said, estimating that Apple shares could go as high as $220 by year-end. Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet are in a tight race to become the second U.S. company to reach the $1 trillion milestone. Story continues Most sell-side analysts also seemed to see $1 trillion as just one milestone on Apple's way to greater gains as the median price target for the stock is $218.50 and the mean price target at $215.46, according to data collected by Thomson Reuters. The highest price expectation for the stock is Brian White's $275 target, which would mean a $1.3 trillion valuation, according to the analyst from Monness Crespi Hardt, who says he was first on the Street with a price target that reflected a $1-trillion valuation. Despite the record valuation, White said, "Apple is one of the most under-appreciated stocks in the world." Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital LLC in Memphis, said Apple "should trade much higher. They are so dependent on one product for such a huge part of their revenue that I believe thats why it gets that discount, said Miller whose firm also owns Amazon shares. (Reporting By James Thorne and Sinead Carew in New York, Noel Randewich in San Francisco,; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Tom Brown) In a few years time, you and your pals could roll up to a bar and order a round of beers, only to experience a hazy cannabis high instead of an energizing buzz. Thats because beer companies ranging from tiny Nevada start-ups to major Canadian corporations like Molson Coors are preparing to produce beers infused with, and even brewed with, legal recreational marijuana. Molson Coors Canada announced this week that it would be partnering with The Hydropothecary, a Canadian marijuana producer, to embark on a joint venture (pun intended) to build a standalone company for non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beer. Now that recreational legal weed will go into effect in Canada on Oct. 17, beer producers are on the lookout for crossover products and entryways into the growing cannabis industry. What Even Is Weed-Infused Beer? The deal between The Hydropothecary and Molson Coors Canada is expected to close before September 30, finalizing an independent board of directors and management team for their new product line. But Molson Coors isnt the first beer company to invest in weed production. Constellation Brands, the consolidation that owns Corona, paid $191 million for a 9.9 percent stake in Canopy Growth, a Canadian marijuana producer, in October last year. A startup in Nevada, Cannabiniers, is set to begin selling a line of cannabis-infused beers in its home state this month. California-based craft beer company Lagunitas, owned by Heineken, already has a cannabis-infused sparkling water on the market. And Toronto-based Province Brands is prepared to hit the market first in Canada, as the company has already developed a brewing technique. Normal beer is brewed with 6-carbon sugar, but the cannabis beer created by Province has both 5- and 6-carbon sugars. The cannabis bud, along with stalks, roots, and stems, is mashed for the brewing process. Most methods of weed consumption stick to the bud alone, discarding other parts of the plant as waste. Story continues Province is able to manufacture the beer with its license, but isnt legally permitted to hold a tasting, though it says its beer is lower in calories than a standard non-alcoholic brew and will be gluten-free. Beer brewed from barley and infused with cannabis oil is another way to mix the two substances. Scientists describe the taste of beer brewed from cannabis, water, hops, and yeast as dry, savory, and less sweet than a typical beer flavor. The THC high allegedly hits quicker than most edibles, and the ultimate goal of Canadian researchers is to brew a product that has an equivalent high to how drunk one beer would get the drinker. Why Does Weed Beer Need to Exist? Adults in states with level cannabis binge drink on average 13 percent fewer times a month, so alcohol sales go down in states, and in the case of Canada, entire countries, with legal recreational marijuana available as an alternative. For economic purposes, beer companies need to find an appealing crossover brand to maintain their profit margin. But cannabis-infused edibles and beverages wont be immediately available when marijuana is officially legal for recreational use in Canada. Molson Coors expects legalization for beverages by October 2019, since thats when regulations for other cannabis products will be set, and consulting firms expect Canadian cannabis sales to exceed $4.34 billion in sales by then. On top of the financial gain, a potential benefit of THC-infused beer is that it could help scores of twenty-somethings avoid getting liver disease from binge drinking. And what sounds more appealing a night of vodka shots, bad decisions, and vomiting, or a 12-pack of weed beer that leads to a delightful snooze and maybe a late-night snack? Photos via Flickr / leyla_arsan More From Inverse WASHINGTON (AP) In negotiations over a possible interview by prosecutors, special counsel Robert Mueller's team has offered the White House format changes, perhaps willing to limit some questions asked of President Donald Trump or accept some answers in writing, according to a person briefed on the proposal. Talks between Trump's lawyers and the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election have restarted in recent days, and it is not clear a deal will be struck, according to the person, who spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations. Trump has publicly expressed a desire to be interviewed, but his lawyers have repeatedly objected to the investigators' proposals. Trump attorneys say both sides have exchanged proposals for conditions for such a Trump interview. The negotiations come amid a backdrop of Trump's escalating attacks on the probe, including his blunt declaration that his attorney general should terminate "right now" the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Trump also assailed the trial, just underway, of his former campaign chairman by the special counsel's team White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet Wednesday was "not an order" and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. "It's the president's opinion," she said. But Trump's early morning tweetstorm again raised the specter that he could try to more directly bring special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia-Trump election-collusion probe to a premature end. And it revived the idea that the president's tweets themselves might be used as evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Trump has raged privately in recent days that both the forces of government and the media are trying to undermine him. That includes trumped-up charges against his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and distorting the outcome of the Helsinki summit to make it appear he was beholden to Russia, according to two Republicans close to the White House not authorized to speak about private conversations. Story continues Trump was closely monitoring news coverage of the Manafort proceedings, which provoked the spate of incendiary tweets, according to the two Republicans and two White House officials. "The president's not obstructing, he's fighting back," said Sanders, dismissing the idea Trump's tweets could be tantamount to obstruction of justice. The most inflammatory of Trump's tweets said, "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" The president's anger came the day after the start of the trial of Manafort, who is facing federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. And while Mueller did not bring any election-related charges against Manafort, the specter of the Russian investigation is hanging over the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse. And Trump's White House. "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders," Trump tweeted. "He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!" Later the president invoked one of the nation's most notorious criminals, 1920s gangster Al Capone, and posed the question "who was treated worse" while airing his grievance about Manafort being held in solitary confinement ahead of a conviction. Manafort is in detention after having his bail revoked because of allegations that he was attempting to tamper with witnesses in his case. Federal prosecutors revealed last month that he was afforded unusual privileges while in detention. Trump has spent more than a year trying to distance himself from his one-time top political aide, and to minimize the role Manafort played in his campaign. Trump's protestations aside, Manafort worked on the campaign during a critical six-month period in 2016, during which he led the effort to ensure Trump won the Republican nomination. He oversaw the early days of the general election effort. Sanders said Trump wants Mueller's investigation concluded swiftly without intervention, though Trump has publicly mused as recently as May about interfering in the Department of Justice's oversight of the probe. "At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!" he tweeted then. Trump has repeatedly belittled the probe as "a hoax," as those close to him suggest he feels that any talk of Russian interference tarnishes his electoral victory and delegitimizes his presidency. One of the president's confidants deemed Trump in "a dark place," seething about the longlasting probe and the media's depiction of his White House under siege. Though long antagonistic toward the press, Trump's anger toward the media has only grown over the past month, as he has berated coverage of his Singapore and Helsinki summits, the possible prosecutorial cooperation of his former legal "fixer" Michael Cohen and the Mueller probe. After complaining about the tough questions he received from American reporters in Finland, Trump has largely steered clear of the mainstream media, instead opting for safer spaces like an interview with ally Rush Limbaugh this week. From the White House briefing room podium on Wednesday, Sanders declined to denounce the harassment of a CNN reporter during a Trump rally in Florida on Tuesday. The president's social media outburst renewed discussion of the significance of his tweets. Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, stressed that Trump was just issuing an opinion, though he also said the White House believes "the investigation should be brought to a close." "I guess, if we were playing poker we're not put up or shut up, what do you got?" Giuliani said. "We have every reason to believe they don't have anything." When pressed by reporters on how she tells the difference between a presidential order or an opinion, Sanders said Trump makes his intentions "pretty clear." But the line between registering an opinion or governing by tweet has bedeviled the White House from the start, even when former press secretary Sean Spicer declared tweets could be official White House statements. Earlier this year, Trump blindsided the Defense Department when he tweeted out a transgender ban for the military, prompting the Pentagon to slow walk the program. Mueller already is interested in some of Trump's tweets to the extent they raise obstruction of justice concerns. Though experts believe obstruction by tweet is possible, prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular act got in the way of an investigation and that the person who did it intended to obstruct. The president's tweets on Wednesday were greeted warily on Capitol Hill, with most lawmakers, regardless of party, urging Trump to let the probe run its course. No. 3 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota said, "The idea that they should truncate it doesn't make sense to me." Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut went much further, declaring. There is now highly credible evidence that the president of the United States is committing obstruction of justice in real time, right before our eyes." ___ Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed reporting. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Miller at http://twitter.com/@zekejmiller Right-wing Patriot Prayer rally in Portland, Ore. A counterprotester raises his arms as he talks with supporters of the Patriot Prayer group during a rally in Portland, Ore., Aug. 4, 2018. (Photo: Bob Strong/Reuters) Small scuffles broke out Saturday as police in Portland, Ore., deployed flash-bang devices and other means to disperse hundreds of right-wing and self-described anti-fascist protesters. Four people were arrested during the protests, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement Saturday night. Officers also seized multiple weapons throughout the day, police said. A reporter for the Oregonian/OregonLive was bloodied when he was struck by a projectile. Eder Campuzano said later on Twitter he was OK. Demonstrators aligned with Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, gathered around midday in a riverfront park. Hundreds of demonstrators faced them from across the street, holding banners and signs with opposition messages such as Alt right scum not welcome in Portland. Some chanted Nazis go home. Officers stood in the middle of the four-lane boulevard, essentially forming a wall to keep the two sides separated. The counterprotesters were made up of a coalition of labor union representatives, immigrant rights advocates, democratic socialists, and other groups. They included people dressed as clowns and a brass band blaring music. The rally, organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counterprotester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture. (AP) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr. (Photo: Sinisa Kukic via Getty Images) The proper way to respond to a bad-faith troll campaign like the one the right-wing internet is waging on Sarah Jeong, the newest member of The New York Times editorial board, is to not respond at all, to not even listen in the first place. This is a hard thing to fathom if youre The New York Times and your brand identity is tied to an otherworldly patrician rectitude. But ignore the trolls you must. This includes the gleeful, snickering chuds who strip old tweets of their context and send them back out into the world. And this also includes the establishment figures like Ari Fleischer and publications like the National Review, the folks wailing about an Asian womans anti-white racism, as if there were such a thing. The improper way to respond is like this: Our statement in response to criticism of the hiring of Sarah Jeong. pic.twitter.com/WryIgbaoqg NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) August 2, 2018 This controversy started when the trolls dug up old tweets in which Jeong had openly mocked white people. Its kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men, she wrote in 2014. White men are bullshit, she said in another. There were several more in this vein. All of them were utterly harmless unless youre the exact sort of constantly aggrieved white dude she was pillorying in the first place, or the exact sort of white dude who believes a few throwaway tweets are equivalent to the actual racism and abuse women and people of color face in this country and on that godforsaken social media platform every day. The Times statement may look like a staunch defense of its new employee. But the paper got rolled, and it got rolled because its more committed to conveying the impression of a surpassing reasonableness than it is to any actual ideal. The Times had nothing to disavow, and Jeong nothing to regret. There was no reason for the paper to apologize on her behalf, no reason for her to issue an apologetic statement of her own, no reason to acknowledge people who were transparently acting in bad faith other than to tell them to go to hell. And yet here they were, cornered into a pious renunciation that legitimized the trolly outrage the Times statement, for some reason, admonished Jeong for her role in feeding the vitriol we too often see on social media and will only exacerbate the larger problem at hand. Story continues There are legions of white dudes who believe they are the primary victims of American oppression. And, for some time now, their mobilized networks of trolls have been orchestrating outrage campaigns to harass, intimidate and discredit journalists and their work in the hopes of getting them fired. The Times, at least this time, didnt go that far. But this will keep happening, there and beyond. Liberal institutions will be undermined by the tools of liberalism itself, all because nobody is a better friend to a right-wing berserker campaign than a terrified executive at a respectable news outlet who still doesnt understand the modern internet. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Twenty-seven members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appeared in a Zimbabwe court facing public violence charges on Saturday after six people were killed in post-election protests that were met by a military crackdown. Soldiers and tanks rolled into the capital Harare on Wednesday after protests erupted against President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ruling ZANU-PF party's landslide win in the House of Assembly vote. The army's clampdown on civilians and the opposition's allegations that the vote was rigged revealed the deep fissures in Zimbabwean society that developed during the four-decade rule of Robert Mugabe, when the security forces became a byword for heavy-handedness. The 27 MDC members were arrested on Thursday at the party's headquarters. Their lawyers said the MDC members were innocent and were delivering election results from provinces when arrested. Prosecutors said the accused were positively identified by police and that witnesses would testify against them. The MDC members were not formally charged by Harare Magistrate Francis Vhitorini and will be held in custody in prison until they return to court on Monday. If found guilty, they face up to 10 years in jail. Water cannon and more than a dozen anti-riot police were stationed outside the perimeter of the court house while others remained camped outside the MDC headquarters. Three of the victims from Wednesday's clashes were buried on Saturday, the MDC said. Mnangagwa on Friday urged Zimbabweans to unite after he was declared the first elected head of state since Mugabe's removal from power. MDC leader Nelson Chamisa insisted he had won and pledged to challenge the result. On Saturday, Chamisa said he was aware of his supporters' anxieties and that he carried their hopes and aspirations. "You voted but they cheated. Over 2.5 million votes can't be ignored. We're doing all to secure your vote (and) defend your WILL. Change is coming," he wrote on Twitter. The first post-Mugabe election had been cast as a watershed moment that would rid the former British colony of its global pariah status and begin a recovery in its failed economy. But Mnangagwa's bid to repair the image of a nation known for repression and economic collapse was further hurt by a police raid on the MDC headquarters and the dispersal of journalists before Chamisa's news conference on Friday. International election observers have cited several problems, including media bias and mistrust in the electoral commission. On Saturday, the British government said it was deeply concerned by the post-election violence and the "disproportionate response from the security forces." (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Janet Lawrence) By MacDonald Dzirutwe and Joe Brock HARARE (Reuters) - President Emmerson Mnangagwa called on Friday for Zimbabwe to unite behind him after he was declared winner of national elections, but the opposition leader insisted he had won and said he would use all means necessary to challenge the result. Attempting to sound a conciliatory note, Mnangagwa vowed to be president for all Zimbabweans and declared his rival Nelson Chamisa would have a vital role to play in Zimbabwe's future. He also said the military's use of deadly violence in which six people were killed following the vote would be investigated by an independent commission. "To Nelson Chamisa, I want to say: you have a crucial role to play in Zimbabwe's present and its unfolding future. Let us both call for peace and unity in our land," Mnangagwa said. But Chamisa told reporters the army crackdown on opposition supporters had been authorised by Mnangagwa's ruling Zanu-PF because it had lost the election, the first since the army removed 94-year-old Robert Mugabe from office in November. "We are going to explore all necessary means, legal and constitutional, to ensure that the will of the people is protected," Chamisa said. Voting passed off relatively smoothly on the day, raising hopes of a break from a history of disputed and violent polls. But the army's post-election crackdown and opposition claims that the vote was rigged revealed the deep rifts in Zimbabwean society that developed during Mugabe's four decades in power, when the security forces became a byword for heavy-handedness. After three days of claims and counterclaims, 75-year-old Mnangagwa - a former spy chief under Mugabe - secured victory. He polled 2.46 million votes against 2.15 million for 40-year-old opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced in the early hours of Friday morning. "This is a new beginning. Let us join hands," Mnangagwa said on Twitter. "We won the election freely and fairly, and have nothing to hide or fear." Seeking to explain the army's post-election crackdown, he said later: "The police were overwhelmed and then they summoned assistance from the army to stop the wanton destruction." But his efforts to repair the image of a country known for repression and economic collapse were hurt by a police raid on the headquarters of Chamisa's Movement for Democratic Change. Mnangagwa won 50.8 percent of the vote, official figures showed, just over the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff. The delays in announcing the presidential results and the narrow margin of victory fuelled the opposition accusations of rigging. He now faces the challenge of persuading the international community that the army crackdown and lapses in the election process will not derail his promise of political and economic reforms needed to fix a moribund economy. European Union observers said on Wednesday cited several problems, including media bias and mistrust in the electoral commission. Its final assessment will be crucial in determining whether Zimbabwe can return to the international fold. VERIFY Chamisa, who accused the commission of trying to rig the vote, said it should release "proper and verified" results. He told a news conference he would pursue all legal means necessary to challenge the result, which had serious legitimacy problems. He declined to divulge the specific action that his party would take to challenge the election outcome. Christopher Dielmann, economist at Exotix Capital, said the immediate priorities for Mnangagwa would be to continue on the path of restoring the economy and boosting exports, helped by international engagement. "By many accounts, this imperfect election delivered sufficient transparency, especially in relation to past results in the country, that should allow re-engagement to occur relatively smoothly." Charles Laurie, head of country risk for Verisk Maplecroft, said for international investors, Zimbabwes election was less about an MDC or a ZANU-PF win, and far more about electing a legitimate, stable and trustworthy leader. "There is a bleak pall over Mnangagwa's win," he said. South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa urged all Zimbabweans to accept the poll results. Harare's traffic was thinner than usual. Water cannon and anti-riot police remained outside MDC offices, a reminder of the clashes between opposition and the security forces this week. "We are not happy with this election but what can we do?" said Patience Sithole, a cleaner in Harare. "We don't trust these observers, we don't trust these courts. I'm not sure things will ever change in Zimbabwe." The Herald newspaper, which acts as a government mouthpiece, hailed the election as reflecting the will of the majority and admonished the opposition, decrying "a culture of rabble-rousing and sham protests of alleged rigging whenever a party loses." (Additonal reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and James Macharia in Johannesburg; editing by Ed Cropley, Angus MacSwan, William Maclean) Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn responded to the latests anti-Semitism accusations against him by writing an opinion piece for the Guardian newspaper where he claims that his party does not represent any kind of threat to Jewish life in Britain. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Op-ed was published following a 2010 video that emerged showing the Labour leader at a pro-Palestinian rally refer to Hamas terrorists as his friends and comparing between the destruction in Gaza to that in Stalingrad and Leningrad during World War WIIessentially comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. In the Guardian article, Corbin acknowledged his party has anti-Semitism issues that have not been dealt with properly. The community should have been consulted more extensively at an earlier stage, Corbyn writes. Jeremy Corbyn (Photo: Reuters) However, he says that his criticism of Israel should not be interpreted as anti-Jewish. "It is unfortunately the case that this particular example, dealing with Israel and racism, has sometimes been used by those wanting to restrict criticism of Israel that is not anti-Semitic, he explained. He expressed the same sentiments regarding the idea of anti-Zionism, saying it is neither racist nor anti-Semitic. "In the 1970s some on the left mistakenly argued that Zionism is racism. That was wrong, but to assert that anti-Zionism is racism now is wrong too," Corbyn asserted in the article. The Labour leader added that those in his party who express anti-Semitic views are a minority that does not speak for him and will not be tolerated. People who dish out antisemitic poison need to understand: you do not do it in my name You are not my supporters and have no place in our movement, exclaimed Corbyn in the article. Corbyn, a serious contender for the British premiership, is seen in one of the videos that recently emerged speaking at a rally outside the Israeli Embassy in London in 2010. "I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw the mortar shell that had gone through the school buildings, the destroyed UN establishments, the burned out schools, the ruined homes, the destroyed lives, the imprisoned people, the psychological damage to a whole generation, who've been imprisoned for as long as the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place," Corbyn, at the time a backbench MP, told the crowd. "This is a war crime that has been undertaken, but this time on live television," he added. Corbyn speaking during rally The same year, Corbyn hosted an event at the British Parliament for Gaza on International Holocaust Remembrance Day under the headline "Never Again for Anyone Auschwitz to Gaza." Some of the speakers at the event accused Israel of using the Holocaust for its own political need, while leaflets were handed out claiming Israel is carrying out genocide. Furthermore, according to British media, Corbyn also signed a petition calling to change the name of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day to "Genocide Memorial Day Never Again For Anyone," a general name that ignores the Jewish people. Another video from 2012 is of an interview Corbyn gave to Iran's Press TV in a program titled "Remember Palestine," where he described over 1,000 Hamas terrorists released by Israel in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap in 2011 as "brothers." On the same show, Corbyn also questioned if there was a "serious case" against the released terrorists, who have been convicted of the murder of almost 600 Israelis. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries on Saturday against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Speaking on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Singapore, Pompeo told reporters that the US has new, credible reports that Russia is violating UN sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He said Washington would take "very seriously" any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed. Confidential, new UN report reveals North Korea is cooperating militarily with Syria and has been trying to sell weapons to entities in the Middle East, including Yemen's Houthis. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The report, seen by Reuters on Friday, also says that North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs in violation of United Nations sanctions. The six-month report by independent experts monitoring the implementation of UN sanctions was submitted to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee late on Friday. Satellite images of nuclear facilities (Photo: Planet Labs Inc./James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute) "(North Korea) has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," the experts wrote in the 149-page report. The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the report. Pyongyang also violated a textile ban by exporting more than $100 million in goods between October 2017 and March 2018 to China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay, the report said. The report comes as Russia and China suggest the Security Council discuss easing sanctions after US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for the first time in June and Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization. Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump (Photo: AP) The United States and other council members have said there must be strict enforcement of sanctions until Pyongyang acts. The UN experts said illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in international waters had "increased in scope, scale and sophistication." They said a key North Korean technique was to turn off a ship's tracking system, but that they were also physically disguising ships and using smaller vessels. The Security Council has unanimously sanctioned North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products. The experts said "prohibited military cooperation with the Syrian Arab Republic has continued unabated." They said North Korean technicians engaged in ballistic missile and other banned activities have visited Syria in 2011, 2016 and 2017. The report said that experts were investigating efforts by the North Korean Ministry of Military Equipment and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) to supply conventional arms and ballistic missiles to Yemen's Houthi group. A country, which was not identified, showed the experts a July 13, 2016 letter from a Houthi leader inviting the North Koreans to meet in Damascus "to discuss the issue of the transfer of technology and other matters of mutual interest," according to the report. The experts said that the effectiveness of financial sanctions was being systematically undermined by "deceptive practices" of North Korea. Mike Pompeo (Photo: Reuters) In the meantime, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday the process of ending North Korea's nuclear programme would take time but he was optimistic that it would be done within a timeline set by the leaders of the two countries. It was important to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on the North, he said, and the United States takes very seriously any detraction from enforcing UN sanctions, Pompeo said on the sidelines of a regional conference. "I'm optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded," Pompeo told a news conference. "The work has begun. The process of achieving denuclearisation of the (Korean) peninsula is one that I think we have all known would take some time." Jared Kushner, senior advisor and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, has reportedly been looking into the possibility of stripping the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of their refugee status, consequently removing the issue of a Palestinian right of return from the negotiations table, according to a report in Foreign Policy on Friday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Foreign Policy obtained e-mail correspondence between Kushner and members of his team, including Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt, discussing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). "It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA ... This (agency) perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesnt help peace, Kushner wrote in an email from January 11. Jared Kushner and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: US Embassy) According to Hanan Ashrawi, a member of Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Kushner believes the resettlement has to take place in the host countries and these governments can do the job that UNRWA was doing. Ashrawi said the White House wanted rich Arab Gulf states to cover the costs of the move. They want to take a really irresponsible, dangerous decision and the whole region will suffer, she accused. Hanan Ashrawi (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) In June, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Kushner was willing to stop funding UNRWA altogether and transferring the $300 million the US gives the agency to Jordan and other Arab nations who would take in the Palestinians. All this is actually aimed at liquidating the issue of the Palestinian refugees, Erekat said. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (Photo: AFP) The United States has been funding UNRWA since its establishment in 1949 following Israels War of Independence, and most of US presidents have supported the agency. But the Trump administration has come out against the agency, cutting more than half of its funding. A senior White House official said US policy on UNRWA has been under frequent evaluation and internal discussion. The administration will announce its policy in due course. Many in the US and Israel claim the agency merely perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem rather than serving as a solution to it, keeping the hope of Palestinian return to lands that have been part of the State of Israel for 70 years alive. "We believe that UNRWA needs to pass from the world as it is an organization that advocates politically against Israel and perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem," explained Elad Strohmayer, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Strohmayer also added that a refugee status is not something that can be passed through generations. But Foreign Policy points to a recently declassified State Department report that notes the UN High Commissioner for Refugees recognizes descendants of refugees as refugees for purposes of their operations, as evident by the fact that descendants of those who in the past fled Afghanistan, Somalia, Tibet, Bhutan, and Myanmar are recognized as refugees by the UN. According to estimates, of the 700,000 Palestinians defined as refugees, only a few tens of thousands are still alive. Jared Kushner (Photo: EPA) Two Republican Congressmen, Doug Lamborn and James Lankford, have proposed two separate bills that would either redirect US funds or limit them to only support the original refugees. Instead of resettling Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of the Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1948, UNRWA provides aid to those they define as Palestinian refugees until there is a solution they deem acceptable to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This policy does not help resettle the refugees from 1948 but instead maintains a refugee population in perpetuity, Lamborns bill states. The people that are suffering should still get assistance, but through appropriately defined humanitarian channels and aid programs, added Lamborns aide. Initially, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the US intelligence community opposed the administration's plans to end UNRWA funding, fearing an escalation of hostilities in the region as a result. However, the State Department eventually agreed to cut the first part of an overall yearly payment to UNRWA from $125 million to $60 million. Kushner addressed the situation in one of the e-mails. UNRWA has been threatening us for six months that if they dont get a check they will close schools. Nothing has happened, he claimed. Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert asserted the solution should be reforming the way UNRWA operates rather than halting the transfer of aid to refugees. According to Foreign Policy, a day after Nauertss statement, Jason Greenblats senior advisor Victoria Coates sent an email the White Houses national security staff, elaborating on the administrations plan to not only cut UNRWAs funds but shut down the agency altogether. UNRWA should come up with a plan to unwind itself and become part of the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) by the time its charter comes up again in 2019, she wrote. However, she stressed that this is only one of many spitball ideas that Ive had that are also informed by some thoughts Ive picked up from Jared, Jason and (US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley), and reforming the agency is still on the agenda. For instance, the agency ought to remove all anti-Semitism from educational materials, Coates wrote. IAF aircraft attacked two cells launching incendiary balloons toward Israel from Gaza on Saturday afternoon. So far, no injuries have been reported. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The first strike was in the northern part of the strip east of Jabalia, while the second cell was attacked two hours later in the southern part of the strip. Firefighters have battled two blazes in the Be'eri area on Saturday caused by incendiary balloons. (Photo: Moshe Filberg) Hamas's political leadership is expected to hold a second meeting in Gaza Saturday to discuss a long-term ceasefire arrangement with Israel, mediated by Egypt and UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov. The Hamas delegation is expected to stay in the strip on Saturday night before returning to Cairo on Sunday to issue an official response to the proposal. The delegation arrived in the strip on Thursday evening and took part in "March of Return" protests along the Gaza border on Friday. Among those who participated in the demonstrations were several high-profile figures, including Deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouriwho has not visited Gaza in yearsQatar-based Hamas spokesman Husan Badran, Hamas leaders Mousa Abu Marzouk and Izzat al-Rishq. Hamas leaders in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and his deputy Khalil al-Hayya were present as well. In addition, Maher Obeid, who replaced Saleh al-Arouri as the head of Hamas's 'West Bank Headquarters, and Musa Dodin, who is in charge of Hamas prisoners in Israel, also took part in the demonstrations. The protests turned violent in several locations, and a 25-year-old Palestinian man was killed in clashes east of Gaza City. Hamas leaders in Gaza Several Hamas members made impassioned speech during the protests, vowing never to surrender to Israel. "The people of Gaza, those who protect our nation ... We have come to walk among you, be with our people and our nation. We are proud to belong to this great nation," Badran said during a rally held east of Gaza City. The Palestinian people will never surrender or wave a white flag. Palestine, as we know it, is from the sea to the river. We want the blockade on Gaza to be lifted once and for all, and we will sacrifice everything necessary to protect our people." During his speech, Badran held a picture of the 17-year-old terrorist who stabbed to death Yotam Ovadia in the the settlement of Adam last week. So Cardoza recruited Timmy Rose, Shannon Benaitis and Miguel Rodriguez, three facilitators from Alternatives to Calling the Police (ACP), a Chicago-based collective that teaches workshops about de-escalation techniques to help yourself and others during a mental health crisis and other resources available in the city to use during a crisis that do not involve law enforcement, to teach a workshop on Saturday in Humboldt Park. The workshop is typically 3 hours long and covers scenario role play, skill-building and political dialogue surrounding mental health and police brutality in Chicago, Rose says. He has worked as a community organizer since 2015. His partner, Rodriguez, works as a Restorative Justice Practioner with Chicago high school students. Through their work, theyve noticed that police brutality disproportionately affects people with disabilities and minority communities, Rose says. The city provides some resources, but only if your conditions is registered or you're a documented citizen, and many people in Chicago who need these resources dont fit this bill. Turkey's president says the country will freeze the assets of two United States officials in retaliation for sanctions against Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor. Speaking in Ankara Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had been "patient" since the US Treasury sanctions Wednesday, but ordered authorities to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any." It is unclear who that would affect, due to differing Cabinet roles in the United States, or if they have any holdings in Turkey. Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed on Saturday that it had proposed cooperating with the United States on Syrian refugees and de-mining in a letter sent to the top US general in July, Interfax news agency reported. The proposals on refugees concerned a refugee camp in Rukban, Interfax reported. Over 90,000 Druze and others opposing the Nationality Law flooded Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for the "Rally for Equality." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Prominent Druze figuresamong them Sheikh Mowafak Tarif and Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asadformer senior defense officialsincluding former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi, former Mossad directors Tamir Pardo and Efraim HaLevy, and former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskinas well as politiciansincluding Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, MK Yair Lapid and former minister Matan Vilnaitook part in the rally. Druze religious leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif was the first to speak at the rally. "I'm not a political person, and I'm not used to making speeches at the city square, but I'm speaking here tonight as one whose love for the land the state is absolute and unequivocal. I came here to tell you simple truths that come from the heart. I do not seek popularity, and what guides me is the best interest of my country and my sector," Tarif began. (: ) "We're all proud of the democratic and free State of Israel, where human dignity and freedom are the supreme values. We've never doubted the Jewish identity of the state. We recognized its Jewish character with full equality for its non-Jewish citizens," he continued. "No one can teach us what sacrifice is, and no one can preach to us about loyalty and devotionthe military cemeteries are a testament to that. We are determined to fight alongside you for the state's character and the right to live in it with equality and dignity," the sheikh declared. "Despite our unconditional loyalty to the state, the state doesn't see us as equals," he lamented. "The cry of the Druze community is real. They feel justifiably that someone seeks to take their Israeliness away." "We identify with the state and the Declaration of Independence," Tarif stressed. "Last Independence Day, I lit a torch for coexistence, the alliance between the Jewish people and the Druze people, and for the glory of the State of Israel." Turning to the massive audience, he said, "I see the masses that came to show their solidarity, and it warms our hearts. I thank you on my behalf and on behalf of my Druze brothers. This is the beautiful Israel, ladies and gentlemen." Sheikh Mowafak Tarif (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Referring to the outline proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resolve the crisis, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai urged the Druze community, "do not fall into the honeytrap offered to you. This is another attempt to divide. To mark who is inside and who is outside, and everyone outside is the enemy." "I know how much courage and determination are required for you to be standing here. And still, keep fighting alongside us, so the nation state of the Jewish people continues being democratic and equal," the Tel Aviv mayor continued. (: ) Huldai went on to accuse that "What was so simple about the Declaration of Independence was intentionally left out of the Nationality Law, whichas part of an ongoing processexcludes the woman, the LGBT, the Reform, the Conservative, the Circassian, the Bedouin, the Arab, and yes, you too, our blood brothers the Druze." Former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin aimed his criticism at the government. "I'm not a member of the Druze community, so I'm allowed to be less politically correct," he prefaced. "I can't help but say a few words about the legislators who passed the law. I won't stoop to the level of personal insults or incitementas I and others have been experiencing in recent days from a mob of racist and violent internet commetersor to the mouthful of comments from the poodles sent to the PR front, while making lies meant entirely to increase the division and hatred among the people," Diskin charged. "The truth has to be said," he insisted. "I respect many people in the true ideological right wing, but I have no respect for the fake populist Right. True, ideological, courageous, liberal Rightthat loves the State of Israel and the people of Israelwas the Right led by the late Menachem Begin, who is certainly turning over in his grave after seeing what his successors in the Likud Party are doing." Former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Diskin asserted that "the Nationality Law was not passed to strengthen the State of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, it was meant to serve petty and pitiful political needs. This is a law that seeks to undermine the firm foundations built over decades, to divide, to increase the hatred among usall out of short-term thinking motivated by the upcoming elections." The Declaration of Independence, Diskin said, determines that "minorities in the State of Israel can also live in dignity, because it calls for full civil rights equality." The Nationality Law, he argued, "drops, and not by chancebut intentionallythe value of equality. And there is no mistake here, there is intention." Protesters gather in rabin Sq (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Former MK Shachiv Shnaan, who lost his son, Border Policeman Kamil Shnaan, in a terror attack on the Temple Mount, said that "on July 18, the Nationality Law made me realize I was a second-class citizen, and my son became a second-class fallen soldier." "I went to the Knesset and asked the legislators not to pass the law, not to sully the law book... it didn't help," Shnaan said. "With that in mind, I'll say: Before the law and after it, I was and I remain a proud Druze Israeli," he declared. Former MK Shachiv Shnaan (Photo: Motti Kimchi) "My heart goes out to the entire family of bereavement, regardless of gender, race or religion. We will carry on, with teary eyes and a bleeding heart, because life doesn't stop. And we will do everything to prevent more bereavement, and instead sow peace, hope, equality, love and a shared life. Long live the State of Israel, long lives the Druze community." "For 70 years, you've been fighting with us to protect the shared homeland. Now, you're being called to join and lead our fight to save our democracy," said former State Attorney Moshe Lador. "The Nationality Law determines different statuses, and our law book has been sullied. From a legal standpoint, there is no doubt the law in its own right will affect authorities and court rulings, including the High Court of Justice. For example, when there is a dispute between Jews and minorities on settling Jews in the country, there will be those who will claim the court should give preference (to Jews) in its rulings, because this is what the legislator ordered," Lador explained. Former State Attorney Moshe Lador (Photo: Motti Kimchi) He asserted that "there are no alternatives in the form of generous benefits in compensation for the anguish the Basic Law caused you, no alternative are enough to buy your willingness to perpetuate the humiliation in downgrading your status as proud citizens of this country. This law is unlawful in essence." During the Tel Aviv municipality building, which overlooks the square, was lit up in the colors of the Druze flag. (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad read out the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, adding, "After this rally, in which we joined hands and hearts, we'll have more years of shared life in the State of Israel in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. We're ready to have dialogue with any government official to resolve the issue for the future of our children." Ahead of the rally, Asad called on all Israelis to stand with the Druze. "We, senior army officers who served the country for decades and lost friends, soldiers and family, want to keep our 'Israeliness' and believe the Israeli government and its leader have the ability to do so in order to amend the Nationality Law," he said. Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Organizers erected a tent in the square, draped in the colorful Druze flag as well as the Israeli flag. Tables and chairs were set up for passersby to engage in dialogue regarding the problematic elements of the law. Jaber Habish, 35, an IDF officer in reserves and one of the organizers, said that the purpose of the tent is to raise awareness about the law. We will try to inform the entire nation that the struggle is not that of the Druze alone, said Habish. Anyone who feels Israeli and wants the state to continue to promote equality should come. We are the moderate voice of the nation and are in practice fighting on two fronts: in the IDF, and now (for equality)," he explained. Jaber Habish (Photo: Motti Kimchi) I and many young Druze are heavily involved in building the state. When I first heard of the law I felt unwanted, that I was being removed from the inner circle. Until now, I felt like an Israeli, a partner of the Jews, and suddenly my partner says I am an outsider, Habish added. Rabin Sq. Tel Aviv (Photo: Motti Kimchi ) The Nationality Law forgot me, denied me rights and now I dont feel like an equal, he continued. The Druze street is crying out and we will fight for our well deserved rights until the end. The state is heading towards a divide and we want to be the right marker in the struggle for equality. (Photo: Motti Kimchi) On Saturday afternoon, some 2,000 people took part in protests against the law in Arab cities and towns. Among others, protests took place in Umm al-Fahm, Ar'ara, Tira, Sakhnin, Kafr Kanna, Rahat, Baqa al-Gharbiyye and Majd al-Krum. Protesters called to cancel the law and threatened to take further steps against it. "All non-Jewish citizens aspire to coexistence and want to live together in peace," said Tayibe Mayor Shuaa Mansour Massarwa. "This government is becoming more and more extremist in a worrying manner and trying to banish us from our lands." Ali Badran, a resident of Wadi Ara, told Ynet he was disappointed of the sparse participation in the protests. "We won't be able to cancel the racist law this way. A considerable part of the Arab population is simply not interested in what's going on, and we have to think of new ways to help us save the situation," he said. The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, which organized the protests, will make its way from Kafr Qara to the government buildings in Jerusalem in a convoy on Wednesday. (Photo: Motti Kimchi ) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly ended a meeting on the Nationality Law with Druze leaders on Thursday after one of them, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad, called Israel an "apartheid state" in a Facebook post. Netanyahu said he would not tolerate such an offense both to the prime minister Israel and to the State of Israel itself. Some Druze mayors refused to attend the meeting. Asad accused Netanyahu of planning the incident. "He had no intention of listening us, the officers who have a position contradictory to his own," Asad claimed. "He planned to come and take photos with the dignitaries, and say he's establishing committees. We came to present our positions." Elsewhere, during a scholarship ceremony for Druze students at the ORT Braude College of Engineering, several Druze activists against the Nationality Law ran onto the stage and interrupted remarks by Likud MK Avi Dichter, one of the legislation's sponsors. The protesting activists were led by Dr. Amir Hanifes, who represented the Druze community in the Knesset discussions on the law. Another activist called Dichter "racist" and "Nazi." Police officers who were called to the scene removed the two protesters from the ceremony. A fake WhatsApp conversation made the rounds on social media on Saturday allegedly showing Labor Party activists coordinating the protest against the Nationality Law with Druze leaders. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The fake screenshot was first posted on a Likud Party activist's Facebook account and quickly spread through social media, leading to online clashes between supporters of the two parties. The exchange of messages shows two "Labor activists" discussing how Druze leaders rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposed outline for a solution to the crisis after coordinating it with the Labor Party. Druze protesters at Rabin Square (Photo: Motti Kimchi) "What more can you ask for? The Druze are delivering the goods," writes "Avi Yaron," allegedly an activist from Labor's Central District. "You think they won't give up?" asks "Kremer." But Yaton says he met with Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad , one of the leaders of the protest, at a cafe the day before and arranged everything with him. "There's no agreement (to the outline) and there won't be an agreement," Yaron insists. "You're the best, history books will note that we came back into power at the expense of the Druze!" Kremer compliments and asks, "Is Amal getting a spot on the (Labor Knesset) list? Will Avi (Gabbay) agree?" implying the Druze protest leaders agreed to remain intransigent in return for political jobs in the future. Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad (Photo: Motti Kimchi) A check of the Labor Party's activists list found no one named Kremer or Avi Yaron, and the party was quick to stress the conversation is fake. A message being disseminated by Labor activists on social media on Saturday afternoon said: "A Likud party employee is spreading a WhatsApp correspondence attributed to Labor Party members. This correspondence is all fake, 100 percent fake. Every name, every letter and message here are simply not real. These are the kind of things coming out of the hatred machine on Balfour Street (where the prime minister's residence is located) to undermine the protest tonight." The fake WhatsApp chat "We will take action with law enforcement authorities to investigate those who spread this fake (correspondence). In any case, the answer to Bibi's fake news is to simply spread the truth, and coming to Rabin Square tonight at 8:30pm," the message concluded, using the prime minister's nickname. Labor leader Avi Gabby slammed the prime minister, saying "The frightening Balfour spirits are manifested in the fake WhatsApp messages the Likud has been disseminating since this morning. These are evil spirits, dangerous, which erode the steadfastness of our society and tear it to shreds. All is fair on the way to the polls and in an effort to get out of the investigations." "We will replace us, fix all you have destroyed, and turn the Declaration of Independence into the constitution of the State of Israelthe nation state of the Jewish people with full equal rights to all," he vowed. The Likud Party has yet to comment on the story. Romanian police have launched an investigation Saturday after anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on the house of late Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in northwest Romania. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Comments in bright pink paint were scrawled overnight Friday on Wiesel's small housea protected historical monument used as a museumin the town of Sighetu Marmatiei. One of the comments called Wiesel a "Jew Nazi" who was "in hell with Hitler," another dubbed the house as "Public toilets of an anti-Semitic pedophile," and a third said Wiesel was "f***ing Merkel, Trump and Putin." The Romanian group for Monitoring and Fighting Anti-Semitism called it an act of vandalism against the "memory of Elie Wiesel, the memory of the Holocaust victims and the souls of the Holocaust survivors." The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania called for a thorough inquiry. It said Romania's president and government have pledged to fight anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in Romania, where some have denied or downplayed the country's role in the Holocaust. Along with 14,000 Jews, Wiesel and his family were deported in May 1944 to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz from the town, formerly called Sighet. His mother and younger sister died there while he and his two older sisters survived. Wiesel died in 2016. His classic book "Night" drew on his experiences in the death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, becoming a testament to Nazi crimes. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Romania deported 150,000 Jews and 25,000 Roma to Nazi concentration camps in a part of the Soviet Union that was controlled by the Axis powers from 1942 to 1944, when the country was run by pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu. Romania has about 19.5 million people now, including about 6,000 Jews. The Standard and Poor's (S&P) credit rating agency announced Saturday that it has upgraded Israel's credit rating from A+ to -AA, the highest rating Israel has ever had. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The raised rating is a very significant achievement for the Israeli economy and indicates confidence in the ability of the economy to grow and the government's ability to maintain a responsible fiscal policy. On the practical level, it will allow the government to raise funds under better terms. Raising the rating to AA-minus puts Israel among a relatively small list of countries in the AA-rated family, and places it above countries such as China, Japan and Chile. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Karnit Flug Bank of Israel Governor (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Motti Kimchi) Currently, there are 17 countries that share the prestigious AA rating: along with Israel there are six countries with a AA rating (including the Czech Republic and Qatar), seven countries with the higher AA rating (including Belgium, Britain and Kuwait) and four countries with AA+ (including the US and Finland). Only 11 countries worldwide rank AAA, including Switzerland, Australia, and Norway. Credit rating agencies put an emphasis on the ratio between Israeli government debt and the gross domestic product (GDP), which has been declining in recent years due to higher-than-expected tax collection and the stability of government institutions, as well as fiscal and monetary policies. 3.3% average growth in coming years The rating agency estimates that the Israeli economy will grow by an average of 3.3% between 2018 and 2021, with growth coming from private consumption, continued investment by corporations, and strong performance in the field of services exports. S&P analysts noted the success of the government, despite internal coalition differences, to pass the 2017-2018 budget as well as that for 2019, and more importantly, its success in maintaining fiscal discipline. This success is largely the result of the law that prevents politicians from committing to programs without having a budget source. Illustration (: AP) The agency also considered the multi-year agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense (signed between Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and previous Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon), whose future is already in doubt due to new Minister Avigdor Lieberman's demands for additional funds, Kahlon's efforts to promote a civil defense program without cooperating with Lieberman, and the failure to include the budgetary pensions of career soldiers in the agreement. Like other rating agencies, S&P also expressed doubt regarding the current government's ability to deal with complex issues that require long-term care, such as excess bureaucracy, a severe shortage of infrastructure and the integration of the Haredi and Arab populations into the labor market. They also noted that the government's structure may also limit its ability to cope with challenges in the housing market. Housing prices are listed as one of the primary challenges facing the Israeli economy. S&P further noted that the geopolitical security situation, although still tenuous, has moderated slightly. The rating agency noted that a weakening of economic or fiscal performance, as well as a significant escalation in the security situation, could harm Israel's credit rating. At the same time, the likelihood of raising the rating in light of further improvement in performance is currently low. The report also noted that the likelihood of a significant fiscal weakening has diminished in light of the strong economic growth that is supposed to compensate for some of the tax cuts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the S&Ps decision to raise Israel's credit rating: "The decision by Standard & Poor's to raise Israel's credit rating joins a similar decision by Moody's. These decisions reflect the strength of the Israeli economy and the correct and responsible economic policy that we are leading on behalf of Israel's citizens." Last month, Moody's upgraded Israels credit rating outlook to "positive" and reaffirmed it at A1, after the company's representatives visited Israel last June. The positive outlook means that the credit rating is not expected to decrease this year, but if the rating does not rise, the forecast will be changed to "stable." Finance Minister Kahlon also expressed satisfaction with the positive development: "In the past three years, the Israeli economy has soared to the best macro data in its history. The confidence expressed by the strongest economic bodies in the world allows us to continue to grow the economy and to help reduce social gaps and strengthen the middle class and weaker sectors. The increased rating of -AA will save us billions of shekels in financing expenses, which we will redirect to the health, education and welfare ministries." Tens of thousands attended the protest in Rabin Square Saturday night to call for the annulment or change of the Nationality Law, but one prominent Druze, Brig. Gen. Imad Fares, thinks that the prime minister's proposal to resolve the crisis should be accepted. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "We have to know when to stop tugging the rope. We do not want to tear the connection, we want to strengthen it," he told Ynet. "I have nothing against the demonstration, I am in favor of the demonstration," Fares stressed, but called to accept an outline proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for legislation to enshrine the Druze community's status into law. Brig. Gen. Imad Fares (Photo: Tal Shahar) "All the efforts that have been made have led to an opportunity that we can take advantage of and not lose, namely to accept the prime minister's proposal and to bring about an historic opportunity for equality for the Druze community in Israel," he said. According to Fares, Netanyahu's proposal is "an unprecedented opportunity for achieving equality and a better future for Druze youth in the State of Israel. Our connection to the State of Israel is a strong and solid connection, out of conviction and not out of narrow changing interests. We do not want to sever the bond, we want to strengthen it. We have demonstrated, we have fought for equality, but we do not want to bear all the problems of Israeli society on our narrow shoulders. We wish to take care of our sect, which is our priority. Druze protest at Rabin Sq. (Photo: Motti Kimchi) "It is important for me to say that I expect the leadership in the State of Israel to truly utilize the situation and to place the Druze community where it is supposed to be, as an equal among equals, a sect that has given everything and will continue to give for the security of the state, with faith in its symbols and laws," Fares added. When asked for his opinion on the Nationality Law itself, Brig. Gen. Fares avoided the question, saying he "is in favor of equality for the community of which I am a member, a community which has dedicated its whole life for years, without reward, with the understanding and belief that this is the right country to live in, to believe in its symbols and Basic Law and to do everything in order to live as equal Israeli citizens, among the Jewish people. This is my personal opinion, I am not party to any movement. (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, one of the speakers at the Rabin Square protest, called on the Druze not to accept Netanyahu's offer: "My Druze friends, do not fall into the honey trap that was offered to you, this is another attempt to divide and separate. To mark who is in and who is out, and those who are out are the enemy. I know how much courage and determination you need to stand here and yet (I call on you) continue to fight with us so that the nation-state of the Jewish people will continue to be democratic and egalitarian." Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - The owner of an Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division Authorized Third Party title and registration company recently admitted in court to inputting false information to bypass emissions testing for customers. Sandra Steele was the owner of Desert Title Service, a third-party company authorized by ADOT to conduct title and registration transactions. Investigators say between June 2012 and August 2015, Steele issued vehicle registrations for 30 different trucks belonging to a Tempe company without the proper emissions testing. Additionally, evidence revealed Steele had issued registrations for several private citizens, without proper emissions testing. On Tuesday morning, Steele pled guilty to one count of Forgery and to one count of Fraudulent Schemes and Practices. As part of the settlement, Steele was required to sell her business and pay a $5,000 fine to ADOT. Everyone is expected to play by the rules, especially individuals entrusted to provide a service on behalf of the government, said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. There has to be consequences if you violate the publics trust or cheat the system. The Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division is pleased that justice has been served in this case, said MVD Director Eric Jorgensen. Arizona taxpayers expect quality service not only from government agencies, but also the contractors who are equally responsible for maintaining the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. This court action sends the message that compromising those standards has serious consequences. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is warning consumers and businesses about government imposter scams that are continuing to make the rounds in Arizona. Recently, the Attorney Generals Office has seen an uptick in consumer complaints about scammers pretending to be from the Social Security Administration. Government imposter scams have many different angles but typically involve a phone call, email, text message, or letter from someone claiming to be from a government agency. The scam artist states you owe the government money, will be arrested, or stand to lose government benefits or services. In order to rectify the situation, you must send money, buy and send gift cards, and/or provide personal information like your Social Security Number. In another variation of the scam, the government imposter states you have won money, or you are entitled to money from the government but need to pay a fee. These con artists may also tell you they are from the IRS or the Social Security Administration, that youve failed to report for jury duty, or that you are eligible for government grant money. "It sickens me that these scammers use scare tactics to rip off some of the most vulnerable members of our community, said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Arizonans need to remember legitimate government offices will not threaten you or demand that you pay a debt immediately. Government imposters use a variety of tactics to intimidate victims into providing money or personal information. They may use official-sounding names; start a phone call by providing a badge number or identification number; or use a spoofed phone number to make the call look like it comes from your local area or Washington, D.C. (when in fact, the phone number may be coming from out of the country). They may even mention personal information about the victim to make the call seem more legitimate. Con artists will typically demand that the victim take action right away to avoid being arrested or sued. Attorney General Mark Brnovich offers these tips: Do not give out or confirm personal or financial information unless you know who you are dealing with. Legitimate government offices will not threaten you with imprisonment or demand that you pay a debt immediately. Hang up the phone if you are being harassed. If you question the legitimacy of the call, email, or other correspondence, contact the agency directly using the information you find on the agencys website. Do not use numbers or website addresses provided in the original communication, as these may be fake. Do not wire funds or purchase and send a prepaid card (i.e., iTunes, Amazon, Green Dot, etc.) in response to a telephone call demanding immediate payment. Look closely at literature you receive claiming to be from a government agency and read the fine print. Many times these solicitations will look like they are from the government, but the small print may disclose that the sender is not the government agency they claim to be. If someone comes to your house posing as a government employee, ask to see credentials. If you believe you are a victim of consumer fraud, you can file a complaint with the Arizona Attorney Generals Office at www.azag.gov/complaints/consumer. You can also contact the Consumer Information and Complaints Unit in Phoenix at (602) 542-5763; in Tucson at (520) 628-6648; and outside of the metro Phoenix area at (800) 352-8431. At the moment, Odom - who won the Tony as best actor in a musical for his portrayal of Aaron Burr - is probably most visible as the suave-looking, mellow-voiced crooner of the "Nationwide" insurance jingle in TV ads. On screen, look for him among the featured cast in "One Dollar," a thriller that begins streaming Aug. 30 on CBS All Access, and this summer, he has been filming writer-director John Ridley's sci-fi film "Needle in a Timestack" with Freida Pinto, Orlando Bloom and Cynthia Erivo. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced the filing of a consumer fraud lawsuit against Texas-based travel company EB Worldwide, LLC, and its CEO, George Barragan. The lawsuit alleges EB Worldwide charged a group of Cienega High School students more than $34,000 for a senior class trip to Disneyland, and then failed to provide the trip or refund the students money. According to the consumer fraud lawsuit, EB Worldwide, which also operates under the names Senior Grad Trips and Exhibit Tours, allegedly advertised and sold a group vacation package to more than 65 seniors at Cienega High School in 2016 and 2017. The vacation package included bus travel to Anaheim, CA, hotel accommodations, and admission to Disneyland and Universal Studios. The State alleges that EB Worldwide failed to schedule any buses, leaving the young travelers and their chaperones stranded in a parking lot on the scheduled departure date in May 2017 without explanation. According to the lawsuit, several days after the unexplained failure to provide services, EB Worldwide agreed to work with the parents of the students to find a resolution, but more than a year later, EB Worldwide has failed to provide any refunds. The States lawsuit seeks consumer restitution, injunctive relief, attorneys fees, and a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - In a letter sent Thursday, Governor Doug Ducey called on the Board of Dental Examiners (Board) to adopt a new, innovative partnership with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) to increase accountability, protect public safety and ensure prompt and thorough investigations of all complaints. State law allows for the board to contract with other state or federal agencies as required to carry out the purposes of this chapter. Under the new organizational structure the Board would contract with ADHS for executive director services. While the Board will continue to operate independently, it will receive the benefits of ADHSs health expertise and experience in occupational licensing. Its clear to me the Board of Dental Examiners would benefit from experienced leadership in matters of public health, said Governor Doug Ducey. With the executive director position currently vacant, the Board has an opportunity restore the publics confidence in the Boards abilities, to strengthen public safety, and better serve Arizonans by leveraging state government resources. This directive follows media reports that the Board did not take action following multiple warnings about a dentists credentials dating back to 2014. On July 9, 2018, the Governor demanded records and answers for the Boards inaction. On July 12, 2018, the dentist was arrested and charged with three felonies, including fraud and forgery. The Board held an emergency meeting on July 16, 2018, and voted to re-investigate the dentists credentials and freeze his anesthesia permit, and the executive director of the Board submitted a retirement notice. Following reports that the dentist continues to advertise for anesthesia services, and continues to practice dentistry, on August 1, 2018, the Governor called on the Boards to take any and all action up to and including revoking the dentists license to protect the public. The Board operates independently and consists of 11 members, including six dentists, two dental hygienists and three public members. Each member is appointed to serve a term of four years, with staggered appointment dates. ADHS is responsible for leading Arizonas public health system including responding to disease outbreaks, licensing health and childcare facilities, operating the Arizona State Hospital and improving the overall health and wellness of all Arizonans. Latest News Singapore Expo - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo Remarks at the U.S.-ASEAN Ministerial: SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Minister. Its an honor to co-chair this ministerial meeting with you. Its my first meeting as well. Im delighted to participate in this first engagement here with U.S.-ASEAN, and its great to be back in Singapore. I would like to thank you, Foreign Minister Balakrishnan, for Singapores warm welcome, both here and back in June, and for its leadership as this years ASEAN chair. On behalf of the United States, let me also offer my condolences to the people of Laos for the loss of life and devastation caused by the dam breach. The U.S. Government is providing assistance to respond to this disaster, and we welcome the support already provided by the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Center. I would also like to express my condolences to Indonesia, where a powerful earthquake struck; and to Myanmar, for the casualties suffered in recent flooding and landslides. The United States is a Pacific nation, and we remain committed to ASEAN centrality under our Indo-Pacific strategy. Earlier this week, on Monday, I gave remarks on the Indo-Pacific and announced new United States commitments to the region. This included a $113 million down payment on a new era in U.S. economic commitment to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. Last year, we celebrated ASEANs 50th anniversary, as well as 40 years of U.S.-ASEAN relations. We look forward to broadening and deepening our Strategic Partnership. Over the first year and a half of this administration, President Trump attended his first U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in Manila; Vice President Pence visited the ASEAN Secretariat; and numerous cabinet secretaries traveled to the region, including my own recent travel to Vietnam. I expect and am eager for this frequent engagement to continue. Our economic engagement has created hundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides of the Pacific. ASEAN is the number one destination for U.S. investment in Asia and ASEAN member-states have increased their investment into the United States by over 1,300 percent between 2004 and 2016. Our policy cooperation on issues like ICT, energy, transportation, and agriculture is also developing rapidly. On security, we appreciate ASEANs ongoing efforts to promote peace and stability in the region, support the rule of law in the South China Sea, and to strictly enforce sanctions on North Korea. We are also working with ASEAN member-states to counter the threat of terrorism and violent extremism in the region. In terms of ASEANs socio-cultural issues, we are building capacity among ASEANs youth, building opportunities for women, and working to improve disaster response and promote a healthy marine ecosystem. Our cooperation to jointly address cybersecurity challenges has also expanded, and we appreciated ASEANs leaders first-ever cyber statement in April. Again, Mr. Minister, ASEAN colleagues, its a great pleasure to be with you here today. I look forward to our discussions and to hearing your thoughts on how the United States and ASEAN can strengthen our ties. Thank you, Mr. Minister. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - In August 2018, the Yuma Main Library, in collaboration with Vanessa Castillo, will host a Summer Business Series at the Main Library. Aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, and students are invited to attend workshops focusing on marketing and social media. Vanessa Castillo, local small business consultant and digital marketing expert, will present Facebook Ads & Analytics on Thursday, August 16th, from 3:00 5:00 p.m. in Meeting Room A. Learn how to create Facebook ads for different purposes and how to read analytics to better understand your online performance. Future Summer Business Series workshops include: Thursday, August 23rd 3:00-5:00 p.m. Email Marketing & Blogging Join us for an overview of email marketing and learn how to incorporate blogging into your marketing strategy. There is no charge to attend; however, registration is required. Call (928) 373-6480 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to register. The Main Library is located at 2951 S 21st Drive. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - The Yuma Main Library, in collaboration with AARP, will host Social Security & Medicare on Saturday, August 18th, at 10:00 a.m. There is no charge to attend. Karl Koenig, a trained volunteer with Arizonas Community Educators Program, coordinated through the Arizona AARP State Office, will discuss the following topics: How and when to start retirement benefits Other benefits offered by Social Security Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage How Parts A, B, and D work with each Medicare option Changes for 2018 The Main Library is located at 2951 S 21st Drive. For more information, call (928) 782-1871. -Moesha Buoduong took to Instagram to congratulate Chante Pokua after the latter got married - Instagram users are trolling Moesha Buoduong for wishing Chante Pokua good luck -Some Instagram users came to Moesha Buoduong defense Since Moesha Buduongs interview with the BBC which she claimed that the easiest way for a woman in Ghana to have a better life is by dating rich old men she has become an enemy to many people. This time Moeshas has done nothing wrong but she is been trolled by Instagram users for just wishing a friend well. On Friday, the actress took to her Instagram page to wish award winning TV producer, Chante Pokua, a happy marriage. 'When are you getting married' - Instagram users asks Moesha Buoduong READ ALSO: Photos of pretty 'bofrot' seller warms hearts on social media Her post read, Congratulations my love. May your marriage be full of love always @chante_asante. God bless you home. Indeed the post was harmless but some fans leveraged on that to tear her apart whiles others came to her defense. Iluminati, dropped the first comment asking Moesha when will she marry. READ ALSO: Tracy and Titi Sarkcess look beautiful together in latest photo Iluminati_agent1: When will you marry. Aggrey supported Iluminatis statement. Aggreyadoma: Wen is urs so that we will congratulate you too. But Malpy somehow came to Moeshas rescue. Malpy: Yall should leave her the fxxxxk alone wai. With your negative comments. All those commenting, are your married.? Moesha was recently in the news after donating education materials to Temu M/A school in Kasoa. READ ALSO: Nadia Buari causes traffic with her bedroom on the internet Ghana News 2018: John Mahamas Salary - Why Everyone Discusses It Now? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen News - The doctor is now facing the courts after being charged with murder - The suspicion has always existed that Moesha's body has been operated although she has denied in the past The owner and manager of Advanced Body Sculpt, Dr Dominic Obeng-Andoh is a man in trouble. He is currently facing the law on account of a charge of murder of the former deputy chief executive officer for the National Entrepreneurship Innovation Programme (NEIP). The late deputy CEO, Stacey Offei-Darko sadly passed away leaving behind her toddler daughter. That is a child she allegedly had with Asssin Central member of parliament, Kennedy Agyapong. But now that Dr Obeng-Andoh, popularly known as Obengfo, is in trouble, a lot of secrets about some of his more famous clients are being revealed. READ ALSO: Nana Ama McBrown and other actresses who can challenge Genevieve Nnaji The suspicion has always existed that Moesha's body has been under the surgical knife. Photo credit: Supplied According to mynewsgh.com, a radio presenter on Okay FM, Abena Moet confirmed that Moesha was a patient of the doctor. Moet is a reportedly a good friend of Moesha and knew of the attention Moesha sought from the doctor. It was also revealed in leaked chats from the phone of Dr Obengfo conversations with many Ghanaian women including celebrities. All of the women were asking the doctor to give them the curvaceous body he had been advertising. READ ALSO: Photos of pretty 'bofrot' seller warms hearts on social media YEN.com.gh is in poseesion of some of the leaked chats from Obengfo's conversations. We are investigating to find out the specific celebrities who were communicating with the doctor. Watch: Ghana News 2018: John Mahamas Salary - Why Everyone Discusses It Now? | Yen.com.gh Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook page. Source: Yen.com.gh "Weeknd-typo vs. Weekend of the Vampire variety": I was saddled with the latter -- evidence that vampire culture has gone soft (also thanks to the "Twilight" series). "This is our first time playing an American festival in about four years," said Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig, before the band's sound went out for about two minutes during "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"-- after it had chosen to play breakthrough single "A-Punk" three times for a crowd that didn't care either way. Sometimes I think Vampire Weekend is responsible for the negative connotation around "hipster." The sound going out after nine minutes of "A-Punk" was karma. But the once preppy band of Columbia University kids -- in polos and chinos -- has mellowed out, musically and aesthetically. Its East Coast yacht-shtick is gone -- wait, I lost my train of thought: Koenig and co. just samba-grooved into Chicago's "Saturday" in honor of "Obama Day" in the city. What's the Weeknd doing? "Sucks we have to play against The Weeknd," Koenig whined, again interrupting my train of thought. "We'd go see that guy. You can't have Weeknd vs. Weekend." There we agree. I guess the band's set of greatest hits is what's preferred when playing truncated festival sets, and Vampire Weekend got away with it because it's made up of technically sound players. But AS A HEADLINER? Weeknd or no Weeknd, no way. When St. Vincent, who has released new headline spot-worthy music and has a back-catalog deep enough to flesh out a killer closing set, has to play the same stage before them and was actually captivating? I'm not buying it. (Jessi Roti) Ghanaian Rapper, Samuel Adu Frimpong, widely known as Medikal surprised six of his social media fans by shopping and taking them out for lunch. According to Adomonline.com report, that the rapper earlier on promised to become an Uber driver for some of his fans and he has indeed fulfilled just that. The rapper captured with one of his female fans (Photo credit: Facebook/Medikal READ ALSO: Akufo-Addos bodyguard caught on camera 'beating' an old man (Video) Medikal who has honored his promise has been spotted in a viral video spoiling two of his loyal fans at Achimota Mall. The gesture shown by the rapper has warmed the hearts of many of his fans and has since got some social media users talking. In a Facebook video, the Sowutuom-based rapper was captured in a convoy driving six of his excited fans out and asked them to shop all they can, with him taking care of the their bills. Although the rapper indeed wanted to give his two fans some special treat, his gesture has sharply divided his social media fans with some firing shots at him. READ ALSO: Another top NDC man 'dumps' John Mahama ahead of 2020 election Some are arguing that the rapper should have rather supported them financially to start a business, instead of driving them around and blowing the cash with them on frivolous things. Meanwhile, the rapper has since gone silent after releasing the viral video on his various social media platforms. Video source: Facebook/Medikal READ ALSO: Mahama appointed me but I'm fully aware he is incompetent Top NDC man Ghana News 2018: John Mahamas Salary - Why Everyone Discusses It Now? | Yen.com.gh Yen.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen.com.gh - A graduate by name Oscar Akunor Dei has presented a gift to Dr. Frimpong-Baoteng for saving his life when he was just one year old - He was one of the children who were saved at the Cardiothoracic Centre at Korle-Bu in 1990 - Oscar and his parents have expressed sincere gratitude to the surgeon for saving his life Oscar Akunor Dei, a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has called on Professor Frimpong-Boateng with a thank you note and gift. Oscar was one of the children who were saved at the Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital when the centre was set up. The surgery was performed free of charge by Dr. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng who is currently the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation. Oscar Dei in the company of his parents presenting a gift to Professor Frimpong-Boateng. Photo credit: Graphic.com.gh READ ALSO: Woman beaten by police takes delivery of two bedroom house from Midland This is contained in a report sighted by YEN.com.gh on Graphic.com.gh. Oscar Dei, who was only a year old when he suffered a congenital heart disease, commonly known as hole in heart has thus returned to thank the surgeon for saving his life. He now holds a Bachelors Degree in Biological Sciences from KNUST. Oscar, in the company of his parents, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oforikrom in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Dr Emmanuel Marfo, were at Prof. Frimpong-Boateng offices in Accra to express his appreciation. What brought me here today is basically to come and see the man through whom I would say God saved my life when I was a baby; I actually knew nothing. It is a great pleasure. I am really glad today to see you and be able to say thank you for the service you rendered. I am here just to thank you. We really appreciate what you did for us, an emotional Oscar said. READ ALSO: Fans disappointed in Becca for her worsening complexion in latest video Mr Dei who is now a Research Assistant at the Physiology Department, School of Medical Sciences at KNUST, also expressed joy for meeting Prof. Frimpong-Boateng for the first time. According to Oscars mother, Mrs Gladys Asiedua Dei, her son was diagnosed of the disease when Prof. Frimpong-Boateng had just returned from Germany to establish the National Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and he didnt even have an office. Oscars father, Mr Joshua Kingsley Dei, added: People learn abroad and stay there forever but he made himself available to be of help to his country. He has been able to save lots of souls through that decision he made. We thank him so much, and may God bless him. READ ALSO: Tracy flaunts her wedding ring in latest photo Mr Dei further explained that two months prior to his sons diagnosis, someone had the same condition and died but my son is alive today by the grace of God through Prof. We are so much grateful. For his part, the MP, who also facilitated the meeting, called on health workers to put in their best efforts to save lives at all times. Although government hospitals or facilities may not be adequate, we should do our best to save lives so that in future when you see somebody that you worked hard to save through the grace of God, you will be happy that you did something good for humanity, he said. READ ALSO: Nadia Buari causes traffic with her bedroom on the internet Ghana News 2018: John Mahamas Salary - Why Everyone Discusses It Now? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Nana Ama McBrown releases hot photo with her husband Maxwell Mensah Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page Source: Yen - A Nigerian monarch has declared himself richer than Africa's richest man - The declaration from the Oluwo of Iwo stems from the fact Dangote is part of his subjects and part of his assets The Oluwo of Iwo land, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi has publicly declared he is richer than Africa's richest person, Aliko Dangote. The King made this known as he took to his Instagram page to enumerate his assets which includes one of Dangote himself. His Imperial Majesty Telu I made it clear to all who wish to know that no one is richer than the king, even the richest of his children. Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote (Photo source: Supplied) He shared a picture of him seated on the throne in his post which he titles, My Asset - Oluwo. READ ALSO: Latest hot video of the SHS leaver in viral 'adult' video with 3 guys shows she's a very wild girl "Unlike the Yoruba adage Erin ki fon, ki omo re tun fon. (Asipa owe ni) As required of a responsible, passionate and compassionate father for his subjects, I pray that they (subjects) should be greater than me. The strength of my asset is measured by the greatness of my children. kings are fathers to all, of which their greatness is my glory. I want to tell you that no one is richer than the king. You are all part of my assets. If the richest one is my child. Whose asset is he carrying? Even, Dangote is my asset, I am richer than him. It is a generational curse for me to claim I am wiser than my children in the 21st century. I am wiser than my father and my children will be wiser than me. Solomon never saw airplane, I saw it. My children may grow to use flying vehicles. And all things of today will be outdated one day. That is life. I pray all my subjects should be wiser and successful than me. OLUWO OF IWOLAND, HIM OBA (DR.) ABDULROSHEED ADEWALE AKANBI, ALASE LORI ORISA, AROLE ELEDUMARE. TELU I" READ ALSO: Where did you pass? - Fan says Nana Aba Anamoah is not beautiful after seeing photos of her younger sister The monarch, however, reiterated that it is a curse for him to claim to be more than his children so in that regard, he prays that all his subjects are wiser and more successful than him. READ ALSO: Obinim drops list of wealthy Ghanaians whose riches are from God (Video) Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian business magnate, investor, and owner of the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities in Nigeria and other African countries. As of March 2018, he had an estimated net worth of US$14.1 billion and was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 100th-richest person in the world and the richest in Africa. He placed 23rd in the Forbes ranking in 2014. Ghana News 2018: John Mahamas Salary - Why Is Everyone Talking About It? | Yen.com.gh: READ ALSO: Fans mock Patapaa over his 'size bum camboo' in photo with his MCE Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now! Source: Yen.com.gh Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4) Jeane Catherine Napoles, the daughter of alleged pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim Napoles, has returned to the country, the Justice Department confirmed Saturday. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevara said the younger Napoles flew back from Bali, Indonesia on Friday, the same day the Department of Justice announced her departure on July 27 based on immigration records. Bureau of Immigration records confirm that Jeane Catherine Napoles returned yesterday from Denpasar, Indonesia, Guevarra said. Her departure became controversial as the United States on Tuesday announced that its federal grand jury indicted her and five relatives, including her mother, for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and domestic and international money laundering. Guevarra said that the Department of Justice will await further action from U.S. prosecutors. But we are ready to extend our legal assistance and cooperation under our mutual legal assistance agreement and extradition treaty, the Justice Secretary said. READ: Napoles, 5 kin indicted for money laundering in the U.S. Lawyer Ian Encarnacion said Napoles returned to Manila at 3:35 a.m. on Friday. "I personally fetched her at the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport)," Encarnacion said. Her lawyer said she will face all the cases against her, both here and abroad. "We maintain our client's innocence, and we look forward to having these cases dismissed," he added. Jeane Catherine Napoles was heavily criticized in 2014 for flaunting her lifestyle in social media. These included, among others, owning a $2-million condo unit in Los Angeles, plus other expensive real estate, a couple of Porsches, and her infamous no-spending-limit shopping habits. Meanwhile, Janet Lim Napoles is currently detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig. She faces several plunder and graft charges before Sandiganbayan divisions for alleged involvement in a P10-billion pork barrel scam. The English language is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people around the world but we dont all speak it exactly the same way, even within the same country. Put someone from Louisiana together with someone from Massachusetts, for instance, and they might not understand one another. That's because American English is so diverse. Accents and pronunciations vary between regions. For example, it's easy to tell you're from the South if you pronounce "caramel" with three syllables. Different states also have their own unique slang words that describe things that don't exist elsewhere or that come from languages spoken by people who settled there. Other English terms have spread across entire regions, dividing the country into sections based on different words people use for the same object and things can get heated when people argue that their region's term is superior. Whether you call it a "sofa" or a "couch," here are 26 word variations that are a dead giveaway of where you're from. (This story originally appeared on The Active Times .) The first occurred about 7:15 a.m. in the 1400 block of West Webster Avenue in the Sheffield Neighbors neighborhood, said Officer Norma Pelayo, a spokeswoman for Chicago police. A 29-year-old man was in his parked car when another man, described as being in his early 20s, came up from behind and threatened him with what he believed to be a gun, Pelayo said. The victim got out of his car, and the carjacker got in and drove away, police said. Traces of the Mecca Flats apartments, once central to black Chicago, resurfaced last month, however, when a crew at IIT unearthed remnants of the buildings basement during construction at Crown Hall. The university has opted to preserve and permanently showcase some of the found artifacts at Crown Hall. This month, on Tuesday, the architecture school will also host a public viewing for the unearthed artifacts, featuring panel discussions with historians and urban archaeologists. New photographs taken of the items found, including vibrant floor tile and brick, are the first color images of Mecca Flats to ever be published, experts said. A man working security, checking IDs outside Christinas Place, said he was also friends with the man whod been shot and saw him walking toward him west on Grace, from the north end of the alley. The security guard met his friend down the block, learned hed been shot and told him to sit down, he said. Then they waited together for the ambulance. Security researchers argued that Facebook should have been able to move much faster because there were clear signs that the accounts were part of a coordinated campaign. One of the accounts, called "Resisters" on Facebook and Twitter, billed itself on both platforms as a feminist page that emphasized themes of gender equality and female empowerment with a clear opposition to President Donald Trump's agenda. Another Twitter account, @Warriors_Aztlan, tweeted regularly about the oppression of Native Americans and indigenous people. So too did the Facebook page "Aztlan Warriors," and both referenced Aztec culture and imagery related to anti-colonial struggles. In this July 9, 2018 file photo, Harvey Weinstein attends his arraignment in court, in New York. Weinstein's lawyers want a New York court to throw out sexual assault charges against him. Lawyers for the former movie titan-turned-#MeToo villain filed notice Friday, Aug. 3, they'll seek dismissal of the case. Among other arguments, they say the grand jury that indicted Weinstein should have been told about emails from one of his three accusers: a woman who said he raped her in 2013. One message, less than a month after the alleged attack, expresses appreciation for "all you do for me." Another, days later, says "it would be great to see you again." (Jefferson Siegel / AP) Gordon, who said he was never paid for his work on the Trump campaign and never performed any duties on the transition team, was assigned in March 2016 to serve as the point person for a newly named advisory group on foreign policy and national security. That committee also included Page, who has drawn interest from investigators for delivering a foreign policy speech in Moscow in July 2016, and Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. "It's very different from the 'anyone but Bush' energy you found in 2004," said Justin Krebs, the campaign director of MoveOn. "The feeling for both 2018 and 2020 is: We don't have to settle. There's so much energy, and so many candidates, that being 'better than Trump' is just the baseline. We can do more." Easing the pressure of property taxes on homeowners should be a top priority of the next mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois. A recent study by ATTOM Data Solutions, one of the nations largest analysts of property tax data, found that Illinois residents pay the second-highest property tax rates in the country, behind New Jersey residents. And despite taxpayers ponying up, hundreds of school districts and other local governments have accumulated billions of dollars in debt. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4) The Philippine Navy is sending a task group to Libya to help rescue three Filipino hostages there. "As your Philippine Navy completes the facts on the ground, it is also preparing for the deployment of a Naval Task Group to assist the Department of Foreign Affairs in the situation in Libya," the Philippine Navy said in a statement Saturday. It is also planning for the deployment of "the appropriate force package," the statement said, following President Rodrigo Duterte's pronouncement on Friday that he was considering sending a warship to Libya if the hostage-takers begin to hurt the Filipino captives. Three Filipino technicians were abducted by unidentified armed men from their work site in the African country on July 6. A South Korean worker was also taken hostage. The Filipinos called on Duterte to help end their ordeal in a video that circulated online Wednesday. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque earleir said he was meant to fly to Libya along with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, but their trip was cancelled due to security reasons. The South Korean government, for its part, said it has deployed a warship to Libya. I consider myself in fairly decent physical shape and yet there were moments on our hike when I found myself on all fours for fear of hydroplaning on slippery rock. Despite this somewhat treacherous terrain, the trail teemed with visitors. At times I wasnt certain some of my fellow hikers would make it based on their Darth Vader-like breathing during the trails steeper ascents. And they surely thought the same about me on my hands and knees. In the end, breathtaking (literally and figuratively) waterfall views made the hike well worth the exertion and any possible humiliation on my part. (CNN) For the first time, Osama bin Laden's mother, Alia Ghanem, has given an interview. Conducted in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by Martin Chulov of The Guardian, the interview is noteworthy because bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and his mother were exceptionally close. What Ghanem says in the interview is largely credible and tracks with the little that is publicly known about her relationship with her son. Ghanem recalls bin Laden as "a very good kid and he loved me so much." According to Ghanem, who is now in her mid-70s, she was divorced from Mohammed bin Laden, the enormously wealthy bin Laden family patriarch, when Osama was three. Osama was the only child of their union. Mohammed bin Laden had 53 other children with some 20 wives. He died in a plane crash when Osama was 10. After his parents' divorce, Ghanem's second husband, Mohammed al-Attas, raised Osama. Ghanem and her family live in a well-to-do section of Jeddah, a testament to the fact that the bin Laden construction business is one of the largest in the Middle East. According to The Guardian, Ghanem is speaking out for the first time because the Saudi government, led by the 32-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, allowed the interview. The Saudi interest in permitting the interview is clear: They want to make the argument that bin Laden received no Saudi state support, despite the claims in an ongoing lawsuit by some of the families of the 9/11 victims. And, the newspaper noted, a Saudi government minder sat in during the interview. The case remains unresolved, but there is little hard evidence that the Saudi state supported bin Laden. After all, bin Laden's principal goal was overthrowing the Saudi monarchy. In the interview with The Guardian, bin Laden's mother blames outsiders such as bin Laden's Palestinian mentor, Abdullah Azzam, who purportedly "brainwashed" her son and converted him to jihadism when bin Laden was a young man in his 20s fighting in the "holy war" in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the mid-1980s. Azzam was killed by an assassin in Pakistan in 1989. While he was certainly bin Laden's mentor, he was not focused on attacking the United States. Bin Laden's mother confirmed to The Guardian that she is an Alawite from Syria. Alawism is a branch of Shia Islam. This had long been suspected, but this helps fill in a key aspect of bin Laden's background. The fact that bin Laden's beloved mother is an Alawite may help explain why bin Laden never advocated for or fought wars against the Shia, as have other Sunni jihadist groups, such as ISIS. Ghanem says that within the first 48 hours of the 9/11 attacks, she learned her son Osama was responsible, and said she was "shocked. ... We all felt ashamed of him. We knew all of us were going to face horrible consequences." The bin Ladens were questioned by Saudi authorities and for a period could not leave the country. Ghanem is in regular touch with the three widows of bin Laden who survived the 2011 US Navy SEAL operation that killed al Qaeda's leader in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They are now living in Saudi Arabia but cannot leave the country. Bin Laden's mother allowed herself to be photographed for The Guardian story, which is surprising because the photography of women's faces in Saudi Arabia is still not common. The last time that Ghanem said she saw her son was in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in 1999, the year after al Qaeda's attacks on two US embassies in Africa that killed more than 200 people. Unmentioned in the Guardian interview is that, according to bin Laden's chief bodyguard, Abu Jandal, bin Laden's mother went to Kandahar at the behest of the Saudi government in an effort to persuade her son to abandon his life of terrorism. Bin Laden's bodyguard recalled that bin Laden treated his mother with great respect but told her he could not stop fighting his jihad: "This is a principle. I keep it in my heart and I have promised God not to abandon it." This story was first published on CNN.com, "Osama bin Laden's mother breaks her long silence" (CNN) "Unless you have interesting input coming into you all the time, you will psychologically die." "You learn by seeing through other people's eyes." "People live too seriously, and that kind of narrows down their vision." These thoughts have not been generated by an algorithm or crowdsourced on Twitter. They are the accumulated wisdom of a middle-aged man in Japan. A middle-aged man who's available for rent. Wearing a shirt with a miniature panda bear print and smiling inscrutably, Ken Sasaki, 48, has a vibe that is anything but that of a disgruntled middle-aged Tokyo man. With gray hair, visible lines on his face and loss of youthful slimness, he is more like a free-spirited bohemian in a strange disguise. Throughout an hourlong Skype interview, in which comments are tediously ferried back and forth through an interpreter, his energy and enthusiasm never flag, and his answers grow more expressive and thoughtful with each question. It's all part of his job as a rented "ossan," the Japanese word for a middle-aged man. He allows himself to be hired by anyone, for nearly any purpose not involving physical contact as long as they pay his hourly wage: a mere 1,000 yen (about US $9). And he loves it. Regaining honor As in many cities around the globe, most people in Tokyo prefer anonymity when it comes to their wants, needs and vulnerabilities. Urban citizens may be desperate to get advice from an older, wiser person, but they don't want to turn to the guy they've worked with for years or the uncle who remembers the tears shed over a broken toy truck. Someone familiar might judge them. It's much better to pour your woes into a stranger's ear, grab the good advice and run ... or so goes the logic of Takanobu Nishimoto, 50, who founded an online Ossan Rental service in 2012. Renting a stranger for advice and meeting in, say, a cafe means you will never have to meet again, he said: "Stories will spread if clients talk to someone they know." This is where men like Sasaki come in, lending an ear to strangers while renewing their own value in society. Nishimoto's inspiration came when he overheard "high school girls making fun of middle-aged men on the commuter train," particularly their hairy ears, and calling the men "smelly" and "dirty." Previously admired in a male-dominated Japanese society, ossan are now struggling to maintain a positive reputation in the fast-changing culture where values are in flux. "I never realized that ossan were disrespected that much," Nishimoto said. "I thought, 'I need to regain the honor of ossan.' " Changing ideals of masculinity After Japan's defeat in World War II, "militarized masculinity," in which an officer was seen as a key version of virility, essentially came to an end, said Sabine Fruhstuck, director of the East Asia Center and a professor of modern Japanese cultural studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "During the postwar decades, a new ideal of masculinity emerged, primarily embodied in the white-collar salaryman (essentially, a middle-class business man type)," Fruhstuck wrote in an email. The dominant ideal of masculinity became a man with a "good income, clean office work, willing to sacrifice himself more or less for a company, married, with two children," she added. Yet even that ideal soon ended. Many middle-aged men became jobless amid economic troubles in 1989, and a new class of predominantly male freelance workers (known as "freeters"in Japan) emerged in an economy further battered by the 2008 financial crisis and the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. Freeters work short-term or part-time positions in a variety of businesses, including IT, marketing, retail and restaurants. "During the last couple of decades, particularly, middle-aged middle-class men have lost a lot of their cultural power," Fruhstuck said. "In popular media, they are often cast as backward, stodgy, uninteresting." But the cultural power vacuum has not been an opportunity for women either, as male-dominated institutions continue to discourage them from entering leadership positions, Fruhstuck said. Ultimately, she believes that Nishimoto's sense of lost honor is not imaginary, but whether his rental business can restore the reputation of middle-aged men is another matter. A startup is born Though it started slow, his website has roughly 45 ossan rentals a day now, or 10,000 encounters per year, said Nishimoto, who works as a fashion adviser and stylist when not monitoring his ossan. His website boasts almost 80 "uncles" in 36 cities, including Nishimoto's base of Tokyo, as well as Kyoto, Osaka and Tokushima. The mentors' past and present occupations include engineer, tour operator, financier, real estate and insurance entrepreneur, marketing and HR manager, driver, and a research and development scientist who now runs a technical consultancy company. Nishimoto says he himself has met or been rented by roughly 5,000 clients since founding the service. The token payment is just that: a symbolic gesture that helps both the clients and uncles respect the transaction. "Existence of the payment makes us do it properly," he said. Recruiting ossan is a breeze, with Nishimoto getting at least 10 inquiries a week from wannabe professional uncles. He guesses that about 10,000 men have applied for the job, though only 78 currently fill the role. When choosing an ossan, Nishimoto prefers "weird" men with obvious disadvantages, "men outside the spotlight." Some applicants get crossed off the list immediately, such as those with "shady desires." "It would be better to have only good-looking men," he conceded, as they would naturally attract more customers, but that would bore him. Besides, the more popular ossan are gentle-looking men who are good at listening, he finds. Divorcees and those who have gone through a tough time and come out the other side are also well-liked. "They can listen, understand another's pain," Nishimoto said. Apparently, many clients are in psychological pain: About 70% use the service for consultations or talking, Nishimoto said, while the other 30% request "manual" help, such as lifting boxes. When he started, expected that the bulk of his clients would be "gentle, obedient Japanese boys" needing advice from "older, more experienced men." "The young men did not come," he said. Instead, eight times out of 10, clients are women, Nishimoto said. There's a branch of the ossan rental service to fulfill immediate requests, he said, since many customers want to talk "now": "Her husband cheated on her; she had a quarrel; she's being harassed at work." However, Nishimoto does not permit chat sessions or phone calls. He likes the "very analog" quality of an in-person meetup that makes people "a bit nervous." "You arrive at the location and look for who is coming to meet you," he said, describing it as an exhilarating experience. 'Light-hearted' An international Skype session an exception to the rule of in-person meetings with Sasaki reveals his Fukushima birth and life in central Tokyo, where he works at a web technology company that provides platform services, including gaming and dealing cryptocurrency. He's played violin for 30 years, taking it more seriously while at university. His favorite composers are Shostakovich, Bruckner, Sibelius and Beethoven. "You don't have to think a lot to play Beethoven's music; you can play nonchalantly in an entertaining way," he said. "Forty percent of my ossan rental clients want something to do with the violin," Sasaki said. "Another 40% are questions about IT work, and the other 20% are asking advice for their lives. These are mainly younger people. "My profile on the ossan rental website has a very light-hearted atmosphere," he said. Though he notes his occupation in IT, he bills himself as someone who plays the violin and shogi, or Japanese chess. Bizarre bookings Usually, Sasaki is rented out just once a week for variable amounts of time, less than other uncles, but some of his assignments tend toward the bizarre. Once, he was invited to play violin for just five minutes at the birthday party of a teenage girl "who is crazily fascinated by Korean pop stars," he said. There were only two other girls there, "and they were saying 'please, please, please, sir.' " They wanted him to wear the mask of a Korean pop star whose name was unfamiliar to Sasaki. Dutifully, he put it on and played his violin. The entire time, the birthday girl kept "shouting the star's name at me -- a totally disguised man," he said. "I found it strange, but that was their request." The three girls were so fascinated with Korean pop stars that he, in turn, became fascinated by them and curious about the meaning of their obsession. Another request came from a woman in her 50s who asked him to accompany her to her dance recital. The woman, who studied tango and waltz, didn't have friends or colleagues to attend, so she hired Sasaki to cheer her on. One man who played shogi online requested that Sasaki meet him at the chess center to play, an experience the man found awkward to do alone because of a disability. "I have to use my brain quite a lot to deal with these requests," Sasaki said, "and there's a lot of interesting encounters, and these encounters give me inspiration." The meetings with clients widen his horizons, he said, and inspire his violin playing. Yet, not all encounters provide fruitful motivation, he said. There was an invitation to play violin at a New Year's Eve party attended exclusively by women who were all nursery school teachers. Though some were "beautiful," Sasaki said, "their conversation was like a Japanese version of 'Sex and the City' very open. And I was the only man there, playing my violin." 'People in the shadows' Nishimoto said there's a strict "no-touching" policy with his clients, and ossan are not intended to be rented out for intimate purposes. Looking carefully at the website, researcher Fruhstuck is not so sure. "Some men are featured as 'new products.' Each is described with bodily measurements, date of birth and what they offer (mostly conversation, drinking together, etc.)," she said, adding that Nishimoto has even written a romantic advice column. "All of this indicates to me that this is likely a casual dating site without saying so," she said, adding that "sex and romance" could be an "expectation on all sides involved." "If so, that would simply be yet another variation of a range of such services in Japan that include hostess clubs, host clubs ... and similar businesses that provide conversation, flirtation and, possibly, romance and sex," Fruhstuck said. "Perhaps there are really people who rent middle-aged men just for consultations and lifting boxes. Who knows? I bet most people would find it creepy to email a random guy on some website to come help them." However, similar assistant services exist in the United States. But Nishimoto doubts ossan rental would be popular in other countries, because he hears that "middle-aged men and father figures are still valued in other countries." In Japan, that's not the case, he said, based in part on the fact that clients have rented him to play a father's role -- despite their real fathers being alive and well. Fruhstuck agrees that middle-aged Japanese men have experienced a "downfall" in terms of societal respect. Sasaki hopes ossan rental services will spread and include obasan, middle-aged women. This would make the world "a fun place," he said. Like Nishimoto, Sasaki believes that the general impression of middle-aged men in Japan is "not good compared to other countries." They are "people in the shadows." "The old community has been destroyed," Sasaki said. The kind of community once found in schools or companies no longer exists, "and a lot of people are finding they don't belong anywhere and they have no place to ask for help or advice." Nishimoto believes the ossan rental service became popular because it makes people wonder: Why are middle-aged men available for rent? This, he believes, becomes a subtle way to raise their value. Fruhstuck, though, takes a dim view of ossan rental as a means of increasing respect: "I'd doubt that this is of benefit to anybody [other] than the individuals directly involved." This story was first published on CNN.com, "The real reason people rent middle-aged men in Japan." A Nevada pastor celebrating his wedding anniversary with a cruise to Alaska died at Glacier Point Monday after a canoe capsized during a trip with Skagway-based Alaska Excursionsa tour company that faced public scrutiny this spring when former employees alleged poor maintenance habits and unsafe tour practices. Steven Todd Willis, 50, was one of 10 guests who went into the water after the canoe rolled in the swift moving river, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The canoe tipped, spilling guests and guide into a rapids area on the glacial fed river, according to an Alaska State Trooper dispatch. The rivers water level was reported to be higher than normal. It appeared the engine didnt start immediately when they got into the rapid water and were overcome by the current, AST spokesperson Tim DeSpain said. [The canoe] overturned in high water not long after it was launched from the head of the river. The Coast Guard diverted a helicopter, already en route to Skagway, to the scene, said operations unit controller for Coast Guard sector Juneau Scott Cichoracki. Ten people made it to shore, but Willis was unaccounted for. The helicopter crew lowered a rescue swimmer into the water who found Willis unresponsive, Cichoracki said. All of the passengers, including Willis, were wearing lifejackets. Willis was pronounced dead at 12:51 p.m., about two-and-a-half hours after the troopers received the emergency call. Willis wife was among the passengers who went into the water, borough manager Debra Schnabel told assembly members Monday. Willis remains were transported to Juneau and later released to the next of kin whom had also been an occupant of the overturned canoe, the dispatch said. More than 10 former Alaska Excursions employees publicly criticized the company earlier this year when it applied for a new commercial ATV tour permit with the Haines Borough. Former manager Sam Edwards and other guides wrote to the borough assembly last spring criticizing the companys negligence in maintaining skiffs used to transport guides to and from Glacier Point, along with the outboard motors on its canoes. The maintenance on the skiffs, busses, ATVs, and canoe motors was extremely spotty and it was often very hard to get a mechanic to come out, even when we were on the verge of not being able to run the trip, Edwards wrote in March. Other former employees said the company pressured boat captains to run trips in unsafe weather. Some complained the Glacier Point camp lacked critical medical supplies such as an automated defibrillator. Alaska Excursions owner Robert Murphy, along with more than 10 of his employees, disputed the claims. He issued cease-and-desist warnings to several employees who criticized the company. After several public hearings, the borough assembly voted 3-3 in March to approve Alaska Excursions new tour permit, with Mayor Jan Hill breaking the tie, on the conditions that the company submit a safety plan and pass a Haines Volunteer Fire Department inspection to verify that lifesaving equipment was onsite. Alaska Excursions complied and voluntarily agreed to implement its safety plan on their canoe tour, borough clerk Alekka Fullerton said. The safety plan is considered proprietary information and is unavailable for public review, Fullerton said this week. Murphy issued a press release Monday afternoon offering condolences to those impacted by the unfortunate incident and said the company is cooperating with authorities. Alaska Excursions manager Erin Redington this week declined to comment. The film "Shoplifter," the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 71st Cannes Film Festival in May, has been screening in China since Friday. The award-winning film is directed by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who has two films released in China this year -- "The Third Murder" screened in March. Adapted from a real news event in Japan, the film tells the story of an impoverished family who steals to survive. Hirokazu Kore-eda, born in 1962, is a master of family-themed films, using a plain and simple style to convey deep and meaningful messages. He gained popularity with Chinese audiences with his two films -- "Our Little Sister" and "After the Storm." Since he started making films in the early 1990s, Hirokazu Kore-eda has directed many well-known films such as "I Wish" and "After Life." China's new countermeasures to impose additional tariffs on about 60 billion U.S. dollars worth of products from the United States are "rational and restrained," a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday. The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Friday unveiled lists of 5,207 items of U.S. products to be subject to additional tariffs of four different rates -- 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent, and 5 percent. The decision was made in response to a U.S. plan to raise tariffs to be imposed on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent. "China's countermeasures with differentiated tariff rates are rational and restrained, and were proposed after extensively soliciting opinions and careful evaluation," the spokesperson said in a statement. The measures have taken into full consideration factors including the people's well-being, the bearing capacity of companies, and maintaining the functioning of the global industrial chain, according to the spokesperson. "China always believes that consultation based on the principles of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit is the effective way of resolving trade differences, and any unilateral threat or blackmail will only aggravate contradictions and hurt the interests of all sides," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson pointed out that, because the United States had repeatedly escalated the situation in disregard of the interests of enterprises and consumers of both countries, China was forced to take the countermeasures to protect national dignity and its people's interests, defend free trade and multilateral mechanisms, and safeguard the common interests of all countries in the world. Commenting on the latest U.S. move to add some Chinese companies into its list of entities subject to U.S. export controls, the MOC said that China stands firmly against U.S. unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities. China urges the United States to relax its controls over exports to China, and protect and promote the high-tech trade and cooperation between companies from both countries, the ministry said. You are here: Business Booming player numbers and the latest gadgets made ChinaJoy one of the hottest events in Shanghai on Friday, despite Typhoon Jongdari bringing heavy winds and rain in the morning. ChinaJoy, Asia's biggest game event held annually in Shanghai, opened its doors in the Shanghai New International Expo Center of the Pudong New Area on Friday, and it will run through Monday. Dressed-up young people, who cosplayed characters from games and cartoons, gathered at the Huamu Metro Station, the closest station to the exhibition hall. "The Typhoon won't prevent players' enthusiasm," Han Zhihai, secretary-general of the ChinaJoy organization committee said. Han also confirmed no accidents and injuries occurred. Many players queued up from 8am -- one hour before official entry time. A huge knife prop from Shanda Games, which was placed outside the exhibition halls, was found broken in the afternoon, probably because of heavy wind. Various tech giants like Intel, AMD, Nvidia, HTC, and Qualcomm were showcasing their latest technologies at the show, from high-end computers, to 4K-featured graphic cards, eSport gadgets and virtual reality or VR devices. For example, players have to wait about 30 minutes to play VR demos at HTC's booth, one of the biggest VR device vendors in the world. As usual, showgirls posed and offered performances in the booths, attracting the gaze of players and photography fans. Some showgirls also broadcast live streams from the event. About 300,000 people are expected to attend the four-day event before it packs up for the year on Monday. You are here: China Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province seized two drug traffickers and confiscated about 60 kilograms of methamphetamine, the local public security department announced Saturday. Police in Lincang City intercepted a car on a highway early Wednesday morning and found three bags of methamphetamine in the trunk. A further suspect was caught in another car soon after. Both the suspects tested positive for drugs and are currently in police custody. The case is under further investigation. Yunnan is the main focal point of the national anti-drug campaign as it borders the Golden Triangle, known for drug production and trafficking. China has recorded 18,433 voluntary organ donors, who donated 52,213 organs, from 2010 to mid-July this year. The numbers were released by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, organizer of the Chinese Transplant Congress held Friday in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Zheng Shusen, vice president of the association, said that despite much progress achieved over the past years, China should further promote organ donation to benefit more patients in the future. "We hope that more people will join the great cause to let love continue," said Yang Jiayin, head of the organ transplant center at Sichuan University's West China Hospital. China should improve medical insurance for organ recipients to reduce their financial burden, said Huang Jiefu, director of the China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee. The country began a voluntary organ donation trial in 2010 and promoted the practice across the country in 2013. Voluntary donation is the only legitimate source for transplants after organ trading was criminalized in 2011 and the use of organs from executed prisoners was banned in 2015. Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission, said last month that China is expected to become the country with the most organ donors by 2020. In China, about 300,000 patients need organ transplants each year. Flash Both the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) agree to strengthen their cooperation so as to benefit their people, according to the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting held on Friday. Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, co-chaired the meeting. Don said the ASEAN-EU partnership has been advanced from dialogue relationship to global partnership that shares strategic goals. Their widened cooperation will be even more important as the two regions seek to promote regionalism and multilateralism. "We hope the upcoming EU-ASEAN meeting in Brussels this October will maintain the momentum and reinforce our cooperation for benefit of our peoples," he added. Mogherini, for her part, said EU and ASEAN are very distant geographically, but they couldn't be closer when it comes to their approach to international affairs, as they stand on the same side of cooperative solutions based on international rules and internationalism, free and fair trade, and peace and security. She said the EU and ASEAN will have stronger cooperation in international trade. "If our two regions join forces, we could set a new standard for global trade with more growth and more protection for our citizens, our goods and our environment, because this is what our relationship is all about -- making a positive difference to our people's daily lives," she added. Meanwhile, Mogherini said the air transport agreement that EU and ASEAN are negotiating will create jobs, lower prices, and raise security standards, and she hopes this agreement will be initiated by the end of this year. You are here: World Flash At least 11 labourers were killed and four others wounded in a dynamite blast inside a stone quarry in southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials said Saturday. The blast occurred Friday night inside a granite stone quarry at village Aluru mandal in Kurnool district, about 412 km southwest of Amaravathi, the main city in Andhra Pradesh. "Last night a blast took place inside the quarry here during which 11 labourers were killed and four others were wounded critically," a local government official said. "The blast took place after the gelatine sticks, which are used in blasting, exploded." The blast triggered fire resulting in gutting of tractors, lorry and a makeshift shed. Locals said the explosion was heard in the neighbouring villages and caused cracks in the residential houses. According to officials, the bodies of labourers scattered near the blast site were removed to a hospital by the police for post-mortem. Officials quoting eyewitnesses said 15 labourers were present at the spot when the blast went off. Following the blast, local authorities immediately rushed police teams and firefighters to the spot to douse the flames and carry out rescue work. Policemen have restricted the movement of people into the quarry fearing there might be more explosives that can go off anytime. Police officials have registered a case to ascertain the cause of the blast. Preliminary investigations suggest mishandling of the explosives which are highly inflammable. Meanwhile, the identities of slain victims, who are said to be migrant labourers, were being ascertained. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu expressed his condolences to the bereaved family members. Enditem You are here: World Flash The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that nearly 680,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Libya in May. "In May 2018, IOM Libya identified 679,897 migrants in Libya from 42 nationalities, 8% of them are minors," the IOM said Friday. "The top 5 nationalities were Nigerian, Egyptian, Chadian, Sudanese and Ghanaian. Together these nationalities account for up to 65% of Libya's migrant population," it added. Libya has become a preferred departure point for illegal immigrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe due to insecurity and chaos in the North African country following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Migrant shelters in Libya are crowded with thousands of migrants who have been rescued at sea or arrested by the Libyan security services. (CNN) A confidential UN report has accused North Korea of continuing to develop nuclear and missile programs in violation of international sanctions. The report, provided to CNN by a UN source on Friday, was prepared by independent experts who submit their findings every six months to the UN North Korea Sanctions Committee of the Security Council. The report also says North Korea is defying sanctions through diplomats and others based overseas and continues to sell conventional weapons to fuel violence. The UN report appears to confirm reporting by the Washington Post earlier in the week, which suggested new information, including satellite images, show that North Korea could be in the process of building new missiles. The UN report comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Singapore for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial meeting, told reporters that he was an advocate of keeping pressure on Pyongyang as the country has yet to take any concrete steps to dismantling its nuclear program. "I've also emphasized the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea, to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK as agreed to by Chairman Kim," he said, referring to the isolated north Asian nation by it's official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the gathering of Southeast Asian diplomats, Pompeo said he had called for "the complete shutdown of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum destined for North Korea." At the gathering's "family photo," featuring all the region's ministers, Pompeo went over to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and the two men shook hands. The UN report says that Pyongyang has "flouted" the caps on its import of petroleum and crude oil as well as a coal ban imposed last year through "illicit" ship-to-ship transfers of over 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products, as well as oil and coal at sea. These ship to ship transfers involve "increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques" which involve manipulating the vessels' Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and also disguising DPRK tankers, according to the report. The US recently provided intelligence about illegal ship-to-ship transfers along with photographs to the sanctions committee. If accurate, North Korea is now in violation of a Security Council resolution, which means all UN member countries would have to "immediately" halt all transfers to North Korea. The report says North Korea also continues to defy an arms embargo, and financial sanctions -- which it calls "some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures of the sanctions regime." Pompeo points finger at Russia Pompeo also singled out Russia, accusing it of helping Pyongyang evade UNSC resolutions. "We've seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," said Pompeo. "This is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow," he added. On Friday, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on a Russian bank accused of helping conduct transactions for a North Korean bank. Even before he'd stepped off the plane in Singapore, Pompeo had been critical of Pyongyang's apparent heel-dragging. While en route to the meeting he said that Kim's regime was in violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and that "we still have a ways to go" before realizing the reality of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. "Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize," he told reporters Friday. "The world demanded that he do so in the UN Security Council resolutions. "To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both of the UN Security Council resolutions. We can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we're looking for." Right steps Last month Pompeo was repeatedly asked to provide clarity on the issue of North Korea during a fiery Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, as US lawmakers pressed for verifiable evidence to back up claims that talks are headed in the right direction. Responding to accusations that the US was was "being taken for a ride," Pompeo moved to reassure lawmakers that US President Donald Trump was in "a far better position than either of the two (past) administrations." "We have made incredibly clear that we will continue to enforce that sanctions regime until such time as denuclearization as we have defined it is complete," he said, repeatedly claiming that the North Koreans understand the US definition of denuclearization. "I will concede that there is an awful long way to go," Pompeo added. "I am not trying to oversell the accomplishments that we have had toward the path of denuclearization to date, there is a great deal of work to do." However, when pressed by lawmakers on progress being made on denuclearization, Pompeo also admitted that North Korea continues to produce weapons-grade fissile material. Mixed results Pompeo's meetings with his North Korean counterparts have yielded mixed results. He originally traveled to Pyongyang in April, paving the way for the historic summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore, but other meetings haven't gone so well. In the wake of a meeting in the North Korean capital in early July, one source with knowledge of the discussions said it went "as badly as it could have gone." "The North Koreans were just messing around, not serious about moving forward," the source told CNN's Michelle Kosinski, adding that Pompeo had been promised a meeting with the North Korean leader, and so not getting that meeting sent a big message. Even when Pompeo described the high-level negotiations as "productive" and insisted progress was made, the North poured cold water on the talks, saying the "attitude" of the US was "regrettable" and not in the spirit of the two leaders' June 12 summit. A statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA in the wake of Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang said: "The US is fatally mistaken if it went to the extent of regarding that the (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) would be compelled to accept, out of its patience, the demands reflecting its gangster-like mindset." Pompeo brushed aside the comments, saying "if those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster," and noting that the UN Security Council has been clear on what North Korea needs to achieve. This story was first published on CNN.com, "UN report: North Korea still pursuing nuclear, missile programs" We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form On September 15, 2011, David Cameron triumphantly entered Liberation Square in the Libyan city of Benghazi to milk every last ounce of publicity for Britain's role in the downfall of President Gaddafi. In a hubristic speech to cheering Libyans, he told his carefully chosen audience how it was 'great to be in free Libya. Colonel Gaddafi said he would hunt you down like rats, but you showed the courage of lions'. Six years later, a very different scene was played out in another city centre square hundreds of miles to the north. Why on earth was this callous terrorist allowed to come to Britain? Did British intelligence check his motivations and his allegiances? Once again, there was a large crowd, but this time they stood in silence. They had gathered in Manchester's Albert Square to pay tribute to those who died in the pop concert bombing which cost 22 lives when Salman Abedi blew himself up among scores of children. Until recently, there seemed no solid reason to link the awful carnage in Manchester with David Cameron's vainglorious intervention. Today, it is possible to discern a direct and irrefutable connection. Thanks to Mail reporter Larisa Brown, the world now knows that the Royal Navy rescued the Manchester killer, then just 19 years old, from Libya three years before the Manchester atrocity occurred and ferried him back to this country. Of course, hindsight is always a wonderful thing. But vital questions scream to be asked if such an atrocity is to be prevented in the future. Why on earth was this callous terrorist allowed to come to Britain? Did British intelligence check his motivations and his allegiances? Were investigations made to see whether he had any history of training in Libya with jihadi groups? Most important of all, why didn't the Ministry of Defence reveal the Navy's role in the Abedi story, which, so I reliably understand, has been an open secret in Whitehall for months. Their failure to come clean is a grotesque insult to the families of the dead in Manchester, who are surely entitled to be told why their loved ones were taken from them in the most brutal fashion. This sordid business once again shines a pitiless light on the culture of secrecy in Whitehall, where obstructive civil servants routinely treat the public like idiots. ET TU, BORIS? Polls now confirm my report last week that Boris Johnson has emerged as leader of the Brexiteer Tories. So when will he strike at the Prime Minister? Expect the former foreign secretary to wait until the eve of Tory Conference, when he will set out his own vision of Brexit. Mr Johnson will not move in for the kill, however, until late autumn. And only if Theresa May persists with the Chequers deal. Advertisement It is only days since we learned that Home Secretary Sajid Javid secretly dispatched two former British citizens members of Islamic State's so-called quartet of 'Beatles' into the jurisdiction of the United States and the real possibility of the death penalty, without informing Parliament or the British public. And it's only a few months since the Intelligence and Security Committee report into British complicity with torture in the New Labour years exposed a culture of lying and underhand action inside the British Intelligence services and among ministers. Nor did Tony Blair ever own up to the links between the London bombings of July 2005 which claimed 52 innocent lives and the Iraq war two years earlier which had motivated so many angry young Muslim men to seek revenge on the West. I am afraid that lurking behind this insidious culture of secrecy is an even bigger question, one which has rarely been asked before. Did the bombing in Manchester Arena last year represent terrorist 'blowback' from David Cameron's intervention in Libya, which was taken against the advice of his senior generals? For the fall of the Gaddafi regime created a power vacuum in Libya and allowed armed jihadi groups to flourish. Remember that back in 2011, Britain played an important role in the aerial bombing campaign that helped weaken Muammar Gaddafi. But the terms of the United Nations resolution which authorised the British and French intervention specifically prohibited us from sending in ground troops. Instead invoking the old mantra that my enemy's enemy is my friend Britain threw its weight behind jihadi fighters who bore an ancient grudge against the Libyan leader. Among these militant groups was a body called the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, known for its links to Al Qaeda. Indeed, in 1996 Britain had secretly supported the LIFG in a bid to assassinate Gaddafi. So the impression is that groups connected to Al Qaeda were effectively Britain's 'boots on the ground' in the war against Gaddafi. Crucially, Ramadan Abedi, father of the Manchester bomber, was a member of this same Libyan international fighting group. Salman Abedi may have fought with them, too. Many people will find it frankly incredible that Britain was linked to fighters who had vowed to wage war and destruction against the West. Yet this is something that has happened in a number of foreign conflicts. In the Eighties, Britain and America formed an alliance with radical jihadis including Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in order to defeat Soviet forces after the communist invasion. More recently, Britain allied itself with Islamist militias affiliated to Al Qaeda after we chose to take sides against President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war. As we now know, the Manchester bomber Salman Abedi was linked to such a network of fighting jihadis through his father. My guess is that this week's news about the role of the Royal Navy in bringing him to this country is the first in a series of revelations to come about the links between the British state and the Manchester bomber. Last week, a solicitor representing victims of the Manchester Arena bombing remarked that 'I am sure the security services have not told us the full story. We may need an inquiry to get to the truth'. I agree with him. Of course, only one man bears the full responsibility for the terrible atrocity which struck Manchester just over a year ago. That is Salman Abedi himself. But his hideous actions did not come out of a vacuum. We need to get the full truth about the role of the British state in Libya, how Abedi was allowed to return to Britain and why he was effectively left to his own devices until he carried out his monstrous attack. The families of those who were killed deserve nothing less. Censorship and the hypocrisy of Google Internet giant Google is notorious for fostering a culture in which anything goes. You need only to look at some of the horrors that are allowed to fester on its YouTube video subsidiary to see that where there are profits to be made, its morals are entirely elastic. Now we learn that Google has been in talks with China, where novelists like George Orwell are banned and no mention of the Tiananmen Square atrocity is even allowed (stock image) Until now, this has been seen as an expression of the group's free-wheeling libertarian philosophy and its Californian origins. Yet there's an even bigger driving force behind Google: naked greed. Nothing else can explain the disquieting news that this giant technology firm which will allow virtually anything online in the West may accept censorship of its search engine in order to break into the Chinese market. Back in 2010, Google pulled out of China citing fears about censorship and surveillance. The company's co-founder Sergey Brin, who was brought up under Soviet rule, expresses his hatred of the 'forces of totalitarianism'. Since then, the forces of oppression inside China have got far worse. Yet now we learn that Google has been in talks with China, where novelists like George Orwell are banned and no mention of the Tiananmen Square atrocity is even allowed. The suggestion is that Google will accept censorship in exchange for potentially massive profits. Google claims to follow the philosophy 'don't be evil'. Now it appears to be ready to junk its world view if there's money in it. Royal fans have been gushing over photos of Spain's princesses after photos emerged of the sisters enjoying their annual summer trip to Mallorca with their parents. Crown Princess Leonor, 12, and Infanta Sofia, 11, are largely kept away from the spotlight by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, but the family has happily posed for snaps during their holiday on the picturesque island - including a relaxed sunset shoot at the picturesque Almudaina Palace. Keen royal followers were thrilled to get a glimpse of the young sisters, declaring them the 'prettiest princesses' in Europe on Instagram fan accounts. Snaps shared by the Leonor and Sofia fan page, which has more than 36,000 followers, racked up thousands of likes and comments from admirers delighted by the clear bond between the blonde princesses and their parents - and their growing likeness to their mother. One fan wrote in Spanish: 'The children are very cute. In fact, I think, that there are no more beautiful princesses in all Europe'. Scroll down for video Crown Princess Leonor (seen right), 12, and Infanta Sofia, 11 (seen left), are enjoying their annual summer holiday on Mallorca with their parents, King Felipe and Queen Letizia. Photos emerging from the holiday have seen fans on Instagram declaring the young sisters the 'prettiest' princesses in Europe This week Spanish Princesses Leonor, 12,(right) and 11-year-old Sofia (left) posed for the annual summer shoot in Mallorca this week, in pictures that were picked up by a fan account on Instagram, with followers praising their beauty The Spanish royal family has a huge fan base that has been expressing its appreciation for the 'beautiful' quartet on Instagram Another said of the family photos: 'They are beautiful and adorable', while a third fan echoed the sentiment, asking: 'How beautiful are these princesses?' 'Looking like the perfect sisters. Just an adorable photo', another fan posted. Many remarked on how the schoolgirls are beginning to take after their mother, former news anchor Queen Letizia. One wrote: 'They are such a lovely family! How beautiful is Sofia,she has a very nice profile and Leonor looks like her mom'. Another chimed in: 'I think that Princess Leonor has the character of the mother. Princess Sofia for now seems the more sensitive one.' Earlier this month, the Palace in Spain announced the schoolgirl sisters will be heading to a summer camp in the US following their family holiday. The @Leonorandsofia fan account, which has more than 36,000 followers on Instagram, shared pictures of the Spanish royal family's holiday online - much to the delight of their fans Dedicated fan accounts on Instagram have been gushing over the photos of the 'beautiful' royal family A recently shared snap of the blonde sisters when they were younger saw fans pronounce them Europe's 'prettiest' princesses Photos of the Spanish royals posing for portraits in Mallorca attracted a flood of comments from devoted fans Earlier this week the Spanish palace released photos of the family's annual summer shoot at the picturesque Royal Palace of La Almudaina in Majorca, showing that even royals mix designer with high street. Letizia, 45, and the girls were joined by King Felipe, 50, for a stunning session against the Mediterranean backdrop, with Letizia mixing designer with the high street for her look, wearing a pair of wedges by Spanish high street brand Mint & Rose, costing under $100 (76). Cutting a chic figure, Letizia wore a white cotton sleeveless dress from the Dafalia collection of Hugo Boss, which made the most of her enviable physique. 'Two beautiful angels': The Palace in Spain recently announced the young sisters will be attending a summer camp in the US this year Advertisement It's one of the largest racing festivals in the world and often attracts a crowd of fashionable revellers eager to prove they can given the Royal Ascot fashionistas a run for their money. Racegoers at the Qatar Goodwood festival were seen celebrating a successful fifth day at the races as the booze continued to flow. They were seen ringing in the weekend in style, as they poured glasses of Pimm's, beer and bubbly at the Chichester course. Revellers have been embracing the glorious weather at Goodwood today, with the temperature rising to 80F (27C) around the racecourse. The Qatar Goodwood Festival is one of the highlights of the racing calendar and ticket holders today put their best foot forward in stylish dresses as they arrived at the course in Chichester, West Sussex Here come the girls! Goodwood guests wasted no time in embracing the weather, as visitors donned their summer finery for a fourth day of racing fun in West Sussex wearing warm red and orange colours Warming the vocals: One stylish group seemingly appeared to be practising their performance while enjoying the races Let it shine! One reveller couldn't help but smile as she was asked to pose in all her finery while wearing a pink glitter dress Stylish racing fans turned the renowned course into a sea of colour today, opting for vibrant colours and bold floral prints. The famous equestrian event attracts guests from up and down the country and is considered one of the more relaxed race meetings when it comes to the dress code, but that didn't stop ladies from pulling out all the sartorial stops. Earlier in the week, many went without hats and kept it simple in understated dresses, but this morning saw an explosion of glamorous looks and elaborate millinery at the Chichester course. Ensuring the festival lives up to its 'Glorious Goodwood' nickname, ticket holders streamed through the gates in their chiciest dresses, high heels and hats. Say cheese! Friends smile for the camera as they capture a photo to commemorate their day at Goodwood races Besties! These two friends looked perfectly matched in a white and then a sunflower coloured dress as they walked A group of friends arrive at Qatar Goodwood Festival, Chichester, West Sussex on Saturday 4 August. As the mercury rose once again on Friday, ticket holders streamed through the gates in their chicest dresses, high heels and hats The Qatar Goodwood Festival is touted as the sporting and social highlight of the calendar, with five thrilling days of world-class horse racing and elegant fashion for racing fans to enjoy. Racegoers will face increased measures to crack down on disorder, after bosses introduced sniffer dogs at every meeting to detect drugs, and limited alcohol. After a major fight broke out at the first fixture of 2018, officials decided to implement a four pint rule, meaning revellers will not be able to buy more than four drinks in any one trip to the bar. 'We have conducted a thorough and extensive review of everything that happened at our first fixture, of our existing policies and held a detailed consultation with our Safety Advisory Group and Sussex Police, Goodwood Racecourse general manager Alex Eade told Racing UK. Friends put on a colourful diplay with one donning a figure-hugging yellow dress while her companion sported a pleated purple frock with a plunging neckline (left) Cheers! The booze was flowing early on Saturday 4 August as Goodwood racegoers cracked open the bubbly and enjoyed a refreshing drink in the sun Putting on the ritz! Festival organisers operate a famously relaxed dress code but that didn't stop guests from pulling out all the stops, with some wearing formal suits and cocktail dresses (pictured) at Goodwood, Chichester on August 4 Sniffer dogs were previously used at some race meetings, but they will no be on patrol at every fixture and racegoers will be encouraged to use 'amnesty bins' if they are carrying any drugs. When it comes to fashion Goodwood is a lot more relaxed than the likes of Royal Ascot when it comes to the dress code, and hats are not compulsory in any of the enclosures. The style guide suggests that those who don't feel comfortable in millinery accessorise with a headband or beaded clip instead, to add a touch of finesse to their look. In the Richmond Enclosure, men must wear a jacket and tie or cravat, while the same is encouraged but not essential for the Gordon Enclosure. There's no formal dress code for the Lennox Enclosure, but fancy dress and sleeveless tops for men are not permitted anywhere on the racecourse. It sounds almost too good to be true for those struggling to keep their weight down a simple jab to prevent unwanted pounds piling up. But the prospect of a vaccine to stop you getting fat is drawing closer after scientists found compelling evidence linking obesity to an infectious virus. Adenovirus-36 is found four times more often among the obese than in patients of a healthy weight. Studies on animals indicate that the virus is responsible for adding up to 15 per cent to body weight. Thats a stone and a half for the average British woman, or two stone for a man. Adenovirus-36 (pictured) is found four times more often among the obese than in patients of a healthy weight The finding comes as levels of clinical obesity have spiralled to a record 27 per cent of the population. A further 36 per cent are overweight making Britain the fattest nation in Western Europe. The virus has a two-fold effect, not only irritating fat cells and causing them to become inflamed, but also preventing them dying and being flushed away by the body. The affected cells then accumulate, leading to obesity. In a study using samples of healthy tissue from 80 women with breast cancer, four out of five who were overweight had the virus against just one in five who were a normal weight. Although the link could be the result of the cancer making the infection more likely, earlier research found that monkeys injected with the virus went on to gain weight. In other studies, at least 30 per cent of obese people were found to be infected but just 11 per cent of those with a healthy weight had the virus. Adenoviruses are usually linked to colds and eye and bowel infections. A close relative of adenovirus-36 has already been proven to cause mice and monkeys to put on weight. Dr Wilmore Webley, of the University of Massachusetts, conducted the study into the breast cancer patients. The virus irritates fat cells causing them to become inflamed and prevents them from dying and being flushed away by the body. The affected cells then accumulate, leading to obesity (file photo) He says a vaccine for adenoviruses that cause respiratory problems is already used by the US Army evidence a vaccine for the obesity virus could be developed. Dr Richard Atkinson, Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin, has already patented a vaccine for the virus but has been unable to attract enough funding to make it commercially. He told The Mail on Sunday that academics in South Korea had tested the vaccine in animals and it had prevented the virus from infecting fat cells. He said the vaccine could be given to young people to protect them from getting the virus and stop fat cells accumulating. With millions of people around the world dying from obesity-related diseases each year, a vaccine could save thousands of lives. However, not everyone is convinced. Obesity expert Professor Nick Finer, of University College London, told New Scientist magazine that more studies were needed to prove a link between the virus and weight gain. No matter how many association studies are reported, they do not prove causality, he said. Its midday on a Sunday morning, and Im having to cover the soft ears of Mini Puppy, my eight-year-old border collie. Were at a dog-friendly screening of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and its not Pierce Brosnans singing that offends her, but an extremely loud thunderstorm. Never mind that the dire acting renders this film as unbelievable as, well, Cher being ancient enough to play Meryl Streeps mother, the storm to Mini is very, very real. She attempts to climb over my head, sending popcorn flying, towards the bright-orange chow chow on the seat behind, who, up till now, shes been staring at over the seat like an annoying child on a plane. Liz Jones with her dog Mini. The Picturehouse chain runs a programme of doggy screenings in 16 of its 23 town centre cinemas nationwide But the lovely thing is, despite all the wrestling going on in an almost-packed cinema, the occasional yaps, the frequent exits for a bathroom break, the chewing of squeaky toys and way, way too much kissing and cuddling of furry friends, my first ever visit to a dog-friendly screening reminds me that films are supposed to be fun, social events, not what they are these days: solitary, hunched experiences on an iPad, streaming movies from Netflix and Amazon. The cinema in question is the Picturehouse in Piccadilly, central London. The Picturehouse chain runs a programme of doggy screenings in 16 of its 23 town centre cinemas nationwide. The idea was the brainchild of the rather inappropriately named Cat Courtney: Were huge dog lovers at Picturehouse Central and after small success at private events, we saw a great opportunity to make our furry friends happy. Its been fantastic to be at the forefront of this! Even the pre-cinema congregating in the foyer is like a festive and very non-judgemental Crufts The cinema first trialled a dog-friendly screening in 2016 with Laurie Andersons documentary Heart Of A Dog. That was such a success that its now hosting a dog-friendly Sunday matinee (dogs go free) roughly every six weeks. However, unlike an increasing number of parks and playgrounds, where if you attempt to enter as an adult without a child youre locked up, you dont need to own a dog to attend. As Cat says: I was talking to one girl who cant have a pet because she lives in a flat, so she came just to hang out with a load of dogs. In fact, Im here with my best friend, Sue, who lost her dog, Missy, a couple of years ago. She cant face the heartbreak of owning another dog, but has come along to feel the love. Michael Mckean and John M Higgins in Best In Show. Even the pre-cinema congregating in the foyer is like a festive and very non-judgemental Crufts, as new friends are sniffed and breeds and provenance explained by proud owners. I meet a lovely couple called Paul and Serhat, here with their smooth dachshund George, four, and Winston, a dachshund mix, who is just seven months old. Like most dog owners, theyd been scouring the internet for cultural doggy welcome mats; others had found out via Facebook. Weve been along once before, Paul tells me. Its perfect for dogs. They generally all fall asleep. And its nice not to feel discriminated against for once. I took George into John Lewis the other day, and I was marched out of the store like a criminal! The star of the whole proceedings is not the far too waggy and eager-to-please Lily James, but a very over-confident mini-Pomeranian, and although the majority of the dogs are admittedly handbag-size, there is a rather lovely dog called Moose with his owner, Jo (hes a bulldog, so I wonder if hes seen Darkest Hour?), and a 15-year-old pug called Winnie, here with her human, Dan, who would like more info on the website about what to expect. WHO'S A GOOD BOY? Picturehouse cinemas have hosted dog-friendly screenings at many of their 23 locations for more than a year, and offers free doggy snacks and water. But there are rules: heres a list of the essential doggy dos and donts: Your dog must sit on the blanket provided (on the seat and the backrest staff clean thoroughly after each screening). Return the blanket after the screening. Clean up if your dog makes a mess poo bags are not only for the park. Dont let an overexcited dog stay in the cinema take him or her outside Dont let your dog get too excited by other dogs at the screening (we all know what this means) or they will need to leave Advertisement Id have appreciated some advance warning detailing any potentially upsetting scenes (such as the aforementioned thunderstorm). I also think the sound is way too loud for canine ears: Id suggest turning it right down, and putting up subtitles instead. Id have also turned off the escalator, which Mini baulked at, and which could trap claws, though I was soon directed towards stairs. And while Ive become inured to the fact that at most screenings Im the only person in the cinema, it makes a lovely change to be part of a proper audience (the chain wont release exact figures, but says the screenings are frequently sold out, unusual for a very quiet slot for cinemas: 11am on a Sunday). Most important, in a world where dogs are increasingly seen as pariahs even my nearest open air cinema and theatre, at country house hotel Middleton Lodge in North Yorkshire, refuses entry to dogs during a long, hot summer its great to be inside with air conditioning for a couple of hours. The cinema chain has also commendably gone the extra mile: there are free dog treats, bowls of water literally everywhere, and each dog is given a blanket to cover their seat (no dog is expected to sit on the floor, and therefore miss all the action). There were no accidents on the day I went along, but if a dog does wee during, say, Niagara, the staff will clean it up, no questions asked. Cat is hoping other chains will follow suit, and make cinemas even more inclusive and diverse, given a welcome number are now starting to screen films with subtitles, audio description, as well as slots for mums with toddlers, and singalongs. All too often, though, these not-so-niche screenings are super-early, or super-late, and far too infrequent. Would I take Mini to the movies again? Shes very confident, but as she lives in the Yorkshire Dales she found the experience a little overwhelming, and over-long. I imagine next time she will know more what to expect. Her ears pricked up when she spotted the poster for Gods Own Country: perfect for sheepdogs feeling homesick. A dog-friendly screening of Dog Days will be at Picturehouse Central in Piccadilly, London, at 11am on Aug 12. Tickets on sale soon. Go to picturehouses.com or dogfriendly.co.uk iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trump made it clear this week that he thinks voters should have to show identification before casting their ballots, much as, he claimed, people need to regularly show ID to buy groceries. The time has come for voter ID like everything else, Trump said at a rally in Tampa on Tuesday. Most states -- 34 -- already have laws that require people to show some form of ID before they cast ballots. Seven of these states go further and require a photo ID, and an eighth state, Alabama, comes very close to this rule but allows a strict exception in which people without a photo ID can vote so long as two election officials know the individual. Four states have passed additional regulations on voter ID since the 2016 election. But it's unlikely states could pass any further changes before the Nov. 6 midterms because of timing. Wendy Underhill, of the National Conference of State Legislators Elections and Redistricting Program, said theres not a chance in the world that states are able to pass meaningful changes to their existing identification rules before the midterms. Most legislatures are out of session this year and by the time they come back next year whether what President Trump said this week still has power remains to be seen, she said. Changes since 2016 Four states that have made the voter identification requirements more specific and strict since the 2016 election Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri and North Dakota are all facing legal challenges. And Underhill said she does not see a new trend toward stricter voter ID laws. There is absolutely in my mind no uptick, no further trend on this from 2016 to the present, she said. That comes in stark contrast to the period of 2011 to 2013, when Underhill said voter ID restrictions were the hottest issue in election administration. She points to the results of the 2010 midterm elections as the catalyst for those busy years. The politics just changed in the 2010 election and therefore 2011 was the year we started to see lots and lots of it, Underhill said. In large measure it was because Republicans gained control in many states around the nation and it had been on the Republican agenda for some length of time, she said. The arguments for and against ID requirements One of the most prominent Republicans calling for voter fraud reform has been Trump, who made the unverified and unsubstantiated claim that he won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally in 2016. That led to the creation of the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, which was disbanded less than seven months later. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement saying the commission was dissolved "rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense." In Iowa, proponents of a new state rule for voters to present a photo ID at the polls said it was necessary to ensure the integrity of elections. Protecting the integrity of our election system is very important," Iowa's then-Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, said when he signed the new ID law in 2017, according to the Des Moines Register. "And were very proud that Iowa has a tradition and history of doing so." But opponents of such requirements say they are unnecessary and damaging. Voter ID laws aim to combat in-person voter impersonation, a very specific type of voter fraud, which Max Feldman of the Brennan Center for Justice contends basically doesnt exist. Feldman said a 2007 Brennan Center study found youre more likely to be struck by lightning than commit voter impersonation fraud. The American Civil Liberties Union says voter ID laws became more popular following the election of President Obama and place the biggest burden on people of color, the poor and the young. From our perspective there was an explosion of restrictive requirements, voter ID being the one that has been the one that has most obviously been pushed ... in the wake of the election of President Obama in 2008, said Sophia Lakin, a staff attorney with the ACLUs voting rights project. These types of requirements, these document requirements, they have a disproportionate burden on people of color, the elderly the poor the young and voters with disabilities, Lakin said. It is interesting that the voters effected by voter ID requirements and similar things we were seeing... had a disproportionate impact on voters who also turned out in unprecedented numbers in the 2008 election. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Ant-Man And The Wasp Cert: 12A 1hr 58mins Rating: Towards the end of Ant-Man And The Wasp, two remarkable things occur. One is an end-credit postscript a tradition in Marvel superhero adaptations that produced gasps in the screening I attended and will certainly have devotees waiting anxiously for next years as-yet-untitled Avengers film. The other is the appearance of a rather beautiful older woman played by an actress I didnt recognise. I made a mental note to look up who it was. Turns out it was, er Michelle Pfeiffer, prompting something of an inner existential crisis. For just as Dr Johnson opined that when a man is tired of London he is tired of life, when a male film critic can no longer recognise Michelle Pfeiffer well, it doesnt bear thinking about. Director Peyton Reed has again pulled off the balancing act of making the idea of a bug-sized superhero entertaining without reducing the whole thing to abject silliness in this sequel But while I worry privately about that, lets move swiftly on, as the important things are that she is perfectly good, still very beautiful, and Ant-Man And The Wasp is an awful lot of summer fun. Just as he did with the original Ant-Man film in 2015, director Peyton Reed has had to pull off that unenviable balancing act making the idea of a bug-sized superhero (and this time he comes with flying female sidekick, the Wasp) entertaining without reducing the whole thing to abject silliness. It was a trick he achieved handsomely the first time and, despite one or two more moments when the comedy gets a little too broad, he does very nearly as well with this, at times, spectacular sequel. Much of its success comes down to the quality of the acting, led by Paul Rudd (above), of course, as reformed thief turned tiny-but-mighty superhero Scott Lang Much of its success comes down to the quality of the acting, led by Paul Rudd, of course, as reformed thief turned tiny-but-mighty superhero Scott Lang. Rudd who claims a screenwriting credit too is likeable, funny and plays it with just the right amount of tongue in cheek not to undo all his good work. But he gets great support from the likes of Michael Douglas as Dr Hank Pym, inventor of all that shrinking technology, and Evangeline Lilly (from TVs Lost and The Hobbit), who, as Dr Pyms kick-ass daughter, Hope, has more to do now that shes won her wings and become the Wasp. Then theres Michael Pena, who is very funny as Scotts business associate, Luis. Mind you, Randall Park runs him close in the comedy stakes as the determined but wonderfully trusting FBI agent, Jimmy Woo, who knows that Scott/Ant-Man is up to something but can never work out quite what. But he gets great support from the likes of Michael Douglas as Dr Hank Pym and Evangeline Lilly (above with Rudd) as Dr Pyms kick-ass daughter, Hope aka the Wasp Stealing almost every scene she is in, however, is the British-born actress Hannah John-Kamen, who plays a fascinating character called the Ghost. Injured as a child by a laboratory accident that killed her parents, and left phasing in and out of the normal dimensions, the Ghost, who also answers to the name of Ava, is a young woman doomed to a short life. Unless, of course, she can get her hands on the same bit of high-tech kit that Dr Pym needs to bring back his wife, missing for some 30 years, from the sub-atomic level she disappeared to when she was trying to prevent a nuclear war. Two desperate parties after the same thing, which just happens to be contained in a building that, thanks to Dr Pym, can be shrunk to the size of a small wheeled suitcase? Now we have an Ant-Man film on our hands. Stealing almost every scene she is in, however, is the British-born actress Hannah John-Kamen, who plays a fascinating character called the Ghost (above) Slightly to my surprise, I loved the tiny cars that make the San Francisco chase sequences so extraordinary and funny but was less happy about the super-sized Ant-Man who wades in (literally) down at Fishermans Wharf. But thats a rare moment of misjudgment in a film that may have a pint-sized hero but, fun-wise, punches well above its weight. SECOND SCREEN Hearts Beat Loud (12A) Rating: The Escape (15) Rating: Damascus Cover (15) Rating: Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (PG) Rating: Unless youre a fan of TVs Parks And Recreation youre more likely to recognise Nick Offermans deep, gravelly voice (The Lego Movie, Ice Age and Hotel Transylvania are just three of the cartoon franchises hes lent it to) than his bearded, pleasantly lived-in face, but that might just change in the wake of Hearts Beat Loud. Goodness, its a lovely film short on anything resembling actual realism, long on life-affirming joy, and just about guaranteed to send anyone with a heart out with a soppy smile on their face. In a film that is one part Nick Hornbys High Fidelity, one part any of the wonderful music-driven films made by John Carney (Once, Begin Again, Sing Street), Offerman plays Frank Fisher, a middle-aged widower running a failing Brooklyn vinyl record shop whose only daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons), is off to medical school in September. The music-loving father and daughter have one last summer together. So what do they do? They jam together, record a track or two, catch the songwriting bug and suddenly theyre a band. This is a film about first chances and second chances, first loves and later loves, but mainly its about the transformative impact of making music. A delicious bonus is Ted Danson being quietly brilliant in a supporting cast that also includes an on-form Toni Collette and Blythe Danner. The Escape with Dominic Cooper and Gemma Arterton (above) confronts one of the taboos of modern life: the mother who doesn't like being a mother. Sadly, its execution lets it down Full marks to writer-director Dominic Savage and to actor-producer Gemma Arterton for confronting one of the great taboos of modern life the mother who doesnt like being a mother, or a wife for that matter. Alas, however, in The Escape their execution lets them down, with the structure and pace of Savages screenplay trying the patience, Dominic Cooper struggling to convince as the husband responsible for much of the misery experienced by his wife, Tara (Arterton), and by the surely unarguable fact that if the desultory sex doesnt get to you, the authentically wailing children certainly will. Spy thriller Damascus Cover provides a far-from-fitting send-off for the late John Hurt. Not that theres anything wrong with the great mans brief cameo turn as an ageing Mossad chief; its the clunky screenplay and Jonathan Rhys Meyerss performance as an undercover German-Israeli agent that do the damage. Damascus Cover provides a far-from-fitting send-off for the late John Hurt thanks to a clunky screenplay and Jonathan Rhys Meyerss performance as an undercover agent (above) You might think that The Lego Batman Movie had already spoofed the superhero universe enough. But apparently not, for now along comes Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, spun off from the childrens cartoon TV series, to do something very similar. There is some sporadically clever fun to be had, but not enough to make it essential. King Lear Duke of York's Theatre, London Until Nov 3, 3hrs 30mins Rating: Glenda Jackson was 80 when she played King Lear, Timothy West was 82, and that makes Ian McKellen, 79, a mere whippersnapper in the part. Sir Ian is a star who has never knowingly underacted. But too often I found myself muttering Get on with it, Gandalf as McKellen gave us his thousand-yard stare, the deep, wobbly northern voice, the whole bit. But at least, unlike the last time he played Lear, he doesnt drop his trousers. His great moment is on the heath in pelting rain, in a dripping suit and looking like a demented Gene Kelly with no lamppost. Ian McKellen (above with Danny Webb as Gloucester) failed to give a wholly convincing performance as King Lear after overdoing his thousand-yard stare and deep, wobbly voice But the production, directed by Jonathan Munby, strikes me as a rather flashy palaver dotted with dubious performances. Kent has gender-transitioned into the Countess of Kent, played by Sinead Cusack. Directors routinely do this sort of thing: its a way of signalling their political correctness, and it is the paying customers job to suck it up without complaint. I think booing is in order. This acclaimed production, directed by Jonathan Munby, struck me as a rather flashy palaver dotted with dubious performances, including that of Luke Thompson as Edgar (above) While Cusacks Kent struck me as faintly ridiculous, gender-bending does, however, occasionally work. I found Glenda Jackson a far more moving Lear two years ago and more human in the parts revolting senility. Danny Webbs tweedy Gloucester looking like a vet from All Creatures Great And Small sets a high standard not followed elsewhere. As the cruel sisters, Claire Price is a dull, Home Counties Goneril, and Kirsty Bushell overdoes Regans sadism, bopping to a rock song when Gloucesters eyes are pulled out a scene so disgusting its laughable. Edmund, Edgar and Cordelia are a totally blank lot. But Lloyd Hutchinsons Fool does a quite funny Frank Carson impression. McKellen fans will lap it up. But this acclaimed Lear seems to me an emotionally remote affair. While occasionally shaken, I was never stirred. Exit The King Olivier Stage, National Theatre, London Until Oct 6, 1hr 40mins Rating: Like Lear, King Berenger is another geriatric monarch on the way out. Aged 483, he reigns over a Ruritanian kingdom with white face and red lips, looking like a combination of Scrooge and Batmans Joker. Like an extreme version of Robert Mugabe, the ancient Berenger is terrified of the end, having commanded a kingdom that has faded to nothing. The whole business of dying is animated by the mood swings of Rhys Ifanss baleful, camp, petulant monarch. This play by Eugene Ionesco is from 1962, but Patrick Marbers adaptation breathes life into it somehow. A terrific cast helps, led by Rhys Ifans as the petulant King Berenger (above) This play by Eugene Ionesco the chief exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd movement is from 1962, and if the comedy seems a bit sepia-tinted with age, Patrick Marbers adaptation, stunningly designed by Anthony Ward on a set that splits apart, breathes life into it somehow. A terrific cast helps: Indira Varma is the icy Queen Marguerite, who tells Berenger hes going to die by the end of the play; Amy Morgan is queen No 2, who coos over him; Adrian Scarborough is a scuttling doctor; good old Derek Griffiths is the castle guard; and Debra Gillett is a knackered charwoman. Berenger relinquishing this world to a hypnotic monologue is unforgettable. Its a terrific part, and you come away feeling that Ifans is an actor capable of anything. The Meeting Chichester Festival Theatre Until Sat, 2hrs 10mins Rating: Whod have thought a bunch of Quakers sitting in a circle would make for a gripping night out. But this play, set in the Sussex countryside of 1805 while England dreads Napoleons invasion, is just that. It tells the story of Rachel (Lydia Leonard, superb) who has married a stonemason who belongs to the Society of Friends. They have lost three children, all boys. Rachel is too lively to be a good Quaker. When a young lad a deserter comes into the group, an erotic attraction leads her down a giddy path of disaster. Lydia Leonard (right) gives a superb performance as Rachel alongside Laurie Davidson (left) as the young deserter who leads her astray from Quakerism in this beautiful, flinty play Charlotte Joness play has the tone of a good, slow-burn thriller. It shows the effects of one womans burning need to speak out in a spiritual community led by men, all silently tutting at her beneath their leather hats. The performances feel totally real, not least from Rachels speechless mother, played by deaf actress Jean St Clair, who signs to her daughter in a secret code. A beautiful, flinty play that speaks volumes, often while saying little. If you dont want to see a border collie, dont work in a pub in the Yorkshire Dales! The three collies are currently sporting brightly coloured neckerchiefs. Not a fashion statement, but part of a de-stressing and calming system sent to me by Pet Remedy. You spray the scarf with essential oils, then secure it around the dogs neck. I also have de-stressing pre-wash, shampoo and conditioner, and calming wipes. Unfortunately, when I went to wipe Gracie, she lay on her back and did a stress wee. The reason for the above is that the dogs are always getting me into trouble. Yesterday, on a walk through a farmyard, a woman drove up in a van. Mini, who is the friendliest dog in the world, wiggled up to her. The woman stormed over to me, angry. If your dog scratches my car, I am sending you the bill! I was in a pub the other weekend and, as it was 30 degrees, I took all the dogs inside. Just for one second, Minis lead slipped from my sweaty palm and she wandered off. I heard a voice booming from behind the bar: Keep your dog on the leeeaaaad!!!!! I stood up, gathered the other two, and said, in the middle of the pub: If you dont want to see a border collie, dont work in a pub in the Yorkshire Dales! Why not boom like that at parents letting their toddlers run around screaming? (I was never allowed to scream as a child.) There is no question we should all live and let live a little more. It is rules, rules, rules. I was on the terrace at Rudding Park hotel the other day, working, the three dogs under the table. A man in a panama hat came over. Hello, I said. I recognised him as someone I spotted earlier with a blind woman and a guide dog. Your dogs barked uncontrollably earlier. That guide dog is trying to do his job. If it happens again, I am going to report you! What a nice approach. I bet his blind friend is popular. Gracie had barked once, to say hello. Im sure the guide dog encounters other dogs all the time. If he cant cope with barking, then he hasnt been properly trained. Anyway, I thought Id mess with the mans panamad head. Im sorry, what did you say? Im profoundly deaf, and these are my listening dogs. I dont know why people are so horrible to me. The woman in the Post Office, who rolled her eyes when I said I couldnt hear the amount, and could she display it on her till. The friend who stayed for a week at Christmas as she was renting her home out on Airbnb, and who never once asked, What are we running out of? but merely disappeared, to return with a bottle of Coke and a supermarket loaf of sliced bread. I was so shocked at what she did to my immaculate spare room mattress dragged to the floor, bed unmade, rubbish everywhere, half drunk glasses of water I took a photo. I even tidy up when Im staying in a hotel: rubbish in bin, towels in bath, tip for the cleaner. I blame my friends parents. They told her she could be anything she wants to be. She cant. Success takes hard work, tenacity, luck. My mum just wanted me to survive to adulthood without being run over. Anyway, feeling alone and friendless, no one to meet at a pub to watch England play in the semi-final, I got another email from HIM. Why dont you meet me in Sydney? Im performing at XXXX, so do come backstage. I cant do that! How can I meet someone in a foreign clime, when we havent even been on a date? He would be on a promise, certainly. What does come backstage mean, exactly? Also and most importantly, I dont look my best after a long-haul flight. I remember landing in Singapore, en route to Bali, and I stopped to buy some YSL Touche Eclat. Would you like to put some on now? the sales assistant asked. Cheeky cow. I cant afford to fly to Sydney. This is just like when the Rock Star first emailed me having read my column, saying, I hear youve gone off me, and offering me a free holiday in his villa. I couldnt afford the hire car at the other end, so had to cry off, citing a sick cat. I emailed Nic. Can you get me a free flight to Australia, has to be business class or I puff up. I need to see my sister in hospital. Copy that, she said. Though she knows somethings up So far, 2018 has been a year of fashion moments: Meghans wedding wardrobe, Rihannas papal Met Gala look and, er, Gareths waistcoat. But more than anything its been about the dress. After last season reignited our love for the midi weve been embracing frocks of all lengths and falling in love with summers bright colours and bold patterns I for one have ditched my jeans and tee combo for a dress a day. And its a trend thats here to stay. If by now youve exhausted the high street for options (are the sales over yet?) and are looking for inspiration, here are my favourite under-the-radar labels to shop WIGGY KIT has been around since 2015 but the fashion crowd is just catching on to Brit designer Wiggy Hindmarchs prairie-inspired cotton frocks (see left). Theyll see you through a multitude of occasions and are comfy, lightweight and flattering to all ages. OWN THE LOOK is a UK -based site launched by a former fashion editor, which offers a unique edit of must-know brands at great prices. Its dress selection is particularly desirable and given that its USP is to have looks styled up for you by the experts, you might end up buying more than you meant to SLEEPER'S nightwear is too pretty to keep in the bedroom: think silky slips that could double as wedding wear and heatwave-friendly light linens. The Ukrainian label has been spotted on tastemakers from Net-a-Porters Lisa Aiken to Man Repellers Leandra Medine, so is no doubt set for stardom. What to wear to...A NIGHT AT THE PROMS With events taking place until 8 September in London and across the UK , theres no excuse not to indulge in a bit of classical culture this summer. Tip: at Londons Royal Albert Hall, if your favourite evening is sold out, up to 1,350 standing tickets are available to buy on the day from just 6. bbc.co.uk/proms THIS WEEK I'M BUYING... TREAT SHOES, 415, Rejina Pyo, net-a-porter.com These pretty pink slingbacks just because they look so good! STEAL BAG, 17.99, bershka.com This is similar to a sold-out Muun bag thats ten times the price. I LOVE! SUITCASE, 1,575, Mrs Alice x Misela, misela.com TRAVEL BRIGHT Make it sunny whatever your destination with Miselas rainbow luggage, designed in collaboration with fashion writer Alice Naylor-Leyland to mark its tenth anniversary. Ive been a fan of this Turkish label for a while the pouch travels everywhere with me, carrying essentials from airport to beach and out to dinner; it even houses my laptop. Next on my list is this case you wont miss it on the carousel! If youre as big a fan as me, keep an eye out for Miselas London store, coming soon. POUCHES, from 215, Mrs Alice x Misela, misela.com Fashion assistant: Stephanie Sofokleous Funny and forthright, Countryfiles Anita Rani is one of TVs most wanted (and most loved) presenters. But her journey to primetime hasnt been a breeze. She tells Julia Llewellyn Smith about breaking barriers and the very personal reason why shes put motherhood on hold Anita wears DRESS, Michael Michael Kors, from Selfridges. EARRINGS, Vicki Sarge Anita Rani is perched on an armchair on a Soho rooftop on a glorious summers morning, munching an almond croissant and reflecting on the highlight of her year to date being one of the BBCs presenting team for the royal wedding. Anita presenting BBC Twos Bollywood: The Worlds Biggest Film Industry I so lucked out being picked for that! she exclaims. Harry and Meghan smashed it there was magic in the air that morning. I cried so much: at the gospel choir, and every time the cameras panned to [Meghans mother] Doria. The future king of England had just walked her daughter down the aisle and she held it together. What a moment for inclusivity! If an institution like the British royal family can put on a wedding that embraced so much diversity, then what excuse has anybody else got for not embracing it in their everyday lives. Anita with Ore Oduba, covering the royal wedding for the BBC: I lucked out being picked for that; I cried so much! She continues: I used to hate words like diversity and inclusivity, because they imply that brown-skinned people are outside, having to be brought in, and Ive always just felt normal. But now I love the fact Im living in an age where BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] issues are being discussed. Its not just racial identity but female politics, too. Finally, brown-skinned people and women can shout about things and others have to pay attention. So lets use those words. Its hard to imagine a TV personality who embodies inclusiveness more than Anita, 40, who is every bit as fizzy and sharp-witted in person as she comes across on television. Diminutive and garrulous, she appears equally at home in wellies (in the enduringly popular Countryfile) and stilettos as she demonstrated when she samba-ed to fourth place in 2015s Strictly Come Dancing. She presented last years One Love Manchester concert and the Last Night of the Proms, won the first series of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off and often hosts The One Show. She has also reported from her parents native India, and was the subject of one of the most harrowing episodes of the family history show Who Do You Think You Are? Anita sobbed as she related how her Sikh female ancestors killed themselves or were killed by male relations during the Partition of India, rather than be slain or violated by the enemy. Now shes presenting a BBC two-part series, which she also co-produced, about one of Indias greatest exports: Bollywood. Anita wears TOP, Stine Goya, from Fenwick. CULOTTES, Massimo Dutti. SHOES, Jimmy Choo Anita was born and raised in Bradford after her parents moved here in their early 20s, but frequently visited relatives in India (she speaks fluent Punjabi) and later backpacked around the country. Like many British Asians, she grew up immersed in the vibrant images of the worlds largest film industry whose vast number of movies normally featured old-fashioned, boy-meets-girl love stories told through often surprisingly provocative song-and-dance numbers. I had the idea for the series after Strictly, she says in her chirpy Yorkshire vowels. All the other contestants were going off to dance in the West End but Id always harboured this secret desire to dance in a Bollywood film. Even though Im really conflicted about its gyrating women and how hypersexualised they are. The series contains plenty of fun footage of Anita in gorgeous costumes, gamely attempting to master intricate Bollywood dance routines to pulsating bhangra numbers. But its also packed with fascinating insights into how the traditional Indian values the industry portrayed are being challenged by a new generation of filmmakers. Dad took me for my first half pint when I was 14 and taught me to play pool Ive always had a love-hate relationship with Bollywood, Anita says. Theres so much dross; much of it is predictable and two-dimensional the women always either played the simpering housewife, the distraught mother or the evil mother-in-law. But now these amazing new films are coming out from people whove grown up with the same culture as mine watching Friends and Frasier and listening to drum and bass and hip-hop and they want to tell their own stories. One of the latest attempts to shake up the industry was a recent video that went viral featuring a hilarious spoof dance routine by Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut. In it, she sings about how she has to endure lower pay, objectification and being dubbed a diva, simply Cos I have a vagina. Anita hoots, I cant wait for that to go out on British TV. Indian parents will be grabbing the remote, saying [she adopts a perfect Indian accent] She said vagina! Indians in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai can be much more open-minded than their communities in the UK, who often seem trapped in the values of 1950s Britain because that is when they arrived here. Compared with many of her peers, Anita and her younger brother received a relatively liberal, secular upbringing from their Hindu father and Sikh mother, who ran a clothing business and sent her to an all-girls private school with few Asian pupils. My parents are really cool, she says. My dad took me for my first half pint when I was 14 and taught me to play pool, which a lot of other Indian men of his generation found shocking. BLOUSE, MSGM, from net-a-porter.com. TROUSERS, Emilia Wickstead, from Selfridges. MULES, Manolo Blahnik The couple allowed Anita to reject the traditional Asian career trajectory of doctor/lawyer/pharmacist in favour of studying broadcasting at Leeds University, which led to her first television gig. Dad really would have loved to have been an RAF pilot and Mum wanted to be a particular Bollywood cabaret dancer called Helen, so though they would have been delighted if Id gone to Cambridge and become a barrister, they always wanted their children to have the things they were denied, including choosing their own career. Although they had a successful arranged marriage, Anitas parents did not see the need for their children to follow such a traditional path. Though Mum would always say: You can marry anyone you like, as long as hes Indian! Anita laughs. It wasnt at all important to me where the person I married came from. But then, ten years ago, when Anita attended a warehouse party in hip Hackney, East London (where she now lives), she was introduced by friends to Bhupi. Now 38, he is a technology director for a healthcare company, and like her second-generation Indian. When Mum heard Bhupis Indian name, she totally lost it, Anita says. From then on, she was determined wed be married. Id never really had any Asian mates before then, but I have to say the reason I fell in love with him is we are culturally very similar and theres something to be said for that. Anita at her lavish 2010 wedding in Bradford: 'I call it my Punjabi sweat-fest!' Bhupi proposed six months after they met and they had a three-day Indian wedding for 450 people in Bradford. I call it my Punjabi sweat-fest. It was incredible but it wasnt intimate; it was all about our families, while my non-Indian friends were doing very individual things like writing their own vows, she says. So next year were thinking of renewing our vows for our ten-year anniversary and making it very personal. The couple enjoy a very contemporary marriage, with Anita often away for weeks filming. Bhupi knows how happy my job makes me, so we make it work, she says. At first his reaction was, Where are you going?, but now hes like, OK, bye! He has friends round for poker nights and watches terrible movies. He knows filming schedules are mental and that I dont need to call him all day, every day. But it would be wrong to think that Anitas not family-oriented: shes devoted to her parents, now in their early 60s. Until last year, they lived in Bradford and my brother whos just had a baby and I were both in London, she says. I spoke to Mum and she said, Im feeling lonely and it broke my heart. She found them a house to buy in London and, within weeks, the couple had moved. Its wicked we see so much more of them and Bhupis parents are in South London, so theyre also close by, but not too close. Mum wanted my key so she could pop round whenever she wanted, but I said, Nah, youre all right! Im so lucky; 20 years ago my time would have been up at 40 Still, Anita continues, theres no doubt well look after them when theyre older. My husband and I have talked about it. Its ingrained in us; its part of Indian culture though, again, things are changing. My grandparents didnt want to move in with Mum, and my parents are so independent they might not want to live with me. But caring for our parents is something we all need to think about. People think social care is paid for by the NHS, but its not so I think we could do a lot worse than instil in our kids from day one, youre going to look after me, mate. Ive done enough pieces for The One Show and Countryfile when you hear about people dying alone to know theres nothing sadder than lonely old people. For now, however, Anitas priority is work: I want my own series. Shes never been a target of overt racism bar the odd mad tweet. But as a non-white person you are always aware your experience is different to everyone elses that you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good as a white person to be successful. All our parents have told us that. So, although I never used to like being thought of as a role model, because I always thought of myself as being on my own trajectory, the more people say to me: Youve broken so many barriers as a brown-skinned woman on TV, the more I think, OK, Ill accept that. On that basis, shes thrilled to be the Asian face in a dazzling band of female television presenters aged 40 plus. Im so lucky 20 years ago my time would have been up at 40, but now all the greats are in their 40s and 50s: Claudia, Tess, Davina. Alesha Dixons 39 Im obsessed with her. Anne Robinsons still going strong in her 70s go Anne! ANITA ADORES Look no creases! A post-shoot moment with the stylists steamer and a glass of fizz. Anita wears BLOUSE, MSGM, from net-a-porter.com. TROUSERS, Emilia Wickstead, from Selfridges. MULES, Manolo Blahnik Describe yourself in three words A right laugh. Last book you read Brit(ish) by [half-British, half-Ghanaian] Afua Hirsch. I interviewed her recently and shes really inspired me to think and talk more about identity politics. What makes you laugh? Dark things Im quite Northern like that: The League of Gentleman, Inside Number Nine, and Matt Berry in Toast of London. On your bedside table Lots of books, Tiger Balm, a DAB radio and a foot cream. Last thing you do at night Give myself a foot massage (my mother taught me how to do that), listen to the radio, read. Favourite food Mums curry. What would surprise people about you? Im really into dance music the 90s underground drum and bass scene. Motto Follow your passion money will always come. Advertisement Like nearly all married women in their 40s, Anita has had to endure intensely personal questioning about her plans for motherhood. Ive had all sorts of nonsense, she smiles. Someone said, A career is a career but there is a time in your life I was looking at her, thinking: What gives you the right? Another person not even a family member said: When are you going to make our Bhupi a father? Wow! Because I am the babymaker? Thats my job? Bhupi was fuming. Her immediate family have put on less pressure. Most have piped down a bit now, she continues. Mum was once like: Oh, you know, kids I said: Mum, its not like Ive been sitting around for the past ten years Ive done so much with my career. And that was the end of the conversation. Anita seems unfazed by doom-mongering statistics about womens chances of becoming pregnant after the age of 35. Women can have babies in their 40s, she says. I think if anyone sits in judgment over women having children older then they need to grasp the real world. Its wonderful that women can work as much as they want to and then have a kid later if they want to. I feel fit as anything, super-energetic, its all good. She hopes her choice not to prioritise babies will help other members of her community. Theres still huge pressure on Asian girls to be wives and mothers, so now I think if I can show them they can do what they want, then thats a good thing. That resolve became even stronger after she filmed Who Do You Think You Are? I recognised I come from a long line of women who had no choice about anything in their life its terrifying, Anita says. By an accident of birth I find myself living in Britain in the 21st century and I am exercising my right to choose and Im having a bloody good time doing that. Thats very clear and life-affirming to see. Whipping boy: Centrica boss Iain Conn There are some jobs out there that attract so many brickbats they should come with a custom-built flak jacket. Ryanair's customer services manager during August, perhaps, or phone flinging Naomi Campbell's maid. Some mornings Iain Conn may well feel his position could do with its very own nuclear fallout shelter. As head of Centrica, owner of our biggest household energy supplier British Gas, Conn is the energy industry's whipping boy, a public pinata wheeled out onto the airwaves every six months or so for a ritual thwacking. When the wholesale cost of fuel goes down, rarely, if ever, do Conn and his contemporaries in charge of our 'big six' energy providers pass on the benefits. But at the first sign of costs increasing, you can guarantee our energy bills will go soaring. Such matters have been happily removed from most people's minds of late, what with this glorious summer we're enjoying. Then, just as a thin layer of dust gathers on our thermostats, up pops Conn this week to warn us in his solemn-sounding Scots burr that prices may yet be hiked again in the near future. Burn him! Colleagues say Conn has skin thicker than whale blubber, which is just as well. Broad of shoulder and cherubic of cheek, his surname has been a gift to waspish city commentators and headline writers everywhere. Like whoever is in charge of state-owned RBS, guffawing at the Centrica boss's annual remuneration has become something of a national sport. His predecessor, Old Etonian Sam Laidlaw, was dubbed 'Sammy Two Pools' when it was discovered he was building a second swimming pool on the grounds of his Cotswolds Estate. Conn got his own tabloid pasting in 2016 when it was revealed his pay had hit 4.1million. The Sun photographed him collecting three pints of milk from the driveway of his 2.7million home in Buckinghamshire with the headline: 'Fat Cat's Got the Cream.' Conn at least saw the funny side. He keeps a framed copy of the headline on his office wall at Centrica's Windsor headquarters. Born in Edinburgh and raised in the Borders, his father, a doctor, died when Conn was 12. He was enrolled at the time at Loretto boarding school, where fellow pupils included broadcaster Andrew Marr, and assumed he would have to leave. Thankfully, his father's stepfather came to the rescue and offered to pay the bills. Colleagues say Conn has skin thicker than whale blubber, which is just as well After undertaking a chemical engineering degree at Imperial College, he took a position at BP. He would spend the next 29 years there, hopping all over the world. As well as stints in Zambia, Russia and the Caspian Sea, he played a key role on the oil giant's takeover of American rival Amoco in 1999. When Conn rose to become one of Lord Browne's treasured assistants dubbed the 'ninja turtles' as they were required to appear on the scene whenever needed it was clear he was set for big things. Plum seats on the boards of blue-chip firms such as Rolls Royce and BP followed. After Browne passed over the reins to Tony Hayward in 2007 it was widely assumed Conn would be next in line as BP's chief executive. But the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in 2010 put paid to that plan. When the subsequent PR fiasco saw Hayward depart, looking like he'd just endured a 12-round battering from Anthony Joshua, BP decided it would be more politic to appoint an American, Bob Dudley, than another Brit. Career salvation arrived in 2015, when he landed the Centrica job. Conn spends as much time at home as possible with wife Caroline and their three children. Weekends are spent fly-fishing or tootling on his tenor saxophone. As well as being a big blues fan, he's also a certified car nut. He owns a beautiful 1967 Jaguar Mark II, the car TV detective Morse used to drive, and loves nothing more than retreating to his garage to fix up old motors. Customers will hope it's just car engines the refined Scotsman keeps tinkering with this winter, rather than their energy bills. Two gas and electricity suppliers have just gone bust, putting a spotlight on how customers fare when energy providers hit trouble. Iresa is the latest household provider to fold, just a day after business supplier National Gas and Power had its licence revoked. Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday warned that a number of small suppliers were on the brink. Now the chief executive of the supplier taking over from Iresa is warning that cheaply run energy firms still pose a risk to customers. Here, we explain what customers need to know - and do - in the wake of Iresa's demise. Two gas and electricity suppliers have just gone bust, putting a spotlight on how customers fare when energy providers hit trouble What has happened? Back in March energy regulator Ofgem banned Iresa from recruiting new customers until it got its 'house in order' and resolved its disastrous customer service issues. In February customers who paid regular sums by direct debit had one-off charges taken from their bank accounts 'to recover debt'. One contacted Citizens Advice after receiving a 1,000 demand for payment. Many others have overpaid and are now owed money by Iresa. Complaints went unanswered and when The Mail on Sunday tried to call the supplier it found itself 110th in the queue. Ofgem's ban was originally meant to last for up to three months. But it had to be extended as Iresa still could not handle the workload from existing customers. Now Iresa has ceased trading altogether. Balance: Thomas Rogers insists good customer service is key What happens next? Octopus Energy will take on Iresa's customers. When a supplier goes bust Ofgem appoints a rival to rescue abandoned accounts, known as a 'supplier of last resort'. Hudson Energy will take on customers of National Gas and Power. Octopus Energy will continue contacting Iresa's customers this week. No one's supply will be interrupted under Ofgem's 'safety net' rules. 'Stop new suppliers taking cash upfront' Energy regulator Ofgem has appointed a supplier of last resort three times already this year. The first was Green Star Energy, which took on customers of now defunct Future Energy in January. Before this, the process was only used twice in a decade for GB Energy in 2016 and Electricity4 Business in 2008. The recent failures of Iresa and National Gas and Power come after Ofgem announced it would review the process for allowing new suppliers into the market. In June it said that it aimed to ensure appropriate protections against poor customer service and financial instability. Experts are crying out for tighter regulation of licences granted to fledgling suppliers. Doug Stewart, chief executive of supplier Green Energy, calls Iresas failure a consequence of Ofgem allowing anyone with 50 and a credit card to start an energy company. Watchful: Gillian Guy wants tighter control of energy start-ups He says the regulator must make it a requirement for firms to bill in arrears meaning they are prevented from taking customers cash upfront before taking over a supply contract. Gillian Guy, head of Citizens Advice, also argues for a tougher regime. She says: The regulators upcoming review of licensing rules must make it easier to stop unprepared suppliers entering the market. It should also ensure poorly performing companies are taken out of the market faster. Though the failure of a provider does not interrupt household gas or electricity supplies, customers can still suffer. For example, a cash-strapped supplier may have raised direct debit levels or demanded payments customers had not budgeted for. Then there is the frustration of being unable to communicate with staff. When suppliers fail, costs rise for the remaining providers and, ultimately, customers. It also puts consumers off switching to cheaper deals. The boss of Octopus has begged for patience over the next fortnight as it is 'working with poor quality information' from Iresa. Chief executive Greg Jackson told The Mail on Sunday: 'This is the scariest thing we have done since starting the business because we have a reputation to uphold and this is a case of whether or not we can turn around such a big mess.' Jackson says his business receives 12 complaints a year on average from the Energy Ombudsman. By contrast Iresa received about 9,000 a year. Jackson adds: 'It is now our aim to show tens of thousands of customers who have been through the wringer just how much better an energy company can be.' Who is affected? The 90,000 customers of Iresa and 80 firms served by National Gas and Power are directly affected. But the news also serves as a reminder to all consumers to pick a provider based on more than just price when switching to save money. Choose one that is both cost effective and robust. Colin Nicholson, 49, a sub-editor at The Mail on Sunday is an Iresa customer. He says: 'I always thought it did not matter if my supplier went bust as I would probably owe it money. But after Iresa took a one-off payment in March I am now in credit.' Jackson warns there are still suppliers offering 'break-even or below cost energy' to new customers. These deals come with a 'sting in the tail', because it will either lead to a price rise or the firm going bust. Should iresa customers switch? No. Take a meter reading and wait until you have a new account with Octopus. The transfer should be complete around August 21. Once the new accounts are in place, customers can switch again, without penalty. If a switch was under way before Iresa ceased trading, this will still go ahead with any credit repaid. Those with a smart meter may find it returns to 'traditional' mode, which means taking manual readings. Octopus uses a Secure brand smart meter and customers with those can use them as normal. Will Iresa customers end up paying more? Ofgem says customers will not lose any credit built from overpayments. But customers of a failed supplier face paying more as they are shunted on to a 'deemed contract'. The higher costs reflect the extra risk the new supplier is taking on. Iresa marketed itself as a cheap supplier and undercut rivals significantly, so any new contract is likely to be more expensive. Customers will be moved to the 'Flexible Octopus' tariff, which the supplier says is cheaper than those offered by the Big Six suppliers. A typical customer will pay 955 a year. I'm not with Iresa. Should I do anything? It always pays to consider switching. Compare tariffs from your own supplier as well as rivals. Check if you will have to pay an exit penalty. Good price comparison websites will take this into account when showing savings. Millions of households pay over the odds. Others are with companies offering poor service. One of the Big Six suppliers, British Gas, recently revealed it lost 270,000 customers in the first six months of this year. But Thomas Rogers, co-founder of transfer service Switchd, warns against picking on price alone. Red notice: Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday warned that a number of small suppliers were on the brink He says: 'The choice is simple. Do you want cheap energy with good customer service or expensive energy with poor service?' He recommends looking at review websites, but adds: 'Companies rarely go bust and if they do your energy will not be interrupted.' Where switcher can find help Comparison websites accredited by Ofgem for upholding certain standards including how they find and present deals include TheEnergyShop, uSwitch and the energyhelpline, which you can also call on 0800 0740745. Companies that will move you to a cheaper deal with you only having to sign up once include Switchd, Labrador and Flipper. Review websites include Trust- pilot, while consumer groups MoneySavingExpert and Which? publish tables on customer satisfaction. For more help on switching generally, visit citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy or call their helpline on 03454 040506. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is walking a very tricky tightrope in his Budget. He needs to keep a lid on borrowing and spending without squashing the nascent recovery. So far, money markets have been sanguine about the fact our national debt has grown to more than 2trillion and counting. Government IOUs remain highly rated and are much in demand among international investors. This happy state of affairs, however, will only last as long as our credibility. Once lost, this is not easily regained. Margaret Thatcher failed to unleash an entrepreneurial culture, a new account of business history has concluded. The book rejects our most feted entrepreneurs of recent times as pale imitations of those of the past. The Rise And Fall Of The British Nation argues the list of great entrepreneurs whose animal spirits were unleashed in the new dispensation of the late 1980s and 1990s is rather thin. Dismissed: New book brushes aside the achievements of inventor Sir James Dyson Its author, David Edgerton, is professor of modern British history at Kings College London. He says research and development spending has fallen since the 1970s and that Britain has a culture that unleashed no serious entrepreneurs at all. His book is likely to be politically controversial. Conservatives believe the Thatcher revolution privatising state-backed firms, reducing the power of trade unions and reforming the City in the Big Bang freed business to generate wealth. The Rise And Fall Of The British Nation by David Edgerton In the book Edgerton takes a swipe at some famous businessmen. Sir James Dyson invented a new vacuum cleaner and a public lavatory hand-drying system. This is not the sort of transformational success that, say, Lord Nuffield had with motor cars in the interwar years, the book says. Lord Nuffield founded the Morris car company and has been described as the most famous industrialist of his age. Sir Richard Branson, Edgerton says, was nothing like as pioneering as an airline boss as Sir Freddie Laker of the 1960s and 1970s. Laker was one of the first airline entrepreneurs to operate a no-frills service. Edgerton describes Lord Sugar as no Bill Gates in a disparaging comparison with the Microsoft founder. British consumers buying 'higher welfare' pork products have been misled for more than a decade after the Government failed to act on urgent advice given 15 years ago, campaigners have claimed. Industry chiefs and the Government were warned in 2003 the 'best practice' model for pig slaughter in the UK leaves the animals 'kicking out and screaming' before death after they are forced into 'gas chambers' and killed. Supermarkets including Morrisons, Sainsbury's and the Co-op continue to sell products advertising the highest standards of welfare for the animals, however, campaigners have suggested that, because of the way in which they die, this is misleading. Those 'highest standards' leave the animals writhing in agony - fifteen years after a government committee pushed for a new method to be brought in. Currently, more than half of the nine million pigs slaughtered in the UK annually are 'gassed' with high co2 concentrations (70% to 90%) of to stun them, before they are killed for meat. Scroll down for video Stunned: Tesco and other supermarkets use pig stunning despite calls for the method to be dropped in 2003. Supermarkets say it is the 'best available' method Panic: CO2 stunning has been deemed humane because the pigs are moved in groups before they are stunned, but they can suffer for 'up to 30 seconds' when they are in the high concentration pits Suffocating: CO2 is aversive to the pigs' breathing and can cause them 'severe distress', campaigners say While supermarkets and meat companies advertise the pigs in organic products as having lived freely - they do not disclose on packaging the method used to kill them - which the government's own advisory body called to be replaced in 2003. In 2014 horrendous footage of the animals screaming in an abattoir shocked the nation. Video clips released by Eyes on Animals showed the pigs scrambling over one another in a bid to escape - as they struggle for breath. A recent co2 shortage led to a slow down in the production of pork revealing the method was never amended. Animal welfare groups have called on the Government and the pork production industry, to explain why more than a decade on, nothing has been done, despite foods being labelled 'high welfare'. CEO of Compassion in World Farming (CWIF), Philip Lymbery, said: 'I have been told by the big four and several others they all use C02 in their supply chain. 'Bringing home the bacon has never been crueler. The c02 shortage showed supermarkets have adopted co2 stunning 'For a killing to be truly humane it needs to be instant or non aversive - and by that I mean not causing panic, pain or distress. 'High concentrations of CO2 gas causes fighting for breath, hyperventilation and pain for up to 60 seconds - sometimes longer 'They begin to panic and kick out and try to escape. They are gasping for air and screaming out. 'I am calling on all supermarkets to do everything within their power to end this method and bring about a new way 'Consumers have no way of knowing from labels id their pork produce has come from a place which issues this horrendous method. 'Consumers are therefore powerless to make a choice.' 'The Government is funding research - fifteen years after they ignored their own advice. Supermarkets advertise pork as 'high welfare' and 'RSPCA assured' - but campaigners say customers are unaware the pigs die scared, confused and screaming to escape gas chambers Tesco also uses CO2 in the slaughter of pigs for its pork products. The 'big four' supermarkets said they are using the method as they are allowed to do by law Morrisons Thick Outdoor-Bred Pork Sausages: The supermarket confirmed it uses CO2 in pig slaughter which has been heavily criticised since animals die screaming and hyperventilating Herded: Pigs are in groups which causes them less distress, it has been claimed. Yet campaigners have revealed they kick out and scream as they suffocate The Labour-led Environment department was told by its own expert advisory committee the so-called stun-kill method would have to change after research in the UK Sweden, Denmark and Holland. A shocking report into the use of Co2 stunning found 'hyperventilation' and 'convulsions' can occur during the slaughter process. The government's Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) concluded 'the use of high concentrations of CO2 to stun and kill pigs is not acceptable and we wish to see it phased out in five years'. However, this was never done. The government has admitted it is 'aware' of the advice but failed to answer questions over why no action was taken until last year, when research was finally funded. Meanwhile supermarkets and firms have said they are right to advertise the high welfare products because although they are aware of the research. there is no better alternative, by default making their form of slaughter the most ethical on the table. However, their argument has been slammed by experts who say it is merely the cheapest option and that in fact, electrical stunning involves much less pain for the animals. Mail Online contacted the 'big four' supermarkets including Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's. In response, the British Retail Consortium defended the use of the method. A spokesperson said: 'Retailers take the welfare of animals extremely seriously. Co2 stunning is a legally permitted form of slaughter and retailers work with suppliers to ensure that legal requirements in relation to gas stunning are strictly followed. 'This includes using prescribed gas mixes, monitoring the animals and ensuring staff are fully trained and competent. Suppliers also follow industry best practice standards. Research is underway to look at alternative stunning mixes although it may be some time until these are validated, approved and suitable for large-scale use.' A statement from Morrisons given to activists claimed their providers switched to the method at the end of 2017 - long after the advice was given. A statement said: 'On behalf of Morrisons, I would like to confirm that yes, we do use carbon dioxide in stunning pigs before slaughter and have done so since the end of 2017. 'As with all projects, we will be led by the science and so await the outcomes of the Defra research into low atmospheric pressure stunning with interest. When this research has been concluded, we will be in a position to re-evaluate any stunning methods we use. 'Until that time, we will continue to maintain our high standards of animal welfare at time of kill with colleague training, systems audits and monitoring and internal reporting.' WHY IS CO2 HARMFUL TO PIGS? Robert Hubrecht, Chief Executive of the Humane Slaughter Association told MailOnline: 'As with many gas killing systems, carbon dioxide partly acts by displacing oxygen so the brain cannot function and brain death ensues. 'Carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid with a low pH when it meets moisture and probably because of this, inhalation of carbon dioxide at high concentrations causes irritation of the nasal mucosal membranes and lungs.' He added that all available commercial methods for the stunning and slaughter of pigs have their disadvantages, and the use of CO2 is 'often the most reliable' for large operations. 'Looking to the future, further research into inert gas mixtures and other controlled atmosphere systems might well lead to welfare benefits,' he said. Advertisement A Co-op spokesperson said they partner with Tulip Ltd for pork products, which they call the UK's largest high-welfare pig producer. The animals live in 'spacious barns' and are raised to strict RSPCA standards, the Co-op said. The UK is not the only nation with major concerns, as horrendous footage was uncovered from abattoirs in Australia, this week. A biomedical scientist from the country said people are led to believe pigs gently fall asleep, when in reality they suffer a horrendous death. He said: 'When the pigs inhale, even their lungs, throat, nose and mouth become acidic. 'In their last minutes, these pigs are burning from the inside out.' Campaigners believe the method is used because it is cheaper - and the animals can be killed in groups, rather than individually. Alternatives to the co2 stunning include stunning the animals with volts of electricity - a method which is widely used in the UK. However this is also problematic. Electric stunning using a stun-gun kills the animals immediately but must be done one-by-one. The Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) has previously argued this causes distress to the animals because they are separated from the rest of their group. The charity Animal Aid agrees with CWIF that CO is 'far from 'humane' and causes numerous issues including 'breathlessness as well as immense burning pain'. Now, the Government is funding research into Low Atmospheric Pressure Stunning (LAPS). Observations of RAF pilots experiencing low pressure atmospheres suggest that the sensation is not unpleasant. As the air thins, they may be in danger of losing consciousness, but they do not experience gasping or suffocation. The method has already been approved in the EU for chicken slaughter. The Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) has jointly funded with the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) a new programme of research to determine whether Low Atmospheric Pressure Stunning (LAPS) might be a more humane way to stun pigs during commercial slaughter. However, results will not be available for two years. A Defra spokesperson said: 'We are aware of concerns over the use of carbon dioxide to stun pigs and are funding research alongside the Humane Slaughter Association to look into alternatives to the practice.' China has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on $60billion worth of American imports, including coffee, honey and industrial chemicals, if Washington carries out its latest trade threat. China's Finance Ministry accused the Trump administration of damaging the global economy on Friday after the US proposed increasing duties on $200billion of Chinese goods in the second round of a dispute over technology. 'China is forced to take countermeasures,' the ministry said in a statement announcing that retaliatory duties of between five and 25 percent will be imposed on 5,207 products 'if the US side persists in putting its tariff measures into effect'. China's Foreign Ministry announced Friday it will impose retaliatory tariffs of up to 25 percent on $60billion of US goods if the Trump administration follows through with proposed taxes on Chinese products. Pictured: A container ship docked at a Qingdao port on July 6 Washington imposed 25 percent duties on $34billion of Chinese goods on July 6 in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing retaliated by imposing similar charges on the same amount of US products. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday that 'instead of retaliating, China should address longstanding concerns about its unfair trading practices'. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman had earlier called on Washington to 'come to its senses' and settle the dispute. Chinese leaders have offered to narrow their politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more American goods, but they have rejected changing technology development plans they see as a path to prosperity and global influence. There's no end in sight, and the dispute could chill global trade and economic growth. China's new threat targeting a smaller amount of US goods reflects the fact that Beijing is running out of products for retaliation due to its lopsided trade balance with the United States. China's imports from the United States last year totaled $153.9billion. After the earlier tariffs $34billion of US goods, about $120billion is available for retaliation. The highest penalties on the new list would be imposed on honey, vegetables, mushrooms and chemicals, targeting farming and mining areas that supported President Donald Trump in the 2016 election. The new list includes products as varied as snow blowers and 3D printers, suggesting Chinese authorities are struggling to find enough imports their own economy can do without. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a briefing Friday that 'instead of retaliating, China should address longstanding concerns about its unfair trading practices' Beijing's earlier round of tariffs appeared designed to minimize the impact on the Chinese economy by targeting soybeans, whiskey and other goods available from Brazil, Australia and other suppliers. Trump initially proposed 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200billion of Chinese imports, but he told trade officials this week to consider raising that to 25 percent. It will be September at the earliest before the U.S. decides whether to impose those tariffs. Chinese authorities warned earlier that if the dispute escalated, they would adopt unspecified 'comprehensive measures.' That prompted concern among American companies that retaliation might expand to disrupting their operations in China. The United States and China have the world's biggest trading relationship but official ties are increasingly strained over complaints that Beijing's technology development tactics hurt American companies. Trump's tariffs target goods the White House says benefit from industrial policies such as 'Made in China 2025', which calls for developing Chinese competitors in robotic, artificial intelligence and other fields. The dispute is part of broader US complaints about global trading conditions that have prompted Trump to raise duties on steel, aluminum, washing machines or solar panels from Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea. A spokesman for China's foreign ministry appealed to Washington to negotiate but could not confirm reports the two sides were setting up talks. 'We urge the United States to come to its senses, correct its erroneous acts and create the necessary condition for a proper settlement as soon as possible,' spokesman Geng Shuang said. Trump campaigned on a promise to bring down America's massive trade deficits by renegotiating trade agreements and getting tough on countries like China that sell the U.S. far more than they buy from it. But the US Commerce Department reported Friday that the American trade deficit climbed to $46.3billion in June from $43.2billion in May. The deficit in goods trade with China also rose. So far this year, the trade gap is up more than seven percent from January-June 2017. Health bosses in Germany are attempting to lure British midwives to work for them by asking them if they feel glum about Brexit. An advert placed on a British jobs website even offers free German lessons, alongside an attractive salary package and better work/life balance at Diakovere Hospital in Hanover. The advert asks: Are you feeling glum about the direction Brexit is taking you? Do you feel interested about life on the continent, with all the travel opportunities and a better work/life balance to make use of them? Health bosses in Germany are attempting to lure British midwives to work for them by asking them if they feel glum about Brexit The NHS can scarcely afford to lose more midwives, with English hospitals already 3,500 short of the 29,000 they need. The Commons Health Select Committee warned earlier this year that there have been more midwives leaving than joining the profession. Germany also has a shortage of midwives and the advert, placed on the Indeed.co.uk website, offers to help applicants find somewhere to live in Hanover and assistance settling in. It says British nurses should find it easy to work in the hospital, which follows similar guidelines to those of NHS watchdog Nice. Our emphasis is on women-centred care, based largely on Nice guidelines, dating from our time as a designated hospital for UK service personnel, it says. The advert also tries to tempt British staff with details of Hanovers small pub culture, vibrant cultural scene and daily flights to London, Manchester and Birmingham. Everything is within easy reach and life is most definitely worth living, it adds. For years NHS bosses have pursued similar tactics, recruiting heavily abroad to make up for shortages at home. The UK is more reliant on overseas doctors and nurses than almost any other health care system in the developed world, according to a report published by the NHS Providers organisation last year. Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, said: Its a free market but hopefully none of our health care professionals are glum enough about Brexit that they would leave the NHS to move to Germany Some 15 per cent of NHS nurses and midwives were trained abroad with the Philippines, Portugal, Italy and Spain the most common nationalities. Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, said: Its a free market but hopefully none of our health care professionals are glum enough about Brexit that they would leave the NHS to move to Germany. Theres 3.5million EU citizens who are going to stay in the UK, despite the fact were leaving the EU, because they believe their life prospects and future are better in post-Brexit Britain. I just wish all British people had as much confidence in our great countrys future as those EU migrants who are going to remain after we leave. But Jon Skewes, executive director of external relations at the Royal College of Midwives, said: We can understand that British midwives may find this German offer very tempting. Nonetheless, we hope they choose to continue to work in the NHS at a time when it is already thousands of midwives short, at least in England. Many UK citizens feel very negative about being stripped of their EU citizenship, and will be considering their options before their ability to work elsewhere in Europe is made much harder. Standing with two murdered drill rappers, former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood is again drawn into a deadly gang feud. The 60-year-old son of a bishop has become caught up in violent gang music, with several drill videos he promotes ending in bloodshed. The DJ was pictured with Sidique Kamara, 23, also known as Incognito, and Rhyhiem Barton, 17, when their group Moscow17 appeared on his YouTube TV channel. Tim Westwood, pictured, was photographed with a machine gun-style Champagne opener on the same evening that a drill rap artist who appeared on his YouTube channel was murdered Tim Westwood, pictured with members of the Moscow17 Drill rap group including Sidique Kamara, circled left, and Rhyhiem Barton, circled right, who have both been murdered Mr Kamara was stabbed to death in Camberwell, south-east London, on Wednesday, just weeks after releasing a tribute song to Mr Barton, who died on the same street after a shooting in May. At the time, Mr Westwood was hundreds of miles away from the scene of the murder, in which he played no part. But the latest death of a rapper he promoted has again thrown into question his role in feting drill videos that provoke violence. Drill music a form of rap with violent lyrics is associated with gangs, and many drill videos feature masked rappers threatening violence and bragging about drugs, knives and guns. Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has linked its videos to an increase in knife and gun crime. Once one of the countrys best- known DJs, Mr Westwood has been criticised for featuring rap videos inciting violence on his YouTube channel. Sidique Kamara, 23, also known as Incognito, was murdered on Wednesday night In June, a judge at Kingston Crown Court in west London singled him out for criticism as five members of the 1011 gang were jailed for a total of more than ten years for plotting a machete attack on the rival 12 World gang. Judge Ann Mulligan, who also banned the rap group from making their music, said: The defendants made an appearance on the TimWestwoodTV channel, introduced as the 1011 gang. It is fortunate that video is no longer publicly available. These are high-profile videos taunting and ridiculing the 12 World gang and referring to actual fights. They reference murders, stabbings, drug deals, as well as appalling attitude to women. The videos incite violence. A month earlier, Mr Westwood was mentioned at the Old Bailey by Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, who said drill music was putting innocent people in harms way as two gang members were convicted of murdering an innocent music producer following a feud played out in rap videos featured by the DJ. Dean Pascal-Modeste, 21, was stabbed 14 times by Devone Pusey, 20, and Kai Stewart, 18, as he was on his way to a recording session on February 24 last year. He was hunted down in south-east London by members of the B Side gang from Lewisham because he was friends with their rivals the Splash gang, who were locked in a poisonous YouTube rap feud, exchanging barbs in their online videos on TimWestwoodTV. A Met Police database that tracks more than 600 suspected gangsters across 1,100 YouTube clips, names 32 videos on his channel that potentially incite violence. The DJ, who hosted the BBC Radio 1 Rap Show for 20 years until 2013, earns money from advertising on the channel. It has amassed 388million views by broadcasting clips including hundreds of rap videos from mainstream stars and suspected gang members. Both men were murdered only yards from each other on Warham Street, Camberwell Many that show suspected gang members in balaclavas making threats against rivals are still on YouTube. This year, the family of a murdered teenager accused Mr Westwood of glamorising knife crime after he recorded a video with a gang celebrating the killing. Abdullahi Tarabi, 19, was stabbed after being chased through a west London estate in daylight on April 11 last year. Two 17-year-olds defendants were cleared following an Old Bailey trial last October. Around the same time, Mr Westwood posted a music video he had recorded with a rap gang when they boasted that the victim got splashed and I dont feel sorry for his mum. The victims mother, Fawziya Ahmed, said: This is hurtful. I cant believe someone would say that. It is no longer on TimWestwoodTV, but the song, Pray For The Pagans, is still on YouTube. The victims sister, Muna Tarabi, added: How have these boys been allowed to go on with Tim Westwood, who is promoting them on his TV channel? Its wrong. It is glamorising knife crime. They are actively celebrating it in this video and there is nothing we can do. Mr Westwood was hurt in a shooting in 1999 after a dispute with a south London gang that was trying to extort money from him. A spokesman for the DJ, whose late father William was the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, said he was unavailable to comment. But Mr Westwoods spokesman has previously said: TimWestwoodTV gives up-and-coming artists a platform to be heard by a wider audience. The YouTube channel provides a non-profit outlet for young artists to express their talent and help provide them with an opportunity to get into the music industry. YouTube session: Tim Westwood, back, with Incognito, circled left, and Rhyhiem Barton, circled right, and their group Moscow17 Kristen Porter, pictured, was bitten by an eel while floating in the water at Kuhio Beach in Hawaii on Sunday A woman has described the moment she was bitten by a giant eel while sunbathing at a beach in Hawaii. Kristen Porter was lounging on a floatie off of Kuhio Beach on the afternoon of July 29 when she felt something bite her. 'My feet were dangling down and I was there for hours, so I was completely surprised that all of a sudden something attacked my foot,' the mom vacationing from Annapolis, Maryland, told KHON. 'I couldn't believe it, but I knew immediately that it was something bad, and it wasn't just like a fish nibble, so I pulled my foot into the air and there was blood everywhere.' Porter's son and two other beachgoers helped her to the shore, where a lifeguard examined the wound and told her she'd been bitten by an eel. Scroll down for video Marine experts were shocked to discover Porter had suffered a rare eel bite. Waikiki Aquarium director Andrew Rossiter said it was likely a moray eel at least five feet in length (stock image) Experts have been just as shocked by the eel attack as Porter was, because the sea creatures tend to be active at night and aren't known for engaging with humans. 'Eel attacks are quite rare. Basically, eels aren't aggressive to humans,' Dr Kalani Brady, a dive instructor, told the local station. 'If they feel trapped or if a human sticks their foot down in a hole, they may defensively bite.' Waikiki Aquarium director Andrew Rossiter added: '[This bite] was definitely a case of mistaken identity, because the eel's teeth penetrate, so they literally pierce their prey and swallow their pray whole, so I doubt the eel was trying to swallow the lady whole.' Rossiter said he wouldn't have expected an eel to be hanging out by the beach because they typically prefer rocky areas. 'I think the beach she was at, I don't think there's big rocky areas over there, so it's very unusual, very mysterious,' he said. Rossiter examined photos of the wound and determined the aggressor was likely a moray eel measuring at least five feet in length, adding that there are five or six other eel species in Hawaii that could cause a bite like the one Porter had. It took experts nearly a week to confirm that the bite was from an eel rather than a shark, based on the thin teeth marks. The International Shark File in Florida made the official confirmation on Thursday. A 40-year-old man who paid Filipina girls as young as six to strip for him over Skype had planned to fly to the Philippines and impregnate a 'child virgin', a court has heard. Sydney man Douglas Thomas Purves faced the NSW District Court on Thursday over charges that related to him paying a woman in the Philippines to procure girls aged between six and 12 to strip live over webcam. He also solicited videos and images of the children exposing their private parts, some of which were sent to him via Skype in early 2017, News.com.au reported. Douglas Thomas Purves (pictured), 44, paid a Filipino woman to source young girls that would strip for him on Skype and expose their private parts in videos Purves Facebook page has image of young girl cuddling a teddy bear (pictured) But it was Purves' plans to travel to the south-east Asian country in order to have child sex and impregnate a prepubescent girl that were 'particularly depraved', Judge Mark Williams declared. '[He] engaged [a Filipina woman] to identify potential children [to facilitate] sex with a virgin who he proposed to impregnate' Mr Williams said. 'They discussed prices for [services] including sex with a seven-year-old.' Those prices reportedly equated to $1500 Australian dollars for a seven-year-old, $760 for a nine-year-old and $510 for a 12-year-old. Purves' social media accounts reveal he is online 'friends' with very young seemingly Filipina girls. Purves' other offences included accessing videos of a naked six-year-old girl and attempting to get a nine-year-old to strip for him on camera. The court heard that the child sex offender used Skype, Facebook and Tagged - a 'social network for meeting new people' - to make contact with young females. Purves (pictured) planned to fly to the Philippines to take virginity of girl as young as seven and impregnate her The price for the girls 60,000 Philippines pesos for a seven-year-old which equals 1500 AUD 30,000 Philippines pesos for a nine-year-old girl which equals 760 AUD 20,000 Philippines pesos for a 12-year-old which equals 510 AUD Advertisement Purves pleaded guilty to four charges of causing a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity outside Australia, and five of using a carriage service to solicit child pornography. Following his arrest, he told officers he had been sent photos and videos of children and just 'kept on going' - and that he was yet to achieve full sexual gratification. Purves was ultimately handed a maximum sentence of seven-and-a-half years behind bars, with a non- parole period that expires in February 2023. The leadership of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is to convene late Friday for a rare meeting, officials said, amid speculation of a long-term truce between the Gaza Strip's rulers and Israel. The meeting comes as a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces in clashes along the border between Gaza and Israel. A senior Hamas source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the evening meeting would be chaired by the movement's leader Ismail Haniya. Scroll down for video Palestinian leaders including Saleh al-Arouri, left, and Ahmad Bahar, centre, have been meeting to discuss a possible truce with Israel in an effort to get economic sanctions lifted on the Gaza strip Despite the possibility of peace talks, there were violent clashes yesterday along the Gaza / Israel border with one man fatally wounded by an IDF sniper Several young men were wounded as Israeli troops used live ammunition to keep Palestinians away from the border fence Members 'will discuss a number of important issues including proposals from Egypt and UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov concerning a truce and the lifting of the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza,' the source said. The meeting will be the first of its kind by Hamas's political bureau to be held in Gaza, they added. Among those attending will be Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri, who crossed the border from Egypt on Thursday with eight other Hamas leaders based outside Gaza. Aruri, who lives in Lebanon and has never before visited Gaza as he is wanted by Israel, was given Egyptian and United Nations assurances over his safety, the Hamas source said. Ahead of the gathering Hassam Badran, a member of Hamas's political wing, said during a speech on the border that the leadership 'will push for political action to break the blockade on Gaza'. Israel on Thursday reimposed a blockade on fuel supplies to the enclave, in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites across the border. Israel has increased the level of sanctions on Gaza, even blocking fuel supplies from the enclave as response to Palestinian efforts to fly burning kites across the border Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday delayed a planned visit to Colombia amid speculation that a truce agreement could be reached within days. Such a deal would involve a long-term cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in exchange for a significant easing of the Jewish state's crippling economic blockade of Gaza, according to Hamas and UN officials. An agreement could allow international donors to fund a series of programmes including electricity and water network upgrades in Gaza. It could also cover a prisoner exchange with Hamas, which holds the bodies of two soldiers killed in a 2014 war, Israeli media say. On Friday Ezzat al-Rishaq, a member of the Hamas political office, told protesters along the border they were 'committed to calm'. 'We do not want war and we are determined to spare our people in Gaza a new war,' he said. A Palestinian on the Gaza border was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Friday, in the latest round of deadly clashes on the frontier. Ahmed Yaghi, 25, was killed by a sniper east of Gaza City according to the enclave's health ministry. More than 220 people were wounded, of them 90 from live bullets, the ministry's spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. At least 158 Palestinians have been killed in border demonstrations which began at the end of March, while one Israeli soldier has been shot dead. According to the Israeli army, some 8,000 Gazans gathered at different spots along the frontier Friday, attempting to sabotage the Israeli border fence. 'A number of suspects infiltrated into Israel from the southern Gaza Strip, hurled firebombs and an explosive device in the border fence area and then returned into the Gaza Strip,' an army statement said. It said a tank struck a Hamas post in response. Israeli forces also launched tear gas at protesters, who had set tires alight along the border. Palestinians have also flown balloons and kites attached to incendiary devices across the border, starting hundreds of fires inside Israel in recent months. With borders to both Egypt and Israel largely sealed in recent years, Gaza suffers from desperately high rates of poverty and unemployment. Israel insists its blockade is necessary to isolate Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008. Critics say it amounts to collective punishment of the coastal territory's two million residents. When Wendi Deng, 49, started dating 23-year-old Hungarian model Bertold Zahoran, eyebrows were raised not only at their 26-year age gap but at the 64 years between Bertold and her media mogul ex-husband, Rupert Murdoch. Now, I hear the couple have parted ways after two years together. Theyre not together any more, but theyre still on very good terms, says a friend of the model. They decided it was best to cool things down because theyre both so busy and it was just too hard to make it work with conflicting schedules. When Deng and Ralph Lauren model Zahoran frolicked on the beach in St Barts in December 2016, they instantly became the talk of New York, where Deng lives in a 36m home she received as part of her 2013 divorce settlement from Murdoch, whom she wed in 1999. When Wendi Deng and Ralph Lauren model Zahoran frolicked on the beach in St Barts in December 2016, they instantly became the talk of New York Thereafter, they became inseparable, spending New Years Eve together in 2016 and attending A-list parties including one thrown by supermodel Naomi Campbell. Now they have split after two years together Thereafter, they became inseparable, spending New Years Eve together in 2016 and attending A-list parties including one thrown by supermodel Naomi Campbell. In December last year, the last time they were seen together, Deng took Zahoran back to St Barts for a yacht party, where they were spotted canoodling beside rock star Sir Paul McCartney and his fashion designer daughter, Stella. The Chinese-American businesswoman, who is the mother of two of Murdochs children, Grace, 17, and Chloe, 15, has always enjoyed an eclectic taste in men. In 2014, a love note she had written to Tony Blair was published in Vanity Fair, in which she lusted after his good body and piercing blue eyes. The former prime minister, who is the godfather to her daughter, Grace, strongly denied allegations of an affair. Keeping past lovers close comes naturally to Deng. She remains friends with Murdoch now married to Mick Jaggers ex, Texan bombshell Jerry Hall, 62 whom she memorably defended in 2011 by lunging at a foam pie-throwing protester who attacked him. Keeping past lovers close comes naturally to Deng. She remains friends with her ex husband Rupert Murdoch, with whom she has two children, Grace, 17, and Chloe, 15 Hes the bullet-headed tough guy who has captured the heart of M&S lingerie model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 31, but why is Jason Statham such a ladies magnet? His secret, he claims, lies in his burly physique. Questioned about his heart-throb status, the 51-year-old, whose exes include model Kelly Brook, explains: I always think women want to be with Ryan Gosling. But if they want someone who can protect them? That I can do. Month off for Granny Arlene Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips is dancing for joy at the news that she is to become a grandmother at 75. I am absolutely thrilled that I am going to be a grandma, or a glam-ma as everyone keeps telling me, she says. Her elder daughter, make-up artist Alana, 39, married in April and is expecting. Words cannot describe how excited I am, adds Arlene, who was dropped from Strictly in 2009 after five years on the panel. Im going to take a month off from my relentless work schedule so that I can be in full family mode.' Model snaps up Temperley's ex Vogue mannequin Eliza Cummings, 27, turned heads when she arrived on the arm of Greg Williams, 45, at a polo game last week Heartbroken when she split with Hollywood photographer Greg Williams earlier this year, the Duchess of Cambridges favourite designer, Alice Temperley, now has to cope with being replaced by a very racy fashion model 16 years her junior. Vogue mannequin Eliza Cummings, 27, turned heads when she arrived on the arm of Williams, 45, at a polo game last week. Their society debut comes just five months after I revealed his four-year romance with Alice had ended. Eliza, an ex-girlfriend of banking heir Nat Rothschild, should have no problem holding his interest. She recently starred in an Agent Provocateur advert stripping down to her lingerie and smothering her body with cake Does Boris Johnson need to give his brother a lesson in diplomacy? Transport minister Jo, 46, boasted at a recent party that, despite sharing the same vibrant blond hair as the former foreign secretary, who is eight years his senior, his smaller waistline precludes any unwanted mix-ups. I dont often get confused with Boris, he told me, because, fortunately, Im still slimmer than him. Amazons tax bill payable on more than 6billion of UK sales is effectively being kept secret from the public, a Mail investigation has found. Around 2 in every 3 of revenue the online giant makes in Britain is funnelled through firms based in Luxembourg. It means the amount of tax that Amazon pays on the majority of sales in Britain is hidden from public scrutiny. Amazons tax bill payable on more than 6billion of UK sales is effectively being kept secret from the public, a Mail investigation has found The company has also set up a complex web of ten UK companies which use accounting deductions to reduce its tax bills to the lowest possible level. The latest revelations will only intensify the row over how much tax the web giant pays at a time when the British high street is under unprecedented strain. Yesterday the Mail revealed Amazons biggest UK division its services arm was billed just 4.5million in corporation tax last year, down from 7.4million in 2016. This came despite revenues for this one division alone climbing by 500million to almost 2billion. Yesterday, MPs, retail bosses and campaigners demanded radical reform of the tax system so traditional stores can compete on a level playing field with Amazon. The Mail has been campaigning for a review of business rates to save high street stores being crippled by rising bills, while Amazon pays lower rates on its out-of-town warehouses. Around 2 in every 3 of revenue the online giant makes in Britain is funnelled through firms based in Luxembourg Former Sainsburys chief executive Justin King said online companies were being given an unfair advantage and called for arcane business rates to be halved. He said: We need to find a different way to tax business activity, one that does not fall so heavily on a business like traditional retail that uses a lot of space. The latest controversy embroiling Amazon erupted when on Thursday accounts for its UK Web Services division showed it paid just 1.7million after deductions on its 4.5million corporation tax bill. Analysis by the Mail, however, reveals its tax affairs are even more complex and opaque. The firm has a web of companies in the UK, Luxembourg and the US that cast a veil over the full scale of its UK tax liabilities. Accounts for eight of the ten firms listed on Companies House with available information reveal they generated 2.9billion in sales. Their total tax bill was 20.8million on profits of more than 160million. However, British sales totalled 9billion according to Amazons US report for 2017 meaning 6billion worth are not sent through UK-registered companies. Amazon says this cash, which is largely for retail sales on items purchased on its website, is handled through Luxembourg. The firm has a web of companies in the UK, Luxembourg and the US that cast a veil over the full scale of its UK tax liabilities Firms there are not bound by the same accounting rules as in Britain, meaning Amazon is under no obligation to disclose tax it pays on UK sales funnelled through the EU nation. Amazon does pay corporation tax on the profits from this arm, but this is agreed privately with HMRC. The only clue is based on the amount of tax paid by Amazon on 20billion in European sales, which suggest its total bill in the UK is likely to be between no more than 25million to 35million. Earlier this year, a Mail investigation found Amazon pays only 14million a year in business rates for its 13 enormous warehouses - far below the costs faced by traditional high street stores. Marks & Spencer, for example, shelled out 12 times more. MPs last night demanded a change in the law so traditional retailers can compete on more equal terms with online giants such as Amazon. Dame Margaret Hodge, former head of the Commons public accounts committee, said: It is scandalous, it looks as if we are paying them to kill the high street. It is a complete outrage. The Government has got to start acting tough not talking tough. Rachel Reeves, chairman of the business committee, said Amazons tax bill was jaw-droppingly low, adding: Just because Amazon is capable of employing smart accountants to minimise its tax bill, it does not make it right. Tory MP Patrick McLoughlin, a former chief whip, said The Government has got to look at ways of levelling the playing field between the high street shops and these internet giants. And Labour MP John Mann said the country needed to ask whether we want our lives run by handful of multinationals. Last night, an HMRC spokesman said it did not comment on individual cases but that it had collected over 9billion in additional revenue from large business in 2017. It added: We subject large businesses to an exceptional level of scrutiny. Amazon said: We pay all taxes required in the UK and every country where we operate. Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly-competitive, low margin business and our continued heavy investment. Is film star Liam Neesons son, Micheal, distancing himself from Dad? The 23-year-old is launching his own acting career but has ditched the action heros surname in favour of that of his late mother, Natasha Richardson. Micheal, who was just 14 when Natasha died from a head injury on a ski slope, has crowd-funded an online film series called On Our Way, in which he appears under his new moniker. The latest episode, Entree Des Artistes, echoes Micheals painful past as he plays a young man trying to come to terms with the death of his mother. Liam Neeson's son Michael, pictured, has ditched the action heros surname in favour of that of his late mother, Natasha Richardson Micheal (left, with mother and brother Daniel), who was just 14 when Natasha died from a head injury on a ski slope, has crowd-funded an online film series called On Our Way (Very) modern manners How should a woman turn down an admirer in the Me Too era? Tatler cover girl and illustrator Sabrina Percy, 28, advocates a very blunt response. When guys come up to me and say: I want to buy you a drink, I say, Im so not interested its unreal. I wouldnt want them to buy me a drink if I didnt want to sleep with them, she tells me, because it would be a waste of money. Downton's Joanna insists on chivalry Equality is going too far for Downton Abbey actress Joanna David. The 71-year-old, married to The Day Of The Jackal star Edward Fox, refuses to conform to changing social mores. I love chivalry. What the young do, I dont care, quite frankly, she tells me. I like it when a man holds a door open for a woman. Referring to actresses such as Emma Watson, who insist on being called actors, she adds: Im the only person who, when asked: Who are you, what is your name and what do you do? calls myself an actress because I am. Im not an actor. You dont say: here is the best actor for the leading role of Emmeline Pankhurst. I have no time for it. Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy has been putting her feet up with the grooms ex-sister-in-law, Lady Melissa Percy Prince Harry has spent the week preparing his best mans speech for todays wedding of Charlie van Straubenzee to Daisy Jenks. But his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy has been putting her feet up with the grooms ex-sister-in-law, Lady Melissa Percy. The Duke of Northumberlands youngest daughter, formerly married to Thomas van Straubenzee, shared this picture of Chelsy, 32, joining her fishing trip in Scotland. Playing Princess Margaret in the new series of The Crown was a smelly affair for Helena Bonham Carter. The 52-year-old enlisted Johnny Depps perfumier, Azzi Glasser, to make a bespoke fragrance. I was commissioned to recreate the fragrance to get her into character, Azzi, founder of The Perfumers Story, tells me. Its designed around Lily of the Valley, and includes notes of woods and soft powder to add a creamy, sensual touch to magnetise those around her. Oo-er! Keep it to yourself but... A former James Bond actress has such a diva reputation that several stylists refused to work with her on a recent magazine shoot. The smart set's talking about... Catherine Steadman Catherine Steadman is setting the literary world abuzz with her debut novel, Something In The Water, which shot into the New York Times bestseller list just days after publication in the U.S. Ever since playing Downton Abbeys Mabel Lane Fox love rival of Lady Mary Crawley and earning an Olivier nomination in 2016, Catherine Steadman has been a star on stage and screen. Now the 31-year-old is setting the literary world abuzz. Her debut novel, Something In The Water, has shot into the New York Times bestseller list just days after publication in the U.S. Now published in the UK, the thriller caught the eye of Reese Witherspoon, whose production company is adapting it for the big screen. I wrote the whole thing in one go, Catherine tells me. It took two months I was writing every day: after brushing my teeth in the morning, on the Tube, any chance I got. On the Tube I could get half a chapter done on my iPhone. Catherine, who married Mr Selfridge actor Ross Armstrong last year, will have to fit writing her second novel around film roles. Does that include the Downton Abbey film, which starts shooting next month? I dont think Im allowed to say anything about it. I dont want to be shot! British Islamic State fighters have now moved into Afghanistan, the country's ambassador to the UK has revealed. Said Jawad said the fanatics posed a threat not just to his country but to Britain, as they could sneak home and wreak havoc. He said both countries' intelligence agencies were working to 'make sure they do not pose a threat if they go back to the UK', having tracked down fanatics with British passports. The ISIS fanatics pose a threat not just to Afghanistan country but to Britain (stock image) The IS fighters UK citizens of Pakistani origin were found in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr Jawad told the Mail: 'It is a little easier for them to operate in that part of the world some of them speak the language. We see them as a serious threat for Afghanistan but also the UK.' Over the past two years IS has established a foothold in Afghanistan as its 'caliphate' has crumbled in Iraq and Syria. Its ranks have been swelled with defections from other militant groups, particularly the Pakistan Taliban. Around 900 UK citizens are believed to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight with IS, and hundreds are still unaccounted for. Mr Jawad said he did not know if the British IS fighters had come from Iraq or Syria, and could not go into details of where they were now. He added foreign fighters were using Afghanistan as a training ground, learning new skills to export terror to their home countries. He warned: 'These people do not belong in Afghanistan, so it would be hard for them to move there forever. After a couple of months or a year, they will come back. Afghanistan's ambassador to the UK Said Jawad (pictured) said foreign fighters were using Afghanistan as a training ground 'There are such big cultural differences between most of the Arab or European fighters and Afghans. 'They are also not welcomed by the Afghan people that's why after being there for a while they try to find their way back home.' Mr Jawad said the number of British citizens fighting for the group in Afghanistan had not yet reached the hundreds, but gave no further details. He added that IS in Afghanistan was a complex group made up not just of fighters pushed out of Iraq and Syria but also Pakistani terrorists, opportunistic criminals, warlords and drug traffickers. But he said they were being fought 'effectively and rigorously' and he was adamant that Afghanistan would not become a new hotbed for foreign fighters. He revealed talks were going on between officials from his country and Britain about a new training programme for Afghan pilots in the UK. In the long term, he hopes Britain will build a training academy for the Afghan air force in a city such as Kabul. Last month Theresa May announced Britain would send another 440 soldiers to Afghanistan to train local forces, taking the total to around 1,100. British combat troops had pulled out of the country in 2014. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, the new head of the Armed Forces, General Sir Nick Carter, said the mission there was 'endless'. Sepsis deaths recorded by hospitals have risen by more than a third in two years, official figures show. The illness was behind 15,722 fatalities either in hospital or within 30 days of discharge between April 2016-17. This is up from 11,328 in 2014-15. Experts say the rising numbers are largely down to better recognition and recording of the silent killer following a drive to raise awareness, including the Dailys Mail End The Sepsis Scandal campaign. The condition is the countrys leading cause of avoidable death, with the overall total, including those outside of hospital, reaching 44,000 a year. The End The Sepsis Scandal campaign began after the death of 12-month-old William Mead of Cornwall (pictured with mother Melissa), who died after medics failed to spot he had sepsis Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, warned rising antibiotic resistance and an ageing population, alongside high NHS bed occupancy rates, was also behind the increase in deaths recorded in Englands hospitals. Sepsis strikes when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. Professor Brian Jarman of Imperial College, who collated the NHS data, said it can be used to help hospitals with poor sepsis diagnosis or mortality rates. The UK Sepsis Trust estimates there are 250,000 cases a year, rising by 10 to 13 per cent annually. It has called for hospitals to use a universal register to record deaths to develop a national picture. If caught early, sepsis can usually be controlled with antibiotics but every 30-minute delay in treatment increases the risk of death by 7 per cent. But symptoms such as a high temperature, a rash and lethargy can be confused with milder conditions, making it difficult to diagnose. The Mails campaign was triggered by the death of 12-month-old William Mead, from Cornwall, who died in 2014 after medics failed to spot he had sepsis. Last night his mother Melissa said the new figures provide a more realistic picture thanks to increased awareness of sepsis. Melissa Mead (pictured) said the new figures provide a more realistic picture thanks to increased awareness of sepsis She said: Six years ago, William would have died and pneumonia would have been put on the death certificate now its sepsis. 'Were going to see cases rise as people are reporting it better and doctors are coding it better ... and the huge significant rise in awareness in the last couple of years has meant more people are presenting to A&E earlier. Professor Bryan Williams, chairman of medicine at University College London, said he also believes the figures showed a heightened awareness. He said: If you go to any hospital now [sepsis] is treated as one of the priorities and death rates are falling. NHS England said there had a been a huge effort over the past three years to improve sepsis recognition, including recording what were previously classified as simple infections as sepsis. Rival teams of Surgeons locked in a workplace war put patients' lives at risk according to a damning review of their practice. St George's Hospital heart unit was consumed by a 'dark force' because of a 'toxic' feud, it has been found. The south London facility had a cardiac surgery death rate of 3.7% - above the national 2% average, a leaked report said. A damning review written by former NHS England deputy medical director Mike Bewick came in the wake of the higher mortality rates at the hospital. He concluded there had been two rival camps who were exhibiting 'tribal-like activity'. Internal scrutiny was said to be 'inadequate' and the department was so dysfunctional it left staff feeling a high death rate was inevitable. St George's Hospital heart unit was suffering from a 'dark force' and the mortality rate rose, a report which has been leaked, found Professor Bewick's review was quoted as saying: 'Some felt that there was a persistent toxic atmosphere and stated that there was a 'dark force' in the unit. 'In our view the whole team shares responsibility for the failure to significantly improve professional relationships and to a degree surgical mortality.' Conversations with 39 staff revealed they were shocked by the death rate, but 'most felt that poor performance was inevitable due to the pervading atmosphere'. The independent reviewer examined 'disturbing and often difficult information', concluding an 'existential threat' was posed to the unit because staff and patients would go elsewhere if problems persisted. 'The surgical team is viewed as dysfunctional both internally and externally,' he said. Stronger leadership and 'new blood' were called for, while the 'defensive approach' the unit took to death rate data was criticised, according to reports. The review was additionally said to have called for 'radical solutions to breaking up the current surgical team'. A spokesman for St George's Hospital said recommendations from Professor Bewick were being implemented 'at pace', including the immediate relocation of all cardiac surgeons to a single-speciality practice. The investigation commissioned in June after the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) issued an alert over the unit's lower surgery survival rates. The hospital spokesman said: 'We would like to stress that the cardiac surgery service we provide for patients is safe. Surgeons were on 'rival' sides in what ended up as a toxic environment at the heart surgery unit at St George's hospital 'However, it is very clear that major and urgent improvements are required, which we are already taking action to deliver. ' St George's, one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the country, has advertised for an additional consultant cardiologist to join the team. Fellow London hospital Guy's and St Thomas's Foundation Trust will send 'on the ground leadership support' in the form of cardiac surgeons, the spokesman said. Officials are additionally 'addressing concerns' about the way surgery data is managed. The Transportation Security Administration is considering eliminating screening points at more than 150 airports to reduce costs, a new proposal has revealed. The internal document obtained by CNN details several budget-trimming measures that could save the TSA more than $300million in 2020. Other measures outlined in the proposal included reducing benefits for part-time employees and cutting down the number of full-time air marshals and staff at the TSA headquarters. The proposal - which landed on the desk of TSA Administrator David Pekoske last month - has been widely criticized by lawmakers, national security experts and airport officials. The Transportation Security Administration is reportedly considering a proposal that would save the agency $300million in part by eliminating screenings at small airports (stock image) The most controversial cut in the proposal is the elimination of screenings at airports where the flights have 60 passengers or less - with screenings taking place instead at larger airports before connecting flights. That cut is also the proposal's most costly measure, estimated to save the agency $115million. Reducing the federal air marshal program would save nearly $39million a year, and cutting staff at TSA headquarters another $26million, according to the proposal. CNN reports that it is unclear how seriously TSA officials are considering the proposal, but a working group is reportedly conducting a risk assessment in connection with the proposal to eliminate screening at small airports. Even if the agency decides to move forward with any of the proposed measures, cuts would have to be approved by Congress, which is responsible for making the agency's budget. DailyMail.com has reached out to the TSA for comment. A new theory on the mysterious disappearance of pilot Amelia Earhart has emerged after claims the wreckage of her plane was found by Australian soldiers during the Second World War. In 1945, an Australian infantry battalion stumbled upon an unpainted, all-metal twin-engine aircraft wreck in the jungle of East New Britain Island, in what is now Papua New Guinea. In the midst of wartime, they were unsure of their exact position, but upon discovery of the aircraft - which appeared to have crashed before the war - the group of men recorded what information they had. Of all the various searches for iconic female pilot Amelia Earhart and her right-hand man, Fred Noonan, a new theory has emerged, with tangible evidence and eyewitness accounts to back it up The famed pilot was the first female to fly across the Atlantic ocean, and was in the midst of an ambitious voyage around the globe from the equator when she went missing They retrieved a metal tag hanging by wire near the engine on the plane, which had a serial number and other tactical information, the Earhart Search Project reported. The tag itself was handed over to the American base upon realisation the serial number and engine information came from an American company. It has never been seen since, with some claiming it was lost within mountains of wartime archives. However, the map in which the soldiers etched the information on was discovered by retired Australian aviation engineer, David Billings, who has dedicated his life to finding and recovering wreckage. The notation 'C/N 1055' was among two other identifiers that matched Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra Model 10E plane, which went missing en route to Howland Island in 1937. The notation on the map (pictured) 'C/N 1055' was among two other identifiers that matched Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra Model 10E plane, which went missing en route to Howland Island in 1937 The famed pilot was the first female to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and was on an ambitious voyage around the globe when she went missing. After years of searching for the aircraft and its two inhabitants, Earhart was legally declared dead in 1939. It has been assumed, through signals and communication, that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared shortly before they were to arrive at Howland Island, almost half-way between Hawaii and Australia. This destination was up to 2,600 miles and almost 20 hours away from her take-off location in Lae, New Guinea. However, the mystery remains, if the deserted plane discovered on Papua New Guinea during World War Two was in fact Ms Earhart's, how and why did she return to a destination so close to her initial take-off? After years of searching for the aircraft or it's two inhabitants, Earhart was legally declared dead in 1939 It has been assumed, through signals and communication, that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan disappeared shortly before they were to arrive at Howland Island, almost half way between Hawaii and Australia This theory suggests after flying almost 20 hours, Ms Earhart and Mr Noonan were unable to locate the minuscule island, and she invoked her contingency plan, which included turning back for the Gilbert Islands. While many argue this would have been simply impossible, Mr Billings argued she carefully manufactured her systems to be able to complete the gruelling journey back. While the widely accepted last radio correspondence was Ms Earhart saying 'we are running on north and south...' which was recorded 20 hours and 14 minutes after take-off near Howland, a radio operator on Nuaro Island - who had also monitored contact and recognised her voice - believed he picked up other correspondence. He allegedly heard up to three calls within a 10-hour period after the supposed 'final call' was made. Mr Billings has conducted many expeditions in the general vicinity of where the original map, with information regarding the plane wreckage, suggests the soldiers may have been. Through his own expertise, he is confident the Australian-held wartime map is authentic. He also went on to add the handwriting reflects unmistakable data points and little-known references of military operations in 1945 East New Britain. Mr Billings will embark on one final search into the area later this year, the 81st anniversary of Earharts disappearance. Mr Billings will embark on one final search into the area in 2018, the 81st anniversary of Earharts disappearance An Army veteran from Indiana has told how he used his code-breaking skills to decipher two letters and reveal what he claims is the real identity of infamous 1971 airplane hijacker DB Cooper. Cooper became one of the 20th century's most compelling masterminds after he took over a Boeing 727 at Seattle-Tacoma airport in 1971 and held its crew and passengers hostage with a bomb. Once his demand of $200,000 cash - the equivalent of $1.2 million today - was reached and transferred onto the plane, he had the crew take off before he parachuted over the dense Pacific Northwest woods and disappeared. Rick Sherwood, 70, of Wheatfield, believes the hijacker was an ex-military pilot called Robert Rackstraw, who lives in California. He worked this out by cracking a series of code, he explained to the Indianapolis Star on Friday. The identity of DB Cooper (seen left in a FBI mock-up) has always been a mystery. But Army veteran Rick Sherwood believes he is a former military pilot from California named Robert Rackstraw (right, after being arrested for fraud and murder). He was cleared of the charges The FBI closed its hunt for Cooper two years ago, but Sherwood has been working with a cold-case team headed by documentary filmmaker Thomas Colbert to try and crack the mystery. Colbert named Rackstraw as the true DB Cooper in a news conference in February, despite him having been interviewed by the FBI in 1978 and cleared as a suspect. When Colbert named Rackstraw as Cooper, his lawyer called the claim 'the stupidest thing I ever heard'. But in his Friday interview with the Star, Sherwood claimed two letters he had deciphered provided convincing evidence that Rackstraw was indeed the hijacker, who acquired his nickname from the FBI. The letters, allegedly penned by Cooper in 1971 and 1972, taunted investigators and boasted 'I knew from the start I'd never be caught'. The first, which was sent to The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times, included a string of numbers: '717171684*'. Sherwood, who learned military codes in the Vietnam War, spent hours trying to work out what the sequence meant. Eventually, he concluded it referred to the 371st, a unit he and Rackstraw were assigned to in Vietnam. The pair never met but could have spoken together briefly on the radio, Sherwood said. This letter, which was sent to The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times, included a string of numbers: '717171684*'. Sherwood believes this Army unit Rackstraw belonged to The notorious hijacker, who is one of the 20th century's most compelling masterminds, hijacked a Boeing 727 at Seattle-Tacoma airport in 1971 and held its crew and passengers hostage with a bomb 'When the 371st come up, I seen that, I'm going: 'Yes, this is it. This is the beginning of breaking that code,'' he told the Star. Turning to the second letter, the veteran then decoded hidden messages by examining the repetition of certain words and phrases. He claimed a line that said 'and please tell the lackey cops, D.B. Cooper is not my real name,' hid the secret message, 'I am 1st Lt. Robert Rackstraw.' Sherwood admitted his theory rests on the two letters definitely having been written by Rackstraw so could be wrong. During a phone call with the Star, Rackstraw ignored four direct requests to deny that he was the hijacker, and then hung up. Colbert handed the two letters to Rackstraw after obtaining them through a public information access lawsuit. Although they were widely dismissed at pranks at the time, Colbert believes they are genuine. Pictured is what amateur sleuths say are parts from a skydiver's backpack in the forest near Cooper's alleged jump location last year. These were turned in to the FBI He and his wife hired two forensics experts - one a past president of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners and the other an ex-FBI agent - to examine the one sent to the four newspapers. The two men both said the handwriting was so similar that on Cooper's boarding card that it was 'likely' that they 'were written by one person.' Colbert also rejected the theory Cooper must have died from exposure after jumping out of the plane which is what the FBI suggested when they closed their investigation in July 2016. His team believe they have uncovered secret coding on three other notes supposedly sent by Cooper that ties his identity to Rackstraw. Coding in one note, which was sent on November 30, 1971, said: 'IF CATCH I AM CIA RWR'. The investigators believe the 'RWR' in the coding is Rackstraw's initials and that it also indicated that he expected a get-out-of-jail card from the federal spy agency if he was captured. Another note contained coding that read: 'CAN FBI CATCH ME SWS', which Colbert said was Rackstraw taunting agents to track him. He added that the SWS stood for Special Warfare School, which is where the veteran supposedly learned coding. This note contained coding that read: 'CAN FBI CATCH ME SWS', which Colbert said was Rackstraw taunting agents to track him. He added that the SWS stood for Special Warfare School, which is where the veteran supposedly learned coding Coding in this note, which was sent on November 30, 1971, said: 'IF CATCH I AM CIA RWR'. Investigators believe the 'RWR' in the coding is Rackstraw's initials The coding, they said, indicated Rackstraw had a deep covert history with the CIA, which explained why the FBI closed their investigation without finding his true identity. The messages in all five letters, Colbert said, were intended to signal to his co-conspirators that he survived the leap from a Boeing 727 after he hijacked it. He believes other men, who were seen in a small plane in another airfield around the time of the hijacking, picked up Cooper after he landed and flew under the radar to drop him off safely so that he could make his getaway. Colbert is adamant the FBI was too hasty to wrap up the investigation and now says the revelation of the hidden messages, especially the links to the CIA, proves why the agency has been stonewalling. He said his team found what they believed to be a parachute strap and foam padding from skydiver's backpack in the forest near Cooper's alleged jump location last year. They turned over the two items, along with the dig site itself, to the FBI. Colbert believes the FBI still hasn't taken action on any of the team's efforts despite what they provided them. He has spent several years conducting his own investigation into the mysterious crime, writing a book and producing a documentary series on it in the process. Thomas Colbert, who is leading the cold case team, said two forensics experts said the handwriting from the letter (right) was so similar to the writing on Cooper's boarding card (left) that it was 'likely' that they 'were written by one person.' Colbert said he has extensively investigated Rackstraw as well. Rackstraw had an illustrious military career as a pilot in the 1st Cavalry Division - one of the first major American air assault divisions. It was there that Rackstraw learned to parachute and was given two Distinguished Flying Crosses for his performance while in the air - but he was kicked out of the army after they discovered he had lied about dropping out of high school and attending two colleges. Colbert believes the military gave him all the skills he needed to pull off the extraordinary heist. In 1977, six years after the hijacking, Rackstraw was suspected of kiting checks for $75,000, but fled before arrest and went to Iran to teach the Shah's men how to fly helicopters. Meanwhile, back at home, police raided his storage units and found 14 rifles and 150lbs of dynamite. In recent years, Rackstraw has denied any involvement in a crime that gripped the nation He lost his Iran chopper job and he was brought back the USA, where he was arrested for fraud and the murder of his stepfather. Philip Rackstraw was found in the grounds of his parents' home with two bullets in his head. Rackstraw was acquitted of murder and made bail on the fraud charge. Then he faked his death, pretending to crash his plane in the ocean at Monterey Bay, California. He was found and taken in by the FBI, who believed he might be Cooper, but a lack of evidence and the sudden discovery of some of the hijack money in Washington - planted, Colbert says, by an accomplice - led to his release. Rackstraw made a plea deal and after serving a year in prison for his Stockton convictions, he moved to Riverside, California. There he taught a law course in mediation before retiring to his yacht, 'Poverty sucks'. Meghan Markle's half-sister Samantha wished the duchess a happy birthday on Twitter alongside a snide reminder to send a belated birthday card to their father Thomas. The newly-minted royal is celebrating her 37th birthday on Saturday August 4 - her first since tying the knot with Prince Harry in May. Meghan's notoriously outspoken half-sister sent her regards on Twitter just a few minutes before midnight in the UK, writing: 'Happy Birthday Meg! It would be so lovely and appropriate of you to send DAD a BELATED birthday card for his July 18th [cake emoji] @KensingtonRoyal Cheers!' Meghan Markle's half-sister Samantha wished the duchess a happy birthday just before midnight Friday - alongside a reminder to send a belated birthday card to their father Thomas August 4 marks Meghan's 37th birthday, the duchess's first as part of the Royal Family Around the time of Thomas Markle's 74th birthday, reports emerged that the reclusive former Hollywood lighting director hadn't spoken to his daughter in at least two months. Thomas has spoken about the estrangement in several interviews during that time, telling TMZ last month that he will continue talking to the media until he hears from Meghan. Samantha has been her father's most ardent defender amidst the media storm that has surrounded her half-sister's marriage to Prince Harry. The 53-year-old has slammed Meghan both in the media and on her private Twitter account on numerous occasions Around the time of Thomas Markle's 74th birthday, reports emerged that the reclusive former Hollywood lighting director hadn't spoken to his daughter in at least two months Samantha has been her father's most ardent defender, sharing numerous unkind remarks about her half-sibling both in media interviews and on her private Twitter account. In July the 53-year-old - who recently changed her surname from Grant to Markle - went on a Twitter tirade telling Meghan if Thomas dies 'it's on you'. She launched another attack earlier on Friday, accusing Meghan of being cold to the family since marrying into the Windsor clan. Samantha shared an article on Twitter that claimed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were 'taking a step away from the media spotlight', writing: 'OK so Cruella de Vil is retreating LOL. 'Let me know how that works out for you.' The former student also said that a number of the illicit trysts took place inside Rene Elena Carter's (pictured) classroom at Capital High School in Helena A former special education teacher in Montana had sex with her underage male student at least 25 times before getting arrested, the teen told police amid a months -long investigation. The former student also said that a number of the illicit trysts took place inside Rene Elena Carter's classroom at Capital High School in Helena. Those allegations surfaced on Friday after District Judge Kathy Seeley ordered the city of Helena to release court documents in the case to the public. The records are part of an investigation that eventually led to charges being pressed against Carter in January 2018, which includes having sexual intercourse with underage male without consent. Police were first alerted to the situation by school principal Brett Zanto in June 2015 after the teen, then 17, and Carter were caught making inappropriate contact with one another on campus. City officials and county attorneys said, however, that surveillance footage of the incident did not show any sexual contact between the two. Those allegations surfaced on Friday after District Judge Kathy Seeley ordered the city of Helena to release court documents in the case to the public The legal age of consent in Montana is 16, but the student was legally incapable of giving consent for other reasons (Pictured: Capital High School in Helena) 'I am aware that the school district did investigate on its own to see if there was any evidence to support that,' Jack Copps, Helena Public Schools Superintendent, told KRTV earlier this year. 'The district did not find any at that time and referred the matter to the police department, and they investigated with the same results.' The legal age of consent in Montana is 16, but the student was legally incapable of giving consent for other reasons. The Independent Record said that it has chosen to withhold that information in the interest of protesting the alleged victim's identity. Police were first alerted to the situation by school principal Brett Zanto (pictured) in June 2015 The teen initially denied having a sexual relationship with his married teacher to investigators, who subsequently closed the case pending new evidence, according to the Independent Record. But a relative of the teen later came forward and told police in February 2017 that she knew of the inappropriate relationship, adding that the student was aware information about Carter that 'he shouldn't have known about.' Carter's husband, who was not identified by the Record, described the student as a 'unbelievable parasite' who needed constant attention, adding that his wife required 'extensive counseling due to PTSD' from interactions with the student. He added that the teen would physically abuse Carter by pinching her arms and pulling her hair. Carter even attempted to reach out to a police investigator and planned on reporting the alleged abuse, but later backtracked when she realized she would need an attorney. The teen later told a detictive that he and Carter 'kind of planned on getting together once he turned 18, but they never did.' Carter has pleaded not guilty to the charges and faces trial in December. If convicted she faces a minimum of two years in prison. Roller-coaster nuclear diplomacy between the United States and North Korea hit highs and lows on Saturday as the countries' top diplomats traded polite words and barbs, leaving efforts to rid the North of its atomic weapons at an uncertain juncture. At a security conference in Singapore, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea and countries including Russia of continuing to violate U.N. sanctions aimed at pressing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal. But at the same time, he oversaw the handover of a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from President Donald Trump and exchanged pleasantries with the North's top diplomat. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, meanwhile, greeted Pompeo with a smile, but then delivered a scathing attack on the Trump administration for approaching the negotiation poorly by insisting on sanctions enforcement. Ri said North Korea would not be forced into acting unilaterally and demanded that the U.S. undertake 'confidence building' measures if the negotiation was to be successful. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho exchanged pleasantries before shading each other's country over nuclear arsenal talks After Pompeo warned anew that no sanctions would be lifted until North Korea fully and finally denuclearizes, Ri told the annual ASEAN Regional Forum that the North would not be bullied into concessions. 'Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight,' he said. 'In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another.' North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 'Only when the U.S. ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the U.S. and show it in action,' Ri said. After Pompeo warned anew that no sanctions would be lifted until North Korea fully and finally denuclearizes, Ri told the annual ASEAN Regional Forum that the North would not be bullied into concessions The U.S. has previously dismissed calls for a phased approach, insisting that sanctions be maintained until the North delivers on its commitments but suggesting that some other steps may be possible. Ri, though, appeared unmoved and accused elements of the U.S. government of going against Trump's wishes by taking a hard line on sanctions. 'What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention,' he said. Instead of responding reciprocally to North Korea's suspension of nuclear tests and missile launches and other goodwill gestures such as the return of suspected remains of American troops killed in the Korean War, the U.S. has maintained hostility, Ri said. Representatives attending the 25th ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat pose for a group photograph in Singapore At the same time, Pompeo oversaw the handover of a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from President Donald Trump and exchanged pleasantries with the North's top diplomat 'The United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula,' he said. He also accused Washington of taking 'extremely inappropriate moves' by discouraging third countries from sending high-level delegations to the North's 70th anniversary celebrations in September. Pompeo had already left the meeting when Ri delivered his remarks in order to travel to Jakarta for talks with senior Indonesian officials. As he arrived in Jakarta, the State Department said that a written reply to Kim from Trump had been delivered to Ri in Singapore. 'We had a quick, polite exchange,' Pompeo tweeted. 'Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver (Trump's) reply to Chairman Kim's letter.' Ri, though, appeared unmoved and accused elements of the U.S. government of going against Trump's wishes by taking a hard line on sanctions State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim. The White House said earlier in the week that Kim had sent a new letter to Trump and that the president had written a response. Earlier Saturday, Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Pompeo's comments came on the heels of a new United Nations report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating U.N. sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil. Pompeo had already left the meeting when Ri delivered his remarks in order to travel to Jakarta for talks with senior Indonesian officials. As he arrived in Jakarta, the State Department said that a written reply to Kim from Trump had been delivered to Ri in Singapore Speaking on the sidelines of the Singapore forum, Pompeo told reporters that the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia is violating U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He said Washington would take 'very seriously' any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed. 'If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation,' Pompeo said, noting that the U.N. Security Council had voted unanimously in favor of the sanctions. 'I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow.' 'We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea,' he said. 'Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously.' At the United Nations, a summary of a report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea was sent to the Security Council on Friday that said North Korea is continuing with both its nuclear and missile programs. And, in addition to the oil transfers, it said the North was violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim Late Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley raised the alarm, saying that 'talk is cheap.' ''Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions,' she said in a statement. She made the remarks as the U.S. asked the Security Council to add a North Korean bank executive, a North Korean company, a Chinese company and a Russian bank to the U.N. sanctions blacklist. In his discussions with Southeast Asian officials in Singapore, Pompeo said he had implored them all to 'strictly enforce all sanctions,' including an end to ship-to-ship transfers of oil for North Korea, and had been encouraged by the response. Despite the warning to Russia, Pompeo said he remained optimistic that Kim will follow through on his pledge to Trump to denuclearize. But he said the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress. Ray Hadley has fought back tears in an emotional press conference following his senior police officer son's arrest for allegedly possessing cocaine. Addressing the media on Saturday, the 2GB talkback radio host said he felt 'inadequate as a father' after his son Daniel, a senior constable with New South Wales Police, failed to come to him for help. Ray also revealed that his son was battling 'very very serious' mental health issues in the lead-up to his arrest and had since been admitted to a clinic for treatment. The former Police Officer Of The Year winner, 28, was allegedly busted buying 0.79g of cocaine, worth about $200, from a dealer in the car park of the Australian Hotel and Brewery, in Rouse Hill, northwest of Sydney on Friday. The former Police Officer Of The Year winner (pictured) was allegedly busted buying 0.79 of a gram of cocaine, worth about $200, from a dealer in the car park of the Australian Hotel and Brewery, in Rouse Hill, northwest of Sydney on Friday 'When I was first told I was angry and perplexed. I had no idea that my son, a respected police officer, would be involved in such a matter,' Ray told reporters. He said his 'anger turned to shock and sadness' when his son explained the reason behind turning to illegal drugs, citing a battle with both physical and mental health. 'My son revealed to me he's been having mental health issues for some time. He was also injured at work some time ago. My son had been seeing his GP about these issues without my knowledge.' 'I feel particularly inadequate as a father and a spokesman for R U OK Day when in fact my son is not OK.' Ray Hadley (pictured) has fought back tears in an emotional press conference following his senior police officer son being arrested and charged for cocaine possession Daniel Hadley (pictured) allegedly bought the drug from a dealer at the back carpark of the Australian Hotel and Brewery, in Rouse Hill northwest of Sydney, on Friday Hadley said his son had been off from work for several months and was also awaiting an operation for a hernia, but had shown no obvious sign he had been struggling. 'Now, this is the most difficult part, all the time his colleagues and I thought he was coping, and he obviously hasn't been coping.' He revealed Daniel's boss, Chief Inspector Graham Wright, who he met and spoke with Friday night, felt he let Daniel down because he didn't realise he was struggling. 'I thank Chief Inspector Wright for his comments but in fairness, I do not think anyone has let him down,' Hadley said on Saturday. Hadley said his son had been off from work for several months and was also awaiting an operation for a hernia, but had shown no obvious sign he had been struggling He revealed Daniel's boss, Chief Inspector Graham Wright, who he met and spoke with Friday night, felt he let Daniel down because he didn't realise he was struggling 'I don't think anyone has let Daniel down, Daniel accepts responsibility for his behaviour, but unfortunately he is not in control of his mental health.' Hadley said he could now understand how other parents felt when they thought their children were fine, only to find they were actually not coping. 'This is going to be a long slow process for my son, I love him dearly, and I wish to God he'd come to me before this morning to tell me what he was battling.' Daniel was arrested and charged with possession following an investigation into his involvement in prohibited drugs by the Professional Standards Command, Daily Telegraph reported. The pair (pictured hugging) were involved in an AVO dispute with Ray's ex-wife and Daniel's mother Suzanne Hadley in 2014 Hadley (pictured leaving the conference) said he could now understand how other parents felt when they thought their children were fine, when really they weren't 'This is going to be a long slow process for my son, I love him dearly, and I wish to God he'd come to me before this morning to tell me what he was battling,' the radio host told the media The senior constable had reportedly been under close watch by members of the command in the lead-up to his arrest. The 28-year-old was granted conditional bail and is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on September 12. NSW Police will now review the St Marys police officer of the year award winner's employment in the force. He received the peer-nominated award in 2013 as a 24-year-old. Ray Hadley said he was devastated by his son's arrest and apologised for not going into work Saturday, citing 'family matters' as the reason. His colleague Mark Levy passed the message on to listeners, informing them Hadley would not be delivering his usual Continuous Call Team show. When his son joined the police force in 2012, Hadley was brought to tears with pride. 'I knew it would be emotional but it doesn't prepare you for what happens when they throw their caps in the air. 'I'm very proud of him,' he said following his Goulburn graduation ceremony. He told reporters he was worried about his son's safety going into a life as a policeman. 'Any one of these students that are now probationary constables - the relatives are worried,' he said. The pair were involved in an AVO dispute with Ray's ex-wife and Daniel's mother Suzanne Hadley in 2014. Ms Hadley filed an Apprehended Violence Order against them both, which she later decided to withdraw. Ray Hadley is an Australian talkback radio host for 2GB. He leads the rugby league themed continuous call team and works on the station's Sydney weekday morning show. He recently went public with his relationship with his secretary, Sophie Baird, who has organised his work life for the last 16 years. The veteran radio host broke up with his second wife, Suzanne in 2014. The couple had been married since 1994, and had briefly separated in 2010 before finally calling it quits a few years later. The veteran radio host broke up with his second wife, Suzanne in 2014 (pictured together) If you or anyone need someone to talk to, contact Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 Suicide Call Back Service - 1300 659 467 Kids Helpline - 1800 55 1800 MensLine Australia - 1300 78 99 78 Meghan McCain says she could not imagine life without her father, Sen. John McCain, and is scared 'of America without him' while opening up about his brain cancer battle. The 33-year-old co-host of The View sat down with Glamour magazine for an interview telling the outlet: 'My father is the sun of my universe. He's the absolute center'. Sen. McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and often terminal form of brain cancer last year. The 81-year-old has been spending his time at his Arizona home as he receives treatment. Meghan McCain, 33, opened up about her father Sen. John McCain's cancer battle in a new interview McCain said she is 'scared of America without him' and he needs to be here to fight 'for what we believe in' McCain travels back and forth to Arizona from New York to be by his side as he battles the aggressive disease. McCain told the magazine that she's not the same person before her dad's diagnosis and it has pushed her to live life unafraid, like he does. 'He's the last person who needs to be sick now because I so need him here, fighting for all the things that we believe in,' she said, admitting: 'I'm scared of America without him.' The newly married talk show host who wed conservative writer Ben Domenech last November, won't reveal specifics about her father's prognosis but told Glamour that his doctors told her family that they should take this time to tell things they want him to know. McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and often terminal form of brain cancer last year. He's pictured above in the senate subway in December 2017 In an Instagram Live last month, Meghan McCain said she was going back home to Arizona while The View is on hiatus 'We've done that,' she said. 'He knows I love him more than anything, and I know he loves me more than anything. There's nothing else. What's next?' Last month, McCain told Arizona Central that her father was 'hanging in' and she planned to return to home see him and her mom, Cindy McCain, this month. She said The View will soon go on hiatus until September, during which time she will use the break to spend time with her family. 'My father is hanging in and he's doing well up in Sedona,' she told fans during an Instagram Live. '... I saw him last weekend, I'm seeing him in 10 days.' She added: 'My husband and I are going on our honeymoon. We got married in November and we're not going on our honeymoon 'til August, but it's OK. And then I'm going home to Arizona for the entire rest of my hiatus and then we come back in September.' A mother has been sentenced for absconding with her two children who were legally supposed to live with their father. The Federal Circuit Court of Australia handed an 18-month prison sentence to the Brisbane woman on Friday for violating family court orders, Courier Mail reports. The court also ordered the woman's elderly mother, who has terminal cancer, to spend six months in jail for not cooperating with authorities searching for the trio. The father was granted custody of the children in 2014, a year after the couple separated. A Brisbane mother has been jailed for 18 months for absconding with her two children who were legally supposed to live with their father Judge Michael Jarrett heard the mother claimed to have been protecting the children from their father's 'physically and emotionally violent' behaviour. The children, who were taken just a few months after starting to live with their father, were not returned to him until late 2017. The court heard, during the three years on the run, the children were made to move to a new place every three or four months. Judge Jarrett said throughout their time away from their father, they were never sent to a school and were moved during dark hours of the night with blankets over their heads. The father was not aware where his wards were and filed a case in the Federal Court for them to be returned to him. The children's grandmother has also been given a sentence of 6 months for hiding information The woman claimed that her children told her their father was going to kill her. Her assertions were dismissed by Judge Jarrett as he found it to simply be 'a turn of phrase used by people too young to know better' because there had been no record of misconduct on the father's part. The court also found her psychiatrist had been misled in believing that she had post-traumatic stress symptoms. Judge Jarrett said shifting residences had caused a traumatic experience for the children. The Federal Circuit Court of Australia heard the father was legally given the children's custody in 2014, an year after the couple separated 'It is ironic that the very thing she hoped to avoid for these children is most probably the very thing she has inflicted on them,' he said. The grandmother, who did not reveal where her daughter was hiding with the two children, will be released after serving three months in prison. However, the children's mother will serve the entire jail term. A woman is fighting for life after being pinned to a fence by a car that suddenly reversed into her at a netball game on Saturday morning. The 66-year-old woman sustained a head injury and a fractured leg, while a man, 62, suffered a head injury at the Bellingara Netball Courts, in Sydney's south about 10am. Both were rushed to St George Hospital where the woman remains in a critical condition, Daily Telegraph reported. A woman is fighting for life after being pinned to a fence by a car that suddenly reversed into her at a netball game Saturday morning (scene pictured) Police said the 73-year-old woman was trying to park her car at the time of the accident and 'may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake'. 'Doing so, she reversed into two people standing next to a motorcycle,' Chief Inspector Gary Ford of the Sutherland Shire Police Area Command said. 'It does happen occasionally...unfortunately when it does happen people panic and hit the wrong one again. 'There was people everywhere. Luckily the fencing in place was able to save any injury to any children.' The driver was taken to hospital where she is being treated for shock, with the remaining games for the morning being called off. 'Due to a major accident at Bellingara complex - all 10.30am games have been cancelled,' the Sutherland Shire Netball Association shared to Facebook. Police said a 73-year-old woman was trying to park her car at the time of the accident and 'may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake' (scene pictured) Off-duty emergency workers, who were coincidentally on the grounds, assisted victims until an ambulance arrived to take them to hospital. Crowds of people ran to the scene to help free the woman from beneath the vehicle. Witness Damien Walker said it took 'took a few minutes for people to realise what to do and eventually the car was lifted forward'. 'The lady was jammed between the wire fence and back of the car and the gentleman was on the ground beside the vehicle,' Mr Walker said. Off-duty firefighter Scott Henderson was one of the first respondents and said he arrived to see the man in the gutter and the woman suffering 'significant injuries'. 'At the time when I came over I believe the man had been pulled from underneath the car and was in the gutter,' he said. A 22-year-old man has been saved by an open window after his car plunged down a cliff face and into a volcanic lake. The man, who has not been named, was driving a Mitsubishi ute near Mount Gambier's volcanic Blue Lake on Friday night when the car tore through a guard rail. Once through the guard rail the car started to plunge hundreds of metres to the lake at the bottom, ABC News reported. It's believed the man was somehow thrown from his vehicle as the car slid towards the water and if it wasn't for the already open window he may have been doomed. Scroll down for video A 22-year-old man has been saved by an open window after his car plunged down a cliff face and into The Blue Lake in Mount Gambier Police told ABC News it took several hours to retrieve the man from the slope into a rescue boat at the bottom. Senior Constable Mick Abbott described the man's survival and rescue as a 'miracle'. 'From what I understand, speaking to the investigators at the scene, the driver's side window was actually down so he was actually thrown out of the car as he was going down this steep embankment so he's actually quite lucky that happened,' he told ABC News. General manager Mark Gobbie said efforts to retrieve the car were still underway. 'We're looking at whether we can actually float the vehicle, [but] unfortunately lifting with a crane is quite complex,' he told ABC News. 'Where the vehicle is at the moment it's actually trapped under some rocks as it's come down the embankment.' The man was taken to a local hospital after the accident so police could check for any drugs or alcohol in his system. General manager Mark Gobbie said efforts to retrieve the car were still underway, 'We're looking at whether we can actually float the vehicle, [but] unfortunately lifting with a crane is quite complex.' The Blue Lake is widely considered one of the major tourist attractions in the Mount Gambier and is known as 'the gem of Mount Gambier's attractions'. The lake fills the crate of an extinct volcano with conflicting dates n when it would have last erupted, ranging from 4,300 years ago to 28,000 years ago. It contains 30,000 mega litres of water at its average capacity and the water retains a bright blue colour thanks to a natural cleaning process created by the limestone aquifer. 'These aquifers are separated by a layer of clay known as a confining bed,' a report on the lake states. 'The confining bed is a layer of clay which is saturated but has low permeability and cannot provide a usable yield of water.' This is quite different from limestone which generally has a strong ability to supply water, allowing the groundwater to flow easily into and out of the lake.' Potential Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has a message about the U.S. criminal justice system. Speaking to a historically black college, she delivered what she called 'the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It's racist ... front to back.' The Massachusetts senator identified some of the system's failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete. She made the comments at Dillard University in New Orleans. Sen. Elizabeth Warren greets Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La, and waves to the crowd as she arrives to speak in a sit-down conversation styled event at Dillard University The stop is the latest sign of Warren's effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts. The event was also attended by Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who picked up on the theme and said racial divisions were being exploited by Russian 'cyber warfare' Warren later told the meeting Friday that President Donald Trump has helped wealthy corporate interests fight consumer protections, minimum wage laws and other initiatives to benefit workers by fostering racism, xenophobia and homophobia while 'winking at white supremacists.' The event was also attended by Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who picked up on the theme and said racial divisions were being exploited by Russian 'cyber warfare.' Harris also called for a 'tooth and nail' Senate fight to reject Trump's nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, rejecting the idea that it's a useless fight in the Republican-controlled Senate. 'Damn right it's worth the fight,' she said. Democrats in the Senate plan to begin meeting with Kavanaugh when they start returning to Washington in mid-August. A senior Democratic aide said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee tasked with holding hearings for Kavanaugh, will be among those meeting with him. This comes after weeks that they refused to meet with him. Only one Democratic senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has met with Kavanaugh as lawmakers sparred over access to records from the nominee's time as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush. The stop is the latest sign of Warren's effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts. Warren speaks in a sit-down conversation styled event with Rep. Cedric Richmond at Dillard University in New Orleans A woodcutter escaped a bloodied death after his neck was cut open when his chainsaw kicked back at work. Joe Hogg, 54, was hard at work, axing woods in Victoria's far northeast, when the powerful cutting tool rebounded and cut his neck. Looking at Mr Hogg's upper body covered in blood, his friend ran towards the nearest houses in the area. Joe Hogg (above), 54, had his neck severely cut open in Victoria's northeast last week It was Mr Hogg's good luck that his friend found a person who was familiar with using first aid. Brenda Noonan was at home when Mr Hogg's friend came knocking at her door in desperate need of help. Both ran back to where Mr Hogg was lying, injured, only to find more blood gushing out of his deep wound. Mr Hogg's life was saved by a nearby resident, Brenda Noonan (right), who was well-trained in using first aid 'There was a gentleman laying on his back with severe blood loss everywhere and quite a lot still spurting from a horrendous wound in his neck,' she told 7 News. The good Samaritan used cloth-paper towels to stop the bleeding. 'I was just on my knees next to him, just holding his neck and praying like crazy, you know, just hoping and wishing and praying that he would live,' she told 7 News. Hogg was airlifted (above) and taken to Canberra hospital where he is reportedly in a stable condition The neighbours, who then called for emergency services for help, believe the newly installed mobile tower in the area helped make a difference in saving Mr Hogg's life. Corryong Police Leading Senior Constable Ross Martin was quick to arrive at the scene and was not sure if Mr Hogg would survive. The severely injured wood cutter was then taken to Canberra hospital by air ambulance, where he is reportedly in a stable condition. Extreme-right wing groups converging in Oregon for a rally this weekend are stoking fears that an outbreak of deadly violence not seen since Charlottesville, Virginia last year could throw the city of Portland into chaos. Security officials are on high alert as the Patriot Prayer Rally is set to kickoff on Saturday at noon at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Members of two groups who plan to attend the event, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys - described as 'armed,' 'pro-fascists' and 'white supremacists' - are the most concerning to local police officials. Saturday's event in Portland also serves as a rally for the so-called 'Gibson for Senate Freedom March,' organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson (pictured left) The last rally, on June 30, was declared a riot after armed Patriot Prayer and Proud Boy members repeatedly charged at anti-fascists demonstrators. Saturday's event in Portland also serves as a rally for the so-called 'Gibson for Senate Freedom March,' organized by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, who is running for elected office as a Republican from Washington state, according to The Huffington Post. Gibson has attempted to distance himself from the white supremacist label, but has an open affiliation with Identity Evropa and the Traditionalist Workers Party, self-described white nationalist groups Gibson has been touring up and down the Northwest trying to spread awareness of his campaign since launching in 2017, under the banner of 'free speech' and 'patriotism.' But police say that Gibson's rallies have served more as a pretext for Patriot Prayer and Proud Boy members to attack anti-fascist protesters. Which is why experts are particularly concerned about an outbreak of violence occurring at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park rally on Saturday, where local ordinances have made it legal to carry firearms. 'Oregon is an open carry state and unlike previous events, these groups are not expecting to be disarmed by law enforcement,' director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center Heidi Beirich told the Post. 'After being emboldened by the June 30 rally in Portland that turned violent, other far-right activists have stated that they intend to be in Portland this weekend,' Beirich said. Despite the danger, counter-protesters are hoping to organize enough people to run the extreme-right groups out of town. 'One of the things folks keep saying is 'If you just ignored them, they'd probably go away,' Effie Baum, a counterprotest organizer, told HuffPost. 'There are many examples across history that explicitly tell us this is not true. The community at large in Portland has tried ignoring them... Despite that, Joey Gibson and Patriot Prayer have not gone away.' : Fighting breaks out between antifascist counter-protesters and far-right Patriot Prayer supporters during a freedom march near Terry Shrunk Plaza on June 03, 2018 Police arrest a left-wing protester during a protest to oppose the right wing group 'The Patriot Prayer Movement,' in downtown Portland, Oregon on September 10, 2017 'If nobody is there to oppose them, then there is nobody to prevent them from targeting the marginalized members of our community,' Baum said. 'We need to show up en masse and chase these violent and dangerous groups back out just like we did in the 1980s and 1990s.' The Northwest has long been a magnet for far-right extremists, a fact that came into focus last year when white supremacist Jeremy Joseph Christian allegedly attacked three people on a Portland MAX train, killing two of them. Christian reportedly attended a Gibson rally a month before the killings occurred. The Northwest has long been a magnet for far-right extremists, a fact that came into focus last year when white supremacist Jeremy Joseph Christian (pictured) allegedly attacked three people on a Portland MAX train, killing two of them Gibson has attempted to distance himself from the white supremacist label, but has an open affiliation with Identity Evropa and the Traditionalist Workers Party, self-described white nationalist groups. Gibson has also cultivated a following among the Proud Boys, who the SPLC has designated as a hate group due to its 'misogynistic and anti-Muslim views.' The Portland police department said it will have a 'significant' presence at the rally on Saturday and will be searching individuals for contraband like weapons before they are allowed to enter the park. Individuals will open-carry permits, however, will be able to enter into the park with their weapons. Activists in Charlottesville issued a statement on Friday condemning the 'rogues gallery of white nationalists, fascists and Nazis' expected to show up for Gibson's rally on Saturday. 'Charlottesville understands all too well what it means to have fascist agitators bring choreographed terror into our community,' the statement read in part. 'We remember bracing ourselves last year against the threat of white supremacist attacks cloaked as free speech.' 'We send solidarity and love to Portland, particularly to communities most targeted by the Islamophobic, transphobic, anti-immigrant, genocidal agenda of Saturday's fascist event,' it continued. 'We call on communities across America to address the deep history of white supremacy, recently amplified by the Trump administration, that generates this latest wave of fascist terror.' Heather Heyer, a paralegal whom colleagues said was dedicated to social justice, was killed after clashes between white nationalists attending a 'Unite the Right' gathering and counter-protesters erupted last year in Charlottesville. James Fields, a 20-year-old Ohio man, was charged with her murder after allegedly using his car to plow into a group of anti-fascist demonstrators. He has plead not guilty to the charges and is currently awaiting trial. Police say that Gibson's rallies have served more as a pretext for Patriot Prayer and Proud Boy members to attack anti-fascist protesters (Pictured August 11, 2017 in Charlottesville) Rescuers have revealed that the Australian soldier who survived a week on a New Zealand mountain may not have been rescued if he didn't wave at a passing helicopter. Lieutenant Terry Harch, 29, was successfully rescued from Mount Aspiring on Friday in what rescue authorities have described as a 'snatch and grab' mission. Lt Harch was found in 'good spirits' on Thursday after he built a snow cave and used his army skills to survive. Scroll down for video Rescuers have revealed that the Australian soldier who survived a week on Mount Aspiring, New Zealand, may not have been rescued if he didn't wave at a passing helicopter Lt Harch (pictured, right) survived subzero temperatures, strong winds and heavy snow (pictured, left) He was taken to Dunedin Hospital to recover from the ordeal after reportedly suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and mild frostbite on his hands when found. Dunedin Hospital were unable to provide details of his condition on Saturday due to a family request for privacy. Cliff rescue team leader Davie Robinson told the Otago Daily Times that Lt Harch did a 'great job and made himself known'. 'Without that we probably wouldn't have found him that evening, because it was getting dark,' he said. Lt Harch spent Thursday evening with four Wanaka Alpine Rescue Crew members who provided the soldier with food, hot drinks and a tent. 'Our main job was to reheat Terry and prevent further injury ... There wasn't much we could do for that pain at that point,' said Robinson. Cliff rescue team leader Davie Robinson (pictured) revealed that Lt Harch did a great job by making himself known and waving at a passing helicopter Lt Harch was successfully rescued on Friday after he was found 'standing and waving' at 5pm on Thursday. He is recovering from the ordeal in Dunedin Hospital Pilot Sean Mullally told 9 news that Lt Harch was lucky to be alive. 'I don't think he would have lasted another night,' he said. Lt Harch was an experienced climber who had previously scaled Mount Cook for charity. It is believed that his military training and mountaineering skills allowed him to survive subzero temperatures, strong winds and heavy snow. Mountain Safety Council CEO Mike Daisley said he was relieved that Lt Harch was found alive as there were worries he would become another statistic. 'Worryingly, we knew from our insights that 25% of mountaineering fatalities in New Zealand are from Australia, so we're very glad he's been found okay.' In the past decade more than 30 people have died in the national park that surrounds popular Mount Aspiring. Lt Harch went on the solo climb in New Zealand's South Island last Friday but failed to return on Monday. His disappearance was reported to authorities by his friend. Mount Aspiring, also known as Tititea, is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Mount Cook region. It stands at 3,033m (9,951ft). Amazon is removing a number of racist and neo-Nazi products, including a baby onesie with a photo of a burning cross, from its site following pressure from a Minnesota congressman. In a letter to Rep. Keith Ellison on Thursday, Amazon's vice president for public policy said the company had reviewed a number of product listings that promoted or glorified 'hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance' and removed the items. 'We permanently blocked the seller accounts that were in violation of Amazon policy. We are reviewing the seller accounts for potential suspension,' Brian Huseman wrote in the letter. A Minnesota congressman sent Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos a letter in July asking why the company was allowing sellers to post racist propaganda items like this burning cross baby onesie Rep. Keith Ellison wrote following a report highlighting the racist items and calling out the company for taking a share of the profits. One of the items flagged was a noose car decal Another image flagged in the report was a 'noose costume'. Amazon said in a letter on Thursday that it had removed the items A Georgia state flag featuring confederate imagery was also flagged in the report and removed by Amazon 'I am disturbed that such a powerful corporation is materially fueling the rise of hate groups in our country,' Ellison wrote in his letter Amazon sent the letter to Ellison weeks after he wrote the company's CEO Jeff Bezos saying he was 'alarmed' that items promoting racist propaganda were being sold on the site and the company was taking a share of the sales. Some of the items including a patch featuring Nazi symbolism, a noose decal for a car, a confederate flag t-shirt and patch gift set, a swastika pendant and a 'noose costume'. Ellison said in a tweet that he sent the letter after a research paper written by The Action Center on Race & the Economy and Partnership for Working Families found a range of products that promoted violence, racism and white nationalism. The products, sold by third-party sellers, included clothing, children's toys, car decals and fidget spinners. 'I am disturbed that such a powerful corporation is materially fueling the rise of hate groups in our country,' Ellison wrote in his letter. Amazon said the items were being sold by third-party sellers and the accounts have since been removed from the site A Nazi swastika pendant, like the one pictured above, was another item flagged in the report The items including children's toys, like this Nazi soldier figurine, clothing, jewelry and decals In Amazon's response, it said the company relies on machine learning to flag or automatically remove products that are inappropriate or violate policies. 'These automated tools are supplemented by teams of investigators that conduct manual, human review of our listings on a basis,' Huseman said, adding that Amazon is still removing the items. In a statement on Friday, an Amazon spokesman added: 'Sellers are expected to comply with our policies, and we immediately investigate any reported violations. The items referenced by Representative Ellison were previously reviewed, and we removed those that violated our policies well before we received his letter.' Although Amazon removed the items it said it does not disclose how much it makes off sellers' items and would not reveal how much of a profit it made off the racist propaganda. Pictured above is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Ellison thanked the company in a tweet on Thursday, writing: 'Thank you Amazon for removing a number of products promoting racist propaganda from your website.' Amazon, however, has refused to disclose how much money it made off the racist propaganda. Huseman said in the letter that the company does not reveal its profits from individual publishers or product listings. North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile production, a new report by the United Nations has warned. A new report by the intergovernmental body said Pyongyang was violating sanctions, including 'a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products'. North Korea is also accused of violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and is disregarding an arms and financial sanctions embargo, a summary of the report by experts looking into UN sanctions against Pyongyang found. Kim Jong Un visits the Pyongyang Trolley Bus Factory and the Bus Repair Factory in Pyongyang Kim Jong-un is all smiles as he visits the Pyongyang Trolley Bus Factory and the Bus Repair Factory Experts claim North Korea has tried to sell weaponry and other military equipment via foreign intermediaries, including Syrian arms traffickers, Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen, as well as Libya and Sudan. Military co-operation between North Korea and Bashar al-Assad's regime were also continuing despite sanctions, they added. Companies, individuals and other bodies are still being investigated by the UN as they try to establish who procures centrifuges for North Korea's nuclear programme. The Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea following its first nuclear test in 2006. Since then, they have become tougher in an effort to clamp down on Pyongyang's reckless behaviour. Pictures of the North Korean leader at a bus factory were released around the time the UN released a new report into how Pyongyang is flouting sanctions Diplomats have hailed the sanctions for helping to thaw relations between North Korea and South Korea, as well as with the US, although critics claim they do not go far enough. Ship-to-ship transfers for petroleum products, oil and coal are among some of the 'increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques' used by North Korea to side-step sanctions. They also include turning off Automatic Identification Systems, which are required to be on at all times under international regulations, physically disguising North Korean tankers, using small unregistered vessels, illegally changing names, carrying out night transfers and using additional vessels to trans-ship cargo, the report said. Individuals empowered to act for North Korean financial institutions operate in at least five countries, which were not named, with 'seeming impunity'. North Korea is also using overseas companies and individuals to obscure income-generating activities for the government, the UN panel said. Pictured: Kim Jong-un talking to workers at the bus factory Accounts closed in the European Union to comply with sanctions were simply reopened at financial institutions in Asia. North Korea is also using overseas companies and individuals to obscure income-generating activities for the government, the panel said. And the experts' investigation of more than 200 joint ventures and/or co-operatives turned up a number that violated UN sanctions resolutions by maintaining links with companies and entities under sanctions. The experts said North Korean diplomats also continue to play 'a key role in sanctions evasion', including by controlling bank accounts in multiple countries and holding accounts in the name of family members and front companies. The North Korean leader sits on a bus along with his advisors around the time news of the UN report broke Accused Villains gang member Harley Barbaro has refused to give police access to his phone, citing concerns for a woman's privacy after she sent 'explicit photos' to his phone. Barbaro, who has been involved in an online feud with a former Hells Angels bike gang member, smiled in court as he was fined $600 for failing to hand his phone to authorities. On Friday, police raided Barbaro's Gold Coast home to find his mobile, but arrested the 25-year-old after he refused to grant them access. Accused Villains gang member Harley Barbaro (pictured) has refused to give police access to his phone, citing concerns for a woman's privacy after she sent 'explicit photos' to his phone In a cyber-quarrel, Barbaro took on former Hells Angel enforcer Ben 'Notorious' Geppert, 26, (pictured with girlfriend Allaina) labelling him 'a maggot dog' Defence lawyer Campbell MacCallum, of Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers, said the raid was the result of a 'childish' Instagram argument with former bikie Ben 'Notorious' Geppert earlier this week, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported. Over a text-heavy Instagram story, the so-called 'Insta-bikies' used the platform to allow their feud to take a threatening turn, with Barbaro labelling Geppert 'a maggot dog'. The motivation behind the feud remains unknown, but appears to have been inspired by deep family ties. 'You got caved in jail and cried screaming to the screws (prison officers),' wrote Barbaro. '(If you have) an issue with me sweet but don't bring dead brothers into it.' Over a text-heavy Instagram story, the so-called 'Insta-bikies' used the platform to allow their feud to take a threatening turn However, Mr MacCallum said the reason his client did not provide police access to the phone was because he was concerned about the privacy of a woman who had sent private photos to Barbaro. 'My client was just intending to protect the privacy of third parties who have obviously been involved in the sending of maybe explicit photos or conversations,' Mr MacCallum said outside of court. 'Someone might be so sceptical as to say the reason they execute warrants for these sort of things is just to get a search of the house for other material,' he said. The 25-year-old's elder brother, underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro, was murdered in a gangland hit in Sydney almost two years ago. Another brother, Rossario, took his own life late last year after a battle with depression. However, the rant soon extended further with Barbaro threatening Geppert to settle the dispute with violence, which could be delivered 'anytime, any place'. 'You pulled up on me and I told u to jump out and fight like a man and u drove of (sic),' he wrote. 'Anytime any place u (sic) have my word I'll be there.' The rant soon extended further with Barbaro (pictured) threatening Geppert to settle the dispute with violence, which could be delivered 'anytime, any place' Geppert or Ms Vader have yet to issue a reply to the spat but he may have just been preoccupied, as this incident comes just days after his latest prison release Despite the threatening nature of the post, Geppert has yet to issue a reply. However, he may have been preoccupied with other spats, as this incident comes just days after his latest prison release. In fact, the former Finks member, spent the night of July 22 in prison after he was caught breaching a banning order from Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast. That hiccup followed a five-year ban from the centre, which was issued in May. The week before, Geppert was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, following a brutal punch-up in a KFC car park. He was released from prison after already serving 56 days behind bars. Barnaby Joyce has taken a veiled swipe at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's leadership of the coalition, warning not every leader is a 'messiah'. Amid lacklustre results from last weekend's by-elections and lingering uncertainty and internal dissent over energy policy, the former deputy prime minister said he could not stand the 'Orwellian groupthink' in politics. 'Don't think that everyone is a messiah,' Mr Joyce told former coalition chief-of-staff and Sky News host Peta Credlin in an interview airing on Saturday. 'They're not.' Former PM Barnaby Joyce has said he can't stand the 'Orwellian groupthink' in politics Asked whether the coalition's failure to win back any seats in last week's by-elections demanded a change of leader, Mr Joyce refused to bite. 'This is about talking to your local footy side and saying ''if you play the second half like you just played the first, boy oh boy you're going to get smashed,"' he said. He claimed the by-election losses revealed a growing group of discontents who would rather vote for One Nation leader Pauline Hanson than the major parties. In the marginal Queensland seat of Longman, the Liberal's primary vote dropped into the 20s, while One Nation's rose above 15 per cent. Mr Joyce criticised Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's leadership of the coalition, warning not every leader is a 'messiah' This, even while Senator Hanson was away holidaying on a cruise around the British Isles - replaced at polling booths by cardboard cutouts. 'It ain't fine when you get votes in the 20s,' Mr Joyce said. 'Take your medicine. Learn from it.' He went as far as criticising the nickname 'Big Trev' for the Liberal's Longman candidate Trevor Ruthenberg, a moniker repeatedly used by Mr Turnbull. 'I wouldn't call him big Trev,' Mr Joyce said. 'A moniker is what you're given by the public after a period of service. You don't give it to yourself.' Mr Joyce then made a vague claim should the government put the Paris agreement on climate change above power prices and Australian agriculture. The former deputy PM said the latest by-election losses revealed growing discontent for the party among people 'If we go down that path then forget it, I'm out, see you later,' he said. 'We are sick of having all these caveats placed on us by green groups, by well-intentioned, well-paid people in Giorgio Armani suits sitting back and pontificating about the world and then leaving the bill.' Mr Joyce resigned as deputy prime minister in February after revelations surfaced of his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion. He said being relegated to the backbench meant he now had the ability to speak out. 'You basically kick people up the arse, say ''think about it.'' If you don't change, the result won't change,' he said. 'I want to be the iconoclast. I want to stand people on their heads. I want to get people annoyed because then they start to think.' Cory Bernardi has launched a new app so conservatives have a safe space to share their controversial views without being slammed with hate. The Australian Conservatives senator created the easily accessible phone program so members aren't threatened with abuse and can interact with others in the party from across the country. The application is called A Better Way, which went live Saturday in front of a crowd of 200 people in Brisbane, and can be downloaded onto Android smart phones and IOS. Cory Bernardi (pictured) has launched a new app so conservatives have a safe space to share their controversial views without being slammed with hate The Australian Conservatives senator created 'A Better Way' (pictured) so members aren't threatened with abuse and can interact with others in the party from across the country. Senator Bernardi said users could win prizes for participation on the first campaign-ready political party app in Australia which can target individuals with conservative material. 'It's a safe space for conservatives, you shouldn't be abused,' he said. 'It's a way for us and you to interact across the conservative divide.' The app's logo is a blue map of Australia in the shape of the country and features an interactive news feed and comment section - similar to other social media platforms. Users are given points for participation and can see where they sit in the scheme of other conservatives. The app states it is suitable for ages four-years-old and on wards and can be set to four different languages. The 48-year-old said the left had been good at creating a 'union movement' and the right needed to 'use technology to (their) advantage'. Senator Bernardi told the Queensland crowd app members could compete against each other, encouraging them to participate. The 48-year-old (pictured) said the left had been good at creating a 'union movement' and the right needed to 'use technology to (their) advantage' 'We love competition and I want to see you out compete each other to be the most active conservative,' he said. Senator Bernardi joked if members logged on and found a user named Trump is was actually his alias. 'In case I did something wrong, I didn't want to be blamed,' he quipped. The conservatives also claimed to have grown to the third largest political party in Australia in the last 15 months. A father and his eight-year-old son have been rushed to hospital after falling four metres off a balcony. The 41-year-old was found unconscious alongside his child outside their Pittwater Road home in Sydneys Northern Beaches on Saturday. The horrific incident unfolded at about 4pm and emergency services rushed to the scene after witnesses reported the fall. A 41-year-old man and his eight-year-old son fell from a Sydney balcony The man was found lying unconscious and the son was injured from the fall The pair were treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics at the scene, before the man was flown to Royal North Shore Hospital in a serious condition. The child was taken by road to Royal North Shore Hospital with minor injuries. Officers from Northern Beaches Police Area Command established a crime scene. Investigations are continuing. Both were rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital, the man in a serious condition After a lifetime of vigilance in the sun, Renae Williamson thought she had minimised her chance of getting skin cancer. But after a series of debilitating but seemingly explainable headaches, the West Australian woman received a diagnosis that would change her life forever. It started with a migraine, which due to their prevalence in her family, didn't act as an immediate cause for concern. However, when its severity became almost unbearable, Ms Williamson knew the cause had to be more sinister. Renae Williamson thought she had minimised her chance of skin cancer due to being sun-smart, but after a series of debilitating headaches, she received a diagnosis that would change her life forever Her symptoms started with a migraine, which due to their prevalence in her family, didn't act as an immediate cause for concern, but an MRI soon found two nodules on her brain (pictured with husband Jared, left) After a routine visit to her GP, the 40-year-old, along with her husband Jared, was sent for an MRI, 'just to be safe' - without it, she would have been dead the next day. Six days after the first sign of a headache, it was at a Perth medical centre when the scan found two nodules on her brain. '(One of the nodules) had caused so much swelling of the brain that if I had left it another 24 hours, I would likely be dead,' Ms Williamson wrote on a GoFundMe page. Speaking of the shocking diagnosis, Ms Williamson said: 'I was feeling so sick and my head was pounding. I asked Jared to go tell them we were going home 'cause all I wanted to do was go to bed.' 'The centre staff took Jared away and told him that I had two nodules in my brain. He went into shock and had to ask them to explain again. 'He then left the room and turned the corner and looked at me. The look on his face I will never forget,' she wrote. Speaking of the shocking diagnosis, Ms Williamson said: 'I was feeling so sick and my head was pounding. I asked Jared to go tell them we were going home cause all I wanted to do was go to bed.' What followed the earth-shaking diagnosis was a string of dramatic medical procedures including the removal of one of the tumours and a five-day stint in a high dependency ward What followed the earth-shaking diagnosis was a string of dramatic medical procedures including the removal of one of the tumours and a five-day stint in a high dependency ward. Doctors later discovered Ms Williamson was also suffering from life-threatening, stage-four melanoma with 'no primary source'. More than a year on, and it's a cocktail of pricey drugs and invasive surgeries which are keeping Ms Williamson alive. Although she is responding 'well to treatment', her entire family have had to sacrifice since the diagnosis which turned their world upside-down. One year on, and its a cocktail of pricey drugs and invasive surgeries which are keeping Ms Williamson (right) alive 'I have had to give up my studies in nursing. We've had to sell our apartment to afford the cost associated with fighting or rather living with melanoma,' she said. 'We cannot afford to go out. Even just for simple meals. If we didn't receive vouchers for the movies for birthdays and Christmas we wouldn't be going out at all.' Now, after funneling their own funds into medical costs, the Williamsons are pleading with others to support the cause - and watch out for signs of melanoma on themselves. 'Check weekly in the shower, if you think anything is unusual for you, get it checked. Don't let anyone tell you it's nothing. You know your body, trust it, believe in it and most importantly take care or it,' Ms Williamson told Mamamia. Advertisement The spouses of Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron took time out to walk the streets Bormes-Les-Mimosas in France yesterday while the leaders had Brexit talks. Brigitte Macron and Philip May were pictured on their jaunt laughing and joking, while the British Prime Minister set out her Chequers plan to the French president at his Riviera retreat, Fort Bregancon. Mr Macron was sporting a suit for the outing while the First Lady donned a white dress. After the meeting, the couples enjoyed a private dinner at the 13th-century fort. Brigitte Macron and Philip May took time out to walk the streets Bormes-Les-Mimosas in France yesterday As their spouses took their amble, the leaders discussed Mrs May's set Chequers plan at his Riviera retreat, Fort Bregancon After the meeting, the couples enjoyed a private dinner at the 13th-century fort which is perched 35 metres above sea level The Mays made the stop in France on their way home from a holiday in Italy. The leader's meeting followed similar talks with other EU leaders in recent weeks, including with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. They focused on Mrs May's Brexit blueprint agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers earlier this month, which almost brought down her Government as Boris Johnson and David Davis both resigned in protest. The Prime Minister has previously warned Mr Macron that Brussels faces a choice of a Chequers deal or no deal', while the President has told her that he stood firmly behind EU negotiators. Perched 35 metres above sea level on a small island off the French Mediterranean coast, the fortress has been the official retreat of the president of France since 1968. Paz de la Huerta in New York. She claims Harvey Weinstein raped her twice in 2010 Harvey Weinstein rape accuser Paz de la Huerta has been spotted in New York just hours after the movie mogul released emails from another of his alleged victims in which she complimented his 'beautiful eyes'. Actress de la Huerta claims the Miramax boss raped her twice in 2010. She is among dozens of women who have come forward with sexual assault allegations against the disgraced Hollywood heavyweight. Today she stepped out in New York with a male friend on the way to the hairdresser wearing bright pink leggings and a yellow t-shirt, carrying a small shopping bag and clutching her mobile phone. Weinstein filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him on Friday. It contains a number of emails sent by one of his accusers between 2013 and 2017. That woman's allegation that Weinstein raped her in 2013 resulted in charges of rape in the first degree, rape in the third degree and predatory sexual assault. She wrote in the emails that Weinstein 'is the bar' for the movie industry and comments on his 'smile and beautiful eyes. In one email, sent in 2014, the woman wrote: 'There is no one else I would enjoy catching up with that understands me quite like you.' Two weeks later, the woman wrote to accept Weinstein's invitation to bring her mother along for a drink, saying: 'She would love to meet you, plus you can see how good my genes are.' Weinstein, pictured with his attorney Benjamin Brafman, has filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him Weinstein's attorney Ben Brafman argues that emails like that and the others he submitted along with the motion, should have been seen by members of the grand jury. He is also asking that the charge of Criminal Sex Act should be tossed because of inconsistencies. De la Huerta stepped out with a male friend in New York wearing a pair of bright pink leggings and a yellow t-shirt De la Huerta was carrying a small shopping bag and clutching her mobile phone during the trip Mr Brafman said in a statement on Friday: 'The motions filed today reflect the first opportunity for Mr. Weinstein to present legal arguments as to why the indictment filed against him should be dismissed. 'Among the numerous grounds supporting dismissal, the motions reveal the existence of exculpatory evidence known to the prosecution but intentionally kept from the grand jurors, communications which corroborate Mr. Weinsteins factual innocence in this case.' The emails have been released by Weinstein's legal team in an effort to have charges against the movie mogul dismissed He continued: 'Attached to the motions are dozens of emails written by the anonymous accuser, who sent extensive warm, complimentary and solicitous messages to Mr. Weinstein immediately following the now claimed event and over the next four year period. 'These communications irrefutably reflect the true nature of this consensual intimate friendship, which never at any time included a forcible rape.' Weinstein was married to his now estranged wife Georgina Chapman during the time that all 40 emails were sent. The movie mogul has been accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women and is facing six charges in total. He pleaded not guilty to these three charges in June: Rape in the First and Third Degree Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree These three new charges were added last month: Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree Two counts of Predatory Sexual Assault Predatory Sexual Assault carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars. Weinstein (above at his July 9 indictment) submitted a motion to dismiss criminal charges in his case on Friday, and included emails from one accuser as evidence An Australian woman who travelled to Bali for her honeymoon has been detained after she was told she was 'blacklisted' by Indonesian authorities. Belinda Lopez, 33, was held at Denpasar airport on Friday after officials accused her of being a journalist, Associated Press reports. The graduate student from Sydney said immigration officials wanted to know if she was a reporter and asked if she had 'done something wrong to Indonesia.' An Australian woman Belinda Lopez (pictured) who travelled to Bali for her honeymoon has been detained after she was told she was 'blacklisted' by Indonesian authorities Belinda Lopez (pictured, right) was held at Denpasar airport on Friday after officials accused her of being a journalist The former reporter said: 'This is not a joke: Im blacklisted by the Indonesian government' The new bride took to Facebook to share her shock of being detained without reason. 'This is not a joke: Im blacklisted by the Indonesian government,' she wrote. Ms Lopez said she was forced to sit on a couch while being detained for close to 24 hours. 'This was meant to be a holiday from university, officially on leave. My honeymoon. But the immigration staff member kept asking if I was a journalist and if Id done something bad to Indonesia,' she added. Ms Lopez said she is 'devastated' by news of her deportation. 'It's the first place I moved to as an adult, have visited so many times since, to learn the language and to visit people who have become some of my best friends in the world,' she said on Facebook. 'This was meant to be a holiday from university, officially on leave. My honeymoon,' Ms Lopez said on Facebook Belinda Lopez had been detained at Balis Denpasar airport on Friday after officials accused her of being a journalist Belinda took to Twitter to question why she has been blacklisted by the Indonesian government It was a holiday that wasn't meant to be for the former reporter. Just a few days before her flight to Indonesia from Australia, Mz Lopez found out her newlywed husband Sebastien Leveque would not be joining her. Mr Leveque's passport was due to expire in five months. Yet you need at least six months of validity to enter Indonesia. 'Literally the biggest honeymoon fail update ever. I am going on my honeymoon to Indonesia by myself,' Ms Lopez said on Facebook. Just a few days before her flight to Indonesia from Australia, Mz Lopez found out her newlywed husband Sebastien Leveque (pictured, left) would not be joining her The newly wed (pictured) said she was forced to sit on a couch while being detained for close to 24 hours 'I'm sorry universe for mocking the honeymoon industrial complex for so long. Now, I pay,' she continued. Almost a decade ago Ms Lopez was an editor for a newspaper in Jakarta and has also produced a series of podcasts for the ABC. A freelance journalism site says she won awards in 2012 and 2013 for reporting, including a report on juvenile incarceration in the United States. She is currently a PhD student at Sydney's Macquarie University, studying the cultural experiences of migrants to Java, Indonesia. Ms Lopez (pictured) took to Facebook to share her detainment updates. She said she was forced to sit on a couch and will be detained for close to 24 hours before being deported Indonesia's police and military are frequently accused of human rights abuses in Papua. A recent Amnesty International report documented 95 unlawful killings by security forces in Papua since 2008. Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said it's not the first time a journalist has been prevented to entering Papua. 'Once again the Indonesian authorities are still restricting foreign journalists, or anyone suspected (of doing) journalism to enter Papua,' Mr Harsono told news.com. Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono (pictured) said 'once again the Indonesian authorities are still restricting foreign journalists, or anyone suspected (of doing) journalism to enter Papua' Ms Lopez said she was refused a visa renewal two years ago in Papua because officials suspected she was a journalist. Immigration Office spokesman Amran Aris said Indonesia's military had added Ms Lopez to a government blacklist as a 'covert journalist.' 'We only carry out the duties as her name is listed on the government's blacklist, so we have to refuse her entry,' Mr Aris told Associated Press. Ms Lopez is set to be deported on Saturday night. This is the moment an excavator shattered the windows of Ai Weiwei's largest studio while workers hustled away his art, preparing to demolish the old Beijing factory three years after the artist and government critic left China. As dusk descended on the old car parts factory on the outskirts of the capital, shirtless, sweating labourers packed large wooden crates filled with artworks onto a truck bed. Hours earlier, Ai, who now lives in Berlin, had posted videos on Instagram showing several men looking on from inside the hollowed-out brick and concrete building as a backhoe went to work. This is the moment an excavator shattered the windows of Ai Weiwei's largest studio while workers hustled away his art, preparing to demolish the old Beijing factory three years after the artist and government critic left China Pictured: Walls of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's studio collapse during demolition in Beijing Ai Weiwei helped to design the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Games, but fell out of favour following his criticism of Chinese leadership 'Farewell,' Ai wrote in English, saying the demolition had begun without notice. The sudden demolition comes seven years after his Shanghai studio was destroyed by the Chinese government for being 'illegal'. Ai claimed the Shanghai authorities were 'frustrated' by his documentaries on sensitive subjects. The artist helped to design the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Games, but fell out of favour following his criticism of Chinese leadership. He was detained for 81 days in 2011 amid a crackdown on government critics. His passport was confiscated and he moved to Berlin after it was returned to him in 2015. A general view of Ai Weiwei's installation work 'Law of the Journey' in Sydney, Australia The artist was detained for 81 days in 2011 amid a crackdown on government critics. Pictured: Workers dismantle pipes near art works in Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's studio Several workmen look on from outside the hollowed-out brick and concrete building as a backhoe goes to work Ai wasn't overly angry about the demolition, as the rental contract for the space had expired last autumn, said Ga Rang, an assistant who has worked for 10 years alongside the artist. But it 'simply wasn't possible' to move out at the time due to the vast quantity of things stored in the space, Ga said. Ga managed the hangar-sized space in the Left Right Art District, where Ai had worked since 2006. 'They came and started knocking down the windows today without telling us beforehand. There's still so much stuff inside,' said Ga. As dusk descended on the old car parts factory on the outskirts of the capital, shirtless, sweating labourers packed large wooden crates filled with artworks onto a truck bed They had been warned that the move needed to happen within days, but had not been told when the wrecking machines would appear. 'The authorities say they want to develop things here, build malls and commercial buildings. But it's a shame - you won't ever find a place in Beijing like this again,' he said. 'Mr. Ai made countless works in this space - a lot of his iconic works were all made here.' Work from Ai's first solo show in his home country - a reconstructed Ming dynasty temple, rebuilt with all its 1,500 parts in a Beijing gallery in 2015 - stood packed up in boxes in the middle of the window-lined studio amid broken glass and timber. Anti-drug campaigner Ray Hadley has spoken about missing the signs his police officer son was struggling with mental health after being charged for drug possession. Daniel Hadley, a former Police Officer of the Year winner, was arrested for allegedly buying 0.79 grams of cocaine, worth about $200, at a Sydney pub car park on Friday. The 28-year-old's father, who is an RUOK Day ambassador, told media he felt 'inadequate' for missing the warning signs and said his son had a long journey ahead of him after being admitted to a mental health clinic. Anti-drug campaigner Ray Hadley (pictured Saturday) spoke about missing the signs his police officer son was struggling with mental health after being charged for drug possession Daniel Hadley (pictured), a former Police Officer of the Year winner, was arrested for allegedly buying 0.79 grams of cocaine, worth about $200, at a Sydney pub car park on Friday 'This is going to be a long slow process for my son, I love him dearly,' Hadley (pictured with a primary school aged Daniel) said Saturday afternoon 'This is going to be a long slow process for my son, I love him dearly,' Hadley said Saturday afternoon. 'I wish to God he'd come to me before this morning to tell me what he was battling.' The New South Wales senior constable had been under surveillance by police internal affairs after an inside tip-off about allegedly using drugs. The 28-year-old, who has three sisters, was caught allegedly buying cocaine at the Australian Hotel and Brewery, in Rouse Hill, northwest of Sydney on Friday. Daniel was granted conditional bail and is expected to face Parramatta Local Court on September 12. The 2GB talkback radio host broke down in tears at a press conference addressing his son's arrest as he revealed Daniel was battling 'very very serious' mental health issues and had not been to work in several months. 'When I was first told I was angry and perplexed. I had no idea that my son, a respected police officer, would be involved in such a matter,' Hadley said. The radio host said his 'anger turned to shock and sadness' when his son explained the reason behind turning to illegal drugs, citing a battle with both physical and mental health. 'My son revealed to me he's been having mental health issues for some time. He was also injured at work some time ago. My son had been seeing his GP about these issues without my knowledge.' 'I feel particularly inadequate as a father and a spokesman for R U OK Day when in fact my son is not OK.' Hadley said his son had been off from work for several months and was also awaiting an operation for a hernia, but had shown no obvious sign he had been struggling. The 28-year-old's father, who is an RUOK Day ambassador, told media he felt 'inadequate' for missing the warning signs and said his son (pictured receiving Police Officer of the Year award) had a long journey ahead of him after being admitted to a mental health clinic The 28-year-old, who has three sisters, was caught allegedly buying cocaine at the Australian Hotel and Brewery, in Rouse Hill (pictured), northwest of Sydney on Friday 'Now, this is the most difficult part, all the time his colleagues and I thought he was coping, and he obviously hasn't been coping.' He revealed Daniel's boss, Chief Inspector Graham Wright, who he met and spoke with Friday night, felt he let Daniel down because he didn't realise he was struggling. 'I thank Chief Inspector Wright for his comments but in fairness, I do not think anyone has let him down,' Hadley said on Saturday. 'I don't think anyone has let Daniel down, Daniel accepts responsibility for his behaviour, but unfortunately he is not in control of his mental health.' Hadley said he could now understand how other parents felt when they thought their children were fine, only to find they were actually not coping. Hadley said his son had been off from work for several months and was also awaiting an operation for a hernia, but had shown no obvious sign he had been struggling He revealed Daniel's boss, Chief Inspector Graham Wright, who he met and spoke with Friday night, felt he let Daniel down because he didn't realise he was struggling 'This is going to be a long slow process for my son, I love him dearly, and I wish to God he'd come to me before this morning to tell me what he was battling.' Daniel was arrested and charged with possession following an investigation into his involvement in prohibited drugs by the Professional Standards Command, Daily Telegraph reported. NSW Police will now review the St Marys police officer of the year award winner's employment in the force. Daniel received the peer-nominated award in 2013 as a 24-year-old. Hadley said he was devastated by his son's arrest and apologised for not going into work Saturday, citing 'family matters' as the reason. The pair (pictured hugging) were involved in an AVO dispute with Ray's ex-wife and Daniel's mother Suzanne Hadley in 2014 Hadley (pictured leaving the conference) said he could now understand how other parents felt when they thought their children were fine, when really they weren't 'This is going to be a long slow process for my son, I love him dearly, and I wish to God he'd come to me before this morning to tell me what he was battling,' the radio host told the media His colleague Mark Levy passed the message on to listeners, informing them Hadley would not be delivering his usual Continuous Call Team show. When his son joined the police force in 2012, Hadley was brought to tears with pride. 'I knew it would be emotional but it doesn't prepare you for what happens when they throw their caps in the air. 'I'm very proud of him,' he said following his Goulburn graduation ceremony. He told reporters he was worried about his son's safety going into a life as a policeman. 'Any one of these students that are now probationary constables - the relatives are worried,' he said. The pair were involved in an AVO dispute with Ray's ex-wife and Daniel's mother Suzanne Hadley in 2014. Ms Hadley filed an Apprehended Violence Order against them both, which she later decided to withdraw. Ray Hadley is an Australian talkback radio host for 2GB. He leads the rugby league themed continuous call team and works on the station's Sydney weekday morning show. He recently went public with his relationship with his secretary, Sophie Baird, who has organised his work life for the last 16 years. The veteran radio host broke up with his second wife, Suzanne in 2014. The couple had been married since 1994, and had briefly separated in 2010 before finally calling it quits a few years later. If you or anyone need someone to talk to, contact Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 Suicide Call Back Service - 1300 659 467 Kids Helpline - 1800 55 1800 MensLine Australia - 1300 78 99 78 A woman in wearing a niqab has become the first person in Denmark to be fined under new laws banning full-face Islamic veils. A 28-year-old female was fined after getting into a fight with another woman, who had tried to tear of her veil. Police were called to the scene and reviewed CCTV footage of the incident, which took place in a shopping centre in Horsholm, around 15 miles north of the capital Copenhagen yesterday. Restrictions on Islamic face veils were approved by MPs in May after being brought forward by the country's centre-right coalition, known for tightening asylum and immigration rules in recent years A student (not pictured) told reporters: 'We need to send a signal to the government that we will not bow to discrimination' Denmark's face veil ban will affect Muslim women who argue the controversial law 'specifically targets a religious minority' She was told she would be fined 1,000 kroner (119.37) in the post, and was told to remove her veil or leave the public space, but decided to keep on her headwear. Police officer David Borchersen said: 'During the fight her niqab came off, but by the time we arrived she had put it back on again.' Denmark introduced a law on August 1 where people wearing a burqa, which covers a person's entire face, or a niqab, which only shows the eyes, while in public carries a fine of 1,000 kroner. Repeated offenders could be fined as much as 10,000 kroner (1,193). Balaclavas, masks, false beards and other accessories are included in the ban. Denmark's new face veil ban is likely to apply to the niqab and burqa - not the hijab and chador A line of protesters link arms in Copenhagen, including non-Muslim men and women who covered their face in solidarity with women no longer allowed to wear the niqab Danish women wore niqabs, hijabs and burqas, risking a fine of 1,000 kroner (120) or jail time for those caught wearing the face veil in public The law does not mention mention burkas by name, but reads 'anyone who wears a garment that hides the face in public will be punished with a fine'. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women's rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society. The full-face veil is a controversial issue across Europe. Belgium, France, Germany and Austria have already imposed bans or partial bans. Friday's fine comes after protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against the law. Paul Weeks' young children still ask where their father is, four-and-a-half years after he disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean. The 38-year-old was one of 239 people on board missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. His body will likely never been found. His children seven and five, persistent and driven just like Paul, can't understand why their father doesn't have a grave. It's a question they continue to ask their mother, Danica, but she can't give them any answers. Scroll down for video Paul Weeks' seven and five year old sons (pictured) still ask where their father is, four-and-a-half years after he disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean Paul Weeks (pictured) was one of 239 people on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, whose body has still not been found. His children (left and right) can't understand why their father doesn't have a grave 'I know they will go on asking because they are very determined just like Paul was,' Danica told Insight from her home on the Sunshine Coast. 'I say I just don't know where he is. I say he's still on a plane and we don't know where that plane is. 'We haven't had a memorial. There's no closure'. After an exhaustive four-year search, the anticipated 495-plus-page report released last week could only reveal that the routine flight carrying six Australians was likely under manual control, and had not been trying to evade radar. 'I know they will go on asking because they are very determined just like Paul was,' Danica (right) told Insight from her home on the Sunshine Coast Ms Weeks, who had been eagerly awaiting the report and was 'refreshing the page until the report comes in our emails', told The Australian it was 'merely a mix of words that gives no new information' and had left her 'totally deflated'. 'That report contains nothing new absolutely nothing we didn't know it's just hundreds of pages of firewood,' she told News Corp. 'Where does that leave us? We are in the wheel again going around and around. It just keeps on going and it just sucks. You have all these hopes that one day someone is going to tell you where your husband is, but it doesn't happen,' Ms Weeks told the Daily Telegraph. Paul had been en route to Mongolia as part of his fly-in, fly-out work regime with mining contractor Transwest. Ms Weeks, who had been eagerly awaiting the report and was 'refreshing the page until the report comes in our emails' said it was 'merely a mix of words that gives no new information' 'It's ludicrous that you can lose a Boeing 777 and so long on we have no idea where they are and what happened,' the mother said. Ms Weeks wants to see more pressure placed on the Malaysian government to continue the search as the crash may have been due to a problem with the Boeing 777 model. She pointed out that Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO at Tesla, had offered his skills to help the boys trapped in a cave in Thailand last month and could be called upon to help with the search. Ms Weeks (centre) wants to see more pressure placed on the Malaysian government to continue the search as the crash may have been due to a problem with the Boeing 777 model The four-year search for MH370 ended in May after the US-based technology firm Ocean Infinity failed to locate the plane while scouring 125,000sq km of the Indian Ocean. Malaysia had signed a 'no find, no fee' deal with Ocean Infinity to resume the hunt after the official search led by Australia, Malaysia and China was called off in early 2017. There has been speculation Ocean Infinity could resume the search as it remains in waters off the West Australian coast doing work for Woodside Energy. Several theories have emerged about how the plane disappeared, with some suggesting it was hijacked, while others believe someone on board may have deliberately turned off the plane's transponder before diverting it over the Indian Ocean. The four-year search for MH370 ended in May after the US-based technology firm Ocean Infinity failed to locate the plane while scouring 125,000sq km of the Indian Ocean Pieces of debris have been found as far away as La Reunion (pictured) but the main body of the aircraft has gone undiscovered A group of netball spectators have been hailed as heroes after they lifted a car off an elderly couple who became pinned between it and a fence. The 65-year-old woman injured is now fighting for her life after she was struck by the runaway vehicle at the Bellingara Netball Courts, in Sydney's south, at 10am on Saturday. She suffered head injuries and a broken leg while her husband, 62, sustained a head injury in the incident. A woman is fighting for life after being pinned to a fence by a car that suddenly reversed into her at a netball game Saturday morning It is believed the couple were struck while at the courts to watch their granddaughter play netball. According to Judy McLachlan from the Sutherland Shire Netball Association, it was a group of heroic men who came to the pair's rescue before tragedy compounded even further. 'The ten blokes lifted the car and pulled the person out that was pinned underneath (the vehicle),' she told Nine News. 'For people to lift a car and pull someone out from underneath, that's amazing.' Following the incident, both grandparents were rushed to St George Hospital,Daily Telegraph reported. Police said a 73-year-old woman was trying to park her car at the time of the accident and 'may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake'. 'It does happen occasionally...unfortunately when it does happen people panic and hit the wrong one again. It is believed the couple were struck while at the courts to watch their granddaughter play netball 'There was people everywhere. Luckily the fencing in place was able to save any injury to any children.' The driver was taken to hospital where she is being treated for shock, with the remaining games for the morning being called off. 'Due to a major accident at Bellingara complex - all 10.30am games have been cancelled,' the Sutherland Shire Netball Association shared to Facebook. Off-duty emergency workers, who were coincidentally on the grounds, assisted victims until an ambulance arrived to take them to hospital. Crowds of people ran to the scene to help free the woman from beneath the vehicle. According to Judy McLachlan from the Sutherland Shire Netball Association, it was a group of heroic men who came to the pair's rescue before tragedy compounded even further Witness Damien Walker said it took 'took a few minutes for people to realise what to do and eventually the car was lifted forward'. 'The lady was jammed between the wire fence and back of the car and the gentleman was on the ground beside the vehicle,' Mr Walker said. Off-duty firefighter Scott Henderson was one of the first respondents and said he arrived to see the man in the gutter and the woman suffering 'significant injuries'. 'At the time when I came over I believe the man had been pulled from underneath the car and was in the gutter,' he said. British tourists have been warned to think twice against hiring mopeds and quad bikes abroad after a spate of deaths serious injuries The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said 36 quad-bike accidents and seven moped accidents had been reported last year. It also said seven people had been injured in quad-bike accidents so far this year and suspects the figure could be much higher as many accidents go unreported. The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said 36 quad-bike accidents and seven moped accidents had been reported last year by its members Nikki White, Abta's director of destinations and sustainability, said: 'Every year people suffer serious injuries after hiring mopeds or quad bikes while on holiday. Many have little experience of using these vehicles and are also unfamiliar with the local roads and driving standards. 'It's so easy when you're relaxing on holiday to do things you wouldn't dream of doing back home; but you are putting yourself at risk of serious injury if you hire these vehicles, and on top of that, many travel insurance policies won't cover such activities.' Kieran Roche, 19, from Swindon, died in a quad-biking accident on the Greek island of Crete last month. Two British women were seriously injured in a quad-bike crash on the island of Zante. And on the same island last month, Natasha Stevens, 17, from Lancashire, suffered severe injuries in a separate quad-bike accident. Abta is warning people against hiring the vehicles abroad after the spate of deaths A YouGov survey of 2,000 people carried out for Abta found one in 10 British holidaymakers who had been overseas in the last 12 months had hired a quad bike or moped. This equates to 4.5 million people. This equated to one in seven among the 18 to 24 age group. Abta said quad bikes had become increasingly popular, particularly in places such as Greece, Cape Verde and Turkey, It said hiring mopeds was common among British travellers in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam but the vehicles offer little protection in an accident. Abta also said people with limited experience on mopeds should think twice before hiring them overseas and that tourists should only ride quad bikes if they are part of a properly supervised off-road excursion. It said accidents could leave holidaymakers with unaffordable medical bills, because many standard travel insurance policies do not cover accidents involving quad bikes. Hiring a car, taking a taxi or using public transport are all safer alternatives, it said. British holiday maker, Melanie Simmonds, 32 suffered serious injuries, following a quad bike accident whilst on holiday in Greece in 2010. She recovered after 14 months following a series of operations. Mrs Simmonds has now warned others about the dangers of quad bikes. She said: 'The reason that we hired the quad bike was to save money on taxis. One snap decision completely transformed my life. I could have lost the use of my legs or worse, my life. My advice to holidaymakers is be aware that quad bikes are heavy and dangerous. They are difficult to control and not very safe to use on roads. 'One big thing that Ive also learnt is that you must ALWAYS know what your insurance covers you for. As it turned out I wasn't covered for was quad bikes because I never expected to be using one. Value your life and your safety because accidents can happen to anyone and your life can change in an instant.' Ezzit Raad (pictured) and his younger brother, Ahmed, turned to a life of radicalisation when their older brother, Mansour, died of disease in 2003. A pair of Islamic brothers lived a wild life of 'sex, drugs and rock 'n roll' in Melbourne before they planned horrific terror attacks on the city. Terrorist fighter Ezzit Raad and his younger brother, Ahmed, turned to a life of radicalisation when their older brother died of disease in 2003. Ahmed told police he and his brother had lived 'the bad life... which is, uh, sex, drugs and rock n roll,' before the pair turned to radical Islam, the Herald Sun reported. Under Operation Pendennis, the men were jailed after one of the largest counter-terrorism investigations in Australia after 13 men were arrested in 2005 and 2006. The siblings gained their high school certificates and embarked on trade careers but within two years, they joined forces with other family members because they believed Islam was under attack by the West. The Raads (Ezzit's younger brothers Ahmed right and Mounir left) gained their high school certificates and embarked on trade careers but within two years, they joined forces with other family members and believed Islam was under attack by the West Ezzit, who joined ISIS in 2013, and Ahmed began following Jihad with their younger sibling, Majed, and cousin Bassam Raad after falling under the influence of Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, News Corp reported. Benbrika, who is now behind bars for his failed plot to blow up Victoria's MCG in 2008, was creating groups in Melbourne and Sydney to punish non-believers. The 58-year-old was secretly recorded claiming they would 'damage buildings' and 'blast things'. 'Everyone has to prepare himself. If we want to die for jihad, we have to do maximum damage, maximum damage,' he said. The terror plan was costly, forcing the brothers to steal cars and raise money because they believed non-Islamists would end up 'killing (their) brothers and sisters and little kids'. The pair were inspired by al-Qaida and had come into possession of bomb building chemicals and weapons through Benbrika. The Benbrika-led terror cell began attending training camps allegedly run by a connection to Osama bin Laden, according to the publication. Ezzit, who joined ISIS in 2013, and Ahmed began following Jihad with their younger sibling, Majed, and cousin Bassam Raad after falling under the influence of Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika (pictured in 2005) The terror cell (Bassam pictured in 2008) planned to 'kill police officers in pursuit of Jihad' but were swarmed by authorities in late 2005 where they were later jailed The brothers talked to Benbrika about 'killing police officers in pursuit of Jihad' in April 2005 and by November, authorities swarmed the terror cell's most dangerous fighters. Ezzit and Ahmed spent their jail terms rubbing shoulders with underworld murders, which is thought to have strengthened their beliefs, and by 2012, the brothers were acquitted and released. Ezzit used a fake passport and fled to fight for ISIS and died in 2016. Another brother, Mounir, is also thought to be in Syria fighting with terrorists. His younger brother Majed was found not guilty of belonging to a homegrown terror cell and later joined Syrian terrorists. Majed is now believed to be dead. An Islamic State propaganda magazine used the fighter's death to terrorise the West by encouraging radicalists to 'kill them at the MCG, SCG, the Opera House and even in their backyards'. Ahmed, a convicted terrorist, reportedly left the radical Islamic life behind him and lives a free life. Bassam was acquitted over Australia's largest terror trial in 2008. The youngest student ever admitted to Mexico's National Autonomous University wouldn't call himself a 'genius'. With his feet barely brushing the floor from where he sat, 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz, laughed out loud and shook his head when a reporter asked if he considered himself a genius. 'I don't like to use that word,' he said. With his feet barely brushing the floor from where he sat, 12-year-old Carlos Santamaria Diaz, laughed out loud and shook his head when a reporter asked if he considered himself a genius. 'I don't like to use that word,' he said Twelve-year-old child prodigy Carlos Diaz Santamaria along with his parents Fabian Santamaria (centre) and Araceli Diaz The youngster will begin classes for an undergraduate degree in biomedical physics on Monday after passing the university's entrance exam. He has already done preparatory work at the university's school of chemistry in its genetics sciences centre. The boy from western Guadalajara grew bored with public school at an early age and turned to the web where he taught himself calculus and physics. By the age of nine, he participated in university programs in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and biology. The youngster will begin classes for an undergraduate degree in biomedical physics on Monday after passing the university's entrance exam When asked if he ever felt isolated because of his intelligence, Carlos shrugged off the question: 'The truth is, no, I feel like the university has been very good to me, especially the chemistry faculty' When asked if he ever felt isolated because of his intelligence, Carlos shrugged off the question: 'The truth is, no, I feel like the university has been very good to me, especially the chemistry faculty.' His mother Arcelia Diaz said that like any parent she was proud of her son. Carlos offered advice to Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: 'First off, I would tell him not to make the same mistakes as the previous presidents.' Politicians should 'take care of the country like they take care of themselves,' he said. 'This a country filled with people who have dreams and at the same don't have any dreams because they don't have any opportunities.' The university said Carlos would be treated like any other student, with no special privileges or benefits. This is the unbelievable moment a motorist had to contend with a tricky road hazard - when a helicopter almost buzzes a misty countryside lane. Driver Brian Weatherall, 45, had been driving over Kirkstone Pass in Cumbria with his family and passes a cyclist on his left before approaching a white Seat on the opposite side of the road flashing its lights. Mr Weatherall suddenly slams the brakes on as a dark image of a helicopter looms out of the fog almost skimming the stone wall. The helicopter is flying just feet off the ground in the poor visibility, and appears identical to one that was dispatched as part of the 'Blue Thunder' unit after the London Bridge terror attack. British special forces are believed to use the blue civilian helicopters for missions in the UK. The elite special forces unit can be scrambled at a moment's notice and rehearses terror scenes and extreme scenarios for months.The unit got its nickname from its unmarked blue helicopter. The unmarked blue helicopter of the 'Blue Thunder' unit lands on London Bridge after the London Bridge terror attack In the footage Mr Weatherall he can be heard saying 'Woah, a massive helicopter'- as the impressive piece of military machinery passes over. After it passes Mr Weatherall continues with his journey in the murky conditions, with his family bursting into excited laughter. He adds: 'That's not something you see very often.' You can start to the see the helicopter begin to take shape as it comes out of the murky conditions in Cumbria Driver Dave Weatherhall was on holiday with his family and stops the car as the helicopter flies remarkable near them In the background the young man can be heard excitedly saying he will tell his friends about the unexpected road block. Describing the moment, civil engineer Mr Weatherall, of Durham, said: 'I just couldn't believe it, I've never seen anything like it. 'I was on holiday at the time and the roads were bad so I was taking it steady on the steep hill. 'It happened about 2pm and I had the whole family in the car, it really was quite something - and a lucky escape.' Brian said after he realised the near miss he said it was 'pretty awesome' to witness such an event. The helicopter- which is thought to be special forces- passes the family car, narrowly missing the stone wall He added: 'It does make you feel safe when you see how our forces can fly a helicopter.' The helicopter is believed to be a special forces chopper carrying out manoeuvres in the treacherous conditions. Brian uploaded the clip to Facebook with the caption: 'Ok I'll give way! Cumbria is full of surprises. Especially when the SAS are about.' Driver Brian Weatherall, 45, who captured the footage on his dashcam, said he 'just couldn't believe it, I've never seen anything like it.' The footage has already been viewed over 35,000 times. On social media, David Parker joked: 'Think you had right of way, he was on the wrong side of the road.' Colin Noble added: 'This is the kind of stuff we used to see in my backyard. Often used to see the air force flying through valleys looking down on them from mountain tops.' Lm Johnson added: 'Just your average country drive then.' Declan Morland wrote: 'Thank you so much for that footage it's awesome. Them lot are nuts doing that.' Christian Grammer said: 'That's completely mad, Brian. We watched it scoot over Ullswater at Glenridding and into the dense cloud bank that started in Patterdale. I wondered how the hell they would manage. Thanks for answering that one.' Ross Mitchell concurred, writing: 'We saw the helicopter pass very low over Ulswater and wondered how it managed to get through the mist at the top of the pass. Mystery resolved. Great footage.' Speaking today, Brian said: 'We were excited if anything, the kids loved it. It was an amazing sight.' Recreational cannabis use may soon even more become common place in Australia, with experts clamming that it is only a matter of time before people can get legally high. Polls show that legalisation is slowly becoming more widely supported. Roughly 35 per cent of Australians support adults recreationally using cannabis while a whopping 91 per cent supported medicinal use. The number has increased by almost 10 per cent since 2004 when only 26.8 per cent of the population said they supported legalisation. The growing acceptance among Australians follows global trends. Industry experts are saying recreational cannabis use may soon be legal Roughly 35 per cent of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis Bloomberg predicts that by 2028, the vast majority of European countries will legalise medical cannabis programs and recreational cannabis. The industry is expected to be valued at $A182 billion. In the two years since Australia legalised medicinal cannabis, 1059 patients have been treated with the drug. Industry stakeholders are watching these figures closely with many comparing them to Canada, where medicinal use has been legal for 18 years and recreational use is about to become legal. Pharmacist and owner of Health House International Paul Mavor, who brought the first shipment of medicinal cannabis to the country this year, said patient numbers were above where Canada had first sat. 'In the first year of introducing it, Canada, which has a slightly bigger population to us, only had 150 patients, Australia had 300,' he told news.com.au. Industry experts are comparing Australia to Kannada where the drug was just legalised Medicinal cannabis is now widely supported in Australia 'Canada is now up 300,000 medical patients since legalising it 18 years ago and now they're just about to go legal for recreational (adult use) in a few months.' At the Future of Cannabis seminar at Advertising Week APAC in Sydney on Wednesday, Sharlene Mavor, medical scientist and director of Medical Cannabis Research Australia, was also using the North American country for guidance on a potentate timeline for legalisation here. She said that while the country needed to normalise it as a pharmaceutical, it would no doubt lead to recreational legalisation. 'Canada legalised it recreationally once authorities realised the sky didn't fall in and there were no major social issues.' In the two years since Australia legalised medicinal cannabis, 1059 patients have been treated with the drug In Australia, the movement to make legislative change has begun. In April, The Greens announced they would be adopting a policy to legalise recreational use. Announcing the policy, leader Richard Di Natale said the 'war on drugs has failed' and called for the establishment of an Australian Cannabis Agency that would oversee the supply of cannabis to licensed shops. It would follow similar legal guidelines to tobacco and alcohol in that it would only be available to customers over the age of 18, taxed heavily and prohibit advertising of the product. The policy has support from former Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Palmer. Global marijuana moguls are also optimistic. Announcing the policy, leader Richard Di Natale (pictured) said the 'war on drugs has failed' A Four Corners investigation into Australia's booming medical marijuana industry revealed major players believed it was only a matter of time till the legislation was changed. Cannabis industry analyst Matthijs Smith, whose investment bank Canaccord Genuity holds stock in one of Australia's largest medicinal marijuana companies, told the program that legalisation had followed a similar pattern in most countries. 'It's been interesting that a number of jurisdictions, such as Canada, Uruguay, and states in the US, once they have made cannabis available for medical purposes, and they've seen that that hasn't resulted in a whole deterioration of society, have become a lot more liberal and contemplated or indeed enacted the recreational use,' he said. Currently cannibals is only fully legal in a few places: Uruguay and parts of the United States. The Greens policy has support from former Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Palmer However dozens of countries have relaxed their marijuana laws over the years. Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Peru and North Korea are just some of the countries that don't criminalize marijuana use. Change won't come overnight. Greg Hunt, the minister for health, has said the government is firmly against legalisation, labeling cannabis a gateway drug that leads to users trying harder substances such as methamphetamine. Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Peru and North Korea are just some of the countries that don't criminalize marijuana use 'Our job is to protect the health of Australians,' he said. 'This action by the Greens risks the health of Australians.' But it is likely to come slowly. The 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that marijuana was the most commonly used illegal drug in Australia with 10.4 per cent of people consuming it in the previous 12 months. 'Community tolerance has increased for cannabis use, with higher proportions of people supporting legalisation and a lower proportion supporting penalties for sale and supply,' the report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare said. The heartbroken family and friends of a woman allegedly killed at the hands of her estranged husband have vowed her death won't be in vain. The body of mother-of-three Samantha Fraser was discovered in her garage on Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, last Monday. The 38-year-old's family and friends have since rallied around her children and vowed to improve services for domestic violence victims in the area. This week, Ms Fraser's father Trevor met with Victoria's Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Natalie Hutchins. The heartbroken community Samantha Fraser (pictured) who was allegedly killed by her ex-husband have vowed her death won't be in vain, as they aim to curb domestic violence deaths The 38-year-old's family and friends have since rallied around her children and vowed to improve services for domestic violence victims in the rural area of Phillip Island in Victoria As the meeting took place, locals from Phillip Island continued their calls for a women's refuge and increased training for police who deal with victim's complaints on the island, which sits 140km south-east of Melbourne. Lack of regional support often forces victims in the area to travel hundreds of kilometres to seek support, according to the Herald Sun. However, Minister Hutchins said the government had so far built four of 19 'safety hubs' across the state, with the next set to be built 140km away at Morwell. '(The safety hubs) provide these services that you're looking for (legal, psychological, and linked to police) in one spot,' she said. Ms Fraser's ex-husband Adrian Basham, who had previously been questioned by detectives, was charged with one count of murder on Thursday morning. The 41-year-old was also previously accused of repeatedly attacking Ms Fraser during their seven-year marriage, which ended in 2016. This week, Ms Fraser's father Trevor met with Victoria's Minister for Prevention of Family Violence Natalie Hutchins in the search for justice and an improvement of services in the area Ms Fraser's ex-husband Adrian Basham (pictured), who had previously been questioned by detectives, was charged with one count of murder on Thursday morning Basham was meant to face court over nine assault charges after Ms Fraser reported him to police following their separation but the man was never kept in custody. Police initially believed Ms Fraser, a respected psychologist, had committed suicide. Authorities were alerted when Ms Fraser didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon. A welfare check was conducted at her home on Seagrove Way, Cowes, where police found her dead. Police initially believed Ms Fraser, a respected psychologist, had committed suicide, but authorities were alerted when Ms Fraser didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon Her death came as a shock to the local community, who were notified of the police investigation four days after her body was found. Ms Fraser has been described by friends, family and colleagues as a 'beautiful woman'. 'She was incredibly kind, nurturing and talented. Sam was articulate and passionate about everything she did,' a friend told the Herald Sun. Her father Trevor Fraser thanked hundreds of mourners who paid their respects at a vigil held in Cowes, Phillip Island, last week. 'There's really not much we can say at a time like this, [I'm] too emotional to have too much to say,' Mr Fraser said. 'She truly was a remarkable woman, a remarkable mother and a remarkable daughter. Thank you for standing up for Samantha.' Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is expected to be found guilty when his trial in Virginia wraps up - but will he manage to avoid jail? Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, facing fraud charges for allegedly hiding millions from the IRS and failing to declare overseas bank accounts, is gearing up for the second week of his trial. The 69-year-old is the first person implicated in special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russian collusion to face a jury, and the past week has not gone well for him. Manafort has been painted as a liar, who would rather spend his money on an opulent lifestyle than pay taxes. Next week, his 'right-hand man' Rick Gates will testify against him as part of a plea deal Gates made with Mueller. Gates is expected to provide jurors with the first-hand account of a co-conspirator, and say Manafort was knee-deep in an alleged scheme to hide millions of dollars from the IRS and defraud several banks. As Manafort's chances of a not guilty verdict appear to rapidly shrink, his last hope for freedom lies in the President. Manafort has been charged with hiding millions from the IRS in undeclared overseas bank accounts. Next week, his 'right-hand man' Rick Gates, who took a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, is expected to testify against him Trump has worked to distance himself from the case, noting Manafort was with him for only a 'very short time', and that he had no idea there was an investigation into his behavior. 'Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders,' he wrote on August 1. 'He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with collusion - a hoax!' Hours later, the President appeared to calm himself and changed his tune slightly - this time referring to his former campaign manager as a 'Regan/Dole darling' and suggesting mob bosses received better treatment than he did. Gates (left) is expected to tell the jury of Manafort's involvement in the scheme, while the defense have argued Manafort was too busy running his business and had left the financials up to Gates Trump initially tried to distance himself from Manafort (pictured) in social media posts, before hours later turning around and claiming the 69-year-old was being treated worse than mob boss Al Capone 'Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'public enemy number one,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?' he wrote. While this case has very little, if anything to do with Russian collusion, many within Trump's camp believe Mueller is trying to convince Manafort to help him gather more information on potential collusion. Going to trial instead of taking a deal could be seen as an act of solidarity with the President, and could curry his favor should Manafort require a pardon or commuted sentence. A pardon would not be out of the question for the former campaign manager. Trump appears to have a track record of using his powers to help his friends or send messages to his opponents. In April, Trump pardoned Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, in a move many saw as a signal to those being called up by Mueller's team. Libby, who was then-Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted in 2007 of perjury and obstruction of justice after leaking the name of a CIA officer to the media. Manafort's reluctance to take a deal or turn on someone else within the party is an act of hope he will be pardoned by Trump, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti has said He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail, but President George W Bush granted him clemency, meaning he did not have to serve his sentence, but the conviction was not overturned. When Trump announced the pardon, Democratic Rep Adam Schiff took to Twitter to share what he saw as the true meaning of the pardon. 'This is the President's way of sending a message to those implicated in the Russia investigation: You have my back and I'll have yours,' he wrote. Previously, Trump pardoned Lewis 'Scooter' Libby (pictured), convicted of leaking the name of a covert CIA agent to the press in 2007. Democrat Adam Schiff said the move as a 'message' to those implicated in the Mueller trial to keep him out of it and they would be looked after Trump has also pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who was sentenced to five years probation and eight months in a community confinement center in San Diego for making illegal 'straw donations' to the campaign of Wendy Long, who ran as a republican for a New York senate seat. A straw donation is where one person flouts campaign finance limits by having other people make the donation on their behalf, and reimburses them the money. The President said D'Souza had been treated 'very unfairly' by the government. Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the recipient of Trump's first-ever political pardon, was convicted after violating a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos. The 85-year-old continued to detain people based on suspicion they were in the USA illegally - something a judge had specifically ordered him to stop doing, noting he was not authorized to make such arrests. Trump's first-ever Presidential pardon was awarded to conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who was convicted of making illegal 'straw donations' to a Republican candidate. The President said D'Souza had been treated 'very unfairly' Trump pardoned Arpaio before he could even be sentenced, telling reporters he was 'loved in Arizona'. 'He's done a great job for the people of Arizona, he's very strong on borders, very strong on illegal immigration,' Trump said. 'I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with their big decision to go get him, right before the election voting started. 'I thought that was very, very unfair thing to do.' Arpaio is now running for a senate seat, calling himself 'Sheriff Joe' and pledging unwavering support to the President. 'We cannot sit idly by while our nation faces unprecedented challenges. President Trump needs my help in the Senate,' he wrote on his website. 'He needs a conservative vote he can count on, and a voice in the Senate who knows first hand the threats our nation is dealing with.' Trump has also pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of continuing to detain Latinos he suspected were not in the country legally, despite not having the power to do so. Arpaio was pardoned before he was even sentenced, and is now running for a senate seat hoping to help Trump in Washington Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told Vox Manafort is facing years behind bars if he is convicted - something that appears very likely at this point. Mariotti explained the 69-year-old is risking a lot by not taking a deal or flip on someone else, namely Trump, in order to preserve his freedom. 'Mueller has done everything he could to put maximum pressure on Manafort,' he said. 'The man is facing charges in two different jurisdictions, a variety of federal charges carrying very substantial penalties, but for whatever reason, he has decided not to plead guilty, not to flip. 'My speculation would be thats because hes hoping for a pardon or expecting a pardon, and if youre expecting a pardon at the end, theres no real downside in going to trial, as long as you feel confident youll get a pardon eventually.' An eight-year-old boy has died after he reportedly ate his father's crystal meth thinking it was breakfast cereal. Indiana boy Curtis Collman III died on June 21 after he told his father he was hungry and accidentally consumed the drug that he found on a plate. Officials said young Curtis ate enough to kill a grown man, ingesting 180 times the lethal amount, according to a toxicology report released on Thursday. Curtis Collman III, eight, (left) died after eating his father Curtis Gilbert Collman's (right) crystal meth on June 21, ingesting 180 times the lethal amount Video courtesy WDRB When his father 41-year-old Curtis Gilbert Collman realized his son seemed ill he called a friend over instead of calling police. When the friend suggested calling police, he brought out his handgun and threatened to kill himself, the female friend, and his son saying 'I'm not going back to prison', according to the Seymour Tribune. He later took his child to his parents home, who called for help, but it was too late. The child was having seizures and convulsing by that point and died soon afterwards. Curtis' father Collman was charged with neglect of a dependent causing death, pointing and firearm and theft, on Thursday, in addition to other charges relating to a sexual misconduct case. His father refused to call the cops after seeing his child was ill saying 'I'm not going back to prison' leading the child to suffer seizures and convulsions Collman was charged with neglect of a dependent causing death, pointing and firearm and theft, on Thursday 'Anybody that is a parent, you know, would be emotionally upset. It kind of hits home if you have kids,' detective Tom Barker said. On Thursday he requested a bond reduction to spend time at home with his parents while awaiting trial, according to the News 4 Jax. If convicted, he faces 20 to 40 years in prison. He goes to trial on December 4. However prosecutors are seeking a maximum penalty of 50 years. '50 years would be nice,' Jackson County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Chalfant said. Advertisement Police in Bangladesh's capital fired tear gas and used batons on Saturday to disperse hundreds of protesting students angry over the traffic deaths of two fellow students, leaving dozens injured. Dhaka remained largely cut off from the rest of Bangladesh as buses refused to drive from other parts of the country. The owners and workers of the bus companies have said they will not run their vehicles unless they feel safe after dozens of vehicles were either vandalized or torched in Dhaka and elsewhere. We want justice: Demonstrators have pressed their demand for safer roads in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh Hundreds of students protested the traffic deaths of two fellow students, leaving dozens injured Witnesses and media reports said Saturday's chaos broke out in Dhaka's Dhanmondi area as police and ruling party men swooped in on the students. A top leader of the ruling Awami League said some 'criminals' wearing school uniforms joined the violence. Many protesters blamed the student wing of the ruling party for the attacks. TV stations aired footage of the clashes, with protesters seen throwing stones at police as the chaos continued for hours. 'We have treated more than 115 injured students so far since the afternoon,' emergency ward doctor Abdus Shabbir told AFP, adding some sported injuries consistent with rubber bullets. 'A few of them were in very bad condition,' he added. A protester said students were holding protests peacefully on the road when they were attacked. 'We all are feeling threatened here. We wanted a peaceful protest. We don't want any trouble occurring around here. Yet rubber bullets were shot at our brothers,' Sabbir Hossain, a student, said. Road transport minister Obaidul Quader rejected allegations that party cadres from the ruling Awami League party had attacked the students. At least 12,000 people die each year in road accidents often blamed on faulty vehicles, reckless driving and lax traffic enforcement Bangladeshi students shout slogans and block a road during protests. Five days of protests by tens of thousands of students angry over the traffic deaths of two of their colleagues have largely cut off the capital Bangladeshi students stop a car to check its license as they block a road during a protest in Dhaka An AFP photographer at the scene of one the clashes saw students and unidentified young adult men fighting with sticks and rocks, leaving several wounded An Associated Press journalist at the scene said many people, including some journalists, were injured in the clashes. The English-language Daily Star reported that up to 25 people were injured. Thousands of other students took to the streets elsewhere in Dhaka on Saturday, but no major violence was reported. The protests, which began last Sunday after two college students were struck and killed by a pair of buses, have paralyzed Dhaka, a city of 10 million. The two buses were racing to collect passengers, a common occurrence in the city, which is regularly gridlocked by traffic chaos. The protests are an embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of a general election due in December. Hasina's party is blaming the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and its main ally Jamaat-e-Islami, for using the sentiment of young students to create chaos for political gains. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment Road transport minister Obaidul Quader rejected allegations that party cadres from the ruling Awami League party had attacked the students Zia's party formally extended its support to the protesters. Hasina also said their demands are justified and pledged to fulfill them in phases. The protesters are demanding safer roads in Bangladesh, where corruption is rife, making it easy for unlicensed drivers and unregistered vehicles to work the roads. At least 12,000 people die each year in road accidents often blamed on faulty vehicles, reckless driving and lax traffic enforcement. The students have stopped thousands of vehicles - including those of top officials and judges - demanding to see if the cars were registered and the drivers licensed. Buses are key to transportation in Bangladesh, where trains are overcrowded and most people cannot afford cars. Two robbers who terrorised vulnerable members of the public in south London using stolen mopeds have been jailed for more than 30 years. Mikelle Alexander, 21, of Sutton, and Karim Hussain, 20, of Romford 'hunted people down and made a sport of it', police said. They were jailed for a combined 22 offences, including robbery and theft of a motor vehicle. Mikelle Alexander and Karim Hussain were jailed for 17 and 15 years respectively after targeted attacks in south London neighbourhoods last year Alexander and Hussain purposely attacked people in Croydon, Lambeth, Kingston, Sutton, Hammersmith, Fulham and Merton. Their robbing spree occurred between September and December last year. Police said the pair preyed on 'vulnerable people often women and left their victims afraid to be in the neighbourhoods they had lived in for years.' Elderly Asian victims were often targeted for their jewellery. In a November attack, a man in his 50s was stabbed when Alexander attempted to steal a bag, which only contained a bible. The man bravely held onto the bag before Alxander returned, punched, kicked then plunged a knife into the man in a 'brutal attack' before taking the bag and fleeing. Alexander has been handed 17 years after he was found guilty of 22 offences, including robbery, attempted robbery, theft and theft of a motor vehicle. Hussain received 15 years' imprisonment by Croydon Crown Court. Investigators were able to catch the shameless duo through a DNA match after Hussain's ring was grabbed by a woman during a robbery in September. Hussain was arrested in December and charged. Alexander was arrested in December then released under investigation. Hundreds of fire crews have rushed to battle a huge bush fire that is believed to have been deliberately lit. Local residents on the New South Wales Central Coast are being asked to stay up to date with information as fire fighters attend the scene. The blaze is covering 360 hectares of land at Doyalson, and while it isn't yet directly affecting homes in its current state, residents are being advised to keep on top of alerts. A blaze (pictured) covering 360 hectares of land has started on the NSW Central Coast Doyalson Rural Fire Brigade's Kevin Martin told 9News, 'we've had some reports they've seen people light the fire, we've given those reports to police and detectives and they're currently investigating.' The recent spate of dry weather has made it the perfect condition for burning. Fire crews have spent the weekend conducting hazard reduction burns in preparation for the warmer months. Across the state 26 burns were conducted on Saturday with a further three planned for Sunday. Residents in Belrose, where one of the planned burns was performed said they were relieved it was happening now, rather than in the height of summer. 'It allows us not to worry in summer time, if the fire does come through but at this time of the year it's great.' Hundreds of fire crews (pictured) have rushed to the scene and are battling to put it out Fire Captain Mark Stevenson of the Belrose Fire Brigade said they were starting early this year. 'This is quite dry for this time of the year, usually we don't do hazard reduction just yet, but we're taking advantage of the conditions to get in early.' Residents can check on fires through the NSW Rural Fire Service site: https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me A young man has spent five hours stranded on a ravine after he jumped out of his car which was plummeting into a volcanic lake. The 22-year-old crashed his ute through a guard rail and plunged down the 20 metre embankment into Blue Lake in South Australia's Mount Gambier. Just as the car was about to hit the water he manage to leap from the vehicle's window and was rescued five hours later by emergency services. A young man has spent five hours stranded on a ravine after he jumped out of his car which was plummeting into a volcanic lake Senior Constable Mick Abbott told the ABC that the man was lucky to be alive. 'From what I understand, speaking to the investigators at the scene, the driver's side window was actually down so he was actually thrown out of the car as he was going down this steep embankment so he's actually quite lucky that happened,' Senior Constable Abbott said. He remained stranded in the dark on the bank as emergency crews needed to use a boat to rescue him. They found him semi-conscious lying halfway down the slope. The damaged barrier was seen by a passing motorist who alerted police to the trapped man. Officer said they could hear him shouting for help when they arrived. His Mitsubishi Triton was found partially submerged in the lake which gave rise to fears that the lake had been contaminated. He was rescued five hours later by police who found him semi-conscious (the barrier is pictured) They found the car submerged in the Blue Lake a tourist spot in South Australia Blue Lake provides drinking water to 30,000 people. Because of fears that the car may have leaked into the waters authorities made the decision to shut downs the towns water supply. SA Water's Mark Gobbie told 9News that, 'we were concerned that there could be some hydro or diesel contamination.' Because of fears that the car may have leaked into the waters authorities made the decision to shut downs the towns water supply The towns water supply will be sourced from the local borefied until tests have proved it is safe to drink. 'We want to just stress to people that the water is absolutely safe to drink, some people may notice a slight change in taste.' Blue Lake sits in a crater created by a volcanic eruption about 5,000 years ago and is a popular tourist attraction. Police are continuing to investigate what led to the crash. Newseum in Washington D.C. is selling 'Make America Great Again' hats and t-shirts that say Fake News - drawing the ire of journalist and proponents of free press. The interactive news museum in the nation's capital is selling the 'MAGA' hats for $14.99 on its website, adding a 'Fake News' shirt on sale for $19.97. An 'Adult Trump 17 Great Again Tee' is also being sold by the museum for $24.99. The interactive news museum in the nation's capital is selling the 'MAGA' hats for $14.99 on its website, adding a 'Fake News' shirt on sale for $19.97 Members can get the hat - made in China and not the United States - for $13.49 The Newseum features a memorial for journalist who have been killed while on the job, reporting. It also features an inscription of the First Amendment. Many in the industry aren't fans of items propagating President Donald Trump's attacks on the media being sold in such a monumental space. Sky News' Ian Woods said: 'Sad to read the @Newseum in Washington is selling Fake News t-shirts. My mate Mick Deane is honoured in the Newseum among the hundreds of reporters who've died in search of the truth. There was nothing fake about his murder.' The shirt says 'You are very Fake News' and was originally $24 An 'Adult Trump 17 Great Again Tee' is also being sold by the museum for $24.99 The sentiment was shared by CNN Analyst Susan Hennessy who added: 'Outside the Newseum is a banner calling for the release of Austin Tice, an American journalist held captive in Syria for going on 6 years. The US government believes he is still alive. Inside, they'll sell you a shirt that says 'You are very fake news' for $19.97.' '@Newseum has a memorial to journalists killed while reporting. So why are they selling 'fake news' shirts?' said reporter Hadas Gold. 'It's one thing to sell political paraphernalia it's another to promote a phrase authoritarian regimes around the world use to stop a free press.' Sky News' Ian Woods said: 'Sad to read the @Newseum in Washington is selling Fake News t-shirts. My mate Mick Deane is honoured in the Newseum among the hundreds of reporters who've died in search of the truth. There was nothing fake about his murder' The sentiment was shared by CNN Analyst Susan Hennessy who added: 'Outside the Newseum is a banner calling for the release of Austin Tice, an American journalist held captive in Syria for going on 6 years. The US government believes he is still alive. Inside, they'll sell you a shirt that says 'You are very fake news' for $19.97' Many felt that the item's being sold at the museum was disrespectful to free press since they are often associated with very anti-press sentiments. New Yorker writer Adam Davidson said: 'No f*****g way @Newseum. You sell 'Fake News' shirts and call it part of your commitment to free speech? No. Just no.' 'This is a very bad idea @Newseum -- you exist to honor, examine and protect the news media, not embrace the bywords by which others seek to undermine it,' audio host Michael Barbaro asserted. '@Newseum has a memorial to journalists killed while reporting. So why are they selling 'fake news' shirts?' said reporter Hadas Gold. 'It's one thing to sell political paraphernalia it's another to promote a phrase authoritarian regimes around the world use to stop a free press' New Yorker writer Adam Davidson said: 'No f*****g way @Newseum. You sell 'Fake News' shirts and call it part of your commitment to free speech? No. Just no' 'This is a very bad idea @Newseum -- you exist to honor, examine and protect the news media, not embrace the bywords by which others seek to undermine it,' audio host Michael Barbaro asserted WTOP's Neal Augenstein said: 'I've been proud to have my iPhone on display at @Newseum. I question the judgment in perpetuating the #fakenews mantra in a place celebrating journalism. It's a question reporters often face: They CAN report something, but SHOULD they?' Soledad O'Brien added: 'The Newseum is funded by Networks and their parent companies, and philanthropic orgsall with employees who devote their lives and livelihoods to stand for everything that is *not* fake news. This is unwise and I encourage the Newseum to rethink this. It's an insult.' The museum has responded to critics of the items in the shop, stating that the controversial items should be included as they stress the importance of free speech. WTOP's Neal Augenstein said: 'I've been proud to have my iPhone on display at @Newseum. I question the judgment in perpetuating the #fakenews mantra in a place celebrating journalism. It's a question reporters often face: They CAN report something, but SHOULD they?' Soledad O'Brien added: 'The Newseum is funded by Networks and their parent companies, and philanthropic orgsall with employees who devote their lives and livelihoods to stand for everything that is *not* fake news. This is unwise and I encourage the Newseum to rethink this. It's an insult' 'We recognize why you're asking the question,' said Sonya Gavankar, director of public relations for the Newseum, in an email to Poynter. 'As a nonpartisan organization, people with differing viewpoints feel comfortable visiting the Newseum, and one of our greatest strengths is that we're champions not only of a free press but also of free speech. 'The MAGA hat and the FBI hat are two of our best-selling items.' President Donald Trump's anti-press sentiments were shouted by his fans at CNN's Jim Acosta during a Thursday rally in Tampa, Florida But that may not be the entire picture as the museum has been running into financial troubles. The Newseum is said to be struggling in its fundraising efforts and is also said to be in extreme debt, according to the Washington Post. The museum - located on Pennsylvania Ave just blocks from the Capitol - charges $25 for guest to attend. It may have to move locations, however, if it can't handle the financial burden. CNN political analyst April Ryan said that CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta's life was 'in jeopardy' following Trump supporters' heckling attacks at a rally last month. While Acosta was on-camera reporting, he was repeatedly taunted, heckled and berated by attendees of President Trump's rally in Tampa, Florida, on July 31. In a video Acosta posted on Twitter later in the day, the rally crowd could be seen gathered around him and heard booing and chanting 'CNN sucks,' among other things. CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta was aggressively heckled and berated by Trump supporters at a rally in Tampa, Florida on July 31 A sign-holding woman was seen flipping off Acosta and pointing and shouting 'you stuck at him' multiple times during one 45 second video Acosta captured at the event At various points in the clip, individuals could be seen waving the middle finger at the camera. One man shouted 'stop lying, tell the truth' and another man smugly gestured to a t-shirt bearing the slogan, 'F**k the media.' A woman in a pink, plaid dress can be seen purposely moving forward so that she can aggressively point at Acosta and flip him off, while screaming 'You suck' directly at him. She repeated her actions every time the camera panned over her. 'Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa,' Acosta wrote in the tweet. 'Im very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt.' When talking about the incident later on CNN, Acosta said, 'Honestly it felt like we weren't in America anymore. America's should not be treating their fellow Americans in this way.' Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. Im very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018 A Trump supporter smugly showed off his t-shirt bearing a 'F**k the media' slogan in Florida The day after the Florida rally, CNN analyst April Ryan said that Acosta's life had been 'in jeopardy' and that there had been a 'safety issue' Acosta has faced harassment before. Here, at a June 25 rally for South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, attended by Trump, he is heckled as a man holds a 'CNN sucks' sign Acosta also said that Trump 'is whipping these crowds up into a frenzy to the point where they really want to come after us,' and noted that he and other journalists were standing behind metal barricades 'to protect us from people who might take things to far.' The day after the rally, April Ryan, a CNN political analyst and American Urban Radio Networks' White House Correspondent said, 'Thats a serious moment and a serious place. And Jim Acostas life, in my opinion, was in jeopardy that night,' during an on-air segment with CNN's Don Lemon Wednesday night. Ryan went on to say 'there was a safety issue,' while noting that White House Press Secretary received a Secret Service detail after a restaurant owner in Lexington, Virginia, told her to leave in June. 'She gets taxpayer-funded security for something that she stokes. But yet, it's OK. It's freedom of speech for us,' she said, referring to the heckling journalists face while covering rallies and other events. Ryan also said, 'This president, President Donald. J. Trump has stoked the flames for reporters to feel like their lives, their safety, their lives are in jeopardy at these rallies.' Neither Lemon nor Ryan thought Sanders should not have the Secret Service protection, but floated the idea that journalists now need some form of protection as well, in light of the animus they encounter in public from Trump supporters. Ryan noted that she had had occasionally contentious interactions with press secretaries under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, but that it was 'never personal.' 'This has now gone beyond politics,' Ryan said. 'This has gone into life. This has gone into changing lives.' Marilou Danley (above with Stephen Paddock) said he was 'unable to perform' The final police report of the Las Vegas shooting has revealed that the gunman's girlfriend told investigators that he was 'unable to perform' and that sex left him 'exhausted'. The investigative report published on Friday offers little insight into shooter Stephen Paddock's motives in the October 1 shooting that left 58 dead, but does shed light on his personal life. Based on interviews with his small circle of acquaintances, the report describes Paddock, 64, as an aloof narcissist, uninterested in politics or religion, who developed heavy obsessions with any hobby he took up before quickly losing interest and dropping it entirely. Out of the witnesses interviewed, most insightful on Paddock's habits and eccentricities was girlfriend Marilou Danley, 63, who was cleared of involvement in the massacre. Danley, a Philippines native who later became and Australian citizen before moving to the US, met Paddock in Reno, Nevada, where she was working as a high-limit casino host. Paddock would often visit Reno and stay at Danley's casino, where he was known as a high roller. Over the course of several years, their relationship developed from professional to romantic. Out of the witnesses interviewed, most insightful on Stephen Paddock's (left) habits and eccentricities was girlfriend Marilou Danley (right) Paddock eventually bought a condo in Reno, and in 2013 Danley moved in with him. In 2015, Paddock convinced Danley to stop working so that they could travel together more. Though she was resistant at first, she eventually agreed to quit her job and accepted a monthly amount of money from him. The couple took many cruises and international trips together, including vacations to the Mediterranean, the Bahamas, Dubai, and Asia. While Danley is a practicing Catholic, Paddock described himself as an atheist, and would often say things such as 'your God doesnt love me' and tease her for making the sign of the cross. However, she said he had no problem with her taking part in religious practices. While Danley said their relationship was 'very romantic' in the beginning, 'she noticed a gradual decline in affection,' according to the report. Paddock blamed his declining health. He claimed to have a 'chemical imbalance' and often complained of being sick, telling Danley that 'doctors couldn't cure him', the report stated. He also told her to stop wearing perfume and makeup, claiming he was allergic to them, and frequently wore cotton gloves and complained of headaches from 'chemical smells'. Paddock's primary care physician, who last saw him for an annual checkup about a year before the massacre, said that the only major ailment he'd treated him for was a muscle tear related to a fall several years ago. The doctor, who was not named in the report, said that he suspected Paddock may have had bipolar disorder, however Paddock refused to discuss the subject, and seemed fearful of medication. People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire. The new report does not offer a motive for the attack, but sheds light on Paddock's personal life Over the course of Danley and Paddock's relationship, 'hugging and kissing stopped', the report says. When Danley confronted him about the issue, he told her he was 'unable to commit to more affection'. Eventually, Danley told investigators, 'Paddock was no longer able to have an intimate relationship because he was unable to perform,' the report states. Investigators would later find hundreds of images of child pornography on Paddock's computer. 'Danley told investigators Paddock was physiologically able to have sex, but the physical act would exhaust him. Danley stated he would often sleep for long periods after physical exertion,' the report says. About a year before the massacre, Paddock began stockpiling firearms. His relationship with Danley began to change, she recalled, becoming more businesslike, and she became 'almost subservient' to him. 'He began purchasing semi-automatic rifles and hundreds of gun-related items almost daily,' the report says. Danley though that Paddock's fascination with firearms was just a hobby. The report notes that Paddock typically 'heavily invested, monetarily and emotionally, in any activity he began.' An evidence photo shows Paddock's hotel room as police found it after the shooting massacre 'He obtained his pilots license and at one point owned an airplane. He learned to scuba dive and bought all required gear and equipment,' investigators said. But, the report notes: 'With most of his hobbies, Paddock would quickly lose interest and sell any related equipment.' About a month before the massacre, Danley and Paddock stayed together in the Mandalay Bay, the hotel he would later use as his sniper's nest to open fire on a crowded outdoor concert. 'She observed Paddock constantly looking out the windows of the room which overlooked the Las Vegas Village venue,' the report says. 'Paddock would move from window to window looking at the site from different angles.' Several weeks before the massacre, Paddock told Danley she should visit her family in the Philippines. She left on September 15 and they communicated mostly by text and email for the next two weeks. When Paddock transferred $150,000 into her bank account to buy a house in the Philippines, Danley became convinced that he was about to break up with her. The grounds of the Route 91 Harvest Festival are seen from the smashed-out window of the Mandalay Bay room that Paddock fired into the crowd from She learned of the attack while she was in Manila. Her sister called to tell her to come home, and when she arrived her driver's license photo was on the television, listed as a person of interest in the worst mass shooting in modern US history. After firing into the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest festival with multiple semi-automatic rifles modified with bump stocks, killing 58 and injuring hundreds, Paddock placed a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger, ending his own life. None of Paddock's acquaintances could supply a motive for the shooting. He rarely discussed politics, though Danley recalled he had occasionally expressed dislike of the Obama administration and approval of President Donald Trump's plan to stop illegal immigration. Paddock was not religious and expressed no racial bias, friends and family said. Danley described him as mild mannered, rarely becoming visibly upset and never acting violently. Paddock's brother Eric theorized to investigators that he had committed the massacre 'because he had done everything in the world he wanted to do and was bored with everything.' 'If so, Paddock would have planned the attack to kill a large amount of people because he would want to be known as having the largest casualty count,' the report said. 'Paddock always wanted to be the best and known to everyone.' These shocking images show the damage left after a police car crashed and rolled over following the chase of a moped near Buckingham Palace. In the early hours of Saturday morning officers were in pursuit of the vehicle with two riders in Grosvenor Place, London. Then suddenly the moped became involved in a collision with a second marked police car travelling in the opposite direction. One of the riders, a 17-year-old man, was taken to hospital with suspected broken legs and arrested. These shocking images show the damage left after a police car crashed and rolled over following the chase of a moped near Buckingham Palace In the early hours of Saturday morning officers were in pursuit of the vehicle with two riders in Grosvenor Place, London Suddenly one police car crashed and rolled over, leaving both officers bruised and dazed but with no serious injuries Police are still searching for the other driver who managed to flee the scene. Both officers were left bruised and dazed but with no serious injuries. The motorist driving the police car was an experienced driver from Kensington & Chelsea force. Another police car was also involved. The road remains closed while crime officers examine the scene. A Met spokesperson said: 'At approximately 04:30hrs on Saturday 4 August officers spotted a moped with two individuals on Hyde Park Corner. 'The vehicle, rider and pillion passenger matched the description of a moped believed to have been involved in a series of offences. 'A marked police car followed the moped and a short time later, in Grosvenor Place, at the junction with Chapel Street, the moped became involved in a collision with a second marked police car travelling in the opposite direction. Another police car was also involved. The road remains closed while crime officers examine the scene The bike was also smashed with one of the riders being arrested and taken to hospital with suspected broken legs Police are still searching for the other driver who managed to flee the scene The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed as a matter of course and a referral has been made to the IOPC. 'A male aged 17, was injured in the collision and has been taken to hospital with serious leg injuries. 'He has since been arrested on suspicion of a number of motoring offences. 'The second person fled the scene of the collision. Efforts to trace him are ongoing. 'The police car involved in the collision overturned. No officers were seriously injured as a result of this incident and did not require medical treatment. 'The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed as a matter of course and a referral has been made to the IOPC.' Australian farmers suffering from one of the worst droughts in 100 years will be receiving up to $12,000 payments from the government. The Turnbull government will be giving out lump-sum payments through the Farm Household Allowance. 'Our farmers put the food on our table and the fibre on our back. We admire their courage and we stand with them. We have their back,' Mr Turnbull said. Previously, drought-stricken farmers had to apply for cashback subsidies and loans as forms of monetary relief, the Telegraph reports. Australian drought-stricken farmers will be receiving up to $12,000 payments from the government The Turnbull government will be giving out lump-sum payments to the drought-affected farmers The government will be funding an extra $190 million brings the total government funding to $576 towards drought-affected farmers and their families. The package is set to be announced by the Prime Minister on Sunday. Families of drought-affected farmers will be the first to receive the payments of up to $6000. Single farmers without families are also eligible to received up to $3,600. The government is also setting money aside in a bid to cover the mental health of farmers. $11.4 million dollars will cover remote counselling sessions for farmers who need the services over Skype. Animal rescuers in Canada have recovered seven abandoned puppies from an uninhabited island and will be naming the dogs after the main characters from the hit TV series, Gilligan's Island. The castaway litter of puppies, believed to be four months old, were reported to Manitoba, Canada's Norway House Animal Rescue on July 30, after being spotted on an island by a boater named Junior Cook and his friend, CBC reported. Norway House director Deb Vandekerkhove said that Cook heard crying coming from the island, in Cross Lake, Manitoba, the previous night, and thought it was wolves crying. Seven abandoned puppies, thought to be four months old, were spotted by boaters on Monday Rescuers returned to the island in Manitoba, Canada, on Wednesday to pick up the dogs The puppies were said to have been 'terrified' of humans at first, but after being fed, they quickly grew accustomed to having people around them The dogs were picked up and are on their way to a Winnipeg, Manitoba, shelter They are expected to be put up for adoption after they've had appropriate medical care The next day, Cook and a friend motored out to the island and discovered the seven puppies. He then gave the hungry pups the food he had in his boat and contacted the animal rescue organization. Cook and his friend then returned to the island with additional supplies Wednesday and were able to rescue the dogs then. The dogs were said to have been 'terrified' of people at first, but quickly acclimated to the presence of humans on the island with them. While the rescue was being planned, Vanderkerkhove said that the dogs would be named for the characters on Gilligan's Island: Gilligan, Skipper, Thurston Howell III, Wentworth Howell, Ginger, the Professor and Mary Ann. The hit 1960's TV series is about a boat party of seven that was shipwrecked on a deserted island. The dogs were seen running around the island shore as rescuers arrived by boat Wednesday The puppies eagerly awaited their rescuers and more food as they approached the shore It's unclear how the puppies wound up on the island, but they did have this dog house The puppy rescuers sat with the dogs and fed them before removing them from the island The seven puppies (pictured after the rescue) are being named for Gilligan's Island characters The fluffy puppies were treated to a thorough bath after they were rescued Two of the puppies so far have received their Gilligan's Island names: Skipper and Gilligan 'As we meet them, we will attach their names based on their personality you know, who's the goof, who's the boss,' Vanderkerkhove said. On Friday, representatives from Norway House drove out to Cross Lake to retrieve the puppies to bring them back to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The dogs will be made available for adoption through Winnipeg Pet Rescue within the next two to three weeks, rescue officials told CTV. The puppies believed to be a husky-Labrador mix were said to be thin and have parasites, but are expected to make a full recovery. It's not yet known how the dog wound up being marooned on the island, which is said to be about a 25-minute boat ride away from where people live. The Norway House is asking for donations to help fund the continuing needs of the seven puppies and their other rescues. To make a donation, visit the registered nonprofit's Go Get Funding page or donate through its Facebook page. The twisted mind of a cold-blooded killer and child molester has been revealed through a series of handwritten letters he penned from behind bars. Daniel James Holdom wrote the collection from inside his squalid jail cell at Goulburn Correctional Centre, in rural New South Wales. Among the 43-year-old's heinous crimes were the brutal murders of his girlfriend Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter, Khandalyce, in 2008. Holdom was serving a four-year sentence for the sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl when he was charged over the killings. In newly revealed letters, first published by The Sunday Telegraph's crime reporter Ava Benny-Morrison, Holdom blames his string of evil choices on an abusive childhood, and a later drug alcohol and drug addiction. The twisted mind of Daniel James Holdom has been revealed through a series of handwritten letters he penned from behind bars Among the 43-year-old's heinous crimes were the brutal murders of his girlfriend Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter, Khandalyce (pictured left and right) 'I was constantly bashed with fist, belt, belt buckles and bits of wood around the legs or over my hands. He would ram my head through cupboard doors... I would run away to get away only for the police to take me straight back home,' he wrote. Holdom's letters revealed how he roamed around Australia, settling in Alice Springs with a woman in the mid 2000s. 'We both had good jobs after 12 months thou (sic) I started with drugs again. Then late 2008 had a (sic) accident between Alice Springs and Adelaide that turned my whole life upside down,' he wrote. Holdom was writing of an incident in September 2008, when after using meth at a party, he crashed a car which killed two of the woman's children. 'I took to use lots of drugs when I took of (sic) to (the) ACT I was not coping at all. Took a couple of attempts on my own life overdosing,' he wrote of the weeks after the crash. Although he was charged over the incident, Holdom blamed his girlfriend for not forgiving him. Holdom was serving a four-year sentence for the sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl when he was charged over the killings Two years later, Karlie Pearce-Stevenson two-year-old daughter Khandalyce's remains were found stuffed in a suitcase on the side of a highway in rural South Australia He met Ms Pearce-Stevenson while his girlfriend was still in hospital recovering from her injuries sustained in the crash. Soon after, the pair were staying with one of Holdom's relatives in Canberra when on December 14, 2008, he lured Ms Pearce-Stevenson to Belanglo State Forest in NSWs Southern Highlands. He stepped on the young mother's throat and crushed her windpipe before photographing her body and leaving it in the forest. Photos taken that day were years later found by a woman known to Holdom on an SD memory card. Ms Pearce-Stevenson's skeleton was found in the Belanglo State Forest in August, 2010. Reports suggest young Khandalyce (pictured) was likely suffocated before her body was stuffed in the black suitcase that her remains were found in almost seven years later The former drug addict, who pleaded guilty to the double murder on Tuesday afternoon, assaulted a woman in 1999 Two years later, her two-year-old daughter Khandalyce's remains were found stuffed in a suitcase on the side of a highway in rural South Australia. However, it wasn't until 2015 until the bodies were formally identified. In the years prior to the gruesome murders, Holdom had already established a significant rap sheet. The former drug addict, who pleaded guilty to the double murder on Tuesday afternoon, assaulted a woman in 1999. He broke into her room of a night and attempted to suffocate her with a pillow, before trying to strangle her. In an eerily similar method to the murder of two-year-old Khandalyce Pearce, Holdom attempted to 'duct tape the woman's mouth to suppress her screams.' He was convicted of the crime in 2000. Oumou Kanoute (pictured) was eating lunch in a common room at her university during summer break on Tuesday when a white cop arrived to ask what she was doing there The employee who called police on a black girl eating lunch in a common room on campus during summer break has been placed on leave pending an investigation. A statement from Smith College said the employee, who has not been identified, was not currently working at the college, and included a copy of the transcript of their call. In the call, the employee said the student, Oumou Kanoute, 'seems to be out of place'. Kanoute, an undergraduate student at the Massachusetts private college, was on campus working in a summer program as a teaching assistant and residential adviser. As the students on the summer program ate in a dining hall on Tuesday, Kanoute decided to take her food to a common room and eat alone in peace. Within minutes of sitting down, she was confronted by a white police officer who asked: 'We were wondering what you were doing here?' after entering the common room. Kanoute, who filmed their exchange and put the video on Facebook, nervously responded: 'I was just eating my lunch.' Later, the police officer calls back the dispatcher to let them know things are 'all clear', and no report would be filed. 'That was a student relaxing in the living room,' the officer said. 'They had lunch here. I guess and they decided to stay for a while.' Scroll down for video The cop asked Kanoute: 'We were just wondering what you were doing here' before explaining that someone had called to say there was a 'suspicious black male' who looked 'out of place' Kanoute told CBS she no longer feels safe on campus, and wants the employee who called police fired. 'It just still upsets me to just talk about it because I don't even feel safe on my own campus and I'm away from home,' she said through tears. 'I'm the first in my family to go to college. I'm doing this not only for me but for my family, for my ancestors. 'This shouldn't happen to anyone at all.' Kanoute issued a statement on the same day, and said placing the employee who called police on her on leave was not enough to placate her, and demanded she be able to face the person who called the police. 'To Smith College: I recognize and appreciate the effort that you all continuously put into inclusion on this campus,' she wrote in an open letter on her Facebook. 'However, we must be intentional about addressing this racist incident and systemic racism on campus. Your response has been helpful, but it is incomplete.' Kanoute made several 'personal demands' as a means of reparations. She asked for the name of the employee to be released - either publicly or just to her, and for a face-to-face meeting with the employee and representation from the school. The meeting, she said, should be focused on 'reconciliation and acknowledgement of this wrongdoing from the employee and the college'. Kanoute is spending the summer working as a teaching assistant on one of Smith's summer programs. She said she wants the name of the employee who called police on her and to meet them face to face. So far, the university has declined to release the name, but have placed the employee on leave TRANSCRIPT OF CALL TO SMITH CAMPUS POLICE July 31, 2018, 1:53 p.m. Dispatch: Campus Police, recorded line. Reporting Caller: I was just walking through here in the front foyer of [REDACTED] and we have a person sitting there laying down in the living room area over here. I didnt approach her or anything but um he seems to be out of place umm I dont see anybody in the building at this point and uh I dont know what hes doing in there just laying on the couch. Dispatch: Can I have your last name please? Reporting Caller: [REDACTED] Dispatch: Ill send someone over and check it out. Reporting Caller: Alright. Ill wait over here. Unit Clears Responding Officer: All clear. That was a student relaxing in the living room. They had lunch here. I guess and they decided to stay for a while. Dispatch: Received. Advertisement The undergraduate student said she also wanted an apology - not only from the school, but from the person who felt they needed to call the police when they saw her in the common room. 'This process must precede any type of decision for or against punishment for this outrageous and racist act,' she wrote. 'This process must also be accompanied by beginning a mandatory campus-wide conversation and new school policy concerning racism, gender, and policing that centers the voices of students and faculty of color when we return from summer vacation in Fall 2018.' Smith has hired the Sanghavi Law Office as a third party to conduct their investigation into the incident. 'The firm has extensive experience conducting civil rights investigations, including investigative experience at the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights,' Friday's statement read. Stan Zimmerman (above) will direct the modern adaption of The Diary Of Anne Frank A new stage production of 'The Diary Of Anne Frank' will re-imagine the story as one about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents hunting for illegal immigrants, rather that Nazis persecuting Jews. Stan Zimmerman, a former 'Roseanne' writer from the sitcom's original run, will direct the show, which opens on September 6 at the Dorie Theatre in Los Angeles. The classic play is by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and received a Tony nomination in a new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman that was performed on Broadway. The original play tells the story of Anne Frank, whose famous diary told the story of a Jewish family in hiding during the WWII Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The original play tells the story of Anne Frank (above), whose famous diary told the story of a Jewish family in hiding during the WWII Nazi occupation of the Netherlands The new production will re-interpret the story as one of illegal immigrants hiding from ICE agents, a promotional notice in Broadway World explains. 'Zimmerman's unique take on the staging was inspired by the true story of a Jewish woman in Los Angeles who created a 'Safe House' for a Latina mother and her two daughters after her husband was deported by ICE,' the notice reads. 'The characters in the attic will be played by a LatinX cast.' Genesis Ochoa will star in the show as Anne Frank, and the cast includes Keith Coogan, Tasha Dixon, David Gurrola, Heather Olt, Raquenel, Robert C. Raicch, Teddi Shaffer, Raymond Abel Tomas, and Emiliano Torres. The new production casting ICE agents in the role of villainous Nazis comes as Democrats increasingly call to abolish the agency. Pictured: Protesters in New York on Tuesday In May, director Zimmerman spoke out in an interview with Buzzfeed News to criticize Roseanne Barr for her reboot of the sitcom he once wrote for. 'A lot of people involved in the show were surprised when she turned right-wing and supported Trump, because that was just not the person or her character that we had known,' Zimmerman said. His new production casting ICE agents in the role of villainous Nazis comes as Democrats increasingly call for the federal agency to be abolished. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren have called for ICE to be abolished, as have New York Mayor Bill de Blasio Democrat rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Congressional candidate. Advertisement Donald Campbell's record breaking speed boat Bluebird has been fully restored and has taken to water again for the first time in more than 50 years. Bluebird spent 34 years beneath 150ft of water after Campbell, 45, was killed when it flipped and broke in half on Coniston Water on January 4, 1967. Today the rebuilt jet-powered boat successfully floated in a loch on the Isle of Bute in Scotland on Saturday, an operation watched by his daughter Gina Campbell. Scenes were tense as the team struggled to get the Bluebird K7 into the water at Loch Fad, but the renovated craft was afloat before 4pm. The team hopes to make full displays in a fully-completed vessel a year later following Saturday's test. Gina Campbell with the restored Bluebird K7 before it takes to the water for the first time in more than 50 years off the Isle of Bute on the west coast of Scotland Bill Smith (pictured far right) who restored the Bluebird K7 with a team of engineers next to a smiling Gina Campbell. Ted Walsh (left) is the nominated lead driver The team make the first attempt at re-floating Donald Campbell's iconic Bluebird on the waters of Loch Fad, on the Isle of Bute Bluebird about to enter the water today for the first time in more than 50 years. The successful floating of the vessel was watched by a crowd of people and poignantly Mr Campbell's daughter Gina Campbell Pilot Ted Walsh sits in the cockpit of the iconic Bluebird prior to it being floated on the waters of Loch Fad for the first time in more than fifty years Donald Campbell (pictured) remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year Having broken eight world speed records on water and land in the 1950s and 1960s, Campbell was attempting to break his own water speed record of 276mph when he was killed. In the pictures Gina Campbell can be seen clutching Mr Whoppit, the teddy bear mascot of Mr Campbell. Ms Campbell, who arrived at the lochside in a silver Range Rover with the registration K7 DAD, said: I cant help but fill up. Shes beautiful. Some people thought it best to leave the wreckage where it lay undisturbed, but I always knew this was the right thing to do. Its what my father wouldve wanted. It was found floating free in the water after Campbell's world record attempt in 1967, and has been adopted by his daughter ever since. Yesterday Bill Smith spoke of his hopes in re-launching the vessel, he said: 'As long it doesnt fill up with water or sink, Ill be pleased. I cant get too emotional Im looking at it from an engineering point of view. We have never launched the boat before. Were up in Scotland for two weeks and we will learn how to launch it, how to fuel it, how to use the fire extinguishers and the radio. It will be driven once were happy and confident we can operate it safely. The restoration project, involving 14 engineers, began with five years of taking Bluebird apart and cataloguing its parts. About 98 per cent of the original materials have been saved or melted down and welded back on to the boat in other forms. Donald Campbell was killed in Bluebird after attempting to beat his own world record. was killed when it flipped and broke in half on Coniston Water on January 4, 1967 Mr Smith, 51, the joint leader of the restoration project, said: We took it apart back down to the nuts and bolts, to every component part. Then every part has been cleaned, repaired and put back together. Its been completely without compromise, we wouldnt use the wrong material, we wouldnt use the wrong screw, we wouldnt use the wrong gauge. It is absolutely as it ought to be. Campbell set a world water speed record of 276.33mph in Bluebird in at Lake Dumbleyung in Australia three years before his death. The current record is 318mph. While Bluebirds engines will again be heard roaring soon, there will be no attempt to break any records. Miss Campbell said: After 17 years of really hard work and dedication wouldnt it just be too sad and too silly if, by some dreadful fact, something went wrong? Initially, Bluebird will simply be dropped by a cradle to float in the water. It will be driven once were happy and confident we can operate it safely, Mr Smith said. So this is how it is. I am thrashing about in the middle of the Bosphorus, the strait that divides Istanbul and separates Europe from Asia. I am gulping mouthfuls of brine as a nasty little swell washes over my head. I am being jostled by hundreds of other swimmers barging their way past. My goggles are misting up and I have been in the water for only a few minutes. The finish seems intimidatingly distant, far to the south. And I am asking myself: what the hell am I doing here? I did it! James Landale celebrated at the finish line after racing in the Bosphorus strait The answer, of course, is pathetically predictable. I am turning 50 this year, yet another man attempting to resist middle age with a futile demonstration of physical prowess. Some cliches I can resist I cannot afford a Porsche, I refuse to wear Lycra but the idea of swimming between two continents had a certain appeal. A friend did the race last year, told me about it, and I was hooked. It seemed an endeavour that was challenging but achievable, outside my comfort zone but not my meagre talents. And there was another reason I was here. Nine years ago I was treated for non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer of the network of tubes and glands at the heart of the bodys immune system. The doctors loaded me up with as much chemotherapy as they could manage. It knocked my socks off. Motivation: James pictured in 2009 while undergoing chemotherapy following his cancer diagnosis The poison did its work and I am still here. But the treatment left me fatigued for years and tore chunks out of my natural fitness. It was time to put that right. So with a 6.5km or four-mile race down the Bosphorus as my target, I went back to school to learn how to swim again. The front crawl I was taught 40 years ago has been renamed freestyle and it is, er, somewhat different. At the Marshall Street pool in central London, my excellent instructor, Dave, took my stroke apart and gradually put it back together again. At the same time I joined a gym with a pool and learned to love my evening lengths when the phone was banished and I was at one with my mind and lungs. Once I was fit enough to judge I was physically up to the race, I went public. Friends, naturally, took the mickey, all the more so once it emerged that Pippa Middleton had swum the race a few years ago. It is one thing to have a midlife crisis, a friend told me, quite another to make a pert bottom your aim. Some family were worried I might have a heart attack mid-swim. But most fell in behind me, especially when I told them I would use the race to raise 10,000 for two fabulous childrens charities. Some 2,400 people swam the race (pictured). There were more than 50 nationalities involved, including about 140 Brits The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust helps young people recover from cancer by using sailing to rebuild their confidence. It gets children and teenagers out on the water to share their experiences, build new ones, and rediscover their self-esteem. The Nasio Trust helps children and communities in western Kenya escape poverty through education, healthcare and sustainable commerce. The trust runs two day-care centres providing pre-school lessons, food, medical aid and support for children and their guardians. So, with a clear objective, I paid on the bottom line. Taking part in a race organised by the Turkish Olympic Committee is, as you might imagine, not straightforward. But a fantastic travel company called SwimTrek sorts all the paperwork and hotels. Without them, it would be hard to make the race. And what a race it is. Until you arrive, you do not realise the scale of the event. Some 2,400 people will be swimming. Many, of course, are Turks but there are more than 50 nationalities involved, including about 140 Brits. There is a large race village on the European shore. I register and get a security pass claiming that I am an athlete representing GBR, but all thoughts of Olympian hubris are instantly dismissed. We get a tour of the course by boat, steaming steadily up to the start on the Asian side, and it is only then that one fully appreciates the distances involved. It looks a long, long way. As we turn and head down the course, we are given landmarks to follow and advice about currents that will help us reach the finish. Landale reporting from the House of Commons for BBC News As race day dawns, I feel suitably nervous but I am also calm: I have notched up thousands of lengths in the pool, I have mentally swum the course many times and I have had a good breakfast. I am as prepared as I can be. The race village is a hubbub of flesh as more than two thousand twitchy swimmers rush to get ready. We strip to our costumes, slap on the sun cream, grab our hats and goggles and head to the boats. Two ferries carry everyone to the start. It is an odd moment: never before have I made nervous small talk with so many semi-naked people. We study the course, stretch our legs and wonder again if we will finish in time. Anyone still swimming after two hours will be unceremoniously plucked from the water by the coastguards. The boats dock at a quay, a launching pontoon is attached. And suddenly, it is time. We pour like lemmings into the water. It is chaotic. We head out into the channel, if nothing else to avoid being jumped on by someone else. And then it hits you. What looked like a small ripple from the deck turns out to be a rather vicious chop. I take my first mouthfuls of Bosphorus. All the lovely technique of the pool gets ditched and it is just a question of swimming clear. Some less sportsmanlike competitors start pushing past, limbs flailing in all directions. No quarter is given. Some swim into you, some across you, others stop right in front of you. It is quite elemental. But soon the water opens up, we find some space and the swell diminishes. I find a rhythm of sorts. I free some mental space to focus on the landmarks. The key is to stick to the middle to benefit from as much current as possible. It suddenly strikes me how this may be a mass race but each competitor is fighting his or her own private battles, against the fatigue, the chop and the fear they might not have what it takes to go all the way. Slowly I begin to make some progress and sooner than I expect, the finish is in sight. I grind out the strokes until the end is reached. I climb out on to the pontoon. I am tired, bruised and have too much Black Sea in my gut. I have done it in one hour 35 minutes. This is not fast and I am handsomely beaten by a man with one leg. But the race is done and it feels good. You can help support Jamess charities at ellenmacarthurcancertrust.org and thenasiotrust.org. French commentators have accused Theresa May of letting 'time run dangerously short' in her Brexit negotiations, after Emmanuel Macron rebuffed her attempt to separate him from EU negogiators. The Prime Minister cut her holiday short to set out her Chequers plan to the French president at his Riviera retreat yesterday. She warned him that Brussels faces a choice of a Chequers deal or no deal as they held talks at Fort Bregancon. Downing Street wanted to use the meeting to win over Mr Macron, who is seen as one of the biggest obstacles to getting an agreement. Yet the French press have claimed the Prime Minister is trying to sideline EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Le Parisien said Mrs May was playing a dangerous game with only months left to secure a Brexit deal. Theresa May sits down with Emmanuel Macron as the two leaders prepare for talks on Brexit Mr Macron and Mrs May walk during their meeting accompanied by Brigitte Macron (left) While La Criox said the visit was a clear chance to sideline the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. A source signalled the French president was closely aligned with Mr Barnier, adding: There is absolutely no intention to speak in place of Monsieur Barnier. Mrs May is the first foreign leader to visit Mr Macron at Fort Bregancon, the Mediterranean island-fortress that has served as the summer retreat for French presidents since 1968. She was accompanied by her chief-of-staff Gavin Barwell, her Europe adviser Olly Robbins and British ambassador to France Ed Llewellyn, who worked as David Camerons chief-of-staff in Downing Street. After the formal talks, Mrs May and her husband Philip joined the president and his wife Brigitte for a private five-course dinner overlooking the sea. The foursome enjoyed a menu that included tomatoes and saffron-flavoured langoustines, thyme-flavoured sea bass, chicken and dark chocolate creme brulee. From left: Foreign affairs advisor Olly Robbins, Chief of Staff of Britain's Prime Minister Gavin Barwell and British ambassador to France Edward Llewellyn join the two leaders Once a base from which to repel pirates from North Africa who plagued the Mediterranean, Fort Bregancon was later used as a stronghold by Napoleon during the French Revolution. It remained a military fortress until shortly after the First World War, when it had a small garrison. Before heading to the South of France, Mrs May spoke by telephone with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. Mrs Mays visit comes as part of a major diplomatic push that has seen both Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab travel to France in the past few days to make the case for a softening of attitude. The French President (pictured yesterday arriving for the talks with Theresa May) hosted the Prime Minster for a four-course dinner at the dramatic setting of Fort Bregancon Theresa May arrives in the south of France for the crunch summit with Emmanuel Macron In an interview before travelling to Paris, Mr Hunt said: France and Germany have to send a strong signal to the Commission that we need to negotiate a pragmatic and sensible outcome that protects jobs on both sides of the Channel. France is seen as taking a particularly hard line in the Brexit negotiations, especially on financial services, with Paris expecting to snatch around 3,500 banking jobs from the City. A source in Mr Macrons office yesterday said the EUs chief negotiator Mr Barnier has maintained that any Brexit deal must conform with the economic interests of the 27 remaining EU members, and the president has always supported this as well. Mrs May ended her break in the Italian Lakes a day early to travel to France, although she will jet off to Switzerland for a second break later this month. The UKs former ambassador to France yesterday warned the Prime Minister not to expect a Brexit breakthrough in the talks. Lord Ricketts said Mr Macron was the last person to want to break ranks with the rest of the European Union to push for a softer stance from Brussels. Mr Macron doesnt believe in softening the position on Brexit as he is a passionate pro-European, the peer said. The two leaders enjoyed a four-course French meal on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean on the island of Fort Bregancon, the French leader's seaside retreat Mrs May had been on holiday in Italy with her husband Philip (pictured) in recent days Perched 35 metres above sea level on a small island off the French Mediterranean coast, the fortress has been the official retreat of the president of France since 1968 Massachusetts now has the doobie-ous distinction of being the pot capital of the country. A state legislative report released in July found that 21 per cent of all Massachusetts residents said that they had smoked marijuana in June 2018. About half of Massachusetts denizens between 18 to 25 years old said that they had used pot during the month and 34 per cent of positive pot smoking respondents said that they had driven a car while high. A Massachusetts state report found that 21 per cent of residents admitted to having smoked pot in June. Marijuana was legalized in the state in 2016, as celebrated here in September The publicly-released report was put together as part of the state's efforts to determine the good and bad behind legalizing marijuana, the Daily Caller reported. The number of survey respondents who admitted to having smoked up in 2018 was 12 per cent higher than in the state's previous survey. The next state with the highest-reported use of pot is Vermont, coming in it at 18 per cent of residents reporting the use of marijuana. Colorado, which is often said to be the pot capital of the US after legalizing marijuana use in 2014, only reported 15 per cent use of marijuana among adults in its own state data. It's believed that marijuana use in Massachusetts will increase substantially once its becomes legal to sell pot in the state later in 2018. Comparatively, only 15 per cent of Colorado residents said they smoked pot, despite marijuana having been legalized since 2014. Pictured: Attendees at a 420 Rally in Denver, Colorado While Colorado is awash in marijuana dispensaries (Denver Kush Club is pictured), many Massachusetts towns have already moved to ban similar pot shops from their areas Critics of marijuana legalization have said that studies show that although alcohol and tobacco use among middle schoolers is dwindling, pot use is on the rise. In addition, studies have also shown that people who use pot are more likely to drink and drive than those who don't smoke pot. The report estimated that $216million in new tax revenue would come in during the first two years that marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts, provided that about 65 per cent of users would purchase their product from commercial shops and pot dispensaries. However, since the ballot measure passed, more than half of the state's towns have already made efforts to temporarily or permanently ban the opening of marijuana shops in their areas. Massachusetts legalized marijuana in a November 2016 ballot measure and is the seventh state to have done so. Advertisement The cause of the deadly Carr fire has been revealed as a flat tire on a towed trailer. The rim of the flat tire threw off sparks from the asphalt along Highway 299 outside of Redding, California on July 23, igniting what would become the sixth-most destructive wildfire in state history, CNN reported. As of Tuesday morning, the Carr fire had killed six people, including two firefighters, and burned 141,825 acres. CalFire said the fire was 41 per cent contained. The fire has destroyed 1,579 structures, including 1,073 residences, officials said. Fire crews worked throughout the night on Friday to contain potential hot spots, but a weekend forecast of windy, hot weather raised fears that the flames will be driven into new areas and threaten more homes. Redding was evacuated on Thursday night as the Carr fire made its way into the city. A long line of traffic on Buenaventura Boulevard along Benton Air Park is seen fleeing the flames German astronaut Alexander Gerst posted this image of the multiple California wildfires from the ISS on Friday Smoke from the fires was visible from the International Space Station, with thousands of acres burning At the request of the homeowners, firefighters from the Georgetown Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Services use power tools to open their safe, which appears somewhat intact, though their home was destroyed during the Carr Fire The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flame. 'This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach,' the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco. As a precaution, new evacuations were called Friday for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where week-old twin fires have destroyed 41 homes and threaten about 9,000 more. The fire has charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco. Thousands of people remain evacuated. Fire trucks pass a charred National Park Service sign for Whiskeytown Dam as they move south along Hwy 299 near Redding, California. The sign was damaged during the Carr Fire, which has burned more than 141,000 acres An air tanker drops fire retardent to try to contain flames from the Carr fire as it spreads towards the town of Lewiston An Air Crane scoops up Phos-Chek fire retardant in a Lewiston, California, meadow. Firefighters and air support are proactively working to prevent the Carr Fire from encroaching to this mountain community between Redding and Weaverville The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake but 'it looks like there's dicey weather on the way,' California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said. However, some days-old evacuations were lifted Friday in an area near Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft have been battling an immense blaze about 100 miles south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire's southeastern flank were reopened to residents. The Carr Fire was 39 percent contained after killing six people and incinerating 1,067 homes. Governor Jerry Brown was scheduled to visit the fire area in Shasta County on Saturday. The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber. The blaze burned so furiously on July 26 that it created a 'fire whirl.' The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph, which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornadoes, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said. Firefighters try to control a back burn as the Carr fire continues to spread towards the towns of Douglas City and Lewiston near Redding, California on July 31. The fire has killed six people, including two firefighters The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which uses acres to describe fire size, said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles. The civilian victims of the Carr fire included Daniel Bush, 62, who was recovering from heart surgery and was unable to escape his mobile home as the flames swept through. Also dead in the fire were Melody Bledsoe of Redding, and her great-grandchildren, five-year-old James Roberts and four-year-old Emily Roberts, who died after the fire engulfed Bledsoes home. Two other victims were identified as Jeremy Stoke, a firefighter, and Don Ray Smith, a bulldozer operator. In the separate Ferguson fire in the Sierra Nevada, firefighters achieved 41 per cent containment of a forest fire that has shut down Yosemite Valley and other adjacent portions of Yosemite National Park at what is normally the height of summer tourism. The fire had reached into remote areas of the country's third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemite's popular Valley region were ordered to leave Friday because of inaccessible roads. The Ferguson Fire now in its 20th day, started July 13 on the Sierra National Forest. The fire is now 62,883 acres with 39 percent containment and 3,558 personnel that are currently engaged on the fire which include 203 engines In this July 25 file photo, Hannah Whyatt poses for a friend's photo as smoke from the Ferguson fire fills Yosemite Valley In this July 25 file photo, a sign on Highway 41 announces the closure of Yosemite National Park near Oakhurst, California The Ferguson fire has killed two firefighters. A new report says the first firefighter, a California bulldozer operator, nearly slipped off a steep mountain trail three times before his vehicle finally rolled into a ravine and fatally crushed him. Each earlier slip alone qualified as a 'near miss' warning that the century-old mining trail could collapse, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's preliminary report. The dozer operator, 36-year-old Braden Varney, was working alone overnight July 14 fighting the wildfire while his assistant went to get a new hydraulic hose. Varney's radio wasn't communicating with headquarters, so his assistant relayed messages - until they lost contact. The report says the death of the 10-year veteran highlights the need for better risk assessment, communication and supervision. About 120 miles north of San Francisco, the Mendocino Complex fire has grown to be the state's largest fire at more than two-thirds the size of sprawling Los Angeles, and has forced the evacuation of nearly 16,000 residents and destroyed more than 100 structures. Mendocino Complex Fire: A firefighter runs while trying to save a home as a wildfire tears through Lakeport, California on Tuesday. The residence eventually burned Mendocino Complex Fire: Sophia Ramazzotti, 16, left, and Yasmin Villa, 16, of Healdsburg, watch as a super scooper prepares to land for water in Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, California on Friday It has swelled to become larger than the deadly Carr Fire, about 100 miles to the northeast. Firefighters have managed to contain 41 percent of that blaze and authorities are allowing some people who had evacuated to return, Cal Fire said. This year's California wildfire season has been more destructive than in years past, burning about 290,000 acres, more than double the five-year average over that same period, according to Cal Fire. In total, 14 states are currently reporting large fires. Most are in other western states but wildfires have also struck Texas and Florida, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. So far this year, fires have blackened 4.9 million acres throughout the United States, significantly higher than the 10-year average, according to the center. The most destructive wildfire in California history was the Tubbs fire of October 2017. Though the cause remains under investigation, it may have been related to downed power lines. The Kushner family has managed to pawn off the prominent Fifth Avenue skyscraper that could have seen then drowning in debt in just months. Kushner Companies purchased 666 Fifth Avenue in 2007 for $1.8billion a record price for the time with President Donald Trumps son-in-law and his senior advisor playing a lead role in setting up the deal. Despite plans for the building to be the companys big break into high-end Manhattan real estate, a financial crisis and underwhelming revenue meant the structure was damaging their brand instead of boosting it, CNN Money reported. On Friday afternoon, Brookfield Properties announced they had 100 per cent leasehold on the 1.5million square foot building for the next 99 years, though it is not known at exactly what cost. Jared Kushner's family have narrowly escaped a crushing debt after selling their Fifth Avenue skyscraper (Jared Kushner pictured right with father Charles left) An anonymous executive briefed on the deal told the New York Times Brookfield had paid roughly $1.1billion in upfront rent for the lengthy lease. Before the sale, there was still $1.4billion worth of debt on the building, with most of it due next February. Fridays deal should appease lenders, but it wont cover the full amount. Jared Kushner divested from the property in January in order to take a senior adviser position with Trump, so is unlikely to have much to do with the sale, but had earlier been heavily invested in finding a buyer for the building. His father Charles, who now runs the company, is understood to have worked with lenders to organize full repayment being called at a lower rate than what was owed. Ric Clark, senior managing partner and chairman of Brookfield Property Group, told the Chicago Tribune there were plans to completely overhaul the building. [666 Fifth Avenue] has the potential to be one of New York City's most iconic and successful office properties, he said. 666 Fifth Avenue (pictured) made records for it's high purchase price when Kushner Companies dropped $1.8billion on it in 2007. There is still $1.4billion worth of debt remaining The buy is great news for the Kushner family, but has brought increased scrutiny on Jared. In February, it was revealed special counsel Robert Mueller and his team were investigating who Kushner approached in his search for a buyer before he divested his interest in the property. Investigators were particularly interested in conversations he had with Chinese investors, and with a Qatari investor who also happened to be the countrys former Prime Minister. A Qatari company, the Qatar Investment Authority, has a $1.8billion stake in Brookfield Property Partners making it the second-largest investor in the company. In his role at the White House, Kushner has been tasked with working towards peace in the Middle East, which means the Qatari link could prove troublesome for him. Brookfield has said the Qataris were not aware of the deal before it became public knowledge. A toxic algae bloom is devastating the Florida coast and its surrounding waters, killing endangered sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, manatees and a plethora of fish. The algal overgrowth occurs each year but intensifies because of heat, pollution and stagnant water. It first started in October, but has quickly become the longest outbreak to hit the southwest coast since 2006, reports the Huffington Post. In some parts of the state, the water is covered in green gunk which blocks sunlight and oxygen from getting to marine vegetation, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The cyanobacteria overgrowth occurs each year but intensifies because of heat, pollution and stagnant water Scores of fish have washed ashore in southwest Florida as water concentration only needs to have 10,000 cells per liter of water and most places have over 1million Online records, kept by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, show that approximately 80 manatees have died because of the red tide this year. In 2017, only 67 manatees died compared to 277 in 2014, 151 in 1996 and 100 in 2003. Records also show that hammerhead sharks and at least one whale shark have died because of the algae. Photos also show a dead dolphin wash up on shore. Sea Turtles are taking even a larger hit, with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation reporting that 91 sick/dead turtles have been picked up on the Sanibel Island. The red tide algae bloom first started in October, but has quickly become the longest outbreak to hit the southwest coast since 2006 Efforts to get rid of the debris blocking important channels of water are underway, with one county offering $150,000 for local vendors to come and get the algae 'Our average for the entire year is usually around 30 or 35, but we've had 53 in June and July alone,' said Kelly Sloan, a sea turtle researcher for the foundation. In Sarasota County, 100 turtles have been plucked while another 66 have been scooped out of the waters in Collier. 'It's really disheartening to see this mass mortality,' Sloan said. 'This is the 10th month of the red tide event, and it's the longest continued bloom since 2006.' Approximately 80 manatees have died because of the red tide this year, including one that washed ashore during a Cape Coral community meeting to address the algae growth In 2017, only 67 manatees died compared to 277 in 2014, 151 in 1996 and 100 in 2003 And people can have complications because of the algae, as well. Back in July, 15 people were treated on Monday and Tuesday by the Martin Health System for symptoms related to algae toxins. They had been in contact with St. Lucie River, located near West Palm Beach. 'We don't know how many people are affected by the algae blooms and how badly,' Dr. Michael Romano explained to the Treasure Coast Newspaper. A dolphin that has washed ashore and suffered because of the algae 'And that's the point. I don't want to scare people, but they need to know what the blooms are doing to them. Millions of people potentially could be exposed to this, and we don't know much about it.' According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who come into contact with harmful algal blooms can experience skin and eye irritation, respiratory irritation, abdominal pain, vomiting and neurologic issues. The intense bloom has also racked in concentrations of 1 million cells per liter or more in various parts of the state - and especially Lee County. Health issues for humans start kicking in at just 10,000 cells per liter - the same level needed to kill fish. Local officials are scrambling to address the best way to take on the algae and decrease the fertilizer runoff that is aiding in its growth. A group of men observe the dead fish on a coastline as a larger animal can be seen in the water In some parts of the state, the water is covered in green gunk which blocks sunlight and oxygen from getting to marine vegetation Lt. Col. Jennifer Reynolds, a deputy district engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers, shared at a Tuesday meeting in Cape Coral that the waters of Lake Okeechobee would be drained into surrounding waterways in efforts to prevent overflow. 'The best way for us to curb algae growth is to get rid of the nutrients in the water,' she said, News-Press reports. As she was speaking, folks noticed a dead manatee wash up on shore near the Yacht club. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , people who come into contact with harmful algal blooms can experience skin and eye irritation, respiratory irritation, abdominal pain, vomiting and neurologic issues Efforts are underway to drain Lake Okeechobee in hopes that the algae growth can be curbed 'I wish I had better answers,' Reynolds added. 'All of us have to work on this together.' Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman was also at the talk and informed the crowd that $150,000 would be used to search for a vendor who could clean up the area's algae. He's run into a roadblock, however, as there are no local vendors who specialize in that type of work. There is also no where to put the algae. 'It's really disheartening to see this mass mortality,' said Kelly Sloan. 'This is the 10th month of the red tide event, and it's the longest continued bloom since 2006.' Russian police arrested 30 LGBT activists in Saint Petersburg on Saturday during a Pride demonstration, a co-organiser told AFP after being taken into custody. Around 60 people with placards calling for LGBT rights to be respected and waving rainbow-coloured flags had gathered in the city centre, said activist and co-organiser Aleksei Nazarov. Each participant demonstrated alone, a ruse to avoid the protest being classified as a gathering, which would have made it subject to the city's prior approval. 'In total, 30 people were arrested,' said Nazarov, adding that he himself was being held in a police van together with one other demonstrator. A demonstrator is detained by police during the LGBT demonstration in St Petersburg today Police lead away a demonstrator holding a rainbow-coloured flag in central St Petersburg 'Everyone else has been taken to a police station,' he said. Police targeted demonstrators who had the 'most colourful flags and clothes' in the arrests, he added. Homosexuality was considered a crime in Russia until 1993, and to be akin to mental illness until 1999. A law passed in 2013 threatens anyone engaging in homosexual 'propaganda' towards minors with fines and prison terms. Gay pride marches are usually banned in Russia, or become the target of violence. Three Russian police officers lead a demonstrator onto a bus during the demonstrations A demonstrator is detained by police during the co-ordinated LGBT presence in St Petersburg A police officer takes away a flag from detained demonstrators in St Petersburg today Demonstrators are seen in a police bus after being detained during the LGBT protest A rainbow colour ribbon tied to a crucifix is seen next to a Russian flag in St Petersburg There were a number of marches in Europe such as in Amsterdam where, almost half a million LGBTQ+ supporters lined the Dutch capital's famous canals in the scorching heat. There were an estimated 200,000 party-goers in Hamburg, Germany at a Christopher Street Day parade attended by the city's mayor Peter Tschentscher. He marched with crowds carrying a sign that read: 'Make way for gender gaga,' a call for diversity acceptance. In Germany the celebrations are called Christopher Street Day parades in honour of the Stonewall Riots where LGBT victims were assaulted at a bar on Christopher Street in New York in 1969. Advertisement There were clashes in Portland between right-wing groups and self-described anti-fascists who have pledged to keep the right-wingers out of the ultra-liberal city. Far-right group Patriot Prayer held a rally in the Oregon city on Saturday to support founder Joey Gibson's US Senate campaign, drawing an equally large crowd of counter-protesters. Police worked hard to control the tense situation, issuing a warning ahead of the gathering banning weapons from Waterfront Park and ultimately ordering the hundreds of attendees to disperse at around 4pm local time. At least three people were injured by projectiles including rocks and bottles, but local reports have indicated that the majority of exchanges between groups consisted merely of harsh words. Police reported making some arrests but did not indicate how many. At least three people were injured by projectiles at a clash between alt-right group and counter-protesters on Saturday, including Oregonian reporter Eder Campuzano, pictured above Right-wing group Patriot Prayer held the rally for its leader Joey Gibson, pictured, at noon in the liberal-leaning Oregon city Riot police charge counter-protesters outside the rally supporting gun rights and free speech on Saturday A man identified as a counter-protester winds up to hurl an object at police who were attempted to control the crowds By 2pm police began to deploying flash-bang grenades in order to disperse the crowd after people began tossing projectiles Gibson's rally this weekend was the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counter-protester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture. Police announced they were suspending service on non-emergency calls for the duration of the rally to free up manpower and that bomb-sniffing dogs and checkpoints for weapons screenings would be set up near the park. Large numbers of officers in riot gear were seen in formation near Waterfront Park beginning well before the time of the rally. By 11am local time, Portland cops said they had spotted several 'items that could be used as weapons' including flag poles and homemade shields, and warned they could be subject to seizure. Gibson's followers were seen on live video gathering and preparing to march to the park. 'I wanna make something very clear,' he said. 'We are not here to beat people up, we are not here to fight - but you have a God-given right to protect yourself if this mayor refuses to protect your constitutional rights!' Masked antifa wearing all black, masks and helmets were seen marching near the site of the Patriot Prayer rally chanting 'Whose streets? Our streets!' Shortly after 1pm local time, Gibson tempted fate by walking across the street separating his supporters from left-wing protesters, and silently wading through the crowd with the peace sign raised, live video showed. The crowed hurled obscenities at him, and Gibson was shoved and punched before his body men grabbed him and pulled him away without a further confrontation. By 2pm police resorted to deploying flash-bang grenades in order to disperse the crowd after people began tossing projectiles. One of the projectiles reportedly hit Oregonian reporter Eder Campuzano, who was shown in a photo posted to Twitter holding gauze to a head wound as blood streamed down his face. Fox 12's Tyler Dumont tweeted: 'Was just standing next to @Oregonian reporter @edercampuzano, he got hit with something and is bleeding. Medics helping him. Things are getting extremely intense, even for those of us standing back from the center of these groups.' Eder responded: 'HEY GUYS. I am okay. En route to get looked at but youve seen the worst. Thanks for the concern and stay safe out there, fellow journos we may be 80% water but dang does it smart when you get beaned by some.' Another tweet from a man named Mike Walker showed two other people being treated by medics after reportedly being struck by thrown objects. Police early on seized potential weapons (above) including bats, shields, mace and a knife Antifa are seen gathering in mass near a Patriot Prayer rally in Portland on Saturday raising fears of violent clashes Right-wing supporters of the Patriot Prayer group gather during a rally in Portland, Oregon Gibson (far right in yellow neckerchief) is seen wading into the crowd of left-wing protesters, in an apparent attempt to provoke his opponents into attacking him. He was shoved and screamed at but returned to his side of the street without injury Right-wing protesters rally in Waterfront Park in Portland on Saturday as antifa gathers nearby Counter-protesters run from a police projectile during a rally by the Patriot Prayer group in Portland A counter-protester is seen throwing a smoke canister back towards police who were trying to shut down the rally Gibson, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic US Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he won't stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their right-wing views without interference. 'I refuse to do what Portland wants me to do because what Portland wants me to do is to shut up and never show up again. So yeah, I refuse to do that, but I will not stop going in, and I will not stop pushing, and I will not stop marching until the people of Portland realize that and realize that their methods do not work,' he said. The candidate's insistence on bringing his right-wing supporters repeatedly to this blue city has crystallized a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the US West, including Berkeley, California, that have drawn violent reactions. Self-described anti-fascists - or 'antifa' - organized anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, in the streets during the most recent rally. On Saturday morning, Rose City Antifa, Portland's local branch of the far-left group, announced a competing rally in nearby Chapman Park, and put out the call for its supporters to confront the Patriot Prayer group in the streets. 'Together we will defend our community from Joey's thugs!' the group's Twitter account said. Rose City Antifa announced a competing rally and urged confrontation with Patriot Prayer Protesters gather before a rally by the right-wing Patriot Prayer group in Portland on Saturday Protesters gather before a rally by the right-wing Patriot Prayer group in Portland on Saturday Protestors hold signs expressing opposition to Patriot Prayer ahead of the rally on Saturday A broader counter-protest organized by a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights groups and artists also gathered at City Hall before the Patriot Prayer rally. Organizers said that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs. 'Patriot Prayer is continuing to commit violence in our city, and their events are becoming more and more violent,' said Effie Baum of Pop Mob, a coalition of community groups organizing the counterdemonstration. 'Leaving them a small group to attack in the streets is only going to allow them to perpetuate their violence.' Dueling protests a month ago ended with Portland police declaring a riot and arresting four people. A similar Patriot Prayer event on June 4 devolved into fistfights and assaults by both sides as police struggled to keep the groups apart. The ensuing chaos shut down much of the city's core and police arrested more than a dozen people amid widespread fighting. Members of the right-wing Patriot Prayer group gather before a rally in Portland on Saturday A 'No Weapons' sign is seen at a park where right-wing Patriot Prayer group plan to hold a rally Patriot Prayer supporters gather before the rally. Police have warned that anyone without a valid Oregon concealed carry license will be arrested if they bring a gun One of Germany's highest profile socialist politicians has launched a new leftist movement to counter the rise of far right organisations in the country. Sahra Wagenknect's Aufstehen - Stand Up - movement published its website earlier today ahead of its official launch next month. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Wagenknecht said: 'Our aims are of course different political majorities and a new government with a social agenda.' Sahra Wagenknecht of the German Left Party is looking to launch a new socialist movement Germany has three parties that are broadly left-leaning, the Social Democrats, the Greens and the furthest-left, Wagenknecht's Left Party. However, they lack a parliamentary majority together, and policy differences and personal antagonism have also been a barrier to a national alliance. No serious consideration was given to a left-wing coalition when the three did have a joint majority in 2005 and 2013 elections. Instead, conservative conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel formed 'grand coalitions' with the Social Democrats. The same combination governs now, and the Greens last year explored a possible coalition with Merkel and a pro-business party. One of the Left Party's parliamentary leaders, Wagenknecht is a divisive figure even within her own party, in part for taking a skeptical position on migration. She is keen to dent the appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany to protest voters who previously supported her party, but a recent party congress backed 'open borders' for asylum-seekers. Chancellor Angela Merkel, pictured here on a election poster has formed grand coalitions with the Social Democrats. Wagenknecht said she wants to put social pressure on political parties Wagenknecht says she wants to encourage people who don't feel at home in any party to get involved in politics. She told Der Spiegel that no one has to leave the organisation they are in to join her movement but she wants to create 'social pressure' on political parties. However, other leaders of her party oppose the initiative and there's little sign of significant support from its rivals. Ralf Stegner, a deputy leader of the Social Democrats, said that Europe needs 'progressive alternatives' but not 'a PR initiative led by notorious separatists who, on European or integration policy issues, don't represent progressive or left-wing positions.' Raymond Reinke, 55, was arrested Thursday after he was stopped by rangers at three different national parks in the same week The Oregon man who taunted a bison in a viral video has been arrested - but it turns out this wasn't the first time he wreaked havoc at a national park. In fact cops say Reinke was stopped by officers on three separate occasions at different parks all in just one week. The 55-year-old, who has a lengthy rap sheet, appeared in court on Friday and faces charges including disturbing wildlife and being under the influence of alcohol to a degree that endangers himself. Reinke first ran into trouble at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on July 28 for his drunk and disorderly conduct. After spending a night in Teton County Jail he was released on bond and headed to Yellowstone National Park where he was stopped for a traffic violation on July 31, according to Buckrail. When rangers stopped his vehicle he reportedly appeared to be intoxicated and argumentative. He was cited for failing to wear his seat belt in the passenger seat. Rangers believe that it was after the stop that he ran into the bison. Yellowstone rangers then received several wildlife harassment reports and found Reinke, issuing a citation for a court appearance. Following his parks stint he was arrested and faces charges for being under the influence of alcohol to degree that endangers himself or others and disturbing wildlife. Pictured left and right following 2013 arrests in Oregon for disorderly conduct and harassment He led his streak of disorderly conduct starting at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, then Yellowstone, then Glacier National Park in Montana over the course of six days But a few days later Reinke skipped off to Glacier National Park in Montana. On Thursday August 2 the Yellowstone rangers connected the dots and saw his bison wildlife violation. As a result, his bond was revoked and a warrant was issued for his arrest that same day. Glacier National Park rangers then began to search for Reinke, but they didn't have to look long as rangers received complaints of two guests arguing and creating a loud disturbance in the hotel dining room. Sure enough, Reinke was one of those two guests. He was arrested and transported and booked into Yellowstone jail. 'This isnt an everyday occurrence that this teamwork happens, but it does when we have opportunities like this. Our rangers do take this very seriously,' Lauren Alley, a spokesperson for Glacier National Park said to Missoulian. 'We appreciate the collaboration of our fellow rangers in Glacier and Grand Teton national parks on this arrest. Harassing wildlife is illegal in any national park,' Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk said. Reinkewas seen in a Facebook video taunting a bison at Yellowstone National Park this week Reinke was beating his chest and roaring at the animal, causing it to get agitated and charge Reinke made an appearance in court on Friday and faces five charges including being under the influence of alcohol to a degree that endangers himself or others, interference/resisting, making unreasonable noise, storing an open container of an alcoholic beverage in a motor vehicle, and disturbing wildlife. His next hearing is set for August 8. Reinke's week-long streak is just a small part of extensive rap sheet dating back to 2013, filled with several disorderly conduct charges. He shot to viral fame after he was filmed confronting a bison in a Facebook video posted by park goer Lindsey Jones. In the clip Reinke beats his chest and yells at the animal, causing it to become agitated and charge at him. The beast charges at the screaming Reinke twice, who runs away afterwards. Eventually the bison walks away. Following the incident Yellowstone released a statement saying 'The individual's behavior in this video is reckless, dangerous, and illegal.' 'We need people to be stewards of Yellowstone, and one way to do that is to keep your distance from wildlife. Park regulations require people to stay at least 25 yards from animals like bison and elk, and 100 yards from bears and wolves. These distances safeguard both visitors and the remarkable experience of sharing a landscape with thousands of freely-roaming animals. People who ignore these rules are risking their lives and threatening the park experience for everyone else,' the statement added. The video was filmed by park goer Lindsey Jones and shared on Facebook. The footage quickly went viral, sparking an investigation Wells Fargo has apologized on Friday for a error they made that caused hundreds of customers to lose their homes over a five-year period. The San-Francisco based bank claimed that a calculation error utilizing the company's mortgage underwriting tool caused 625 customers to be effected. Those customers where wrongly denied access to modifications that would make their loans more affordable. 400 of those cases resulted in actual home foreclosure, the Charlotte Observer reports. The San-Francisco based bank claimed that a calculation error utilizing the company's mortgage underwriting tool caused 625 customers to be effected. 400 of those cases resulted in actual home foreclosure (protest from 2013 - during the middle of the five year period) The error was finally fixed in October 2015 but had been in existence for five years, first reported in April 2010. An internal review led to the finding of the error, according to the bank. 'We're very sorry that this error occurred and are providing remediation to the approximately 625 customers who may have been impacted,' spokesman Tom Goyda asserted in a statement Wells Fargo had claimed that they set aside $8million to address the customers' troubles. 'We're very sorry that this error occurred and are providing remediation to the approximately 625 customers who may have been impacted,' spokesman Tom Goyda asserted in a statement. He could not clarify where the customers were from, however. On Friday, the bank revealed that they were being probed by federal agents looking into how they were able to buy federal low-income housing tax credits in summation with financing low-income housing developments. Further details pertaining to the investigation were not released. With its main corporate office in San Francisco, the bank employs thousands in Charlotte. Wells Fargo agreed Wednesday to pay a $2.1 billion fine to settle allegations it misrepresented the types of mortgages it sold to investors during the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. The amount is relatively smaller than the fines paid by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and other big banks in the years following the financial crisis to settle similar allegations. Wells Fargo is one of the last remaining big banks to settle charges related to its role in the subprime mortgage crisis. Wells Fargo agreed Wednesday to pay a $2.1 billion fine to settle allegations it misrepresented the types of mortgages it sold to investors during the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis The fine is unrelated to the more recent scandals that have plagued Wells, such as the opening of millions of fake accounts for customers without their authorization in order to meet unrealistic sales quotas. The government accused Wells and many other big banks of understating the risk and quality of the mortgages they sold to investors at the height of the housing bubble, between 2005 and 2007. These investors bought up tens of billions of dollars in mortgages from Wells and other banks, and experienced massive losses when borrowers failed to repay and housing prices collapsed nationwide. Bank of America paid a $5 billion fine to authorities in 2014 for similar allegations, and Citigroup paid a $4 billion fine. Wells Fargo said in a statement it was "pleased to put behind us these legacy issues" and said it had previously set aside the money to cover the settlement with the Justice Department. Weinstein, 66, believes the new evidence will completely exonerate him. Pictured with wife Georgia Chapman in 2011 Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is confident rape charges against him will be thrown out after new bombshell emails surfaced in which his accuser admitted I love you four years after the alleged assault. Weinstein, 66, believes the new evidence will completely exonerate him. In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday just hours after filing an explosive 159-page motion to dismiss six charges by three women including rape in the first and third degrees and predatory sexual assault Weinsteins lawyer Benjamin Brafman called the case against his client fatally flawed. He said: The emails between Mr Weinstein and the woman alleging rape in 2013 go on for four years after the alleged attack. They are not just endearing chit-chat but are attempts by the alleged victim to see her alleged rapist again and again. She goes out of her way to give him her new mobile number and juggle personal appointments to meet with him. It is so inconsistent with what you would expect between a woman who has really been raped and the person she claims raped her. Its stunning these emails are there and have been ignored by the prosecutor. Its inexcusable. In one email one of about 400 between the producer and his accuser she says I love you but hate feeling like a booty call (a slang term for casual sex), adding a smiley-face emoji afterwards. After the alleged rape she asks Weinstein to meet her mother and help her with a car problem while praising his beautiful eyes, adding: I miss you Big Guy. Brafman claims another alleged victim, actress Lucia Evans who says Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him is not credible because she cannot pinpoint the apparent assault beyond a timeframe between June and September 2004. Its not appropriate under the law to accuse someone without a specific time, date or place. Its ridiculous to suggest a court should allow a three-month window. How can Mr Weinstein defend himself if there is no date to prove an alibi? It doesnt make sense. Weinstein who has split from his British designer wife Georgina Chapman, co-founder of fashion house Marchesa faces six charges brought by the three women in the New York case. He faces a maximum of life imprisonment if found guilty. A total of nearly 80 women have claimed he sexually abused them over a three-decade period when he ran film companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company and produced a string of Oscar-winning films including Shakespeare In Love and Pulp Fiction. Harvey Weinstein with his lawyer Benjamin Brafman at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday, May 25, 2018 But his lawyer told The Mail on Sunday: The evidence simply isnt there. In none of these three allegations is there any scientific or forensic evidence to support the claims. The facts are overwhelmingly on our side. Mr Weinstein believes he will be completely exonerated. Weinstein, whose company has filed for bankruptcy, is confident the charges against him will be thrown out when the case returns to court on September 20. He is currently free on $1 million (770,000) bail. Fridays motion to dismiss the case is the first time Weinsteins legal team has given a detailed account of how the mogul intends to challenge what one lawyer called overwhelming evidence against him. The lawyer said: Harvey can afford the finest lawyers and Ben Brafman is certainly that. Good for him. Hes earning his keep. But there are 80 women who are making very similar charges against Harvey over a three-decade period. That is strong evidence of a pattern of seriously sleazy, immoral and illegal behaviour. The producers legal team have been fighting for months to obtain the emails from The Weinstein Company. Mr Brafman said: Had the Grand Jury been allowed to read these emails before, they may well not have voted to indict Mr Weinstein for rape. In none of charges against him is there any scientific or forensic evidence. He believes Mr Weinsteins accusers will file civil claims to obtain monetary compensation. A source told the MoS: Its about money. The evidence simply isnt there. Harvey and his legal team have hit back for the first time and the evidence is very damaging to the prosecution. Harvey may well get off. But it will cost him every penny he has. But Mr Brafman said: These communications irrefutably reflect the true nature of this consensual intimate friendship which never at any time included a forcible rape. He said of Weinstein, who spent months at a rehab clinic in Arizona being treated for sex addiction: He is doing as well as you can expect for someone who has been wrongfully accused of crimes he maintains he did not commit. He is working very hard to get better and understand more about what's happened. He recognises that, even if, as he maintains, he didnt commit any criminal misconduct, he may not always have acted appropriately. Hes trying to become a better person. The Metropolitan Police in London and the Los Angeles Police Department are both currently investigating charges of sexual assault against the movie mogul. Meghan Markle suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she joined Prince Harry at the wedding of his close friend on her 37th birthday today. The Duchess of Sussex was waving to well-wishers, who later sang her Happy Birthday, when she accidentally flashed her bra. Luckily for Meghan, the bra perfectly matched her 400 dark navy dress, which had trimmings of lilac, pink and green on it. She quickly readjusted the dress and continued waving at the cameras gathered outside the ceremony at St Mary the Virgin Church in Frensham, Surrey. Meghan Markle accidentally flashed her black lace bra while waving outside a wedding ceremony at St Mary the Virgin Church in Frensham, Surrey The Duchess of Sussex was attending the wedding of Charlie van Straubenzee, a close friend of Prince Harry, and Daisy Jenks. She quickly readjusted and continued to smile and wave at well-wishers who later sang her Happy Birthday Meghan and Prince Harry were later spotted holding hands at the wedding of Charlie van Straubenzee and Daisy Jenks. The public display of affection is avoided by many royals as it is seen by some as unprofessional. Van Straubenzee, 30, was one of Prince Harry's ushers during his wedding in Windsor three months ago. The pair became friends when they both attended Ludgrove Prep School in Berkshire. Both he and his brother, Thomas, 35, became close to Prince William and Prince Harry. Meghan brushed off the mishap and appeared relaxed and in good spirits ahead of the big day, despite growing turmoil in the Markle family. Her father, Thomas Markle, has repeatedly complained about being 'cut off' by his daughter in media interviews with insiders saying she is at her 'wits' end'. One insider told theMirror that Meghan is 'deeply hurt' by what is becoming an 'increasingly desperate situation'. The increasingly 'precarious' situation' could be the 'final straw' for Meghan and Harry, the source added, after Thomas recently leaked details of their private phone conversations on Good Morning Britain. Meghan's birthday celebrations today were vastly different to last year where she relaxed with Prince Harry on a romantic trip in Botswana. Labour faces being lost in a 'vortex of eternal shame' unless it addressed the concerns of the Jewish community over anti-Semitism, deputy leader Tom Watson warned. In a stark message that risks causing a civil war at the top of the party, Mr Watson said Labour had to take a 'long, hard look at ourselves' as he demanded immediate action to end tensions. Mr Watson demanded Jeremy Corbyn bring an end to disciplinary action against two of the leader's most prominent critics in Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin. He also said the party should fully adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, a move which has been backed by a swathe of Labour MPs but rejected by the party's executive. His intervention follows an attempt by Mr Corbyn to build bridges with the Jewish community which was met with a hostile response from the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the Jewish Labour Movement. Deputy leader Tom Watson, pictured here with Jeremy Corbyn, said Labour will be 'lost in a vortex of eternal shame' unless it unless party addresses anti-Semitism row Mr Watson said the party should fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of anti-Semitism. It comes after an attempt by Mr Corbyn to build bridges with the Jewish community was met with a hostile response In a strongly-worded intervention, Mr Watson told the Observer: 'This is one of those moments when we have to take a long, hard look at ourselves, stand up for what is right and present the party as fit to lead the nation or disappear into a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassment.' He called for disciplinary action against MPs Ian Austin and Dame Margaret Hodge who confronted Mr Corbyn in Parliament over his response to the row to be dropped. 'I think it is very important that we all work to de-escalate this disagreement, and I think it starts with dropping the investigations into Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin,' he said. 'I have frequently had very difficult conversations with both Margaret and Ian but what I understand is that your critics are not your enemies. On an issue that is so dear to them, I think people are very, very concerned that these investigations should be dropped quickly.' And he said Labour should fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct. Mr Corbyn has stopped short of that, insisting that Labour had fully adopted the wording of the definition and had captured 'the essence' of its illustrative examples, with seven of the 11 incorporated entirely. He acknowledged that the Jewish community 'should have been consulted more extensively' in drawing up the code, and its development had been re-opened to allow the input of Jewish organisations. He insisted the differences were 'very small' and amount to 'half of one example out of 11' in relation to criticism of Israel. But Mr Watson told the Observer: 'We should deal with this swiftly and move on. We can't have this dragging on throughout the summer. 'I have made no secret of the fact that we should adopt the full IHRA definition and should do it without delay.' In a Guardian article, Mr Corbyn insisted he will root out anti-Semites from Labour and acknowledged mistakes in the way the party had handled the crisis. Mr Watson demanded Jeremy Corbyn bring an end to disciplinary action against two of the leader's most prominent critics But the Jewish Labour Movement said trust had broken down with the party leadership, while the Campaign Against Antisemitism lashed out at Mr Corbyn's failure to apologise for his own conduct. Mr Corbyn said: 'No one can, or should, try to dismiss or belittle the concerns expressed by so many Jewish people and organisations about what has been happening in the party I am proud to lead.' But after three leading Jewish newspapers jointly published a scathing leader column about Mr Corbyn's party, the Labour leader rejected their 'overheated rhetoric'. However, he acknowledged there was a 'real problem that Labour is working to overcome' and stressed that if he became prime minister he would 'take whatever measures necessary' to guarantee the security of the Jewish community. Campaign Against Antisemitism chairman Gideon Falter said: 'There is no acknowledgement of his own role in this crisis. There is no apology for his anti-Semitic activity in the past, but he has hypocritically condemned as anti-Semitic behaviour that he himself has been guilty of. 'He has again preached to Jews that he is right to have rewritten the international definition of anti-Semitism.' The Jewish Labour Movement also rejected Mr Corbyn's article. A spokesman said: 'There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words.' Political opponents seized upon similarities between Mr Corbyn's article and an earlier response to allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour which was published in April. Tory deputy chairman James Cleverly said it was a 'cut and paste job'. A highly-decorated Delta Force soldier was fatally injured during a June parachute training accident that was not made public by the military. Sgt. Maj. Christopher Nelms, 46, was injured during a free-fall training jump on June 27 at Laurinburg-Maxton Airport in Maxton, North Carolina, and died on July 1. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery on July 31. Nelms' parachute failed to fully deploy during the jump and was 'fighting it the whole way down,' a former Delta Force officer told Yahoo News. Sgt. Maj. Christopher Nelms, 46, was injured during a free-fall parachute training jump on June 27 at Laurinburg-Maxton Airport in Maxton, North Carolina, and died on July 1 Nelms spent 10 years as a Washington state firefighter and was married with two children A spokesperson for the US Army Special Operations Command confirmed Nelms' death to Yahoo News and said that he died at the hospital where he was being treated for his injuries. The spokesperson said that not every soldier death during a training incident is made public. The spokesperson told Army Times that Nelms' incident is being investigated. Nelms was said to have served in senior leadership roles including troop sergeant major, assault team leader and operations sergeant major during his 28-year Army career. Nelms joined the Army as an infantryman in 1990 and was deployed to the Philippines once and Iraq twice. He then transitioned into the Army National Guard's 19th Special Forces Group. Nelms returned to active duty in 2008, at which point he was assigned to the US Army Special Operations Command. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan six times and once to Niger during that time. Nelms was a highly-decorated Delta Force soldier who had been deployed multiple times around the world. He is pictured here while competing in the Best Ranger Competition in 2013 During Nelms' 28-year Army career, he received multiple valor and service medals including two Silver Stars, the Soldier's Medal and six Bronze Stars, one with the V device He received multiple high-level awards and decorations, including two Silver Stars, the Soldiers Medal, six Bronze Star medals one with the V device two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal with V device, two Army Commendation Medals and the Joint Service Achievement Medal with C device. Nelms also received the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars, the Iraq Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars and the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star. A notice of his death posted on July 16 on SOCNET, the Special Operations Community Network, stated that Nelms had participated in the Best Ranger competition, was once a Washington state firefighter and was married with two children. On July 11, Eastside Fire & Rescue, in Issaquah, Washington, posted that Nelms joined the department in 1997 and was a firefighter for 10 years before going back to active duty. A former Delta operator who was familiar with Nelms told Yahoo News that Nelms 'had a great reputation' and that Nelms, with all of his training and experience, was 'irreplaceable.' The military does not traditionally identify members of Delta Force, the Army's elite special missions unit which specializes in hostage rescue and counter-terrorism. The military spokesperson only confirmed that Nelms was assigned to the US Army Special Operations Command. However, two former Delta Force operators told Yahoo News that Nelms was a member of the elite unit. Laurinburg-Maxton Airport is less than an hour away from North Carolina's Fort Bragg, the home base of Delta Force. Nelms is said to be the second soldier from the US Army Special Operations Command who has died during a free-fall training accident in 2018. On January 24, Sgt. Maj. Samuel Morris McAllister of the 75th Ranger Regiment died in Eloy, Arizona, after a jump. Military operation free-fall jumps typically involve exiting aircraft at altitudes between 15,000 to 35,000 feet. Jeremy Corbyn faced a new anti-Semitism storm last night after it was claimed he mocked a leading Jewish Labour MP behind her back by calling her 'the MP for Tel Aviv'. The 'spiteful' jibe by the Labour leader was reportedly aimed at Louise Ellman, awarded a damehood by the Queen two months ago for her distinguished 30-year political career. Mr Corbyn's alleged slur was revealed 24 hours after he tried to heal a rift with the Jewish community and admitted Labour had a 'real problem' with anti-Semitism. Labour's troubles deepened last night when deputy leader Tom Watson warned the party would 'disappear into a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassment' and be unfit for government unless it resolved the anti-Semitism row. In an newspaper interview, he also called on Mr Corbyn to drop without delay internal inquiries into Labour MPs Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, who now face possible disciplinary charges after furious outbursts over the party's stance on anti-Semitism. Mr Corbyn's claim that Labour was 'no threat to Jewish life in Britain' was undermined by claims that he and his aides have made sneering comments about Dame Louise. A Labour spokesman last night strongly denied Mr Corbyn had privately called her the 'MP for Tel Aviv'. In a separate development, fresh evidence emerged that Mr Corbyn repeatedly shared platforms with activists who likened Israel to Nazi Germany. The Mail on Sunday has unearthed a previously unpublicised video showing him speaking at a pro- Palestine meeting in 2012 which included the reading of a poem that said the 'victims of Auschwitz' were now the 'torturers'. Jewish campaigners said 'outrageous' verses of the poem read out at the rally breached part of the internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism the key section that Labour controversially left out of its watered-down version. Incriminating footage: Jeremy Corbyn addressing a pro-Palestinian rally in 2012 at which another speaker compared Israel's actions to the Nazis Dame Louise has frequently criticised Mr Corbyn for failing to tackle anti-Semitism. It has led to repeated attempts by Left-wing activists in the pro-Corbyn Momentum group to sack her as MP for Liverpool Riverside. A former aide to Mr Corbyn told The Mail on Sunday that they had heard him describe Dame Louise sarcastically as 'the Honourable Member for Tel Aviv' when her name was mentioned. 'I was very surprised and when I asked other members of staff they said he often did it in private, though not to her face,' said the Labour insider. The 'spiteful' jibe by the Labour leader was reportedly aimed at Louise Ellman (pictured) Another senior Labour source said Dame Louise was commonly referred to as 'the Hon Member of Tel Aviv' by members of Mr Corbyn's staff. 'If her name crops up, or she appears on the office TV, they'll say, 'There she goes again, the Honourable member for Tel Aviv.' They can't stand her.' Last night, Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, condemned Mr Corbyn's 'spiteful' comment. Born into a Jewish family in Manchester, Dame Louise, 72, was chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement until 2016 and is vice chairman of the Labour Friends of Israel. She denounced Mr Corbyn for hosting a Holocaust Memorial Day event during which the Israeli government was compared to the Nazis. In 2016, she backed a motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn by rebel Labour MPs. A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said last night the claim that he had called Dame Louise 'the MP for Tel Aviv' was 'a fabrication'. The disclosure of Mr Corbyn's role at the 2012 pro-Palestine rally follows claims last week that he chaired a meeting in Parliament in 2010 in which a speaker compared Israel's actions to the Nazis. Video footage of the 2012 meeting hosted in Conway Hall, Holborn, London by the Palestine Solidary Campaign shows the poem Love Letters To Gaza being recited by an actress. It was reportedly applauded by Mr Corbyn. The poem refers to an attempt by an unofficial 'freedom' flotilla of ships to break the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip in 2011. It includes the lines: 'It is not now the Nazi state but Israel that blocks the seas./It is not Auschwitz that stops the ship that carries hope and messages,/But those that might have died there..../The victims are now the torturers.' Mr Corbyn was also highly critical of Israel in his speech at the meeting, which featured a backdrop comprising a map showing Palestine in place of Israel. Labour's anti-Semitism revolt grew last night as Emily Benn, granddaughter of late Left-winger Tony Benn, said the only way to solve Labour's anti-Semitic rift was to sack Mr Corbyn. His statement was 'utter rubbish', tweeted former Labour parliamentary candidate Ms Benn, niece of senior Labour MP Hilary Benn. 'To refer to me as the 'MP for Tel Aviv' is to challenge my loyalty to this country,' said Dame Louise Ellman of Corbyn's comment 'No responsibility taken for the anti-Semitism and those anti-Semites he has supported for years. Labour has become an institutionally anti-Semitic Party under Jeremy Corbyn. It will not change while he is leader.' Dame Louise said last night: 'If this is correct, I am appalled that a potential Prime Minister would use language of this sort against one of his own MPs. 'To refer to me as the 'MP for Tel Aviv' is to challenge my loyalty to this country. 'A key part the internationally accepted code on anti-Semitism which the Labour Party wants to dilute specifically states it is anti-Semitic to accuse Jews of being more loyal to Israel than to their own country.' A Labour spokesman said last night that the allegation that Mr Corbyn had called Dame Louise the 'MP for Tel Aviv' was 'entirely untrue'. He also said, in relation to the 2012 pro-Palestinian meeting, that Mr Corbyn 'was not responsible for everything said at every meeting he has ever attended'. New parents should be given taxpayer-funded vouchers to buy reusable cloth nappies, say green campaigners. The call comes amid growing concern over avoidable plastic waste about 25 per cent of a disposable nappy is made of plastic and three billion nappies a year end up in landfill sites. The Treasury is looking at the voucher scheme idea as part of a consultation into measures to discourage plastic waste. New parents should be given taxpayer-funded vouchers to buy reusable cloth nappies, say green campaigners Reusable nappies are far more sophisticated than the terry-towelling type seen on the 1950s-set BBC show Call The Midwife. They are now shaped like disposables, fastened with Velcro or poppers and are cleaned in a washing machine. Some councils already encourage parents to buy reusables by offering vouchers worth up to 54. But Guy Schanschieff, chairman of the Nappy Alliance representing reusable nappy firms, has asked the Treasury to introduce national vouchers. He said: A national voucher scheme would be more effective and a national message would be much easier to get across to parents. One way is to give vouchers to every new mother in hospital. Green co-leader Caroline Lucas (pictured) said ministers should help parents use alternatives Caroline Lucas, Green Party co-leader, said: Ministers should be actively supporting incentives for new parents to affordably use alternatives to disposable nappies. Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK head of oceans campaign, said: Any scheme should start by looking at incentives to help parents make easier choices. And whether this is done through a voucher scheme for reusable nappies offered to new parents or a better system to dispose of nappies the solution has to be national. A Treasury spokesman said responses to the consultation were still being reviewed. He served his country in the Iraq War and then, like many other veterans, found life after the military difficult, becoming homeless and penniless. But just seven years after reaching rock bottom, ex-Royal Navy man Paul Rowlett now drives a Ferrari, has a 1 million home and enjoys holidays on Sir Richard Bransons private Caribbean island of Necker. Remarkably, his transformation is all down to the Queen or more accurately, 500 porcelain mugs that marked her Diamond Jubilee. Mr Rowlett, 37, who served in the Gulf War that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein, left the Navy in 2004 and, after a series of dead-end jobs, hit the bottom in 2011 when his house was repossessed, forcing him to live with friends and to survive on benefits of just 75 a week. Paul Rowlett, pictured at home with his wife Jennie, now has a 1 million home and enjoys holidays on Sir Richard Bransons private Caribbean island of Necker He said: The Navy was good to me and taught me about myself but when I left, I was back to square one. I had to work for myself it was the only option. He told disbelieving pals that he wanted to be like Branson and create his own business empire from his base in Leicester. Using a cheap laptop he got free with a new phone, Mr Rowlett launched his own online business selling promotional mugs, rosettes and key rings for companies to spread their brand. Working from friends homes for 20 hours a day, he struggled to find success. Then his life changed in 2012 when Leicester City Council asked him to supply mugs and bunting for the Queens Diamond Jubilee visit to the city. The businessman was so delighted to have been given the opportunity that he decided to give away thousands of pounds worth of commemorative items, including 500 mugs. Mr Rowlett (pictured left in the Royal Navy) was appointed to produce Jubilee products (left) Won over by his generosity, the council rewarded Mr Rowlett by making him the citys preferred supplier for the Queens Jubilee products and the resultant goodwill and publicity led to a trickle of clients becoming a flood. Once a one-man band, his Leicester-based company, everythingbranded.co.uk, now employs 120 people and boasts an annual turnover of 17 million. Corporate clients include the AA, Asda, the NHS, Samsung and ITV. His still-growing company will soon open offices in Las Vegas to expand into America, recruiting a further 60 people. Mr Rowlett recalled: When Leicester Council placed an order for the Jubilee, I didnt hesitate I told them I would do it for free. I have always loved the Royals and it turned out to be the best business decision I ever made. Paul Rowlett is now a millionaire and holidays with Richard Branson (pictured together) He and wife Jennie, who stood by him during the lean years, now live in a four-bedroom house in Leicester with a home cinema, games room and gym, and Mr Rowlett has treated himself to a 185,000 white Ferrari. In 2015 he booked a luxury holiday to Necker, the Caribbean island owned by his role model Sir Richard Branson. Mr Rowlett said: I promised myself when I could afford it Id visit Necker Island and I thought maybe Id get lucky and meet Richard Branson. He literally greeted us as we got off the boat. We spent five of our seven days in his company. Mr Rowlett is a backer of the Make Some Noise charity, which helps projects supporting and promoting youngsters and their families living with illness, disability or lack of opportunity. He said: I know what its like to not be given a chance, and my solution is to offer employment to these people. Britains ambassador to Zimbabwe was last night accused of putting lipstick on a crocodile by cosying up to the winner of the countrys election Britains ambassador to Zimbabwe was last night accused of putting lipstick on a crocodile by cosying up to the winner of the countrys election. Supporters of defeated candidate Nelson Chamisa claimed UK envoy Catriona Laing endorsed President Emmerson Mnangagwa by wearing his trademark scarf at Downing Street earlier this year. They also claimed she failed to condemn Mr Mnangagwas brutal police crackdown on protests against his regime. The putting lipstick on a crocodile barb is a reference to Mr Mnangagwas Crocodile nickname, which derives from his reputation for political cunning. Claims that Ms Laing was biased towards Mr Mnangagwa surfaced after she tweeted a photograph of herself outside No 10 in March wearing a scarf in the colours of Zimbabwes national flag. Mr Mnangagwa is rarely seen in public without the scarf and it has become the emblem of his leadership. In her tweet, Ms Laing said she had had a busy and productive week in the UK. A delighted Mr Mnangagwa was first to respond on Twitter, telling her that Zimbabwes prospects were as bright and positive as your wonderful scarf. Ex-Zimbabwean cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo accused Ms Laing of wearing a dictators voodoo scarf and endorsing a mass murderer. An ally of Mr Chamisa told The Mail on Sunday: Putting lipstick on a crocodile shouldnt work, but it didnt stop the ambassador trying. Everyone who has cosied up to this monster should be ashamed after his narrow win. He could have lost if more powerful people had stood up to him. Ms Laing dismissed criticism of her scarf as absurd conspiracy theories. It was a Christmas present from the designer and she had it long before anyone else. She was not supporting anyone or anything other than a better future for Zimbabwe, she said. She also denied backing police violence. There was similar criticism in 2016 when a photograph of a beaming Ms Laing and Mr Mnangagwa appeared after her courtesy call to his headquarters in Harare. The British Embassy denied Ms Laing had sided with Mr Mnangagwa, saying it had spent 24 million on trying to ensure a fair election. Would we bother if we wanted one candidate to win? said a British diplomat. The Foreign Office announced in June that Ms Laing is leaving Zimbabwe to become Ambassador to Nigeria. Insiders deny it is linked to the crocodile scarf affair. Supporters of Mr Chamisa say that President Mnangagwas victory was achieved by election fraud. Secrets about Britains new 9 billion stealth fighter jets have been leaked in an audacious honeytrap plot, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. In a sophisticated sting operation, the profile of an RAF airwoman on dating app Tinder was hacked, allowing a spy, posing as the woman, to contact RAF servicemen and sweet-talk at least one into revealing details about the F-35 Lightning II fighter. RAF sources last night confirmed information about the hugely sensitive and expensive stealth jet had been passed to an as-yet unidentified third party. A secret agent has tried to trick RAF personnel to pass over details of the 9bn F-35 stealth fighter project after they hacked the Tinder profile of a female RAF airwoman The RAF has sent a warning about the risk posed by 'online social engineering' It is unclear if a foreign power was involved, but suspicion is likely to centre on the intelligence services of Russia and China. Both countries are desperate for information on the F-35 fleet which represents the next generation of stealth fighter and a potential threat to their own military assets. Confidential documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday provide details of the RAFs concern about the extraordinary plot, which swung into action just weeks after the first four F-35s arrived at RAF Marham in Norfolk on June 7. The UK is committed to buying 138 of the jets, each costing 92 million. The first order is for 48 and the purchase price and servicing costs will bring the MoD bill up to 9 billion. To justify the huge price tag, the planes must achieve aerial supremacy and evade sophisticated air defence systems hence the vast secrecy surrounding them and the speed with which the RAF responded to the security breach. A memo sent from the RAFs head of security to top brass on July 9 said: Within the last week a serving member of the RAF had their online dating profile hacked. It subsequently transpired that the perpetrator then attempted to befriend another serving member of the RAF to apparently elicit comment and detail on F-35. Fortunately, little information was disclosed and the individual whose account had been hacked reported this matter expediently enabling prompt follow-up action and investigation. Nevertheless, this incident serves to highlight the risk of social engineering (SE) and online reconnaissance against social media profiles that disclose links to HM Forces. Former Rolls Royce engineer Bryn Jones, pictured, was earlier arrested following security concerns. Mr Jones denies any wrong doing While the RAF say little information was lost, any breach of security around the F-35 will be seen as deeply damaging and highly embarrassing by service chiefs. To underline the seriousness, all RAF personnel, in particular those with access to the F-35s, have been warned to be on high alert for approaches by foreign agents. Service personnel who share information that could be useful to enemies of the state face charges under the Official Secrets Act. The memo, written by the RAFs Principal Security Advisor (PSyA) continues: SE is psychological manipulation to elicit confidential or sensitive information. SE can be instigated over the phone or in a social setting (i.e. in a bar) as well as online. A skilled and convincing operative will aim to elicit information through friendship, sympathy and/or obligation in order to accumulate pieces of information to build up a bigger picture. In a clear reference to the threat from foreign spies, it adds: It should be noted that UK military posture, policy and capabilities continue to be significant targets of interest for hostile state and non-state actors. The RAF initially denied the embarrassing security breach, but after being confronted with the memo said: As a matter of policy the RAF do not discuss security measures. However, we can confirm that our procedures are under constant review and are regularly updated to ensure correct guidance is available for our people. This has recently been completed with respect to online use. RAF sources said that no information of a sensitive or classified nature about the F-35 had been disclosed in any conversations via the dating site, but did not rule out the passing of data by other means. The F35-B stealth jet is the most expensive fighter the RAF have ever ordered The breach took place within weeks of the arrest of Bryn Jones, a 73-year-old former chief combustion technologist with Rolls Royce, the firm that provides the F-35 engines. He was also a visiting professor in gas turbine combustion at the Aeronautical University of Xian in central China. Scotland Yard confirmed that the investigation into the father-of-five is continuing. Mr Jones is understood to deny any wrongdoing. In the wake of the nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats it believed were engaging in spying. At the time Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: What is also clear is the Kremlin is using its growing hybrid capabilities to subvert, undermine and influence countries around the world. Its cyber operations are active and brazen. Last week General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said Russia posed a threat in terms of cyber attacks, assassination bids, fake news and the undermining of political processes. Five more F-35s landed at RAF Marham from the US on Friday, bringing the total in the UK to nine. The plot and the use of Tinder, a smartphone app that lets an estimated 50 million global users like or dislike each other and arrange dates, has emerged as thousands of British troops remain in eastern European states such as Estonia and Ukraine. They have received special training in an effort to prevent them falling victim to honey-traps. Describing the threat posed by Russia, Mikk Marran, head of Estonias intelligence service, has warned: Cyber espionage might be used, disinformation campaigns, blackmailing on the basis of stolen data they have a huge tool box. What started as the trip of a lifetime became the stuff of nightmares for Katie Gee in a single vicious moment. The 18-year-old, from North London, had been volunteering at a school in Zanzibar when she and her friend Kirstie Trup were doused in acid in an unprovoked and now infamous attack by two men on a moped. The results were horrific. Kirstie suffered burns to her arm, but it was Katie who bore the brunt. The right side of her face and body were completely burnt while her right ear was left shrivelled, black and useless. Feeling positive: Katie Gee, now 23, looking forward to a 'normal' life Yet five years on, almost to the day, her recovery has been nothing short of miraculous, as our photographs attest. And thanks to 70 operations many of them gruelling 12-hour-long skin grafts the dedicated care of medical staff and endless perseverance from Katie herself, her skin is almost completely smooth, the scars barely visible at all. During the first three years after the attack, she had to wear a plastic face mask and full body compression suit for 23 hours a day and, last month, became the proud owner of a new right ear, masterfully sculpted from tissue from one of her ribs. These details and more all form part of the extraordinary diary she shares today with The Mail on Sunday, charting her recovery from the day she arrived at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Today, the worst of her treatment is over, and the sociology student, who graduated from Nottingham University last year, wants to pay tribute to the extraordinary work of the Health Service and to highlight the sheer destruction caused by a type of attack which is growing increasingly common, particularly in London. Her assailants, who used acid from a car battery, have never been identified. 'In the first few years I barely went out,' Katie says. 'I had no confidence. People would stare and it makes you feel ugly and different, like a spectacle. I've come such a long way in five years.' AUG 8, 2013: Katie's horrific injuries are pictured on her arrival at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital AUG 8, 2013 There are no mirrors in the fifth floor burns unit at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital because patients like me can get distressed. And I can't see anything out of my right eye. But using my left, I've been looking at my face in the selfie mode of my phone and at my reflection in the metal trim of the shower. My face is swollen, much more than when I left Africa and my body has doubled in size. Consultant plastic surgeon Andy Williams is brutally honest: I have 35 per cent burns and will need years of treatment. He said he won't give up on me, though. He'll try to get me as close as possible to the person I was before. My family and grandparents are all here. They don't try to sugar-coat anything either and I'm grateful. We'll get through this together. I don't want anyone to hide anything from me. I know if I go home without seeing what I look like it will make it 20 times worse. The first thing is to cut away the burnt, dead skin and then replace it with skin grafts. They ask to take skin from my scalp but my hair is the only thing I have left so I refuse, even though Andy says the colour match would be better for my face. I'm relieved to be here but filled with trepidation. LEFT: AUG 18, 2013 - Heavily bandaged in her bed at the hospital, she still manages to muster the humour to take a selfie. RIGHT: AUG 2013 - Finding the ability to laugh with a friend after an operation to remove dead skin AUG 9, 2013 I'm nauseous and sore after the first 12-hour operation and am on dozens of drugs, including ketamine. In all, I will have 15 operations nearly three a week and two to three blood transfusions because the body bleeds a lot with skin removal. When it first happened I thought, 'I'll be in the best hands so it'll be fine', but now I'm in the best hands and it's still bad. I don't know how I'll cope. The surgeons remove one section of the dead skin at a time and then apply donor skin to keep the wound from becoming infected. They use skin from white, black and Asian donors all kept at -83C in a skin bank and put me on a cocktail of anti-rejection drugs. I look like a patchwork quilt! You have about two to three weeks before the body realises the skin is not a match but it's only a temporary measure, like having a skin plaster. For the actual graft they take skin from my back, bum and both my legs and cover my arm and stomach first. My arm was a big job because it all needs covering. They slice the skin off with a dermatome, a tool a bit like a potato peeler, and then make it thinner by putting it through a skin mesher machine which looks like a pasta maker except it cuts the skin like a fishnet stocking. For areas like my face, the surgeons apply a layer of collagen, oddly, taken from the Achilles tendon of a cow and another protein from a shark. My own top layer of skin is laid over the top. It was either stapled or stitched on and was horribly painful. Later, as it heals, it's itchy. LEFT: NOV 4, 2013 - Katie's face is covered in plaster of Paris to create a mould for her plastic mask. RIGHT: NOV 12, 2013 - At home after the arrival of the mask which she goes on to wear 23 hours a day AUG 10, 2013 I'm surrounded by food: chips and milkshakes from McDonald's, cakes and Mum's home cooking. I've been told to eat 5,000 calories a day more than an athlete because my body is working so hard to repair itself and needs to be robust enough for so much surgery. When you lose your skin everything leaks out, including protein. I also have to drink chocolate flavour protein shakes, which taste quite nice. But I'm woken at midnight, 2am and 5am to drink, so they're losing their appeal. The nurses have been amazing, and many become friends. In the beginning, one would sleep in my room overnight to make sure my heart rate was OK after major surgery. My family are here most of the time and friends are forever popping in. My therapist always asks first if I'm up to seeing them. Some days I just don't feel like it. LEFT: NOV 14, 2014 - Katie's right eye has to be bandaged after a painful skin graft to her eyelid. RIGHT: MAY 28, 2015 - An inspection of her new ear that was sculpted from the cartilage of one of her ribs SEPT 23, 2013 I leave hospital with all my own skin but anxious about the next stage. Mum is given a list of things to do if a wound opens or something starts bleeding. I'm surprised to find my bedroom at home in Hampstead, North London, filled like a florist's shop, and there's a card from Prime Minister David Cameron saying: 'We're going to do everything we can.' I'm returning to hospital for physiotherapy every day and often wake up not able to move my arm because the skin has tightened. Luckily, it eases with massage. My therapist asks me if I'm concerned about getting a boyfriend. I wasn't until she brought it up. It's been hard to leave hospital. There, you're so distracted; there's always something to have done. Now I get home from my appointments and the hours drag on. My family decide that a dog will cheer me up. Caeser certainly does that. I love going for long walks with him. NOV 20, 2013 I'm fitted for a full plastic face mask at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London, something I have to wear for 23 hours a day for the next two-and-a-half years. This will make my scars, which take up to two years to settle, as flat as possible. I've been really excited to get the first mask because it means I'm that much further on in my treatment, but wearing it is as horrible as it sounds: it's unnatural, so restrictive and the pressure of the straps gives me migraines. I just want to smash it on the floor, but I don't because it took a month to make from the plaster of Paris moulding stage to the finished article. It's such a relief to take it off to eat and to shower but I've barely been out of the house. People stare and make me feel ugly and different. If I have to go out in it, I wear a thick woolly hat and scarf to hide as much as possible, even in the heat. Every time I have surgery on my face, I have a new mask made and fitted. I've also been wearing a full compression suit for 23 hours a day. Made from neoprene-like material, it comprises a tight black top, leggings and a glove, rather like a catsuit overall, so not a complete fashion disaster, but it's so hot to wear, especially at night. I've been told I must wear it for three years to help flatten the scar tissue as it settles and must get a new suit made every six to eight weeks. Chelsea and Westminster has its own seamstress who makes them all. You can choose from a range of colours but I went for black. I'll save a fortune on clothes. DAY ZERO Aug 7, 2013: Katie is pictured with a child in Zanzibar on the day of the attack that would change her life forever DEC 11, 2014 An important operation on my face: the scar from the skin graft between my nose and upper lip has contracted so much that my lip is fused to my nose. It's so uncomfortable and I dribble when I drink. Both my nostrils have closed over, one completely, and I can't breathe well at all. Now it will be corrected: I've longed to get this surgery done. The surgeons cut both layers of skin from my groin, so much in fact that it won't grow back and I'll need several corrective operations, but a scar there doesn't really matter. Andy, the surgeon, put a splint in one nostril to prevent it from closing over completely but it didn't work and I've since had five operations to rebuild it. First they attach skin before reinforcing it all with cartilage from one of my ribs. I also have an eyebrow graft with Greg Williams at Farjo Hair Institute in Harley Street, London. He takes a chunk of skin from the back of my head and then painstakingly applies each hair in a ten-hour operation. The hairs still grow, but plucking is a bad idea... JAN 30, 2015 After the attack, my right ear looked like a lump of charcoal. Andy Williams had tried to scrape the burnt parts away but, because there was no blood supply, the ear snapped off! I could have had a prosthetic one fitted, but I don't like the idea of taking it off every day to clean it and it won't help my hearing, which has been badly damaged. Andy recommends David Gault, a private reconstructive plastic surgeon and absolute genius whose hobby is sculpture. There are three 12-hour operations. In the first he breaks a rib and sculpts a new ear from the cartilage. They also shave a section of my head, cut a flap open and pull it down over the new ear. The flap still has a blood vessel attached, which starts pumping blood to the organ to keep it alive. Having a broken rib is excruciatingly painful and really affects my breathing. You can't move without pain but I can make myself deal with it. It wasn't as painful as the attack itself nothing ever will be. In the third operation David attaches skin from my leg to the ear and pins it to my head I can't put my hair behind it now. It's rock hard, I can't bend it but it works like a normal ear and my hearing is almost better than before. I've currently got a stitch through the lobe to create a hole for an earring. It's the little details that mean so much. TODAY Thanks to the amazing medical team, I'm feeling incredibly positive and looking forward to getting on with 'normal' life for me, normal is quite exciting. Despite all the operations and disruption, I graduated from Nottingham University with a 2:1 in sociology last year. I'm enjoying life at home in Hampstead with my parents and two brothers and Caesar and will begin a graduate traineeship in corporate property next month. I still have to look at my scars every day, but they're a part of me now and I'll never be ashamed of them. The Government is paying Amazon tens of millions of pounds a year for web services despite claims the tech giant is still not paying its fair share of tax. Government figures show the public sector spent 11.8 million on Amazon Web Services in the first three months of 2018, suggesting the company could rake in almost 50 million from the Government this year if spending continues at the same pace. Robert Palmer, executive director at campaign group Tax Justice UK, said: Its quite ironic that the Government is spending more on Amazon than it is paying in tax. The biggest companies can hire really clever accountants to slash their tax bill, whereas hard-working families dont have that choice. The Government is paying Amazon tens of millions of pounds a year for web services despite claims the tech giant is still not paying its fair share of tax Amazons retail arm was at the centre of a row last week over its tax affairs. Its UK companies made modest UK tax payments in 2017 despite the huge scale of its activities here, and its true tax bill is hidden in Europe-wide companies based in Luxembourg. Amazon UK Services, a subsidiary which supports the online retail business, paid 4.6 million in tax to the Exchequer last year. Amazon says its overall payments are much higher than that because its Luxembourg business pays UK tax on its sales here, but the figures are not separately disclosed. Richard Murphy, of Tax Research UK, said: We have no idea where theyre paying what. We dont know if theyre paying the right amount in this country. The online retailer reported sales of 8.75 billion in the UK in 2017, according to its US accounts. Amazon Web Services in the UK paid 1.4 million in tax, but it handles only a fraction of the payments from the UK Government, many of which go directly to the US parent. Criticism of Amazons tax affairs has focused on the structure of its retail division. There is no suggestion Amazon Web Services was set up to minimise Amazons tax bill. The tech giant is best known for online retailing but its cloud computing operation accounts for ten per cent of its global revenues and is the most profitable part of the business. AWS offers servers and data storage for companies which want to publish things online. Public sector payments to AWS have accelerated. The Government spent 17 million on the cloud computing service last year of the 30 million spent with Amazon since 2014. Amazon Web Services said it pays all of the required taxes in the UK and all of the countries in which we operate. The public sector spent 11.8 million on Amazon Web Services in the first three months of 2018, suggesting the company could rake in almost 50 million from the Government this year Its retail arm said its low tax bill reflected modest profits: Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment. A Government spokesman said: HMRC makes sure that large businesses, just like everyone else, pay all the taxes due under UK law and doesnt settle for less. Last year, HMRC secured over 9 billion in additional tax revenue from the largest and most complex businesses. This is money that would otherwise have gone unpaid. Robust processes are in place to enable Government departments to buy services and products through fair, open and transparent competition. This particular provider was the right choice for technical expertise and value for money. The NYPD has asked for the public's help in identifying two perverts reported in separate incidents on the subway last month. The first incident was reported by a 28-year-old woman on July 10 around 2.45pm at the Union Square subway station. The victim was using a public restroom near the 4/5/6 line when she noticed a hand holding a cellphone over her stall from the adjacent stall. When she came out of the stall she saw the unidentified male exit the restroom. Surveillance video released by the police Saturday shows the man leaving the subway station. The NYPD have released surveillance images of two alleged subway perverts and asked for the public's help in identifying them one followed a woman into a Union Square station restroom and held a phone over her stall to record her on July 10 (left) and another pleasured himself on the D train behind a backpack on July 23 (right) On July 23 a separate pervert was reported on a southbound D Train in Brooklyn. An 18-year-old female told police she observed a man masturbating across from her while attempting to conceal himself with a backpack at around 2.40pm. The unidentified male is described as black with short and curly black hair, a mustache and a beard, approximately 25 years old, 5'10" and 160lbs. He was dressed in gray jeans, a pink t-shirt and gray sneakers, and has a tattoo on his left hand with the word 'Royal'. Police released a surveillance photo of him on Saturday. Anyone with information regarding either incident is urged to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. Police are trying to identify this man who was rescued from the River Thames on July 26 in Putney. The man is in a critical but stable condition in hospital Police are appealing for help tracing friends and family of a man with a 'distinctive' dragon-like tattoo after he was rescued from the Thames. The identity of the man, who is in a critical but stable condition, remains a mystery after he was pulled from the river near London's Putney Embankment, Scotland Yard said on Saturday. Detectives have ruled out foul play and believe the man, thought to be in his 30s, injured himself after entering a section of the river he thought was shallow on July 26. 'He was not carrying any identification and due to his poor state of health police are keen to trace his family as soon as possible,' the Metropolitan Police said. The man was wearing a camouflage t-shirt with 'Now or never, no regrets, past/present/future' written on it. 'He has two distinctive tattoos on his left hand and one on his lower right leg, that are faded black in colour,' a statement added. The force did not describe the tattoos, but the one on the leg appears to be 'tribal', while the one on his hand resembles a dragon. The man also has this tribal tattoo on his lower right leg, which should help police identify him On the night of his rescue, the London Ambulance Service was alerted at around 7.20pm by reports of a man in the Thames, the force said. The RNLI plucked him from the river with the help of passers-by and he was airlifted to hospital, it added. The man has a distinctive dragon tattoo on his hand, pictured Detective Sergeant Samantha Batchelor said: 'We have exhausted all our lines of enquiry to identify this man and we are hoping with the release of his image a friend or family member will be able to come forward tell us who he is.' The picture showed a brown-haired man using breathing apparatus in a hospital bed. He is described as a white male, dark in complexion, and of medium build. Anyone who can identify the man should call the missing person's unit on 101. A teenage boy has been arrested over the alleged stabbing of a 31-year-old man inside a home in Sydney's inner-west. Emergency services were called to a home on Mitchell Street in Geleber just after 11.30pm following reports a man had been stabbed after an argument broke out. When officers arrived, they founda man inside the home with multiple stab wounds to his chest and abdomen. The boy, 17, was found by officers in nearby Leichhardt and arrested over the alleged stabbing. Police say the pair knew each other. He has not yet been charged over the alleged stabbing. A teenager was arrested for allegedly stabbing a 31-year-old man several times in the chest Emergency services were called to a home on Mitchell Street in Glebe, Sydney's inner-west just after 11:30pm on Saturday, following reports a man was stabbed during an altercation The victim was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He currently remains in a critical, but stable condition. Officers from Leichardt Police Area Command established a crime scene. An investigation into the incident has since been launched. Police are calling for any further witness information, and urge anybody who may know something to contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000. When officers arrived, they located a man inside the home with stab wounds both to his chest and abdomen Samantha Eastwood, pictured, was last seen on July 27 The search for midwife Samantha Eastwood became a murder inquiry last night after her body was found in remote countryside seven miles from her home. Miss Eastwood, 28, had been missing for eight days after finishing her night shift at the Royal Stoke University Hospital last Friday. Police made the grim discovery near a quarry in an area known as Staffordshire Moorlands. Although the body is yet to be formally identified, Staffordshire Police said they had sent specialist officers to support Miss Eastwoods mother, Carole, and younger sister Gemma. Detective Superintendent Simon Duffy, from the forces Major and Organised Crime Department, said: The discovery today is not what anyone wanted and this is now a homicide investigation. A 32-year-old man who was previously released on conditional bail has now been re-arrested for murder and remains in custody. The discovery followed an intensification of the search following analysis of CCTV footage taken near the village of Caverswall. They were looking at traffic turning down Tickhill Lane during a specific half-hour window last Friday night, said one villager, who did not want to be named. They must have seen something because theyve been all over this area since then. A helicopter was deployed on Friday evening to search the area and dozens of officers were drafted in yesterday to scour the rural area. Miss Eastwood was last seen on CCTV as she left work just before 7.45am on Friday, July 27. She was headed in the direction of her home. A neighbour reported hearing a scream coming from her property at 2pm that afternoon and police became increasingly concerned as she dropped off the radar. Miss Eastwood, a midwife and graduate of Keele University, was described by Gemma as happy, bubbly and warm during an emotional appeal for her safe return a week after her disappearance. Officers found a body near a quarry in an area known as Staffordshire Moorlands. Pictured: Men using sticks to probe the area around Tickhill Lane in Caverswall, Stoke-on-Trent Just before the police discovered the body, Gemma, 26, had taken again to Facebook to write: Please help get my sister home. Colleagues said Miss Eastwood was exceptionally dedicated. Chief nurse Liz Rix, of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, wrote on Twitter: It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague Samantha Eastwood. Sam will be deeply missed and our thoughts are with her family and friends during this time. Sam, who had worked as a midwife at Royal Stoke for six years, was a much loved and valued member of the maternity service. Miss Eastwood had been due to marry long-term boyfriend and railway enthusiast John Peake, 34, in June, but called it off in January and put her wedding dress up for sale last month. Friends say the split was amicable. As well as maintaining a presence at Miss Eastwoods home, police officers carried out forensic searches on a property less than two miles away in Baddeley Green, where Mr Peakes sister Katie Stirling lives with her husband Michael, 32. They also searched a property belonging to another member of the Peake family who was said to be in a care home. Last night, police said two other men, aged 28 and 60, had been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. A spokesman for the force added: Our thoughts go out to Samanthas family at this time. The body is likely to be formally identified on Monday. Durango Civil Protection(NEW YORK) -- Eighty-five people have been injured after an Aeromexico flight crashed while en route to Mexico City, according to government officials. Flight 2431 was taking off at the General Guadalupe Victoria International Airport in the northwest Mexican state of Durango Tuesday afternoon when it crashed, according to Durango state Governor Jose Rosas Aispuro Torres. There have been no reported deaths following the crash, according to Aeromexico and the Durango governor. "It is confirmed that there were no deaths following the accident of flight Aeromexico 2431," Aispuro Torres wrote on Twitter. "At this moment on behalf of the cabinet, led by Coordinator Rosario Castro, to attend to the injured and cooperate with airport authorities with what has occurred." Two passengers were injured critically, Fernando Rios, a spokesperson for Durango's State Coordination of Civil Protection said on Mexican television. The Durango governor said a gust of wind hit the plane shortly after take-off, which caused the jet to lose speed and hit the ground with its left wing, The Associated Press reported. The plane skidded into a field horizontally, which allowed for the escape slides to be activated, freeing the passengers and crew before they caught on fire, the governor told the AP. The plane's pilot is in serious condition with burns, he said. Everyone who was on board the plane have been sent to local hospitals, a Durango Civil Protection spokesperson said. Some survivors were able to walk away from the crash to a nearby road. "The scene that we can see here is approximately 1 kilometer from the end of the runway. We can say that the airplane was not even able to take off at the moment it was forced to land. We do not know if it was a mechanical failure," Durango Civil Protection spokesperson Alejandro Cardoza said on Mexican television. One person injured in the accident was the Very Rev. Esequiel Sanchez, director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Archdiocese of Chicago said in a statement obtained by ABC News. He was "alert and resting," the diocese said, adding, "We pray for Fr. Sanchez and everyone affected by this plane crash." The plane was taking off when it tried to abort the takeoff due to bad weather, but it was too late, Aispuro Torres told reporters. The plane went down after the runway ended, Aispuro Torres said. Weather reports showed scattered storms in the area at the time of the accident. Aeromexico wrote on Twitter Wednesday just after 5 p.m. ET that it was aware of an "accident" in the northwest Mexican state of Durango. There were 99 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 plane. An earlier report of the passenger tally did not include two infants. Photos posted by Durango Civil Protection show smoke rising from the apparent crash site, which was surrounded by first responders and emergency vehicles. Although a fire broke out after the plane crashed, none of the injured appear to have suffered from burns, Alejandro Cardoza, a spokesperson for the Durango Civil Protection, said on Mexican television. The fire appears to be under control, Aispuro Torres told reporters. Further details were not immediately available. The E190 is often used for regional commercial flights around the world and is commonly used by U.S. carriers American Airlines and Jetblue. Embraer, the plane's manufacturer, said in a statement the company has sent technicians to the crash site and that it was "aware of the accident with an E190 aircraft operated by Aeromexico, Flight AM2431, late this afternoon, during take-off from the General Guadalupe Victoria International Airport, in the city of Durango, en route to Mexico City. The aircraft, serial number 190-173, was delivered in May 2008. The Company stands ready to support the investigating authorities." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of trying to gag London Mayor Sadiq Khan at Labours annual conference. The Labour leader faces claims he wants to bar Mr Khan, seen as one of his main rivals, from a key speaking slot at the gathering in Liverpool. But to disguise the ban, Mr Corbyn intends to prevent all Labours directly elected mayors including Manchesters Andy Burnham from speaking. Sadiq Khan, pictured, wants to address the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool Jeremy Corbyn's supporters are reluctant to allow the London Mayor to address Conference A Labour insider told The Mail on Sunday: Sadiq has been asking repeatedly to be allowed to speak, but Corbyn has stopped it. After he was elected in 2016, the new London mayor issued a thinly veiled attack on Mr Corbyn , warning Labour could never win power without trying to reach out to Tory voters. Sources close to Mr Khan played down the conference row last night. One Khan ally said: 'Sadiq has never expected to speak from the conference platform this year.' But a Labour MP added: It is ridiculous that someone with such a huge personal mandate apparently has to beg and plead to address conference. One has to ask, just what is Corbyn afraid of? Labour sources last night denied a bid to ban Mr Khan, saying the conference schedule had not been finalised. In hindsight, giving a group of prisoners the chance to appear in their own West End play always carried a risk. Nevertheless the shows well-meaning artistic director declared that immersion in drama was a liberating experience for the seven men from HM Prison Springhill in Buckinghamshire. Just how liberating has only now come to light. Released on temporary licence, three of the inmates slipped away during rehearsals and harassed a shop assistant in a market town, asking her out and telling her the details of a murder. In hindsight, giving a group of prisoners the chance to appear in their own West End play always carried a risk It sounds like the kind of caper that Norman Stanley Fletcher from the 1970s prison sitcom Porridge might well have had a hand in. But it was no laughing matter for the jailbird thespians. As punishment, the trio were removed from their open prison and, according to the Ministry of Justice, sent back to tougher conditions and will spend longer behind bars. The men, working with the Oxfordshire-based Kestrel theatre company, were hailed as the first convicts to perform to a paying audience in a mainstream theatre. Written by prisoners, the play entitled Broken Dreams was only days away from opening to the public last Friday at the Royal Court in London when the men broke the terms of their release. All coming to the end of their sentences, the inmates had been rehearsing in a disused school in Bicester, Oxfordshire, near their prison, when three of their number decided to visit a newsagents in the town centre. A member of staff at McColls said: They just popped into the shop to buy some stuff like phone credits and some drinks and sweets. The men, working with the Oxfordshire-based Kestrel theatre company, were hailed as the first convicts to perform to a paying audience in a mainstream theatre They asked one of the assistants to meet them after she finished work and she said no. They said to her that they were in jail because they murdered a lady. They actually explained to her how they did it. She got a bit scared and called the police, who explained to her that the prisoners were not allowed to be unsupervised in the town and were supposed to have been picked up from somewhere. The 31-year-old shop assistant said: I have been told by the Springhill prison and the police that I am not allowed to discuss anything. The Ministry of Justice said: We have a zero-tolerance approach to anyone abusing the system. Under the terms of their release on licence, the prisoners did not need to be supervised but had to abide by strict conditions including being appropriately behaved. To fill the rather large hole in the cast, three professional actors stepped in at the last minute. Broken Dreams, which runs for nine days, follows a group of friends who are struggling with grief, guilt and the longstanding fight for justice from a housing system they believe has failed them. Since publication of this article one of the men involved has now been returned to an open prison, and another of the men has since been released from prison having reached the end of his sentence. A representative of two of the prisoners said they did not enter the shop and did not harass anyone, and that the alleged incident occurred during a break in rehearsals. THE POSSIBLE THEORIES: 'I FOUND IT ON GOOGLE EARTH' An Australian engineer, Peter McMahon claimed he found what appeared to be a plane wreckage on Google Earth. After years combing an online map of the Indian Ocean, the amateur crash investigator claimed to have found the wreckage 'riddled with bullet holes'. WAS MH370 STOLEN? Prior to the plane's disappearance, Captain Zaharie Shah had listed the small island of Diego Garcia - 4700km northwest of Australia - on his flight simulator. Theorists suggested that Capt Shah may have been practicing landing the plane on the island's airstrip, which is controlled by Britain but is home to a US naval base. Suggestions have also been made that the plane may have been stolen by terrorists and hidden in North Pakistan, or even by North Korean dictator Kim Jong un. In a 2014 poll on the MH370 disappearance, five per cent of American respondents said they believed it had been affected by 'alien activities'. DID THE PILOT COMMIT SUICIDE? Some have claimed that one of the pilots may have deliberately crashed the aircraft in a well-planned suicide. MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah is believed to have downed the aircraft in an act of murder-suicide According to this theory, captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately chose to plunge the plane into an area of the ocean up to 25,000 feet deep, where it would be almost impossible to find. There have been suggestions Shah circled an area of the Indian Ocean just moments before the crash. Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is among those to support this theory, saying in the lead up to the third anniversary of the plane's disappearance he found it 'plausible'. 'I have always said the most plausible scenario was murder-suicide and if this guy wanted to create the world's greatest mystery why wouldn't he have piloted the thing to the very end and gone further south?' Mr Abbott said. She was certainly set pulses racing when she entered the Love Island villa in week six. And Alexandra Cane turned up the heat once more as she took a low-key stroll through London's Mayfair on Friday. The reality TV bombshell, 27, ensured all eyes were on her as she poured her enviable curves and ample cleavage into a chic grey mini dress. Hot stuff: Love Island's Alexandra Cane, 27, flaunted her hourglass figure in a skimpy grey mini dress for a sun-kissed stroll in London on Friday Alexandra put her endless stems on full display in the thigh-skimming design, and teetered over the cobbles in strappy black stilettos. The brunette stunner showcased her sun-kissed glow in the skimpy design as she sauntered through the streets with a sophisticated black shoulder bag. Not letting anything take away from her jaw-dropping physique, Alexandra ditched any heavy accessories and swept up her raven locks into a high ponytail. Sensational: The brunette stunner showcased her sun kissed glow in the skimpy design as she sauntered through the streets with a sophisticated black shoulder bag Alexandra accentuated her natural beauty with glossy nude make-up as she continued to turn heads on her laid-back wander. Her glamorous appearance come days after Alexandra returned from Love Island's Majorcan villa, where she had a turbulent romance with Dr Alex George. Before being sent home from the island with the NHS worker ahead of the live final, Alexandra was left fuming after Alex unceremoniously dumped her after calling things off with her beforehand too. Sun-kissed: Alexandra put her endless stems on full display in the thigh-skimming design, and teetered over the cobbles in strappy black stilettos Coupled up: Her glamorous appearance come days after Alexandra returned from Love Island's Mallorcan villa, where she had a turbulent romance with Dr Alex George (pictured) He ended their romance after they drove through the Majorcan countryside in a red Ferrari on their final date. In his break-up speech, he told the make-up artist he was worried about how fast their relationship was moving, before she accused him of leading her on and branded him 'pathetic'. Storming off, she declared: 'Youve wasted my time and youve wasted your own, shame on you!' The unlucky-in-love medic then explained why he called time on his romance with Alexandra, saying she had 'everything he could look for' which put too much pressure on and feeling scared, he 'ran away'. He has a body most 25-year-olds can only dream of having. So it was hard to believe Terry Crews was celebrating his 50th birthday in Hawaii on Friday. The super-buff star wore nothing but a pair of black swim shorts and shades as he flaunted his magnificent physique on the beach in Maui. Buff: Terry Crews showed off his magnificent physique as he celebrated his 50th birthday in Hawaii on Friday He wore a pretty serious expression as he split his time between the sand and the sea. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star also wore a parasailing wrist-band, as he prepared to take to the skies for as a little birthday treat fro himself. Just a day before, the actor appeared in a funny public service announcement against jokes about male sexual assault. Crews, who has spoken out about his alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a Hollywood agent, appeared on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee on Wednesday to warn people that jokes about prison rape and child molestation simply weren't funny. Ripped: The super-buff star wore nothing but a pair of black swim shorts and shades as he flaunted his magnificent physique on the beach in Maui 'Sexual harassment of men is a real problem and not a joke despite the way we talk about it,' Bee said, showing clips of Bill Maher, Steve Martin, and shows like Mike & Molly making jokes about prison rape. The host said that one in 33 men were victims of sexual assault and many of the predators outed in the Me Too movement had preyed on men. 'There are tons of other slimeballs out there, and when we laugh at their victims, we make it easier for them to keep Kevin Spacey-ing all over the place,' she said, referring to allegations that Spacey sexually harassed male victims as young as 14. In thought: He wore a pretty serious expression as he split his time between the sand and the sea So Bee created a special PSA, starring Crews, to suggest more appropriate gags instead. Bee and Crews then showcased 'funnier' alternative jokes, such as laughing at off-brand merchandise, two people in a trench coat trying to sneak into a movie, and the timeless, pie full of bees in the face. Crews, who was honored among the 'Silence Breakers' for the Time Person of the Year story in 2017, ended the PSA with one simple piece of advice: 'Stop telling those f***ing jokes!' In June, Crews spoke out about his alleged sexual assault by William Morris Endeavor agent Adam Venit, in an emotional testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. 'I am an actor, author, former athlete, advocate and a survivor of a sexual assault,' Crews said PSA: Terry joined Samantha Bee on Full Frontal on Wednesday (pictured) for a funny public service announcement against jokes about male sexual assault 'Hollywood definitely has been a problem area, simply because so many people who view this as a dream. And what happens is, someone has power over these dreams ... you get tricked into thinking that this type of behavior is expected, that it's part of the job, that this harassment, abuse, even rape, is part of your job description.' Crews then explained that since sharing that story he has been vilified by some, and told by one producer on Expendables 4 to drop his lawsuit against Venit. Crews responded by dropping out of the film. He then recounted the aftermath of his assault while supporting the passage of the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights. Classic: 'Lots of things are funny that aren't rape jokes. For example, spit takes,' Bee said 'Im not a small or insecure man, but in that moment, and in this time following, Ive never felt more emasculated,' stated Crews. 'As I watched women and colleagues in my industry come forward to share their #MeToo stories, this shame washed over me again and I knew I needed to act. I am honored to use my platform and story to help create additional civil rights protections for survivors across the nation.' He went on to say, 'I wanted these survivors to know that I believe them, I supported them and that this happened to me, too.' Crews filed a criminal complaint against Venit, for allegedly groping his genitals at a showbiz party, but the Los Angeles City Attorney's office declined to prosecute due to the statute of limitations. Director and CEO of Byron Bay's popular Bluesfest Festival Peter Noble has apologised after making a Nazi slur to a woman who criticised the event's line-up. The Melbourne woman was disappointed by the lack of female artists rostered for next year's music event, labeling the 2019 line-up a 'sausage festival' on Bluesfest's official Facebook page. Her comment provoked Noble to fire back with a slew of abusive comments on Thursday. 'You attacking events without doing any research on them and starting a media campaign based on your own isms and schisms is the sort of thing that worked well in Nazi Germany,' Peter wrote. Gaff: CEO of Byron Bay's popular Bluesfest Festival Peter Noble has apologised for making a NAZI slur to a woman who slammed the music event line-up as a 'sausagefest'. Pictured: Musician Jack Johnson He continued: 'Find someone to attack because you have a screw loose. Bet you are an under or underemployed white privileged nobody with too much time on your hands. 'Going nowhere fast into a life of depression and loneliness due to you having nothing meaningful to justify why you continue to breathe.' Peter has since publicly apologised for the late night rant. Awkward apology: 'After working from 5am to 11.30pm that night I exploded on someone for calling me a sausage festival,' a contrite Peter Noble wrote on Facebook 'After working from 5am to 11.30pm that night I exploded on someone for calling me a sausage festival,' he said. 'I shouldnt have done it, I will contact that person and apologise. It wasnt a member of my staff, I did it.' 'It's what was done in Nazi Germany, you keep saying a bad thing about someone long enough until you polarise and pillory them until people start to act in the same manner,' he added. Apology time: 'I shouldnt have done it, I will contact that person and apologise. It wasnt a member of my staff, I did it,' he continued. Pictured: Musician Kasey Chambers Meanwhile, female activist group LISTEN has also slammed the organisers of the music event for their lack of female artists, describing it as 'an atrocious history of male dominated lineups'. 'You have shown women and non binary musicians that they dont deserve a spot, and if they do, they are not worth getting announced first,' the group said on Facebook. 'All four acts you have included with women in them are white. Where is the celebration and platforming of the black women who built this genre of music? We'll wait for the list of excuses,' they concluded. Backlash: Female activist group LISTEN also slammed organisers of the music event for its lack of female artists, describing it as 'an atrocious history of male dominated lineups'. Pictured: Kasey Chambers (left) Fans took to Twitter to criticise festival organisers, with one user writing: 'Bluesfest deleting women's (especially one who is prob more popular than Jack bloody Johnson) comments is akin to the dark days of the fedora man (AJ Maddah) but even he got bands like Rolo Tomassi, so congrats you are worse than AJ.' Another posted: 'Where are all the women artists in this line-up?' 'Its sad, but we dont get asked to put on too many female artists at Bluesfest. We do surveys and (requests for) female artists (from punters) come in at about 10-per-cent. I still put on 25-to-30-per-cent female acts,' Peter (pictured) wrote on Facebook Noble has since written on Facebook: 'It's sad, but we don't get asked to put on too many female artists at Bluesfest. We do surveys and (requests for) female artists (from punters) come in at about 10 per cent. I still put on 25-to-30-per-cent female acts.' Bluesfest 2019 will take place over the Easter long weekend, beginning on Thursday, 18 April and ending on Monday, 22 April. The four female artists attending next year's festival is: Kasey Chambers, Irish Mythen, Larkin Poe and Im With Her. Not long now: Bluesfest 2019 will take place over the Easter long weekend, beginning on Thursday, 18 April and ending on Monday, 22 April. Pictured: Musician Ben Harper Jack Johnson, known for his hits Upside Down, Banana Pancakes and Good People, has performed at Bluesfest twice before. Debuting at the event in 2001 and returning most recently in 2014, he's likely to be a hit with ticket holders. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Biel are working to bring a reboot of the 1980s series The Facts Of Life to back to the small screen. The A-listers, according to The Hollywood Reporter, are pursuing a comeback for the show through their production companies: DiCaprio's Appian Way and Biel's Ocean Films. The stars are seeking a writer and network for the project, which is in its early stages. You take the good, you take the bad: Leonardo DiCaprio, 43, and Jessica Biel, 36, are working to bring a reboot of the 1980s series The Facts Of Life to back to the small screen Sony Pictures Television currently controls distribution rights to the show. The original program - a spin-off of Diffrent Strokes created by Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon - ran on NBC from 1979 to 1988. It featured Charlotte Rae in the role as Edna Garrett, reprising her role from Diffrent Strokes, as she became the housemother for four girls attending Eastland School, a New York boarding school. Totally rad! The original program - a spin-off of Diffrent Strokes - ran on NBC from 1979 to 1988 It starred (L-R) Nancy McKeon, Kim Fields, Charlotte Rae, Lisa Whelchel and Mindy Cohn The students were of varied personalities including wealthy Blair Warner, played by Lisa Whelchel, young chatterbug Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey (Kim Fields), street smart Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) and witty Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn). The show was also notable launching pad for two supporting stars. Actress Molly Ringwald rocketed to 80s superstardom after appearing in 15 episodes from 1979-1980 and now perennial A-lister George Clooney appeared on 17 episodes the show from 1985 to 1987. Familiar face: George Clooney joined the cast of the series in its later seasons It's the latest in a stream of reboots that have lined the landscape of TV, cable and streaming services, as a number of 80s shows have either been revived, or there are plans in the works to revive them. They include Alf for Warner Bros., Murphy Brown for CBS, Dynasty for The CW, Miami Vice for ABC and Fuller House for Netflix. The Roseanne reboot for ABC was initially a commercial success, getting renewed quickly after its debut, prior to the network firing Roseanne Barr in May due to a racist tweet she sent. She's spent the week sightseeing and soaking up at the atmosphere during a royal family getaway to Mallorca. And Queen Letizia of Spain looked simply sensational as she stepped out with husband King Felipe and mother-in-law Emeritus Queen Sofia at the traditional reception in Almudaina Royal Palace in Palma de Mallorca on Friday. The regal royal, 45, put on a glamorous display in a sleeveless tangerine jumper underneath a chic floral mid-length skirt. Stunning: Queen Letizia of Spain puts on a glamorous display in a chic orange blouse and floral skirt for reception in Almudaina Royal Palace in Mallorca on Friday Queen Letizia teetered through the historic cobbles in a pair of strappy black heels, and ensured no hair was out of place with a sleek ponytail. The stunning royal highlighted her beauty with smokey make-up as she flashed a beaming smile while meeting with local people. Queen Letizia happily chatted away to Queen Sofia at the glitzy affair, who donned an embellished mint green blouse over billowing white trousers and sparkling sandals. Stylish: Queen Letizia ensured no hair was out of place with a sleek ponytail Elated: The stunning royal highlighted her beauty with smokey make-up as she flashed a beaming smile while meeting with local people with Queen Sofia King Felipe looked ever so dapper in his sharply tailored blue suit, teamed with a crisp white shirt and ornately patterned tie. It's been a whirlwind week so far, kicking off with the family's annual summer photoshoot at the picturesque Royal Palace of La Almudaina. On Monday, King Felipe took the helm of a yacht during a regatta as he does every year during the family holiday, after attending a training session on Sunday afternoon. Family affair: Queen Letizia happily chatted away to Queen Sofia at the glitzy affair, who donned an embellished mint green blouse Handsome: King Felipe looked ever so dapper in his sharply tailored blue suit, teamed with a crisp white shirt and ornately patterned tie Keeping busy: It's been a whirlwind week so far, kicking off with the family's annual summer photoshoot at the picturesque Royal Palace of La Almudaina On Tuesday, Queen Letizia and her mother-in-law took the two princesses to the Olivar food market in Palma where they browsed the fresh produce on offer. The united front comes after a clip emerged in April filmed at the Palma Cathedral in Majorca on Easter Sunday, which appeared to show a very awkward exchange between Letizia and Sofia. Queen Sofia was seen standing outside the church with both arms wrapped around her granddaughters' shoulders, encouraging them to pose for pictures. Strutting through the streets: Queen Letizia teetered through the historic cobbles in a pair of strappy black heels Together: The united front comes after a clip emerged in April filmed in Majorca on Easter Sunday, which appeared to show a very awkward exchange between Letizia and Sofia Letizia then joined the group and was seen trying to stroke eldest daughter Leonor's hair standing in front of the cameras, before Queen Sofia appeared to pull the little girl closer to her. Leonor appeared to then push her grandmother's arm away, before King Felipe interjected. Speaking out following the incident, Letizia's former co-worker Imma Aguilar told El circulo at the time: 'I think they are the images of a mother worried about the image of her daughters. Smiles: All appeared to be well between Sophia and Letizia, as they greeted special guests at the stylish bash Happy: Queen Letizia happily chatted away to Queen Sofia, who paired her glittering garment with billowing white trousers and sparkling sandals 'I talked to Queen Letizia a while ago, and she is worried and quite desolated by this situation; she is very committed to the care of her daughters, with the protection of their image, she worries who takes photos of them. 'She worries where they come from, who approaches them It's a very motherly reaction.' Aguilar added: 'It's been silly, it's not a serious issue, nothing has happened, it's just a natural gesture.' Married At First Sight was arguably the biggest Australian show of the year, but it's also become a surprise hit in Portugal. After the Aussie series found success with Portuguese viewers, the country is now set to launch its own local version called Casados a Primeira Vista. The Portuguese MAFS will air on one of the country's largest networks, SIC, with the network putting out a casting call for eligible singles last week. Worldwide, baby! Casting has started for a Portuguese version of Married At First Sight, called Casados a Primeira Vista Although Married At First Sight originated in Denmark, the Portuguese installment will be based off of the Australian version. 'If loneliness is not for you... if you're looking for love... if you expect an engagement ring... if you want the ideal pairing...' reads the casting notice. 'Sign up by email casting@sic.pt for MARRIAGE at first sight. Your life may change in an instant.' Another casting ad references the show's resident experts and urges hopefuls to 'give your happiness in the hands of those who know.' Success: The Portuguese version was commissioned after the Australian MAFS became a surprise hit with local viewers News of the Portuguese MAFS has already received a strong reaction on social media, with one viewer tweeting: 'I'll tell my mother to sign up for the SIC program, Married At First Sight ahahaha.' Another tweeted: 'When we thought that Portuguese television could not be more cringe, SIC announces Married At First Sight.' The Australian Married At First Sight started airing in Portugal in April, appearing on SIC's secondary women's channel, SIC Mulher. Drama in every continent! The Australian Married At First Sight started airing in Portugal in April, appearing on SIC's secondary women's channel, SIC Mulher 'If you guys aren't watching that wedding show Married At First Sight from Australia you have no idea what you're missing!' tweeted one Portuguese viewer. 'The drama is better than Jersey Shore.' It quickly earned a cult following, with Portuguese viewers lapping up the show's explosive drama. 'If you guys aren't watching that wedding show Married At First Sight from Australia you have no idea what you're missing!' exclaimed one viewer on Twitter. 'The drama is better than Jersey Shore.' Aussie MAFS has since made its way to Spain, where it airs on one of the country's major free-to-air networks, TEN. Meanwhile, Channel Nine is about to start production on the sixth season of Married At First Sight, which will hit Australian screens early next year. The Wiggles band members Emma Watkins and Lachlan Gillespie announced their two-year marriage was over on Friday. And parents have taken to social media to discuss how their youngsters will be affected by the popular children entertainers' split. While most posts were of a sombre tone, one mother bemoaned: 'Parents of toddlers around the country will be fielding uncomfortable questions about divorce.' Scroll down for video 'It's refreshing for kids to know that sometimes things don't go as planned': Parents use the shock split of Wiggles stars Emma Watkins (L) and Lachlan Gillespie (R) to discuss divorce with their children as they send heartfelt messages to the entertainers It's over! In a statement to The Daily Telegraph on Friday, the couple said they 'have been navigating through a trial separation' for six the past months and have decided to go their separate ways In a statement to The Daily Telegraph on Friday, the couple said they 'have been navigating through a trial separation' for six months and have decided to go their separate ways. Emma, 28, and Lachlan, 32, added that they will continue to perform together in The Wiggles but have 'chosen a different path to travel in [their] personal lives'. One fan took to Twitter to share this advice to parents: 'Here's a script I've planned: "When a Yellow wiggle no longer loves a Purple wiggle - then this is called divorce. It doesn't mean they both don't still love you."' Staying on stage: Emma, 28, and Lachlan, 32, added that they will continue to perform together in The Wiggles but have 'chosen a different path to travel in [their] personal lives' 'It doesn't mean they both don't still love you': One Twitter user shared an idea for a Wiggles script about the split to help other parents break the news of the divorce to their children While some parents claimed kids would barely notice the high-profile performers' split, others insisted it would was a positive opportunity for youngsters' learning. 'It's kinda nice. Parents get divorced all the time. It's refreshing for kids to know that sometimes things don't go as planned,' one Facebook user wrote on The Wiggles page. No signs of trouble: One Wiggles fan praised Emma and Lachlan for putting young fans first ahead of their secret marital problems by touring for six months during their 'trial separation' Finding light in darkness: While some parents claimed kids would barely notice the high-profile performers' split, others insisted it would was a positive opportunity for youngsters' learning about divorce One Wiggles fan praised the pair for putting young fans first ahead of their secret marital problems by travelling and touring for months during their 'trial separation'. 'Once again you have put out children first, making sure you are keeping up appearances so our babies can still enjoy The Wiggles they all know and love,' they wrote. Fans boasted about the former couple's 'extreme professionalism' as they showed no sign of trouble while performing to excited youngsters. Wit: There were also humorous posts that joked about their little boys being pleased Emma was 'back on the market', while others speculated who would get the 'Big Red Car' in the divorce settlement There were also humorous posts that joked about their little boys being pleased Emma was 'back on the market', while others speculated who would get the 'Big Red Car' in the divorce settlement. Despite the shock split, a vast majority of commenters vowed to continue their support of the pair's ventures and The Wiggles as a whole. In their media statement, Emma and Lachlan claimed their friendship 'strengthened' since starting their trial separation in February. Fans for life: Despite the shock split, a vast majority of commenters vowed to continue their support of the pair's ventures and The Wiggles as a whole No longer touring as husband and wife was 'a very positive change in [their] relationship', they added. They will continue to perform as 'Emma and Lachy' in The Wiggles alongside fellow band members Simon Pryce, 46, and Anthony Field, 55. 'Please know we are stronger than ever and can't wait to see you at a show soon,' the statement concluded. Doing it for the kids! They will continue to perform as 'Emma and Lachy' in The Wiggles alongside fellow band members Simon Pryce and Anthony Field Fan base: Fans took to social media en masse to voice their support for the much-loved childrens' musical group Emma and Lachlan married in April 2016 at Hopewood House in Bowral, New South Wales, in front of around 200 guests. At the time, Emma described the ceremony as 'the best day of [her] life'. Following the wedding, Lachlan said that watching Emma walk down the aisle was the most magical moment of [his] life'. Calling time: The couple first met in 2010 while touring for the Dorothy the Dinosaur show and officially began dating in 2013, not long after joining The Wiggles line-up The couple met in 2010 while touring for the Dorothy the Dinosaur show and officially began dating in 2013, not long after joining The Wiggles line-up. Earlier this year, Emma revealed her secret battle with endometriosis - a painful condition that occurs when the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside of it. As the pair had previously shared their desire to welcome children of their own, fans initially thought their split reveal was a baby announcement. In April, Emma underwent surgery to address her endometriosis. She claimed at the time the operation 'went well' In April, Emma underwent surgery to address her endometriosis. She claimed at the time the operation 'went well'. She's one of Hollywood's most popular up-and-coming stars. And on Friday Chloe Grace Moretz proved once again that she's ready for the limelight, stepping out for the evening wearing some hard-to-miss boots. Heading out to enjoy some New York nightlife, the 21-year-old Kick-Ass starlet turned heads in her very brightly colored crimson boots. Red hot! On Friday Chloe Grace Moretz proved once again that she's ready for the limelight, as she stepped out in some hard-to-miss boots in New York City She paired her eye-catching footwear with dark-wash denim jeans featuring a multitude of zippers. Up top the ingenue opted for a tight navy blue crew neck shirt, which she tucked into her trousers. The starlet's accessories included a small black purse with a long chain strap, dangling earrings and a gold bracelet worn on her left wrist. She parted her blonde locks on the left, allowing them to cascade down past her shoulders in gentle waves. Mixing it up! She paired her eye-catching footwear with dark-wash denim jeans featuring a multitude of zippers Golden girl! She parted her blonde locks on the left and allowed them to cascade down past her shoulders in gentle waves Bronze eye make-up, subtle blush and rich rose lipstick completed her cosmopolitan look. While she looked quite relaxed as she exited her vehicle, it may have been because she finally admitted to lying in order to secure a part in a movie. On Thursday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Chloe revealed that she lied to legendary director Martin Scorsese in order to get a role in his movie Hugo. 'In Hugo, I'm supposed to have a British accent and be British. So, I went in there just ready for it, and I lied,' she told the late night host. Bombshell! On Thursday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , Chloe revealed that she lied to legendary director Martin Scorsese in order to get a role in his movie Hugo Brave! 'In Hugo, I'm supposed to have a British accent and be British. So, I went in there just ready for it, and I lied,' she told the late night host She then admitted 'I hadn't done a British accent before, but I always enjoyed accents, so I played around with it with my brother. We always, like, pretended to be British, but I have a solid ear, so I'm OK with faking it.' Finally, she recounted how things went when she actually went out for the part. 'I go into the audition and I'd done a couple smaller auditions, and the casting director knew I wasn't British, but she knew that I was willing to lie, and she liked me. She was like, 'Lie to Marty, and it'll work.' I was like, 'OK.'' Of course she did get the part of Isabelle in the 2011 dramatic adventure. The Bachelorette's Leandro Dottavio is denying any accusations that he sexually harassed women after fellow franchise star Bekah Martinez levied the claims against him earlier this week. Bekah, a 23-year-old nanny who competed on season 22 of The Bachelor, posted screenshots her fan base collected of Dottavio allegedly acting inappropriately toward women, the New York Post reported Thursday. But on Friday Dottavio spoke with TMZ, saying he doesn't know Bekah but claims she was motivated to public accuse him of sexually harassment for 'attention.' Scroll below for video Speaking out: The Bachelorette's Leandro Dottavio on Friday denied sexually harassing any women, and said he believes recent claims on social media by Bekah Martinez were done with the intent of getting attention 'In the Bachelor world, they say that she does it for attention, to stay relevant,' the reality star, 31, told TMZ Friday. 'I know that she has problems with that so I think that's why she does that.' Dottavio said it 'would have been nice if she reached out to' him prior to taking to Instagram with the allegations. Dottavio emphatically denied any wrongdoing, noting that he'd be 'really hurt that anybody would say [he] harassed them, in any way shape or form. 'I've been kind to women all my life,' he told the outlet. 'I don't want to hurt women I don't want to harass women, I don't want to make them feel, like uncomfortable - at all.' Online posts: Leo Dottavio, shown in a still for The Bachelorette, was accused of acting inappropriately toward women in online postings Ramped up: Bekah took to Instagram on Wednesday and warned Dottavio that he was 'messing with the wrong b****' He said that his understanding was that people who had attended college with Bekah reached out to her and 'a lot of them were third party' - friends of people he might have associated with. Asked if he ever sent photos of his genitals to women, Dottavio stressed he's matured as a person in the years since he was in college. He said: 'As a human being, I know it's been a long time since college, I'm a different person now; college was 14 years ago, for me. 'What I did in college was college,' he said. 'I wouldn't say unsolicited, absolutely not - I've sent pictures, I've sexted people.' Speaking with TooFab on Friday, Dottavio pointed out that no one has directly accused him of doing anything wrong to them personally. Harsh reply: The Fresno nanny also shared screenshots of Dottavio's reactions to her posts Court challenge: The former contestant on The Bachelor challenged Dottavio to take her to court 'If I'm correct here, I don't think anyone said, "He did this to me." It was all a friend of a friend or, "I heard he did this to a person,"' he said. 'I want to know who it was. I want to talk about it. If I did something wrong, I want to right that wrong. I'm not gonna just let it fester. 'Like, talk to me if that's how you feel instead of speaking for a friend though some random girl on Instagram who has a few followers.' In an Instagram Stories post Friday, Bekah said she was 'stepping away from this ongoing conversation about Leo for the next couple of days unless absolutely necessary. 'Please know I am not ignoring anyone or backing down, but I need a break,' she said. 'It's easy to focus only on the negative responses and to feel disheartened by men who continue to get away with inappropriate behavior and women who continue to protect abusers and attack their fellow women.' Fifth place: Martinez, shown in February in Los Angeles, competed for the affection of Arie Luyendyk Jr on season 22 of The Bachelor Among the aforementioned screengrabs Bekah previously posted included an Instagram post from four years ago, with Dottavio writing 'you need my big d***'. Dottavio claimed the screenshot of his comment was digitally altered and has asked his attorney to investigate; Martinez said she saw multiple versions of the comment and believed it to be authentic. She also said that many women have shared their own experiences with Dottavio. 'I started posting the screenshots [of their messages] because to me, it's not a coincidence that multiple women would be saying similar things about the same person,' she told The Post. 'There's no way these women happen to be lying about the same thing before seeing what other women are saying,' Martinez added. Martinez also posted a video relaying that Dottavio's lawyer has demanded that she either remove the posts and issue a public apology or face a defamation lawsuit. The Fresno, California native also posted a bikini photo on Wednesday on Instagram and addressed the matter in the caption. She wrote: 'by the way if you need clarification, you can now check out the newest highlight addition to my page. I wasn't going to take it this far, but threatening me with legal action just ramped things up a notch. you're messing with the wrong b****. Just take responsibility and apologize.' A representative for ABC told The Post the had no comment on the allegations. Martinez competed for the affection of Arie Luyendyk Jr. on season 22 of The Bachelor and came in fifth place. He's won multiple Emmys for his stand up specials. And now it appears like Chris Rock will have a chance to take home a trophy for a scripted drama, as E! is reporting that he will star in the fourth season of Fargo. The 53-year-old SNL alum seemed to be looking forward to the experience, saying in a statement 'I'm a fan of Fargo and I can't wait to work with [creator] Noah [Hawley].' New challenge! It seems Chris Rock will have a chance to win an Emmy for a scripted drama, as he is set to join the cast of Fargo for season four According to a release from FX, the latest season will take place back in the 1950s. 'In 1950, at the end of two great American migrations that of Southern Europeans from countries like Italy, who came to the US at the turn of the last century and settled in northern cities like New York, Chicagoand African Americans who left the south in great numbers to escape Jim Crow and moved to those same cities you saw a collision of outsiders, all fighting for a piece of the American dream,' read the networks statement, before it got more detailed in what audiences can expect. 'In Kansas City, Missouri, two criminal syndicates have struck an uneasy peace. One Italian, one African American. 'Together they control an alternate economy that of exploitation, graft and drugs. This too is the history of America. To cement their peace, the heads of both families have traded their eldest sons.' No stranger to success! He's won multiple Emmys for his stand up specials According to E!, Rock will apparently play a boss of the African American crime family who has exchanged sons with his Italian counterpart. Each must raise the other's progeny in order to keep the peace. However, that peace is threatened when the Italian boss heading up Kansas city dies, throwing the criminal underworld into chaos. Track record: Of course Rock will be in the running for an Emmy nod, as Fargo has already become an awards darling. A glimpse of season one can be seen above Of course Rock will be in the running for an Emmy nod, as Fargo has already become an awards darling. Season one, which starred Billy Bob Thornton garnered three Emmys and two Golden Globes, and subsequent seasons have also scored awards. The new season will begin filming sometime in 2019 but does not have a release date as of yet. He's played the unscrupulous but endearing scoundrel Cleaver Greene on the ABC legal drama Rake since 2010. And ahead of its fifth and final season, actor Richard Roxburgh has revealed his biggest regret while working on the satirical drama. Speaking to The Weekend Australian on Saturday, the handsome 56-year-old said the show did not get to TV screens fast enough. Scroll down for video 'When the living f**k are you going to get the next season on TV?': Rake actor Richard Roxburgh (pictured) revealed his biggest regret while working on the legal drama... before hitting out at 'crippling' political correctness on Saturday 'We endlessly had people begging, even pleading with us: When the living f**k are you going to get the next season on the TV?' he said, candidly. The handsome blonde actor added that TV had changed, with people expecting to be able to binge watch and 'five seasons in eight years was not fast enough'. In the wide-raging interview, the Logie Award winning actor then hit out at today's politically correct climate. Slow going: Speaking to The Weekend Australian on Saturday, the handsome 56-year-old said the show did not get to TV screens fast enough 'I find it so crippling, such a dumbing-down of humanity that nobody is allowed to say what they actually believe because of the fear that the sixth person on the left may have had an experience,' he said. 'If you are going to operate a human civilisation like that, we are doomed to fail and the same goes for comedy.' In August last year, it was revealed that Rake will finish up on Australian screens with Richard saying he would be 'devastated' by the series ending. Muzzled: In the interview, Richard was also candid about political correctness, saying: 'I find it so crippling, such a dumbing-down of humanity that nobody is allowed to say what they actually believe' 'Probably when we actually manage to kill it, I'll be absolutely bereft and devastated,' the actor told The Daily Telegraph's Confidential at the time. 'It's the last season so that will be special, it's the senate season so that will be good and so I'm in a writer's room working on that now.' In the final season, the actor's character will go to Canberra in order to take a senate seat, with him expected to be a cross-bench senator in federal parliament. They're mostly recognised for their 1997 classic hit 'Polyester Girl'. And Australian rock band Regurgitator talked about the inspiration behind their new ninth album 'Headroxx', in a recent interview with The Australian. Bass guitarist Ben Ely, 47, joked that due to their music not being played on the radio anymore, they wanted to make something 'as f**ked up as we can'. New music: Iconic rock band Regurgitator spoke about their new album Headroxx, and admitted they 'wanted to make something as f***ed up' ahead of their Australian tour. Pictured from left to right: Peter Kostic, Ben Ely, and Quan Yeomans The band sat down with The Australian to discuss their inspiration for the new album, and said they were influenced by 'feeling mentally dysfunctional in the modern world; stressed and anxious with the responsibilities of family life, bills, the environment and politics'. Ben also said that his fellow bandmate Quan Yeomans, 45, was all for the same vision. 'I think that's always been the goal, to be honest. There have been times when we've been a little bit too self-conscious about what was going to happen to the band, and how we would prolong it but that's always the worst thing to do,' Quan said. Same vision: Ben admitted when he discussed this 'inspiration' with his fellow bandmate Quan Yeomans, he was all for it However when Music Feeds spoke to Quan before one of their gigs in Melbourne on Friday, he revealed the ninth album was difficult to put together as all the band members had different music styles. 'Our stuff is quite different now, it's kind of like, it's forked off in completely different directions, so when we come to do a record we listen to the demos of each of our songs and go "How the f**k are we gonna stick this together?!",' he told the outlet. Quan added: 'It's gonna be f**king weird! and this was weird, but they turned out quite well.' Candid comments: There have been times when we've been a little bit too self-conscious about what was going to happen to the band, and how we would prolong it but that's always the worst thing to do,' Quan told the outlet Regurgitator, who is comprised of three members - Ben Ely on bass guitar, Quan Yeomans on lead guitar and Peter Kostic on drums - are getting ready to tour. The band will kick-off in Newcastle in August, followed by shows in Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, Albury, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. The group will also be supported by artists including Glitoris, We are Enfant Terrible and The Nah. Fans have shown their love for the new album on the band's official Facebook account with one user writing: 'This is such a wicked album' and another with: 'I'm rocking to this right now, awesome as expected, and so different to anything we've heard from them'. Her public profile soared after appearing on the inaugural reality show Love Island Australia. And winner Tayla Damir, 22, will now give her most-devoted admirers the opportunity to meet her in person during a Sydney event in August. 'So excited to see you all,' Tayla said on Friday during a promotional video which prompts fans to purchase the exclusive $99 VIP tickets. 'So excited to see you all!' Love Island Australia winner Tayla Damir (pictured) has been promoting an exclusive Sydney meet-and-greet... but would YOU pay $99 for a selfie with the brunette reality TV star? Tayla will headline the social-media influencer event by Neon Model Management on August 18 at Paddington Town Hall. The VIP passes will give ticket-holders the chance to rub shoulders and take selfies with the brunette, as well as other invited influencers and reality stars. Tayla's Love Island Australia co-star Millie Fuller, 24, has already told fans she will be in attendance, after being a guest of Neon's at their first influencer collaboration event in July. Other social media stars to be included on the panel discussion and meet and greets are Gabby Epstein, Hawk Reece, and The Sunday Chapter's Angela and Kayne Lawton. Donut miss it! Tayla will headline the social-media influencer event by Neon Model Management on August 18 at Paddington Town Hall Double up: Tayla's Love Island Australia co-star Millie Fuller (right) has told fans she will be in attendance, after being a guest of Neon's at their first influencer collaboration event in July The event, which only lasts two hours, includes a Q&A session that promises insider tips and tricks to mimic the womens' success online. While there are general admission tickets for $49, only the pricier VIP tickets will ensure a chat with the recently-single Tayla. The VIP option also includes a goodie bag with products from Quay, Boohoo, Wanted Shoes and The Daily Edited, estimated to be worth $800. Secrets revealed: The event, which only lasts two hours, includes a Q&A session that promises insider tips and tricks to mimic the reality stars' success online Moving on! Tayla recently announced she had officially moved to Sydney, amid her split with Love Island Australia boyfriend Grant Crapp (left) Tayla recently announced she had officially moved to Sydney, amid her split with Love Island Australia boyfriend Grant Crapp, 23. Last week she made it clear that she was over Grant during an emotional interview on KIIS FM's Kyle And Jackie O Show: 'I've had my tearful days and they're over now... I was completely in love and it was a big shock to me.' Discussing her suspicions Grant was hiding a secret girlfriend, Tayla added: 'There were always lies in the house that I would pick up on and notice.' Guest list: Other social media stars to be included on the panel discussion and meet and greets are Gabby Epstein (above), Hawk Reece, and The Sunday Chapter's Angela and Kayne Lawton Tayla and Grant tragically split last month, less than three weeks after being crowned the winners of Love Island Australia. She's never been afraid to change up her hair color. And Paris Jackson was at it again on Friday, emerging from LA's Nine Zero One salon sporting a vibrant shade of red. The 20-year-old seemed pleased with the change and was all smiles as he left the upmarket west coast stylist. Red hair don't care: Paris Jackson was at it again on Friday, emerging from LA's Nine Zero One salon sporting a vibrant shade of red hair The daughter of Michael Jackson went casual for the style session, pairing gray sweatpants with a vintage Grateful Dead tank top that showed off her multitude of tattoos. Paris wore a pair of worn high top sneakers on her feet and accessorized with a bevy of beaded necklaces and bracelets, and a leather back pack. She also perched a pair of round framed sunglasses atop her newly dyed locks. The 5ft10in beauty carried her keys, phone and a pack of cigarettes as she made her way to her waiting vehicle. Winners are grinners: The 20-year-old seemed pleased with the change and was all smiles as he left the upmarket west coast stylist Take it easy: The daughter of Michael Jackson went casual for the style session, pairing gray sweatpants with a vintage Grateful Dead tank top that showed off her multitude of tattoos Paris recently took a leap into acting, playing the role Nelly in the dark Charlize Theron/ David Oyelowo comedy Gringo. She also just released an ad campaign for the RE/DONE + Weejuns shoe collaboration collection. Earlier this year, romance rumors began to swirl when Paris was spotted kissing supermodel Cara Delevingne. Paris and her famous family have received praise and backlash through decades in the spotlight. Her father, Michael Jackson, died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009. Steve Jacobs and his estranged wife Rose are both settling back into their separate lives in Sydney after returning from Vanuatu following their devastating split. And it appears things are far from amicable between the pair with the former Today Show weatherman seemingly taking a swipe at the mother of his two daughters, in a bizarre Instagram post on Saturday. After undergoing sinus surgery, the 51-year-old shared a black and white selfie of himself in a hospital gown with a nasal dressing across his face. 'I can now smell betrayal!' Former Today Show weatherman Steve Jacobs (pictured), 51, appeared to throw serious shade at his estranged wife Rose, with a bizarre post-surgery selfie on Saturday 'After 12 months of not being able to smell I had sinus surgery yesterday,' he captioned the post. 'My surgeon said I will now be able to smell everything, even betrayal. Should have done it a year ago.' While failing to directly refer to Rose, 39, his followers were quick to pick up on the hidden intention of the post. Instaburn: While failing to directly refer to Rose, 39, his followers were quick to pick up on the hidden intention of the post 'Kick in the guts!' One follower made an intentionally shady reference to Rose Calm before the storm: The couple are pictured enjoying a trip to London in September 2017. But in March, news broke of the couple's marriage breakdown after she took out an ex parte AVO against her husband earlier this year, which is no longer in place 'Talk about a kick in her guts with that comment,' one wrote, while another remarked, 'this is the best Insta burn I have ever seen'. In March, news broke of the couple's marriage breakdown after she took out an ex parte AVO against her husband earlier this year, which is no longer in place. Following their breakup, she began dating Canadian former commando Dylan Nash, 32, but their fling ended after two months. Happier times: Quitting his job on the Today Show at the end of 2016, the estranged couple moved to Vanuatu with their two daughters, Isabella, 7, and Francesca, 5, at the end of 2016 to try to save their marriage Quitting his job on the Today Show at the end of 2016, the estranged couple moved to Vanuatu with their two daughters, Isabella, 7, and Francesca, 5, at the end of 2016 to try to save their marriage. But a source close to Rose and Steve claimed they had 'grown in different directions' and split several months after moving overseas. 'They want different things in life now,' a friend told Daily Mail Australia in March. 'Steve and Rosie had such a public image of the perfect happy family, but behind the scenes there were struggles that would put a strain on even the best marriage.' She recently split from her jailbird beau Joey Morrisson amid cheating rumours. Yet Lauren Goodger put her plight behind her on Friday night as she hit the town for a girls' night out while sporting an extremely saucy ensemble complete with a plunging vest top and dangerously short leather mini skirt. Headed to Essex hot spot Faces, the former TOWIE star could not resist putting on a saucy display while strutting her stuff and displaying her killer curves. Woah! Lauren Goodger put her plight behind her on Friday night as she hit the town for a girls' night out while sporting an extremely saucy ensemble complete with a plunging vest top and dangerously short leather mini skirt Lauren was dressed to impress in her scanty ensemble as she ensured all eyes were on her while parading into the event with her figure on full display. Appearing slightly bleary-eyed, she looked ready to put her troubles in the past as she pulled all her best poses while surrounded by her girls. Her deeply tanned complexion stood out against her cream top, which was adorned with studded details and featured a flesh-flashing scooped neck. Lauren split from her jailbird boyfriend Joey after he reportedly sent explicit photos to other women, and it has now been claimed that he has allegedly been bragging to women about his famous former beau. Playful: Headed to Essex hot spot Faces, the former TOWIE star could not resist putting on a saucy display while strutting her stuff and displaying her killer curves Shocking: She recently split from her jailbird beau Joey Morrisson amid cheating rumours (pictured in his mugshot before serving nine years of his 16-year sentence for a string of violent offences) Oh my: Her deeply tanned complexion stood out against her cream top, which was adorned with studded details and featured a flesh-flashing scooped neck One woman who reportedly spoke with Joey told The Sun: 'Joey loved to boast about Lauren. He told me he was single but their relationship helped make him famous. 'Joey is well known in his area but he loved the idea of people outside of London knowing his name. He wants to be famous and to have a lifestyle where people are wanting to take pictures of him.' They added: 'He thinks everyone knows his name. The girls he's chatting to, it's like they're fans, he gets a real kick out of it. He says some girls love it, like they can't get enough of him being in prison.' Legs eleven: Her deeply tanned complexion stood out against her cream top, which was adorned with studded details and featured a flesh-flashing scooped neck Controlling: According to The Sun, Joey sent explicit photos to other women while he was in a relationship with Lauren. Taking to social media, Goodger claimed she wasted money while waiting for his release and branded him a 'control freak' According to The Sun, Joey sent explicit photos to other women while he was in a relationship with Lauren. Taking to social media, Goodger claimed she wasted money while waiting for his release and branded him a 'control freak'. She wrote on Twitter: 'Just feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders!!!! '2 years waited loyal and faithful and wasted soooo much money!! Now I am about to live my life with all I've missed out on!!!! I've been hurt but nothing or no one will take away my sparkle.' She later penned on Instagram: 'It's going to be my time now.. I've learned lessons! I've grown! I've changed over the years and I promise to never let myself down again! Cheeky! Lauren was dressed to impress in her scanty ensemble as she ensured all eyes were on her while parading into the event with her figure on full display Out and a pout: Lauren was dating Joey for over a year having 'met' him when she picked up the phone at his sister's house while he was calling from prison during his imprisonment for a string of violent offences 'Just a big heart that loved 2 much! But it's ok because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Here's to my time I promise that I'm make the most of it (sic).' Lauren was dating Joey for over a year having 'met' him when she picked up the phone at his sister's house while he was calling from prison during his imprisonment for a string of violent offences. After much back and forth over their status, which flitted from Lauren ending things to her insisting they will have a baby when he leaves prison, they were finally united in May when he was released from HMP Highpoint South prison. She split from her fiance Jamie Mazur, 37, in March, after a ten-year engagement. And while moving on from her split, newly-single Alessandra Ambrosio spent time on a Los Angeles beach with their son Noah Phoenix, six, on Friday. The Victoria Secret's model, 37, also shares a daughter, Anja Louise, nine, with Jamie, but Friday was a mum-and-son bonding day, as Anja was nowhere to be seen. Family time: On Friday, Alessandra Ambrosio, 37, spent time on a Los Angeles beach with her son Noah Phoenix, six, whom she shares with her ex Jamie Mazur, 37. The mother-of-two flaunted her summer style in a cute red cotton playsuit with a pretty black and white floral pattern. The short-sleeved one-piece cinched in at the waist, drawing attention to Alessandra's slim frame, with its subtle ruffle hemline flattering her endless pins The model slipped into a practical pair of simple black Havaianas to journey to the beach and accessorised her look by layering delicate gold necklaces and bangles. She looked at ease with her brunette locks left to hang down around her shoulders, as she took off her flip-flops to stroll barefoot along the white sand. Chic: The mother-of-two flaunted her summer style in a cute red cotton playsuit with a pretty black and white floral pattern Gorgeous: The short-sleeved one-piece cinched in at the waist, drawing attention to Alessandra's slim frame, with its subtle ruffle hemline flattering her endless pins Alessandra shielded her eyes with a pair of retro shades and a wide-brimmed straw fedora, and topped her son up with a thick layer of sunscreen. Noah rocked a slogan tee with the words: 'Natural Born Rockstar' emblazoned across his chest in bold writing. With his blonde surfer-locks, Noah looked ready for a swim with multi-tonal blue swim shorts and a pair of flip flops. Stylish: She shielded her eyes with a pair of retro shades and a wide-brimmed straw fedora Not a happy boy: Alessandra and topped her son up with a thick layer of sunscreen Alessandra and Re/Done denim founder, Jamie, ended their ten year relationship back in March, but have continued to co-parent their two children. At the time, a source told Us Weekly that the pair were 'trying to keep their split on the down low, but Alessandra has been out and about ready to mind and hasn't been taking Jamie to anything.' Yet the day after this claim hit the Internet, Alessandra was snapped heading to the gym with a ring on her engagement finger. Superstar: Noah rocked a slogan tee with the words: 'Natural Born Rockstar' emblazoned across his chest in bold writing The Brazilian model and actress is best known for her work as a Victoria's Secret Angels from 2000 to 2017, and for modelling brands such as Armani Exchange, Next, Christian Dior and Ralph Lauren. In 2012 she was ranked number six on Forbes' list of highest-paid models, estimated to have earned $6.6 million in one year. She has also made appearances on America's Next Top Model, Germany's Next Top Model, Australia's Next Top Model, and guest-starring role on the hit television series Gossip Girl. Coronation Street's Lucy Fallon led the glamour in a flirty polka dot dress as she arrived at the soap's annual summer party on Friday evening. The actress, 22, was joined by her glamorous co-stars Brooke Vincent and Jennie McAlpine as the cast descended on The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. Lucy's stunning cut-out number boasted contrasting sections in navy and pink, complete with a decorative tie in the middle of her bust. Wow: Coronation Street's Lucy Fallon led the glamour in a flirty polka dot dress as she arrived at the soap's annual summer party on Friday evening The strapless gown which hugged her toned figure also fanned out at the bottom in a fishtail style, teaming it with a pair of statement pink fluffy heels. Lucy has clearly been enjoying the recent fluffy accessories trend, as she toted a mauve evening bag in the same colour. The star added extra glamour to her ensemble with voluminous blown out curls, and a slick of coral lip stick. Gal pals: The actress, 22, was joined by her glamorous co-stars as the cast descended on The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester Monochrome: Also in attendance was Corrie veteran Jennie McAlpine, who looked sensational in a stylish monochrome frock and a pair of funky statement earrings Looking equally glam, Brooke Vincent wowed in an elegant grey dress, with lace detailing around the hem. The strappy gown also featured a spotted pattern, which she paired with chunky bronze heels for the event. She added a splash of colour to her look with a mustard clutch bag, which she held in her manicured hand as she strolled along with her pals. Fabulous: The strapless gown which hugged her toned figure also fanned out at the bottom in a fishtail style, teaming it with a pair of statement pink fluffy heels Legs eleven! Tina O'Brien put her toned pins on display in a tiny black mini dress Leggy: She added a pop of colour to her ensemble with touches of red in her jacket and on her lips Abs-olutely fabulous! Corrie newcomer Mollie Winnard opted for an all black co-ord Glam: The actress' two-piece included a semi-sheer crop top and a pair of wide-legged silk trousers Also in attendance was Corrie veteran Jennie McAlpine, who looked sensational in a stylish monochrome frock and a pair of funky statement earrings. She teamed the look with a pair of classic black court shoes, while piling her firey tresses into a fabulous updo. Jennie sported a sophisticated make-up look for the party, including a swipe of eyeliner and a red lip. Co-star: The beauty was joined by her co-star Ryan Prescott at the event All smiles! Mollie looked slightly apprehensive as she attended her first Corrie bash Beaming: Ryan looked dapper in a short sleeved blue shirt and a pair of cream chinos Loved-up: Jack P Shepherd brought his stunning girlfriend Hanni Treweek to the bash Blue beauty: Hanni stunned in an electric blue plunging gown with ruffle detailing Casual: Bev Callard opted for more casual attire as she donned a white shirt and pair of stonewash jeans Cheeky chap: Sam Aston looked classically cool in a white shirt and black trousers combinaiton Lads night out: Alan Halsall and Colson Smith appeared in high spirits Joining the cast, Tina O'Brien put on a very leggy display in a tiny mini dress which she wore under a floral jacket. Tina's dark outfit was given a pop of colour with touches of red both on the jacket and on her lips. She teamed her outfit with a towering pair of black Christian Louboutin heels, giving her pint-sized frame some extra height. Busty: Alexandra Mardell put on a very busty display in an eye-catching green striped jumpsuit Chic: Victoria Ekanoye looked effortlessly chic in a green jumpsuit and drop earrings Ticket to ride! Jimmi Harkishin appeared to have just hopped off his motorbike Cool: Sally Ann Matthews looked stylish in a navy silk dress and a pair of red leather ankle boots Smart: Dolly Rose Campbell opted for a pair of tailored trousers and a smart jacket Beauty: Hannah Ellis Ryan, who will play Bev Collard's new on screen daughter Katie, sported a monochrome wrap dress and chunky blue heels Ensuring she turned heads at the event newcomer Mollie Winnard wowed in a black two-piece, which included a semi-sheer crop top and silk wide legged trousers. The sexy ensemble showcased Mollie's toned abs as she made her way into the party with co-star Ryan Prescott. Ryan looked dapper in a short-sleeved pale blue shirt, which he tamed with cream chinos and brown suede shoes. Glitz: Julia Goulding brought sparkle to the party in a glitzy sequined top Stars: Daniel Brocklebank, Woody Wade, Alison King and Julia Goulding made their way to the event Gals: Julia Goulding added vibrant touches wit ha pair of orange and pink heels and trendy earrings Casual: Anthony Cotton looked relaxed in a pair of blue jean and a black T-shirt Happy: Andy Whyment appeared to be heading off early as he walked towards a cab Friends: Daniel Brocklebank larked around with a crew member outside the bash Steve Jacobs' estranged wife Rose appeared downcast as she picked up her daughters from school on Friday. Sporting head-to-toe activewear, the 39-year-old could barely muster a smile as she engaged with fellow mums. Taking her daughters, Isabella, 7, and Francesca, 5, to the playground, Rose rugged up in a navy puffer jacket, a burnt orange sweater and grey and white multi-patterned leggings. Steve Jacobs' estranged wife Rose Jacobs appeared downcast while collecting her daughters from school on Friday...as the former Today Show weatherman claims he was 'betrayed' in a bizarre post-surgery selfie While her youngest child enjoyed the seesaw, Rose's uniform-clad eldest seemed be upset during the after-school activity. But the mum-of-two, sitting on the ground while engrossed in her phone, appeared none the wiser. The outing comes amid sensational claims made by the former Today Show weatherman that he was 'betrayed'. Distracted: Sporting head-to-toe activewear, the 39-year-old could barely muster a smile as she engaged with fellow mums Proving things are far from amicable between the pair, the 51-year-old seemingly took a swipe at the mother of his two daughters in a bizarre Instagram post on Saturday. After undergoing sinus surgery, Steve shared a black and white selfie of himself in a hospital gown with a nasal dressing across his face. 'After 12 months of not being able to smell, I had sinus surgery yesterday,' he captioned the post. A lot on her mind: Taking her daughters to the playground, Francesca, 5, enjoyed the seesaw while a uniform-clad Isabella, 7, seemed be upset during the after-school activity. But the mum-of-two, sitting on the ground while engrossed in her phone, appeared none the wiser 'My surgeon said I will now be able to smell everything, even betrayal. Should have done it a year ago.' While failing to directly refer to Rose, his followers were quick to pick up on the hidden intention of the post. 'I can now smell betrayal!' The former Today Show weatherman (pictured), 51, appeared to throw serious shade at his estranged wife with a bizarre post-surgery selfie on Saturday 'Talk about a kick in her guts with that comment,' one wrote, while another remarked, 'this is the best Instaburn I have ever seen'. Steve and Rose are both settling back into their separate lives in Sydney after returning from Vanuatu following their devastating split. In March, news broke of the couple's marriage breakdown after she took out an ex parte AVO against her husband earlier this year, which is no longer in place. Instaburn: While failing to directly refer to Rose, his followers were quick to pick up on the hidden intention of the post 'Kick in the guts!' One follower made a veiled reference to Rose Calm before the storm: The couple are pictured enjoying a trip to London in September 2017. But in March, news broke of their marriage breakdown after she took out an ex parte AVO against her husband earlier this year, which is no longer in place Following their breakup, Rose began dating Canadian former commando Dylan Nash, 32, but their fling ended after two months. After Steve quit his job on the Today Show at the end of 2016, the estranged couple moved to Vanuatu with their two daughters, Isabella and Francesca at the end of 2016 to try to save their marriage. But a source close to the warring pair claimed they had 'grown in different directions' and split several months after moving overseas. Happier times: Quitting his job on the Today Show at the end of 2016, the estranged couple moved to Vanuatu with their two daughters, at the end of 2016 to try to save their marriage 'They want different things in life now,' a friend told Daily Mail Australia in March. 'Steve and Rosie had such a public image of the perfect happy family but behind the scenes there were struggles that would put a strain on even the best marriage.' Her feisty character Sarah Platt has been in hot water of late on the Cobbles. And now Tina O'Brien, 34, took a well-deserved break from her character's latest drama as she arrived to the Coronation Street Summer Party at The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester on Friday. The ITV actress highlighted her petite frame in a figure-hugging black mini dress which drew attention to her slender pins. Stepping out: Tina O'Brien, 34, took a well-deserved break from her character's latest drama as she arrived to the Coronation Street Summer Party at The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester on Friday Tina's daring look featured saucy mesh panels across the bodice and in the midst of her bust while the halterneck detail accentuated her cleavage. The blonde beauty wrapped a loose-fitting floral patterned kimono around her skintight ensemble and added inches to her height with a pair of sky-high heels. Continuing her sultry appearance, she accessorised her look with a leather Mulberry clutch and statement red tassel earrings. The soap star worked her blonde locks into a tousled style and teamed the look with a bold red lip. Hilarious: And while Tina put on a striking display earlier in the evening, she later took to her Instagram to share a series of side-splitting selfies and clips of her following her wild night out with her co-stars Funny: She later shared a hilarious hungover snap of herself on the train to London Pin-credible: The ITV actress highlighted her petite frame in a figure-hugging black mini dress which drew attention to her slender pins And while Tina put on a striking display earlier in the evening, she later took to her Instagram to share a series of side-splitting selfies and clips of her following her wild night out with her co-stars. Posting to her Instagram Story, she shared a selfie of her head in her hand and her eyes closed with the caption: 'This is going to hurt tomorrow'. Suddenly getting a surge of energy, she then posted a boomerang of herself dancing infront of her mirror in her skintight look and wrote alongside it: 'Thinks she's hips don't lie', referring to Shakira's 2005 hit Hips Don't Lie. Finishing her trilogy of rib-tickling posts, Tina explained her exhausting day ahead as she got in the door at 3am following the soap soiree and admitted she wasn't looking forward to the inevitable hangover. Before: Tina's daring look featured saucy mesh panels across the bodice and in the midst of her bust while the halterneck detail accentuated her cleavage Energy: Suddenly getting a surge of energy, she then posted a boomerang of herself dancing infront of her mirror in her skintight look and wrote alongside it: 'Thinks she's hips don't lie', referring to Shakira's 2005 hit Hips Don't Lie Sharing the short clip, which read 'send help, she said: 'So here's the situation is it was my work summer party, my throat is really eugh... 'I've got to get up in about 3 hours pick up my daughter, get to London, cheer for my partner for his triathlon and I feel like [death]...'. While many don't envy the feat ahead of her today, Tina, who shares daughter Scarlet with ex Ryan Thomas, was sure to give her 310,000 followers a chuckle as she shared a hungover selfie on the train to London. Elsewhere, Tina's character landed herself in hot water in June when she violently attacked Ryan Connor after thinking he made a pass at her daughter Bethany. 'Help': Finishing her trilogy of rib-tickling posts, Tina explained her exhausting day ahead as she got in the door at 3am following the soap soiree and admitted she wasn't looking forward to the inevitable hangover Picture perfect: She also posted a selfie, and captioned it: 'When youre so drunk you just take pics of yourself #gonnaregretthisinthemorning' The dramatic scenes saw Ryan left for dead in his flat after hitting his head in a scuffle with Sarah, after Bethany suffers a panic attack during her date with the hunk. Despite Bethany later admitting Ryan did nothing wrong, his reaction to Sarah's crime will leave her with a 'big decision to make' according to actress Tina. Tina told The Mirror: 'His reaction shocks her and is not what she expected at all. It is a real game changer for Sarah. She has a big decision to make.' They haven't been shy about hiding their affection for one another during their recent trip to Thailand. And Katie Price and her toyboy beau Kris Boyson put on yet another racy display as they were caught in a steamy clinch while chilling by the pool. The TV personality, 40, showcased her phenomenal physique in a shocking pink tiger print bikini, as Kris went topless in a pair of dark swim shorts. Racy: Katie Price and her toyboy beau Kris Boyson put on yet another racy display as they were caught in a steamy clinch while chilling by the pool The pair have been inseparable ever since they began dating in June, and it appears that they are still very much in the honeymoon stage as the couple couldn't keep their eyes or hands off each other. Katie slipped into the tiny bikini, which plunged deeply at the chest to leave most of her surgically-enhanced bust on show. She paired the top half of her two-piece with a matching set of bikini bottoms which tied at the hip in a decorative fashion, as she paraded her figure at the poolside. The star opted for a full face of make-up for her day by the pool, leaving her thick mane to cascade down her back, as she held her beau's hand while tip-toeing along the side. Wow: The TV personality, 40, showcased her phenomenal physique in a shocking pink tiger print bikini as Kris went topless in a pair of dark swim shorts Busty: Katie slipped into the tiny bikini, which plunged deeply at the chest to leave most of her surgically-enhanced bust on show Kris ensured that his rippling muscles were on show as he stood near Katie while she rearranged her bikini before proceeding to sunbathe. The display comes after Katie Price has reportedly been visited by bailiffs after failing to pay 3,000 to an electrician, according to The Mirror. The former glamour model is said to have met with bailiffs at her home in West Sussex this week following claims from electrician Paul Bean that she refused to pay the bill for his work last year. Sensational: She paired the top half of her two-piece with a matching set of bikini bottoms which tied at the hip in a decorative fashion, as she paraded her figure at the poolside Katie has since said she settled the bill on behalf of her ex Kieran. According to The Sun Katie and Kris' recent racy photo shoots are a result of her desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy as she takes on her third bitter divorce battle with Kieran Hayler. The publication states that the mother-of-five is terrified at the prospect of being penniless after previously boasting a 45million fortune - forcing her to pay her former glamour model days a visit in a bid to revive her career. Loved-up: Kris ensured that his rippling muscles were on show as he stood near Katie while she rearranged her bikini before proceeding to sunbathe Katie, who is said to be selling her West Sussex mansion to pay off her debts, is now reportedly taking drastic action to regain control of her once lucrative career. The couple have been caught on various occasions getting intimate while hardly dressed and posing for images while she straddled him suggestively and hovered around his intimate area. A source told the publication: 'She always felt that whatever anyone said about her, she could at least point to her huge income to shut them up. But even that is disappearing.' MailOnline previously contacted representatives for Katie for further comment. Richard Bacon has revealed nearly died twice during his recent hospitalisation. Last month, the 42-year-old TV presenter was rushed to hospital in London with a mystery illness, believed to be a lung infection, after getting off a flight from LA. Discussing his condition, Richard has explained that the first two nights after he was admitted were the most dangerous. Candid: Richard Bacon has revealed nearly died twice during his recent hospitalisation Speaking to The Times Magazine, he said: 'In 2018, I can go into a hospital, aged 42, be that fit, and have all that modern equipment around me and still nearly die? F*****g hell. I came that close. The first two nights, it was incredibly close.' And the former Blue Peter host called waking up from a medically induced coma 'the worst day of my life' and said he was thrashing about 'like a wild animal'. He said: 'I remember thinking: I've not got enough oxygen, the room's too hot and I'm not getting enough attention. I need help. I remember consciously pulling the pipes out of my neck to set the alarms off. And it worked people came running in.' Reflecting on his illness, Richard explained that he's grateful to have survived his ordeal and has vowed to give up alcohol and marijuana, which is legal in LA where he lives and works. Doing well: Last month, the 42-year-old TV presenter was rushed to hospital in London with a mystery illness, believed to be a lung infection, after getting off a flight from Los Angeles He said: 'I'm giving up drinking. I had been drinking four or five glasses of wine every night. In LA, I've been smoking weed. It's all legal over there. I'm going to stop all that.' And he recently explained that he was treating the near-death experience as a wake-up call. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, Richard said: 'I've decided to really, really embrace health from here on in. 'I've always drunk too much, I've always drunk too quickly, so I'm giving up drinking altogether forever as a result of what happened to me. Adding: 'Because if I don't effect some sort of really, really positive change out of this, then it's a giant waste of everyone's time... So I'm using it to effect positive change. 'It's something I've been thinking about anyway. I want to do something different, I want to look back in 10, 20 years and think "this was the moment I changed my life".' Getting better: Richard's father told MailOnline he will be staying with relatives in London while he recovers, as he currently lives in Los Angeles with wife Rebecca and two children Happy: Richard took to Instagram to post a snap of his son Arthur, six, and Ivy, four, welcoming him home, after he spent ten days in a medically-induced coma Late last month, Richard also took to Instagram to share a snap of him reunited with his son Arthur, six, and daughter Ivy, four, as he stood alongside a Welcome Home banner outside is London home. The former Blue Peter star was also seen leaving the hospital Lewisham using the help of a walking frame alongside wife of ten years Rebecca, after he posted another snap thanking the medical staff for saving his life. He wrote in the caption: 'Gone within the hour. I don't know whether I see this as the bed I nearly died in or the bed that saved my life. 'Either way. I won't miss it. But I will miss the 50 staff of Lewisham Hospital who definitely saved my life. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.' She's been vocal about her ongoing struggle with mental health. And now Home And Away star Sam Frost has revealed how it feels to live with depression and cope during the 'dark' times. 'When you're going through a really challenging time and I've been there a million and one times it is so dark,' the 29-year-old revealed on Sunday in an interview with Stellar magazine. 'You can't remember what it feels like to be happy!' Home And Away actress Sam Frost, 29, has revealed the extent of her ongoing battle with depression, in a candid interview in Sunday's Stellar magazine Sam continued: 'You feel so alone and you think you are never going to get out of it ever.' The Channel Seven personality added: 'You can't remember what it feels like to be happy.' The former Bachelorette first came out about her struggles with depression and anxiety in 2015 when she revealed she regularly attended a psychologist to maintain her mental health. 'I've been there a million and one times!' The former Bachelorette first came out about her struggles with depression and anxiety in 2015 when she revealed she regularly attended a psychologist to maintain her mental health And after a string of personal and professional setbacks in 2016, including the breakdown of her relationship with Sacha Mielczarek and the axe falling on her high profile 2Day FM breakfast show with Rove McManus, Sam admitted she found herself in a 'very dark place'. She told the Herald Sun in 2017: 'I reached breaking point last year. I was like, "Oh my goodness I am really, really struggling with my mental health".' With her personal and professional life in turmoil, Sam told News Corp that same year she spent time with friends and family in Melbourne, before turning to a psychologist to help get her life back on track. Going strong: After splitting from Bachelorette suitor Sacha Mielczarek at the end of the 2016, the actress has been dating navy diver Dave Bashford (pictured) She revealed: 'I started seeing her (the psychologist) and I've seen her every week since. It is expensive but it is worth it. It costs me a bloody fortune.' In order to help others suffering, the actress, who's now dating navy diver Dave Bashford, launched her mental health initiative for young girls and women, Believe by Sam Frost, in June with her sister Kristine. With nearly 15k Instagram followers, the venture focuses on depression and anxiety and provides advice on how to 'navigate the sometimes toxic world of social media', according to the Believe By Sam Frost website. Sibling support: In order to help others suffering, the actress launched her mental health initiative for young girls and women, Believe by Sam Frost, in June with her sister Kristine (pictured) Sam's initiative vows to connect participants with a range of helpful resources including mental health professionals. 'Here you will find uplifting stories of strength and resilience, with advice from psychologists and others who have walked a similar path,' the website revealed. If you're struggling with depression or anxiety, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Joanna Krupa has married her businessman fiance Douglas Nunes in Krakow just five months after announcing their engagement. The 39-year-old supermodel was spotted outside the venue arriving for her big day on Saturday in the Polish city just minutes after saying 'I Do.' with family and bridesmaids in tow. Joanna stunned in an elegant white fishtail gown after tying the knot with Douglas, almost a year after finalising her divorce from Romain Zago. Husband and wife! Joanna Krupa has married her businessman fiance Douglas Nunes in Krakow just five months after announcing their engagement Joanna stunned in a beautiful white fishtail gown as she flaunted her intricately detailed wedding band, which perfectly matched her enormous engagement ring. Douglas looked smart in a navy blue suit as she joined his new wife for the occasion, with the rest of their wedding entourage in tow including Joanna's sister Marta who acted as a bridesmaid. The couple went for a more unconventional exit from the big day as they rode off on a golf cart, which Joanna herself documented in a hilarious video posted to her Instagram. Jaw-dropping: The 39-year-old Polish supermodel stunned in an elegant fishtail gown, a far more understated look than her 2013 wedding to Romain Zago (right) Mr and Mrs: Joanna and Douglas posed with the model's sister Marta who acted as bridesmaid for the day (and seemed to grow tired of her heels as she switched into comfortable trainers) Bye! Joanna went for a gorgeous sparkling silver bracelet to match her wedding band and the elegance of her simple dress Revealing: The off-the-shoulder style of the gown highlighted her flawless decolletage, with her blonde hair tied back in a simple updo Bye! The couple went for a more unconventional exit, as they rode off together on a golf cart So beautiful: Joanna was a vision in her simple wedding look, and even went for practicality as she kept her essentials in a taupe cross-body bag Joanna herself took to social media following the occasion to share a post of her and now-husband Douglas inside the church, where she wrote: 'We did it! It was a very private and small family gathering..wish I could have shared it with all the people that I love.' Ahead of the ceremony, Joanna was seen making her arrival with her family in tow, as the bridesmaid exited the vehicle ahead of her sporting a nude sequined gown. The Warsaw-born beauty had her tresses styled into the elegant updo as she sported a sleek white gown for a dramatic arrival. Joanna announced her engagement to media mogul Douglas in March, taking to Instagram to share a snap of her sporting an enormous diamond ring. Loved-up: The wedding came just five months after the couple announced their engagement Delighted: Joanna herself also posted a snap from inside the church after exchanging her vows, admitting she chose to have a 'small and private' wedding Flawless: Douglas also shared a selfie from inside their wedding car, with Joanna showcasing her pretty pink and cream bouquet Doing it for themselves: Marta - who herself had Joanna as a bridesmaid at her wedding last year - sparked in a nude beaded dress for the occasion Delicate: Going for a neutral colour palette, the wedding seemed a far more relaxed affair than Joanna's last California suarez Loving: The guests also loved the excitement of riding the golf cart, laughing along in a video Joanna shared A representative for Joanna confirmed the news to MailOnline at the time, saying: 'Yes they are engaged - that's all for now.' She captioned the image: 'Just another weekend in the Krupa-Nunes household.' The caption revealed her fiance was the then-unknown Nunes, who she also tagged in the photo, and comes less than a year after she finalised her divorce from Romain Zago in August 2017. Big day: Earlier in the day she was seen making a low-key arrival for the ceremony Stunning: The Polish beauty was sporting the elegant white gown as she exited her vehicle for the ceremony Beautiful: In a stark contrast to her past wedding look, Joanna's dress and sleek updo seemed far more toned down Need a hand? Joanna's friends and family were on hand to assist with her exit from the car, as she showed off her model physique in the fitted gown A vision: Joanna's wedding came just five months after confirming her engagement to media mogul Douglas, flaunting her ring in a sweet Instagram post Last October, Joanna hinted that she was single when she spoke to US Weekly and admitted she was focusing on her work. She also admitted that she was 'blindsided' by the divorce in an interview with In Touch, where she said: 'I spent many nights crying. It was the worst Christmas imaginable. 'I felt like my life had been turned upside down, and I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I cried. I couldn't eat. I probably lost about 7 pounds.' Sharp: The groom himself was also seen arriving for the big day sported a sharp navy suit Time for the vows! Joanna was preceded by her bridesmaid Marta, who was all-out glamorous with a nude sequined gown with fuchsia pink flowers Jaw-dropping: Joanna's second wedding came just under a year after she finalised her divorce from Romain Zago in August 2017 Glamorous: Marta had matching flowers in her hair, and earlier on in the day was sporting nude platform heels 'I was heartbroken. He had wanted a family, but I was always travelling and made work my priority.' Despite the emotional process, Joanna proved there was no ill will between the couple, telling DailyMail.com: 'We're on great terms and I'm very grateful Romain is supporting me right now. We are on great terms, we talk more than ever. 'We're best friends and not much has changed. I'm very grateful to have Romain's support and we respect our ten years together.' Getting ready: Douglas was looking sharp in his wedding suit as he exited his own car for the occasion Time to go! The couple's engagement was confirmed in March when Joanna posted a snap of her sparkling ring Bachelor In Paradise's Jake Ellis has said that everything was 'above board' regarding a charity event he helped coordinate in June. The reality star had been accused by event sponsors of not raising enough money, and criticised for the $3265 amount raised for Cure Cancer. Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph's Confidential, the 31-year-old said: 'Having just lost my mother to her 25-year-battle [this] was my driving force in trying to do something for this.' 'Losing my mother to cancer was my driving force': Bachelor In Paradise's Jake Ellis (pictured), 31, has said that everything was 'above board' with a charity event, after having being accused of not raising enough money Jake, responded to the publication's request for comment, regarding the claims: 'Everything with the event has been above board with no other intention for the party. 'This was the first time in our lives that we had ever tried to do something like this in raising awareness and what money we could for Cure Cancer. 'Having just lost my mother to her 25-year battle, [that] was my driving force in trying to do something for this,' he continued. Jake helped coordinate and hosted the Cure Cancer Fundraiser, at Sydney's Flamingo Lounge, back in June. Claims: Jake had been accused by event sponsors of not raising enough money, and was criticised for the $3265 amount raised for Cure Cancer. Pictured with girlfriend Megan Marx at the Cure Cancer Fundraiser in Sydney in June The event also saw Jake's girlfriend Megan Marx in attendance, along with fellow reality stars Michael Turnbull and Tara Pavlovic. Jake's mother Robyn passed away in January after a 25-year-battle, and the TV personality took to Instagram at the time to pen a heartfelt tribute. Robyn was originally diagnosed with cancer when Jake was just six-years-old. She spent a decade clear of the disease, before it sadly returned. 'Last year was definitely the hardest year for her and my family She held on in true Robyn Ellis style, she fought all the way until the very end, Jake TV told Daily Mail Australia at the time. Tragic loss: The cause is close to home for Jake, whose mother Robyn (pictured) passed away in January after a 25-year-battle with cancer He added that she was 'the biggest fighter I've ever met'. Robyn's breast cancer battle was made public during Jake's appearance on The Bachelorette in 2016, in which he placed third in the pursuit for the heart of newsreader Georgia Love. A prominent campaigner for cancer causes, Jake will continue to passionately support fundraising initiatives. 'Since The Bachelorette, one of the biggest things I wanted to be a part of was [raising awareness for] Cancer Council and cancer charities,' Jake explained. 'Every event I ever did I took my mum along to. It is and will always be my passion.' Jack Osbourne has reportedly apologised to his estranged wife Lisa Stelly's new boyfriend, after he allegedly 'punched him in the head' during a heated exchange. Sources told TMZ that the 32-year-old decided to make amends with Lisa's new partner Michael Gabel, after he decided not to press charges regarding the incident. It was first reported on Thursday that Jack went round to Lisa's house on Monday, but things escalated when her boyfriend Michael 'intervened'. I'm sorry! Jack Osbourne has reportedly apologised to his estranged wife Lisa Stelly's new boyfriend, after he allegedly 'punched him in the head' during a heated exchange Sources close to Jack reportedly said that Michael accepted his apology, with TMZ saying that The Osbournes star was 'immediately regretful' of the incident. The news site reported earlier this week that Jack allegedly 'punched' his estranged wife Lisa's new partner 'in the head' during the heated exchange. The TV personality had reportedly gone to the home he shares with Lisa to talk to her, but the situation escalated when Matt 'intervened'. It's claimed police were called to the incident, but no charges have been filed. Fixing things: Sources told TMZ that Jack called Lisa's beau Michael Gales to make amends, after he decided not to press charges Lisa's beau reportedly decided against pressing charges, with sources claiming Jack had been 'uncooperative with police'. MailOnline have contacted a representative for Jack Osbourne for comment. Sources close to the couple claimed to the gossip site that Jack has been committed to 'repairing his relationship' with Lisa in an attempt to 'fix' their marriage. Her new partner turning up reportedly 'threw' the father-of-three and things 'escalated'. Jack and Lisa split in May, with the star's wife filing for divorce just three months after the former couple welcomed their third and youngest child, daughter Minnie Theodora, now five months. Drama: This comes after it was reported earlier this week that Jack 'punched' Lisa's new boyfriend 'in the head' during a heated exchange to which police were called Tense: According to TMZ, Jack had headed to the home he shares with Lisa to talk, but things escalated when her boyfriend intervened The name Theodora is a poignant tribute to the couple's late son Theo. Theo passed away in 2013 after Lisa tragically suffered a late-term miscarriage. Since splitting, Jack and Lisa have been co-parenting when it comes to looking after their brood; daughters Pearl, six, Andy Rose, three, and baby Minnie, with the former Dancing With The Stars contestant insisting things have been working 'really well' between the estranged spouses in an interview back in June. Speaking to People TV, Jack said: 'It's great. It's all you can really ask for at this stage. The doting dad gushed about his daughters in the interview, calling them 'the most girly girls imaginable' and budding fashionistas. He said of daughter Andy: 'My middle one, Andy, will only wear, like, big gowns all day long - like she's going to a quinceanera every day.' Split: Jack and Lisa, who share three daughters together, confirmed their separation in May and revealed they have started divorce proceedings Moving forward: Jack and Lisa have been co-parenting when it comes to looking after their brood; daughters Pearl, six, Andy Rose, three, and baby Minnie, since their split Amicable: The former Dancing With The Stars contestant insisted things have been working 'really well' between himself and his estranged wife in the wake of their separation His comments came just a month after Jack and Lisa confirmed they were starting divorce proceedings following their marriage split. The duo publicly revealed in a joint statement on social media that they would strive to stay friendly and focused, keeping their three daughters in mind. It read: 'So, first and foremost, we absolutely still love each other. Our family is the most important thing in our lives, and we tried everything we could for many years to make this work. 'What's best for our family right now is that we separate lovingly, and remain best friends who are committed to raising our children together.' Jack and Lisa noted that while they were 'disappointed' over how things turned out, they remained 'confident that we will continue to grow our relationship as co-parents and best friends.' Family orientated: Following their split, Jack and Lisa publicly revealed in a joint statement on social media that they would strive to stay friendly and focused with their daughters in mind Long-term: Jack and Lisa noted that while they were 'disappointed' about the split, they remained 'confident they will continue to grow as co-parents and best friends' They had been together for five and a half years at the time of their split, having tied the knot back in October 2012 in Hawaii. Jack had proposed to Lisa after just four months of the pair dating. Six months prior to their wedding, Jack and Lisa welcomed their first child, Pearl - who was born in the same period Jack had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, aged 26. Speaking about his diagnosis in October last year, Jack said: 'I look at my daughters and, not to get overly sappy, but there is that notion where if they get married, I might not be able to walk them down the aisle, I can get kind of heavy with it.' The star, however, insisted since his diagnosis five years ago, he's doing 'really well' and hasn't had any 'significant flare-ups in a long time'. In recent months, Jack has been busy filming for show Ozzy and Jack's World Detour! with his famous father Ozzy Osbourne. Happier times: Jack and estranged wife Lisa tied the knot in October 2012 in Hawaii - he had proposed just four months after the pair first began dating Less than a year after Channel Ten seemingly found the formula for ratings success with Sophie Monk's The Bachelorette, the show could be no more. It's been business as usual for the network ever since US giant CBS saved them from extinction last September, but a new report suggests things are about to change. Speaking to News Corp on Saturday, an insider claimed it was always CBS' plan to 'observe Ten for a year before intervening,' and with the year up in November, several shows are said to be on the chopping block. Look out! The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Survivor among shows facing the axe in 2019 as it's claimed Channel Ten's US owners CBS were 'observing for a year' and will soon 'intervene' Ten went into voluntary administration in June 2017, after shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans. US network CBS won the bidding war, and many wondered if, or when, Ten's programming would begin to reflect or mirror CBS. It's now claimed the decision was not to bring across shows such as Big Brother and The Big Bang Theory (local rights currently owned by Nine) for one year, while CBS 'observed' Ten. 'That year is up in November so they are now monitoring the content for 2019 more closely,' News Corp's source said. Under review: 'That year is up in November so they are now monitoring the content for 2019 more closely,' News Corp's source said (MasterChef, pictured, is believed to be 'safe') Shockingly, insider sources reportedly believe either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette (or both) could be axed, as they're 'too similar' to one another to survive. The Bachelor franchise appears to be the only series reportedly facing the axe due to non-ratings-related issues. The other shows mentioned were Survivor, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, and Pointless - all 'under review' due to poor ratings. Gone? Shockingly, insider sources reportedly believe either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette (or both) could be axed, as they're 'too similar' to one another to survive (Pictured is 2018 Bachelorette star Ali Oetjen, left and 2018 Bachelor star Nick Cummins, right) Struggling news programs including Ten Eyewitness News, The Project and Studio 10 were not covered in the report, although question marks can now be raised. Meanwhile, it's good news for MasterChef and Gogglebox, which were the only currently broadcast shows listed as 'safe' for 2019. New shows have already been slated to replace any stragglers, with Dancing With The Stars a surprise inclusion. Not looking good: The other shows mentioned were Survivor (left) I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here (centre) and Pointless (right) - all 'under review' due to poor ratings Two UK shows are reportedly bringing local versions to Ten: Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly's comedy variety show Sunday Night Takeaways, and hospital documentary series Emergency. The report also claimed Ten's Chief Content Officer Beverley McGarvey is facing increased pressure and monitoring from CBS. In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday, Beverley dismissed News Corp's report as 'completely wrong.' 'The claims made in The Sunday Telegraph today are ill-informed, misleading and completely wrong,' she said. Cheers! Meanwhile, it's good news for MasterChef and Gogglebox, which were the only currently broadcast shows listed as 'safe' for 2019 'We were not asked to comment on these claims before they were published. If we had been, we would have furnished the reporter with the truth. She added: 'Overall, Ten is performing well and we are looking forward to launching the new seasons of all the shows that are allegedly 'under review.' To suggest otherwise is just plain wrong.' Ten slipped 12.9 per cent in year-on-year audience share from 2017 to 2018, significantly more than Nine (8.2%) and Seven (1.9%). She wrapped up her Love Island hosting duties in Majorca for another year earlier this week. And now Caroline Flack, 35, has revealed she enjoyed some well-deserved R&R in Ibiza following the ITV2's finale by posting a pulses-racing selfie from her resort's pool on Saturday. The much-loved presenter's sizzling sun-soaked appearance caught the attention of single Love Island star Dr Alex George, 27, who was quick to comment under her Instagram shot. Rested: Caroline Flack, 35, has revealed she enjoyed some well-deserved R&R in Ibiza following the ITV2's finale by posting a pulses-racing selfie from her resort's pool on Saturday Swimming in the midst of Casa Maca resort, the TV presenter teased at her golden glow as her shoulders poke out of the water and her honey-hued locks were worked into a high ponytail. Wearing a pair of oversized shades, she captioned the shot: 'An oasis of calm in the middle of crazy! Thank you @casamacaibiza for the most gorgeous 3 days.' Quick to comment under her shot, Dr Alex, who previously admitted on the ITV2 series that Caroline was his dream girl, wrote: 'Looks dreamy'. Setting tongues-wagging, fans were quick to question the A&E doctor's comment as one asked for clarification: '@dralexgeorge Caroline or the setting?' Flirty: The much-loved presenter's sizzling sun-soaked appearance caught the attention of single Love Island star Dr Alex George, 27, who was quick to comment under her Instagram shot 'Dreamy': Quick to comment under her shot, Dr Alex, who previously admitted on the ITV2 series that Caroline was his dream girl, wrote: 'Looks dreamy' While another felt the need to warn the London-based beauty, who recently split from fiance Andrew Brady: 'OMG I know youre going through a tough time, but that comment from Dr Alex just made me vomit - stay away surely single is better than that!!!' The comment comes after Alex's Island alum Laura Crane revealed she is trying to play cupid for others, as she revealed she thinks that the presenter and medic should get together while appearing on Lizzie Cundy and Stephen Leng's Access All Areas Fubar radio show. The professional surfer, 23, admitted she had no idea Caroline was going through a break up during the show, but thinks she and Alex would be a good match. Laura added that the pair 'get on really well', while presenters Lizzie and Stephen agreed that they could see the match working well. Cheeky: Setting tongues-wagging, fans were quick to question the A&E doctor's comment as one asked for clarification Cheeky Stephen then quipped 'and he's got his own money unlike Andrew Brady', following speculation that he is cash-strapped. It comes after Alex admitted Caroline was his dream woman during his time on the show. During a chat with Josh Denzel, Alex was asked who his ideal woman was, as they discussed his faltering search for romance. Without missing a beat, Alex responded during their chat in the communal bedroom: 'Physically, a girl a bit like Caroline Flack.' Perfect match: The professional surfer, 23, admitted she had no idea Caroline was going through a break up during the show, but thinks she and Alex would be a good match Caroline's ex Andrew has appeared to have kept hold of his and Caroline's French bulldog puppy, Ruby, after their high-profile split as he called her his 'daughter' on his Instagram on Wednesday. The former couple, who got engaged in April and separated for good in July after a whirlwind six month romance, were reportedly set for a custody battle over the pet pooch last month. With Caroline reported to have been left 'furious' after he was claimed to have taken Ruby without her permission before she headed back to Majorca to continue filming for Love Island. Yet it now looks as though Andrew has kept hold of the puppy as he shared a photograph of himself posing with the adorable pooch on his Instagram on Wednesday, after several other posts too. Ideal: It comes after Alex admitted Caroline was his dream woman during his time on the show. During a chat with Josh Denzel, Alex was asked who his ideal woman was, as they discussed his faltering search for romance Doting 'dad': Caroline's ex Andrew Brady, 27, has appeared to of kept hold the couple's French bulldog puppy, Ruby, as he shared a photo of himself to Instagram on Wednesday In the photo, the cash-strapped former The Apprentice star cut a casual figure in dark jeans, a burgundy t-shirt and orange Ray-Ban sunglasses, he held Ruby on his lap. He captioned the sweet snap with: 'Dad and Daughter,' followed with a dog emoji. MailOnline contacted Andrew's representative for comment at the time. Just last week, Caroline was forced to fly back to London from filming in Majorca to kick her ex-fiance out of her home. Andrew was seen huffily bundling a TV and his belongings into a rented Transit van and was clutching the 6,500 vintage diamond he proposed to Caroline with in April, after just three months of dating. Standing her ground: Just last week, Caroline was forced to fly back to London from filming in Majorca to kick her ex-fiance out of her home A source said that Andrew, 27, insisted on taking the ring back, though Caroline had been wearing it albeit on her right hand ever since they split up on July 10. They told MailOnline: 'She came back from the island to get him out. He wouldnt leave the house without the ring. 'She had been wearing it because she was quite fond of it and they were still speaking. They had a row and are no longer speaking. She had hoped they would work things out, but they wont now.' Also after their split last month, Andrew admitted that he's 'ashamed' of himself after meeting with Celebs Go Dating producers shortly after his split from fiancee Caroline, due to 'having no money', which he revealed in a heartfelt statement. She's got a taste for the finer things in life. On Friday, Penelope Disick, age six, was spotted carrying a $2,000 dollar Fendi purse while out for dinner in Malibu with her dad Scott Disick, 35. The father-daughter duo were joined by Scott's girlfriend Sofia Richie, 19. Brand babe: On Friday, Penelope Disick, age six, was spotted carrying a $2,000 dollar Fendi purse while out for dinner in Malibu with her dad Scott Disick, 35 Little Penelope teamed her white clutch with a tangerine colored dress, platform sandals, and a jean jacket. The daughter of Kourtney Kardashian wore her hair in two knotted buns. As for Scott, he was casually clad in a Notorious B.I.G. sweatshirt and Yeezy sneakers. Little fashionista: Penelope teamed her white clutch with a tangerine colored dress, platform sandals, and a jean jacket Sofia was as equally casual in green cargo pants and a black zip-up hoodie. The model teetered on black heels and wore her hair in a sleek bun. According to a recent interview with PEOPLE, Penelope may have swiped her Fendi purse from mom Kourtney Kardashian, 39. Three's company: The father-daughter duo were joined by Scott's girlfriend Sofia Richie, 19 'She likes to wear my bags a lot, and I love mini bags, so I take a lot of her bags too,' the reality star told the magazine. 'I save things all the time and she always tells me, "Can I have this? Can I have this?" And I'm like, 'What's mine is yours.' In addition to sharing clothes and handbags, Kourtney supports whatever style her little girl insists upon wearing. 'She does everything. She loves it,' the eldest Kardashian daughter admitted. 'I usually just try to let her go with it. Once in a while I might chime in with, 'Well, maybe it might look better like this,' but for the most part, I let her do her thing.' She's currently on vacation in Italy with her four kids and boyfriend Tom Kaulitz, 28. On Saturday, Heidi Klum stripped down to her bikini bottoms for a topless photo that she posted to Instagram. The 45-year-old model, who was seen lounging on a poop Emoji pool float, captioned the image: 'good morning...' Fun in the sun: On Saturday, Heidi Klum stripped down to her bikini bottoms for a topless photo that she posted to Instagram. The 45-year-old model, who was seen lounging on a poop Emoji pool float, captioned the image: 'good morning...' Model off duty: Heidi is on vacation in Italy with her four kids and boyfriend Tom Kaulitz For the past week, Heidi and her kidsHenry, 12, Johan, 11, and Helene, 14 and Lou, eight have been spending their days at the beach in Italy. They've been spotted tubing, riding a banana boat, and lounging for hours on pool floats. Klum and her kids are also joined on vacation by Tom's twin brother Bill Kaulitz. Tom and Bill are both apart of the rock band Tokio Hotel. More the merrieer: Klum and her kids are also joined on vacation by Tom's twin brother Bill Kaulitz and friends Identical twins: Tom and Bill are both apart of the rock band Tokio Hotel Time off: The twins spent Friday relaxing in the pool Prior to visiting Sardinia, Klum accompanied the band to Summer Camp music festival in Germany. 'What an unforgettable show last night!!!!' Heidi said on Instagram. 'WOW... Bill you are EVERYTHING...and Baby you are not too bad either.' The supermodel and her guitarist boyfriend have been dating since March. Heidi has three biological children with her ex-husband Seal who she divorced in 2014 as well as daughter Helene (Leni) from her previous romance with Flavio Briatore who was adopted by Seal during their relationship. Roadie: Prior to visiting Sardinia, Klum accompanied Tokio Hotel to Summer Camp music festival in Germany They're currently enjoying a romantic getaway in Monaco after their time in the Love Island villa. And Ellie Brown, 20, and Charlie Brake, 22, looked as if they couldn't get enough of each other as they enjoyed a romantic dinner together. Besotted Charlie wrote on Friday 'When dessert falls in your lap...' as Ellie posed for a snap with her beau during their dinner. Loved up: Ellie Brown, 20, and Charlie Brake, 22, looked as if they couldn't get enough of each other as they enjoyed a romantic dinner together Lady in red: During the trip, Ellie shared a very sultry picture of herself in a red swimsuit, revealing her showstopping figure During the trip, Ellie shared a very sultry picture of herself in a red swimsuit, revealing her showstopping figure. The blonde bombshell wore her golden tresses in loose waves which tumbled to her waist, ensuring she looked every inch the beach babe. It comes after the reality TV stunner has shown off her incredible image transformation after old pictures of her emerged. Idyllic: Charlie enjoyed a seafood lunch as the couple soaked up the sun in Monaco On their own Love Island: Proving their affection for one another is stronger than ever, Ellie gushed 'love u so much' about Charlie Who's that girl? Love Island star Ellie Brown has shown off her incredible image transformation after old pictures of the stunning star have emerged The Newcastle-born beauty posed happily in images dating back to 2015, in which she flaunted a wholly different appearance to her current chiselled look. MailOnline previously contacted Ellie's representatives for comment. During her break away in Europe, Ellie proved she had nailed the potentially awkward first meeting with the parents, a loved-up Charlie filmed Ellie dancing up a storm with his father in a bar. Making for an unconventional gift for his dad, Ellie also proudly posted a photo of him holding a Love Island branded condom with the caption 'brought @charliebrake dad a present' following by crying with laughter emojis. Meet the parents: During her break away in Europe, Ellie proved she had nailed the potentially awkward first meeting with the parents, a loved-up Charlie filmed Ellie dancing up a storm with his father in a bar Recently Charlie - who was dumped from Love Island mid-way through the series - hit back at the show that gained him fame. The reality hunk took to Twitter on Wednesday to slam the ITV2 series for not including the moment he asked Ellie if she would like to be exclusive. His embittered tweet read: 'Just catching up on the final and love how Love Island managed to miss out the part of me asking Ellie to be my girlfriend in the series recap... laughable #favourtism.' She's a through and through Spice Girls fan. On Saturday, Blake Lively shared a throwback photo from a 1997 Spice Girls concert where she dressed up as Baby Spice. 'Pretending to be someone else... since 1997. Thanks @briaaamadrid for the photo of us at the Spice Girls concert. Sorry, not sorry I tricked you into thinking I was @emmaleebunton,' the 30-year-old actress captioned the image. Memory lane: On Saturday, Blake Lively shared a throwback photo from a 1997 Spice Girls concert where she dressed up as Baby Spice Lively was roughly 10-years-old when she dressed up as Emma Bunton, better known as Baby Spice. And little Bria Madrid, now age 24, was totally convinced. 'Found a picture when I was five at my first concert. #SpiceGirls and took a picture with a girl dressed up as Baby Spice who I just realized now was @blakelively,' Madrid tweeted. Spice Girls: Emma Bunton, or Baby Spice, was known for wearing her hair in pigtails and sporting platform shoes Throwback: Lively remembers the concert as if it were yesterday. '@briaaamadrid thanks for the pic and flashback. I was so happy that someone thought I was Baby Spice. I remember this!! I still tell people this story,' she wrote on Instagram Lively, who wore massive platform shoes and a blue dress, remembers the concert as if it were yesterday. '@briaaamadrid thanks for the pic and flashback. I was so happy that someone thought I was Baby Spice. I remember this!! I still tell people this story,' she wrote on Instagram. In an interview with Marie Claire back in 2012, Lively talked about her 'obsession' with the girl group. In an interview with Marie Claire back in 2012, Lively talked about her 'obsession' with the girl group. 'When I was a child I probably should have been medicated about my obsession with the Spice Girls,' she said. 'I had the buffalo shoes and a union jack dress' (Photo taken 2017) 'When I was a child I probably should have been medicated about my obsession with the Spice Girls,' she said. 'I had the buffalo shoes, a customized Baby Spice necklace when I say custom made it was made out of plastic from the local mall and a union jack dress.' Following her rise to fame, Blake eventually met the Spice Girls while having dinner in London. 'I got to hang out with The Spice Girls. It was my lifelong dream. That's it now. I can quit,' she told the magazine. Will.i.am, 43, has weighed in on controversy surrounding Kylie Jenner after the 21-year-old was hailed as the 'youngest-ever self-made billionaire' by Forbes magazine. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph this Sunday, the Black Eyed Peas front-man admitted that the magazine was justified in praising Kylie despite the fact that she grew up in a wealthy family, saying: 'I think Kylie in a way is self-made.' 'But her mum is really self-made. Kris, yeah, she is safe-made. You can't mess with her,' he added. 'Her mum is really self-made!' Will.i.am, 43, has weighed in on controversy surrounding Kylie Jenner after the 21-year-old was hailed as the 'youngest-ever self-made billionaire' by Forbes magazine Will.i.am also gushed about the success of former Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley, enthusing: 'The guy comes from nothing. He has become such a force that even the richest people in the world look to him for guidance.' It comes after fans criticised Forbes magazine featuring Kylie Jenner on the cover of it's recent America's Women Billionaires issue. The publication branded her the 'cosmetics queen', declaring on the cover: 'At 21, she's set to be the youngest-ever self-made billionaire. Welcome to the era of extreme fame leverage.' Did she deserve it? It comes after fans criticised Forbes magazine featuring Kylie Jenner on the cover of it's recent America's Women Billionaires issue Momager: Kris handles her daughter's finance's and public relations for a 10 per cent fee. Last year, that meant Kylie paid her mother $17million (pictured L-R Kris Jenner, Kylie Jenner According to the publication, Kylie - who is set to turn 21 on August 10 - is currently worth an estimated $900million thanks to her cosmetics line. In the story accompanying the cover, Forbes estimated that Kylie's brand Kylie Cosmetics has raked in a whopping $630million since it launched in 2015. 'Even using a conservative multiple, and applying our standard 20% discount, Forbes values her company, which has since added other cosmetics like eye shadow and concealer, at nearly $800 million. Jenner owns 100% of it. Cha-ching! In the story accompanying the cover, Forbes estimated that Kylie's brand Kylie Cosmetics has raked in a whopping $630million since it launched in 2015 'Add to that the millions she's earned from TV programs and endorsing products like Puma shoes and PacSun clothing, and $60 million in estimated after-tax dividends she's taken from her company, and she's conservatively worth $900 million, which along with her age makes her the youngest person on the fourth annual ranking of America's Richest Self-Made Women,' the article reads. According to the article, Kylie employs just seven full-time and five part-time employees at her company, outsourcing production and sales. As with all of her children, Kris handles her daughter's finance's and public relations for a 10 per cent fee. Last year, that meant Kylie paid her mother $17million. She's been working tirelessly on The Project since January. But this week, Lisa Wilkinson took some much needed time off to enjoy a lavish European vacation with husband, Peter FitzSimons. The happy couple started their dream holiday in London, before heading to Paris. Living it up! Lisa Wilkinson has taken some much needed time off The Project to enjoy a lavish European vacation with husband, Peter FitzSimons They're now living it up in Italy, hitting the trendy cliff-side village of Positano on the Amalfi Coast. On Saturday, the 58-year-old shared a photo of herself riding a red fish boat after dining at a local seafood restaurant. 'If you're ever in this part of the world, I can't recommend lunch here highly enough,' she gushed to her followers. 'I can't recommend lunch here highly enough!' On Saturday, the 58-year-old shared a photo of herself riding a red fish boat after dining at a local seafood restaurant Relaxing: Lisa shared a sneaky snap of husband Peter kicking back in the fish boat She then followed up with a photo from Le Sirenuse, a 5-star luxury boutique hotel that she and Peter are staying at. 'View from the stunning @lesirenuse hotel in Positano,' she wrote. Europe is a favourite destination of Lisa's, with the brunette beauty holidaying there in 2015 and 2017. Luxury: The Project panelist posted a photo from Le Sirenuse, a 5-star luxury boutique hotel that she and Peter are staying at French kiss: The happy couple have already hit London and Paris on their latest vacation Lisa and Peter left for their European vacation last month, beginning with a whistle-stop tour of London. In October last year, the couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows at Sydney's Balmoral Beach. Lisa is currently a panelist on Network Ten's The Project, after leaving Channel Nine last year following a pay dispute with management. The government needs to be in the room if it wants to stop a Japanese push to lift a decades-long ban on commercial whaling, Labor says. The opposition is maintaining its call for the coalition to send Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg to attend the International Whaling Commission meeting in September in order to shoot down Japan's proposal. "There is nothing scientific about harpooning a whale, chopping it up and putting it on a plate to eat," Labor Environment spokesman Tony Burke said late on Friday. "The government's words yesterday have little effect if they won't turn up and oppose the proposal on commercial whaling by Japan." Both Labor and the coalition oppose Japan's proposal to lift the moratorium, as well as its continued advocacy of "scientific whaling." In the last two years 660 whales have been slaughtered in the Southern Ocean as part of Japan's ongoing scientific whaling program. "The moratorium on commercial whaling is a critical piece of environmental reform," Mr Burke said. "It needs to be upheld rather than undermined. Any proposal to undermine it needs to be opposed." Labor claims if Mr Frydenberg fails to attend, he risks seeing the re-introduction of commercial whaling. On Thursday, Mr Frydenberg said Australia and Japan shared deep bilateral ties, but disagreed when it came to whaling. "Australia will be calling on like-minded nations to reject Japan's proposal," he said in a joint statement with Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. "The science is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them." Australian political conservatives now have their own social network in cyberspace to share their views and ideas. Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi launched the android app for mobile phones, called A Better Way, at the party's first Queensland conference on Saturday. "It's a way for us and you to interact across the conservative divide. It's a safe space for conservatives, you shouldn't be abused, and it is the future of campaigning," the South Australian senator told the crowd of about 200 in Brisbane. A teenage boy is recovering after he was injured in a street brawl in Melbourne's CBD involving about 30 people, some with weapons. The 16-year-old was injured in the fight that erupted near the entrance to the Target Centre on Bourke Street about 7.30pm on Friday. Shoppers and CBD workers were shocked by the violent scene as what appeared to be two opposing groups of young men brawled. A number of weapons were produced during the fight, including batons and sticks, police said. Police rushed to the scene to break up the fight using capsicum spray. The 16-year-old boy was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and authorities said he is recovering well. Police believe the two groups were known to each other. No arrests have yet been made and police are calling for witnesses as their investigation continues. Australian Aboriginal people would never stop fighting for a permanent constitutional voice in the Australian parliament despite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's rejection of last year's Uluru Statement, Cape York indigenous leader Noel Pearson said. Aboriginal people's presence in Australia for 60,000 years gave them a moral and historical right to an independent body, Mr Pearson said in a speech at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land. "If the Prime Minister tells you: no, it can't be done, what do you do, say okay. You can't be like that, you can't be that weak," he said. Four people have been killed in a horror night on Western Australia's roads. The victims died in three separate crashes between midnight Friday and early Saturday morning. Two were killed when a car rolled on the remote Gibb River Road in the state's north about 11.50pm on Friday. A local doctor and paramedics rushed to the scene to discover the overturned vehicle was also carrying two other adults and two children, one of whom suffered serious injuries and was taken to Kununurra Hospital. Shortly after the crash, a 45-year-old man died when his car left the road and struck a tree in Bullsbrook in Perth's north. About 7.30am on Saturday, another car crashed on the Roe Highway in Forrestfield in the city's southeast. One of three people on board died at the scene while the other two were taken to Royal Perth Hospital. A NSW MP who endured two scandals in one term and only recently rejoined the government will not contest his marginal seat at the next election. Liberal member Glenn Brookes on Saturday said the decision not to recontest East Hills at the March 2019 election was not taken lightly. "It is time to hand over the reigns to the next person so I can spend more time with my wife Kharen and our boys Zach and Josh," he said. The western Sydney MP only rejoined the parliamentary Liberal party last year after moving to the crossbench when his 2015 election campaign manager was charged over an alleged smear campaign. The campaign manager was later acquitted. Mr Brookes was later caught up in a donation scandal after he made a donation of $50,000 to a Liberal Party bank account ahead of the 2015 election. The party, which never declared it as a donation, was ordered by the Supreme Court in February to pay it with interest to the NSW Electoral Commission. Mr Brookes became the first non-Labor member for East Hills in 58 years after winning by less than 500 votes in 2011. A 2013 redistribution reduced his margin further but he successfully held off Labor's Cameron Murphy by the seat by 372 votes to win a second term. Today's Birthday August 5: Former Australian prime minister Harold Holt (1908-1967). Friends and relatives of Harold Holt gathered late last year to mark 50 years since Australia's 17th prime minister went for a swim at a Victorian beach and never returned. The 59-year-old leader sparked then the nation's largest ever search mission after disappearing at Portsea's Cheviot Beach on December 17, 1967. He was believed drowned but Holt's body was never found and conspiracy theories abounded, including one in which he was a Chinese spy and secreted away on a submarine. But his grandson Robert Holt dismissed the story as a work of fiction. "If you look at the beach here and how shallow it is, the idea that a submarine could have got in here is absolute madness," he told the Nine Network at the 50th-anniversary event overlooking Cheviot Beach. Born in Stanmore, Sydney in 1908, Holt had lived in the regional NSW town of Nubba, Adelaide and Melbourne all by age 12 and later went to school at Wesley College before completing a University of Melbourne law degree in 1930. He worked as a solicitor before falling in a head-to-head battle with former prime minister James Scullin for Melbourne's federal seat of Yarra in 1934 and also unsuccessfully contested the state election that year. But, not to be discouraged, Holt found his way to Canberra at age 27 after the United Australia Party candidate won the seat of Fawkner in 1935. The up-and-coming politician, dubbed "Young Harold" by mentor and long-serving prime minister Robert Menzies, went on to spend more than three decades in parliament. In 1940, the assistant minister enlisted in the AIF following the outbreak of World War II, but returned home after five months on Menzies' request. After serving in several ministerial positions such as treasurer, immigration, labour and national service, Holt replaced Menzies as prime minister upon his resignation in 1966. Holt's brief 23 months in office are remembered for his dismantling of the White Australia policy, the census referendum to count indigenous Australians and his support of the US and Vietnam War - coining the phrase that Australia was "All the Way with LBJ". An inquest into Holt's death - opened 36 years after his disappearance - ruled in 2005 that he simply drowned. Parramatta playmaker Corey Norman wants his battling club to attack a testing bunch of NRL games, as they look for more opportunities to belt out their revamped club song and avoid the wooden spoon. The 28-12 win over Gold Coast at ANZ Stadium on Saturday improved the last-placed Eels' hopes of avoiding a third spoon in seven seasons. Five-eighth Norman's opportunistic 75th-minute try clinched the win which put last-placed Parramatta level on points with North Queensland and Manly, though the latter had still to play on Sunday. It will be no easy feat for Parramatta to add to their meagre tally of five wins, given the quality of opposition they will face over the final four rounds. Their run home includes matches against the Dragons, Roosters and Storm, all of who were in the top four after Saturday's games, plus a potential wooden spoon decider away to the Cowboys. "We've just got to attack it, playing three of the top eight teams it's exciting,' Norman told AAP. "We've got to go to the challenge, you get excited when you play the best teams." Norman insisted he hadn't been distracted in the leadup to Saturday's games by reports Gold Coast chairman Darryl Kelly told News Corp Australia that he wasn't a good fit for the Titans' culture. "You're wise enough to keep your head out of the press and worry about what you can control and what you need to do," Norman said. He is contracted to Parramatta for next year though speculation continues about where he will play in 2019. "I'm still contacted here and I'm sure if anything else changes, everyone will know about it, I'm still here next year,' Norman said. Following the win over the Titans, the Eels let rip with the new version of the club song organised by young five-eighth Jaeman Salmon, who made his NRL debut against Gold Coast off the bench. "The last couple of years we've been singing the same song and Salmon said 'why don't we try this song?' and it's a bit more upbeat and it's good and we all get involved," Norman said. "We tried it at training and it didn't go too well, but tonight it went well. "It's totally different. I couldn't tell you what the lyrics are, but it's got a good little chant in there and it gets everyone going." The family of an Australian soldier saved from a New Zealand mountain after a week in the cold has thanked rescuers and medical crews. Lieutenant Terry Harch was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital from Mt Aspiring on the South Island on Friday - a week after his ascent began. Lt Harch used his military training and mountaineering skills to shelter from the cold until help reached his emergency beacon. He was found in good spirits after waving down his rescuers. "We would particularly like to thank the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre, Wanaka Alpine Cliff Rescue and Mount Cook Cliff Rescue for their work in saving his life," his family, in a statement issued by the Department of Defence, said on Sunday. "Without these rescue services and their dedicated staff, he might not have survived." Lt Harch's family thanked the medical staff who are treating him for what is understood to be is mild frostbite on his hands and dehydration. "Mr Harch wishes to return to his duties as an officer in the Australian Army as quickly as possible," the statement says. An experienced climber, Lt Harch had previously scaled Mt Cook for charity. He is thought to have left his heavier gear behind to make a quick ascent - not unusual practice - before being caught out by the weather. The US government has faced intense criticism over the separation of families at its southern border The federal judge who ordered the reunification of families separated at the southern US border said Friday it was the government's responsibility to locate parents deported without their children. According to government figures submitted to the court Thursday, 410 of the 572 immigrant children still under government care have parents -- or another associated adult -- outside of the United States. "Many of these parents were removed from the country without their child; all of this is the result of the government's separation and then inability and failure to track and reunite," US District Judge Dana Sabraw told a telephonic status conference from his San Diego office, according to US media reports. "And the reality is that for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanent orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration." Sabraw ordered that the government put someone in charge of the "significant undertaking" to find the adults. So far, only 13 parents have been located. "The judge is refusing to let the government off the hook for the mess it made," said lawyer Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sued the government over the separations which resulted from the "zero tolerance" immigration policy. The government, meanwhile, said in a court-ordered joint status report filed Thursday that the ACLU should use its "considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers and others" to find deported parents and orchestrate reunification. The rights group said it had made clear that it would help however it could, but that "the government must bear the ultimate burden of finding the parents." "Not only was it the government's unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States government has far more resources than any group of NGOs," it said in the report. Gelernt also accused Washington of holding back information that could help locate the deported parents. "Every day the government has sat on this information has been another day of suffering for these families," he said. Sabraw had ordered on June 26 that all children under five years of age be reunited with their guardians by July 10, and all other children by July 26. The government said it had met that deadline, but children remained in custody because family ties had not been confirmed, or the parent had a criminal record, a communicable disease or could not be found. As ministers gathered for a photo at the meeting in the city-state, Pompeo went over to greet his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho North Korea on Saturday said the US was acting with "alarming" impatience on the issue of denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang. The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers. At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and Washington has become concerned that some UN member states are easing sanctions. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho criticised US impatience on denuclearisation. "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," he said, according to a statement. Since the June agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", he said. "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the North's official name. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Earlier at the same forum, Pompeo said he was emphasizing "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea" but also said that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation. At Saturday's meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, said the State Department. On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached sanctions by granting work permits to North Korean workers. During meetings with other foreign ministers in Singapore, Pompeo said he had called specifically for sanctions to be enforced through halting ship-to-ship oil transfers. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. US pastor Andrew Brunson was moved to house arrest in Turkey last week following nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday he was hopeful there would be progress towards freeing an American pastor whose detention in Turkey has sparked a diplomatic crisis. His upbeat tone came despite talks on Friday with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu having failed to end the standoff surrounding Pastor Andrew Brunson, with Ankara warning that sanctions imposed by Washington would not work. Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most serious crises in relations between the NATO allies in years. The pastor was moved to house arrest last week after nearly two years in jail on terror-related charges, but the change only increased tensions. The US responded to the failure to fully free Brunson by hitting two top Turkish ministers with sanctions, prompting Ankara to threaten reciprocal measures. At a press conference Saturday, Pompeo insisted he had a "constructive conversation" with Cavusoglu on Friday on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Singapore. "I made it clear that it is well past time that Pastor Brunson should be freed and be permitted to return to the United States, and the others being held by Turkey also similarly must be freed as well," he said. "I'm very hopeful that we will make progress on that in the days and weeks ahead," he added. However Cavusoglu struck a less positive tone after his meeting with Pompeo, also calling the talks constructive but warning that threats and sanctions would not work. Apart from Brunson, two Turkish employees of US consulates in Turkey are also currently in jail on terror charges and another is under house arrest, while several Americans have been caught up in the crackdown that followed a failed 2016 coup. The standoff appears to be one of the most serious fallouts between the two NATO allies in modern history, along with the rows over the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Pompeo insisted Saturday Washington would continue to work with Ankara despite the row. Turkey "is a NATO partner with whom the United States has every intention of continuing to work cooperatively", he said. Israeli warships manoeuvre at Ashdod naval base on the Mediterraean coast on July 29, 2018, as the military intercepts a first vessel in the "Freedom Flotilla" attempting to breach the more than decade-long blockade of Gaza The Israeli navy intercepted a Swedish-flagged activist boat bent on breaching its more than decade-long blockade of Gaza, the second in less than a week, the military said on Saturday. "The ship was monitored and was intercepted in accordance with international law," the military said in a statement, before the vessel, named Freedom for Gaza and carrying 12 people, was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. "The (military) clarified to the ship's passengers that they are violating the legal naval blockade and that any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod," the statement said. The people on board were taken for "further inquiry". The organisers of the flotilla said the boat, which was carrying medical supplies, was intercepted in international waters. "The demands of Ship to Gaza are that the ship with its crew and cargo will be returned to the site of the boarding, and that they will be allowed to go in peace through international and Palestinian waters in accordance to international law," they said in a statement. "This is a demand that the eleven years-long illegal and destructive blockade on Gaza will be lifted at last." Freedom was the second boat of the "Freedom Flotilla" to be intercepted en route to "break the blockade" on Gaza, organisers said. Four boats left from Scandinavia in mid-May and stopped in some 28 ports along the way, with two remaining behind after a recent stop in the Italian port of Palermo. On Sunday, the Israeli navy intercepted a Norwegian-flagged activist boat that was part of the flotilla. Israel has fought three wars with Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008 and says the blockade is necessary to keep them from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. UN officials have called for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave run by Islamist movement Hamas where 80 percent of the two million population are dependent on aid. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system Iran protesters have attacked a religious school in Karaj province near Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported on Saturday. "At 9 pm (1530 GMT on Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Ishtehad, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying. It gave only his clerical rank -- Hojatoleslam -- not his given name. "They were about 500 people and they chanted against the system but they were dispersed by the riot police and some have been arrested," Hindiani said. Iranian authorities have barely mentioned days of protests in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran, driven by concerns over the economy as well as wider anger at the political system. During past unrest, conservative outlets have focused on attacks against sensitive symbols such as religious buildings as a way of tarnishing the protests. Videos on social media in recent days have shown people chanting "Death to the dictator", but these have been impossible to verify and the authorities have charged that they are promoted by emigre opposition groups funded by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Describing the attack on Friday evening, Hindiani said: "These people came with rocks and broke the sign and all the windows of the prayer house and they were chanting against the system." Foreign media are barred from observing or filming "unauthorised" protests. The videos on social media suggest protests in recent days are far from the scale of the unrest seen in December and January, when at least 25 people were killed in demonstrations that spread to dozens of towns and cities. Students could be seen clashing with unidentified men who wielded clubs and stones More than 100 people were injured in Bangladesh Saturday after police fired rubber bullets at students protesters, a doctor and witnesses said, a major escalation in a stand-off between the government and demonstrators. For the last week students have brought parts of the capital Dhaka to a standstill with a protest against poor road safety after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government. On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka's Jigatala neighborhood. Witnesses said police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and that alleged pro-government activists attacked youngsters, including some of those rushing to nearby hospitals for treatment. Police denied they fired rubber bullets or tear gas at the protesters. "It's not true. Nothing happened at Jigatola," Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP. However hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously. "We have treated more than 115 injured students so far since the afternoon," emergency ward doctor Abdus Shabbir told AFP, adding some sported injuries consistent with rubber bullets. "A few of them were in very bad condition," he added. A protester said students were holding protests peacefully on the road when they were attacked. "We all are feeling threatened here. We wanted a peaceful protest. We don't want any trouble occurring around here. Yet rubber bullets were shot at our brothers," Sabbir Hossain, a student, said. Road transport minister Obaidul Quader rejected allegations that party cadres from the ruling Awami League party had attacked the students. He said the party office which was close to Jigatala was vandalised by some unidentified youths, dressed in school uniforms, moments before the clashes erupted. An AFP photographer at the scene of one the clashes saw students and unidentified young adult men fighting with sticks and rocks, leaving several wounded. - Growing discontent - The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009, but in recent months it has been shaken by mass protests demanding an end to a decades-old system of discriminatory civil service recruitment. Several powerful ministers have pleaded with students to return to their classes, amid worries the unprecedented teen outrage could turn into widespread anti-government protests ahead of general elections due later this year. Students have been protesting for a week over road safety standards after two teens were killed by a speeding bus But their pleas have had little effect. Earlier on Saturday thousands of students wearing school uniforms defied rain to block major intersections in the capital for the seventh consecutive day. Teens as young as 13 were seen on Dhaka's notoriously clogged roadways checking whether cars and buses had valid licenses and were in a roadworthy condition. "We won't leave the roads until our demands are met. We want safe roads and safe drivers," said protester Al Miran. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, only poured oil onto the fire earlier in the week. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister's resignation despite his subsequent apology. The education ministry shut down high schools on Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for road safety reforms would be considered. Dhaka suffers from daily gridlock but congestion has been exacerbated by blockades set up across the city since Sunday. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. Palestinian protesters and rescuers carry a wounded protester during a demonstration at the Israel-Gaza border on August 3, 2018 A Palestinian teen died of his wounds Saturday a day after he was shot by Israeli troops during clashes on the Gaza border, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said. Muadh al-Suri, 15, was shot in the stomach on Friday in central Gaza, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, raising the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire during those clashes to two, with over 200 wounded. According to the Israeli army, some 8,000 Gazans had gathered at different spots along the frontier Friday, attempting to sabotage the Israeli border fence. A number of Palestinians "infiltrated" Israel and threw firebombs and "an explosive device" before returning to Gaza, it said. Another Palestinian, 25-year-old Ahmed Yaghi, was killed by a sniper east of Gaza City on Friday. Yaghi and Suri were buried on Saturday. A Palestinian woman mourns over the death of 15-year-old Muadh al-Suri who was killed during clashes with Israeli forces the day before along the Gaza-Israel border At least 159 Palestinians have been killed in border demonstrations that began at the end of March, while one Israeli soldier has been shot dead. Palestinians have also flown balloons and kites carrying incendiary devices across the border, starting hundreds of fires inside Israel. On Saturday, the Israeli army said aircraft had fired at "terrorist squads" launching "arson balloons" at Israel in two separate instances, from northern and southern Gaza. Palestinian sources said drones were used by the army but that no one was wounded. Meanwhile, the leadership of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was to meet for a second consecutive day on Saturday amid speculation of a long-term truce between the Gaza Strip's rulers and Israel. They convened late Friday in Gaza, for the first meeting of its kind by Hamas's political bureau, but ne details of the talks have emerged and Hamas officials did not reply to requests for information. The meetings were expected to deal with UN and Egyptian proposals for a truce with Israel and lifting the blockade imposed on the Palestinian enclave, according to a senior Hamas source. Israel had on Thursday reimposed a blockade on fuel supplies to the enclave in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites and balloons across the border. With borders to both Egypt and Israel largely sealed in recent years, Gaza suffers from desperately high rates of poverty and unemployment. Israel insists its blockade is necessary to isolate Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, with which it has fought three wars since 2008. Critics say it amounts to collective punishment of the coastal territory's two million residents. There are fears that a simmering trade spat between the world's top two economies could spiral into a full-blown trade war -- with painful consequences for China's neighbours Asian countries have voiced concern about the potentially devastating impact of a US-China trade war, with ministers calling for the acceleration of talks for a gigantic Beijing-backed free-trade deal that excludes the United States. Fear that a simmering trade spat between the world's top two economies could spiral into a full-blown trade war -- with painful consequences for China's neighbours -- was among topics dominating discussion at a regional summit in Singapore on Saturday. Tit-for-tat tariffs have fuelled months of tensions that were notched up Friday as Beijing threatened to impose levies on $60 billion of American goods, from beef to condoms. The measures, which the White House ridiculed as "weak" but China said were "fully justified", came after Washington said it would increase the rate of additional tariffs on Chinese goods worth $200 billion. China-US trade in goods The prospect of a trade war is a "real threat" to Asian countries, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters Saturday on the sidelines of the summit. "The threat is making many countries very concerned and... is becoming more complex," he said. Other top Asian diplomats at Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), spoke out against protectionism, warning that it places the region's development in jeopardy. "Rising anti-globalisation and trade protectionism among major countries is fuelling tensions and threatening our aspirations for sustained economic growth," said South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. Countries in the region must "explore creative ways to further deepen and broaden our cooperation", in the face of such challenges, she said. Some ministers have called for the early conclusion of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a 16-nation pact poised to become the world's largest free-trade agreement, covering about half the global population. The planned RCEP deal would group the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. - 'Protectionism on the rise' - But it would not include the United States, which had been leading another regional trade pact -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- until US President Donald Trump abruptly abandoned it last year. Even with the lure to access to the world's largest economy withdrawn, the eleven remaining TPP countries, who make up 13.5 percent of the global economy, signed a slimmed-down version of the pact in March. It cuts tariffs and requires members to comply with a high level of regulatory standards in areas like labour law and environmental protection. RCEP also aims to cut tariffs but has far less regulatory standards attached than TPP. Nonetheless, Washington's abandonment of TPP has given the RCEP negotiations a fresh shot in the arm. "Given the current global situation where protectionism is on the rise, Japan would like to achieve a swift conclusion of our RCEP negotiations," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said he hoped the RCEP pact would be complete by the end of the year, while Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan urged countries facing "headwinds against free trade" to rally together. The US imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in early July, sparking retaliatory measures from China. Days later, Washington unveiled a list of another $200 billion in Chinese goods from electrical machinery to seafood that would be hit with 10 percent import duties. Trump upped the ante this week by threatening to lift the tariff rate to 25 percent. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the US position and hit back at China. "President Trump inherited an unfair trade regime where American workers and American companies were not treated reciprocally by the Chinese," he said Saturday. "Efforts of the Trump administration are to right that, to correct it, to adjust that." The Taliban denied involvement but in recent years the Islamic State group has carried out attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan Hundreds of mourners Saturday buried the victims of a twin suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, as the death toll rose to 35, officials said. Two suicide bombers dressed as women struck a Shiite mosque in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, Friday as it was crowded with worshippers for weekly prayers. The burqa-clad attackers shot at the mosque's security guards before opening fire on worshippers then detonating their explosives. "The death toll from Friday's mosque attack in Gardez has jumped to 35 with 94 wounded," Paktia governor Shamim Khan Katawazi told AFP. Provincial police chief Raz Mohammad Mandozai confirmed the toll. Officials had earlier said 29 people were killed and more than 80 wounded. "Today, we held funeral ceremony and buried all the martyred of Friday's attack," a weeping Sayed Moharram, who lost his 16-year old son, told AFP from a graveyard on the outskirts of Gardez where hundreds of people attended the ceremony. "It is very difficult for me to accept my son is no more with me," he said. Hundreds of people attended the funeral ceremony at a graveyard on the outskirts of Gardez Haji Sultan, 70, who also attended the burials, accused the government of "negligence" in providing security for the Shiite minority. "The enemies of Afghanistan want to create division by carrying out attacks on Shiite people, but they cannot win, it will further increase hatred towards the enemies," he said. The Islamic State group, which in recent years has carried out attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the US-based SITE intelligence group reported, citing the IS propaganda channel Amaq. The Taliban denied involvement. "Around 150 Shiites and security force members were killed and wounded yesterday in an attack that targeted a place of worship for Shiites in the town of Gardez in Paktia in the east of Afghanistan," Amaq reported. The attack comes as urban areas across Afghanistan have been rocked by a surge in violence in recent months, with both Islamic State and Taliban insurgents targeting security forces and government installations. The Taliban had not claimed a major attack in a city for weeks as they come under increased pressure to agree to peace talks with the Afghan government. But IS has carried out multiple attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad and the capital Kabul in recent months, targeting everything from government ministries to a midwife training centre. Last month an IS suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar. The uptick in violence comes as US and Afghan forces intensify ground and air offensives against IS, and the Taliban step up their turf war with the group. Earlier this week more than 150 IS fighters surrendered in northern Afghanistan -- in a move that Afghan security forces and the Taliban hailed as the end of the extremist group in the north of the country. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefly met North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at the summit North Korea on Saturday said the US was acting with "alarming" impatience on the issue of denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang. The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a new UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers. At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and concerns have been growing that some UN member states have been easing sanctions. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho insisted North Korea stood "firm in its determination and commitment" to implement the June agreement signed in Singapore. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union But he criticised the US for undermining confidence in the process: "What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention." Since the June agreement, Pyongyang had taken "goodwill measures", including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and "dismantling a nuclear test ground", he said, according to a statement. - Sanctions worries - "However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the North's official name. "As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added. Ri also accused the US of "extremely inappropriate" behaviour by putting pressure on other countries not to send high-level delegations to celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of North Korea in September. It was not the first time the North has appeared unhappy at what it sees at US impatience to push them quickly along the path of denuclearisation. On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached the measures by granting work permits to North Korean workers When Pompeo met with North Korean officials in Pyongyang last month to flesh out the regime's commitment, they condemned his "gangster-like" insistence that the North move towards unilateral disarmament. Earlier at the same forum, Pompeo said he was emphasising to countries "the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea" but also said that he was "optimistic" about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation. Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. As well as the US and North Korea, it includes foreign ministers from China, Russia, South Korea and Japan, all countries traditionally involved in efforts to curtail the North's nuclear ambition. At the meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Trump intended for Kim, by passing it to Ri, Pompeo said in a tweet. It was Trump's reply to a letter he received from Kim earlier this week, he said. - All smiles - Pompeo also briefly met the North's foreign minister Saturday. The US top diplomat went over to greet him at a joint photo of ministers ahead of the day's main forum, with the pair shaking hands, smiling and exchanging some words. It is not the first time the North has appeared unhappy at what it sees at US impatience to push them quickly along the path of denuclearisation While the encounter was brief, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert described it as a "step in the right direction" given where US-North Korea relations were a year ago, as tensions soared due to the North's weapons tests. Pompeo had already left the forum to fly to the next stop on his trip, Indonesia, when Ri delivered his fiery statement, she said. On sanctions, Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached the measures by granting work permits to North Korean workers. During meetings with other foreign ministers in Singapore, Pompeo said he had called specifically for sanctions to be enforced through halting ship-to-ship oil transfers. Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang. Yemeni men inspect a factory allegedly targeted in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, in the Red Sea city of Hodeida on July 27, 2018 A member of the political wing of Yemen's Huthi rebels said Saturday the insurgents were willing to attend UN-brokered talks, although they had low expectations of a positive outcome. Salim Meghles said the Ansarullah (Supporters of God) political wing is "not opposed to such consultations" which are aimed at "reaching a general framework for negotiations". "We are not opposed to travelling to any neutral country to take part in such consultations," he told AFP. The UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, on Thursday told the Security Council that the United Nations will invite Yemen's warring sides for talks in Geneva on September 6 to discuss a framework for peace negotiations. Meghles cast doubt over the expected meeting saying he did not sense "any serious or real stance by the aggressors towards reaching a political solution". He was referring to the Saudi-led coalition that has intervened in Yemen since 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government to power, which has been driven out of the capital Sanaa by the rebels. A government official on Friday said the Saudi-backed government was ready to attend the Geneva talks. The war in the impoverished country has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khaled al-Falih, pictured in Riyadh on April 17, 2017 Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it was resuming oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, ending a 10-day suspension triggered by rebel attacks off the coast of Yemen. The decision came after measures by a Saudi-led military coalition to "ensure the security of navigation in this strait and in the Red Sea", said Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khaled al-Falih, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency. Measures had been taken "in coordination with the international community", Falih added, without providing further details. Bab al-Mandab is a crucial shipping lane between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. On July 26, Saudi Arabia said it was temporarily suspending oil shipments through Bab al-Mandab after two oil tankers operated by Saudi shipping group Bahri were attacked, slightly damaging one vessel. Saudi leads a coalition backing Yemen's government in a war against Huthi rebels. The pro-Huthi Al-Masirah television said at the time that the rebels had targeted a Saudi warship named Al-Dammam, without providing further details. The Huthis are backed by Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran in Yemen's conflict and retain control of the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran his country would join military action to stop Tehran if it attempted to block the strait. "If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this. This coalition would also include the state of Israel and all its arms," Netanyahu said. About 4.8 million barrels of oil and petroleum products pass through the strait every day, according to US government figures. North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho arrives for a group photo at the ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat during the 51st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Singapore on August 4, 2018 North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho is due to visit Iran on Tuesday, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Ri is set to jet in as the United States reimposes sanctions on Iran following Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 deal to curb Tehran's nuclear programme. The US is currently also pushing Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear capabilities after President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un agreed a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" at their landmark summit in June. North Korea's top diplomat will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to the conservative-aligned Fars news agency. The report did not give any details of what will be discussed. Ri is thought to have met with a high-level Iranian delegation at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Azerbaijan in April, according to the Korean Central News Agency. A North Korean delegation also attended President Hassan Rouhani's inauguration in August 2017. A United Nations Panel of Experts has expressed concern over collaboration between the two countries in the past, according to NK News. In a 2017 report, it noted the presence of designated North Korean weapons traffickers living in Tehran and the similarity between missile designs in the two countries. An Iraqi man uses a shovel on a dry field in an area affected by drought in the Mishkhab region, central Iraq, on July 2, 2018 Areas under cultivation in Iraq have halved this summer compared to last year due to a drought that has led to a ban on water intensive crops, the government said. "If we take the cultivated area for 2018, it is down 50 percent compared to 2017", Deputy Agriculture Minister Mahdi al-Qaisi told AFP. In an unprecedented move, the government in June suspended farming of rice, corn and other cereals that require major irrigation. Losses for families long dependent on rice production will reach 34 million euros ($39 million) this year, according to the authorities. The staple usually yields 100,000 tonnes per year. The drought has also hit livestock, with herds in southern Iraq dwindling by 30 percent, as cattle die of thirst or are sold for meat in greater volumes than usual. In the southern province of Zi Qar, more than 400 farming families have left their villages to settle or roam in better irrigated areas, according to local officials. While Iraq is often known as the "land of two rivers" -- the Euphrates and Tigris cross its territory -- the country's water resources have diminished in recent years. Reservoirs are at around 10 percent of their capacity. Beyond this year's dramatic lack of rain, experts say a central reason for Iraq's drought is the regional sharing of water resources. Neighbouring Turkey and Iran have in recent years both rerouted cross-border water sources they share with Iraq. Former DR Congo warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba is heading back to Belgium after filing his candidacy for December's presidential election Ex-rebel DR Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba will head back to Europe after returning to the African country this week to launch his bid for the presidency in December's long-delayed elections, a leader of his party said Saturday. The former DRC vice president arrived in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday after 11 years abroad -- a decade of it behind bars -- and on Thursday officially launched his bid to succeed long-serving President Joseph Kabila. Bemba, 55, then arrived in the town of Gemena in his stronghold in the northwest on Saturday. "Senator Bemba is coming back tomorrow (Sunday) to Kinshasa and immediately leaves for Brussels," Jacques Djoli, a leader of Bemba's MLC party, told AFP. "His next visit to DRC is scheduled for September to take part in work in the Senate and further electoral activities," Djoli added. Bemba was acquitted of war-crimes charges in June by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Now a senator, he had been in Belgium -- the DRC's former colonial power -- since his acquittal. Another rival of Kabila, opposition leader Moise Katumbi, is attempting to launch his own bid for the presidential election, ahead of the August 8 cut-off date for candidates to submit their applications. Analysts say Bemba's return has introduced even more uncertainty into an already volatile election process. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. On Saturday, a pro-Kabila group said it was making "final adjustments" before it chooses its candidate for the December 23 presidential election. A neo-Nazi sympathizer killed a protester when he rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racism demonstrators in Charlottesville last year Police in Portland, Oregon braced for violence at a rally Saturday by two far-right groups that has raised fears of a replay of last year's deadly "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. "It is particularly troubling to me that individuals are posting publicly their intent to act out violently," Ted Wheeler, mayor of the Northwestern US city, said in a statement Friday. "We don't want this here." Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, right-wing groups linked to violence at a previous Portland rally, planned to march in the city's Tom McCall Waterfront Park in support of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who is running as a Republican for the US Senate. Meanwhile, a group called Popular Mobilization is organizing a counter-demonstration at the park, accompanied by a marching band and protesters in clown costumes. On the event's Facebook page, organizers said they "make no apologies for the use of force in keeping our communities safe from the scourge of right-wing violence." Riana Goren, an analyst with the Anti-Defamation League, told HuffPost that discussion about confronting counter-protesters has been taking place online "for weeks." Police have warned protesters to leave their guns at home even though holders of valid Oregon concealed-handgun licenses are permitted to carry their weapons at the park. They said police will screen people for weapons at entrances to the park, and explosive-sniffing dogs will also be brought in. "The potent combination of bigotry and violence on the streets of Portland poses a serious threat to community safety, and particularly to residents who are people of color, women and LGBTQ," said a statement from the Western States Center, signed by around 40 activist groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that monitors extremism, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have appeared together at several rallies in the Pacific Northwest since 2017. A rally on June 30 was declared a riot and shut down by police after marchers and counter-protesters clashed, leaving several people injured. Banners are seen in support of President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, who has promised to step down but still wields influence over who his successor might be Supporters of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila were making "final adjustments" on Saturday, four days before they must choose their candidate for a December 23 presidential election, a government spokesman said. "We are not talking about an heir apparent to please foreigners. Our platform's candidate for the Common Front for Congo (FCC) will be known by August 8," Lambert Mende told AFP. "We are making the final adjustments," said Mende, stressing consultations had to be made with various groups under the umbrella of the FCC. The FCC is a "grand political electoral coalition" created by the cabinet earlier this year "to provide support for a single candidate" for the elections. It has named Kabila as its "moral authority". Mende stated that "everything is being undertaken without foreign interference as we absolutely insist that our country's next leaders are chosen by the Congolese themselves." There has been fierce speculation that Kabila, who has been in power since 2001 and is ineligible to run again, will seek another term. Kabila told lawmakers last month he would respect a constitutional bar on standing again in a vote which has been much delayed in the vast mineral-rich country. It was scheduled to take place two years ago and will finally go ahead after dozens have died in repeated anti-Kabila protests. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Kabila has asked each group forming part of the FCC to propose four names meeting 11 criteria from whom he will designate his choice as the best candidate to go forward. Former rebel chief and former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, freshly acquitted of war-crimes convictions in The Hague, who flew back to the capital Kinshasa this week to lodge his candidacy. But the authorities have barred wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga Moise Katumbi, who was turned back at the border after being charged with offences against state security. The cut-off date for candidates to submit their applications is August 8. Claims by the military that Boko Haram has been defeated may be somewhat optimistic At least five people were killed and a village razed in an attack by Boko Haram jihadists in the northern Nigerian Borno state, militia fighting the Islamists told AFP Saturday. Arriving in 10 trucks, the Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Gasarwa near the garrison town of Monguno late Friday, setting homes on fire. "Five people were killed in the arson, they included two elderly men and three children," Babakura Kolo, a militia leader in the Borno state capital Maiduguri said. Militia defending the village said they were outnumbered and outgunned. Militia member Ibrahim Liman said the Boko Haram attackers watched food supplies and livestock burn in the fire but made no attempt to loot. It was not clear which Boko Haram faction was behind the attacks, but jihadists loyal to IS-affiliated Abu Mus'ab Al-Barnawi are known to operate in the area. Boko Haram has intensified its armed campaign in recent weeks, especially against military targets in which dozens of troops were believed to have been killed or gone missing. At the end of July, a group of jihadists in five trucks sacked a military post in nearby Bunari village, with a military source claiming 11 troops were killed. The attacks appear to undermine repeated claims by the military that Boko Haram had been defeated. DRC opposition leader Moise Katumbi who is trying to return home so that he can submit his candidacy before the August 8 deadline for presidential elections in December DR Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi on Saturday again attempted to return home via the border with Zambia, his supporters said. "Nothing can stop a Congolese citizen from returning to his own country," tweeted his spokesman Olivier Kamitatu, adding that he was with him at the Kasumbalesa crossing, which borders Katumbi's home Katanga province on the DR Congo side. "He is at the border in the process of completing formalities on the Zambian side," Delly Sesanga, secretary-general of Katumbi's Ensemble (Together) coalition, told AFP. Earlier, Katumbi said he was determined to try again to return home to run in presidential elections after being turned back at the frontier on Friday. His supporters said they would go to the town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border, to meet Katumbi and bring him back so he could submit his election candidacy by the deadline on Wednesday. Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila who has ruled DRC for 17 years. He had planned to fly by private jet from Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, to lodge his application to stand in long-delayed elections in December -- a move that would heap pressure on Kabila. But the city's mayor refused him entry, while the public prosecutor's office said Katumbi had been charged with "harming the state's domestic and external security" and would be arrested if he returned. A journalist with the French radio network RFI confirmed that Katumbi instead arrived at the Zambian border post of Kasumbalesa. Videos posted online by his aides and others showed him on the Zambian side of the border, greeting hundreds of supporters from his car. "The regime forbids me from landing and barricades the border... My crime? Wanting to enter my country and file my candidacy," Katumbi wrote on Twitter. "By trying to block me, they want to remove from Congolese their right to real elections. I will fight," he added. On the Congolese side of the border, security forces responded to protesters who were throwing stones in the air, Congolese police said, adding that a Tanzanian truck driver was slightly injured. Another rival of Kabila, former warlord and ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, 55, returned home this week. He officially launched his bid for the presidency on Thursday. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. Kabila has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. Members of the Israeli Druze community wave Druze and Israeli flags as they demonstrate to protest against the 'Jewish Nation-State Law' in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Tens of thousands of Israeli Druze and their supporters rallied in central Tel Aviv Saturday to protest a new law they say makes them second-class citizens. The law, which passed last month and is part of Israel's so-called basic laws, a de facto constitution, proclaims the country the nation state of the Jewish people. It makes no mention of equality or democracy, implying the country's Jewish character takes precedence, and speaks of Israel as the historic homeland of the Jews, who have a "unique" right to self-determination within its borders. Arabs have strongly criticised the legislation, particularly those from Israel's 130,000-strong Druze community. Druze, unlike other Arabs who may volunteer, are subject to compulsory service in the military or police alongside Jewish Israelis. Holding colourful Druze flags alongside Israeli ones, protestors at Saturday's demonstration, estimated by local media at over 50,000, chanted "equality". "Despite our unlimited loyalty to the state, the state doesn't consider us equals," Israeli Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif said in a speech. Former military general Amal Aad said that senior Druze members of the security establishment like himself "want to retain our Israeli identity, and think the government and its head can fix the law". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had conducted a series of meetings with the Israel's Druze leadership, telling them there was "nothing in this law that infringes on your rights as equal citizens of the state of Israel". But the meetings and implications of new pro-Druze legislation have not eased their discontent, with a number of junior Druze military officers resigning from the Israeli army in protest. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, pictured June 8, 2018, took office in August 2013, promising to promote dialogue with the West and push for the lifting of "unjust" sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme Five years since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office, here are country's key moments under his leadership: - Promising change - Rouhani takes office on August 3, 2013, after being elected with 51 percent of the vote on a moderate platform. He promises to promote dialogue with the West and push for "unjust" sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme to be lifted. He took over from hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose eight-year term had been marked by tensions with foreign powers. As he is formally sworn in on August 4, Rouhani asserts that the only way for Western countries to communicate with Iran is "on an equal footing". - Historic phone call - On September 24, 2013, the Iranian president shakes hands with French President Francois Hollande at the United Nations in New York. Three days later, on September 27, Rouhani speaks to US President Barack Obama on the phone. The conversation is a historic first direct communication between the leaders of the two nations since 1979. - Nuclear deal - On July 14, 2015, Iran seals a landmark nuclear accord with world powers. The deal with the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain puts an end to 13 years of crisis after 21 months of negotiations. Under the accord Tehran agrees to limit its nuclear programme, in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. The agreement comes into force on January 16, 2016. - Syria war - On September 16, 2015, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad acknowledges that Tehran is providing military and economic support. Alongside Russia, Iran is a key ally of Assad's regime in Syria's devastating conflict which erupted in 2011. But unlike Moscow, Tehran denies sending professional forces and instead says it has only provided military advisors and organised brigades made up of volunteers. - Split with Saudi Arabia - In January 2016, Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran. The crisis comes after Riyadh executes a prominent Shiite cleric, after which a Saudi embassy and consulate are attacked in Iran. Riyadh accuses Tehran of interfering in the affairs of Arab countries and fanning the flames of regional conflicts. - Rouhani re-elected - On May 19, 2017, Rouhani is re-elected for a second four-year term with 57 percent of the vote. He is backed by reformers and young Iranians, but he faces accusations of not keeping his campaign promises on social and economic affairs. On December 28, hundreds of protesters rally in Iran's second city Mashhad, while demonstrations take place in other cities against price rises, unemployment and the government. The unrest spreads to dozens of towns and cities, turning violent with at least 25 people killed. - Trump quits nuclear deal - On May 8, 2018, Obama's successor Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Washington announces sanctions will be imposed once again on Tehran and companies doing business with Iran. On July 22, Rouhani warns the US not to "play with the lion's tail", saying that conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars". Trump responds on Twitter with an all-caps tirade, telling Rouhani not to threaten the US. "OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," he wrote. - Further protests - On August 3, Iranian protesters attack a religious school in a province near to Tehran. Days of demonstrations in the country's major cities see Iranians voice concern over water, while expressing anger at the worsening economy as US sanctions approach. Ishmail Kumire, 41, was one of the six victims of Wednesday's bloody chaos, sparked when troops fired on opposition activists protesting alleged electoral fraud The four children of a fruit-seller gunned down by Zimbabwean soldiers in post-election violence wept uncontrollably at the sight of their father lying in a casket under a baking sun. Ishmael Kumire, 41, was one of the six victims of Wednesday's bloody chaos, sparked when troops fired on opposition activists protesting alleged electoral fraud. The father of four, known as "Shuz", was buried Saturday in the village of Chinamhora, 45 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Harare, watched by 200 mourners. His fellow vendors swept into the yard of his home, packed into a minibus emblazoned with the words "I am blessed", alighting drumming and dancing. Women hunched over large cooking pots balanced on fires, preparing food for the mourners. Kumire's death carries a bitter irony. According to his brother Steven Matope, the fruit-seller was not among the opposition protesters angrily claiming that the ruling ZANU-PF had stolen the election. A photo showing Ishmael Kumire, 42, and three of his children is displayed during his funeral ceremony Instead, he was caught up in the violence because he had stayed at the scene of the protest to protect his fruit. "Ishmael was a vendor, he wasn't a political activist," Matope said. "He supported the ruling party -- but then, it's the same ruling party that has killed him." His funeral came a day after ZANU-PF's President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of Zimbabwe's historic elections, the first since veteran autocrat Robert Mugabe was ousted by the military last year. Mnangagwa had hailed the polls as a chance to consign to the past Mugabe's repressive 37-year rule, but Wednesday's crackdown was a brutal reminder of the violence of his era. - 'Killing for no reason' - "If the ruling party is killing the people it is supposed to govern, I don't know who it is going to rule. That's very painful," Matope added. "He was just selling his tomatoes," he said of his brother. Kumire's brother-in-law Ignatious Neshava, who witnessed the shooting, told AFP how soldiers swooped on them as they stood guard over his wares, fearing that $700-worth of freshly-purchased produce would be looted amid the chaos. "He was standing five metres from me... and suddenly I heard gunshots. I thought they were firing rubber bullets," said Neshava. "I turned around and saw Ishmail on the ground, face-down. I saw a cartridge next to him and then, as I tried to turn his body, a soldier came and pointed a gun to my head. "By that time, Ishmail was bleeding profusely." Neshava was sure he was going to be killed too. "How can they deploy soldiers in town, killing people for no apparent reason?" he asked, as the wooden casket was lowered into the ground. - Praying for Zimbabwe - Suspicious Ziyambi, widow of Ishmael Kumire, 42, weeps during her husband's funeral ceremony Local leader Backshow Matope was also in Harare when the violence flared. "I saw one woman being shot dead along Samora Machel Avenue," the 62-year-old said. "It is very painful that this happens shortly after we voted -- what's the point of voting if as soon as you finish voting, your relative is killed?" Kumire's widow Suspicious Ziyambe, 35, described her husband as a doting father. "I have nothing that I'm able to do, I'm unemployed. He didn't want me to work, saying he was able to take care of his family," she said, sobbing. "I can't even take over his job. How am I going to look after these children? Tell me, how? He used to do everything for his children." Kumire's brother Douglas said civilians in Zimbabwe were "like animals in a game park". "We are not protected," the 54-year-old said. "The same soldiers who removed Mugabe and we celebrated are now being sent to kill people after we voted." As opposition leader Nelson Chamisa pressed on with his claim that the election was rigged, Bishop Guide Makore of the Christian Marching Church prayed for divine intervention. "There is a crisis in Zimbabwe. Lord hear our situation, speak to Zimbabwe, speak to the executive, to the judiciary," said the clergyman. "We are appealing to the African Union, to the Southern African Development Community, to the Commonwealth to help come to our rescue." In Harare, Jinty Rubenstein was mourning her brother Gavin Charles, who leaves behind a 13-year-old daughter. "My brother was shot twice, in the arm and in the pelvis -- he was shot like a dog," she said. "He wouldnt hurt a fly. My family fought for this country and they shoot my brother like a dog." US President Donald Trump speaks at a political rally at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on August 2 US President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his controversial use of tariffs against China and other countries, saying the trade measures are "working far better than anyone ever anticipated." "Tariffs have had a tremendous positive impact on our Steel Industry," he said in one tweet. "Plants are opening all over the US, Steelworkers are working again, and big dollars are flowing into our Treasury." "Tariffs will make our country much richer than it is today," Trump said in another tweet. "Only fools would disagree." He also said China was "for the first time doing poorly against us." His tweets came amid a new surge in trade tensions with China. Earlier this week, the US president told his top trade official to study whether to raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods from a planned 10 percent to 25 percent. Beijing then threatened to impose an additional $60 billion in tariffs on a variety of American goods -- which White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow dismissed as "a weak response." On Saturday China's foreign minister Wang Yi called his country's threat "fully justified and necessary." Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Singapore, he hit back at Kudlow's remarks: "As to whether China's economy is doing well or not, I think it is all too clear to the whole international community," Wang said, adding that China contributed a huge amount to global economic growth. The growing friction with China has raised concerns in both countries -- and reportedly even within the Trump administration -- about collateral damage. "We said before that this round of tariffs amounted to doubling down on the recklessness of imposing trade policy that will hurt US families and workers more than they will hurt China," a major trade group, the National Retail Federation, said in a statement last week. While Trump has taken credit for new steel jobs created with the help of tariffs, retaliatory measures by Beijing and others have rattled US soybean farmers and the many companies reliant on increasingly expensive steel as a raw material. Congolese opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba speaks to reporters after applying to be a candidate for December presidential elections Ex-rebel DR Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba will head back to Europe this week after returning to the African country to launch his bid for the presidency in December's long-delayed elections, as another potential candidate on Saturday remained blocked at the border with Zambia. Former DRC vice president Bemba arrived in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday after 11 years abroad -- a decade of it behind bars -- and on Thursday officially launched his bid to succeed long-serving President Joseph Kabila. Bemba, 55, then arrived in the town of Gemena in his stronghold in the northwest on Saturday. "Senator Bemba is coming back tomorrow (Sunday) to Kinshasa and immediately leaves for Brussels," Jacques Djoli, a leader of Bemba's MLC party, told AFP. "His next visit to DRC is scheduled for September to take part in work in the Senate and further electoral activities," Djoli added. Opposition leader Moise Katumbi, meanwhile, was again blocked from returning home as he attempted to get across the border from Zambia, his supporters said. - 'Lies and manipulation' - Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, which lies just across the border from Zambia, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said earlier Earlier, Katumbi supporters had wanted to go to the town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border, to meet him and bring him back so he could submit his election candidacy by the deadline on Wednesday. He was turned back at the border on Friday although on Saturday he appeared to be poised to finally return with Delly Sesanga, secretary-general of Katumbi's Ensemble (Together) coalition, telling AFP he was in the process of completing formalities on the Zambian side of the border. But later Saturday, Kamitatu said in a tweet that the Zambian government "had just officially indicated (to Katumbi) the refusal of the Kinshasa authorities to allow him to cross the border to return to his own country". In response, DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende decried "lies and manipulation" in a tweet, without elaborating. Katumbi, 53, a wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga, which lies just across the border from Zambia, has been forbidden from entering the DRC and charged with offences against state security, officials said earlier. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with Kabila who has ruled DRC for 17 years. Katumbi had planned to fly by private jet from Johannesburg to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province, to lodge his application but the city's mayor refused him entry, while the public prosecutor's office said Katumbi had been charged with "harming the state's domestic and external security" and would be arrested if he returned. - 'Moral authority' - Kabila had been scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution Bemba was acquitted of war-crimes charges in June by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Now a senator, he had been in Belgium -- the DRC's former colonial power -- since his acquittal. Analysts say Bemba's return has introduced even more uncertainty into an already volatile election process. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960 -- and some experts fear that the December 23 elections may trigger a bloody conflict. Kabila, 47, has been at the helm since 2001, presiding over a vast mineral-rich country with a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. Supporters said they were making "final adjustments" on Saturday, four days before they must choose their candidate for a December 23 presidential election, a government spokesman said. "We are not talking about an heir apparent to please foreigners. Our platform's candidate for the Common Front for Congo (FCC) will be known by August 8," Lambert Mende told AFP. The FCC is a "grand political electoral coalition" created by the cabinet earlier this year "to provide support for a single candidate" for the elections. It has named Kabila as its "moral authority". Kabila had been scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. He has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. An alt-right sympathizer (L) knocks the hat off an opponent's head as alt-right activists, anti-fascist protestors, and people on all sides of the political spectrum gather for a campaign rally organized by right-wing organizer, Patriot Prayer founder and Republican Senate candidate Joey Gibson in Portland, Oregon, August 4, 2018 Activists hurled rocks and bottles during a rally in the US city of Portland, Oregon organized by two far-right groups that drew a counter protests, said police, which ordered demonstrators to leave not long after the marches got under way. Police in the western state of Oregon's largest city had maintained a heavy presence during the dueling demonstrations, which had raised fears of a replay of last year's "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that ended in bloodshed. The projectiles were thrown at officers, said police, who ordered those in the area to "immediately disperse" -- warning "failure to comply with this order may subject you to arrest or citation, and may subject you to the use of riot control agents or impact weapons." Footage of the rallies that drew hundreds showed plumes of smoke rising in the city of about 640,000 people. Portland police later said "protest officers seized firework mortars," while some activists on the left accused police of shooting "stun grenades." Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, right-wing groups linked to violence at a previous Portland rally, were marching in the city's Tom McCall Waterfront Park in support of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who is running as a Republican for the US Senate. A group called Popular Mobilization had also organized a counter-demonstration at the park, accompanied by a marching band and protesters in clown costumes. Meanwhile, on another counter-demonstration's Facebook page, organizers of that event said they "make no apologies for the use of force in keeping our communities safe from the scourge of right-wing violence." - 'Serious threat' - Following the police order on Saturday to disperse, Portland's branch of the Democratic Socialists of America pinned blame on officers, saying on Twitter that "a little bit before 2 PM all seemed normal in the crowd." "Then without warning, the cops shot stun grenades into the anti-fascist crowd and started forcing people to disperse," the organization said, pointing to Portland's police as "the ones who escalated and created a dangerous situation." On Friday, the city's mayor Ted Wheeler had voiced concern "that individuals are posting publicly their intent to act out violently," saying "we don't want this here." Police had warned protesters to leave their guns at home even though holders of valid Oregon concealed-handgun licenses are permitted to carry their weapons at the park. They had said officers would screen people for weapons at entrances to the park, and explosive-sniffing dogs were also to be brought in. "The potent combination of bigotry and violence on the streets of Portland poses a serious threat to community safety, and particularly to residents who are people of color, women and LGBTQ," said a statement from the Western States Center, signed by around 40 activist groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group that monitors extremism, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys have appeared together at several rallies in the Pacific Northwest since 2017. A rally on June 30 was declared a riot and shut down by police after marchers and counter-protesters clashed, leaving several people injured. BOSTON (AP) - The Latest on an auction of iconic memorabilia associated with the late President John F. Kennedy (all times local): 3:30 p.m. A rocking chair that the late President John F. Kennedy used to meet with world leaders in the Oval Office has sold at auction for $50,000. FILE - In this Oct. 7, 1963, file photo, President John F. Kennedy signs the Limited Test Ban Treaty during a ratification ceremony in the White House Treaty Room in Washington. Beginning Friday, Aug. 3, 2018, Eldred's auction gallery in East Dennis, Mass., on Cape Cod, is auctioning items associated with the late president, including pens that Kennedy used to sign the treaty. (AP Photo/File) The chair and other iconic items associated with the nation's 35th president were auctioned off Friday on Cape Cod, not far from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Eldred's auction gallery in East Dennis says 15 pens that JFK used to establish the Peace Corps and sign a landmark nuclear arms treaty fetched $60,000. But a number of other intriguing items didn't sell, including Kennedy's last pencil doodles before his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. Auction house president Josh Eldred says buyers can still make offers and he's confident the best of the memorabilia eventually will sell. ___ 12 a.m. Some of the most iconic items associated with the late President John F. Kennedy are going on the auction block. Eldred's auction gallery in East Dennis, on Cape Cod, is taking bids on a rocking chair that JFK used in the Oval Office, a tie clip in the shape of the PT-109 torpedo boat Kennedy commanded during World War II, and pens he used to establish the Peace Corps and sign a landmark nuclear arms treaty. Other items up for grabs include a charcoal drawing of JFK by Aaron Abraham Shikler, done as a study for the slain president's official White House portrait; handwritten notes JFK jotted about Vietnam around 1953; and his letter opener and crystal ashtray. Auction house vice president Bill Bourne says Friday's auction is a chance for JFK admirers to own some "coveted" bits of history. NORWICH, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut officials have asked the state of Virginia to pardon a 19th-century abolitionist who was executed after John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Aaron Dwight Stevens, who was born in Lisbon and raised in Norwich, was injured early in the 1859 battle and later convicted of "advising slaves to rebel" and hanged. Connecticut state Sen. Cathy Osten, a Democrat whose district includes Lisbon, says the 29-year-old Stevens would be considered a hero today for his fight to end slavery. In 2015, Route 138 in Lisbon was renamed the Aaron Dwight Stevens Memorial Highway. The office of Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia says it has received the application and will review it. The office says it could be more than a year before the governor makes a final decision. CHICAGO (AP) - A judge overseeing the murder trial of a Chicago police officer in the 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Friday decided to hold off deciding whether the trial's location should be changed. Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan said he will wait until jury selection to determine if a fair jury can be chosen for the trial of Officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke's lawyers want the trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 5, moved out of Cook County. They say a jury chosen in the county would be swayed by the publicity surrounding the case. FILE - In this July 17, 2018 photo, Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, center, attends a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, in Chicago. A judge overseeing the murder trial of Van Dyke in the 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald is holding off deciding whether the trial's location should be changed. Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan on Friday, Aug. 3 said he will wait until jury selection to determine if a fair jury can be chosen for the trial of Van Dyke. Van Dyke's lawyers want the trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 5, moved out of Cook County. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool File) Video released in 2015 shows Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times. The shooting has prompted protests and federal inquiries into the Chicago Police Department. Defense attorney Daniel Herbert says too many people in Cook County have formed opinions on Van Dyke's guilt or innocence in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald. "As this court knows, we don't have to prove anything, but in a case like this, with a Cook County jury, the burden is on the defendant," Herbert said. Herbert said a defense expert found 87 percent of people in Cook County have an opinion in the case, and 74 percent of those polled believe Van Dyke is guilty. Special prosecutor Joseph McMahon countered that the defense's polling was "manipulated." According to McMahon, a prosecution expert found as many as 3.4 million people in Cook County could serve as unbiased jurors, because they either have never heard of the case, or because they would be able to reach a verdict based only on the evidence presented at trial and the judge's instructions. "You have very efficiently implemented numerous precautions to make sure we can select a fair jury," McMahon said. Van Dyke's lawyers filed a motion requesting that someone other than Gaughan decide the change-of-venue motion. The presiding judge of Cook County Circuit Court's criminal division on Tuesday rejected the request. NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Speaking Friday at a historically black university, potential Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren delivered what she called "the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It's racist ... I mean front to back." The Massachusetts senator identified some of the system's failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete. Warren was participating in a Q&A session hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond at the historically black Dillard University in New Orleans. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks in a sit-down conversation styled event with Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La, at Dillard University in New Orleans, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) She was among several possible Democratic White House contenders who spoke Friday at Netroots Nation, an annual conference for progressives. She was the only leading Democrat to appear at Dillard. The stop is the latest sign of Warren's effort to forge ties beyond her largely white political base in Massachusetts and avoid the fate of fellow progressive icon Bernie Sanders, who struggled to win over African-Americans during his failed bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Warren has previously addressed the NAACP and the Rev. Al Sharpton's annual civil rights gathering. She visited Martin Luther King Jr.'s Atlanta church last year for a program alongside the Rev. Bernice King, the slain civil rights leader's youngest daughter. Facing re-election to the Senate this year, Warren did not directly address her 2020 plans. But when Richmond asked her what might have changed since she decided not to run in 2016, the senator was ready. "Two words: Donald Trump," Warren said, before shifting to warn the audience that the November midterm vote is the immediate fight as Democrats try to break GOP control of Congress. Other than on criminal justice, Warren did not focus her answers on race, offering her usual creed about bending public policy back toward working-class Americans. She called for support for unions, massive investments in infrastructure and more spending on education, including programs for preschool-age children and debt relief for student loans. Ahead of the event, Richmond said any aspiring Democratic nominee will have to address black voters directly. "The biggest political frustration in the African-American community," Richmond told The Associated Press, "is that we have a bunch of Democrats, both black and white, but primarily white, they don't get it - the black experience, the black struggle, what it's like to raise a young black man or black woman from infant to high school." Richmond praised Warren's work as a consumer advocate and her willingness to explain her policies with her personal story, principally her mother's venture into the workforce to support the family amid her father's health problems. Warren opened with that narrative at Dillard, and it struck a chord with some who came to hear her. "What really resonates with me was her background, coming from a meager place and using hard work and education to get to where she is today," said David Hoey, a pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana. C.J. Wiltz, a retired Dillard professor who came to hear Warren, said her work on Capitol Hill stands out. "I was especially interested in what's she's been saying about the financial sector and how the impact of big banks on poor people has manifested," he said, adding that he'd "like to see her run" in 2020. In Massachusetts, less than 10 percent of the electorate is African-American. Running for president, Democrats must navigate a primary calendar front-loaded with Southern states where African-Americans determine the outcome. In 2008, that helped Barack Obama sweep the South and build an early, insurmountable delegate lead over Hillary Clinton. In 2016, Clinton managed the same sweep against Sanders, a Vermont senator whose home base is mostly white. The coming campaign could include several black candidates such as Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Sanders could make another bid. And while Obama isn't on the ballot, his vice president, Joe Biden, could be. "There will be a search for someone they can hear and see and immediately identify with," Aneesa McMillan, who worked for Sanders' campaign, said of black voters. But, she added, "it's not impossible" for that to be a white candidate. __ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Follow Barrow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP . Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, greets Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La, and waves to the crowd as she arrives to speak in a sit-down conversation styled event at Dillard University in New Orleans, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) SINGAPORE (AP) - Asia's top diplomats pressed North Korea on Saturday to turn a pledge to completely dismantle its nuclear arsenal into reality amid concerns that it's proceeding with its programs. North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, however, hit the United States in an Asian security forum in Singapore for certain "alarming" moves, including "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" the North. Those moves, Ri told fellow ministers, could make an agreement with the Trump administration, including the North's commitment to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, "face difficulties." From left; Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Cayetano, South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan pose for a photo during the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Yong Teck Lim) China and Southeast Asian nations also faced calls in the Singapore meetings to rapidly conclude an effective nonaggression pact that can help fend off possible clashes in the disputed South China Sea. Both sides have announced an agreement on an initial draft of a regional "code of conduct" that they regarded as a milestone after 16 years of sporadic talks. Alarm over rising trade protectionism, which Asian governments warn could stymie economic growth, dominated the meetings too, with Japan calling for the swift conclusion of a 16-nation Asian free trade agreement that does not include the United States. Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the rapprochement between North Korea and the United States, along with completion of a negotiating draft of the code of conduct for the South China Sea, are breakthroughs. But he added that "like any other breakthrough in diplomatic negotiations, they may lead to something great, they may lead to nothing." "Now the hard work is really on the details," Cayetano told reporters before walking into daylong meetings between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their partners the United States, China, Japan and South Korea. ASEAN foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, urged the U.S. and North Korea "as well as concerned parties to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," according to a draft communique they were to issue after their meetings Saturday, which was seen by The Associated Press. In the communique, they would "note" - often a diplomatic subtlety for a reminder - the "stated commitment" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name, "to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests during this period." A summary of a new report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea, which was sent to the Security Council Friday night and obtained by the AP at the United Nations, said North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missiles programs and continues to defy the sanctions resolutions. The North was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions, the report said. Ri said that while North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" including a "moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground," the U.S. has gone "back to the old, far from its leader's intention." Ri made the remarks in a speech that came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the same ASEAN conference, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions that North Korea continues to face. After agreeing on the text of the code of conduct in the disputed waters, senior Chinese and ASEAN diplomats will meet in Cambodia this month or in September, to be followed by another meeting in the Philippines, to start actual negotiations, a senior Southeast Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly. Western officials called for an early conclusion of such a pact, which they said should be legally binding and could effectively check aggressive behavior in the disputed region. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that "without disturbances from the outside" the negotiations on the code would shift to a "fast track." China has accused the U.S., which has deployed aircraft carriers, ships and fighter jets to patrol the disputed waters, of intervening in an Asian dispute. Amid the trade tensions between the United States and China and other nations, Asian ministers called for an early conclusion, possibly this year, of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade accord that would include the ASEAN countries, along with key trading partners China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Korea. Singapore, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations are concerned that protectionism, which could boost major Western economies, would work against free and open trade that their economies are anchored on. Tensions between the U.S. and China - the world's two biggest economies - over tariffs on each other's products have rattled investors in Asia. "Given the current global situation where protectionism is on the rise, Japan would like to achieve the swift conclusion of the RCEP," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha warned that "rising anti-globalization and trade protectionism among major countries is fueling tension and threatening our aspiration for sustained economic growth." In a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of the Singapore events, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he told Pompeo that Asian countries like Malaysia "are quite nervous on the possible negative repercussion of the ongoing trade war." Pompeo responded articulately "but my objective was quite straightforward," Saifuddin told a news conference. "I need to inform him that we are very concerned." ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season. Brown, who inspected neighborhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the Northern California city of Redding, said he was confident the president he has clashed with over immigration and pollution policies would send aid, which Trump did last year when California's wine country was hit hard. "The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so I'm hopeful," said Brown, a Democrat. "Tragedies bring people together." A tower of smoke pours from Cow Mountain as Burney, California firefighter Bob May keeps a watch on surrounding vegetation for spot fires during a wildfire off Scotts Valley Road, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, near Lakeport, Calif. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP) Brown's call for help came shortly before authorities called on residents in Glenn and Colusa counties in Northern California to evacuate as a wildfire there continues to grow. Cal Fire issued the evacuation order Saturday night for people who live in several parts of the counties, including an area just east of the boundary of Mendocino National Forest. The blaze, known as the Mendocino Complex fire, has grown to 357 square miles and is 32 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. The National Weather Service forecasts hot and windy conditions to persist in Northern California. There are 17 major fires burning throughout California, authorities said. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people - including four firefighters- and shut down Yosemite National Park. Hundreds of colleagues, family and friends attended a memorial service Saturday in Fresno for National Forest Service Capt. Brian Hughes, the Fresno Bee reported . Hughes was killed July 29 by a falling tree while fighting the wildfire that has closed Yosemite National Park at the height of tourist season. Firefighters have achieved 41 percent containment of that forest fire. The fire had reached into remote areas of the country's third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemite's popular Valley region were ordered to leave Friday because of inaccessible roads. The biggest blazes continue to burn north of San Francisco, including twin wildfires fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather. Those fires destroyed 55 homes and forced thousands of residents to flee their neighborhoods about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the city. They have grown to a combined 300 square miles (648 kilometers). The two fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph (56 kph) that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames. "This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach," the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco. Meteorologist Steve Anderson said temperatures will remain in the 90s in the region throughout the week with wind gusts reaching 25 mph (40 kph) during the day Sunday. "It's not good firefighting weather," Anderson said. More evacuations were ordered Saturday afternoon for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires are threatening about 9,000 homes. The largest of the two fires was 50 percent contained. The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake, but "it looks like there's dicey weather on the way," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said. However, most evacuations were lifted by Saturday in and around Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft continue battling an immense blaze about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire's southeastern flank were reopened to residents. The fire near Redding, which killed six people and incinerated 1,067 homes, started two weeks ago with sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer's flat tire, Department of Agriculture and Fire Precention officials said. The blaze is currently 41 percent contained. The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber. It burned so furiously on July 26 that it created what is called a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kph), which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles (533 square kilometers). "Fire season is really just beginning," Cal Fire chief Ken Pimlott said. __ Follow AP's wildfire coverage here: https://apnews.com/tag/Wildfires A firefighter walks around a swimming pool sprayed by phos-chek fire retardant after an air tanker made a pass while fighting a wildfire near Lakeport, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP) Firefighters stand watch on a roof as a wildfire sweeps through the area near Lakeport, Calif., Thursday, August 2, 2018. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP) Flames from a wildfire advance up a ridge, towering over a home that eventually burned, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, near Lakeport, Calif. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP) Flames from a wildfire advance down a hillside, towering over homes off Scotts Valley Road, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, near Lakeport, Calif. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP) In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, a thank you banner for fire fighters, first responders and hospital workers hangs outside Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif. Dozens of staff members, including doctors, nurses and others at the medical center are keeping the hospital running despite losing their homes to the flames. (AP Photo/Michael Burke) A 747 Global Airtanker makes a drop in front of advancing flames from a wildfire Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in Lakeport, Calif. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP) Fresno firefighters watch as a fire truck procession from various agencies around the state caravans through downtown Fresno, Calif. and below an American Flag held up by two Fresno City Fire Department ladder trucks on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. Captain Brian Hughes, a member of the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshot Crew died while fighting a wildfire near Yosemite National Park . (Craig Kohlruss/The Fresno Bee via AP) Honor guard members prepare to fold an American flag before presenting it to family members of Brian Hughes, a captain with the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots who was killed by a falling tree while fighting the Ferguson Fire, during a memorial service at Valdez Hall in Fresno, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. (Craig Kohlruss /The Fresno Bee via AP) Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see. This week's gallery includes a girl surfacing from a wall of bubbles in a swimming hole in Maine; people mourning an 11-year-old boy killed at the Gaza Strip border with Israel; and a migrant reaching for a raft in the waters off the coast of Libya. ___ Supporters of presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa raise their hands in support during his last rally in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Saturday, July, 28, 2018. On Thursday, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the first election without Robert Mugabe on the ballot, ending a tumultuous week that began with optimistic scenes of peaceful voting, turned ugly with a deadly crackdown by soldiers in Harare, and ended with the prospect of a legal challenge over the result. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi) This gallery contains photos from the week of July 28-Aug. 3, 2018. See the latest AP photo galleries: https://apimagesblog.com ___ Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP/lists/ap-photographers Follow AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com http://www.apimages.com/ ___ This gallery was produced by Patrick Sison in New York. Relatives of 11 year-old Palestinian boy, Majdi al-Satari, who was shot and killed by Israeli troops on Friday's ongoing protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, mourn at the family's home during his funeral in town of Rafah, Southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Eva Furman, 8, surfaces through a wall of bubbles after jumping from a small cliff into Lake Wood at Acadia National Park, Monday, July 30, 2018, near Bar Harbor, Maine. Furman, of Boca Raton, Fla., was spending the warm summer day cooling off at a popular swimming hole while on a family vacation. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) A migrant swims frantically towards a rescue ship off the coast of Libya in the early hours of Thursday night, Aug. 2, 2018. Rescuers from the Spanish non -profit Open Arms saved 87 migrants off the coast of Libya in a dramatic nighttime operation. The group included eight minors. (AP Photo/Valerio Nicolosi) A firefighter runs while trying to save a home as a wildfire tears through Lakeport, Calif., Tuesday, July 31, 2018. The residence eventually burned. Firefighters pressed their battle against a pair of fires across Mendocino and Lake counties. In all, roughly 19,000 people have been warned to flee and 10,000 homes remain under threat. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Warsaw residents stand with national flags and flares to observe a minute of silence for the fighters and victims of the 1944 Warsaw Rising against the Nazi German occupiers, on the 74th anniversary of the revolt, in downtown Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) Members of the right-wing National Corps clash with police officers during a protest against the construction of multi-story buildings in a city recreation zone in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, July 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel's military says it intercepted an activist boat trying to breach a decade-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. In a separate development, Gaza's Health Ministry said a 15-year-old Palestinian died Saturday of wounds sustained from Israeli fire at a border protest the day before. Hamas has led months of border protests partially aimed at drawing attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after it took control of Gaza in 2007. Men wave national flags while riding a motorcycle-taxi, called a Toktok, loaded with tires to be burned during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Gaza's Hamas rulers led several thousand Palestinians in a protest along the frontier with Israel on Friday _ a show of presence by Hamas as Egyptian efforts intensify to broker a broad truce between the Islamic militant group and Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent the Islamic militant group from bringing in weapons. Critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza's 2 million people. Activists have organized several flotillas over the years aimed at breaking the blockade. Another boat was intercepted on Sunday. The military said both vessels were taken to an Israeli port without incident. A Palestinian protester carries tires to burn during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Gaza's Hamas rulers led several thousand Palestinians in a protest along the frontier with Israel on Friday _ a show of presence by Hamas as Egyptian efforts intensify to broker a broad truce between the Islamic militant group and Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) An Israeli army jeep fires teargas canisters at Palestinians during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Gaza's Hamas rulers led several thousand Palestinians in a protest along the frontier with Israel on Friday _ a show of presence by Hamas as Egyptian efforts intensify to broker a broad truce between the Islamic militant group and Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Palestinian activists use a kite with burning rags dangling from its tail to set ablaze drying wheat fields on the Israeli side, during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Gaza's Hamas rulers led several thousand Palestinians in a protest along the frontier with Israel on Friday _ a show of presence by Hamas as Egyptian efforts intensify to broker a broad truce between the Islamic militant group and Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) SINGAPORE (AP) - The Latest on U.S. warnings on violating sanctions on North Korea (all times local): 6 p.m. The North Korean foreign minister has shot back at the U.S. over its warning to other countries against violating international sanctions on North Korea, saying recent moves by the U.S. are "alarming." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for a bilateral meeting with South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. (Edgar Su/Pool Photo via AP) Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said at a Southeast Asian regional forum in Singapore on Saturday that the U.S. "is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" North Korea. Ri said that while North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" including a "moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground," the U.S. has gone "back to the old, far from its leader's intention." He made the remarks in a speech that came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the same conference, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. ___ 5:45 p.m. The U.S. State Department says President Donald Trump's reply to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's latest letter has been hand-delivered to the North's top diplomat. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump's written response was given to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at an Asian security forum in Singapore on Saturday. Ri and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were both attending the forum and briefly shook hands and exchanged pleasantries at the start of the meeting. Nauert said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim. The White House said earlier in the week that Kim had sent a new letter to Trump and that the president had written a response. ___ 9:15 a.m. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. He says Washington will take seriously any action that reduces pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Speaking in Singapore on Saturday, Pompeo told reporters the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia has violated U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He says the reports will be raised with Moscow and roundly condemned. Pompeo says he remains optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledge to President Donald Trump to denuclearize. But he says the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a press conference on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Joseph Nair) BERLIN (AP) - Germany's central bank is changing its terms and conditions to provide for deeper scrutiny of cash transfers, a move that comes as Iran seeks to repatriate cash held in a Hamburg-based bank and the U.S. presses allies to get tough on Tehran. Iran wants to bring home 300 million euros ($347 million) it has in the European-Iranian Trade Bank ahead of new U.S. sanctions. German authorities have been examining the request for weeks, and the U.S. has made clear its concerns about potential terrorist financing and money-laundering. Changes to its business conditions taking effect Aug. 25, and released in late July, allow the Bundesbank to block cash transfers in the absence of assurances from those involved in a transaction that it doesn't violate financial sanctions or rules to prevent money-laundering and the funding of terrorism. It also mentions possible risks to "important relationships with third countries' central banks and financial institutions." The changes don't specifically mention Iran, but are widely viewed as a reaction to the transfer request. "We are grateful to our German partners at the chancellery and throughout the government for recognizing the need to act," U.S. ambassador Richard Grenell told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Iran's malign activities throughout Europe are a growing concern for us." The German finance ministry said this week, after Germany's Bild daily reported on the new Bundesbank rules, that the Iranian request is still under consideration - a process that involves Germany's financial market regulator and financial intelligence unit. The matter is awkward for Germany because the government is also committed to keeping alive the 2015 deal with Iran which provides incentives in exchange for Tehran not pursuing a nuclear weapon. Iran has indicated it will stay aboard as long as the remaining signatories stick to the deal and it continues to enjoy economic incentives. President Donald Trump's administration began dismantling the sanctions relief that was granted to Iran under the deal in June, a month after Trump announced the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the accord. ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey will freeze the assets of two U.S. officials in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor, Turkey's president said Saturday in a move that appeared more symbolic than practical. Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had been "patient" since the U.S. Treasury sanctions were imposed Wednesday, but ordered authorities to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any." It is unclear who that would affect, due to differing Cabinet roles in the United States than in Turkey, or if the U.S. officials even have any holdings in Turkey. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces plan of action for the first 100 days of his new presidency, in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul mocked the sanctions against them this week, saying they have no assets in the U.S, but the deteriorating Turkish-American relations sent the value of Turkey's national currency - the lira- tumbling. Erdogan called the sanctions "serious disrespect toward Turkey" and accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for demanding the release of evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson while its ally Turkey tries him over alleged links to terror groups. Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for decades, was jailed in December 2016 and is now under home detention. He is facing a 35-year sentence if convicted of the charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member" and espionage. Top U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, have said there's no evidence against Brunson and demanded his release. Despite the announcement of sanctions, Erdogan called for a return to the two country's partnership. "We think there is no problem we cannot solve with the American administration," he said, urging Trump's government to drop its "hot-tempered attitude and return to its good senses." Bilateral conflicts include the arrests of U.S. citizens as well as local consular staff, U.S. senators who are pushing to block the delivery of American F-35 jets following Turkey's pledge to buy the Russian S-400 missile system, and Turkey's demand that Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric, be extradited to stand trial for his alleged ties to a failed 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Gulen denies the accusations. Yet another looming issue is whether the U.S. will impose a hefty fine on Turkey's state-run Halkbank after a New York court sentenced its deputy general manager for his role in helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Mehmet Hakan Atilla has about 15 months remaining in prison and media reports this week claimed Atilla and Halkbank may have been part of a deal for Brunson. Erdogan accused the U.S. of attempting a swap and said the "mentality of swapping" did not fit his country, arguing that Halkbank had no link to the evasion scheme and should not be made to pay. Erdogan, however, had once suggested a trade between pastor Brunson and cleric Gulen. "We do not want to be part of a lose-lose game. To move political and judicial disputes to the economic dimension hurts both sides," Erdogan said as Turkey's economy shows serious signs of instability. In this July 25, 2018 photo, Andrew Craig Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, arrives at his house in Izmir, Turkey. Brunson, who had been jailed in Turkey for more than one and a half years on terror and espionage charges was released and will be put under house arrest as his trial continues. The White House is announcing that the Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on two Turkish officials over a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul) PARIS (AP) - France's first baby panda celebrated his first birthday Saturday with a cake of bamboo, honey, apples, oranges, strawberries and lemons. The panda named Yuan Meng - which means "accomplishment of a dream" - weighs about 30 kilograms (66 pounds). He has recently started eating bamboo while still suckling milk from his mother, Huan Huan. For the occasion Saturday, the Beauval Zoo south of Paris was open for free to all visitors born on Aug. 4. France's first baby panda Yuan Meng celebrates his first birthday with a birthday cake composed of bamboo, honey, apples, oranges, strawberries and lemons, at the ZooParc de Beauval in Beauval, central France, Saturday Aug. 4, 2018. Yuan Meng weighs about 30 kilograms (66 pounds), has recently started eating bamboo and still suckles his mother Huan Huan's milk. (ZooParc de Beauval via AP) Yuan Meng's mother and father Yuan Zi are at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting its good ties with France. Other nations in Europe also have giant pandas, including Austria, Britain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Finland. French first lady Brigitte Macron, considered the panda's "godmother," did not attend Saturday's celebration. She has already gone to see the baby panda twice. France's first baby panda Yuan Meng celebrates his first birthday with a birthday cake composed of bamboo, honey, apples, oranges, strawberries and lemons, at the ZooParc de Beauval in Beauval, central France, Saturday Aug. 4, 2018. Yuan Meng weighs about 30 kilograms (66 pounds), has recently started eating bamboo and still suckles his mother Huan Huan's milk. (ZooParc de Beauval via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is seeing steels mills spring up where they aren't and cleaner air than his government is tracking in its records. Over the past week, his comment that people need photo IDs to shop in stores displayed a misunderstanding of the marketplace obvious to any average shopper with cash or a credit card. A sampling of comments by Trump and his officials, spanning NATO, the Russia investigation, environmental matters and more: IN this Aug. 2, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump is cheered as he arrives for a rally at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa.. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) CLEAN AIR TRUMP, on air quality in the U.S.: "It's the best it's ever been." - Pennsylvania rally Thursday. THE FACTS: Not true, going by the key measure of air quality. The EPA's air quality index shows a worsening since 2014, the best year as measured by the number of days with bad air. For that index, 35 cities reported unhealthy air for a total of 599 days in 2014. That went up to 729 days in 2017, the worst year since 2012 (1,297 days). The index measures ozone and soot. ___ JOBS TRUMP: "U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants." - remarks Thursday at the Pennsylvania rally. On Tuesday: "Thanks to our tariffs, our steel workers are back on the job, American steel mills are back open for business ... U.S. Steel just announced that they're building six new steel mills." - Florida rally. THE FACTS: No, U.S. Steel has not announced six, or seven, new steel mills. A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based company, Meghan Cox, declined to comment on Trump's claim, only making clear that any "operational changes" such as the opening of new mills would be "publicly announced" and "made available on our website" if it occurred. ___ AUTO SAFETY EPA, citing potential benefits from freezing Obama-era mileage standards: "Increased vehicle affordability leading to increased driving of newer, safer, more efficient and cleaner vehicles. ... Over 12,000 fewer crash fatalities over the lifetimes of all vehicles built through model year 2029. Up to 1,000 lives saved annually." - information sheet released Thursday. THE FACTS: The claimed safety benefits are unverifiable and probably overstated. While newer vehicles are safer due to better engineering and safety features such as more air bags, automatic emergency braking and blind spot detection, auto safety experts say the difference between vehicles made 10 years ago and now isn't that big and the number of lives saved can't really be calculated. Decade-old vehicles have anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control that stop drivers from losing control, two major safety advances. ___ EPA assistant administrator Bill Wehrum: "We'll leave the standards at a place where we're not imposing undue costs on manufacturers." - news briefing Thursday. THE FACTS: Insulating U.S. manufacturers is not easy to do. Even if the U.S. freezes its mileage requirements, the European Union, China, Japan and other nations will continue to increase theirs, which already are more stringent. Because most automakers sell vehicles worldwide, they'll have to develop new technology such as electric cars anyway to satisfy other markets. The U.S. may not get the new technology as quickly as elsewhere. ___ VOTER ID TRUMP: "We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, which is why the time has come for voter ID like everything else. If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out, you want to buy anything, you need ID, you need your picture." - remarks Tuesday. THE FACTS: As shoppers know, no photo is required to purchase items at retail stores with cash or to make routine purchases with credit or debit cards. Identifications are required to purchase limited items such as alcohol, cigarettes or cold medicine and in rapidly declining situations in which a customer opts to pay with a personal check. According to the National Grocers Association's most recent data, the use of checks as a percentage of total transactions dropped from 33 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2015, due in part to the popularity of debit cards, which use PIN codes. The group's members are independent food retailers, family-owned or privately held, both large and small. ___ WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: "He's not saying every time he went in; he said when you go to the grocery store." - press briefing Wednesday. THE FACTS: Actually, Trump did claim, erroneously, that photo IDs are required whenever "you want to buy anything," not only in limited cases. Asked when Trump last bought groceries, Sanders responded, "I'm not sure. I'm not sure why that matters, either." ___ NATO TRUMP: "I went to NATO. And NATO was essentially going out of business 'cause people weren't paying and it was going down, down, down." On NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: "He said we couldn't collect money until President Trump came along. And he said last year we collected $44 billion. And this year the money is pouring in. ... So the bottom line is the NATO countries are now paying a lot more money." - news conference Monday with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. THE FACTS: Countries don't pay to be in NATO and don't owe the organization anything other than contributions to a largely administrative fund that Trump is not talking about. Member countries are not in debt to NATO. Money is "not pouring in" now. Collections have not increased, as he asserted. Trump's actual beef is with how much NATO countries spend on their own military budgets. The Trump administration is not the first to push countries in NATO to spend more on their own armed forces to lessen their dependence on the U.S. In fact, it was in 2014, during the Obama administration, that NATO members agreed to move "toward" spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their own defense by 2024. The somewhat-vague commitment was made as a response to Russia's actions in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea. No one expected all allies would immediately move to 2 percent; the increases were to be gradual. ___ VETERANS TRUMP: "We passed the biggest VA reform in half a century, Veteran's Choice. If our veterans can't get the care they need from the VA, they will have the right to go see a private doctor." - remarks Tuesday in Tampa. THE FACTS: Trump's suggestion that veterans can get care immediately under the private-sector Veterans Choice program and without restriction is misleading. Before veterans have the right to see a private doctor, they must meet certain criteria first, such as whether they face an "excessive burden" in receiving care at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. Under the current Choice guidelines, veterans also must wait at least 30 days for an appointment at a VA facility before they are eligible to receive care from a private doctor. TRUMP: "And I used to say before I really was well-versed on the veteran situation in health care, I used to say all the time, 'Why don't they just let the folks go to a doctor?' They'd wait in line for 7 days, 9 days, 14 days, 21 days ... I said, 'Why don't they just let them go see a local private doctor, pay the bill and take care of it?' And it's turned out to be something that the veterans love. And it's passed. It's passed." - remarks Tuesday. THE FACTS: It's not clear if veterans love the current Choice program, judging by the wait times. Despite the Choice program's guarantee of providing appointments within 30 days, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office found that veterans actually waited an average of 51 to 64 days to receive care. A newly expanded Choice program will take at least a year to be implemented. ___ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION TRUMP: "Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!" - tweet Tuesday. TRUMP LAWYER RUDY GIULIANI: "I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. ... Collusion is not a crime." - remarks Monday on Fox News. THE FACTS: It is correct to say election collusion isn't a precise legal term. The U.S. code mostly uses the term "collusion" in antitrust laws to address crimes like price fixing. As it relates to Russia and U.S. elections, the term can be seen as shorthand for plenty of violations of specific laws on the books. For instance, there could be legal violations if Trump's presidential campaign is found to have collaborated with Moscow, including a conspiracy to defraud the United States. There are also laws against election fraud, computer hacking, wire fraud and falsifying records, if those apply. So far, special counsel Robert Mueller has accused the Russians of hacking into Democrats' computers and stealing emails, as well as trying to stoke U.S. tensions before the 2016 election using social media. Mueller might decide, for example, that a crime was committed if he finds evidence that an American was involved in the hack of Democrats, either by soliciting it or paying someone to do it. As well, a conspiracy to defraud the United States can be used to refer to any two people using "deceit, craft, or trickery" to interfere with governmental functions, such as an election. ___ Associated Press writers Tom Krisher in Detroit and Chloe Kim, Anne Flaherty, Ellen Knickmeyer and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck NEW YORK (AP) - For a company bent on making the world more open, Facebook has long been secretive about the details of how it runs its social network - particularly how things go wrong and what it does about them. Yet on Tuesday, Facebook rushed forward to alert Congress and the public that it had recently detected a small but "sophisticated" case of possible Russian election manipulation. Has the social network finally acknowledged the need to keep the world informed about the big problems it's grappling with, rather than doing so only when dragged kicking and screaming to the podium? While the unprompted revelation does signal a new, albeit tightly controlled openness for the company, there is still plenty that Facebook isn't saying. Many experts remain unconvinced that this is a true culture change and not mere window dressing. FILE - In this April 18, 2017 file photo, Conference workers speak in front of a demo booth at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, in San Jose, Calif. For a company bent on making the world more open, Facebook has long been secretive and reluctant to talk about security issues. Yet on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, it rushed forward to alert Congress and the media that it had recently detected a small but telling case of election manipulation. While this signals a new openness for the company, there is plenty that Facebook still isn't saying, and experts wonder whether it's mere window dressing or a true culture shift. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) "This is all calculated very carefully," said Timothy Carone, a business professor at the University of Notre Dame. He and other analysts noted that Facebook announced its discovery of 32 accounts and pages intended to stir up U.S. political discord just a week after the company's stock dropped almost 20 percent - its worst plunge since going public. But Facebook's proactive disclosure, including a conference call for reporters with chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, struck a markedly different tone from the company's ham-handed approach to a string of scandals and setbacks over the past two years. That has included: - CEO Mark Zuckerberg's infamous dismissal of the idea that fake news on Facebook could have influenced the 2016 election as "a pretty crazy idea"; - The company's foot-dragging as evidence mounted of a 2016 Russian election-interference effort conducted on Facebook and other social-media sites; - Zuckerberg, again, declining for nearly a week to publicly address the privacy furor over a Trump campaign consultant, Cambridge Analytica, that scavenged data from tens of millions of Facebook users for its own election-influence efforts. A chastened Facebook has since taken steps toward transparency, many of them easy to overlook. In April, it published for the first time the detailed guidelines its moderators use to police unacceptable material. It has provided additional, if partial, explanations of how it collects user data and what it does with it. And it has forced disclosure of the funding and audience targeting of political advertisements, which it now also archives for public scrutiny. All of that is in keeping with the image of Facebook that Zuckerberg relentlessly promotes. In his telling, the giant, data-and-ad-driven social network is a force for good in the world that must now reluctantly do battle with "bad actors," such as Russian agents, who threaten Facebook's noble mission of "connecting the world." Solving such problems, in Facebook's view, is mostly a matter of more investment, more hard work, more hires, and better technology - particularly artificial intelligence. And Facebook's newfound passion for openness only goes so far. Of the 32 apparently fake accounts and pages it found, it only released eight to researchers. In a conference call this week, executives declined to characterize the accounts, even in terms of whether they leaned right or left. Facebook left it to researchers at the nonprofit Atlantic Council, a think tank that is helping the company on election interference, to draw those conclusions. Facebook said its timing was motivated by an upcoming protest event in Washington that was promoted by a suspicious page connected to a Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency. Several people connected to the IRA have been indicted by the U.S. special counsel for attempting to interfere in the 2016 election. Despite Zuckerberg's repeated mantra - delivered to relentless effect in some 10 hours of testimony before Congress in April - that the company now really gets it, some who know the company best have their doubts. David Kirkpatrick, the author a Facebook history, argues that neither Zuckerberg nor Sandberg have ever shown themselves to be "deeply alarmed in public." As a result, he suggests, Facebook seems more concerned with managing its image than with solving the actual problem at hand. Such issues run deep for the company. Some of its biggest critics, including former employees such as Sandy Parakilas and early Facebook investor Roger McNamee, say the company needs to revamp its business model from the ground up to see any meaningful change. These critics would like to see Facebook rely less on tracking its users in order to sell targeted advertising, and to cut back on addicting features such as endless notifications that keep drawing people back in. Parakilas, for example, has advocated for a subscription-based model, letting users pay to user Facebook instead of having their data harvested. Merely hiring more moderators, or hanging hopes on the evolution of artificial intelligence, isn't going to cut it, in their view. There have also been widespread calls for Facebook to acknowledge that it is, in a sense, a media company, responsible for what happens on its platforms - a characterization the social network has long fought. For all that, Facebook is well ahead of Silicon Valley rivals such as Google and Twitter when it comes to openness - even if only because it's attracted the lion's share of criticism, said Paul Levinson, a media studies professor at Fordham University. But Facebook "can't win at this game," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a University of Virginia professor of media studies whose 2018 book "Antisocial Media" critiques Facebook's effect on democracy and society. Because it's so huge - 2.2 billion global users and counting - and so difficult to police, he said, "it will always be vulnerable to hijacking and will never completely clean up its content." Worse, he says, there is no real solution. "It is hopeless," he said. "The problem with Facebook is Facebook." FILE - In this May 1, 2018 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes the keynote speech at F8, the Facebook's developer conference, in San Jose, Calif. For a company bent on making the world more open, Facebook has long been secretive and reluctant to talk about security issues. Yet on Tuesday, July 31 it rushed forward to alert Congress and the media that it had recently detected a small but telling case of election manipulation. While this signals a new openness for the company, there is plenty that Facebook still isn't saying, and experts wonder whether it's mere window dressing or a true culture shift. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2017 file photo, Facebook's General Counsel Colin Stretch speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian election activity and technology, on Capitol Hill in Washington. For a company bent on making the world more open, Facebook has long been secretive and reluctant to talk about security issues. Yet on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, it rushed forward to alert Congress and the media that it had recently detected a small but telling case of election manipulation. While this signals a new openness for the company, there is plenty that Facebook still isn't saying, and experts wonder whether it's mere window dressing or a true culture shift. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) CHICAGO (AP) - Nina Tomasieski logs on to Twitter before the sun rises. Seated at her dining room table with a nearby TV constantly tuned to Fox News, the 70-year-old grandmother spends up to 14 hours a day tweeting the praises of President Trump and his political allies, particularly those on the ballot this fall, and deriding their opponents. She's part of a dedicated band of Trump supporters who tweet and retweet Keep America Great messages thousands of times a day. "Time to walk away Dems and vote RED in the primaries," she declared in one of her voluminous tweets, adding, "Say NO to socialism & hate." FILE - In this April 10, 2018 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. Some political die-hards are getting caught up in an expanded effort by Facebook and other social media companies to crack down on nefarious tactics suspected of interfering in the 2016 election. They have been flagged as "bots," or robot-like automated accounts, because they tweet prolifically. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik File) While her goal is simply to advance the agenda of a president she adores, she and her friends have been swept up in an expanded effort by Twitter and other social media companies to crack down on nefarious tactics used to meddle in the 2016 election. And without meaning to, the tweeters have demonstrated the difficulty such crackdowns face - particularly when it comes to telling a political die-hard from a surreptitious computer robot. Last week, Facebook said it had removed 32 fake accounts apparently created to manipulate U.S. politics - efforts that may be linked to Russia. Twitter and other sites also have targeted automated or robot-like accounts known as bots, which authorities say were used to cloak efforts by foreign governments and political bad actors in the 2016 elections. But the screening has repeatedly and erroneously flagged Tomasieski and users like her. Their accounts have been suspended or frozen for "suspicious" behavior - apparently because of the frequency and relentlessness of their messages. When they started tweeting support for a conservative lawmaker in the GOP primary for Illinois governor this spring, news stories warned that right-wing "propaganda bots" were trying to influence the election. "Almost all of us are considered a bot," says Tomasieski, who lives in Tennessee but is tweeting for GOP candidates across the U.S. Cynthia Smith has been locked out of her account and "shadow banned," meaning tweets aren't as visible to others, because of suspected "automated behavior." "I'm a gal in Southern California," Smith said. "I am no bot." The actions have drawn criticism from conservatives, who have accused Twitter, Facebook and other companies of having a liberal bias and censorship. It also raises a question: Can the companies outsmart the ever-evolving tactics of U.S. adversaries if they can't be sure who's a robot and who's Nina? "It's going to take a really long time, I think years, before Twitter and Facebook and other platforms are able to deal with a lot of these issues," said Timothy Carone, who teaches technology at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. The core problem is that people are coming up with new ways to use the platforms faster than the companies can manage them, he said. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. But the company has said it identified and challenged close to 10 million suspected bot or spam accounts in May, up from 3.2 million last September. It's also trying to weed out "trolls," or accounts that harass other users, pick fights or tweet material that's considered inflammatory. Twitter acknowledges that there will be some "false positives." "Our goal is to learn fast and make our processes and tools smarter," Twitter executives said in a blog post earlier this year. Tomasieski and her conservative friends use so-called Twitter "rooms" - which operate using the group messaging function - to amplify their voices. She participates in about 10 rooms, each with 50 members who are invited in once they hit a certain number of followers. That number varies, but "newbies" might have around 3,000, Tomasieski says. Some have far more. Everyone in the room tweets their own material and also retweets everyone else's. So a tweet that Tomasieski sends may be seen by her roughly 51,000 followers, but then be retweeted by dozens more people, each of whom may have 50,000 or more followers. She says she's learned some tricks to avoid trouble with Twitter. She's careful not to exceed limits of roughly 100 tweets or retweets an hour. She doesn't use profanity and she tries to mix up her subjects to appear more human and less bot-like. During a recent afternoon, Tomasieski retweeted messages criticizing immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Democratic socialists and the media. One noted an Associated Press story about an increase in the number of Muslims running for public office - news the user described as "alarming." Tomasieski says she loves to write. But most important is helping "my guy." "There is as much enthusiasm today as there was when Trump was elected. It's very quiet, but it's there. My job is to get them to the polls," she said. "That's rewarding. I go to bed feeling like I have accomplished something." ___ Follow Sara Burnett on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sara_burnett SEVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a Florida sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man who grabbed his stun gun during a struggle. In a Daytona Beach News-Journal report , Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Andrew Gant said the deputy responded Friday night to a report of an ongoing domestic disturbance between the 29-year-old suspect and his girlfriend. Gant said when the woman came out of the Seville home to speak with the deputy, the suspect "grabbed her and engaged in a struggle." Gant said the deputy used a stun gun on the man, who then grabbed the deputy's stun gun and discharged it. That's when the deputy fired multiple shots at the suspect, killing him. The sheriff's office has not identified either the suspect or the deputy. ___ Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A former legislative leader with the establishment's backing is hoping to fend off two political newcomers who have staked out positions to her left in the race to be the Democratic nominee for Michigan governor. On the Republican side in Tuesday's state primary, Michigan's conservative attorney general is touting his tax cut plan and endorsement from President Donald Trump in a four-man race he has long led. The winners will fight this fall for a seat that's opening due the coming departure of Republican Rick Snyder, who is term-limited. Former state lawmaker Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and GOP Attorney General Bill Schuette are favored to emerge from crowded fields, but Michigan's electorate is unpredictable. FILE - This combination of file photos shows Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidates from left: former legislative leader Gretchen Whitmer; entrepreneur Shri Thanedar; and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Detroit's former health director. Corporate donations have become a central issue in the Michigan Democratic contest for governor as the three candidates try to woo progressive voters ahead of the Aug. 7 primary. (AP Photo/File) Voters in 2016 narrowly backed Trump over Hillary Clinton, putting a crack in a "blue wall" state that has traditionally supported Democrats for president. They also delivered an unexpected primary win to Bernie Sanders, who will campaign on Sunday with Abdul El-Sayed, a 33-year-old upstart who led Detroit's health department before seeking the governorship. El-Sayed's bid for a "progressive v. establishment" showdown with Whitmer - an undoubtedly liberal Democrat - is being complicated by another political rookie, chemical-testing entrepreneur Shri Thanedar, who has spent at least $10 million of his fortune to run. The Democrats have focused on health care in the days leading up to the primary, which will also decide who will vie for three open House seats and which Republican will take on Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in November. In her recent ads, Whitmer speaks about battling an insurer when her mom was dying of brain cancer and helping to expand Medicaid to 680,000 adults as a legislator. The favorite of organized labor and women's groups, Whitmer has come under attack from her opponents for accepting donations from business interests and not committing to a "Medicare for all" single-payer system. She has not attacked her primary rivals, however, reserving her criticism for Republicans who slashed business taxes and enacted right-to-work laws that undermine unions. "I'm not going to get distracted by these political games that everyone else wants to play," Whitmer said Thursday in Lansing, where she kicked off a get-out-the-vote tour that will feature stops with union leaders, top Democrats and others. "I am running against bad roads, failing schools, unclean water and a lack of skills. That's what this is all about." El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants who has doctorates in medicine and public health, has gained national attention because he could become the country's first Muslim governor. The dynamic campaigner - who is counting on young people and other sporadic voters to propel him - blames "corporate greed" for expensive health care and the state's high auto insurance rates. "It's about us coming out and deciding we are going to take our politics back," he told a crowd outside a recent rally near Ann Arbor with rising liberal star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York congressional candidate who recently defeated one of the most powerful Democrats in the House in a primary. Thanedar, an immigrant from India, is spending big to promise better health care while urging voters to ignore his accent and consider his life's path. He says the Democratic candidates have more similarities than differences on policy issues, and what makes him stand out is his rise from poverty and his experience as a business executive. "That's what really matters," he said. "Who can deliver? Who can make it happen?" Sue Ziel, a 56-year-old middle school teacher from Macomb Township in suburban Detroit, said she cast an absentee ballot for Whitmer because of her track record and authenticity. She said she respects El-Sayed and Thanedar and their willingness to "stand up," but she wanted someone who has "proven public education needs to be a priority" - citing Whitmer's vote against a law that illegally allowed school employees' pay to be deducted for retiree health care. Ziel said it would be "ridiculous," however, for Democrats to not coalesce behind whoever wins, given the stakes in the fall. While Democrats have traded shots over political funding and health care, the GOP contest has been nastier. Schuette, with Trump's endorsement and a mantra to make Michigan "win again," criticizes Lt. Gov. Brian Calley for renouncing his support for Trump in 2016 and working with a former Democratic governor on a business tax. Calley, a Snyder ally, accuses Schuette of illegally misusing his office for political and personal business, which Calley and another candidate, grassroots conservative state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, say will be a liability for the GOP in November if Schuette is the nominee. Schuette, who has denied the allegations, campaigned Tuesday at a Lansing auto dealership where he highlighted Fiat Chrysler's plan to move production of the heavy-duty Ram truck from Mexico to Michigan in response to the Trump-backed U.S. tax cuts, adding 2,500 new jobs. "I want to cut taxes in Michigan like he cut taxes in America," Schuette said. Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Michigan for a Republican unity rally on Wednesday, a day after the primary. A fourth contender, Dr. Jim Hines, has self-funded his campaign with $2.7 million but has lagged in polling. Calley is touting the economic turnaround in a state that was hit hard by lost manufacturing jobs and also stressing a workforce development plan. "What I bring to the table are results and real plans for the future," he said. ___ Follow David Eggert on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/David%20Eggert . NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - MJM Yachts has already felt the sting of tariffs. CEO Bob Johnstone was negotiating the sale of a 53-foot (16-meter), $2.2 million yacht to a buyer in Monaco when the European Union announced a 25 percent tariff on American-made boats as retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs on imported aluminum and steel. The deal is now dead. So is the Rhode Island-based company's plan to expand sales into Europe. In this July 12, 2018 photo, Bob Johnstone, CEO of MJM Yachts, sits inside an MJM boat docked in Newport, R.I. Johnstone was negotiating the sale of a 53-foot, $2.2 million yacht to a buyer in Monaco when the European Union announced a 25 percent tariff on American-made boats as retaliation for American tariffs on imported aluminum and steel. American boat makers are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit in an escalating trade war. (AP Photo/Michelle R. Smith) American boat makers are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit in an escalating trade war. President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has driven up the price of those essential materials for many boat makers. Europe, Canada and Mexico retaliated with tariffs on American-made boats. Meanwhile, new tariffs imposed on parts such as engines and navigation equipment imported from China are also pushing up costs. As a result, they are selling fewer boats, considering raising prices and bracing for layoffs across an industry that employs 650,000 people in the United States at manufacturers, marinas and dealers. "We have the unfortunate situation of being caught up in every part of this trade war," said Nicole Vasilaros, of the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Industry leaders have met with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and trade representatives and tried to make the case that this is a truly American industry being used as a pawn in a trade war. Ninety-five percent of the boats sold in the U.S. are made in America. They've also appealed to congressional delegations, especially in states heavy in boat manufacturing, while watching the trade fight escalate this week as China and the U.S. proposed new tariffs that include some hitting their industry. Among those who have considered reducing their workforce is Regal Marine Industries, which builds everything from sport boats to 53-foot (16-meter) yachts with price tags ranging from $35,000 to $1.2 million. It employs 750 people at its headquarters in Orlando, Florida, and in Valdosta, Georgia, from factory technicians to engineers to office staff. Before the tariffs were imposed, around 15 to 20 percent of Regal's sales went to Europe or Canada. CEO Duane Kuck said orders from the EU are down 90 percent. They've seen millions of dollars in of cancelations and delays. "We were expanding prior to the tariffs. The expansion has been put on hold," he said. Asked whether that means layoffs, he said he would have to see whether the company can grow enough business in the U.S. to offset the loss of exports, a strategy several other boat builders are trying. The timetable for many manufacturers thinking about layoffs is in the next two to three months, Vasilaros said. She also noted that any benefits the industry saw from a Republican-led tax overhaul have been "almost completely negated" as the industry deals with higher prices for materials and components while losing customers to global competitors. "The president's trying to help U.S. manufacturing, but we are the key case to show that he's doing the exact opposite," she said. The industry, Vasilaros said, is being specifically targeted for retaliatory tariffs by countries wishing to make a point to Trump. For example, Mercury Marine employs most of its 4,800 workers at its headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin - a county that Trump won by a nearly 2-1 margin in his 2016 presidential victory. Other states with a large boat-making presence are GOP strongholds like Florida, Indiana and Arkansas. Mercury Marine is the last American-based producer of four-stroke outboard engines. It assembles the smaller, 40- to 60-horsepower engines it makes at a facility it owns in Suzhou, China. Mercury estimates that a 25 percent tariff the Trump administration imposed on the Chinese-made engines would raise the average cost of a small, recreational boat by nearly $2,000. Mercury CEO John Pfeifer wrote in a letter in May to the U.S. trade representative that similar price shocks in the past caused a more than 50 percent drop in demand for its products. He also said engine manufacturers from Japan and Canada could end up with an advantage in the U.S. market, causing the company to shift highly skilled jobs from the U.S. to Japan. Tennessee-based Brunswick Boat Group - which is owned by the same parent company as Mercury - warned in its own letter to the trade representative that tariffs could cause a drop in sales, and in turn, layoffs in the industry. Adding to the frustration for the industry is the fact that American boat manufacturers primarily buy domestic steel and aluminum and were already seeing shortages. Now, they also face rising prices as a result of the tariffs. Bill Yeargin, CEO of Orlando-based boat builder Correct Craft, said he expects the company's aluminum costs could rise 20 to 30 percent when its contracts are renegotiated this fall. Overseas sales, which make up about 30 percent of the company's revenue, are already at a near standstill. "We're getting hit on both ends," he said. The tariffs don't make sense to Johnstone, whose luxury-boat maker is based in the yachting hub of Newport. He points to the incredible amount of labor that goes into just one boat. He said the yacht that the Monaco buyer canceled after the tariffs "has 8,000 man hours in it. That one boat is four families supported for a year. This really dampens our future." MJM Yachts makes high-end, fuel efficient boats at a shipyard in Boston, where it employs about 180 people, Johnstone said. The yachts are priced between $800,000 and $2.2 million. It now faces retaliatory tariffs of 10 percent in Canada, 15 percent in Mexico and 25 percent in the European Union. That means a yacht which once cost $2 million for a European buyer now goes for $2.5 million. Those three markets represent 69 percent of the U.S. export market, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. The industry is hoping that negotiations between the White House and European Union will at least result in the end of the 25 percent retaliatory tariff. Talks have yielded no news of a change so far. "The message that we're getting is, 'We're in this war. We have to be to protect U.S. steel and aluminum,'" Vasilaros said. ___ Associated Press write Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report from Washington. FILE - In this July 11, 2018 file photo, workers apply fiberglass to the resin frame of a boat at Regal Marine Industries in Orlando, Fla. American boat makers are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit by the escalating trade war. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File) FILE - In this July 11, 2018 file photo, workers put finishing touches on boat exteriors at Regal Marine Industries in Orlando, Fla. American boat makers are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit by the escalating trade war. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File) In this July 12, 2018 photo, boats sit docked in the Newport Shipyard in Newport, R.I. American boat makers are getting pummeled on multiple fronts by tariffs and stand to be among the industries hardest-hit in an escalating trade war. (AP Photo/Michelle R. Smith) HONOLULU (AP) - The seat representing Honolulu in Congress is open for anyone's taking, as the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, runs for governor instead of re-election. Seven candidates are seeking the Democratic Party's nomination in Saturday's primary in this deep-blue state, including the architect of Hawaii's legal fight against President Donald Trump's travel ban, a democratic socialist and a former Republican Party leader who defected to the Democrats after criticizing Trump. The winner of the Democratic primary is heavily favored to win the general election. In this July 24, 2018, photo, U.S. House candidate Ed Case and his wife, Audrey Case, greet evening commuters while campaigning in Honolulu. The seat representing Honolulu in the U.S. Congress is open for anyone's taking, as incumbent U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa runs for governor instead of re-election. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy) Former U.S. Rep. Ed Case has the most name recognition and an edge in experience, having served in Congress from 2002 to 2007. The 65-year-old joined the race late, just before the filing deadline, yet leads in the polls. A Honolulu Star-Advertiser survey from early July showed 36 percent of likely Democratic voters said they would vote for Case. His entry came five years after he said he would likely end his political career as he became an executive at Outrigger Enterprises Group, a Hawaii-based hotel chain. Case said he's returning to politics because the government "is not functioning at all," and he believes he can help. He said he'll focus on economic and fiscal issues if elected because the country needs people to hold good jobs and pay taxes if it's going to support programs like Social Security. He also expressed concern about the federal debt and deficits. He was a member of the "Blue Dog Coalition" - a group of fiscally moderate and conservative Democrats - during his last term in Congress. Supporter Ted Gonzales, owner of diamond importer and retailer Pacific Diamond, said he got to know Case when his campaign headquarters was next to Gonzales' shop years ago. "He's a terrific individual. It's nice to have somebody in there personally you know that is a man of integrity," Gonzales said. Doug Chin, Hawaii's lieutenant governor and former attorney general, generated early excitement among Democrats as a vocal opponent of Trump administration restrictions on travelers from Muslim-majority countries. Hawaii's lawsuit against the policy went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices upheld a modified version of the ban. Chin, 52, said he wants to secure federal dollars for affordable housing, make public colleges and universities more affordable and address climate change. He found a backer in fellow attorney Wayne Parsons, who said Chin was an excellent lawyer and city managing director when he worked under former Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle. He commended Chin for taking on Trump's immigration policies. "He brings some guts to the table," Parsons said. He said Chin was the right age: old enough to have experience but young enough to serve in Congress for a long time. State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim has raised more money than any other candidate. Kim has pulled in nearly $630,000 and had about $260,000 cash on hand as of June 30. Chin came in second with $495,000. Kim, 66, has been a state senator for nearly two decades, including a two-year stint as Senate president. She said she would first ensure a smooth transition from Hanabusa. Kim aims to limit the availability of automatic weapons and push for more stringent background checks for gun buyers. She also wants to cut the cost of health care and prescription drugs. The youngest of the group, 29-year-old state Rep. Kaniela Ing, hopes to follow in the footsteps of fellow democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City to deliver an upset. Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old who defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats in a June primary, has endorsed Ing. The same creative minds that produced her viral campaign video also made Ing's promotional video. Ing said he has a plan to fix the housing crisis in Hawaii and the nation. He advocates Medicare for all, tuition-free college and canceling student debt. Also competing are state Rep. Beth Fukumoto, Honolulu City Chairman Council Ernie Martin and retired federal employee Sam Puletasi. Until a little over a year ago, Fukumoto was the head of Republicans in the state House as the House minority leader. But members of her party asked her to resign after she criticized Trump in a speech at the Women's March in Honolulu. She soon left the party and joined the Democrats. The 35-year-old said Hawaii needs to rebuild seniority in Congress to promote state priorities like affordable housing, infrastructure and energy independence. Martin, 58, said he would prioritize affordable housing and addressing homelessness. He said he would advocate for federal infrastructure investment and fight to protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The Republican side has two candidates, Cam Cavasso, a former state representative who previously ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate, and political newcomer Raymond Vinole. In Hawaii's other congressional district, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat, is running for re-election to represent rural Oahu and the neighboring islands. One of her challengers, Sherry Alu Campagna, has criticized Gabbard for refusing to participate in debates even though she's argued in the past that candidates should debate to present their positions and be held accountable for their opinions. Brian Evans is seeking the Republican nomination. FILE - In this March 28, 2018, file photo, state Rep. Beth Fukumoto, candidate for U.S. House, poses for a photo in Honolulu. The seat representing Honolulu in the U.S. Congress is open for anyone's taking, as incumbent U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa runs for governor instead of re-election. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy, File) In this Feb. 28, 2018, photo from video, state Rep. Kaniela Ing speaks at his campaign office in Honolulu. The seat representing Honolulu in the U.S. Congress is open for anyone's taking, as incumbent U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa runs for governor instead of re-election. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy) FILE - In this May 5, 2015, file photo, state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim speaks to reporters in Honolulu. The seat representing Honolulu in the U.S. Congress is open for anyone's taking, as incumbent U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa runs for governor instead of re-election. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz, File) Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. NEW YORK (AP) - A Japanese technology executive is expected to face 7 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges he drugged and raped a co-worker in his Times Square hotel room. A New York City judge this week rejected prosecutors' demands that Masakatsu Yukitoshi be put away for a decade after pleading guilty Wednesday to rape and other charges. Prosecutors say the 46-year-old Yukitoshi committed the assault last November after inviting the woman to his room under the guise of preparing for a work meeting. They say he gave the 36-year-old woman a glass of orange juice laced with a powerful sleep aid that caused her to lose consciousness. Police arrested Yukitoshi at Kennedy Airport on a plane bound for Los Angeles. They say he quickly confessed. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reports that a man taking part in a protest in the northern province of Alborz was fatally shot. The Saturday report says a protest was taking place a day earlier in Karaj, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tehran, when someone fired from a car. There were no additional details. Fars reported authorities arrested 20 protesters and many of the protest leaders were women. There have been several demonstrations in Iranian cities in recent days over economic conditions and public buildings have been damaged. The Iranian rial has dropped to a record low amid growing concerns about renewed U.S. sanctions, which kick in on Monday. Also on Friday, about 500 protesters attacked a seminary in Karaj and broke windows with stones and bricks. DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a Florida man was fatally shot by at least one police officer after threatening his mother with a gun. Delray Beach Police acting Chief Mary Olsen told local news outlets that officers found the man "in a very agitated state" in the home early Saturday after his mother called 911. Olsen says the man did not believe the officers actually were law enforcement and ran out of the home carrying a gun. Olsen says at least one officer fired at the man, killing him. The man's parents were not injured. Police did not release the names of the man or the officers, who were placed on administrative leave. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting. LYNDON, Vt. (AP) - Experts from across the world will be meeting in Vermont to discuss the writings and the impact of the late Russian author and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The Reading Solzhenitsyn conference will be held Sept. 7 and 8 at the Lyndon campus of Northern Vermont University. It is believed to be the only conference in the United States that will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Solzhenitsyn's birth. The event is being organized by Alexandre Strokanov, who teaches history at the Lyndon campus. The event will bring together Solzhenitsyn scholars from China, Russia and the United States. Solzhenitsyn, who wrote about life in the Soviet Union, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.He lived in Cavendish, Vermont, from 1976 to 1994. He died in Moscow in 2008. MOSCOW (AP) - Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States. The Foreign Ministry announced the move Saturday on its Facebook page, saying Seagal's portfolio in the unpaid position would be to "facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges." Seagal is an accomplished martial artist - like Russian President Vladimir Putin. The actor, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2016, has vocally defended the Russian leader's policies, including Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and has criticized the U.S. government. FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2015, file photo, actor Steven Seagal speaks at a news conference, while attending an opening ceremony for a research and development center in Moscow, Russia. Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States. The Foreign Ministry announced the move on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018 on its Facebook page, saying Seagal's portfolio in the unpaid position would be to "facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges." (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File) Last year, Ukraine banned Seagal from entering the country for five years, citing national security reasons. KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - The number of confirmed cases in Congo's new outbreak of the Ebola virus has risen to 13, including three deaths, the health ministry said late Saturday. The World Health Organization has warned that this new outbreak of the deadly virus in North Kivu province poses a particular challenge as the region is a "war zone" with several active armed groups and thousands of displaced people. The nearby city of Beni and heavily traveled borders with Uganda and Rwanda also complicate efforts to contain the disease, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead. Congo announced the latest outbreak on Wednesday with four confirmed cases, a week after declaring the end to a previous outbreak in the northwest with 33 deaths. It is not clear whether the new outbreak, more than 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) away, is related. The ministry noted 30 probable Ebola cases in the new outbreak and said another 33 suspected cases were under investigation, with laboratory testing underway. Overall 33 people have died, it said. The swift vaccinations of more than 3,300 people helped in containing the previous outbreak, and WHO has said it hopes to know as early as Tuesday whether the Ebola strain in this new outbreak is the one for which the vaccine can be used. The WHO emergencies director has said 3,000 vaccine doses are still in Congo's capital after being positioned there for the earlier outbreak. WHO can mobilize up to 300,000 more doses "at very short notice," Dr. Peter Salama said Friday. Congo's health ministry said vaccines would be moved from Kinshasa to Beni as soon as the "cold chain" to keep them at the optimal temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius is reached. Congo has dealt with Ebola for decades and this is its tenth outbreak of the virus. Ebola, first identified in the country in 1976, jumps to humans from animals including bats and monkeys. There is no specific treatment, and the virus can be fatal in up to 90 percent of cases, depending on the strain. WHO has said the "signal event" in the new outbreak was the death of a 65-year-old woman who had been admitted to the hospital in Mangina village. "She was buried, we believe, in an unsafe burial in terms of Ebola standards and seven deaths have occurred in her immediate family," Salama said. Congo's health ministry said health officials also were looking at suspected cases in the neighboring province of Ituri to the north, which also shares a short stretch of border with South Sudan. The ministry said overall more than 875 contacts had been registered as teams try to track down anyone who might have been in touch with those infected. With the region's armed groups in mind, the ministry said it was working with Congo's defense ministry and the U.N. peacekeeping mission on security for health workers and the community at large. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa The Duchess of Sussex is celebrating her 37th birthday her first as a member of the Royal Family. Meghan and Harry are reportedly spending the day at the society wedding of Harrys old friend Charlie van Straubenzee, who is marrying Daisy Jenks in Surrey. Thank you everyone for your lovely messages on The Duchess of Sussex's birthday! #HappyBirthdayHRH pic.twitter.com/kECGU6fnl0 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) August 4, 2018 The groom may have paid the royal the ultimate compliment by asking him to be his best man. It may be enjoyed as a double celebration as it is also Meghans 37th birthday. Last year Harry reportedly whisked Meghan away for a romantic break in Africa to mark her 36th birthday, flying to Botswana. Charlie was an usher at Harrys recent wedding, along with older brother Thomas van Straubenzee. Harry and William attended Thomas van Straubenzees wedding to Lady Melissa Percy (Jonathan Pow/PA) The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also rumoured to be invited to the couples big day as William is good friends with the van Straubenzee brothers, with Thomas a godfather to his daughter Princess Charlotte. Meghan married Harry during a ceremony watched by an estimated television audience of hundreds of millions, and it was praised for combining tradition with modernity and diversity. Sir Elton John, who performed at the wedding reception, described it as a memorable event and said: To have a black gospel choir, a multiracial bride, a black cellist, who was wonderful, a preacher it felt like a party, and it felt like progress had been made. Thank God, thank God. Sir Elton added: I think the Queen had a lot to do with it. I think shes been magnificent. It was a wonderful thing to be at. Harry and Meghan were able to enjoy their honeymoon without being discovered, jetting off to their undisclosed destination soon after they wed on May 19. They live in a property in the grounds of Kensington Palace but are rumoured to also have a country bolt-hole somewhere in the Cotswolds. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has called for the rebuilding of 11 schools torched by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Pakistan. The schools were burned down early on Friday when they were closed. No-one was injured and police are yet to make any arrests. Ms Yousafzai, 21, was shot and injured by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 for promoting girls education. Malala Yousafzai has condemned the torching of several schools in Pakistan (Joe Giddens/PA) She expressed her anger over the latest attack in a tweet, saying extremists have shown what frightens them most a girl with a book. She added: We must rebuild these schools immediately, get the students back into their classrooms and show the world that every girl and boy has the right to learn. Imran Khan, who is expected to become the next prime minister of Pakistan after his party won the most seats in last months elections, also condemned the shocking and condemnable attack on the schools. A toxic feud between two rival camps at a troubled heart-surgery unit left staff feeling a high death rate was inevitable, according to a leaked report. St Georges Hospital heart unit was consumed by a dark force and patients were put at risk by a dysfunctional team of surgeons, an investigation concluded last month. The damning review was written by former NHS England deputy medical director Mike Bewick in response to higher mortality rates at the hospital. St Georges Hospital in Tooting, south west London (PA) He found the south London facility had a cardiac surgery death rate of 3.7% above the national 2% average, reports said. Cardiac surgery services at St Georges Hospital are safe - but improvements must be made. Our response to media coverage expected on Saturday, 4 August pic.twitter.com/8B66MSWEzw St George's NHS FT (@StGeorgesTrust) August 3, 2018 Internal scrutiny was said to be inadequate and the department was riven between two camps exhibiting tribal-like activity. Professor Bewicks review was quoted as saying: Some felt that there was a persistent toxic atmosphere and stated that there was a dark force in the unit. It added: In our view the whole team shares responsibility for the failure to significantly improve professional relationships and to a degree surgical mortality. Conversations with 39 staff revealed they were shocked by the death rate, but most felt that poor performance was inevitable due to the pervading atmosphere. The independent reviewer examined disturbing and often difficult information, concluding an existential threat was posed to the unit because staff and patients would go elsewhere if problems persisted. The surgical team is viewed as dysfunctional both internally and externally, he said. Stronger leadership and new blood were called for, while the defensive approach the unit took to death rate data was criticised, according to reports. The review was additionally said to have called for radical solutions to breaking up the current surgical team. A spokesman for St Georges Hospital said recommendations from Professor Bewick were being implemented at pace, including the immediate relocation of all cardiac surgeons to a single-speciality practice. The investigation commissioned in June after the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) issued an alert over the units lower surgery survival rates. The hospital spokesman said: We would like to stress that the cardiac surgery service we provide for patients is safe. However, it is very clear that major and urgent improvements are required, which we are already taking action to deliver. St Georges, one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the country, has advertised for an additional consultant cardiologist to join the team. Fellow London hospital Guys and St Thomass Foundation Trust will send on the ground leadership support in the form of cardiac surgeons, the spokesman said. Officials are additionally addressing concerns about the way surgery data is managed. A spokesperson for the Royal College of Surgeons and the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery, said: The Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) informed St Georges in both March 2017 and March 2018 that analysis of their results showed that early survival after cardiac surgery at the hospital for the periods of activity 2013-2016 and 2014-2017 was lower than the expected level, although still within the UK standard. This is called an alert and does not automatically mean there is a cause for concern as there may be clinically valid reasons why the Trust has a worse early-survival rate than other units around the country. Cardiac surgery within the UK is amongst the safest in the world and St Georges has always shown that early survival for their patients is within what is regarded as the UK standard. It has never been below the required standard for the UK. All the other hospitals in the UK have shown that early survival after cardiac surgery is at the required standard, with only St Georges triggering the early warning alert over the last 4 years of surgery. Nevertheless the independent review has highlighted serious concerns so it is still crucial that St Georges address the findings of the report so that patients can be sure they are receiving the best possible care. Detectives investigating the disappearance of midwife Samantha Eastwood have been searching rural areas. Specialist teams were combing for clues in fields next to a country lane in Caverswall, Staffordshire, on Saturday, with police calling for witness information on suspicious activity including vehicles parked in rural laybys. Ms Eastwood, 28, was last seen in uniform leaving work at Royal Stoke Hospital at 7.45am eight days earlier on Friday July 27. Dozens of officers and police dogs were scouring an area near Tickhill Lane, using large sticks to search bushes. Samantha Eastwood was last seen leaving work at Royal Stoke Hospital (Staffordshire Police/PA) Nigel Potts, who owns neighbouring Newhill Farm, said he had witnessed a large police presence at a nearby disused quarry on Saturday morning. It seems that thats where the main focus of the search is. Theyve been down here for three days, the 53-year-old said. Police searching Tickhill Lane in Caverswall (Peter Byrne/PA) He added that officers asked to view footage from his CCTV camera on the night the midwife disappeared, but his recordings did not go back that far. Ms Eastwoods colleagues raised concerns at 7.20pm on the same day she was last seen after she failed to show up for her next shift. A 32-year-old Stoke-on-Trent man was arrested on suspicion of kidnap but has since been released under investigation, Staffordshire Police said. We're releasing CCTV footage of missing person Samantha Eastwood's last confirmed sightings. We would like to ask the public to come forward with any information no matter how insignificant. Our primary aim is to get Samantha home & back with her family. https://t.co/yWzWMauBgD pic.twitter.com/oJBfjJp0ba Staffordshire Police (@StaffsPolice) August 1, 2018 The force said neighbours reported hearing a scream in the vicinity of Ms Eastwoods house at about 2pm on the day she went missing. Detective Superintendent Simon Duffy, from the forces major and organised crime department, said: Todays extensive searches are part of the ongoing investigation, which has officers and staff working round the clock in an effort to find anything which brings us closer to finding Samantha. I am calling on any member of the public with any information, however small and insignificant it may seem. Have you seen any unusual or suspicious activity, including parked vehicles in laybys in rural locations around the Stoke-on-Trent/North Staffordshire area? Gemma Eastwood flanked by Detective Superintendent Simon Duffy (right) and Family Liaison Officer Scott Bradbury, making an appeal at Staffordshire Police headquarters (PA) Ms Eastwoods sister, Gemma Eastwood, made a tearful appeal for help in tracing her on Friday, saying: We miss you very much, we need you home where you belong. If shes out there, or anyone knows where she is, please get in touch. Get her home. "As the majority of the population in countries like the United States see that their children are unlikely to be better off than they were, there is a sense of frustration exacerbated by the fact that the economy appears to be doing well, yet the benefits of that growth are going to the super rich. Meanwhile, authoritarian governments like China appear to be making significant reforms that result in greater access to resources for their citizens. This creates, among other things, a perception that democracies are unable to deliver for their citizens." Avril Haines, former deputy CIA director, points to inequality in the U.S. as a long-term national security threat, and one that will be accelerated by emerging technologies: Hundreds of people are expected to take part in a protest outside a Home Office building against plans to evict more than 300 asylum seekers. The demonstration at the Brand Street offices in Glasgow is supported by charity Positive Action in Housing, the Church of Scotland and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. Campaigners say they will burn eviction notices in protest over plans by Home Office contractors Serco to evict up to 330 asylum seekers in Glasgow who have been refused refugee status. Serco plans to evict more than 300 former asylum seekers in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA) The event follows a demonstration in the city centre on Tuesday which attracted hundreds of people and speakers including SNP and Labour MPs, and a smaller protest outside the Brand Street building on Friday during which the gates of the Government offices were chained. The Scottish Afghan Society said around 40 people took part in the demo held in support of two Afghan nationals, Rahman Shah, 32, and Mirwais Ahmadzai, 27, who staged a hunger strike outside the building, understood to have ended on Friday. With 150 members , many of whom are Glasgow based housing associations incl @ng_homes and @MaryhillHousing and @ParkheadHA were putting @SercoGroup & @rsoames on notice that the fight to dismantle ur mass eviction of 330 war refugees begins now #refugeeswelcome #nonpasaran https://t.co/GM3rMLeXBi Positive Action in Housing #RebuildingRefugeeLives (@PositiveActionH) August 3, 2018 Police were called out to the protest, and two men aged 45 and 58 were charged with minor public disorder offences. Speaking ahead of Saturdays demonstration, Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, described the evictions as immoral, irresponsible and frankly dangerous. She said: All our efforts this past week have been to avert a humanitarian disaster taking place on our streets as Serco slowly dumps 330 refugees and asylum seekers on to the streets of Glasgow with seven-day notices. These notices are being legally challenged in Scotlands highest court, the court of session. She appealed to the charitys 150 member organisations, many of which are Glasgow-based housing associations, to use their powers to stop the evictions. Serco revealed plans last weekend to begin changing the locks on accommodation. The public services group said it had provided housing for months in some cases for those without the right to remain in the UK, without recompense from the Home Office and at a cost of more than 1 million a year, which it claimed should be borne by the local authority. Come on Glasgow join us today.#RefugeesWelcomeHere https://t.co/Wb5bgYHggJ Scottish Afghan Society (@ScotAfgSociety) August 4, 2018 Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said these costs should be taken on by the Home Office, and has made repeated calls to Home Secretary Sajid Javid to step in and halt the evictions. The council is also examining whether it can extend its general power of welfare to help those who face having their locks changed, many of whom are young, single men. Meanwhile housing charity Shelter Scotlands housing law service is to represent two of the asylum seekers facing eviction. Director Graeme Brown said: Our legal team will be presenting papers to Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday morning along with the legal services agency who act for a third individual to try and get interim orders that will prevent the lock changes threatened to our clients. Our clients are actively working with immigration lawyers to resolve their asylum claims. Interim orders temporarily stopping the lock changes will allow this work to continue with our clients having a home to live in. Serco chief executive Rupert Soames has said lock-change notices would be given to no more than 10 people a week for the next four weeks. He said none of these would be families with children and all will be people who the Home Office considers to have exhausted their appeal process and no longer have the right to remain. The mercury is set to rocket past 30C (85F) in parts of the UK, as Britons are being warned to stay safe amid a Europe-wide heatwave. Sun-lovers hitting the beaches on Englands south coast will see temperatures peaking at 31C (87.8F) over Saturday and Sunday, the Met Office predicted. Areas along the Hampshire and Dorset coast, such as Gosport, are most likely to feel the heat on Saturday, while the hottest areas on Sunday are expected to be around London stretching north to the Midlands. Plenty of sunshine means that #UV levels will be high across the bulk of England and Wales, and moderate for Scotland and Northern Ireland pic.twitter.com/3yO3k7weM1 Met Office (@metoffice) August 4, 2018 Temperatures could soar even higher early next week, with highs of 32C (89.6F) possible around London on Monday and Tuesday. Britons making the most of the balmy weekend were urged to stay sun sensible amid the high UV levels. However, not all of the UK will be gazing into clear blue skies in Scotland and Northern Ireland clouds are likely with some thick enough to bring patchy rain to the north and west of Scotland. The north-west, south-east split will continue early next week, with further showers expected across Scotland and Northern Ireland, while England and Wales stay generally dry and warmer. We dont know if youve heard but its VERY VERY hot! Be sun sensible this summer EEAST Ambulance Service (@EastEnglandAmb) August 4, 2018 Temperatures will need to climb significantly if they are to come close to Englands current August record 38.5C (101.3F) reached in Faversham, Kent, in 2003. However, the intense heat is likely to lessen come Wednesday, as conditions turn fresher and more changeable, the Met Office said. It comes amid an intense European heatwave, with holidaymakers in Portugal and Spain feeling the sun most intensely. (PA Graphics) The mercury is being driven higher by a hot air mass moving north from Africa, bringing dust from the Sahara Desert. Earlier this week local records were smashed in eight areas of Portugal, with temperatures peaking at 45.2C (113.4F) near Abrantes, a town in the centre of the country. Emergency services have issued a red alert until Sunday, with medical staff and firefighters on standby. A boy jumps from a platform over the water at La Concha beach in northern Spain (Alvaro Barrientos/AP) Meanwhile, 400 firefighters and five water-dropping aircraft are battling a wildfire in southern Portugals Algarve region. In Spain, heat warnings have been issued for 41 of the countrys 50 provinces as temperatures are expected to reach up to 44C (111.2F). In northern Europe, Sweden is still under threat from wildfires, which in recent weeks have extended into the Arctic Circle. The Met Office said it was unlikely that the overall European highest temperature recorded 48C (118.4F) in Athens, Greece in 1977 would be beaten. British holiday-makers abroad are being warned to avoid spending time in the sun during the hottest part of the day and to keep hydrated. US and North Korean officials have traded polite words and then barbs in the latest round of diplomacy, leaving efforts to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons at an uncertain point. At a security conference in Singapore, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea and countries including Russia of continuing to violate UN sanctions aimed at pressing the North to give up its nuclear arsenal. But at the same time, he oversaw the handover of a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from US President Donald Trump and exchanged pleasantries with the Norths foreign minister Ri Yong Ho. Mr Ri, meanwhile, greeted Mr Pompeo with a smile and posed for photos but then delivered a scathing attack on the Trump administration for approaching the negotiation poorly by insisting on sanctions enforcement. I had the chance to speak with my #DPRK counterpart FM Ri Yong Ho @asean today. We had a quick, polite exchange. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver @Potus reply to Chairman Kims letter. pic.twitter.com/1DiR6UDj4Q Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 4, 2018 Mr Ri said North Korea would not be forced into acting unilaterally, and demanded that the US undertakes confidence building measures if the negotiation is to be successful. After Mr Pompeo warned once again that no sanctions would be lifted until North Korea fully and finally denuclearises, Mr Ri told the annual ASEAN Regional Forum that the North will not be bullied into concessions. Confidence is not a sentiment to be cultivated overnight, he said. In order to build full confidence between the DPRK and the US, it is essential for both sides to take simultaneous actions and phased steps to do what is possible one after another. Only when the US ensures that we feel comfortable with and come close to it, will we be able to open our minds to the US and show it in action. Donald Trump met Kim Jong-un in June (Kevin Lim/The Straits Times/AP) The US has previously dismissed calls for a phased approach, insisting that sanctions be maintained until the North delivers on its commitments but suggesting some other steps may be possible. Mr Ri, though, appeared unmoved and accused elements of the US government of going against Mr Trumps wishes by taking a hard line on sanctions. What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leaders intention, he said. Instead of responding reciprocally to North Koreas suspension of nuclear tests and missile launches and other goodwill gestures such as the return of suspected remains of American troops killed in the Korean War, the US has maintained hostility, Mr Ri said. The United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula, he said. Mike Pompeo was in Singapore for talks with foreign ministers from around the globe, before travelling to Indonesia (Joseph Nair/AP) He also accused Washington of taking extremely inappropriate moves by discouraging third countries from sending high-level delegations to the Norths 70th anniversary celebrations in September. Mr Pompeo had already left the meeting in Singapore when Mr Ri delivered his remarks in order to travel to Jakarta for talks with senior Indonesian officials. As he arrived in Jakarta, the State Department said that a written reply to Mr Kim from Mr Trump had been delivered to Mr Ri in Singapore. We had a quick, polite exchange, Mr Pompeo tweeted. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver (Trumps) reply to Chairman Kims letter. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Mr Trumps reply to Mr Kim was given to Mr Ri by Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearise. Ms Nauert would not address the content of the letter. The White House said earlier in the week that the North Korean leader had sent a new letter to Mr Trump and that the president had written a response. @SecPompeo joins 27 ARF member states and the #ASEAN Secretariat for the ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat. #ASEAN2018 pic.twitter.com/tMk0V8hxYX U.S. Embassy Singapore (@RedWhiteBlueDot) August 4, 2018 Earlier on Saturday, Mr Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. His comments came on the heels of a new United Nations report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes and is violating UN sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil. The Duke of Sussex has assumed wedding duties once again this time attending the nuptials of his childhood friend as best man. Harry, who was star of the show just weeks ago, stayed low-key in morning dress and sunglasses as he accompanied Charlie van Straubenzee into St Mary the Virgin Church in Frensham, Surrey. Harry arrived in a morning suit and sunglasses (Joe Giddens/PA) He was dropped off at the church gates by bus along with a group of groomsmen. The Duchess of Sussex, celebrating her 37th birthday on Saturday, attended separately and waved to crowds of well-wishers as she entered. The Duchess of Sussex waves to well-wishers (Yui Mok/PA) Meghan, who wore a navy fit-and-flare dress and matching hat, chatted to guests outside the church before the service got under way at 3.30pm. Mr van Straubenzee, who works for investment management firm Brown Advisory, is marrying party and wedding videographer Daisy Jenks. Charlie van Straubenzee is close friends with William and Harry Harry and Mr van Straubenzee are said to have struck up a close friendship as the groom, 30, and the royal attended Ludgrove School in Berkshire together. The groom played a major part in Harrys wedding in May as an usher, along with his older brother, Thomas, and was said to have roasted the royal in a humorous reception speech. Charlies older brother, Thomas, is close friends with the Duke of Cambridge and is godfather to Princess Charlotte, three. Guests clad in summery outfits and morning coats began filing into the church as wedding bells rang one hour before the ceremony began. Meghan mingled with guests Well-wishers lined the sun-drenched street in front of the church to catch a glimpse of the royals and the marrying couple. The bride arrived in a vintage car shortly before 3.30pm. Hymns including Shine Jesus Shine and Lord Of All Hopefulness could be heard from outside. Harry and Meghan held hands in the sun (Joe Giddens/PA) The royal couple, holding hands, left together shortly after the hour-long ceremony ended and sped off before the newlyweds were showered with confetti. Serco has announced it will pause plans to issue lock-change orders to tenants whose application for asylum has been refused ahead of a court challenge. A legal team at Shelter Scotland, representing two of the asylum seekers facing eviction, is expected to present papers to Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday to try to suspend the action. It follows the latest of several demonstrations outside the Home Office building in Brand Street on Saturday, where around 100 people gathered for a peaceful protest backed by charity Positive Action in Housing, the Church of Scotland and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. Serco plans to evict more than 300 former asylum seekers in Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA) Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, described the evictions as immoral, irresponsible and frankly dangerous. Serco said it welcomed the clarity that anticipated legal challenge would bring. In the meantime, the Home Office contractor announced it will extend the notice period by 21 days for six people currently subject to lock-change notices, allowing them time to prepare their representations or move out of their properties. All further lock-change notices to other asylum seekers whose applications have been refused will be paused whilst the law is being tested and clarified. A Serco statement said of the legal challenge: This should mean that all parties will get clarity as to how the law will apply to people who refuse to move on from the free accommodation provided to them whilst their claims for asylum are being adjudicated. We have strong legal advice that our approach is fully within the law, but we think it would be helpful for all interested parties to have the Courts confirm the position. Serco, which provides accommodation and welfare for around 5,000 asylum seekers in Scotland, almost all of them in Glasgow, said it had been subjected to pretty vile abuse over recent days. The company said that in Scotland, until now, it had chosen not to evict failed asylum seekers when their Home Office funding stopped, continuing to provide free accommodation for months and sometimes years. But the number of people over-staying has almost doubled in a year from 167 in August 2017 to around 330 currently, it said, and at this level, we simply cannot afford to continue. And with around 180 new asylum seekers arriving in Glasgow every month, the supply of suitable housing is desperately tight, Serco said. It added: We commit that we will work energetically with Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, charities and the Home Office to ease the path of people as they move on at the end of their adjudication process. Graeme Brown, director of housing charity Shelter Scotland, said: Our legal team will be presenting papers to Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday morning along with the legal services agency who act for a third individual to try and get interim orders that will prevent the lock changes threatened to our clients. Our clients are actively working with immigration lawyers to resolve their asylum claims. Interim orders temporarily stopping the lock changes will allow this work to continue with our clients having a home to live in. Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken has made repeated calls to Home Secretary Sajid Javid to step in and halt the evictions. The council is also examining whether it can extend its general power of welfare to help those who face having their locks changed, many of whom are young, single men. Portugal and Spain are sweltering in a southern European heatwave that has produced near-record temperatures with the hot conditions threatening to stick around for days to come. The extreme weather, caused by an influx of hot air from Africa, is also carrying loads of dust from the Sahara Desert across some parts of the continent. Portugal has issued red health alerts for extreme heat for more than half the country, with thermometers approaching 46C on Saturday. (PA Graphics) The countrys highest ever recorded temperature was 47.4C in 2003. Spain also issued warnings of extreme heat for its southern areas, with temperatures expected to reach 45C in the cities of Seville, Huelva, Badajoz and Cordoba. Spains all-time record of 46.9C was set in Cordoba in July 2017. In southern Portugal, the town of Evora was almost at a standstill on Saturday as only a few foreign tourists dared to venture out to take photographs of the Roman ruins called Dianas Temple. It will be warm in parts of the north and hot across some southern areas over the next couple of days. #Temperatures could reach 32 C somewhere in southern England. However, cooler Atlantic air will gradually spread across the UK next week pic.twitter.com/Mg5PUqzU5i Met Office (@metoffice) August 4, 2018 Across the Iberian Peninsula in Barcelona, where the stifling air barely stirred during the night, Spaniards took to the beach with families and friends, along with swarms of sweating tourists. Those who could not make it to the sea had cold drinks under large umbrellas in city squares. Others doused their faces and necks in public water fountains, or simply pulled down the shutters and stayed at home. Health officials issued reminders about the dangers that extreme heat can pose, especially for the elderly and the young. A Superpuma helicopter of the Swiss Army delivers water for cows near Schaenis, Switzerland (AP) The rest of Spain, including the normally wet and temperate northwestern region of Galicia, was also punished by the sun and heat. The heat wave broke local temperature records at eight places in Portugal on Friday. It also played a part in the deaths of two men, one in Barcelona and the other in the southern Spanish region of Murcia, according to Spanish authorities. The hot, dry conditions have led to several wildfires in Portugal. Nearly 700 firefighters and 10 water-dumping aircraft are fighting the biggest outbreak, which has burned 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) near the town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region. Crowds at La Concha beach in the basque city of San Sebastian (AP) Its a very serious situation of extreme heat, Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said. The World Meteorological Organisation said continental Europes heat record is 48C, set in Greece in 1977. Forecasts indicate that the hot air from Africa, which turned parts of the sky a dark yellow hue because of the dust it carried, will not abate until early next week. The torrid weather has been felt across Europe, as far north as Sweden. A woman takes a photo as her child plays in a fountain at a park in Moscow (AP) Meanwhile, French energy company EDF has halted a fourth nuclear reactor this time at the countrys oldest nuclear plant at Fessenheim in eastern France. Since Thursday, four French nuclear reactors in three power plants near the Rhine and the Rhone Rivers, including Fessenheim, have had to be temporarily shut down. EDF said the decision was made to avoid overheating the rivers. Nuclear power plants use water from the rivers to cool down the temperatures of their reactors before sending the water back into the rivers. Rivers that are unusually warm can experience mass fish die-offs, which has happened in Germany in the past week. Russia has appointed action movie star Steven Seagal as a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the United States. The foreign ministry announced the move on its Facebook page, saying Seagals portfolio in the unpaid position would be to facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges. Seagal has also toured the UK with his band (Yui Mok/PA) Hard To Kill and Under Siege star Seagal is an accomplished martial artist like Russian president Vladimir Putin. The actor, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2016, has robustly defended the Russian leaders policies, including Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea, and has criticised the US government. Last year, Ukraine banned Seagal from entering the country for five years, citing national security reasons. Labour faces being lost in a vortex of eternal shame unless it addressed the concerns of the Jewish community over anti-Semitism, deputy leader Tom Watson warned. In a stark message, Mr Watson said Labour had to take a long, hard look at ourselves and demanded immediate action to end tensions. Mr Watson demanded Jeremy Corbyn bring an end to disciplinary action against two of the leaders most prominent critics. And he said the party should fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of anti-Semitism. His intervention follows an attempt by Mr Corbyn to build bridges with the Jewish community which was met with a hostile response from the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the Jewish Labour Movement. Tom Watsons comments go further than Jeremy Corbyn went by calling for Labour to fully accept an international definition of anti-Semitism (Aaron Chown/PA) In a strongly-worded intervention, Mr Watson told the Observer: This is one of those moments when we have to take a long, hard look at ourselves, stand up for what is right and present the party as fit to lead the nation or disappear into a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassment. He called for disciplinary action against MPs Ian Austin and Dame Margaret Hodge who confronted Mr Corbyn in Parliament over his response to the row to be dropped. I think it is very important that we all work to de-escalate this disagreement, and I think it starts with dropping the investigations into Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, he said. I have frequently had very difficult conversations with both Margaret and Ian but what I understand is that your critics are not your enemies. On an issue that is so dear to them, I think people are very, very concerned that these investigations should be dropped quickly. And he said Labour should fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct. Mr Corbyn has stopped short of that, insisting that Labour had fully adopted the wording of the definition and had captured the essence of its illustrative examples, with seven of the 11 incorporated entirely. He acknowledged that the Jewish community should have been consulted more extensively in drawing up the code, and its development had been re-opened to allow the input of Jewish organisations. He insisted the differences were very small and amount to half of one example out of 11 in relation to criticism of Israel. But Mr Watson told the Observer: We should deal with this swiftly and move on. We cant have this dragging on throughout the summer. I have made no secret of the fact that we should adopt the full IHRA definition and should do it without delay. Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell was forced to distance himself from the anti-Semitism row over his links with the Labour Representation Committee campaign group. The Sunday Telegraph reported that the group, of which Mr McDonnell is president, said it was factually true to describe Jewish critics as Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all, highlighting comments made by former Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush in support of the US President. A Labour spokesman said: John has no day to day involvement in the operation of the LRC and is not responsible for its website or for posts on social media by its supporters. Meanwhile, Mr McDonnell used a Sunday Express interview to say Labour must lead the fight against far-right extremism. We must not underestimate the scale of the recent growth of the far right and its consequences for our society, he said. The onus is now on Labour to take the lead against these reactionary forces by calling them out and placing a transformative programme before the electorate that offers hope to people on job creation, tackling low pay, providing affordable housing and driving up living standards. In a Guardian article, Mr Corbyn insisted he will root out anti-Semites from Labour and acknowledged mistakes in the way the party had handled the crisis. But the Jewish Labour Movement said trust had broken down with the party leadership, while the Campaign Against Antisemitism lashed out at Mr Corbyns failure to apologise for his own conduct. Mr Corbyn said: No one can, or should, try to dismiss or belittle the concerns expressed by so many Jewish people and organisations about what has been happening in the party I am proud to lead. But after three leading Jewish newspapers jointly published a scathing leader column about Mr Corbyns party, the Labour leader rejected their overheated rhetoric. However, he acknowledged there was a real problem that Labour is working to overcome and stressed that if he became prime minister he would take whatever measures necessary to guarantee the security of the Jewish community. Campaign Against Antisemitism chairman Gideon Falter said: There is no acknowledgement of his own role in this crisis. There is no apology for his anti-Semitic activity in the past, but he has hypocritically condemned as anti-Semitic behaviour that he himself has been guilty of. He has again preached to Jews that he is right to have rewritten the international definition of anti-Semitism. "Today, other than another article bemoaning a situation of the Partys own making, nothing has changed. There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words" pic.twitter.com/jmNDX9Xvqa Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) August 3, 2018 The Jewish Labour Movement also rejected Mr Corbyns article. A spokesman said: There is no trust left. We find ourselves asking once again for action, not words. Political opponents seized upon similarities between Mr Corbyns article and an earlier response to allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour which was published in April. This is literally a cut a paste job, it makes no firm commitments, says that Jewish concerns about Labour are overblown, criticises Israel (because Corbyn cant write about Jews without having a go at Israel?), accepts no culpability. Yes its exceptional, but not in a good way. https://t.co/A0GBsIjqOx James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) August 3, 2018 Tory deputy chairman James Cleverly said it was a cut and paste job. The UK appears set to crash out of the European Union without a Brexit deal due to the 'intransigence' of the Brussels machine, Liam Fox has claimed. The International Trade Secretary put the chances of a no-deal Brexit at '60-40' despite both sides saying they want to reach an agreement on the terms of the UK's departure from the bloc in March 2019. This morning, Prime Minister Theresa May attended a church service with her husband Philip as she battles to see through her Chequers blueprint for Brexit. Prominent Brexiteer Mr Fox said he believed the risk of a no-deal scenario had increased, pinning the blame on the European Commission and Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier. 'I think the intransigence of the commission is pushing us towards no deal,' he told the Sunday Times. The UK appears set to crash out of the European Union without a Brexit deal due to the 'intransigence' of the Brussels machine, Liam Fox (pictured) has claimed Theresa May and her husband Philip arrive for a church service near to her Maidenhead constituency this morning 'We have set out the basis in which a deal can happen but if the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic wellbeing of the people of Europe then it's a bureaucrats' Brexit not a people's Brexit then there is only going to be one outcome.' He said Mr Barnier had dismissed the UK's proposals in the Chequers plan thrashed out by Theresa May and the Cabinet simply because 'we have never done it before'. The Government has admitted its proposals are unprecedented, but Dr Fox said Mr Barnier's response 'makes the chance of no deal greater'. The Prime Minister held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, cutting short her holiday to visit his summer retreat. And ministers including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab have also engaged in diplomatic activity in Europe in recent days as the Government seeks to deal directly with individual governments in an effort to keep the Chequers plan alive. In a sign that member states are being warned of the consequences of the failure to find a deal, Dr Fox said: 'It's up to the EU27 to determine whether they want the EU Commission's ideological purity to be maintained at the expense of their real economies.' Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Priti Patel said Mrs May must ditch the Chequers plan, which would see a 'common rulebook' for goods with the EU effectively tying the UK to terms set by Brussels. Theresa May held Brexit talks with Emmanuel Macron at his summer retreat on Friday Writing for the Telegraph website she said it did not meet the result of the referendum and 'will leave us half-in and half-out, still bound to EU regulations and constraints'. Calling for a looser free trade deal with the EU she said the change would take 'political courage, the kind of courage that appears to have been lacking over the past two years'. Labour former cabinet minister Lord Blunkett used a Sunday Telegraph article to reject claims that people who voted to Leave over immigration concerns were 'racist' and said the result would be the same if there was another referendum. He argued that 'people believed our democracy and political system did not reflect their concerns and their cry for help' following the impact of the financial crash and austerity, in many places hitting communities still coping with the aftermath of deindustrialisation. 'To understand this, and why, if there were to be a second referendum now, I believe that the majority would still vote to leave, is critical if we are to get our democratic system back on track,' he said. Theres Trumps Foreign Policy and Then Theres His Administrations WASHINGTON In the last five days, President Trump has thanked Kim Jong-un of North Korea for his nice letter, reminisced about his great meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and offered to meet Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, without any preconditions.During those same five days, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Russian bank accused of helping North Korea with weapons-related activities. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed stringent preconditions for any engagement with Iran. And the administrations top intelligence and law enforcement officials vowed to combat Russian interference in the midterm elections, while Senate Republicans pushed a bill that would impose harsh new sanctions on Moscow.There is Mr. Trumps foreign policy, and then there is the foreign policy of the rest of the Trump administration, backed by the Republican Party. This week, the two were openly at odds with each other. Be it Russia, NATO, Iran or North Korea, Mr. Trumps staff and his party projected a radically different message than the president himself. By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Twelve schools - eight girls and four boys schools - were attacked by bombs and set on fire overnight in a northern Pakistani district where Taliban-linked militants opposed to girls' education are active, police said on Friday. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistani Taliban and allied Islamist militants, who regard girls education as anti-Islam, have been attacking thousands of schools for young women in northwestern and northern parts of the country. The attacks in villages of Diamer district in northern Gilgit, an area known for its scenic beauty but which has seen Taliban-linked attacks on foreign tourists and minority Shi'ite Muslims, had been a well planned and coordinated act, police chief Raja Ajmal said. The attackers had also tried to break into an army-run school, but had been stopped by guards, said a local resident, Ghayas Ali. "People heard heavy explosion." No casualties were reported. "You know well who is doing these types of acts and what their motives are," the officer told Reuters by phone. He said the residents had a history of opposing girl education, but the government recently helped build girls schools there. In 2012, the Taliban shot and critically wounded Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai, known for her girls' education advocacy in northern Swat valley. Her father Ziauddin Yousafzai condemned the school attacks. "We have to provide the same sanctity to our schools and educational institutions as we do to mosques, temples and churches," he tweeted on Friday. Several Pakistani Taliban militants disguised in police uniforms assaulted a high altitude mountaineers' base camp in the region in 2013 and killed nine foreign climbers and two local guides. (Writing by Asif Shahzad Editing by Richard Balmforth) By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Argentina expects to export significant amounts of soymeal to China starting after the next harvest in May, a top agriculture ministry official said on Friday, as the South American grains powerhouse moves to take advantage of U.S.-China trade strife. Argentine officials were in Beijing on Friday finalizing the paperwork needed to ship the country's livestock feed to China, ministry Chief of Staff Santiago del Solar said in an interview. The South American country is already the world's top exporter of soymeal livestock feed. Beijing in June placed retaliatory tariffs on imports of U.S. soy, which may leave the massive Asian market open to new suppliers of soymeal feed needed to produce the steaks and hamburgers demanded by the country's growing middle class. "If the U.S. shifts away from exporting soymeal to China, that's an opportunity," del Solar said. U.S. President Donald Trump said recently he expects more soy exports to go to Europe. But del Solar downplayed worry that the United States will elbow Argentina out of its traditional soymeal markets like the European Union, Vietnam and Indonesia. "It's not easy to shift from one market to another," del Solar said, referring to the new trade routes that the United States may develop due the trade wars. Argentina, he said, is ready to compete thanks to its good export logistics. Eighty percent of Argentine soy is grown within 300 kilometers (186.41 miles) of the Rosario export hub, with its crushing plants and port facilities ready to take cargoes down the Parana River to the shipping lanes of the South Atlantic. "The Americans are leaving one market and going to another. But they are not going to double production," del Solar said. "It's like musical chairs," he added. "You can't be here and there at the same time." If Beijing approves Argentina's application this year, as expected, Argentina will have a limited amount of meal to immediately send to China due to the drought that hobbled the 2017/18 soy season. But del Solar said he expects farmers to increase plantings from the 17.1 million hectares sown with soy in the recently harvested 2017/18 crop year. "We expect farmers to plant more soybeans than last year. It's going to be more," de Solar said. Sowing starts in October. Argentina exported a total 28.3 million tonnes of soymeal in 2017, according to official data. About 33.4 percent, or 9.4 million tonnes, went to the EU. The next-biggest market was Vietnam, which imported 3.9 million tonnes of Argentina soymeal, and Indonesia, which bought 2.9 million tonnes. (Additional reporting by Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires Editing by Matthew Lewis) By Michele Kambas and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Greek Civil Protection Minister Nikos Toskas resigned on Friday in the wake of a wildfire last month that killed 88 people and led to widespread criticism of the government for its handling of the disaster. Toskas had previously offered to quit after the July 23 blaze in the small seaside town of Mati east of Athens, but Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras refused to accept his resignation. The minister reiterated his desire to step aside again on Friday during a meeting with Tsipras, in a move that the main political opposition said came too late to appease the public. "This natural disaster, and the loss of so many people in Mati, overwhelms my desire to continue. This is something I had stated publicly from the first moment," Toskas, a retired army general, said in a statement. Pressure has been growing on the government, which is trailing the conservative opposition in opinion polls, at a time when it had hoped to extricate Greece from years of bailouts prompted by its debt crisis and reap the political benefits. There have been recriminations over what went wrong and led to the deaths of dozens in Mati, where hundreds of people were trapped by towering walls of flames when they tried to flee. Many jumped into the sea to survive but others died, either in their cars or when they were cornered on the edge of steep cliffs by the rapidly advancing inferno. Last Friday Tsipras said he took political responsibility for the deadly wildfire amid accusations that his government had failed to protect lives and to apologise for the disaster. Seeking to deflect public anger, he told his ministers he was conflicted over whether the authorities had done everything right in response to the disaster. "Responsibilities have a name: Alexis Tsipras. He and his government do not have the courage to assume them 11 days after the tragedy," the conservative New Democracy party said after the minister's resignation. Tsipras's office quickly responded, accusing the conservative party of trying to score political gains from a national tragedy. The death toll rose to 88 on Friday when a 35-year-old woman died from her injuries. Her six-month old baby, the youngest victim, had died in her arms from smoke inhalation as they tried to escape the flames. Greek authorities say they suspect the fire was set deliberately. Arson is thought to be a frequent cause of forest fires in Greece, a crude method to clear the way for potential development. Toskas's duties have been assigned to Panos Skourletis, the country's interior minister. (Reporting by Michele Kambas and Lefteris Papadimas; Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Hugh Lawson) BERLIN, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A 20-year-old Afghan man wrongly deported from Germany last month will return in coming days so that a German court can hear his appeal of a decision rejecting his asylum application, Der Spiegel newsmagazine reported on Friday. The man, identified only as Nasibullah S., was among 69 Afghans deported last month on the same day that Interior Minister Horst Seehofer turned 69 - a coincidence he welcomed as a sign of increasing expulsions. Seehofer, the Bavarian conservative leader who nearly brought Germany's governing coalition down over his demand for strict migration policies, came under fire after one of the other migrants in the group of 69 committed suicide. The Afghan man, who had arrived in Germany in 2015, had been living in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern when he sent back to Kabul. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) later acknowledged it was wrong to deport the man, who was still in the process of appealing a rejection of his asylum application and had been due to appear in court the week after his deportation, Der Spiegel said. Now, German authorities will fly him back to Germany via the Pakistani capital of Islamabad at their own cost, the magazine said. He is due to receive a visa from the foreign ministry before travelling back to Germany, it said. No comment was immediately available from the Foreign Ministry. It was not immediately clear when the man would arrive from Islamabad or where. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal Editing by Mark Heinrich) WARSAW, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Poland's dominant gas firm PGNiG said on Friday that its LNG purchases from Qatar and elsewhere jumped by 60 percent in January-July from a year earlier, as the country diversifies its sources to reduce reliance on Russian gas. PGNiG has to buy certain amounts of gas annually from Russia under a long-term deal with Russia's Gazprom, which expires in 2022 and which Warsaw has said will not be renewed. In the first seven months of this year, PGNiG's imports from Gazprom rose by 6 percent, it said, but the Russian share of PGNiG's total gas imports fell by 2 percentage points from a year earlier to 75 percent. LNG, purchased from Qatar, Norway and the United States, accounted for 19 percent of PGNiG's total gas imports during the period, an increase of 6 percentage points from a year earlier. PGNiG has been buying more LNG via a terminal at the Baltic Sea in Poland also plans to build a gas link to Norway by 2022, which would give it access to gas from the North Sea. "PGNiG is getting prepared to start supplying the Polish market with gas produced on the Norwegian continental shelf," PGNiG said. The company also said that gas consumption in Poland rose to 17 billion cubic metres (bcm) last year, from 15 bcm two years previously. (Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Susan Fenton) Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) Chairman Colvin Gunaratne said yesterday even though the primary objective of the Medical Ordinance was to safeguard the rights of patients, it was catering to the needs of the doctors because of its composition. He told a news conference that 16 out of the 25 members of the SLMC were elected from Trade Unions of doctors and asked how such a body could mete out justice to the patients. The Medical Ordinance is meant to safeguard the rights of the patients. But it is not fulfilling its primary objective because of its shortcomings such as its composition, Prof. Gunaratne said He said the struggled to introduce amendments to the ordnance for four years as a SLMC member and for nine months as the chairman of the SLMC was for no avail. No SLMC chairmen had attempted to amend the Medical ordinance so far. In other countries, it is changed in about four or five years. Medical ordinance in Sri Lanka has not been amended for 80 years despite some minor amendments. A fresh ordinance should be introduced instead of the present archaic ordinance, he said. (Ajith Siriwardana) The Communist Party of China (CPC) is said to be hoping to strengthen relations with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) by having further exchange programmes. Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Guo Yezhou met former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and SLPP Chairman G.L. Peiris yesterday. Prof. Peiris said CPC official commended the efforts taken by the former government to foster ties between Sri Lanka and China, while the CPC expressed its desire to enhance party to party relations with the SLPP. The CPC maintains relations with all the major political parties in Sri Lanka. (Kelum Bandara) The representatives of political parties functioning under the joint opposition will meet the Elections Commission on Monday to discuss matters relating to the provincial council elections, an official said yesterday. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman G.L. Peiris told Daily Mirror yesterday he and Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) leader Dinesh Gunawardane and some other MPs would attend the meeting. According to the EC there is a gridlock with regard to conducting the elections because of the enactment of new legislation to change the electoral system for such elections. However, Prof. Peiris said the EC must take action to conduct the polls and in case there were problems with the new law, it should conduct the polls under the old system. He said the Interpretation Ordinance provided for it and pointed out that three PCs had been dissolved some ten months ago while three more councils would be dissolved in October and that his party would take legal action if the EC delayed the polls any further. (Kelum Bandara) President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will never permit any salary increases to ministers and MPs, Deputy Environment Minister Ajith Mannaperuma told a media briefing yesterday. I am telling you with responsibility that neither the President nor the Prime Minister will not allow the proposed salary increase to MPs and ministers, he said. I can confirm that those who have opposed the move are the very same people who had proposed such an increase at the recent party leaders meeting." The deputy minister said no final decision had been made by the government on the salary hike. Focusing on the joint opposition-led protest rally at the Town Hall on Thursday, he said the statement made by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa that the government had failed to keep its promises to penalize corrupt individuals was correct. Mr. Rajapaksa was correct when he said the present government had failed to penalize the corrupt. This is because there has been a delay in the judicial procedures. The FCID has finalized more than 100 files on corruption and have handed them to the Attorney General to file action but there has been a delay, he said and added that hearing such cases would be expedited through the newly set up Trial-at-Bar. Referring to another statement made by Mr. Rajapaksa that a future government led by him would pay attention to the assets offered to various countries by the present government under various agreements, the deputy minister said it was the former government which sold the land opposite Galle Face Green and sold outright reclaimed land under the Port City Project. (Yohan Perera) The University Grants Commission (UGC) is carrying out a series of advertising campaigns in national newspapers to make students and parents aware of possible methods to mitigate ragging and violence in State universities, sources said. The UGC in a newspaper advertisement on Thursday said it treated all students enrolled in State universities and other higher educational institutes on equal level as guaranteed by the Constitution. It also said no student should cause any inhumane treatment, mental torture, physical or sexual violence or humiliation to another student on personal integrity. It said the Prohibition of Ragging and other forms of Violence in Educational Act prohibited such behaviour. Anyone found guilty of such offences will be non-bailable and can be punished by court with rigorous imprisonment up to ten years followed by permanent expulsion from the university. The UGC hotline 0112123700 is open 24-hours for students to inform the authorities of such incidents. This is also possible via the newly-launched mobile application for university students. There is a special centre established at the UGC to look into such matters. All parents are advised to be vigilant on the behaviour of their children, it said. (Kalathma Jayawardhane) By Jeremy Carl June 22, 2018 Updated: June 23, 2018 10:50 a.m. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/California-s-senators-want-de-facto-open-borders-13018760.php Californias senators want de facto open bordersBy Jeremy Carl June 22, 2018 Updated: June 23, 2018 10:50 a.m. While serving as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., had a driver who was investigated for spying for the communist Chinese government. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Politico Magazine reported that the staffer with Feinsteins San Francisco office was suspected of providing political intelligence to his handlers, though none of the information was classified. A former intelligence official told author Zach Dorfman that the suspected informant was run by officials based at the local Chinese Consulate, Politico said. A source familiar with the incident confirmed to San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross that the FBI alerted Feinstein about five years ago that her driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying. Along with driving duties, the staffer was a gofer and a liaison to the Asian American community. He even attended Chinese Consulate functions for the senator. The Chronicles source said that during a trip to Asia to visit relatives, the staffer was connected to someone with the Peoples Republic of Chinas Ministry of State Security. The contact stayed in touch on subsequent visits. The Feinstein staffer didnt even know what was happening that he was being recruited. He just thought it was some friend. The FBI interviewed the driver and concluded he had released nothing of substance. NOTE: Feinstein then forced him to retire, and that was the end of it, the source said. None of her staff ever knew what was going on. They just kept it quiet. Posted By Art Moore On 08/03/2018 @ 5:41 pm https://www.wnd.com/2018/08/sen-feinsteins-driver-was-probed-for-spying-for-china/ Feinstein's driver groomed for spying by ChinaPosted By Art Moore On 08/03/2018 @ 5:41 pm As reported in Metroactive, an online report from the Silicon Valley, Feinsteins resignation followed six years of subcommittee work during which time her alleged conflict of interest stemmed from her husband Richard C. Blums ownership of Perini Corp. and URS Corp. Feinstein, chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee, regularly reviewed and accepted contracts from her husbands companies for not only construction work for military bases, but also addressing quality of life issues for the veterans of the United States military services. XXXXX He suggested perhaps Feinstein resigned because she could not take the heat generated by metros expose of her ethics Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005? The writer also noted another reason could be that since that subcommittee is responsible for veterans quality of life issues, perhaps she was trying to distance herself from the militarys failure to provide decent medical care for wounded servicemembers. Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has abruptly walked away from her responsibilities with the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee after a report linked her votes to the financial well-being of her husbands companies, which received billions of dollars worth of military construction contracts she approved.As reported in Metroactive, an online report from the Silicon Valley, Feinsteins resignation followed six years of subcommittee work during which time her alleged conflict of interest stemmed from her husband Richard C. Blums ownership of Perini Corp. and URS Corp.Feinstein, chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee, regularly reviewed and accepted contracts from her husbands companies for not only construction work for military bases, but also addressing quality of life issues for the veterans of the United States military services.He suggested perhaps Feinstein resigned because she could not take the heat generated by metros expose of her ethics Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?The writer also noted another reason could be that since that subcommittee is responsible for veterans quality of life issues, Galeton Borough sticking to its guns Free Access Another hurdle has been crossed in Galeton Borough Councils determined effort to save the towns signature lake, regardless of its cost or a paid consultants recommendation that it be eliminated.... COVID-19: numbers tell the story Free Access Coronavirus case counts across the region continue to rise. The numbers tell the story. In Potter County, there are now 128 active cases, meaning that the victim has contracted the... Pediatricians step up for Covid vaccine Free Access A statewide pediatrics organization is launching a campaign to educate parents, health administrators, community leaders and other citizens about the COVID-19 coronavirus and the importance of vaccinations. Pennsylvania Chapter of... Pollutions stalls Tractor Supply development Free Access Reckless waste disposal practices of yesteryear have come back to haunt another proposed business development in downtown Coudersport. Reports surfaced last week that construction of a Tractor Supply store has... THE impact of a $12 million investment over four years into crop research and development in the north was on full display recently when more than 70 visitors attended the Northern Australia Crop Research Alliance (NACRA) field day at Kununurra. NACRA is the pre-eminent agricultural research organisation for the north of Australia that is privately owned and has brought together participants from government, local and international universities, agribusinesses and farmers to work together on sustainable crop options. On show was a wide range of field trials including functional food crops such as chia, quinoa and plantago, pulse crops including chickpeas, mungbeans and soybeans and a large corn trial, evaluating varieties for both the export food and local feed markets. Also on display was an extensive cotton research program which is forming part of a multi-year and multi-State plan to bring commercial cotton production back to the Ord Valley in WA, the Gulf Region of North Queensland and other parts of northern Australia. The visitors were given an early glimpse at new crops in development including an oilseed species that produces super high oleic oil that has applications in the industrial, pharmaceutical and cosmetics markets and a warm-season legume species with extreme nitrogen fixing capabilities NACRA chairman and Chia Co chief executive officer John Foss opened the field day and provided a background on the company goals for crop R&D in northern Australia. I sat down with David Cross, the chief executive officer of Ord District Co-op and Jim Engelke, the general manager of Kimberley Agricultural Investment in 2015 and together we recognised the potential for creating a new company and combining our resources to collectively invest in crop research in the region, Mr Foss said. We formed NACRA and our cash investments, which have since been supported by successful funding grants from the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Developments (DPIRD) Grower Group Grant program and the Department of Industry, Science and Innovation which is providing us with cash and in-kind resources of approximately $12m to invest into crop research in northern Australia until 2021. The investment is split equally between grains and cotton and covers crop genetics, agronomics, systems and extension to the farmers in the region. NACRA is driving agricultural research in the north and ensuring the food and fibre production in the region is market driven, utilises the latest available technologies and is tailored to northern growing conditions. The participants in the research project that had representatives at the field day included CSIRO, DPIRD, Queensland government, the Federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, The University of Western Australia (UWA), The University of Sydney, King Abdullah University of Saudi Arabia and Strathmore Farms from Queensland. NACRA brings together farmers who have an intimate knowledge of the soils and climate of the north and agronomists, researchers and scientists that have deep, specific knowledge of the species they are working on which gives us the best chance of developing crops that will provide a profitable and sustainable farming industry, Mr Foss said. NACRA general manager Mark McGrath led the field walk and the first stop was the NACRA/KAUST quinoa nursery which is a collaboration with King Abdullah University (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. The quinoa nursery is the biggest in the world and includes more than 1100 entries. Dr Gabi Fiene, a plant breeder from Germany who works with KAUST, who is also involved in breeding salt-tolerant barley, spoke to the group and discussed the benefits of doing crop research in the Ord. We are involved with quinoa research in Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, China, Pakistan, Germany and Washington State in USA, but the conditions here in the Ord Valley are the best, Dr Fiene said. So much water and sunshine, really skilled researchers and farmers and the soil is perfect there is not even one rock. The next stop was the chia nursery that includes more than 400 entries and is developing varieties for higher yields and functional quality traits targeting the booming global health food market. Mr McGrath said the breeding investment in chia was starting to show promising results with some selections achieving a 25 per cent yield increase over the traditional varieties. Dr Janine Crozier, senior research fellow at UWA, whos team has been involved in cross breeding of chia since 2014, and more recently with quinoa, was a keen visitor to the chia nursery. Supporting our cross-breeding work in chia and quinoa we have been using speed breeding technology using supplemental LED lighting in the glass house environment to allow rapid generation cycling, Dr Crozier said. This technology allows us to significantly speed up the process of getting a new cross-bred variety with the desired traits into commercial production in the field. Following the chia was a look at an extensive chickpea research program. The Ord Valley has a long history of producing the Kimberley Large Kabuli chickpeas that are highly desired by the culinary, restaurant and food service market for their size, taste and colour. The NACRA chickpea program includes a breeding program of the Kimberley Large variety, as well as collaborations with The University of Sydney on a rhizobia trial for better nodulation and improved nitrogen fixation in the soils, and a heat tolerance trial looking at varieties and agronomic practices to increase performance of chickpeas in the warmer temperatures of northern Australia. The final stop in the grains section of the field day included a look at a mungbean variety trial which is a collaboration with Queensland Department of Agriculture and Food (QDaF) which includes varieties from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research that are also grown in trials in Queensland, and a Loveland Technologies foliar fertiliser trial aimed at addressing nutritional deficiencies and improving yield and quality. Also at this stop was a look at the corn variety trial that is assessing eight different varieties. NACRA director and ORDCO chief executive officer David Cross said, we have recently secured some large export contracts in Asia for corn and this has us really focused on the highest yielding varieties for the food markets, but at the same time the cattle feed market has really started to grow in the north so we are now assessing the best varieties to supply that market as well. The final part of the day was a look at the NACRA cotton project on KAIs recently-developed Ord stage 2 property. Dr Steve Yeates, CSIRO senior cotton research scientist and Paul Grundy, QDaF, both award-winning cotton researchers, spoke about wet season planted cotton in the north and the lessons and learnings they have brought to the NACRA project from their research both in Queensland and Brazil. The cotton research project is spread over three separate properties and is evaluating on a commercial scale; time of sowing, agronomic management, fertiliser application and efficiencies, harvest management and alternative double crop options. Mr Grundy said growing wet season planted cotton was a big opportunity in the north but it came with a unique set of challenges. Mr Yeates said the Bollgard 3 technology was really what was allowing cotton to be a viable option in the north. The NACRA focus is to refine management techniques in advance of a potential commercial scale industry. SHE believed she could, so she did was the motto of the Facey Groups Women in Agriculture day which was echoed throughout the seminar at Wickepin last Wednesday, that aimed to inform, inspire and empower women working in the agriculture industry. More than 80 women attended the event, whether they be farmers, industry representatives or from a country town, to gain information about navigating through an industry in which they were, and sometimes still are, only referred to as a farmers wife or an important woman in agriculture. The day featured five presentations and a technology session which Women in Agriculture chairwoman Peta Astbury described accurately as being a world full of knowledge and inspiration, beginning with Hannah Robinson and Jacinta Richardson, Hire in Style, providing guidance and inspiration for operating a business. Sergeant Andy Brown and senior constable Craig Williams, Wickepin police, delivered information about rural crime and methods of crime prevention. Leadership and diversity in agriculture was discussed by Kylee Hetherington, CSBP, who talked about challenges she faced gaining leadership roles in the corporate world, including in agriculture and Gary Philpott, Lincolns, emphasised the importance of succession planning. The keynote speakers were Sue Middleton and Elizabeth Brennan who own and operate a diverse farming business in the Wongan Hills area, comprising cropping, hay, pork and one of the largest citrus businesses in WA and consulting. They spoke about persevering through the challenges of farming and breaking through barriers that being a female in the industry presents. Over the past eight years, Ms Middleton has been widely recognised for her efforts to change rural WA and agriculture by being awarded the Centenary Medal for Services to Regional Australia in 2002, the Rural Industries Research and Development Rural Woman of the Year in 2010, being inducted into the WA Womens Hall of Fame and as a member of four boards. Ms Middleton said that despite her various impressive awards and recognised achievements, she didnt care for positional power but it was necessary for her to make change. We live in a world that responds to power, titles, wealth, status and things that are prestigious and we are hard wired to respect that, Ms Middleton said. I think those are the complete opposite of what actually matters in life and the way women work. Rather than having life determined by material objects, I think what really matters when you get to the end is who you were, how you made people feel and how you made them feel about themselves. This is a very female way of working and I think it is very powerful, but it is invisible. Rather than boasting about her many success stories, Ms Middleton shared her stories of challenges, claiming that they were the key to her eventually achieving success. Real success comes from failure and I am one of the best people at failing, she said. The fascinating stories of Ms Middleton and her family overcoming hardship gave visitors inspiration and motivation to manage their challenges and Ms Middleton a chance to look back and laugh. She said she first faced the biggest hurdle when converting a sheep paddock into a citrus orchard that became riddled with melons and required hand weeding of the entire paddock and establishing the citrus business meant Ms Middleton and her husband Michael worked seven days-a-week for eight years. Hardship kept rearing its head subsequent years later, including when a tornado destroyed 70 per cent of the farms piggery, one of the familys farrowing house burnt down and now farmers are experiencing the lowest pork prices in its history. Each of these moments have taught me that I will survive, but it does hurt, Ms Middleton said. Overcoming the sense of failure is an important process that (everyone) has to go through. For most women, when things get real bad, it will be them gluing everyone together. Every day is a new dawn whatever happened yesterday does not have to determine what happens today. A passion for community, agriculture and volunteering shone through as Ms Brennan, who is Ms Middletons stepdaughter, gave her presentation which asked speakers to consider not only how they would farm in the future, but how they would farm the future. After exploring various areas of the workforce Ms Brennan decided to volunteer in Papua New Guinea (PNG), living there for 18 months. During that time she gained the respect of the local women and most difficult, the men, as well as challenging her conventional understanding of agriculture which drove her to study a masters degree in sustainable systems. After living in PNG, Ms Brennan has been actively involved in the family farm business by leading the marketing strategy and development for Moora Citrus. Ms Brennan has also been involved in various community and agricultural development projects in the Wheatbelt and across Australia and still co-ordinates a multidisciplinary agricultural research program in PNG on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Centre for International Research. In 2012, Ms Brennan became the youngest president of Australian Women in Agriculture at age 26, a role she held for three years, helping to guide the organisation through its toughest patches. She is a commissioner for the Agricultural Produce Commission, chairwoman of the Farmers for Climate Action Rural Economic Futures Taskforce and volunteers on many agricultural advisory groups and committees. Ms Brennans commitments were formally recognised in 2014 when she was awarded the Most Outstanding Emerging Leader Award at the inaugural Women in Australian Agribusiness 100 and was named WA Young Achiever of the Year in 2016 for her voluntary and community contributions. She has been determined to take control of the common narrative given to women in agriculture of being a farmers wife or an important women in agriculture by choosing to write (her) own narrative, which she encouraged other women to do. These narratives are formed from the past, reflecting on where we have gotten today, but they can limit women into thinking that thats the only way things can be well these are the past and not the future, Ms Brennan said. Positioning herself outside of her comfort zone, most notably during her stay in PNG, proved to be crucial for enabling Ms Brennan to grow and ultimately achieve success. The biggest growth I have had has been when I have thrown all caution to the wind and jumped in the deep end, she said. The uncertainty of working in agriculture can bring just as much happiness as it can sadness, but as the speakers of the Women in Agriculture day highlighted, planning ahead and having the ability to persevere through tough times and adapt is the only way to turn failure into success. As Ms Middleton said, no matter what you are going through, if you really want it and stick at it, you will win, you will be successful. imaginethat said: Yes, that's right, but historically such populations answer the call to war. It's the "Why did the German people follow Hitler" effect. Click to expand... I disagree. A warrior must be invested. One of the many problems with Viet Nam is that the soldiers didnt know what the hell they were fighting for. Not so after 9-11 in Afghanistan. In Iraq, the U.S. took control of Iraq and handed it back to the Iraqis. Because the Iraqis were not invested, they through down their U.S. weapons and ran from their U.S. Humvees at the first sign of ISIS. These people know that Don the Con cares only about enriching himself. They are not so invested in this guy that they would risk their lives for him IMO. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category The few visitors left on the Fort Myers Beach Pier Wednesday didnt stay long as the red tide irritated their lungs. A scattered number of beach towels and blankets dot the sand. But other than that, the beach is uncharacteristically quiet near Times Square save for the persistant coughs and sneezes. As bodies of dead fish and marine animals wash up on shore, along with drift algae, businesses on Fort Myers Beach are feeling the devastation of red tide. I have no business. Everything got canceled, said Neil Eisner, a local fishing guide and captain. He said he had a tour booked for Friday and Saturday, and if after two hours the fishing wasnt good or the red tide was too strong, hed end it early and refund. Ive gotten some mangrove snappers, some catfish. But the snook and redfish have disappeared, he said. Eisner has been a captain in Estero Bay for eight years. Hes seen red tide before, but said its never been this bad or effected Estero Bay, what he calls back country. He feels lucky, because his boat is paid off. But for some of the younger men in the business, its going to be a rough time, he said. Financially, its devastating. Im not doing any business at all, he said. Bait shops, marinas, all of it gets hurt. This months cancellations are going to cost him about $4,000 to $5,000, he estimated. But its part of trend hed watched for years: The bay has been in decline for years. The freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee put too much freshwater back in the bay, he said, lowering the salinity and killing the seagrass beds. Without the seagrasses, its the food chain effect. Bigger fish leave, he said. Red tide starts in the Gulf of Mexico and can then move on shore. It releases a toxin that kills fish, and when airborne, can cause respiratory irritation in people and pets. This red ride bloom has been circulating north of Lee County for almost a year, but started hitting Fort Myers Beach almost two weeks ago. The bloom is being fed by the freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee. Its the worst red tide since 2006. Since the end of May, the Army Corps of Engineers has released water from the lake into the Caloosahatchee. Its laden with nitrogen and phosphorous, which the red tide thrives on. Those same nutrients have created a separate issue in the river and in canals a toxic cyanobacteria bloom. The Town of Fort Myers Beach has hired a contractor to sweep the beaches every day, raking up dead fish and the drift algae. Its also working to clean the canals and Estero Bay from the parade of dead fish floating in the water. According to the towns Facebook page, clean-up efforts will continue through the weekend, from 8 a.m.to 6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. Sunday. Lee County will be cleaning the beach from the pier north to Bowditch Point Park. But despite the efforts, algae and carcasses keep washing up. Juvenile catfish, jack crevalle, sheepshead: those are just a few of the many species that can be found dead in the sand. If the young ones are dying, it will hurt the population, Eisner said. Water-based businesses arent the only ones suffering; every area of business on Fort Myers Beach is feeling the blow. Beach-side restaurant and bar The Salty Crab shut down at noon Wednesday and all day Thursday. It was a very tough decision, said Jamie McElhone, the marketing coordinator. The Salty Crab is owned by Beachside Hospitality Group. Members of its corporate office visited the beach location Tuesday to present the Golisano Childrens Hospital with a $7,500 check raised from its rum bucket fundraiser; they were still feeling the effects of the red tide they were exposed to the next day, after returning to Clearwater. Were usually busy for breakfast. We did not seat one table Wednesday between 8 and 11 a.m., McElhone said. This is our busy time frame, with base ball teams coming down for tournaments. Last week, they were seating tables of 20 to 40 people. Now, with the doors shut, the Salty Crab is losing $5,000 to $7,000 a day in sales revenue, she said. Were continuing to monitor it. Well possibly be closed a few more days depending on the forecast, she said. I cant imagine trying to serve out there. Hotels and resorts have been fielding cancellations and early departures. And visitors are deciding not to come down at all. Ohioan Nick Kozma and his wife, Beverly, have been visiting Fort Myers Beach for 15 years; before that, they vacationed in Sanibel since 1954. After more than 20 years of coming to the beaches in Lee County every year, Kozma said he canceled his trip this year. The water conditions scare me to death, he said. Hes been following the news on water quality issues for months, and said he talked about canceling for a long time. Its obvious theres a real problem, he said. The couple has stayed at various locations on Fort Myers Beach, but mainly at Estero Beach Club for the last decade or so. While theyre here, they love to go out to eat at Smokin Oyster Brewery, pick up cinnamon rolls at Moms Produce, and get fresh seafood to cook at Sanibel Seafood. Thats a $4,000 loss out of peoples pockets, just the two of us not coming down, he said. Its a disaster. Wed love to come back, but I dont see this being cleared up for years. Calculating impact The Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce is taking action to show elected officials the real-time situation on the beach. In an email Wednesday, the chamber sent out a document for business owners to fill out and and record for the next few weeks. The document asks five questions related to how the red tide and blue-green algae are affecting business: Have you had cancellations as a result of poor water quality? Have you had early departures as a result of poor water quality? Have you seen a general year over year decrease in business? What is the most frequent question you are getting? How many people do you employ? Fort the first three questions there are separate columns to document losses from the week of July 16 to the week of Aug. 27. The chamber is asking businesses to send the updates for each week every Monday, starting Aug. 6. We will be tabulating weekly totals that will be reported to our representatives, town, county and state officials, President Jacki Liszak said in the email. She said the data will also be useful if local businesses need to file for disaster grants or loans. Liszak said showing elected officials the dollars and center, statistics and data is the quickest way to grab their attention. Well never know how many animals have been killed. We need a dollar number to show them the amount of damage, she said. The chamber has been getting calls from visitors, asking if the water is safe; as well as resorts, hotels and vacation renters who are getting cancellations. Some beach-front restaurants are closing; Junkanoos on the Beach was closed yesterday. The Salty Crab closed Wednesday afternoon and will be closed Thursday all day. Besides the impacts, the Chamber has a water quality updates page for visitors, guests and businesses owners to check for the latest information. Its also put up a business disaster assistance page to post information about potential disaster relief that may become available. To participate in the data collection, call the Chamber at 239-454-7500. The Chamber also has a page on its website dedicated to business disaster funding information. Visit fortmyersbeach.org/blog/tdc-emergency-beach-cleanup-fund-procedures. Get ready "American Horror Story" fans because Jessica Lange is set to return to the series. Three years after the Emmy award-winning actress said she was "done" with the show, Sarah Paulson revealed on Friday that Lange, 69, will appear in the "Apocalypse" installment. "I do have the great pleasure of letting you all know that, yes, she will be back," Paulson told reporters during the 2018 Television Critics Associations Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Jessica will be returning as Constance [Langdon] in an episode that I'm going to direct," the star shared, adding that viewers will get to see Lange in episode six of the anthology horror series, which premieres on September 12. According to Executive Producer Alexis Martin Woodall, this season "the story begins with the end of the world and then our world begins." "It starts in the real world," she continued. "Its very tangible and its a familiar character... If the apocalypse is the launching point, if that's what launches it, well then, whats the fantasy of what happens next? If were still here then the world didnt completely end." Along with Lange, Paulson, 43, will reprise her roles as Cordelia Foxx from "Coven" and Billie Dean from "Murder House," in addition to playing a new character named Venable. Also starring in the installment will be Kathy Bates as Miss Meade, Leslie Grossman as Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, Billie Lourd as Mallory, Adina Porter as Dinah Stevens, and Emma Roberts will reprise her "Coven" role as Madison Montgomery. Former "Bachelorette" contestant Leandro "Leo" Dottavio is denying claims of sexual harassment that were brought to light on social media by former "Bachelor" star Bekah Martinez. In a statement to Fox News, the reality star said, There have been some recent stories about me that have garnered attention and I want to address them. I want to start by saying no one has ever directly accused me of sexual harassment. No one has ever come to me in any way and told me I made them feel uncomfortable." He continued, "However, I am not a perfect person, nor have I ever claimed to be. Did I do things in college that I would be embarrassed about now? Absolutely. Was I a part of my culture, the times, movies? Yes. I have grown as a person since college. I am not the man I was two years ago let alone 14 years ago. Its important for women to speak out if they felt uncomfortable or harassed. I support that. If there was anyone I made feel uncomfortable why not come to me? I would love an opportunity to right my wrongs and speak to any woman that wants to tell me how and when I made them feel uncomfortable. I want to take this as an opportunity to better myself and the treatment of women in my life. Dottavio's statement comes after Martinez took to Instagram on Wednesday to call out the long-haired contestant from Becca Kufrin's "Bachelorette" season, with a collection of screenshots from women who claimed that Dottavio had acted inappropriately toward them. The 23-year-old nanny from Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s "Bachelor" season revealed to the New York Post that she stumbled upon a screenshot of a post by Dottavio dated from four years ago that said, you need my big d---" while browsing "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" Reddit pages. After Martinez shared the original screenshot on her Instagram, the reality star explained that she received "dozens of messages" from more women who responded to her and shared their own experiences. I started posting the screenshots [of their messages] because to me, its not a coincidence that multiple women would be saying similar things about the same person," she told the Post. Theres no way these women happen to be lying about the same thing before seeing what other women are saying. Following the release of the 31-year-old stuntman's statement defending his actions, Martinez took to Instagram once again and shared anonymous responses from women who disagreed with Dottavio's words. One user wrote, "Just because no one has accused of sexual harassment doesn't mean you have never sexually harassed someone." In response to Dottavio saying that he "was not a perfect person," one user said, "Yeah, neither am I...what I don't do is SEXUALLY HARASS other people." And while Martinez seems to have found love with a new boyfriend, since the days of vying for Luyendyk's heart, according to the Post, Dottavio is slated to try his hand at love once again on the upcoming season of "Bachelor In Paradise," though he said to not be part of the main cast. Meghan Markle's half-sister, Samantha, celebrated the Duchess of Sussex's birthday by comparing her to Disney's "101 Dalmatians" villain Cruella de Vil. According to E! News, the 53-year-old tweeted on her private account that she was disappointed that the Duchess of Sussex had not wished her own father, Thomas Markle, a happy birthday on his recent big day. Samantha tweeted, "Happy Birthday Meg! It would be so lovely and appropriate of you to send DAD a BELATED birthday card for his July 18th [cake emoji] @KensingtonRoyal Cheers!" A day before the duchess' birthday, Samantha shared an Elle Magazine article about Markle and her husband "taking a step away from the media spotlight," on Twitter and wrote, "OK so Cruella Deville is retreating LOL...Let me know how that works out for you [sic]." Samantha's recent tweets are not the first time the sibling has called out Markle for not supporting her family. Last month, while the duke and duchess paid a visit to a Nelson Mandela tribute exhibition in London, Samantha called out her sister once again. She tweeted, "How about you pay tribute to your own father?! Enough is enough. Act like a humanitarian act like a woman! If our father dies I'm holding you responsible, Meg! @KensingtonRoyal." Markle celebrated her 37th birthday by attending the wedding of Harry's longtime friend Charlie van Straubenzee. While her husband performed his duties as an usher to the groom, the birthday girl was snapped smiling outside of the chapel chatting with other wedding guests. Prior to her birthday, the former "Suits" star's father claimed that he had been "cut off" from his daughter but still wanted to send her a card for her birthday but wasn't sure if he would be able too. "If I send a birthday card to Kensington Palace, or wherever she's living now, it'll just be one among thousands," he told The Mail on Sunday. "I thought about sending it by Priority Mail Express, but the Palace would probably just soak it in water for three days to make sure it doesn't explode." One Indiana bartender and single mother is paying it forward, by donating a surprise $1,000 tip to help fund a local community skate park for kids. On July 21, Anna Hofstetter was shocked to find the incredibly generous tip on the $32.40 bill from customers at Hotel Nashville, from an unnamed couple enjoying an anniversary dinner, Fox 13 reports. Striking up a conversation, Hofstetter told the pair that she is a single mom who works three jobs to provide for her two kids. VIRAL LOUISIANA SUPERMARKET EMPLOYEE WHO LET AUTISTIC CUSTOMER STOCK SHELVES GETS $100G FOR COLLEGE They sat at a little table right by the door, and they said that they got married here at the Hotel Nashville seven years ago, Hofstetter told Fox. Their check came out to $32.40. And when I picked up the receipt, I was a little taken aback. Paying the bill for their Long Island Iced Teas, a crab artichoke appetizer and the dinner special, the couple also left the major tip, Fox 61 reports. Clearly inscribed on the receipt was a tip for $1,000, and a note that read Give something for the kids. Thank you so much, you have no idea what this means to me, Hofstetter recalls she said. Mulling over how she should spend the windfall, Hofstetter soon crossed paths with Brown County Enrichment for Teens Association Inc. President Clara Stanley, and knew just what to do. As Stanley and a group of youngsters are collecting money to build a county skate park, Hofstetter decided to give all of the money to their cause. Brown County has been lacking a healthy, wonderful place for little children or youth, especially youth can go and express themselves, hang out, Stanley said. I know Anna is doing a lot of working hours, single mom. $1,000 is big money. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Meanwhile, Hofstetter says the decision is a no-brainer. "So it is for my kids, my personal children. But it's also for all the kids in the community," Hofstetter said of the planned park. An Indiana man who beat brain cancer as a teen has once again defied the odds after surviving a nearly fatal car crash in January that left him internally decapitated. I have fought for my life this time around, and some days I feel like I still am. God has put me through some crazy stuff, and hes really testing me, Brock Meister, of Plymouth, said in a statement released by Beacon Health System. Im just thankful to be here, so thats all that matters, the 22-year-old added. On January 12, Meister was having dinner with some friends in Plymouth before heading to Lake of the Woods, near Bremen, where he and some friends were planning to stay with his grandparents for a night. Just minutes before arriving, the car hit a patch of black ice, causing the vehicle to tip over and roll on the passenger side where Meister was seated. WOMAN'S 132-POUND OVARIAN TUMOR REMOVED IN 5-HOUR SURGERY Meister's head smashed into the window, shattering it, and ultimately separating his skull from his spine in the process. Half my body was out the window, he recalled. The driver was able to pull Meister back in as the truck flipped upright and slowly rolled to a stop. Meisters friend, Ryan Topper, who was driving ahead of the two, knew something was wrong when he could no longer see the trucks headlights behind him. He whipped his car around, arriving just moments later. I turned around and from the angle that I drove up on it, it didnt look like anything had happened at all, Topper said. But as he got closer, he saw Meister, whose face was covered in blood. [He] wasnt saying much, Topper recalled. TEXAS DOCTOR WARNS 'SUPER STRAIN' OF PINK EYE ON RISE IN PART OF STATE Brock kept trying to get up and the only words he was saying were my neck and ambulance. I knew that he was in some serious pain and that if it was his neck, I couldnt let him get up and move, Topper, who had already called emergency officials at this point, said. Meister was taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend, where doctors stabilized him and took X-rays. Images revealed he had suffered a traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, essentially a "complete separation of the skull from the spine or internal decapitation, according to the statement. Surviving this type of injury is rare: the mortality rate for those who suffer internal decapitation is high. Aside from the physical separation of skull and spine, this injury can also be fatal because the blood vessels supplying the brain and the spinal cord itself are commonly injured ... [causing] significant neurological deficits and often prove fatal, according to the Beacon Health System. Meister was just the second patient in Memorial Hospitals history to arrive alive with this particular injury. Hes here and hes alive, and that in itself is a complete miracle, Meisters mother, Jenna, recalled telling family and friends at the hospital. At 2 a.m. that same night, Dr. Kashif Shaikh, a Beacon Medical Group neurosurgeon, was paged. He looked at the X-rays at home before heading to the hospital to treat Meister. I had to check twice to make sure I was looking at the right patients picture its such an uncommon injury, and an even less common injury to survive, he told the hospital. Later, Meister underwent surgery to re-align his skull and spine. His surgeons made a long incision on the back of his neck, using a skull plate and spinal screws and rods to correct the fracture. NEW JERSEY DAD WHO CONTRACTED FLESH-EATING BACTERIA WHILE CRABBING TO BE TRANSFERRED TO HOSPICE, FAMILY SAYS Interestingly, Shaikh, who performed the surgery, also helped to treat Meister when a malignant brain tumor a grade III germinoma was found at the center of his brain in 2012. Meister was just 16 years old at the time. Thankfully, the surgery was successful and Meister was released from the hospital in February. He was required to wear a neck brace up until recently. "Things easily could have been more tragic and my time spent with him could be at the cemetery." Jenna Meister, Brock Meister's mother While he still has trouble with his right arm and pain in the lower part of his body, he is undergoing physical and occupational therapy at Memorial Hospital to treat those issues. It is truly incredible, Shaikh said of Mesiters ability to survive brain cancer and the car accident. Its been really hard, Meister told Fox News on Saturday. It makes me feel good knowing that Im still here, but I always ask the question why me? I just keep reminding myself things will get better it just takes time, he continued, adding that he tries to spend as much time as possible with friends to get back to somewhat normal. As a mom, I know, I truly know God was there that night and saved my child. Things easily could have been more tragic and my time spent with him could be at the cemetery. Our boy is a miracle," Jenna added. Jenna Meister did not immediately respond to Fox News request for comment on Friday. Meghan Markle may be getting the hang of royal life, but the newly minted Duchess of Sussex reportedly suffered a wardrobe malfunction before the wedding of Prince Harrys close friend on Saturday. On August 4, her 37th birthday, the duchess arrived at the medieval St. Mary the Virgin church in Frensham in southwest London for the nuptials of Charlie van Straubenzee and Daisy Jenks. In a departure from her favored boat neck style or go-to Givenchy, Duchess Meghan sported a navy, short-sleeved, button-down shirtdress with a color-blocked skirt from Club Monaco paired with a Philip Treacy hat, Aquazzura pumps, black belt and Kayu clutch, People reports. As of press time, the $328 frock was still available for purchase online. IDENTICAL TWIN SISTERS TO MARRY IDENTICAL BROTHERS, LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER IN SAME APARTMENT All smiles as she stepped out of the car, OK! reports that the newest royal apparently suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she accidentally flashed her bra upon arrival. Happily waving to photographers and seemingly unaware of the faux pas, it appears that she left the top button of her shirt dress undone, revealing a black lace undergarment. Proceeding to mingle with other wedding guests outside of the chapel, the birthday girl apparently quickly buttoned up, and carried on. According to The Associated Press, the prince has known Van Straubenzee since childhood, and Harry's former prep-school mate served as an usher at Harry and Meghan's Windsor Castle wedding in May. Harry repaid the favor by serving as an usher for Van Straubenzee's wedding ceremony on Saturday morning. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS In addition to Markle and Harry's attendance at the Van Straubenzee wedding, Princess Eugenie and her fiance, Jack Brooksbank, were also spotted at the Saturday event. The two are slated to walk down the aisle at St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle on October 12. Fox News Morgan M. Evans and the Associated Press contributed to this report. New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, currently one of the leading lights of the Democrats left-wing, is on a tour of the West Coast -- but is notably avoiding meeting up with the regions Hollywood elites. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the partys democratic socialist wing, has visited homeless areas on Los Angeles Skid Row neighborhood, and has met with liberal activists. But as she has held low-dollar fundraisers, she has not engaged in glitzy events with high-profile Democratic donors and Hollywood celebrities. The move has already raised eyebrows, with The Hollywood Reporter asking: Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Too Far Left for Hollywood? The outlet reported that it reached out to a number of political operatives and members of the industrys donor class, who all said they were not aware of any meetings with her -- while others werent aware she was in L.A. She also reportedly didnt reach out to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. Instead she held an event with a $27-a-head fee, or $10 for students. The move is is line with her campaign -- which was not supported by the Democratic Party machine, did not receive significant funding, and still managed to upend expectations as she beat Democratic Party mainstay Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y. While she has picked up the backing of some Hollywood celebrities, such as Susan Sarandon and Chelsea Handler, and has engaged in a whirlwind media tour, Ocasio-Cortez has so far held back from getting too close from the Democratic and Hollywood elites -- unlike other key Democratic figures like former President Barack Obama or 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who were both comfortable in such circles. Even Sanders, with whom Ocasio-Cortez has allied, occasionally dabbled in the Hollywood fundraising circuit, despite promising not to raise money from millionaires and billionaires. In 2015 he was welcomed at a campaign fundraiser at the Hollywood home of real estate agent Syd Leibovitch -- where those who spent $2,700 or who raised $10,000 were invited to a "pre-event reception." SOCIALIST CANDIDATE OCASIO-CORTEZ ONCE SAW HERSELF AS SMITHIAN CAPITALIST, VIEWED FEMINISM AS 'RELIC' She has embraced far-left issues such as Medicare-for-all and calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) She represents a rising left-wing within the party that has only been growing since democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made a surprisingly strong primary challenge against eventual 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But Ocasio-Cortezs rapid ascension from unknown candidate to political celebrity has raised concerns from more mainstream Democrats about how her brand of hard-left democratic socialism will play outside of left-wing hubs of New York City and Los Angeles. Joe Lieberman, who was the Democratic Party's candidate for vice president in 2000, in an interview with Fox News last month, said that Ocasio-Cortezs ideas will struggle to gain support across America. "When I see somebody who really says she's a socialist -- she's a very captivating, charismatic candidate -- when you look at those policies, those policies will not be supported in many places across America," Lieberman said. Former President Barack Obama issued a lengthy list of midterm endorsements last week -- a list which notably did not include Ocasio-Cortez. That nervousness is unlikely to have been soothed by recent media appearances. In a recent interview with The Daily Show she struggled to lay out how shed fund her agenda -- that interview quickly went viral in delighted right-wing circles. She also got into trouble after she referred to Israel's "occupation" of Palestine, before admitting she was "not the expert" on the subject. But in L.A., the enthusiasm for her only appears to be growing. The Hollywood Reporter reported that an event with Ocasio-Cortez quickly sold out with almost no marketing. "She really inspires me, because she's so young and she's getting so far," said Melainey Jane Foerster, 16, a high-school student from suburban Santa Clarita, told The Associated Press. Shes new, shes a fresh voice and weve been lacking that, Faith Eberling, a longtime San Francisco Democrat, told Politico. The Associated Press contributed to this report. One of President Trump's most vocal critics in the U.S. Senate said Friday that he once cried tears of rage over the Trump administrations rhetoric. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made the remark at the Netroots Nation Conference in New Orleans, where other liberal speakers were to include U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. The annual convention drew thousands of liberal activists and offered a chance for Democrats considering presidential runs to win over supporters, the Washington Times reported. Im a big believer that if America, if this country hasnt broken your heart, then you dont love her enough," Booker continued. "Because theres things that are savagely wrong in this country. Im a big believer that if America, if this country hasnt broken your heart, then you dont love her enough. Because theres things that are savagely wrong in this country. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. One place where Booker claimed to have had his heart broken was Newark, N.J., the struggling Northeast city -- with poverty and crime rates typically among the nation's highest -- where Booker served as mayor from 2006 to 2013. Newark has gifted me a wisdom that can only come from wounds, a sense of purpose that can only come from shared pain, Booker said, according to the Times. Its a city that at times where my heart has been broken but Ive learned that the heart is this interesting organ that, its the only one that really works even if its gotten broken. Newark has gifted me a wisdom that can only come from wounds, a sense of purpose that can only come from shared pain. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. Booker also lamented for a Democratic Party that, in his view, seems "to have lost our way." I think a lot about the Democratic Party nationally and how it seems that that connection to people where they are, what their experiences are, their struggles, their hurts and their pain how we seem to have lost our way, he said. Anti-Israel sign? Booker's spokesman, Jeff Giertz, later found himself doing damage control because of a sign that the senator held up during a photo shoot with some attendees of the same New Orleans conference. The attendees turned out to be activists from the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a group that advocates for anti-racism principles, according to its website. The sign Booker held said From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go, raising the eyebrows of pro-Israel supporters. Giertz told the Washington Free Beacon that the senator didnt have time to read the sign amid the rush and thought it was only talking about Mexico. Giertz added that Booker does believe security barriers are necessary as long as "active terrorist organizations threaten the safety of the people living in Israel." Last week, Booker implored activists to please, get up in the face of some congresspeople, at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Washington D.C., Fox News Insider previously reported. He also joined senior members of Senate last week to oppose Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying you are either complicit in the evil or you are fighting against it, Fox News Insider also previously reported. I am a retired newspaperman. I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 44 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather. Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com Illinois government offices remained open Saturday as the home state of former President Barack Obama commemorated his birthday under a new state law. The bill marking Aug. 4 as Barack Obama Day throughout the state was enacted without making the date a full-scale holiday. The Illinois House narrowly rejected a plan to make Obamas birthday a state holiday amid worries that the cash-strapped state could not afford to give state state employees another paid day off. Obama turned 57. The law hailed Obamas efforts to protect the rights of Americans and build bridges across communities. "It's incredibly proud for Illinois that the president came from Illinois. I think it's awesome, and I think we should celebrate it," Gov. Bruce Rauner said in signing the measure into law, according to TheHill. "I don't think it should be a formal holiday with paid, forced time off, but I think it should be a day of acknowledgment and celebration." Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obamas former chief of staff, wished Obama a happy birthday on Twitter, saying 57 never looked so good, according to the publication. Former first lady Michelle Obama also wished her husband a happy birthday on Twitter, saying, The view is always better with you. Illinois, California and Wisconsin celebrate Ronald Reagan Day every Feb. 6 in honor of the late Republican presidents birthday, USA Today reported. An Obama spokeswoman said Obama plans to celebrate his birthday with a family dinner in Washington on Saturday night, according to the paper. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes reportedly joked on Friday about the assault on Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., by his neighbor, saying it shows he can be beaten. Associated Press reporter Adam Beam tweeted that Democrat Grimes made the remark at a local Fancy Farm Picnic in Kentucky on Friday, which Kentucky political candidates often use as the kickoff for election campaigns. Grimes is considering running for governor in 2019. Alison Lundergan Grimes on Rand Paul: Just ask his neighbor. He can be beaten. Beam tweeted. Grimes remark sparked a response from Paul's chief strategist Doug Stafford, who made a reference to Grimes failed 2014 Senate run, where she attempted to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.Thats almost as sad and pathetic as her last campaign, he said. Mitch beat her so bad he almost got charged with a hate crime. NEIGHBOR WHO ATTACKED RAND PAUL SENTENCED TO 30 DAYS IN PRISON While McConnell was planning on attending the event, Paul was not at the event, and is gearing up for a trip to Russia on Monday. A spokesman told The Washington Post that the trip is aimed at supporting President Donald Trump engaging around the world. But Grimes reportedly joked that Paul is instead looking for a campaign manager. Pauls neighbor was convicted in June of attacking the senator outside his home and was sentenced to 30 days in prison. The attack left Paul with six broken ribs and his recovery was complicated by fluid and blood around the lungs and recurrent pneumonia. The senator told police that the incident occurred when his neighbor came onto his property and tackled him from behind, forcing him to the ground and causing pain. The neighbor, Rene Boucher, said he tackled Paul over piles of brush on Pauls property. Boucher claimed that Paul used his lawn mower, blowing leaves onto his property. The spat comes amid a growing controversy between Democrats and Republicans about inflammatory rhetoric. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., came under fire for suggesting Trump officials be hounded out of public spaces. Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, this week said that he had cried "tears of rage" over rhetoric from the Trump administration. Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia, China and other nations Saturday against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. Pompeo said Washington would take seriously any action that reduces pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. The secretary of state said the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia has violated U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. Pompeo said the reports will be raised with Moscow and "roundly condemned," adding that he remains optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledge to President Trump to denuclearize. His comments come as a United Nations report accused North Korea of continuing to develop its nuclear and missile programs. "(North Korea) has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018," experts wrote in the report seen by Reuters. Pompeo's remarks at a Southeast Asian regional forum in Singapore drew a swift response from North Korea's foreign minister, who shot back that recent moves by the U.S. have been "alarming." US IMPOSES SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA BANKER AND THREE ENTITIES The U.S. "is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" North Korea, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said, soon after Pompeo's statements. Ri said that while North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" including a "moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground," the U.S. has gone "back to the old, far from its leader's intention." But Pompeo earlier defended the U.S. position on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved, Pompeo said, according to the Washington Post. There has not been single country that hasnt thanked the United States for its efforts in moving the world toward the possibility of achieving this. Im optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded. But he said the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress, saying the "the decision is his" and the ultimate timeline will "at least in part" be set by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the Post reported. NORTH KOREA REPORTEDLY EXPANDS MAJOR MISSILE PLANT: REPORT Trump had also replied to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's latest letter in a written response that was hand-delivered to Ri Yong Ho at the Singapore security forum on Saturday. Heather Nauert, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim. The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Trump will travel to Ohio Saturday to campaign in favor of Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson ahead of a crucial special House election next week. Balderson is running against Democrat Danny OConnor in a race that will be seen as a bellwether for the upcoming midterms in November. While it has usually been a safe Republican seat, polls suggest the race is close ahead of the election on August 7 that will choose who replaces retired Rep. Pat Tiberi. A Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday gives Balderson a one point lead over O'Connor. Balderson is a Trump supporter, but he has also aligned himself to Trump critic and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. OConnor is considered a long shot but has been careful not to criticize Kasich. Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to link OConnor to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Republicans have frequently tried to link candidates to the California Democrat when campaigning in typically red seats. Trump said that while Balderson is strong on crime, the border & loves our military, vets and 2nd Amendment, he also accused OConnor of being a puppet of Pelosi. He also said OConnor had lied about his support of Pelosi. Troy Balderson, running for Congress from Ohio, is in a big Election fight with a candidate who just got caught lying about his relationship with Nancy Pelosi, who is weak on Crime, Borders & your 2nd Amendment-and wants to raise your Taxes (by a lot), Trump tweeted. Vote for Troy on Tuesday! Trump is increasing his political campaigning as polls suggest that the Democrats may win the House in November. Strong economic numbers have given Republicans a boost, but polling suggests they are lagging behind Democrats. Sabatos Crystal Ball, part of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, is now predicting that the race for the House tilts toward the Democrats and that they are now a little better than 50-50 to win the House -- the first time it has made such a prediction. It also made 17 House ratings changes -- all in favor of the Democrats. Additionally, a Quinnipiac University Poll found that Democrats have opened a 12-point lead on the generic House ballot -- a gap that Republicans had almost closed just a few months ago. This rally is Trumps third in the space of a week after rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania in support of congressional candidates. Fox News Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Locals and tourists in Venice will have to look for some other means of getting around the city now that a new regulation will ban certain types of boats from the Grand Canal. As of August 1, authorities are now prohibiting recreational boats such as canoes, kayaks, paddleboards and others from being used in the canal, The Local reported. People who live or own businesses in the historic district, however, are exempt from the complete ban and will still be able to use their boats during restricted times. And dont worry if you had your heart set on a gondola ride traditional Venetian watercraft are still allowed. Following the death of a German tourist in 2013, regulations on the Grand Canal have slowly become stricter, beginning with fewer ferries on the waterway, The Local reported in 2013. The new measure is simply a further piling on of measures in the name of public safety. Up until August 1, recreational boats were only allowed on the canal at peak times during the day. The ban affects not only the Grand Canal, but also Cannaregio Canal and other waterways. Less busy, smaller canals will only enforce the ban during certain times of the day, namely peak hours. If youre planning a trip to Venice any time soon, consider saving a few euro for the public transport. This story was originally published by Travel + Leisure. U.S. Army officials on Friday identified the soldier who died in a weapons training accident at Fort Campbell in Kentucky earlier this week. Pvt. 2nd Class Jeremy J. Wells, 19, of Adairsville, Ga., was taking part in routine training with his unit Wednesday afternoon at a small-arms range on the base when the mishap occurred, Army officials said in a statement. Wells, an aircraft electrician with the 101st Airborne Division, was rushed to Blanchfield Army Community Hospital located on the base, where he later died from his injuries. No other soldiers were hurt, the statement said. "101st Combat Aviation Brigade has lost an incredible member of the Destiny family, said Lt. Col. Cayton Johnson, commander, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade (Rear), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members of this Soldier. We ask that everyone respect the privacy of his family as they grieve this tragic loss." The Army is conducting an investigation into what caused the accident. "101st Combat Aviation Brigade has lost an incredible member of the Destiny family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members of this Soldier. Lt. Col. Cayton Johnson, commander, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division Wells, who joined the Army in 2017, was posthumously awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal, Army officials said. His other decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Basic Aviation Badge. Our hearts mourn for the family during this tragic time, Brig. Gen. Todd Royar, acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne and Fort Campbell, said in a statement Wednesday. We are eternally grateful for this Soldiers service to his country and to the 101st Airborne Division. The training operation was the second to result in a fatality at Fort Campbell in a matter of months. In April, two soldiers were killed when their Army AH-64E Apache helicopter crashed during a drill. The soldiers were later identified as Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ryan Connolly, 37, and Warrant Officer James Casadona, 28. Connolly, who joined the Army in 2001, was an instructor pilot in the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. Casadona enlisted in 2012 and served as a pilot in the 101st. Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season. Brown, who inspected neighborhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the Northern California city of Redding, said he was confident the president he has clashed with over immigration and pollution policies would send aid, which Trump did last year when California's wine country was hit hard. "The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so I'm hopeful," said Brown, a Democrat. "Tragedies bring people together." There are 17 major fires burning throughout California, authorities said. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people -- including four firefighters-- and shut down Yosemite National Park. "Fire season is really just beginning," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection chief Ken Pimlott said. The biggest blazes continue to burn north of San Francisco, including twin wildfires fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather. Those fires destroyed 55 homes and forced thousands of residents to flee their neighborhoods about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the city. They have grown to a combined 300 square miles (648 kilometers). The two fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph (56 kph) that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames. An Oklahoma corrections officer arrested in his 3-year-old sons death may have been intoxicated when he allegedly forgot the toddler inside a hot truck Thursday, authorities said. Adam Kolar, 33, and a friend found the child unresponsive inside the vehicle with the windows rolled up around 5 p.m., FOX25 Oklahoma reported. The friend told a 911 dispatcher that the toddler had been left inside between 90 minutes and two hours. [The child] was left in the vehicle in the car seat, Kolars friend said in a 911 call obtained by KWTV-TV. We finally found him in the car. Hes unconscious right now, and hes drooling. We need somebody here now. Kolar was performing CPR on the child when police and paramedics arrived, the station reported. The boy was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said that Kolar, who was watching the toddler while his wife was at work, gave off an odor of alcohol and had slurred speech while being interviewed. Investigators say possible intoxication may have caused Kolar to forget the child was in the truck. [The child] was left in the vehicle in the car seat. We finally found him in the car. Hes unconscious right now, and hes drooling. We need somebody here now. Friend of Adam Kolar, speaking to 911 dispatcher Authorities were to perform a test of Kolars blood alcohol level to determine whether he was drunk. Meanwhile, police said they were trying to piece together a timeline of events to determine exactly how long the boy was inside the hot truck. Kolar was charged with first-degree murder Friday and was being held at the El Reno City Jail. Portland, Oregon, is bracing for what could be another round of violent clashes between a right-wing group and self-described anti-fascist counterprotesters who have pledged to keep Patriot Prayer and other affiliated groups out of this ultra-liberal city. A rally organized Saturday by Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson was expected to be the third to roil Portland this summer. Two previous events ended in bloody fistfights and riots, and one counterprotester was sent to the hospital with a skull fracture. This time, Gibson changed the venue from a federal plaza outside U.S. District Court to a waterfront park so some of his Oregon supporters can carry concealed weapons as they demonstrate. Chartered buses will bring participants from Vancouver, Washington -- where Gibson lives -- to downtown Portland with armed security on board. The Portland Police Bureau said Friday that protesters should expect to see a significant police presence including bomb-sniffing dogs and checkpoints where weapon screenings will occur. Gibson's insistence on bringing his right-wing supporters repeatedly to this blue city has crystallized a debate about the limits of free speech in an era of stark political division. Patriot Prayer also has held rallies in many other cities around the U.S. West, including Berkeley, California, that have drawn violent reactions. VIOLENT 'F--- TRUMP' IMAGE REMOVED BY PORTLANT ART GALLERY AFTER BACKLASH' But the Portland events have taken on outsized significance after a Patriot Prayer sympathizer was charged with fatally stabbing two men who came to the defense of two young black women -- one in a hijab -- whom the attacker was accused of harassing on a light-rail train in May 2017. A coalition of community organizations and a group representing more than 50 tribes warned of the potential for even greater violence than previous rallies if participants carry guns. It called on officials to denounce what it called "the racist and sexist violence of Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys" and protect the city. Portland police say they will be checking for weapons to ensure anyone who is armed has an Oregon concealed handgun license. Gibson, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, said in a live video on Facebook earlier this week that he won't stop bringing his followers to Portland until they can express their right-wing views without interference. "I refuse to do what Portland wants me to do because what Portland wants me to do is to shut up and never show up again. So yeah, I refuse to do that, but I will not stop going in, and I will not stop pushing, and I will not stop marching until the people of Portland realize that and realize that their methods do not work," he said. Self-described anti-fascists -- or "antifa" -- have been organizing anonymously online to confront Patriot Prayer and an affiliated group, the Proud Boys, in the streets. A broader counterprotest organized by a coalition of labor unions, immigrant rights groups and artists also will gather at City Hall before the Patriot Prayer rally. Organizers say that while Patriot Prayer denies being a white supremacist group, it affiliates itself with known white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazi gangs. "Patriot Prayer is continuing to commit violence in our city, and their events are becoming more and more violent," said Effie Baum of Pop Mob, a coalition of community groups organizing the counterdemonstration. "Leaving them a small group to attack in the streets is only going to allow them to perpetuate their violence." Dueling protests a month ago ended with Portland police declaring a riot and arresting four people. A similar Patriot Prayer event on June 4 devolved into fistfights and assaults by both sides as police struggled to keep the groups apart. The man charged in last year's light-rail stabbing deaths, Jeremy Christian, was filmed making the Nazi salute at a Patriot Prayer rally a month before the killings. Christian, who has pleaded not guilty, later told investigators he was not motivated by racism but was drunk and wanted to "do his free speech thing" when he shouted racist and anti-immigrant slurs on the light-trail train before the stabbings. In the aftermath, Gibson organized a pro-President Donald Trump free speech rally that attracted thousands from both sides to downtown Portland. The ensuing chaos shut down much of the city's core and police arrested more than a dozen people amid widespread fighting. A mother in Virginia pleaded guilty this week to keeping two of her five children in makeshift cages. Malista Ness-Hopkins on Thursday pleaded guilty to five counts of child neglect. The news comes after the 39-year-old Accomack County woman was arrested in July 2017 after social workers found two of her children living in makeshift cages. The cages were cribs with what social workers said appeared to be the side rails of other cribs screwed on the top, USA Today reported. NEW CLUE EMERGES OVER WHO STOLE $100 MILLION DE KOONING PAINTING FROM MUSEUM 30 YEARS AGO Two of Ness-Hopkins other children were found in a separate room sleeping on a bare mattress. All five children -- whose ages range from one to six years old -- lived in a home full of trash, rotting food and fleas, authorities said at the time. Kate Bonniwell, an Acomack County Social Services worker, testified that it took more than 20 minutes to unscrew one of the lids, which required an electric screwdriver to do so. She added that the two-year-old inside the cage hissed when social workers removed the top. "The children didn't act like normal children," Bonniwell said, according to The Associated Press. Bonniwell also said that a toilet in the home was filled with black water, while a sink and bathtub were filled with trash and rotting food. FLORIDA OFFICER RECORDED HELPING STRANDED DRIVER, PUSHING CAR FROM MIDDLE OF ROAD Ness-Hopkins attorney argued that she used the cages to protect the children, not punish them, as she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after her boyfriend died, the Associated Press reported. Ness-Hopkins, who was released on bond a few days after she was arrested, will remain on bond until her sentencing in December, USA Today reported. As for the children, four have been placed in foster care while the fifth is living with his grandmother. The Associated Press contributed to this report The United States imposed North Korea-related sanctions Friday on a North Korean bank executive and company, a Russian bank, and a Chinese company and asked the U.N. to add them to its sanctions blacklist. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stressed in a statement imposing the new sanctions that "the United States will continue to enforce U.N. and U.S. sanctions and shut down illicit revenue streams to North Korea." "Our sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully-verified denuclearization of North Korea," he said. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Ri Jong Won, the Foreign Trade Bank deputy representative in Moscow and an official of the North Korean government. The Foreign Trade Bank is already under U.S. and U.N. sanctions. The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Moscow-based Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank, saying it knowingly conducted or facilitated "a significant transaction on behalf of Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank." Han is also subject to U.S. and U.N. sanctions. The Treasury Department said a 2016 U.N. Security Council resolution states that if a country determines that an individual is working on behalf of, or at the direction of a North Korean bank or financial institution that individual should be expelled. "Therefore, Han Jang Su and Ri Jong Won should be expelled from Russia," it said. Nevertheless, the Treasury Department said Agrosoyuz continued to provide services to Han into 2018 and also "knowingly opened multiple bank accounts for at least three Foreign Trade Bank front companies." The U.S. also imposed sanctions on two front companies associated with the Foreign Trade Bank the Korea Ungum Corporation based in Pyongyang and Dandong Zhongsheng Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., based in Lioning, China. The U.S. Mission asked the U.N. Security Council later Friday to impose sanctions on Ri Jong Won and the three entities. According to documents sent to council members and obtained by The Associated Press, the Netherlands, which chairs the committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea, sent a letter giving council members until 3 p.m. EDT on Aug. 10 to raise any objections. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said the request coincided with actions by the U.S. Treasury Department "and is part of a coordinated U.S. government effort to continue to implement existing sanctions, both domestic and multilateral, and cut off North Korea's illicit financial activities." At least seven rebels and an Indian army soldier were killed in gunbattles in disputed Kashmir, triggering violent protests by residents opposed to Indian rule, officials said Saturday. Army soldiers and counterinsurgency police cordoned off a neighborhood in the suburbs of southern Shopian town overnight, leading to an exchange of fire with rebels, police said. One militant was killed overnight while four more died early Saturday. The fighting sparked protests and clashes as hundreds of residents tried to march to the site of the battle to help the militants escape. Government forces fired warning shots, shotgun pellets and tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters, injuring at least 15 people, three of them critically. Separately, two rebels and a soldier were killed in the northwestern Sopore area on Friday, authorities said. Meanwhile, security guards posted at the residence of Farooq Abdullah, India's member of parliament and Kashmir's former top elected official, shot and killed a young man after he allegedly forced his entry into the residence on Saturday, top police officer S.P. Vaid said. Vaid said the man traveling in a car was unarmed and gatecrashed into the residence in southern Jammu city. He scuffled with security guards before he was shot to death. Abdullah was not at the residence. The slain man's family rejected the police version of the incident, saying that the residence was not on his route to the gym where he had gone in the morning. They sought an independent probe. There was no independent account of the shooting. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in its entirety. Most Kashmiris support the rebel cause that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. In recent years, mainly young Kashmiris have displayed open solidarity with rebels and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown. An Australian graduate student whose honeymoon plans in Indonesia included a cultural festival in the insecure Papua region says she's being deported after officials accused her of being a journalist. Belinda Lopez told The Associated Press she was detained on arrival in Bali on Friday and has been informed she'll be deported on a 10 p.m. flight Saturday. She said immigration officials wanted to know if she was a journalist and repeatedly asked her if she had "done something bad to Indonesia." Almost a decade ago she was an editor for English-language newspapers in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, and has produced podcasts for Australia's state broadcaster. A freelance journalism site says she won awards in 2012 and 2013 for reporting, including a report on juvenile incarceration in the U.S. She is currently a Ph.D student at Sydney's Macquarie University, studying the cultural experiences of migrants to Java, Indonesia's most populous island. Being deported is "devastating," Lopez said. "It's the first place I moved to as an adult, have visited so many times since, to learn the language and to visit people who have become some of my best friends in the world," she said in a WhatsApp message. Her holiday plans included the Baliem festival in the easternmost Papua region that Indonesia strictly polices and restricts foreign journalists and diplomats from visiting. A pro-independence insurgency has simmered in the Melanesian region since it was annexed by Indonesia in the early 1960s. Indonesia's police and military are frequently accused of human rights abuses in Papua. A recent Amnesty International report documented 95 unlawful killings by security forces in Papua since 2008. Lopez said she was refused a visa renewal two years ago in Papua because officials suspected she was a journalist. At that time they said she couldn't re-enter Indonesia for six months, according to Lopez. The head of the Immigration Office at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali, Amran Aris, said Indonesia's military had added Lopez to a government blacklist as a "covert journalist." He said he couldn't give other details because it's a state secret. "We only carry out the duties as her name is listed on the government's blacklist, so we have to refuse her entry," said Aris. A zoo in France threw a 1st birthday bash for the countrys first baby panda on Saturday. The party, held in honor of Yuan Meng at the Beauval Zoo, was complete with a vibrant looking cake made out of bamboo, honey and a variety of different fruits. GILLIGANS ISLAND PUPPIES WERE CASTAWAYS, JUST LIKE TV CHARACTERS The young bear, who weighs more than 60 pounds, has only begun munching on bamboo as of late. And as a treat for guests visiting the park, anyone who shares the Aug. 4 birthday with Yuan Meng was able to get to get in free of charge. TEXAS WOMAN THROWS QUINCEANERA FOR HER DOG: SHE LOVED IT The 1-year-old is the offspring of two pandas who are on a decade-long visit from China. The purpose of the loan is focused on highlighting the good relations between the two countries. French first lady Brigitte Macron, considered the panda's "godmother," did not attend Saturday's celebration. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A litter of seven puppies was found this week, unattended and starving on an uninhabited island in the middle of a Canadian lake. The pups have since become known as the "Little Gilligan's Island Puppies." Each of the pups has been named for a character from "Gilligan's Island," the popular 1960s comedy series about a group of castaways stranded on an island, the CBC reported. "They will be the Gilligan's Island crew four boys, three girls," Deb Vandekerkhove, director of the Norway House Animal rescue, told the Canadian news network. "As we meet them, we will attach their names based on their personality you know, who's the goof, who's the boss." Gilligan, Skipper, Ginger, the Professor, Mary Ann, Thurston Howell III and Mrs. Howell were the names given to the black, Labrador retreiver-mixes, the Canadian Press reported. The cute puppies were on their way Saturday to an animal rescue facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was unclear how they ended up stranded on the small, remote island near Cross Lake, Manitoba. Vandekerkhove said a boater named Junior Cook discovered the pups, which are about 4 months old. Cook gave them whatever food he had on the boat and got in touch with the rescue, she told the CBC. The rescue will eventually put the Gilligan's Island puppies up for adoption. The Israeli military said Saturday that it had intercepted an activist boat trying to breach a decade-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The Swedish-flagged sailboat had 12 passengers aboard, mostly from Sweden but also from Germany, Britain, Spain, France and Canada, Reuters reported. The passengers were in custody and will be put on flights home, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Immigration Authority told the news agency. The vessel, called the SY Freedom for Gaza, was carrying mainly medical supplies and two of its passengers were journalists, a representative of a group called Ship to Gaza, which organized the trip, told Reuters. Israel said its naval blockade of Gaza is intended to prevent weapons from reaching militant groups, including Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Palestinian enclave, the news agency reported. In a separate development, Gaza's Health Ministry said a 15-year-old Palestinian died Saturday of wounds suffered from Israeli fire at a border protest the day before. Hamas has led months of border protests partially aimed at drawing attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after it took control of Gaza in 2007. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 The Latest on U.S. warnings on violating sanctions on North Korea (all times local): 6 p.m. The North Korean foreign minister has shot back at the U.S. over its warning to other countries against violating international sanctions on North Korea, saying recent moves by the U.S. are "alarming." Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said at a Southeast Asian regional forum in Singapore on Saturday that the U.S. "is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against" North Korea. Ri said that while North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" including a "moratorium on the nuclear test and rocket launch test and dismantling of nuclear test ground," the U.S. has gone "back to the old, far from its leader's intention." He made the remarks in a speech that came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was at the same conference, warned Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. ___ 5:45 p.m. The U.S. State Department says President Donald Trump's reply to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's latest letter has been hand-delivered to the North's top diplomat. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump's written response was given to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at an Asian security forum in Singapore on Saturday. Ri and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were both attending the forum and briefly shook hands and exchanged pleasantries at the start of the meeting. Nauert said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim. The White House said earlier in the week that Kim had sent a new letter to Trump and that the president had written a response. ___ 9:15 a.m. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning Russia, China and others against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea. He says Washington will take seriously any action that reduces pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Speaking in Singapore on Saturday, Pompeo told reporters the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia has violated U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He says the reports will be raised with Moscow and roundly condemned. Pompeo says he remains optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledge to President Donald Trump to denuclearize. But he says the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress. Turkey's president said Saturday the country will freeze the assets of two United States officials in retaliation for sanctions against Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor, while attempting a conciliatory tone. Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had been "patient" since the U.S. Treasury sanctions imposed Wednesday, but ordered authorities to "freeze the assets of America's justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any." It is unclear who that would affect, due to differing Cabinet roles in the United States than in Turkey, or if the intended officials even have any holdings in Turkey. TURKEY ACCUSES TRUMP OF JEOPARDIZING LONG-STANDING TIES Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul mocked the sanctions this week, saying they have no assets in the U.S, but the sign of deteriorating Turkish-American relations sent Turkey's national currency the lira tumbling. Erdogan called the sanctions a "serious disrespect towards Turkey" and accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for demanding the release of evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson while ally Turkey tries him over alleged links to terror groups. Brunson, jailed in December 2016, is now under home detention. He is facing a 35-year sentence if convicted of the charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member" and espionage. WHITE HOUSE THREATENS TO SANCTION TURKEY OVER DETAINED AMERICAN PASTOR Top U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, have said there is no evidence against Brunson and demanded his release. Despite the announcement of sanctions, Erdogan called for a return to the two country's partnership, saying, "We think there is no problem we cannot solve with the American administration." He said he hoped the U.S. would drop its "hot-tempered attitude and return to its good senses" as diplomats were working to put behind disputes. Those conflicts include the arrests of U.S. citizens as well as local consular staff, U.S. senators pushing to block the delivery of American F-35 jets following Turkey's pledge to buy the Russian S-400 missile system, and Turkey's demand that Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed for a failed coup attempt, be extradited to stand trial. Bonn "Open Piano" provides grand pianos for everyone to play. The donations are used to provide refugees with music lessons Klara creeps carefully around the shiny black piano with its lid open on the Munsterplatz. She looks around a little helplessly. She seems to be wondering who could own this instrument which is in such an unusual place. Then the student composes herself, sits on the stool and begins to play "Comptine d'un autre Ete" by Yann Tiersen from the film "The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain". The 20-year-old plays well. What she didn't see: A little further on there is an instrument case into which passers-by are putting money. Klara is playing for the charity "Open Piano for Refugees", which supports refugees and socially disadvantaged people. Like Klara, passers-by have been sitting at the piano and playing since Thursday. Udo Felizeter, a young student from Vienna, sits in the roof shadow of the restaurant "Midi" and watches the events. He was one of the initiators of the social project and has been touring Germany and Austria for several weeks to collect donations for the DoReMi music institute through strangers playing the piano. He explains that refugees and other people with little money are to receive intercultural music lessons there alongside people on higher incomes. The association "Open Piano for Refugees" founded the music institute in the Austrian capital in the spring of this year and wants to allow music lessons for everyone - regardless of origin or income. The philosophy of the association: "Open pianos should artistically animate public spaces, promote public interaction and the social participation of minorities and socially disadvantaged people (...). Music makes no distinction between religion and origin. Music connects." More than 70 music students have already found a place at the institute. The association states that it has so far been financed exclusively by donations; all its members are volunteers. TUCSON, Ariz., Aug. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Trump Administration is liberalizing the rules to allow more people to have short-term, limited duration health insurance, but the rule is on a crash course with a brick wall in California, according to Kaiser Health News. In addition, a lawsuit is being filed in Maryland federal court by the cities of Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, alleging that Trumps executive actions are an unconstitutional violation of his duty to see that the lawsthe Affordable Care Actare faithfully executed, according to NBC Nightly News. Supporters of ACA, which should be called the Unaffordable Care Act, want to build the wallto keep Americans from escaping from outrageously expensive plans they neither need nor want, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeon (AAPS). ACAs mandates to cover a long list of costly essential benefits, and its guaranteed issue/community rating provisions (euphemistically called consumer protections) are guaranteed to drive premiums sky-high, explains AAPS. Low-risk individuals and families are tremendously overcharged so high-risk persons can pay less. Besides punishing the young and healthy with a tax penalty, now zeroed out by Congress, ACA eliminated affordable choices, states AAPS. Its like saying to Americans that if they cant afford a Cadillac, they arent allowed to choose a bicycle because it lacks the same consumer protection. ACA delegates tremendous authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Obama was also accused of exempting certain powerful interests from provisions that would harm them, notes AAPS. President Trump and Secretary Azar are acting within their statutory and constitution authority, especially when simply reversing Obamas executive actions, AAPS states. California can exercise its constitutional authority to regulate insurance markets, but it will be depriving Californians of the ability to buy protection, like renewability guarantees, for up to 90 percent less than an Exchange plan. AAPS filed two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of ACA and 10 amicus briefs in support of other challengers. It called for its early repeal and other measures to lessen its destructive impact on American medicine. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties, founded in 1943. (TNS) A large computer monitor in the MCPc Cyber Education Center at Mercyhurst University looks like a video game with trails of light leading to points all over the globe.Each of those lights and there are many represents a known cyber threat identified over the past couple of weeks.The lights are a reminder of the need for collective vigilance in an era of computer hacking and identity theft.But for Mercyhurst, which held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning for the Cyber Education Center, the lights also represent an opportunity to advance both the university's status as one of the leaders in the field of intelligence studies and an opportunity for Erie to build its reputation as a leader in the field of cybersecurity.Thursday's dedication drew a crowd of about 250 people that included former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge; U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, of Butler, R-3rd Dist.; and Jeff Pon, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security, the man for whom the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies & Applied Sciences at Mercyhurst is named, talked Thursday about understanding both the promise and the perils of the internet."We live in the digital forevermore," he said, explaining that the threats we see today are never going to disappear.That certainty means opportunity, said Pon, who attended at the invitation of Kelly."If you think of the military as defending on air, land and sea, this is another front and it's going to be a continuous thing," Pon said.For his part, Kelly praised Mercyhurst and President Michael Victor for developing the 8,000-square-foot center, which includes a cybersecurity lab, a security operations room and two computer mathematics labs."It's an example of the leadership that's present in our community," Kelly said. "It's brilliant. It's a game-changer."After reading a newspaper article about 18 months ago about the activities of the Erie Innovation District, which is working to develop a cluster of businesses in Erie in the field of cybersecurity, MCPc, a national technology firm based in Cleveland, reached out to Mercyhurst."They wanted to know how they could get involved," said Cal Pifer, the university's vice president for external relations and advancement.Ultimately, MCPc invested $1 million toward the overall construction cost of $1.5 million. With the addition of some technology costs, the overall cost of the space, located on the ground floor of the Hammermill Library, is expected to top $2 million, Pifer said.The center was designed by Keyman Asefi, a faculty member in Mercyhurst's Department of Interior Architecture and Design. He was given only broad directions, Victor said."We told him 'push the envelope and make it funky,' " he said.There's certainly a measure of funkiness in the new center, which brings to mind a marriage of a high-tech industrial clean room and an upscale 22nd-century dance club in a space filled with sharp angles and blue and purple lights.While much of the center will be used as classroom space, MCPc, which now has an office in the Erie Innovation District, will occupy the Security Operations room.Rob Lavin, the SOC supervisor, said MCPc staff will hire and oversee Mercyhurst students who will work 24 hours a day to address cybersecurity threats on behalf of MCPc clients.While the school has hired just a couple interns so far, ultimately there could be opportunities for as many as 15 analysts or interns on each of three shifts.Andy Jones, CEO of MCPc, sees a relationship that will benefit his company, Erie and Mercyhurst."Our goal is a steady stream of talent that not only satisfies MCPc's demand but every company's need in the region for such talent. It helps keep local talent local, and it translates into companies spending less time and money on importing talent to the North Coast," he said.Jones said he understands that Erie has been in search for a new identity on which to build its future. He suggested Thursday that the new center at Mercyhurst might help form the foundation of that identity."President Victor," he said, "you are producing very compelling talent." Haiti - Weather : Good news, decline in hurricane activity according to new forecasts The revised forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season, released Friday, Aug. 3 by Colorado State University of Fort Collins (USA), now anticipates below average activity. According to Philip J. Klotzbach, principal investigator of this report, there will be "fewer storms and fewer hurricane opportunities" than originally planned last April. According to the researcher this new situation is caused by tropical Atlantic waters "colder than normal" and at the same time there is a "relatively high" probability for a weak El Nino phenomenon in the months to come. The report mentions that over the past month strong vertical winds and low pressures in the Caribbean are "negatively correlated" with an active season, meaning that under these conditions, there is generally less hurricanes. The new forecast predicts 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin (versus 7 before) and only one in the destructive categories (against 3 before), which would last only two days (instead of 7 before). At the same time, the number of named storms planned, is now reduced from 14 to 12 and the days of disruption go from 70 to 53 days. The probability of a major hurricane in the Caribbean region drops to 28% (historical average 42%) Forecasts will now be updated every two weeks until October. Recall that the hurricane season in the Atlantic officially begins on June 1 and ends on November 30. According to experts in meteorology, the rainy season will be less active in the Caribbean for the months of July, August and September. Indeed, in the Atlantic, the cold anomaly that stretches from Africa to the Caribbean, along the tropics of cancer, tends to limit the development of tropical waves and rainy activity. In response, atmospheric circulation confirms potentially less unstable air masses by reinforcing subtropical high pressures. General forecasts for Haiti from August 3rd to 5th : In Haiti, heavy showers are expected in some areas or cities of the country such as Jacmel and the Southwest side of the Selle while that thunderstorms could affect Lower Artibonite. Rainy activities may occur in some geographical departments of the Republic. In summary, conditions will still be favorable for rains over the next few days. However, by Monday or Tuesday, the arrival of an imposing mass of dust, currently on the eastern Atlantic, could significantly limit rainy activities. SL/ HaitiLibre City leaders across the globe are predicted to spend upwards of $41 trillion by 2020 to deploy smart city technologies within their locales. From Toronto to Tokyo, cities are vying to harness the benefits of the Internet of Things (IOT) in order to help make their streets safer, transportation more efficient, and their environments greener. While exciting, there are a number of challenges facing cities on their quest to get smart. Resources are scarce, building the required infrastructure is expensive and obtaining the necessary consensus and cooperation amongst municipal stakeholders can be downright impossible. For vendors looking to capitalize on this momentum, learning from successful smart city projects and planning around the common conflicts that tend to arise is crucial. Below are a number of best practices gleaned from the strategies and progress of a number of cities who have found success in implementing smart city solutions. Target Cities Engaged in the Three Cs: Coalition building, Co-ordination, and Collaboration. For most city departments, resources are scarce and so convincing municipal departments to divert attention away from day to day activities to help make IoT solutions effective for their citizens is an essential, but difficult task. How do you get the sanitation department of a large city to divert precious resources from daily garbage collection to participate in meetings with tech vendors about building and installing connected dumpsters? One tactic vendors should employ is seeking out cities who engage in coalition building early on (ideally prior to launching bids) and who have secured buy-in across those municipal departments essential to the success of the project. One report from Machina Research indicated that cities with the foresight to secure the buy-in necessary to ensure vendors have access to those decision makers and participants essential to facilitating service delivery were successful because it helped all stakeholders avoid roadblocks during implementation. In Mexico City, building coalitions across departments during the beginning stages of a smart project proved crucial in getting departments to allocate resources for strategic projects. Additionally, cities that develop formal structures to support coordination across stakeholders also often experience successful smart city implementation. If youre a vendor interested in working with a decentralized city, you may find that coordinating initiatives across many different departments may be especially difficult. In order to coordinate activities among different city departments, the city of Berlin created the Smart City Berlin Network. This central working group made up of over 100 companies and research institutes serves as a dialog partner for Berlins policy makers, including Berlins Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment, the mayors office and the senate. In New York City, another decentralized city, the Mayors Office of Technology and Innovation has likewise facilitated coordination across the citys various departments, suppliers, and academia to help establish best practices, which in turn has helped it avoid vendor lock in. By targeting cities with formal structures for cross departmental coordination, vendors may experience greater ease in implementation since they will have a centralized repository of know-how and assistance to draw from. Vendors should also identify those cities engaged in collaboration with other cities. In the EU, the European Commission has created the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), a formal initiative bringing cities together in order to improve urban life and find solutions to common challenges. With the idea that cities will achieve more when they collaborate, more than 80 cities have come together through Lighthouse Projects to share technical learning, spread the risk of investing in new technology and [allow] technologies tested as part of the Lighthouse program [to] be implemented on a wider scale. The EIP-SCC also caters to service providers via a marketplace that provides access to a pipeline of projects, partners, toolkits and even funding opportunities. By targeting cities engaged in similar collaboration efforts, service providers will benefit from economies of scale right along with the city it is working with and will gain exposure to other cities working on similar projects (and therefore in need of similar services). Find (and Help Develop) Educated Stakeholders Most vendors have horror stories of working on projects that were scoped incorrectly, involved the procurement of technologies or materials that turned out to be not fit for purpose, or involved never ending change requests. This inevitably results in increased costsfor both the vendor and client frustration, and sometimes disputes. While these situations can occur in every type of vendor-client relationship, their occurrence during projects with tight budgets and numerous stakeholders can be especially painful. Experienced procurement departments with strong policies are adept at navigating these challenges, but the scarcity of resources within municipalities tend to result in procurement departments that are not fully up to speed on the unique issues facing smart city projects. Because smart city solutions are complex (e.g., they constantly evolve and are subject to frequent change, require coordination across multiple service providers, and their outcomes are difficult to measure), sophisticated purchasing processes are especially needed to support the selection of the right vendors to provide complex goods and services. Therefore, vendors working on particularly complex projects should seek to work with cities with sophisticated procurement departments or cities that are actively working to address the information gap. The city of Berlin, for example, established the Berlin Innovation Showroom; a platform designed to provide clearly structured information about innovative products, services and processes to state-owned companies in order to encourage the evaluation and adoption of smart city capabilities. Cities working to educate the users of smart city technology should likewise be targeted, as users adoption of smart city solutions is a key measure of success for the city as well as its vendors. In Bogota, the city council is working to raise its citizens information and communication technology (ICT) skills, and has involved local districts, private sector companies and academic institutions. Guyanas Ministry of Public Telecommunications Innovation Department is overseeing ICT training for persons of all ages across the country, collaborating with NGOs to provide computer literacy skills, workshops and certification. However, its important to remember that citizens arent the only user groups who should receive training. For example, acoustic gunshot monitoring technology was implemented in high crime areas in NYC. The equipment can pinpoint gunshots within seconds, but an operator must review the audio to confirm the recorded noise before alerting NYPD officers on their connected smartphones or tablets. The city quickly realized that, although the project is centered on the technology, training officers to correctly interpret the information they receive is equally important. Here, vendors can play an important role in training user groups to ensure they have the expertise necessary to effectively use smart city technology, thereby increasing the likelihood that such technology will be used and the benefits related to it will be realized. Making citizens aware of the existence of smart city technology is equally important in encouraging their adoption of the technology, so vendors should target cities that engage in participatory planning and effective marketing. Some cities like Barcelona have allowed residents to participate in the planning of projects by having them vote on options for the redevelopment of certain roads and areas, thereby aligning the tech agenda with the city agenda and ensuring citizen buy-in. In Pune, India, over 350,00 citizens were engaged as part of the assessment process for making funding decisions on smart city projects. Since citizens are ultimately paying for the smart city, vendors should ensure that city authorities are making the benefits visible and accessible. Conclusion As a service provider, it is important to target cities who have thought through the myriad challenges of implementing smart city solutions and developed innovative solutions. Likewise, its important to keep in mind that most cities are searching for technology partners who can not only scale innovation, but who can help them ensure that the IoT infrastructure and benefits are accessible to users both within and outside of government. Although identifying those smart city projects with a high likelihood of success may be challenging, leveraging the lessons learned from smart city implementations around the world may help service providers quickly identify indicators of success. Source: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/best-practices-outsmarting-common-pitfalls-smart-city-projects The memorandum of understanding was signed last week at the OmanKorea Business Forum in Muscat, attended by Korean prime minister Lee Nak-Yon and Omani ministers. The city would be in Duqms special economic zone (SEZ) which is already earmarked as the site of a $6.8bn, 50-sq-km logistics city, which is to be masterplanned by Atkins, a unit of Canadian engineer SNC-Lavalin. The smart city designation denotes a situation where all buildings, utilities and amenities incorporate information and communication technologies to manage the performance of services. Oman sees South Korea as a natural partner for the project because of the $40bn Songdo International Business District on 600ha of reclaimed land off the coast of Incheon. Korea has also agreed to help with a number of other smart city ventures around the world (see further reading). Saleh bin Hamoud al Hasani, director-general of investors services at the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm, said the signing of the memorandum of understanding marked the beginning of the planning stage for the project. He said: The Korean side will now undertake a comprehensive study that will explore how smart city principles can be adopted in Duqm. This is a one-year-long study, following which we will identify sectors that be integrated into the smart city concept. All aspects of life in the SEZ will be covered in the study. Source: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/korea-signs-plan-build-smart-city-oman/ According to the immediate past Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progresives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, the leaders of the APC and the presidency have a new plan to unseat defectors. He said they have resorted to bribing its Senators, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly members with huge cash to impeach the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of representatives, Yakubu Dogara. He said: From available information, the Presidency in collaboration with the leadership of the APC is about to dole out the sum of $400,000 (about N150million) each to APC Senators and House of Representatives members to impeach Saraki who has defected to the PDP and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara who they fear may soon dump the party as well. They are also offering legislators in some State Houses of Assembly the sum of $150,000 (about N50million) each, to impeach their Governors that recently defected to the PDP. Mr Frank also He said that the President has allegedly directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to foot the bills to achieve the objective of removing the defectors from their present political positions. I have been reliably informed that after separate meetings with APC Senators and House of Representatives members, shortly before his U.K. trip, the President summoned the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and after informing him that APC lawmakers have a proposal, he directed the GMD to attend to their needs. I want Nigerians and members of the international community to note that this presidential order is coming at a period when State Governors have incessantly complained, during their monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings in Abuja, about unexplained shortfalls in remittances of crude oil sales to the Federation Account by the NNPC. From this curious directive, it is now clear to Nigerians and the world at large, that the amount accruing to the Federation Account from monthly crude oil sales is being deliberately and illegally deducted at source and set aside by the NNPC on the orders of the presidency to fund illegal operations like their present desperate bid to remove Saraki, Dogara and Governors that recently dumped the APC. I am not surprised about this unholy cash inducements to lawmakers to do a dirty job because the Presidency and the APC recently conducted a dressed rehearsal of an inducement heist in Ekiti State during the see and buy votes saga with which they allegedly rigged the Ekiti Governorship election in favour of the APC, he said. He said: Let me warn the Presidency and the leadership of the APC to desist from their present desperate plot to bribe some Federal and State legislators so as to force the illegal removal of Saraki, Dogara and Governors that recently dumped the APC. Let me also urge APC lawmakers to be circumspect about this unholy transaction as they will be risking the wrath of Nigerians should they yield to the inducements and attempt the illegality for which they are now being primed with loads of cash. Is it not curious that this illegal cash bazaar is being clandestinely orchestrated by a government that has visited untold hardship on Nigerians in the last three years? he asked. A Nigerian lady based in Europe has fallen for a scam plotted under the cloak of divination. As a result, a suspected Islamic cleric, Imam Balogun Morufu and three others identified as Babatunde Richard, Adedoyin Idowu, Olayemi Olayinka are now telling the police how they succeeded in defrauding the Germany-based businesswoman simply identified as Angela. Angela who recently relocated to Nigeria after 11 years abroad parted with over N81.78 million in her quest to double her wealth. According to a police source, sometime in January, Babatunde, a dismissed police officer who was in Benin for a business transaction learnt that Angela was having issues abroad and her mother felt that the only way to solve the problem was to approach a spiritualist for help. Babatunde who is a fraudster decided to share the contract of defrauding Angela and family with his seniors in the job. He contacted Morufu who laid down a perfect plan on how to lure them into their trap. The story line was that they have the power to double her wealth. Unfortunately before Angela realized that she was dealing with fraudsters, she had parted with more than N81 million part of which was meant to buy materials for spiritual cleansing. One of such was that the supposed spiritual leader, Morufu will have sex with her in their shrine at Sango Ota in Ogun State and Ibadan, Oyo State. As soon as it dawned on her that she was gradually becoming poor, Angela alerted the police. All the members of the syndicate were arrested at their various locations in Oyo and Ogun by detectives attached to the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT) days after their latest victim petitioned the police. I slept with her because she is beautiful The leader of the syndicate, Balogun Morufu aged 50, in his confession at the police station said that it is very easy to defraud a man or woman in need. This he discovered as an Islamic cleric who owns a shrine where people with issues across the country come to consult him for prayers. I am the Imam in-charge of a mosque in Ibadan and a small shrine in Sango. By the grace of God, a lot of people used to consult me whenever they have issues. I would recommend herbs and also pray for them but my major challenge was that people will not give you money except you instill fear in them. Several years ago, some fraudsters came and sold an idea how I can make good money as an Imam and just as they said I was paid about N1 million. This was how I started. Sometime in February this year, one of my contractors, Olayinka called me that he has a job for me. He said that there is a desperate woman that we need to defraud. We put a call across to her mother because she was the one who contacted the herbalist on behalf of the daughter. It was later that I got to know that her name is Angela. Her mother told us that her daughter is based abroad and making a lot of money, yet a particular couple in Benin is in-charge of all her investments. She remits most of the money she made abroad to the couple. Her mother wanted the herbalist to perform magic that will free the daughter from those people. When I learnt about the case, I knew they were desperate and will part with any amount of money. I put a call across to the mother and told her that the herbalist consulted earlier has no power. I lied to her that it was the spirit of God that sent me to her. I told her that the spirit of death is hovering around her family and her children will die one after the other. Days later, Angela, her mother and his brother travelled down to Morufus shrine in Sango to seek spiritual guidance. She later called and promised to come to Sango and see us. She came with her daughter Angela and two other persons. We washed their heads before attending to them. By merely washing their heads, they were already terrified. Her mother insisted that she wanted us to kill the couple that is disturbing her daughter from progressing. I took them to Idowus shrine where prayers were offered. I deliberately refused to collect money from them so that they will be convinced that I am real. I was able to convince her to forget about that and concentrate on making her daughter Angela richer. I told them that there is pot of life that can double any amount of money. They left that day and promised to call us back. Sometime in May, her mother called that I should come to Benin, that she is interested in my suggestion. I travelled down to their house in Benin with my boy Olayinka and my driver. After praying with the entire family, I asked them to prepare a room where the pot of life will be kept. I told them to put the amount they want the spirit of money to double. I was so excited when they placed foreign currency in the pot. While I was praying over the pot, I quickly collected the money and hid them in my underwear. I told them not to open the pot until the third day. It was on our way back to Lagos that I counted the money and discovered that it was 99,000 Euro. This is our biggest catch since we started this business. Three days later, Angela and her family members opened the room and discovered that the pot was empty. I knew that they will call me so I prepared myself to make more money from them. As soon as they discovered that the money was missing, they called me and I told them that some red and black witches intercepted the money on the way and seized them. I told them that we needed to perform a sacrifice in Ibadan and Lagos. They paid another 34,000 Euro to purchase things that can never be found in the market. I also asked Angela to come for cleansing and during that time I slept with her. She is a beautiful woman so I took advantage of her desperation to have free sex. I told her that it was part of the processes that she needed to undergo before her money will return in double. We kept collecting and collecting that I cannot recall how much was taken in all. It was when we got to the police station that we calculated everything and discovered that it was more than N80 million. On how his own share was expended, Morufu said he spent most of the money in building a house. I used my share of the money to build a duplex at my town in Ibadan. I have not completed the building when police arrested me. I have been in this business for several years. We do not have any type of power that can harm anyone. If we have power, the police will not be able to arrest us. The secret is that if you watch how desperate your target is, you can lure them to spend money especially the women. They are ready to have sex with you as long as they find solution to their problem. The easiest are those looking for husband and children. We do not hypnotize anyone; it is the desperation to recover their money that make them to continue spending. Why I allowed Imam Morufu have sex with me Their latest victim Angela said she cannot explain how they were able to defraud her despite her experience abroad. I have lived in Germany for the past four years after I relocated from Italy where I spent seven years. I came back with the sole intention to start a business and only travel abroad for vacation. There were issues which my family especially my mother felt will need spiritual cleansing. My mother suggested that we should go for family cleansing and since it was for the good of the family, I agreed. They told me about the pot of life and I agreed since the process is simple: put money in a pot in my house and it will double. When the money disappeared, they started giving one reason or the other why it disappeared and what I should do to recover the money. Apart from the 99,000 Euro that was collected from the pot, the others were paid into the account of Olayinka who claimed that he is also a herbalist. Morufu their leader also had sex with me severally in the name of spiritual cleansing. I felt terrible but I had to allow him have his way because of my family. Apart from the 99,000 Euro that was taken from her, Angela said that she was asked to bring things that cannot be bought in the market. Since she could not buy them, she had to convert it to cash. Some of the things they asked me to buy include Gorilla, Chimpanzee, seven horses and a certain bird that can only be found in Morocco. I was told to bring 12 of that bird. Before I realized what was happening, I have spent more than N81 million. The total amount is N81, 780,000. I believe they used voodoo on me. I was even suspecting that my brothers had a hand in it till they were arrested. My plea is for police to help me to recover my money. A Twitter user @_noHANDLE has taken to the platform to share a marriage list which was given to his sisters fiances friend by his in-laws from Akwa Ibom State. According to him, the marriage list got him crying and he couldnt help but share. His tweet reads; So my sisters fiances friend is getting married, shes from Akwa Ibom Here is a list of demands from her family, Im still crying for him See the list of demands below This is coming few months after the traditional ruler of Otukpa, the headquarters of Ogbadibo LGA of Benue, Chief Sir Sunday Ekele Jp banned intending groom in the community from spending more than N100, 000 on traditional wedding. According to Chief Ekele, the decision became imperative following complaints from young men in the community that outrageous bride price has been discouraging them from getting married. Speaking on a live programme monitored on Joy FM, Otukpo on Thursday, the monarch said any one found flaunting the new law would be penalized. Money should not prevent anyone from getting married in our community. From now onward, no one should spend more than hundred thousand naira before he gets a wife in our community. We need to encourage the young men so they wont be scared of going into marriage, he said. Recall also that the Chairman, Tiv Area Traditional Council led by the Tor Tiv, His Royal Majesty, Ochivirigh, Prof. James Ayatse had recently set up a 15-member committee to do something about the high bride price and expensive burial requirements for burial rites in Tiv land. The committee, which has three months to submit its report, is headed by His Royal Highness, Chief Jam Gbinde Ter Ikyor, and had been directed to investigate the reasons for the high bride price and recommend ways of addressing the challenge. Punch The Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives Congress and the Federal Government of plotting to use a fraudulent interim court order to declare vacant, the seat of the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, following his defection from the APC to the Peoples Vanguard Detectives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, are closing in on top officials of the Joint Admission Matriculations Board, JAMB, allegedly fingered in the alleged diversion of more than N8 billion between 2010 and 2015. ThisDay National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has called on the youths and supporters of the party to support President Muhammad Buhari to Root out thieves and treasury looters, who believe it is their birthright to continue to loot. The Nation Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Kolapo Olusola, has dragged new governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, before the Election Petition Tribunal.Olusola, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the July 14 governorship election, urged the court to annul Fayemis victory, claiming the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), didnt defeat him at the polls.Olusola argued that he scored the highest number The Sun Indications emerged at the weekend that President Muhammadu Buharis allies have declared a political Daily Times The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has disclosed that Nigerias current power generation has reached 7000 Mega Watts. Daily Trust A former governor of Kaduna State and presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election, Senator Ahmed Makarfi has urged the leadership of its party to thread with caution in the accommodation and integration of those that defected to the party in recent times to avoid implosion. Leadership The family of Late Sir Michael Kayode Bamisaye has dismissed the insinuations that his death had political undertone. Tribune Deputy governor of Ekiti State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 14 governorship election in the state, Professor , has filed a petition challenging the result of the election, Osama Bin Ladens brother has urged the former Al-Qaeda leaders son Hamza not to follow in his infamous fathers foot steps. Hamza, 29, is widely seen as a possible successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian ideologue who took over Al-Qaeda after US special forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a 2011 raid in Pakistan. After vowing to avenge his father, he has been put in charge of a highly trained group of the terrorist organisations fighters in Afghanistan, Western officials told the The Telegraph. In a letter to his mother leaked in the media, Hamza said his 12-year-old son died a martyr, suggesting he was killed in an airstrike or in fighting. We thought everyone was over this, said Hamzas uncle Hassan Bin Laden in an interview with the Guardian, referring to Osama bin Laden. Then the next thing I knew, Hamza was saying Im going to avenge my father If Hamza was in front of me now I would tell him God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Dont retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul. Osama bin Ladens mother, Alia Ghanem, insisted that the Saudi-born terrorist behind the 2001 World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks had been a good man until he was brainwashed in university by ideologues. He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult, she said. Al-Qaeda had never completely recovered from the death of Osama Bin Laden. His successor, Zawahiri, was seen as less charismatic, and over the past few years many jihadists abandoned the group to join Isil. Yahoo news Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation has taken a huge swipe at All Progressives Congress, APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftain in a Twitter post this morning, described the former labour leader as a monkey on heat. Fani-Kayode said the only thing more repugnant than Oshiomholes insolence and pernicious lies is his face. He wrote: https://twitter.com/realFFK/status/1025679985158365185?s=19 A New Jersey man has gotten another chance at life, thanks to a stranger who found out about his case in the comment section of a post last August and tracked him down on Facebook. Bill English, 35 told People he received the sad news that his kidneys were failing in 2015, and he needed a new one to stay alive. His wife Laura, 35 with whom he has two children aged 4 and 2 with, set up a Facebook page, then called: Be Our Daddys Hero to ask the public for a donor. Laura told People: I was hopeful that it would work. I had to do something. We didnt have anything to lose. When he first got listed [on the organ transplant registry], he was living life on a machine. To ask somebody to give a piece of themselves to keep him alive was a big ask. I was hopeful, but I didnt necessarily think a stranger was gonna donate. The donor, Amy Pauvlinch, 28 of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after seeing Lauras comment on a post about a man who walked around Disney World asking for a kidney donor and eventually found a match, soon found the Be Our Daddys Hero Facebook page and reached out. Pauvlinch told People: I just knew that this is something that I had to do. Something in my heart was like, This is the person youre supposed to contact. I ended up messaging her and I said, Id really like to give your husband my kidney. It was very, very awkward. Laura and Pauvlinch spoke for weeks and she later met the family. I couldnt even describe the experience. It was pretty surreal. When I first met them, was like, This familys gonna have my kidney! It was amazing this is the family that Im supposed to help and come hell or high water were gonna do this together. It was like magic, Pauvlinch said. After months of testing and preparation, Bill and Pauvlinch went into the operating room at Jefferson University Hospital for the transplant on July 3, 2018. Bill said: She was a good match and, once we found that out, our level of hope and excitement grew. Mentally, I was prepared for the worst for years. Then all of a sudden it was happening. I didnt know how to take it. I was too amazed. It hit me, like, Oh my God! this is happening. Both of them are recovering fine, and according to People, they felt great after the surgery. Its amazing. I feel like a whole new person. I felt good right away. Once I was out of the anesthesia, I was in the best mood Ive been in in like three years, Bill said. Its so awesome and surreal, still, to know my kidney is in his body kicking so much ass for him!! Pauvlinch wrote in an Instagram post earlier in July. Laura shared an emotional post on Bills journey on Facebook following the success of the procedure. She wrote: I held my breath when the doctor said you needed to start dialysis I held my breath when you commuted an hour to work everyday & then spent 3 nights a week on a machine Federal lawmaker, Ben Murray Bruce has queried president Muhammadu Buharis incessant travel abroad. The Senator said the persistent vacation of president Buhai has got to stop, if the country must grow. The Bayelsa Senator said it would be very difficult for Nigerian leaders to convince others to come to Nigeria, and that the country is safe, if they dont even vacation here. The Silverbird group owner advised the President to look into vacationing in Nigeria like in Obudu, Yankari. Our President keeps going to Britain for vacation. Has he ever asked himself how many times the British Prime Minister has come to Nigeria for a vacation? And yet we want growth. How can we grow if we give others what they dont give to us? What is wrong with Yankari or Obudu? Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) August 4, 2018 How can we tell foreigners to visit Nigeria when Nigerian leaders wont even vacation in Nigeria? How can we tell the world Nigeria is safe when our leaders move with small armies to protect them from Nigerians? No one will believe in Nigeria if Nigerians dont first believe in her Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) August 4, 2018 Unlike Nigeria, Americas first policy is to bring business back to America and that is why a billionaire president like Donald Trump who can vacation anywhere will still vacation in America, Bruce said. Brazil bird Consequently, tax controversy plays an important role for almost all companies located in Brazil, which usually suffer assessments by the Federal Revenue Service and have to discuss it through long years and in many different instances at the administrative and judicial levels. In April 2018, President of the Tax Administrative Court (CARF) Adriana Gomes Rego said the BRL600 billion ($161 billion) is under discussion before the CARF. Considering that the CARF only appreciates federal taxes under discussion in the administrative level, it is easy to deduce that, overall, tax litigation in Brazil has even more significant amounts involved. In face of that instability, it worth mentioning that the Federal Constitution (Article 5, XXXVI) establishes legal safety, determining the protection of acquired rights, perfect legal acts and situations already judged (decisions rendered final). Specifically in the tax sphere, legal safety is also guaranteed by the article 146 of the National Tax Code, which states that new criteria the tax authorities use for assessments can only be reached following tax events, never returning to affect previous acts. Despite those norms, however, it is clear that tax legal safety has not been really protected in Brazil. Tax authorities commonly change their opinions, imposing different tax assessments, with qualified penalties, and can hold legal representatives and shareholders responsible for tax matters. Fortunately, in April 2017 Law No. 13.655/2018 was published, bringing relevant changes in Brazilian legislation, especially for tax legal safety and in the efficient creation and application of public law. Decree-Law No. 4.657/1942 (named the introduction law for the Brazilian legal norms) is extensively applicable across Brazilian legislation once it establishes some rules that serve as basis for the interpretation and application of other norms, such as vacation legis, the effects of legislative modifications to prior facts, the enforcement of the law, etc. In that sense, Law No. 13.655/2018 added some articles to Decree-Law No. 4.657/1942 in order to impose some imperative commands that public authorities must pursue. According to Article 1 of the Law No. 13.655/2018 (included Article 24 to Decree-Law No. 4.657/1942), decisions in the administrative and judicial spheres regarding the legality of acts, contracts, proceedings or administrative norms have to take into consideration the general orientations of the time in which they were produced, avoiding ulterior new orientations reflecting on previous acts. The only subsection of that article states that general orientation should be understood as the interpretation contained in general public acts, majority administrative and judicial precedents, as well as those widely known repeated practices of the authorities. Moreover, Article 1 of Law No. 13.655/2018, which includes Article 30 to Decree-Law No. 4.657/1942, establishes that public authorities must pursue the increase of the legal safety in the application of the norms, as launching summaries of discussions and overviews of its opinions. It is clear, therefore, that Law No. 13.655/2018 represents a huge advance for all Brazilian legislation when safeguarding taxpayers is concerned, given that the introduction law for the Brazilian legal norms has unlimited scope and is also applied as a basic rule for the tax legislation. In respect of the cases under discussion before the CARF, there are several subjects in which the tax authorities have changed recently their understanding and, while some tax behaviours were allowed previously, later they were disqualified by the tax authorities and taxes were charged with qualified penalties with individuals (shareholders/directors) held responsible for the tax assessments. As an example, since 1997 Law No. 9.532 has stated that taxpayers that acquire other companies with goodwill may use it as a form to reduce their Income Tax (IRPJ). Those transactions were broadly used during privatisations of public companies in Brazil. For many years, the administrative jurisprudence ruled the right to deduce the goodwill was related to transactions involving companies from different economic groups, in which the goodwill was effectively paid in cash, even though the incorporation was allowed through a company constituted specifically for that (conduit companies). This was a common transaction during privatisations. In general, the understanding of the CARF has changed and the tax authorities have ruled unfavourably on goodwill amortisation related to privatisation transactions, even when taxpayers fulfilled those previously accepted requirements. While some foreign investors were attracted to the Brazilian market with the tax benefits of the goodwill deduction based on Law No. 9.532/1997, in which the prevailing jurisprudence was favourable to them, later those companies were surprised with the CARFs new understanding, that maintained huge amounts of taxes as well as penalties at the rate of 150% and personal responsibility of its shareholders and directors. In other words, the taxpayers have been penalised based on similar arguments that, initially, were entirely favourable to them. Another example of tax uncertainty in Brazil relates to the thesis named CSLL transito. Several Brazilian companies filed lawsuits in the 1990s casting doubts on the enforceability of social contribution on net income (CSLL) established by Law No. 7.689/88, which was declared unconstitutional by several judges in individual lawsuits (decisions rendered final). Thus, taxpayers have not been obliged to collect CSLL since then. Besides the individual decisions, aftermost the Supreme Court ruled the CSLL constitutional, as stated by the Direct Unconstitutionality Action No. 15 (June 2007). The taxpayers then faced a new instability, once many of them were not collecting CSLL. The discussion remained focused on what decision should take precedence: the individual one (to not collect CSLL) or the general issued by the Supreme Court (which ruled the law constitutional and requires the taxpayers to pay CSLL). For many years, the CARF (including its highest council of appeals) followed the Superior Court of Appeals (STJ) in order to accept the individual decisions and to cancel the tax assessments intending to collect CSLL. However, lately we have seen that the Administrative Court has changed its understanding to maintain the tax assessment of those taxpayers who were benefited with individual decisions rendered final in order not to collect CSLL. Once again, the CARF changed its prevailing jurisprudence affecting previous facts, which causes more tax uncertainty. In light of that context, Law No. 13.655/2018 comes to protect the taxpayers against those changes in the jurisprudence, especially when transactions were structured in accordance with the majority understanding at the time, but posteriorly the Courts modify it. As exposed above, unfortunately this a regular situation in Brazil. The attorneys of the Federal Revenue Service have been required by CARF to launch its opinion regarding the effects of Law No. 13.655/2018, which remains pending. Be that as it may, taxpayers have the right to be ruled based on the prevalent jurisprudence applicable during its facts. Assessments in discordance with the prevailing decisions of the time when the facts occurred (in general, adding qualified penalties and personal responsibility) reveal a certain unfair procedure. We expect that, collectively, the administrative and judiciary tax courts, not only the CARF, will apply the rules provided by the Law No. 13.655/2018 to secure tax legal safety as already established by Federal Constitution and the National Tax Code. This article was written by Ana Paula Lui and Rafhael Romero Bentos, partner and associate respectively at Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados The material on this site is for financial institutions, professional investors and their professional advisers. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQ. Share this article Lodhran Public School Lodhran Teachers Jobs 2018 Latest Public School Teaching Posts Lodhran 2021 Lodhran Public School Lodhran, Pakistan required candidates for the posts of Teachers for the subjects of English, Urdu, Pak Studies, Islamiat, Biology, Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science and Physical Trainer. Walk in Interview held on 11th August 2018. How to Apply on Public School 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. University of Gujrat UOG Professors & Lecturers Jobs 2018 Latest University of Gujrat UOG Teaching Posts Gujrat 2021 University of Gujrat UOG, Education Department, Government of the Punjab required candidates for the posts of Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors and Lecturers for the subjects of Architecture, Fine Arts, English, Psychology, History & Pakistan Studies, Environment Science, Mathematics, Physics, Bio Chemistry & Molecular Biology, Economics, Computer Sciences and Information Technology. How to Apply on University of Gujrat UOG 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. Company Address: Office of the Registrar HR Section, Admin Block, Room # 104, Gujrat Telephone: 053-3643112 Official Website: www.uog.edu.pk Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. SALEM, Ore. After the Sugar Pine Fire raced south Thursday evening, joining with other fires from the South Umpqua Complex and burning structures, Governor Kate Brown has declared the fire a "conflagration." Much like similar declarations in previous weeks for wildfires throughout Oregon, the announcement serves as an official means of freeing up resources from the State Fire Marshal's office to help local agencies fight the fires. The Sugar Pine Fire now covers 21,439 acres and is only 18 percent contained. This newest count seems to include the Miles and Goodview fires. For more information on developments with the Sugar Pine Fire and South Umpqua Complex, read our article HERE. MEDFORD, Ore. After three years of investigation, the Medford Police Department (MPD) has arrested a suspect in several sexual assault cases on underage girls that began in 2015. In December of 2015, a 12-year-old girl reported to MPD that she had been sexually assaulted. At the time, MPD reports, there was "limited information" available to identify a suspect, known only as "Jax." Meanwhile, a sexual assault case involving a 14-year-old girl came to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) during the same year. The victim reported that she had been assaulted in White City by a man she met on the Meetme.com app. The suspect had identified himself to the victim as "Jackson Campbell," or "Jax Campbell." The White City victim reported that "Jax" had convinced her to meet with him. When they did meet, the suspect arrived on a motorcycle. In both cases, MPD says, a suspect was never developed and the two cases were not connected by investigators from the two different departments. It wasn't until February of 2018 that the victim of the Medford case approached MPD detectives again, offering additional information. Investigators found that the 12-year-old victim had met the suspect on the Meetme.com app. The victim and the suspect, who called himself "Jaxson Campbell," talked through text for about a month before he convinced the victim to meet him in Medford. During the first meeting, the victim said that "Jaxson" made sexual advances, but she begged him to stop. When they met a second time, the victim said that "Jaxson" sexually assaulted her. The Medford victim told police that the suspect had arrived on a motorcycle both times they met. With the new information, detectives made the connection between the Medford and White City incidents. Detectives again interviewed the victim in the White City case and were able to develop additional information that identified Jaxson as 26-year-old Timothy Diaz Jr.a Registered Sex Offender residing in Medford. Records indicate that Diaz also goes by the alias of Jax, according to MPD. When detectives identified Diaz as the suspect, it was also learned he had extraditable warrants out of Arizona for ten counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor. The victim in the Medford case was able to identify Diaz as the man who had assaulted her over two years ago. Meanwhile, the White City victim disclosed to investigators that Diaz had also sexually assaulted her in Medford during 2017. Officers arrested Diaz and lodged him at the Jackson County Jail on July 27, 2018 on charges of Rape 2, Sex Abuse 1, and two counts of Sex Abuse 2 for the assaults that occurred in Medford. Diaz was charged and indicted for additional crimes stemming from the 2015 Jackson County case, to include Rape 1. Detectives are concerned there may be additional victims who have met Jaxson Campbell, Jackson Campbell, or Jax on Meetme.com or another social media app. MPD encourages anyone who may have additional information to contact the Criminal Investigation Division at 541-774-2230. SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Firefighters from Oregon and Washington state are helping battle California's devastating fires, and now dozens of firefighters from Australia and New Zealand are coming to help put out blazes in the Pacific Northwest. Virginia Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon, said Friday that 85 firefighters and support personnel from Australia and New Zealand arrive early next week. Currently, more than 8,000 firefighters and support personnel are battling wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. As of Friday morning, 16 large wildfires were burning in Oregon and six in Washington, affecting 185,600 acres. Those coming from Down Under include supervisors, heavy equipment bosses, and helicopter managers and crew members. Hundreds of Oregon and Washington National Guard troops are also fighting fires in the two states. FLORENCE, Ore. -- A Florence mother said her two-month-old daughter, Hadley Hopkins, began throwing up excessively in early July. Natasha Hopkins brought her child to the PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center in Florence July 8. She said she was told to simply feed her daughter less and that the issue would resolve itself. After that her daughter stopped puking for about a week. When it started happening again, she took her back to the hospital, and Hadley's condition had become terrifying. She was in critical condition because she was so dehydrated from throwing up that her kidneys were starting to go into failure, Natasha said. And then the doctor proceeded to tell me that I was a bad mom because I was neglecting her medical needs." She said she felt attacked by the doctor. She believed she followed the advice they had given her and that she hadn't been neglectful. She said she felt she was being talked down to. And the way that they talked to me. At one point the nurse said, 'Well, you're just lucky that you didn't come home to a dead baby in your crib.' That was uncalled for, she said. Natasha said she thinks it wouldn't have gotten this bad if they had done more on the first visit. She said she asked them to take several tests that they decided not to do. The hospital even called the police on the grounds of neglect. No charges were filed, but she says all of the accusations made her feel so bad she started to believe she had done something wrong. When they started talking all that, telling me how I was a bad mom, it made me think that maybe I was, Natasha said. Hadley's pyloric valve, which plays a big role in digestion, was closed. She was transported to RiverBend where she had surgery on her pyloric valve, and she continues to come back to Eugene at least once a week for follow-up appointments. PeaceHealth did release a statement about the incident: PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center is committed to providing safe, compassionate, high-quality care to the communities we serve. The safety and well-being of our patients is always our highest priority. Consistent with PeaceHealths core value of respect and in accordance with patient privacy laws, we are unable to comment on details related to an individual patients care. Natasha did file a complaint against the hospital. She said it's her goal to ensure that no one else receives care that could put them in danger. TOLEDO, Ore. -- Oregon State Police say a teenager from Toledo died in an early morning wreck on Highway 229. Emergency responders say the crash was reported at 2:42 Friday morning. They said it happened at milepost 31, just north of the intersection with Highway 20 near Toledo. Investigators said Carter Worden, 14, of Toledo was driving a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado southbound when the vehicle crossed the centerline and struck a tree on the east side of the highway. Investigators said Worden, who lived with grandparents, took one of their vehicles during the night. Toledo High School is providing grief counselors for anyone who would like support with this tragedy. Details can be found on the Toledo Jr/Sr High Boomers Facebook page. EUGENE, Ore. -- The University of Oregon is planning on building a new $45 million facility. The university announced their plans for a new 60,000-square-foot building in March. The new facility will address the need for additional classrooms and faculty offices. They are currently in the process of deciding where this building is going to be located and have narrowed the site selection down to five potential locations. The options include the area north of Dads Gate Station, the parking lot near Prince Lucian Campbell Hall, the current site of Collier House, McArthur Court and the south end of University Street west of Jane Sanders Stadium. If the site of Collier House is selected, the historic portion of the structure would be moved and not torn down. Those five locations will be the focus of an open house which anyone can attend to voice their opinions. Many students told KEZI 9 News they prefer the building to be located central to campus so it is easy to get to in between classes. They also said that this new building will be a great addition to campus and will help eliminate space constraints. The open house is set for Tuesday, Aug. 7, in the lobby of the ERB Memorial Union from 4 to 5 p.m. KASSON, Minn.- Jim Tinjum is going on an over 1,000 mile bike trip across the Upper Midwest to raise awareness of solar energy and raise money for a distributed solar system for a home in Puerto Rico that takes in children who are displaced. The homes usual electricity bill is $100 and the distributed solar system would save them that money every month and instead use it for education and social services. #BikeTheSun allows Jim to travel to over 50 solar energy sites on an E-bike. If you would like to learn more about #BikeTheSun or to donate, click here. In many ways, Hollywood is living through its own zombie apocalypse. Intellectual properties long thought dead are rising from the grave as horrible mockeries of what they once were and shambling toward us in an unceasing wave to eat our brains while all we can do is turn our faces to Heaven and ask Why?!?!? There are reasons offered up, like the globalized movie market and a public resistant to new ideas, but none of them truly explain it. Things like a virtually shot-for-shot remake of Cabin Fever or a sex-swapped remake of OverboardOVERBOARD FOR PETES SAKEseem beyond rational justification. That mystery is what this edition of KIMTs Weekend Remake Throwdown will be taking on as we pit the underrated conclusion of a classic horror trilogy against its massively defective 21st century replicant. Its Day of the Dead (1985) vs. Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2018) to try and answer the question How the hell did anyone ever think this was a good idea? Day of the Dead (1985) is the third of George A. Romeros zombie apocalypse flicks, the ones that created and defined an entirely new sub-genre of horror movies. Were 50 years past Romeros original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and besides the brain-eating obsession of Return of the Living Dead (1985) and the sprinting zombies of the remake Dawn of the Dead (2004), everybody is still pretty much repeating Romero to lesser and lesser effect: The dead rise, civilization and order collapses, and a small group of individuals are left desperately fighting to survive the zombie horde and each other. The Walking Dead has gone eight seasons and 115 episodes so far and still hasnt gotten beyond that same basic storyline. "So come on down to Honest Doc's Used Zombie Emporium! My prices are so low, you'll think my brain has ALREADY been eaten!" In 1985s Day, Romero brings us a band of civilians and soldiers in an underground storage facility converted to a military bunker in a world seemingly overrun by undead cannibals. Theyve lost contact with any other living humans and theyve been reduced to spending most of their time trying not to kill each other. The main character is Sarah (Lori Cardille), a steel-willed scientist trying to find a way to destroy zombies who is caught between her demented superior, Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty), a man trying to teach zombies how to be good little boys and girls, and the eternally agitated Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato), the military commander trying to hold things together as he runs out of bullets, men, and time. Theres also Sarahs lover (Anthony Dileo Jr.), a man shattered by the horror around him, and the bunkers helicopter pilot and radio man (Terry Alexander and Jarlath Conroy), who have no use for either the military or the scientists as they build their own hetero-life partnership underground. Oh, and theres Bub (Sherman Howard). Bub is a zombie test subject that Dr. Logan is trying to educate and domesticate. Logans focus is on teaching Bub not to eat people and restoring in him at least a rudimentary level of intelligenceand its working! Bub no longer lusts after human flesh and is capable of appreciating music and even shooting a pistol, though training a zombie to use a gun is probably the worst notion since the first caveman decided to see what would happen if he stuck his hand in the fire. He just learned zombies always go for the softest parts of the body first. Day of the Dead (1985) tends to get short shrift when people examine the original Romero trilogy. I think fans get a little perturbed at the whole Bub thing, as they like to think of zombies as a metaphor for death while Romero clearly thinks of them as a metaphor for humanity itself. As I think Land of the Dead (2005) showed, Im not sure Romero exactly understands what that metaphor should be but the original Day was where he really started to treat zombies as characters and not just plot devices. I also think viewers in the much-less-woke mid 80s were nonplussed at a female lead so tough she makes Joan of Arc and Sarah Conner from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) look like shrinking violets. And I also believe audiences are put off by the general unpleasantness of Day of the Dead (1985). Yes, its a bit odd to use the word pleasant in the context of a film series where human beings are eaten by reanimated corpses but the living in the first two films mostly manage to keep their crap together. Theyre under immense stress and facing imminent doom but theyre largely able to either work together or oppose each other in some semblance of normality. The folks in Day of the Dead (1985) are losing their grip on humanity and sliding toward madness, as demonstrated by dialog that contains more profanity and racial slurs than an Eddie Murphy stand-up comedy show in 1986. Theres an emotional ugliness thats difficult to enjoy. Ive always loved Day of the Dead (1985), though, precisely because Romero is honestly trying to do something different with his creation. Hes not simply repeating himself but is struggling to show viewers something they havent seen before and when you do that, it usually works but not always how you intended. For example, the more you rewatch the film, the more you can see Captain Rhodes as one of the most sympathetic villains in cinema. Hes awful but it becomes hard to deny that his awfulness is a completely normal response to the utterly impossible situation hes in. In the end, Rhodes becomes an avatar for the relentless power of the human spirit, persisting in the face of a brutal and uncaring world. It's 2018 and more people know what a zombie is than know what a Walkman is. What a crazy world. That may be a little deep for a zombie flick, even one by Romero, but rest assured there will be no such philosophical indulgences when it comes to Day of the Dead: Bloodline. You cant dive deep into the movie equivalent of a stagnant puddle in the gutter. Day of the Dead: Bloodline is terrible. Its only saving grace is that the zombie genre is full of so many films that are stab-yourself-in-the-eye-with-a-sewing-needle atrocious that merely being really, really bad feels almost tolerable by comparison. It begins with the first ten pages of the screenplay slavishly following the direction of every half-baked book on screenwriting published in the last 30 years. Bloodline opens in the midst of a zombie rampage, flashes back before the dead rose to hammer the audience over the head with a couple of plot points, flashes forward several years to where the story actually begins, and then hits us over the head again with a 2x4 of narration to cover the rest of the exposition. It barely even qualifies as the start of a movie and feels more like the opening of a video game that you have to sit through before you can start playing it. A young medical student named Zoe (Sophie Skelton) is drawing blood from a creepy guy named Max (Johnathon Schaech) with a unique blood condition. As if his serial killer haircut didnt give it away, Max reveals he is psychotically obsessed with Zoe and attacks her, only to be chomped by a convenient zombie. Zoe survives the initial outbreak and winds up five years later as the chief doctor of a military base/refugee camp in the side of a mountain. A little girl in the camp has an infectious disease and Zoe proposes they head back to her old medical school to get the special antibiotics needed to treat her. "Why so serious?" Back at the school, Zoe runs into the now zombified-Max, who pulls a Cape Fear and hangs on to the underside of Zoes Hummer all the way back to the military base. Max then sneaks back inside the base before being caught. Eventually Zoe discovers that Max is the key to creating a zombie vaccine, but of course Max escapes again, the zombies pour into the base, and the whole thing turns into an evil boyfriend movie from the Lifetime channel. Throw in a conflict between Zoes empty-eyed lover, the bizarrely-named Baca (Marcus Vanco), and his brother (Jeff Gum), the overbearing and strict commander of the military base, as well as a whole bunch of supporting characters so generic and unformed you could have replaced them all with stop-motion Play-Doh people and no viewer would have noticed, and thats the remake they came up with 33 years later. Day of the Dead: Bloodline is awful in so many ways. Its stupid, both logistically in simply making sense and emotionally in presenting us with characters who behave like normal people. Theres a point in the film where Zoe is the catalyst for an amazingly dumb plan that gets some soldiers killed. After desperately scrambling back to the base, the commander confronts Zoe and every single solider that just watched their buddies eaten alive because of Zoe sides with her against the commander. Why? Because the script says shes the good guy and hes the bad guy and thats all that matters. The acting, outside of Johnathon Schaech, is consistently meh and when someone like Schaech is blowing everyone else in your movie off the screen, it means your casting director should never work in visual media again. Schaech actually creates a memorable looking villain by enhancing his zombie makeup with his own facial contortions and if theyd decided to invert the remake into Schaech as an intelligent zombie trying to survive a bunch of humans, they might have come up with something noteworthy. But they didnt. It honestly looks at times like they shot this thing on old sets from "The Land of the Lost." To be fair, Sophie Skelton isnt entirely useless. When shes playing scenes like shes the third friend of the main character in a rom-com, Skelton is almost passable. Anytime she has to go beyond that comfort zone its a Mark-Wahlberg-in-The-Happening cringe worthy display. But Marcus Vanco might as well be a piece of uncooked veal, Jeff Gum has about as much screen presence as a wet sheep, and I defy you to even remember a single other actor a day after watching Bloodline. The direction is so pedestrian it should get a ticket for jaywalking. The special effects are so ordinary theyre like white noise. The sets look like they were borrowed from a community theatre production of World War Z: The Musical. Even the costuming is so boring it could be marketed as a remedy for insomnia. Generally, you can level a whole variety of criticisms at modern remakes but at least they usually look a lot better than the original because of improvements in filmmaking technology and technique. Yet Day of the Dead (1985) is so visually superior to its 2018 remake that its almost laugh-out-loud funny. Yes, Romero was a cinema genius but he was working with technical and financial limitations the makers of Day of the Dead: Bloodline could hardly imagine and he still managed to come up with scene after scene that look and flow better practically and thematically than everything in the remake put together. And Romeros cast, even when theyre going so far over the top theyre virtually in orbit, are striking and engaging in a way that makes their 2018 counterparts look like grub worms. The real secret to a long-lasting relationship? Sharing tank tops. Theres no way anyone read the screenplay for Bloodline and honestly thought it was worth producing. Theres no way anyone saw the first week of footage from the set and thought it was going to be worth seeing. But it still got made. Theres no way anyone thought it was ever going to make any money. But it still got made. Its not even the first remake of the original. But it still got made. Why? Day of the Dead was made when Hollywood was still interested in telling stories. Yes, the industry cared about money more than anything else but it could still care about other things. Today, Hollywood doesnt care about telling stories. Its doesnt even care about making movies. It manufactures product to satisfy certain markets. Day of the Dead: Bloodline was made because Netflix and Hulu and On Demand need new content. It doesnt have to be good. Im not sure they even want it to be good. They just want it to be fresh and on schedule and easily promotable to viewers. Theres no time for screenwriters to get stuck figuring out how to make a scene work or make sure the first thing on the screen is important when the last scene comes finally around. Theres no time for directors to think about what theyre doing. Theres no time for actors to start out small and actually grow into their careers. Theres a global maw that needs to be fed every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Theres no time to stop. Theres no time to pause. Theres no time but to grab whatevers handy and keep feeding it. Would it surprise you to know she buries herself in compost in this scene, then shows up in the next looking like she took a shower in between? Then you haven't been paying attention. Some think we keep getting remakes and retreads and reboots because Hollywood has run out of creativity. But you cant run out of creativity. The problem is that no creative impulse is wasted on making movies. Its focused on meeting production schedules and planning viral marketing strategies and exploiting new opportunities for monetization. It used to be that you made a motion picture and everything flowed from that. Now a film is the last part of the equation and gets thrown together after every decision has already been made and every angle already been calculated. Day of the Dead (1985) wins this Throwdown. Its not quite a masterpiece like Night of the Living Dead (1968). For example, Romero was so intent on making Sarah strong that he forgot to have her do anything genuinely significant in the story. Shes one of the strongest yet most passive characters youll ever see. But when you watch the original, youre seeing the work of an artist who is trying to engage you both emotionally and intellectually. Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2018) exists to fill the space on your screen until something else comes along. Heaven forbid you be left alone with your own thoughts. Day of the Dead (1985) Written and directed by George A. Romero. Starring Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Anthony Dileo Jr., Richard Liberty, Sherman Howard, Gary Howard Klar, Ralph Marrero, John Amplas, Phillip G. Kellams, Taso N. Stravrakis, and Greg Nicotero. Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2018) Written by Mark Tonderal and Lars Jacobson. Directed by Hector Hernandez Vicens. Starring Johnathon Schaech, Sophie Skelton, Jeff Gum, Marcus Vanko, Lillian Blankenship, Ulyana Chan, Shari Watson, Atanas Srebrew, Mark Rhino Smith, Nick Loeb, and Vladimir Mihailov. MASON CITY, Iowa- The friend of a North Iowa man who left Beje Clark Residential facility Wednesday is speaking out. Mathew Andersen left the facility Wednesday for work release and never came back. Andersen was serving a sentence in the facility after being charged with domestic abuse. Ben Monson of Mason City said he knows where Andersen is, but doesnt want to come forward because he knows what it is like to live an environment like Beje Clark. People can only take so much in life before it starts to get to be too much, he said. They need to find a way out, you know, escape the environment or it just gets worse. Monson, 18, said he has known Andersen for a number of years after meeting him at a party. He said people like Andersen who are sentenced to Beje Clark get a bad rap and Andersen isnt the bad person people make him out to be. A lot of people think that people who are in there are bad people, but there are actually really nice people, he said. Theres some that do really bad things, but they're not bad. Police say anyone with information on Andersens whereabouts are asked to call police. They say there is no threat to the public. HAMPTON, Iowa A woman reported missing in January is now accused of setting fire to someones house. Dawn Renae Debell, 50 of Hampton, was charged with 1st degree arson on Wednesday in Franklin County. The Sheffield Police Department says she started a fire at a home in the 200 block of North 5th Street on July 7. Police say there is video of Debell leaving the scene after starting the fire and her clothing is the same she was wearing on security video from the Hampton Kwik Star less than half an hour before the fire began. 1st degree arson is a class B felony in Iowa, punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Debell was reported missing in North Iowa on January 24. Authorities asked for the publics help after she was last seen in Clear Lake. Debell was then found by law enforcement on January 30. For previous stories, click here and here. STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) Prosecutors say they will seek first-degree murder charges in the July 18 death of a Minnesota prison guard. Department of Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm died after he was attacked with a hammer at the Stillwater prison. Inmate Edward Johnson was charged with second-degree murder and assault, but prosecutors said Friday they'll convene a grand jury and seek more serious murder charges. The Pioneer Press reports the 42-year-old Johnson said little at his first court appearance Friday, but answered "Yes" and "No" to questions from a judge. Washington County Attorney Pete Orput called Gomm's killing "completely senseless" and says authorities might never know what triggered the attack, which happened in an industrial building. Johnson was serving a 29-year sentence for a fatal stabbing in 2002. During a reception in Hanoi for former US Vice President Al Gore, the PM lauded the guests contributions to normalising and boosting bilateral ties in the past. Apart from trade and investment, he wished that the two countries would further reinforce joint work in clean energy development. Vietnam is diversifying energy supplies and increasing the rate of renewable energies to ensure supply and meet international commitments to greenhouse emission, he said, adding that the country is seeking capital and technology to invest in the field. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) and former US Vice President Al Gore (Source: VNA) According to him, Vietnam and the US have actively partnered in energy, not only at the government but also corporate level. The PM wished that in any position, his guest would continue contributing to the Vietnam US ties to bring benefits to their peoples. Al Gore, for his part, said Vietnams robust development has made important contributions to regional development. Recalling the PMs speeches on environmental issues at the G7 Summit held in Canada in June and other international forums, the former US Vice President hailed Vietnams initiatives on global environment protection and climate change response. As Vietnam is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change, the guest said sustainably developing clean energy is an important step to mitigate pollution and impact of climate change. He added that the use of wind and solar power has become a trend in many countries, including China, Japan and India, thanks to its low cost. Speaking highly of Vietnams potential of solar and wind power, he said he hoped both sides would step up collaboration in the field./. An employee works among stainless steel sheets at a steel factory in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China, September 2, 2015. Reuters China began an anti-dumping investigation on Monday into stainless steel imports worth $1.3 billion, including from a privately owned Chinese mill with operations offshore, after complaints of damage to the local industry. The Commerce Ministry said the investigation will target imports of stainless steel billet and hot-rolled stainless steel sheet and plate from the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, which nearly tripled last year. The move follows a complaint by Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel, with backing from four other state-owned mills including Baosteel's stainless steel division, which blamed cheap imports for falling prices, it said. China makes and consumes around half the world's stainless steel, which is used to protect against corrosion in buildings, transportation and packaging. While the complaint targets eight foreign producers, it also lists a number of Chinese companies, including the Indonesian unit of one of the world's top producers, Tsingshan Stainless Steel, and 19 traders who import product. Some private Chinese companies have opened or started building plants in Indonesia in recent years, drawing on its plentiful nickel resources and lower cost of production. A significant portion of the new production has been sold in China, analysts say. The rapid increase in imports damaged the Chinese market, according to the complaint filed by Shanxi Taigang and released with the commerce ministry document. Almost two-thirds of China's stainless imports came from Indonesia last year, up from 5 percent in 2016 and zero in 2015, the complaint said. That rose to as high as 86 percent in the first quarter, it said. Imported prices of the stainless steel products fell 23 percent to $1,867 a tonne in 2017 from $2,436 a year earlier. "If we allow these products to continue to enter the Chinese market with low prices and take more market share, sales of China's domestic products will continue to decrease," the complaint said. Industrial dispute Peter Peng, senior consultant at CRU in Beijing, said the investigation was "totally driven by an industrial dispute between SOEs (state-owned enterprises) and the fast-growing private mills." "Due to their cheap production costs, it's more competitive than Chinese products," he said. Tsingshan opened a mill in Indonesia last year with annual capacity of 3 million tonnes while Delong Holdings plans to start production there next year. Anti-dumping duties would force mills to find new markets for their product, adding to a global glut, Peng said. The European companies targeted by the inquiry include Spain's Acerinox, Finland's Outokumpu Oyj and Luxembourg-based Aperam. Among the Japanese companies are Nisshin Steel Co Ltd , Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp and JFE Steel Corp. Indonesia's PT Jindal Stainless and South Korean steelmaker Posco are also listed. "We are quite surprised (by) this action and (will) have to carefully analyze the situation," said Matteo Rigamonti, director of specialty steels at the European industry association Eurofer. Europe exported just 22,000 tonnes of stainless billet and hot-rolled sheet and plate in 2017, he said, down 50 percent from 2014 and a small fraction of China's total imports of the metal. China imported 703,000 tonnes of those products in 2017, up almost 200 percent from a year earlier, with 98 percent coming from the regions targeted by the investigation. Shanxi Taigang accounts for 25-35 percent of China's stainless production. (Reuters) From January to July, the country sold 3.86 million tonnes of the grain abroad, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent. In the first six months of the year, China remained the largest importer of Vietnamese rice with 1.13 million tonnes, followed by African market with 537,000 tonnes, the Philippines with 429,000 tonnes, Indonesia with 776,000 tonnes, and Malaysia with 305,000 tonnes. Source: VNA Vietnamese exporters have paid due attention to the Chinese market, which accounts for 40 percent of countrys total rice exports. However, Chinas import policies and technical barriers pose considerable challenges for Vietnamese firms, said Nguyen Trung Kien, Chairman and General Director of the Gentraco Feed Joint Stock Company. China is a choosy market. If Vietnamese products, from pork to vegetables and fruits, do not meet quality requirements, they will be rejected, he said. Kien recommended that the Government support exporters in terms of policies and the agricultural sector should give guidance to farmers to produce high-quality products, meeting markets demand. Experts said that demands for rice will grow in the last quarter of the year. Five traditional importers of Cuba, Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia possibly purchase 3-4 million tonnes of rice. However, the Philippines may prefer Thai rice due to its competitive price as the country is importing rice under the minimum access volume (MAV) scheme. Meanwhile, Bangladesh intends to buy 400,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam among 700,000 tonnes it will import in August. Vietnamese firms are sending 60,000 tonnes of rice to Cuban market, and 30,000 tonnes to Iraq every month./. We hear the most contorted and grotesque fairytales about how a handful of billionaires and their sycophants are going to solve the security crisis in Northeast Asia. But the security crisis we keep being reminded of concerns North Korea's nuclear weapons something treated as if unrelated to the blatant violation of the nonproliferation treaty by the United States in its failure to destroy its own cache and in its announcement of a $1 trillion plan to develop next-generation nuclear weapons. But anyone who experienced July of 2018 in Seoul or in Tokyo knows that the overwhelming security threat for the region is not an attack from North Korea or the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea. The security threat, so devastating in scale as to force us to rethink the basic assumptions of our economy and of our culture, cannot be named, cannot be addressed, cannot be responded to. And it cannot be stopped with fighter planes or with missile defense. Even as it takes the lives of hundreds, and thousands, in East Asia, and soon to be many times that amount, our newspapers, our politicians, our so-called "leaders" pretend that it does not exist. The temperatures in Seoul and Tokyo this July were unprecedented, perhaps since the Permian extinction. And this heatwave, which kills the poor, the working classes and the ill disproportionately, came on top of unprecedented floods in western Japan that killed about 200 people. This situation is better than in many other countries. The news is filled with startling episodes related to the weather, but it offers no analysis. And so the greetings exchanged between people meeting in Seoul has become, "It is so hot these days. I wonder why?" Almost without exception, the media explains nothing about the cause of this crisis or about its relationship to the industrialized society we have embraced. But they all know what the cause of this heatwave killing people is. They all know the reason for the floods and the deserts. The situation is going to get much, much worse. We keep this dark secret to ourselves while youth are encouraged to indulge in idle pleasures of the moment. Our civilization, one based on the substitution of coal and petroleum for human and animal labor, has ended in failure and radical change is demanded immediately. We are seeing around us the signs of rapidly progressing climate change. The warming of our air, the death of our oceans, the spread of deserts all around us and finally the impending collapse of the modern agricultural system on which we depend. We do not want to know that every time we turn on a light, every time we check our messages, every time we use an electric fan, we are digging our own graves. But science shows what is happening to our environment because of such carbon emissions, and because of the destruction of forests and of soil and of water. We can expect things to get much worse and so we must restructure our cities and rethink our energy policy. We must rethink trade, growth and all our assumptions. What is the solution? In the face of death and destruction, almost no serious thought is going on. What we know is that half-way "carbon trading," or "solar power on the side" proposals will save us. How many tens of thousands must die before we start to act? Does the cost of basic food have to triple, or quadruple (or go up 10-20-fold) before we recognize there is a crisis? Must our children live in constant fear of the bitter future we are hiding from them? Perhaps we can feel grateful that the Trump administration is no longer threatening to destroy North Korea. But the word "climate change" the greatest threat in our history, has been eliminated from the media and from government discussion in the U.S., and many countries have followed suit. The interests of coal and oil tycoons are the highest priority in Washington D.C. and the pathological drive for the destruction of our civilization is on. We must adopt the equivalent of a wartime economy overnight, full mobilization, and do so through close cooperation globally and the highest level of bravery and moral commitment. When I say a "wartime economy" I do not mean that we need to prepare for a war quite the opposite, I mean we must shut down weapons factories and dedicate that expertise to the response to climate change. Yet the reference to war is not entirely superfluous. This fight against the vested interests that make billions of dollars by keeping us hooked on petroleum, by encouraging a superficial culture of consumption and waste, is a fight that will require tremendous moral courage at every turn. Let us go back to the vision of the "Four Freedoms" put forth by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his State of the Union address of January 6, 1941. That speech was the start of the move towards the global system established under the United Nations Charter in 1945, which has since gone so far off course. Roosevelt called for the protection of "Four Freedoms" for all citizens "Freedom of speech," "Freedom of worship," "Freedom from want" and "Freedom from fear." Roosevelt was not ambiguous about the four freedoms. He stated: "In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings that will secure for every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor anywhere in the world." The fight against climate change is even more daunting, and even more dangerous, than the fight against fascism in the 1940s. It will require at least as much clarity of vision, as much self-sacrifice and as great a concern for society as a whole, as much struggle and painful decisions. It will require a fifth freedom, "freedom from pollution," that is to say that no one has the right to pollute the air, the water, of our precious planet. I call upon all of you, the people of East Asia, of the U.S., and citizens of our precious Earth, to rise to this occasion without hesitation. YouTube broadcast for the topic: By Emanuel Pastreich During their meeting in Singapore on the sideline of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting and other related meetings, the two sides pledged to coordinate closely in organising visits of leaders of the two Parties and States this year. The two countries will work together in implementing agreements and common perspectives reached by senior leaders of the two countries, and continue strengthening Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (L) and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (Photo: VNA) Vietnam and China will also actively solve existing problems in cooperation projects, and maintain the stable and positive development trend of bilateral partnership, they concurred. Minh lauded the growth of the Vietnam-China relations over the past years, suggesting that China take more effective measures to keep trade cooperation expansion and to reduce Vietnams trade deficit. He took the occasion to convey invitation to Chinese leaders to attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN Hanoi will host from September 11th-13th. On the East Sea issue, Minh made it clear that it is necessary to solve the disputes in the sea through peaceful measures in conformity with international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, as well as the strict implementation of common perspectives of leaders of the two countries. He also stressed the need to well control the differences, refrain from any action that complicates the situation and escalates disputes, along with the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) as well as reaching the effective and binding Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) at an early date./. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang (Photo: VNA) Hang made the statement in response to reporters query regarding Cambodias general election at the Foreign Ministrys regular press conference on August 2nd. The spokesperson noted that the election took place in a safe, free and democratic manner with a high rate of turnout, demonstrating the trust of Cambodian voters in the countrys development future. As a neighbouring country with sound traditional ties with Cambodia, Vietnam believes that following the success, Cambodia will continue to gain greater achievements in building a peaceful, stable and prosperous nation, Hang said. She emphasised that Vietnam is confident that the traditional friendship and sustainable comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and Cambodia will continue to be strengthened in the time ahead, benefiting people of the two nations. The election of the sixth National Assembly of Cambodia took place from 07h00 to 15h00 on July 29th. According to Cambodias National Election Committee (NEC), the voter turnout was estimated at 82.17 percent. The figure is much higher than that of the previous election held in 2013, which was over 69.60 percent. Twenty political parties contested in the Sunday's general election. The NEC announced on July 30th that the Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) won the most votes in the general election with more than 4.8 million votes or 76.78 percent. The CPP was followed by the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC) with 373,500 votes (5.88 percent); the League for Democracy Party (LDP) with 308,000 votes (4.86 percent); and the Khmer Will Party (KWP) with 212,000 votes (3.35 percent). The remaining political parties received from more than 8,000 to 100,000 votes, or somewhere between 0.14 and 1.56 percent./. Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The Las Vegas gunman was a narcissist, a committed gambler, and a man who would become passionately absorbed in hobbies, like flying or scuba diving, and then lose interest and move on to the next. That's the conclusion in a new report from Las Vegas police that provides some of the most detailed information released to date about Stephen Craig Paddock, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. It does not address motivation. "Regretfully, this report will not be able to address the why," the report said. More than half the 58 people killed in the meticulously planned shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas were from Southern California. One worked at Disneyland, another was a special education teacher, another worked at a makeup store. Some of the evidence found on Paddock's computers were searches for open air concert venues, including in Southern California. One search was "how crowded does Santa Monica Beach get." And his Google browser history included map searches of three Santa Monica locations: Venice Ale House, Fairmont Miramar Hotel and The Bungalow on Wilshire Blvd. The 187-page report released Friday by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said 869 other people were injured including 413 who were hit by bullets or shrapnel. Some 1,057 rounds were fired during 11 minutes of live fire. The report was meant to determine if Paddock acted alone, and to detail his actions in the days before the shooting, including a stay at another nearby high-rise building overlooking the concert venue that could have been a rehearsal run-through for the ultimate shooting spree. He acted alone, left no suicide note or manifesto, the report said. Police found no evidence that he acted out of any radicalization or ideology, in fact, his family and girlfriend described him as an atheist. The report opens with a hotel security guard going to check out an alarm but unable to open the stairwell door to the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. He went up an additional floor and then came down in a guest elevator and found that door was blocked shut. Somebody had screwed an L-shaped bracket into the door frame, preventing it from being opened from the stairwell side. That level of planning, ostensibly to keep police at bay, is part of what enabled Paddock to fire unhindered for 11 minutes on a massive crowd gathered 32 stories below, where some 22,000 people were packed into the Las Vegas Village concert venue. It follows a preliminary report that came out in January that also concluded that Paddock's motive was unknown. Police interviewed hotel employees at all levels from bellman to valet to security manager. They also interviewed several relatives of Paddock as well as his doctor. It also described his relationship with his girlfriend, former casino high limit host Marilou Danely. She described to police how they stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel in September in rooms similar to the one from which the later attack was mounted. The autopsy report on Paddock said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Recently, MGM Resorts sued the victims of the shooting to bring the liability issue out of state court in Nevada to the federal court. News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Federica Mogherini (L), the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Council in Singapore, Aug. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China and the European Union (EU) agreed here on Friday to join hands to promote multilateralism and support free trade. The agreement came as Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Council on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting and related meetings. Wang said the leaders of China and EU had held successful talks in Beijing not long ago and the two sides reached consensus on safeguarding the rule-based multilateral trade system and resisting trade protectionism and unilateralism. Facing the uncertainty and instability in the international situation, timely enhancing strategic communication and cooperation between China and EU, two forces for stabilization, and firmly support multilateralism as well as international rules are not only in the line of the interests of the two sides, but also conducive to maintaining world peace and stability. For her part, Mogherini said EU and China are long-term friends. EU treats China as a major and key strategic partner and will not adopt any policy against China, Mogherini said. EU stands with China in promoting multilateralism and supporting free trade, said she, adding that EU is willing to further enhance strategic communication and cooperation with China. During their meeting, the two sides also exchanged views on the Iran nuclear issue. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe At a heated emergency meeting Friday, Orange County Supervisors pledged to fight a needle exchange program intended by the state to stem the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. With the new OC mobile exchange authorized to open as early Monday, the supervisors voted unanimously to begin legal action against the effort. Supervisor Lisa Bartlett called state health officials' announcement this week that they would allow exchanges in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Orange and Santa Ana "a recipe for disaster." "This is about a society which is starting to sanction this kind of behavior, and trying to tell all of us that it's OK," Supervisor Todd Spitzer said at the meeting. "It's not OK! We're losing our neighborhoods, we're losing our county." Supervisor Andrew Nelson said that "common sense left the building a long time ago," even as he wondered aloud at how likely the county will be to win this fight. Nelson questioned the wisdom of providing no-cost needles when Californians are not able to get plastic bags at grocery stores. Board Chair Andrew Do said he hopes the county's action Friday will translate into a temporary restraining order. The Costa Mesa City Council voted late on Friday to join the legal action. In a statement, the city said "California public health officials disregarded overwhelming evidence that the group proposing to operate the needle exchange program in our city has been negligent in the past." SAFETY VS HEALTH CONCERNS Several supervisors said they had serious concerns that that needles will be littered in areas where they could stab children, citizens and public employees. There may be cause such concern. An estimated 14,000 syringes were collected at the Santa Ana River Trail after a homeless encampment was evicted. The group that will run the exchange has argued that they would have left the area cleaner had they been allowed to operate near the encampment. The group's volunteers had been collecting 30,000 syringes a week in Orange County. State health officials say they have "identified Orange County as among the California counties most vulnerable to rapid spread of injection drug use-related HIV and HCV infections." In a letter dated August 6 that outlines operating hours for the new locations, state health officials point to the rise of HIV/AIDS and chronic Hepatitis C in Orange County in recent years. And they note that Orange County has no current needle exchange program in place. THE BACKSTORY This fight has been going on for some time. The non-profit Orange County Needle Exchange Program operated in Santa Ana in recent years, but was shut down by the city in January. Then the group applied to run a revived, multi-city exchange in March. That was met with strong resistance from county and local leaders. In a June letter, the organization's leaders tried to address those concerns. They wrote that they had limited the maximum number of needles a person may receive at 200, and would operate as a mobile exchange across cities, to address needs throughout the county. The letter also disagreed with Do's assessment that needle exchanges would be a "magnet for drug users", writing that drug use is already common across Orange County. "Needles are not addictive and clean supplies are not addictive," said Orange County Needle Exchange Program board member Dallas Augustine on Friday. "People are going to use whether or not we are there." 'PEOPLE ARE DYING' "Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, Orange County is being devastated by the opioid crisis," Augustine said. "People are dying, and they don't have to." She said her group will contest the county's efforts, and go forward with the program until a court orders it not to. The current plan is to begin operations in September, though the exchange will be permitted to operate its mobile exchanges starting on Monday. To Augustine, the supervisors' rhetoric was overblown. "This is a very small program that will in no way have the dramatic impacts that that the supervisors are projecting," she told LAist. Needle exchanges operate in neighboring Los Angeles and San Diego counties. News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now. Hello Im books editor Carolyn Kellogg with our Books newsletter this week. THE BIG STORY This year is Theodore Sturgeons centenary, and if youre wondering who?, youre not alone. Once widely read (and still beloved in some science fiction communities, as a few on Twitter pointed out to me) Sturgeon no longer has the name recognition of contemporaries Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. Like Harlan Ellison, he wrote for the original Star Trek we have him to thank for Spock saying live long and prosper but its his fiction, particularly his short stories, that should put him in the pantheon, writes Scott Bradfield, who was once Sturgeons neighbor in Silver Lake. Theodore Sturgeon (Stephen Bard) Advertisement MORE IN BOOKS A heretofore obscure literary genre, Bigfoot erotica, got a boost thanks to a contentious political campaign in Virginia. After being longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Jon McGregor returns to his fictional crime scene in The Reservoir Tapes. Nathan Deuel has our review. A forthcoming book about the Ferrari will set you back $30,000 (you dont want to be caught cheaping out with the $6,000 edition, do you?) In case you missed it, last week Melissa Chadburn and I told the story of Anna March, a literary scenester who had used different names in different cities and had a hidden past. Who is Anna March? (Raul Allen and Patricia Martin / For The Times) BESTSELLERS Dropping down to No. 6 on the fiction bestseller list this week is The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. The No. 1 bestseller in fiction is Daniel Silvas The Other Woman. Now in its eighth week on the list, Calypso by David Sedaris remains the No. 1 bestseller in nonfiction. Entering the list for the first time is Michiko Kakutanis The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, landing at No. 7. You can find all the books on our bestseller lists here. Michiko Kakutanis The Death of Truth debuted on our nonfiction bestsellers list at No. 7. (Petr Hlinomaz) MORE GREAT READS People who lived in New York in the 1960s and 70s might remember the nuns asking for donations around Times Square. Well, some of them werent exactly nuns, explains writer Sarah Weinman in the sensational tale of A preacher, a scam and a massacre in Brooklyn on Crimereads. Anyone who has had a brush with online hate can find it baffling and this story from Gizmodo helps to explains how it works. When a stranger decides to destroy your life, shows how two disconnected lives intersect, with awful results. Keep reading; in the end, a kind of resolution is achieved, thanks to a surplus of empathy. (Sadly, the online damage is done.) A couple of weeks ago, I had brunch in Silver Lake; it was about 3 hours before, and one block away from, the gunman taking hostages in Trader Joes. Now Robin Abcarian tells the incredibly powerful tale of the customer inside, MaryLinda Moss, whose care and deep empathy helped bring that awful incident to a peaceful end. MaryLinda Moss, second from left, and three fellow hostages at the memorial outside Trader Joes. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Thanks for reading. Next week there wont be a newsletter; it will return Aug 18. carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com @paperhaus A San Diego whistleblower will receive $17.2 million with the settlement of a 7-year-old false claims lawsuit against Prime Health Care regarding overbilling for Medicare services at 14 California hospitals. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it has reached a $65-million settlement with the Ontario-based healthcare system, resolving allegations that Prime engaged in a deliberate corporate-driven scheme to increase inpatient admissions of Medicare beneficiaries and that the company engaged in up-coding by falsifying information concerning patient diagnoses. Up-coding entails making illnesses seem worse than they really are in order to increase Medicare reimbursement. The government said the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and that claims of up-coding and improper admissions remain allegations only with no determination of liability. Prime, which operates a network of 45 hospitals in 14 states and 15 more through its not-for-profit Prime Healthcare Foundation, said it determined that it was in the best interest of its patients, independent physicians and employees to resolve this matter despite not agreeing that there was any truth to the allegations related to coding. Advertisement The case started in San Diego with whistleblower Karin Berntsen, Alvarado Hospitals former director of performance improvement. The registered nurse contacted the government in 2011, offering information that eventually turned into a formal complaint unsealed in 2013. In a statement released by her legal team, Berntsen said she fell ill and underwent several surgeries and hospitalizations during the drawn-out investigation. At one point, the nurse, according to her attorneys, wore a hidden microphone to secure evidence of Prime founder and CEO Dr. Prem Reddy and supplied detailed documents to support her case, eventually testifying for more than 12 hours at deposition. Bernsten and her attorneys will be compensated under the False Claims Act, a federal statute that allows private citizens to receive up to 30% of any money recovered by the government as a result of their complaints. Sisson writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sisson writes for The San Diego-Union Tribune Wells Fargo & Co. foreclosed on 400 homeowners after improperly denying them loan modifications that could have allowed them to stay in their homes, the bank said in a regulatory filing Friday. From 2010 to 2015, amid the recovery from the housing bust that caused millions of Americans to lose their homes, the bank made miscalculations when determining whether borrowers qualified for loan modifications. That led the San Francisco bank to improperly deny modifications to 625 borrowers in the foreclosure process. The bank eventually completed foreclosure on about 400 of them, according to Fridays filing a revelation that could spark fresh anger over the banks practices. The bank said it has set aside $8 million to compensate customers, which works out to an average of $12,800 per borrower. Wells Fargo spokesman Tom Goyda said the bank has not disclosed how much individual borrowers will get. Advertisement All 625 of the impacted customers are receiving what we believe [is] appropriate remediation given the circumstances, he said in an email. Were very sorry that this error occurred. Goyda also said some of the 400 borrowers who lost their homes might still have regardless of the modification error. Theres not a 100% clear cause and effect relationship between the modification denial and the ultimate foreclosure, he said. The bank turned up the problem during an internal review. Wells Fargo has been conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into its multiple business units after a series of scandals, but Goyda said he could not say what specifically prompted the review of the loan modifications. The improper denials are just the latest instance of consumer harm caused by glitches, poor oversight or fraud at Wells Fargo, which remains under close regulatory scrutiny following its 2016 disclosure that employees may have created millions of unauthorized checking, savings and other accounts. Last year, the bank also acknowledged that it had forced hundreds of thousands of auto-loan customers to pay for unnecessary insurance policies. The added expense resulted in some borrowers defaulting and having their cars repossessed. It also admitted to charging improper fees to some mortgage borrowers. In February, the Federal Reserve cited those and other issues when it ordered the bank to stop growing until it can prove to regulators that it has systems in place to prevent consumer abuses. Other regulatory agencies fined the bank $1 billion over those issues, in addition to the $185 million Wells Fargo paid over the unauthorized accounts scandal. james.koren@latimes.com Follow me: @jrkoren Hello weekend! Im Times staff writer Carolina A. Miranda with a look at all the hot stuff in the world of arts and culture: MOCA HAS A NEW DIRECTOR The big news this week is that after months of turmoil, L.A.s Museum of Contemporary Art has hired a new director: Klaus Biesenbach, from New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Biesenbach, perhaps best known for organizing a survey of Marina Abramovics work in 2010, told me that he felt honored and grateful to assume the post. But critics have raised concerns that the hire doesnt reflect the diversity of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times Times art critic Christopher Knight says that MOCA has repeatedly made the mistake of giving the top job to a series of ambitious curators, whose administrative record is secondary at best and that naming Biesenbach to the top post repeats that error yet one more time. But he notes that the MoMA curator may have the know-how necessary to remake the board and thereby reinvigorate the museum. He also offers the incoming Biesenbach some good advice: Make MOCA free, build up the staff and make the museum L.A.-centric. Los Angeles Times Advertisement Klaus Biesenbach, the new director of L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art. (Casey Kelbaugh) Plus, Jori Finkel reports on L.A.s (split) reaction to the Biesenbach hire. New York Times And Lee Rosenbaum on Biesenbachs tone-deaf initial interviews. CultureGrrl IN THE GALLERIES Now that The Times has moved to El Segundo (within shouting distance of the LAX tarmac), it is fitting that Christopher Knight is reviewing a show that is connected to LAX: Grounded, a show of photography by John Divola and Zoe Crosher at the El Segundo Museum of Art, which examines the territory of airports, those psychologically charged zones of anxiety. Los Angeles Times A detail from Zoe Croshers 2005 image: LAX Royal Comfort Motel. (Zoe Crosher / ESMoA) Knight also checked out Xavier Cazares Cortezs lively installation at the UC Riverside Culver Center for the Arts an assortment of flotsam the artist has arranged by color as if it were one vast Color Field painting. Los Angeles Times Plus: Contributing reviewer Leah Ollman has a look at a group show at Steve Turner that connects the dots between mail art, drawing and weaving, and brims with small gems and large wonders. Los Angeles Times And she also checks out a show by Leon Borensztein at Little Big Man gallery, in which the photographer starkly captures the life of his special-needs daughter. Los Angeles Times Two images from Leon Borenszteins series Sharon, which tracks the life of his daughter. (Leon Borensztein / Little Big Man Gallery) Need more art? Find an Icelandic journey and unusual denim fashion in my weekly Datebook. Los Angeles Times ART OUT OF TIME Fifty-five works paintings, photographs, sculpture, film and installation take on the passage of time in a new exhibition at the Broad museum titled A Journey That Wasnt. The Times Deborah Vankin sat down for a Q&A with one of the artists: Elliott Hundley, whose intricate paintings spark with visual drama. For me, its about how we interface with information and culture or existential threat, he tells her. Theres a lot in our world that can make us feel quite small. Los Angeles Times Artist Elliott Hundley in his Los Angeles studio with his dog Spicoli. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) Plus: The Broad has some intriguing shows coming up, including a solo by Shirin Neshat and the Tate Moderns critically acclaimed Soul of a Nation, about art and race relations in the U.S. during the age of Black Power. The Art Newspaper WOMEN TAKE THE STAGE The Broadway musical Waitress has grossed more than $115 million and productions will soon launch in Australia and Britain. That is remarkable for any work of theater even more so when all of the key creative talents are women: composer Sara Bareilles, book writer Jessie Nelson, choreographer Lorin Latarro and director Diane Paulus. Its pathetic that its so rare, Bareilles tells The Times Jessica Gelt. Now the question is: How might the shows success change theater? Los Angeles Times Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music and lyrics for the hit Waitress, at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) As the national tour of Waitress lands at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, Gelt sat down with Bareilles, to discuss her next move which includes working on an album of personal tunes. Im definitely baring my soul and speaking to this beautiful feminist movement thats happening, she says. Los Angeles Times SIDLING UP TO SONDHEIM The Times Daryl H. Miller checks out the revival of the Stephen Sondheim revue Side by Side Sondheim on view at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A. The show is a little old-fashioned and less than scintillating, he reports, cherry-picking songs that ignore some of Sondheims later masterworks. Los Angeles Times A scene from Side by Side by Sondheim at the Odyssey Theatre. (Enci Box) Miller took in the recent production of Annie at the Hollywood Bowl over the weekend and it was a good time: By the end of this inquisitive if ultimately conventional presentation, the audience at Fridays first performance found itself in the lap of a large and loving nuclear family while more broadly connecting with a sense of America as one big household. Los Angeles Times For more performance, check out Matt Coopers weekend picks, which include a little Shakespeare in the park and some new ballet. Los Angeles Times PAINTING THE STAGE Contributing reviewer Laura Bleiberg offers a tip to anyone seeing Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet: Sit far enough from the stage so you can see all of the dancers as once. What Rogers does so unusually well, sometimes extraordinarily, is to paint the stage with moving pictures, she writes of the companys recent show at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex. Los Angeles Times Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet performing Joshua Tree Symphony. (Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet) CLASSICAL NOTES Its summer and we gotta whole lotta Bowl going on as in: Hollywood Bowl. Contributor Tim Greiving gives us an advance on a lost score by Henry Mancini that is set to land there next week, while Richard S. Ginell reports on a snappy presentation of lesser-performed works by Stravinksy led by conductor and composer Matthias Pintscher, who will direct the Ojai Music Festival in 2020. Plus, Ginnell was in the stands to check out Chilean conductor Paolo Bortolameollis Bowl debut. Its the rare conductor who can find ways to make the experience feel intimate, he writes. But Bortolameolli kept his cool, delivering works by Saint-Saens and Dvorak while also dexterously navigating the audiences unfettered impulse for applauding between movements and sometimes kicking wine bottles down the stairs. Los Angeles Times Paolo Bortolameolli, the L.A. Philharmonics assistant conductor, makes his Hollywood Bowl debut. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) CRANACHS STAY AT THE NORTON SIMON The Norton Simon will be allowed to keep a pair of paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder once looted by the Nazis from a prominent Dutch-Jewish family, per a decision issued by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A descendant has been trying to get the paintings back since the 90s. Los Angeles Times Adam and Eve, painted around 1530, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. (Associated Press) A timeline of the legal battle over the Cranachs. The Art Newspaper William Poundstone wonders if justice was truly done. Los Angeles County Museum on Fire IN OTHER NEWS A St. Petersburg court has ordered the destruction of a work of art that shows a decaying photo of President Vladimir Putin. Hyperallergic Despite threats from President Trump to eliminate it, the National Endowment for the Arts keeps on tickin. Artnet Sort of related, but not: Apparently Trump doesnt like brutalism. But does brutalism like him back? Boston Globe And because the State Department seems unable to pick an artist to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale, Paddy Johnson is offering ideas. Observer The Museum of Modern Art is facing labor unrest as it moves forward on a $450-million expansion. Artsy Dotan Saguys photos of Venice Beach capture the neighborhoods circus-like atmosphere. Los Angeles Times A detail of an image from Dotan Saguys new book Venice Beach: The Last Days of a Bohemian Paradise. (Dotan Saguy) Dance films made on an iPhone. New York Times Oh, just a crazy tale about a small-town couple and their stolen De Kooning. Washington Post AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST... Manspreading in art. New Yorker Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter carolina.miranda@latimes.com | Twitter: @cmonstah California is rich with recreational areas where we can enjoy woods, mountains, lakes and ocean vistas. For those of us who love nature but arent physically capable of or are intimidated by roughing it, there are ever-growing opportunities and gear for glamour camping, a.k.a. glamping. We chatted with Dan White, author of Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love With Camping, and others for help envisioning luxe living under the stars. A lot of backpackers look down on glamping, White says, but adds that there is this very long history in this country of roughing it easy, of having the trappings of a strenuous wilderness vacation without the strenuous aspect. President Theodore Roosevelt, White says, was known for bringing a staff of servants and wilderness guides to prepare campfires, set up tents and entertain. Advertisement White says lavish camping experiences abound in Africa, Thailand and Europe. In North America, super-luxe standouts include Clayoquot Wilderness Resort on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Safari West in Sonoma County and the Resort at Paws Up in Montana, where you can spend thousands of dollars to rent a tent for you and your family and theres a smores butler who will roast your smores for you, White says. Theres even a glamping aspect thats sort of colonized Burning Man. At glamping resorts and campgrounds, amenities might include fine dining, in-tent massages, romance packages that include candlelight dining, and more. Spending time in nature can have multiple health benefits, and some destinations, including Mendocino Grove in Mendocino, offer group fitness and wellness activities such as forest hikes and yoga. Glamping luxurious tent and Giraffes at Safari West in Sonoma County, CA. (Safari West) But glamping resorts also help people enjoy the outdoors who arent physically fit to put up and take down a tent, says Nancy Lang of Safari West, where visitors can see zebras and more. Its an opportunity for people with disabilities to have quite the outdoor adventure. Hiring some help can also make a difference. Kelsey Sheofsky is co-founder of San Francisco-based Shelter Co. concierge glamping service, which brings tents, platform beds, 500-thread-count sheets, Pendleton blankets, down comforters, shower trailers, mobile saunas, electricity, luxe food and more to an agreed-upon destination. We have a camping butler service that stays the night, Sheofsky says. The more people getting out and exploring the park system and nature and unplugging, the better. Any way they want to do that, I think its great. Where to start research for your luxe, outdoor adventure? White suggests glampinghub.com to find the perfect fit. DIY glamping tips Shelter Co. Meriwether Tent ($995, shelter-co.com) (Shelter Co. / Shelter Co.) Glamping certainly has its upside, although all that luxury can cost you. Still, there are plenty of ways to increase the glamour quotient on an outdoor adventure. Here are six ideas: 1. Plan ahead If youre going to be schlepping around a gigantic tent you really need to do an unusual amount of advanced planning, White says. Call the park administrator in advance. If youre planning any kind of unusual uses like that giant tent its really important to check with the person managing the property. The last thing you want is to be turned away. 2. Think food, wine Food is such a big factor in having a luxurious experience in the woods. You dont need to bring a can of beans and hotdogs, Sheofsky says. Why not grill up a great piece of fish and have a cheese platter and a bottle of wine? Before you head out, mentally prepare all your meals and think about the accessories youll need on hand: knives, cutting boards, spices, olive oil, etc. 3. Create a fitness playground Part of the joy of camping is all the ways to get in a workout without really trying. Before you go, check out walking and hiking trails, and other nearby activities such as horseback riding, rock climbing and, if youre near the beach, surfing, swimming and body boarding. Bring a yoga mat, some blocks and a strap and you can get your sun salutations, or a meditation session, to remember. Or set up your own volleyball court. 4. Sleep comfortably SoundAsleep Camping Series Air Mattress ($119.95, soundasleepproducts.com) (SoundAsleep) Getting a good nights sleep makes all of the difference in the world, Sheofsky says. Invest in a great sleeping pad, inflatable mattress or roll-up mattress, something that gives you a lot of cushion sleeping on the ground. 5. Consider a roomier tent People are always really excited about how roomy our tents are and that youre able to stand up and get your clothes on without hunching over, Sheofsky says. If you like that feature, keep it in mind when shopping for a tent of your own. 6. Add small touches Look for ways to add comfort and luxury to your campsite. Your favorite pillow. Freshly laundered sheets. Perhaps cloth napkins and serving trays. Little touches can imply glamour, White says. Sheofsky agrees, adding that even a vase with flowers on the campsite table can elevate the experience. READ ON! Why midnight snacking is the worst Actress Sofia Vergaras secret? Lifting weights The two signs your music is aging your hearing Good morning. Im Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. If you thought July was hot for you, thank the gods you do not live in Death Valley. Lets take a look back at the week in Opinion. Trigger warning: Much of this newsletter will be devoted to discussions (if you can actually call them discussions) on racism, a topic that tends to make certain non-people-of-color blush or stop reading altogether. The first excerpt will summarize a serious treatment of the topic; the second will focus on a troll-driven, cynical attempt to destroy a journalists career under the banner of anti-racism. Its been said that the best antidote for willful ignorance and racial insensitivity is dialogue in other words, that all those awkward holiday dinners with your Trump-supporting, MAGA hat-wearing cousins and uncles serve a purpose if only to have the various bubble denizens occasionally come into close contact with each other. Op-ed article writer Nadra Widatalla put this idea to the test by attending a dinner discussion on racism with complete strangers and came away disappointed: A few weeks ago I had dinner with 10 strangers of different races and ethnicities. The topic at the table was racism. We were brought together by L.A. City Council President Herb Wessons embRACE L.A. project, a series of intimate dinners in homes across the city held with the goal of fostering a healthy dialogue on race relations. As a black woman, I was prompted by curiosity to RSVP. If my experience is any indication, the story of race relations in Los Angeles isnt one of steady progress. There are still issues with police brutality, a major disparity in wealth, and the overwhelming problem of black people being gentrified out of their communities. I live in West Hollywood and I frequent Santa Monica for work, two predominantly white areas. Frankly, Angelenos are used to seeing black people in only certain parts of town. Once we step outside those spaces, dirty looks and aggression emerge. That said, I always want to learn more about the complexities of race in one of the worlds most diverse cities. I was hoping this dinner could help teach me.... the group had barely touched on what we could do as a community to foster better racial understanding. We had made a bigger dent in the lasagna dish than we did race relations. Most of our dinner was spent just trying to process each others experiences, which I took as a testament to how much work needs to be done. If there is anything I hope my fellow diners took away with them that evening, its that we cant expect change without understanding both plight and privilege. Black people can be as open as they want about the racism they endure, but a real dialogue on race needs the honesty to go both ways. >> Click here to read more Next up is the fight over the New York Times newest editorial board member, technology journalist Sarah Jeong. It turns out Jeong has tweeted out some provocative, over-the-top, barbed jokes at the expense of white people (in particular white males) over the years, and the trolls of the alt-right pounced. Jon Healey, the editorial pages deputy editor, says its pointless for Jeong to try to explain herself: The battle Jeong was fighting is one that nobody can win. Its simple to strip tweets of their context and weaponize them; doing the reverse can be next to impossible. The older a tweet is, the harder it is to reconstruct the conversations that led up to it. What the public inevitably is left with is a scrollable greatest hits compilation of the most outrageous comments a person has made. And once something is uttered online, it never goes away.... Jeongs head is still on her shoulders, and her job at the New York Times appears intact. But even if you accept her explanation for her old tweets, it doesnt seem like shes won this game. >> Click here to read more Wait, C.L. Max Nikias is still president of USC? Thats the reaction any fair-minded person would have to finding out that Nikias, who supposedly agreed to resign amid the fallout of the scandal involving campus gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall, is still in charge at USC. The Times Editorial Board tells the scandal-plagued university to move on already: The delay in Nikias departure and the uncertainty and consternation it has created suggest that USC still has a long way to go in restoring trust among faculty, students and supporters. Nikias slow walk out sends the message that some of the universitys leaders dont grasp the gravity of the situation. L.A. Times The Koch brothers funded an attack that made the case for single-payer healthcare, although they certainly did not intend for their report on Medicare for all to come across that way. The widely reported study by longtime Republican aide Charles Blahous showing that Medicare for all would require $32.6 trillion in government spending inadvertently highlights single-payer advocates key point: Spending on healthcare in America is already extremely high, and adopting Medicare for all would actually reduce the overall amount of money that goes into healthcare. L.A. Times Climate change is here. And by here, I mean in California. Its hot and dry in Los Angeles, which is a lot better that people in other parts of the state have it. We know about the fires raging near Yosemite and around Redding, and as devastating as those disasters have been, theyre not as unusual as the infernos burning near the arctic circle (as in Norway and Sweden, not your typical dried-out hellscapes) and elsewhere in Europe. The conclusion? Theres no way to sugarcoat it: Climate change is here, and we are living in its burning embers. The Daily Beast To hell with Obamas fuel-efficiency rules. Theyre ineffective salves that make liberals feel like theyre doing something, writes Matthew Fleischer. (And no, he isnt trolling you.) Heres why: The standards create different categories of automobiles that must achieve different efficiency targets, driving consumers to purchase larger vehicles that weigh more and consume more gas. The current administration obviously doesnt have the health of the planet in mind with its CAFE standard rollback, Fleischer writes. But putting Obamas regulations on a pedestal is equally unproductive. L.A. Times If and when California builds a Hall of Fame for the states heroes of coastal protection and beach access, Mark Massara will be one of the first inductees. Massara surfer, attorney, fighter is a blond, sun-dipped California original with a voice like sandpaper on a surfboard. His list of crusades and victories against the Hearst Corp.s plans to annihilate the Central Coast, against a 14-story liquid gas terminal off the coast of Malibu, against Humboldt County pulp mill polluters, and on and on and on would more than fill all my space here today. Given this history, lots of people are wondering why Massara has represented developers and alleged Coastal Act violators in recent times, and why he is the attorney behind an attempt by residents of a Santa Cruz neighborhood of multimillion-dollar homes to keep the gate to a public beach closed. Opal Cliffs Beach, also known as Privates Beach for its occasional nude sunbather, is loved by local surfers, who tend to be a territorial breed. You could call a hundred people and half of them think Im a traitor, Massara himself admitted. Advertisement But he claims everybodys got it wrong. Opal Cliffs Beach in Santa Cruz. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) On Wednesday, I went to the beach to talk to locals and two staffers who work for the California Coastal Commission. But lets start with a review of recent stories on the controversy by my colleague Rosanna Xia. In 1949, residents of the Opal Cliffs neighborhood got Santa Cruz Countys approval to establish their own recreation district to manage a sweet cove just up the coast from Capitola. In 1963, reports of vandalism led to the locking of the gate to the beach and limiting access to keyholders who paid $1 a year (the annual fee is now $100). In 1981, the California Coastal Commission endorsed the idea of a permit for a fence and gate. Ten years later, the commission recorded a deed allowing the beach park to charge whatever it deemed necessary to continue its operation. But as the Coastal Commissions Central Coast Director Dan Carl and Northern California Enforcement Supervisor Pat Veesart explained to me Wednesday at Opal Cliffs, an examination of records revealed the 1981 permit was never activated and the tentative approval expired a year later. In 1991, the commission erred in thinking a permit existed, and offered a conditional extension of it, they said. Staff made a mistake, Veesart said. But the public should not be punished for that. Carl and Veesart argue that the park district has no permit for what is now a 9-foot-tall wrought iron gate with a guard stationed at the entrance, nor does it have permission to charge $100 to anyone who wants a key. They say Massaras clients are essentially using a public beach as a private club, and Opal Cliffs is the only place in California where theres a fee to use the beach. That stands as a violation of the Coastal Act that Massara has spent decades interpreting and defending in the public interest, which leaves his critics wondering if his motive is to look out for surfer buddies or rake in lobbying fees or both. I am surprised and I am disappointed in Marks hypocrisy in so many ways, said Carl, a longtime Massara ally on numerous issues. To which Massara says, essentially, who are you calling a hypocrite? As long as Im being their cheerleader, its all great, he said, but now hes taking on the commission, so hes a villain. It wasnt long ago, Massara noted, sticking with the hypocrisy theme, that the commission surrendered in its long-running fight to win easier public access to Hollister Ranch beaches on the Central Coast. To me, whats really interesting here is that they dont want to take on anything they think is a difficult fight, but theyre trying to squash the little guy, Massara said. The little guy, in his mind, is an Opal Cliffs Recreation District that has managed and preserved a great asset since long before the Coastal Commission existed. Massara accuses the commission of trying to put the district out of business by denying it the right to charge the fees needed to manage its operation. The two sides had considered proposals to keep the gate open during daylight hours, and Massara said his clients might be willing to install a lower fence and maybe charge a $2 to $5 day-use fee for those who cant pay for a $100 key. The district is allowing free entrance this summer, and Massara argues that his clients are all about enhancing beach access, not restricting it. But last month, Massara and his clients pulled out of scheduled negotiations, and the matter could be headed to court. The entry gate at Opal Cliffs Beach. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) So now let me take you back to the beach. When you arrive at the entrance, you dont find a welcome mat, or any outward sign that the Opal Cliffs Recreation District is trying to enhance access. The fence is imposing, the heavy iron gate is closed and a guard the district calls them ambassadors is on duty. If you didnt know the background or state law, youd assume this was a private beach and keep moving, and excuse me, but I have trouble believing thats not the intended message. When I pushed the gate open and walked in with Veesart and Carl, we werent questioned, but the guard later told me he can sense a vibe with visitors who might not respect the property. Maybe, or maybe not, and theres nothing in the Coastal Act suggesting you can be shooed off a beach if someone has a vibe about you. A retiree named Pat was walking his poodle inside the gate. He said hes a nearby resident whos been using the beach for over 40 years. He supports the fee program and he likes to see the gate controlled to keep out anyone who might vandalize or trash the beach or use it to party, all of which has happened before. I understand that perspective, but again, were talking about a public park and a public beach. Pat said he understood that full public access was a Coastal Commission objective, but he wondered why Opal Cliffs couldnt be an exception, given its history of fences and fees. I guess Id flip it around and ask why not do the same thing on every beach in California? Veesart said. Veesart answered his own question, explaining that the commission has a legal mandate to make all beaches accessible. Robert Weaver, known in the surfer community as Wingnut, and his dog Star go for a morning walk in Opal Cliffs. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) As we spoke, a fisherman made the trek up the stairs from the beach with his toddler son strapped to his back, fast asleep. Jeff Singson was carrying a 23-inch halibut hed just caught, and he said he had mixed feelings about the gate and the fees. Singson said he appreciates how well-managed and pristine the beach is, thanks to the gate and the fees. But as a teacher on a tight budget, he hasnt always purchased the $100 key. He said hes been turned away at the gate, which didnt seem fair to him as a taxpaying county resident. Two summers ago, Massara and I met just up the coast at Martins Beach, where billionaire Vinod Khosla has been fighting to restrict access across his private property to a stretch of sand with a long history of public access. Massara is one of the people who has led the charge to open the gate there. On that visit, I played devils advocate in asking Massara why the public needed access to Martins Beach with so many others available up and down the coast. Massara was eloquent and passionate, as he has been so many times over the decades, describing what is sacrificed each time a beach is lost to the public. At Martins Beach, he said, its important that future generations can see what a treasure this is. The history and the details are different at Opal Cliffs, but for me, the same ideal applies. The Opal Cliffs Recreation District may have done a nice job of managing the beach for many years, but thats been partly by limiting who can visit what is a public asset, not a private one. Open the gate during daylight hours. Collect donations for beach maintenance and supervision. Access and preservation dont have to be mutually exclusive, and by the way, theres not enough parking to accommodate the masses at Opal Cliffs, unwashed or otherwise. Up and down the California coast, there have been and there always will be subtle and shameless attempts to block access. But voters rose up more than 40 years ago to fight back, and the eventual result was a Coastal Act that aims to preserve the coast, limit development and maximize access, regardless of ability to pay. The guiding principle is this: In California, no beach is anyones, its everyones. Opal Cliffs is the only place in California where theres a fee to use the beach. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopez In early July, firefighters were battling two large blazes in Northern California and forecasters were warning of record heat and gusty winds that could stir up more trouble. Then the Holiday fire hit Santa Barbara County, destroying homes and forcing evacuations. In the middle of the month, the Ferguson fire west of Yosemite National Park doubled in size in one night. Then came the Cranston fire south of Idyllwild and the deadly Carr fire in Redding. By the end of July, wildfires across the state had killed eight people and scorched 200,000 acres. As August began, the Mendocino Complex fire north of San Francisco reached 283,000 acres in just 11 days, making it the largest recorded wildfire in modern California history. The Holy fire began Aug. 6 in Orange County and burned more than 22,000 acres through the Cleveland National Forest and into Riverside County.